The Hyur watches as his Hume brothers will die a painful death in the next few months

To quote a true veteran player on the FFXIAH.com forums, the new expansion/DLC is "the same old shit with this update, just more waste of time." So why are you still playing? I know why I am back to playing. I've bought the game twice and originally played at release and I don't have one level 75 character to show for it. Should I just quit while I'm behind and wait to crush it when FFXIV comes out? The money doesn't concern me. Assuming I end up going to Korea, I really do have it to burn.

There's no bonus for importing FFXI characters so why are you still trying? Maybe because your discount laptop can't begin to dream of running the FFXIV benchmark? I know my computer scored "Low." Which is exactly what I scored when the original FFXI benchmark came out. This time around, I don't feel bad because I know the Japanese still can't make optimized code to save their lives in the gaming industry.

I don't even know why I want a 75 anymore. It'll take me at least a month to hit 75. Probably another two weeks to hit the new cap of 80. I'll be taking a month break to get adjusted to life in Korea. That leaves me with about two weeks to enjoy my capped RDM. Two weeks to try my hand at a Dynamis, or Sky, or Sea (whatever those are) and you know go after all my merit points. You would be mistaken to think for a second that I'll be playing FFXI once FFXIV comes out. I'm not 14 anymore, I don't have that kind of time to waste. So should I quit already? I feel like I'm at that point. Maybe my friend Scot is just rubbing off on me.

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.

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?

1. Playing FFXI - I stopped blogging but not playing. I'm level RDM39 now and back to leveling my subjobs (WHM and BLM). So I'll probably be around Qufim for most of my XPing getting THF, WHM, and BLM up to snuff. 
2. Street Fighter 4 - I missed out on the C3 tournament but I've been practicing a lot. I found a Tournament Edition stick and dropped the 150 for it. I took up a stick building project that has yet to be completed but I have all the parts for it. So many set backs have left me with a broken frame and useless wireless 360 PCB. Now, I need to cut a new frame and wire up the FightPad I bought to replace it. Shame for the FightPad? Not really, my practice circle has deemed my FightPad wonky and I personally have issues with it anyway. No real loss there.
3. Personal Stuff? - I don't know what to call the mash-up all the other crap I deemed just personal questing. Trying to figure out how to get where I want to go and actually motivate myself to do it. Good thing I'm still in college...wait...that's not a good thing...

So yeah, nothing terribly interesting going on over here. Not yet anyway. What is there to look forward to?

1. Game Design - I've been reading a lot of people's thoughts on modern game design. Maybe I'll chime in and repost it here.
2. Social Commentary - Personal questing has left me with a lot of generalized conclusions about the world we all live in. Maybe I'll be a giant bigot like many other bloggers and shove my short-minded views on a variety of topics there's no way I could possibly completely understand (meaning of life, careers, relationships, economy, society, etc.)
3. Boring information about my life and what I've accomplished - this is probably what will happen. Using my blog to catalog daily/weekly accomplishments sounds like a good idea right now (minutes to midnight where all the really stupid ideas seem pretty good).

What will probably keep me from posting here:

1. Final Fantasy XI - Usually if I'm bored I can find a reason to log on and join a PT. Good way to destroy four hours of time that isn't really free and should be used to study or work.
2. Street Fighter 4 - The backup to FFXI, I always need more practice on my arcade stick. Oh yeah, and I picked up Guile to complement my Cammy so I have to work on switching fight modes mentally.
3. The Internet - it's like TV for me. I get online and just burn hours double checking my e-mail, Twitter, Facebook, Engadget, and Joystiq. Hmm, maybe we need no-internet days? I like it. Lets start tomorrow - I'm going to shoot for no-internet every other day.
4. Television shows - I recently grabbed True Blood Season 1 and I'm watching the latest Burn Notice.
5. Really Bad Movies - Death Race, Never Back Down, and Max Payne are my latest conquests. It's kinda where I'm at right now, I really enjoy watching movies I know are bad. Oh yeah, I also just defeated Fast and Furious (The Fast and the Furious 4) - that was a classic (sike).

