Starlitsky's Cleric guide for MapleStory V0.02 Last Modified: 01/05/2004 ---------------------------------------------------------- Introduction ---------------------------------------------------------- Hi there! Starlitsky here. I've been playing Maple Story for a while now, and I'd like to share with you some pointers on my favourite class, clerics! I still see a lot of questions regarding clerics that keep popping up. Hopefully, this guide will address some of the common issues, and help you, whether you are a novice, veteran or just plaiun curious. A word of warning; this is a thinking guide, not a hand holding guide. My job is to get you to think about what you want and decide on your own. Please only distribute in its unmodified form. Send all corrections and submissions to: please send questions and comments to: starlitsky(at)waywardhearts(dot)com the most updated version will always be at: http://www.littleblink.com/ms/ ---------------------------------------------------------- Table of Contents ---------------------------------------------------------- 1. Why Cleric? 2. Stats 3. Skill Point Distribution a. 1st job b. 2nd job i. MP Eater ii. Teleport iii. Bless iv. Invincible v. Heal vi. Holy Arrow 4. Damage Calculations 5. Levelling Guide a. Levelling Theory b. Level 1 to 30 6. Miscellaneous FAQs (including 3rd job skill preview) 7. Credit ---------------------------------------------------------- 1. Why Cleric? ---------------------------------------------------------- When you reach level 30, you will be able to advance to your second job. Clerics are one of the more popular paths for magicians, and with good reason too. Here is a list of clerics pros and cons to help you decide. Pros: a) clerics are self sufficient. By that, i mean that clerics are better suited to effective soloing and surviving by themselves. The biggest reason for this is heal. Clerics are the only magician class that is able to regain both hp and mp where-ever they go. b) Clerics are cost effective. Because of the ability to heal, they do not require any hp potions after just a point in heal (under normal circumstances). If you are not in a rush to level, you may not require any mp potions either, except in the case of an emergency. c) clerics are great party members. Free healing, a skill that increases many attributes at once ... What more can you ask for? Cons: now, before you jump on the cleric bandwagon, take a look at the disadvantages. With this much good stuuf, there has to be bad. a) Clerics do below average damage. Unless you level solely on undead and unholy, you will be relying a lot on your first job attack spell. b) cleric levelling is hard. Due to below average damage and lack of special abilities, you will feel the drag of levelling, especially between lvl 30 to 39/40, depending on where you put your skills. c) Cleric levelling is boring. To make the most of your mp, you have to limit yourself to the things that are easiest to kill. Blue horny mushrooms and zombie mushrooms are going to be your friends. You will be able to jump Shumi's B2 quest in less than 7 minutes. You will have cursed dolls spilling out from your inventory. Here is what Zephy84 says: 57. Er, this is technically not a "which class is best" question. Of the three second jobs for mages which (if any) is the most popular in KMS? What order do they tend to rank in as far as popularity? Err, It seems the "Best Job" question. lol Anyway, Cleric is the most popular one but it does not apear much in the Rank because, A. Cleric was the worst before. You could not attack with Heal before. B. There were no 3rd jobs before. Priest's skills make Cleric so popular now as well as its Heal. C. There were not many monsters which are evil type or undead type. 1/3 of the monsters currently in KMS in Osyris, the new island, are evil type or undead type. (Another 1/3 is Ice type and the last added and the most powerful monster is Fire Type.) ---------------------------------------------------------- 2. Stats. ---------------------------------------------------------- Everyone has their own opinion on how the stats work, and which stats are the best. Here are the things that are confirmed. -o int increases you matk and your mdef. -o the requirements for equipment usually involves your luk being +3 your level. -o int increases the amount of mp you gain per level. -o int increases your spell's accuracy If you are still a beginner, move your mouse over your "S" skill window, over the word, "int". It will tell you: Intelligence (INT) The higher it is, the higher the accuracy for spells. It determines the magical power of the magician The higher it is, the higher the MP increases on level-up's and AP-related increases. Conclusion: put all your points into int, and leave your luk as +3 your level, ie. if you're lvl 10, your luk should be lvl 13. some people prefer to put 4 levels of int and 1 level of luk, but i leave that up to you. ---------------------------------------------------------- 3. Skill point allocation ---------------------------------------------------------- there are already numerous magician faqs out there, so i won't belabour the point. However, I would like to debunk a couple of myths out there regarding clerics. ---------------------------------------------------------- 3a. 1st job: ---------------------------------------------------------- a) clercs don't need magic guard this is one of the biggest and most common misconception about clerics; they do not need magic guard. magic guard, at max, stops 80% of enemy damage and diverts it to your mp instead. "but clerics have heal" and "i can't do anything without mp" here are the four reasons why magic guard will save your life if you fell into a pit of high level monsters. 