A License For Individual Thought?

[Garland]

For many, many months, the common belief was that everything that there was to know about FFXI gameplay, and more specifically, job/subjob combinations was known already, and further, was learned so long ago, as to have two years of tried and true experience backing it up. This argument was often a cudgel used to beat uppity newbs over the head with, who sought to go against the grain. Such a newb would enter a party, and a player of more traditional make would suggest/demand that the newb amend the error in his ways. When the newb asked why the cookie-cutter setup was the only way, the answer would be that said combo was proven to work for two years or so, and that no other setup works because we would've discovered it already. It's the same sort of argument that kept people in the Renaissance arguing that the Earth was the center of the universe. Years of blind repetition of a belief make it an untouchable truth.

At QCDN forums (a fora for Quetzalcoatle players), someone provided a story of a Ninja/Black Mage that dealt incredible damage by taking advantage of the BLM's Magic Attack job trait, elemental staves, and Ninjitsu elemental magic. It worked well enough to turn quite a few heads. I think a similar post was brought up on Allakhazam's Ninja forum. Why am I posting this? Only to inspire anyone with some creativity left to keep on trying to find the next great job combo, and to ignore the nay-saying parrots. There're still good combos out there, and benefits to previously disdained combos that haven't been discovered yet. All you have to do is find them, and you can enjoy the satisfaction of making all your critics eat their words. Don't leave your creativity at the door when you select your character. Nin/Blm has given players of a less conformist nature a golden-shiny-wire-of-hope. It's about time some people climbed it.

[Remnant]

Nice post, and nice reference at the end there

[Lionx]

Well the point is that people always do find new combos or trying to find it viable. However a NIN/BLM isnt a typical NIN, i mean how much dmg does it do vs a RDM or a BLM or a SMN? Not alot, plus you got to have tons of money to throw away for this kind of NIN. What are NINs best at however? So far its tanking, and its a much better USE of the NIN. I am not saying NIN/BLM is bad necessarily, but think about the use of one in an exp party....i too have read up stuff about this in numerous forums and i dont think its that great as a exp party setup most of the time. While its nice to try to find different combinations its just how much better is this combination vs another and which would be wanted more for partying...>> Thats all.

[Dignified Pauper]

Anyone two jobs can be a great team... I'm working on a Dragoon/Redmage combo, regardless of people saying it's horrible I will complete it

[Citizen Bleys]

I enjoy nonstandard combos for soloing. I'd be leery of them in an exp party, though.

I think someone here mentioned drg/brd as a good soloing combination. I tried it, and I think I prefer it to /war. I'll never get a party with brd subbed, but for soloing...

[Roogle]

A friend of mine from a very long time ago used to be a DRG/BRD, and she was an incredibly good Dragoon. I miss her Ballads, even if it only gave me just 1 mp.

[Ouch!]

When I see a irregular job combination, I'm not so much worried about the job's effectiveness as I am of the player's skill in battle.

I've seen a warrior with a black mage sub. He was preparing himself for being a dark knight- I still don't see why people are attracted to that job- but he had next to no experience tanking. Because of his black mage sub, nobody had let him be the main tank, and though he understood what he was supposed to do, he was no good at it.

Most of the time, when those kind of combinations pop up, it's a red flag that the player is a complete newb. Sure, there are a couple handfuls of people who know what they're doing and are just trying to have some fun, but most of them don't recognize the relationships between two classes and just do things that sound cool.

I have friends who are trying out some different combinations, such as monk subbing white mage. They know, however, to leave at soloing, and don't go looking for groups like that. I can imagine that it's quite fun. But it's not fun sitting on the sidelines waiting for a group as a WAR/RDM while everyone else is getting picked for parties before you.

[Lionx]

I think its just that, while its fun to have a WAR/SMN..during an exp party its best to specialize and push your strengths and not do a subpar job of what your suppose to do. Which is why i dont use Sword despite i am going PLD during WAR. To the person Searching...who is more likely to be soloing/newb? The WAR/WHM or WAR/MNK? You cant tell..and to the leader...your going to go the more safe route so you dont waste time and money(food right?) exping.

MNK/WHM = HNM Chi Blast power. MND directly affects the power of Chi Blast so thats the only time you use it.

