new player need-to-knows

[Novacrash]

i just got FFXI "The Vana'Diel Collection"(original+chains+zilart) and im just wondering what i really need to know when i start playing so i dont sound like a complete ig-no-rae-moose. lol :3

[Andromeda]

You will probably do well to purchase the Strategy Guide, it is quite out of date these days. But even still it is a great resource and reference for starting players.

Things to remember, FFXI is based around the concept of working together. So you will have to work with other people. This is a FF game still, so you are a party, not a solo hero that can single handedly defeat the most powerful evil in the game. So get used to being weak, because you will be. It does not matter what job you are, you will have weakness.

Getting exp past 15, means partying, most people will start partying around 10, but if you want to avoid all of the idiots that do not know how to play their jobs the first levels from 10-15 can be stressful for a skilled player. For new time players this can be the best time, because you are still learning and need the experience of partying and working together with people.

Experience earned is based on the highest level of the person, always remember that. So you defeat a level 20 monster and the party was 6, one was lv 18, experience given will be handed out from his lv and then down. So he will gain probably 100 exp, and then it goes down from there as your level is further away from his.

There is an experience cap of 200, you cannot gain anymore than 200 exp from one kill, however you can increase how much you gain by killing monsters quickly and chaining them together. So if you kill a second monster fast enough, you will get 200+20, so 220. The more chains, the higher the bonus. But remember that stronger monsters will give you 200.

Monsters strength can be read, if you check them and compare them with yourself. You will see, Not Worth it, Easy Prey, Decent Challenge, Even Match, Tough, Very Tough, Incredibly Tough and Impossible to Gauge. The last one is for Notorious Monsters, rare spawns that are not common and stronger than the usual monsters of the area. So you cannot read them.

Depending how a monster compares to you, will depend on the experience you gain from it. If it is Not Worth your time, you do not earn any experience.

Also remember that until about 15, you can handle Easy Prey and Decent Challenge monsters without having to immediately rest. This is why you can only solo up to about 15. After this point, Easy Prey monsters become so tough that you have to spend more time fight them and then resting than they are worth for the little exp you earn from fighting them. And it only gets harder to fight them as you grow in level. You still can, it just usually deemed pointless. Thus the party.

In a party will fight Tough, Very Tough and Incredibly Tough, or T, VT and IT as they are commonly referred to, because this is the only way to earn close to the max exp to make the party useful. Only ITs will give you close to 200 exp. Toughs will give you 100 or less, usually 80.

There are no quests that give you experience points, so do not try to find them. There are a few exceptions to this rule, there are a few quests that grant items that give you experience, around 800-1200 exp. But they are level caps, require parties or alliances, more than 6 people and can only be done once a week. These are often deemed a waste of time since they are really hard to organize.

Quests general purpose is to grant you money or items. As you do more quests they give you position in the city that lowers the price in stores.

There are also missions that you can do that give you the story and plot of the game. Each expansion has one.

Also buy the newest expansion, comes with three new jobs.

Rest you will need to learn as you play.

[Merlin]

You really don't have to buy the new expansion until you get your first job to level 37. If you don't plan on using any of the new jobs(Blue Mage, Corsair, PuppetMaster) anytime soon, don't bother getting it until you are level 50, when parties begin using those new areas for leveling up. Before then, its really not a rush. The new expansion is more for high levels, ie: 50+, so for a new player you've got some time. You should focus on getting used to the game and its mechanics.

Also, if you know which job you would like to be, I can give you some pointers on how to set up macros, which make life so much easier. I could give some examples, but it would be much better to tailor that explanation to the job you have chosen so you can understand it quicker. For a new player it might seem daunting, but after messing with it a few times its rather simple.

One thing to keep in mind is there are different levels of loudness your character can speak. There is regular speaking, shouting, party, linkshell, and tell. Regular speaking is the people right around you. Everyone near you can see what you type or 'say'. You need no command to do this. Shouting, on the other hand, everyone in the same area as you can read what you say. This is done by typing '/sh' and then your message. Make sure to put a space in between or it will not work. With party talk, only your party can read what you say. You can do this by typing '/p' followed by your message. For linkshell talk, it requires that you have a linkshell, which is a device that allows a group of people to talk. Linkshell talk is done by typing '/l' and your message. The final way of speaking is tell, which is person-to-person. Only the person you are telling can read it. Do this by typing '/tell Username' followed by your message.

So the run-down on communication is the following(omit the quotations):

• Say: "Hello! How are you all doing today?"
• Shout: "/sh Good Evening everyone!"
• Party: "/p Casting Spell Fire on Goblin Tinkerer"
• Linkshell: "/l What's up ls?"
• Tell: /tell Merlin Yo! Your advice is awesome!"