Do New FFXI Players Exist and Could Anything Renew Interest?

[Atoreis]

I have recently playing a lot old events and we changed RDM to WHM and it is much better. On Salvage mp never was a problem (we go lolthf war(ukko) whm(dbox)) and we usually finish way before time limit doing all NMs possible. We did 20 Kirins recently WAR + MNK DD with marches and I can't imagine we could have win with RDMs instead of WHMs (it was close call few times). Nukes on RDM wont really add much. Melee on old events make some ridiculous damage ( like JoT went in slashing mode and my friend on WAR took it down from 80% with sekka Ukko -> Ukko lol). Lol even on something like Jailer of Fortitude it took us like 3 min to took him down with melee on WAR+PLD+THF spamming magic WS and only I on PLD had set for Sanguine. Ukko is a total killer outside abyssea avg about 3k and spiking almost to 6k (and that's with completely lack of good dDex from gear). With Veret Ukon or some other powerful Empy damage added from RDM's few nukes is laughable and it's much better to focus on keeping melee alive. As for debuffs, sure they help but they really no needed. For new stuff imo you will need to take both whm for healing and rdm for debuffs because I think neither of them will be able to handle healing + debuffs.

[Draylo]

How are you clearing salvage faster with a WHM than a RDM? We go with RDM THF MNK and clear everything, RDM nukes do around 1.2k+ with bliz4. I fail to see how a WHM could speed that up, not mentioning para/slow/dia3, faster than RDM.

[notorious bum]

I think what he means is that his DD are a bunch of MP sponges for no good reason. WHM over RDM in Salvage is like having a babysitter fulltime instead of another weapon.

[Darkmagi]

Not saying that a rdm can't heal DDs going all out, but being an mp sponge for no reason...? If you are limiting yourself in any way, the dmg "gained" from rdm is just going to be counterproductive.

[notorious bum]

I was mostly joking. Things are alot more efficient with a RDM in Salvage, I just don't see the advantages of a WHM being there instead.

[terranova]

Slightly on topic - old game is old. New? Yeah I seen some on bahamut. But FFXI is now FFALT. This is how it is. New gamers want other games =/.

[notorious bum]

I agree, the game's focus is its veteran base, new players who arrive on their own will not experience the same kind of community that new MMOs offer. I mean, yes, its more accessible now in terms of difficulty and progression, but having to do it nowadays is merely going through the motions. Abyssea is that double-edge sword that improved end-game life and killed everything else lol

If I had to start this game from scratch, I would quickly feel bored, disconnected, and demotivated without having a static party to share the journey along the entire way. The meat and potatoes of this game is its missions, and multi-level quests, for me atleast, and it's just so much more fun with friends, even though you can do alot of it on your own now.

I remember how grueling shit was to just hit level 60 in my first 6 months of the NA PC release, but the combination of having others around me sharing the experience, doing all the leveling, AFs, missions, genkais and shit together; this is the stuff MMOs are made of.

/nostalgia off

[aduidarnenye]

I don't think new players need to level fast to enjoy the game. They just need to be able to enjoy themselves while leveling.

I think that if they doubled, or tripled the number of mobs in the non-Abyssea zones, they would make life easier on new players. It's annoying to level a new job and spend most of your time running around looking for mobs.

[vrumpt]

this thread has been great at getting me up to speed with what has changed over the past 1.5 - 2 years. Gonna reactivate as soon as this abyssea collection comes out next week. Everything sounds like its changed for the better. Can't wait to get back into Vana'diel. /nostalgia

[Koul]

so, I've been contemplating coming back for a while now. I quit soon after wotg came out. Might as well give it another go, think I'll have more fun with it since it's more solo-friendly now

[Meko]

Make sure to get the Abyssea pack for the helm. I'm waiting until the 16th but I did play around last night and WOW, what a difference. To be able to spam valor pages and get 100+ exp per kill = WIN. Too bad they didn't try this years ago and moving into FF14. Would have made a huge difference, in my opinion.

[Koul]

well this is awesome. downloaded it offa steam and everytime I try and start it up, POL crashes. just loads the initial screen and then shits out... might just wait and get a hard copy next week or something... hmmm

[vrumpt]

Helm is gonna be nice, well depending on how many jobs i have that are below 30. I honestly can't remember lol

[crux]

... a hard copy next week...

I keep hearing this from time to time, but SE was pretty clear that it's download only. "In celebration of the FINAL FANTASY XI 9th Anniversary, it is with extreme pleasure that we announce the FINAL FANTASY XI Ultimate Collection Abyssea Edition, exclusive for Windows PC download!"

[Kaisha]

well this is awesome. downloaded it offa steam and everytime I try and start it up, POL crashes. just loads the initial screen and then shits out... might just wait and get a hard copy next week or something... hmmm

Anyone know if the POL version the Steam copy uses is the patched release for Vista/7 compatibility? Could also try telling POL to run fullscreen via its settings.

[Meko]

I have a friend that runs 7 and just downloaded it off of Steam yesterday and it worked. I would assume the most recent POL version will work with all OS's but I could be wrong.

[Sira]

Should have never read this thread. lol Thinking about resubbing (again..) after 6 months away. With so many starting fresh I'm almost tempted to do the same. I really enjoyed starting out despite how painful it was at times.

Guess I'm one of the the few (or only) people/person who enjoyed nearly every jungle exp pt. Only part that would suck about coming back is all my good friends have quit.

[Nishida]

To answer about WIN7 / Steam: I use WIN7 and Steam and have no issues. Occasionally I've noticed POL crashing for an unknown reason, but it's not often.

@Sira: I'm slightly dissappointed with how Abyssea has damn near wiped out oldffxi. I mean..sure it's nice to zoom to 90 in xp, but if I wanted to do that I would play one of the other ez button games out there. I was drawn to FFXI for all the time you needed to invest since it increased your longevity to play w/o running out of things to do. In 3 months I can barely get a new account to 90 w/ all subs and some missions done..in WoW I could get to end game will full sets of gear and to much gold to know what to do with. @_@

[Meko]

With the new option of augmenting ex/rare gear, I would think the "old FFXI" world would be more open. Nonetheless, I have a few friends that are playing again that never got to do the gods or jailers etc so I'm stoked about helping them with those.

[Nishida]

Well I mean people do sky and shit for random pieces or for augments sure, but it's not a main focus. And pretty much all exping in oldffxi post-30 is gone. I'm cool with burning merits in abyssea, but I'd like to get the feel of leveling a job and not rush to 90 with no experience in a job and having to cap skills and shit. It's going to be annoying.