Starting warrior, need some advice!

[Dnulso]

<| Hello! |>

I've recently come back to FFXI after over 6 years of being away. So much has changed, and I feel lost! I'm hoping some of you can help me out. :)

As the topic says, I think the first job I'm going to shoot for lv99 with is warrior. However, I'm having a lot of trouble finding information that is up-to-date with lv99 content and playing a warrior. I have a handful of questions:

- What kind of sub-jobs should I level to support my warrior? Leveling? Small parties? Alliance stuff?

- How should I value stats on gear, for example str vs. atk vs. acc?

- What kind of gear should I begin trying to acquire once I'm 75+? Having just started back up, I have little in the way of gil or friends on the server yet, so the easier it is to obtain, the better. >.o;

- What will my role be in Abyssia parties? Will I be expected to pull, tank, use shadows, sc?

- Anything else I should know about starting down the War path?

- I use FFXIclopedia a lot, but its outdated often. Any sites for information you'd suggest?

<| Thank you! |>

[Babekeke]

<| Hello! |>

I've recently come back to FFXI after over 6 years of being away. So much has changed, and I feel lost! I'm hoping some of you can help me out. :)

As the topic says, I think the first job I'm going to shoot for lv99 with is warrior. However, I'm having a lot of trouble finding information that is up-to-date with lv99 content and playing a warrior. I have a handful of questions:

- What kind of sub-jobs should I level to support my warrior? Leveling? Small parties? Alliance stuff?

SAM and DNC


- How should I value stats on gear, for example str vs. atk vs. acc?

Personally I go mainly for STR/att and if you find yourself fighting something where you're low on acc, use acc food. You'll want some DEX thrown in there, but a lot of the gear you choose will have DEX as well as STR I imagine.


- What kind of gear should I begin trying to acquire once I'm 75+? Having just started back up, I have little in the way of gil or friends on the server yet, so the easier it is to obtain, the better. >.o;

Empyrean Armour set (+2) is a fairly good base set. Brego head and hands and a Goading Belt will help to cap haste.


- What will my role be in Abyssia parties? Will I be expected to pull, tank, use shadows, sc?

Proccing. Level all of your weapons up in skill. The higher the better. (you can leave out axe)


- Anything else I should know about starting down the War path?

If you're really serious about WAR, you'll want a Ukonvasara


- I use FFXIclopedia a lot, but its outdated often. Any sites for information you'd suggest?

Bluegartr (http://wiki.bluegartr.com/bg/) tends to be better for the more recent stuff.


<| Thank you! |>

You're welcome

[Alpheus]

I tend to lean more to mage jobs but I can answer some of your questions. And sorry long post.

To the question regarding subjobs, Samurai is the subjob used the most by WARs as its job traits and abilities that you get from subbing it are very complimentary to WAR's needs. However early on WARs do tend to sub MNK until SAM is avilable. Just as long as you aren't subbing whm or blm you should be fine for GoV burns.

To the question about gear Pre lvl 75 nothing stands out minus mainstays like Hauby, AF1 feet and the like. You can totally get away with using a WAR equip guide on FFXIclopedia to give you some idea as to what you should aim for at various lvl intervals. The thing to keep in mind though especially if you are lvling using GoV, is that these intervals are shorter so you can skip certain pieces of equipment since the speed at which you lvl render them obsolete in a few lvls when something superior opens up. I would advise looking through such a guide and taking note as to what stays useful the longest and aim for those pieces of equips or their alternatives in order to save gil.

I would advise that as soon as you get to Jeuno ( as early as you zoning to Jeuno to get a choco license) you start the Abyssea Questline by talking to the Abyssea NPC in Port Jeuno and then continue on your way to 75+.

Once you are 75+ you are ready to lvl in Abyssea. In a exp party in Abyssea you are simply expected to do damage however that damage might not be much until you are situated quite a bit in Abyssea. Utilizing Atma combos allows you to deal greater and greater damage. Using atmas require you get Zone clears from each Abyssea zone as well as defeating the NM that provides you the atma. Acquisition of atma leads into the main role that WAR plays in Abyssea, red procs.

Proc'ing red on a NM grants you that NM's Key Item as well as their atma (if they have one to give) upon its defeat, Red procs also inflict the Terror Status Ailment on the NM for 30 seconds. Red Procs are by and large a WAR's job in Abyssea when you are on a Atma run or farming Key Items to pop some of the more harder NMs due in part to WAR's large repertoire of Weapon Skills which are used to proc red. As such, as a WAR you will be expected to have skilled up on weapons other than Great Axe to proc red on NMs. (Check FFXIclopedia for a full listing of WS procs by searching for the term "Weakness Targeting")

As for the gear you should aim for post 75 you cant go wrong w/ WAR Empryean Armor (AF3) you will want to aim for the +2 versions of each piece. Since you are a player starting over again I would strongly recommend you make getting this set your goal post 75. It is not the end all be all of WAR sets far from it, however it will see you through until such time that you do get far more rare pieces of gear should you so choose to do so.

