Axe vs GA a begginner's dilema

[MajinSephiroth]

Seeing as how the economy does not cater to new people too much, I was wondering a few things actually, and here they are in order.

1) What are popular ways of making money other than stacking crystals for the AH?
2) If you had to chose between an axe and shield or a greataxe, which would you choose as a Galka WAR?
3) What are some pro's / con's between the Axe WS and GS WS?

Much appreciated for any insight on the issue.

[Murphie]

1.) Low level crafts. For instance, sheepskins sell pretty fast (1k each or so on the AH), but you can make them into sheep leather with Windurstian Tea, Distilled Water, and a Dark Crystal, which you can farm from Funguar type mobs. A stack of Sheep leather sells for about 25-30k on Bahamut. That's a nice moneymaker.

Fishing is another option. Targeting Moat Carps especially. Not fast gil, but it's steady gil. People need lots and lots of stacks of Moat Carp for a quest in Selbina. You'll sell them pretty fast.

Look around for common items that sell well on the AH, and see if you can easily farm them or make them yourself. You'd be amazed at how many options there are.

2.) I wouldn't choose. I'd use both. Seriously. Both are very handy. Raging Axe (Axe's first Weaponskill) is nifty, but Sturmwind for Great Axe (you get it in your early 20s, exp wise) is really awesome. They both have their uses as you level, and really it's never good to neglect one of your A rated weapons. If you're worried about cost, use http://ffxi.somepage.com/ to find out if an NPC sells the axes you need. Often, they do.

3.) One thing that the Greataxe has that is really amazing are the Break Weaponskills. Your first WS is Shield Break. And while it may not seem to be that great (low damage) the benefit is really fantastic. It lowers the evasion of the mob you're fighting, making it easier for everyone in the party to kill it faster. On the other hand, some Axe weaponskills are really nice damage-wise. So it's just up to you to find out what works best for you.

[MajinSephiroth]

Oh sweet, I never knew there was a weapon seller in the back of the dragon's claw in bastok, man did I overspend on weapons in the AH..... Thanks for the site, now I am able to manage my economy much better.

Will begin training the GA when I can.

[little ninja]

Actually right now the economy is better suited for new players then it was in dec.

1. if you dont pick up a synth, maybe farming synth materials will turn you a fast profit. i mean go outside an you can get a bunch of stuff. i have a mule right now with over 500k just in stuff that dropped while i was exping the basic jobs.

2. axe an great axe are a player prefrence. so pick one you like swinging an go from there. then again dont forget to plan your chars futher? like say u planned on going bst when u hit 30. then axe is the better choice for a weapon. but if you plan on taking war til 75, then its best known to try an keep both capped, some parties perfer 1 over the other for S.C.

3. the pros an con is the fact u have to keep both pretty much within cap range. the WS arent that good til strumwind <sp?> for great axe an rampage for axe.

[Murphie]

Actually, I still preferred for a WAR to use Shield Break even after getting Sturmwind. That helps the whole party, not just your e-peen.

[Standablaze]

Seeing as how the economy does not cater to new people too much, I was wondering a few things actually, and here they are in order.

1) What are popular ways of making money other than stacking crystals for the AH?
2) If you had to chose between an axe and shield or a greataxe, which would you choose as a Galka WAR?
3) What are some pro's / con's between the Axe WS and GS WS?

Much appreciated for any insight on the issue.

1. Crystals dont make a lot of money. It use too but not anymore. If you are in Bastok go up to Vomp Hill in south gustaberg and kill sheep for Sheepskin - Bring some windurstain tea leaves, distilled water and dark crystals and turn them into Sheep leather. They will sell better in Sandoria because the leather guild is there so you could make a mule there to sell them.

again on that hill, you can kill Maneating Hornets for Honey and Beehive chips. Wait til you are about lv10 so you can handle goblins though.

Another way to make money, although its a bit slow, is to buy a stack of fire crystals, make your way to the goldsmithing guild in bastok markets (OR you can mine the stuff which will take a long time, in Zehrun mines), and buying 4 copper ores. 4x copper ore + 1 fire crystal = 1 copper ingot. On my server Copper ingots are 10k a stack and sell well in bastok itself because the smithing guild and goldsmithing guilds are there. Copper ores sell for roughly 9g at their lowest, each. But they dont stack. Ingots do though.


2) I started as a Hume WAR and used a sword and shield; dont make that mistake. It took me a long time to bring my great axe up. Great Axe is in my opinion one of the best weapons in the game, and single handed axes only become as good when you have a ninja subjob so you can hold 2 of them... untill that time, use a great axe. Shield break (i think thats the name) is great for those low levels and Iron Tempest is decent, whereas Sturmwind rocks.

3) Pros and cons.
Axe - Faster to swing than a Great Axe. Raging axe is very nice for a low level weapon skill. However, its not very effective on its own, and carrying a shield doesnt so a whole lot for WAR.

Great Axe - Deals nice damage, but at a slower rate. youll get 2 swings of a sword or sometimes an Axe by the time you land another blow, and if you miss a lot its not nice so you need some DEX gear eventually (cheap.). Nice weapon skills, looks ace, and in the mid levels the Great Axe easily outdamages a Scythe or a Great Sword.

