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Final Fantasy XI: Easy Mode Overview, How FFXI Changed.
VanadromArda
Member Posts: 445
With a market full of Massively Multiplayer games these days, it can be quite difficult to really sift through the mess to find something interesting - much less shed some light on the stuff that's been around for what feels like ages. Grandfathered into the older market, Final Fantasy XI was one of the earliest MMORPGs to really go all out and develop a functional, breathing world. But over the years that world has underwent so many changes that it's pretty hard to keep track.
From a personal prospective, Final Fantasy XI has been a roller coaster of emotion: sometimes it's fun, sometimes it's not. This and the bad reputation of 'being a Japanese grinder' never quite appealed well to the broader audience. But quietly, Final Fantasy XI has undergone some extremely universally altering changes that has shattered the entire perception of what the game actually is. The Final Fantasy XI that was released and thrived throughout the audies is gone - a memory in the past.
So radical are these changes, Final Fantasy XI is now fundamentally a new MMORPG that was released in May of 2010. The past year has seen the introduction of the new game element known as Abyssea and a vast change in balance through the upping of the level cap to the current 90, and inevitable level 99 that has already been announced. While people will give mixed reviews on whether or not this element made or broke the game, let us break down what exactly has changed within Final Fantasy XI and why even new players should actually consider giving it a reasonable shot.
We'll go over the ups and down, and try to come to a conclusion that will be up front. Final Fantasy XI deserves a second, perhaps third, fourth, fifth, even sixth look again for you folks seeking a new MMO to call home for a while.
Love it or hate it, throughout the years Final Fantasy XI has been known for its appeal to the "hard core" crowd. It was very close to EverQuest in that the death penalty was harsh and the journey to the end game was so time consuming that it might as well have been an excuse to ignore real life altogether. The brutal difficulty levels of many bosses required weeks if not months of planning and training, and the dungeons weren't any easier. The horror stories from this game could publish a second Library of Congress from all the player of testimonies of blood, sweat, tears, and pain it took to developed a character. This was the Final Fantasy XI we knew, and in ways does still remain - but largely doesn't exist anymore.
Is this a good thing? Perhaps, perhaps not. Different players will tell you different things. As a matter of fact , many players who loved the hard core element have stopped playing altogether as they feel their game has betrayed them. But time will truly tell, as Final Fantasy XI is actually still a work in progress. This game is not at all finished, not by any means - despite being perhaps once of the more insanely over-produced MMOs on the market that has literally too much content for any one person to actually do.
Many MMOs don't even make it 9-years, much less still make content. But SquareEnix is still trucking through, building and developing a final resolution to their game that will allow players to be introduced to a level 99 level cap and something that will finally put a cap on Abyssea since that has already reached its conclusion with the celestial Shinyru Wyrm God at level 90. Right now though, it is important that the preconceptions of Final Fantasy XI actually be forgotten entirely. Like many other MMOs these days, Final Fantasy XI deserves a revisiting and a re-review.
One harsh reality about the game as it once was was the leveling. The Japanese seemed to greatly enjoy punishment, as the first journey from level 1 to 75 would take roughly a year to complete. The game forced you to work together a team with other players after level 10, and from then on it was a slow crawl to 75 fighting the same monsters over and over and over again while only taking a pause to unlock access to your next batch of levels.
So Final Fantay XI got a bad reputation from this alone, and it turned off a lot of people from wanting to give it a go. Also, the early levels in the game give you a bad taste in your mouth as they are slow and largely uneventful - perhaps too sharp of contrast to the manic end game. Uninformed players who were giving the game a shot were potentially driven away because they'd be yawning themselves to death while waiting for the cool down timer on their one and only ability. So people thinking ill of the game is really no surprise at all. FFXI was there before the trend of (!) Markers for quests and various other things, not to mention it lacks fundamental User Interface tools that have to come from 3rd party sources while other games provide them as standard issue.
So how is this any different now? Well for starters, levels are utterly and completely meaningless in the new face of Final Fantasy XI. Being Level 1 or being Level 90 really has no difference in the core of it, because a person joining the game can easily attain level 90 within roughly 3 days. Allow me to rephrase that. A new player can start the game and then become the highest level possible within 75 hours of purchasing and installing the game. While you will need some foreknowledge of the where-to-goes and the what-to-needs, it is possible and has been put to the test by this author before the writing of this overview.
