Five years away and now into the Present of Today

[Asgardjr]

So between economy of Bush of then before the nay'rs of Today with Obama; moving along to the point. Left in 2007; and back in 2012. Lot has changed, I understand there will be some unpleasing discoveries along the way of re-venturing into this world. But anyone wanna just through in a quick run down well I wait for that lovely updating to finish processing. And that was one of the unplesant changes, link old ID to new ID, then win7 client since yay 1.1ver doesn't like 64bit heh. Carbuncle I presume is a dead server, thinking of going to Biszy/Bismarc. Thou abit hesitate as wasn't Biszy there in 07 with a major gil/bot issue messing up ingame market. Anyways no matter what is ... is. That's the nature of these MMO's.
Just trying to get a feel for the community and changes.
Thx for any info :)

[Rosina]

read the updates via ffxi forums.

but everything is easier and ppl on the servers/forums have a "leech to cap, solo content" mantality. Enjoy :)

[Zerich]

you don't have to party with gimps who don't gearswap anymore, and still can exp.

enjoy!

[RAIST]

IDK if I'd call it inactive now...but it's not as active as I've seen it in the past, especially with the older content. The bulk of the action has moved on to the next new thing rather quickly. A lot of shells fractured, reformed, merged....people still around, just maybe not running with the same people anymore, and getting help with older stuff can be a bit of a chore at time, but that seems to be happening widespread, not just our server. Since the last server merge, at times it feels more clique-ish. Definately seems to be a lot more of the me-me-me attitudes than we had a few years back....but that too may be a problem in general now, regardless of the server.

The key will be finding a group to run with initially so you can get caught up on content/equips and such. The sooner you can get gears caught up to what you need for the newer events, the sooner you can start joining the pick-up groups again--nothing new there, just differnt gear and different events. Exp. comes easy now though, so you can ramp up the levels fast and have a lot more fun--benefit of doing things in smaller groups I guess....less drama to deal with.

The gil seller flow seems to have shifted more towards charging to let you leech in a party (book or abyssea burns)--doesn't feel so much like their market is in the items now as it once was. The list of fast selling items has drastically narrowed though, which makes a good bit of crafting a pain in the @$$...so you may find yourself farming more to make stuff than you used to. Consumables (an/or mats to make them) seem to be more king now in the AH, along with pop items for NM's and AH'able items for completing Magian trials (Geodes/avatarites).

Bazaar is big again...lots of dynamis currency floating about, and ABC's and such. Lots of items needed for upgrading gear that can't go on AH can go in bazaar, so there's a small niche cut out there at times. Sea items may be hit and miss though...seen lots of Virtues/Deeds/HQ organs rotting for weeks at a time it seems, but that means that content is more accessible now I guess.

[Rosina]

thanks raist i just gave the short reply cuz my ps3 couldn't handle all that in one post. nut ya what Raist said i played on lakshmi, ragnorok, asura, odin and now on bahamut. pretty much that. econ on bahamut is pretty decent gear is expspensive... but least its there.... spells are cheap (lakshmi had spells for blm hitting into the mil mark) and so far everyone seems nice. heck even ppl wave hi to you randomly. peek hours we @ 2.6K players.

[Meyi]

Come to Bismarck; I'd like to have more friends. :) We're friendly and we won't bite.

There have been server merges over the past few years.

