Back to the world of Vanadiel

[cadoxangelus]

After about a years worth of not playing, I have decided to come back to FFXI.

When I had left, the first abyessa expansion had been released. I am coming back with my original account. What should I expect? Any classes gain any popularity? Am I going to regret waiting so long, or should I be able to get to 99 with some ease? Any suggestions, or helpful tips would be greatly appreciated. Also, its good to be back to the forums. :D

[Squiggs]

Re: Back to the world of Vanadiel

Holy crap, another Delawarean!

Anyway, to answer your questions: Expect a lot of Abyssea at first, to level and get started on your AF armor. After that, there is Voidwatch, Voidwatch, Voidwatch and other endgame events (Legion, and more to be added). They have severely nerfed the 95-99 limit break, so getting to 99 shouldn't be a problem. I don't have any real suggestions except to just have fun and don't try to do it all at once.

[cadoxangelus]

Re: Back to the world of Vanadiel

Yes indeed, another person from Delaware. I'm above the canal, I work at the new castle airport.

Anyway, thanks for the tips. Im told thief has picked up in popularity and im also told "experience is paid for" not sure what they meant, but I shall see.

[Alekia]

Re: Back to the world of Vanadiel

...and im also told "experience is paid for" not sure what they meant, but I shall see.

Likely refering to the Fel Cleave parties where you pay so many hundred k's of gil for so many hours of leeching in a party for xp. Lately i've been seeing a lot of 900k for 10hrs of leeching shouts.

[Lunaryn]

Re: Back to the world of Vanadiel

It's not necessarily cleaves though it's generally parties in Scars zones; nowadays actual Abyssea xp groups where people seek active participants are somewhat rarer, most of the time you just see shouts for leech (true leech, not keywhore) spots offering something like 50-100k gil for 1 hour leeching, 500k for 6 hours, 1M for 13 hours, etc. That's always seemed pretty seedy to me (plus I don't have a Dyna group anymore for easy gil) so I've avoided it. There are still some legitimate abyssea xp groups from time to time (usually Heroes zones / dom ops), and there's also bookburn (Grounds of Valor), but long gone are the days of finding an xp party doing their thing around any part of Vana'diel. Aside from soloers and people doing magian trials, it's all alliances mowing down specific mobs under level sync in Gusgen Mines, Garlaige Citadel or Bostaunieux Oubliette (or on rare occasion unsynced in The Boyahda Tree).

For my part, honestly, I'd drop what I was doing (if it didn't involve group commitment) and come running if someone offered me an honest-to-goddess Trad or Neo-Trad in a field zone against mobs that actually take a minimal strategy to kill. *sigh* On the plus side, the grind has never been faster, if you can get a proper dom ops or bookburn. Just that increasingly it feels like there's not much worth doing with all those levels once you have them. Though I am planning to try to solo RotZ on my second alt's BST (currently 84).