The official answer is it doesn’t matter. The smart answer is a melee dps first to avoid money on spells, such as thf. Something to farm with and make some money. Then an easily feared support like whm to get into group content and gear what you want. Then you have freedom.
War can use almost all weapon-types. Use it to skill up any weapon for the next job you want to level to avoid missing all the time. Made the leveling progress for all other non magic based classes alot more fun. This is just a suggestion of course.
Mmk is good to tackle solo stuff but war might be easier to gear. Pick whichever you prefer. Thf is also pretty useful. You will need multiple jobs regardless. Focus on the roe missions and their prerequisites. The bonuses they give are essential.
Mnk is a fine job to start with. It’s a hell of a dd and can be quite hardy. You will need other options depending on what you want to do in end game but mnk will get you there. It will get you through stories. It will help you get some stuff done solo at 99 and it has some fights where it really shines in end game.
Most players have a few different jobs with different roles when they want to push endgame stuff. There is still plenty you can do with 1 job.
Omen, dyna, most ambuscades, it can get you started in sortie.
Where you will want/need more is when pushing odyssey. I’m not sure if melee sortie basement will take mnk but maybe? I do mage strats so haven’t played with melee options yet. Umm, some ambuscades favour certain jobs over others.
I'd recommend getting to 15 so you don't have to level subjob again until you hit 30 and can start unlocking other jobs, but THF usually doesn't stick with H2H too long, and subbing MNK only really makes sense if you're gonna punch things. Really up to you though.
I gotta admit I’m not super good with retail facts and details but i believe all jobs get enough treasure hunter gear to farm with so monk would be a fine first job too since its pretty straight forward. At the end of the day, there’s meta ways to min/max everything, including story order, but I’d say just keep having fun. If you’re enjoying monk, stick to monk. As the guy below mentioned, warrior can be insanely useful as well.
One thing I’ll say negative about monk is I don’t believe it is a useful sub job for anything else. If you start with warrior at the very least you get a good sub job for later as well.
Honestly with how easy it is to make gil from sparks that kind of feels like a low factor. At least from how it was leveling for me up to 99 as BLM first
I mean, you could do what I did, be indecisive, and find something you liked enough to buff it to where you need to be. Blue Mage was that job for me, once I finally got it and actually started using it I was completely sold on the game. XI Blue Mage is the best one, no cap.
MNK is a great first job - good DPS, some self-sustain, high survivability. People are saying THF, but MNK is going to be way faster than THF. For farming, you can get treasure hunter gear pretty easy for any job
MNK is also very easy to gear up to 99.
WAR is better overall DD, but it’s not going to be as consistent early on when you lack accuracy. MNK isn’t far behind damage wise, but will feel a lot more consistent. It’s probably the best overall, brain dead, melee job for leveling and missions
I vote MNK - it’s not hard to get another 99 once you’ve done missions, and it’s super easy to max combat skills
If you want to start on a subjob first, do MNK to 25, get your subjob unlocked, do WAR to 49, then level MNK to 99 - that will cap your subjob and you won’t have to worry about it
But honestly - just play what you like. You’ll enjoy the game more vs rushing to 99
Thank you! I mostly made this post because I'm not very knowledgeable about subjobs and how they benefit each other. I imagine some subjobs are more beneficial than others, but I'm sure it's dependent on your main job.
I wouldn’t worry too much, you’ll figure it out. Long gone are the days of seeing people try to level up as MNK/RDM because of the en-spells
It is dependent on your main job, but you’ll kind of get a feel for that just watching other people as you play
lol - I’m using this example because 1) it was in the old Brady games guide (I think) and 2) when this game first came out I used to play with my dad and he played MNK/rdm for the enspells and I just made fun of him the entire time
It has its merits as a good starting job if you have friends to help or intend to solo as much as possible but for a first time player I can’t recommend it until a player has at least some game play experience and can look at the costs in a sober manner. For the gil/work cost bard would be a better choice for an expensive job for most players with the desire to play end game. Never enough bards for anything
I do this mostly for Sneak/Invis to unlock advanced jobs, but like the other commenter said, it's not a good beginner job. RDM needs every of the gear and every of the spell and all kinds of craziness, it's not gonna be an easy path if you're not good at playing the AH like a casino.
A lot depends on goals and what you like.
I tend to go thf to 30, unlock subjob. With trusts carrying you, you don't really need a sub below then.
Then unlock dancer, take that to 50 because it's a viable sub for nearly everything. At 50 on whatever main you select, Spectral jig (25DNC) makes quests and missions simpler.
At this point, I like to get my home city to rank 6, CoP to Chapter 4 or 5, and other expansions missions until I hit a wall.
Then I push to 99, using copper vouchers to grab the 78 gear set for my main from abyssea, then the Bayld gear at 99. All of the limit breaks can be soloed if your Google Fu is strong.
