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How is the economy? Has it stabilized during the last few years?
Still mostly in deflated state. It is harder to make big bucks unless you hopped onto a niche early on, but the amount of things you need big bucks for is fewer which is really nice for the more casual players.
For instance, remember when things like NQ Haubergeon, Scorpion Harness, and Noble's Tunic were all pimp gear costing in the millions? No longer. These things are common and cheap enough to be pretty much standard issue now.
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Has crafting gotten any easier or is it still a pain in the ***?
From my understanding, still a pain in the ***.
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Have the jobs changed much in the last few years? Are there any major changes we should look for that might have occured after ToAU?
WHM has MANY new toys which I'm not going to detail all of here, but basically you're looking at the "stance" JAs Afflatus Solace and Afflatus Misery, and the spells Cura, Auspice, Sacrifice, and Esuna. The biggest change of all though might be the introduction of /SCH subjob, which enhances WHM's MP conservation far beyond anything that /BLM or /SMN can do.
RDM has Enspell 2s (which are pretty awesome, unless you have a Joyeuse in which case they are only sorta awesome, and if you are /NIN and using Justice/Joy, OR if you actually have a solid +Enhancing build, they are crap) and Composure, which allows it to triple the duration of buffs it casts on itself, greatly lowering the tedium of solo play. Composure also offers a melee accuracy bonus, but no one cares; lolrdmmelee still.
BST has Snarl, which allows it to transfer hate to jug pets, and Ready, which is a special version of Sic that allows it to choose the TP move that a jug pet uses when it has TP. Needless to say, these were pretty much in direct response to people complaining that too many areas don't have charmables for BST, which dances around the problem but still never really resolved it. That's SE for ya!
SAM has Sekkanoki, which is basically a variant of Shikikoyo; it allows you to spend only 100 TP on your next WS while conserving any TP you have over that. These are way older and you may already know about them, but there are also the "stance" abilities Hasso and Seigan. Without going into too much detail, Hasso enhances your offensive capabilities and Seigan enhances your defensive capabilities.
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What are the lower levels like as far as getting parties? ...Dunes...
Much harder to find nowadays unless it's a Korroloka SMN burn, which basically entails syncing down to level 13~, having 75s train up nearly every mob in the zone, and blowing them all up with Astral Flow, which grants enough EXP to get instantly out of Valkurm range if done right.
The game is not necessarily OMG DIEING, but it is top-heavy now, so not as much lowbie activity going on anymore. However, with things like Fields of Valor and DNC subjobs, it has become much easier to get lowbie EXP on your own on at least a steady pace.
Also, with the recent announcement of the level cap raise to 99, I'd imagine there will be a whole bunch more East Ronfaure [S] parties going on now with people trying to level their LV37 subjobs up, so at least after the 37 point there will probably be some renewed activity.
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Are ppl still leveling other jobs?
Well, I am. Since I don't really do endgame, it's about all I can do Eight 75s and counting.
Edited, Mar 1st 2010 9:48pm by Fynlar