Old FFXI Vs New FFXI

Grinding in EXP parties doesn't give you a proper knowledge of what fSTR or pDIF is, or even the importance of Haste in gear sets.

Lots of people say that leeching xp doesn't make you a bad player. That sounds reasonable - some people pick things up very fast, some people research their jobs and ask questions, for some people, they've played before on other characters. That's all good.

So why does it feel like there are so many people now who play poorly? I mean, I'm not all that hot by any means, but I used to look around, and see things I could do better, I would see someone do something well and try to remember that. But now... not so much. And it isn't even all about gear. (For one thing, gearing jobs can take time.) It's things like not voking mobs off of mages until they've already died. Or casting Pro/Shell once and figuring it's all good for the rest of the day. Or melees landing 35% of their hits. Or mages drawing aggro and refusing to stop running away to let dds get hate back. It's these kinds of things that I haven't really seen in years, certainly not on this character (before the Abyssea era.) I feel like this kind of play is kind of the norm.

I don't know, maybe I've been lucky and always played with pretty good or better people, and I've just never seen this. But any time I've played with any random set of people, I kick myself and promise to only play with people I know from now on...

So I don't know.

But don't misunderstand, I know there are a lot of people who are exceptional players, however they got their levels. And, it's tough for me to criticize at all when I feel like I have a long way to go - but at the same time, I feel like I've seen the average level of play go down.

Trust me nothing has changed

There was gimps before

There is gimps now

Instead of seeing people with lvl 30 gear on a 75 job

you just see full pearl/teal/etc and lvl 30 earrings/rings

same people different era

Guess all that can be said is "oh well." And to try to hang out with people we find fun.

The only thing different to me is things used to be an accomplishment, now it seems nothing is anymore..not like before when seeing a relic was so rare and everyone would ask the person who have to see the WS and such..etc

Everything is extremely easy compared to the old days (2004) I'm not complaining..I have fun playing FFXI now as much as I did back then. ^^

I've been playing since February 2004, I've loved every change the game has made. I HATED getting 1 level in 5 hours back in the day, BUT i loved how you would make friends easier then. Now it's like I come out of abyssea parties not knowing anybody... its just weird. And I hate all the people that think they have the right to just stand at the Dominion Sargeant and spam pages without helping open chests.

Well, the same goes for players who used to suck and now think they are amazing at the game. For one, atma is cruise control for cool, and usually covers up any traces of a player being bad. But at the same time, nowadays since there are more players who seem "good", the bad ones are more noticable than ever. That's how I see it, at least.

Things have changed. I have only been playing not even 2 years. You can EXP fast in Abby, but then you need to spend time doing skill ups.

*** new FFXI.

Admittedly, I was a bit distraught at the changes to dynamis. But now, looking at the new items and popped NM's, I am starting to appreciate the challenges that SE's offered.

I'm sorry to hear about your hurt ego. /comfort

I kinda agree with this, there's new things that are almost of "2009 relic caliber", but the game has been specifically changed to be easier, so obviously the best accomplishments aren't as difficult anymore.

Thank you, I'm glad someone appreciates my feelings.

Implying your feelings were hurt.

New FFXI is good,abyssea is dumb though, but I just consider it another "event" like limbus, salvage, nyzul, etc. Still, whoever thought giving everyone unlimited MP, 100% acc, 50%+ crit, and 9000000 attk was a good idea in a game with multiple low damage support/buffer classes needs to be fired.

It's true there's only 7 1/2(the 1/2 being BLM/BRD lolol) jobs in abyssea, because some jobs just offer literally, and I mean LITERALLY nothing at all to the team. Outside abyssea is completely different, and I can't wait for 91-99. New dynamis is a lot more challenging than anything I've done in abyssea, and tons more fun ^_^

Anyone who thinks job balance was just as bad @ 75 is wrong in a way, but also right. At least at 75 you could make up for your jobs shortcomings with skill/gear, you can't do anything at all at 90 inside abyssea. You're completely helpless. Again, it's just abyssea, it needs to go away.

I feel that this game has turned into being more selfish and people tend to think for themselves now because you can solo a lot of the nm's now.. back then most people tend to be more patient and help out because thats rly the only way you could get anywhere.. especially going into sky/sea/dynamis you had to have a good group who knew what they were doing.. not you here people shouting for dynamis.. is like damn its gotten that easy now?

Screw this new fangled FFXI. Does anyone know how hard it is to find a seller for an Adamantoise Egg for my lazy ***? Yeah, impossible.

inb4 "GO FIND PEOPLE FOR KSNM".

Having started in 04, then started again now. It's definitley more enjoyable. The game is better, so much redundant, tedious and boring ***has been cut out and trimmed down. As far as exp parties giving you experience and skill, i learnt all of my skill in FFXI from joining an end game LS, not repeatedly killing the same monster over and over.

