Some helpful tips if your just starting out.

hophop

If your completely new to this game, then this is for you.

 

Controls:

Read the manual.

 

Classes:

When you begin you can start off as a warrior, thief, monk, white mage, black mage, and red mage.

Warrior = melee, any weapon (usually 2h wep)

Theif = melee, dagger

Monk = melee, fist weapons

White = healer

BLM = offensive spell

RDM = Healer, debuffer, offensive spell, melee

 

To let you know before hand, the melee characters might have a harder time getting into parties early. WHM, and RDM are mostly wanted in groups first. (RDM heals and debuffs in groups, no melee or nukes)

 

Making money

To begin, DONT DO CRAFTS TO MAKE MONEY!! crafting will only make you lose money.

Two ways for newbies to make money is selling the stuff you get from kills (usually crystals) to the AH. Make sure you get signet from the guard at the gate, which allows you to get crystals from kills that give exp.

To sell stuff to the AH properly, Find the item your gonna sell at the AH and check its price history. After you done that, sell the item for the same price as the price history or less. You can increase the price if the item is in demand, but not too much.

To other way to make money is fishing. To do fishing first buy a willow or yew fishing rod from AH or store (very cheap). Then buy those brown worms from the store(also very cheap). When you have done that, find anywhere that has water in your main city. Then hit the fish button or type /fish. Your character will start fishing. But its not done yet, a stamina bar of the fish will apear, and your character will be tugging on the rod either left  or direction. You have to press 4 or 6 in the direction opposite of your character tugging. Keep doing that until stamina is depleted. When it is, hit enter and you will reel in your fish. Sometimes you lose a fish because your skill is too low. But you will catch a fish called moat carp, collect 12 of these and sell them to the AH, they sell for alot + in demand.

 

Quests:

In my opinion, quests in FFXI are stupid and waste of time, don't bother doing them.

Only quests you will need to do is sub job quest (done after lvl 20) and kazham key(lvl 25)

 

Solo:

Find target, check prey(fight easy prey, decent challenge, dont fight even match or tough) and attack.

Solo until like around lvl 12 or something because soloing gets pretty slow and difficult later on. After that you can start grouping for fast exp.

 

Grouping:

When you reach lvl 12+ you will be able to join groups for fast exp.

You will have to walk to valkrum dunes (check map) and turn on your LFG flag.

What basically happens in a party is someone pulls a mob to your party. Some one tanks, 1-2 people heal, and rest dps.

 

Gear:

After you lvl 7+ you would want to buy all your gear from the AH, not stores(overpriced).

Only buy cheap, affordable gear. Don't go for those rare items or +1 items because they are usually very expensive and doesn't even make a big difference.

For spells, buy the early spells from the store(AH usually overprices some spells).

 

Other stuff:

Keep your beastman seals, they are very useful much later.

Always get signet whenever you can when you go exp. The conquest points you get from it can be used to buy exp rings, and gear.

When you reach lvl 30 DONT BECOME NINJA or RANGER. These classes are expensive as hell because ninja has to constantly buy expensive scrolls to tank(Yes they make ninja tank) and rangers have to obviously buy ammo which also get pretty expensive.

 

WSIMike

Originally posted by hophop   

Controls:
Read the manual.
Or, they can go to this website:



SE's New Player Guide , go to the "New Player Guide" (link is in the top-left corner of the screen, with a moogle on it), and watch the videos.


Also, SE have (finally!) added a proper new player tutorial in-game. I created a new character to check it out and am very impressed. Very helpful, very informative and definitely what the game has needed for a long time.
Also, don't forget to ask questions if you see people around. If asked politely (and if you're not begging for money or items, etc), most people will be more than happy to help out. FFXI is a social game that places a lot of emphasis on community. So... become part of it!
To let you know before hand, the melee characters might have a harder time getting into parties early. WHM, and RDM are mostly wanted in groups first. (RDM heals and debuffs in groups, no melee or nukes)
I've never leveled a mage job, at least not to party levels, and I've never had trouble getting a party. Melees are as necessary in a party as mages.



My advice: Try the different jobs and then play the one you most enjoy. Same goes for the "advanced jobs" you can unlock at level 30. The only caveat to that is, mages tend to level more slowly during those 1-10-ish levels than melee do.
Making money
To begin, DONT DO CRAFTS TO MAKE MONEY!! crafting will only make you lose money.



I'd like to make a slight adjustment to this:

By all means, try out crafting for a level or two to see which you like. However, don't get too deep into it too soon because it is expensive to level crafts. Crafts, however, *do* become profitable later on... again, though, it's expensive to get there. So, go at whatever pace is most comfortable for your pocket-book.
Two ways for newbies to make money is selling the stuff you get from kills (usually crystals) to the AH. Make sure you get signet from the guard at the gate, which allows you to get crystals from kills that give exp.



