I didn't see a topic about this so i decided to create one.

In light of the 10 year anniversary and the sale on amazon right now, i figure that it would be a nice time to go back to the world of Vana' diel. That and i was inspired by a passionate CAG and it reminded me of everything i loved about this game, but i will get into that.

For those of you needing a little info on the game itself. It was one of the first cross platform MMO's that i can remember, with PC, PS2 and then Xbox 360. When it first came out it was like a traditional JRPG. You grinded for experience points, you farmed or came across a craft to earn money and then used that money to get better gear. It took awhile and you poured hours into what you did. You either loved it or hated it.

Ten years later, it is as far from that as it once was. Soloing isn't as hard as it used to be, it's actually an option. Gear can come from numerous sources, but the good stuff always needs a little gil or work. You can actually do a lot with less and create parties with more ease, though i never throw away an opportunity to have a dedicated tank and healer. Also you can party at any level with the level sync option and use the gear you have on you with some minor restrictions depending on the level.

To this day XI has had my favorite job/class system in any MMO i have played. Where my character is separate from my class. Each job level is independent from one another, yet any of the skills you learn or train stay with you. Also all of the classes are based on classic final fantasy jobs (Ex. Monk, Warrior, Dragoon, Summoner, Blue Mage)

The most important thing to me was that it had one of the best communities that i had been apart of. Mostly friendly and i have nothing but good experiences. Though i strayed away from endgame events or priorities, i usually do that in any MMO. It changes who you are and makes any game seem more like work. My objective was to have fun and more importantly to have an adventure i can remember. Not to mention that the story for everything in that game is written pretty well, it has it's own take on the Crystal War, magic, economic struggle to say the least.

Look at it now celebrating it's 10 Year anniversary. I remember every year there would be comments on how the community was dying. Then after XIV came out they thought it was a sure thing that it was over. Having played XIV and several other MMO's i still find myself looking for that something it is usually missing. I never had that problem with XI.

If anyone does decide to come back or start up playing, let me know. I am in a position to get you to a place where you can help yourself. With all the current things out now, i can usually make time and play. Though it has been awhile since i have played and i come from the old ways of doing certain things. I would recommend getting the ultimate collection as it has all the expansions, which at this point is almost a necessity to play with the current community.

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Wanted to make 100% sure that my server was still up an it is. Join me on Bismark.
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Info


Content –

The world of Vana' diel is huge, there is a lot going on and there is a great story and adventure if you find yourself looking for one. If you have yourself the ultimate collection, you have the ability to access everything with some work.

The starting nations will decided your first storyline mission, you can change your nation allegiance. The nations are the Bastok (An industrial based city, home of Hume and Galka), San d'Oria (A Kingdom built by the elvaan) and Windurst (A magical city surrounded by forests, home of Taru Taru and Mithra)

Most missions can be done with a few people and with recent updates and additions they have taken a lot of the grinding of levels away. If you show choose, you can get to 99 within a week. Which in my opinion is great, since a lot of people that played the game couldn’t access content since they didn’t grind enough.

[Races] –

There are the Hume, Elvaan, TaruTaru, Mithra and Galka. When it comes to this game race necessarily doesn’t play a huge role, because it's common that your going to experiment with your jobs. If you wanted a big MP pool taru taru, High Strength elvaan, Vitality galka, dexerity mithra and humes are the well rounded ones. I've seen Galka mages and Taru tanks, so anything you decide can be the best at what it does.

[Terms] -

HP – Health Points, that little orange bar below your name
MP – Magic Points, the bar under your heath. (You wont have MP if your a non mage)
TP – Tactic Points, that blue bar you build up in battle. 100% means you can use a weapon skill. If you build up more, it makes the skills effects more potent.
EXP – Experience Points, a common rpg term, you'll be wanting this commodity and a lot of it.
AH - Auction House, this is where you will be buying pretty much anything. Located in any major city. They used to be separated by it's city, but now its all combined.
Skill – For every job, there are skills associated with it. Be it offensive/defensive or magic. Every level has a cap on how high it can be. The better it is, the more potential that you can do with your job is unlocked. In short high skill = the better you are. It is tied to your character and carries over from job to job.

