Coming Back

Hey everyone! Ok here's the deal. I stopped playing FFXI in 2008 and left my character to my friend. She took care of it and leveled a couple jobs, but nothing too fancy. I have zero jobs @ 99 (highest being WAR and SAM 75 - which was before lvl cap raise). My DRG is 61. Out of all the jobs, I love the DRG the most, but was asked to be SAM most of the time. Here is my problem:

When I left her the character, I was not planning on ever returning to the game. The fact that I still have access to it is amazing. Not that I at all blame her, but I believe my caretaker sold off all my gear that was AH-able, and left me with some of my R/E gear, though not all. In fact, I don't think I have any of my AF, nor any weapons. I currently have 200k gil to my name and just a little bit of crafting to rely on for income.

What do I do at this point? I assume there are zero exp parties, and even less that would want a DRG, though I don't know. Am I screwed? Can I solo somewhere? What should I concentrate on? Gear for DRG, getting WAR or SAM to 99 (don't have much gear on those jobs either)?

I just would like some suggestions from you guys, and I'm hoping you won't flame me too badly. I TRIED to stay away. I TRIED to not love DRG. I failed both. HELP!

There's abyssea parties now when you hit 75 you will start getting invites from that. Past that there is are grounds of valor parties, EXP that you get from a book when you kill certain mobs over and over.

I think your safest bet is to get your income running again and get a feel for the things that changed, then just jump to 99 on either job. Once you get that, skill up, then collect your +1 gear from abyssea, maybe start up a magian trial weapon, then work from there to get either +2 gear or progression into voidwatch. After you get the basics down the possibilities are endless.

There's a ton of stuff to do I know, but gotta start from the ground up :).



Editted: Wasn't done.

Well, getting WAR or SAM to 99 will open some reasonable money options and you could probably do it cheap.


If you pick up a Trials of the Magian weapon, you could do that while getting EXP so it doesn't look like you're not trying :P

Both of them can make use of the same basic gearsets if memory serves me right, so you could do both.

You can check any of the numerous "coming back" threads, but the basics are:

• The game is nothing like it was in 2008. If you are planning on playing just for nostalgia, you may be sorely disappointed.
  

• The day of EXP parties is largely dead. People tend to burn jobs up in Abyssea or doing Grounds of Valor pages in alliances. You can get to cap within a few days starting from scratch (the most lengthy processes probably being the limit breaks)

• Don't worry about not having any gear, because at the speed that leveling happens you could have it outdated within a day.
  

• Soloing is very possibly and easier than ever, much of the endgame content is now soloable or able to be done in small groups.

• Job-wise, I have always just believed people should level what they think is fun, not what others want. It's a game, afterall.

Yeah, once you get used to how Abyssea and what not works, you could be back up and running within a week or so.

Most of the 75 cap gear that's AH sellable isn't worth holding onto now anyway, pretty much everything is R/E from Aby/VW/Legion etc.

Unlock Abyssea. Talk to Joachim in Port Jeuno, and a Voidwatch Officer in your home town. You're going to have to rely on someone's benevolence to get you into your first Abyssea exp party, but once you're in, you'll be fine. They may ask you do a 75 before your 61, but once you get Abyssea's currency, cruor, you'll be able to get your DRG up as well. Find a linkshell doing Abyssea stuff, or a few friends willing to help get you the bare essential Abyssites and Atmas. Abyssites of Furtherance and Merit are your #1 priorities, Atma of the Razed Ruins will be a major help on this trek and further expansion into Abyssea. You're going to have very few stones to start, and going to have to be a miser where you spend them. Work on getting your AF3, but until then AH gear and AH weapons are fine.

As a forewarning, DRG is not a top-tier DD unless it acquires Ryunohinge, its Mythic, which is a massive undertaking I would not recommend undertaking, considering how fresh you're going to be.

Ya level what you want, just dont always expect a job you love to be useful for things you need to do to acquire gear for that job.

It's my recommendation you start thinking about one job that is "in demand" so to speak, and then one job that is your "labor of love." Your in demand job should be practical and used to help get you things you need for your pet project. Read up on abyssea weakness targeting (aka "procs") here so you have a better idea of which jobs are in demand for farming the seals necessary to get your af3+1 and +2. Specifically, you'll want to target jobs that are good for yellow weakness triggers, as those are the ones that enable better drop rates for said seals, and will make it easier to form groups to farm what you need for your pet project job.

You can read up more on empy armor/af3 here(despite what the last sentence of the first paragraph says, just about everyone refers to it as af3).

Best of luck. The game is different now, but I think you'll find it's going to give you far more instant gratification than it used to.

THANK YOU everyone for your solid replies! I will probably, like many of you mentioned, get my feet wet in Aby and try to farm for my DRG through those undertakings.

And also thank you for withholding your lolDRG comments... haha

Would be pretty self-deprecating, now wouldn't it? ;)

Hey all instead of making a new thread I thought I would just ask this here. Barring empyrean/relic/mythic what is the best polearm to grab coming back? Herjas or OAT? Or is there another polearm that I may be overlooking?

Thanks!

OAT beats Herja's?

I was under the impression the general polearm DD ranking is like

Ryu 90-99 > Gungir 99 > Herja's > OAT > Gungir 95

I could be wrong, but that's what I remember the other thread saying.

That's correct as far as I know. Herja's is superior to OAT.

And I think I remember hearing that the new Polearm falls somewhere in between Gungir 99 and Herja's.