I may be returning but have a few questions regarding Duos

[Wiseman40]

I quit playing FFXI a long time ago because it's near impossible to solo. Although I do enjoy the occasional group, I generally like to spend a quiet evening alone soloing. These days, I spend a lot of time duoing with my wife and thought that perhaps I could return to FFXI and duo.

What are some effective duo combinations?

Also, I hear there's an expansion coming out with blue mages and corsairs... Has this already been released? If not, when can we expect to see it?

Thanks in advance for the advice.

[Akai]

Re: I may be returning but have a few questions regarding Duos

it comes out april 14th ish and a few good job combo are rdm-pld, nin-whm, thf-whm, war-whm, bst-brd? maybe...., drg-rdm <_< only my toughts tho

[qaitakalnin]

Re: I may be returning but have a few questions regarding Duos

douing is fun (i would recomend rdm rdm personally since they offer the most versatility). I have solod 25 lvls of rdm and with the new NPC's (i call them pokemon) i can solo t's and VT's (cant chain the VT's, but i can chain the T's )

Of note though i am lvling it as a 34rdm/17nin and it is a lot of effort, you got to find the right areas and the right mobs. I have found this neat little area right outside the Sea Serpants Grotto that is very nice

It is more difficult but i enjoy it more, so it is possible, and when you get your NPC's you will actually have 4 pt memembers have fun.

[Wiseman40]

Re: I may be returning but have a few questions regarding Duos

Yeah, those sound like pretty good combinations...

There's just something about FFXI that keeps getting me down.
I started playing in UO when it first released. I played EQ1, DAoC, AO, SWG, WoW and now EQ2 and have done very well in all of them. I made it to the cap and had great fun.

In FFXI, however, I never made it past level 15 and never stopped feeling foreign.
The game is so different.

This is particularly difficult for me to accept because growing up, Squaresoft was my favorite developer.
I played all the final fantasy games for the early systems and their other titles like secret of mana.

The whole final fantasy environment is familiar and compelling, but I find the gameplay difficult.

I'm never really sure where I should be going or what I should be doing. I'm fairly good at finding fair equipment (I think), but when I encounter something that's too difficult I just die (doesn't seem to be any way to escape).

So the game seems to be all about finding safe experience and being patient.

I hope that with a duo I'll be able to get more out of the game than solo. I've never been very good at finding groups (not very gregarious by nature), and when I do end up in a group it's because someone else invites me at random.

Most things seem to point to the fact that FFXI isn't for me, but I don't want to accept that.

[qaitakalnin]

Re: I may be returning but have a few questions regarding Duos

well as far as lvl goes you should be able to lvl dou with a lot of patient, but something that continuealy gets pointed out to me, is that this game is designed to force people to party, so some quests and missions, which (to me anyway) will require you to team up with people. But as far as just straight lvling goes you should be good.

[Wiseman40]

Re: I may be returning but have a few questions regarding Duos

Are there any decent duo posibilities with mnk? I'd like to do mnk/nin and have my wife do whm/smn.

[Jei]

Re: I may be returning but have a few questions regarding Duos

you had different experience than I ^^
I played many online games too. UO EQ1 EQ2 WoW E&B AO DAoC.
Only 2 games could make me felt so attached to my characters... which were UO and FFXI.
I usually have fun moving to new games. But most of them, the fun dried out pretty soon. EQ2, I got bored in a day, WoW I got bored after a couple months.

Anyway back to topic. levelling in FFXI will always be better in group. There are a lot of things you can solo/duo efficiently. But exping, it is possible but far from efficience.

Lower level can be hard. From 25 on exping gets better.

[nazlfrag]

Re: I may be returning but have a few questions regarding Duos

I don't think there is an effective duo early on, at least not until level 30. Beastmasters are the preferred solo job, but you need a basic job to level 30 (at least) plus a levelled subjob to unlock these. You will find parties from random invites can be rich and rewarding gaming experiences. It will be tough to solo, I solo'd my rdm for quite a while, and often lost exp. At level 15, you just gotta head to the dunes and make the best of the parties there. You will need to fight here to unlock your subjob, which you will need if you want to solo/duo later on.

If you liked the other FF games, you should appreciate the strength of a party. Each has a role to play in keeping the others alive, and generally the more people there are the better chance of survival. The best way to learn a job is to party with others who play the same role.

