before i start, i need to know some things, please help

[the_ultimate_shadow]

i am probly gonna start playing, and i have a question before i start, cause i dont wanna make a mistake by starting. what are these groups people are starting about, manaburn, melee burn, alot of people are saying some class's aren't even needed anymore and some dude said he has a 63 black mage and hasn't gotten a invite in 4 days. why are some class's needed no more.

[Balfree]

manaburns are black mage parties, where you get 5 black mages and a refresher, thats all you need for a manaburn

melee burn is the oposite, you get 5 heavy meleers, and a healer

these are trendy party setups, they are good to lvl up fast, but this happens mostly (if not only) at later levels, like 60~75, if this is worrying you before you even begin the game, dont even bother starting, theres months upon months of work to be done before you reach those levels, unless youre all about reaching cap level without enjoying the game :p

[Dux]

FFXI allows you to change jobs at any major town / village / oasis so you can not make a "mistake" by choosing to start as BLM. You can change from BLM to any job at any time in your FFXI career.

If you level BLM to 30, decide you dont like it you can switch to Warrior easily. Your warrior will be level 1, your BLM will be safely stored at level 30 and you will still have all the money / items you had from your BLM in your inventory. You may return to you Lv 30 BLM at any time without loosing any WAR or BLM items / experience / anything.

[Jugil]

Like Balfree said, those -burn parties are trendy, and they can yield some real nice exp; however, normal party setups are still out there. It is not a game full of nothing but BLM's and WAR's.

As far as the BLM 63 not getting a party for 4 days, it happens sometimes. You shouldn't worry about this right now; you haven't even started and there are months upon months of time you will put in prior to this point.

I say give the game a shot; play a job you like regardless of invites; I'd suggest getting at least level 30 so you can unlock some advanced jobs and try them out. By then, you will be able to make your own assessment of the game.

[the_ultimate_shadow]

ok, thanks guys, i really appreciate the advice, i'm still playing wow right now...i would really love to play a MMORPG on my xbox 360, and well, yea, FFXI seems awsome(and i've been a final fantasy fan for YEARS!), and i've been debating it for months and i just CANNOT decide! how easy is it to play on a console, cause i know it would be hard with wow

[Bricklayer]

ok, thanks guys, i really appreciate the advice, i'm still playing wow right now...i would really love to play a MMORPG on my xbox 360, and well, yea, FFXI seems awsome(and i've been a final fantasy fan for YEARS!), and i've been debating it for months and i just CANNOT decide! how easy is it to play on a console, cause i know it would be hard with wow

Console play should be fine (would welcome XBOX 360 user input here).

Regarding WoW, I think you'll find that FFXI is more refined than WoW. The fact that you like the FF series is a good start. Things take longer in FFXI than they do in WoW, parties are far more a requirement than an option in FFXI, instances are basically non-existent (everyone shares everything).

Another new player coming from WoW mentioned dissatisfaction with playing the MNK (Monk) class. If you like a "busier" class, which will be closer to what you experience in WoW, you will probably want to go for something like RDM or BRD (maybe even THF?), which are constantly working during battles.

Welcome to FFXI!

[bungiefan]

ok, thanks guys, i really appreciate the advice, i'm still playing wow right now...i would really love to play a MMORPG on my xbox 360, and well, yea, FFXI seems awsome(and i've been a final fantasy fan for YEARS!), and i've been debating it for months and i just CANNOT decide! how easy is it to play on a console, cause i know it would be hard with wow

The game was designed to be played on a console from the beginning. The PS2 version was the first version to be released, and all other versions are just a port of the PS2 version. The interface was designed to be easily navigated with just a controller.

[the_ultimate_shadow]

ok, cool, if i play i will probly start as a white mage or a black mage(if those jobs are available to start) and when i can level a summoner, to be honest, WoW is getting on my nerves, and i would like a MMORPG that i can just sit on my couch and play instead of hurting my butt on this stupid computer chair, hm, is comunication done purely through typing, cause i know on WoW we starting using voice programs such as ventrilo, or teamspeak? but i figure with it being across three platforms it would be all typing but u never know...

[Asir]

Some linkshells have Teamspeak but I don't know if there is a way to put it on a console. I'm sure someone else with a 360 would be able to tell you more about the voice thing. Most people type and USB keyboards can be fairly cheap to pick up if you don't have one already.

The six starting jobs are White Mage, Black Mage, Red Mage, Thief, Warrior and Monk. Once you hit level 30, you can unlock any of the available advanced jobs. At level 18, there is a quest to unlock a sub job so you can have a second job that compliments the skills of your first job. You will have to level the sub job seperately and it will always be half of what your main job is. For example; you have WHM and BLM both at level 20. If you were to sub BLM to your WHM, it would look like WHM20/BLM10.

[I'm just a guy]

HEY HEY HEY! do whatever job/s you want :3 every job is usful, if ya dont go wth the flow, make your on wave ^_-

[the_ultimate_shadow]

yes, i have a usb keyboard, hm, do the majority of people use team speak, or only some?

[Gentoo]

yes, i have a usb keyboard, hm, do the majority of people use team speak, or only some?

As Asir points out, use of VoIP is on a linkshell (FFXI's version of a guild) by linkshell basis. Since there is nothing of the sort offered by SE for FFXI, the common denominator is the text chat that the game includes.

It'd be tough to come up with anything that could be considered an accurate estimate on the percentage of people that use a voice chat server, but if I'd hazard a guess, I suspect it'd definitely be in the minority.

[the_ultimate_shadow]

lol, linkshell, guilds are called linkshell, well anyways, i just want to make sure i wont have a problem with 360 compared to computer, cause i dont nessecarly have the best computer