Howdy, Stranger!
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Quick Links
My Return to Vana'diel and a mini guide.
maxnrosy
Member Posts: 608
Warning this will be long:
Ah long ago back when this ffxi was released, i was one of the first on the us to try this game out. FFxi also happened to be my 1st mmo and what got me into mmo's in general. Back then we were new players, who had no idea what to do, then we followed a guide from brady games which sealed a pattern till this day players follow. this did have a bad inpact on the game's community and how it was played. FFxi back then was harsh , yet shunned by everquest players considering it to be to easy .
Elitisim plagued the players ranks. and before race wars were a common topic. Heck even job wars. mithras had to be x jobs, elvan were better for this job ect. These stupid wars toppled those who had common sence. with jobs it was with weapons. If you were a dark knight and decided to use a great axe at early lvls because some skills did 2 hits compared to the scythes 1 hit skills, you were mocked, shunned and not invited to a group unless you has your signiture wep. Yep weapons are graded by their jobs and back then you had to have the best graded wep. This also was followed up by gear, you needed to have leaping boots. emperors hairpin and sniper rings to be accepted as a dd. Elitisim was at its finest and this created a horrible community which pushed me out of the game.
So i did try a 2nd time with a friend when we heard that the exp was given a overhaul and it was possible to solo better and duo ect. I came back to Ffxi with a friend and we were having fun duoing. The community was not as elite as it once was and was maturing into a better community. However square allowed rmt to get out of hand and prices were exaggerated. RMT dominated the market pushing you to either go by thier terms or suck at the game. This made us quit 1 month after restarting.
So they say the 3rd time is a charm. I do Have to agree on that. I just recently came back to Vana'diel. To my surpize the game has change alot compared to what i remembered. Before i got to the point i hated this game and flamed it. I consisdered it a timesink on to which under my name it used to say "Those who like timesink should seek medical attention." I changed that as well i realsized every game has its time sink one way or another. like waiting for groups you spend about the same amount of time waiting for a raid in other games to get rdy ect.
So what has changed:
Mobs back then when you hit a lvl you would stop getting exp from them. Square has extended mobs to last longer giving exp before they stop. This alone allows in a way for you to solo a bit but of course this really depends on your job. some jobs are very group dependant.
New items were introduced to aid you in your lvling and survival. Reraise earrings, exp rings. they dont need to be equipped but using them gives you buffs. Dying in this game = a 10% loss in exp if you revive at your homepoint. with the reraise effect it lowers how much exp you lose and no need to walk all the way backt where your lvling at.
Mobs that disappear after someone zones/dies. This is a great relief to see it implemented into the game. while mobs will still chase you across the zone. they do not take their time to go back once you zone or die. Before places like crawlers nest would be locked out due to mobs not resseting once someone zoned. This means unaware players will not die to a zerg of mobs waiting at the entrence of a zone.
LvL Sync. This is by far the best idea ever implemented in a MMO period. NO other game that i have played (dont know if there are mmos with a similar system) has ever done somthing so awsome. Now high lvl players can mingle with the lowe lvl players. Everyone is synced to the lowest lvl player. so if we have a lvl 15 player we all become lvl 15. Now thats not all. You ALL GET EXP. even if your lvl 60 and you drop to lvl 15, the exp you get goes to your current lvl so even if you lvl up youll still be 15 but your getting exp. This allows to community to help eachother. there is no need to powerlvl when you can sync and worth to gether. everyone benifits. This allows high lvl friends to invite their pals to the game and actually have fun together. This concept is far superior than having a high lvl friend finish your quests doing instances for lowbies having them put no effort into the game. This alone has made ffxi community change in big ways. I love this feature and would love to see it implemented in other games.
The quest book : Outside each city and in some outposts there will be a questing book. think of it as your normal kill x and y monster quests. Now there is a few differences. you will be awarded opon killing the last mob in the list, no need to return to the book. You can only do one quest per game day (which is approx one hour) however if you get a quest when its almost about to turn into the next game day you can get a quest for that next day . so the timer is tied to the game day and not the actual hour it takes for a game day to pass. The book also offers field assistance. As you finish the repeatable book quests you get tabs. Tabs can be used for the field assist. this gives you buffs like reraise, protect. refresh and regen(there are a few more options) These do ease your lvling experience. Now completeing these book quests give you exp and gold (gil) so its smart to get these quests as soon as they become aval every hour.
