Dunno what to do

[geekgirl101]

I fell far behind when I took a year break from the game and on coming back thought everything was all progression, so I missed out on lots of VNM fights and when SoA came out I assumed my gear was too rubbish to take part in it because I needed to progress with VNM gear first, and now I'm at a loss on what to do. People say skirmish, but my gear is too weak for skirmish. I've looked at bayld gear for upgrades but I've no idea what's worth using. Nobody's shouting no more for bayld or skirmish runs, it feels like my server has died. There's no more EU shells so I can't get involved in ls events because they all start past 2am my time. I am desperate and despairing at how it's all turning out. I'm tempted to server switch to one with EU shells in it so I can get the help I need and take part in events, but I risk then ending up on one that either has no EU shells or they take one look at my gear and aren't willing to spend the time and effort in helping me upgrade. I think I've come to the end of this game on my part and it's killing me because I know there's so much I've yet to experience and yet people are neither interested or available. I don't know what to do except maybe move on to FFXIV.

[Umichi]

Are you shouting for runs? are you talking and communicating with people? it''s fairly easy to make friends on this game. shouting for a linkshell that does the events you need helps also. If you don't know what's worth using for your job then you need to do more research on what stats can and will do for your spells, ws,s and many other things in the game. also looking at your AF, relic, and empyrean sets will help also

[Kaiichi]

As a player that actually remembers that this is a game, not to say that others don't, when I returned to the game after a 3yearish break, I looked back to what I wanted to do in the first place when the game came out. So I made a bucket list and whet ahead and got started. Personally I feel that FFXI accelerated way to fast for me to keep up so I'm just taking t at my own pace. I just hit the 6k mark yesterday for Moat Carps and only need 3 more peaces of relic to say I have them all, well until GEO/RUN's are released. Not sure if this was what you where looking for or not, but Umichi dose have a point about grabbing a linkshell. Although for a guy like me, going on /shout runs is fine, for others they want more now, and the best way to go is just to find a linkshell that will work in your favor.

[Rustic]

Be patient. Seriously. I pretty much soloed my Bayld gear, which isn't as rough as it seems if you don't try and run out to Ravine or Foret and try and pummel things there.

Yahse Hunting Grounds is -very- good for this, as it tends to be less crowded than Ceziak. I usually /DNC it up. If your gear is -really- behind at this point, you can at least start with +1 Abyssea armor courtesy of the login campaign (the "Kupon S" will give you seals for a specific armor piece.

Hammer away on Colonization Reives in Yahse and be -very- aggressive on doing town quests- save up for a Forefront weapon if you can snag it. A single imprimatur per Colonization in Yahse gets you 750 bayld. Finishing one is another 700 assuming you've had a decent amount of time chipping away at it, plus what you get for evaluations as you go along. Weatherspoon armor for WHM is the "tier 2" Bayld gear, like Forefront is the tier 2 weapons- I suggest it's worth saving up for the better pieces rather than getting Orvail armor, but that's up to you.

Alternatively, if you want to -really- maximize your bayld-per-imprimatur, go to the Mummer's Coalition and do the Recover: Ceziak missions. Those are 1500 bayld/exp for running around the zone, finding a "Lost Article", and coming back with it. (2 is 2700, 3 is 3600- but that's declining returns).

When you've got imprimaturs, go out there- the Mummer's mission doesn't need any gear, just a map (Blue Gartr has an excellent marked map of Yahse at http://wiki.bluegartr.com/images/1/18/Yahse_marked.png) and running around with Sneak/Invis available. The only true sight mobs are panopts (the floating eyes), the rest are readily dodgeable.

The rate of bayld gathering tends to snowball. Once you're in bayld gear, skirmish is much easier to get into. Once you're at Skirmish level gear, Delve is doable. (And if you were on Ragnarok, I'd intervene more directly). Stick to Ceziak/Yahse till you've got bayld gear done up. Then go explore further. Morimar has the demolition KI you'll need to do the nastier Reives in Marjami, which is the most commonly done area for Adoulin's JSE back pieces (but they're tougher than the nearby Reives to Adoulin city, be warned). Marjami has the climbing KI you'll want to make getting around many zones much easier, and once you're comfortable with those zones, you can go deep into what's likely the nastiest maze of all, Yorica Weald. (Tip: If there's a Skirmish group for Yorica, all you have to do is be in the zone to get warped into the fight- and that'll let you tag the conveyer to warp back afterwards, plus Bivouac #2 is right around the corner from said conveyer).

It's a long road. But you'll make it. You can -skip VNM and most Abyssea content entirely-. Heck, you could actually eventually get a pile of bayld on repeatable town quests if you were REALLY stuck. (Speaking of those: http://wiki.bluegartr.com/bg/Category:Adoulin_Quests ) Indeed, I got a good chunk of my starting bayld just running around and doing quests.

Don't give up hope. It's just a matter of knowing where to start and not trying to skip past the first step, and that's what you have printed out here.

[Morier]

Be patient. Seriously. I pretty much soloed my Bayld gear, which isn't as rough as it seems if you don't try and run out to Ravine or Foret and try and pummel things there.

Yahse Hunting Grounds is -very- good for this, as it tends to be less crowded than Ceziak. I usually /DNC it up. If your gear is -really- behind at this point, you can at least start with +1 Abyssea armor courtesy of the login campaign (the "Kupon S" will give you seals for a specific armor piece.

Hammer away on Colonization Reives in Yahse and be -very- aggressive on doing town quests- save up for a Forefront weapon if you can snag it. A single imprimatur per Colonization in Yahse gets you 750 bayld. Finishing one is another 700 assuming you've had a decent amount of time chipping away at it, plus what you get for evaluations as you go along. Weatherspoon armor for WHM is the "tier 2" Bayld gear, like Forefront is the tier 2 weapons- I suggest it's worth saving up for the better pieces rather than getting Orvail armor, but that's up to you.