1) magic guard will prevent one-hit K.O.s. if a monster were to hit you for more than your total hp, heal will not save you. magic guard will divert 80% of that hit to your mp. magic guard will save you. 2) magic guard is passive after casting. which means that you do not have to do anything after you cast it and it will still work. heal, on the other hand, is active, which means you have to keep recasting to get its effect. by leaving magic guard on, you have a chance to change channels or recite a scroll. 3) you stop moving when you heal. you don't when you have magic guard on. you will have a better chance at reaching an exit or at least doing something else with magic guard on. 4) heal has latency. you cannot heal while you are in heal animation. if you were to lag, or get hit by more monsters while you were healing, you will die. basically, it comes down to this question: your mp or your xp? without magic guard, you are guarenteed to die. b) magic claw is better magic claw is not necessarily better than e. bolt, and here is why. magic claw does two swipes of spell damage at m. atk 40 each, while e. bolt does one hit of 55 m.atk. 1) the higher the m. atk, the better it will be at knocking monsters back. you will have a hard time knocking back drakes and other high hp monsters with magic claw. 2) the lower the m. atk, the less damage it does against monsters with high m. def. for example, a monster's m. def negates 20 points of damage each hit. energy bolt does 100 damage: 100-20 = 80 damage to monster magic claw does 50 x 2 damage: (50-20) x 2 = 60 damage to monster as a cleric, you would most likely not receive your next high m. atk attack until level 50 (most people prefer to max heal first). so it is up to you to decide whether magic claw is better than magic bolt. c) putting your first point into mana regen rather than bolt is better. the answer is: yes, but only by a difference of 8mp or so. most people would rather have e. bolt first than max mp first. Without E.Bolt: Lvl 8: 1st lvl MP MAX (+2) Lvl 9 (+2): 4th lvl MP MAX (+8) Lvl 10 (+2+8): 7th lvl MP MAX (+14) Lvl 11 (+2+8+14): lvl 10 MP MAX (+20) Lvl 12 (+2+8+14+20): done! total gain: (+2+8+14+20) = 44mp With E.Bolt: Lvl 8: 1st lvl e.bolt Lvl 9: 3rd lvl MP MAX (+6) Lvl 10 (+6): 6th lvl MP MAX (+12) Lvl 11 (+6+12): lvl 9 MP MAX (+18) Lvl 12 (+6+12+18): done! total gain: (+6+12+18) = 36mp TOTAL NET GAIN: 8mp d) magic armour is better than guard magic armour provides weapon defense, while magic guard provides defense against weapon attacks, magic attacks and trap damage. magic armour provides numerical damage reduction, while magic guard provides percentage damage reduction. imagine a monster that hits you for 100 damage. magic armour (let's assume it prevents 20 damage): 100 - 20 = 80 damage to hp magic guard: 100x80% = 80 damage to mp 100x20% = 20 damage to hp now let's imagine a monster that hits you for 1000 damage. magic armour: 1000 - 20 = 980 damage to hp magic guard: 1000 x 80% = 800 damage to mp 1000 x 20% = 200 damage to hp e) mp recovery is like hp recovery for warriors. It's not worth it to max. this is false. warrior's hp regen works numerically; at max, a warrior will regain 60hp per tick. however, mp recovery works like this: (your lvl x (mp recovery lvl/10)) + 3 this means that as your level goes up, your mp recovery goes up as well. it is advisable that you max this skill as well. ---------------------------------------------------------- 3b. 2nd job: ---------------------------------------------------------- from level 30 to 70, you will have enough skill points to max all skills except for one. I will give pros and cons to each skill. MP Eater]------------------------------------------------- Soak up an enemy's MP after every magic attack. But if its MP reaches 0, no more. [Lvl 01]: 11% chance to drain 21% of monster's mp. [Lvl 10]: 20% chance to drain 30% of monster's mp. [Lvl 20]: 30% chance to drain 40% of monster's mp. Pros: -o helps regain mana during combat -o works passively. Do not have to cast. -o works with heal against undead Cons: -o does not work often enough -o most monsters do not have a lot of mp for you to drain -o low rate of success with single targets Recommendation: [KEEP] You might be wondering why I would keep this skill. Although it's true that most monsters do not have a lot of mp, the ones clerics fight do! The undead and unholy monsters, such as wraiths and zombie lupins, have above average mp. furthermore, heal hits multiple targets at once, thus, increasing your success for draining! here are some fun calculations regarding MP Eater as you know, clerics only attack up to 5 targets with heal, because you yourself are counted as one of the targets. if you have more party members, then heal hits even less targets. but anyways, here are how the calculations go: the description of the skill says: "Soak up an enemy's MP after every magic attack. But if its MP reaches 0, no more." i have confirmed that each attack counts as an individual calculation as to whether drain was successful or not. Chance to Drain x = (chance to succeed)^(number of times it succeeds) x (chance to fail^(numer of times it fails) x (possible arrangements) if S was success and F was Failure, then for Chance to