Considering Coming Back.

None of the issues that made you leave have been resolved, if anything they became worse. Some of the people that tell you to return spend quite some time to complain about the state of FFXI, for good reasons. It's almost as if they don't want to be lonely with their questionable decission.

It's like escaping a bucket full of crabs just to turn and ask if it's a good idea to climb back in.


Don't return.

However, considering you made this thread you probably already made a decission and now you're looking for comments that confirm it.
If you can't help it at least wait for the free campaign next month(?).

Also stop droping gil into Tizona if you're not already knee deep into the alexandrite stage. BLU has been neglected for years, it's far from a PUG magnet and there are better choices for soloing.

This.
There's what, maybe 50 people active globally on ffxiah on a daily basis? Plus maybe a dozen or two that are only active in specific job subforums, or even specific threads. And that's being very generous, it's likely less than that.

And half of these people are no-lifers with no other thing going on in their life except ffxi, and they're gatekeepers, and old disillusioned grumpy geezers who want these damn kids off their pixelated lawn.

The actual state of game population is MUCH more diverse, much different, and much healthier. Lots of good, fun, generous people who just want to hang out, chill, kill some goblins, achieve some nice stuff, and are pleasant to be around. For each of us that writes on here, there's twenty or thirty players who have no interest in the toxicity, and sometimes outright lies, of these forums.

There's also ***, but they're easy to get rid of.

Personally I'm enjoying the game a lot, but it's not a solo game unless you're content doing older-ish activities. Most endgame stuff requires a group and can't be done with trusts, and even when it's soloable (Sortie) the rewards that you can reap with a friend are an order or two or magnitude higher.

It's still a social-dependent game. But it's not too hard to build a small group that can do most things (I've been playing with just a single friend recently, we bring three character to most content and are having a blast), it just takes a bit of patience.

If you're looking for a game that you can pickup at anytime and put down at anytime during the day, XI is not it.
If you're looking to play XI at your own pace, you can do it, but it'll take some time before you get some regularity, there's a curve.

I can't deny BLU isn't particularly sought after for group content and hasn't been for quite a quile, but it's quite an excellent job for soloing? It depends what content we're talking about of course, but on a hunch for people who truly solo with no mules, I'd dare to say it's one of the best jobs honestly.
And no, I'm not talking exclusively about cleaving (which is another part where BLU clearly excels).
BLU is an incredibly versatile job, and Tizona is quite a nice tool for it. Not necessary since the addition of Nagling, sure, but still very nice.


As for the rest, I think Lili just nailed the core of my thoughts.
Unless the OP has lotsa friends in specific servers, I'd go for either Bahamut or Asura, i.e. the most populated servers.
It's true there's more RMTs, but there's "more" in general. It's gonna be way easier to play randomly, relaxedly, doing stuff off and on if OP goes on a server with a high population like the ones mentioned.
As much as some of the cons mentioned can be taxing, everything else that these servers can offer to a player without experienced friends, is way, way, way more than just a "compensation", imho.

Pretty jealous of the very active PUG culture during JP primetime on my server. Sortie, Odyssey, Ambu, HTBFs, ML/CP...the open social aspect of the game still seems totally fine on their side of things.

This. Some good people here but a lot of the best, most knowledgeable players in this game don't even post here. Some of them make playful cracks to me because I still post once in a while.

If you see one of the usuals and their pseudo-condescending remarks, just don't reply.

As kuroki said, it doesn't represent in-game and shouldn't sway your decisions.


Tizona is still my all-time favorite weapon. Blu may not be top tier to some, but I still have more fun playing it than any other job.

I'm sorry but what XD
I havent thought I will need to explain that at this stage of the game...

BLU is one of if not the best overall job in FFXI if you consider everything.

It's by far the best cleaver and this also include cleave with Cruel joke, when AoE damage is cut by a lot, which lets BLU be the only job that can effectively solo farm Sheol C. It's versatility allows it to farm up to 20k+ Galli solo in Sortie too.

Tizona BLU with AM3 is also one of the highest RAW damage DD in the game. This is because of few things:
- You can sub /drg, because you have native DW
- You have low pDIF cap, while having self 20% attack buff and 20% def down debuff. Also very good base balance of PDL, allowing Aria to be huge boost.
- huge WS damage with high WS frequency with Tizona/Thibron AM3
- Excellent blunt option with Maxentius

