PSA: The Worst Thing You Can Do (2026)

So, I see this every year, and always around the same time too. I was going to bump an older thread, but I figured I would start fresh and reflect on some things that I still believe to be paramount in the land of FFXI, even in 2026:

1. We are all playing a game. It is meant to be entertainment. If at any point, you are not enjoying your time here, go for a walk, take a break, read a book or pet some cats (as Velner would say) ...but don't take your frustrations out on other people.
   

2. If something isn't going your way, don't force it. Drop rates are bad sometimes. Everything has an RNG aura both in-game and in real-life ;).
   

TLDR: Don't take out FFXI stress on your friends (or even strangers). Know when to disengage if something isn't going your way. You'll be happier, healthier and probably live a little bit longer.

Lots of New/Returning players:

With lots of new or returning players in 2025 and 2026, be patient and coach people who are willing to be coached. If we don't take the time to help new folks, the next content-era in FFXI will be bad for everyone.

1. Difficulty: There's 1000 different mechanics in this game to recall and execute and some people learn through repetition (and even failure). I remember when someone even triggered Spike Flail in Sheol C because they just didn't know about it. Nobody panicked and we all still got ~9000 segments. You just roll with the bad runs, learn from it and move on.
   

2. Basically, everything is 6-man content. If you find yourself getting glossed over when it comes to invites, do not take it personally. Just pause and invest the time where you can be the most impactful.
   

3. At the same time, no one wants all of their time in-game to be monopolized by events or other people. It's can be just as frustrating to always be first pick, as it is to always be part of the 'left overs'.
   

4. So, be realistic about what you can accomplish. Don't spread yourself too thin. Make a to-do list and stick to it but be sure to talk about it with your friends.
   

5. Last comment: If you think you're going to play every event in FFXI as your favorite job or just the jobs you have available, you're going to have a bad time. I tell people to make 3 jobs: 1 for events, 1 for utility (getting things done) and 1 for fun. (and if you do this, you still may not be invited to everything).

People will play how they want to play:

1. Many people have multiple accounts and are up front about it. Some are not. Some people only have 1 character. I personally believe that an extra character shouldn't take place of a person who wants to actually contribute in that role. (But utility jobs are necessary: 'If you don't have a tank, you don't have an event'), etc.
   

2. Some people will misrepresent an alt character as their main (4-song BRD that needs Clarion Call to be 4-song, WHM idle set includes a Warp Ring, minimum Enhancing Duration set, etc).
   

3. Some people prefer following the MMO 'progression treadmill' and others prefer to skip over content through power-creep and face-roll tactics.
   

4. Some people may strongly insist you use third-party tools, plugins or addons and you shouldn't feel pressured to use them if you don't want to.
   

5. It's really up to you how you want to play, but everyone should agree and have alignment on how to proceed. Good coordination is part of being a good team player.
   

Some folks will insist I'm making this thread (again) because of drama (nope), but the truth is: I haven't experienced any personally. I play with all different kinds of players, with a massive range in skills and experience when it comes to FFXI. So, for the savages foaming at the mouth for gossip, I'll throw out some generic examples:

1. If a healer doesn't want to play with a DD or a tank who doesn't use meds, that's totally fine. (This includes Oils/Powders).
   

2. If a tank doesn't want to use anchor, totally fine. The party should pick a position to mitigate Knock-Back.
   

3. If a person prefers to warp to Sortie bosses using third-party tools and you don't want to be around that, that is also fine. (No penalties, no reporting people, just agree to disagree).
   

4. If a DD perpetually frustrates the BRD by missing songs, they might not get invites next time.

Anyway, I hope this thread was helpful for folks and can ensure that we continue to work together and play the game we enjoy so much.

What's the issue with this part? I always have warp ring in my idle / movement speed set so I don't need to manually equip it lol.

This is the worst thing you can do in 2026.

When the WHM idles in a Warp Ring, they become Invincible and every hit deals 99,999 damage. Naturally, the DDs feel bad and warp out. Who wants that to happen?


Yes, precisely. The last WHM who did this was sent to Abu Ghraib prison:

the worst thing you can do in 2026 is making this thread

Agreed, Someone tell Felgarr his post count on FFXIAH.COM isnt getting him MR9

Big big huge corollary to that which really should be said out loud here:

Some players with secondary characters just want them for their own personal use. If you know somebody who dual-, trio-, whatever-boxes, and they say "I'd rather only bring one character to this", don't keep continually trying to pressure them to bring multiple characters in. Some events are a pain in the *** to multibox. Sortie and Odyssey spring to mind immediately; you can half-*** a support or healer, but unless you've got the full six-box basically-just-soloing-it puppet strings setup, it is difficult and energy-intensive and just plain not fun to try to manage the running, engaging, positioning, warping, all that stuff.

It's fine to say "hey, can you bring this other character instead." Having multiple characters on tap should mean a wider variety of jobs available to work with (since inventory space is a finite resource so gearing everything well is a nightmare.)

It's fine for them to say "actually, can we make it work with this one?" Having multiple characters shouldn't mean that one gets locked out of events because another one has the perfect optimal job. As long as they have something that fits the strategy, treat it like somebody in your group who only has the one character and doesn't have the exact right job: figure it out, or say "look, you really need to build one of these roles for us to make it happen, let's try something else today."

If you're saying "well, you can bring your warrior, but you need to bring your scholar too, come on you can do it", you're low-key being a bit of an *** and your party member is starting to resent you.

I've never experienced this personally, but I think you're definitely saying the quiet part out loud. I've only experienced people complaining about alts and mutliboxing, especially when Dyna-D just came out and no one wanted to tank. But I can definitely see your situation happening too. I guess, some people look at others just to see what they can get out of them. It's very ..opportunistic and just plain gross.

Maybe 2026 will be the year we have to modify the definition of Elder Abuse to include: being forced to multibox for the benefit of others, lol.

What's Mastery Rank?

These are all worse options.

Don't pee in the bathtub.

I do like a lot of these.

I think where a lot of newer/returning players who haven't played in ilvlFFXI struggle is the gear requirement put on them when trying to enter group content for the first time.

Then in regards to the job selection. My philosophy I push like drugs in all the LS I'm in has been:

- Pick a job you really love and want to play /main
- Now pick a second job you like, and you could see yourself enjoying if asked to play it more
- Finally, pick a third job that supports your progression for job 1 and 2.