Which Race?

[Strail]

Hey everyone, I'll be starting out in the game when it comes out for PS2 in late March and I have a question. I'm really intrigued by this job-switching thing where you can be everything with one guy. I want to be white-mage to start with. Now I'm guessing Taru is the flat out best choice for this? But I'd really like to be able to do everything (War, RedMage, Thief, Ranger) so I was thinking Elvaan might be a good compromise. Any advice on this would be great. Also, how does character creation go as far as stat customization. Is it based solely on what race you play or do you get to pick which stats to incr?

[Yuanlung]

While Tarutarus make excellent mages, they are a bit lacking on the melee front. If you want to eventually try out all the possible jobs, and not have a disadvantaged race+job combo, you could either go Hume or Mithra, so that you are average on everything, or you could pay an extra $1 per month later, and make a new char for the melee side of things. The advantage here is you can have the best of both worlds, and you get a mule for extra storage spaces. ^^

I myself have an Elvaan character besides my main, just so that when I get tired of nuking, healing, and supporting, I could have a bit of chopping, punching and slashing.

Some say that every race works for every job. While it may be true in some sense, it's not the whole story. Some races do give you an easier time in certain jobs. I have tried to do it the other way, have my Taru melee and my Elvaan cast. The result was quiet a bit of frustration for me. Tarutaru suffer from the lowest STR and HP of all races, while Elvaan suffers from the lowest INT and the second lowest MP.

I know some people who has worked hard to make their "unique" characters work. I personally admire them for their dedication and effort, but that's more time than I have, and more frustration then I need.

Your character stats are determined by race, level, job/subjob, and equppments. Unlike some other MMORPG's, you do not get to fiddle with your stats on creation or leveling.


I'd recommand you to starting with a Taru in Windurst, since you seem to lean towards the magical side even though you intend to eventually sample everything. Try out what a taru mage has to offer.

[Strail]

Thanks for the advice. I think I will go taru whm, at least to start. I thought that Taru did decently as thieves, do you know if this is true? I want to try thief because I'm told its the best job to make gil in. And yeah I forgot about getting 2 characters, $1 a month is really no big deal

[Yuanlung]

If you are just leveling thief to be your farming sub, it doesn't really matter what race, since it's relatively easy to level to the low-mid levels, especially when you have a main job with twice the level to support it.

Just about everyone I know nowadays are leveling up their thief sub for better drops, regardless of their race. With an established main job, leveling a thief sub isn't hard at all. Just the other day, I brought my wife's thief (tarutaru, btw) to lv 8 in an hour. I think another few hours will be enough to bring her to lv 15 for the first treasure hunter.

However, if you are thinking of taking your theif to higher levels, it's probably worth it to post this on the thief board to get some good information from some veteran thieves.

[Obano]

Taru make good thieves (tied for 2nd in Dex) and rangers (tied for 1st in Agi), and the best mages (most MP by far). Not so great at War, but it can be done (you'll need to level War to 30 as a sub for any melee job).

If you want to melee as a Taru, I suggest Drk or Thf (or Ranger if you count that as melee). If you're rich in game, Taru make very good Nin/War blink tanks.

Don't go Elvaan. Of the jobs you named, Elvaan is well below average in all but War. They don't have the MP to be effective mages, nor do they have the dex for thief or the agi for ranger.

Mithra would be a very good all-around choice for what you want to do, but Taru wouldn't be bad either.

[Blue Yoshi]

If you plan on trying all the races (and you're just starting out), I'd suggest either Hume or Mithra. Don't count on casting if you go Elvaan or Galka. Taru-Tarus make fantastic mages, but they lack in the melee department - though I will say that Tarus look awesome in melee armor.

[Miriamel]

Originally posted by Obano

Don't go Elvaan. Of the jobs you named, Elvaan is well below average in all but War. They don't have the MP to be effective mages, nor do they have the dex for thief or the agi for ranger.

While Elvaan clearly isn't the best choice for a mage, thief or ranger, they can still be very effective.

I say go with whatever you like best, but do keep in mind that you'll probably have the easiest time playing a Hume or Mithra.