Replace Nation rank in search with Mastery rank

[radar]

When you search for players, it shows the nation and rank of all players.

Windurst rank 1-10
Bastok rank 1-10
San'doria rank 1-10

This was good at the time, because it allowed you to see other players that needed the same missions you were stuck on. It serves no purpose in 2026.

If you changed it so the number instead shows modern player Mastery Rank it would be far more useful and encourage players to boost their master rank, which is an extensive completionist system. The only thing lacking, it the ability to show off that rank (and so there is little incentive to do it)

The graphics can stay the same, to still show the nation but change the number to Mastery Rank.



This appears to be fairly simply to do, no graphics changes are needed in the UI since it uses the current ones. The only change would be the number being fed to the UI comes from a different place, instead of nation rank it shows mastery rank.

[Alhanelem]

which is an extensive completionist system.

It only really is because the players turned it into one. Its original purpose was to help new players in the assist channel identify how experienced the mentors were.

[radar]

They didn't put all that effort into it just for that, barely anyone even uses mentor chat anyway.

Players like to show off accomplishments, putting the rank in search will greatly incentivize people to engage with it and so give them something to do. It even goes upto 10. They put the time to make the base system, and don't properly show it off and so barely anyone does it.

[Alhanelem]

They didn't put all that effort into it just for that, barely anyone even uses mentor chat anyway.

I think you're overstating the "effort" that went into this. While it's not QUITE that simple (not every title carries the same value apparently), it's largely just a tabulation of the number of titles you've earned. It also isn't any specific ones, it's literally all (or almost all, unclear if the Ballista titles which can only be retained temporarily count?).

They put the time to make the base system, and don't properly show it off and so barely anyone does it.

I personally don't want it shown off. As I said and still argue, it wasn't meant as an "achievement system;" if they really wanted to do achievements, they'd do achievements (and for the record, when the game was on xbox 360, there were actual achievements for that platform- no real reason they can't do it)

I think it's better right now that most people don't care about it. I don't WANT it to be something everyone cares about, because then you're judging people on something that isn't really even that important or accurately reflects your accomplishments. The mastery rank is incredibly vague.

I've got thousands and thousands of hours in this game like pretty much anyone who posts here, and my mastery rank is 4 when I last checked. This isn't because I'm bad at the game or haven't done a lot of content, it's primarily because I don't do things just for the sake of doing things- i do things that advance my character by improving the jobs I play (the only real exception is Ballista but I don't really get to do that often anymore).

So no, I don't want to "show off" my mastery rank or have it being used as a condition in searches. A low mastery rank doesn't in any way indicate player ability or knowledge. And I don't want to go /anon either, so it would need its own toggle option.

[Catmato]

When you search for players, it shows the nation and rank of all players.

Windurst rank 1-10
Bastok rank 1-10
San'doria rank 1-10

This was good at the time, because it allowed you to see other players that needed the same missions you were stuck on. It serves no purpose in 2026.

If you changed it so the number instead shows modern player Mastery Rank it would be far more useful and encourage players to boost their master rank, which is an extensive completionist system. The only thing lacking, it the ability to show off that rank (and so there is little incentive to do it)

The graphics can stay the same, to still show the nation but change the number to Mastery Rank.



This appears to be fairly simply to do, no graphics changes are needed in the UI since it uses the current ones. The only change would be the number being fed to the UI comes from a different place, instead of nation rank it shows mastery rank.

I agree with this. This is a good idea. SE, please do this.

[radar]

I personally don't want it shown off.

Most mmorpgs players do because it's human nature to want to show off accomplishments, showing it off in this way will encourage far more people to do more content in the game.

Hiding it as it currently is, means way less players engage with it.

In terms of player skill and being judged, that's not what it is. This is an accomplishment system. /check does what you're talking about.

[Alhanelem]

Most mmorpgs players do because it's human nature to want to show off accomplishments,

A single number condensing everything does not really do a very good job of showing off accomplishments. Unless it's completely maxed out (which very few have done) you don't know exactly the things they did and didn't do.

in FFXIV, I can proudly display a title on my character based on my performance in a past PvP compeition, as an example, among many other things.. That's a concrete achievement I can display and be proud of. Mastery Rank doesn't do that, not even close. FFXI's current systems can't do this, aside from the title display, but unlike FFXIV later where you can just choose a title to display, in XI your title constantly changes when you do stuff.

In terms of player skill and being judged, that's not what it is. This is an accomplishment system. /check does what you're talking about.

If this was implemented I see it purely being used to judge people, rather than as a flex: "Sorry your mastery rank is too low you can't join our party." or "Mastery rank 8+ ONRY"

City and Mission rank is something you can search by, because (at least, at one time, as you said) , a useful metric to search by, finding people with the same nation to do missions, etc.

Mastery rank is not a useful thing to search for players by. The search menu is not intended as a place to display accomplishments, it only does so indirectly by you seeing people's job levels etc- but that's criteria you may actually want to search for.

I don't think an achievement system in XI would be a bad thing, but we need a REAL achievement system, not this single number that tells us nothing.

Hiding it as it currently is, means way less players engage with it.

Good. I don't want players to engage with it. Give us a proper achievement system instead. Recognize specific accomplishments, not condense your life in FFXI to a single digit number. Mastery Rank is an extremely poor and inadequate substitute for a real achievement system with clear goals and accomplishments to tackle and put on display.

At its very best, mastery rank is a very, very loose completion percentage. It is something that could (and maybe should) be derived from an achievement system. But as an achievement system itself, it fails hard.

[Loraiine]

I would like this.

[Alhanelem]

I would like a proper achievement system, and Mastery Rank ain't it.

[nixRidge]

Yes, I'd love an achievement system too. I think they could tie some fun, helpful but not game-breaking rewards to it! Milestones like "Defeat the Shadow Lord", then receive an amount of elemental crystals or perhaps even XP/CP.
Or even achievements that increase your max merit cap by 1 as a reward! Just to make it a tiny bit less tedious to max out that cap.