And in this corner...

[poeticglee]

Greetins all!! Since all 7 places around my knick of the woods is sold out of FFXI I ordered it, expecting it to arrive on my welcome mat soon. I retired from EQ due to boredome after playing since it's conception and the burdens of college and work.
Long time FF fan and oddly enough FF3 still my fav of all time (no gambler class :(

Anyways as I ponder what to be..im hoping for some educated help..

Ninja : Always found them rather neato, the different form of tankign they offer sounds fun and not as mundane.

Monk : My fav class in EQ till they got gimped. Wondering if they are fun / worthwhile here in ffxi.

Samurai : The idea and code of the samurai is awesome, have enjoyed them for a long time from playing legend of the five rings, akira kursowa films and hey wasnt Cyan a sam?

Ranger : Guns...

So what imw ondering for a total newb to FFXI which class is fun and a newb capable of playing and making the char worthwhile for others and myself?

I liek melee dont like being a caster, DPS or tanking, both are good imo as well as looking good. style goes a long ways here.

so any info on classes, viability, fun, etc etc be great!

thanks in advance :spin:

[Dtec]

Ninja is a very good class that needs alot of time to perfect (e.g. making alot of gil to support your ninja tools, spending time capping your throwing skill, getting the best gear, etc...), but once you do that, IMO, it is one of the best melee/tank classes. Instead of defense and heavy armor, Ninjas depend on evasion to tank.

Best sub job: Warrior (can't be a tank w/o Provoke)

Monks are just damage dealers that rely and strength instead of swords or other weapons. It is a good class to play and it is rewarding at higher levels.

Best sub job: Warrior (for raw melee stats), Samurai (for meditate), Thief (for Sneak/Trick attack)

Samurai class is supposedly the masters of skillchain because at level 30, they can meditate and get TP back. However, any job at level 60 can sub Samurai and get that skill.

Best sub job: Warrior (for raw melee stats), Thief (for Sneak/Trick attack)

Rangers are perhaps the best damage dealing class but keeping arrows and bullets in stock is very gil consuming, but if you put forth the effort, you will deal the most and consistant damage.

Best sub job: Ninja (for extra agility and dual wield), Thief (for extra agility and Sneak/Trick attack)

[Kiyosuki]

Warrior's also a pretty viable sub for Ranger's. Warrior's a really great job to have leveled because it goes with so many melee jobs as a sub job great to relatively well. Even if some jobs have a better option than War its still a nice backup to have.


If you want something fun and somewhat newb friendly thats physical I'd go with Monk. Monk's got to be the easiest job in this game to play as far as physical classes go. I could even go as far to say its relaxing sometimes. But its charm is that its very easy, but it warrents you great results even with minimal effort. If you go the extra mile to get your Monk the best equipment you can get that makes it even better. Monk may get repetative to a point though since really, all you do is run up and hit. You learn to hit in more fancy ways later though, so its not all bad. Monk's get really valuable past 40, and almost invaluable past 60 because they're damage against the undead has some major bonuses since they use blunt type weapons (Can't get more blunt than your bare hands or a knuckle) Undead monsters are pretty hardcore, but Monk's can turn that upside down if they're good. Some may tell you that Monks become useless after 30, don't listen to them, they have no clue what they're talking about. Monk's start out humble and move on to be one of the game's biggest damage contributer's, much like Monk's were in the original FF. And its so easy....its tempitng sometimes to just play Monk as main.

Ninja's a really fun and interesting job, I wouldn't have it any other way. I won't say its easy though, its definitely not the most newb friendly job. There's all sorts of complications that you have to keep in mind when tanking. I have to know what Ninjutsu I should put on the enemy in time, check my tp, make sure 'I provoke in time, and all at the same time count my shadows and see if I have to recast. Plus good Ninja equipment tends to be pretty expensive, and using the job itself to use all that Ninjutsu is incredibly expensive. Its a very tough job to keep afloat.

