The User's Guide to Campaign Battling

Welcome to The User's Guide to Campaign Battling! This is the veritable plethora of personal strategies (listed by Job) to not only make Campaign more fun, but also maximize experience gained without the need for testing and exact results. For those of you wishing to enhance this page, the rules are simple, just be sure to read the proper section further down. On top of that, this guide will also cover Campaign basics for those of us unfamiliar with the event. And now without further ado....

What is Campaign?
Campaign is the official title of the Allied Forces War Effort. It includes the actual act of Campaign Battles, Campaign Ops which range from simple supply running to full scale battle royales against the Beastman Forces, to even just aiding the townsfolk in a time of incredible strife. To most players, Campaign is a nickname for the battles, and is also the meat of this guide.

Okay, so what are battles?
Campaign Battles are the easiest way to join the war effort. The only requirements are that you can breathe, are level 10, and are allied to one of the 3 nations in the shadowreign era. You can go anywhere and fight, and its tons of fun to boot. The whole point of battling is to preserve (or gain in most cases) allied rank, from lowly ribbons to the mighty wings, and even a new set of ranks to be released on July 20th, 2009. Rank brings power, as higher ranks allow for larger rewards at the end of battles by increasing the maximum limit. However these rewards aren't guaranteed, as you have to earn them in ways that players will describe below. Higher ranks also allow better campaign ops, which in turn also allow for better rewards (in some cases rare and powerful equipment).

Types of Battles
Defensive: The Beastman are attacking, and its up to you to defend the Allied Outpost in the area. The idea of defensive battles are to defeat all attacking soldiers while preventing them from attacking Allied fortifications. These battles only occur in areas controlled by the Allied Forces (as the name suggests) and tend to be the most common type of battle for San D'Oria on Quetzalcoatl, as it has the most people allied to it for Angelstones and Deathstones rewarded during the WotG missions. The Campaign Op based on these is "Aegis Scream". Offensive: You are attacking, and it lies on your well-traveled shoulders to take over this area for the Allies. The idea is exactly the opposite of a defensive battle, but the general strategy is to defeat all the defenders and begin assaulting the fortification to reduce control. These battles are most common in the Dungeon areas (like Eldieme) due to the fact that fortification and defender are forced into close proximity of each other. The Campaign Op related to this is "Smokescreen".

Campaign Camping
There are 2 ways to go about waiting for Campaigns. 1) Zone Camping: Zone Camping is exactly how it sounds, you pick a place and hang out there until a Campaign Battle starts. This is the preferred choice of players saving up allied notes, or players who want to keep their TP for use in other battles once that one is done. The only downside is that you have no idea when a Campaign can start, and it can get very boring unless you bring along crafting materials or decide to farm in the area. The upside is that you will be one of the first people there, as there is a lag between when a battle starts and when the regional map updates. Before a major update, there was a sub-category to this called "Fortification Camping". The entire goal of that was to smack Forts until offensive battles ended, netting incredible amounts of experience points to even the most inexperienced players, as long as they could hit it. The update reduced exp maximum of hitting forts to 200, regardless of what you do to it and regardless of rank. 2) City Camping: To my knowledge this is the single most common way of doing Campaigns, and also the most versatile way to do it. The idea behind this is to allow warping to any area where a campaign might occur. Also, there are frequent status reports of the war effort, announcing when any platoon attacks or defends and whenever any platoon leader (both beastman and Allied) has fallen in battle. These updates, combined with frequent checks of the regional map, allows for the maximum amount of freedom when choosing a location to dole out your brand of pain or comfort. The downsides of this is that you are stuck doing nothing if there is a rather dry spell in battles, as well as the cost of warping which can add up if you miss several campaigns. The upside is that you can go anywhere at anytime, and have several briefs that just aren't there if you camp a zone.

Campaign Roles
Just like parties, there are roles to play in Campaign. The only difference is that these roles aren't as set in stone because death doesn't really mean anything except weakened. Damage Dealer:Anyone can be a DD in Campaign, and the jobs meant for that excel where others only shine. Other than that, its the exact same as DDing a party. Weapon Skill a bunch, and generally just hurt things. Black Mages are the only exception, as they DD with spells, but its the same principle. Debuffer:This is for jobs capable of doing nasty things to the monsters without directly harming them. Dancer excels here, both as support job and main job, but doesn't nearly have the variety of red mage, white mage, or even black mage. Healer:Your entire purpose is to ease pain. Throw cures like mad, revive the fallen, and hope that NM doesn't come running your way. Tank: Only the stoic of heart need apply, but anyone with the proper support (or the right job) can tank. Paladin and Ninja do well here, no doubt due to the practice of partying. But I have seen Thieves and Dancers do nicely as well, and once even a White Mage.