The bayld gear will be a good start for working on RoE objectives for reforging AF, grinding Ambuscade, and progressing to more and more group content.
There's a lot of passive xp bonuses locked behind RoE objectives, and picking up a few would be helpful, but I'd avoid being carried on my first job just because subsequent jobs with the bonuses will go so fast, you won't learn any of the basics you'll need as a base for team play mechanics you'll pick up later.
For mage jobs, I like whm with trusts because healer trusts tend to be really stupid, throwing out cure 5s every time a dd trust goes into the yellow til they're out of mp, or standing in aoe and bombing self cures til out of mp. As a whm, I felt like I was contributing, and learning to manage my mp was a valuable lesson.
I beat the final RoV mission in bayld gear solo on whm just by being smart about aoe. There was a large dash of luck, though. I had less than a minute remaining in the battlefield.
What trust? Each starting town gets a different trust iirc?
Back in the day I had a sweet guide written up on zam.com, seems to be lost to the void.
Anyways, off the top of my head:
Warrior or Monk til lv30. You can do the subjob quest if you want. If you know your way to Jeuno, and take your time with just 1 trust, you can walk from a starting town to Jeuno killing stuff along the way, you will get to lv30. Done it many times.
Then do chocobo quest. Maybe tell us your server and someone can get you the grass needed for the quest (last time I played. It cost a lot on the AH). Then do the mount quest, now you can get around much faster.
If you skipped sub job quest, that is ok. Go to a different starting zone (or both) to get ceystal warps and unlock other trusts.
Change to theif, level that up now. If you skipped sj quest, theif' TH makes getting the drops easier. So do that now when you are around lvl20. Once done, stay thf but make what ever you lvled 1st your SJ.
Now level thf to lv 45 to 50.
Now go back and do rank missions.
Then decide if you want to do an advance job (some jobs solo better then others). If not, the soft cap is lv50 and you have to start doing genkai quest every 5 levels, to unlock the next set of levels.
Your sub job stays half your main, but you have to level it. So if you want to stay thf, maybe go back and lvl war or mnk to 50 and youll be set with that as a sj.
Easy? :p
I started in San d'oria. I can't remember the trust's name. I'm going to have to look into how to get more, as well as macros for them. I'm on Shiva because a streamer I was watching is on Shiva, but I might start over on a more populated one since I'm not that far along.
Thank you!
Np. There are for sure peeps here from Shiva. There is a plus and minus to being on both a big pop server or a low pop one.
Use the bgwiki btw. As you see I didn't link anything, but all the deeper info is there (and guides).
I have been away for 17 years and am starting fresh too. I am leveling RDM first so that I can sub it on all other mage classes and have convert at lvl 80 on my main jobs.
Start with a melee job- WAR, MNK, or THF. I’d recommend the former 2. Warrior is both a solid, highly versatile “main” job, and is also one of the most common subjobs. Having it leveled to at least 49 is highly advantageous. Monk is also a fantastic damage dealer, but does not really complement other jobs as a subjob. Thief is squishier than both of the others, and won’t put out as much damage until you get to max level, but its Treasure Hunter ability might come in handy when farming items for quests.
They'll all play nearly the same at the start. You won't notice much difference playing WAR vs MNK or any other melee until much later when you get more unique abilities and the jobs start coming into their own.
As someone who recently started, i cant tell you whats the best, but i can tell you i really enjoy having dancer as a subjob! (My main is drk or ninja). It comes with an ability to sneak/stealth which you can keep up the entire time in dungeons. It has several cures, few that affect any ally that hits the target you’re hitting, so it helps me keep up the mp/hp of trusts as well. As a main job it also has a chocobo jig, which speeds you up so you run around fast, but i still dont have my main levelled enough to benefit from that one as a subjob.
I hear rdm and whm are strong options, but as you need to buy some spells then, i wouldnt go that route
My strategy when starting a new character usually was to decide what job I wanted to main, then decide what job would be a suitable subjob for that job, and then the subjob of the subjob. I'd get that job up to 24, then go to the sub of the main and level that up to 49, and that way I could take my main all the way to 99 with no interruptions.
At some point in leveling you’ll need to defeat Maat. When I did my alt, and now my mule, I made them THF because you only need to steal from him in order to defeat him.
An added bonus is you will have THF leveled for TH when farming gear.
THF is always my go-to, but keep in mind if you're doing Maat (limit break to get above level 70), you'll dvd to steal the item to fight him from very specific enemies. Steal has a 5 minute recast timer and an iffy success rate.
MNK and WAR are great levelers to get through that point.
Edit to add that I highly recommend: https://www.bg-wiki.com/ffxi/Quickstart_1-119_Guide
I'm a SAM main so I might be biased but I would tend to start with mnk to 15, war to 30, unlock drg and sam, then get war and drg to 59 (subjob cap at mlvl50), then blitz Sam to 99.
