I don't know if this is just my thing but back in the day when I would take a break from camping NMs; I would pick a zone and try to "explore" it without sneak/invis. The objective is to go through the whole area undetected. Sadly I always failed lol. I remember "beating" Quicksand Cave and Ifrit's Cauldron without a single agro... one of the best times in my xi life!
Sea Serpent Grotto is my number 1 worst Zilart zone. Much like with Yhoator Jungle, unless you had the zone memorized you were going to get lost, and often getting lost implied dying. While I learned to zone through the jungle by heart thanks to exp parties, I never learned to traverse the Sea Serpent Grotto, not helped at all by the fact that the map was a chest/coffer acquisition for many years. Add to that a near full list of mobs that aggro to sight or sound (or both) and having to recast sneak/invis becomes an exercise in frustration. Whenever I needed to go to Norg, I always ended up putting it off for fear of having to go through the Sea Serpent Grotto. Story-time aside, I must say that I love this channel and all the content you put out for FFXI. Whenever I see a new video it makes me reminiscent for those good old days when I had more free time and could still play the game. Thanks for giving me an outlet to stay connected to that experience. Keep up the awesome vids!
Wow. I remember leading escort groups through the cauldron on the Seraph server for summoners and zilart missions. They don't make MMO's like this anymore sadly. No sense of risk, or reward anymore. Just the endless treadmill grind for the mindless.
My first time seeing Everyones Grudge was during a story fight iirc. I watched the paladin in front of me take an absurd amount of damage like 20k. I shat myself cause I was 2nd on the hate table on mnk. There was a quick convo "did you reset your hate" with me saying "my what?" '-' My crazy mining spot was a few expansion away from yours in Halvung. I had seen one person there once mining. They died and I never saw them again ,or anyone else. Honestly I can still visualize the run 9yrs later .. .
While I agree the jungles were a nightmare to navigate, there's a part of me that kind of misses that. In modern games, I don't look where I'm going, I just follow my quest marker and if there's a mountain or something in my way, I get really annoyed. If you asked me to travel across a lot of zones in other games without a map or quest marker, I'd get hopelessly lost. I can still get hopelessly lost in the jungles, but I spent enough time going through them, especially because there's no minimap, that I came to actually know them in the way that you know the streets of your real world home. It made it immersive, albeit at a really steep learning curve.
Also, for the least-visited zone, Den of Rancor almost definitely. I didn't spent a lot of time in Gustav Tunnel, either. Looking back, though, I can safely say that Classic and Zilart zones are definitely where I've spent the most time. I'm fairly sure I've had an XP party in every zone but Temple of Uggalepih and Den of Rancor, but including Valley of Sorrows and Dragon's Aery. Back when the servers were packed (I lost my mind seeing footage of you going past Voluptuous Vilma), sometimes we got desperate and creative.
It was really rewarding to getting to know my way around the jungles eventually real well and helping players who were lost if I was ever going through there. Was never uncommon to find someone wandering around if I was going through there and asking me in a /tell if I knew my way safely back to Kazham or other zone nearby.
I'll never forget Yhoater Jungle before they changed monster's despawn. Having people constantly train Malboros and Goblins to the zone where all the poor level 30 people were partying. All the parties either had to go zone with them or would get killed as the monster walked back to it's spawn point.
Love the hall of gods, it's so nice and relaxing, plus you can get married there. Temple of Ugly was/is a horrible place. There seemed to be a theme in your zone choosing, most had stupid maps which were complicated and confusing lol.
I agree with your list. @Elmo's World hit the nail on the head saying the theme was stupid/complicated/confusing maps. That is exactly why I hated those maps so much. One positive thing about Temple Ugglphiphihghvbgh (I think I spelled that right); I farmed my scroll for my rdm Maat battle in there! Took my 3 tries to beat him, but still! Something I look back on with fond memories from that zone. Thanks for another great video!
For Ugly Temple (that's what we called it because we couldn't pronounce that word either), we tried to keep a brd, bst or smn around.(I was a bard main). As brd/whm, you're the one that sneak/invis all the people that couldn't sneak around. If people got aggro, lullaby (doesn't count as magic aggro) and zone. The bst strategy is to have their pet aggro things, train them while you run to where you need to go. Obviously, not always applicable, for those times where your just popping in and out of zones (as you do sometimes with that zone), it helps also. Also, dismiss (if they're not in aggro range) will cause them to lose hate on any mob. Samn thing with smn, but smn's can also /whm well and do sneak and invis. Was Behemoth's domain a zilart zone? Because that's the place I went to least. As a bard and drg main, I had no reason and no interest to go there. It wasn't until blu got the thunderbolt spell that I had to go in there. As for yun and yhoat jungle, yeah, I was one of the people that basically memorized where to go. It's actually not that hard to remember if you keep an eye of where you are on the map as you take the shortest path somewhere. A lot of us older players had markings on our maps for where to go and drop down so that's half the secret right there. Map markings ftw. ^^b
The worst zone hands down is The Shrine of Ru'Avitau. Most of it is a dull grey cermet maze where most of your gameplay is standing around waiting for spawns... but even with that it has its charms. But the unforgivable problem with the zone is the teleporter to Kirin... half of the time. With the other half dropping you a ways back in the maze. This was super annoying, especially back when you wanted a full 18 for Kirin and the odds of some poor schmuck having to try the teleporter five or six times before getting through while everyone else stands around bored were reasonably high. Of all the ways FFXI was designed to waste your time this is the one that I find the most ridiculous and just plain mean-spirited. Though in fairness "ridiculous and mean-spirited waste of time" seemed to be the central design principle of sky in general, so job well done I guess.
I never really did end game stuff back in the day, so I have no fond memories of this place, but Ru'Aun Gardens. I finally paid it a visit when I was finishing up Zilart, and I remember getting incredibly frustrated trying to navigate the place. I can't imagine myself ever finding reason to like it at this point.
I actually loved the jungles. But I'm a sucker for zones like that. These zones were so rewarding to learn, and as someone leaning towards the 'explorer' category of the MMORPG personality chart, I love zones that rewards you for learning to navigate them. I feel the same about the Temple of Uggalepih as with the jungles, but here it's more for the sense of danger. But Den of Rancor can go die in a fire. Opening that gate using the torches... I still have nightmares.
