Xod wrote:
As the title suggests, I'm an old FFXI player (Xodious from Bismark) looking to jump to FFXIV: ARR. I've seen great reviews and heard good things about the game....I guess I'm just wondering...
-How is it compared to Final Fantasy XI? (I don't anticipate that it's a carbon-copy of the game, nor do I want it to be. Just looking to see if there's some common ground between the two.)
-Is leveling solo-friendly?
-Is making gil a constant grind?
-What's the endgame scene like?
There are two distinct modes.
In the beginning, you can do story quests and net enough gil and items to get you all the way through, and do it on your time. Crafting is a bit harder starting off, since as you level crafts you get skills that help you level other crafts faster. Use your leve allowance on crafting. It has the best exp gain per capita. Dungeons are medium difficulty, and the mechanics are relatively forgiving and simple.
And then you get to 50.
Endgame is much different. No more story quest to give you free items and money. You want to level a second battle class to 50, you can get a level per 10 off of the hunting log, maybe a level if you grind dungeons, but the fastest way is to participate in the constant FATE grind. Crafting is easier once you get Carpenter, Weaver, or Goldsmith to 50. Plus this can net you some money. Getting a gathering class up there is really nice. You can make pretty decent money selling level 1 crystals that you harvest (30-70 gil per crystal)
But once you get to 50, get used to not gaining exp. I've probably killed more enemies at 50 than I had on the way to 50. You start the relic weapon quest, fight the primal HM battles, and speed run the same two dungeons over and over to get things called tomes which buy your endgame gear. There is 50-55 dungeon gear, then 70 darklight gear from philosophy tomes, then level 90 AF2 gear from mythology tomes (that are capped at 300 per week when the cheapest gear costs 375 and you get 40 per dungeon run), then level 90 Allgan gear you get from running the final Bahamut's Coil dungeon (split into four progressive parts that lock you in once you beat them, and reset every week to limit the chances at the gear you can earn).
So if you are lookign for a laid back experience, you can level solo at a much faster pace than in FFXI. Basically, take the xp that you made chaining monsters in FFXI in a party of 6 (200-300 per mob) and that's what you make killing same level (even match) monsters in FFXIV. But you can make 5-10k doing a FATE in just a few minutes, if you dont mind waiting 5-10 minutes for each FATE to pop.
But if you want some ball busting unforgiving action combat, the end game is no joke and will punish you if you are unprepared. Or at least until they nerf the content in the next major patch (2.1)
Edited, Oct 28th 2013 4:31pm by Valkayree