When Is Doing AFB To Much, To Much?

So, I did afb on my SMN from 48-75. Gimped my skill a bit but it's coming along now and having done 1-48 in parties and solo I learned a lot of the job (and whm job >.>). AFB'd BST a few levels as well.

Here's my question, what is everyones thoughts on people that are just simply overdoing it? AFBing every single job they have to 75 through SMN afb. Seen SAM afb'd from 10 to 75 too, was so sad. I can see afb a job that can be a pain to level like BST or one that doesn't get invites often like DRK but seriously, AFBing SAM or RNG ect. Hell even BLM is worth xping normally. Seen it afb'd and then the BLM wonders why thier BLM is crap with thier low *** skill and lack of experience doing the job being unable to solo anything worth a damn. Skill levels that challenge only a level 10 maybe 15 in regards to not only magics and combats but actual experience of job dynamics.

Primarily it's endgamers and lazy noobs that are just locked into it. Some I'm seeing now refuse to xp any other way now. They are ending up with some pretty pathetic job skillz as I see as well too. Hell, seen RNG afb'd to 75 and it never shot an arrow o.o

I know to each his own and more power to them and even I did it and would again but I feel there is just a point that it's overkill. Looking like a lot of cheaply earned maat's caps incoming with no skillz to back it up to be honest. Kind of defeats the purpose of maat's cap altogether doesn't it?

they maybe doing afb for maat cap only, and play 1~2 job they really like.

But yea, its a bit annoying to see shout "2hr cor {can i have it} reward 25k" everyday in bastok mine by random ppl while i feed & racing my chocobo for chocobuks.

I really depends. Some jobs just don't do anything endgame other than like 3 things. So, you aren't losing any skill. As for the actual skills, you can cap them in 2 beseiges. Personally, If I could I'd astral burn my 2nd account's whm to 75. It's only 57 atm since nobody wants a whm.

If endgamers want to do it then let them, I dont see the point but meh.

Lazy noobs on the other hand need to get their priorities sorted. Ok this isn't AFB but still related. Had a lazy noob join my ls and go 1-70 without leaving qufim island through level sync becasue he didnt want to farm for gear. Guess who's 0/8 on maat?

This is the point in which I get shot by AFB lovers lol...
And you'll have to forgive me, I am poor at wording things so it might take a little time to get my meaning across ^^;;

I've always been a huge fan of working for what you get, whether it's r/l or ingame. So to me, astral burn just kinda seems like Easymode since all you have to do is hit bloodpact and voila... you gained 30k exp.
There's many things you can't learn unless you learn from experience, so AFBing will gimp a lot of players who participate in that sense. (Note, that's a Some, not All ;) )

It's kinda sad that I love level sync in the sense that it's made it easier for people to get parties, but it opens up the way for things like AFB to be abused in the sense that it's the only way some people will level because doing it the way altana intended is too much like work.

If SE decided to patch AFB in the update, I think I'd probably be getting some popcorn to watch some people QQ over it and how it's 'ruining their game' to not have it available...

(I hope I made sense? X_x lol)

It's no different than the /BRD campaign exploit. I don't even see why it's discussed like it's any different.

I lol'd

I'm in one now getting my last painful levels of cor before meripo 65-73 so i did most of it the honest way and this is only my second time. I'm not a lazy noob, my first two 75s were 100% legit, nin and bard. Was rough and hard just wanted to clear up these hard levels for cor. if you use it like that, not a big deal. If you 1-75 all your jobs for epeen.. thats sad. its a matter of opinion.

it's already as nerfed as its going to be >.>. aoe's hit a maximum of 15 npcs, and the astral flow tricks been around way longer than level synch, when everyone and their mother started doing it. 30k experience points can be easily doubled and tripled even pulling enough mobs, and resorting to thundersparks after astral flows. ive gotten 10 merits and some change plenty of times personally, and it kinda erks my nuts hearing people talk ***about it, throw the rl card at it, etc.. sure there are plenty of ppl that you could call noobs, just lazily leveling jobs in which they will never end up playing properly, if even at all, but ffs. ill flow burn any opportunity i get pretty much, and im hella not a noob >.> shits basically stereotyping, and since when is that cool ?

some good points here, somewhere. Good, but hidden. anyways he's right, this has been around much longer, just the cat is getting out of the bag.

I personally don't really approve of it, or at least not for people who don't have a 70+ job yet. We're having problems enough with lazy n00bs already because they can easily get past Valkurm Dunes nowadays without help.

Back in the old days ..... bla bla bla, you get my point.

