Final Fantasy XIFinal Fantasy News

Ok, considering I’ve been pestering people for leveling guides and places I could go to kill stuff…I figured I’d help some newbies out with a level by level account of where to go to level.

Unfortunately, I can only really provide a specific guide for Windurst. I can give suggestions of what I’ve heard for Bastok, but nothing for San d’Oria…sorry.

First, my credentials:
Currently, I’m a Taru taru with level 20 Black Mage, level 12 White Mage, level 8 Theif, and level 5 warrior. I’ve completed sub job, eco warrior, and chocobo quests (just the lengthy ones that are a pain…tons of little stupid quests). I’ve done up to mission 4, will be doing mission 5 tonight. I have something like 20k in gil…depending on what sells tonight. I’m also in a link shell. Not bragging, because lord knows that’s meager enough as is. Just showing that I know enough to help people just starting out.

Windurst::

Ok, first, I’d have to say that you should start by getting signet cast on you. So many people forget to do this…they think it doesn’t matter. Guess what…it does, and it always will. I see lots of high level people going out without signet too…now I could understand if you’re going some place far from your residence. But if you plan on leveling up subjobs, let me tell you, you’ll be pretty much heading to the same areas again and again…therefore getting them under your country’s control is in your best interest. Selling crystals is your best friend…it’ll be the only way you’ll be able to finance your spells and gear for quite some time.

Last thing before I get to the leveling guide, a note about equipment. Seriously…don’t bother. I’ve found it’s really a waste of your gil and your time. It won’t make you capable of tanking…it will marginally improve your chances of soloing after level 8. That is of course, you pick an inferior mage race That being said, try to pick up a Robe, then a tunic, then a Royal Footmen’s tunic. Generally….anything that gives +int…buy it. Don’t bother wasting gil on anything else (unless you check and see that you can make profit by buying something at a vender and selling it on the AH…robe and tunic come to mind). Moving on::

Levels 1 -3:
Spend your time in East Sarutabaruta right outside town. Rest any time your mana gets low – you’ll start to notice that you have to rest more than any of your non-mage friends. Welcome to the world of mages…it doesn’t get any better until you start using ‘ga spells to kill everything on your screen. Until you do that…prepare to be jealous of warriors, monks, theives, or anything else that isn’t a mage.

Levels 4-5:
These levels you can stop killing the ridiculously easy stuff and move on to rarabs (and the occasional mandragora / bee). The best place I found is if you make your immediate right coming out of the gate to east saruta – some people will probably be fishing there, but other than that, I’ve found this area to be pretty much empty, allowing you to kill at your leisure (sometimes lotsa noobs are on so it can be hard to get the higher exp granting kills)

Levels 6-8:
Now’s the time you can move on to Yagudo’s and Crawlers. Once you get water, you’ll find the mobs start to fall a little quicker…but you’ll still be resting a lot. You can also take out crows with ease by now, but before taking on ANY mob that you’ve never faught before, make sure you’re at full hp/mp and see how much it takes to kill them. I’d wait till level 7 or even 8 to kill crawlers – not because they’re that hard, but because they tend to poison you…can’t tell you how many times I died when I had like 29 hp or more left and it just clicked down. Very frustrating. Good spots abound the areas north of the gate. Go towards the entrance to Tahrongi canyon to get progressively harder creatures. The best place I found was actually in West Sarutabaruta, but only because less high level people run threw there and take your crawlers (these things a gems to kill because they drop Silk Threads – precious things used in crafting….a dozen sold for 9k but a few weeks ago, but us silly americans have driven it down to 7900 last I heard. Still a pretty penny considering how easy they are to kill).

Levels 9-10:
These were the hardest 2 levels for me. You aren’t yet high enough to party up reliably to kill things that give enough exp, but unfortunately…this is when you start to really only be to kill things that con as easy to you. Pain in the butt to fight stuff like this over and over and over. A good place for this is the outside of Giddeus. It’s on your West Saru map, and when you enter, make a right first, and keep running. Run across the river you come across and stay towards the right. Keep going until you see a Yagudo NPC that doesn’t attack. Camp right in the place you came, rest there when you need, and just sit back and nuke Yags as they spawn. Bind helps a lot.

HOWEVER: While leveling my black mage AND my white mage, I managed to get lucky for the most part. At level 9 for blm and level 8 for whm, I managed to hook up with 6 people the same level as me. With 1 person with voke, and at least 1 white and black mage, you can CHAIN dhalmels at level 8. Yes, you heard me, Level 8. It takes some nice team work, and preferably 2 black mages, 2 vokers, and 1 whm. The black mages should preferably have whm subs so that they can heal if need be, but you can see how many combinations you could work that would be able to chain dhalmels. If you manage to get lucky, I suggest the North West area of Tahrongi Canyon (by the entrance to Meriphaut Mountains (sp?)). There’s enough dhalmels here to feed 2 groups consistently enough to make you need to rest before the chain dies. The highest I’ve managed at this level was 5. In a full party of 6, dhalmels should get you to about level 12 if your real lucky, 11 if your party gets bored.

