Oathsworn Blade Master Trial

This makes sense. As a player still enjoying the 20 years of content, I am now confused by some of the other posts. Can only 1-5% clear new content? Or can any returnee with a free weekend clear new content?

.01% can clear the newEST content. .00001% want to clear the newest content. (v25 bumba, crystal paradise, oathsworn)

the 5% can clear the previous tier of new content (v25 not-bumba, Aminon)

Anyone can clear the previous tier content (v20, not-aminon sortie) ((if they put in the effort))

This is "how it should be" tiered access, The newest tier comes out and bumps the previous tiers down. The problem is lack of effort lack of availability and lack of desire to bother. The elephant in the room is that these tiers will now never move again. ...and that the top tier is pointless dogshit...

Is the lack of interest and the lack of new content a consequence of the content's design, or because SE refuses to invest anymore into FFXI outside of their 'pats on the back' and the occasional 'thumbs up' annual bonus?

I'd edit Bumba/CP to 1%, but otherwise agree with Eiryl on the numbers.

The issue is that the 5% who can clear V25T3+ got there by farming V20T3+ and going up the ladder. A considerable portion of those who can't are already stronger progression-wise(due to emp+2/3, master levels, and in a few cases even prime weapons). So, the question becomes why those players aren't willing or able to form a group and tackle content that was done with weaker characters.

It's like a portion of the playerbase has self-limited and decided Odyssey is too hard and they'll never be able to do it, without actually making an effort to try.

Just sort of speaking from my personal experience going through content as someone that's familiar and comfortable with researching things and dealing with MMOs, setting up technical/addon stuff, and is fine playing less popular but vital support jobs to get a foot in the door regarding content access/viability. I should also note that over this time period I am/was in my late 20s (Turning 30 this year aaa) and was capable and willing to play 8+ hour days sometimes. It's how I like to experience games. My way of engaging with MMOs and content is likely different to someone in their late 30s or 40s with a family.

It took me ~1-2 months to get my character to level cap and play through all of the main expansion stories and RoV. Burning through WotG in ~5-7 days is not super fun at times (as anyone with a mule could attest), but quite doable. This was done mostly on THF/DNC as the guides at the time recommended, for Sneak/Invis and drop rate fun. Of course, no one actually wants a fresh 99 THF in anything, so I leveled PLD, RUN, and WHM to 99 and any applicable subjobs to ~50. BLU to 99 too for spells to sub on tanks. WAR and PUP too but those were personal projects and not something I planned to use in groups for a long time. This all probably took another month or so in which time I did some V2 Ambu solo to the level I was able to to start getting "real" 119 gear, but that's slow going as anyone knows.

Through social/Concierge-level LSs I was able to find the support for Vagary, Delve, and other really old Adoulin-era content that could combine with the Ambu gear I was getting to make my WHM actually usable in early/mid-level endgame circa 2020/2021 (Omen, W1/2 Dyna-D, N/D V1 Ambu, etc). I've said it before but I'm lucky that I actually like playing WHM which opened doors that wouldn't otherwise have opened. I was able to start accumulating currency and gear for other roles in the course of this.

I then didn't play from late 2021 through most of 2023. The news of how SE was handling the 20th anniversary didn't give me faith in the longevity of the game in 2022, but I decided I wanted to at least see the new content put out (Sortie, namely) and try to experience more of the game now that MLs made things easier. This is where I sort of got lucky. Through a mass LS I joined on Odin I subbed a few times for a competent Sortie group doing a fair amount of the instance daily as the healer, eventually proving competent enough to become a 'regular' and not just a sub, and that supercharged my character's progression. Emp +2/3 gear is a gamechanger and sort of short circuits a lot of the previous content and gear if you know how to use it. I got it for WAR, WHM, PLD, BLU, and RUN and also got enough Deeds for the free Pulse to get Naegling. An Empy +3 WAR with Naegling and a few MLs is a good enough soloer to where I was able to fill out a lot of ancillary pieces on jobs pretty easily and start coming to "old" endgame like Omen and stuff on not-WHM and actually be useful.

After ~6-7 months (going by Deeds progression and accounting for how you don't really get Deeds in that first month of a new player's character) of fairly focused play I'm at the point where for the jobs I'm interested in the main progression routes are either start the REMA process (I followed all advice saying you really don't need one of these for a long while) or do organized group content. And I am doing Dyna-D, Omen, and Sortie fairly regularly with set groups with plans to start an Aeonic soon so I am decently served on that front, although for now I haven't seen any opportunities to really get into Odyssey. Maybe I need to make my own.

