Returning Player With Tons of Questions Campaign

Hi everyone! First time poster, long time FFXI player; well ex-FFXI player. Just a very quick recap about myself in the World of Vana’diel, I played till December 2010. I got all the jobs up to level 86. I remember doing the limit quest at 85, followed by changing to every job, going outside of Aht Urhgan and killing one adorable pink colibri to get that level up.


From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Final_Fantasy_XI I remember experiencing all the storylines/quests up to “Scars of Abyssea” I did experience a tiny bit of “Heroes of Abyssea.” I remember zoning into the new areas… hearing about the Shinryu fight. I remember seeing videos of people beating this boss solo with the 2 million cruor item: Primeval Brew. That is pretty much when I quit. I think I may have experienced 5% of “Heroes of Abyssea;” barely scratching the surface.


I wanted to return to FFXI mainly due to the “Return to Vana’diel” campaign being free for inactive players! But for some odd reason I ended up buying the Ultimate Above Beyond Over Japan Happiness Ultima Ultimate Omega 3 6 9 Collector’s Collection Edition for a whopping 4.99 from Amazon (I had a $10 coupon). I even said to hell with it and signed up for 30 days and reactivated my account. Maybe it was a knee-jerk reaction, maybe it was because FFXIV turned out to be one of the most Carebear MMOs in history (minus the Twintania fight). I don’t know to be honest.


So here I am with about 25 questions… literally! I hope there are some kind/knowledgeable folks out there that can help answer some/most of them. I am posting it here in general simply because it will probably get the most views! By the way, I did try to check up on BG, Wikia, FFXIAH, OF, Reddit for info… but almost everything seems to be 5+ months out of date… for the most part.





#1. How is the leveling process from 86-99, is it fast or slow?


#2. What is the best way to solo? Is grouping up also viable; are “lowbies” welcome? I would rather do group events if possible, but I would like to know both options in case grouping is only viable during peek hours/weekends.


#3. I remember during Abyssea there used to be events called “Campaigns” to get allied notes. Is there anything similar to this now?


#4. Can you skill up in such events? I remember that you could not in Campaigns under the effect of Sigil.


#5. How is skilling up overall? I remember there used to be 2-3 skills that took ages to skill up.


#6. Is there anything worth doing in Abyssea for gear/items now? Should I bother with AF3? Is it easy to get now?


#7. I remember up to Abyssea, the best way to upgrade your weapons was either doing the trials (huge pain in the tushie) or doing relic equivalent quests. How does one go about in upgrading weapons now? All of my weapons are level 75-85.


#8. How does one go about in upgrading gear? I remember in Abyssea “starter” gear was considered the ones you bought with cruor. Anyone remembers the Perle fiasco with Dark Knights? At start of Abyssea, I think the only thing that would beat this set was a combo of dusk/dusk+1 gloves and adaman/armada. This was one of the main reasons as to why so many people quit. Years of “work” down the drain to a set you could get in under a week. http://www.ffxiah.com/item/13759/perle-hauberk Same thing as weapons, all of them are level 75-85.


#9. Is there still a 10% experience death penalty? Can you still down level?


#10. For the special in-game item found here http://www.playonline.com/pcd/topics...31/detail.html is anything worth getting that is equipable? I already have the Noct Helm, Noct Mail, Nightfall, and Haidate. If nothing is worthwhile, what would you recommend for points/seals/copies?


#11. I plan on leveling up Geomancer and Rune Fencer. Do they resemble closely to any of the prior jobs (or maybe a combo of two jobs)?


#12. Are there any optimal subjobs while solo/leveling up and grouping (for the 2 jobs in question 11)?


#13. Are Geomancer and Rune Fencer the only 2 jobs that only have a level 99 artifact set? They don’t seem to have any sets before that. How easy is it to obtain these sets? Are all the other jobs limited to the level 90 Relic+2 set?


#14. How are the missions in “Seekers of Adoulin,” are they soloable? I can’t find a complete list of storyline missions, all of them end around chapter 3. Is there any resource page that has the complete list?


#15. Do you get any super reward like previous FFXI storyline installments for finishing SoA?


#16. How tough are the limit break quests at 90 and 95? Last time I heard the level 95 one was tough to solo.


