Keeping content relevant

[OmnysValefor]

I dunno, I help a lot of people kill T1s because I see one or two or three i117 people having trouble, unless they're on the right jobs and the best-geared within that that they can be. And the worse part is, the jobs change from NM to NM, unless you have such overpowered help that they can make up for improper jobs. ("such overpowered" is relatively easy to achieve, many many players are geared to this point)

Before someone trolls me about saying this stuff is hard, I don't find this stuff as hard at all, but I can see returning players stuck with nothing but returning players having a lot lot lot of problems.

The Rawhide NMs
Tengata Manu - Heavy wind damage, want an Aegis or a RUN, as well as a good whm with capped enhancing (not that capping enhancing is hard). I'm pretty sure she constantly dispels buffs, as mobs of that family often do
Vidala - Want a NIN tank (less tp feed) but Gessho will work. His stonegas don't hurt at all but you need nukers to delevel him when he levels up. PLD or RUN would probably work alright, but it's going to be harder than NIN or say dnc/nin. Trust nukers don't work because wind magic isn't 100% guaranteed to delevel him with each cast, and trusts cast pretty much whatever they want.
Gestalt - Want a PLD or RUN and attentive melee, dread spikes can kill a DD pretty fast if unlucky with TA.
Angrboda - PLD or RUN. AOEs can probably one shot melee DD in i117 gear without dt sets.
Cunnast - Lol, this guy. Back when my breath kit was around 35%, I was sometimes getting oneshot by him and so was Amchuchu.

I wasn't playing when Zitah came out, but I'm sure many groups did this in a mix of 119/115 gear (Delve/WKR/Skirmish/JSE) and did great but there's a wide wide difference between the quality of that gear and freebie Eminent stuff. I do know firsthand that returning tanks can't fall back on their 99 -dt gear because the lack of defensive stats gained from ilvl (eva/def, m.eva/m.def, bonuses to base stats, hp) really really hurts. I was, for about a week, stuck in this awkward place where my once-prized gear sucked, but eminent sucked too.

There is also, as we all know, a tremendous advantage having humans over trusts, most of the time, except when Apururu is in the mood to -na you as the debuff is landing or stunbot-capable Zeid and Ullegore.

[Ketaru]

I dunno, I help a lot of people kill T1s because I see one or two or three i117 people having trouble, unless they're on the right jobs and the best-geared within that that they can be.

I'm probably pointing out something that nobody wants to admit, but they really shouldn't be doing that content. The only content they should be worried about is getting starter 119 gear- reforging AF, Alluvion Skirmish, things like that. Even getting the 117 Bayld gear, which is better than that trashy Records of Eminence stuff.

The problem I see here is people returning to the game- perhaps iLevels weren't even around when they left- and they immediately want to jump straight to current endgame content. And it just doesn't work like that. There is a fairly delineated progression of gear: 117 RoE Gear->Alluvion Skirmish/Reforged AF->Escha Zi'tah->Escha Ru'Aun. Yes, that kinda sucks if you just came back and want to do things with your friends now. But the content and trusts are there to allow you to get caught up at a deliberate pace. Some people however are just trying to go from 0 to 100 just like that.

[Pups323]

To counter point that, a fresh group of i117 people is more than capable of farming full suits of alluvian and getting full i119 in <1 day. From there they can start zi tah, and again, in less than 1 day replace that full suit of i119 alluvian armor with i119 zi tah armor.

Why not skip the middle man and go straight to zi tah, 1 decent i119 can usually cary a group of i117 RoE people through enough zi tah NM to gear up.

[Ketaru]

Because "Throw yourself at content too high for you until a passerby takes pity on you" is sound advice.

[Pups323]

But its not too hard for you.

Zi tah is very very easy on t1, which is were 99% of the armor is. You make it out to be like you are taking level 40s to level 75 content... Were talking about level i117 to level i119 content that can be done with 1 person and 5 trusts.

I am not saying take i117s to t3/helm nms or do go straight to resinjeme... get off your high horse

[OmnysValefor]

I avoid Skirmish because I dislike the nature of the augments system. *lixir augments are the best, and Rei augments are cool, but I just don't like forcing people to suffer a lopsided system.

[Olor]

I avoid Skirmish because I dislike the nature of the augments system. *lixir augments are the best, and Rei augments are cool, but I just don't like forcing people to suffer a lopsided system.

Yeah this. I wish I had spent the money that I wasted on augments on mercs instead (stones were "free" but I could have sold them)

And sorry I have most of a 119 skirmish set, as well as relic and AF reforges and I can't solo Zitah... I've spent tons of money on augs but have had really crummy luck. I also don't have any tank jobs (nin, pld etc) leveled, let alone geared.

[machini]

To counter point that, a fresh group of i117 people is more than capable of farming full suits of alluvian and getting full i119 in <1 day. From there they can start zi tah, and again, in less than 1 day replace that full suit of i119 alluvian armor with i119 zi tah armor.

Why not skip the middle man and go straight to zi tah, 1 decent i119 can usually cary a group of i117 RoE people through enough zi tah NM to gear up.

With what combat and magic skills?

Also, Alluvion Skirmish armor is crap without the augments. Its base stats were designed with the idea that it would/could be augmented in mind. Which means even more skirmish to farm stones, 'cause you sure as hell aren't gonna be able to properly augment it in the time frame you give, including leveling.

[machini]

And to be specific, it took me roughly 10 days to get someone from brand new 99 BLU to "I can participate in Apex parties and am actually useful in relevant content." That was with me carrying them through an awful lot of stuff, and helping with skill ups via providing books.

Getting to 99 and getting to 'useful in end game content' 119 is nowhere near as simple as you think it is, especially for a returning player who might have quit at 75 cap, let alone a brand new player who has no idea what anything does or how anything works.

This feels like, yet again, another instance of people failing to understand that not everyone has a functional grasp of the game, the mechanics, or that a brand new player who has never played the game before will not know how to speedily climb up through the gear to relevant end game content in a relevant job in a quick fashion.

I also feel it very important to point out that one of the items I helped that player get was a Defending Ring, all with shanks that I provided myself. Getting started in this game and getting up to speed as a new or returning pre-item level player is an enormous task. If I had to create a new character from scratch and get back to where I am right now, ignoring making another mythic, I know I could not do it in 24 hours. I maybe could do it in a week if I played sixteen hours a day. The amount of effort and time required to get to 99, skill up, work my way up through item level gear to decent 119, collect ~90 pieces of gear for a single job, obtain multiple mulitimillion gil HQ crafted items and drops, etc, etc, is insanely more difficult than you seem to think.

[Olor]

You'd be pretty amazing to do it in a week.