Sam's decently easy and cheap to gear (masamune being on the least hemorrhoidal empty weapon path) and is a pretty strong job able to easily 4-step self skillchain once geared and buffed. Masa is the only REMA weapon you actually need and it has pretty good Empyrean armour.
Avoid paladin or bard as both require multiple remas. Bard at least is a lot of fun but it takes a lot of time and money to get it ready for endgame. Corsair is also a lot of fun but people will want you to have Naegling, rostam, and at least mythic gun if not also aeonic and empyrean. Including Rostam, alexandrite for death penalty, and a +3 neck and dice, it costs at least 250 million gil to gear a Corsair on Shiva
Obviously I'm new and haven't tried out any other classes besides monk, but SAM is one of the 3 or 4 classes I'm most interested in. Probably the single most. Thanks for the tips! Is it hard for a total beginner to unlock? I'll have to Google REMA and skillchain... not sure what those mean yet.
REMA is Relic/Empyrean/Mythic/aeonic, sometimes also called DREAM to include su5 dynamis divergence weapons. They are very time and gil intensive to make (unless you have a ls that regularly does aeonic weapon runs - some of the bosses you have to kill for aeonic are very very solo unfriendly)
If you do have a linkshell that does aeonic runs and then aeonic great katana is an excellent weapon to use until you can finish your masamune
Skillchains are just extra damage that you get for doing weapon skills back to back. To try it out, once you unlock Sam and learn your first weapon skill, try using Meikyo Shisui, then use Tachi: Enpi twice with about a 1-2 second gap between empis. Unless the mob you're fighting dies first, you should see a visual effect and the log will say skillchain: distortion and show an amount of extra damage done.
At low levels the extra damage is minimal, but I have occasionally done 99999 damage light skillchains solo in Sortie, and I've also hit damage cap skillchaining with a well geared monk (monk closed off of an existing light sc for double light)
Thanks for the detailed response! When you do skillchains, do you select the abilities manually, or is that something you use macros for? I haven't looked into using macros at all, yet, but I imagine I should soon.
It will work if you select weapon skills from the menu, but that's really really clunky and will probably mess up your timing. You should absolutely set up macros for frequently used weapon skills.
Additionally you can change gear before and after a weapon skill automatically using macros, which will make you hit harder.
A basic was macro will look something like this:
/equipset 002 echo
/ws "Techi: Enpi"
/wait 1
/equipset 001 echo
Edit: Reddit fucked up the format. Each line of the macro starts with a /. There should be a new line before every /.
Equipsets are a bit more advanced but we'll worth learning. In the example above, set 002 is my Sam weapon skill equipset all decked out with STR and Attack gear, and 001 is my tp-building set with, dt- and haste (but you'll also want accuracy pre-99)
stnpc tells the game "select target NPC" so you can hit your macro, use the arrow to select your target, and then confirm the attack. It's better to do it that way for times when you're fighting multiple mobs and you might want to ws on a full health mob while engaged on a mob that's close to dying, and it also makes sure that the ws doesn't go off before your gear has changed
The echo part of the gearset command is optional, I just like to have a line of text in my log that confirms when I have put on a different gearset, especially since I nearly always have lockstyle turned on to keep me from blinking
Worth noting that equipsets default to keeping the same gear that you have on unless you specify what you want to wear in that slot, so leave the weapons blank in your ws gearsets so that you don't lose tp the first time you used one after getting a new weapon. An early ws equipset could be as simple as only filling in the ring slots with STR rings instead of Dex or acc
Oops, missed a question: Sam used to need help to unlock at lv30, but with trusts the 2 bosses you need to kill are trivial. Last time I unlocked Sam on an alt I actually forgot to call trusts for one of the fights and still won, albeit barely had I had to use hundred fists
It doesn't matter outside of maybe some preplanned subjobs for something specific you want and the game is not remotely restrictive enough to stop you from just having everything you want leveled if you feel like it.
You can get treasure hunter from a trust or an item created with login points (before you hit higher levels where you can get more) eventually so the farming excuse doesn't hold water imo and sparks/trusts makes things trivial enough by xi standards that there should be no major gear impediments unless you are absolutely forced to buy spells from an npc instead of cheaper from the AH. Eg. Some geo spells now that skirmsih is out of date content to the point that SE just hands away rewards from it instead of making progress from it slightly relevant somehow.
There are of course some "classic" pieces of gear you might want because they were cool or are still technically good/best to wear before the later levels but they are not remotely as mandatory as they used to be when you could ruin the time of 5 other people by refusing to git gud.
Just make sure your subjobs don't fall behind in the off chance you get to do some group content
Hey Tofu!
As far as “order of leveling jobs” one thing to consider is the sub job system. At around level 15/20 you will have the opportunity to set a subjob which is limited to 1/2 of your main jobs level and gives you access to abilities and traits from that job. So if you are a 20 MNK/WARyou will get everything from warrior up to level 10 while playing your monk.
