I: Version History
Current Version
0.85 4/22/2004 Another Nice Update, took longer than I wanted
Confimation and correction on lots of techs, G Sword, Scythe, Sword, Spear
More thanks and special thanks
More experimenting with Starlight/Moonlight
"Elemental Limit Breaks can be resisted?"
Some reorganization was in order
New site with hosting permission
Beginning Weapon/monster Affinity Chart
Even Newer Limit Breaks have been implemented, accepting any new information
0.80 4/21/2004 Huge Update
Spirits Within, Star Light, and other TP based techs updated
lots of work on Katana, G Katana, Axe, Spear, Ranged updates/corrections
TP Gain chart/assumptions changed.
Comments added for each Weapon family
Removed bad info on "critical=extra hit" from some weaponskills
New Newb question
Lots of "thank you"s added.
0.75 4/4/2004
Got a lot of nice info from people at Killing Ifrit on GAxe and Scythe WS
Cleaned up TP chart some
Admitted my guesses on G Katana WS are way off, will seek help correcting them
New newb Question
0.71 4/1/2004
Lots of little things, corrected some mistakes in past update.
Lots of experimenting with Star Light
Introduction of "Too much TP" theory
Revised some opinions.
Information on Weapons vs. Monster families
New Newbie question
Better link to Skill cap charts.
TP info for wands, hammers, katanas
New Host, finally learned how to submit to Killing Ifrit
0.7 3/19/2004 Huge update
Found quest info for ALL final weapon skills, gave them their own section
Corrected lots of weaponskills, thanks to StarvingArtist videos
More sites with hosting permission
Miscellanious rewriting/rephrasing
0.611 3/13/2004
More corrections to TP gain chart
New site with hosting permission
Updated Hexastrike
0.61 3/11/2004
Corrected/added to TP gain chart
Added mention of Double/Triple Attack on Weaponskills
Changed opinions on White mages weapon recommendation
Small adjustments to WS effect descriptions
Added a new site with hosting permissions
0.6 (First published) 3/9/2004
Complete Skillchain information up to Lvl 250 techniques
Complete list of skills up to lvl 250, but not complete effect descriptions.
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II: Purpose
Information on Weapon skills and skill chains is either scattered or not present. My mission is to bring all the knowledge I can find into one place then fill in the gaps to make a definitive FFXI resource.
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III: Disclaimer
I am no expert on this game. 90% of the information I know about Weapon Skills and Skill Chaining originally came from other people, either through message boards, charts, sites, or FAQs. This FAQ will never reach a complete state without the participation of some dedicated people who have reached the higher levels and are willing to test out the information that has come to my attention. Either that or someone with inside knowledge of the game dynamics would help (/emote winks). Furthermore, this is my first FAQ, so bear with me and give helpful suggestion on formatting and content.
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IV: Copyright Information
Even Editors of Anthologies get copyrights.
1: I promise to credit information derived from the work of others, in return I ask that no one derive a work from this without giving me credit.
2: This is intended as a Free Resource to the FFXI community, it should never be bought, sold, traded, or given as an incentive for a business transaction.
3: I wrote this for GameFAQs.com, I am willing to let other sites use it, but they must get my written permission first. Furthermore, I plan to update this guide on GameFAQs first are foremost.
4: Any posting of this work in a public medium must not be changed in any way. It's my name on this work and only I determine what is written under my name.
I can be contacted at Kletian999@hotmail.com. As this account has an aggressive spam filter, Please write Renkei FAQ in the subject. If you don't here any response from me in two weeks, assume I missed your message and send it again.
This FAQ is Copyright 2003-2004 Tom Dubeck- Kletian999
All trademarks and copyrights mentioned in this document are owned by their respective trademark and copyright holders.
Current Sites with posting permission:
1: www.GameFAQs.com
2: DLH.net
3: www.Neoseeker.com
4: faqs.ign.com
5: www.order-of-judgement.com
6: ffxi.killvoid.com aka www.KillingIfrit.com
7: www.rpgdreamers.com
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V: Introduction to Weapon Skills - Limit Breaks
As SquareEnix is not your typical MMORPG maker, they decided to give melee classes something to do besides autoattack and mash on Ability macros during battles. This game features special attacks officially called Weapon Skills, but I prefer to call them Limit Breaks as Weapon Skills resemble Limit Breaks from FF6-10 greatly, and it prevents confusion with the term Weapon Skill Level, which is how proficient your character is with a certain "type" of weapon. Limit Breaks can be used whenever a Character's TP level reaches 100% or more (up to 300%). TP goes up 2% every time you get hit and you get a varying amount of TP directly dependant upon weapon delay. Higher delay=more TP gain per hit. TP gain can be in fractions, thus causing a weapon like Scythe to get 12, 13, 12 etc. Since the TP gain method wasn't as set as I thought it was, take these figures as ballparks.
