Xylia's Guide to the "Call for Help" feature.Follow

Hello, people of Allakhazam!

After a very bored day at work, I was thinking of FFXI as usual. See, I work in retail, and in the evening shifts, it can get quite boring and slow... so anyways....

So often I see Call for Help being used in the not-so-quite right ways, and other things I observe people doing that I think could be improved upon, so I thought that I would offer some of my opinions, theories, and other such ramblings.

Its okay if you don't agree with me here, but these are some of my personal feelings about this wonderful little feature in the game.

Section 1: What is Call for Help?

Call for Help instantly releases you/your party/your alliance's claim on the mob you are fighting, allowing anyone in your immediate area to attack it. The penalty, however, is that all exp and drops from this mob are sacrificed. Call for Help also places a beacon on everyone's compass who is nearby so they can see the mob that is called for help, and the general direction in relation to them. A mob who has been called for help will have its name displayed in Gold font.

NOTE: "Call for Help" is oftentimes referred to as "CFH".

Section 2: How do I call for help?

There are a number of ways:

1). Menu -> Disengage -> Call for Help. This is the slowest way to call for help, requiring a lot of navigation through the menu.

2). The "/help" command. This is the fastest way to call for help. You can simply type /help and hit the enter key and you will call for help. I think /h might even work, but I am not sure of this as of yet, if anyone knows for sure please let me know, as that's even faster.

3). Macros. Please, Please don't use these. Same reason why I say that one shouldn't macro Warp in an XP party. It really really sucks to have Chain #4 and the 5th mob be at 5% health left, and suddenly you see:

Partymember calls for help!

On a mob that would have given you 300xp Chain#5.....

NOTE:

"But Xylia! I did the two above and it said: You may not perform that action at this time. or something like that!"

The reason is becuase you are probably a WHM, or a BRD, or something along those lines and haven't 'attacked' it yet. You cannot call for help, if you are in a Party or Alliance without first attacking the mob, by performing an action that would normally claim a mob: Ranged Attack, Attack, offensive spell, offensive job ability.

"Heeeey, Xylia. Problem. I tried to Call for Help on that slept mob, but it called for help on both!"

Yes, Call for Help will Call for Help on all mobs that you have "attacked" and are still claimed by you/your party.

Section 3: When should I call for help? Call for Help is usually used when you are fighting a mob that you know that you cannot handle, a mob that you know that you will probably die without assistance. However, with the fact that you lose all benefits from fighting this mob (no xp or drops), CFH is usually used sparingly. Here are some things to ask yourself:

1). What's the chances of me surviving against this mob? If you think you might be able to survive, mayhaps CFH isn't the best idea just yet. If you got the mob down to 5% and you still have half of your party, and/or your 2hrs, maybe its better you "go for it".

2). Can I zone it? Should I zone it? If you think you are capable of zoning/teleporting/escaping the mob, you might want to consider that option instead. However, if you think you can zone it, ask yourself if you should zone it. An example, would be a Soldier Crawler in CN. Please, Please don't zone that. In general, its very bad to zone linking (moreso aggressive!) mobs.

3). Is there anyone around who could assist me? Call for Help's primary function is to allow others to assist you by fighting your mob. However, if you are out in the middle of nowhere, with nobody around you, Call for Help is useless. If you cannot Escape, or Teleport and there are no other people around, you can try to kill the mob by throwing everything you have at it, or if it looks like you are going to die regardless, instruct your White Mage (or, later levels, RDM or BLM who have /whm sub) to do the following: Deodorize, Sneak, Invisible in that order, and RUN. If that's not possible, then you are just going to have to pray that one of your WHMs (and/or /whms) have Reraise up.

4). What do the rest of my party members think? The last thing you want, is an angry party... I've heard it all before: "Why the hell did you CFH that!? We coulda taken it!" My reply is usually: "Its better to CFH than to die needlessly." If a fight looks like its gonna go bad in a hurry, try to ask at least the party leader if they think you should Call for Help. If it starts looking really bad, and you don't get any responses, do it anyway. If a party kicks you for CFH'ing in a near-death situation, then that party leader sucks anyway. In a GOOD XP party, you should never be pushed to the line to the point you are using 2hrs and hanging on by a thread unless something like a link, or aggro happens.

Section 4: Okay, I (or someone else) called for help. Now what?. If there are people who are near you and if it looks like they are going to help you, your job is to do your best to keep yourselves alive, especially if your party members are getting fatigued, their mana pools are getting low, your tank is getting exhausted, its best to start playing defensively. Try to keep the thing off your mages, back off a little and let the fresh helpers gain hate while you try to rest back. Mages, if you can, tab through the people helping you, to make sure they are still good. What really sucks, is when someone not in your party dies on a mob your party CFH'd. It lowers their morale, and makes it a lot less likely they will help on a CFH'd mob in the future.