You had it right with the Temple of Ugh, its never called by its full name because NO ONE wants to willingly go there, its always a chore and you go in, get what you need done and leave with doing as little lingering as needed. same goes for the Den of Rancor, its just pure death
I was an OG Bonecrafter in the day and I wanted to sign Scorpion Harness for all my folks, I farmed that scorpion in Ifrit's Cauldron so often, also Bomb Queen Ring... The fkn memories.
I only ever killed Serket and the one in Gustav Tunnel. *edit* I saw a video of a ninja + whm + I think rdm killing Tyrannic Tunnok so I see how easy it was. Most scorpions are soloed, duo’d, and trio’d during the 75 cap era, except KV of course.
"mining here was profitable because mining here was dangerous" Also rare. I used to mine it, and was very familiar with the zone. I'd spend a few hours on a normal trip, and if I was lucky, I'd get 1 of the valuable ores. It's been so long, I can't even remember what they're called. I had a BST friend who spent a lot of time there, since it was so much easier for them.
I dunno if Dragon's Aery is Zilart or not, but I assume it was due to the NMs being 75 fights. I'll never miss there. I was young and would push myself to stay up for HNM windows to help my LS. I liked the camaraderie that came with HNMs, but the actual content and zones were very rough.
Ifrit's Cauldron was a BST playground back in the day and one of my favorite zones to explore. I think I've always had a soft spot for zones no one ever really went to like Dangruf Wadi, Toraimarai Canal, and IC. Temple of Ugly though can sink to the bottom of the ocean for all I care.
Really enjoy your content. You have a great voice, & can tell your passion for the game is legit. Any chance you could video edit a bit more instead of just walking around in relevant zones. If the videos went along w/ your script, that would be so much more appealing.
You know what I agree that seeing his character running around is kinda boring to watch I would actually like to see his character kill some mobs while I’m listening to him. But not like his cap lvl killing low lvl mobs but heck I’d still enjoy if he was a lvl 1 character killing hares and worms. He should show off his OP cap lvl character destroying older HNM’s, that would get me to smile. I never got to kill some of them long ago and I always wanted to.
Least visited Zilart zone? Den of Rancor. Can count on one hand the number of times I’ve been there. Only went for Zilart Missions, Ohat fight & Spiral Hell WS fight, and Leviathan. That’s it. Haven’t done ASA far enough to have to go back there
Agree with the list for the most part, though for me, Yhoater/Yutanga woulda been one. It would be about 7 years before I would ever get out that jungle alive after finishing lvling there. Always, ALWAYS got lost. And yet...the waterfall entrance to Sea Serpent's Grotto is one of the most beautiful sights in the game with that waterfall. Ifrit's Cauldren as well is to this day for me a place to be feared due to getting lost, running low on prism/sneak oil. But that kinda makes the place retain its magical awe at the same time too. Really though..when you were going for a specific item, each zone, no matter how tough, always held its own kind of wonder/charm. The sense of danger and satisfaction of victory are soooo bitterly missed today in ff14 ; ;
Dragon's Aery is one. I THINK I got to at least visit all places in Vana'diel, but I don't recall much going on there. I didn't level MNK, so black belt quest was out. No way I was getting Excalibur either... Plus my Linkshells weren't much on HNMs. One of them would be up for it, if my server didn't have this awful claim-bot/RMT group, all making the wait most likely not worth it. Surprisingly I have memories of Valley of Sorrows, from my successful VNM solo on Skahnowa.
In the old days, I'd search Aery. If ANYONE was there, chances are Faffy was about to spawn. If there were like 40 people there, run your ass out there and hope you can outclaim Nidhogg from the 2 or 3 botted kings linkshells.
I still can't stand navigating through Ifrit's Cauldrin, but I like the zone. I would rank the jungles higher on my list though. But Den and Temple are definitely my top 2. I'm also quite disappointed that the Hall of the Gods didn't play a bigger role. It's such a neat zone, and I love the footstep effects.
I may have spent a grand total of 4 hours of my Vana'Diel life in Ifrit's Cauldron. It's annoying, out of the way, the NMs were so so (except her highness...the Bomb Queen Ring was probably the reason I spent more than an hour there just to kill Ifrit and get the map). Also, one Aht Urghan came out you didn't have to exp there at 75 when everywhere else was taken. However...it might be just me, but I always loved Temple of Uggalepih and Pso'Xja. However, I did hate killing Tonberries...especially once you learned HOW they came to be. Talk about doing the right thing and getting a raw deal for it...
Don't forget the iron maiden that spawns there I always got attacked in the temple of uggalepih do cop zones next #1 would be pso'xa thanks for all the memories keep em coming
I still play 75 cap on private servers, so I have so much experience with these. Personally, my least favorite RoZ zone is Sea Serpent Grotto. I've spent an absurd amount of time there doing Charybdis, farming Coral Fragments, and just generally putzing around, but I think it's one of the worst zone designs ever. I hate the stupid beastman coin doors, (which have bitten me in the ass a BUNCH of times) and I hate the fact that some of the NM Sahagin are so impossible to pull without linking literally the entire room. Your list is definitely good though, especially Cauldron. Cauldron sucks, and I've played a lot of BST so I've spent my fair share of time there too!
Norg was one of the most useless places to go to, it was only good for a few quests and ninja scrolls but that’s it. SSG wasn’t too bad for me @lvl75 with a party. But it still is a top 10 worst zone to visit especially if you’re flying solo.
+Huntin 4 Games Can you do a video on how we could have been motivated to help out with the wars that didn’t necessarily target every player but how it could have been better if with a better reward system to pull in more players. Ballista kept an outpost so I could get my signet and stuff while away from my home (Sandy) but still I didn’t care to do them. Do you remember Garrison battles, I only did it once or twice? Also in the Wings Of The Goddess expansion when doing campaign battles I hardly saw high lvls going to war due to other plans/goals in game instead so then you start getting declining number of players showing up to help battle against orcs, quadavs, yagudos, etc. at outposts, we became out numbered by mobs because not enough players showed up once it started getting stale. Even though you can earn allied notes to purchase armor (other stuff I don’t remember), plus whatever exp/merit points you got depending on how much you do during battle, it felt like a lot of work for some gear (worth 80-100k notes for EACH piece) that gear wasn’t better than the ones you get from Sky, Sea, Limbus, and Einherjar. But still at least you get something from doing Ballista and Campaign battles. Besieged in the Aht Urghan expansion from going to war with Mamool’s, trolls, and those Medusa looking bitches for small exp/merit points which is all you got from the battle, that wasn’t as good as a heavy chain party *if you were alive to earn that exp/merit points because if you were dead and didn’t get a raise then you got nothing from it* (unless they changed that). Some punishing element that made it worthless imo. Besieged could’ve been worth everyone’s time if done right but it wasn’t worth the time especially compared to other parts of that expansion like Nyzul Isle. All high lvls would rather lvl other jobs, do quests, missions, BCNM’s, HNM’s etc. All these battles seemed like fun but they didn’t do too much for the players in the end as far as rewards. What would have made Ballista, Besieged, and Campaign battles better if anything?????? *OMG I had to edit this A LOT lol*
Worst for me was Quicksand Caves. Tons of entrances, in one the largest zones, having to have multiple people, Antica's are just the worst, drop off that prevent you from going the way you want if you mess up resulting in at least another 30mins of walking. Plus it reminds me of Episode II, and that's not a good thing.