drain 4, there are 5 possible combinations. if you have trouble figuring this out, try imagining flipping a coin for heads and tails. SSSSF SSSFS SSFSS SFSSS FSSSS Chance to Drain 5 = [(0.3)^5 x (0.7)^0] x 5C5 = 0.00243 x 1 = 0.243% Chance to Drain 4 = [(0.3)^4 x (0.7)^1] x 5C4 = 0.00567 x 5 = 2.835% Chance to Drain 3 = [(0.3)^3 x (0.7)^2] x 5C3 = 0.01323 x 10 = 13.23% Chance to Drain 2 = [(0.3)^2 x (0.7)^3] x 5C2 = 0.03087 x 10 = 30.87% Chance to Drain 1 = [(0.3)^1 x (0.7)^4] x 5C1 = 0.07203 x 5 = 36.02% Chance to Drain 0 = [(0.3)^0 x (0.7)^5] x 5C0 = 0.16807 x 1 = 16.81% so, let's say you were surrounded by zombie lupins, and you cast heal. your heal hits all 5 zombie lupins. max heal costs 24mp. ideally, you would want to drain that much back. as we mentioned before, max MP Eater drains 40% of the mp. according to the monster database, zombie lupins have 100mp. so, taking these calculations, ideally, you will make back your mp needed to heal if you drain even one of the zombie lupins. so add up all the % of chance to drain 1 to 5 (or subtract the drain 0 one), and you'll get 83.19% to drain at least 40mp. let's say, for example, we're using holy arrow instead of heal. then, the calculations turn to: Chance to Drain 1 = [(0.3)^1 x (0.7)^0] x 1C1 = 0.3 x 1 = 30% Chance to Drain 0 = [(0.3)^0 x (0.7)^1] x 1C1 = 0.7 x 1 = 70% note that the chance of you draining dramatically decreases. whereas before, you had 83.19% to drain at least 40mp, now, you have only 30%. fastat3m also offer the following calculations for MP Eater: If you've taken a statistics class(or even basic statistics in an algebra class), there's something called expected value used to determine the outcome of events based on probability. In this case, we're hoping to find the expected value of how much MP is returned to us for each casting. If we attack one Zombie Lupin(100 MP) with maxed out MP Eater, we will drain 100 x .3 x .4 = 12 MP on AVERAGE It doesn't need to be a perfect world, because we will be attacking them 10000+ times a level. Probability evens itself out in the long run. Law of averages, so to speak. If we attack two Zombie Lupins... ZL #1: 100 x .3 x .4 = 12 MP ZL #2: 100 x .3 x .4 = 12 MP (ZL #1 + ZL #2)/Total # of ZL's If we attack three Zombie Lupins... ZL #1: 100 x .3 x .4 = 12 MP ZL #2: 100 x .3 x .4 = 12 MP ZL #3: 100 x .3 x .4 = 12 MP (ZL #1 + ZL #2 + ZL #3)/Total # of ZL's and so on. They are each taken as separate probabilities, added together, and then averaged out. The expected value is going to be 12 MP returned to you regardless. Assuming you heal 10000 times to level up at 45ish, that would be 120000 MP saved, or 240000 mesos. And you are likely to attack more than 10000 times, and especially as you get into the 50's. For Wraiths 80 x .3 x .4 = 48/5 = 9.6 MP on average drained For Dark Golems/Copper Drakes 150 x .3 x .4 = 18 MP on average drained Keep in mind that no skill costs more than 24 MP, so you're almost attacking for free when you realize you gain 80 MP every 10 seconds anyway. Paatou, on the other hand, has different experiences with cleric skill build. IMPORTANT : as mage, I maxed and use Magic Guard (so I need to recover fastly my MP) lv 30 : heal = 1 lv 31-37 : MP Eater = 18, heal = 3 (up heal when u have enough MP, but because of magic guard u loose so few HP that heal lv 1 or 2 is already nice) lv 37 : MP Eater = 20, heal = 4 lv 39 : Invincible 3 lv 40 : I think I'll put teleport 1, heal +1 and invicible +1, but I'll see when lv up ^^ OK, NOW how is it ? => at the begining of my cleric's life, I had to stop when low mana because of magic guard => after I uped mp eater, I could play without any pause, and without using any potions during 20% exp (the time I need to win 20% of my exp) => now, I can play without stopping. I never need to use any potion. With invicible, I can fight golems without magic guard (so Idont loose lot of mana when they hit me) and against them I also can play without any pause. => I tried my heal against zombies lupins : I can do it without stoping, my mana is always at maxi.... (but to kill them I'm using magic claw and I don't need magic guard to stay alive) In summary : I can play without pause, without potion, so I exp fast. Even with this low heal, I can heal any warrior because my mana is like infinite and cast fats enough... (ok I do not kill with my heal, but I still can exp very fast with magic claw) Teleport]------------------------------------------------- Use the arrow keys to teleport to other places inthe same map on a set distance. The higher the skill level, the less MP you spend. [Lvl 01]: 60 mp cost, teleports distance of 130 [Lvl 10]: 33 mp cost, teleports distance of 140 [Lvl 20]: 13 mp cost, teleports distance of 150 *note: the figures are from Zephy84, while lvl 10's figures are from speculation. Pro: -o move faster around the map Con: -o cannot use in quests -o high mp usage at low levels Recommendation: [Your Choice] Some people love this skill, some people hate this skill. Some people can't live without it, some people can. I use it to kill drakes without getting hit. Here is teleportation tip from Zephy84: The following skills will not do anything or you are not allowed to use them in jumping quests: haste, teleport, potions which increase your speed, speed and jump stats attached to your pet accessory and speed and jump stats in your armour and your shoes. 