Aside from the obvious "join a linkshell and have them carry you", is there any tips to actually be invited to a group to level? After a failed group as a WHM in dunes where someone pulled and died before I could even get a single cure on him (yes I had him targeted before he even pulled), I decided to level RDM to 13 and try to find a group to level with. I have been sitting in dunes flagged looking for party most of yesterday and for a few hours today, not a single invite. I had a few people examine me, I assume to check my gear before inviting me, but as I am very new to the game and have never played before I don't know what is optimal gear or even if I am rich enough to afford it. I bought gear that I could afford that has int or mind on as many slots as I can using some gil a LS member gave me.

What can I do, other than rerolling a more meta class, to actually get invited to groups? I would prefer not to change class because I want to eventually play SMN, and WHM/RDM are the best subs for it, and I do not want to play WHM. I dont want to ask my LS members to come carry me, as I always see them having fun partying doing higher level content and dont want to drag them away from that. Do I advertise myself in shout or would that just annoy people into not inviting me?

Thanks in advance.

When you are in the Dunes many parties will bring a character that stands outside of combat and heals the party (PL, higher level character). From experience people will still invite a WHM or an RDM to help, but they are a hard spot to get in a group because it's easier to just rely on the healing from your PL. Another issue that's minor but still sticks out is if a group does need you, odds are there two or three other WHMs or RDMs looking for a party, and they probably have better gear or even a subjob.

You said you were in a Linkshell, they may have some people in similar levels if they want to party, or start your own party using the Party system. I found the last few parties I started on WHM/RDM someone even brought a PL along of their own when I said I was still new and lacking a second character.

I would love to start my own party, but I dont know enough about the game to be comfortable with it. Party make-up, where to go, what to fight, these are all thing that are completely new to me. I really dont want to make a bad name for myself by putting together a bad party, especially on a server where everyone will remember your name due to "lowish" population. The people in the linkshell are really helpful, and have dont so much in answering the plethera of questions I've had for them, I dont want to take them away from other stuff that they are doing in order to level with me. I'd rather be able to do stuff like that on my own.

Also, thank you for explaining what PL is. I had just assumed it was a "power leveled" WHM that just afk followed someone else to 12+ and didn't get healing skill ups.

Essentially yes, a PL is just a high level character that someone dual boxes on the side to help keep a party going.

I would suggest rolling WAR, get a great axe, and start leveling it. This will also help with early gil issues as many of the drops can be sold on the AH for gil or turned in for gil (Zehrun Soot/Bat Wings). This may be less than ideal but you will get group invites and will start to learn how parties operate, where they go, and most importantly how the mobs work. I leveled WAR originally to 20 but I am taking it to 40 because the parties just keep coming. Paired with fishing gil keeps rolling in and it has kept me geared and up to par on the four classes I have been playing (WAR/RDM/WHM/MNK). Thanks to the gil infusion and the knowledge gained I was able to get almost every other started class except THF to close to 20 if not over.

Make sure you check AH pricing versus in town shop pricing on lower level gear. I usually keep the Nasomi Auction House page up and search as I play to see what drops are selling for as I get them. https://na.nasomi.com/auctionhouse.php

Gil is an issue starting out, i'd suggest just looking at your starting city and the areas around it and checking the drop prices and leveling the 1-10 where the drops sell the best to vendors and AH. Bastok I level most classes 1-10 in the Zehrun Mines because the drops sell well on AH and mobs are tightly packed, then move to Quadavs in Gustaberg or Pal. Mines because the Backplates sell well and Sneak scrolls sell for 500 to vendor.

Just keep at it, take notes, and never be afraid to ask for help when you're in a super tight pinch.

Yea, I guess I'll just do this. Kinda sucks I wont have a good sub for SMN when I unlock it, but at least I'll get to actually unlock it instead of wasting away alone in Dunes.

The way I justified breaking away from WHM/RDM (I was in the same boat as you exactly when I started) was when I started to look into how to unlock the advanced jobs, I realized being a WHM alone would make some of them more difficult. Having non-healing classes leveled meant I am able to handle certain quests solo at a lower level.

FFXI is a slow burn game, and to even start the Summoner quest you need a Ruby which is found on mobs that you'll benefit from having a class that can solo them on as they have a low drop rate.

Just a little unfortunate. I was having fun playing RDM, and I can see why there is a shortage of WAR because "me stronk me afk during fight". Maybe I'll go DRG instead of SMN, I donno, I just want to play the game as a MMO, not a single player game.

Trust me you'll be doing plenty of partying!

RDM is fine. WHM is actually fine. If you want to play SMN, you should switch back to WHM. Having RDM as a sub for SMN is mostly useless.

Either way, start your own parties. Find a lvl 13 player (you, in the beginning) and invite 5 other people levels 13-23 to XP with. Grab a WAR or two, some other melee, and maybe another mage to help heal and go kill some lizards.

You'll be out of the dunes after a few hours, if you want to be.

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A basic party setup would be a tank(most of the time a warrrior will do fine for the dunes) you could always grab pld if you wanted. If your below lvl 12 and want to grab a ninja I suggest grabbing a warrior or someone with sub warrior. Even craving a ninja at 12+ you want someone with at least sub warrior. Honestly if you want to play smn then I would switch back to white mage like wolf suggested. Most people are going to tell you to grab all melee which would be your best option for xp/hour, but you would be fond with a mage but I would honestly only grab one mage at most. So if you want to play white mage then grab a warrior and just tell people that your new and that you wouldn’t might some advice on where to camp. If you get a 13 sync then go to the upper left Conner of the map and fight lizzards. I would suggest if the fines are full to go to bastion and go to K tunnel and fight worms.

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