While I normally follow Culex's guide 'how to train your dragon' a lot, I've come to see that there are a few flaws to this guide. And so, I decided to make my own! Though it will LARGELY follow Culex's guide, there will be one big diffrence: Instead of training three physical fighters at once, it will focus on training two physical fighters and a mage.
The benefit of mages
Mages aren't really frequently used, and it's a shame really! With their aid ability they can make sure you can grind infinitely without ever having to refresh (because sometimes Sap just doesn't recover enough exp to really help you), when you put rally on them none of your physical fighters will have to waste a turn rallying themselves and contuse can make enemy attacks weaker. Not to mention that with rally it becomes very easy to skip zones after a certain point, which means more exp in a shorter timespan- not to mention that after getting to lvl 17 you can basically skip 4 zones- provided you have given your physical fighters berserkers and your mage scholars.
But now- time for the actual guide!
LVL 1-14
I would suggest following Culex's guide for all the stats and venues until you're at lvl 15. It's pretty important to have an eliminate on hand (or not if you follow the sedona build, which doesn't require an eliminate, I should really try that at one point). For your mage you'll just need to take all the points you'd put in str and put them in INT instead- and instead of might fragments use acuity fragments.
At lvl 5 you can add either rally or aid, which can really affect the way you train your dergs. If you go with aid you'll be able to heal your dergs, but they won't do as much damage as they could, whereas with rally your dergs will do more damage but you won't be able to heal them. I would personally chose to add rally, since healing potions are quite a common drop, and very useful. Don't worry though- at lvl 11 you'll be able to add the stone you didn't add earlier.
At lvl 9 you'll be able to add ambush to your dragons, and trust me, once you have two of them (which will be at lvl 15) the REAL fun can begin.
LVL 15-17
After getting your second ambush, you can start 'skipping venues'- you don't have to go to every venue anymore, unless you want to. If you put your mage in the first slot of your team they can rally both your physical fighters before they even have to attack, really making the most use of rally they can. not to mention that 2 rally give 10 breath, and with a meditate you'll have enough to heal a derg).
At level 15 you can skip redrock cove, to instead go and train in the waterway- which offers slightly more exp. Once at lvl 16 the arena is the way to go.
And at lvl 17, you can add your berserkers and scholars, and immediately skip like 4-5 venues, depending on your preference (namely volcanic vents, rainsong jungle, boreal woods and (if you REALLY want to) Harpy's roots). Skipping these venues will allow you to grind and train in higher zones- which means more exp and leveling up faster!
I normally train at harpy's roots until I'm level 18, at which point I go to ghostlight ruins and stay there until my team is at lvl 19, which is when I go to the mire, where I actually chose to stay until my dergs are either lvl 21 or 22
lvl 21-25
If you want to, you can spend these levels grinding in the kelp beds. You'll get around 1640 exp per battle when you have won more than 4 battles in a row. Again, Rally will really help you with this- at lvl 24 you can even 1-hit eliminate those eels and some maren when rallied.
(alternate) lvl 24-25
or...you can go to the golem workshop at lvl 24. though it is a bit tougher than kelp beds, the exp you get there is pretty much the same. The only diffrence is that there are no 2-mob spawns, so you'll never get less than 1500 exp after winning more than 3 battles.
But what if I just have 1 or 2 dergs I need to train instead of three?
In that case it'd be better to either use a mire flyer (found in Culex's guide) who can train 2 dergs at once in the mire, or take 2 dragons and train the single dragon to lvl 25 in the kelp beds.
The benefit of mages
Mages aren't really frequently used, and it's a shame really! With their aid ability they can make sure you can grind infinitely without ever having to refresh (because sometimes Sap just doesn't recover enough exp to really help you), when you put rally on them none of your physical fighters will have to waste a turn rallying themselves and contuse can make enemy attacks weaker. Not to mention that with rally it becomes very easy to skip zones after a certain point, which means more exp in a shorter timespan- not to mention that after getting to lvl 17 you can basically skip 4 zones- provided you have given your physical fighters berserkers and your mage scholars.
But now- time for the actual guide!
LVL 1-14
I would suggest following Culex's guide for all the stats and venues until you're at lvl 15. It's pretty important to have an eliminate on hand (or not if you follow the sedona build, which doesn't require an eliminate, I should really try that at one point). For your mage you'll just need to take all the points you'd put in str and put them in INT instead- and instead of might fragments use acuity fragments.
At lvl 5 you can add either rally or aid, which can really affect the way you train your dergs. If you go with aid you'll be able to heal your dergs, but they won't do as much damage as they could, whereas with rally your dergs will do more damage but you won't be able to heal them. I would personally chose to add rally, since healing potions are quite a common drop, and very useful. Don't worry though- at lvl 11 you'll be able to add the stone you didn't add earlier.
At lvl 9 you'll be able to add ambush to your dragons, and trust me, once you have two of them (which will be at lvl 15) the REAL fun can begin.
LVL 15-17
After getting your second ambush, you can start 'skipping venues'- you don't have to go to every venue anymore, unless you want to. If you put your mage in the first slot of your team they can rally both your physical fighters before they even have to attack, really making the most use of rally they can. not to mention that 2 rally give 10 breath, and with a meditate you'll have enough to heal a derg).
At level 15 you can skip redrock cove, to instead go and train in the waterway- which offers slightly more exp. Once at lvl 16 the arena is the way to go.
And at lvl 17, you can add your berserkers and scholars, and immediately skip like 4-5 venues, depending on your preference (namely volcanic vents, rainsong jungle, boreal woods and (if you REALLY want to) Harpy's roots). Skipping these venues will allow you to grind and train in higher zones- which means more exp and leveling up faster!
I normally train at harpy's roots until I'm level 18, at which point I go to ghostlight ruins and stay there until my team is at lvl 19, which is when I go to the mire, where I actually chose to stay until my dergs are either lvl 21 or 22
lvl 21-25
If you want to, you can spend these levels grinding in the kelp beds. You'll get around 1640 exp per battle when you have won more than 4 battles in a row. Again, Rally will really help you with this- at lvl 24 you can even 1-hit eliminate those eels and some maren when rallied.
(alternate) lvl 24-25
or...you can go to the golem workshop at lvl 24. though it is a bit tougher than kelp beds, the exp you get there is pretty much the same. The only diffrence is that there are no 2-mob spawns, so you'll never get less than 1500 exp after winning more than 3 battles.
But what if I just have 1 or 2 dergs I need to train instead of three?
In that case it'd be better to either use a mire flyer (found in Culex's guide) who can train 2 dergs at once in the mire, or take 2 dragons and train the single dragon to lvl 25 in the kelp beds.