Leveling in the Dunes (LONG!)Follow

I can't claim to be an expert in this game, not having a single job that's gone past 34 as of yet. But I have spent a lot of time leveling in the Valkurm dunes, and there's been some things I've noticed.

1) Level Ranges
Obviously, the smaller the level range the better. But when you're in the dunes you're probably level 12-20, and at these low levels every one level makes a huge difference. I've decided that to get decent exp. (chains of 2-3 for about 300-400 exp before a full rest) you really want to have all of your damage dealers (excluding possibly BLM) within 1 level of each other. If not, you're going to be pulling an IT mob to the highest level character that no one else can hit, making the battle very difficult and more time-consuming than it needs to be. It's not because of the experience difference that a large level range is so bad, it's because the fights are significantly more difficult when the mob is level 24 and you're just a level 15 monk (if the highest level was, say, 18). In parties with a high level range I usually end up fighting a bunch of easy stuff (tough to highest level) and just trying to keep a chain going. Unfortunately this is boring, at least to me and most of the people I play/have played with. Difficult battles for high exp are much more exciting that rote easy battles for consistent low exp.

2) Parties
All you need is a healer and a provoker. One healer, one provoker. Everything else can really be anything (anything sensible, not 4 bards or something). You do not NEED two WHMs (though some prefer it), though a secondary provoker is nice, and a backup healer (mostly to heal the WHM in emergencies) is also nice. If you can get a Bard get one. Paeon is amazingly helpful, Paeon II isn't fair when you first get it. Rangers are rare, but incredibly helpful as they can find whatever you want and make excellent pullers anyway. This is just my personal opinion, but if you have a subjob, don't be afraid to invite people without subjobs. I definitely find them to be less skilled in the sense that they're not sure how to do skillchains and may not understand how a battle should flow, but if they're willing to listen and learn they will a) be really helpful in the PT, b) learn a lot, and c) pick up some of the subjob items. In my experience, the best people that don't have subjobs tend to be warriors, and the worst are RDMs (they all just want to do one thing, melee or nuke or, rarely, heal. RDMs have to do all three at these early levels to be used to their potential). I still invite RDM/nothing though.

3) Battle Order
The very first thing every party should do before starting to seriously try to level is "warm up". I never start any serious fights without having the party have a few battles to get attuned to one another. The worst thing is being in newly formed party and having the leader tell the puller to "find an IT, I want 200". Start with a tough or an even match. It will have a hard time killing anyone in the party and it allows everyone to be familiarized with their role. Most parties have different fighting styles, and it can take a few fights for your party to get "in sync". Once you've gone through at least one battle where everything happened as it should (puller did his job, Main Tank did her job, WHM didn't disconnect mid battle and SAM didn't use his two hour "because it's so fun!!1!") start trying to test your limits. At this low of a level it's hard to get really high exp. chains that are worthwhile, so my ideal pull order is VT - T - T - IT or just VT - T - IT. Depending on the party's skill level and job combinations -- some combinations are better than others of course -- it may be difficult to start with a VT, you'll just have to see.

4) What to fight
After trying numerous methods, I've come to one conclusive...um, conclusion. DON'T FIGHT SHEEP. Some people fight 'em and say they can make it work, I ignore them. Other than that, lets see. When you're just starting in the dunes, you're going to want to take hill lizards or cute bunnies (they are not harmless, trust me) right at first. I'd suggest this for a PT of 12-ish. Both have annoying abilities though - the hare has a devastating AoE attack and blinds people (which you can't get rid of until 14 WHM) and the hill lizards can petrify, which means you must have a secondary provoker. Fortunately, you can start the goblins soon after this point. The easiest gobs tend to be the Ambushers, though it's important the puller understands that they are ranged and that he'll need to run past the group so the gob hits the camp spot. I like to start fighting clippers at around 14 if I've got a good BLM or two. The clippers are the nicest enemy that you'll fight since they don't have any devastating attacks...only sometimes discouraging defense. Side note here, highlight of my career was on an IT snipper. It was giving us trouble so I used my SAM two hour and weapon-skilled him like crazy...for 0 damage...three times. The clipper's high defense doesn't become an issue until it uses it's special abilities that boost it's DEF and lower your STR. You can fight clippers on both of the beaches near Selbina (good but crowded), or at a variety of areas in the I-7 location. If you're fighting on the beach, don't fight the Pugils or leeches yet. At 16-17 fighting in front of Selbina is great. Damselfly's, easy gobs (tinkerer, ambusher, butcher) and some hard gobs (leecher, mugger, gambler). Make sure you silence Leechers and Gamblers, and if you're fighting goblins the WHM should cast BarFira (lvl 17) if possible. If you're fighting damselfly's, a WHM as healer is essential as Curaga will be used after the majority of the fights (and WHMs don't be afraid to use it and divine seal for a benediction like effect. If three+ people are missing 80+ hp or more, use Curaga, it's more mana efficient and time efficient). The ability to watch for on the damselfly's is Cursed Sphere. At around 17-18, some people like to head to the NW corner of the Dunes. I've never done this, as I like to head to Qufim early and I don't mind hanging out near Selbina.

