Being Proactive vs Reactive in FFXI

[Norellicus]

Bottom line: most people are absolutely terrible at playing this game, to the point that it simply can't be attributed solely to thier level of commitment to it/how seriously they take it (especially when people with millions of gil in gear are completely horrible players).

The worst part is that for ages I've tried to point out people's mistakes, correct them when they're wrong, try and give them tips to play better (all done in the politest way possible, in most cases), but when they basically ignore me or show that they simply can't be bothered to put more than an iota of effort into what they're doing I start to get really pissed and say what I think. That, of course, leads to a reputation for being an "elitist asshole", which in turn simply increases your bitterness towards people who perform badly and so on and so forth in a never-ending cycle of resentment.

I think life would be a lot more enjoyable being dumb.

I love you.

[ronin sparthos]

Let us not forget some of the completely ridiculous demands some melees make in parties... decisions only someone who has never played a mage job would request. Heres a famous one:

"I NEED this Poisona NOW"
"Why? Its only 1hp/tic, you arent going to die"
"... Just give me the fucking Poisona, can you see im POISONED???"
"Uh, just let it wear off - its a waste of mana to Poisona everyone when its only 1hp/tic"
*DD starts red-dotting*

Replace Poisona with stupid requests like Silena when said person isnt using MP, Viruna when said person isnt resting and demands for Blindna when the recast is long as fuck.

I'll agree that most people are pretty..... "uninformed" when they play FFXI, but EXP parties arent what pisses me off in terms of people being "proactive" versus "reactive" - its the endgame situation and events with different people that can be frustrating as hell.

Ever try a Battlefield with a group of people in 2008? You announce a place to go and in most cases people are like "lol wheres that". Most players have access to a PC, yet they HAVE to have someone spoonfeed them directions - its completely aggravating. Then half the times people cant read a god damn map - CMON, a fucking first grader can read a map.

Id be fucking embarassed to be ages 16-30+ and not know how to read a fucking map or understand coordinates, but obviously thats just me.

If that isnt the kicker, someone has to mention "insert a popular BC/KS and ask why we are not doing that instead of what i CHOSE to set up". Why agree to do something if your gonna bitch about it? lol. That person then turns out to be the worst person in a group and thats the reason they dont do anything outside of the "safety events".

God... for all the people that claim to excel at FFXI - half cant read maps, the other half turns completely fucking noob outside the safety events.

[nekura]

Ever try a Battlefield with a group of people in 2008? You announce a place to go and in most cases people are like "lol wheres that". Most players have access to a PC, yet they HAVE to have someone spoonfeed them directions - its completely aggravating. Then half the times people cant read a god damn map - CMON, a fucking first grader can read a map.

True story: A couple of weeks ago when I was doing Prommy Vahzl, some guy was joining us at the top floor for the BCNM fight. We told him it was the Pso'Xja tower right near the zone to Xarcabard, so he got a Teleport - Vahzl and after about twenty minutes of traveling, somehow ended up in Fei'Yin. He then went to pretty much every Fei'Yin tower on the way back, and d/c'd when I tried leading him to the tower on a mule. I think it was two or so hours between when we finished the climb and when we did the boss fight, thank god we won though because if I had to the climb a third time (I had done it before, group sucked and wiped to the boss and no one wanted to come do just the fight with me ; I would've been very angry.

[The Stig]

Ah yes, the fucking OMG POISONED I'M GONNA DIE I HAS 1400 HP POISONA ME NOW CUNT scenario. I hate it too.

[Kriz]

Let us not forget some of the completely ridiculous demands some melees make in parties... decisions only someone who has never played a mage job would request. Heres a famous one:

"I NEED this Poisona NOW"
"Why? Its only 1hp/tic, you arent going to die"
"... Just give me the fucking Poisona, can you see im POISONED???"
"Uh, just let it wear off - its a waste of mana to Poisona everyone when its only 1hp/tic"
*DD starts red-dotting*

Replace Poisona with stupid requests like Silena when said person isnt using MP, Viruna when said person isnt resting and demands for Blindna when the recast is long as fuck.

Throw in the autotranslated party command before the move that's blinded/virused/etc'd people even fully finishes animating. I think most melees equate Virus with Plague.

Personally, as a WHM who more often than not gets stuck with groups of people who aren't quite playing with a full deck, I tend to try to compensate for other people with as much trickery as I can. Why I keep a Vile Elixir around. Sometimes playing below pro makes you better, but in the end if things went okay no one will change their ways to improve...

[chardero]

I can understand the occasional "fuck ups", but when playing whm and the rdm just flat out forgets to refresh is a whole other level of stupid. Personally I feel awkward asking for something like refresh when its just me and a rdm in a party. Double the frustration if its a linkshell event. This kind of shit makes me look like an ass when I run out of mp and can't even do my job.

