This Thread is specifically for my friends, so that when I tell them that I'm leaving I can give a web adress instead of having to repeat the story 100 times ;) Consider it a "Why leave FFXI?" FAQ.
/rant on
Most of you who know me, know that I am obsessive compulisve when it comes to having the best gear. As a level 55 Thief this means a lotta gil. I'm getting to the point where I need that extra switch marco set for Dex gear and Acc gear, not to mention that these will all be +1 or the equvalent. As Thf/rng this dillema is compounded by the fact that I don't play a very popular sub-job class, meaning that to get a group in the post 60's I have to be wearing the aboslute best that I can wear. That in terms of gil costs about 14 million for all the total gear costs to level 60 not including arrows.
Let me stop a second and say something so as not to discourage anyone trying to save up gil. It is entirely possible to make 14 million or more I suspect. It takes hard work and patience, but if you feel it is worth the effort then you really are rewarding ourself. One of the best moments in the game for me was when I had finnally earned 700k at level 45, after 2 weeks off and on farming, for a Brigandine +1 and then the 2 weeks later it took for the price to go back down;) I am the type who can wait forever to earn another <x> gil. I hunt chests and coffers, I craft, I farm, I am a gil making machine and know half the prices on the AH by heart.
Yet in spite of all of this I cannot produce enough gil to outpace inflation. One of my bigger costs, the Peacock Chram, I could merely camp. Problem is that I work full-time, its a matter of time spent camping vs earning the gil for it and either way I look at it I just don't have the time or months. I suppose I sound like someone who whines about the good old days when Sniper's Rings and Emporer's Hairpin's were 200k. Inflation happens, blame the botters, blame the gil sellers, blame nature, blame your grandma it will happen. What bothers me isn't that it happens, its that there is no cap imposed to keep things from getting out of hand. We gain gil arethmatically, generally the prices on the more lucrative items rise exponentiontially. So if I, for example, make about 30k gil an hour, the price on say Sprint Shoes can go from 100k to 200k to 400 and so on assuming that its a ince a week drop, meaning competition is eliminated. This is a bit of a hyperbola, nearly all items in game will be in a competative market. However, those items which everyone wants seem to be in the least competative markets (from the standpoint of the AH not actually camping an NM ect.). The problem is multiplied when you consider that the server populations are still rising, meaning more demand but still a fixed number of Sprint Shoes, 1 per week.
The economic impossiblity of achiveing my goals being realized I asked myself if I could get by with just semi-good gear. I could, one of the things I like about our server is that I know a good deal of fair minded people who are more than willing to recognize talent when they see it and discern the unskilled as well. I could even just do what everyone else does and take up a /nin sub for which my gear would be more than sufficent.
However, the thought occured to me that even if I found a way around the inflation barrier, or took myself up to level 75 with a /nin sub what would I really gain? When you farm and craft and wait for coffers to respawn as much as I do you get to thinking. I've missed out on so many opportunites to level or EF or Ballista, or help with whatever becuase I was too busy at the gil grind. There is nothing I regret more and not becuase most of the friends I leveled with are now at level 70 while I sit at 55, its because they were friends. Making gil is a necissary end to being a benefit to any party you join, ie: Gil = Gear = base potential irregardless of skill, just that simple. But a game is also supposed to be fun. I don't think I would have stayed in this game as long as I have if it weren't for all the laughter I've shared talking to my LS's while I was in the Carpenter's guild making, synth after synth. There is a certain line between too much and too little and I erred on the side of too much and for that I have missed more comradare than I can bear to think of.
I should have been a PLD or a WHM. I like helping others and in the endgame there is so much more availible for them to do. Thief on the other hand is horrible in an alliance setting. For some reason I've seen even the most skilled players forget that SATA exists when they get into an alliance situation, or maybe not even that maybe they just are hoping someone else in the larger group can do it. Its an issue I can't get around Thief just are not good at helping others as much as any of the other job classes. Not a bad thing, we can solo some things that others only dream of, and it is an enjoyable job I find due to the high skill content involved, its just that I finnally realized that no matter how high a level I get or how good my gear is its for nothing if I am not loved for helping others.
I think an issue that most people miss is that when we start the game we all assume that each job will be equally as benefical to each other as every other job. We also assume that while there are some sub jobs that should not be played there are some that are equal to each other and should chose which one best suits your particular style, which one you have the most fun with. What gets me is that we become so locked into the "best" way to do things that way forget to experiment. I'm not saying that everyone immeadiatly go out and try drg/bst there's no justification for it. However there are certain job combos out there that in practice might be good its just that it takes explaining to a group how you work. Every Thief who has leveled past 15 should know exactly what I mean. In order for SA to work and again SATA at level 30 you have to repeat to every group you join what it is (Sneak Attack/Trick Attack) generally by level 40 people are comfortable with it. What I'm getting at is this: no one ever seems to use Drg/whm as a main job. The reason I use Drg/whm as an example is because there is some precident for it. The Drg AF helm is more benefical to a /whm sub, there's a Spear speciffically designed with + healing that only drg can equip, (which by the way is only one of maybe 5 items in the game like that) and more to the point Healing Breath actually exists instead of just a normal elemental breath. Someone went out of thier way to try and make this combo vaible. "If God had wanted men to fly he would have given him wings" in this case Square gave Dragoons healing breath.
