[Van'derfel]

You can't create on Odin, it's locked down because it is overpopulated.
And bigger isn't always better. Actually, normally is worse. More competition on xp mobs, nm, and what have you. There are still plenty of people to party with on smaller servers, so don't worry that there won't be anyone to party with. Not like everyone has every job at 75.

[Satimasu]

Originally Posted by Ameroth

Sorry, I need to correct you on this. The official windowed version is only better if you're an overly-paranoid person. The unofficial windower exceeds the official SE one by several jiggawatts. Windower has plugins that don't break the game or give unfair advantages, but that just make sense to have. Examples: seeing your party members TP, seeing your alliance member's MP and TP, shows the distance between you an other objects, an auto-sort for your inventory that doesn't suck, increasing the game's draw distance on better computers, etc, etc. Plus, windower allows you to write more complex macros for jobs that want to have 6+ line macros. Finally, the unofficial windower just does what it does better.

If you are going to play on PC, and you want to window the game, or have the ability to minimize it, I, and most others, fully recommend the unofficial windower.

Never said official was better. It's still surprising how they couldn't even make the basic windowing feature on par with windower, but whatever. Those plugins aren't NEEDED though. It's just extra fancy stuff.

[illsbury]

I've started playing, picking random servers, creating a character, running around during prime time and trying to find a nice community. Getting to Vulkrum Dunes isn't too hard, but I've noticed that there arent really that many people to party with. On some servers, there isnt anyone during peak time (6EST+).

This is a bit disconcerting.

[Satimasu]

Like I said, if you go to Kujata, let me know. Had quite a few new people that seem to be enjoying things so far. I checked Valkurm Dunes last night to see at least 40 people there.

[Ellipses]

The low-level areas are going to be hit or miss on pretty much every server. The Dunes were fairly busy Saturday night on Fenrir, but I'm sure they'll be a ghost town for several days in a row after that.

The population in the pre-Jeuno areas of the game says nooooooothing about the population post-Jeuno. There just aren't that many low-level players anymore. So finding people in the Dunes is a matter of happening on some random smattering of low level players, and high level players leveling subs and/or level sync'ing who aren't just soloing. Buburimu seems to have gotten fairly popular these days, too (although often with soloers, duoers or little LS parties).

Level Sync and FoV have made the lower level areas more popular than they were before those two features, but they haven't suddenly created a mass exodus out of the higher level areas so that everyone is suddenly hanging out in the Dunes every day.

[Firewind]

I'm also on Kujata (character name and info in my sig) so if you are ever on that server let me know.

Originally Posted by Satimasu

I've seen great Taru SAM's so I wouldn't worry about that. Yes, they are the weakest melee race, but like I said before, you can make up for that with more effort put into the job. Taru's make pretty good RNG's though. The thing with RNG though is that it's pretty much the most expensive job in the game. You pay for your damage through arrows, bullets, and/or bolts. Definitely wouldn't recommend trying RNG as a new player unless you can find your niche and don't have gil problems or don't mind having to make a lot of gil to fund it.

I would just like to note that the nice thing about Ranger is that the Woodworking skill needed to make Status Effect bolts (including Holy Bolts, one of the best type of crossbow bolts for a long time on RNG) is very low and easily attainable for a low level player.

Rangers will definitely want to use both Longbows and Crossbows but it's still nice to be able to save a bit of gil by making your own ammo, especially if you just want to do something like try out the job.

And in the long run what he said is true, race really doesn't matter so go with the race you would like to play as. Some of the best Black Mages I know are Elvaan who are usually seen as the worst choice for the job and some fo the best Paladins I've played with have been Tarutaru who are seen as the most frail race in the game.

Originally Posted by Satimasu

The thing is there are melees and all of them can pretty much do substantial damage. They all have different ways of working. Thing is, with all that damage, you have to be careful with your hate. The monster will come after you if you don't control yourself and you'll find out real quick it's not in your best interest to just spam damage as fast as you can in an exp party. BLM's have to learn that early on because of MP and their weak defense.

To add a bit to what Satimasu already said, because of the ways the jobs deal damage there is no "best" class. For Example, Using a Black Mage is one of the few ways to really hurt a Slime or Pudding type monster but they are useless against Collibri who will mime the last spell used on them.

Which Job Should I Play?

The above guide while in dire need of an update is a very good and useful one for deciding on what job to play