End Game.

Pheonixhawk · Post by **Pheonixhawk** » Wed Sep 27, 2006 10:07 pm

Is it even worth getting lvl 75. Honestly all I hear are gear junkies talking about a new staff, or club, or something that gives an attack boost or whatever. If all endgame is about gear then I can stop playing ffxi right now. I really dont care for merits and new spells at all. It just a bit more dmg for fighting....umm.. something I guess. True im gonna need lvl 75 to finish all windy missions, but if thats the only reason then ill pass. I do plan on doing RoZ or CoP (one of the two) before I quit FFXI.

Its funny, my friend told me "Mages are in love with thier stats and ablilties, while Melee are gear junkies always looking for a better weapon" I just laughed becuase it was mostly true.

Wed Sep 27, 2006 10:20 pm

I have been having a lot of fun in Dynamis. Haven't gotten Sea yet, and since ToAU, sky is kinda dead save for HNMLSs, and I haven't tried one yet.

Others here can tell you a lot more about endgame than I.

ScarlettPheonix · Post by **ScarlettPheonix** » Wed Sep 27, 2006 10:33 pm

Well, getting to 75 has nothing to do with end-game really. I was 75 for 7 months before joining an endgame linkshell~ I just crafted, exped, levelled my npc, solo'd, quested, levelled sub-jobs and loved it for a long time.

Not having the stress, drama or schedule of events/end-game stuff was great~ but after awhile I started getting bored with it and wanted to see what endgame was all about. I can't speak for everyone, but I'm really enjoying endgame activities.

Its a great break/change from the constant exp grind that only gets worse after hitting 75. Red Mages have a ton of different roles in end-game and being able to really take advantage of how flexible our job is to fit different situations has been a welcome challenge for me~ even if it does mean levelling more sub-jobs.

Merits- Red Mages get some great great merits and meritable spells that really shouldn't be given just a /shrug and a simple "meh", especially since your looking at them from the outside and haven't had the chance to see the difference they make yet.

To be honest PH, sounds like your getting a little burned out with either RDM or the game. Might need to take a break from either (or both) for a little while.

Pheonixhawk · Post by **Pheonixhawk** » Thu Sep 28, 2006 3:28 am

I just got off a 1 month break. If its all just merit grinding at the end, then for me, it is just a meh. And as for those new Merit Spells. Their just a higher Tier from the old ones. Paralyze II, Dia III, Bio III, Phalanx II (Which is the only different one because it can be cast on party members) Slow II. Its all the same old thing just a higher Tier..

I need to find out why I play Rdm and what makes if fun for me. Why would I want to continue it to lvl 75. Because if I get to 75, and I have no reason why I grinded so hard to get there...the result is gonna be me quitting the game and saying it was just a good waste of a year...

Pheonixhawk · Post by **Pheonixhawk** » Thu Sep 28, 2006 3:39 am

You know what, its that darn WoW game. I actually enjoyed playing it for its simplicity. There are many flaws with that game, but at the very least you can go into a battlegrond and slay things without having a party to back you up.

When I hear things like a Rdm Can solo an Avatar or one of the gods it brings a smile to my face. A chance to shine and stay some super strong monster by myself? Its like a dream come true...

Keavy · Post by **Keavy** » Thu Sep 28, 2006 4:03 am

I wanna get to WHM 75 and Merit.

Also, yeah...I plan on leveling other jobs like BLM, SMN, and yeah...

For you, I would recommend finding other things than leveling. FFXI is more than leveling and you need to find what there is that isn't leveling that you like.

