* Instead of buying armor/weapons from the NPC, check the PC vendors first (not the auction tool), sometimes you can find tailor made items or store bought items for cheaper.
Auction and Vendor is two different things. One is like an actual e-bay type auction and vendor just lets players sell stuff from their inv.
* Never sell or destroy anything that says Rare or EX, especially if it says BOTH Rare and EX on it.
* Mission items are used to progress you through the world story (at least that's what I think). If you've played FF Tactics Advance, Missions is what moves the story along, Quests are just side stuff.
* After lvl 9 or so, you will find it extremely hard to solo a 100exp kill, or
* end up with massive downtime if you succeed. My advise is dont go for killer
* exp. Kill lots of 'decent', 'easy' mobs that results in little downtime or 25-50 exp a kill. Dont use your TP, let it go pass 150% then let it out on a hard mob (ie, sheeps or gobs) to make your battles more interesting. Net net, you'll find that you don't die much, exp keeps coming, and you have little downtime. Get to lvl15 asap and then to lvl18 to get sub jobs, there's still much to DO!
* Grouping tactics is extremly raw. You will need +/- 1 level group members to avoid cut throat exp being distributed. Try to play the policeman, ie: tell tanks to taunt, assist one target, white mage to watch aggro control...OMG I almost vomit blood when grouped with non eq like players, they keep getting people killed! Again, go for steady exp, once group is good at TP get a tougher mob.
* You can pull like eq! press the * key to unlock target and run back to party in mob crowded places
* macro is your friend, especially monk's Shoulder Block that stuns enemies chasing your white mage or break their spell casting...very very good.
some macro
1) /jobability Boost *results in boost
2) /ws Combo
3) /ws "Shoulder Block"
and yes, the windows button is evil...so watch where your hitting
* REMEMBER TO GET GATE GUARDS TO CAST SIGNET. This results in 10% exp=conquest points=trade in for GOOD items. Signet also allows you to get crystals off mobs that you can use for 1) trade skills 2) trade in for conquest points
* Talk to ALL people in town, many gives relatively easy*fun* quest that results in good items(maps etc)
* Do it right the first time, so dont die. You will not be able to outrun mobs most of the time and dont bet on a white mage to run by and ress you. We assume you have little contacts in game at this point and English speaking newbs are still below lvl20.
* Do your missions (not quest) to increase in ranks. Once up you can trade in crystals for conquest points.
* Turns out Boost is acculimative. The effect lasts for 3 minutes, reuse of 15 sec, so if you boost before entering combat you can stack it up 10 or 11 times. Each Boost seems to add 1 dmg to your attack. I usually Boost 3-4 times before engaging a mob, unless it's a real nasty one.
You can make a macro to boost for you as mentioned above
/ja "Boost"
Just keep hitting that macro while you're running around looking for something to kill.
Boost is starting to remind me of IF though...I get a lot of misses on Boost attacks or I do min damage.
* STAY AWAY FROM SHEEP! Omg I can't believe how overpowered they are. They have some sick special attacks, one even put me to sleep, not sure how the hell that happened, guess I was counting sheep...? :P Most of them tend to Beserk when they're close to death.
Sheep are only undercons in their early 2 incarnations (Ornery and Mad sheep) Brutal (L18-21ish) are not really that bad compared to other L18-21 mobs. They have no damage AE (unlike goblins and flies) and Barsleepa is usually good enough to negate most of the Sheep Song. They typically have pretty low defense to boot.
* Put down the mouse, and learn to drive the interface without it. Switch to compact keyboard, run around with WASD and navigate menus with IJKL + Y/N. Use TAB to target/switch targets. Make macros for stuff like spells, weapon skills, and job abilities.
The biggest improvement in fun so far came once I was comfortable with the interface. It's different, but once you are used to it its very smooth and natural to do stuff.
* I deliberately attack a few monsters per level that are too powerful for me, because I get really nice skill ups.
* TP - Use it up before you zone, cause it goes away.
- Plaguebreath - If you get it and cant get it cured, have a seat and wait for the inevitable. Ive been at 120 at the end of a fight I contracted it in....Still died. GRRRR."
- You can cure this with cure poison potion, cost only 200+ gil and always hand to have around. It sucks seeing your 200hp go to 0 and...DIE!
* Auto Sort, Auto Sort, Auto Sort!
* Sell High, Buy Low.
* Forget fishing....Heh, I broke 6 poles getting a 0.2 skill up. Heh, Its still cool though, Im gonna keep at it.
* Dont Auction Shell Shields, No body wants to buy them. They even sell them less then you can sell them to a merchant.
* I recommend forgetting about quests as a way of getting gold at low levels. Get signet cast on you, then go out and kill stuff. Quests are too time consuming. That's time you could be using to level AND make money at the same time. Besides, most of the crap you could buy and use at level one even with unlimited gold in your bank isn't good enough to make that much of a difference. All the good gear is level restricted.
The only quests I worry about are missions and quests with specific rewards I am interested in, such as the ones that give you maps to certain zones.
* I use F8 as I run. When I pick something up on "radar" that way, I hit ctrl-c to consider it. If it's something I want to fight, I then go to it and fight it. Sometimes I type "/follow" and I go right to the monster if the terrain allows it. To cancel follow, simply walk backwards. I do this when someone beats me to a monster or I realize that the monster has five buddies right next to him.
