Questions to decide on how to go to endgame

[Dwarkyzidez]

Hello, I'm somewhat new to FFXI. Im a rank 2 Windurstian Mithra 27MNK/13WAR. I have played for about two months, take off a few weeks I was playing other games. Anyways, I've been trying to decide on what Job to be. At first I was looking at SAM, but in truth...all jobs look good. Well, today I started thinking about the endgame. I've only heard of it..but it looks cool. I'm tempted to just take MNK up to 75 to have fun early. But I'm not sure if it's a good job to take to 75. Do we get better parties later on? And are they easy to take to 75 compared to the other jobs?

And also, two more questions. What exactly is Maat? Always heard about it, never knew about it. And what are the different types of Notorious Monsters and what's the difference amongst them (like Burning Circle)?

[Feba]

Re: Questions to decide on how to go to endgame

ok, first of all, don't try to decide so early on. You'll either end up hating the job, or locking yourself out of something you might enjoy more.


Maat is an NPC who gives limit break quests. NMs are rare monsters. HNMs are highly rare monsters, which are very hard, for their level.

BCNMs are special fights in battle arenas, which usually are for quests and missions, or use Beastmen's Seals orbs and have treasure rewards.

See wiki.ffxiclopedia.org for more.

[Nazo]

Re: Questions to decide on how to go to endgame

You've got a loooong way to go yet. you might be thinking 75/25 = 3 = I'm over a third of the way there but that's not the case, not by a long shot. Play because you enjoy it, not because you think it'll be fun later, because most likely you'll never get there if you do.

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Re: Questions to decide on how to go to endgame

Hello, I'm somewhat new to FFXI. Im a rank 2 Windurstian Mithra 27MNK/13WAR. I have played for about two months, take off a few weeks I was playing other games. Anyways, I've been trying to decide on what Job to be. At first I was looking at SAM, but in truth...all jobs look good. Well, today I started thinking about the endgame. I've only heard of it..but it looks cool. I'm tempted to just take MNK up to 75 to have fun early. But I'm not sure if it's a good job to take to 75. Do we get better parties later on? And are they easy to take to 75 compared to the other jobs?

And also, two more questions. What exactly is Maat? Always heard about it, never knew about it. And what are the different types of Notorious Monsters and what's the difference amongst them (like Burning Circle)?

I really wouldn't be too concerned with endgame yet. In fact, the word "endgame" is kinda absurd to me. There will always be more new content, another new megaboss HNM to kill and all that. Its a persistant world, there is no "end" except the ultimate goals you make for yourself.

When you feel you have nowhere left to go, nothing left you want to grow into and want more for the job/jobs you like , that's ideal time to move on to "endgame" functions in FFXI. Many, many have tried to force themselves into endgame early and they either end up unsatisfied or in a job they end up not liking.

Take it from me, I took BRD to 75 and ended up not liking it one bit. I joined an HNMLS and, for a time, it was fun. But I still had so many other jobs I wanted to level and loyalties to my friends to aid them. And, to be honest, my favorite job was never in the game til ToA. For two years, I had to make do with other jobs until Corsair showed up. I was playing stuff that was mostly not even second-fiddle to that because I thought it was more helpful to do so. I should have just stayed DRG or some other DD because I liked that more.

I'd encourge you to unlock all the advanced jobs and play the field a but, see which one's bring you the most personal satisfaction rather than fast progress or an easy invite. Level the jobs that make you happy and to hell with what anyone else thinks about what job is the "best" for endgame.

Maat is an NPC in Ru'Lude Gardens, he'll give you various challenges to accomplish to break your initial level caps, the final challenge to break the cap to 75 is to fight him. You'll go against him in a BCNM and he'll be using your own job and a MNK subjob against you. You'll be stripped of your subjob, too. Good times.

NMs, too many too list, but they're kinda like this rare encounter monsters in other Final Fantasy games. Hardly seen, but they may drop some cool stuff if you beat them.

HNMs are similar, but are generally a 21-24 pop and sometimes its just a high level monster in its place and not the HNM itself. Grand Dragons tend to show up every few RL days. These kinds of mobs don't play around, they require an alliance and possibly a support PT from the outside of that alliance as well.

BCNMs are specialized fights you can persue with a PT at your leisure. Keep those beastmen seals you've been collecting. You can trade them to an NPC in Port Jeuno for an orb that allows you to enter a BCNM. Once inside a BCNM, you'll be fighting some not-so-ordinary mobs and NMs inside. Win and its possible you'll get some good stuff, really good stuff even that sells for lots of gil. But its a gamble, you can get crappy drops too.

Win or lose, one the orb is used, its worthless after. Toss it.

