Looking To Come Back After God Knows How Long

So I'm thinking of starting up again with FFXI, not sure why but I seem to be aiming at that direction. It's been some years since I've played. The last major thing I remember was Delve had just been introduced and killing three different bosses was the big challenge (I remember a bee?). Anyway, since them I'm sure a lot has changed. In general:

1) I want to know what is new or what I should learn/focus on when coming back to the game, as I've read they have made changes to make it more player friendly

2) When I last left, my top job was a bard with a fully upgraded Daurdabla (well at least at that time, who knows if they changed it to go higher) but I was able to do four songs. I had always wanted to get a Gjallarhorn for my job, how feasible is it to farm the money solo in Dynamis? (I have a 99 BLU that I use to farm with).

3) Along the same lines of solo, I also wanted to work on a mythic weapon. One of the major bottleneck for me was farming the 30,000 Alexandrite. I remember there being a limit of only being able to do the dungeon just once a day to farm, is that still the case or has that been lifted?

Lastly, anyone looking for a lost 4 song bard? XD For all my know my server (which I don't even know which one it is!) could have merged with another one. Thanks in advance!

Two great guides to catch you up:

Everything that has changed: https://www.bg-wiki.com/bg/Returning_to_Vana%27diel

A guide to gearing up: https://www.bg-wiki.com/bg/Quickstart_1-119_Guide

Also, Alex can be farmed solo in Salvage over and over in 3 of the 4 zones. One of them is locked for a RL day still.

Awesome, thank you for the links, definitely what I was looking for!

Rankik
If you are a regular player i would be welcome to hang out
I always love a good bard. and don't have issue helping out a regular player.
Im in 2 big shells but also have samll static of friends i would like to expand with a nice bard

1:
Gear wise ambsucade will be you starting endgame gear combined with some escha gear depending on job. very easy to get wit a group of friends
Job wise BRD/geo er strong Backlien buffer but ususal very comeptitive area. WHM seems to be missing for a lot of events

you might want to finisnh up artifacts gear on your jobs now as they are really competent when reforges. so emp/relic/arrtifacts is something you can work on in soloe times



2:
Very easy. darduabla and ghorn is very strong combo.
Blue is very competen farmer espaciel with the option to get TH4 on amost any jobs now


3:
the salvage arming has been reduce to once a game day. meaning its pretty fast now.
also einhejar has a 60mins cooldown.
so mostly ive been doing einheajr and hten 1-2 salvage or nyzul in cooldown time. it worsk pretty effectively


Lastly.
Yes always welcome to hit me up but om in phoenix server
I play:

Thief (Master/AG EMP)
PLD (master but still working on gear/learning)
Nin (only for aby proces)
pup (starting to learn)

Mule:
WHM (master /yagrush
BRD (MAST but old gear and havent played for years)

Wife:
BLU ( MAster MthicAG/EMp119)
SMN ( about to relearn the job


Friend
Cor ( working on mythic and mastering
SCH ( Just started getting gear for it)
Run (very Basic gear)

Is there any reason why we can't just sticky a "Welcome (back) to Vana'Diel" thread on these forums? I see this at least a half dozen times a week or so, and since most returning players come here first, it might make sense to just include the relevant information here and then link the in-depth discussion from the wiki.

Or just Unban spicy or something.

Dynamis is pretty easy now to farm, can use trusts and nothing will get in your way it's just a time commitment. Both you and Trusts can proc the mobs too which gives extra currency so with the right setup it's great.

Also on Asura currency is down to 200-220k per hundred piece so if you make money from ambuscade or sparks farming can buy up loads.

If you are on Asura and are GMT hit me up, i'd be happy to help :)

Yes a sticky for this was exactly what I looked for before posting this, because the first thing that crossed my mind was "I bet this is asked almost everyday" lol.

For those reaching out, I live in the PST time zone and typically am available to play after 3pm.

I just finished updating and logged in, apparently (and I have absolutely no memory of this) I already have my gjallarhorn, at level 99 LMAO. I must have finished it when I last played, which was like 4 or so years ago, go figure lol. Daurdabla is still there too, that I wasn't imaging XD.

I started up again myself after a 2 year break less than 4 weeks ago.

And noticed that I had 467 job points on my bonecrafter mules Corsair.
Boy I must have been bored before I quit lol.

Also a Shneddick Ring on her. (the 18% movement speed one.) so at least she can run around fast.