The content that's there is definitely not something that you can wrap up in a returner weekend as someone in my position still has things like W3 Dyna-D, Aminon (and his hard mode) in Sortie, basically the entire Ody climb process as I mentioned in previous posts (I've only ever gotten sporadic help on V0s), and Master Trials in general. But I will say that it's pretty easy to reach the point where the game is somewhat narrow if you put your mind to it outside of doing the above again for a new job or starting the REMA process (which is half gil-farming). My primary upgrades at this point come from Sortie or Odyssey or just "gil-farming" in whatever form that takes. I of course could also commit to more ML farming but I rarely see that organized or attempted so I am letting it happen organically via other content for now. I will also freely admit that I took advantage of the easiest role in the game to gear to jump-start my character to this point and the route other players take might be more winding or slower.

I don't know how interesting or useful that perspective was but I think it might be a rare one for someone working through XI's endgame to have so I felt it was worth offering.

Pretty simple; There's no point. "nothing to use the new gear on" (highest tier is trash) and the penalty for failure is too high. (segments are keeping people out)

Also, "the ladder" works until rungs become skippable, then it fails as a mechanism of progress. People see it can be done and won't participate if they can't also skip rungs. (Even when they are not "good enough" to win)

I don't think that's a fair assessment either. If there's nothing to use the new gear on, then they wouldn't care about not having it.

Anyone who can reliably farm segments is decently incentivized to do so, since you get over a million in raw gil for a 30 minute segment farm. So, these players aren't making the effort to get used to segment farms in the first place. To use Blackmore as an example, he states that he is doing Sortie regularly with a set group, but that group hasn't started doing segments.. despite it being easier than Sortie and oftentimes more rewarding.

Gil is worthless, it's not really an incentive, they need new +100m buyables

A new tier of OP as *** grips and offhands to replace free tpbonus/utu or dark matteresk augments to reroll earrings

It's gil and future progress, not just gil. Unless they literally never care for any amount of gil and just buy it all(which is definitely true for some), segment farms are a pretty solid source of trickle gil.

Again, it's much easier than Sortie, it takes less time, it takes the same amount of people. If someone is willing to static Sortie but not Odyssey, there's likely a perception that Odyssey is unattainable. Any argument about not needing the gear falls apart when the same people want to do Sortie for new gear.

This is probably the best argument, perception of suboptimal RP from anything below 25 makes people whiny.

But, there's still a pretty reasonable path up. Shout for someone to enter 5/6 of your group on T1 V20s, T2 V15s, T3 V15s, Bumba V15. With Sortie gear and master levels, these are trivial fights. After clearing those 17(as long as at least one person is present at all fights), which should take maybe a week of segment farms, you have someone with access to T1 V25 and everything else V20. From there, you can work through the V20s with your own group at your own pace, and everyone else gets the unlocks in the process.

sky access was semi-rare for a while, so was sea. i think if you look back you'd find that there are many examples of people not being able to do "endgame" content, for whatever reason.

now that we've reached the end of the line the average joe is too overpowered for old content but maybe not prepared for the v25 and MT content. the good news is the content isn't going anywhere, the bad news is the playerbase might not be there by the time they are ready for it.

it's nice to have some unobtainium just out of reach, but SE could design some low effort reskinned content (SR 2 anyone?) just as easily as a MT and give more than 5% of the players something new to do.

It's psychological.

Odyssey is a time attack. The penalty for failure is apparent. The reward is augments on page 2 of base gear.

Sortie is less stress. The penalty for failure is one extra day on emp+3. The reward is fresh new gear that you see.

Every time you enter sortie you make some tangible amount of progress.
Every time you enter odyssey you might lose your segments to a failed Venge.

They feel drastically different. Primes are their own thing that are and aren't part of sortie.

That's what I said, though.

It's like a portion of the playerbase has self-limited and decided Odyssey is too hard and they'll never be able to do it, without actually making an effort to try.

it doesn't help that the barrier for entry on asura is getting past the shouts wanting r25 everything to even join segment runs. its a dumb requirement parroted by lazy people afraid to waste their precious moglophone as if they weren't going to get another one tomorrow.

seeing these shouts day in and out does have a psychological impact, i think.

But, why, is the important part.

That's just a deflection. You can say 'why' play the game at all? 'Why' farm Sortie? Presumably, the person playing FFXI enjoys FFXI in some way. Presumably, the aspect of character growth is appealing to that person. In many cases, the aspect of overcoming a challenge is appealing too.

Augments aren't as aesthetically pleasing as new gear, but you'd be hard pressed to find anyone who doesn't want a set of Nyame at R30.

Of course they want the r30

So why don't the get it? The self imposed barriers. And why do they have those barriers? The fear, the penalty, the effort, the feel of new gear vs augments, the lack of usefulness, lack of carrots.

It's a mountain and all those things are impassable. Previously/Ideally square tamps down these impediments. And they overcome the barriers.

