DelveFollow

Your entire paragraph is pretty much a microcosm of life. As noted by others above, there is plenty to solo in the game, but part of playing an MMO is consenting to the inevitability of player politics and human drama. Even a group of "super good friends" will deal with drama here and there. It's hard to inoculate against "life" in an MMO.

Most of the content SE is indicating will gear you to prepare for future challenges can be done with a single party. So while it is true that finding a good linkshell really enhances this game (which has been true for a decade), ultimately it need not be more than an embracing social linkshell. A person can do a little linkshell shopping to find the one with a right fit or social vibe. Trial-and-error in social linkshell shopping is not very time-consuming, and someone could theoretically collect a host of pearls and switch into different ones every day.

Formal endgame shell shopping is admittedly a more time-consuming beast. If you find one that runs large-scale content in which you have an interest (e.g., Legion, Odin v2, etc.), make sure it has a LS rule set that is relatively impervious to "dumb luck" or abuse (this is relatively easy to do on my own server, Lakshmi). The reason why some LS's have probationary periods is to safeguard against the very abuses inherent in "linkshell shopping", i.e., that random guy who joined two days ago is all of a sudden outlotting a veteran member on that Duplus Grip that finally dropped after 250 Paramount Naraka kills (of course, any good rule set has to allow this possibility to happen eventually once the new guy has proven dedicated, otherwise no new members would join). It's also important to talk to long-term members and see how they like it. As in most endeavors, a little upfront research helps out in the long-run.

If you guys are making reference to NNI before the update then that's one thing. But they updated NNI so that complaint isn't really valid any longer. How many of you that are QQ'ing have actually invested more than 3 tags in it since the update occurred? Have you looked around Jeuno lately? There are NNI pieces everywhere. Do you think that all those people cheated to get their gear? My group certainly didn't cheat unless you consider Ventrilo cheating. Are they all members of "endgame linkshells"? Do those even exist anymore? I only have one linkshell and it's a social shell. My static formed out of those people. I'm not trying to make assumptions for everybody, but during my entire FFXI existence which encompasses about 4+ yrs and 2 different servers I've never had that much difficulty completing the content that I want to complete. I guess I get lucky all the time? I spent 3 months getting a B. Haidate back in the day. Because I wanted one. I worked for it. I wanted NNI gear. I got a group of competent players together and we PRACTICED until we could win. I understand that maybe not everyone can do that because of circumstances. That's life I guess. The event isn't as hard as you guys are making it out to be. If it was, you wouldn't see NNI gear everywhere you turn.

The bottom line is it is a challenging event that isn't PUG friendly but I guarantee that if the people in your PUG group are competent you have a decent shot at getting floor 80 wins. If you have a few competent ls members that you can static with you can probably get 80 wins regularly. The way you are describing makes it sound like it's unattainable gear, but if you look around you'll see that it is in fact quite attainable.

Edited, Apr 22nd 2013 3:24pm by ChaChaJaJa

Substantiated entirely by your non-sequitur. If you don't want ego, then come prepared with some logic or even something resembling it.



There is plenty of solo content in this game. Moreso than at any point in the history of it.



No, I don't. There are people I play with that have a grand total of 5 contacts on the game and they went from not playing for years to working on 90 weapons in a couple months. The different between them and this mythical group of underprivledged you cite to so frequently seems to be their lack of complaining and ability to make a small number of friends.



In reality, it's just the opposite. They are able to breeze through content with little help because now it is so easy. Then they can rush to get caught up to the new stuff. Most of the old content is obsolete with about 1-2 pieces of entire gear per job that may even be relevant.



I am but would like you to be realistic in wishing upon those of us who still play, the mindset of a silver platterist. You have the right to demand access to the same content because you pay the same fee. You do not have the right to get the same things immediately, with no effort, that others spent significant time investment on, although that time should scale decreasingly over time so that it is easier for you to catch up.

Please at least try to see things from the perspective of those of us who actually have been paying $12.95/month for a consistently long period of time. We are what keeps the gerbil wheel still turning after all, and out of any category of customers, are the most heavily invested in this game.

I'm more partial to making them realize they're not as important as they think they are. Losing friends to dumb game design choices plays a role, too. But yeah, let's just pretend I didn't play the game for nearly a decade or anything.

