Level 70 Limit break woes

[Varlan]

So I finally got a character to 50 and then I found out that every 5 levels we have to jump through a bunch of hoops in order to move on in the game. Okay. I guess I can live with this, but these quests are serious pains in the butt. I survived them all, but now I'm at the fight with a guy named Maat and I can't get past it. It's getting to be extremely annoying. The last two times I never even got a hit on him. It's extremely frustrating, and it wouldn't even be that bad if we didn't have to go to some far away place to get a damn testimony (with a group no less) so we can fight him again. The event doesn't even take the old testimony out of your inventory which lead me to believe that I could simply fight him again.

There should be a certain level of tedium involved in a game, I'll admit that, but this is a whole new level of tedium. I'm not really sure what I hope to accomplish with this post, but I'm so damn frustrated I'm seriously considering giving the game up. I guess I'll see how I feel about it tomorrow, but right now I'm just not happy about this situation.

That fight is just cheap. I can't even take the hits because he's pounding on me for almost 120 points of damage per shot. Ugh. Too frustrated right now.

[FrankReynolds]

Go to www.ffxiclopedia.com and look up maat. People have posted a walk through for beating him on each job.

[Neisan_Quetz]

Build a better PDT set.

[Yukichibi]

The RDM genkai is well known to be the most difficult of all jobs of the game.
Go look on the wiki or on youtube, you ll find strategies and videos to help you.

[Dmer]

Sounds to me by your wording that you are trying to melee him as RDM. That's not gonna work. That fight is a magic based one. Make sure all your magic skills (except divine which is useless on a RDM) are maxed. Enter the fight at the start of darksday (this increases the accuracy of your Sleep spells). Use all your buffs and enfeebs (except DoTs). Alternate sleeping and nuking. Try to keep him silenced and paralyzed. Use Bind and Gravity and run away from him when sleep recasts are down.

RDM is one of the toughest Maat fights.

[Olor]

yeah, and if that doesn't work, level bst to 66 buy a decent jug, set it on him, stand back and win.

[Neisan_Quetz]

You could melee him on rdm and still kill him, it's just generally faster to CS Aero IV.

[Seriha]

As others have noted, RDM Maat is one of the harder incarnations. I've always felt just running in and CS nuking him a bit on the risky side, but some swear by it. The alternative to that is to sleep nuke, maintaining distance after each one to keep getting hit to a minimum. This also carries its own risks, like Sleep and Sleep II being resisted.

The melee side is definitely the hardest way at 70. There's not much in terms of PDT gear to choose from, RDMs evade like big red barns, and it doesn't help Maat's more like a 70 MNK and RDM rolled into one instead of just a RDM. Even going toe-to-toe, you may occasionally want to pause and sleep him to reapply buffs or halt his Chainspell. And no matter how good you think you're doing, he may just decide it's time to spam Asuran Fists and kill you.

Either way, your frustration isn't uncommon for a first-timer. Just keep at it, and if you have questions, ask.

[Feynman]

Maat is from a time when the level cap of the game was 75. The Maat fight was the last test of you ability to play your job. Most people die many times the first time they take on Maat, regardless of the job. I haven't fought Maat on RDM so no real advice.

I feel like the way the game has change doesn't give much chance to learn your job the way you used to so Maat has become even more difficult for new players I'd imagine. The only recommendation I'd have is what some more knowledgeable people have already pointed out. RDM's strength is in their enfeebles. Keep him slept and hit him hard with magic. Don't get discouraged; the Maat fight was designed to test you to your limits. Now the new limit breaks that come after Maat....those are just insulting. You essentially just buy your break using merits. I'd rather do something challenging.

[Hexacore]

If all you do in this game is level, then what else is there left to do? Without quests (which is what the periodic level cap challenges are) where is the substance to this game?

Now people are asking for a game where you don't even need to earn or learn your place in the world?

It's already bad enough that I can join a book burn, fall asleep, and wake up 11 levels higher without pushing a single button...but now, there are actually people on this forum advocating we remove the last few obstacles that require someone actually know how to play the game?(or want to)

When I first plotted my return to FFXI it was because I read an article in mid-2008 about the hardest boss fight of all time lasting over 18 hours and causing gamers to pass out from exhaustion. I wanted to play the game because it was hard.

I solo'd BST the entire way to 75 and would never think twice about the opportunity to do it again.

But, what is motivating people to join this game now? The cooperative element has all but dried up. The people that invite you to groups aren't potential friends or acquaintances, you are just the next piece of fresh meat for them to suck the life out of.

Most people pass these level caps the same way they acquire many of the hard to get atmas: sit around on the sideline and watch the real players do the work.

What is the point of even "playing" a game like this?

I can't speak to the OPs problems, but in the general sense, you lose Maat fights due to lack of preparation.

Although Red Mage is a difficult fight, you lose it for 3 main reasons:

1. Lack of skill-maxing...You need maxed Swords and maxed Elemental Magic at the least.

It takes about 4 - 7 days for a new player to reach level 70 in the current game...if you have friends or an alt to pass through the limit breaks for you, this can be done in half the time.

0 to over 300 swords could take the same amount of time under non-ideal conditions.

0 to 250+ elemental takes a literal 4 days of doing nothing but casting and resting with signet on. I don't mean 4 days either, I mean a literal 4x24 hour period of time.

2. Lack of gear preparation - this includes appropriate expendable items.

3. Lack of macro preparation.

These 3 are all the most basic steps necessary to being remotely viable at a job in this game.

Beating Maat fights are not all that hard. Beating them at 70 though...with the above 3 steps taken, I'm not sure how you lose.

Say whatever you want about the developers of this game, but I don't really think they made the things that matter most in this game that much easier.

What they did do is make getting EXP easier. In fact, they made getting EXP easy. Mindless, brainless, and operator-less (see afk comment above).

The hardest part of this game is finding a competent and reliable group of people you want to spend your time online with. If anything, recent changes have made doing so even more difficult.

Why people think sitting in a book burn fighting monsters 15 levels lower than them could or would prepare them for a fight designed for a player that actually invested time and energy into their character is beyond me.

At the point where you've leveled 70 times and can't defeat a fight that has been documented so many times over with strategies, videos, and more comments on the wiki talk section than any other page combined, you really need to draw one conclusion:

I'm not very good at this game, and I probably never will be. But if I hope at all to even have a chance, I'll need to accept that this is only the beginning of a VERY long road, not the end of one as the game's dialogue would suggest.

Or yeah, it took me 3 nights to burn PLD to 70 on my newb BLU and it's a guaranteed win for all but the truly worst players.

Good luck.