Warriors are the Tank Job (class) in Final Fantasy XI (Note: A Tank is a combat role. The Tank is the character in the party who is good at absorbing large amounts of punishment). Warriors have all of the skills and characteristics necessary to make them the premiere defensive fighters of Vana d'iel - high HP (Hit Points), high defense (both innate and because of the variety of armors they can wear), good evasion and solid damage with their weapons.
Warriors specialize in close combat fighting. They use the widest variety of weapons of any job (i.e. all of them), and acquire the provocation ability at level five (making them the only standard job that can lure monsters into attacking them instead of their more vulnerable party members).
Warriors have strong defensive skills: they get both Shield (allowing them to block attacks with their shield) and Parry (allowing them to parry attacks with their weapon).
Warriors can solo (fight by themselves) very effectively at lower levels, but as they enter the mid-levels, they will need to join groups. Also, as Warriors have no magical healing abilities of their own, teaming up with White Mage (healer) is almost a necessity by mid to high levels. If you choose Warrior, make sure to make friends with White Mages! (Don't worry, they will want to make friends with you too � White Mages have minimal offensive combat ability).
Warrior combat skills: hand to hand, dagger, sword, great sword, axe, great axe, scythe, pole arm, club, staff, archery, marksmanship, throwing, guard, evasion, shield, parry.
The Monk is a martial artist, a strong job with distinct strengths and weaknesses. Monks prefer to attack using the unarmed combat skill - they focus on using their hands and feet to defeat their enemies. Where the warrior is a more defensive melee combatant (using shields and weapon parrying), the Monk is an offensive melee combatant, specializing in dishing out large quantities of quick melee damage. Monks do more melee damage than any other class - period. Unlike the Warrior, however, Monks can not take damage nearly as well as they deal it.
Monks begin their life with the 'martial arts' skill. This allows them to attack faster if they are not using a weapon (or if they are using a weapon that uses the 'hand to hand' skill). At lower levels, this means that they attack faster then other jobs, which translates directly to quicker leveling times.
Monks have decent defensive skills - in addition to their good evasion abilities, they can use Parry (allowing them to parry attacks with their weapon) when they use a weapon (though most Monks do not use weapons).
Monks can solo (fight by themselves) very effectively at lower levels, but as they enter the mid-levels, they will need to join groups. Also, as Monks have no magical healing abilities of their own, teaming up with White Mage (healer) is almost a necessity by mid to high levels. If you choose Monk, make sure to make friends with White Mages! (Don't worry, they will want to make friends with you too - White Mages have minimal offensive combat ability).
Monk combat skills: hand to hand, club, staff, throwing, guard, evasion and parry.
White Mages are the experts of White Magic and all other spells that are utilized for curing and healing. Their main strength lies in the ability to protect their companions (and themselves), both by healing / curing damage and other ailments (poison, blindness, etc.) and by casting defensive magic (protect, etc.) on them. White Mages are the Healer Job in Final Fantasy XI (Note: A Healer is the character who keeps the party alive by healing them both in and out of combat).
White Mages do not do much damage on their own - their offensive spells have a high MP cost compared to the damage they do, and their weapon skills are mediocre at best. White Mages do, however, have many spells that disable / reduce the effectiveness of the monster they are fighting. This being said, because of their low damage output, White Mages have a hard time soloing.
White Mage magic is primarily healing and protective magic, with some disabling spells as well. Note that all mages need to learn a spell before they can cast it. Learning a spell involves buying the spell scrolls (similar to how warriors must buy weapons) and then learning (using) it to put it into their spell book.
It is fair to say that every party wants at least one White Mage - where the Black Mage makes the fight end quicker, the White Mage makes sure that everyone survives to the end. White Mages rarely have trouble finding parties, and many white mage players get great satisfaction from knowing that they save people from death every day of their vana di`el lives.
White Mages have good defensive skills: they get both Shield (allowing them to block attacks with their shield) and Parry (allowing them to parry attacks with their weapon).
Many players have White Mage as their support job because of the useful healing and defensive magic.
White Mages are limited to clubs, staves and ranged weapons.
White Mage combat skills: club, staff, throwing, evasion, shield, divine magic, healing magic, enhancement magic, and enfeeblement magic