return(again)

[weeman]

Think it is to late to come back to FFXI?
I havent played since 2004'ish. I would be starting all over since my last account was hacked/swiped.
I played WoW for a couple years, just really miss FFXI, but going through all the missions and stuff again seems rough.

[Sefier]

To late; Unless you dont wanna have fun for the first month or so (Due to whoring yourself out)


But Here's what you should do if you plan on making a complete restart.


BLM17->WHM->30 unlock brd->37whm->75brd

Take whm to 50

Clear CoP As main whm til 6-4

[weeman]

yeah, thats what I was thinking.
Also was thinking maybe do BST to break up the boredom that will be the first few months til I get back up to speed.

[Ardrial]

To late; Unless you dont wanna have fun for the first month or so (Due to whoring yourself out)


But Here's what you should do if you plan on making a complete restart.


BLM17->WHM->30 unlock brd->37whm->75brd

Take whm to 60

Clear CoP As main whm til 6-4

fix'd

6-4 and some of 5-3 is 60 capped

[Tirrock]

It just depends on how bad you want back in. Honestly, if I had to start all over from this point, I wouldn't bother. Although if you have friends that still play, you might be able to convince them to help out on missions. At least CoP mission BCs give people who have already completed it exp now.

If you're going to start again, you'd better do it soon. When the new expansion comes out, it'll bring new jobs with it. Low level equipment will probably get expensive (to somebody just starting, at least), and the more common exp places for low levels will likely get overrun.

[Sefier]

To late; Unless you dont wanna have fun for the first month or so (Due to whoring yourself out)


But Here's what you should do if you plan on making a complete restart.


BLM17->WHM->30 unlock brd->37whm->75brd

Take whm to 60

Clear CoP As main whm til 6-4

fix'd

6-4 and some of 5-3 is 60 capped

BRD is fine for U/O (assuming you already got a WHM) 60 whm would be nice but only 1 mission is 60capped in 5-3, And its just a CS sneak/invis can get the job done.

[Tirrock]

To late; Unless you dont wanna have fun for the first month or so (Due to whoring yourself out)


But Here's what you should do if you plan on making a complete restart.


BLM17->WHM->30 unlock brd->37whm->75brd

Take whm to 60

Clear CoP As main whm til 6-4

fix'd

6-4 and some of 5-3 is 60 capped

BRD is fine for U/O (assuming you already got a WHM) 60 whm would be nice but only 1 mission is 60capped in 5-3, And its just a CS sneak/invis can get the job done.

I think that the moblin BC is 60 cap. Although BRD is fine there too. I did 5-3 to beating CoP with a BRD in my group.

[Aymee]

I'd argue this is the best possible time to come back.
There will actually be people that might know what they're doing back in the starting zones with the new jobs. Between food, gear and merit-assisted players, even an average dunes or qufim PT is substantially easier/faster than it used to be. 1-20 on a highly-desired job can be done in just a few days if you've got the time.
Come back ASAP to give yourself some time before the expansion to get used to the system again, to get yourself settled and hopefully meet a few decent people.

Advantages of lower-lvls now compared to 2004 or so:
--Outpost warps at lvl10 to dunes, bubu. No more walking 20 minutes home to town and worrying about that damn tremor ram smacking you. Get those missions done asap and run the supply quests. You can also seek in town and OP out to PTs, letting you get other stuff done (quests, namely).
--Dunes PTs no longer make you cry from the old problems. No more random train aggro... they depop.
--Even if dunes are overcrowded, mob repop times have been adjusted to make things tolerable.
--EXP bands. Can make even the most horrific of PTs turn into a gain-a-level PT, and more. Or, it can make a session of lvl1>10 on something new doable in just a few hours.
--Gear is cheap. Like, should be really cheap. If for some reason the AH is understocked-overpriced, everything up 'til lvl20 or so can be purchased from armor shops for cheap (a few k) or purchased with conquest points.
--Information available. There's a ridiculous amount of information about any topic you can think of available from many sources. If you get frustrated or get curious about anything, it's always easy to look up and find a solution to.
--Quests in cities for cash. Those old gimmicks like warp/drain/aspir quests, teleport quests and eventual ninja scroll quests all still work for good cash at lower levels.
--Mammoth deflation. If you escaped in 2004, prices today should be roughly what they were 3 years ago, having gone through a gigantic cycle. AHing stuff you random get killing stuff in a starting zone can actually cough up some useful gil again. You wouldn't probably notice a difference from when you left.
--Even if EVERYTHING else fails, 90% of PTs will have a PL of some sort. Dull, I know. Sadly, the trust level between random people can be so low that a PL is often brought in for PTs of all levels. Hell, there are plenty of people that have a second account made or received from a friend that are used for pretty much nothing more than PLing themselves and their PTs.
--Chocobos to be had basically everywhere, in case OPing isn't sufficient.
--All the old standards like getting your teleport crystals, lvling subs... all still apply. You know this stuff already so you'll never need to ask the simplest questions or infuriate your PTs.
--Even if you have no idea what's going on or what to do, chances are there'll always be someone in your PT that does.
--Tons of different ways to [potentially] earn gil at all levels--20 different acronyms for activities.
--Fishing has... changed a lot. As it used to be the default passtime for the bored, see what you make of it.

