Campaign: The Legit Way

... Because we know song spamming is gonna get squashed!

Some people don't like to campaign, a bunch of good reasons why. Frankly, if I was playing this on my 360, I'd probably cry because I think the chances of it freezing up would be pretty high. I haven't tried it on my 360 yet so who knows!

Anyways, to kinda add on to my previous post about Campaign (link), having a basic understanding of what you can do to squeeze off as many XP caps as you can to add on to your healing/damage XP gain is key to getting 4-figures.

As a melee, this is horribly easy. Just run out there with your weapon and beat the crap out of things. Just try to treat it as a merit/TP burn party, toss out any self enhancements JA/Magic that you have (just note the exceptions) and pretty much, unless you're a few levels low or you get knocked down too many times, you'll most likely keep up with the cap.

As for a mage job... they have it hard. The majority of their XP is from emptying out a resource that they do not have unlimited amounts of. Pretty much, your MP is being converted into XP. Lets face it, unless you're a decently geared RDM or WHM, you're most likely not going to melee for crap.

That's a quick overview, lets get into details!

First, Sigil. There's really no reason to not have it. It gives you Signet bonuses along with Sanction effects along with the ability to stack up Regen/Refresh/Food Duration all at the same time. This will help you a lot during resting periods where you want to get your HP/MP back up. This is especially true for melee since there many be some situations where a cure just might not come to your aid.

The key to getting XP is keeping yourself alive by yourself. It may sound like a selfish thing but consider that when things get really busy and your HP meter isn't exactly apparent to other people, relying on a random cure from people during the times where you need it most isn't exactly smart thinking. As a mage though, feel free to cure yourself and others, it's XP. Pretty sure people that do campaign regularly is going to be on the look out for those with low HP just to get some XP out of it. It's a mutual benefit: They get XP from curing you, you stay alive longer to milk in more XP.

Plan out your Campaign. Don't just grab a tag and do random stuff, have a plan of attack for how you can milk the most XP. Lets have a look at what I have for BLM:

1. Immedately when a campaign battle starts, get a tag.
2. Cast Stoneskin/Blink/6 Barspells. Cast Reraise if needed. (Covers my 8 self enhancing)
3. Look around for anyone that needs a cure.
4. Rest until an attack wave shows up.
5. If unruly mob of players gang up on Boss in the wave, debuff/drain/aspir only.
6. If unruly mob of players gang up on underlings, nuke accordingly and melee at the same time. Try for a killshot.
7. If death is a definite, die in a place where you can be safe to raise.
8. Repeat 3-7.

It's a pretty solid plan, usually nets me a good chunk of XP. To into specifics about my plan though:

1. Getting a tag immedately when a battle starts is a good thing due to the XP time cap (which differs based on your rank.
2. Self enhancing caps at 8 repetitions, a total of 150 XP.
3. You need to cure 5000 HP to hit cap. That's about 25 Cure 3s or so based on your gear.
4. Having MP = important... that goes without saying.
5. Bosses suck as they can potentially one shot you. Try to keep your distance and keep your hate to a minimum. Resists count towards your debuff, you need to do 20 of them.
6. This is where the majority of your damage will come into play. Remember to keep yourself alive.

Now of course, if you're on a melee job (like my SAM), the only real planning you have to do is simply keeping yourself alive out in the battlefield and having a good weapon on your side. Just go out there and beat the crap out of things.

Some points of interest~

- While I'm not so sure about the Bastok/Sandy side, the Yagudo's Divine Pilgrims are basically free nukes. All they are sent to do is go in and erect either a turret, a belfry or bomb the fort. They don't attack at all so just throw out your big nukes without worry about hate.

- Did I ever mention that Stoneskin is the greatest spell ever made? Use it. It might not save vs Bosses but it'll save you against certain AoE attacks for a bit.

- Getting new tags, on the same line as song/spell spamming, can actually pretty good to reset your caps on certain XP things. Try doing it while you're waiting for the next wave of mobs.

- Almost everything can be aspired. Use that to your advantage.

- If you have a Love Halberd and you're main SAM... :3

- Bosses are usually bad news to engage first. Try to plain out avoid them if you can and just target the weaker ones. If you have a strong NPC force though, you can go nuts sometimes.

- Cure NPCs. They have so much HP that a Cure 3 will usually only heal 2%.

Truth be told: Campaigning on BLM (or close to any Mage job really) sucks. You can be trying to do everything to your power to get as much XP as you can but you'll never really reach the cap. However, if you really want to go campaign on your BLM, it can be fun but the XP will be substandard and you're often better off soloing stuff in Sea. To be honest though, to have something like this as just simple clean fun... it's a nice thing to do when you just don't want to really think and just let it all roll. You also don't lose XP when you die and screw up so maybe the overall XP gain isn't so bad for soloing. Either way, it gives me an excuse to bust out my DS and wait between Campaign fights!

Maybe I'll come back and reorganize this post a bit... For now, just rough typed out info. See you next fight!