[alexxisonline]

hi- trying to feel it out here. hi octoberasian ;D
i miss the game, and the storylines, and the japanese vibes! ._.'! nothing beats the ffxi community, for me!
from what i gather abyssea is win in terms of leveling speed..?
after looking around on KI (which has been my fave ffxi community) i've noticed it's a little...inactive?
there are only a couple active threads in each section, some having month-year old most-recent threads [omg ]
what is /lfg like these days in-game? i know progression largely depends on ones' ls, but how is YOUR server doing, as a whole?
pleaseletmeknow!
thanks ^^.

[Avarghaladion]

Abyssea makes levelling a non-issue. LFG is pretty easy since Abyss requires a full alli in most cases. I'm on Asura and I've personally never seen a significant drop in the number of people online. Usually about 2k at any given time. I know there are less busy servers but it's always been that way.

[alexxisonline]

Wow awesome! Is asura open for new character generations? I'm planning on transferring and then rolling a brand new mithra dancer on Asura :3
The caveat to a new character is somehow finding groups for CoP and ZM.. lawl, could a dancer solo most of that now though? with the level cap and all?
Would luuhff to leech my character in abyssea and get caught up. n_n nom nom.

[Avarghaladion]

There's no more level cap on CoP missions so anyone can solo almost all of them. With abyssea you can go from 40 to capped merits in a matter of hours to a day.

[nervosa]

The only problem I think you would run into is trying to get help with the level caps under 75, aside from that all should be easy.

[Avarghaladion]

What nervosa said. Its not impossible or anything just takes some patience.

[alexxisonline]

Aw, I loved that horrible excitement I got from Promyvion. Ohwell- what about endgame then? What IS endgame now?

[Corrderio]

From what my friend said, Abyssea, Abyssea, and more Abyssea.

[Nanako]

A little late with this reply, but I'll share my experiences on Carbuncle. I recently picked up BRD again in the last few months since it's the last Maat job I needed to level for cap. I started at 37, and it was just a pain in the ass to level. There were few normal xp pt, they were almost all level sync parties. Getting a pt together took forever, most people either wouldn't respond or didn't want anything outside of abyssea. Soloing FoV pages on BRD was not the most pleasant experience. It was next to impossible to convince people to duo/low man FoV stuff. Between the level sync pt and being forced to fight lower level mobs for FoV pages my BRD was horribly under skilled (Yes I know I can level them with besieged/goldfish but that's not the point).

Then finally one day someone took pity on me and let me be ballad/key leech in abyssea. I went from 56 to 74 in that pt. I was so happy to be done the mid levels.

I should probably point out that Carbuncle is one of the smaller servers, other servers hopefully aren't as bad.

Gear on the other hand is starting to become an issue too. There's one or two BRD scrolls that I'm having trouble obtaining because the only source of them is ENM and apparently few people do those any more. Same goes with a few other key pieces of BRD gear. They're simply not available on the AH.

I think I've decided that I'm going to level any other low level jobs through Campaign Ops and xp scrolls. lol

The game really is all about abyssea right now. Sure, you can probably find a LS that still does low mans certain old events, but they're getting rare.

[Avarghaladion]

Would definitely recommend a more populated server if starting from scratch for the same reasons.

[Balmarog]

I don't mean to hijack the thread, but what's the difference between Visions and Scars of Abyssea? I don't really feel like paying $20 on both right now if I can make due with just Visions for now...

[Nanako]

Vision = Abyssea - Konschtat, Abyssea - La Theine, Abyssea - Tahrongi
Scars = Abyssea - Attohwa, Abyssea - Misareaux, Abyssea - Vunkerl

They consist of different zones, slightly different level ranges (a 75ish job may have difficulty hitting things in a Scars zone), and all have their own rewards from the NMs in the zone. Scars has the AF3 armor pieces and a Campaign like system called Bastion. Both have their own sets of key items (abyssites and Atma) to help you become more powerful while in abyssea.

If you want to do endgame, you're going to need both sets of zones. I still see people forming xp alliances for both sets of zones, so it would be helpful to have both for xp purposes too. But if you absolutely had to pick one, Scars may be the better choice right now if you are interested in the AF3 sets. Though I highly recommend getting both and the 3rd one due out in a few weeks since endgame seems to be migrating to Abyssea. Watch out for a package deal giving all 3 for a cheaper price soon too, I'm sure there's one coming.

[Balmarog]

Nanako, on 22 November 2010 - 10:09 AM, said:

Vision = Abyssea - Konschtat, Abyssea - La Theine, Abyssea - Tahrongi
Scars = Abyssea - Attohwa, Abyssea - Misareaux, Abyssea - Vunkerl

They consist of different zones, slightly different level ranges (a 75ish job may have difficulty hitting things in a Scars zone), and all have their own rewards from the NMs in the zone. Scars has the AF3 armor pieces and a Campaign like system called Bastion. Both have their own sets of key items (abyssites and Atma) to help you become more powerful while in abyssea.

