How to Succeed in FFXIFollow

{Huh!?}

There's been no shortage of threads on this topic, but with the influx of new players expressing concern about the difficulties of getting through some of the missions and quests in the game (ie. Nation rank missions/limit break quests), I thought I'd offer some tips on how to bypass a lot of the headaches associated with these tasks. How specifically to be successful in each different kind of mission is beyond the scope of this thread; this is just a general guideline on what you can do to have the people available to get you through what you need to do.

Overview

FFXI was designed from the ground up to virtually require group cooperation in order to succeed in the majority of advanced missions and quests in the game. Whether you're attempting to do a 6 person BCNM fight vs. the Dragon for your nation's rank 3 mission or assembling to take on Bahamut to advance on to Apocalypse Nigh, doing your homework and knowing what to expect in the fight does you no good unless you have the people to enter the fight with you.

I'm not going to lecture people on how to behave so they don't drive away potential friends/allies. My sense is that everyone who plays FFXI has made it through kindergarten, and whether they choose to play nice or not will not be influenced by this thread so I won't bother.

People are Busy

One of the biggest fruatrations I see are from people who log on to FFXI, decide they want to do a quest/mission that requires 6+ people, and expect to be able to simply ask their LS and be on their way in half an hour.

When I log in to FFXI, I almost always have certain things that I want to do, be it level a job, craft, or do quests/missions of my own. Having someone ask me with no notice to join them on a 2-3+ hour jaunt through Vana'diel almost always represents an inconvenience. If that same person were to show up and say, "Hey, I want to do such-and-such mission/quest; if I schedule a time in the next week or so, who would be willing to come out and help?" I'd be in a much better position to lend a hand.

Not All Shells Are Good Shells

Let's say you've tried to schedule an event with lots of advance notice, and every time you bring it up in your shell all conversation stops for several minutes while people try and pretend they aren't there. That generally means it's time to find a new group of people to associate with if you want to accomplish anything in the game. A good linkshell is a self-supporting community, where the majority of people in it know that everyone has objectives in-game, and the best way to keep everyone happy is to keep everyone progressing.

In general, the best way to find a good shell is to be sociable in your exp parties. Chat about missions you're on and see what people say. Chances are, it won't take long for you to find someone who will talk about how they have a great shell and they do missions and quests all the time. Don't ask that person for help with your quest/mission now; ask them if their shell is accepting new members. If you're lucky, you'll have a shiny new pearl in short order.

One of the best ways to alienate yourself from a new LS is to show up and start asking for help before you've even gotten to know anyone. Be patient; it takes time to build relationships, and believe me: you're better off investing a week or two in a new shell just doing your own thing and helping them out where you can so that they can get to know you before you start grinding them to assist you. A new person in a shell is usually no different to the older members in that shell than someone shouting in Jeuno. Give it time.

Statics Are Your Friend

Some of the more challenging quests and missions in the game become almost impossible when you try and jam together a pickup group and get everyone working on the same page. CoP is a fantastic example of this; when it comes to pickup groups, you never know what you'll end up with. Forming and contributing to a static group promotes accountability and cooperation. A lot of people look at pickup groups as disposable parties; it doesn't really matter how they behave, because odds are they won't be joining that same group of people again for a long time. That's where you get attitudes, tension, and ultimately, failure more than success.

An LS is a great place to find a static, but sometimes people in your LS are scattered in terms of where they are in a given mission series. Sometimes it's necessary to seek outside of your shell for people to fill out a party. The more people you can have showing up to each component of a quest/mission series, the better you'll start to function as a team. If you invite an outside person to your group who gives you trouble, don't invite them back. If you're patient and dilligent, you can assemble a group of people that will work with you to schedule future events, show up more-or-less on time, and develop that synnergy that makes tough missions a lot more pleasurable.

Be Flexible

Everyone will have ideas as to how best to approach a given challenge. If you aren't absolutely, 100% positive that your idea is the best idea, make sure you're willing to listen to what other people have to suggest. If their idea doesn't work, at least you tried. There's nothing worse than rigidly expecting people to do things your way, especially when your way winds up not working. If you give people a voice and a say, they're a lot less likely to resent you for wasting their time. Frequently, there are a number of different strategies that can work in a given situation, and finding the one that is best suited to your particular group often involves letting people exercise their strengths, even if guide X says to do something differently.

Be Organized

If you've asked people to help you with a time consuming or potentially challenging mission, making them wait around while you prepare or not doing your homework around what the mission involves is a bit like a slap in the face. If you're reading this thread, you have all of the information you need for most quests/missions at your fingertips. Use that information. A quest/mission party/alliance leader ought not ever show up to an event not knowing what it involves. Unless you're one of the brave and the few who are the first to tackle a new mission as it's released in an update, there's no point reinventing the wheel if most of the people in your group just want to get the mission done.

