Your Final Fantasy XI memoriesFollow

Back in my early leveling days of pretty much solo-ing 90-95% and doing the odd party on other jobs for a change I was messing about on DRG.

It was about level 12 and I wandered or OP-d down to the dunes. And got an invite to a party of what were pretty much new-ish unexperienced players like myself.
And do you know I had been in that party for at least an hour. And died a couple of times at least, before I realised that I didn't even have my Wyvern out. At all...
And no one had either noticed or said a thing lol.

I'll back up the above post. Finishing CoP was a huge deal back in the day for me. I took me over a year to get through it for all kinds of different reasons. Getting my hands on the Raja's ring had to be one of most exciting times I've had. The best part was getting sea access along the way. Being a 75 blu for a whole year before getting sea was rough, and the grind through CoP tedious. But it was all so worth it when the day came when I saw this in my chat log:
Lordkrys learned "Disseverment" ..........fist pump moment for sure!

I remember doing promyvion runs back before the difficulty nerf. That last floor was one big cluster@#%^ as you had people scrambling over each other to zone into the top floor area. You never had to run the fastest, just faster than the guy who got aggro.

Too many memories, both good and bad, to list here without writing a complete novel. But here are a few of the strongest:

- Meeting my wife. If not for a mutual in-game friend living on the other side of the country, we may never have met. Thanks to Spaz of Odin for playing matchmaker. <3

- Eco-Warrior aka running around like headless chickens aka flustercluck.

- Joining my first linkshell (of which I'm still a member) in Qufim. I can show you the exact spot on the map where we were partied up at the time.

- Kazham keys. Our fearless LS leaders helped me get these not long after our Qufim party. Their generosity and helpfulness inspired me greatly. Since then, I've helped dozens upon dozens of other players obtain their Kazham Keys. It's one of my favorite ways of "paying it forward" in this game. Believe it or not, there are still new/returning players who appreciate help getting these.

- Rushing out to a Bibiki Bay XP PT on BRD, only to get there and realize I was still /BLM. Sheepishly admitting this to the PT, only to discover they didn't care as long as I was keeping Ballad on the mages.

- Dinging 75 for the 1st time. Bhaflau Thickets, Mamool and puks. Never has that 'level-up' fanfare sounded so sweet.

Here's to 10 more years of great memories, Vana'diel!

The salvage group I ran had to be one of my all time favorite experiences in this game. We wanted armor but we wanted omsething more, more important then a flawless run with maximum efficiency etc. We wanted to have fun and fun we did. One of my favorite memories from that group was the night we made it the Usukane 35 piece body floor. We had something like 10 15 minutes left we knew the run was over but we wanted to just @#%^ around on the floor. We quickly found the gears patrolling the floor. It quickly devolved into a hack and slash horror film. We all run around like idiots in a horror flick wondering which one of us was going to get murdered next by the psycho path(The gears.) We got really into it and it was a night I truly can say I will rarely ever laugh that much again. We had more fun in those last 15 minutes then we did the whole run. possibly the whole week.

Way back in the day, we had this piece of gear called a Haubergeon. If you could wear it and didn't have one, you were a gimp. They weren't exactly inexpensive either. I was young and upcoming DRK just trying to get by by killing some NMs. I had a buddy with me and we were doing a circuit of NMs that I would kill on occasion. They drops weren't great, but nobody ever camped them, and it was something to do. We were in Jugner Forrest trying to spawn Panzer Percival. At the time the Neckchopper was a good 100k, which, even splitting the loot, was a good deposit in my Hauby fund. Well, we're going at it, and another fellow comes along wanting to kill the beetles, not for the NM, but for beetle shells for his Bonecrafting. That's when he told us about Orctrap.

I didn't have CoP at the time, so I couldn't go into Carpenter's Landing, but my buddy did. He went in, got the claim, and managed to get the drop on his first kill. That silly little katana was selling for 1.5 million gil back then (the belt was another 100k). I, of course, immediately went out and bought CoP so I could get in on that action. I spent a bit of time learning about how the placeholder worked for Orctrap, and got very good and camping it. I once out claimed the same people three times in a row. That was the first time (but not the last) I was accused of being RMT. Good times.

