Letter from the Producer, XVIII (09/21/2011)

[Hyan]

Yeah, okay....? Either way, it's a side activity to do along with leves, it's right there in the camp, you don't have to do anything special to participate and it doesn't take long to complete. There's little reason not to do it if you come across one. It's not broken when not everyone is doing it all times anymore. It functions as it should. It's one among several other activities that net you EXP, and people will keep doing it (although in small numbers until the server population picks up, if ever).

[Vuitton]

People on Lindblum, at least, do Behest. We don't all camp it and use it as our main way of grinding though. All of the leve parties I've been in will stop and do the Behest if it pops between leves. Then, given that we can only do every other Behest, of course there aren't going to be huge groups camping it. It's something you do if you happen to come by it, not something where you go, "/ls Anyone want to group up and do some Behests?".

It's a supplemental activity to doing leves. It's not a main feature or anything.

They're also easy to solo if nobody else is around.

[Niiro]

If people aren't doing behests on your server then, well, it's their loss. There's no reason not to participate when the NPC pops up while you're out and about. I usually find myself alone 45% of the time, with 1-3 people 45%, 4+ 10% maybe, probably less. That said it's pretty rare that I see the neglected bonus.

I do think the exp at the end could use a bump, comparable to a leve without GA.

[Spider-Dan]

If they wanted to fix the "claim" issue they could have just made it a more open event like Besieged rather than nerfing it. Understand that the issue of still 'needing to claim a spot' is STILL THERE it's only that now no one wants those spots.

Given the combinations of behest cooldown timer, extra reward for joining at a rarely behest-ed camp, leve rebalancing across the board, and guild mark eligibility restraints, the issue of spot claiming is not "still there" in any reasonable sense of the term.

Before, everyone did behests at the same 3-4 camps that had all the superior leves for ranking up; nobody was objectively evaluating Broken Water or Horizon behests as superior to those at Nine Ivies or Bloodshore. Now that leves are more balanced (in their SP reward), you don't have to compete for a behest slot with everyone else at the same camp doing the same leves as you are.

[Sephiroth]

I did my first behest in months the other day. The SP at the end was worth it, it was comparable to a leve with GA and more fun than a leve. Especially at Horizon where the leves all suck for soloing. But I couldn't believe that people still don't get it that you get more SP if you're all in the same party. There was like a group of 3 and a group of 4. WTF?

[Niiro]

You should be getting just shy of 10% of your total TNL from a 5-star leve with GA, I've never seen that much from a behest even with time + neglected bonus.

edit: with GA and time bonus

[Celeras]

So... great exp is something that needs to be 'fixed'?
And that fix is to completely nerf the SP gain and ALSO make you wait an hour between them rather than 30min? I... just don't even.

I also like that you threw in the fact that it's repetitive as if every other means of leveling isn't.


Anyway, the fact that Behest used to be "FUCK YEAH BEHEST" and now you'll generally see them skipped over by most people speaks volumes for the 'fix'.

I really don't know what the hell you people are talking about sometimes. SP from leves is pretty much identical to what it was pre-patch, 100k plus or minus per 8 leves. Difference being while you needed multiple people with very specific leves to get anything pre-patch, now you can pretty much max out with ANY 8 leves. And you can do it solo, without requiring any links, though more leves still = more SP to incentive-ize grouping.

Shit, even Behest is better 40+ than it was pre-patch. Previously you would hit a hard wall when the mobs got too weak or the group spread was too big and walk away from Behests with less than 1000 SP. Now you're looking at 5k across the board. Only once an hour? Boo fucking hoo.

[Jojimbo]

Behest is 5% is your total TNL and caps at around 4.5k reward, it's comparable to non-GA leve depending on how high you can have the star rating. Not sure how it is at lower ranks but 40+ I found that I was getting less than 10% of my total TNL per leve (unless you are including links + mob kills). Was getting about 35-45k per reset (doing 6 r40 leves, depended on how much GA I had) solo including mob kills and a behest, 6-7k reward with GA, 4-5k w/o at r47+ or so

[Sephiroth]

You should be getting just shy of 10% of your total TNL from a 5-star leve with GA, I've never seen that much from a behest even with time + neglected bonus.

edit: with GA and time bonus

I got about 2700 from the behest I did and that's about the same as I get from a speedy five star leve with GA. Talking rank 20 leves/behest here.

I really don't know what the hell you people are talking about sometimes. SP from leves is pretty much identical to what it was pre-patch, 100k plus or minus per 8 leves. Difference being while you needed multiple people with very specific leves to get anything pre-patch, now you can pretty much max out with ANY 8 leves. And you can do it solo, without requiring any links, though more leves still = more SP to incentive-ize grouping.

Shit, even Behest is better 40+ than it was pre-patch. Previously you would hit a hard wall when the mobs got too weak or the group spread was too big and walk away from Behests with less than 1000 SP. Now you're looking at 5k across the board. Only once an hour? Boo fucking hoo.

