Return to Vana'diel 2: The Sequel

Posted on 2/24/2011 by Trambapoline

Not Shown: Crotch protection and actually useful stats.


In the week since the last entry I've probably seen the best and worst that Final Fantasy XI has to offer. Part of the charm of an MMO is that each time you play can be completely different from the last. Sometimes things go your way, and sometimes it seems the game has achieved sentience and is fueled by sudden and pure hatred for everything that is yourself.

Dragoon continues on it's path rather spiffily, and thanks to events mentioned below, I've actually more or less completed the leveling stint of the job already. So now I move on to the next tasks on the To Do list, of which there are at least several billion. It'd be daunting if I wasn't looking forward to 90% of it, but more on that later, as there's other pointless crap to discuss first!

Since I somehow managed to jump from 50 to 85 in about a week and a bit, it's given me a lot of time to look over the new EXP system and a lot of the older stuff I never got to fully experience, like Level Syncing. For me, I think the leveling system from 1-50 is about as good as it's ever going to get. The levels come fast, most Fields of Valor pages are designed to be tackled by small, moving parties of 2-4 people, and you get to move to enough areas and fight different mobs that it keeps things rather fresh. As I said last entry, it does get repetitive, but the only way to really combat that would be to completely redesign a nine year old game, which I doubt is on the table. Basically, if you have the interest and/or dedication to hit the higher levels, it's more than easily achieved now!

50+ however, there's a bit of a snag. Y'see, with every level in FFXI before this magical stage the EXP only rises by about 100-250 EXP. So, for example, at Lv.25 you need 5,200 EXP to level, and at Lv.26 you need 5,300. It's a perfectly respectable increase, and it stays that way until Lv.50 (which used to be the original level cap waaaaaaaay back before any expansions were released), then the EXP needed to level leaps up by about 1,200-1,500 a level. As a result, by the time you hit Lv.60, it can take quite a while before you'll get to that next level increase.

This increase was okay back when 6-man parties used to dominate the landscape, and getting 7,000+ EXP an hour was the norm. You could get 1,500 EXP is, what... 10 minutes, at the longest? Then, of course, Treasures of Aht Urhgan introduced Colibri and Imps, and the EXP rates shot straight through the roof! These days, those areas are now empty and the idea of a 6-man party before Abyssea at 75+ is all but extinct, which is both good and bad.

The good news is that with 6-man parties no longer the norm, as I mentioned last entry, you can freely pick dozens of wonderful places to level with a small group of friends, and you no longer have to park your butt in the corner for a couple of hours, just killing the same mobs again and again and again. The bad news, however, is that unless you do have a friend or two online who want to level, you're going to find out that leveling before Abyssea at Lv.60+ is now nothing short of asinine. Or, god, even worse if you're a White Mage or something, who statistically have the offensive capabilities of a damp scone.






So Final Fantasy XI is still very much a group-centric game. It's just that it focuses on smaller groups now. If you're a Dragoon/Beastmaster/Puppet Master/Dancer, then you can probably disregard the sentiment about needing people to level, as these jobs can solo quite well. Just, y'know, except every level past 60 to be incredibly drawn out. If you're a squishy mage (outside Red), then... you have no choice. You have to team up with someone. I know this is sounding rather negative, but as long as you're not waning to get to Endgame RIGHT THE HELL NOW then it's absolutely no issue. Make some friends, level with 'em, and you'll reach the good stuff in due time.

Or make a friend and then leech an Abyssea party with them. They get a good 75,000 EXP an hour on average!

But the main problem here is actually Abyssea. With most people being part of Linkshells that don't mind them leeching in a party there these days, the low levels are... well, they're not barren, as there's quite a few duo/trios running about, but they're a far cry from the centres of activity they used to be. SE seems rather aware of this, though, and it honestly wouldn't be a hard thing to fix. All they'd need to do is restrict access to Abyssea until you're Lv.70+ and BAM fixed forever~! Fixing the EXP rate from 60-75 would also be of great help, though not especially a requirement.