Edited, May 17th 2012 12:25am by Turin

It's hard to forget ones first trip to the top of Parradamo Tor. Getting constantly lost in the miasma streams as you battle to find the start of the climb, only to take a wrong turn and fall all the way back down when you least expect it.

I also vividly remember the first EVER Besieged on Siren server and how we were undefeated up until the point I lost my original character (I have no idea if that record still remains or not). It certainly wasn't as grandiose as most sieges nowadays, but it was a lot of fun using a Giants drink and nuking things as a high level Red Mage with crazy HP. The rewards were far lower, XP-wise, but it was a good way to skill up those all important enfeebling skills. Still is.

But my greatest moment in FFXI, and call it silly if you like, is seeing the view from Blueblade Fell in Lufaise Meadows. Having seen old Tavnazia in the intro movie, it was lovely being able to see it in person, albeit from long distance. Shame they never made it into a proper area, as it looks to be teaming with wyrms ripe for the beat-down.

Edited, May 17th 2012 1:15am by Glitterhands

I remember getting White Mage to 40 just so I could spawn the AF1 NM and pull it to a zone line. Good times.

So many memories. Most of mine involve just making some very good friends. The saddest time was when we merged with Lakshmi. My friends and I all put on smn and went out to the cliffs in East Sarabut. We brought out Garudas and met the last day sunrise with Garudas flying in unison. Then we went into the fountain, set off fireworks, and waved goodbye forever with many other Garudians.

My most beloved XI memory is of my first party, it is really what hooked me on the game.

I was a little noobling taru black mage. It was like 2 am my time, and I was invited to a party by a JP player. I was the only NA player in the party. We went to the maze of shakrami and mana burned worms for mad exp.

My mind was blown by the experience of working together with people whose language I didn't share. I know it is a little extreme, but for me, the feeling I had was similar to the feeling I've had when I participated in things like public demonstrations - an exaltation that something about the world was changing for the better.

Now, of course, when players don't really party much across language lines, I see that was overly optimistic of me... just like seeing as we don't have world peace yet, it was overly optimistic for me to believe peace marches would change the course of world events.

But still, I will always cherish that experience because it really highlighted to me that cooperation between people who are from different places who speak different languages - who may even have different ways of doing things and different expectations - IS possible. And that's really cool.

I think actually that - that is one thing that is overlooked as a benefit of these kind of games - I think I learned a great deal about how to be a team player from playing XI. I learned that each person has a role in a group, and something to offer, and while each thing is different, they are all equally important to getting the job done. That's valuable life lessons right there.

I once saw someone sic that NM on a group preparing for Garrison at the outpost. Actually, I think that was my very first encounter with mass MPK in the game.

That's just wrong lol. We weren't trying to get anyone killed. We just ran for our lives. Ahh, the good ol days.

I'm just coming back to FFXI after a very long absence, so this is a great thread to read while the patches download.

Most of my greatest memories of the game come from the late 2003 / early 2004 timeframe, when the game was still new and none of us NA noobs had the slightest clue what the hell we were doing. I was a Windurst hume, and spent a lot of my first hours teaming up with other level 2 and 3 players to beat up on bees and rabbits in Sarutabaruta. I remember doing the early Windurst missions solo, and having a high-level (about level 20) THF check and warn me before I entered the Horutoto Ruins for the Heart of the Matter mission: "Hold up! You will die if you go in there!" (I turned back.)

I remember three-person dhalmel parties in Tahrongi Canyon. I remember (very fondly) Maze Maker parties in Shakhrami and the ridiculous (for the time) EXP that could be earned from them. I got my subjob by fighting dhalmels, rabbits, and bogies in the Buburimu Peninsula. I didn't party in the Dunes until I was leveling my third job.