So it's easy to say that levels are only a measure of unlocked content, rather than a measure of ones strength in the game. Because people can so quickly attain the level cap now, it's has become brutally clear just how much the game has always been, and still remains predominantly based on a skill system. Also, players who utilize the PC platform have infinitely more capabilities than the XBOX360 and PS2/PS3 users to a degree that's right-out unfair. Like Ultima Online and other games before it, the true measure of your character is not the level; but the amount of time you devote to an action.
The more you swing a Sword, the higher your Sword rating will become.
The more you cast a Black Magic spell, the greater your Elemental Magic will become.
So Final Fantasy XI boils down to, the more time you invest into the game the better you will be at the game. Getting to Level 90 and not have a clue about what to do next is not at all uncommon these days in Final Fantasy XI. But the bonus is that now new players will be given a very decent free set of armor and a very decent free set of weapons upon reaching level 75+. Also, with the inevitable time spent within the new areas called Abyssea, new players will also have a large amount of money to spend and burn on pretty much any kind of provisions they will need to get started in the game. So really, it's never been easier to start your life in Final Fantasy XI. They practically give you armor, weapon, money, and high-level access right out of the box.
At that point, how you approach the game is up to you as the player. You can either choose to invest more time into Abyssea, which is nothing short of the game's new Easy Mode.. or play the game vanilla. The latter is pretty much impossible for a new player to do upon reaching level 90 without some equipment, so they'll likely be stuck doing Abyssea or back tracking through lower level content using Level Sync; a feature which allows players of all level ranges to play together reguardless of equipment post level 10.
So how Easy Mode is this Abyssea anyway? First of all, it goes by the new restrictions of Casual Gaming - apply time restrictions of how often people can utilize the content. Time extensions can be unlocked, earned, and even build up over time - the less you play, the more time you can burn in Abyssea. This is Square Enix's 'rested' feature basically. After signing up for Abyssea in the game's captical city Jueno, you'll begin earning Traverser Stones which grant you 30 minutes of Abyssea time per stone. While within Abyssea, you can turn in stones for a max of 120 stock minutes that can then be increased to no limit while you are in that zone; however, it will reset to a max of 120 when you leave it the zone.
When inside Abyssea, all players have their stats and attributes increased more than double and their job abilities are more potent. Also they can unlocked special abilities called Atmas which offer extremely powerful latent effects while within Abyssea like a 10+/MP tick refresh that never dies off. This allows summoners to keep their extremely mana hungry Avatars out and about at all times, without risk of ever losing MP at all.
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Abyssea is a self contained game-within a game. This Easy Mode allows players to get a taste of what the game can offer, instantly putting you up into groups of varied sizes going up against monsters of all shapes and breeds ranging from tiny to super-boss size. While this has caused some issues with long time players, who feel betrayed that many of their hard earned jobs and equipment feels useless in Abyssea and that too many players abuse it - it is clear to this author that Abyssea is a mechanism to get people into the game, rather than change it altogether.
The reasoning is clear too. For if Square Enix wanted the entire game to be Easy Mode like Abyssea, all new content would have been generated much like it. But the newest feature, Voidwatch, is very much in the spirit of the classic game and will be expanded even further in future updates. Players who find their lovely Paladin class useless in Abyssea, will find great joy when the level cap is increase to 95 and more people begin doing Voidwatch since that is the next branch of content following Abyssea in both story and equipment value.
Players who desire Final Fantasy XI to be more casual and time-constrant friendly will find Abyssea very welcoming. There are always large amounts of people doing it, and many of them welcome to new players too. Since you need to work at unlocking the more difficult elements of Abyssea through time and team work, it will give new players a good education on workings of FFXI and that the spirit of the game is still very much intact in even that alternative world.
So people who have missed out on FFXI over the years because it was too challenging, will now have a chance to see what they've been missing. Also, have a chance to put themselves into groups with more experienced players who can help them out. But this is a pretty ideal situation though. Abyssea has largely been used to abuse new players too. Older players exploit new players as a fodder to acquire large amounts of money and precious equipment, mainly because new players just don't know any better.
That alone proves that capitalism is a live and well within FFXI.
