Newbie Questions

[KoLAddict]

Ok, I just picked up FFXI 2008 Collection for my 360 today (finally). I played back when it first launched on the PC, so have a little experience with the game, but I've heard it's changed quite a bit. I have a few newbie questions I was hoping someone could answer for me when they get the chance:

1)Is there any penalty to leveling "too quickly"? Like, are quests unavailable when you level past their requirement, or could you, in theory, level up to 75 then go back and do every single game quest?

2)Do monsters continue to drop loot when you are way above their level? I like to ask that because I tend to start a profession in these games pretty late, and it'd suck if I had to buy stuff from low-level mobs from the AH.

3)How many characters can you have without paying extra?

4)Are their any class combos that are considered overpowered? What's a good class combo for soloing?

[Armando]

Re: Newbie Questions

1)Is there any penalty to leveling "too quickly"? Like, are quests unavailable when you level past their requirement, or could you, in theory, level up to 75 then go back and do every single game quest?

The only quest that I know of where this could possibly be an issue is this one: The Gustaberg Tour - FFXIclopedia - a Wikia Gaming wiki. You need to be Level 5 or lower for that quest, so if you took all 20 jobs past Level 5, you would have to kill yourself over and over again on one of your jobs until it deleveled down to 5 if you really cared about doing the quest.

2)Do monsters continue to drop loot when you are way above their level? I like to ask that because I tend to start a profession in these games pretty late, and it'd suck if I had to buy stuff from low-level mobs from the AH.

Yes, they will. However, buying the materials from the AH is often better than farming the materials. Look at it this way: suppose it takes you an hour to farm the materials for a certain recipe, and those materials are worth 5000 gil in total. Why would you go and farm those materials if, at your level, you could farm something else and make 10k or 15k gil in one hour, and use that money to buy two or three times the amount of materials?

3)How many characters can you have without paying extra?

0. You will be charged $1 extra for each character you make after the first. However, since you can level all jobs on the same character, it's generally unnecessary to have more than one unless you need a mule.

4)Are their any class combos that are considered overpowered? What's a good class combo for soloing?

That depends on what kind of soloing you're looking to do. Soloing hard mobs for items? Soloing for EXP? It also depends on the level range. Some jobs are good soloists at practically all levels (BST, DRG/Mage, PUP, NIN, DNC.) Others really become powerful soloers at high levels (PLD, THF, RDM.) However, not all of the jobs listed solo well for EXP; many of them can safely kill strong mobs, but that doesn't mean they do so quickly. That's why I said it depends on what kind of soloing you're looking to do.

[hexx]

Re: Newbie Questions

Well yes, the game has changed quite a bit, here are some answers to your questions:

1) Only penalty you need to worry about is not skilling up properly. Last year, a new feature called Level Sync made it so that people can party regardless of the level gap. Only bad part is that if you sync to someone lower than you, you wont gain any skill ups. As far as quests is concerned, most quests are governed by your city fame, not so much your leve. Only certain quests (such as getting Summoner Avatars) you do have to be at a certain level to attempt.

2) Yes they do drop loot no matter how high of a level you are. Usually though, the higher level the monster is, the better the drop rate........but that might still be speculation.

3) You have to pay $1 extra for every content ID after your first one

4) RDM/NIN is overpowered as hell, theres almost nothing they cant solo If you wanna solo, try Beastmaster after you have reached level 30 on another job (its considered an advanced job). Blue Mage, Puppetmaster, and Dragoon can all solo fairly well also. Its all about picking whatever job suits your fancy.


Edit: Damn you Armando, beat me to the punch just cuz I got a business call while I was in the middle of typing

[Elwynn]

Re: Newbie Questions

Only bad part is that if you sync to someone lower than you, you wont gain any skill ups.

To be more precise, you skill up as whatever level you sync to. So you can still get skillups, but they're capped to your sync level. Once the number goes blue, no more skillups for you. Also, Fields of Valor lets you get much more XP from fighting Easy Prey, but your skillups are capped to the level of whatever you are fighting.

On the positive side, you also die as whatever level you sync to, so for example if you sync down from 75 to 40, you lose xp like a level 40, and R3 doesn't reduce your XP loss any more than R1.

Also, BLM can solo xp decently off of pets. Especially starting at level 50.

[KoLAddict]

Re: Newbie Questions

Thanks all.

New questions:

1)I have the original Strategy Guide for FFXI. I know it's going to be loaded full of outdated info, but I was wondering, how do professions work? Can you have all professions, 1 prof, etc.?

2)What happens if you fail a quest? Can you redo it? Also, what happens if you do a summoner quest (for carbunkle or Ifrit) before you are a Summoner?

[Elwynn]

Re: Newbie Questions

Ah, the old Brady guide. It's okay for the first week or two, but you really need to go to FFXIclopedia for information.

1) You can choose any job when you are at your Mog House or at a Nomad Moogle. Each job has its own XP, and you can only gain XP and skills in your main job. When you reach level 18, there is a quest that allows you to have a subjob. (the official name is "support job") After you first select a subjob, you will never be without a subjob. (There is one group of fights that set your subjob to level 0, but that's it.) Your subjob will be capped at half the level of your main job, rounded down. So the most it can ever be is 37. When you reach level 30, you can unlock the remaining 14 "advanced" jobs with quests.

2) If you can fail a quest, you can try it again. But most quests are "go do this/bring me that", so you can't really fail them.

