Who ever got six-person parties in the first place?

[Edyth]

First of all, the topic title is both a hyperbole and a rhetorical question. Look those terms up before you post a stupid reply directly to the topic title so you don't look like a moron.

So I've seen a few loudmouths moaning about how they can't get a six-person party anymore.

But who ever got six-person parties in the first place? Don't you remember your LS members saying "Damn, I been seeking for a hour and no invite." "Lol I been seekin for 3." "I got invited to a party irl today, and it's been two weeks since I got an invite in this...."

All the camps were always full, the "Find Member" function always found 0 PLDs, NINs, WHMs, RDMs, and SCHs seeking, and BST, BLU, SMN, PUP, DNC, DRK, and even one of the most important endgame jobs, BLM, were more or less banned by players from participating in Colibri parties. You needed a specific setup to be a "good" party. Anyone who had those jobs was level 75 in no time, even with the old, slow EXP. I saw maybe 3 CORs ever seeking a party, and BRDs were rare too. The six-man party required a few specific jobs, and those jobs would be snatched up within 10 seconds of seeking. The parties often took over an hour to put together.

What the **** was this ****? Why do you want it back? You can still make these parties, and the EXP is better than it ever was for this type of party, but the fact is, they were just a pain in the ass. With 18 slots for Abyssea parties, any job can play. With Grounds of Valor allowing easy prey targets to give good EXP, the same situation there: all jobs are helpful. And these groups are easy to put together.

Maybe for some people FFXI is all there is to real life, but for me it's a game. The fact that FFXI is now less of a chore + job + 24/7 homework assignment + alternate life is pretty fun I think.

EDIT:
To whom it may concern, I did make my own parties. I didn't wait around hoping for an invite on Summoner. The examples in my post are from my own experiences while creating parties on Midgardsormr.

[Flionheart]

I always made my parties. I never had an issue in making a party in a timely manner.

More people should have taken the initiative and invited people instead of complaining about no invites.

[Sparthos]

I frequently made parties but nothing can stop LFPs like this:

WAR
WAR
WAR
BLM
DRG
THF
SAM
MNK
BRD: (seacom: LFP Colibri only, 4 SAM only, fisherman X)

[Vold]

I frequently made parties but nothing can stop LFPs like this:

WAR
WAR
WAR
BLM
DRG
THF
SAM
MNK
BRD: (seacom: LFP Colibri only, 4 SAM only, fisherman X)

You forgot the princess Ahauberk warriors or princess SAMs or princess Apoc DRKs who often put "2 BRD or BRD+COR only" in their seacom. And let's not forget the game of 20 questions you had to go through once in awhile when someone was trying to avoid joining a "bad" PT. Those days were so great I miss them a lot. Not.

If there's anything good that came out of Abyssea that everyone can agree with it's fixing the experience of getting experience points in groups. The whole thing was over done and it's just stupid now at how much exp we can net per hour but at least no job is left behind anymore. It never would have happened with the old 6 man style with 20 jobs to choose from and a seemingly impossible task of balancing them all.

I guess the downfall of the new system is it's pretty much a zerg fest and no one really bothers playing their jobs anymore. Shrug. No time really to bother with trivial buffs and debuffs and basic PT mechanics. That does more to create dummies than leeching ever could, imho. But I stick to my guns, FFXI is not a hard game to master for anyone with even the slightest interest in playing correctly and takes the time to learn by whatever means. FFXI is not quantum physics.

[Reiterpallasch]

You forgot the princess Ahauberk warriors or princess SAMs or princess Apoc DRKs who often put "2 BRD or BRD+COR only" in their seacom.

God forbid someone who doesn't suck, wants a party that doesn't suck. I must be a princess too then!

Seriously, nothing was worse than showing up to a party that was 5 DD and a WHM. Though people to this day still don't seem to understand that a couple properly buffed DD do more damage than many more buffless ones.

Edit: Yes, this applies to abbysea too. So many people don't haste, don't use songs (or if they do, they're never march), no COR rolls etc. It's always a handful of healers and 12-15 DD jobs. I guess by todays standard though, shitty exp is better than what used to be the best exp.

one of the most important endgame jobs, BLM, were more or less banned by players from participating in Colibri parties.

