Advice for someone without most expansions?Follow

I'm coming back into this game from when it was first released on PS2. I don't have Wings of the Goddess or any of the Abyssea or recent things. I actually don't think I ever got Chains either. I just have the base game, Rise, and Treasures. I've been told that pretty much everything is done in the areas created by Wings and Abyssea these days. All suggestions for leveling is to find an Abyssea party. Everybody is Level 99 and doing stuff in Abyssea. I've been told the game is more solo friendly these days, but I can't seem to find anywhere good that isn't Abyssea. I'm trying to play with my friend as a party of two, but we keep running into the issue of where to go. It seems like once we hit 25-30, our options dropped significantly. We could no longer party together and still get exp, but there are no big parties for us to join either, as everyone seems to be in the newer areas. Leaving me with the option of doing it solo, grinding weak mobs for hours and hours to gain one level, which isn't much fun. (also doesn't help that it's impossible to find anything good in the auction house for our levels nowadays)

Anybody have any suggestions as to where to go, what to fight, and what I can do with my friend to make the game more enjoyable for us, without having to spend more money for all the expansions?

Edited, Sep 12th 2012 8:22am by Vlorsutes Lock Thread:

Welp, you can do grounds of valour, yeah for sure, but honestly, its only 20 bucks max for all the expansions, so you might want to consider getting them. Also people don't actually "do" abyssea at 30 etc, it is mostly characters 70 and above (more like 80 and above for melee to be useful)

So until that point you should be fine, and even after is fine, but you will be missing out on a lot if you don't get the expansions.

I'm not entirely sure what GoV is. Nobody has really talked to either of us since we started playing again, and back in 2004-2006 I didn't really know much MMO lingo. But I'll definitely check out Gunsen and Crawler's Nest, I don't think I've been there. I'll also look into what "Grounds of Valor" is.

I'm aware PS2 is no longer supported and the reasons for it, Raelix. I'm not complaining about playing on PS2 or not having the DLC, just wondering what I can do without it. I have multiple reasons for continuing to play on PS2 (I don't have a decent PC at all, I don't have any more money to waste this month, I'm used to the game's controls on PS2 and enjoy playing games on consoles more than PCs, and I spent $150 to play this on PS2 back in the day so on principle I will continue to do so). I wasn't asking if it was worth getting Abyssea or switching to PC. I was just asking about areas worth using without Abyssea/Wings and if it's possible to do a two-person party these days.

If you are only going to play casually, and only level up without planning on participating in modern endgame, then I suppose it's worth it to play without the more recent expansions.

Frankly, though, I'd grab the Abyssea collection codes if they ever drop to $10 on Steam or whatever. You can apply those codes to your PS2 account, and just try to find a used WotG disk to install to PS2. That will give you access to all the content except the as-yet unreleased expansion, so you can participate in broader endgame.

I don't think this is fair. There is plenty to do in the game outside of abyssea, especially for characters that aren't level 75+. A lot of people play MMOs because it's reasonable to spend $13/month on frivolities, but asking someone to nearly double that might seem out of the question at the immediate moment. It's not like at level 30 you actually get to play in Abyssea parties. I'd actually recommend getting Wings first before Abyssea as you're leveling because then you can do things like Campaign, which is pretty fun as well.

The problem is that without WotG, you can't access at least two Abyssea zones.

POL tells me you need WotG to access any Abyssea content: http://www.playonline.com/ff11us/addon/ex8/index.html

Because that's not what I was asking. I was asking about what to do without it, and I've gotten a proper response for that. If you aren't going to answer the question I asked and just be a douche then why bother to reply at all? I've stated my reason for continuing to play on PS2 and if your response to me is to drop a few hundred bucks on a computer to run the game then I'm glad you live a much more wealthy life than I do. When I'm behind a few months on my rent and just looking for a game I used to love to play at night when I've got nothing else to do, "just buy a PC to play teh stem ver lol" isn't a viable option.