I remember my first Burning Circle fight, which was the Rank 3 dragon in Palborough Mines. The cutscene was fantastic, the "Tough Battle" music still is memorable, and my hands were literally shaking as my LS mates and I ran up to confront the dragon and the seeker. I vividly remember my Red Mage Elvaan friend shouting "RIDE, REGULATORS!" as we ran up the hill. Pure. Effing. Adrenaline. I thought we would surely die. Instead, our MNK 2-houred and the dragon was dead inside of a minute.

I remember dinging Level 75 on my first job (fighting weapons in Sky). After that, things get a little hazy.

I don't really remember which city hosted my first Dynamis victory. I sort of remember the first time that our HNMLS dropped Kirin. There were too many Fafnir / Nidhogg fights to keep track of. More recently, there were some interesting Abyssea fights, but nothing that really stands out. Lots of wasted time camping various NMs/HNMs. There are lots of memories of the mid-level and endgame stuff, but none of them are as fresh or as poignant as the early ones, when everything was new.

Some of my fondest memories of the game are things that people now complain about. The overcamped hell that was Garlaige Citadel in 2004. Massive trains in the Crawler's Nest. RMT spawn camping Ulli in Sky. People not having their Vazhl gate crystal for Missions 5-1 or 5-2. People not understanding how to set up SATA. All of it was an enormous pain in the ass, and oh, how I miss it. :)

Starting out as a blm, getting an invite at only level 3-4 to do a quest, the mages ballad quest not knowing if i was adequate enough to help or not and the leader telling me to go the area in north sandy and getting there only for people to say the quest is over in like 5 seconds of me arriving leaving me wondering what on earth had just happened, however someone was willing to pay me 10k there and then for doing what i thought at the time was nothing. I felt so rich!

That is also where I met the husband and wife team leaders of my 1st and only social LS to this day.

Further on reaching level 50 as blm in the quicksand caves and slowly realising over the next few weeks that my blm party days were over for good. Frustrated I had to find a way I could gain exp, as blm was not desirable after 50 for exp parties, so I searched and searched the internet and found some guide that made it sound like easy work to solo on pets as blm. Going down to the gustav tunnel pet leech camp as a lvl 50 blm/whm all pumped and excited about the great exp i was about to get, discussing it in LS chat.

My Ls friends telling me I was absolutely crazy and mad to even be trying such a thing at my level, when I got there and saw the level of the mobs they were right it was a mad thing to try, But I had faith in the guide and am kind of a stubborn person so I buffed myself up positioned myself and waited for the leech to come near, then I nuked it and ran, It was still alive and was chasing me down, I died in like 3- 4hits after my initial nuke. I was left so frustrated while my LS were all laughing at me.

Anyways undetterred I tried it again and managed to kill it, so then i pull a few more and wow things are going well this time, the exp from each kill is high and the chain exp was even higher and i was gaining exp hurray! But then it suddenly went wrong a little too confident and a bad pull left me dead again.

Still discussing this in LS chat as it was happening the LS wondered what on earth i was upto, killing a few mobs then dying then killing a few mobs and dying again. Although they had changed their minds and thought it was quite cool by this time. Over the next few weeks I learnt how to gear my blm how to become efficient and how to deal with links as best i could, and how to learn patience in making the pull. I was able to successfully level to 75 in this manner.

But going to each new camp, of this type, for the 1st time was such an experience nerve wracking walking between the VT and IT+ mobs to reach camp never knowing if i would make it or not, and knowing 1 wrong move and it was lights out.

I haven't played this game for long (still under 2 years), but when I think back, there are 2 things that stand out in my head.

The first is going 1/1 on the blm Maat fight. I kept hearing horror stories on the Maat fights in general, plus reading the testimonies on wikia, so I was a wreck. At level 68, I said screw it and went to try it out (originally I was going to wait until 70 with fully capped elemental and enfeebling). I was shaking soooo bad and literally jumped up and down and squee'd like a little girl when I beat him.

The second is when I first started playing. All of my friends were in Aby partying, so I stuck up my flag hoping for an invite. I ran all the way out to the dunes and was ecstatic that I made it without having someone lead the way. As soon as I got to the OP, I did a /facepalm because I already had the OP warp and could have just warped straight there.

* Being among the first NA players and forming parties of onion-geared noobies in Konschtat Highlands.

