WARNING - New Players or Players thinking of coming back - Consider this first.

Absolutely agree...The things i've had to do by myself have been just absolutely ridiculous.

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Originally Posted by Vosslerr

@Concerned I agree however they took something out that kept people around. I do want to grind levels in a party again, because thats what FFXI was. You know that. Book burns do not show people how to use thier jobs, and I have been killed countless times because a party member did not spend the two weeks afterwards skilling up or know how to use thier jobs, especially our mages. :p

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This would be a great reason to take up mentoring roles. It's not just the new people who are unable to adjust properly but probably some that's been on for weeks and still don't properly know how to play job. I've been a SMN for 3 years but I've never actually visited forums until recently and it gave me a more deeper understanding for the job than what I thought I knew.

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Originally Posted by Thuggy

Well as an "older" player I actually find it a little offensive how you group all servers and all players together. Not everyone is clique-ish or elitist. There are actually some of us who help others and go above and beyond. As a matter of fact I can tell you today that I PERSONALLY went and escorted someone from Korroloka Tunnel to the Eastern Altepa Telepoint crystal and then to the exp party. I even offered to help the same person fight their avatar fights for their summoner since all they had were elementals and Carbuncle. Was this anyone I met before? Did I have a hidden agenda? no. It was something I felt as a player of the game I should do to help another person who needed assistance. So before you group all of us old players together all willy nilly please think about what you are saying. Yes the dynamics of the game have changed where it is a rarity to find a traditional exp party and some people are carelessly spam leveling jobs is abyssea, is it something EVERYONE is doing, no, it isn't remember it only takes ONE person to make it NOT everyone.

Thanks ^^

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Thuggy...I would love to join up with you if you get a chance! Elidonis

he is a new player thats hurting even if he critic us well next time we in game we just do more is all no more

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Originally Posted by Thuggy

Well as an "older" player I actually find it a little offensive how you group all servers and all players together. Not everyone is clique-ish or elitist. There are actually some of us who help others and go above and beyond. As a matter of fact I can tell you today that I PERSONALLY went and escorted someone from Korroloka Tunnel to the Eastern Altepa Telepoint crystal and then to the exp party. I even offered to help the same person fight their avatar fights for their summoner since all they had were elementals and Carbuncle. Was this anyone I met before? Did I have a hidden agenda? no. It was something I felt as a player of the game I should do to help another person who needed assistance. So before you group all of us old players together all willy nilly please think about what you are saying. Yes the dynamics of the game have changed where it is a rarity to find a traditional exp party and some people are carelessly spam leveling jobs is abyssea, is it something EVERYONE is doing, no, it isn't remember it only takes ONE person to make it NOT everyone.

Thanks ^^

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ITT: Making friends is hard. Game is hard. Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhh

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Originally Posted by Zatias

Do NOT come to Asura. Most of the people there are complete dumbasses. Port Jeuno is a nest full of hungry trolls waiting to pounce upon new players at the slightest need for help.

That's not saying the whole server is bad, but there are faaaaar too many people like this. I guess it's like chat roulette, there are a few nice people waiting if you don't mind wading through all the dicks to find them. XD

That being said I really enjoy helping struggling players. I don't enjoy handing them money, however. I have done that a few times and am 10M poorer than I should be. ^^;

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Can not like this enough, but Asura is home, sweet home.

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Originally Posted by Inafking

LOLAsuraLOL, good luck with that.

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Ya know, out of everyone posting YOU seem the least friendly one. So negative and such, Ive never experienced the hate you spew by other members of the game.
If there is one thing new players should take away from this thread its stay away from Inafking

By the way what missions are not soloable? Go level bst in a week and solo every mission in the game, naked.

There are a lot of great posts in this thread.

Many of the complaints here are valid.

Yes, we all see that FFXI has grown and been updated throughout the years and all of the changes can be really confusing for veteran players returning after multi-year long breaks.

When I get home, I will be setting up a new linkshell on my server for 'Classic Style FFXI' playing.

Hopefully there are enough newer players out there who are nostalgic about the old party-style playing.

I have been grinding non-stop in gugsen mines and I really miss doing Valkrum parties.

Hopefully we can build a linkshell dedicated to party-style levelsync play.

Pfft, with FoV you can solo with ease. Start out with MNK, regen from fov & random stuff from chests you will never sit at all. It is a bit of a huge endeavor for a new player to figure everything in the game out. I soloed over half the jobs in the game to 50 when FoV first came out. In a lot of cases it was faster than seeking for a PT.

Well, I had started a week ago, and when I did start, I was buffed by someone, healed by another. I'm pretty sure if I asked for help in a respectful manner, someone would help me.
I'm hoping to get better so I can in turn help those who are new. This game is great, and should be enjoyed by everyone.

I started back up about 10 days ago. I have not had to solo for more than a couple hours. The game has radically changed in many ways. But last night we had some "drama" in the Gusgen Mines which proved this is the FFXI I so fondly remember. The game is different, not better or worse, and the player base is full of the same helpful and elitist people -- per usual. You still have to figure out how to farm gil, you still have to find or form groups, and there are still those who whine about how hard the game is... FFXI is as playable today as it ever has been.

