Is it just me, or is this happening to everyone?

[Takelli]

I have noticed that is has gotten MUCH harder to get into a lower level party lately... When there is a healer seeking, there is no tank seeking, when there is a tank seeking, there is no healer seeking, or most people are just AFK, or simply don't want to party.

I have been thinking about this, and its getting harder to level low level jobs, as you just cant simply find a party. Soloing is slow as hell to do, and sometimes you just don't make any prgress, you sometimes loose progress if things aren't going well.

Well, I have thought about a solution to this... Henchmen! If you ever played guild wars, you would have an idea of what I am thinking about.

Henchmen will be NPCs that you can invite to your party. Only one of each job henchmen, and their level is the level of the highest party member. When you engage something, so will they. You can control them, as they will follow you around, unless you tell them to stay put in a certain area, and can even tell ones to pull, such as target a mob, and say "NPC name [Fish] <t>." It will go out, look for one, grab it, and come back to camp with it, and the party will operate like a normal party. Just not as great as regular players, as it will only go out and grab another target only after the first one has died, and will even go out if the healer has no Mp, unless you tell them to wait using the translate function.

Well, this is just an idea, and I was thinking it would make gathering a party easier. And you can only have three henchmen in a party at any time, so you cant just gather 5 of them, and leech off of them while you go work, or go to sleep.

[Yellow Mage]

Re: Is it just me, or is this happening to everyone?

Well, I have thought about a solution to this... Henchmen!

Mahoyaya says hi, and that, for whatever bizarre reason, she would really rather be referred to as a "Fellow."

And before you say "but that's not what I meant . . . " take note that it's probably going to be as close as S-E is ever going to give you.

[Mhurron]

Re: Is it just me, or is this happening to everyone?

That's why I've been duoing a lot. I haven't been in a party less then lvl25 for some time now. I soloed BLU and NIN to 37, it didn't take that long. Duoing SAM with a DNC now, we did 11-16 on Sunday in a few hours. I duoed BRD with a WAR a few months ago to 39.

Of course finding people to try new things isn't exactly any easier then finding a party. I pretty much have a duoing partner who can't say no.

[Takelli]

Re: Is it just me, or is this happening to everyone?

Mahoyaya says hi, and that, for whatever bizarre reason, she would really rather be referred to as a "Fellow."

And before you say "but that's not what I meant . . . " take note that it's probably going to be as close as S-E is ever going to give you.

The only reason why I suggested it was because the fellow sucks. Its only out for so many kills, and takes too long to level up. And its only out for 2-3 hours at a time, and if it dies, you gotta wait 24 hours to pull it back out. That was just a bad design by SE.

[Blonde]

Re: Is it just me, or is this happening to everyone?

Well you can get a tatics pearl from the Emptiness Investigation quest, which is much easier to do now that the prommies are uncapped. You can get some decent experience for your NPC when doing the quest as well. It has 4 charges with I think a 5 min recast. So if they die right away you can always call them out again. You can do the tatics pearl quest once per conquest (week) so it isn't perfect but better than just the one signal pearl every 24hrs. And the NPC starts off at lv 30 (but capped at your current level if lower) and doesn't take that long to level up at the lower levels. Once they are maybe 60+ then it can sometimes take a while to get levels.

[Raydeus]

Re: Is it just me, or is this happening to everyone?

Now, if only SE would reduce the xp penalty for having an NPC out to duoing amounts...

After all it was intended to encourage people to party with other players instead of simply relying on NPCs. A plan that didn't work AT ALL.

So there's no point on having a higher xp hit anymore.




Only problem is when you spend too much time with your npc and start talking about marrying her. <_<;

And then the other players start giving you that look. orz

[Mhurron]

Re: Is it just me, or is this happening to everyone?

Prishe, Lion or your NPC, the problem isn't which one you're lusting after.

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Re: Is it just me, or is this happening to everyone?

Nauthima was a cheating slut anyway. I saw her running around with every other guy.

[Blonde]

Re: Is it just me, or is this happening to everyone?

Now, if only SE would reduce the xp penalty for having an NPC out to duoing amounts...

