What's being done about BLM and Tanks?

[Akashimo]

You're right, end game is not the ENTIRE game, it's a huge portion, and just about the entire game leads to 'end game.' And when was the last time you saw an update that actually pertains to people who are level 40 and under? I think SE needs to be refreshed on this fact.
Right, TP burn isn't entire EXP either, I'm well aware of that. I never said it was.

If anything, they do need to make leveling other jobs more appealing, seeing how the past week, barely anyone in the 40s are around, less than usual for seraph imho.

[KoukiRyu]

That could easily be a dry spell. It's not like there is a constant lack of people at lower levels, there are always people swapping around doing different things, etc. Just because the past week had barely any people seeking, doesn't mean that there are none. There could be buttloads of people already pt'ing and you just missed the rush, ya' know?

I just don't like how people keep bringing up needing to level lower jobs. There are always people leveling new ones, like myself at the moment.

[Tipsy]

This game is getting older, more people are reaching end game, which makes less people at the lower levels (Maybe that's why Malacite isn't getting good invites). There's definatly not as many people at lower levels now, that there was back in the day. Most of the time when I party on my lower level jobs I was playing with people Rank 8+, alot were just end gamers leveling their sub. Reason why there's less people 38-50 lfg I suppose.

[KoukiRyu]

Yea, I suppose. I haven't had much trouble except with the obvious things, Refresh/Tank, but that's an always thing in my opinion. Oh well, I can live with it and always try to find a way around it if I really can't find an exp pt. Promys w/NPC and Exp Scroll Choco runs help fill my time if I have to lfp for hours.

[Malacite]

There really aren't a whole lot of people at the lower levels on seraph. Parting under 50 is sheer hell. There's an average of 20-30 people at beast for each stage, not counting the hordes of new RMT...

[FinnDS]

It ain't that bad at Midgardsormr. I started playing awhile ago at level 18, and now I'm 27 and haven't really had any real problems getting a party as a BLM/WHM.

[IfritnoItazura]

There really aren't a whole lot of people at the lower levels on seraph. Parting under 50 is sheer hell. There's an average of 20-30 people at beast for each stage, not counting the hordes of new RMT...

Hmm. I don't know, this sounds a bit exaggerated.

Comparing the 5th Vana'diel Census vs. the 7th Vana'diel Census, we can see that while under Lv.10 characters dropped off a lot, the same cannot be said for the Lv.11-50 range.

(Excluding Lv.37 characters)
2005 Lv.11-50: 36.28% of the population
2007 Lv.11-50: 48.16% of the population

Yes, there are actually MORE people in the Lv.11-50 range than two years ago, since the player population has remained at 500,000-ish. This increase is partially attributable to people taking jobs to Lv.37 first, then go back to level support jobs (I took out Lv.37 characters from the data already), and a sharp increase in the number of people who took jobs to Lv.40 for level capped fights such as BCNM's. (That's in the data; 0.69% in 2005, and 1.69% in 2007.)

Whatever the reasons are, the fact is there are plenty of people between Lv.11 to 50 these days--more than two years ago.

That said, I have observed that the number of players seeking party under Lv.50 have gone down noticeably. I want to say static/LS parties have become really popular, and the number of solo'ers have gone up, but not sure if those two can fully explain the situation, at least not with NA players.

It is possible that the players now are spending greater proportion of their online time engaged in non-exp related activities, and that's likely the biggest reason IMO, though I have no data to back up that with. I certainly see greater awareness of how food and gear can affect performance among new players, so perhaps the lowbies today are spending much more time gathering Gil than leveling, compared to two years ago? Who knows what they are doing...

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

You're right, end game is not the ENTIRE game, it's a huge portion, and just about the entire game leads to 'end game.' And when was the last time you saw an update that actually pertains to people who are level 40 and under? I think SE needs to be refreshed on this fact.

Right, TP burn isn't entire EXP either, I'm well aware of that. I never said it was.

When was the last time?

Chocobo Racing
Chocobo Breeding
Camp Kweh
Ballista
Brenner
BLU, COR and PUP gear added at varying levels
New ToA accessories for lower level players.
Lots of quests
Events
AFs quests.
Rank Missions

There's lots of content that pertains to endgame and then there's loads of content elsewhere. Nothing I listed really leads up to an endgame function. SE is still pretty big on dishing out huge storylines and lore for doing even the most insignifigant stuff.

Any low level player could do Rat Race or the Serpent General quests and be treated to a heap of story in the process, with some decent rewards to boot.

