Hey, I'm coming back to Lakshmi either today or tomorrow (depends when steam download and FFXI update finishes) so I'll tell you how hard it is to adapt or not then :) From the looks of things, and what my friends have told me, Abyssea is both a godsend and a curse. It lets you level up crazy fast and obtain some seriously crazy gear, but it means that any newbie can get to 95 (99 soon) in a matter of days. I'm not letting that put me off though :) Overall they say it's a lot better but new implements since abyssea are a bit "meh".