Gabryel · Post by **Gabryel** » Thu Sep 28, 2006 4:30 am

"End-game" activities if you have never experienced them, can put an entire new spin on the game. I'll assume the most common definition of that term comes down to fighting HNMs, (whether it be in sky/sea/earthNMs, also forced popped NMs that take an alliance or so to beat), Dynamis, and meeriting your 75 jobs. Yes it is true that what comes with these activites is the perk of grand new items you just can't get any other way, but not only that, when your actually doing the fighting of such mobs, or hell even during the camping of such, you can have tonz of fun in the process. Ther meriting aspect of this is different, it all depends on how far you really want to bring your character to its limit (or the limit you want it to be at, considering the freedom of where you can put said merits). In my total experience of running in an HNM/Dyna shell, noone was being looked down on for not being a merited character, and I can assume this for every other place too. If you choose to start "end-game" stuff and don't want to join the grind of meriting, by all means don't. If you feel like you need to do better in certain areas of your character's performance, then you can consider starting, but by no means should you be pressured or forced to do so (and if someone is, they really should quit the LS they are in IMO, lol).

Post by **Karou Ariyen** » Thu Sep 28, 2006 5:00 am

i dont go by the gear book, I just want full relic armor and to upgrade my relic gaxe (did i mention I'm a dynamis WHORE?!)

Ya I said It, I love dynamis and I love my dynamis Shell BlackMages Only.

Pheonixhawk · Post by **Pheonixhawk** » Thu Sep 28, 2006 5:33 am

Yeah, just throw an army of blm's at everything...it will be alright..

Tinacat · Post by **Tinacat** » Thu Sep 28, 2006 5:52 am

i dont go by the gear book, I just want full relic armor and to upgrade my relic gaxe (did i mention I'm a dynamis WHORE?!)

Ya I said It, I love dynamis and I love my dynamis Shell BlackMages Only.

Dynamis is like the highlight of my day. Last Sunday, my Ls got Dynamis Lord to 30% hp. Probably would have beat it, but someone very importaint clicked to use an instaint warp scroll, instead of clicking on an icarus wing. >.<

Post by **Karou Ariyen** » Thu Sep 28, 2006 6:26 am

I sold my hauberk for a Jaridah Peti (BIG Mistake cuz i was the 5th buyer on hades thinking they would stay the same price at 1.3 mil and i could buy my hauberk back, now its 220k for peti) and i've been using it ever since.

my dynamis gear is as follows
Tabzarian Axe, Bloody Blade (Sometimes Zoraal Ja's Axe), Tomahawks (I Merited It), Walahara Turban (Sometimes Warrior's/Fighter's Masks), Jaridah Peti (Sometimes Fighter's Lorica If We're In A Jam), Fighter's Mufflers, Assault Earring, Coral Earring, Chivalrous Chain, Verner Ring, Ruby Ring, Warwolf Belt (Swapping For Potent Soon), Amemit Mantle NQ, Fighter's Calligue(DOUBLE ATTACK YES PLEASE

), and Barone Shorts.

gimp? Hells Ya, Does It Affect my average damage crossed with those who have hauberk, kirins osode in dynamis? Nope, us wars break even on damage no matter what, and theirs 6 wars in our shell (I love it cuz it makes relic point gathering easier >:D)

Pheonixhawk · Post by **Pheonixhawk** » Thu Sep 28, 2006 7:07 am

Well as long as its not pointless grinding, then ill take rdm to lvl 75. Its currently lvl 67 atm. Ill get it 75 over the next 2 weeks (before that actually) unless maat is a complete hinderance.

Gabryel · Post by **Gabryel** » Thu Sep 28, 2006 7:40 am

KarouKaniyashia wrote:my dynamis gear is as follows
Tabzarian Axe, Bloody Blade (Sometimes Zoraal Ja's Axe), Tomahawks (I Merited It), Walahara Turban (Sometimes Warrior's/Fighter's Masks), Jaridah Peti (Sometimes Fighter's Lorica If We're In A Jam), Fighter's Mufflers, Assault Earring, Coral Earring, Chivalrous Chain, Verner Ring, Ruby Ring, Warwolf Belt (Swapping For Potent Soon), Amemit Mantle NQ, Fighter's Calligue(DOUBLE ATTACK YES PLEASE ), and Barone Shorts.

gimp? Hells Ya, Does It Affect my average damage crossed with those who have hauberk, kirins osode in dynamis? Nope, us wars break even on damage no matter what, and theirs 6 wars in our shell (I love it cuz it makes relic point gathering easier >:D)

Hehe good show Karou! Glad to see there's still people out there that aren't all about the best gear. I struggled for a long time with very mediocre gear being overshadowed during certain events/party positions just because of the gear set-up, yet I never let it get to me.