On to the update:

Things have changed quite a bit. Iujk has passed me and is now a pimped out level 25 WHM with a level 20BLM and level 15 THF. This is the last I heard, it could be higher now. I'm not too far behind: 20THF, 19RDM, 14WHM, 12BLM, 8WAR. I promise to put in more work in to WAR, MNK, BLM, and WHM between now and the end of the week. I'm hoping to get WHM and BLM to 20 while stopping MNK and WAR somewhere around 12-14 unless I can find a forgiving PT willing to put up with crappy gear.

Smithing has improven. I'm a level 10 in blacksmithing now. Also, I have a level in leathercrafting. I've officially given up on all forms of crafting. I've dumped at least 30k in to it and all I have to show for it is a poor set of equipment for my level 20 jobs. I'm going to gear up my RDM and THF (single set people, I don't know who started this 3-set madness) and get to cracking in Qufim. I'll return to crafting when I can farm 10k and crystals like it's nothing.

The AsuraTitans have grown in size quite a bit. Notable members include: Baduno and Trysin (Bad and Trys). These two are my go to guys when it's time to to chat or throwdown in the Dunes. Speaking of the Dunes (or Doonies according to Bad), I hate it so much now.

I'm calling people out because not enough people do it. Or at least, I want to but I forget the names of these people. Vitalis has been the latest offender. I understand you're learning to tank as a Paladin, it's a shame you didn't learn anything as a WAR because you clearly don't know how to Provoke. "I'm saving Provoke incase I lose hate for an emergency." Guess what? If you Provoke as much as possible, you'll generate as much hate as possible -- decreasing the chance that you lose hate. To all tanks: Do not wait for the incredibly touch (IT) mob to smack us mages in the face before you realize we're generating more hate than you. I was a BLM for crying out loud, Blind and Poison alone puts me at the hate threshold forget nuking. I'm not really mad it happened, I'm mad it happened over and over. PLDs, forget about damage, cure and 'voke please let the WAR and BLM handle the killing. In case he ever reads this: after you caused a ruckus, we de-sync'd and grabbed a rabbit and logged safely in Selbina -- all 5 of us.

There's a cetain THF that needs to be called out but I forget its name. There's an important note for pullers though -- when the PT leader says we're good: start pulling. You know your job, pull until the mobs run out or the PT needs to stop. Both of these break conditions need to be addressed. When the mobs run out -- you may pull some filler mob to keep the EXP flowing. That's just good practice. You DON'T pull a stronger mob and hope everything turns out okay. It sounds like common sense but it apparently doesn't sink in for people and I've been wiped that way. Also, you need to understand when the PT needs to stop. It's easy to not notice when the WHM/healer is out of mana. Every PT member has their job and is focused on it. Guess what you're job is puller? To watch that little MP bar and make sure you don't pull when it gets low. Yes, the WHM should group notify that he is low on MP but not everyone has a parser and feels the need for an idiot light to go off. Make sure people are ready to kill, wiping your PT is officially grounds for getting kicked in my PTs.

Lessons for PTs:

1. Don't argue with the PT leader -- be heard and then shut up; a good leader will do what's right
2. Be alert: Look out for links, low MP, and idleness or disconnects.
3. Come equipped -- you don't need the latest gear but showing up in a level 1 set is a definite party foul
4. Stronger mobs are not acceptable when you can't find the proper mob to pull
5. Noky on Asura doesn't like to be PT leader but when he is, he doesn't like idiots. If you're feeling a little stupid -- please politely decline the invitation.
6. Do not leave after you level, it's rude. If you know you're going to have to dip out -- give the PT leader a time so he can schedule a replacement
7. If you know something the leader doesn't, help out -- don't try a coup d'etat. (Thanks Bad)
8. If the linkshell says AsuraTitans, they're awesome -- you should definitely keep them around