On top of that Sudden Lunge is just a cheat spell for lots of things, even from current endgame and it makes old endgame a complete joke lots of times.
White Wind is completely OP aoe emergency/support cure spell capable of healing for 1400+ every few seconds.
Cocoon is completely OP def spell. Alongside Phalanx (from /rdm, trust or RDM) and Occultation it synergizes perfectly with offensive potential to cleave. Entomb is also amazing CC spell, especially in Sortie with many mobs resisting sleeps.
Reaving Wind and Feather Tickle are TP reset spells that are core of few end game strategies (for example v25 Mboze and Bumba), but you can use easily use BLU as DD on at least v25 Kalunga (we cleared with me on BLU), but probably also Ngai.
Speaking of v25 Bumba it actually showcase not only TP reset, but also doing skillchains with spells and defensive spells like Magic Barrier allowing to tank end game NMs without taking any damage. Then you also have 3 massive UL spells:
- Mighty Guard being amazing defensively and allowing to cap magic haste much easier and change one of the other magic haste buffs to something else
- Tearing Gust being massive factor for magic damage, especially whenever Geomancy is nerfed
- Tourbillion being massive def down source for zergs

Lastly BLU has massive survivability, not only because of spells I mentioned, but also because you wear Malignance for TP and Nyame/Empy+3 for WS and Empy+3 for cleave/nukes/debuffs. All that gear sets have beefy DT and meva.

I have access to like 15+ well geared jobs and from last 3 years I have easily spent 80% of playtime on BLU.

EDIT: I reused word "massive" too much, but Im super sleepy after whole day, so I will just leave it like that XD

TL;DR there are a lot of bad BLUs out there making BLU look bad. Insert any other job in there and it's mostly true. Enjoy what you like from the game and don't let other people ruin your fun.

@OP your avatar is making NNN super difficult.

Hey, I like the idea of BLU as much as the next one but this is a newcommer/returnee recommendation thread. Imho it's not the right place to fanboy.

Personly I haven't seen BLU beeing popular for PUG shouts since the original frog ambuscade and if I search for BLU solos I can't find anything impressive in recent years that hasn't been done befor by a different job.

Im not fanboying at all here. Im talking from a perspective of player with multiple jobs and what I have been using the most.

BLU not being popular in PUG shouts is only a matter of BLU being a very versatile job, which makes is not an obvious choice for narrow roles. When you think about DDs, you think about pure DD jobs first.


Its not a matter of what you can solo, but how efficiently. RDM can probably solo even more, but it's usually very slow. Same for SCH with helixes. Many jobs can solo segments, but only BLU can do it that efficiently, because of Cruel Joke. All jobs can solo Sortie, but BLU being able to be extremely efficient with cleave and CC (Entomb) while also being able to cheesy A and E boss with Sudden Lunge is just way more efficient. Sudden Lunge and Entomb are in general super broken for all the catch up content too.

"stop putting gil into the best weapon of the job you like playing most because its not meta" is pretty shitty advice to give someone who wants to come back. You're basically telling them "play the jobs we decide or *** off cause you're useless". Yeah, thats really gonna encourage someone to come back.

There is certainly an element of "mold your playstyle to the meta if you want to participate in stuff" that has to be considered.

That being said, Tizona is super useful and BLU is fun for all sorts of different content, so I'd stick with it.

I'll take the opposite approach here. BLU is a great job for someone returning. Assuming you already understand the basic mechanics of the job, and given the benefits that Simon mentioned, its an excellent choice to get your feet wet at your own pace. If you can handle odyssey bosses and a good 7~10k sortie run by yourself, you're leaps and bounds ahead of a decently geared WAR or DRG that doesn't know what they're doing. Yes, BLU has a niche use in serious endgame content, but provides a path to proficiency in that content that other jobs absolutely do not.

Cost zero dollars not to be like this

Not every person is or wants to shoot for "meta". A forgotten concept is that some people still play games to have "fun".

There are lifers amidst no-lifers in any given MMO.

OP specifically asked about #1 RMT/Bot situation, #2 PUG situation, #3 Gil making and AH Stock.

#1 the RMT/Bot situation, chances are it's just as bad or worse than it was when OP quit. Some of you mentioned low population servers as a solution but that disregards OPs concern #2.

#2 the PUG situation, even on higher pop servers it hasn't been stellar in recent years and if player numbers are indeed shrinking, which seemed to be common consensus among doomer threads in the past couple of months. It'd be disingenuous to tell OP he'll have a good time looking for PUGs on BLU.

#3 Gil making and AH Stock, on high population servers most stuff is available but you have to deal with price manipulation. Your solo gil making routin will mostly consist of daily omen and odyssey farming for swarts and chests on THF which amounts to roughly ~2mil gil/day and ~2mil for sparks/accolades a week. You can also farm monthly ambuscade rewards but your milage may vary depending on solo or group and difficulty, some people also sell their A.M.A.N Trove entries.

For reference a fully augmented mythic will be around 60mil for Astral Detritus + 101mil for Beitetsu + 124mil for Alexandrite on asura, so ~285mil if I didn't forget anything.


OP can always ignore all input and pimp his favorite job and if he decides to do so tizona is a good investment. However, fun is subjective. One views it as fun to play his favorite job while someone else might get more joy out of joining PUGs.
Give OP the facts and let himself decide what's most fun to him.

