[Effedup]

I haven't posted in a while, and while I DID do a few searches to find a similar thread, I didn't come up with anything specific, so please don't flame me ^^

Basically, my question is this: has anyone noticed lately how lazy people have been getting as pertains to gear? A little background first...

I'm in a small social LS of RL friends, and we static once or twice a week. Because we've recently added a friend to our roster (i.e., finally managed to convince him to play ffxi with us ^^) we've had to put our main jobs on hold for a while and take up new jobs with him. Not a big deal at all...we static either WHM/BRD/WAR in the high 20's or RDM/RNG/MNK in the low 20's, so it typically isn't too terribly bad trying to put party's together (that's not to say we haven't waited over an hour with 3/6, however) in that we have healing, pulling, and tanking somewhat covered (at those levels anyways).

What HAS been bugging the shit out of me is the gear people are partying with at these levels. The last 6 parties we've had in the dunes and quiffim have had at least one member wearing ridiculously sub par gear. I mean, level 18 wearing level 1 and 7 gear? We had a DRK the other day that was literally wearing nothing but a scythe, body, hands and feet (can't remember what they were wearing specifically, but I know there wasn't any bone gear there). We picked up a WHM about a month ago in jueno that was literally wearing all the starter gear, no belt, no rings, no earrings...she was at least honest when we picked her up and said her gear kinda sucked, but after checking her I think "kinda sucked" was a bit of an understatement.

Now, I'm not an elitist by any stretch; I don't expect someone to be all pimped out at level 20 with all +1's on, but God, at least a piece or two of gear somewhat near their level would be nice. I always made sure I had something reasonable on when I first started partying; I was always broke, but I had decent gear, and upgraded when I could. Nowadays it seems like people are just getting lazy about it. And I'm not talking about just noobs here, either, there were a few rank 5's in there at one point or another.

I don't want to be a jerk about it, but is it appropriate to question people about their gear when they show up? Low level parties have been slim picking's lately (have been for a while, really), and I don't want to come off as ungrateful, but at the same time it kinda burns my ass considering all the trouble I went through farming and such to make sure that my char wasn't totally gimped back when I started out. If armor and such is taking a back seat at this point, I'm going to save up my gil and buy the choice shit for my main job rather than wasting it all keeping my low leveled jobs geared up. Either that, or I'm just going to have to bring extra gear for everybody to wear, cause something's gotta change.

So end's my rant...again, sorry if this has been covered somewhere else...

[Mhurron]

First, think for yourself a little and don't wait like drooling morons in the dunes. Three is plenty to go out and start killing things in the Highlands or the Plateau.

Second, don't demand of someone what you won't demand of yourself. Of course the reverse is true as well, expect from others what you would of yourself. If you wouldn't party with some of the crap gear they're wearing then speak up about it. There is no reason someone who has no intention of trying to play the game should ruin your experience.

[Murphie]

If you're the one making the party, you have the right to say "If you don't have better gear, I'd rather not party with you."

Actually, if you're joining the party, you also have that right.

A lot of people put up with it, especially in the early to mid levels, because it's hard to find parties already. But it's perfectly acceptable to wait until a group of people who aren't trying to leech through the levels comes along. There's no reason you can solo/duo/trio/whatever until you find enough people.

[Callisto]

At 20~ it depends since there aren't always things that are worthwile to wear, especially for a subjob that you don't want to spend much on. I didn't wear pants at all when I leveled RNG until I hit 30, as prior to the Noct set there isn't crap in that slot that gives anything outside of a few defense points, considering how I rarely got hit it wasn't worth spending gil on.

If you're 50+, that's a different story. If someone intends to take a job to endgame levels wearing absolute crap gear, you shouldn't feel bad about pointing out that they have room for improvement. No need to be mean about it or call them 'lol' or 'gimp', but just offer some suggestions as to where they can improve. Many times they could equip their job reasonably well stat-wise for cheap.

[Effedup]

Thanks for the advice...I get what you're saying about trioing; our static trio'd in La Thiene up to about 16-17 for both jobs, but at that point the exp gets REALLY slow so, despite how much we all collectively hate the dunes, we ended up there trying to get to 20 as fast as possible. We also recently trio'd in Jugner after waiting over an hour trying to put together a 21 party, but that was soooo slow, so after getting 22 we called it a night.

As far as the gear goes, like I said I don't expect someone to be totally pimped out...if someone is over 21 and they're still wearing mainly bone gear, that's ok with me, it's the people that are 21 wearing their noob gear that's making me grind my teeth at this point.

Anyways, I think I will start speaking up. I didn't want to come across as an asshole, but I guess I'd rather be an asshole than watch someone hit for 10 and get drilled for 100 constantly, while our exp/hour dwindles...

Originally Posted by Callisto

I didn't wear pants at all when I leveled RNG until I hit 30

That's understandable, me and the RNG in my static have had a few discussions already about how hard it is to gear up since so much of RNG's gear is unique to RNG and maybe a handful of other jobs. But almost everyone wears Bone, and almost everyone wears Beetle...I saved those sets specifically since they are so versatile, and consequently, gearing up a lowbie job aint so bad. I'm a pack-rat by nature, though, so maybe I just expect too much...

[IfritnoItazura]

Originally Posted by Effedup

I don't want to be a jerk about it, but is it appropriate to question people about their gear when they show up?