There are a few things ill list here but i havent tried them out yet:
pixies which i know little of but it seems they assist you in battle.
you can hire npcs to help you in battle for a x amount of time. i dont know how to get these. (any experienced in the new stuff plz post what else i missed)
Now the community:
Ahh i remember when ffxi used to be elitist bastards. RMT used to run the economy. This has all changed. I have never seen such a helpful comminity in a long time. Im fighting and some passerby decides to toss a heal or buff. This has encouraged me to do the same. People high lvl willing to help and sync with your lvl so you can get the best possible exp and help ya finish missions. The eliteness is quite gone. Nobody cares what race/job combo you are however they do expect you to have the right job combo depending on the role you take in a party. if your gonna tank you best have the job and subjob that is best suited for it. that is a norm in every game tho. no one will allow a priest to tank an instance in wow XD. RMT is been obliverated. I do know some might exisst but its nonexsistant. before they controlled the named mob spawns or notorious monsters. now reg players have been claiming these mobs. my group in the dunes claimed the mob that drops the emperor hairping but atlas it didnt drop it.If you have questions someone will anwser them. The best thing you can do is find an active ls. now thanks to the lvl sync anyone can group together regardless the lvl since they will get exp anyhow.
The naughty:
Windurst. Ill consider it as the most ill concieved city ever made in the game. It is to darn city is made to big compared to bastok and sandoria. even the placement of the homepoints and all. (sandoria has them very close to the exits while windurst has em kinda far) this city didnt have to be as big as it is and compared to the others its pretty bland.
the interface: if you played many recent mmos you have the chance to config everything to your tastes. well it cannot be done here since this game is also aval for the consoles (ps2/xbox 360). your just better off playing with a joypad (any gamepad that looks like the ps2 one will work or a xbox 360 controller) The keyboard setting is whack wasd is only offered if you select the compact controls (for laptops) if you use regular iyou use the number pad to move. It just feels very clunky compared to other mmos which is why a gamepad is better.
The expantions: This has nothing to do with the content. you cannot download the vana'diel collection you have to puchase it at the stores for 19$ (its a deal) while game stop does offer a downloadble version of each expansion but at 19$each. Not a biggie but if you plan to purchase this game your just better off going to a store and picking up the cds than finding a downloadble version of it. Also the collection comes with a seperate reg code to activate all the expansions instead of one for each.
The mini guide:
I decided to make a mini guide for those who are comming back to ffxi or even trying it out via the trial.
There are a few things you may want to know about this game before trying it.
1: Race
It doesnt matter which race you choose. Each does have its goods and its weaknesses but there is alot of gear to make up for those weaknesses. EXample an Elvaan has high hp, str and vit. but has very low agi and dex. you can easly just get gear with agi, dex and acc to boost your char up. Mithras have high dex and agi but low str and vit. mithras may want to focus more on str n vit than dex since it is very high. In the long run those differences wil not be affected due to gear.
2: stats
every point in this game matters. you will never see your char with 820 str ect. 1 point in str makes a lot of difference so if you come around gear that offers you a few points into a stat it is very valuable. When taking your job you need to take into consideration where to focus stats on via gear and food. if your a caster, mages will need int while healers will need mind. getting food, gear with those stats and gear with +mana are what you want to aim for. If your a melee damage dealer. you want to focus on dex and accuracy. if your race had high dex then you want to focus on str and some acc. Tanks will vary as there are different types. Paladins will want vit, some acc and mana to tank effectively while ninjas may focus more on evasion. In short you may want to research what stats is good for what job yet take in factor what your race gives you and were its weak. doing so can make that Galka black mage work XD.
3: nation
it really does not matter which nation you choose. the ring given if you go to the nation of choice for your race really doesnt help much as they just give stats to where your race is good at anyhow. now another reason why it doesnt matter is because you CAN change your nation at any time as long as your not on a mission and you have the gold to change. It is possible to become rank 10 for every nation. each nation does have different items for conquest points so getting rank 10 on each nation = having the option to get any of the gear as long as you farm the conquest points and the money to change back to the nation that has the item you like.
