Each and every person that plays this game started in the same place. They started out in one of the three starting Cities (Bastok, Windurst, or San d'Oria) with an Adventurer's Coupon and their trusty Onion Weapon or starting gear based on their job. They fumbled with the controls, became overwhelmed with the size of the City itself, managed to find their way outdoors to kill their first Worm/Bee/Mandy/Etc. At that moment, it's simplistic bliss.
While many may forget their entry into the world of Vana'diel, occasionally there is an update/expansion/etc. that warrants new players. With the introduction of the FFXI Beta with Xbox 360 and a new Expansion coming out, I believe it's time to rehash some long forgotten tips, hints, tricks, and helpful idea's for those players new to the game this time around.
Starting Out
You start the game with what we call RSE gear (RSE = Race Specific Equipment) and a starter weapon, commonly something like an Onion Sword or Rod. You also receive an Adventurer's Coupon which during your cutscene will notify you of the name of the NPC (Non-player Character) and location to turn it in. That NPC will explain to you how to trade it, and you'll receive your 50 Gil and be on your way.
Take some time and explore the city. If you've read up on FFXI info already before taking this dive, you probably know more than you care to read in this post. But, there may be some info found within' this post that will still help you if you are one of these few, so feel free to skim the topics, just in case. ^^
Once you're ready to do some damage, head outside through one of the designated gate areas and get to some killing! From here on out, it's you and the game.
For your first 10 levels, trust that 90% of your items you can upgrade with (Weapons, Armor, etc) CAN be purchased from NPC Vendors instead of at the Auction House! Do not rush and be hasty, or you will end up spending much more Gil than you have to! Use this website and find everything you wish to buy, and make sure there isn't a Vendor with it for very cheap first before you head to the Auction House.
Tips for Fighting - Basic Jobs
From levels 1-10, you will be Solo for the majority of the time. Learn about your Weapon, and how to be effective so that you can turn this time into something fun instead of something stressful.
Funding - Gil starting out in FFXI
Your going to find yourself quickly needing Gil (FFXI Currency) to progress properly and buy the Spells, Weapons, and Armor you need based on your job. There's quite a few ways to do this...and here's some information to help you along.
Advanced Jobs
Once you get to level 30, you get some options about which jobs you can get! I'm sure up until now, you've read about Dark Knight, Paladin, Summoner, and other Advanced Jobs. These jobs are obtained by completing "Flag Quests". To find out more information, visit the Quests information section of this site to find specific details for each Advanced Job and how to unlock them.
Getting Help - Tips for Communicating
You'll notice players around you more and more as you explore more of the game. Here's some helpful tips to help you communicate with other players:
-Shouts: These are done by typing /shout before you say something. Be advised that anything you type when you do this is readable by the entire zone you're in. Try to stay away from being rude, vulgar, or demanding in this form of communication...it will attract ill-attention to you. Most commonly used for getting attention of other players that may be interested in doing the same thing as you (missions/quests) or trying to sell/buy an item you're having a hard time looking for.
-Tells: This is a private form of communication done by typing /tell <name> before you say something. You can reply to /tells you receive by simply hitting Ctrl+R on your Keyboard.
-Say: These are the default chat area. It reaches a Radius around you, but not the whole zone like Shouts do.
Try to stay away from Cap Locks, it implies yelling or demanding when used in a communication sense. People may feel it's unwarranted or even rude. Try not to demand things, people willing to help do so from the kindness of their hearts, so do not be ungrateful or rude in return. Asking for items or Gil from strangers is not appreciated, and can be met with resistance, or even returned harrassment from those you're asking. Try to "not" do this. Don't be afraid to ask questions, but always be polite when communicating in-game. Most people will notice your attempt to be polite and civil, and will return the favor. ^^
You will also notice through your time playing that occassionally (or often depending on where you are) you will see people use a string of text surrounded in {Something} that looks like this. This is called the Auto-Translator function. FFXI caters to multiple languages, and so Square-Enix has implimented a text Translator to help break the language barrier in-game. To use, simply hit the "Tab" button while entering text into the text field of the Chat window. You will get a list of scrollable Categories in which each list terms common throughout the game that can be used to paraphrase or make full sentence strings. Additionally, you can also type the first 2-3 letters of a word and hit "Tab" to auto-find the word you're looking for (ie. Type H-E-L and hit Tab, and you will find a list showing Hello, Hellfire, and maybe a few other things in the option window). Use this maturely, though. And remember that something you see may not be what it looks like to you to other languages (ie. Back in Auto-Translator may mean "Behind" to a Japanese player, or Pull Back in Auto-Translator may mean "Move back slightly" in Japanese).
