Power levels and the White Mage.

[Chveya]

Re: Power levels and the White Mage.

I'm still at RDM 26, so Centurion's Sword is not quite available to me. I use a Small Sword. Is there something better at this level I could use?

Apologies for taking this thread waaay off subject. -_-;

[ItazuraNhomango]

Re: Power levels and the White Mage.

Lv.19 Auriga Xiphos - Dmg:17 Dly:224 Acc+2

That's pretty much will last from Lv.19 until Centurion Sword at Lv.30. If you can manage to get one. (I have one, but don't ask why.) >_>; The next best thing for RDM26 is probably:

Lv.23 Tuck +1 - Dmg:16 Dly:220

I like the low delay, since faster swings means you get more out of your en-spells. Of course, as soon as you level you get a chance to use:

Lv.27 Gladiator - Dmg:18 Dly:222

Higher damage rating for tiny increase in delay will likely give you better return on your time spent on melee'ing.

This is a good tool for figuring out what equipments are out there: http://ffxi.somepage.com/itemdb/advanced.php (Just ignore all the gil selling advertisement.)

[Daos]

Re: Power levels and the White Mage.

Just last night I had some Power Leveler problems.

My white mage is level 17, and once he hits 18...well, of course, I can finally get a sub-job. So I actually went looking for an XP party for once.

Before I even left Bastok, I get a /tell to party. Which is impressive, since I haven't put up my flag yet. Anyway, the guy says he has a party in Korroloka Tunnel and asks me to join. I use the search command to look him up, and see he's a white mage, too. So I figure he must want me as a secondary healer or something. I ask him what else he has in the party. He tells me he has a Paladin and...well, I forget the rest, but he then adds they also have an 'experienced' PL.

Which begs the question, what the heck do you even need me for? Even if I didn't oppose PLs on principle alone, the fact remains that as a white mage, I'd be nothing more than an XP leech. So I turn him down.

Then I head toward the Dunes. Before I even get there, I get another invite (again, my flag wasn't up yet). It's from the Dunes, and the guy is pretty evasive when I ask him who else is in the party, but I decide to join anyway. When I get there, I meet the others. We have a Human Samurai/Warrior in what looks to be level 7 gear, a Thief/Monk, Dark Knight/Warrior, and Black Mage/White Mage.

As usual when I'm in a Dunes party, the following happens: We sit around doing nothing while we wait for the rest of the party to arrive. But by the time they get there, a couple more people have all ready dropped out. At one point, even the leader drops out. But once we finally get going (mostly fighting snippers), one of the players sends for a PL. Which of course, renders me useless. So I wind up leaving, since it's late anyway.

After two hours, I had earned around 500 XP.

I hate PLs.

[zzxwesxzz]

Re: Power levels and the White Mage.

well doas u not getting exp isnt the PLs fault its the leaders he shoulda 1got a PL off the get go and not invited you or 2 shouldnt of got a PL

[Daos]

Re: Power levels and the White Mage.

What? I...didn't really understand any of that.

[Mog]

Re: Power levels and the White Mage.

well doas u not getting exp isnt the PLs fault its the leaders he shoulda 1got a PL off the get go and not invited you or 2 shouldnt of got a PL

I failed at deciphering this.

Just last night I had some Power Leveler problems.



My white mage is level 17, and once he hits 18...well, of course, I can finally get a sub-job. So I actually went looking for an XP party for once.



Before I even left Bastok, I get a /tell to party. Which is impressive, since I haven't put up my flag yet. Anyway, the guy says he has a party in Korroloka Tunnel and asks me to join. I use the search command to look him up, and see he's a white mage, too. So I figure he must want me as a secondary healer or something. I ask him what else he has in the party. He tells me he has a Paladin and...well, I forget the rest, but he then adds they also have an 'experienced' PL.



Which begs the question, what the heck do you even need me for? Even if I didn't oppose PLs on principle alone, the fact remains that as a white mage, I'd be nothing more than an XP leech. So I turn him down.



Then I head toward the Dunes. Before I even get there, I get another invite (again, my flag wasn't up yet). It's from the Dunes, and the guy is pretty evasive when I ask him who else is in the party, but I decide to join anyway. When I get there, I meet the others. We have a Human Samurai/Warrior in what looks to be level 7 gear, a Thief/Monk, Dark Knight/Warrior, and Black Mage/White Mage.



As usual when I'm in a Dunes party, the following happens: We sit around doing nothing while we wait for the rest of the party to arrive. But by the time they get there, a couple more people have all ready dropped out. At one point, even the leader drops out. But once we finally get going (mostly fighting snippers), one of the players sends for a PL. Which of course, renders me useless. So I wind up leaving, since it's late anyway.



After two hours, I had earned around 500 XP.



I hate PLs.

Well, it all depends on perspective. If you're looking into leveling a job to a certain level, regardless of how well-skilled you are, then take the invite. However, if you're looking into getting cure skill-ups and wanting to stay capped as far as that goes, just decline the invite.

Though I really can't see how you'd be leeching in any dunes party. It's the dunes.... It's just a low-level stupidity phase that everyone goes through. Even if you casted DoT's on the mob and meleed him, you'd be contributing to the party.

