Returning ancient player. Just sayin' hi :)

Hi all.

Originally started with the NA PC launch. Was on Pandemonium (Asura now).

I haven't really played since early in Abyssea, so most of my knowledge/memory of FF11 is still based in the 75 cap days. I know a ton has changed and been added since, so it's going to be an interesting, and probably overwhelming, ride getting caught up and figuring out where/how to jump back in. I don't even remember what I was doing when I last played heh.

Anyhow! Cool to be back! Will see y'all in game perhaps :)

I think I speak for half the active users on the forum when I say: No, don't, the game sucks now, 75 era was best don't defile your memories by playing in the horrible obscenity that is the item level post-99 age.

Don't bother with level grinding unless you really want to waste a bunch of time, find a friendly blue mage and ask them to take you for a quick spin through Escha - Zi'tah (located past a portal thing on Qufim Island.) You can just catch your skills up with a low-level weapon, attacking uragnites just outside Adoulin later. It's very streamlined; maybe it's a shame to lose that experience of slowly building up levels and learning jobs as you go, but that's something you only really get to enjoy if there's a healthy population of new players joining the game month over month which... there isn't, really.

If you left early in Abyssea, you missed Rhapsodies of Vana'diel; it'll start when you zone into any of the starter cities, and it's generally recommended now to chase that storyline for at least a little while because it's the gatekeeper for a lot of quality of life improvements. If you want things to feel more like the old days, skip it for a while, but you'll miss out on an 80% discount on home point warps, several experience points multipliers, access to vendors with a selection of basic food, medicine, and ammo, and... ultimately one of the nicest boss fights in the game (when you get to the finale, make sure you have music turned on, Wail of the Void is a gorgeous track.)

Ambuscade... was the first stop for a new level 99 to get their starter gear, but it kept getting tweaked and "balanced" so now most months you either go in with a fully decked group, or you do the "repeat this fifty times to get one piece of gear" lower difficult versions of the fights. Domain Invasion in the Escha zones (see Rhapsodies of Vana'diel, you unlock access with the first cutscene though) is also a slow-but-steady option to get cheap starter gear and more expensive mid-to-high tier stuff.

Pay attention to Records of Eminence and Unity Concord. Many, if not most, players make quick gil by hitting objectives from those (especially the limited-time Gain Experience objective that runs three times a week) to earn the related currencies (sparks of eminence and unity accolades) to turn in for items to dump on NPC vendors (acheron shield and prize powder are the usual favorites.) There's a cap on how much of that you can do per week because... well, at one point there wasn't, and it fried the economy.

Also, mounts. Get to Upper Jeuno ASAP and talk to the taru in a chocobo costume to get started on those. Basically an infinite chocobo whistle you don't have to do the whole chocobo raising thing for.

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I think I speak for half the active users on the forum when I say: No, don't, the game sucks now, 75 era was best don't defile your memories by playing in the horrible obscenity that is the item level post-99 age.

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What you're saying is complete nonsense, you speak for yourself.

I quit in 2011 or so after Abyssea ruined the game for me as a HNM player (cause I had nothing to do anymore), and I came back when they added all the new things such as trusts years later with rhapsodies, and I love it and have been playing ever since. That was probably 8 years ago now, the game now is better than it has ever been. It's amazing, and I am so happy I came back.

75 cap was good at the time because we were all teenagers with unlimited time, it's not good anymore at all and is borderline unplayable for most people. It's was not uncommon to login and not be able to do anything if you had 4 hours to play, cause you could not get a group or your timetabled endgame wasn't for another 10 hours. No thanks, get out of here.

Sitting in Lower jeuno waiting 3-5 hours for a party (if you played a melee job, or key jobs like debuffers were not lfg or were afk with their flag up) was not good, being able to do nothing alone at all wasn't fun, having no options for making gil wasn't fun, having to beg and be vetted by some nerd with a superiority complex to get into the only 2-3 linkshells to do any serious endgame wasn't fun (and being denied cause you dared to camp near someone in the ls who missed his chain 100 merit party cause you were killing "his" mobs), having to have a written down timetable when your group did Limbus or Dynamis twice a week wasn't fun, waiting 6 hours for a HNM to pop and getting outclaimed by the usual suspects wasn't fun, having to farm Dynamis for 4 hours with 18 people for a hat with a 1% drop rate and 5 other people wanting it too wasn't fun (it took me 2 years to get a rdm af2 hat)

Modern FFXI in 2024 >>> Nothing >>> old FFXI in 2024.

Old FFXI was good at the time because it created a collectivist society within the game for a bunch of teenagers and not because of the game itself, the only people who could play old style ffxi today past level 40 are people who have nothing to do and no responsibilities at all.

I love leveling jobs on modern XI, I love the laid back nature of it where you don't have to do quests and you have to explore and find camps. It's one of the most fun things in the game to me, cause I find it relaxing and love those +1 levels.

Rhapsodies is one of the best storylines in the game, I love it and it has high production values.

The new endgame they added is great, I really appreicate Ambuscade and think it's one of the best things they ever added, I love the escha NM system, Omen is good, Odyssey is great, DI is a great system for gearing.

