Feeling Burned Out

Hello, I apologize if I sound whiny here, this might serve as venting mostly... still, I recently started to have problems with enjoying the game.

I'm a quite casual player, I don't aim to be the best of the best, and just want to feel like I'm doing a good job.

Up till around a month ago, I was playing as BLU, mostly cause I liked the job in other Final Fantasy games. It was ok, but even having obtained like 99% of all spells, I still was not doing much of a great job. On some occasions I was even kicked from a party, because I could not compare with the pro players.

After some thought I switched to GEO, and boy, did I fall in love with it! It's not hard to play, and even if I don't have the 900 skill points that people often talk about, I did have parties, where I received praise for what I did. I helped one really pro THF player fight Vedrfolnir! I turned that NM's evasion to dust! Things felt good, but my equipment still left something to be desired, so that THF buddy suggested 2 things:
-I should level THF, that way I could get a lot of money
-I should beat all Seekers of Adoulin missions, to unlock Sinister Reign, where I'll easily fit in as a GEO, plus there's awesome equipement there.

So I started that, but these missions got INSANE. So difficult!!! Some friends told me that that's how it goes, but I read online, and found people who beat these missions just with trusts, back when the Trust limit was 3! Heck, some even beat them solo, underlining how "they're too good to use trusts". That felt like rubbing salt into my wounds.

I knew I was doing something wrong, so I thought I should buff up my equipment. My general idea was to reforge up my AF/Relic/Empyrean Armor, but that requires those Rem's Tale Chapters. I can manage the Chapter 1-5 fights, but the 6-10 were brutal. True, I did not try them for months, but they ended in such fatal ways, that I rather not give them a try anytime soon, so for now, I farm copper vouchers, login points, to exchange them for those chapters, so that I could potentially upgrade some AF, kind of hoping to at least upgrade one for a job that could easily handle those Ark Angel fights to get more chapters easily, but that keeps changing.

For a while THF seemed like the best investment, but once the missions got hard, I noticed someone shouting for help with a mission, being told to just play BST. I figured I'd try BST, but then I was told that the job got nerfed, so it's useless now.... I did manage to progress in the Adoulin missions, cause I found someone to help, and that person.... Good Lord. So many attempts at fighting Balamor, not even taking away 50% of his energy bar, but there comes this DNC/SAM and kills the guy within half a minute!!! So that seemed like a new direction, but boom, another mission, someone brings a BST and says he'll solo the thing, which he did! I questioned how this works, since the job was apparently nerfed, to which he said that it was nothing to kill the job. And ..... and then someone told me that I should level WHM right now, cause the Yorcia Weald boss in the "Yggdrasil Beckons" mission is hard without one, and...... I'm losing it!

Suddenly it feels like I have to have all jobs leveled, I have to have all equipment for all of them, I should know spells for all the jobs, have all skills caps. I'm.... I feel like I'm going insane.

Each day is just a wild goose-chase where I:
-Farm copper vouchers
-Farm stuff in dynamis to make money (likely spend on getting the dagger for unlocking "Rudra's Storm" for THF)
-Do colonization missions, cause GEO might need that later
-Level any given job at the moment
-Attempt a mission

This starts to become such an insane chore, that I play the game whenever my computer is on, even when I'm at work.... and yet, regardless of all that effort, I'm still this weak n00b who dies at the drop of a hat.

So with all that said.... with all that venting... instead of now madly leveling WHM, I figured I'd write this, and possibly hope that some experienced player might snap me back to my senses and tell me what I'm doing wrong.....

Thank you for your attention

I understand your confusion. As someone who's been playing since around the time Wings of the Goddess came out, I'll offer a bit of advice.

Don't get discouraged. You aren't doing anything wrong.

Yes, it can feel a bit overwhelming seeing the kinds of chicanery those of us who are "experienced" players can pull off. But mainly, that all comes down to practice, and finding a job that we love to play.

Don't feel like you have to level every job in the game. Pick 2 or 3, and focus on those. Get to be the best you can be in those jobs. It is far better to have a GEO, DNC, BST, or what-have-you who knows their job well, and the ins and outs of their capabilities, than someone who can only half-*** their way around the job.

I personally play DNC as my main for "get stuff done" because DNC is so versatile. But there are times that DNC isn't useful to me (hello Geas Fete NMs) so I switch to BLM for those. With just those two, I have the ability to do just about anything I need to do.

