Odd question for former XI players?

[Lemuria]

If there's one thing that FFXI did right it was to make your characters feel powerful. You had abilities tied to long recast timers (originally 2 hours) which would allow you to use incredibly powerful skills. White Mages could heal an entire party to full HP instantly, Paladin's became invulnerable to all physical damage for 30 seconds and generated enough aggro to steal mobs from allies, Summoners could use their strongest summoning skills and so forth.

In FFXIV, instead of us feeling strong it feels more like the enemies are just weak. Even with a basic level of equipment, the overworld critters die very quickly and dungeons don't require much skill to beat. There are no combination attacks either, so jobs feel very insular compared to XI where timing and positioning meant more.

Mostly though, I do miss my summoner. For all their problems, they truly felt powerful in the right hands. Originally, their biggest problem was the long recast time on pet skills (1 minute) and though those attacks could be extremely powerful, accuracy issues and 59 seconds of low level white magic was solidifying their presence as a healer. Later though, this was separated into Wards and Rage. Wards were party buffs and other defensive skills, while Rage let you attack with damaging skills.

What many people forget, however, is that summoners were the preferred tactic for dealing with several bosses throughout the game. The Astral Flow for summoner was a devastatingly powerful area effect skill, with the caveat of it draining all your MP. This skill was the Summoner's 2hr ability, but due to it's long duration you could potentially get as many as three astral flow attacks out during this time. This meant that some bosses, such as Promyvion, which spawned a lot of smaller mobs, could be dealt with far quicker and easier than using normal tactics.

Oh, and when I say 'devastatingly powerful' I meant it. The damage was in a class of its own, easily capable of taking down as much as 30% of an entire boss' HP bar. And while the damage was lessened at higher levels it still remained a viable tactic for dealing with some of the strong opponents you would face. Although, by then you had access to stronger blood pact rage skills which would deal significant damage once per minute. Later, they would add new blood pacts including Odin's Zanetsuken and Alexander's Perfect Defense, the former being an AoE instant-kill and the latter rendering the party highly resistant to all forms of damage.

This made summoners sought after for certain content, in fact many didn't even consider it optional. They were simply too powerful not to have along for the ride. Kind of makes Ank Morn feel like the consolation prize by comparison.

[Conradus]

Yet the players shoehorned many jobs into doing only specific things, SMN as healing, RDM as enfeebler, SCH as stunner, NIN as tank. The flexibility wasn't there because the playerbase didn't allow it. Try going as something that wasn't "accepted" by the community and see how long it took you to get a party that wasnt just more open minded and accepting friends.

Not to mention many encounters dictated what job you used. Magic resist mobs, weak to this, strong to that. You wouldn't use MNK against leeches, but you would against skeletons.

Too true. But enfeebling was a sideline for RDM. You were really there to keep Refresh up on all the other mages.

[Sapphic]

If there's one thing that FFXI did right it was to make your characters feel powerful.

How could you feel powerful when it took a full party to kill 1 rabbit/goblin/bat etc? :P

[Sapphic]

Too true. But enfeebling was a sideline for RDM. You were really there to keep Refresh up on all the other mages.

True about RDM, plus haste/flurry :P But I liked playing RDM as a melee with macro gear swaps for casts with DNC as sub. Made it a lot more fun for me. Refresh+aspir samba, melee TP set, casting gear to macro gearswap to. WS gear. Was a lot more fun than just back line.

But most players dictated that "you cant do that" hella annoying. Plus put SCH in the hands of a player that knows the job in and out and they were very effective at being than just a stun bot. Or just as a sub job.

[StouterTaru]

How could you feel powerful when it took a full party to kill 1 rabbit/goblin/bat etc? :P

I felt pretty powerful at 75 killing mobs that were 80+, and parties of six people would fight for exp. Level 75 exp parties would run to zone if they caught aggro on some of the stuff I fought solo.

[Lemuria]

How could you feel powerful when it took a full party to kill 1 rabbit/goblin/bat etc? :P

Most of the enemies slain by parties were higher level than the adventurers. Sure, you were in a group of 6 level 50 people, but you fighting monsters which were level 60 or higher. Nothing beats the fun of landing a Freeze Magic burst as a level 50 Black Mage and wiping out 60% of a monsters HP when it's at least ten levels stronger than you!

Later on, many parties opted to fight weaker enemies in larger quantities. They were maybe 5 levels higher than the party, but you fight a huge number of them.

While many will draw comparisons to the 'Decent Challenge' mobs who'd wipe the floor with some players, many players fought far tougher mobs significantly stronger than themselves and won. Soloing notorious monsters, for example, even taking on the gods like Byakko without backup.

The job system in XI was designed so you could mix and match skills to give yourself an edge in a variety of situations. The XIV job system is locked down tighter than Fort Knox with almost no flexibility. Still, maybe they'll improve that aspect of the game as time goes by.

[Dzian]

How could you feel powerful when it took a full party to kill 1 rabbit/goblin/bat etc? :P

Partly because the mobs them selves felt more powerfull. trash mobs didn't exist back then,

in modern mmos mobs are designed to be weak trash that's easy to kill. yet it still takes a dozen skills to drop one. this makes your skills feel weak and that makes you feel weak.

in xi though 1 single mob could kill your entire party which made the mobs feel more dangerous which in turn made you feel stronger for killing them.

then you had those moments where you aggroed a mob several levels higher than you and manage to smash it with your 2hours abilities. POWAHHHH!!

skills themselves had more power and weight to them as well.

[Eloah]

Wow this is a lot to comb through, lol. But good insight into the game.

[Seraphyna]

Also the dungeons themselves weren't simple "one hallway, point A to B". There were side ways, traps (Castle Oztroja had trap switches and Garlaige Citadel had the holes dropping you further down into higher level areas), and even Castle Zvahl had teleport puzzles. Basically a big zone in itself.

I miss all of that. Sadly, there is nothing like that, or even comes close, in 14. There is no danger in 14. No excitement from exploring or "close calls". It's kind of a.. boring world :/

[Wildsprite]

Which is why blms totally fell out of favor in ToAU and had to resort to soloing puddings for their exp.

really? I thought it was these little {bastardsword}s