Partying (2005-2009)

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Introduction
In the Final Fantasy XI that we have all come to know and love, there is a very complex and intricate system of grouping with other players in order to gain experience points. As we all know, this system of partying occupies an extremely large portion of a character's advancement, and it becomes a very necessary activity early on in the game. In this guide we will attempt to deliver everything one should know about partying, from how to party, where to party, and who to party with. This guide is a work in progress, so please bear with us as we get going.

Overview
Partying refers to the activity of teaming up with a group of five other players to form a six man team and work together to gain experience points. The six people in the group work together to defeat enemies that would otherwise be impossible to take down alone. The formation of the party involves a party leader who invites other members into his/her party and is expected to make all of the important decisions of a party.


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Party Leader
The party leader is the person who invites the other players to become members of the party, and has control of Loot Distribution and party makeup. The party leader can kick and replace members at his/her discretion, and is in charge of the welfare of the entire party. While technically all a party leader has to do is to click the invite button on five other players and let things move along, a good party leader is expected to have a certain amount of leadership qualities:

As you can see, being a good party leader is not a simple task, but hopefully this guide will be able to provide you with everything you need to know in order to become a great party leader.

Partying Goals
Strategy is one of the most flexible concepts of a party; but to begin with, we must define the goals of partying. The goals of partying are:
 * To defeat enemies that provide a substantial amount of experience points quickly.
 * To ensure that the members of the party do not die.
 * To keep support characters' downtime to a minimum.
 * To gain experience points at a satisfactory rate.

A bad party can be defined as a party that does not meet the goals of the party, which is to gain experience points at a satisfactory rate. Other than gaining experience points at an unsatisfactory rate, bad parties often result in death and premature disbanding. Causes of a bad party include a number of factors, most of which can be traced back to poor leadership. Poor choice of job combinations and camp location can quickly lead a party to the dark side. Other causes of a bad party can be the presence of leechers, or players who do not contribute anything of value to a party and simply join to leech the experience points gained through the hard work of others.

A good party can be easily defined as a party that gains experience points at a satisfactory rate. All members of the party are doing their jobs well, and enemies are dying quickly while downtime is minimalized. To describe how a good party works, we find it easiest to say that a good party consists of six people who are honestly trying their best to work together and achieve all of the party's goals.

Basic Strategy
The most commonly used successful party setup is as follows:

The above setup is what most experienced party leaders have in mind when forming a party. As you can see from the quantity ranges of each role, the setup of a party is never set in stone and can be manipulated within reason as long as the goals of partying are met. The roles are spread so that both damage and downtime can be balanced and met.

In addition to the roles detailed above, there are a few more roles that are commonly encountered during partying. Although important, these tasks can be considered minor, as they are secondary and must be performed without causing a player to come short in his/her primary role(s).

Level Difference
When recruiting members for a party, its a good idea to keep the levels of the members close. This suggestion made by Square-Enix is in fact quite vague in describing how "close" the members' levels should be. Suffice it to say that in a basic everyday party the member with the highest level should be at most two to three levels higher than the member with the lowest level.

Ideally, everyone in a party would be of the same level. Anyone of a lower level then the highest level member of the party recieves a small percentage deduction of exp. The amount of experianced recieved for a kill is made by comparing the level of the monster killed to the highest level member of a party.

In addition, someone of a lower level always has an innate/base small disadvantage over a person who is of a higher level. Also, only a few levels difference often seperates certain skills, spells, and the difficulty of battle. A party of only three levels difference can cause a high level to be fighting a monster that only cons Tough to them, with low evasion and defence. To the same job three levels lower, this monster could be increadibly tough with high evasion and defence. This would show greatly for example in a melee skillchain, the higher melee would consistently be getting 100% TP before the other, weakening the effectiveness by needing to constantly wait for ther lower level melee.

Speedkill
Coming soon.

Manaburn
This type of party focuses on the immence power of Black Mage spells to kill enemies very quickly.

setup
 * 4-5x Black Mage
 * 1 Bard
 * 1 Red Mage

the strategy here is fairly simple, and very effective. The Red Mage or the Bard will typically act as puller. When the monster is pulled fairly close to the camp, the Bard will use Foe Lullaby, or the Red Mage will use Sleep(or ga) I/II. All the Black Mage's will then begin to cast either 1) their highest Tier spell (ex: Thunder IV) or 2) an Anciant Magic spell (ex: Flare). This will cause extreme damage to the enemy, and cause it to reawaken. The Red Mage or Bard will then put the monster to sleep again, and the Black Mages will repeat this process. After the battle, The Red Mage will cast Refresh on all the Black Mage's and/or the bard will use Mage's Ballad I and II to restore their MP quickly. The process is repeated fairly rapidly since the Black Mage's MP should constantly be healing.

Arrowburn
Coming soon.