Final Fantasy XI

Vinyard_sl

shitlord
3,322
16
Any bros playing this? Patching it up right now. Never got too into it, max level is like 47 or some shit.

Old school feeling with a strong community!
 

ixian_sl

shitlord
272
0
Depending on what server you're on, you're going to have a hard time with this. The NA playerbase isn't what it used to be in terms of size. They introduced a merc-like system, so that should help you level up at least.
 

pharmakos

soʞɐɯɹɐɥd
<Bronze Donator>
16,305
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how much can a duo get done playing FFXI? thinking maybe the GF and i would enjoy taking a spin around for a month or three.
 

kevincheese

Lord Nagafen Raider
48
3
Depending on what server you're on, you're going to have a hard time with this. The NA playerbase isn't what it used to be in terms of size. They introduced a merc-like system, so that should help you level up at least.

I've been thinking about playing this again and from what I've read it sounds like trusts (mercs) plus exp rings make it a joke to level up. Like weeks to max out. Asura apparently is the best populated server - lots of good info on the ffxi subreddit.

It sounds like most of the story content can be beaten with trusts as well, until the later expansions.
 

Pyros

<Silver Donator>
11,209
2,361
If there's some events going it takes more like a few days to hit cap. Longer the first time due to having to do all the limit break quests. Even without events it's stupidly fast nowadays, it's not so much trusts(although they help a lot), it's just you get a fuckton more xp than you used to flat out.

All the story content can be beaten with trusts, even the later stuff. The later stuff is just harder and you have to spend some time gearing up a bit before you can beat it easily(partly because trusts are retarded and controlling their positionning can be a bitch). By time I mean a few days or whatever. Since a bunch of the story content is timegated anyway(Seekers of Andoulin has a bunch of daillies to do to progress it and a lot of quests require you to wait for the next ingame day, which takes like an hour if you're unlucky) you have some time to farm while doing story if you alternate, and you end up not having to farm too much.

There is some content that you won't be able to do 2man, specifically, the content that requires 3people to enter. Not much of it anymore(I think only Delves, not entirely sure).

Then the endgame/highest difficulty you'd need a lot of gear to do, so while it's technically doable with 2, it's not doable without farming for several months(like 3-4 or whatever at least). Most of it is NMs and then the new Dynamis stuff. Some of the content is also just higher difficulties of available content otherwise so you can just do that.


Since I played the game for the first time since the launch a couple months ago, I can give you a rough estimate of time needed to do stuff, spoiler for length:

50-60hours of leveling. This included doing limit break quests obviously since first time and leveling both DNC and BLU to 99, WAR/THF/SAM/RUN/PUP 50, RDM30, WHM20 and AF quests for BLU and DNC. Probably like 35-40hours for the main class only with the limit break quests(the 60 one or whatever was like 5hours on its own lol)

~30hours of endgame stuff to see content/gear up specifically 10hours Gain Experience RoE for JP/Merit/sparks, 2hours Dyanmis for money first thing when I hit 99, 8hours relic farming(complete waste of time but I wanted to relic armor to look cool), 3hours WKR, 2hours RoE intermediate objectives(skirmish+alluvion skirmishes), 2hours voidwatch for walk of heroes, 4hours walk of heroes for rudra(dagger best weaponskill), 2hours of random crap for eviscerate WS

~120hours doing mission(story) stuff. Missions done at intended level range until ~65, then rushed to 99. Didn't finish Wings of the Goddess(mission 20/54), stopped at 6-1 for San D'Oria missions and didn't do any Bastok/Windurst, didn't do Abyssea questlines, didn't do any of the 3 addon side missions, didn't finish voidwatch questline past the required one for Walk of Heroes. Soloed everything, Andoulin last bosses were the hardest, Rhapsody bosses were actually pretty easy.

Even with all that amount of time I ran out of my free 1month sub(and I played a fuckton) and I still wasn't done with all the main questlines and still had a bunch of side story missions stuff. I'll probably resub or do a free return thing later on to get it done
 
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Flight

Molten Core Raider
1,230
288
Firstly, install Windower and either ApRadar or ffxicaddie (two external map programs). Honestly, don't even think about not doing this.

