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. See also Party. 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.

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:

A good party leader... Is familiar with party strategies, knows what jobs work well with others, and creates a party setup with a good balance of damage, tanking, and support. Is familiar with the skillchain chart and invites damage dealers that chain well together. Knows exactly where to camp and what to fight beforehand, and invites jobs that perform well in the selected area. Keeps tabs on how much longer each party member can play, and when one party member has to leave the leader can then make a decision on whether or not to get a replacement based on how much longer everyone else can play. Knows a proper use of power. This can typically be seen with suggestions on more efficient partying that are allowed to be debated, removing party members with justifiable causes; such as extremely detrimental effects to efficiency, failure to perform a required job, or does his job in such a way that it endangers the rest of the party, and potencially arbitrating conflicts that arise such as the avaliability of multiple skillchain possibilities.

A bad party leader... Invites no tank, too little support, or too much tanking and support while not enough damage Is unfamiliar with the skillchain chart and invites a seemingly random selection of damage dealers. Invites everyone without knowing where to camp and then asks: "Where does everyone want to go?" Sends tells asking if another player would like to replace a member of his/her party without knowledge of how much longer the party is going to last. This often results in the replacement player making all necessary preparations to arrive at camp only to find that the party is going to disband shortly. Will either exhibit minimal, erratic, or extreme control over the party. Minimal leadership is least likely to cause problems, but creates issues when someone is not performing in a correct manner and no one will rise to correct it. Erratic control is usually exibited in actions such as attempting to correct something that is actually a correct method. Extreme control normally manifests in a leader that will remove members who disagree with his belief, cause conflicts with other members, or demand a certain method of battling even if it is less efficient. Invites a THF to the party without the proper setup to take advantage of SATA.

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:

Tank Quantity: 1 Jobs: WAR, PLD, NIN, BLU	The member responsible for taking the hits from the monster. By usage of various abilities that produce enmity, the tank must work hard to constantly direct the enemy's attention away from other players. A tank must also be able to survive all attacks directed against him/her and not place a heavy burden on the Healer at the same time. Being the tank in a party often entails placing the lives of your party members above your own, and while good parties usually do not run into extremely perilous situations, accidents can happen at anytime - in which the tank of the party should be able to quickly respond by allowing the rest of the party to retreat to safety even at the cost of his own experience points.
Healer Quantity: 1 Jobs: WHM, RDM	The member responsible for keeping the entire party alive. While most of the healer's attention should be directed toward the tank of the party, he/she must also tend to the needs of all of the members as well. Playing the healer almost entirely revolves around watching the party's HP bars and one's own MP bar. A good healer will actively seek to do his/her job while expending the least amount of MP possible in order to reduce downtime. The relationship between the healer and the tank is always very direct - they must work together closely in order to ensure that neither player's role is too difficult or impossible.
Damage Dealer Quantity: 3 Jobs: WAR, MNK, BLM, THF, DRK, DRG, SAM, RNG, DRK, BST, NIN, SMN, BLU	Members of the party responsible for dealing damage and defeating enemies. Members of this category must maintain high damage output and be able to consistently land blows on the enemy. The Damage Dealers are also responsible to produce skillchains and magic bursts for additional damage. While all other players in a party work with the sole intent of keeping the party from losing experience points, the damage dealers are given the important task of driving the party forward - a task that is often underestimated by other players. Damage dealers focus on directly overcoming the defenses of the enemy and finding the most efficient way of defeating them in chains. Part of this task is to also establish a good understanding of the abilities and limits of the party's tank - as a damage dealer that attacks without restraint may very well attract the enemy's attention away from the tank and towards oneself. The result of this is most often the addition of difficulty for the healer, and sometimes death for the damager.
Support Quantity: 1 Jobs: RDM, BRD, SMN, COR	Member of the party that facilitates the functions of a party. Able to increase the effectiveness of all other members of the party by enhancing a damage dealer's ability to deal damage and/or directly reducing downtime through usage of abilities that restore MP. The role of a support character is quite simply to support the other members of the party. While not having a direct impact on the goals of the party, a support character is just as important as the rest of the party. Having a support character around makes everybody's job easier - as one can easily enfeeble an enemy to deal less and take more damage, directly enhance a damage dealer's damage potential, or provide a safety cushion for healing when the healer has exhausted his/her resources.

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.

Additional Roles

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).

