"A Guide to FFXI That Even A Monkey Could Understand" Part 4 - Basic Jobs

[keithwolfe]

All 6 of the basic jobs are available to your character right from the start - you don't need to do anything special to gain access to them. They are also, by an amazing coincidence, the six original classes you could chose from in Final Fantasy 1. This guide will simply present an overview of each of the classes - just enough to give you an idea of what each one can do and which one(s) you might like to play as. If you want comprehensive lists of the various job abilities and spells, check-out a full-featured FAQ on the subject.

Warrior (WAR)

Remember how in FF1, the Fighter was able to equip all the best armor, so you would always put him at the top where he could absorb all the hits? Well, that's pretty much their role this time around too. Warriors are no slouches when it comes to dealing damage mind you, but their true skill comes in the ability to absorb damage. A common practice in MMORPGs is that of "tanking" in which one character, preferebly one with excellent defense, acts as a tank and attempts to draw all the damage to themselves. This reduces the overall damage, as the same blows which could wipe-out half a White Mage's HP will do little damage to a well-armored Warrior. Also, it allows the healer(s) to concentrate their spells on one target. It's simpler and cheaper to just have to worry about keeping the tank healed than to have to spread healing out over the whole party. A Warrior (or a WAR sub) is ideal for anyone who wants to tank because of their unique ability to provoke monsters and force them to attack the provoker. Monsters in FFXI are intelligent about who they go after - they won't just attack the nearest target - so it's invaluable to be able to "steer" them towards characters with better survivability.

Active Abilities
Your first and most important ability will always be Provoke. You get it at 5th level, and you can use it once every 30 seconds (which is exactly how often you should use it in battles). It's not mind-control, you can't wait until the monster goes for the White Mage and expect to instantly make it switch targets to you. It's enough though, that if you keep doing it, you should hold the monster's attention in all but the most extreme of situations. As he progresses in levels, the Warrior also gains a variety of abilities that can temporarily skew his stats. For instance, he learns Berserk, which raises his attack for 3 minutes in exchange for lowering his defense, and Defender, which does exactly the opposite.
Two-Hour Ability "Mighty Strikes" This ability makes all of your attacks into critical strikes for 45 seconds. It doesn't guaruntee that every attack will hit ¬_¬ but at least every one that does hit will do critical damage.

Passive Abilities
Warriors get added bonuses to attack & defense as they level up. Also, at 25th level they gain the ability to occasionally strike twice with a weapon when they attack. Extra attacks are always good!

Equipment
Warriors really do have access to almost every type of weapon & armor in the game. The only types of weapons they can't wield are katanas and guns. If you're a warrior, the bulk of your money will go towards making sure your armor is always the strongest type of plate mail you can currently equip.

Recommended Sub-jobs
Warrior is much more often trained as a future sub-job than it is played as a main class into high levels. Occasionally though, someone does stick with it, maybe they enjoy the versatility, or they want to tank while still being able to do more damage than the extremely common (PLD/WAR) tank combo.
WAR/MNK Monk gets significant bonuses to HP & VIT, which could help your tanking, as well as the counterattack ability. The monk's hand-to-hand bonuses will be wasted though, and this combo will give you less and less at higher levels.
WAR/WHM This is not a terrible combo for those times when you want to solo at midrange levels. It also has the added benefit of giving you some spellcasting practice if you are on the road to PLD/WAR.
WAR/PLD A reversal of the standard tank, the paladin levels will give you a nice boost to defense. This could be a good choice if you don't enjoy being forced to use the longsword & shield style. Your healing magic will be extremely limited, but still better than nothing, probably just enough to heal some HP between fights.

Warrior as a Sub-job
Warrior is an extremely common sub-job, as it works well in combination with almost all of the fighting-type jobs. Obviously, people planning to tank will want it for provoke, but even non-tanks will get a nice boost to their fighting abilities. Plus, there's a good chance you can spend your warrior levels training in whatever weapon your main job will be using, and give yourself a little boost.