If your party is content to experiment and explore, being flexible becomes even more important. The group should be able to discuss a plan of action and collaborate with one another with the understanding that there's almost never any guarantee of success.

Be Accountable

Nobody likes a mooch or a leech. If you can't come up with the requisite items (ie. meds) to do a mission, don't agree to go along until you can. If your death buffer is sagging and it makes you nervous because deleveling will cause you to lose access to one of your favorite pieces of gear, don't agree to move forward with a mission series until you've given yourself a bit more of a cushion. Showing up requiring that everything go perfectly in order for you to remain jovial and reasonable is unfair to your group. Make sure you've done your preparations beforehand so that the group isn't picking up your slack. The group is what succeeds, and the group is only as good as the people who are in it. Be an asset, and that includes showing up willing to accept defeat if that's how things go. Learn from it, and move on.

Altruism is a Myth

People rarely do things selflessly. If people in your LS (or your static) are constantly going out of their way to do that little bit extra, make sure you recognize them for it and try to raise the bar for yourself to match their contribution. Nothing turns a helpful person into a resentful person faster than making them feel that nobody appreciates what they do, much less being surrounded by people who refuse to reciprocate.

People serve their communities (in game and out) because they know that sooner or later, their efforts will come back to them. If they get the sense that their efforts are going unrecognized, they'll probably move on. The same goes for you. If you are legitimately trying to maximize your contribution to your LS/static without grinding them to reciprocate, watch for people to step up and do their part. If they don't, tone down your contribution if you start to get resentful. If having you reduce your contribution to match theirs means that things grind to a halt, that's a pretty good indication that you were carrying the group. Give yourself a break; don't be a doormat.

The Game is No Fun if It's Frustrating

Frustrating victories are shallow victories. I can tell you from recent personal experience that completing a mission series with a group of people that have been with you through the long haul, worked together, ******* a bit at each other, made mistakes together, and ultimately won together, makes everything that leads up to victory that much sweeter. If your experience in FFXI is an ongoing frustration, it might be because you're associating with the wrong people. Put the relationships you form in FFXI ahead of the spoils to be had and you're on the right track. You don't have to be best buds with everyone you play with in game, but like it or not, you're part of a group from the moment you first log on until you cancel your content IDs. Try to make the most of it.


Edited, Mar 6th 2007 12:39am by AureliusSir

Regarding statics, it is a double edged sword.

If 1 person is missing, you'll either have to cancel or move on without that person and expect them to fix it themselves.

But it is also good to know you have the people to do something if nobody get held up outside of the game.

I think it avarage out to positive, but there will be negatives.

How to utterly fail in life: quit ffxi but still hang around the message boards talking about it, for some unknown reason.

Good post OP.

OMG, this should be a Sticky! Great post!

With the static and having one person not there I say clear going ahead without them if they cannot make it. Then go back and help them with it by doing it again.

Good post btw I enjoyed the read and completely agree. I think it is important to also say that if you have multiple shells do not be that guy that only shows up to ask for help and expect it at the drop of a hat. Have someone right now that is very close to having thier pearl broken because of things he has said to our LS leader(who happens to be my fiance and that annoyed me more than anything) She told me not to break his pearl though and I listened to her.

I meant to reply to this in my last post, but I had to leave for work lol

There are some missions where you can hope to do it once, and then go back to get a missing static member up to speed. There are also some missions that require some time consuming and/or expensive preparations (Snoll Tzar or Omega/Ultima BC) where it's just no practical to do it twice. During my CoP static's run through the missions, one of our members went on vacation and we had a hard time scheduling events for a couple of weeks. I'm definately glad we waited until they got back before we started grinding onward again.

My CoP static was a logistical nightmare. We had members as far east as Alabama and as far west as Hawaii. (yes, the famous Pikko!)

So, it happened often that people would have to cancel, preventing us from doing missions.

Rather than do it anyway, though, we'd simply find something else to do. We'd exp together, or we'd do ENMs (the promy ENMs were great), or we'd go NM hunting... anything to continue to build ourselves as a group, but without leaving anyone behind.

There's really no point to do everything twice... especially in CoP, when several tough fights require rare or valuable items to be used against the NMs. You're also then talking double the cost in meds and double exp loss from deaths.

It's better just to be patient and wait... there's nothing like actually moving through an intense storyline WITH five of your online friends.

By the way, I noticed "patience" is missing from this guide.

Patience should be No. 1 on the list.

Well said! If only a majority of the people on FFXI would live by this guide.



I would like to add a few paragraphs to this (from my own experience):

Be Patient
I have had new players requesting help for their subjob quest as early as level 16. The same person demanding an escort to Jeuno for chocobo license a few days later (as a fresh level 20 with hopelesly gimped sub) and while he 'had to waste 4 hours waiting to feed the chocobo', he expected the LS to gather a group to get his rank 4 and 5 missions done and help him get his airship pass.
FFXI isn't a rush towards the finish. For crying out loud, take your time to enjoy the many beautiful things the game has to offer.

