MapleStory/Jobs

All characters begin the game as Beginners. Once players have trained their characters to the appropriate levels and have met the stat requirements, they may complete the first job advancement. Players are faced with 4 choices: the Warrior, Bowman, Thief, or Magician. Aside from the Magician path which allows Beginners to advance at level 8, all jobs require the player to be at least level 10 prior to advancement. Each job has different stat requirements. The first job choice decides the class of the character. All future job advancements will merely refine and strengthen this initial choice. It should be noted that once a character has chosen a certain job, he/she cannot change it.

Only characters level 30 and upwards are allowed to gain more power by performing a job change. After completing a quest that involves killing monsters to obtain 30 Dark Marbles, players are allowed to choose their second job. The classes that are made available this time differ with the player's first job. Thieves may choose between Assassins or Bandits. An Assassin's weapon of choice is a claw that shoots throwing stars, a Bandit wields daggers. Magicians will be given the option of either Cleric with healing and Holy-based attacks, or two different types of Wizards with either fire and poison or ice and lightning attacks. Magicians attack with wands and staves. A Bowman can choose to become a Hunter who equips a bow or a Crossbowman who sports a crossbow. Finally, a Warrior can choose between becoming a Page who attacks with blunt weapons or swords, a Spearman who uses spears or polearms, or a Fighter who uses swords or axes. Each class has its own merits and disadvantages. As is the case with each job advancement, new skills are introduced to the player.

At level 70, characters can once again change their job by talking to their respective 3rd job instructors at the Mystics Hut in El Nath of Ossyria and completing two quests assigned to them. Unlike previous job advancements, the player is not given a choice. Thieves who became Assassins become Hermits, but Thieves who chose to become Bandits become Chief Bandits. Magicians who chose the Cleric path become Priests and Wizards of both types become Mages. Hunters become Rangers and Crossbowmen become Snipers. Warriors who became Pages become White Knights, Spearmen become Dragon Knights, and Fighters become Crusaders.

At level 120, the character can again change classes and become even more powerful with their fourth job advancement. Currently, only Korea MS, Japan MS, China MS, and Taiwan MS has implemented 4th job skills. The Hermits become Night Lords, Chief Bandit become Shadowers, Rangers become Bow Masters, Snipers become Crossbow Masters, Priests become Bishops, Mages comes Arch Mages, Crusaders become Heroes, Knights become Paladins, Dragon Knights, become Dark Knights. Players are granted 4th job status after they have retrieved 2 items for their respective 4th job instructors which are located in Leafre.

Warrior
Warriors use brute strength to take down foes. Of all the classes, Warriors are the only class that fight melee during their first and second jobs. They are easily the most powerful melee attackers in later levels.

Warriors possess the most HP and the greatest defense in the game due to their powerful armor. Coupled with their high attack, warriors become very powerful.

Their greatest weakness is their horrible accuracy. While Bowmen can hit boss monsters 40+ levels above them, Warriors will have trouble hitting foes the same level as them unless they sacrifice their strength for dexterity or scroll their equipment to provide additional accuracy. For example, a level 25 crossbowman could hit an Iron Hog at pig beach despite it being 17 levels higher. However there's a possibility of the monster having very high avoidbility, thus making it harder to get a decent damage. Usually when you accuracy and level isn't enough to match the level and avoidbility of the monster, either you get miss, or 1 damage.

Their poor mobility also causes training difficulties in terms of speed. Warriors usually use upgrade scrolls to add speed to their equipment so that they can move faster, increasing their training rate as a result.

Warriors have the choice of becoming either Spearmen, Pages, or Fighters at level 30.

Abilities such as Dragon Roar (which is a ranged attack with an AOE, or Area of Effect) can be learned by Dragon Knights in the third job, as well as Elemental Charges for Knights and Combo Attacks for Crusaders.

Bowman
Bowmen are the exact opposite of Warriors. They use dexterity to take down a foe with arrows. While their damage is very low in the beginning of the game, their skills make up for it with probability and statistics. Critical shots can raise damage by 100% (not double damage - there is a slight difference as shown in the Archer guide). It does not work all the time, since it is only a 40% success rate. Don't be surprised if you see 400 damage in one shot, and 1000 in another. Archers have the third lowest weapon-defensive equipments of all the classes, whereby the lowest would be mages, though they have very high magic defense, and the second lowest is the thief class

Because of this, Archers have the most unstable damage in the game until they learn Bow Mastery (which will raise their minimum damage) in their second job advancements.However,in 4th job ,they will be 1 of the most stable damage class (90%-200% damage)

The Archer's greatest weaknesses are its lack of mobility and low HP (though a few hundred hp more than thieves on average). Archers have long range ,even longer than any class around (About +20 more range to assasins though) but their average speed, and the fact that they cannot move while attacking, are problematic. What is more is that they cannot jump and shoot at the same time unlike their counter-part, the assassin. Although they do not specialize in melee attacks, and their weapons allow them to knock an enemy away to a safer distance. This would be a good help in lower levels during large mob spawns. They also have moderately high avoidability, second to Assassins, but the gap is rather small, probably only a few avoidability points. Other weaknesses include the fact that they are required to buy, make, or find arrows until the skill "Soul Arrow", which lets the Archer shoot without using physical arrows, is learned. However, keep in mind that Soul Arrow does not retain the stat boosts that come with special arrows,although the damage difference of specail arrow is rather small. This skill, however, provides an advantage over assassins who do not get the skill "Soul Stars" until their fourth job advancement. Archers have the highest accuracy in the game, because they add dex for their attack and it is the stat used to determine accuracy. Luck also adds a small amount of accuracy, so assassins get less accuracy. This means an archer could hit monsters much higher leveled than them before other classes can hit it.

Because of this ability, Archers can hunt monsters that are at a level much higher than they are. They are probably the only class that can hit certain monsters before actually being able to deal damage.

In later job advancements, Archers can split between Hunters and Crossbowmen, with the main difference being the use of regular bows or crossbows. Unlike class splits such as Assassins/Bandits, these two classes are remarkably similar, with skills that have easily noted similarities. The general consensus is that while Crossbowmen do more damage every individual hit, Hunters have the ability to fire more arrows (Hit more hits) in a period of time than Crossbowmen. Also, both classes get a Ranged AOE skill at 2nd job and fantastic Area Of Effect skills at 3rd job.

It should also be noted that the Archer class tends to lean more towards individual players, or soloing, as compared to the group mentality. While other classes have "Party Skills" (Skills that raise the abilities of the entire party) the Archer has no skills until 4th job, though that skill is arguably one of the best, allowing all jobs to make critical hits. Because of this, parties will generally select other classes besides archers.

Thief
A Thief is basically a fast warrior and a fast archer combined. They can be ranged or melee. However, they are not given enough skill points to max out both a melee skill and a ranged skill early in the game, so they must choose whether to be a Bandit (a faster but slightly weaker melee class) or an Assassin (ranged and faster than Bowmen). While quite different, these two kinds of Thieves have a similar set of strengths. Thieves are more or less tied with Archers in terms of weapon defense. They have average HP and MP(Bowmen have a few hundred more hp than them) in the game. They make up for their lack of HP through their high avoidability, however.

Both Bandits and Assassins have massive speed bonuses in the second job, and have very high avoidability. Thieves have the highest avoidability and mobility in the game. Thieves have good accuracy too, but when compared with Bowmen, they will still lose out because dex increases accuracy more than luck, which is the primary attribute to damage in thieves.