Windower d/l : Windower 4 | windower.net

ffxicadde d/l : Greenshoe Magic

ffxicaddie install guide by the dev :

Windower is so powerful and easy now. It adds a huge range of addons at the click of a button including an in game mini map and video/resolution scalability.


I don't use a joypad. Using keboard don't even try and use the mouse. Main things to remember - press 5 on the numpad to go into first person. Stay in first person. - on numpad opens the menus, use arrow keys to navigate it. You don't lose XP if you die so if you log in and are lost just suicide warp. You can now use devices to warp between almost all zones - crystals (home points) mostly in town zones and survival guides (one in each town and in almost all adventuring zones). Yoiu have to click on them before you can use them as destinations so whenever you see them make sure to get them.



Asura is the only populated server. Spicyran from there has made a number of outstanding guides :

Most important thing in this post :

1 - 99 (and equip to ilvl 119) guide : Quickstart 1-119 Guide - BG FFXI Wiki

First things to do when you hit 99 : Fresh 99/RoE Intermediate Quest/119 Gear Guide - BG FFXI Wiki


Only thing I'd add : highest level gear in the game is ilvl 119 but the equipment at this level has tiers also. The 'weakest' 119 gear can be bought in Adoulin for an end game currency called bayld. You will get far more than you need to buy this just getting access to the zones in the latest expansion as given in that first things to do guide (it takes a couple hours to do this part). BUT once you have even the weakest ilvl 119 gear equipped your trusts are then capped at 119




Be aware from the minute you log in of what's called records of Eminence :

Category:Records of Eminence - BG FFXI Wiki


They are an enormous list of in game achievements - they are individually activated from the Quests/Records of Eminence/Objective List menu. They add a lot of XP and currency for doing what you are going to do anyway.

Also be aware that there is constantly a limited time RoE running which changes its objective every four hours. This is on a set schedule which never changes week to week. Schedule is near the top of the following link :

Category:Records of Eminence - BG FFXI Wiki

Note when the 'Gain Exp' event is and try to plan ahead and do it. Its based on when the xp cap was 300 per mob, wheras now you can get up to around 5k per mob.



Trusts are like EQ1 Mercs. You can summon up to five once you do the relevant Rhapsodies of Vana'diel (RoV) quests. You can choose to have healers / tanks / dps / support in whatever numbers you choose.

Rhapsodies of Vana'diel was the latest expansion : Rhapsodies of Vana'diel Missions

As you work through RoV you get huge permanent bonuses to XP and skill up. Also be aware as you complete these quests more and more core gear becomes available to purchase from the Curio Moogle for cheap prices : Curio Vendor Moogle

First goal : do your quest to get your mount : http://ffxiclopedia.wikia.com/wiki/Full_Speed_Ahead!

Personally on logging in I'd aim to get level 50-60 then prioritize getting Trust : Rainemard and as far as you can get in RoV for XP bonuses before getting to 99. Rainemard is a Red Mage whose dps is OP due to his enspells (add elemental damage to his melee strikes) are bugged and do max dmg whatever level he is) casts Haste and Refresh.

How to get Trust : Rainemard : Bundle of half-inscribed scrolls


Short to medium term goals : Finish RoV progression

WARNING : RoV storyline runs throughout the history of FFXI and involves key characters from each expansion. Various quests in old expansions can stop you progressing in RoV because the characters are erstwhile engaged.

IMPORTANT : As you work through the RoV missions and are forced to go back and get to key stages in older expansions follow each quest descritpion carefully in the FFXIcyclopedia and it will clearly tell you when to not go further in each quest line


eg Aht Urghan progression

AU missions : Treasures of Aht Urhgan Missions

where to either stop in Aht Urghan or do the rest of the missions before you can continue with RoV : Aht Urhgan Mission 12: Royal Puppeteer


List of older quests that will block RoV progression : What should I do if I can’t progress in Rhapsodies of Vana’diel?



Medium to long term goals : best DPS available : Iroha II (reward for completing RoV), best tank available : August or Ark Angel EV

I say currently available because at various times of the year the monthly login campaign items include some fo the more powerful trusts eg Amchuchu the tank and Shantotto II the best caster trust.