Disadvantages:
--JPN/NA relations are still often... odd, particularly with PT dynamics.
--With exception of the layout of the cities, most everything else has changed in some way. There are tons of NPCs in town that will talk about things that you've never in your life heard of, or won't have access to for ages. Don't get discouraged.
--Crafting is essentially pointless without a large starting bankroll, and some sort of very well-made plan.
--The vast majority of players stick to higher-level things now. Endgame stuff, whatever you want to call it. Cities and Jeuno will feel entirely abandoned to you compared to before. Though, no more Jeuno lag!
--It'll likely take you some time to get out to Whitegate/Al Zahbi... but besides job flag quests, you don't really need to be there until lvl50+
--Whatever used to be 'good'--most AF, the old gear sets... well most of them are completely and totally laughed at now. As some consolation, a lot of things have been crafted so much (like HQ low-lvl rings and earrings) they're pretty cheap. Better still is that the most 'common' and perfectly acceptable higher-level stuff has also been crafted to death (Scorp Harnesses!) and they're laughably cheap.
--Job roles and choices of subs has changed at all levels... hell there are job you've never even seen before. I'd highly suggest reading things from scratch, from new players guides and everything above. Fortunately, 'how PTs work' hasn't changed much at the lower levels. Tank, healer, dmg.
--Can be hard to find a decently-populated LS of people you enjoy talking with at lower levels the first time through.

Potentially catastrophic disadvantages:
--Nation missions. Most people have either completed all 3 nations to rank10, or finished rank10 at one city ages ago and refuse to do another since you have to re-do outpost warps, and best are often the most impossible (re: Tarus take Gustaburg roughly once in never... people pray for and pounce on these rare events).
--Still need to do Zilart for sky and other misc. things. You can get away with things without sky, but it's still kinda assumed people will have. Put this lower on the priority list but don't forget it.
--Need to do CoP missions. There are no excuses not to do them besides difficulty in organizing. Any rumors you might have hear in the past of it being way too hard are now greatly exaggerated. Variety of benefits from getting sea.
--The better gear still takes work. A lot of work. Sky isn't the end-all-be-all of activities and armor now... even kings don't mean as much. There are things to dig out of almost all activities and it's difficult to get into several of them at once and learn how they work.
--Being called "gimp". People have higher expectations now of how people act in PTs and their gear. Decent/polite players should understand a totally average person, but others are just rude. Whatever you do, don't think you're cool in HQ lvl20 stuff when you're lvl50+. Just be honest with people and openly tell them you're returning to the game after a long time and you're open to any ideas/suggestions that might help you.
--So so many activities to do from lvl50 on. Tons at lvl75. This kind of ties into having the 'better' gear concern, but it is seriously very hard to decide what you like or might want to try. Worse yet--for anything besides random Assaults there aren't many pickup groups for things.
--Getting a decent LS. There are essentially three categories of lvl75 players, in my view. 1) People that have been around the same friends and others for so so long in the same one LS or series of LS that they've just about shut out everyone else in the world. 2) People that float around randomly to many LSes/HNMLSes... often greedy or looking to take advantage of people. Be weary of newer LSes or ones with tons of member turnover. 3) LSes that really don't remotely care about the fancy stuff and just try to have fun... anyone can join, and you do whatever people feel like. This should probably be your goal for awhile.

