Distance

Distance
Distances within FFXI are measured in terms of a unit of distance called the yalm, commonly indicated with the ' symbol. Precise distances are only accessible through third-party programs, but FFXI provides various clues for judging distance without them.

The distances listed as "maximum" are actually just past the maximum range; for instance, a player can use a Ranged Attack at 24.9', but not 25'. It is important to note that many actions' maximum distance are affected by the size of the enemy model; you can melee a Tavnazian Ram from a greater distance than a Tunnel Worm.

If you are fighting an enemy that uses AoE special attacks, it is very useful to know the range of its attacks so you can stay outside of it. Here are some examples:

Positioning
Because of the specific ranges of each ability, many of the more difficult battles in the game require very delicate positioning of players. In addition to the various AoE attacks, there are also Cone Attack which are directional in nature.

To the right is a scale diagram of a tank and a monster. Around the monster are three circles. The inner circle is the 10' radius, the middle is 15', outer is 20'. These are the three most common ranges for AoE attacks. Around the tank is one circle with radius of 20.8' which is the maximum range for Cure. As you can see, if the monster has both Cone Attack as well as 20' AoE attacks, there is only a very small area in which healers can stand (the green area) which allows them to avoid splash damage and still heal the tank.

Distance and Ranged Attack
The accuracy and damage of Ranged Attacks varies with the distance from the enemy. For damage, each weapon type has a distinct "sweet spot" for maximum damage.


 * The sweet spot also varies with the size of the enemy; it will be farther away if the enemy is larger.
 * Longbows and shortbows may have different sweet spots, though the table does not currently reflect that.
 * These values were calculated before the Ranged Attack "un-nerf" patch.
 * The current ranged attack system doesn't impose distance penalty to the final damage. Instead, it imposes the distance penalty to ranged attack value.