Records of eminence is awesome, trusts are awesome, new mount system is awesome, new gear is awesome.

The game is better than ever, best decision I made was coming back to experience how good modern XI is after playing many modern mmorpgs and hating them, and this is from someone that played 10 hours a day 6-7 day a week during the HNM era.

Few people from the community post here, reddit is more active btw.

https://www.reddit.com/r/ffxi/

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Originally Posted by radar

What you're saying is complete nonsense, you speak for yourself.

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Actually, no, I don't speak for myself, I think 75 era... was a thing that existed, and had its charms, but it was an age where you were supposed to get excited about seven magic attack bonus on a piece of gear. Summoner gear barely even existed, like two pieces of blood pact delay stuff and a little bit of perpetuation down? No wonder it was usually treated like worse white mage with more MP.

But if you hang around any place Final Fantasy XI players congregate, eventually you'll start hearing all the comments romanticisizing the "you can lot on one piece you might want, in six months, if it drops, maybe" stage of the game's history.

Personally, the only thing that I can remember really liking about FFXI at 75 cap was the people I played with, who started disappearing because of Final Fantasy XIV, not the level cap increase.

Welcome back!

The game is better than it ever has been, since I started in 2012.

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Originally Posted by Zenion

Actually, no, I don't speak for myself

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People have rose tinted glasses in regards to what XI was, and I remember it very well and accurately. It had positives (I made some great friends) but it had far more negatives and it would be totally unplayable in 2024 by most people. I literally would not play this game if it was still like it used to be, I'm not prepared to waste 60-75% of my time waiting for something to happen, and spending months or years to get a neck with 1 str on it.

The game is better than it ever was, and if it still was like it was it would not exist anymore.

honestly, the grinding experiences didn't change much, instead of grinding xp pre99, now one has to grind 2 more, master jobs to 2100 job points, then master level, which honestly are much tougher.

So yeah, like previous comments, it's really best just to PL jobs u need to 99 @ escha zitah, provided one got access far enough into Rhapsodies, then grind skillings needed to cap, which either by manual or taking advantage from skill scroll purchase-able @ Record of Eminence npcs or hoard them from auction house since they usually been very cheap anyways. After that, get some prelim i199 gears either from joining daily Domain Invasions which capped at 100 points, and/or ambuscade spamming, before one can actually able to start grinding on those master jobs, coz one need quite hefty amount of accuracy or else will be having really hard time. Or... if lucky enough having someone helps, getting prelim odyssey gears will be a tremendous boon.

Also again to reiterate above posts: reddit are much more active, especially since it also has dedicated discord as well, where one from there can find a much more in depth group one can leisurely enjoy.

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Originally Posted by Zenion

Actually, no, I don't speak for myself, I think 75 era... was a thing that existed, and had its charms, but it was an age where you were supposed to get excited about seven magic attack bonus on a piece of gear. Summoner gear barely even existed, like two pieces of blood pact delay stuff and a little bit of perpetuation down? No wonder it was usually treated like worse white mage with more MP.

But if you hang around any place Final Fantasy XI players congregate, eventually you'll start hearing all the comments romanticisizing the "you can lot on one piece you might want, in six months, if it drops, maybe" stage of the game's history.

Personally, the only thing that I can remember really liking about FFXI at 75 cap was the people I played with, who started disappearing because of Final Fantasy XIV, not the level cap increase.

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This really confuses me, because it seems to be in direct contrast to your previous post.

Anyway, while I'm certainly nostalgic about the 75 era, MMOs must progress and change to survive, and the 75 era dragged on too long. If the game had moved on it years earlier, there would probably be more players today.


The virtual world aspect of FFXI, where things happen slowly (i.e. reail time waits for airships and travel) and make you think very carefully about every decision you make, was appealing when I was in college and had a lot more free time. Now that most of us work long hours in jobs, waiting for the sake of waiting is just not fun anymore and at this point, most of us have seen everything and thus those waits and slow grinding became less enjoyable. Early FFXI was fun because of the community- the stoires you swapped as you killed the 1000th crab for 150xp after a few hours in Qufim, the excitement of meeting someone new who started in a different city, and so on. Today, the gameplay itself is what matters a lot more.

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Originally Posted by Alhanelem

This really confuses me, because it seems to be in direct contrast to your previous post.

Anyway, while I'm certainly nostalgic about the 75 era, MMOs must progress and change to survive, and the 75 era dragged on too long. If the game had moved on it years earlier, there would probably be more players today.


The virtual world aspect of FFXI, where things happen slowly (i.e. reail time waits for airships and travel) and make you think very carefully about every decision you make, was appealing when I was in college and had a lot more free time. Now that most of us work long hours in jobs, waiting for the sake of waiting is just not fun anymore and at this point, most of us have seen everything and thus those waits and slow grinding became less enjoyable. Early FFXI was fun because of the community- the stoires you swapped as you killed the 1000th crab for 150xp after a few hours in Qufim, the excitement of meeting someone new who started in a different city, and so on. Today, the gameplay itself is what matters a lot more.