* Getting AF1 armor on my red mage for the first time, back when it was some of the best gear you could get.

* Taking nearly 1 full year to get from level 1 to 75.

* Exploring every new zone for the first time, even the city I started in, Bastok, and how amazing it was.

* Wiping out on my first attempt fighting Alexander (ToAH final boss Alexander). While we were all laying there dead, Alexander died from my Bio II and we won.

Yep, I remember a lot of things.

FFXI was my first MMO, so it was more "magical" than it otherwise would've been. I started FFXI mid-december of '04. I remember...

Walking into Ronfaure for the first time and not understanding the /check system, and dying way more than I wanted to.

Meeting my first friend in Southern San d'Oria. I was a level 3 Red Mage and didn't understand where I was going or what I was really doing. I just finished dying and was running back from Port San d'Oria.

Teaming up with this level 8 Dragoon on my level 8 Red Mage with no subjob, and she ended up becoming a nice friend for years. My first La Theine Plateau experience was with her as well. We kept dying but kept going out anyway.

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And now for a story novel that nobody is going to read ^.^ I never really made a journal post like this before so I guess I'll do it now.

The first friend I mentioned asked me what aspect of Red Mage I felt I wanted to improve. I said the melee side, since I felt the weakest there. He said I should level WAR to at least 10 so when I get level 18 I'll have a subjob already available for my RDM. So I did that. I also asked him how I could stop missing so much, and he suggested Dexterity. Deft Rings then became my "long term" goal, since they were 20k. My LS leader asked us "what we wanted for christmas" and he ended up buying me one of them. I was pretty pleased.

Now begins my first dunes journey on my 10WAR. I didn't really want to go in the first place. I died on the first pull and got the hell out of dodge. He made me set my home point at the outpost, so I had a very long trek back. After I got back I switched to my 10RDM and then I went to Ghelsba Outpost and hunted some orcs...

I was fascinated by Ghelsba Outpost and wanted to get as deep into it as I could. I made that my early-game goal. Felt cool "raiding" an orcish stronghold. I met one of my greatest friends in-game in the Vatgit area. I was a level 12RDM and she was a 10DRK. She teamed up with me, asked me what job I wanted to be. I said "PLD" and she said "Well, PLD/RDM doesn't work" and explained to me why. I told her about my 10WAR, so she told me I should get that to at least 18 before I level anything else. She kept pestering me to upgrade my gear, helped me buy a few things, insulted me playfully for being a noob, etc. She wouldn't walk me to the dunes, but I started my trek back anyway because she wouldn't stop harassing me about it. Before I got to the dunes I died near the crag of holla and a 50PLD in FULL Iron Musketeer gear raises me. I was such a paladin fanatic and that set of armor looked so wonderful that I couldn't wait to be a Paladin. I actually got a piece of paper out and wrote the name of the gear down so I could research it later.

And then begins my first SUCCESSFUL dunes party. We had two PL's and I was the tank, and I got from like 10-14 in a few hours. I was so amazed, mainly because of how long it took my Red Mage to get from 10-12.

Then I realized my 14WAR was in danger from Easy Preys, and Decent Challenge became out of the question.

After another day and a half of grinding (Yes, it took me that long), I got a group of people to go skull hunting. After we all got there and realized we couldn't really handle it, four very very nice people who were in the area for whatever reason helped the group of us all get our skulls. One of them asked if I was just starting and gave me 10K, which was a nice chunk for a new player back then. It bumped me up enough to get my second Deft Ring. I leveled RDM from 12 as a RDM/WAR, and killed an Even Match lizard (just barely). I was so ecstatic that my newly reformed Red Mage could handle feats my Warrior couldn't fathom.

I then had to get my Kazham keys, and thus began my long and epic journey to the three great kingdoms of Windurst and Bastok. I ended up getting the Ghelsba one solo without even realizing it because I spent so long in Ghelsba outpost. I figured since I soloed Ghelsba I could solo the other two. I spent much time looking at the regional map and trying to figure out by myself how to get to Windurst and Bastok. I had a Chocobo and my homepoint was in Jeuno, so it wasn't so bad. I was really amazed at the scenery and music, realizing I had only really ventured into a third of the world up until this point. Absorbing just about half of vana'diel in a few hours was definitely one of the greatest times in FFXI for me.

