Considering FFXI till FFXIV 2.0

[Tomoken]

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.

[Zumi]

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.

As someone who has never quit playing XI since it came out the game has gotten way better in my opinion since abyssea came out.

First off leveling is way faster with alliance leveling in abyssea. One of the biggest gripe about FFXI was the leveling took too long. Now you can go from 1 to 99 in like 2 days thanks to GoV and Abyssea.

Abyssea offers AF3 gear which is upgraded twice, you get 8 seals then 6 of another item. This gear can be soloed or done in small groups very easily. No more horrid drop rates like from salvage/kings. You can focus on whatever piece of gear you want to go after and it only takes a couple hours at most. You can also grind empyrean weapons which take like 50, 50 and 75 of a boss drop, bosses aren't that hard but its a long grind for some of the best weapons in the game.

Tanking in FFXI is broken and it has been for awhile. Everyone hate caps in like 1 WS now since people do like 4k+ easy so the mob bounces between whoever hit it last. Tanking is just broken SE doesn't want to fix it. However if you have like a paladin with ochain and almace you can pretty much solo tons of stuff in abyssea since ochain blocks 90% of the time for 90% of incoming damage. If you want to be a paladin nothing is stopping you from doing it.

Then after your done with abyssea you can move on to voidwatch, which is the 18 man content which drops some side grades to abyssea gear at low drop rates. You can pug this pretty easy people are always making groups.

There is also neo nyzul which is harder kind of rngish but offers better gear.

Overall theres a lot of stuff you can do in the game now a lot more then pre abyssea where people sat around and did nothing.

[Tomoken]

Thanks for the reply! That's unfortunate in a way to hear that tanking is very broken, since my first job in that game to 75 was Paladin! (Though I also had WAR/NIN leveled to 75).

In a typical alliance, there is simply no tank anymore due to these issues?
Also, what is the Ochain and Almace? New items, and which level/how hard to achieve?

[Zumi]

Thanks for the reply! That's unfortunate in a way to hear that tanking is very broken, since my first job in that game to 75 was Paladin! (Though I also had WAR/NIN leveled to 75).

In a typical alliance, there is simply no tank anymore due to these issues?
Also, what is the Ochain and Almace? New items, and which level/how hard to achieve?

Ochain is a empyrean shield, blocks 90% of the time for 90% of the damage, returns 25% of damage taken as MP
Almace is a empyrean sword, once gives you the Weaonskill "Chant du Cygne" which is probably the strongest sword ws in the game, gives you aftermath occasionally does double damage.

I got both of them on my paladin its not really hard to get but very tedious, somewhat like relics in FFXIV but slightly easier.

Typical alliance fight would be like Voidwatch. People will bring a paladin if the boss has adds and it would be the paladins job to hold adds. The main boss is just tanked by melees using fanatics drinks. While usually its the mages who try to proc the boss, which is to say freeze him in place for like 20-30 sec but chain procs make the boss frozen a long time.

[Tomoken]

Once again thank you for the replies and I apologize If I'm asking too many questions, but I want to know what I'm getting myself into before I do it lol.

Is WAR/NIN still the sub-job combo of choice alongside dual-wielding, or is there more emphasis on 2-handers now for them? If I do make a return, I do plan on raising both my PLD and WAR back, but I'm mainly curious since WAR subs might have to be further leveled due to the cap change.

Lastly, forgot to ask what GoV was as well. It seems I'm really going to have to figure out the new way to level jobs in FFXI; I'm used to the grind it used to be.

[Forgo]

If you find a war/nin in todays ffxi coolness i myself have yet to see one lately alot of bst have popped up and dd jobs have went to blu mostly but other jobs still have their place ingame though its more less control based then smash and go with pages up.. I myself is in my 3rd time playing ffxi, left once to join the army the 2nd time for other reasons and now i'm back and trying to a place ingame myself... Question where you on the old gilamesh sever? if so i hope you know it got put together with carby sever and went to pot lol

[Tomoken]

I was originally on Kujata; I heard that it became Valefor.

[Malakhim]

I was really hoping that I could get back into FFXI when I heard about Audolin(spelling?), but after hitting lvl.40(in 3 or 4 days mind you), I dunno, a lot of what I felt was annoying about the game started sinking in. Right now I'm trying to play TOR, and it's been pretty fun going back to all the group flashpoints, the PvP, the space missions, and the story/RPing, but the servers have been lagging so badly lately that it's nigh unplayable for me.

[Alhanelem]

I've reactivated to shake things up a bit (got tired of losing in League of Legends) ... I guess the thing thats suprising me most right now (after being away from the game for most of the year) is that the latest new thing (Meeble Burrows) isn't really being played, which is a shame because it looked fun (Obviously the reason is the rewards are crap, something they still haven't gotten over)

[FF4ever]

Yeah XI still has alot of players playing, most are higher lvl tho doing end game at this point... i went back to xi Aug~Sept bc i missed my main. i was suprised to see ppl still shouting for missions and lvl partys xD

ffxiah.com has a live steam of current shouts and chats going on in port jeuno for all server if your interested check it out, i enjoy watching it sometime, its interesting...