The Way too Long Guide to Newbie LevellingFollow

I figure since there's a lot of newbies in my linkshell, plus a lot of influx from the X-box 360 release, it's time to touch a subject near and dear to my heart: the low level party.

Ahh, the low level parties, the stretch between 10-30 in which people trudge off to places unseen (or have seen too many times) and try to get experience points while maintaining their sanity.

Really, I know a lot of people hate the lower levels, but it's really one of the most freewheeling times in the game. Jobs are more flexible, if you let them. EXP losses from death aren't so bad. And gear doesn't hurt so bad.

So this is sort of my arrogant elitist guide for getting through those low levels with as little pain as possible, and hopefully one that both veterans and newbies will love and hate equally.



I) Before you head out.


Even at lower levels, what you get out of a party is dependent on what you put into it. Nobody should expect anyone to have top of the line anything for these battles, but a party with members who have food, the appropriate spells, and gear for their level will do better than a party of naked, starving people with level 1 weapons.

A) Subjob. Now, no one started with a subjob, so no one will blame you for not having it before 18, although you will probably be last on the invite list. However, for those who have already gotten it, start a good habit early and keep your subs leveled Not only does it let you play another job, but it give some great job abilities and some stat bonuses. A WAR/no sub can tank in the dunes, but a WAR/MNK with a leveled subjob has more HP, more VIT, more STR, as well as another tool for keeping hate.

As a note for more established players, remember that the subs that work great later on in the game, aren't necessarily best at this level. WAR/NIN, for example, is a great job combination at level 50 or higher, but WAR/MNK outshines it until 24 and possibly until you leave Kazham.


B) Gear. As I said, no one expects really great armor and weapons at this level. If you have it use it, but if you don't don't really sweat it. That said, do everyone a favor at get at least some decent gear. The level 10-12 armor for both melee and mages is pretty cheap and every little bit of defense helps. And I say this for both the newbies and the higher levels. As far as the teens and twenties goes, the worst equipped people are either the people on their first job, or the ones who are taking their last few jobs through the low levels.

For melee, weapons should be appropriate for their levels. A level 1 sword, spear, axe, whatever does less damage than a more up-to-date weapon. +1 is nice for higher damage and lower delay, but like I said, not necessarily. A special note for newbie warriors: As soon as you can, ditch the sword/shield combo and take up the Axe or Great Axe. And while THF should always keep their dagger skilled up, at these levels, Sword or Hand-to-hand will probably give you better numbers.

If you could possibly be expected to pull, carry some sort of ranged weapon on you. THF might get away with a boomerang, but bows and crossbows will also put up some nice numbers/give the mob some nice enfeebles in the process.

For mages, a wand that gives +mnd and +int or a staff that gives +mp are ideal. I prefer wand personally, but for jobs that depend totally on MP, a stave might be more appropriate. Although a staff wielding RDM is pretty much back line only, as they have no native staff skill. So's a wand wielding one, but to a lesser extent. Like with melee, +1 weapons are nice, but not essential).

When it comes to accessories, choices are a little more limited at the early levels. A lot of what is available is filler, but other things, if you get them HQ will last you a good long while. I'd go into individual slots and job recommendation, but just look at the stats that will help you the most, and then see if there's anything that's easy to get that'll enhance them early on.

Another note for the high-levels who have come back to 'slum it' (j/k really), particularly the Tarutaru ones: Astral Rings are an awesome pair of MP rings for many jobs as well as a great E-peen extender, just make sure that you can at least survive an AoE or getting a hit or two of hate before you put both on without discretion. Especially if you choose to go out naked, or nearly so. It's just not healthy.


C) Food. A subject, so very dear to my heart. Any food that enhances your important stats is a godsend, and it doesn't even have to be expensive. Meat Jerky is available from NPC for about 2k a stack and it lasts 6 hours, and makes a good attack boost for DD, while Jack-o-lanterns give Evasion and Accuracy. Although, if you really want to be pimp, Rice Dumplings will give you both a good amount of attack and Accuracy. Cookies and Juice can reduce downtime for mages, although some might prefer Mushrooms or Pies (or Pies +1 which are really worth it) for MND or INT and MP boosts. Tanks will want some sort of defense food, probably Boiled or Steamed Crab, or Fish Mithkabobs.

Yet another note that'll make the veteran's hate me for talking down to them: There's a lot of food that's good at high levels, that's really wasted before a certain point. Sushi, for instance, does not give enough benefit for the cost during the lower levels. Or, to use a magely example, while Marron Glace is a great MP food, since the actual bonus is +13% to Base MP, even an Apple Pie will see better MP gain if you have less than 250 or so MP.


