Solo capable misisons/quests

I'm having an extremely difficult time finding people to do certain missions/quests, that involve a fight and most of the time they aren't solo capable. Wouldn't it make things easier to implement a system that would have the mobs' difficulty be determined by the number of people entering the fight? I still want the fights to be a challenge, but I just wish their were more options available to solo these fights when you can't find other people to go with.

I agree completely. A friend of mine and I recently attempted his COR AF3 battle with a level 90 WAR and a level 80 THF and it wiped the floor with us. The same could be said of WHM's AF3 battle which is equally brutal. Until the recent change I've known dozens of people that were perpetually stuck at the 5-1 and/or 2-3 nation missions. Not because of personal capability, but because of the difficulty in obtaining help from others with the right job set combinations to make victory possible.

Far to often quest and mission related battles are difficult to a point where only limited party setup strategies even have a chance of winning. Given the age of the game and the difficulty of procuring the right job/party setup for battle victory when there's little to no personal motivation for others to assist, I believe is high time something was done to allow players with limited friends lists or small linkshells the chance at actually completing game content outside of pure gear obtainment.

I understand the necessity of making high stat gear require group efforts, but story based content and gear from the 50s and 60s shouldn't require this level of personal punishment and discouragement. I can't honestly understand any logic in making any job artifact armor, quest or mission prior to end game content require ever more than two individuals of almost any job combination.

Like many other things, with the new level caps there's still mountains of old content that's improperly adjusted to the new standards of play.

I find myself trying a mission fight only to be killed, and so I wait for the next version update, to increase the level cap in hopes that I can finally complete the mission. I just end up dead yet again and the cycle repeats. It's just kills my mood and has me taking long breaks from the game.

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Originally Posted by James15101

It's just kills my mood and has me taking long breaks from the game.

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This has always been one of the most annoying parts of playing for me. Personally, I love the story content of the game. But, far to often I find myself spending months or years between missions because of my personal inability to find a group to get these events complete.

I think it really all feeds back to the unfortunate lack of casual player concern on SE's part. Being a forced grouping game, nearly all content was designed around full party and/or alliance setups. Sadly, not all of us are so apt at fitting in or finding friends or just simply lucky enough to get help to finish the true core content of the game. I'd love a chance to finally get through my missions and story related quests that I've been trying off and on to get done for over four years now.

I guess I have become more of a casual player when it comes to this game. I used to spend all of my free time playing this but I just don't have the interest like I used to. I just want to be able to long on and get something done in the time I do play instead of just standing around shouting for hours.

While I do really admire FFXI's setup of making many things orientated towards being done with a full group of players, it can indeed get really frustrating when all you want to do is play occasionally and make slow advances. I recently started leveling an alt character (originally just a mule) after the exp boost update in February, and I purposefully avoided doing missions until I was like around 44 MNK. I was able to then solo up to 3-3, where I had to have linkshell mates assist with the NM Gigas. 4-1 was impossible to do alone, due to the Quadav NM's that needed to be killed, and because Davoi + Oztroja have mobs that are a bit tough to solo below 50 near the magicite areas.

I guess all you can really do is try to make friends and/or become part of a non-endgame linkshell. Either that or wait until you are 50+ and come back to the early missions...

One part of the game is to try out different strategies and combos.
Instead of waiting on the next update to hope the mission you need is made easier. Try to improve your character through gear/skill and then try the mission again.

The mission/quest examples given aren't hard at all. I really have no idea how you've known dozens of people stuck on mission 2-3, it can be duo'd at lv25. Also I can't think of a single quest/mission that requires a specific setup. (unless your stating a basic setup of healer/dd/tank is specific)

this is actually a decent suggestion...I hate spending more than an hour shouting to get something done when my LS is empty or the mission I'm going to be doing is one no one wants to repeat ever again...I also feel there are some quests/missions that should have been soloable from the get-go, like AF....I always thought AF should be a personal quest to prove you know how to play the job..like Maat fight is, but lower level and with a better story attached

I'm surprised that there isn't an in-game mission search feature yet like the one on the FFXI-AH site.

It could obviously be much more advanced than that of the website by knowing exactly which part of the mission you are on and finding compatible players to team up with and get missions done much quicker.

