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f13.net  |  f13.net General Forums  |  The Gaming Graveyard  |  MMOG Discussion  |  Topic: It pains me to say it, but FFXI has actually improved. 0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.
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Author Topic: It pains me to say it, but FFXI has actually improved.  (Read 94458 times)
Tige
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Posts: 273


Reply #140 on: October 31, 2007, 05:19:12 PM

Hey Dren!  Don't think about too much or you very well might find yourself back in ffxi.  :)

Reg, I haven't seen Tort either.  He did get Lu Shung's fishing rod though.  That could explain things.  I might not have anything to do with the internet at all once I got it.  I hung out with Kemm and Grimm a time or two in one game or another but not for several months now.

I've got my mog house set up, now all I need is some seeds, clippings and crystals to get a crop going.  Once that's done it's off to explore the new zones with a fishing rod.  I may consider a server move if I can't find a decent linkshell on Valefor. 

I'm not leaving at least until I get my own Santa Hat.  Always wanted one of those.
Kitsune
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Reply #141 on: October 31, 2007, 10:46:09 PM

I've hit 37 on my white mage and have begun some teleport whorage, but have mostly been busy in tying up tons of loose ends.  I got the pass to Aht Urhgan, went over there and did the quests to get my mog locker, then unlocked blue mage.  Since then I've been doing the clay tablet quests, teleporting all over the damn world.  I'm hopeful that by the time this weekend hits I'll have made enough gil to get my tradeskills high enough to refine ores and spend some time in the mines trying to make my fortune.

I ran across my first party idiot the other day, a red mage who was pretty thoroughly stupid.  When a pull went bad and brought in a link, she ran over and tried to poke it with her sword rather than put the thing to sleep, and the party promptly wiped.  Later, while the party was healing up from the rezzing (thank goodness for reraise, I'm glad I forked over the cash for that one) she blew her mana on casting cure spells on people who were already healing 60 HP a tick.

To be fair, it wasn't her fault that there was an add on the pull; as long as things were going smoothly she wasn't causing any problems.  She wasn't casting half as many debuffs as she could've been, but it wasn't anything that was endangering the party.  But once the shit hit the fan, she failed hard.  That was the first tiime in FFXI that I've found another player who seemed completely inadequate to the task, after six weeks of constant grouping with random people.
Margalis
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Reply #142 on: October 31, 2007, 10:52:07 PM

I still haven't done anything in Aht Urhgan. I went there once then immediately talked to the NPC who warped me away without setting my homepoint first. (oops)

Yesterday I was in the Dunes with a bunch of people who had no idea what they were doing. The Paladin didn't want to tank or cure himself and at level 17/18 was using level 10 equipment - and he was the best of the bunch.

A bunch of party members died a bunch of times but I wasn't one of them.  awesome, for real

In FFXI I find I spend the majority of my time doing quests/missions, when I do spend time levelling it is pretty quick. I just finished mission 4-3 and got my Airship pass, now I'm working on the level 50 limit break, AF gear, etc.

vampirehipi23: I would enjoy a book written by a monkey and turned into a movie rather than this.
Reg
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Reply #143 on: November 01, 2007, 12:31:37 AM

Hey Kitsune, now that you're doing Teleports - you know that you can do the quests to get those teleport spells solo right? There's no need to buy them. With Sneak and Invisibility most of them are pretty easy to do.
Kitsune
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Reply #144 on: November 01, 2007, 07:39:10 AM

Oh hell yes I'm doing them solo.  Unfortunately two of them require monster drops and are pretty much out of the picture, but I have Holla, Mea, and Dea and will be grabbing Altep once I hit 38 and can cast it.
Chenghiz
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Reply #145 on: November 01, 2007, 11:34:47 AM

So I just started a red mage, but I have no idea of what to do. I went out and killed small creatures and hit level 2, but that's about all I've done. Also how do I get new abilities/spells? Do I just automatically learn them when I hit the requisite job level?
Reg
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Reply #146 on: November 01, 2007, 12:21:21 PM

You just wander around killing bunnies until you hit level 10. Collect all of the things they drop and sell them at the AH. That should easily buy you armour and spells. Somewhere in your main city there's a spell vendor where you can get upgrades. It's worth finding him because if you're lazy and buy them on the AH you'll end up spending a lot more money.