I can't imagine it being less noob friendly than it was when I started. 160 exp max for killing a lizard for 2.5 minutes straight, struggling to get chain 3 because no one knew wtf was going on.

Now you can get what, 200 exp for a kill solo? Unless you were spamming colibri as a DRG/mage or a pro BST or /BST you could never do that solo back at 75 cap. 30k per MMM run now, and it was stupid fast EXP back at 75 cap. Who knows what exp/hour book burns are.

As for missions, just get to 95 and solo them. I can only think of a handful that wouldn't be soloable/duoable.

Not to mention you can burn it all up to 75 in a handful of hours in Abyssea if you so desired.

Only problem I currently see is for certain jobs like MNK, any caster really, PUP, and maybe BLU. MNK you essentially need to have Ascetic's Fury to be good, and Black Belt is a whore to farm without tons of gil. BLMs have spells that range from 500 gil to 2.5million, I'd say that the average cost for a spell after level 50 is like 500k. Similar for WHM RDM SCH and even NIN, who all have spells over 1m that can be rather vital. PUP you need butloads of gil for automaton attachments, and you also need stringing pummel to be any good. BLU you need to farm all those spells, which has always been a pain to an extent; just now you level up so fast that the amount of spells you need to learn is overwhelming (not to mention I've never seen a noob who knows how to fucking gear the job correctly).

Other than that I'd say the game is more noob friendly than ever.

What Leon said. He said it better than I could.

What I'd like to add is, you're not confined to do everything alone as a new player. At least in Asura (from my personal experience) there's quite a few new players around which I bet would gladly join other ones. Also, some veterans would lend a hand aswell.

FFXI is still fun even as a low level/new player, you just need to find the right people for you. :)

Ultimately, it's your decision what type of experience you're going to have playing FFXI. You can let others negative behavior and elitism get you down, or you can seek out the people who are more than willing to help you and/or be friends :) There ARE still people who play this game that fall into the latter category, I assure you. Be proactive in finding these people.

I agree that the game is more noob friendly than it ever has been. You can easily solo 1-15 and grab a Party in Gusgen Mines (GoV) till the 30's or even 50's and beyond if you wanted. An easy Magicked Skull, anyone? You could then take that same level 30 - 50 job (now you are high enough to solo the rest of your SJ items) and get to the 60's, even the 70's in a few long party sessions doing GoV again in either Garliage or Crawler's Nest. You don't even have to seek, really. Just go into the zone and ask if there's any space. Or hell, make your own ally yourself! Before you know it you'll be popping your party flag up and getting ready for Abyssea. Sure, you can technically level a job to 30 and go straight to Aby -- but if you'd like a different route (leveling in Aby all the time can get quite boring, especially combined with doing Endgame activity) it is still quite possible, and one I prefer myself.

For newer players, ffxiclopedia is your BEST FRIEND. I can not stress that enough. To this day I still refer to that wiki. It has a wide array of useful information to pretty much everything you could ever need/want to know about FFXI. Chances are if nobody in your LS knows, Wiki does. FFXIAH is a handy website to check the Auction House online and is useful as well.

Above all, have fun! It's a game after all ;)

Reading anything infaking says in this thread is making me want to help new players LESS.

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Originally Posted by Leonlionheart

I can't imagine it being less noob friendly than it was when I started. 160 exp max for killing a lizard for 2.5 minutes straight, struggling to get chain 3 because no one knew wtf was going on.

Now you can get what, 200 exp for a kill solo? Unless you were spamming colibri as a DRG/mage or a pro BST or /BST you could never do that solo back at 75 cap. 30k per MMM run now, and it was stupid fast EXP back at 75 cap. Who knows what exp/hour book burns are.

As for missions, just get to 95 and solo them. I can only think of a handful that wouldn't be soloable/duoable.

Not to mention you can burn it all up to 75 in a handful of hours in Abyssea if you so desired.

Only problem I currently see is for certain jobs like MNK, any caster really, PUP, and maybe BLU. MNK you essentially need to have Ascetic's Fury to be good, and Black Belt is a whore to farm without tons of gil. BLMs have spells that range from 500 gil to 2.5million, I'd say that the average cost for a spell after level 50 is like 500k. Similar for WHM RDM SCH and even NIN, who all have spells over 1m that can be rather vital. PUP you need butloads of gil for automaton attachments, and you also need stringing pummel to be any good. BLU you need to farm all those spells, which has always been a pain to an extent; just now you level up so fast that the amount of spells you need to learn is overwhelming (not to mention I've never seen a noob who knows how to fucking gear the job correctly).

Other than that I'd say the game is more noob friendly than ever.

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My Highest level jobs beg to differ. Hell, I even soloed rdm 1-75 >.>. mind you that most of these were imps (blu), pets or some squishy mob that made it possible to exp chain a decent amount to produce good exp. it was in no ways as fast as a 6 man pt back in the day, but it was good enough.

