New player with lots of advanced questions (LONG)

[UberFishCakeswithRanch]

My wife & I just got myself set up with an ffxi account, and we have a very good understanding of the basics of the game (I've talked to old ffxi players, and done a ton of research), but I have of a lot of advanced questions for you veterans out there.

Current both my wife & I are level 12, (whm & thf respectively), and we have a long list of potential goals that we are looking to, over time, meet.
These goals ultimately include going through each and every expansion (including the original game and add-on packs), completing their respective primary missions, and experiencing each of the main stories (it is a final fantasy after all ;) )
We have no real desire to do anything such as superbosses, or any real grindy end game content that doesn't add anything significant to the primary stories.

So, with everything above kept in mind...
#1 : How realistic are our goals?
Simple, but complicated question. I know this an older MMO, with a lot of content that is likely abandoned. With only the two of us (even at 99), I have a feeling that some of this content may be difficult to necessary create parties for. With that in mind...

#1a: Can we meet our goals, without having to face any absolutely unreal challenges?
We aren't here to squander away a good challenge; but we're not looking for anything that requires dedicated raid progression, or 16 hour bosses, or quitting your job & leaving you family, or any other horrendous time sinks... I know this question probably seem a little arrogant, but the difficulty of FFXI is truly famous.

#2: Can we play through the game, with the jobs we want want to play?
I've been lurking these forums for a few hours, and I can see that there is a lot of frustration from some players about particular job performances. Are any job either infamously crippled compared to other jobs, or simply ostracized by the community? Will we be able to play the jobs we prefer with our goals in mind, and without having to level other jobs to cap?

#3: Money, what can a poor noob do about it?
I've done my fair share of research on this game, and I know that some jobs are suppose to be damn expensive. The real question comes as: if I happen to be interested in one of the more expensive jobs, how can I generate revenue to provide for said job? Will I be able to do this (again) without capping other, cheaper jobs to provide a method to finance them?

If any of you are able to read through that and give me the awnsers I'm looking for, you are an absolute bro, so thanks ahead of time :cool:. I'm willing to bet that I'll be think of even more questions, so I'll leave them here, and again, thanks!

[Aarahs]

#1: You should be able to duo most if not all story fights if you both get several jobs to 99 (and the skills for them to cap). You may both want to level whm, thf, bst, pld, blm, and war to cover everything you'll need. Abyssea you will need extra help on with some fights, but they drop items people still want, so you won't have a problem getting help if you shout or join a decent linkshell.

#1a: It's exaggerated in how long is needed for 95% of all events. If you persevere, you can complete anything in the game and you don't have to do it daily if you're not in a rush. Play at your own pace.

#2: If you're willing to do the research and form parties yourself, you can play whatever jobs you want to. Otherwise you have to abide by the leaders making the group and whatever strategy they're pigeon-holed into.

#3: Synthesis materials are probably the easiest and straightforward means of making gil. Do some research and go crazy. You can make decent money with just level 20 cap synths for most crafts since a lot of high level crafters are lazy or impatient. Forgive me if I don't announce my low-end profiting ventures here since I wish to continue to do so. :)

I will say look at the various goobue mobs when you get to 70ish on thief though.

[Economizer]

but I have of a lot of advanced questions for you veterans out there.

These questions don't seem so advanced.


Current both my wife & I are level 12, (whm & thf respectively), and we have a long list of potential goals that we are looking to, over time, meet.

Willing to start over from level 1? Valefor is a pretty sweet server. ;)


These goals ultimately include going through each and every expansion (including the original game and add-on packs), completing their respective primary missions, and experiencing each of the main stories (it is a final fantasy after all ;) )


#1 : How realistic are our goals?

You'll need to know when to look stuff up, but you should be able to duo the majority of stuff, and shout for the handful of things you can't duo. Level caps will probably be your hardest challenge though, but WHM and THF are the easiest jobs to beat Maat on, and the rest is just a shout away.


#1a: Can we meet our goals, without having to face any absolutely unreal challenges?

I can't really think of anything, since it is all easier now.


#2: Can we play through the game, with the jobs we want want to play?

THF and WHM are pretty popular, and a good combination, but it really helps to have extra jobs leveled to 99 after the fact. Your first 99 job is the hardest though, the rest are just a week or less of leveling though.


