Best Expansion / Most Time Spent

[Kkel]

Gonna have to go:

CoP > RotZ > ToAU = WotG

I felt like i was just trying to get through ToAU for the sake of completion. Granted, there was/is tons of content and it introduced some amazing aspects to the game, but i always felt like i was just there because it was there. ToAU was like the "new phase" of FFXI. New players could jump almost straight into it. It became like a new standard. A lot of "old guard" players i know never really developed any kind of attachment to ToAU. It was there. It was new. Get it done. Get new stuff.

WotG isn't complete yet, so i can't really compare. I like WotG so far, but in an unfinished state it can't really compete with the other expansions. I fear that a lot of the systems being introduced are moving FFXI too far away from it's origins and i'm not sure how i feel about that.

RotZ is how i grew up in the game. Linkshell events for Missions, Sky access, beating Divine Might, farming Sky Guardians, first Kirin fights, infinite chain d. weaps camps, fighting Dragon's Aery away from the JP players, Ridills, Adaberks, forming Dynamis strategies, etc etc. RotZ is all nostalgia factor for me. Parts of the game i loved at the time, now almost never go back to, but can still look back fondly upon.

CoP is a totally different story for me and a huge part of it is the music. I can hear any of the other expansions music and be like "Sweet, FFXI music." but when i hear music from CoP it just pulls me into a different place (i can still see the CoP trailer in my mind, with "Depths of the Soul" playing in the background, and remember how excited i was.). The CoP missions grabbed you in and never let go. Before they got nerfed for difficulty, they were brutally uncompromising and it really challenged how aspects of the game were approached. Suddenly item use became a huge deal. New strategies for level capped missions had to be developed. We were given incredible zones like Pso'Xja, Tavnazian Safehold, Riverne Sites, and my favorite zone (and music) in the game, Promyvion. Boss battles were huge, epic, events, Grand Wyrms, Diabolis, Bahamut, U/O, Tenzen, Promathia, and so on. CoP took the mythology were were all familiar with from RotZ and crafted a story that was complex and satisfying, filled with some of the best NPC characters to date. You wanted to finish it because you wanted to know what happened, not just because it was there.

Despite being "small" in comparison to something like ToAU, CoP changed a lot about how we played FFXI.

[Alderaan]

I hate to admit it but it has to be CoP. Simply because it made me a better player. Unfortunately the reward for CoP is Sea. It was a waste of a zone when it first came out because of the drop rates. All it was at the time was a playground for blm's. To me it's still a waste of a zone for obvious reasons.

[Yugl]

ToAU > Zilart > COP > Wings

ToAU: Simple, it restructured the game. Moved everyone from a crowded laggy Jueno (Or from Tav) to a bigger city that had many features you wanted (Guilds, Close to merit camps, Jueno AH, Easy access to Nations/Jueno, and other features). ToAU basically took all the activities in FFXI and moved them to a closer location surrounding Whitegate. No more chocoboing for 30min just to reach sky and have the PT break. No more having to take a ship to starter nations just for image support on one synthesis. No more game freezing lag (Aht Urghan could have used another MH within Whitegate, but the lag isn't as bad as Jueno was). No more taking a ship back to starter nations just to OP warp. ToAU fixed a lot of the problems that Pre-ToAU FFXI had.

Zilart: This evaluartion is probably more centered around the time it was out than the actual pack itself. The great part about Zilart is that the missions weren't particularly difficult, but the reward you received for completing them (Sky) was overcompensating. At that time, sky was the best camp in the game (With moon coming up second). Not only did sky give access to merit camps, it also gave access to EG NMs. Basically, with the completion of a few easy missions, you had access to all of EG.

CoP: This pack seemed so focused on missions that it felt as if there was very little Non-mission content. Sure, a few alternative camps appeared such as Bibiki Bay and the Meadows, but overall, it wasn't a grand scale change. Newton and the islands near Bibiki are deserted areas. The missions were hell, especially during the time of inflation when the essential tools needed to complete these missions (As a DRG) could run you ~60-100k per attempt. The CSs were annoying as hell and quite frankly, I didn't care much for the story. The worst part was the CSs between fights. There was no wiki back then, so you had to rely on forums where people "conveniently" forget to tell you that there is a NPC between the last five NPCs and the fight. Walk up to the range, arrive at the BC, and find out someone forgot a CS. Furthermore, you would run off the ridiculous locations just for a CS. Why the hell does Cid (At Bastok) tell you to meet him at the Den so he can give you information? He couldn't just tell you on the spot? For those without a static, finding members was hell. You would sit there for almost twelve hours finding members only to wipe at the BC and everyone leave. It was as if a single mission equated to completing Zilart from the start. The NMs just get worse since you sit at IxDRG and IxDRK for 5hrs without a pop. At least with sky, you'll know when the NM will and will not pop. Less random crap the better.