As for the topic of this thread I do have to say I'm glad to see some improvement on the areas of old and exp outside of keywhorebyssea my issues still stem from the seemingly dead gear market and the abilities for low level/new players to obtain gear and required things such as jobs, sub-job and level caps etc. Most End game Players arn't going to help someone who needs a simple level cap, unless theres gil involved, good luck finding a new player with the type of gil required to get said assistance.

I'm an older player from '05 that's comeback and has been playing for a month now no and I've got to say there are a lot of nice players out there. Two even helped me when I turned Level 18 to get subjobs (which I probably couldn't do until 30) just because they saw me struggling. They even invited me to their Linkshell, which has been a great help. I just think some newbies should learn to ask for help and veterans should try to help, not necessarily hands-on, but at least give tips or something. :B

I just came back after a couple months of hiatus and I've been experiencing this, too. Luckily I've got a couple friends playing with me, but leveling parties beyond Qufim Isle just plain don't exist. I've gotten some book burning parties at Garlaige, but they're just as power level-y as Abyssea.

I see what everyone means when they say that Abyssea has ruined FFXI, and I agree. I just wish the devs would actually open their ears and listen to the players, because pretty soon they won't have a playerbase if this keeps up.

EDIT: By the way, I've been trying to solo and mooch my DRK to 95 so that I can help my group of friends get through their limit break quests, their rank-up missions, etc, because we're just not numerous enough to do them legitimately.

There are definitely helpful, nice players, but they are few and far between. Seeing as limit break quests are impossible now without a higher-level player doing it for you (since there aren't enough low-level players to do them legitimately in a party), I've spent hours /yell-ing myself hoarse in Jeuno before getting any assistance.

I'd like to get my AF armor, but who knows if that'll ever happen, again, due to lack of lower-level players and the difficulty I'm going to have in recruiting a high-level to tag along for such a long series of quests.

If you were on Bismarck, I would gladly help. I just did LB1 for a LS member the other day ):

lol sounds like high school xD

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Originally Posted by Inafking

I've tried putting stuff up in /seacom. Does not help if no one reads it. Just because it worked for you once, does not mean it works. Hell, people don't even read /seacoms when they invite you for EXP.

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Obvious troll is obvious.

I am also a fairly old player, having played for 6 or so years now on and off.

I have recently returned to the game, am trying a few of my low level jobs, and I can't find a group anywhere.
To me it feels like abyssea just ruined this game, I admit I have taken advantage of it to powerlevel jobs, but it isn't fun and rewarding like the game used to be.

Leveling up used to be enjoyable, there was a semi set path of area's to level in, dunes -> qufim -> kazham -> garliage citadel -> crawlers nest so on and so forth, which always made leveling a new job enjoyable, you would return to certain area's that hold fond memories of late night partying, group wipe outs and joking around with your new found friends.

Now the game just feels like book burn until you can go to abyssea -> go to abyssea level to max -> cry over the death of FFXI.

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Originally Posted by Deifact

I am also a fairly old player, having played for 6 or so years now on and off.

I have recently returned to the game, am trying a few of my low level jobs, and I can't find a group anywhere.
To me it feels like abyssea just ruined this game, I admit I have taken advantage of it to powerlevel jobs, but it isn't fun and rewarding like the game used to be.

Leveling up used to be enjoyable, there was a semi set path of area's to level in, dunes -> qufim -> kazham -> garliage citadel -> crawlers nest so on and so forth, which always made leveling a new job enjoyable, you would return to certain area's that hold fond memories of late night partying, group wipe outs and joking around with your new found friends.

Now the game just feels like book burn until you can go to abyssea -> go to abyssea level to max -> cry over the death of FFXI.

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I feel your pain, brother. I've just come back from a two year break and I shed tears of blood when I found that Valkurm & Qufim were totally empty of parties. But I also discovered that leveling solo is LOL-so-easy-LOL. I did book burn about 5 levels on Bard, but other than that, I solo-leveled every single job to 30 in a few days.

There are entire linkshells out there with an "old fashioned" way of doing things. They form parties and do COP and Rank Missions. Hopefully your server has 1 or 2 of those. Find them and enjoy the nostalgia of wiping in the Dunes or hiding from Ghouls at night in Qufim.

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Originally Posted by Deifact

I am also a fairly old player, having played for 6 or so years now on and off.

I have recently returned to the game, am trying a few of my low level jobs, and I can't find a group anywhere.
To me it feels like abyssea just ruined this game, I admit I have taken advantage of it to powerlevel jobs, but it isn't fun and rewarding like the game used to be.

Leveling up used to be enjoyable, there was a semi set path of area's to level in, dunes -> qufim -> kazham -> garliage citadel -> crawlers nest so on and so forth, which always made leveling a new job enjoyable, you would return to certain area's that hold fond memories of late night partying, group wipe outs and joking around with your new found friends.

Now the game just feels like book burn until you can go to abyssea -> go to abyssea level to max -> cry over the death of FFXI.

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It was just a grind, half of it was sitting around with a '!' over your head if you weren't a bard or whn. You've already done it dozens of times. Get to the content you've never experienced, enjoy that.

