Advice for a returning New Player

[devilxinside]

Hi everyone! My friends and I have always wanted to play FFXI, but due to a variety of circumstances, we've been unable to all get into the game until this year.

I played the game a few times on my own (in early 2004, and again in 2009), but I am unfamiliar with all of the new things in the latest expansions, and I'm feeling a little overwhelmed.

We all started our characters in Windurst last night, but I'm curious if anyone has any suggestions for things to do early on to get us to a place where we are capable players (frankly, I just want to figure out the easiest ways to get around, and to make some gil).

Is the game still "Dink enemies to deah up to Level 15, then go to Valkurm, then do your subjobs at level 30, then go to Jeuno..."?

Thanks!

[Shadax]

Leveling at lower levels has changed dramatically in the past few years due mainly to the introduction of Fields/Grounds of Valor. The game has almost completely moved away from the 6 person tank/DD's/healer setup that was all but required years ago. Instead, the game is much more solo/duo friendly if that is more your speed and 6 player parties have been replaced by full alliance GoV page parties instead.

Personally, I've been preferring the solo/duo route to leveling jobs. Look up Grounds of Valor on the wiki, pick a target that is one or two levels below your current level, and just do GoV pages for 5-10 levels. It may not be as fast as alliance leveling, but you're always making progress without having to wait on anyone and your skill-ups tend to match the pace of your leveling.

Also, I noticed you're on Shiva so if you and your friends need a Linkshell, send me (Shadaax) a /tell in game.

[Rustic]

We all started our characters in Windurst last night, but I'm curious if anyone has any suggestions for things to do early on to get us to a place where we are capable players (frankly, I just want to figure out the easiest ways to get around, and to make some gil).

Is the game still "Dink enemies to deah up to Level 15, then go to Valkurm, then do your subjobs at level 30, then go to Jeuno..."?

Not nearly so hard. You'd likely have gotten more responses posting this in the "New Players" section, but...

A big change is that experience gain has become significantly easier. When you walk into most old-world zones, you'll see a floating book nearby. Check em out. They'll give you a "Kill X number of mobs" for a bonus exp/gil reward and work as long as the mob in question gives exp, letting you tear through large numbers of Easy Prey for an accelerated leveling rate. In addition, the books in dungeon areas give "Prowess", a buff that boosts your abilities in some way, from added HP/MP to Treasure Hunter bonuses and such. In addition, killing mobs in old world areas has a chance of dropping a "Treasure Casket". Blue ones open automatically to give you temp items, generally medicines of some sort. Brown ones have a lock on them that you play a guessing game to figure out the combination and open them, but can have anything from vendor trash to nice R/E items for the level of the area- like a paralysis-proccing H2H weapon from the caskets on Qufim Island.

Because lots of small kills = lots of exp this way, people often form alliance-sized groups (18 people!) in Gusgen Mines and Crawler's Nest to go through early levels, adding or dropping players as they come in or level up too high. The "fast track" is 1-15 or so by yourself, 15-30ish in Gusgen- at which point you can leech off of Abyssea parties or go into a Crawler's alliance.

The slower track (but more personally rewarding and better for skillups) is going with book pages in smaller groups. Do the usual pages into your teens or so (Windurst, I suggest 10-15 or so near the Outpost on Starfall, it's good money). Mind you: This is stuff you can do solo/duo/trio, no full party required! It's all beating up easy prey targets.

At around 15th, go take your walkabout...to Dangruf Wadi. It's treated as a dungeon area, so doing pages 15-24 is great there for a small group, and the loot off caskets is nice as well.

24th, go do your subjob quests in Valkrum. Again, feel free to get a page at the outpost there to snap up some more exp. Don't try Gusgen on this path- the alliance there inevitably devours whatever spawns are around and will get ticked if you eat into their camp. Smushing the subjob beasties is easy at that point.

24ish-35th or so, Maze of Shak. You remember Maze Makers? Again, dungeon area, nice Prowess buffs and decent loot chewing up a steady stream of easy prey. At 30th, you can go pick up whatever fancy jobs you want. Dancer is a good choice here, period. Get it. It's as handy a job for the low/soloer meleer as it gets. Scholar is similar kind to many spellcasters, both are relatively easy quests from the Wings of the Goddess expansion. At 30th, you WILL need stealth- bring powders/oils to get past the higher level mobs on the way from the maws to the quest NPCs.

35th-50th, work your way up Delfkutt's (again, so you don't try and compete with the monster-eating alliances in Crawler's). You'll end up dinging 49 on the first floor of the Upper levels (where Mimas/Pory are) You can actually hit 50th here...slowly. Mimas and Pory are JUST barely easy prey at 49, meaning you can kill them for that last level here.

(around 40th, you can easily tear through nation rank 3, and topping Delfkutt's you'll be able to take out Pory for your Delfkutt key to get Rank 4 done.)

50th-55th, Garliage Citadel on beetles/bats. Go do rank 5 for your airship pass at 55th.

That'll give you plenty to do, methinks...if you were on Ragnarok, I'd be a little more helpful.