Beginner Guide To Magicians Part one

Mages need Int. Luk is optional. If you're going regular luk, you want your Luk to be +3 of your level (so you can equip things). In that case your stat roll is easier. All you need to do is Have 4/4 in Strength and Dex. What I generally do is roll the dice until my Int is something like 9+, then see how many points are in the other attributes. You can get away with 5/5 Str/Dex, but you might want to consider resetting those points later with NX cash to get down to 4/4. Why 4/4? That's the lowest that an attribute can be and frees up points for Int (which is your main priority). At the start of the game, there are 25 attribute points to roll. "Perfect" stats would be 4/4/13/4. If you're a REAL perfectionist (or want a Lukless mage), these would be the stats to aim for.

So, you have your AP rolled. Now what? As you won't be adding points into strength, choose the wooden club as your weapon. Looks fugly, but does the most damage out of the beginner weapons. The clothes you choose don't matter. Once you're done, choose your name and off you go!

Maple Island

First part is the training camp. Just follow the conveyor belts. You get a couple of quests here that are part of familiarising yourself with the controls (which you can reassign to other keys). I personally like shift as my pickup button instead of z, and move attack to a later on once I start using spells to attack. The monsters in the training camp do no damage to you. If your goal is to get off the island as fast as possible, I recommend levelling to about 5 here (saves on pots at the expense of no meso drops). Once you feel you're able to take down a green snail in two or less hits (they have 8 HP), click the NPC at the door to leave. You get 3 beginner skills, none of which are massively amazing. Each level up you get 3 SP to spend. I usually go with Recovery (useful until you get your relaxer) and Nimble Feet (which I've never used). You CAN take Three Snails as an alternative way of attacking, but it DOES use MP, plus you have to carry snail shells in your inventory to throw at monsters... If you're fast at levelling, it's a worthless skill, although if you decide to max your MP recovery and increase before even putting a single point into Energy Bolt, you might want to hang onto your snail shells and max this skill.

Ability point allocation with each level is simple. If you're going Lukless, all AP goes into Int, 4 Int and 1 Luk if you're going regular luk. Told you it was simple.

To become a magician you need to be Lv 8. Stay on Maple Island until Lv 7 (get your % to something like 90 or so) before getting the ship from Southperry. It doesn't cost much so having 500 mesos should be no great problem. Having over 1k mesos is the best option as that way once you get to Lith Harbour, you can talk to an NPC next to the boat (NOT the VIP taxi!) to take you to Ellinia.

Quests on Maple Island

I personally do all the quests. It's possible to kill orange mushrooms with your nub mage, but it can be a bit tough. Don't obsess about it though, the rewards aren't excellent. My main character never did them. Try taking on orange mushrooms (remember, beginners don't lose experience when they die!) and if you find them too strong, concentrate on getting to your goal for leaving. Don't put points into Strength just for the sake of a newer weapon (which you'll end up selling soon anyway). The other quests are simple and straightforward, involving nothing tougher than Red Snails.

Pio's Collecting Recycled Goods is the quest that gives you the relaxer (chair which recovers 50 HP every 10 seconds). DO THIS QUEST! I can't stress that enough. Although you can buy a chair in Lith, it only recovers half the HP of the relaxer. The quest itself is simple and just requires you to go around breaking open wooden crates to get the screws and wood from inside. You will come to love this chair once you leave Maple Island. Also, it can help you with HP recovery if you're desperate to finish the Mai's Training and Bigg's Collection of Items quests (the two that involve killing orange mushrooms).

So, you've done all your quests that you can, got your character to Lv 7 (and over 50%)... Now what?

Go to Southperry and talk to Shanks (the short dude on the boat) who will ask you if you want to leave Maple Island. You won't be able to come back, but as you want to go advance and have stronger monsters to train on, it's no real big loss.

