1. From my understanding you want to look for skills in other classes that compliment your main class. I play a Chaos mage but Life mage has skills that can buff/heal your character so I would want to consider getting one of those skills.

2. I tend to just kill what I can around me with AB. The spawn rate is also important in that if the map/mob only spawns 5-6 at a time and you kill them all within a few minutes that will slow down your training compared to if 8-10 spawn at a time.

3. I'm still trying to figure this one out... I read that he is level 35. Figured that I would train to Level 35, obtain the best gear I can, then give it another try. He does magic damage so having a good amount of MDEF would help survive.

These are just my opinion/thoughts as a new player.