Please stop the Valkurm n00bs....

[Veskar]

Alright. Valkurm has been pretty good exp wise anyway. Its just the people you're forced to try to PT with, and their attitudes. Like:
1. People leaving pts cause there's only 4 people in it, and everyone decides to leave.
2. People joining groups, then leaving a few seconds later "Cause I want exp. no time to help with sunjob items" when we're exping off the droppers for 100-175 exp a kill.
3.People trying to be back seat pt leaders
4.People not wanting to group with you cause you're not the best race for your job.
5.People following others to join there pt, when theyre cleary surrounded by 5 other people participating in the same fight.
6.People not listening to you when youre leader and give them advice or telling them to move to other camp spot or what to pull ("ahh. thats way to strong. no ghouls til like lv19+!") when youre wayyy more experienced them them.
7. People not doing their job or not doing it right
8. Random AFKs with no tells
9. Puller jobs not pulling, provokers not provoking...
10. Shouting spam...
11. Putting up fights for no lotting when I tell the pt we're lotting at the beginning of the group..

There may be many spelling mistakes, ect, but i dont care. just want to leave this place... Anybody else have any problems or stories of good pts?

[pagodaman02]

Valkurm is the worst area in Vanadiel ever! Period. Worse then qufim cuz Levels 16-20 seem to weed out some morons. Its dispicable.

[Cali]

a few points made me laugh, and a few made me nod....

But I do agree with most, *points to her post on worst party experience*...sadly enough, that's not Valkrum only, even at lvl 39... amen...

a taru came up to us, clearly a full party, and he could managed to ask the same question 'any space?' 5 times in 1 battle span, with us answered when he 1st asked... I mean... you can see there are 6 of us fighting, no? and we will TELL you if we need you, not when you need us.... one of the member left, I think he got annoyed, because the taru went 'anyone leaving?' for almost 20 minutes of our party... have some god damn manner, that's virtually saying 'will 1 of you please leave so I CAN level?'...

for #6... lol most NA players lacked the ability to listen, they all have the 'I am right, you are wrong' attitude, but well, no one like being told off, right?
I was being nice that one day, teaching a newbie THF, I just said 'It's better to use a knife than a sword at low level' then I got flamed for that... I mean, I didn't say, 'you suck! use a sword, never touch a knife, or I will report to square, and they will ban you!!'... was being nice... and telling her that a sword would be better, and yes I was in a good mood, so I wasn't using harsh words...
Which really put me off the 'teach newbies' BS... I do want to help them, I do want to share my experience with them, so we can clear our dirty reputation from all the players' eyes... but they refused to learn, and 8/10 I will be flamed for trying to give good advice, 1/10 will be ignored, and only 1/10 will listen. I would accept them flaming me if I am using harsh language, but when I do give advice, it's at a time I'm least annoyed, when I'm annoyed, I will just go...

[Dark Aphalite]

I agree with most of what you said.
However I must admit that I fall into one of the categories...
I am a Warrior yet I never ever pull.
As soon as I get into a PT I tell them that I am not pulling and if they don't like it they can boot me.
So far nobody has because I do such a good job of tanking. (Don't mean to brag or anything)
Yes I have Provoke and good Defense so why don't I pull?
Because I suck at it and I hate doing it.
The few times I have pulled were all disasters.
One time I voked a Goblin and was running back to camp when he cast Bind on me and I helplessly died.
Another time I voked another Gob and started running back to camp... only to find out that it wasn't camp and I had been going completely the wrong way.
Hehe funny when I think about it now.

But yea... there are way to many n00bs in the Dunes.
Luckily I am in Qufim now.

[Zelld]

This doesn't necessarily fall into the Valkurm parties, but parties in general...

When i am in a party already, in the Nest or garliage or wherever, my name showingup in blue (or the rare case, yellow) on the searches... and out of no where i get a tell "Hey, wanna pt?" or "hey, come to (someplace i am not at), we need you for a pt"

then i reply back, being nice, saying "sorry, i am already in a pt," or "i am busy right now in a party"

then i get a reply "i can see that. So want to join mine?" or "screw you then, see if i ever invite you again"

I mean, what the fuck, you expect me to abandon the party i am in, just to come over and join YOUR group?

and sadly, this has happend way more times than is funny... quite a few times by the same person, at differant times...

[Aeynrieus]

/em looks at Zelld's Main Character Info

/em isn't surprised by that at all

:biggrin:

[Zelld]

:biggrin: :p

[Scarlet Phoenix]

As soon as I get to Valkurm if I want to level there I get bombarded with party requests. I can't stand when people invite you without sending you a tell first, because I'm not sure if it was from the leader of someone else who had asked me first, and I don't know what level the group is. This one guy wanted me in their group and I told them no, I was already with a group, and he kept bugging me, telling me their group was better. He started to cuss me out. It made me so mad. lol

I was with a ninja once and she kept pulling random monsters that the group had specifically told her not to go after or else when we weren't ready, and had already told her to wait. And then she'd yell at the blm and I for not casting quick enough. I got her back though. :p

[DarthWufei]

Ah, I really haven't been in the game long, but I know what you all are speaking of.

Last night I got into two superb PTs. Everyone did their job, and did it well. I was able to get to level 18 in no time AND have all the subjob items before even having the quest.

Though in between the two parties I encountered one of the worst parties I had ever been in. I've noticed that about after 15 you can really tell that parties need to work out right, in order to work at all. Pullers need to pull correctly, provokers need to provoke efficiently, and casters need to cast appropriately. If any one section fails, expect to see the entire group break apart. Last night I got into a PT with a WHM, another BLM, and 2 WARs. We can handle some pretty tough enemies with just that. But eh, the puller took 5 years to decide on what to pull, and they both never bothered to provoke except when the monster would run towards us mages, which as you can expect is quite frequently without a moderate use of provoke.

Though I am by no means blaming the entire failure on them, the WHM hated the WARs because they weren't doing their job, and instead of giving advice he would prefer to send me tells talking bad about them behind my back. And of course I'm still not entirely used to the hate system (Actually, I got the hang of it pretty well after the two superb parties) and I can take in account the couple of times that I caused the monster to stray away, but eh the entire party was out of wack.

I decided I just had to go as things were going way too slow for my tastes. I mean, 40-60 EXP every 10-12 minutes is a bit long I think. At least compared to what I think we could get had we all worked together right. So I left and got invited by a member of the party I had just left and it worked out a 1000 times better. I never had to worry about hate, the meleers kept their hate built up nice and well, and we were able to take on beach pugils quickly and even a ghoul every now and then. Everyone was incredibly nice as well, they worked with me in getting the MB correct and I mastered it after a while. :P We were overall a much happier PT and having fun.

As for something someone mentioned earlier, about how they don't want to help newbs after they get a rude reaction, please do not do that. I hate to get labeled by those people who do act rude. I'm very nice to everyone I meet, if I ask for help and the person is unable to, I thank them for their time anyway and apoligize for bothering them. The same goes for when I'm making a PT. If you can't join it's fine, I'm not going to persuade you to. I also never beg, I politely ask once, and that's it. People have things to do and I don't expect them to always be there for me. I also at least try to give things a run of my own the first time through and if I fail THEN I ask for help.

