Renshi: I dunno how PLs work in FFXIV, but in XI they would sit around outside the pt and heal as needed. So you could synch up and have your pocket healer doing his thing outside the group.

Dragon: Remora was most certainly backwards. There were times I wanted nothing more than to get away from that server, but I'd been playing with the same group of people since ps2 release. Call me sentimental, but I had no interest in changing that. ToAU didn't directly cater to casuals, no. But you can easily see SE was testing the water there. Why else would ToAU Areas average 7-10k xp/hr and the ROZ/COP areas stand around 4-5k xp/hr. Let's not forget the low HP mobs that didn't beg for a chain to kill them because 2 WS more or less did the job.

I know the grind was grueling in that game. Some XP tweaks were likely in order as well. But between the easily killed mobs and the 2 handed weapon buffs, anyone could've seen what happened coming. True No one person killed SC/MB pts, but the community at large did as it's necessity faded into the backdrop.

Sure the game was shrinking, but like I said before it seems to me that as many people left because of the tweaks as those that stayed or returned because of them. I wasn't the only one that got bored with WS spam pts. They were admittedly neat initially, but once the shiny new wore away I wanted my BLM back. Or at least my SC partner.

Maybe ToAU didn't have any 1-55 content, but you could easily see a ripple effect in the lower levels. Xbox 360 players did cause a bit of havoc, but teaching them didn't seem too far removed from having to teach any other new group that rolled in through the years. Much like when the game opened it's doors to the UK, there were some bullheaded SOBs in Valkurm, but usually by qufim they'd taken their knocks and more or less figured things out. Same can probably be said for ps2 release, CoP release, etc.

At any rate, even then you could see people wanting to WS spam like the "big boys" at 55+ in ToAU zones, and for some odd reason they were completely adamant that it would work the same. No amount of pointing out the differences between a properly constructed lvl 55 bird party and a kuftal tunnel crab pt would sway them. Even showing them failed to work in many cases.

As for the sneak/invis bit I'm not entirely sure how the populace at large lost their aggro dodging skills. I did it so much even up through WotG it was rediculous. Maybe I'm just tricking myself into thinking that there was a greater number of skilled players pre ToAU?