The Bandit's weakness is simple: they do not have a ranged attack. However, this is cured with Boomerang Step in 4th job, which is a semi-range skill, like 3rd Job's Assulter. But, Boomerang Step attacks up to multiple monsters, and it's a double assulter, which means you go pass the monster once, then again back to where you are. They will have to walk up to enemies just like Warriors and slash them (however, they're better at this than Warriors because they have more mobility). Additionally, Bandits hit multiple times, doing little damage each time, while Warriors generally do a one-hit massive attack. Therefore, Bandits generally don't get to Knockback larger monsters, such as Stone Golems. However, this allows them a more consistent attack, and this also works to their advantage when using Haste, a speed-boosting skill, to jump clear over the enemy and attack it at the same time. Another advantage of the Bandit is the speed it possess. Assassins are Bowmen with only some Bowmen weaknesses. Assassins have extremely high mobility, as they are the only ranged class that can shoot in the air.(Archers can do that too,though with diffulties, and it generally is still the same as shooting from the ground because an archer cannot jump above the mob, and fire.) Assassins have slightly less range than Bowmen (about 20 range. They can shoot projectiles much faster than any other class in the game, from the 1st and 2nd job only. (Ranger's Strafe is almost as fast as Hermit's L7 and BowMaster's Hurricane(also known as Storm of Arrows) is faster than Night Lord's Triple Throw (tested and comfirmed), though a Ranger's Hurricane only has an average of 126% damage per arrow while a Night Lord hits an average of 177.1875% per star with all supportive skills on. Hence, as commonly seen in KS (kill-stealing)in 1st to 3rd job. The weaknesses of Assassins are that they have to carry large amounts of projectiles (throwing stars). Unlike Bowmen, they do not get a skill similar to "Soul Arrow" until 4th Job, which has only been released in KoreaMS, JapanMS and ChinaMS. At lower levels, this can be quite a pain, because each job advancement adds a row of extra inventory space, and the skill in the 2nd job, javelin mastery, allows more stars to be carried, hence limiting training times very greatly at low levels. Additionally, better stars are often very expensive to purchase due to the popularity of the class leading to high demand (a weapon attack 25 set of Steely Throwing-Stars costs several million mesos).So,assassins naturally have less slots for their 'use' inventory.thus limiting their 'use; space. A second weakness of the Assassin is that they do not carry the Knockback ability which the Archer class has. Also they do not have an Area Of Effect (AoE) skill like the Bowmen's Arrow Rain or Eruption. The only mob attack they have is Avenger, which travels in a straight line like a Crossbowman's Iron Arrow. Despite this weakness, Avenger does a bit greater damage(probably 100-200 dmg more) than archer's AoE if accompanied with Shadow Partner. They do not have attention diverting skills such as puppet unlike the Bowmen, which makes the monster to target the assassin or bandit more often. They make up for this with their high avoidability. The damage an assassin deals is however, the most inconsistent almost throughout the game, because the primary attacking skill, Lucky Seven, does not allow javelin mastery to be stacked with it, unlike other classes where learning mastery increases the minimum attack. The inconsistency is further augmented with the 2nd job, when the assassin receives the skill "critical throw" (at a 50% chance, damage +100%, not the same as doubling damage though) which is similar to the archer's but with a higher probability of occurring.

If you would like to choose between jobs, Assassins have very fast ranged attacks that can kill monsters at their level faster than any other job. Bandits have good and consistent damage with their short-ranged "Savage Blow", which can usually kill most monsters in one or two speedy executions as well. Both jobs have their ups and downs, and it highly depends on the style and skill of playing. Unlike other classes, a new Thief needs to know from level 10 which 2nd Job he or she wants, because both require different skill builds.

Magician
Magicians use the power of magic and cast powerful spells. Their attacks can hit any monster within their range even if it is right in front of them. Additionally, Magicians are hands down the strongest characters during earlier levels (from level 20 to 35 or so). However, they tend to weaken a little during later levels (level 47, specifically), but they remain versatile with Teleport and again, with long- and short-ranged attacks. Also, it should be said that Magicians are arguably the richest class in the game, due to monster drops and in no small part to their expeditious MP Recovery, though wealth does differ from player to player. Of all mages, Clerics tend to be the richest of all, due to their ability to heal while simultaneously dealing damage to undead monsters. However, like all classes, Magicians still have to spend a lot of money on MP potions. It should be noted that because Magicians are believed to be rich, other players tend to raise prices on higher-leveled Magician equipment. Magicians are also one of the most common classes, which creates a much larger demand for equipments than other classes, thus increasing the prices even more.

The Magician's main strength is that their MP Recovery is quite legendary. They receive the skills "MP Recovery" and "MP Eater", which essentially make magic attacks cost little, considering their max mp is huge. Additionally, Magicians have the highest MP of all the classes. Magicians also have the highest magic defense in the game. This is because of the primary attribute which is int (intelligence). Each int point increases BOTH magic and magic defense by 1. Also they have element-based attacks in 2nd job ,which makes them able to have attack bonuses (like a 100% critical on monsters weak to their element), that does 150% damage, but cuts their damage by half, i.e. 50%, against monsters with the same element as them. The good thing of a mage is that their attacks in third job are AoE like ice mage's ice strike or fire mage's explosion ,making them easier to lvl up.

The Magician's main weakness is their extremely low HP and low weapon defense. While a Warrior can easily have 2500 HP by level 40, a Magician barely has 550 HP at that time. Their skill "Magic Guard" covers this weakness by diverting up to 80% of taken damage to MP instead of HP. Granted, MP potions cost two times more than HP potions, but mages recover MP quickly. This causes a problem for MP as the Magician reaches levels 30-40. During this time their HP is high enough to sustain attacks but Magic Guard constantly "drains" MP, making many mages turn to SP Reset (first job) or abandoning the skill completely. It all comes down to proper skill management and usage. Also, the fact that Magician armor has the lowest weapon defense means that a melee attack will drain more of their HP and MP than first thought.

Which class of characters should I start with when playing MapleStory?
User Opinions (Note: these opinions are not written from a neutral point of view and reflect the views of individual players. In no way should these opinions be viewed as facts.)
 * Go play as whatever you feel like-there is no right or wrong. However, warriors, with their high HP and damage, are a common choice for beginners; yet again, however, it's you're choice.

-Dxceptor 04:42, 13 September 2007 (CDT)
 * It all depends on your style. Basically, all classes have their own weaknesses and strengths. It depends on your skill/style of playing to fully maximize the potential of any character. If you like getting up close to the enemy and personally letting it taste steel, play a warrior. Determine what you can do and cannot do, and use them to your fullest advantage. Potential is just the starting. Skill goes a long way.

-B Man
 * No matter what you choose to be, AP should always be used wisely, especially if your future 'job' requires a lot of dex or strength.Every point counts, so its better to save it up than 'up evenly'. Each AP can result in almost 20% difference.

--Crazy WikiStrategian
 * Well, if you are just starting out, go warrior. Warriors get High HP and out-kill characters in lower levels between and Thieves are a little hard to work with especially when you don't have enough MESOS (currency in maple story) to support them.  Archers have to keep running back to town to buy arrows, which impedes the leveling process. So, you can start off with a warrior, earn some mesos then start a second character to support it.  Best to stick to one character and play with it through out the game.  That way, when the one main character is high enough, you can support your lower level characters better.
 * ~IGN in MS: Mandraken


 * What Mandraken said was true. Because i have a level 64 hunter, and to start a good throwing star thief, you need like 2mil to really get it going. The high quality throwing stars are worth over 600,000mesos, which would be quite expensive for a normal, first time player.
 * ~IGN in MS: SwiftPanda

In Maple Global the highest Level Character is a spearman lvl 175 but the point is that there is no real class that is best. A Warrior is a good option for a beginning player because the damage delt if pretty high and there is no need to recharge stars or get new arrows. Warriors also spend less time sitting around because of hp recovery. The warrior isnt the best starting class but it is just an opinion.


