Monstrosity Leveling Guide

calibrate your sarcasm detector

this is what ive been doing for plants so far
1-10 west saru; slaughter everything
10-15 konschat on sheep
15-20 dunes on sheep as well
20-25 beetles in sauromugue
25-30 Battalia on tigers
30-35 atm im in glacier rapeing tigers and w/e else comes near me

i plan on keeping this updated so any other doing plant path can get a good path to 99

How do you get out of monster form or even switch zones?

Medium Size Monsters (Only done with lizards so idk the applicability for other species and anything beyond zehrun is based on where I plan on going for the least annoyance possible):

1~15: West Ronfaure - Can do monsters around Knightwell until 15 easily. Will be one shotting them so it isn't as bad as it sounds.

16~26: Valkurm Dunes - Start with rabbits, lizards, and goblins near the Konschtat Highlands entrance, then move on to sheep, crabs, and higher lv goblins in the small palm thicket just away from the Konschtat Highlands entrance's tunnel out. Can finish up on leeches and pugils.

27~38: Davoi - Bees and some types of orcs work, and after a couple of levels you can do lizards (geezards) and some higher level orcs.

39~63: Crawlers' Nest - Start on worker crawlers, then move on to soldier crawlers until they're decent challenge. Then move on to exorays and witch hazels until they're decent challenge and head over to rumble crawlers until they're decent challenge. Next go to dragondlies until they're decent challenge, and finish up your long quest through CN on crawler hunter scorpions and knight crawlers.

64~67: Toraimarai Canal - Fight stygian pugils, dire bats, doom soldiers, and doom mages. They're located in the central southern bit of the map with the entrance/exit to Windurst Walls on it. Use ffxidb to find more exact positions.

68~77: Zeruhn Mines - Start out fighting only colliery bats, then as your level rises move on to fighting occasional burrower worms. Avoid worms as much as you can, as their attack down is absolutely horrid.

78~88: Maze of Shakrami - fight chaser bats and bleeder leeches, then move on to warren bats and crypterpillars.

89~96: Garlaige Citadel - Fight donjon bats, kabooms, fortilace bats, and warden beetles.

97~99: Bostaunieus Oubliette - Fight nachtmahrs, wurdalaks, and blind bats.

You use a "Relinquish" command to return to your character's body. You can't zone as a monster so you have to use that command and re-enter the lobby to choose a new zone.

Got it... at first I was like wtf?!

Hadnt done this yet but I assume monstrosity is a different world then regular Players? Or can your regular character cross paths with monstrosity characters?

Same world, crosses paths.

hmm.. looking for a camp for my mandy @40. nest has too many in it atm between level sync pts, burns and other monster players ;/

You check the Nest Beetle?

Check camps like Oztroja, Davoi, Zvahl and Beadeaux. Those have monsters within ranged of what you're looking for and most people seem to forget Beastmen are squishy.

As a beetle I'm actually doing better on the Caveberries in CN at level 37-40 and beyond than I was doing on the worker crawlers, just be careful of a crazy chain-link all the way down the tunnel.

The killer traits monsters naturally possess seem to be like that of those augmented by Ferine Gausape. That is to say, as a vermin you get damage taken-% and dmg dealt+% while fighting plantoids (beetle vs saplings) and Prothescar would have a better time fighting vermin as a lizard.

I don't think you get Damage bonuses or penalties.

Handy-dandy spreadsheet for getting the most out of your instinct points/slots.

155 lines of data entry and umpteen hackish formulas, make good use of it.

Make a copy of it into your own drive/docs if you want to really tool with it, but you can change the values on this copy if you just wanna muck about real quick.

35-42~ in Fei'Yin is pretty nifty. Mobs are everywhere, only danger is blood aggro but even the ghosts aren't real scary. Took beetle from 35-41 there in about 80 minutes. I got dumped at Beauc zoneline and ended up hovering around Miser Murphy area.

Has anyone been noticing the TNL's when leveling monsters? I feel silly for not noticing this until now but it looks like it's much less then character levels. With good reason: we've essentially got 39 "classes" to level this update.

Has anyone been working on a TNL chart? And does the TNL differ between monster families?

TNL is significantly less than Players. At level 67 my TNL is 13k. I know at this level its going up by about 500.

