Power Levelling?

[Doc Sark]

I'm new to the game. Started playing on Tuesday. Bascially I seen you all talking about Power Levelling and the pro's and con's on it in another thread. What is it? How do I know if I'm doing it?

I'm level 8 already and I'm partying with people of my own level, I'm yet to party with a WHM but that doesn't bother me. I know my party's limits monster wise I think but this power levelling you're going on about. Is it just levelling up without pursuing the story? Wouldn't that become incredibly dull?

[Rostum]

Power leveling refers to a higher level healing you while you fight tougher monsters. That way you don't have to rest, you can beat them, and you can keep killing them non-stop.

Bad thing about this, is that new players eventually lose all skill in their jobs and won't party without a power leveler. Very very bad thing. I don't mind PLing older players if they have a job they need to level from 7-10 though.

[TasteyPies]

Just about every MMORPG has this problem.

A little tidbit from Dark Age of Camelot

[Alliance:]Chris: "Woot! Level 50!"
[Alliance:]Smittyjoe: "Gratz"
[Alliance:]Skelly: "WOOT! GRATZ!"
[Alliance:]Norseman1143252: "cool can you pl me?"
Norseman1143252 sends, "Hey can oyu pl me/?"
[alliance:]rrkellyismyluvr: congrats dude!
Norseman1143252 sends, "Yuo ther? I pay gold!"
Sweetytoots sends, "Gratz on 50 can you pl me plz?"
Sweetytoots sends, "Realy I'm a girl you know you want my company"
Dangbaby sends, Hi looking for a group? I know I'm a bit of a lowbie but I can help."
Sweetytoots sends, "I'm not a guy thats trying to reap the benifits of playing a female charicter on a server full of lonely men you know"
[Guild:]Toli: Hey chris you doing anything after ML raid today? figured you might be able to help me level this artifact.

[Lionx]

Basically like omecle said, because you can mow through things at a lower level so fast, you dont get a real grasp for your job in all situations. Although one can never say low leveled monsters can represent the difficulties of the ones at the higher levels, the lower leveled ones are the building blocks for you to take the stronger ones so you dont become some idiot like i seen some people do..I doubt they are actually idiots irl but from what they do they should have learned 10 levels ago..basic things...if you cannot learn basic things then why would you do well at the higher levels where people dont power level you and things need more precision(that and if you #$@% up you get more whiplash)?

[Doc Sark]

Right ok. I understand now. Well I'm not doing that so that's good. It's handy to have a healer, but like you say, there's no point if it takes the challenge out of the game. I've died more times than i'd like and sometimes I wish there was someone healing me til the cows come home as it were, but I enjoy the game the way it is so far. I'm learning how and when to utilise my limited abilities to good effect and it's all good.

No power levelling for me. Thanks for the info tho guys.

[ff-fanatix]

Power levelling isnt always a bad thing......tho sometimes White mages just arent there....this brings a new challenge...tactical Redmage healing.....or...juts a /xxx.gif/xxx.gif/xxx.gif/xxx.gif load of down time......so PLing is good...but in moderation.....you've cleared the area once...and lvling a second job...fair does....

i would really suggest that no-one actually power level their main job class.....because thats the one you really use to evolve storyline and use to take part in everything......

but like has been said...you have ppl that play....and ppl that play the game.....

[Garland]

Powerlevelling is boring for the powerleveller, and it does delay one's learning a few points of one's job, but I think more often than not, it's just used as a scapegoat to explain the number of bad players. Bad players aren't created through powerlevelling. It's a natural state of being to them. If you're out in Dunes, and an AF clad whm stops by and tosses you cures, a few high level buffs, and destroys links and aggro, fear not - your playing skill will not diminish.

The thing about FFXI is that it's not rocket science. For the most part, you do the same thing over and over. Most jobs are formulaic - only varying by degree. From a black mage perspective (my job of choice), I don't believe I've ever bursted to anything but distortion. My job is like clockwork. Melee damage dealers can autoattack and wait for the skillchain (which will be distortion). Redmages and Bards have a fairly precise spell rotation that almost never varies. Whm's too, in between tossing cures as needed. People say that you're a noob if you haven't learned how to play your job by 30. I think that's being very generous.

FFXI is more about behind the scenes number crunching than skill. A monk in your party can't do much to be a better monk except for buying better gear. Powerlevelling has no bearing on one's gilraising capabilities, and thus, for the most part, has little bearing on the quality of the general population. If you're in a party, and you suspect that some players were powerlevelled because they play very poorly, check their gear. More often than not, you'll see the truth in their equipment box.

Powerlevelling isn't something to be encouraged though. Why? Because it's boring as heck for the powerleveller. Many times as a whm, and even now as a blm, I've found myself powerlevelling people. Maybe it's the friend who just lost a level and was awkwardly left naked when a set of new equipment was stripped away. Maybe I was just walking through Dunes and I see a party with a few more gobs than they wanted, and stick around to help out. Either way, it's boring.

It also breeds laziness. There's a growing trend (or can it even grow any further?) of solving every challenging mission or event by throwing a bunch of level 75's at it. Powerlevelling people makes people think they need to be powerlevelled. Now-a-days, some parties won't even form without a powerleveller. These same people do nothing for themselves later on in the game also. FFXI is meant to be played with groups of like levelled characters, and feeding a dependency on high level help from the beginning leads to a whole generation of characters that can't accomplish anything on their own. I'm only 59, and already, that "high level help" is more and more often by the level becoming me.

[Lionx]

Theres is no doubt that if we do reduce power leveling it does help the number of idiots out there. I also learned that PLDs being powerlvled cant hold hate :x

Certain jobs have more "skill" than others. RDMs juggling Refreshes, hastes, debuffs or anything else like that while main healing requires more on the player's performance. Melee damagers on the whole require on equipment more. However that doesnt mean a DRK or a SAM can just sit there and go AFK. There are deeper skills that every job can do and you dont really notice how you can push yourself to the most efficient(not only in gear) until you played the job itself.

Reason why equips doesnt always show how skilled they are? Some people buy gil and on some servers gil is cheap..i think 20bucks for a mil on some servers. Therefore HQHQHQHQHQHQ every slot..and they cant do jack...i seen some. -_-;

[strawberryman]

I dislike being powerleveled, as it takes away some of the challenge in battles, and in case of when i'm leveling WHM, unless the guy is completely incompetent, or a bit lower leveled, i'm usually left without any healing to do. x_x