Levelling Guide ~~A vague Levelling Guide, aimed at rangers but applicable to others.~~\\ Note that this guide doesn't take CoP into account very much, as I got to 70 before it came out. __In the Beginning__\\ I started with a Crossbow because until level 12 the damage is superior. Hang out in front of a town and wail on weak stuff.\\ ~~__Rule #1:__~~ Fire arrows/bolts as fast as you can. This rule is always in effect, with only one real exception. If you're in a party and you get the hate too easily, you can slow down. If I need to pace myself for a lower overall rate I wait till I get a melee attack in before using a ranged attack.\\ Most classes move up to bigger things once they get to level 4. Not so with rangers. I think it was around 4-5 that I could kill Bees and little Mandrogras (I was near Windurst at the time) in a single bolt. This is fun, and I just stood amongst them, turning and firing as fast as I could. Even at only 18-25 exp each they were good exp. I never had to engage them in melee so I could go really fast. Once those become too weak to be worthwhile you'll have to move up to stuff you can't instantly kill. I'm afraid I forgot exactly when I stopped soloing, but just remember to attack from as far away as you can and try to get two shots in before they get to you at this stage. __10-13__\\ I partied in [Tahrongi Canyon] for these levels. A team of tank, healer, damage dealer, is strong at these levels. You don't really need more than 3 or 4 people in your party yet and even totally random combinations can work just fine. When you get to 12, Rangers, you MUST get the Hunter's Longbow. You will use this weapon until level 30. The stats on it are just plan crazy at level 12, and they're good at 25 too. You'll need to skill it up a bunch if you haven't touched bows till now, but you can do the "kill what I can in one shot" thing for part of that. Let's formalize that idea, since It's important.\\ ~~Technique!~~ __One-Shot-Kills__: Rangers can kill harder things than almost any other class on the very first attack. (Blm is another that can, I guess). A solid farming technique is to take on the most profitable thing you can kill with a single Iron Arrow. __13-16__\\ Shakarami Maze. Worms are always good exp, but for Rangers they're seem like cheating. I partied with a whm and a theif in here. I killed worms beyong our level while the whm stood way back and healed me. The theif? oh we let him in because we were getting more exp than we could really use. He was just leeching and we still got 200+ exp per kill. Make sure you start on Iron Arrows at lvl 14. Also, please never buy Iron Arrows at AH, you can get them for 800/stack at stores in town. You just need to find the NPC that sells them. __16-19__\\ I did Valkurm for these levels. I found this amazing party with two Blm. Blm Blm Rng vs crabs makes for fast exp. I got to 19 in just one night. __19-21__\\ I mentioned worms right? Qufim has worms, you know what to do... __21-27__\\ The usual Qufim/Batallia/Yuhtunga plan is fine. __27-30__\\ I still like Yhoatar Mandrogras for these levels, even if that place is super crowded. Being a skilled puller can make a big difference here. I was able to keep my party supplied because I knew the area well and I'd gotten good at avoiding goblins and squeeze past behind their backs. Also if a smithy gets stuck between the parties here you have to engage it and call for help. People have always joined in when I have done this, and we easily dispose of the goblin with 12-18 people on it.\\ __30-34__\\ Beetles in East Altepa. This is some very fast exp. You can take the dhalmels here at 33 with a good party. At 34 I would recommend dhalmels but I found the bats in Garliage to be much more efficient.\\ __34-37__\\ Bats in Garliage Citadel. What's nice about this is you can hang out right near the entrance and it really can support 3 parties comfortably. Please be careful not to link a pile of bats and force everyone to zone. The beetles are fine here too for 35-37. __36-38__\\ Crawler's Nest worker crawlers. You'll want some sort of dispel against these. __37-40__\\ Nest Beetles, also in Crawler's Nest. Unfortunatly there's basically one camp for these, to the west of the ballroom, past the caveberries. Never damage a caveberry! __39-43__\\ West Altepa Desert Beetles (forgot the name). These are a few levels higher than the Nest Beetles, but basically the same. Fight them close to the giant rock thing. __40-44__\\ Bats and goblins in Gustav tunnel __44-47__\\ Beetles in quicksand caves, the main camp is just a bit in from the K-7 entrance. If you have a Smn I recommend the far camp, drop off the cliff by the West wall head South and go nearly out the other end for a camp somewhat near where the Tele-Altep ??? can spawn. The Smn can sneak and use carby to pull beetles from between the anticans. Speaking of which, you can mix them in once most of you are 46+ and can really hold out here till you're 48 and ready for Garlaige. __45-49ish__\\ Cockatrices in the Labyrinth of Onzozo. Take a right at the first "fork" and hang out in the big room in the SE area of the map. In this room there is a 2hr non-lottery spawn of Mysticmaker Profblix, who dropps the moldavite earring. Not sure a party of 45s can handle him (though I expect they can) but this rare/ex earring is a must-have Blm gear (+5 magic attack bonus). __48-52__\\ Beetles in Garlaige Citadel - drop down through a hole and then camp somewhere along the outside wall. You can pull the bats or beetles, but beetles are better. __51-54__\\ Robber Crabs in Kuftal Tunnel.