[Rodin]

Re: I may be returning but have a few questions regarding Duos

If you're looking to solo, BST/WHM and BST/WHM is the only way to get to 75 within a year, of casual play. As BST/WHM, my duo partner and myself can get 4-6k XP an hour using DC-EM pets against VT-IT mobs. And yes, this is POST "BST-nerf". BST is a fun job, but if you're looking to do MNK/WAR, and WHM/SMN. I'd say the best thing to do would be a set duo for you guys. Just get what you need out of the people that are LFG, and go with it. Also, 71-75, you and your wife can do Bones/Skeleton/MNK/Fistburn parties in King Ranparre's Tomb. You can easily get 9-12k XP an hour in those.

[pearlsea]

Re: I may be returning but have a few questions regarding Duos

Personaly i hate the solo grind from 1-10 outside of your starting city, its just soo boring and slow, and i cant imagen how it would be after lvl 15 without BST. I you want you could probably duo worms with blm and a rdm with the blm nuking and the rdm scilencing and healing. I do not recomend xping outside of the standerd 6man party because otherwise you will be going nowhere fast.

[Wiseman40]

Re: I may be returning but have a few questions regarding Duos

Honestly I have no interest in all in forming, or being a part of a 6 man party for experience or anything else. I should be able to play the game as a duo. If I can't do this in any reasonable way I'm just not going to be able to play, which is really a shame.

[forster]

Re: I may be returning but have a few questions regarding Duos

Honestly I have no interest in all in forming, or being a part of a 6 man party for experience or anything else. I should be able to play the game as a duo. If I can't do this in any reasonable way I'm just not going to be able to play, which is really a shame.

You still cant effectively solo at an 'enjoyable' rate - perhaps this game isnt for you.

FFXI's best point is its partying system, if you have no interest in this, again, you're not going to get very far.

[neighbortaru]

Re: I may be returning but have a few questions regarding Duos

the only real, reasonable way to duo in this game (for the moment, no clue what the expansion will bring) is with BST + BST. anything else is a long and arduous task.

[Wiseman40]

Re: I may be returning but have a few questions regarding Duos

Although obviously a 6 man party would be much more powerful, I find it difficult to believe that two people, each with an NPC from that quest would still have a difficult time earning experience solo.

I want to do the missions as well but I would be willing to wait a few levels to make it easy for our two person/two NPC party to manage.

From what I've seen, most people don't have to use every trick up their sleeve in a party. They do what they can do fill their role while managing their MP or HP enough so that they don't slow the party down with excessive downtime.

Knowing that fact, wouldn't two people and two NPCs be able to accomplish similar goals, but with more downtime, or perhaps less ambitious goals with no downtime?

Even if we eventually end up doing bst, that won't happen for a while since we can't do the quest for it yet.

In the meantime, we know we can get to level 15 pretty easily. At level 18 we could get our subjobs (but would probably have to wait a few levels because we'd want to do it as a duo), but from 15 to 20 we don't really know what to do. The only experience I've had at those levels would be from enemies that generally people form a 6 person party for. There seems to me to be a gap at those levels, where I can only find easy prey or very tough enemies.

Also, once we finally do get our subjobs and level those up to about 15 or so we'll still be in the low 20s without the NPCs to help us. I'm not sure what level we need to be to get those NPCs, but if I remember correctly the quest starts in Jeuno, which is a town generally associated with things beyond our reach.

I'm trying to formulate a plan here. I know there is a way - I just have to find it.

By the way, I'm not opposed to parties at high levels, particularly end-game. I just don't want to rely on them all the time. My free time for games like this generally doesn't all happen at once. I have to divide my time into several one hour pieces throughout the day.

Although some days, yes, I have time to look for a party and stay with it for an entire level or more, most days I need to have a way to work toward my goals in smaller intervals.

[Jei]

Re: I may be returning but have a few questions regarding Duos

if you don't mind about down time, I suppose it's possible. Worth the trouble or not, I don't know. Minimizing downtime is what parties are for by the way.
I suggest you compare them yourself tho Around level 25 or so will be a good time.

There are missions that require 5-6 man to pass. The dragon battle for rank 3 is the first one you'll run into. It has a level cap of 25.
Later on some missions will require alliance, but those are still far ahead I guess.