Monk (MNK)

Monks excel at one thing and one thing only, beating on monsters with their fists until they can't move anymore. Fortunately there's a lot of demand for this sort of thing in adventuring circles. Seriously though, when you play a monk, you won't be in for a lot of variety, but you may find yourself drunk with power. All of their skills are streamlined towards one goal, improving their hand-to-hand fighting abilities. Monks don't deal out damage in huge chunks, but they attack with impressive speed, so it adds up quickly.

Active Abilities
Monks aren't the amazing jack-of-all trades that they were in Tactics - they can't, for instance, cure status ailments and restore MP in one amazing move, or revive the dead simply by shouting at them. They still have a pretty respectable pile of chi powers though. The Boost skill give a little extra power to the monk's next attack. If they're not in the middle of a fight, they can stand around stacking boosts on top of each other and then let off one really powerful punch. It's a bit like the Archer's "charge" ability in FFTactics. Chakra is still around, but it only heals a little HP, and only to the monk themselves. I think I heard it has a chance to cure status aswell. Monks can even shoot a chi projectile at higher levels, like they do in a certain cartoon that they still show on Toonami...
Two-Hour Ability "Hundred Fists" Truly a sight to behold (or so they say) hundred fists almost completely removes the delay between physical attacks for a full minute. Remember what having a high-level monk was like in Final Fantasy 1? (8-hits... 1956 damage, 8-hits... 2160 damage, 8-hits...) Well, it's a bit like that.

Passive Abilities
As they go up in level, monks continue to get bonuses to the speed of their unarmed attacks. They also get some HP bonuses above & beyond what they already get for having a high VIT. As mentioned before, they also gain the ability to counterattack when attacked. At very high levels they can start to add kicks into their normal punching routine.

Equipment
There are a large assortment of claws that monks can equip and still be counted as fighting unarmed. Using claws slows-down your attacks slightly, but I'm told the accuracy bonuses more than make up for it. (In other words, you'll probably never see any truly barefisted monks.) They can also equip staves, but this negates all their hand-to-hand bonuses, so one wonders what situations they may actually want to do this in. Monks are unable to equip any of the heavier armors, and as such, usually have to settle for a cloth kimono and their buckets of HP to save them.

Recommended Sub-jobs
MNK/WAR This is the standard sub-job choice for monks. The WAR abilities give a decent boost to attack power, and the extra attacks don't hurt either. Monks can even tank fairly well in an emergency due to their high HP levels, but at much higher levels the lack of armor makes the monk less and less viable as a tank.
MNK/SAM You don't know it yet, but Samurai are experts at building up TP and unleashing weapon skills. This can be a very fun & powerful combo for monk players who enjoy weapon skills and skillchains. The monk's rapid attack style is very good for quickly building up TP.
MNK/RDM This combination is more of a novelty than anything else. Red Mages get access to the unique "En"spells, which allow them to enchant their weapons with extra elemental damage. (Think Sorcerer from FF5.) Few things are cooler than being able to pummel your enemy with flaming fists, but the extra damage is actually less than you would get from subbing WAR.

Monk as a Sub-job
With all of a monk's abilities going towards strengthening hand-to-hand fighting, a monk sub is almost totally useless to a class that isn't going to be fighting barefisted. The only other class for which barefisted fighting is viable is thief, I think. Still, if you're stuck at low levels with nothing better to sub, the extra HP might help until you get access to a better job.

Thief (THF)

Thieves have abilities that can help bring in gil at an increased rate. They can even increase the frequency of monsters dropping treasure. This can be invaluable, since SO MANY of the game's quests are simply scavenger hunts where you need to bring in some item(s) that monsters drop. As for their fighting skills, well, they can be as impressive as the stronger fighter classes, but they have to be very tactical about how they attack.

