mmo corner ffxi new player resources
hello ive made this page to help my friends who are starting ffxi for the first time. im not an expert at this game and i haven't played for a little bit anyway so some of this might be wrong but i hope not!! if there's something wrong email me on spidersex (at,) mintyasleep (dot,) net. the links to the right will help you on your journey. good luck adventurer.............
creating your account
im assuming you just bought the ffxi collection seekers edition and haven't registered ffxi before. you should have a code for the game and you probably have codes for items. it doesn't really matter if you bought the game through steam or the square enix store. either is fine and if you bought the game on steam you can still play on the non steam version. to find the code on steam, right click on the game in the list, go to manage -> cd keys.
first thing to do is register the game on the square enix account management system. i have helpfully linked it on the right, but if you want to go find it yourself (very wise) head to http://www.playonline.com where it's in the top right of the homepage (after you select your region).
you will need a square enix account. if you don't have one at this point you should make one. sign in to the account management system and then click on this button:
you will be presented with a screen that looks like this:
click on "Add new playonline service account" and enter your code to register the game. you'll go through some kind of process where you'll be given a new different password to your square enix password. you should note down your playonline ID and password when you are given it. once done, you should get back to the same screen above. if you scroll down your should see your active service account added. you should have a 8 character ID here (this is your playonline ID which you should have already noted) near to a button that says Options List, which you should click on.
you're going to need a character to your account. because ffxi is a strange old game you need to pay for each character on your account at 70p each month per character. thankfully, you can do basically everything on one character in this game (much like ffxiv) so it's not too much of a problem.
in my opinion, the best way to pay for this game is with crysta, which you can add to your account with the dropdown menu at the top: Payments and Service Fees -> Add Crysta. this is especially good if you want to only pay for one month of the game and you feel like you might forget to cancel. go add some crysta first if you want to do that, and come back to this screen when you're done
so go ahead and click that "Add new options" button and add a character to your account. once that's all done you're ready to open up the playonline viewer!!
you'll probably have to go through a bunch of updating but you should eventually get to this login screen:
except of course you won't have minty in there just yet. let's fix that by clicking add member on the left menu. you should see this screen:
so let's fill out this screen one thing at a time:
- Member Name: put in whatever you want here. this is only used as a label for your account on playonline just in case multiple people are using the same computer.
- PlayOnline ID: the 8 character ID you noted down earlier. you can find this on the square enix account management system if you didn't.
- Set Password: change this to set as you're required to put in a password.
- PlayOnline Password: this is the password you were given earlier, NOT your square enix account password.
- Member Password: you do not need to set this. this is a local password to log in to your account on this computer only. you will have to put in your square enix account password anyway every time you log in.
- Confirm Password: same as above.
- Square Enix ID: your square enix username you used to log into the account management system.
- One-Time Password: if you don't know what this is you should set Do Not Use. if you do know what this is you'll know if you use a one time password with your square enix account.
click on register to continue. your menu should be looking a lot more like mine above now!! click on that member you just added and click log in. if you typed your playonline password in wrong you can go to settings and change it on this screen. if didn't, click log in. you'll be prompted for your Square Enix Password (the one you use to log into the account management system and any other normal square enix things).
put that in!! if everything went right, the playonline launcher should allow you in to the screen below:
click on FINAL FANTASY XI or the crystal icon next to it, which will take you to the screen below:
yay!! you're done!! click play to start the game. if you are encountering any problems feel free to email me for help!! if you want to add your item codes that you got with the game, you register those codes in the same place that you register the game itself: the account management system but instead with the "Add a service account" button. i hope you find success and enjoy ff11!!
which job to play?
just play what sounds cool. if you don't know what sounds cool i have written below what i think is cool about each job.
starting jobs
these jobs can be selected at character creation and switched between at any time via your mog house. they are unlocked at the start for all characters.
- Warrior: with it's ability to use almost every melee weapon in the game, it's very much a jack of all trades type damage dealing job, and it's even a decent tank if you've got nothing better.
- Monk: go punching!!! very aggressive style of job that loves doing damage but that doesn't mean it's the only thing it's got. chakra allows the monk to heal and cure itself, and you've also got shit like counter to passively sometimes cancel enemy attacks.
- White Mage: normal healer. but you've got a lot of interesting stuff here!! white mage gets access to a bunch of buff spells as well as healing. including the exciting and important sneak and invisible spells which allow you to avoid detection from enemies!! they can also teleport players to certain points in the game.
- Black Mage: the big explosion job. you get to do a lot of damage and do big magic bursts as part of skillchains.
- Red Mage: a strange job that can wield a sword and also cast a bunch of debuff style magic!! you also get access to a little bit of healing, as well as sneak and invis. there are a lot of spells.