The real core of the game shines when you work with familiar people. Final Fantasy XI is not a solo game, never has been. Always it has been designed for group play, despite the fact you can now pretty much solo throughout most of the game if you choose to. When you put together a party of six people, six people you meet up with very often and do things together - then you find out what FFXI is truly about. Helping each other.
PC players out there need to also embrace that Final Fantasy XI is nearly impossible play without Windower and ApRadar - two 3rd party programs which give you all the things the game should have had in the first place. Not to mention the ability to track those god awful annoying monsters who you have to kill to upgrade you weapons. The worst of which are Void Walkers, whom are invisible and can be spawned using special stones you grow and develop with repeated use in combat.
Without the Experience Points barrier holding back players from enjoying the game now, there is little excuse to not play. Of course people will find that signing up to the old fashioned PlayOnline program to be a little bit of a pain at first, but the effort is well worth it. The game does require a lot of time and research to understand and control. Harnessing the true people of your role and class comes with practice, 3rd party tools, and program scripts that you can get from other players. While it seems complicated, there are good people in the game who can and will share and teach you how to play if you really want to take the game seriously.
When you do decide to get serious, you'll find yourself blazing through tough content quickly and rapidly gaining hard to find gear. All it takes is time and effort, as nothing but the basics are easily earned. But the game has come a long way from its harsh start. All you have to do now is join up, find someone who has been playing for a little while to set you up, deck you out, and get you to 90 in a week and you'll be ready enjoy the game.
Nothing about any game is all roads of chocolate and fields of sweet smelling roses. Despite having an Easy Mode, Final Fantasy XI is still a tough game. Abyssea may be the dominant element right now, but it won't be that way forever. The game has come a long way, and right now Square Enix is allowing a lot of players to jump in and catch up to everyone whose been playings for years. The game still looks very solid on the PC, and often times looks better than most games out on the market. In the end it's an MMO, but FFXI has changed so much that it's nothing like it once was difficulty wise.
One must be social though, and quick to learn. Else you may find yourself exploited and pushed around. Jueno is a crowded city, with everyone stuffed into one zone. Often times the game can appear like a ghost town, but all you really have to do is stop and let people load... then you'll see just how little room there is to truly move. So in a fashion, that is how the game is as a whole. You can quickly move through it, but you won't see what's happening until you actually stop to let all the content catch up to you.
This Article is continued in: Final Fantasy XI: Battle for Empyrean; PK in FFXI?
Comments
Wow, and I was considering reinstalling... Sounds like complete garbage now since I always found FFXI to be about the journey.
I'd have to say even as an old player who's had this game since around 2005, Abyssea sounds very intrigueing and possibly more fun. I have to confess I never made high level in this game or even midway as I always ended up quitting because of its terrible grind, as mentioned in this thread, I even found myself smiling (not in the happy sense but almost tempted to laugh) when I read the part about spending hours killing the same mob over and over, I did that in Dunes, Quifim Island AND Khazam, it was getting rediculous and thats why I ended up quitting. I have to say this does tempt me to try FFXI once again for maybe the half dozenth time now just to see if Abyssea serves me better.
Interesting review, i felt a lot of your points were spot on but a few very off points. Since it was a lot of text to cover Ill just simply sum up on how I feel about the game, coming back a few months ago with a brand new char and a RL friend in tow:
The major misconception about your review is the making FFXI seem like it was "hard". This is a very often used term that isnt entirely correct. Endgame was more about outclaiming the games rediculous bot/rmt infestation and dealing with the great depression know as its economy. Leveling up a job that sucked is not "hard", it simply requires initative, the same can be said for leveling up with underpar gear. Gear and job meant a lot in the slow treadmill "grind" as people and yourself like to call it (mmos were always about the commnunity and i always had fun with players i partied with, talking/joking and just enjoying a mmo the way it was meant to be played) but as many ppl know the point of abyssea wasnt a ploy at making the game easymode.