Anywho, more on Abyssea later. When I hit Lv.50 it was time to do what everyone must during those levels... go Artifact Armour hunting! Something I haven't done for... hell, I don't know, but it's been a bloody long time. For the uninitiated, starting at Lv.42 and then resuming at 52-60, each job gets their own unique quest line which unlocks a weapon and then exclusive armour. Most of the armour is a reference to something from FFI-V. For example, Dragoon's design is based on Kain from Final Fantasy IV. Or Ricard from II. Either way, really.

The More You Know~!

The storyline for Dragoon was surprisingly interesting, and it gave me some newfound respect for San d'Oria, the Land of Poncy Bagpipes That Never Fucking Shut Up. I won't spoil it for any potential DRGs out there, but it's a damn sight more interesting then the Samurai AF quest, which just involved Gilgamesh prattling on about how omgawesome the armour was.

Anyway, half the quests involve running around and killing one NM or another, while the other half involve Coffer Chest hunting. Thankfully, Coffers are certainly not camped by a million players these days as they used to be Way Back When™, but they can still be a pain in the arse at times. Firstly you need to find the key, which is an uncommon drop off high-level mobs in a particular zone, and you'll need a friend for this if you don't already have a 75+ job. After that, you'll need to come back to find/unlock the Coffer Chest on the job you want the armour for.

90% of the time, the Chest will be in the furthest possible section of the dungeon and right behind a high level mob.


Ha-fuckity-HA, game...


Thankfully it's nothing a quick Warp Scroll can't handle once you open the chest. The real pain for Dragoon's, however, is definitely Ifrit's Cauldron. It can take ages for a Coffer Key the drop there, and then you'll need a brilliant sense of direction to get about if you aren't familiar with the place already, as it all looks the same. Though that just might be my wonderfully retarded sense of direction kicking in again.

Sadly, while it looks spiffy, the Dragoon's armour set (as well as most AF before the ToAU/WoTG jobs) is mostly useless, and it's just something you equip for looks. The stats are all over the place, and don't focus on anything DRG's actually need. Although, if you do Limbus, the +1 AF is... no, wait, that's mostly useless too.

Drat.

Maybe that's why Dragoon's get a good story for their AF?

Anyway, with cool looking Dragoon armour in hand, it was time to get back to levelin'~! For a Dragoon, or most jobs really, from level 48-50+ you're going to want to camp Colibri and Ladybugs in East Ronfaure [S] (that's the past, for you wacky non-players out there that are still reading this for some inadequately explored reason), as they're incredibly squishy, the EXP is awesome, and you can can trade 4 Ladybug Wings to an NPC in San d'Oria [S] for 3,000 gil a pop. Money and EXP, how can you lose?

Unfortunately, at least for Dragoon, once the Ladybugs and Colibri become Too Weak (No EXP reward upon keeling), you're pretty much stuffed. Other camps nearby won't give you anywhere near as good EXP, and Colibri in Aht Urhgan, while squishy, are still camped a fair bit by other soloers and hurt like the dickens around Lv.60. It was at this stage that I was really praying that a party would pick me up for an invite, but those don't exist anymore, and making one yourself is even harder, so it was either duo or bust.

OR WAS IT?!?!?!

Okay, I won't do that again. Sorry.

Yesterday, on a whim (or as close to a whim as you can get anything in XI to be) a friend got me into an Abyssea party as a 61 DRG (many thanks <3). Normally I wouldn't have been as excited for something like this, as I actually do rather enjoying the relaxing nature of solo levelin', but as just mentioned, I was desperate for a non-sucky EXP camp. The nature of Abyssea usually requires an Alliance of players to really get things going, so after a while of sitting around and chatting/greeting people as they joined our ranks, we set off for that wonderful dimension of EXP HAX~




Here's the gist of leveling in Abyssea.

