So, uh, what did I miss these last 11 years?

[JTF]

Hello everyone!

I logged out for what I assumed was the last time in 2012, yet here I am again 11 years later. My main characters were JTF and Badhairday on Asura.

Still trying to remember how to do simple things like run and fight.

The graphics might be a bit dated but the music is still amazing. A lot of nostalgia every time I go into a different zone.

I have been playing FFXIV. It's okay, but it's not really much of a challenge.

Kind of sad coming back to linkshells that had their last message years ago.

So, what are the biggest changes in the last decade? Last I played, Abyssea parties were the hottest place to get EXP and everyone was talking about how to beat PW.

Cheers.

[Pixela]

They changed almost everything.

They added Item level gear, which effectively levels you to 119 (and gear slots to level pets and avatars to 119)

They added trusts (the thing you see in 14 was from 11) so you can level and do some endgame alone (if you want)

They added callable mounts, you need to do a new quest to activate them and you can collect lots of mounts.

Fast warps, from books and crystals.

1 new expansions, Adoulin. 1 new mini expansion, rhapsodies. 1 new story expansion, voracious resurgence.

New areas, new monsters, new gear, new abiliities, new spells.

All new endgame.

You can equip 2 linkshells, new chat mode for returnees and new players.

Unity factions.

Job points (merits mk2 kind of)

Master level (ghetto level increase above 99)

2nd floor mog houses, mog gardens, mog patio.

Glamour system.

Gear sets for macros.

etc

[Alhanelem]

I have been playing FFXIV. It's okay, but it's not really much of a challenge.

How many ultimates have you cleared?

FFXI isn't really that much of a challenge either. They both have challenge they just approach it differently.


Anyway...

No one grinds Abyssea for EXP anymore, as leveling is drastically faster than it used to be. However, once3 you reach 99 you need to farm tons of Job Points and then you gain master levels, so there's still no shortage of grinding. You just won't be doing it in the places you remember.

You can teleport between home points, so no one does tele taxis anymore. Home points were added all over the world, especially near boss fight areas.

Gear sets make changing gear for abilties easier, and you can also use them to change your look like glamour in FFXI, by using the /lockstyle command to freeze your appearance. You can designate a gear set as a lockstyle set and it is basically like an XIV glamour plate.

[Tarmarkvar]

Off the top of my head.

Seekers of Adoulin came out in early 2013, which introduced a whole bunch of zones on the western continent of Ulbuka.

Rhapsodies of Vanadiel came out in 2016. It isn't an expansion, it's just a bunch of missions.

A Voracious Resurgence came out in 2020 and just finished last week. It's more missions.

The level cap is still 99, but now there's a thing called item level which makes you stronger than a level 99, even though that is your character level.

Job points were added as an additional form of progression after level 99 sometime in 2014. You need 2100 of them to max out a job.

Master levels were added last year. You need to max out job points on a job to start adding on Master levels. The cap is 50, and for every 5 Master levels, the cap on your subjob increases by 1. Master levels are kind of fun until about level 30, then the TNLs are so massive it makes the pre-Abyssea XP grind look like nothing.

[BobbinT]

Think Rhapsodies count as expansion by game quest logs & records of eminence, TVR strangely categorized as add-ons albeit having way longer quests than older ones.

Also adding things to complement on posts above:

Adoulin also introduces Mog Island & Monster rearing, it'll be a requirement max-ranking them to get one of final secret trust.

There's also Monstrosity where u play as monsters & level it up, used to be very interesting, unfortunately it dies.

Post Adoulin starts introducing high-tier version of old boss battles - High-Tier Mission Battlefield (HTMB), of course with their version of i119 gear rewards.

Rhapsodies introduces new relics called Aeonics, while the recent TVR introduces Prime Weapons. Old REMA also got ilvl upgrades through new battle contents.

New battle contents relates to relic upgrades are Omen, Dynamis Divergence (basically ilvl version of old Dynamis), Vagary, & Sortie.

There's also other battle contents not really related to relic upgrades, but also great way for gearing up: Ambuscade (which changes monthly) that's great for gearing on beginners/returnees, & Odyssey for much advance gearing & comparable or sometimes slightly better than relics.

Records of Eminence (RoE) I mentioned above, introduced as great way for beginners for leveling/gearing/skilling, as well as advance selections which has uses for relics as well. They're sorta FF14's achievement menu, but unlike FF14 where it only rewards cosmetic values, FF11 reward exp & currencies which also can be used to make money as well albeit this has been gated per weekly quota due to RMT abusing it.

To complement grinding for job points, & master levels later on, series of regular mobs called Apex mobs introduced starting from Adoulin zones & even all the way to starter areas as of recent updates like Crawler Nests or King Ranperre's tomb for examples (ofc far from reaches of new players for safety).

& speaking of leveling, since Rhapsodies introduces their own areas called Eschas (there's 3 of em) they're now serves currently as places for xp grinds & even power leveling, due to now having to grind job points & master level became a much more need to tackle current battle challenges. This place also important for Aeonic relic grinds as well, not mentioned above due to Eschas being open world areas instead of time-limited entries like former mentioned.

Personally haven't rly touched this, but crafting also maxed beyond 100 levels, & sometimes important since can make superior crafter armouries, they will have marks from Su1 to Su5 & can only be worn when reaching certain stage of job point grinds, with Su5 being the caps. While some Su gears probably won't be that great, certain of them are high-sought easily on million gil prices.

Lastly, to incentive beginners as well as returnees, game also introduces another lottery-kind content called AMAN troves which could randomly reward either crap or awesome stuff even found from HTMBs (ofc much rarer). And there's also monthly campaigns & login point campaigns which further helps by boosting speed-rate on xp/currencies & such.

[Pixela]

Rhapsodies of Vanadiel came out in 2016. It isn't an expansion, it's just a bunch of missions.

It added new zones, new expansive endgame, lots of new gear, new monsters....how can you say it's not an expansion?

Rhapsodies was actually really impressive, and it was free. Rhapsodies is probably the reason most of us are still playing because it added so much good content.

FFXI isn't really that much of a challenge either. They both have challenge they just approach it differently.

I don't know how you can say this, especially compared to XIV.

XI is more complicated of a game for a start, with the need for gears changes and unknown mechanics.
Monsters get stronger as hp drops.
Content is more complicated.
You need to put a lot of progression to even enter fights on XI without getting destroyed.
Fights on XI are much more random and designed with punishments.
All jobs are harder to play well on XI, especially tank and healer.
There is actual party mechanics on XI, the healer heals, the tank tanks and there are support jobs.

XIV is designed to be far more simple to appeal to a far wider audience and it's easier to clear things, and they make it easier with every patch.

Wasn't the "hardest" raid recently killed on XIV with no healer at all? XIV is mainly just memorizing a what a mob does at percentages.

I could argue that XI is too hard but then that is its unique niche that has allowed it to live so long, so it's difficult to complain about it too much.

The casual and easy nature of XIV is why it's popular, the difficulty of XI is why it's not so.

[Sp1cyryan]

Can you stop constantly going on about FF14 in every random thread, Pixela?

[Immortal]

Your best buddy is the one that brought it up in the first place, you are so bad at this

[Sp1cyryan]

Your best buddy is the one that brought it up in the first place, you are so bad at this

Just how bothered are you? I've never seen such a constant and desperate attempt to clap back.

[JTF]

Thanks for all the updates. I'll probably just unlock the two new jobs first, (well new for me) and see if I like them.