ENMs are CoP BCNMs. Some you can quest, others you can access at anytime after completing a mission objective. You can usually only do one a day. Unlike BCNMs, you'll suffer no EXP loss for losing and if you do win, you'll get EXP on top of potential rewards.

[Satori]

Re: Questions to decide on how to go to endgame

Allthough im only new to the game too, I'm lvl 13 Whm, I hope i get to "endgame" stage but if i dont its no big deal I play this game for my own amusement and you should too! With this game not many things are set in stone so you pretty much do as you please. I get thrills from making Grass thread and i think as long as the game can please me I will still be playing. Dont focus on catching up with the other players. play the game and the jobs as YOU like too.

many want to rush aheadto escape the noob status but no matter how high level you are a noob is a noob "like me" and will be spotted easily.

Anyway just enjoy the game and take peoples advice if it helps but all in all YOU bought the game and its YOU that plays it. so play it as you see fit.

I hope it is of some help im not too much of a problem solver

[Kirsteena]

Re: Questions to decide on how to go to endgame

The best advice was given to me by a friend, Sethe. He told me - don't get involved with endgame until you are level 75 - it will suck up too much of your time and make it hard on yourself. Advice I am glad I followed. I was the last of my group to get involved with endgame, and I saw how it drained them. I now co-run an endgame ls, but every now and then even I have to step back and say "not tonight guys, do it without me". Enjoy limit breaks, enjoy getting your AF, getting rank 6 or whatever. Just - enjoy it. Endgame will still be there tomorrow

[Icemage]

Re: Questions to decide on how to go to endgame

Just - enjoy it. Endgame will still be there tomorrow

This is possibly the best endgame advice I've ever heard.

---

Participating in endgame before you reach level 75 is an exercise in frustration.

You won't deal as much damage, your offensive magic and enfeebles will get resisted a lot, you'll lose more XP per death (for WHMs using Reraise II especially), you take more damage per hit, you resist effects much less often, and every activity is just much less fun because of it.

Add to this the fact that the best end-game LSs will not even entertain an application to join without at least one usable level 75 job (and quite a few LSs now ask for multiple level 75 jobs), and you'll find that, if you really want to have a good time doing end-game things, your best option is to wait a while.

Soak up the sights, enjoy your travels, and most importantly: make good friends on your way up. If you're seriously interested in playing FFXI for the long haul, having friends to do it with is one of the key points in enjoying your stay.


Icemage

[Matera]

Re: Questions to decide on how to go to endgame

The best points made so far:

Worry about endgame when you hit 75, no sooner.

Make good friends.

Have fun.

Thanks to everyone for reminding me of these... I'm getting fairly close to being able to participate in some endgame activities, and am really anxious, but reading this makes me want to slow down, fight Maat at 70, and prepare for endgame.

[Asir]

Re: Questions to decide on how to go to endgame

Like everyone's said, enjoy what you're doing now so you don't have wrinkles later.

I have no experience in the end-game side of things, I happen to love the lowbie and mid-levels quite nicely. But I do have a number of friends that are in the end-game scene and you wouldn't believe how stressed out they get. Seeing this happen to my friends has helped me decide not to get to 75 in any kind of a hurry, especially since I can't stand the constant need for leveling just so I can go and do more of the quests and missions I enjoy.

If you level grind your jobs to 75, you're going to get burnt out very quickly and only get to see about one tenth (possibly less) of the zones SE has designed for our enjoyment.

Soak up the sights, enjoy your travels, and most importantly: make good friends on your way up. If you're seriously interested in playing FFXI for the long haul, having friends to do it with is one of the key points in enjoying your stay.

Very true. Before I deleted my taru, I used to bring my stressed out friends on a travelling tour of some of my favorite zones. They never noticed before (especially the girls) how pretty the flowers in the Jungles could be at night or how peaceful the Sanctuary of Zi'tah was. Even one of my friends who had been playing for a year or two longer then me never even noticed that the Chateau had the most beautiful garden by the Queen's grave until he came to find me one day.

Sorry for rambling, I'll just sum it up quickly. Rushing to 75 at an ungodly pace = stress = wrinkles and ulcers.

[Mog]

Re: Questions to decide on how to go to endgame

Enjoy the game whilst you can. There's more to the game than leveling. Like everyone says.....worry about endgame stuff when you get to 75. Period.

I feel like I'm beating on a dead horse, so I'll shut up. :x

[Dwarkyzidez]

Re: Questions to decide on how to go to endgame

Ok, thanks everyone. I'm just gonna take MNK to 30 and play around with all jobs for about 15 levels to decide which ones I wanna take further. I'm not gonna rush to endgame, its just that I've seen some videos with some endgame parts in it and they looked 10x better than waiting 2 hours in Khazam. Haha, thanks again!