I'm writing this knowing some people will be "upset" to see FFXI posted in an FFXIV general forum, but I'll get to why it's related (so please spare your anger from this thread; it isn't going to be necessary/desirable for anyone).

SO now that I got that out of the way, a little background on myself that many others will find similar:

My first MMORPG ever was FFXI. Played it for many years all the way up until about midway in-between the time they released Level Sync and the first level cap break past 75 (so while 75 was still the highest LVL). I had been on FFXIV approximately since March of this year till the very last day and am HIGHLY (as most of you are) anticipating FFXIV 2.0.

Lately I've been trying different MMOs (Tera in particular) but it seems to not really be doing it for me. I've played WoW before inbetween FFXI and FFXIV but I have no interest of going back to that either.

From what I heard of FFXI for quite some time is that the leveling had become easy-mode and that certain jobs like Paladin lost their purpose.

Is there anyone else considering/already in the process of playing FFXI currently, and if so, would you recommend a come-back prior to FFXIV 2.0's release? Is there anything that someone that stopped playing during LV 75 cap/Level Sync release time should be aware of such as myself?

Thank you for all of your input, and have a happy holiday season.