D) Spells. For those casting jobs out there, for heaven's sake's have your spells ready. A lot of spells at these levels can be bought from NPC or AH for fairly cheap, or at the very least quested. Some you can get away with not having, some you can't. BLM can get by without Drain and Blaze Spikes, at least for the early levels, and WHM can skimp on some bar status spells (but not Barfira, Barwatera, and possibly Barstonra), but a BLM without the basic elemental spells and enfeebs, a WHM without all their cure spells, protectra, shellra, and their basic enfeebs, and a RDM without their sets of healing, enhancing, elemental and enfeebling spells, is seriously limiting their parties. Same applies to PLD and NIN. If you want to level NIN, do yourself a favor and quest those scrolls before ever leaving the MH with the intention to level in a party.


E) Other essentials. Signet is great to have, as it nets crystals and conquest points, as well as allowing you to show your patriotism to your home nation. A form of Warp, either from the spell itself, a scroll, or one of those Halloween staffs is nice for getting back home. Finally, an Empress Band to give yourself a little extra Boost is nice if you can afford the CP.



II) Getting the Party Started

So, you've got everything ready. Gear, weapons, food, spells, and the rest of the stuff mentioned. Next thing to do if you want to level in a party, is to either find or put together a party.

A) Looking for party. The obvious first step is to go unanon and put up your flag either using the 'seek party' command in the menu, or using the command /inv in your text box.

Beyond that, there's what you can do to get a party faster. The common newbie way to do this, is to run around the area where you want to party and advertise by /shouting. While this does give you something to do, it's not really effective or good for your image.

The most effective way to put yourself out there is to have a search comment, which will advertise more information than a shout, without being half as annoying. Go to the menu --> Search --> Edit Comment to write your own. Yes, there are typed commands as well, but they're kind of a hassle, I think. Well, anyway, search comments give you three lines to convey any information you want.

So what's good to put in a search comment?

1. Your TNL. (this is probably the most essential)
2. What groups you're willing to play with. JP only, NA only, English only, NA/JP/EU ok, etc.
3. What camps you can go to for that level range.
4. What roles you're willing or not willing to take. People might not listen, but it'll help your invites if people know you're capable of filling certain roles, and it'll cut down on invites for the roles you refuse to take on.
5. Who you come with. If you have a PL or a linkshell buddy leveling with you, let people know. And if you are seeking party with someone else, always make sure they have room for your friend.
6. Maybe something cute, if you're into being cute and you've covered all the useful stuff.

Note that some people advise that people looking for a group should send tells to party leaders in the right level range. I suppose it's a good way to get out there and you might get lucky, but I hate dealing with it as a party leader, as I'm full up or not EXPing when I get these /tells. Usually, the leader will send a /tell when they have a spot you can fill.


B) Forming a party. Say the invites aren't coming, or you're a more assertive type that doesn't mind leading a party, then it's time to venture into making your own.

The first part of this is to see what's seeking, and the fastest way is to type in:

/sea all inv minlevel-maxlevel

For example, if you are a level 12 WAR looking for a party you'd type in:
/sea all inv 10-13

This will give you a good range of people to pick from, hopefully. Now if you can, try to keep the highest and the lowest members within 2 levels, but don't feel afraid to stray to 3 levels if you're missing something vital. Just be sure to clear it with the lowest level first, since they're most likely to get the short end of the EXP stick.

Ideally, tanks and melee should be at the high end of the level range, while mages can be closer to the low end, but this really isn't a big deal if you don't fight mobs that are too tough for your party.

Otherwise, the exact set up is pretty flexible, as long as the party can: Deal damage, not die, and not spend too much time recovering. So that pretty much means you need 1. People who can kill the mob (DD), 2. A person who can keep the mob's attention while taking less damage than the rest of the party (a Tank), 3. People who can keep the party alive and keep it going (Healer). A Support job like BRD is optional, but they can do wonders for helping the party kill faster and keep things going.

As a leader, you'll need to find people who can fill all these positions. At these levels, before each job starts to really specialize, you have a lot of choices. A DD is someone who can do decent damage with spells or weapons, A Tank is someone with decent defense and armor with the job ability "Provoke" from a WAR sub. A healer is someone who has cure.

Note that if you want someone who isn't a classic 'tank' job or a 'healer job' to tank or main heal, ask them in /tell if they're willing to do the job you have in mind for them before you send the invite. Search comments can help figure out who to invite or not, but not a lot of people use them unfortunately.