TP Gain chart
Hand to Hand 4-7 (depends on weapon and whether you have Martial Arts)
Katana 5
Dagger: 5, 5.5
Sword: 6
Club (Wand) 6.5
Club (Hammer) 8.5
Axe: 6.5, 7
Boomerang 8 TP
Staff 9.5
Great Katana 10, 12
Spear 10, 12
Bow 12
Crossbow 12
Gun 12?
Great Sword 12?
Great Axe 12
Scythe 12, 12.5
TP goes down 10% for every 10 seconds of being in healing posture (what I call a "hit" of healing). The best metaphor for TP is anger, however if you leave the area or change your equipped weapon, you TP goes down to zero (I trust this is to prevent abuses like charging up your weapon on fodder to fight difficult monsters in a different zone). Using a Limit Break will consume all your TP unless you are a Samurai using Meikyo Shisui. Samurai'sTP store passive trait seems to give 10% more TP for all actions (even get 3 TPonce every 10 hits).
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VI: Newb Q & A:
Note: Newb- Newbie, someone who doesn't know better but will learn in time.
Noob(n00b)- Moron, deliberately annoying, confrontational, never learns.
Q: If I buy/use a new weapon, does my Weapon Skill Level go back to zero?
A: No, Weapon Skill Level is based on the "type" of the weapon used (i.e. 1 handed sword, scythe, club), not the actual weapon itself. One should get their weapon upgraded often so that you are keeping up with the enemies, I recommend you keep the Minimum Level Requirement of your weapon no further than 5 levels under your current level, at least until you get the hang of purchasing weapons.
Q: Are Rapiers, Scimitars, and Long Swords different types of weapons?
A: No, they all count as 1 handed swords; if you are a sword user, feel free to switch between those sub-categories to find your favorite balance of Damage vs. Delay (higher numbers=slower attack), Equip-ability (Scimitars are equipped by fewer classes than the other two) and appearance. This is also true for Daggers, Knives, and Kukris (all Dagger type weapons); Knuckles and Claws (Hand to Hand type); Hammers, Clubs, and Wands (all Clubs), and other subtle variations in weapons.
Q: What are the types of weapons?
A: The types of weapons are 1 Handed Axe/Picks (Axe), Bow, Clubs (includes 1 handed blunt weapons), Dagger, 2 Handed Axe (Great Axe), 2Handed Katana (Great Katana), 2 Handed Sword (Great Sword), Guns and Crossbows (Marksmen), Claws and Knuckles (Hand to Hand), 1 Handed Katana (Katana), Scythe, Spears and Lances (Polearm), Staff, and 1 Handed Sword (Sword). Boomerangs and other throwing weapons also have skill levels but no limit breaks.
Q: What weapon type should I use? I am a <insert job here>
A: Well, it depends on your current job, subjob, planned future job, job level, and personal style. The most general advice is to use a weapon type you can equip and that your job is compatible with and meets your desire for damage/delay (do you like hitting hard or often?). Feel free to experiment, as learning a new weapon is easy, and is explained in the next question.
For a chart on Class-Weapon Compatibility and per level skill caps check :
http://www.ausystem.org/~aushacho/gbox/ff/skill-e.html
It will also tell you what Job level you can expect to learn your next Limit Break. A rule of thumb is that caps start around 5 and rise about 3 skill levels per job level, (Thus, level 10 technique at level 3, 100 techniques at 33, 200 techniques at 66) provided you are using a weapon of some proficency. The difference widens greatly later in the game, but for the first 20 levels or so there is not much difference between A to C Weapon proficency.
One last thing, some types of Monsters (Skeletons for instance) are resistantto attacks by Piercing Weapons (Daggers, Spears, Bow/Marksmen), but weak toBlunt Weapons (Clubs, Hand to Hand). Also Flying enemies are weak toPiercing, but I'm still measuring if Blunt does less. Likewise, I'm unsure ifSlicing weapons like Swords and Axes are enemy neutral, or have their own setof weaknesses. Check a later question for more info. Having the same weapon asa lot of other people can make shopping easier, but you might be a moreinteresting character with cool skillchain potential if you choose a varietyof weapons.