Well this turned out to be a novel… thanks to everyone who chips in! I’m currently in Quetzalcoatl! If I am missing anything vital for someone who has been out of the loop please let me know. Thank you!

Useful Links:
Seekers of Adoulin Areas
Ionis
Vesca: Seller of Bayld Gear
Craggy Bluff: Seller of Bayld Weapons
Reives
Coalitions
Skirmish
Rune Fencer
Geomancer
Seekers of Adoulin Missions
Delve
Delve Rewards

Quote:

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Originally Posted by AmbrosiaAmor

#1. How is the leveling process from 86-99, is it fast or slow?

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If you go to Abyssea - La Theine there is usually a worm or frog party there leveling and can make levelling fast. There are other ways to level of course but that is the fastest.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by AmbrosiaAmor

#2. What is the best way to solo?

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Alone.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by AmbrosiaAmor

Is grouping up also viable; are “lowbies” welcome? I would rather do group events if possible, but I would like to know both options in case grouping is only viable during peek hours/weekends.

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Most Adoulin End-Game needs an alliance. Group events need good gear, so unless you are paying for a win "lowbies" are generally not welcome. Get bayld gear and weapons and join Skirmish for better of each.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by AmbrosiaAmor

#3. I remember during Abyssea there used to be events called “Campaigns” to get allied notes. Is there anything similar to this now?

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Campaign is from Wings of the Goddess expansion, not Abyssea. Campaign is still available. In Seekers of Adoulin there are Reives, similar to Campaign: join, kill target, win.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by AmbrosiaAmor

#4. Can you skill up in such events? I remember that you could not in Campaigns under the effect of Sigil.

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You cannot skill up in Reives (or Campaign).

Quote:

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Originally Posted by AmbrosiaAmor

#5. How is skilling up overall? I remember there used to be 2-3 skills that took ages to skill up.

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In Seekers of Adoulin areas, while under the effect of Ionis and the appropriate Coalition is at the appropriate level, you get a bonus to skill up rate.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by AmbrosiaAmor

#6. Is there anything worth doing in Abyssea for gear/items now? Should I bother with AF3? Is it easy to get now?

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Yes, some of the gear is good for job abilities, macro them in when you use the job ability. The NMs are now quite easy with Adoulin gear. Also the augmented Dark Rings from Abyssea - Konschtat are always useful.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by AmbrosiaAmor

#7. I remember up to Abyssea, the best way to upgrade your weapons was either doing the trials (huge pain in the tushie) or doing relic equivalent quests. How does one go about in upgrading weapons now? All of my weapons are level 75-85.

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I wouldn't worry about the Abyssea or Trial weapons, just buy the bayld ones from Craggy Bluff and join Rala&Cirdas Skirmish for better ones.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by AmbrosiaAmor

#8. How does one go about in upgrading gear? I remember in Abyssea “starter” gear was considered the ones you bought with cruor. Anyone remembers the Perle fiasco with Dark Knights? At start of Abyssea, I think the only thing that would beat this set was a combo of dusk/dusk+1 gloves and adaman/armada. This was one of the main reasons as to why so many people quit. Years of “work” down the drain to a set you could get in under a week. http://www.ffxiah.com/item/13759/perle-hauberk Same thing as weapons, all of them are level 75-85.

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Get Bayld and buy the gear from Vesca and join Yorcia Skirmish for better gear. Gear is how you level past level 99 now. If you have the Skirmish gear and weapons your character is level 113. Delve boss gear pushes your character closer to level 119.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by AmbrosiaAmor

#9. Is there still a 10% experience death penalty? Can you still down level?

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Yes. Yes. (Experience isn't an issues, not since Abyssea, don't worry about EXP, just make sure to do some reives or coalition tasks every once in a while to keep your level capped.)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by AmbrosiaAmor

#10. For the special in-game item found here http://www.playonline.com/pcd/topics...31/detail.html is anything worth getting that is equipable? I already have the Noct Helm, Noct Mail, Nightfall, and Haidate. If nothing is worthwhile, what would you recommend for points/seals/copies?

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Those items are basically useless now. I would suggest you get the 50k Bayld and use it to get new gear and weapons.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by AmbrosiaAmor

#11. I plan on leveling up Geomancer and Rune Fencer. Do they resemble closely to any of the prior jobs (or maybe a combo of two jobs)?

