Unorthodox Exp Setups

[KainMinter]

We cant always have all the jobs ready and available that we need to exp with when using the cookiecutter party setups.
Here are some of the different Exp setups that I've used that are good alternatives when those staple jobs just arent LFG or when I wanted to exp casually with friends:

Healing Breath Party (When tank and/or support jobs are unavailable)
-One of my favorite meripo setups these days is to use 2-3 dragoons subbing a mage job and fill the rest of the party with anything. The dragoons heal anyone who falls under 50% hp to near full instantly for 5-6mp and do exeptional damage while their at it. At a colibri camp its nonstop chains and almost unlimited mp, especially if the dragoons have Ethereal earring and/or sanction refresh) 20k+/hr meripo pt right there without a refresh or healer. Only issue is that you need to allow people to fall into orange hp before you cure them, so you need a camp that has enemies that do not ever do more than 50% of your hp in damage at once. Greater Colibri and Trolls are examples of acceptable targets for this setup. 2drg + 1 or 2 other jobs also works for a small group setup. (This requires all DRG to have AF1 Helmet, thus is reccomended for 60+)

Puppet Healed Party (When refresher unavailable)
-A pup using the whitemage puppet can be used along side of having a backup healer, eliminating the need to rely on refresh. *Usually* the puppet will use the highest available cure on cue when someone is damaged, provided the pup is properly keeping up with manuvers. On the chance that the puppet futzes up and decides not to cure(like right before or after it converts), you have a real healer or backup healer on hand to cover it. MP would never be an issue as puppets with proper attatchments have auto refresh, conserve mp, and auto convert for when they run low on mp (not to mention the ability to deactivate-reactivate them for instant mp refill once per activate timer).

Multiple Samurai Tanks (When tank unavailable)
-For many this would be common sense. Use 2-3 sam/wars instead of having a deisgnated tank, and the rest of the pt can be have healer/support/additional DDs of choice. Designate one samurai to be first voke. When that Sam's Third eye wears and begins to take damage, have the next sam take hate from him, etc. Having multiple sams to watch eachothers backs really helps make up for the randomness of third eye's duration and allows for a 'tankless' party. I've personally done this at 44 Vs Beetles in Altepa for 9k/hr and at 65 vs Colibri for 12k/hr, but I'm pretty sure this could work out at any level range 35-75.

BST Pet Tanked PT (When only odd jobs or few people available)
-I have done this party setup a few times, mainly for fun. There are 2 things to consider when making this type of party. 1; you need to have a specific camp in mind, where there are VT-IT monsters to kill and DC-EM monsters close by for your BST(s) to charm. 2; everyone who you invite must be medium to low end on the damage output(whm/nin, rdm/nin, pup, thf, nin, brd, rng, etc), so not to outdamage (and steal hate from) the pets of the Bst(s). Jobs such as Drk, Mnk, War, Drg, and Sam will really need to hold back or use less potent weapons than their main in order to participate. That doesnt mean that kills cant be fast and exp cant roll in. Last I did this, we were getting 8~10k/hr at 62-63 with DC-EM bees vs IT leeches in Waojoam Woodlands with a 4 person group. (BST BST WHM/NIN PUP/WAR, constant chain 5-6) Biggest issue with this party type, I imagine, is that there isnt going to be a camp available that meets your exact needs for every level range. Also, I hear sometimes summoners can be used in place of BSTs, though I cant verify that from personal experience.

Blue Mage Meripo (When you have at least 1 BLU but only a few people)
BLU/NIN is easily able to solo VT imps for an inconsitant chain 4-5 via chain casting and resting between kills, netting the BLU about 6~8k/hr by itself. You just need to make sure to bring pleanty of echo drops and hope there is a good imp camp free. From here you can add different jobs and strategies to increase exp/hr and include friends who need merits or buffers.
*2 BLU can team up and keep chain 5+ consistantly for a good 10k/hr. With 3~4 BLU I've done up to 15k/hr.
*I've tried 1 BLU + 1 RNG a few times. The ranger pulls while the blu rests, enabling inconsistant chain 5+ for 8~10k/hr
*BLU + RDM worked well also, as the RDM refreshed, hasted, and assisted with nuking.
I'm sure at 75 a BLU could team up with almost any job and make exp work, but I dont know how well it can work at other level ranges.