Go through the story content solo or with a duo, enjoy that. Wander into a part of the game you've NEVER exp'd at, solo through it, enjoy the new view! Yes, some things are gone, but lots of new options open.

I leveled 5-18 entirely in Fort Ghelsba. I battled the orcs through their dungeon and defeated their named commanders. This was only possible because of the higher rate of exp gain and other benefits like regen when under 50% health. It didn't feel like a grind because I was making progress through a dungeon, not camping a single square. For my next low level job I look forward to exploring the Yagudo and Quadav dungeons.

The old routine is gone, now you have the freedom to go wherever you want.

The game still allows you to choose between traditional grouping, bookburning or abyssea. The only thing that would stop you from forming a traditional group is the willingness of other players in your group. This really isn't a 'abyssea killed ffxi' problem as much as a 'players want quick and easy exp' problem. Can't really justify blaming the game for this.

alright alright i think i'm understanding what's going on here...So i'm a new player, where would i want to go if i wanted to play in areas that aren't empty?

Port Jeuno to shout and make a traditional party... When I wanted to level my SCH from 20 to 30. I just sat in Port Jeuno and shouted to make a Qufim Party; you would be surprised how many people will jump on board if you make it known that you would like to level in the old traditional way, even those that burn in abyssea on occassion want some nostalgia. If someone really wanted to do a CN Party (Crawler's), I might would even gear my NIN to go and just enjoy old-school style.

Thing is, I never see anyone; including the "abyssearuinedthis" people ever try and do something as simple as shout to form a group. And so they get no sympathy for me, and obviously book burning, soloing or leeching doesn't hurt your pride too bad if your not making even the easiest of efforts to try and get back to what you love.

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Originally Posted by OgreBattle

Go through the story content solo or with a duo, enjoy that. Wander into a part of the game you've NEVER exp'd at, solo through it, enjoy the new view! Yes, some things are gone, but lots of new options open.

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OgreBattle makes an excellent point.

I had never been to some zones and it is nice to have the freedom to explore them solo without fear of instant death lurkiing around every corner.

I think most games in general are played by either of two distinct types of people: Those who like to mingle and those who don't. Personally I like how the old Final Fantasy games worked, kind of soloing all the way through with no actual human interaction and everything was simple and easy. With MMORPG this changed drastically. From having a firm and stable storyline, you now get parties, chat rooms and actual people interrupting you while playing. I was actually trying to play the game back in 2008, it was an old game even then. But I am not really sure how old it is. I remember that I felt frightened by the huge amount of players strolling around (alot of them), and when I bashed away in dungeons I died. Later I found out that I could just ignore people, and more later on, as of now, when I had reengaged with the game after three years, I now always check NPC's before I attack them. Some players are built for soloing, and its quite possible. I searched for people in my area that was also looking for a group and there was actually someone at my own level. Did I invite them? No. Because I don't want to engage with people. I am playing a game. Not making friends. Am I the only one that looks at this game from a relaxed position of casual and unimportant play? I have none to impress and only my own need for a bit of unintellectual computerinteraction to fullfill. Amen.

Wow Tunechi, I have no idea what server you are on...but I don't treat people like that when I play. I always help others out. Specially new players. Because you know what? S/E doesn't give you any tutorial quests at the start of the game. What the hell is up with that? I've been playing for years and I STILL can't get over that.

BAH! Why is this thread not locked yet? Didn't this guy rage quit like 4 months ago? This guy obviously had a bad experience which was not shared by %99 of the rest of the playerbase.

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Originally Posted by Absit

Wow Tunechi, I have no idea what server you are on...but I don't treat people like that when I play. I always help others out. Specially new players. Because you know what? S/E doesn't give you any tutorial quests at the start of the game. What the hell is up with that? I've been playing for years and I STILL can't get over that.

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Actually, there is a line of tutorials in the starter nations. Forget exactly how many it was...like 7 or 8 quests covering various aspects...eventually leads you to getting your first crag crystal for teleporting. Here's a link to the Adventurer's Assistants on cyclopedia--note the section for New Player Tutorial NPC's up top:
http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Ad...%27s_Assistant

They've also revamped the FFXI main site and have a library of online video tutorials to cover the basics as well.
Main page: http://www.finalfantasyxi.com/

Scroll to the bottom and just right of center is a link for "NEW PLAYER GUIDE" that opens a new window for the revamped play guide, complete with videos:
http://www.ffxiplayerguide.com/ff11n...x.html?lang=en

I'm hoping my server isn't like this. I had just transferred before I left, maybe a few weeks, and I was in a decent linkshell before I left.

Guess we'll see after the game is done updating.

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Originally Posted by Thuggy

Well as an "older" player I actually find it a little offensive how you group all servers and all players together. Not everyone is clique-ish or elitist. There are actually some of us who help others and go above and beyond. As a matter of fact I can tell you today that I PERSONALLY went and escorted someone from Korroloka Tunnel to the Eastern Altepa Telepoint crystal and then to the exp party. I even offered to help the same person fight their avatar fights for their summoner since all they had were elementals and Carbuncle. Was this anyone I met before? Did I have a hidden agenda? no. It was something I felt as a player of the game I should do to help another person who needed assistance. So before you group all of us old players together all willy nilly please think about what you are saying. Yes the dynamics of the game have changed where it is a rarity to find a traditional exp party and some people are carelessly spam leveling jobs is abyssea, is it something EVERYONE is doing, no, it isn't remember it only takes ONE person to make it NOT everyone.

