lol imagine if someone started playing the game right now

[Swampthing]

It's way easier to exp with 2-4 people than it was 2 years ago, and get similar or better xp. Signet->npc->smash DC-EM mobs with a friend, you can get like 2-3k an hour, or more with empress band.

Back in "the day" we used to wait 5 hours to get 6 people, and get a stunningly similar rate of xp.

This is painfully true.

Does anyone remember partying in Ro'Maeve for 3-4k/hr with 6 people? You could amass a mage, melee, and tank and waddle out to a ToAU zone with sanction and get the EXACT SAME OR BETTER exp.

People need to stop fucking bitching. When people bitch, all I see is, "I'm too lazy and stupid to create my own party or solo. If I'm not getting 10k+/hr, I minaswell not be exping."

Get 2 more people, get sanction, go outside, kill shit. Period.

A party of 3 at level 30 is really not reasonable exp per hour. I don't bitch about not being able to get exp, I just stopped trying.

[Judai]

lol, because the leveling situation on your server is the same as mine

I would honestly tell anyone I knew in real life not to buy the game, because they would not be able to level a job to 75 in any reasonable amount of time. Going multiple days at a time without being able to get or make a party does not constitute a reasonable amount of time.

I love xping, it's one of the few things I find fun in the game. It's to bad it's so hard to get 5 other people on appropriate jobs to do it with you.

You can actually solo most jobs to at least 40 very easily, w/o PL in just a couple days. Other jobs you can completely solo to 75 or close in a decent amount of time. I nearly solo'd BLU all the way to 75. On top of that, more people are exping jobs now then before, there are far more exp camps and exp rate is far better. If you can't get a party you are doing something wrong. Not to mention it's easy as hell to make your own party.

I leveled 2 jobs to 75 and some others to 37 or so from RoZ to just before TAU. Since TAU I have leveled 5 to 75 and another to 60+. 2 in 3? years and 5 in one year.. You can easily level any job to 75 in a month or so, unless you sit on your ass and don't try to make parties or anything.

Then you have small man parties that can easily make 10k+ an hour or just solo/duo on Gob pets and the such for the same exp rate if not better. 90% of the time I turned down invites on BLU because I solo'd better exp then I expected a party to get me.

[MaachaQ]

I'm actually thinking of setting my sister up with an account for Christmas. I have a set of unused codes from a Collection disc I bought last year and could easily get her a code for WotG once she has a job lvled to make use of the content there. Right now she's playing WoW, and I just can't bear to see her waste her money on that game...

She could easily solo a job or two with me PLing for a while, and then we could Trio with my husband almost all the way to 75. My husband and I have lvl 60+ NPCs to call, and we could get her an NPC fast as well.

There are plenty of options for people starting in this game now, especially if they make a few friends who can help them with the more annoying bits of new lvling, like GK and early nation missions.

[Swampthing]

Well, Blue Mage is sort of an exception, but I think the looking for party scene on your server is just different than mine. I couldn't level Bard or Paladin from 25-30 in 3 days worth of trying to both make parties and get in them. There just aren't people trying to level any reasonable amount of time any more. And if you don't know people to low man party with, you're sol.

I would be interested in learning how you would level any job to 75 in a month or so, though, Judai. I have lots of jobs I want to level, but have just honestly given up trying to make parties.

[Izzy]

It's way easier to exp with 2-4 people than it was 2 years ago, and get similar or better xp. Signet->npc->smash DC-EM mobs with a friend, you can get like 2-3k an hour, or more with empress band.

Back in "the day" we used to wait 5 hours to get 6 people, and get a stunningly similar rate of xp.

This is painfully true.

Does anyone remember partying in Ro'Maeve for 3-4k/hr with 6 people? You could amass a mage, melee, and tank and waddle out to a ToAU zone with sanction and get the EXACT SAME OR BETTER exp.

People need to stop fucking bitching. When people bitch, all I see is, "I'm too lazy and stupid to create my own party or solo. If I'm not getting 10k+/hr, I minaswell not be exping."

Get 2 more people, get sanction, go outside, kill shit. Period.

