Red Mage: Tarutaru or Hume?

[Biancus]

I just downloaded and installed the free trial of FFXI, and I know I want to play a Red Mage. I've enjoyed KH and FFVII, VIII, X, and XII, and thanks to WOW I've gotten over my aversion to MMOs. After some expeimenting, in WoW, I found that my favorite class is the Shaman, a hybred melee DPS/Magic DPS/Healing class. Naturally, then I intend to play a red mage, probably then going into Blue Mage at 30- I enjoyed playing one of those in FFTA. I also intend to give alligence to Windurst- Bastok seems a bit too steampunk for my taste, and San d'Oria seems like a less logical choice for a mage. In WOW I play horde, so I like the close to nature aspect of Windurst.

My question is, should I play a tarutaru or a hume? I know I'll get a ring if I play Taru, but I also know I'll get loot that's better then the ring rather quickly. Do humes have a big advantage over Taru in melee DPS as a red mage? What are the stat differences?

I Roleplay- is it logical for a hume family to have settled in Windurst? How can I make my Taru different from everyone else's? Is there a site with tips on RPing a Taru?

[Elwynn]

Re: Red Mage: Tarutaru or Hume?

In the long run, there's really not a significant difference in race choice except Galka = high HP/low MP and Taru = high MP/low HP.

If you really want to be a taru, BE a taru. Tarutarus rock, especially /panic. Also, they're too cool to kneel when resting HP/MP, they just plop down and go to sleep.

tarutaru roleplay - Google Search

{Tarutaru} {power} {impossible to guage}

Ta-taru for now!

- Elwyn-Belwyn -

[Feba]

Re: Red Mage: Tarutaru or Hume?

1- RDM in FFXI isn't really a melee class. Let's just stop this discussion here before Taskmage goes ax crazy and bans half of us.
2- Racial stats are almost completely irrelevant. As are nation rings. Play whichever one you think looks better.
3- RP is pretty dead in FFXI, though I wish you luck finding an RP LS. The nations are friendly for the most part, and a Hume from Windurst doesn't seem odd at all.
4- Do not base your expectations of FFXI on other games. FFXI is different. Not in a good or bad way, but it is different.
4b- Don't commit yourself to one job before you play it. You may well find you prefer NIN, or BST. Two jobs which fulfill very different roles in two games might have closer playstyles; and besides that, there's no penalty for switching jobs, and you really should experiment to see which you like more.

[Armando]

Re: Red Mage: Tarutaru or Hume?

1- RDM in FFXI isn't really a melee class. Let's just stop this discussion here before Taskmage goes ax crazy and bans half of us.

Expanding more on this - it's not really considered a magic DPS class for EXP parties either. It's primarily a healer/debuffer/buffer.

[ospeff]

Re: Red Mage: Tarutaru or Hume?

Red Mages in this game are *nothing* like shaman in WOW. They are healers. The closest thing to a Shaman is a Blue Mage, they can melee well, have physical and magical abilities, and they can heal.

As for races, the only stat that really matters is HP & MP. Tarus have the largest MP and lowest HP, Galka & Elvaan have highest HP and lowest MP. Hume & Mithra are in-between.

If you're going to be a Blue Mage taru is a fine choice, HP doesn't matter unless you're playing a tank class.

Note that this game doesn't have the same multi-spec design that WoW does. In WoW you can spec a shaman to be great melee, nuker, or healer. This game doesn't work like that. So even though Blue Mage is the closest thing you are still primarily a damage-dealing class, and you will never be able to be a good nuker or healer.

[Lunaryn]

Re: Red Mage: Tarutaru or Hume?

To be fair, the OP talked about taking RDM to 30 and unlocking BLU; pre-30 RDM melee is actually pretty useful and viable. Might be a bit iffy in full parties around the 25-30 range, but RDM is arguably quite capable of splitting the difference between melee DD and healing/debuffing in the dunes/qufim range, especially once you first start picking up enspells. In the dunes especially the good parties tend to be fairly mage-heavy (Ideally you should have at least 3 healing-capable members), so being able to perform both roles can be really useful. Level sync should just make this easier by eliminating level-split concerns.

