Greetings all,
I wanted to make a thread to ask some advice, given that most of my efforts to inquire about this in game have gone no where.
Outside of the game I tend to be a very busy person with several responsibilities. I am in graduate school, I work part time as an adviser at a second school, and I am also a volunteer for the environmental organization 350.org. Needless to say my schedule is hectic at best chaotic at worst.
I have very little time left over for when I play, which is why every time I seem to want to come back to FFXI I become utterly disappointed by the state of end game activities. In most games, you could just choose 1 class (job) to level and participate in end game when you can. Sure progress maybe slow, but its doable. In FFXI however, it seems like every time I return I run into the same issue: Job specific end game. In this game I always feel like a player needs to have multiple jobs leveled and geared in order to progress in end game. Allow me to explain, it seems that Skirmishes, Reforged BCNMs, and Delve have different job preferences / requirements. I currently have a 99 DRG and a 99 RDM. Those are the only two jobs I have had time to level and skill up / merit up to max. I could probably get by with them doing Skirmishes, maybe even Reforged if I got lucky, but I would likely run into a brick wall when it came to Delve where BRD, COR, and other jobs are much more preferred.
Certain jobs like WHM can get by the entire way, while other jobs (i.e., PUP) would have a much harder time getting into Delve groups that were not consisting primarily of friends / linkshell members.
With this said I wanted to ask,
Given that I have only DRG & RDM at 99, how should I proceed in terms of end game? I don't mind calling it quits on the end game front after Reforged armor, so long as I can get to that point id be satisfied. Heck, I don't think I've ever ONCE in the 12 years I've played FFXI — 6 months off 6 months on — been able to obtain top gear. It is usually because of the very same issue I described above. I just happen to not enjoy playing the jobs that are most useful for any given situation.
My second question is this, did the developers really make the game in such a way so that one needed to level multiple jobs to get by? Or is it the community that is focused on identifying the most optimal solution to the challenges and thus as a collective mentality certain jobs are limited or not encouraged for efficiency sake? Is this a player mentality issue or a game mechanics / development issue? Maybe both?
Lastly, I have two real life friends who just started playing, they wanted to know what jobs would be best to level for Skrimishes & Reforged BCNMS. I know the jobs they want to play are Ninja and Bard. Would these jobs be okay? I suggested BLM to them for end game but am unsure if this was a wise suggestion for anything beyond Skirmishes.
I appreciate any suggestions you all may have.
Thank you
Edited, Jul 24th 2014 12:25pm by Alazardragoonz