"Chains of Promathia" info

[Cloud Tiamat]

I don't know why, but Pso'Xja reminds me of Ipsen's Castle from FF9.........

[Lone Dragon]

Ask and you shall receive. :0~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~ ~ ~

If you know, could you give us an example of a "potential effect"?
Is this the same as a "latent effect" or is this something different?


From the pictures, I think I see 4 turrets per ship...
4 gunners...one pilot...maybe an...engineer.......that makes 6....


New mob models, always good.
I wonder what the ant lions will look like?
Will we get the alternative hunting grounds we so desperately need?

[Karinya]

Originally posted by Lone Dragon
God knows we need a new Valkurm & Qufim.
Lets just hope we have less crabs to deal with.

See, the thing is, if there are other areas at that level but they don't have crabs, people will go where the crabs are. A lot of the areas that are popular are popular *because* they have crabs, mandies and crawlers, not despite it. (That, and a lot of people don't have the Altep crystal, which makes it a pain to go there even if there are mobs that are good for your level. We don't know yet how easy it will be to get to the Promathia areas.)

Valkurm isn't popular because the monsters there are better to level on. They aren't - crabs are actually a terrible leveling mob unless you have 3 BLM, they take forever to kill if they're decent level and cut down your chain. But people *think* they're a good leveling mob because you can fight 1-2 levels higher crab and usually not die (although it will take so long even 200 exp won't be good), and they notice time spent not fighting ("downtime") more than time spent fighting, while both count equally toward exp/hr and exp chains. Also Valkurm is popular because of its location (close to two starting cities) and because of a positive-feedback effect: more people LFP go where there are more parties, more parties form where there are more people LFP.

If you take 90 sec to kill a crab, and then 10 sec to pull the next one, that's 100 sec between kills. If you take 60 sec to kill a pugil, and then the puller goes out while mages rest 30 sec, that's 90 sec between kills - i.e. you are killing *faster* than on crabs, getting *more exp* (if they are the same level), and you have a better chance of getting chain #4 (or #5 if you were already getting #4). And the HP, VIT and defense difference between crabs and pugils of the same level is actually much bigger than 50%.

But try explaining that to a pickup party at level 15, half of them on their first job with no SJ. They just *know* that a 100 exp crab is better than a 80 exp fly that takes half as long to kill.

[MDenham]

Originally posted by Karinya

See, the thing is, if there are other areas at that level but they don't have crabs, people will go where the crabs are. A lot of the areas that are popular are popular *because* they have crabs, mandies and crawlers, not despite it. (That, and a lot of people don't have the Altep crystal, which makes it a pain to go there even if there are mobs that are good for your level. We don't know yet how easy it will be to get to the Promathia areas.)

Valkurm isn't popular because the monsters there are better to level on. They aren't - crabs are actually a terrible leveling mob unless you have 3 BLM, they take forever to kill if they're decent level and cut down your chain. But people *think* they're a good leveling mob because you can fight 1-2 levels higher crab and usually not die (although it will take so long even 200 exp won't be good), and they notice time spent not fighting ("downtime") more than time spent fighting, while both count equally toward exp/hr and exp chains. Also Valkurm is popular because of its location (close to two starting cities) and because of a positive-feedback effect: more people LFP go where there are more parties, more parties form where there are more people LFP.

If you take 90 sec to kill a crab, and then 10 sec to pull the next one, that's 100 sec between kills. If you take 60 sec to kill a pugil, and then the puller goes out while mages rest 30 sec, that's 90 sec between kills - i.e. you are killing *faster* than on crabs, getting *more exp* (if they are the same level), and you have a better chance of getting chain #4 (or #5 if you were already getting #4). And the HP, VIT and defense difference between crabs and pugils of the same level is actually much bigger than 50%.

But try explaining that to a pickup party at level 15, half of them on their first job with no SJ. They just *know* that a 100 exp crab is better than a 80 exp fly that takes half as long to kill.

Part of the reason people stick more to crabs (and Gobs) in Valkurm is because most people in their low to mid teens (for the first time, at least) are like "oh, look, we've been having no trouble with stuff that reads IT, let's take on a pugil" and immediately get pasted by Screwdriver. :dead: I know that happened to me. Took me a couple of levels before I was like "sure, what the hell, bring the pugils on".