Alternatively, if you want to -really- maximize your bayld-per-imprimatur, go to the Mummer's Coalition and do the Recover: Ceziak missions. Those are 1500 bayld/exp for running around the zone, finding a "Lost Article", and coming back with it. (2 is 2700, 3 is 3600- but that's declining returns).

When you've got imprimaturs, go out there- the Mummer's mission doesn't need any gear, just a map (Blue Gartr has an excellent marked map of Yahse at http://wiki.bluegartr.com/images/1/18/Yahse_marked.png) and running around with Sneak/Invis available. The only true sight mobs are panopts (the floating eyes), the rest are readily dodgeable.

The rate of bayld gathering tends to snowball. Once you're in bayld gear, skirmish is much easier to get into. Once you're at Skirmish level gear, Delve is doable. (And if you were on Ragnarok, I'd intervene more directly). Stick to Ceziak/Yahse till you've got bayld gear done up. Then go explore further. Morimar has the demolition KI you'll need to do the nastier Reives in Marjami, which is the most commonly done area for Adoulin's JSE back pieces (but they're tougher than the nearby Reives to Adoulin city, be warned). Marjami has the climbing KI you'll want to make getting around many zones much easier, and once you're comfortable with those zones, you can go deep into what's likely the nastiest maze of all, Yorica Weald. (Tip: If there's a Skirmish group for Yorica, all you have to do is be in the zone to get warped into the fight- and that'll let you tag the conveyer to warp back afterwards, plus Bivouac #2 is right around the corner from said conveyer).

It's a long road. But you'll make it. You can -skip VNM and most Abyssea content entirely-. Heck, you could actually eventually get a pile of bayld on repeatable town quests if you were REALLY stuck. (Speaking of those: http://wiki.bluegartr.com/bg/Category:Adoulin_Quests ) Indeed, I got a good chunk of my starting bayld just running around and doing quests.

Don't give up hope. It's just a matter of knowing where to start and not trying to skip past the first step, and that's what you have printed out here.

Everything this fellow said, but I will add one more thing. Do not get overwhelmed. Pick one thing at a time and knock them out at your own speed.

[Anjou]

Everything this fellow said, but I will add one more thing. Do not get overwhelmed. Pick one thing at a time and knock them out at your own speed.

amen to that, always best to have a list than doing things when they come to mind. It lets you stay nice and organized, and motivated to 'ok so close to knocking this off my list, then xyz is gonna be so much fun~!'

[FaeQueenCory]

Morier and Anjou have the right idea.

And chances are, your gear is a lot better than you think it is.
Especially if you're like me.
(I was convinced that my whm gear wasn't good enough for Delveing... then I got a skirmish body and said: well... 3mp/tic should be fine. it's not Heka's... but I should be good enough... Look at some of the whms I see around in fracture area...
my gear is better than theirs and I think mine is just meh.
*perfectionist*
Though I see a few with my ideal whm setup.)

I even have a notepad which I make lists of all the stuff I need for any job and just cross it off my list. (started it back when I was getting empy armor papers and +2s... expanded into magian trial paths... and now do delve notes)

Tackle it one step at a time... and Adoulin is VERY new person friendly.
Do some colonization rieves and pioneer misions... you'll have lots of bayld... buy the gear you want. (don't bother with most of the iLv100 gear) and then you'll be good enough for skirmish. (and possibly delve depending on if you're a mage and what type)
And once you've done a few yorcia skirmishes... chances are that you'll have all the gear you need to actually be good in a delve run.

[Soraishin]

with declining server populations i can understand your problem, but i'm sure there has to be some NA players willing to help catch you up , if not you can change to bahamut server and i'll help you personally, that goes for anyone reading this, we're too low on players to start leaving others out in the cold with limited solo options.

[geekgirl101]

That's the problem Umichi, I've been in and out of shells and doing /shouts for some, the ones that do events during my time have died out to 1-3 active people, the others do them so late at night that I'm going to bed just as they're starting. It seems that there are no more EU shells on Leviathan and shouts just seem to be very ineffective, often getting only a couple of people interested who then have to leave after several hours of shouting that it's not worth the hassle.

I'm having to solo a lot myself and some things are just too darned hard even 2-boxing. I'm resorting to leveling up BST because I think the game has turned from an MMO to a solo-it-all game with just the random player to /wave at.

[Daemon]

That's the problem Umichi, I've been in and out of shells and doing /shouts for some, the ones that do events during my time have died out to 1-3 active people, the others do them so late at night that I'm going to bed just as they're starting. It seems that there are no more EU shells on Leviathan and shouts just seem to be very ineffective, often getting only a couple of people interested who then have to leave after several hours of shouting that it's not worth the hassle.

I'm having to solo a lot myself and some things are just too darned hard even 2-boxing. I'm resorting to leveling up BST because I think the game has turned from an MMO to a solo-it-all game with just the random player to /wave at.

This is exactly why I wrote a guide. For people like you who are lost and don't know what to do or how to achieve goals and get things done so I will leave this link here for you to check out. Basically this is the players guide to solo independence.

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxi/th...egy-Guide-FFXI

In all seriousness, read it. The Seekers of Adoulin might be outdated now according to the gear stats but it's still good for basic knowledge.

Also when I started a new account I did level up Beastmaster and was able to solo just about everything.

Check out the Guide to Beastmaster included in my Guide.

There are some valuable articles I've written such as Networking, Leadership, Time management, Gil guide, skillup, questing Ect which are very valuable traits to have. In the meantime if you have any questions, feel free to ask and I will try to help you any way that I can before my account ends.