Is it always this bad?

[Vyuru]

I haven't leveled a low level 25ish job in a rather long time. So I pullout my bard stuff, it's a friday night, so from past experiance there should be plenty of people, I'm level 25 and I hit the jungles.

After about an hour getting a party together (mages seeking ignored me or said that they were playing solo right now) I finally get a party together and we have the entire jungle to ourselves except for one npc leveler.

One hour later or thereabouts, 5 other parties show up at about the same time, all with 1-2 power levelers, and all of the mages who ignored me or said no (grrrrrr) We were the only party in the entire zone that did not have a power leveler, and the fast and easy exp ground down to a snail's pace.

I mean, argh, not only were the PL'ers nuking the gobs to death, they were ripping through all the mandies in the zone.

Is this a common occurance in the jungles now or did I just get hit with a bad night?

[Clever Ninja]

Re: Is it always this bad?

It's a common occurence for all low level zones. Sucks but it happens >_<. Unless your in the party with the PL, then it doesnt suck.

[Taskmage]

Re: Is it always this bad?

No, but I think every party I've had below level 30 in the past month has camped next to group of 6-12 anon, shell-less people with random-looking names and very similar equipment. Either that or someone being PLed on our exp mobs thus leaving very slim pulling.

[Jei]

Re: Is it always this bad?

Sad to say but low level exping just isn't fun anymore the way things are currently. Too manyg gilseller armies everywhere is one thing. The lack of experience players is another thing.

90% of the time I'd get into PT that their set up simply doesn't work. Like 1 blm 5 dd no tanks for example. A kind of PT you can expect to see with PLs. Except they don't have PL either lol >.>

Sometimes the leader just never say anything to the group. 1 member leaves, I ask what the leader will do next and the leader just gone silence for 15 minutes then say "get war coming." Ok, you look for replacement is fine by me. But not saying anything to your current members is just so annoying...

Even worse the leader would just say "find tank," throw me leader and go AFK. Wow thanks.

1 out of 10 chance, I'd get to group with some nice friendly players. EXP usually is just so-so but I don't mind as long as we all get along fine.

Yea, I can live with 2-3k/hour at low level. As long as they
1) have nice looking set up with not much level difference
2) get along. No fights, no drama.
3) no replacement. (kinda impossible for any NA PT but meh) I guess I just got spoiled playing JP version for too long where people would start party together, hunt together and end together at the same time...

[Nekomieu]

Re: Is it always this bad?

I had a party like that recently, we gathered in Jeuno, teleported to Dem, rode to the unnel in Valk, everyone got at least 1 level, then we disbanded, clean, and quick. Of corse I also remember some of the old parties, where ou join in the morning, have to go for a while, get replaced, come back later, and find that it's the same party, just cycled through several members. while you were gone. Or the ones which woluld keep the levels very tight, and boot ou when you were too high, fast xp, but a little annoying.

[hongman]

Re: Is it always this bad?

Trying to find a decent party in the dunes is so scarce now I have recently just gone to WIndhust...not that I know of any good lvling camps there, just I get so bored looking for a party to hit 20 with so I can get my choc!!

Ill prob wander round windhurst a bit and go back to the dunes, hopefully its better than the last 4-5 times iv gone there.

[Vyuru]

Re: Is it always this bad?

No, but I think every party I've had below level 30 in the past month has camped next to group of 6-12 anon, shell-less people with random-looking names and very similar equipment. Either that or someone being PLed on our exp mobs thus leaving very slim pulling.

Ahh, looks like I'll have to do something that I haven't done since my newb days, get creative with my exp locations and pulling. Hopefully this time around more people are willing to go to Altepa if Garliage or the Nest are too crowded.

Sad to say but low level exping just isn't fun anymore the way things are currently.

Yeah, it's kinda weird and a bit of an adjustment. I haven't had a link for so long, or else had a blm or a rdm drop like an elemental seal + sleep I/II on it while we fight, I'm not used to the concept of only one person zones and the mob disappears.... Truth be told it's not much of an adjustment, but it still doesn't feel right somehow. Good to see that the Goblin Smithys outside Kazham still had their work cut out for them, nice to know that some things never change

I guess I'm lucky that I have yet to experiance the gil seller armies, I've seen gil seller parties, but no armies as of yet.

The lack of experiance among players is just a little bit disturbing in a way, it's not even a lack of experiance so much as a lack of caring.

For instance, a friend and I were in the Mire killing stuff for fun and skillups, as we are wrapping up, a level 30ish player comes up, and askes us for help in getting to the ??? for the corsair quest and he didn't know how to get to Arrapago Reefs. Ok, so far a reasonable request, you can buy a map of the Mire, but if it's your first time there having someone who knows the dangers of the place can be really helpful, especially if you don't want to die and delevel which, if he died, he'd delevel.

So my friend agrees to help this person, while I go off to prepare for a bcnm fight. We all join one party so I can still see what goes on in the /party chat. My friend warns him multiple times that Imps are true sight, he runs in front of one. My friend warns him to let her know when sneak/invis are wearing because of chigoe, he ignores her and gets killed by chigoe. When they finally do reach the Reef, he asks her where the ??? for the quest is.

