Where does a lvl 39 THM grind?

Even with MP absorb and stygian spikes, I find I still have to rest after every/every other battle fighting most things a few levels above me. (Mostly gnats and coblyns around Broken Water is what I've been messing with). Perhaps my skill setup is just poor?

Most guides I've found only focus on non mage classes. Any tips would be greatly appreciated

Leveling has changed. Old guides won't work the same.

From what I've seen, you get better XP/hr fighting enemies a few levels below you, since you can get a bonus from chaining and have less risk of dying.

Fight mobs at your level or one above to get chains fast.

Also AOE'ing mobs one - two levels below you works fine.

Depending on how stressful / Zzz (easy) you want it.

I see. Any recommended locations/mobs?

One place you can go is Copperbell mines. Solo pull the coblyns (40-44). Or goto the lower lever and slaughter the ants with AoE.

This is relevant to my interests.

First of all, you need to update your clothes ASAP. Forget about the weapon, you can carry Weathered Scepter and you would be doing fine because Mage weapons are absolutely horrendous when it comes to stat for now. Do not ever enter Active Mode, all the non-casting actions are absolutely useless apart from Levinbolt II which still do some dmg due to DoT, but you need 1,000 TP for that so it's useless. Do not use Banish/Scourge I, use the version II they are much better now. Do not use Sacrifice II if you have Stoneskin, use Stoneskin and refresh it after you get hit for about 4-6 times whenever you can they will save a LARGE CHUNK OF MP. If you have Stoneskin II you gonna own the shizzle out of mobs 1-2 levels higher than you (and don't even mention mobs your level or lower, they wouldn't be able to scratch that). If you use Stoneskin do not use Stygian Spike but use Shock Spike instead, you need to get damaged to drain MP from Stygian and there's no point in that if you don't get hurt. Siphon MP whenever mobs down.

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Originally Posted by MariyaShidou

Do not use Sacrifice II if you have Stoneskin, use Stoneskin and refresh it after you get hit for about 4-6 times whenever you can they will save a LARGE CHUNK OF MP.

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In my experience, the coblyns I've been fighting (41-44) break stoneskin in one hit. With a 30 second recast, it's basically useless.

There is no longer favoured mobs or locations as monsters have basically been made equal to one another.

Grab some friends, find a place with lots of mobs and chain the shit out of them.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Jinko

There is no longer favoured mobs or locations as monsters have basically been made equal to one another.

Grab some friends, find a place with lots of mobs and chain the shit out of them.

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Yeah, that's the problem. My linkshell is dead, and shouting in Uldah for an hour has never gotten me a party. I suppose that's the price I pay for playing on Melmond

Try peacful mobs such as diremice(check wiki for locations i know some are around Iron lake but not sure they're close enough to chain nicely), sheep, antelopes etc.
They are probably some of the most harmless of mobs in the game, my best tip however is just to set out and explore and experiment.

Like others mentioned find mobs that are at your level or just around (not much higher then 1-2 ranks, lvls scale alot more now) and try pick mobs you feel comfortable fighting.

This all also depends on what abilites traits you have avaliable not only from your main class, adjust for what you can tackle without downtime, if you struggling with even match (your level mobs) try mobs a few levels lower.

For example I found killing lvl 40-42 mobs on my lvl 46pug was a real breeze (no downtime and they kept spawning on me and linking as i fought so I just started aoeing them down) and they still gave around 200 exp per kill, was getting roughly 13-15k an hour or so.
Note that mobs lower then your wont give exp chains but like said adapt for what you can handle, in the end if you can avoid downtime the exp/h should be good all the same.