I can however understand it if you already have several jobs at 75, and want to get the rest for Maat's cap. But that's because you'll probably have most of the combat skills near cap by that time anyway.

Not sure if they'll ever fix it however, but they so easily could; for example:
- Transfer partial hate from Avatar to Caster if it dies (also if mob isn't "claimed")
- Limit maximum targets of Astral Flow (as is with BLM -ga spells I think)

The later seems a more reasonable sollution however if they want to fix it. As it still allows you to do a AFB, but it would cut down the exp to like what 10k / run. Which would be about the same as a pretty good party I'd guess.

I know people in my ls do it for decent reasons. As an HNMls who also tries to do some endgame events, we're very busy. We lose members, we gain, and sometimes not all the right jobs are on for what we need done. So when we can, we AFB some jobs (I say we as a linkshell. I've only AFB'd for merits, some DNC levels, and one or 2 subjobs) to have them at 75, keeping in mind that it is gimping our skill. When we do have free time, we would then skill up. Which is something we don't have to wait hours for (e.i. party invites, or searching for hours for that one job we need to be 6/6). As generally we don't have those hours.

But as far as new people go. It is pretty sad. It completely ruins the game, if you ask me. Sometimes I think about leveling another job just so I can go through the camps again.

It is a little different than the BRD campaign exlpoit. For that people would actually turn on bots and AFK. For this there is some work/loss. If you have 3 pullers it can take about an hour and a half to pull, assuming nothing goes wrong while doing so. The way we do it is the leechers pull, unless they're paying/tanking. Paying may still be a pretty lazy way, but they're still losing gil in return for those levels.

Whereas BRD campaign exploit, they would just get tags, turn bot on, and sing while AFK. Or hit the same button over and over again.

people pay for this?

some ppl flow burning or /brd exploiting are hardly the only things that are "ruining, or have ruined" the game. in this vet's opinion, they are/were bottom of the stack type problems even. its hard for be to believe that anyone talking ***about ab'ers, at least in the respect of making the game worse for everyone in general, has been around since the beginning >.>

This is no different. If players don't have the time to level a job or get a Maat's cap then that's too bad. These things are a reward for effort put in. You want the same benefits for far less effort. Endgame taking up all your time? Do less endgame. God forbid you have to choose between content so that other people might be able to do it.

and dont mistake me saying that to criticize you specifically aaralynn, im just generally saying. and it kind of goes all the more to my original point too.. people from all walks of life in ffxi flow burn, or camp the nms you hunt, craft the crap you make, or can/will rub you the wrong way in someway/shape/or form somewhere, somehow, sometime. sure some of the ppl out there are pieces of crap that should never of been allowed to even start an account, much less be allowed to breathe, but its not everyone >.>. i flow burn, i camp stuff sometimes, i craft crap occasionally. not everyone is a piece of crap nub doing stuff you disagree with and "ruining the game". the stereotyping is just as bad as saying every black dudes a gangbanger or some ***.

This.

I wouldn't mind people AFB their subs to 37, as that is a slow grind and teaches you very little about the game.

But AFBing a main job to 75 is bad, its bad for your and its bad for the people around you. As no matter what any one says, you learn how to play your job by playing those levels.

Maybe 1-2 AFB to help speed it up, but I would hate to play with some one in an event that has never touched their job. It wouldn't be too bad if they are a DD (as they would just suck) but imagine a WHM who couldn't status cure or a RDM that had never done a haste cycle....

I would also allow AFBing merits, as they are mindless and boring (if done right) and annoying (if done wrong).

I never claimed to be around since the beginning. I've only played since 2007.

And for completely new people, it is ruining the game for them. That's rushing through the game, as well as not learning how to play the job in a way that fits you. If you rush a new WHM through AFB and then plunk them down in the middle of something as easy as sky (or even, a mission that they need for sky), you're going to have problems. The WHM will have trouble keeping up, not pulling hate, managing MP, ect. Which is also a pain for the people they're in party with.

Not to mention I doubt they would have the proper gear for even something as simple as EXPing if they only wanted to get, say, 20 levels in an AFB. And I know, skill > gear. But again that brings us back to them not knowing how to play their job, so.

I don't know about you guys but for me my only 2 jobs to play anything at EVERYTHING is BST and RNG both at 75 already but I like AB parties for the simple fact I don't have take a whole week to lvl jobs from 14-37. I'm not sure if there are other ppl who has this problem but it actually pains me to play jobs like thf, sam, whm, and nin. Just so damn boring and I probably wouldnt had leveled thf, sam and nin if it wasn't for AB.

