Is it worth it ?(In my case)

[Child Proof]

Right, So about 3 years ago, I quit FFXI for World of Warcraft, Which I found my place in...

But, As of late, I've been getting bored, And I've been getting the erdge to play FF again, But I'd hate to waste my money.

I'm thinking of going out and buying a new account(With the newest x-pac included), And opening a new acount on a new server(Alot of personal drama on my old one, Good chance that is why I quit...)

Alot about FFXI stands out to me : The battle system rocks, I loved the Weapons skill chain and magic bursts, and the EXP chains were fun to try and cap out. The faction Missions, A fun little story line to make you feel important, And the joy of getting them done. I loved playing my Bard and White mage, And my theif and Dragoon were fun to...

But things that stand out that are bad was the fact that it could take hours before you could get a group... Even as a healer... How things because over priced even for lower levels. And how there were slight problems with gettings groups if you weren't a certin class or didn't have the best gear for your level...

I'll admit that I was somewhat of a noob to online games when I was playing, And after playing WoW for this long, I have a much better understanding of MMOs..

My main questions are this : If I'm a noob starting over again : How noob friendly is this game(Noob in the sence of starting over, on a new server, as I remeber alot of the game), Will I be able to find groups easy ? Is this a good game for someone who may only be able to play for afew hours on weekdays, and MAYBE some on the weekends ?

[Belcrono]

Ultimately it is up to you to decide if it is worth it or not, and to be honest the possibility to solo and do other things like campaign etc for exp has increased. However a lot of the problems you mention are still there and this really is not the best game if you only have an hour or so here and there.

I started over again a few months back and I was more or less in the same seat as you and well, in the end I quit again simply because it still isn't really worth logging on if you don't have several hours to play(I think this applies more to the lower lvls though because campaign, besieged etc aren't a possibility yet). Money is also something you still need to farm etc in ways that imho is immensly boring(With the exception of BCNMs, but you only have a limited of seals and drops worth money are never 100% droprate so.)

Like I said it is up to you, but from what I got in your post I'd say the risk of you "wasting" your money if you take up FFXI again is pretty high.
Whatever you decide I hope you make the right decision and remember, if you decide to try it again and in the end quit, if you have had some fun in the process... maybe it was worth it anyway That's how I felt anyway, even though I "wasted" my money.

[Pteryx]

Unfortunately, if you liked skillchains and magic bursts, you won't like the state of the FFXI community right now. It has an obsession with thinking as little as possible and trying to apply top-level meleeburn principles to lower-level parties where they don't work now (and groups tend to use PLers to compensate). Unless and until SE fixes party type balance, it won't be quite the same game you loved in that respect.

OTOH, Wings of the Goddess helps alleviate the dead-time factor when you're looking for group somewhat, though less so than it did before this month's update. At lower levels, Campaign Ops give you brief things to do for a trickle of XP; at higher levels, XP from Campaign Battle nicely supplements XP from actual parties. -- Pteryx

[Child Proof]

In other words : Alot of it is really still the same...

Hmm... Lets say I'm leveling a White Mage, In my old server, About two years ago, It took me days to get levels because it could take up to 6 hours to find a group, Even as a healer... Which is what basicly made me quit...

My question is that are ALL servers the same in terms of how long it would take to get a group ?

As far as the mindlessness of partys, You say that most group really could care less on using Skill chains and magic bursts ? Hmm...

Well... See, I've also been told that some groups will not take members if they're EXP buff ring is on cooldown... ? Any word on that ?

And also : Assuming I did start up again : What would be the best server ? Are there any ones that tend to be better in terms of people and parties ?

[Neomage]

In other words : Alot of it is really still the same...

Hmm... Lets say I'm leveling a White Mage, In my old server, About two years ago, It took me days to get levels because it could take up to 6 hours to find a group, Even as a healer... Which is what basicly made me quit...

My question is that are ALL servers the same in terms of how long it would take to get a group ?

As far as the mindlessness of partys, You say that most group really could care less on using Skill chains and magic bursts ? Hmm...

Well... See, I've also been told that some groups will not take members if they're EXP buff ring is on cooldown... ? Any word on that ?

And also : Assuming I did start up again : What would be the best server ? Are there any ones that tend to be better in terms of people and parties ?

Come play AoC with me! Not only can healers solo 1-80, but they actually put out decent damage. As for the current state of FFXI... well I quit about three months ago. Back then group where rare even for me, and I ended up soloing 70-75 on my BLM. Skillchains and MB? Nonexistent.

[Gentoo]

Hmm... Lets say I'm leveling a White Mage, In my old server, About two years ago, It took me days to get levels because it could take up to six hours to find a group, Even as a healer... Which is what basicly made me quit...

This depends on when you play, and what level you are, but it's completely possible to be in the same position, particularly if you only LFG.

Assembling your own party seems to help a lot. As I've been leveling various jobs, it's not an entirely rare thing for me to find more than enough people seeking at my level range to make more than one complete party.

My question is that are ALL servers the same in terms of how long it would take to get a group?

Pretty much, yes.

As far as the mindlessness of partys, You say that most group really could care less on using Skill chains and magic bursts? Hmm...

Most players could care less one way or the other.

As I've assembled groups, if I tell the players what their skill chain is, most players will go along with it. If I don't, players seem to just use their Weapon Skills whenever.

