THE FFXI Online newb guide

http://1up.com/do/feature?cId=3149797&did=1

Beats Brady :3 sticky for the newbs and buyers/comparison between MMOs/whatever.h

I dont agree with some parts like WAR tanking, but alot of it is true for the most part.

Tarutaru's aren't good tanks? Pfft, shows what they know... -_-;

Actually I find that especially for XP Taru PLD > other PLD unless you're specifically up against mobs that will one shot you.

MP > HP For instance... 80 MP = 300 HP + extre enmity.

Oh well. Didn't a 1UP person once say that bad BRD players are the reason we only single a handful of songs? Idiots.

since you people are most experienced... I am guessing this guide sucks?

I dont believe it sucks, its not 100% accurate i feel, but this is by far one of the best guides a newb can read IMO.

oooh okay, I will check it out :)

lol yes sorry to give the wrong impression. This guide is leaps and bounds beyond the crappy Bradyguide but I'd say ANY guide to FFXI should be taken with a grain of salt.

The thing to keep in mind in FFXI is there general is no absolutism.

Taru+Tank = no no *buzzer* wrong
BST+PT = no no *buzzer* wrong
RDM+melee = NEVER under any circumstance *buzzer* wrong

Just keep in mind that people have a lot of opinions about the absolute answers to things and they are most often wrong. I'm just upset because of the comment saying that 95% of the BRD playerbase all suck. There's a reason we sing the same damn songs. Perhaps I'll start giving the PLD resistance again poison instead of ballad and the RNGs resistance to silence instead of Minuet/Prelude.... pffft.

Eh, it's alright. I don't really see why you need a starter guide to begin with.

Mainly because its kinda confusing, i dont know the intricates of the AH until my second month in beta where this guy told me how to use one and that things put up with a lower price sells first. Theres alot of things that a newb can get overwhelmed with and get frustrated at.

But the beauty of MMORPGs is that you can meet people and learn about the world internally. To me, that is one of the most attractive features of playing a game of this style.

its a good read.... but I dont endorse some of the facts....

The best way to learn you way in the game is to ask people in the game to help you out.

Second way is to diligently read all the informative posts on places like Alla and LJ and and make sure you do your research.

Third is to actually attempt to do things yourself and learn by trial and error.

Combine these three things and you'll be a very proficient little newbie.

I partially agree w/ some complaints about bards. For the most part, a bard will madrigle/minuet the melee, ballad the mages/pld, then stand around doing nothing until they wear off. There's so much more a brd could bring to xp than that. Of course not all brds are that way, AND it's not all brd's fault, bc mages gripe so much about getting the ballad that sometimes bards are afraid to do anything else in case they miss ballad the split-second it wears off. Nevertheless, whatever the reasons may be, I still say that bards can absolutely branch out a little bit, and do more with their jobs. Otherwise they're in trouble of being eclipsed by new support jobs.
I don't see anything wrong with the guide's view on Warrior being a tank. All it says is that warrior is the primary tank that you'll see until 30, which is true. And actually, most of the time I would rather have a Warrior tanking than a Ninja until Ninja gets Utsusemi:Ni. In any case the guide actually says that Pld and Nin are tanks and War is DD, just that most of the time, until the 30's, Warriors end up tanking whether they're actually better at it or not.

Altogether it's an excellent newb guide, it really is. Even has a link to a nice breakdown of xp spots @ http://campsitarus.blogspot.com/
which I think would be awesome to have for newb and pro alike. Too often xp spots are overcrowded, but ppl go anyway just bc they don't know what alternatives are available.
The guide was written by someone who's played the game since it's beginning. His "journal" in GMR magazine is part of what convinced me to get the game in the first place.
I especially appreciate this quote
"Stay tuned for the next guide in the series: 1UP's Final Fantasy XI Intermediate Traveler's Guide, which will cover the most precarious, make-or-break levels in the game, levels 30 through 60. This is where your true worth shines through, and when the less committed fold."
As Year has mentioned to Tsu, 1-30 does not qualify as even playing the game, not in my mind in the least. It's like playing FFVII up until the first boss then quitting and starting over.
30-60 really is the make-or-break time. It almost broke me as Thief. FFXI is so worth the time/energy spent if you can make it past all the boring crap at lower levels, but if you can't, I say it's just a waste of money. There was a lvl 15 warrior in one of my first linkshells when I was about lvl 45. He would make a char and quit it, then start all over. He also wasn't dedicated to xping or making any money, but would log on and complain that he couldn't do anything b/c he wasn't high enough lvl or didn't have steady gil income. He said that he just didn't have the time to really commit to the game, that he didn't have enough time to xp, and he could play however he damn well chose. I constantly told him to quit, that he'd never make it anywhere like that, and he was just wasting his and everyone else's time. Well finally my advice sunk in and now he's a 75Samurai in my HNMLS, and while he's not the best player, he enjoys every minute of the game and appreciates my bustin his chops as a lowby. He, like everyone else who's made it to the upper levels, realizes the commitment it takes to play the game, to really experience it. Honestly I'd love for EVERYONE to love FFXI as much as I do, but if you can't commit to it, I say don't play at all.

You must've PTed with bad BRD then. Any good BRD should NEVER EVER EVER EVER be standing around. I've rarely been in a PT when there wasn't something to do. And also songs should NEVER wear off. A BRD should continue to sing his cycle endlessly so that songs don't even drop while Erasing, Curing, Barspelling, -naing etc.

Also good BRDs should cater to the needs of the PT members. This is especially true with RNGs. Some endgame might prefer 2xMinuet because they have a crapload of Racc gear but some might need Prelude or even STR Etude.

Largely BRDs are lazy. Most people take BRD from 1-75 in 2 months tops and never really buy gear for the job and use it only as their merit job. I hate these BRDs.

But still I have to say that there aren't many options songwise for us. I find plenty to do with my /WHM when I'm not singing but there's nothing to be done about the songs. There simply are only a handful of songs that everyone wants. If you tried to sing something different that you think would benefit the PT more you will get tells asking you for something else.

For instance... before they recently nerfed the TP floor it was more beneficial in general to sing March+Minuet in certain types of high chain PTs. This has been parsed and actually does more damage over time but for most PTs with normal gear setups. However, if you try March+Minuet in one of these PTs you will start getting tells from all of your melees to sing them 2xMinuet generally because they want to see bigger numbers. They think because their numbers are slightly lower and much faster that you are a bad BRD when really you made their DoT much higher and the chains much faster.