But, thank you to everyone who actually answered the question I did ask. I'll look into all this stuff tonight.

Wow. Interesting. I had no idea that FFXI had such an elitist base. Bro just asked for advice on how to play the game without Abyssea, which is entirely possible at low levels, and everyone is acting like Abyssea is the end-all be-all of content. None of you know his situation; why are you chasing a returning player away from the game? Maybe in a few months here when he gets to level 70+ he'll be able to afford to purchase more xpacs, or maybe he won't bother since he's playing it on his old PS2. Maybe he just wanted to play twice. $13 is the cost of seeing a movie, I wouldn't begrudge anyone that minimal entertainment budget over the course of a month. Damn you guys are snobs.

We did answer his question. And then we explained why the answer was not complete in itself - because for less than the cost of one month's service fee, you can purchase the codes for all the DLC content, and then you just need used disks to get the last non-DLC expansion - a quick eBay search shows it goes for twenty bucks used.

Can you play FFXI without all the expansions? Absolutely. Will you be able to enjoy it? Perhaps, if all you like to do is exp and storylines. For the most casual of casual players, that is totally fine.

But if you intend on getting your $13 worth a month, it might be worth it to add in the extra $30 for the Abyssea codes and the used WotG disks at some point in the future.

This whole topic is reminding me of the guy that had to choose between getting a pizza or paying FFXI's monthly fee. It astounds me that people can balance their budgets SO CLOSE that there is literally a 15 buck gap between their incomes and expenses. Were I in that situation, I would be trying to cut crap out of that like a madman, cancelling or downgrading things I didn't need and making other lifestyle changes, and only sleep well until I had like a 100/month surplus, at the very least. But that's just me.

Guys, I was trying to prove a point to the person who said the response should have been to buy a good PC and play it on there. I wasn't trying to spark a conversation about my living conditions (I am indeed behind on the rent, but I could afford $10 to have a video game to play that I already bought years ago, for when I'm not working. I'm not in a life or death situation and I'm getting caught up well enough, good terms with landlord, etc.). I'm honestly glad some people are able to just drop a few hundred dollars on a pc to play expansion packs rather than look for areas where you don't need them, but I was never asking if I should get the expansions or not, I was asking what is available without them because I'm not getting them. I've spent enough money on FFXI ($150 to play PS2 version when it first came out, $30 more on Treasures expansions) that when I ask what I can do, the response I get in return should NOT be "nothing without new dlc and expansions, just go buy it". I don't care if I'd only have to buy Wings and a Steam code for it all on my PS2. That's besides the point and not the issue. There should be enough content that I could play comfortably and get a lot out of the game without that stuff, but I heard otherwise, so I just wanted you guys to confirm and maybe give me some advice on what I can do with my friend.

I did not expect such a douchy response about all of this. I thank the people that legitimately gave me answers and tried to help, but based on the other responses I've gotten, I don't think this community is the one for me right now anyway. Have a good game.

Edit: No, I don't have a computer that can run video games, even FFXI. You know people can accesses the internet in all sorts of ways, right? Phones, video game consoles, computer at friends house, computer from eons ago, etc? But I agree on locking the thread. Thanks for ACTUAL answers to my questions from those who cared.

Edited, Sep 11th 2012 7:04pm by supportingcharacter

In response to this, AFAIK, you don't actually need any discs whatsoever. Not even for the old expansions. You can download everything digitally.

PS2 is dead. People need to move on.

Let me rewrite what you just said:

"Square-Enix will continue to support the PS2 playerbase forever! Except they won't give them any new content to play."

Not providing additional content is not supporting PS2 players. Unless you think "not supporting PS2" means "making it impossible to play the game on PS2", or something.

Which I'm starting to think maybe you do?

Since =10.


Fairly sure everyone in this thread still plays.

You people need to lighten up. By "you people" I mean sub 5k posts.