SOA Missions Request - Allowing for Difficulty Selection

[Kytan]

I first started FFXI in 2004 and my wife joined me in around 2007/2008. We went through and cleared 3 Nations / ZM / CoP missions with a static group consisting of LS mates and friends back then.

Fast forward to today where all our friends have long quit or moved on to FFXIV or other games (in fact I do have 3 on-going account subscriptions for FFXIV even though I am not actively playing). My wife had also quit gaming to focus more on our kids.

However, as someone who is keen on storyline and a soft spot for FFXI, I have returned to the game on an irregular basis and continued soloing (dual-box) my wife's character and my character (on 2 separate PCs) through the missions to experience the rich story and the cut scenes.

Soloing on the older mission contents such as A Moogle Kupo d'Etat, A Shantotto Ascension, and most recently Wings of the Goddess Missions (for all 3 nations) are not an issue with RoE iLevel 117 equipment. I had been diligently clearing several missions at a time whenever I can find the spare time.

Having completed those, I had recently moved on to SOA missions. I had discovered that it may not be possible to solo (dual-box) certain missions even with the help of Trust NPCs (Note: my characters are not pimped in anyway; we do not have Relics, Mythic and the latest gears).

In fact, I have attempted 'SOA 2-7-1 Behind the Sluices' no less than 7 to 8 times without success, mainly due to unconventional hate issues and the inability to keep the mission NPC alive.

Looking for a LS is not an option as I know that I cannot commit regular play time to the game. I would not want potential LS mates to feel that I am only making use of them to clear the missions and have no interest in other end-game activities that the LS may be involved in. Furthermore, there is the time-zone / language issues as I am an English speaking player, but as I am from Singapore, my time zone is much closer to that of JP than to NA or EU.

I do understand that there are many well-equipped players who wants a challenge and it is not right to dumb down the mission difficulties. Hence, will SE consider letting players select the difficulty levels of the missions (much like the case for some BCNMs in FFXI) or allow for some auto-scaling of difficulty based on the number of players in a party entering mission battlefields? This will greatly benefit returning players who want nothing but to experience the story of the SOA expansion.

[Shirai]

Looking for a LS is not an option as I know that I cannot commit regular play time to the game. I would not want potential LS mates to feel that I am only making use of them to clear the missions and have no interest in other end-game activities that the LS may be involved in.

Sorry if I come over as rude, but this is not a valid reason not to look for an active social linkshell.
Ragnarok (taking into consideration that you character info is true) is one of the higher populated servers according to the FFXIAH database (http://www.ffxiah.com/database).
You cannot convince me that there are no purely social linkshells out there.

Step over that introvert fear you have and shout for a linkshell.

[Kytan]

No offence taken. :)

Firstly, I believe a breakdown of the players population by region or by actual play-time of the day will be a more appropriate gauge.

For a more objective view, Singapore is:

13 hours ahead of US & Canadian cities such as Washington DC, New York, Ottawa.
14 to 15 hours ahead of most other major US cities.
16 hours ahead of Los Angles.
7 hours ahead of major EU cities such as Amsterdam, Paris, Barcelona, Madrid, Rome, Berlin.
8 hours ahead of most major UK cities such as London, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Dublin, Belfast.
1 hour behind Tokyo and other Japanese cities.

I am effectively bilingual, but the Japanese language is not one of the languages that I am proficient in. ^^;

---

Secondly, the number of characters shown in FFXIAH database may be inflated as some players have multiple accounts and / or mules. E.g. I do have 2 accounts that I log-on concurrently at all times.

---

No, I do not have an introverted fear of shouting for a LS. I'll admit I do have a fear of:

1) Getting stuck in a LS that I have to use {auto-translate} even for simple communications;

and / or

2) Telling the nice people in the LS: "Thanks for the assistance in the 3-4 battlefields required for the completion of SOA expansion! I had fun but I can't be sticking around as I will be concentrating more on <insert game name or real-life activities or commitments here> in the foreseeable future. Tell you what, I promise I will come back and catch you peeps again when SE releases the next FFXI expansion and I need help in clearing those new missions!"

