Liking the game just still a little lost

[Xariz]

Thanks Vydarr you are quite helpful i have another quick question..im doing leves that are around my Rank and im actually a couple ranks higher than the mobs, im a GLA and i seem to get just absolutely destroyed is there something i could be doing wrong? are there better jobs to take on as a fresh player to make things a little easier?

[VydarrTyr]

Thanks Vydarr you are quite helpful

Man, that's really nice to hear.

i have another quick question..im doing leves that are around my Rank and im actually a couple ranks higher than the mobs, im a GLA and i seem to get just absolutely destroyed is there something i could be doing wrong? are there better jobs to take on as a fresh player to make things a little easier?

Yeah, even folks on these boards who have been playing for a while forget how tough it was when we started out. There are a couple things I'd suggest:

1) It actually took me a little while to figure out that you have to click on "Guard" to raise your shield so you can block incoming attacks. You're probably smarter than me, and have already figured that out, though. But be sure to raise your shield, and when it drops in battle, be sure to click on "Guard" to raise it again.

2) Aegis Boon is wonderful. Again, you've probably already figured this out, but when you use it, after the next attack that you block with your shield, you actually get healed a certain amount of HP. The only tricky thing is that it's kind of hidden under "Shield" abilities, instead of being in your Gladiator abilities. I'd make sure that's equipped, if you can, and use it frequently.

3) When I was at your level, I basically just put up my Guard, threw out some basic attacks, and spammed Phalanx every time I blocked an incoming hit. If I was having trouble hitting a mob, I used Red Lotus, which is a magic attack, so it hits every single time. It never misses.

4) Right now, we've still got physical levels in the game. (Those will apparently get removed sometime soon. Maybe patch 1.19?) The way it works is that for every mob you kill, you get Skill Points ("SP") and Experience Points ("XP").

Your SP goes to increasing the level of your job: Archer, Gladiator, Conjurer, etc. When your job level increases, you learn new abilities.

The XP goes to increasing your physical level. When your physical level increases, you earn "attribute points" that you can put into things like Strength, Dexterity, Vitality, etc.

Usually, your physical level increases more slowly than your job level. But if you level other jobs, you can actually have a physical level that's well above your job level.

Right now, you've only leveled 2 jobs: Gladiator and Archer (which is level 1). As a result, your Glad job level is 11, but your physical level is 7. That means you're physically a little weaker than level 11 mobs.

If you rank some other jobs, your physical level will increase really quickly. You can do that with any type of job. I actually thought that the XP from crafting was really high, but that was several patches ago. It looks like right now, the gathering XP is great. Maybe try out a few gathering jobs to raise your physical level.

5) Another benefit of leveling other jobs is that you can equip the abilities from those other jobs on your Gladiator. Some really useful abilities that you can get at low levels (up to level 10) are:

Conjurer:
Cure (level 4)
Stoneskin (level 6) -- absorbs about 1 hit worth of damage
Shock Spikes (level 8) -- deals damage to the mob when it hits you, and stuns the mob

Thaumaturge:
Sacrifice (level 4) -- healing spell
Punishing Barbs (level 10) -- when a mob hits you, it loses the same amount of HP that you do

Archer:
Raging Strike (level 4) -- increases attack power of your next attack

Lancer:
Ferocity (level 4) -- increases power of your next attack
Speed Surge (level 10) -- increases auto-attack speed, and allows you to absorb HP on every attack

Marauder:
Blood Bath (level 6) -- you recover a % of the damage you deal in your next attack in HP
Skull Sunder (level 8) -- costs 500 TP, does good damage, and does damage over time, too

Pugilist:
Second Wind (level 6) -- spend 500 TP to recover HP
Taunt (level 10) -- the Pugilist version of Provoke

That's only up to level 10. Eventually, you'll probably want to take everything to at least 20 because there are some great abilities for every class between 10 and 20. For example, at level 16, Archers get "Hawk's Eye," which increases the chances of your next hit landing. So you can do Ferocity-->Raging Strike-->Hawk's Eye-->Bloodbath-->your highest damage weaponskill, and you can recover a lot of HP and do a lot of damage at the same time.

But as a young Gladiator, you'll probably want at least Cure, Sacrifice, and Second Wind. That shield means that you're basically cutting incoming damage in half, so you can drag fights out for a long time. Throw in a couple of cure-type skills, and you can go forever.

And it probably goes without saying that the best way to level up fast is to get in a party. Gladiators are tanks, so they can take a lot of damage, but they don't deal as much damage as other classes. Adding some DPS or mage classes that can cure you will go a long way to helping you beat mobs. I think you'll be surprised how much easier it is to kill things with just two people. And with 3 people, you'll be shocked at how quickly you'll be blowing through mobs.

Plus, it's just more fun to do stuff with other people.

Oh, and one final thing. Again, you probably already know this, but every weapon has an "Optimal Rank." So if you're level 11, and you're using a Brass Gladius (which has an Optimal Rank of 16), you're going to have worse stats than if you were using a lower ranked weapon. You're going to hit less often, do less damage, and your weapon is going to get damaged much faster than if you were using a Bronze Spatha (level 11) or even a Bronze Dagger (level 9). So I'd try and use swords with Optimal Ranks that are equal to or below your actual rank.

Surprisingly enough, the same doesn't really apply to armor. You don't get the full benefit of the stats from armor that's above your level, but the difference in armor scales. In other words, if you use a level 20 sword at level 10, you're going to be pretty helpless. However, you can use level 20 armor at level 10 and you might not be any worse off than if you were using level 10 armor. So a good way to save money might be to equip armor that's a little above your level, but make sure you've got a level appropriate weapon.

Hope that helps. I'm not an expert Glad by any means. You might even want to post some questions in the Gladiator forum and see if someone more expert than me can help out.

Two other classes that may be attractive if you want to solo are Pugilist and Marauder. Marauders have the most HP in the game, and they can wear the best armor, but their attacks are pretty slow, and they seem to miss a lot. Pugilists are more like "evasion" tanks, so they have abilities that allow them to dodge a lot of incoming attacks, and then they have plenty of counter-attacks. And both of them have abilities that allow you to recover HP.

Just play around with it and see what you enjoy. That's probably the most important thing anway.