Final Fantasy XI

Yea ive got a lvl54 BLM and for soloing id definatly recommend /whm for the healing and taking away effect monsters put on you. Later levels /rdm for gravity and /nin for survivability. /thf is good for when your farming and want to get good drops faster.

I do think it's a decent game in many ways.  I love the atmosphere and the world in general.  And since I got my character well past level 30, I think it's fair to say I gave the game a chance.

But I have to say, from a gameplay perspective, other games are just easier to enjoy.  I don't want to have to "be patient" when I'm playing a video game.  It just doesn't make any sense to me.  I have to "be patient" all day long at work.  When I'm paying to play a game, I don't want to have to put quite so much effort into FORCING the game to let me have a good time.

If your game comes with the disclaimer, "We know this part is boring, and these other things are awful, BUT ..."  Well, maybe you need to reconsider whether you have a game or a torture device in a pretty setting.

Maybe, maybe not. I find most MMOs boring after a while. If there is an extensive storyline for me to follow (and not the "epic" quests from EQ2) then that may entertain me more than the standard MMO.

Yes there is some people that just dont have the patience to play this game. When SE made this game they wanted to make something that was set in a fantasy world. But added in things that we deal with in a real life setting as well. There was a method to their maddness. This is the only game where you truely feel a since of accomplishment when you do something. For example:  If your camping a NM for a rare item theres always going to be people out there camping aginst you. Lets say that NM pops every 24hrs and the drops only like 20%. Ok so youve camped it for over a week, maybe was able to get the claim once over everybody else and no drop. That sux. But what if the next time you try and you get the claim plus the drop. I guerentee that will make your day if not make your whole week. Youll be so happy that you got it because you worked so hard for it. Theres a whole different feeling over anything youll ever play when you do something on FFXI.

I started playing WoW before i played FFXI. Dont get me wrong WoWs a great game but everythings just handed to you. You really dont have to work too hard for anything. After awile it just started getting boring. So i Quit. Ive seen this senario alot with people that quit WoW and joined FFXI. FFXI is challenging in every way. You have to work hard for it, just like in real life. And thats why its so addicting and when people get into the higher levels youll never see them quit to go to another game. Theirs a reason why they put that warning before you log in. This game will suck you in and never let go.

Its only as good as what you put into it. Yes the lvl grinding gets tedius but when you reach lvl75 thats when the game actually starts. The leveling is just getting you prepared for the craziness of all the stuff level 75s do. And thats ALOT of stuff.

As far as forcing the game to be fun I dont think you truely tried to have fun yourself. Grouping for exp is only like a fraction of things to do. So if you were bored than you cant blame the game. Maybe you werent looking hard enough for things to do.

Well the game is install updated and i've been playing for about an hour, just setting things up and getting my controlls right, and basically seeing what there is to do, I've done 2 quests so far, but they do seem hard and you don't get any real guidance of where anything or anyone is, and I find it a bit odd not getting health back after attacking something, no health regen at all is a little alien to me. I've tried the rest but nothing seems to happen there either. My gf's lil bro has just installed the game on his xbox so we should start playing together tomorrow and hopefully my gf will start tomorrow too, so we can help each other out :D

I've tried searching ur name Bucs but you don't seem to be online, I hope I'm on the right server lol, I did select Alexander server so it should be right lol

I haven't got much exp so far to lvl up but my skills are coming up, I kept dieing and didn't know what the stone was for lol. So first impressions are mixed, the controls are ok, but the lack of guidence or tutorial to help you with things is a bit odd really, it would be nice to know who has quests for me, and maybe even where to go to do them.

