New or Returning Players Discussion 2: SoA Homeless Veterans Edition

[vegetaa]

Mounted Champion from Kutharei is awesome in many case.

[D44kpunk]

hi, i'm returning to ffxi and wondering which server(s) have a large UAE population as i'm looking for some fellows to play with.

thanks in advance BG!

[Francisco]

Randomly logged in, without windower, but in FFXI's windowed mode... only had about 4 Firefox tabs opened and an Open Office spreadsheet open... FFXI ran fine, but everything else (Firefox, Open Office) became non-responsive/unusable. Even the Windows Start Menu was laggy as all hell, couldn't even get my PC to restart within a reasonable time frame...

Is FFXI windowed mode THAT bad of a memory hog?

Also, logged in last night with windower - no memory issues - but I had to disable all plugins in my init.txt file, because something was crashing upon loading... seemed to be happening while resources.xml was updating, but not sure... any ideas what plugin would cause this? Haven't actually played since last summer.

[Eldelphia]

Fran - update to 4 and it'll update itself and its plugins when you launch

[Mathematics]

Since the new expansion came out, im thinking about starting the game fresh again.(cant get old acct back.) i was wondering if:
1. do people still level traditionally through different zones in parties or is it all just a leechfest from 30
2. if i restarted with, say, 2 of my friends, would we be able to trio party zones and still have alot of fun? also, theres still level sync right?(incase one of us gets ahead)
3. is it worth it

i only played through ToAU. stopped before anything else came out

[Tokitoki]

I've got a question regarding Embrava. I'm reading through the SCH guide on FFXIAH that Kohan linked on an earlier page and it placed a large emphasis on Embrava'ing your PT. I had lost my account some time ago and only recently started again from scratch so I am probably just out of the loop...

How can you keep Embrava up constantly? I've found that 2hrs are now 1hrs, but with a 5 minute duration, doubled, that's still 10mins duration. I'm certainly missing something here. Thanks in advance.

[Fereydoon]

I've got a question regarding Embrava. I'm reading through the SCH guide on FFXIAH that Kohan linked on an earlier page and it placed a large emphasis on Embrava'ing your PT. I had lost my account some time ago and only recently started again from scratch so I am probably just out of the loop...

How can you keep Embrava up constantly? I've found that 2hrs are now 1hrs, but with a 5 minute duration, doubled, that's still 10mins duration. I'm certainly missing something here. Thanks in advance.

Tabula Rasa lasts 3 minutes, 3:30 with Augmented Relic pants. Recast at the end of it.

Embrava also lasted 12.5 minutes before yesterdays update, with AF3+2 gloves and Perpetuance. Constantly required more than one SCH, or a reset.

[Jakson]

So I'm trying to trigger this yellow thing for iga feet seals on the worm in Aby Vunk and I ran through all the spells twice, and had my whm hit twice with banish II and no yellow !!s. I popped on Windsday and both wikis are suggesting it should have been Suiton, Huton, Hyoton. Did Ni for all of them. Am I doing something wrong? And am I understanding it right that it silences the mob and stuns them for 30 seconds or so? And once I've got the yellow !!s, I shouldn't try to trigger it again, right?

[ArchDizzle]

No, it can be a spell of the element from the day before of and after the day it's popped, which spell it will be to trigger yellow is random, could be ninjitsu/blu/blm/etc. The wiki will list which spells from each type of magic are possible triggers for the corresponding days.

[Jakson]

Oh, I was umderstandimg it as the element needed to be cast and it didnt matter what type of magic produced it. So is it only tier III+ black magic?

[Buffy]

Oh, I was umderstandimg it as the element needed to be cast and it didnt matter what type of magic produced it. So is it only tier III+ black magic?

http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Weakness_Targeting

If you popped on Windsday, it can be any of the listed spells from the Yellow !! weakness section from Watersday, Windsday, or Iceday. Each day has 8 unique procs, so if you don't have the hint KI, there are 24 possible procs.

[Martinius]

Since the new expansion came out, im thinking about starting the game fresh again.(cant get old acct back.) i was wondering if:
1. do people still level traditionally through different zones in parties or is it all just a leechfest from 30
2. if i restarted with, say, 2 of my friends, would we be able to trio party zones and still have alot of fun? also, theres still level sync right?(incase one of us gets ahead)
3. is it worth it

i only played through ToAU. stopped before anything else came out

1) Obviously soloing from 1 to 12-14 is common. The normal (I'm showing my age) path then is Valkrum Dunes til 20 > Qufim Island til 25 > Yuhtunga Jungle to 28 (you generally go to Yhoator at 28, but if it's just you and your two friends, grind out rather than move). However, since the rise of Abyssea, alt characters (separate accounts played concurrently by the same player) with WHMs leveled have changed this a bit, so it's more likely that many people simply powerlevel their individual characters to 30. There are also some alliance-based xp in the teens in Gusgen Mines that use level sync and Grounds of Valor to exp more efficiently.

2) Yes, absolutely, and that sounds like a lot of fun for you and your friends!