 * Actually, it might be beneficial to go for warrior first, get about 10-20k or so, then start a cleric, and go for thieves after you've earned 2 mil or so. If you're going for archer, don't bother with Cleric as 10-20k is most likely enough to start out. If you're going warrior... get Cleric as well so you can afford to spam PS and get a Fish Spear, the best level 20 weapon. 69.158.168.132

04:11, 22 November 2005 (UTC)Regal Star aka Majesticmystic


 * It depends on your style though. Play around with the characters and decide whether you prefer ranged or melee classes. This plays more of a part than just how strong the character can become.
 * ~IGN: N3L0


 * Use a magician if you only have a few hours to play a day cause they can level up very fast compared with other character as they have mobs vulnerable to their magical attacks. But you will need to be funded in the early levels, or you will spend a lot of time resting. And you will need to hunt the mobs vulnerable to your magic to level up fast. This applies to I/L or F/P Wizard/Mage. I found training a Cleric too boring with just Healing undead.
 * ~IGN in MS: DinoHippo

In the long run, it is said that archer is the best class especially once you get it to level 70 (third job). Also, some people disagree with getting MP Eater for mages. They argue that at a high level, mages have a large MP bar and that MP Eater only saves mages a few pots - not enough to make a significant difference.

- I quote 'In the long run, it is said that archer is the best class especially once you get it to level 70 (third job).' This isn't really true, all jobs are good in their own way. DKs have nice skills like Crusher and Dragon Roar, Cheif Dits have skills like Meso Explosion and Assaulter, Assassins have skills like Shadow Partner and Shadow Meso, Rangers have Strafe and Puppets, Mages have Element Composition and Explosion/Ice Strike, Priests have Holy Symbol and Shining Ray etc.  -Omega

If you play jMS, assassins can go unfunded and have a couple sets of steely by 50. My first character in jMS, xHopeless had: - 1 x steely - 1 x tobi - 4 ATT WG - Perf LUK china set - Over 10 mil cash Plus it only took 25 days to get to 50, so Sins are the #1 class. I decided to go for DK though, Dragon Buster is a long-range attack >_> ~Hopeless, MT forums ~ExiledHero/xHopeless, Kaede server

The current top player in KMS is a Ranger (as of February 22, 2006), not an Assassin. And as of 2007, the top KMS player is a Warrior. In fact, out of the top 20 players in KMS only two are Thieves. Most are warriors(11). However, the current top player of JMS is a thief and out of the top 20 players in JMS, 14 are thieves.

RandomGuy---

Assassins aren't the #1 class, in terms of leveling up yes, but they're still weaker compared to a Ranger. Assassins with maxed copycat skill have to use a summon rock every 180 seconds to keep up with a ranger, and copy cat only does 80% damage of a normal attack and 50% damage of a skill, so its just cutting your lucky7's damage in half. A ranger on the other hand does 400%-800% damage with critical hit, even though assassins have critical hit also, it still wont be enough to overpower a ranger. Rangers/Snipers also have mortal blow, once maxed they have a 70% chance of shooting up close, so they wont need to move as much anymore, and it has a chance to 1 hit KO a monster with at least 50% of its hp left. If you jumped into a hole with a huge mob of monsters, and a assassin comes along, you would beat him because the assassin wouldn't have anywhere to make room to shoot. Rangers/snipers also have puppet, so they wont need to risk getting hit, and they have a permanent speed boost, and can summon a hawk/eagle with a 99% stun rate.

- I quote RandomGuy 'A ranger on the other hand does 400%-800% damage with critical hit, even though assassins have critical hit also, it still wont be enough to overpower a ranger.' This is not necessarily true as Hermits with Shadow Partner, Shadow Meso and Critical Throw does 450%~1350% damage with Lucky Seven. Rangers undoubtedly do have great mobbing skills compared to a Hermit, but Hermits do have Flash Jump, which greatly increases their movement speed. '''All jobs have their own unique abilities, all of them are better than each other at different things, and vice-versa. Choose the job that best suits yourself.'''  -Omega

~Well, it depends on your clothes, if you have totally average clothes then yes, thats probably true, but with a nice set of stars and some godly attack gloves and dex shoes a sin could easily take down any class, giving a warrior (Spearman for damage) the same gear (Attack glove, scrolled items..) the warrior would own everything. (Mazz~)

There isn't really a best class in Maple Story, IMO. All classes have strengths and weaknesses. For example, that ranger on the top spot doesn't really have any good mob skills (arrow bomb is rather weak). You should start out with a character that appeals to you. For nice big numbers, go Fighter/Crusader, for a defensive character with a good bit of attack to back it up, go Page/Knight, for lots of damage (as you attack more enemies than a fighter normally will), go Spearman/DK. For not dying, it's Cleric/Priest, for offensive magic, go either I/L or F/P Wizard/Mage (I/L is more popular). For speed, take a thief, if you want ranged, go Sin/Hermit, if you want close up, go Bandit/CB. Finally, for accuracy and range (and some defense), go Archer, and if you want some more speed, go Hunter/Ranger, or for more power go Crossbow Man/Sniper. Oh, and sorry for my Brit spelling of defense ^-^ -Bolt_Guard

Correcting Bolt_Guard, Rangers have Fire Shot and Arrow Rain, two amazing mob skills >.< -irockmage

--me--

Shadowers are the best, they have boomerang step, a great skill that gives you invincibility when you attack, assassinate, the only attack that can be used during dark sight and meso explosion, which deals many damag but is very unmoneywise. Dark Knights can go solo everything with berserker, paladins go crazy with sanctuary, Heroes go mad with advanced combo, bowmasters get hired as machine guns, crossbowmasters as rifles, night lords as six-machine guns(reloadable for six times cos' of triple throw and archmages start pwning with their map-sized attacks and bishops go solo with bahamut, genesis and angel ray.

---Mr YaNdAo---(kidding)

I personally think making decisions on what class you'd want to be based on facts and opinions of other people is wrong, and what people consider "Bandwagoning." I think the most genuine way to pick (I won't really criticize people who choose based of what they're told about the game ahead of time, because so many people do it and it's hard not to) is to decide "Do I like magic, melee attacks, archery, or ninjas?" I chose page because it's the servant of a knight, and one day of hopes to be a paladin- a holy warrior. Good luck with your decision

~Vaust

It's all about your personality. If you like sacrificing your weapon defense for renewable attack, it is best to go magician. However, each job has its pros and cons. Warriors have the highest weapon defense, hp and the lowest mp, lending them to being able to kill mobs very quickly without too much damage. However, they sacrifice magic defense, lending themselves to take horrible damage from monster spells. Magicians, are the complete antithesis of warriors. They have the highest mp, magic defense and the lowest hp, therefore being able to defend against spells easily but easily die to physical attacks. Mages are also the only class that attack solely with skills, so if a mage got sealed, they will be forced to use holy water or just use a normal attack which by an optimum magician build, will be approximately 4/4 str/dex give or take a bit. Magicians are also the only class which can perform magical damage, therefore being weak against high magic def. monsters (e.g.pixies) and strong against low magic def. monsters. Sins (Assassins or Thieves) and Archers have the furthest range giving them the ability to easily escape from ranged attacks easily. If you don't like the trouble of losing exp when you die or other responsibilities of a job, you can become a PermaBeginner(Permanent Beginner) which act a lot like warriors and their only ranged attack "three snails" throwing snail shells with set damage amounts).

