To Buffer or Not To Buffer?

[Dranzia]

Wanting to poll everyone that has a 75 job here, as my wife and I were discussing various things regarding lvl 75 players and their buffer xp.

Seems on our server (Garuda) that there are certain jobs that are more/less likely to delvl upon 1-3 deaths at any given time. At the top of this list would be BLMs and PLDs, while at the bottom seem to be RDM,WHM.

We discussed that this could be due to the availability of meripo's to RDM and WHM, but in truth that doesn't really matter (since you can decide to leave "Exp" mode and go into "Merit" mode).

So, on your 75 jobs, how much buffer do you have?

For my 5 jobs, only the most recent does not maintain a full buffer. It is NIN and currently sits at 20k/44k.

For my wife, both of her 75's have full buffers.

[MrMageo]

Re: To Buffer or Not To Buffer?

my rdm is always sitting around 10K just enough to allow for a few deaths (after filling out the majority of my merit tree campaign is now my major source of exp), my dnc is at about 671 into level and is going to stay that way since I can't get a meripo on it fo shit.

[Ameroth]

Re: To Buffer or Not To Buffer?

On my PLD, I try to keep a buffer of at least 5k. That will easily allow for me to die twice without any kind of raise, and possibly multiple times with some kind of raise before I de-level.

I feel most comfortable with any kind of buffer 5k+. I guess I could just grind out and cap exp, but that just seems like a waste of time for me when I can just hop into campaign for an hour and make up any lost exp from deaths and get back to my 5k buffer.

[Karinya]

Re: To Buffer or Not To Buffer?

I keep mine about 10k per job, in case I get into several things in a row without a chance to campaign and build it back up in between. I hardly ever join conventional merit parties though.

To the OP: if you really have 4 jobs at max exp and another at 20k, you could have had 10k buffers on all jobs and another *15* merits to spend on abilities that actually do something for you. The extra 30k per job of buffer doesn't. You only need enough buffer to not delevel and since campaign you can get more at almost any time.

[Rostum]

Re: To Buffer or Not To Buffer?

I try and cap my exp buffer on 75 jobs. I don't find it too hard to do, and it never drops below 40k these days so it's nice to have.

[TheGrandMom]

Re: To Buffer or Not To Buffer?

I prefer to have full buffers on my jobs but thats not something I can do. I didn't have time to exp so most of my buffers hang around 10k. I refuse to delvl, I won't come to events on a job that has a buffer that low.

[Ameroth]

Re: To Buffer or Not To Buffer?

I refuse to delvl, I won't come to events on a job that has a buffer that low.

This is the key here. Pick any number you want for a buffer; it doesn't matter. It's the people that show up to end-game events with a few hundred exp as a buffer that make problems. If you know you will be attending an end-game activity soon, get off your lazy ass and make an exp buffer for it.

[Feenicks]

Re: To Buffer or Not To Buffer?

I try to keep my BLM at a minimum of 5.5-6k, since I usually die at least twice in Dynamis, and this will still keep me in a comfortable(ish) form if I have to Reraise or accept Raise I on those occasions. If I only have a few thousand XP buffer, then I probably won't go, but the problem is getting XP at all as a BLM. Campaign is great but it does get boring/repetative after a while, especially on BLM since you don't have many ways to regenerate MP.

My WHM never seems to dip below 15k and I can get in a merit point party easily enough to replenish that. My SMN however is a different story. I have a 10k buffer on my SMN but that doesn't matter since I hardly ever go to events where I might die as a SMN, and if I did, the only occasion in which I would die would be a complete wipe, so XP buffers aren't really a big issue.

[TheGrandMom]

Re: To Buffer or Not To Buffer?

This is the key here. Pick any number you want for a buffer; it doesn't matter. It's the people that show up to end-game events with a few hundred exp as a buffer that make problems. If you know you will be attending an end-game activity soon, get off your lazy ass and make an exp buffer for it.

If I had the time to exp, I would. This rarely happens to me but when you attend an event one night with a 10k buffer and after its over your buffer is less than 1k......ya the next night I'm pretty much not coming on that job until I have the time to exp.

[Dranzia]

Re: To Buffer or Not To Buffer?

To the OP: if you really have 4 jobs at max exp and another at 20k, you could have had 10k buffers on all jobs and another *15* merits to spend on abilities that actually do something for you. The extra 30k per job of buffer doesn't. You only need enough buffer to not delevel and since campaign you can get more at almost any time.

Ah, indeed I *could* have had 15 merits. But, I never said I didn't have merits^^

Actually, of WHM, RDM, BST, BLU, and NIN, only BST is unmeritted (No, not fully. I can't stand meripo's THAT much...), with NIN shortly behind, since it just recently obtained 75.

Also I might add, Campaign didn't exist when I got the first 3 jobs to 75.

I have no issue with people having a 10k buffer; I do agree with what has been said by Ameroth and TGM. I'm actually just curious how many others get full buffers and how many don't. Thanks for all the replies, I look forward to reading more.

[Luna]

Re: To Buffer or Not To Buffer?

heh all of mine sit around 10k.......... I find the most deaths with my NIN or well used too till it was stolen

[Pteryx]

Re: To Buffer or Not To Buffer?

I tend to have about 12k in buffer on my RDM75, and want the same on my WHM75... but then, I'm also trying to stay even in merits with a friend, so having some open buffer space is desirable for me so I can swap to XP if I want to avoid earning merits. -- Pteryx

[Aksannyi]

Re: To Buffer or Not To Buffer?

I laugh at people who don't have buffers. You deserve to delevel if you're too lazy to get a buffer. Campaign for this purpose is not hard and there's no XP loss, if you're on a job that doesn't get a lot of merit invites.

I consistently keep both of my jobs at least 20k buffer. If I drop below, I switch to XP until I get about 5-10k or so. It's not hard. Yeah, I need merits, A LOT OF THEM, but I'm not going to delevel. Ever.

[Mog]

Re: To Buffer or Not To Buffer?

Simple answer to a simple question.

If you die a lot on you job, get a decent buffer. This includes any endgame activities: HNM's, limbus, sky, sea, etc.. However, if you only use a job to farm and help people out, having a buffer isn't as important because you have a much less chance of dying.

I know that I need a buffer on my black mage. I die way too much to count, and if I didn't get a buffer from doing sky farming, I would have deleved 10 times over.

[Kitalrez]

Re: To Buffer or Not To Buffer?

On SMN, I have a full buffer. I was thinking of doing the same thing on WHM when I finally get it to 75. If I show up to an endgame event, there's a pretty good chance I'm dying. If it's a dynamis, I want the win/gear more than I want the exp, so anyone who bitches to me about R1s gets slapped. If you're at a lan party with me, expect to hold an icepack between your legs for awhile, I'm probably walking over. Campaign exp is too easy not to do buffers now, and it makes sense to get buffers so you're not spending the entire rest of your week's free-time exping for that buffer back. If I can sock away 40k doing a campaign run one weekend for a ribbon, that's almost a month of me being able to do whatever I feel like doing instead of exping.

Seriously, though, if you didn't bother to buffer, you die on my event, and all your Relic +1 gear pops off? Yeah, I'm going to be mocking you for a good couple weeks... Doesn't really matter how many merits you have at that point, you're still naked and foolish.