What server are you on? One of the servers mentioned in this thread hopefully. It's nice to at least have someone to chat with even if the level difference is too big to group with them plus maybe they can put in a word to get you into a guild.
Kitsune
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Reply #147 on: November 01, 2007, 12:44:16 PM

Nobody learns magic automatically, I'm afraid.  Spells must be purchased, given as quest rewards, or earned in some other fashion.  The first few levels are pretty magic-bare for red mages, however; your next spell is Cure at level 3, so you haven't missed out on anything yet.

Go here: http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Red_Mage to read about red mages, the wiki bears much helpful info.

Learn to make and use macros.  http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Macros
Margalis
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Reply #148 on: November 01, 2007, 02:07:25 PM

1. People in town will give you quests.

2. The guard at the gates of town will give you missions. Missions are part of the in-game story.

3. Gate guards can cast signet on you, which has many benefits - resting does not lose TP, enemies will drop crystals, weaker enemies are easier to beat, etc etc.

4. Gate guards can also give you an Empress Ring for conquest points that you earn for killing enemies. Get one, it's free XP. You can recharge it by trading it to the guard that sells it.

5. Once you start getting into groups the main thing Red Mage excels at is enfeebling. You will be using Dia, Blind, Paralyze and Slow to weaken enemies.

vampirehipi23: I would enjoy a book written by a monkey and turned into a movie rather than this.
Kitsune
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Reply #149 on: November 01, 2007, 03:53:01 PM

Oh, and buy a cheap shield ASAP.  The sooner you start raising your shield skill the better.  A red mage'll never be a tank in medium armor, but at least you won't drop like a sissy if the monster takes a few whacks at you.
Margalis
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Reply #150 on: November 01, 2007, 04:33:19 PM

For equipment this is what you want:

Soloing:
 Up to date weapon, either sword or dagger.
 Up-to-date armor for head, body, feet, legs and shield
 Something for neck, back and waist. (Justice Badge, some crappy cloak, the belt that gives +mnd and +def

Once you get into a party remember that MND affects white magic enfeebles and INT affects black magic enfeebles and nukes. So you'll want:
 A wand that gives +MND and +INT (Yew wand is the first IIRC)
 A +MP headpiece
 Saintly and/or Eremite's rings

Basically in a party you won't be getting hit very much, so you want more +MND/INT/MP gear and worry less about defense and offense.

As a Red Mage you can stick with your sword and dagger. As you level that will lose effectiveness in party play and stop being worth it after a while, but at low levels Red Mage can put out decent damage. Tee big problem is that switching weapons loses TP, so if you are going to melee you should forget about the wand.

How much you melee is very dependent on what you are fighting, party composition, etc. You'll need to heal between fights to gain back MP, and that used to always lose TP, but now that it doesn't meleeing is more viable.

vampirehipi23: I would enjoy a book written by a monkey and turned into a movie rather than this.
Chenghiz
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Reply #151 on: November 01, 2007, 10:39:13 PM

Okay thanks. I'm on Midgardsormr which is where most of the SA goons are apparently. Character name Chenghiz, say hi if you see me.    my what do we have here?
Quinton
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is saving up his raid points for a fancy board title


Reply #152 on: November 01, 2007, 10:52:32 PM

3. Gate guards can cast signet on you, which has many benefits - resting does not lose TP, enemies will drop crystals, weaker enemies are easier to beat, etc etc.

What? WHAT?!  When did they make signet prevent TP loss while resting? Luxury!