First Job Advancement

Wow, so many places to go... The world map looks kinda daunting... Talk to Olaf who has a little lightbulb above his head. He'll ask you a few questions about job advancements. The answers are pretty simple (and can be looked up on a few Maplestory fan sites that offer quest help), although the answers should be pretty intuitive. He'll then ask you what job you want to take. Say you want to follow the path of the Magician, then go back to where you got off the ship. There are two NPCs standing next to a ticket booth. Click the guy on the left (who's name I seriously can't remember), and ask to be taken somewhere else. He'll then give you an option of the 4 major towns in Victoria Island. Choose Ellinia, then go to the very top right of the town to Grendel The Really Old's house. He will give you some exp (which should level you to 8), then click him again and ask to become a magician.

Spend your AP as normal, then open up your lovely little skill menu. A new book has been added to it: "Intro to Magic".

This is where the fun begins! The most commonly used build is as follows:

Level 8: Magic Bolt +1

Level 9: Improving MP Recovery +3

Level 10: Improving MP Recovery +2, Improving Max MP +1

Level 11: Improving Max MP +3

Level 12: Improving Max MP +3

Level 13: Improving Max MP +3 (Maxed)

Level 14: Improving MP Recovery +3

Level 15: Improving MP Recovery +3

Level 16: Improving MP Recovery +3

Level 17: Improving MP Recovery +2, Magic Claw +1

Level 18: Magic Claw +3

Level 19: Magic Claw +3

Level 20: Magic Claw +3

Level 21: Magic Claw +3

Level 22: Magic Claw +3

Level 23: Magic Claw +3

Level 24: Magic Claw +1 (Maxed), Magic Guard +2

Level 25: Magic Guard +3

Level 26: Magic Guard +3

Level 27: Magic Guard +3

Level 28: Magic Guard +3

Level 29: Magic Guard +3

Level 30: Magic Guard +3 (Maxed)

At the end you have:

Energy Bolt - 1

Improving Max MP - Maxed

Improving MP Recovery - Maxed

Magic Claw - Maxed Magic Guard - Maxed

Why these skills in this order?

Let's take a look at them...

Energy Bolt vs Magic Claw

Energy Bolt

Type: Active

Description: Use MP to attack one enemy.

Level 20: MP -14; Basic attack 55, mastery 60%

Magic Claw (Pre-requisite: Energy Bolt Lv. 1 )

Type: Active

Description: Use MP to attack an enemy twice.

Level 20: MP -20; Basic attack 40 x 2 Hit, mastery 60%

Basically, Magic Claw can hit for more, can penetrate some walls (like steps) and therefore is a better choice for a mage.

Improving Max MP Increase (Pre-requisite: Improving MP recovery Lv. 5)

Type: Passive

Description: This skill boosts up the amount of increase on MaxMP after each Level UP, or AP used on MaxMP.

Level 10: If Level UP, +20 more; if AP applied, +10 more on top on MaxMP

You want high MP without putting AP into it, therefore maxing this first is your priority

Improving MP Recovery

Type: Passive

Description: Recovering even more MP every 10 sec. The higher the level of the character and the skill level, the more recovery it enables the character to have.

Level 16: Constant additional recovery of MP

MP pots cost a lot, therefore you want to regain MP as quickly as possible. The higher the level of this skill, the more MP you get back. Also affects MP recovery while sitting down.

Magic Guard vs Magic Armour

Magic Guard

Type: Supportive

Description: Temporarily replaces damage with MP instead of HP. If MP reaches 0, the HP takes a full hit.

Level 20: MP -12; Replace 80% of HP damage as MP for 600 seconds.

Magic Armor (Pre-requisite: Magic Guard Lv. 3)

Type: Supportive

Description: Temporarily boosts the weapon defense by blowing magic into the armor.

Level 20: MP -16; Weapon Def. +40 for 400 seconds.

Mages don't really need weapon def. When you get later in the game, monsters such as Bains and Death Teddies will do more damage to you with magic attacks than weapon (touch) attacks. As Magic Armour only ups your weapon defence, it's pretty useless and you will be made of much explode. Remember, mages have low HP and high MP. If you're changing HP damage into MP damage, you're going to survive as opposed to simply having higher weapon defence. Also, there are various potions and food that can up your weapon defence if you REALLY want more. There's nothing that will convert HP damage into MP damage apart from Magic Guard. Maxing it means with less than 1k HP, you can take on enemies that would otherwise one hit kill you. If you're reading this and haven't got maxed Magic Guard, my advice is to either 1) start over or 2) reset your SP pronto.

