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thinking of getting this game but want some info first
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Member UncommonPosts: 602
Right i've put off getting this game for far too long and after finally getting peeved off with WoW, i'm very tempted to give it another shot but first I have a few questions if some kind soul could answer?
I heard this game isn't very solo friendly.. personally i'm fine with this but seeing as the game is so old, is it easy to get groups? I mean i'd hate to be forced into playing the game at certain times to ensure grouping so for the times I can't get groups, is it possible to solo at all without having to grind a bazillion mobs to level aka my experience with pretty much every asian mmo i've played?
Is there any classes that are more in demand than others? I remember when I started WoW I leveled a rogue and found it nigh on impossible to find groups due to the amount of them, I really wouldn't want this to happen again.
Is there any diversity in what I can do while leveling or is it a race to endgame like most WoW clones these days?
Thanks for reading!
Comments
Hi,
The addition of FoV (Fields of Valor) made soloing possible but grouping is still the way to level fast. FoV are little books at most areas (city exits, teleport crystals, Outposts) that give you what other games use as solo quests (eg.: kill 5 rabbits and 6 goblins). There are around 5 quests like this per area depending on your level and they are usually require many different mobs to be killed. You can repeat the quests every 54 minutes (1 vana 'diel day) and you will get experience, gil (gold) and 'points' that you can spend at the books for usefull items like Refresh, Regen, Reraise, Food or a teleport to your home city.
It's not a real option to level to 75 with just FoV but it certainly is the way to go while you have your party flag up waiting for an invite. There are FoV quests all the way to 75 but it will get painfully slow around 50-60 when your exp to next level reaches 20k and you can get around 2-3k/hour soloing.
There are some jobs that are not as popular for parties and i would avoid them unless you have a static party or a good Linkshell (guild). I will list the jobs in order of popularity and role.
Damage/Tank
Paladin (on this you will get invites even while in a party already it's that much in demand)
Ninja (expensive tank job, not recomended for a first, decent Damage Dealer after level 40 with new abilities)
Ranger (still the Damage dealer and uber strong on some enemies)
Warrior
Dragoon
Samurai
Thief
Blue Mage
Monk (might get request to use specific weapon for exp mobs, eg.: piercing damage for birds)
Healer
White Mage
Scholar
Red Mage
Dancer (backup healer/DD)
Summoner (backup healer can main heal at higher levels)
Support
Red Mage
Bard
Dancer
Corsair (very good support class with the exp bonus they can provide)
Tough to get invites
Black Mage
Beastmaster (it is THE solo class after all)
Puppet master (will be asked to use a DD or ranger type Puppet for exp party)
Summoner (other than as backup healer or when no other healers are available)
I have probably missed a few but those are what came to mind. Starting from scratch is hard. You will have to get a sub job, level a sub job. Do the limit breaks (raising the level cap). Do quests for fame. Level your nation rank. Get a chocobo license and airship pass. FFXI is not an easy game at all and i would try to find a Linkshell on a good server before i start. Without the help of a guild there is no chance you will accomplish the task ahead of you.
As i mentioned above, there is NO race to endgame. Simply because you will have to do many things to be even allowed to get to the end game. There is no way to solo to end game, it is simply not possible.
All that aside it is still the most rewarding experience i have ever had in any MMO to date with the new add-ons and the Wrath of the Godess expansion the game is so complex i probably will have never fully explored it and did all the endgame activities available. It's the only MMO i played since start and i do not regret one minute.
Good luck and see you in Vana'diel
Be sure you have a credit card that will be accepted by Play Online.
Hey, i stopped playing a few months back, but i'll try to answer to the best of my ability.
Well, this game isn't solo-friendly, but even in the old days there where some who soloed all the way to 75 (lvl-cap) and now, you got fields of valor, a book at the entrance to most areas which gives you extra exp for killing sertain mobs, and valor points that you can use to buy some useful stuff with.
