Returning Player, pleased to meet you

[Black_Rose]

Hello everyone.
I've decided to reinstall FFXI after seeing the notice of the the free login period from 11th-17th November.

I've quit back in ToAU before server merges and Abyssea came out, came back for a week after abyssea hit but quit shortly after since i was having a hard time finding my way and also find other players to play with (i had the feeling i was the only EU on my server Valefor)

I've seen there is a guide for returning Players called the "Adventuring Primer", so i might stick to that to find my way back into the game, regardless, i still have a few questions.

What happened to the AH and all these crazy overpowered equipments that yet are so cheap?
I've left the game with a KC and about 8 million in my pocket, yet when i check the cheap new stuff i feel kind of underpowered.there is equipment that increased my skill values for well over 100 points, yet it's so cheap X_x (i might have missed a bit too much)

What weapons should i focus on?
I've heared relics/mythic (whatever) aren't so hard to obtain anymore.it used to take quite a while to obtain relics when i've still been active.

Another important question,
are there active EU/German groups playing on Valefor or should i switch the server?
I was missing FFXI quite a bit, and seeing how much FFXIV 2.0 has turned me off, and other online games beside Destiny not being of my taste, i was thinking about casually getting back into FFXI.
But it would be huge bonus if i had a group i could stick with, to hang around with and of course to play with, so i can get back into the game faster.
i think if i had to find out everything by myself, it would take me quite a while ^^.

PS.:

how do i activate that cool new smaller UI chat box i've seen in some videos?
I like the look of it ^^

[detlef]

Check this link out:

http://www.bg-wiki.com/bg/Returning_to_Vana%27diel

Mythics are totally doable now but you still need to put in a lot of work on a daily basis.

On Valefor, our EU population is totally dead unfortunately. There are no EU linkshells here anymore that I know of but you can probably find linkshells that will have people on when you're on. I think we're definitely one of the more backwater servers (although I'm sure many players would claim that their server is worse). This means that you won't run into congestion with Dynamis or Salvage, but you'll also be hurting for shout groups as well.

[Black_Rose]

hello again.
I have been trying my best with a friend but after trying to get into all this new stuff we kind of hit a barrier.

i was wondering what content there is for 2 people to do together?
we're currently working on dynamis/AF upgrades but we mostly wear our RoE gear.

Seeing as Delve gives KIs to buy new equipment with plasm we've wanted to try that out, but apperantly we already got stuck on our first spawned NM due to accuracy issues.

i've been reading a bit into skirmish, but i got confused fast with everything around that.

i also don't think i can currently commit myself to an active raiding LS (not only because my server seems very dead around my prime-time, but also because i belive i'm not yet ready to jump into big group play action again).

is there anything anyone would recommend me to do next?

[bungiefanNA]

Level 99 gear often has an item level on it, which boosts your stats as if you were that job level, which is why they have skill increases. Generally, higher item level equipment is better, but not always. Current max item level is 119. Artifact and Relic armor can be upgraded to that level, with Empyrean being announced as joining that group in a coming update. Delve is hard to do without players in higher level equipment, because the enemies are designed for players with more evasion and accuracy. Skirmish armor upgraded to a +1 or reforged armor is often a stepping stone to being able to do Delve.

AH armor and weapons are cheap because they get replaced by EX equipment from events, which can't be sold on the AH. Items below level 99 are cheap because hardly anyone stays below level 99 for long.

[YosemiteYogorockBlondelle]

http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Main_Page (http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Main_Page)<-Great drop down link ffxi info pages features on this Page plus, they even have a good search bar at the top and also better more detailed information friendly then BG usually does and granted there is still some work/editing on page's and creating certain pages to be done, I like this site more then BG most of the time for ffixi game info. I'll admit I have edited some articles in some pages on the site and they have a newer video type of pages editor i'm still getting used to it but if you really get back in to the hang of the game and can see some edits needed for the site then I would recommend signing up to the website into being able to do it later on.

They have also added new map icons for certain types of npc's, home points in which you can tele between them now, Survival Guides which after getting each one registered can be used as tele book points in all of there new found locations, icons of maws, well many new icons and more to come in upcoming months and they've updated in game info npc's with a slew of question & answers in various locations around the cities to help newer players or those who maybe returning in which they've just plainly forgotten everything or almost about the game. I know a few on my ffxi fl to boot which I wish there was a more logical way to clean FL's up tbh to boot!

:cool: I hope that lil-bit of info. helps out in getting you a lil bit faster back into the game.;)

[Black_Rose]

thanks for all the answers everyone.i have another quick questions.
when i've still been playing actively, the only seals i remember have been kindred seals and beastmen seals.
but now there seems to be another battlefield that i can access with crest/high crest and sacred crest seals.
are there any good treasures to get in there or should i exchange my crests for regular beastmen or kindred seals?
i've been planning to do some early bird catches the wyrm for fafnir pops, and maybe work some other stuff, but i'm not sure if it's worth it.