Active Abilities
The most basic ability a thief has is the ability to steal items. Some of the things a thief can grab at low levels might not seem very impresive, "Hey! Look at this carrot that I swiped from that evil rabbit!" but almost everything can be sold to someone and FFXI is a game where gil is in short supply. Thieves also have several abilities that can increase their attack damage if they're in the right place. Sneak Attack allows a Thief to do extra damage if they attack a creature from behind. Trick Attack, on the other hand, allows you to do extra damage by attacking from behind an ally, with the added benefit that the enemy thinks the attack came from that ally! Thieves have also appearantly been attending the local bard colleges, since they now have access to the infamous "Hide" ability.
Two-Hour Ability "Perfect Evasion" As if being able to hide wasn't enough, perfect evasion allows a thief to avoid every physical attack directed at them for 30 seconds. This isn't a lot of time, and it doesn't help against magical attacks, but it can save your life in a pinch.

Passive Abilities
Thieves get some of the best passive abilities. Right from the start, at 5th level, they get an ability that increases how much gil enemies drop. Then, at 15th level, they get an ability that increases how often treasure drops. They also get passive bonuses to their evasion, and at higher levels the treasure-finding ability improves. At a very high level, thieves gain the ability to occaisonally attack up to FOUR times at once!!

Equipment
A thief's best weapon is a dagger, but they aren't bad with their fists or one-handed swords either. Thieves can even use a small selection of guns. They can equip light armors and use shields.

Recommended Sub-jobs
THF/WAR If you're focusing on the melee potential of a Thief, this is a good choice. Plus, if you can play it to very high levels, you will get to see the WAR double attack ability combine with the THF quadruple attack ability, sometimes giving you up to 8(!) hits at once.
THF/MNK Thief is probably the only class besides monk that can make a go at fighting with claws/fists. If you really enjoy this sort of thing, subbing monk will make you even better at it.
THF/NIN The dual-wielding ability of ninjas isn't the end-all of abilities that is was in previous job-based final fantasies. It works best with naturally fast weapons, like daggers - a thief's specialty. Plus, you get some fun ninja abilities to play around with and improve your stealthiness.

Thief as a Sub-job
Almost everyone subs thief at some point in their career, even if it's a total mismatch for their main job. Everyone needs money after all, and nothing helps rake-in the gil like a thief sub.

Red Mage (RDM)

Jack-of-all-trades and master of none, the Red Mage can do a little bit of fighting, a little bit of white magic, and a little bit of black magic. He also has a few unique skills so that he doesn't become totally obsolete at high levels, when his swordsmanship falls behind the fighters, and his spells fall behind the spellcasters.

Active Abilities
The spellcasting classes don't get a lot of automatically-learned active abilities, since they already have a large list of abilities in the form of spells (except, it's not always easy affording some of your best spells). A red mage gets access to most of the spells that cure HP, but not the ones that can cure groups of people. They also get access to Raise, but at a later level than white mages. They get access to damage-dealing elemental spells, but again, not the group-affecting variety. Their true specialty lies in the enhancing and enfeebling magics. These spells aren't unique to red mages, but they can land them better than the other mage-types. At higher levels, it is a red mage's job to keep the enemies blind, silenced, slowed, etc. They also have exclusive access to the "enhance" spells which add elemental damage to their weapon attacks, and to the unique spell "Refresh", which literally creates MP out of thin air. Red Mages seem to be specialists in keeping a constant stream of MP flowing as they also get the "convert" ability, which allows them to swap their HP & MP.
Two-Hour Ability "Chainspell" Probably an attempt to recreate the "doublecast" ability which were Red Mages' claim to fame in previous job-based Final Fantasies, chainspell removes the casting time from spells, allowing you to cast spells almost non-stop for 30 seconds.

Passive Abilities
At 15th level, red mages gain a nice ability which speeds-up how fast they cast spells. This can help if you're casting spells while in melee at the same time, where the casting could get interrupted. They get alternating bonuses to magic attack and magic defense, and eventually get a bonus to how quickly they regenerate MP while resting, though it comes later than when white & black mages get the same bonus.

Equipment
True to their jack-of-all-trades nature, Red Mages get access to a wide variety of weapons. They are best at using one-handed swords, but not the best at it (that honor falls to paladins). They can also use daggers, wands, staves, bows, or even fight barehanded. Red Mages can use shields and can equip armor as heavy as scale mail, but not the heavier chain or plate types.

