Recently returned but having trouble getting into post 99 content, please advise ...

[Obysuca]

As someone who has recently returned from a 7 year break and leveled with someone BRAND NEW TO THE GAME I highly recommend a low pop server like Valefor.

I mean, for leveling and getting merits/cp its fine, but once you get to needing gear from escha and reisenjima, trusts just aren't going to cut it and on a low population server, theres a higher chance of never getting enough people for some of the harder stuff, due to everyone either already having all of it, not being interested, or only doing things with their ls.

That's just been my experience from returning (since about the end of RoV, with a free time here and there) in November. Need things like Nibiru blade for blu, some abjuration gear for other jobs and herculean, but the most I can get for people is about 2-3, which is ok for certain t1s and maybe a t2 in zi'tah, but on a lower population server, I know I'm never going to get the people needed for t3s or anything without throwing all my gil at them.

[Afania]

Why? There is literally no advantage to being on a quieter server unless your idea of a great environment is one that goes against the core concept of an MMORPG.

This "my preference > yours" is getting old lol. Is it really so hard to understand that some people simply prefer to play with mules/certain friends with mules and not having to read none sense yells?

Playing with mules/close friends isn't "against the core concept of an MMORPG". You still play with people, just that there are less people.

For people with mules and close friends with mules and capable of getting things done, smaller server has it's advantage. You can't have the best of both worlds, the problem is that some people that only see the advantage of bigger server just has to play the "my preference > yours" card.

[Diavolo]

For people with mules and close friends with mules and capable of getting things done, smaller server has it's advantage. You can't have the best of both worlds,

You can have the best of both worlds. Some of the more accomplished players on Asura do just as you describe, playing only with close friends and their mules.

I hope you don't think everyone on Asura is a casual player with only one account to their name and is out to sour your experience. You're comfortable where you are and see no reason to uproot yourself, which is fair enough, but when it comes to MMORPGs bigger is better. Personally, if I just wanted to play with a couple of friends and ignore the rest of the world I wouldn't be logging in to FFXI. The bigger the community the more interesting the game becomes.

[Afania]

You can have the best of both worlds.

No you can't, lol. Also just FYI, I completely agree with you that unless you play 4~6+ character the benefit of bigger server generally outweight the benefit of smaller server, and the disadvantage of bigger server MAY become more tolerable for some individual if you consider faster character progression, IMO at least. But saying smaller server has zero unique benefit is absolutely biased, as biased as you think I claim every player on Asura are casual, which was never the case.

I'm just going to list a few advantages that only exist on smaller/quiet servers only.

1) There are less competition for pop spot. And yes it has been debated several times, and yes you're probably not going to wait for 1hr just to pop on Asura. But still, if you think smaller server has equal competition and wait time as bigger server then you're just as biased. The wait time may not be earth shattering long like you claimed, but they're definitely not equal.

2) Most of the smaller server has more dominate JP community and vice versa, I don't know why, maybe because English speakers kept moving to Asura but not JPs. So if you're kind of player that enjoy joining JP LS, playing with Jps, joining JP shouts, other server has a better mix between JP and NA players.

3) There are more multi box rate on smaller servers due to people are forced to play 6+ characters, and somethings are easier to accomplish with multi boxers. My fastest melee WoC kill speed is 2 min 10 sec, with 2 people playing 4+ character that buff and drop, and a few more dual boxers. I don't think I can ever accomplish same kill speed without that many mules unless I pay people to come just to buff us. Now your argument is "you can do the same on Asura". The problem is that once you play on a server with more people, the incentive to 4 to 6 box gets a lot smaller, and it's much harder to find 4+ boxers for it. The 4~6+ box player rate on smaller servers are so much higher that as long as you can get them to pt with you, you get an army of mules to improve pt efficiency.

4) There are less yell dramas in town. You know, my favorite entertainment at work is to connect to FFXIAH, switch tab to Asura, then watch hours of yell about politics, LS drama, people, troll, jokes, job balance from different people and their mules and eat popcorn. Now while some people thinks it's fun/tolerable/not a big deal, that isn't the case for everyone. Some people simply prefer a cleaner yell channel when they play the game, instead of having to add troll mule names to blist every time when they play. There were even complaints on Reddit about politic yells.

You see, the issue here is that you're comparing apples to oranges when comparing the benefits of both servers. You obviously have your preference, but you use your own preference as some sort of universal facts and expect other players to have the same preference as you. Some people simply doesn't care about faster character progression even though most people do, some people don't find playing with lots of people fun even though you do. Some people find constant yell drama extremely frustrating to read and killed all the fun for them when they log on, even though it may be tolerable(or even entertaining) for others. Some people enjoy a server with 70% JP 30% NA instead of 70% NA 30% JP, some don't.