Thanks ^^

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I also help new players too, but do know the percentage of new players that bother to thank me properly afterwards or offer a hello later down the road? Very few. Or the new players that, after spending 3-4hrs helping they go off and I see them just shouting for help and not bothering to read wiki and help themselves first, when I just spent hours helping them and told them, ok this is what you can do to get the next time you want done but you need do this and this first, and it's easy to solo?

When I joined a few years back it was just as hard then as it is now, maybe even hgarder because COP was capped and 75+ jobs we unheard of. I had to solo alot of stuff on my own, make friends, spend hours in jueno shouting, but when I shouted and still when I shout today, I host the shout. I dont sit there and say COP can I have it please, I say COP 5-3 Do you need it? Please assist, team up? yes please, stuff like that. I can;t tell you how long it took me to do ZM before the cap increases and the COP uncap, but I got everything done by being patient, ok this week is bad to get ZM doen, I'll level a sub or I'll do a rank mission. I understand that it's hard to solo stuff, I'm not disagreeing, I just want new players to know that if you like the game and want to succeed, try doing things differently. Make the shouts yourself, find people that are after similiar goals, etc.

PS: I had to make my first two 75 jobs in east ronfaure (S) because I couldn't get into a bird merit pt with whm or blm. I know about struggling, but I did what it took to better myself, if I needed a job for something, then I leveled it. I needed a quest done, then I spent the time to organize to beat it, to get the man power to overcome it.

Perhaps having a search ability, like the one present to search by level or rank, so that players can search people by COP completion, ZM, abyssea clears, etc. This would greatly help new players and returning players. Also, one's attitude is the biggest success factor in this game.

I don't think all new players should have to go thru what I did, or have to love the game as much as I do to get stuff done, so these search abilities I think will help greatly. Also, the search needs to be automatic, and not something that has to be manually set or restes after a log. the system should update your info every 12hours, or every log on, with out the user doing anything.

This threads op is so negative, so I'm a little negative too, I'm sorry new guys, though some aspects are true. I can't get a decent vw only ls to save my life. I had one, the leader couldn't find another ochain pld and didnt wanna wait for me to finish mine, so he jumped ship to join another vw ls. We had finished jueno t3. I still needed cn(S) clear because I dc'd before they won and when i returned the freaking blm d2'd me before i could click on the rift to get clear and chest, so when i went back to the zone I couldnt get the clear. Aparantly zoning screws your chances to get clear from rift, even after the dc fix. So yea, I'm frustrated too, but you know what my solution is, finish ochain so I can be wanted by a vw ls, lol. I know, it's crazy right? So yes, I know how you feel.

I dont want an event ls, just a vw ls that gathers twice a week for 4hrs, because I do everything else on my own, except AV/PW, which when I get to it i'll look into making my own ls for that, but I'm busy elsewhere atm, so I'm not concerned with this right now. Lots of endgame event ls have this family thing, insist that after abyssea broke major ls to make them socual, that you can't wear your social ls now and personally I hate one ls bs. That's why I want a vw only ls, I don't want to have to do 4-5 events a week, I don't want to give up my social ls, if we are family then friendlist, I don't need your ls on 24/7 just to prove to your insecurities that I'm loyal.

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Originally Posted by Concerned4FFxi

Buy a mog sack for 9,999gil

Learn to macro in gear/spells/job abilities etc.

Make friends, but dont ask the same ones repeatedly for help spread the wealth around

Try to do things at least once or twice on your own first, if its a quest and you need help do everything you can do first solo, before asking for help. People will help more often if your prepared, use wiki to get the info you need about what you want, and have the key items ready from when you solo. Example is the nation rank quests. I love to help people, I hate to have my time wasted. I come to help someone and they don't have all their key items ready before a fight that they need my help on pisses me off. That's why you need to solo what you can, people are understandable if you didnt get a key item or drop that you can't solo but nobody wants to wait around for you to either get the cs you need still before the fight or ask a million questions because you don't have wiki access. Use the pulblic library if need be and print out your lists in advance.

Read wiki about level cap quests (after 50 you will need to do these quests every 5 levels to break the next cap) and prepare for them.

Look into the goobie bag quests, your "fame", and mog locker.

There's also many areas you need access to first, before you can explore them: shadowreign areas from wings of the goddess add-on, abyssea, sea, sky, aht urhgan whitegate from treasures of aht urhgan

First priority should be leveling your character and sub job(s) to cap, currently 95. This will enable you to do many more things easier than at lower levels and open the door for other things to you.