Recommended Sub-jobs
It is a commonly held belief in FFXI circles that fighing jobs should sub fighting jobs and mage jobs should only sub other mage jobs. It is a hard claim to dispute, since when a fighter subs a mage job they have hardly any MP to cast spells with, and a mage can really benefit from the extra MP and increased spell selection that a mage sub offers. Usually, when you pick a sub for RDM, the choice is simply white or black?
RDM/WHM A white mage sub gives a red mage access to the status-curing spells, and at very high levels, the teleportation spells aswell. It also gives him auto-regen and the ability to boost the power of one healing spell every 10 minutes. This coordinates very well with convert, which also has a 10 minute timer and requires immediate curing to replace the HP that you just turned into MP.
RDM/BLM A black mage sub gives a red mage access to the quick-escape spells like Warp. This can be very handy when combined with the RDM 2-hour ability, when you absolutely need to immediately escape from somewhere. It also gives a larger MP bonus than WHM does, and grants access to the special BLM-only enfeebling spells. It's a tough choice, and the field still seems pretty evenly divided between people who prefer the WHM sub and people who prefer BLM.
RDM/BRD This is my personal favorite unwieldy job class combo. Partly because I love red mages & bards, but also because it's alllll about party support. For reasons which will be explained later, bards take a major hit in power when they are subbed, so it's rarely chosen as a sub-job. I have actual accounts though of one very high level player making this combo work. Basically, you would be running all over the field, laying on enhancing spells and songs and keeping the MP coffers overflowing with both MP regenerating spells & songs. It would be a useless combo though in a party that already has a full bard.

Red Mage as a Sub-job
Red mage is usually chosen as a sub by fighters who want to play around with the enhance spells. It isn't often chosen as a sub for other mage types, since there is a lot of overlap in spell selection, so you are losing a lot of diversity just for the fast cast ability.

White Mage (WHM)

If you want to make sure you never have any trouble finding a party, then maybe white mage is the job for you. Every single party, no matter how skillful at combat, is going to need a healer. People are also going to love you for your ability to help them travel around quickly, and save them from losing too much exp. (and having to respawn at home) if they die. Of course, just being wanted isn't enough, you're also going to need a party that actually knows how to protect their precious WHM, since nothing draws monster aggression quite like healing does.

Active Abilities
The spells you're going to be using the most often are your healing ones, obviously, but that's not all you can do. White mage has exclusive access to all the spells which cure status ailments. They are also the only spellcasters that can learn the teleport spells to help parties quickly move to one of the world's six crystal crags. At 25th level they can learn the invaluable Raise spell, which prevents parties from having to go all the way back to town if a member dies. They also learn a wide variety of status enhnacing spells, such as Protect, Shell, and Haste. The only damaging spells they have access to are the "Banish" series of spells, which deal light-elemental damage and are very effective against undead, and of course, the ever popular Holy. At 15th level they learn Divine Seal, which they can use once every ten minutes to double the power of the next healing spell they cast.
Two-Hour Ability "Benediction" This ability works instantaneously to restore a large amount of HP to any party members within the area of effect. As mentioned before though, healing has a powerful ability to draw the attention of monsters, and the healing of benediction is usually so strong that almost no amount of provoking can pull a monster off a white mage who's just used it. This ability can save your party in an emergency, but more than one white mage has had to sacrifice themselves in order to use it.

Passive Abilities
At 20th level, the speed at which a white mage recovers MP while resting increases. At 25th level, they gain Auto-Regen, so their HP is always regenerating - even if they aren't resting. They also gain several bonuses to their magic defense as they level-up.

Equipment
White mages tend to eschew bladed weapons, they are however, very skilled with hammer & maces. Most of the time, it's in a white mage's best interest to remain as far from the melee as possible, so they might not get many chances to show-off their hammer skill. I have heard of some high-level white mages though, who were skilled enough to get into the fray and pull-off some impressive moves without endagering themselves too much. White mages are limited to the lighter cloth armors & robes, but they are able to use shields.