My ideal for these levels is: Two mage jobs that can cure, with at least one of them having Cure 2. Two jobs with armor that can provoke, one of them preferably being a WAR, PLD, or NIN. One job with a ranged weapon than can pull, preferably the person who will not be main tanking. And then one job to fill in what you need, usually another DD.

Moving on...

Next thing to do is to start sending /tells to the people you'd like to invite, starting with the rarer jobs (Usually the Healer and Tank) and then moving on to the more common jobs (usually the Damage Dealers). It's nothing fancy, just ask if they'd like to party and give them the location. Or if you want to get Extra Credit from this Arrogant {Bio}tch, give all that and your current party set up, while speaking in literate English or Auto Translate speak and knitting socks for the entire Bastokan Army at the same time.

Under no circumstances do you invite someone without asking if they want to party first. It's another one of those neon signs that mark someone as inexperienced, and it's impolite besides. Not to mention, it gives people a sense of their impending doom.

Once they respond, you can invite them into your party if you're in the same region. The simplest way is to do a /sea all ((name)) and invite from there.

Do that until your party is full, and then head out to some great beyond and go from there. Oh heck, if you're like 99% of Vana'diel you'll go Valkurm Dunes --> Qufim --> Yuhtunga Jungle --> Yhoator Jungle for your 10-30 path.



III) Keeping the Party Going.

A) General. The point of a party is to essentially Kill the monster without getting killed, and preferably doing it quickly to get Experience Chains.

The higher level the mob is compared to you the more EXP you get, but the longer it will take to kill and the longer you'll have to rest afterwards. The more evenly matched you are compared to it, the less EXP per mob you get, but the faster you'll move between mobs.

My personal preference is to stay within a T, VT, low IT range for all monsters if possible. They'll give a decent amount of Exp per mob, but without the huge risks and downtime of the higher mobs.

For any zone, there's usually a limited number of camps and mobs available, and usually it's better to find a camp that's fairly isolated rather than camp on top of another party or two. It means more mobs available for you to kill, less lag from other people's battle spam, and no chance of getting hit from someone else's mobs' AoE move.


B) Communication. This is easily the difference between good and bad parties, as well as 'fun' and 'not fun' parties. Pullers should know when the healers are ready to pull, when someone is AFK and etc. Skillchains are optional at these levels, but they're fun to try for coordination purposes and to give any BLM or RDM practice for Magic Bursting. And a party that doesn't chat even a little bit is, IMNSHO, kind of boring.


C) Powerlevels. I can't say I'm fond of these higher level helpers, but I recognize that people are going to want and bring them anyway. So all I can do is maybe make a few suggestions about how to put that PL to use.

1. Unless the PL is likely to leave before the party ends, look for a more DD heavy party so the mobs die faster. Faster deaths is one way to get faster EXP that a lot of people overlook. Having two white mages in a PL party is not at all necessary and kind of harmful. even. If the PL is just around killing time, just go for a normal well-balanced set up.

2. Let the PL help out, but not get in the way of the party doing it's job. That is, a PL should still leave room for a WHM to heal and a Tank job to tank. I know a lot of people tell the healers and tanks to "Just let the PL do it," but giving the party room to do their job lets these people learn their jobs, get skill ups, as well as give you a good idea of whether this party could function if the PL needs to leave for some reason. Ideally a PL should let people fight on their own and only step in to save lives, clean up between mobs, take care of evil obstacles, and raise if need be.

3. Don't over-hunt. It's tempting to go after those tougher mobs, but don't. Yes, you could survive them better now without the risk, but the people killing those monsters are still your level, and thus they still die a lot slower than mobs that are more level appropriate.

4. A simple note: Make sure that whoever the PL is, they don't get aggro where you're fighting. It's kind of obvious, but meh. Which leads me to my last point:

5. Most importantly, PL is a privilege, not a right or a necessity. A well-prepared party can get good EXP without a powerlevel, and even a party where a few members are on the Ball can get decent EXP. This means that if one is available to you great, but don't go sending /tells to everything with a cure spell to PL you, or make it seem like they owe you a PL just because they happen to be WHM, RDM, or /WHM.

Phew, now that I got that rant out of the way.


D) Death. Oh yes, the big one, and it will happen, because something always goes wrong. It's sad I know, and stressful, and the cause of downtime, but really it's not a big deal. If you set your HP near your camp, you can Homepoint, Run to camp, and start earning your EXP back in the time it might take to get a raise and have Weakness wear off.

