Dunes Parties

[Yellow Mage]

Re: Dunes Parties

Out of curiosity, is your wife in the LS, Leggo?

[Leggomyeggo]

Re: Dunes Parties

What can I say? I met good people there! Granted, I had a lot of crappy experiences too. Maybe my memories are clouded because it's been so long...Thanks. I heard back when I first started again last year that Dunes PTs were a thing of the past but my friend was in one yesterday so I thought I'd see if they still happen!Thanks for the answers all.

The Dunes were my first real exp place with a party. I had a lot of fun there when i started in 08. Sadly even then it was hard for me to get a party and i didn't stay long,just got back and having a blast. My wife and i duo there often on carby server.

[Armando]

Re: Dunes Parties

Speaking of reminiscing...one of my very first EXP parties as a level 12-14ish MNK was in Maze of Shakhrami roaming for worms. It was a very unconventional experience and I don't recall ever partying there again. Likewise, I dinged Lv25 WAR fighting tigers and orcs in Batallia Downs, pulling them to one of the Eldieme Necropolis entrances.

But partying with friends was always a problem. I'd have killed for Level Sync to have been there from day 1. Maybe some of my IRL friends wouldn't have quit the game so soon. It's really lame how being even just 3 levels apart kills your ability to party with someone.

[Mezlo]

Re: Dunes Parties

All this talk about the dunes has me reminiscing... I miss the dunes... I hope ffxiv 2.0 can bring a similar experience once released.

[Taskmage]

Re: Dunes Parties

Oh, yeah. Those bats would aggro, but they're the same level as the ones in the tunnel to Konschtat, so they're not that big of a deal. A single party member who linked a couple of them I could see having trouble, but moving as a group it's no problem.

[Armando]

Re: Dunes Parties

The Qufim tunnel?

No, no, the secret beach. There was a tunnel with bats dividing the "main" part of Valkurm that shows up on the map from the secret beach. I vaguely remember individual party members having a hard time with that when they died and had to come back, or when you had to get a replacement.

[Taskmage]

Re: Dunes Parties

This was my case as well. There wasn't a whole lot of room for multiple parties there though. Kinda sucked to have to run all that way just to find the camp taken. Weren't there also some aggro bats in the tunnel leading there?

The Qufim tunnel? Iirc those bats are linking but not aggro. It's only the weapons you have to worry about. But yeah, I remember going out to fight worms and finding 3 parties there, then sticking it out anyway and eking horrible exp because you were already in the ass end of nowhere and it was either that or run the weapon gauntlet again and start from scratch. Thankfully there's a grounds tome there now for easier egress.

[Taskmage]

Re: Dunes Parties

Worst part about Mandies were the fact that pretty much everyone back then was "NIN tank or GTFO" even though NIN takes are useless against Monk mobs without utsusemi Ni and a decent evasion set (you won't have either at 25-34)

Fun fact about this, btw. Mandies and monks are the easiest mobs in the game to time ichi against, because their attack rounds are farther apart. If you start the cast right when their first hit lands, it'll always go through uninterrupted. The second hit will animate right in the middle of your cast, but because it was a two-hit round in the first place, that attack was calculated at the same time as the first one, and as far as the system is concerned that's when it landed: before you started your cast.

That said they still do eat shadows at double speed, so they are expensive to tank as ninja, and you'll take some hits during recast, but you could still have reasonable defense and on balance tank them just as effectively as another class. Shuriken are even viable at that level, so you can cement hate on yourself better than anyone if you're willing to drop the gil.

Damn, you guys have me reminiscing.

[Armando]

Re: Dunes Parties

I always stayed in Dunes until 20 chaining pugils at secret beach, especially during the time period in question. Then you went to Jeuno for your chocobo license. I didn't hear of moving to worms at 18 being common practice until much later, but even then I preferred Valkurm.

This was my case as well. There wasn't a whole lot of room for multiple parties there though. Kinda sucked to have to run all that way just to find the camp taken. Weren't there also some aggro bats in the tunnel leading there?