The second thing you need to do is find a good LS. Good friends and LS-mates are the key to getting stuff done.

focus on one job you enjoy playing is my advice. Figure out what exactly you need/want from it so that you can focus more specifically than "reforging all my AF relic and empy gear"(which is insane and not even close to necessary for BLU).

don't get on the FOTM jobs unless you already like them. Also, if you wanna level BST just level BST. the nerf just made it so they aren't able to completely circumvent mechanics like they used to. A good BST is almost as good as my blu, plus they can do things I can't currently do, like cleave(I know BLU can cleave, but I don't have the gear for it).

I second or third or whatever it is by the time this post is finished finding a good LS. Even a crappy but active LS will help you feel like you aren't wasting time.

Getting advice from other players can sometimes send people down a wrong path, as what could be the goals or fun for one person doesn't apply to another. You could be skipping over many of the things the game has to offer in an attempt to reach the party at the endgame.

Have you been enjoying the Adoulin missions? I hope so, I did, but I think I wouldn't have if I only did them cuz someone told me I needed them. I recall having done that for CoP and WotG, so I really didn't enjoy those two at all. In CoP's case, it was a "you gotta get sea access!" thing, where in WotG, I just wanted the damn earring and I was already too strong for the missions to pose a challenge.

I'll admit I'm guilty of talking up the cooler parts of endgame content, or plowing through content for people cuz they just wanted the clear. It would seem to me like the issue is finding the right level of challenge, but not being denied the content if you're not 100% ready for it. If you are enjoying stuff like Unity fights, then stick with those. Some of those rewards are going to last you a long time, and the fights are generally unique (more so if you never fought the low level versions).

When it comes to leveling jobs, do it cuz you're curious. All 22 truly have a different experience by the time you're 99 and more so beyond. One of the beauties of this game is that you never have to commit to anything (except your name, race, gender, hair-do, and any shinies you trade to Paparoon).

Finding an ls is huge, but i understand the desire to not need to be carried for everything you want to do. So what ill say is this... dont let these more active players bring you down.

Edit: i didnt mean the players in this thread btw lol.

There is a progression in gear that despite saying it is ilvl 119, not all 119 gear is even remotely as powerful as another. These people soloing this or that sure as hell weren't doing it when the content was released so keep that in mind. I dont recall any sch's waltzing in and soloing tojil at release. My point is being a casual player, your progression is going to be slower than your average player due to time constraints. Its hard to farm gil if you dont play much, hard to make friends if you arent around a ton, hard to join events if you only have an hour to play etc etc... so unlike a lot of other people, newer gear just isnt accessible yet, putting you at a huge disadvantage gear wise than a lot of others.

My suggestion is to actually keep doing dynamis and/or salvage for gil and get some alluvion skirmish gear from yorcia A skirmish. That gear represented a huge upgrade over the gear that was available prior to that content being released. This skirmish isnt overly difficult and would be an excellent starting point. Use the gil from dyna/salvage to upgrade your gear with stones.

As someone else mentioned, focus on just a couple of jobs at first, preferably different roles too. It wont do you any good to have sam drk and drg lvl'd and geared for example as all are dd's. If I were you, I would focus on geo for group content, but also do thf to get your own stuff done when needed. Thf is much easier to play/gear than blu is. Not saying blu isn't an option for you, but maybe using a different job to build blu up would be more beneficial for you, thats what i did with my whm and brd actually lol.

Level DRG and you can DD and have your wyvern heal you. You'll get lots done to gear your WHM to be able to join events to get gear for your GEO to do Sinister Reign for THF to farm gil for your BLU. At that point you can begin to enjoy the game.

I'm not going to tell you what job to play or not play, but it seems you were doing well with Geo and liked it.

Geo is useful in pretty much all content in this game. Whm falls under that category as well but Apururu can handle most content at this point. I Suggest sticking with geo for events, and when your not trying to clear content have fun!

Figure out what job you love and work on it. It's not hard to find a mentor in this game that loves a job so much they are willing to share their knowledge.

If you are not enjoying the game walk away from it. It will be there when you get back, and not much will have changed^^

Well, as im not exactly a kind person, i will be harsh in my advice.