4. How is teleport used? You use by press teleport key and arrow key at the same time. You disapeear from the place where you are and wil appear the distance stated by the skill to the direction which you pressed the arrow. You'll use teleport as almost your normal move all the time later when it does cost less MP because of High skill level and you can afford those MP usage because of your high MP regen. 5. How far can you teleport from where you're standing?(measure in how many screens please) No way that you can teleport in the measure of screens. You will teleport several centimitres. Trust me, teleport is a great skill. Put one as soon as you become 2nd job. Though put only one in early levels. Invest later will be wise. 6. Can teleport go through walls? Yes. But there is no wall that is thin enough. If you mean rought terrain which is in your way of teleport, yes you can. 9. Would it be wise to only have teleport around lvl 5 and put the rest into bless or mana eater? =/ No. Not a good idea. Teleport is much better than mana eater or bless. Max Teleport. 12. Why is teleport so good it should be maxed?? and i was thinking of DEFINATELY getting Bless. Is it not as good as it sounds? and what would be better in your opinion, mana eater or holy arrow? If you want to get Bless, do as you want. Then, however, do not give up Teleport but MP eater. I'm telling you, you will use Teleport all the time and you will really regret if you do not max teleport. There is huge difference between MP 60 and MP 13. That's the reason that you have to max Teleport. I don't know but I'd rather giving up Holy Arrow instead of giving up MP Eater if I were you and had to choose btw the two. This is my opnion only though. 14. I second the question "Why is teleport so good?" Give 1 in Teleport and try it. You will like it, though you cannot use it that often because of its huge MP cost: 60. However, in later level when you maxed Teleport, MP Cost of 13 only, and your huge MP regen, more than 100 in 10 seconds at 60 LVs already, you will use it all the time. One tip for using Teleport in training. Press your attack magic key and then quickly press Teleport key you assigined and the direction you want. Then, you will teleport and attack at the same time. You can attack and teleport back or forth, at the same time. You will use this at normal training and later when you are fighting boss monsters. 60. Right now i use teleport to evade enemies, and sometimes to travel a BIT faster (but the latter isn't that important). Is there more opportunities later in the game where it will become more useful? because right now i practically feel i could do without, especially when compared to mana eater and holy arrow. I guess im just looking for examples of when it will really become useful. Also, how noticeable is the difference between 150 distance and 130 distance? The differenc btw 150 distance and 130 distance are not that noticable. Teleport can be used anywhere. Keep using it and you will find. You can evade. This one is important. Later, you may get damage of more than hundreds and you can use teleport to avoid this at MP cost of 60, or 13. You can travel really faster. The problem is that it is lagging and you cannot use teleport that frequently. ( I guess it is the PING problem.) Bless]------------------------------------------------- Temporarily increases the weapon def., magic def., accuracy and avoidability of all party members around the area. BUT, it can't be used if combined with a skill or a potion. [Lvl 01]: 12 mp cost, accuracy, avoidance, weapon/magic defense +1 lasts 10 seconds [Lvl 10]: 12 mp cost, accuracy, avoidance, weapon/magic defense +10 lasts 100 seconds [Lvl 20]: 24 mp cost, accuracy, avoidance, weapon/magic defense +20 lasts 200 seconds Pros: -o good party skill. -o Other classes wil love you to bits. Cons: -o not worth it for solo playing -o numerical based skills are less useful at higher levels. Recommendations: Your choice. For clerics that like to play with their friends, this is definitely one of the better skills on the list, right up there with heal. Constant mp cost means the more people in your party, the more efficient the skill becomes. However, it is a hefty investment for the solo clerics. Getting this skill usually means you will be giving up another skill. Numerical increase, even with so many stats is helpful, but means less in the long run. (of course, who knows how long before Ossyria opens) Here's what Zephy84 says: 41. Can Cleric's Bless, Invincibility, Mage's Magic Guard and Magic Armor stack? Or is there one that cancels the others? Bless, Invincibility and Magic Guard stack. Magic Armor, Invincibility and Magic Guard stack. Magic Armor and Bless do not stack. The relationship btw Bless and Magic Armor is just like that btw Iron wall and Iron Body. Say, you maxed both. If you use bless first(AD+20,MD+20,Avoid+20, Accu+20 now) and use Magic Aromor later(AD+40),it will be AD+40, MD+20, Avoid+20, Accu+20. If you use Armor first(AD+40 now) and then bless later, it will be AD+20, MD+20, Avoid+20, Accu+20. It just like that. the amount does not matter. How big, negative or positve does not matter. As long as both the potions or skills affect the same stat, the later one will take effect. Invincible]------------------------------------------------- Temporarily decreases the weapon damage received. Doesn't decrease the spell damage, however. [Lvl 01]: 15 mp cost, prevents 11% damage [Lvl 10]: 15 mp cost, prevents 20% damage [Lvl 20]: 30 mp cost, prevents 30% damage Pros: -o 30% weapon damage reduction Cons: -o 30% weapon damage reduction. Does