AoE Leveling is a great way for fast-leveling and gathering drops, especially in dungeons where monsters are stronger. This guide is written because I have some unpleasant gaming-experience partying with those who has no idea what they are doing, what they should do, and etc. I hope by writing this guide, these unpleasant event can be reduced.


Definitions:

These terms are used interchangeably:
Warrior = Fighter
Guardian = Defender
Assassin = Ranger
Hunter = Archer
Pagan = Mage
Oracle = Priest

Puller - Usually a guardian/defender, or might be even fighter/warrior, who can gather monsters quickly and effectively, as well as keep monster busy on them for long enough - until all monster is killed - before they switch target to casters. Guardian is much preferred due to their unique taunting and defending skills, as well as high REC.

Caster - A mage/pagan or a priest/oracle.

AoEer - Area of Effect damage dealer. Usually pagan is preferred due to their high damage and myriads of fast-casting/zero-delay AoE spells. But sometimes, high INT/LUC oracle, or even high STR/LUC fighter can fit into this category, though they are better-off performing other duties. High INT/LUC priest/oracle can be useful as AoEer sometimes, if the target monsters are mostly Fire elemental, because oracle/priest is the only class with water elemental spells.

Every caster MUST know this:
1) Fire > Wind > Earth > Water > Fire
2) Elemental > Non-elemental

You should use the elemental bonus to your advantage. However, using the proper element DOES NOT guarantee higher damage. It really depends on the level of your spells, higher level spells MIGHT still do higher damage, even though it does not has advantage in elemental properties. If you have doubts, the best way to check, is to simply test your spells on the target monster, and see which spell performs better.

Every caster should also know this:
Your spell will be interrupted if you are attacked OR debuffed.
Your casting animation will stop if you are attacked when casting.
HOWEVER, your casting animation will NOT stop if you are debuffed when casting...so your character animation will pause at the last frame/animation of casting, but no spell will be casted.
This should be a very well known issue, and the way to "fix" it is to simply move a bit before you start casting again.

AoE target selection: Pick the type of mobs who usually being killed last. This is so that you don't need to switch target to cast AoE spell when your target is dead, but there's still a bunches of monsters left.
Usually, it's the monster without elemental attribute that live the longest, or monster with fire attribute (since mages don't have water spells).

Buff icon will not blink. Debuff icon will blink.
So, don't wait...if you saw a debuff icon appear, move right away, and start casting again...don't waste time to see if your spell will be casted or not.


A) Each Class's Role in AoE-leveling Party.

For all classes:

1) BUFF, I don't care how weak that buff is, something is better than nothing. And if things go hairy, that little buff might be the difference between life and death, in other words, 5% of EXP when there's little goddess blessing...

One exception: Assasin. You got a buff that boosts party movespeed for a while. Don't simply use that for no reason. Use it only in such situation:
- When getting from one place to another, which constitutes a major portion of the traveling time.
- When things got hairy, and you guys are running away.

2) It's only courteous that, if you know you need to stop playing soon, tell your teammates early, so that they can start finding a replacement before you leave.

3) Make sure you got enough potions, and fixed all your weapons/armors before you even start looking for group.