Originally Posted by
KiriA500
Crafting: Unless you were rich (which you didn't get that way by playing solo), you had to farm materials. The higher level the recipe was, the harder the materials were to obtain, thus making the mobs higher level. You couldn't solo these mobs unless you had a high level job. High level jobs = required partying.
Gathering: Like above, if you didn't have a properly leveled job, maneuvering around zones to gather would require either Sneak/Invis, or items to provide said buffs. Sneak is 20WHM/20RDM/20SCH and Invisible is 25WHM/25RDM/25SCH. Unless you wanted to fork out the money to buy Silent Oil and Prism Powder to farm, you were forced into leveling a mage job. You could possibly level Red Mage to 25 solo, but it would take quite some time, especially before the huge EXP boosts to EP/DC mobs, on top of being able to wear certain armor that provided nice DEF boosts. White Mage and Scholar would take even longer to solo to those levels as they were not meant to take damage. So, if you want to farm without spending money, you had to party in order to harvest in certain places.
Explore: See argument about Sneak/Invis above. You couldn't explore without spending money or having a mage leveled.
Map Quests: See above. Couldn't reach the Stone Monuments without Sneak/Invis, or a high level job.
Quests: Some of these required an item you got off a level 1 mob, some required stuff with high level mobs. You could also buy the items, but that cost gil.
NM hunt: Yes, but you needed a job leveled in order to hunt the NM's you wanted items from.
Even though this stuff is "solo" according to you, it still required you to party with others in order to progress your character to the point of being able to solo.