Section 5: Okay, someone ELSE called for Help. What should I do?. Well, it depends. If you are much higher level, and can solo the mobs, please. Just do it if you are able. If, however, the CFH'd mob rates Tough or higher, there are a few things to consider:

What is the mob? What does it con to our party? If it is a normal exp mob, and if your party can handle it, please jump in, if you are able to. More than likely, you are much more capable of handling it than they are.

How many people are currently fighting it? Are we needed? Sometimes, there's a CFH'd mob that already has 30 people attacking it. I doubt they need any More help. Or, if a mob only has two people left alive and it still has 80% or more health, and you don't think you can handle it, its probably not any sense in getting yourself killed. Just be around to res their Raisers if necessary, and provide whatever assistance you can. Remember: Curing them will give hate to you.

I hope this guide helps you in your journeys in the future!

--Xylia

Edited, Fri Aug 5 22:21:59 2005 by Xylia

SUSPENDED'D

Very good guide. Though, if you could somehow post this at the zone into Valkurm, it would do a lot more good^_~



Trolling posts like this are easily ignored, but...

You screwed up Yoshi's eyes!!! What the Hell is wrong with you!?!?

Worst LUEshi evar.

Anyways this topic is pointless, you don't need to make a guide for CFH. ._.

Yoshi looks like Barney...

Did CFH need a How To thread? This is seriously bad karma whoring.

Agree with all this KigerShinobi, well said.

To those trolling this thread, please don't.

Yes! It needs to be posted at the all the zone entrances to Valkrum Dunes. Yuhtunga Jungle, too.

I could have saved so many lives (and so much XP) if people had just used this feature instead of continuing to run and getting beat down at the last second by a mob whose name is purple to me...

If people don't know how to do it, a guide is useful.

I concur.

What did you expect though? She says she works in retail. It's not like they hire the brightest people in the world to work at Abercrombie. :P

"like...oh my god...I've folded like, at least 4 shirts today. Work is so hard. We should just like, make it so nobody has to have jobs anymore."


Edited, Sat Aug 6 13:41:01 2005 by Squeezy

I'll cry for someone who can't 'use' CFH properly by end-game

this is even more useful than OP words' IMO especially in respond of:

-.-d rate up sir



Edited, Sun Aug 7 03:55:05 2005 by VZX

well a very interesting guide to calling for help will print and keep for reference.

Edited, Sat Aug 6 15:58:59 2005 by goeon

Finally, someone who appreciates what Retail people have to go through.

When I mean Retail, I mean a small family-owned grocery store, because the job market in the town in which I live in is about dead....

At this retail place, we are forced to work 5, 6, 8 hour shifts standing on our feet with absolutely no chance to sit down, stuck behind a 2x3 foot square cubicle behind the register. This is very very painful on the feet and lower back, ask any podiatrist about the unhealthiness of standing in the same spot for hours on end.

Not only that, but we have to constantly deal with customers coming through our line, our boss runs the place with a skeleton crew. I have to endure evil looks and mouthiness from customers who are irritated by standing in line even though I'm working as fast as damned possible, and I have a lineup of 10, 15+ people. They are NOT happy, and they are all staring at me with these evil looks on their faces. Every time something scans at the wrong price, I get ******* at. Every time something isn't JUST right, I get ******* at. Every time we're out of stock of their favorite flavor, I get ******* at. Every time I have to ring the manager for change/refund/etc, I get ******* at.

I HATE people who assume that Retail is an easy job. It is NOT an easy job.

With that set aside, I wanna know what the hell a "Karma-*****" is. I took the time to type up a long post, a guide in the hopes that it would touch a few people here in Allakhazam, to educate them on some of the things that I see people doing wrong, or not doing at all. How many times have entire parties wiped to a mob they didn't CFH on, when my party was right there? How many times did someone zone a monster, causing massive link hell in CN instead of Calling for Help on the damn thing, and taking care of it right there and then? How many n00bs have died becuase they refused to call for help, when some high level was standing right beside him spamming "CFH" and "{Call for Help}"?

Obviously, a guide for the "Call For Help" feature -IS- needed, becuase I see so many people not using it right. I was aiming this guide at those of you who are still early level and learning the game, and maybe those of you who were powerlevelled into and past the jungles, who may not have had experiences with the Call for Help system. Just becuase YOU know it, doesn't mean EVERYONE does.

Its starting to get tiring when I take the time to post a carefully-written and thoughtful guide only to be met with hostility and people name-calling me.

Thanks, guys. What a nice way to show appreciation and gratitude. Not that I asked for such, but seeing people yelling at me and "Boo"ing me when I tried to help them is very damned disheartening.

I guess Friday Threads, and Flame Wars are all you people ever accept anymore.

[Edit: Sorry about the rant, but I just got back from a crappy 1:30-9PM closing shift. I had to work 3:30-9 with no break, the boss was in a bad mood, and I had so many brainless foodstamp idiots that couldn't figure out the fact that you cannot purchase non-food items with a FOODstamp card... *grumble* Yet even more BS we retail people have to put up with...]

--Xylia

Edited, Sat Aug 6 21:49:47 2005 by Xylia