The game has been a lot more fun since I opened up to new ideas and stopped holding on to the standard so tightly. With the introduction of dancer I bet even more interesting PT setups will that can be thrown together with whoever is available will become possible. Really looking forward to it. :D

[Bagel]

In b4 Dancer Burn (Disco Inferno?)

Would be interesting to see if a ton of scholars trying to level at the same time will bring back manaburn pre-Mt. Z.

[Furionstormrage]

I used to duo Imps with a good IRL friend before he quit (PLD/NIN and WAR/NIN), we hit chain 4-5 easily if the area was open, rest a few minutes, go back to it.

(Could hit higher chains now probably, this was right when Aht Urghan came out, so no 2H update, no Parade Gorget, etc)

Actually had a few lower level PTs leave because we were killing faster.

Good way to kill some time with a buddy.

[Lordwafik]

BST + THF on dhalmels, much easier now with Snarl and.. yeah just snarl.

Dhalmels weren't very resistant to light when I did this a long time ago, alot of the time, Decimation > Shark bite would 1 shot them from 40% or so , higher if zerk is up.

[fantasticdan]

Blue Mage Meripo (When you have at least 1 BLU but only a few people)
BLU/NIN is easily able to solo VT imps for an inconsitant chain 4-5 via chain casting and resting between kills, netting the BLU about 6~8k/hr by itself. You just need to make sure to bring pleanty of echo drops and hope there is a good imp camp free. From here you can add different jobs and strategies to increase exp/hr and include friends who need merits or buffers.
*2 BLU can team up and keep chain 5+ consistantly for a good 10k/hr. With 3~4 BLU I've done up to 15k/hr.
*I've tried 1 BLU + 1 RNG a few times. The ranger pulls while the blu rests, enabling inconsistant chain 5+ for 8~10k/hr
*BLU + RDM worked well also, as the RDM refreshed, hasted, and assisted with nuking.
I'm sure at 75 a BLU could team up with almost any job and make exp work, but I dont know how well it can work at other level ranges.

TBH, I don't think those numbers are very accurate. I tend to nearly always get less exp in a duo or trio on imps, due to the pop times. If you are totally uncontested in the mire and can roam from imp to imp to imp, I can see how duo/trio could rack up more exp, however normally speaking as a blu, I can fully clear any single camp by myself and kill imps as they repop. Add more members and you are really just dividing up the exp. I get an average of 8-9k/hr solo on imps at heldiva(sp?) isle, more like 5-6k duo.

[Keria]

I like leeching off of 75BLU duos on my 63 BRD, doing double Ballad, Cure 3 and Silena We went and did imps in the mire for 2 hours without needing to rest once. I was getting 4k or so an hour, so I guess they were getting closer to 6k? If I'd been 65 with wind torque I could have tried pulling/sleeping mobs for them, but Lullaby was just too unreliable at 63.

I mostly managed to cast without getting silenced though, the trick was to stay at least 10' from the imp, and no further than 11' from the BLUs using harp for Ballad II- Ballad I at that level has a range of more like 13'. Although to be fair my string skill is kind of gimp and I wasn't using any +string skill gear either >_>.

If there hadn't been several RMT parties and duos there we would have no doubt got pretty high chains. As it was, even having to run from one end of the mire to the other we got chain 5-6 most of the time. The kills were scarily fast, especially with no worries about MP :D


I always wanted to try a RDM burn too- maybe with the coming "changes to RDM melee" I can finally give it a shot

Will be interested to see if WHMs can start pulling in the mire with the new light based Sleep 2 spell. xD

[Tajin]

I like leeching off of 75BLU duos on my 63 BRD, doing double Ballad, Cure 3 and Silena We went and did imps in the mire for 2 hours without needing to rest once. I was getting 4k or so an hour, so I guess they were getting closer to 6k?