[Taskmage]

Re: Dunes Parties

And the Crawler's nest camp TM mentions wasn't that good either unless there were people outside killing the Ochus, otherwise you ran the risk of having to go around them and I think gobs or something around that place. And Grubs weren't that low level to begin with, so you probably had to be at least lvl 20 to try that place anyway if I remember correctly.


So the test needs to include data between levels 18 and 22 in order to disqualify Qufim because that's the level people went there. You got 18, leveled your sub, went to Jeuno and killed worms, got 20 and your choco license, then crabs and fish or gobs inside etc. Same with subs, except without the License part.

I always stayed in Dunes until 20 chaining pugils at secret beach, especially during the time period in question. Then you went to Jeuno for your chocobo license. I didn't hear of moving to worms at 18 being common practice until much later, but even then I preferred Valkurm.

And seriously, ochus and goblins? I bet nobody would ever party in yuhtunga then, since there's so many higher level goblins guarding the mandies, and that awesome furrier camp at the outpost must be crap because of overgrown roses. Having a puller with the barest level of competence is obviously an outlying scenario.

[Armando]

Re: Dunes Parties

And the Crawler's nest camp TM mentions wasn't that good either unless there were people outside killing the Ochus, otherwise you ran the risk of having to go around them and I think gobs or something around that place. And Grubs weren't that low level to begin with, so you probably had to be at least lvl 20 to try that place anyway if I remember correctly.

It's not like you don't have to avoid Gigas in some parts of Qufim, or move camp because of undead. Ochu's sound aggro range is pretty pityful. Depending on the kind of gob or Quadav we're talking about, they can be killed for EXP as well. And again, what kills Qufim is the logistics. Getting to camp? 15 minutes. Somebody died? 10-20 minutes downtime. Replace someone? Another 10-20 minutes on top of whatever it took you to find a rep. Night time? Good chance you'll have to move camp because of undead spawn points. All those problems compound each other.

If you include level 18 then it's even worse. There just aren't enough worms to go around and you can't pull worms, so you're fighting them out in the open hoping no one aggros a Gigas or Wight. For whatever it's worth, Rolanberry Fields and Batallia Downs have level 23-25 crabs for the level 18's. If I remember right Batallia's are even relatively close to the Jeuno zone line. The birds in Batallia are also viable at level 19, especially with THFs, RNGs or DRGs, even more so if you have a pair of blink tanks since IIRC helldive will only take 1 shadow and Wing Cutter shouldn't take any. But a PLD shouldn't have problems either since Helldive can't crit, which is the main reason Screwdriver kills people.

[Raydeus]

Re: Dunes Parties

And the Crawler's nest camp TM mentions wasn't that good either unless there were people outside killing the Ochus, otherwise you ran the risk of having to go around them and I think gobs or something around that place. And Grubs weren't that low level to begin with, so you probably had to be at least lvl 20 to try that place anyway if I remember correctly.


So the test needs to include data between levels 18 and 22 in order to disqualify Qufim because that's the level people went there. You got 18, leveled your sub, went to Jeuno and killed worms, got 20 and your choco license, then crabs and fish or gobs inside etc. Same with subs, except without the License part.

[Yellow Mage]

Re: Dunes Parties

Except we actually don't have a whole lot of data concerning Rolanberry Fields . . . Just opposing anecdotal evidence between Ray and TM.

[Armando]

Re: Dunes Parties

I second this, but since Armando chose to take his arguement to 2003, i stopped argueing. LOL.

We were all on the same page from the get-go except you Mez.

At the time Qufim was the best and more practical choice actually.

At the time Qufim was

At the time

Even if you haven't been reading my posts, I figured you'd at least be reading Taskmage's.

[Mezlo]

Re: Dunes Parties

Also remember that (again) my point here was that people chose Qufim for a reason, not that it was impossible to party in Rolanberry. And whether they kept going due to inertia or not doesn't change the fact that in practice it simply worked better. Also remember that I never said I was against alternative camps or was advocating for "cookie-cutter camps onry" in any way.

I second this, but since Armando chose to take his arguement to 2003, i stopped argueing. LOL. When in doubt, change the time frame to when no one knew anything, then any experience you have after that time frame such as gameplay experience or websites discussing various camps and XP rates per hour are null and void because they havent happened yet. LOL