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Originally Posted by Nepharite

The mission/quest examples given aren't hard at all. I really have no idea how you've known dozens of people stuck on mission 2-3, it can be duo'd at lv25. Also I can't think of a single quest/mission that requires a specific setup. (unless your stating a basic setup of healer/dd/tank is specific)

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Honestly, no one cares what you think is easy. This topic exists because some of us have trouble. It doesn't matter that for the majority people clear these quests and missions, if there is anyone being left behind they're getting the shaft because they aren't as lucky as others. I spent three months asking my LS and occasionally shouting for help with my 2-3 mission before I finally just went out and leveled MNK to 25, bought lots of potions and solo'd the mission.

As a low level player getting around to 2-3 their first time this mission was super annoying. Not everyone wants to level every job or try over and over and over again and fail because they don't have the right friends with the right jobs with the time available to help.

As a career THF I spent 4 years trying to get into a CoP group to get through those missions, and in 4 years I was lucky enough to clear one promy, one. The problem with forced grouping is that it punishes the people that aren't lucky enough to find people willing to assist them. Everyone pays the same monthly fees, everyone deserves the chance to experience the game content without having to cater to the limited views of the community's you must be "x" job to proceed, must have "y" level, must have "z" gear mentality.

Just because its easy for some or even most, doesn't mean there's not a problem that's preventing some players from enjoying the full content of the game. No one pays their monthly fees to be forced into playing a specific role or blindly join groups that don't appeal to them.

So a small group of people have problems? Most of the people complaining don't even put any effort into getting this stuff done. I've helped countless people randomly shouting for help with missions, 80% of them don't even look up any info on what to do or buy any meds/items that help.

THF actually did well on most CoP missions. Saying you don't have "x" job and only "y" job is an excuse that shouldn't be used.

This is a social game, make a friend or 2. It will make the game more enjoyable.

Oh another shocker, thf25 can solo mission2-3 as well.

BST SMN PUP DNC ~ for the antisocial...

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Originally Posted by Nepharite

Most of the people complaining don't even put any effort into getting this stuff done.

This is a social game, make a friend or 2. It will make the game more enjoyable.

Oh another shocker, thf25 can solo mission2-3 as well.

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Dude, why do you have to be such a negative nancy? People have trouble, thus the reason this thread the likely reason many many more like it have been made over the years. Telling people to go make friends doesn't solve the problem.

If you don't have anything to contribute you should stop posting. The OP was asking for help from SE, not your opinion on why you think its not needed. Not everyone can do everything, shocker I know, but its true. Some of us struggle with missions despite having LS's and friends that will help, despite shouting for hours, despite joining dozens pick up parties.

If a player has to spend three plus months shouting for help with a mission that can be solo'd by one job surely this implies there is an issue that goes beyond one player not being up to the task of soloing it or having enough friends.

Why do we as customers have to spend years not being able to enjoy the included content of a game because of poor luck and a game design principle that punishes people for not being social butterflies?




Sometimes the circumstances of things just get in the way no matter how much effort and time you put into it and it shouldn't be that way.

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Originally Posted by thefinalrune

Dude, why do you have to be such a negative nancy? People have trouble, thus the reason this thread the likely reason many many more like it have been made over the years. Telling people to go make friends doesn't solve the problem.

If you don't have anything to contribute you should stop posting. The OP was asking for help from SE, not your opinion on why you think its not needed. Not everyone can do everything, shocker I know, but its true. Some of us struggle with missions despite having LS's and friends that will help, despite shouting for hours, despite joining dozens pick up parties.

If a player has to spend three plus months shouting for help with a mission that can be solo'd by one job surely this implies there is an issue that goes beyond one player not being up to the task of soloing it or having enough friends.

Why do we as customers have to spend years not being able to enjoy the included content of a game because of poor luck and a game design principle that punishes people for not being social butterflies?




Sometimes the circumstances of things just get in the way no matter how much effort and time you put into it and it shouldn't be that way.

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I'm contributing my opinion on the matter. Your opinion is that things are too hard and should be made easier, I'm offering a contrasting opinion by saying things are fine as they are. Just because my opinion is a direct opposite of yours doesn't give you the right to tell me to butt out.

I'm just saying that people shouldn't expect to be spoon fed, a lot of people actually have fun with the challenge these missions/quest provide.

Also you get rewards at the end of these missions to show your accomplishments, whats the point of having such rewards if you can cake walk your way through it?

If you fail at a mission, look at what you did wrong and what you can do to overcome your errors. Its about becoming an overall better player. People that want to stay a bottom tier player shouldn't have to worry about getting better gear.

I understand that some of you are just interested in the story, but I feel it takes away from the story and accomplishment if it has no difficulty at all.