NMs to note for Abyssea:
Briaeus- Megaboss for [A] La Theine Plateau
Glavoid- Megaboss for [A] Tahrongi Canyon
Kukulkan - Megaboss for [A] Konstacht Highlands
Cirein-Corin - MB for [A] Misareaux Coast
Itzpapalotl - MB for [A] Attowha Chasm
Sedna - MB for [A] Vunkerl Inlet
Resheph- MB for [A] Ulegrand Range
Bennu- MB for [A] Altepa Desert
Amphitrite- MB for [A] Grauberg

Other NMs to note:
Ironclad Pulverizer- Grants Atma of the Razed Ruins: Dex+50 Crit Hit Rate and Damage+30%
Bukhis- Grants Atma of the Sanguine Scythe:HP+20% Crit Dmg+30%
Eccentric Eve- grants Atma of the Voracious Violet: 2TP/tick Regain, STR+50 and Dbl Atk+10%

There are many more things to get done in Abyssea but I am simply providing you an overview. Best of luck in your endeavors.

[Arcon]

SAM sub will work from Lv1 to Lv99. DNC is sometimes used to help at lower level parties, but I can't at all recommend it past Lv50.

Haste and Double Attack are easily the most important stats to have, as well as Store TP up to a certain point (this depends on your weapon delay and your SAM sub level). There are rather cheap options available in the late 70s, especially the Perle set which you should most definitely get. Before then there's not much of either, but as was said before, gear should really not concern you much at lower levels. As long as you keep your weapon up to date you can be almost naked in the other slots.

As for Abyssea, you may have a hard time farming seals as WAR (seals are used for empyrean armor), especially if you don't have many friends in the game. If it's an option for you, seeing how you're still rather low level, you may consider levelling another job first. WHM, BLM and THF are all basic jobs and highly sought-after for seal farming parties. Neither of them requires much effort and aside from BLM they're also pretty cheap.

And fyi, when people say "proc red" what they mean is to use a certain weapon skill to stagger the mob. It's a new system introduced with Abyssea and I recommend you read up about it as it will be crucial to your role as WAR in Abyssea (red and blue weaknesses are especially relevant to WAR). See the wiki page for "Weakness targeting" for further information.

[Dnulso]

Thank you for all the feedback so far, it has been very helpful!

[Tamarsamar]

Until about level 50 or so, use Shield Break.

Sturmwind is nice if you want to clear that last chunk of HP the mob has to end the fight, but more than 95% of the time, you'll likely be wanting to use Shield Break. An effective +40 Accuracy is nothing to scoff at, particularly in the early levels.

[Mathieu]

SAM sub will work from Lv1 to Lv99. DNC is sometimes used to help at lower level parties, but I can't at all recommend it past Lv50.

Samurai really doesn't work very well at lower levels. The skills people sub Samurai for don't really come into play until level 50 and 60. Store TP, Third Eye, and Zanshin help, but they are weak compared to what other subjobs offer at those levels.

If you want an easy subjob for those early levels, go with Monk. It's a whole lot more effective than Samurai up until Samurai starts giving its better toys. Monk also is very easy to level up and doesn't cost much.


Until about level 50 or so, use Shield Break.

Sturmwind is nice if you want to clear that last chunk of HP the mob has to end the fight, but more than 95% of the time, you'll likely be wanting to use Shield Break. An effective +40 Accuracy is nothing to scoff at, particularly in the early levels.

I'm going to have to disagree with you. Once you have Sturmwind, Shield Break is a niche weapon skill that it likely only going to be used when doing level capped quests or when you get into higher level content. Shield Break just doesn't help since 95% of the time to when leveling up, you are going to hit nearly 100% of the time without it.

If you are in a situation where misses are occurring frequently, Shield Break should be your go to weapon skill. However, those situations no longer are as common. You definitely don't want to spam it against enemies that you can hit easily. The damage difference between Shield Break and Sturmwind is too huge to use Shield Break as a "just in case" weapon skill.

Back before they revamped pretty much everything, Shield Break was a lot more important in early levels. However, between rebalances and increasing experience on low level enemies so IT weren't the only viable leveling mobs, a lot of the reason why Shield Break beat Sturmwind no longer exist.