Just don't give up, not all newbies are bad. Some are really seeking help genuinely and sometimes getting people to help is the best way to make friends. After asking someone for help, even just once, I've remembered them since and talked to them every time I come across them. So eh, you'll certainly run into someone like myself, and for that I would hope is enough to forget the actions for those who are rude.

[Sadeira]

well, after qufim, parties DO get a little better. kazham is populated with people leveling their advanced jobs and quite a few competent people. same with garlaige citadel entrance. but then you hit the crawlers' nest. it'll be like qufim all over again but by this time, everyone will know their role and most will know what to do. occasionally you'll get know it alls and bad pt leaders. but once you get to this point, you meet the people who you will have static parties with and forge relationships with people all the way up to level 75. in fact, i pt with the same people i've met at the nest all the time. parties will get better once you get higher... just be patient

[Scatman]

And is it just me, or are the newbies the ones who like to give retarded advice? I was once in a valkurm group where 5 of the 6 party members were playng advanced jobs, and the one warrior without a subjob was trying to teach everyone how to do the...CHOCOBO QUEST. I guess this one wasn't particularly bad given he was geniuinely trying to help (whether or not it was needed), but there are so many obnoxious ones out there that try to tell you how to play because they have EQ experience.

[Jroggy]

yea i was just there the other day and one of our white mages left because they wanted more exp, but the thing is, we didn't know until they snuck off to la theine and told us they were leaving -_-;

[Tidane]

I must've got lucky through Valkurm, Qufim, and even the Nest and Citidel. I have only gotten 2 or 3 bad groups in that whole time. Dark Knight and Thief both, no bad XP groups. I thought one would be bad, WHM, SMN, SAM, DRK, BLM, DRK...but it was amazing. The SMN had all the summoners, and everything went easy. Leveling Samurai though...the Maze, 11 deaths. Still gained levels though.

[CluelessSi]

Weird.. I keep hearing about how people getting cussed out... =/ I never experianced that even though I've gotten tons of invites in Valkurm that I refused. I do hate the ones where they invite you without any tells and I usually tell them back or if I do join I will tell them in party. But all in all people are not that bad. Yes I had imes when people ditch the party or some other annoying things but I won't blame one group (ie, NA, JP, importers, noob, etc..) for it. This is a community... it contains people.. thus it will never be perfect.

haha I sometimes wonder about all this noob/NA hate... why? Will it ever be perfect? Sometimes I think people just look to critize other players/people or they will starve. Eh.. I just don't like grouping and sterotyping... It simiplifies the world too much =)

[Fantaru]

1. People leaving pts cause there's only 4 people in it, and everyone decides to leave. Well, I mean situations sometimes just don't work. 4 person party with say no healer? No other way around it.

2. People joining groups, then leaving a few seconds later "Cause I want exp. no time to help with sunjob items" when we're exping off the droppers for 100-175 exp a kill. People like this deserve their stupid heads bashed in.

3.People trying to be back seat pt leaders Eh, I backseat pt leader sometimes when the PT leader becomes indecisive and someone needs to make a choice. It sucks when the entire group answers "I dunno" when the question is asked "what should be kill?"

4.People not wanting to group with you cause you're not the best race for your job. Morons that believe in cookie cutter groups and will never truly experience a kickass group. I've watched tarus be better tanking paladins then anyone else while having like 33% less HP then the hume warrior or whatnot. I had a group where a samurai refused to provoke (her subjob was bloody WAR dammit), needless to say, I convinced the groupleader to drop her like hot potato.

5.People following others to join there pt, when theyre cleary surrounded by 5 other people participating in the same fight. ? I'm confused on what you're saying here

6.People not listening to you when youre leader and give them advice or telling them to move to other camp spot or what to pull ("ahh. thats way to strong. no ghouls til like lv19+!") when youre wayyy more experienced them them. Fortune favors the bold. That's all I have to say.

7. People not doing their job or not doing it right Define the job and complain if they're not doing it right. If they don't listen, and it's dragging the group down, drop em.

8. Random AFKs with no tells Sometimes really bad things happen and you need to go afk right away. Of course if they do it constantly, it's their problem. But say something on the stove catches fire or something, it's excusable if they run off right away so their house doesn't catch fire.

9. Puller jobs not pulling, provokers not provoking... See my samurai example above. You have provoke, and tanker is about to die, use it. Geez, not hard concept. Yet some people still have trouble understanding the concept. I dunno why

10. Shouting spam...
11. Putting up fights for no lotting when I tell the pt we're lotting at the beginning of the group..

[Excalibur78]

I don't mind killing fly and clippers but the running around like a moron at night looking for ghouls I won't allow. People can waste their own time not mine. Downtime is downtime and downtime = bad. I normally start pt's so I tell people this up front if they are sub less. I like take a pt from 11-12 to 16-18 in a very short period of time in dunes.

And for lots. You may as well get use to auto lot now. High lvl's won't allow lots unless it's a rare item or quest item. 1 warning then kick for ppl who lot in my parties. Not fair to everyone if lots are happening and it hurts ppls attention to combat to lot. I don't want you thinking about lots when someone is dieing in combat.

[Zaleshea]

I WILL NEVER GO TO VALKRUM EVER AGAIN!!!

>_<!!!! I swear to God, no, I'll STAY away from the East CONTINENT. I dont like the dunes!!

I'll stay a Valkrum noob, just keep me the hell away from there~!

For ALL you FUTURE leaders out there. DONT take a LEVEL 9 to the DUNES. That is evil!

And dont DISBAND the party IN THE DUNES. Making the Level 9 have to navigate THROUGH the dunes to get back to San d'Oria!

>=| *hugs safe Windurst, with no meanie dunes to worry about.*

[Vittra]

Zaleshea - I had to do that with a level 3 except I was stuck in Selbina :\ ... Forgot to reset bind point

[neighbortaru]

why are low lvl ppl so afraid of the dunes? it's a wide open space with only aggro-ing mobs in a bunch of places. how can you not avoid them? the only dangerous spot is the tunnel/cave from the highlands side, but once you are in the dunes proper, it's cake.

I have done this so many times pre 11 (bastok to sandy) it's not funny. Not once did i die, hurt badly yes, die no.

getting to Jueno, though, that's a difficult run.

[Cali]

Because many haven't learnt to sneak pass enemies, and being low lvl, monsters detect range is further, an easy prey goblin will need you to stand right infront of it to make it aggro, but an Incredibly Tough goblin will aggro you from far...

[Veskar]

All my pts lot (pts im leader of). No negotiations. I never (READ: Never) get any items from autolotting. 3 Hr pt in dunes with no lotting, i get a whopping 2 water crystals and some rock salt. prophets: 34 gil. Autolotting was just brought up by lazy ppls...
:o. Getting gil is too annoying to get to waste on autolotting items. You lot between fights, not during them, as some ppl think is the deal.

I meant in the originaly post the people will follow me, asking me to let them join the group when im clearly surrounded by 5 other ppl participating in the same fight.

