FFXI Classic thread

I played FFXI for about a year in 2003-2004 and I never even hit 75. My highest levels were 47 RDM, 32 DRG, and 28 BLM. Not bad considering I could only play for an hour a day (thanks mom) despite this, these may be the single-handedly best memories I have of playing any video game ever (born in 1990) a lot of the time I wouldn’t even be progressing my character and I’d just be screwing around with my linkshell or going fishing (pretending like it was my own version of .hacks the world.) one of my best memories was being attacked and killed by a kraken and skeleton crew while fishing on the ship from selbina with one of my linkshell friends. Despite us being massively lower level she thought we should try to fight them anyway

classic

scholar

Thoughts on that supposed new 75 classic retail server rumor?
Is there even a shred of evidence to support it or is it just anons blowing hot air?

Sorry anon but I don’t really know that much detail. Only pointed out steam cause you mentioned that you played FFXIV through steam. I would assume it works the same. If you’re using the SE account management system FFXI subs are managed through the same system so assuming you use that you shouldn’t have issues

Yes Wotg is classic tranny

They need to make an HD remastered version of the game with AI Players like that one indie title. Like certain players you can chat with who have their own personalities. And then you can play the whole game with them or other randos

considering most modern MMO players don’t even speak in game this sadly sounds preferable

program a mithra being played by a 36 year old mother of 3 who likes to reminisce about the early-mid 00s

Sign me the fuck up

They need to make an HD remastered version of the game with AI Players like that one indie title. Like certain players you can chat with who have their own personalities. And then you can play the whole game with them or other randos

considering most modern MMO players don’t even speak in game this sadly sounds preferable

program a mithra being played by a 36 year old mother of 3 who likes to reminisce about the early-mid 00s

Sign me the fuck up

I haven’t played FF11 in over 20 years but still listen to the OST regularly. I think I was like 12 or 13 when I played and the game had such a powerful effect on my developing brain

I doubt it'll ever happen but it will ruin my life (again) if it does.

I like retail

No

Was the story for FF11 any good? I got lost in the grind and dropped it before I even fought the first baddie.

But I do :(

i played through chains of promathia and it was pretty good.

i mean obviously the RDM

bare minimum effort

oh no, they won't... magic burst for 200 damage?
also did people meripa on colibri? i only remember them being like level 60's. i only remember mamool ja and maybe the mire but that was so shitty.
i did so much endgame stuff and only played 1 Job, so i didn't even need to specifically meripa that much.

for as cool as RDM is, they were kind of lame in 11. Granted I only ever hit like 52 RDM but my party experience was either to refresh the mages or dispel the enemies….and that was all that was expected of me

City missions

Meh, kinda bad

RoZ

Cool but short

CoP

Maximum kino

ToA

Pretty good

WotG

Hated when it came out but the story is actually pretty cool (Windurst specifically is extremely good)

SoA

Kinda bad, was rushed

RoV

Pretty cool if you actually do it in order but gameplay-wise thats really bad to do because you get so much for doing it earlier.

TVR

I dunno I haven't done it. I'm told its good though.

whats the best way to get into this in 2025?

for the story (and gameplay if you like the wway they've gone with it)

Buy the game, play on Asura or Bahamut

for the experience that people say was the glory days

Play on a 75cap private server

private server

Classic

SCH

Hmmm

The only way I could be convinced to play retail XI is if they did a fresh prog server

well the buffing and debuffing was pretty core, I love the pure support thing and can't get into pure trinity designs like WoW.
melee can barely hit an IT mob and mages can't sustain, without Blind/Slow/Paralyze/Haste/Refresh etc.

besides later at level cap there was a lot more to it, they were the only ones that could solo a lot of things, /DRK chainspell stun was a core strat for locking down some bosses, and a RDM tank could hold down a HNM solo, giving your LS time to gather up and actually fight it.

their moment to moment stuff in most situations (EXPing, or big alliance content like Dynamis) is pretty lowkey and i can see it being boring, just buffing and debuffing.
but they also had plenty of glory moments and niche unique functionality.

I don’t think haste is that important to have if the BRD uses march.
SCH can give any stat +7 boost or all stats +3, enspellga and way way more efficient healing than rdm and whm. Assuming you don’t fight colibris the magic burst damage they do is comparable to blm so its not “nothing” either.

RDM was a debuff/healer in parties and group play but it was genuinely a proper jack of all trades in smaller groups. It was capable of melee and even tanking just with poor aggro management.

