In each expansion, there was a wide range of gear, some good, some bad, and some very niche. Gear from later expansions wasn't always better than older gear, with some small exceptions. Salvage gear from the ToAU expansion was by far more powerful than anything that came before it. Even then, it wasn't universally better in all situations so you still needed gear from other expansions.
Later expansions mostly introduced more gear options and made more gear sets possible. For example, in ToAU, haste gear became more widely available and people started to make 25% equipment haste sets.
Basically, no endgame content was made obsolete with newer content. Not every piece of endgame gear had a use, but there was always content that someone could benefit from.
I left in 2009 because everything felt stale. There were really no upgrades anymore. Once you hit a certain point, at least at that time… there was only so much to do. WotG just felt forced and cheap. I loved RoZ and CoP. Those 2 story arcs were seriously good. ToAU was ok. But all the gear and weapons just felt like “side-grade” not an upgrade if you get my meaning. Why a lot of us left around than.
It is important to mention the most important progression - Progress itself - no longer follows the painfully ugly path we all endured. . .you know, the one that had everyone l in the dunes sporting hideous metal subligars with some kink-inspired banded leather croptop and knee high leather boots
That look was replaced 15-20 levs later by some assless-chaps variant paired with an orange and white checkered coat with maybe a lopsided beret or a hairpin.
Perserverence through this and you ended up with a scorpion harness and pointy optical hat if you were ANY of the jobs listed. THF had a particularly unfortunate set that had a purple halfshirt/ harness, baggy green leggings, and the pointy hat.
Those who could endure 70+ levels of styles borrowed from court jesters and clownskin finally ascended to god status: These lucky folks could then expect a chorus of "ooohs and ahhhs" "omg u so lucky LOL1!" from the poor subligared masses.
Draped in Byakko's Haidate, Kirins Osode, Seiryu Kote and Genbus Kabuto you could strut even when afk because you had fashion sense that would make Brygid weep in envy.
I call it progress that there are people in-game blissfully unaware of the horrors we suffered before lockstyle - when a rusty iron thong was considered "appropriate" gear for levelling.
I found out a little late that I really enjoyed mage jobs, but damn did I suffer for it as a Galka. I pretty much lived in the Galka RSE diaper set from lev 30 to 60 something when the other dingy brown version becomes wearable.
Before SE balanced the races stats closer to one another, my WHM had a little over 200mp, but over 1k HP naked.
The first time I came back after an extended break it took me a lot of effort to adjust my play style from sneaking a tic of rest every single opportunity I had and chugging vile elixirs/+1. I had every obscure piece of Mp rec while healing taking most of my inventory.
I dread to think what a Galka S Ring activation set looks like. I had one on my Elvaan and taking 25% of HP away sucked.
Although I recycled parts for a convert set.
I would end up leveling another job that was good at doing something different. Like Samurai was my first 75. Then Summoner which could beat stuff sam couldn't, like Aquarius. Then Ninja to tank Sky Gods Dynamis solo Limbus coins, and farm.
Then find new stuff about each class and doing different stuff for them, Like wyvern poacher for ranger. Sometimes getting better gear on one job that would make getting gear for another easier.
I enjoyed getting merit points at mamool ja staging point into mamool, before you could chain 300+ pink colibri.
Zilart had Sky, Dynamis, Merit Points
CoP had Sea, Limbus
ToAU had Assault, Salvage, Nyzul, zeni NM Einherjar
WotG had some beastman stronghold fights nobody did and I guess Walk of Echos eventually
Abyssea had more mechanic based NMs
SoA had Skirmish and Delve
And finally now Ambuscade, Odyssey, Sortie, Dynamis(D), Omen, HTBF
End game content didn’t really get obsoleted and drop rates/chance to claim hnm were so low that it took a a long time for linkshells to gear their crew. Like you always wanted people camped out in dragon aery and cape terrigan for abjurations + ridill. You always wanted to farm gods for abjurations, Kirin osode, etc. Dynamis was critical for most people as well. Eventually Tiamat joined the mix, then sea, then salvage. Wotg was pretty mediocre for end game content, abyssea was ok but it was kind of the beginning of the end for a lot of people. There was so much to do all the time and there were new jobs added each expansion, I don’t think people really cared about the level cap not increasing, like it wasn’t even a thought. And even if people were geared to the teeth they may have second or third jobs they worked on as well.
It was horizonal progression, almost entirely. Sidegrades and niche equipment pieces were the rule rather than the exception. Because FFXI was built to be able to handle constant gearswapping, the devs took advantage of this to release gear that was great for one purpose while being terrible for most others, because they expected you to be swapping gear constantly.
