Oh deary me...

[Ouch!]

So here's the deal. I quit playing Final Fantasy XI back sometime in last October or November. I was approaching endgame (after four-or-so years of mucking around), and I was put off by the requirements of progressing at all upon reaching the endgame level.

This summer, however, the urge to play began to return, quite powerfully, I might add. Perhaps it was because of the sudden abundance of free time that I had. Although I never lacked for free time, school certainly kept me occupied for a good six or seven hours.

Now I'm in college, and I have a ridiculous amount of free time as well. I probably should hang out with other people, but to be quite honest I'm not a fan of the whole party scene, and at the moment, it seems as if the only social interactions here involving getting drunk and high for no reason at all--something I'm not particularly interested in.

I ordered a MacBook Pro (only god knows when it might actually arrive, though). I'll admit, although I had other reasons for purchasing a Mac (for example, I like them a lot), the fact that many PC games are unavailable for Macs (at least not without a lot of things I'm not willing to bother myself with at this time) was a big plus. However, I just purchased an Xbox 360. I also just remembered that Final Fantasy XI is available on the Xbox 360. It's availability has returned to me.

So, here's the thing. Is it worth coming back? I remember hearing this summer about all the changes SE was beginning to make. I do sort of feel as though starting now would be folly. Although, being so far behind all my friends never really bothered me in the past, I don't feel too thrilled about starting completely from scratch.

I have a few questions to which the answers will influence my decision:

1. How's the grind through the mid-levels these days? I remember around the time I quit, it was becoming difficult to find a party from about level 40 to 70. Has this changed? I've not decided what job I plan to level (I was a red mage most recently, as some may remember from old avatar/signature themes, and I'm not entirely sure that's something I really want to repeat), and I imagine if it's something that's not terribly popular (or a requirement), I might find myself having a rough time.

2. How's the economy doing? Last I checked (which was quite some time ago), prices were all over the place, and gil was increasingly difficult to come by.

3. Is it worth it? I've listed the factors that make me so reluctant that I have to resort to making a lengthy post on a forum to help me decide whether or not I should come back. I usually found the grind to be pretty fun (as long as I got a good party), so I'm not too worried about that, but am I going to feel like it wasn't worth anything in the end? Is endgame really as bad as I constantly hear? Is there no way to play semi-casually? I'm not adverse to joining certain planned events, but I'm not at all interested in scheduling my life around a video game, no matter how much free time I may have.

When I quit, I was still having fun, but I felt as though I was beginning to allow my life to revolve around Final Fantasy XI, so I'll probably enjoy myself no matter what. I guess I'm really just afraid of how demanding the game may get in the end. While I had fun along the way, there was some measure of disappointment that made me feel as though all the work wasn't really worth it in the end.

I'm just bored witless these days (and have been since I quit) and I could do with some way to soak up my time.

Help me, EoFF.

[Ultimage]

1. I'm not sure about the mid levels, but I know that there have been a lot of new characters here lately (probably because of the 30 day trials for 3.99 or so that were recently released.) That could make it easier to find a party for that level in the future.

2. I haven't really tried making gil recently, but the prices of items are much lower all across the board, so it's not too bad. Of course, I don't have to buy much except oils and powders anymore.

3a. I don't know if it would be worth it to you. If the noobs bothered you alot, it may be best to stay away, because my brother had to start a new character recently, and he is hating it. I don't remember how far you got into missions, but if you like a great story, then come back and do CoP, they've made it easier and I'll gladly help. Also, ToAU just finished up and had a great story and the last two fights were amazingly fun, even when I wiped. It's hard to find a fight that you love, even when you lose 3-4 times in one night. If you like two-handers or COR, now is a good time to come back (as long as you are prepared when they fix them like they already said they are going to fix the two-handers).

3b. As for Endgame, it's as bad as your shell. I do sky and have an awesome shell with some great people. We only do sky 2 nights a week (we are there for about 4-6 hours each night though). I like it, but I've pretty much decided that I wouldn't do more than 1, maybe 2, endgame type of events at once. That works best for me.


I hope I've been of some help.

Edit: I forgot to add, you know you want to go back in time in the next expansion:

http://img515.imageshack.us/img515/1842/wingsofthegoddessbttfjm4.jpg
(Made by Veloxe of Midgard, one of the best PLDs in my sky shell)

[Miriel]

The grind is still the grind, but I haven't noticed any significant hardships in finding parties. Occasionally it'll be difficult to get something going but I don't think it's too bad.

