Warrior: What To Do in Skillup Parties

Category:Guides
==What is a skillup party?==
For anyone who doesn't know, a skill-up party is exactly what the name implies. These are parties devoted specifically to the raising of a skill that is either way below its cap, may be useful at things other than EXP parties, or can be leveled far easier in a job than in another job at that time, typically a high level compared to a low leveled job. These will appear commonly asking for any character at or above level 50.
===Where do skill-up parties take place?===
Skill-up parties will typically take place in either a place you had leveled at in probably the past 10 levels, or in any place where a coffer key may be obtained. These places are popular since coffer keys are necessary for almost all jobs to get at least 2 of their 5 pieces of Artifact Armor.
=== Skill Up Mechanics Information ===
Many people are curious how to figure out where to go to get to X skill level with Y weapon. The easiest answer is this: Fighting Even Match monsters will always skill you up to your current job's cap for that skill. Here are the gory details though:
Knowing that fighting a monster of your current level will cap your skill is very important. However, you only skill up when you actually hit a monster. This happens more often when your skill is close to the level of the monster. A good recommendation is to try and aim for skillups from a monster that is 20-30 weapon skill levels above your current skill level. To find out what weapon skill level a monster is you need to know what level the monster is, and what your skill cap is if your job was that level. For instance, if you were a Beastmaster , level 55, and you wanted to skill up Scythe, then you would look at a skill limit chart (I use somepage) -- More information can be found here http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Combat_Skills), and you'd see that your skill cap in Scythe is 171 and you have a B- skill in it. However, if you only had a skill of 100 in Scythe, then you wouldn't hit very often when you went to attack a level 55 monster. So if you use the same chart to see what level monsters would cap you at level 125, you'd see that if you were a level 42 Beastmaster, your Scythe skill would cap at 123. Knowing this, it would be a good idea to find some level 42 monsters to whack around for a while until you get to 123 Scythe skill.
==What a Warrior needs to know==
As a Warrior, you should expect to tank unless there is a job in the party far higher than you that can tank moderately well. These will be Monk, but only if they are signifigantly higher level than anyone else, Ninja, or Paladin typically. You will also need 2 sets of equipment, one that will be utilized if you are tank and/or the party lacks an extremely high level job. You will also want one set of gear for an 'ideal' situation, this will focus on +Haste, +ACC, and some +DEX gear more than DEF, Attack, or anything else. The best sub for basically any skillup party will be NIN unless you know you will NEVER have to tank, and will only be using 2 handed weapons for skillup, then THF is likely the best choice. 
Rykono's Opinion: If your going to use a two handed weapon in a skill up party go /SAM, Samurai hasso effect will give you 5% Haste, ACC+5 and STR+5 at lvl 70 and up. Also even if needed, Seigan + Third Eye can also keep you from taking too much dmg.
===What to use for these sets of gear?===
Normal setup (lacking high level characters): This set will basically be your normal EXP party gear, nothing really hard to describe...
Ideal setup: if this ever occurs, and it is very rare to say the least.... go with these choices.
*Axe: 2x Viking Axe
*Great Axe: Neckchopper
*Sword: whatever has most ACC+ at your level x2
*Great Sword: Braveheart; if you can afford one, Mercurial Sword is ideal, due to the multi-hits
*Scythe: Falcastra is pretty nice.
*Polearm: Anything with Accuracy+ and low delay. I used a San d'Orian Halberd.
*Hand to Hand (sub MNK if at all possible for Martial Arts and better WSs): Shiva's Claws are hands-down the best.
*Bow: No really bad choice as long as it has +Ranged ACC. Expunger is very nice if you happen to do the Operation Desert Swarm KSNM. Most people just sell these to NPC because they are rare/ex, but the ranged accuracy+9 is quite nice.
*Waist equip: Life Belt
*Neck: Royal Guard's Collar, Peacock Charm, anything with +Ranged ACC or ACC
*Rings: if you have them, Sniper's Rings or Woodsman Rings
 *Rings: Lava's Ring and Kusha's Ring. Great Acc+ stats. Very hard to obtain though.
*Earring: Assault Earring
I'll close this guide on one final note. Always know the limits of where you are skilling up. It will be very annoying to try and skill-up a sword from 150-175 on monsters that cap at approx 150 sword skill.