However, I won't tell you that you shouldn't play it or have to be rich to play it or shouldn't play it at all (Like some "nice" player's told me when I first came on) However it may take a lot more patience to keep it going, and planning. Get the hang of how to make a quick buck in the game first before you tackle it I suggest, if you do. Its an awsome job though, if your serious try it. Just know that its an easy job to screw up on.

Ranger's are incredible damage dealer's, I could even go as far as to say after 50 they basically become another nuker. I haven't played the job yet but so far those who do play it love it absolutely. All those awsome abilities you get and high damage really do sound pretty nice to play around with. If you can level Ninja and sub it too you have a lot of options at your disposal to have fun with. Just make sure not to go too crazy or else the enemy will never come off you, which is really bad in a party.

Oh, and Ranger's are pretty expensive too. Although I'm starting to question weither they're as expensive as Ninja is...

I've never played around with Samurai yet. Its what I wanted to be at first. Samurai make Multiple Renkei's possible to a much greater extent in parties, thats actually really useful at this point. But it is true unfortunalty that Samurai start to face some serious problems after 60. Basically...other than they're AF and unique Great Katana weapon skills, Samurai get nothing else. At that point Job's that just flat out do more damage in melee get the ability to use Meditate (Samurai lvl 30) and can then make multiple Renkei's possible. Warrior/Samurai and Dragoon/Samurai are pretty well known as wonderful renkei heavy combo's at that point. Samurai do get one more "store tp" bonus in the 40's and later on however, so you do in general gain tp a little faster still. You'll have all those other options to contend with though, but if you're will to take Samurai up to the highest levels is just that burning, you won't be gimped.

If I may also say, although no new players ever want to hear this, I have to recommend Warrior itself. Most New player's (including myself at one point) hated this job with a passion because we wanted the "shiny advanced" jobs at 30. Warrior felt so boring up to that point, but its really only after you try out the advanced jobs that you start to see just how wonderful this job is. After 30 the job starts to become much more unique, because all the others are too. All the other jobs start to take in noticable individual differences, they're strengths start to show a lot more and they're weaknesses too. But Warrior never loses its unique trait in its sheer flexibility. This job armed with the right weapon (usually Great Axe, its best rank) can be a very dependable damage dealer that can handle it with the rest of the fighters, but it can also tank enough to be considered one of the 3 tank classes of FFXI. Most consider Warrior's in BOTH catagories, and no other job can say they can use quite as many sub jobs as Warrior can. Warrior has a sub job for everything. War/Sam is a renkei machine later on, War/Mnk is dependable and the optimal tanking choice, War/Thf has interesting uses with Sneak attack and is a great soloing combo with Flee and Treasure Hunter , and War/Nin can duel wield one handed axes and save some hits with blink for a unique blend of evasiveness and high spamming damage.Thats a lot of successful sub jobs for a melee! Most use only 1 or 2, 3 at most. The job is so flexible that it can go straight up to the highest levels and never be considered "Behind", and its easy to use and afford. Honestly after I level Ninja I'm going straight back to Warrior, I honestly miss it a bit. It can literally do everything well and you don't have to burst a vein to do it. It would also give you a taste of both worlds, tanking and damage dealing. You'll probably want to try the advanced jobs and should, but after a while consider Warrior again, I highly recommend it.

[poeticglee]

Thanks for the replies and Kiyo from my lurking around the boards I must say that I honestly feel your one of the best posters around. Your info is well written, thought out and presented. Your posts are a wealth of info and insight lined with truth and often unbiased. So thanks :)

I may go monk, i did love them in EQ, in FF i enjoyed them a great deal and in refernce to my fav ff Saiban was always in my party when capable. ;)

Though I still do want to try ranger or ninja for challenge of it all...i do enjoy a challenge though raising cash is not the challenge i refer to :P

As for the Sam...still seems fun but all i see are boo's about them on their own forum which is a bit dishearting.

thanks again!