this is awesome

[moblin]

finally i m coming back to ffxi as we speak i m doing the update

i cant wait to get on a nd play again
this is going to be awesome
i dont have a character so i will be making one over again but feel free to make suggestions as to what i should be!

[broberts]

race

well if you want to be a certain race, choose that...but if you want to be the best at a certain job....mage= taru, DD=hume, galka, etc.... just a couple of suggsstions..

[Macht]

Re: race

Originally posted by broberts
well if you want to be a certain race, choose that...but if you want to be the best at a certain job....mage= taru, DD=hume, galka, etc.... just a couple of suggsstions..

Do keep in mind that how the jobs used can also change the race if you are trying for "best". Example most of the enfeebling is best with high MND which means Elvaan, elemental enfeebling is high INT so Taru will do better. Hume is practically jack of all trades and master of none, in the end though race doesn't matter much but to only put odds slightly more in your favor vs. another race of same setup it doesn't mean a guarenteed victory.

[Icemage]

To be a good:

Tank = not Tarutaru.

Mage = not Galka.

Not to say you can't be decent at those roles with those races, but you'll never be as good as the other races, due to severe shortage of HP or MP.

For any other role, any race is acceptable (perhaps a small exception made - tarutaru monks are cute, but weaker in all respects compared to their counterparts from other races).


Icemage

[Macht]

Again still subjective to play. Tarutaru can tank just about any job is an equal tank with NIN. For Galka I've seen quite a number of them that are very adept RDMs, for being a mage of any other type pack on:

Dalmatica +1
Houplande
Master Caster's Pole/ Reserve Captain's Mace/Senior Gold Musketeer's Rod
Dark/Pluto Staff
Mistilteinn
Aristocrat's Coat
Noble's Tunic
Relaxing Earring
Royal Cloak/Vermillion Cloak
Pachamac's Collar

Along with other MP, Refresh, or MP heal gear/foods/spells and MP amounts of each becomes less a liability. Race at the higher levels becomes less of a hindrance, at start though some races will fair better as certain jobs but at the end there isn't an extreemly huge difference. There will be a job that will fit a race to carry out Tanking, DD, or Mage.

[TheGrandMom]

Since your "coming back" to FFXI, I think you probably know all the in's and out's of choosing a race. For people that have had experience with the game, I always say choose what you'll be able to stand for a very very long time! LOL

For new players, I always stear them along the path of the race best suited for the job. I've seen too many new players try a difficult combination and then give up in disgust and end up hating the game. It's much easier for them to start with a race that suits the job and get some experience under their belt.

[Macht]

For new players I generally just suggest Hume since that is the classic starter race.

[Caspian]

I think what is probably the hardest is being a galka mage. I know it can be done (as there are several high lvl ones on this forum) but it seems it would be VERY difficult in the first lvls w/o some really good gear. I've only partied with one that I recall and that was along time ago in the early teens in the dunes. He tried hard, but he only had enough mp for a cpl cures. So, after the tank got hit a few times he was done and there was really nothing that could be done. This was even against a T or at most a VT. Again, I'm not saying it cant be done, but I dont see how it can be done easily, atleast not as a first job where the low lvl hi-dollar gears are really needed for it.

NOTE: I am curious about any galka mages that have done it and how they did it. Please let me know, I'm thinking of trying it if it seems somewhat reasonable.

[Icemage]

Originally posted by Macht
Again still subjective to play. Tarutaru can tank just about any job is an equal tank with NIN. For Galka I've seen quite a number of them that are very adept RDMs, for being a mage of any other type pack on:

Dalmatica +1
Houplande
Master Caster's Pole/ Reserve Captain's Mace/Senior Gold Musketeer's Rod
Dark/Pluto Staff
Mistilteinn
Aristocrat's Coat
Noble's Tunic
Relaxing Earring
Royal Cloak/Vermillion Cloak
Pachamac's Collar

Along with other MP, Refresh, or MP heal gear/foods/spells and MP amounts of each becomes less a liability. Race at the higher levels becomes less of a hindrance, at start though some races will fair better as certain jobs but at the end there isn't an extreemly huge difference. There will be a job that will fit a race to carry out Tanking, DD, or Mage.

Sorry to burst your bubble, but... before you babble on about end-game gear, you should perhaps try looking at some of it in action first.

