Running out of leveling content.

[Ravenmore]

All I can say is make better friends. All of CoP can be duo or soloed now. Only one mission you can not on any job solo, not cause its hard but you need 2 people to trade a key. All the nation missions take 3 at most a healer and 2 dds sharing the tanking, ZM was easy at 75 you could get sky in a day sad though thats were lot of players left it or they did DM. Another thing to point out I did apocalypse now with 3 people the other day. Only a hand full of missions you need more then 3 people and they don't have to be the perfect jobs either. Pchan is off in his own little world disregard 90% of what he says.

[Alhanelem]

I sincerely feel sorry that some players have never had the opportunity to experience real FFXI content beyond EXP.

As do I. What with all the storylines and epic cutscenes, I don't get why so many people seem to find the grinding more fun.

My friend got all of his important spells and nearly capped blu skill within 1~2 weeks of on and off farming. Blu is no exception to the fact that if you have a functioning brain you aren't hurt by burning the job to 90.

Uh yeah... I said "days to weeks" myself. You aren't "hurt," no, but you can't just start doing stuff the moment you hit 90 because you didn't learn your spells. And it takes you longer to get your spells than it does other people.

[Akujima]

Leveling was never content.

Yes it is.

[Alhanelem]

Yes it is.

No, it's not. Leveling is what you do to gain access to and be able to conquer the content. It's the time filler that spaces out one thing form the next. This isn't to say it can't be a fun or pleasant experience, of course. it's just not "content."

Sooo, you're out of leveling content. What to do now? Go do the massive amounts of other content in the game. Seems like a good idea to me.

[bungiefan]

Leveling was never content.

I sincerely feel sorry that some players have never had the opportunity to experience real FFXI content beyond EXP.

I'm not saying that to belittle anyone. I'm saying that because it was a legitimate problem with a lot of old Endgame content. It was simply too inaccessible to a large number of people. When people were unable to participate in real content, the only thing they were able to do and consider content in FFXI was EXP.

If people feel they are lacking in content, and this would not be surprising if the only content they had experienced was Abyssea and EXP, I highly recommend just going back through old content with friends. Old content is easier now, yes, but that's the point. You can do solo or in small groups what would have taken a linkshell coordinated event or a high-end player to do in the past.

Do Dynamis, CoP and Neo. Do Limbus, do Sea Jailers (if you have the patience). Do Sky, do ZNMs, do Assaults to Captain Rank. Do Nyzul Isle, Salvage, and Einherjar. Hunt down Dark Ixion and Sandworm. Kill Cerberus, Khimaira, and Hydra. Tackle KS99s, KS30s, and the new Kindred Crest BCs. Try ANNMs, Campaign Ops, VNMs. Level Synergy.

There are things to do. Sure, quite a few are things more experienced players have been doing for years. Others just plain don't have cool rewards. But all of them are more rewarding and diverse content than EXP.

I am one such player. It took me 8 years to get my first job, BLM to 75, and WHM was about 45 at the time. A week after I reached 75, Abyssea was announced. I still have yet to beat any storyline for the core game or any expansion, since I don't have a melee job to solo them yet. My time zone and number of hours I can play made it hard to find set groups to to things like CoP, so I don't have access to every zone yet. Abyssea burns are making it easier for me to get up to speed to do the content I've always wanted to do. Unfortunately, Garrison, Expeditionary Forces, and Ballista have never been very popular on my server, and are unsoloable.

Abyssea is also making filling out my spellbook affordable. I'm only missing Fire V on my BLM. I've found an LS that focuses on making gil, so things I need from the AH will be affordable compared to never having more than 300k on my character in the past. They also do mercenary work for people in and out of LS, including running EXP parties.

Since the latest updates, I've been making nation mission progress with maybe a single partner, and finally working on a melee job for the first time. I actually have hope of seeing the end of any of the storylines, since I don't need a full alliance.

[Alhanelem]

since I don't have a melee job to solo them yet.

You don't have to have a melee job to do that.

[Olor]

Abyssea is awesome. I just started doing the ToAU storyline - before I never liked doing quests and missions because I always felt like I was "wasting my time" since most content needed me to be a higher level to be able to participate in. My character before this one never hit 50 with more than a year of playtime. That's garbage.

I'm sorry if you're someone that can play 8 hours a day 6-7 days a week and feel like you are running out of content, but SE has finally gotten the memo that people who have other things to do beside video games are a bigger demographic than people who can play the game like a job. If the game was still tuned so that accomplishments were only attainable by people with that kind of playtime, I would have never returned.

I love that I am going to cap in less than 4 months. I love that I've already got more merits than I ever dreamed of being able to have. I love it. There are tons of games where grind is the full meal deal. Thank god XI has left that behind.

[Runespider]

No, it's not. Leveling is what you do to gain access to and be able to conquer the content. It's the time filler that spaces out one thing form the next. This isn't to say it can't be a fun or pleasant experience, of course. it's just not "content."

Sooo, you're out of leveling content. What to do now? Go do the massive amounts of other content in the game. Seems like a good idea to me.

When I played wow for a year all I did was leveling, nothing else at all.

There are many players in FFXI that do this, they don't have contacts to do other things or the knowledge/inclination. When they cap the jobs they want and are done with that they will have no further reason to play, this may not apply to you but it really does apply to quite a lot of players.

I know tons of people that still don't have any worthwhile atmas for instance.

The beginning of the end of an MMO is the capping of the basic content, many are holding on for the level cap increases and after they cap those..well they will see a huge dip in player numbers if they don't put something in before it. I hope they string out the level cap increases for as long as possible honestly.

[Alhanelem]

When I played wow for a year all I did was leveling, nothing else at all.

The difference is WoW planned for people like you. You get bits and peices of story as you level. In FFXI, the story is something you do after you level (as you don't get muhc/any EXP while doing it).

they don't have contacts to do other things

Most of us had no contacts when we started. That's no excuse. I had no contacts. I met people and made friends in parties. I am now part of an endgame linkshell as a result. I've done most of the storylines. You don't need to be hardcore to meet people and do stuff. You just have to be willing to engage people.

The beginning of the end of an MMO is the capping of the basic content, many are holding on for the level cap increases and after they cap those

We went 7 years with no level cap increases. It wasn't a problem for any of that time. Why is it suddenly a problem now?

[Zaknafein]

Only sounds like a problem if your too anti-social to do anything aside from zombie xp grinding in abyssea.