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

[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.