If you want to do endgame, you're going to need both sets of zones. I still see people forming xp alliances for both sets of zones, so it would be helpful to have both for xp purposes too. But if you absolutely had to pick one, Scars may be the better choice right now if you are interested in the AF3 sets. Though I highly recommend getting both and the 3rd one due out in a few weeks since endgame seems to be migrating to Abyssea. Watch out for a package deal giving all 3 for a cheaper price soon too, I'm sure there's one coming.

Ah, I see. Thanks. Maybe I'll hold off on them for now then. Even if I were into the higher levels, I don't care too much about endgame. I just like to have something enjoyable to play when I'm bored.

[Dhragon]

Endgame aside, if you don't have the Abyssea addons you're really only going to be leveling with FoV (unless you can get lucky and build a static exp party). Once you're in the 70's next to no one bothers with regular exp parties anymore. Mainly because it's far slower to level vs the new Abyssea areas. And since both of the new limit break quests require merit points it's the fastest way to acquire them. Bottom line, no one can "make" you buy the addons. As long as you understand what the difference is with and without, you'll know what to expect once you're back in the swing of things.

[Banter]

Nanako, on 22 November 2010 - 10:09 AM, said:

endgame seems to be migrating to Abyssea.

It has completely moved there, really.

[Dhragon]

Banter, on 23 November 2010 - 10:56 AM, said:

It has completely moved there, really.

QFT

Even with just the 10 level boost that we've got to date, what used to be "endgame" has become so much easier it’s kind of nuts. I'm really curious how the remaining 14 levels will play out.

[Balmarog]

Dhragon, on 23 November 2010 - 08:56 AM, said:

Endgame aside, if you don't have the Abyssea addons you're really only going to be leveling with FoV (unless you can get lucky and build a static exp party). Once you're in the 70's next to no one bothers with regular exp parties anymore. Mainly because it's far slower to level vs the new Abyssea areas. And since both of the new limit break quests require merit points it's the fastest way to acquire them. Bottom line, no one can "make" you buy the addons. As long as you understand what the difference is with and without, you'll know what to expect once you're back in the swing of things.

Yeah, I know. It ticks me off that they released an addon that broke the game like that... :\
I may break down and get scars or abyssea. I really would have liked to *play* those levels, but options are very VERY limited now.
Some one in my LS told me that getting a party in abyssea was unlikely even now since just about everyone has all their level 85 jobs. Fuuuu-

[Xairos]

So im fighting the urge to play XI again.

My only hurdle is lack of system on which to play. Here is my story:

I have a laptop and desktop that have OSX as its os. I used to have boot camp and Win XP until my HDD crashed. Apple gave me a new, bigger drive but I am still windowless.

Console-side, I have a ps3. I used to have an xbox but I have long since parted with it since I suspect my late hours in Campaign and Besieged is what eventually made it crash.

Now my question: Should I buy an Xbox slim and try to wrestle a copy of Vana-Collection 08 or Ultimate Collection online? Or should I try to obtain windows again and dual-boot my desktop? Better yet, should I buy a cheap dell or hp purely for XI?

[Nattack]

Balmarog, on 24 November 2010 - 05:34 AM, said:

Yeah, I know. It ticks me off that they released an addon that broke the game like that... :\
I may break down and get scars or abyssea. I really would have liked to *play* those levels, but options are very VERY limited now.
Some one in my LS told me that getting a party in abyssea was unlikely even now since just about everyone has all their level 85 jobs. Fuuuu-

this is somewhat standard in XI, though

CoP added new levelling spots that made it almost imperitive to get (i miss dhalmel parties, lord those were my favourite times)

ToAU added a whole new hangout and changed the status quo of EXP,

now abyssea has hit 150% of the price of a standard expansion pack (cumulitavely). but its completely changed EXP parties, and in a good way to boot. xp parties in vanilla XI have always been a glorified time sink, its not so big a deal now, its easier to find a party, and its easier to get to a party - it just takes a short initial investment of time to get the warps.

transportation has always been an issue with EXP parties and events, however. getting a party set up for something like CoP5-Snoll was always the biggest of pains for me, it would take me 3hours to get some sort of shout party, and then an hour or more to set myself up for a failed zerg (this was before patch so snoll was actually harder back then, mind you)

so, while i find it bullshit that you have to pay for better experience, i am happy, personally, that they've finally remedied the difficulty that everyone has had in the past getting one. now, instead of the norm a year ago, everyone is invited, more people are invited (which makes this whole 'party' thing much more fun, imho) and level differences arent so big a deal either, the only real problem they have now is lower level parties - and then the void in finding parties between the 'levelled subjob' and 'level 70' range of exp.

naturally, level sync (but coming back to valkurm incessantly is a bit of a bore)

This post has been edited by Nattack: 06 December 2010 - 11:02 PM