A party of 3 at level 30 is really not reasonable exp per hour. I don't bitch about not being able to get exp, I just stopped trying.

Like I said, your definition of "unreasonable" is the way we all leveled our jobs 3 years ago. Think of all the time you spent saying, "Fuck it, this isn't worth exping." Multiply that by 3k/hr. Bet you you would have somewhere around 50k exp.

[aurik]

Signet + npc + promyvion = godly xp at 30, even solo. Those mobs are dead easy, and are all in the perfect level range for the signet eva/def bonus.

Hell I used to solo there as thf/rng before signet enhanced defense/evasion and HHP. It's retarded easy now.

[Judai]

There are a bunch of guides on how to level fast here, just need to search for them. Bunch of the people who got Maat's Cap wrote them and gave their advice, like Ravenlokke, Geosync, etc. My basic run down is, solo to 40 on Gob pets and then make my own parties the rest of the way. Instead of sitting around for a couple hours and giving up you just make a party. If you really want to level you shouldn't be waiting for the perfect party. Alot of people do that and that's what takes so long. Especially now when so many jobs can fit the tank role. Get some good DDs and a pair of healers and it's not hard to at least make 8-10k an hour. It's mainly about not waiting around for parties, I leveled PLD, WAR, BLU and SAM in about a month and a half to two months each. RDM was one month exactly but that was easy to level. I have a bit more time to play though since I work from home and such and I'm not saying it doesn't take a good amount of effort but I would say the average player could easily level a job to 75 in about 2 months.

I mean, lok at DNC and SCH, people on my server and other servers are already in the 60s and they've been out like a week.

[Vertabreaker]

My buddy from work actually just started playing recently. He's moving along more quickly then I expected. It's funny helping him with quests/missions/etc I did years ago lol.

[BadKarma]

took me about a year to get whm to 75 post ToAU
but that was because i had started a restarted about 9 times bouncing around from race to race quit for like a month and only seriously leveled for 2 months.....so yeah about a year

[Yuri-G]

Maybe it's just because I'm a RDM, but I get invites like mad. I level slowly by choice, but when I'm in the mood, three times out of four I'll be able to party pretty easily.

Then again, maybe a RDM getting invited without putting their flag up only three times out of four is a sign that things are going bad

[joft]

would it be worth getting into the game at this point? i mean, would it be possible for a casual player to even experience/enjoy the game? at least before so many people quit it that there's nobody left to play with, or before they take the servers down, or whatever

basically i'm experiencing my periodic game nostalgia again now and it's gotten me thinking about getting back into ffxi. i'm also considering getting a wii (maybe after xmas) to play zelda and shit. at this point it seems like i'll do one or the other, or maybe neither. i thought it might be cool to play this game with my girlfriend, but she's not a hardcore gamer so the wii might be a better option for her

[ryskar]

I've never had social connections to walk me through missions/assault/exp. Hell, I've never even had a static for anything; except my THF 15-60. I'm still happy with my mission/assault/gear/job progress, but I'm sure I could've been spared hours of headaches.

That being said, I really wish I had those connections. It must be nice, getting exp/missions/etc done so fast. Most people just want me for my bard.

[Isiolia]

Maybe it's just because I'm a RDM, but I get invites like mad. I level slowly by choice, but when I'm in the mood, three times out of four I'll be able to party pretty easily.

Then again, maybe a RDM getting invited without putting their flag up only three times out of four is a sign that things are going bad

RDM has always been a popular job to invite. However, at one point it was more that you were looking for a RDM in order to have Refresh, not so you could have a healer period.

would it be worth getting into the game at this point? i mean, would it be possible for a casual player to even experience/enjoy the game? at least before so many people quit it that there's nobody left to play with, or before they take the servers down, or whatever

IMO, no. If you have people to form statics or a solid LS that would help with stuff, sure. However, for just randomly trying to get help or whatever, it would be frustrating.

[Vigilia]

I don't think it would be that bad, even if you don't know anyone to start off with. With DNC and SCH there's lots and lots of low/middle level parties happening so getting XP wouldn't be a problem and it's during those parties that you have a chance to meet new people and network. As long as you don't come across as an utter muppet you should be fine. Yes you would have a mountain of work ahead of you though but most things aren't so bad anymore as they were when we did them the first time. I had couple of old friends return from WoW this year and granted they got help from us with missions and such but if you just do the bare minimum it's pretty damn easy now.