Now that just kinda really irritates me. The ??? is rather obvious, it's close to the zone, and I know where it is only because I glanced at a map of how to get to the assault points. You would think that he would do his research on how to complete the corsair job quest before going out to ask for help. Oh, and he ignored my friend after she told him to wait for sneak/invis to get past the Lamia and he got killed again.

In general, some of the newer players just don't seem to care about learning how to be better, which is just kind of odd to me, and a bit of a shock, just since this is the first time I have encountered this attitude and I've been playing since the U.S PC release.

Trying to find a decent party in the dunes is so scarce now I have recently just gone to WIndhust...not that I know of any good lvling camps there, just I get so bored looking for a party to hit 20 with so I can get my choc!!

Depends on your level, but if I remember right you can level in the Shrakami maze in Tahrongi Canyon from like, level 11-14ish. Or you can try your luck in bastok with Korroloka tunnel, you can level there from 14-20 or so. It's hard to find parties there, or get parties to go to these places, but the exp is almost always better than the dunes.

[Sabaron]

Re: Is it always this bad?

Depends on your level, but if I remember right you can level in the Shrakami maze in Tahrongi Canyon from like, level 11-14ish. Or you can try your luck in bastok with Korroloka tunnel, you can level there from 14-20 or so. It's hard to find parties there, or get parties to go to these places, but the exp is almost always better than the dunes.

As NIN, I tanked for a BLM in Shakrami.. two of us and his wife's character as a backup PL (playing from 2 comps) just in case it got hairy. It didn't. This would've been late Valkurmish...

[Treth]

Re: Is it always this bad?

i think its funny when i look back at when i first got the game, and there were very few PLers (cuz no one was that high yet). pting seemed to b pretty simple. few rockheaded ppl, n exp seemed to flow decently. nowadays for some odd reason ppl think u NEED a pl to get decent exp.

whenever i join a low lvl pt, im expecting not to have a pl. i start thinking of the best strategy, considering lots of 30 thfs n whatnot need to learn how to use their new abilities. then the ldr will say "we got a pl, pull w/e" n it doesnt seem like a challenge anymore.

/em misses the old days

[Sylvane]

Re: Is it always this bad?

It has been really bad on the shiva server,(I know, who posts on here from shiva?) I'm talking, like 6-7 parties everywhere. I was farming in gusgen, and I saw a fews parties with a PL. all of their names were askljdfh and the like. Same thing one night in delkfutt's. Parties of keyboard smashed names and level 1 gear.

[Kitalrez]

Re: Is it always this bad?

I guess I'm lucky that I have yet to experiance the gil seller armies, I've seen gil seller parties, but no armies as of yet.
The lack of experiance among players is just a little bit disturbing in a way, it's not even a lack of experiance so much as a lack of caring.

Yeah, it's been getting annoying lately with the armies. They shut down zones on Diabolos sometimes... few months ago it was almost impossible to level in Korroloka Tunnel, then they all moved on to Altepa. Normally they like the underutilized zones, which are typically the same places those of us who've been playing since NA PC like to exp in. There used to be certain places where if you could get a party to go there, you were almost certain to have decent players, like Altepa during the dhalmel/spider/beetle ranges. Now, you have a bunch of players there with no subs still and a permanent PL. What worries me more, however, is that the whole reason for the armies is so that places like IGE can start offering to sell lvl 75 characters to players. Sooner or later we're going to have to start dealing with these assclowns in the endgame after the account gets sold to someone with no clue what they're doing, and there are already too many n00b drama queens in that range.

[Vyuru]

Re: Is it always this bad?

/em misses the old days

Darn right! Back then we had to walk uphill both ways through the snow just to get to our exp camp! We didn't have weapons back then either, so we just punted our tarutaru white mages at the monsters until one of them died, so it was always good to have more than one white mage in the party. You'd count yourself lucky that Guivre himself came out to eat you, and not one of those pansy cactuars.

And we liked it that way!

There used to be certain places where if you could get a party to go there, you were almost certain to have decent players, like Altepa during the dhalmel/spider/beetle ranges.

Good to know, I'll keep that in mind when I get a party to go to these places.

[Jugil]

Re: Is it always this bad?

I was levelin my BLU in the first jungle the other day, and we got around 2k exp in like 3 hours. This was all because we kept getting healers that would leave the party because we didn't have a power leveler.

The first WHM left after 10-15 minutes in the party. He said it wasn't going to work without a power level.

Another healer left right after he got to camp because there was no power leveler.

I guess the only solace in the whole situation is that it's hard to find a power leveler for 50+. Hopefully these people don't make it too far ~.^

Really makes me want to sub BST and solo all my low level jobs to 30-40ish.

[Cometgreen]

Re: Is it always this bad?

...What the hell is the point to being a white mage if you insist on having a PL? Damn kids these days.

[Thrasher]

Re: Is it always this bad?

...What the hell is the point to being a white mage if you insist on having a PL? Damn kids these days.

Cause having under leveled magic is so.... like.... fashionable.