Levels 11-12:
You have a choice as a black mage. If you’re in a party you can trust and you guys have some time, head over to Buburimu Pennisula and camp inside the Outpost right in the beginning. Start pulling sylvestres and the occasional Mighty Rarab. Only do this if you have 1 or more voker, and 1 or more whm that you know knows how to heal. Melee characters who know how to renki are a plus but not mandatory. Be careful of gobs, and make sure all mages stay well away from mob (just about of the ones in the area have some sort of Area of Effect spell). I have many friends who swear by this area. I was here with my whm – it’s not that bad. To be honest, if those of you reading this aren’t black mages…this is the place to be with a party without a lot of black mages.

Those of you reading that actually are Black Mages, get a white mage and as many other black mages as you can together. Go to Shakrami Maze (if you don’t know where that is…just follow the crowd of people going to North Eastern Tahrongi Canyon). Band up and kill Maze Makers. I went from level 11 to level 17 in less than 24 hours ( 2 sessions of playing ) including 2-3 deaths. Once you get fire they really do become a joke. 2 black mages that play it smart can take on MM’s from level 13 to level 19 in ridiculously short amounts of time. As a black mage, this is where you should spend your time. Why? Because each maze maker will give 200 exp to a full party of 6 up to level 14.
Hints for killing Maze Makers:
once you have a maze maker claimed (it may be difficult during rush hours), run away. Slowly approach and continue trying to cast a spell until you are at the very edge of your spell casting range. Procede to nuke.
If the maze maker starts casting Rasp, or Bind, back up a few steps and wait for the cast animation to go away. Go back to max range and continue nuking.
With the new changes in how claiming a monter work, make sure you stagger the attackers on the maze maker so that at all times someone is attacking it and another person is resting. Watch out for Stonega – it can be a doozy at the lower levels.

Levels 16-20:
For those of you that get sick of the maze, or are just frustrated from running from gob trains someone created (or running from ghouls, as that happens too), level 17 is the perfect time to head off to Selbina to start your search for the Subjob quest items. In one night, I was able to hook up with some level 19s and get all 3 subjob items and level to 18. To get to Selbina, go through the Buburimu Pennisula and into Mhaura (a town). There, talk to the people near the water to buy a boat ticket (100 gil). The boat takes you to selbina, and directly outside selbina are the Valkurm Dunes. Another great place to level – just stay away from Pugils until later levels 19 and 20 – they can be painful without a group that knows how to renki.

Passing Remarks:

Once you hit level 8-9ish, if you can hook up with a party of 6, do it. Black Mages are party creatures – for leveling purposes, they thrive in a party where all they have to do is waste MP. If you really have to, you can solo things with Bind (and luck), but really…it’s not worth it. I die more times simply because your spells get interupted, your Fire suddendly decides to do 3 damage instead of 45…etc. Swallow your pride and learn to look for parties. As a black mage, it really shouldn’t be too hard.

Spells:
I’ve found the the only spells I really use are the top 3 elemental spells for my level (at level 20 that’s Blizzard, Fire, Aero, in that order…soon to be Thunder, Blizzard, Fire) really at all. The other spells seem to not really do much. The ones with MOST effect, hoever, are as follows:
Poison – at lower levels, it doesn’t do much damage. at higher levels…it doesn’t do much damage. Just use this to get your enfeebling skills up so that when you sub a whm your dia will own
Blind – probably the only useful enfeebling spell I’ve bought. Actually makes ITs miss….which can save a lot of MP for your whm, allowing your chains to go longer
Bind – really the only way you’re going to be able to solo anything after level 8 or 9 unless you picked a galka blm….and if you picked a galka blm….good luck getting invites.
Other than that….the enfeebles seem to be useless. I hear good things about Bio, but A) You’ll have 0 dark skill when you get it, therefore it’ll be a while before it becomes anything but a waste of mp and B) it doesn’t stack with Dia, which is a much better spell to begin with. Therefore, if you plan on subbing a whm or a rdm (really the only 2 logical choices if blm is staying your main), don’t bother getting Bio. Shock has been useless, rasp has been useless, and poison is only good to keep your enfeeble going up.

A note on ‘ga’s. Don’t bother getting these until at least level 24. Until then, you can’t even really take hits of mobs much lower level than you (because you’ll have ridiculously bad gear for your level unless you skimp on spells….maybe not buying those enfeebles would’ve helped me in that respect), so just wait until you’re high enough level to Train quadov’s in the Palbourough Mines in Bastok (I hear you can make GREAT money doing this) and cast Waterga and Aeroga a few times and kill them all.

 

Bastok:

Not nearly as much info on bastok, but I do have to say that it seemed like crystals dropped much more frequently here. Maybe that was just my imagination…also….again, be wary of Rock Lizards – you may be able to kill them without dying off the bat…but a lot of the times their poison will finish the job.

Good luck and have fun leveling