After I got where I needed to go for the keys, and spent a long time lost, I got help from someone in the area. Couldn't have been more thankful. Then I got to Kazham and spent a long time getting level 30.

I immediately got a buffer and dropped the party, and did the Paladin quest with the first friend I made. One of the most epic moments that almost made me tear up happened during this quest. We couldn't figure out where to go and inevitably died. He came back on his 20WHM so he could at least Sneak himself (A Lizard is what killed us the first time <_<), and we took another route. When we found the well, the slime agroed me and he took agro and ran it away so I could get the quest and he could die somewhere. I just couldn't believe someone would do that for me. I was so happy I made such a good friend. Of course, he could've got the key item while it was hitting him but neither him nor I knew that...

I immediately switched to paladin and he switched to DRK. We planned on leveling them together exclusively starting from level 10. So I got my PLD/WAR to level 10 and only leveled it when he came on (Which was only a few times a week by that point). I decided I'd gear up my Red Mage in the downtime.

And THEN begins the most noobish, yet epic thing, I EVER did. I spent ten. solid. days. Grinding in Ghelsba. What was I grinding in Ghelsba? Their gil drops. 30RDM/05THF. Yep. Gilfinder yo. I got about 10k a day. Sometimes I got lucky and got some scale gear to sell for 300-500g. Most of it was Gilfinder though. I got caught up on scrolls, and had a full set of Centurion gear including the sword (The sword cost me 20k, everything else was 10k per piece of centurion gear.) One day I started selling Femurs from Dhalmel for 1k/each but I found orcs more satisfying and less of a trip.

Then I started soloing T Mandragora's in Yuhtunga Jungle while I waited for a group. Blaze Spikes would murder them. I wasn't chaining, but it wasn't so bad. A few parties yelled at me, but oh well. This one group I got in Yhoater at 31 was short a tank and I told them I would RDM/WAR tank it for them. They laughed at me, belittled me, etc. We tried it and it worked great, hit chain 5 easily. When I got to 33 I stopped completely because I wanted Phalanx. Phalanx was 300k. I didn't care though.

I crafted Copper Ingots (Or maybe it was bronze? The ones you can make at level 0) for days. It was 10k/stack and didn't cost anything to make if you farmed the crystals. I leveled a bunch of low level jobs and exclusively fought orcs as soon as I was able to so I could get fire crystals. I tried switching up what I did. I ram farmed as 33RDM/01RNG (RNG quest was easy lol), tried PLing for cash, etc. Most of it came from ingots though. After I saved up 150k a LS member just gave me the remaining bit and said to "pay me back when you get it, but don't stress too hard". I was so excited for Phalanx. I couldn't believe I even had Easy Preys hitting me for 0's.

At 34 I realized I couldn't /WAR anymore simply because nobody would invite me. I leveled BLM to 30 and SMN to 25. I had a hell of a time with avatars, and I hit a wall at level 20. Took me 7 tries to actually beat Shiva and a lot of wasted gil on meds. The main reason I had an issue with beating Shiva was because no matter where I stood, the second I hit Searing Light she would start moving after me and SL would be "Out of range" wasting my whole astral flow. So what I did was STAND ON carby then run after the SL. This caused me a few bad deaths. I went 20-25 with only Shiva, and at 25 I got Garuda. My Garuda fight was 1/3, and I had an EPIC win with Garuda. I managed to kill her with Banish. Did 14 damage. Doesn't get any better than that!

I went RDM/BLM until 50, then switched to /SMN and LOVED IT. Auto-Refresh was like a breath of fresh air. The stats were also all even (INT/MND), unlike /BLM giving more DEX and less MND. I remember the last time my friend logged on. I was in the GC basement at level 50 and he said "We really need to level our PLD and DRK sometime again. It's been a while." and I said "Yeah, we need to do that. I'm usually here whenever you want to." he logged and I never really heard from him again.