All the players that managed to get where they did prior to the level increase and release of aby already reached their goal as far as jobs go, its had the same level cap for what.....6+ years? Until the recent changes to FoV and 1-30 Leveling a couple of years ago, SE made no effort in encouraging new players to join the ranks. Also, no new jobs have been added since WoTG. That was 3 years before aby? If by then you didnt have your things leveled then i dont know what to tell you. Aby was there to get players into the game they felt so behind in, with a level 90 you can easily go through the game and experience its story with another friend and get the goodies on the way and enjoy the journey at a faster rate. With so many players with completed story content this had to be done. Im sure you could get a guild to do all the exp if they kept the level caps on the fights but SE figured they would much rather have the game be more accessable in the beginning so players can ease themselves into the story of the game and experience what this games about and why its different from other mmos.
Because aby was released to 30+ players it did ruin traditonal parties so players complained. SE introduced a exp patch that makes leveling in old areas viable. There is stil l journey, you just need to be willing to find it. All the storylines still have a priceless item that you can get to help you on your journey and there is much story and community to see. I got from 1-70 old school style and hit up aby and have been having a blast ever since. FFXI doesnt kill off its old content (with introduction of magian trials) untike many other mmos we all know and love, and thats what makes the game so fun to play, its variety and community.
You make it seem like aby is the end all of the be all, aby may be easymode for those who do dom ops all day to slowly get their seals but the bosses and other things to do there couldnt be any more challenging. WIth 18 ppl i can see your arguement being somewhat valid in it being "easy" but you dont get more if you spend more time either, which is another one of your points i disagree with. A set of +1 AF3 and half a brain and you can low man harder bosses = more loot for you and your friends = reaching your objective faster which time really means nothing about time. The most basic atmas with a blu or mnk or even nin and you can low man most/if not all of aby. This is the result of no instances aby which is the beauty of it.
Abyssea to me is the new dynamis, preparing players for the real endgame at level 99. If you know SE as well as i do you know this much will be true. Aby in a few exp will be a place for players to gear up for the real challenge with the help of voidwatch also.
TLDR Version:
Try the game, if your looking for something new with a great community this is the game. This game is as hard as you make it, the better you are as a player understanding your capabilies and role (with some very little gear requirements and decent atma) you can achieve more in less time. The game rewards good players/players that are willing to learn, and with a great community based around it its all ill ever need.
It's sad that a year to get to level cap is now seen as a long time and a grind. That long journey to level cap was what made it unique.
Originally posted by Scagweed22
is it the graphics? the repetativenesses? i mean what is the point? you could be so much more productive in real life
Real life brings repetition and pointlessness too. The only thing real life offers is Great graphics. Its kinda expensive too and way to dependent on the cash shop. Totally pay to win as well. No thank you. Ill stick to my games.
Reading your review made me want to play the game more. But alas, the one thing that turns me off is the monster they call "Playonline registration".
I just cant get pass it. I admit i'm not from US/CAN/JAP/EUR but c'mon...gimme a break here. All my Credit/Debit cards (which are all 3D-Secure enabled) are being rejected for no reason, despite in working order. All other loopholes (found with google) are all outdated.
To make matter worse there is no support for players outside said region and you need to be REGISTERED first before support is given, oxymoronic isnt it?
Until then....i'll just watch by the sideline....and yes i'm QQ-ing here.
What do you mean play again? Reactive a account or start a new one? If you cant make the effort for that i doubt your going to play long, no offense >.>
Ok. First off. I've been playing ff since may '04. I know of all the times you speak of. I wrote a post on ah a few months back asking the general crowd if they still liked the game as much now as they did before. The game is in fact completely different than it was back then. IT IS a lot easier now than in the way back when days. It is a LOT more casual friendly.
But think of it this way:
How much more stuff do you get done now getting key items and poping nms (not even just in abyssea) where as before "endgame" content was refered to mostly as camping hnms. Which for those of you who didn't know were a once a day 21-24 hour respawn timer. And king's which were a 4-7 day chance in place of those 3 nms we know and love. The game is a lot more differen't now, it's plenty more casual than it used to be. Those "waiting all day for a party in jeuno" times are long gone.
Abyssea in a sense is just a joke. It's super easy. There isnt much more you can say about it. If you have a competent group of players who know what they're doing you can do everything. This isn't the case for everyone though, there are still a lot of people who as we like to say "are doing it wrong".
Voidwatch is the saving grace for this game. I love my paladin and I can finally be important again in a group setting!!! But i disagree with you though, with my Ochain I can solo a lot of things in abyssea (including iron clads). Voidwatch is actually not all that difficult but does take a lot of co-ordination. You honestly can "zerg" down any of the mobs, but to properly proc lights and get drops/ki's you need to be smart and actually pay attention.
