The tunnel....Follow

I'll say it first and gather up all the red arrows:

No. The more people that know about this, the less beneficial it is to everyone. Try talking to the Summoners on your server that seem to frequent Korrolooka Tunnel and see if they'll let you in on it. But most people that talk about this method of gaining exp. openly either 1) don't know how to do it, or 2) have never done it, only read about it.

Most groups get 30K in the span of two hours. It takes a precisioned, practiced, lucky group with the right buffs to break 50K. Most Summoners who exclusively level via this method are underskilled wastes of space who do nothing but clog Shikigami pops and Dynamis request lists.

blah blah blah, grump grump grump

Thank you for saying it. I saw someone in my Dynamis LS go from level 30 to level 65 in the span of 2-3 days, while I have leveled my SMN "the hard way" (harder than normal, even - I've duoed the whole way with my best friend, another SMN) over months, trying to get it high enough for Dynamis. Thankfully, he stopped at 65.

If you're already level 75 and you do this to merit, I really don't care. But someone using it to level their job just makes me mad.

Before I went on break if I knew someone was using astral burns to level I would not let them go that job to dynamis and I would let the other leaders know they are probably not going to be any use to us to have someone that cannot take the time to exp normally, I mean if they cant take time to exp normally they probably wont have patients to wait on af.

I am probably one of the few that look down on smns doing this, most of the people I do know are indifferent but a couple smn friends of mine think that these are giving a bad name to smns. I really only mind smn that arnt already 75 and have done the real smn burns. I really hate the SMN that call these smn burns when they ask me to leave a party because I am level 10. The other thing is when I am in Bastok at my HP on cor I get maybe 4 tells a night asking for a 2 hr, every time I tell them I will only try to reset for them for 250k up front, needless to say I get bitched at for being at my MH on cor not being willing to waste my 2hr on them.

Another situation I have encountered was a RDM, who was taking a fair amount of dmg, puller for an astral burn threatening to gm me when I was on pld/rdm diagaing leeches (before he got to agroing) for my blu friend to learn mp drainkiss. I could have diagaed all the unclaimed mobs b/c technically they arent claimed so they are fair game... It is just like when an NM like charby or xolotl goes unclaimed it is fair game for anyone around.

By the way you WILL be gimp after these b/c summoning skill does matter and that will make you low on that skill unless you have time to waste sitting just summoning to cap.

Bah gotta love how if something is going good, everyone has to keep it to themselves and not let others in on the fun. I'll go out on a limb here... here is EXACTLY how smn burns are done.

First off you need a puller, preferably high lvl RDM, or a high lvl PLD or WHM (being that they have their own enhancing magic) If PLD or WHM, they need RDM as sub... for one spell and one spell only, phalanx. BLU main wont cut it, it would get ripped apart by 100 mobs beating on him. A 75 RDM lasts for about 30 seconds without phalanx up before taking a dirt nap. It should be obvious how to pull and link the mobs, but the RDM should kill off the mobs that he attacked, being the smns won't make any exp off of it, since a lvl 75 claimed it.

Ok now for holding hate... as the rdm is going down the tunnel gathering up mobs, have the rdm spam a few bar- spells from time to time to keep the mobs interested in him. Its another good bet to have the rdm stop from time to time to let the mobs that had lagged behind catch up a bit. Also be sure to recast phalanx BEFORE it drops, or the rdm might find himself quickly dead... composure is awesome for this since phalanx lasts 9 minutes then. When the rdm reaches where the smns are he MUST /heal. Doing this puts direct hate from the mobs onto the rdm. If the rdm does not /heal, the mobs will lose interest on the rdm on the first diamond dust and depop. /heal again after a few seconds and try to get up. Most likely the rdm will lag horribly and be stuck resting for a bit. Its usually a good idea to recast phalanx right before you /heal to give you a 9 minute window to get back up. If stuck just keep pressing the up (move forward) button until the rdm gets up. At this point, start spamming bar- spells again to build up hate. After a minute or so, you're ready to go.

If you're wanting more mobs and thus more exp, it's always a good idea to have 2 pullers. One rdm will be the main tank and the other is a backup. The two go on seperate pulling runs, one on the bottom floor of the tunnel, the other the top. When they meet up, both will have their own mobs attacking them. Here is how to transfer the hate to the main tank. Have the main tank cast something on the other puller, haste, etc. Have the tank cast phalanx and /heal. After a resting tick or two the mobs will turn and all of them will attack the main tank. The secondary puller can now either go pull more mobs, or go job change if they're going to participate in the smn burn.

Now for the actual burn. The smns (at least 3) sync to lvl 12ish, summon shiva and 2hr. You must summon and 2hr FAR away from the mobs in case you could pull hate. After astral flow, run up diamond dust, then run back, pop a hi-ether or a mp drink and rest. While the burn is going on, have the rdm spam a few more bar- spells. If needed the rdm can throw out active cures such as /ma "Cure II" (instert smn name here). About 90% of the time, I have found that spamming bar spells during the actual killing is more than enough to keep the mobs interested in the rdm and not going after the smns. Rinse and repeat a few more diamond dusts and watch the 30k plus exp roll in. Enjoy. :)

While I have done 37-75 in the tunnel (along with countless merit points), I have also spent a lot of time SOLOING on SMN on robber crabs, lesser colibries, and doing every besiged whenever possible when not in the tunnel. It takes 2 or 3 pullers that know how to pull the zone and 3 summoners that know how to execute the run to get the 40k+ xp per pull.

BTW, I have 5 other level 70+ jobs that I leveled the HARD way without going into the tunnel at all.

Edit: I don't hang around the tunnel much anymore, my new favorite AB zone is Yuh. Jungle b/c there is a camp with zero dangerous mobs to account for and the target mobs are near camp - not to mention FoV page 5 and the field manual itself is nearby. Should you die while AF is still up, you always have Thunderspark to fall back on - because this zone requires a level sync between level 20-24. The best part of this zone: we usually have zero competition.

Edited, Oct 13th 2009 9:33pm by etnapwnzs