[Rico]

Why do people act like pros? lol I mean seriously thats where PT's begin to start you expect everyone to already know how to play? Everyone started without having no idea how to play so hows about stop talking about them and help them :mad: and about Qufim.... it's still the same people still dont know how to dish out renkeis they dont eat food dont use macros BLM dont know MB's it's all the same and Qufim is wrose since it has more aggro. Valkurm Dunes is safer since the only thing that aggros are Goblins, Sand bats and Bogys (Valkurm Emperor^^; ) and elementals if used magic near them. If your a pt leader help out and dont /kick someone if they dont know the basic of PT's People will soon get used to this game and learn the word paitence. I've join groups with only a THF or MNK I dont leave make one more person to help find people :p.

[Cali]

Scary enough when you try to help... nicely.. not like 'You are doing this wrong, you should do this and that'.... you get flamed sometimes... so despite you want to help... some won't accept help =_=;

Another scary thing is... so many high lvl on my server still play like a valkrum newbie... I can forgive them even at Kazham lvl, but not post-40.... >_>;; not exaggerating, there are actually a lot of them....

[charlie]

Originally posted by Zaleshea
I WILL NEVER GO TO VALKRUM EVER AGAIN!!!

>_<!!!! I swear to God, no, I'll STAY away from the East CONTINENT. I dont like the dunes!!

I'll stay a Valkrum noob, just keep me the hell away from there~!

For ALL you FUTURE leaders out there. DONT take a LEVEL 9 to the DUNES. That is evil!

And dont DISBAND the party IN THE DUNES. Making the Level 9 have to navigate THROUGH the dunes to get back to San d'Oria!

>=| *hugs safe Windurst, with no meanie dunes to worry about.*
level up your other jobs to lv 7 or 8 with no extra equipment for about 5 days until i can get back to my game and level my whm up to 9
we'll go to dunes together, then at lv 19 we'll head to quifm, and if you're still in need of a skull after lv 19 i'll try to get one for you
i'll be playing again on sunday morning if i'm back, but it will definitely be sometime sunday
befriend unbroken please so i can see your level so far and you can see mine
but only if you'd like

[Lily]

Qufim is far worse simply because of all the trains of aggros to the zone. There is a fair bit of stuff that is hostile, and really tests your patience when you're continually having to move or watch your back. :-\

[Issaac]

Originally posted by neighbortaru
why are low lvl ppl so afraid of the dunes? it's a wide open space with only aggro-ing mobs in a bunch of places. how can you not avoid them? the only dangerous spot is the tunnel/cave from the highlands side, but once you are in the dunes proper, it's cake.

I have done this so many times pre 11 (bastok to sandy) it's not funny. Not once did i die, hurt badly yes, die no.

getting to Jueno, though, that's a difficult run.


I agree, never had any problems beside bats in tunnel, On the other side, after you leave tunnel (selbina side) you have to pass 2 or 3 gobs at a very thin gateway. It can be a bit tricky from time to time if they turn around in just a bad moment. But beside this, i dont know any place in valkum where you have to worry about agro. You can run around everthing.

I like dunes, i love the beach szenario. Its fantastic. Evertime im there i just hate that we cant swim in this game. I want to swim at this beach.

[goyagokou]

Nah,there's some pretty big nasty noobs to like yesterday when i was parting in a group in Qufim, and the leader of the group was a Huge noob, she died like 13-14times cause she didn't know how to fight and what to fight. Pulling a IT crab to us when we were only level20 and then bitching about why she died all those times. I really wanted to say cause your a big nasty noob!!, will she did it again and the whole party died except for one.:P god what a noob she was..lvl19drg my ass how the hell did she even get an advance job. Well im not parting with her again. And the whole group isn't either:p

[Omena]

Originally posted by Rico
Why do people act like pros? lol I mean seriously thats where PT's begin to start you expect everyone to already know how to play? Everyone started without having no idea how to play so hows about stop talking about them and help them :mad: and about Qufim.... it's still the same people still dont know how to dish out renkeis they dont eat food dont use macros BLM dont know MB's it's all the same and Qufim is wrose since it has more aggro. Valkurm Dunes is safer since the only thing that aggros are Goblins, Sand bats and Bogys (Valkurm Emperor^^; ) and elementals if used magic near them. If your a pt leader help out and dont /kick someone if they dont know the basic of PT's People will soon get used to this game and learn the word paitence. I've join groups with only a THF or MNK I dont leave make one more person to help find people :p.

I often tell my party members what to do, but they don't listen. That's the problem. The newbies don't listen to what you say. If I tell my party to do a certain renkei they don't do it. I tell them again and again and they just keep blasting away their TP as soon as they reach 100%.
I tell the party tank to provoke all the time, but he never provokes even if the mob goes to the mages. People are simply too stupid or stubborn to learn anything.

[Aanya]

So how is one supposed to learn? I could never ever get a group up at all in Valkurm or anywhere for that fact because I got into the game too late and everyone already knows how to play. Case in point, people don't want to teach noobs how to play because most noobs don't listen. Then the noobs like me get screwed because the experienced players don't want to waste their breath telling me what to do because they think I won't listen anyway (altho I'm one of those noobs that DOES listen).

At any rate you all should really look at this. I'm leaving the game because all the groups I've tried to get have been full of unpleasant people that don't want to deal with noobs. But I know one thing....

I paid 49.99 to learn how to provoke, did it pay off? groups didn't want me anyhow.. and its not like I couldn't get advised here on forums since every other post is an "I hate noobs" post.... so no.. just more wasted time in a mean online community ) good luck everyone and have fun or try to.

[Issaac]

Originally posted by Aanya
So how is one supposed to learn? I could never ever get a group up at all in Valkurm or anywhere for that fact because I got into the game too late and everyone already knows how to play. Case in point, people don't want to teach noobs how to play because most noobs don't listen. Then the noobs like me get screwed because the experienced players don't want to waste their breath telling me what to do because they think I won't listen anyway (altho I'm one of those noobs that DOES listen).

At any rate you all should really look at this. I'm leaving the game because all the groups I've tried to get have been full of unpleasant people that don't want to deal with noobs. But I know one thing....

I paid 49.99 to learn how to provoke, did it pay off? groups didn't want me anyhow.. and its not like I couldn't get advised here on forums since every other post is an "I hate noobs" post.... so no.. just more wasted time in a mean online community ) good luck everyone and have fun or try to.


Hmm no

When i lvl my other jobs i dont expect people without a sub to know what to pull, where to go etc. When i go to valkum i always have at least 12 stacks food with me because i know, the others, without sub or decend rank dont have something with.
Im sorry if you feal like this. I was in a party a few days ago as a THF/WAR, Dark and a Paladin. The other 3 did not had subjobs and we did very very well.

For me there is a big difference between a Rank 4 who plays like an idiot or a Rank 1 without Sub, and i would never be angry about.