Levelsynch also helps out a lot to getting groups, as a 60 can "synch" their lvl to yours and lvl with you with no exp-loss on your side. Altho this is possible, many refuces to lvlsynch below a certain lvl such as 50 (most common minimal synch when i played) so groups below 50 can be a bit hard to get. There are "lvl-pockets" where there are lots of groups available tho, such as 14-18 (in an area called Valkum Dunes)
As for jobs, at the beginning you have basically 2 types of jobs. Mage jobs (White Mage, Black Mage and Red Mage) and Meele jobs (Warrior, Monk and Thief). Depending on whether you want to meele or magic, solo or group up, you should take a closer look at those jobs available.
Mage jobs
White Mage is obviously the healer, and always a sure bet to get groups at the beginning, but harder to solo with due to most magic being to heal self and others.
Black Mage is the heavy damage dealer, and is liked really well later in the game and in endgame, it is able to solo well, but needs a lot of downtime filling up your mana.
Red Mage is a "little of both" as it has some of the White Mages spells and some of the Black Mages spells, and are able to use heavier armor and able to equip swords as well as buff elemental damage to your sword. Red Mage is almoust a must in a party after lvl 40, where they learn a spell to regenerate mana, and can potentially eliminate downtime. This cjob is great to solo, as you got such a variety of spells, better armor and able to equip a sword, but a bit harder to get into a group pre-lvl 40.
Meele jobs
Warrior is... well, a warrior... but it is not the "tank" of a party. In the early lvls it can be the tank, but so can most other meele jobs early in the lvls. Warriors are mainly meele damage dealers, and great at it. It has no means to heal itself however, and thus needs some downtime to solo with, and are also more affected by hit-reducing debuffs mobs use on you than most. In a party they are mostly damage dealers, as the more capable tanking jobs of paladin and ninja (unlockable at lvl 30) are available most of the time.
Monk is also a powerful damage dealer, has lots of HP, and can deliver powerful bursts of damage. Like Warrior, this job cannot heal, and therefore has some downtime in solo-play, and is another meele damage dealer in a group.
Thief is another meele class with no healing ability, but thief, unlike warrior and monk, learns aggro-controllable abilities later in the levels, are able to steal rare items from mobs, and get the "treasure hunter" ability, which makes mobs drop rare stuff more often.
At lvl 18, you can get a quest to unlock subjobs, wich is just the ability to have 2 jobs active at the same time, where the subjob is half the lvl of the mainjob. This requiers that you lvl your subjob tho, because if you sub your lvl 20 warrior with thief which you havent lvled yet, your subjob will stay lvl 1, as only the main job gains exp.
At lvl 30 you can unlock a lot of new jobs, such as the 2 mentioned above.
Leveling is very straight forward, you kill x number of mobs, you gain exp. You die, you lose exp (you have immunity from the death penalty til lvl 5).
The fact that you lose exp i think is one of the greatest ways of death penalty, as it really makes you consider whether you should try to take out a strong mob or not.
However, in FFXI, you gain exp to do qusts, not doing quests to gain exp, as most more resent games has it.
If you consider playing it, i would reccomend you to take a closer look for more details at
http://ffxi.allakhazam.com/
and for free trials look at
EU
http://www.fileplay.net/file/4128/final-fantasy-xi-14-day-eu-trial
US
https://secure.playonline.com/freetrialus/top.html
Remeber, what i said about the basic jobs is what i have gathered from my time playing, and havent played all of them above 30... you shoult see allakhazam for more accurate info on each job
Getting a Linkshell (Guild) is a great way to increas your chanses of getting parties and i would reccomend getting one as soon as possible
Edit; Read this forum link
http://ffxi.allakhazam.com/forum.html?forum=10&mid=1234541424146082105&num=64&page=1
Hope this info helps
known as:
FFXI Shiva - Kaah, Krum
WoW Hellscream - Kaah, Krum
EVE - Tok Marr, Naini Marr
Thanks for all the info, i'll bookmark this and give it another look in a few weeks when I download the free trial.