Gear: I recommend not spending much gil on gear, untill you hit cap (currently 95). Get yourself a decent weapon for whatever level you currently are at, and that's it. there are a few rings and such that may benefit you earlier, but as a new player your more likely to buy the wrong one and waste your hard fought gil, so just suffer for the time being or buy cheap gear that fits a purpose. Check other players, talk to people, see what is good for that job at higher levels. The goal is not to buy for today, buy for tomorrow because xp is fast in this game now and gear gets outdated even faster before you hit cap. Once you hit 75, start a magian trail for a weapon that you are interested in doing. Again, ask around to see what is worth it some weapons are junk while others outshine. It may be a little to early to ask yourself this, but consider an empyrean weapon or just build something to get you thru until you are established then you can start your empyrean weapon (explained more below). Once you hit 78, you will have access to perle, teal, and aurore gear sets. These are cheap and decent gear. You can buy off AH or from npc in abyssea with cruor (abyssea currency).
You can then start working on your empyrean armor (af3) post 78, or sooner if the oppurtunity arises.
You can do artifact armor and weapon(af1), starting at 40 for most jobs, but because xp is so fast these gear peices are often outdated and not worth time investment. However, talk with decent higher level players, some af1 is still great macro peices. for certain jobs and can not be replaced. Once you have 78+, start trying dynamis in your spare time. There you will get ancient currency that can be bazaared for gil and relic armor (af2). Relic armor is mostly for your macro sets, but each peice and job are different. Like af1, some is outdated while other peices are impossible to replace.

XP: Ok, at low levels (10-29) the best places for experience points is alliance style fights in gusgen tunnels (level cap 10-20) or crawler's nest (no clue on the best cap there i've had all my jobs past 30 a long time and burn in abyssea). There are many zones that offer the same xp, the trick is finding a zone that has alot of level sync'd people and a field of valor or grounds of valor book. The trick is to get a page from the book and spam the mobs listed there to get the extra xp called "book buring". Just try those two zones first, turn your party flag on, and shout for a party or ask the leader of a group if you can join.

Abyssea XP: First, unless somebody knows you or pities you, odds are your not going to be leeching in abyssea unless you have a 70-75+ dd (damage dealer) job or magic damage dealing job, a whm with cure 4+ (42), or a rdm 55+ (cure 4) or similarly leveled sch with cure4 (not sure when they get their cure4). Or without a few hundred thiousand gil to pay someone to let you leech their party. To leech a abyssea party generally you need meet one of three requirements: 1. you are of job and level as stated above, 2. you have cruor so you can "key", this means you will be opening chests for the party in exchange for leeching rights. You need cruor to buy the keys though, and so its a catch 22, as you need already have been to abyssea long enough to get cruor or have a 75+ job to do voidwatch to get cruor from there, 3. start you own abyssea party and leech your own party. I DO NOT recommend or like new players that host abyssea xp pt's, the reason is most new players do not understand enough of the pt makeup and lights in order to host a successful party. I suggest that during your first abyssea party that you do not host you ask questions and learn about abyssea so later on you can host your own party. Keep in mind people rememeber lamers in this game and a bad party can ruin you fast in the eyes of other players. That said, abyssea is the best place for xp, period. Perhaps, as was suggested earlier, leveling whm for your first job would be most beneficial to you. You can leech to cap asap in abyssea at 42 with cure 4, and as explained latter you can get more invites for empyrean armor +1/2 farming and empyrean weapon items.

Abyssea empyrean armor/proc: Ok, this is the other reason people are in abyssea, the gear. First, you need understand about proc (process weakness). Since abyssea, SE has used proc in other area as well, so keep in mind dynamis now has proc, as does voidwatch (VW). For abyssea, there are three proc, blue, red, and yellow. Wiki explains the difference, but what yuou need to know is if a party does process a Notorious Monster's weakness, then the drop rate is increased for the corrisponding weakness. What that means is, most people dont just go kill notorious monsters (nm), they go to proc the nm first, then kill it. In the case of +1 armor items, four different +1 drop from the same nm. Becaue of this, most +1 parties are made up of no more than 4 people, because each persopn rather lot a single +1 and have the party agree beforehand that that +1 is theirs. Four people, four different +1, get it. Now to proc +1/+2 drops, magic weakness must be triggered. this can be done with any sub job nin, a whm, a blm, a blu, and a sub job bard. While rdm and sch can proc yellow for magic weakness, they lack the spells that whm and blm have and so they are not as often invited. Add the cure power of a whm and its easier to understand why whm is suggested as your first job to cap.

Abyssea empyrean weapons: not gonna be long here. Point is they take alot of time and work to get, but are attenable for the average player with a just a few friends that are dedicated to results. Once you been around the block a few times you'll know how to proc weakness and you will have a better idea if empyrean weapons are your thing. You will prefer to have a thf, war, nin, whm at the least, and most likely add a blm to your unit. Larger groups use other jobs such as cor with empyrean gun to cap amber fast and brew speed kill, or a blu to solo burn chests/te/etc. Some nin's can straight solo some hnm in abyssea with the right atma/gear, I personally dual box mine so many combo's work but i listed the pt size for farming empyrean weapons as about 3-5/6 on average to give you an idea of the amount of people you will need. Note, these 3-5/6 would have good atma and experience to be successful at low manning but once you get the hang of things you'll do fine. Read wiki about atma.

