Taking the good with the bad

[icesharc]

Recently a friend of mine invited me into a static pt that he is part of, I was happy because finally I could get some decent exp. It's frustrating getting invited into groups that are lead by idiots. The lineup is a 56nin/war, 56 rng/nin, 56 rdm/blm *me*, 56 blm/whm, and we pick up the rest, normally another BLM or samurai and a thf for sata.

As some of you probably noticed there is no whm in this lineup, I'm the sole healer in the pt. And the people in the static are very good players with alot of exp, I know the blm and nin both have 75's or 74's (the nin a rng and blm a rdm.) I'm not sure about other jobs. They have top of the line gear (blm has a diff staff for each spell for maximum efficentcy). The problem then is that my job gets very stressful. The nin has to constantly be kept hasted, I need to keep the mages refreshed (not normally a big deal with just 2 mages or 3 at the most). Toss a regen every few minutes for the nin to stay alive (amazing how well nin can tank). Do my enfeebles and dispel as necessary. The problem is that almost every fight starts with me around 100 mp and if something goes wrong it gets real messy real fast, and because these people are all hardcore players they can get ticked off fast.

Have any of your rdm's been in a high stress/fast xp party before? The xp is nice but there is SOOO much that I'm responsible for. It really is a change from those easy pts with a PLD, WHM, RDM, BLM, DRK etc... Also its hard to see alot of stuff wear off when you have to watch for alot more than just refresh/dispel. Any reccomended chat filters? Right now I'm having trouble seein when monsters cast things I need to dispel. I think the yellow text that shows what they are casting is considered "others" but turning that on gives me way more info then what I want. Pretty much the only text I have come up right now is actions initiated by pt but its still hard to see when stuff is wearing.

[Icemage]

It sounds like you're overworked. You should try getting a BRD, WHM, or second RDM to fill that extra mage slot instead of a BLM. You'll kill a bit slower, but your fights will be much more consistent. Realistically, good parties aren't limited by their killing speed anyway - they're limited by spawn rates.


Icemage

[PedaTeda]

Even though my RDM is only like 19-20 i know what you mean .... when im main healer & debuffer i get spammed ALOT!!! but here is what i do to take off spammage

Filters!!!! i got Shout, all the Other filters ( I.e. others attks misses)

i have dmg on screen and off chat bar ( who cares about the exact # anyway)

[tdh]

I've been praying for some new chat filters for a while. Have yet to hear any word for it though.

I turn off Shout, and all damage from other parties. But doing that I don't see SMN Avatar damage, or DRG Wyvern damage. So if SMN uses their 2hr, I have to ask the rest of the party for what damage was done.

I wish we had more options as far as colors for our filters. Or when an effect wears off on a mob. So it would make our job easier. All the spam that flies across the log is crazy, keep track of it can sometimes be a real pain.

But I suggest you take Icemage's suggestion to heart. Find another mage better suited for your party make up. BRD would be nice, WHM would make your job easier and more enjoyable.

[icesharc]

I dont think the leader will take that suggestion, from what i've gathered, the setup he wants is either WHM and Bard or RDM and more damage. But we'll see.

There really isn't any downside to having just a rdm to anyone else in the pt, such that people are dieing because I have alot to do. We do great each fight and kill fast getting exp chain 4s and 5s alot very little downtime, but its just alot of thinking.

On the subject of exp though, is there any set value for average xp gain around level 56. I started the night with about 9k xp at 12AM. An NM spawned and some idiot trained gobs to kill the people who got it so I stopped around 2:15 after being raised and had 13000xp. (I had 15000 or so before I died). Is that a decent rate?

[tdh]

At Lv.51, before my static party lost our mages, we averaged about 3000EXP an hour. A few times we pushed that up 4500EXP an hour. I've heard of 6-8k EXP an hour parties. You mentioned about 6.5k EXP an hour which is pretty good from my stand point. Best I've ever seen was in a JPN party. Went from Lv.30 to Lv.32 in an hour and 45 minutes. (NIN/WAR, MNK/WAR, THF/NIN, RDM/BLM[me], BLM/WHM, WHM/BLM) I can't recall how much EXP is needed to level at 30-32, but I'd guess it was 5k EXP an hour.

13,000-15,000 EXP in 2 hours would make me pretty damn happy at Lv.51. Level, and be well on your way to your next one.

[WobbleSiren]

a BRD for your PT would be amazing. I'm sure the RNG would appreciate it a lot for hunters prelude.
NIN
RNG
BRD
RDM
BLM
THF

Post 65 you can replace the thf with a SAM/THF (my personal favorite) and he can SATA gekko for some insane dmg and hate management.