Really, the EXP loss isn't that bad. Don't be afraid to eat a death for the good of the party if there's no other choice. And it might be a little much to ask, but try to have a little bit of a sense of humor about dying rather than having a temper tantrum because you died once. Definitely don't start yelling at the people in your party.

Hopefully, deaths won't happen though and EXP will flow smoothly until it's time to break. Which leads me to the second to last section:



IV. Ending the Party.

A. Leaving the Party. Hey, we always have things to do, and few of us live to EXP grind, so there needs to be something about leaving the party.

First thing, let people know in advance if you need to leave. Everyone knows that emergencies come up, but if you have an LS event, or need to get to work, or some other scheduled thing, give people some notice. You might find out that other people have to go, and your leader has time to search for a replacement before you have to go.

Sencond thing, some leaders will ask you to find a replacement. If you can, try to find someone who will compliment the party well, or who can take your place, and wait until they arrive at camp before you go.

Finally, don't Ding and Ditch. If the party agrees to break after you level that's one thing. Or if you gave your notice in advance and happen to ding just before you have to go. It's a completely different thing to level up, and then either fake a disconnect or to suddenly have to go. I mean, besides the fact that you have no buffer, there might be no harm to you, but it's just rude to your party members.


B. Disbanding the Party.

If a lot of people have to go in a short period of time, or people are just getting tired, then stop looking for replacements and agree on a time to disband. Now is a good time to ask if anyone is close to leveling (usually within about 1k or so), and if so set the disband time for when they level and end the party with a bang. Once the party ends, it's the usual {Good Job}! {See you Again} {Take Care}.


Rinse and repeat until your job is no longer a low-level job, and you don't want the advice of an opinionated know it all to get through the dunes.



V. Extra Stuff

A. Alternate Camps: Believe it or not, Valkurm Dunes --> Qufim Island --> Kazham isn't the only path from 10-30. Worms in the Maze of Shakhrami and Korroloka Tunnel can work well for parties that have a lot of people with ranged attacks. While Buburimu is a less crowded version of the dunes, except with differential mobs.

The zones outside of Jeuno can replace Qufim and Kazham, although I'm not so familiar with alternate locations. Finally, even in Kazham, there are alternate camp sites that aren't by the zone. The Goblins by the outpost work for level 27-30ish as well as the Sahagin by Sea Serpent's Grotto near Norg. I encourage anyone to look around and try out alternate campsite, or at least let yourself be dragged somewhere new.


B. Modes of Transportation: The world is a big place without airship access or warp, but there's always ways of making thing easier. Once you have a chocobo license at level 20, you can chocobo from the three starter cities at level 15, although for only half the time. That should get you to any camp you need to get to though. Also teleports are good for crossing large spaces quickly. Outpost warps have level restrictions on them, but if you can so a supply quest to the Dunes before you hit level 20, when you do finally ding, you can just talk to the guy there and go back to your home nation.

Questions? Comments? Things to add? Feel free to post.

I may have just missed it, but in case it wasn't there.

NEVER DROP BEASTMEN SEALS!!!!!!

nice guide though.

Let me tell you, throughout the Valkurm Dunes, possibly Qufim Islands, and most definetly Yuhtunga Jungle, tanks are completely insignificant. Sure, a NIN might be nice for the WHM, and a PLD can occassionally save those BLMs, but they are not necessary at all. Instead, grab a damage dealer (galka or elvaan if you have the choice) and let them tank. This early, all the armor gives around the same defense so there is no real point for tanks. Parties go faster if there's, say, a monk tanking instead of a paladin.

Awesome job!

Bear in mind that /sea all at low levels is often very decieving, as you need to keep in mind where you are, look at where everyone who's LFG is, and think about modes of transportation accessible to people.

For instance, if you're off in the dunes, you should hesitate to invite someone in Tahrongi Canyon. Someone seeking in Jeuno, though, may very well know what they're doing and can get teleported out of there. People seeking in your zone are of course the best, with the second-best being people seeking in neighboring zones.

An exception to the above is at high Dunes levels, at which point people seeking in Jeuno may instead be looking for parties in Qufim.

Additionally, bear in mind if you're in Elishmo (the Kazham area) looking for party members that not everyone seeking in Jeuno will have access to the area. People often indicate that they do in their search message, or make it obvious by travelling to Elishmo. A popular scheme is to go to Elishmo but have your homepoint set in Jeuno. If you're needed for a party in Jeuno, you can warp (or death warp) back. Just make sure to be polite and set your home point in Kazham if you're invited to an Elishmo party.