Yeah that’s definitely another place I didn’t like going to. This video should be worst zilart zones to travel into and next video will be worst zone to get caught by mobs and trap doors to rely on party members to back you up.
I'll give a shout out to the Den of Rancor as actually an old favourite of mine as a career solo-er. Rarely any competition for mobs for the very reason the zone was disliked by people like yourself. And also those mandys near one of the zone lines were about the lowest level mobs in the game that you could actually get weapon skill ups at level 75 in the old 75 level cap days.
God, the jungles. Easily spent more time in the Jungles than anywhere else back in the day. Even knowing the map fairly well after exping there over and over and over again, it was still always a shit-show whenever you had to zone a bad pull or add at the wrong time, all that knowledge went right out the window when you're running for your life from 2 or 3 lizards or Gobs. I do remember the first time I ran all the way from Kazham to Ugly without having to check my map once. Thought I was pretty hot shit lol
The LEAST amount of time? Likely the Valley of Sorrow (I think it was a Zilart zone?) Unsure, went out there once to get my friend the aspid egg for his black belt and never really returned. :)
Nice place and I loved that giant turtle. Only ever killed it once or twice. Others were too good on claiming (bots). Our guild was pretty much bot free, only one or 2 of ours would bot. Which is why our guild broke up XD hardly ever really claimed.
@@ericsoto4064 yeah, the bot claim nonsense was absurd at certain points. my linkshell ended up focusing on the things that didn't require claim bots, like Sky during the off hours, limbus, Sea, and a little bit of dynamis to finance purchasing the big stuff that needed those claim bots ridden drops. Overall I'd say we did alright, we weren't top tier, but we also managed to get lots of stuff for people and had a great time all the while! :)
I might catch a Fire IV for this comment..but I would say Vulkrum dunes would be on this list. Once I got to lv.10, people would send invites for party at the lizard camp in Vulkrum. Coming from Sandy, passing through La thein Plateau then onward to the dunes was harrowing for a lv. 10! The run to the dunes was always so long I thought, then once at the dunes I had to avoid the goblins and damsel flies on my way to the camp. Well, then we got to 'the tunnel' which was the final step! soo close to the party invite!...only to be accosted by bats and slain once inside the tunnel. Having to find a raise, or even running back all over, I always hated the original trip to Vulkrum at lv.10
I hate the Temple of Uggalepih. It's just such a maze, not in the sense that you get lost easily, but that you have to go all over to go to somewhere. This is why I don't mind the jungle at all. Once you learn it, you know where you're going, and you can get there pretty fast. Den of Rancor I don't mind either, because once you get there, you're good. And it's not really the place you go to for a picnic. If you go there you have a reason to do it. I also don't mind Ifrit's Cauldron. It is kind of annoying like Uggalepih, but it's generally the end destination, so you won't have to go through all of it, and you'll get a good reward (probably). Tbh I was more annoyed by the desert zones. The quicksand caves is my least favorite zone. I think it's worse than Eldieme even. It's less dangerous than Uggalepih, but harder to navigate through, and there are so many entrances, spread out over two maps. I will not go there without a guide telling me all the directions.
I hate hate hate hate hate the Temple of Uggly so much. I have a horror story about that place that I will never forget. For years my passion was Samurai. It's all I wanted to do and all I focused on. So even though the SAM AF body piece isn't good at all, I still wanted it. And it happens to be in a Coffer inside the Temple of Uggly. So I was still about level 55-ish at the time. I would spend time checking the... I think 2 or 3 coffers that you could find without a key or killing a NM. I had no luck with this and I had an amazing friend of mine, a 75 DRG, who offered to help. At first it was just her and myself, we had to slowly kill SO many tonberries and that Doll that guards the door over and over as we checked coffers. And soon it became obvious that it was behind one of the doors that needed a key. Just a 75 DRG and a 55 SAM had trouble killing the mobs in there easily, and multiple times we would wipe because of one simple mistake. So we began asking friends for help pretty much all day. Over the course of 7 hours, we had people pop in to help us, eventually the Temple would kill us for one reason or another, and they would get upset and leave. My friend never once let me give up, she even de-leveled to 74 and still told me we were going to find that coffer. We died trying to get a Pot aggroed to open a door for us, died trying to check the room inside the pillar, died just trying to farm Keys, you name it. It was brutal. Finally at the end of the day, we opened one of the last rooms we hadn't checked yet, it was a room that almost looked like some kind of stone receptionists desk with tonberries all around it. And right in the middle of all the Tonberries was the Coffer. The two people with me ran in and aggroed everything all at once and told me to open the coffer NOW. And just as they both died I managed to clumsily open the coffer and get my AF piece before I died right after. Seven hours and tons of exp lost just to find one stupid coffer. I hate that place so much.
The trip to sky every day made me hate Hall of the Gods too... that damn gate CS! Death temple wasn't fun. Tight hallways and a long trip back if you die with the zone so far away made this place uncomfortable in the best of times. Den was terrible by all accounts. No good things ever happened there. Labyrinth of Onzozo is bad, but at least it's small. For some reason people decided to exp down there on Torama.... with most dps not knowing what sushi was at the time since it was so new. I spent way too many hours camping the Lord of Onzozo too.. least it paid off a few times.
Zilart zones and vanilla zones are one big blob for me lol Hell most CoP zones too, as I started a little before CoP release and by the time I got to the higher levels CoP had been out for awhile.