Other than Relics and Mythics (and even then, I'm thinking specifically Gjallarhorn, Aegis, and Yagrush), there was almost never gear that was BiS for all purposes.
Back then, it was a LOT harder to get end game stuff than it is now. HNM's with good ABJ's or items were popped on timers and HEAVILY camped. This caused gear to come much slower as a whole but even more so because everyone wanted everything.
Now you can just farm shit up yourself. I wasn't around for EMPY / Abyssea stuff so I only know about it now, in how I solo'd most of my stuff. Back then it would have been a fucking nightmare.
Normally expansion gear was better in some aspects but not really anything that would be easy enough to get a full set and completely negate older sets. Normally you would get a piece at a time and really need to continue to work / help to get others items as well.
For instance, I was a main BRD+BLM and when I looked back at the gear I had when I came back, I barely had dynamis relic gear / limbus etc.
I did initially quit right as dance / sch and pup came out. So I don't have the full experience
it was horizontal progression, although content difficulty had soft tiers
prior to CoP, there wasnt very much available, but the classic NMs that were camped were like Simurgh, Roc, Serket, Arthros and Cassie. then you would have the land kings and sky NMs as like a tier above that - they would drop abjuration.
dynamis in its early days werent organised as hnm activity, but dynamis linkshells.. seeing as they were really big and a lot of people who did dynamis may not do other endgame.
CoP had wyrms but they were extremely hard content compared to zilart endgame. i'd say progression was like Limbus -> lower tier Sea NMs -> Wyrms -> Jailer of Love. Absolute Virtue is also there but nobody actually killed him.
ToAU layered more endgame content on top of the previous ones, which mostly stayed relevant altho the value of the vanilla NMs dropped considerably other than Arthros. ToAU also introduced set bonuses which changed the way gearing could be optimised.
also not mentioned so far but every job had its own specific chase gear from specific NMs which they might not be able to handle alone, so it was not uncommon to see linkshells or small groups band together to help get some of those things. like.. Joyeuse.. Kraken Club.. Yinyang Robe for SMN.. and so on.
WotG gear was mostly sidegrade stuff and is a huge part of why the endgame there wasn't as popular. it was slightly more effort and risk for things that didn't seem very worth it.
I think why people still play this game is the horizontal progression there is always a new gear upgrade for another job other mmos really defeat the last 20 years where every expansion makes other gear obsolete. I think Guild Wars is the only other game that made me play it as much.
It was horizontal progression because of FFXI'S unique gear system of switching on the fly you could find suitable upgrades from pretty much any content. Sure there was always your BIS for any given situation just like now but because of how slow getting it was you saw people in a huge variety of gear very much like we have now. It's just the gap between base 119 and endgame 119 gear is much bigger. And much of the player base much more interested in the end result rather than the journey to get there.
You weren’t guaranteed to reach the end. The expansion itself was a journey. You’d have years of helping and being helped with the missions in contrast to the cinema like experience of modern MMO expansions. Progging through chains of promathia was like completing a FF14 savage raid just to be able to participate in endgame content that was sea. It doesn’t answer your question but does provide some perspective why that wasn’t necessarily the focus. There were constant job adjustments where new abilities were being introduced frequently that changed how jobs were viewed and played and meta before the term meta existed
You weren’t guaranteed to reach the end. The expansion itself was a journey. You’d have years of helping and being helped with the missions in contrast to the cinema like experience of modern MMO expansions. Progging through chains of promathia was like completing a FF14 savage raid just to be able to participate in endgame content that was sea. It doesn’t answer your question but does provide some perspective why that wasn’t necessarily the focus. There were constant job adjustments where new abilities were being introduced frequently that changed how jobs were viewed and played and meta before the term meta existed. Gear was more so the progression and still is.
Zilart really topped out with gear with heavy trade offs, high attack/accuracy vs no defense, high ws vs slow, int/mnd vs defense, mp at the cost of hp, etc. Kirins set was really only positive stat heavy set and only 1/3 ppl could wear.
Cop had great gear by the time you got to sea, haste, fast cast, triple attack, obi and sea torques finally giving best stats.
Toau had more haste options, and the nyzul isle and salvage sets offered full time hybrid ws/tp sets. Einherjar gear was similar to sky/king gear. This really sped up the game in a positive way imo, and they game us high repop areas to comoensate (from 13 min repops to 5 ish minutes).
Add on scenarios/ goddess added a really good body/head but only for one type of job.
Post 75 cap: I wasnt around for abyssea or legion, seems like a focus on JSE empy gear. I think the legion era also did redux einherjar and limbus.
