[Jei]

I never know you can skill up like that before D:

[Olorin401]

Something that as helped me get parties at -any- level was noting what languages you can speak, with an example. I only know a little Japanese (mostly from this fantastic thread) and tossing a phrase or two in always helps get parties.

This most recent update also added flag options for French, German and Other to the legacy English and Japanese. So if you happen to know some Spanish, Polish, Chinese, or Italian you should take advantage of it!

[Chveya]

Originally Posted by Saren

The only thing that no one has really answered and sorry if its being stupid but....why are there three different comment boxes for exp parties? Does anyone know what the difference is between them?

The subcategories of search comments are there to clarify what your comment is referring to. You can use the search function to find people with the specific type of comment you want. In most cases, when lfp, you will probably just use the "Seek Party" subcategory. I don't know if "Find Member" is used very much, since people creating parties don't usually just sit around waiting for others to ask them if they can join. Personally, when I am trying to create a party, I do a /sea all inv ##-##, and look first for people with green dots by their name.

My typical Search Comment as a 33 WHM is like this:

@3581/5800 ~ {food}: {Ginger Cookies}
SJ: BLM RDM ~ JP/EN: OK
{Experience Points} {Yes, please}*

* the brackets mean that those phrases are in auto-translate form. Since you will be partying a lot soon, try to become familiar with the auto-translate function (unless you know Japanese).

I just got Erase, so I might add that next time, but then again I might not.

[Aksannyi]

When it comes to having Erase, I've found that if a party really wants/needs you to have it right away, they'll ask you before they invite you. I've had a few leaders do that in the past. I spent 800k of my hard-earned gil on that spell so I'm very proud to say that I do, in fact, have it.

With my Red Mage especially, but also my other mage jobs, I'll include what subs I have available. With RDM sometimes they want me to sub WHM, but I've gotten the odd request for /RDM with either my WHM or BLM in the past so it doesn't hurt to let people know {Sub} {job}: {Black Mage} or {Red Mage} in your /seacom.

[Emurei]

I have nothing but respect for someone that is new and doesn't want a PL. There's hope for this game yet! I normally tell them nicely to help PL my 75 SAM before PLing one of my lower level jobs. New players these days are spoiled by the higher level friends and they generally don't learn anything. So props to you! /Salute

Now an answer to your question

At your level, don't worry about posting your weapons and magic skill levels (Well I never think anylevel is good to post it). @TNL is all that you really need to post and that you don't want a PL. Most people that level still blind invite ya When you get higher, post your available subs. Some people invite people with better gear, if you want to put that. I personally would invite someone with witty comment instead of list of their inventory. I like to have fun, not deal with a whinny egotistical kid.

my comment format is usually:

@xxxx TNM/TNL (till next merit/till next level) SJ: xxx|xxx|xxx
<witty comment here>

For example:

@5000 TNM SJ: War|Thf|Rng|Nin
You {/point}! I kill! Rwar!
(¡_¡) {raise}{please} Tiamat {no thanks}

[Saren]

'Make sure you have your exp to next level in and your subjobs when you can later, current home point is nice and while the odd spell listed can be useful for certain landmark spells, listing your equipment etc tends to come across as self important ass' got it, thanks all

Special thanks to Icemage (I was starting to wonder about universally understood abbrviations and conventions, there's not a lot of room and trying to use the autotranslate function and the full words was giving me problems) and Chveya for sorting out my 'which box to fill in' issue

To everyone who was nice about my no PL thing, thanks. I am not trying to holier than though about it, I would just rather not find out I don't actually have the foggiest what I'm doing when I hit level 30 or so.

[IfritnoItazura]

To be honest, if I'm looking to build in a party in Valkurm Dunes when two WHM's are seaching, one with comment, one without--I'd grab the one with comment ASAP, even if all it says is "@ 1000 TNL".

>_>;

Just knowing you should put stuff in comments already puts you miles ahead of other newbies.

[Aksannyi]

I agree. If I'm being leader (which is rare but it does happen) I'll always invite the person with the comment before I invite the person without one. Rank sometimes plays a role in it, too though.