Didn't they uncap these missions? This game is very group oriented, and always will be. I can't really vote for the "easy" button on this. So unfortunately you'll have to rely on others to get things done till you can solo them yourself. SE gave you the option to have one character and level all jobs to the highest levels with being able to play all their jobs to the best of SE's power to help in terms of storage space. So if you can't get the mission done with one job, and still want to do it the lone wolf way, use another job and try that.

Saying to get friends to help is sometimes not the easiest thing to do, nor is the simplest answer. But SE did make this game to be very group oriented, and we are a strong community because of that. You're are not going to get any far in this game if it's all about "me, me, me."

And just to throw another option out there, and I hate this option. Hire a mercenary, a player who can solo the mission for a fee.

As a rank 10 in all three nations, I duo'd all Windy and Sandy missions except for 5-1 and either 9-1 or 9-2 for both and that took a trio at level 80 cap. It can be done. Magicite runs at low levels is just a test of sneak/invis which I solo'd at level 35, if I remember rightly.

took me 5 yrs to finish CoP,now im stuck on mission 38 in WoTG. people dont want to be bother, i myself love CS and story line ,wish i can finish this Addon, but, alas , prolly never get ti done and windy quest's as well.keep lossing my medal too much .lol

I've been stuck on CoP 4-3 (i think) forever. Now that they made a lot of missions soloable and uncapped i was able to do most of that mission by farming the keys i need but still need help opening the doors. Anyway they should put in an option like in FFXIV to select solo mission or party with number of players or make it auto detect the number of party members.

I too love the story lines and cs this game has to offer but only being able to see a small portion of each expansion storyline really kills the gameplay for me. I do love the party aspect of this game and the community theme but like it's been said in this topic prior, people just don't want to take the time to do the missions to help out anymore. I'm not asking SE to push the easy button and not make things challenging but make the storyline more accessable to everyone. The entire FF franchise has based their gameplay on story along with killer graphics and for this game to lack in accessing storyline content does suck for me.

Well I just looked at obtaining the map to Sacrarium, and I haven't obtained it. It's not high on my priority list, but I need the keys to get it. If you're on Sylph, give me a holler. I could probably offer you some assistance, and I might be able to convince another one of my friends to join too for the same reason I need to go. If you're not on Sylph, maybe there is more like me who want the map, or is farming for the Swift Belt, and are willing to help out for a little bit.

I would love for the difficulty of certain missions to be adjusted according to the number of people involved. This goes directly against what, i'm sure, the developers wanted with ffxi: teaming up to overcome difficult battles. So i don't think it will ever happen... but that sure is a lovely thought

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Originally Posted by thefinalrune

As a career THF I spent 4 years trying to get into a CoP group to get through those missions, and in 4 years I was lucky enough to clear one promy, one.

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That's one more than my THF was able to get done. Had to level both BLM and WHM to finally find a perma and get thru CoP. Some storylines are insanely hard to get done on certain jobs. Anything that could even the playing field would be an improvement.

SE should add a search function to search for other pple on the same mission/quest fight, their favored time for doing it, their available jobs or if they are just willing to help just for fun. you can set a search comment for missions or quests atm, but nobody use it. There were countless players needing certain CoP missions done, but they were unable to find others with the right jobs for these missions; you wasn't able to search for pple who need the mission and only option was to /shout in 1 area, while others willing to to/help the mission weren't in this area.

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Originally Posted by Gropitou

That's one more than my THF was able to get done. Had to level both BLM and WHM to finally find a perma and get thru CoP. Some storylines are insanely hard to get done on certain jobs. Anything that could even the playing field would be an improvement.

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THF worked fine for CoP missions. I took probably 5 people with thf job only from start to finish. I also did some missions as thf, because it worked the best with our setup.

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Originally Posted by Ethalio

SE should add a search function to search for other pple on the same mission/quest fight, their favored time for doing it, their available jobs or if they are just willing to help just for fun. you can set a search comment for missions or quests atm, but nobody use it. There were countless players needing certain CoP missions done, but they were unable to find others with the right jobs for these missions; you wasn't able to search for pple who need the mission and only option was to /shout in 1 area, while others willing to to/help the mission weren't in this area.

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I do agree they need a better search function. But the whole making missions easier, is silly to me.

Something needs to be done, there isn't as much as a player base as before and its a bit more of a challenge to find people even with a search function. They should have it scale based on party size that would be the most effective.

I think they should remove caps from every single quest, especially the BC-type ones like Return to the Depths, and I think they should make Nyzul/Assaults minimum number down to 1 so that we can solo these now.

I dunno. Missions and quests are my favorite part too, but the fact is that this is an MMORPG, as in multiplayer. If you want a soloable game, go play an offline game.