Party Dynamics past Level 10
There's a few things about Experience Points Parties you should know before going into them. Typically, between levels 10-12, most players head to the Valkurm Dunes area to begin their trek to level 20. With Parties, a group of 6 People work toward a common goal of bringing in the most efficient amount of Experience in per hour through fighting VT to IT monsters.
Partying is a combination of multiple skills. While most will argue there are Cookie-Cutter (common) setups to which a party should be designed, rest assured that in some cases, multiple options are available and effective if need be. Typical roles in parties are:
Tank: Paladin, Warrior, Ninja This is the job that primarily takes the brunt of attention from the mob. Their main focus is to use their abilities to keep the mobs attention on them because they have the highest Defense or highest means of survivability.
Healer: White Mage, Summoner, Red Mage This is the job that primarily keeps the party cured and in good condition. While White Mage is more typical, Summoner can also heal with it's large MP pool and Red Mage can support heal or in some cases, main heal.
Magic Damage: Black Mage, Red Mage, Summoner This is the job that's primary focus is dealing damage through magic. Black Mage is the most common and typical for this role, while Summoner can use Blood Pacts to dispearse Damage. Red Mage can also deal Damage with magic, but on a much lesser scale than Black Mage or Summoner.
DD/Damage Dealer: Warrior, Monk, Thief, Samurai, Dragoon, Dark Knight, Ranger, Ninja, Beastmaster These are jobs that focus or can focus on Melee Damage over time, and use of Weapon Skills to create Spike Damage or help create Skillchains. Some are more effective than others with different mobs, and in different situations. Combinations with Subjobs make for added effectiveness or use.
Support: White Mage, Black Mage, Red Mage, Summoner, Bard, Dragoon These are jobs that are typically placed within a "Mage" role in a group to help support the party and make life a little easier. Most commonly a Red Mage, Bard, or Summoner...these jobs can do multiple tasks to increase the effectiveness of a party through means of player support, monster enfeebling, and curing all together in one package. Dragoon is added because with the right subjob, it's Wyvern can provide party support.
Crowd Control: Black Mage, Red Mage, Ranger, Bard, Dark Knight, Beastmaster These jobs have something in common that help them become useful when needing to calm or stop incoming or additional monsters that threaten a Party. Black Mage, Red Mage, Bard, and Dark Knight have the Sleep spell that helps with Crowd Control, and Black Mage, Red Mage, and Ranger have abilities that Bind a mob in place for a specific amount of time. Beastmasters can Charm non-Beastmen monsters and move them out of the vacinity of the party or even use them against the monster the party is targeting. Bard also has a Charm ability that quickly and temporarily takes a monster out of a problematic situation, however a Bards charm creates a large degree of Enmity on the Bard and the monster must still be delt with after it returns to it's normal agressive state.
Parties usually find a safe area to "Camp", in which they will pull surrounding monsters to this Camp to fight. Pulling is usually the job of a Thief, Ranger, or other Damage Dealer that can use a ranged weapon.
The general Goal for a party is to produce the best degree of Experience points per hour. Almost always, a party can perform better targeting Very Tough (VT) mobs that are weaker than Incredibly Tough (IT) mobs for a better and faster kill ratio. However, most parties typically target lower IT mobs (which con low Evasion and/or low Defense) or higher. It's up to the Party which is going to produce a better end result for the group.
Subjobs - Info, Insight, and Tips
During your initial time partying in the Dunes, or wherever you decide to start/continue your trek to level 20, you will find out that at level 18 you can activate a quest to get your Subjob. A Subjob, by definition, is a job you use in addition to your main job to help you better your effectiveness. Your Subjob, at any given time, is always Half or Less the Level of you Main Job. Your Subjob does not gain experience when you level with your main job, you must level it seperately as a main job to raise it's level.
