[IfritnoItazura]

Which Job Should I Play?
(Part I: Categories of Jobs)


If you ever asked yourself, "Which job should I play?", the short (and correct) answer is,

"Try out a job to see if you like it or not."

For those who need flavors of each job to help out with the decision making process, this is your guide.

Final Fantasy XI has 20 different jobs; the "Standard Jobs" are available as soon as you log in and create a character. The "Extra Jobs" require first reaching Lv.30 on one of the Standard Jobs, then completing certain quests. Most of the Extra Jobs are inaccessible without the appropriate expansion packs installed.

Standard Jobs

WAR - Warrior
MNK - Monk
THF - Thief
WHM - White Mage
BLM - Black Mage
RDM - Red Mage

Extra Jobs (Original)

PLD - Paladin
DRK - Dark Knight
RNG - Site Temporarily Unavailable
BST - Beastmaster
BRD - Bard

Extra Jobs (Rise of Zilart)

NIN - Ninja
SAM - Samurai
DRG - Dragoon
SMN* - Summoner
(* Does not need Rise of Zilart installed to unlock)

Extra Jobs (Treasure of Aht Urhgan)

PUP - Puppetmaster
COR - Corsair
BLU - Blue Mage

Extra Jobs (Wings of the Goddess)

DNC - Dancer
SCH - Scholar

How to Use

1. Read the Categories and glance through the rest of this post to find interesting sounding Jobs.
2. Use your browser to search the rest of the posts for more detail informations on the those Jobs by their full names. (e.g. Search for ((Red Mage)) if interested in RDM.)

Categories
Several different ways of classifying Jobs in FFXI.

By Roles
Most jobs have a well defined role(s) in parties; if a particular role seems appealing, read on about the jobs listed.

- Tank: PLD, NIN, WAR(↘).
- Healer: WHM(↗), RDM, BLU, PLD, SMN, SCH, PUP(Lv.40+), DNC(↘), DRG(↘).
- Support: BRD(↗), COR, RDM, SMN, SCH, WHM(↘), BLM(↘), BLU(↘), DNC(↘).
- Damage Dealer: WAR, MNK, THF, BLM, DRK, RNG, BST, NIN, SAM, DRG, PUP, BLU, SCH, SMN(↘), COR(↘), PLD(↘), DNC(↘).

By Convenience
If long waiting time for party invites is the deciding factor, try starting parties, play in a small group, or set up static parties. Otherwise, consider the following:

- Solo Exp'ing: BST(↗), RDM, DRG, PUP, BLU, BLM, SMN(↘).
- Fast Invites: BRD, RDM, COR, NIN, PLD. (Level dependent!)

By Annoyance/Expense
Generally, melee Jobs are more expensive than mage Jobs. Flexible Jobs with multiple subsets of equipment also add to the burden. Jobs which heavily utilize consumables tend to stand head and shoulder above others; leveling is burning Gil for them. Besides the question of money, certain jobs takes substantial amount of upfront or on-going preparations. New players should especially take these and other annoyance factors into consideration when selecting Jobs.

Consumable Expenses:

- NIN: Shihei for Utsusemi, plus various other Ninjutsu tools, and possibly Shurikens for the range attack NIN's. Base equipment are not very cheap, either.
- RNG: Ammo. It is possible to toss away 100+ gil for every shot taken at a monster--hit or miss.
- COR: Ammo, and elemental cards (for Quick Draw).

Preparation Intensive:

- SMN: Ideally, should acquire most Avatars before exp partying. This can be time consuming, and require high level job to start with if doing the prime avatar fights. Otherwise, have to wait until Lv.20 before able to do obtain Avatars.
- PUP: The best attachments are expensive and/or difficult to attain. Training Automatons for skill up's can also be a bother.
- BLU: Constantly need to update spell list--all of which must be acquired in person, by fighting monsters.

Miscellaneous Annoyances:

- SMN: Slow to gain some of the most useful support Blood Pacts. VERY slow in obtaining decent damage Blood Pacts.
- RDM: Lot's of gears needed to play optimally; extensive macro gear switches and inventory crunches considered necessities.
- NIN: Need lot's of gearing sub-sets to balance between enmity, damage output, and survivability. Full set of Ninjutsu consumes much inventory space.
- BRD: Lot's of instruments creating inventory/storage headaches.
- DRG: Wyvern does not last long when fighting against monsters with AoE attacks.
- BLM: Has no place in the popular "WS Spam" parties.
- PUP/BST/DRG/SMN: Very, very misunderstood (and thus often unwanted) by most EXP parties.
- DD's in general: Often suffer from slow invite rate.
- Support Job expectations: The community expect players of certain jobs to have a variety of support jobs ready to use. This can lead to problems for the player if s/he simply hates certain jobs.