Puller

The member responsible for seeking out and luring enemies to camp to defeat. The Puller must always use discretion when performing this task, as he/she is constantly in almost direct control at the rate that experience points are attained. A player assigned to this task must keep a watchful eye on the party's resources, and pull only when the party is ready to engage the next enemy. A skilled Puller will be able to judge his/her party's preparedness accurately and push each player to their respective limits. This task is commonly assigned to a damage dealer, although pretty much anyone can do it. Because of this, no character should ever be played to be a Puller exclusively, as he/she will always best be replaced by someone who can pull as well as contribute further significance to a party. A Puller must also know when enough is enough. If a Puller pulls too fast for a certain party type, the party's performance can fall into that of a Bad Party. Pullers may also disengage from the current battle slightly before it finishes in order to ready themselves to pull the next target. Puller duties tend to fall on RNG and THF first and foremost due to the monster radar these classes have access to. While any attack of any kind can be used to pull, the ideal attack is a ranged weapon to save both Job Abilities and Magic Points so they can be used at the appropriate times. Note that the ranged weapon does not need to hit the target to be effective.

Hate Control

A task that is completely encompassed in a single ability: Trick Attack. This strategy simply involves a damage dealer with the Trick Attack ability calling upon the Tank and another Damage Dealer to cooperate in order to give the Tank some additional enmity. THF is usually invited into parties for this sole purpose, as they are normally incapable of doing damage on par with other Damage Dealers See SATA for more details.

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 though, everyone in a party would be of the same level. Unfortunately, its usually a very difficult task to assemble a full party of six with the same level. The primary reason for keeping party members' levels close is simply to ensure that each member receives nearly the same amount of experience points per fight.

A very important point for party leaders to recognize is the fact that the levels of the party's melee characters matter a great deal more than the party's mages. That is to say, Tanks' and Damage Dealers' ability to do their job is much more dependent on their character's level than Healers and Support characters. For tanks, character level has a very profound impact on his/her ability to mitigate damage and maintain hate. For melee damage dealers, character level has an extremely direct effect on their primary combat skill(s), and thus largely governs their ability to land blows and deal damage to enemies.

Mages' performance, on the other hand, is not very related to their character's level at all. A cure spell cast by a level 25 White Mage is no different than a cure spell cast by a level 28 White Mage. Similarly, there is no difference between a Refresh spell cast by a level 41 Red Mage and one cast by a level 75. However, this does not mean mages' performance is completely unaffected by their level. Spells such as Elemental Magic or Enfeebling Magic resistance by an enemy is primarily determined by the skill level associated with the magic. A severely lower level mage will be attempting to land enfeebling spells or elemental magic with little accuracy. This will cause a noticable decrease in efficiency, since a Black Mage will have to cast more spells in order to inflict a full amount of damage. A Red Mage will have to cast an enfeebling spell multiple times to get its effect to "stick" to an a enemy, or the effect of the enfeeble will wear off in half the time as it normally would. Both these circumstances mean that unweakened monster will exist longer, and add to the difficulty of the battle.

Even so, it becomes important when creating a party to devote some attention into making sure that the party's melee members are at the higher end of the party's level range, while it is O.K. to invite mages that are at a considerably lower level than the melee characters. While some players will outright refuse to party with a level difference of four or greater, knowledgeable players will accept the fact that the experience difference is really not that big of a deal. As partying reaches the highest levels of experience, it is not uncommon to see mages in their high 60's partying with characters who are already level 75.

Summary:

• Try to keep the levels of your party members as close as possible.
• It is important to make sure that the melee members of the party are at the higher end of the party's level range.
• It is perfectly fine to invite mages who are of a lower level than the rest of the party.

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Aside from difference in levels between party members, it is also important to pay attention to the difference in levels between the members of the party and the enemies the party is facing. This information can be ascertained by each member using the check command, and is very useful in discovering the limits of each party. In general, a basic successful party should be aiming to fight enemies that are 7 to 9 levels above its melee members. Its usually not a good idea to fight enemies that are higher than that, as each fight may take too many resources to be efficient and cause too much downtime. In some advanced strategies, however, the difference between party and enemy can be manipulated to meet the party's objectives, listed below.

Advanced Strategy

Once the basics of partying are completely mastered, a player can begin to start using out of the box strategies that completely bend the rules of convention. Again, the basics of partying and cooperation must be very familiar to any player before attempting to try any of the below listed strategies.

Dual Tanking

This is a technique often used by a pair of players with the ability to use both Provoke and Utsusemi: Ichi, more specifically WAR/NINs and NIN/WARs who have not yet acquired Utsusemi: Ni. The general idea is as follows:

• One player attracts the attention of the enemy for as long as his Utsusemi can last.
• The second player then uses Provoke and tanks for as long as his shadows last.
• While the enemy is attacking the second player, the first player then has the opportunity to recast his Utsusemi.
• Once recast, the first player will then pay close attention to the status of the second player's shadows, and as soon as the shadows are gone, he/she will then use Provoke to regain the attention of the enemy.
• This cycle repeats itself until the enemy is defeated.

