Just something I've been wondering about since I started playing... but I heard that this game was originally touted as being better for soloists, and indeed, the class customization as it is now is really good at letting you do that in certain instances.

However... even starting at rank 10, leve quests for your rank become too hard to do alone even on solo difficulty, what with some of the monsters coming in groups of 2 or 3 and for the same reason Behest is downright impossible. Not only that, but with such horrific limitations on guild leves, you have a spike of SP in one class and then your only other choice is grindgrindgrindgrind. Whereas if you join a party, things become immediately better; you can increase quest difficulty for gil bonuses, you can leve link, you can do more leves, and behest spawns more monsters.
Levequests to hard? I seem to have no issues with any of my jobs at any rank doing leve quests at my appropriate level with the exception of an odd 1 here and there.


Now, I'm fairly new to the MMO scene, having started this game at the start of this month with my only experience being Runescape and the DOTA-spawned League of Legends, but this strikes me as counter-intuitive for a solo game.

Considering it's an MMO in the first place, why would you want to solo anyway? Personal glory? Aren't there offline games for that?
Why should a solo player not have content designed for them if they are willing to pay the money? MMO developers need all the money they can get and supporting solo play is a smart for many reasons. The original generation of MMOers are getting older now, many have kids and more responsibilities nowadays and only can get in short play sessions. MMOs nowadays that do not support a wide range of play styles are destined for failure. Most people have lives and there needs to be quick in and out content as well as content to be done solo. There is nothing wrong with supporting solo content. The issue here is SE rushed this game out the window and rightfully is learning the hard-way that was a big mistake. SOLO play has nothing to do with it it.

Solo does not equate to "I never want to group". It's there because sometimes you don't have the time to commit to a party, believe me the vast majority of the population still playing would go find another game if you couldn't have content to solo when you were in need of it.

I'll admit, one of the reasons (if not the main and only one at this point) I play is just that. I'd like to max out every skill rank in the game myself, just for the awesome factor. But I'm thinking the classes in this game are the way they are is because they tried to focus explicitly on solo-players. And that result in the poorly defined class roles that people are complaining about.
Classes are the way they are because the system was designed so you could build your own customer Job. You are expected to level multiple "classes" which you then use abilities from many to make your own custom "Job". Its a great idea, the system just needs some tweaking. When it gets tweaked more it will be much better than the vanilla classes you play in every other fantasy MMO out there.

Soo... anyone think they should stop focusing on the solo-aspects of this game if they still are? I know the development team has changed, so I'm not sure if that's a major focus of theirs, but if it is, I think it's eating the game quality away.

Instead, focus exclusively on group play.
No its not eating away at the game quality. Once again, rushing a game out the door before it was ready is what ate away at the quality. Solo Play, Group Play, Raid/NM, an MMO needs all these to survice in more than a small hardcore niche.

Focus on making it easier to create parties, and for the love of god, make the Adventure guild NPCs stress the importance of joining one so casual noobs don't solo until they are rank 20 in some class or another without leaving the level 1 camp leves or their starting clothing breaks and all they have is underwear and whatever weapon they can buy from NPCs (Yes, I know someone who this has happened to... fortunately not me, I got help from PCs around rank 15)
Yes forming parties needs to be easier and the tools more fluid and expanded. Let people play the game how they want to, they paid for it, eventually they will pay their sub cost. If someone wants to Rank to 20 without moving on thats their decision. Their time, their money, not yours. Maybe they are having fun? Some people play for fun and not the 'awesome factor'.

I suggest an area in the Adventurer's guild with a search function like the one in the market wards, where you can announce a leve and people can sign up to join your party - first come, first serve. You can ideally optionally restrict the number of people, restrict it to members of your linkshell, or restrict it to those who have the same leve (so you can link it).
The base for this is already in place, the range needs to be expanded and some additional options added. Restricting it just to the adventures guild doesn't make sense.


I'm also in agreement with the ideas that have been floating around about making classes more focused; as it is now Con and Thm are very red-magey. But give the player a choice to access new healing/buffs and increased effect, while retaining red-mage as someone with access to multiple spells but less effect... makes sense to me. Other classes could similarly be re-balanced and given new focus.
This sort of thing will be in later, more than likely in the form of advanced classes. The basic classes are doing exactly what they should be doing.

At the same time, make the monsters more challenging... something that requires a party to take down, and actually feels rewarding when you do. More elemental strengths/weaknesses/immunities, more variety and more overall strategy requirements will make this a really, really good game.
Are you sure you play this game? Have you heard of Notorious Monsters?...

I would say that the areas in the level 1 camps are fine as they are; noobs need that nursery type deal to get into the game. But make it so that a player would really be testing themselves to wander around level 10 and beyond alone.
Why can we not punch people through the internet yet? Someone get on that technology please.