Honestly, looking your troubles its easy to figure you still have very little knowledge of this game. Im not intending to be disrespectful but with just a small progress figuring this game mechanics its easy to clear every content, as regardless of content X or Y, the actual challenge is the same since forever. So, figuring that basic, you can clear X and Y, but also A, B, C, etc. Though this game can be complex in terms of mathematic, its quite simple in terms what you need to overcome a challenge.

Some can think the diference between players is gear. Others, thats "ability". I would say the main diference is knowledge, that comes from either experience or intense research. So, naturally, you want to progress, the only way is to play through years so you can absorb experience, or just take few days reading wikia/bg and learning this game mechanics, basic strats and finally your job guide here in ffxiah.

Now, trying to read your problems in your post: you first stated your blu cant compete with suposed "pro". The first question is to figure what youre lacking compared to them. Are you missing too much? Are you hitting slower? Are you using the appropriate spells for your situation? Certainly the spells you use for solo will difer from the ones you need for parties, but basically, when fighting in a party with melee most problems are:
- accuracy: ask acc buff/use acc gear/use acc trait spells/eat acc food;
- speed: cap your haste gear/check your buffs to see if youre capping your haste magic/pay attention to your dw cap
- dmg: use appropriate weaponskill/use appropriate gear for spells/weaponskills/pay attention to magic bursting/etc.

For geo: try skilling through tomes or with reives. Spend an afternoon to read what enpower a geo magic (gear and skills) so you can maximize your buffs.

Ideally you want to learn about every job not to play it but to understand their importance in a party situation. Do you know what a bard does in a party? What buffs/gears they must use? And corsair? What does he do? And geo? Why do you always need those 3 regardless of party? Knowing the will allow you to build your own party efficiently so you can aim victory like against Ark Angels. Also, knowing all jobs will allow you to understand the one youre playing atm, then knowing whats expected from you, and how you can adapt acordingly.

There is no shortcuts or smaller advices to victory. There is just hard work and lots of researching. Also, a lot of failures while learning, whats normal. But try learning at least a tiny bit from those losses, then at some point you can progress and eventually overcome those challenges, by becoming a better player.

It's not that you need all jobs, but different people will have different perspectives and experiences(and in other cases it's the content that dictates what is needed unfortunately).

Stick with bst I'd say if you wanna do stuff on your own. Maybe you won't be superamazing like more experienced/better geared players, but you can still do a lot on your own(trial and error is the best way to learn).
For parties geo is good enough, everyone wants geo almost anywhere.

So my suggestion is to keep at least those two up to date and eventually use them to gear something else if you like it more.

Blu is an excellent solo job, but it's probably not noob friendly. You can learn a lot though by reading what others do and you can train on how to replicate it while you farm CP. Sure normal mobs are not nms, but it's a good start to get confident with mechanics.

playing thf and cant beat most mission solo is so much wrong there. dring, soa dt ring, vw dt cape, and twilight torque and with /war denfender with tav taco and you will laugh at all mission battle with trust out.

Guys trying to do SoA missions yet you recommend the frickin REWARD FROM SEEKERS! Also yea Dring while quite easy to kill NM can be very time consuming/costly. 2 things that would be better spent working upgrading one of his jobs with more useful gear.

Oh then idk his Aby status but if he doesn't have all the zone bosses/cats cleared could be decently time consuming too since he lacks a decent Red Proc job. To go get that Twilight Torque.

DT sets are great and all but it shouldn't be your first focus.

I learnt a long time ago dont so stuff just cos sumone else says so, it messes you up and you dont end up enjoying the game for very long.My advice is prob like alot of other people say pick a job or a couple you enjoy and gear it as well as you can, if you can get in a good ls or some good friends they will always help you, but mainly enjoy.

I play the game cos i love it and specifically i love blu and some other jobs. I dont go with the flow lol i do what i want when i want which is mainly why my jobs i do are solo orientated as i play to have fun, not to be told what to do...

If you want in all endgame stuff you will prob have to conform and level one of the chose job/jobs lol but il be here for years as i have too much fun messing about on my own and i run from stress situations and drama ls's lol

So chill out look at your jobs and decided which you love and focus on them and having fun. or you will end up burinig out lol

Going to second the alluvion yorcia gear suggestion. Almost all of it has been outdated by this point but it's a great starting point for having gear to clear other content. You should be able to figure out manning the book pretty quickly if you're not familiar with it, basically you're playing tower defense.

