First of all, let it be known that I am not targeting anyone in particular, and that I am trying to make a point through examples. That said this message will be lengthy. Nor am I condemning any actions of the players. The purpose of this message is to make a point, and to give a suggestion to alleviate the problem. I am not ordering anyone, and you may play how you wish, and I acknolwedge the fact that these problems are not always brought about due to being Powerleveled, but I'd like to at least bring this to light, and hear some others' opinions on the matter. In the end I'd like to have at least a civil discussion on the subject. At any rate...
So I don't know about you, but it's becoming increasingly more common to obtain a party in Valkurm and Qufim with a powerleveler. Sometimes there aren't, but it doesn't happen often. But what are we teaching people by doing this?
Some people claim that their helping parties will have no effects on people in the long run. Well not only is this preventing the would-be tanks from capping evasion/etc. skills, and causing the party to completely ignore the problem of hate control, but it is also:
1. Making it so players don't have to learn how to properly provoke. What happens? We have PLDs who don't know to provoke every 30 seconds and/or die due to the inability to block/evade attacks. It's quite hard to believe that after 30 levels, and probably 10 more soloing, a person can't grasp this concept unless they never *had* to.
2. Making it so WHMs (or whatever healer) can sit back and get a free ride, enhancing the ever-growing arrogance gene, and they fail to learn the harshest and most important rule of the healer: Curing draws hate. What happens? We have a WHM that spams cures because he saw the powerleveler do it, and dies because he drew too much hate and has no idea how it happened.
3. In the long run, making it so people never learn the party dynamics they should have learned in Valkurm and Qufim. Because you are holding the party's hand, they don't have to do anything, they can pull the wrong monsters, use the wrong abilities, and learn nothing about their job, but they still gain levels because you're keeping them alive. What happens? We have people over levels 30 and 40 (and sadly sometimes even beyond) who don't know how skillchain, magic burst, use certain job abilities, or even know how to search outside of their own area.
4. And perhaps most importantly, you are making it so parties come to expect a powerleveler. What happens? Parties are formed without a healer, and instead the leader starts asking high level WHMs and RDMs on the street to powerlevel the group.
I have witnessed point 4. I was in Qufim last night and after leaving a party that was of course being powerleveled (by no less than two people [same LS as the leader apparently]), I soon get into another. THF, THF, DRG, WAR, BLM, RNG. One of the members asks who's healing, and the leader says "I'm asking a whm to pl us." That WHM, whoever they were, declined, and the members slowly started to leave, and the leader got more and more infuriated as he'd invite more random people seeking in the range, none of which could heal, with the same intention of finding a powerleveler. I don't know if he ever found one, I left it myself soon after.
Now, I'm not going to be so arrogant as to tell you how to play the game. Instead, I want to make a suggestion. If you are going to powerlevel a party, allow them to do the majority of the work. You should only be there to lend a hand if things go sour. Let them provoke, let them heal, save them from a link or bad aggro, let *them* work together and run the party, but do not handhold them. If they do something wrong, do more than just save them, tell them what they did. That LS powerlevel team did this rather well, but the party I was in had no healer because of the presence of the PL. They let us do the tanking, skillchaining, etc. and would step in if the BRD and BLM/WHM couldn't keep up, but that was it. This was a good method. Though I'd rather if there was a healer in the the party itself.
It's ok to want to help a friend through the newbie areas. I know as much as the rest of you that it's no fun having to wait 3 hours to get one level there when it's not necessary. But if you don't let parties function on their own, the overall quality of players will deteriorate, I can guarantee it. This is a cooperative game, that, in which, almost everything is entirely dependant upon a party's ability to function together as a whole. This is not possible the members of the party never learned how to do this.
Though it's probable that they'll learn eventually, but I ask you, do you really want to have to teach a level 30 Warrior or Paladin how to provoke? Again this isn't all due to Powerlevelers, but I know at least some people are being affected.
And if you read through all this, I apologize for the waterfall of text. >_>
Edited, Sun Feb 13 22:20:39 2005 by seraphimhunter