[Lujei]

Let us not forget some of the completely ridiculous demands some melees make in parties... decisions only someone who has never played a mage job would request. Heres a famous one:

"I NEED this Poisona NOW"
"Why? Its only 1hp/tic, you arent going to die"
"... Just give me the fucking Poisona, can you see im POISONED???"
"Uh, just let it wear off - its a waste of mana to Poisona everyone when its only 1hp/tic"
*DD starts red-dotting*

Replace Poisona with stupid requests like Silena when said person isnt using MP, Viruna when said person isnt resting and demands for Blindna when the recast is long as fuck.

On that note: Melee, Erase has a ~10 second recast, even with Haste gear. Learn some god damned patience please.

[Kaeko]

Regarding the running BLM...

BLM is typically a 'non-essential' job in endgame team events. This means the alliance does not require you to be alive and well to specifically keep everyone else healthy, alive, and well. If you are required for like say killing adds so they don't overwhelm you, there are typically multiple BLMs there.

Because of this, even though a soloing BLM's instinct is to run from the mob, the more sensible thing to do is to run towards the mob. This is especially true for something like say Ixion. Even more so for 4F Gears on Bhaflau salvage. a BLM's death does not cost the alliance much, but a BLM running and potentially causing a massive AoE shot on the essential backline can cause wipes.

I admit I have a problem doing this sometimes due to how often I solo and the instinct to run from the mob. It has gotten people killed in my case many times, and it IS my fault.

[Silenka]

What I really hate proactive vs reactive is tanks waiting for the mob to go after someone else before they'll voke it!

You can voke every 30 seconds, fucking use it or GTFO

I don't really hate the poisona plz thing, because I tend to stay on top of status effects and if someone has to tell me to -na them it's because I missed it. I don't mind poisonaing people, though recast on blindna does get really annoying.

As a blm, it depends on which mob, which tank and which circumstances if I will stun if it comes after me or just let it hit me to lose hate. I like to think I'm not an idiot about it, of course stun doesn't help you lose hate but it can help your tank/melees get some JAs out before the mob beats you to death, which usually works out. >.>

[Kohan]

On that note: Dumbasses, Erase has a ~10 second recast, even with Haste gear. Learn some god damned patience please.

I believe this is more accurate. I've seen mages make similarly boneheaded demands of one another, despite playing a job which also requires spending MP and dealing with recast timers. (OMG RDM Refresh me now! Refresh me now! Just because you hit your cycle almost all of the time something made you miss and OMG OMG! REFRESH ME AAAAAAAAGHGHGAGGDHGJKLR) Just as well, melee have said completely idiotic things to each other, too.

[rithridan]

In our salvage group we have a nice name for these reactive people, "Tourists". Nothing is more annoying then people who turn off their brains while doing an event or just refuse to do some preperation. The only thing they can do is play their job like a zombie, unable to improvise or deal with panic situations. Also they can only follow people around instead of knowing where to go and going there. Yes my naked mule is going East on 3F Zhayolm, no you shouldn't follow it since you should be going West to cure the MNK who is in red now because he has 4 Mamool beating on him and you aren't there.

On the other hand you have the people who are so psyched and on drugs that the second their haste wears they have "/p Haste plz" ready. I mean, come on if I was a second slow on my first haste in the cycle because I had to do 1 other spell then the entire cycle will be slightly later then usual. Sometimes you have to put priorities elsewhere and you aren't the most important melee/person in the world. Being without haste for 3 more seconds while I put on Dia2 on the mob so _all_ people hit harder shouldn't kill you, or sleep that add so the BRD/THF doesn't die from pulling an extra link.

/rant

[Fogo]

Let us not forget some of the completely ridiculous demands some melees make in parties... decisions only someone who has never played a mage job would request. Heres a famous one:

"I NEED this Poisona NOW"
"Why? Its only 1hp/tic, you arent going to die"
"... Just give me the fucking Poisona, can you see im POISONED???"
"Uh, just let it wear off - its a waste of mana to Poisona everyone when its only 1hp/tic"
*DD starts red-dotting*

Am I the only one that always thought melee requests for poisona when you're fighting mandies was utter stupidity?

[Questionable]

Wow so much response... well the person in question is a RDM playing, it's usually any events, Nyzul, Limbus, BCNM, EXP, KSNM, whatever.

He runs too, like what the fuck does running do? just more time to catch up and get hate back or cure him...

The thing is, he just stands there alot, like sometimes doing CC, there's 2-3 mobs waken up by him, he stands there like panics or who knows what and doesn't do anything. RDM with so many CC spells shouldn't have a problem with 2-3 mobs. Maybe 6-10 yeah that's trouble.