They're all good
No class is the "best." Although some classes may be less powerful in the beginning, in the long run they can become more powerful. Nonetheless, there is some imbalance in classes, such as archers.

Thieves might have more exciting fighting styles and effects, but they are very expensive, as they have to spend a lot of money on pots and equips. Assassins train faster because Lucky 7 (a ranged and speedy attack) is inherently fast. Bandits, however, are one of the most powerful characters at levels 50+ due to their savage blow damage. Hermits have Shadow Parter, which is why it makes them such a powerful class. Note that Shadow Parter's critical does not rely on it's own %, but relies on the 2 original throws. For example, if both the original stars critical, Shadow Parter gets both critical too. Chief Bandits, on the other hand, gets the highest damage skill, namely Meso Explosion. The higher amount of mesos you drop, the higher damage you get. It's notably the strongest skill, because you tend to see C. Dits bombing 100k damages.

Warriors are also excellent, they level really fast and do a lot of damage at the beginning. Dragon Knights are one of the most powerful characters in MS. They can do multiple damages to monsters and have very good stamina. Hence they are known to most people as the "tank" because of their ability to "tank".

Magicians are also powerful, and they have elemental strengths and weaknesses. A fire mage might be strong at El Nath, but a cleric might be stronger at Monkey Forest or the Forest of Dead Trees. Priests have very special skills that are very useful, like Doom, but Ice/Light and Fire/Poison Mages also are very powerful. When it comes to job advancement it will even out. Fire Mage and lightning mage strong at 2nd Job, Cleric at 3rd Job. -- So basically Magicians start off really slow, and take patience to level, but can do a lot of damage to different enemies depending on 2nd job chosen.

Archers improve gradually as they advance, but they usually are so called, the "Jack of All Trades, Master of None.". Rangers and Snipers can use Strafe, and it deals 800% damage if all 4 arrows critical. Note that chances of Strafe getting 4 criticals is very low. However unlike Hermits with Shadow Parter, each arrow has it's own % of having Critical. Hunters can use Arrow Bomb, which kills multiple enemies and also stuns them. They the smallest class.

CHOOSE CHARACTER CLASSES ACCORDING TO YOUR STYLE. They're all really good, but some may be more expensive or be weaker at some levels.

It's all up to you
It just depends on what kind of style you play in, which is what everyone is saying here. If you like giving monsters brutal beat downs, then go for a close-range class, such as a Warrior, or Bandit. If you like being a sly little fox and attacking from far away, go Assassin or Archer. Love magic? Be a magician. And if you choose wrong the first time, there's no penalty; you can just create another character and start over. Don't know which one to be? Stay a beginner forever! Frankly, just do whatever you want. It's your story.

Class similarities
All classes, including Beginners, receive ability points to help boost their attack, speed, and other traits. The player receives five points every time they advance a level, and have the option of choosing what to put the points in. The points you choose to add for your character usually reflects your damage. For example, Warriors require more STR than others, so increasing STR would increase your attack. Bowmen require DEX for their long-distance attacks. Magicians need INT to cast their spells more effectively. Thieves primarily require LUK.

Most characters will be required to raise 2 stats. Warriors will have to raise STR for damage, and DEX for accuracy. Bowmen require STR to hold their bows and DEX to raise damage. Magicians require a little bit of LUK to hold their wands and staffs and INT for damage. Thieves generally require mostly LUK and some DEX, although one may choose to become a STR bandit to be able to equip STR daggers. STR bandits still need plenty of LUK, however. Generally, however, most Bandits stick with LUK.

Weapon Attack is much more powerful than most think. Weapon Attack is multiplied with your stats to get your damage. Therefore, 1 weapon attack does not increase your damage by 1.

The Magician's version of Weapon Attack is NOT Magic Attack. Magic attack is additive; it adds to damage, not multiplies with it. However, "basic attack" from skills is multiplied with INT + Magic Attack.

The entire and full damage formula can be found at Hidden Street's Damage Calculator.

Another similarity is that all classes, including Beginners, can increase skills. The skills menu is opened by pressing the letter "K" (by default, and may vary from client to client) on your keyboard. Skills include spells, special attacks, and anything else that is not normal attack (which is used by pressing the CTRL key, by default). Skills usually use MP, but in some cases may use HP (i.e. Slash Blast, which is used by warriors and drains some HP and MP). With a very few skills, a skill may require a certain item (i.e. Dragon summoning requires a summoning rock, the snail shell throwing skill requires the respective snail shell etc.)

A job advancement will give 1 Skill Point (SP) and every level up when not a Beginner will give 3 SP. All the SP for a level range must be used before a job advancement. (i.e. Level 10-30 SP must be used before 2nd job, 30-70 SP before 3rd job, etc.) In GlobalMS and KoreaMS, 1 SP is given for beginner skills during levels 2-7. Beginner SP cannot be used on non-beginner skills, and Beginner Skills may only have Beginner SP applied to them.

There are four main character classes in the MapleStory world: Warrior, Magician, Bowman and Thief. Warriors who use melee weapons to kill monsters in close range, have the highest defence and physical damage out of all four classes; but warriors, in turn, have the lowest MP (mana point) and magic defence. Magicians use spells to fight monsters; they have the lowest physical defence and lowest amount of HP (hit points) out of all four classes; however, they have certain advantages that other class lack such as high MP (mana points) and high magic defence. Bowmen use bows or crossbows and arrows to hit monsters from a distance; they have average defence, stamina, and high accuracy due to their high levels of dexterity. Thieves are divided into two sub-classes, the claw-wielding thief, who uses throwing stars to engage monsters from a distance, and the dagger-wielding thief, who uses daggers to fight monsters at close range. Even though thieves have less HP and physical defence than warriors, they make up for it with fast speed, higher MP, and both higher accuracy and avoidability.

1st Job Advancement
All characters start the game as a beginner. Once a player reaches the appropriate level and meets the statistical (stats) requirements, they are able to complete the first job advancement and choose one of the four jobs listed above. Each job is divided into a job class. The first job classes are as follows: Swordsman, Magician, Archer, and Rogue. Advancing to a Swordsman, Archer, or Rogue requires the player to attain a level of 10, while the Magician requires the player to reach level 8. Each job also has different stat requirements which are discussed below. This permanent choice decides the class of the character and all future job advancements merely to refine and strengthen this initial choice.

2nd Job Advancement
Once the player reaches level thirty (30), they are able to complete the second job advancement. After a quest of collecting dark marbles dropped by monsters in a given location (dependent on first job class), the player is given the option of selecting and changing to the second job. The classes that are made available this time differ based on the class chosen at the first job advancement. A Warrior can choose between becoming a Page, who specializes in swords and blunt weapons, a Spearman, who masters a spears or polearms, or a Fighter, who chooses to uses swords or axes. Magicians will be given the option of choosing between becoming a Cleric (the only class who masters healing spells and Holy based attacks), or the two types of Wizards (either fire/poison or ice/lightning). A Bowman can choose to become a Hunter, who uses masters a bow, or a Crossbowman, who specializes a crossbow. Finally, Rogues will be given the option of choosing between becoming an Assassin, whose weapon of choice is a claw with throwing stars, or a Bandit, whose weapon of choice is a dagger. Each class has its own advantages and disadvantages. With every new job advancement, new and more powerful skills are introduced to the player.