Knowing that square will "never" improve the situation also doesn't help.

not sure the point being made here. if just getting segments is tough for some, getting any progress in gaol will be too. this may not be the entire reason people have given up on odyssey, but it plays a part.

above clarifies it, ty.

i agree that linkshells and 18man content played a large role in endgame participation compared to 6man. you can still be challenged, and entertained, carrying a few people in alliance content. and let's face it, some people don't mind being carried as long as they get to play.

It's not just segments, I just went over it lol


Also some part of the current culture failing to breed leaders. No shells means no leaders of content. No motivators of followers. No shepherds of sheep. This plays a role too.

Over reliance on bots. Over reliance on mercs. Too many multiboxes, weakening community. There are many factors that lead up to this. There's no single thing you can point to and fix.

Anyone else wondering why this kind of boring discussion is going on in this master trial thread? Seeing this thread bumped hoping some people are finding stuff out from their attempts but all the new posts are about...not being able to clear some content and it always comes back to V25 Odyssey, or gear requirements for segment, or whatever the inane complaint of the day is.

You guys realize you can make new threads, right? (Materdark seems to have gotten the memo, unfortunately, but...)

Why no one is doing it is relevant to it. (ungeared, but why etc)

Besides, what information do you need; Make Augusts HP zero. That's the whole strategy. You've fought August. You've fought naakuls a thousand times.

Unlike every other master trials strategy: Supertank, then make mobs HP zero.

They really aren't the big spectacle they pretend to be. Very simple (not to be confused with easy)

Sure, if we reduce everything to 'make the mobs HP zero', then sure, everything is effortless. Brain dead.

Except you, and so far everyone else, don't know how to get August's HP to zero within 60 minutes, so you have only a desired result, and no strategy.

So again, what's the strategy?

Use undispellable buffs, jobs that can heal themselves(drk dnc), beat the dps timer

If it's anything other than dnc(steps) 2 prime scythe darks, geo(haste precision) cor whm, or basically that, I'll be amazed. Shell crushers impacts absorbs dias food meds etcetc adnausea just like anything else, only more of it and moar fasterer.

I'll admit I didn't read through this whole thread, but I've found this strangely apparent the last few years. There are a lot of people perfectly content to pretend Odyssey doesn't exist even at lower tiers because they tried a v20 and got spanked or got yelled at by some impatient a-hole in a segfarm. Some of the least cooperative people I've met in game are also the ones who complain the loudest about how they can't get through v25 or even v20. So yea, that's a major part of it, but...

The real challenge in Odyssey is pulling together a group of 6 people who have the jobs, gear, experience, social skills, and lifestyle flexibility to do it. You need people who can consistently do everything right enough times to win and be flexible enough to try things that may sound goofy, but work (this is a major problem IMO). That's true of almost any activity. Except for doing 9 bosses, you can largely pug one or two Sortie slots and still pull off a decent run, you are gonna have trouble with that in v20 and even more in v25. Most statics I know broke up after a week and I know a handful of players who are geared/skilled/etc enough to do it, but simply can't because getting 5 other people together is really difficult and keeping a group together can be challenging, but again, this is true of any activity.

Personally, I've just written off v25. I've done a chunk of it, but the reality is I can't commit to a static when I'm called away at a moments notice for hospitalized family members (elderly parents, sick kids, etc), work, and other things outside of my control. At the phase of life I'm in, this happens a lot and it's not fair for me to try and commit to doing something regularly knowing I would have to disappear for a week or two with no warning, all for content that I can't easily be replaced in. Sortie statics are less of an issue because I can be replaced, most v25 t3s...not so much. It's just a reality of life and I think this is the case for a lot of people who wrote off the higher difficulties. The difficulty of the content is what appeals to me about it and the only reason I've stayed subbed tbh, but the commitment required is just not something I can or will be able to do anytime soon.

I was discussing this with a friend of mine a few weeks ago and he pointed out he was surprised we could keep 6 people together to do anything regularly, it made me realize that in all the activities I was involved in outside of 11, I can't think of an instance where we had the same six people doing anything at the same time every week despite having scheduled days/times. I'd have a consistent group but people were constantly rotating in/out for various things going on, so it's not isolated to 11 either.

That's not a strategy, that's just fluff with 0 substance. "Beat the dps timers" is the same useless statement as "make their HP 0". Maybe we can also add "stay alive and deal more damage than needed" to the list. "Take less damage than you have total HP".

Edit: he finally writes some form of a party comp after 37 edits, bravo - except it's apparent you haven't attempted the fight at all.

1 Edit, and *** obviously. You couldn't pay me to be seen in a master trail(well you could, but it would be prohibitively high, and money first). That ***is trashy and the weapons are trashier.

Make everyone's HP 0. Cool, but I haven't seen you post a clear yet. If we want to talk about the state of FFXI's modern endgame, we need another thread.

Edit: If you aren't interested in Master Trials, why are you here?

I wanted to see if anyone had new useless info, and there was something worth responding to.

You want to see if any one had new useless info on something you're 100% not interested in..... great logic.