Be Enterprising
Don't automatically assume you always need help for everything you do. Try to accomplish some of the task yourself. Depending on your job, you can solo about 3/4 of your Genkai quests. Most of the AF1 quests can be soloed if you put sufficient time and effort in it. You don't need a full party of high levels to help you find a chest or coffer (you might need help getting the key, but that's just about it). Tons of the general quests can be soloed, provided you wait until you have your job at the appropriate level (which fits into the previous paragraph as well: be patient).
Try to do things on your own first. If it doesn't work out, then call for help or postpone achieving that goal until later (when you have a higher level job yourself).
Also, if you did gather a group to help you out, at least try to be as supportive as you can be. Do not rely on the mages to sneak/invis you all the time! Carry your own powders and oils. Same goes for meds (like echo drops, antidotes, hi-potions, ethers, drinks). Also, don't expect high level members in your party to warn you about all the dangers in the area. Do your homework and make sure you know in advance what mobs you can expect to encounter and which of them will still aggro you at your current level.

Be Grateful
If a person or persons have helped you out, even by as little as an emergency Cure, a Raise, an escort or a quick answer to your question, show your gratitude. Say {Thank you} at least. If you encounter the same person again later in the game, be sure to {Salute} him/her or {Wave} at him/her. Toss him/her a quick {Hello!} in tell. This is how you make friends in the game.
Also, if the situation permits, be ready to help others. You will gain levels in your FFXI career, you will grow stronger. If you happen to stumble onto a new player or an old friend leveling a new job... remember the times when you were struggling alike and help out. Even by as little as an emergency Cure, a Raise, an escort or a quick answer to a question.


Edited, Mar 7th 2007 1:04pm by Demetres

Ya, that's huge. It's not even just patience with getting things started, there's also a lot to be said for patience at various stages throughout the event. Things like the grind through Zvahl for the Shadowlord fight and expecially some of the dungeon crawls in CoP chapter 8 are almost designed to test your patience.

On the flipside of the patience coin too, is knowing when people are just wasting time and getting them moving again. It can be really hard on a group when they have to spending an excessive amount of time waiting around for things to get moving. I always try to ensure that for long missions, I'll have a minimum of external distractions (not always possible, but I try :P) and I almost always cease all conversation outside of what the party is doing. Waiting for someone to finish typing up their epic accounting of their last Leaping Lizzy fight before they respond to my question gets old in an awful hurry lol




There's a disturbing trend that hasn't been recently created, but has certainly been growing dramatically, and that's the trend of mid level players assuming (without trying) that any quest or mission recommended for a job level at or above 40 requires level 75 help. What a way to suck the fun and experience out of the game. I got most of my Genkai quests and Rank missions done in a group roughly my level, and it became an accomplishment that I appreciated. I sometimes wonder if SE didn't implement these quests to keep players a little humble. Having your 'omfgawesome' exp trail off while you settle in for some Lich camping to advance beyond 50 is a good way to remind players that mashing exp mobs is only a part of the game.



"Gratitude is an action word."

I dunno who said it, but it's true as far as I'm concerned. Saying, "Thanks" and then resuming life as a thoughtless monkey just means that the next time a person needs help, they're a little less likely to find it. In a supportive LS, getting something done that benefits you puts you in a better position to lend a hand to someone else. It doesn't mean we each are forced to spend 2 straight weeks helping LS mates before they'll do an AH check for us, but I'd hope it would be in the back of everyone's mind that they join a shell with the idea that they'll make a contribution.

I can totally relate to this. I recently finished CoP, I had staticed through it with Amuleki, a buddy I met through my Dynamis LS, from M2-3 and one of my best ingame friends from years before CoP, Alemir, who joined during Chapter 4. When us 3 sat at Blueblade Fell in Lufaise Meadows after the AMAZING final cutscene to end CoP, it was awesome, we talked about the adventures we had during CoP, how we grew together, and the bumps we had along the way.

Honestly, it felt like I graduated HS again, and me and my friends we're celebrating and reminscing, but at the same time it was sober cause we knew that adventure together was over.

Bookmarked to show to future linkshells. Excellent post.

Should add be Experimental.

Most people in this game like doing things x way with y setups. Unfortunately you cant always have the perfect setup and do things the "correct" way. The number one thing that stops people in this game besides gil and levels is confidence.

If you organize something and it turns into something where you have to to use a non perfect setup, you had better be confident. Confidence in the ability to experiment with different setups and do something different is a key factor in this game. Think about it, without a confident leader no one wants to go somewhere and lose or die. So having the correct frame of mind to branch out a bit and not be scared is essential.

EXCELLENT! FLAWLESS VICTORY! FATALITY!^^

Definitely sticky material. Get on it, Admins.

Edited, Aug 11th 2008 5:43pm by FlyingShadow