@#$%ing lol'd. Have you ever fought a colibri before? Nothing says NUKE ME! like the ability to reflect spells with high MDB. Sounds like excellent use of a party slot.

[Lafaiel]

I got them all the time, but my bard and cor were both 75 and decently geared, and I actually enjoyed playing them (cor more bard). it was good xp, eventually I made friends barding it up with people that would come dd, then extend me the courtesy of coming as bard to our party next time and letting me come thf to merit parties, my thf was well geared and I could hold my own pretty well, FFXI was always about the people you met back then you know, "you scratch my back and I'll scratch yours" type thing if you met the right people.

Now as for seeking for a six man party as DD back then, I never did, even though I can hold my own pretty well it was not easy to get a party as dd, but that is any MMO on the market and its the price you pay for wanting to see big numbers, I had no shame in whoring out bard, loved cor though, support and dd all rolled into one, when I walk through ToAU areas and see all those birds walking around unmolested it makes me cringe.

[RAIST]

eh....I didn't really stress much over getting into parties in the past. I would hang out for a bit sometimes....put flag up while crafting, listing crud on the AH and such, or sitting around spamming magic for skillups and what not. If I didn't get an invite, I'd just head out on my own and smack stuff with my flag up. Yep...even on BLM and WHM, I would melee on them some too just to keep my skills somewhat in check. Would even whip out a dagger sometimes on SMN with Carbuncle tanking for me if there was a chance to skill it up a little ahead of time for another job.

While it was a preferred setup for the increassed xp rate/hr, a 6-man party was never a requirement before , and isn't now (well, maybe for specific fights, but not for xp)...so....what is the point of the thread?

[Doombringer]

it WOULD suck leveling a job cold, but after i got a few parties, i'd notice a lot of my parties had familiar names in them. not friends or even ls members, just people i had partied with a few nights before that probably CHOSE me over the random horde. to the point where my WAR and PLD were almost entirely leveled in these types of informal statics. it DID help having that first 75 already though, never had to stop leveling for more than a day to quest any useful AF, or do level caps at all.

granted, i don't think i'll ever do 6k/hour ever again... i mean, why have a hot dog when there's steak? but it wasn't really a hellish experience or anything. put a little ketchup on there.. hot dog ain't bad so long as it's a good crowd at the BBQ?

[Alhanelem]

First of all, the topic title is both a hyperbole and a rhetorical question. Look those terms up before you post a stupid reply directly to the topic title so you don't look like a moron.

If you feel like such a disclaimer is necessary, than perhaps your post could be rewritten such that it isn't.

Moving on, I know what you're talking about, and I don't understand why people seem to miss this kind of grouping. I remember the waiting for hours on end to get a terrible party more than I remember ever enjoying it. Whenever I gained a level, I was more interested in searching for the new things I might be able to do with my new-found power than looking for the next grinding party to depart from Jeuno.

God forbid someone who doesn't suck, wants a party that doesn't suck. I must be a princess too then!

The problem is, different people have different ideas of what constitutes suckage. Especially if you were one of the previously mentioned jobs, your standards were generally higher. However, it was possible to build parties with different jobs that didn't suck- it was more the player than the job. People simply decided to pick whatever was easiest and least likely to suck, because even a bad bard is probably still going to be useful to the party while a bad DD or mage might be more likely to ruin things. The fact is, there WERE "princess" bards out there who refused to party with anything other than a bunch of SAMs and/or WARs and a RDM. No matter how good the people in your party were, if it wasn't a supermegaSAM burn, it was very hard to get a BRD or RDM because they DEMANDED absolutely nothing but the absolute best. I knew several BRDs that were like this. BRD is not a difficult job to play- They could join any party and get EXP while hardly paying attention to the game (ok, a true good BRD was also a good puller, but that didn't stop "princess" BRDs from ever being lazy).

[Sparthos]

I leveled PUP from 1-75 in these old EXP parties, does this make me an expert super leet master sagegod of FFXI?