FFXI Lesson #2: Why you were kicked from the PT
Because you suck.
It's actually that simple. I'm not saying you didn't do your job, maybe you did your job excellently. The primary reason I've seen people kicked from a party was that they decided to talk instead of play. That includes arguing with the party leader and spamming the party with foolishness. This also includes, not playing your job how the party leader has told you to play it. Everyone respects your desire to play a ninja that maximizes damage with shurikens or adds some extra nuking ability by subbing /BLM; please exercise your freedom in another party because right now we need a ninja that will shadow tank because we don't have a paladin.
That said, I don't think people get dropped from parties nearly as much as they did before. In the early days, a party leader would look at your equipment and drop you for not having +1 gear or demand you grab some food and if you didn't you could go find another party. That said, if you get kicked from a PT these days, you were most-likely a dick, deserved it, and need to reconsider your approach next time. FFXI is a cooperative game in every way, when people stop working together nothing gets done.
I met a guy once that simply said: "that's the way I am." In that case, you should go buy World of Warcraft or wait for FFXIV to come out so you can have some soloing options. FFXI is probably not the game for you.
FFXI Lessons #1: How to be a Good Leader
NOTE: I noticed people have run across my blog while searching for this topic so I went ahead and let them know what's up. Since I'm only level 53, I can really only speak for running an experience party.
Playing FFXI is all about partying. In fact, for your first 30 levels, you would be hard pressed to level without partying. The corner-stone of every party is a leader. Unfortunately, most people either don't know how to be a good leader or choose not to. In fact, I knew a guy who always made amazing parties yet never wanted to be the leader. I'm going to go over a few key things you can do so that my friend never has to step up and fix your horrible party.
- Make decisions and be consistent about it
No one is always right, but consistency helps build confidence. Don't let an annoying party member make decisions and undermine your authority. People who feel they know what's best regardless of whether or not the current plan is working or not. Not to say you need to rule with an iron fist, in fact that usually calls for a mutiny. It's best to make firm decisions about the group's direction but remain open to everyone's input. Everyone needs to be on the same page but you can't possibly know everything or sometimes you forget something. One way to make sure the decisions you're making for the group are right is to..
- Be informed!
Use the internet to know how to tackle your chosen campsite, what sites are good for your level range and what party setups work for what situations. Good decisions often make rational sense. It's irrational leadership that gives those annoying wannabes a chance to nitpick and undermine you. However, a good leader is a good player so...
- Know your job
This is general advice for anyone playing. Know the standards of what people expect of you. For example: if your a ninja, have Utsusemi and be ready to shadow-tank. Now one of the benefits of making your own PT is that you can play however you want but make sure you know how to do your job in the PT and create a PT so that everyone can do their job effectively.
- Prepare for a shitstorm
Parties wipe, it's part of the game. Try to be ready for it. If you're in a Fields of Valor zone, have everyone get Reraise. There's a good chance people will leave the PT before it's over. Make sure the members know they should give notice and agree on how replacements will be handled. Regardless if they agree to find a rep, you should probably be looking for replacements yourself just in case.
- Be ready to offer Skillchain + Magic Burst combinations
This one is extremely optional, skillchains have greatly fallen out of style in FFXI since leveling is a lot easier. Nevertheless, it doesn't hurt to find out if your melees wouldn't mind SCing for some extra damage. Again, it's not really necessary, and most people aren't macro'd properly for skillchains anyway. Remember, as the party leader you should be doing everything to attempt to maximize the party's efficiency.
- Know when it's time to close shop
A lot of PT leaders don't know when to call it a day. Eventually whole party will level a couple times and the experience take a hit. At that time, you need to get a count of the members that are ready to move to a new camp and see about possible reforming. I usually don't stay at a camp if I'm on the upper end of the level limit (being level 28 of a level 26-28 camp) and will start arranging a new plan around the time that level is hit.
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The most important things to take out of this are to: be informed, make decisions confidently, and maximize the party's efficiency. The biggest problem that most PTs have are leaders that don't know the camp so they form bad party job combinations. The best PTs have little downtime (adequate healing and timely replacements coupled with effective damage-over-time). Usually when everyone is involved, no one talks too much which means no one has a chance to be annoyed with someone else's personality.