4: Can it be soloed/ duoed or is full group the only way?
Lvling for many classes can be soloed/duoed but you need to know what to do to achive it. some things like unlocking some jobs or missions are geared twords getting a group to complete them.
even if your on the trail you can actually solo your class to lvl 18 but you need to know where to go and ill help you out on my guide.
Getting started: up to subjob
Once you made your char it comes up to the question which job should you choose. ill give you a bit of info of each class aval at start.
Warrior:
Melee dmg dealer and tank. if you start out this way you will be getting alot of hp. defence is still tied to your gear so you do become gear dependant. lvl 5 you get provoke and later on youll get skills that lower your attack in favor of defence or the other way around. knowing when to use them is critical. if your tanking you dont want to use bezerk and take more dmg. Provoke is a good pulling tool to get mobs to come to you from a distance. This job can easly be soloed to lvl 18 but then needs help for the subjob quest.
Thief:
Damage dealer but quite weak at start. what you have going for you is your evasion. you basicly have higher chances of mobs dropping stuff making it a good class to farm with but this class at the start will have it a bit hard to solo. it lacks the hp from the warrior so if you decide to solo with this class you may want to be very catious. its just advisable you get grouping from lvl 14 on.
Monk:
Damage dealer but starts off much better than a thief. very high hp and as you lvl you can counter attacks. Not much to say about this job but you can definantly solo it to 18.
White Mage:
Healer class with some dmg spells. This is one of the classes that is very group dependant since its dmg is very low. while you can take this class to lvl 10- 14 its a very slow process. Your better off grouping and high chance people will pm you due to your class.
Black Mage:
Damage dealing caster. very frail in terms of hp and if your soloing you may want to time your spells (wait for mo to hit you then cast.) Black mages melt things quick and must do so in order to survive. Best off getting into groups as early as they can but it is possible to solo to 14.
Red Mage:
Jack of all trades master of none. Can melee, heal and cast dmging spells. but its main job is to debuff their mobs. Out of all the 6 classes This one has it very easy to solo. it can be taken to lvl 18 with ease. now it wont kill as quick as a warrior, monk or black mage. It will however survive longer and even being capable of surviving 2 mobs at once with the propper buffs.
well there ya go somthing brief about each job. remember this is before you get a subjob which can change how each job works.
Once you get your job of choice the 1st thing you want to do in every city is visit the gates. and i mean every single one in that takes you out of the city. Why, you want to find out which npc is the starter Npc. This Npc will give you a tutorial of the game and will reward you for doing his/her quests. this will help you on the lvling process as he/she will give you a cupon to get a special ring that gives you exp. Choose the empress ring as it has the most charges for exp rate. Now when you use a ring remember that if you log off you do not lose the effect. when you log back on youll still have it. so it pauses for you, however if you die you lose the effect.
The quest books: This will help you alot to gain exp and tabs. Once you finish a few of them you can get buffs from the books. If you decided to go redmage or whm, all you want is refresh for mp. black mages may want regen also. all other melee only want regen. Also be smart and take the reraise buff.
newbie mobs can take you to lvl 7 to 8 they will give you exp till then. so taking the quests to kill them is a good idea. do page 1 and 2 till then. After that you can try page 3 and see if you can take down those mobs. with the book, and the exp ring you can get to lvl 14 without leaving the starter zone around the city. This is why i put all the classes soloable up to lvl 14.
once you hit 14 however the exp become bad, this is when you start taking the last page of the book in the starter area which sends you to the next zone. I started in windurst so i was sent to the canyons to kill saplings and killer bees. wich was very easy for me to do. Classes with high hp and survavability can go up to 18 without grouping but it does take some time. the thing is it is completely possible.
your next book is in the outposts in the valrum dunes and the windurst equivalent (forgot the name but where the dock is located) The 1st page of these books send you to the previous zone and give a good hunk of exp when you complete them. the 1st page alone can take you to lvl 18. the mobs you will kill will give you from 90 exp and by the time you hit 18 65 exp per kill. these mobs are very soloable for some of the classes.