- Thief: lovable stealing job. uses positional attacks and grants has the treasure hunter ability which increases item drop chances!!!
unlockable jobs from final fantasy xi (base game)
these jobs can be unlocked fairly easily after reaching level 30 in your first job.
- Paladin: the archetypical tank! takes lots of hits and reduces the damage taken. you also get access to spells and can heal and buff yourself. also has interesting abilites like cover to protect party members.
- Dark Knight: does big damage and wields a scythe, who wouldn't like a dark knight. exciting abilities like souleater which uses your hp to do more damage. you can also steal stats from enemies.
- Beastmaster: you get to tame monsters!! it's not really a tamagotchi thing in the same way that hunter from wow is, but it's still cool to have a pet fighting with you. apparently these guys are good for soloing but honestly none of that matters anymore because of trusts.
- Bard: it's very much a support job in this game. if you felt like bard in ffxiv wasn't enough of a support and was too much of a dps you may very much enjoy this version!! you will be singing to buff your party a lot, and there are different instruments (or you can just sing).
- Ranger: on the other hand, if you liked bard ffxiv because it's a physical ranged class, this might be the one for you. you also have to manage ammo in this game which is interesting. rangers are pretty weak defensively but innately harder to detect by enemies and better at tracking enemies at long distance with wide scan.
- Summoner: another pet class, you can summon full size versions of your favourite ff summons!! you start with carbuncle but you can then unlock ff classics including beautiful women, or large men like titan.
unlockable jobs from rise of the zilart
these jobs should be easily unlockable at level 30-40 with trusts, apart from dragoon which requires a fight with a level 40 notorious monster where trusts can't be summoned (you will need a group or to far overlevel this i would assume).
- Samurai: this job gets a bunch of tp which means you can do a lot of weaponskills which means you can do a lot of skillchains. if you're excited by skillchains or big katanas this is an excellent job.
- Ninja: this job is mostly played as a tank, but one that avoids damage rather than takes it!! very exciting, but that's not all: you also get to dual wield weapons and throw shurikens.
- Dragoon: this is actually a pet class in this game, you get a little wyvern!! you get to do health management by sacrificing your own hp, and you also get to do big jumps.
unlockable jobs from treasures of aht urhgan
these jobs can be unlocked at level 30 but require access to aht urhgan. the easiest way to do this as a new player is progress the rhapsodies of vanadiel story until you obtain "Rhapsody in Umber" key item. you need to raise your fame in jeuno to level 2 to start the tenshodo membership quest. once you've completed this you can start the quest The Road to Aht Urhgan which gives you access to the relevant zones.
- Blue Mage: extremely interesting and flexible job with almost 200 spells that you must travel the land to acquire from monsters. very unique and will require any prospective blue mage players to do adventuring that no other job has to do. you can fill any role on blue mage but the effort required might be more.
- Corsair: pirates and gambling! corsair is a job that uses a gun and has risk/reward mechanics that can actually result in debuffing your party members if you aren't careful. good pick if you feel lucky and like playing a more supportive role.
- Puppetmaster: yet another pet job. manage your little guy by using consumable items to oil them up. it's yet another very versatile job and is even capable of being a very good tank, but the resource cost of getting all the automaton parts is high.
unlockable jobs from wings of the goddess
these jobs can be unlocked at level 30 but require time travelling. it's fairly easy to get to the past zones but if you're doing this at level 30 the enemies will be much higher level than you, so it's probably a good idea to bring sneak/invisible spells or some other method of avoiding detection.
- Dancer: a unique combination of different roles, dancer is primarily a support job, but it can heal and deal a reasonable amount of damage as well. it can debuff enemies, heal party members and participate in skillchains. you also get to run faster and duel wield!!
- Scholar: being a caster job, scholar shares a lot of spells with the other casters but has a unique feature called strategems, which are buff spells you can cast on yourself. the strategems you can use depend on which of scholars two stances you are in (light or dark). at high levels, scholar can create skillchains via spells. it's a complex job but one that can be very useful and powerful!!
unlockable jobs from seekers of adoulin
these jobs require going to adoulin and getting a fame level of 1 (which just means you have to do a bunch of quests) before you can pick them up. you may be able to do all of this at level 30 but it will probably be somewhat of an ordeal. id highly recommend starting on white or red mage if you want to pick up one of these jobs early on because sneak and invisible spells will be super useful.
- Geomancer: an unhinged job where your spells get different buffs depending on which direction you are relative to the enemy, geomancer's main thing is creating buff/debuff area of effect bubbles. it's also technically a pet job!! geomancer has a device that you can place to determine the location of some bubble creating spells.
- Rune Fencer: a tank style job that's particularly good at magical damage mitgation. the rune fencer uses their runes to defend against specific elements and buff the opposite element. playing this job requires knowing which element to use for every situation.