On My Way Back In

Hey guys,

Long time player, circa 2005ish, I've been muckin around with different MMO's here and there, and I feel like FFXI is the only one for me, so I'm planning on returning tomorrow night. (Pending Updates, etc)

I ran before with Colony and Empire, and I'm unsure as to whether either shell exists anymore. I'm not capped on anything anymore, and am going to be slightly green for awhile, but I'm looking for a refutable linkshell to get back into for social/event play, and for someone to show me the ropes, whats changed in the last 2 years, etc. I'm currently reading up on the returning players guide on bluegartr, so I get the jist of most of the changes.

Thanks, Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, etc.

Plank

To the best of my knowledge, neither shell still exists. FFXI endgame has changed notably since 75, and the majority of content no longer requires an endgame shell. If want a pearl to talk with some experienced people and get some help catching up, you're welcome to have one of mine. We don't really do scheduled events very often.

If you were looking into a serious endgame shell, the options here are extremely limited.

Dryroot does everything with decent success. They run in european primetime, but the leader can be a bit unbalanced and has a history of making personal drama.

Epitaph is beginning to win the higher content, and can handle mid-tier things with ease. They're inefficient sometimes, but Draylo's a really chill guy and always helpful to people who are courteous. They run in EST primetime.

Abysseangods can sort of do ***content. They try hard, the leader's very agreeable, but they have a wealth of trashy players that hold them back a bit. They also run in EST primetime.

Bossanova is without a doubt the best shell on the server, but they're japanese. If that's an option for you, might want to look into it a bit. I don't know any details of their schedule, so you'd need to talk to someone there. You would definitely need 99 and quite a bit of gear to be considered, though.

Keep in mind that the only events requiring more than 6 competent people are OdinV2, high tier voidwatch, and legion. There's a wealth of content that you can do with 6 or less, and voidwatch is extremely shout-friendly, so if you have some friends that still play you could get almost all of the best endgame gear in a party of 6.

As I do consultant work, this would actually just be fine for now, I don't get any real time off until summer, and since both LS's are eradicated, I'd like to probably just meet with some new folk and get back into the social aspect of things for now. I have never been much of a mooch when it came to FFXI, and I always enjoy helping people out more than asking for help. As far as Legion/Voidwatch etc go, I'd most likely be okay with just earlier 6man stuff, I still have a few COP, TOAU, RoZ, and all of the WOTG and the 3 exps after that to finish up, and I know most of the earlier exps can be solo/duo'd. I'm looking more into doing some assault, einher, salvage, and whatnot for the experience of doing them, since my last few months of play were very spread out and not very active, and I wasn't able to do much with these other then early on nyzul floors. The harder endgame I'm nowhere near yet, my highest is 76 war, with a 72rng just under that, so I have some leveling to do first of course.

The game is almost done installing, and depending on the patch time I'll either be on tonight or tomorrow. If you happen to see me on tomorrow night (8pm - 12am cst) go ahead and shoot me a tell.

Thanks for the expansive reply though! I really appreciate it man. Looking forward to getting back into it.

Also, the name Draylo sounds semi familiar, I'll probably shoot him a tell, I think we used to talk back in the day.