Returning After 5 Years, No Idea What To Do

So nostalgia got the best of me one night and I decided to give the game another go. Problem is, I log in and just stand there in my Mog House with absolutely no idea where to go from there. I don't even remember how to get to certain areas anymore, besides taking Airships or grabbing chocobos. I've forgotten almost everything I know from when I left off in 2013 when Adoulin was booming.

I really want to give this another go but I'm just completely lost in what I should do, does anyone have a guide or something they can suggest that'll help break me into this game all over again?

https://www.bg-wiki.com/bg/Returning_to_Vana%27diel
Homepoints now work as teleport to teleport if you have them unlocked, which you do by simply touching one in each area.

Rhapsodies missions.
Trust RoEs.
Mount quest.

These are great resources made by the BGwiki Team:
Returning to Vana'diel
WTF ilvl???

I pretty much went through the exact same thing 3 months ago. I also left when Adoulin was booming, I actually logged in right outside of Tojil Delve Entrance lol. The guides Cherrywine provided are great. Trusts are super important, as are the Rhapsodies missions.

If possible, join a linkshell that isn't diehard endgame. See if you can be carried through a few Ambuscade runs. You have cor so at minimum you can just give rolls and toss some cures out. That would be a great starting point as far as getting some decent gear for whatever job you really want to play. Start getting Home Point crystals (you warp from any HP to another now!).

Don't be afraid to ask questions, I had a million of them when I came back too.

Thanks for the help guys!

So if I remember correctly, I knocked out a good chunk of Adoulin related stuff back in 2013 before I quit. Is Rhapsodies the first thing I should be tackling, or is there still Adoulin stuff I should get out of the way first?

i would look into signing up for a vagary LS (thats where i started when i first came back); basically you can upgrade empyrean armors to ilvl109 now, but to get them upgraded to ilvl119 you need the vagary clears.. they are about equal to the new cursed gear in escha Ru Aun, and reisenjima augmented gear is better. Empyrean 119 is a good place to start in my opinion.

likewise you can upgrade artifact gears to ilvl119 (reforged +1 level) and upgrade them up to reforged +3 level. Reforged Artifact +2 gears seems to me like it can be the best in slot for accuracy/ magic accuracy but requires some work, and it is a growing gil investment.

they are making the full set of relic able to be upgraded fully to reforged level+3 with this next patch. I havent done any of the new dynamis yet but it seems like all the materials to reforged relic past +1 level is purchasable and I still have more artifact sets to reforged. it does get really expensive after awhile.

Ambuscade is a great place to start too, about 2 years ago I started with ambuscade vol2 Normals; basically you earn hallmarks and gallantry which can be used to purchase dynamis currency, alexandrite and things that make ultimate weapons, as well as ambuscade exclusive capes. While your earning hallmarks and gallantry you earn from a catagory known as "total hallmarks" which is basically free rewards for participating in a certain amount of ambuscade and it does not spend points to acquire gear and things from this catagory. So its free gear you get while earning other gear. and the gear is very very solid; better then the empyrean 119 conterparts (allthough the empyrean 119 set will help you get into this content) ambuscade can be done at really low difficulty levels so its soloable allthough you earn more gallantry with based on hoe many players are in your party (and difficulty), and you earn more hallmarks based on the difficulty setting.

I hope this helps

Hi I was in same situation when i returned a couple weeks ago after 5 year break, seem quiet a few 2013 players returning this year. Doing Rhapsodies will make you progress in other missions too, so you should put full attention into that, and unlocking the Records of Eminence asap.

