What keeps u guys going?

[Jokerboy1]

Re: What keeps u guys going?

lmao i love ur sig

[silentsteel]

Re: What keeps u guys going?

My one problem is thou being my highest class is only in the mid 30's I dont have all those creatures that you can summon

well, the thing about that is, once you hit 20 with smn, you can do the Mini Avatar fights ( ^o^ lvl 19 smn, 1 lvl away), and can get the avatars that way. You require less fame than the Prime avatars & besides only fighting by yourself, its all around sounding easier for lower levels.

[SharMarali]

Re: What keeps u guys going?

For me, I've always preferred to play in a supporting role in video games. I've never much cared for being a frontline attacking character. Don't get me wrong, I love frontline attacking characters.. when OTHER people are playing them. I'm just not one who ever enjoyed that role personally.

Like a couple of others here, RDM was my first love too. I chose RDM as my job when I started FFXI (at that time, FYI, SMN, NIN, DRG, and SAM did not yet exist) and I leveled it to 75 without looking back. I never *seriously* leveled anything else until I had taken RDM to 75. RDM, for me, was a job that could do a LOT of different things. I enjoyed it because I didn't have time to stand around and be bored, there was always something I could be doing and I wasn't necessarily in the same role in every single party I was in.

I got kind of bored after "finishing" with RDM and started looking into what to level next. I got REALLY discouraged about continuing as a supporting character, because at that time, I had made the error of hanging around with a lot of people who liked to tell me what I could or could not do because of my chosen race, which is Elvaan. They had a tendancy to constantly make disparaging remarks about anyone who hadn't picked the "best" race/job combination. So I decided to go WAR, because out of all the frontline jobs, it had the most appeal for me. Like RDM, WAR could fill several different roles. It was a chameleon, capable of being an attacker or a tank, master of all weapons, user of all support jobs. I got into the job, despite the fact that it wasn't what I normally enjoyed doing. Unfortunately, when I reached the 50's, I discovered that not only was I no longer a viable tank, but I was no longer the master of all weapons, user of all support jobs I had once been. No matter WHAT happened, when I'd get into a PT, I'd be told to use NIN SJ and dual wield axes. This was NOT the job I had signed on for, and so with no regrets, I sold my equipment and moved on.

Why did I land on summoner next? Well, I won't lie - Part of it WAS because I had just obtained Fenrir. A friend of mine had wanted to fight him very, very badly and had asked me to be in his Fenrir party. PLD MNK THF RDM WHM BRD was our setup, we had NO idea what we were doing, and we died a few times before we finally won. Something sort of clicked in me like.. I just fought a really difficult battle, it seems a shame not to ever do anything with my reward. I had raised SMN to 37 already as an alternate SJ for my RDM. I had HATED raising SMN to 37 and I had SWORN I would never touch it again. I also wasn't a big fan of using SJ SMN and I almost wished I had never raised it in the first place. So when I decided to raise it for a few more levels after I got Fen, everyone I knew thought I had gone stupid.

I don't know what changed. It had been almost a year since I had raised SMN to 37, and I had done that in a 10-37 static PT of friends wanting to raise alternate SJs. Let me say, we had gotten from 10 to 37 super fast, because all of us were skilled and experienced players, nobody did anything stupid or said "i g2g" in the middle of a battle, we chained like mad and then moved to the next area when we could no longer get 200+ experience. Somehow, I'd hated SMN then. And somehow, I loved it this time. Sure, I had to be main healer 80% of the time. That didn't bother me. Sure, I had to PT with a bunch of random weirdos, many of whom didn't know their jobs. That didn't bother me either. I realized that SMN was the versatile job I'd been looking for all this time. I could be a healer, an attacker, a supporter, I had abilities that no one else had like casting stoneskin on my entire PT... Something was different this time.

I think the first time around, I was in such a hurry to get to 37 that I didn't care WHAT I was doing. I don't think I really used the avatars to their full potential. (on a side note, I already had all the avatars except Fen, because well, I was a 70+ RDM and had done all the prime battles long, long before the mini-battles were released). I spent a lot of my time standing around complaining about how I could only do anything once per minute and most of what I could do wasn't really that cool anyway. It didn't help that the people I was PTing with, for the most part, thought SMN was a glorified WHM and didn't really think there was any point to my raising it.

