Serious question... Am I the only one that hates power leveling? It is to the point where I will "mysteriously dc" if we get a PL. I hate it that much for a few reasons:

1. As a whm mage, I take it personally. Am I not good enough of a healer? I know I have a lot to still learn, but really am I not good enough? This leads to point 2.

2. How will I learn about skills like conserving mp, or who to cure in what situation, if I have a PL doing 90% of the work? Example would be how far do I let a dd/mage fall in HP before I actually give a cure instead of a refresh? Why do mages cure other mages AFTER the battle? They have to rest to regain mana right? It takes a little time casting the cure for the mage that could be used for resting, on top of the mage getting cured will regain the hp anyways while resting. However, those are small ways of conserving mana and such that I do not learn if a PL is present. With a PL who cares about conserving MP!

3. Laziness. PL's make people lazy. If a tank loses hate due to a cure IV from the PL in the dunes, who cares? Why should the tank care, let alone, the backup tank. I actually think backup tanking is harder than tanking. However, if the backup tank/dd has a PL why should they ever voke? As a backup tank, I can just sit back and do nothing besides engaging and feel like I am doing my job, when in reality you are not. This goes along with point 2 also. How do I learn my job as a tank or backup tank or even DD sometimes if we have a PL?

4. Laziness part II. One beauty of the game is the equip and if you get behind, it shows. However, with a PL, who cares about equip. If the PL is doing 3/4 of the pt's work, why should I take the time to actually get equipped? I cannot believe how many gimped players their are due to their equipment. I know its not just PL's, but it does seem like there are a lot more on here than there was in retail because every party has a PL.

Am I making any sense? Feel free to call me stupid, but this is how I feel about PL's.

Fellow WHM here, hope I can give some good answers.

1. What do you define as "good enough"? A single, good WHM can keep the party going at a certain pace. With a PL, that pace can be higher. Of course, it depends on the rest of your party too - a PL may make up for players who kill so slowly that you have to spend a lot of MP each fight, or don't have a chance to rest. I take a PL more as a sign that the party wants to try to get the most out of everybody, rather than someone trying to do your job.

2/3. It sounds like you've already learned a lot in the parties you've had without PLs. Yes, a WHM who has a PL all the way through to 75 is not going to learn everything they should. That's a good argument against PLs in general, not just for WHM, as it isn't only the WHM that plays differently in those scenarios.

4. Regardless of PLing, there will be people with poor gear. In fact, those who rely solely on PLers to get them through fights suffer the most, as they are slowing down their experience significantly by not keeping their gear up to speed.

We've had a lot of threads on the topic already, and it always ends in one way: yeah, there are people who get carried, but most don't 'abuse' a PL's existence by always being lazy or skipping out on gear, and few people expect there to be a PL every time they party.

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People don't PL because they have bad gear, in fact the PL's character in party more often than not is very geared. People like PLs because it get's you EXP quicker, simple as that.

In my mind it's simple, if you don't want to party with a PL just leave parties that have one... no one forces anyone to party with a PL. The best solution for your WHM would be to set up a levelling static of 6 like minded individuals, that way you'd never have to worry about there being a PL again and you can learn everything that you want to.

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Raja btw

I’m almost to the point of mysteriously D/C’ing without a PL pre 40.

But for real, as a WHM it’ll eventually get hard enough to find a party that you’ll appreciate breezing through those early levels. Of the roughly 800k exp it takes to reach 75, 40% of it is in the last 10 levels. Suffice to say, you’ve got plenty of time. Take the easy XP, you’ll appreciate it on your 4th job.

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I am coming around to your viewpoint. I notice that I get bored after about an hour in a PL'ed party. It reduces my desire to come back to the game afterwards. This happens whether or not I am the one doing the PL'ing. I also get frustrated that I'm not playing my job as well as I could be if I weren't also playing the PL.

How the hell does someone take a party having outside healing so personally?

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this was funnier before everyone copied me

Generally - I dont see value in a non-PL pt pre level 40 or so. Most jobs dont play like their jobs until 30 and really in a lot of cases 40.
I'd rather spend my time getting to 40+.

Especially the dunes. Dunes with a PL is 12-20 in a short time.
Dunes w/o a PL is one blockhead away from a bunch of downtime

Edit: Granted most people im pting with pre-40 know the game and if they dont know a job will ask questions.

I PL myself because when there's 8 people seeking in my lvl range (almost always 10) you have to make less than desirable PT comp. DRK THF THF BRD BLM SMN doesn't work out too great...

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I PL myself because leveling RDM was work I'm getting benefits from now and because when I'm leveling THF on my alt (which I'm doing now) there are always 2 to 5 other THFs seeking in my range and Nasomi being a small server people will know I have an PL to offer...

Oh and also because I've never seen a WHM or RDM in the actual PT complain that I keep 4 people hasted while they do most of the healing work.

I don't think the point of this thread was to ask the intentions of why there are PL's, but to bring attention to the fact that healers want to enjoy the game too. The adverse effect of having a PL are main healers who are weaker for it. Ie. PL and WHM both cast Haste on the same person. I am not conserving MP and the other down side is I don't learn to cycle haste.

Thank you for bringing you PL to the party. For the most part, I have really appreciated it

I've just decided to play as if the PL is not there and eventually they cast less and I enjoy the party more.