By bare minimum I'd say you need to aim to get rank 6 in any nation, Zilarts up to Sky access (which can be ran through in one evening now if you have a solid group) and ToAU2 so you can get Runic Portals. Just those basics alone get you far and apart from runic portals it's the exact same goals we would had been aiming for when we started at NA release and enviously looked at JPs running around in cool AF gear. CoP missions are the only pain in the butt but at least if you're a new person to the game it's one thing where the level caps can work for your advantage. There's a lot of "end-game" linkshells out there that happily invite lvl65 peeps, who still camp Roc and schedule missions and AF fights and whatnot. There's non-LS exclusive Dynamis groups that are also a great way to find new friends at higher levels. And the actual leveling to 75 is a joke post-ToAU unless you do something daft like choose to level PUP.

I think the main thing to consider though is that if you start now don't even attempt to play catch-up because it will just frustrate you. Just play at your own leisure, there's no end to this game anyway or we all wouldn't still be playing after four years. If you're ever stuck there's so many early quests and other things to keep you busy and lets not forget all that beehive chip farming or whatever it is that you choose to do for your bread and butter.

[Yuri-G]

I don't know, I still get plenty of RDM + WHM parties on Colibri Rather pointless, but I enjoy being lazy so whatever.

I'd say the game is still worth giving a chance, but you will have to be a good leader and do a lot of research if you want to get missions done. A strong leader can usually force crappy players to behave semi-intelligently, but a horrible leader with a party full of great players is still trouble. What I'm saying is, if you're gonna count on pick-up groups for missions, you will need to lead them and be good at it for any chance of success.

And oh, you'll need patience. Lots of it. Preferrably something like a DS or PSP to take up your /shouting time, too.

[Maaglin]

Depends on what you want out of the game. I'm a player that has quit twice for a total of aobut 2 years. I have friends and seen them come and go, but I dont' have great social hook-ups. However, I've managed to finish CoP, get Sky, find a nice HNMLS, get 2 75 jobs etc. I realize this isn't near as "far" as others, but I'm happy with my progress and I have fun playing this game. It's not an e-peen contest for me.

If you are looking to get all the best gear right away and advance quickly through missions, assaults etc., you may be dissapointed. If you just want to have fun and do stuff, it's not that hard to find pick up groups for stuff. I mean I did all of CoP from 2.4 - 8.4 in 2 weeks with pick up groups and a few friends here and there so it can be done.

The big deal is that you have to be a leader in this game if you don't have a lot of friends to hold your hand. You have to be the guy shouting in whitegate and taking charge on how whatever it is you're doing (mission, quest, ksnm, meirt/exp, etc) is going to go down.

[Darus Grey]

I did a 3man static abit ago, ended very fast but we did lvl 20-54 in 2 days with just us 3.

The secret is PUP.

[Ganzar]

Started Jan. of this year: two level 75 jobs and 5 more at 37+. I'm a little lacking on my missions and assaults though ; ;

I got my girlfriend to start playing about a month ago. She has WAR to 39 and PLD to 34 already with extremely minimal help from me (she's been playing more than I do and when I'm on I'm usually busy with events or merits anyways).

She's loving the expansion release. So many people leveling DNC and SCH and catching up subs, everyone needs a tank. She's been getting invites on her PLD faster than I do on my BRD =X

[ringthree]

I've soloed almost all of NIN 63-67, purely from a lack of people seeking.
The parties I do get, are usually a cluster of whatever jobs that range are available, and don't tend to make very good setups.
(I even got stuck with Tajin's RDM one night <.<)
j/j

I definetely agree that getting to 75, without soloing, takes more time than it used to even a year ago, because of wait time for PTs.

Maybe everyone going for DNC75 means more PTs for other jobs, right? >.>

lolseeking.

[Cletis]

http://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e1...128071001a.jpg


hey look! i cant quit =/


new char next billing cycle