Try that as RDM44-57 8) (Toss in a few regular parties)

[Judai]

Blue Mage Meripo (When you have at least 1 BLU but only a few people)
BLU/NIN is easily able to solo VT imps for an inconsitant chain 4-5 via chain casting and resting between kills, netting the BLU about 6~8k/hr by itself. You just need to make sure to bring pleanty of echo drops and hope there is a good imp camp free. From here you can add different jobs and strategies to increase exp/hr and include friends who need merits or buffers.
*2 BLU can team up and keep chain 5+ consistantly for a good 10k/hr. With 3~4 BLU I've done up to 15k/hr.
*I've tried 1 BLU + 1 RNG a few times. The ranger pulls while the blu rests, enabling inconsistant chain 5+ for 8~10k/hr
*BLU + RDM worked well also, as the RDM refreshed, hasted, and assisted with nuking.
I'm sure at 75 a BLU could team up with almost any job and make exp work, but I dont know how well it can work at other level ranges.

TBH, I don't think those numbers are very accurate. I tend to nearly always get less exp in a duo or trio on imps, due to the pop times. If you are totally uncontested in the mire and can roam from imp to imp to imp, I can see how duo/trio could rack up more exp, however normally speaking as a blu, I can fully clear any single camp by myself and kill imps as they repop. Add more members and you are really just dividing up the exp. I get an average of 8-9k/hr solo on imps at heldiva(sp?) isle, more like 5-6k duo.

Camp farther in if people are up front? I easily pull in about 9-10k/hr solo and about the same duo with a BLU, not much better but far easier and less stressful then solo. I only duo with friends though, no random Team ups.

One of my Fav parties was 2BLU, BRD/NIN, RDM. BRD pulled and slept mobs, ballad2, RDM was just silena/refresh hor. Ended up around 15k+/hr and we were outpulling a JP party with Ridill WARs and shit. We even killed the few Soulflayers that aggro'd the BRD, where as the JP party ran for the zone when they agg'd them. Pretty sweet exp for 4 imo. I'm sure a full party of 4BLU, RDM, BRD could roam the backside of the Isle, maybe add a COR over a BLU or a DNC in the future! Aspir Samba could be pretty hawt for BLU burns.

Couple friends and I are gonna try the Disco Inferno party though when DNC is released~ Up to 3 DNC and a SCH atm, lol.

[Yutuyu]

Sky is fun with a BLU, you can basically perma-stun the weapons with Headbutt, they're super susceptible to it. I went up there with two war friends of mine and we owned the Decos like old-school meriting. Was a hell of a lot of fun.

[KainMinter]

Blue Mage Meripo (When you have at least 1 BLU but only a few people)
BLU/NIN is easily able to solo VT imps for an inconsitant chain 4-5 via chain casting and resting between kills, netting the BLU about 6~8k/hr by itself. You just need to make sure to bring pleanty of echo drops and hope there is a good imp camp free. From here you can add different jobs and strategies to increase exp/hr and include friends who need merits or buffers.
*2 BLU can team up and keep chain 5+ consistantly for a good 10k/hr. With 3~4 BLU I've done up to 15k/hr.
*I've tried 1 BLU + 1 RNG a few times. The ranger pulls while the blu rests, enabling inconsistant chain 5+ for 8~10k/hr
*BLU + RDM worked well also, as the RDM refreshed, hasted, and assisted with nuking.
I'm sure at 75 a BLU could team up with almost any job and make exp work, but I dont know how well it can work at other level ranges.

TBH, I don't think those numbers are very accurate. I tend to nearly always get less exp in a duo or trio on imps, due to the pop times. If you are totally uncontested in the mire and can roam from imp to imp to imp, I can see how duo/trio could rack up more exp, however normally speaking as a blu, I can fully clear any single camp by myself and kill imps as they repop. Add more members and you are really just dividing up the exp. I get an average of 8-9k/hr solo on imps at heldiva(sp?) isle, more like 5-6k duo.

At the inner camp no competition. More imps there and less/no downtime with multiple blu. Imps repoped at a rate where at least 1 or 2 were up somewhere in the vacinity at any time. I cant imagine you only being able to get 5-6k here unless the camp was being competed over.

[cassiraa]

Avatar Burn: Tried some of these in the 60s on flamingos, 5 SMNs 1 BRD, 0 hate control. Sit back, recast when necessary, and let the XP roll in. Most relaxing party ever, if not best XP.

