Yeah so.

[m4tt]

If you know anything about me, I used to be a Ragnarok Online nut. Well the game has gotten stale to me, so my girlfriend and I are going to be giving FFXI a shot. We haven't started playing yet (her copy hasn't arrived yet) so we're both still talking about what to be. The server issue isn't that big, she has some friends on... Unicorn I think so I guess they are getting us world passes.

After a lot of reading I've decided that I want to try to be a Thief/Ninja. I think she's still deciding but she's looking towards White Mage/Dragoon. Or something like that. At first I wanted to be Elvaan, but I heard they don't make such great theives, and I don't want to be the cat girl thing even though they're the best (or so I heard). So my girlfriend wants us to both be TaruTaru.

Uhh anyway the main point of this is to ask for some advice and what not. I think I'm getting a grasp on some of the dynamics of the game, but some things seem a bit confusing still. Like the party system. I know in RO, people have their roles in the parties. Priests heal, Wizards cast their big ol spells and the melee members hit stuff.

So yeah, any advice on our choice of jobs/classes and what to do as a newbie would be appreciated.

[Ouch!]

Tell your girlfriend that if she's going to be a WHM the best sub is probably BLM. DRG offers nothing to her WHM, you won't even get the wyvern, though it's not like you'll be meleeing with a WHM anyways. She could probably get by with a RDM sub early on, but later BLM is better for the MP boost. I suppose SMN would work as well, but she won't be using the avatars so it'd just be for the MP boost, which, as a taru, she won't have to worry about too much.

Choosing a sub is a very important thing. Your choice of THF/NIN is a good one. Tarutaru should work well for THF because they have the second highest DEX and AGI which are the most important stats for a THF (DEX relates to the damage of sneak attack and AGI to trick attack).

I'd go THF/WAR (though you could go THF/MNK) up to L30 at the very least at which point you can unlock NIN which you can start leveling for your sub. It's probably best that you go THF/WAR so you already have WAR leveled as that is the *only* viable sub for NIN as you will be expected to blink tank using Utsusemi. Once you've got NIN up to a decent level you can go back to leveling your THF with that as the sub.

Just remember that NIN and /NIN will be very expensive because of all the ninja tools you'll have to buy to use your spells.

As far as beginning as a newbie there's things you should keep in mind to save you some grief.

1. Stack things in your inventory by using the sort option. I know on the computer it's the + key on the number-pad when the item menu is open, not sure about on the PS2. Sell everything you get stacks of in the AH. Crystals sell the best.

2. About crystals, get your signet before you leave town. There's a guy at the city gate with a title before his/her name (T.K. in San d'Oria, W.W. in Windurst, and I think I.M. in Bastok) and have them cast signet on you. Signet allows you to extract crystals from enemies that you defeat and it also let's you accumulate conquest points which can be traded in for items with the guys who give you the signet. It allows allows you to participate in the nation's conquest by gaining influence for your country in areas by killing things.

3. Keep beastmen seals. They look dinky and useless in the beginning but you'll need them for BCNMs (Burning Circle Notorious Monsters) later on. I threw away at least 80 of them before I knew that I should keep them. >_<

4. The auction house is nice, but check NPCs for equipment, spells, food, etc. first, it's usually much cheaper. Usually then when you're done with the equips you can sell them back at the AH for a profit.

5. As far as equipment goes, you can use your race-specific equips that you start with up to around L10. There's a L1 set of other equipment for the jobs, but the difference is something like a single point of defense. The next equips you can get are at L7-8 depending on your job, but you can skip those if you'd like and get the equips at L10-11 which you'll need for when you start partying at that level.

You've probably heard a lot of that already, but I figured it wouldn't hurt to state it again. Good luck in game. ^_^

EDIT: If you ever change your server choice, Midgardsormr has more EoFFers than the other servers.

[m4tt]

Alright, thanks for the tips! I'll talk to her about her classes. We just want to be able to party together up until we need to get into bigger parties.

[Miriel]

Allakhazam will be your new best friend.

Partying at early levels just doesn't work too well and you'd be better off killing things solo rather than actually partying together.

If you're both going to be Tarus, I recommend starting in Windurst, especially if your girlfriend wants to be a mage.

The first 10 levels should be fairly simple (although leveling white mage to 10 can be a bitch, especially as a tarutaru) and you'll just be soloing mobs in the newbie zones outside town. Selling crystals at the Auction House will be your main source of income for those early levels.