This problem is compounded by the fact that Black Mages have fallen into the Beastmaster trap of being pigeon holed as a solo job [after a certain point], and are expected to solo their way to 75. This makes setting up the SC+MB a bit more difficult.

At very high levels parties kill so fast, and many critters are highly resistant to magic, that Skillchains and Magic bursts become inefficient.

Well... See, I've also been told that some groups will not take members if they're EXP buff ring is on cooldown... ? Any word on that?

I've never encountered that.

And also : Assuming I did start up again : What would be the best server?

The one that has a helpful Linkshell that you can join.

Are there any ones that tend to be better in terms of people and parties?

Most of the servers are going to be pretty darn close.

The theory I've seen is that older servers tend to have a heavier Japanese population, the newer servers tend to have a heavier European population. I haven't seen any data that backs that up, but if your online time tends to be in near either of those prime-times, you might want to pick an appropriate server.

[Nandito]

Indeed. Hades being one of the newer servers, we have a heavy European population. Back when I didn't have a job, LFPs while I wasn't on a good prime time lend to slow invites, but I didn't mind since I had all the time in the world. Then again, I main DRG so that didn't make much of a difference. Now I have to watch out when to LFP and set up leveling days aside. Still, fun like crazy soloing for exp while waiting.

That's one of the things that keep me playing FFXI. The unique jobs, and the fact I can switch and try others on the spot. Also, the forced partying is fun on my case; use to play Ragnarok Online alone more times than I can remember. Here, not only are you forced to communicate, you can make a new friend easier than ever.

Then of course comes the depth of the missions and blah blah blah, I'm sure everyone's already said this-- not in this forum alone.

... and I didn't even answer any one of your questions. Lawls. I do however, understand this MMO isn't for everyone. I know some people who don't have a lot of time but still accomplish so much, just for their love of this MMO. I suppose you can lean back and reminisce in your old noob days from when you first picked up FFXI, on what you liked about it.

[Kitalrez]

I'm thinking of going out and buying a new account(With the newest x-pac included), And opening a new acount on a new server(Alot of personal drama on my old one, Good chance that is why I quit...)

How annoyed did you make people when you left? Like, just being a run of the mill jerk, or did you cross lines in the sand like raiding the guild bank, taking items from people, botting, etc? If people just didn't like you because you were an opinionated asshole, you may want to keep the account. Memories are short for people just being stupid. You could probably safely reinstate that account, transfer servers and even change your character's name to put all that behind you. However, if you crossed one of those lines and try that? Yeah, they'll hunt you down like the filthy animal you are if you try to slip out the back door like that.

I had a former linkleader who was a bit on the emo side. One day the guild disagreed with him on a decision he made about Dynamis, (mainly because he was too busy screwing around to get there on time and actually random or claim the one we had scheduled), next day he takes everything from the guild bank, bought himself a higher level relic weapon with it, breaks the shell, and he, his 2nd in command and her husband split for a new server. I think they landed on Fairy, I stopped really caring after the first hop. No idea what server they're on now. Other former Lsmates are not so forgiving. Many of them have no compunctions about posting their character levels, names, jobs, gear, face models, IRL jobs and cities, etc on other server boards so that they don't find a safe haven anywhere. He also posted his picture online and mentioned his city. There's quite a few people angry enough that I don't fancy being him if he's ever in a dark alley alone.

Decide how badly you've burned your bridges before you commit to starting over from square one. If you've poisoned the well so badly that you can't use the old character, maybe it'd be best to just move on to a different game entirely and commit to being a better person.

[Child Proof]

How annoyed did you make people when you left? Like, just being a run of the mill jerk, or did you cross lines in the sand like raiding the guild bank, taking items from people, botting, etc?

To tell the truth, It wasn't so much anything to do with anything I did... It was afew "Friends" of mine who basicly told afew lies here and there to the point my LS wouldn't talk to me, and basicly all of my other friends stoped talking to me.

these two people basicly tossed crap my way every time I logged on, So it because rather hard for me to want to play anymore...

[Murphie]

Basically.

[Belcrono]

Come play AoC with me! Not only can healers solo 1-80, but they actually put out decent damage.

Yeah, just don't forget to mention all the bugs, complete unbalance of all classes and the utter lack of content at all but the lower lvls!

[Neomage]

Yeah, just don't forget to mention all the bugs, complete unbalance of all classes and the utter lack of content at all but the lower lvls!

I will give you the bugs and class unbalance. However, most bugs are fixed within a week and the classes get tweaked every patch(Mondays and Thursdays), so it is getting a LOT better. As for the lack of content... well, I wouldn't say that is entirely accurate.

AoC's quest are a lot like FFXI's. They actually have nice, in-depth storylines. The main difference though, is that they actually give you EXP. In FFXI, you grind from 1-75. In AoC, you grind 35-40 and 50-65. Considering the game JUST came out and they are already adding new zones, I wouldn't say that is to bad. I won't try and tell anyone it is perfect, but it is by FAR the smoothest MMO launch I have ever played. Did you see WoW at lauch? Holy crap... don't even get me started on the problems THAT had.

Also: Age of Conan is the only game I have played to-date that actually gives an explanation for why you respawn every time you die. I imagine FFXI has something to do with the crystal's power in your character, but it never really explains it. WoW has no explanation at all, nor does LotRO, Runescape, or many others.

[Feba]

Onion: EVE online, prz check it.

[Neomage]

Actually, I haven't played EVE... guess I should try it, huh?

[Feba]

yes.