The point is that, just because you prefer more people, able to tolerate wait time, prefer faster character progression, able to tolerate yell drama, and never play with JP, doesn't mean others have the same preference as you. And all you've been doing in every server debate is trying to force your own personal preference on others, then hinted others are ignorant/not playing MMO/biased against Asura if they disagree with you.

[Diavolo]

I'm just going to list a few advantages that only exist on smaller/quiet servers only.

And I'm going to tell you why those advantages don't amount to a whole lot:

1) There are less competition for pop spot.

It often takes less time to find an alternate pop spot than it does to wait on multiboxed characters to get located and setup.

2) Most of the smaller server has more dominate JP community and vice versa, I don't know why, maybe because English speakers kept moving to Asura but not JPs. So if you're kind of player that enjoy joining JP LS, playing with Jps, joining JP shouts, other server has a better mix between JP and NA players.

If you enjoy playing with Japanese players chances are you're happy wherever you currently are as they are more team oriented than we are thanks to their culture, but I'd make the same argument and say you're best off on Odin, just as English speakers are best off on Asura.

3) There are more multi box rate on smaller servers due to people are forced to play 6+ characters, and somethings are easier to accomplish with multi boxers.

This is an odd point to make as I'm not sure what angle you're using to promote it. Yes, there are plenty of multiboxers on Asura doing all sorts of ridiculous things from UNM, Escha/Reis, HTBFs and going to bed with 5-6 accounts CPing while they sleep. If you play 6+ characters on Ragnarok you'll have no problem doing it on Asura.

4) There are less yell dramas in town. You know, my favorite entertainment at work is to connect to FFXIAH, switch tab to Asura, then watch hours of yell about politics, LS drama, people, troll, jokes, job balance from different people and their mules and eat popcorn. Now while some people thinks it's fun/tolerable/not a big deal, that isn't the case for everyone. Some people simply prefer a cleaner yell channel when they play the game, instead of having to add troll mule names to blist every time when they play. There were even complaints on Reddit about politic yells.

This is amusing because you strike it down as a negative point while admitting you find it entertaining. Can't have it both ways! /blist only needs to be entered once, set it and forget it.

The point is that, just because you prefer more people, able to tolerate wait time, prefer faster character progression, able to tolerate yell drama, and never play with JP, doesn't mean others have the same preference as you. And all you've been doing in every server debate is trying to force your own personal preference on others, then hinted others are ignorant/not playing MMO/biased against Asura if they disagree with you.

You came to some rather odd conclusions.

Playing with a worldwide community, in particular Japanese players, has been one of this game's strengths and some of my best memories comes from my time playing with/against them. I have very low tolerance for wait times. Character progression is a non-issue here unless you're conceding my point (bigger is better). This isn't apples and oranges, it's game servers and, well, game servers. It isn't about pushing preferences down anyone's throat as I'm not telling you how to play. I'm just telling you that you can do whatever you're doing on Ragnarok on Asura, too.

[Jin_Uzuki]

I really want to know how people survived in 2006 if they think 400 players are a lot and enough.

[Afania]

@Diavolo, you know, my point isn't to debate which server is better. My point is to point out you're pushing your preference on others without ever realizing. Right now you think I'm attacking Asura, which isn't the case. I'm not even talking about nor defending for MY personal preference which you seems to misunderstood(I prefer faster character progression most of the time, just like you)I'm just pointing out your behaviors(not respecting other's decision) in these discussions, repeatly.

This is amusing because you strike it down as a negative point while admitting you find it entertaining. Can't have it both ways! /blist only needs to be entered once, set it and forget it.

Or the better choice(for some people) is to enter 0 times.

Playing with a worldwide community, in particular Japanese players, has been one of this game's strengths and some of my best memories comes from my time playing with/against them. I have very low tolerance for wait times. Character progression is a non-issue here unless you're conceding my point (bigger is better). This isn't apples and oranges, it's game servers and, well, game servers. It isn't about pushing preferences down anyone's throat as I'm not telling you how to play. I'm just telling you that you can do whatever you're doing on Ragnarok on Asura, too.

Do whatever content you want, more likely yes. Have the same playing experience, no. You can't possibly expect to have same MMORPG playing experience with different people, LS, server, activity, social connections, economy. You simply just don't. Ragnarok is very different from Odin, Asura is very different from Bahamut, Fenrir is very different from valefor, phoenix is very different from siren. The game server and playing experience is so much more than just numbers of people online. This isn't a "Asura has 1200 people, so it's better than every other servers with 300 people because mathematically 1200>300" sort of deal. Even if the entire server of Fenrir, or Valefor, or Ragnarok, or Phoenix NA players move to Asura and those people play with same groups of people from their original servers, the playing experience is still very different due to different social hierarchy and how community/groups interact with each other.