And the rest is history...
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A few things that happened after I'll never forget.

The Red Mage...<.<

I was an avid melee RDM back in the day. Which, of course, generated a lot of hate. I pretty much melee'd all the way until 75. I started backlining more after I got Aero III (Level 69), but I would not accept an invite if I could not melee. I do not, and never will regret, meleeing as a RDM back in the day. I do not feel my experience parties ever suffered one damn bit, nor would they have been better if I would have back lined. I got invites back from the same people regularly. I think I actually became a BETTER Red Mage simply because everyone was far more critical of me. If Refresh dropped for one minute in a three hour party, it was because I was MELEEING, not because I was doing the same monotonous event every two and a half minutes. I even debuffed, dispelled at split second intervals, and 300% spirit within'ed bitches. One time a whiny party leader kicked me for another RDM because I was meleeing and one of the party members said to me about thirty minutes later "This guy is doing a lot worse than you. I miss you ;/"

The one thing I do regret is that I did in fact use mage food and not melee food like I should have. 5INT/MND/DEX (I used Brain Stew) is hardly going to effect my performance like sushi would have helped. Although, the fact I was only getting 70TP per fight meant I was also contributing less TP as well, so that may have been why I didn't really feel like I was being counter productive to my group. In any case, I really did enjoy my RDM being my first 75. If I could go back in time and do it all again, I would do the same thing. Well, maybe I'd do Ninja instead (Ninja was my second 75), but meh. I think deep down I became a Red Mage at heart. The harassment, the compliments, the friends I made, the journey, the whole experience is something I will always treasure. No video game in history will ever be able to do the same thing, especially since I have a feel for what MMO's are like.

Chains of Promathia

Lufaise Meadows was awesome for me. I had no idea what to expect when I got there. I was spoiler-free from the zone. I was so surprised. I spent about two solid days in that zone doing nothing but exploring with no map. I did all the quests I was capable of. That sense of exploration is something I dearly miss from the game.

Of course the whole thing was a wonderful experience with my static group, but there was two instances that really made me lol. The first one was Snoll Tzar. We went WAR/SAM, DRG/SAM, BRD/WHM, RDM/SMN, RNG/SAM, RNG/SAM -- we just UNLOADED and he literally dropped before our BRD could even get the first salt off. I still had my Icarus wing too. (I was one of the RNGs.) I had a Gun for high TP, and all I did was Slug/meditate/EES/slug and with the damage from everyone else he just dropped. Ariel Armor saved my butt though. The other RNG missed a slugshot and he still dropped. It was just too good. We were SO worried about that fight.

The second instance was on Promyvion - Vazhl. I thought it would be a good idea to go 50NIN/25RDM, since NIN/RDM is so god-like. Unfortunately empty have a 50% MDB, which sucked hard for me. I couldn't tank anything. We got to the Holla boss and it was just me, a RNG, and a WHM. After he got to 30% the RNG went down and the holla boss kept putting us to sleep and regenerating health. I tried to stay far away from the WHM and drop nuke bombs on him, but he'd always put us both to sleep etc. After about 7 minutes of this I got fed up and Mijin Gakured when he had 8% left. He dropped and we got the win with just our WHM alive.

Vrtra

I had this huge fascination with Vrtra. When my RDM hit 75 the first thing I did was solo a VT skeleton in the flux near where BLM's used to Manaburn at, and I'd go Gravity Vrtra before I warped and see if it would stick or not. Vrtra actually did kill me once because of an instant sleepga, but most of the time I didn't die.

Another thing I used to do was a few months later after I got my NIN to 75, I'd literally run down there just to Mijin Gakure every night before I went to bed to see how high I could get the number. I used to play on a PS2 back then so I couldn't take pictures of logs, but my record was 912. I did that for about 2~ weeks.

Treasures of Aht Urgan

I walked 5 miles to the mall and 5 miles back just to play on release day.

I got PUP from 1-60 in six days after expansion release, generally leveling with the same 3 BLU's every day.

