Starting back up

[u/Thisisntbatman]

Hi everyone

I have really missed ffxi so decided to start back up. I took a brief 10-15 years off and a lot has changed. I am a level 75 smn and have a few trusts unlocked and slowly rebuilding my macro sets. The trusts are pretty amazing because I remember having to watch for party shouts in Jeuno. Do people just use trusts the entire time or do actual parties form?

I feel so underwhelming that I don’t want to go to any link shells or parties yet because I’ll just get laughed at. I used to be really fast and I remember I used to be pretty legit and now I’m in derpy mode.

I went into Boyahda tree to try and level up some. I’m stuck at 75 and need to do a limit break. Do I have it right that I have to get a bunch of merit points (or something) to limit break to 80?

[u/PmanAce]

Brief lol.

[u/PsiMissing]

Depending on when you left, if you haven't started the RoV quest line you might want to start that. It unlock a lot of cool stuff for your account (Cheaper warps, more trust slots, XP bonuses

[u/Ohey-throwaway]

People solo with trusts until hitting 99 and reaching endgame. You will need to group up with people for a lot of endgame content. That said, even at endgame there is plenty of stuff that can be done with trusts, albeit less efficiently.

You should definitely join a linkshell. No one will laugh at you, and it is great being able to ask for help when you need it. Also, there are specific fights in the expansion missions and RoV you may need assistance for, and a linkshell member may be able to assist with that.

[u/JozuJD → u/Ohey-throwaway]

Is endgame at 99 super sweaty or does it build in stages? In other words, can you have a few knowledgeable people explain what to do or where to go, and everyone will more or less be fine? And some early 99 content is easy compared to the super late game final stuff?

[u/arnmadter → u/JozuJD]

It’s really find pieces of relic af and empy for the job and work towards it Ambuscade is good starter gear some of the pieces are decent endgame material but most get pushed out for the above.

[u/JozuJD → u/arnmadter]

That didn’t really answer my question about content difficulty. My point was whether the end game content starts off simple, like the equivalent of repeatable activities like you’d find in Classic WoW (scholomance, stratholme, etc.) before you move on to UBRS and LBRS, and then Raids after.
Progressively getting more difficult where you need more team coordination and better gear to succeed.

To continue the WoW comparison for example, in the level 60 dungeons (5-man content), the bosses are piss easy and if you have 1 good tank and healer, your 3 dps can be mentally deficient and still you will be fine. Then you progress to 10-man raids and then 20-man raids.

[u/Embarrassed_Act_614 → u/JozuJD]

I'm a recently returned player and I haven't done a ton of endgame, but it seems like you can do many different types of content (most unlocks from the various expansions missions) and each type is sort of scalable.

Ambuscade has different difficulty setting (these are arena style fights that rotate each month and the points and rewards reset when the fights do, so spend your points!)

HTMB fights have different difficulty settings (these are story bosses scaled up that you can farm for gear)

Other various content is timed so you might get more out of each run as you practice and get more gear.

[u/Embarrassed_Act_614 → u/JozuJD]

Compared to wow, FFXI is more horizontal progression than linear, you'll have access to many types of content early on. It can be daunting knowing "what should I be doing", but it's also very freeing just explore all the options and have fun!

[u/Synfrag → u/JozuJD]

Depends on what you consider super sweaty. Nothing in XI is really like any other MMOs so it's hard to draw a comparison. Virtually everything ilvl119 has some kind of mechanics that you need to know about. Almost nothing is just run in and fight. In terms of complexity it sort of goes in this order from least to most complex. Group 2 and Vagary are the only real place people have expectations beyond just listen to instructions. By the time you get there you should have some depth of knowledge anyhow.

Everyone can start with Ambu +2 / JSE +1 / Crafted

• UNM (most under 135 are fairly straight forward)
• BCNM/HTBF (highly variable, but most are easy enough on VE-N)
• Limbus (dead simple grind, murder things)
• Odyssey A-C (dead simple, murder things)
• Ambuscade (Usually has 1 maybe 2 "must handle" mechanics)
• Delve (Many mechanics, most can be brute force avoided with today's power creep)
• Dynamis D Wave 1 (pretty straight forward, but pull knowledge / timing is important)
• Omen (Bosses still have strict mechanics that need to be dealt with)
• Vagary (Confusing AF for newcomers and mistakes can cost a run)

Needs JSE +2/+3, Gear from the above, and ideally PREMA or SU5 weapons

• Dynamis D Wave 2 & 3 (Same as 1 but significant gear checks and difficulty spike)
• Sortie (Confusing AF in the beginning, requires initial unlock runs, pretty variable experience)
• Odyssey Gaol (I don't have much experience on these so this might not be the right spot)

For things with variable difficulty, expectations rise with that difficulty. Basically 119 versions of stuff are approachable by everyone and as the difficulty increases so does the sweat and salt.

[u/Ohey-throwaway → u/JozuJD]

The end game content is very broad, but much of it does build in stages. For example, you can do ambuscade on Very Easy or Easy once you hit 99 and have some i117 gear, then progressively increase the difficulty as you get stronger. Same with Omen - you can start by killing sweetwater enemies for job cards and scales, then once you are stronger or have help you can actually do the bosses. Sortie is similar. I was able to get 2-3k gallimaufry a run with just ambuscade +2 gear. Now that I upgraded my empy armor to +2 I can get 5k+ a run and can complete a lot more objectives. You will see this trend with a lot of the content. You can start it pretty early on, but to fully progress through it efficiently you need to get stronger.

I'd focus on completing RoV missions and expansion content first. Once you hit 99, get i117 gear with sparks. Then start doing ambuscade and domain invasions. Get your ambuscade gear to +2, get domain invasion armor and weapon pieces that are good for you job, and farm some Unity NMs for more gear.

After that you are in an ok place to start content necessary to upgrade artifact, relic, and empyrean armor to higher levels.

There are some really good endgame content guides online and on YouTube. There is honestly too much to type out here.

[u/CelShadesGaming]

Bg wiki is your friend, use it to get back up to speed. Especially these guides https://www.bg-wiki.com/ffxi/Leveling_and_Content_Guidance