Category:Trust - BG FFXI Wiki



Random links/advice :


Good XP spots by level : Fantastic EXPs and Where to Find Them - BG FFXI Wiki

Hierarchy of todays jobs : The hierarchy of jobs: today's FFXI • r/ffxi

Best forums (FFXIAH) : Forum - FFXIAH.com

The monthly log on campaign : Repeat Login Campaign - BG FFXI Wiki

Level cap quests (every 5 levels from 50) : Limit Break

Speed run guide to lvl 99 from scratch (14 hours) : Planning speedrun to level 99 • r/ffxi

1-99 XP/hr testing : 1-99 XP/Hr testing results • r/ffxi



The level cap quests where you have to fight are trivial now - with sufficient (minimal) progress in RoV you can use your Trust NPCs.


Unity Concord - makes a choice of one of the best available Trusts available to you - needs to be re enabled every three weeks by earning enough points (easyily done just by playing) Recommend joining Apururu (so far above regular healers) : Unity Concord

In Windower enable enternity and FastCS. They makes cut scenes go much faster. Be ware there are two quests in game that you will need to do without enternity enabled : one is the Adoulin quest when you are getting the key for Kamir Drifts and the other is a random quest, getting the 'Paintbursh of Souls' key if you ever do this in the old zone Temple of Uggalepih. One locks up and the second you can't pause before pressing the enter key.

You get an Eschad ring when you log in - it adds 150% XP max 30,000 and has limitless charges with a two hour re use timer.

Buy ilvl 119 gear for bayld from : Vesca and Craggy Bluff


You want a real long term, epic, takes months and months pita, do fuzzy stuff like Gardening goal - work towards getting Ygnas, the best permanent Trust available in the game and a healer on par with Apururu : Trust: Ygnas


Random thing to know #1 - Scholar (SCH) is a newer job which is a caster that can do skill chains on their own using spells (job ability Immanence turns regular spells into "Weapon SKill' equivalents for skill chains). This allows casters to do Manabursts for huge damage on demand as the SCH sets them up, melees not required for end game DPS. (Melee has had significant boosts though and either approaches are viable).

Random things to know #2 - Geomancer >>>>>>>>> Bard for buffing/debuffing and can Manaburst etc
 
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Flight

Molten Core Raider
1,230
288
Assigning commands and scripts to hot keys is useful for everyone, but especially for multi boxing. Doing this and enabling boxing is native in Windower, you don't need any third party apps. When you launch Windower under Addons enable :

i) send : sends commands between Windower consoles on the same PC

ii) shortcuts : makes commands work more reliably and easier for windower scripts


In the windower folder windower/scripts theres a file called init.txt This can be used to assign keyboard commands to console commands or scripts


^F1 = ctrl F1 and !F1 = alt f1

You can either directly put a console commands here or you can make it run a script

ie

DIRECT CONSOLE COMMAND BOUND IN init.txt :


bind ^F1 input mount raptor



This will make the live game instance run /mount "Raptor" (syntax due to send) when you press ctrl F1

You can then use a decent keyboard to bind a macro G Key to ctrl F1

Result : When you press your macro G key you will get on your mount




COMMAND TO RUN A SCRIPT BOUND IN init.txt:

We create a script called FoHfollow.txt and put it in the same scripts folder



Text in this file is :


send Sambet input /follow Flight;
wait 0.1;
send Shield input /follow Flight;
wait 0.1;
send Mitsubashibashi input /follow Flight



In init.txt we put :


bind ^F1 input \/\/exec FoHfollow.txt



Now when we press ctrl F1 Sambet Shield and Mitsubashibashi will all follow Flight.

(Note when you execute a command line it is putting it straight into the regular game console. The \/\/ in the syntax makes the command line sent to the Windower console rather than the regular game console)

Lastly if you make changes to init.txt you will have to reboot your clients and Windower to take effect. However if you changes scripts you can do it on the fly and they work immediately. Consequently all my binds in txt point to scripts.