3rd Job Advancement
At level seventy (70), characters can once again change their job at the Chief's Residence in El Nath of Ossyria. Unlike previous job advancements, the player is not given a choice for their third job. It has already been decided by what class was chosen as the second job. To complete the third job advancement, one must fight the job instructor's "dark side". The evil instructor is able of summoning high-level monsters called Tauromacis to fight by his or her side. He or she will use various third job skills to attempt to defeat the player. After defeating the evil instructor, the player must obtain a Dark Crystal, refined from ten Dark Crystal Ores, and head to a "Magic Stone". At the Stone, they must correctly answer five questions related to MapleStory. Failure to do so will cost the player another Dark Crystal to try again answering the 5 questions. Warriors who became Pages, Spearmen, or Fighters become White Knights, Dragon Knights, and Crusaders, respectively. Magicians who chose the Cleric path become Priests, and Wizards of both types become Mages of their respective types. Hunters become Rangers and Crossbowmen become Snipers. Lastly, Thieves who became Assassins become Hermits, and Thieves who chose to become Bandits become Chief Bandits.

4th Job Advancement
4th Job is currently only available in KoreanMS, JapanMS, ChinaMS and TaiwanMS.



At level one hundred twenty (120), the character can again change their job and become even more powerful than before. However, 4th job advancement is only released in a few versions of MapleStory. The classes are as follows (3rd job to 4th job): White Knight to Paladin, Dragon Knight to Dark Knight, and finally Crusader to Hero; Priest to Bishop, Mage to Arch Mage; Ranger to Bow Master, Sniper to Crossbow Master; Hermit to Night Lord, and finally, Chief Bandit to Shadower.

Wizet may change the names of skills and jobs or the translations to English may be corrected.

The job advancement for the 4th job takes place at Leafre.

To get your 4th job advancement, firstly players have to talk to their 3rd job Advancement NPC and they will give the player an invitation to meet with their 4th job Advancement NPC. When the player arrives, he/she has to talk to their 4th job Advancement NPC for more info. The 4th job Advancement NPC names are as follows:


 * Bowman: Legor
 * Thief: Hellin
 * Warrior: Harmonia
 * Magician: Gritto

Their Advancement NPC will ask you to get two items: The Heroic Star and the Heroic Pentagon. To get these two items, players have to either


 * Get the items which are dropped by Griffey and Manon

OR

(Note: To get the scroll, you have to buy it from Vega in the 44th floor of the Eos Tower. This scroll costs 10 million mesos.)
 * Give a scroll to Chief Tatamo of Leafre and he will give you the 2 items.

Once the player has received these two items, he/she needs to go back to their 4th job advancement NPC, which he/she will be rewarded with a Skill Book that teaches them Maple Hero. Clicking on the NPC a 2nd time will change the player into their 4th job proper.

Most 4th Job skills have to be obtained by doing quests (for example, fighting monsters to get "Summon"). Some of the skill quests require you to get a certain one of a kind item to activate them, and some of the more valuable skills have to be learnt from a skill book. Also after getting a skill, you are only able to put up to 10 skill points into it. This will happen regardless of what the max level is. You will be able put more points after you get Mastery Books and succeeding them. There are different Mastery Books for each skill and there are two versions


 * Lv 20 Mastery Book: This book requires a minimum of lv 5 in that particular skill to use
 * Lv 30 Mastery Book: This book requires a minimum of lv 15 in that particular skill to use.

These Books have a success rate (70% for level 20 Mastery Books and 50% for level 30 Mastery Books). The Books do not damage your character in anyway if they fail, but a new one will be needed.

Beginner
All characters start the game as beginners. They have only a few minor skills and can wear only the most basic equipment. However, the class has its advantages. Beginner characters do not lose experience when they die, and they receive a 90% discount on taxi fares across Victoria Island. Many players often keep a beginner in their account as a 'mule.' Mules are usually very low-leveled and are used to store items when the player's main character does not have enough inventory space. Mules at level 15 and above are sometimes also used to fame or defame other characters, and mules at level 40+ are sometime used to buy potions from Jane the Alchemist or to do Party Quests for characters in Ossyria.

On May 2006, KoreaMS and GlobalMS (MapleSEA released them in September 2006) introduced 3 new skills for Beginners. For the first 6 levels, a beginner is given 1 Skill Point per level. In all other versions, beginners cannot obtain skills and must complete the first job advancement before being able to use skills. These skills are called "Three Snails", "Recovery", and "Nimble Feet".

There are also 2 more Beginner skills, both acquired through quests. One allows the player to scroll any item he cannot equip. The second skill allows the player to ride a captured pig. Riding an animal increases his speed to 140% and jump to 120% (the normal speed and jump is 100%) at level 70, and 170% speed and 120% jump at level 120.

There are people who play on what is called a "perma-beginner", "perma-noob", or "ultra-noob", among others. They basically challenge themselves by not making a job advancement at all and opt to permanently keep their character a beginner.
 * Super-Beginner

A "super-beginner" is similar to a warrior in its ability points distribution, except they have sub-par skills and lack the higher amounts of Health Points, or HP they would have had as a warrior. Most add AP in strength for damage and dexterity for accuracy. To make up for these shortcomings, very powerful weapons have been released in certain version of MapleStory for exclusive use by high level beginners. These include the Frozen Tuna at level 20, the Sake Bottle at level 30, and the Maroon Mop at level 36. The Maroon Mop has a weapon attack that is twice as high as some level 90 weapons. However, they do not have mastery in those weapons, so their lowest damage can be 1/10 of their maximum damage. There are also many quests that a beginner is not allowed to do since those quests require completion of the first job advancement.

Warrior
Warriors are called "Swordsmen" in their first jobs, and have the strongest raw damage out of all the classes. At the beginning of the game as a beginner, future warriors mainly raise their STR points to increase damage. Warriors also need some DEX points for accuracy. This gives the pre-warrior beginner a huge advantage over other beginners allowing them to gain levels much quicker. To obtain the job of warrior, one must reach level 10 with a STR level of 35.

Warriors possess a skill called Improving Max HP Increase that raises their max HP more than usual with every level gained. If this skill is maxed as soon as possible after changing classes, the warrior will have at least double the max HP of that of Thieves and Archers, and at least quadruple that of the Mage. Warriors also have 2 attacking skills: Power Strike, which does large amounts of damage to one enemy and Slash Blast, which can attack up to 6 enemies near the character.

Warrior armour has the highest weapon defence in the game. Since warriors require both STR and DEX, they choose to wear armour that increase STR or DEX. The warrior weapons consist of many classes, and the second job advancement will affect which weapon one will choose to use for the rest of the game. The jobs are Fighter, Page, and Spearman and each class masters a different set of weapons. When the job advancement test is complete, the player will have to choose between the different jobs, and must take into consideration the HP and MP boosts each job grants. Fighters gain the most HP, but they get little MP after level 30. Pages are considered the "in between" choice, with an equal increase of both HP and MP. Spearmen gain more MP than Pages and Fighters, but they gain the least HP out of the three.