Wings: What we have now just doesn't compare to the other three packs. The best part about wings is Splitting Heir. The nerfs on Campaign make it more of a burden (To keep tank up) than an enjoyable feature. There's no AH (Even Tav had one) and the means of transportation (Aside from the OPs) are limited or incredibly annoying. Most of the missions (Aside from maybe 2?) are soloable. Most of the quests are too. Easy stuff for moderate rewards.

[Crizto]

In terms of story: CoP > WotG > RoZ > ToAU

Content: ToAU > WotG > CoP > RoZ

Salvage, Einherjar, new Merits, new HNM's, shiny sword makes it #1. DI and SW are a bit more involving to camp than the typical HNM so its fun. Not to mention it's a great money HNM. Campaign is also pretty fun, not that I do it much anymore. Jailer system and Limbus is pretty neat. Also CoP added AF+1 which was great. And Kings suck in general, I've been camping those for far too long.

[Guppy]

Unfortunately the reward for CoP is Sea. It was a waste of a zone when it first came out because of the drop rates. All it was at the time was a playground for blm's.

Funny thing is, I'm a BLM and I absolutely despise sea. Grind-Grind-Grind for organs and tissues for hours on end. I read or browse the web during MP recovery to make it bearable. It's mind numbing, yet the battles require careful focus, since a moment of inattention on BLM solo means death. The worst possible combination of boredom and vigilance.

Aside from the main CoP missions and areas, was the ENM (not the 3-crag mission Empties, which were thematically integrated, but the other high level ENMs scattered around the CoP zones that looked nothing like the Emptiness, both in appearance and in tone of the storyline) The system seemed to have been implemented in a hurry after SE didn't get the response they were expecting. The system sits in the overall theme of CoP awkwardly, and I suspected it was slapped together at the last minute, to provide an alternative method to shower goodies on the playerbase, to supplment the CoP content that players were ignoring.

To me it's still a waste of a zone for obvious reasons.

I have to agree. SE lavished an enormous amount of effort on design on CoP, and the result is stunning, both in terms of the graphics, mission design, and story cutscenes. But, after it came out it was almost-dead content for over a year. I had several friends quit FFXI after CoP in part because it was so unpleasant, and they never came back, even after it was finally fixed .

Back then when newbies shosed up, there were few Welcome messages on most forums back then, just warnings of rampant inflation and RMT, dead starter cities and their AHs, and an impossible situation for the unfortunately newbie Looking for Party is nearly empty zones. Sometimes the responders would even just suggest they go play WoW.

Can you imagine how great CoP would have been, had they spent that degree of resources on how to construct flexible, casual activities, and newbie-friendly learning activities, and then pursued them with the resources dedicated to CoP? The newer play mechanisms in WoTG and ACP are great -- it's just that polish is frequently lacking, and the hard-core standards of the previous expansions meant the rewards would have to be limited to narrow situations, weakened variants, or sidegrades, in order to avoid deprecating the previous content.

[dejet]

hmm

1) CoP: i had fun doing everything, i found sea gods a lot of fun as well. And limbus is one the best systems in the game, not much time spent great shit to gain as well as can be low maned.

2)WoTG: I like a lot of stuff it added, people say they dont like it but i find all of it so much fun. Sandworm and DI was nice. I have fougth them but like twice each still fun.Cool CS's and lets face it where else can i put on a blm DD build and do nice dmg without getting screamed at LOL.

3)ToAU: was sorta cool i did like the systems but coming after CoP it made me look at it like "wtf" salv started out as a crap shoot never getting anything really no matter how much work you did. eij was ok because of the point system but ABJ's never drop outside odin. what turned me off was that it went from the best gear(omega/ultima shit being nice to low man and good drop rates) to 36 people low ass drop rates and hardly worth it in the long run for a group of that size. salv drop rates just sucked even though we learned fast it should be low maned.