ie in my init.txt :


bind ^f1 input \/\/exec ctrl1_follow.txt
bind ^f2 input \/\/exec ctrl2_assist.txt
bind ^f3 input \/\/exec ctrl3_attack.txt
bind ^f4 input \/\/exec ctrl4_followmitsu.txt
bind ^f5 input \/\/exec ctrl5_assistmitsu.txt
bind ^f6 input \/\/exec ctrl6_attackmitsu.txt
bind ^f7 input \/\/exec ctrl7_debuff.txt
bind ^f8 input \/\/exec ctrl8_dmgspellspam.txt
bind ^f9 input \/\/exec ctrl9_healspellspam.txt
bind ^f10 input \/\/exec ctrl10_blank1
bind ^f11 input \/\/exec ctrl11_blank2
bind ^f12 input \/\/exec ctrl12_blank3
bind !f1 input \/\/exec alt1_shieldws.txt
bind !f2 input \/\/exec alt2_mitsuws.txt
bind !f3 input \/\/exec alt3_sambetmab.txt
bind !f4 input \/\/exec alt4_flightws.txt
bind !f5 input \/\/exec alt5_sambetws.txt
bind !f6 input \/\/exec alt6_mount.txt
bind !f7 input \/\/exec alt7_samurbuff.txt
bind !f8 input \/\/exec alt8_samurws.txt
bind !f9 input \/\/exec alt9_dismount.txt
bind !f10 input \/\/exec alt10_blank4
bind !f11 input \/\/exec alt11_blank5
bind !f12 input \/\/exec alt12_blank6


and in scripts folder the 24 named scripts

Then bind ctrl F1-12 and alt F1-12 to keyboard macro keys.
 
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Noodleface

A Mod Real Quick
38,242
15,023
Those were some of the most informative posts I've ever read on this forum.

I played for years during this games peak (NA release through ToAU) and it's crazy to think that we spent years farming HNM, doing dynamis, abyssea, etc .and no one would even recognize our names these days.
 
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gshurik

Tranny Chaser
<Gold Donor>
2,517
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Hey I remember Spicyryan, he used to post on FFXIAH. If you speak to him tell him Flion says hi.
 
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Noodleface

A Mod Real Quick
38,242
15,023
Also, I played on asura almost the whole time .Started on Phoenix and then they did a free transfer to a new realm so me and a few dudes took it.

Played in the HNM LS Nantekotta. Had a bunch of friends in machina and tribe.
 

gshurik

Tranny Chaser
<Gold Donor>
2,517
-56
I was Alexander super initially, then Shiva for most of my actual gameplay time. I eventually moved to Carbuncle in the Abyssea days. Some of my best IG friends were on Carbuncle though, but I played on Shiva with irl friends when they played.
 

ramp

Silver Knight of the Realm
81
1
FF11 was a great run, from CoP till Audolin, Titan/Quetz/Levi (Georgii), the game would take a lot of time but also was quite rewarding, the last MMO with true server communities/dynamics. Maybe will give it another try at the next campaign but it will likely be a disappointment :p
 

Flight

Molten Core Raider
1,230
288
If you are ever going to play this again (and it's well worth it) just drop whatever you are playing and download it now just to get whats on offer atm.


1. Free to log in and play until 28/05 : Return Home to Vana'diel Campaign

2. By far the best trusts (NPC party companions) are both available this month via promotions :


Amchuchu (tank) from Spring Alter Ego Campaign : Spring Alter Ego Extravaganza Guide - BG FFXI Wiki

Shantotto II (DPS caster also does melee skill chains) from log in campaign : Repeat Login Campaign - BG FFXI Wiki


Qultada is also very good (alter ego campaign)


How the log in campaign works is first time each month you log in you get 500 points (Shantotto II is only 300) then each day after that you log in you get 100). 1500 points max can carry over from previous month.




Honestly these NPCs are game changing and are only available once or twice a year.
 
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001001102

Golden Knight of the Realm
353
108
I haven't played this ish since 2012ish bros. Is it any good now? Seeing people speedrun 1-99 on a fresh character in under 20 hours is insane to me.
 

FarmCheese

Trakanon Raider
21
16
I haven't played this ish since 2012ish bros. Is it any good now? Seeing people speedrun 1-99 on a fresh character in under 20 hours is insane to me.
Because that's the meta now. Getting to 99 is pretty easy but there is soooooo much to do now going into end game with missions/RoZ your time will be consumed doing that shit rather leveling. I'm on Asura if you are looking to play again.