Official December 2005 Update Speculation Thread

[rahskala]

Three days to go. Just off the top of my head, a few of the things coming on Monday are:

• New Dynamis areas[/*:m:4137b]
• New avatars[/*:m:4137b]
• New mob behavior (an attempt to prevent MPK)[/*:m:4137b]
• Melee Wars Episode 6: Return Of The DRG[/*:m:4137b]
• Higher NPC level cap[/*:m:4137b]
• New Cooking guild items (Patissier and Stewpot Mastery) and most likely new foods to go along with them[/*:m:4137b]
• A fish ranking system[/*:m:4137b]
• More merit point possibilities[/*:m:4137b]

Is anyone excited, or does anyone even care? Will the patch go smoothly or will people still be struggling to log on by the same time Tuesday? Discuss and claim "I told you so" rights once and for all.

[Maguspk]

I'll take the side nobody else will probably take in this thread and stay optimistic that SE will somehow prevent uber login difficulties. As for the update, I'm totally looking forward to how it will turn out, very excited about the additions to the summoner job particularly, can't wait.

[edgarfigaro]

The last update went smoothly for most people I thought. Definately not as bad as the one before.

I bet this is the last update a lot of people see though, because unless the new dynamises are just excellent, I think alot of people are going to quit ( I know I've been thinking about it).

[Lyramion]

http://img370.imageshack.us/img370/1782/merit0oe.jpg

I am prepared

[Zigma]

shellbuster ftw!

[Correction]

Here are a few of the things that WON'T come:

- Gear that ameliorates the unending need to camp fafhogg every single goddamn day
- A ban on people who buy and sell gil. remember the 'aggressive' serverwide ban on 800 people last year? yeah...
- money drops from sea NMs
- improved drop rates in outlands dynamis zones
- an improvement in the 75 exp zone situation. Yeah thanks for the merit point expansion, now even the Kuftal Basement is full.

Did I miss anything?

[tiberion02]

Here are a few of the things that WON'T come:

- Gear that ameliorates the unending need to camp fafhogg every single goddamn day
- A ban on people who buy and sell gil. remember the 'aggressive' serverwide ban on 800 people last year? yeah...
- money drops from sea NMs
- improved drop rates in outlands dynamis zones
- an improvement in the 75 exp zone situation. Yeah thanks for the merit point expansion, now even the Kuftal Basement is full.

Did I miss anything?

lol.... thats pretty accurate.

[Mifaco]

- an improvement in the 75 exp zone situation. Yeah thanks for the merit point expansion, now even the Kuftal Basement is full.

hay guyz wutz uleguerand range

[Isildur]

Here are a few of the things that WON'T come:

- reasonable drop rates from sea NMs


Did I miss anything?

fixed

[Keyten]

Ha i thought about the merit /exp situation too. I'm glad I dont play anymore cuz I bet it will be complete hell trying to exp the whole week after the merit additon update.

[Eaglestrike]

Sea is an awesome place to exp, but I don't know enough people with it ;;

[Demosthenes11]

sea
sky
lufaise meadows
KRT
U range

Plenty of places to level
Also try smaller pts like thf nin rdm thf or something to that effect on mobs like manticores. Not too bad of exp, 5k/hour isnt terrible. Then again, there is nothing like a good 14k/hour monk pt :D

[Ankiseth]

Ha i thought about the merit /exp situation too. I'm glad I dont play anymore cuz I bet it will be complete hell trying to exp the whole week after the merit additon update.

Still puzzles me as to why people constantly visit forums after they've quit the game. You've quit, move on and stop reminding everyone that doesn't even know you that you've quit every day?

[Gilanth]

sea
sky
lufaise meadows
KRT
U range

Plenty of places to level
Also try smaller pts like thf nin rdm thf or something to that effect on mobs like manticores. Not too bad of exp, 5k/hour isnt terrible. Then again, there is nothing like a good 14k/hour monk pt :D

All with 1-2 camps so make 10 places for 4000 people to xp awesome.

[Demetrios]

I'm definately excited about the new Dynamis zones, but of course Diabolos is going to be in Dynamis-Tavnazia which won't be added until February-Marchish. AF2+1 ?

[thestalkmore]

sea
sky
lufaise meadows
KRT
U range

Plenty of places to level
Also try smaller pts like thf nin rdm thf or something to that effect on mobs like manticores. Not too bad of exp, 5k/hour isnt terrible. Then again, there is nothing like a good 14k/hour monk pt :D

All with 1-2 camps so make 10 places for 4000 people to xp awesome.