Try these websites
ffxiah.com
gamerescape.com
http://wiki.bluegartr.com/bg
http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Main_Page
www.ffxi-atlas.com/
http://ffxi.allakhazam.com/

Moghouse: There's a few quests related to furniture which will increase your mog safe storage to 80, also you can purchase furnature to put in your mogsafe that gives you access to mogstorage (again 80 cap and only available in your home nation) For mog storage I suggest when you can afford one get a
Panetiere. Also, look into moglocker and if you've been on for a few months and are gonna stay grab a mogsachel from the mogtoken ($9.99, mine has lasted me a few years now).

Travel: This one is big. 1. Start doing supply quests to get yourself outpost (op) access from the npc in your home nation. 2. Depending on supekupor power, teleport moogles maybe available for transport to the cities and selbina/mhuara. 3. Get all the telepoint crystals and recall crystals. 4. Get access to all the abyssea maws asap, even if you can't get a party (pt) just visit them to uinlock the maw and cutscene (cs) associated with each of the 9 abyssea zones so that you may warp to them. 5. Chocobo license, 6. once you attain 75+ speak to the voidwatch npc's in the 3 cities and get you key items to do those events. Even if you don't do VW, you can at the least use the npc's in the cities and other locations to teleport you to certain areas of the game. Theres other travel, but this is the main stuff and fastest.

Keep track of stuff: at the least, write down what boss and caturea nm clears you have from abyssea, and what op's you have if you can't remember. For abyssea you are gonna want these clears and all merit, furtherance, lunar, sojourn, and celerity abyssites asap. Ask around about atma and what ones are best for which jobs.

Gil: once you are using abyssea regularly you can convert cruor by buying chocobo blinkers (see wiki) or the three gear sets (perle teal etc) and selling this to npc's in vanadiel. Mind you that eventually you will need cruor to buy brew in abyssea but this will get you past the hump. You can also farm dynamis once you get the hang of things.

Hope this helps, goodluck and don't be discouraged.

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Originally Posted by Kincard

Basic advice:

1. If you haven't done it yet, there is a tutorial NPC in each nation designed for newer players. You'll get some nice rewards from it designed for newer players.
2. Remember to always get Signet from a gate guard before you head out to kill stuff. Save items you get and sell them on the auction houses. If you wish to increase your Signet duration, you're going to need to run missions for your nation.
3. Look for Fields/Grounds of Valor books, they will increase the xp you gain significantly, and provide gil and tabs. Tabs can be used for some useful bonuses on the battlefield.
3. Gaining levels quickly: These days most people go to Gusgen Mines at level 10 and join the alliances there. They continuously do the skeleton grounds of valor. At level 30 many people go to Crawler's Nest.
4. At level 18, you can unlock a subjob. I'd recommend the Elder Memories quest in Selbina to obtain it. You'll get the Magicked Skull for it while leveling in Gusgen Mines, and the Worm and Apron can be obtained solo safely when you're about level 25. You can ask for help too, of course. Keep your subjob leveled.
5. At level 30, you open up more jobs, but they all require running a quest to obtain.
6. As said above, Mog Sack can make managing your inventory out on the field a lot easier. If you want to make your inventory bigger (this will more or less be required as you get into higher levels), you need to build reputation in Jeuno. You can look it up on the wiki if you want detailed info. The quests to expand your bag are called The Gobbiebag.

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Originally Posted by Concerned4FFxi

Skill ups- this is another important thing, try to cap your skill on your main weapon asap. The more skill you hjave, the more damage you can do to higher level mobs. If you skill is around 120 and your level 95, you are basically like a level 95 job stat wise, but hitting like a level 35, so though you may be 95 that level 65 crab m,ight eat you for breakfast so watch out. Inquire about skill with other players, here's some quick info though and read the wiki and ask questions:
skill level 30-80 quifim island, grab a page and start busting on worms, when your skill ups slow down, hit up the crabs, if your low level avoid fighting at night time as the undead come out and agro blood (read up on the types of aggresiveness mobs have and read about hate and enmity) and especially near the lake in the center at night.

If you can get access, east ronfaure (s) 80-120 on birds, 120-140 on lady bugs, if not try east altepa desert.

Here's some areas I've outlined for you to fight stuff there at the following weapon skill level, not to be confused by job level. Remember this is for skill ups, though you may or may not get xp.

140-160, kuftal tunel
160-190 rabbits and lizzy in cape terrigan 190-210 on crabs there, and 210-230 cockatrice, mantacore there can get you as high as 270ish, but I'd stop at around 250-260 then finish skilling 250-300 in an abyssea la theine/konschtat highlands/tahrongi canyon.
300+, try bird camp in misareaux coast (a) or any party up to and including including dom ops (dominion ops) at this point.
350+, definitly need dominion ops in the heros of abyssea zones, its like fields of valor (fov) or grounds of valor (gov) for abyssea.

