Five years away and now into the Present of Today

[0nionKn1ght]

Based on my week back ingame:

- EXP is now in alliances, and people AFK a tonne thinking it is their right to be AFK while others boost them, I don't stand for that. Low levels are in Crawler's Nest up to about level 50 ish, then Bostaineux Oubliette up to 75+, and then Abyssea if you don't want to run about doing GoV pages on Leeches all day (which gets mind numbingly boring, and very very frustrating with all the AFKer's)

- EXP Gain is INCREDIBLY FAST now. Gone are the days of standing around for 2 hours building a party, trudging out to a camp and grinding up half a level in 3 hours. Instead you can expect to gain 3-5 levels per party within a 2-3 hour period, and there are no more 6 mans, as mentioned above. Basically you do recurring pages (they automatically recur until you tell them to stop) where you kill a select amount of monsters, to get a chunk of exp. Every page completed gives you a slightly higher exp chunk, starting out around 1.5k and capping at around 4.1k (differs for every page). Capping it takes around 20 completed pages, but this will not reset if you logout or disconnect, only if you zone. I have logged inside Crawler's Nest with capped page bonus, and logged back in and continued with the same bonus the next day. You also get bonuses to every trait possible, such as increased killer effects, increased treasure hunter etc, and these pop up randomly on page completions. Other than that, in Abyssea you chain exp by killing monsters of the same type consecutively, and popping chests that spawn to get large chunks of exp, but killing monsters of a different type breaks chain and resets the exp bonus, however to gain fast Cruor, you will have to kill different types every kill, to keep your Cruor chain up, so you choose one or the other

- You will see "keyer" requests alot too. This is basically a group asking you to run around their camp opening chests using Forbidden Keys. This can be a very good way to get weapons and gear, as well as a bit of extra money, and also to get an idea of how the new parties work, as you can simply run about, pop chests, and watch what goes on. The only downside is you need keys, which cost 500 Cruor each, and stack to 99. I usually take a whole stack with me if im keying, but you make the Cruor back so quickly, it is not really a problem. Don't be afraid to volunteer as a keyer, you really have the easiest job, but you can't go AFK

- You will also see that your character glows in different colours in the chat log inside Abyssea. Don't panic! These are lights and the way to forge your path inside the zones. Basically each colour increases the chances of specific chest spawns, exp gains, and Cruor. I won't go into detail here, but google Abyssea Lights Guide to read in detail about what each light does. You gain specific lights by killing monsters with Weapon Skills, Magic, Elemental WS's and normal attacks. You choose what lights you want by your approach to your first few kills

- People are generally naked/massively undergeared in lower leve exp alliances and often have little to no idea about the class they play, often just enagaging the mob and afking. Players going AFK is a continual theme here, and a big problem when a leader goes to "make a sandwich" and people want to join, while they are on minute 40 of placing apparant butter on bread. If people are AFK for more than 10 mins, kick them and let them rot, as EXP gain is already monkey fodder now, if you can't put in the minimal effort required to be at your keyboard while playing, then you don't get EXP - Don't be afraid to boot those who take advantage of others

- Mages are kind of useless while levelling, as Dancer subs and mains dominate healing in these groups. You can be a mage, and be useful, but DD as always seem to reign supreme

- RDM is kind of useless now, being as other classes do their job better, and as Convert is now available with RDM sub, WHM and BLM are back to owning the mage charts

- Abyssea is super confusing when first entering, but simply put, you can join an exp group, or a cruor group, one chains for exp, the other chains for currency to spend on your 76+ gear pieces, maps, atma's and various other gubbins. You then get seals from NM's inside Abyssea that are used to upgrade these gear pieces making them actually useful (they start out total crap). Other than this, standard NM's abound, and all you need is a Traverser's Stone to enter, they respawn every 20 hours, but I recommend getting into an exp group for your first time in Abyssea, to get yourself some stored time, to allow you to go explore the zones, after visiting all the maws to get the teleports activated

- Aht Uhrgan is deserted, don't panic, everyones in Jeuno now, but alot of older content has been outdated