In my honest opinion The redmage does make a solid choice if your starting to try this game. It lest you taste melee. magic dps and healing all in 1 job. basicly you debuff your mob with blind and dia. and hack away. dia lowers the mobs defence letting you hit harder. and blind makes them miss more often. when you pick up bind and paralize also slow you can slap all of these on a mob making you take less dmg. keeping refresh from the books alone make you recover utterly quick . you can cast protect to take less dmg and heal during a fight. the 1st zone you dont need to cast all those spells on each mob, blind and dia will do. You also get bio which lowers the enemies dmg but it doesnt stack with dia. when you finally get to 14 and start doing quests from the outpost, till lvl 16 you want to debuff the mobs all the way. you can take down 3 before you need to rest. once your lvl 16, dia and blind are more than enough and you can keep chaining them. just remember cast a spell after an enemy attacks.
A few things you may want to know about mobs.
Mobs do have weaknesses and defences vs different spells and weapons. If you find a mob that is easy to kill stick to those. also if you see a big mob, dont think because it says decent challange means you can obliverate it. Big mobs tend to have better stats than smaller mobs and seem intended for groups. once you sub a job these mobs can be killed solo but take precautions.
If anything always check the mobs. once you hit lvl 14 you want to avoid any mob that is considered an even match. your target is decent challange with high defence all the way down to easy prey with low evasion and defence.
your exp will range from 90 to 45 exp a kill without taking the ring into factor. if you have the ring buff thats 50% more exp per kill.
If you intend to lvl as quick as possible then follow any powergaming guide on where to go at your lvl.
now as you do lvl it will become apparent that soon you will not be able to solo in most classes. but there are some that can do so. Prob by then you did make a friend or 2. and duoing and trio ing is very possible in this game. This allows you to progress if you do not have time to wait for a full group that is capable of getting good exp.
FFxi has changed alot but for the good.
i will update as i progress. while long ago i was in the high lvls my new char now is lvl 18 and was helped to get my subjob items . So as soon as i lvl my subjob to 14 i will keep progressing my redmage solo and see how far i can get without having to depend all the times on a group.
Watching Fanbois drop their soap in a prison full of desperate men.
Comments
While i did post some of the new changes added to the game compared to when i played long ago i did not mention anything about the story behind ffxi.
Unlike most mmos (from wow and after) you will not find an npc with somthing above its head screaming for you to check it out. When square went into making their game they had no experience making a mmo and only a few good mmos out there to take as an example. FFxi resembles more a console rpg more than a mmo. Basicly you have to chat with npcs in this game. but the story behind the quests they give you can be very rewarding.
The most rewarding is the mission structure. You start to get to know most of the game's lore as you do them and the games main cast of characters . When you do these you get the cutsence of whats going on, not a pop up letter that tells you what to do next. FFxi story has to be discovered. There are out on the web some websites that do have the full storyline of ffxi written out. It is a very long read.
Many of us pioneers who left ffxi were caught in the wave of the power gamer, thus missing out on some of the important storyline features, or skimming thru them asap to keep progressing.
Yes ffxi does offer a compelling story other than grinding mobs to lvl cap.
Watching Fanbois drop their soap in a prison full of desperate men.
Normally when I see a giant wall of text like this, it is very discouraging and I ussually lose interest very quick. Your thread however, was quite a nice read with some very encouraging news to me. I recently started getting this FFXI itch once again after playing WoW for over a year straight. I was coming back to these forums to see if there was any good news to help me justify a resubscription to this game. After reading your post I'm reinstalling FFXI to give it another go. ^_^
I wanted to make a comment about the grafics of this game.
For pc users atleast.
This game has aged well and still looks very impressive dispite of its age. However in order to see how good these grafics are it does require you to play around with the reg edit.
From Dominia's Sticky post of links for ffxi you'll find one link for grafic tweaks:
wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Graphics
Now im a bit suprized about the person who wrote this guide to tweak the grafics. One because he does know what hes talking about, but in some parts he is clueless. Ill go over this to help you make this game look droolafying.
First thing and a WARNING since you are playing with your reg files make sure you make a back up before you edit them. that way if you make a mistake you can rectify it.
follow the guide till you open the ffxi reg edit page:
Now another thing before you do this. If you have a low end computer with built in grafics dont bother. Also you need a good monitor and grafics card. a cheap o walmart lcd will not be able to push the resolution far and you will be limited to that. So basicly your resolution will determine how you will Mod these files.
your target files will be
0000
0003
0004
the rest you can just go to the configuration menu and ajust them.
