It happens to everyone eventually. You’re going through one of those level-30 capped Promyvions when you get aggro from a powerful monster. After but furious fight you get decent exp and someone comments “Wow lol, that’s decent exp. Maybe we should party here!” and everyone else in the party immediately shouts “No no no NO FOR THE LOVE OF GOD!!!” and that’s usually the end of it.

You can see where this is going. It’s story time now. If you want to skip to the cost/benefit analysis, it’s at the bottom.

Well, someone in my linkshell said they were actually going to give the level capped expx thing a shot. An experience party in Promyvion-Holla. Thetruepandagod, kudos to him for being brave. As it turned out I was leveling my Ninja in Yhoator Jungle at the time. To everyone that’s ever tried to NIN tank mandragoras, yeah, it’s a fate worse than death. So the linkshell conversation went something like this…

{Thetruepandagod}: Okay! We’re doing this Promvyion – Holla party! Got mage, got a tank, need some DD.
{Erecia}: I want to come! I need to see if this is feasible for my guide. Is NIN/THF a good DD at 30?
{Someone in the LS}: no?
{Someone else}: Nope
{Yet another person}: lol no not at all
{Some jerk}: lol noob
{Erecia}: Meh…

Five minutes later…

{Theturepandagod}: 5/6 PARTY NEED A DD DON’T CARE WHAT JOB!!!!
{Erecia}: NIN/THF? ^_^
{Thetruepandagod}: Is that a good DD?
{Erecia}: No idea.
{Thetruepandagod}: Eh, whatever. Come. Get to Jeuno.

And thus began Phase 1 of this grand experiment. Party consisted of BRD/WHM, PLD/WAR, SMN/WHM, BLM/WHM, DRK/WAR, and some crazy NIN/THF. We fought our way up to the third floor of Promvyion – Holla and started to get to work on tough Wanderers and Weepers with the occasional IT Thinker and Seether.

After about ten minutes of chaining...

{Someone in my party}: Wow, this is pretty decent experience.
{Thetruepandagod}: 300 merit points, chain 1!!
{Someone on the LS}: Huh?!
{Someone else on LS}: Wow, who’s doing the most damage?
{Someone in my party}: Ere as a NIN/THF
{Thetruepandagod} <^> to all you naysayers!
{Erecia}: And a very special <^> to all of you that said NIN/THF was a bad melee!

Needless to say, I was rockin’ as a NIN/THF. Sneak attack Blade: Retsu did about 150 damage and paralyze, like 1/3 the mob’s life, and that was with me wearing mostly mostly evasion gear, though I did have a bard. When I pulled hate I had Utsusemi shadows up and enough evasion to not get a scratch on me. Usually about 80 exp per tough kill, chaining for about 100, and 200 exp for the much harder IT kills. Some people were getting considerably more but I’ll explain why in the analysis. Chaining the heck out of toughs seemed to be the way to go.



Phase 2: Tweaking the System

After something just over a half hour I had everyone envious of my abilities to the point where they wanted to mix up the jobs a bit. We returned as a WHM/BLM, MNK/WAR, BRD/NIN (puller and got sick of getting thwacked), WHM/BLM, DRK/THF, and two NIN/WARs (I had to switch to WAR sub to tank). Exp got a bit better. We got about 5k in a few hours.

… wait wait whoa hold the phone. 5k in a FEW HOURS, that's awful, you’re probably saying to yourself. Yeah… it is. But there are a number of reasons why. For one, exp parties in normal zones are mostly optimally outfitted for high exp. Our party was basically whoever we could bagger into going. Also we did take over an hour break to get to Jeuno, switch up jobs, get new gear, and fight our way to the top. We also had some AFK spells and some disconnections. And finally about 2k of that was fought without the WHM or MNK. Yeah, we had a BRD/NIN as main healer. In Promvyion.


Phase 3: Future Plans

Well that was only yesterday actually. We’re going to try again today with a bit better of gear and hopefully less AFK/disconnecting. I think we’re on the verge of cracking this wide open. You’re still shaking your head at me because of the bad experience, but you don’t know the facts. I’ll stop eluding and get to the real meat of what we discovered.


Statistics and Analysis
i.e., Is It Worth the Hassle?