Recommended Sub-jobs
WHM/BLM This is the standard choice which you will probably see 95% of white mages subbing. It gives a decent boost to MP sure, but the real reason for this is gaining access to the Warp-type spells. White mages naturally fall into the role of party protectors, so it only seems natural they should be able to get the party out of dangerous situations in an emergency. Plus, they complement the teleport spells nicely, you can get the people where they need to be, and then get them back home later. Being able to drain some enemy MP from time-to-time doesn't hurt either.
WHM/SMN This combo is really more about the MP than the ability to call summons. Summoner is unsurpassed in terms of MP, they even gain the ability to regenerate MP while not resting. You also gain a few decent tricks from the summons that might make up for losing warp. However, getting access to those summons requires a very high level main job, so you might not see this one until their WHM job is at least 60th level.

White Mage as a Sub-job
WHM is a very popular sub. Healing is just so important, and the other white mage skills so universally useful, that even non-mages sub this sometimes. It's especially important if you intend to go soloing. Tarus tend to have the best success at subbing a mage-type job under a non-mage job, since even with the reduced MP of a sub-job, they still have a decent amount.

Black Mage (BLM)

Black Mages haven't changed very much, even after all these years, they still follow the same patterns. They are extremely weak in combat, and the low levels can be challenging for them without decent adventuring companions. However, no one has more damage potential at the higher levels than a skilled black mage.

Active Abilities
Almost all of a black mage's spells are aimed towards one specific purpose - ending a monster's life as quickly and spectacularly as possible. It's important for black mages to have a good grasp of what type of elemental damage any monster they might encounter is weak against, so they can always get the most bang for their MP. Aside from spells that simply focus on dealing damage, they also have access to a unique set of spells which cause elemental damage and hamper an enemy's stats. For instance, "Drown" will deal water damage and lower an enemy's strength. They also have access to a few utility spells, like the previously mentioned Warp spells for escaping dungeons, a few status-inducing spells like Sleep, and spells which can drain a monster's HP or MP. Their one non-spell ability is an exact opposite to the white mage's, Elemental Seal will allow them to enhance the power of any damage-dealing spell once every 10 minutes.
Two-Hour Ability "Manafont" This ability allows a black mage to cast as many spells as they want for 30 seconds, with no MP cost. In a recent patch, Squenix added the effect that spellcasting also cannot be interrupted during this time. It can still fail if you happen to be paralyzed or silenced though. ;P

Passive Abilities
Black mages gain numerous small bonuses to magical attack power. They also gain an increased MP regeneration rate while resting at 15th level. At 20th level, they gain an ability which sometimes kicks-in and reduces how much MP they use when casting a spell.

Equipment
Black mages are even more fragile than white mages, if that's possible. They can equip only the lightest of cloth-type armors and cannot use shields. They can wield daggers, wands, or staves, but even then they aren't really skilled enough in any of these to warrant getting into the danger of combat. Usually a BLM will equip a wand or a staff that gives them bonuses to their spellcasting.

Recommended Sub-jobs
BLM/WHM An extremely common sub choice for black mage, white mage will give a decent bonus to defense while still giving MP a boost aswell. This choice can help a party a lot too, since you can provide backup healing between fights, or when the white mage has run out of MP or - Goddess forbid - been killed. A 50th level BLM can have a powerful enough WHM sub to cast raise. ^_^
BLM/SMN Again, this is a good choice if you just can't seem to get enough MP to meet your needs. Summoner will also give you a better INT boost than WHM would, so this has the added benefit of strengthening your attack spells. Even without access to a decent number of the avatars this might be a good choice just for the MP and stat bonuses... as long as your party already has a full white mage, that is.

Black Mage as a Sub-job
Black mage has little or nothing to offer a fighter job, even when soloing. When it is subbed, it is usually by another mage job who wants a decent MP/INT bonus and access to a black mage's utility spells.

The job discussion will continue in Part 5 - Advanced Jobs I