4)RoZ:ya it added a lot of zones but i hate kings hate hate hate them. sky has good gear but gets old somewhat fast. namis is the same way, i only do it because my ls needs the gear and the bank makes so much gil from it.

[Soa]

My rankings according to time spent and how much I enjoy each.

1. CoP - I absolutely loved the missions and storyline, and the zones are actually mostly BST friendly (my only high level job at the time). I remember every time I beat a mission I couldn't wait to start the next to see what was going to happen.

2. RotZ - Sky was and still is a pretty good end game system, mostly all the zones were great and useful, and the story was good too. Can't forget Dynamis either.

3. ToAU - Great end game events and merit camps, and Assault missions are fun too. The story and missions were very very lackluster though, which disappoints me. The only thing I even remember from them is the PUP chick being the Empress, thats about it.

4. WoTG - I love the story so far but thats about it. Campaign was fun at first but now its just a grind to keep my medal that I dread more and more as time passes. The zones suck, the mobs suck, and outside of East Ron Colibri there really aren't any good exp camps. I'm hoping things change as time goes on, this one has a ton of potential to be epic.

[midguardian]

My favorites:

Missions/Storyline: CoP and WotG

Events: ToAU (Assault, Salvage, ZNM), CoP (Limbus), WotG (ANNM, MMM)

I hope WotG is capped off by an endgame event similar to Limbus/Salvage.

Campaign isn't perfect, but I enjoy it. It's a great place to experiment with BLU spells and learn to tank NMs. It's also a second take on the original conquest system and an improvement over Besieged. I would like some more assault-like Campaign Ops and Offensive Campaign battles still need an overhaul.

[Spider-Dan]

SE lavished an enormous amount of effort on design on CoP, and the result is stunning, both in terms of the graphics, mission design, and story cutscenes. But, after it came out it was almost-dead content for over a year. I had several friends quit FFXI after CoP in part because it was so unpleasant, and they never came back, even after it was finally fixed .

Back then when newbies shosed up, there were few Welcome messages on most forums back then, just warnings of rampant inflation and RMT, dead starter cities and their AHs, and an impossible situation for the unfortunately newbie Looking for Party is nearly empty zones. Sometimes the responders would even just suggest they go play WoW.

Can you imagine how great CoP would have been, had they spent that degree of resources on how to construct flexible, casual activities, and newbie-friendly learning activities, and then pursued them with the resources dedicated to CoP?

I've said this before:

CoP was the turning point in this game.

CoP came out in September 2004; WoW came out in November 2004. Had TAU came out instead of CoP, I think FFXI would have been able to (somewhat) compete with WoW's incredible growth... but ultimately, even that logic is flawed. It should be obvious to everyone that the primary reason why TAU's design philosophy is so overwhelmingly different than CoP's is that the devs realized, "hey, WoW has ten times the subscriber base we do... maybe people actually prefer to be able to level up their character without spending 30 minutes looking for a group, 30 more minutes traveling to camp, so they can exp for 2 hours and get 1/4 of the way to their next level?"

[Yugl]

I've said this before:

CoP was the turning point in this game.

CoP came out in September 2004; WoW came out in November 2004. Had TAU came out instead of CoP, I think FFXI would have been able to (somewhat) compete with WoW's incredible growth... but ultimately, even that logic is flawed. It should be obvious to everyone that the primary reason why TAU's design philosophy is so overwhelmingly different than CoP's is that the devs realized, "hey, WoW has ten times the subscriber base we do... maybe people actually prefer to be able to level up their character without spending 30 minutes looking for a group, 30 more minutes traveling to camp, so they can exp for 2 hours and get 1/4 of the way to their next level?"

I think it's a different development team too. Zilart = ToAU team (Both of which were good). CoP = Wings team.

[Mayareira]

People feel nostalgic towards CoP missions but even an epic storyline(CoP wasn't anywhere close to what I'd call epic) isn't enough to make an expansion good. You finish the missions and once they are over, they are over. You cannot sit at Jeuno and talk to your linkshell about how good the missions were for years.

Looking at old areas now...Bibiki Bay, in my server currently has 2 people. Nobody wants to exp/merit, or watch the sunset there anymore. And again, fighting a mob 10,000 times instead of 2,000 times won't make you a better player, it'll just burn you out. Right before ToAU I was convinced that the game was dying for sure, as EU prime population went down below 1k at times on midgardsomr.

