Worried about my little taru

[Verkinal]

Hey all,
Im really worried about my Taru because I don't want his low HP affecting all
the other jobs that I want to play, like DRK or MNK. Will he be okay? I want to
have fun and not end in the result of getting stuck searching for parties b/c I
have below average attacks or dieing too easily then resulting in purchasing
gil for my real money =\. I've read that it doesn't matter really but what about gil
wise? Will i be worrying about having enough gill?

[Aksannyi]

Re: Worried about my little taru

There is plenty of HP gear out there, but in a lot of cases, Tarus are fine in melee jobs. You may have to work a little bit harder to make gil, but it really shouldn't affect you too much. You also will probably not be able to outparse Elvaan and Galkas, but you'll still be able to do respectable damage.

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Re: Worried about my little taru

As far as EXP goes, I don't see why you're worried. A taru's HP as a MNK or DRK has very little impact on their performance as a melee characte in EXP PTsr. Tarus can make up for lacking STR with equipment and have DEX and AGI in their favor, making them somewhat more accurate than a Galka or Elvaan. So no worries there

In some high level events, MNKs can be expected to tank, but that's really only Salvage so you might not be so bad off there as you may not have to be the one that tanks it. But the low HP may put you near the bottom tanking priority since you may have to give up other equipment for HP gear that other races would not.

DRKs need high HP to make their two hour work well with using a Kraken Club for KC burning HNMs, but otherwise its not that important elsewhere.

That stuff might be a long way off for you, though. Plus you might find other jobs you want to be for high level events, so you might get around those issues entirely if you also leveled a mage job or a support class.

[Armando]

Re: Worried about my little taru

The only stats that really make a difference between races are HP and MP. For everything else, you'll perform almost identically to other races.

And even then, HP/MP aren't much of an issue except for very specific applications (Convert ratios, Soul Eater, things like that.) Either way Tarutaru's massive MP pool can be a big bonus for jobs like PLD or DRK that don't have much MP to work with.

You'll be fine. There are plenty of Tarutaru DDs out there, and most people dabble in a several jobs to some extent or another. Just make sure you like the race you picked.

[Omni]

Re: Worried about my little taru

I play mnk and while I won't outparse a elvaan/galkan mnk with the exact same equip as me, they do not out parse me by much. regular hits vary by 3-8dmg and ws by 100ish. Which is hardly anything considering how often a mnk attacks.

Any mnks without a max 25% equip haste, I out parse handily regardless of race.

Anyways, once you start playing this game more, you'll realize that race really doesn't matter. Just be OK with staring at whatever race you have for hours on end is probably more important.

[Feba]

Re: Worried about my little taru

FFXI races are more of a nifty bonus than something that makes or breaks a character. About the only exception to this is Galka mages; and even they start to pick up after awhile when their equipment options start to open up (RSE, for example). And Galka mages that make it through the early levels tend to be pretty good, since they have to learn how to manage MP much more effectively than other races.

I played a taru WAR to around 50 with zero problems. I have a friend who picked Galka for their melee abilities, and regrets it somewhat. Pick the race you like most based on cosmetic reasons, and the gameplay mechanics will bend around that. A teeny bit of player skill will make up for %99 of problems your race might cause.

[Icemage]

Re: Worried about my little taru

For gaining levels in XP parties, race doesn't make a lick of difference as long as you have appropriate gears, except perhaps when tanking. Taru paladins/warriors/ninjas have it a little tougher than all the other races because of having the lowest HP of all races paired with the expectation of tanking. But again, for XP purposes they're still perfectly workable, and even at endgame they're not really all that bad - most stuff that kills you at level 75 tends to do so in a screaming hurry no matter what race you are.

Sure, Tarutaru isn't the optimal race for DRK or MNK, but the difference isn't anything to cry over, and the aesthetics are certainly more important; you're going to be looking at your character a lot, so it'd be best if you picked something you can stand to stare at for days/months/years instead of just picking for a couple of stat points (most of which you can make up for with appropriate gear).


Icemage

[ShepardG]

Re: Worried about my little taru

Not to mention, that when you get into meriting later on, you'll be able to adjust your max HP and MP. As well as STR, etc. I'm elvaan, and I've honestly wished that I was hume more often than not, simply for the more rounded stats. But Taru, IMO, has less of a STR weakness than Elvaan's INT weakness, if that makes any sense. Also I love chocolate.

[Armando]

Re: Worried about my little taru

As well as STR, etc.

Technically true, but base stat merits are a tremendous waste of time in most cases unless you've really run out of things to merit, simply because they do so little AND they're grossly overpriced. You can spend 36 merit points bumping up your STR by 5 just so you have 1 more DMG on your weapon, or you can use 21 to max out a weapon's skill and have +16 Attack and +8% hit rate, and still have 15 left over to get +4% crit rate (10 merits) and/or some Group1/Group2 merits. It takes 30 merits to max out Group 1 and 44 to max out Group 2 if you don't spread them all over the place.

So yeah, 36 merits for 5 STR is stupid.

[Nuriko]

Re: Worried about my little taru

You have to admit, though, that that +5 STR is going to be useful in levelling OTHER melee jobs ... you may not be able to say the same about weapon skill.

[Armando]

Re: Worried about my little taru

Technically it is "useful" on other jobs but only if you define useful as "I can use it on other jobs." Other jobs' merits are more useful to those jobs than 5 STR is.

Also, 36 merits is almost enough to fully cap some other job's weapon in addition to capping your main's. Just 2 or 3 upgrades to a weapon skill are already more useful than 5 STR. After all, nobody would use a Flame Ring over an Ulthalam's Ring.

[ShepardG]

Re: Worried about my little taru

OP, Armando brings up a very good point. IF after leveling up a DD job as a Taru, you still feel like your not up to par as far as other DD's go, then you do have the option to merit your Stat's. But as he said, your job specific merits/weapon merits, etc. will make a better difference than 36 merits worth of STR.

[Mezlo]

Re: Worried about my little taru

Also I love chocolate.

Chocolat sucked. Carrie-anne Moss didn't even take her top off.

[Durahansolo]

Re: Worried about my little taru

Chocolat.

WTF Chocolat was a movie!? I thought it was some sort of new Chocobo flavored Latte.

[Mog]

Re: Worried about my little taru

On topic...

Any race can play any job. I leveled black mage originally on my tarutaru, but I later found that I liked melee jobs better.

And people better not say taru's can't DD! I usually outparse other races on sam and rng, which is why I alwaaaaaays have to sub ninja. x.x

As for ninja, yeah the HP is a bit less than other races. However, you learn to appreciate to count shadows and it forces you to pay more attention while playing the job and therefore be a better ninja.

So in conclusion, play whatever race you want. If you like the way tarutaru looks and you want to play dark knight, don't be afraid how much damage you're going to do. If you gear yourself out decently and keep up to date with everything, you'll be fine.