0000 is mip mapping if you want this game to look very fluid set this to 4 keep it on hexadecimal to be accruate on this one.
0003 is your widith resolution to get the best of the game you want this to be double the resolution of your screen. This is also very important for people with wide screens. So if you can only support 1280 you want this to be 2560. to get it right put it to Decimal then type in 2560 if you try to do it hexidecimal it can be hard to figue it out if your monitor can support higher resolutions or is widescreen.
0004 this is your height resolution. You also want this double the resolution your screen supports . so if its 1024 you want it to be 2048. once again type this in decimal not in hexidecimal.
My wide screen and vid card support 1680 by 1050 its wide screen so i doubled both of them to get a very sharp image in game.
Now here is my pick on the poster of that wiki page. The Texture compression. It kinda blows my mind that he knows so much yet fails to see how this affects the grafics of the game. with a higher resolution it is utterly noticable how bad the grafics of the lighting spell effect and sky will look, also the water effects on the rivers ect. This affects more than what he thinks it does. On top of that he claims there is no noticable difference. BULLSHIT there is a HUGE DIFFERENCE. if you compress these files you will get a pixalated look in the sky, water effects. and light, fire and some spell effects even the glow around the summoners pets. it looks downright ugly as hell, especially the sky when it starts to transist to night. you see it all blocky especially if you have a high end grafics card that supports high resolutions and a monitor that supports those said resolutions.KEEP THESE UNCOMPRESSED.
if you cannot figure where this option is in the ffxi config. then simply go back to your reg editing and select
0018 and set it to 2 on hexidecimal.
Now you will see a crisp clean game. because the effects are uncompressed you will see how beautiful the sky is, the lighting, and all that other good stuff.
in short this game sill impresses with a little tweak on the reg files. I hope this helps.
Watching Fanbois drop their soap in a prison full of desperate men.
The Red Mage guide:
While on my 1st posts i did mention a bit on the redmage and how i reccomended it for starters. On this thread i will go more into detail about it and how it will help you on other jobs also if your plans was to lvl up a different job. Remember this is for soloing /duo purposes and to help you out early in the game .
Red Mage , out of all the 6 jobs you start with is the one that helps you the most by the time you get your subjob. If you had plans to lvl up a different job and that said job is going to be your main, by all means start with this job. Out of all the Jobs this one helps out all the other choices when you finally get your subjob. How you ask.
Whm. Lets say you decided you wanted to be a whm as your main till you hit lvl 30 to go for one of the advance jobs. you plan to duo or group up most of the time, How does redmage help you. Simple it helps your healing,enfeeble,enchanting and shield block(if you use 1handers) When you go back to Whm after you got your subjob, these skills will be capped early on makeing the lvling process of your whm much more managable and easy due to higher healing and avoidance. So even if you dont plan to lvl redmage any more it did give you a big starter boost and can last you till lvl 30.
Blm. So you really wantedto be a BLm after all. well redmage does help you also by giving you that boost to elemental, enfeeble and dark. also evasion. Having redmage subbed does boost your survivability by alot.
War. Rdm does benifit you but not as much as casters. you will have a high 1h sword skill and shield skill , atleast will lvl 5 where you can branch off to axes for more dmg. however you will have your evasion skill maxxed making you avoid incomming dmg way better than if you would have started war without a sub. Also by keeping it as your sub you will have access to heals and the spell Dia early on which lowers your mobs defence allowing you to inflict more dmg.
Thf. Rdm gives you a very high 1h sword skill and evasion which is what theives need early on untill they get their special skills that define them at higher lvls.once again like war haveing it subbed gives you access to heals an dia early on to inflict more dmg and heal when you need to.
Monk. Redmage doesnt offer you much as you lvled redmage, prob only evasion it does however offer you the same as thf and war. the ability to heal and lower your mobs defences early on.
For the melee , if your soloing it does become obious if your gonna heal your better off with whm as it gives you more mana and mind. its just not that noticable on the early lvls. while it is ideal to have monk/ war and war/monk for grouping those combos dont help much if your planning a more casual or solo approach.