\\ Starting around 50 it gets difficult for many classes to find a party. Many non-mage classes, I should say. Rdm and Whm never need look hard, and same seems true for Blm, Brd, Pld, and even Smn. The "melees" are not all understood by players in general so they don't always know what you might be good for. As for Rangers, don't worry. I haven't had much trouble finding parties. I think this is because it's obvious what we're for and that we do it well (deal tons of damage). __54-57__\\ Robber Crabs in Boyhada Tree. You get Sidewinder (Slug Shot) at 55. You can delete all of your other weapon skill macros, they're useless now. Sidewinder has all the skillchains of Piercing Arrow too, for your convenience. Sidewinder doesn't deal 1K damage to IT monsters, especially not crabs. It does deal 500-800 to ITs (including crabs), however, and will get you the hate 9 times out of 10. This makes it perfect as a lead in to a theif's tricked-out Viper Bite. The thf can be behind the tank with you on the other side. Sidewinder makes the enemy face you and the theif can get a distortion SC tricked onto the tank. The damage from this chain is simply huge (600+400+200 minimum, basically) and crabs don't do well with freeze bursted on top for 1200 more. You can kill those Robber Crabs from around 3/4 health with this combination, and it's lots of fun. __56-58__\\ Robber Crabs in Cape Teriggan. Once you have more 57s than not you can do Pugils too, but you must have dispel for them. If you're a very skilled puller you can always get crabs here. Try hugging the right side as you exit the tunnel to pull. Up in that right hand corner are some crab spawns, when the ones outside the cave are all dead. You can kill the Velociraptors too but be careful pulling them. They run faster than you do and attack faster than you'd expect. You can easily die just bringing them back to camp. They have a low defense. __58-60__\\ You can continue at Cape Teriggan or go to Gustav Tunnel and kill goblins. Among these goblins is a NM: Wyvernpoacher Draclox (2-4hr, lottery spawn). He drops the Othinos crossbow (lvl67 rare/ex), and a party of 60 on full MP can handle it if they're careful. If you're worried, call in some pals or ally up with another party in the area.\\ If you don't get it now you'll be back someday... it seems to be must-have at 67. __58-62__\\ Labyrinth of Onzozo - Toramas. These crazy cats are in the N central area of the cave system. Some goblins and manticores live among them, along with Ose, an NM torarma. Goblins are slightly weaker than Toramas, use them to fill chains when you're not the only party here. Don't touch the manticores at all. Ose requires an alliance at this level, he has crazy-high evasion. At 75 two Blms or two Rdms or one of each can take him down easily with the nuke-sleep plan. He drops some good Drg, Rdm, other melee soloing armor. __59-61__\\ Upper delkfut tower. The Wallkeeper type giants drop ranger's testimonies.\\ __60-63__\\ Valley of Sorrows. This place is great, and it was here that I learned the ranger's true power. With a Rng Rng Brd Whm Rdm Pld party, we got no less than 5K/hour one night. Raptors are weak to water, and sidewinder >> sidewinder produces just that. With hunter's prelude we could fire sidewinder at 110% and connect every time. It's fun to get 6-chains, you should try it sometime.\\ At 63 the exp will slow down a little, but not so much that I wouldn't still come here.\\ ~~Please Note~~: I wrote this long long before I heard of the cheaty things you can do in KRT or with manaburn or quad rng parties. __61-64__\\ Labyrinth of Onzozo. I wasn't a huge fan of this place, though if I could have gotten in a party with a bard it would have been better. Use goblins to fill the chains if there are 3 parties here. When [Ose] pops, don't try to take him with just your party, make an alliance, you really do need it. __63-65__\\ Cape Teriggan. Sand Cockatrices in the northern area are the main target here. I'd avoid raptors if you can, and with the mad pullin' skillz you should have by now I'm sure you'll have no problem. This place can support at least 6 parties, more if you know some weirder camp spots. Again, bard helps a lot on these - you cannot hit them reliably with sidewinder before 63 unless you have a bard. __63-65__\\ Bibiki Bay (CoP). The wide area