But a few changes off of the top of my head:
- You no longer lose EXP from levels 4~30. After 30 EXP will be reduced.
- Synergy. (http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Category:Synergy) A new way to synthesize.
-- Synthesis no longer has a waiting period between each attempt! And guild stores no longer have a waiting period between purchases!
- Abyssea (http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Category:Abyssea). This will be where you will gain most of your exp, armor, and gil. As soon as you hit level 30 you will want to talk to Joachim in Port Jeuno (near the stairs to the Auction House/Chocobos). He will give you a Traverser stone, which you will want to take to one of the 9 Maws for a cutscene. One of the easiest maws to get to (and one you will be using the most) is Abyssea - LaTheine's, which is found right at the entrance from West Ronfaure. Click on the maw, get a cutscene, go inside, talk to the Conflux Surveyor, accept visitant status (and use your stone), then leave and return to Joachim. With this all said and done, you will start accumulating Traverser Stones (one per 24 hours) which you will need later.
-- In conjunction with Abyssea, you will want to look into Abyssites (http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Category:Abyssite). The first Abyssite type you want to go after is the three Celerity; these will reduce the hour cooldown between stone accumulation while also multiplying the stock you currently have. The minimum period between stones is 8 hours.
- Fields of Valor (http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Category:Fields_of_Valor) and Grounds of Valor (http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Grounds_of_Valor) for exp. Both are very handy.
- Level sync. It allows all members in a party to lock their level to another party member's. Only applies to a party, not the entire alliance (so each party in an alliance must have a syncer). Can only sync down, not sync up.
- Trials of Magians (http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Category:Trial_of_the_Magians). Great way to build weapons and armor. At level 30 you can get job emotes with them. Level 75+ you can start building weapons and armor. Weapons vary from basic ToM weapons, elemental weapons, and empyrean weapons (which rival relic/mythic in power). The armor is the af3 set, which can be +1ed and +2ed from items obtained in Abyssea (your job's paper seals for +1, and specific gems for +2).
- Dynamis (http://wiki.bluegartr.com/bg/Category:Dynamis) has been greatly changed. You now must purchase an Hourglass Key Item for 100k (and can buy maps from the same goblin) from the old goblins that gave the original hourglass. It's permanent and you can enter Dynamis once a day. Monsters are no longer true sound or sight and you may sneak past them. It's important to kill all of the Time Extensions, and you must proc certain monsters in certain ways (with magic, job abilities, or weapon skills depending on the type they are). Click the link to read more on it.
- Voidwatch (http://wiki.bluegartr.com/bg/Category:Voidwatch) is the new end game. Consider clearing it all even if it's not the most pleasant activity; clears give you accesses to beneficial teleports all across Vana'diel.
- Nyzul Isle Uncharted (http://wiki.bluegartr.com/bg/Nyzul_Isle_Uncharted) is Nyzul 2.0. I've yet to attempt it, I heard it's pretty vicious, but the armor rewards are worth it.

That's all I can think of for now.

[Komori]

Meyi sums everything up greatly and I've known him ingame for sometime. I think the game is worth giving a try and there's nothing to stop you from ending your subscription after a month or two if it proves not to be worth it.

[Nala]

Hmm not to mention level cap change, new methods of storing artifact/relic armor along with the newer tier of af3 aka empyrean gear which comes from abyssea.

one of the biggest challenges you might face off the bat is skilling up after leveling as fast as you do, beyond adding new ways to gain exp they also doubled exp on regular mobs outside of abyssea, with grounds of valor (GoV) you get additional bonus exp.

new spells and abilities along with new gear obviously for the level cap increase.

basically 11 is a far cry different from the game it was 5 years ago. i think in most cases a good way, in certain other aspects (like relevancy of the job RDM or enmity system) game still needs some major overhauling and luck be with us you may yet see some of those changes in the near future!~

[Asgardjr]

IDK if I'd call it inactive now...but it's not as active as I've seen it in the past, especially with the older content. The bulk of the action has moved on to the next new thing rather quickly. A lot of shells fractured, reformed, merged....people still around, just maybe not running with the same people anymore, and getting help with older stuff can be a bit of a chore at time, but that seems to be happening widespread, not just our server. Since the last server merge, at times it feels more clique-ish. Definately seems to be a lot more of the me-me-me attitudes than we had a few years back....but that too may be a problem in general now, regardless of the server.

The key will be finding a group to run with initially so you can get caught up on content/equips and such. The sooner you can get gears caught up to what you need for the newer events, the sooner you can start joining the pick-up groups again--nothing new there, just differnt gear and different events. Exp. comes easy now though, so you can ramp up the levels fast and have a lot more fun--benefit of doing things in smaller groups I guess....less drama to deal with.