The game isnt about luck now, it's about putting a more reasonable amount of time into gaining a good piece of equipment.

I used to Play FFXI on the NA release (on and off. When I had the time) and LOVED IT! You could take a break for a few weeks to a month, come back and still get caught up with stuff.

Now I take a break during this abyssea era and when I come back, I'm totally lost. I can only get into exp/grind parties...boring.. I've tried getting into "new" abyssea LS groups thinking I could try the new expansion that way, but I kept getting turned away. People said, "no way! Go farm and get atmas first." Or, "wow...you are a noob... If you haven't done anything with abyssea, GTFO!". Even, "go solo (blank) and get (blank) atma first and I'll give you a pearl. What you can't solo it because you are new to abyssea?" /blacklist

Now.. Before you say that's the player's fault, not SE for making abyssea.. No sh**! I am fully aware of that.. But I could at least come back to a dynamis/sea/sky/etc without being too far behind.

I remember the days I leved my first jobs to 75 in bibiki bay off gobs and dhamels.. Those were the days...Needless to say, I don't play anymore. I'm happy remembering the game for how I liked it before. Not for how much it annoys me now.

Ya, we QQ about it. Your point? You can't make an opinion thread without people voicing their opinions. Whether they are QQing or not.

Sorry to hear about your bad experience Malyuu, that does suck. I remember my first.. very first 75, was war, in Ro'Meave, in the "moon" area on weapons... It was the first party where I got chain 13+ (this was WAY before colibri lol) and I was so excited the party was so good. It was like 5/6 JP players, and me lol...I remember I was so excited to get my first 75 I was like "@2000 exp!" and a JP players responded with @1999 {disbanding party.}, and we all laughed for like 5m lol... It was so fun back then because you could make friends so easily as you grinded exp. I do find the same issue with abyssea. Its fun, and exp grinding is MAD EASY (which is good), but you don't really bond with folks, like ya used to, while exping.. Atleast I don't find that to be the case... Don't get me wrong, the game is still very fun, and I play on coming back soon...

I don't understand why players are STILL pining for pre-Abyssea FFXI.

Umm ... it's over, dudes.

Do you pine for your VHS VCR instead of your DVR and Blue-Ray player? Do you pine for a rotary telephone instead of your IPhone? Do you pine for your 80-lb. floor-mount cathode-tube TV instead of your flat-screen LCD TV that hangs on your wall like a photo frame?

Please.

Nostalgia is great, and I had tons of fond memories from "old" FFXI like everyone else. But it's really obvious that the time-investment versus loot-reward systems common to "old" FFXI were not going to support a viable playerbase for years to come. FFXI needed a paradigm shift that caters to players that have less time available to play compared to the 2005-2007 "golden years". The veteran players are getting older, starting families, progressing in their careers, and S-E made an intelligent business move to allow greater reward per unit of time invested in playing FFXI. It's not like younger/new gamers are knocking down FFXI's door to join into a MMO game with dated graphics that supports PS2.

I feel the same, my main gripe with current XI and Abyssea is how badly it trashed linkshells for most part.

people that keep complaining about xi being easy now have not done enough voidwatch. it's about the same difficulty as hnms used to be

I've done Voidwatch, it's not that difficult... I will say its a lot better than Abyssea though, and a step in the right direction. I hope they continue that way.

It's harder than anything that would have been considered hard in old ffxi, bar AV/PW (pre-alex).

I think its mainly the rewards that weren't enough. The system was set up right, mildly challenging NMs with effective means of incorporating every job and making an LS relevant. The drops didn't really deliver though so nobody even does it. It's turned into the new ZNM of the new ffxi era, which even that is a stretch considering there were still very good pieces out of ZNM.

Which fight are you talking about? I wouldn't say it was harder than everything except AV/PW (Vrtra and others come to mind). I should give it more credit though, like I said, its definitely a step in a right direction away from Abyssea.

Vrtra slipped my mind. There's others I'm neglecting for sure, but I like the system in general. No horrible wait time on fighting something. But I agree, most of the drops are worthless, which seriously depreciates the worth of it as a whole. =\ Can't wait to see the next installment, though. Level cap increase as well.

I hope the next gen of HNMs work like KB works now, with pop items that come from BCNMs/KSNMs or at least some of them. It rewards the players that spend the most time simply playing the game instead of botters/rmt. Voidwatch is cool and all but the drops just aren't there so the time investment versus reward sucks. 13k exp/cruor isn't much of a lure. As for it's difficulty, it's the hardest new thing but by far vrtra/tiamat/bahamut/pw/av, they weren't lowman-first-attempt-win like we are hahava, all he is is hahaha.