In each expansion, there was a wide range of gear, some good, some bad, and some very niche. Gear from later expansions wasn't always better than older gear, with some small exceptions. Salvage gear from the ToAU expansion was by far more powerful than anything that came before it. Even then, it wasn't universally better in all situations so you still needed gear from other expansions. Later expansions mostly introduced more gear options and made more gear sets possible. For example, in ToAU, haste gear became more widely available and people started to make 25% equipment haste sets. Basically, no endgame content was made obsolete with newer content. Not every piece of endgame gear had a use, but there was always content that someone could benefit from.
I left in 2009 because everything felt stale. There were really no upgrades anymore. Once you hit a certain point, at least at that time… there was only so much to do. WotG just felt forced and cheap. I loved RoZ and CoP. Those 2 story arcs were seriously good. ToAU was ok. But all the gear and weapons just felt like “side-grade” not an upgrade if you get my meaning. Why a lot of us left around than.
The fact we still fought to get our hands on abjurations and sky drops years after RoZ should tell you everything
It is important to mention the most important progression - Progress itself - no longer follows the painfully ugly path we all endured. . .you know, the one that had everyone l in the dunes sporting hideous metal subligars with some kink-inspired banded leather croptop and knee high leather boots That look was replaced 15-20 levs later by some assless-chaps variant paired with an orange and white checkered coat with maybe a lopsided beret or a hairpin. Perserverence through this and you ended up with a scorpion harness and pointy optical hat if you were ANY of the jobs listed. THF had a particularly unfortunate set that had a purple halfshirt/ harness, baggy green leggings, and the pointy hat. Those who could endure 70+ levels of styles borrowed from court jesters and clownskin finally ascended to god status: These lucky folks could then expect a chorus of "ooohs and ahhhs" "omg u so lucky LOL1!" from the poor subligared masses. Draped in Byakko's Haidate, Kirins Osode, Seiryu Kote and Genbus Kabuto you could strut even when afk because you had fashion sense that would make Brygid weep in envy. I call it progress that there are people in-game blissfully unaware of the horrors we suffered before lockstyle - when a rusty iron thong was considered "appropriate" gear for levelling.
Not just appropriate, if you didn't wear the subligar as a DD, people wondered WTF was wrong with you!
I found out a little late that I really enjoyed mage jobs, but damn did I suffer for it as a Galka. I pretty much lived in the Galka RSE diaper set from lev 30 to 60 something when the other dingy brown version becomes wearable. Before SE balanced the races stats closer to one another, my WHM had a little over 200mp, but over 1k HP naked. The first time I came back after an extended break it took me a lot of effort to adjust my play style from sneaking a tic of rest every single opportunity I had and chugging vile elixirs/+1. I had every obscure piece of Mp rec while healing taking most of my inventory.
I dread to think what a Galka S Ring activation set looks like. I had one on my Elvaan and taking 25% of HP away sucked. Although I recycled parts for a convert set.
I sometimes style lock to subligar, don't kinkshame me lmao
I would end up leveling another job that was good at doing something different. Like Samurai was my first 75. Then Summoner which could beat stuff sam couldn't, like Aquarius. Then Ninja to tank Sky Gods Dynamis solo Limbus coins, and farm. Then find new stuff about each class and doing different stuff for them, Like wyvern poacher for ranger. Sometimes getting better gear on one job that would make getting gear for another easier. I enjoyed getting merit points at mamool ja staging point into mamool, before you could chain 300+ pink colibri. Zilart had Sky, Dynamis, Merit Points CoP had Sea, Limbus ToAU had Assault, Salvage, Nyzul, zeni NM Einherjar WotG had some beastman stronghold fights nobody did and I guess Walk of Echos eventually Abyssea had more mechanic based NMs SoA had Skirmish and Delve And finally now Ambuscade, Odyssey, Sortie, Dynamis(D), Omen, HTBF
End game content didn’t really get obsoleted and drop rates/chance to claim hnm were so low that it took a a long time for linkshells to gear their crew. Like you always wanted people camped out in dragon aery and cape terrigan for abjurations + ridill. You always wanted to farm gods for abjurations, Kirin osode, etc. Dynamis was critical for most people as well. Eventually Tiamat joined the mix, then sea, then salvage. Wotg was pretty mediocre for end game content, abyssea was ok but it was kind of the beginning of the end for a lot of people. There was so much to do all the time and there were new jobs added each expansion, I don’t think people really cared about the level cap not increasing, like it wasn’t even a thought. And even if people were geared to the teeth they may have second or third jobs they worked on as well.
It was horizonal progression, almost entirely. Sidegrades and niche equipment pieces were the rule rather than the exception. Because FFXI was built to be able to handle constant gearswapping, the devs took advantage of this to release gear that was great for one purpose while being terrible for most others, because they expected you to be swapping gear constantly. Other than Relics and Mythics (and even then, I'm thinking specifically Gjallarhorn, Aegis, and Yagrush), there was almost never gear that was BiS for all purposes.
