Wednesday, July 01, 2009

Morning in Vana'diel: The Death of the Main?

Morning in Vana'diel is your daily dose of FFXI and all things Vana'diel. Give us your thoughts on the interesting topics of the day! Today, Ring wonders if Omoikitte cries a little on the inside every time he talks about his jobs at 75, because she hasn't seen his DRG in years. :(

My "main" is SAM. It's got my best gear, it sees the most action, and it has all the merit focus. It used to be more varied because I always had to take MNK to Salvage, but I don't really do that as much anymore even, because I have to go as WHM more often and SAM when Blaize doesn't come. That being said, I do still use a good variety of jobs, like WHM, BLM, RNG, SAM, MNK and even occasionally NIN. I don't use DRG at all anymore, and I think that I may have used WAR one time since it hit 75.

The notion of a main job was an important one back before Treasures of Aht Urhgan because people usually only had one or two jobs at 75. It helped them know which job to expect to do events on, and it helped leaders to know what to expect and what people might want to lot on. Things are different now. A lot of people like to do things in smaller groups and that means you have to have several jobs that are well geared. You can't really have a main job when you could be expected to tank, DD or support at any time, any day.

Is it good to not have a main? Maybe, then again, some people hate playing some jobs and refuse to do so even though they are their main and still want to lot things for it. I never really understood not wanting to play a job in this game. It is really that bad to hit a different set of buttons than on other jobs? To me the best part of the game is succeeding at whatever goal is set out for you, and that jobs are just a way to accomplish those goals.

Do you have multiple "main" jobs? Do you wish it was more limited and you could just focus on one job? Do you like being able to switch between jobs? Would you get bored if you were only able to play one job? Leave a comment and tell us what you think!

6 comments:

iceblazek said...

Everyone should have 3 main jobs, no more and no less.

Ringthree said...

I think three is a good number, and I think that they should be willing to play those three jobs at any time. If you need another job, then they should be able to turn you down or require more time to mule for gear. But even with an equipment heavy job, you should be able to keep 3 jobs worth of equipment on your main.

Leylah said...

Three is what I am at now currently. NIN/SAM/COR. Fourth will be RNG (62) with BLM (43) in the distant future. NIN and SAM can share/use the same gear as with COR and RNG so inventory space isn't as tight...I forgot about NIN tools/toolbags and COR cards so I take that back lol.

Evilpaul said...

I think the "main job" thing is kind of antiquated. I've got BLM, SMN, NIN, MNK, SCH, and PUP all leveled to 75 with RNG on the way.

BLM, SCH, and SMN are largely interchangeable.

SMN is more or less retired, I haven't used it since a kited Kirin like 18 months ago.

I prefer to do events as SCH over BLM for the free RR2 mostly, but also because it's more self-sufficient and MP efficient than my BLM and really only lacks -ga3s and Stun.

NIN I use to tank Sky gods on the rare occassion my LS does a Sky run anymore. NIN/DRK on Byakko is pretty fun (with proper support). It's pretty lousy as a DD though compared to my MNK, so it only otherwise comes out to DD tank on lowman stuff (mostly duo/trioable NMs).

MNK is kind of my default now for events where we have plenty of BLMs or SCHs already. I worked my ass off to obtain a Black Belt, and I like getting to use it.

PUP I just leveled for fun. It's a pretty cool and fun job. I don't have any actual use for it.

RNG I'm leveling for something different and for Odin when we eventually start farming him for A. and E. bodies.

Qtipus said...

One of the reasons I haven't leveled more jobs than I have is because of the "main job" notion. I generally prefer for all of my jobs to be at or really close to the best it can get before I go out and level another job. This means capping merits for the job, figuring out a few diff. gear sets, etc.

Obviously DRG is probably going to get the nod over the other jobs I have cause of Gungnir, but my WHM and my PLD aren't anything to really sneeze at either at this point. PLD needs a few more merit and a couple other pieces of gear, but outside of that, it's pretty much finished.

The only drawback to it is how rusty you are at the job. I don't play WHM all that much, so dragging me along to an event that requires me to be on top of my WHM game is probably not going to end up with very good results. Even though I hate WHM, I'm always willing to come as it though :P

samsol the eager cabbie said...

Different situations call for different needs...unfortunately, everyone can't be online all the time, and maybe you have the jobs you need for certain events, but what if you want to go two man an NM? Will your "main" cover what's needed? Do you have a stacked thief to eva tank/TH it? Is your rdm capped in merits so you can land enfeebles? What if you need a bard to support your eva thf on joytoy NM (brainfart on the name)? Is your pld ready to take out and get face raped while your sam DDs stuff? Certain jobs are interchangable, but no, three jobs, to me, doesn't cut it. There's more than 3 classes of jobs (DD, tank, support, healer, pet job...about all I can think of) and players who want to think you're complete with three should unlock some more jobs...as for having more than three "mains"? They came out with salvage gear, now you can have 1 set of gear for a couple of jobs...yah, you won't be "elite" as far as what others can do, but you can do your job...and noone can ask for more