Why was FFXI so great?

[Isaaru]

Also note: A lot of people think now that FFXI was great because of nostalgia when in reality a lot of the systems were broken for a long time.

[Jokerz]

Please go on then. I'm fully aware of all spawn and re-entry timers, but it just seems to me like you listed a bunch of Salvage items. Salvage was one part of the game. My point is once you actually got to fight an NM or HNM or Proto-Omega or Proto-Ultima your LS would get a drop. Yes the farm would be a grind but at least you didn't have to farm the NM over and over and over making the NM ultimately boring to fight.

My point was that yes you had to farm pop items, but once you fought the actual NM SOMETHING would drop. It honestly seems like most people's argument for FFXI being grinding like FFXIV is now is "BLAH BLAH SALVAGE BLAH BLAH" I would take farm items to kill an NM that would drop something for the LS by the end of the week any day over grind 1 dungeon or 1 fight over and over.

Also you only listed the Kings there, the king HNM's were made so there would be actual rare items. The lesser HNMs would pop once a day and almost always drop something of use. So please, list something else that isn't Salvage to prove your point.

That isn't really true. You could fight kirrin and only get a wind crystal(well I guess thats something....) and HNM's weren't implemented well either. Also no matter what you were bound to fight the same NM's over and over again due to members in your ls needing the same gear.

[Eagleheart]

Your post boils down to "Prove me wrong without mentioning any of the game's content."

It also boils down to "I want there to be goals that only a few will ever achieve", for whatever reason. Perhaps you're an elitist, or perhaps you simply think that offers balance in some way, I know not.

You would think Sea and Sky, after years of both, would require no mention. I also mentioned ZNM, you discounted the enumerated cons of Limbus, you wholly skipped over Dynamis, and then said "Show me something that isn't Salvage."

It is pointless to discuss the matter with you, if you simply ignore what is being said. ._.

[Jokerz]

Having played XI up to lv 89 rng, and having played Abyssea, I thought it was a decent expansion. The reason people scream about how it ruined XI forever is due to the level cap increase making much of thier lv 75 gear obsolete overnight.

On the other hand, the Empyrean weapons were more accessible to all players, (I was about halfway to my Kannagi when I stopped playing wheras I had never started any of the stage 1 relics I had) and the way enemy weaknesses worked meant that every job was expected to come battle-ready (i.e. Abyssea was the only endgame instance a red mage was expected to fight.)

I'm sorry but I have trouble believing this. A lot of 75 gear is still relevant in some form or another if anything to hold you over till getting the new stuff.

I think a more likely reason was people were running out of stuff to do as everything began to revolve around luck instead of ability to get stuff. Look at voidwatch, look at neo-nyzul. You are only influencing your chances at being lucky to get gear. Abbysea was fun but it was easy to manipulate, all you need was mnk+whm. Most of the once impossible weapons became incredibly easy to obtain. People were running out of logical stuff to do.

[Andrien]

there was a myth saying that people should take off their signet buff before fighting kirin. this way he wont drop a wind crystal lol

[Jokerz]

there was a myth saying that people should take off their signet buff before fighting kirin. this way he wont drop a wind crystal lol

Someone always forgot tho!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[NadienKirisame]

there was a myth saying that people should take off their signet buff before fighting kirin. this way he wont drop a wind crystal lol

Don't forget it must be on this specific day with the moon in this phase and you have to kill it all facing the east >.>

The cat is bemused =-.-=

[Duelle]

On the other hand, the Empyrean weapons were more accessible to all players, (I was about halfway to my Kannagi when I stopped playing wheras I had never started any of the stage 1 relics I had) and the way enemy weaknesses worked meant that every job was expected to come battle-ready (i.e. Abyssea was the only endgame instance a red mage was expected to fight.)

Abyssea's proc system suffered from short-sightedness, and it showed. When the ideal party was NIN, WAR, BLM/BRD, BLU, and THF (for Treasure Hunter) and everyone else just didn't matter, you know there was something wrong.

I appreciate your mentioning RDM, though RDM could only really viably melee thanks to the damn on/off switch (known as Almace with Chant du Signe).

[Ruisu]

Like HELL it wasn't!

"Hey loyal fans who've been paying us for years! We're going to annihilate your world and destroy every shred of accomplishment you've ever felt by invalidating all your efforts and struggles over the year for the sake of letting people beat the sum of the game in 2 month"

"BUT DON'T WORRY! We got this *new* game coming out! It is a Final Fantasy MMO! Also look here, see this?! YOUR RACES FROM FFXI ARE ALL HERE! Come join the fun!!"

The moment they put FFXI races into the games was the moment they created a sequel in the minds of the players. Don't even try to deny this Eagle, there is no way to get around this fact. If they wanted FFXIV to be a completely different experience from FFXI then they should have made it with FFT races or SOMETHING else. Not the exact models they used in a similar game just years before. That is like saying Blue is Green even though the color you are pointing too is clearly Blue.

They also mentioned how this game was geared towards a casual audience, along with some "hardcore" aspects. Also they said the armory system was completely different to FFXI's job system, but okay.

[Rampage]

In ffxi pre abyssea everything you got seemed epic. And that was awesome untill you realized that the reason it was epic is that you have been grinding non stop for months to get that lucky drop + youre lucky roll so you get the item. Then you dont have to worry about it. I stopped playing ffxi a year before abyssea and came back when the first abyssea came out. Iwas worried id be gimped but my gear was still competitive. After a year without playing . . .

FFXI was always about group grinding and plodding through overly complicated mechanics to get to a point where you got something good. I love the game because when you finally got good gear it was likely to last a long time and the sheer effort and work made it rewarding as a pay off.
However for a game so heavily party oriented end game battles where never very creative. Any battle basically degenerated into: keep enough people alive, kite, outlast the monster or zerg. Honestly so many people talk about the challenge of the game, but almost all battles where basically gearchecks, it wasnt even, "get out of the shit on the floor" it was " dont stand in front or AoE range of the mob" VW was basically run out, run in rinse repeat.

I played WoW for a long while and eventually came back to ffxi, i think the battles in WoW were much more creative, where everyone had to be on top of their game for the group to win, WotLK battles had you jumping around over fire out of stuff on the floor, coordinating assaults on two mobs etc. . . but mostly any items you got in that game would be useless 2-3months down the road. I think if ffxiv finds a middle ground i will stay with it for a long time.

Emphasis on party / alliance play and battle mechanics on creative endgame content? Yes, please.
Making party / alliance the ONLY way to get anything done in the game, including leveling up . . . No, thanks.