Mithra or Elvaan

[Teraniku]

You all do know that low Taru HP was the reason we didn't get a Tarutaru Serpent General in Al Zhabi.

[Bearstar]

I think you should choose based on what you like about the lore of the culture. Equipment and later on, merits will fix any low level difficulties that come from race, for example my brother's (A Galka) first 75 (back before Treasures of Aht Urghan came out) was Summoner. His 2nd was Black Mage. And is better than many Tarus I've met when it comes to mage jobs so don't let anything get in your way.

[Bearstar]

Oh wow, I didn't realize races mattered this much. Would I be a fool to make a Taru melee?

BTW I'm brand new to the game, only been playing a couple days...

Don't let that get in the way. There is nothing wrong with being a taru. I know many taru tanks and they are good tanks. And I know many Galka mages that are awesome mages. Minus very low levels, the equipment you wear will overwhelm any racial stats.

[Bearstar]

Do any of you guys know a good site to refer to for which races go well with each job? I am really worried I'm going to make the wrong choice now, lol. I really wanted to be a taru but I like all the melee jobs more than mage ones. I just want to make sure I don't make another bad choice such as taru+melee.

the wiki: FFXIclopedia. It has everything you will ever need so bookmark it in your brouser

[Karbuncle]

Don't let that get in the way. There is nothing wrong with being a taru. I know many taru tanks and they are good tanks. And I know many Galka mages that are awesome mages. Minus very low levels, the equipment you wear will overwhelm any racial stats.

Honestly, HP Is still going to be the biggest thing. MP not so much, too much MP conservation available, as well as refresh gear, MP pool don't really matter (Which ironically makes Taru even worse ), but HP is still going to screw you in some events.

NOW, they said in the interview they lowered the AoE damage/toned back in SoA, so this whole thing might blow over.

I think it should be spelled out again, really clearly... While Taru can perform most, like 99%, of the tasks an Elvaan DD can do, they are statistically the worse melee race in the game. now, this is by like, 1% or something, like Byrth explained, so its not going to cause you to not be invited or anything, its just undenyable on paper. and while their STR/etc isn't really huge, the HP thing can be a pr......... you know f**k it read Byrth's post again everyone/.

In really high buff situations (which includes capped fSTR), my Taru DNC is 0.3% worse than a Galka. My Taru WAR (no longer capped fSTR) is 1.5% worse than a Galka. These examples were both optimized for Galka, then I just flipped the race to taru and divided.

It's a pretty insubstantial difference in practice. However, for a totally-optimized player that last 1% damage is worth millions of gil. I mean, how much does Khepri Jacket cost? It doesn't even increase THF's DPS by 1% overall. If people care enough to pay 200mil so their THF can do ~<1% more damage, they'd probably feel the same way about their base stats.



Anyway though, the much more substantial difference in practice is the fact that I have to change the food I eat when I do events and play much more conservatively than my Elvaan/Galkan counterparts because of my dramatically lower HP pool. Legion is very one-shotty, and Tarus simply don't have enough HP to survive unless they turtle against many of the monsters. If you die in Legion, you lose a lot more than 1% damage and it greatly impacts your alliance's success. If you spend the whole time in a turtle-y hybrid set, you also lose more than 1% damage. I eat Arrabbiata (which sucks, because 1 dragon meat = 2 of them) and switch to a hybrid TP set against many of the monsters. On the other side, our Elvaan DRKs get to eat Red Curry Buns and go all-out on pretty much everything. So for events like Legion, the Taru HP difference causes a DD difference that is much larger than it first appears.