I'm a new FFXI player and am wondering if i should play on the official servers or on the private Classic FFXI server Nasomi. Can you guys tell me your thoughts?
Yeah that zone did suck but I PERSONALLY don’t think it was so bad that I couldn’t stand being there. But everyone’s experiences are different from mine. *Edit* I’ve changed my mind, sort of, after being reminded by others in this comment section of zones another takes #6, but I still think this zone is one of the worst on a top 10 list.
I had to research this zone because I thought it was one of the zones in sky but it was the zone BEFORE it to get there. It was pretty much a useless zone imo. I went there for a quest and to farm some mobs to spawn a NM. Forgot what the drop was. It’s that zone you don’t even care to remember lol like meriphataud mountains.
Lol I came back after a five year break, which I had come back after a break before that too, and made it to yhaotor Jungle on memory, just cause I had done it so much.
Am I the only one who watched every last second hoping to see this Volcano Erupt? Played since NA release and haven't ever seen that, nor did I even know it could or would.
i know you can use mounts now, but when TOAU first came out, I HATED traversing Caederva mire man.... one type of the imps if not all of them had true sight just making it miserable af
@@LiquidusSnakeX Perhaps I did than, I know I was in sky. I did participate in fights against kirin. But it has been such a long time since I played. So I can't say for sure, either way I was not in the zones often. 🤷♂️
I actually really liked temple of uggalepih. Not a friendly place... I think there was a section in ugglalepih you needed other ppl to get through sort of like garliage citadel. that was the only thing i didn't really like about it.
Most useless map in the game: Yorcia Weald. You thought the jungle was bad? Dude, Yorcia Weald might as well not have even HAD a map. Also, if you studied the map on FFXIclopedia or BG-Wiki, you'd realize a crucial little clue so you could tell where the tunnels are, and where they go... the clearings (which are marked on the map) all have these little points. These points are all entrances to tunnels. Step in a point and look at which way the cave bends and you could, most of the time, predict where the other end is. Not 100%, but once I got the hang of doing that, the Jungle got a LOT easier. Also, Ifrit's and that stupid Uggly Temple .... well, a lot of zones were designed with the same philosophy of having hundreds of tiny barriers that you must walk miles around to overcome. The Japanese LOVED that crap for some stupid reason, anything to make us waste as much time as humanly possible trying to do simple tasks. I liked FFXI and it will always have at least some fondness, but there were some things in the game that were just downright frustrating that soured the whole experience, and the terrain design is one of those things. I think some of the tiny barriers were just so egregious, you could tell they were designed _ON PURPOSE_ to be frustrating. Designing a game element with the sole purpose of frustrating the player, IMO, is anti-game and anti-fun and really shouldn't be done. EDIT: Also, I would stick Den of Rancor in with Temple of Uggly. Both of them were just a huge string of terrible ideas. Walls upon walls upon walls, rooms upon rooms upon rooms that all look samey, ridiculous numbers of small barriers forcing long go-arounds in and out four different zones.... I think the zone designer grabbed a piece of paper and scribbled on it and passed it off to the dev team and said "here, make the maps connect like this".
Attohwa Chasm, Fuck that zone , Fuck the walls , fuck the maze , fuck the mobs and most of all ..Fuck that mountain i know its C.O.P but you said what zone do you hate and there it is
Wow all the years I played FFXI I never seen a burn party there. Only in Cape Terrigan and Gustav Tunnel are the ones closest to VoS that I’ve seen burn parties.
@ the end of this list you should just name and show smaller clips of the zones you didn’t name/put on this list but COULD have been if not one of the top 5.
I don't know if this is just my thing but back in the day when I would take a break from camping NMs; I would pick a zone and try to "explore" it without sneak/invis. The objective is to go through the whole area undetected. Sadly I always failed lol. I remember "beating" Quicksand Cave and Ifrit's Cauldron without a single agro... one of the best times in my xi life!
Haha damn! I never had any urge to try that, but that's super intense
After all these years, I have never seen that volcano erupt...
I saw it erupt when it was double raining. It was an awesome screenshot.
i have NEVER reset my hate! in the 16 years of playing ffxi!
>Tonberry Maledictor uses Everyone's Grudge.
>Zantrav receives 99999 points of damage.
>Zantrav is defeated by the Tonberry Maledictor.
yeah but i'm a SMN so my pet always dies :P
I never bothered to reset my hate either. My LS got a good laugh when I got one shotted by Everyone’s Rancor in the ZM4 fight
gg do you still play ffxi
I actually just came back the other day.
Sea Serpent Grotto is my number 1 worst Zilart zone. Much like with Yhoator Jungle, unless you had the zone memorized you were going to get lost, and often getting lost implied dying. While I learned to zone through the jungle by heart thanks to exp parties, I never learned to traverse the Sea Serpent Grotto, not helped at all by the fact that the map was a chest/coffer acquisition for many years. Add to that a near full list of mobs that aggro to sight or sound (or both) and having to recast sneak/invis becomes an exercise in frustration. Whenever I needed to go to Norg, I always ended up putting it off for fear of having to go through the Sea Serpent Grotto.
Story-time aside, I must say that I love this channel and all the content you put out for FFXI. Whenever I see a new video it makes me reminiscent for those good old days when I had more free time and could still play the game. Thanks for giving me an outlet to stay connected to that experience. Keep up the awesome vids!
Wow. I remember leading escort groups through the cauldron on the Seraph server for summoners and zilart missions.
They don't make MMO's like this anymore sadly. No sense of risk, or reward anymore. Just the endless treadmill grind for the mindless.
My first time seeing Everyones Grudge was during a story fight iirc. I watched the paladin in front of me take an absurd amount of damage like 20k. I shat myself cause I was 2nd on the hate table on mnk. There was a quick convo "did you reset your hate" with me saying "my what?" '-'
My crazy mining spot was a few expansion away from yours in Halvung. I had seen one person there once mining. They died and I never saw them again ,or anyone else. Honestly I can still visualize the run 9yrs later .. .
While I agree the jungles were a nightmare to navigate, there's a part of me that kind of misses that. In modern games, I don't look where I'm going, I just follow my quest marker and if there's a mountain or something in my way, I get really annoyed. If you asked me to travel across a lot of zones in other games without a map or quest marker, I'd get hopelessly lost. I can still get hopelessly lost in the jungles, but I spent enough time going through them, especially because there's no minimap, that I came to actually know them in the way that you know the streets of your real world home. It made it immersive, albeit at a really steep learning curve.