Post by **Shirai** » Thu Sep 28, 2006 10:17 am

Endgame is different for everyone, then again there is a lot to do and there is a lot of variation in it.

As for endgame linkshells, there are a lot of different types in that as well.

You can concentrate on sky and their gods, ground NMs like Simurgh, Roc, Serket and King Arthro.

The bigger more established shells also do HNM (Hyper Notorious Monsters) like King Behemoth, Aspidochelone and Fafnir/Nidhogg.
Some of them extend to CoP Wyrms (Grand dragons) like Tiamat, Jormungand and Vrtra.

There are also a lot of high levels that don care for those things much and concetrate more on things like Kindred seals fights, Assault, ISNMs, ENMs, meriting their character, helping out newer players, level their next job.

There is also Dynamis, which is available for everyone lvl 65+ and rank 6 or up although most shells want people to be lvl 70+.

Endgame isn something you NEED to do tho, it's a choice that is up to you and like I said before the variaty is huge.
End game isn't all about gear either, however some of the best gear comes from those activities.

My advise is,
look for yourself what you want and what you like to do.
Maybe try to get into an endgame shell and see if you like it, you can always leave if you really don't like it.

Post by **Sugami** » Thu Sep 28, 2006 12:19 pm

I tried Sky and hated it. Spend too much money, it's generally quite dull and what you get back for it? Nothing.

I used to enjoy Dynamis but my current shell has kinda sucked the life out of it. The last Dynamis-Bastok Fencer's Gloves dropped that should have rightfully been mine but someone else got it and his RDM wasn't even 70 at the time

I used to think I wouldn't bother meritting but it's actually quite enjoyable. Trying to better myself constantly and get new things. If camps aren't too overcrowded and you're in a party for a reasonable amount of time it's normal to get 1-3 merits a party

As for gear I like to have the best stuff that is affordable. I'm not a whitebox whore and don't bother with most HQs if the difference is small. I'd like to get full AF2 Wyrm gear but I don't see that happening with my current shell, if only there were more shells based in GMT.

ScarlettPheonix · Post by **ScarlettPheonix** » Thu Sep 28, 2006 1:33 pm

On the RDM merits~ seriously PH, don't make any judgements yet. You haven't seen them in action or used them yet.

Yes, they are tier two or three spells, but yhey're (for the most part) upgrades on the previous tier and something that many end-game RDMs have been wanting for years.

Slow and Paralyze II are considered to be big improvements over their predecessors, and from personal experience with Para II- they are. I'm not going to qoute test results or numbers here but both KI and Alla have the results.

Slow II also caps out its effect higher then what we can get with Slowv.1, which makes it a huuuugggee improvement

Dia III- 15% down? Yes, Please. Even with it just lasting 30secs at the first upgrade- it makes everything be killed that much quicker and my favorite part- no more blms casting Bio II over Dia II

Blind II- jury's still out on this one. Blind is harder to test then Slow or Paralyze so its harder to really get a feel for its strength. Some people love it, some don't and I'm still on the fence.

Bio III- this one is a meh spell for me. Its 15% Att Down, but its DoT is at most the same DoT that BLMs can get with Bio II. Darn our low Dark Skill!!

Phalanx II- meh spell+1. It absorbs significantly less damage then our single target version even fully upgraded and I'm busy enough in parties to not want to worry about yet another cycle to cast on people.

For the other merits- who doesn't want to lower their Convert timer by at least a minute? I poured 4 upgrades into mine and am loving my 8min40 Convert timer.

The accuracy merits- I put two in Ice and Wind and there's a visible difference with landing those enfeebles. I've noticed the biggest change with landing Bind and Silence especially. I tossed one merit into Earth for slow and another into Lightning since thats our highest nuke available.