1) Get 12-18 people.
2) Run to a zone with high level Dominion Ops.
3) Pick one, nimrod.
4) Complete it in about 60 seconds.
5) Run back and get 3,000 - 5,000 EXP.
6) Repeat.
7) Laugh maniacally as you break the leveling curve over your knee with a sickening crack.

There is a damned good reason everyone really wants to level their jobs in here, y'know.

If you're a high leveled character (70-75+) then you get the fun of either pulling the mobs, or smacking the ever-loving crap out of them when someone brings roughly four of the poor sods back to camp with them. If you're a Mage, then you get to laugh uproariously as you practically one-shot everything with a well-timed spell. If you're a low level character, you get to either stand around and leech EXP, or make yourself actually useful and start unlocking treasure chests.

The key to Abyssea is in the chests. They can contain anything from EXP, Cruor (Currency, basically), extending the time limit, and all sorts of shiny items. Usually the party's killing mobs so quick that you need 1-2 people dedicated to just running around opening chests and letting people know what's in 'em. I hesitate to call this leeching, since a good chest opener arguably does more work than 90% of the melee classes. It can get rather exhausting after a while!

But, hey, I got from 62 -> 85 in a handful of hours, so it's certainly not a bad thing!

Though one problem certainly can arise from being the designated chest opener.




There are three treasure chests in this image. Can you spot them?

Despite it being impossible to find a chest about 80% in the clusterfuck, opening them is actually pretty fun. Certainly no shortage of things to do, and you're helping out the party quite a bit in the process. The only downside is that while you're doing this, you just know there's some level 33 Ninja or something sitting behind you doing absolutely nothing to earn their EXP, just because they either made the Alliance or are a friend of someone who did. Get a job, ya lazy bum!

Technically, I've still got some leveling to do, as 90 is the current cap (which'll become 99 before the year's out) but I just don't see any reason personally for worrying about that right now. I've got to level up my Polearm skill, unlock Impulse Drive, level up Warrior and Blue Mage as subjobs, got several quests and mission storylines I'd like to see through to the end, and other stuff. An extra five levels won't really do anything for me right now, as Abyssea Endgame really isn't my cup of tea. I'll get there eventually, but I'm in no rush.

I only hit 85 yesterday, so there's quite a lot that needs to be done!


Shown: Crotch protection and actually useful stats.


First up on the list? Skilling up Polearm, of course!

Ugh...

For those lucky souls that aren't familiar with skills in FFXI, allow me to explain. While gaining traditional levels is all fine and dandy, it won't do you much good unless your skill in a certain weapon or type of magic isn't up to snuff as well. You get +1 Attack and +1 Accuracy for each level in a skill, up to the current maximum of 361 at Lv.90. Which means you've got to bop monsters on the head a whole bunch to get those levels.

Which would be fine, if you didn't get 0.3 of a skill level on average every 10-20 minutes.

It's by far the most painfully god awful aspect of the game, and something that should gain top priority in the pile of Shit That Desperately Needs Fixing Already, For Crying Out Loud! To the new developer's credit, the recent mini-update did increase the number of points you get for each little skill increase, but it doesn't mean much when it still takes several dozen hours just to cap off, where each second is just so mind-bogglingly boring. The team seem to know all this, so I'll be looking forward to the March update to see what it brings to the table.

You can pretty much avoid skilling up if you stay the fuck away from Abyssea before Lv.75+, but since that's the go-to place now for leveling, it means many people will just have to bite the bullet and start hitting crabs or beetles for countless hours until that silly arbitrary number reaches a high enough level. For me, that'll be roughly 270 or so (the cap for a Lv.75 mob). I can get the rest in Abyssea, and if anyone has a problem with this, well fuck 'em. I don't have the time and patience to stand out there for hours!

That said, I need to perform X amount of Weapon Skills to unlock the shiny Impulse Drive, so I get to multi-task and that little goal is completed!

Then the fun stuff begins. Until then~

Wheeeeeeeee~!