Yes, I know. Another 'Returning Player' Thread. :/Follow

Exp in Abyssea is not adjusted based on level, so yes people really go from 30-90 in Abyssea, but they do so as leeches not as participating members. A WHM, however, can participate at pretty low levels since a Cure is a Cure regardless of what level you are.

As far as if WHM is useful in endgame, yes I'd say much moreso than before. Abyssea HP pools are often in the 2-3k range, sometimes higher. As a result, Cure IV just doesn't cut it for many fights and you really need a WHM. There are other reasons too that I won't get into, but suffice to say that WHM is very popular right now.

As far as equipment, there is a lot. Don't really know where to start. There's a Magian staff that gives Cure Potency +22% which is pretty important to have. The Orison equipment is also pretty important. There's a lot of new gear.

I've been back to FFXI for a month now and its pretty obvious that WHM and NIN are the two *best* jobs in the game. By best, I mean most popular. They are popular because they are extremely useful.

Screw gear for now. The main things you need to know right now are:

• Almost everything you need to know is on the ffxi wiki web site
• Change your home point to Port Jueno
• Initiate discussion with the NPC Joachim in Port Jeuno ASAP to get your timer started on Abyssea.
• When you see shouts that have the words "Dom Ops" in them go ahead an join up. You will get from 75 to 90 in just a couple of long parties.
• Once you have some time built up (a few traverser stones at your disposal) join a group that is shouting for "MM" or "Durinn" and research about "Atmas" on wiki

Once you are level 90 you can start working on your gear. I honestly wouldn't spend any gil on gear at level 75 (just use what you have) unless you know its useful at 90. You will be surprised how fast you blow through levels from 75 to 90. I know a lot of people that did it in one long pary (granted you will have to take breaks for Limit Breaks your first time through).

You will gradually start to understand Abyssea and jargon like Atmas, Traverser Stones, Abyssites, Conflux, Staggers, Proc, Cruor, Grellow, etc will eventually begin to have meaning. In the meantime work on getting to 90 and work on reading a lot of Wiki. Start with learning about Atmas and how to use them. If you have a friend already entrenched in Abyssea ask them to help you get a "zone boss kill" which will allow you to equip your first Atma. The stat boosts on Atmas will blow away any stats from upgrading your gear. Most WHMs in Abyssea have over 2000 MP, continuously cure bomb people for well over 1000 HP at a time, their MP never really dips below 1500 due to massive refresh, and they rarely pull any hate. It's a bit ridiculous how powerful WHM is in Abyssea!

If you find yourself contantly running low on Traverse Stones (these give you time to spend in Abyssea zones), then you can work on your weapons trials. There are many very nice weapons that you can obtain by doing various tasks that typically involve killing X number of mobs in certain weather conditions or days of the week. These can be done mostly outside of Abyssea zones. The Moogles near Maat handle the "Magian Trial Weapons" stuff which is why you will always see a small crowd of people standing around in that area.









Edited, Jul 7th 2011 8:06am by Mithsavvy

Edited, Jul 7th 2011 8:08am by Mithsavvy

What most people do right now is this:

Xp solo or in low level parties and alliances up until level 30. You can't enter Abyssea until level 30, so lots of people do the same thing. It's more fun if you find a buddy to do this with but it is possible to xp in parties. You now have level synch which means teaming up is much easier because over level 10, people can adjust the level of the party to someone in the party. Sometimes you see people ding 40+ in the dunes or on Qufim whilst they're level synched to level 18 etc.

You should check out Fields of Valor and Grounds of Valor on the wiki. I'd recommend adjusting your bookmark to the gamer escape wiki, which is where it has recently moved to. There's a lot of good information here though, on Alla.

Once you hit level 30, hopefully you have made some friends or are not afraid to start your own xp alliance. Right now, xp is a little quieter than it has been because we're inbetween level cap rises. In Sept the level cap will go up to 95 and then everyone will be xping like crazy again. However lots of people are now levelling other jobs for fun.

Because initially you won't have any cruor for Forbidden Keys you're going to have to start your own xp alliance or tag along with some friends. Essentially low level characters are allowed to leech xp in return for opening the hundreds of chests which drop during an xp party in Abyssea. To buy the keys, you need cruor which like conquest points, allied notes, imperial standing comes from killing mobs. It can also come from quests and chests. It won't take more than one decent party for you to build up a decent amount of cruor to buy lots of keys to then be able to open chests for other parties.

What this will do to you though if you're not careful is leave your melee and magic skills very low because you're not actively using them. Some people are soloing or participating in Grounds of Valor alliances rather than doing ALL of their xp in Abyssea and so avoid having to skill up constantly once levelled. However it is possible to skillup once you have your levels. You should make every effort to skillup if you rush to 90, before you really get out there and use the job properly. However on WHM, you're useful from around level 40 when you have erase and haste. Even opening chests you can throw the odd cure and haste and its probably worth it.

From level 60ish on WHM you can probably almost main heal a party in an abyssean alliance but it'll get much easier from 61. It's a way of helping to keep your skills levelling a bit.

During xp alliances in abyssea where you are opening chests, you will simply trade Forbidden Keys to chests containing cruor, xp, items and abyssean lights. You can build xp up to 600+ a mob and alliances kill them very fast. You may also find yourself in xp alliances in Heroes areas (Altepa, Grauberg and Ulguerand) in these alliances you will probably be doing Dominion ops as well. These are short quests (repeatable immediately) which reward you for killing 5 mobs of a particular type. The xp reward (up to 5k), dominion notes and cruor all add up fast and they take your xp rate up to phenomenal levels.

If you check out the sticky, there's a useful guide to levelling up healing magic :)



Edited, Jul 8th 2011 5:31am by eldelphia

Yeah I main healed an abyssea alliance at WHM 66. But you would need a refresh atma, at least one. I had MM. Getting stormbird as well made a huge difference.

You could help (as opposed to main healing) without atma but you'll probably feel a bit left behind, sitting on the ground waiting for MP. People should understand, but make getting a refresh atma a priority. On my server I see more shouts for Minnekin Monstrosity (MM) than any other atma.

I find that even now, I just got to level 80 with Stormbird, MM and 1/tic refresh on my body (16 mp/tic) I am having to use temporary item meds at peak times to keep people's HP bars full. It takes "cure spam" to a whole new level.

Edited, Jul 14th 2011 2:07pm by Olorinus

I'd like to say thanks to everyone who has taken the time to respond to this, and thanks again for not flaming me D: .. I've been doing my homework on abyssea, and just general gameplay really. I'm dropping the 120$ for the Xbox 360 version tomorrow.. I miss my game.