Well sh*t, the GTFO Card. So much for compromise~

Honorable mention for my intelligence being called into question for advocating RDM melee adjustments! Such a charming community we have here! :D

Edited, Apr 22nd 2013 6:33pm by Seriha

No one here made any such claim.

I'm just trying to understand how it always seems ti be fair weather for me on two different servers, in multiple linkshells and including several 1yr+ breaks... since 2003... Have you ever heard the phrase "you make your own luck"?

Realistically, FFXI is a decade old. This fact alone is what is driving the gaps between player prowess, not game design. You do realize that some of the people who quit are also the ones for whom there is no longer any challenging content right? They post on here too. And when SE tries to accommodate that portion of people who also pay $12.95/month, people like you whine about how everyone should have access to everything etc etc. Can't you see that this is literally an impossibility. You can't do both. SE's way of keeping up is to gradually nerf content over time so people who are new or returning can catch up faster, but they still have to provide content that pushes the people who don't need to play catch up. If you don't give them something to do they will quit too. Or find it elsewhere. I can't understand why this is so hard for you to comprehend. With the exception of a very few events which compromise about 0.05% of the game's content, FFXI is a pretty easy game whose content only requires that you and a handful of non-retarded friends can [A] read a wiki, and [B]... oh wait.. it literally doesn't require any more than that.



Edited, Apr 22nd 2013 7:41pm by ChaChaJaJa

The two objectives that are most time consuming in NNI are order lamps and "kill all" floors. They effectively nerfed the **** out of 50% of that. Before the Nerf it was damn near impossible to win without 2x SCH embrava. Now it can be beaten with a wide array of job combinations. Even out of the wins I've been a part of we've had multiple job combinations work. We could't touch it pre-nerf. Trust me, it was a hell of a nerf. Yes you still fight RNG for floor jumps, but it's really not like some mythical, unbeatable event. There's almost 0 challenge before 60+ unless you get a ****** lamp floor. I'm not trolling. It's really not as hard as you guys are making it out to be.

Hey, I have 4 wins in my last 6 tags and noone in my static cheats. We spend some gil on the event, but we don't cheat. And I wouldn't say we are the biggest badasses on our server. I really think you underestimate how substantial those level reductions are when you are fighting a timer to get your win.

Again, I don't call a slight reduction in mob levels to be nearly that high of a nerf. If the mobs in HQ Nyzul were higher level than we were to start with, that would be one thing, but they were already weak aside from the NMs.

I'm not saying that at all, I'm saying this: "With the exception of a very few events which compromise about 0.05% of the game's content, FFXI is a pretty easy game whose content only requires that you and a handful of non-retarded friends can [A] read a wiki, and [B]... oh wait.. it literally doesn't require any more than that." Because it's honestly true. Aside from the Gaxe and some NNI gear, nothing else I've gotten since I came back is out of reach to the most casual of players. What's hard about farming Empy gear? What's hard about farming Bayld? The devs have put a metric ****-ton of options into place for casual players.



It matters because its a 30 minute event. If I can kill any mob in the first 40 floors with a single weapon skill, the first 40 floors go by much faster than they did pre-nerf allowing plenty of extra time for the upper floors.

Read my edit/clarification above.

Beyond that we probably just have a fundamental disagreement. You can call me elitist and hardcore all you want, but if you saw how much of my playtime was dedicated to farming gear for new/returning players perhaps you'd change your tune. I just can't stand whining. At all. In any context. The fact that people whine about a damned video game is laughable to me.

You don't threaten my dynamic. You just think you do because you've made some assumptions about who I am and what I do with my playtime. Literally three days ago my linkshell ran a three hour event that farmed gear for 6 or 7 players who were newer and less geared than us. I didn't get a single item. They made multiple pieces of gear. We do this once or twice a week. But I'm an elitist with no empathy for my fellow players with less fortune than me. Give me a break...

Edited, Apr 22nd 2013 8:31pm by ChaChaJaJa

I'm completely shocked how quickly this thread degenerated into the argument: anyone who likes gear progression is an elitist. This has never before happened in the history of =10, particularly not from any of the posters in this thread.