lol ill be on in a bit to show you some stuff. Stone is one of your spells. Not getting a hp or mp regen isnt going to last. Theres spells later on that will give you all that back so it cuts down on resting quite a bit. Higher lvls you dont really rest that much. Id suggest just kinda checking out your hometown. get familiar with the ah, crafting guilds, npc shops exc. theres also an event going on as well just outside of your home town. You can go out there. It requires everybody to be level 1 so youll be fine. Group up with somebody and ask them some questions about the game as well. People are very helpful so dont be shy. Also remember, This isnt a WoW type game. Quests are just used on here to get fame and items you can use or sell at the AH. In my opinion it was hard for me to get through the first couple levels as a BLM. Theyre so squishy and cant melee worth nothing. Theyre more meant for sitting far away and throwing bombs. When you start getting higher levels youll see what i mean. They can do some serious damage. when they solo from lvls 40-75, they can 1 shot most of the experience monsters their fighting :O

But yea ill be on in a bit. whats your charactors name? 

Crazysheep is my name, but the game doesn't like Alt+Tab lol, crashes everytime. I'm now lvl 2 by killing those bee things, the controls have grown on me now and I'm using my xbox 360 controller so its quite nice just sitting back and playing. Talking seems a bit arkward tho, can't seem to find an easy way to chat to ppl lol. I haven't done the crafting side yet, might look into that tomorrow, I am extremely glad that you can train in every craft and after lvl 60 max one out, so it allows you to try them all and then specailise in one. But I'm going to bed now as its been a hectic day and yesturday was the same, time to catch up on some much needed sleep, hopefully see you on there tomorrow, I should be on after 3:30pm(GMT), me and my posse lol.

If on the 360 you can just plug in your PC keyboard into it and itll work. You dont even want to attempt to have a conversation with the controller lol. If you do find yourself playing ffxi for a long time id recommend getting the 360 messengers. little keyboards that attach to your 360 controller. My gf and i both use those and theyre so convienant.

Originally posted by Bucs420

Yes there is some people that just dont have the patience to play this game. When SE made this game they wanted to make something that was set in a fantasy world. But added in things that we deal with in a real life setting as well. There was a method to their maddness. This is the only game where you truely feel a since of accomplishment when you do something. For example:  If your camping a NM for a rare item theres always going to be people out there camping aginst you. Lets say that NM pops every 24hrs and the drops only like 20%. Ok so youve camped it for over a week, maybe was able to get the claim once over everybody else and no drop. That sux. But what if the next time you try and you get the claim plus the drop. I guerentee that will make your day if not make your whole week. Youll be so happy that you got it because you worked so hard for it. Theres a whole different feeling over anything youll ever play when you do something on FFXI.

I started playing WoW before i played FFXI. Dont get me wrong WoWs a great game but everythings just handed to you. You really dont have to work too hard for anything. After awile it just started getting boring. So i Quit. Ive seen this senario alot with people that quit WoW and joined FFXI. FFXI is challenging in every way. You have to work hard for it, just like in real life. And thats why its so addicting and when people get into the higher levels youll never see them quit to go to another game. Theirs a reason why they put that warning before you log in. This game will suck you in and never let go.

Its only as good as what you put into it. Yes the lvl grinding gets tedius but when you reach lvl75 thats when the game actually starts. The leveling is just getting you prepared for the craziness of all the stuff level 75s do. And thats ALOT of stuff.

As far as forcing the game to be fun I dont think you truely tried to have fun yourself. Grouping for exp is only like a fraction of things to do. So if you were bored than you cant blame the game. Maybe you werent looking hard enough for things to do.

Ack! I know you probably thought that sounded good, and maybe it does to some people, but camping a rare spawn for a week or more,  to get some a rare drop does not give me a sense of accomplishment. It's even worse if you have to compete for the rare spawn. A once a day spawn that only has a 20% drop rate? That's just not fun to me. There was a lot of that in the original EQ and I hated it.  It never felt like I accomplished something. It felt more like I had endured something and I was relieved that it was finally over. 

I'm not a fan of deliberate time sink stuff. There are some aspects of this game that interest me, but I'm guessing there are some aspects that I would really hate. 

Btw,  nice work on the jobs list.   I noticed that you list their soloing potential.  I was under the impression that soloing wasn't possible beyond the lower levels.