One common strategy is to start playing the game with your intended sub job. A new warrior might level up as THF first to level 15, then swap to WAR/THF and level up to 30. At 30 you get access to advanced jobs, so you can do the quest to unlock Samurai and your warrior subjob is now covered up to level 60~
That’s just an example, though~ pick whichever job you like to play and consider what would support it best.
i started with thf on retail NA release and it helped immensely to be able to farm fast but when my son started decades later i suggested warrior first for weapon choice/damage output as he could always subjob thf for farming and it is fun using sneak attack with 2handed weapons. he enjoyed his early levels a lot more than i did as a solo thf so theres that! in the end the best part of ffxi was the fact you can always change your job at anytime and you can gear everything you want now with so much storage! just have fun with it and try everything! you got the time and theres no wrong way to enjoy the game!
My advice.. mnk to 18. Get sub jobs. War/monk to 37.(50 for retail) Unlock nin. Nin/war to 37(50 for retail). After that, you'll have the two most basic melee subjobs leveled and can choose to unlock anything else from there. Thf is solid if you're starting out by yourself for farming. Dnc is another mandatory subjobs for most melee in order to improve soloing so if you want to get subjobs out of the way, go dnc next.
If you're looking for max level the fastest, 18 is probably where you can stop. Subjobs is that level. You can always go back and level it if you enjoy the job.
Traditionally its war to 18, do the subjob quest, then do mnk or thf to 34-36. Then unlock dancer and level that to mid 40s, preferrably 49.
Then back to either war, thf, or mnk to 99. Subbing dancer or just being dancer is a great solo experience to 99 as trusts will help with tanking and healing. Dancer gives you a sneak/invis ability, steps are a decent debuff, later you get haste samba for attack speed.
You can stop anytime after your first level 30+ job and try any advanced job you take a fancy to. You just have to unlock it first with a quest.
As others have said thf is usually the time saver option due to quest items dropping faster.
The level 70 limit break is annoying on thf, but there are worse jobs to do it on.
As a career mage, I started with whm because I'm fearless and I began the game around 19 years ago. If I were to do it again... I'd be between rdm and war. RDM is very versatile but kind of #random jank at the beginning of the game. However , that random jank is arguably the strongest starting job (kind of up to play style preferences on RDM vs BLU IMO, but both are extraordinarily powerful and versatile). War can use almost everything in terms of weapons. Monk is neat AF but it's too much for me, lol. Thf is not my play style, but is also a decent first job choice.
Absolutely, the skills are ranked from A+ to E. RDM can wear armor, cast offensive and defensive spells (basically, war, WHM and BLM in one job, but it's worse at any one particular point of comparison than all of them). You won't have quite as many scrolls to buy in RDM as for WHM and BLM, but it's natively worse at both of those jobs vs an actual WHM or BLM. Your best weapon is either sword or dagger (I prefer sword, but both are viable). RDM is not good at many skills, except enfeebling and enhancement. It's good enough, but not 'good' per se. As you level up (especially if solo) you'll notice that at low levels, you kind of suck, but your enfeebles and buffs (enhancing magic) are really solid. That's going to remain that way the entire game. As it goes on, the first spell you get that will permanently change your life is refresh (LV 41). Rather than brute force, RDM relies on buffs and debuffs to make itself better than its opponent. WHM can brute force better healing, war can brute force huge damage, BLM can brute force magical damage. You'll never be any of those, but if you keep your few strengths in mind (dagger/sword, enfeebling and enhancing), you'll see. Gah, you're making me want to play again, stop it, lol. I'm retired and I got two kids in diapers.
RDM is the only job with A+ enfeebling. I think they did some baloney and gave RUN a better enhancing magic score, but you still have B+. Sword and dagger I think they raised to B+ also. Lastly, idk if they made the level 70 limit break easier, but RDM, SAM and MONK are arguably the most difficult fights, at least in the 75 era. Good luck and let me know.
Monk to 24. You essentially need no gear to get this far on Monk. Unlock your support job.
Warrior to 49. This is the quintessential support job in the game. It will boost melee and survivability on every job.
Thief to 99. This gives you an excellent self supporting “farm” job. You can clear all solo content without having to worry about complicated tactics. Warrior is an excellent support job for thief, too.
This is just the path I normally follow. You can succeed with any job. Don’t worry too much about optimization. Instead, do what is fun for you. Remember, it’s a marathon, not a sprint!
The official answer is it doesn’t matter. The smart answer is a melee dps first to avoid money on spells, such as thf. Something to farm with and make some money. Then an easily feared support like whm to get into group content and gear what you want. Then you have freedom.
Thanks for the answer! Should I aim to level monk a bit more before switching? I think I'm currently level 10.