While Ninjas quickly outgrow this technique at the early age of level 37, WAR/NINs may continue to utilize it throughout most of their career. This is an extremely effective technique in the sense that it allows both Warriors to fully exercise their potential as damage dealers, and eliminates the party's need for an exclusive tank who does not contribute cause any substantial damage to the enemy. However, in addition to the skill necessary to master the timing of Provokes and the casting of Utsusemi, this technique also requires that both players maintain very close enmity levels via damage. If one player is doing a lot more damage than the second, it will be very difficult for the second player to attract the enemy's attention while the first player is out of shadows. Therefore, this strategy is not recommended to players who have not yet obtained a good grasp of the basic mechanics of the game, and can really only be utilized by two players who have a good amount of experience, skill, and equipment.

Combo Support

Just as Dual Tanking got rid of the party's need for an exclusive tank, the Combo Support tactic eliminates the party's need for a designated healer. The basic concept is simple: invite both a Red Mage and a Bard. The two jobs combined make a killer support combination, as it can completely take over the party's healing needs and nearly wipe the word downtime from the FFXIclopedia. The spells Refresh used in conjunction with both Ballad songs provides the closest thing to unlimited MP in the game, and as thus allows the Red Mage to perform all of a healer's tasks in addition to his/her daily enfeebling routine. But don't forget if something should go wrong you will not have access to Raise II or Raise III.

Speedkill

This tactic is an extremely popular method to gain experience points for players at lv75, but it most certainly is not limited to lv75 characters. The simple idea behind Speedkill is to target enemies that are only four to seven levels above the party's members, and to kill the extremely fast, hence the name. This method is known for its ability to produce seemingly impossible numbers of Experience Chains, as well as its almost complete disregard for enmity control.

Speedkill starts with a team of highly skilled and powerful damage dealers who can not only deal damage, but can also survive a decent amount of hits. This usually means melee jobs such as Monk, Warrior, and Samurai, although other jobs can certainly participate and perform well. Dual Tanking is a tactic very commonly used in conjunction with speedkill. Put them together with a small amount of mage support - usually two mages for Combo Support, although other combinations work as well depending on player skill, and you've got yourself a speedkill party.

In this kind of situation, there need not single designated tank, puller, nor camp. Enmity is bounced around between the damage dealers of the party constantly, and enemies always die before they are given the opportunity to inflict severe damage on anyone. After each fight, each member of the group spreads out to an extent in order to locate the next target instead of having one person pull, and the party itself will move as a whole. A classic example of Speedkill are the Monk-based parties in King Ranperre's Tomb, where skeletons are quickly turned into Bone Chips one after another at an alarming rate.

When performed skillfully, the rate of experience points in a Speedkill party can far outdo that of a traditional party. However, in addition to the heavy skill requirement necessary for success, finding good areas to use this method is also not an easy task. Due to the extremely fast enemy after enemy nature of this method, it is very important that enough enemies are available to kill. Running out of enemies to defeat is a very large problem that will hamper such a party's success.

That said, the current standing highest publicized EXP chain is Chain #173 made by a Monk-based party in King Ranperre's Tomb.

For more information, please visit: this link

Arrowburn

This is a slight variation on the above Speedkill in the sense that it is entirely Ranger-based. Rangers tend to have a large advantage in accuracy over other jobs, so targeting enemies at a slightly higher level than the above mentioned four to seven is not a bad idea. This method can be performed with a team of up to five Rangers with a single support character, and is best used targeting enemies that are weak to piercing. The Ranger's wide usage of the Ninja support job is a must here as well, as Utsusemi is pretty much going to be the only thing keeping the party alive.

See Party Setups for more information.

Manaburn

This type of party focuses on the immense power of Black Mage spells to kill enemies very quickly. Unlike Speedkill and Arrowburn, however, Manaburn does not focus on high chains - instead it aims to take down tougher enemies for up to 400 experience points a kill.

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, it will be put to Sleep. All the Black Mage's will then begin to cast their most damaging spell, and sleep it again. This process is repeated until the enemy is defeated, when all the mages can receive their MP regeneration songs/spells and another pull can be made.

See Party Setups for more information.

Axeburn/Katanaburn

This party uses the ability of shadows to prevent damage and decrease downtime to almost nothing.

Setup:

4-5x Ninja with a Warrior Sub Job or Warrior with a Ninja Sub Job.

1-2x Summoner, Red Mage, White Mage or Bard (or combonations of the above)

Basicly each front line job counts each other's shadows and provokes aproperiately whenever one looses them. Establishing a provoke order is cruicial to preventing confusion and waste of provoking. Support jobs are used to Haste so recast timers are shorter, or in the Bard's case, to increase damage.