Very new, Is this worth playing

[steelsoul]

Hello everyone! well, long story short, I am thinking of picking up FFXI but im not sure if It is worth it at this point. I have heard that it takes years so level and such, so is it worth playing now with the release of 14 coming out this year?

I have alot of previous MMO exp, and I am a huge fan of FF. could you guys give me a suggestion of if the game is still active? is there still new players to group with? and will it be worth investing the tiem before the new game?

Thanks everyone, I obviously had enough of WoW a year ago and AION just isnt really my thing, as i am more PVE related. THANKS!

[cidbahamut]

Re: Very new, Is this worth playing

If you're looking for PvE rather than PvP then FFXI will probably suit you nicely.
As for FFXIV, it's hard to say what all will happen but so far it looks like the games will be different enough that you could settle into FFXI now and later find out that FFXIV isn't FFXI 2.0 and end up picking whichever one suits you better.

Unfortunately the game is pretty top heavy at this point. We're not exactly tripping over all the new players filling the starter cities but they do still exist.

[Zoltar]

Re: Very new, Is this worth playing

The game does not take years to level, it's challenging but there are many provisions in place to help newbies. You'll want to get started on your home missions and pick out your job of choice for the first 18 levels until you can get a subjob. People for the most part will be happy to answer questions you have.

[steelsoul]

Re: Very new, Is this worth playing

okay sounds good. so as far as questing is concerned.. are quest only group based or will i be able to level efficently playing solo? since there isnt a huge new player base at this time, i worry that I will not be able to progress without a group .

after that, can someone direct me to a class introduction guide and suggest good classes for easy leveling and what groups look for? i always have a tendancy to choose the "most difficult" class and from there find it very hard to be accepted into groups.

Thanks again!!

[cidbahamut]

Re: Very new, Is this worth playing

Going off what Zoltar said, feel free to ask any questions you need here and we'll answer as best we can.

You shouldn't have any problems leveling while playing solo, although completing certain quests is another matter altogether. There will always be monsters out there somewhere that you can beat up for exp on your own, but often it is faster to team up with folks.

FFXIclopedia, the Final Fantasy XI wiki - Characters, items, jobs, and more has a good bit of information to dig through and it's a good resource for helping you get through quests and the like.

You'll only have 6 jobs(classes) to start with.

Thief: Lots of evasion, relies heavily on job abilities to deal damage.
Monk: You punch things to death.
Warrior: Early on you'll be the tank. You like to hit things with large weapons.
White Mage: It's your job to keep everyone alive
Black Mage: Specializes in blowing things up.
Red Mage: Does a little bit of everything early on. Becomes more of a support role later on.

After you reach level 30 you can complete quests to unlock others.

Don't pick a job because it's popular or "good". Go with something you enjoy playing.

[steelsoul]

Re: Very new, Is this worth playing

I just read a thread about "which class you should play" and I think I am gonna die. seems so confusing! i guess I am leaning to black mage for now, or monk. I want to be able to solo really well. ive always liked the idea of duel weilding weps as well, so monk might be cool, since it seems they use fist weps.

i think it will take some time to decide if I can handle how complex and confusing this game seems to be.

[Neverslip]

Re: Very new, Is this worth playing

imHo

You should proly take Mnk or War up to 18 to unlock your subjob and decide further from there. Mnk and War are gonna be the easiest jobs to level on a starter character and you'll have either Mnk or War to sub if you decide to do another melee class after. I started as a Thf and it was a struggle because everyone wanted me to be Thf/Nin to party when I hadn't even gotten high enough (30) to unlock Nin yet. Course that was also right before they made solo'n a viable option. Starting with a caster job would be frustrating for me cuz you most likely will have very little gil to spend on gear let alone the job's spells when you first start out. Also ... casters are pretty complicated.

All told... with storyline(s)... you won't be able to advance w/o some type of help. Whether it's looking it up on wiki/ah.com/alakazam or just needing more people. You can lvl solo (far slower than in a party) w/o additional support BUT later (starting at 50) you will need help on quests to up your level-cap. There is alot of stuff prior to that that you can do on your lonesome. BUT ... you will need help and FFxi is the most fun when you're chilling with buddies.

So...

I suggest learn the emotes ... /wave , /salute , /hurray , /poke , /laugh , /smile , /grin , /toss , and many others; and be social with people as you're solo'n in low levels. Someone may be friendly back and wish to duo with ya or/and might invite you into their Linkshell (guild) where you can usually get more people to help ya. I have a social LS that is still very very active with helping newbies. Sometimes I wonder if all of Hades started out in my LS cuz everyone I meet in endgame these days is like "OH... is <insert leader's name> still playing... that was my first LS". But we have multiple new people to FFxi joining our LS every month... pretty steadily.

I agree with most that FFxi is pretty top heavy but there really are still people actively helping the newest... and people are the real reason FFxi is such a great MMO, imHo.

Good luck tho... we'll try to be as helpful or as synical as we can be on here

[Zoltar]

Re: Very new, Is this worth playing

I know this is mentioned in other areas of the forums, but I'll quickly give you my two cents on getting started: (and yea, please refer to FFXIclopedia, the Final Fantasy XI wiki - Characters, items, jobs, and more for everything, you can search for subjob to see what that is, how it's acheived, etc)

1.) Level a job to 18
2.) Unlock your subjob
3.) Your subjob is half of your main job, subjobs give added stats to your main job
4.) Level your subjob to 18
5.) Level your mainjob to 30 or 37 (as mentioned, lvl 30 jobs can unlock other classes)

Also as mentioned above, certain jobs compliment others. ie: Black mage to 18, unlock ability to have a subjob, level White Mage to 18, then level Black Mage to 37. You'll end up with BlackMage37/WhiteMate18. Certain jobs go together well, like this.

[Jhi]

Re: Very new, Is this worth playing

You could always start on Diabolos and hit my friends or myself up to help out. We've taken a habit to helping new players recently and we have a couple who still do not have their subjobs.

Zeu is my character's name these days. If I don't answer a tell, send a friend request and I'll get back to you, I generally just leave the game running all the time and I'm not always at the screen. (Have to sleep at some point)

[Malacite]

Re: Very new, Is this worth playing

Get the free trial and give the game a whirl.

It's gotten to be very top heavy, but they've also added things like Fields of Valor to make it easier on the lowbies to balance that out a little (plus level synch)


Give it a whirl, and if you like it stick with it ^^ if not, wait and try your luck again with 14. Either way it's not going to cost you anything to give the game a try.

[ShepardG]

Re: Very new, Is this worth playing

Here's a question, and I'll provide you with some quick info and you give me your expectations based on this info, might help out your decision a bit.

1. You can lose exp when you die in FFXI
2. You unlock your subjob @ 18, then you'll need to keep your subjob "capped" for the most part
3. you can only unlock advanced jobs (pld,sam,nin,rng,drg,pup,cor,blu,dnc,sch,smn,brd,drk,bst,and i'm missing one)
4. Like malacite said, it's very top heavy now adays
5. it's still realtivly expensive to gear out your character
6. farming is still a long process

Those might sound a little negative, their not intended to be,

Here's some questions for you:

-Cap is 75, what would you expect would be a resonialbe time to get to that cap?
-are you interested in any craft skills? they cap at 100 and usually are break even up to 60, and then they take a drastic turn into money syncs with not alot of reward until 100
-do you like to keep your character in the best gear possible for each new level?

[Mezlo]

Re: Very new, Is this worth playing

It's worth playing only if you mind starting something you're not going to finish, or even getting close to finishing... It's fun though