FFXI's inherent flaw

Haven't played much due to the holidays and not a lot really has happened. I had some good things happen that aren't quite ffxi-related so I won't go into them. Most of my ffxi experience the past weekish have been pretty bad, and remind me so much of why I more and more find myself not wanting to play anymore.

But before I start going over what all I can remember of the week, here's a Jew with a bagel:


I spent a lot of time letting random things beat on me for Guard skillups. I started with Thickshells in La Thiene, then moved on to Poison Funguars there before finally hitting the jackpot with Sylvestres in Buburimu Peninsula. I've gotten Guard up to lvl 50 now, and it is definitely more noticeable than it was before I started levelling it (lvl 37 I think).


I also messed around with dat editing for the first time, mainly to try to help Tryxie figure out how to do it. First I turned myself into an Aern wannabe while I was checking out a BLU af recolor she wanted to see:


That was a little too much for me though, so I ended up just changing it to a slightly altered version of normal WHM gear (note the shades are just a replacement for the fugly walahra turban):


I haven't totally decided if I like it or not. It's okay, and I definitely like not having to see walahra turban so if nothing else I'll at least keep the shades, hehe.

Other than that, I xped a few times. I got my 8th and final Max MP merit and some buffer on my BRD (this was accidental, forgot to swap to merit mode, sigh). I also xped a bit on PUP as well, which I'll get into in a minute. We haven't been camping many HNMs lately because maintenances keep happening at 6-7am est and screwing with ToDs, so pretty much had no real obligations to the game.

So now to talk about the bad stuff. The dynamis shell I'm in, TheDynamisShow, is going through some rough times. I'm not sure how much longer the shell will be able to continue, though honestly I saw this coming months ago. When you have leaders that can't seem to agree on anything trying to lead people that just don't seem to care, nothing happens. We had a crappy showing of people on Tuesday (day after christmas, but that wasn't the real reason) and ended up going to San d'Oria where we wiped 3-4 times then just gave up. It was pretty sad, and probably a sign of where things are going. I might just call it quits even before the shell dies of natural causes, we'll see.

But the real thing that has me bummed with FFXI again, and no it's not a new problem or anything but it just hasn't been a problem for me in a while, is the whole job dependency thing. This game is too dependant on certain jobs in order to make a pt, and when you can't find said jobs, it's tough shit for you. Yesterday it took over an hour to make a pt because of lack of mages. We lucked out and a good whm and rdm both started seeking at the same time and I managed to nab them both. We did a dual tank setup where Ishaela (WAR/NIN) would voke, then Tryxie (THF) would SATA onto me (PUP). This would give me enough hate to co-tank with Ish, and it worked fine. Generally healing was no problem and rarely did we have to pause for mp, even though Calcobrena was in damage mode instead of healing mode (we started the fight with a different strategy but later changed to this to make the pt work better). Willian's SAM was in the pt as well, and we all gained a couple levels (my PUP went from 40 to 42).

Today everyone was on earlier than usual and we were all psyched about another chance to xp. Again we had the mage problem but this time about 15 minutes after gathering a WHM popped up (Kiali). I don't think Kiali was really going to be a very good WHM. S/He wanted to sub NIN and dual-wield clubs. I obviously wasn't wild about the idea but healers are healers and we wanted to camp cockatrice in Onzozo so Stona is essential. I was moderately worried when the WHM mt'd to me something about not wanting to leave the pt she'd just joined because s/he'd feel bad, but was assured it was just a lot of people trying to invite.

So anyway, I see a JP COR seeking and invite them. They are out in Rolanberry so it takes them a couple minutes to get to town. We all start to gather at the signet dude in Lower Jeuno and suddenly the WHM vanishes. I wait a few minutes and they come back, send a tell about their "terrible internet connection" and then vanish again. At this point I have this JP COR and all the pt needs is a WHM or even a RDM or SMN or anything and we're good (with a non-WHM we could've done gobs up in Yhoator). We sit there about 30-40 minutes, nothing remotely resembling a mage shows up. At this point I'm pissed. When it's just my friends, it's okay to sit around a bit. We can chat it up or whatever. But now we're wasting the COR's time too. Eventually a JP WHM pops up but never replies to my tells and goes off to do something else. After that, Kiali logs in again and starts seeking pt without saying anything to me. I got so mad about that that I just apologized repeatedly to the COR and tried to explain in auto-translate that we just couldn't pt without a mage. He was very polite and didn't mind at all, thankfully.

But that brings me to the inherent flaw of FFXI. We had all we needed minus a mage. There's always that one thing, whether it's a healer, refresher, tank, whatever. There's always that one thing that keeps you from putting together a pt pre-merit cannon. It's so incredibly frustrating to have to sit around and waste away your day because there's not a fucking healer available, and then you luck out and invite one who ends up being a total dick just because they can be. The game is TOO dependant on the whole pt setup, and it takes away a lot of the fun after you've been dealing with it for so long. Something needs some reevaluation here, but no one cares. S-E makes their money and we say "well, there's always tomorrow..." and that's just how it is.