[Grizzlebeard]

After almost four years of trying, and countless frustrating telephone conversations with S-E CS, I've finally been able to get my old character restored.

When I originally deleted my main I had every mission up to CoP complete, Sea access, max reputation in all cities, rank 10 Bastok, etc. My main job was a 75 ninja which I'd levelled after frustration with my paladin which I parked at 66. Now, fast forward to the present and I have ToA installed and am waiting for WotG to arrive from the US by mail which may take up to a week. I set foot in Whitegate a few days ago and realised that an awful lot has changed since I played despite many things feeling very familiar.

The purpose of this post then is to ask you guys what you would suggest I set as my main priorities from this point on? For example, should I focus on trying to gain assault parties so I can raise my rank and gain access to the items I can achieve from that path? So far I'm feeling a little overwhelmed and am thinking I may take the paladin from 66 to 75 and get up to speed on the current game. I appreciate job demand varies by server dramatically but what can I expect as a paladin at these levels? Is the burn mentality prevalent at these levels and if so should I focus on a more DD heavy build?

I won't list every single question that keeps leaping in to my head but I'd really appreciate the advice of some of the more experienced players as to what they would focus on initially as key areas of importance.

[Armando]

Right now there's so many somewhat-equivalent gear sets and endgame activities that your priorities should pretty much be whatever you want to get first. It's impossible to do Sky, Sea, Dynamis, Limbus, Nyzul, Salvage, Einherjar, Kings, at the same time. Just take a look at what the different activites entail, whether they suit your needs, etc. and pick one. Do look into Nyzul Isle though. PLD really got one of the better upgrades with the new Weapon Skills. Atonement is freaking awesome.

As for the PLD question, turtle PLD is no longer the end-all be-all PLD style. VIT whoring and to a lesser extenct excessive Defense whoring was never effective, and all the tweaks to PLD, the game, and gear additions over the year has given the job better options. So yes, you need more DD gear now. Pretty much forget about VIT, focus on getting +Accuracy and +Attack gear that won't penalize your Defense, and if you have to choose between DD stats and enmity, pick the DD stats.

If you're not overhunting, you want to eat sushi. It's odd for an old-timer, I know, and the first time you'll feel ill at ease with the damage you take per hit. Regardless, you'll find that your hate generation will go through the roof, you'll actually contribute a decent amount to the party's damage and your EXP/hour will be better. If your party is overhunting then you pretty much are forced to eat Defense food to avoid downtime unless you have some kind of absurd backline like RDM WHM COR to keep you going. All of this applies to standard EXP parties, I'm not referring specifically to meleeburn merit parties, but naturally you'll want DD gear for that too when you hit 75.

A good starting point is to get 8-10 Acc in rings (Woodsman + Venerer, Woodsman + Ecphoria, Woodsman x2, etc); Life Belt (and by that I mean stick to it, don't use Warwolf for TP); R.G. Collar; x2 Attack earrings; Haubergeon; Amemet Mantle (NQ is fine unless you're loaded; the HQ is absolutely overpriced for the extra mileage it gives); Iron Ram Shield; Fourth Gauntlets; later on you'll want Walahra Turban, dusk gear, and Joyeuse. Of course that's all just off the AH. Homam, Aurum Sabatons, Brutal Earring, Suppanomimi, and Swift Belt are all great additions too, as well as Optical Hat for weapon skills.

If you'll notice, most of that gear except for Walahra Turban barely decreases your defense at all (and in fact, Dusk legs/feet/hands has much more def and +HP than AF, and slightly more than Adaman gear.)

Welcome back by the way.

EDIT: Oh yeah! Ditch that Gluttony Sword if you have one. Its DPS is trash.

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Well, just as a reminder, this is FFXI - whatever doesn't work at lower level people will attempt to try to apply the tactic anyway. So yeah, you can probably expect to face quite a few people with the burn-mentality in the 60s. It doesn't really start until 72, but that never stops people from trying.

Go ahead and work on the melee build for your PLD. It does help quite a bit from what I've observed of PLDs using it.

I'd prioritize ToA missions and obtaining all staging points so you can get to any merit camp or assault zone. You've got CoPs down so that's one major thing out of the way.

