Partying is great

[Tsukino]

This isn't about efficiency or anything that needs to be fixed like most of the threads here. I just had a great experience and wanted to post about it.

It's actually a little embarrassing since I'd played since alpha and never really tried to play in a coordinated party before now. When I was in one everyone just sort of randomly used their own abilities like they were solo, but in a big group. People fiddled with battle regimens but we never used them in any coordinated manner to fight difficult targets.

Yesterday I joined a real SP party for the first time, and it was amazing! Battle regimens are a great improvement on FFXI's skill chains, especially the way they fill a little list so you can tell when your turn is without macros and calls. We were able to use them to fight things far above our own ranks. I got to use most of the abilities I'd learned as a thaumaturge but had barely touched because solo you just spam the same four things on everything. I also was able to witness other classes timing their abilities, holding adds, and managing their enmity, which made everything in general look better and make a whole lot more sense than levequests ever did. MP management between the new costs of spells, having to roam around to keep fighting, and unique abilities to regain MP versus other MMOs I've played before kept things really engaging (and battle regimens helped with this too, being much more efficient than single abilities). Unlike an FFXI party, we got to fight all manner of interesting enemies, from salamanders to skeletons to ahriman.

I know this is probably extremely old news to everyone who hit rank 50 (multiple times) during the leve abandonment exploit farming, and especially now that people are clearing the challenging new full party dungeon that was added. I had a blast though, and the whole thing renewed my interest in the game in general. I can only hope the rest of it gets fixed up (like searching so people can party more easily) well so that other people can experience it, and so that I can continue to do so. I feel the game is "worth saving" just for this.

[Risae]

Same for me. FF XIV is the first game were i had fun grinding with a party.

[Tsukino]

Same for me. FF XIV is the first game were i had fun grinding with a party.

I'm one of the few people who really enjoyed grinding with a party in FFXI. At least in the first few years, I enjoyed that you really had to work together with specific roles and you got more out of it with people who knew what they were doing regarding campsites, party configuration, equipment/food choices, skillchains, pulling rhythm, and just in general how to play their jobs well. In many other games I've gotten bored due to just grinding by myself or partying being nothing more than spamming the same abilities you use to solo in a larger group.

I was pleased to find that XIV gives me more of the feeling that XI did, and am excited that it could keep these dynamics going for even longer than XI did if they can fix the game up enough to appeal en masse.

And Airships... and Ifrit.. and Materia System... More ranks for Grand Companys... oh.. the happy days are soon to come! Oh yeah and Jobs "hopefully" in 1.20

And don't forget the removal of physical levels, which means they're free to make stats have a more profound effect on your capabilities. And that, in turn, means that there can be more to strive toward with better equipment like HQ crafted items and NM drops, and also possibly make food better and more important.

[Starlord]

I'm one of the few people who really enjoyed grinding with a party in FFXI. At least in the first few years, I enjoyed that you really had to work together with specific roles and you got more out of it with people who knew what they were doing regarding campsites, party configuration, equipment/food choices, skillchains, pulling rhythm, and just in general how to play their jobs well. In many other games I've gotten bored due to just grinding by myself or partying being nothing more than spamming the same abilities you use to solo in a larger group.

I was pleased to find that XIV gives me more of the feeling that XI did, and am excited that it could keep these dynamics going for even longer than XI did if they can fix the game up enough to appeal en masse.


And don't forget the removal of physical levels, which means they're free to make stats have a more profound effect on your capabilities. And that, in turn, means that there can be more to strive toward with better equipment like HQ crafted items and NM drops, and also possibly make food better and more important.

I did forget that didn't I? teehee That the best part of 1.19.. Aside from Chocobos.. but the stats the actually means something surpasses Chocobos sorry to say

[Vanguard319]

Good to see a thread that doesn't complain about some aspect of the game for once, and I agree, the party system has improved quite a bit.

[Starlord]

Good to see a thread that doesn't complain about some aspect of the game for once, and I agree, the party system has improved quite a bit.

Dont give them any ideas they'll find something to nitpick about..

Anyways I love the parting system now and this is only the beginning of something great Great work Yoshi-P!

[Mikita]

Congratulations!

Coordination during battle can definitely make the difference between success and a party wipe. It can also open up the possibility of more challenging and exciting battles.

Between my two Linkshells, one does battles like random people thrown together with very little battle coordination. We tend to wipe more often.
(but I still love them)

My other Linkshell is much more coordinated, and they are a lot more successful with things like NM fights, dungeon runs, and getting high level gear.

The difference is quite clear. ^^

[zaviermhigo]

I've been tooting partying forever, me and my lsmates would always eff around with battle regimens and stuff and party in roles, because we knew one day maybe they'd give us roles to fill, now that they have, its nice. I'm glad other people are seeing how good the partying system is.

[Murugan]

I'm glad others see the virtue in this type of leveling system too.

It has so many benefits beyond it's capability of producing such excellent party experiences though, it is the best way for an MMO to support a cohesive, helpful, and knowledgeable community. Sadly moving away from this model to generic whack-a-mole questing is what has turned so many of these newer MMO's communities into the sad state they are in today.

[Tezz_Xivectro]

Now if we could have population to back it up & more newb friendly search systems. SP grind partys can be very fun, it just sux getting them put together. I'm not sure if i support Level-sync this early on though, we need people who actually feel like partying & who use the search.

We probably won't see much of this until the EXP chains & some more GUI reworking.