not include magical damage. Recommendation: [KEEP] 30% weapon damage reduction. This, besides heal, is the skill other classes want. Like magic guard, invincible is percentage based, meaning that it is as useful at lvl 30 as level 130. The only downside is that it does not cover magical damage; which isn't a disadvantage as much as a limit. Zephy84 says: 54. Since you'll be soloing, i think MP eater would be good. I'm leaving teleport at 1 and invincible at 5 for requirements of bless. But that's just my me ^^ Err, max invincible and Teleport. They are much better than Bless. Bless is good... because it looks goood. :) and probably another party skill. Heal]------------------------------------------------- Recovers the HP of all party members around the area. The amount of healing depends on the number of people being healed, and the undead monster in the vicinity of this will receive damage. [Lvl 01]: 12 mp cost, recover 10% of your hp [Lvl 15]: 12 mp cost, recover 150% of your hp [Lvl 30]: 24 mp cost, recover 300% of your hp Pro: -o Heal .... Heals you. -o Heal ... Heals your party members. -o Heal ... Is also an offensive area attack against undeade enemies. Cons: -o heal lowers in efficiency as targets increase. -o you stop walking when you cast heal Recommendation: [KEEP] This is the definitive skill for clerics; the reason to be. With only one point, it will save you mesos you use to spend on hp potions. With patience, you will never have to buy potions again. At 12mp to start, it is efficient at lvl 10. Spend 24 mesos on mp to heal to full! At high levels, it will heal your party to full in one or two application. You are practically invincible, one-hit KOs not withstanding. This is the meso engine of 2nd jobs; if you wait to regen mp rather than buying potions, you are guarenteed to make money no matter what you level on. On top of this, heal is also your offensive group attack against the undead. Fire magicians are the only ones without a group attack in the second job. You are completely invincible when it comes to attacking with heal. Fear not the swarm of wraith jrs ... Revel in them! Zombie lupins' bananas mean nothing to you! Here's what Zephy84 says: 64. How do you calculate the damage done on undead using heal? Not a group, but only 1. For example, when heal is maxed. Which is 300%, does it take away 30% of the monster's HP? Or is it based on the char's int as well as the monster's magic def? I have no idea how the damage done on undead using heal. However, it seems that the damage gets more powerful if you hit one than multimpe targets and when not healing yourself. Also 300% does not mean that it damages 30% of the monster's HP. I do not know how it works but I am sure that Heal damage is nothing to do with the monster's HP. It is only related to your magic attack, which is again affected by your int, and magic defense of the target. Holy Arrow]------------------------------------------------- Fires holy arrows at an enemy. Applies major damage to the undeads and devil-based monsters. [Lvl 01]: 20 mp cost, magic attack of 12, with 15% mastery [Lvl 15]: 20 mp cost, magic attack of 40, with 35% mastery [Lvl 30]: 40 mp cost, magic attack of 70, with 60% mastery Pros: -o strongest "normal" magic attack of the clerics. -o able to knock back monsters previously not able with 1st job attack -o does 1.5x damage to unholy Cons: -o lower damage to normal monsters, even when compared to magic claw -o lower in damage against unholy, compared to other magician jobs -o easily made obselete by third job's shining light, a six-target version. Recommendation: [You decide] Some clerics pass up this skill for bless, and i don't blame them. Below average damage in all comparisons. Not only that, it is easily replaced by Shining Light, the six target version. Some people are willing to wait for the third job, and some people prefer to hit dark stone golems. So, you decide. Zephy84 says: 30. For Cleric, is it worth it AT ALL to get Holy Arrow? For Holy Arrow, well, it is up to you. You may get bored and want to get some evil type monsters with Holy Arrow. eg. Dark Golem which will be so popular in EMS too I guess. However still it is up to you to learn or not. 31. How much damage will a maxed out heal do? Compared to a maxed out holy arrow? Hdamage will be as much as Holy Arrow damage as far as you hit one target. However it will be weaker if you hit more than two. If you add up all damages you have done on multiple targets, it will be more than the damage you can do on one target though. So heal works in quite efficient way. For single target, it works as powerful as a sigle-target-magic and for multiple target, it will work as a mutiple-target-magic. The only down side is that you can deal damages with heal to only limited types of monsters. 32. Whatever Holy Arrow can kill, so can heal, no? And I'll get Shining Ray, the stronger version of Holy Arrow anyways... Demon, or evil, type: You cannot deal damage with heal. Theses types are weak against holy arrow and shining ray so they will take more damage than the other monsters. eg. Dark Golem, Witch Melody, Barlog, ( Crimson Balrog, Lunar Pixy and all the black monsters in Osyris) Holy type: You cannot deal damage with heal. Theses types are strong against holy arrow and shining ray so they will take less damage than the other monsters. eg. (Star Pixy) The other types: You cannot deal damage with heal. These types are not weak against holy arrow and shining ray so they will take normal damage. 