Best and Worst Jobs

[Medalink]

Re: Best and Worst Jobs

I love WHM as I get so many PT invites, from level 10-70 a WHM is Highly wanted. I would say they get the most invites in the game.

My least favirot is BLM, I do not liek the jobs structure, I do not like how you cant nuke, you have to sit back most of the battle and wait for an MB. I hate the job but must use and lvl it due to sub for my WHM and Warp.

O and I also lovve SMN and BST and DRG as you get a pet to help ya, whats better?

Medalink

[Icemage]

Re: Best and Worst Jobs

Every job has its ups and downs: Some jobs come into their own much later than others, however:

BASIC JOBS: These are the opening 6 jobs that are available when you begin a new character in FFXI

White mage: People either love it or hate it. There's very few players who don't have a strong opinion on this job, with the majority disliking the passive nature of the job. Still, it can be very fun and satisfying to play once you get into the right mindset. White mages show their potency at level 11+, upon acquiring Cure II.

Warrior: The most flexible of the melee jobs in FFXI, Warriors can go on both offense, and to a lesser extent, defense at higher levels. Definitely the most versatile melee at higher levels, though it seems only more experienced players recognize this.

Thief: Simply awful for the first 14 levels. Gets better at level 15 with Sneak Attack, and comes into its own at level 30 with Trick Attack. Not a particularly strong attacker, but makes up for it with powerful finishing weaponskills and good ability to pull enemies, as well as their ability to redirect enmity onto tanks with Trick Attack.

Monk: Damage, damage, damage. Monk is a very strong damage from level 1, and only gets stronger as they gain levels. Good solid weaponskill progression, but their skillchain combinations can be a problem for parties to adjus to at lower levels.

Red Mage: Half black mage, half white mage, with a twist. Ignore the fact that you start with a dagger and realize that red mages are usually at their best when they play a flexible supportive role in a party. Gets noticeably stronger at level 40-41 when their key ability Convert and key spell Refresh become available.

Black Mage: Offensive power, at the cost of fragility, black mages are the glass cannons of FFXI. Despite the negative comments above, I'd say black mage doesn't really come into its prime until level 51-54+, when elemental staves, artifact gloves, and level III nuke spells become available, and becomes a fairly powerful attacker beyond that point.

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ADVANCED JOBS: Despite their name classification, most advanced jobs are no more technically difficult to play than the basic 6. Still, new players should realize that you need at least 1 basic job at level 30+ to activate and acquire all the remaining jobs in FFXI.

Samurai: Offensive attacker specializing in weaponskills to increase the party's damage. Samurai turn into offensive machines at level 30 with the Meditate ability. Until then, they're still good attackers, though not exceptionally so.

Dragoon Knight: Very powerful at the early to mid levels (up to around 60), they become an average melee attacker towards end-game. If there is a "weakest job" in FFXI, it may be Dragoon as of this posting.

Dark Knight: Strong attacker in the early (1-20) levels, and in the mid to late (65+) range. Dark Knights offer extra offensve power, but always at a price.

Ranger: Once regarded as the pinnacle of offensive output in FFXI, they've recently gotten nerfed into near-extinction. I think much of it is overreaction by players, as I still see rangers doing reasonable to good damage when played properly. This is the only attacker job other than black mage which deliberately fights from a distance.

Ninja: If your experience with ninjas is as the "silent assassin", forget it. FFXI Ninjas are stealthy and sneaky in some respects, but their real power is the ability to hold off enemies indefinitely while their shadows take the hits which would otherwise crush them. This makes them excellent tanks. Their attacking power is low to compensate for this ability, however. Ninjas come into their full strength at level 37 with the arrival of Utsusemi: Ni.

Paladin: The quintessential tank job in FFXI. Paladins have a variety of tools which let them get and hold a monster's attention, and healing magic available to make sure that attention stays focused on them.

Bard: FFXI's party animal. Slowest-paced of all the jobs to play, bard songs provide huge advantages to a party. Very weak until they get Sword Madrigal at level 11, they come into their "true power" at level 55 with the acquisition of Mage's Ballad II.

Beastmaster: FFXI's solo machine. Beastmasters gain the ability to charm and control monsters to fight their battles, making them the only job capable of soloing for significant amounts of experience beyond the early levels.