[Jobs] -

A character's main job is the primary job that you have chosen, which will gain experience points. A support job is a secondary job restricted to half the level of the main job. The subjob provides access with some limitations, to the job abilities and job traits to the restricted level of the sub.

Also what I loved about this system is that you can change your job whenever you want.

Starter – The Original 6

Warrior – Versatile in all forms of offensive combat. Focuses on protecting allies from enemy attacks and damage dealing. (Most at end game are used as light tanks, but are primarily damage dealers.)

Monk – Uses martial arts as a deadly weapon. They attack with a barrage of punches and kicks. ( Large HP pool, Easy low maintenance job.)

Thief – The classic rogue job, they control the field of battle with precise critical attacks. ( Uses abilities to shift aggro, pulls monsters, assists in acquiring items.)

White Mage – Uses healing magic to protect allies, ward ill effects and recover from the hardship of battle. (get used to hearing “raise please”)

Black Mage – Having the capability to be a magical power house. Those training in black magic use the power of arcane with cataclysmic force. (They blow stuff up with their minds)

Red Mage – A hybrid mage of offense and defense. Can aid in battle with white and black magic and physical attacks. ( Role of offense turns into a support job later on, endgame are often kites)
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Advanced – Obtainable once you get any one job to 30 and complete a quest.

Paladin – Equipped with heavy armor and shield and some white magic. This is the first line of defense that any foe encounters. ( They usually sub warrior, can take the edge of healers and keep monster hate)

Dark Knight – A job that strikes fear into it's enemies with powerful weapon attacks and crippling black magic. ( Dishes damage out can't take it, the term glass cannon comes to mind)

Beastmaster – Trainers of the wild beasts of Vana'diel use abilities to have monsters aid them in battle. (Known for it's ability to solo, can also use items to call pets)

Bard – A most musical class, uses its skills to enhance a parties skills or weaken foes. ( Support role, uses songs for buffing/debuffs, always good to have one around)

Ranger – The greatest hunters in all of Vana'diel. Uncanny expertise with ranged weaponry and tracking skill. ( Great damage dealers, usually pulls monsters, costly due to ammo usage for ranged weapons.)

Samurai – Trained with far east blade techniques, they use the mastery of the katana to end enemies with power, precision and speed. (The only job with the fastest TP gain, does weapon skills the fastest, great damage dealer)

Ninja – Uses the forbidden arts of Ninjitsu to weaken and disorient it's enemies. ( Interesting that the community turned this job into a tank using it's ninjitsu, tools for ninjitsu are costly, It is THE sub for most other offense jobs)

Dragoon – Uses lances and is assisted by it's wyvern in battle. (Wyvern changes its role based on sub, can be offensive, defensive, it can even heal. Very good damage dealers)

Summoner – Mages that have tapped into the forbidden magic of vana'diel to summon legendary avatars. ( Good support healer, can do serious damage with summons, must defeat a avatar first to get the ability to summon it)

Blue Mage – Can learn magic from the monsters of Vana'diel and use it against them. ( Very powerful job, must actively seek out monsters to learn spells from.)

Corsair – Descendants of pirates, they rely on guns and luck based abilities to raise or lower the stakes of battle. ( Support role like bard with potential to deal damage like ranger, Uses dice based on jobs which give bonus effects if your in a party with that job)

Puppetmaster – Originally performers, they bewilder enemies with their customizable puppet known as the “automation”. ( Like dragoon more emphasis is put on the puppet, can deal damage or heal with right parts)

Dancer – Armed with the power of dance, they can use forbidden magic equal to the most powerful mages. ( Unlike mages who use MP they cast spells with TP, Good support job and a very useful sub)

Scholar – Tacticians specializing in using both schools of magic black and white, which they can alternate depending on the situation. ( Very powerful mages, can make normally single target spells multi target)
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Tips

1. Don't Panic

2. Before you start up the game, look up the controls. I know its a crazy idea, to actually look at a game manual these days. Also since most games now a days spoon feed you into it's world. You enter XI by hitting the ground running.

- Also you can change the graphic settings to make it look nice in the configure menu.
- Gamepad friendly, needs to be enabled and set up. Can also be done in config menu.

3. If you don't see anyone in the starter zones, it's because most people are actually in the endgame areas. Don't fret, lots of people are still leveling up but using different methods.