Fighter
Fighters use swords and axes. Compared to axes, swords provide more consistent but lower average damage with a faster attack speed. Most Fighters skills raise the efficiency of the attack. For example, Final Attack is a skill that gives a chance for a fast, free attack after an attack skill is used; Booster Skill increases the attack speed. However, two support skills are also available: Rage, which increases the weapon attack of the party at the expense of a small amount of defence; and Power Guard, which reflects 40% of contact damage back to the enemy and reduce knock back. Fighters tend to level as fast as pages in 2nd job, now that New Leaf City has been released with 12 attack potions (2 more attack than rage), setting rage at a disadvantage, yet still allowing fighters to save a considerable amount of money at the cost of 2 atk.

Using brute force, Crusaders are the raw brute strength of MapleStory. They feature a threatening Combo Attack, which not only gives a boost to Crusaders' attacks, but also allows them to charge up to 5 counters (in the form of aural orbs that float around the character) which can be used to unleash two powerful attacks: Panic and Coma. Panic is analogous to a much stronger version of Power Strike, whereas Coma is analogous to a much stronger version of Slash Blast but can also stun; using either skill will require recharging of the counters. Crusaders also have a skill called Shout which does minimal damage but stuns at a high rate. Stunned monsters however, recover from their stun state if they are attacked again.
 * Crusader

4th Job Advancement - Available Skills:
 * Hero
 * Maple Hero (all class)- Increases all stats by 10% for 600 seconds.
 * Hero's Will (all class)- A probability of escaping from certain status effects. Cool-down time: 10 minutes
 * Monster Magnet (all warriors)- Will draw one monster within 200 range in front of you with 95% success rate at max.
 * Stance (all warriors)- At max, 70% chance of not being knocked back for 300 seconds.
 * Charge (all warriors)- Can charge through 15 enemies with 130% attack power.Only works when monsters are in front of you.
 * Achilles (all warriors)- Reduces physical damage by 15%.
 * Blocking (Hero and Paladin only)- 15% chance of blocking enemy attack and knocking them back. 2 seconds of invincibility upon activation. Only works when a shield is equipped.
 * Brandish - Does 260% damage 2 times to 3 enemies (Brandish's damage calculations are one swing and one stab).
 * Advanced Combo Attack- Must have Combo Attack (3rd job skill) maxed. Attack power 150%, max combo increased to 10 with 60% chance of adding 2 combos with 1 hit at max.

Page
Pages have the ability to use swords and blunt weapons. Compared to blunt weapons, swords are generally faster, have a more stable damage range, higher average damage, and a longer reach, although they cost more. Blunt weapons also tend to deal very high damage when the character swings, while they deal lower damage with a stabbing motion. Pages have the same skills as Fighters except Pages have Threaten instead of Rage. Threaten decreases nearby monster's physical attack and weapon defense by 20 points.

White Knights are like a fusion of warrior and mage. They have the ability to charge up their weapon with an element: either Fire, Ice, or Lightning, to increase their weapon damage. Enemies weak to the chosen element will have their final damage multiplied by 1.5 (150%) when that skill is maxed. An added advantage of "Ice Charge" is its ability to freeze monsters temporarily, but applying only 105% damage when maxed. "Fire Charge" applies 120% damage, and many monsters are weak against fire, while "Lightning" applies 125% damage, making it the most useful against enemies that aren't weak against any elements and cannot be frozen. In addition to charging their weapon, White Knights can use the "Charge Blow" skill to deal 250% damage to up to 6 monsters at once and stun the enemy with a 90% chance when the skill is maxed. The stun time is 10 seconds, or 5 seconds if the enemy is attacked while stunned, the latter being a possibly unique property the White Knight class (Needs confirmation) "Charge Blow" cancels out the charge but keeps the elemental attribute. They also have the skills "Relax", which increases the amount of MP regained every 10 seconds, "Shield Mastery", which increases a shield's weapon defense, and "Magic Crush", which cancels out the enemy's magic defence skills.
 * White Knight

The final DMG % totals for each element are:

Fire Charge:

Power Strike: 312% DMG to enemies without weakess, 468% to enemies with weakness

Slash Blast: 156% DMG to enemies without weakness, 234% to enemies with weakness

Charged Blow: 300% DMG to enemies without weakness, 450% to enemies with weakness

Ice Charge:

Power Strike: 237% DMG to enemies without weakess, 355.5% to enemies with weakness

Slash Blast: 136.5% DMG to enemies without weakness, 204.75% to enemies with weakness

Charged Blow: 263.5% DMG to enemies without weakness, 395.25% to enemies with weakness

Thunder Charge:

Power Strike: 325% DMG to enemies without weakess, 487.5% to enemies with weakness

Slash Blast: 162.5% DMG to enemies without weakness, 243.75% to enemies with weakness

Charged Blow: 312.5% DMG to enemies without weakness, 468.75% to enemies with weakness

(Explanation: Base dmg% (260% Power Strike, 130% Slash blast, 250% Charged Blow) * elemental charge DMG % (120 Fire, 105 Ice, 125 Thunder), * 150% for elemental advantage)

4th Job Advancement - Available Skills:
 * Paladin
 * Maple Hero (all class)- Increases all stats by 10% for 600 seconds.
 * Hero's Will (all class)- A probability of escaping from certain status effects. Cool-down time: 10 minutes
 * Monster Magnet (all warriors)- Will draw one monster within 200 range in front of you with 95% success rate at max.
 * Stance (all warriors)- At max, 70% chance of not being knocked back for 300 seconds.
 * Charge (all warriors)- Can charge through 15 enemies with 130% attack power.Only works when monsters are in front of you.
 * Achilles (all warriors)- Reduces physical damage by 15%.
 * Blocking (Hero and Paladin only)- 15% chance of blocking enemy attack and knocking them back. 2 seconds of invincibility upon activation. Only works when a shield is equipped.
 * Holy Charge/Divine Charge- Gives weapon a holy element along with 140% attack power for 300 seconds upon maxing.
 * Advanced Charge- At max, increases Charge Blow damage to 350% with 100% chance of not losing element upon using Charge Blow. This is a passive skill.
 * Blast - A stab attack that doesn't dispel element.Unique for each charge. Does 550% damage. (The damage calculations for Blast is random between Stab/Swing.)
 * Sanctuary - Summons a golden hammer to attack up to 15 monsters. Does 900% damage. Cool-down time: 100 seconds.How ever it cannot kill a monster.It will reduce it to 1 at the best.

Spearman
Spearmen, the final choice for warriors, have the highest maximum damage of the three (lowest minimum as well), although they have a very slow attack speed. Spearmen's weapons of choice are Pole Arms or Spears. Iron Will and Hyper Body are available to them; the former raises a party's defence and magic defence, the latter raises max HP and max MP of the party temporarily. Unlike their Fighter and Page counterparts who typically only master one weapon, Spearmen can master both weapon types, due to how 3rd job advance skills work. Spearmen are considered to be more party oriented than Fighters or Pages because of their party skills. However, they tend to be weak at solo, because of slow weapons, unstable damage, and they suffer from the stab/slash animation.