[Darkages]

Re: Power levels and the White Mage.

Im a Hi level white mage and sometimes when i leveled they had pOwerlevelers and i would get mad i rather not be in a party then be in a party with a pl for a few reasons it dosnt help me with my skiillls and dosnt help the party with there skills and the person who is the pl in the party or is paying feels like he owns everyone else in the party and bend to his will or he is gonna solo....annoying ppl i never pl i only tele whore sometimes when i need monney quickly but i never do it for a source of income its much funner to go out work for what you get and not use other ppl like that to level up it dosnt help your self.(yay period)my dragoon some times i like it bc well i seem to get with the dead stupid whm that seems to like to use his sub more than useing his healing skills to save the party....mehhh bc well if pl didnt exsist some ppl would quit the game bc there too freakn stupid to play the game how it was spose to and in the effect of that would gilsellers would quit and square enix wouldnt have enough money to support rthe severs any more and would have to drop ffxi and alot of ppl would go to wow or guild wars and make other ppl richer.........

[Saren]

Re: Power levels and the White Mage.

I am almost out of the dunes (just into level 18 whm and stopped levelling to sort out a subjob and things) and I have had one party that had a power leveller. I was about level 15-16 and checked with the leader before I joined that there would be no pls and went to camp to be the party's second whm. I can see why people use PLs and that sometimes, with the right PL why they aren't a bad thing but not an PL who jumps all over the heals when I am trying to get a feel for party mechanics, hate management and mp conservation please?

After about 3 fights in a higher level white mage that no one admitted to knowing turned up and started healing people randomly. I politely asked her to stop healing but she asked 'why?' and then said she would only stop healing me because she was here for one of the damage dealers. The leader managed to sort out who she was about the same time and we started talking about it over party chat, as the DD had not told anyone he was bringing a PL. I said that I had asked for no PLs which is when the DD got quite nasty. He said he had a second PL coming so we could all move onto goblins now which is when I offered to find a replacement and left. Fortunately the leader was understanding about my leaving and I am sure the DD didn't miss me in the least.

My thing is the same as Daos' really. Why would you need a power leveller in a party with two white mages, let alone two power levellers?

[Kantele]

Re: Power levels and the White Mage.

I have powerlevelled some of my friends through Dunes solely for the fact that sometimes you are leveling a job that you just want to use as a sub. I had a powerleveller through dunes last weekend when I levelled my Summoner from lvl 10 to 20 and I loved it. I was able to use my summoning magic rather than be the healer of the party.

I think the person is a complete nooble who gets mad if someone asks PLer not to heal. It's very important to learn how to play the jobs right and Dunes is usually the place where you learn. To be honest, whm sucks on dunes level so when I was leveling my whm there I was quite happy if I got some help from higher level healers - I just always had a talk with them of the strategy telling them to let me mainly heal and only help in emergencies. In the end of the day PL is there to speed things up a bit e.g. when whm needs to heal MP back - not to heal all the time.

[Daos]

Re: Power levels and the White Mage.

I just hit level 18 the other day, but it wasn't easy. I wound up in another party that insisted on bringing a PL. I tried to explain to them how that would effect me, but they didn't seem to understand. The PL would heal everyone constantly, so all I did was cast Dia once per battle, then sit there and do nothing.

I even pointed this out, and that I was just sucking out XP from the others, but they seemed to think I was just joking. I can never tell nowadays. Back in my day, the expression 'lol' meant to signify you thought something was funny. Nowadays people seem to use it as a catch-all reply to anything--so who knows?

I got my level, but I did not earn it. I felt dirty afterward. I'm never doing that again.

The hilarious part was that the party kept attacking monsters wayyy too powerful for a party of that level because of the PL. At one point, one of our tanks died because the monster used a special attack that did more damage than the tank had max HP. This left the PL rather red-faced.

lol

[Gentoo]

Re: Power levels and the White Mage.

so all I did was cast Dia once per battle, then sit there and do nothing.

I understand being in a party with a PL isn't the most entertaining way to spend your time in FFXI. However, given that it's a rarity to find a party that isn't PL'ed sub 20, it's probably best to make the most of it as you can.

Get your club/staff capped. Paralyze & Slow to bump up enfeebling, Banish to raise Divine. Barwatera/Barfira to up enhancing. Cure the PL'er if they take damage (when they get aggro) to help raise Healing.

I got my level, but I did not earn it. I felt dirty afterward. I'm never doing that again.

lol?
Mog stated pretty eloquently earlier; "It's the dunes.... It's just a low-level stupidity phase that everyone goes through."
No need to feel bad about getting a level in that manner, particularly since you understand the problems of being power-leveled. It's not like you'll suddenly find yourself in Garliage Citadel, not understanding what hate management is, or not getting why using Regen ups your efficiency.

[dumo]

Re: Power levels and the White Mage.