in the NW corner is filled with Tropogans, Hobgoblins, Catoblepas, some kind of bunny, and Tartarus Efts. You only want to fight the birds and gobs, the efts will wipe you. You can handle a dhalmel or bunny, just not worth the effort. This has become the favorite over Teriggan, only because it's so much closer to a telepoint. The birds are easiest to kill, watch out for goblin bombs. __64-68__\\ Boyahda Tree. Past the two robber crab / knight crawler rooms you can access the second floor. On top in there is an area good for 65-68 where you can fight steelshells, skimmers, and maybe a few goobues and korrigans. If you drop down the right hand waterfall (west side, I think) you can access a room with taru-deep water and an island in the center. This place has crawlers great for 64-65 and darters good for 67-68. There are more crawlers in tunnels that lead back up from the bottom to the top. Also note that at 66 Rangers learn Arching Arrow / Heavy Shot - which can make light renkei. __68-72__\\ Dragon's Aery. It's inside of Boyahda and offers darters and bark tarantulas with a zone line at your back. I think you can also camp at the other end, where it zones to ZiTah. Rangers will want a bard here at 68, but its not absolutely necessary. The exp slows down here if you have any 70s in your party. Six lvl 69s will have a great time here, easily turing 5-chains at 230ish. Fafnir spawns in the large room here. __68-71__\\ Den of Rancor. You want the entrance by the blood-something lake, in NE Yhoator. Kill lizards inside, you can camp by the entrance or just around the corner from the first circular room (to the right). This place doesn't really support more than one quality exp party, as you can run out of lizards pretty fast. __69-72__\\ Kuftal Tunnel. You want the "basement" area here, past the rock that goes up and down. You'll find tigers and cocktrices are the good stuff in here, and there are 3-4 camp spots and 3 parties can comfortably exp here. A skilled puller is important to avoid links and compete with other parties when crowded. __70-73__\\ Ro'Maeve. You'll want a moongate pass, but only one person in the party needs it. On the map you can see two circle things, one NE and one NW. Head for these (the moongate is right before them) and then turn left or right from the circle. Find an empty room around the upper outside (a room without a pot in it) to camp in. There are at least 4 spots like this in Ro'Maeve, one N and one S of each circular room. I suspect, if you could find more empty rooms, that really 8 total parties could exp at once here, but I'm not really sure. Certainly 4 can without ever noticing each other. Anyway, pull weapons. If you're mostly 72+ you can add Golems into the chain, and all 73s will want more golems than not. Note that this is a great spot for the elusive Rng, Rng, Rng, Rng, Brd, Whm party. __70-75__\\ King Ranperre's Tomb. With a blm burn party you can really start at 68, I think. I recommend bard for the 6th member, though rdm will be fine if they understand what they're doing. It's 90% skeletons, so don't bring any rangers and be sure your drgs have that blunt damage lance. __73-75__\\ Shrine of Ru'Avitau. Find your way (probably need to have someone show you) to the Ullikumi spawn area. Here you will kill Aura Statues. With a party of Rng, Rng, Rng, Rng, Brd, Whm (ideal) or really almost any mix including at least 2 rangers and usually with all melees having utsusemi: ni. It's easy enough to chain 6 here, and chain 5s go without question. You might find you occasionally clear the entire room if you have a very good party. The major downside of this spot is that it only supports one party. Try to come here on off hours. Because it takes so long to get there, it's best to search first and see if anyone's there. __73-75__\\ Uleguerand Range (CoP). You have to climb all the way to the top. Near the top there's a field filled with kindred, a floating eye type monster, and Molech or two. You can kill all of these, but beware the Molech has a death countdown ability. This works by eye contact, and holy water or cursna have a 50% chance to fix it before it kills you. Be careful when pulling the warrior kindred. They triple strike often, and can kill you easily. Always have 3 shadows up before you leave camp. You can camp just after the last covered tunnel, in the valled before the field, or on the other side of the field in a valley/ramp. This area can probably support two parties, maybe more. For manaburns you can travel past Jorgy toward the ice wall for the ENM, and in that area find a bunch of King Buffalo. Sadly only 1 party can fit there. __73-75__\\ Lufalise Meadows (CoP). In the NE there's a small section with giant birds and Tavnazian Rams that are level 80 and up. This place can support 3 parties with minor target conflict or two parties very comfortably. These things hit hard, so fast killing is recommended. 2005-12-26 22:16:01.516 2004-07-23 12:02:27.203