#3: Money, what can a poor noob do about it?

Well, THF will definitely help with getting drops. You can start by remembering never to leave town without Signet. This will get you crystals, which can sell anywhere from 1~6k a stack (check the FFXIAH website for pricing before selling anything, and check one of the wikis that FFXIAH links for NPC pricing, and get in the habit of doing this for everything). After this you'll notice you can farm expensive items like Silk Thread, Beehive Chips, Honey, Hare Meat, which all sell for quite a bit (check those FFXIAH prices).

After this you should have an okay amount of gil, but you can look into low level crafting recipes and cross check them to FFXIAH pricing to see what crafts can make a profit.

You'll note that Copper Ingots (which are a stack of Fire Crystals and four 9~12 gil a piece Copper Ore per synth) make a good profit, and if you want to continue with Goldsmithing, Brass Ingots (You'll want to skill up your Goldsmithing first, but Fire Crystal, Zinc Ore, three Copper Ore) make a big profit too. Leathercraft has Sheep Leather (Dark Crystal, Sheepskin, Distilled Water, Windurstian Tea Leaves - look up how to get the mats for these recipes).

Cooking and Alchemy tend to be good beginner crafts, although they may take slightly more investment to make a good profit. Fishing is also great, but your character has to be a few weeks old and level 20 or you'll run into Fishing Fatigue after a handful of fish each day. Regardless, if you plan on taking up a craft, be sure to plan ahead and research each one individually.

Another avenue you can try is HELM (Harvesting, Excavating, Logging, Mining, and by extension Chocobo digging, gardening, and other related activities) if you want. Many players have a bad view of it, but if you research areas that have the Harvesting/Excavation/Logging/Mining Points close together and have expensive materials, you might be able to find something profitable. As a bit of a hint, at least one of this is very profitable, a tiny bit of research on on of the wikis will reveal which one(s).

Still, if crafting isn't your style, and you need money faster then what farming some low level stuff will get you, you'll want to race to level 99 as soon as possible - you can farm much more expensive things off of harder mobs you two can duo (such as Wyrdstrand), or even try your hand at farming currency in Dynamis.

-

As a final note, be aware of the community websites. FFXIAH, FFXIDB, BGwiki, FFXIclopedia all tend to have their own share of information. Knowing to research things, especially when it comes to gil, is a major key to success in this game. Having a linkshell doesn't hurt either.

[Toadie-Odie]

The answers and advice given so far is very solid. :3

I would just like to add extra emphasis on the research part. I don't know how many times I've tried to solo some NM only to find out later how much easier it would have been with a particular type of medicine. Holy Water comes to mind. lol

Or even worse, get to the middle of a quest or mission and needing to run back to town because you forgot a cutscene. This game makes you run around alot, no reason to add to the frustration unneccessarily.

Whatever you decide to do and how you do it is up to you. I wish you and your wife the best of luck! ^^

[UberFishCakeswithRanch]

Thanks for all the replies guys.
I think I should perhaps mention that, while, Thief & White Mage is what we are leveling now, its only because our options are staggeringly limited without advanced jobs. My wife might stay with White Mage, but has shown interest in leveling Summoner or Scholar instead. As for myself, I have no interest in capping Thief, and will likely jump ship the moment Blue Mage or perhaps Beastmaster becomes available to me. Felt like that was a detail I should have mentioned before @_@

[Economizer]

As for myself, I have no interest in capping Thief, and will likely jump ship the moment Blue Mage or perhaps Beastmaster becomes available to me. Felt like that was a detail I should have mentioned before @_@

Those should also work well (both very powerful options), although capping THF has benefits for Treasure Hunter and farming as a job you can farm with.

[Llama]

#3: Money, what can a poor noob do about it?


Scrolls/Spells are worth a fair bit of coin. One's of top of my head that are worth money still, sleepga II, drain, blaze spikes, aspir, utsusemi: ichi, kurayami: ichi, dokumori: ichi, all tele-spells, recall-spells, retrace. They are all one time reward from quests, that you can do for yourself and your wifes characters.

I started a new character a few months ago, and I got about 4 mil, from all these.
Some of these require some level of reputation/pre-req to activate the quests, but they are worth the time.