[Necropolis]

Things I put in my search comment are as followed:

Line1: TNL 1/44000 merit points {can I have it?} (lvl 75 no more exp for me ;
Line2: EN/JP OK! {I don't speak any Japanese}
Line3: {Home Point}: {aht urghan}

I use the Auto-Translate as much as possible so that I don't restrict my invites to English players only. I enjoy playing with everyone, and have never had a problem in a majority forgien party.

As to you last question about the three options, that is a feature that is seldom used. If I'm a party leader, I can search for member by a number of means. Generally when trying to find members I just use:

/sea all 74-75 inv

/sea is search
all is all areas
74-75 is the level range of players I'm looking for
inv will restrict the search to people currently seeking a party

If I choose to I can from the menu select search >> comment >> then from there select what I'm searching for in a comment, exp pt, looking for member, other, mission, craft, need made, can make, et cetera.

Most people that I know don't search for members that way to it's really doesn't matter which option you put you comment on (green dot is usually looking for party).

I applaud your "no PL" stance, but I believe it may be inevitable in the course of the game to be PLed at some point. I always use the /blockaid on feature to prevent people outside of the party from curing, hasting, and other using other spells. Be sure to turn it off though if you are waiting for a raise, it was changed in the recent update that you no longer have to be alive to turn this feature off.

When I leveled through the dunes I never payed attention as to weather or not a PL was present, I was so busy finding spells and casting them. I had no idea I could target party members with the Function keys, or how to use a macro >.>;; I was such a newb in those days. /cry

But just ignore the PL, cure when some one needs cures, even if the PL beats you to it, ignore your party telling you to banish banish banish, you'll get divine skill ups!!!!!1111one. I have yet to find a real reason to have divine leveled, yes it adds some damage to banish, yet it lowers resist on flash, but those are two spells that a whm does not use as often. Flash is handy with tanks that need to get shadows up, or plds that need to get a cure in that keep getting interuppted, but I had no problem with resist in normal exp parties.

I find have your healing, enfeebling and enhancing magic skills leveled much more important. The sooner you hit the soft caps for cures the better.

Welcome to FFXI and I hope you enjoy whm as much as I have.

(as a last note, whm weapon in a party doesn't really matter till 51 where you will want the elemental staves, light and dark at least. Whm doesn't melee in parties, ever, never ever. Okay sometimes they do, but please don't be like them, you are much more efficient standing away from the party at the farthest casting range allowed, thats at least one less person to cure after an AoE move.)

[IfritnoItazura]

Originally Posted by Necropolis

(as a last note, whm weapon in a party doesn't really matter till 51 where you will want the elemental staves, light and dark at least. Whm doesn't melee in parties, ever, never ever. Okay sometimes they do, but please don't be like them, you are much more efficient standing away from the party at the farthest casting range allowed, thats at least one less person to cure after an AoE move.)

I thought the WHM's get some decent hammers? I don't mind if WHM's take swings at the mobs in exp parties, as long as: A) The WHM is able to keep up with cure, buffs, enfeebling, and status effect removal; B) The monster doesn't have AoE attacks; and, C) There's neither BRD nor COR in the party.

A WHM should have a proper MND+ wand before Lv.51 to increase potency of enfeebling and cure spells, so the hammer can only be used between casting of spells.

Look at it this way: as long as a WHM is doing his mage duty and managing his MP well, if his hammer can hit the mob, then he helps out party with faster kills--if he can't hit the mob, that's just less TP for the monster, and makes little difference to the party anyway. >_>

* * *

On the subject of PL, I'm of the opinion that good PL's are great to have around for beginner parties (up to the jungles, perhaps), even for WHM members.

For example, while PL'ing a friend in Yhoator Jungle last night, I taught the WAR how to SC w/MNK (Red Lotus Blade > Combo for Fusion), and the mages how MB (Fire and Banish). (Told the THF/WAR to use SA + Fast Blade instead of Red Lotus Blade. >_>; )

Also went easy on the cures, preferring to let WHM do the heavy lifting--my cures are for prolonging chains and emergencies--if they watched when I dumped Cure II's instead of Cure I's, they'd know when to cure bomb in the future. (Not that it's hard to figure out.)