55. If I didn't put any skill points into holy arrow, would I be able to use shining ray? There is no pre-requirements from the 2nd job for 3rd job level skills. Hence, Shining Ray does not require Holy Arrow. ---------------------------------------------------------- 4. Damage Calculations ---------------------------------------------------------- Basically, the MAX damage calculations for a mage looks like this: Any Weapon: {[(MAG*0.8) + (LUK/4)]/25} * Spell m.atk *note: for mages, MAG is the sum of your wand's m.atk and your int. so having a wand that's 10 m.atk less than another one just means that you're 2 levels behind. *note: Mages' Spell M.ATK is defined in your skill. For example, max magic claw has 40 and max e. bolt has 55. no, Magic Claw does not have 80 m.atk, it has two hits of 40. it'll make a difference when you're fighting higher level monsters with m. def. four things about damage calculations: -o the damage calculator isn't suppose to give you an EXACT number. remember, the {[(MAG*0.8)+(LUK/4)]/25}* spell m.atk gives you an approximate MAX damage. your MIN damage is (theoretically), your MAX * Mastery, which is around 60% at lvl 20s or so. that means that unless you can consistently do your MAX damage (nobody can), you only take those numbers as your theoretical damage. if you want to get a more realistic number, multiply the damage you get from that formula by 0.6. -o monsters have magic defense. this formula is based on what damage you would do if you were to harass a poor green snail with your spells. -o according to damage calculations, 1.25int is worth around 4 luk in terms of increasing damage ... so put those points into int! -o i do not know the damage formula for heal. You might be wondering why i did damage calculations first; this is because we will need it for our levelling guide. ---------------------------------------------------------- 5. Levelling guide ---------------------------------------------------------- Let me say this first; I am not a fan of most levelling guides. They are often too impersonal and too generalized to be of any real use. In my opinion, a mage that cannot do 75 damage consistently has no business in piggy beach, no matter what level you are. The fastest way to level is to defeat monsters you can kill in one blow. This is especially true for magicians that uses mp; rather than spending 5 minutes defeating a monster, you should spend those 5 minutes on little monsters that will give you more xp. So instead of giving you a level by level breakdown, i am going to give a monster level / hp breakdown. It will be up to you to decide what to train on. ---------------------------------------------------------- 5a. Levelling Theory: ---------------------------------------------------------- It is faster to level on things you can kill in one hit than on things that need more than one hit. Example: 1 green snail gives 3xp, does 1 damage, and takes 1 e. bolt to kill 1 tree stump gives 8xp, does 8 damage, and takes 3-5 e.bolt to kill if you had killed 4-5 green snails instead of that one green slime, you would have earned 3x(3-5), which is 9 to 15xp, rather than taking a lot more damage to kill 1 tree stump. So the best way to level the fastest is to level on things that you can kill easily (ie. in one hit) and that gives you the most xp. Here is some more advice from Zephy84: 2. Which is better, in your opinion, at soloing? Cleric? Cleric is always the fastest and the most convinient for level-up. However, to keep the speed, you have to stick in 'certain location' since heal only damages certain monsters. If you go other places, cleric will be the slowest among all. You may be get very bored sometimes. If you go cleric, ironically, you may have trouble party playing at 2nd job since you will not have strong attack for normal monsters. 40. You stated earlier that Cleric levels up faster than any of the other 2 Wizards. Can you state how and why? Thanks! Err, because if you see the main hunting ground for cleric which is the last map of Shumi's quest or zombie lupin's tree, there are huge mobs there. The more powerful your attack power is, you get more of them faster. It applies the same to Thunder mage. However, multiple-target magic generally makes you hit by monsters a lot. So you have to bear money loss. However, Heal heal yourself. Can you see the idea? BUT, as I said, it could be very boring since you cannot go just other places and hunt since your attack will not be powerful enough. If you are bored, you may not gain exp quick enough though. :) ---------------------------------------------------------- 5b. Lvls 1 to 30: ---------------------------------------------------------- Green Snail: 8hp/0mp Blue Snail: 15hp/15mp Shroom: 20hp/15mp Stump: 65hp/30mp Red Snails: 45hp/30mp Green Slimes: 50hp/35mp Pig: 75hp/40mp Orange Mushroom: 80hp/45mp Dark Stump: 250hp/10mp Ribbon Pig: 120hp/45mp Octopus: 200hp/50mp Green Mushroom: 250hp/25mp Blue Slimes: 240hp/10mp Axe Stumps: 300hp/30mp Blue Mushrooms: 350hp/30mp Stirges: 300hp/0mp Necki Jrs.: 385hp/20mp (note: you need to be mid-high 20s to hit these) Blue Horny Mushroom: 300hp/35mp Dark Axe Stumps: 550hp/40mp Zombie Mushrooms: 500hp/55mp Boars: 550hp/50mp Evil Eyes: 720hp/40mp Suggestions: Interestingly enough, this selection will probably get you through from lvl 1 to 30. The best place to level before you get more points into your 1st job attack spell is probably on the map left of the 3-way split between Henesys, Lith Harbour