I got called a gilseller by several people because I was in a party on 33PUP in Garliage with a 33 Priest named Zafoo whom I never met, and I was getting PL'd by a 60RDM named Zaphire who was waiting to help his friend with Bomb Coal.

I really liked Blue Mage, especially the last few months before WoTG. I made it my main for a while but eventually began to dislike it due to the lack of survivability unless it played like a BLM.

Abyssea Era

Spending roughly twenty days doing Conflux 1 in Walk of Echoes to duo crabs with a DRK for 30 Coins of Glory so I could upgrade my sword. I was one of the first people to get Chant du Cygne. I felt pretty good about that. I felt even better after I got Razed Ruin.

Getting AF3 for my NIN and feeling pretty awesome with 9 shadows.

Feeling even more awesome after I realized how unstoppable NIN/MNK made me

Realizing I loved NIN and going on an epic crusade for my Kannagi back before everybody had Empys.

Starting to love FFXI again to the point where I began a "dual-box" character and played one character on PC and one on 360.

TLDR; Holy crap this is the longest post I have ever made. What have I done. Sorry you have to scroll through my garbage.

Edited, May 24th 2012 4:58am by Zafire

I read it, at least. :P

Sadly, dredging up memories for me is a bit more complicated. I played a lot, sure, but also took a particular interest in being self-sustaining whenever possible. Sometimes this could mean leveling something more slowly as long as it meant going at my own pace doing whatever I was in the mood. Heck, my first 75 actually came on RDM soloing crabs in Kuftal because I wanted to skill up shield, and this was when skilling it was far more difficult to do.

Otherwise, I almost need some point of context to run with. In regards to more recent expansions and whatnot, I had a tendency of being the person collecting info for my LS, telling what drops what, what a given NM does or where/how it's spawned, and so on. If new BLU spells came out with a patch, they were usually my first priority within the game itself. I could probably even spout off the precise order I got the spells and whether or not I was solo. My memory can be weird like that.

Beating the first airship with everyone at just a sliver of life after having spent everything we had and stacks upon stacks of meds in what I think was the most epic "nip and tuck" battle this game had.

To go on to beat Tenzen and step foot in Sea for the first time back when almost no one on Seraph had ever been there was a real accomplishment and a great memory.

This thread made me resub when I was tipsy at 3 am. I hope you're all happy now.

I started playing a bit after JP release (PS2 that is). I remember being at FamilyMart with the wife and seeing this huge (like xbox) poster for FFXI and was like "Wait a minute, don't remember that coming out...hmmm". Went over to the local Tsutaya and bought the game...though, it wasn't until later when I got home that I realized I needed the PS2 BB unit and network adapter. After basically spending $200 on game/BB unit plus having to get my ISP to set up the connection on their end (yes...you had to do that back then, they had to open a bunch of ports/etc...instructions were in the BB unit and while you set up the game on the PS2.), I was finally playing.

It was a few months later the NA PC version came out, so I bought that to play on my PC...and never looked back.

Few things I remember from those first nights playing:
-punching bees/rabbits/crawlers outside of Windy cause I couldn't figure out how to "equip" the dagger you're issued on RDM
-printing out crap-tons of maps to layout the course to Jeuno/Muhura...Chocobo and SJ quests
-XP parties in T.Canyon/the Maze/Bubu Pen., and like some others here...didn't set foot in the Dunes until my 4th job. Passed through doing missions/quests though.
-first run to Jeuno...man that was epic, solo spamming sneak/invis/deorderize (cause no one knew that was useless then)...ironically enough, when i tried to help 2 of my friends get there...I got them killed twice on the way, both times within sight of the Port Jeuno gate!
-first Qufim party....I was a bit scared running down the tunnel, look so real with the water drops falling from the ceiling (more so when you realized that the ocean was above you)
-GC/CN/Yoat trainfests and mass death...that sigh of relief when you zoned with less than 10hp left
-later on, victory over the Promies and that sense of wonder exploring new lands...and being some of the first to Safehold...of course finishing CoP itself brings much joy
-Sky access and the 18-man Divine Might run from hell...last man standing comes to mind.
-18 ppl for G2, all between the levels of 50-65.