The gil seller flow seems to have shifted more towards charging to let you leech in a party (book or abyssea burns)--doesn't feel so much like their market is in the items now as it once was. The list of fast selling items has drastically narrowed though, which makes a good bit of crafting a pain in the @$$...so you may find yourself farming more to make stuff than you used to. Consumables (an/or mats to make them) seem to be more king now in the AH, along with pop items for NM's and AH'able items for completing Magian trials (Geodes/avatarites).

Bazaar is big again...lots of dynamis currency floating about, and ABC's and such. Lots of items needed for upgrading gear that can't go on AH can go in bazaar, so there's a small niche cut out there at times. Sea items may be hit and miss though...seen lots of Virtues/Deeds/HQ organs rotting for weeks at a time it seems, but that means that content is more accessible now I guess.

Appreciate the run down; SSDD :) Yeah I remember in 07 when the argblah can't spell atm; came out was the biggest thing and trying to do early content for campaign was a nightmare unless in the right group.
And yeah to a quick gander what use to be 1mil for O.Kote is now a wonderfully low price; yet a ton more equipment from expansions over the years. Totally get that it will be some time before i have my gears and macro's setup for quick swap. So think i'll start by just leveling something that lvl one ish and as i begin to know the keys again better and reprogramed in the the mind from playing dragon's nest and bf3 and dropping into this again will have to pull out the old binder of notes i use to jot down see whats relavent and what is totally gone or moved.
Defiantly enjoyed the heads up ^_^ so rare to find a good chap to just say it as it is.

[Asgardjr]

Come to Bismarck; I'd like to have more friends. :) We're friendly and we won't bite.

There have been server merges over the past few years.

But a few changes off of the top of my head:
- You no longer lose EXP from levels 4~30. After 30 EXP will be reduced.
- Synergy. (http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Category:Synergy) A new way to synthesize.
-- Synthesis no longer has a waiting period between each attempt! And guild stores no longer have a waiting period between purchases!
- Abyssea (http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Category:Abyssea). This will be where you will gain most of your exp, armor, and gil. As soon as you hit level 30 you will want to talk to Joachim in Port Jeuno (near the stairs to the Auction House/Chocobos). He will give you a Traverser stone, which you will want to take to one of the 9 Maws for a cutscene. One of the easiest maws to get to (and one you will be using the most) is Abyssea - LaTheine's, which is found right at the entrance from West Ronfaure. Click on the maw, get a cutscene, go inside, talk to the Conflux Surveyor, accept visitant status (and use your stone), then leave and return to Joachim. With this all said and done, you will start accumulating Traverser Stones (one per 24 hours) which you will need later.
-- In conjunction with Abyssea, you will want to look into Abyssites (http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Category:Abyssite). The first Abyssite type you want to go after is the three Celerity; these will reduce the hour cooldown between stone accumulation while also multiplying the stock you currently have. The minimum period between stones is 8 hours.
- Fields of Valor (http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Category:Fields_of_Valor) and Grounds of Valor (http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Grounds_of_Valor) for exp. Both are very handy.
- Level sync. It allows all members in a party to lock their level to another party member's. Only applies to a party, not the entire alliance (so each party in an alliance must have a syncer). Can only sync down, not sync up.
- Trials of Magians (http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Category:Trial_of_the_Magians). Great way to build weapons and armor. At level 30 you can get job emotes with them. Level 75+ you can start building weapons and armor. Weapons vary from basic ToM weapons, elemental weapons, and empyrean weapons (which rival relic/mythic in power). The armor is the af3 set, which can be +1ed and +2ed from items obtained in Abyssea (your job's paper seals for +1, and specific gems for +2).
- Dynamis (http://wiki.bluegartr.com/bg/Category:Dynamis) has been greatly changed. You now must purchase an Hourglass Key Item for 100k (and can buy maps from the same goblin) from the old goblins that gave the original hourglass. It's permanent and you can enter Dynamis once a day. Monsters are no longer true sound or sight and you may sneak past them. It's important to kill all of the Time Extensions, and you must proc certain monsters in certain ways (with magic, job abilities, or weapon skills depending on the type they are). Click the link to read more on it.
- Voidwatch (http://wiki.bluegartr.com/bg/Category:Voidwatch) is the new end game. Consider clearing it all even if it's not the most pleasant activity; clears give you accesses to beneficial teleports all across Vana'diel.
- Nyzul Isle Uncharted (http://wiki.bluegartr.com/bg/Nyzul_Isle_Uncharted) is Nyzul 2.0. I've yet to attempt it, I heard it's pretty vicious, but the armor rewards are worth it.