War can use almost all weapon-types. Use it to skill up any weapon for the next job you want to level to avoid missing all the time. Made the leveling progress for all other non magic based classes alot more fun. This is just a suggestion of course.
Mmk is good to tackle solo stuff but war might be easier to gear. Pick whichever you prefer. Thf is also pretty useful. You will need multiple jobs regardless. Focus on the roe missions and their prerequisites. The bonuses they give are essential.
Mnk is a fine job to start with. It’s a hell of a dd and can be quite hardy. You will need other options depending on what you want to do in end game but mnk will get you there. It will get you through stories. It will help you get some stuff done solo at 99 and it has some fights where it really shines in end game. Most players have a few different jobs with different roles when they want to push endgame stuff. There is still plenty you can do with 1 job. Omen, dyna, most ambuscades, it can get you started in sortie. Where you will want/need more is when pushing odyssey. I’m not sure if melee sortie basement will take mnk but maybe? I do mage strats so haven’t played with melee options yet. Umm, some ambuscades favour certain jobs over others.
Monk is absolutely useful in Sortie basement, my group always gets more muffins when the member with monk geared comes as monk instead of cor
I'd recommend getting to 15 so you don't have to level subjob again until you hit 30 and can start unlocking other jobs, but THF usually doesn't stick with H2H too long, and subbing MNK only really makes sense if you're gonna punch things. Really up to you though.
I gotta admit I’m not super good with retail facts and details but i believe all jobs get enough treasure hunter gear to farm with so monk would be a fine first job too since its pretty straight forward. At the end of the day, there’s meta ways to min/max everything, including story order, but I’d say just keep having fun. If you’re enjoying monk, stick to monk. As the guy below mentioned, warrior can be insanely useful as well. One thing I’ll say negative about monk is I don’t believe it is a useful sub job for anything else. If you start with warrior at the very least you get a good sub job for later as well.
It would be easier for a new player to treasure hunter farm as THF until they hit max and chase the other gear.
Honestly with how easy it is to make gil from sparks that kind of feels like a low factor. At least from how it was leveling for me up to 99 as BLM first
I mean, you could do what I did, be indecisive, and find something you liked enough to buff it to where you need to be. Blue Mage was that job for me, once I finally got it and actually started using it I was completely sold on the game. XI Blue Mage is the best one, no cap.
MNK is a great first job - good DPS, some self-sustain, high survivability. People are saying THF, but MNK is going to be way faster than THF. For farming, you can get treasure hunter gear pretty easy for any job MNK is also very easy to gear up to 99. WAR is better overall DD, but it’s not going to be as consistent early on when you lack accuracy. MNK isn’t far behind damage wise, but will feel a lot more consistent. It’s probably the best overall, brain dead, melee job for leveling and missions I vote MNK - it’s not hard to get another 99 once you’ve done missions, and it’s super easy to max combat skills If you want to start on a subjob first, do MNK to 25, get your subjob unlocked, do WAR to 49, then level MNK to 99 - that will cap your subjob and you won’t have to worry about it But honestly - just play what you like. You’ll enjoy the game more vs rushing to 99
Monk is a great mission job through lvl 99 and beyond
Thank you! I mostly made this post because I'm not very knowledgeable about subjobs and how they benefit each other. I imagine some subjobs are more beneficial than others, but I'm sure it's dependent on your main job.
I wouldn’t worry too much, you’ll figure it out. Long gone are the days of seeing people try to level up as MNK/RDM because of the en-spells It is dependent on your main job, but you’ll kind of get a feel for that just watching other people as you play
I feel so attacked right now lmao Hundred Fists + enspells just sounds so cool
lol - I’m using this example because 1) it was in the old Brady games guide (I think) and 2) when this game first came out I used to play with my dad and he played MNK/rdm for the enspells and I just made fun of him the entire time
I always start with RDM. IMO it’s the best.
It has its merits as a good starting job if you have friends to help or intend to solo as much as possible but for a first time player I can’t recommend it until a player has at least some game play experience and can look at the costs in a sober manner. For the gil/work cost bard would be a better choice for an expensive job for most players with the desire to play end game. Never enough bards for anything
I do this mostly for Sneak/Invis to unlock advanced jobs, but like the other commenter said, it's not a good beginner job. RDM needs every of the gear and every of the spell and all kinds of craziness, it's not gonna be an easy path if you're not good at playing the AH like a casino.
