European DRK perspective

[Nightknight]

This game is not worth a minute of your life. You wait for PT invites for hours. Japanese will never give you a PT invite unless you have godly equipments or trick them with having the 'Bilingual' party flag up. And when you're caught, they usually let you stay anyhow because they don't want to act like a whiny fool. I've had JE on a couple of times and it doesn't work anymore (wonder why hmm...). It's in their mind to think that english speaking ppl should stick with parties that speak english. Unless you communicate with smilies (might help you a little) and a basic toy translator (this translator is not helping me at all!! I never get to use it. I've used it a very few times in a PT).

When Americans get on it's 8PM for you and you can only play 2hrs max or 40mins if it breaks up (if you're lucky and get into a party at daytime the ones you're PTing with are probably singaporeans, malaysians or australians). When I told another DRK to help me with the absorbing (I later found out that he never does that and have low Dark Skill). I absorb VIT and he AGI (STR if we're in trouble, cos I have the AF weapon and he has a weapon 5 lvl's below). After 20mins of play he tells me to Absorb the VIT like I've done all the fights when the puller comes with the mob. 5mins later I'm the one that absorb both VIT and AGI and he absorbs the STR (he's Hume and have more MP pool than me, but he uses Drain A LOT. Don't use it for style. You make roughly the same DMG with your weapon and sometimes MORE. Use it when you're HP is yellow or close to yellow). You should read the chatlog and not always stare at the mob. 30mins later he gets himself killed when our healers had very low MP by using Soul Eater and some other buffs (possibly Berserk or Last Resort maybe both since he got so much hate on him). I'm guessing he thought he could kill it on his own because he's teh pwning dmg dealer class. Or he's just simply an idiot. He got 1/2 of us killed. The PLD "forgot" to provoke the mob from the WHM when he was healing MP.

When you get into parties it's a 50/50 that you get good or bad exp. Not because of level difference, but because some healers want everyone to have full health (how are we going to start a chain if they keep on healing us to full health when we have a tank?). Use Divine Seal + Curaga. Don't waste too much MP. And if you're 2 whm's make up who will do the Divine Seal + Curaga so you dont have to cure all of us with Cure II. If someone is 600/800 after a battle and it's not the tank. Don't bother healing him. He would most probably be at 400/800 next battle. Chains depend on Mana Pool very much.

Well. I'm quitting this game. Too many "superior wannabes" and rude people (im guessing 80% of them are rude because they have a sad sad life in the real world?). Someone told me he liked to rant and I've seen him rant about himself too (crazy). He lost his GF and his education. Sad, very sad..

I'm here to PLAY!! Not to gang up with people that has the same nationality. This game is full of BS! If you want to ask JP's kindly and act like they are superior (while they laugh at you with the magical letter "w") from lv40 to lv75. Go ahead. What are you paying for? THIS! <<<<<

If you're like me and can't play (only on night time) or farm very well (because many JP's are on when NA's are not). Play DAoC or another game until WoW ships over here. That's what I'm going to do with a couple of friends.

[nicksgotpecks]

thank god ur quitting cuz its a freaking game get over it jeez.... go play with yourself mayb u wont complain so much

[Thorrion]

Well, I'm from U.K. and although I'm only lvl 28 on my Drk so far, I find a lot of what you said to be untrue...

When I was levelling in Qufim I got an invite to a Jap group, although I couldn't understand most of what they said, they were incredibly skilled, chaining Pugils and Giants for 200+ exp a shot at around lvl 21-23.

Over the last week, the longest I've had to wait for a group in Kazham is about 20 minutes, usually if I go afk for a while I come back to find 2 or 3 invites that I've missed lol.

That said, I have grouped with the occasional idiots... people who scream things every 5 seconds, over use the <call> feature, mages who over-nuke and get agro seemingly every time you try to start a skillchain, etc etc. Unskilled players are commonplace, have to work around it.

[Eddie da Ripper]

Damn you should be on anti-depressives. I am a player form bolivia, in south america, and me and my friends find the game awsome. sometimes I do get frustrated but then I remember it is just a game and that there are other ways to spend time in the game. You can always make fun of somebody,like you, who always takes things to seriously.
leveling up is easy, but long, and partying is also easy, when you have friends, I think you missed out on the friends part and that is why you have a hard time with parties. nobody likes you.

