Debate on Legitimacy of Astralburning

[Day]

I'm sure this species is very disappointed.

You guys are right, I'm sure this is working as intended. Should be no worries about SE finding out or whatever.

[Neosutra]

Can Day get a personal "Im telling Mommy" title?

[Avarice]

Oh god. It's like talking to a 10year old.

You said "this has been around for 5 years."

Level sync has NOT been round for 5 years. This kind of exp scaling has NOT been around for years -- Only since Level sync has been implemented.

So basically, back in 2005/2006, if I managed to find three SMNs around the same level, and we had an outside source linking a bunch of mobs, and then we all Astral Flowed, we would not be doing that in which this thread is talking about? Awesome, good to know.

All level sync did was make it, Astralburning, a more common thing, it did not introduce the Astral Flowing technique.

[Guppy]

Concurring this. Also, what happened when they found out BLMs manaburned and didn't EXP in normal parties anymore?

They didn't change it, cause manaburns really aren't getting this kind of exp, BUT they did try to give BLMs incentives to be in parties.

I remember that SE discussed reducing the resist rate for magic bursts, was there anything else?

They spent a lot more time adding disincentives instead. They also added increasing resistance when rapidly nuking, increased penalty for -aga spells on multiple targets, cumulative stun/sleep resistance, and they nerfed the infinite-chain elemental camp in sea.

When ToAU came out, there were some BLM-friendly features on COR and SCH. But they added some mobs that were anti-BLM but great for melee (Greater Colibri, Imps), and some pro-manaburn (Puddings, Qiqirn RNGs), which just seemed to be designed to keep BLMs and melee parties as far apart as possible.

I kept seeing Minidragon's mules shouting in WG offering 30k to the first COR to reset 2hrs.

I needed COR reset for a Nyzul boss run one night, and offered 10k per attempt. After three failures, it seems Minidragon's offer (after reset only) was much smarter, I'll have to remember it.

[Airenn]

So basically, back in 2005/2006, if I managed to find three SMNs around the same level, and we had an outside source linking a bunch of mobs, and then we all Astral Flowed, we would not be doing that in which this thread is talking about? Awesome, good to know.

All level sync did was make it Astralburning a more common thing, it did not introduce the Astral Flowing technique.

Oh which you'd be doing it once and then be done!

Congrats, you did it once and now you can't do it again!

I am talking about this entire technique. Yes, if a 75 SMN could round up 150 mobs they could do it, too, but after lvl 20, it's pretty much not possible. (Without Sync)

So, at those low levels, you could do it once. And that's it. Edit: I should add that it's because you can overly do it now is why I am trying to show that it's possible for SE to take this into account. Then, it wasn't a big deal, now... it might be. I don't know, I'm not SE and neither are you -- And neither of us can predict the future/what they will do and that's what it boils down to.

I remember that SE discussed reducing the resist rate for magic bursts, was there anything else?

They spent a lot more time adding disincentives instead. They also added increasing resistance when rapidly nuking, increased penalty for -aga spells on multiple targets, cumulative stun/sleep resistance, and they nerfed the infinite-chain elemental camp in sea.

When ToAU came out, there were some BLM-friendly features on COR and SCH. But they added some mobs that were anti-BLM but great for melee (Greater Colibri, Imps), and some pro-manaburn (Puddings, Qiqirn RNGs), which just seemed to be designed to keep BLMs and melee parties as far apart as possible.

I could be wrong, but I think they implemented a lot of the BLM stuff a bit after TAU was released BECAUSE they realized what a gap they created.

[Avarice]

Oh which you'd be doing it once and then be done!

Congrats, you did it once and now you can't do it again!

I am talking about this entire technique. Yes, if a 75 SMN could round up 150 mobs they could do it, too, but after lvl 20, it's pretty much not possible. (Without Sync)

So, at those low levels, you could do it once. And that's it.

Oh golly me, waiting two hours back then to do it again would have been such an inconvenience!

So what if you couldn't do it all the way to 75 back then, it still existed. And to go further on this, you'd be doing it more than once. That is unless you could go from Lv10 to Lv25 in one sitting, which is nigh impossible without a chain of around 200+.

[Day]

Can Day get a personal "Im telling Mommy" title?

Oh cry me a river. You gonna be upset when they fix this like the salvage dupes so you can't take the easy road anymore??

[Riel]

Oh golly me, waiting two hours back then to do it again would have been such an inconvenience!

So what if you couldn't do it all the way to 75 back then, it still existed. And to go further on this, you'd be doing it more than once. That is unless you could go from Lv10 to Lv25 in one sitting, which is nigh impossible without a chain of around 200+.

find syncee (/sea all 13)
flow for chains above 150 in k.tunnel
use one of many COR mules you have or shout for COR in WG for gil
repeat

how is this not broken?

[Xaetica]

Why is it broken? Because SMNs finally have a way to merit in a manner comparable to a DD in Bhaflau?

[Airenn]

Why is it broken? Because SMNs finally have a way to merit in a manner comparable to a DD in Bhaflau?

That's just it, this is nowhere near comparable. 25-30k max for DDs and this is 40-50k.

I do this trick and I am still torn between wondering if it's "broken" or not or something that will be banned for or at least changed. I just don't know.

[Saivan]

Things get nerfed based on how mainstream they become typically, and typically very soon after being debated in threads like this... on this forum.

