Melee fascination?

[Cloud Tiamat]

Why is there often a lot of players (and by players I mean North American gamers) that go for melee fighters as opposed to spellcasters?

[Serantos]

Alright, I'll lay it out for ya, You're lvl 9. So everyone you party with is low lvl also. Most people pick WAR as a first job to take to 30 to unlock advanced jobs. People pick up WAR because its a very versitile job, it can DD and also tank, to an extent. But you dont see very many WAR in Full AF...

Kinda rambling, but as your level increases, you will see more mages, especially RDM... man, theres so much. Myself, I'm a Paladin, melee? I'm worthless, i hardley ever connect, and when I do its like 20 damage, useless. But I'm damn good at getting my ass kicked!

[Kilgraw]

People want to be the hero / knight in shining armor with the large sword they read about, saw in a movie, or played in a video game.

[Pounce]

Just look at the gear.

Melee get to wear heavy badass plate armor and wield cool weapons.

Mages get to wear....robes..and more robes. They carry..sticks......and bigger sticks.

In addition, this is my personal theory, but magic doesn't really look all that cool in FFXI compared to some other games. You don't get to say, shoot fireballs or lightning bolts out of the palm of your hand.

The ability to create wild pyrotechnics is one of the main perks of playing mage jobs, and IMHO, FFXI doesn't have it.

I typically pick mage classes in RPGs mainly because of the cool spell effects. BLM was the very first job I started the game with, and I retired it at around Lv9 because I was disappointed with how "uncool" the spells looked ;/

[truenoir]

Consider also the distribution of job types.

Casters: WHM, BLM, RDM, SMN, BRD

Melee/DD/tank: WAR, THF, MNK, NIN, RNG, DRG, BST, DRK, PLD, SAM

Granted that DRK and PLD are sorta hybrid, but you don't generally rely on them only for casting.

If every 15 people picked a different job, you'd still have a lack of balance, and you'd still have melee left over after making two usable parties or so.

I think you still do see a larger percent choose damage or at least tanking over support roles. I think one reason is that those are percieved as more fun...and really I think are for most people. Less stressful, mostly simpler to play, less responsibility (outside the puller and tank or thf), etc.
Even many endgame mages I know want to level DD jobs for a second job.

A lotta times things go in phases anyway...at least past the dunes levels. Sometimes you can't find a tank, sometimes a healer, sometimes a refresher, etc. With people playing multiple jobs, there's nothing saying they never play a healer either (though I see far fewer career melee going back and levelling mages, perpetuating the low-mage count at low level when mages are levelling melee jobs )

[Pounce]

(though I see far fewer career melee going back and levelling mages, perpetuating the low-mage count at low level when mages are levelling melee jobs

Back when I too, gave up DRG and started RDM, there were a lot of fellow melee DDs who were doing the same.

The RDM level distribution is something quite interesting IMHO. There's certainly a ton of RDM overall - just look at all the RDM AF in Jeuno - but still there is never one available when you most need one. Which makes me think they're all concentrated at a certain level range, perhaps the 70+? I'm not sure.

Regardless, the fad of the moment job seems to be RNG. I'm seeing tons of people both former melee DD and mage - leveling RNG these days. It's gotten to the point that some parties refuse to level without at least one RNG - wtf?!

[Jei]

I heard about bard refusing PT wihtout ranger, haven't seen one myself. Haven't run into PT refusing to play without Ranger yet.

So far the only picky one I saw with my own eyes was a Whm refusing to PT with PLD...
which is pretty lame IMO... I attached his signature here take a look
http://ffxionline.com/forums/showthr...threadid=52598

[Arximiro]

Mages dont even get to hear the battle music I cant imagine being a mage it would be so boring. brd would be the worst tho No music and u couldnt deal no damn damage if u wanted too. all they are good for is the pt. Im sure mage is fun I jus couldnt imagine no battle music. guess they could jus engage and stand there.

[tazirai]

Originally posted by Arximiro
Mages dont even get to hear the battle music I cant imagine being a mage it would be so boring. brd would be the worst tho No music and u couldnt deal no damn damage if u wanted too. all they are good for is the pt. Im sure mage is fun I jus couldnt imagine no battle music. guess they could jus engage and stand there.

I get to hear battle music alot ^^ Not every mages jus stands to heal and MB then sit docile.
Trust me, me and estya never do hehe.

[JU571N]

Mage job in a party = fun.
Mage job solo = nightmare.

[Teh Blind Guard]

For people that like to conserve MP like me in RPGS, Mages in MMOs suck for us. I am one of those people.

I kinda prefer WAR and stuff like that because they do not need to use MP to be powerful.

When I start to play FFXI on Thursday.

[Susurrus]

Originally posted by JU571N
Mage job in a party = fun.
Mage job solo = nightmare.

Phhht...RDM solo isn't a nightmare.

[iglak]

Originally posted by truenoir
Granted that DRK and PLD are sorta hybrid, but you don't generally rely on them only for casting.

and NIN.


and it's a stretch, but THF a bit also, because of the availability of enfeebling additional effects on weapons (H2H, Dagger, and Marksmanship), and the dagger weaponskills' status effects.

[Dux]

The general trend is that people want to be the "hero" so yes there is more melee than mages.

That is not to say that melee are better than mages its simply that there is more of them.

[Cloud Tiamat]

So being a healer, Black Mage, bard, etc. doesn't feel "heroic" to most players? :p