Wasted Gil or Needed Items

[Jonnyram]

EN spells might not be good from 20-30, but they are really useful later on when you start doing proper damage with them. You need to get all six of them and you need to make sure you are using the one that exploits the weakness of the enemy you are fighting.

Maps: get all maps - you'll be sorry someday if you don't. Get separated from your party for a bit and you'll be in a big mess. You think that Qufim is a simple map until you try to go levelling in Behemoth's Dominion

Spells you should and shouldn't get - like I said, you can save En- until you are a bit higher, but I got them all as soon as I could, because a) they look cool and b) I do plenty of farming. Really, this goes for every job, you should be buying whatever is available as soon as possible. When refresh and phalanx first came out in spring last year, I was around lv40. I refused to go to lv41 before I got refresh because I was too embarrassed to party without it. It was 400k at that point!! You've got it a lot easier now than back then

But be careful with AH sharks. Always find out where a spell originates before paying AH prices. There's a lot of stuff on sale in AH that you can even buy in Lower Jeuno Magic Shop, but people are too lazy/stupid to check. Go to Selbina for the en-spells. You'll save a fair bit.

[DrMrLordX]

I would recommend getting all the EN-spells, Dia II, the Qufim map . . . basically anything which piques your interest. Spells and maps take up no inventory space and are permanent. All they take is money. If you are having problems earning a few k gil here and there for spells that amount to less than 3k each(except for Dia II, which is rather expensive. You don't want to bother getting that at 22 though) then you need to start earning more gil. Take the time to pimp yourself out. It's fun and educational!

Dia II is useful if you can find the MP to use it, but I have only noticed a major difference from it once when in a party with some fairly weak melees, one of whom was a Taru war/nin using a sword+dagger combo that featured an acid kukri. I remember moving from Dia to Dia II raising our xp chains from chain #1 tops to chain #4(this was in garlaige, fighting siege bats and beetles mostly). I have never noticed it being quite so useful since then. It still beats Dia, however, and is nice when used in conjunction with Choke.

If you want to pick a spell to skip, skip Ice Spikes. I just don't like that spell for some reason. I'll probably snag it one of these days anyway . . . along with Diaga.

[Jonnyram]

Ice Spikes is great for soloing because it paralyzes the enemy if they hit you

[Uroboros]

I didn't start using Dia II until 55+. You're not going to notice it helping until then, and it's going to hose your manapool too much before then. Since then though it's been great, especially once FFXI makes its triumphant return to being a crab festival in the mid-fifties. I'm sure if the level cap is ever raised we'll all spend 75-85 on some new crab type. Ah, Valkurm Dunes/Qufim...I thought you'd never return.

[DrMrLordX]

Originally posted by Jonnyram
Ice Spikes is great for soloing because it paralyzes the enemy if they hit you

I find this to be more of a problem than anything else. The paralyze effect I can apply to the enemy by casting Paralyze directly at them is likely more powerful than anything ice spikes will apply. I prefer shock spikes' stun effect which buys me time to cast spells between swings. I like blaze spike's raw damage output even more(goes nicely with stoneskin + phalanx + Protect/II/III/IV).

If I were to use ice spikes, and were ice spikes to apply a paralyze effect to the enemy, I would no longer be able to stick my own Paralyze spell to the enemy later in the fight. No sir, I don't like it.