One more thing about the Dunes: I'd really appreciate it if people would stop power leveling there. Especially with WHMs in the PTs but in general too. The summer brings with it a lot of new players and there are already enough people who don't know how to play the game and their job. The Dunes sucks, but it sucks for a reason -- it's what makes people in to good FFXI players ready to take on Garrison, Dynamis, Maat, and all the other difficult challenges that await. Don't get me wrong, I love the EXP from a PL -- 400xp a pull is awesome stuff that allows you to take care of the Dunes in one or two nights. However, there's a lot of room for carelessness and idiocy because when it hits the fan (and it always does), there's a high level guy taking the heat and raising the few people that got caught up.

This "update" has been far too long already so I'm gonna wrap up. Tropico, my Taruhood brother, is more-than-likely calling it quits. He's a businessman AFK and has things to attend to. Nothing but love and I understand completely. Fortunately, Iujk is here to stay and the LS is growing by the day. Join the AsuraTitans people, it's where the good stuff is hidden. We keep it in little boxes...on the hillside...made of ticky-tacky.

Look for our first official AsuraTitans outing. We have plans to take on Rank 2-3 and N.Gustaberg Garrison.

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.

I met some new friends last night as well! Synfull and Ansiem are these really cool guys that are much stronger than me. I now play with them and we have a new linkshell, Asura Titans! Check it out, first week and I'm already hanging with the cool people.

I still havent' left South Gustaberg yet but I did get to venture to new territory. I pushed THF to 10 early and then tried my hand at smithing after realizing the new sword I wanted couldn't be bought on the Auction House (AH). I made a bronze ingot! Naturally I forgot to take pics of the hotness! I'll make sure to grab some next time. The store closed on me so I had to stop crafting early. The real issue with crafting though is that fire crystals aren't something I find a lot of. Oh well, smithing seems the coolest of the crafting jobs since I want to be able to make gear for me and my friends (and now my linkshell -- woot!).

Iujk (formerly Fitraubond -- a friend originally met AFK) and I finally touched base in-game. I switched to RDM at that point and killed stuff close to town with him. He's picking up on the game really quickly. He decided not to go with RDM though and is back to playing WHM with a sprinkle of BLM.

With Synfull's help we took on some Land Crabs! They were pretty tough. I also got to fight a Goblin Weaver and, wait for it, a Bomb! It was just like the fire bombs from standard FF titles. That thing almost killed me. It used Beserk and started taking almost half my health with each hit. Synfull is awesome though, so he kept me alive with his super healing power.

I took a bunch of new screens and they're of course awesome. Some of the highlights:

Synfull showed be his mog house! And then asked me to take my gear off. It was very forward of him but of course I did it. What do you think I'm sort of frigid conversative? Of course, I forgot to take pictures of that specific event but I have plenty of his room.

Also, Synfull has his own Chocobo! Took a bunch of shots of that hotness. They were worth it.

Don't miss the cools shots of me in the new gear sets Synfull let me borrow.

For reference (and I'll link this in every post from now on) -- you can view the album here:

That's most of it. I didn't get to see Tropico (another AFK friend) in-game at all but I'm sure he's busy with stuff AFK. I don't think I'll get much time in today. There's a Street Fighter 4 tournament going down @ UMD tonight (8-12PM EST). I know I didn't show last time but I plan to make my grand appearnce tonight. Especially since a friend seemingly threatened my life if I don't show. Don't worry, I'm not all FFXI-mode, I will be sure to blog about SF4. Man this post was long. I'll try to break it up next time yeah?

EDIT: I've played since then but I'm not going to create a new post. I have uploaded and captioned some of the screens. The post was originally written May 8 but finally posted on May 17. I was waiting on my lazy bum self to upload the most recent images. Link the album link to browse through all of them.

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).

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.