Side not about xp, get the emperorer band from your nation's signet npc, do not waste conquest points on emperess band. Also, if you drop any xp band such as these, don't worry, you can renew it once a conquest tally or trrade it to recharge it from the same npc, your home nation npc signet giver or a jueno signet giver

Conquest tally- is every earth week, and the count down is displayed in the menu.
menu>region info>conquest>it's on the upper right hand corner of your world map, should say "next conquest tally in X days."

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by Concerned4FFxi

Foods- there are many type food available, to start you might want to, once you can spare a little gil, and you start to skill up your jobs more, buy crab sushi by the stack(12) for about 4-5k a stack from the AH (auction house under: Food » Meals » seafood), this gives about +10accuracy (acc), if you are going to skill up and your confident that you will not die, buy a marinara pizza (auction house under: Food » Meals » Breads & Rice) this is the best acc and attack food for the price. Later on, when you are closer to your weapon skill cap and want to do more damage, buy cheap attack foods such as Meat Mithkabob ( Food » Meals » Meat & Eggs). Eventually you can buy better, more expensive attack food, eventually.

Rank- Each nation has up to rank 10 mission, the higher the mission the longer signet lasts, and the more access you get to some things such as dynamis. (need be on mission 6+ to access dynamis) Also, each mission rewards you with some gil, more for the higher missions. Check wiki, some can be skipped by trading crystals to the signet npc in your home nation/jueno) and most expect the early ones can only be flagged (flagged- term used to denote availablity of a quest) after trading a certain amount of crystals to the signet npc (check wiki, each mission requires a specific amount).

COP (chains of promathia) - Once you get your 90+ job and 49+ sub job leveled, skilled, and somewhat geared, or sooner, check out the wiki and look at COP. This quest line will reward you with one of the, if not the best, dd ring in the game, the rajas ring and sea access after 8-1. While tamas ring (you may only get one or the other or the long forgotten tanking ring, not worth it personally) was useful at one point, this author feels that this ring, tamas, can be replaced by alternative gear. While the replacements won't be as good as tamas, nothing gets the job done for a dd like rajas, and SE has stated that rajas will get a 99 level facelift, so expect this ring to once again come out on top.

WOTG (wings of the goddess) starting the first questgives shadowreign access (past). a note to you, when you go through a maw in the past always come back through to the present immediately, this will unlock the maw on both sides for you. If you fail to do so and die, you are not gonna be able to access the past again unless you have access somewhere else via another maw you opened in the past or going thru the gates in garlaige citadel which is a SOB. In other words, your first maw is the only time you can go thru the present to the past without going thru the past first, after that ALL maws in the present become locked and you HAVE to go thru the maws in the past individually to access to unlock them for use in the present. completion of the WOTG missions and quests (it's confusing at first, you need do both nation quests and missions to progress) grants some items (depends on which nation you choose to be allied with in the past, you can do all three eventually) and a moonshade earring with varrying augments on it, some are either latent refresh (mp restores 1mp/tic with weapon not drawn) or latent regain (tp restores at 1tp/tic with weapon drawn), as well as several others.

ZM (zilart missions or rise of the zilart) grants sky access and if you do DM (divine might) instead of mission zm14, you can get a decent earring. Pull up DM and see for yourself. the suppanomimi earring is a good one.

Quest- Apoc nigh - need have completed all ZM and COP as well as Bv1 (bahahumat, i botched the spelling I think, first fight) and another quest to gain access to this final fight and it's earring rewards. Ethereal earring is a decent pick.

there's also the add on's and there respective gear for completetion, type ASA, ACP, and AMK for the list of missions and goto the end to see the gear with it's augments you may choose. Again, the COP ring is probably the best item, but other add-ons are still decent, depends on the time you wish to invest in these rewards. There's a few add-ons I left out, mythic ws from nyzul isle, and the TOAU quests, mercanary rank, assualts, salvage, einherjar, limbus, and more. Interested? Check em out.

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Welcome and see you around

Well maybe i have been lucky because i had made a good friend in this game and we both quest together,help each other lvl up and talk about subjects we are both interested in,so i would say weather or not you enjoy this game is going to boil down to the people u meet on your server.

However i can imagine that if i didn't meet this certain friend i firstly wouldn't know the info that i do now about how to even play the game and generally get around,but i also would of found it boring just fighting mobs over and over again.

For me the definition and no.1 reason for playing a mmorpg at all is to socalize and be apart of a community enjoying and playing together,why would i want to pay a monthly fee if not for that reason?If i want to play my self i will play some other games like erm ffx or ff xii,i don't play ff xi for a single player experience.

Also i know some people actually like to be by themselves and play solo,but i don't really et the appeal in doing that but each to there own.

In terms of finding people to help out in quests in FFXI i haven't found that a issue,i just say hi to someone and see where things go,it's about 50/50 weather or not i find someone useful or has to time to help me out,but you gotta have patience and not expect people to help out just because you demand so.

1234567890.o

@OP, go quit and play WoW, this game doesn't need more cry baby gimps.

New players, don't be discouraged. I was once new to the game, I'm about 4 or 5 months into the game, and was able to get all my classes by myself, with the help of course from this site: http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Main_Page

That site will help out a lot. This game is worth it, it's very fun, and there are people willing to help, myself included.