I just got level 85

jk!

September update, your thoughts?

I must say, in the waning days of this game, SE is pulling out all the stops with their updates. Wish we could have seen this stuff like 2 years ago!

I would have been blown away if this stuff happened two or three years ago. I've already quit, though, so it's all too much too late.

Aww, you quit? Did Ome quit too?

I'm still determined to finish the Wings of the Goddess storyline before I stop. I've completed all the other main stories in this game so might as well go for this one since I've waited this long.

I'll probably also jack BLU up to level 99 since you can get 5 levels in one Abyssea party without much effort. I think that will last me right until FFXIV PS3 release!

As for the Sept. update, I haven't yet been able to check the goodies because I was busy yesterday, but from what I can see the new AF3 is pretty freaking awesome. Now, how to get it...?

Also BLU gets Goblin Rush finally and early reports say it outperforms the other 'Big 3' spells, which is ace. Haven't had time to check the other spells, but we get things like Magic Barrier and Final Sting, which could have some situational uses (Final Sting doesn't make you weakened like Self Destruct and also it's a physical spell which means it could stack with Sneak Attack).

Ome and I quit back at the end of July.

The most recent updates remind me of when I was playing WoW and you would see things added that people had complained about, the devs listened and fixed. I'm bowled over every time I read more stuff and the game is just awesome now.

New gear is awesome, new spells are awesome. SE seems to be making the game just fun now. Not super grind that punishes. Everything is just enjoyable. Most things are approachable and accessible.

I've been really harsh on FFXI over the past several years, but it seems to be in atonement at the moment.

I'm in Abyssea now at 81 and will no doubt be 85 at the end with 10 merits to dump.

EDIT: 85... getting ludicrous XP/hr... should have 10/10 merits in no time at 560ish per mob.

Yeah these recent updates are just...wow. The game is so amazing now. I was dreading leveling up to 99 but now you can effortlessly get 5 levels in a single party. Did it with PLD! It sucks that all this stuff comes near the end of FFXI's reign when many people have quit. I wish they would have taken what they learned from this stuff and made FFXIV better because of it, but from what I read they haven't done much of that at all.

I still need my 5 crests before I can level up. :( Haven't had time for Abyssea yet.

From what I can tell the new BLU spells are awesome. Got all but 2, my ass was handed to me by those Amoeba things, and I just haven't got around to going after Whirl of Rage yet.

Hopefully the key items to upgrade AF3 to +1 aren't that bad. I doubt I'll be able to go after +2, but the +1 is still pretty sweet.

The seals for +1 seem to drop from Abyssea NMs. I'm unsure of the difficulty, but it seems just repeatedly killing some specific NMs. Last I'd checked, there was no word on the items required for the +2 upgrades.

These updates are pretty amazing, and I wouldn't have quit if my linkshell hadn't started sucking so much or if I'd managed to find a solid Abyssea linkshell, but I'd just gotten sick of doing nothing but logging in and grinding merits in Abyssea. They should have done this stuff two years ago.