My path to becoming a PLD..I need advice

[Ennessa]

In a couple days, I will finally have FFXI! PLD's have always fascinated me. I intend to try out a couple of the other jobs, just so that I get a feel for them which will help me to understand how they work. But ultimately, I am destined to be a PLD.

I was thinking of starting out, from the beginning, as a monk. I'd stick w/ the monk until lvl 18 when I can get a subjob. I'd then switch and lvl up to lvl 37 with warrior as my main...so I would be a WAR/MNK. Then I will seek my destiny as a PLD/WAR.

My question is, does this look like a good plan? Also, in my early stages when I am a low level monk, what weapon should I use? What weapon should I use as a Warrior? I eventually want to be using a sword and shield as a PLD.

Thanks

[Ridill]

MNK is probably the easiest job to use without a sub job because you have very little to do other than engage and participate in skillchains. So, while you're raising MNK make a note of how other players tank, it can help a lot.

Also, MNK's should use Hand-to-Hand weapons. WAR's on the other hand have a wide variety of weapons available to them. If you want to help your party as best as you can, go either Great Axe or Axe. But you can get away with merely going with Sword and Shield.

[Voyager]

You'll want to keep Axe, Great Axe, and 1h Sword at very least, leveled as a War. While Axe and Great Axe are your strongest melee skills, having 1h Sword up to date will let you participate in more Skill chains.

H2H will also be useful to keep leveled, as H2H is, hands down, the most effective weapon for use against Bone type monsters.

Finally, when you are lvling Monk, if you find yourself doing very little damage to mobs (crabs and beetles in particular), spam boost during battle. While you'll attack more slowly, you'll end up doing more damage over time. Having grapples with a high damage bonus, and eating Meat Mithkabobs help as well.

Harry Voyager

[Quezi]

I sujest you start out as war to 18, then level thf/war to 15(or 18), then go war/thf to 30. You may aswell get thf 15 out of the way, as you need it for farming. Thats what im doing, and so far its working out just fine.

If you want to, grab great axe. It really is good, but in most the 'good' pts im in, its sword that i need. Just becaus burning/red lotus chains with somany things. It lets you chain with other sword users *numerous*, monks, and ninjas verry nicely. Infact a good monk, or better yet a thf with hand to hand can speed a pt right up if you have sword. Red lotus -> SA+Combo can take a fourth or even a third of an ITs life away in one go, and thats with out a MB.. Today i was in a pt and when we had tp we where taking IT goblins down to half right at the start *above renkei with fire MB and an additional 2 fires or so before the mb, we dont go untill just before the second voke is ready because thf usualy gets hate after combo*

You are probibly better off just sticking with one weapon at first. Money is better spent on other things than keeping 2-3 good weapons on you at all times. One of the first things you should work for is a warriors belt +1, they arent all that expensive, but are good and you will be wearing it a really long time =P

So just to give some comparison, in getting up to where i have, there has been only one time i wished i had kept gaxe up, and it wasnt even an exp pt=P

Most important thing to remember is FOOD. While its true you are not expected to use food at lower levels, the simple fact is a stack of meat mithkabobs in the dunes, even if you are the only person whos eating anything, literaly can make the differance between bad exp and good exp. Food is really noticeable. Infact the first 2.5k you make *after keeping armor and stuf up to date* should be spent on a stack. eat meat mithkabobs untill 20-25. After 25, i sujest you keep some meat kabobs and some boild crab on you because at 25 stuf really seemed to start hitting me hard=x

Use search coments.

And dont be afrade to farm ... getting better gear can help you just as much as leveling up=P Nothing like seeing a level 25 war in lizard armor... Remember non mages/ninjas/rangers dont really loose money, their net worth just keeps going up and up, as you can sell back anything you buy.

Always have signet on if you can, crystals are primary income for newbie.

If you stick with the mnk plan, try to keep hth AND staff up. Staff is usefull. Not only because it has the lowest level AOE WS, but also because of earth staff, which pld use under certain situations, and im assumeing it would be nice to acualy be able to hit the mob and get tp

[Loial]

Ennessa's plan looks good to me.