This game is great, was great, will be great. It's a shame that it still supports the ps2 though. the limitations are very annoying to pc players (about 95% of the games population).
This is bad, everyone knows casual games just bring about the children and unwanted players, way to ruin the community even more.
Karasu Linkshell for Final fantasy 14 now accepting all members! Just head on over to karasuls.shivtr.com and apply now! Linkshell info is on the site.
FFXI use to be unique..
now its come closer to every other cookie cutter WoW fest grind game out there.. There is no skill in leveling up.. or achievement in acquiring max level or gear.
Everything is easy.
Just canceled my account after 6 years today
Might check back in when they finally reach the new level cap in the game.. but it seems the developers are content with the new "abyssea" style game play and have started implementing it in old zones as well with the voidwalker stuff.
It was a good run .. will miss you old ffxi </3
^^Yep. This was me in a nutshell. Got to level 53 on my BLM and started to grind beetles somewhere and it was taking, at the time, 8 hours or more of straight up sitting in a camp to get one level and only more time to tack on after leveling even more. This "fly through the levels" option of Abysea is seriously making me reconsider coming back to the game.
While I enjoyed the party based grinding up to a certain point, anything past 50 ended up being a nightmare due to the time needed just to level up. Not very conducive when you have kids and a family and work and such. On top of that, all the great content was hidden behind the level lock. You couldn't see most of the awesome storylines and other stuff unless you spent all that time leveling and getting + gear. From what I just read, it seems this barrier is finally not an issue and I can come back and play as many jobs as I want to cap in a reasonable amount of time, get good gear and FINALLY finish all those Missions I so desperately wanted to see before but couldn't.
Abyssea can be fun for a while.. but 99% of the game can be done in a duo now.
A lot of the game can be soloed even.
It just lacks the "challenge" it once did.
I liked the faster pace of gear and advancement in exp that abyssea afforded people... I just think they went a bit too far in making the game easy.
You can take every job 1~90 in a month. Then burn to the best weapon in the game in two weeks. After that theres really not much to do.
A game w/o a challenge just isn't sustainable. Its all grind... cap this skill or cap that skill.. nothing really to draw you in.. if you like watching a number bar go up.. it will be great...
but if you like intricate battle plans or close calls.. ffxi doesn't have them any more.
rofl, yup, it takes a lot of skill to sit in one spot and grind for months, yup real skill.
Apparently stating the truth in my sig is "trolling"
Sig typo fixed thanks to an observant stragen001.
I don't know if you ever played ffxi before but I'm going to assume you haven't because of your comment.
FFXI use to require you to at least look at you monitor more than every 5 minutes to gain a level..
It required a party of 6 and each person had to be doing his job or the party would fail... there was little room for error..
true it wasn't "challengeing" but at least it would hold your attention and required a bit of skill and knowledge (basics) about how a job worked.
Now you can exp in an alliance of 18 people.. and gain 3 times the experience per enemy as a party of 6 would.. things die so fast that half the people in an alliance afk and it doesn't really matter.. because the exp is so fast....
So yes it did take more "skill" to exp before and was a bit more "rewarding" for me at least because it felt like i earned my level..
There is no feeling of achievement any more or satisfaction knowing you had mastered or at least become competent in a job.
Most enemies in the game now don't even require paying attention... whm with 3 refresh atma's spamming cure on a mnk or nin... quite the challenge indeed.
Get a war + whm to fell cleave burn while the rest of the 16 people in your alliance afk.. would have very little effect on the overall exp gain.
When it really comes down to it, i can agree with many of your comments on what FFXI used to be. Though you need to realize that your looking through nostalgia glasses and you need to remove them to realize what it is that you truly miss about this game. There is an age old saying that would summarize my thoughts on mmos that reach the age that FFXI did. That say is "Nothing gold can stay". While some choose to enjoy what the game for what it is, while others (usually vets that had 16+ hours a day to accomplish something, which was what the game used to require) choose to be bitter, as if SE had molested their well being.