[Cali]

I don't teach newbie, just don't want to be shout at for trying to help... but I do party with newbie, I just don't say much when they do something wrong, but they always make the PT fun in some sorta way.... I did party with a bunch of no-subjobs newbie, but who cares? If they are nice, and all, who care if they have subjob or not... though I do know a lot of people that go real picky even at low lvl... >_>;
But lvl 40+ newbies can go to hell =_=

[Machiko]

Valkrum IS the worst place in the FFXI world period.
I got my thief to level 41 and it started getting a bit tedius and boring in Crawlers Nest (Crawlers Nest isn't full of newbies, but it's scary and lots of bad stuff happens, go see for yourself when you get there) so I switched over to RDM/BLM. The first day I go into Valkrum, these level 11-13s say lets take Goblins after I got invited. I said ok, but most likely we'll need to bomb block because we have no big damage dealers. I wasn't the leader, but no one had a damn subjob (nevermind advance job). I suggested we all move in when the Goblin throws the bomb, except people in yellow life. The goblin threw the bomb TWICE. No one did anything, I attempted to bomb block but the damn tank (who surprisingly did a good job tanking) moved around like friggin crazy for no reason, he was a good tank but why move so damn much. Sooo...I disengaged, ran for my life. The whole party died, and I left.

[PsychoPingu]

Originally posted by Machiko
...but the damn tank (who surprisingly did a good job tanking) moved around like friggin crazy for no reason, he was a good tank but why move so damn much....

Some rumour going around (at least on my server anyway) that running around the Goblin makes it drop the bomb. Supposedly. :rolleyes:

Honestly don't believe it for a minute, but that's just my take. I tried Valk when I was levelling WAR - to be honest, it wasn't TOO bad (had my best party experience so far there) but there were times when I wished I was any job other than WAR (at one point I logged on and there was 5other wars looking for party at my level, 7 one level below and 6 one level above - and no mages about :( )...

[neighbortaru]

i believe that's the first mistake. why on earth would you want to tackle gobs at 11-13? If everyone was 13 i could see it, but otherwise, you're asking for a butt kicking.

heh. i've heard that rumor too. way I see it, it couldn't hurt to try. especially if you don't have a thf that's relying on you to stay in one spot.

[Cali]

On a sidenote:

I haven't partied with a good pt in valkrum for a long time: because 1st my subjobs are over that level, so I don't need to go back there for a while, 2nd There isn't many good pt; a bit off topic, but in Qufim, I took on a clipper at 17-18 group, and we managed to chain well ^^;; so do try to take harder mob if you think your group is good enough... another note... I took on a wight with a 24-2melee-1mage party, and we chained with them

I do notice people panic a lot when battles turn bad, my best story is the WAR lurer I had in Valkrum that decided to run in circle after accidentally pulling 2 damselflies, despite he was near zone.... after running in circles on spot for 6 laps, his hp dropped to yellow, and finally he decided to run in to selbina, which the team, including me were like... 'wtf were you doing?' there is no need to hold mob and wait for anyone back then, we were all next to zone =_=;

[Roldarin]

I'm willing to help newbies. I haven't been in too many bad dune parties lately. When people don't listen I judge whether its worth making them well oiled parties. If we can kill the mobs comfortably without a ton of downtime, trying to come off as boss isn't going to help. But if people are just totally ignoring good advice and getting people killed or almost killed, then its time to cut your losses.

But be honest about it. Someone in my linkshell was leveling up his PLD in the dunes. People weren't working well. He told them that things were working out and he was gonna leave. They begged him to stay. He stayed on one condition: they listen to him. He setup a renkei, a provoke rotation. And exp just flowed.

Some newbies either aren't willing to listen, or for some reason don't pay attention enough. But I've seen a few newbies that do listen. Its very satisfying to teach someone the advantage of macroing Sneak Attack+Fast Blade and see the lightbulb come on.

Roldarin

[Fourinkmaaya]

one big problem in the yhoatar/yuhtunga jungle are people targeting the wrong mobs in the middle of the fight, i don't know how many times i've been slaughtered by white lizards in yhoatar while killing mandragoras.. on my second visit to yhoatar i figured i would teach them the usage of <bt>.. since the drk cast drain on a lizard in the middle of the fight. and it appeared no one actually knew you could have <bt> instead of <t> for your offensive spells, everyone in my pt was thankful for the info and no rude replies like i would get trying to give advice in valkurm dunes.

[Sabastion]

I loath the dunes as much as I do lvling my Warr. I've had Great pt's there but thats rare.
I'm stuck on getting my Skull for (no joke) 2 weeks now. No one will help me, partys are afraid of ghouls (Even when they are only Tough wtf?) and there are NO mages EVER. I spent and hour there in a party of 5 waiting for a whm not even someone with a whm sub around!

[Excalibur78]

"All my pts lot (pts im leader of). No negotiations. I never (READ: Never) get any items from autolotting. 3 Hr pt in dunes with no lotting, i get a whopping 2 water crystals and some rock salt. prophets: 34 gil. Autolotting was just brought up by lazy ppls...
. Getting gil is too annoying to get to waste on autolotting items. You lot between fights, not during them, as some ppl think is the deal."

Your new to FFXI. Give it a bit you'll give up lotting :) I think we all been there done that and got the tshirt. Auto-lot and lotting is the SAME calcualtion just without seeing the numbers. It may "feel" different but it's not. It's just you don't kill much at lower lvl's and thus not as much to get. FYI autolot isn't for lazy ppl. It's for ppl who are too busy to lot doing their job. When you start non-stop chaining you'll notice whm's never get a break for 4-6 monsters or more. If you lot they lose items. Would you prefer them to lot and not cast cure on you when your taking 100+ a hit? Give it time you'll see the light.

[Veskar]

Ive been playing since June......

Autolotting just became a craze when the US version players came....

I find it quite odd that i never get anything from autolotting, when I get a nice stash when lotting...

[Excalibur78]

I find it odd I pt with 90% Jp's and I get yelled at when I lot. See my job isn't one more NA's respect yet so I pt with JP's who know the need to have a high lvl brd :) But like all things in ffxi to each thier own.

"Beauty is in the eye of the beholder"

[Veskar]

even in exp chaining pts, it takes.....uh....5 seconds to lot on stuff?
Ive been the puller for many pts, and i just lot right after the fight while healing or being cured, no problems with downtime.

I dont recall having any problems with lotting in exp chain pts. My point is, i dont enjoy autolotting, i enjoy making money to pay for my armor and weapons. done discussing.

and ive never been in a jp pt that was autolotting.

[Excalibur78]

All adv jobs done. 150+ unique quests done. 200+ repeatable done. No lvl1 jobs. All 7th or up. 4 over 30. 1 over 55. But trust me I don't know anything :)

[Veskar]

/clap
been there, done that

unfortunatly, theres a delete character button my little brother is fond off.

didnt say you didnt know anything:) :) :) :) :o

[Gokulos]

Ehh Valkrum...
For leveling my RDm for first time in wasn't that bad (or maybe i think that because i was new to this game ^^:)
But leveling my WHM sub or THF for TS was horror 0_0
No when i can im helping my LS friends that want to level their sub and PL them in Valkrum so they don't need to experience this again ^^;

[Rico]

Originally posted by Omena


I often tell my party members what to do, but they don't listen. That's the problem. The newbies don't listen to what you say. If I tell my party to do a certain renkei they don't do it. I tell them again and again and they just keep blasting away their TP as soon as they reach 100%.
I tell the party tank to provoke all the time, but he never provokes even if the mob goes to the mages. People are simply too stupid or stubborn to learn anything.

I know they become stubborn but wound't you be offended how somone should play there game? I tell them once and when something wrongs they begin to understand its like talking to a pissed off bull. It's wrose when you scoup down to there level.

