1UP's FINAL FANTASY XI Traveler's Guide for Beginners!

[Pai Pai Master]

1UP.com is unique among FFXI fans in that it actually pays attention to the events of FINAL FANTASY XI and the world of Vana'diel. That may because one of their more prominent editors, James Mielke, is a longtime FFXI player. For a few years now he's provided extensive coverage of FFXI in the form of news articles, interviews, editorials and even his very own column, My Life in Vana'diel, in which he chronicles the adventures of his character "Milkman" and his linkshell, "The Roundabouts," on the Siren server.

Naturally, 1UP has been the only large-scale gaming website to feature coverage of FFXI's latest expansion, Treasures of Aht Urhgan. Along with the expansion, FFXI was released to a third audience: Xbox 360 owners. With thousands of new players joining in the world of Vana'diel, there are plenty who will begin the game without the amount of knowledge we've all acquired over the years.

If you're a new FFXI player on any platform, I'm sure you're happy to have forums like FFXIonline.com to provide you with the information you need to play the game. You'll also be happy to know that James Mielke himself has recently written an extensive 10-plus-page beginner's guide to FINAL FANTASY XI, covering everything you need to know from level 1-30. I've read over it and like anything Milkman writes, it's filled with the knowledge of a truly advanced FFXI player, so please don't look at this guide with a critical eye like you would with the BradyGame's guides. This guy's played FFXI for years and he knows what he's talking about.

You can locate the FFXI Traveler's Guide for Beginners right here.

In addition, 1UP is running a special promotion for Treasures of Aht Urhgan fans, which can be found here. All you have to do is begin a 1UP blog similar to My Life in Vana'diel, and write about your adventures. 10 winners will be chosen to recieve copies of Treasures of Aht Urhgan for all three platforms!

Happy hunting, Vana'diel adventurers and mercenaries!

[ultimaknight]

Re: 1UP's FINAL FANTASY XI Traveler's Guide for Beginners!

Awesome guide, I had to bookmark it. Thanks for the link.

[lionx]

Re: 1UP's FINAL FANTASY XI Traveler's Guide for Beginners!

I dont agree with everything he said in there (like WARs tanking) but this guide is definetly alot more accurate than every other one out there. Good stuff :3

[Pai Pai Master]

Re: 1UP's FINAL FANTASY XI Traveler's Guide for Beginners!

Well, he stated the truth. A warrior can tank, but not with excessive healing, as he stated, and their lower agility makes them much more challenging to keep alive in the cases of critical hits. He mentioned the fact that warriors can tank, but in the context that their tanking capabilities are very limited compared to the two main tanking jobs, Paladin and Ninja.

[lionx]

Re: 1UP's FINAL FANTASY XI Traveler's Guide for Beginners!

Lol i dont want to argue about that, its another thread altogether but somehow i disagree on that fact as well, i find WAR can tank just fine as PLD and NIN, just most dont want to. I might just take up a WAR just for tanking myself if i can get the time/my ass upto it ><;a Its just my opinion though, and i dont feel they need uber healing as well, just a WHM like with PLD.

But nevertheless it IS the guide for newbs. No brady crap X3

[Pai Pai Master]

Re: 1UP's FINAL FANTASY XI Traveler's Guide for Beginners!

Well, I too believe that WAR can tank, and some may say "just as well" as Ninja or Paladin, but I think a lot of people would agree that they simply aren't as effective at it in a general EXP party. More mage MP needs to go into healing the Warrior and it's pretty inevitable that a string of bad luck could send the tank into critical condition, causing the need for another melee to take the heat off and mix up the action a bit. While a lot of players I know, myself included, are fine with this, it's pretty much common to be partying with people who only want to play in the most effective manner. Having a Warrior tank usually means longer downtime between monsters or at least longer battles. It's just common sense that a NIN or PLD are more effective tanks, with their respective methods to tanking.

[Darkhound]

Re: 1UP's FINAL FANTASY XI Traveler's Guide for Beginners!

Thanks for the link

[Ziero]

Re: 1UP's FINAL FANTASY XI Traveler's Guide for Beginners!

Unfortunately I can't see what's in the article as of yet due to my work's internet filters, I can say one thing. Pre 30, which is what this guide is said to focus on, War/mnk is THE best tank in game. Ninjas have too few abilities to hold hate, along with only a single, long recast Utsu, which goes down VERY fast. And Plds don't have access to as much of the gear or abilities to put their Def to the vastly superior point it gets to late game over wars while having a rather low Dmg output. Meanwhile War/mnk has great hate holding, dmg mitigation, and dmg dealing capacity. Especially on things like crabs, which you fight often through out the early lvls, and even more so on Mandies which are just prime targets for War/mnk tanks.

It isn't until later lvls, when nins get Ni and Plds get more def and flash, that they start to really shine.

[Aeni]

Re: 1UP's FINAL FANTASY XI Traveler's Guide for Beginners!

Unfortunately I can't see what's in the article as of yet due to my work's internet filters, I can say one thing. Pre 30, which is what this guide is said to focus on, War/mnk is THE best tank in game. Ninjas have too few abilities to hold hate, along with only a single, long recast Utsu, which goes down VERY fast. And Plds don't have access to as much of the gear or abilities to put their Def to the vastly superior point it gets to late game over wars while having a rather low Dmg output. Meanwhile War/mnk has great hate holding, dmg mitigation, and dmg dealing capacity. Especially on things like crabs, which you fight often through out the early lvls, and even more so on Mandies which are just prime targets for War/mnk tanks.

It isn't until later lvls, when nins get Ni and Plds get more def and flash, that they start to really shine.

I agree with this comment.

PLDs don't do well until 30+ ... in fact, for most PLDs, until 37+ (Flash) ...

Same with NINs. Without Ni, they're absolute crap and more of an MP hog than the other two tanks...

WAR/MNK can tank really well in the early levels. No, you don't need NIN to sub to WAR at these levels either. In fact, it's better NOT to. For the same reasons why NIN is ineffective without Ni applies to WAR/NIN tanks as well. 3 shadows is just not enough reasons to lose higher MP and Dodge/Boost from MNK.

The guide is really nice. I just wished they had such a thing 3 years ago...

[Rai|Kye]

Re: 1UP's FINAL FANTASY XI Traveler's Guide for Beginners!

actually war/nin with axe and shield was such a good tank that SE had to nerve shields.... think about it

[Blood Red Poet]

Re: 1UP's FINAL FANTASY XI Traveler's Guide for Beginners!

This guy is a complete hypocritical idiot. I don't mean he is an idiot because he is an hypocrit, I mean he is additonally very retarded. Pai, why would you want anyone to read this? A lot of it makes it seem he has never played this game at all.

He claims Elemental Staves help with crafting HQ.