Summoner: The modern FFXI summoner has two primary roles for the majority of their levelling (1-70). The first is as a "cure tank", which makes use of their large MP pool to enable them to act as a watered-down white mage. The second, arguably more potent use for summoners, is as an offensive attacker with benefits. Summoners can use their Blood Pact abilities to form skillchains with melee attackers to increase the party's damage output, while still providing significant amounts of backup healing. At level 70+, summoners take a complete about face and turn into full-time attackers who can still cast healing magic.

I personally think all the jobs in FFXI have merit and are worth playing, but not every job will appeal to all players, and that's ok too.


Icemage

[kuu]

Re: Best and Worst Jobs

You sound like a NPC newbie guide Icemage

But Half of what you said is explained in basic discriptions already.

I'll add a little,

Warrior: The ability to provoke while subing another job is insanely useful, as an attacker or defender, there seems to always pop a need to take hate.

BLM: things go boom big time as you go above 50+, but MP becomes a major problem when spells and hate start to rapidly go up as well. Such that they eventually becomes "closers" where they are not doing anything but sit most of the fight, and then do the finishing blow

When you talk about straight attackers or DD, the thing that comes to mind is TP gain. Not only for bigger damage, but SC as well.

Sam's have above adverage TP gain, and has only improved with their new trait of getting another hit if first misses. 2h weapons don't gain tp very fast. But with mediate and store TP always reliable to WS.

Drg: Besides the pet doing no hate damage, their lances are very high TP gain. Normally the high delay of lances should offset TP gain, but having 2 jumps will make them TP machine, definitelly ranked high for WS. Their acc trait helps a little as well(not so important anymore with sushi)

Rng: Barrage = TP, we've all seen it, but ranger change made it much less likely to get a full hit in.

MNK: Constant TP gain, as their abilities are all passive, reliable but not like the drg or sam type TP gain, and can't "Instant TP"up.

Thf: Above adverage, with low delay weapons, and triple attack, but the SA and TA timers are annoying in timing so, they're very situational in trying to squeeze SC on demand.

Wars(yes again): Double attack naturally will always help, but other classess will beat you more often then not, adverage, you might beat a thf though as a war/nin, if he can't set up SATA fast. Gaxe TP gain is even slower, so consider your pt setup.

Drk: the slowest of attack classes in terms of TP gain. They can hit hard and have very useful spells(stun), but if you're there to make SC, it's going to be painful to wait for the drk.

Ninjas: You forget to mention there are many "tools" to help in damage.. can pack a decent punch for DoD. Ahh but the money err...gil

Brds: Non magical songs will do quite a lot, considering that you can sleep undeads and stuff, which is the only class(if I remember right) to do so, especially when undeads aggro at yellow health.

Whm: when you talk about whm, you don't just talk about healing, but also hate gain as well. Whm thanks to their AF has a good amount of -enmity with other spells such as regen2 and 3. IF you got a rdm trying to heal for all his worth, and a whm doing it, the whm is just more suited, especially when your curaga2 or 3 is needed.

SMN: they are almost rdm like in their powers, a little of this, a little of that. The special thing about the SMN above all other is NO HATE. everything done by the avatar is the avatar's hate, not the SMN, therefore many times they take over as a part time healer, part time DD and still get away with not being shreaded to peices.

It is also a subitle thing, but due to the bp given to smn, there damage output is very great during the II spells -> tail whip(lvl 24?) then lose out somewhat with a lot of support spells, then back to DD at double slap(if you can hit for full damage), IV spells, and lvl 70 bps so they have a weirder curve then most jobs in how to be played.

Also another thing is that smn spells are not blm spells. The complaint has been made that smn can't even come close to blm damage. This is true for 2 reasons.
1: BLM get magatt up traits+staves+eq
2: SMN spells cost(and thus damage) and level gained are different from blm. A blm's stoneII spells is less powerful then bliz2 spells because their cost are completely different, while smn getting ALL elemental spells at once, have same, and lower cost(and thus damage). i.e -> SMN10 blizII 24mp vs BLM 44 77mp
Oh and all SMN bp speed are the same, so your spells easily beat blm in casting time.

[lionx]

Re: Best and Worst Jobs

Drg: Besides the pet doing no hate damage, their lances are very high TP gain. Normally the high delay of lances should offset TP gain, but having 2 jumps will make them TP machine, definitelly ranked high for WS. Their acc trait helps a little as well(not so important anymore with sushi)

I disagree, with the Accuracy bonus, DRGs should focus less on Acc gear only getting it high enough, then focus more on ATK gear and ATK+ food IMO. I havent leveled DRG though but i feel that the bonus would allow them to focus more on ATK instead.