No Party > Slow Party

[TacoTaru]

If I'm doing LS parties I'll just go with my friends on whatever we need to exp/merit. Chances are if we're going in a mega-lulz set up (blm, thf, pld, etc) I'll try and take us to places that other burn parties don't anymore like Ule Range or Trolls which are never taken.

If I'm going with a pick up group.... 2brd or gtfo (and even people manage to fuck that up which is beyond me)

[spooky]

The only way to avoid this scenario is to make your own PTs, and to be ruthless. If you invite someone to your PT, /check them and they suck, then out they go. It’s for their own good really. Perhaps it will inspire them to make a bit of money and make themselves worthy of EXP.
I had this absolutely hilarious conversation with a 65DRG/BRD, yes sub bard, which was their only appropriate levelled sub, and they swore blind they would out dmg my decked out DRK with capped Scyth and Critt merits; suffice it to say, they got kicked.

Last night our PT leader got a replacement for themselves without telling any of us. This SAM turns up to replace him, he just gives me leader and says invite such and such person, I have to go. I have a look at this SAM, who basically makes me weep. I say to him, is that your actual EXP gear? Thinking there’s a small chance that this is perhaps town or joke gear, no such luck. They didn’t get an invite either; and stood there genuinely asking why I wasn’t inviting them. After much loling from me and the PT, in the end they warped.

EXP watch is your friend, if it falls below a tolerable level, make your excuses and leave. Better yet, make your own PTs and avoid this entirely.

[Lordender]

Just do what i do, if i find myself in a party with a gimp on carbuncle, I fraps their gear and post it on KI on a thread called "Carbuncles lolplayers" so everyone can see their gimpness and avoid those players at all costs.

[Luto]

I can't stand exping but I like having my merits. The less time I spend in average 10k/hr parties or less and the more time I spend in 15k/hr+ is better in my opinion.

[HAcoreRD]

I already posted this in the media section, but it applies. Back story: this guy is a Sam asking me to replace him in merits.

http://img407.imageshack.us/img407/3...8150713dl9.png

4 Pups and a Bst, Great merits... OR GREATEST MERITS?!

Any party beats no? Is he dumb, or does his food and ammo and other disposable items grow outta his ass? Or is he mad rich from Shopping on IGE?

[Apelila]

@lol pic: He's a dumbass, and probably 15.

@ OP: When I was leveling MNK, I would make about 8-12k an hour solo PLing myself with my flag down. I HATED getting party invites because it meant that I might be walking into a trap if i accepted, but it would be much less boring than killing 33 more birds for lvl 6X.

Now that I'm leveling RDM, its the same thing but with a twist! I don't mind taking invites from random parties, I hate when the party sucks and there's nothing I can do about it because I'm still pre50 and NonToAU exp sucks.

[Khajit]

I'm in a party without a main healer or tank and still hitting 9k per hour....You gotta be retarded to get low exp in TAU.
On a completely related note.

I hate jp parties because i cant ask em what the fucking setup is beforehand and even if what they have atm seems good they grab something shitty to fill in the remaining spots. Well more like it's impossible to scream at them for being stupid in a language they understand...

[Tajin]

I'm in a party without a main healer or tank and still hitting 9k per hour....You gotta be retarded to get low exp in TAU.
On a completely related note.

I hate jp parties because i cant ask em what the fucking setup is beforehand and even if what they have atm seems good they grab something shitty to fill in the remaining spots. Well more like it's impossible to scream at them for being stupid in a language they understand...

JPs in cerberus have way better team work than your overall NA pickup (or i have been very lucky with JP parties >.>a). I used to build decent parties, but i have long lost that ability (BLM solo does that )
Also the fact that your average JP flags up to party for at least a couple hours, unlike NA that get to camp, kill 3 mobs and "lol i have to go guyz".

[SephYuyX]

After leveling BLM back in the day where 5k/hr and Chain5 were awsome, and soloing BST to 75 where 1k/hr was godly, when I lvld WAR (well after ToAU release) I took any PT invite there was, and got to 75 on 99.8% pick up PTs.

Any XP > None
In the time you find that 'leet' PT, you could have made more or broke even in random pick ups.

[Zarath]

But the problem with any xp > None is the cost and how low the bar is for bare minimum functionality. 10k/hour is being verrrrrry lenient, that's an average party with average people, chaining pretty decently. I don't have high hopes of 20k/hour, cause sometimes you can't achieve that on busy days, however 10k, hell even 15k/hour is very plausible with a competent party.

When you hit <10k/hour would you like to be spending money on food and expendables for shit xp? I know I don't, COR is expensive enough as is...

