triggering weakness

[Panthera]

In the course of this debate, some have confounded drop rates with the proc-ing system, when the drop rates aren't in dispute at all. Some have even taken proc-ing to be synonymous with Abyssea itself. No one disputes that the drop rates that proc-ing affords aren't beneficial to player effort and time. What is disputed is that if absolutely nothing dropped from proc-ing an NM, is proc-ing fun and enjoyable for its own sake? Proc-ing entails standing around and waiting for a notorious monster to use a TP move, and this only assumes that your job can in fact proc it. If not, you're standing around as the OP said waiting for the kill order. It's so much passivity either way that for gameplay's sake, doing something once every 30 minutes isn't much more rewarding than doing nothing at all for an hour. I myself have dropped a shell not because it wasn't successful, but because Abyssea just isn't fun.

The real problem is that Final Fantasy XI has forgotten that it's less about getting there and more about being there. It was once difficult, but that's exactly where the fun was! Perhaps it took two to three times to beat a mission, or in rare cases more like ten. But on that tenth time was the euphoria of doing the impossible. Having is dull. Any child can grow bored of a toy easily and quickly. An adult savors the chase of a dream, so long as the hunt itself remains invigorating. Chains of Promathia, for all of its difficulties--no,*because* of its difficulties--had a sense of tension and build-up to the final fight. It had characters to love and hate. COP rings were a badge of honor. Abyssea has a lot of stuff to do, but with no reason other than collecting so many trinkets and souvenirs, that any sense of the magic of storytelling is long since forgot. Good gear is simply a cheap brew away.