A Gaming Diary
Final Fantasy XI Beta
Ah, the glamorous life of an adventurer.
I started this evening in my home city of Bastok, so ran straight out to kill things. Which wasn’t very easy, given the entire geek population of the earth had decided to do the same thing. I found enough things – worms mostly, the odd bat – to get me up to level three… and then I got killed by… oh, this is humilating… by… by a Walking Sapling. Yes, a tiny, baby tree salughtered me. It did it with ease, too. And while I was trying to run away.
So when I reincarnated myself back in Bastok I sold everything I could and bought a sword. A cheap, bronze sword worth half as much as a simple potion – yes, even potions are well out of my financial league right now – but a sword nonetheless. I felt better straight away. A sword is always going to be better than a dagger. I don’t care about stats, it’s better because it’s bigger and longer.
Yes, I have issues. Sue me.
Anyway, I ran out into the world and picked my way through the massive crowd and found a vulture. I readied my new sword and… died within seconds. Again I ran out into the world and after five minutes or so I found a rock lizard and I readied my sword once again and… died with seconds. Again I ran out into the world… and stuck to any worms and bats I could scavenge until my sword skills had reached level one and I’d reached level four.
And then I stopped playing. Level five seems a long way away, I’ve got no money and so no hope of saving up for any new clothes or anything. I’ve still not got any new spells. I assume you have to buy them, but I’ve not seen a magic shop. I bet they’re not cheap, either. I still don’t know why there’s a question mark before my name.
And I still haven’t talked to anyone. I did see a familiar name run past – Beertiger. I would have said hello, but I couldn’t be bothered to reach for the keyboard. Maybe if there had been some sort of voice chat…
I don’t feel like an adventurer. I feel like a slum dweller who has to survive each day by going to the rubbish tips and hoping to find trash worth selling before the million other people there do. It’s really not a life of high excitement and great deeds. It’s frequently boring, full of annoyances and yet… and yet… I played it for a good hour and a half this evening.
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A sword is better for a melee to use until about 17 or so. Since you mentioned spells, you must have rolled a Red Mage. If you keep playing make sure to keep your your dagger leveled as well as later on most of your melee damage will be in en- spell damage – basically spells which add elemental damage to each hit.
Since you’re on a beta server the stores might be cheaper, though I can’t say for sure… but on normal servers the AH is almost always cheaper.
Do you know how to check mobs? Every mob has a different level and checking them will tell you if there’s any hope of you surviving if you fight them. Below level 4 you should be able to kill an Even Match with no problem, and anything less. Anything tough or above (very tough, incredibly tough, impossible to guage) is instant death.
As a fighting strategy for redmages, I would engage a monster with dia and just whack at it until it dies. I’m not sure if you have cure yet, but it’s usually best to wait until after battle to cure unless you have a chance of dieing.
That “?” next to your name means you’re a new adventurer. If you want to turn it off, open the menu, go under help and you’ll find it in there – it’s a little toggle. It wears off after a certain number of hours playing, so I wouldn’t worry about it.
Those crystals you get, heck, anything you get enough of, check to see if you can sell it at the auction house first. If it sells more at the AH then the vendor, sell it there. I’m not sure if beta servers are full of crafters or not, but crystals are used to make items when combined with other materials.
Also, Beastmen seals. Save those. Do not toss them. Save save save.
If you want to initiate chat with someone, why not seek party? You can do this through the menu or by typing /inv . If you get a tell for party, respond by pressing control r or type /t person’s name. It’s that easy. You really don’t need a party, unless you’re having trouble dieing all the time, until you are 7.
I hope this answers a few worries for you and you can feel steadier in FFXI. The lower levels can be tough the first time out but everyone goes through the same thing. If you have any other questions you can contact me via my website.