So why don't we see drg/whm? Well its my fault actually. Most of the time Thief needs someone with a War sub to be the "Opening Voker" so that SATA can be set up onto a tank with little hassle. Most of us have learned one way to do things and we are damn good at it too. This website would not exist if the overwhelming majority of people didn't need any adivse. We learn the most popular way to conduct a battle, we learn its varriations (Pld vs Nin tanks for example), and we take pride in that group dynamic. Rare subs like Drg/whm have no place because the difference between it and a /war sub is just too drastic. Rare subs just don't survive because no one knows how to react to them. It isn't a fault in the person, its not a fault in the group, it is merely that when we take pride in a way of doing things we are more comfortable with it and want to wage our battles according to what we know works. However the assumption we start the game with about jobs and sub-jobs is inherently deceptive. While the varriation is broad and allows for multiple play styles only a handful can make it to the endgame. So in a sense this great variety doesn't exist. The honest labeling of jobs in game we all know, Tank, Puller, Damage Dealer, Healer, Refresh ***** er... Buffer/Debuffer. So while some of us can play and get to the end of the game happily, we few sorry souls who get to level 60 as something other than what are regarded as the best job combo have the option to straighten up and fly right or quit.
The tragedy is that there are probably a damn good amount of good job combos out that that will never be played for long in the game because no one offers a supportive word, no one has written a guide, no one ever gets to that point. In the the end as a Thf/Rng I find myself torn between changing to a /nin sub, which I find not as intricate, not as challengeing, and starting up a new job. Or I could save more gil than I know how to earn and contiune to watch my friends have fun without me. Odd isn't it? I like my job class therefore I must quit it.
To summize, becuse I, like everyone else, take pride in doing things a certain way which leads to the fact that I am prejudged as inferior to a /nin sub and cannot hope to find a party unless I earn impressive gear so that I can advertise that gear as a reason for an invite. However due to the economic constraints this would be an unbearbly slow process and I would simply miss the comany of my friends. Its not anyone's particular fault. I completely understand how much having the right party can influence the quality of the game. As things are I am irrevokeably led to the conclusion that Final Fantasy 11 is not the game for me.
/rant off
The Win Cania's Money Contest Part! :D
I will be giving out Linkpearls to some close friends of mine so that they can participate in these contests and know when exactly they're gonna start.
Instead of splitting the gil evenly between all of you guys I decided it would be a lot more fun to have 3 contests with a ONE MILLION GIL Prize on each of them. I want you to earn it like I did >:) So here they are in the order I'd like to do them in. I will be trying to accomidate everyone's scheduals and I need to sell off all my stuff so as of yet I have no date for these. I think I'll post the date on the Farewell Linkshell at this point.
CONTEST #1: Think like a Thief!
Also known as the "Find the Mule in a Haystack" contest. I will be walking my mule up to a certain place using sneak oils and prisim powders. This contest is designed not only to test your knowledege of Vana'deil, it also tests how well you know me. To win this contest all you have to do is find the mule and trade him 1 gil at which point I'll be trading 1 million back :D The starting point will be in Jeuno and although I cannot enforce it, no Warp or Tele-Craging to be fair to your competition.
Also due to the fact that I will be hiding this mule very well, and that Vana'deil is really freaking big when you enter the zone that the mule is in you will get a party invite.
I cannot stress enough how much you will need Sneak Oil and Prism Powder if you lack the coresponding spells. If you don't like it tough, you can make your own rules when you give away a million gil ;) Here is the one clue I'll give on the mule's location:
What do Thieves do?
CONTEST #2: Catch a Thief!
Whereas the last contest tested geography this one tests topography. I will be starting this contest by riding off on a Chocobo from Jeuno. After 5 minutes the contestants (that's you guys with the linkshell) will ride off on thier own chochobos from your pick of San 'd Oria, Bastok or Windurst. I will contimue to ride till the bird throws me off. The first person to trade me 1 gil after I'm off the bird wins the prize!
CONTEST #3: Steal like a Thief!
This is a scavenger hunt of sorts. You can start anywhere you like. At the start of this contest I will give a list of items that I want people to find for me. When you find that item or items come and trade them to me to win the last prize :D
By the way... hope you kept some of that Prism Powder and Silent Oil, you're gonna need it to get to me.
You have now been warned. If you die I'll cry, but I won't give you pity gil. G'Luck to all of you! (Except those losers who don't win duh!)