Everyone says “the Dunes suck,” in reference to the n00bery that you have to put up with in experience point parties that can be found in Valkurm Dunes zone.

Too often in these parties, you get veteran players who have forgotten how lower level parties function, and blame everyone else around them when their actions cause an unfortunate outcome.  Likewise, you’ll often find new players, without so much as a single clue, who seem to think they know everything about the game.  It’s not an entirely rare circumstance to find a party with a majority of both kinds of players.

So, I managed to get into a Valkurm Dunes party this afternoon.  Ninja, Warrior, Dancer, Samurai, Black mage, White mage (me), all within a level of one another (11-12).  A balanced party, and no power leveler.

I like balanced parties, with players that know their ass from their elbow.  I like them even better without a power leveler.  These parties are rare, which is why I savor them.  Often I’ve found balanced parties with sensible players can outperform a party with a PL.  Most parties with a PLer, even with sensible players, devolve into a careless mob, often taking on monsters that are far too powerful for them.

Unfortunately, this was not one of those rare parties i delight in. Although it was balanced in terms of jobs, it was also balanced in that it had equal parts of sensible players,  and members deficient in the knowing-thine-ass-from-thine-elbow department.

Our Samurai, who was a VERY decent person, insisted on pulling with Provoke — from very nearly melee position.  This person would often come back with 50% of their HP gone.  For as good a personality as they were, I had to speak up and let them know (via /tell) that pulling with provoke isn’t ideal, and to please stop.

So I suggested the Warrior should pull using his bow and arrow, which he did — from melee range. He would not change his habits despite my [multiple] polite /tells saying things like “try you’re ranged attack from further away… So you don’t get hit.”

Between the Warrior and the Samurai, there where links galore, full party wipes because of said links, and plenty of down time as we had to stop to wait for MP.

The Black mage was a real piece of work.  This particular player is one of those folks you *know* has succeeded on the backs of others.  Rank 7, with much higher level jobs, yet playing like someone with a weeks worth of experience.  Each battle he fought was a chain nuke fest from full MP to zero MP.  Time and time again, he’d take hate, get beaten within an inch of his life, only to get his ass pulled out of the fire by some teamwork from myself and the Dancer.  All the while he was pointing out the weak way we all played our jobs.

This leaves myself, the Ninja, and the Dancer.  I won’t lump myself entirely in the sensible player pile.  While I did okay walking the hate line, I did save some players from getting KO’ed, and I did a as good a job of conserving MP as I could — I don’t believe I brought my A-game.

The Ninja was skilled player.  After a few wipes, the ninja took over took over pulling and did so without a single link, or other misstep.  In an excellent show of experienced play, they’d often put up shadows before heading out to pull, bring the prey back without losing a single shadow, and then be able to recast shadows once his 3 initial ones had gone.

The Dancer was a model of flexible play.  Able to back up heal, use TP for both well timed Weaspon Skills as well as Dancer abilities, and keep the party living through creative uses of hate management.  When he told me he had five jobs at level 75, I wasn’t terribly surprised.  The Dancer also ended up accepting the consequences of other party members mistakes.

In the end, the Dancer gave up, and brought one of his level 75 jobs to power level us.  Why he did this is beyond me, but his actions allowed me to take my White mage to level 14, and get a few levels of skill-ups for Divine Magic (which will be helpful with my Paladin).  I genuinely feel bad this player didn’t get to level his Dancer job.

The moral of this story?  The Dunes suck.