*******'s Guide on How to Train

[NoeJeko]

First off, a disclaimer - I just saw Cujo's guide and this is not an attempt to steal his thunder. His guide is on where to train, mine is on how to train.

First, to maximize your training efficiency you must understand how you receive experience points. Base experience points follow the following formulae:

D = Damage inflicted

Monster is over your level:
Melee/Skill Formula: D * 1.2
Gun/Magic Formula: D * 1.25

Experience is reduced if you kill monsters under your level. Once you pass the level of the monster, you should always move on to a different monster. Furthermore, it is not possible to "overkill". If a monster has 5,000 HP and you use a skill that inflicts 16,000 damage (Arrow Rush, for example), you will only receive 6,250 experience points (5,000 * 1.25, not counting party modifier).

To understand effective training, you must first understand ineffective training. Ineffective training is basically cheating you out of experience points and/or training time. Let’s look at some examples.

You are level 90 and you want to go train on a level 219 monster. It takes you 3 skills to kill this monster because you can either not hit it hard enough or you miss it too often. You can kill a level 150 monster in 1 hit. You are ineffectively training because you are taking three times as long to kill the monster for a very small experience increase.

You are training on a monster that you can kill in one hit. This monster has 3,000 HP and you hit it for 9,000 damage. You hit a monster that has 8000 HP for 4,000 damage but you refuse to train on it because it takes two hits. You are ineffectively training because you are wasting 7,200 potential experience points (without party modifier, melee skill assumed).

See the picture? Here are some tips on how to maximize your training effectiveness.

1) Always, always train on monsters higher than your level. Be it 1 level or 100 levels higher, it is better than taking experience penalties because the monster is lower than you.

2) Train on the monsters that you can hit the hardest without over-killing. Hitting a monster for 4 times its HP is impressive, but wastes potential experience points. This waste is greatly multiplied by your party modifier.

3) When possible, always train in a 2.5 party. Going solo should be a last resort because, at 1.0, it takes you 2.5 times longer to level than in a full royal/special. At lower levels this time isn’t as noticeable as it is at higher levels. Case in point: At level 252 it takes me about 6 hours to level in a 2.5 party. If I went solo, it would take 15 hours to get the same level. That’s one hell of a difference.

4) Don’t always go after the biggest monster you can kill. I am capable of killing a fish dragon but it takes a few minutes to do it because of its insane defense. I can train on a smaller monster that I kill in 1-2 hits and get experience at a much faster rate.

5) Don’t drill for the exclusive sake of gaining TM experience. The base experience you lose from this will only make it take more time overall. Your TM will catch up just by training normally. At level 206, I had a 39 level TM gap. At level 252, my TM is now 40% higher than my base. This caught up simply by training. If you drill, drill for items you need or items to sell and get the TM experience as a bonus. The base experience from drilling, especially at high levels, is not even noticeable.

6) Get skills that help you level faster. As stated before, your TM will catch up. Don’t be afraid to use TM points on a skill that makes you level faster. Even if you never plan to use that skill again after you get (insert skill here), it will still get you to the point that you can acquire that skill faster. You have these TM points for a reason – use them! A good example: Before second jobs were out I mastered Final Blow. I will never use this skill again – but it tripled my leveling speed from level 150-200. I don’t regret wasting these TM points in the least.

7) If you can’t kill a monster efficiently that you see others your level killing, you have but one solution. Get better equipment. You can’t magically create stat bonus points, but you can spend a bit of galder on a new weapon/armor. Once you level up again, re-assess your stats and where you’re adding your bonus points. If you need to hit something a bit harder (for melee types), consider adding these new points into AP (or whatever stat affects your damage skills, i.e. DA for foxes and MA for mages).

I hope this helps some struggling character out there.

[CujoEX]

Nicely said. Do you mind if I link this to my guide? By the way, I didn't make the guide for any acknowledgement or anything. I'm just doing it so that if people has any questions, I could just link it without explaining it over and over again.

I was going to PM a few people tomorrow, but since I'm here posting, mind helping me out with my thread? I just need your personal opinion on where to train for melee characters (pref AP Cat) for LV 130+, what monsters you think are good (taking an educational guess with a normal LV 1 Sharp Weapon), and where to train.

Well made ***, good job

[Vith]

Thanks for this guide, ***. It's very informative and useful.

[NoeJeko]

@Cujo: I don't mind if you link it at all - just please document the source. Aside from the formulae (taken from the jWiki) this guide is entirely my work based upon my observations.

As far as a where to level - it's been many many months since I was level 13x. If I recall correctly, the best places to level would be jokers (until you pass them) and then on to iciclers. Depending on the character's build they could go to iciclers quicker - but I don't recommend training there until a character can 1-2 hit KO them (inefficient training =P).

@Ronin: Thanks - it's the first actual "guide" I've posted here yet. I hope it helps someone.

[paladin]

Nice job ***
Do you know a guide or someone who has a exp lvl chart
A chart that shows how much exp from 60 to 61 and so on for trickster?

[Cid]

There's an experience chart in the Mytrickster wiki.
Nice guide.

[NoeJeko]

The EXP chart is off in the Wiki. I've notified them of it.

[jeffw88]

Good job. Although this is pretty much a simple logic to most mmorpgs, but it should help out many people. :)

[NoeJeko]

You'd be suprised at how many people I see taking like, 2 minutes to kill a monster.

[Juno]

Killing lakis is fun though D:

I'm pretty sure this is right but for clarification...it doesn't matter if the monster is 1 lvl or 100 lvls over right? It's always 1.2 exp.

[NoeJeko]

With melee skills, it's 1.2x the amount of damage you do, up to the monster's max HP.

With magic/gun it's 1.25 - all these are regardless of the level difference as long as it's above your level.

TM experience is based on the level gap but that's best covered in another thread =]

[Senpai]

So basically mobs with more HP=More exp? o:

[NoeJeko]

Yeah. As long as the monster is above your level, HP reduced and party modifier are the sole determining factors in how much EXP you get from the kill (consistent with the type of attack, 1.2 for melee, 1.25 for magic/gun).

[Blackneo]

Nice job *** ^_^ really like it. But wanted ask something im 172 and have promblems grinding 9 hours to level my coon, just wondering is this bad? p.s im i at breached of giving up T_T

[NoeJeko]

Ed, Snowfield 3 is the single best place you can grind right now. I went from 150-190 at Tech1 because there was no SF3. You need to be able to 2-hit KO the iciclers with your skills. If you can't, get a better weapon. An investment in that will save you many, many hours of training.

If you can't afford one, you're in luck - SF3 is also the best money map for a melee character of your level. Or, if you can't afford one you could always sell me MyShop stuff ^^

[Eclipze]

Well, what about monsters AT your level? I know that monsters below your level gives reduced exp, but the guide didnt exactly say monsters right at your level. Is there still a reduction in exp? or does it fall under "above your level"?

[raisinbun]

Monsters right at your level is totally fine.

[ggold14]

do you recommend items like the dash? i guess the shorter time to find monsters would help too =X

dash is just a waste of cash for training really, its only purpose is to get through maps fast and to escape things