General Noob Monk questions

[dred ashaman]

Ok, been playing for about 31 hours. I'm at lvl 13.5 (i could be higher, but the whole death thing) and I'm Galkan in Bastok.

Right now, I am using Burning Cesti (+3atk+40de+3acc), wearing a power gi, gaiders, bastok ring, def 7-8 pants, white belt and pretty much everything else is basic.

I am usually pretty profitable, make about 4-5k at the ah per play session.

I'm rank 2.

I solo'd until 12, now getting some help from a white mage. Should I still be soloing? I think I could lvl faster dealing with easy to decent monsters rather than tough on up and having to rest all the time, but i'm not sure.

When should I pick a sub job? If I picked a basic one now, could I still get a prestige class later?

Mnk/War- I know its all to comon, but what works works right? I assume I would damage more and be able to wear better armor? Does the armor you wear depend on your main job or any job you have?

Mnk/Whm- I know Galk's are crap for magic, but if I could heal myself faster, that would be great!

Right now, I'm playing with the sheep and lizards in the highlands, but again, I think I could go quicker bagging the smaller stuff while taking less damage and less reload time.

So, is my equipment ok? I dont see much more available on the AH for my lvl. What should I be saving up for?

I usually hit pretty damn often. maybe 70-80%. Would the t.punches be usefull?

Thanks for any help and advice!

-defrag-

[Tulen]

I solo'd until 12, now getting some help from a white mage. Should I still be soloing? I think I could lvl faster dealing with easy to decent monsters rather than tough on up and having to rest all the time, but i'm not sure.

While you could go to Valk, you can still solo decently at that lv. Really depends if you can get a good PT, a good PT can get you much more xp than solo. There are still a lot of people still learning the game there which can lead to bad xp PT.

When should I pick a sub job? If I picked a basic one now, could I still get a prestige class later?

You can switch out your main and sub jobs whenever you want, it's not like you pick one and get locked into it. Also you only get xp on your main job, so will have to level that seperate. Galka have low mana to begin with and having it as your sub cuts that even further. Better to stick with a melee sub.

[Klumps]

Dangruf Wadi is a fantastic leveling spot from 12-14 (although you're probably 14 by now...). At 13, all goblins / wadi crabs / rock lizards in the lower level are 12-21 xp each, which doesn't sound like much, but it adds up quickly. Here's the good part, though: goblins and rock lizards in wadi drop fire crystals, which are generally the highest sale value for the time it takes to acquire them. In addition, the weavers can drop grass thread, cotton thread, grass cloth, and cotton cloth, which sell well at the AH, and the thugs drop wild onions, which also sell well at the AH.

Every time I level a character from 12-14 (or sometimes 10-14 depending on if it's a melee class, like drk, that has a lot higher sustained damage output vs. blm), I do it in Dangruf Wadi. You can easily rack up 15-20k worth of drops in just those two levels using the method outlined above. Of course, it's a lot faster once you have a whm subjob to use, and mithkabobs...^^ Even without them, though, you should be able to get 200-300 xp before you have to rest, as a galka monk.

Save your cash and get bastokan or republic knuckles at 15, they're very good until level 20, when you get cougar baghnakhs. At your level, all of your armor should be of brass quality or better, with your gloves being legionaire's gauntlets - you can use those until 14. After that, get Balance Gloves. Monk's Headgear is a quality headpiece until you get to bone armor. Legs and boots are both pretty basic.

At level 14, get some combination of sardonyx and/or ametrine (think that's the +dex?) rings, or the courage/balance rings if you can afford them (unlikely, at level 14). At level 16, invest in some bone earrings, or bone earrings +1 if you can afford them (still unlikely, at 16).

At 18, my personal recommendation is to stop leveling your monk for a bit, and level your warrior subjob to 14 (kill konschtat worms to cap your weapon skill for level 11, this is sufficient to get to 14 in wadi) using the above described method, which means leveling a white mage sub to 7 (make sure to cap healing skill!). Once you can, use level 10 saintly rings with your sub to up your +mnd so you get more out of your heals (the +2 MP earrings are also nice). Cap your club skill for level 7 whm (approximately 22 skill) before you level up the whm, and you can basically play it like any other melee character. Don't fight anything but hornets and ding bats to level 6; your melee skills should already be capped anyway (for the whm, at least). The reason for this being that wind crystals also sell quickly, and usually for around 60-75% of the value of fire crystals.

Once you get whm to 7 (and capped healing skill!!), and warrior to 14 (using dangruf wadi lower level), you'll have a sizable nest egg that will easily allow you to afford your full set of beetle when you gain level 21, and possibly enough for the beetle earrings +1 and those courage / balance rings I talked about. Group in valkurm until 19-20 if you can help it (preferably 20), then go to Jeuno, get your chocobo, etc.

