SoA first hand impression

After a few hours of SoA adventure, time to write a quick review about this update.

Note that I haven't explore every single area, and I haven't done skirmish. I also haven't done all the current mission. Maybe I'll write a review about those after a couple more weeks/months!

I have to admit, I've been waiting for SoA for months...for past 3 months SoA has been my only salvation in FFXI D; FFXI has been quite boring recently, and besides waiting for SoA there really isn't much exciting going on.

And maybe the higher expectation, the higher disappointment :(

First of all, the way you head to SoA area, is slightly less exciting compare with other areas.

In SoA, you activate a quest, spend 10 min to get a KI, click the new tele in town, and boom next sec you're in New SoA area!

I still remember my 1st time to WG, it was a LONNNNG travel on a ship. Then when I finally arrived, I was like "Oh near east, finally!"

1st time to the past, went through a maw, and went to random place. Then took a while to get back!

And first time to Tavnazian safehold......it was almost 4 years, but the experience is still in my memory.  We went through a lot in promy, when we finally went to Tavnazian safehold, I feel like I finally see the sunlight after living in a cave for 10 years.

Even to Elshimo region, it was through airship with a friend, and I still remember how we went on the deck to check out scenery together.

Compare with past expansions, click on a waypoint then warp to new region right away without going through anything, is slightly less exciting. Waypoint is convenient, but 1st time to new area...at least be something more different?

(Even that annoying CS in prov before warp is more exciting....lol)

Then next few days, I've been trying to unlock new jobs and exploring new areas.

I admit having new aspect to explore in this game made FFXI more interesting. I ended up teaming up with random stranger, run to different maps we never been to, and kill reives on the way. We didn't know how reive work back then, so it was alot of discovery. It felt like my 1st time to WG area, that every map is new.

After you play this game for such a long time and went through every maps, it's nice to feel like an adventurer again.

But eventually we'd get used to it.

I found new town/maps that I've been to so far, are rather lackluster to look at.

FFXI maps has been lackluster to look at for years, but since it's an old game, I can forgive it.

An expansion released in 2013, at least it should be something new?

1. Reives

Then I went on to try 1 of the new content, reives.

I was kinda disappointed that Reives are just nothing but Campaign V2. I mean, it's nearly the same - -

You can join Lair or colonization Reives when you see them, and get Bayld(conquest point/imperial standing in SoA)+EXP. Reives is about the same as Campaign, you attack mobs, and melee jobs with self sustain ability works the best. Only difference is that you also need to work on the object(nest or root) in reives. And so far I haven't seen any crazy NM/siege weapons in Reives. Another difference is the mobs will keep repopping until the main object is dead. And that's really it, it's literally the same as Campaign.

So basically, you job change to a melee job, ideally subbing DNC, engage a mob or root/nest, kill it mindlessly, until you farm enough Bayld for new ex/rare that pwns old endgame content gear :)

/tosses my controller D;

Note that this event seems to revive PLD job, I see PLDs everywhere. Main reason is because PLD has good survive-ability, you can hold a group of mobs while other DDs zerg the main object.

Another good job for reives is BLU(D; Afania's BLU love in power again). BLU can AoE sleep the adds, on the same time deal good dmg and get pretty good bayld. Every other DD job seems to die often if having to deal with multiple mobs at once. I think BLU can probably solo lair reive, or even colonization reive if he can somehow deal with MP issue and have a good evasion set.

Mage job generally gets less bayld, so you see less mages in Reives.

Reives quests are also like campaign Ops, you have several goals to complete, most of them are running around goals and quite annoying. But if you grab a quest for colonization/lair reives before you do them, it's a lot faster to farm bayld that way.

On a weekend night, you'd see hundreds of players in those zones, killing every reives they encounter in a few min, makes it hard to find a reive to do to, especially when you don't know where a reive is up and alive. I often see ppl /shout for reive location, by the time I run there it's dead D;

I kinda expect colonization system is more dynamic.....but I guess it's not realistic to expect a PS2 MMORPG to perform like a current gen MMORPG :(

Personally I don't find Reive fun, mainly because it reminds me campaign in every way. For the past 2 years, SE been making way too many "version 2" events......MMM version 2(meeble), salvage/nyzul/limbus version 2, even VW is kinda Abyssea version 2.....I want something new. (The only new event legion, this world doesn't let me to do it, even though I want to do it :( )

Going to try Skirmish to see if it's fun D; http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxi/threads/31416

Anyways, after 2 hours of grinding, new WF legs got!

I sold my soul for my previous WF legs, by making an NNI static and everything. Now I got a replacement for it in hours solo wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww

2. BR update

I also rushed to BR for my skadi 35, which I wanted it forever but never get drop after countless BR.

Long time ago I thought I'd never get skadi body 35, 1 update I got skadi head/body 35 and marduk legs 35 in 1 BR run.

Now I wonder why I wasted so much time on BR rampart in my life! D; I SE promised to make every gear harder to obtain at first, easier to obtain as time progresses, why bother to get pimp gear when it's out since it takes less time after a while!

3. Attack/defense ratio change

I noticed I took a bit more dmg when I solo dyna, but it may just be my imagination.

I used to be able to hold multiple mobs without AoE sleeping them, now if I don't sleepga them I lose HP a lot faster, and ended up having to use more MP to sleep them. Again, it can be my imagination. Enemy dmg also has fairly wide range. Sometimes an EP hit me for 170+ a hit, sometimes only 59. Before update *I don't think* it hits 170+ a hit that often.

I'm still not sure how new formula works. According to SE's description, we're all gonna take more dmg!

4. Missions

Nothing to write about storyline so far, I haven't done much mission too. I wish it's as well written as WoTG.

If anything, SoA doesn't offer much surprise to me so far, it's just another same old FFXI expansion. I found a lot of "old returning friend" after SoA release, and entire server population is certainly higher than pre-SoA. But if the game doesn't offer anything game changing, I highly doubt the population will stay that high after 3~6 months when everything in SoA being discovered.

Abyssea was a surprising change in FFXI, it introduced new ways to play FFXI, and it tells everyone that "FFXI can work like this!".

Can SoA save FFXI? So far I'd say it still needs a bit more work.

But this isn't the end, enmity/attack ratio change still has potential. Campaign gear making previous generation gear obsolete pretty much tells everyone "We will make something even better in the future, get ready to toss/sell your elite gear now!"

So we'll have to see how much the new producer can do to change the game formula even more.

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Btw, after a lot of consideration, I realized I can't really play RUN unless new Nyzul WS for RUN can solve the problem. Atm RUN needs 3 WS to play properly, reso for high attack buff situations, ruinator for low buff, and req for none elemental dmg on certain mobs. There's no way I can get all 3 unless I quit COR. And I don't like to half ass a job, I'd rather don't play it or create another character to play it.

I guess no RUN for me :(