That's all I can think of for now.

I am for sure moving off carbuncle > bismarck. I have a friend that talked me into coming back since he's new to the game. And has a good set of folks playing with your welcome to add me/ Thou I do not have a ETA as with a brief moment of time wasted playing Crystal Saga that also uses that crap UltimatePay; I'm waiting on the PayPal xfer for funds to buy crysta to then do xfer. ANd boy o boy luck me got a bank that declines UK/Asia transactions but heh. ClicknBuy(UK-based)
After that Will have 3 character on Bismark lv74MNK(poorly equiped atm as raist pointed out; and he is absolutely right) and a lv idk whm for mostly lower tele's/mule and mule(one i have no idea why i have but do and logged in he was so empty i think i xfered junk from him to another mule/main lol)
So won't be entirely that bad as there all still alive ... thou i just have my doubt with the xfering characters and keeping lvls and items... and aware that will possibly have to rename characters but happens)

Synergy sounds great; thou i'm sure going to miss the old fashion mind game facing a certain direction and crafting on certain in game days lol myth or fact doesn't matter was still amusing at least to myself
Abyssea - looks really neat thou thats with one of the expansions i;m guessing huh that will be sometime before i get all of em from Nov 07 to Present Don't have the expansions yet :( Will by Halloween if not sooner

Dynamis hmm yeah been around for a long long time can't say i did very many of them.
And all the rest sounds great will definately try this time to get around to doing alot more.
Thank you for some of the hot links totally forgot about that site; only one i remembered with ffxi.somepage.com

[Asgardjr]

Hmm not to mention level cap change, new methods of storing artifact/relic armor along with the newer tier of af3 aka empyrean gear which comes from abyssea.

one of the biggest challenges you might face off the bat is skilling up after leveling as fast as you do, beyond adding new ways to gain exp they also doubled exp on regular mobs outside of abyssea, with grounds of valor (GoV) you get additional bonus exp.

new spells and abilities along with new gear obviously for the level cap increase.

basically 11 is a far cry different from the game it was 5 years ago. i think in most cases a good way, in certain other aspects (like relevancy of the job RDM or enmity system) game still needs some major overhauling and luck be with us you may yet see some of those changes in the near future!~

Yeah the Enmity has always been a issue; 5yrs back playing with mnk or even thf; always disliked how somehow i got dink parties with terrible tanks; always had the hate :( but boy does this game teach patients :) glad i went through some of that frustration made school and work in the time away easier could think back on situations from this game lol/.
If one was to hold there breathe on that fix we all be in a coma by now. just gotta flex even thou it don't make much sense in some situations

[Asgardjr]

Meyi sums everything up greatly and I've known him ingame for sometime. I think the game is worth giving a try and there's nothing to stop you from ending your subscription after a month or two if it proves not to be worth it.

