Fighting for STR?

So recently I went back to FFXIV after getting a bit bored in 11.

Last time I stopped at unlocking MNK, after 1 month of slow questing, I managed to unlock MNK and starting working on AF.

I heard that AF full set on MNK is indication of noob in 14, so maybe time to do some research.

After some forum reading regarding how to gear, it seems I have to hit STR 350 on MNK.

Time to do some AH shopping D;

I had about 2M after years of leve grind and quest grind(some came from pre-leve gil nerf), so I decided to aim for following setup(which seems easiest way for noob like me that doesn't require zomg hard/expensive to obtain items):

AF head/GC STR body/double meld STR hands+legs/HQ STR rings/bracelets

After tossing all gil on double STR meld gears, I managed to hit 324 STR.....

Not enough D;

Further more, not enough gil to buy +1 STR accessory too D;

And I wasted too many points on other attribute too D;

Also need a lot of GC seal grind for body D; 

Damn, Caravan escort for GC seal is fucking boring D;

So pretty much, need a few hundred gil grind, and at least 7k more seals.

Time for grind grind grind, grind gil, grind seal, so I won't be gimppppp....wait.

This is something I've been doing, for past 3 years in FFXI.

Oo I just ding 1st job BLU 75 and wearing AF 5/5.What? you said AF 5/5 BLU is noob? D;

Oo so I need to gear like this for this, and gear like that for that ;(

Farm gil, farm gil, farm gil, so I can buy moreeee STR rings!

I need 50 empy items for my empy, time to spam Sobek!

I need 1500 HMP for my Arma, time to grind gil!

Dyna everyday!

NPC cruor everyday!

Collecting X amount of item for Y decent gear until I can get Z super elite gear.

It's boringgg, dyna is boring, just like how Caravan Escort is boringgg!!

But need the gearssssssssssssss D; Have to suck it upppp D:

So next time when I see another MNK wearing AF 5/5 to Ifrit battle and not stacking correct JAs I can secretly say "OO doingitwrong" in my mind.

So why is everything so Deja vu? 

Isn't it what I(and majority of players) do in FFXI everyday? 

I've already experienced all those in XI, went through the era of full set AF in XI, see other players wearing full set and secretly said "OO you doing wrong". Grind boring shit every day until I got X gear, the happy for entire day after I got it. Then after a while I realized I need MORE GEARS!

Then the entire loop continues.

It's basically the same thing.

I guess, maybe FFXIV isn't the game for me.

I started playing since launch, always felt FFXIV is fundamentally the same as FFXI, with some different touch here and there, at least majority of playing experience I had in XIV is something very similar. Some of the design is certainly not as outdated as 11, but the fundamental is the same.

For example, I always feel it's pointless to have "lv up era" for every player, so players lv up a job to do  endgame. That's why nobody pt in XI anymore, because lving up a job is very pointless if the entire purpose is to have a job to use in end game. Why can't a game just start at max level from the start and get stronger by grinding gear to begin with?

This also applies the philosophy of "level necessary job, and grind necessary gears so you can do endgame for even more bad ass shiny gears" in both games.

The fundamental philosophy in both games, are not different at all.

So if it's something I've already been doing in XI for years, why'd I need to do it again in another game?

I agree, I was looking for an entirely different MMO playing experience. 11 certainly gave me a lot of cool experience, but now I'm looking for something entirely different.

Is 14 fun? Maybe, at least I spent way more time in 14 than 11 in past 2 days, but I can almost predict what's coming up every time when I do new event, like how I can predict 11's new event everytime:  Nothing new, fundamentally the same with different touch here and there.

But for me, I don't see much point to play 2 games at once when they're fundamentally not too different.

Maybe I need to go to play MapleStory if I want something different ;<