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, and on top of that you don't lose exp when you die. The whole point of battling is to preserve (or gain in most cases) allied rank, from lowly ribbons to the mighty medals. 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). New types of ranks also unlock new gear for the cost of Allied Notes, most of which is very nice in its own right.

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. White Mages are obviously the master of this, and Dancers are surprisingly useless here (unless you are in a party), but anyone who can cure and raise can be a healer. 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. Hold hate however you can, and be sure to not die, as lots of people are counting on you to live. The Soloist: Any job well-suited to handling things all alone will do well here. To be a soloist, just pull away from the main battle to a place where you won't get links or aggro. This job combines aspects of every single role all at once, and can be very difficult unless you know what you are doing. Red Mage does well here, but I've never seen any other job try this and can't really vouch for anyone else. Combination: Some jobs are just meant to do lots of things, and like stated before no role is set in stone. A combination role is any mix of the above, and any mix will be discussed by an individual person's experiences.

Strategies by Job
And now for the best part, the input added by everyone! First there are some rules.

Your Name Your Rank (if you really want to, not necessary for this) Sub-job(s) of choice Your Strategy, be as exact or as vague as you want, its what you do in battles. Please be sure to add an approximate average of your EXP reward, or a number range (such as 500-2000).

And Now we can begin!

Black Mage
As a blackmage you can Melee here. Make sure you put stoneskin up and would be recommended to come /rdm to enfeeble or kite mobs in case things get ugly. Try to get kill shots on monsters for added experience points.

Corsair
Unineko /nin, /dnc, /rng A well-equipped corsair can do well in campaign (I once got ~3500 xp from a single long battle at level 58), dealing damage through melee, slug shot, quick draw, or a combonation of all three. Unfortunately, Phantom Rolls only affect party members, limiting it's utility. If you see a cor getting tags, by all means offer to group up with him, as their buffs will help you, and you'll be giving them the chance to gain experience and notes through buffs as well.

Dancer
InfamousDS Golden Star /nin I like to camp 1 zone, and farm seals while I wait. This lets me keep TP for the start of the next battle and also lets me get some okay exp and cash in non-seal drops. When the battle starts I get a RR scroll from the guy and buff up as much as I can w/o spending any TP. Once the mobs show up, I use Haste Samba (2 merits into it) and spam quickstep until I get 5 finishing moves. I use Dancing Edge, then Reverse Flourish, then I start spamming steps again. Once Quick hits Lv.5, I stop and start using Box, always repeating my cycle of 5 finishing moves -> Dancing Edge -> Reverse -> Steps. I heal as needed and always keep Haste on me. Very reliable way to do Campaign. 600-3000exp, cap exp only in very short battles.

Dragoon
Shienar

/mage

Soloist: Bring your af helm, and go kill those mobs solo as you would anny other normal mob. advice either zone-camp and make sure you have a experienced wyvern or bring saurian/relic helm. anny wyvern hp gear is also nice. my fealing on dificulty is from easy to hard, yags/quad/orc/spesial-forces/black mages. i average on 1.5k a mob i solo fully. sigil refresh is a must. Hate is a isue att times you want to tank not your wyvern exept if you have recast ready and are getting interupted all the time, and need that hb to gett off, if so Super-jump else i try not to use high-jump exept as a opening the fight move. Will say dificulty of yags/quad/orcs are around sea-puck's to greater colibri. hit's are weaker but they last much longer.

Paladin
Krav (Asura) Moonlight Medal Subjob: /dnc is beastly, however /nin /rdm /whm and /war are known to work well Gear Build: I use a Shield skill/VIT build with pld, with enough Accuracy to ensure you make contact. Macro in as much enmity+ as you can for hate generating abilities. Iron Ram pieces are excellent for the Magic Defense and enmity bonuses.

Pld/dnc results are amazing. Often I can keep three or four NQ campaign mobs busy at a time, with relatively little effort in tanking one to two mobs. The only downside to /dnc is the lack of enmity generation... the enmity from damage dealing is lowered and the job abilities are dwarfed when compared to /war. Keeping hate on a mob that is surrounded by insane DDs is very difficult, with Animated Flourish being less effective than provoke. Fighting in a party can be beneficial, using divine waltz as a Curaga to pull moderate hate. With /dnc, if you don't engage a fresh mob well before the DDs do, you will have very little chance of keeping hate unless Sentinel is ready. When dealing with multiple enemies, try to move so they are still in front of you and in a position where your shield will block thier strikes. Using Reprisal when tanking multiples is invaluable if you need to get off a CureIV on yourself.

As a soloing job, pld/dnc is mostly idiot-proof when soloing only 1 mob of most types (even while weakened), however the the ability to actually kill said mob is a long process. The need for your TP to keep yourself alive without wasting all of your MP halts your use of weapon skills, often I will fight until I reach 300 TP and nearly full health, then unleash a Spirits Within (which can hit for nearly 1k when used under the effect of Body Boost), and then hope that a stray NM wont join the party while my tp is low. NMs will still mostly be un-soloable, nigh impossible to tank safely, however with enough people focused on the NM you can live through the ordeal.

Use your job abilities intelligently and you can make this combination shine in campaign. Save Sentinel for mobs that are getting whacked around by the DDs (or if an NM takes a liking to you), and try to keep your finishing moves up with consistent Box Steps (or Quicksteps if your are having trouble making contact). Note: Invincible + Reprisal + Poisonhand Gnadgad = Good Times. Never forget Healing Waltz, your own personal Erase, which can remove any debuff that can be placed on you in campaign (except songs). Also be wary of Yagudo and thier insanely annoying Feathered Furore (spelling?) ability, which can remove your weapon or shield, resetting your tp to 0 and making you smash your head on the keyboard.

