It's a Whole New Game

There aren't enough tanks to level. There aren't enough healers to level. There is no one that wants to level a lower job. BLM and PLD aren't wanted in parties anymore. Dynamis drops are horrible. Dynamis and Limbus are too expensive in the current game economy. Campaign is broken. Trying to keep tons of capped gear around is too much of a pain. There are too many long fights/events with too little reward. No mob should take hours upon hours to fight because "we aren't doing it right".

This game is dying.

Those are just some of the myriad and quite legitimate complaints about the world of FFXI. Frustrated wouldn't even be the word to use for some of the horrible oversights in the game. The player base had matured and settled into the game -- the game however didn't.

FFXI hit puberty September 8th, 2008.

SE has finally taken a good long look at FFXI. Most importantly though, they have stepped outside of what they have wanted the game to be and have finally looked at what we have made it and how we see it.

FFXI hasn't been "dying" per se. The playerbase had simply outgrown it.

Non-merit parties have become an exercise in keeping your seeking flag up and praying for a tell. And then you would be thankful if you had 5 other people that knew what in the hell they were doing. Compound that with the fact that key jobs were missing. Where are all the tanks? Where are all the healers?

FFXI experience and party system simply cannot function without those important jobs. It didn't take too long for all of the important tank and support jobs to leave everyone else in the dust. Why in the world would you want to level that BLM that no longer gets invites to parties past the mid 50s when you can merit like crazy on your SAM? How in the world would you merit that PLD without leveling another job?

Enter Campaign.

PLDs had their merit grounds, and jobs that had been seeking for their parties could now actually get EXP. But this didn't fix the main issue. What is that level 20 DRK going to do? People resorted to going /BRD and self spamming songs -- even to the point of botting the action, as a desperate attempt to progress through this game. All the while parties still struggle to form.

Enter Level Sync.

Finally, SE injected FFXI with the lifeblood that could finally sustain their game. Jobs that now struggle to find parties such as PLD and BLM now have an alternative to party. Parties that were now missing those crucial jobs can now ask their friends to come on down and join in -- not only that, they could come as they are, no gear changes needed.

So what does this all lead to? Simple -- a more enjoyable experience. Hate pick up parties? Team up with your LS mates and friends. Hate seeking a party for hours or there is no one at your level seeking? Put in your search comment you will take any level sync party.

And everyone progresses. In doing this last night with LS mates, I gained 2 merits, another member got 1 merit, a RDM hit 70, and the two members that were the lowest levels each reached level 49. That's a lot of widespread progress in just one EXP party.

What of the other problems though?

Dynamis has been considered a necessary evil for quite some time now. Drop rates are horrible for AF and at some times it was a gigantic loss of gil to just get in compared to what you got out of it. Go up into the Northlands and CoP Dynamis zones and the drop rates just became abysmal.

This is now no more.

Not only did Dynamis costs get slashed in half, but drop rates were finally increased. The time put in is now actually worth the rewards that you can get out of it. Gone is the mindset that we should spend 4 hours once or twice a week for peanuts. Gone is going through multiple Northland runs without seeing anything of worth for months and even years.

And what of the hot topics that are Absolute Virtue and Pandemonium Warden. Were we really expected to spend an entire day on these fights?

Not anymore. HP of these mobs are reduced, fights will last no longer than two hours as well. In the case of AV, whom would randomly appear, we will now see him 100% of the time when the Jailer of Love is defeated. We can finally make efforts to take these guys out without wasting our lives away.

However, hitting puberty doesn't mean growing pains and mistakes go away.

The gear scaling doesn't quite yet seem to hit on par. Right now, things seem to be heavily slanted to benefit tanks and mages -- as the scaling of some DEF and MP stats seem to be the least affected of all stats. However, for melee jobs, you are basically wearing NQ vanilla armor no matter how badass your 75 pieces are.

While it's great you don't have to keep level capped gear to be functional, you sure can't really use what you have to be anywhere close to what you could be with the best armor at that level. An exact match isn't needed, but when B Kote gets dwarfed by the lesser O Kote by 15 attack, something isn't quite right.

AV and PW are by no means easy either. While there hasn't been another PW attempt since the now infamous 18 hour attempt by BeyondTheLimitation on Seraph, AV has been fought a couple of times already.

He is no pushover even with his "nerf".

His two hour combinations are as deadly as ever. His spells are still extremely devastating, and now you can no longer kite him. He also has a nasty new habit of charming DDs that are attempting to "zerg" him, leading to tons of screaming death.

Regarding AV and PW the message is clear, SE is still the stubborn teenager in the corner that wants you to kill those mobs their way. They are plugging their ears to any cries that they are being unreasonable in this line of thought. And now, they are making their big bad enforcers lash out harder than ever before it seems -- and then running away after two hours when you just won't listen to them anymore.

However, just with any whiny teenager lies much potential, and that's what this update has done. SE has already stated that Level Sync scaled gear will continue to be adjusted for one. But that system as is already has opened so many doors for players to progress through EXP faster than they ever have before. Not only that, merited veterans can step in these parties and be extremely effective.

Personally, I know I tanked so much better now than I previously did. Add on to the fact that my DEF was stacked (and it actually matters at those levels!), I still had shield, parry, sword, HP and enmity merits in play as well. This made me an absolute friggin' brick wall and it was a absolute thrill to play like that.

Better Dynamis drops will also finally reward those LS that have been going this event for years. These shells will finally see their long awaited rewards. I can't wait to watch my LS become more and more pimped out with every run now.

And as far as AV and PW go, I believe we finally have the opportunity to finally test out these mobs on a more regular basis. This is for certain now for AV (PW is still up in the air at the moment in my opinion...), with it always appearing now. Plus the mob in general has been reported as much easier to tank. These two facts allow us to be better prepared to actually face AV head on as we are now actually expecting him.

Of course, there are tons of more goodies that have been added as well, but I believe it hit the major game-changing hi-lights that are now before us. It's a whole new game now, and I have never been this excited about the amount of potential that is now out there.

With that done, a quick blurb for my personal update:

• I have finally hit captain!!! HUZZAH!
• I recorded my first 100 piece win in Dynamis (gogo Aegis???)
• CTB has taken down two Bahamut v2 fights (need to finish my BRD to join in!)
• We have recorded our first tier 3 clear in Einherjar!!! (two more to Odin)
• Ritter Gorget obtained!!!

-Stiker