Echoes of Vana'diel FFXI Alliance Raid

[Elkanah]

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As someone who started on the PS2 with the Japanese version (when the cap was 50 before it hit NA), it was hit or miss. Also depended on server and whether you were socializing on the forums or other places. I'd say the gameplay of XI is still about the same. The only difference is that you can do everything solo. So the game is pretty much soloable for most expansions, but at endgame you have the ability to play with more people ofc. You can still play with friends though earlier in the leveling or mission progress. Making gil is night and day difference. However, there's only a few servers that you want to be on these days. Otherwise most are at dead ends or dead servers as a whole

[AnimaAnimus]

I've heard the game plays radically different nowadays, but I was never sure if it was worth trying again while still being busy with FF14.

Oh man you should really take a look, its a completely different game in both good and bad ways.

They added a lot of QoL features, like there being multiple options to fast travel. But they also stripped the game of a lot of its charm by also adding mounts that prevent aggro so you can run around without a care in the world, trusts so you never have to speak to another person letting you play the game completely solo, and so on. Rhapsodies also added KI that you get while advancing through the quests that give you more exp, faster skill ups, and unlocks an npc that will sell you all the food, coffer keys, etc that you need for basic gameplay, maps are all purchasable, and nearly every spell is available from npcs, there is absolutely no need to farm that stuff. You can even buy gear with a currency called sparks, so no farming/crafting leveling gear. Sparks will also buy you skill tomes to skip skilling up your jobs and they have items that sell for a fair amount to npc vendors so gil rains down upon you, removing the need to craft or farm items to sell.

It's not quite as bad as XIV but its still a very accessable mmo these days with the only real hurdle still being learning how to use the UI and menu systems. Even the once great and fun NM and other overworld systems are mostly abandoned for instanced content or they just pushed the items to npcs. But the game is still very leveling dependant. You have actual job levels, skills, merit points and now job points and master levels to earn, which most ppl do by mercing it so getting a party for that stuff just doesn't happen and you are almost forced to merc it, making it pointless outside of a new way to feed gold sellers. You still need to farm items for your relics, mythics, empys and such too, but that is all 100% soloable now too and many of the great weapons are now obsolete even with adding ways to leveling them up.

Basically they stripped away all the busy work and farming outside of leveling so you can just jump right on into endgame, which is also down to just a few things these days since all lvl 75 and most lvl 99 content is dead and/or soloable. The game is a mere shadow of its former self and with it officially being said that there is no future content being released, it makes doing anything feel absolutely pointless unless you simply like the new grinds. But once you get what you need for a job, the only reason to use that job is to do the same for the next job since you won't be using anything you earned for actual story or new content.

[Dirwen]

The gear is underwhelming so not worth farming. Probably just gonna do raid for story but after not much to log in for...

[Kisshu]

Looks like they got a normal looking Prishe, thankfully.

[Fawkes]

Looks like they got a normal looking Prishe, thankfully.

She doesn't look ugly!

[Fawkes]

I had been wondering what the weekly coins would be and uh



Ordelle... coin? Not bronzepiece?

[Fhaerron]

I hope it's more like how they handled the story for the AR back in Stormblood.

Was miles better then how it was presented back in ShB & EW in my opinion.

[coreydies]

I hope it's more like how they handled the story for the AR back in Stormblood.

Was miles better then how it was presented back in ShB & EW in my opinion.

ShB AR quests are genuinely some of the most dreadful, mind numbing quests in the game. One of the quests after the second AR was so bad it made me stop playing the game that night and go to bed early.

[Elkanah]

I had been wondering what the weekly coins would be and uh



Ordelle... coin? Not bronzepiece?

My guess is Ordelle bronzepieces. Windurst had tukuku shells and bastok had one byne bills.


EDIT:
Checking the lodestone patch notes

Completion Reward
Upon completing Jeuno: The First Walk, players can also earn a separate reward once per week: two Cracked Novaclusters and one Ordelle Coin. The Ordelle Coin can be exchanged with Uah'shepya in Solution Nine (X:8.7 Y:13.5) for items used to enhance equipment purchased with Allagan tomestones of heliometry.

[Elkanah]

New afk spot in ffxiv will be Lower Jeuno at the auction house. Lullll

"Tattered Sheet Music found in the treasure chests of Jeuno: The First Walk can be exchanged with the peculiar goblin in Lower Jeuno (X:6.5 Y:5.2) for special orchestrion rolls relating to Echoes of Vana'diel."