This job combination has yeilded up to 4500 experience in a single fight (note: epic fight), however my average is 2500xp in a moderate fight. Usually, I end up with about 125-200% the XP that other people claim to receive in the same fight. Never forget that you are a Paladin. You are the first to die and the last to run. If you are freshly raised and still weakened, but see a whm running for his life from a few mobs, you get the hell in there and save the squishy mage. You gain your experience from taking damage, and often times the campaign XP loss from dying is far offset by the xp you earn while being killed. Enjoy pld/dnc, its a great combo and a staple of the campaign battlefield!

Ranger
Unineko Starlight Medal /nin, /dnc As a ranger, you are the eyes of the army, and it's not a bad idea to track incoming units with widescan, you can also alert other players of the presence of kindred units as they don't appear in your log.(As of the July 2009 update, this seems to have been fixed.) You also quite literally do more damage to fortifications than anyone else. Just remember that there are no npc vendors in the past that sell ammunition, so you are limited to whatever you bring back to the past, can craft, or scavenge up.

Red Mage
Unineko /nin, /whm, /blu A Red Mage is extremely flexible, being able to heal, buff, debuff, and fight. Your strategy as a rdm therefore should change depending on what the situation calls for, if people and friendly npcs are taking a beating, help heal the wounded, raise the dead, and buff the people who need it. When fightng keep composure up, cast the appropriate enspells to maximize your melee damage, and debuff mobs as best as you can.

Scholar
If there are many NPCs who need healing, use the chance given to gain EXP from healing them. Otherwise, nuke and use helixes. Using Accession Protect/shell/stoneskin is a good idea, we all. A good tactic is to Aspirga a group of mobs using Manifestation. This will give you a nice boost of MP to continue your efforts. - Kirol, Caitsith. Krav (Asura) Moonlight Medal Sch/rdm past 68, before 68 /whm

Scholar is on par with summoner in campaign battles in that if you accession a buff onto an npc, the buff will hit everyone in the area of effect regardless of party, PCs and NPCs alike. This appears to be limited to effecting a maximum of 15 people, yourself included if you are in range. This maximum effect applies to cures as well as buffs. For a good time, find a dense pile of wounded NPCs and Accession Rapture CureIV on one of the npcs (add Divine Seal if /whm). This is, of course, instant death if there are any mobs in the mix, but can add up to huge amounts of HP healed (15k+). All from one spell. Also, dont forget that in order for a buff to count for an XP reward, it has to actually land on the target (Has no effect will not provide XP). That being said, the buff will overlap a protect or shell of the same level. So, you can spam your highest level protect/shell by accessioning them onto npcs, and as long as there is no higher level of pro/shell already active on them, you can land up to 15 buffs in one spell. If you notice another scholar around of a lower level (ie. does not have Shell IV and/or Protect IV), it may be a nice move to buff only up to the tier that scholar can cast to so both of you can benefit from this ability. It does not appear to effect xp if you buff with tier I buffs over tier 4 buffs.

As scholar, be glad you can cast reraise on yourself, because all of these AOEs on everyone will gain you incredible hate. Use your judgement as to whether healing a pile of people for 1k each is worth the inevitable death afterwords. You also have the AOE debuffs able to be unloaded onto mobs. Sleepga II can be helpful for that one lone tank who got stuck with a 10 mob link, and the mobs in campaign do not appear to be particularly resistant to sleep. Manifestationing Gravity and Bind can help you kite and occupy large amounts of mobs until the DDs and tanks are free to handle them. It is also worth mentioning that the 15 person cap applies to Manifestation too, you will only be able to sleep up to 15 mobs in one casting. And, as Kirol mentioned, AOE Aspir filling your mp bar to full is an awesome help! Enjoy campaigning with scholar, you'll probably be one of the only people on the battlefield just begging for NPCs to join the fight!

Thief
Vontomczak Sterling Star /nin I city camp. Refreshing the Regional map often and checking for starting battles. Generally speaking this is how I start. Once I've started a Campaign Battle in a zone where one has just recently started, I have a pretty good memory once that one's completed, of what zones still hadn't had one start and I'll check the Regional map to see if one has started and teleport right to it. I immediately sign up for a Union. Generally the one with the least amount of members to hopefully improve my chances for lotting on spoils. Strategy for THF is very basic. Having all your status bolts works wonders. Also, if there's a small group when you first start out, it's excellent for pulling another mob for a small group beating on things. Bar well geared PLD's and NIN's that know their job well, I usually end up blink tanking. When hate is pulled from me, a single Sneak Attack Dancing Edge is enough to take back hate. I bring a Haste+TP build gear set, a WS gear set and a Ranged Acc Gear set. For all intents and purposes, a THF's role is very much like your typical EXP party situations except you end up tanking more often than not, especially when you can put up good WS numbers. Average exp. 600 - 2,500.

Foxfire Allied ribbon of Glory [SSSS] Subs: /NIN, /DNC. Using a thief is very linear, really. Simply use whatever sub suits you most, usually the two mentioned above. /NIN for shadows, means for usual survivability. However, DNC subjob would equal to the ability to heal, drain samba, etc. Keep in mind, to maximize your exp gain, you need to exploit every possible aspect of the battle. Therefore, moves such as Divine Waltz come in really handy in some situations, moreover when fighting BRD mobs such as Vuu Puqu, who tend to AoE sleep constantly. Being able to divine waltz means you're automatically waking up everyone in the direct vicinity, since, in a way, everyone participating in campaign is unofficially part of your party/alliance. [Of course, this is what I understand, since Spring Water, Shining Ruby, and accession do the same.] Depending on how long you spend in there, and how you play, your outcome will increase or decrease. For me, I get 600~2,000 as THF63~66.