Pre-ToAU, it was still full of Domaru SAM's, players with underleveled subjobs and overall imbecile fucktards. Only thing I remember regarding promvions was the dumbfuck, who died along with WHM and HP'd even though the WHM had reraise on. Nowadays, even with the lowered difficulty it takes approx. 3 hours to form a Promyvion or a similar CoP group. A random guy was going nuts shouting for 2-5 last week. As time passes people tend to forget about the frustrations pre-ToAU and remember old expansions as an epic tale. Getting to a level/merits location 30 minutes slower won't make you a better player.

Which is why, in my opinion ToAU is far superior than any other expansion.

Assaults are simply awesome. Very accessible, fun and rewarding. This is exactly how you design a content for level 75's and lower levels as well, without setting a punishing level cap. Where the fuck were you before, Square Enix? Couple of missions were annoying, but overall, especially FL missions were very well designed. Replay value? Check. Good Rewards? Check. Fun? Check. You and 2 of your buddies can log in, do a mission and call it a night in 20-30~ mins.

Addition of Corsair, Blue Mage and Puppetmaster was a smart move. Community has been wanting Blue Mage for a long time and it became a very popular job right off the bat. Corsair brought another dimension to the job system and Puppetmaster...well, ended up being a hobby job.

Einherjar allowed other means of obtaining old abjuration and variety of new equipment without having to deal with the poor "kings" system. It was designed poorly at first, but every fix was a step to the right direcion.

Nyzul Isle became a very popular event without a doubt. 1 out of every 4 /shout's at Whitegate is related to a Nyzul Isle run. Fun, somewhat casual way of obtaining average-good gear. Salvage was also a good addition with very good rewards and in my opinion, the best part was the ease of organizing runs.

ZNM allowed players to obtain good gear without requiring huge groups and well, having to sit at a zone for 3 hours just to get back home empty handed. Most of drops ended up satisfying people and the sellable pieces were a nice bonus.

Beautiful new zones like Aydeewa, Arapago, Nashmasu, Halvung etc. were very refreshing. I also welcomed the addition of new beastmen, Mamool Ja, Lamia and Trolls as Orcs, Yagudo's and Goblins all sharing similar abilities were getting really, really old. ToAU really managed to make the player feel that they are travelling to an entirely different continent/empire.

Aht Urhgan, with its accessiblity, beauty and overall functionality literally ended up becoming the new center of the game.

Overall, ToAU was a huge win. Its something developers did to give life to a dying game. Back in 2006 I wouldn't ever thought that an expansion could stop the rapid decline in population and give a good 4~ year extension to the games life.

[tonystigma]

Great post! If every expansion had been like ToAU, no one would be bored with the game. I disagree with your opinion on the storyline, which is opinion and hence subjective, but agree that once it's done, it's done. You can re-do the missions I guess, but it really isn't the same.

[Aksannyi]

ToAU was the absolute peak of this game. All the content added was different, fresh, varied enough to keep you entertained. So much to choose from in ToAU, hell of a lot more interesting than 3 hours in Dynamis killing the same shit every time. Even ZNM, which I loathe due to the time involved in getting pops, is miles above most of the previous content. (Seriously, fuck Ix'Drg in the fucking ass.)

I've said many times that if Dynamis were ever-changing the way Nyzul was, with varying objectives and different paths to take or something, it would be a hell of a lot more interesting. Nothing they've released in WoTG has really kept me interested in the game. Campaign is the biggest bore ever, and the whole "YOU HAVE TO DO THIS TO KEEP YOUR RANK" bullshit is, well, bullshit. Camping the WoTG NMs was a chore and a half, camping Ixion for it to pop last window and be scared off six times before someone actually claims it and takes three hours to kill it, that's genius development. -.- Talk about wasting time! WoTG was, in my opinion, a step backwards, though I really enjoyed the mission cutscenes. That's probably the only thing they got right in that entire expansion.

ToAU was seriously the best, for many reasons. The story was pretty stupid, but at least the endgame content was well done and actually fun. Nothing in WoTG is fun to me. I can't even imagine that they'll be able to create an endgame system for WoTG that will top what they added in ToAU.

[Alderaan]

I look back at CoP as a more sentimental thing. I knew so many people that quit because they couldn't handle the difficulty or stupidness, depending on how you look at it. It had by far the best missions. As for content, it would be ToAU hands down.

