Quote Originally Posted by Lonnan View Post
Part of the issue is what Kensagaku stated, you have to play the tier game in order to access better equipment to be able to do better content. The other part of the issue is that the ilvl system is incredibly deceptive. HINT all ilvl equipment is not created equal. Since SE decided to cap levels at 99 and handle additional levels through gear and job points, the ilvl system should have increased as gear stats increased in relation to new content. For whatever reason SE kept the ilvl cap at 119. That doesn't mean that JSE reforged gear is equal to delve/skirmish gear is equal to Escha gear. In reality, Escha gear probably should have an ilvl gradient between 122 and 129 but it doesn't. Moral of the story, ilvl is a made up classification and it's gets more and more irrelevant the more content they make.
It was probably done to control what level your Trusts spawn at. To my knowledge, they don't get stronger as your own attributes get stronger. At some point, they will become a liability in endgame content rather than an asset.
The problem is finding people to do those. Hell, the only time I've been able to get some help on Escha - Zitah mobs was a BST who flat out told me to sit down, shut up, and don't touch anything because I'd be more of a burden from TP feeding than a help.
The TP feed argument is rather weak on most of the Escha Zi'tah NMs. I'm more inclined to think he didn't want you to mess up skillchains. Even while helping returning players catch up, I find I view the party as having one less trust, not one more player. And with the ease of building 1000 TP these days, I might as well tell someone, "Never weaponskill, because you're inevitably going to mess up the skillchain." And because my trusts won't cast the spells I want because there was no skillchain, and because it is ultimately hurting my own damage because I can't Magic Burst, it's just better to ask someone to never weaponskill. Which, for a DD job, is nearly tantamout to "Don't do anything."

Therein probaby lies the real thing going on here- the bar for being able to work with trusts is higher for some jobs than others. Just taking some of the perks of- for example- being a RDM into a account: my healer trusts are less likely to run out of MP; I am capable of magic bursting off the skillchains being made (this is important not only for the damage, but also triggering some of the gimmick weaknesses); I can use the full gamut of enfeebles whereas Arciela only uses Paralyze, Slow, and Addle. In fact, the Sword jobs- PLD, BLU, and RDM- are all very capable of self-Light and self-Darkness. If another meleer is just gonna interfere with that, does that not make them redundent?

So yes, a lot of people solo these NMs, but it's always the usual suspects: PLD, BLM, RDM, SMN, BST, BLU, SCH (although I sometimes see this one RNG who is always soloing, she is fun to watch). And I suspect that is because they simply work better with trusts than other jobs.

Years ago, this probably wouldn't have mattered as much since soloability was seen as a minor perk rather than a boon of a job. But with a smaller and more insular player base, suddenly your job's ability to solo really matters in current content.