Very nubbish questions...

[Ikith]

Ok bear with me because I haven't played FFXI in 2 years and have forgotten everything EXCEPT autorun.

1. I started a warrior and I know I'll end up in a tank position sooner or later so what weapon should I use? Sword and Shield or Great axe?

2. If great axe do I switch to SnS when tanking or just stick all the way through?

[Thulius]

Recent 2-handed weapon buff made gaxe amazing, I'd stick with it all the way from 5 to 75, tanking or not. Don't use swords before 70, and only after if you have a joyeuse (and sword merits) or ridill. Skill up axe later if you want, though it's hardly required.

[Septimus]

You need to level Great Axe and Axe. With the two-handed buff you probably can hold off on Axe for a while, but you will want to have it for the delicious Rampage fun.

P.S. Don't do Sword and Shield, if you need a Shield, use Axe as your weapon.

[ringthree]

You need to level Great Axe and Axe. With the two-handed buff you probably can hold off on Axe for a while, but you will want to have it for the delicious Rampage fun.

P.S. Don't do Sword and Shield, if you need a Shield, use Axe as your weapon.

Yeah, end-game where you will be in about 2 weeks with the way people level now, you will need Axe and Great Axe leveled because they both have their uses endgame.

[SephYuyX]

Use GA to 55, no question, and sub thf, screw nin. I never subbed nin before 55 and no one cared. SA SW is badass. After 55 its up to you if you wanna continue to use GA or go dual axe, and maybe even grabbing a bloodsword for skillups (and its not really that bad of a weapon). Id said GA to 55, Axe/Bloodsword if you want for awhile and get some free skillup, then Axe/Axe, then back to GA when you get meditate. Meh, it's what sounds fun atleast.

[Kyupi/Kij]

I'll throw in my two cents because I did basically what you did (25 now, omg noob). Note that I've never leveled Warrior past 37. LOL!

Don't bother with sword, use it on another job or something. Even with noobs, as long as you pull your own weight, you'll level up too quickly to cap 2, let alone 3 weapons. Great Axe is utter hax, and the haxness in relation to other things that are not 2h weapons only increases by level from what (little) I've seen. I got into Jungle yesterday and I would start off fights with Sturmwind just to make the tank feel bad - I think the damage, straight up, is what it was with SATA before. (Then the Mandra would hit me with its puny onion head, making me take 20 damage with Berserk up, and I would laugh at its feeble efforts. Mwahaha!)

That said, having a shield is nice for those parties where you are inevitably told to tank, since everyone is leveling everything BUT Warriors (or at least so it seems on Seraph), and early on shields help a lot to keep you from eating the mmm-mmm good Valkurm sand. Count on tanking sooner rather than later. What I did was start with Axe/Shield, and when people started leveling and were able to deal with the loss of the damage reduction, or when I got tired of feeling gimp, I'd switch to Great Axe and start roughing things up. Rawr.

But yeah, that's the only reason to use Axe while leveling from what I've seen/heard - because you'll have to tank if no one else wants to. I'm personally going to let it fall by the wayside once I can start casting Utsusemi, and just go skill up with it later - if I even need to. D=

Just to offer a second opinion, I'm also a big fan of /NIN because it lets you go nuts with whatever you have, whenever. I mean, you're not gonna fight those puny Mandras forever. Also, same thing applies above - people are going to ask you to tank because they're ALL leveling jobs that are not-tanks, and a good WAR/NIN, or two, or three, our four makes your front line more durable than... well... anything, till level 37 (and then it's a front line of Ninjas poking something to death I guess, lol). AND they deal despicable damage because of superior job traits at those levels. I really don't get the post-24-25 WAR/NIN hate; from my experience, here's why I think that's why a lot of parties at that level can't get close to the 10k/hour mark even with NQ gear: "no BRD" and "not enough WAR/NIN."

[shirizaan]

It depends really. You say that you're going to go into one of the advanced tanking jobs? That would mean Ninja or Paladin. I don't have Paladin leveled, so I can't speak to that but I can tell you the weapons you should focus on if you choose Ninja.

• Katana (Always the primary weapon of Ninjas.)[/*:m:39rvt9eb]
• Sword (Used for the Spirits Within weapon skill to generate hate on NMs like those found in Tu'Lia.)[/*:m:39rvt9eb]
• Staves (Earth Staff is used to reduce the amount of damage taken when tanking.)[/*:m:39rvt9eb]

Like all things in this game, weapons types are purely situational so it doesn't hurt to have all of them maxed out.