4. Ask for help, it's not uncommon. The community is mostly friendly. Also look at the time your on, if no one answers you there is a good chance they aren't speaking your native language. Don't fret there is an auto - translate function.

5. There are no wrong decisions when making a character, any flaws can be fixed with gear.

6. If you want Easy Mode, get the Destrier beret. Under level 30 you get, Auto - Regen/Auto-Refresh and most importantly Auto - Reraise. In short, you get knocked down and you get up again.

7. Yes it's cross platform with Xbox 360, PC and the occasional, but rare PS2 user.

If you feel overwhelmed, it seems like a lot to take in. In fact it isn't. Set a goal for yourself, find people, ask friends to join you. You can get a lot done in a short amount of time and have the full Final Fantasy MMO experience your looking for.

http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/ ← will answer a lot of questions and is THE guide if you want to play this game

Loved XI. Spent many many good years playing it. I still compare all MMOs to it b/c I liked it more than I did WOW and any other. Its hard to imagine I would have the time but if it went free to play I think I might go back to it.

i picked it up from a steam sale last year and the UI/Controls were absolutely awful. I couldn't even figure out how to move! I played for a few days of the free 30 (which was extended to 60 cuz of downtime or something..). Also the graphics are quite poor, though I do like the artstyle, and it seems you're stuck with a terrible resolution unless you use some mod which gets people banned. As for the community it seemed to be non-existent. I think I saw maybe 5 other players on my quest to slay little rabbity things.

All that said, I did really like the mechanics and it sounded like the job system would be cool, it just suffers from being a very old game where there are so many other choices.

Originally Posted by crystalklear64 i picked it up from a steam sale last year and the UI/Controls were absolutely awful. I couldn't even figure out how to move! I played for a few days of the free 30 (which was extended to 60 cuz of downtime or something..). Also the graphics are quite poor, though I do like the artstyle, and it seems you're stuck with a terrible resolution unless you use some mod which gets people banned. As for the community it seemed to be non-existent. I think I saw maybe 5 other players on my quest to slay little rabbity things. All that said, I did really like the mechanics and it sounded like the job system would be cool, it just suffers from being a very old game where there are so many other choices.

I loved FFXI when it first came out. It was my first real MMO and like the above poster, I compare every MMO to it. Thanks to the Amazon sale I'll be getting back into the game. It sounds like it's something I can play for a few hours a day and actually make progress now. Really looking forward to starting tonight after I get out of work!

I wonder if my character is still available after 8 years...

Originally Posted by DemonKysho If anyone does decide to come back or start up playing, let me know. I am in a position to get you to a place where you can help yourself. With all the current things out now, i can usually make time and play. Though it has been awhile since i have played and i come from the old ways of doing certain things. I would recommend getting the ultimate collection as it has all the expansions, which at this point is almost a necessity to play with the current community.

Which server are you on?

Started playing a few months ago, but got stuck trying to unlock subjobs and haven't gone back to it since. I've mostly played solo so far, but did get a lot of experience via level sync with a random party in some caves somewhere. Currently distracted by FFXIV, but I'll probably come back to this someday. Apparently they're going to make a lot of UI improvements to FFXI in the coming months.

How is XIV? I realize it had a bad launch, but I imagine it's an entirely different game now.

Played XI for seven years straight -_-; Hands down one of the greatest experiences I ever had. Made many friends, did so many adventures... Also took up a TON of my time unfortunately. The time commitment was brutal which is why I pretty much had to quit. I loved XI to death but never playing another MMO ever again.

I am Saraphxiii on Bismarck.

FFXI was the first mmo that I really enjoyed. I played for ~3yrs from day one. I was thinking about getting back into it, by at the moment I only have narrowband Internet available, which means I can't play it on my 360 or MacBook since neither have modems :/

Originally Posted by panzerfaust How is XIV? I realize it had a bad launch, but I imagine it's an entirely different game now.

It's not. I played it a month ago and played at beta/launch and I couldn't tell you what has changed. Mind you I only hit level 10-15 or so but there is still no AH, no mail system, etc. They did add more jobs and I guess more higher level quest and endgame content but sadly I can't experience those. They also recently had a server merge so they'w down to 4 or 5 servers now. They also plan to relaunch the game later this year or early next year with the 2.0 update which should be when it's released on the PS3 too. But we'll see.