and Kerning. Right before the 3-way split, there are numerous green snails. You can use e. bolt to one-hit K.O. them, then use your wand to whack them while you regain your mp. Although most people recommend slimes for their lvls "Max MP" levels (usually 8 to 13) where they put points into nothing but Max MP, I would recommend Green Snails. Green snails are underrated as levelling monsters, and can be considered the "pigs" of early levels. Even with melee, it would only take 3-4 whacks of your wand to defeat. Unless you have lots of mesos for potions, green snails will get you the quickest through the "hardest" levels of early magicianhood. After you get a few points into the 1st job spell, try heading over to Henesys. Henesys hunting grounds have a whole variety of monsters you can train on. If Hunting Grounds I is too crowded (and it usually is,), you can keep going up the rope ladder to Hunting Grounds II and III. When your damage is around 75 or so, head on over to Piggy Beach. You can find it at the 3-way split, press up at the orange flowers near the bottom of the map. There are many pigs there, and the only way to survive them all is to be able to kill at least the normal Pigs in one shot. If you think Piggy Beach is too crowded, try 2 maps left of Henesys or 2 maps right of Henesys. Both offer constant stream of pigs with relatively safe spots to rest. Party Questing (PQ) would probably level you quite quickly. You get around 2000 xp for each completed quest, and mages are one of the most sought after party members, as they are the only ones that can kill the slime king efficiently. However, I would recommend that you have at least 10-15 points in magic guard before you go; Slime King's special attack does 200 damage each time, and he can spam it as much as he likes. Ant Tunnels offers Blue Horny Mushrooms and Undead Mushrooms in large quantities. If you can do around 300 damage, Blue Horny Mushrooms are very good one-hit K.O.s for levelling. Stay near Ant Tunnel I and you can go back to Sleepywood and rest there for free! (You can even do John's jumping quest for free ores while your mana regens!) That should get you to around lvl 30. ---------------------------------------------------------- 5c. Level 30 and onwards ---------------------------------------------------------- So what do you do after lvl 30? The same thing you did before level 30. Ant Tunnels, mostly. When your damage gets closer to around 400 damage, you may consider going to Fire Boars and try to find the glass shoe that you'll inevitably need to make your lvl 40 weapon. Fire boars are fast, they swarm, and they have 1000hp. Although you'll level slower if you do Fire Boars, it is equally important to find that glass shoe. Most clerics max heal first. At around level 20 heal, your heal will be strong enough to efficiently take on wraith jrs. Do Shumi's B2 quest and get all the way to the subway car. They will have a nice spawn of wraith jrs. for you to level on! another source of wraith jrs. is in the Kerning Subway Lines. (Instead of going to Shumi's through the gate, go through the portal before the gate and just keep going through the rooms. Eventually you'll find wraith jrs. If you see Wraiths though, you've gone too far). At around lvl 28 heal, you should be good enough for zombie lupins. Proceed to the zombie lupin tree. From Ellinia's bottom left exit, go to the 2nd map. Take the middle tree teleport all the way up to the top, and reach the left most tree. There is the entrance to the Monkey Forest. (It would be best to talk with Rowen and get the cursed doll quest while you're at it; you'll be stuck in that zombie lupin tree for a long long long time). After you've maxed heal, you will most likely take on zombie lupins no problem. You CAN try Shumi's B3 quest (with the Wraiths at the end), but beware; they do a lot of damage, perhaps even more than your heal can handle. Go with caution. Most people max holy arrow after that. I, at the time of this writing, have not reached that stage yet. But afterwards, I assume i will be tackling dark stone golems. Zephy84 says: 7. Where should i level as a cleric in lvl 40s? As a cleric, just skip curse eyes. They are not for you. However, you have better spot! Just go into zombie lupin's tree which i told you. You will like it if you maxed heal. (so 40~ for clerics not 50~) If you are bored, you can go and hunt another monster if you do not mind climbing Shumi's 2nd quest. Go to the last map just before you click the chest. There are lots of Jr. Laces and it is really good spot for you if you maxed out heal. (Jr. Laces are Jr. Wraiths) 18. Where can i find a lot of zombie lupins? find them at monkey forest> go from ellinia , two maps down which is the forrest of wisdom. then go to the second hole and press up up up until u reach the top there will be a hole at the top left go in there n boom ur there (thanks VincentX) 12. For those whose attack power reached above 1000! There is a good place for hunting. Go right two maps from Henesys through right-top pass. When you get there, go down at the second hole from the left. There usally are several golems. At 'Danger' sign, press up. You will be at hidden map which is called Breathing Stones or something. Climb all the way up to the portal and go in. There are LOTS of golems there. Don't go in any portals from there. That's the best place. It is better if you pair up and hunt golems with a buddy. One at the top and one at the bottom. If your attack is above 1000, the