Final Fantasy XI: Had you been consumed!?

Hi, I've been wanting to play FFXI since it came out years ago. Since I couldn't at the time or ever between...The time has come when it's massive popularity has deminished and WoW dominates the scene.

None the less, I've seen a whole lot of posts from people who actually have played it on here through other threads that are pretty much dead.

Which is why I'm opening anew one, hoping to find you hidden amongst the crowds!

Yes...I know there are a few FFXI forums...but most the people on'em are ready to bite your head off.

Another reason why I've choosen here to create a new thread, where common respect and awesomness is all around.

Anyway...back to the main point.

I'm just looking for people who are currently or have played FFXI for a long time and know the do's and don'ts of the game.

Any good advice?

Where some hidden awesomness is?

And anything that would be helpful to a new player, as if there was something you wished you were told before you began playing!

Thanks a whole lot!

 

just did sandworm tonight, 22,000,000 gil in drops

sometimes i think ive played this game too long.

 

Had a 75 paladin. Over 40+ merit points. Full AF2. Multiple Koenig Pieces. Did Arch Angels. I was very experienced player.


FFXI is trash. Pathetic economy. horrible quests, the only ones worth doign are far and in between. Chains of Promathia was one of the worst expansion sets I've ever seen. Level cap content is a focking joke. Most people don't like playing at a retard level cap when their character is already decked out at max level. Quests/Missions are all so vague. Good luck doing them without a guide. Anyone remember the 24+ hour fight against Absolute Virtue the first time? This game has a lot of room for improvement. I mean ALOT. Does NIN still dominate the hell out of PLD for HNMs? And no, guilds don't use paladins as tanks for 90% of the fights. DEF not scaling is pure fail. Utsutsemi is a complete overpowered joke.

Want a tip? Drop this POS game and go play WoW. My story ends when I sold my char to some chump that paid 700 for it.

 

haha wow that is so god awful wrong.

my HNM uses pld's as main tanks and yes am also a 75 pld as well.

only 40 merits?

game's changed alot in the last 3 years.

from what you posted you were not an experienced player.

 

That is just plain crazyness...!

 

face it, paladin sucks. You're probably one of those trash paladins in full adaman gear with a vanilla earth staff thinking they are good. You're not, neither is paladin. Utsusemi owns you (and me when I was playing)

 

yo chill out here.

i never played this game, but i remember back in gradeschool reading about it and wanting to

 

Haha sounds like Blackhalo was one of those paladins that did it alllll wrong. Blackhalo, just because you didn't know how play paladin correctly does not mean the job sucked haha. Sorry but, doing AA does not make you an experienced player :\.

I played for a little more than 4 years with a few minor breaks in between. Like I admitted after the first year, it does consume you haha. You will hear many people say "FFXI is my (anti)drug." It is quite true, especially if you are in a busy HNMLS and you are a dedicated player. Being a dedicated player (being there for all events even if drops don't benefit you, helping others out, going to events that just plain suck *einherjar when it first came out*.. etc) pretty much means you have a second job.

The game can be very very different depending on which type of player you want to be. You can be the casual player who finds similar players with similar casual dedication and be able to log on a few hours a night, do a quick quest/mission, exp/merit, salvage or limbus and accomplish a fair amount. Or if you want to experience the game to its fullest extent, you can apply to an HNMLS.

Applying to an HNMLS is good and bad. The good is you can fight/own/get owned by HNMs you would have never been able to fight on your own, you will acquire gear way out of arms reach of that of a casual player, will socialize with more people than you would in a smaller family ls. Basically you can do almost anything in the game with a proper well organized HNMLS. The downside, sacrificing your real life to put in hours for the LS so you can be recognized for your efforts and be rewarded. Most LS' have their own systems where they keep track of who has done what for the LS so the officers will know who to reward when drops happen. Doesn't sound too bad? Well let's just say if you get into an HNMLS, there will be at least 40+ people within that LS and about half of the people by now will all overlap your main job (meaning if you are a main BLM, expect to have a lot of people looking to compete with your lot). So with so many people potentially competing with you to lot a drop, chances are you are going to have people in your LS with absolutely no life. This means they are constantly on, constantly being able to help out and kiss *** to the officers. So how can you compete with someone who has no life when you have a job or school? You can't. 9/10 times for new drops it will go to the person who has no life and you are going to have to wait long and patient for your turn to come.

I'm not saying this game is all bad, the most fun I had was forming my own close group of friends within the LS or simply hanging out with my family LS. I had fun for a good chunk of the time I played but, after a while it gets repetitive and the drama (one important thing I didn't mention above) is unbelievable. There is a lot of content and a lot of end game fights/activities so people who say there is not much material probably only got one job to 75 and thought they beat the game. Anyways, I have a lot to say about FFXI but, for now, I'll leave it at this.

 

Utsusemi is good, but for hnm pld/nin is the way to go ever since they implemented shield mastery. Pld tanks the same way a ninja would, with haste gear+ bards lets you spam flash to hold hate. Up to the ahturghan expansion pack, ninja was a viable tank, but all the hnm in ahturghan use aoe so ninja is useless.

For the OP. For your first job to level in the game I would pick one of the mage jobs. You will level much faster and will end up with priority on drops later on. After you have 1 high level job then you can start your next one and level whatever you want. The game is overpopulated with the warrior,pld ninja classes. The gear that makes them very good at endgame events is spread to thin for new players to get them. If you want to level incredibly fast and be wanted in every event level a bard.

 

Good news Final Fantasy players! You can now sleep well at nights when you have one of the Security Tokens.

http://kotaku.com/5168308/protect-your-gil-with-the-final-fantasy-xi-security-token

 

Dont usually dig old-skool MMOs, but even a casual one like WoW take up all your gaming time