Quote Originally Posted by Zaaku View Post
Anyway long winded post short: Try strike up conversation more often and get the other members of the PT into the chatty mode. It will make the experience much better and time go by faster.
Thanks for sharing your experiences here. They are refreshing to read. ^^


Quote Originally Posted by Keith_Dragoon View Post
I tried striking up conversation, I'm a old-school FFXI player so convos and partying go hand in hand for me but all my chatting fell upon deaf ears. I got one or 2 "lol" and maybe a shorthanded response from people I spoke to. All they wanted to do was storm through the cactaurs and get exp. Nobody but me cared about the social aspect of our party so in the end I stopped trying.
At least you tried. Sometimes it will work -- many times it will not. Breaking the ice can be really hard, especially when you don't know just how thick the ice is... but when you do get through then it can lead to a really great experience.

...

And a general, perhaps really naive question about standing in Ul'dah for ____ hours trying to get a party...

Why do people wait that long? Why not try shouting a few times, gather whoever you can within a few minutes, and then just head out even if there are just 2 of you?

I've been taking Archer from R30 to just short of R50 over the past couple of weeks, and most of the time it's been in parties of 2 to 3 people sharing leves and behests, as well as going through mitelings, raptors, and hog areas.

The EXP is not as good as chaining all the monsters in an area then bombing them with AoE attacks, but I still gain 1 or 2 levels per night on average.

And the nice thing is that fights last longer and I actually get to do things... like learn how to use my new abilities and combos.

It's actually really fun. ^^