Farming...

Farming is a way to get more SPs (skill points).

The difference between the HIGHEST mastery level of the skills and your level is called "farming gap". So, for example, if your level is 20 and in skills you have bicheon mastery level 14, fire 10 and cold 8, the gap you have at the moment is 6 (20-14=6).

Playing with gap

If you want to farm, you have to keep the gap somewhere between 5 and 9. And that's because a gap bigger than 9 gives no more SPs than a 9 gap. The bigger the gap, the more SPs you get but the less XPs.

You can raise or lower the gap any time in the game. But you must always remember than even a gap of 9 is much different than a gap of 8. So if you get tired of farming, prefer to make the gap a little lower than close your gap at 0; it will be a good break without losing so many XPs.

Making a gap

Let's suppose you want to play with a gap 5:

If you just started playing, you will not level up any skill mastery until you reach level 6. Then you will level up your preferable masteries at level 1. And as you level up, you will raise these masteries by 1, so you will keep the difference (gap) at 5.

If you already have a character and until now you played with gap 0, don't raise any skill masteries in your following level up, until you become 6 levels higher than you are right now. Then level up your preferable masteries by 1. And as you level up, you will raise these masteries by 1, so you will keep the difference (gap) at 5.

Farming and parties

Even if you choose fast leveling or farming, there is a party type that can help you to earn more XPs and/or more SPs:


8 member parties (XP parties): When the party is full (8 members in it) you gain a 10% XP bonus per kill, even if you are not close to other party members. So you will level up 10% faster than if you were not in such a party.


4 Member parties (SP parties): When the party is full (4 members in it) you gain a 10% skill experience points bonus per kill (1 SP is equal of 400 skill experience points), even if you are not close to other party members.


Tickets

There are some tickets than can be bought by Item Mall (F10) and help you getting additional XPs and/or SPs.
Skill time tickets (SP tickets): Additional skill experience points during battle.
Time service tickets (XP/SP tickets): Additional experience & skill experience points during battle.
You can use a skill time ticket and a time service ticket simultaneously, but you are not allowed to use two of a kind simultaneously (not even if one is gold and the other silver).

If you are farming it's better to keep your XPs as lower as you can, so you will have more time to farm more SPs. By using an XP/SP ticket you gain more XPs than normal, so you will be leveling up faster than you should and the SPs you will collect will be lower than you could gain.

By the other hand, if you want to level up fast, an XP/SP ticket will be very useful jointly with a gap 0. But also keep in mind that an additional SP ticket would be very usefull to be used simultaneously with the XP/SP ticket, because it will not slow down your leveling up but it will replace some of the SPs you lose.

Hardcore farming

Many farmers choose not to do any quests that give XPs or they do these quests only when they are many levels higher than the quests, so the XPs they will get from them would harm less the farming.

There are also farmers that choose to level down in order to lose XPs. Usually, they become murderers and they lose XPs as they keep getting killed by other players.

Farming vs Fast leveling: Positives and negatives

FARMING POSITIVES:
You collect more SPs, so you can later learn more skills and upgrade them.
You get more drops/gold because you are grinding on monsters for longer time without needing to change your clothes/weapons to higher ones so often.
A full-farmed character at level 80 is stronger than a fast leveler, because a full-farmed character has all his preferable masteries and skills at their max.
FARMING NEGATIVES:
While you are farming you will be weaker than you should be at your level because your masteries are lower. And the bigger the gap is the weaker you will be.
You are leveling up slower than a snail.
FAST LEVELING POSITIVES:
You are leveling up fast.
You are stronger than a farmer at low levels.
FAST LEVELING NEGATIVES:
You will never have enough SPs to add all the skills you want.
You maybe will have to farm at high levels even if you don't want to, because your SPs wouldn't be enough for you to raise your masteries and close your gap.
You will have less gold than a farmer. Because of the fast leveling you will always need to change your gear and weapons to higher ones (and as the levels are higher, the items cost more and more) so you will be always in a hurry to find gold.
You will be weaker than a full-farmed character at level 80.
How to calculate the SPs you need

If you want to see how many SPs are required to raise the skills you want, you can use these SP calculators:

SP calculator for chinese characters
SP calculator for european characters
http://www.silkroad-online.gr/index.php?display=farming&lang=en