There IS a huge difference between Tarutaru HP and Galka HP when tanking. The Galka PLD in my HNMLS has almost 1700HP. The Tarutaru PLDs have 1400, wearing almost all Koenig gear. Want to know which of them I prefer when we fight things? I'll give you 3 guesses. 300+ HP is the difference between a dead tank and a living tank quite often. I don't care what gear you're wearing or what food you're using, you're not going to erase that HP differential.

By the same token, you'll never see a Galka white mage anchoring a tank party in HNM situations. Play skill aside, there simply is not enough ways to make up for the lack of MP (yes, yes, HP>MP convert, Zenith gear, blah blah... it's still not enough to make up the difference). I have ~865HP and ~1100MP without food as WHM75/BLM37 with my "typical" gear on, wearing zero HP>MP gear. A Galka WHM would have to wear ALL HP>MP gear to come anywhere near my MP stat, and in so doing would have to sacrifice all the extras I get from my gear, such as -enmity, Haste, Cure Speed increase, Cure Potency+, +MND, etc.

As for your referenced items:

Dalmatica +1: Um.. yeah. -1 cursed gear is rare as the stars, and the abjuration isn't exactly common either. My HNMLS has 23 Dalmaticas collectively, so I think I have a good perspective on this.

Errant/Mahatma Houppelande does nothing to erase MP deficiency. Races with more MP in the tank will still be able to rest longer, and for more MP. This doesn't change anything about that, except to lower everyone's resting time slightly.

Master Caster's Blah/Senior Junk Rod/Reserve Captain's Garbage. Does anyone actually use these things? Dark Staff/Pluto Staff only, end-game.

Mistelteinn is never, ever, ever used. Are you even aware of what the latent effect trigger is for it's refresh? I'm sure you are not, so let me tell you. Mistelteinn converts 3TP into 1MP per tick. If you have no TP, you get no Refresh effect... and last time I checked, most mages rarely if ever have any TP.

Aristocrat's/Noble's Tunic. Noble's is fairly common these days, but again, this does not in any way make up the difference between Galka MP and Tarutaru. Galka wearing these items still is the same amount of MP behind a Tarutaru wearing the exact same item, and is still short that extra MP when crisis situations hit.

Relaxing Earring. Same as the other hMP items. Adds no MP to your pool, and you would not BELIEVE the stupid gymnastics you have to go through to get 5 Euvhi Organs + 5 Luminian Tissue (I'm currently at 1 and 1 of each towards this, after 3 hours of farming).

Vermillion/Royal Cloak. Tarutaru can wear these too, what's you're point? They have MP+1% as well, which makes them even more effective for high-MP races than low-MP ones.

Pachamac's Collar. I think there's only one of these on the entire Midgardsormr server. But again, same argument as with all the other +hMP items you've listed.

For XP parties you won't notice a lot of these differences, because you generally won't be pushing the limits of your character much. For end-game activities such as HNM you will definitely notice these differences, and you cannot erase those differences, for the reasons I stated above: every time you use HP>MP or MP>HP to try to "catch up", members of other races can use that item slot to get some other advantage.


Icemage

[Macht]

Eh well, that's were we part ways it seems Icemage. My friends and I make it a bad habit to make what people state as impossible to be very possible, all I can agree is it isn't as easy on the player but I'm not one that goes for the easy route you never figure anything out that way.

If I had started a Galka I'd of definatly taken my words to practice to demonstrate it. Currently I don't the best I have is what my friend who is Galka stated, but I guess for better detail to defend what I state I'll have to just to appease you Icemage.

[Icemage]

I have good friends that are 75 galka mages, and 75 taru PLD, and 75 taru NIN. They will ALL tell you that there is no way to make up the differential.

Can they do their job acceptably? Sure.

Can they do it as well as another race that has similar gear? No.

When you're fighting HNM, or in a BC or doing anything else where the outcome is in doubt, you don't go in with handicaps if you can avoid it. That's not elitism, that's just common sense.


Icemage

[Miriamel]

I've seen Taru PLD with 1700HP, Galka PLDs with 1400HP; I've seen Galka Mages with 1100MP and Tarus with 900MP.

