I played FFXI roughly 2005-2011.
I quit after the "leeching" got out of hand. I made a linkshell on Fairy/Sylph. The main rule in the linkshell was zero leeching. Old school six member party only to level. Period. Until you were 75. People would remove their pearl, go into abyssea as anonymous....and still leech. So my effort was short lived. I just don't see the point in grinding to 90 (or whatever the max level is now) just to get that level number. These players will have no idea how to play their job and have no skills to go with it. When I was still playing, a RDM90 asked me "My healing skill is 20, is that good?" I think that proves my point. I have no problem with Abyssea if it's used appropriately. I think raising the entrance requirement to 75 would stop a lot of the leeching, but that will never happen.
Then there are the book burning parties. It is my understanding that people build an alliance, go into Gusgen Mines or somewhere, get the book page, and just run around and kill stuff. Well, that doesn't really teach your class, either. Anyone can just kill something. WHM need to learn to buff, heal, remove ailments, etc. Thieves need to learn how to SATA and/or return hate back to the tank. PLD NIN need to learn how to tank and to keep hate, and the list goes on. Late in my playing, I was healing in a party in Wajoam and the PLD was not provoking except to get it off the fisherman. So we asked why she wasn't provoking. "I'll get hit" was her response. Again, proves my point, doesn't it?
I quit FFXI because I couldn't form six member parties anymore. Most people were in Abyssea leeching. I played FFXI for the fun, camaraderie and knowledge you received from being in a six member party. Sometimes it got crazy when you got a linked mob or if the tank died somehow. But I tell you what. Most of the time it just down right ROCKED. When I couldn't build parties anymore, there was not much point to playing.
No offense to SE, but FFXI used to have integrity, and a lot of it. It used to be important, and sometimes difficult, to get the things you needed done to progress your character. Now, people can just grind away xp and get to 90+ without much effort. I just don't see the point in that. I really don't. If you are a SAM90 and have a GK skill of 20 and don't know what the weapon skills are, etc., you aren't going to be much use to anyone. Sure, you can go to different areas and kill things to get your weapon skill up. But there are still no six member parties. What's next SE? Take away the weapon leveling up altogether like WoW did so long ago?
It's not just Abyssea. CoP missions and things like that got a lot easier. I finished CoP the old way, the difficult way, and I was a bit upset when they changed that since people that hadn't done it yet would get it a lot easier than I did. I didn't think it was fair.
Anyway, I would love to see an old school linkshell. I would gladly come back to build some parties.
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