If I 'had' to start over now... hm.
Start in Bastok (ease of EXP and ease/importance of starting quests--more gil and tenshodo). WHM to 18 first. Get to 20ish with a sub and do you choco license and kazham keys. Use your research to pick out quests with decent rewards from the cities and try to save up some gil.
Work out some combination of WHM RDM and BLM to 37. Get a pass to Al Zahbi. Depending on what, consider it for 75. Unlock BRD and get it to 75. Far and away, BRD is the cheapest job to stagger along with in PTs and still be highly desired. Sure, you can't be the best BRD, but even an entirely normal or even sub-par BRD is usually welcomed in a PT, I'm sad to confess. COR is also another choice and is quite desired now, but it can be weird to play for a lot of people and it's an entirely different system than what you're used to--it would also pretty much force you to get a NIN and/or RNG sub, or at bare minimum force you to skill weapons and waste gil on gun ammo.
Use the time you take to lvl BRD (or whatever mage job...) to 75 to gather up as much information about everything else as possible. Branch out from there--for BRD, WHM sub is acceptable all the way yet, but some people will be disgruntled if you don't have /nin. You can either get NIN to 37 (and thus, WAR to 18 by association), or tell them to suck it up. They'll probably still take you since you're a BRD ~.~

I really dislike saying you 'have' to do BRD or at least a mage job... but it's horribly difficult for the average random person to work upward as a melee job first, and there are other disadvantages like being less able to fit into random mission PTs. Also, being 'good' or even average at a melee job now really does require having access to stuff at lvl75 (and spending time on them) and having some kind of bankroll. You'll probably end up eventually doing some sky, sea/limbus, dynamis, limbus, BC/KSNM and assault (minimum!) to feel comfy and accepted as a good DD. Last but not least, you'll never be unable to merit with BRD once you get to the 'improvement' stage.

Good luck! Do come back! This is probably the best chance you'll get, unless we see another expansion...

[weeman]

wow, thanks for the info! Travel sounds a lot easier now than back in the old days. I think a positive thing about coming back now is I will be the only oddball NOT leveling the new jobs....lol. Anyways, I am gonna get started back again on monday or tuesday.

I have a couple random questions...

1.) Crawlers Nest,no more train?, Gustav tannel still a nightmare?, Garbage Citedel bat train?, does moon even exist for partying anymore?
2.) do people still do the normal set-up at lower levels? (tank, damage dealer(close range), mage, healer?) or is it nothing but melee spank or mage nuke parties now?
3.) Is the economy for lower level stuff just insane now? I know in WoW lower level gear is obscenely priced now.
4.) will it be totally impossible to round up people for ranking up to get airship pass/kazaham(spelling?)

[Stelaereous]

have a couple random questions...

1.) No, No, and no.
2.) Black mages are basically forced to solo. It's melee burn all the way up. you can find your way into a (Shitty now) 5k and hour party with and oldschool setup every once in a while but frankly it's just not worth it anymore.
3.) No. It's affordable.
4.) You will need to solo those.

[Metah]

BLM can get parties, but it'd more effective to seek while soloing BST pets. At least this way you can gain EXP while you wait for a party, which indeed might take a couple of tries.

[Keno]

If you have friends in the game, come on back. Otherwise I wouldn't bother because it'd probably be pretty hard to get nation missions/CoP/RoZ done.

[Deband]

If you have friends in the game, come on back. Otherwise I wouldn't bother because it'd probably be pretty hard to get nation missions/CoP/RoZ done.

I dunno, I been taking PLD through the 50's lately and it's shocking how many people you party with who need limit break quests, or who turn down an invite cos they need to get them done.

[BRP]

It's easy to get city missions done. Only CoP could be considered tough. If you don't have any friends, then you make friends. People exaggerate how difficult these things are all the time.

It's not too late to play FFXI. If anything, this is the best time to start or restart. The game has only been improved really. It takes less exp to get to 75, gil is worth more, death takes away less exp, and missions have been adjusted to prevent exp loss. Among other things, like exp rings being added and all. If you are smart, you can be very laid back, do missions and quests and a bunch of mini-games, and still hit 75 within 4 or 5 months tops. Also, I think they are giving out Anniversary Rings, you'll want to grab one.

Where does this whole "too late" argument comes from?

EDIT: 5k an hour isn't shitty under level 65. Maybe 60. But it is at 75. (That should be cleared up).

EDIT 2: If you are serious about coming back, I suggest you go back and read the update history on playonline.com. That's the best way to get caught up on what you missed.