SE also announced plans to release three new expansions named, Visions of Abyssea, Heroes of Abyssea, and Scars of Abyssea later this year.

Below is an excerpt from the VanaFest 2010 page regarding the level cap and new expansions.

Level Cap Increase – http://www.playonline.com/ff11us/event/vanafes2010/

History is about to be made with the increase of the level cap in the March version update and beyond! The increase will take place in stages until the new maximum, level 99, has been reached.

Up until now, character strength has been limited to level 75, and additions to the game such as monsters, strategic content, and equipment had been designed to correspond to this.

However, with the game having reached a certain level of maturity and the bulk of existing notorious monsters having already fallen prey to tenacious bands of adventurers, the development team has deemed that the time is now ripe for the bar to be raised.
Level Cap Considerations
We are aware that players will inevitably feel concern over how in-game elements such as support jobs, experience camps, and merit points will be affected by this change. We would like to take a moment to explain the measures that are in the pipes to preserve game balance.

Support job abilities that are not expected to steal the limelight from main jobs as a result of the level cap increase will be allowed to come into play. Furthermore, there are plans to tweak certain job abilities, job traits, and magic spells on an ongoing basis in order to further accentuate the uniqueness of each job when used in a main role, as well as its versatility when playing a supporting role.

New camping grounds are scheduled to be added to cater to the anticipated rise in demand for experience parties. Furthermore, the redistribution of monsters in existing areas is also under consideration.

An increase in maximum upgrades is being considered for existing merit point skills and attributes. Preparations are also under way for the introduction of a new type of merit point for players who have reached the new level 99 summit.

New Expansions

Abyssea is a parallel world existing beside Vana’diel. A land fraught with perils, Abyssea is home to savage hordes of heretofore unseen creatures. Ferocious, towering NMs, new-look HNMs—even the garden varieties will confound would-be challengers with their unfamiliar and formidable powers. These and a whole host more await hapless adventurers with open arms and voracious maws.

In Abyssea, concerns such as the over-population of battle areas and the need for large time investments will be a thing of the past. The development team is hard at work creating a world where parties can engage in rewarding battles with powerful foes and collect prized equipment with the least of fuss. The expansive realm of Abyssea will comprise several new areas which will be introduced over the course of three add-ons.

©2010 Pwnsan.com. All Rights Reserved.

If you submitted an application for the new FFXIV closed BETA this little bit of news should interest you.

Secret Bonus Stage! – http://www.playonline.com/ff11us/event/vanafes2010/

With the eagerly anticipated FINAL FANTASY XIV drawing ever nearer its beta test phase, we are excited to announce that we will be conducting a closed alpha test—exclusive to our loyal FINAL FANTASY XI users! Those who have been selected as beta testers can expect to receive further information starting from Monday, March 1. * The tester website is scheduled to go live on Thursday, March 11.

Those who were not selected in this drawing, fear not, for there will be other opportunities to come. Be sure to stay tuned!

©2010 Pwnsan.com. All Rights Reserved.

Time sure flies when you aren’t gaming.  I use to think the exact opposite.  It’s amazing how you can spend an entire lifetime gaming then feel like a complete stranger after a few months off.  So far I haven’t had any luck finding a MMO that is even worth ranting about.  I’m pretty much banking on Final Fantasy XIV being the solution to all my woes.  I signed up for the Beta so I’m keeping my fingers crossed.  I haven’t heard anything yet but god knows how random the Beta selection process is.  If you haven’t signed up yet go do it!  I can live through you if I don’t get in.  LOL.  I hope all of you are doing well and I’m sorry I missed so many wonderful holidays without saying a word.  See ya guys around!

©2010 Pwnsan.com. All Rights Reserved.

Wow, has it been two months already?  I was in the process of moving and didn’t realize how fast time flies.  LOL.  Not much going on with me I just recently finished moving.  It was horrible, if I never have to move again it will be too soon.  Anyway I guess I have to catch up and post more often.  I haven’t been doing much except play FFXI Online.  My Paladin is level 63 at the moment and I somehow convinced my lil bro to start playing with me.  He is currently a level 61 Black Mage.  I’ll try to sort through my screen shot folder and post my journey through FFXI later this weekend.  I’ll see ya guys/gals later.

©2010 Pwnsan.com. All Rights Reserved.

Before I began my fishing career I picked up a nice Angler outfit to increase my fishing skill.  I also picked up a big goofy hat that protects my little Taru from harmful U.V. rays.  You can see him in his full glory in the picture above.  Since my starting nation is Sandy, the best place for me to start to skill up is Knight’s Well, in West Ronfaure.  With my Yew Fishing Rod and Little Worms there was no stopping me.  I caught about 200 Cray Fish and Moat Carp before the in-game fatigue hit.  You can see me in action below.