Also tried to teach the JP WAR/NIN the Utsusemi: Ichi timing, but the language barrier was difficult to cross. ^_^;

I always insist on the tank voking and keeping the mob in place. I'm also very generous with my praises if I see the party members learning how to do their job better.

Having done all that, I'd like to think I was good for the party members. ^_^;

A PL has substantial sway over a lowbie party, and can use that power to make them more functional. (So the PL can go to bed after an hour of coaching, knowing the party will be just fine.)

Unfortunately, most PL's are idiots. They want the tanks to stop voking--so mobs go everywhere and hit everyone, making it impossible to SA much less SATA, driving the BRD's and the COR's crazy, and making PL'ing itself a major pain since they would then have to keep switch target to get to the people who need the cure bomb thanks to their own stupid idea to tank for the party. >_>

Too bad for my friend's party, another PL showed up, who dropped Cure II whenever anyone's missing more than 30 HP and Cure III on anyone who may possibly be in yellow. Must have driven the WHM in party crazy--but that WHM was very smart, and used MP for enfeebling and regen, as well as for MB Banish on Fusion.

I ended up doing very little curing and mostly acted as a cheerleader.

* * *

How to deal with a good PL: "I think I can handle more curing; would you mind if I try?" A good PL will be more than happy to work with you, whether you want to cure more or skill up enfeebling or divine magic.

How to deal with a bad PL: Use your MP for more enfeebling, enhancing, regen, and MB. Heck, try to MB enfeebs, too. Remember, no PL can beat your curaga's efficiency for mass curing or waking sleeping front line jobs. In short, work around them.

[Celeal]

A bad PL can ruin the fun of exp. party.

Last time when I was leveling BLU/WAR in a PL-ed party in Qufim Island, I got a /tell from the PL: "If you { Provoke }, you die."

Not the mention the subjob-less whm have no clue what he is doing (running out of mp even with a PL), and the party insisted of pulling IT+ that DD have acc. issue.

It really killed all my movtivation to level any low level job again.

[cakemeat]

I would totally put something tha 'pimps' yourself out. You might not need to advertise it for whm. But include something like MND+5, and other raw numbers that make you look badass.

[Aksannyi]

Originally Posted by Celeal

A bad PL can ruin the fun of exp. party.

Last time when I was leveling BLU/WAR in a PL-ed party in Qufim Island, I got a /tell from the PL: "If you { Provoke }, you die."

Not the mention the subjob-less whm have no clue what he is doing (running out of mp even with a PL), and the party insisted of pulling IT+ that DD have acc. issue.

It really killed all my movtivation to level any low level job again.

I've had that kind of PL. I was leveling PLD and the PL told me to stop voking. Which meant I was going to be little else than a weak, weak, weak DD. And forget about learning to tank. I tried to talk to them about it but they wouldn't listen.

What pissed me off the most was that it was my husband's PL, and I told him to tell his friend to go away because I knew we were capable of leveling without the PL. I was told that I should be thankful that people want to help. Well, it's nice of you to take time out and all, but I'd rather learn my job the right way, thanks.

[Icemage]

In addition to the TP/AoE/low damage issues mentioned above, the fact is that you never actually need clubs as a WHM. Sure, you can sub NIN at 74+ and take on some pretty tough enemies, but even so your damage ends up being just "OK" unless you're fighting skeletons or magic pots, which are weak to crushing damage, and your accuracy against anything higher than Tough enemies is going to suffer a lot.

In an XP party situation, where you take on VT+, things are much more dire; you'll miss constantly and deal very little damage even when you do land a hit. There's never a situation in an XP party past level 20 where meleeing as a WHM is a good idea - occasionally "OK" against certain enemies, but not really directly beneficial even when you do everything right.


Icemage

[Necropolis]

Originally Posted by IfritnoItazura

I thought the WHM's get some decent hammers? I don't mind if WHM's take swings at the mobs in exp parties, as long as: A) The WHM is able to keep up with cure, buffs, enfeebling, and status effect removal; B) The monster doesn't have AoE attacks; and, C) There's neither BRD nor COR in the party.