Then when you hit 10 you get head off to Valkurm Dunes to start partying with other people. Fuuuun.

It sounds like parties in RO work the same as in FFXI. White Mages cure, Black Mages nuke, and melees...yeah they hit stuff. Your girlfriend can look at this thread for some tips on being a White Mage.

Zaphier pretty much covered all the basic stuff you should know. Those first few days of playing are a blast, enjoy it.

[m4tt]

Okay I got confused in my first post. She wants to be a Dragoon/White mage (wrong way around :P) would that work okay?

Oh, and we're going to be elvaans now.. and I'm going to try for Summoner/Whitemage.

[Hartigan]

white mage with dragoon sub would be so bad

[Miriel]

white mage with dragoon sub would be so bad

No it wouldn't, it would just make her a healing orientated dragoon which is fine. The only thing is...it's not a very common or popular subjob for a dragoon and I'm thinking that the party invites will come in veeeeery slowly. =/

Edit: oops, I read that the other way around. ^_^

[Hartigan]

Well, if I were to sub dragoon to white mage, id get jump skills and no 2 hour ability for dragoon, which is the wyvern. It'd be kinda worthless I'd think. I'd rather have a dragoon that can summon a wyvern + have healing breathe with the white mage sub.

How sad I've learned al lthis and still dont have my darn game.

[Lich3636]

Drg/whm wouldnt be very party friendly but it would be great for soloing tell your gf her best bet for getting into a party will be Drg/war also you and your gf will have to lv a job to 30 befor you can get any adv job so i suggest you gf lvs war with mnk subbed to 30 useing spear and i suggest you lv whm with blm subbed till 30 if you need help on makeing money check out my guide a beginers guide to makeing gil (woo free advertisement ) elvaan do pretty good as Wars and Whms so you shouldent have to much of a problem if you wanna lv together at 10-20 your gunna probly have to make your own partys since whm are in high demand and wars arnt i hope i have been of some help

[lordblazer]

Lol your looking at a Bard/Thief here.Even though people laugh at me i dont care im sure one good Bard...I always make up for it.I really dont want to do Bard/Whitemage because i don't want to be backup healer.Plain and simple.So i make up for that by just keeping up with songs.The only time the song symbol on a player disappears is when we take a break or PTing is over with or if we are traveling.

[Lionx]

/WAR and /NIN are the jobs to take to higher lvls. /MNK is fine until lvl 33 where you learn Viper Bite. /WAR gives you more dmg but more risk without shadows. Once you get a NIN sub, the only expense is powders and ammo which shouldnt be as bad as a NIN.

Alakazham is a retarded community, www.ffxionline.com is a better one, alakazham is the only place for reference materials and there are other places as well to get them.

DRG/WHM is not the worst out there, they sacrifice dmg for healing the party. Its just considered unorthodox because people dont accept DRGs that sub WHM and prefer they do WAR.

Unfortunetly LB a BRD/WHM that can do what you are doing can do so much more than you and therefore better. I can save WHM MP so much more on Poisona and other related things that the party is faster than your BRD/THF and i can still keep up with songs. You arent suppose to be healing alot anyway unless the party is in trouble(and it WILL sooner or later, not PT is perfect). And if it does and your Cure isnt there to support, j00= $#@%ed.

[Misfit]

Alakazham is a retarded community, www.ffxionline.com is a better one, alakazham is the only place for reference materials and there are other places as well to get them.

I agree. Also, Killing Ifrit is an awesome site.

Oh, and Elvaan suck for MP. :} (Best race for a mage job= tarutaru, no question about it) But I know lots of good elf mages with incredible MP~ so ... do what makes you happy! Also, there's lots of elvaan thieves, and I knew a fantastic 75 thf elf. You can play any race and make it work, just gotta know what you're doing and get good stat equipment.

Oh, and one more thing~ Elvaan look like Dhamels (CAMELS!). ^_^

[Lich3636]

Oh, and one more thing~ Elvaan look like Dhamels (CAMELS!). ^_^[/SIZE]

lies just because we have long necks and are tall by god we do like like Dhamels

[sir_hotness]

no good, no good

[Markus. D]

Thief/Ninja is a nice combo if you want to dual wield (3 times attack x2 :O)

but warrior kinda subs just the tiensiest bit better,