On the way to Paladin, subjob level

[Lightningstorm]

I am planning to be a Paladin. So I leveled a Warrior to 18 and now leveling the monk subjob.

Is there much diffrence if the Monk is level 13, 14 or 15 to be a sub for Warrior?

Level 15, i'll only get on level 30, at which point i'll be doing the Paladin quest and starting over.

So is there a noticable improvment from level 13 to 14 on the subjob?

I know I am lazy, but then again, I won't be playing Monk class again once I get Paladin.

[LordBiGGs]

well the highest i would say you really need to get monk is 14...you're only going to lvl your war to 30, so you arent actually going to be lvl'ing with a lvl 30 war, only lvl 29war/14mnk to get to 30war...understand lol...lot simpler than it sounds, i'm sure you got it.

basically yes you will have a 30war who's sub isnt leveled as high as it can be...but you wont be looking for parties with it, only using it for the pld quest.

honestly there isnt a huge difference between 12, 13, or 14. i only leveled my mnk to twelve because A. i didnt like monk. B. i hate the dunes. i made sure i kept my gear up to date and wore just about the best equipment possible to make up for my laziness lol.

[Susano]

I would take it to 15 at least, you get an extra ability that raises your evasion. You may not think you will be leveling warrior again, but remember, max level is 75 now (and maybe 80 by the time you can get that high) so you will your primary subjob to be 37~40.

If I could do things over again I would have taken mnk to 18, did subjob, than taken war to 30, and started pld. Still have to go back and level war when I hit 60.....but by then I may be ready for a break

[bside]

also, don't forget MNK gets bonus on MAX HP at lvl 15, which could be significant help if u r to tank w/ ur WAR, as u'll eventually level WAR as a PLD's sub.

[LordBiGGs]

bonus isnt going to help if you are never gonna use your war at 30 though. its really not that much work getting those few levels. i just didnt like monk and i hate the dunes.

[Kagi]

If you plan to take pld to 75, your war will have to be at 37, which means your monk should be at 18. Might as well level it early.

[July]

Well to tell you the truth, I only leveled my monk up to 8 and then got my warrior up to 30 with the sub at 8. I never leveled the monk anymore because anythime I level my Warrior again I just put it's sub as Paladin. So you don't have to ever level your monk again if you don't want to.

[Temeras]

Don't wanna sound harsh, but taking monk to only 8 was rather lazy. I mean its very little difficulty to raise from 8 to 10, and 10 would of given you counter. You might not think its a big deal, but every little bit helps. Not having counter isn't the end of the world, but having it would definitely be a plus. Taking monk to 18 is best. I slacked a bit on my monk with my warrior and i recently worked on getting monk up, with the 4 more lvls and hp bonus and gained a total of around 50hp. People would pay a couple hundred thousand of gil for 50 hp on equipment. Lvling up sub is like giving yourself hundreds of thousands of gil in equipment upgrades.

Also war/pld is lazy combo, its worse then war/whm if you think about it. War already has defense bonus I and despite the misinformation some have recieved, the one war would get from having pld at 10 at lvl 20 does not stack, defense bonus I doesn't stack with defense bonus I. So all you get is the cure spells at later lvls with even less mana. And for that tradeoff you get what? undead killer and holy circle...

Really just do yourself a favor and get that monk up to 18, it simply is one of the best subs for warrior for a long while, better then samurai till 60 and ninja till 74 imho. Like many have said you will want your warrior to be lvl 37 someday, and this way if you finish lvling your monk you can sell your monk equipment and never need it again.

[July]

Well I don't think it's worth it. Just going up to level thirty you don't encounter any situations that's worth having the minor increases that a level 9-15 monk would help with. Of course I could've gotten it to 10 but I didn't have to nor need to. I wouldn't of went higher than that though because monk is irrelevant to my later leveling and I didn't want to start partying with a monk. I used the time I saved from leveling my mnk in leveling my WAR because that's what I wanted to get leveled up and quick and you know what it did. I got parties and I got my level up to 30 faster then I expected so I don't see why i would of needed to get it up to lvl 18 just because it displeases you.