[Citizen Bleys]

A friend of mine from a very long time ago used to be a DRG/BRD, and she was an incredibly good Dragoon. I miss her Ballads, even if it only gave me just 1 mp.

A DRG/BRD got an exp party? うらやましい！

[Garland]

Everybody gets parties. People are always amazed upon reaching the next levelling area, that all the noobs from the area they left are still alongside them. Those gimps get parties from players that disagree with the fairly rigid rules of exp sessions. I don't form parties often, but when I do, they're friendly affairs, with less concern with big and frequent numbers as with just having a good time. Your personality will keep you in my party more than your skill. I've been in parties where even casual conversation was prohibited. That's just not fun. When players become so anal about pushing for the next chain and getting 6,000 exp an hour that FFXI turns from a fun game to a prison camp, that's when it's time to rethink priorities. I want my levels fast and frequent like every other player, but I'm not going to ruin 5 other players' good time to get it. A balance between a determined effort, and a good time is the ideal way to party. Absolute perfection at the cost of fun is as bad as a party that goofs off all day, and gets nothing done. I dislike both.

[Spritz]

I like seeing unusual combinations pull off something outstanding. Unfortunatly most people doing unusual job combos are doing so because they are too lazy/don't have the time to level a more obviously useful one. Also, alot of the people who are genuinly trying to make an unusual job combination don't have the gil to play it as well as it could.

For example, the NIN/BLM. Having all those elemental staffs would cost around 1.6mil alone, Cerby prices. Normal NIN equip aswell would add around 1mil+ ontop of that. Also there is the high cost of powders for NIN. Not many players would have the bank balance to pull that type of job combo off and the ones who try to without the cash will just look raher... lame.

There are people who have a different sub job to avoid the high cost of leveling a job. Take, for example, NIN/THFs. Most NIN/THFs are so because they 'Want to be a Damage Dealer, not a tank.' That fine... even though subbing /WAR would give them a higher damage output... thats just... ugh @.@;

Also for people trying stuff like DRG/WHM or DRK/RDM thats all well and good but people arn't looking for a Sub-par damage dealer who can heal when they look for a DRK or DRG. They're looking for person trying to do the most damage they can without screwing up hate control on the tank. (Im looking at you DRKs who use Last Resort, Berserk and Souleater at the same time)

I do like my XP PTs to have fun people in them. If my PT isn't having a few laughs or messing around when it gets stale then im one bored PT member. Although on the other hand if the XP is bad I'll give in a 30minute notice and ask if I should find a replacment.

Although i know a bad thing when i see one. NIN/BRD hitting for pittence in Yhorter Jungle, (No Thanks.)

[Garland]

Good points. I only disagree with using expense as an argument against the validity of a combo. Ranger/Ninja is an accepted combo, and it's a combination of the two most expensive classes in the game. Ever pt with a Ranger w/o arrows or bullets? Just as lame as the most expensive unorthodox class you can come up with. Ninja/Black Mage has high initial cost, but I don't think the cost of elemental powder would be an issue to anyone who's taken ninja, of all classes, to such a level.

[Lionx]

The point is, is it practical to the everyday player? NIN/BLM unfortunetly isnt...=/ Nor is it the most useful thing a NIN can do.

EDIT: RDM topic..very interesting..try tanking as one...

http://b.ffxionline.com/forums/showt...threadid=49169

[Lich3636]

its not so much there are newbs trying sub jobs its more that experienced players wanna try something new and narrow minded ppl cant see the uses so these unnusual jobs will never get a proper party field test the blm/nin is a very powerful spell caster makeing the enemy weak against its spells then casting the spell also with 2 int ennhanceing clubs the spells get quite powerful on there own sadly no party leader ever relizes its quality over quantity and will alwase pick a blm/whm or a blm/smn because they have more mp i myself welcome unnusual jobs i often invite odd jobs to partys to see how they do since i ussualy party with friends or ls members iv seen so many of these combos suck but i also see experienced players do extreamly well with these jobs while soloing

[Roogle]

A DRG/BRD got an exp party? うらやましい！

Aside from the fact that she was a wonderful person, she was also level 60 a long, long time ago and was sometimes the only person around to begin with. She had a second account that she used to get into parties, too. They were both the same level and if someone wanted to recruit the White Mage, they'd have to take her Dragoon, too. えいご!