[yuukei]

What should I do to skill up my guarding at levels 1-10? I'm level 6 right now and I tried angering a rabbit and letting it wail on me for like 10 minutes. No skill ups. I tried it without having weapons drawn. I also tried it with weapons drawn and my back turned to it so I wouldn't kill it. Is the only way to raise guard is to outright fight it with weapons drawn and facing the mob? If that's so then I think it's nearly impossible to raise guarding at this low a level.

[laicram]

1-7 (even 1-10) is solo-able. As long as you have a weapon drawn and facing a strong enough mob, you have a chance at guard skillup. Once you get voke at lvl10, you can tank with the right gear, food, etc... The problem is the only ppl who'll let you tank are 1)Set PT members who understand it works and 2)random players who don't understand, but are desperate for a tank.

If you want an easy time skilling guard, wait until Lvl65. You can tank in coffer key PTs with no drama and get the skills there.

[Brocino]

That's very true. That's what i do. I've gotten my skill up about 20-30 just hunting keys for friends. lvling guard (like everythign in this game) is pretty random. i just recently got 110 base guard (120 with my hose)

[Muu Yi]

All those who think that Monk won't ever need to tank at higher levels have probably never heard of the high level Bones party before. Those consist of 4 Monks, 1 Bard, and a healer... usually Red Mage because they can Convert. And the Bard and healer certainly won't be tanking against the bone mobs so it's up to the 4 Monks to soak up the damage as well as dish it out and they have to be fast because the Bard pulls multiple mobs and sleeps them next to the camp so that there's a continuing chain of experience flowing. Chain 20+ are not uncommon in those types of party given competent members.

Anyway, there's a way to be facing the mob in attack mode without hitting it. The key is to find two mobs which are relatively close to each other but won't link. A good easy example would be Mandragoras, who also hit twice each round so give you more chances to guard against their attacks. What you do is first you stand next to and face the one you want hitting you, but far enough away from the second that you won't hit it but can target and engage it. Engage the further away one and open up your job ability menu. Select Provoke and toggle your cursor over to the one that is next to you and Provoke it. It'll proceed to start swinging at you, but you'll still be engaged on the second mob. As long as the further away mob doesn't move far away or into your melee range, you can keep yourself engaged for awhile.

Another tactic to use while attempting to level Guard would be to wear -evasion equipment. Monk actually has pretty good Evasion for a melee job (B rating) but as noted by the original poster Evasion comes before Guarding so you want to actually lower your chances of evading in order to Guard more often. There's not a whole lot of equipment available to monks that lowers evasion, but there are a few. The most obvious one being the Ochiudo's Kote. And if you use any +Evasion equipment regularly make sure to remove them or wear something else while skilling up Guarding.

[The Don]

I wish I wouldve read this when I first make this character and decided to make him a MNK...I prolly wouldnt have to join "Skill Up Parties" as a tank to get my Guard Skill up.