I must be doing something wrong then, because even in a perfect scenario of 8 five star leves with GA and speed bonus I can only manage about 22k + mob kills in the 20s. When you don't have GA or can't do five stars because the mobs are 5 ranks higher than other leves of the same rank the SP is even more awful. So bad it feels like a waste of time doing them without GA. Pre 1.18 I'd get anywhere between 100-150k in a leve link group all the way from the 20s up to 50. This is why we think battle leves suck ass. I wouldn't care if there was a viable alternative to leves and behests (don't say grind).

[Hiroishime]

The pace from r1-50 is still the same pre-patch, it takes about 3 weeks or so if you do not skip leves (even way faster if you grind every now and then). Yes, it feels slow at r30s leves phase but it picks up really really fast when you can pick up r40 leves, netting 80-100k SP every reset and without fatigue.

[Niiro]

I got about 2700 from the behest I did and that's about the same as I get from a speedy five star leve with GA. Talking rank 20 leves/behest here.

That's wonky, I suppose if you were below R26 the honeymoon period SP boost might have something to do with it.

[Jamison]

I remember reading that r20 and r30 leves were known to give too little SP compared to others and would be fixed. Did that happen already or is that 1.19?

[Celeras]

I must be doing something wrong then, because even in a perfect scenario of 8 five star leves with GA and speed bonus I can only manage about 22k + mob kills in the 20s. When you don't have GA or can't do five stars because the mobs are 5 ranks higher than other leves of the same rank the SP is even more awful. So bad it feels like a waste of time doing them without GA. Pre 1.18 I'd get anywhere between 100-150k in a leve link group all the way from the 20s up to 50. This is why we think battle leves suck ass. I wouldn't care if there was a viable alternative to leves and behests (don't say grind).

I should have clarified that I wasn't refering to low ranks. The bonus is a portion of your TNL, so its considerably less when you don't have a ways to go. Those who want to get 3 ranks per 8 leves in the 20s are going to be shit out of luck, and rightfully so. Fuck that.

It basically works out to a rank per leve session, plus or minus. It's perfectly viable across the board and I really don't know what to say to people who think otherwise. 1-24 is an absolute breeze, and the rest of the way takes maybe one or two days of /played maximum. How much easier do you fucking want it?

[Tomino]

Yes, it feels slow at r30s leves phase but it picks up really really fast when you can pick up r40 leves, netting 80-100k SP every reset and without fatigue.

Kinda OT, but:

At r35 I went and picked a r40 Leve just to try it out. Aside from some minor increase in mobs' SPs (since they were r45 or so), 1star Leve granted me the same amount of a 1star r30 Leve, which was about 1900sp without GA
Obviously it took me longer to complete it and I thought that was the system suggesting me to stick to r30 ones and just increase their difficulty level. Unless I'm doing something wrong?

[Hiroishime]

If you are soloing it's better to stick with r30s 5star just because it is easier. I havent solo my leves since forever, there are always people interested in leves (in my server at least), so i was able to do r40 leves on 5 star even when i was only r35.

[Jojimbo]

iirc isn't there some exp drop if you do leves too early (or 10 ranks too high)? 5 star r30 should be similar to 1 star r40 or at least that's what I remember it being like.

[Hiroishime]

r15-r29 for r20 leves
r25-r39 for r30 leves
r35-r50 for r40 leves

SP rewards gets cutdown like half if you are outside those range.

[Sephiroth]

I should have clarified that I wasn't refering to low ranks. The bonus is a portion of your TNL, so its considerably less when you don't have a ways to go. Those who want to get 3 ranks per 8 leves in the 20s are going to be shit out of luck, and rightfully so. Fuck that.

It basically works out to a rank per leve session, plus or minus. It's perfectly viable across the board and I really don't know what to say to people who think otherwise. 1-24 is an absolute breeze, and the rest of the way takes maybe one or two days of /played maximum. How much easier do you fucking want it?

I don't care how easy or hard it is to rank up, I want it to be fun. Doing 8 leves per 36 hours for 22k SP + mob SP isn't fun or getting me anywhere fast. It may be fast enough when you're in the 40s but getting to 40 feels like a chore. It shouldn't take as long to get from 20-30 as it does 40-50 when the SP required is about 4 times less. Battle leves will be irrelevant in 1.19 anyway, I'll be doing all my leve slots on crafting/DoL. But they need to add ways to rank up battle classes that are fun and don't involve grinding the same mob over and over.

[Vuitton]

I thought they were addressing the pre-40 leves in 1.19 as they were incorrectly giving too little exp.

[Celeras]

They did that already, and they give plenty. Just not enough for some people I guess. Apparently some people want 'to have fun' and don't care how hard/easy it is to level, but their fun is dictated by how much SP they get at any given rank. It's quite the paradox.