So which type are you really?

[Kohan]

To be brutaly honest, i think merit parties are dumb. Most jobs only need a couple things merited to be considered workable, if not entirely ready to go. And that is not hard to accomplish without a merit party.

Good merit parties can be pretty thrilling. I'd say you're missing out, to be honest. Now, I can count the amount of times I've been in a good merit PT on two hands, but at least I've experienced it. You're worried about elitists ruining your fun, but by saying everyone who merits seriously is an asshat, you're being an elitist in your own way -- you're saying they're all egotistical while you're the only one who's doing it right, which is pretty arrogant in of itself.

[WraithLakshmi]

I don't do merits because I enjoy it, i do it for the purpose of making my jobs better, and I enjoy it more when the merit points are coming in fast. I might just be spoiled from my ls merit parties, but if I'm getting below 20k/hr, I'm not having fun. I get bored. When I'm in a really strong group that's pushing 30k+, it's exciting to me because everyone is killing as fast as they can to keep the exp higher.

[Kerberoz]

To be brutaly honest, i think merit parties are dumb. Most jobs only need a couple things merited to be considered workable, if not entirely ready to go. And that is not hard to accomplish without a merit party.

If your only goal is to be "workable" then... yeah.

[Silenka]

For me, I don't forget that FFXI is a game and therefore supposed to be fun. If it's not fun, there's something wrong. I can deal with kind of slow xp as long as it's with friends, I don't mind doing 10-12k/hr with a group of friends because I'm still getting something out of it: time with them.

I don't seek for merits, if I want merits I either campaign or solo/duo on blm. I do have a few friends, however, who won't accept less than 20k/hr parties, and often ask me to brd for them, so I have been in the 20-30k/hr groups a bunch of times. Honestly, I love those, but I'm also not going to throw a fit if the xp is rolling in a little slower, as long as I'm enjoying my time in FFXI.

[Amastacia]

There are two kinds of merit parties.

1. The kind you do with friends to recap buffer and get a few merits. Usually in the high teens or low twenties for thousand XP/hr. Usually includes at least one relic or person who could've had a relic if they'd spent their money on that instead of utterly blinging out a half dozen jobs.

2. The rest, not to fall below 20k/hr at any point. Anything less is grounds for leaving posthaste. Time is money, meriting sucks, and if a party can't make 20k/hr, it's not worth being in, unless it falls into category 1.

In either case, a merit party should ideally be 3 melees, a BRD, a COR, and a RDM, although occasionally an argument can be made for a second BRD instead of a COR. Under no conditions except possibly extreme cases of category 1 above should a merit party have 1 or fewer BRD or COR.

[Cloudius]

I picked #1, but used to only merit with my LS or friends from other LSs, so it was fun too.

[Xajii]

being on Odin significantly lowers my expectations of xp/hr due to the fact that if you're anywhere long enough someone will camp on top of you, that's if you manage to get a free camp to begin with.

[Fogo]

There are two kinds of merit parties.

By this I hope and assume you just mean two kinds that YOU do, because heaven knows there are several other kinds of merit parties that exist. And the vast majority of meritters just get pick up groups and pray (myself included, I don't have very many friends that are enthusiastic about awesome meripos).

A party I got last night as an example. war (me), sam x2, brd, cor, rdm. Coulda been awesome, but the sams were kind of average, and we were stuck at overcrowded mamools, and only managed about 16k xp in an hour. Being on a crowded server, I kind of expect this, and I deal with it, because it's extremely rare to get anything better than that.

[ronin sparthos]

Meh as long as I have some fun and get a couple of merits out it its fine!

This.

Im not a big meritwhore and usually im either in campaign getting merits or just accumulating them over time from other random things.

Merit parties are generally boring to begin with for me so as long as i get a semi- interesting party i could care less. Its really hard to do under 2merits/hr anyways.

Im the type of person who will entertain an unorthodox camp so long as we're not constantly wiping (meleeburn wamouracampa was a funny instance) and we're chit-chatting.

I do enough grinding in FF, the last thing i need at times is one of those parties where your being bitched at by melee on BRD about messing up parses.

[Amastacia]

By this I hope and assume you just mean two kinds that YOU do, because heaven knows there are several other kinds of merit parties that exist. And the vast majority of meritters just get pick up groups and pray (myself included, I don't have very many friends that are enthusiastic about awesome meripos).

A party I got last night as an example. war (me), sam x2, brd, cor, rdm. Coulda been awesome, but the sams were kind of average, and we were stuck at overcrowded mamools, and only managed about 16k xp in an hour. Being on a crowded server, I kind of expect this, and I deal with it, because it's extremely rare to get anything better than that.

That's kind of a silly first paragraph.

Yes, there are other kinds of parties that exist, but they're generally clogging up the good camps and making it a giant hassle when you do have a 30-35k/hr party.

And you know what? Every time I see some shitty 8-10k/hr party at Mamool Ja Staging Point or Nyzul Colibris/Mamools, I die a little inside. There are about 10 billion camps in this game people can use to XP at, and it's a crying shame when the handful that are well-suited to good parties are chock full of jokers who'd get about the same results in a lot of other places.

Kind of an asshole thing to say, yeah. But I hate seeing half the mobs up at MMJSP south camp, because it's not enough to chain on with a decent party, and it's both rude and a hassle to run the crappy party (or parties) out.

I would hardly be arrogant enough to say that I'm better than everyone else, but the mouth-breathers that infest this game (though thankfully in fewer numbers than other MMORPGs like WoW) really are not high on my will-see list. I can't really bring myself to give two shits about their playing experience or advancement, because they're going to be mediocre at best no matter what, and they're getting in my way.

[Kohan]

HEY I'M ONE OF THOSE PEOPLE IN THOSE 8K PARTIES

You know, the amusing -- or perhaps depressing -- fact is that a lot of these people won't relocate to other zones. Whenever I'm in a slow party, and things are getting crowded, I usually try suggesting some other place to EXP (e.g., Bibiki Bay). It really isn't going to be much different than the 6K-8K an hour we're already getting (only one or no BRDs, usually), and we can't keep up with the other parties. So, why don't we go there?

They refuse. It's too much trouble, too far to travel, so on, so forth. And then they complain about the other PTs who are faster for obvious reasons, saying that they've stolen their camp, that they're all assholes, and so on, so forth.

So, hey, some of those slow-ass people do try to move out of the way... I guess the other players are the same as the stubborn grannies in the fast lane on a highway. You want to go five miles an hour over the speed limit? Go screw yourself, she wants to go fifteen miles under it, and she ain't goin' anywhere!

[Myrrh_Quetz]

I'm the "I've grown to hate most everyone so I solo"

[cdgreg]

Needs an option along the lines of:
I'd rather solo at a slower exp pace, than fight/overcamp other pts for merits