Quick recommendations:
Warrior- almost anything, but Axe and Great Axe are your best bet
Monk- Hand to Hand, might try Poles for fun
Thief- Swords or Hand to Hand (with monk subjob) to start, then Dagger 30+
White Mage- Hammers (Club) for melee damage, wands/staves give MP and stats.
Black Mage- Wand or Staff, but focus on stat bonuses over actual fighting
Red Mage- Swords, maybe a debuff dagger
Paladin- Swords, Clubs, Greatswords
Dark Knight- Scythe, Greatsword
Beastmaster- Axe
Bard- Sword or Dagger for Melee, Monster Signa (Staff) for Charisma boost
Ranger- Dagger, Axes, or anything that boosts ranged pow/acc
Summoner- Club or Staff, but focus on stat bonuses over actual fighting
Ninja- 1 handed Katana, stat boosting weapons
Samurai- Great Katana and/or Spear
Dragoon- Spear
Q: I what to learn a new weapon, what's the best way to raise my skills?
A: There are two strategies you can use; the first realies on facing enemies that are way above your skill level and getting .4 and .5 per hit, but not hitting often; the other relies on systematically visting zones where your skill will let you hit the enemy regularly and get .2 and .3 per hit. For the first method, make sure the enemies are weak enough to not hurt you much unless you created a skill raising party (popular to raise skills above 100) as your damage output and accuracy will be pitiful. Use every accuracy enhancing thing you can get easily: Ranger sub (10), Bard's Sword Madrigal, Battle gloves, Life Belt, Bard's Hunter's Prelude and Sharpshoot for Ranged, and a high enough job level difference to have high DEX compared to enemy AGI. Likewise, try to find slow moving, low evasion/High defense mobs. You might also want to focus on monsters that give good cash/items when killed to make the experience more productive.
While this method works if you have the accuracy boosts (very cheap way to level bow and markmenship skill), I find the gradual method is more available to those without great accuracy or skill parties. The gradual method basically involves killing the enemies that your weapon skill would rate as tough for its level. Here's a helpful chart of skill ranges and areas.
0-20 Newbie zones, first 10 near town gates, last 10 away from gates
20-40 Crag (Dem, Holla, Mea) zones, remember how difficult the enemies were and fight accordingly, as enemies are scattered around.
40-60 Subjob zones, Start in Valkurm and move to Buburimu towards the end as enemies are stronger in Buburimu.
60-80 Qufim
80-100 Khazam
100+ getting more difficult to solo, Jeuno Border zones
After this point, I recommend either being a level 45 thief or having a 25thief sub for solo training. By either hiding from sight base enemies or fleezoning from non-aggressive enemies, you can train against enemies that wouldkill you normally and live to tell the tale. Fighting one-on-one also raisesyour defensive skills like parry and evade- which are helpful when goingfarming. The disadvantage to this method is that you must full rest after eachbattle and wait for whatever escape ability you use to recharge beforeengaging. Fortunately, at level 45+ a full rest takes about 5 minutes so thewaiting overlaps. The other disadvantage is that you might die if you areunlucky/uncareful; so setting a "quitting point" and paying attention toMonster’s limit breaks and spells are important.
As you notice, the chart reflects the common leveling path to level 33, any zone I recommeded can be replaced with whereever you leveled during those level ranges. A very simplified version of the cap formula per level is 5+3*level. So to raise your skill to 125, you'd need to go to a place where level 40 people level and fight there. You can do this process either with your main job or by using another job for the sole purpose of leveling a weapon you are behind on (not recommended though unless you like the other job) The reverse of this process, say, leveling Spear before playing as a Dragoon, carries the benefit of making the pre-party levels easier (as no one solos more than Even Match much and tough enemies are the ones that raise you to your caps). The precapped skills is one of the big reasons why leveling a subjob seems a lot easier than when you first started (the other reasons are of course, your equipment, subjob, and experience).
Q: If I switch jobs, what happens to my Limit Breaks and Weapon Skill Levels?
A: The Short Answer is that nothing is lost forever; you can only improve overtime.
The Long answer Everything you have earned as one class will be remembered; by you may not be able to use it when you switch jobs. For Example, let’s say a Level 20 warrior named Bob decides to build a Thief Subjob. Bob had trained in both swords and greatswords, so we'll say he has 50 weapon skill level each. As a Thief, he cannot equip Greatswords so he cannot use any of those skills. Thieves can use swords, however, Bob is now a Level 1 Thief (for simplicity, he hasn't actually done the subjob quest yet, so he will not be subbing warrior), thus his weapon skill level is capped below 10, which means until he levels
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