NightKnight, it is a GAME, don't take it seriously, and you are talking about people with out a life. Don't come to a discussion board and bother us. we don't care.

[Star8urst]

I'm from Australia and I have to kinda agree with the original poster about not finding groups. I find it hard to get groups recently in my timezone, the game has not been released in Australia, New Zeeland, Singapore, Hong Kong etc, so is hard to get an eglish party together.

Even tho I have made many friends in the game and a have a great LS, when it comes to making a party I have little luck. I did group with japanese people ocasionaly, but most days I'm forced to just farm gil, work on my tradeskills or just waste time while "looking for party".

As much as I like the game, I too wait for WoW where at least I can play with more english speaking people in my timezone (the game will be realeased worldwide as far as I know) and be able to make progress even solo when no parties are available.

[Hinbin]

I'm from the UK too. It is harder to get English speaking groups groups if its a weekday morning/afternoon - but since I'm in work then it doesn't really matter

Never had any problems getting groups in the evenings or weekend days, even English speaking ones. Seems there are a fair few European (including British) people playing the game, too.

[Thorrion]

I already mourn for WoW if some of the complete newbie idiots from Warcraft 3 play it... and there's definately enough of those...

(By that I don't mean unskilled players, I mean those imberceils who go around shouting "NOOB!" and "GOGOGOGOGO!" every time a game is near starting... could list many things but this is the wrong place for it, so I won't

[supertle]

i agree with a lot what you say Nightknight, the only thing i disagree with is about casting drain as much as u can, i see nothing wrong with that b/c using Drain at least up to lvl44, it does as much dmg as a scyth swing, so I use it whenever I can also.

NA players for the MOST part do not know how to play and of course have that attitude of "do what you want as long as you're having fun",
they will not setup renkei, when i'm invited to an established party b/c someone is leaving, i go in and ask what's renkei, and of course nobody replies, i always setup renkei, and sometimes they miss renkei and blm sometimes don't burst, i always burst with any renkei when i can

They don't eat food and call it a luxury. They say I am rich b/c of my nice equipment and always eating food. They should say i'm not lazy and know what i'm doing. I don't play the game anymore then these players. I work 40+hrs a week and squeeze in game time during the nights for 2-3hrs and play a lot on the weekend only. Some of them don't even know what food is at lvl40+. I go do quests, gain fame, get RSE, gil farming, I find niches to make gil, and I make a ton of gil easily now.

In the levels 40+, i see so many Dark Knights running around in Centurion set or wearing armor meant for a Paladin (armors that boost DEF but gives no other stat bonus like +dex, +acc,+attk, etc etc), I even see a Dark Knight that was wearing only equip that gave stats in +mp and +agi. I have played with Dark Knights that cast a lot of spells during a battle and heals his MP after battle, I have to poke them and tell them to save TP for renkei. I'm here to play the game, not to teach everyone how to play but it seems like i'm always having to correct ppl on what's best for the party. Most NA players all they want to do is LEVEL, LEVEL, and LEVEL and "slide" by with their poor equipment and don't do anything else. I'm quitting the game too but not b/c of the frustration of NA players, but simply this game is a time drain. Again this is for the MOST parts, there's the other parts where I do get into awesome party a lot too and have a lot of fun.

Someone in Garuda on Fantazia is going to be super lucky to inherit my equip very soon, sorry i spent 200k crafting over the weekend, so i'm down to 2k gil only now

[Davyath]

He is very right though... This gameis VERY Racist...

Also, there are so many dark knights, thats not bad, but 70% of them dont know how to play the job, and give it a VERY bad name..

[Thorrion]

Originally posted by supertle
i agree with a lot what you say Thorrion, the only thing i disagree with is about casting drain as much as u can, i see nothing wrong with that b/c using Drain at least up to lvl44, it does as much dmg as a scyth swing, so I use it whenever I can also.

I don't remember saying anything about drain... I use it whenver I can in parties, though I tend to raise Dark Magic more with Aspir when theres a mob with MP around (went from 32 to 48 skill in the first group after I got it).

