I’m thinking of picking up Final Fantasy XI, but I know nothing of online gaming. Anything I need to know before I take the leap?
Use proper english, or whatever language you will speak in. Respect other players, friends will keep you playing longer. Healing classes aren’t your personal recharge bitches so don’t treat them that way. Item begging tends to get you nowhere and you can do better by actually hunting. Thats all I can think of right now.
- Be aware of assholes. I ran into one just today how got on my case because I killed an enemy near him that he wasn’t fighting, he was in the middle of another fight because he was twice my level (and I was on level 10).
- Don’t be rude, you don’t like rude people, so why be one yourself?
- The FF11 community is very good for the most part, so enjoy that.
- When in a party, pull your own weight. I was in a two person party and the guy rarely did anything. I was basically fighting alone to give him exp.
- If you get the PS2 version, get a keyboard, it’ll help a lot.
- Be prepared for a big initial cost if you get the PS2 version.
- Help people when you can. The community is very nice and giving for the most part, return the kindness. People randomly heal you, will answer your questions, and help in battle if you run into trouble.
- Don’t bite off more than you can chew. You lose 10% of your exp if you die, which is a lot.
- Honor the white mages. Playing solo as a white mage is tough, but they are really needed in battle, so be especially kind to them.
- A white/red mage, a warrior, and another fighter is an excellent combination and you will get far with that. Mage is needed to heal, warrior to deal good damage and protect the others (makes the mage’s job easier too, since he can provoke the enemy into only attacking him, so the mage just has to focus on one target, and it keeps the enemy from attacking the mage), and another fighter to deal extra damage and get the tough part out of tough enemies and it makes battles faster.
That’s all for now; I’ll have more later.
When you undertake a quest or mission, write down some of the specific details, so that when you are in the field and cant remember what exactly you’re looking for, all you have to do is look at your notes.
Also, try not to spend too much time looking at the Hume and Mithra girls that are just standing around in their undies…
Be forgiving if you’re in a party and someone messes up, but also have your limits. If someone pulls two monsters at once by accident or your black mage accidentally targets a second enemy and everyone dies, don’t be a jerk and leave or say nasty stuff. That kind of thing happens to everyone at least once. Once you know what you’re doing, help other people if they don’t know what they’re doing.
On the other hand, if you do get in a party with someone absolutely incompetent, like a Warrior who refuses to provoke, a WM who refuses to heal even if they have MP left, or a Red Mage who refuses to debuff or heal and just sits around meleeing and throwing weak attack spells, do not hesitate to complain, leave the party, or kick them out if you happen to be the party leader.
Also, don’t get discouraged if you die. It’s part of the game.
Edit: Also, expect to solo up until level 10 or so, depending on your class. It’s fairly pointless to party before then, but you can manage it from levels 5 - 10 if you really, really want to (…or are a White Mage, which is hard to solo as right off the bat).
Does anybody know how good the dragoon class is. That is what im looking into mabye making.
Each class is good in its own way. Dragoon is a melee class that does not excel at damage, but here are the perks that I see:
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The wyvern. The biggest thing. As a dragoon your 2 hour ability calls a wyvern that’ll do…I don’t know…1/3…as much damage per hit as you do, attacks as often as you do, and can use breath attacks. It doesn’t leave until it dies or is dismissed by you.
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Jumping. These skills do damage, yes, bu the higher ones remove hate from you
Combined, this means that a Dragoon in a party will deal constant damage without ever running the risk of pulling the enemy off the tank.
I will warn you, though, that from my experience (which is only in the level ranges up to the early twenties), Dragoons are not a much sought-after class. Usually they’ll get invited once the core of the party is formed (tank and mages) to fill in the unused slots.
Dragoon artifact armor is spiffy. Damned spiffy. Tarutaru Dragoons look just like Kain from FF4 in it, in all their super-deformed chipmunk glory.
cool. sounds enjoyable and kain looked cool.
Play a Dark Knight if you want to be sought after. Dark Knights can do insane damage, can cast low level black magic, absorb the stats of the enemies and with their 2-hour skill can drain the HP of the enemies.
The only real downsides are that the damage you do makes you a target and you really cant take that many hits, even if you are a Galka.
Find a good Paladin and buddy up with them.
But at least the AF armor looks badass 
avoud the Tremmor Ram. If you see a TRemmor Ram, RUN AWAY.
I don’t know about Dark Knights later on, but they’re a dime a dozen in the beginning, at least on Shiva. Be prepared to sit around waiting for parties for a long time when you’re in Valkurm from levels 12 to 20 or so. Once you hit Qufim and Khazam, though (20 to 30, or so), you’ll probably have an easier time of finding a party.
I can take them.