EDIT: Level 67~70 You can head to Castle Zvahl Baileys and fight the 71-73 Demons. They can hit really hard if you're not a defensive job but around 68 they start to weaken... on Diremite (DRK/DRK) one of the Judic Demons (a DRK) Crit'd me for 300 lol.

TNL pattern:

Level 1: 300
Level 1-49: previous level TNL + 100
Level 50-61: previous level TNL + 400
Level 62-99: previous level TNL + 500
Level 99: 29000

There might be a small range (2-3 levels) in which its previous + 200 around level 50. It's possible there is an increase of 150 per level from 11-21, but I don't personally recall that happening.

Updated. New crazy 'Ubersort' method that will try to fill all twelve slots with a specified maximum points for maximum point value and good spread of stats. Better reference values for stats based on harmonic mean efficiency. Fixes for Attack +% instincts. Availability page for disabling instincts you don't have or nobody can get (also an on/off for it on the sort page, please don't go re-checking everything), so no more impossible-to-get 'Behemoth 3' at the top of every list.

File -> 'Make a Copy' to crib it so you can save your unlocks and weight preferences.

It seems like no matter how much weight I put on Accuracy, it always is telling me "*** DRG, use WAR/DRK/THF instincts you noob". XD

Ok, so I am leveling Panopt, the only BLM/BLM of the current monster lists available. It is an awesome mob because you just rapid shot those spells and probably finish up any VT (rarely IT) mobs with 3-5 attempts. That said, with the TNL going up, its starting to drag a little.

I've read this thread and it looks like most of you are doing WAR or /WAR jobs which can justify the camps/mobs you are going after usinjg your aoe tp moves, but with a BLM/BLM job you can't really mass pull and do agas because you don't have access to stoneskin, blink or aquaveil.

So I was wondering which zone/camp would work best for Panopt as well as strategy taking into account the lack of stoneskin, blink or aquaveil? Oh and avoiding vermins as I'll get intimidated quite often...

One mob at a time will drive me crazy by the time I hit 99.

Thanks for the help

I have fallen in love with leveling on bombs with monsters who have movement speed. Leveling raptor in Garlaige Citadel at 88, I was exping on Kabooms in the basement which were conning IT to me. If they used berserk, I was hitting for a lot (combined with whirling inferno) or if they used self-destruct, I ran out of range and took no damage for full experience. Constant chain #5's on them for 900 experience.

Hopefully this will be more of an option when they open up places like Ifrit's Cauldron and areas in Wings of the Goddess.

Medium size monsters can not enter Bostaunieux Oubliette. a Lizard is a nq size so it can enter and Tiger = medium.

It was disappointing to find this out for myself as well.

It seems like the least painful way from 90-99 is to abuse Kabooms (you can avoid Self-Destruct even without movement speed+, just have to pay attention) in Garlaige until 94. Then your next best bet is to replace Bostaunieux Oubliette with Fei'Yin. The Sentient Carafe's will carry you all the way to 99.
98 and 99 are definitely a bumpy road, but the pots never hit decent challenge so there's always chaining to be done.

For anyone as excited as I was about stacking bee's hundred fists with mighty strikes... you cannot. You can only have one "1-hour" active, the second will have no effect.

But that's okay because my dream came true and you can have Erratic Flutter + Mighty Strikes on your Wamoura and never want to be anything else ever again.

Uhg.. Anyone have any ideas for 85-90 large? The Scowlenkos in Uleguerand seem to be the highest mobs I can find. And it's pretty painful trying to get the 20k+ exp off even match and below.

I think you're pretty much out of luck. Large monsters will likely have to wait for November and use the instanced group stuff and PvP to get far past 80.

My experiences so far with a variety of species. My levels at the moment are Eft Lv50, Peiste Lv65, Raptor Lv62, Beetle Lv60.

Lizard
What I started with. Nothing really worth noting here for the first 15 levels, just whack away at stuff. At Lv15 I suggest immediately changing to the "Ashen Lizard", this gives you access to black magic which can speed kills along nicely.

