The Grimy Bathtub

Well i’ve taken to leveling summoner lately, and liking it in a triple box.  Generally progress is excellent, although I did have to move from FoVs around high 40s to BLM camps.  Results have been good, and with a week off work i’ve made amazing progress.

I’ve started just before lv50 (48 I think) and finished up halfway to 58, with full AF and most of my gear.  I’m missing a few key pieces (SMN jse body for one) but otherwise in good shape. I’ve spent most of the time using physical bloodpacts (Megalith throw, Double Slap, Double Punch etc) to kill the pets, and recently moved to Meteorite which what what I hoped was the holy grail of SMN trioing and well, it is.  ~344 dmg x3 = ~1032 in one volley with much less cast time than an AM and survivability to boot.  It’s rare that i’ve seen it resist as well.

However at my level I have a serious problem; almost all BLM camps rely on stun/sleep combo a lot more than before.  Pets are getting seriously deadly – I tried the Bikini Bay camp recently only to get the whole army one-shotted by whirl claws.  This led me to go “oh shit, this is not going to be fun now” initally but after doing some math regarding EXP and such, I realized that i’m not in that much of a problem.

My source for this is Experience Points on the wiki and while I do say that Wiki Says a Lot of Things™, and in this case xp’s a little off in math but it’s close enough.

So.

1. I’m currently fighting Goblin’s Bats in Vunkerl Inlet (S) so my current mob is level 62-64. That means a 5-7 level gap for mobs. Party experience is 380-280 since my party level is 57.

2. I have Sigil on which has the Signet XP modifier for small groups, and i’m in a group of three. Signet share is 0.55, which makes EXP per member 209-154. This is below the EXP cap of 250 for the 51-60 range, so it’s allright. NOTE: I never got as low as 154, and this was in Sigil area, so there’s a possiblity of a more potent XP bonus, or the mob levels are wrong. Bollocks. I just looked at my log, I have a Chain #2 entry for 154 base xp.

3. However, next level gets my party level to 58, which brings the party experience to 330-240.  With the signet modifier of .55, that makes it 181.5-132. Ouch.

4. I’m using a ring for this level, and have two charges left. That means since i’m 6800 into level right now, and I am planning a You Are What You Eat run for 3000xp, and with the ring bonus that means two sessions of 6000xp, I can probably get 6000 into 58.  That’ll leave about 10400 xp, give or take.

Now, what brought me to think about all this is that I got whomped by a bunny.  Its level is 66-69, so a much larger gap at 57; 9-12 levels above! Party experience is now 580-480, the high end being well above cap.  This is a Signet area so .55 again, leading to 319-264.  Since i’m between 51-60, the exp cap is 250. Translation: I overthunted as a trio.  That sure explains my resist rates and damage taken now.

So when does it get good again? Well, after looking around at the earliest I was entering BLM camps, ~9ish levels is about my threshold.  So let’s look at what the bunnies would be then. Let’s say I go back at 59. 7-10, more resonable. That’s 530-380. Signet mod, that makes it 291.5-209. Only the strongest mobs will be above the threshold of 250 for that level, so it seems more resonable.  However, Whirl Claws is still killer.  At least Carby might survive long enough for a second volley, and resist rates should be a ton better.

So verdict? Well we’ll see.  At 60 I get Tier IV nukes, which might be the answer I need for damage output, but i’ll have to see what they can do.  However it’s still a magical blood pact so it comes with its own advantages and problems.  At 65 I get the two nice and powerful blood pacts Nether Blast and Eclipse Bite. I hope those two can carry me to 70, where I get a whole line of pretty amazing blood pacts.

At that point I hope xp gets a tad better, i’m hoping to get 76 (my licence to print gil) shortly after the cap is broken this summer. Wee!

That’s 536k EXP for those keeping count.

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Yeah.

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Right, forgot to mention that i’ve been doing daily boming runs for 371+271+180 EXP.  It’s not much but everything helps!