Guard Skill

S

Slick

Sub Job Unlocked
Adventurer
Joined
Apr 17, 2005
Messages
26
Location
Pa
Leveling guard............. Does anyone have capped guard skill?!?! If so, can you merit as /war without killing yourself??!?!?!?!?! To be honest I cannot stand anything thats white on my screen and this guard skill on my monk is the only one left!@!!@#%! I'm 152 skill with added bonus gear, without gear is around 119 ><... Where can i go to get guard skill ups @ 75 and feel like i'm not wasting my time. I also was thinking about using level sync to drop my evasion down to get ups!! What say you to that!!
 
Good luck lmao!!

But seriously, find a website that gives a break down of skill/level and then find "monk" type mobs that are 6-10 levels above your current skill/level range. That, and have at least 2 years to cap it lol.

Also, if you have friends that need a tank, show up on monk if you can and you may get lucky, but remember that you won't get skillups with shadows up. I tank in Limbus and Sea on monk and have gotten a few skillups when shadows have gone down.

Peace,
Shmed
 
Last edited:
Ah, Guard skill. It's one of those things I feel I should cap just for the sake of having it, but usually when I ask other Monks about it they say "Don't waste your time. It doesn't help that much."

I'm just stubborn enough to try for Guard skillups every so often, though. It usually comes in the form of me as MNK/DNC, fighting stuff in Boyahda Tree. That's usually enough to cure me of the need for a few weeks.
 
Last edited:
Doing salvage for one year got me guard 100->210. Cause you blood tank for half the time.

I tried to power level guard on chigoes like I did for parrying, and got good result, 10 level from 190 to 200 at a rate of 1 level per hour or so. But its slower than parrying ( 3-4 level /h), due to the fact that counter kill them, so you have to keep pulling etc. ALso those will cap you at 235 ( but the levels 225-235 will be very slow due to mobs not always poping at max level).

If you'r interested thats what I did: I went monk/pld with the most def/dmg reduction I could get, eat def food. I take my dualbox rdm cure bomb, phalanx2 and protect IV at all times. This way chigoes will hit for 0-10 except for crits. I went in ayedeewa, in that room with 10 chigoe. Gather 3-4 of them, then target another mob, while having chigoes in front of you. Thats what I do for parrying too. after 3 minutes all will have died from counter, so pull some more. Rinse repeat.
 
Halifirien said:
Ah, Guard skill. It's one of those things I feel I should cap just for the sake of having it, but usually when I ask other Monks about it they say "Don't waste your time. It doesn't help that much."

I'm just stubborn enough to try for Guard skillups every so often, though. It usually comes in the form of me as MNK/DNC, fighting stuff in Boyahda Tree. That's usually enough to cure me of the need for a few weeks.
Click to expand...
Any monk who says guard skill doesn't help much is a moron and isn't a real monk.

Guard skill is easily the most difficult skill in the game to max out, and you'll likely quit long before you ever get close to max. Usually the easiest way to level a skill is to move to areas appropriate for your skill level and work there. So if you have 119 skill naturally, then somewhere like the crawler's nest is probably the best for you. You can get skillups in higher level areas, but usually it takes a lot longer to get skillups, although they might be worth more each time.

For gear, get as much +guard skill gear as you can find, my current guard build is somewhere around +44 skill. More skill = more procs, more procs = more chances for it to skill up. Second, you want -evasion, since guard only has a chance to kick in when you don't evade. Skill is still the first priority, but there's at least one piece of gear with +skill and -evasion(tiger/feral mask). After that, I usually went with -physical damage taken gear where I could get it or +hp gear where there was nothing else.

I usually sub WHM, mainly because I don't have PLD/DNC subs leveled; WAR can work if you don't have any of those leveled, just keep defender on at all times. Eat defense food, and I'd usually go with a couple au laits to help keep my HP up. Invigorate merits and a high chakra build also help quite a bit, the last time I went skilling up, I had exorays beating on me, and they'd only do as much damage as I could chakra back before chakra would be cooled down again.

Good luck with skilling it up, If you're going for max, be prepared for this to take months or even longer, even if it's all you do.
 
It's a shame we don't get skillups in Campaign. As much tanking as I do there, I'd be maxed out by now. Damned feathery yagudo bastards...
 
This is one year since I hit 75 mnk. Got lazy lately, and not on Monk as much. Also RL Job took up most of the time now a day. Sign below take 10 away from boxer mantle is my actual guard. Screenshot is months ago.

GuardChart.jpg
 
Last edited:
is there some sort of guide as to where i would go to skill it up? mines at 90 i think. id really like to get it higher. guard has saved my ass many times, when it has kicked in. lol
 
I don't think anyone's really written a guide, but basically, just figure out what level you'd be at for your guard skill to be capped and go there. At 90, you're around a level 30 job, so you could go to places like Garliage or crawler's nest and just let weak stuff beat on you. From 100-120 I'd pull 5-6 saplings in the crawler's nest and just let them all beat on me while targeting a beetle behind me. After that, I moved to soldier crawlers and did the same, but one at a time.
 
I kept the informations of where and how i did it along with few screenshots. When i get home from work today, I'll make a post of it. It will help those who into monk and want to skill up. If I have time like before, I'm sure in a couple months, it will cap 269 since I have base skill over 200. Work suck, but you gonna do what you gonna do for the living hehe. That whole level syn thing is a big thing. It is the key to cap guard. It's so freaking painful to cap guard once you hit 75 (5/5counter, 4/4evasion and so on), do it while you're at lower level. Get the base skill higher or it will hardly will go up later. Unlike Parrying, Guard must be at the right level to go up otherwise even if you guard skill up = none.