If in any moment you plan to focus more on grouping than it would be advise you follow up the right builds for grouping.
Also remember soloers you will never go against anything that is even match and up. doing so will get ya killed or cause you to constantly stop to rest. decent challange down will allow you to go a few fight s before even resting.
Duo and Trio groups can tackle harder mobs but want to avoide vt wit high defence and evasion up.
So i started a redmage , now whats my tactic vs mobs.?
Im glad you asked. You will always start out with Blind do this from a good safe distance from mobs that can aggro or link. then depending on the mob you will cast one of these 2 spells as they do not stack. dia for mobs that do not hit hard and bio for mobs that do or that hit 2 times when its their turn.
Make sure you are always with refresh on from the quest books. Casting other spells on the mobs is entirely up to you if they are decent challange down. If they are decent challange with high defence then you want to bind them. blind them, paralize them, slow them and dia or bio them. to constantly kill them without having to rest alot your best bet is to blind and dia or bio them and kill them with your wep.
Make sure your 1h sword is currently up to your lvl. I had the luck to aquire a bee spatha+1 for 1000 gil a 90% discount off the ah.When you meet the requirement for this wep it will last you till 18. make sure you have the best shield for your lvl and remember you can use scale armor which will make you take alot of dmg.
Once you can use enthunder and other en spells make sure you have it up before engaging. if you need to throw a heal make sure its done after the enemy hits or misses you. Timing spells after mob attacks is the key to surviving. I have had 3 abakas attack me at once at lvl 17 and managed to kill all 3 and survive but of course i had to rest. Still you want to avoid fights like that.
While your not getting 150 to 200 exp a kill like in groups your getting avarage of 90 to 65 exp per kill solo. Duo and trio grouping will net you more exp than solo but of course that is if you made friends or joined with some friends.
Red Mage does offer survivability where the other 5 starter jobs fail at. Its ability to use armor like a warrior. heals like a whm and offensive spells like a blm. Now it wont kill as fast as the rest. a warrior can obliverate mobs quickly and so can a blm or a monk, their prob is the lack of heals for a tight situation. Those will have to constantly rest causing you to get to lvl 18 longer. Thief suffers from being to weak at early lvls but of course they become stronger. however they are more of a group oriented job as their best attacks come from behind and being capable of giving hate to the tank. Whm at 1st is very weak to start with, but with redmage subbed it eases out the early lvl development. Currently i have whm at lvl 9 with no problems but its becomming more evident as mobs get stronger i will be struggling by the time i hit 15. Now most of the 6 job classes do become much more powerful once that subjob is open.
I do hope this helps newcommers and old players seeking to return. Once again i will keep updating as i lvl. The lower lvl content of this game has changed. I still need to experience the higher lvl portion and see how much square has changed it compared to the last time i played this game long ago.
Watching Fanbois drop their soap in a prison full of desperate men.
Not going to lie, only read your first post. I myself am a 2 year vet who left around January 06. Nice little review you got there. Ive been getting the itch to come back but have been a little iffy about it b/c there have been 2 xpacs since I left and hear they are coming with 3 mini xpacs.
If I come back I would wanna make me a new guy and experience everything all over again. I know you say grouping is a lot easier now thanks to lvl sync, but have you actully seen a lot of new people running around? Thanks for the post!!!!!
The servers are as active as before, however just dont expect tons of newbs around like when the game was released. you will find people everywhere just like before. FFxi is far from being a barren wasteland. The lvl sync does ensure that vets will be aiding. like i said in my 1st post the community has matured and is very very helful.
like before, getting into a good active ls is mandatory just like getting into an active guild in other games. Due to the sync you will get more help on fourming groups than before as higher lvls can aide and benifit getting exp themselves.
RMT is quite dead. I even tackled some NM's yesterday. Also i would advise to read this whole thread XD
Watching Fanbois drop their soap in a prison full of desperate men.
IMO race does matter a lot.Without writing a book,i can just respond to your gear idea.By wearing gear to try and achieve the same as the better race,you are limiting your choice of gear,the better race can add gear that makes them even better ,while you are trying to even the odds.