And War/Pld is just as good combination as War/Mnk because mnk itself doesn't make a good subjob and I mostly tank as a warrior anyway so the added def is something I (yes me not you!) prefer over added hit points and pld actually adds more damage than monk. Monk strengths lies in it's constant double attacks which isn't a benefencial factor for your main job. So I use my War/Pld to get my war to level 37.

So do yourself a favor and keep in mind what works for you doesn't work for everyone else.

[Temeras]

July, I don't want it to seem like I'm personally attacking you, but I am responding to your posts because of the misinformations you wrote down. Well thats my point, war/pld doesn't have any added defense over war/mnk, in fact its worse, please tell me how there is any added defense. Mnk subjob strength has nothing to do with constant double attacks... for one double attack is a warrior trait, monks don't have it, if you are referring to the fact they hit twice with h2h, thats something totally different and far from the strength of a monk subjob. And you say you tank with your warrior, well thats the whole point and the real strength of monk subjob. You get more hits points, plus defensive traits like counter, and defensive abilites like dodge which highers evasion and also works in grabbing some aggro much like how most pld use sentintel. I'm not discussing preferance of war/mnk over war/pld, its simple fact that war/mnk is far more beneficial, I really doubt you'll find anyone to argue that war/pld is better and have any strong arguments to prove it.

Also this attitude of I didn't need to is rather incourteous of those who group with you. You don't NEED a subjob lvled up sure, you don't NEED to eat food. Of course you'll save time, you can save time by not farming and not having up to date equipment as well. It might be just me but I feel guilty if i forgot to purchase food or my subjob isn't up to par cause I know I am not giving my party everything me or my job can do. If you re-read your first paragraph from a someone else's perspective, it just sounds rather selfish, because you spoke of how skimping on the subjob was most beneficial to you, but the other end of it is that its not fair to your fellow party members.

And really that last sentence about what works for some and works for not, was irrevelant to this topic. The poster asked for a recommendation and I gave it. I also found the need to argue your recommendation simply because I wanted to warn him that sure he could go war/pld, but it offers very little, and not nearly as much as war/mnk, and having war/mnk would probably help him get parties easier, and also not feel like a leech in an exp party.

[Claritin]

<sigh>

I started out MNK.... got to 27... switched to WHM.. got 30... then switched to PLD and had to lvl WAR... not a path that is intelligent... let me tell ya.

But that means there is no chance in hell I will ever have to lvl MNK again ;-)

My suggestion to the original poster is to take MNK to 18.

If you take it to 18 now you will be able to sell all of it's equip and never touch it again.... hell I would be tempted to make it 20 in case of expansion.... this will also put you in qufim range in case you ever decide to pick up MNK you will not have to gain 2 lvls and change hunting grounds.

WAR needs to get to lvl 36 like some other people have already pointed out... getting it to lvl 30 and stopping is not an option.... you get a adv job then... but you are not done.

I can understand not going WAR 30->36 before switching to PLD... 30->36 is hard.

However 14->18 hehehe well that is easy as hell.... just get it out of the way.

Now for July... the poster who said WAR/PLD is acceptable.... No... you need to listen to the other poster... a WAR/WHM is more practical than a WAR/PLD there is ZERO DEF gain since that skill doesn't stack with itself. All of our other abilities are useless to a WAR.

MNK gets :
Counter attack
Block Skill - like extra dodge
Lots of HP.
Boost


WAR/PLD is literally the worst WAR combo... it even passes up WAR/RDM in uselessness... WAR/SMN might be worse... not sure guarda or whatever the BLINK SMN is might be handy.

Atleast WAR/DRK would get +ATTK bonuses to ride along side +DEF from WAR.... +DEF on PLD and WAR is it's best benefit as a sub... when you combine them it is wasted.

The single only reason PLD/WAR is a decent combo is provoke.... if PLD had provoke I would dump WAR for MNK or WHM in a heartbeat... maybe even SAM... or possibly SMN for a GIGANTIC manapool.