Everybody is 75.

[Eaglestrike]

sea
sky
lufaise meadows
KRT
U range

Plenty of places to level
Also try smaller pts like thf nin rdm thf or something to that effect on mobs like manticores. Not too bad of exp, 5k/hour isnt terrible. Then again, there is nothing like a good 14k/hour monk pt :D

All with 1-2 camps so make 10 places for 4000 people to xp awesome.

There are a lot more than 1-2 camps in those places.

Sky: 2 Deco weapon camps (main entrance + on the way to water, latter not that great but it's a camp)
2 Aura Statue camps, 1 = Ulli, 1 = Nexus
Then I'd say 4-5 aura weapon camps, not 100% sure. They aren't that great to exp on but they work.

U. Range should have 4 camps. There are two friends with the IT demons, one party on each side of each field.

Lufaise = 1-2 parties yeah, but that's really only a thf/rng/drg camp because slashing takes a dmg penalty.

sea = TONS of camp. At least one on the first floor for each tower, then possibly a few more on the higher levels. Not 100% sure how many, I normally camp on the way to Elvaan tower but recently a friend showed me a camp on the 2nd floor. I liked my old camp a bit better, though >.>

[Xavier]

There are a lot more than 1-2 camps in those places.

Sky: 2 Deco weapon camps (main entrance + on the way to water, latter not that great but it's a camp)

The deco camp towards water sucks...you can clear it w/ a bad group and beat the repops. Its extremely limited xp/hr w/ a visible cap on xp.

2 Aura Statue camps, 1 = Ulli, 1 = Nexus
Then I'd say 4-5 aura weapon camps, not 100% sure. They aren't that great to exp on but they work.

Aura statues are bullshit to xp on. They come so buffed up that it takes extra time to kill, a far cry from Deco.

U. Range should have 4 camps. There are two friends with the IT demons, one party on each side of each field.

Demons suck to xp on, they hit fairly hard, their weaponskills are strong, and the one mob actually dooms you (I know I don't pay enough attention in an xp pt to turn away).

Lufaise = 1-2 parties yeah, but that's really only a thf/rng/drg camp because slashing takes a dmg penalty.

I personally hate it, think the mobs hit way too hard, but some people really like it.

sea = TONS of camp. At least one on the first floor for each tower, then possibly a few more on the higher levels. Not 100% sure how many, I normally camp on the way to Elvaan tower but recently a friend showed me a camp on the 2nd floor. I liked my old camp a bit better, though >.>

Those camps in Sea...are not for normal xp parties. Tanking the normal mobs in sea in an xp pt is flat out absurd. Their weaponskills are fking crazy, and the only parties I ever really see in Sea are BLM pts.

You've listed a lot of horrible camps that people go to as a last resort and are vey specific to certain parties. When people go to make xp parties, they look at KRT for MNK/BLM Pts, they look at Deco for WAR pts, and they like at u. range and aura statues for standard parties.

Anyone who tries to argue there are enough lv 75 xp camps has very low standards. There are only a few "good" camps, and then a lot of places that you can xp at. Just because there are mobs of the correct level to get 150-250xp a kill doesn't mean its by nature a good xp camp.

[Lasitha]

SMNs can solo bombs at 75 for 200+ exp up to chain 5 if lucky :D

[Eaglestrike]

Sea isn't for a normal exp pt? Define normal then.

Floor 2: pld, mnk, thf, rdm, blm, brd = 7-8k/hour in sea. Is that not normal?
Floor 1: Nin, rng, thf, rdm, brd, whm = 6-7k/hour (post rng nerf ; Is that not normal?

And those parties do not include the best geared or merited players out there, I probably have the most merits out of the different people in those parties except the blm in the first one. And we were exping with a PALADIN and pulled 7-8k/hour. Maybe you just had bad luck or a bad experience. The only moves those Aerns do that really sucks is Impact Stream (AOE dmg + stun, removes shadows). The others aren't that bad because they don't hit pld's for a whole lot and nin's can take shadows with them. Also remember that Aerns do different tp moves based on job, so maybe you're at a camp with jobs that do really bad tp moves considering the tank you're using. The Aerns on floor 2 LOVED impact stream, they weren't so obsessive on floor 1.