[Ithaqua]

Ah, the over work case. I had a different case. In my early fifties set party i was with a NIN/WAR THF/NIN RNG/NIN BLM/WHM with all staves. a Bard, and me the Red Mage. I was focusing refresh, debuffs ( damn crabs have anti-stick replent to me ), hasting, main curing, and constantly watching which elemental jutsu did not stick. I kept up with everything and bard took main dispel, but after getting atleast 6.5k an hour ( Damn Serious ). My head started getting messed up, and I had not been dispeling at all. By the times when i had to main dispel its like the word didn't activate to me because i was overworked with doing everything else and i had no self motive. Red Mage is my third favorite job, but i'm sticking it out to seventy-five at a below cut pace. It becomes very stressful when you have four people to refresh and people expect you to always have it up and debuff and haste. I'm not the best at watching three different branches work at one time.

[Laehn]

Sounds like youre just stressing yourself too much over it. Its still just a game. And most people understand that in parties like that, its hard to keep up.

If the other people really got angry, then i really wouldnt worry about it. If they get angry, then theyre probably forgetting that there are times that everyone (even themselves) have problems, and they usually feel the same way in your situation.

Ive been in some pretty stressful parties myself. Parties where the members ask for a lot of stpc songs are pretty fast and usually dont have a lot of time to focus on anything but keeping songs on everyone and the mob.

A real stressful place for whm or whm sub is labrynth of onzo...the things you fight there spam silence and paralyze and youre constantly trying to remove them.

[icesharc]

I think i'm getting to hang of it better now. I'm not sure if it was so much that it was a hard job or that I was so used to the easy job of healing when you have a whm and pld that this was just a shock.

But anyways last night we were the only pt in kuftal where you fight the "d-whatever" monsters. Yowie aggrowed us when we were going on chain 3 or so, so we were all low on mp and such (we were a lvl 56pt). After a very long fight we managed to kill it. The intensity of that battle was enough to make doing my job in a regular xp pt nothing. Sometimes you just learn to deal with it and it doesnt bother you.

[Zempten]

Re: Taking the good with the bad

Originally posted by icesharc
Recently a friend of mine invited me into a static pt that he is part of, I was happy because finally I could get some decent exp. It's frustrating getting invited into groups that are lead by idiots. The lineup is a 56nin/war, 56 rng/nin, 56 rdm/blm *me*, 56 blm/whm, and we pick up the rest, normally another BLM or samurai and a thf for sata.

As some of you probably noticed there is no whm in this lineup, I'm the sole healer in the pt. And the people in the static are very good players with alot of exp, I know the blm and nin both have 75's or 74's (the nin a rng and blm a rdm.) I'm not sure about other jobs. They have top of the line gear (blm has a diff staff for each spell for maximum efficentcy). The problem then is that my job gets very stressful. The nin has to constantly be kept hasted, I need to keep the mages refreshed (not normally a big deal with just 2 mages or 3 at the most). Toss a regen every few minutes for the nin to stay alive (amazing how well nin can tank). Do my enfeebles and dispel as necessary. The problem is that almost every fight starts with me around 100 mp and if something goes wrong it gets real messy real fast, and because these people are all hardcore players they can get ticked off fast.

Have any of your rdm's been in a high stress/fast xp party before? The xp is nice but there is SOOO much that I'm responsible for. It really is a change from those easy pts with a PLD, WHM, RDM, BLM, DRK etc... Also its hard to see alot of stuff wear off when you have to watch for alot more than just refresh/dispel. Any reccomended chat filters? Right now I'm having trouble seein when monsters cast things I need to dispel. I think the yellow text that shows what they are casting is considered "others" but turning that on gives me way more info then what I want. Pretty much the only text I have come up right now is actions initiated by pt but its still hard to see when stuff is wearing.

Hate to say this...but that's actually the PTs that I'm in love with and usually get's me the most exp. I love the PT that puts me to work and make use of my Convert ability every 10 minutes that comes by. Sure it's a lot of work, but I'm in love with constantly being busy. If it's too stressful then take a break every 2 hours. That should be enough for you to continue on. If it's still too hard then grind it out. Humans are very good at adapting to the situation so after a few more PTs like that you'll get the hang of it. Some however just don't like to adapt and stay the way they are (usually they make up the bad RDMs we all come to know) Some do try, and at least they do try. But a margin of error is permitted, afterall we are only human.

That is my vision of how a RDM should be. Work hard for your PT and your PT will work hard for you. All in all it comes to great exp and that's what a PT setup like that is meant to accomplish

[Rogan]

turn off all the filters with the word "others" in it, and you won't see our wyvern damage at least

[Pounce]

Since you said you have two spots that you just take random people for, I'd say you should get non-MP jobs =P.

DRG
WAR
RNG
THF
SAM

Just having one less person to Refresh makes the workload so much easier.

My ideal party would be

NIN (tank)
RDM (me)
WHM or BRD
3 non MP-using DD