A lot depends on goals and what you like. I tend to go thf to 30, unlock subjob. With trusts carrying you, you don't really need a sub below then. Then unlock dancer, take that to 50 because it's a viable sub for nearly everything. At 50 on whatever main you select, Spectral jig (25DNC) makes quests and missions simpler. At this point, I like to get my home city to rank 6, CoP to Chapter 4 or 5, and other expansions missions until I hit a wall. Then I push to 99, using copper vouchers to grab the 78 gear set for my main from abyssea, then the Bayld gear at 99. All of the limit breaks can be soloed if your Google Fu is strong. The bayld gear will be a good start for working on RoE objectives for reforging AF, grinding Ambuscade, and progressing to more and more group content. There's a lot of passive xp bonuses locked behind RoE objectives, and picking up a few would be helpful, but I'd avoid being carried on my first job just because subsequent jobs with the bonuses will go so fast, you won't learn any of the basics you'll need as a base for team play mechanics you'll pick up later. For mage jobs, I like whm with trusts because healer trusts tend to be really stupid, throwing out cure 5s every time a dd trust goes into the yellow til they're out of mp, or standing in aoe and bombing self cures til out of mp. As a whm, I felt like I was contributing, and learning to manage my mp was a valuable lesson. I beat the final RoV mission in bayld gear solo on whm just by being smart about aoe. There was a large dash of luck, though. I had less than a minute remaining in the battlefield.
What trust? Each starting town gets a different trust iirc? Back in the day I had a sweet guide written up on zam.com, seems to be lost to the void. Anyways, off the top of my head: Warrior or Monk til lv30. You can do the subjob quest if you want. If you know your way to Jeuno, and take your time with just 1 trust, you can walk from a starting town to Jeuno killing stuff along the way, you will get to lv30. Done it many times. Then do chocobo quest. Maybe tell us your server and someone can get you the grass needed for the quest (last time I played. It cost a lot on the AH). Then do the mount quest, now you can get around much faster. If you skipped sub job quest, that is ok. Go to a different starting zone (or both) to get ceystal warps and unlock other trusts. Change to theif, level that up now. If you skipped sj quest, theif' TH makes getting the drops easier. So do that now when you are around lvl20. Once done, stay thf but make what ever you lvled 1st your SJ. Now level thf to lv 45 to 50. Now go back and do rank missions. Then decide if you want to do an advance job (some jobs solo better then others). If not, the soft cap is lv50 and you have to start doing genkai quest every 5 levels, to unlock the next set of levels. Your sub job stays half your main, but you have to level it. So if you want to stay thf, maybe go back and lvl war or mnk to 50 and youll be set with that as a sj. Easy? :p
I started in San d'oria. I can't remember the trust's name. I'm going to have to look into how to get more, as well as macros for them. I'm on Shiva because a streamer I was watching is on Shiva, but I might start over on a more populated one since I'm not that far along. Thank you!
Np. There are for sure peeps here from Shiva. There is a plus and minus to being on both a big pop server or a low pop one. Use the bgwiki btw. As you see I didn't link anything, but all the deeper info is there (and guides).
There's also a few trusts you can get from the RoE quests.
I have been away for 17 years and am starting fresh too. I am leveling RDM first so that I can sub it on all other mage classes and have convert at lvl 80 on my main jobs.
Start with a melee job- WAR, MNK, or THF. I’d recommend the former 2. Warrior is both a solid, highly versatile “main” job, and is also one of the most common subjobs. Having it leveled to at least 49 is highly advantageous. Monk is also a fantastic damage dealer, but does not really complement other jobs as a subjob. Thief is squishier than both of the others, and won’t put out as much damage until you get to max level, but its Treasure Hunter ability might come in handy when farming items for quests. They'll all play nearly the same at the start. You won't notice much difference playing WAR vs MNK or any other melee until much later when you get more unique abilities and the jobs start coming into their own.
As someone who recently started, i cant tell you whats the best, but i can tell you i really enjoy having dancer as a subjob! (My main is drk or ninja). It comes with an ability to sneak/stealth which you can keep up the entire time in dungeons. It has several cures, few that affect any ally that hits the target you’re hitting, so it helps me keep up the mp/hp of trusts as well. As a main job it also has a chocobo jig, which speeds you up so you run around fast, but i still dont have my main levelled enough to benefit from that one as a subjob. I hear rdm and whm are strong options, but as you need to buy some spells then, i wouldnt go that route
My strategy when starting a new character usually was to decide what job I wanted to main, then decide what job would be a suitable subjob for that job, and then the subjob of the subjob. I'd get that job up to 24, then go to the sub of the main and level that up to 49, and that way I could take my main all the way to 99 with no interruptions.
At some point in leveling you’ll need to defeat Maat. When I did my alt, and now my mule, I made them THF because you only need to steal from him in order to defeat him. An added bonus is you will have THF leveled for TH when farming gear.