5) When to Zone
One rule: When the healer says "ZONE!!!", you zone. In an ideal situation the mob will be bound, slept, or somehow detained as you zone, but if it's following you back you're going to want to make sure it's on your tank. If you're the tank, that means you need to provoke it to make sure you're the one getting hit as everyone runs away. If the situation is hopeless, take one for the team and run away from the zone so everyone else will make it OK. Trust me, the exp. loss is worth the feeling of nobility. Hopeless situations are rare though, so don't give up too quickly. Healers, making the call to zone can be tough. Obviously, if you're fighting an IT and another IT links, it's time to zone. But even if you're in a difficult battle an a VT or sometimes a T links, you're going to have to zone unless you've got someone that can sleep, bind, or deal with links in some other way. No one can say when to zone and when not to, it's too
conditional. Just make a call and make sure everyone follows (and hears you, ZONE ZONE ZONE!!! <call3> works).

6) Side Note: Subjob items and Night in Valkurm
If you started your subjob quest in Selbina, there are three items you need to collect: crab apron, damselfly worm, and magicked skull. Crab apron drops from snippers (surprise). Damselfly worm drops from...Damselflys! Magicked skulls drop from Ghouls, which only spawn between 20:00 and 4:00 game time and spawn most often in the I6-J7 area (in my experience). I honestly recommend fighting ghouls in Gusgen Mines as they are much more plentiful, but that's more dangerous. You can also find ghouls in the NW Horutoto Ruins (G-7), and Shakhrami Maze.

Wow, I can't believe how long this got. Clarification: I say healers rather than WHMs because I am of a firm belief that a RDM can be a main healer, especially when taru and/or subbed with WHM. If you've actually read this whole thing, feel free to agree or disagree or add information that I might have missed. Comments much appreciated :)

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Aaero, Taru on Valefor
BLM 34, WHM 16, RDM 25, SAM 14

Thanks to those who have helped make this better, edit 1/21.

Edited, Wed Jan 21 15:07:01 2004 by aaero

"Don't fight sheep"

Fighting sheep is something that people don't really understand. It's AWESOME experience and you can easily handle the fight if you know how to do it correctly.

You need a decent party, (whm, rdm, couple 'vokers, blm/damage dealers).

Pull the sheep to a spot just barely within spell range of your healer/casters. Have your melee people fight the mob at that distance, allowing healers to heal and casters to use offensive spells. If your casters draw agro, use provoke and drag the mob back away from the casters. It's essential that atleast one caster remains outside of the AoE range so that they don't get sleeped by the sheep. It's really pretty easy to remain out of range of the sheep if you pay attention to the battle. Many people in the dunes who encounter sheep don't realize you can wake somebody up by casting cure on them. If you have casters who don't get sleeped by the sheep, simply cast cure right after the sleep AoE goes off and wake your provoker. After that, you can work on waking the others as the provoker gets the sheep back under control. With just a little organization, you can chain sheep for HUGE experience. Don't fear sheep, they are easy as long as you fight with your head.

I'll actually top this post...

Don't go to valk, bring your party to buburimu.

Lower levels, fight mighty rarabs and pygmiaois.

Move on to lower leveled gobs (ambusher, butcher). From then on move on to snippers which are plentiful on the beaches. When you outgrow that, either go after pugils in the same area, or fight higher tiered gobs, such as gamblers/leechers/muggers.

Just stay away from Dalmels and Crawlers for the time being... leeches too, although i'm not sure about their level.

As an example, last night with my ranger:
180+ people in valkrum by the time i convinced my PT to move.
9 in buburimu.

Yeah. 9.

When we got there, we had the WHOLE AREA to ourselves.

Let me heartily say, **** valkrum :P

nice post, i hope some ppl read it that are going to the dunes. very useful info, i've leveled 3 times there and still learned a few new tricks, and also i'll try out buburimo and see how that is. bump for the newbies to read.

agree with everything except the sheep comment.

Sheep are wussy as hell. As long as you don't get slept and have a high dmg pt. They drop quite fast and are better xp than flies, etc.

People who have cruddy pt's with 4 warriors and other randomly mangled together jobs combos make up this wide conception about sheep being bad.

Put it simple. Sheep are easy if you know what you are doing.

Thanks for the input again everyone. Maybe I'll add this as a post to the Valkurm Dunes map page. I didn't know all the ghoul locations, so I'll add those in there...I'm still not convinced on sheep though. I guess I'll have to change that to say "I don't fight sheep". Same thing with the WHM situation, enough people have told me they prefer having 2 WHM that I think it's a personal preference thing. I just didn't want people thinking it was a necessity (as some do).

Quick side rant:
I duoed with a newb warrior up in ghelsba as a WHM. He started telling me about how he had organized an alliance to fight in the dunes...6 WHM, 3 WAR, 3 THF. One WHM for every melee, he said, you couldn't go wrong! Needless to say this is overkill, and it didn't work out.

Thanks for reminding me about silencing gamblers and for the most part avoiding leeches. Both good points. Barfira is also a good idea =)

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Aaero, Taru on Valefor

pretty good info.

i do have to say, as a preference on my part, that i like renkeis and during dunes is when you should learn how to be a part of one if you're in the melee. if you're a mage type, learn the magic burst.

i have seen the right renkei damage about 25-50% of an IT mob's HP in dunes and qufim. this is why i'm more in support of the T-T-T-VT/IT pull chain. the toughs allow everyone to build up TP then go for a VT/IT mob with renkei.

with such a pull chain, you can have 200-400 exp before resting.

as for sheep, i think they are fine too but the group needs to know how to fight them. as a general rule, i like to make sure the main tank (who will most likely be awaken by the sheep attack, not always but most likely) can kill a hurt sheep on his own in case that everyone is asleep. if this isn't possible then i prefer the group not bother with sheep.