[Arcon]

Samurai really doesn't work very well at lower levels. The skills people sub Samurai for don't really come into play until level 50 and 60. Store TP, Third Eye, and Zanshin help, but they are weak compared to what other subjobs offer at those levels.

Not many jobs matter at lower levels at all. MNK and DRK are both better DD options than SAM at lower levels, but personally I don't think it warrants leveling either of them up before you have will switch to SAM for higher levels anyway. The rate at which you gain EXP is too fast that worrying about miniscule damage upgrades during that time is worth it. But I guess it depends on what you wanna play like. If you wanna be the best you can be at any time, then go for MNK at first, switch to DRK at Lv30, then to SAM at 50.

[Crimson_Slasher]

Necrobump! Couldnt find a more suiting thread for my question. Now im not stranger to DDs (Being a drk and thus skills are up.). I take war semi-seriously but not so seriously that im looking to go out of my way to pick up gear. Now i need to ask for Ukko's/Raging, Between a fiew pieces of my gear im undecided on.

Body;
Twilight Mail
(+15 to all stats, +25 acc)
Or
Kirin Osode
(+10 to all stats, Augment; +2% critical rate +6 accuracy +3 dualwield)

Leaning toward Twilight, but 2% critical rate overhead is nice.

Legs;
Dux Legs
(+7 Str +11 attack, -4 PDT)
Ravager's Cuisses +2
(+15 attack, +5% double attack)
Byakko's Haidate
(+15 Dex, Augment; +5 AGI, +4% Crit Damage, +4 STP)

Tougher call but thinking Byakko's, Currently using dux.

Feet;
Hecatomb Leggings +1
(7 STR 4 DEX, Will aug 4 str in sooner or later)
Ravager's Calligae +2
(I know Crit dmg boost, dont have other stats on hand, havent yet to get this last +2 piece)

Please point me in the direction i want to go with these for consistency/damage under "Average" circumstances.

[Neisan_Quetz]

Body: Grim(+1) > Twilight > Osode if you don't need accuracy, use Twilight if you do
Legs: Avant+1/War Cuisses +2 > Ravager+2/Dux > Byakko's, Ogier's if you need accuracy
Feet: Calligae+2

Assuming you can't get NNI gear

[Crimson_Slasher]

Necrobump! Couldnt find a more suiting thread for my question. Now im not stranger to DDs (Being a drk and thus skills are up.). I take war semi-seriously but not so seriously that im looking to go out of my way to pick up gear. Now i need to ask for Ukko's/Raging, Between a fiew pieces of my gear im undecided on.

Please point me in the direction i want to go with these for consistency/damage under "Average" circumstances.

That repeated, i do have a NQ grim which ill work into the build instead then. but try to stick to those pieces up there.

[Neisan_Quetz]

Fixed post to reflect pieces you were asking about and better options.

[Crimson_Slasher]

Noted, id like some second opinions too if possible but second question for you, bother with +crit rate/dex gear or just whore str/att and cross my fingers?

[Neisan_Quetz]

There isn't much use for a dDEX set on war at the moment.

for +crit gear it depends on pieces, like one of the rancor pieces, claymore grip and emp+2 head and technically Moonshade Earring with TP bonus augments. I don't think there are others really worth using.

[Crimson_Slasher]

So i was on the right path mostly, was rocking all those but moonshade, and had twilight/dux/hecatomb(Dont have +2 feet yet) But basically cram in attack/str, got it. Still want some secondary opinions. Was considering the +4% crit damage on pants might be a nice investment though as with the crit gear i have and merits, Ukkos would have about 36% crit rate. Just looking for people who have more experience in this field as well, warrior i had to level for undisclosed reasons and i refuse to be a useless perle war. War is a well liked job by others (friends particularly) and not gearing/playing it well would be an insult to them.

[Neisan_Quetz]

Byakko's aren't worth using, they're less damage than Emp+2 legs. Relic+2 legs are better than both on average.

[wish12oz]

Still want some secondary opinions.

Gear choice is never really an opinion. Things will beat other things under certain circumstances. The only opinion part is which situations you find useful enough and cost-effective enough to gear for.

The slots you specifically mentioned are body, legs and feet.

Phorcys body always wins, but Grim is best to use until you get it, since it's the best cheap/easy to acquire option. That said, if you have Armada or Valk for your TP sets already, just use them instead and save the inventory.

For legs AF2+2 always win if you don't need ACC, and theyre super cheap. Double win. Use AF3+2 til you scrape together the 200k to buy 50 forgotten leg items since you should have those for your TP sets, and theyre actually pretty good. If you do need more ACC for your WS set, you should get Ogiers BTW.