Dragon Knights are totally different from the two other classes. When they make the third job advancement Spearmen obtain a slew of powerful attacks and skills. The Crusher skill (Buster in some versions) can attack up to 3 enemies 3 times. Dragon Fury is a skill that does increased damage to up to 6 enemies, replacing Slash Blast. Crusher forces a stab animation, which benefits Spear users; Dragon Fury forces a swing animation, which benefits Polearm users. Sacrifice, an active skill, gives up HP to deal damage to the enemy, ignoring enemy's weapon defence. Dragon Blood, similar to the Fighter's Rage, increases damage while reducing weapon defence. However, this skill is more powerful, only affects the caster, and periodically reduces the Dragon Knight's HP. The Dragon Knight's signature skill is Dragon Roar. This skill shakes the screen and attacks up to 15 enemies on the map at a massive 240% damage each. However, this skill temporarily stuns the caster and costs a massive amount of HP. Dragon Knights often party with Clerics or Priests who can heal large HP losses caused by a Dragon Knight's skills.
 * Dragon Knight

4th Job Advancement - Available Skills:
 * Dark Knight
 * Maple Hero (all class)- Increases all stats by 10% for 600 seconds.
 * Hero's Will (all class)- A probability of escaping from certain status effects. Cool-down time: 10 minutes
 * Monster Magnet (all warriors)- Will draw one monster within 200 range in front of you with 95% success rate at max.
 * Stance (all warriors)- At max, 70% chance of not being knocked back for 300 seconds.
 * Charge (all warriors)- Can charge through 15 enemies with 130% attack power.Only works when monsters are in front of you.
 * Achilles (all warriors)- Reduces physical damage by 15%.
 * Berserk - At max, When HP is below 40% the attack power will increase by 200%.
 * Beholder - An active support skill that heals/buffs the dark knight according to the skills below and gives +20% Mastery. 20 minute duration.
 * Beholder: Heal Mastery - Heals the dark knight 500 hp per 4 seconds when Beholder is active.
 * Beholder: Buff Mastery - Increases weapon attack, accuracy, avoidability, defence or magic defence per 10-30 seconds interval when Beholder is active. Each buff lasts for 100 seconds

Magician
Magicians are spell casters, and as such, their power is based mainly on magic attack. Magic attack is increased by raising INT, and magicians require some LUK to wear their equips. The antithesis of Warriors, magicians (popularly referred to as "mages") have very low HP, by far the lowest of the four classes, and the highest MP of the four classes. As beginners, due to the lack of STR and DEX, magicians are very weak. The first job advancement for Magicians is at Level 8, as opposed to Level 10 for the other 3 classes, and requires 20 INT. This gives magicians more SPs (Skill Points) than the other classes during the 1st job and allows the use of skills sooner.

Similar to Warrior's Improving Max HP Increase, magicians have Improving Max MP Increase, which is typically maxed immediately in order to increase their MP as much as possible. Magicians improve very quickly during the 1st job, and at about Level 20 can easily do much more damage than the other classes at the same level. This is largely due to the powerful 1st job spell Magic Claw, which like all magician spells comes with "mastery", which raises the spell's minimum damage to a significant percentage of the maximum damage, allowing more stable, higher damage.

The other most important 1st job magician skill is Magic Guard, which diverts a percentage of the damage taken to the magician's MP instead of HP, effectively giving them thousands of HP. At higher levels Magic Guard is absolutely necessary to survive monster attacks due to a magicians low HP.

At Level 30 the 2nd job advancement is available, and magicians are able to choose which of the 3 paths they will take - Fire/Poison Wizard, Ice/Lightning Wizard, or Cleric.

Fire/Poison Wizard
Fire/Poison Wizards, who typically use only fire, have the highest base spell damage of all magician second-job classes. Their main second job skill is Fire Arrow. Fire Arrow has an elemental advantage against all Ice-based enemies. They are also effective against various plant and water based enemies. The seldom used poison spell, Poison Brace, can poison the enemy for added damage over time. This spell is not used often since enemies typically die before the poison can do significant damage. Their other skills include Slow, which slows down up to six nearby enemies, Meditation, which increases a party's Magic Attack, Teleport, which warps the character a short distance instantaneously, and MP Eater, which has a chance of stealing MP from an enemy with each attack.

 The fire/poison mage is now much more powerful with more skills such as Explosion, Poison Mist, Magic Composition, Seal, Magic Booster, Element Amplification, and Elemental Resistance. Explosion is a multi-targeting spell with high damage, although it is quite slow. Poison Mist releases a poison fog around the mage, which does damage to nearby enemies, as well as having a chance to poison them. Magic Composition fires an arrow made of fire and poison causing damage with both elements. However, enemies strong to either elements will greatly reduce the damage received. Seal is an active skill that stops monsters from using skills, but does not work on boss monsters. Magic Booster increases the speed of spell-casting. Elemental Resistance improves the defense against monsters with fire or poison elemental attacks.
 * Fire/Poison Mage

 4th Job Advancement - Available Skills:
 * Fire/Poison Arch Mage
 * Note: All MP costs and spell power without calculating Element Amplification
 * Maple Hero (All Classes)- Increase 10% of all stats at max for 600 seconds.
 * Hero's Will (All Classes)- A probability of escaping from certain status effects. Cool-down time: 10 minutes
 * Mana Reflection- (All magicians) At max has 60% chance of reflecting 200% of the magic attack that hit you. This skill do not reduce damage done on you.
 * Big Bang (all magicians)- 450 magic attack (max) with 80% mastery. Has to be charged before use.
 * Infinity (all magicians)- 40 seconds without using mp, cooldown of 10 minutes
 * Paralyze- 210 magic attack power with 60% mastery. Has a chance of turning the enemy into stone for 15 seconds.
 * Elquines- Summons ice monster with 270 magic attack that freezes for 3 seconds hitting up to 3 enemies. Duration of summon is 160 seconds at max.
 * Fire Demon- At max, magic attack of 120, 60% mastery that pierces through 6 enemies and continues to damage enemies for 15 seconds, enemies are only weak against ice during the scorching.
 * Meteo- Using 3500 mp at max, damages 15 monsters with a 570 magic attack power as a whole screen attack.

Ice/Lightning Wizard
Ice/Lightning Wizards are more powerful than Clerics, but do not have the pure power of Fire/Poison Wizards. They have two main attack spells: Cold Beam and Thunderbolt. Cold Beam is usually referred to as "ice" and freezes enemies, making Ice/Lightning Wizards very effective against single enemies. Thunderbolt is a weaker spell, but can hit up to six nearby enemies at once. Similarly to Fire/Poison Wizards, Ice/Lightning wizards have Teleport, MP Eater, Meditation and Slow. Slow is not very useful for this class since enemies frozen with Cold Beam cannot move anyway. MP Eater, when combined with Thunderbolt, has a chance of stealing MP from each enemy hit, meaning that there is a much higher chance of stealing MP with each attack.