- Q
Kitsune
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Reply #153 on: November 01, 2007, 10:59:56 PM

Yep, signet prevents TP loss, gives you a boost to evasion when auto-attacking a monster, and increases your experience when in a 2-5 person group.  It's an all-around dandy thing to have.
Margalis
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Reply #154 on: November 02, 2007, 01:23:31 AM

Yeah it's nice. I just was in a party with me (Drk), a Blu and a Rdm, in Quifim fighting works, getting insane XP. (Of course at those levels Blu is crazy powerful, but still) We were slicing through worms like butter, 20 second fights for 200+ XP.

TP loss while resting was really a killer for Red Mages and also for anyone soloing. Also with Signet you heal back HP and MP faster while resting.

vampirehipi23: I would enjoy a book written by a monkey and turned into a movie rather than this.
Kitsune
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Reply #155 on: November 04, 2007, 11:53:57 PM

One busy weekend later and I hit 40, as well as got my tradeskills high enough to start some full-scale mining efforts.  The teleport whoring is going nicely too, with the completion of the quest to gain the teleport spell to Altepa Desert.  My plans are finally getting off the ground and will hopefully be leading to my having a big pile of money, which I will promptly spend on the quests to upgrade my inventory and mog safe size.

Inventory management sucks in FFXI, forcing the player to manually tell the game to sort items into stacks rather than automatically stacking things as they're looted.  Everyone also gets an entirely insufficient 30 inventory spaces to start out with, which includes items equipped on the character, so that's basically ten slots taken right off the bat.  Through quests the inventory can be upgraded in five-slot increments up to sixty, allowing much more breathing room, and apparently the expansion this month allows one to upgrade to seventy.  The safe in one's home starts at fifty slots and can be upgraded to eighty, and an additional storage locker can be rented with thirty to seventy slots.

And yet, most every player I've ever met still has a mule character on the server for storing their excess stuff.


Anyhow, more expansion info came out this weekend, the second of the upcoming new jobs is the Scholar, a white/black magic caster who really looks like they'll be putting red mages right out of a job.  Nobody really seems to give a damn about the red mages as far as their melee ability goes, and the scholars seem to be much better at spellcasting.  We'll see how it turns out.
Phred
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Reply #156 on: November 05, 2007, 03:24:02 AM

Ohh come on man, that's complete horseshit, especially now.  this guy looks legit

You dare invoke pedobear for your house of lies?  I've raided in WoW and seen the exorbitant repair bills suffered by the tanks afterwards.  And they didn't even die, that was just from a successful day's fighting.  At least FFXI doesn't shaft you with steady item degradation.


But now in WoW you can run out and pick up 100g in repair bills in a few hours with daily quests. Equipment too damaged to fight monsters? Fine, play Simon for 8 rounds and go repair with the 9.5 gold it gives. Fly the bombing mission for another 12gold. Daily missions have completely changed the end game in WoW imo.

The discussion here is making me think about trying FFIX but I have no old char to return to, and it doesn't sound to newbie friendly. I could use a good grouping game as I miss them.


Margalis
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Reply #157 on: November 05, 2007, 01:02:54 PM

I finally created a mule character the other day. The problem is that I have to save some level 40 equipment for a BCNM I do, save some level 30 equipment for COP, save equipment for a couple of subjobs, etc. Plus random half-stacks of items, coffer and treasure keys, etc etc.

vampirehipi23: I would enjoy a book written by a monkey and turned into a movie rather than this.
Delias
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Reply #158 on: November 07, 2007, 04:19:58 PM

Think there's any chance of them being able to recover a 4 year old account?  It's been awhile since I've touched FFXI, but I'm getting that itch to go pick up a trial of it and see what has changed.  I've heard it said that the upcoming expansion WotG is supposed to have solo-leveling content in it?  Not sure how much I believe it, but if it's true, I'll go pick it up in a heartbeat.
Reg
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Reply #159 on: November 07, 2007, 05:29:53 PM

I'm pretty sure you can run the "Return to Vanadiel" stuff without actually committing to reopening your account. I believe there's a link to it earlier in this thread.
geldonyetich2
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Reply #160 on: November 07, 2007, 05:44:43 PM