Valkurm Dunes is not a bad place period just seems bad because it's the first time people playin in PT's.

Qufim is wrose and Kazham is even more wrose! not real good place to camp instead near the the zones getting out of there is a true pain also. :( BLM have it so easy leaving there :(

[Thingol]

Originally posted by Excalibur78
And for lots. You may as well get use to auto lot now. High lvl's won't allow lots unless it's a rare item or quest item. 1 warning then kick for ppl who lot in my parties. Not fair to everyone if lots are happening and it hurts ppls attention to combat to lot. I don't want you thinking about lots when someone is dieing in combat.

Hmmm see the other 10485047856 posts about lots. Most high level and nearly all JP parties I am in lot. I have given up on trying to get the rank 1 no subjob crew to lot but when I am the leader while I'm on my main there are 3 chices when it comes to lotting. 1) lot (it takes 2 seconds. I just don't buy the "concentraition" excuse... every job has a few moments between or durring the fight that they can safely press a button.. ) 2) leave, or 3) don't lot and don't complain.

Auto lot is broken.. pure and simple. I was leveling my subjob in Qufim last night with a great mixed JP/NA party from about 3AM - 9 am EST. Picked up about 3 levels. We weren't lotting however. I wasn't the leader and I didn't feel like trying to explain to all that we should lot. (I think the 3 JPlayers in the group would have but they assumed that we NAs wouldn't...whatever;^) So in 6 hours you know how many items I got? Zero, 0, zip, ziltch, nada, nunca, nothing. My inv stayed at 17/35 the whole time.

While I realize that the loot at Valkrum and Qufim isn't worth all that much, when evenly distributed it can go a decent way to paying for the food, chocobos, etc used durring the party. Seems fair to me.

[Veskar]

amen, thingol. 4 hours of pting in valk in autolotting pts and only getting 2 water crystals just aint right.

Im posting some screens later that proves higher lv pts lot, <anon>. autolotting just throws out items, and its very unfair. but if you look at it like some other ppl who replied, who needs gil?

[Thingol]

Originally posted by Veskar
. but if you look at it like some other ppl who replied, who needs gil?

LOL probably the same people who send me tells while I am buying food at the AH... "Can I have 5,000 Gil PLZ?!?!?! You rich ! Give it to me!!!!!!! I need 5000 gil!!!!"

Thingol: /em smacks the begger!

[Turpin]

I have to say, it's hard to take complaints about others' foolish play seriously when those complaints come from someone whose subjob isn't properly leveled. Perhaps your profile is merely out-of-date....

If you consistently get bad PTs--not just once in awhile, but every or almost every time--ask yourself this: "What do all of these PTs have in common?" You'll quickly find the root of the problem.

Don't be tyrannical. You can lead a party, get them to perform as you'd like, without barking orders. When you eat food, talk about how great the stat boosts are and how it's worth the expense. Your PT members will start eating from that point on. Say, "I think we should hunt ABCs. They're 140 XP per kill, and we should be safe enough." Make suggestions, always showing the benefit, and you'll find that folks are a lot more likely to do as you'd like them to. Presume intelligence. Ask why they do things a certain way, if you don't like what they're doing. Chances are they're either misinformed or made a faulty assumption. I thought the whole, "Run at the gobbo's left arm when he bombs" thing was a stupid rumor, but decided to try it. Faulty assumption on my part. It works about 90% of the time.

By the by, pullers should only have downtime every 4 or 5 pulls, if that. I like to lotto, but it isn't always a viable option, and none of the Japanese PTs I've been in have lottoed, either, though maybe that's a fluke.

[Veskar]

sorry if i havent lvd my sub:o

been in same pt since i hit 19 and got all subjob items, just update ahead of time:rolleyes:


^Read previous msgs before responding, please^

[Xyphere]

Valkurm is good for one thing tho....CHARGING 500 GIL FOR A RAISE =D HELL YES

[Veskar]

Xyph, you cheap bum :p

[kainzero]

in valkurm, the main problem for me usually isn't the people. i never bumped into a WAR that didn't provoke or a WHM that didn't listen when we told him to stay back. the most stubborn person i've been with is one that wasted an hour begging for a raise. maybe i'm lucky.

the main problem is party assembling. honestly, people suck at assembling parties and it continues that way for a long time. my rdm friend once had a 5THF/1RDM PT. that's bad. most of the time in VD you will usually have 4-5 frontline and 1 healer type... not very ideal. and this game is very strict and retarded when it comes to level spread, so 14-14-14-15-14-16 pts demolish EXP.

but in qufim people are stupid. poorly assembled PTs and they don't understand where to go. everytime i visit, i save 2 or 3 people from evil weapons, more from ghouls or trained giants. my LS was levelling in qufim, and i volunteered to help them by keeping banshees off them at the lake. well, i saw 3 or 4 PTs around the lake at night... really wanted to let the banshees let loose on them.

the first time i visited kazham was great, as a WAR. but when i came back to level PLD, they crowded that one spot, pulls were few and far between, and people started training gobs. soon our server pretty much lost elshimo.

as far as lotting goes, most people only lot on stuff they want. in a normal exp PT, almost nothing drops and no one cares, i guess if you REALLY want that rock salt you can lot for it. when i was levelling against gazers, which drop items that sell for 200-500 at vendor, everyone lotted for the stuff. but for the most part, no one wants any of the trash, like pugil scales or what not.

I thought the whole, "Run at the gobbo's left arm when he bombs" thing was a stupid rumor, but decided to try it. Faulty assumption on my part. It works about 90% of the time.
It is a rumor. There is NO METHOD to increase dropped bombs. I fought Gobs in Yhoator and I think 3 of them dropped bombs in a row. I think it was a Goblin Hunter? I forget the name, but they kept dropping bombs. whatever the crossbow wielding one is near ifrit's cauldron.
but... yea... just a rumor, just like run as close as possible, or running in circles makes him dizzy and drop it...

[Garrick]

When I go to Valkurm to level my Paladin, and yes, I do go there despite how some of you think it's "n00b" infested, I don't sit there and call them "n00bs" or treat them as if they were below me. I help people with what knowledge I do know from previous experiences in the Dunes before, and I treat it like any other place to level. While in the dunes though I do know one thing, I really don't expect to be raised because WHM's seem more inclined to not to so in Dunes than oh say...Battalia Downs? Most PT's i've been seem more competent enough to handle themselves well for being on their first go through the levels, so I don't walk into the dunes with a "I know more than you" pedastal.

Give them time. The Valkurm Dunes will, and always remain one of the optimal and better places to level from 13-20. It's a given there will be people new to PT's there because frankly, if they do PT before hand in places like Konchstat, then they know a little more, but most people in the Dunes are PTing for their first time because level 15 seems to be a favorite now to stop soloing and start PTing. So yes, like people have mentioned before, instead of running off and being anti-newbie, just ingore those who wont listen and keep helping those who do. If you turn your back to everyone new to the game because a few people are jerks about being taught, then you are only contributing to the problem.

[Veskar]

Nope. No lotting in high lv pts.

http://us.f2.yahoofs.com/bc/4009ee07_56ed/bc/FFXI/proof3.jpg?bfh5RLABD4PYFTrv

[Lady Kelenae]

Originally posted by Veskar
Nope. No lotting in high lv pts.