-I think the last big "Hell Yeah" was finishing ToA...that damn Alexander fight kicked our asses had to been 20-30times. We were so tired of attempting that fight. If it wasn't the BLU wasting all of our time (damn near one-shotting us mages with Eyes on Me), it was Alex and his AoE death bombs.

We never really did any Ground Kings and such, wasn't our scene. Though, many nights in Sky/Sea/Dynamis/Limbus/Nyzul/Einherjar bring some fond memories. And really...none of the joy was from getting loot..it was all the adventure and journey getting there that made it extremely fun.





Well...except my RDM Pimp Hat v2...that was a night of extreme shouting in my apartment.

This thread should be stickied. :3

If I had to pick one time in FFXI where I had the most fun was when I was leading our weekly garrison runs and we just didn't know when to quit. We had started at 8 PM and ended up finishing at 8 AM the next day. Everyone was either drunk or acting drunk from lack of sleep. I never remembered laughing so hard in all of my life for so long. XD We had about 30 people in total doing the event, rotating them in an out as they gathered key items in the maze. It was the 1st 10 million the LS made in one night. We were so psyched and happy. :3

I also miss CoP with level caps on. We had a lot of fun there with our LS and static. I makes me want to make a LS and use mules to synch to and do it old style again just for fun!

That's what made the game fun for me too.
I miss the FFXI I started in 2003, not the one I quit in 2012.

Sorry to necropost this by a month,
I haven't played FFXI since probably 2011. During the transition to FFXIV my account information got a bit scrambled and I haven't been able to play since.

Memories. God so many.
1: The absolute best memory was the day in 2006 that I beat Chains of Promathia.
http://i105.photobucket.com/albums/m205/Dathias/pol2006-10-2920-18-38-65.jpg
2: Beating Snoll Czar fight being the last black Mage standing with 2 hp.
3: My first time in Dynamis Xarcabard and getting.... Educated by the Kindred Avatars:
http://i105.photobucket.com/albums/m205/Dathias/pol2006-08-3121-06-29-25.jpg
4: Probably my most hilarious moment on FFXI Vorjizur the Valiant during Besieged had gone around thwacking each person dead got to me and missed.. I swear to this day SOMETHING made that monster turn around after taking 4 steps to Pwn me harder than i've ever been hit in that game:
http://i105.photobucket.com/albums/m205/Dathias/pol2009-05-2118-52-07-71.jpg
5: Beating Maat as a white mage in 2006 (Its a LOT harder than it looks when you don't have the best equips.)

I've been to sea but I can't find any of my old screenshots ; ;

6. Getting Disservicement in Sea for BLU.
7. Getting Diablos..... on my 27th try. (I really do hate that boss).

Might as well keep it going...

There are way too many memories that I have from this game. It was the best MMO I had ever played.

First, when it came out for PC, the feeling of wonder that was there. A whole world to explore. I think the established high level JP at the time really helped to flesh out the world.

Partying with JP at 3am; them being all amazed that an NA Ninja could be well funded and well geared. Learning Japanese phrases through the game.

Sneaking around completing Genkai, getting high level help, or just random acts of kindness from high levels.

Saving up and farming every night for an Emperor's Pin, Jujitsu Gi, and Leaping Boots, then actually plopping down 250k for a pair.

Camping Leaping Lizzy, Valkurm Emperor and killing them!... with no drop!

Successfully completing a skillchain with Ancient Magic, magic burst.

Soloing Ninja AF, with my Ninja. Soloing with my DRG.

The first trek to Jeuno, through Jugner and seeing/getting scared of the Tigers, lol.

A lot of the job quests were really something to look forward to.

Seeing Ninja cast Utsusemi for the first time. The floating symbols looked so cool. Plus the fact that Ninjas looked like Shadow, and I was sold.

I've played off and on through the years. I played last year and got into the GoV/FoV thing and it was really fun, but it wasn't the same. If only SE could merge the two playstyles...that would be impossible however...

Lastly, I never made it to endgame, but that never mattered, I had a ton of fun along the way. :)