Hey people! need some advice

[Horis FTW]

wassup ladies and gents.
i played FFXI about 2 years ago and played for a few months and found it great, i was forced to quit for reasons i cant really remember, to cut my boring story short, me and a couple of friends decided to start FFXI again.

ive forgotten all i used to know but i have alot of patience and i would appreciate it if anyone could tell me a very strong and exciting build that i could start.
maybe with a guide?
any suggestions are welcome.
Thanks!

[Balfree]

Hmm what can I say, pick a job you like... go outside town and whack stuff in the head for EXP, sell the loot on the Auction House, talk to every NPC, etc. That's the basics right? FFXI is so huge its hard to really point you in a straight direction.

What kinds of roles do you like the most? Front line damage dealing, nuking, supportive job, healing, tanking? Maybe we can go from there.

[IfritnoItazura]

anyone could tell me a very strong and exciting build that i could start.
maybe with a guide?

Don't really understand what you mean... Guess I'll take a few blind stabs:

Samurai: Perhaps the it damage dealer of the moment; lot's of weapon skills for lot's of damage.

Blue Mage: The new term for versatility; makes for good damage dealer, has good selection of debuff tools (some with unique effects), can make a decent main healer. Decent solo'er, to boot.

Red Mage: Still the standard jack-of-all-trades (with a heavy tilt to main healing in exp/merit parties), and still the master of vanquishing foes by outlasting them.

Paladin: Better than ever; more shield procs, extra TP from shield procs, Auto-Refresh, and upgrades to Sentinal and Rampart--and still feels like The Tank.

Ninja: Still the trick tank of the game, who lives and dies by player skills.

Bard: Popularity is nothing to sneeze at. Pulling and buffing keep things quite busy if you hate to have free time on hand in parties.

Corsair: Strong if inconsistent buffs, but adds good damage output for those who find Bard too passive.

Summoner, Black Mage, and Puppet Master: If you are looking for a challenge in leveling, those may be good bets. They are not bad jobs, just suffering from varying degrees and combination of being misunderstood or undervalued, at least in some level ranges.

[Ellipses]

The job you choose to start as matters for a couple days at most. That should be long enough for you to earn enough gil to buy better gear than you would have had starting as some other job and switch to that to try it out.

Race is another matter, and that decision hinges on what's important to you. Here (http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Races) is a decent summary, with links for more detail. Eventually, the stat differences can largely be alleviated by gear, food, and knowing what you're doing. Largely. If you know for sure you prefer one kind of party role over another, it might be best to go for a race that fits that. If you're not sure, and want to be flexible, Humes are about as average as it gets.

[Mhurron]

Simply starting any job will work fine. It will either come back to you or you'll just learn it again.

[Balfree]

Yea its not easy to tell you what to do upfront. Maybe if you let us know what you want to achieve with what job we can give you some advice.

[Horis FTW]

well i have alot of time for FFXI now.
i am hoping to achieve a 75 in a fun job.
as u can tell i dont recall all the terminology of FFXI.
so anyways, thanks for the help people.
keep it coming with more suggestions if u want :P

[Balfree]

Well. I've had people I know come back to the game, what I recall atleast one of them doing was just taking Black Mage to 15, and then switching over to White Mage and get it all the way to 30, while getting the subjob quest at level 18.

White Mages are probably the job in highest demand of all the starter jobs. Taking it to 30 should get you back on track to every basic aspect of FFXI.

Im sure you can then decide on what you want to do.

Remember, get "Signet" before you exit any city, speak to the guards next to the gates to get Signet, this will award you crystals for the enemies you defeat, the crystals will be your biggest gil maker for a while, so keep selling them on the auction house.

I would also usually recommend players to begin their FFXI career on Windurst, as you will fight crawlers and bees alot, and they drop some valuable things, like Silk and Beehive chips. But this is in no way a long term thing, it may boost your first levels but later on since you can freely get to Windurst no matter what city you decide on, it is not very important.

[Nuriko]

You can switch jobs easily, so just try things. Do note that it's going to take party play to really get a feel for most jobs, and that tends to happen at 10 at the earliest (and a lot of people are waiting till 20 these days).

[IfritnoItazura]

well i have alot of time for FFXI now.
i am hoping to achieve a 75 in a fun job.
as u can tell i dont recall all the terminology of FFXI.
so anyways, thanks for the help people.
keep it coming with more suggestions if u want :P

Want terminology? Try: http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/

Want the slangs, too? FFXI Dictionary of Terms and Slang (http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Final_Fantasy_XI_Dictionary_of_Terms_and_Slang)

A long winded job guide? Which Job Should I Play? (http://www.ffxionline.com/forums/showthread.php?t=66059)

Looking forward to exp'ing? The EXP Party Index (http://www.ffxionline.com/forums/showthread.php?t=64267)

What else would interest you? We aim to please! :biggrin:

[KoukiRyu]

lol, they've got everything covered it seems. @_@

Just tell us what you want to do in a party, or what you like to do in games in general, and we could give advice. Or just go look at Ita's "Which Job Should I Play?" guide, it's really one of the best you'll be able to find.

I personally started out on MNK, because at low levels it's cheap, and you can beat stuff up quick. :D