Fenrir might have been part of what gave me a boot in the rear to try out SMN again, but I found that I didn't use him that much in those days, and I honestly don't use him all that much now either. I think what I love about SMN is the absolute power that you feel you have when you are playing as a SMN. Sure, there are other jobs who can deal more damage. Yes, there are other jobs more adept at healing. Summoner is really the only job that can LEGITIMATELY do both (don't bother arguing this point with me overmuch, I'm a 75 RDM and I know how lame my own MBs are - if I do 700 or better I'm dancing in the streets). And on top of that, you have the power to give additional bonuses to your PT members. In the right hands, SMN *is* the most powerful job in the game. But nobody knows it because they're blinded by BLMs and RNGs and even BRDs. For me it's not about how much damage I can do in twenty minutes. It's about HOW MUCH I CAN DO in twenty minutes.

And even at one ability per minute (ok, 52 seconds now) - I can do a lot.

[tazirai]

Re: What keeps u guys going?

In the right hands, SMN *is* the most powerful job in the game. But nobody knows it because they're blinded by BLMs and RNGs and even BRDs. For me it's not about how much damage I can do in twenty minutes. It's about HOW MUCH I CAN DO in twenty minutes.

And even at one ability per minute (ok, 52 seconds now) - I can do a lot.

/cheer you crazy Elf

Imglad you found something you like hehe,Now if we can convince a certain crazy hume female.....who switches jobs like a teenager...

[dot_rain]

Re: What keeps u guys going?

For me, I've always preferred to play in a supporting role in video games. I've never much cared for being a frontline attacking character. Don't get me wrong, I love frontline attacking characters.. when OTHER people are playing them. I'm just not one who ever enjoyed that role personally.

Like a couple of others here, RDM was my first love too. I chose RDM as my job when I started FFXI (at that time, FYI, SMN, NIN, DRG, and SAM did not yet exist) and I leveled it to 75 without looking back. I never *seriously* leveled anything else until I had taken RDM to 75. RDM, for me, was a job that could do a LOT of different things. I enjoyed it because I didn't have time to stand around and be bored, there was always something I could be doing and I wasn't necessarily in the same role in every single party I was in.

I got kind of bored after "finishing" with RDM and started looking into what to level next. I got REALLY discouraged about continuing as a supporting character, because at that time, I had made the error of hanging around with a lot of people who liked to tell me what I could or could not do because of my chosen race, which is Elvaan. They had a tendancy to constantly make disparaging remarks about anyone who hadn't picked the "best" race/job combination. So I decided to go WAR, because out of all the frontline jobs, it had the most appeal for me. Like RDM, WAR could fill several different roles. It was a chameleon, capable of being an attacker or a tank, master of all weapons, user of all support jobs. I got into the job, despite the fact that it wasn't what I normally enjoyed doing. Unfortunately, when I reached the 50's, I discovered that not only was I no longer a viable tank, but I was no longer the master of all weapons, user of all support jobs I had once been. No matter WHAT happened, when I'd get into a PT, I'd be told to use NIN SJ and dual wield axes. This was NOT the job I had signed on for, and so with no regrets, I sold my equipment and moved on.

Why did I land on summoner next? Well, I won't lie - Part of it WAS because I had just obtained Fenrir. A friend of mine had wanted to fight him very, very badly and had asked me to be in his Fenrir party. PLD MNK THF RDM WHM BRD was our setup, we had NO idea what we were doing, and we died a few times before we finally won. Something sort of clicked in me like.. I just fought a really difficult battle, it seems a shame not to ever do anything with my reward. I had raised SMN to 37 already as an alternate SJ for my RDM. I had HATED raising SMN to 37 and I had SWORN I would never touch it again. I also wasn't a big fan of using SJ SMN and I almost wished I had never raised it in the first place. So when I decided to raise it for a few more levels after I got Fen, everyone I knew thought I had gone stupid.

