Thinking of coming back to the game, and have a few questions?

[Kawar]

havent played for ages either!
i want to get back into it though.. just have a feeling i'll be completely lost -.- i remember the map used to kill my life.

the maps are part of why i have a hard time doing any thing in 14.also the fact it is no more then 11 with wow on top.I know if you look at 11 all the text commands and chat controls are mostly the same there.

but i say it is worth comeing back to me i will have an account till i unlock pld and if i do not like the 14 pld i will quit simple as that.

[Nyalia]

FFXIV is nothing like FFXI... They're really separate games. Saying a modern MMO is like WoW is the same as saying a modern fantasy novel is like Lord of the Rings. Just because a game uses elements first seen in WoW (at least, as far as mainstream games go), it doesn't mean the game is just like WoW...

But anyway, it sounds like you last played in 1.x? There are tons of changes from 1.x, including the map being split up into 17 zones instead of 5. Each zone has 1-2 Aetherytes you can teleport to from anywhere, making travel really quick. Leveling from 1-15 can be annoying, but once you hit 15, leveling is a breeze for CNJ, GLA, and MRD. It's much harder with DPS classes. All you have to do to level is run a dungeon. The bonus from fighting in dungeons is massive, and you should gain 1-2 levels per dungeon for most of your time playing (plus the ~half level bonus from using Duty Roulette the first time each day), and dungeons only take ~30 minutes.

The reason healers and tanks are much better for leveling this way is that they take about 0-2 minutes to queue for a dungeon. DPS classes generally take 20-30 minutes. So, keep that in mind when deciding what class you want to play as your first class.

For even faster leveling, there is a new-ish feature called the Challenge Log, which you can unlock at level 17 through a quest (Rising to the Challenge, I think?). It gives you bonus exp and money for doing certain things, and it resets each week.

If you don't like the GCD, this is likely not the game for you. All classes operate on the 2.5 second GCD, with few off-GCD abilities. The further into the game you get, the more mechanics are thrown at you by dungeons and the more things you have to pay attention to, resulting in the GCD not being a big deal at all, imo.

World PvP will never exist in this game. It's too much against the casual feel they're going for. I hear Frontlines is fun though - dunno, haven't tried it yet.


EDIT: Btw, check out this guide for progression/level-locked content.