It's tempting, as I liked FFXI even when it was at its full car-door-to-crotch nut-busting potential.  Despite being an EQ clone, somehow its console-hobbled interface made it feel like a different game, and then the SquareSoft production values took over for a scenario of pure win.  In the end, I had to drop FFXI primarily because the game sucked far too much time.  Here, this thread says it backed off on that considerably.  Yet, I've way too much on my plate right now between Tabula Rasa and Hellgate: London.
Delias
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Reply #161 on: November 07, 2007, 09:18:14 PM

I've poked at the Return To Vana'diel page but they require you either know your registration code or playonline key.  Seeing as I played for 5-6 months as soon as it was released almost 5 years ago, and lost all my discs/manual on my move from S.Korea to here, there's no way I'll be able to dig up either of those.  I even scoured my email archives for some sort of email from Square that might have had either of them, but to no avail.  Either I'll have to call them and pray they can dig it up by credit card info (because I don't remember my street address or phone # from Korea) or I start fresh and begin as a level 1 nublet. 

Either way I'm getting one of those cheap trial discs to try it out again.  While I wish I could try it with ye olde level 50something BLM/WHM, I'm somewhat willing to chalk him up as a loss.  Poor little Tarutaru...

Reg
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Reply #162 on: November 08, 2007, 02:47:28 AM

I've heard of people with as little info as you successfully getting back on. Not sure if your character would still be around though. You might have quit back in the day when "We erase your character after six months" was more than an idle threat.

Do they do support via webchat? That might be easier than phoning them.
Tige
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Reply #163 on: November 08, 2007, 01:12:16 PM

Delias,

It's worth giving playonline a call if you want to see if your avatar is still there.  When I called the first thing they asked was for an id or code, neither of which I had.  No old CD codes, playonline ID etc etc.  They can confirm your account a couple of different ways and get you set back up with an registration exemption.  Worth a shot if you want to go back.  I was in the same boat you are and I was good to go in about 5 minutes.




 
Kitsune
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Reply #164 on: November 09, 2007, 11:19:02 PM

What they said.  If the automated tool doesn't work for you, you can call their support number and talk to a live person, and they can restore accounts off of things like names and credit card numbers.  I didn't bother with it myself, my old character was like level 5 and my new character was close to 20 by the time the promotion started, but someone with a 50 would get a lot more value out of having their character restored.
Margalis
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Reply #165 on: November 12, 2007, 01:56:15 AM

I did Besieged for the first time yesterday and again today, it's a lot of fun. Although I think I need more RAM...a zone with 300 people and a whole bunch of NPCs and enemies means I can only see about 10 feet in any direction.

For those not familiar with it, enemies attack the Al-Zhabi part of Ahrt Urghan and actually come into town where you try to repel them.

We did level 8 today, which is currently the highest level. Our alliance had the main Troll Notorious Monster down to half health when they retreated. Since I'm only level 50 or so I just ran around healing, raising, and hasting people.

You get XP for doing it and you don't lose XP when you die. Also casting spells on friendly NPCs gives you the same sorts of skillups you normally get casting against enemies, which means if you cast a bunch of haste/protect/shell you can skillup enhancing magic very quickly.

vampirehipi23: I would enjoy a book written by a monkey and turned into a movie rather than this.
LK
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Reply #166 on: November 12, 2007, 01:37:21 PM

You get XP for doing it and you don't lose XP when you die. Also casting spells on friendly NPCs gives you the same sorts of skillups you normally get casting against enemies, which means if you cast a bunch of haste/protect/shell you can skillup enhancing magic very quickly.

Why can't they make this apply to the rest of the game? I'd resub in an instant if they removed the permanent XP death penalty.

