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Final Fantasy XI Discussion Board	Discussion Boards -> General
skill limits-Guarding

From: blaackstone Guest Posted: 2006-02-10 12:08:46	Reply Quote
Does anyone know why I have such a difficult time getting my Guard skill to improve? I'm a lvl 18 monk and have no subjob yet. According to the caculator I max out at around 50. For whatever reason I'm kinda stuck at 24. Evasion and Hand to Hand are maxed out, so I'm really not understanding why it won't improve.

From: Achika Guest Posted: 2006-02-10 17:42:15	Reply Quote
Guarding is a pain to level. You have to be tanking first off, have your weapon, then you have to get hit, and then the Guard actually has to activate. Don't worry too much about getting Guarding capped. At 61, my Guarding should cap at 207. I have 85. =p I've heard it's only like 10% chance of guarding with a fully capped skill, but I'm not sure if that's right or not. =x

From: Ghlin
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Posted: 2006-02-12 07:17:13

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I'm leveling MNK and I'm soloing it in order to keep my guard skill capped. I'm level 25. Skill is 70. Cap is 75. It has taken roughly an hour per skill.

In order for a skill to increase you have to be battling a monster that is Even Match to your current skill level. This is actually why Guarding in particular is so hard to cap. Listen: Your skill is half what it should be. So you have to fight half levelled monster for the best chance for your Guard ability to trigger and skill up. This is a problem because Guarding is the last thing that will even have a chance to happen. It has to first Hit you, then not get counterattacked, then after it gets passed those to walls you're still not that likely to guard at all. On top of this, even *if* you do guard the attack, you're not guaranteed a skill up. In fact, it takes many successful guards before you get skill up of even .1. .2s and .3s are the best I've ever got.

There is hope. In your case, I would buy Buburimo Graps. They do AGI down. This will make it easier for lower level monsters to hit you. Also, get two Bone Earrings for evasion down. Don't equip any evasion up. Set out for a low level area.

Here is how to do small monsters. Engage one monster. Un-lock the target. Engage another monster. Un-lock the target. One monster's name will be red. The other's will be gold. Make sure the monsters are not on the same side as the other. Now, Face the golden named monster (aka the unclaimed one). You will now be able to just stand there and get attacked.

Let me re-explain. You need to monsters aggresive to you. You want them on opposite sides of you. You don't want to be attacking either one. So you engage but look away from one while looking directly at the other. So it looks like this:

Monster you're facing -> <- You <- Monster you're engaging.

I know for a fact you can get guard up doing this. I built it myself this way.

Now, things that make guard seem to activate more often are hard to tell. In my opinion as someone who has spent nearly 70 hours soloing MNK and observing the activation rates of Guard I can theorize a few things.

Number 1: 100Fists seems to increase the chance to guard and skill up on it. Almost every time I used it, I got a few points.

Number 2: Guard seems to fire off and skill up more often while being attacked and facing more than one monster. This could be attributed to the fact that you're simply getting attacked more. Although, I think there's more to it.

Number 3: AGI does not seem to increase dramatically the chance to guard. AGI will be one of your lowest stats as MNK. I have PILED on AGI and used AGI food. I did not notice a dramatic increase in Guards or Skill ups. If it does increase the chance, it's not noticeable enough to focus on AGI.

When soloing SJ choice doesn't change much. Subbing war seems to be necessary when you have to start fighting Even Matches. I tried subjob WHM for help with downtime, but War's obvious stat boosts and defensive traits help too much. If you skill up in a high traffic area, you'll easily be able to depend on the kindness of strangers for a protect and shell. SJ whm's buffs just don't seem that attractive.

Downtime will kill your mind. Buy all four vagabond items and camp the gelong staff. This helps a lot.

Gear is going to be person to person. There are a few Must haves. Monk's headgear is one. The other is the difficult to get Power Sandals. And the last are gear swapped items. As you battle, you'll need to swap around STR and VIT. STR for WS and VIT for survivability. You'll want a Warrior's Belt+1 and Purple Belt. You'll want both STR and VIT rings. Bone/Beetle earrings are nice. As your guard gets closer to cap you'll be fighting harder monster. Evasion up gear is actually OK at this point due to the fact you'll be getting hit by the mob a lot anyways. A few misses will be welcome here and there.

Final thing, Tanking as Monk 101.

Basically here's how it works. ALL VIT. Sac your P.Belt for warrior's+1. Macro in STR for WS. Haste+4% may see all dandy, but you're now the tank, not a Damage Dealer. You need to tank as little damage as possible. Not having P.Belt isn't going to make you deal little damage. You're going to outdamage PLDs and NINs as a MNK focusing on VIT. (Assuming the NINs and PLDs are focusing on tanking themselves.)

Boost Every 15 seconds. Provoke Every 30 seconds. Try to not be the opener in SC. One fight you'll use Dodge and Focus to keep hate. The next you'll use your WS SC Closure to keep hate. If you want, you can stagger Dodge and Focus so that for one fight you're focused and the other you're dodgy. It's not going to make a dramatic difference either way.

Tanking as a MNK is insane hate control. If you have the Power Sandals and Monk's Headgear you will easily Out-Vitality every other tank.

From: MrReinhardt Guest Posted: 2006-02-13 13:21:09	Reply Quote
What about takin on a group of low lvls?

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skill limits-Guarding