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It's in direct contrast to the opening paragraph of my post, though the rest, you may note, largely addresses "what to do when you return", and highlights things which make the modern FFXI experience more convenient than it was in the early Abyssea era (and points out a really really good song from the soundtrack because seriously Wail of the Void is right up there with Ragnarok.)

It's a rhetorical device in which one claims a position or makes a statement with unusual emphasis or contradictory circumstances to convey an opposite sentiment; in English, I believe it's called sarcasm?

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Originally Posted by Zenion

It's in direct contrast to the opening paragraph of my post, though the rest, you may note, largely addresses "what to do when you return", and highlights things which make the modern FFXI experience more convenient than it was in the early Abyssea era (and points out a really really good song from the soundtrack because seriously Wail of the Void is right up there with Ragnarok.)

It's a rhetorical device in which one claims a position or makes a statement with unusual emphasis or contradictory circumstances to convey an opposite sentiment; in English, I believe it's called sarcasm?

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I don't think you realize how poorly sarcasm can come across in text without the audio emphasis.

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Originally Posted by ScreamingInDigital

I haven't really played since early in Abyssea, so most of my knowledge/memory of FF11 is still based in the 75 cap days. I know a ton has changed and been added since, so it's going to be an interesting, and probably overwhelming, ride getting caught up and figuring out where/how to jump back in

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75 cap was less convoluted than the current endgame. Been playing since 2004, and have no idea wtf is going on with the current end-game lol. So, I simply do 75 era activities as an ilvl119. Beyond Ambuscade, I don't engage in much if any end-game stuff. Even leveling is somewhat of an endgame activity past 99...........

Miss when noobs and vets would play with one another in the Dunes. Thus, any questions would be answered by new players with via the journey to lvl 75. There is zero need to team up pre-99 today. The lvl99 grind is unnecessary imo. Abyssea, SoA, etc could have been added without the cap.

Now, if I were put on the spot and asked would I take an update that will revert the cap back to 75 with all things scaled down? Would have to think about it....not gonna lie...... since I am used to steamrolling stuff at ilvl119.

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75 cap was less convoluted than the current endgame. Been playing since 2004, and have no idea wtf is going on with the current end-game lol. So, I simply do 75 era activities as an ilvl119. Beyond Ambuscade, I don't engage in much if any end-game stuff. Even leveling is somewhat of an endgame activity past 99...........

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Everything in this game is convoluted lol. Not sure how you can say this. Because it was 75 cap for so long, there's a million different endgame contents and it was hard to know and figure out what to do. You had to look everything up, because the game doesn't tell you anything. That's really no more or less true today than back then, but it's frankly easier because there just aren't as many relevant contents to worry about.

Man its been awhile, played back in the 75 days till wings of the goddess, stumbled back in for a bit last year but I am hooked again now.

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Originally Posted by Chille

Man its been awhile, played back in the 75 days till wings of the goddess, stumbled back in for a bit last year but I am hooked again now.

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You never really quit FFXI, you just take an extended vacation.

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Originally Posted by Zenion

I think I speak for half the active users on the forum when I say: No, don't, the game sucks now, 75 era was best don't defile your memories by playing in the horrible obscenity that is the item level post-99 age.

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Speak for yourself. I've played the game since the EU release in 2004-2005. Yes, I have fond memories from the 75 era but I'm enjoying the game so much more in 2024.

Sounds like you have a hard time letting things go. If the game is so terrible now, why are you still subscribed?

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Originally Posted by Rinuko

Speak for yourself. I've played the game since the EU release in 2004-2005. Yes, I have fond memories from the 75 era but I'm enjoying the game so much more in 2024.

Sounds like you have a hard time letting things go. If the game is so terrible now, why are you still subscribed?

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Mate, I rather enjoy the game as it is, over when I'd spend a day sitting in Selbina with my flag up doing nothing, or listen to LS mates talk about Dynamis while I could only sit there wistfully imagining it on my black mage that wasn't allowed within 300 yalms of an experience party at level 60 because colibri.

What I don't enjoy is how every time someone wants to talk about the game, people seem to have to talk about how much better it was back then and how bad it is now because it's too easy or all their old best gear got outdated or whatever. I thought maybe if I got that out of the way up front it'd keep that talk from taking over in this thread, and it seems to have worked so far.

I have good memories of the good ol days, but I accept and welcome the fact that MMOs change and evolve over time.

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Originally Posted by Zenion

Mate, I rather enjoy the game as it is, over when I'd spend a day sitting in Selbina with my flag up doing nothing, or listen to LS mates talk about Dynamis while I could only sit there wistfully imagining it on my black mage that wasn't allowed within 300 yalms of an experience party at level 60 because colibri.

What I don't enjoy is how every time someone wants to talk about the game, people seem to have to talk about how much better it was back then and how bad it is now because it's too easy or all their old best gear got outdated or whatever. I thought maybe if I got that out of the way up front it'd keep that talk from taking over in this thread, and it seems to have worked so far.

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Feels like you're contridicting yourself when you say

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the game sucks now

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and then follow up with:

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rather enjoy the game as it is, over when I'd spend a day sitting in Selbina with my flag up doing nothing

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