Docent42 wrote:
Glitterhands wrote:
1-50 in a day is only possible through 'power levelling', as you call it. The majority of this is either done via Abyssea leeching, or more often done through GoV[...]
GoV can be soloed, and thus doesn't involve any form of level capping, especially at 60+, but it's true at all levels... (Unless you're alliance book burning in Gusgen, CN, which is not what I actually suggest)
Glitterhands wrote:
Solo XP is still a very slow grind, with mobs giving 200xp for an even match, and "Fields of Valor" Grounds of Valor (fixed that for you) books offering 1-4k small bonuses for killing a certain number of various mobs.
Solo xp for 200 xp even matches is terrible. The page XP, even solo, is where the bulk of your XP/hour comes from, and for that you don't need even matches, you just need XP-granting mobs (so easy prey or above). Don't forget the stacking +4% xp per page every page you complete (ending up at +100% XP after 25 pages)
Also, the haste, attack, accuracy and WS bonus from doing pages is extremly helpful, as are the free buffs offered by the books. Grounds of Valor is insane, and 4k bonus is far from "small". The Oubliettes pages (that you can start actively fighting at 60+) is 4100 xp for 9 mobs. That's 455 xp per mob...
Glitterhands wrote:
Fields of Valor, also often requires players to traverse long distances to find their target mobs and then return to the book for renewing their missions because they're still rather few and far between.
Nobody should use Fields of Valor anymore, unless it's combined with farming or magian trials. Fields is just so terrible compared to Grounds of Valor, even solo.
In any case, both Fields and Grounss don't require you to return to the book anymore, it happens instantly after you get the XP, so you can get a book, and go murder every easy prey in the map.
Also, nobody should consider grinding on Fields of Valor. Really, I mean it.
Glitterhands wrote:
Anyone who can level to 50 in a day solo is either a Beastmaster or is spending their entire 24 hours grinding non-stop without rest. I don't doubt you can now race through the first few levels easily enough, I've done it myself, but it slows down at around level 20, with mobs getting progressively stronger than the players. Even with Grounds of Valor, it could take a while to hit 50.
It takes between 10 and 12 hours at a casualish pace if you know where to go, and it doesn't involve Beastmaster or even /Bst, although when I did it on BST, it was fairly safer and I think faster than on ninja. I'm not talking out of my ***, I'm not getting PLed or leeching, so I don't know how you claim it can't be done...
Glitterhands wrote:
I stand with my previous argument, you still level too quickly to keep most of that old equipment relevant, and if you truly can level as fast as you claim, you'd need 50 levels worth of equipment for your chosen job just to kick start the thing. Inventory space notwithstanding.
No need to prepack all that gear, you return to town often enough that you can simply buy what you need on the AH or pick up scraps in your moghouse...
Perhaps I should detail the "journey" of a level 1-50 in-a-day business from a casualish player, so I'll go ahead and do that:
Bastok has been my home on most characters, so you can try to translate this to other towns, but here goes:
1-7 in Zeruhn mines, page 1 (because there's not enough crabs really, even if the page 2 is better). In anyway, you'll be done in no time. Suggested to use XP ring here, because it's one of the rare time you fight even matches.
7-21 in Dangruf Wadi. You start with Page1 and move up to Page2 and Page3 as the former start going {Too Weak}. Page 3 is the most dangerous and exciting one as it usually involves dodging agro from goblins. Best is to farm Page2 as long as humanly possible before moving on. You should hit the 25 pages XP chain bonus on Page 3, which gives something like 980 XP a pop at that point.
21-42 in Korroloka Tunnel (Page 1 at first, move to Page2 then Page 4 all the way). It's a rough start at 21, though, so optionally you may want to hit Gusgen for a jump start. BST or my RDM duo were fine at 21 (yay familiar!) but my ninja had a bit more of a problem (possibly because I only quest Utsu:Ichi at level 70).
42-50 in Sea Serpent Grotto. (Page 1 all the way). This involves dealing with some wandering Sahags, but they are fun enough to kill. Bards are a PITA as they often dispel your book buffs (Regen, Reraise, whatever)
So if you follow my above journey, you need:
-A level 1 weapon to start off. I suggest using your bare hands unless you can't. Level 1 RSE is fine until 7-8
-Level 7 armor and weapon for the Wadi. You can bring some level 15 gear if you have it and upgrade there.
-Level 21 armor for Korroloka. You can bring your level 27-33 RSE and maybe even a couple of level 30 and 40 CP gear if it's good for your job. Level 21 and 30 weapon is more than enough here.
-AF weapon and some key level 40+ items (Walkures mask, Headlong belt, Brigandine armor, accuracy rings, etc.) for SSG.
/DNC helps a lot, having conquest warps obviously makes going to SSG faster. All other areas I level are within 2 zones of Bastok Mines.
Killing LOTS of bats and leeches in there, so get used to the idea of fighting with Attack Down debuff, unless you're DNC or WHM main.
And as I said in my other post, doing all that in a perma Duo or trio, or with random strangers? Infinitely more fun, but totally not required.
Also note: if you follow this path to 50, you won't end up with capped skills quite, but the sahagins are 41-45, so should con as decent challenge even at 49~50, meaning you could go and purposely agro more of them for skill ups. I suggest doing the same to Gigas while in Korro, for the same reasons.
Glitterhands wrote:
If there's one thing I've learned in my long days of playing various MMOs is that if there's a quicker and more efficient way of doing something, that's how it will be done by the majority.
Unless you work in B.I. or analytics, you don't know if that's the majority. You're guessing, but your guesses are limited to your point of view, which means you look at your friends, the forum posters, the LS you're in, and the server you're on.
There are plenty of people outside your scope who probably don't play by the rules you're familiar with. It's also very easy to stop seeing the bigger picture and focus on things that annoy us.
Edited, May 5th 2012 11:25am by Docent42
Edited, May 5th 2012 2:21pm by Docent42
First off...."Unless you work in B.I. or analytics, you dont know if that's the majority"... no, just no. All you need to do is know the mind of the average current day MMO player. "Get leveling out of the way NAOW!" It's pretty darn CLEAR that the majority of players now use GoV alliances and Abys burns to level. It's pretty much apart of their nature to take the path of least resistance. If you claim that the majority doesn't do that, then you're not being real.
Secondly... you're using NIN/DNC...a class combo that RIPS through mobs all day without ever having to stop. Its overall survivability and kill speed rivals BST anyway, so to say you don't need BST or /BST isn't really much of a great claim (imo). I'm honestly not trying to downplay you, just don't make something more than what it is.
(This one is open to all who oppose GoV alliances) What is the big deal with using the underleveled skills argument? You can always go back and skill them up with some food, in short time might I add. Most melee skills can be brought to about 200 while afk (with cruor buffs at 200+ skill you can land attacks pretty well and with dex/acc atma you can land constantly) and white/black magic can be fudged to a perfectly usable level using /sch. The only job that might have some issues is BLU. Even then, (if they use GoV) most BLUs keep blue magic skilled up while leveling anyway, as they should be spamming their low mp cost spells to not burn out their mp and to keep a decent amount of dps going.
Edited, May 7th 2012 5:19pm by Seraphknight777