My first job was War. I took that to 18, went and did thf to 30. Then Nin-31ish, thf to 35 and bst to 32. The other day I started up war again trying to get it to 30 asap because a friend asked me to for a CoP.
I've been PLed in PTs and been in many more without PL. Been PLed solo as well as all jobs. The only times I was PLed because I asked I was joking...up until a few days ago. I asked a LS member to come raise someone because their HP was in Whitegate or something like that. I was 300tnl and PT disbanded so I asked if they could help me with it. Got the exp and took off for Jeuno.

When I first started up war again though, I ran into something I really didn't expect. My first pt was I lvl 18 and we had a PL. The main tank didn't seem to have been in a PT with a PL before so I had explained to him not to voke off them so they could take hate and save their MP (after the PL got angry he was voking of coarse). Shortly after that I came to realize....the PL didn't know how to PL.... They would wait until the tank was almost dead before tossing a cure II (poor guy died a few times too) and then didn't do anything after that but complain if we voked. We had to do something though because the mob didn't stay on the PL. In the end, we would have been far better off without the PL. He caused far more problems then was needed and really didn't speed up anything.

Anyway, as far as my view on PLs, they have a time and a place. I don't mind being PLed at all but I know that I don't want to be PLed through every lvl. As a bst, a friend PLed me a bit of the way. I loved it. It ment that I could get through a few lvls without dieing for once, lol. At the same time, the PLing was only at certain times and even more times he was fishing and i just ran to him if I got in over my head. I still spent most of my time solo and I think I'm shaping up to be a very decent bst (I hope so at least cus I love the job). As a nin, I loved getting a PL because I could just not cast shadows many times which saved me a lot of money I really didn't have. I still spent a fair bit of time learning my timeing though. I have trouble getting the timeing right on new mobs and I'm not sure if that's due to PLs, me sucking or that everyone takes time to hit their timing right on new mobs.
I can fully understand if a whm or even a blm doesn't wasnt a PL. You can tell the ones that went through their lvls without when you hit the jungles. If both have gotten their without help, the PT runes smooth, consistant and safe. If not, my head hurts from all the bouncing hate and very close calls/deaths. Even today in Qufim I solo tanked as war/nin most of the day. I didn't have any poor mages but my first whm and blm were very good. They almost always ended the fights with mp and even got me through some when they started with near 0 mp. There were many close calls but I didn't have to worry because I trusted that they would do their jobs. After they left, my new mages just weren't used to a solo tank I think. Not one that gets beaten as badly as a war/nin without shadows. They still did well though after we got going. Just took them a while and some deaths to find the hate line. I wouldn't expect mages that had been PLed the whole way to find the line. If they were PLed, it sure wasn't for the majority of their time in the dunes.

Sorry about the long post...and for straying a bit from the topic. That's more then I expected to type. XD

[Buzer]

Re: Power levels and the White Mage.

As a kind of "update", 49 levels have passed since I left Dunes on blm & 28 as whm.

I was pl'ed about half of the time in Dunes on both. ~2 levels during Qufim as blm, none as whm. ~4 levels as both blm & whm in Jungles (well, leveled a bit in Korroloka/Altepa as whm. No pl there). Bassicly through GC & half of CN as blm (mnk in party was dual boxing rdm & we were in party for like 10h). None in GC/CN as whm. So yeah, I have been pl'ed pretty much.

Did I regret it back then? Nope. Do I regret it now? Nope. Have I had hate management problems? I can remember stealing hate too much in 2 parties ever (crappy tanks. Even when I hadn't done anything but enfeebles I got hate in one of them).

From magic skills, healing is gimp. Then again, I use Regen a lot. If I really wanted to cap it, I could get some HP+ gears swap them combined with Cure III. Shouldn't take long to cap it. Enchanting is 133 (capped as whm). Divine 28 (who needs it anyway). Enfeebling & Elemental capped. Dark few levels from cap.

So yeah, honestly, as long as you know basics, you won't suck even if you get pl'ed a lot. The ideal scenario is getting pl'ed every couple of levels so you can get a feeling where the hate line is.

[Wander360]

Re: Power levels and the White Mage.

Up until I read this thread I was beginning to think I was the only one. I'm on the Odin server and it's the same exact way there. PL has run rampant in Valkurm. As a WHM I was annoyed that a PL was taking away from what is otherwise a pivotal job. What's more agitating about this whole thing is that these guys are fellow mages. You'd think they might care about ruining the experience for a lower level mage.

A poster earlier mentioned being proactive and telling the PL what you'd like. I'm not sure if this would work or not but I'll certainly try it the next time I'm leveling a job at that level. When I was leveling WHM I mostly sat in the back at first, but then I got fed up and just started casting cures on whoever I could to get my healing magic up. Believe it or not if you are active enough (see good enough) you can actually beat the PL to healing and skill up just as much if not more than you would if you had no PL.

I still don't like the idea of a power level, I'd much rather do all the foot work myself. Whether I'm leveling a sub or not.

[Alshandra]

Re: Power levels and the White Mage.

I thought I was the only one that hated Powerlevellers... I posted in the "pet peeve" thread just now, so its ironic that I just noticed this thread now as well... It must be one of those days, you wait... I'll log in when I get home from work tonight and exp on Bard and have the same problem of finding a party that doesn't have a PL...

Kudos to your opinion on PL's!