SOME people... i cant reiterate that enough <.<
one person might ab 1-75 and suck *** in the end no matter what job, another person might ab 1-75 and be your servers #1 player... and everything/anything in between. you ppl stereotyping are seriously sick... makes me wonder what other biases youd be inclined to <.<

No doubt, some people are better players that others, some pick things up quicker than others etc.

But simply less time playing the job = less player skill.

That will stand pretty much true no matter who they are.

For example, people who have leveled RDM could AFB a WHM from 37-75 and still be a good WHM.

Or some people that choose to read a lot about the game and understand the mechanics, they will do well on nearly any job they play.

But I stand by the fact that you aren't as good at the job unless you have played it, and AFB is designed to level jobs without playing the job.

If you are a retard (we can't deny there's a considerable amount of them) then AFB your jobs to 75 might lead to you not having much skills at your jobs. But seriously... I do not think any job in this game is really hard to play. Make some research, ask some friends, experiment a bit and you should have everything you need to be a skilled player. If the person suck I don't think you should blame AFB. I think laziness, short attention spawn and refusing to listen to other people tips are the real problems in not skilled FFXI players. Yes the more you play a job the more you learn but level sync party in Qufim for more than half your level won't make you better either. Killing the easy colibri past 55 won't make you that more experienced either. The game have reach a point where skills will more depend of which type of person you are, not the way you reached 75.

On an interesting note, I spoke to a GM on this issue when I first read about it to see if it was against TOS. Of course it wasn't and the only negative thing the GM did say is that it was extremely disruptive to the game. He did state that the GM's understood how hard it was to get XP at times in the game, which was a shocking a comment for me. As much as I believe the level sync system has helped to make partying easier, I also believe that FOV and Campaign have made less people open to dealing with a party or at least that has been the situation on Leviathan.

I do not forsee SE doing anything about AB Partys and I personally think they are neutral neither good or bad. Yes, people will abuse it as people abuse everything else in the world thats easy and others will stand on principle and have nothing to do with it. It is all in how you personally view your ingame life and time. I do however see more endgame players using this on Leviathan than newbies.

I have yet to meet one new skilled person who got to 75 using AFB. When I have time, I like to help people with all sorts of stuff. Primarily Genkai 2, since it normally doesn't take too much time. I've helped out many groups since before level sync and after. I've had quite a few groups be confused about what they're doing. When I try and teach them, they send me tells saying "Sorry, I still don't know what you're talking about. I leveled in SMN burn ^^;".

Yes, some will still take the time and try and figure out how to play. But then the very next day or hour, they're back into AFBing, and then next they know they need Genkai 3. And it amazed me that some of the mages I helped didn't even have the spells sneak or invis.

I've been nice to them. I've bought them some scrolls they've needed. I've crafted some things they've wanted. Tried to explain how to do the job they're on (if they ask), the best I can.

I still get tells from them every now and then, asking why this and why that. One of them recently got sky access and was kicked from the LS they got into for supposedly causing a wipe. Because as the WHM, she wasn't careful with hate (though to cause a wipe, it would have to be more than her fault, unless she was the only mage).

Those that do try to learn, good for them. But it would have been all that much easier learning if they had leveled in EXP. And maybe somewhere out there, there is one person who figured out their job right away. Props to them. But the majority of the ones I've met, don't have a clue.

peeps keep complaining about ABs ad peeps keep saying how they have no skill levels or know how play the job.Seems to me campain was causing those 2 issues long before ABing became popular. Thats certainly what peeps were complaining about before AB.. (wonders what the next big complaining issue will be)

yes lol

maj

theres something really wrong with your server then if thats true. theres probably 1 person to every 20 that truly suck with no foreseeable improvement on ours.. not everyone is A+, 10/10, 5 star leet, but the majority of ppl here on cait sith are just fine at least. im hard pressed believing the MAJORITY of ppl are the opposite of what im saying anywhere.

Maybe I just have bad luck finding the not so fortunate ones then. But I doubt that. As it's not just Gilga. I'm originally from Shiva. Until moving to Gilga with some friends and becoming as involved in end game as I am, all I did was help out new people. Between those 2 servers, there's not much of a difference in that area.

The ones who leveled mostly in Qufim at least still had sneak and invis. It was amusing. An AFB RDM didn't even know sneak and invis came as spells, until I started casting it on them. Then to see someone who leveled mostly in Qufim try and educate them about it, it was kinda cute.