Olorinus the Ludicrous wrote:
It's just ridiculous. The developers need to make the game more fun for 1-4 people. FUN and REWARDING. Not RNG hell like Neo-Nyzul. Not "we're locking this content behind multiple gates" like neo-salvage. Not "fetch quest horror" like pretty much all the adoulin faction crap. Not "sorry you need 4 superweapons or pay 30 million gil' like the rest of adoulin.
I understand you only really post now to talk about how much you dislike post Adoulin FFXI, but it seems like you're complaining about things they DID address.
Right now, Delve is the high end content, and the only thing that requires an Alliance. And yes, I see that it's a problem when people can't get into Delve as a DD unless they already have a decked out DD with Delve stuff (but to be fair, there are 20 DDs for every 1 support, so it's more a function of competing against your fellow players for those slots and it's justified to take the better geared ones to get wins on fights that are still quite challenging). So, it's often support job or bust to break through and get your Delve shinies, and even then sometimes people will only want high end support (see: shouts for 16/18 alliances lacking 2 BRDs with R/E instrument requirement).
Other than that, they've added stuff for you in Adoulin that's not just talking Coalition assignment fetch quests or beating on roots, all of which can be done by a party or less.
Skirmish is doable by any party, and has nice rewards. The Yorcia armor sets are excellent stuff, sometimes best-in-slot, and the pieces are rather easy to get from drops during the run or turning in Lebondopt Wings (which have a decent drop rate, and you get your own treasure pool). The weapons from Cirdas/Rala, when upgraded to +1 versions, rival decently upgraded Delve T4-T5 weapons. Choosing Bayld from a Noetic Ascencion gives you good amounts of Bayld in each Skirmish (5k an entry, so 30k if you're in a 6/6 party and everyone uses a KI).
What can you do with that Bayld? Buy some very respectable armor pieces from the 2 different sets for each of light DD/heavy DD/mage. Go into Wildskeeper Reives when the server fights one, where you can contribute regardless of having pimped out gear, and get rewards of some excellent armor and weapons. If you're unlucky with drops you even get a free selection of the item of your choice after winning all of the tier of WKRs (3 Tier 1s, 2 Tier 2s).
Is there non-Adoulin stuff that's still viable? Yep. NNI 100 clears aren't that hard now even without fully decked out players, and if you're struggling I'd think anyone can shoot for 5x 80F wins for an armor piece. I just did Meeble Burrows with some friends the other night and had a blast, fun little Assault-like tasks and some of the rewards are still quite good - either R/E stuff (personally, I was motivated by Letalis Mantle and Elanid Belt) or lots of sellables that are worth pretty good money. Salvage v2 is low-mannable, requiring a mere 3 people to enter and some assault points is hardly locking content behind multiple gates.