Not a brand new player; just a old rusty vet thats outdated. Just going to need to buff and grind into there's a shine again :) So no worries here; had a fairly worst expectation then what i'm hearing since 06-07 was what seemed like a terrible patching with various changes like O.Kotes no longer a NM was in a beastcoin thingy NM (not that its relevant now in terms of whats ingame) Mobs despawned instead of walking back to there area :( i'm old dislike zone campers pushing there luck begging for rez cause they made a mistake in a area to slightly to high for the risk.
I loved the HNM's thou I read they removed it which is a bummer but oh well.
Crafting Fishing Mining :) all wonderful past times for me. No qualms on market/needing to farm rather farm them here and there inbetween parties and such
But thx for the concern of whether i will stay more than a month or not

[Meyi]

I am for sure moving off carbuncle > bismarck. I have a friend that talked me into coming back since he's new to the game. And has a good set of folks playing with your welcome to add me/ Thou I do not have a ETA as with a brief moment of time wasted playing Crystal Saga that also uses that crap UltimatePay; I'm waiting on the PayPal xfer for funds to buy crysta to then do xfer. ANd boy o boy luck me got a bank that declines UK/Asia transactions but heh. ClicknBuy(UK-based)
After that Will have 3 character on Bismark lv74MNK(poorly equiped atm as raist pointed out; and he is absolutely right) and a lv idk whm for mostly lower tele's/mule and mule(one i have no idea why i have but do and logged in he was so empty i think i xfered junk from him to another mule/main lol)
So won't be entirely that bad as there all still alive ... thou i just have my doubt with the xfering characters and keeping lvls and items... and aware that will possibly have to rename characters but happens)

Synergy sounds great; thou i'm sure going to miss the old fashion mind game facing a certain direction and crafting on certain in game days lol myth or fact doesn't matter was still amusing at least to myself
Abyssea - looks really neat thou thats with one of the expansions i;m guessing huh that will be sometime before i get all of em from Nov 07 to Present Don't have the expansions yet :( Will by Halloween if not sooner

Dynamis hmm yeah been around for a long long time can't say i did very many of them.
And all the rest sounds great will definately try this time to get around to doing alot more.
Thank you for some of the hot links totally forgot about that site; only one i remembered with ffxi.somepage.com

You're welcome. Glad to hear you're coming to Bismarck! Look me up and friend me, I'll be happy to help you when I can. :)

As for crafting and synergy, old crafting still exists, but synergy is an addition to crafting. It's becoming more and more common in decent synths. And I believe SE came out and said the direction thing was a bunch of silliness.

[Arcon]

- Dynamis (http://wiki.bluegartr.com/bg/Category:Dynamis) has been greatly changed. You now must purchase an Hourglass Key Item for 100k (and can buy maps from the same goblin) from the old goblins that gave the original hourglass.

Minor correction, it's 50k. The rest was spot on.

[Meyi]

Minor correction, it's 50k. The rest was spot on.

Ah, okay! Thanks for the correction. :)

[wish12oz]

Would of been nice if you took some English classes while you weren't playing FFXI. The OP is almost unreadable and I don't understand half of it.

[RagingAvatar]

Meyi, you're on Bismarck? Add me! My name in POL is RagingAvatar and my character is Dhylan.
You too Asgardjr!

[Asgardjr]

Would of been nice if you took some English classes while you weren't playing FFXI. The OP is almost unreadable and I don't understand half of it.

English, is my native language. Thou to type properly all the time is a feat i'd rather not do. It's not that I can't or won't just prefer not to as I loose my train of thought with typing. I grew up in the age of handwriting that was mandatory in Cursive. Something lost in this new generation that can't read it. Not even thirty yet, and feel like a old-timer looking down disappointed with what is happening. Typing was something that I barely saw in my school senior year. :( And have always typed just hate trying to keep up with my thoughts to my slow fingers. Luckily I don't look at keyboard well typing like so many i know, that bring laptops to school for there essays and research. But heh such is life. ^^

[Asgardjr]

Finally did the transfer to Bismarck. After much discussion; and 7 tickets put in with ultimatepay. They finally whitelisted my information so i could update it. :) SE needs to just be the dedicated source for all there transactions. Oh well only needed them once. All that matters now is gaming in my spare time.... and :)) improving my wonderfully grammatically incorrect grammar before someone's mind explodes from all my run on sentences.
Feaude - Bismarck world search

[Komori]

When my AC gets fixed and I can sit in my room again. I'll be online to try and help you as well if I can. (: My character name is Komori obviously. :D

[0nionKn1ght]