golems will be knocked back. :) ---------------------------------------------------------- 6. Miscellaneous FAQs ---------------------------------------------------------- 1. Should I buy a panlid? no. panlids are practically useless in the overall scheme of magicianhood. magic guard + invincible prevent more damage than a 12, or even 21 def panlid would. they're mostly for show. 2. What drops the glass shoe? Fire Boars drop the glass shoe. If you haven't found one yet, it means you haven't been looking hard enough. :) But don't feel bad, they are very rare. I've never, ever, ever (ever) found one. 3. Why do clerics make so much money? They don't really make money as much as they save money. They save money by not having to buy both hp and mp pots, since they can heal themselves. Less money for potions, more money to spend on other things. 4. What are the 3rd job skills for Cleric like? Element Resistance: Passive (Level 20). Your resistance to all elementals of magic attack will increase. [Lvl 01]: 12% resistance [Lvl 10]: 30% resistance [Lvl 20]: 40% resistance Dispel: Active (Level 20). Neutralizes the magical effects of enemies within range by healing the status ailments of your teammates. [Lvl 01]: 15 mp cost, 34% chance of success, affects 110% of area [Lvl 10]: 15 mp cost, 70% chance of success, affects 200% of area [Lvl 20]: 20 mp cost, 100% chance of success, affects 300% of area Mystic Door: Active (Level 20). Create a magic portal leading to the nearest town. ((I really do not understand what it says next about the party members and how many times you can use the portal.)) If you push UP by the portal, you can move it. [Lvl 01]: 80 mp cost, portal open for 30 seconds *note: incomplete information *note: you need a summoning stone to cast this spell. Holy Symbol: Active (Level 30). For a set time, any party member within range who kills a monster will receive more Experience than normal. [Lvl 01]: 51 mp cost, 102% of normal xp, lasts 32 seconds [Lvl 15]: 65 mp cost, 130% of normal xp, lasts 74 seconds [Lvl 30]: 80 mp cost, 150% or normal xp, lasts 80 seconds Shining Ray: Active (Level 30). Unleash Holy light to hit up to 6 enemies at once. Undead and Demon enemies are particularly weak to this spell. [Lvl 01]: 21 mp cost, 60 m.atk at 15% mastery [Lvl 15]: 35 mp cost, 80 m.atk at 35% mastery [Lvl 30]: 50 mp cost, 105 m.atk at 60% mastery Doom: Active (Level 30). Changes up to 6 enemies into ((it says "Denden" in katakana... maybe it's the proper name of an enemy in the game?)), reducing their Attack Power and Movement Speed. The higher your Skill Level, the stronger the enemies you'll be able to transform. Ineffective against bosses. [Lvl 01]: 88 mp cost, 52% chance of success, lasts 5 seconds *note: incomplete information Summon Dragon: Active (Level 30). Summons a sacred dragon to attack enemies. The higher your Skill Level, the stronger the dragon you'll be able to summon. [Lvl 01]: 32 mp cost, 64 atk at 10 seconds [Lvl 15]: 60 mp cost, 120 atk at 80 seconds [Lvl 30]: 80 mp cost, 150 atk at 140 seconds *note: requires summoning stone. Zephy84 says: 8. What exactly does Summon Dragon, a Preist spell, do? Does it literally summon a dragon to fight for you, or what? As it says, you summon a dragon which will fight with you. You need a magic stone everytime you summon them. Magic stone can be acquired from monsters or you can later buy each at 5000 which is not really a big deal at that level for extra attack power. 9. Another question about priest's Dragon Tamer: Since you need a magic stone to cast (worth 5000 each), how long does the Dragon stay with you? Until you die? Or a time limit? And what is the dragon's damage based on? Your int + n times skill level? I'll translate what the description in KMS says. At 30, Requires 1 Summoning Stone, For 140 seconds you summon a dragon which has attack of 150. It does not specify the dragon's health so the dragon will not die. 150: I think this is just like the number in magic skills. eg. 80 in Magic Claw So I guess it is related to your Int. ---------------------------------------------------------- 7. Credits ---------------------------------------------------------- Wizet, for making the game. Zukabunni, who got me playing maple story. Zephy84, who got me interested in doing calculations in the first place, and who spent time answering all the newbie questions so i could copy them down. Chromax, for his compilation of 3rd job skills. sleepywood.net, for giving me a forum to read while i was waiting for hp/mp regen. All skill and damage information here is translated from: http://maplestory.netgamers.jp/. Since the site i got the information from is japanese, i cannot give any guarentees as to whether the calculations are accurate for GMS. Descriptions of the skills are from http://www.mapleglobal.com Please only distribute in its unmodified form. ------ Other notable Maple Story sites: http://www.mapleglobal.com - the main site where you can download this game http://www.littleblink.com/ms/ - my FAQ, which is a summary of Zephy84's patience answering our questions http://www.u8generation.com/maple/ - English item and weapon database http://sauna.gibbed.us/quests/ - English Quest FAQ http://maplestory.netgamers.jp/ - A Drop of Maple, which has extensive information on Maple Story, including job skill statistics (Japanese) http://game.sinayaka.com/maplestyle/ - Maplestyle mirror (Japanese) ------ Contact: please send questions and comments to: starlitsky(at)waywardhearts(dot)com