Want a 2 BRD merit party but only have one online? Common knowledge by now I'm sure, but just grab any BRD from 60 up and put them on double march/double ballad duty.

Tried a PUP healer party, it worked better than i thought it would. But then when someone left, the PUP refused to keep healing and demanded we get a RDM or WHM. So we kicked them and got a RDM and a WAR.

Lots Of Thieves. Back in the day when Abraxas was the new merit area, 4THF 1RDM 1BRD was good, Now with Assassin and an orgy of SA's and TA's everywhere, I can't think of a reason why that wouldn't work on Greater Colibri.

[Bakthi]

I went from 73-75 on WHM duoing with a BLU (Heldiva, Khimaira camp). Banish III actually did a pretty nice chunk of damage (I had Yigit but nothing else special, not even MND rings). With Repose, this could be even better.

We used to round up a bunch of WHMs and/or BLMs and have manaburns in Riverne Site A01. I suppose it's kind of an odd problem to have "all healers" rather than "no healers", but there you go. I always went as BRD, although now I think I would try going as COR. All BRD can give mages at level 40 is 1 MP/tick, and perhaps some regen. COR should always be granting at least 1 MP/tick, and can give hMP as well.

[Keston]

I've done the 3 SAM, BRD BRD WHM ptys, as well as DRG/sam DRG/sam DRG/sam DRG/whm pty (that was killing faster than 6-man pty next to us).

Generally, it comes down to killing shit b4 it kills you (dmg output vs. intake over time), with minimal downtime. Any setup, however odd that can accomplish that works just dandy.

Course every now and then you still run into the ignorant/close-minded people who aren't willing to even try or grasp the concept of what mechanics lie behind a succesful pty. "No tank?, sorry i'm going back to seeking".

[Max™]

War/Sam, Drk/Sam, Nin/War, Brd/Whm, Cor/Nin, Chaining Mamools and Puks up to 20 or so while we waited for the Rdm we got to replace the randomly AFK one to get geared up and come out.

lolhealing applied even more during that period just after the first buff, when I'm convinced 4 2h Melees+2 Brds would destroy any camp too fast to maintain long chains, without any more healing than /Whm and Sanction regen.

[evilpaul]

Bomb/Snoll Self-Destruct parties with SMNs/BSTs are pretty fun. Put a bunch of pets on an VT-IT++ bomb and wait for it to blow up.

I've heard of small SMN parties on Imps too, but haven't ever been in one personally.

edit: woohoo 666 posts!

[Delekii]

If you are going to do imps with more than 1 blu, go to hediva, camp in the tunnel in the NW corner. 3 imps in the tunnel, 3-5 pullable out the khim side, and another 2-4 out the other side depending on soulflayer co-operation.

Better yet, get a rdm and brd, go to g.colibri, and get 25k an hour.

[Hakamaru]

I used to duo Imps with a good IRL friend before he quit (PLD/NIN and WAR/NIN), we hit chain 4-5 easily if the area was open, rest a few minutes, go back to it.

(Could hit higher chains now probably, this was right when Aht Urghan came out, so no 2H update, no Parade Gorget, etc)

Actually had a few lower level PTs leave because we were killing faster.

Good way to kill some time with a buddy.

I've been doing this a lot with my RDM buddy almost the whole time ToAU has been out. There's so many variations that work, but RDM + NIN is consistent chain #5s. Sometimes we'll bring another melee out and we can get the occasional #6. Pulling is really the limitting factor at that point. NIN pulling with darts is the best I've found. Darts are better than using Ungur because I can swap between them and Bomblet without losing TP.

And yeah, the lowbie parties at the Nyuzle entrance get PISSED when you come out and camp on top of them. Even though there's plenty of mobs at the entrance for 2 parties. Almost 3 parties if 1 of them is slow. Oh well. If they get too crazy, blacklist to the rescue.

We've done some other combinations too. I've pulled + tanked on SAM. My RDM friend has come PLD/WHM and done support with all his RDM gear. It's just relaxing EXP that doesn't suck too bad when you don't want to commit to an actual merit pt.