Lone wolves and FFXI

[Aeni]

Re: Lone wolves and FFXI

Eue, here is my unbiased opinion on your question and the others can go to hell since I'm speaking purely on experience and with knowledge from many perspectives.

There was a player whom I met in my adventures. He soloed his Red Mage to 50 and his Thief to 33. Why did he do this?

His explanation, was simple. He was able to effectively eliminate much of the problems of MMORPGs. That is, being forced to continue to play outside of your normal scheduling and thus fueling your psychology of being addicted to the game.

Now, if everyone was forced to solo in FFXI, under the same conditions present in the game, how many players do you know would stick around past level 20? I'd say, not very many. At the same time, how many Haijins (read aegina's signature) would you see in the game? Not many.

His philosophy of forcing himself to play the game by soloing and without the aid or assistance of a linkshell made him enjoy the game without having to compromise his time in real life and his other obligations and duties.

Now, whether or not it is feasible to solo? Square Enix recently added in some rings which will enhance your exp flow for a limited time per casting. Casting is restricted to once every day, but considering that you are able to have two kinds of rings, this makes it attractive if you're looking to solo.

Square Enix's Sage Sundi also publicly announced that the company is looking to add solo content and expand on that in the near future. So keep your eyes on that direction.

However, in FFXI, you can only go so far soloing. For one thing, there are several missions in each nation that would require you to group with other players in order to maximize your opportunity of successfully completing those missions. Missions can reward additionl gil, fame and rank which in turn opens up access to equipment and weapons that guards have available in every nation.

Bear in mind, if you don't mind soloing, then it is possible. Many players here posting are posting out of ignorance. A friend and I did some research and found out that it is not uncommon to find players soloing well beyond level 25.

As for job choices, keep in mind that other than BLM and RDM, the other mage type classes do not lend itself to soloing well. The exception is as a SMN, but you will need avatars to greatly assist you and your successes are better at higher levels.

Here are job classes that have a degree of success with soloing:

BST, RDM, PLD, DRK, WAR, MNK, NIN, DRK, THF, RNG, BLM, DRG

As you notice, melee classes are commonly able to solo easily. As for downtimes, I cannot say how each class will fare. I can tell you that both BSTs and RDMs have the ability to chain on experience points and that's due to abilities that they have which increases the survivability and extendability in battles. BLMs can solo NMs and there's video clips out there showing what a single BLM can do in a KS30 BC battle. NINs can solo but up to a point, since their abilities to dodge and evade are usually successful with non-mage type of enemies.

The rest of the job classes would benefit from subbing WHM when soloing, as the ability set of that job class is second to none with increasing survivability of battles. Since PLDs have similar healing sets as a WHM, it might be prudent to find a more effective subjob (Probably dual wielding swords, so subbing NIN for shadows might make them one of the toughest defensible classes out there)

Anyway, whatever you decide on, make sure you're having fun. If you're not, try to exhaust all other options and then try grouping. If you can fall in with the right players, you'll probably never go back to soloing again.

[Centurion]

Re: Lone wolves and FFXI

Hello there.

I thought i would mention this, i did a quick scan of the previous posts and did not see any metion of this, there is an expansion coming out in the next few months. According to preliminary information it will focus more on solo content, in addition to new areas for solo players to explore. you can find more info about this in some other posts on this site, including this one- http://www.ffxionline.com/forums/showthread.php?t=51058

i tend to be a lone wolf myself sometimes, which does tend to lead to slower levelling than those that prefer to grind exp all the time in parties. But to be honest, im not in any hurry to get to the end. At the pace i am playing, new content becomes available well before i am strong enough to make use of it, so i am never chomping at the bit or bored waiting for new things to do.
As others have said you will need to get into parties to achieve certain goals, or to attain certain items. For those cases, i usually ask people in my Linkshell, or on my Friends List to help me out. We usually still need to pick up a few random players, but have 3 or 4 people in your party, who you know are solid helps a lot.

hope that helps

[Nodoka]

Re: Lone wolves and FFXI

SMN is probably one of the best soloers besides BST. Im surprized it wasn't mentioned in this thread. All you need is a free cost carby and you can take down a ton of stuff.

[flotssing]

Re: Lone wolves and FFXI

i solo in pretty much every game i play

[aegina]

Re: Lone wolves and FFXI

His philosophy of forcing himself to play the game by soloing and without the aid or assistance of a linkshell made him enjoy the game without having to compromise his time in real life and his other obligations and duties.

i've tried playing some of the soloing classes in this game. personally, i find it boreing to play by myself. while i understand that sometimes it can be frustrating to find a pt (the sole reason i am levelling bst atm) i find i always enjoy party play far more than i do playing solo.

i just don't play this game to play solo... for me, anyways.

[Pounce]

Re: Lone wolves and FFXI

i've tried playing some of the soloing classes in this game. personally, i find it boreing to play by myself. while i understand that sometimes it can be frustrating to find a pt (the sole reason i am levelling bst atm) i find i always enjoy party play far more than i do playing solo.

i just don't play this game to play solo... for me, anyways.

There was a poll done a while back. I don't remember what the demographic was, whether it was from a single game or MMORPG gamers in general. It was pre-FFXI though.

The results basically showed most people preferred grouping over soloing.

But they wanted soloing over being paralyzed by being unable to find a group.

[aegina]

Re: Lone wolves and FFXI

But they wanted soloing over being paralyzed by being unable to find a group.

now THIS part i agree with completely lol

[Aeni]

Re: Lone wolves and FFXI

The results basically showed most people preferred grouping over soloing.

But they wanted soloing over being paralyzed by being unable to find a group.

Generally, the basis of an MMO game is a social setting, where people in a region or from the entire world can participate and converge together. So, obviously, most MMO players will say they want to group over soloing.

In reality, if players want to solo so much to the point they avoid other players, then they should play console RPGs or other non-online RPG games out there.

However, some players (they are a minority voice) actually like to socialize with other players but not a whole lot. They limit their interaction from some past experience (much of it may be negative) and thus cast themselves as "lone wolves." Also, the reality of most MMOs are that they inherently demand a lot of time from players. I remember reading the warning SE put on FFXI about spending too much time in the game and what not. I immediately thought to myself, "yu0r pT iz B0rkeN f00!" I mean, having to LFP for 2 hours a night and then log off because that's all the time you have available to play the game would eventually drive anyone bananas.

[silentsteel]

Re: Lone wolves and FFXI

Generally, the basis of an MMO game is a social setting, where people in a region or from the entire world can participate and converge together. So, obviously, most MMO players will say they want to group over soloing.

In reality, if players want to solo so much to the point they avoid other players, then they should play console RPGs or other non-online RPG games out there.

However, some players (they are a minority voice) actually like to socialize with other players but not a whole lot. They limit their interaction from some past experience (much of it may be negative) and thus cast themselves as "lone wolves." Also, the reality of most MMOs are that they inherently demand a lot of time from players. I remember reading the warning SE put on FFXI about spending too much time in the game and what not. I immediately thought to myself, "yu0r pT iz B0rkeN f00!" I mean, having to LFP for 2 hours a night and then log off because that's all the time you have available to play the game would eventually drive anyone bananas.

heh, I uncontiously picked the job that gets the most invites. . . but 2 hours still happens. . . I've had the game for over a year, I'd love soloing stuff, but still kinda prefer pting, diversity is good. ya, beeing so close to lvl 50 & yet so far kinda depressing lol. . .