[Septimus]

This is why I do not merit in non-LS parties. Hell, I am depressed that my second character's BLU is level 39 and probably going to be forced to party soon because it's getting hard to find good solo spots. ;_;

[Keston]

Also the fact that your average JP flags up to party for at least a couple hours, unlike NA that get to camp, kill 3 mobs and "lol i have to go guyz".

Most of the japanese players I have partied with have a serious lack of consideration for advanced notice. Even if they party for an hour or two. They usually just say "Thank You Party, Good Bye", and disband/log within seconds of you wondering WTF. Mind you, not all do this. A few will say they "have to go in 30 minutes after" or something, but its rare and far inbetween.

I try to ask every so often "Time Remaining everyone", to avoid or forsee any abrupt departures. But it can still happen.

[Aymee]

But the problem with any xp > None is the cost and how low the bar is for bare minimum functionality. 10k/hour is being verrrrrry lenient, that's an average party with average people, chaining pretty decently. I don't have high hopes of 20k/hour, cause sometimes you can't achieve that on busy days, however 10k, hell even 15k/hour is very plausible with a competent party.

I agree that anything under 10k/hr at lvl75 is both horrific and really hard not to surpass, but I don't know if I'd go so far as to say it's worse than no exp, if you had nothing else to do and/or were seeking for quite some time.

Exceptions:
--Weekends. Namely, when every single camp is taken in every single normal zone, and then re-camped by 3 other PTs at the same time because they're too lazy to think of anywhere else to go.
--JPN PTs/PTs during JPN peak hours. It's more crowded, and you might well be a lone NA in your PT, depending on your job. Translation issues can be really bad in some merit situations since confusion can easily spiral out of control and a wipe can come out of nowhere.
--Jackassed merit PTs while exping under 75. Like, say... your lvl68-70 PT is doing awesome on imps and jnuns and easily chaining for almost 300/kill on 5 (or 6+), and a PT of overpowered morons from your server's lawl'ed at HNMLS show up with ridills and krakens and just run around slaughtering everything, completely ruining your exp and anyone else that was there. A lot of the time there really aren't that many options to move to other places, and especially if a PT has been running <1hr it's just depressing to force a move camp or disband that fast.
--Forced to go to other zones. Like, I had a PT that ended up going to decos at lvl68ish because literally everything else on the server was full. I'd consider it ridiculously rude to break up the PT or leave it based on the justification of "well Idunno about 10k/hr so screw you all". Talk about selfish.
--Getting someone to lvl. To next merit? Meh. But if someone's @3k after a 3hr PT where they ate a few R1s and everyone else dinged... and your support or best DD leaves, you stay and get the level.
--Job? I liked the nice simple post from the 75PLD 75DRG about any > none, lol. Sad but true, even though a decked DRG now is rather disturbing.
--Friends. I get random invites sometimes if it's a 'needed' job for a PT (my name appearing at/near the top of a search list) from what would probably be a fantastic PT, but I decline because I might end up with friends. They're awesome friends because we all have an understanding that no one will ever force anyone else to be a particular job they don't want to be or are sick of playing... or if they want to try a different sub or something they're free to, or if they want to work on WS points to unlock, etc. It's fun even if the exp isn't the best. .............though I do confess <10k/hr is hard to do regardless of setup if you're with people you get along with and presumably they at least kinda know what they're doing.

...As for the "I demand 20k/hr" RDM from the first page... wow, I would so never want to merit with you. Talk about being spoiled. Go lvl or merit as a melee job and get some perspective, please. This kind of demand is as bad as BRDs that seek with seacoms of "manaburn only" or "2 BRD PTs only" (assumption--they won't pull). Like your only pleasure in life is to make people bow to your importance so you can be as lazy and/or picky as you want. 20k/hr is hard without a double-support setup and/or people with absurd gear. By demanding this much exp, you're saying you're better than everyone else and will only work with people that think that same as you. I apologize that 'normal' people and semi-decked people who can manage 15k/hr+ (but not quite 20k!) play the game too. You might as well put in your seacom "3x ridill WAR 2 BRD PTs @ Jade Sepulcher onry". If you think no exp > anything under 20k/hr, perhaps you should go sit around at Tiamat for 8-12 hours waiting on a pop.

Edit: My grammar is awful, and I'm fully aware that my use of punctuation is unconventional.

[Larrieux]

I'll add depending on your job sometimes Bad Party > No Party.

Things to remember for leaders forming parties as I read through the various post. Have an idea of where you want to go and what you want to exp on before you send the 1st tell to invite anyone. /search zones and count the party leaders. Read comments. Read comments. Read comments. If you have to /tell the leaders and ask them where they are...I hate it when some party camps on top of mine.

