Short Review of Nov 07 Update + WotG

Well, its been roughly 2-3 months since the expansion came out and it will be roughly a month before the next update. I'd like to take this time to kinda review what was presented with the Nov. Update along with WotG expansion being included.

Now mind you, I was gone from the game for about a month prior to the release of WotG and also I transfered servers and also note that if you're reading this and you're from another server, it might be different on your end.

Anyways, lets get started.

Execution of the release

When this expansion came out, the shipment for the PC version was delayed in NA. That sucked... bad. We would be without the expansion for roughly 3 or so days due to the fact that it was released on the week of Thanksgiving. The release date of it was also pretty bad in general, as people with family would not be able to experience the expansion on the first day, and usually those days are the most interesting.

Poorly executed release, though for those who managed to get it for the 360, PS2, or used other methods of obtaining access to WotG without the PC discs but bought the codes from the 360, PS2 release, it was a pretty nicely executed experience, and everything was fairly streamed nicely.

Ease of getting to the new content

For the most part, it was a bit rough to get to do exactly what you wanted to do. The new jobs were easily accessible as it required short quests that can be done within less of an hour's time with very little effort. The main problem was trying to figure out how the Maws worked when you first got in them. Many players went into the past and exited out of the Sauromugue Champaign Maw and then they warped or died or whatever without seeing the other Maws. That was a bad thing to do because they would have to go back to that Maw to go back to the past. The said Maw can only be reached by going through Garlaige Citadel in the present, which is a pain the butt.

As for going through the campaign, it took a bit of effort and figuring out. It took me about a good 5 hours before I was able to partake in my first Campaign, and most of it involved running through unknown territory.

The new zones look very nice and seeing the older zones in a state of war was much exciting. However, I was not fond of the fact that the position of certain Maws and Campaign Arbiters are located in areas that involved a bit of off walking. While the Maws can be understandable, the Campaign Arbiter locations would require a player to spend time and effort and maybe even their EXP should as it involves wandering around dangerous areas even to a 75. I believe some locations were fixed after a few updates.

Campaign Ops, for the most part, can be ignored and does not reward too much of anything. While they are "free" to do, we also have Assaults that are also "free" to do and they reward so much more.

The ranking system in Campaign is a bit of a toss up. The rewards for having a high rank is not as apparent as it should be, the EXP limit that you get from campaign isn't balanced enough to warrant a rank up, except for the fact that you have to keep attempting rank ups to even keep your rank. I found this to be a bit bothersome and even useless at times. While it unlocks more Campaign Ops, the Ops themselves still feel rather meaningless, and many aren't even fun to do.

However, the campaign battles themselves are probably the biggest great addition to FFXI. Being able to solo EXP/Merits/buffer in these Campaigns make life easier for jobs that cannot normally land a party. While this may not replace parties, it is a good filler for times where you are looking for group. One thing that I don't like about Campaign is the fact that everyone solos it to the point where those who are getting beat up will most likely die because there is no support going on. With that said, if you are to do campaigns, bring a healing buddy with you or sub WHM for reraise.

Along with the expansion, they got rid of the Rent-A-Room system and just made it so that you can just walk in and you're set. Inventory was increased to 70, which is a godsend. People can be invited to your Mog House, which is a nice feature but one that can easily be forgotten.

The update itself changed many things, but that is because there was an expansion with it. The next update will most likely continue the story and so far we know there will be changes to campaign. What I would like to see is more Campaign Op changes and probably a better implementation of being able to see when Campaign battles will occur.