So all those times i casted lot with PLD was all for nothing ? =P

[Gokulos]

Hey the screen don't wrok !!!
Mommy, i wanna see that screenie :dead:
I don't belive in what you posted, im gonna lot when in high lv party !!!! :biggrin:

And serioulsy, what the hell... "don't lot!" "looting is bad!" etc. was getting me scary at lv 15-30... but from there it seems like even US start to know that the option to lot is there to use it...

[Veskar]

here ya go. no offense to any new people.

[Thingol]

Originally posted by Veskar
Nope. No lotting in high lv pts.

http://us.f2.yahoofs.com/bc/4009ee07_56ed/bc/FFXI/proof3.jpg?bfh5RLABD4PYFTrv

Errr... it may be helpful to actually have a high level before commenting that high level parties don't lot...but that's just me...

[Veskar]

if the pic had shown up, you would have understood the sarcasm.

[Xyphere]

Originally posted by Veskar
Xyph, you cheap bum :p

:biggrin: :biggrin: :biggrin: :biggrin: :biggrin:

[Veskar]

Another story to share that I hope never happens again.
Valkurm pt, dont get any invites for 5 mins (:P), so i start my own, since there was a few ppl lfg. I invite a well rounded group: me (white mage/blm), a black mage/no sub, a black mage/rdm, a war/no sub, a drg/rdm(0o), and a mnk/war. I notified all of them that we would be lotting, get one ok, and the rest are no responces, so they obviously are ok with it. After first fight. a few fire crystals drop so me and another guy lot, as i said we were doing when i invited them. They then started saying "STOP lotting!" "its a waste!" "why do you do it?" I tell them if they dont like it, please leave, cause i told them when we began we were lotting. They stop complaining and lot.
After a few fights, disaster strikes and we loose our monk. He spawns back in west ronfaure, and quickly gets on his was back. the warrior then leaves, saying he doesnt feel like waiting (why didnt we all just leave to avoid waiting? -_-), so I got a paladin who was freinds with one of our blms. pt goes good for the next 30 mins. the pld then dies cause the mnk wont help with provoke (he can atleast get the mob off the pld so we can get his hp up).
The pld says he doesnt want to die anymore (he only died once
-_-), so he leaves. then, while i was afk refilling coke, the blm says he found another tank, so he gives me the name. I knew this guy was a jerk the moment i received his first tell. i look him up, and send him a tell. "yeah.... i already talked to -------......" so i invite. he then begins to complain about why we are lotting, as do 2 other ppl that have been in the pt (the pld with now be identified as the problem paladin, or pp). again i politely ask them to leave or stop complaining.
After that, are blm dc'd and didnt come back for 10 minutes, so i figured maybe his internet is down or power is out, so i find a rank 10 smn/whm with all the summons. i tell the pt im inviting him, and they all say ok cept the problem paladin. he says "NO! SMNS ARE SO USELESS! dont invite him!" so i go, "why's that?" "Ive played smn to 11 and its useless" turns out he only had carb. "He has all the smns, not just carb." "SO! they contribute nothing!"
I then open back up the pt find thing, and the smn aint on it, so i tell the pt. PP:"good!"
Me: "wait. nvm. he must have zoned or something. inviting the smn." someone: "cool" pp:"fine. see if i protect you..." -_-
After that, the blm that dc'd comes back. so i tell him the situation, and give him a fire crystal stack as an apology, and hes cool with it. the other blm goes up to him and says "i told him not to invite anybody..."-pfft whatever. the blm then says he's going. i ask where, and then the pp goes "good god! let him go! he doesnt need 1000 questions!" so i just ignore it, { } this close to kicking that *****. So the blm leaves, and i invite the dc'd blm back.
Later, the monk has to go (few mins later he has pt sign up again, and it stayed up til i logged), so i invite a ninja/warrior who I had been talking to earlier about joining a pt. first fight, a few fire crystals drop. Someone asks "are we still lotting?" i reply with a yes, but the pp goes "NO!" and as does the new ninja i just invited to the pt. i tell them once again to either lot or leave. another group member supports what i was say, "lot or leave! hes later. if i were leader, i would have kicked you out earlier for being a jerk about it!"(thanks to whoever said that) so the pp calls us n00bs for lotting, not doing what he says. i boot him, blacklist him, and /tell him. the pt continued few more mins, then disbanded.
I dont understand why they kept complaining after i told them when i invited them that we were lotting, i received no opposes. I also dont get why the pp was trying to be a back seat pt leader. I really hope that anyone who reads this doesnt act like that. [I] im in pts where the leader wants to autolot, i dont complain and spam retarded things at the leader.[/] i really dont care about grammatical errors in this, im typing it at 4 in the morning....

[Tukka]

Reading stories like the one Veskar just posted just make me sad. :\

Why are people so ready to engage in conflict within their own party? Why do people have to be such drama queens?

Whatever your opinion on lotting, or a certain job/subjob combo, or race/job combo, or where the best place to hunt is... does it have to be such a big deal that people are willing to spoil whatever chemistry might exist within the party by complaining and having their little power struggles?

(BTW, this isn't a criticism against Veskar, who I sympathize with, I am just speaking in general here.)

My grouping experience in FF11 is still limited, so I'm usually not the first person to try to take the reigns, form parties, set the rules, ect. But in EverQuest, where I was very experienced, I didn't insist on always having things my way, even if I formed the party or was the de facto "leader". Sometimes the group would respond unenthusiastically or in opposition to my suggestions. I wouldn't make suggestions if I didn't think they would improve upon the group, but that doesn't mean I'd start complaining/arguing at length over the group doing things differently, or leave the group entirely (unless the group was doing poorly over a length of time).

I am very seldom the person the group has a problem with, because I behave a lot like a diplomat when I'm among strangers. But sometimes I'll see two people, who individually I could probably get along with pretty well, go at each other and generate just silly amounts of animosity over pretty trivial matters. Sometimes I'll step in and try to play mediator, but it's difficult to do any good when people can just be so damned touchy.

You know, I am beginning to think there is an advantage to mixed language groups. Communication is more difficult, sure, but communicating disagreement is also more difficult. People might be more likely to relax and go with the flow, even if they don't like the way the party is doing a couple things, than to make a big deal out of it and start fighting.

[Frarinalga]

You think Valkrum is bad? Quifim only gets worse. I hear it gets better after quifim though (thank god, im leaving this place when i hit level 25 today)

[Aesopian]

I suppose I've been rather lucky then, since I've managed to get through the Dunes and mostly through Qufim with relatively few party mishaps. Just last night I managed to get into a group in Qufim setup like this:

PLD/WAR
WAR/MNK (Me)
THF/WAR
WHM/BLM
BLM/WHM

and we had a BRD/RDM for a while, then a RDM/WHM.

Everyone knew their job, so we were able to exp chain IT Pugils up to #5 several times, and usually got at least a #3 chain. The main factor was probably that, seeing as everyone had subjobs, these were not noobs.

But back in the teens (somewhere between levels 13-15) in the Dunes, me and my WHM friend joined a group that seemed to have a good variety of jobs. Another WAR was the party leader. The other jobs were something like DRG, BLM, NIN.