It's perfectly legitimate to ask what runic portals members have before you confirm invite. Build your party around your support NEVER around your melee (unless you have ls support jobs coming). Never form a full party THEN ask people where they want to go unless you're concerned the level gap would dictate the highest level member con mobs at very tough.

Don't be afraid to boot crap members that don't follow rules BUT before you do boot anyone confirm you have a new member AT camp then let them go :D Tell person you are replacing them with someone tell them why and ask them if its okay. Other things to consider are addressed later.

Don't just party indefinitely getting an endless chain of replacements. Inevitably you will replace someone and have to break party soon after they join. Set a reasonable time limit of 2 hours minimum to party and break. Exp is great but not when there is no end in site and you never know what type of replacement you will get. Sometimes its better to ask who can continue...return to city and reform.

Don't forget oils and powders where applicable, and gather at Staging Points...THEN move as a group. Tell people they cannot /follow you to camp and they shouldn't go afk until after you are all at camp. If a person is not familiar with zone and you ask them to meet you anywhere expect to go and raise them at least once.

Rules I live by when forming pts

[SephYuyX]

It's perfectly legitimate to ask what runic portals members have before you confirm invite.

This is the only thing that pisses me off to no end when PTn.

Who the fuck doesnt have all the portals? Why is it that theres always one guy that is missing the portal we want to go to.

Seriously, it takes 1hr to get them all, and it should be the first thing done when setting foot inside ToAU.

[Saraphym]

So I was skilling up on birds outside whitegate with my flag up, didn't really care if I got an invite or not. Anyway, about 1hr later I get an invite, I think sure why not, too lazy to ask setup blah blah.

Here is what I was invited to.

http://i242.photobucket.com/albums/f...hym/omgwut.jpg


now that was a winning setup, I went just to see how bad it could've been. Basically, I got 2 merits in 2hrs at birds camp, and ate floor once. All things considered I was pretty surprised the party pulled off something decent.

[Vedder]

I don't XP a whole heck of a lot, but I'm of the Slow XP > No XP camp... especially since I'll take a LS party to help recap LS PLDs or something like that.

Now, if I flag up... then I do tend to ask questions of people who invite me, and I don't think it's elitest or snobbish to do so. Simple things like, "What's the party setup?" and if it's a replacement or fresh party.

For the most part, you can diagnose a bad party pretty quickly... like last week, I had an invite from a RDM/BLM party leader who didn't have a BRD or another healer. It pretty much didn't matter what the other 4 members were... I said, "No thanks."

[Tajin]

Holy shit, poor RDM

[Keston]

So I was skilling up on birds outside whitegate with my flag up, didn't really care if I got an invite or not. Anyway, about 1hr later I get an invite, I think sure why not, too lazy to ask setup blah blah.

Here is what I was invited to.

<image>


now that was a winning setup, I went just to see how bad it could've been. Basically, I got 2 merits in 2hrs at birds camp, and ate floor once. All things considered I was pretty surprised the party pulled off something decent.

The plus here, is function/role. All your DD has dmg negation (shadows or thirdeye), so they shouldnt/wouldnt be sponging (much) or causing slow down that way. BLU gets refresh so he isn't a drain, and can help cure to help the RDM out. Most spike mp drain I can see is a few bad pecking fluries (if it was collibri).

Kudos to the leader, as it shows he knows how to get it done (or just a lucky roll). You don't have the performance buff from say a brd, but your dmg out jobwise is high, and the intake low. Key to any working setup.

[Plow]

I don't think it's humanly possible to get under 8k/hr in toau zones at this point.

I still stand by this statement, I really think you have to try to get less than that.


Leveling my nin I've been dragged to mire at 67 with no brd or cor, I've been in "merit" parties from 71-72 where there's 1-2 75's and a bunch of crap, grouped with wars that use Amir body full time, imps at the place I can't think of the name of where you get to zone a soulflayer every 10 minutes, etc etc etc, and still I haven't had a party under 8k/hr since like 60.



To get under 8k/hr more than likely means you suck too, there's no reason 1 good dd and 2-3 trash dd's can't still kill shit in time for that much.



I can understand getting a freak occurrence where the people are so bad you're more likely to die than get exp because after 2 melee rounds nobody can even begin to pull it off you, but that's like a once a year thing.


I think people are either a. bitching about not getting 20k+/hr and exaggerating how bad it actually is, or just suck themselves too, as if a pt is even remotely competent one good DD can extremely easily carry them well above the 8k/hr mark.