I remember trying to set up a party for the crawlers nest and we couldn’t find a WHM so they told me to be the main healer as a RDM and then they got mad at me for not being able to keep up (my sub was BLM)

I’m surprised they haven’t made some offline version of this considering how often they reference it in pretty much every FF crossover game. Even Stranger had a fucking XI level.

Nah you want to stack haste. There's different types of Haste and you can actually have too much Haste if it's of a certain type (leading to reduced TP gain). XI is a very weird games with lots of specific mechanics it doesn't tell you about or explain at all.

real melee nerds had sets that accounted for having march haste and/or magic haste. i think both was better because that means more acc/atk pieces and less haste pieces.

but i'll be honest with you i was pretty checked out after WotG launch and my HNM faded to nothing during that time too, so I don't know the merit party meta much with SCH involved
(and i was pretty bitter as a RDM, that SCH were stealing my thunder when they came along)

so most of my thoughts are from CoP-ToAU era.

Lmao, never happening.
That canned mobile port getting resurrected or SE releasing some kind of spiritual successor are unironically both more likely than an official XI classic server.

Theres a cap on magic haste and bard reaches it. You don’t need madrigal at this point.

I was under the assumption that both march and haste were “magic” haste.
Anyway RDM is likely still more efficient slightly but I’m not sure it would make a “real” difference especially if we factor in the scholars damage. The main benefit of sch is boosting ws modifiers so I guess it would also depend from that standpoint.

They had intended to make a new version at some point but I think the intent for it changed a couple of times and it was ultimately cancelled.

You should be able to main heal as RDM at any point after cure 2 and with no help after getting regen. Were you using regen? Regen heals are the most mp cost effective efficient heals in the game, even regen 1 is worth using

There was that phone version that Nexon(?) was making that was cancelled a few years back. It'd be nice if it was cancelled because Square saw the success of WoW classic and want to replicate that.

you can try horizonxi.com

it's a free private server that should work anywhere

Old(Pre WoW) MMOs might seem like a literal "You think you do but you don't" for real, but I've found they're a good way to cure the zoomie ADHD and social awkwardness.

posting in xi thread

Horizon is cancer

It got cancelled because Nexon couldn't figure out how to convincingly adapt XI gameplay into a mobile game.

Rdm is one of the most powerful jobs in the game, people do expect you to main heal in xp tho. At level cap your job expands massively from healer to tanking to debuffer

RDM should be able to main heal no problem at that point but what level range were you? I wanna say it does take some skill/knowledge if it was a pre 40 party but you have basically no excuse at level 40 onwards. If SCH didn’t get MP efficiency passives Covert would be the most mp efficient job ability in the game.

Rdms job is debuffer in any situation no matter if its tanking or main healing. A good rdm will also attempt to magic burst if their party isn’t an MP slurping machine.
The only thing RDM doesn’t ACTIVELY do is melee dps because their ws damage is mediocre and enspell damage while good is mostly just tp feed, but they do use it when solo.

Don't play on Horizon. Game is still in "maint" mode cause the devs they hired are lazy and retarded.

They have turbo jannies for GM's that will literally ban you for anything. Don't waste any of your time there.

Whm can debuff almost as well. The jobs skill rankings don’t really become a massive gap until like 60. You invite rdm to xp because it has cure 3/4 regen and a lot of mp with refresh/convert. All mage jobs should be trying to land debuffs baseline

Also end game is literally just a bunch of terminal FF XIers grinding end game loot for their 3rd alt's 6th job gatekeeping everyone else just trying to play

Just like era

Also theirs tons of gear that covers the gap that most mages could easily have just enough skill for all merit and lower monsters like whm af body and relic hands. A whm with dark obi hq dark staff lands sleepga guaranteed against dyna monsters. Rdm only pulls ahead in enfeebling in era at 75 and only against the strongest monsters like hnm or limbus boss. Rdm need to learn their place, they are healers with more mp but no higher level curagas unless low manning niches or tanking at endgame. Rdm/drk is just a healer with an additional task of stunning. If you picked rdm sorry nigga you picked a healing job like just genuinely thats how it was and still is in pservers.

It manages to be engaging without too much JRPG stupidity.

