Coming back to where I belong...

So I'm planning on coming back to FFXIV when the servers come back up, I initially got the game when it first came out, played it for a couple of weeks and then got dragged over to Cataclysm by some friends. I actually enjoyed the initial weeks of play, regardless of all the problems, even hooked up my PS2 controller to my PC which made it even more enjoyable. As I understand, alot of the people currently in these forums are probably all higher level people who have hung around this long since the game started, and there's a couple of things I'm still a little confused about with all the updates that have occurred since I stopped (December 2010ish). What kind of things have really shone through to you, the people who have been playing for awhile, and is the subscription rates still free to play indefinitely for the time being?

Subscriptions are still free indefinitely. Item search on the market wards make shopping much easier. You'll notice mobs are now HUGE. If you see a orange-red sunburst next to a mob's name, go up and poke it. It's fun. :p Best bet for you is to skim all the patch notes to get an overview of what's changed.

There have been a number of small changes, but the major ones you'll feel and notice the most Myri mentioned. If you enjoyed it before you left you will find it even better now. Find yourself a good linkshell and you should be good to go! :)