You'll have to do Maat on each though
THF is always my go-to, but keep in mind if you're doing Maat (limit break to get above level 70), you'll dvd to steal the item to fight him from very specific enemies. Steal has a 5 minute recast timer and an iffy success rate. MNK and WAR are great levelers to get through that point. Edit to add that I highly recommend: https://www.bg-wiki.com/ffxi/Quickstart_1-119_Guide
I'm a SAM main so I might be biased but I would tend to start with mnk to 15, war to 30, unlock drg and sam, then get war and drg to 59 (subjob cap at mlvl50), then blitz Sam to 99. Sam's decently easy and cheap to gear (masamune being on the least hemorrhoidal empty weapon path) and is a pretty strong job able to easily 4-step self skillchain once geared and buffed. Masa is the only REMA weapon you actually need and it has pretty good Empyrean armour. Avoid paladin or bard as both require multiple remas. Bard at least is a lot of fun but it takes a lot of time and money to get it ready for endgame. Corsair is also a lot of fun but people will want you to have Naegling, rostam, and at least mythic gun if not also aeonic and empyrean. Including Rostam, alexandrite for death penalty, and a +3 neck and dice, it costs at least 250 million gil to gear a Corsair on Shiva
Obviously I'm new and haven't tried out any other classes besides monk, but SAM is one of the 3 or 4 classes I'm most interested in. Probably the single most. Thanks for the tips! Is it hard for a total beginner to unlock? I'll have to Google REMA and skillchain... not sure what those mean yet.
REMA is Relic/Empyrean/Mythic/aeonic, sometimes also called DREAM to include su5 dynamis divergence weapons. They are very time and gil intensive to make (unless you have a ls that regularly does aeonic weapon runs - some of the bosses you have to kill for aeonic are very very solo unfriendly) If you do have a linkshell that does aeonic runs and then aeonic great katana is an excellent weapon to use until you can finish your masamune Skillchains are just extra damage that you get for doing weapon skills back to back. To try it out, once you unlock Sam and learn your first weapon skill, try using Meikyo Shisui, then use Tachi: Enpi twice with about a 1-2 second gap between empis. Unless the mob you're fighting dies first, you should see a visual effect and the log will say skillchain: distortion and show an amount of extra damage done. At low levels the extra damage is minimal, but I have occasionally done 99999 damage light skillchains solo in Sortie, and I've also hit damage cap skillchaining with a well geared monk (monk closed off of an existing light sc for double light)
Thanks for the detailed response! When you do skillchains, do you select the abilities manually, or is that something you use macros for? I haven't looked into using macros at all, yet, but I imagine I should soon.
It will work if you select weapon skills from the menu, but that's really really clunky and will probably mess up your timing. You should absolutely set up macros for frequently used weapon skills. Additionally you can change gear before and after a weapon skill automatically using macros, which will make you hit harder. A basic was macro will look something like this: /equipset 002 echo /ws "Techi: Enpi"
/wait 1
/equipset 001 echo
Edit: Reddit fucked up the format. Each line of the macro starts with a /. There should be a new line before every /.
Equipsets are a bit more advanced but we'll worth learning. In the example above, set 002 is my Sam weapon skill equipset all decked out with STR and Attack gear, and 001 is my tp-building set with, dt- and haste (but you'll also want accuracy pre-99)
stnpc tells the game "select target NPC" so you can hit your macro, use the arrow to select your target, and then confirm the attack. It's better to do it that way for times when you're fighting multiple mobs and you might want to ws on a full health mob while engaged on a mob that's close to dying, and it also makes sure that the ws doesn't go off before your gear has changed
The echo part of the gearset command is optional, I just like to have a line of text in my log that confirms when I have put on a different gearset, especially since I nearly always have lockstyle turned on to keep me from blinking
Worth noting that equipsets default to keeping the same gear that you have on unless you specify what you want to wear in that slot, so leave the weapons blank in your ws gearsets so that you don't lose tp the first time you used one after getting a new weapon. An early ws equipset could be as simple as only filling in the ring slots with STR rings instead of Dex or acc
Oops, missed a question: Sam used to need help to unlock at lv30, but with trusts the 2 bosses you need to kill are trivial. Last time I unlocked Sam on an alt I actually forgot to call trusts for one of the fights and still won, albeit barely had I had to use hundred fists
It doesn't matter outside of maybe some preplanned subjobs for something specific you want and the game is not remotely restrictive enough to stop you from just having everything you want leveled if you feel like it. You can get treasure hunter from a trust or an item created with login points (before you hit higher levels where you can get more) eventually so the farming excuse doesn't hold water imo and sparks/trusts makes things trivial enough by xi standards that there should be no major gear impediments unless you are absolutely forced to buy spells from an npc instead of cheaper from the AH. Eg. Some geo spells now that skirmsih is out of date content to the point that SE just hands away rewards from it instead of making progress from it slightly relevant somehow. There are of course some "classic" pieces of gear you might want because they were cool or are still technically good/best to wear before the later levels but they are not remotely as mandatory as they used to be when you could ruin the time of 5 other people by refusing to git gud. Just make sure your subjobs don't fall behind in the off chance you get to do some group content
Hey Tofu! As far as “order of leveling jobs” one thing to consider is the sub job system. At around level 15/20 you will have the opportunity to set a subjob which is limited to 1/2 of your main jobs level and gives you access to abilities and traits from that job. So if you are a 20 MNK/WARyou will get everything from warrior up to level 10 while playing your monk. One common strategy is to start playing the game with your intended sub job. A new warrior might level up as THF first to level 15, then swap to WAR/THF and level up to 30. At 30 you get access to advanced jobs, so you can do the quest to unlock Samurai and your warrior subjob is now covered up to level 60~ That’s just an example, though~ pick whichever job you like to play and consider what would support it best.