Oh 100%, while this best worst list is all in good fun, I'd take any FFXI zone and classic style of navigation to modern MMOs
Also, for the least-visited zone, Den of Rancor almost definitely. I didn't spent a lot of time in Gustav Tunnel, either. Looking back, though, I can safely say that Classic and Zilart zones are definitely where I've spent the most time. I'm fairly sure I've had an XP party in every zone but Temple of Uggalepih and Den of Rancor, but including Valley of Sorrows and Dragon's Aery. Back when the servers were packed (I lost my mind seeing footage of you going past Voluptuous Vilma), sometimes we got desperate and creative.
It was really rewarding to getting to know my way around the jungles eventually real well and helping players who were lost if I was ever going through there. Was never uncommon to find someone wandering around if I was going through there and asking me in a /tell if I knew my way safely back to Kazham or other zone nearby.
I'll never forget Yhoater Jungle before they changed monster's despawn. Having people constantly train Malboros and Goblins to the zone where all the poor level 30 people were partying. All the parties either had to go zone with them or would get killed as the monster walked back to it's spawn point.
Fun MPK times lol
Garliage Citadel was like that to before despawns xD.
Never witnessed ifrits cauldron erupt. I honestly didn't even know it could
Really enjoyable video,.Ifrit's Cauldron definitely belonged on this list.
I have been waiting for this video!!! I love your stuff man keep 'em coming PLEASE!!
Love the hall of gods, it's so nice and relaxing, plus you can get married there. Temple of Ugly was/is a horrible place. There seemed to be a theme in your zone choosing, most had stupid maps which were complicated and confusing lol.
Omg wait you could get married there?? That's nuts!!
Yeh it was the most expensive venue if I remember correctly. I always wanted to get married there lol.
I agree with your list. @Elmo's World hit the nail on the head saying the theme was stupid/complicated/confusing maps. That is exactly why I hated those maps so much. One positive thing about Temple Ugglphiphihghvbgh (I think I spelled that right); I farmed my scroll for my rdm Maat battle in there! Took my 3 tries to beat him, but still! Something I look back on with fond memories from that zone. Thanks for another great video!
My summoner rancor was so high, I was nearly kicked from my linkshell when 3 of our thieves died to Sozu Rogberry, taking 7k damage a piece.
For Ugly Temple (that's what we called it because we couldn't pronounce that word either), we tried to keep a brd, bst or smn around.(I was a bard main). As brd/whm, you're the one that sneak/invis all the people that couldn't sneak around. If people got aggro, lullaby (doesn't count as magic aggro) and zone. The bst strategy is to have their pet aggro things, train them while you run to where you need to go. Obviously, not always applicable, for those times where your just popping in and out of zones (as you do sometimes with that zone), it helps also. Also, dismiss (if they're not in aggro range) will cause them to lose hate on any mob. Samn thing with smn, but smn's can also /whm well and do sneak and invis.
Was Behemoth's domain a zilart zone? Because that's the place I went to least. As a bard and drg main, I had no reason and no interest to go there. It wasn't until blu got the thunderbolt spell that I had to go in there.
As for yun and yhoat jungle, yeah, I was one of the people that basically memorized where to go. It's actually not that hard to remember if you keep an eye of where you are on the map as you take the shortest path somewhere. A lot of us older players had markings on our maps for where to go and drop down so that's half the secret right there. Map markings ftw. ^^b
best tuber, please never change anything
Some day he’ll add some Pantheon Rise of the Fallen videos. But he’s probably waiting for it to be released. Bwahahahahaaa!!!!!
The worst zone hands down is The Shrine of Ru'Avitau. Most of it is a dull grey cermet maze where most of your gameplay is standing around waiting for spawns... but even with that it has its charms. But the unforgivable problem with the zone is the teleporter to Kirin... half of the time. With the other half dropping you a ways back in the maze.
This was super annoying, especially back when you wanted a full 18 for Kirin and the odds of some poor schmuck having to try the teleporter five or six times before getting through while everyone else stands around bored were reasonably high.
Of all the ways FFXI was designed to waste your time this is the one that I find the most ridiculous and just plain mean-spirited. Though in fairness "ridiculous and mean-spirited waste of time" seemed to be the central design principle of sky in general, so job well done I guess.
Valkrum Dunes will always have my heart.
I never really did end game stuff back in the day, so I have no fond memories of this place, but Ru'Aun Gardens. I finally paid it a visit when I was finishing up Zilart, and I remember getting incredibly frustrated trying to navigate the place. I can't imagine myself ever finding reason to like it at this point.
I actually loved the jungles. But I'm a sucker for zones like that.
These zones were so rewarding to learn, and as someone leaning towards the 'explorer' category of the MMORPG personality chart, I love zones that rewards you for learning to navigate them.
I feel the same about the Temple of Uggalepih as with the jungles, but here it's more for the sense of danger. But Den of Rancor can go die in a fire. Opening that gate using the torches... I still have nightmares.
I do love the jungles and the temple, just could get so annoyed haha. But realistically still a love hate thing
Somebody told me in party once when we was in the Jungle he wished the guy who made that map needs to have a stroke lol.
You had it right with the Temple of Ugh, its never called by its full name because NO ONE wants to willingly go there, its always a chore and you go in, get what you need done and leave with doing as little lingering as needed. same goes for the Den of Rancor, its just pure death
I always loved the atmosphere in Temple Of Ugly Pee, but man, it is SUCH a pain to navigate!
I was an OG Bonecrafter in the day and I wanted to sign Scorpion Harness for all my folks, I farmed that scorpion in Ifrit's Cauldron so often, also Bomb Queen Ring... The fkn memories.
I only ever killed Serket and the one in Gustav Tunnel.
*edit* I saw a video of a ninja + whm + I think rdm killing Tyrannic Tunnok so I see how easy it was. Most scorpions are soloed, duo’d, and trio’d during the 75 cap era, except KV of course.
"mining here was profitable because mining here was dangerous" Also rare. I used to mine it, and was very familiar with the zone. I'd spend a few hours on a normal trip, and if I was lucky, I'd get 1 of the valuable ores. It's been so long, I can't even remember what they're called. I had a BST friend who spent a lot of time there, since it was so much easier for them.
