A Beginner's Guide to Vana'diel 1: Races
Jan. 12th, 2010 11:31 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
thessalianAs courtcat is about to start the time-sink that is FFXI (or at least that can be FFXI), I thought that I would devote a little bit of time in journal to list my personal experiences with the game, starting from the ground up. I'll start very basic, with the various in-game races - I've had experience playing the lot of them, so I'm pretty well versed in the lot of them.
Tarutaru: They're small. They're cute. They look kind of like what I'd imagine Boggans to look like. And with their high MND and INT scores, not to mention MP, they are little dynamos when it comes to the magic. However, they're not the best at anything in which physical strength is in any way required (so about 75% of the job classes, then). Not saying it's not possible to do those jobs - I have seen successful Taru Ninjas, Paladins and even Warriors, and I myself play a pretty mean Dragoon - but there's less margin for error there. If starting game as a Tarutaru, start with one of the magic classes. Seriously. (Preferably Black or White Mage because Red Mage, while useful at higher levels, has a hard time getting a party.)
Galka: Opposite end of the spectrum, we have the Galka. Galka are huge hulking ... things that defy description, really. They're strong and make great tanks. However, I lost patience with playing a Galka early, mostly because they're slow and running around even the starting city got frustrating after awhile. Plus they're not really big on the mental stats, so it's difficult to branch out into magedom as a Galka. Again, it's not impossible, but they're the worst race in the game to play if you're looking at focusing on the magic-using jobs. And slow. Very, very slow.
(Side note: there are no female Galka in game. If you're playing a Galka, you're playing a male. End of story.)
Elvaan: It's right there in the name, really - they're elves. More awkward to look at than you'd imagine, given the name, and also less given to the magical stuff than one might expect from a race that's known in most fiction as having a good relationship with magic. Low MP, incredibly low INT ... though I think their MND scores are okay so they're probably better with White magic than Black. But again, it's not impossible to play a mage class with an Elvaan - I've seen more successful Elvaan mages than I have Galka mages, put it that way. They're also strong and good for the melee classes. Not as versatile a race as it could be? But still not so bad.
Mithra: This one can be very easily described: catgirl. Amazon catgirl, in fact. I mean, seriously - you never see their men (as you're only given the option of male Galka, you are only given the option of female Mithra, though some wise-arses insist that their Mithra is really male and call themselves a Manthra, yeah, IDEK), they originate from a jungle area ... you do the maths. Still, they've got decent stats, particularly in terms of DEX, and the second-highest MP rating in the game. Fairly versatile, and thus a good choice ... if you can ignore the catgirl stigma.
Hume: One of my favourites, surprisingly. Unlike all the other races, Humes haven't got a particular speciality. In terms of stats, Taru have everything focused in brains, Galka and Elvaan are the brawny ones and Mithra are the dextrous, sneaky ones, but Humes are very evenly spread across the board. This makes them a really versatile race and a good starting point for a new player. Sure, they're not really good at any one thing, but they do passably well at all of them and don't really fall down anywhere in particular.
Blogger's Choice: If I had it to do over again, I'd probably pick Hume or Mithra. However, waaaaaay back at the start, I loved the dichotomy of a little bitty butterball nuking the hell out of things. It still has its advantages, and I love the challenge involved in making certain job classes work despite the inherent weaknesses of race. Basically, you can make anything work if you try hard enough, so really the important thing is deciding what you want out of the game, and whether you intend to specialise right from the beginning. Plus it doesn't hurt to have an avatar you actually don't mind looking at for hours on end. Which is another reason why Galka doesn't really recommend itself.
Next time: the starting cities of Windurst, San d'Oria and Bastok - what's awesome about them, what's not so awesome, things to see and do, and how this might relate to what character race you might enjoy.
(No, I dunno when 'next time' is. I owe a character interview first but that's a simple copy-paste job and can be done after lunch. This ... this may be a bloggy sort of day.)
courtcat is about to start the time-sink that is FFXI (or at least that can be FFXI), I thought that I would devote a little bit of time in journal to list my personal experiences with the game, starting from the ground up. I'll start very basic, with the various in-game races - I've had experience playing the lot of them, so I'm pretty well versed in the lot of them.Tarutaru: They're small. They're cute. They look kind of like what I'd imagine Boggans to look like. And with their high MND and INT scores, not to mention MP, they are little dynamos when it comes to the magic. However, they're not the best at anything in which physical strength is in any way required (so about 75% of the job classes, then). Not saying it's not possible to do those jobs - I have seen successful Taru Ninjas, Paladins and even Warriors, and I myself play a pretty mean Dragoon - but there's less margin for error there. If starting game as a Tarutaru, start with one of the magic classes. Seriously. (Preferably Black or White Mage because Red Mage, while useful at higher levels, has a hard time getting a party.)
Galka: Opposite end of the spectrum, we have the Galka. Galka are huge hulking ... things that defy description, really. They're strong and make great tanks. However, I lost patience with playing a Galka early, mostly because they're slow and running around even the starting city got frustrating after awhile. Plus they're not really big on the mental stats, so it's difficult to branch out into magedom as a Galka. Again, it's not impossible, but they're the worst race in the game to play if you're looking at focusing on the magic-using jobs. And slow. Very, very slow.
(Side note: there are no female Galka in game. If you're playing a Galka, you're playing a male. End of story.)
Elvaan: It's right there in the name, really - they're elves. More awkward to look at than you'd imagine, given the name, and also less given to the magical stuff than one might expect from a race that's known in most fiction as having a good relationship with magic. Low MP, incredibly low INT ... though I think their MND scores are okay so they're probably better with White magic than Black. But again, it's not impossible to play a mage class with an Elvaan - I've seen more successful Elvaan mages than I have Galka mages, put it that way. They're also strong and good for the melee classes. Not as versatile a race as it could be? But still not so bad.
Mithra: This one can be very easily described: catgirl. Amazon catgirl, in fact. I mean, seriously - you never see their men (as you're only given the option of male Galka, you are only given the option of female Mithra, though some wise-arses insist that their Mithra is really male and call themselves a Manthra, yeah, IDEK), they originate from a jungle area ... you do the maths. Still, they've got decent stats, particularly in terms of DEX, and the second-highest MP rating in the game. Fairly versatile, and thus a good choice ... if you can ignore the catgirl stigma.
Hume: One of my favourites, surprisingly. Unlike all the other races, Humes haven't got a particular speciality. In terms of stats, Taru have everything focused in brains, Galka and Elvaan are the brawny ones and Mithra are the dextrous, sneaky ones, but Humes are very evenly spread across the board. This makes them a really versatile race and a good starting point for a new player. Sure, they're not really good at any one thing, but they do passably well at all of them and don't really fall down anywhere in particular.
Blogger's Choice: If I had it to do over again, I'd probably pick Hume or Mithra. However, waaaaaay back at the start, I loved the dichotomy of a little bitty butterball nuking the hell out of things. It still has its advantages, and I love the challenge involved in making certain job classes work despite the inherent weaknesses of race. Basically, you can make anything work if you try hard enough, so really the important thing is deciding what you want out of the game, and whether you intend to specialise right from the beginning. Plus it doesn't hurt to have an avatar you actually don't mind looking at for hours on end. Which is another reason why Galka doesn't really recommend itself.
Next time: the starting cities of Windurst, San d'Oria and Bastok - what's awesome about them, what's not so awesome, things to see and do, and how this might relate to what character race you might enjoy.
(No, I dunno when 'next time' is. I owe a character interview first but that's a simple copy-paste job and can be done after lunch. This ... this may be a bloggy sort of day.)