I don't know what changed. It had been almost a year since I had raised SMN to 37, and I had done that in a 10-37 static PT of friends wanting to raise alternate SJs. Let me say, we had gotten from 10 to 37 super fast, because all of us were skilled and experienced players, nobody did anything stupid or said "i g2g" in the middle of a battle, we chained like mad and then moved to the next area when we could no longer get 200+ experience. Somehow, I'd hated SMN then. And somehow, I loved it this time. Sure, I had to be main healer 80% of the time. That didn't bother me. Sure, I had to PT with a bunch of random weirdos, many of whom didn't know their jobs. That didn't bother me either. I realized that SMN was the versatile job I'd been looking for all this time. I could be a healer, an attacker, a supporter, I had abilities that no one else had like casting stoneskin on my entire PT... Something was different this time.

I think the first time around, I was in such a hurry to get to 37 that I didn't care WHAT I was doing. I don't think I really used the avatars to their full potential. (on a side note, I already had all the avatars except Fen, because well, I was a 70+ RDM and had done all the prime battles long, long before the mini-battles were released). I spent a lot of my time standing around complaining about how I could only do anything once per minute and most of what I could do wasn't really that cool anyway. It didn't help that the people I was PTing with, for the most part, thought SMN was a glorified WHM and didn't really think there was any point to my raising it.

Fenrir might have been part of what gave me a boot in the rear to try out SMN again, but I found that I didn't use him that much in those days, and I honestly don't use him all that much now either. I think what I love about SMN is the absolute power that you feel you have when you are playing as a SMN. Sure, there are other jobs who can deal more damage. Yes, there are other jobs more adept at healing. Summoner is really the only job that can LEGITIMATELY do both (don't bother arguing this point with me overmuch, I'm a 75 RDM and I know how lame my own MBs are - if I do 700 or better I'm dancing in the streets). And on top of that, you have the power to give additional bonuses to your PT members. In the right hands, SMN *is* the most powerful job in the game. But nobody knows it because they're blinded by BLMs and RNGs and even BRDs. For me it's not about how much damage I can do in twenty minutes. It's about HOW MUCH I CAN DO in twenty minutes.

And even at one ability per minute (ok, 52 seconds now) - I can do a lot.

m(_ _)m

[Grissom]

Re: What keeps u guys going?

Much like how I chose WHM instead of what I planned before this games release(SAM, DRG) I don't know. Some how I just fell into it and loved more than anything. Same with SMN, I have no clue why I love this or why I chose to stop lvling whm (AT 74 XD) to mainly lvl this. It's a mystery but people just somehow fall into things that surprisingly fit them.

Oh and we (WHM and SMN) have the best damn pants in the game

[Kutch]

Re: What keeps u guys going?

For me, it's the diversity of the game, especially the job changing ability.
See, I played Everquest for allmost five years, until I was burned out, and in FFXI, I've found what to me is near perfection.

- changing jobs to do something completely different
- swapping linkpearls from "family linkshells" to intensive worker linkshells
- Completing odd quests that give great rewards
- The whole mission concept
- Fishing and tradeskilling

If you look at my sig, I'm only lvl 65, after two years of FFXI (I started to play at NA release), and I am in absolutely no rush to get high faster. Unlike many other MMO's (And I've tried a few), FFXI delivers fun for all situations, most of my best "moments" in game happen during low/mid level jobs. The higher level, more drama and exp grinding make the game dull, even tho, sometimes, it's fun working for that specific piece of equipment.
And of course, as with every MMO, the friendship with new people is allways a nice thing, even tho it is not special to FFXI.

A few things they need to fix are:
- Response time on commands is ridiculous. I've learned to live with it, but when I have friends over, they all react strongly to how pushing a button can take anywhere between 1-5 seconds before you see the reaction on screen. Commands such as sit/heal, casting spells, or simply bringing up the macro bar by holding down ALT or CTRL is wayyyy too slow.

- Drop the FPS softcap

- Remove either CTRL or ALT requirement to invoke macros, and make the entire keyboard
macro-able. There's no reason to press & hold ALT key to cast a spell you have defined on macro.

[SharMarali]

Re: What keeps u guys going?

Oh and we (WHM and SMN) have the best damn pants in the game

Aye.. LMAO