Starting over this late in the game..

[Tagus]

I've got some friends that just came back to the game last week too, although they've got a couple of jobs already. Personally I couldn't see myself starting over. It's just too much of a grind at this point, and you'll probably be hitting your first 75 around the time ffxiv comes out if you're playing casually. But saying that, I still love this stupid game, so follow your gut. If you've been addicted since release, you know what you're in for.

[drwaffles]

1. You want to play for fun, you want to enjoy the quests/dialogue/missions/cut scenes - YES, i'd start playing again.

2. You want to play to just pwrlvl yourself to 75 again to reget all the same gear again so you can camp HNM's all day long - NO, i'd avoid starting a new character

3. You want to play to pwrlvl yourself to 75 again, but then craft/enjoy the more difficult aspects of the game and rejoin a new LS and make new friends - YES, i'd start playing again.

This. It all depends what you're after. I myself restarted in February with a view to building up a new character as quickly as possible in order to perhaps get back to some semblance of my original character. Quite frankly all that's come from it is me constantly comparing my new character to my old one and feeling utterly disappointed. Not that my new character is bad or anything, certainly not considering it's less than a year old, but it would take a very long time for it to reach the standards of my original. In the process of rushing to get back to where I was I blitzed through the storyline and exping, didn't bother to make new friends en route and relied heavily on whatever friends I had left who hadn't been banned. I can't say it was much fun. By level 60 I was camping Kings again, and by 75 I was camping Ixion/Sandworm daily too.

If that's not the kind of experience you want then you should definitely try playing just for the sake of playing and enjoy the game for what it is. Get immersed in the massive amount of little storylines, quests and side-tracking activities there are. Make friends with people because you enjoy being around them, not because they're veteran players who can help you gain an advantage. If you want some inspiration for enjoying the game in this fashion, go look at Buttons' "life through screenshots" thread on XIclopedia's forums. Being the cynical cunt that I am I always turned my nose up at the whole Buttons circle-jerk that went on in Media, but after reading through that thread I have to express a degree of jealousy for his ability to actually enjoy the game and genuinely have fun whilst playing.

Or you could just wait for XIV.

[dantaro]

my first oddly enough a good portion of the people were rerolls too, I think it's happening more often than you think.

Must. . . resist. . .making stupid meme picture. . .

On a more serious note, if you are looking to restart, don't do it simply because you want to get epeen awesome again, do it if you just enjoy the rest of the game. People often talk about how terrible it is that there is too little to do, but I bet most of those people have never done things like MMM, and all the other mini-events

[Ksandra]

Must. . . resist. . .making stupid meme picture. . .

On a more serious note, if you are looking to restart, don't do it simply because you want to get epeen awesome again, do it if you just enjoy the rest of the game. People often talk about how terrible it is that there is too little to do, but I bet most of those people have never done things like MMM, and all the other mini-events

this is true actually. I have no intention of doing hnms or major stuff. I bought the mini-expansions because I never did them. And figured I'd go do nyzul cause I never did that either.


I have no interest or expectations of doing sea again pr anything major. Just trying to have fun xping and trying some stuff I never bothered with/had time for.

[isladar]

I have no interest or expectations of doing sea again

Never doing sea again is the only way to fly.

[dantaro]

Never doing sea again is the only way to fly.

Dantaro got: Faith Torque!

Dantaro lost: Interest in Sea!

[Mikus]

Wanna echo people saying to do the little things. Before I got back into endgame I did a ton of the little things. Also, I had no worries about how I was going to make money or what jobs I really wanted to level first since I (as you do) had that first hand experience.

By far and wide, the smartest thing I did when I came back was level Bst first. I made so much gil just off of the "normal" drops while exping and it gave me so so many bs and ks seals to make more gil with. I met some of my best ffxi friends while exping bst too by duo/trioing with them. Having Bst at 75 also gave me the option to level other jobs /Bst if I could not get a party(almost all subs and majority of thf and drk to 75). Mind you this was pre campaign.

So much content is solo friendly now or small group friendly that if you really really really want to come back I say do it if it makes you happy.

[Alyric]

I still need a few things from sea, but fuck sea.

CoP rocked, I've redone it 3 times over 3 chars and loved it each time, just having a smart static is important. Voice chat and feeling relaxed with those people and knowing they know what the fuck is going on is a must for me.

Also I can still proudly say my main character got CoP done pre-nerfs. (There were multiple CoP difficulty nerfs, right? Shits so easy now. QQ)

Sorry, on topic: Come back! Vana'diel is waiting.

[BerenTebogo]

Obviously not everyone will have the success I did but I started over at the end of march, have 3 75's - all WoTG / CoP missions and about half of nation / ToAU done and a shiny new relic.

Like I said, that's not the norm, but it's not uncommon at all if you have the desire to make it work to be better off than 95% of the players in this game inside of a year. Set yourself up to succeed and you will.

[Corresapolonia]

Fucking wow, lol.

EDIT: Aww, I posted a tad to late to quote the absolute shit spew that was originally on this post, lol. Mods are quick, lol.

did it myself. arguing with you guys is absolutely no fun.