Dont forget WAR can use almost every weapon in the game decently. You wont get much praise for using a dagger, but Great Axes, Great Swords, and Axes are the three mains for WAR. Scythes arent that good unless your a DRK though, and the weapon skills suck untill 60 for that weapon.

[MajinSephiroth]

Much appreciated for the replies

[little ninja]

Actually, I still preferred for a WAR to use Shield Break even after getting Sturmwind. That helps the whole party, not just your e-peen.

LoL Shield Break doesnt last the whole fight. An if u use it at the end of a fight. how much help does that really give your party?? i mean they missed for the first 75% of the fight. Wohoo at the end of the fight u improve there acc by what a few points.

once you get Strumwind, its best to use that. screw what murph said about E-pens an all that. more benifets come from using that ws then any other. especially if you have to tank, or your main tank dies an you have to generate more hate then the mage jobs.

Plus trust me, the way this player base of immature brats thinks. u not producing max damage equals u stink. an u are a gimp player who doesnt know how to play his job.

[bside]

LoL Shield Break doesnt last the whole fight. An if u use it at the end of a fight. how much help does that really give your party??

If not resisted, Break WS' last for 3 mins (@ 100TP, longer if more), and 90 sec if half-resisted. If you're saying 3 mins aren't long enough for one fight, then you're in a wrong xp spot, or there's something wrong w/ your party.

Shield Break decreases mobs' eveasion by 40 (in player equipment equivalent number), which is indeed a considerable amount. (It used to be a percentage of mobs' eveasion, but it was nerfed a couple of years ago.)

As many of us know, however, Break WS' pocesses elements, like magics do, so whenever you use it you must consider mobs' weakness, and also resistance. For instance, Shield Break has an Ice element, so any mob that has a resistance against Ice, such as ghosts and tigers, will likely resist the effect, while use of Threnody and/or *ton Ninjutsu will help the effect to take. On the other hand, it will be very effecticve (meaning rarely resisted) against mobs whose weaknesses include Ice, such as crabs and crawlers.

Using Break WS' without taking these into consideration is indeed a waste of TP, and when fighting a mob who is resistant to Ice, it's better to use Strumwind (or maybe Armor Break if the mob is weak to Wind) like you said. But when it can be effectively used, then it becomes a good option to use, and melees can use ATK foods instead of Sushi, as Acc won't be a problem (unless of course, you're fighting something far stronger, which you shouldn't be for xp parties). Likewise, BRD can use double Minuet instead of one being Madrigal for lower lvl's.


It's really a matter of party tactics. There's no right or wrong answer as situations obviously vary from party to party, or even mob to mob. Using Strumwind is one choice, but when conditions are met, Shield Break is another good choice, too.


BTW, when Shield Break is a part of the party tactics, it's rare to use it at the end of a fight. Anyone who used it at the end of a fight without an understandable reason, is the one who doesn't know how to play, I think.

[Murphie]

Well, Little Ninja, you can go on maxing out your damage so you can feel important, and I'll continue to help the entire party to do better. At least we've presented both options, so that the OP can make a decision.

Also, yeah. If your Shield Break isn't lasting very long, you're not using it correctly.

[little ninja]

Well like i said it is important depending on when its actually used. If your pt is using WS at beginning fo a fight, or you have tp at the beginning of the fight, then id go with that. but most pts i see we manage to ws at the end of most fights. so the acc down isnt to noticeable for 25% or less of the mobs hp.

in the end, everything this game offers is situational.

[Celeal]

If you are using Shield Break, use it at the beginning of the fight, and not part of skillchain.

[eticket109]

If you are levelling warrior its good to have all four levelled: axe, great axe, scythe and great sword, especially if you plan to level pld and drk. 90+% of the time though as war it comes down to GA vs axe. Unless you go war/nin at higher levels, you'll probably do more damage with GA, especially if you sub THF for SA and SATA

[Murphie]

Well like i said it is important depending on when its actually used. If your pt is using WS at beginning fo a fight, or you have tp at the beginning of the fight, then id go with that. but most pts i see we manage to ws at the end of most fights. so the acc down isnt to noticeable for 25% or less of the mobs hp.

in the end, everything this game offers is situational.

Well, that was kind of the point. I mean, of course you wouldn't worry about using an EVA down move at the end of the fight. That's pointless. So yeah, whip out a Sturmwind in those cases to finish the mob off. But unless I was part of the SC, I usually just held onto my TP until the start of the next fight in order to help everyone out then.

That's why presenting all of the options makes more sense than just saying "This is the only way you'll ever use this job/skill/whatever", because in FFXI that's almost never true.

[pearlsea]

I recomend having both axe and Gaxe lvld, both are usefull in differant situations.

Axe- personaly im a bst so i dont have to worry about capping it in exp but you should keep it lvled, once you hit 55 most partys will invite you to rampage, so its expected you have it skilled up.

Gaxe- greater in the lower lvls where you have little to no acc+ geat and 1H weapons still hit mobs for close to nothing. Shield break is probably the best WS anyone will do in the dunes and qufim, but once you get sturmwind you will want to use that also, so what i did was whenever berserk was up id use sturmwind and whenever i had tp at the start of a fight without berserk i just used shield break. My war atm is only 26 so i dont know Gaxes usefullness long term. Raging rush is aparently a decent alternitave to rampage but i never see any war use it durring exp.