God knows that when I am soloing and provoke is not needed I dump WAR for RDM or WHM quick as hell... I have even used PLD/BLM just for the warp spell.

Anyway that is all I am going to say about that.

[LordBiGGs]

laziness can pay off in the long run tough. if you wait to level monk and war, you will most likely have much more money than you did when you first started playing them. also no one here has seemed to conisder the fact that many people are not going to play pld to lvl 75. if they get bored of it or want to try a different class before they hit lvl 60, there is no reason to take warrior beyond 30 or monk passed 15. all in all, i just dont feel like going to the dunes....ever. lvl 8 is a little low. you should at least get to level 10 for counter attack. its very useful activated fairly frequently as well. 1 counter attack means 1 hit that misses you and 1 more hit that you do.

[imac2much]

Yes, I don't need to add fuel to the fire, but I would like to add my opinion about WAR/PLD... it sucks. My semi-set PT asked me to level my sub with them, because they needed a tank. I said I had no armor on me so they let me borrow some... I used my level 17 BLM equipment to fill up gaps. They also told me to try /PLD just for kicks.

Well, I had worse DEF than PLD/MNK (because I used some +MP gear, but even with same equipment I wouldn't have more defense). I had about 200 MP with a ton of HQ hairpins, earrings, astral rings, etc, but I could only cure1 (!) which is useless at level 30 to tell the truth. I have to agree, WAR/PLD is one of the worst combo a WAR could get.

But honestly, why all this MNK talk? MNK is going to be soooooo useless to you. Why not level THF? Even as a PLD, you would sub THF lots of times just to gilfarm and stuff. I even got my THF to 25 for flee... it's that useful.

And a offensive-minded Great Axe WAR/THF is very good, better than an offensive-minded WAR/MNK. I can also tank if need be, but I try not to be the main tank. With the best equipment I could find at the AH, I leveled my WAR/THF from 30 to 33 in one sitting last night in altepa... doing 100+ sneak attacks on beetles, and sturmwinds up to 250 damage. My WAR/THF was constantly doing more damage than the other melee DD's in my PT. And plus it was a lot of fun doing something other than tanking for once in my FFXI life...

So my suggestion... screw MNK. Level THF to 15 or higher. You want at least 15 for treasure hunter when you farm with your PLD/THF. Then just level WAR/THF to whatever you want. Then PLD/WAR. This way you don't waste any of your time, you're always leveling something you can use at higher levels!

[Temeras]

Yeah I totally forgot thief heh, I went with monk as that was the subjob I lvled and I forgot thief because that was the original job I lvled to 30, was a 30thief/14 monk. The times I regretted lvling thief as I had to lvl both paladin and warrior at the same time was quickly replaced when I realized that I would of started off much poorer, that thief had given me a quick boost in earning. Well my warrior is 31 now, totally forgot he would have sneak now, guess I'll give it a shot sometime. My main focus of my argument though is there are no excuses to not having sub up to lvl in lower lvls, 1-15 and so really are a breeze, can be done in 2 or 3 sittings especially when you party with others who have subjobs. Once you reach higher up, like the 50s and 60s your subjob being 1 or 2 lvls behind isn't bad as long as your not missing out on any abilities, I've even let my warrior go as he is 31 while my paladin is 65, but I make sure to really lvl my warrior before I miss out on anything. I even let my warrior sit at 26 when I was 59 as I had start really lvling with my paladin but took the time and just lvled my warrior for the day in one sitting in Yhoatar off the onions to 31 as I knew I would be missing out on Attack Bonus I were I to let my warrior sit when I hit 60 with the paladin. Laziness will always seem more beneficial to you, but don't complain when you don't see high exp chains when you or some others in the party aren't carrying their full weight. This is a team game, I try to center my suggestions in a team situation and by choosing to play paladin you are lining yourself up as a team player much like white mage, this means not neccesarily talking about whats best for you and your paladin but whats best for you to do for the party your in.