I agree to give them some facts but your first reply to them told them to stop wasting money on Tizona. Yes, it can be expensive if you buy the required materials but it is an amazing piece and something to keep you motivated to work towards.

The OP stated that with their varying time to play, groups will likely not be a norm. Therefore, Blu is still a great choice for all kinds of solo content. It's a Swiss army knife. If I was told I had to cut down to 1 single job, Blu would be it.

Ok, and this is irrelevant and unnecessary
If someone told me that, I'd not want to come back.

Sure, you're probably not taking BLU to V25 Bumba, but you're also not taking your pimped out DD job to V25 Ongo, which is required to get access to V25 Bumba.

A returning player isnt jumping right into V25 Bumba or 80k Galli sortie runs.

But you do..

BLU is completely necessary for v25 Bumba, unless there is new strategy that I don't know about.

BLU tanks and tp controls V25 bumba... why wouldn't you take one of the key jobs for it?

what are the facts lol?

Don't play the jobs you like?

All the more *** reason to not tell people "Stop throwing your gil into Tizona, no one uses BLU", tabarnak.

Y'all attacking me for what I said but ignore the guy who said "blu is useless, save your gil".

They correcting you papi, not attacking - relax lol - just make a edit and say opps

no

Run, run fast, don't look back, just ... run

If reading that would kill my enthusiasm I'd want to read it befor I investe considerable amounts of time.

I wasn't trying to encourage OP. I don't view myself as SEs player recruitment department.

Are you insinuating that PUGs that are shouting for DDs are secretly thirsting for BLU?

That's how one could interpret what I wrote if he wants to be offended but I think it's not what I wrote nor what I was trying to express.

If there's a necessity to collectively attack someone I vote for Panta, dude was out for trouble right from the get go!

My static typically runs my BLU for our Sortie runs.

Is it TOP TIER best possible return on Gallimaufry? No, especially since it's not Mage strat.

Is it as good as bringing a heavy DD, maybe Warrior, instead? Yes/No, I'd argue some aspects of the run are made easier, while clear speeds on basement bosses might be slower... It might hurt us more on specifically F boss, but we do get to cleave the Flans quickly. The Tourbillion + Nat. Med diffusion steroids certainly close any gap a BLU would have vs another DD.

That being said, presuming your typical MELEE Sortie run is:
COR
BRD
RDM for buffs/debuffs supporting DD?
Healer(WHM)
Heavy DD (we use SAM, but most fill the role)
Additional DD

With Blu filling that Additional DD slot it's pretty negligable. We clear ABC, EG, all upstairs mini bosses, all Flans in E, E WKR's, Botulus/Naraka + Bitzer chests, Then end the run with F where we wipe ~20% of the time to Wind hand start. When you're netting a total of 40-46k Galli, versus somewhere closer to 50k, it adds up sure but its not really a deal breaker.

Ultimately as most have pointed out, you should play the job you enjoy 1st and foremost, and if you play that job at a high enough level you can do well enough that it wont matter. If you want to Min/Max everything to the utmost, then you can transition to other party compositions, try other more 'meta' jobs.

As a returning playing I'll reiterate what others have said, BLU certainly is a solid option for low manning / soloing content, as well as getting you enough RP (odyssey) or galli (empy upgrades) to start working with PUGs or statics in a more meaningful manner. Tizona is still the best weapon by far for the job, so theres no reason to shame them for wanting to work on it as their goal.

If they work their way up in upgrades they may even be utilized by some groups for some of the higher end Odyssey fights like Mboze, Ngai, Kalunga or even Bumba v25. If you'll take my anecdotal evidence, you can even get a respectable amount of Galli in melee comps if you put in the effort. When you're on such a miserably long grind it's more important to have fun and mix things up rather than mix/max it every day and burn out.

Ultimately, should they return to the game now? Arguably no... the games in quite a dead end state at this point, and if your not grinding end game content with a static you'll struggle. But if you're only in it to experience the things you've missed out on, do TVR, maybe grind some stuff Solo/low man that you couldn't 3 years ago, Go for it have fun and try to play with others to keep the community going.

In terms of server; Asura isnt as bad as people make it out to be, especially if you filter out the /yells, strictly due to player density and economy. That being said the aforementioned other populated servers are just fine and if that's how you'd prefer to play you won't miss out.

I think the deciding factor on whether to play ffxi or not is the cost.

Base subscription plus 3 mules plus 4 wardrobes is for me is 19.99 or close. Anyways I can't justify more than that as a monthly subscription and I had to work real hard to bring it under $20. I'd love another wardrobe to make things easier and put the 5th job in but its just not worth it. For me, the nostalgia and mechanics of the game that are fun to me are worth $20 maximum I'd pay. The value however is really at the $11.99 monthly subscription range if that.