If you really want to go PLD, then when you switch to WAR, always be prepared to tank for the party. This will get you used to the concept of tanking and raise your shield and parry skills (which take forever to rise). These come in handy when you switch to PLD later on

[navpops]

Originally posted by Quezi


If you want to, grab great axe. It really is good, but in most the 'good' pts im in, its sword that i need. Just becaus burning/red lotus chains with somany things. It lets you chain with other sword users *numerous*, monks, and ninjas verry nicely. Infact a good monk, or better yet a thf with hand to hand can speed a pt right up if you have sword. Red lotus -> SA+Combo can take a fourth or even a third of an ITs life away in one go, and thats with out a MB.. Today i was in a pt and when we had tp we where taking IT goblins down to half right at the start *above renkei with fire MB and an additional 2 fires or so before the mb, we dont go untill just before the second voke is ready because thf usualy gets hate after combo*

actually. by the time you have red lotus (presumably 50 skill) you could have -

1) Sheild Break and 2) Iron Tempest. this leaves you the ability to chain with Sword, H2H, Axe, Scythe, Bow, Gun. POlearm, Dagger, Great Katana, Katana, and Great Sword

that is the same amount of weapons a sword could chain with, except another Great Axe, but who uses 2 warriors at those levels?

also, Sneak attack » Fast blade is not quite as powerful as Sneak attack » Sturmwind


and higher rating (A+).

[Sasarai]

except for the fact that blm doesn't get blizzard until 17, so distortion chain will be crap compared to a fusion chain, besides combo is much nicer than iron tempest.

[navpops]

the comparion was Sword and Great axe. where did combo come from?

oh, and, if youre high enough to use red lotus, youre blackmages will be at least 17 usually. and the primary targets from 17-24
are snippers and pugils WEAK TO ICE. fire MB? no thanks.

oh, and Enn, yes. that's a good plan in my opinion. taking theif to 18 instead of monk also sounds fine, since you will need it later.

[Voyager]

Just a second on the food comment. Last weekend when I was lvling Monk in the dunes (Mnk/War), I brought a stack of boiled crab with me, along with the Meatkabobs. Expensive as all getout fro those levels, but because of the extra 20 odd def they gave me (along with keeping my armour up to date), I was able to dodge tank Damselflies while the party was still at lvl 15.

Think perfect 200 Exp kill every five minutes, with a clipper pull inbetween flies (the other War tanked the Clips). We did this for close to 3 hours without getting a single person killed. Most of us leveled twice. The exp did not even begin to slow down until someone hit lvl 17, and then it dropped to a "mere" 192 exp per kill.

The only reason we quit was because it was 6 a.m. and the White Mages were falling asleep. It was the best party I had in the dunes, ever.

I think, over the course of that night, in that party, I went from lvl 13 to about 1k exp shy of lvl 18, and for me, food was a major contributor. We had a Samurai, a Spear Warrior, and myself, a Monk, for damage, so we didn't have any skill chains, until much later, but the fact that I was using Meat Mithkabobs, when I was a damage dealer meant that I was doing significantly more damage than I would have been otherwise, and the fact that I had Boiled Crab and up to date armour meant that I could tank Damselflies very effectively, once I had Dodge.

Though I will also emphasis that you must keep your equipement current. If you are going to be a tank, then you have to keep your armour up to date. If you are going to be a damage dealer, you have to keep your weapons current, and chances are, when you are playing any melee character in Valkrum Dunes, you will have to be both the tank, and damage dealer at various times, so you need to keep everything you can current.

Some of the worst parties I've had have been ones with tanks who weren't wearing pants, or who were lvl 17 and still wearing the leather jerkin for armour, or damage dealers who were working with lvl 1 weapons. If you want to see someone's hp drop fast, have them tank an IT clip at lvl 13 while wearing only the scale chest piece for armour. I think that particulare guy managed to take a situation that was under control, and turn it into a near complete disaster, by draining the mages dry with his foolhardy tanking.

Harry Voyager

Addendum: Goblins are also good prey for that level range, and I do believe thay are weak against fire, as are Tigers and Dancing Weapons. Leeches are Light vulnerable.

Addendum 2: My mistake, Goblins are Light vulnerable. Still a workable option with a Fusion SC, though

[Ennessa]

Thanks everyone. I got the game on Tuesday and started playing that evening. As of Wednesday evening, I was almost a lvl 10 monk. I have been spending alot of time outside of the Bastok Markets killing rock lizards and such. I've learned how to program a couple of macros and I learned quickly how important it is to spam boost everytime it becomes available for reuse. I haven't bought any food yet but I have upgraded my armor and weapon to level 8 equipment. I've only managed to make about 5,000 gil so far but I've kinda learned what things sell well at the AH and what things sell for more at vendors.

All in all, I am loving the game! I have only died once and that's because I didn't rest long enough in between battles. I was trying to max my TP usage.

Thank you all for all of the advice and help. I can't wait to become a warrior and then a Paladin! =)