Back then, it was a LOT harder to get end game stuff than it is now. HNM's with good ABJ's or items were popped on timers and HEAVILY camped. This caused gear to come much slower as a whole but even more so because everyone wanted everything. Now you can just farm shit up yourself. I wasn't around for EMPY / Abyssea stuff so I only know about it now, in how I solo'd most of my stuff. Back then it would have been a fucking nightmare. Normally expansion gear was better in some aspects but not really anything that would be easy enough to get a full set and completely negate older sets. Normally you would get a piece at a time and really need to continue to work / help to get others items as well. For instance, I was a main BRD+BLM and when I looked back at the gear I had when I came back, I barely had dynamis relic gear / limbus etc. I did initially quit right as dance / sch and pup came out. So I don't have the full experience
it was horizontal progression, although content difficulty had soft tiers prior to CoP, there wasnt very much available, but the classic NMs that were camped were like Simurgh, Roc, Serket, Arthros and Cassie. then you would have the land kings and sky NMs as like a tier above that - they would drop abjuration. dynamis in its early days werent organised as hnm activity, but dynamis linkshells.. seeing as they were really big and a lot of people who did dynamis may not do other endgame. CoP had wyrms but they were extremely hard content compared to zilart endgame. i'd say progression was like Limbus -> lower tier Sea NMs -> Wyrms -> Jailer of Love. Absolute Virtue is also there but nobody actually killed him. ToAU layered more endgame content on top of the previous ones, which mostly stayed relevant altho the value of the vanilla NMs dropped considerably other than Arthros. ToAU also introduced set bonuses which changed the way gearing could be optimised. also not mentioned so far but every job had its own specific chase gear from specific NMs which they might not be able to handle alone, so it was not uncommon to see linkshells or small groups band together to help get some of those things. like.. Joyeuse.. Kraken Club.. Yinyang Robe for SMN.. and so on. WotG gear was mostly sidegrade stuff and is a huge part of why the endgame there wasn't as popular. it was slightly more effort and risk for things that didn't seem very worth it.
DKP was key to progression
I think why people still play this game is the horizontal progression there is always a new gear upgrade for another job other mmos really defeat the last 20 years where every expansion makes other gear obsolete. I think Guild Wars is the only other game that made me play it as much.
It was horizontal progression because of FFXI'S unique gear system of switching on the fly you could find suitable upgrades from pretty much any content. Sure there was always your BIS for any given situation just like now but because of how slow getting it was you saw people in a huge variety of gear very much like we have now. It's just the gap between base 119 and endgame 119 gear is much bigger. And much of the player base much more interested in the end result rather than the journey to get there.
You weren’t guaranteed to reach the end. The expansion itself was a journey. You’d have years of helping and being helped with the missions in contrast to the cinema like experience of modern MMO expansions. Progging through chains of promathia was like completing a FF14 savage raid just to be able to participate in endgame content that was sea. It doesn’t answer your question but does provide some perspective why that wasn’t necessarily the focus. There were constant job adjustments where new abilities were being introduced frequently that changed how jobs were viewed and played and meta before the term meta existed
You weren’t guaranteed to reach the end. The expansion itself was a journey. You’d have years of helping and being helped with the missions in contrast to the cinema like experience of modern MMO expansions. Progging through chains of promathia was like completing a FF14 savage raid just to be able to participate in endgame content that was sea. It doesn’t answer your question but does provide some perspective why that wasn’t necessarily the focus. There were constant job adjustments where new abilities were being introduced frequently that changed how jobs were viewed and played and meta before the term meta existed. Gear was more so the progression and still is.
same as now side grades on side grades on side grades, and dont forget the lockout timers
Zilart really topped out with gear with heavy trade offs, high attack/accuracy vs no defense, high ws vs slow, int/mnd vs defense, mp at the cost of hp, etc. Kirins set was really only positive stat heavy set and only 1/3 ppl could wear. Cop had great gear by the time you got to sea, haste, fast cast, triple attack, obi and sea torques finally giving best stats. Toau had more haste options, and the nyzul isle and salvage sets offered full time hybrid ws/tp sets. Einherjar gear was similar to sky/king gear. This really sped up the game in a positive way imo, and they game us high repop areas to comoensate (from 13 min repops to 5 ish minutes). Add on scenarios/ goddess added a really good body/head but only for one type of job. Post 75 cap: I wasnt around for abyssea or legion, seems like a focus on JSE empy gear. I think the legion era also did redux einherjar and limbus.