I dunno if Dragon's Aery is Zilart or not, but I assume it was due to the NMs being 75 fights. I'll never miss there. I was young and would push myself to stay up for HNM windows to help my LS. I liked the camaraderie that came with HNMs, but the actual content and zones were very rough.
Ifrit's Cauldron was a BST playground back in the day and one of my favorite zones to explore. I think I've always had a soft spot for zones no one ever really went to like Dangruf Wadi, Toraimarai Canal, and IC. Temple of Ugly though can sink to the bottom of the ocean for all I care.
Great vids man!! Keep em up please!
Really enjoy your content. You have a great voice, & can tell your passion for the game is legit. Any chance you could video edit a bit more instead of just walking around in relevant zones. If the videos went along w/ your script, that would be so much more appealing.
You know what I agree that seeing his character running around is kinda boring to watch I would actually like to see his character kill some mobs while I’m listening to him. But not like his cap lvl killing low lvl mobs but heck I’d still enjoy if he was a lvl 1 character killing hares and worms. He should show off his OP cap lvl character destroying older HNM’s, that would get me to smile. I never got to kill some of them long ago and I always wanted to.
Screw Den of Rancor. It's nothing anymore with Ilvl119 but part of me still has PTSD whenever I enter that zone
Least visited Zilart zone? Den of Rancor. Can count on one hand the number of times I’ve been there. Only went for Zilart Missions, Ohat fight & Spiral Hell WS fight, and Leviathan. That’s it. Haven’t done ASA far enough to have to go back there
Jungle maps DEFINITELY qualify them! Also, any westerner who doesn't consider Zilart the base set is a total weeb.
Agree with the list for the most part, though for me, Yhoater/Yutanga woulda been one. It would be about 7 years before I would ever get out that jungle alive after finishing lvling there. Always, ALWAYS got lost. And yet...the waterfall entrance to Sea Serpent's Grotto is one of the most beautiful sights in the game with that waterfall. Ifrit's Cauldren as well is to this day for me a place to be feared due to getting lost, running low on prism/sneak oil. But that kinda makes the place retain its magical awe at the same time too. Really though..when you were going for a specific item, each zone, no matter how tough, always held its own kind of wonder/charm. The sense of danger and satisfaction of victory are soooo bitterly missed today in ff14 ; ;
Dragon's Aery is one. I THINK I got to at least visit all places in Vana'diel, but I don't recall much going on there. I didn't level MNK, so black belt quest was out. No way I was getting Excalibur either... Plus my Linkshells weren't much on HNMs. One of them would be up for it, if my server didn't have this awful claim-bot/RMT group, all making the wait most likely not worth it.
Surprisingly I have memories of Valley of Sorrows, from my successful VNM solo on Skahnowa.
In the old days, I'd search Aery. If ANYONE was there, chances are Faffy was about to spawn. If there were like 40 people there, run your ass out there and hope you can outclaim Nidhogg from the 2 or 3 botted kings linkshells.
I still can't stand navigating through Ifrit's Cauldrin, but I like the zone. I would rank the jungles higher on my list though. But Den and Temple are definitely my top 2. I'm also quite disappointed that the Hall of the Gods didn't play a bigger role. It's such a neat zone, and I love the footstep effects.
I may have spent a grand total of 4 hours of my Vana'Diel life in Ifrit's Cauldron. It's annoying, out of the way, the NMs were so so (except her highness...the Bomb Queen Ring was probably the reason I spent more than an hour there just to kill Ifrit and get the map). Also, one Aht Urghan came out you didn't have to exp there at 75 when everywhere else was taken.
However...it might be just me, but I always loved Temple of Uggalepih and Pso'Xja. However, I did hate killing Tonberries...especially once you learned HOW they came to be. Talk about doing the right thing and getting a raw deal for it...
Don't forget the iron maiden that spawns there I always got attacked in the temple of uggalepih do cop zones next #1 would be pso'xa thanks for all the memories keep em coming
I still play 75 cap on private servers, so I have so much experience with these. Personally, my least favorite RoZ zone is Sea Serpent Grotto. I've spent an absurd amount of time there doing Charybdis, farming Coral Fragments, and just generally putzing around, but I think it's one of the worst zone designs ever. I hate the stupid beastman coin doors, (which have bitten me in the ass a BUNCH of times) and I hate the fact that some of the NM Sahagin are so impossible to pull without linking literally the entire room.
Your list is definitely good though, especially Cauldron. Cauldron sucks, and I've played a lot of BST so I've spent my fair share of time there too!
Norg was one of the most useless places to go to, it was only good for a few quests and ninja scrolls but that’s it.
SSG wasn’t too bad for me @lvl75 with a party. But it still is a top 10 worst zone to visit especially if you’re flying solo.
A few people have said that! But I always loved the style of that zone, and Sahagin are fun haha
forgot to mention the stupid paintbrush paiting door opening thing. You had to like click it then just wait before you click again it was so weird.
+Huntin 4 Games Can you do a video on how we could have been motivated to help out with the wars that didn’t necessarily target every player but how it could have been better if with a better reward system to pull in more players. Ballista kept an outpost so I could get my signet and stuff while away from my home (Sandy) but still I didn’t care to do them. Do you remember Garrison battles, I only did it once or twice? Also in the Wings Of The Goddess expansion when doing campaign battles I hardly saw high lvls going to war due to other plans/goals in game instead so then you start getting declining number of players showing up to help battle against orcs, quadavs, yagudos, etc. at outposts, we became out numbered by mobs because not enough players showed up once it started getting stale. Even though you can earn allied notes to purchase armor (other stuff I don’t remember), plus whatever exp/merit points you got depending on how much you do during battle, it felt like a lot of work for some gear (worth 80-100k notes for EACH piece) that gear wasn’t better than the ones you get from Sky, Sea, Limbus, and Einherjar. But still at least you get something from doing Ballista and Campaign battles. Besieged in the Aht Urghan expansion from going to war with Mamool’s, trolls, and those Medusa looking bitches for small exp/merit points which is all you got from the battle, that wasn’t as good as a heavy chain party *if you were alive to earn that exp/merit points because if you were dead and didn’t get a raise then you got nothing from it* (unless they changed that). Some punishing element that made it worthless imo. Besieged could’ve been worth everyone’s time if done right but it wasn’t worth the time especially compared to other parts of that expansion like Nyzul Isle. All high lvls would rather lvl other jobs, do quests, missions, BCNM’s, HNM’s etc. All these battles seemed like fun but they didn’t do too much for the players in the end as far as rewards. What would have made Ballista, Besieged, and Campaign battles better if anything??????