My advice is to wait and see, maybe do some research on the merits before making any judgements/descisions on their usefulness.

MittensValefor · Post by **MittensValefor** » Thu Sep 28, 2006 1:44 pm

At 75, RDM is still my favorite job! Though I've never solo'd an even match or tougher like everyone says I should be able to, I plan to. End game for me is soloing the avatars with my RDM/NIN. I've been camping the Joyeuse NM Carybdis for about a week now and it can get tedious, but once I have that sword and clobber Ramuh, the rest is gravy.

But for me the real point of being powerful is helping others out. Just the other day I was on my way to help the LS get their swift belts. I was passing through the Dunes after using tele-dem /w my whm sub. There's this goblin standing triumphantly over two dead adventurers. The gob takes one look at me and says "Great Gobs of Gruel! I sure hope it doesn't get off that chocobo!" I ask the adventurers if they want raises and they say, "yes please." I /dismount. The goblin makes a run for it, but thunder III takes it out in one shot!

2 raises later and I'm a hero!

So yeah. Depends on what you get off on.

Post by **Alya Mizar (Tsybil)** » Thu Sep 28, 2006 3:55 pm

Pheonixhawk wrote:Well as long as its not pointless grinding, then ill take rdm to lvl 75. Its currently lvl 67 atm.

Most Dynamis LSs will take RDMs as low as L 65. You need Rank 6 and L 65 to get into Dynamis. Zone into Xarcabard for a CS and then touch the Trail Markings near the Ru'Lude Gardens Mog House entrance in Jeuno for another.

Just beware of Dynamis LSs that will not let you lot on gear untill some level. I have a friend on Garuda who has finished some 30+ Dynamises with not one piece of AFv2 to show for it. Most of his battles were with a L 72 to get gear LS when he was below that.

As to the gear itself....

Duelist's Tabard L 74 Def: 45 MP: 24 AGI: 4 Enhances "Fast Cast" Effect Healing Magic Skill: 10

Duelist's Gloves L 72 Def: 17 MP: 18 INT: 4 Magic Defense Bonus: 2 Enhancing Magic Skill: 15

Duelist's Chapeau L 75 Def: 24 MP: 14 Vs. Wind: 10 Enfeebling Magic Skill: 15 Adds "Refresh" Effect

Duelist's Tights L 73 Def: 33 MP: 16 DEX: 5 Elemental Magic Skill: 10 Enhances "Spikes" Effect

Duelist's Belt L 70 Def: 4 INT: 4 MND: 4 HP Regeneration While Healing: 4 MP Regeneration While Healing: 4

And then there is the AF +1 series.....

Pheonixhawk wrote:Ill get it 75 over the next 2 weeks (before that actually) unless maat is a complete hinderance.

I was L 72 for over two weeks till I finally ran out of excuses for turning parties down.

Grind? What grind?

ScarlettPheonix · Post by **ScarlettPheonix** » Thu Sep 28, 2006 4:04 pm

Well, exp parties have always been a grind for me and it only got worse after reaching 75 and seeing how much I'd have to earn in limit points to get everything I want meritted.

Counting the 44k exp needed to max 75 as well as all my merits so far (and I'm nowhere close to being done)~ I've earned 314,000 exp/limit points and I exp/merit at most 2x a week if that. So yes, its a grind

You forgot Duelist's Boots btw:

Lvl 71: MP+15 MND +4 Evasion skill +5, M.att Bonus +4

Pheonixhawk · Post by **Pheonixhawk** » Fri Sep 29, 2006 1:00 am

ScarlettPheonix wrote:On the RDM merits~ seriously PH, don't make any judgements yet. You haven't seen them in action or used them yet.

Yes, they are tier two or three spells, but yhey're (for the most part) upgrades on the previous tier and something that many end-game RDMs have been wanting for years.

Slow and Paralyze II are considered to be big improvements over their predecessors, and from personal experience with Para II- they are. I'm not going to qoute test results or numbers here but both KI and Alla have the results.