What are you ideas for being a good party leader?
July Status Update
It's been a minute since I've checked in here. I decided to discontinue the FFXI blog. I don't have a good reason but it's dead now. So if I haven't been blogging about FFXI what have I been up to?
FFXI Journal #3
I was going to wait to do another journal entry until after I posted some content for all of those people who could care less about FFXI. However, an update was requested and who am I to deny those who request of me? I promise more non-FFXI updates, really...believe....'hon...
On to the update:
FFXI Journal #3
Man, I got a lot done in Vana'diel last night. Expect this post to be long. Brief overview: 10THF and 7RDM, new friends and linkshell, lots of pics.
Noky’s FFXI Journal #2
Day #2 of my adventures was not nearly as exciting. I restarted because I wanted to be a Tarutaru. I've had second thoughts that maybe I should've been an Elvaan but they are occasionally questionable. Tarutarus never fail to disappoint.
So, I managed to get back to level 5 as a WHM and level 5 BLM as of last night. The eventual goal is to settle on RDM with my skills already leveled up.
With this first photoset, I spent a lot of time back in Zehrun Mines. After awhile of not getting anymore Zehrun Soot (a gil quest item), I decided to move outside where I began getting experience and crystals at a much faster rate. Man, I feel like the mines was a complete waste comparatively. Thanks to the mines however, I have a little extra income and I grabbed some extra spells and gear. Now, I'm ready to start lowbie adventures in pretty much any job.
As all my jobs are level 5 or lower, I'm stuck battling monsters just outside of Bastok in South Gustaberg. Once I graduate to Valkrum Dunes, things aren't going to get that much exciting but I remember that once I approached twenty (18+), the environments were pretty cool. Jueno was quite the experience.
I'm trying to take a plethora of screens as I play. Right now I'm soloing so it's easy to remember to grab a shot and fool around. Chances are I won't have as many snaps when I hit level 12 but we can all hope they keep flowing. Picasa sucks so managing a photo-blog seems oddly difficult. I wanted to have a folder within a folder and Picasa doesn't like that. Oh well, all the FFXI pictures will be grouped together. I don't want to litter the main directory with 120123 folders of FFXI Journal posts (Of course now that I've said something it'll probably end up that I stop making FFXI posts and move on to something else).
Noky’s FFXI Journal: The Magnificent Return
It's been awhile since I've posted. I have a huge backlog of topics, some of which are now irrelelvant, to post. I'll get to that but I decided, this time, I'm gonna keep a journal of my MMO exploits.
I've played FFXI twice before in the past and I never got past level 30. I can't guarantee I will this time but I'm going to try at least.
I have a couple of friends joining me at the start and hopefully, I'll make it to the end!
I forgot to take pictures for this entry but whatever, I'll make up for it in the second entry.
This is the perfect time to start playing because classes are wrapping up and finals are right around the corner. Go me for actively trying to screw up my academic and professional future!
Anyway, I played for about 3-4 hours at night and in to the morning. I've started on Asura as a Hume White Mage and reached level 5. Not much progress but I feel like it was something.
After logging for the night, I've come to realization that I want to play a Tarutaru. I think Humes look the coolest but I've played a Hume both times in the past (with a sprinkle of Galka) and I've started in Bastok both times as well. To make things simple, we started in Bastok once more but I kinda want to change things up.
Seeing as I always play White Mage and always play Hume and always start in Bastok, I'm going to play a Taru this time and go for one of the melee classes (I'm thinking Warrior to start). However, Taru suck at physical jobs without proper equipment so I'm going to go ahead and actually start off as a white mage as usual for the intial leveling (black mage was gracefully taken by one of my comrades). I expect to play (a lot) more than them so I'll probably level all of my initial jobs to level 10 and farm with thief/monk/beastmaster to fund my warrior exploits. The idea is to primarily be a warrior while keeping white mage up to snuff in case we need to start a party and have no healers.
I doubt I'll have much time tomorrow (and for most of the week actually) but we'll see what happens.