*OMG I had to edit this A LOT lol*
Worst for me was Quicksand Caves. Tons of entrances, in one the largest zones, having to have multiple people, Antica's are just the worst, drop off that prevent you from going the way you want if you mess up resulting in at least another 30mins of walking. Plus it reminds me of Episode II, and that's not a good thing.
Yeah that’s definitely another place I didn’t like going to. This video should be worst zilart zones to travel into and next video will be worst zone to get caught by mobs and trap doors to rely on party members to back you up.
Haha that's true, but I loved some of those leveling camps in QC
Lmao
lol, I loved all those maps..ifrits cauldren is my least visited tho.
I'll give a shout out to the Den of Rancor as actually an old favourite of mine as a career solo-er. Rarely any competition for mobs for the very reason the zone was disliked by people like yourself. And also those mandys near one of the zone lines were about the lowest level mobs in the game that you could actually get weapon skill ups at level 75 in the old 75 level cap days.
the temple made me some really good gil at the time.
ninja scrolls, thiefs knife (before the rare-ex)
those 2 sold really well
Temple of Ugg earned its unusual names we gave it. I usually just called it Uggly... yeah, it's a Salute Your Shorts reference, what of it?
God, the jungles. Easily spent more time in the Jungles than anywhere else back in the day. Even knowing the map fairly well after exping there over and over and over again, it was still always a shit-show whenever you had to zone a bad pull or add at the wrong time, all that knowledge went right out the window when you're running for your life from 2 or 3 lizards or Gobs.
I do remember the first time I ran all the way from Kazham to Ugly without having to check my map once. Thought I was pretty hot shit lol
As far as my memory goes I can't remember a redeeming thing I enjoyed about going to or through Ro'Maeve
The LEAST amount of time? Likely the Valley of Sorrow (I think it was a Zilart zone?) Unsure, went out there once to get my friend the aspid egg for his black belt and never really returned. :)
Nice place and I loved that giant turtle. Only ever killed it once or twice. Others were too good on claiming (bots). Our guild was pretty much bot free, only one or 2 of ours would bot. Which is why our guild broke up XD hardly ever really claimed.
@@ericsoto4064 yeah, the bot claim nonsense was absurd at certain points. my linkshell ended up focusing on the things that didn't require claim bots, like Sky during the off hours, limbus, Sea, and a little bit of dynamis to finance purchasing the big stuff that needed those claim bots ridden drops. Overall I'd say we did alright, we weren't top tier, but we also managed to get lots of stuff for people and had a great time all the while! :)
I might catch a Fire IV for this comment..but I would say Vulkrum dunes would be on this list. Once I got to lv.10, people would send invites for party at the lizard camp in Vulkrum. Coming from Sandy, passing through La thein Plateau then onward to the dunes was harrowing for a lv. 10! The run to the dunes was always so long I thought, then once at the dunes I had to avoid the goblins and damsel flies on my way to the camp. Well, then we got to 'the tunnel' which was the final step! soo close to the party invite!...only to be accosted by bats and slain once inside the tunnel. Having to find a raise, or even running back all over, I always hated the original trip to Vulkrum at lv.10
Garlaige Citadel back in the day with trains of mobs that didn't despawn.
I hate the Temple of Uggalepih. It's just such a maze, not in the sense that you get lost easily, but that you have to go all over to go to somewhere. This is why I don't mind the jungle at all. Once you learn it, you know where you're going, and you can get there pretty fast.
Den of Rancor I don't mind either, because once you get there, you're good. And it's not really the place you go to for a picnic. If you go there you have a reason to do it.
I also don't mind Ifrit's Cauldron. It is kind of annoying like Uggalepih, but it's generally the end destination, so you won't have to go through all of it, and you'll get a good reward (probably).
Tbh I was more annoyed by the desert zones. The quicksand caves is my least favorite zone. I think it's worse than Eldieme even. It's less dangerous than Uggalepih, but harder to navigate through, and there are so many entrances, spread out over two maps. I will not go there without a guide telling me all the directions.
Is it easy to gear up end game?
I hate hate hate hate hate the Temple of Uggly so much. I have a horror story about that place that I will never forget.
For years my passion was Samurai. It's all I wanted to do and all I focused on. So even though the SAM AF body piece isn't good at all, I still wanted it. And it happens to be in a Coffer inside the Temple of Uggly. So I was still about level 55-ish at the time. I would spend time checking the... I think 2 or 3 coffers that you could find without a key or killing a NM. I had no luck with this and I had an amazing friend of mine, a 75 DRG, who offered to help. At first it was just her and myself, we had to slowly kill SO many tonberries and that Doll that guards the door over and over as we checked coffers. And soon it became obvious that it was behind one of the doors that needed a key. Just a 75 DRG and a 55 SAM had trouble killing the mobs in there easily, and multiple times we would wipe because of one simple mistake. So we began asking friends for help pretty much all day. Over the course of 7 hours, we had people pop in to help us, eventually the Temple would kill us for one reason or another, and they would get upset and leave. My friend never once let me give up, she even de-leveled to 74 and still told me we were going to find that coffer.
We died trying to get a Pot aggroed to open a door for us, died trying to check the room inside the pillar, died just trying to farm Keys, you name it. It was brutal. Finally at the end of the day, we opened one of the last rooms we hadn't checked yet, it was a room that almost looked like some kind of stone receptionists desk with tonberries all around it. And right in the middle of all the Tonberries was the Coffer. The two people with me ran in and aggroed everything all at once and told me to open the coffer NOW. And just as they both died I managed to clumsily open the coffer and get my AF piece before I died right after. Seven hours and tons of exp lost just to find one stupid coffer. I hate that place so much.
The trip to sky every day made me hate Hall of the Gods too... that damn gate CS!
Death temple wasn't fun. Tight hallways and a long trip back if you die with the zone so far away made this place uncomfortable in the best of times.
Den was terrible by all accounts. No good things ever happened there.
Labyrinth of Onzozo is bad, but at least it's small. For some reason people decided to exp down there on Torama.... with most dps not knowing what sushi was at the time since it was so new. I spent way too many hours camping the Lord of Onzozo too.. least it paid off a few times.
love your vids thanks for upload
This vid makes me want to play this game on the eden private server, just to level beastmaster to level 75, just for the nostalgia.
