New Player hereFollow

Ninja is one of those necessary evils that you'll need eventually. Pain in the ass, yes. Some people end up enjoying it, some people don't.

Thief, well, you can count the number of situations its useful on one finger. The little one. Monk is good up until about 40ish, but the effectiveness wears off after that. Samurai only really takes off once you hit 50, and more so at 60 but the best time to use it is after 70, when you get access to the Seigan+Third Eye combo Warrior is more than capable of doing massive damage by just itself. Its the damage mitigation (avoiding/lessening damage) that Warrior falls pretty flat on. Your main subs'll end up being Ninja and Samurai for this reason. Even with tanking, your best tanking tool is damage, and even then you still need a little something for damage mitigation.

And no. No Evasion Gear. It won't help Warrior.

IMO, NIN and SAM are your main focuses for subjobs for party/alliance play. I can't think of a time I've ever needed to use anything but those.

SAM, I'd agree, mostly want to look at post-70, and even then it's situational.
Offensively, sure, top notch. Defensively, it relies a bit on luck (Seigan Third Eye -could- last...but it often won't).

NIN sub is consistently good for shared (or unintended) tanking. It lacks in offensive boosts if not dual wielding, but that's the price you pay for that level of damage mitigation =P As sharing tanking in some way is common, so is /NIN.


Consider DNC sub for soloing and the like. It doesn't start to shine much until post-30 (after you get Curing Waltz from level 15 DNC), but it's really pretty effective for lower-end soloing in the long run.

NIN and DNC particularly are subjobs that may prove to be a pain to level. I enjoy both of them, took them both to 75...but yeah, NIN doesn't start getting fun until 37, and doesn't -really- start coming into its own until the 60s. DNC doesn't get good until 40+ - Reverse Flourish -makes- that job...but anyway, they're both great subjobs for a -lot- of jobs, and worth the pain in the long run.


Most of the guides out there were probably written a while ago. Low level play has changed considerably withing the past months. You will often find people soloing (or duo/trioing/etc) in the lower levels. XP rates possible doing that now are comparable/better than partying had been. Granted, there are ways to get a lot better XP/hr in a group now too, but soloing can now net "acceptable" rates of XP.

As a consideration, planning on XPing at least some of your subs that way wouldn't be a bad idea. Yeah, it's slower, but you get all the drops, no commitment to stay due to a party, and so on. Do FoV, target EP-DC mobs, and so on. Decent XP/hr, more chance for defensive skills to skillup, and more loot.

THF is a bit harder to get groups on, and really harder to make work that well.

Also, THF very commonly subs NIN too. Honestly, nearly every DD job will, at some point or another, get asked to sub NIN. How great a choice it is varies on the job...but that won't stop people from asking XD

If you are really that averse to leveling NIN, and budget in general, I'd suggest looking at DRG. Sometimes you still may be asked, but usually DRG will sub WAR or SAM. They have an accuracy bonus, which doesn't negate the need for accuracy gear, but can offset the lack of it some. A lot of the enemies in popular XP camps these days are also weak to piercing damage, so polearm gets a native damage boost.
Long and short being that I've seen some very modestly geared DRGs compare rather well to much better equipped WARs and the like in XP. Across the entire spectrum of events? Nah. But in XP, the job performs admirably on a budget.

DRG also gets a series of Jump abilities that can help it avoid taking damage. If a WAR lands a big WS, she needs Seigan/TE or Utsu to avoid face tanking the mob. A DRG can jump and shed hate.

DRG can also use /mage for some better soloability than WAR has, and some different party setups, though usually it's just wanted as a DD.


That being said, money is not an issue that really goes away for most players. As an RPG, as an MMO, improving your character is a rather core element of FFXI. It's not always an easy process, it may take time, effort, and so on, but that can make it all the more satisfying when you are able to scratch something off your list.

If you want to be a WAR, and need NIN sub to make it work...then find a way to get it and go after it. That's part of what the game is. If you think raising another job first would be more enjoyable, then go for that instead.