Questions for long time players

dominia

 I had a FFXI account about a year ago so I am not completely new to FFXI, but now that I have a little bit of free time again I'm thinking of coming back. Before I do I have some questions for those who are still up to date in the game .

 

1) The primary role I love to play in mmo's is the tank, but I remember leveling a war/mok Galk to 30 to get pld was incredibly long process due to the excessive wait time for a pt in Dunes. My question is, is it just as hard as ever leveling up the early career of a tank -- should I expect long (1h) wait times between groups until i get my pld?

2) Being as though I never got to endgame I can only go off of what people tell me so please excuse my ignorance on the subject. Past finishing the story arcs, is there still many things to do in game outside of raiding (e.g. chocobo racing, PvP or variation, rep grinds...) or is it pretty much a gear grind race like EQ / WoW?

3) Is endgame achievement based (kill a monster once, feel proud and move one) or do you spend your time grinding on the same X number of boss over and over again? I remember long ago seeing killboards by different LS's and thinking how cool it would be to play again not based soley on gear from endgame, but being able to kill a boss once and not looking back.

4) Are paladins still having a hard time tanking raid bosses as compared to ninjas? I remember long ago arguments spanning multiple websites over paladin viablilty as a MT due to a number of reasons as compared to the ninja.

 

Understand I really am excited on coming back, but my previous experince with the game left a sour taste which I don't really want to get into in this thread if need be. I just would like the assurence of the community over these small issues.

Thanks.

nekrothing

1. Unfortunately there is still quite a lengthy wait to be had on jobs that aren't hotcake classes like bard or white mage. But depending on what time you start to toggle your party search icon (i.e. prime time or in the morning on a weekday) really determines how fast you'll get an invite. During prime time, I'd say the wait for an invite isn't all that bad, even from level 10-30 for a warrior/monk. During the other times though, it can be a strain. I would say getting a group invite is a little bit easier then it was months ago, though.

2. By raiding I assume you mean dynamis or besieged? If I assume correctly then yes, there is a lot more then just raiding. When you finish the missions to the game and all the expansion packs, you'll be able to obtain endgame areas through each storyline. In the endgame areas (such as Sky (obtained from the main story line/RoZ missions) and Sea (obtained from the CoP missions)) your able to kill a variety of notorious monsters in order to obtain items that spawn a more difficult monster that drop unique armor/weapons/items. You can also do large scale PvP (ballista/brenner/Diorama Abdhaljs) with your linkshell or friends. Assault is another midgame/endgame feature that is pretty entertaining. Assault is a sort of semi-mission system implemented from the ToAU expansion pack, where you and 2-5 other players sign up to do a timed mission, upon completion get something called "Assault points", attaining enough "Assault points" allows you to purchase armor/weapons/items. Besides some of the stuff I listed, there is still plenty of endgame content available.

3. It's a little bit of both feeling proud and grinding the same boss over and over again. For some linkshell's that grind "King's", "Wyrms" or "HNM's" (all another term for notorious monsters), it's an achievement to out claim the other linkshell's for the notorious monsters that most people will feel proud about (especially if your the one to claim the monster), while having to continually grind that certain monster over and over again for the items it gives.

4. Paladins are just as good, if not better than ninjas at tanking raid/endgame monsters. I would prefer a paladin over a ninja any day when it comes to tanking raid/endgame monsters, mostly because they can keep hate on a monster better, they have more health/defense to withstand magic the monsters cast and they are able to tank more then one monsters at a time properly.

 

Anywho, hope that helped!

dominia

Thanks, really appreciate it.

I'll be picking up a new copy of the game today since I could not find my POID to reactivate my account. I had called Square but was to no avail, ah well .

My last question is are tanks still desired / needed in the mid levels? As a paladin will I still have a hard time finding a pt, or will I see a significant difference from war/mon?

I'm looking forward to tanking some HMN's. See ya'll in game.

nekrothing

Yeah, tanks are always needed at every level, just as much as a healer is always needed at every level. You should see a significant improvement in invites once you start leveling up paladin.

layoneil

1) it's harder now because a large portion of the playerbase is "higher" level, so lower party leveling is more difficult than before.

2) depends on your playstyle.  but many people really enjoy the level up process so they do that repeatedly, get one job to 75 than level another and another etc.  so do that while doing endgame content and some do it without.  there's also a lot of high level content now that's not based around large groups, so you don't necessarily need a great guild/linkshell to participate.

3) it's mostly based on getting gear.

4) PLDs is the preferred tank for hard encounters in my guild.  it's not that useful in day to day practice though.