2topic: guess it was too late to start in march 2007 brand new on this game, but it certainly isn't impossible to have fun. there are a lot of people out there that will help, can help, and have a good sense about what is possible and what not.

a total startover would be a little too late i guess, but maybe it's just me.

[SamanosukeShiva]

solution #1 go play bard, get group, whore yourself.

solution #2 go play bst, fuck other poeople, solo shit.

[dannyl]

I came back March of 2009 from a 4 year break. When I quit, my highest level was a lvl 45 WHM, and just a BLM subjob. It took awhile to get back into things, and all the new stuff that was out really made me feel discouraged, but I didn't care, I was having fun relearning a lot and finding out new areas and things to do.

Nearly a year later, I'm still not lvl 75, I've kept myself occupied leveling other jobs such as BARD (first thing I did when I came back), Summoner, Warrior, PLD, NIN.

I'm officially a Campaign junkie since it fits with my playstyle and my strange playtime. You get exp (perhaps at a slower rate then in a party) but at least its on your own terms since you can still be very effective solo.

My advice, join a linkshell that is already estasblished that wouldn't mind helping you out here and there. Depending on the mission, quest, some of the old schoolers like to go back and do them cause it brings back memories. All depends on the task I guess as some were just nuisances.

Good luck to you in whatever you do.

[azagarth]

Starting now would be a waste just because by time you get 75 most hnmls will probably be testing our ff14.

My advice is if you really want to come back go online and buy an account that has the job you want 75. Get one that has cop done is probably wise since its hard to do that stuff now. Levling jobs are easy now but the missions and quests can make you quit.

If you do have the want to just start fresh do not lv a melee job. There are so many gimp melees now that it is impossible for even decent ones to get good shells. Everyone seems to have "uber gear" and relics and shit at 75 now since this game is so old. My advice is to lv either brd, blm, whm, or cor. all those jobs can get parties easy enough and will always be wanted and are alot less gear dependent than a melee would be. Tanks are silly to lv now too since every shell has their token 3 plds already.

[DSI6667]

Wow, I didn't expect so many responses. Thank you all.

Very good and valid points from everyone. It's just this game has always had that "challenge" factor, and the return from it is amazing when you accomplish something.

Seeing as the Beta for XIV hasn't started yet, I'd assume XI will be around another year minimum.. which leads me to believe that I have time to have fun and get some things done.

On the other hand I contradict myself seeing as I have no in-game friends. I'm sort of stuck on Midgardsormr since the PL is there which is a bummer. I'd start the new character on a new server if I could just find a partner. In question to my dedication..

I had a partner on Valefor before I quit. We duo'ed absolutely everything together. Spent 5 36 hour nights in-a-row for Patroclus' Helms for out DRK Builds. Camped Lord of Onzozo literally 60 nights in a row without missing a claim, and I was able to receive the drop once. Cleared COP in under 3 weeks with a few random players.

Just little things like that to give people an idea that if hey.. you're starting over too I'll definitely come along, or you can come to Midgard and we can do it together. The game is been really eased out and things aren't as hard to come by as before. There are many quests to do that bring in money.

For example: Sleepga 2, Retrace, Teleports are great for starters. Aspir and the sort.

So I really hope I'm not the only one. Really only looking for a few friends who like to do some random NMs, grind some jobs, maybe do some Sky and random bullshit.

This is was this game has been about forever right? Ha... "random bullshit."

[DSI6667]

..and on another note like people are saying. I'm not looking to get a DRK with Ace's, Ares', and the works.

I actually LIKED COP. I loved leading people around and going 1/1 with strats on my last character I started in April '09. I accomplished BLM, RDM, O.Club DRK and decided to get banned.

I really just wanna have fun getting norm drops and doing simple things.
New NMs, Nyzul, duoing, and actually help those who help me.

[azagarth]

heck if you like to run stuff you will have no issues then. I still suggest you lv a needed job though, aka not a melee.

Once you hit 75 I know there are tons of nooby never before done endgame ppl still on every server. you could easily group all the noobs up and bum rush sky since its always empty now. Gods are still fun and get some good loot from them. Heck can even camp ground if you that gun hoe about it, just need a good bot ;D

[Sirenia]

Go back if you really enjoy the game. I came back a year ago and left about 6 months after that and have thought about going back again recently. I just noticed that there really was not a lot of people around. I wonder when they will start merging servers.

[DSI6667]

yeah. really just a bunch of tough choices here. leveling in the dunes seems non-existant now. 10-20 would be a tough one.

[DSI6667]

Like people always say EQ1 is still around and so will FFXI.

[Midnightjade]

yeah. really just a bunch of tough choices here. leveling in the dunes seems non-existant now. 10-20 would be a tough one.

It really isn't bad at all, FoV makes 10-20 fast and fun.

solution #1 go play bard, get group, whore yourself.

solution #2 go play bst, fuck other poeople, solo shit.

Or you can do what I did and do both, haha. Although now I'm adding WHM.

I'm finding that during the week it's actually decent XP to solo as WHM/BST with my flag up. If party leaders are too dopey to figure out I'm going to change to /SCH when I get an invite, then they're probably not leading the kind of parties I'm looking for.