Our leader and Main Tank gives himself the job of pulling. He goes straight for Beach Pugils (who are rediculously hard at this level). They start beefcaking him, so my WHM friend has to spam heal, quickly gaining aggro and getting nearly killed. I voke it off the WHM, and though I'm sure it's been a good 45 seconds, the MT doesn't voke it again. After it half-kills me, he finally gets around to voking it again. Then he let's aggro slip again, it attacks me and the other melees. We almost all die, so the WHM does Benediction. The Pugil jumps on the low health Tarutaru WHM and kills him instantly, then proceeds to kill everyone in the group (including me). So, summary of first fight: Everyone dies even after Benediction.

At this point, my WHM friend who trusts me as MT says "Take over tanking". Now I listen to my WHM, especially since he sit next to me in RL, so next time the leader pulls something, I voke it and actually manage to keep the aggro. The leader apparently agrees with this, since he doesn't object or try to be the main tank, though he still randomly vokes it for no good reason.

My WHM buddy manages to keep up with the heals, and does his best to end the fight with enough mana for another fight.

He gets a tell from leader that goes something like this: "You need to heal more. Your mana should be empty by the end of every fight." My friend replies with something like "Are you serious?" The leader says, "Yeah, you should have 0 mana after every fight."

So we try this next fight, and my WHM friend is successful in using all of his mana in a single fight. But I can barely keep aggro, so the WHM keeps getting hit a couple times before I can voke again. I'm hitting voke every 30 seconds since I know there is no other way to keep up with the heal spam.

The WHM uses up all of his mana in a single fight, and during the lengthy downtime that follows, the leader messages again. "Good job! =)", he says. "Keep using your mana like that every time! Heal even if they are full HP."

Then I get a tell: "Don't provoke every 30 seconds. Only do it when it runs for the mages." I tell him "If I don't voke every 30 seconds, I know it's going to go for the mages for sure." He says "Wait till then, okay."

So, with my WHM under orders to spam heals until he's out of mana, and with me under orders to only voke after it has run for the mages, we fight again. I lose aggro quickly, it hits the WHM, I voke, I lose aggro, it hits the WHM, I voke, I lose aggro, the WHM dies, I voke. It kills me and everyone else.

I should mention it also seems the BLM was under orders to nuke as fast as possible, since he was easily taking aggro from me as well.

Needless to say, after dying twice in 10 minutes in one group, we disbanded. We started our own group, fought Clippers and had a good time. From now on, we have made it a strict rule to always start our own group, or only join groups with experienced players or friends in them. It has made the levels much easier, and I don't have to worry about crazy leaders and people not doing their jobs.

Whoa, that's a long post. Guess I should get more to do at work. :P

[FF6Locke]

Since Im too lazy to skim through more than 5 pages of bla bla bla'ing... im just gonna say this... my two cents

Valkurm pissed me off... most of the time... reason being is because everytime I asked someone to join PT, they would ask "Do you have a WHM?"... If I didnt I would say no, not yet... then they would reply with "I wont join untill there is a WHM".

Ok...

So I msg a WHM asking to join PT... "Is it a full PT yet?" I would say not yet... "I wont join until u have 5 members"... WTF

Sometimes I would lie and say yes.. full PT, then they would join, then leave right away.. sheer gayness...

So I leave you guys with this.. for the people out there that do this... STFU and join a PT, dont be picky.

[Telok]

Ugh i had some problems with lotting in Dunes... I was in a pt for about 3 hours... only got 1 item due to auto lotting... and it was a fricking crab apron :/ Kind've pissed me off... Lotting is cool... I like it, and I believe they put it in the game for a reason.... So we can lot lol :)

[Tomoh]

I was in a JP PT yesterday. The PT next to us had 1 dead and put up a help. Our PT went as soon as our battle was over and helped kill a gob. Well, one of their PT member says in /says "We didn't need their help. We could have beaten it by ourselves." My JP PT members were not all too happy. I promptly replied back, "Your comments are rude. Don't put up a help next time" Other players apologized on his behalf. Rude person stuck by his comments. Is common courtesy too much to ask for? Also, a PT should learn how to use /p instead of /s:rolleyes:

I also dislike random people coming up to me to ask for Cure or PT. I am also forced to use /anon to avoid people begging for gils.

[Zafron]

Been through the dunes with 4 different jobs. I haven't had more bad parties in dunes than Qufim, Yuhtunga or Yhoator. I generally get good groups, even in the dunes.

as for "Please stop the Valkurm n00bs".

2 rules i follow:

1) never belittle, or take a condecending attitude with anyone(not just beginning players) no matter how stupid or obnoxious. I consider it a skill to be able to use tact to convince a moron he is a moron, in such a way that he is grateful to you, and he changes his gaming ways.

2) go to the dunes in lv10. only people in dunes at 10 are generally high lv players lving subs and advanced jobs, so the group is generally experienced and you can pick up 3-4 lvs quick

stopping gob bombs is more important than skill chaining in the dunes. Chains are nice to be sure but their dmg at that level is not nearly the loss as at later lvs, so if someone is incapable or unwilling to do them no big loss.

It does irritate me that people seem to think that only whm can static heal, a willing rdm(be sure to ask him first) can static heal fine as long as he knows what he is doing.

Lastly, hate is a strong word, but not strong enough to describe what i feel for lotting. It is more of a deep dark loathing that festers in my soul. when you got 6 people with signets and getting 5-6 crystals + items every kill, lotting is a royal pita. Easy for the mages who sit and heal after the kill, but for the puller who is immediatly off to compete with 7 other groups for the next IT mob, lotting is a hassle that sometimes causes him to lose mobs, and that does slow down the group, and it isn't fair for everyone to lot except the puller. I group for xp not items. If i am leader lotters get 1 warning then booted(one of the few reasons i will boot someone).

as for auto-lot being broken, seriously, I learned how to randomize a timer back in high school. The game has been out for 2+ years, thats more than enough time for a successful dev team of programming superstars to come up with working code that a 14 year old can do.

[Raid]

Veskar I just want to know something

Why do you want your pt to start rolling on lots, its really unessesary if a drop wasnt important to just one of the characters like a quest item or whatever. All the daily junk shouldnt be loted, just for the simple fact that if a pt has to stay 2 minutes rolling dices after a fight because they want in on it you loose alot of time and often there are confusion.

If someone dont want lot they can just pass on it all, but rolling for lot is just plain time consumeing and unessesary if its not a important item.

As for the palading, yeah I agree he sounds like a jackass. But I would have argued the fact that you where loting to. But I kind of guessed that since you asked at first you where putting it to a vote. So I guess if majority had voted no loting you would have gone with that.

GoOd luck in the future though, alot of assholes around

[Tukka]

Really there is no perfect way to handle loot distribution in this game, given the horrible inventory/loot handling system Square-Enix has given us. So far, in my observation/opinion, it's the single most poorly designed aspect of the game, by far.