Still, there will be times when you need to gear as backline and focus on casting, usually when a party is already pretty melee-heavy and lacks many healers (and doesn't have a PL). Note that most of your armor won't vary that much for this for a while, mages don't have all that many options to gear for more than def in most slots until around 30, though there's some noteworthy HQ cloth armor around 20 IIRC. The main low-level distinction is going to be sword vs. wand; weapon-wise, you won't want to worry about having anything other than a good DPS sword and a level-appropriate HQ wand at these levels. (Doesn't have to be HQ, but the prices of, say, Yew Wand +1 have come down quite a bit.)

[BurningPanther]

Re: Red Mage: Tarutaru or Hume?

Race might make a difference if this were a game where the player was limited to one job only--you'd simply pick the race with the stats complementing the only job you'd ever be on(kind of like WoW, in sense. I don't know if WoW races bear individual stats).

But, since THIS game allows for class changes, you may find yourself occasionally playing a class that does not complement your race... you might wind up enjoying a class uncomplimentary to your race. It is for this reason that race loses relevancy.




Bearing that in mind, pick anything except Tarutaru. Less Tarutaru in the world is a good thing. Yeah, I went there.

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Re: Red Mage: Tarutaru or Hume?

Race doesn't really matter, but since RDM is a mage, Taru RDM would have the INT/MP advantage and Hume would have a slight MND advantage statwise. MND is the core stat for many of RDM's key enfeebling spells, but its not that hard to catch up on in gear with a Tarutaru down the road.

As for roleplay, not much to it on humes, just keep it in theme with Vana'diel and you're OK. Tarus are pretty versatile in roleplay, you can chose to their standard sing-song way of speaking, speaking in rhyme or speaking in particular accents, though to do something more Irish or German would be skewing Hume, I suppose. Some tarus go for persistent alliteration and consonance, too.

[TheGrandMom]

Re: Red Mage: Tarutaru or Hume?

I've played rdm on every race except Galka. (Hubby did galka rdm and hated it so I didn't bother.) I have to say out of all of them I prefer Elvaan which is followed closely by hume or mithra and the very least was tarutaru. Now Taru is a great rp character imo but for gameplay, especially solo'ing nm's, I had more enjoyment from the other races.

[Murphie]

Re: Red Mage: Tarutaru or Hume?

I've played rdm on every race except Galka. (Hubby did galka rdm and hated it so I didn't bother.) I have to say out of all of them I prefer Elvaan which is followed closely by hume or mithra and the very least was tarutaru. Now Taru is a great rp character imo but for gameplay, especially solo'ing nm's, I had more enjoyment from the other races.

So what you're saying is that I should reroll?

[TheGrandMom]

Re: Red Mage: Tarutaru or Hume?

Hey if you love your taru then play him! I still play mine...but I'm mostly on whm...cause finding good whm's for the ls is like finding a needle in a gd haystack.

[Callisto]

Re: Red Mage: Tarutaru or Hume?

Every now and then I do wish I was Hume to even out INT/MP a bit, but really my Elv is too awesome to ever give up...though if I was starting fresh off the bat I would go Hume, RDM gains a lot from balance.

[Murphie]

Re: Red Mage: Tarutaru or Hume?

I have to admit, there is a certain appeal to the idea of leveling a new character as RDM, just because leveling RDM was some of the most fun I've ever had in FFXI, but then there is all the extra crap you have to do to make that character functional in the game world, and plus, you may feel like you're wasting time you could be devoting to your main.

Still tho. RDM as any race has got to be the best times.

[TheGrandMom]

Re: Red Mage: Tarutaru or Hume?

Totally agree. Rdm has always been the most fun for me in game. I'm leveling my 5th rdm though my time is so limited its going so slow. But yes, doing things like getting sky, sea, etc are a royal pain when you do it over and over again.

[ShepardG]

Re: Red Mage: Tarutaru or Hume?

I'll second what Callyistoyso said. Balance is nice.