Guard Skill Up

[Cail]

Hey my monk is 52, and my guard skill is only 44. I wanna try to start skilling it up, but im not sure where a good spot would be. Also, what do people consider to be good gear for skilling guard?

[Sefier]

Mandies in jungles, Usually mnk mobs or mnk type mobs are best, i think people usually wear -status gear to increase rate of proc, but not sure if guard gets increased by something like agi/vit.

[Metah]

I would figure AGI would increase Guard rate just like Parry/Shield/Evasion? Although, checking the wiki now seems to show no evidence of it...

[Max™]

Yeah, pretty sure Agi modifies it.

Get a friend who is really bored and patient, have them keep you cured while you plow through mobs 3-5 levels higher than your what your Guard skill cap would be if they were EM.

Bonus points for getting 5 or 6 mobs sightlinked onto you, so you can't lose hate, while you target a distant mob and just get wailed on.

45 Mnk, 47 Guard so far just from soloing.

[Carnusty]

<- MNK75, my guard's at like 95.


keke <_< I counterstanced alot so didn't get guard skill much ._.

[kazekuroifrit]

http://youtube.com/watch?v=MP5rA_xZKWU

Here's a video by Elmer the Pointy that shows some nice techniques for skilling guard. Albeit it's as a Puppetmaster, it's still relevant considering the fact that Guard will skill the same. You can garner ideas as to where to start leveling you Guard Skill from his video, as well as some equipment choices.

I will say though that from my experience +AGI equip has a bigger impact on Guard Skill ups then -AGI would. Also at lower levels, one of the problems with trying to skill Guard is overcoming Evasion, so I would recommend wearing - Evasion equipment. Also another thing that will help is wearing any +Guarding Skill equipment you could muster up. There's not alot at lower levels, but it helps later on as you start to get more Guarding Skill equip. I haven't used the /PUP earring for +5 skill, and not really sure if subbing Puppetmaster on MNK would give much of a benefit to skilling up Guard except for having your Automaton to Cure you. Which I suppose is a little better then /WHM and always getting your casting interupted.

VIT/Defense foods help as well, but I rarely use them myself.

I need to remember where all I skilled before I can make an accurate list and skill level ranges of where you should go, but most commonly people just say, start in Yuhtunga Jungle, or Buburimu Pennisula. A good idea is try level you Guard on Mandragora mobs, as they attack fast, and they give you alot of chances to get Guard Skill ups. I also should caution that exp parties would not appreciate you skilling on mandragoras near the exp party camps in Yuhtunga Jungle, so I would suggest finding some that no one is exping off of. After that, try the island in bibiki bay, and from there, I suppose Robber Crabs. There's somewhat of a gap between 40-60 mobs, so it's hard to say where to go after the Alraune. I kind of just wandered around, tried spiders in Quicksand Caves (got up to 150 there I believe) and then went for Robber Crabs in Kuftal Tunnel, and noticed Mandragoras on the first floor of Boyahda Tree were close to that level Range.

After you stop getting lots of skill ups from the bottom floor Mandragora, the next target I suggest is Steelshell. At the moment I'm having a hard time because Steelshell still give me skill ups rarely, and Korrigan were giving me skill ups but they seemed to have slowed down. Elder Goobbues also work, but they can floor you fast if you're not careful. Having an NPC full leveled with Soothing Healer would be a good idea before considering to go to the Tree.

After the tree however, I think the last place you can go to skill up on Mandragoras would be the Pucks in Den of Rancor. However the problem there is that you can't bring an NPC with you into that place. So you need friends who are willing to come along and cure you. I think this is after 236. I was reading on Killing Ifrit in this Guarding thread a while back that some guys went from Korrigan to Pucks around there.

If you want to know my skill, here it is. 218.3 (I record the stuff after the decimal on my own after I get skill ups, usually recorded in my Bazaar).

Here's a link to a screenshot of my Guard Skill without any guard skill equip.

http://www.geocities.com/guntouxl/im...806_020733.png

Hope I've helped a little on determining where to go. One thing I've learned though, is when you're targeting mobs, don't factor in the numbers that your Guard + equip gives your Guard Level. Fight stuff that your base guard level can skill off of. Otherwise you'll just end up wasting alot of time.

[Appie]

Little addition to Kaze's stuff:

You could skill on Mourioche in Boyahda from your level of guard to about 200-210, though you're only lv 52 so that won't work. After that instead of steelshells head to Aydeewa, on the route to Hydra around G-10 is a patch with about 7 fleas, good for skill up till like 230. Korrigans to 250 or so, then Pucks to cap.

I think Mire and Thickets have some fleas for the Mourioche and Korrigan/Puck range, but I didn't use 'em.

If you're serious about skilling it, get a mage to dualbox (or somebody who is nuts and wants to watch you do this for hours), Arhat's body and head (Jelly Ring would be nice too), around +40 guard skill in gear, defence/vit where you can't put -dmg or skill and it should go pretty well.

[Altanass]

i've been getting slow but decent skill ups just levelling pup solo off EP and DC's,

28 to 60 guard while going level30to40~

i have been wearing as much evasion gear as i can as I dont wanna die lol and levelling guard wasnt my intention, but oddly i have noticed, but it might be due to chat-lag, that i get guard skill ups even when the mobs misses me, which is odd >_>

the slow skill up rate is fine for me as i like to solo and it will take a long time for me to get 75

i would recommend you
a) join endless skill up parties
b) level pup to 37 and sub it^^
c) forget about it and level it when you get to 75 and can have a fun time solo down some place like sea serpent grotto

[Shuemue]

Suck up to a RDM for Phalanx II and cures, that way you'll handle a ton more mobs on you.

[Cail]

ty for all the help/ideas!

[Rena]

i have been wearing as much evasion gear as i can as I dont wanna die lol and levelling guard wasnt my intention, but oddly i have noticed, but it might be due to chat-lag, that i get guard skill ups even when the mobs misses me, which is odd >_>

That definitely does happen, I've seen it myself several times, and I remember reading about it... somewhere, sometime. I think ombs can do the same too, as I've had WS miss mandragoras while still giving me 6 TP return.