Once the in-game Fatigue hits your catch rate drops dramatically.  You pretty much have to call it a day and wait till the next IRL day to fish again.  No biggie, I had a ton of fish to cook anyway.  I headed back to town and skilled up my Cooking with all the fish that I caught.  It wasn’t a bad day at all.  I gained several levels in Fishing/Cooking and marched to a different drum today.  It was a nice change of pace from XPing.  Anyway, that’s it for now.  Thanks for reading!

©2010 Pwnsan.com. All Rights Reserved.

I just wanted to pop in and post a nice weekend update.  I finished up quite a few things in FFXI this past week.  I was able to level my Warrior to 30 and get a Chocobo License, Sub Job Unlock, and Advance Job Bard unlock.  The first 10 levels weren’t too bad.  I solo’d to level 10 in the starting area West Ronfaure.  It’s so easy to level nowadays.  The levels basically flew by.  Some notable changes to the experience system are reduced overall experience per level, increased experience per kill, hourly quest via Fields of Valor, HP/MP regen/refresh buffs, and the Level Sync feature.  Here are a few screen shots of me grinding away in West Ronfaure.

After I hit level 10 I ran my little Tarutaru to Valkrum dunes.  With the Level Sync feature active I had no trouble finding groups.  I was really surprised that these levels went so smoothly.  There were plenty of new and old characters in this low level party area.  I hit level 18 after joining a few groups.

I got extremely lucky and finished up my Sub Job quest pretty quickly.  There happen to be some bored high levels around the areas I was in and they lent a helping hand.  I collected the quest items and unlocked my Sub Job slot.  I decided to go with Monk as a Sub Job because the job adds a lot more health and threat skills to Warrior.  I figured since I don’t plan on subbing Monk in the future that I would level him only to 15.  Leveling my Sub Job wasn’t too rough.  The added bonuses of having my Warrior job subbed made things a lot easier.  I solo’d to 10 in West Ronfaure again and headed back to good old Dunes.  After I hit 15 on my Monk I switched back over to my Warrior and reached level 20.

Once I hit level 20 I headed to Jeuno to get my very own Chocbo License.  No more running for this little Taru it’s all feathered transport from now on.  Thanks for reading, see ya next time!

©2010 Pwnsan.com. All Rights Reserved.

©2010 Pwnsan.com. All Rights Reserved.

Joining or returning to Vana’diel is pretty inexpensive at the moment.  You can pick up a new copy of FFXI Vana’diel Collection 2008 for $15 at your local gaming outlets.  The 2008 collection includes the orinigal FFXI and all 4 major expansions.  FFXI Online can be played on a Playstation 2, PC, and Xbox 360.  They even throw in a free 30 day trial so you can get your feet wet.

I picked up my copy last week.  At first I was worried about being about to level at the lower levels but FFXI solved that problem by adding a feature called “Level Sync.”  Basically anybody between the levels of 10-75 can now grind out levels together.  The “Level Sync” feature allows players of a higher level to scale down to the lowest level of the group’s members.  This includes a scale down of gear and abilites.  Sounds cool huh?  Anyway, If you decide to play FFXI Online swing by Ifrit and shoot me a /wave.  I’ll do my Tarutaru /panic for ya.  See ya around!

©2010 Pwnsan.com. All Rights Reserved.

Hey everyone!  So after thinking about it for awhile I decided that I will be playing FFXI until FFXIV Online is released.  This blog will pretty much be dedicated toward FFXIV and my adventures in FFXI Online.  I can’t even express in words how happy I was when they announced FFXIV Online will be released next year.  I was in a huge MMO slump with no game to play and nothing exciting to write about.  Then this juicy piece of news was released and my whole entire lookout for the next year changed.  Something to play again, something to write about again, and something to be excited about again.  It feels great!

I installed FFXI this past week and started up a new character on US Ifrit.  My characters name is Pwnsan and right now he is currently a level 15 Tarutaru Warrior.  I’m still debating on which advance class I will select in the long run.  I am leaning toward Paladin, Bard, and Summoner.  I’ll figure it out when I hit 30.  Below are a few screen shots of my newly made character.

Here is another screen shot of me leveling in East Ronfaure.  I went with a Great Axe as my main leveling weapon.  My main goal is to hit 18 and get my sub-job unlocked as soon as possible.  I’ll worry about leveling my other weapon skills later.

Here is a screen shot of my Tarutaru taking a break after a long days grind.  I finished up the Rank 1 missions for San d’Oria and obtained Rank 2.  Only 9 more to go hehe.  Anyway, thanks for reading and if you decided to play FFXIV Online I will definitely see you there.

©2010 Pwnsan.com. All Rights Reserved.

I really don’t have much to write about.  Just a sad… sad panda with no game to play.  Thanks for reading and see you lataru.

©2010 Pwnsan.com. All Rights Reserved.