Around 20 I soloed crabs in Valkurm as a monk, and did the same for a little while at 25/26 in Qufim before I gave up on monk for good. MNK/RDM works pretty well, all things considered, but it definitely isn't something people want to take the time to work with. (It's also useless for farming, pretty useless for soloing, and so I'm giving up on Monk entirely, or at least until I start working on Thief, Warrior, and Ninja.)

I'd still rather take a gob that gives 200exp and takes 50% longer to kill normally than a pugil that gives 140exp, just because the gobs can be forced to suicide, speeding things up just a bit. (And because the gobs tend to take damage from a lot more spells than the pugils do... I mean, christ, those things, along with crabs, have a hell of a lot of resistance to any elemental spells other than Fire and Aero, it seems... Anything that gives more bang for the MP is a good thing.)

Lastly, as a bit of a service to everyone who's hitting lv20 for the second time and hated Qufim the first time around... build your own party and hit Zi'tah, and go goblin and bat hunting, okay? Everything there is about the same level as in Qufim (well... at the low end, at least...), you can pick up more money for fighting there, and it's more likely to not be beastman-controlled (because of the nice work of all of those lv55+ people who head out there to kill harder stuff in places like Ro'Maeve and the Boyahda Tree), so you can farm crystals like crazy.:dead:

[Jonnyram]

Originally posted by MDenham
and it's more likely to not be beastman-controlled (because of the nice work of all of those lv55+ people who head out there to kill harder stuff in places like Ro'Maeve and the Boyahda Tree)

I dunno, there's a lot of deaths in Boyahda these days :sweat: Death Sickle, mandra links, over-zealous BSTs... Qufim's not that bad, really - it just tends to be a slaughterhouse when the skeletons pop.

[Disturbed]

that's prolly because lvling pts can kill the ghouls in valk =\

they think it carries over to qufim, and get the impression that they're invincible~; ;

i just say before we go out to lvl, to get to a safe spot before they pop or we'll get killed, and if they don't want to i'll run back to the cave myself and watch the pt disband one by one =\

[MDenham]

Originally posted by Jonnyram


I dunno, there's a lot of deaths in Boyahda these days :sweat: Death Sickle, mandra links, over-zealous BSTs... Qufim's not that bad, really - it just tends to be a slaughterhouse when the skeletons pop.

Qufim's a hellhole for a monk to find a party in, though, which is why I gave up on monk. (And when you'd rather spend time getting EXP than trying to get your pass to Kazham... well, it makes people question (1) your usefulness and (2) your sanity. I've just been of the opinion that the whole Elshimo area is good for two things: taking relatively high-level parties there (Tonberry hunting) and getting Leviathan.)

I think Li'Telor has been controlled by one nation or another on Alexander since I started playing, though (~9 weeks, so that's not saying a lot), and I just wanted to thank everyone who takes the time to keep the beastmen from taking THAT area over. It's nice to have an area where anyone from lv20 on up can be almost guaranteed of getting crystals...

[exile2k3]

You can usually find the general progression of NA players by what region is controlled by beastmen

[Xyphere]

Originally posted by exile2k3
You can usually find the general progression of NA players by what region is controlled by beastmen

Amen!

[Sheila]

since it no need Zilart expansion to new area:

maybe those towers in Beaucedine->new area movalopalos?

the hole in xarcabard near castle->new snowy area?

[Tripmastermonky]

Originally posted by Sheila
since it no need Zilart expansion to new area:

maybe those towers in Beaucedine->new area movalopalos?

the hole in xarcabard near castle->new snowy area?

I guess along those lines we won't be riding that ship in Norg any time soon....fucking pirates.

[Synbios]

Originally posted by exile2k3
You can usually find the general progression of NA players by what region is controlled by beastmen

I'd believe that King Behemoth is a bigger reason why Qufim is always under beastmen control.

[davidmmmm9]

Originally posted by Synbios
I'd believe that King Behemoth is a bigger reason why Qufim is always under beastmen control.

you'd believe wrong

[MonoxideChild]

Originally posted by davidmmmm9


you'd believe wrong

So true. The real reason why Qufim is under control is for these reasons.

-Most newbies that head there don't even know where to get signet at in Jeuno
-Newbies try and run like hell when it's night
-Newbies try and take on enemies they can't fight and get PWN3D
-Getting threw the tower isn't the easiest task
-The Gardens isn't the easiest place, especially if you are with a group of people that have no idea what's going on

The list can go on and on.

[tazirai]

Gonna sticky this since its a good place to find info on this expansion