So today seemed like the perfect day to level my main, as i find it hard to devote too much time to lvling because of my very random daily schedules.
I recieved invites for two seperate parties at two different times.

THE FIRST PARTY: THE SUCCESS
->BLM (me)
->NIN
->SAM
->RDM
->SMN
->THF (RNG replaced)

This party selected aproppriate mobs in the boyhoda tree area, selceting VTs (note: i'll disscuse all these points later) Chaining these for cahins up to 8 and exp at 11k/hr kills were fast and rapid. I was able to MB on 2 SCs per mobs for 4x MBs (2 per SC) hitting a max dmg output of nearly 3000. Unfortanatly the party exp tanked at 60 and eventual disbanded after only 5k into 60. I was pleased with this party i hadn't been in such a great party in so long.

THE SECOND PARTY: THE HORROR
->BLM (me)
->WHM (SMN replaced)
->BRD
->NIN
->DRG
->SAM

The area that was decided on was a camp in the northeast of bibki bay. Mobs ranged from birs, to rabbits, and gobs. EXP hit in the upper 200's per mob, however chains rarely hit above 1. The NIN died on the first pull, and shortly after that the party showed its utter confussion. Now i'll explain.

Ok in the first party melees and mages sepperated, this is a common tactic to prevent mages from getting hit with powerful AOEs. Not only do AOEs hurt hp, but when inflicted on mages they hurt exp too. For intstance if a BLM gets hit with an AOE for 200 dmg, thats several cures the whm has to fork out, this is a great problem, since mp regenerates slowly. The second party had difficulty controling hate, and at certain point allowed the mob to dictate where it should be (Note: the mob always likes to sit ontop of mages). When the mob would move the melees would move to rather than pull it back to an are designated as the pit. (Jargon: Pits are areas where the grunt work gets done, in a pit melees engage a mob. They are called pits because mages are thought of as ranged attackers, the further they can be away from a mob the better.) Ok so if the pit moves around that causes the mages to scramble... this is bad infact its really bad. When mages have to move thats time they aren't doing there job, plus when you add a BRD to the mix there is always the possibility that the mages will split up this is very inefficient especially at 60 when the brd is expected to give the mages ballads. The next problem was an even bigger problem. camp was marked by the location of the mages not the tank. In a non-roving party the tank should almost always mark camp. No i understand some situations warent the tank to run out from camp but this should be a last resort. If the tank isn't set by the time the mob has gotten there thats a lost chain because the mages will be to concerned with heeling wounds. So as a tank you should always make a point of marking the pit, this also allows mages to recover more mp. How do they recover more mp? Well simple if they know where the mob is going to and they know the range of there spells they can engage later after say the next tick. ( I commonly count ticks while healing mp back because its often better for a blm to engage later with more mp than the oppisite situation. Whm don't seem to have this option) USE MACROS! i can't stress this any more. Macros were made for a reason please use them. I don't mean spamming "The light of god shall shine on my enemys" casting blind. nobody wants to see that it becomes party spam. But if you don't communicate you cause bigger problems. Melee NEED TO ALWAYS COMMUNICATE THERE NEEDS. with all the other filters on party information scrolls by too readily as it is. Even the best whm may not see all your status aligments. That tp counter is very valueable to a blm as well as melee, even if you sit in the same room as the other melee (much like gol and i do) the blm might not, for his benifit use it. it lets him set up the best spells to get the job done. It would not have been possible for me to set up 2x bursts with out a tp counter. it just doesn't work that way. Starters for skillchains are also great indicators too. Be consistant in your weapon skills, if your going to step up the skill cahin to a tier 2 let the mages know so they can prep. Being a good blm isn't about nuking... don't believe me go ask durcell. He's reguarded as one of the formost athorities on pheonix for blm. Not that hes anybetter than yours truly, but you don't need to tell me that ^^ i take pride in my skill as a skilled blm, and more than compitent, melee. I only ever saw one MB in my last party and it was with blind... Start chains consitantly to, nothing sucks more than cycling through your spells to find out you just cast the one you needed to MB with. There is no point in having a BLM if your not going to use there ability to MB. RDM enfeeble better, WHM cure better, and SMN have more MP... WE DO MB DMG >:-}
I ended up dieing and was so pissed off at there inconsistancy that i disbanded.

A thought on plvling...

More and more of the servers players get plvld at low lvls and complain when they don't. I understand the perks of plvling. Its fast and conveniant. I've been plvld too, but primarly at lvls 1-10 before you can get parties. The problem i see with this it doesn't force you to learn your jobs and the basics of the game. In fact if we look at it its a form of cheating. I give all of my raw talent as a blm to the fact that its almost never been plvld. After a few deaths from spamming spells you learn hey that sucks lets stop doing that. When your plvld you never learn that lesson. I also believe it gimps mage skill ups, my skills for blm are capped shortly after i gain a new lvl, it because its easyier to maintain higher skills, for a whm who's to primary roles are interrupted by plvls i.e. curing and enhancing. I believe some of the problems from this party might have stemed from too much plvling i do recall the one time the sam spoke all he said is i wish we had a plvler. Why? Past 50 it becomes too difficult to plvl parties, so you have to realise that not knowing your job by this point is going to hurt you bad. Please do research too, like allakazham said, good equipment doesn't make a bad plyer good, it makes a good plyer better! Its tru. You can't pray to get a lvl because you happened to go buy super +1 armor, if that what you like go play games like neverwinter nights that allow you to get items that make lvl 1 characters able to kill lvl 60 things.

Well hope this is a little advice good hunting!