"Then there's the double-barreled shotgun from Doom 2 - no-one within your entire household could be of any doubt that it's been fired because it sounds like God slamming a door on his fingers." - Yahtzee Croshaw
NiX
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Locomotive Pandamonium


Reply #167 on: November 12, 2007, 03:54:19 PM

Does anyone have a buddy pass to FFXI?
Kitsune
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Reply #168 on: November 12, 2007, 04:40:02 PM

Already gave mine away, sorry.  But the one-month trial disks are two bucks at Gamestop right now, IIRC.  And when I got my first charge from Square on my bank account, I was pleasantly surprised to see my first 'month' of service was prorated down to only have billed me for the fifteen days I'd played, so apparently they've stopped doing that 'we bill you for a whole month even if you start on the 29th' thing.
Delias
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Reply #169 on: November 14, 2007, 12:19:40 PM

When can you start doing Beseiged?
Margalis
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Reply #170 on: November 14, 2007, 02:38:05 PM

I don't think there is any level limit. For a melee job you want to be 60+ or else you can't really do anything, for a mage job if you can cast Cure 3 you are probably ok although 50+ is better if you want to live.

vampirehipi23: I would enjoy a book written by a monkey and turned into a movie rather than this.
Kitsune
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Reply #171 on: November 14, 2007, 09:50:18 PM

I've finally gotten something of a handle on my finances; mining in Bastok has given me the materials to get my smithing skill to 20 and goldsmithing to 16, and the resulting stacks of ingots brought in enough cash to fully upgrade my inventory to 60 slots.  Yay on that.  Now I'm working on increasing my house's inventory space.

I've also begun leveling Summoner.  That required a whole new expenditure of effort to raise my reputations in every town for access to the quests to obtain the various avatars.  With my main job at 40 I'm in no shape to actually fight the avatars, but several people in my linkshell are going through the avatar fights themselves and have generously offered to let me tag along and basically leech the fights by hiding in a corner while they do the killing.  Ironically, I'm not even going through this to get the avatars that they're fighting, I'm doing this to get Fenrir, an avatar that you can only get by fighting the other avatars.  The basic six avatars can be had through a level 20 solo fight, and that's how I mean to get them, but Fenrir can only be had by fighting the level 70 fights, and I really don't care to level White Mage that high just to get a pokemon to use on my level 10 Summoner.
Margalis
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Reply #172 on: November 14, 2007, 10:06:49 PM

The level 20 avatar fights are great fun.

Helpful hint: To use an astral flow ability you need MP. (2x + 4, where X is your level) I didn't realize that the first couple times I did them. Also they are very hit or miss, mostly based on when the avatar uses it's astral flow. I beat a few on the first try and on or two others took me a bunch because I kept getting unlucky with the astral flow abilities raping me.

Edit: Just finished a max-level besieged. We killed the standard troll leader NM (Gurfulur, the big troll that is immune to magic) as well as the max-level super NM Cere. (The cerebus type mob) When you kill the NMs you get an XP bonus, I got 2390 XP. Not bad for an hour of very fun fighting. I just make sure my party is refreshed, hasted and do a whole bunch of healing since at level 54 I can't really do any damage. (I did melee for a bit and managed to hit a guy twice in about 2 minutes before I gave up)
« Last Edit: November 15, 2007, 03:07:54 AM by Margalis »

vampirehipi23: I would enjoy a book written by a monkey and turned into a movie rather than this.
Margalis
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Reply #173 on: November 16, 2007, 10:39:49 PM

There is a bunch of expansion info coming out now on various sites including Alla. I almost wonder if there is just *too* much stuff to do in this game. I'm finishing content at a lower rate than they are adding it. (I have to finish the *original* set of missions, forget Zilart, COP or TOAU) I did ding level 55 though. Leveliing in the low 50s is a real pain because you need a lot more XP and the enemies are tougher, but then in the mid 50s you can level in TOAU areas and it gets easier again.

vampirehipi23: I would enjoy a book written by a monkey and turned into a movie rather than this.
Kitsune
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Reply #174 on: November 17, 2007, 11:13:30 PM

The addition of the new 'back in time' versions of the original zones will hopefully smooth out the leveling speed somewhat by providing more intermediate zones.
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