* I am currently level 10. Every time I level, I first build a buffer of a few hundred xp killing stuff that cons as a "decent challenge". Then, I go out and kill even con stuff to max out my skills. I typically die about twice a level doing this. However, at level 10, I can easily kill most even cons because my hand to hand and my evasion skill are maxxed out. This is on the slyph server. On the Slyph server where I started out, I found killing even cons to be very difficult at level 8 because I did not keep my skills maxxed. Once you get all your skills maxxed, go out and kill stuff that dies fast and easy and go for quantity, not quality. I have yet to max my "guarding" skill. It's very hard to raise. Perhaps in a group, versus tougher monsters, I could raise it. I have read that monster level affects skill raises. Unlike EQ, where it's the monsters level relative to you, in FFXI, it's the monster's level relative to your skill level. So, if perchance you never raised a certain skill, and made several levels without raising it, and then went and fought an "easy prey" opponent, you might get massive skillups until your skill level matched the opponent's level.
* Research your "missions" ahead of time. Odds are good that you will get some sort of loot in your travels that you will need on one of those missions. It would be a shame if you sold it only to find out you needed to buy it back a little while later.
* Be careful selling your old gear when you upgrade. You may discover that you want to work on another class some and that you can't wear the upgrade with that class but that you could have worn an item you used to have in that slot if only you hadn't sold it. Most of your starting gear is ALL/ALL. Most of the cheaper upgrades are more restrictive.
* Buy at auction and sell at auction whenever possible. The auctions are full of items that players have bought off of vendors, outgrown, and that they are trying to sell to someone else. The only way they can do this is to sell for less than the vendor, so check the auctions. Also, something that a vendor considers junk may be considered valuable by players. I don't know why, but Qadav Backplates sell for 600 gold in Bastok on my server. Every time I get one, I am elated.
*When buying or selling at auction, first check the price history on the item(s). When I see that an item I am considering selling only goes for 10 gold, I usually don't bother. That stuff is for the vendor. You have only seven slots to sell stuff with, so sell your most valuable stuff first. Suppose that I see that almost everyone who has bought a certain item has paid 500 for it. I bid 400. I usually don't get it. Then I bid 410, then 420, then 430. Eventually, if I am lucky, I get it for less than the going price. Sadly, I sometimes find that I have to pay more than the regular price, but that is rare.
* Watch out for monsters that like to help their fellow monsters. They are rarer in FFXI than in EQ, at least at low levels, but it does happen. I died to a lizard one time when his buddy jumped in to help. The same thing happened with a couple of rabbits. (They had big teeth!)
* Don't get to far ahead of yourself. By this, I mean don't plan too far ahead. I encountered a player that wanted to switch to Paladin at level 30. They were being careful to only buy stuff that a Paladin could use. They were level one. I could almost guarantee that they wouldn't have a single one of those items left at level 30 and that with the money a level 30 would have, their current frugality with purchases wouldn't matter. FFXI is wonderful in that you can't really screw up a character by going too far down the wrong path. If you discover at level 20 that you should have been working on the thief class instead, just switch to thief.
* To repeat what an earlier poster said, you can pull by hitting the asterisk * key to "unlock" yourself from a monster. Now I just need to figure out how to FD. Monsters wander a lot. When I see that a monster is away from his buddies, I sometimes pull him even farther away, lest I find myself getting teamed up on by his friends during the fight.
* Don't create too much of a "generalist". Go for specialization. So many people want to make a melee/healer. That's great for soloing, but the best solo player in the game can only go so far in FFXI. At some point, you must be in groups to advance further. Groups don't want a mediocre tank/mediocre healer. They want a really good tank and a really good healer. So, go all out for DPS, or for tanking, or for healing, but don't try to mix it up too much. I'm probably going to go monk/thief myself or maybe ninja/thief.
* Grouping at the right spots is essential for xp after 12 or so. Instead of getting 20-100 per mob, you can be getting 100-150 and coming in faster.
* Goblin masks and hats sell for 400 or so on my server and the mail for 600 to 700, its fast easy cash.
* The only bad thing I find with sheep is the fact that when another person near you is fighting one, you can be put to sleep by its AE sleep attack. Then since being hit awakens a sleeping character, they get awoken but you remain asleep for minutes
* For newbs hunting around south bastok. There's a fire place top of a hill near the light house. "trade" a sheep meat to the fire place, after 60mins*you can't die or leave the zone* you get a garkan sausage. Rinse and repeat for man times.
Each sausage is worth 300gil if you give it to guy in metal works kitchen.
* Spools of Silk Thread go for 800-1000 on my server.
Once you can handle a crawler without worry of their poisons owning you, I'd highly recommend ganking every one of em ya see on the offhand chance it's loaded with $$.
* Head to an auction house in San'doria or Bastok, some AH are better than others for different things.
* Strike Baghnakhs are 50kish on my server. The reason is the 2 dex. Dex has a huge impact on crits.
* Your ability timer keeps going even if your logged, that means if your ready to quit for the night, get medieval and fire that Hundred Fists off!
* If you're needing money early on and don't mind payin the extra dollar a month for a second char then have an extra char in bastok. Can buy scale mail from shop there for about 2316 gil, in san d'ora auction house can sale them for aroud 3400 gil, on slyph, not sure what prices are on other servers. Don't tell too many people or prices may start to fall
* So many commands in the game involve using the ctrl key. The ctrl key is right next to the "windows" key. Hitting the windows key while playing will kick you out of the game, making you go LD in effect. It only took about three times before I popped the key off of the keyboard (I never use it anyhow) and I covered the hole with tape.
* When grouped, remember to cast your lot (under the chat, attack menu, it shows up when you group). Casting a lot basically means rolling a 100 sided die, you can win if you get the highest number on the item chosen. You also have the option of passing on it or just ignoring it.