After all it was intended to encourage people to party with other players instead of simply relying on NPCs. A plan that didn't work AT ALL.

So there's no point on having a higher xp hit anymore.

Well with so many experience rings available (at least if you have access to some of them) they easily make up the exp difference. I still have my Allied Ring, Anniversary ring, and always have the rechargeable ones. Since you cannot use them in Abyessa I barely get to use em. But I need to get some sub jobs leveled, so I'll use em up then.

With FoV the real exp is in the bonus for completing a page anyway, and the meager exp per mob is just a bonus.

[Vyuru]

Re: Is it just me, or is this happening to everyone?

Leveling Bst and going /bst seems to be among the better ways to level some subs, namely mage and Dnc. Once you hit lvl 30, /dnc works quite well for most melee.

You can also levelup your adventuring NPC quite easily. Take any lvl 50+ job and go wail on some EP mobs, you'll get your NPC PL'd on mobs pretty quickly.

I will say though that soloing Smn from 20-30 is getting a wee bit tiresome. Though I found a couple of LS mates who are willing to duo/trio which sped things up a bit last night.

But still, the last week and a half there have been under 20 people inbetween lvls 20-30 no matter what time of the day I'm LFG. I'm a bit worried about finding a party lvl 30+ on Smn. Even though it'd be fast, I don't exactly want level Smn by being a chest opener in Abyssea exp parties, but I don't want to primarily solo another job to lvl 75+ either. Did that already with Blu and Drg.

[Ketaru]

Re: Is it just me, or is this happening to everyone?

Well you can get a tatics pearl from the Emptiness Investigation quest, which is much easier to do now that the prommies are uncapped. You can get some decent experience for your NPC when doing the quest as well. It has 4 charges with I think a 5 min recast. So if they die right away you can always call them out again. You can do the tatics pearl quest once per conquest (week) so it isn't perfect but better than just the one signal pearl every 24hrs. And the NPC starts off at lv 30 (but capped at your current level if lower) and doesn't take that long to level up at the lower levels. Once they are maybe 60+ then it can sometimes take a while to get levels.

Promyvion being uncapped, though, is an example of the bigger problem at hand. It's a moving target of a problem that I think SE has given up on trying to get ahead of. There is no new blood joining the game and many of the high level players aren't interested in leveling new jobs.

I will give you that, at higher levels, NPC staying out for 30 mobs in nothing to sneeze at, especially when that is multipled by 5. But at such levels, duoing with your NPC for EXP isn't very practical.

Call me cynical, but I believe the Adventuring Fellow is a good example of why I would not place faith in the game to give us a trustworthy AI as a party member to fill the role of a living, breathing player. I would much rather SE try to find a way to attract new players to the game. Right now, they have shifted to making sure current players don't leave. But that won't work for much longer as people finally get bored with it. I already am getting a little tired of it.

Only problem is when you spend too much time with your npc and start talking about marrying her. <_<;

That won't be a problem I will ever have ;>_> NJ State Law prohibits anybody but a man and a woman from marrying.

[Grizzlebeard]

Re: Is it just me, or is this happening to everyone?

I put a ridiculous amount of effort in to levelling my fellow when armour paths were based off zones and had to be under a certain nation's control. She's level and time extension capped now and looking back I have to say the time investment really wasn't worth it. Even with the advanced manuals their UI is just painful. Whenever I summon her she proceeds to Pro/Shell herself and me, then Stoneskin etc, then just as I'm about to engage a mob it's, "Be very careful I'm almost out of mana". The chances of gaining Haste are minimal and God forbid you ever want to skillchain with them. I have maybe a 1 in 5 chance of her ever using the correct weaponskill. And she fucking cheats on me with Omgwtfbbqkitten...

[Aeni]

Re: Is it just me, or is this happening to everyone?

That's why I've been duoing a lot.

We used to do a lot of 3-man parties when I last played FFXI and it went decently well (still could not hold a candle to a well balanced 6-player party) but you're still forced to certain combination in order to make it smooth. You can't just randomly say, I'll go as X and sub Y and he can go as W and sub Z and we'll have the bestest of times.

It's still going to be boiled down in terms of damage mitigation (Ninja) and no down time (TP spam, no mana)