[Aethon]

Summoner and Beastmaster are fun jobs and can solo almost anything in the game that isnt timed. Takes forever but still. My wife and i have been playing for 6 years together and had a lot of fun with this game. on to the #s.

#1 - Get to 99 and you can low man party (2-6 players) everything in the game except current "endgame" i.e voidwatch and legion. All it takes is planning and patience to do this game.

#1a - The only time you'll face the ungodly timesinks are if you REALLY want to get deep into gameplay. Making relic, mythic, or empyrean weapons are worth it but are not at all must haves. The same with the trial of the magian weapons. You can get everything you need to just casually have fun off the auction house. Hard cores players may turn their nose up at it but they invest more time to get that stuff.

#2 - Play the jobs you love. Most things in this game can be overcome with any job combo. it just takes trial and error to figure out how to make it work. It never hurts to have other jobs on the back burner for utility but first and foremost play what you love.

#3 - there are so many ways to make money. Not all of it really fast or fun but can still be done. are the ways listed are solid money makers. There also is voidwatch later on if you want to dabble in that. Market trends have changed so much from when i started that i cant think of what works for low level "farming".

In closing: Have fun! Look for a linkshell if you want to talk to and team up with others. It helps a lot in this game. Even just a social one to chat with others and shoot the breeze. New friends help make the best memories with XI.

[Ziyyigo-Tipyigo]

#1a: Can we meet our goals, without having to face any absolutely unreal challenges?
We aren't here to squander away a good challenge; but we're not looking for anything that requires dedicated raid progression, or 16 hour bosses, or quitting your job & leaving you family, or any other horrendous time sinks...


As far as your goal is simply "do ALL the missions!" then the only real hiccups for you will probably be the add-ons, especially the "storyline" add-ons of A Crystalline Prophecy, A Moogle Kupo d'Etat, and A Shantotto Ascension. If I remember correctly from the previous census, most players still haven't beaten those, thanks to a brutal difficulty curve and some rather broken mechanics in later challenges.

Otherwise, once you reach 99 (something that's getting easier and easier to do), you should be able to get through all the expansions through Treasures of Aht Urhgan with minimal assistance as well as make a serious dent in Wings of the Goddess. Finishing up Wings of the Goddess and especially making progress in the Abyssea add-ons, however, will require making yourself comfortable and spending quality time /yelling in Jeuno.

[Arcon]

As far as your goal is simply "do ALL the missions!" then the only real hiccups for you will probably be the add-ons, especially the "storyline" add-ons of A Crystalline Prophecy, A Moogle Kupo d'Etat, and A Shantotto Ascension. If I remember correctly from the previous census, most players still haven't beaten those, thanks to a brutal difficulty curve and some rather broken mechanics in later challenges.

All of them are duoable, although the ACP crystal is still a challenge for certain setups.

As most things were already said by other posters, just a few notes from myself. You'll find that content has shifted towards endgame. As a result, lower levels are not quite as popular, and you'll notice this when trying to find certain gear for your levels on the auction house. Fortunately, there's very little gear that actually affects your gameplay until you reach the 50s, except for weapons, so you shouldn't worry too much about that.

Very simple endgame-related money sources include Abyssea and Dynamis. In Abyssea you'll get lots of random items from chests and random mobs that can be sold on the AH for 1~50k. Dynamis, even if farmed inefficiently at first, will still yield several hundred thousand, and can improve to about two million daily if done correctly.

If you're looking for a social LS, you're welcome to join mine. We recruited a lot of newbies recently, and you shouldn't have trouble finding people to either team up with, or higher levels to help out on things you may need. And it's also always nice to be able to quickly ask people for directions and information, which is especially useful for newer players.

[Trumpy]

skipped most of the thread but most missions involved with the expansions is prolly gonna be easy at 99, wotg may be a bit of a challenge due to some of the missions at the end werent added until after some level cap raises. I feel like alot of people havent really completed wotg tho as they have all the other expansions.



Also keep in mind if you sell a magic scroll from a one time quest and you need it later on for yourself you are at the mercy of what the market wants for it at that time. So take caution. or they may give the spell to another job and the price will soar like phalanx did when pld recieved it