I'm just mostly annoyed at the fact that when we're doing things based on time, there's a mob that's nearby but melee are busy killing current one, he won't go and pull unless told or unless told from the start of the event. Like he wouldn't think to himself "Oh maybe I should pull this to speed it up since we're on a timer" No.

The status removal is icing on the cake... especially playing for 5+ years and killing chariots 239523952359 times, he still doesn't know that Discharge is Paralyna.... And he'll cast random crap, like Slow II or something when people are in red HP or need paralyna. That's what I don't get, when you tell him to think for himself, he does fucked up shit like Slow II, then when you don't tell him, he'll stand and get owned by a colibri and 2 crabs.

[Questionable]

Oh and you know what EPIC fail we had because of him partly? Was a Nyzul 100 run.

So THIS time, we let him come THF because HE wanted a RDM sword, therefore I have to go RDM being the 100disc holder. Funny thing is that first floor we fought dropped the sword so he got it, so basically me coming RDM was nothing special, other than I would need the sword myself but I didn't really care.

Anyhow, so we're on 99 and I think it was Kill All or Family with no detection to gears. Well, whenever I am on THF I would be PROACTIVE and do preventive maintenance and pull gears anyway and tell the mages to sleep them. Because sometimes the penalty is 1min deduction. So you probably know what I am going to write.

Yeah, so he didn't pull gears and subsequently he and someone else aggroed gears, which in turn reduced our time -3 Mins. We were pretty short on time as well because of some other mistakes he did. Yup he didn't think to pull them when he saw it, tried to "sneak" by a true sight/sneak mob. Okay...

So fine, whatever, -3 Mins, we get to 100, nice it's not Cere or Hydra... Low on time we 2hr it, we end up killing it, and drops came Goliard, RDM and RNG weapons, but as soon as the loot pool showed up, we timed out. Now if we had those just 1-3 extra mins...

Fun stuff....

[ronin sparthos]

Am I the only one that always thought melee requests for poisona when you're fighting mandies was utter stupidity?

Anything that isnt massive hp/tic is stupidity. Gotta love those requests for crawler poison removal.

Imps and Spiders - Poisonga II and Acid Spray jump out to me as two times where a request for Poisona is warranted.

Sometimes you have to put priorities elsewhere and you aren't the most important melee/person in the world.

BUT THE PARSE, YOUR FUCKING MY PARSE MAN.

[Hanyoko]

I'm a strange rdm. I like to idle between the party and the puller's pull spot (esp for events like salvage / nyzul). I also keep a ranged weapon with me all the time (hi2u Citadel 4 ramparts, nyzul gears, anything in a room that magic agros). If/when I take hate, worst that happens is the party moves closer to the desired direction. Exceptions of course on say Bhaflau 4F.

When i'm on the receiving end of refresh I will usually let mistakes slide unless i'm under 50% mp and the rdm is over 75%. Then again, the rdm I go with on salvage is still learning that regen III + merits + relic = dont cure bomb them on lower salvage floors.

My gripe with a lot of the melee is.... If you designate someone as MAIN ASSIST.... why did you hit those slept mobs. I'd rather bind it on you then resleep it to 'beat the point in' =^.^= (but then again i dont do that...... often.. as it could deter from the event goal)


And to all you rdm/whm out there. if its a mob that could have shadows.... Banishga -> Sleep
Heck if its a pulled mob and you dont have to sleep it, but it has shadows do that anyway! 2-3 more melee hits could make the kill speed difference.

[meson]

Bottom line: most people are absolutely terrible at playing this game, to the point that it simply can't be attributed solely to thier level of commitment to it/how seriously they take it (especially when people with millions of gil in gear are completely horrible players).

This one time this one rdm (chap, dalmy, wlegs, cape, nashLegs) asked me (3months since dinging 75 rdm and only a vcloak to my name) to solo qqth for him for 6 Million gil.

Anyway...

Sounds like the OP is playing with a stoner. Deal with it until you can replace them.

[Toksyuryel]

Bottom line: most people are absolutely terrible at playing this game, to the point that it simply can't be attributed solely to thier level of commitment to it/how seriously they take it (especially when people with millions of gil in gear are completely horrible players).

The worst part is that for ages I've tried to point out people's mistakes, correct them when they're wrong, try and give them tips to play better (all done in the politest way possible, in most cases), but when they basically ignore me or show that they simply can't be bothered to put more than an iota of effort into what they're doing I start to get really pissed and say what I think. That, of course, leads to a reputation for being an "elitist asshole", which in turn simply increases your bitterness towards people who perform badly and so on and so forth in a never-ending cycle of resentment.

I think life would be a lot more enjoyable being dumb.

QFMFT