Selected FAQs
Here are the answers to some of the most commonly asked job questions.

Ninja vs. Paladin--which is better?
Which is better? The answer is: Yes.

Paladin does better against monsters with multi-hit/hand-to-hand/counter attacks, since it is not dependent on Utsusemi shadows for damage mitigation. Its impressive set of tools to secure the monsters in place also provides better safety for the party. Ninja is superior on monsters with hard hitting, single target attacks, since Utusemi absorbs 50 point blows just as well as 500 point ones. Aside from taking less MP to cure overall, NIN also provides significantly better damage output than PLD while tanking.

Although some old-time PLD's resent the relatively upstart NIN's intrusion into the tanking scene, in truth the two jobs can work very well together in exp parties, especially when a THF is also present. With NIN main tanking, PLD can go full-time berserk and use DD gear/food, and help extending Utsusemi with Flash, and handle links and emergencies with Cures, Cover, Provoke, etc. THF can SATA on to whoever is more convenient, and the party doesn't have to worry about first provoker taking too much damage. Reverse of PLD main tanking and NIN DD or shared co-tanking also can work.

This author thinks PLD has a more appealing "flow" or "feel" than NIN, but NIN is undeniably exciting to play. It's difficult to say which job is better for each player; it's best just to try them out. Both are fine tanks, really, but please note that NIN is more expensive to equip, and constantly drains the Gil reserve with Shihei and other Ninjutsu tools.


Red Mage vs. Bard vs. Corsair--which is the best?

RDM - Enfeebles mob, supports PT via Cures, nuke damage, Haste, Refresh, Dispel, sleeps links
Specialty: Enfeebling
Best with: Balanced PT. Buffs aren't amazing, but you don't get your ass kicked easily like COR and BRD do.

BRD - Enhances allies performance with static stat bonuses, Elegy and Finalie are the prime debuffs, Ballad and Lullaby for extra support.
Specialty: Melee buffs (March, Madrigal, Minuet)
Best with: Melee PT. Decent in manaburn, but can't match COR's mage buffs. Ballad and Threnodies are nice, but no match for COR's mage buffs and Quick Draw.

COR - Enhances allies performance via random percentage bonuses based on job traits, Uses Quick Draw as a mild damage nuke which enhances enfeebles and debuffs to the matching element. Refreshes, dispels, sleeps. Resets job ability timers with Random Deal and Wild Card.
Specialty: Mage buffs (magic attack, accuracy, +hMP), pet buffs (pet attack/accuracy, pet magic attack/accuracy).
Best with - Mage PT. Good with a melee PT when played dilligently.COR's unique melee buffs are powerful, but the ones comparable to BRD's are not

Omgwtfbbqkitten summed them up pretty well for party use, though it should be noted that RDM is the only one which can also function as the main Healer. Outside of parties, RDM is also the (much) better solo'er, making it the most flexible and adaptive of them all.

That said, really, most exp parties would be more than happy to have one or two of these three jobs.

___(Race) vs. ____(Job)
Many new players ask "Is ____(so and so race) good for ____ (so and so job)?"

Basically, the answer is "Yes, any race can play any job." A player's skill and preparation generally outweighs the race factor.

That said, low level Galka magic users are more reliant on MP+ equipment and juices, while low level Tarutaru tanks may want to invest in HP+ equipment and Selbina Milk. For much of the exp party experience, though, it is MP recovery rather than max MP which determine the performance of magic users, and the max HP isn't the most important concern when it comes to tanking most monsters.

Which support job do I need for my job?
Obviously, that depends a lot of which job. For example, PLD needs /WAR for support job in exp parties, but a BLM does not--in fact, should not use /WAR. Also, the desired uses can dictate support job choices; a RDM does not need /NIN for exp partying at any level, but a RDM/NIN is very good for kiting and soloing.

In Part II, each job will have a list of commonly needed support jobs.


Disclaimer
Aiming for "informed opinions"; none of that "this job is better than that job" snootiness, but (much) more than just bunch of lists of traits, abilities, and spells.