When it gets in the way of performing their roles. At low levels, this means the bar is set for/at:

Melee: Effective, level appropriate weapon, and a few gears which contribute to damage output. (e.g. Battle Gloves, Atk+ earrings, Fang/Spike Necklace, etc.) Decent defense in body and leg slots.
Tank: Level appropriate, high defense/VIT armor, and reasonable weapon.
Healer: Some hMP/MP gear. (Probably more important to have hMP food.)
RDM: MND gear, and some hMP/MP gear.
BLM: INT gear, and some hMP/MP gear.
RNG: R.Acc gear, level appropriate, high damage ranged weapon, good ammo.

I especially hate it when tanks show up in underleveled gears and make excuses like they haven't had a chance to go back to city to pick up new gears. Why the heck did they put up seek flag for if they are not ready to party?! Would it have killed them to get the gears first, then put up flag?!

[Evilisgood]

Perfect example of what we are talking about in this thread. Last night I was bored so I went out and leveled my PLD/WAR. I'm level 39 so I was hanging out in Rolanberry Fields with my flag and search comment up soloing goblins. My gear is as follows

Grudge sword
Jennet shield
Happy egg
Medieval collar
Dodge earrings x 2
Verve rings +1 x 2
Warriors belt +1
Cavaliers mantle +1

I was wearing the entire Kamphschallers set (no idea how that is spelled). So grand total I am sporting +23 Vit. and +13 Agi.

Now before anyone says anything I know most people don't carry all HQ armor at those levels, but gil is not an issue for me right now so I figured I would splurge. Anyway I got invited to a pt and made my way down to CN. While I am on my way our pt lead gets another pld. I was like ummmm wtf..... but pickings were very slim so I said whatever. I get to camp (beetle camp past the caveberries) and we get going.

Exp. is ok not great but my whole pr is new gen (360 peeps) so they are learning so that is cool by me. I notice the other pld's gear. He is wearing the entire Centurions mail set. So I axamine him and am lolwtf. Sub tanks gear:

Holy sword
Kite shield
Bastokian ring
(level 14 str ring) forget the name

No neck
No back
No waist
No earrings
and centurions mail.

So lol to myself for awhile and then take a 10 minute break (healer doing laundry) and this pld starts talking to me. the whoa is me taile starts with the I am poor no idea how to make gilz and my LS disappeared on day. So he is poor, has no ls, and no idea how to gear himself.

My point in all this is that yeah his setup failed. Failed hard for pld but he was not making excuses. The only reason he was leveling was to take a break from farming for days to make gilz to craft. Some people are just starting out and need help. Some more than others granted but whatever. It's ok to lol just remember that way back in the day (4 years ago for me) that it was hard to get by and sometimes making gilz at lowbie levels sucks. So give the new peeps chances and see what happens.

If not disband, /blacklist add <t> and move on.

[Evilisgood]

Man I just noticed I need to update my sig^^. Man I fail sometimes.

[Lunaryn]

To be fair, I've had subless melee characters wear mostly the same gear from 12-18 given a combination of distance from city, long parties, and less than spectacular options in the range. I generally prioritize weapons over armor in terms of keeping gear up to date, and at low levels especially I prioritize gear I have over new purchases (I tend to be reluctant to part with gear I could still use, so I have a selection of weapons and armor across a wide range of levels).

Again, consider it based on role. A melee DD needs a weapon with DPS reasonably in line with what common weapons of their level provide. A tank needs defense, so they should be taking advantage of pretty much every armor upgrade; other jobs can often skip armor upgrades that only offer def, this is especially a consideration for mages, who can reasonably bring a wand, a hairpin, rings, earrings (arguably not even that important at dunes levels), and essentially go naked in every other slot for a good many levels. There are some good gloves in the low teens, though, that you might want to seriously consider investing in; for whatever reason, though, I think I've only seen these in Jeuno...

[Nohtnera]

At those levels, I tend to pay more attention to food, because as others have said there is not much gear that can do a lot for you besides the primary stuff like IfritnoIzura said ; Wands and rings for mages, A decent and appropriate weapon for melee/range attackers, good armor for the tank. I always bring extra food to parties... even past 40 when people should want to make a job that obviously isnt a sub do as best as it can.

[Mog]

If it's a pre-37 party, get used to it. A lot of people who level subjobs aren't really serious about getting the best, most updated gear and wasting more inventory space to pick up something that fills up a slot. Most people just throw what random assortment of gear they have and head to the dunes.

However, if this is a party that's past 37, I would start questioning their gear choice and if they're too lazy/poor to buy it.

[Ziero]

Zombie thread ftw?

[Boldfinger]

beaten to the punch


but yeah, anything before 37 and that's just how it is.

[kaibelf]

Honestly this all plays into a much broader issue of laziness vs. practicality. For example, a lot of people have so-so gear (or NO gear in some slots) because of legit reasons, such as being new, not having rich friends, or just being poor in general.
However, there are many who subscribe (and I've done this myself) to the believe that they don't need a full set of fine updated gear for something that is, say, their 11th subjob, or those last few levels to 37. I caught hell once from a party for wearing my RSE on ninja, but honestly, I did my job, I have 7 75's, and I don't have the SPACE these days for more low-level crap. I have SO much high level stuff clogging my safe/house/locker that even something as basic as RR items for events sometimes cause an issue.
Honestly, it would be good if the inventory system was slightly revamped so that items you actually are wearing didn't take up slots in your bag. After all, I tote around (at all times) my gear for SMN, BRD, SCH, and BLM. You're talking multiple outfits, full staff sets, EXTRA pieces in some cases (Yinyang Robe), instruments, ugh.... it's rare that my bag has more than 3-4 spaces available at all, so moving a load of items just to outfit something like a puppetmaster I'm leveling for fun os just not workable.

[TheGrandMom]

I wonder if this issue is still rampant since...........


THIS THREAD IS NEARLY A YEAR OLD.......

















........in case some of you didn't notice.