Okay, my 5k in a few hours. Let’s say 2 hours of actual combat, but with some of that shorthanded, so let’s call it about 5k in 1.5 hours, or roughly 3.2k/hour. Awful, right? 

Things to consider:

1. I don’t know about YOUR parties, but I was getting less than that per hour in the “randomly formed” parties around level 30 anyway. I had one very good party that got me 15k in about 5 hours with mostly constant chaining, and that’s only 3k/hour. We had competent players, a good skillchain, the works. Exp at low level just isn’t very good compared with higher levels. Keep in mind how long some of those parties take to form and how dumb some people can be, leaving every 10 minutes, training zones, or just disconnecting. You’re not immune to every hassle in Promyvion but it’s too weird to do with anything but a close group anyway, so at least you don’t have to worry as much about really dumb people.
2. I didn’t have an exp band on. Used it on an awful jungle party earlier. So that’s more exp I could have gotten.
3. This is the big one: YOU GET DOUBLE MERITS IN LEVEL CAPPED ZONES! Or you get half exp, who knows. Point is, for every 100 exp I was getting, people in my party were getting 200, double that. 3.2k/hour suddenly becomes 6.4k/hour for people on merits. Add another 1k from an Empress Band and that’s 7.4k/hour for the first hour. Looking a bit more attractive now…
4. You don’t have to worry about level spread. At all. As long as you’re 30 or above you’re golden. I was 31, our BRD 37, PLD 54ish, and a DRK 75 on merits. All in the same party on whatever job they want to level. And if someone levels up in party it doesn’t change the exp you’re getting in the slightest.
5. Our setup was experimental. We can refine it and buy more effective gear. And a skillchain might be good.
6. Speaking of gear, having 30 cap gear is a hassle kind of, but it’s MUCH easier to get HQ everything at 30 than it is at 75, and the effects of +1 STR or something are more pronounced at low level. Those bonuses take you further, and that adds up to faster kills.
7. Should the worst happen, whatever level you are, you only lose exp as a level 30 player.
8. YOU'RE EXPING IN PROMVYION! No one does that! It has novelty factor! And pretty cool music.
   

There are, naturally, a few downsides.
 

1. You really have to go with friends. I wouldn’t trust half the people in this game to party with me on Qufim. I can only imagine the horrors of a pick-up party in Promyvion.
2. You’re isolated at the top of a level-capped dungeon. If you wipe there’s no WHM75 to come raise you all. Care must be taken and mistakes have larger impacts.
3. Teleporting is easy but climbing up to the 3^rd floor can take a bit of time if you’re really unlucky and get a few fake MRs
4. The most annoying one… you can’t cap your skills above level 30. If you level up you can’t begin working on your magic or weapon skill. Not that you’re likely to get more than one level behind.

The downsides make it sort of limited in who can do this sort of thing, but really, if you have the friends I’d say give it a go. It’s just too cool to be exping in such a bizarre place.


Okay, I’m Hooked. What’s a Good Party Setup?

• From our Phase 1 attempt we discovered a few things, but the most major one was that my NIN/THF was kicking butt. Monsters in Promyvion are weak to both blades and magic spells, but magic takes time to recover. Thus a melee-focused party can keep going much farther. No black mage? No problem.
  
• Because of the melee focus a BRD that can improve accuracy and attack power of basically everyone.
  
• You’ll want a WHM, not just a sub /WHM. Curaga and Shellra can only be cast by a full white mage. Weepers have a powerful magic AoE that will require both abilities.
  
• Any melee job that can sub THF probably should. Sneak attack weapon skills devastate.
  
• NINs are really wonderful. I had a blast both tanking and as a DD. With evasion gear they can tank pretty easily and use capped ninjuitsu to land buffs for no MP. Even so, bad luck happens with dodging so a backup tank with provoke will aid the NIN’s tanking considerably. Two NIN/WARs worked very well. PLD tanks with serious def gear can also be effective though they can’t debuff on the side.

So, at least for now, I’ll say the ideal setup is something like this…

WHM, BRD, NIN, backup tank, Melee DD, Melee DD.

In other words, our Phase 2 party. A shame about all the disconnecting. I’ll report back when I have more information on how this goes.


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