Re: Quests Page for Level 18 Quests Available in Mhaura or Selbina
Typically, a job will Sub a job that helps increase the effectiveness of the main job. Therefore, a Mage would instinctively sub a Mage Job, and a Melee Job would instinctively sub a Melee Job. However, there are specific situations where certain jobs can find effective means of subbing opposing job structures to create a unique, effective combination. Beastmaster, while constituted as a Damage job, will sub White Mage for Survivability while playing Solo. Dragoon will sub a variety of different jobs to change the active use of it's Wyvern. To gain in-depth understanding of subjobs best suited for Main Jobs, read in the Job Forums here on Allakhazam for player discussion and helpful tips.
Tips that you might want to know!
Beastmen Seals: You're going to see these drop from monsters while you're fighting. DO NOT discard these!!! Save these, all of them, at all costs. Store them in your Mog House when you're there to save your main inventory space. These are used later in the game to do what is called BCNM's (Burning Circle Notorious Monsters) which allow you to partake in fun, exciting battles with amazing rewards!
Stacking Items: Items in your inventory that you notice with a number after them (ie. Earth Crystal 1 can be stacked to a specific number (some 12, some 99). To Stack them, you can "Auto Sort" your inventory. To do this, while your inventory is open, hit the "+" button on your Keyboard to open a small menu in the upper right portion of the screen with the options of "Auto" and "Manual". Select "Auto", choose "Yes", and it will auto-stack anything stackable in your inventory.
Conquest Points: Mentioned above pertaining to Crystal's, Signet will also earn you Conquest Points. These are points you obtain while having Signet active that accumulate (checkable by viewing Region Info in your Main Menu). Conquest Points (or CP) can be used to purchase helpful items and even really good Equipment. Some of the most helpful items, listed under "Common Items" at the Gate Guard, are the following:
Helpful Common Terminology (Non-alphabetical)
JSE: Job Specific Equipment or equipment that specifically is made for one job, and one job only. Only able to be worn by that job.
RSE: Race Specific Equipment or equipment that specifically is made for one Race/Gender, and one Race/Gender only. Only able to be worn by that Race/Gender.
AH: Auction House. The AH is a free-trade, player controlled economic tool that allows players to list sellable items for sale, and players to buy said items.
BBL/bbl: Be Back Later
WTF/wtf: What the @$!%
LOL/lol: Laugh out loud
Crit: Critical Damage/hit
Proc: Term defining a Processing action, such as an added affect on a weapon. (ie. The Lightning Dmg added effect on my Great Sword proc's often)
Dmg: Damage
NM: Notorious Monster
BCNM: Burning Circle Notorious Monster
KSNM: Kindred Seal Notorious Monster
LS: Linkshell
LMAO/lmao: Laugh my *** off
ROFL/rofl: Roll on floor laughing
ACC/acc: Accuracy
TW: Too Weak to be Worthwhile (Monster Strength)
EP: Easy Prey (Monster Strength)
DC: Decent Challenge (Monster Strength)
EM: Even Match (Monster Strength)
T: Tough (Monster Strength)
VT: Very Tough (Monster Strength)
IT: Incredibly Tough (Monster Strength)
DD: Damage Dealer (Melee or Magic)
Camp: Safe area used by Parties to pull monsters to.
Pull: The action of bringing a monster back to Camp.
Train: The action of bringing one or multiple monsters through the act of getting aggro.
Aggro: The action that describes how a monster will attack on it's own will.
Enmity: A term that describes "Hate" or "Attention" focused from a monster to a player.
Con: A term that describes when a Player "Check's" a Monsters strength.
Mob: A term describing a Monster/Beast/Beastmen.
MPK: Mob-Player-Kill: A term describing when a player uses a Mob to effectively kill another player or group of players. A griefing tactic.
KS: Kill-Steal: A term describing when a player uses a grief tactic to gain claim on another player or group of players monster. Common with NM's, typically refer's to a player outside the group Curing a tank until the monsters attention is focused on that outside player and the claim goes unbound to a group. Also describes when a player waits for the active group to lose claim due to any means and immediately stealing claim for an outside player/group against the wishes of the active party.
Edited, Thu Apr 6 09:19:27 2006 by Ryneguy - Added Subjob section
Edited, Thu Apr 6 10:41:25 2006 by Ryneguy - Added Conquest Point Items & Stacking Information
Edited, Thu Apr 6 12:35:55 2006 by Ryneguy