Raptor
Unlocked for 3000 Infamy. You are stuck with being a pure melee for pretty much your entire leveling journey as a Raptor. However, thankfully you do your one job well. Raptors hit hard and fast with Berserk and Double Attack only helping this along further. I suggest purchasing the Dragoon's Instinct as soon as possible for the whopping +40 accuracy it gives as it will speed up kills considerably. Warrior's and Dark Knight's Instinct should be next on your shopping list. When you get to Lv38-40 I suggest heading over to Crawler's Nest. Despite the species advantage you have over most things in the Nest you will still suffer from Crawler's slow which will slow down your kills. Emerald Raptor unlocks at Lv30 but doesn't seem to do anything else apart from give you a new coat of paint. You can pretty much stay in the Nest all the way to Lv60, moving along the food chain as you go. At Lv60 you unlock the Ruby Raptor model which gives you access to that move you oh-so-love from Morimar's fracture: Whirling Inferno. From this point on you might as well stick with this sub-species.

Eft
Plays like a cross between a Lizard and a Raptor and is unlocked at Lv30 Raptor. For the first 30 levels of your life as an Eft you're pretty much stuck being a melee. When you get Lv30 I suggest changing to the Tarichuk sub-species as the magic damage will help speed things along nicely. As with Raptors and practically any other Lizard Crawler's Nest is your playground when you creep up upon Lv40. However, it seems that Efts are EXTREMELY resistant to both Slow and Poison so you can own Crawlers at will. Faculty selection is similar to that of a Raptor but if you want to throw in Geomancer's or Black Mage's Instinct in to bolster your magic then by all means. I took Eft to Lv50 so I could unlock...

Peiste
Words cannot quite describe how much fun you will have leveling this thing. Unlocked by getting both Raptor and Eft to Lv50 and by forking out 8000 Infamy. Peistes are the scourge of many monsters and are death incarnate for vermin in particular.

Despite being limited to a melee-only role and lacking any sort of magical prowess Peistes gain two very good TP moves at a very early stage: Torpefying Charge (1) and Delta Thrust (10). Torpefying Charge packs a nasty paralysis and is a fantastic "Oh ***" button for when you get one-too-many links. Delta Thrust is as frustrating as you remember it but thankfully you're on the giving end of it. Delta inflicts a very strong plague effect on your target which saps its' TP. You really notice the effect of it and, when combined with Torpefying Charge, can utterly cripple anything.

If it seemed impossible Peistes get even more dangerous when they reach Lv40 and unlock what is arguably one of the most if not THE most broken attack currently in Monstrosity: Calcifying Mist. Calcifying Mist is practically unavoidable by any target, even if said target is a good 20-30 levels higher than yourself. It starts a countdown to petrification that takes 20 seconds to take effect. As the timer ticks down the target begins to slow to a crawl before the petrification eventually takes full effect. The petrification effect can last for upwards of 5 minutes, 5 minutes where you can just wail away on an immobilized target that has no means to defend itself.

Once you unlock Calcifying Mist you can blight the Crawler's Nest like a dose of Colorado Beetle. Much like Efts, Peistes are practically immune to all forms of Slow and Poison so you can terrorize Crawlers to your hearts content.

Beetle
Unlocked for 3000 Infamy. Beetles are Paladins and as a result have a slower kill-speed in comparison to other species but are undeniably sturdier. "Onyx Beetle" can be unlocked by trading x25 Beetle Spirits to an NPC in the foyer, which I highly recommend you do as soon as possible. Onyx Beetles retain the sturdiness of Paladins but add some Black Magic spice into the pot. Given how much Paladin type monsters suffer from a lack of damage output, and you will notice it if you have leveled other species prior to this one, you will want to augment your output by any means necessary.

I'll be frank here: getting Beetle to Lv50 is incredibly painful but when you get it there... Oh man... Lv50 unlocks the "Gamboge Beetle". This sub-species, which looks identical to Lancing Lamorak found in Voidwatch, remains a Paladin but gains the spells and traits of a Red Mage. That means you suddenly gain the ability to cast Haste, Enthunder II, and Cure IV on yourself as well as Dia II everything you fight. If this wasn't enough of a boost changing to this sub-species unlocks an incredible attack called Rhinowrecker. Rhinowrecker is a conal physical attack that hits like Mike Tyson and smashes the target's defense into oblivion. Combine this move with Dia II and Haste and you will begin tearing through things with an ungodly speed.