The RMT are still there a lot and there is still a lot of RMT money in the game,witch is the only reason players have gil to spend and do their Dynamis runs.The reason you will see less of them is because,less players are buying because Square WILL catch all of them,they back track every game log,so it may take time to catch each RMT,but when they do,many others will fall as well.
I suggest whm or blm first,that way your RDM will be the best it can be ,the skills are very important and starting as a rdm,they will be half assed,unless you spend time to raise them on your own.The flip side is that both the whm and blm will be better ,but if your choice is RDM to be your main job,then i would level it last or after whm or blm.
Level sync was done in EQ2 years ago and at the time ,i asked Square about using it,they ignored me,so kinda lame coming out with it this much later.It has two flaws,well not flaws but drawbacks,no skillups and although no gear changed needed,you lose some of the stats.Some of the fixes have also hurt the players and the game as well as targetting cheats and RMT.
Other than that the game as a whole is a great game,the over all complexity of the combat system[when played as designed]is above all other games.I might also mention they have ruined all the older zones usefulness with the TOAU,because of bonus xp and the ease of killing.Square gets a lot of credit for continually adding new content and for the most part unique from all other games.Aside from low end graphics,FFXI is quite advanced over most games.especially since it was designed for the console.
IMO FFXI with some tweaks to certain aspects of the game,like landscape that blocks arrows or magic,mounts,landscape that actually stops mobs from climbing up the walls[i know the reason it is there],and perhaps a more conventional means to crafting.I would love to see them take the elemental aspects of combat MUCH further,and bring back the usefulness of Magic Bursts.Fishing needs more help,gardening needs to be a tad more realistic than the normal randomness it uses ,bit here and a bit there [mob spawns][game economy ]and the game would be the PERFECT game for PVE'rs.
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.
I do appriciate the part where eq2 did the lvl sync before ffxi (which is why i said of the mmos i played) . However i quite do not agree on a few things you posted.
Race: well limited to gear is how it once was due to elitisim which in a way it seems you followed for a long time that you played ffix. before regardles the race you choosed you were forced by the community to have x or y item or you were passed by by someone who did poses those items. However time has changed people currently do not care what race you are. which is the point on why i mention race doesnt matter like it once did.
the reason why i suggested rdm 1st was for the solo preception of the game for new players who seek not only grouping but the chances of soloing. You cannot deny that when you start a new char. whm alone is to weak to hit lvl 18 and blm cannot survive alot of hits to reach 18. This makes me wonder if you did read my whole post about it. If you look at it every job will never be strong or get better until you get your subjob.
As for square ruining their game making old content easier. Well thats a damn good thing. it was very difficult back then when it came out and it did shun many people from playing it. However in its current state it still provides more challange than other games which have watered down their content also. Square seeks to appeal a wider playerbase with it product. more subs = more money. Also making the old content easier allows new players to reach to the new content faster. why would someone pay for 4 expantions when it will take years to get to the 3rd and 4th.? That was a big mistake sony did with the 1st everquest. most of the expantions require you to beat all the content of the previous expantion in order to enjoy the bulk of content of the new expantion. New players were not given any incentive to purchase the new expantion pack save for probably a new race. they catered the hardcore to much which is why games now catering more for the casual are enjoying bigger player bases and wow being the prime example of this. Their new expantion watered down most of the challange wow used to appeal their casual player base. Look at how heroics of their previous expantion pack was hard to get into, you needed to grind gear and meet some requirements to even dare to tackle them. In their new one you can go to the heroics with moderate gear and beat it. This allowed a bigger player base to enjoy more of the game that was once catered to the hardcore. Of course the hardcore complained of the ease of the game but they are the only ones who can pull off the hard achivements the game has , so in a way it does cater its whole player base.
I do agree with you that square as a company could have done much more to ffxi . the big hurdle is the support of an old console. The grafics of this game do hold up after tweaking the setting up hacking the reg files. this game is still pretty.
keep in mind when i wrote this thread it comes from someone who once played this game when it came out. Left the game for others and completely hated it. If you dig deep in my past you will see me even troll this game. Now i came back after many years of non play and im pretty impressed of the direction, regardless how small, they took the game to. It was enough to captivate me and put me to play it once again.
Watching Fanbois drop their soap in a prison full of desperate men.