[Black_Rose]

hello.i'm back with a little question.
i've been putting some effort into doing various reives and getting some bayld to buy the iLvl 117 equipment.
i got the Shneddick Tabard +1 and decided to augment it with a coalation grease.
But...The taru took my grease and 1600 Bayld, but the augmented version seem to have the same stats as the regular tabard+1
is there some hidden stat, or did i just get punk'd by that taru?

[Metaking]

the augments you gotta hit the " - " on the number pad to see, but i think its just hp anyhow

[Black_Rose]

ah okay, didn't know that.thank you :)

[YosemiteYogorockBlondelle]

thanks for all the answers everyone.i have another quick questions.
when i've still been playing actively, the only seals i remember have been kindred seals and beastmen seals.
but now there seems to be another battlefield that i can access with crest/high crest and sacred crest seals.
are there any good treasures to get in there or should i exchange my crests for regular beastmen or kindred seals?
i've been planning to do some early bird catches the wyrm for fafnir pops, and maybe work some other stuff, but i'm not sure if it's worth it.

Well it all depends the type of battles your going to do which they've added that you can do.. i'll just say this much til i can reply with a better answer laters, So bare with me as I attempt to explain: well they now have what they call reforged battles that are basically battles that have been completed from storylines such as expansion packs and add on's or even the avatar fights which have been overhauled into redone with the higher gears I-Level's in mind. so basically there higher then 99 by the gears Level but to do those type of battles they are required to use so many merit points instead of seals but basically have turned merits into a seal currency in this type of method. Yeah there are newer higher level bcnm fights that have been added in which you have to trade the right kind of currency/seals required to enter that battlefield of the same areas and usually the higher the seal type the more difficulty the battle but not always the case. well think i'll stop here before i might mess up my explaination more.

[bungiefanNA]

thanks for all the answers everyone.i have another quick questions.
when i've still been playing actively, the only seals i remember have been kindred seals and beastmen seals.
but now there seems to be another battlefield that i can access with crest/high crest and sacred crest seals.
are there any good treasures to get in there or should i exchange my crests for regular beastmen or kindred seals?
i've been planning to do some early bird catches the wyrm for fafnir pops, and maybe work some other stuff, but i'm not sure if it's worth it.

The raise of the level cap with Abyssea resulted in 3-4 new types of seals/crests to gain access to battlefields above level 75. The highest tier of seal now gives orbs to do battles for upgrade items for artiface and relic armor, and the battlefields are level 99-119 versions of older battlefields.

[Bearstar]

there are 2 things you need to do: Trust Intuitive and Records of Eminence.

Trust is the new NPC battle system were you can summon 3 game characters like trion and shantotto to your side. Big improvements on the Adv. Fellow AI.

Records of Eminence is a new Quest system, and it gives special points called Sparks that can be used to buy great universal 117 gear and weapons. Quick and easy way to catch up to the rest of the game, MASSIVE XP and quick and easy ENDGAME WORTHY GEAR.

Also I agree that FFXIclopedia is a vast improvement over BG in terms of being user friendly, BG may be quicker on the new updates and "some" endgame, but it is severed and jagged when it comes to information while FFXIclopedia is much more comprehensive with info being better organized either on a single page or a smaller number of pages with ordered page link sections.

Oh and to the new seals, just collect everything and turn them in, Sacred are used for some new endgame armor called "Reforged" that are basically AF4 and 5 (after AF[1], Relic[2], and Empyrean[3]) but these require endgame equipment to even hope to survive the BCNMs, so you need to get your Sparks gear first, quick-simple-and solidly GOOD gear

[Black_Rose]

i have a question concerning the skirmish battles and wildskeeper reives.
a friend and i spend our time duoing yorcia weald currently (torso 2-4 seems to work well on our setup), we're working on our ilvl 119 skirmish armor atm, but we feel like it's taking a bit longer to get enough leobondopt wings to exchange them for pulchridopt wings and buy the KI to upgrade the NQ armor to +1.

we haven't tried Ra'Kaznar yet, i also have a hard time finding informations on this skirmish, the only thing i know is that it's a bit harder than yorcia.Is that skirmish possible to duo for a DNC & RMD?
Also, what exactly are alluvion skirmishes? i see that you can get ilvl 119 weapons and augment stones there, but i wonder if they are duoable at all.

Another question would be about the wildskeeper reives.so far i have done 3 different of them (ceizak, morimar & marjami).are those KI's you get at the end of the fight simply for reja to recognize the kill and sell you rewards for them, or am i mistaking something here?

[Kimowar]

I just returned and feel like an idiot for wasting the steam gift card I got for Christmas on what is now a single player game

[bungiefanNA]

I just returned and feel like an idiot for wasting the steam gift card I got for Christmas on what is now a single player game

Old content is soloable. Current content still needs a group. Get to max level and do things in Adoulin and you will need a group. They just made lower level gameplay soloable because of how top-heavy the game got before Abyssea, and so now you don't have to spend months with a group grinding levels to be able to join events with the rest of the server. You spend about a week gridning levels and then you can teleport to events from the main cities.