A lot of people will say to start Qufim now; I wouldn't recommend it. If necessary, do enough grouping only to cap your HTH and Evasion skills. You can pretty much farm mid-level wadi from 20-22 the same way you farmed lower level wadi from 12-14, this time on the ambusher/tinkerer/butcher level goblins, and some wadi leeches thrown in for fun. Of course, this means leveling your whm sub to level 10 (and capping healing skill!), but that's not too painful, especially for a galka; just hang out by the "fumaroles" in south gustaberg, killing hornets (more wind crystals!).

So, you hit 22, now what? KORROLOKA TUNNEL! The worms there are incredibly easy for the level they are (20-25), and you can easily take even matches (lose less than half health). This will keep your HTH and evasion skills capped, and also gives you a healthy advantage over most other monks when it comes to your guard skill. Stay here until level 25, THEN go to Qufim until level 27/28, when you should be able to camp the keys for your Kazham airpass. Get to Kazham ASAP, and spend as little time in Qufim as possible. Qufim, to be blunt, simply blows for making money, and it's tough to get a group there, as you have to compete with the hordes of warriors who are leveling to 30 before doing anything else, in the quest to get their advanced job of choice.

So, what do you need to do all this farming for, you ask? Take a look in the Jeuno auction house when you get there, for Federation Tekko, Republic Subligar, and Fuma Kyahan. On Titan, these three level 25 items run approximately 125k gil for all three of them, and are worth every penny, adding +3 accuracy and +9 atk for the set, as well as having good defense values for their level. You can use the Subligar till level 37, the Kyahan till 39, and the Tekko until whatever level you can afford Ochiudo's Kote.

Monks suffer a perceived disadvantage in the damage-dealing department until the 30s, because of the low damage on their weapons until then. Having great gear will help to change this perception, and make it easier for you to get groups. If you are planning to go for an advanced job such as samurai or ninja, you will already have the gear to equip them well at level 25+. If you are planning on another job, well, you can always sell the gear (likely at a profit) and be able to keep your new job very well funded.

Any asshat can level to 75 in crap gear; it only takes time. Your gear reflects on you as a player, however, and quality gear makes it a lot more likely that you will be picked for groups. Always brag about your ATK / DEF values in your search comment; people know what their own values are, and they will notice that (most likely) your ATK is higher, and your DEF is comparable.

Well, enough rambling. This is the path I've taken, and it's been rewarding thus far. Hope this helps.

[Toede]

nice long post, but your forgetting the most important thing about FFXI, the partying with other people.
Your experience in the dunes, which, i admit does suck, but its a learning experience. Here you learn the basics of the group, the make-up of the group isnt the most important thing in the world, but you start getting the grouping basics down.

Same thing with Qufim, yeah it sucks also, no gil, lots of deaths. But in qufim you really learn what parties work and what parties dont. you start to learn the skillchain, and you learn everybodies strength and weaknesses while partying with them. You come to realize that yeah an all melee group sounds like a good idea, but you learn quickly how important the support roles are to the group. I hated qufim, but i realize that it might have been a neccessary evil, but now i know i learned a lot about the other classes in that area. but the highlights there are finally finding a party that clicks together and chaining to 5, and how much fun it is to be in a well oiled party machine.

Im only level 32, but looking back at the short time ive played, ive come to realize a couple things. Yes you have to farm eventually if you want to get the right quality of equipment. after farming for the last 2 days and getting over 80K, its not as bad as ive come to think farming was. Definalty worth the extra hour or 2 to farm 25K gil.

Keep the subjob leveled. I hate my war sub job, but i gotta level the damn thing unfortionatly if i still want to be an effective monk. and its 10xs more important for a mage to level there sub, its amazing how many 32whm/7blm i find... humm pick that person up or a 32whm/16blm... same goes for all the classes.

There are many different ways to level, i chose the rout of partying early and often.

[Frarinalga]

What's great about being a monk is that you don't have to party soon, you have great solo abilities. You don't have to deal with shitty groups as early as other classes do (Like white mages, black mages, etc). Have fun soloing till 15-20, you'd probably get more exp than from a crappy group. Unles you're new to mmorpgs. Then you could use the experience from groups.

[Kyuss Wren]

So whats a good place to farm/Solo for a level 35 monk ?
Someone mentioned something about 25k in two hours?

[Rico]

I dont know about the 25k in 2hour (probaly a NM) but you can farm and Jugner with thief subbed

[Rossb2k]

Keeping the subjob up-to-date gets increasingly annoying. I absoutely despise Quifm, but no matter what people tell you it is the best place to earn EXP. Solo if you want to, but when you get into the high 40s/lower 50s the last thing you're gonna want to do is waste a couple days leveling your subjob. Warriors get too many supporting job traits/abilities to NOT level it up, so don't even think about slacking behind. I see people with subjobs of level 11-15 at my level, and trust me, they're not getting an invite any time soon. Once you hit 25 or thereabouts, get your Kazham keys and head down to the Jungle. It's harder to find a party, but almost every player down there is a veteran leveling up their subjob, so it eliminates the newbie element. When all else fails, form your own party.