A WHM should have a proper MND+ wand before Lv.51 to increase potency of enfeebling and cure spells, so the hammer can only be used between casting of spells.

Look at it this way: as long as a WHM is doing his mage duty and managing his MP well, if his hammer can hit the mob, then he helps out party with faster kills--if he can't hit the mob, that's just less TP for the monster, and makes little difference to the party anyway. >_>

* * *

On the subject of PL, I'm of the opinion that good PL's are great to have around for beginner parties (up to the jungles, perhaps), even for WHM members.

For example, while PL'ing a friend in Yhoator Jungle last night, I taught the WAR how to SC w/MNK (Red Lotus Blade > Combo for Fusion), and the mages how MB (Fire and Banish). (Told the THF/WAR to use SA + Fast Blade instead of Red Lotus Blade. >_>; )

Also went easy on the cures, preferring to let WHM do the heavy lifting--my cures are for prolonging chains and emergencies--if they watched when I dumped Cure II's instead of Cure I's, they'd know when to cure bomb in the future. (Not that it's hard to figure out.)

Also tried to teach the JP WAR/NIN the Utsusemi: Ichi timing, but the language barrier was difficult to cross. ^_^;

I always insist on the tank voking and keeping the mob in place. I'm also very generous with my praises if I see the party members learning how to do their job better.

Having done all that, I'd like to think I was good for the party members. ^_^;

A PL has substantial sway over a lowbie party, and can use that power to make them more functional. (So the PL can go to bed after an hour of coaching, knowing the party will be just fine.)

Unfortunately, most PL's are idiots. They want the tanks to stop voking--so mobs go everywhere and hit everyone, making it impossible to SA much less SATA, driving the BRD's and the COR's crazy, and making PL'ing itself a major pain since they would then have to keep switch target to get to the people who need the cure bomb thanks to their own stupid idea to tank for the party. >_>

Too bad for my friend's party, another PL showed up, who dropped Cure II whenever anyone's missing more than 30 HP and Cure III on anyone who may possibly be in yellow. Must have driven the WHM in party crazy--but that WHM was very smart, and used MP for enfeebling and regen, as well as for MB Banish on Fusion.

I ended up doing very little curing and mostly acted as a cheerleader.

* * *

How to deal with a good PL: "I think I can handle more curing; would you mind if I try?" A good PL will be more than happy to work with you, whether you want to cure more or skill up enfeebling or divine magic.

How to deal with a bad PL: Use your MP for more enfeebling, enhancing, regen, and MB. Heck, try to MB enfeebs, too. Remember, no PL can beat your curaga's efficiency for mass curing or waking sleeping front line jobs. In short, work around them.

To IfritnoItazura:

Yes whm hammers are okay, but high delay and relativly low damage compared to a DD/tank. And whms need to learn to rest whenever they can, if I was swinging away at a mob in my parties I would be murdering chains unless we had a brd, rdm and cor, plus sanction/nobles refresh. Getting 1 or 2 ticks of mp in will extend a chain and cause much less down time.

Another issue with meleeing whms is proximity is a factor in hate. At level 75 I can Divine Seal + Curaga II from a normal casting distant and pull no hate if I wait till appropriate hate tools have been used. But if I do the same while in melee range I will pull hate like no tomorrow.

If you are unsure of this, think of a pld, right next to the mob the pld casting cures and flash hold hate, while a whm standing away from the party casting the same spells will rarly if ever turn the head of a mob. (Of course pld has other hate tools as well, but you get my general point).

Another example was my Skill up pt last night, we had myself as 75whm/nin, 75 pld/nin, 70war/nin. I was skilling club, pld was skilling clubs/GSword, and war was skilling Gaxe. I was putting out pitiful damage, and for the most part all I cast was Haste/Regen (fairly low hate tools). But if I cast a cure4 or Curaga II while Meleeing the mob, it turned right towards me, where as if I was at a safe distance, it would not have.

But in general mobs you fight will have a move that would make whm melee not a good idea, either AoE, silence, Curse or the fact that the TP given to mob for damage output, its not worth it.