I know it's probably frustrating to go the sparks / login points to chapters route but that is pretty smart if you are unable to clear the battlefields. I think you would benefit from picking 2 jobs to focus on for now. Make sure they're jobs you like playing and then maybe take a look at the job guide for that job on these forums to see where to go from there.

Corsair is a good job :D. Its fun to melt things faces with black holes.

I have DRK, THF and COR. I keep DRK updated despite not playing it, I use THF for solo/easy content, and COR for party content. Really I'm getting through the game with just two jobs and it's much easier to do. I only play THF because I promised an old friend I would level it, and it's been very helpful. COR took a while to understand, but once you've got the various sets, you will shine because COR can adapt to different situations. If you want to gear 4-6 jobs it's a much bigger grind compared to 2-3.

As I tell everyone who asks for my advice, it's not going to come to you right away. There's a lot of progression involved, and you have to get lower ilvl gear (99-117) before you think about doing higher content for i119 equipment. Reforged Artifact is always something you should aim for, because they are cheap and easy. Relics will augment some of your abilities. Don't worry about Empy reforged til much later when your GEO is ready for Vagary.

High tier battlefields are tough because it requires a bunch of good ilvl 119 players. You need the right setup of jobs and players, and then you need to decide whether to do it Normal, or Difficult. Clear it on Normal first, because Difficult is quite a leap in comparison. Accuracy plays a big part in endgame nowadays, so you really need to stack on that for every job which can use it; whether it's melee, ranged or magic accuracy.

As for BST, I recently brought it out of retirement (last used it a few years ago) and managed to put some random sets together, buy a pet jug and go. It was really easy to get into, but I did have a head start with reforged. BST is overpowered on old content, and still useful in endgame content. Once I finished Einherjar I retired it again; but if I need it again I have the gear.

Jobs like GEO and COR have updated guides with lots of detail. I just posted some sets in the THF forum as something for returning players to aim for; before they think about the new Escha/Reisenjima augment game. Most importantly, play the jobs you enjoy the most. Nothing worse than being stuck on a job you don't like.

The biggest problem with the game is doing too much in a short time. I've been playing since 2004 with little breaks, and I've been through stages of playing every day, but then you burn yourself out and it feels more like a chore. Do what I do, find something else to do every now and then. Like other games? Play other games. Like TV shows? Log FFXi out and watch some.

You don't need to play the game every day, and you don't need to play every hour of each day. By restricting time, you begin to feel a sense of urgency when you play, because you know you need to get something done and not take all day & night doing it. Play the game in shorter bursts, and plan what you're going to do. It's more rewarding that way, and more bearable.

Everyone, I am so grateful for all the suggestions. I feel like all of a sudden things seem easier to grasp.

I will focus on THF and GEO, and at best in the future I'll do something with WHM, but that'll be it. And I won't be going head first into Seekers of Adoulin Missions. I'll take my time, I'll try to slow down and enjoy my game.

Thank you very much :D

You should always have at least 1 job that is widely used in current content and 1 job that you just enjoy the *** out of. The former so you can actually get involved in current events, the latter so you can go and just have fun when you're not in events.

Luckily for me, my favourite job, PLD, fits in both categories right now.

Ftfy. Seriously though, I approve. +1

@OP, You should simply focus on a single job for doing events with and a single job for playing solo with. Don't worry about people who tells you to level and gear a whole another job for a specific content.

You made good choices by picking up GEO and THF, respectively. On GEO, your sub-900 skill won't be questioned unless you are in an endgame LS that is fighting the absolute high-end stuff. With merits and easy to obtain gear such as Dunna and JSE skill gear (AF3 head, AF2 body, AF hands, cape from reives), you won't be too far from 900 and honestly, that is more than enough for endgame for the most part.

WHM is another great option for joining events and one of the support jobs you need to have the least number of equipments to be worthwhile. Some unity drops, AF3 body and legs (non-ilvl even), some 109 AF/AF2 are all you need to be considered a useful healer in ANY ilvl content.

For THF, I would suggest you to farm Salvage instead of Dynamis. Because it gives you time to breath while farming. Dynamis forces you to keep track of proc phases, run from camp to camp, and sometimes change the camp or even go to a different zone due to competition.