Slow II also caps out its effect higher then what we can get with Slowv.1, which makes it a huuuugggee improvement

Dia III- 15% down? Yes, Please. Even with it just lasting 30secs at the first upgrade- it makes everything be killed that much quicker and my favorite part- no more blms casting Bio II over Dia II

Blind II- jury's still out on this one. Blind is harder to test then Slow or Paralyze so its harder to really get a feel for its strength. Some people love it, some don't and I'm still on the fence.

Bio III- this one is a meh spell for me. Its 15% Att Down, but its DoT is at most the same DoT that BLMs can get with Bio II. Darn our low Dark Skill!!

Phalanx II- meh spell+1. It absorbs significantly less damage then our single target version even fully upgraded and I'm busy enough in parties to not want to worry about yet another cycle to cast on people.

For the other merits- who doesn't want to lower their Convert timer by at least a minute? I poured 4 upgrades into mine and am loving my 8min40 Convert timer.

The accuracy merits- I put two in Ice and Wind and there's a visible difference with landing those enfeebles. I've noticed the biggest change with landing Bind and Silence especially. I tossed one merit into Earth for slow and another into Lightning since thats our highest nuke available.

My advice is to wait and see, maybe do some research on the merits before making any judgements/descisions on their usefulness.

Ive seen them used before, my buddy loves showing off his rdm to me (he is lvl 75) and everytime he gets a new merit spell its "Hey dude I gotta show you this!" and I watch him party... thats why Im saying meh to the merit skills. Yeah they would be nice for solo play, but still, its just more grinding to get them. Now the Conver timer being shorter actually shocked me for a second. He was shifting through all the spells and I looked at is time (he had just used convert) and I said...wait isnt it 10 mins? He just laughed and said he used merits to make it shorter.

And yes I am rank 6, so Dynamis I may or may not do. (Gotta research it first) as for the second AF, it would be nice to have but its kinda pointless if I cant lot for it because I can't wear it.

Okuza · Post by **Okuza** » Fri Sep 29, 2006 1:58 am

Merits are really nice. They're even nicer for playing jobs that are NOT 75 -- like capped fights or leveling a new subjob (or even a new 75). When all I had was THF 75, there was no way I even considered merits. The only way a THF ever gets a group is when making it personally or when some friend wants to camp something and wants TH4.

The thought of grinding out ~2M xp to cap all merits on THF was just abhorent (note that 1-75 is only 824k XP). So, for the longest time, all I did was Dynamis -- logged in, did Dynamis, logged out (twice a week). About a year ago, I decided to finally level NIN up to 75. I didn't really plan on getting lots of merits with NIN -- just wanted to level a new job for fun.

WOW. LFG for 30m = party on NIN. Like all pickups, they vary in quality, but it's still like 7-15k/H. It was so easy to get XP that I capped all my non-job merits and all the "important" job merits. Makes a big difference. As a RDM, you should have even less of a wait for a party than a NIN. But, you have to like XP'ing. If you don't enjoy it, don't do it. Do things you like instead. ^^

Other than Dynamis, I don't do much end-game. I really need to farm sky for nin gear (alot of that stuff is kinda "mandatory"), but I did end-game in a big way in EQ and I really don't want to have my schedule dictated to me by a game again; "OMG, Fluffy is due to spawn at 2am, we need you to come!" Or, "We only got one water and then we need to camp Uli -- you sure you can't stay another 4H?" Uh, sorry. Or even worse "Can you give me your acc info so we can keep farming with TH4?". Err, hell no!

End-game for me is about having access to the entire game so I can do anything I want in the game. Usually, this means helping friends out on various things. For FFXI, that means Dynamis atm -- maybe a little farming now and then with TH4 or helping on random missions. If you don't have 75, you really don't have access to everything. You can maybe enter Dynamis, but you aren't helping (under 75 is a just a tourist there). Same with all kinds of other level-75 stuff.