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RUN is a weak PLD that specializes in magic defence. GEO is RDM/blm with a wider variety of enfeebles. (I'm not a huge fan of either.) GEO is more useful (currently) then RUN.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by AmbrosiaAmor

#12. Are there any optimal subjobs while solo/leveling up and grouping (for the 2 jobs in question 11)?

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Sub-jobs are usually always situational. Soloing will have a different sub then alliance events. I can't say for sure what RUN would sub but I assume it would be similar to what PLD would sub. GEO would sub RDM or WHM (I think).

Quote:

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Originally Posted by AmbrosiaAmor

#13. Are Geomancer and Rune Fencer the only 2 jobs that only have a level 99 artifact set? They don’t seem to have any sets before that. How easy is it to obtain these sets? Are all the other jobs limited to the level 90 Relic+2 set?

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SE is currently in the process of updating all the Artifact equipment of all jobs. Currently you can take your artifact up to level 109, next update SE said they will be increasing that level.

GEO & RUN Artifact are quested like the jobs from Treasure of Aht Urhgan. There are 2 NMs to fight and 3 pieces that are crafted by an NPC so you can buy or farm the materials for them.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by AmbrosiaAmor

#14. How are the missions in “Seekers of Adoulin,” are they soloable? I can’t find a complete list of storyline missions, all of them end around chapter 3. Is there any resource page that has the complete list?

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Most of it so far is simple quests and cut scenes. There is one fight that is not soloable but is easy enough with the gear available.

Mission List

Quote:

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Originally Posted by AmbrosiaAmor

#15. Do you get any super reward like previous FFXI storyline installments for finishing SoA?

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The SoA Missions have not been completely released yet, need to wait a few more months to find out.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by AmbrosiaAmor

#16. How tough are the limit break quests at 90 and 95? Last time I heard the level 95 one was tough to solo.

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I think the 90 quest is getting a low level item and 95 is not hard now, especially with SoA gear and weapons. Make sure to get the Olde Rarab Tail, it will terrorize the enemy and makes the fight super easy. Beyond Infinity


Hope this helps :D

A guide that's useful for getting up-to-date

Make a new teleportation network with this quest and the two after it

Unlock the nation of Adoulin with this mission and the following missions

A popular new event that lets you level monsters like jobs (great solo content, mostly just for fun, but it's one of the most fun things in the history of FFXI)

The monsters you can play as and level like jobs

You're thinking Bastion in Abyssea, the equivalent to Campaign and Beseiged battles.

Had you been resubscribed back at the start of October, the 4th and 5th login campaigns let you buy the upgrade items for Empyrean armor with your login points. That let you upgrade the pieces to +1 and +2, respectively. 5th login campaign is almost over. Trial of the Magians is how you upgraded that equipment. Equipment from the new expansion is stronger, as Abyssea gear tops out at level 99, and Adoulin gear currently tops out at level 119. Abyssea gear is better than nothing, but not a lot of people doing it anymore.

People still level in Abyssea, and that's the fastest way you will do so, at over 100K EXP/hour in an alliance. Solo would have you in a dungeon doing Grounds of Valor for the EXP bonus and the buffs you get for repeating the pages without zoning.

Adoulin isn't complete yet, they are still releasing content. Thus there is no completion reward yet. WotG took over 2 years to be completed, and Adoulin has only been out about 9 months. Even Zilart, Promathia, and Aht Urhgan weren't done in that time.

@bungiefanNA

Thanks for the Adoulin tip! Good to know that they are still releasing content for it.


@Edyth

Thank you so much for the links!


@Grouf

Awesome! Thanks for the links as well as taking the time in answering all of my questions. At least now I have some idea of where to start. I plan on starting tomorrow. I had family over till Sunday and finally had the time to do a fresh install for my PC today. I'm glad to hear that solo is very viable, but I am going to try my best and catch one of those Abyssea: La Theine worm parties. Thanks for the 50k Bayld tip. I'll make sure to get that when the 11th rolls in.

One last question.

Which zone or town has the most frequency-shouts for worm/frog parties? I remember Whitegate used to be the central hub, I'm not sure if that has changed in the past 3 years. Thanks again!

well generally people use /yell now which can be heard in all towns