Most of the time it don't seem to worth skill up, since most monk go /ninja end game or solo before dancer came out. I did this just want to be fully capped also to prove it is possible to cap. A year ago or a bit longer, before I even leveled monk. All them Monks on here discuss about guard, saying how this can't be done and so on, it annoying as hell try to debate with them. Only one keyword for all this guard skill up thing, "Patience"
 
Corvinus said:
I kept the informations of where and how i did it along with few screenshots. When i get home from work today, I'll make a post of it. It will help those who into monk and want to skill up. If I have time like before, I'm sure in a couple months, it will cap 269 since I have base skill over 200. Work suck, but you gonna do what you gonna do for the living hehe. That whole level syn thing is a big thing. It is the key to cap guard. It's so freaking painful to cap guard once you hit 75 (5/5counter, 4/4evasion and so on), do it while you're at lower level. Get the base skill higher or it will hardly will go up later. Unlike Parrying, Guard must be at the right level to go up otherwise even if you guard skill up = none.

Most of the time it don't seem to worth skill up, since most monk go /ninja end game or solo before dancer came out. I did this just want to be fully capped also to prove it is possible to cap. A year ago or a bit longer, before I even leveled monk. All them Monks on here discuss about guard, saying how this can't be done and so on, it annoying as hell try to debate with them. Only one keyword for all this guard skill up thing, "Patience"
Click to expand...
No, no one ever said that it couldn't be done, especially since it already had been done by a few people. What we said was it'd take far longer than you were claiming it'd take. You were acting like it'd only take a couple months to max it out, and the people who knew what they were talking about said otherwise; and you've proven them(not you, back then) right.
 
Ok here we go let see.....

Basic thing, gears= HP, defense, guard+ gears, no evasion+ stuffs. You goal is to get hit, if one mob can't touch you try multiple.

I got my monk to level 37 awhile back, long time ago. Guard was at around 30 or so. 1-30 shouldn't be hard when you are low level solo. No need to mention it.

Here is when I start skill up at level 60, wish I started earlier would made it easier.
G1.png

40-80 in Yhoator Jungle. Link like 10+ Mandies and have them attack you while aiming at other mobs. 40-80 didn't took very long tho.
G2.png

It took me around 4-5 days or so but only couple hours a day.
Back in the day, it was hard for monk to find a good party to level up. Also, static is way too slow; waiting for people to show up and so on. Big waste of time. So I decided to solo, faster exp and get skill up on guard same time. A friend quited, I kept his account for awhile before he came back, he is a whitemage.
img_20070904_065717.png

I solo mobs with mule cure 80-110 guard, which is level 60-70. Mobs I fought was VT puks in woodland, then Crawlers + Diremite in Aydeewa Subterrance.
Guarding2.png

110-120 on them fish in Sea Serpent Grotto behind the mythil coin door all those mobs work.
Guarding1.png

After that I went to Davoid Play Orcish Champion.
Guarding3.png

This pic right here is why it suck try to skill up guard at level 75 even with - evasion gears. I skill up in Davoi from 120 till level 140 or so.
I start making gil, was working on Aegis. So everyday I camp behind Shahagin Door, where the NMs pop 15 mins. Made some good gil + alot of skill up.
Coral.jpg

The chart below
GuardChart.JPG

In the chart, there some other mobs also but all of them are decend to tough mobs at higher level. Sea Serpent Grotto not working anymore after over 220. After that it is all random but none of the mobs are below even match skilled me up. Most of the time after that, I skill up on VT IMP in mire. It is way slower but the EXP is greatest in game. I capped merits on all of my 9 jobs till they added more merits, both me and my friend char whitemage. I need to cap all 9 jobs along with the mule again later and more guard skill up when have time.
1900DK.JPG

EXP.png

Skill up guard take awhile, but if you're up for it, it will cap eventually. Took me exactly one year and I'm only 233.7. I'll update later when I start on it again. Easy way to skill up, find a friend lower level then syn it up and get skill up faster, alot faster. Monk and Whitemage are bestfriends, need merits? find a whitemage friend cure5 and you go monk/war and fight imp. Counterstance rock. I can't tell you exactly how benefit guard will be yet, since the only real answer is at 269 guard skill + gears.

Here is so much for guard.
Knockout.jpg
 
Last edited:
Thanks to having to co-tank and/or first voke in several parties up to now, my evasion is close to cap at 59, while my guard is something like 60. Is there anything that can really drop my evasion down a good 50-100 points to make skilling guard a little less painful of a wait?
 
Since you can't wear something like hauby, you're going to have to settle for smaller -evasion gear. I went with Tiger Mask, Cavalier's Mantle, Muscle Belt, Tiphia Sting and Ochiudo's kote. That's only -29 evasion, but those were the only slots I wasn't filling with +guard skill or -physical damage/HP.

-Evasion isn't going to make it really easy to level guard, it still only has a 15% proc rate; but it does help a little.
 
go farm as monk/thf thats the best way, but choose mobs that are around 20 skill higher than you. I got parry 235-260 from farming decent challenges. Now only even matches and high decent chalenges can skill me up ><
 
mdkuser said:
go farm as monk/thf thats the best way, but choose mobs that are around 20 skill higher than you. I got parry 235-260 from farming decent challenges. Now only even matches and high decent chalenges can skill me up ><
Click to expand...
THF sub doesn't work well because of the evasion bonus. Guard is the last defensive skill to be checked, so you want to evade as little as possible.

PLD, RDM and DNC make the best subs for skilling up guard.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top