SOA Missions Request - Allowing for Difficulty Selection

[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. 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.