And really, without this content, it wouldn't be Final Fantasy at all. And I still find it sad that people think endgame is the point to the game. Maybe it is if you have RNG mules stationed in Attowah Chasm to scan for Tiamat. I can't decide if that's clever or just the epitome of depravity, to be honest.

Getting back to what SevIfrit was talking about, I don't know if there is a way to balance things out for the majority of melee jobs at endgame. Two of the best jobs can shoot or nuke things from a distance without having to scramble around the mob to hit it. Then there's the support, tank and mage classes which have an indisposable place in endgame.

Melees are... replaceable. Feels dirty to say it, but such as been the case since Ultima Online and its never changed in any MMO. Everyone wants the be the guy that kills the monster. When melees are so replaceable how do you make one shine over another? Even the most popular melees can be replaces with others. I'm not gonna shed a tear over losing an egotistical WAR or MNK... they're WARs and MNKs. Dime a dozen. Give me a PLD or WHM and now you're talkng.

/shrug

[Tipsy]

Chocobo Racing
Chocobo Breeding
Camp Kweh
Ballista
Brenner
BLU, COR and PUP gear added at varying levels
New ToA accessories for lower level players.
Lots of quests
Events
AFs quests.
Rank Missions

You make a good point, don't get me wrong.. but chocobo breeding? Yeah, that's loads of 'fun.' lol

Plus, don't you have to be level 50+ on atleast one job to access Aht Urghan (or something)? And to do some of the stuff you mentioned, a level 40 offers little help, they'd have to milk than really participate. Yes, alot of Aht urghan is soloable (most of it) but there's some missions that arn't. AF quests have been around since the begining of the game, so not really an update, and 50-60 is still a pretty high level.

Ballista sucks horribly pre uncaps, imo :P.. everything else aside, I think it's fair to say, end game may not be the entire game, alot of the game does lead up to it (leveling, home nation missions, etc) but it's ALOT more fun and eventful than anyting underneath.

You say you think it's sad that some people think end game is the entire game, I think they don't think it's the ENTIRE game, I just think that they consider anything else to be not as fun and thus a waste of time.. making end game the 'entire' game for them.

I mean, look at that list you made, it's tiny compared to what an 'end game list' would look like.

[Akashimo]

Ballista sucks horribly pre uncaps, imo :P.. everything else aside, I think it's fair to say, end game may not be the entire game, alot of the game does lead up to it (leveling, home nation missions, etc) but it's ALOT more fun and eventful than anyting underneath.

Obviously never seen the 30-50 caps I've been too with the crazy tarus running around. Or a jungar forest 40 cap with whm/war vs pld/whm, whm winning ;P Fact its capped makes it the challenge compare to uncapped. Plus, exp is exp. Though my favorite ballista has to be 30 cap in the marshlands and uncap in mountians.

[Tipsy]

Well, I've done every Level of ballista from 30-75, and uncaps, imo are the best because you can use your job to it's full extent, without being held back. Which is mostly the reason why I don't like capped fights. But I will say, Lv.30 caps as MNK with Borreal Cesti are pretty fun.. but THAT'S IT! lol xD

[Legal Fish]

Ballista is by far most balanced at level 60. I honestly can say uncapped is unbalanced like hell. It's very similar to the main game, at post-60 is when balance goes to hell(all those jobs become "lol", MNK, NIN, and WAR become "OMG!") and at 75, it's like we are playing a different game.

[Akashimo]

Capped pre 60 just means even if you're using the lol jobs, you can still beat the omg by one simple reason, better at playing your job. Though I gotta go to uncapped again just to see if I can take on a blu soro with rdm/nin >_>;

[Tipsy]

Well, first of all, to be quite honest, Official matches arn't even a thought in my head. I ONLY do Diorama with my friends.. and in there, we don't score petras, no that's boring as shit, we match up two jobs to go head to head. And I mus say, we had people in our shell that could do things with jobs (jobs you would have easily underestimated) that you'd never think possible.

So when you say ballista, that's what I think of, not the mindless gang-rapes of 5 lvl 75 MNKs in osode/blackbelt but, the fair, one on ones, (NO items) to see who built their character better/who has more skill.

So when doing stuff like that, I prefer uncaps over anything.

[Akashimo]

Far I've experienced, there is never a fair one on one match in uncapped >_> Nor are there anyone willing to do that. Sides, lvl 75 monks are worse in 40 cap mnk vs mnk cause they get Raging Fists before the non-75 ones(sooo cheap) >_>;;

I wonder if they'll ever make an update that just the allspark to tanks and blms ;o