Odd question for former XI players?

FFXI was a lot different, it was a game built in 2001. And it was modeled after the games that were popular at the time, mainly Everquest and Runescape. All those games had much slower paced combat. The system was essentially the same tank, healer, dps. But people could be creative with subjobs and use certain abilities of other jobs to fulfill more than one role. Summoner could use whm subjob and gain access to cures. Ninja could use warrior subjob to access provoke. And other combos as well. The biggest difference I would say is that there was no duty finder so there was a lot more encouragement to try different party compositions. Kind of like can we do this with no tanks? Will a bard help us here? Should we use black mage for sleep? ect.

Despite it's flaws people loved ffxi because it was a game that never got boring. People played it every day for years. FFXI could easily eat up your free time if you wanted, and there was no reason to play other games which was a huge money saver. People had to force themselves to log off instead of force themselves to log on like some of the newer MMOs.

There's only one other game that's done that for me personally, Starcraft 2.

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Originally Posted by Eloah

But here is what I'm not understanding. I've seen several things that indicate roles could be switched, like Ninjas or dances tanking, summoners and red mages healing, warriors and palidins dpsing. Som can someone explain how XI's system worked? Could you choose which you you wanted to play as? Or was the game more lenient in terms of party makeup? Any info would be helpfull thank you.

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Subjobs and a wide variety of gear were what allowed for jobs to be more flexible in what roles they did in FFXI. The game had no built in rules about roles. It didn't force you into a party with a tank, or even tell you what was and was not a tank. And with the ability to have a subjob players were always trying new things to see if there was a better or alternate way of doing things.

Ninja tanking in FFXI wasn't even something the devs intended. They put in a spell that blocked the next 3 hits, and players were eventually able to use that to tank.

XI was a great game, at least until Abyseea. Personally, I was never in a zerg party for all of the years that I played, and though I have heard about them, they didn't appear to be the norm. For the most part, XI uses the same trinity of roles that most MMOs use: tank, healer, and DD. It also made use of support classes to help supplement the parties performance. A good puller was an asset too when in exp. parties to avoid links and unwanted aggro. There was no duty finder in XI, or in XIV version 1 for that matter, so the game left it up to the players to make the party composition as they felt fitted their needs best to tackle content. And for most of the content I went through, before Abyseea and the level cap raise, and the removal of many of the level cap zones, a good party composition was required.

Truth be told, I have had fun with both games' styles. Although that may come down ultimately to the people you are with, and I have been very fortunate in that aspect with both games.

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Originally Posted by Imakun

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The only way I could see them changing the trinity would be adopting the system Rift does for it's dungeon finder. Rift does 5 man parties, one healer, one tank, two dps, and one support. The support classes are able to off heal and dps while bringing their own unique buffs and utility to the group that make the rest of the party better. If they were to do that instead and give some unique and interesting to those support classes, it likely wouldn't increase queue times by very much.

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Originally Posted by Gamer3427

I'll admit, for as highly as people talk about FFXI, that sounds really boring. And don't get me wrong, I've enjoyed some really slow combat in games, but that doesn't sound very enjoyable.....

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Because they explained it VERY poorly. 11 had skillchains that worked as a party. Meaning different party members needed to perform moves in unison to perform the chain. There were so many that you could do. I really miss blm's ka-booms and then hiding behind the Pld's to save me.

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Originally Posted by Seraphyna

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It's not exactly far from the truth, as someone that played drk with the slowest weapons, only having an auto attack drove me nuts. I prefer always having a button of some kind to hit like we have right now in our current system.

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Originally Posted by Khalithar

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There are just so many jobs you can shoehorn into a tank, a DD and a healer. They'll have to come up with something eventually, for the sake of the game. Another thing that made XI different was that every encounter with a boss or whatever was never the same, because you could approach it in a lot of different ways, even on the same job. Even with the same job you could potentially run into something unexpected because the fights were based on reaction more than anything, which is a consequence of a slower combat system that allowed you to think and react to whatever was happening and even coordinate with your party.
Others have mentioned Skillchains and Magic Bursts and yes, those were examples of team play back in the day. I could use more interaction among party members here in XIV but I don't know if the current combat system can allow that.

Still, XIV is a very different game from XI and it still has room to grow and expand.

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Originally Posted by Blood-Aki

They talk highly because FFXI was easier.

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XI was not easier it was just different, and if talking about easier I would say XIV is easier. In XIV if you die you either get raised or go back to start point of dungeon and use shortcut back to last boss fight you did. XI if you died you lost exp and either waited for a raise or went back to hp and walked back to where you were at so there was incentive to not die.

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Originally Posted by Lexia

XI was not easier it was just different, and if talking about easier I would say XIV is easier. In XIV if you die you either get raised or go back to start point of dungeon and use shortcut back to last boss fight you did. XI if you died you lost exp and either waited for a raise or went back to hp and walked back to where you were at so there was incentive to not die.

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Well to be fair towards the end of final fantasy xi, mainly around the time they raised the level cap they did make everything much easier and solo friendly (accessible) , which actually drove people away from the game. Wierd how that works, making things more accessible actually drives people away from the game. (WoW garrisons)

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Originally Posted by Lexia

XI if you died you lost exp and either waited for a raise or went back to hp and walked back to where you were at so there was incentive to not die.

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Lexia refers "hp" as Home point, that was in the cities or towns. If you wanted to get back, you had to ask for a Teleport to be fast, take a chocobo and be careful not to die, again. That or wait for a Raise. And you couldnt get back on your own most of the times.