I agree with everything Aksannyi has to say about WoTG. Though i loved DI and SW, i absolutely hated the 5 hour window bullshit. We bitched for years that 3 hours was ridiculous. Oh and fuck Dynamis. After 5+ years and 6 hours a week, i'm burnt out.

[Fridell]

ToAU > All, just simply due to completely reshaping endgame content. Salvage, Einherjar, Khim/Cerb, Assault, Besieged, rediculous leveling camps, life now centers around whitegate in FFX.

This, simple and 110% correct. No need to add more.

[Plow]

Favorite:

CoP
WotG
Zilart (with all the fixes that are in place now)
ToAU


CoP best story by far, best missions by far, most challenging and exciting bc's by far, best single system in game BY FAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAR (limbus), best alternative to Ridill without spending 8 years of combined playtime between people for coins and leveling sam, ENM, and I pretty much consider it the one to have brought us Ballista, and the prime of CoP times was definitely the peak of pvp by a long shot. Also, the fact that while they put retarded camping kings shit in again, at least in CoP the good shit was sellable, as well as being new, completely different upgrades from anything before, instead of "zomg 1 more str!" Not to mention, it wasn't "if you can claim, you win, unless you are certifiably retarded."

WotG next because it gave far and away the best way to gain exp without a party 60+. The sheer quantity of NM's and random gear is pretty amazing for this early, too, even if it is 90% campaign only shit and 10% praying for good augments from ANNM.

Zilart because if they'd have continued the awesome progression from there, Salvage quality gears would've been all over sea, and who knows what we'd have been looking at from Nyzul/Assault/Salvage by now.


ToAU sits at the bottom for me, because assault to nyzul to salvage gears are an extremely obvious progression... and yet rather than make it so you need good gear for the harder shit, they just made it so you have to choose which one you want. No helping people catch up without directly fucking up your own progress, no real choice in course of action once you decide "I want the shitty worthless set, I want the shitty worthless set with 1 or 2 decent pieces, or I want the fucking Godlike set that eliminates not only reason to do earlier things for yourself, but completely eliminates your capability to help others." Also the only redeeming quality to ToAU story was the delicious loli. ZNM almost saves it, until I try to remember who has how many points and which seals blah blah, and then go out to farm zeni and come back to a different mob request. Also when I look at the whopping 2 major pieces between my 4 main jobs.




Currently spend the most time in ToAU, mostly nyzul shit and ZNM, 2nd most in CoP, mostly limbus. Rest of the time I'm soloing shit, be it WotG or whatever.



Really surprised so few people are bothered by the way ToAU inherently makes so much of itself so worthless (and abandoned).

[seiji]

Wotg: Campaign, simple time killer and sometimes very funny, Fields of Valor

fov is NOT a wotg event

I feel bad for anybody who counts Campaign as a majority of their time spent playing this game. It isn't fun, it isn't rewarding, it gives poor exp, holds no challenge... I can't even aptly describe how bad it really is, or how I feel about the people that seem to think it's a good thing.

i have more fun in campaign than stupid boring meripos, have 1h break lunch where i can play FF, often less betwen end of RL activities and scheduled IG event =>i dont see where i can get time for a meripo.

campaign is not challenging if you only care about your xp reward,trying to win the battle can be!
only AV/PW is challenging for top tierLS
add more event as you group "power" lower
....
what is challanging is not the same for everybody
what is fun is not the same for everybody

[Valkrish]

ToAU: Merit parties, znm for the 1/2 sky/zilart modifiers (easily obtained vs sky)

Oh, and delicious Nyzul Isle.

[Argettio]

I spend most of my time in the ToAU zones.

You can get to and from WG so easily that there is no point to put your home point any where else (with some exceptions).

You have:
*Salvage (one for the hardcore player)
*Nyzul (for mixed level of player)
*Assaults (one for the more casual player)
*Einherjar (for the well organised with a lot of friends)
*ZNM (for mixed level of player)

As well as the only places people EXP from 50+ (apart from a few zones in the past).

[Plow]

You can get to and from WG so easily that there is no point to put your home point any where else (with some exceptions).

Some? I'm pretty sure there's a whooooooole lot of people that are better off paying 300g when they want to go to WG vs paying 1000 gil every time they want to go anywhere else (on top of outpost fee where applicable).