ToA Mission 9 will unlock the Nyzul Isle for you. I'd go for this over most of the Assaults as the gear is probably better in general for PLD and NIN than what you could obtain in Assaults.

Get the Red Invitation Card from Garlidge Citadel (S) and join Sand'oria in the past in WotG content and unlock Campaign. Do a lot of work here, there's some good PLD gear to be had. The NIN stuff from Campaign isn't too hot, but the level 68 gear you can grab from Sand'oria is some of the best you can get for PLD pre-endgame.

Complete ToA 17 "Guests of the Empire" for Salvage access.

Work on WotG missions as you can, they've only released about half of them, but an endgame zone is all but confirmed, so I'd get on it just in case.

Unlock DNC and BLU. DNC is a fantastic subjob for PLD and NIN solo as well as for Campaign and Besieged. BLU for supertanking.

[TheGrandMom]

Ya, as Armando and Kitten has pointed out, the Pld job has really been changed since years past! It's good that you are willing to ask around and do some legwork because many older players just come back and fall into the same pattern. The best advice I can give is to Read Read Read! Lots of great info out there, you just have to spend the time to find it and read it.

{Good luck!} and {Welcome back!} Grizzle..........












...........they always come back in the end!! MWAH HA HA HA!

[Grizzlebeard]

Thanks for the replies and helpful information all of you. The paladin tips are especially helpful.

[Caspian]

Welcome back, Grizzle.

[LilithAngel]

Nice to see ya back. Figured you'd be back eventually...

[SenseiFF11]

You want to enjoy the game, and not pay 20$ fo nothing?.... play it like it was "supposed" to be play. No offences but its when the NA started to play, that the game started to "look" complicated. This game was supposed to be play like the old FF versions: means when you cast a sleep spell, you don't fucking care to know how much EXACTLY its gonna last.... you don't want to know the "mathematics" behind every fucking things..". and that is how the JP were playing... That is why people complain that SE do not give us many info... because they were not supposed to tell us anything! that game was supposed to be played normally like any other FF versions. But then NA players started and since they wanted to look smarter, they started to try and find the math behind every things. So you ask for priorities? Play it normally.... don't go there to proove that you are the "master of hidden stats...", you'll enjoy it more than anyone. See ya.

[Armando]

1) This thread has been dead for 5 months.
2) Your post is ridiculous.

[SenseiFF11]

Originally Posted by Armando

1) This thread has been dead for 5 months.
2) Your post is ridiculous.

You are ridiculous because if they "do not delete" old post, that means people can "still" post here. Next time take the time to burn more brain cells before replying, hopefully you'll say something intelligent.

[Grizzlebeard]

It's been 5 months already, I'd forgotten about this post till our man Flash dusted it off.

[DakAttack]

Originally Posted by Armando

2) Your posts are ridiculous.

Updated.

[Armando]

You are ridiculous because if they "do not delete" old post, that means people can "still" post here.

Say what you will, it's still frowned upon here, unless you have something relevant and constructive to add. For example: there's a thread discussing kiting strategies for BLU. Several months later, BLU gets new spells which can help it kite. It makes sense to start discussion anew in the same thread instead of starting a new thread to discuss exactly the same topic.

What you posted, besides not making much sense in the first place, is highly irrelevant to the original poster. Since the thread is 5 months old, any advice you could possibly give is already far too late.

Next time take the time to burn more brain cells before replying, hopefully you'll say something intelligent.

Oh, if only irony could kill <3

[TheGrandMom]

Seriously I don't know why you people have to get so irate about someone reviving a dead thread. A simple "hey, this thread was last posted in 5 months ago" would do. And it usually happens to new people to the forum which makes them not want to come back. That's not a very good way to keep the site active. A little "nice" goes a long way.

If you'd like old threads to be closed, make a thread to the admins in the appropriate section. Currently the mods do not do this on a regular basis because of people who have pissed and moaned in the past about mods closing threads.

And so no other new people get their ass reamed.....

Thread closed.

[Aksannyi]

I see you're about to close this, but people got upset about the necro because the post was completely unrelated to the topic at hand and also really bad advice.