Reaching the cap...

I'm not exactly sure what possessed me to do so, but I've been trying to cap out my xp over the last few days. While most people leave just a small xp buffer when they hit 75, I wanted to actually hit the real xp cap and fill out the bar. Part of this is because I don't really want to have to deal with leveling down again, but I also find it rather convenient to automatically gain points in whichever area I need most.

Let me elaborate on that.

Normally, once one hits 75 and talks to the Moogle next to Maat, he or she can now xp for "limit points" by switching over to "Limit Mode" over at the Mog House. Limit points and experience points are independent of one another, so when you xp, you get either experience points or limit points, depending on which mode you're on, but not both.

Consequently, when you die, you lose experience points, but not limit points. Thus, when you die because of say, an accident or something, if you are on limit mode, you will have to wait until you are done with whatever you are doing, go back to your Mog House, switch back to XP mode, and then go do something else just so you can get your buffer back.

However, if you have capped your experience points (as in, 43,999/44,000 xp) and leave yourself on "XP mode", the game will automatically switch you over to limit mode. In addition to that, should you die and lose xp, the game automatically switches you back to xp mode. Either way, I find the idea rather appealing.

Of course, the problem is actually having to xp all the way to 43,999 xp, but since I wasn't in any real rush to go get merit points, that didn't matter to me. ^^

To make things easier, there are these new xp rings that have just been released in the last patch.




In short, the Chariot Band gives you a greater experience bonus, but less total xp while the Empress Band gives you a smaller (but still very significant bonus), but more total xp. Because of the lenghty cooldown (16 hours), this is really nice for players who just can't devote their entire day to lfg and xp'ing, and these bands really fit a busy schedule quite nicely. Nowadays, with school and work, I only really get to play at night at which point the cooldown is over. While granted, 1k extra xp a night isn't much, it sure adds up over time. It's been almost two weeks since I got my Empress Band, which means I pretty much got a free 12k xp. Not too shabby!

The bands let you really see the insane numbers when it comes to xp'ing, especially on chains. I had a little bit of spare time earlier today, and so I went up to sky to solo off the Fire Elementals there, with an Empress Band (+50% xp). I was greeted with this:



I like. ^^

Anyway, I have also been partying with Sakurato and the insanity that is her crack-driven THF over the past few days. It sure took a while, but eventually after several parties in sky and the Uleguerand Range (we really ought to try the Lu'faise Meadows sometime), I finally capped my xp tonight in a party up in sky:



Not only that, but Akanea also dinged DRG74, too! ^^