Based on my week back ingame:

- EXP is now in alliances, and people AFK a tonne thinking it is their right to be AFK while others boost them, I don't stand for that. Low levels are in Crawler's Nest up to about level 50 ish, then Bostaineux Oubliette up to 75+, and then Abyssea if you don't want to run about doing GoV pages on Leeches all day (which gets mind numbingly boring, and very very frustrating with all the AFKer's)

- EXP Gain is INCREDIBLY FAST now. Gone are the days of standing around for 2 hours building a party, trudging out to a camp and grinding up half a level in 3 hours. Instead you can expect to gain 3-5 levels per party within a 2-3 hour period, and there are no more 6 mans, as mentioned above. Basically you do recurring pages (they automatically recur until you tell them to stop) where you kill a select amount of monsters, to get a chunk of exp. Every page completed gives you a slightly higher exp chunk, starting out around 1.5k and capping at around 4.1k (differs for every page). Capping it takes around 20 completed pages, but this will not reset if you logout or disconnect, only if you zone. I have logged inside Crawler's Nest with capped page bonus, and logged back in and continued with the same bonus the next day. You also get bonuses to every trait possible, such as increased killer effects, increased treasure hunter etc, and these pop up randomly on page completions. Other than that, in Abyssea you chain exp by killing monsters of the same type consecutively, and popping chests that spawn to get large chunks of exp, but killing monsters of a different type breaks chain and resets the exp bonus, however to gain fast Cruor, you will have to kill different types every kill, to keep your Cruor chain up, so you choose one or the other

- You will see "keyer" requests alot too. This is basically a group asking you to run around their camp opening chests using Forbidden Keys. This can be a very good way to get weapons and gear, as well as a bit of extra money, and also to get an idea of how the new parties work, as you can simply run about, pop chests, and watch what goes on. The only downside is you need keys, which cost 500 Cruor each, and stack to 99. I usually take a whole stack with me if im keying, but you make the Cruor back so quickly, it is not really a problem. Don't be afraid to volunteer as a keyer, you really have the easiest job, but you can't go AFK

- You will also see that your character glows in different colours in the chat log inside Abyssea. Don't panic! These are lights and the way to forge your path inside the zones. Basically each colour increases the chances of specific chest spawns, exp gains, and Cruor. I won't go into detail here, but google Abyssea Lights Guide to read in detail about what each light does. You gain specific lights by killing monsters with Weapon Skills, Magic, Elemental WS's and normal attacks. You choose what lights you want by your approach to your first few kills

- People are generally naked/massively undergeared in lower leve exp alliances and often have little to no idea about the class they play, often just enagaging the mob and afking. Players going AFK is a continual theme here, and a big problem when a leader goes to "make a sandwich" and people want to join, while they are on minute 40 of placing apparant butter on bread. If people are AFK for more than 10 mins, kick them and let them rot, as EXP gain is already monkey fodder now, if you can't put in the minimal effort required to be at your keyboard while playing, then you don't get EXP - Don't be afraid to boot those who take advantage of others

- Mages are kind of useless while levelling, as Dancer subs and mains dominate healing in these groups. You can be a mage, and be useful, but DD as always seem to reign supreme

- RDM is kind of useless now, being as other classes do their job better, and as Convert is now available with RDM sub, WHM and BLM are back to owning the mage charts

- Abyssea is super confusing when first entering, but simply put, you can join an exp group, or a cruor group, one chains for exp, the other chains for currency to spend on your 76+ gear pieces, maps, atma's and various other gubbins. You then get seals from NM's inside Abyssea that are used to upgrade these gear pieces making them actually useful (they start out total crap). Other than this, standard NM's abound, and all you need is a Traverser's Stone to enter, they respawn every 20 hours, but I recommend getting into an exp group for your first time in Abyssea, to get yourself some stored time, to allow you to go explore the zones, after visiting all the maws to get the teleports activated

- Aht Uhrgan is deserted, don't panic, everyones in Jeuno now, but alot of older content has been outdated