I'm in the same camp with everybody here. This was my first mmo too. Made some good friends on it whom I still keep in contact with. I would like to go back but I know it's won't ever be the same as the first time. Tried many other mmos since but none have ever compared. The things I hated about FFXI also are the things that made it great. The xp parties, days waiting as DRG for a party. Meeting people and playing with Japanese in XP parties just communicating via auto-translate. Going to new areas and dying to a damn rabbit. Good times.

I disagree about XIV. I played it for a while at launch, took a break for several months, and just came back to it a week or two ago. I think it is quite a different game from launch. Levequests are no longer the main focus of the game -- they're mainly a solo feature now. There is a LOT more content for both mid levels and high levels, and they've made it a lot easier to be able to participate in the high-level content.

And there's still 10 servers. And there is an AH, for all intents and purposes.

I was mistaken, it is 10 servers. Down from 18. I don't doubt there is a lot more content but it pretty barren for a new guy to start the game now. Might as well wait till the relaunch. Is there really an AH? All I could really find was the retainer place which is a terrible AH if that's what they're using. I really do hope they get everything worked out because I would like to give it another chance. Especially when there are many more people around who are newbies too figuring everything out for the first time.

I need to buy the soundtracks to FFXI. I find myself just listening to all the music on youtube a lot lately. I kind of just want to play again just so I can listen to all the music and hang in Sandy and annoy myself with that over and over like I used to. Gah... I'm really tempted to go back now, even if just for a month.

Ah, it feels good to be back. So many things have changed, yet it feels familiar. You can't beat a traditional JRPG like this. Also updated and im glad my server is still up.

Originally Posted by DemonKysho Ah, it feels good to be back. So many things have changed, yet it feels familiar. You can't beat a traditional JRPG like this. Also updated and im glad my server is still up.

What is your name on Bismarck? If I can't find you can you add me? Username is SaraphXIII, same for character.

I will say this though to anyone coming back or signing up, there will be a lot of patching. Especially if your doing a fresh install. Mine said 9 hours, but it was closer to 6.

Originally Posted by crystalklear64 i picked it up from a steam sale last year and the UI/Controls were absolutely awful. I couldn't even figure out how to move! I played for a few days of the free 30 (which was extended to 60 cuz of downtime or something..). Also the graphics are quite poor, though I do like the artstyle, and it seems you're stuck with a terrible resolution unless you use some mod which gets people banned. As for the community it seemed to be non-existent. I think I saw maybe 5 other players on my quest to slay little rabbity things. All that said, I did really like the mechanics and it sounded like the job system would be cool, it just suffers from being a very old game where there are so many other choices.

The game is meant to be played with a controller. If you're not playing it the way it was intended then you really can't complain, though they did recently rework the keyboard and mouse controls to make them more user friendly. But still, I'm so sick of hearing people bitch about the controls because if you use a controller they are damn near perfect.

As for the graphics all you need to do to make them look good is to set the background resolution to 2048x2048 which you can do from FFXI Config now. Even when the option for 2048x2048 was not available in FFXI Config you could still set it by editing the windows registry values. So it never required Windower or any other 3rd party software to get it to look good.

And finally as for the community, you're not going to see a lot of people in the starter cities now because most of the player base has at least one maxed job so they focus on endgame and other high-level activities, which means they're don't hang out in the starter cities that much. If you had gone to Jeuno you would have seen hundreds of people.

Sorry but unless it goes free to play, I'm not starting up.

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After seeing the gear SE was offering for the 10th anniversary I was rather disappointed. The ring is pretty much useless since most leveling is done with Grounds of Valor and Abyssea now.

As such, I decided to wait til the beginning of June to reactivate my account. No need for me to pay a full month for like a week's worth of play since the decennial gear isn't worth it.

So after reactivating my account and settling down from my nostalgia trip. I am thoroughly enjoying my return. That hat that amazon gives you is down right game breaking. Under 30 effect: Auto - Regen, Auto - Refresh and Reraise, with something like that new people know no fear. Not to mention i go around the new zones and help people i see struggling. A game like this is easy for me to get back into and i can't stress enough "easier for new people to get into" also.