Combat Skills

Combat Skills and Magic Skills are stats that are natural to a character's job—they both go hand-in-hand as they are all used to battle mobs in one way or another.

There is a cap to each skill depending on the class and their proficiency with said skill. As your job level goes up, the cap rises as well.

Certain jobs excel at some skills, while other jobs excel at others. Make sure you know what skills your job excels at and raise them to reach the maximum potential of your character.

The amount of attack and accuracy you gain by equipping a weapon using a particular skill is directly proportional to the Combat Skill level.

Job Skill Ranks

Skill Caps

• Jobs with no innate Skill Ranks cannot skill up past 0.
• Automaton Combat skills vary with equipped head and frame combinations. Click here for the skill ratings and caps at various levels.

Combat Skill Level Chart

Skilling Up

Combat and magic skills are traditionally raised by using the skill on monsters or allies of an appropriate level for your skill.

• For weapons, attack or perform physical weapon skills.
• For defensive combat skills, perform the defensive action (e.g., blocking, evading, or parrying), or simply get hit by an attack that is eligible to be blocked, evaded, or parried.
• For offensive magic skills, cast spells on an enemy.
• For supportive/healing magic skills, cast on yourself, other players or Alter Egos/Adventuring Fellows (target level doesn't matter).
  • Healing magic can also be cast upon undead for skill ups, similar to offensive magic.
• For summoning skill, summon an avatar or use Blood Pact: Rages and Blood Pact: Wards
• Some magic skills include both offensive and supportive/healing magics and can be skilled up in multiple ways.

With the introduction of Records of Eminence, There is now skill up armor and tomes.

• The Temachtiani Shirt Set is 11,000 Sparks, and gives +3 combat skill gain, +2 magic skill gain, and 17% haste.
• Stacks of Skillup Tomes are available for purchase using Sparks of Eminence from the A.M.A.N. Recruiters (aka Sparks Merchant) located in each home nation and Western Adoulin. There is one type of Skillup Tome for each Skill and they are sold either in a set of two stacks (24) or a set of three stacks (36). Once acquired, Skillup Tomes are used from inventory on the Items Command Menu in the same manner as Food or Potions. Each use will increase the targeted skill between 0.1 and 0.5, and the next Skillup Tome can be activated repeatedly with a very short delay.

There are also 2 trusts that give + skill gain. Trust: Sakura gives + physical and regen. And Trust: Moogle gives + magic and refresh.

There are also foods that give + skill gain. See Food Effects/Skill Gain Rate for list.

With Monster Rearing, there are now Key Items called "Cheers" that effect skill gain rate.

To work out the minimum level mobs required for skill ups, follow these steps:

• 1. Using the job skill ranks table, identify the rank of the skill for your job
• 2. Note your current skill level, and follow the appropriate rows in the skill caps tables for your rank, moving up in levels until you reach the level where the skill cap exceeds your current skill level
• 3. That level is the minimum level required of mobs for you to gain any skill ups with that particular job and particular skill

Example 1:
Lv 70 RDM skilling up dagger, dagger skill is currently at 150

• Using the job skill ranks table, RDM's dagger rank is "B"
• Since the rank is B, we'll look at the B+/B/B- rows for Lv 1-60, and the B row for Lv 61-80 in the skill caps tables
• Moving along the B+/B/B- rows, skill level 150 is first exceeded at Lv 51 (which has a skill cap of 151)
• So a Lv 51 mob would give the RDM skill ups on dagger, but only until 151 skill, mobs higher than Lv 51 are needed to continue skill ups
• In order to cap off dagger skill at Lv 70 (which would be 228 for the Lv 70 RDM), he'll need to fight Lv 70 mobs or higher

Example 2:
Lv 70 BLM skilling up dagger, dagger skill is currently at 150

• Using the job skill ranks table, BLM's dagger rank is "D"
• Moving along the D rows, skill level 150 is first exceeded at Lv 54 (which has a skill cap of 154)
• So at minimum, a Lv 54 mob is needed for the BLM to skill up dagger
  • Note the same Lv 54 mob would allow the Lv 70 RDM to skill up dagger until 166, since RDM's dagger rank is B
• In order to cap off dagger skill at Lv 70 (which would be 201 for the Lv 70 BLM), he'll also need to fight Lv 70 mobs or higher

Note that:

• By fighting Decent Challenge or higher targets, you can cap any combat/magic skill.
• In order to cap any skill, you must fight Decent Challenge or higher targets eventually.
• The maximum skill obtainable on a certain level target differs between jobs and between skills, as it is determined by the rank of the particular skill for the particular job, as per the job skill ranks table.

Special Consideration:

• Several jobs are capable of equipping weapons (or shields) while also not having access to that combat skill.
• Jobs that do not innately possess a skill are considered to have a 0 in that skill, even if they have that skill leveled on another job.

Skill Caps by Job

• Bard Skill Caps
• Beastmaster Skill Cap
• Black Mage Skill Caps
• Blue Mage Skill Caps
• Corsair Skill Caps
• Dancer Skill Caps
• Dark Knight Skill Caps
• Dragoon Skill Caps
• Monk Skill Caps
• Ninja Skill Caps
• Paladin Skill Caps
• Puppetmaster Skill Caps
• Ranger Skill Caps
• Red Mage Skill Caps
• Samurai Skill Caps
• Scholar Skill Caps
• Summoner Skill Caps
• Thief Skill Caps
• Warrior Skill Caps
• White Mage Skill Caps

See Also

• Skill Ups: A Guide by Kyrial Skillupmonsters and Places from Level 85-89
• Skill Up Guide by Crimsontonic Skillupmonsters and Places up to Level 83