[Tidis]

Join a primarily social LS, if you're in one large enough, hopefully you'd be able to gather together a few helpers.

[Shirai]

Join a primarily social LS, if you're in one large enough, hopefully you'd be able to gather together a few helpers.

Seriously, do this.
You're not the only one taking regular breaks from the game.

Many of the larger socials are filled with people that come and go.

[Protey]

all of the SoA missions are soloable (without trusts) on RDM. You don't have to have any REMs to beat them. If you duo with a WHM (keep the NPC alive so RDM doesn't have to) it is really easy.

[dasva]

I dual boxed all of them fairly easily with pld and whm except the salamander where I switched to blm and whm. Many can be solo zerged with trusts with zerg friendly jobs. And then there are always the attrition based jobs like rdm pld or blu or pet jobs. Or just shout for another player or 2. Probably wont be able to get a full pt but that would be overkill anyways. But should be able to get 1-2 people who need it or want the balyd from it

You should also remember that all those other storyline missions you referenced were much much much harder to beat when they came out. Many of them took a lot of people dozens of attempts with full pts and meds and strategies preplanned. These are actually by far the easiest of any storyline missions as they come out.

[Protey]

I dual boxed all of them fairly easily with pld and whm except the salamander where I switched to blm and whm. Many can be solo zerged with trusts with zerg friendly jobs. And then there are always the attrition based jobs like rdm pld or blu or pet jobs. Or just shout for another player or 2. Probably wont be able to get a full pt but that would be overkill anyways. But should be able to get 1-2 people who need it or want the balyd from it

You should also remember that all those other storyline missions you referenced were much much much harder to beat when they came out. Many of them took a lot of people dozens of attempts with full pts and meds and strategies preplanned. These are actually by far the easiest of any storyline missions as they come out.

yes! i so miss those epic CoP battles.

[Kytan]

First off, many thanks to all your helpful comments. :)

@ Tidis & Shirai: Noted. I'll try to look for LS that does not mind people coming and going. Back in those days, it was almost a cardinal sin to join and quit LS in such a casual manner. Sometimes deflections even led to inter-LS rivalries. (Yeah, even though some of these LS were supposed to be 'social').

@ Protey: I do not have problems staying alive as a RDM, but I do have a problem with not having a means to dispatch those enemy NPCs quickly enough. MP is not an issue with 10 MP/tick Refresh from gears and spells but even with spamming of Cure IVs, I simply cannot replenish the mission NPC's health fast enough with several enemy NPCs ganging on her. My magic / weapon skills for all jobs are at or just slightly above the Level 75 levels (levelling up Jobs from 75 to 99 with GoVs does have its short-comings).

@dasva: Yeah, we needed to reference to Erecia's COP guide back in those days and studied videos, ffxiclopedia and other sources for mission strategies. Meds and food were required and wipe and re-raise was a viable strategy. But those were with static groups and friends and we were pretty well-equipped in our time. Not so now. Everyone has quitted and my gears are, at best, 'entry-level' to put it bluntly. I do have PLD and WHM available on both accounts but no Aegis, Ochain or Excalibur as you do. ;)

My attrition and pet Jobs (RDM, PLD, BST), unfortunately, does not allow me to keep up with the NPCs damage on Arciela. And while I respect all you Relic holders, I do not think I will ever spend months (or years) to obtain and upgrade Relics to Level 99 just to clear these SOA missions.

:)

[dasva]

@dasva: Yeah, we needed to reference to Erecia's COP guide back in those days and studied videos, ffxiclopedia and other sources for mission strategies. Meds and food were required and wipe and re-raise was a viable strategy. But those were with static groups and friends and we were pretty well-equipped in our time. Not so now. Everyone has quitted and my gears are, at best, 'entry-level' to put it bluntly. I do have PLD and WHM available on both accounts but no Aegis, Ochain or Excalibur as you do. ;)

My attrition and pet Jobs (RDM, PLD, BST), unfortunately, does not allow me to keep up with the NPCs damage on Arciela. And while I respect all you Relic holders, I do not think I will ever spend months (or years) to obtain and upgrade Relics to Level 99 just to clear these SOA missions.