Personally I prefer lotting because I don't have to see fire crystals and other loot disappear into the void because lazy/busy people in my party have full/unsorted inventories. I also like it because people who are interested or disinterested in specific items for tradeskills, or whatnot, can decide to lot or pass on an item, and everybody can make their own decision on whether or not an item is worth the inventory space it will possibly consume. If somebody in the group actually wants that rabbit meat or lizard skin, I want them to get it, because I don't really care to have it filling my inventory. Sure, I could pass on it anyway, but unless I get into the habit/routine of using the treasure window, I'll probably forget and just won't bother.

But then, I am a mage, so I never am too busy to lot/pass, even if I forget to do so sometimes. I can see how it would be a huge pain for a puller... when the options are: take your attention away from the fight and pulling up windows during a battle or taking several seconds to do so after a fight when you're trying to maintain a exp chain, no good can come of it either way.

In EverQuest, I was preferred to have someone "master loot" (which would be quartermaster mode in FF11). However, there are a few reasons this is not quite a workable option in FF11 most of the time (sometimes it wasn't really workable in EQ either).

What it comes down to, is that they need to give us more powerful loot handling options. This reminds me of another user interface suggestion (http://www.ffxionline.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=33323) I'm going to have to make. Really, the system would be vastly improved if they did two things: 1) Make the system smart enough that a player never autolots on an item when their inventory is full, 2) Give players the option to "always pass" on a specific item.

[Veskar]

in pts i lead, we usually just lot on things like fire crystals, gob armor, or beastmen seals. not regular stuff like earth crystals or rock salt. its basicly if you need it, you want to lot it instead of risking it poofing by auto lotting right? If you ask me, getting money is just as, if not more, important than getting exp. important or valuable stuff shouldnt have to be lost to autolotting. thats why if usually either want to lead my own, or join a group that's lotting (NO offense to any new players or ppl who autolot); one try at lotting for something I need that nobody else seems to, and ive been kicked from groups.

[Spectrum]

I don't know if anyone else has noticed this, but for some reason, my LS and I have noticed that autolot seems to like to give items to the people in the group with the most MP (this being the mages, then the hybrids, then the pure melee get very little). No idea if it's the way it *actually* works, but...*shrug*

Now, as for Valkurm...lots and lots of painful experiences here, moreso on my first time through than with anything else. See, my problem wasn't necessarily bad parties per se (that happened more on subsequent trips), it was more...I didn't get a PT. Ever. I've spent 1-2 hours LFG as a MNK in Valkurm, Qufim, etc...when I leveled my sub DRK, I started to see more bad parties, maybe because I was getting invited slightly more.

One thing that does alleviate it, though, is that I will either lead the PT myself or be friends with the leader. (Though this only applies if I happen to know the zone or the hunting grounds, at the very least. If not, I'll let someone else who seems like they know what they're doing give it a shot.) Then, I'll set up a Renkei before starting the first pull. Always. If they want to start killing in the mean time, I ask them to stop before I have everything set up. If they insist on going, I warn them, then boot them. Zero tolerance gets the job done. No one is irreplaceable...most of the time. =/ Anyway, after the Renkei, one final check to make sure everyone knows their basic role in the party, then we start. If I see any smaller problems (tank not voking enough, mage overnuking, healer not resting midcombat), then I'll start micromanaging them, usually fairly nicely with simple suggestions in party chat or tell. I reserve the angry swearing and ranting for my guild's teamspeak server, where I vent there to avoid offending the poor bastards. ^^;;;

[Thingol]

Originally posted by Zafron
as for auto-lot being broken, seriously, I learned how to randomize a timer back in high school. The game has been out for 2+ years, thats more than enough time for a successful dev team of programming superstars to come up with working code that a 14 year old can do.

Please scroll back to page 4 and read my post agian. I don't mean this in a condesending way at all but that is how it happened. in a 6 hour party where everyone had a signet the enitre time I recieved exactly 0... yes 0... items with the auto lot system. My inv. was no where near full. The money you get from common items may be small but it goes a long way towards paying for basic things you use in a group such as chocobos, food, arrows, etc. Put it this way, in a hypothetical situation where the only items dropping are earth crystals (obviously the cheepest of the bunch) in a 3-5 hour XP group it is still likely that every member will get 2-3 stacks of 12 crystals. Currently on my server a stack of 12 earth crystals goes for 450-500 gil at Windurst. 12 apple pies goes for 1600-2000. So with just these crystals (the least valuable of them all) I can pretty much pay for 6 hours of food. Now add in some a stack of insect wings and bat fangs and you made back your gil for your chocobo/telaport/airship ride. Of course this isn't a ton of money and I could go farm it but if it's there for the taking, why shouldn't everyone get a equal share of the loot and come a bit closer to recouping the expense of grinding? In fact, in a party that has lotted for 4 hours or so I'm never adverse towards giving the ranger or ninja an extra stack or 2 from my loot to help them out. Does it completly cover the expese of those jobs? Course not but it's better than nothing.

Lotting takes 2 seconds. I started out as a War/Monk and always just lotted as soon as I pulled the mob to the party and we all started the battle right after my second provoke. Now I'm a bard/whm and I can easily say it is much more of a "busy" job. I am constantly running around singing songs, whm'ing and such. Before durring and after the fight I am constantly moving and putting up some sort of effect. I have never been unable to lot do to activity. Lotting becomes second nature, especialy if you play with a gamepad. To me the knowledge that everyone is getting an equal slice of the pie (not just me...everyone that is in the group working hard for our XP) far out weighs any "inconvienence".

Writing the code may be as simple as you say, I am not a programer, but for some reason it simply doesn't seem to work properly much of the time for me. I have done some exparaments on this with LSers and friends where we went an hour of no lotting and compared who got what and did the same after an hout of lotting. Much of the time, 3 of the people in the group got 80% of the items when we did not lot, where as, the items were pretty much evenly distributed when we did. Simply put, there is a reason why nearly all of the JP groups I am in lot. It is help ful and fair. Nuff said by me.

[kainzero]

i don't understand some of this lotting crap anymore. the reason why people lot is because they want stuff. on the other hand, some people just lot because they can.
hatsuki lots on land crab meat: 433 points
a: wtf man, don't lot
hatsuki: i need it for cooking def food and i'm the tank, what are you gonna use it for?
a: just let auto lot do it
a lots on land crab meat: 643 points
a obtains land crab meat.

so i give up trying to explain it. i think complaining about spam is the worst though. oh no there's lots of lines on the screen i don't need to read!

and the other day i was in valkurm playing my alt whm. the rdm insisted on pulling. i said, let the war pull, rdm should stay back and rest. "nah it's cool, this has been working for a while, we know what we're doing." huh? then they did some stupid renkei which was basically everyone hitting some random ws at some random time, to which they exclaimed "yeah! that's how it's done!" i think everyone died after a while.

people don't listen no matter how nice you are. it feels like i'm playing with people 12 and under, they have huge egos and shoddy gameplay, and recommending something to them you get back "nah it's cool." like "hey man, you should buy some food, you do a lot more damage" "nah, it's cool." what the heck is that? analogous to a real life situation "hey man, you can get a burger next door for 50 cents cheaper!" "nah. it's cool."

i wouldn't mind if they said "yea, i tried that burger, but this burger is actually healthier and better tasting," because at least they gave a valid reason.

oh well. and people wonder why i'm bitter in PTs.