I AM the WHM.
Most people didn't like main healing, but I always found it to be the most fun and engaging role in XI. Personally, I thought playing DD was the most boring thing possible.

but it doesn't have all the expansions
retail is the only way for me to actually complete FFXI

Retail 11 with trusts and most content scaled way below your powerlevel makes it increasingly hollow and not engaging. You might as well just watch a youtube video of all the cutscenes and say you played it. Has about the same energy as just walking spot to spot 1-2 shotting every monster that used to require prep and 5 other people. Even seekers story id far below current player power levels being before level sync

If you picked rdm sorry nigga you picked a healing job like just genuinely thats how it was and still is in pservers.

That doesn't stop most of them from wanting to be tanks/solo gods. You have to keep you RDMs in check or else they'll pretend that they're Avesta.

Ilevel gear*

all the RDM hate itt

None of you ever had a RDM at 75 geared well enough to do some of the harder soloing and it shows.

it shows and its PATHETIC

Nobody hates the job. Its extremely powerful and i would argue stronger than brd since it gets into slighty more content. I just argue that until you are 75 geared to do more niche low manning the job is a healer. Nobody is inviting you at 42 to tank. They invite you to cure and convert mp to outdo the whm they are foregoing. Always been the case

RDM is a healer that can sleep and refresh until you hit 75 and start autistically gathering gear for every situation. Then it's useful in literally anything piece of era content.

I always like the idea of RDM in theory but, at least from my outsider perspective since I never leveled it, in practice it seemed like you were either a ghetto WHM or a haste/refresh dispenser.

Rdm healer was preferred over whm outside of curaga 3/4 and slightly stronger barspells whm have. Rdm healer is very strong, if you have a good setup you pretty much never have to worry about healer mp. Now in current retail i think whm is absurdly powerful but thats a whole beast and most people have a bot play the whm anyways.

Because most peoples experience is inviting people and most people who play FFXI are absolute retards acting like what they do is actually very hard.

Melee dd pretending pressing berserk/hasso and autoattacking is so different and unique from other melee DD pressing berserk/hasso and autoattacking

Blue mage and corsair aren’t classic either

While true, if you are ever in a situation were you are with a red mage at 75 cap they take precedence because they have higher tier debuffs. The only exceptions I can think of this are sleepga (sch does it better with blm following up) and AOE crowd control debuffs (basically only sch can do this in classic)

RDM pretending it's impossible to maintain mana casting buffs on people and casting cures/debuffs so they just sit there and cure

WHM who never leveled debuffs just sitting in a party with a paladin doing nothing

Half the DD with ranged attacks refusing to pull mobs because it's "too hard" and they "don't know how"

Bards refusing to pull mobs

Thiefs refusing to even attempt SATA or pretending it's next to impossible to do instead just instantly ripping aggro and complaining

Anything with a literal skill floor that isn't stand there and auto-attack and cast cure is beyond like 90% of the player bases mental abilities. Let alone expecting people to even bother looking up the monsters your killing to see what they're weak to.

I’m not even sure what you’re trying to say. Most of those situations weren’t the norm and if you did get any players like that you just wouldn’t invite them, especially bards that refuse to pull.
Are you just trying to say that melee dd that tp burn is the most brain dead role in the game? If so I agree

Where is this "rumor" coming from? Or does it just come from the May 2025 Campaign message?

Most of those situations weren’t the norm

Spotted someone who exclusively plays on stale private servers. I've seen full parties assembled and in position disband because no one would bother to pull mobs.
People are so bad you'd get quizzed on your gear in actual era because you'd have Monks joining level 50-60 parties without oche kote in level 20 gear just feeding TP.

Some anon posted in the Anon Babble general (horizon general)

no, you'd still take the shit bard as long as he played songs and you'd make one of the melee pull instead.

I played that game for 10 years and I encountered a situation like that maybe 10% of the time. It helped that I wasn’t an npc and made most of my parties. Healer and Bard main btw.
I think the problem is that you were probably a generic melee dd or a thf.

10 years

So basically stale era with people who've played for 10 years before you and stale private servers gotcha.

Healer and Bard main speaking at all

LOL
Get to buffing me side character, melee chad coming through

10 years before me

I played starting Roz and quit right after they released Abyssea anon. You can believe whatever you want though, im sorry your social skills were too awkward to enjoy the game

Got it, double Minne coming up.

You aren’t the party leader tranny

Beseiged : Undead Swarm

Galkan BLU

Giant's Drink

Aiming Heat Breath at a crowd of charmed players

Yep. It's gaming time