Good lord @ this thread... You really have the much trouble? COR AF3 mission wiped the floor with a 80+ WHM+THF are you kidding me!? This isn't a case of being "too hard" it's a case of you not being a really good player.

Maybe adding a selection like in FFXIV were you can select solo, 2 players, 3 players and so on for the mission? I don't know if there is a right answer for the missions at all but making it a choice can be nice for the players who can't get help and the players that have an active LS and want to do missions together also have that choice. The point is I know i'm missing out on a lot of great storyline and content because others aren't on the same missions or they don't want to have to spend 3-4 hours doing missions they have done 10 times before.

I understand the MMORPG comment so thats why I said there isn't a correct answer for this and also with the nature of MMOs you can't please everyone all the time.

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Originally Posted by Simian

As a rank 10 in all three nations, I duo'd all Windy and Sandy missions except for 5-1 and either 9-1 or 9-2 for both and that took a trio at level 80 cap. It can be done. Magicite runs at low levels is just a test of sneak/invis which I solo'd at level 35, if I remember rightly.

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Er no, I don't think so, Magicite requires you to kill two 40-something NMs in Beadeux for some key items IIRC.

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Originally Posted by Zarchery

I dunno. Missions and quests are my favorite part too, but the fact is that this is an MMORPG, as in multiplayer. If you want a soloable game, go play an offline game.

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Ah, this old fallacy .. the 'G' in MMORPG doesn't stand for 'Group', and there are many ways to interact the 'multiple players' without having to group with them.

Just because it's an MMO shouldn't mean that there isn't a SOLO option.

BTW, do group-lovers like you stop leveling at 70 because OMG, I HAVE TO SOLO IT???

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Originally Posted by Kraggy

Ah, this old fallacy .. the 'G' in MMORPG doesn't stand for 'Group', and there are many ways to interact the 'multiple players' without having to group with them.

Just because it's an MMO shouldn't mean that there isn't a SOLO option.

BTW, do group-lovers like you stop leveling at 70 because OMG, I HAVE TO SOLO IT???

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What exactly are you having trouble soloing?

The biggest problem in storyline BCs is, as has been said, with finding the right help. Not a fault of the players, I feel, as much as it lies with the fault of the design. There simply isn't sufficient incentive for players already clear on missions to help out others with the same ones.

A solution to this is possibly add unique rewards to those repeating the mission, as well as XP and/or gil.

Those silly nation-specific restrictions (on the 9-2 missions and certain WotG questlines) aren't helping either. I feel they should be removed.

I have a girlfriend now and we are talking about having kids. I'm only 25 years old and thinking about my future. I've realized that games are a part of life not a life. XI was fun and I'm grateful I had the time to play it semi hardcore. now a days I find it less and less appealing because of the timesinks and forced grouping. I still follow it's devlopment and get excited when I see changes but I don't think I would invest in it like I use to. there are better things in this world. I hope it gets an overhaul and makes soloing viable. most other mmos now a days are doing this. XI needs to change with the times.

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Originally Posted by Nepharite

What exactly are you having trouble soloing?

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Er, I didn't say I AM having trouble, my post included the quote my comment was replying to.

I'f you're having trouble with a mission, check FFXIAH and click on the mission name. It will bring up a search of everyone on the mission, and you can limit it to your server. Then you can search for those people in-game and ask if they'd like a partner to complete the mission with them. The only mission I'm having trouble with that way is the last ACP fight, since I need a full party, and I can't find people with the right jobs.

Most of the times I've found, People want to complete the missions but don't have / want the time to set it up. I've helped quite a few people through some of the beginning CoP fights, but they don't take the time to get all the items necessary to have a reasonable chance to complete the mission if something goes wrong or not exactly perfect. (90% of the time it never does go as planned) . While I've been really lucky (Abyssea, CoP, RotZ, Wotg (Sandy), ToAU, AMKD, ACP, and Windy +Sandy rank missions done), some of those I've set up and ran myself, and helped others get through other missions I've been already passed.
The most important thing that people seem to be extremely reluctant to do, is to help others get caught up to where you're at and then proceed through the missions together. That's how I got through CoP and WotG. I set up a Final mission run for RotZ when I found some people in my old Sky group that were on the final mission like I was.

The main thing I'm trying to emphasize is that if you want it badly enough you need to take some initiative and sacrifice some sleep (We had a guy on my CoP static who worked odd hours so we had to [Gather Together] at some really late hours (for me)) to get it done.