March 2021 Version Update

Most people don't like playing support. Support get blamed for losses and DD get praises for wins. It's a job that should be paid to play. It does indeed get paid to play....

However, at some point you just think you don't want to deal with the hassle of people.and you just multi-box to save your sanity. It doesn't mean you will go solo forever because you will still tram up and interact with others but not on a daily basis and certainly not for everything.

If you could solo it then why bother with a party? That's how multi-boxer think. It's like card farming in Omen. Sure it's a lot faster with an alliance but it doesn't mean you can't hack it alone.

The reason people prefer certain players on support is because they cannot be trusted to stay alive when they DPS. I personally don't mind tank or support, I actually prefer it as it is a nice change of pace. But I know that many players disregard survivability in favor of damage too much when they play DPS. And they are often a liability. Most new players will not have much knowledge of what monsters use which moves, so they will disregard defensive sets in favor of offensive ones. They are essentially a group liability if things possibly turn left. It makes more sense those players go as support/healer for a better balanced group.

I think you've just spent too much time on Asura. Most groups aren't like what you describe.

I mean most groups are on Asura... so....

As it should be. There are 22 jobs in this game. Half of them are dps jobs. In a game that allows you to play multiple jobs, basically everyone at endgame in XI has at least one geared-out dps. I never understand players who think they are going to create a logjam at the dps role when the average party only has 1-2 dps slots for every 6 man party, and 3-4 support. My LS has a policy, no matter how long you've been in the shell, of spreading the support/heals/tank load. It's the only fair way to do it IMO. On the other hand we encourage people to who enter with just support and tank jobs to gear out a damage dealer and give them chances to use it for higher-end content (once they are ready).

You're somewhat right about about support having more leeway but I've seen people with geared-out BRD/GEO/WM shunned or kicked for being extremely toxic or selfish. With how many people have REMA-geared support alts these days there is a lot less patience for playing with shitheads, even shitheads who are willing to constantly shoulder the support burden...

Quantify that statement.

No one likes playing support. They like that you only have to pay half the attention, and give half the effort while still getting 100% of the rewards. No one likes singing and rolling, they like the win rate and speed from having those songs and rolls. No one likes being a support, they like being a DD that can also give buffs. No on likes being support, they like the opportunity (and worship) it gives.

The solution is to turn your support job into a DD. Just gear RDM COR and BRD to the teeth.

Also with Nyame gear I wanna see some melee BLM make a comeback, mythic am3 spamming vidohunir. SCH could probably pull it off too with omniscience.

Geomancer gets a terrific melee set now also. With highest magic evasion and a ton of DT. You can make some interesting builds to melee in while still keeping your luopan alive. Maxentius away!

Its like you're inside my brain^^ I saw those pieces and the hardest decision I have is whether I need WSD or TP'ing gear for my BLM <3

Because BLM is unkillable with manawall up while meleeing in that gear

FFXI was designed to have minimal busy work because they wanted players to have more time to talk to each other and build a community. As such multi boxing is fairly easy here when it's not on a lot of other games.

How to play a wow clone:

1,2,3,4,5 > 1,2,3,4 (5 not ready) > 1,2,3,4,5 > till monster dead (jump out of any telegraph attacks) etc. You're doing way too much stuff to be able to control something else there unless it is completely automated or clones key presses.

People multibox for lots of different reasons, some are as simple as social anxiety, some just like having alts to gear up, some like the extra work / challenge or to have an in-demand job on an alt to get to use their favorite job more.

Mass multibox is still the worst option, it's laughably easy to wipe if something out of the ordinary happens and you're increasing your gear requirements x however many alts you have (which is counter productive if your goal is getting gear).

Also some players like playing healer or support jobs, different personalities tend to like different jobs. Healers tend to like looking after people, tanks tend to like being in control of the content and being the pivotal job there, support players tend to like boosting up people. I used to really like having under geared DD players and seeing how happy they were doing lots of damage in merit parties and things.

As I said, multi-box people prefer to multi-box because they don't want to deal with the hassle with other people. It takes a lot of setup and efforts to hear multiple characters and I am sure nobody wants to do that unless they really want it. Even then, a party is still better. Still people like multi-boxing. It's convenient, inventory saving and worry free.

Some people like healers, some people also like getting spanked. There aren't a lot of them around.

For example, I could spend time shouting for odyssey farming everyday. Maybe I can make 500k and 4k-5k segments per character. Or can I just pick up my atls and go in on my own. I probably only make 750k total and maybe only 3k segments but I will tend to do that because I don't like the hassle. Or maybe I could just farm in delve for merits to dump and some bit of mats.

Does tank count as support because I basically only play RUN for group content and I love it.

In 2021, I can kind of agree with this but in 2006? Singing on Bard was an really fun experience.

How can you suck at playing support only BRD. You literally just click 6-7 macros every 10 minutes.

You are correct about the win rate/efficiency factor, but some of us actually do like playing support. I’m very proud of my WHM and if you see me in game you’ll see I take it very seriously. I rock it like people rocked BLM in the HNM days, with pride. My regen 4 set is at 3:27 sec now with a 64hp/tic rate. My idle set is stacked meva and refresh, and I have that sweet party buff add on showing my teams status ailments so I can clean them up and get back into the fight asap. The fight hinges on my success, which can be exciting and immersive.

Playing WHM gets boring, sure, but so does tanking and so does spamming upheaval with my R15 WAR. I don’t want to play any job 8 hours straight.

The beauty of ffxi these days is the speed which we do things turn over. 30 min as a pld in odyssey, then 1 hour as a war doing unms, then an hour as whm in Ambuscade, then an hour cping a new job, etc.

the VAST majority of "bad Bards" I've met in my day are also bad meleeing bards. Trying to convince them to first learn to walk before they run is like talking to a wall.

Doesn't always go like that. People run off during songs. Stuff gets dispelled. People die. You mess one set of songs up and one of your DD can be messed up with an errant song that can't be removed due to nitro use. Especially in a moving event like Odyssey, where you are expected to do a few things at once.

Am I alone in wanting to play tank 24/7?

Nope. RUN for life. And occasionally PLD.

You honestly just aren't a bard if you aren't meleeing though. There are situations where a BRD can heal and maintain other buff like storms though. Regardless if you are just singing, I kind of agree with Eiryl here, its literally the second least active thing you can do in the game, the other being the other support job.. GEO.

Healing is very involved though, and a good WHM is always engaged so if he is saying that support WHM is boring. Idk man. There are always ways to improve your support play though. Classifying a bard as a sing bot in 2021 is a waste of party space.

I'm hopping that the new nyame gear makes melee GEO a thing because their utility outside of a few bubbles every 10 minutes is super limiting.