Access is the key. You can't hang out with your friends if they're all off doing level 75 stuff and you're too low to help out or haven't done the quests/missions that let you join them.

Post by **Sugami** » Fri Sep 29, 2006 12:30 pm

Dunno about you but I feel silly putting merits earned from one job into another. The whole point of meritting DRG is to be more kickass in merit parties, so what would the point of only getting merits on RDM or COR be?

Another reason why RDM died for me, improvement doesn't show for much when all you're doing is tossing the odd Cure and Refresh. The only fun I had on RDM was when I was pulling like a crazy BRD (but obviously not as good).

New things excite me, new abilities at least. If I cared more for RDM or if they were only 1 merit each I'd get the new spells but 3 merits to unlock, no thanks.

Post by **Alya Mizar (Tsybil)** » Fri Sep 29, 2006 3:28 pm

Dynamis, the basics.

This is our huge endgame raid in WoW terms. It happens in an alternate dimension of familar cites and zones. You have to wade through many mobs to kill three NMs in order to spawn the final boss and kill him. It is not nessary to kill the final boss though. Many times people simply farm in Dynamis.

You will comunicate in LS as there can be as many as 64 people in a Dynamis. Except in a farming raid, there will be at least two alliances. My last two there were 40+ people involved. Do you get lag in crowded areas? You will get it here.

The parties will be arayed by type. Tank party, BLM parties, Melee parties. As a RDM you will be attached to either a Melee party as main healer / Haste monger or a BLM party as Refresher. You will be expected to sleep / sleepga mobs and nuke statues as well. Few debuffs are used other than Dispell and Silence. Not really a lot of healing needed for Melee parties, but when you do have to Cure, you have to do it NOW. The BLM parties prefer BRDs for Refresh, but sometimes it will be 4X BLM, RDM, BRD. Tank parties will get WHMs almost always. Keep Blink, Stoneskin, and Phlanx up as much as you can.

If you do not want to die, don't do Dynamis. On a good run you will probably die twice, on a hard one.... Bring a RR Gorget. Keep RR up. I usually loose 2 - 3K EXPs each Die-namis.

WAY more fun than EXPing IMHO.

Okuza · Post by **Okuza** » Fri Sep 29, 2006 8:50 pm

Sugami wrote:Dunno about you but I feel silly putting merits earned from one job into another. The whole point of meritting DRG is to be more kickass in merit parties, so what would the point of only getting merits on RDM or COR be?

I get my merits on the job that is best for acquiring them. I don't necessarily spend them there, though. Unless I want to make all my own groups for THF, that means NIN. Besides, NIN is outright better in all ways for XP over THF -- I get more XP myself when I go as nin and don't invite any thfs or other problematic jobs.

I did a lot of web research and planning before I started meriting. I didn't want to waste time on dead-ends or on things that don't pay off nicely. Merits are pretty confusing when you don't have a plan. When I play, I just want to have fun, not worry about picking the right merit. So, I do my planning outside of game. This was my general strategy:

1. Merits that help get more merits (ninja, DD before Tank).
2. Merits that help across many jobs.
3. Merits that help level sub-jobs.
4. Merits that help on capped BC’s.
5. High value / low cost merits before high cost / low value.
6. Merits for jobs that can’t get merits.

I chose to cap each single merit before moving on to another. 1 merit usually doesn't help much. Capped merit usually helps a ton. Others spread them out and do 1 in each of a set, then 2, .. etc. to cap. You get a lot of very tiny improvements that way, but unless it's a new JA/spell merit, you honestly won't notice them until they're near cap. I like to actually feel the difference or it doesn't seem worthwhile.

I kept notes on all the merits I got while I was getting them -- how each felt as an improvement as acquired and on my decision process for picking one over another. One of these days I'll clean 'em up, put 'em in html format, and post a link to 'em.

Keavy · Post by **Keavy** » Sat Sep 30, 2006 12:18 am

Any WHM's got any tips on what I should merit? I plan on doing 8 MP merits, Martyr, and Regen Merits.

