I got an invite rather quickly tonight, but by the time I arrived at camp in Bibiki Bay, the group was only comprised of 4 people. We waited another 30 minutes to get a healer and a Ninja tank. We were eventually comprised of NIN/WAR, WAR/NIN, SAM/THF, THF/NIN, SMN/WHM, RDM/BLM, levels ranging from 64-66.
We floundered, badly, on weak Gobs (90 exp) and slightly higher level Dhalmels which took forever to kill but offered maybe 150 exp. Blah.
We were spinning our wheels and the Ninja... sir Shortysen from two nights ago, wasn't helping things: going afk, not responding to incoming mobs, telling us to stop while he looked for replacement (within 30 minutes of getting to camp). He is either a drunk or schizo because he didn't even remember the Mount Zhayolm portion of our EXP session at all from 2 nights ago. He remembered the part in Boyahda Tree where we tried to MPK the Red Mage leecher, but nothing else. He managed to simultaneously annoy and creep the hell out of me...I won't go into a lot of party-dynamic detail because the details aren't worth remembering. Between "EXP party musical chairs", down time from close calls and seeking other members, terrible tanking (and repeated tank deaths), and people's inability to pull up camp and go someplace else... we wasted inordinate amounts of time.
Around the end, 4-5 member rotations later, I was sick of the inertia and the original "leader" fake red-dotted (yeah, that kind of party), so I was given lead since I had been doing all the work of finding new members all night anyway. But by then the damage had been done... we slowly made our way from the crappy camp to the Dhalmel camp further south, killing the tougher goblins along the way because the Paladin wanted to, which needlessly slowed things down when we could have invis'ed through.I should have put him in his place and told everyone to just friggin' stop and invis up. He'd been rubbing me the wrong way all night because he just had one of those giant egos that belittles everyone else in the party and complains nearly constantly about every little thing, yet turns around and makes hair-brained mistakes and bad choices. You know... HNM drama queen material.
Anyway, we made it to camp and were making very nice EXP when people complained that it was 5AM their time. So we disbanded. Great.
I know I've said it before, but I mean it this time. I think I need to lead these parties...because I'm getting nowhere just following them. I hate doing it because I just don't have the personality to pull it off, but I guess it's time to practice my acting skills and get a little more dictatorial.
5 comments:
Heheh. I feel for you. Bibiki Bay was a nightmare for me. For some reason the PLDs were very stupid and never rested for MP, rarely cured themslves, and ended the fight with almost all their MP because they were "damage dealers". And this was pre-refresh for the PLDs. It made me want to tear my hair out. I just suffered in silence. I don't think I've ever made my own parties. Good luck with yours.
; ; I don't know much about anything past 45 [woot!...*coughs*] but I do wish you the best in your party-making!
I think I've only made one ever in my FFXI career and it actually turned out well.
; ; I hope you won't be dictatorial right off the bat! If they're all acting like asshats [:D hehe] then yesh, but not when you're first starting the party--I hope!
Even though I'm lower level, this rubs me the wrong way. I can be told where we're going to camp, what we're going to be fighting, but being told what to actually do ["Erase plz" when I'm midway through curing while the darn animation for whatever effect is still going drives me up the wall ><] and when is a no-no.
Unless I'm just reading "dictatorial" the wrong way. ^^;
Thanks for the advice, Taritai, and the kind words, Verrick.
I do indeed mean dictatorial, but only when my TP (tolerance point) has reached 100%. And this usually happens when the party is behaving in about as coordinated a fashion as a herd of cats.
I usually stay quiet and grit my teeth through it because I'm not leading. If I'm leader though, I have a little more leeway in getting the party to change camps, getting drama queens to tone it down, or getting a couple of members to stop TP burning and start skillchaining.
That sort of thing...when whatever we're doing isn't working and it's obvious a change is needed or people will start leaving.
That last party was a nightmare because there was no leadership & no dynamic decision-making, so people kept dropping out; which escalated the problem.
Anyway, easier said than done. I guess we'll see.
You, Frohike, have absolutely NO luck in getting parties, do you?
Is this what I have to look forward to in a few of levels? >.<;
I think it's mostly a consequence of my play time: 10PM PST.
That's largely a JP time slot, so the few JP that respond to english speakers and the ragtag bunch of level 65+ english players available... makes for some less than stellar communication, and definite lack of selection/flexibility. So if the RDM doesn't have ToAU, guess what? No uber-chains for you!
And at the same time there's this sense that you're totally stuck, since disbanding and LFG is just utter folly by the time we figure out the party is going downhill.
I'll get through it, I guess; I just don't think it's going to be pretty.
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