Subjob quest

[Alan]

So apparently the way to do this is to camp the northeast forest and kill all the bats and goblins, and at night ghouls respawn to replace those:

http://ffxi.crgaming.com/data/quests/vi ... asp?Id=140

[tasheren]

I told our party that when we were fighting. I said, NE OF DUNES...apparently no one listened.

I think I even said that 3 times...

[Dave]

i said hi three times too!

[Jonathan]

So, do you have to do the subjob quest for each job, or do you only have to do it once?

[Alan]

You only need to do it once to unlock the ability to equip a subjob.

[Jonathan]

So, I read a post somewhere about how people with no subjob are greedy and poor to group with. I though, pah, how ridiculous. At the very worst, you're something of an exp leech since to match someone else with a subjob, you need to be correspondingly higher level. But as a player who doesn't play very many hours, it would be worth it to me to get to the higher-level content more quickly. Or so I thought.

I tried Alan's side-by-side stat linky program (see FFXI Links thread) with Warrior as main, and with three different subs: MNK 6, MNK 35, and no sub. I picked MNK 6 because I thought it was a level I could achieve in a reasonably quick amount of time. It was an eye-opener. MNK 35 clearly outclasses no sub. However, though MNK 6 is worse than MNK 35, it's not worse by much. In particular, they're almost identical until mid-20s WAR. Even then, it's a fairly small difference, nothing like the large difference between MNK 6 and no sub. MNK 6 is clearly superior. And I know I can crank off MNK 6 in no time flat. The trick, of course, is getting the sub job quest completed.

But now it makes total sense to me to go ahead and do the subjob quest. Uh, when I get there. Assuming Vinny doesn't also lap me, so that I have no one left to group with.

[VLSmooth]

I wouldn't worry because:

1. I'm only WAR12
2. I'm not taking/can't take my computer home for Thanksgiving

Also, stats are not the only part of the benefit of a subjob. You also need to count active and passive skills, which are arguably much more useful for a mage subjob.

[VLSmooth]

For instance, depending on your level of WAR, a monk would provide the following abilities:

• At level 5, Boost (More power for 15 secs, cooldown 3 min)
• At level 15, Dodge (Increased evade for 2 min, cooldown 5 min)
• At level 25, Concentrate (Increase hit ratio for 2 min, cooldown 5 min)
• At level 35, Chakra (Self heal, instant, cooldown 3 min)

Then again, you would need a significantly high level of WAR (at least you'll be at least 18...)

edit1: s/Accumulate/Boost/;
edit2: at least...

[VLSmooth]

Also, it'd probably be a good idea to ask rotinoma about the value of monk abilities since he is a high-level monk

[Jonathan]

Well, I think as a first pass I'd get Boost (not Accumulate) at 5. As a second pass, I'd shoot for Counter. And, well, I won't be significantly greater than level 20 for a long ass time. Ha.

[VLSmooth]

Oops, my bad. I only listed job abilities in my previous post. Here are the job qualities (the other 9-letter word).

• At level 1, Martial Arts (freebie!)
• At level 10, Counter (more attacks = good, getting hit = bad though...)
• At level 15, HP Boost
• At level 25, Another Martial Arts
• At level 35, another HP Boost

[rotinoma]

For most people a monk subjob is just a holdover. It's much more valuable as a main since a few of its more useful skills (like all the h2h boosts) are in the later levels. Early on things like Counter, Boost, and H2H is neat if you're a complete warrior who wants to get that bonus counter/boost, or a thief that just want to backstab for a lot. Since by level 30/15 you can start your dream advance jobs... for most people anyways. SAM can take a bit longer

But if you're a war that wants something to sub, stick to either monk or whm, I guess.