Okay, i reached level 10 in record time… So, i buy my next weapon, and make a line for Dunes. I figure, “well, with only 600 TNL, i should advance really well” but NOOO. the first party i organize should work percectly. I built it perfectly balanced, 2 whm, a blm, a DRK, a WAr(me) and a thf… First fight with a lizzy wiped us out ! No one was to blame(really) because everyone did their job, we just got pwned… So, i had to log, i come back a few hours later, and join another party. We got obliterated too. Major suckage, but partial because the other war REFUSED to be a tank (he finally agreed to voke off me though) but we STILL got creamed. So, getting pretty pissed, we dissolved, and i joined another party. This one was was little more stable, except for ONE thing. The WHM wasnt doing his job. Out of the whole fight, which killed 4 members of the party, he only used 3 healing spells, and was the last to be killed.
Pretty pissed, i wait untill i reach full health again, and head back to sandy about 2000 EXP less than when i started. So, i cash in, upgrade a few pieces of my armor, and call it a night. Wake up this morning to some loud rain, so i decided to hop on and do a little farming for my crafts. In about 2 hours of farming, i GAINED more EXP and made back all 2000 that i’d lost at dunes. Isnt it ironic how when you go out to earn EXP, you lose, but when you go out to just kill things for their items, you win…
Hmm, well, lets analyze.
Your first team:
Level 10 means you have this-
DRK- Good melee damage, cant go wrong with this choice, good.
BLM-Good Magic damage, nice choice once again.
War-Good choice, good tank, certainly not a paladin, but it will suffice.
WHM- X2??? Why in the world do you need 2? Ah well, you lost one slot to this that could have gone to another melee class like Monk, or better yet, a paladin… which could have made a big difference.
Thf-I love thief, but at level 10, the honest truth is that they suck. Unless this thief was using ranged and being a pseudo Ranger, he wouldnt have been adding anything special to the party besides pulling.
So, at this combo, a big thing I can see going wrong is this- Your two whm can heal you, but you’re not doing enough damage to kill the liz fast enough. The BLM can try to step it up a notch and deal more damage, but uh oh, agro! Then when the BLM gets attacked, what do you do? Your a warrior, you’re not able to hold the agro as well as a PLD so you wait for your provoke. If the thief or DRK are subbing warrior they can help pull the agro, however, youre already taking losses.
So in the end, while the PT would be nice in theory, I doubt it would work very well. I’ve never needed two white mages. IMO I dont think your party was damaging enough to destroy it quickly, and if they had tried to be, the tank would not have the skills (I’m not insulting the player at all) to keep the agro.
Where a level 10 Warrior can provoke and deal damage to the mob, a Paladin can Provoke and cure him/herself and irritate alot more.
Thats how I see what went wrong.
you cant go wrong with two WHM’s, but i think the guy pulled an IT Lizard.
i finally got a party in dunes to work… it was a nice setup, two wars, a dragoon, a thief, a ninja, a whm, and about 3-4 power levelers. Then the WHm left, and we got a bard, and then the ninja left, and we got another war… and then the war left, and the whm came back.
I think that in my later levels, i am gonna power level people in dunes too.
Yes you can. If one WHM, or some of the combo mage jobs (RDMs, BLM/WHM, etc) are perfectly capable of keeping the healing up, an extra WHM just is a waste of party space. You’re not gonna chain (much) more since the extra healing the WHM give will just go to healing everyone more during the same fights because you can’t kill it fast enough. That said, it’s a good thing to have another <i>backup</i> healer, just in case things go wrong (DCs or whatnot), but another job would probably bring more to the table (PLD for more tanking, RDM for feebing, BRD for enhancing, etc. All more useful than another person doing nothing but healing.)
Also, don’t power level people. You’re doing them a favour, since in the long run, they need the experience of screwing up and dying to learn how to do their jobs well.
WHM’s can do more than heal… It has it’s own feebling set of spells too, but i do get your point. I would rather have two BLM’s than two WHM’s. Or a summoner with WHM subbed.
Best party I’ve ever experienced-
Paladin - me
Blackmage
Whitemage
Thief
Ranger
Dark Knight
In said case, I can keep perfect agro so no one gets hurt but me. Everyone does thier job well. No matter HOW you look at it, having 1 of each class that fills up each needed roll, eg Healer, Damage, Nuker, Tank, ect. You’ll have much better results than having two of certain jobs. For instance, no party needs two whm or blm, thats a waist of space. If you take two blm then one of them is going to over agro the monster. One BLM is always enough even when fighting snippers/clippers/crabs.
That’s my opinion on the subject from experience. Make a well rounded party from facts, not theory.
Usuallly ture, but not always. One of the best parties I’ve been with:
Pld/War
Brd/Whm
Blm/Whm
Blm/Whm
Blm/Whm
Blm/Whm
We were killing everything too quickly for the pld to need more healing than could be provided between himself and the brd. Exp chain #5 fairly consistently, and little downtime due to the brd’s songs.
Make a [strike]well rounded[/strike] GOOD party from facts, not theory. :get it?:
One fact though, You wont always or easily find 4 BLM/WHM willing to join a group like that. Were talking about practicality here. If you can do what you say with that group, then congradulations. However, what we have here isnt an “easy to come by” set up.
On the topic of good party from facts, try two Ninja as your tanks, no PLD. Then you’ll be introduced to blink tanking, where no one in the party takes damage. At all.
And, were your BLM spamming? or getting agro? I find it hard to believe that the PLD was going to be able to hold agro while 4 BLM spam magic.
Blink tanking is fun, i like partying with ninja’s for that reason.
Class doesent matter so much in parties. I mean, sure you need a whm, who doesent ? and BLM is nice. But what seems to matter most, rather than “how many” is “how good are they”. I know you can say “you only need one white mage, because…” true, if you have a GOOD WHM. I was in a party in dunes last night that looked like…
war/
war/
war/
thf/
blm/whm
rdm/
and we did allright. all we could kill were Snips and T flies, we ended up getting 50-100 each time, which is allright. The only reason we split was because the BLM leveled and killed EXP.
Best Party I’ve had:
WHM/SMN - Very low downtime. Concentrated on the tank
RDM/WHM - Enfeebling, some damage, plus backup healer
BRD/WHM - Minne + Madrigal, Paeon during downtime. Always nice to have. Healed everyone hurt by AOE while the WHM was healing the tank
PLD/WAR - What to say? Tank tank tank
RNG/THF - Puller, plus damage
DRK/THF - Myself, damage
This was 1/2 an hour ago. It rocked.
See, thats where I dont think it’s good. I’ll not stand for anything less than 120exp per kill. Unless of course were chaining them like fucking crazy. Which in your case, didnt seem like you were. 50-100 exp is NOT good unless you chain it and come out making faster exp than a party doing 150+ per kill.
There are lots of opinions on this, but my style doesnt settle for “alright” exp gain. I want my time to be worth somthing. I kick people out who dont keep up with the pace. I’m a HUGE asshole on FFXI, but then again, people I play with that feel the way I do about thier time dont argue and we get places fast.
While i am fast paced too, sometimes you dont have a choice to slow down. What the difference between spending an hour looking for a party to chain mobs for 200EXP a pop, when you could make just as much, if not more killing smaller monsters with a less-balanced party. I had a paladin join, and he left because i didnt have a sub-job. What kind of stupid reason is that to leave a party ? I finally got out of Dunes, for a while at least. I’ll have to go back and level WHM soon enough though. Sadly.
Why be an asshole ?