Is there any reason to focus on 'solo' players..?

[ARoy]

Like I said, I'm entirely new to the MMO scene. Don't rage at me because I'm unfamiliar with your mysterious statistics from who-knows-where.

Okay. So sure, there's reasons for them to have solo-play as an option. But from what I can tell, all the customization and poorly defined class roles stemmed from seeming to focus exclusively on solo play. Meanwhile, Party play has been reduced to A) Some mook hitting them and B) Some mook healing/buffing the guys in A and occasionally attracting tons of hate for doing so and getting killed in one shot.

That gets old really, really fast.

The two games I mentioned, being my only MMO experience: Runescape is, as far as free quests are concerned, entirely a solo game (I wouldn't know anything beyond that) and League of Legends/DOTA exactly the opposite. This game needs a balance of both. But it's hard to cater to both, as their attempts have shown us. So my suggestion is increase party-based contentand make it easier to do so.

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'.

The person I'm talking about was getting two-shotted, sometimes one-shotted by monsters under her rank because she had noarmor. She was frustrated and kept apologizing about how bad she was at the game and how she had no idea what she was doing. One of my LS members got a friend to give her free stuff and we offered to help out whenever we could.

It's not that it was her decision, it's that this game happens to lack any real kind of instruction that you don't have to search high and low for.

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?...

Notorious Monsters are sub-bosses IMO. I mean the monsters in general. All they do is spam attack. Random fights rarely have any element of strategy to them. Bombs and Djigga are the closest examples of what I'm saying this game needs more of. But, something that can inflict classic status ailments would be a nice change. Give me a reason to have a Usable battle inventory other than eating.

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.

I'm sorry, but if, as I asked for above, monsters are throwing around statuses like stone, confusion, or beserk, you're kidding yourself by going around alone. That's all they really need.

The same goes for monsters which have high Physical Defense and low Magic Defense or vice versa, given you can't change classes once a battle has started. Though that's mitigated a bit by mixing and matching your abilities, it'd still be far more challenging.

As it is now, we have A) Monsters you can kill and B) Monsters that can oneshot you.

And, for the record, Notorious Monsters need to be more level appropriate per the areas they're in.

EDIT: I can see where you're coming from, though. To make the game more challenging for both types of play, they could change how encounters work. Let's say that, while solo, you're fighting the monster you see as per normal, but if you're in a party, then, perhaps, according to your level, nearby monsters join in, or more of the same kind you're facing will spawn and attack you as well?

And if you're the type who likes testing their skills, like I said earlier, crank up some kind of difficulty setting to make it so it reacts as though you're in a party when you're alone.

I quit reading when you said that levequests at rank 10 were too hard.

Dude, at rank 12 Gladiator, before I had any source of income that wasn't quests and didn't even know about behest, it was literally impossible to do the Emerald Moss levequest with the sand yarzons. They were packing like 90 HP a hit and would always attack in teams of three - meanwhile I had my trusty weathered gladius that did maybe 50 dmg an attack. It was literally impossible.

Sure, once you've got your multi-class powers quests are totally soloable at the appropriate level, but for a completely new player, no way.

[Grit]

As it is now, we have A) Monsters you can kill and B) Monsters that can oneshot you.

So true. There's just nothing in-between.

A large group of level 10s should be able to kill something that a level 20 can. The game is missing proper damage caps.

[Dubont]

NMs don't need to be level appropriate for their area. They weren't in 11 or..really any game...why should they be in 14? Shit...I remember Tiamat used to spawn in a level15-20 area, yet you would be 1 shotted at that level lol From the sound of it, you want the game to be easier, when it's already one of the easiest games on the market. I dare say that even WoW is harder than FFXIV in it's current state..

[ARoy]

NMs don't need to be level appropriate for their area. They weren't in 11 or..really any game...why should they be in 14? Shit...I remember Tiamat used to spawn in a level15-20 area, yet you would be 1 shotted at that level lol From the sound of it, you want the game to be easier, when it's already one of the easiest games on the market. I dare say that even WoW is harder than FFXIV in it's current state..

If you're not going to make them more level appropriate, then make them harder to accidentally run by and get killed without realizing that you were in its territory. Second, it's not like they can't make both level appropriate sub-bosses and the kind whose areas you want to avoid until rank 50 and you've got a crew of cold-blooded murderers backing you. Antling-Diggers for instance, I don't think are as strong as infernal drake. I've seen two of them in an area at once, so it's probably not a Notorious Monster like you're saying. But it's definitely not something to be taken on alone, either.

[Turtle]

Solo'ing is an option, but partying gives bonus exp / leve linking / faster kills. This game is changing so much, initially it started out as a very solo oriented system but SE seems to be taking this game in the party / group play direction. I'm glad they are. I understand some people can't afford the time to look for parties and what not, but it sure makes it funner for those of us who can.

[Drexel]

This game is not solo friendly, maybe to run a quest or what not but to grind. Yes you can run a leve quest solo but the SP in no way compairs to a fully linked 3 star vs. 1 star leve. And now they have killed coblyn grinding which was the best way to solo grind.

[Evangela]

I never agree on solo grinding support... even though I do solo sometime but if everyone can solo at anytime, any rank, the game will die soon

especially if you can earn more exp from soloing than partying like what happen since the November patch, the game start dying because no one form any party, everyone just kill doblyns in their own world

players usually do not allow to solo if they're higher than r25 or if we can solo, it should be slower than grinding with party

[Dubont]

If you're not going to make them more level appropriate, then make them harder to accidentally run by and get killed without realizing that you were in its territory. Second, it's not like they can't make both level appropriate sub-bosses and the kind whose areas you want to avoid until rank 50 and you've got a crew of cold-blooded murderers backing you. Antling-Diggers for instance, I don't think are as strong as infernal drake. I've seen two of them in an area at once, so it's probably not a Notorious Monster like you're saying. But it's definitely not something to be taken on alone, either.

Antling Diggers have never been NMs and neither have Infernal Drakes...so idk where you got that from. It's very easy to avoid being bashed by a NM. Don't walk next to it. Use the color cons to determine if a mob could possibly kill you if you attack it. Honestly, from the way it sounds, you just don't know how to play the game. No, you wouldn't want to attack a Digger at r10, but in FFXI, you wouldn't want to attack JeJ at level 3 >.> I think that the current mob levels give a small amount of challenge to the game and I like that. I don't want it set up to where area A has r 1-10 mobs and area B has r11-20 mobs. For example, near limsa, you can solo from 1-10 on just about anything, but some Dodos can wipe the floor with you. Solution? Don't attack the dodo until you're a higher level. Problem solved.

tl;dr: You don't seem to know much about the game and many of your posts just scream "lack of experience."

[Alexis_Arteme]

"Solo" gaming is defined as "Having something to do when the party isn't available, that is substantial."

If you see it another way, that's a you problem.

[TonyMontana]

"Solo" gaming is defined as "Having something to do when the party isn't available, that is substantial."

If you see it another way, that's a you problem.

Getting a party at any of the camps in the limsa or gridania area is usually a problem being that a huge percent of the games population chooses to play in uldah area. So should i as a person who enjoys limsa area not be able to play the game in a maner I enjoy? Should I be forced to travel to Uldah and do the same 3 leves(purposely failing them) over and over and over just so I can get a party?

I wouldnt mind partying but until SE makes partying more than doing dunesfolks and the other 2 leves over and over and over I will stick to solo/duo play