Question on pulling

A

Amed

Guest
First off, Im pretty new to FFXI and I choose to play a thief. I then found I was asked to pull 80% of the time after I hit lvl 15 or so (All my pt's till then had another puller). Im in the Dunes at lvl18 and most everything checks T to me. I do look for VT and IT but most the time I cant find one in time to keep the chain going so I pull a T. Then someone in the pt "politly" complains I need ot pull harder mobs for better EXP. Question: Is it better to chain T's and get the EXP bonus or run around till I find a VT or IT? Should I ignore the "polite" complainers? Any advise would be great because I like this game and want to help the pt the best I can.
 
Sounds to me like you know quite a bit more than people who may claim to. Here, let me break it down for you... I have played a wide variety of jobs including Ranger to 66 and Thief to 50...I pulled on most of them. Even Bard because...well...they are great pullers lol. I have been in one stellar party...we killed VT to very low IT and pulled in 9.5k an hour.

So the answer is...much more complicated. First off, you are in the dunes. This place has become synonomous with hell to most players. It will only get worse for you over the next 10 levels I am sorry to say. People seem to get stupid when they run to Valkurm. No it is not always possible to kill mobs and get 200+ exp a kill. This is most people's goal though. You should expect to see this a lot. You should expect to be told how to do your job by everyone, even that Whm who has never played a melee job in his career. You should expect to hear "pull pls" 5 times in a row, as you run around trying to find a monster to pull. Pulling can be a tough job, but you also get to know that YOU are controlling the flow of exp. As you progress in the game, you will go to more areas where there is less range in levels, and you will only see IT and such. Some of the best exp in the game is to be had from killing lower level mobs faster than you can imagine and chaining up to 50+ times.

So... You seem to know a bit more than most do when they start off. Take advice where it is offered or asked for, ignore stupidty when it is given, and do research. If I spent half the time studying that I did doing research for this game, I would have pulled straight A's lol...but ill settle for a B average :P . Good luck

Fae
 
Thanks, Ive done more google searching on "FFXI pulling guide" in the past few days and have not found much (other than a mad wife). So I need to just settle into a good flow and keep it going even if it's T and not worry about the "polite" complainers and rack up the EXP chains. P.S. I would love to get 9.5k an hour. Amed /bow to 9.5k. Hope to see ya in the game sometime.
 
Yeah if you dont see anything around, by all means pull a T. You may hear some bitching, but when you get a Chain 5 for 350 after that or something...you can then turn around and say shut up. You will honestly learn the most as you go. I never really used a guide for pulling...you just get a feel for it. You sound smart enough to grasp the concept already...so the future should be no different. When you start getting told to stop pulling is when you will run into difficulty. Ive had some bad encounters when people said I pulled to fast. We rarely (if ever as I recall) died from me overpulling, but some people had a problem with me not waiting for full mp. There is a time and place for such, that is after a Chain 5 minimum. Some parties are not equipped or able to do so, no matter the situation...those parties should be ended quickly.

Regardless, you are still in the dunes. You will run into plenty of people that will annoy you as I said. Just stick to it. Youll get it down, or you already have it down. Pulling is great fun I always thought. There is nothing like having a long pull, around many aggro tending mobs and coming home safe. There is nothing like being able to run through a the dunes as a Whm because you learned how to avoid aggro. Avoiding aggro is a skillset not many get to learn to master...but is honestly one of the most useful I have ever seen.

As for the huge exp...I have never been able to achieve much more than 6k in a "normal" party. You will run into a term called cannon party. This is a party geared totally for offensive output. Few jobs have enough offensive output to form a cannon party. Blm and Rangers can because they have high dmg and ranged attacking abilities. Monks can on bones (undead) because they hit for disgusting numbers extremely fast. The only thing I have heard about for thief is doing nonstop SATA with like 4 or 5 Thieves. I have NEVER seen or heard of this happening, but have read about people's theories on it. But you can hit some good numbers if you set up parties right.

Best of luck to you... You are facing a hard task as it is. Starting at this point in the games timeframe is hard as the inflation and expectations on equipment are extremely high. Just stick it out...things get much more fun in the mid levels.

Fae
 
The only problem I've had with over-zealous pullers is either voke/flash not being up (so embarrassing lol >.>), and the smn healer being at 70 mp, rdm at 100 mp with no convert, and me at 150 mpish. We lived though >.>

But I'd say you'd get more exp/hour pulling the Ts along with VTs and ITs, rather than just the VT/IT. Tank will take less damage per hit/evade more, meaning less mp spent on healing. It will also die faster, saving mp on the blms side.

Most I got was about 8k/hour with war/nin, rng, blm, whm, rdm, and me chaining raptors in valley of sorrows. Fun times. Full NA party too ;)
 
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