- Dynamis is now a solo/low man experience without reservations etc (it's just a shared zone instead) - Same rules apply with time though, have to get extensions to stay inside, and you can enter once per 24 hour period. Level 99's solo mobs for currency, and sell for gil, common gil making comes from here now, all you need is a Prismatic Hourglass for 50k from one of the 3 Goblins at Castle Oztroja Entrance, Davoi Entrance or Beadeaux Entrance, and you never need to buy one again. It is a permanent key item. Drop rates are as low as ever, but with it being a solo experience, you can go in, pull the chosen monster for your item of choice and farm away. 30 minutes is your standard time, take a small group if you want to get your time extended though

- Endgame consists of mostly Abyssea related hijinx, but most stuff in there can be low manned, allowing a much more stress free environment for your gear grind, which there is an absolute tonne of

- Level cap unlocks are done using merits and Kindred Crests/Seals, but you can exchange 3 of any seal for 1 of any other from the NPC next to Shami in Port Jeuno, meaning level caps aren't that tricky anymore, although im told the 95 fight is a bit a of a headache for a 6 man group, wiki the quests to find out more

- The games population is still very high, with around 2000 people average online on Bahamut at any one time, but people seem a little less friendly than they used to, and I don't know if it's just me, but I see a very high amount of casual swearing in chat, when I used to never see any, also alot of people with drug references in their names, bit bizarre but things generally seem ok

Thats my experience in the last week though, hope it helps.

[Infidi]

How come I never see "come back" threads for Fenrir :(. Maybe I just missed them :P. I DO miss Unicorn though. RIP Unicorn, your soul devoured by Fenrir.

[wish12oz]

English, is my native language. Thou to type properly all the time is a feat i'd rather not do. It's not that I can't or won't just prefer not to as I loose my train of thought with typing. I grew up in the age of handwriting that was mandatory in Cursive. Something lost in this new generation that can't read it. Not even thirty yet, and feel like a old-timer looking down disappointed with what is happening. Typing was something that I barely saw in my school senior year. :( And have always typed just hate trying to keep up with my thoughts to my slow fingers. Luckily I don't look at keyboard well typing like so many i know, that bring laptops to school for there essays and research. But heh such is life. ^^

The problem here is that you don't use the right words.
Thou? That means "you."
Well? I think you mean "while."
etc
It's obnoxious when you have to try and figure out what people mean when they use random words that don't make any sense in the middle of sentences. Spelling errors and grammar errors are ok sometimes, but random words and incoherent sentences because you refuse to even read over what you typed, is just retarded.

[Meyi]

Meyi, you're on Bismarck? Add me! My name in POL is RagingAvatar and my character is Dhylan.
You too Asgardjr!

>////> I don't know how to add people when they're not in game...

[Kristal]

- RDM is kind of useless now, being as other classes do their job better, and as Convert is now available with RDM sub, WHM and BLM are back to owning the mage charts

Another job that is worth to mention is PUP. It went from a gimp pariah to a kickass job. It doesn't have a specific role that demands it presence (other then VW), but only a handfull of jobs can claim such a position anyway.

Other jobs have received updates, although I doubt any changed as drastically over 5 years as RDM and PUP.

[Meyi]

- Mages are kind of useless while levelling, as Dancer subs and mains dominate healing in these groups. You can be a mage, and be useful, but DD as always seem to reign supreme
Nope! Black Mage is one of the best jobs, period. It's amazing for proccing yellow in Abyssea (to make +1s and +2s drop off of specific monsters), and it can out DD a lot of DDs in Abyssea, provided gear and atmas are in check.

[Teraniku]

Nope! Black Mage is one of the best jobs, period. It's amazing for proccing yellow in Abyssea (to make +1s and +2s drop off of specific monsters), and it can out DD a lot of DDs in Abyssea, provided gear and atmas are in check.

BLMs have always been the most beneficial job for missions, period. ToAU was a slight bump in the road for BLMs but with Abyssea and VW they are back as one of the most useful jobs in the game.