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So you’ve taken up the Axe? Well, more tanks in the world is a good thing! If you’re here, you’re in need of advice leveling up your MRD, no? Well, this is our Marauder Leveling Guide so you’ve found the right place!
This page is strictly for Marauder – focusing more on MRD specific info like skills, traits, and playstyle notes. The GENERAL PROCESS that you should be following is outlined in our GENERAL LEVELING GUIDE: Which you should be using ALONGSIDE THIS GUIDE.
Leveling Methods, References and Reminders
In these boxes, I’ll put info that you’ll likely be referring to (or discovering) while leveling up your Marauder.
Last but not least of these reminders, always logout at a sanctuary. It’s noted by the moon icon on the right side of your EXP bar. You gain rested EXP in these areas!
Marauder Leveling – 01 to 30
If this is your first character:
MAIN SCENARIO QUEST IS YOUR FIRST PRIORITY.
If you’re fresh Marauder – go start up with your hunting log. A level one character doing hunting logs + participating in level appropriate FATES isn’t bad this early on. For MRD’s, all Tier 1 log entries are in Lower and Middle La Noscea. (You can do this while queued up for POTD).
After this early burst, refer to the table above for “what to do”.
L1 Skill Unlocked – Heavy Swing: For all intents and purposes – your basic attack.
L4 Skill Unlocked – Skull Sunder: Combos from Heavy Swing, this is the very cute beginnings of your future rotation. It has a secondary effect of generating more enmity.
L5 MRD Class Quest – check in on your guildmaster in Limsa Lominsa Upper Decks – Marauders’ Guild. These spawn every 5 levels up until 50, and can give you notable rewards (besides, you NEED to do them to become a Warrior).
L6 Skill Unlocked – Berserk: Is a substantial DPS increase cooldown. Use it on fat enemies and groups. Well, I guess if you’re soloing use it as often as practically possible…
L8 Role Action slot I unlocked – Rampart: Is a generic toughness boosting cooldown. It’s basic, but its one of the best role actions for us. Use it often in dungeons, at the beginning of new pulls and during bosses.
L10 Skill Unlocked – Overpower: Your very first AoE skill (and a great one at that). Best used in packs of 3 or more, but in the early levels it’s justified using it on two guys. It consumes quite a bit of TP so be wary of that.
L10 MRD Class Quest – check in on your guildmaster in Limsa Upper Decks – Marauders’ Guild.
L12 Role Action slot II unlocked – Low Blow: Is amazing. Its primary use is interrupting annoying AoE from mobs. However, one oft forgotten purpose of stun is damage mitigation. A stunned guy won’t hit you! Simple as that! Stunning a guy in a pack of 3 (common in dungeons) reduces damage taken by 33%!
L15 MRD Class Quest unlocks Tomahawk: check in on your guildmaster in Limsa – Marauders’ Guild.
Tomahawk: A ranged attack great for pulling dungeons and raid bosses. Use it to get an extra hit in while approaching your target.
L16 Role Actions Slot III Unlocked – Provoke: is a godlike tank role action, and one you should familiarize yourself with as early as now. It gives you top enmity on a target mob, but only by a single point. Always follow it up right after – the usual is Provoke into Tomahawk. While it’s crap for soloing, it’s a MUST HAVE in any other type of content.
L18 Skill Unlocked – Maim: Combos from Heavy Swing. If you need to purely do damage, Maim beats Skull Sunder for that purpose. Only use Skull Sunder in dungeons WHEN YOU NEED ENMITY. Maim also gives the enemy a debuff of -10% slashing damage resistance which means MORE DAMAGE FOR ALL OF OUR SKILLS! Always keep this buff up on enemies, especially bosses.
L20 Role Actions Slot IV unlocked – Convalescence: increases incoming heals. It’s obviously quite bad as we don’t really have access to healing skills right now (it does affect your healer Chocobo!).
L20 MRD Class Quest – check in on your guildmaster in Limsa Lominsa Upper Decks – Marauders’ Guild.
L24 Role Actions Slot V unlocked – Anticipation: Increases parry rate. This is an amazing cooldown when facing 3 or more mobs. Against bosses, however, you shouldn’t rely on it.
L25 MRD Class Quest – check in on your guildmaster in Limsa Lominsa Upper Decks – Marauders’ Guild.
L26 Skill Unlocked – Thrill of Battle: A defensive cooldown which beefs up your max life and heals you for the same amount. It’s pretty good, and will be useful for the rest of your Warrior career. It’s one of the few skills that compound very well with other defensive cooldowns – ramping up your effective HP enormously.
Once you hit level 30 FULL STOP! It’s time you evolve into a job class – in your case that’s Warrior (WAR)! The prerequisites to unlocking the quest are simply finishing ALL MRD class quests up to level 30.
L30 Class quest unlocks – Butcher’s Block, and the prereq for Warrior:
Butcher’s Block: Your first combo finisher! So your single target rotation now goes back to Heavy Swing > Skull Sunder > Butcher’s Block. Don’t ignore Maim though, it’s great for bosses – and if you have other slashing characters in your party (DRK, SAM, NIN etc…).
Completing this quest marks your final class quest as Marauder. You now have the right to become a Warrior!
How to become a Warrior?
The quest to become a Warrior is Pride and Duty (Will Take You from the Mountain), found in Marauders’ Guild. Completing this quest gives you Soul of the Warrior, and Defiance skill. (I know, that quest name seems long, but I promise you that’s not a typo)
Soul of the Warrior is your job soul crystal. To become a Warrior you merely have to equip it (it’s on the lower right most equipment slot). Equipping the soul crystal is a tiny bit of a hassle since you have to rebind your skills, and reconfigure your equipment set. But it’s okay since you’ll likely never be a Marauder again.
And with that YOU’RE DONE WITH LEVELING Marauder! Congrats! Feel free to proceed to the Warrior Leveling Guide. Hopefully our Marauder Leveling Guide helped you out – Patience friend, you’ll be Fell Cleaving soon enough.
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