A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, I would party in Bibiki Bay, and I liked it. Amazingly high EXP chains off of mobs that tended to be soft and squishy. Our only real concerns were links and the occasional BLM fuck-up that resulted in an Eft or rabbit killing us because he was AoE'd.

Not everyone went to Bibiki Bay, and indeed, since it was a CoP area there were many alternatives people could choose. However, for someone like myself who was sick of Onzozo and disliked Sky, Bibiki Bay was a breath of fresh air.

All the "good" parties went to Bibiki Bay, because there were so many possible camps and so many possible mobs. If you ever got a non-Bibiki Bay party at that time it was typically because some tool in your party didn't have CoP. And the non-Bibiki Bay parties usually sucked. You'd get people who didn't know their jobs, didn't know how to move without aggro, and people who you knew were going to get you killed.

In short, Bibiki Bay was the place to party 65-70 (ish).

Then we were introduced to ToAU. In ToAU we got a whole lot of new ways to gain EXP.

For one, we had lots of intriguing new enemies like Marids, Puks, and Imps. For another, we got handy-dandy EXP bonuses when the Astral Candescense was in Al Zahbi. Additionally, we had great mods like food duration extensions and MP Refresh (the lengths of which were dependent on your Al Zahbi rank).

Finally, the ToAU areas were vast and filled with logically placed mobs. The further you move away from zones (or toward other zones), the harder the enemies became. But unlike other zones, the enemies raised fairly uniformly in difficulty. This took much of the guesswork over what a party can and cannot take out of the levelling experience. No more "target the flies, but avoid the pugs and gobs because they will kill us", now we know we can target almost anything around the mobs we know we can fight (there are exceptions, of course. If the Dark Rider spawns, you probably don't want your EXP party to try and take him down, for example.)

Soon, everyone and their dog was leveling their 55+ jobs in the ToAU areas. Staging Points made moving to your camps easier, and the EXP bonuses coupled with the squishiness of many mobs meant that you could gain mad, insane EXP. 10k/hour EXP was common and became the new standard everyone adhered to.

Unfortunately, many people still don't have the ToAU expansion pack. Others have it but haven't bothered to learn much about it. The result is that many people still insist on partying in older areas like Bibiki Bay. This, in and of itself, shouldn't be a problem.... But it is.

The reason it's a problem is that the chodes that didn't have CoP back when everyone went to Bibiki Bay are the same chodes who don't level in ToAU areas today. This means the same level of suckiness and idiocy you found outside of Bibiki Bay pre-ToAU can now be found, almost exclusively, inside of Bibiki Bay post-ToAU.

Since ToAU came out I've had a good dozen parties in Bibiki Bay. Every, single one has sucked. And I don't mean sucked as in it's only getting 6k and hour and can't compete with the EXP bonuses of ToAU areas... I mean sucked as in I've died countless times and the parties go dog-fucking-slow due to fuck-ups.

It seems post-ToAU only the most idiotic, stupid fuckers still party in Bibiki Bay. Idiot BLMs who over-nuke and wonder why the tank can't hold hate. Fucktard pullers who go AFK. People who target the wrong mobs for the party layout they have. And people who fight mobs too high or too low for their level. GAH.

Anyway, last night I was in a party in Bibiki Bay with Unst that was really the last straw. In 2 hours of play, I had gained 3.5k of EXP, died 4 times, and wasted 4 Sole Sushis and dozens of Ninjitsu tools.

Next time I level, I'm going to be one of the fucking assholes who refuse to party with idiots, and I'm going to stick the following in my /search comment:

{Bikiki Bay} {No thanks}