Training Areas for First Job

8-15

Ellinia: The Tree That Rose/Grew I (top portal of Ellinia, one map left) - Slimes and Stumps. Good spawn, close to town. Nowhere near as packed as Henesys Hunting Ground, so more time to kill without being disturbed.

Perion: Perion Street Corner (top left portal from Perion) - Stumps and Axe Stumps. Best around level 12-15 once you've got more Int, therefore a stronger Energy Bolt.

15- 20

Sleepywood: Swampy Land Deep In the Forest (the map left of Sleepywood "town") - Green Mushrooms and Horned Mushrooms. Again, close to town, nice spawn. Good sniping spot as well on a platform meaning you don't get hit. Can get busy though ;_;

Ellinia: The Tree That Rose/Grew III (2 maps north of TTTR I) - Green Mushrooms, Slimes and Stumps. Pretty quiet, chance of getting Panlids from Green Mushies.

20-25

Victoria Road: Pig Beach (hidden portal in 3-Way Road Split on the way from Lith Harbour) - Pigs and Ribbon Pigs. Can turn into a KS fest with many people there looking for Pig's Heads for quests. Also chances of Iron Pigs turning up and killing you. I personally didn't train there for long.

Kerning City: Kerning City Construction Site (map left of Kerning City), Caution Falling Down (hidden map at the top of the construction site) - Octopi and Orange Mushrooms. You should be able to easily kill Orange Mushrooms now, plus they have a fast spawn here. Octopus legs are needed for a quest as well as giving good exp.

Kerning City: Subway Line 1 Area 1 (first map in Kerning City Subway) - Bubblings. Good exp, quest items, and close to town in case you end up needing to repot. Again, can get on the busy side at times.

Zipangu: Mushroom Forest (portal on the right of Mushroom Shrine) - Orange Mushrooms, Green Mushrooms and Blue Mushrooms. Yeah, a looot of mushrooms! Lots of good sniping spots in case you can't quite take the damage dealt by the hyper bouncy Orange and Blue Mushrooms.

25-30

Zipangu: Mountain of Cloud Fox (first portal on the left in Mushroom Shrine) - Cloud Fox. Fairly good exp, plus you need the foxtails for a quest (or to sell to other players who also want to do the quest).

Perion: Land of Wild Boar (Hidden portal in Perion Street Corner) - Wild Boar and Dark Axe Stumps. Nice exp, two quests linked to this place, and Sap of Ancient Tree drops fairly regularly. DO NOT USE IT! You will need to for a couple of quests later on and people love to sell them for 30k+ each.

Sleepywood: Ant Tunnel I-IV (Maps right from Sleepywood "town") - Horned and Zombie Mushrooms. Not really exciting, you'll be sharing the maps with a lot of people so kill stealing happens often. On the plus side, there are quests for killing 99/999 of them which have not to bad rewards for these levels. They also make it feel less like training and more like seeing how many you can kill quickly.

Sleepywood: Darker Passage/Dangerous Steam (Further right from Ant Tunnel IV) - Stirges, Zombie Mushrooms and Horned Mushrooms. These maps are usually pretty quiet, despite the fact that you need 10 stirge wings for Luke The Security Guard's quest. Anyhow, Zombie and Horned Shrooms here will also count on the 99/999 quests, and stirges give nice exp.

Kerning City: Transfer Area (Map to the right of Subway Line 1 Area 1) - Stirges. Fast spawn, good exp. Steel ore's pretty useful for making screws as well.

Singapore: Central Way 1, Central Way 2 (CBD, maps to the right) - Biners, Stopnows. Drops aren't amazing, but the quests give a nice chunk of exp for killing enemies with low HP.

Warning Street: The Burnt Land I-III (Doorway in the middle of Dangerous Valley II) - Fire Boars. Good exp, great meso drops, and also the chance of Arwen's Glass Shoe. If you've played mages before, you should find this place great. If you're finding it a bit too difficult, go back to Wild Boars for a bit longer.