About farming REM pages, I would suggest you to skip AAs and do other page 6-10 BCs on very easy and easy difficulties. Merit points are nothing to collect so start practicing with very easy and you should be able to do most easy on THF with trusts with 119 gear you can collect from things like skirmish and UNMs on your GEO, for example.

Tbh, you don't need to worry too much about reforging stuff as most reforged AFs are too weak, most reforged AF2 are only really good for JA macros and JA bonus potency of 109 versions are the same as 119 versions so unless you need 119 versions for their stats over things like Taeon which are already strong even by default, you can just skip them.

Edit: And btw, when you ask someone for insight on how to act on one of your jobs in a certain event, BC, etc. and that someone tells you to level another job to solo that thing, just turn around and slowly walk away. The most important thing about enjoying an MMORPG is insisting on playing the role you enjoy... I mean... there is a reason these games are called "role playing" games and not "playing the role you are told to play" games.

BLU is so damn easy dude. Its a fun job and pretty easy to play. Gear-sets are a must though and knowing which spells to use and which traits to set pre-battle and in some cases mid-battle can make all the difference. Keep your little mandy chin up. :D

Hey man I know how you feel and I hope it gets better. I noticed you're on Asura. I am also on Asura, let's be friends yes? You need chapters 1-5 I'll get you up on your feet my friend I'll help you get those chapters no need to do that solo in a MMO. You need skill up books, I got you. I have capped sparks on 3 characters that I can assist you. I will do my best to help you. As long as you enjoy your time that is what matters to me! Also another friend :)! Please,I look forward to assisting you in adventures to come. (I can also assist with your SOA missions all of the battles)

focusing on 3 jobs really helped me pare things down and lightened my workload.

For the same reason so many people hate idiotic reality television shows, yet they've dominated the ratings for nigh on two decades.

Because there are more dumb people than not.

Edit: And even smart people like to check out and be dumb sometimes.

You know there are other equipment slots right?

Blu is so easy to play and to prove this, Im going to list several unique mechanics to the job that involve changing/fixing things for every situation. Blu is a great job but the learning curve for a player starting out is going to be rather steep, not to mention the price tag on getting all those gear sets up and running. That's not to say it can't be done but the OP is already feeling a bit burned out and overwhelmed so blu is probably not the best choice for them.

Pick up the Trust:Amchuchu from the Peacekeeper's coalition if you haven't. Best tank out there outside of August from Sinister Reign, and essentially "free" to get (no gating from an event, just level up your Peacekeeper's coalition ranking).

I'd also suggest aligning either with Apururu or Sylvie(sp? the GEO unity) as they are incredibly powerful in their (UC) forms. These two trust suggestions can go incredibly far for your survivability during solo times.

Honestly? I play two jobs, RDM and BLM, I just choose to play them at very high levels rather than have tons of jobs at average levels. I'm not where I want to be on either (getting there, bit by bit!), and I plan on adding a true melee (prior to SoA, I played RNG as well, but it's not geared to iLvl standards), but until I three star RDM and BLM, it's backburner.

I also will second the comments that too much suggestion on "what job to play" will only serve to distract you. You'll end up with a bunch of lv99 jobs with few Job Points on any of them and sub-par gear. The job points up to 600 are a must, and up to 1200 are extremely powerful. Trying to do that from scratch on 5-6 jobs is overwhelming for most players. I loved the comment earlier of having a "fun" job and a "event" job- pretty much sums it up for most people.

Lastly, set a major goal. I've played since 2007, but took an 8 month break right when SoA was released...not the best time hehe. So when I decided to come back, I set a major goal of finally doing a mythic. It gave me something on the side to do that was measurable and on the days when I felt like doing nothing because my "game day" sucked, I had that big goal to fall back on. It really helped.

I hate when people say that. They just don't get it.

The easy thing is being a melee DD. This is in no way specific to BLU. All melee DDs literally sit there and auto attack until they can WS(SAM does WS in a specific order, but it's still auto attacks until you can WS). The thing that is tough is differentiating yourself from other melee DD as BLU(and even other BLU, since there is still some of that stigma hanging around from bad BLUs in the beginning of SoA) by knowing what spells to use, and what gear sets to use, and what traits to have.

Not only that, but being able to adapt to situations where melee damage isn't your best option, by switching spell sets and swapping to caster gear, really separates a BLU from any other Melee DD.