Dont get me wrong, i got to 75 and I did all the meriting, the dynamis runs, the sky, sea, salvage, assault and even pankitron. I didn't exactly get far because the game felt like a second job to me. Those who keep saying the game required skill, i have no words for you. As i mentioned in my wall of text a few posts up, the game was more about a time investment than skill. There was expectations and teamwork required to get things done, but by no means did it make the game hard. Endgame prior to ToAU was camping 3-7 day spawn kings and even then it was trying to outclaim 50 botters. If there was any skill involved at the time it was the least those endgame linkshells had on their mind.
Many had their life, family and friends move farther away from them because of the sheer amount of TIME it took to get anything done in the game, aby just sped things up and added a lowman option for those who want to play the game at their own pace. With the right atmas most and if not all bosses are solo/duoable in aby if you choose a cookie cutter combo like whm or mnk. If you enjoy playing those classes then more power to you, but if you dont want to jump on the bandwagon then there is some challenge for you yet. While i havent done much of Voidwatch, many vets claim its the last hard thing thats making the game enjoyable for them so there is still hope yet.
The most important thing is that level 90-99 is yet to be released. i dont get why everyone moans and groans about aby easymode. The way i said it and i will say it again is: Aby is the new mini dynamis where players gear up for the storm that's coming very soon. If we know SE we all know that a storm is brewing, and Voidwatch is only the beginning....
Thats why i canceled my account.. the game isn't worth playing to me until level 99 is release... if it will be that is
Wow! Comments, hehe. Yay!
I hate people that play just to reach end game =/
They ruin MMOs....
I think they went a little to far with making level easier was it a pain in the ass yeah it really was it was worse than EQ at times I thought (before EQ went streamline) I only made it to about 40 on a monk than got all the side jobs and goofed around (Corasir and dragoon still my favorite). It was all about the journey at least it was when I played EQ1 back during kunark and velious and even up to PoP and LDoN but FF11 was always just.....dull so maybe its not that Turrible.
I think the bigger problem was ffxi spent years building up content and a massive world designed for lvl 75.
There were tons of relevent events to do for people at the level cap.
Now its all about the 9 abyssea zones while the rest of the game sits idle.
The speed with which everything can be obtained makes you burn though those 9 zones fast.... there isn't any (or at least very minimal) storyline behind abyssea... so its 100% about the gear treadmill.. and a fast treadmill at that so its not sustainable for enjoyment imo.
Do I think ffxi can reach an enjoyable point in the future.. i do
I'll wait for SE to figure out what they want to do with ffxi before I resub... games story is so messed up atm that i'm not sure they even know what direction they want to take it heh.
Leveling up did actually require skill. There were major differences between partying with skillful players and non-skillful players. One bad player in your 6 man party meant either the whole party was going to die, or your exp/hr rate was going to take a heavy reduction on what it should have been. It wasn't just about sitting down, staring at your screen, and pressing skills once the cool down wore off.
Before, when parties used SATA+WS to keep the hate on ninja tanks, 3 team mates had to be coordinated to be able to successfully perform it.
Blackmages actually used the magic bursts to kill mobs quicker in parties, and when they were using freeze on crabs, 2 dd's would have to time their ws's just right for the blm to be able to MB.
White mages needed fast reaction times to remove negative status effects. Paralyze and silence were certain doom to ninja tanks if the effects weren't quickly removed. Bards, redmages, and whitemages need to remove status ailments from monks and warriors in KRT parties to have the exp keep going fast. Fast exp with a pretty good group was around 6k/hr. With an average one about 4k/hr. When you made parties you would remember the good players, and wouldn't invite the decent or less skillful ones since exp rate per hour was something to worry about, not just being able to party with friends, linkshell, or anything else like that.
It used to take skill in camping HNM's and NM's. Yes, there were botters and gilsellers but it was rewarding when you or your linkshell were able to claim a HNM without the use of bots, defeat it, and get the awesome drops. I used to camp so many NM's like leaping lizzy, sozu tonberry, pallas, valkrum emperor, the O. kote and fuma NMs, where soloing them wasn't a problem, the fun was competing against everyone else that were camping them. Now either they made the drops bound, or made it so that the nm would need a pop item to spawn. The challenge is no longer there, and it's just now luck for getting the drops.