For shoes, the only thing that can beat AF3+2 shoes are Huginn, and I promise you wont be seeing those soon/ever, so just forget I mentioned them. Anyway, just use AF3+2 since you should have them laying around from your TP sets. And if you dont have them, use AF3+1... and go work on +2s.

[Crimson_Slasher]

Much delayed. To be clear, yes, generally all gear is situational, and based upon the other gear around it, the event/monster being fought, and the job/weaponskill being used. However the "Second Opinion" i was looking for was that of someone seeing an alternate, potentially more effective/consistent/spike build and listing where/why i might want to use it. Ukko's Fury for example does have a high crit rate at even 100% tp, and call me skeptical but i do feel like the Ravager's Caliage+1 i currently have dont measure up to my Hecatomb leggings+1 when all the advice so far has been about packing str/attack. The plus 2 i do get because of the massive crit damage boost, thats also why i had considered a +4% crit damage Haidate, which is also the reason i considered the Twilight/osode bodies, for more crit rate, or dex as i would be gaining a rather large chunk of dex from the pants. However i do appreciate the feedback and have made adjustments in the flavor of the advice given. Just clarifying what "second opinion" i was looking for.

[uptempo]

Look the last thing we need is another gimp war son of bitch running around, go level bst or something will you pal.

[Infidi]

Look the last thing we need is another gimp war son of bitch running around, go level bst or something will you pal.

Random insult ftw...? On topic... wadda bout' dem' gorgets? Light says hola.

[Arcon]

Random insult ftw...? On topic... wadda bout' dem' gorgets? Light says hola.

Uptempo is known across the FFXI community as being a massive WAR gimp. He's probably just afraid that yet another player will eclipse him in both skill and gear.

[Infidi]

Uptempo is known across the FFXI community as being a massive WAR gimp. He's probably just afraid that yet another player will eclipse him in both skill and gear.

Maybe he'll migrate to my server and get me the rest of my plates. :D

[Crimson_Slasher]

For neck i was rocking rancor personally for the crit rate boost, dunno if worth it for ukko's but hasnt treated me wrong for any other crit ws. Also cant be bothered at moment to get rancor back/nef collar, and i kinda like atheling back for ws spikes.

[uptempo]

Uptempo is known across the FFXI community as being a massive WAR gimp. He's probably just afraid that yet another player will eclipse him in both skill and gear.

Proper silly little mug you like.

Look people were offering him advice and he seemed like he didn't want to take it, so as i said he should go level bst and leave war alone.

[Infidi]

Hey,wish, is there a big noticable damage increase from 95-99 ukko?

[uptempo]

It's not a huge noticeable increase going from the 95-99 however but the question is if you can afford the 95 stage why wouldn't you finish it the last stage is super cheap these days when i finished mine i paid 1 mil per dross for the last stage.

[wish12oz]

Theres a large difference between 90 and 99, which is what we should be talking about. As Upt said, if you can do 95, you can do 99. I think 60 Riftdross is in the neighborhood of like 15 mil now lol, something like 1/10th the cost of the 95 upgrade.

131 Damage > 156 damage 5 STR.

If we assume you have like 270 Damage for Ukkos, and maybe 15 fSTR for TP. It's like an 18%~ increase for TP [(156+16)/(131+15)=1.178~] and a 7%~ increase for WS [(270+16fSTR+2WSC)/270=1.066~]

Normally WS is 60% of total damage and TP 40% for Ukon, so if we determine where 40% of the difference between 7 and 18 is that should give us a basic idea of how much better 99 Ukon is than 90 [(18-7)*.4=4.4 7+4.4=11.4] I.E. its around 11%, but you can't say for sure unless you talk more specifically about what you're fighting and what other gear you have on.

EDIT: And yes, an 11% damage increase is noticeable IMO, more so when around other people using 90 Ukons.

[SpankWustler]

And yes, an 11% damage increase is noticeable IMO, more so when around other people using 90 Ukons.

Going to expound this a little since it might be useful information for the new-ish guy if he's still around.

I'd go even further and say that, in FFXI, any increase of 10% or more is huge. This is a game in which items add stuff in increments of 1% sometimes, and often upgrading a single piece of equipment only affect overall performance by 1-2%. 10% doesn't look like a big number, but be assured, it's huge in the world of FFXI.

[Nezkeys79]

At 29 there is a set that starts with "kampf". I have found this to be a very good set up until 40-50 ish

[Mirage]

If you really want to get gear for that level, the centurion set has more DD stats, while kampf/eisen is a more tank oriented gear set. Mixing and matching both will give you the best DD stats at that level, though. But again, I wouldn't care too much about that. Just focus on the highest dmg greataxe you can find and pick up whatever armor you can afford after that.