Good advice. No argument there
To other way to make money is fishing.
 Good advice, if maybe a bit much to expect a new or would-be player to digest and remember once they're in game  :-p.



Fishing tends to level slower than crafts do, but it's far less expensive to do and, while you don't get big "pay days" like you do with crafting in later levels, fishing can bring you in a pretty consistent flow from level 1.


Moat Carp are a great source of income via the Auction House. However, if you catch Gold Carp, sell them to an NPC. In Windurst, it's the Fishing Guild merchant in Port Windurst. They sell for ~300 gil each, depending, I believe on your fame... which is a wonderful segueway into the next bit..
Quests:
In my opinion, quests in FFXI are stupid and waste of time, don't bother doing them.



Wow. Not only is that statement based on a subjective point-of-view, it's also very reckless advice. You are in the weeds here.



For one, there are many quests that have excellent, if not necessary rewards, such as spell scrolls, like aspir scroll, warp II scroll... the teleport scrolls for WHM, the various scrolls for NINja, etc. etc. All of those are either going to be very useful depending on what class you go as, or can be very valuable to sell if you aren't going to use them.



Second, completing quests gets you Fame. Fame is basically a measure of how well known, respected and trusted you are among the people of a given city. The more quests you do, the higher your fame goes, the better quests are made available to you. Also the higher your fame is, the lower prices from different vendors are. Not to mention that some necessary quests actually require a minimum fame level to even become available.


In addition to the two mentioned, for Khazam Airship Pass (3 keys) and the SubJob, your Chocobo license is gained via a quest in Jeuno. Having a chocobo license is hardly a waste of time.



Also don't forget the quests required to unlock each of the 14 advanced jobs in the game.
You will also need to complete a quest to get the ferry pass to access the Aht Urghan expansion areas (assuming you have that expansion). There are quests in FFXI that are beneficial, if not necessary to complete.
The list goes on.



In summary, quests are, by far, not a "waste of time", but are, in many cases, an important and integral part of the game.



There are larger-scale quests which come in the form of "Missions". While Quests are done for individuals in a given city or area, Missions are tasks given by and performed for your home Nation. Missions advance the storylines in the game, via cut-scenes (which are brilliant, very deep and one of the things that really makes FFXI stand out among other MMOs), and also allow you to increase in rank.


One benefit in particular, is reaching Rank 5, for which the reward is your Airship Pass, which allows you to travel via Airship between any of the 3 starting nations and Jeuno, which is something of a central hub city.
Solo:
Find target, check prey(fight easy prey, decent challenge, dont fight even match or tough) and attack.
Solo until like around lvl 12 or something because soloing gets pretty slow and difficult later on. After that you can start grouping for fast exp.
 Fair enough, though some jobs can actually get away with going to the Dunes to join parties earlier than others. Mages, for example, can easily find parties as early as level 9... and good for them because leveling Mage in those early levels is typically slow, compared to melee jobs.
Grouping:
When you reach lvl 12+ you will be able to join groups for fast exp.



Again, technically as early as level 9, depending on the job. I know people who have soloed all the way to 20, however. Depends on the individual's threshold for soloing, really.
Gear:
After you lvl 7+ you would want to buy all your gear from the AH, not stores(overpriced).
Only buy cheap, affordable gear. Don't go for those rare items or +1 items because they are usually very expensive and doesn't even make a big difference.
For spells, buy the early spells from the store(AH usually overprices some spells).
Fair enough advice. Personally, I don't even buy any armor until level 7 or so. The mobs don't kill you that easily (as long as you use common sense) and the levels go pretty fast. Compare prices. Sometimes it's actually cheaper on the AH, depending on good old supply and demand.
 Other stuff:
Keep your beastman seals, they are very useful much later.
/agree
Always get signet whenever you can when you go exp. The conquest points you get from it can be used to buy exp rings, and gear.



/agree
When you reach lvl 30 DONT BECOME NINJA or RANGER. These classes are expensive as hell because ninja has to constantly buy expensive scrolls to tank(Yes they make ninja tank) and rangers have to obviously buy ammo which also get pretty expensive.



Part true, part subjective.
There's no harm in unlocking and trying the jobs out at least up 'til 10. The Ranger quest is super easy, requires no fighting (if you ride in on chocobo) and can be completed in less than 20 minutes if you have a warp scroll handy and your Home Point is in Windurst Woods.
The Ninja quest is more involved and requires more traveling, not to mention a fight. I have both jobs unlocked and leveled up to like 8 or 9... They're there when I'm ready to work on them seriously.
Otherwise, Ninja and Ranger are expensive jobs to level because they each require the use of consumable items which need to be replenished. Those would be Ninja Tools for Ninjas to use their skills, and bolts or arrows for a Ranger to shoot at mobs. So, just be prepared to spend much money if you intend to level either job. That much I agree on.