:)

Well then bring your gear back up like it was back then!!! If you approach these like you did those you can win with just 2 characters!!! As far as what I have Excalibur is useless, Priwen is a fine substitute for ochain and nothing was so dangerous magically that aegis was needed. It also is fairly quickly made relics are really easy and fast these days

Why not have your whm heal her? Not like she needs much healing as if you run in and position correctly she will stay out of range and most the mobs will stay on you most the time. Potey I think solod them all on rdm though being the curing and fighter is somewhat mp intensive but you got a whm account too so that wont be a problem. Though it might not be accurate to call bst attrition anymore what with 10k+ ready moves and as low as 10 second ready recast, run wild and Unleash and skillchain you could probably zerg on bst

[Protey]

First off, many thanks to all your helpful comments. :)

@ Tidis & Shirai: Noted. I'll try to look for LS that does not mind people coming and going. Back in those days, it was almost a cardinal sin to join and quit LS in such a casual manner. Sometimes deflections even led to inter-LS rivalries. (Yeah, even though some of these LS were supposed to be 'social').

@ Protey: I do not have problems staying alive as a RDM, but I do have a problem with not having a means to dispatch those enemy NPCs quickly enough. MP is not an issue with 10 MP/tick Refresh from gears and spells but even with spamming of Cure IVs, I simply cannot replenish the mission NPC's health fast enough with several enemy NPCs ganging on her. My magic / weapon skills for all jobs are at or just slightly above the Level 75 levels (levelling up Jobs from 75 to 99 with GoVs does have its short-comings).

@dasva: Yeah, we needed to reference to Erecia's COP guide back in those days and studied videos, ffxiclopedia and other sources for mission strategies. Meds and food were required and wipe and re-raise was a viable strategy. But those were with static groups and friends and we were pretty well-equipped in our time. Not so now. Everyone has quitted and my gears are, at best, 'entry-level' to put it bluntly. I do have PLD and WHM available on both accounts but no Aegis, Ochain or Excalibur as you do. ;)

My attrition and pet Jobs (RDM, PLD, BST), unfortunately, does not allow me to keep up with the NPCs damage on Arciela. And while I respect all you Relic holders, I do not think I will ever spend months (or years) to obtain and upgrade Relics to Level 99 just to clear these SOA missions.

:)

all but one enemy should be on you. After buffing up run in and aggro all of them, only one should go attack arciela. Here is a link to all the SoA missions I solo'd: Protey's solos (http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxi/threads/43032-And-the-epic-saga-of-RDM-solo-continues...). If after watching those you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask.

[VoiceMemo]

Looking for a LS is not an option as I know that I cannot commit regular play time to the game. I would not want potential LS mates to feel that I am only making use of them to clear the missions and have no interest in other end-game activities that the LS may be involved in. Furthermore, there is the time-zone / language issues as I am an English speaking player, but as I am from Singapore, my time zone is much closer to that of JP than to NA or EU.

I do understand that there are many well-equipped players who wants a challenge and it is not right to dumb down the mission difficulties. Hence, will SE consider letting players select the difficulty levels of the missions (much like the case for some BCNMs in FFXI) or allow for some auto-scaling of difficulty based on the number of players in a party entering mission battlefields? This will greatly benefit returning players who want nothing but to experience the story of the SOA expansion.

A social shell probably is your best bet if all your friends/those you met in game have moved on.

The other option is to find a shell like mine, I call it a retirement shell. It is made up of long time players who are now older and have married, kids, job etc. We still do all events just at a slower pace. We help each other out, play when we can, have set events day/times but none of them are mandatory.