I just tried out Leucros for the first time and see the following:

> appraise Leucro
You are certain that the silver leucro is healthy.
You are certain that it is not quite as agile as you are.
You are certain that it is not quite as quick to react as you are.
You are certain that it is rather weaker than you are.
Fighting with a salt-etched cutlass and wearing a target shield, you are confident that the silver leucro is a slightly less skilled opponent.

This is at:

Light Chain: 118
Evasion: 121
Medium Edged: 98
Multi: 113
Parry: 110
Shield: 104
STR: 30
AGI: 22
REF: 22

I'm wondering if it would make more sense to head to snowbeasts/gargs to find an area with critters that will both work skills and drop boxes (the gargs at any rate). Any thoughts?

Snowies/gargs are perfect, just tried them last night

try just snowbeast in the gash, on the north side of the gondola. If you go down in the SE corner on the "glacier" (glacier in the room descript), they swarm like crazy, and will get you ready for the mix later...

Works great! Thanks all.