I quit about 6 months after whitegate expansion came out for the same reason some of the players now are raging. It was too easy to level. What used to take a half a year took only 1 month in the new areas. Exp/hr rate was quadroupled and I leveled 2 more jobs to 75 through the expansion areas. There was no skill involved in partying anymore. Paladins were obsolete, we didn't even need ninjas either. The mobs ranged from T to VT so DD's would be able to tank them and bounce hate from one dd to another if neseccary. There were no longer any need for ws combos or mb's. There was no need to SATA. No need for whitemages to be on their toes with the -na spells. Even pulling mobs became easier since links were either grabbed by another party, or the bard or rdm would put it to sleep and not worry about sleep wearing off since the party could kill the previous mob quickly and start on the new one. No one needed to worry about themselves pulling hates since the mobs weren't tough. They could just spam their ws's and job abilities without worry.
When people used "Congratulations" when one of their party members leveled, they did it because they were happy for that person, and recognized their achievement. Now it's just a curteousy, something shallow and meaningless.
I'm not saying SE is wrong by making the game easier, but I agree when people say that the "skill" factor is mostly gone, and that's what turned me off from the game. I'd rather have them give new players the ability to start out as 1 level 75 job, and have the party system the way it used to be rather than have leveling on easy mode.
I played FFXI at NA release and continued for about 5-6 years. The best part about this game was the journey to max level. There were great missions and quests. Not to mention looking forward to finally being able to kill certain NMs like VE or Mee Deggi.
I always found Sky more fun than any of the other end game areas released as well. Well, before you could zerg every sky boss down in less than 2 minutes.
Abyssea makes all the strengths of the old FFXI completely obsolete. I'm sure some people will prefer this new FFXI, but I for one am saddened to see these changes.
I agree but most people have never played a game that required some sort of skill to grind efficiently xD
pulling 30k an hour on lolibri was fun at 75 cap
Ok since there is already this thread regarding howe easy FFXI has become and I've already commented saying this made me tempted to return I'm going to place my feedback comment here now that I have done so:
First thing's first, yes it is easy VERY easy, too easy infact. I'm not even 100% sure if I like this new way as for the fact of hardly anyone parties anymore unless its what they call "book burning" which basically means you sync with someone of a decent yet lower level to face mobs that are killable by that level in groups and you keep getting page 1 from the Field Manual to gain your exp. The exp does not matter from the mob as you'd be lucky to get around 20 due to the size of the group is normally 7-15 depending on how many turn up. The exp that you mostly need comes from the book, the lowest place most people go to is Gusgen Mines and that book can reward you from around 700 exp to over 1.3k exp! thats alot of exp considering you only got 100 - 200 exp per mob in Valkrum Dunes w hen in party! and only for 6 mobs! thats just crazy! I do love this don't get me wrong, easy leveling can be great fun and its really nice to finally say I'll be high level in no time instead of taking a friggin year and rage qutting cus of stupid groups getting me killed. However, what I don't like is the fact that this is all people really do other than speed leveling in Abyssia, so where's the fun in this really? where's the challenge? One of the biggest problems with FFXI is the lack of dungeon content too. Sure its there but by how much? Not alot really. And who really dungeon raids in FFXI anyway? not many people I can assure you. Most people pick a camp spot and stay there til they are satisfied with their level then go to a totally new locaiton somewhere miles off from that one. Don't get me wrong I do love FFXI for all it is or at least all it was but this I'm just not so content with. I'll probably play til I hit max level then resign and no doubt never return, I think this game has certainly passed its time where it was really worth playing and all this so called new content isn't really worth buzzing about. Oh and before someone suggests I go to WoW cus I mentioned raids, no thanks, I'm done with WoW, I wanted to go back to FFXI cus of my love for the game and any game from that series, not to mention I was curious about the new addons and ways of leveling, but now that I know I don't think this is the game for me anymore.
I got to 75 PLD and NIN before Wings of the Goddess, I have quit since then after unlocking all the jobs the game has to offer. I have a few lvl 30 jobs here and there but I was just not in the mood to grind like hell and wait 1-2 days in Jeuno to get a group going. I read the OPs post and It really got me intrigued about Abyssea. What is it? How does it work? How can I take advantage of the things the OP said , like lvling up to 90. To be honest I go and check the website every so often and when I read the cap was going to get increased from 75 to 90 all i could say was HELL THE F**K NO!! But if leveling is as easy as the OP says, then Id be willing to go back. I miss the story element of FFXI and I miss my NIN. Can anyone give me some pointers as to what I should do? I have 75 gear on my PLD and NIN but thats about it, never did anything else. Reacher 75 increased my points here and there, then quit out of boredom because finding groups to do missions was a bigger pain then finding an exp group in Jeuno.