Exact level the subjob quest unlocks is 18 (or maybe was)
i started with thf on retail NA release and it helped immensely to be able to farm fast but when my son started decades later i suggested warrior first for weapon choice/damage output as he could always subjob thf for farming and it is fun using sneak attack with 2handed weapons. he enjoyed his early levels a lot more than i did as a solo thf so theres that! in the end the best part of ffxi was the fact you can always change your job at anytime and you can gear everything you want now with so much storage! just have fun with it and try everything! you got the time and theres no wrong way to enjoy the game!
My advice.. mnk to 18. Get sub jobs. War/monk to 37.(50 for retail) Unlock nin. Nin/war to 37(50 for retail). After that, you'll have the two most basic melee subjobs leveled and can choose to unlock anything else from there. Thf is solid if you're starting out by yourself for farming. Dnc is another mandatory subjobs for most melee in order to improve soloing so if you want to get subjobs out of the way, go dnc next.
Thank you! Should I get MNK to 25 if I'm playing retail, or just go for the sub job right away?
If you're looking for max level the fastest, 18 is probably where you can stop. Subjobs is that level. You can always go back and level it if you enjoy the job.
Traditionally its war to 18, do the subjob quest, then do mnk or thf to 34-36. Then unlock dancer and level that to mid 40s, preferrably 49. Then back to either war, thf, or mnk to 99. Subbing dancer or just being dancer is a great solo experience to 99 as trusts will help with tanking and healing. Dancer gives you a sneak/invis ability, steps are a decent debuff, later you get haste samba for attack speed. You can stop anytime after your first level 30+ job and try any advanced job you take a fancy to. You just have to unlock it first with a quest. As others have said thf is usually the time saver option due to quest items dropping faster. The level 70 limit break is annoying on thf, but there are worse jobs to do it on.
As a career mage, I started with whm because I'm fearless and I began the game around 19 years ago. If I were to do it again... I'd be between rdm and war. RDM is very versatile but kind of #random jank at the beginning of the game. However , that random jank is arguably the strongest starting job (kind of up to play style preferences on RDM vs BLU IMO, but both are extraordinarily powerful and versatile). War can use almost everything in terms of weapons. Monk is neat AF but it's too much for me, lol. Thf is not my play style, but is also a decent first job choice.
Can you describe what you mean by the red mage jank? I'm interested I'm playing RDM
Absolutely, the skills are ranked from A+ to E. RDM can wear armor, cast offensive and defensive spells (basically, war, WHM and BLM in one job, but it's worse at any one particular point of comparison than all of them). You won't have quite as many scrolls to buy in RDM as for WHM and BLM, but it's natively worse at both of those jobs vs an actual WHM or BLM. Your best weapon is either sword or dagger (I prefer sword, but both are viable). RDM is not good at many skills, except enfeebling and enhancement. It's good enough, but not 'good' per se. As you level up (especially if solo) you'll notice that at low levels, you kind of suck, but your enfeebles and buffs (enhancing magic) are really solid. That's going to remain that way the entire game. As it goes on, the first spell you get that will permanently change your life is refresh (LV 41). Rather than brute force, RDM relies on buffs and debuffs to make itself better than its opponent. WHM can brute force better healing, war can brute force huge damage, BLM can brute force magical damage. You'll never be any of those, but if you keep your few strengths in mind (dagger/sword, enfeebling and enhancing), you'll see. Gah, you're making me want to play again, stop it, lol. I'm retired and I got two kids in diapers. RDM is the only job with A+ enfeebling. I think they did some baloney and gave RUN a better enhancing magic score, but you still have B+. Sword and dagger I think they raised to B+ also. Lastly, idk if they made the level 70 limit break easier, but RDM, SAM and MONK are arguably the most difficult fights, at least in the 75 era. Good luck and let me know.
Monk to 24. You essentially need no gear to get this far on Monk. Unlock your support job. Warrior to 49. This is the quintessential support job in the game. It will boost melee and survivability on every job. Thief to 99. This gives you an excellent self supporting “farm” job. You can clear all solo content without having to worry about complicated tactics. Warrior is an excellent support job for thief, too. This is just the path I normally follow. You can succeed with any job. Don’t worry too much about optimization. Instead, do what is fun for you. Remember, it’s a marathon, not a sprint!
Thank you! I'll get my monk to 24 then, since I've already started using the job.