Rhapsodies should be your number 1 priority

So, when we all talk about RoEs, this is that:
https://www.bg-wiki.com/bg/Category:Records_of_Eminence

Also, get involved with Unity when you can.
https://www.bg-wiki.com/bg/Category:Unity_Concord
It provides some of the best trusts. The three most popular are:
Apururu
Yoran-Oran
Sylvie

Apururu and Yoran-Oran are really great WHM trusts. I don't remember the differences between them because I use Sylvie. I *think* Apururu can Curaga and Yoran-Oran is faster at erasing status ailments?
That said, unless you have good hybrid or turtle sets, you are likely better off with one of the WHM unities, especially while Cornelia is available. If you complete all of the Adoulin quests (takes a loooooooooooong time, but by the end you will likely have two of the greatest weapons in the game), you will obtain the Ygnas trust, which is as good or barely less effective as the unity WHMs and you can switch to Sylvie without regerts!

My husband and I came a few months ago back after a similar long break and it took at least 1 month to "arrive" back in the game and like 2-3 to be really back. And we still discover things to do better/faster/more efficient than we do before lol.

But yea, Do Rhapsodies! All of them (you only need help for the last one probably) to unlock all those Key items. Those will get you more exp/cp, QoL adjustments like reenter times for content, more Trust NPC's buy all the shiny stuff from a moogle (Like coffer keys, ninja tools, food, RR ... and stuff). https://www.bg-wiki.com/bg/Curio_Vendor_Moogle

(Re)learn how to travel around the world. There are not only home points everywhere, you also can use survival guide which you often find at start of dungeon-zones, Voidwatch warp and Unity warp.
https://www.bg-wiki.com/bg/Category:Transportation

Search and accept all those records of eminence Quest for Missions you have completed. The final reward will be Capacity point bonus. Missions will be all together 90% Bonus. Re-do all Rieves for RoE Missions.

Get some basic gear for jobs you liked before and see if you still like them. Don't go all out on jobs where you'll feel like you wasted your time. (mnk for example).

Best is to find some people to help you with Ambuscade or Escha-Zitah (once you unlocked it) and don't waste too much time doing things like Skirmish.

Get Trust and look for campaigns where you can buy more Trusts. Apururu is a cool Unity Trust, depending on your server (On Cerberus she is always 1st in Ranking), ArkAngel elvan is also nice for a tank, Koru-moru is also cool and you get him from Records of Eminence Starter Quests, same goes for Joachim. Cornelia is also good, she will not attack, but also never takes dmg and gives a cool Haste-Aura (and other stuff). This is like a good basic supportteam when you get Haste II from Koru-Moru and debuffs, some buffs from Joachim and he is allways fast with -na-spells (But can also replace him for another DD). Apururu is a whm who also runs out of range and like never out of mp. Most DD's aren't that great and Trust scale with your item level, so try to have 119 Item level to also have strong trust while soloing/lowman.

Do the RoEs for City Missions and Expansion clears. They will give you a ton of xp/cp bonuses

Thanks for all the great suggestions so far guys! Today I don't feel totally as lost and have some sense of guidance.

Just 2 other quick questions. Can I go ahead and toss most of my old pre-iLVL gear? I'm so confused on what I used to equip for my jobs, if I can just toss it all and start over with Sparks gear, that'd be great.

Second question, does SpellCast for Windower still exist? I've changed computers since 2013 so I lost all my macro scripts and such, need to start rewriting everything. Or maybe even a guide to using Windower in 2018 would be great.

Drink tequila amd smoke ganja

some pre-iLvl accessories are still good. check the job guides. same all AF, Relic and Emp armor, since its needed for all iLvl upgrades. Check the rest.

spellcast has been replaced by something similar, called Gearswap. same basic concept, but i think its simpler in coding. also, a new one to look into is Organizer. you can enter into a MH, type a command, and it automatically will pull all the gear from the jobs gearswap file that you choose, near instantly. so no need to spend 5 mins equipping a job.

You're still as cringey as ever.

Don't feel bad. I quit the game shortly after wotg came out. I had to start a new char because I didn't remember any of my old log in info. But it's a whole new game now. As your looking into rov and roe you should also look into trust. Helped me a ton. Was able to solo almost all missions.