[supertle]

sorry, i did not mean to say you thorrian

I meant that I agree with Nightknight on his views

[Tidane]

Now Europeans (and others) are insulting Americans? I guess its not new. I gained 3 levels yesterday, we didn't have to set up a Renkei, or tell the BLM what to burst with. The monsters were dying before anyone had the TP to chain. We'd get to 2, 3 chains, before we would chain. We didn't need to tell people what do use, we just know. Ok, its a beetle, weak vs. Ice and Light, we had a DRK, DRG, and PLD, so we can do Nightmare Scythe>>Raiden/Thunder/Double Thrust>>Seraph Blade. Maybe this is different for you, but by level 30, I knew everyone I partied with. People often play around the same time, so if you could try to get into parties with the same people, so its not a random party that may be good. We replaced 5 people during that party, because people had to leave, not once was it asked what WS or Burst was needed, we just knew.

About the food...sometimes there isn't reason to use it. I'll use some of my food when the party is starting, if I see its not working out, I'll stop. I'm not going to waste the food for a party that will most likely disband within the next 30 minutes to an hour.

I wore my Centaurian equipment, until level 40, when I started using the Breastplate parts. I still use my Centaurian pants and my Mufflers (the +2 ACC kind). I see no reason to go and do pointless quests that give minimal gil for the time they take up, or go farm for a day to buy this equipment, only to sell it in 5 levels (2 now). I've been doing that boring farming, because I need money for Sniper Rings, Life Belt, etc, you know. I bought the game to have fun, not to have people tell me that I can't wear this armor because its not the "best" for my job.

Now, I'm not saying I'm a fan of tanks who don't try to keep hate, Dark Knights afraid to use Souleater, Samurais not using Meditate, or Red Mages who refuse to use Convert. There have been parties I went into, had no real tank, I thought would be horrible, no one used food, but we had 5 chains. I've been in parties that used food, set up Renkei, had the "perfect" party for the situation, and couldn't get 1kxp/hr.

I also must say I did see that you said for the most part, but I find that not to be true. Maybe when you get on, the people that don't know how to play are the only ones on, but for the most part, I have seen that you can pick a random person, invite them, and they'll do their job, and forward the party in whatever why they can.

[Mikeb]

I've partied with a few Japanese and had no problems so far. You just have to know your role. The translator is enough to set up skillchains, most binds that tell TP, HP, etc... are easily understandable whether you know the language or not. I get sick of parties where you only get 2k XP per hour and usually just solo now (gotta love Beastmaster). I usually don't bother with english speaking groups now unless they are high rank or seem to actually know what they're doing...

[Nightknight]

Casting Drain is like drawing lots. If you're Elvaan (and have 133 in dark skill at lv45) the amount of HP drained can range from 50 to 122. 60 to 133 if you're Hume I think). While with STR absorb you are actually helping the party out and can deal more damage then that.

And whoever said that Renkei's are not important haven't killed mobs fast enough. I think Distortion did 100+ dmg on Crawlers and a magic burst can do over 200dmg. If you're PLD or DRK you should rest for MP. Cures and Absorbing should not be ignored. If you have a RDM or a BRD in your PT you can save your TP.

Tid: I'm not insulting you. But after having PT'd with a MNK40/WAR05 and a RDM40/THF15 that fights most of the part (10dmg each hit is not impressive. Just cast Bio or Poison.) and doesn't draw out of battle to heal MP leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Why am I seeing so many /THF15 in PT's that I join?

If you're out of money and need power food, what I do to tackle this problem is to go to Qufim while having the party flag up and kill some Giants. You earn about 60-170G each battle with a THF sub.

If I want to buy items I put on my THF sub and mass-slay Crawlers in Sartabarta or Beetles in Ronfaurd. A stack of Silk Thread sell for 10k (price drop) and Beetle Jaws sell for approx. 7-9k. There's a slight chance that you can get camped items worth 200k and above. Do a search on that area and look if someone's already there. Anonymous are anonymous for a reason (in low level areas the anonymous are campers or 1-2 power food salesmen 9 out of 10).

If you decide to start your own PT do a /sea all 45 (my level is 45). You can party with 44, 45, 46, 47 and 48. 44 and 48 would make the exp gain unbalanced but if the lv48 is a good player and strong you should be able to get nice exp from chains. Your chain level depends on your rank. Rank 5 = You can reach Chain 5, Rank 6 = Chain 6, and so on. This is one of the reasons why some japanese out level us (high ranks have now very good reason to use power food (mana regen is the most important factor in leveling) all the time. someone that doesn't help the high ranks would probably be avoided in the chat or they share with them).

Good luck.

[Fourinkmaaya]

rank has nothing do to with how far you can chain.