Quite frankly man from a guy who knows the game well been here since 2004, Quit in 2005 and came back in 2008 I can tell you It can be a wonderful game IF YOU ALREADY HAVE FRIENDS IN IT. After having come back I found all my friends had quit basically I was a new player with a 75 toon. No friends no connections, no knowledge of why Jeuno was empty. As I played more and more I found a lot of things out, some good some bad.
What I can tell you for sure is if you plan to do end game good luck
Getting help for ZM or CoP now days is close to impossible. At least on my server.
For 2 months now I have spent the better part of my Winter brake shouting in White gate (The main hub town) for help with Chains of Promethia expansion missions.
Iv gotten 2 replies and we never got anything going because we lacked people.
Basically what Im saying is this. Play the game but don't expect to get to the end game as quickly as other games. quite frankly Id say don't expect to even get there. If you do that would be a nice bonus.
The way this game works is since there is not that many players, and not many new players joining anymore If you don't or in my case didn't do things when they are the thing to do, or the popular event. Then you're going to be kinda assed out after. Hard to find help, and impossible to do without others. I like to use this sentence when talking about FFXI a lot. "You're enjoyment of this particular game largely depends on if people are willing to help / work with you or not" This is true sooo much more in this game than in WoW or other mmos. No the game is not solo friendly, you CAN level to 75 solo but when it comes to getting help or doing any kind of end game, all I can say is good luck man. Unlike in WoW there are no solo options for good end game gear. No PvP gear that can rival PvE raid gear, Not much rep gear. There are quests and a ton of Mission and quest gear that is great, but again need people to help you do them. People very rarely willing to help.
Also expect people to want you to have things without ever wanting to help or knowing that getting help for them is hard. Things like Diabolos for a SMN without help with CoP or being able to go to sky or limbus.
If you roll on Seraph server I can help you I am a lvl 75 DRG 75 BST can do a lot of things solo, but even I'm not able to get past the huge road blocks this game puts up at higher lvls.
And about your question. High demand classes are usually not the most fun. If you absolutely want to be in high demand and are willing to take up jobs that a lot of people find boring go for it.
Bard
White Mage
Red Mage
Ninja - Expensive as hell expect to farm a lot but can be fun
Samurai Can be very fun
Paladin If you like tanking AND you want easy pts this is the job for you!
These are classes that are quite popular and easily get parties and into end game. In some cases they will even carry you to end game because you have that class.
Hard to get party classes are
Black mage - from around 53-70 quite hard to find people to pt with you. But sometimes u find other blms to do blm burn.
Puppetmasters - Don't know why they are a good support job but just not popular in pts.
Beastmaster - Can solo to 75, I did it, quite frustrating and time consuming but best solo job in game, generally never gets invited to pts.
I suggeset wait for FF14
Kain_Dale
I suggest waiting for the new FF online, this game was never very nice to new comers. Of course that all depends on the server, the people, time of day, and peak hours of which area of the world.
I recently took a look back at FFXI, and reinstalled the game on vista. Had to download the new version of playonline and I was suprised it still took 10 hours to get all the updates for the game even to start playing. You would think they would have improved that, since the release of the game.
I was suprised that my old account still had my characters after 6 years of canceling my account. so it allowed my to get on a chocobo and ride around a bit, with the towns of the old original areas basically dead.
WIth the latest video card, the graphics looked very washed out and such. Most likely because the game didn't see my video card properly, but still not much graphic wise has changed.
The game was never for the quick and easy do a couple levels within a hour type game. Now not taking a look at changes in place now, didn't stay on to long, it took days sometimes to get a level. Either waiting for a party, getting to a location, and so forth. After you get there it was always fun for the party to just fall apart because the tank or healer had to go.
While there were some changes made to try and make it easier to level solo, they were never very fast.