Fighting Desperately...

[Crysten]

Thank you! Someone else finally talking about game mechanics and fighting strategies. Although you fight the same mob, you can always do it faster and better. And when my PT was rolling, I was loving it. In every game we kill the same things over and over, name a game and it happens. What made FFXI's battle system so great was that if someone was weak or didn't know how to do their part, that PT felt it. If everyone knows what they're doing and SCs are flying and MBs are going off it was great. But enter TP PTs, Abyssea, and now FFXIV and it's a spam fest with no regard to any strategy because none is needed...thus the fun of the fight and leveling is lost and with it the journey lessens.

First of all, I will first say that in certain places XI did have some strategy to it - Kirin in particular springs to mind, but honestly, all those strategies boiled down to was "hit your macro with the right timing and pay attention to not suck." Fights like the past King Anthro were great ideas but as you say, the game is now simply "zerg it with temps until one of you dies."

The thing is though, XIV has this "deep" system too - if one of your party members doesn't know the core mechanics to Ifrit, damn right you're going to feel that as well. I've found a lot of the fights in XIV far more engaging and far more strategic than XI - Ifrit is all about timing and reflexes (and yeah, I know people get pissy about lag on cracks). Moogles starts with a planned zerg strategy then switches to an endurance fight. Batraal requires the party to co-ordinate and split up. The job system might be entirely diverse yet but it's still in it's infancy.

Also, people keep mentioning "it's all about the journey." Everyone's journey is unique and everyone has the right to go about that journey however they please. If someone wants to solo grind all the way to 50 or have their level 50 friend PL them up to spend time together, then that's up to the individual. Whether that journey takes months or years, it shouldn't even matter.

Just because you don't like the way some people play the game, doesn't mean it's the way that EVERYONE should play the game. It's their journey, and they can take whatever path they Goddam please.

EDIT:: I also approve of my new Yoshi-P avatar. Nice April Fools guys, loool