Post by **Shirai** » Sat Sep 30, 2006 2:19 am

Keavy wrote:Any WHM's got any tips on what I should merit? I plan on doing 8 MP merits, Martyr, and Regen Merits.

Pro and Shell V
Martyr and Devotion are very good, I plan on maxing out Devotion to 15 minutes.

I have 4 in regen at the moment 1 in bar spell effect planning to cap both after I max summoner.

As for HP/MP, I'd say go for 4 MP and 4 HP.
Do not neglect HP because if you are going to do HNM, there is stuff out there that can one shot you.

Next to that Cure casting time can help a lot but I'm not putting any merits in that.

Keavy · Post by **Keavy** » Sat Sep 30, 2006 3:35 am

I don't ever plan on doing HNM. I do not like having my time controlled by others.

Okuza · Post by **Okuza** » Sat Sep 30, 2006 9:49 am

The HNM game can be tremendous fun if you can swing the time. It was a blast in EQ where my "shell" was always either the only one doing the top content or had very little competition. The rare race to a spawn was fun in that case. There was never any "camping" of an HNM to grab it the instant it spawned. There was so much stuff up that we couldn't kill it all even raiding every single night.

FFXI spawned fights are pretty nice, but that only covers a few jobs. People agitate for HNMs to cover the rest (and it's only fair). FFXI random HNM is just sick. 2-3 big shells and assorted small fry all standing around just waiting for a spawn. All mashing voke macros madly or running claim bots. Ugh.

If you ever get the chance to be the only end-game shell or one of two in any MMORPG, do it. It really is a lot of fun in that case. There's stuff in FFXI that isn't camped so hard or you might be lucky enough to be in a timezone where there are no other big shells. You could do it in FFXI if lucky, but prime time JP & NA are just out for me on my server.

I have a suspicion that FFXI is nearing EOL -- 6-12 months at best before major decline unless SE does something drastic to retain customers in the face of newer MMORPGs coming out. If you're still around then, that would be another chance to do end-game stuff. The jaded ones that have done it all are often among the first to go.

I've been eyeing Vanguard myself. I'll certainly buy it when it's released. If I think it's a good long term game, I'll flush FFXI. Release is predicted "sometime this winter".

Post by **Sugami** » Sat Sep 30, 2006 11:42 am

Okuza wrote:I get my merits on the job that is best for acquiring them. I don't necessarily spend them there, though. Unless I want to make all my own groups for THF, that means NIN. Besides, NIN is outright better in all ways for XP over THF -- I get more XP myself when I go as nin and don't invite any thfs or other problematic jobs.

You're coming off as an elitest with that comment. What about all the THF, SAM, DRK, DRG, BLU, PUP and to a lesser extent WHM, PLD, SMN that don't have nor want to level WAR, MNK, NIN, BRD or RDM (and COR to a lesser extent) to get merits?
How are they meant to get merits with people only wanting to merit with 5 (or 6) jobs?

Give me a competant PUP over a retarded WAR or NIN anyday.

Okuza · Post by **Okuza** » Sun Oct 01, 2006 12:38 am

Well, I don't actually make a lot of groups on NIN -- just go with the flow. That's the beauty of the job. I got burned out on that as THF. On NIN, I just make a party when I see a friend or two LFG and then fill in the blanks. Besides, how often can you put together the perfect party? All friends and all the right jobs? Heh, if the people are nice, decently skilled, and I get 7k/h, I'm satisfied. If some are mean or obnoxious, the group better do 12k/h+ or I'll get cranky.

The only job that will cause me to leave a group is BST. They can solo. I have refused to group with 'em in the past and probably will continue to do so. It's an utter waste of my time to support a group that wastes a slot on a job that doesn't need a group when there are so many that require one. Well, if the BST came with RDM,BRD,MNK,WAR I might consider it.

How are unwanted jobs supposed to get XP? They can make their own parties the way I did for THF -- and invite me when I'm NIN. LOL. Or they could invite me when I'm on THF and I'd be their friend for life; /em can't stop purring! ^~