One example is someone that I know of, did very well on a smaller server due to having certain job/gear that's rare and useful in endgame community. This gave him a higher social status in endgame community and allows him to get harder things done more easily. On asura he doesn't have nearly as much social influence due to more competitors in the job market that can replace him.

If you consider the social hierarchy and how people interact with each other instead of just looking at the server numbers, you'd know that MMO playing experience is ALOT more than just server numbers.

If you enjoy playing with Japanese players chances are you're happy wherever you currently are as they are more team oriented than we are thanks to their culture, but I'd make the same argument and say you're best off on Odin, just as English speakers are best off on Asura.

Again, your pov about MMO completely ignored the unique culture, history, social hierarchy of each group in the server. You probably made the Odin suggestion based on the fact that Odin has higher JP number, but a lot of times how well a player could do is more complex than just numbers.

For example, a player that's well connected to top tier/elite JP community on X server and get the advantage of it(aka: Able to get server first aeonic clears, clear master trials etc) may not be able to do so well on Y server without the connection, even if Y server is bigger.(Not saying I'm such a person, but such cases exists all the time)

This isn't apples and oranges, it's game servers and, well, game servers.

But it is. How surprising.

I know one person that have account active and stay subbed since launch, and that person never do any endgame content, just have the character afk in starting zone/city and wonder around.

You'd be surprised that people actually play the game for very reason different from you, isn't it. Some people simply just don't value faster character progression nor number of people as much as you do.

What if the person just HAVE FUN with clean yell channel, and DON'T HAVE FUN with more yells?
What if that person just HAVE FUN with less people walking around, and DON'T HAVE FUN with more people?
What if that person just HAVE FUN reading JP in yell instead of English?
What if that person just DON'T HAVE FUN entering names to blist?

There could be 300 million different reasons why someone prefer a low pop server, and the reasons are all very different from your preference that you could never accept nor understand. You know, I can actually list a lot more small server benefits than the above 4. Regardless server choice it's 100% personal preference, apples and oranges. You repeatly, use "faster progression" and "more people" or even "this is MMO!" to sell your point, without ever realizing that some people simply just don't have fun with faster progression nor play with more people. Then you start chains of personal attacks and made tons of assumptions about whoever disagree with you, that does nothing except pissing others off for having different opinion about playing the game from you.

Anyways, I'm done with all these "My preference > yours" and "I'm right you're wrong" debate.

[Diavolo]

you start chains of personal attacks and made tons of assumptions about whoever disagree with you

I'm at a loss for words. Did I just step into Bizarro World?

[Afania]

I'm at a loss for words. Did I just step into Bizarro World?

I guess I'm preaching to the choir as much as you do.

[Vashkoda]

Thanks for all of the great info! I have a much more clear idea of what I need to be doing with my RDM now. The only issue I can see coming up is perhaps finding folks to help me do the NMs in Escha-Zitah. Do you have any tips for getting folks to help out with this? <

I am surprised that you have 2 ls's and yet come here to the forums to ask general questions about how to get caught up. Are they of no help to you at all? If so, perhaps try to make friends elsewhere. It's not necessarily about the server you're on; even the small servers have social ls's with friendly players who are more than capable of low-manning some of those NMs and letting you lot drops that are otherwise left to rot. They may not advertise themselves, so you might need to find them through word of mouth (or just straight up ask someone politely for help, and see if they offer to befriend you).

I really want to know how people survived in 2006 if they think 400 players are a lot and enough.

In 2006, people still spent a significant amount of game time leveling. Back then, it was to your advantage to have as many players as possible seeking invites, to quickly build your exp/merit party. The range of player experience also meant that a great majority weren't bothering with endgame material. Now leveling up to 99 takes a few hours at most, and the servers are top-heavy with fully leveled players who have nothing to do *but* endgame. Given that most of the "endgame" events of 2006 can now be solo'ed, there simply isn't enough of that material for a large player population. And the more recent endgame events of course have been programmed to discourage you (or flat out prevent you) from bringing more than 6 players. Regardless of just how much you might feel the effect of being on a large vs small server in terms of competition for entering instanced events or for farming limited mobs/triggers, your basic problem lies in actually finding 5 other players to do those events with you. Whether that's easier on a larger or smaller server is debatable.