3) I can't answer this for you. Leaving at ToAU means you left when there were three kings, three ToAU HNMs, and the three Grand Wyrms, plus Salvage, ENMs, and Limbus/Sea. The game is vastly different now (some for the better - more content, more efficient leveling, more challenges, the ability to obtain very strong weapons and equipment both solo and low-man, and some for the worse - Abyssea has created a laziness (easy to kill NMs, accessible powerful weapons, the ability to "buy" spots in exp alliances where for a fee (on Shiva it's 100k per hour) your character joins an alliance and is free to sit, afk, sleep, whatever, while a small group uses powerful AoE Weaponskills - Fell Cleave and AoE spells - Charged Whisker to kill 15-25ish mobs (at 600exp per mob, plus random 1250exp chests that are dropped. Fell Cleave is a bit better exp since you can only gain exp from 8 mobs killed at once - if CW kills all 25, you still get the 25 chests, but only exp from those first 8 mobs. Fell Cleave does variable damage to the monsters it's hitting, so while a couple minutes slower per pull, players get exp from all mobs killed) at a time, so players end up level 99 where they have no comprehension of the job they've leveled, leaving a less talented playerpool).

In my humble opinion, give it a shot. You spoke of two friends. If the three of you were able to create a combination of WAR/NIN/WHM, with your WAR also having BLM, you could easily walk out of Abyssea very well geared and be able to fully participate in other endgame events that can sometimes be tedious, but are often very, very fun. You'll know in a month or two if the new content, and the content new to you are worth your time and energy. I hope this helps and I hope you and your friends have some fun

[Reposado]

Coming back to the game seems more difficult now by the looks of it.. Has anyone else started fresh without anyone else to really come back to or help them get back on their feet? How hard is it to keep afloat of shihei/food decent gear upgrades nowadays with 0 crafts to go on or high level farming?

[vegetaa]

How hard is it to keep afloat of shihei/food decent gear upgrades nowadays with 0 crafts to go on or high level farming?

You can make decent gil from Abyssea exp parties alone : 1 Dragon Meat will make weeks of Shihei. Don't forget to NPC the augmented gear you can get from some of the golden chests.

Abyssea solo farming is efficient too. Get a job to 99 (I went with NIN since it can reliably get azure and amber lights with a little practice), understand how Abyssea lights work, target an easy mob, and kill, kill, kill. You want golden and blue chests so target your mobs and plan your lights accordingly.

That, plus a few quests and nation missions here and there, can make you several millions a week.

[Guitarman]

Coming back to the game seems more difficult now by the looks of it.. Has anyone else started fresh without anyone else to really come back to or help them get back on their feet? How hard is it to keep afloat of shihei/food decent gear upgrades nowadays with 0 crafts to go on or high level farming?

To give you an idea, dark/light crystal stacks are around 6-7k each. figure you can get 2(3?) per elemental and its easy quick cash to keep you afloat until you find a solid way to make more gil. Xarcabard has dark weather often.

[Apelila]

Randomly logged in, without windower, but in FFXI's windowed mode... only had about 4 Firefox tabs opened and an Open Office spreadsheet open... FFXI ran fine, but everything else (Firefox, Open Office) became non-responsive/unusable. Even the Windows Start Menu was laggy as all hell, couldn't even get my PC to restart within a reasonable time frame...

Is FFXI windowed mode THAT bad of a memory hog?

Also, logged in last night with windower - no memory issues - but I had to disable all plugins in my init.txt file, because something was crashing upon loading... seemed to be happening while resources.xml was updating, but not sure... any ideas what plugin would cause this? Haven't actually played since last summer.

I just did my update with POL and my blue ray player running, I had to force close my blue ray player because the whole system locked up.
My halfassed and probably very incorrect guess is its the old version of Direct X FFXI uses and how Direct X is tied directly into Win Vista and above now. It has to be something with the video processing, because it happened again when I opened a youtube link.

[Tahona]

Thinking about coming back for the expansion does anyone have any links that would maybe point me in the right direction getting my nin/sam/rng back up and ready to go.

[Tokitoki]

Thinking about coming back for the expansion does anyone have any links that would maybe point me in the right direction getting my nin/sam/rng back up and ready to go.

Check the first page of this thread. There is a general run down on the BG Wiki with info for returning players as well as beginner guides for Voidwatch, Abyssea, etc. I have found these helpful for my recent return on getting up to speed with what's going on.

If you have your character and jobs from the 75 cap you're in good shape. You'll want to start your Abyssea and Voidwatch timers. Other than that, read the aforementioned guides on the first page, and you may have to hit up Bostaunieux Oubliette Grounds of Valor to begin leveling up to 99 if you can't find an Abyssea PT right away or want to store some stones.

After you're 99, get Empy +2 as soon as you can to start with and then move on with Voidwatch and the other events available. (That's the general consensus I have gotten at least).

If you're starting from scratch (like myself) Fields of Valor and Grounds of Valor are the key to getting up there quick. Outside your town > Gusgen PT > CN/GC PT > Abyssea/BO or solo to 30 with the various FoV and GoV tomes available in your area and then proceed with Abyssea leeching or CN/GC.

[Isiolia]

Thinking about coming back for the expansion does anyone have any links that would maybe point me in the right direction getting my nin/sam/rng back up and ready to go.

Some of the FFXIAH job forums have guides stickied that are good and fairly extensive. I don't think RNG has one yet, but SAM and NIN do.

[Tahona]

Thanks, I will go check that out.