Parrying Skillups

[Dukuji]

As I am now starting to break the 100 skill level mark for several combat skills, I have become well aware that one of my skills lags greatly when compared to the others; Parrying. I've also noticed that this skill is extremely valuable for jobs that wish to be used as a primary or secondary tank in party settings. Right now my parrying combat skill is a little over half of what it could be and even at that level, parrying has saved my tail a few times. I can't help but wonder how much more effective I could be if I had it capped or near capped. So, my question is, what is the best way to effectively level the parrying combat skill?

Thank you for your replies in advance.



Edit: I just realized I should of posted this under the "The Curious Little Kitten" section of the forums. Oops a daisy; oh well.

[Mystiana]

A two handed weapon and duo with a mage, so you can fight monsters that you can skill off of? I don't really have a set way to raise parrying skill other than that... hopefully someone has a better idea.

[Prrsha]

Ah well, the best way to rrraise your parrying skill is with parrying knives. Also make sure you use equipment that gives you negatives to evasion. The game checks evasion before it will check your parrying skill, so if your evasion is too good, you will just end dodging all of attacks before parrying becomes a factor.

But yep, dual wielding parrying knives are the way to go.

[Dukuji]

Oh, good ideas, thanks you two!

/em writes something down on paper. "Parrying knives and get help from a mage."

[Gwynn]

follow these steps

1.) level redmage to high 30s.
2.) get ninja subjob over level 10.
3.) dual wield parrying daggers, add every agl+ item you have
4.) get a tele-Holla
5.) Find a Battering Ram
6.) use your regen, cureII, and debuffs to keep you as alive as you can for as long as you can before killing the ram.

5a.) Make sure you're not looking at Lumbering Lambert (level 32-34)
6a.) DO NOT USE UTSUSEMI! you want the blow to, almost, land.

I did this and during one fight i gained like three levels of parrying.

[Amiricle]

Boost agi, lower evasion and fight Monks Mandrakes, or yagudos
Wield a 2-hander or a couple daggers like mentioned above.. should go up regularly, particularly if at least easy preys.

[bliss]

does shield come before parry or after?

[Prrsha]

Hmmmm, good question... I don't really know but I would take off yourrr shield just to make sure.

[Amiricle]

does shield come before parry or after?

Depends on job & job skills. As Pld shield comes first, as War, Nin, or Thf, parry does. But if you want parry only, then yea remove shield. Wielding a 2 handed weapon helps a lot. I see more parry with 2-hander than 1-hander as War and Pld.

[Phelisia]

Parry/Gaurd/Shield Skill ups, something to note about these, and pretty much all skills, they work similar to weapon skill ups, certain level mobs are only good to a certain level of skill, basically, find a mob that is above the skill level, then find another mob nearby, what you do is get agro from the mob in front of you, and "attack" a mob behind it, because you have to have your weapon out to parry/guard, but not block with shield, that works without engaging. Basically it should look something like this:
(O is position, the <> are direction, and the - is spacing)

You MobA MobB
O> - <O --- O

yes, skilling up these skills is slow, also, +agi helps evasion too... so it's kind of a toss up as to if you should get it or not, if you're a rdm, you can eventually just solo even mobs and get skill ups, lucky them eh?

[Meuyi]

Actually you can level Parry with Utsusemi on. Ninja is arguably the best job for leveling Parry because they have an A rank skill cap in it, they can dual wield parry daggers, and they do not have Thief's Passive Evasion Bonuses. Parry is calculated prior to Utsusemi so it can be leveled with Utsusemi active. -evasion equipment is the other thing you should concentrate on obtaining for parry skillups. -evasion is good for lowering your /check against weaker mobs to be Incredibly Tough with Low Evasion or normal Evasion. Unfortunately, there's almost 0 -evasion equipment available to Ninja.

[Amiricle]

Actually you can level Parry with Utsusemi on. Ninja is arguably the best job for leveling Parry because they have an A rank skill cap in it, they can dual wield parry daggers, and they do not have Thief's Passive Evasion Bonuses. Parry is calculated prior to Utsusemi so it can be leveled with Utsusemi active. -evasion equipment is the other thing you should concentrate on obtaining for parry skillups. -evasion is good for lowering your /check against weaker mobs to be Incredibly Tough with Low Evasion or normal Evasion. Unfortunately, there's almost 0 -evasion equipment available to Ninja.

That is correct Aslo, if you have magic....spam it Even if ya keep gettin interrupted, your parry/shield chance has highly likelyhood of activating if hit near beginning or end of castin spell. Half of my shield blocks I notice come while castin cure

[Baketsu]

Actually you can level Parry with Utsusemi on. Ninja is arguably the best job for leveling Parry because they have an A rank skill cap in it, they can dual wield parry daggers, and they do not have Thief's Passive Evasion Bonuses. Parry is calculated prior to Utsusemi so it can be leveled with Utsusemi active. -evasion equipment is the other thing you should concentrate on obtaining for parry skillups. -evasion is good for lowering your /check against weaker mobs to be Incredibly Tough with Low Evasion or normal Evasion. Unfortunately, there's almost 0 -evasion equipment available to Ninja.

That is correct Aslo, if you have magic....spam it Even if ya keep gettin interrupted, your parry/shield chance has highly likelyhood of activating if hit near beginning or end of castin spell. Half of my shield blocks I notice come while castin cure

Good point, i got a lot of EXP in parry by acting as a backup healer in a party and i am a RDM.

[Alya Mizar (Tsybil)]

if you're a rdm, you can eventually just solo even mobs and get skill ups, lucky them eh?

1, Eventulay? I can solo most evens my whole life, and most Ts too. Marlbrough tyeps are none of those BTW.

2, It does not work that way. Although like many RDMs I solo Ts for sport, my shield and parry skills lag far behind my other combat skills. I can only keep Dagger and Sword capped if I can melee in EXP parties. As I recently hit the big four oh, I do not expect that to happen hardly at all anymore.

[Kahvi]

Red mage learn Parry and shield about at the same speed. but i believe they parry before shield as well.

[Fayin]

SAM and THF have the highest rating in Parry. THF has the evasion bonus however. SAM/NIN using parrying daggers and -evade gear would have a pretty decent time of it.

[kashell]

I never actually tried this but I know some nins that lvled their parrying skills by finding worms that will give them skill points, and just dual weld parrying knives, if things turn bad while skilling up just use run

[Jaela]

The best advice i can give you is to buy a pair of stumbling sandals(Tottering toby in Batallia Downs drops them) The -10 DEX and -10 AGI will decrease your Evasion skills to sub par levels, and try to get as much Evasion- equipment as you can (There isnt much out there, bear with me) The best job i would say to level parrying would be ninja, or a /ninja for utsusemi, you would be surprised at how well this works. ^^

[Magrayne]

does anyone know where you could find a skill up rate chart that shows the level of monsters to fight for certain levels of skill ups? (ie. for skill level 100-120 fight BlahdeBlah monster in BlahdeBlah area)

[Alya Mizar (Tsybil)]

does anyone know where you could find a skill up rate chart that shows the level of monsters to fight for certain levels of skill ups? (ie. for skill level 100-120 fight BlahdeBlah monster in BlahdeBlah area)

Darn, I had one but lost it it seems.

[Kintrra]

I think those are what you're looking for, unfortunately, they're a bit outdated and I've yet to find updated ones, so they only go up so high. ;;