Zilart zones and vanilla zones are one big blob for me lol
Hell most CoP zones too, as I started a little before CoP release and by the time I got to the higher levels CoP had been out for awhile.
Voluptuous Vilma is unclaimed, let alone spawned? I call shenanigans.
Your taru was the same exact look as mine was miss ff 11
Used to play back in 2004-2007 is Vanadiel economy basically the same? i mean AH etc etc..
Yes and no a lot of people make gil from selling kills but the majority is from selling items
I'm a new FFXI player and am wondering if i should play on the official servers or on the private Classic FFXI server Nasomi.
Can you guys tell me your thoughts?
Wasn’t Ro Maeve a Zilart zone? Hated this zone more than Ugly Death Temple.
Yeah that zone did suck but I PERSONALLY don’t think it was so bad that I couldn’t stand being there. But everyone’s experiences are different from mine.
*Edit* I’ve changed my mind, sort of, after being reminded by others in this comment section of zones another takes #6, but I still think this zone is one of the worst on a top 10 list.
It was! Haha I think I had it on one of the best!
I had to research this zone because I thought it was one of the zones in sky but it was the zone BEFORE it to get there. It was pretty much a useless zone imo. I went there for a quest and to farm some mobs to spawn a NM. Forgot what the drop was. It’s that zone you don’t even care to remember lol like meriphataud mountains.
Awh, but those cute little Opo-Opoo's though.
They are quite adorable, but they're in Kazham too and it's happier there
Who remembers mpk trains in the jungles?
Me ✋
Lol I came back after a five year break, which I had come back after a break before that too, and made it to yhaotor Jungle on memory, just cause I had done it so much.
Am I the only one who watched every last second hoping to see this Volcano Erupt? Played since NA release and haven't ever seen that, nor did I even know it could or would.
You past v.v I spent weeks hunting it as a 48 spawn
worse part is you never want to reset hate anymore if you have a job that uses begrudging ring
i know you can use mounts now, but when TOAU first came out, I HATED traversing Caederva mire man.... one type of the imps if not all of them had true sight just making it miserable af
I call it Temple of Ugly Pit
Zilart zone I spent the least time in was infrits cauldron, cannot recall having ever visited this zone. Or the den of rancor for that matter.
they are both part of the zilart main quest.
@@LiquidusSnakeX Perhaps I did than, I know I was in sky. I did participate in fights against kirin. But it has been such a long time since I played. So I can't say for sure, either way I was not in the zones often. 🤷♂️
You don't remember during the Zilart MQ farming for unlit lanterns to unlock the door in the Den of Rancor for the tonberry fight? Lucky.
Everyone had to erase tonberry hate so that stab didn’t eat your HP or 1shot you lol. Doing a quest for that too was a pain in the ass.
I never reset hate before. I just did not kill many tonberries.
Ooh I hated quicksand caves..... the stupid zilart quest to get the headstone ugggh pain in the ass
Quicksand caves
if i had to pick it would probly be sea serpent grotto
Uggaleppy. It ends with a pih, which is pronounced "pee".
I just....I don't know if I can. I don't think I'm strong enough
I actually really liked temple of uggalepih. Not a friendly place... I think there was a section in ugglalepih you needed other ppl to get through sort of like garliage citadel. that was the only thing i didn't really like about it.
Which server are you on?
Aw, Im on Asura. Thx for answer.
Unless you were in a HNM linkshell, there was absolutely no reason to ever go to Dragon's Aery or Valley of Sorrows.
Buying the black belt drop or duo/trio Adamantoise w/ friends for the black belt drop.
Dunes should have been here.. as a mention at least : P
Your screen name looks super familiar
Was you ever on Gilgamesh?
Nope! Odin 4life, but still cool. I hope there are other Chuirois running around haha
I hated sky, #1. Jungle #2, and 3, u temple 4, and D of R.
Eco Warrior Can I Have it?
Train of death! Good times :D
Most useless map in the game: Yorcia Weald. You thought the jungle was bad? Dude, Yorcia Weald might as well not have even HAD a map. Also, if you studied the map on FFXIclopedia or BG-Wiki, you'd realize a crucial little clue so you could tell where the tunnels are, and where they go... the clearings (which are marked on the map) all have these little points. These points are all entrances to tunnels. Step in a point and look at which way the cave bends and you could, most of the time, predict where the other end is. Not 100%, but once I got the hang of doing that, the Jungle got a LOT easier.
Also, Ifrit's and that stupid Uggly Temple .... well, a lot of zones were designed with the same philosophy of having hundreds of tiny barriers that you must walk miles around to overcome. The Japanese LOVED that crap for some stupid reason, anything to make us waste as much time as humanly possible trying to do simple tasks. I liked FFXI and it will always have at least some fondness, but there were some things in the game that were just downright frustrating that soured the whole experience, and the terrain design is one of those things. I think some of the tiny barriers were just so egregious, you could tell they were designed _ON PURPOSE_ to be frustrating. Designing a game element with the sole purpose of frustrating the player, IMO, is anti-game and anti-fun and really shouldn't be done.
EDIT: Also, I would stick Den of Rancor in with Temple of Uggly. Both of them were just a huge string of terrible ideas. Walls upon walls upon walls, rooms upon rooms upon rooms that all look samey, ridiculous numbers of small barriers forcing long go-arounds in and out four different zones.... I think the zone designer grabbed a piece of paper and scribbled on it and passed it off to the dev team and said "here, make the maps connect like this".
Keep em coming!!!!
Attohwa Chasm, Fuck that zone , Fuck the walls , fuck the maze , fuck the mobs and most of all ..Fuck that mountain i know its C.O.P but you said what zone do you hate and there it is
Lmao I'll give ya that one
top 5 zones we love to hate
I think I dated a Jack of All Nowhere
Giddeus
Valley of sorrows is pretty pointless imo other than arrow burn pts killing big birds kind useless save adimose.
Wow all the years I played FFXI I never seen a burn party there. Only in Cape Terrigan and Gustav Tunnel are the ones closest to VoS that I’ve seen burn parties.
#5 & #2 are the worst for me on this list
@ the end of this list you should just name and show smaller clips of the zones you didn’t name/put on this list but COULD have been if not one of the top 5.
Good picks haha
Best art direction? Really?
Haha whada mean? Did I say best? I did really love the art direction of most of these zones, (not den of rancor)