I know a lot of people feel that bossing is the "only" viable way to play late-game, & I mostly agree. I do see a potential upcoming EXP change with some high level mobs which will help, & I do think this will help, but at a certain higher level it will inevitably revert to pure bossing.
Grinding can increase in EXP/minute as you get stronger as you kill mobs in less hits, however it doesn't increase at the same extent that a stationary boss would because as you get stronger it's a "waste" of DPS to be moving between mobs, while at a boss you can generally stand at one spot doing maximum DPS. As an example when I was at Skeles w/ a full party of 6 I got around 2.8m EXP/minute. When I moved onto LHC I got closer to 4.1m EXP/minute w/ a full party, & when I Tempest trained Pre-Tempest nerf at Level 160+ I got around 7m EXP/minute. This may seem high, & compared to 4.1m, however it's nothing compared to bossing & it doesn't scale. An LHC mob pre-Tempest nerf for example would always die in 1-hit from Tempest after 200 combo, so whether my character is Level 160 or Level 199 (current level) it's 7m EXP/minute. In bosses though the experience keeps getting higher as your character gets higher, so instead of the incentive being to only do bosses near your level, the incentive is to never grind & to do almost every boss every day.
Here's some numbers to show examples:
- Chaos Horntail gets me 50% EXP per run which is around 1,050,000,000 EXP, over a billion. A run is around an hour & 10 minutes (as I get higher level & others do too, runs will be even faster), so that is 21m EXP/minute. Now this one makes some sense as it's a high level boss with planning required, etc.
- Regular Zakum gets me 4.5% EXP per run which is 94,500,000 EXP, almost 100 million. A run is around 7 minutes, so I'm getting 13.5m EXP/minute at Zakum.
These numbers are with the "Level 190-209" bossing expedition bonus, so yes 170-189 will get less than that, but it still equates to a number greater than pre-nerf Tempest training, which was considered so good that it was taken out of the game. 160-169 I believe I got around equal experience bossing compared to Tempest training, depending on the boss. The buff on a bunch of mobs in Leafre, Ulu, LHC, Future Hene, & Twilight Perion will absolutely help, hopefully that will yield results closer to 12m+ EXP/minute for training, which unlike bosses, can be done indefinitely. It's still the case that even at Level 19x though it is more beneficial for me to fight Level 140 Bosses than it is for me to train on level 19x mobs at Twilight Perion (assuming I jump up to 12m exp/m or so at that area after the buff). It's not so much that the mobs don't give enough EXP, more-so that bossing keeps scaling, so once I hit 210~229 Zakum will give me more total EXP, may be less as a percentage of a level, but it'll be 17m EXP/m or even 20m EXP/m as it'll die in 4 minutes instead of 7 by then, & Chaos HT will probably go to 40m EXP/minute as the run time gets lower combined with the boss dying faster.
Some bosses I think it's not too relevant, Pink Bean/Empress are once a week so that won't become part of "the grind". It's just currently bosses seem to always be the best experience + the best way to make mesos (even if you get no drops, Spirit Points alone have value as you get Chaos & White Scroll from them). I don't have a specific suggestion right now, which is why I put this thread in general chat, just wondering what other people think/their suggestions. It just really feels that bossing is so good compared to grinding that I see people just log on & log back off because they can't find a party, & going to train is like 1/4 as good as bossing (Tempesting was maybe 1/3rd, maybe FMA Mages 1/2). Although this potential change to mobs may be enough, as anyone below 140 can go to the buffs Jr. Newties/Nest Golems, Petri's, Skeles still good, 140-160 LHC, 160-190 Henesys, 180+ Twilight, 200+ Stronghold.
Thoughts?
Grinding can increase in EXP/minute as you get stronger as you kill mobs in less hits, however it doesn't increase at the same extent that a stationary boss would because as you get stronger it's a "waste" of DPS to be moving between mobs, while at a boss you can generally stand at one spot doing maximum DPS. As an example when I was at Skeles w/ a full party of 6 I got around 2.8m EXP/minute. When I moved onto LHC I got closer to 4.1m EXP/minute w/ a full party, & when I Tempest trained Pre-Tempest nerf at Level 160+ I got around 7m EXP/minute. This may seem high, & compared to 4.1m, however it's nothing compared to bossing & it doesn't scale. An LHC mob pre-Tempest nerf for example would always die in 1-hit from Tempest after 200 combo, so whether my character is Level 160 or Level 199 (current level) it's 7m EXP/minute. In bosses though the experience keeps getting higher as your character gets higher, so instead of the incentive being to only do bosses near your level, the incentive is to never grind & to do almost every boss every day.
Here's some numbers to show examples:
- Chaos Horntail gets me 50% EXP per run which is around 1,050,000,000 EXP, over a billion. A run is around an hour & 10 minutes (as I get higher level & others do too, runs will be even faster), so that is 21m EXP/minute. Now this one makes some sense as it's a high level boss with planning required, etc.
- Regular Zakum gets me 4.5% EXP per run which is 94,500,000 EXP, almost 100 million. A run is around 7 minutes, so I'm getting 13.5m EXP/minute at Zakum.
These numbers are with the "Level 190-209" bossing expedition bonus, so yes 170-189 will get less than that, but it still equates to a number greater than pre-nerf Tempest training, which was considered so good that it was taken out of the game. 160-169 I believe I got around equal experience bossing compared to Tempest training, depending on the boss. The buff on a bunch of mobs in Leafre, Ulu, LHC, Future Hene, & Twilight Perion will absolutely help, hopefully that will yield results closer to 12m+ EXP/minute for training, which unlike bosses, can be done indefinitely. It's still the case that even at Level 19x though it is more beneficial for me to fight Level 140 Bosses than it is for me to train on level 19x mobs at Twilight Perion (assuming I jump up to 12m exp/m or so at that area after the buff). It's not so much that the mobs don't give enough EXP, more-so that bossing keeps scaling, so once I hit 210~229 Zakum will give me more total EXP, may be less as a percentage of a level, but it'll be 17m EXP/m or even 20m EXP/m as it'll die in 4 minutes instead of 7 by then, & Chaos HT will probably go to 40m EXP/minute as the run time gets lower combined with the boss dying faster.
Some bosses I think it's not too relevant, Pink Bean/Empress are once a week so that won't become part of "the grind". It's just currently bosses seem to always be the best experience + the best way to make mesos (even if you get no drops, Spirit Points alone have value as you get Chaos & White Scroll from them). I don't have a specific suggestion right now, which is why I put this thread in general chat, just wondering what other people think/their suggestions. It just really feels that bossing is so good compared to grinding that I see people just log on & log back off because they can't find a party, & going to train is like 1/4 as good as bossing (Tempesting was maybe 1/3rd, maybe FMA Mages 1/2). Although this potential change to mobs may be enough, as anyone below 140 can go to the buffs Jr. Newties/Nest Golems, Petri's, Skeles still good, 140-160 LHC, 160-190 Henesys, 180+ Twilight, 200+ Stronghold.
Thoughts?