Thanks in advance for the info
At least with a sub game they know that people won't tolerate bullshit and leave. With anet we have no recourse but to buy our own lube so our assholes don't get too stretched out from getting bent over a table at Anets will. - Hrimnir
@sr7olsniper
Let's assume you were to pick up the game again, you'd pretty much do the following. First of all, you'd go online to Steam and purchase the Ultimate Collection Abyssea addition for the price of a monthly payment, which will net you all possible expansions and all rewards that reside with it. While they advertise a Beret that'll help you in level from 1 - 30, they don't mention all other little goodies you get for having complete expansion sets like the Nexus Cloak which you will pick up from a red chest in the Tenshodo. This cloak allows you to warp directly to your party leader's location if they are in any of the first two game zones FFXI and Rise of Zilart.
Secondly, you'll proceed to Port Jeuno like a good puppy and sign up for Abyssea. At this point you'll be provided with a complimentary stone, and you'd have to wait a little while - perhaps a day or two before you gather about two or three stones before proceeding into Abyssea. You'd join into an Abyssea Altepa Dominion Ops Experience Points Party, which means you'll have to set off to Bastok, exit the city into South Gustaberg and enter the highest level Abyssea with stupid ease. Then you'd proceed to walk you way to the farthest point on the map, after signing up for Visitation Status of course, and activating Conflux 8.
After that, you do as the above post states and Book Burn. You talk to a Taru, sign up for Page 1 of the book which tells your team to kill 5 Sand Sweepers which are these robot Doll mobs that explode. Your team will kill 5 of them in about, 2 minutes? You walk back to the Taru, and boom.. 5100 exp for doing practically nothing. Rense and repeat until you max your Merits. Request you lot on all the Crests too. Then you jump back to Jeuno, spend your Merit Points and Crests to unlock 75 - 80 from the Moogle you unlocked all your other levels with. Proceed back to Altep, level from 75 - 80.
Repeat this process until you are 90.
When you hit 80, use the Curor from the Altepa Dom Ops to buy a complete set of level 78 set from the earlier tiers of Abyssea. Each Tier of Abyssea, of which there are 3, has different items to buy from the NPCs. This gear is actually very decent to wear even at 90, and will hold you over for a while.
Once you hit 90, seek out a 6 person Static consisting of a Black Mage, Warrior, Thief, Ninja, (Blue Mage/Dark Knight/Monk/Red mage), and White Mage. Run with these 6 people only, learn from them, and go into Abyssea together. Try not to use too many stones, and have your Party use the Red Mage + Warrior combo to Fell Cleave up time inside Abyssea by gathering Azure Light, Pearl Light, and Amber Light. You'll learn how to unlock those through doing it.
Gather up Time Exentions via Blue Chests (Azure Light) and get about 300+ minutes for that zone, then proceed to gather pop items for powerful bosses.. Pop them, kill them, share the look. Then work on Trial bosses that'll you have to kill roughly 50+ times to gather 2+ materials for your AF armor set called Empryean. When not in Abyssea, do trials by hunting NMs to develop your Empryeans weapons. When not doing that, solo Missions you never could find groups for. When not doing that, Skill Up your abilities. When not doing that, learn how the hell Synergy works. When not doing that, level Thief in about a day and farm all the crap you always wanted to farm.. When not doing that, try own Dynamis now that you can solo it.
Hmm... Oh, when doing that.. um.. Go to White Gate and laugh at how deserted it is now. Yeah.. and when not doing that, try doing your Nation Quests but realize that being 90 means nothing because they stuck 90+ mobs in your way in all the basic FFXI zones now so it's a complete bitch to do them now as they hit STUPIDLY hard.. 150 - 300 basic attacks when 90 armor. OUCH. When not doing that? Level up all your classes to 90 because you can. Or farm seals for your Empryean set, and understand the pain of having to fight for a pop-spawn with two or three other groups, and understand the meaning of the term Ninja-Popping the hard way.