I myself am sitting at a comfortable 1187MP as Elvaan with one piece of Zenith gear. In fact, I have more MP than most other WHM in my LS, since all of them try to hold up to a considerable amount of HP to avoid getting eaten fast on HNM. Goes as far as Taru SMNs wearing BQ rings. Hence, the 894HP I can hold up simply by being Elvaan allows me to go all-out MP, Haste and enmity. And I have yet to do 5MP merit upgrades (done with cure speed).

Now, that said, I hardly ever get to use the MP I have. I use 1000, at most, unless there is big trouble, and an extra 100 or 200 MP of one person will not save my LS from that trouble.

I consider anything from 900-1200 a good MP pool for a WHM, because all of that gets the job done without sacrificing too much HP. I know an excellent Hume WHM with about 1000MP who knows exactly what to do when to do it. I also know plenty of Taru WHMs with excellent equipment that just don't fit in, wasting their MP left and right, messing up Blink chains and dying frequently. It comes down to the player mainly, then to their equipment.

I actually have an great Galka WHM (1050MP) in my LS, and he's frequently used for tank parties. There is absolutely no difference of a Taru or Galka WHM in tank party at Tiamat or Jormungand - oh wait, the Galka usually dies less often.

Is it harder to play a Galka mage? Yes.

Is there a difference in efficiency to other races? Not if you're a skilled player and willing to invest into equipment.

[Icemage]

I'll have to respectfully disagree with the 200MP not making or breaking a WHM at the tank PT position. If you're anchoring the tank PT, running out of MP in a crunch is exactly the sort of reason why you prefer using higher-MP races. 200MP is a Cure 5 on your tank, which can buy you precious seconds for someone else to get MP, land a Sleep II, drop a Stun, cast Utsusemi : Ni, or any number of other holding tactics while your alliance recovers from whatever is pushing you against the wall in the first place.

On quite a few HNM, HP merely needs to be "sufficient". I still consider myself a bit below where I'd be comfortable (1000 would be nice), and have several pieces of gear I still need to acquire to reach that, but I'm sure once I get around to getting all the stuff I'd really like to have (RSE earring, BQ ring, Trump Crown, H. Bomb, max HP merits) I can easily hit ~1000HP and ~1200MP, with zero HP>MP conversion gear without food.


Icemage

[Miriamel]

Yes, and other races can easily achieve the very same without HP+ items.

You see, the "ideal" is not having as much MP as possible, the ideal is having a balance between HP and MP. And this balance can be achieved by any race using tools like RSE, the Blessed set, and other recent goodies. Even by Galka.

As for the WHM, as you call it, anchoring the tank PT.. I don't know how your LS works, but as far as wyrms go, we have an entire WHM party, consisting of WHMx4, RDMx1, BRDx1 that are in charge of healing. The WHM in the tank PT mainly has to keep a bar-spell up, blink the PLD/NIN in case of emergency (if PLD/WAR tank, there will be a blink order), and drop the occasional Cure IIIs on either tank.

We try to avoid any cures that are bigger than Cure IIIs to keep hate low on all mages.

As far as Fafnir/Nidhogg go, we have two WHMs in the tank party, blinking the tanks as main job, and here, too, dropping Cure II/III when necessary, backed up by everyone else in the alliance since *everyone* but the tanks is required to have /WHM sub at Fafnir. Eases the load.

KB - kiting goodness. Shouldn't ever run out of MP unless asked to be raiser. Kiting is easy on MP.

On the four gods, depending on attendance, we use a healing party. WHM in tank party's job is mainly barspells and depending on setup, blinking.

Kirin - kiting. Here, too, we use a "911"-party, to raise and heal, since things can get messy.

You see, it doesn't really matter which party you are in, if there is an emergency and things get hairy - let's take your example - after you drop that additional Cure V on the tank, you're out of MP too. These precious seconds might not have helped, at all, and your alliance might simply die 10 seconds later. Much, much more often than not, it won't make a difference. If there is no-one with MP to Stun/Sleep II, I'd say that alliance is dead meat either way.

[Icemage]

Everyone required to have /WHM sub? I think if we tried that on Midgardsormr, we'd never ever get to fight anything for reasons which are obvious to anyone who has done any HNMing :p. Be that as it may, WHM sub most certainly isn't necessary for everyone at Fafnir/Nidhogg, though as you say, it does help for those that can afford to do so (black mages, summoners, etc.).


Icemage