You can't get Carbuncle before unlocking Summoner, because that's part of unlocking it. AFAIK, you should be able to do all the other regular fights even without it unlocked. But you have to be SMN to get the "trial-size" fights. Diabolos also requires you to be pretty far along on the Chains of Promathia storyline.

I still have 0xp on SMN, but I have 7/9 avatars and 5/8 elementals.

[KoLAddict]

Re: Newbie Questions

Sweet. thanks.

Are there still classes that need to be unlocked, like Summoner through quests?

How's the UI in this game now (I am planning on playing later tonight) as well as the overworld map? Does it have a system like many other MMORPGs do now where there's a giant marker over the person when they have a quest?

EDIT: Also, while I'm thinking about it, what's a decent server for a newbie? Can you still transfer servers in-game?

[Reverent Knight]

Re: Newbie Questions

Does it have a system like many other MMORPGs do now where there's a giant marker over the person when they have a quest?

If only, the only way to know an npc has a quest is to talk to them. when you first start out talk to everyone and you'll get some go fetch quests for a bit of easy fame. check the wiki for the quests available and where to go to get them. Id hate to think how the first players of FF11 ever quested anything without wiki.

[Elwynn]

Re: Newbie Questions

Are there still classes that need to be unlocked, like Summoner through quests?

EDIT: Also, while I'm thinking about it, what's a decent server for a newbie? Can you still transfer servers in-game?

There are 20 jobs, and you only get six of them to start with. As I said before, you have to be level 30 first.

And just pick any server. The only good reason to choose a specific server is if you already know someone on that server.

Transfers cost real money and you can only do them every 3 months, so you have to have a really good reason to do it. Such reasons include people who did something anti-social on the server they came from, so they tend to be seen as a sign of having something to hide, particularly if you already have a level 75.

[Ellipses]

Re: Newbie Questions

How's the UI in this game now (I am planning on playing later tonight) as well as the overworld map? Does it have a system like many other MMORPGs do now where there's a giant marker over the person when they have a quest?

The UI is very simplistic. Keep in mind this game was designed with the PS2 in mind, so quite a bit of it is menu-driven. Menus of actions, items, spells, etc. You can only have one of those open at once. You get one eight-line, immobile log window (you can look at certain separate chat/message channels after the fact, but only by making them fill the entire screen). You get 10 active ALT macros and 10 active CTRL macros at a time (there are 10 sets of these per book, and 20 books of macros, that you can switch around, but you only get the 20 available at once), which are not on-screen at all. (They show up if you hold in on CTRL or ALT, or if you're using a gamepad, but you can't click on them; you'll need to memorize.)

There isn't a constant overworld map. You get a compass (unless you're in combat or have a menu open or are in a cutscene, then it disappears), and you can check the map of the zone you're in at any time, but you don't get a minimap or anything of the sort. The zone maps aren't very full of features, either; you get the general shape of the place, and a few key points, but there's no indication of where impassible cliffs or anything like that are. And you don't get all maps of all areas automatically. They have to be purchased, quested, etc. You can look at some of the maps on the wiki to get an idea.

[KoLAddict]

Re: Newbie Questions

Thanks.

I finally started on the Kujata server. Human Warrior. Seemed like the best starting class for a newbie.

I'm level 5 now, but I've leveled entirely off of killing stuff. I did the tutorial quests up to the one that requires me to go to some other zone and kill something. Not sure what level that zone is so I'm just killing stuff. I need to look into upgrading some of my gear, as it's all te starter stuff still. I do feel good that I haven't used the Reraise Earring or the Empress Band at all yet though.

[Ellipses]

Re: Newbie Questions

I'm level 5 now, but I've leveled entirely off of killing stuff. I did the tutorial quests up to the one that requires me to go to some other zone and kill something. Not sure what level that zone is so I'm just killing stuff. I need to look into upgrading some of my gear, as it's all te starter stuff still. I do feel good that I haven't used the Reraise Earring or the Empress Band at all yet though.

Killing stuff is the only way to level for quite a while. You can technically start doing Campaign Ops for a little bit of XP per week at level 10, but it'd be dangerous as hell for you to get to that point at level 10 (you'd have to sneak your way through several dangerous zones). And there are chocobo race quests once a week at level 20, and a few other random sources, but don't expect any other source of XP for a while.

There's really no reason not to use your Empress Band. As long as you make the maximum XP bonus from it with Signet up, you'll earn enough Conquest Points to recharge it. Making the max bonus shouldn't be difficult at all.

[Armando]

Re: Newbie Questions

Welcome back! Since you've chosen WAR as your first job, be sure to buy yourself a Great Axe as soon as possible, and when you're a bit more familiar with the game, take a look at this: http://www.ffxionline.com/forums/war...w-awesome.html

[KoLAddict]

Re: Newbie Questions

Thanks, both of you for all the help.

I'll definitely look into getting a Great Axe

[hexx]

Re: Newbie Questions

Welcome back! Since you've chosen WAR as your first job, be sure to buy yourself a Great Axe as soon as possible, and when you're a bit more familiar with the game, take a look at this: http://www.ffxionline.com/forums/war...w-awesome.html

Way to advertise your guide Armando

But truly, that guide really WILL help you be awesome. If you have any other questions about other jobs, feel free to ask! i was also gonna say Quetzalcoatl is a pretty good lowbie server so in case you decide to move, try it out and hit me up.