M*E*R*C*S

Spoiler alert: mercing doesnt make crepu mail or null masque drop faster. Youre still sitting in empyreal paradox or reisen shrine twiddling your thumbs hoping it drops.

Despite Eiryls statement that “time is money”, you arent actually saving any time.

Not necessarily true. Can be off doing other things while waiting for it to drop. "/tell me when it drops" or even "hit me up on discord when it drops".

So your plan is to sit around doing nothing so you are available to haul *** within the 5 minute window to the designated areas and do all the gil trading necessary before you can lot? woof what happened to time is money?

FFXI has taken on a similar spot in gaming to OSRS, it's a game you can login to and mindlessly (or not) grind stuff out or just take your mind off work or other things. There are lots of solo players and lots of group content players.

The problem with XI that since they have so few developers they can't properly cater to both all the time, so you get something like Dyna D that blocks 20-30+% of the players progress in a way they can't bypass. They don't want to group, that's not why they play the game. They are doing what they want to do, and the game lets you do a certain amount and then blocks it.

So they have to pay a merc to bypass the roadblock to carry on playing the game as they want.

They have said they plan to address this, how and when remains to be seen though. They also said they plan to rework the assist chat to be some kind of group finder system.

In a perfect world they would add a 2nd version of Dyna D that's an open zone like old dyna is now, that has no money drops and just exists for people to walk in and kill stuff. That would let people get boss clears and stuff and people would not have to eat up entries to help.

I mean, I get what you're saying but my mind goes to doing other things that can be easily dropped without much care. Crafting or Mythic/Empyrean chores come to mind, I'm sure there are others. This is no difference than seeing someone in your LS say "Malignance Gloves dropped on trove and i already have it. Of you need, hurry to Horlais Peak!"

Of course one of the biggest gil buyers would make a topic about mercs, since thats thats how he gets everything. This guy has put more rice on the table then Uncle Ben. Probably has a statue somewhere in China "Feeder of Nations"!

R30 content is getting Bumba V25 down to a lower % on the first KI... oh wait

I dropped everything once and let my group just die to go pick up some regal gloves… none of them took it on me. For the right thing you can drop it all, and if your team got your back, they’ll get it, some drops are worth waisting a sortie or whatever. Granted I didn’t pay for it either…

Except this isnt "your team", these arent your friends, these arent your LS Mates, these are M*E*R*C*S

I'm pretty sure he's talking about the group he left to let die

I think that this is only valid if you were already an end-game player and lost-sold your account and want to come back.

Otherwise bypassing these events is what makes people with bought gear suck so much. Dynamis and Omen are not only fun but they are also a great introduction to the end-game content.

I am all in for using your money however way you want. It's a waste of time for old farts like us to be making moral judgement about how other adults spend their money. This point is valid only because it makes new players reach the end-game with a much better understanding of whats going on.

It doesn't matter if they suck or not, there are many players now who treat XI like OSRS and just login and solo grind and that's all they want to do. The game has a lot of solo players, that have no serious grouping aspirations. They just wanna login, grind the thing towards their goals and that's it.

It's like a guy kicking a ball against the wall in the garden, he doesn't wanna join Fifa and be a pro football player. He is happy doing what he's doing.

XI has a lot of these kinds of players, and it's not properly built to cater to them. So the mercs fill the void, that stops them quitting.

The guy kicking the ball against the wall in the garden isnt getting $1500 form fitted cleats.

And these people looking for mercs arent kicking the ball against the wall in their garden. They want to join the leagues and play with the big boys.

I'm sorry, this is one place where I will gatekeep all day long.

Did they not understand that this is an MMO?

It's like showing up to a poker party and complaining that they don't have a table for solitaire.

Except if he's listening to shouts while he's kicking the ball, all he hears all day long is people looking for kids with expensive shoes.

hate to break it to you, but $1500 form fitted cleats wont turn you into Messi

Also instead of kicking the ball against the wall alone, why not join the shouts and TRY making friends and starting a group?

Playing this and most other mmorpgs as solo games is fairly popular these days, liking that or not is irrelevant to them. They are still gonna do it.

The appeal of this is others are roaming around in the world you're playing in, and can see your achievements when you're wearing them.

Imagine playing Witcher 3 and it having all these other real people wandering around, it adds depth and appeal to the game. You don't have to play with these other people in a raid for it to add value to the experience.

According to the survey we all took just a few months ago, FFXI is without a doubt a solo/lowman game now, by our own admission. Wishing it were otherwise won't change anything.

Tell that to the people who demand R25 for midgame content. That's the most likely culprit for why new players show up at endgame with merc'd gear.

I dont play on Asura. Ut theres a reason theyre shouting for PuGs instead of having a static. They probably arent good players to begin with. Theres also the expectation that someone with R25 is good at this game, low the bar may be.

This is not true. The biggest gil-buyers in the server are elite players doing end-game content. I have been around players making multiple R15s in a week without ever farming the materials or making any effort to make gil.

A whole lot of the returning players buying content is really because it's a shortcut into end-game. For a returning player with a steady job in real life it's much simpler to just pay $100 for a Kalunga clear than to find the people willing to help you.

I have no problem with this except that there are so many new players that making the oddy climb is still very very possible (and fun), and the difference between R25 to R30 gear is really not worth the price (which means, if you are buying V25 clears you are stupid).

I don't either, but that is where the issue is most pronounced. As much as I agree with the "it's an MMO, go network and make friends to play with" idea, it's not happening on my block.

Have you tried or did you just immediately fall into the pit of despair because reasons?

I'm sorry but I gotta go back to this stupid "time is money" thing again.

Someone so concerned over "time is money" would not be wasting their time playing a MMO that is designed to be as disrespectful to your time as possible without violating Geneva conventions.

Tried to join one of these groups? No. I wouldn't apply to a group that was asking for something I don't have. It already sounds like they don't want people wasting their time and the thought of trying to convince someone that I'm ready for midgame is not appealing.

I make a group or I solo.

THANK YOU. It can't be this big hidden secret that those willing to pay real money for fake rewards just want to be seen as important by their peers, and think those fake rewards do it.

Good god, stop trying to hide the real reasons behind something with a margin of real world logic. We PAY to play a video game with talking 6' tall cats. And you're trying to find reasons related to time-management and other 'adulting' things? c'mon, folks.

Play time should be spent playing, not grinding 1% drop rates

So you get a merc to skip the shitty parts, so you can play.

If you want to spam shinryu every day for a year, that's great for you, not everyone wants their entire year to be farming shinryu everytime they log in.

Two things I wont forget:

A new player saying in LS chat "Finally r25 nyame, now I can start doing sortie."

An ML 50 in an Ody C run that spike flailed and wiped us with two minutes on the clock.

I do believe it has to do with the yells of people saying r25 DD, but also new players don't seem to understand there's a gradual progression to content.

You want to pay for a merc, I don't care, but at least try to learn the content you're jumping into and be considerate of the rest of the groups time. If you don't know what to do, say something

The venn diagram of people who want to pay to skip content and people who are willing to research content and learn mechanics are two untouching circles, unfortunately.


This is, unironically, the funniest thing you could post in a merc thread.

What people who need to merc gear do before getting their merced equipment:


Heres what they do after getting their shinies: