{|Death |} and People That Suck.

Death on FFXI has never been something I've been willing to accept. The XP loss certainly compounds things, but the fact that you're laying face-down on the ground is a brutal reminder that you’re doing something wrong. The Valkurm Dunes are no exception to that. A lot of the people there are partying for the first time, and still need to learn how to execute their party role. I've seen quite a few thfs and mnks insist that they can tank, since their brand-new subjob is war. Not very many jobs can tank for shit at that level, and thf or mnk sure as fuck aren't on the list. Later on, once you’ve gotten past the dunes around lvl 20 or so and head for Jeuno and Qufim people would have finally gotten their party roles right and for the most part they have. As soon as everyone’s getting near 30 and head to Kazham though, everything goes to shit. It must be the Goblin Smithys that sit near the town entrance that get everyone’s brains all shitified. Long ago, before I lost faith in partying, I was in the jungles leveling up like a common schlub. I was party leader, and had assembled what looked like a pretty good group: nin/war(me), thf/nin, rng/nin, war/mnk, whm/smn, smn/whm. I asked the smn which avatars he had, and he summoned Fenrir as a response. I took that as a good sign. Once we arrived at camp, we ran into a problem. I transcribed this conversation from about a year and a half ago onto Notepad and have been using it as a personal example of how fucking stupid the majority of FFXI’s populace is. I just wish I had one of those programs that lets you take screenshots of the chat log, as they deserve to have their names here.

ME: I’m the NIN/WAR that’s supposed to be the tank, but I’ve got a ranged weapon so I’m supposed to pull too?” (I had that stupid Rogetsurin at the time)
THF: I know nins can do it, my main is 74 drk. I’ve seen it. {|Ninja|} {|Incredibly tough|}

(At this point I’d already /checked everyone and saw the thf had the same Rogetsurin I did.)

RNG: I don’t want to waste any ammo since I’m already kinda low, because I’m a fucking moron that’s too poor to properly play one of the most expensive jobs in the game. (Everything after the comma is my own commentary, but she should’ve said it herself. Stupid bitch.)

ME: thf/nin and rng/nin can’t fucking pull? I’m the main tank, and war/mnk is the backup when I need to recast utsusemi. One of you two need to do it.
WAR: Can somebody loan me gil for courage rings?
RNG: I don’t have the ammo for that, {|I’m sorry. |}
ME: Are you kidding me?
RNG: {|I’m sorry. |}
ME: Fine. THF, I need you to pull.
THF: I don’t have {|Ranged Attack|}
ME: The fuck you don’t.

(I /check him again and he’s unequipped his Rogetsurin.)

ME: Are you fucking serious? You unequipped your boomerang just to get out of pulling?
THF: I never had one in the first place, n00b.
ME: Fuck you then, you stupid bastard.

(THF gets kicked and blacklisted shortly thereafter.)

ME: SMN, would you be willing to pull with Fenrir?
SMN: The THF and I are in the same ls so I’m going to party with him, since we’re such good fuck buddies I need him to keep sucking things really bad. Especially me. (Again, everything after the comma is my own words, but I’m pretty sure they’re all true. Elvaan smn are usually fucking faggots.)
WAR: Gil {|Can I have it? |} anyone please?
ME: God fucking dammit….

The party disbands and I head back to Kazham and then to Jeuno. While I’m looking through the auction house I get a tell from the SMN telling me that the THF was just being an asshole on purpose because he was tired of pulling. SMN didn’t appreciate being told that he could go fucking himself so he got blacklisted too. About a month later I see the same two fucks in the Crawler’s Nest, and the THF has “Master Puller” in his /search comment. I sent a /tell asking if he’d pulled the SMN’s dick off yet, but I forgot to take him off my blacklist so I never got a response. I’m assuming he did.