- Dynamis is now a solo/low man experience without reservations etc (it's just a shared zone instead) - Same rules apply with time though, have to get extensions to stay inside, and you can enter once per 24 hour period. Level 99's solo mobs for currency, and sell for gil, common gil making comes from here now, all you need is a Prismatic Hourglass for 50k from one of the 3 Goblins at Castle Oztroja Entrance, Davoi Entrance or Beadeaux Entrance, and you never need to buy one again. It is a permanent key item. Drop rates are as low as ever, but with it being a solo experience, you can go in, pull the chosen monster for your item of choice and farm away. 30 minutes is your standard time, take a small group if you want to get your time extended though

- Endgame consists of mostly Abyssea related hijinx, but most stuff in there can be low manned, allowing a much more stress free environment for your gear grind, which there is an absolute tonne of

- Level cap unlocks are done using merits and Kindred Crests/Seals, but you can exchange 3 of any seal for 1 of any other from the NPC next to Shami in Port Jeuno, meaning level caps aren't that tricky anymore, although im told the 95 fight is a bit a of a headache for a 6 man group, wiki the quests to find out more

- The games population is still very high, with around 2000 people average online on Bahamut at any one time, but people seem a little less friendly than they used to, and I don't know if it's just me, but I see a very high amount of casual swearing in chat, when I used to never see any, also alot of people with drug references in their names, bit bizarre but things generally seem ok

Thats my experience in the last week though, hope it helps.

[Infidi]

How come I never see "come back" threads for Fenrir . Maybe I just missed them :P. I DO miss Unicorn though. RIP Unicorn, your soul devoured by Fenrir.

[wish12oz]

English, is my native language. Thou to type properly all the time is a feat i'd rather not do. It's not that I can't or won't just prefer not to as I loose my train of thought with typing. I grew up in the age of handwriting that was mandatory in Cursive. Something lost in this new generation that can't read it. Not even thirty yet, and feel like a old-timer looking down disappointed with what is happening. Typing was something that I barely saw in my school senior year. And have always typed just hate trying to keep up with my thoughts to my slow fingers. Luckily I don't look at keyboard well typing like so many i know, that bring laptops to school for there essays and research. But heh such is life. ^^

The problem here is that you don't use the right words.
Thou? That means "you."
Well? I think you mean "while."
etc
It's obnoxious when you have to try and figure out what people mean when they use random words that don't make any sense in the middle of sentences. Spelling errors and grammar errors are ok sometimes, but random words and incoherent sentences because you refuse to even read over what you typed, is just retarded.

[Meyi]

Meyi, you're on Bismarck? Add me! My name in POL is RagingAvatar and my character is Dhylan.
You too Asgardjr!

>////> I don't know how to add people when they're not in game...

[Kristal]

- RDM is kind of useless now, being as other classes do their job better, and as Convert is now available with RDM sub, WHM and BLM are back to owning the mage charts

Another job that is worth to mention is PUP. It went from a gimp pariah to a kickass job. It doesn't have a specific role that demands it presence (other then VW), but only a handfull of jobs can claim such a position anyway.

Other jobs have received updates, although I doubt any changed as drastically over 5 years as RDM and PUP.

[Meyi]

- Mages are kind of useless while levelling, as Dancer subs and mains dominate healing in these groups. You can be a mage, and be useful, but DD as always seem to reign supreme

Nope! Black Mage is one of the best jobs, period. It's amazing for proccing yellow in Abyssea (to make +1s and +2s drop off of specific monsters), and it can out DD a lot of DDs in Abyssea, provided gear and atmas are in check.

[Teraniku]

Nope! Black Mage is one of the best jobs, period. It's amazing for proccing yellow in Abyssea (to make +1s and +2s drop off of specific monsters), and it can out DD a lot of DDs in Abyssea, provided gear and atmas are in check.

BLMs have always been the most beneficial job for missions, period. ToAU was a slight bump in the road for BLMs but with Abyssea and VW they are back as one of the most useful jobs in the game.