Dragging Through SMFollow

Oh, and how about 95% of all equipment in the game being absolutely useless?

From the Mid-level armor that has nothing but defense on it, to the utterly yucky stats on some low-level pieces (I remember the time I saw +1 CHR on an item that a beastmaster can't even wear, or how about that +1 CHR Latent Effect that you had to have /bst for?), or how you'd find extremely rare mob, only up once every couple days and it drops an utter piece of crap that nobody uses. It is like "why did they even bother?"

Some of FFXI's mechanics were really neat in my opinion, particularly the Elemental system. I wish another game would implement something so in-depth!

For you guys who never played, light and dark elements, along with fire, ice, wind, earth, lightning and water were each represented by: Days of the week, stars in the night sky (at each point of the compass), weather effects and crystals that you used for crafting. Even your basic character stats were related to the elements in some way.

Using a fire spell on Firesday (or whatever it was called) gave it a chance for more damage. Likewise if you were in the desert and the fire weather effect was active. Up to two weather effect icons could appear, and the bonus from both could stack. (They'd also stack with the day, if the timing was perfect!)

Crafting with a fire crystal on that day would result in a better chance at success. But using a fire crystal on the water day would result in more failure, as fire is weak to water. You could also face a certain direction, based on the element associated with that direction, to alter your results.

It's an amazing system that was mired in too much grind for most to enjoy it unfortunately.



Anyways! To pretend I was somewhere near on-topic...level 7 + SM = not really worth the trouble, you'd receive pretty big exp penalties anyways if I'm not mistaken.

SM was always a bit weird when it came to the level required to enter because its four wings covered a really wide span of levels. You could get into the Cathedral (highest) wing at the same level you could get into the Graveyard (lowest) wing. I think the level required used to be in the mid 20s back then and I remember if you took a level 30ish or lower character into Cathedral, the mobs near the entrance would aggro on them immediately upon zoning in.

It's not as bad in that way anymore though since they have an area for the questgivers just inside each instance. You still have to keep a lowbie a good ways back from the mobs if the level difference is extreme but it's not really that hard to do if both players are good and attentive to their surroundings.


I remember a long, long time ago before BC when a level 60 guildie offered to help some of us through Scholo. I think I was the lowest at around level 50 and I knew I was way too low of a level to be of much use in there so I kept way back and only hit things that were dragged back. We probably would have been okay if all of use 'lowbies' would stay back but there was a Warrior who would constantly charge up to the mobs that the level 60 Hunter's pet was tanking and of course that would aggro mobs from other groups and then we'd wipe and after several of those, the guildie said she ran out of time and so that was the end of the run.

So, always remember, while it's nice to have someone offer to run you through instances, you should try to do your best not to make the run harder for the person doing the run than it should be. Pay attention to your surroundings and keep well back so you don't aggro extra mobs that could easily get you killed before the high level person can get control of them all.