Returning Player - General Questions

[Asphexius]

Well I'm coming back for the fourth or fifth time over the past decade and most recently played some in the abyssea period about 1 year ago. My main questions to the current players;

1) Has the game play from 1-65 ish changed much? Is it solo/duo until you can chain run missions as a zerg alliance in mines or later in crawler's nest? Or is it more solo/small group driven all the way? (i remember soloing in the 50's still being very slow and painful)

2) Do you still need to do abyssea content? Is that how to level to the new end game? Do people still actively do it?

3) In a nutshell do you need a linkshell to really work towards anything or can you really do this game with just you and a friend? (limit breaks, leveling, gear, etc)

All help and feedback appreciated! Think i'm on Fenrir these days.

[Rustic]

Well I'm coming back for the fourth or fifth time over the past decade and most recently played some in the abyssea period about 1 year ago. My main questions to the current players;

1) Has the game play from 1-65 ish changed much? Is it solo/duo until you can chain run missions as a zerg alliance in mines or later in crawler's nest? Or is it more solo/small group driven all the way? (i remember soloing in the 50's still being very slow and painful)

Alliance XP is definitely the way to go. Mind you, if you hit 50, you can literally park your butt at Garliage's entrance and the bats/beetles page goes through just fine. /DNC is a blessing in that regard.

2) Do you still need to do abyssea content? Is that how to level to the new end game? Do people still actively do it?

No, you don't HAVE to do Abyssea. If you've got the levels, you could just pick up the bayld-for-sale gear in Adoulin and go from there. People definitely do it, though- because it's still currently endgame and the easiest exp mode ever. You could go the whole way to 99 without too much help at this point.

Is there group/alliance content? Absolutely. And there always will be. But soloing/duoing to 99 with a respectable set of gear? {You can have this.}

3) In a nutshell do you need a linkshell to really work towards anything or can you really do this game with just you and a friend? (limit breaks, leveling, gear, etc)

I'm L55 and still happily soloing away. A duo could do it even better, honestly- and since Dynamis is soloable, getting a relic/mythic done is absolutely a reasonable goal, if one that takes patience to finish.

All help and feedback appreciated! Think i'm on Fenrir these days.[/QUOTE]