The crazy inflation that was running rampant ago has come down. A LOT. Seriously, I think prices are pretty reasonable these days. I was able to get a Noble's Cloak for like 900k. Compare that to the several million it was going for a year ago.

As for endgame, I pretty much have the same feelings about it as you do. I want to do events here and there but I don't particularly want to be in a shell where that's all you do and if don't show up for an event they go nuts on you. I haven't reached endgame yet, so I don't really know how it'll be, but I don't want to deal with any of the drama that people are constantly bitching about.

[Ouch!]

I guess end-game really is my only reservation about joining, but I'm becoming less and less concerned with it. I got the game the day it was released in the United States, and in all that time I only ever reached level 60. I had a nasty habit of starting over frequently, although I only played the level 60 character for about a year. Even still, that's a long time before I even need to begin to worry about end-game.

Beyond that, I'm relaxing on my other concerns. The only real obstacle should I choose to play might be convincing my parents. Am I able to use a debit card to play Final Fantasy XI? If so, I don't really have to worry much about them either as I won't need their credit card.

[Ultimage]

I use a debit card. As long as it has the Visa or Mastercard logo, it should work.

[Ouch!]

Ah, it's a Visa. Welp, there goes yet another obstacle.

[Ultimage]

If you do decide to start playing again, what jobs are you interested in?
I can definitely understand not wanting to level RDM again.

[Ouch!]

I'm not too sure. I could go with any number of things, but if Time Mage gets confirmed, I'll definitely go bandwagon on that. =P

Seriously, though, I'll likely be a mage class. I enjoyed RDM an awful lot, but I realized I preferred being assigned a support role instead of the rare occasions when I was asked to fill in for a BLM (even as a tarutaru with near-capped elemental magic and all the elemental staves, I couldn't really keep up). I might want to give BRD a chance. To be quite honest, I don't want to jump into another job that requires me to level multiple subjobs for versatility (leveling BLM and WHM to level 40 for RDM was okay with me, but NIN was starting to push it).

Melee classes are a possibility, but since they vastly outnumber others, I'm probably better off choosing something else (unless I want to go tarudin, which is unlikely). We'll see. It's not something I've bothered to commit to yet.

[Ultimage]

If you're thinking about a mage job but a melee job is a possibility you may want to try Blue Mage, but that one requires a lot of subs. You can definitely get by with WHM, THF, and NIN sub, but some people use WAR, DRK, and other sub jobs, so that may be out. You would need to get into CoP to get some of the best spells for BLU (especially later on in levels), but BLU owns CoP. For example, I know BLU can solo to the top floor of the Promyvions with some meds. It may be one to consider though.

You could also consider Corsair. In the last update, they got a big boost to there rolls that will get them easy invites for a while. It will also make it easier for them to get invites when competing with a BRD and/or RDM in the future, even if the knock the rolls back down a notch. Plus, they can still DD. The best thing about COR is that they really only need RNG or NIN sub, I believe and they can get the benefits of the two hander update by equipping a staff. I have a RNG friend that can basically one shot a colibri with Sidewinder now with a fire staff equipped. I don't know as much about COR as I do BLU, so you may want to look into it more if COR interest you.

I'm pretty sure you know about all the other jobs, but some of this was stuff I just found out about in the past two weeks.

[Ouch!]

Well, with the arrival of my MacBook Pro and the Xbox 360 (along with Blue Dragon) on top of the boatload of reading I have to do for my literature classes (maybe taking two my first semester wasn't the brightest thing I've ever done), I've found enough to fill the gaping holes in my day otherwise spent in complete and total boredom.

I must admit, this isn't the first time I've ever had thoughts of returning to Final Fantasy XI, but every other time I wasn't without a computer for an entire month beforehand.

[Ultimage]

Oh well, you might change your mind in a couple of months. At least you aren't bored anymore.

[Ouch!]

I'm probably putting a lot more pressure on myself than is strictly necessary. I'm already taking classes that are more difficult that necessary and plan to continue at that pace. I plan on taking more of the difficult classes than I need for my degree so I qualify for the Departmental Honors for Creative Writing. On top of all the offline games I plan to play (in the immediate and not-so-distant future: Eternal Sonata, Halo 3, Fable 2, Guitar Hero 3, Lost Odyssey, Super Smash Brothers Brawl, Super Mario Galaxy, and probably a handful I'm forgetting).

Of course, I'm going to miss it a hell of a lot anyway. ^_^

[Rostum]

Good for you! Breaking from the addiction may be hard, but well worth it in the end. :D

[Ouch!]

I've been clean longer than you, y'know.