Ex-fuckin-actly.

They really aren't understanding so let me repeat it a few times.

Things get nerfed based on how mainstream they become.

and typically very soon after being debated in threads like this....

on this forum.

No one's bringing it up because of SE patching the Salvage dupe.

No one's bringing it up because of the recent bannings.

Fuck the dupe and fuck the bannings.

This is about SE nerfing something when players find something exceptionally easy.

If the shit catches on and spreads, either by too many people knowing about it or too many people USING it, SE tends to make changes and/or patch the shit.

5 pets max hi2u?!

STFU, keep it to yourselves, take it to PM/email/AIM/vent whathaveyou, but publicly talking about it on a forum that some dinky SE employee might read (and he likely will runtelldat really quick to one of his superiors to get some kudos and brownie points for snitchin on players when they are actually having FUN, since we all know SE is NOFUN4U) is nothing but suicide.

What was so wrong with having a BST or SMN mob pop endless pets??

It was within game mechanics.

Then SE changed those mechanics because they are asshats.

[Hapernack]

find syncee (/sea all 13)
flow for chains above 150 in k.tunnel
use one of many COR mules you have or shout for COR in WG for gil
repeat

how is this not broken?

For the exact same reason that KCDRK/Manaburning/MeleeburningHNMs/PW-strategy isn't considered "broken".

[Saivan]

For the exact same reason that KCDRK/Manaburning/MeleeburningHNMs/PW-strategy isn't considered "broken".

Albeit barely noticeable in most settings, SE added the "magic damage nerf" when spells/chiblast/spirits within etc. are cast on a mob within a short period of time.

SE Reduced souleater damage taken on AV.

SE made most Einherjar boss mobs resistant to Souleater to make players use other tactics.

Only one PW has been beaten, that we know of, and it isn't mainstream enough.

They let the playerbase have some freedom in other areas and allow different tactics on most mobs, but to even think that SE likes seeing 5 people and a level sync-ee get enough EXP to ding the syncee from 12 to 20+ in 3 shots of Astral Flow is preposterous.

I really dislike seeing things in this game nerfed, but this far into the game it has to be common sense to know to STFU when you find something awesome.

[arshesney]

It is nerfed already somewhat. If wounded mobs dont die within 4-5 secs they depop. and you lose tons of xp.
It is not free exp, takes a bit of coordination, and yes, it might be nerfed more. But... Ok, you're ending up with a 75 job with level 23ish skills. Good luck skilling up.
About the monopolization you might say the same about that lolibriburn party where the brds are keeping 4-5 colibris slept.

Also: nerf astral flow and no more m.kris or mannequin heads! And no more level cap 20 fights!

[Airenn]

It is nerfed already somewhat. If wounded mobs dont die within 4-5 secs they depop. and you lose tons of xp.
It is not free exp, takes a bit of coordination, and yes, it might be nerfed more. But... Ok, you're ending up with a 75 job with level 23ish skills. Good luck skilling up.
About the monopolization you might say the same about that lolibriburn party where the brds are keeping 4-5 colibris slept.

Also: nerf astral flow and no more m.kris or mannequin heads! And no more level cap 20 fights!

Not if they have hate on someone.

[Neosutra]

Oh cry me a river. You gonna be upset when they fix this like the salvage dupes so you can't take the easy road anymore??

Actually no, I enjoy normal xp, its why I lvl the jobs. Just your high and mighty 3rd grade hall monitor posts in every other thread are getting old.

[arshesney]

Concurring this. Also, what happened when they found out BLMs manaburned and didn't EXP in normal parties anymore?

What about nowdays? BLMs are FORCED to solo, because nobody will ever invite them in a standard party anymore.
They have released an entire (maybe two) expansion "against" BLMs (if you exclude a handful of mob families).
If you aren't levelling BRD/RDM/NIN/DRK/SAM/WAR/DRG you're gonna have a hard time looking for a party. If they ever gonna "nerf" smnburn they better find a way for other jobs to actually be able to xp the way they want and not rely on pets.

[evilpaul]

SE should ban people for arguing about stupid shit like this.

[drwaffles]

It's hardly an exploit, it doesn't involve anything outside of normal game mechanics. It just takes advantage of large numbers of low level mobs, Level Sync and the sheer power of multiple Astral Flows on a group of mobs. Do I think it will be nerfed? Yeah, probably. And you people talking about it on here are simply speeding up the process, well done.

[Keyln]

Orz...okay, where's my palm face jpg when I need it...

So, let me go over a few facts.

1) This "trick"/"exploit"/"creative use of a combination of game systems" has been around for quite a while. In fact, I remember reading about it a number of years ago with SMNs in Ghelsba gathering orcs and nuking them down. The only problem was that it could only be done at low levels, and once every two hours. The additions of Level Sync and COR 2hr has made it tonnes easier, but that doesn't change the fact that it's been here longer than CoP.

2) It's already well known. In Alla alone, there's at least three threads in two different forums dedicated just to this topic. So, trying to keep it "secret" is rather futile, as it's been out there for quite a while.

3) I seriously doubt that SE is going to do anything about this. Worst case scenario is they do something like nerf the XP above chain #10 or something.

Seriously, though, stop pretending like it's some sort of big "secret". It's not, and it's getting rather annoying to stop a discussion over it.