 The Ice/Lightning Mage receives a new and more powerful set of skills in this job advancement. One of their attack skills, Thunder Spear, is the strongest magical attack wielded by any Magician class. However, it is a relatively slow skill. Ice/Lightning Mages also get Ice Strike, a multi-target attack that does damage and freezes enemies, making skills like Slow and Seal quite useless. Similarly to Fire/Poison Mages, they also receive the Magic Composition skill which does Ice and Lightning based damage, again with a chance to freeze the enemy. They also get Seal, Partial Resistance, Magic Booster and Element Amplification. Seal isn't as useful to Ice/Lightning Mages because of their ability to freeze enemies, making them unable to use skills anyway.
 * Ice/Lightning Mage

 (Only available in Korean, Japenese, And Recently Taiwan MapleStory 4th Job Advancement - Available Skills:
 * Ice/Lightning Arch Mage
 * Note: All MP costs and spell power without calculating Element Amplification
 * Maple Hero (All Classes)- Increase 10% of all stats at max for 600 seconds.
 * Hero's Will (All Classes)- A probability of escaping from certain status effects. Cool-down time: 10 minutes
 * Mana Reflection (All Magicians)- At max has 60% chance of reflecting 200% of the magic attack that hit you. Cannot reflect above 200% of enemy's max hp.
 * Quatum Explosion (all magicians)- 450 (max) magic attack with 80% mastery. Must charge.
 * Infinite Mana (all magicians)- 40 seconds without using mp, cooldown of 10 minutes
 * Ifrit - Summons fire monster with 300 magic attack that can hit up to 3 enemies for 160 seconds at max.
 * Ice Demon- At maxed, magic attack of 100 60% mastery that pierces through 6 enemies and continues to damage enemies for 15 seconds. Enemies are weak against fire during the freezing. It also freezes non-ice monsters for 3 seconds.
 * Blizzard- Uses 3500 mp at when skill is max; damages 15 monsters with 570 magic attack power.
 * Chain Lightning- Character emits lightning from the tip of wand/staff and the lightning travels to a nearby opponent. Once the lightning reaches opponent, it will travel to the next nearby opponent. 180 magic attack power with 60% mastery. Power reduce by half as hits through monsters.

Cleric
Clerics are designed to be support characters that heal and cast beneficial spells on party members. Their trademark skill, Heal, spends MP to increase the HP of the caster and up to 5 other party members within the range of the spell. However, Heal can also be used to damage up to 5 nearby undead monsters. Combined, these effects make Clerics essentially invincible while training. Unfortunately for Clerics, there aren't many undead monsters, and popular training spots are often crowded. A second attack skill Clerics receive is Holy Arrow, which does holy elemental damage. Clerics also receive support skills called Bless, and Invincible. Bless increases the magic and weapon defense, accuracy, and avoidability of everyone in the party; Invincible reduces a percentage of the damage taken by Cleric. As the Wizards, Clerics also receive Teleport and MP Eater. Like Ice/Lightning Wizards, Heal combined with the skill MP Eater, has a very high chance of stealing MP due to hitting up to 5 enemies. In the third job advancement for Clerics, they become Priests. Once again, they have more party-type skills such as Holy Symbol, Dispel, and Mystic Door. Holy Symbol is extremely useful for training in parties, since all party members affected receive bonus experience. Dispel cures the party from status ailments and cancels out all the status effects of the monsters nearby. Mystic Door creates a magic portal that allows characters to travel to the nearest town, and return, very quickly. This can also be used to bring party members to the Priest. The new attacks that priests receive are Shining Ray and Summon Dragon. Shining Ray attacks multiple nearby enemies with holy elemental damage. Summon Dragon summons a small dragon which flies around and attacks nearby monsters. Although slow, it is useful for constant damage. Finally, priests also get Doom and Element Resistance. Doom changes six (non-boss) monsters into Blue Snails, reducing their attack power, movement speed and their ability to use skills. Elemental Resistance is a passive skill and provides resistance against all types of magic attacks, though the resistance amount is lower than that of the Mages.
 * Priest

(Only available in Korean MapleStory) 4th Job Advancement - Available Skills:
 * Bishop
 * Maple Hero (All Classes)- Increase 10% of all stats at max for 600 seconds.
 * Awake (All Classes)- A probability of escaping from certain status effects. Cool-down time: 10 minutes
 * Mana Reflection (All magicians)- At max has 60% chance of reflecting 200% of the magic attack that hit you. Cannot reflect above 200% of enemy's max hp.
 * Big Bang (All magicians)- 450 (max) magic attack with 80% mastery. Must charge.
 * Infinity (All magicians)- 40 seconds without using mp, cooldown of 10 minutes
 * Bahamut - Must have lv15 summon dragon (3rd job skill). At maxed, dragon lasts 160 seconds and can attack up to 3 monsters with 230 magic attack power.
 * Holy Shield- All party members will not be affected with status ailments for 40 seconds at max. Cool-down time of 120 seconds.
 * Resurrection- Revives members. Has a 30 minute cool down time.
 * Angel Ray- A upgraded version of holy arrow. 240 magic attack power with 60% mastery.
 * Genesis- Uses 3500 mp at when skill is max; damages 15 monsters with Holy damage and has 670 magic attack power.

Bowman
Bowmen are called "archers" in their first jobs and use bows and crossbows to battle enemies. Arrows are required for each attack and are stored in blue or brown quivers in the "Use" section of the inventory. There are normal arrows and the stronger, costlier bronze arrows and steel arrows from which they can choose. They are relatively weak in lower levels but become much stronger as they reach higher levels. An archer's damage is based mainly on DEX, which is where most stat points are placed, whereas STR is raised to meet equipment requirements.

Archers cannot attack monsters from a short range, so when a monster gets too close, they swing their bow or crossbow in an attempt to knock the monster away. Success rates for knocking the monster back depend on the knockback rate of the weapon, with stronger bows and crossbows having higher chances of knocking the enemy back. Archers also have the largest damage range of any class making their damage highly inconsistent.

All of an archer's skill are used to improve their damage dealing capabilities and their other weaknesses, however they have no party-support skills. A vital skill for an archer is Eye of Amazon, which increases the range of arrows. Critical Shot gives a chance of doing bonus damage with every arrow shot. Arrow Blow is an active skill that deals more damage than a regular shot, having high knockback rate. Double Shot allows the archer to fire two arrows at once, each with their own ability to do critical damage. Other skills are Blessing of Amazon, a passive skill that increases Accuracy, and Focus, an active skill which temporarily increases accuracy and avoidability.

After the second job advancement, made at level 30, an archer can choose to become either a "Hunter" or a "Crossbowman". Reaching level 70, Hunters can advance as "Rangers", while Crossbowmen can advance as "Snipers".

Hunter
Hunters use bows and arrows for their usual weapons. Bows are faster but weaker than crossbows. Hunters/Rangers tend to be far more common than Crossbowmen/Snipers.

Hunter skills include Bow Mastery, Power Knockback, Arrow Bomb, Bow Booster, Final Attack: Bow, and Soul Arrow. Bow Mastery raises the minimum damage and accuracy of hunters. Power Knockback lets a Hunter swing their bow to attack multiple enemies, giving a boost to their knockback rate. Arrow Bomb is a skill that will explode when the arrow contacts an enemy, damaging and possibly stunning up to six surrounding enemies as well. Bow Booster is a skill which increases the rate of fire of the bow. Final Attack allows the chance to randomly, and quickly, fire another arrow after using an attacking skill. Finally, Soul Arrow is a skill that allows a player to shoot arrows without using the ones in their inventory. However, these arrows have none of the bonus aspects of special arrows like Bronze or Steel Arrows.

Rangers gain several new abilities which help to shore up the major weaknesses of the archer class. Arrow Rain causes arrows to rain down around the archer hitting nearby enemies, which effectively eliminates the archers' close-range weakness. Fire Shot is an elemental mob attack which charges arrows with fire elemental damage. Mortal Blow is a passive, close-range skill that sometimes triggers when a monster comes within bow-swinging range, and fires a powerful shot that has a small chance to instantly kill that creature. Thrust provides a passive speed boost. Puppet draws aggro from damaged monsters to itself. Silver Hawk summons a bird that flies around the player and attacks the monster nearest to the player, with a high chance of stunning enemies, though it also requires the Ranger to use a Summoning Rock. Finally, archers gain the skill Strafe, which fires four arrows simultaneously, each with the chance of a critical hit, and is the only skill that can do 800% of the character's base damage without using other active skills (counting that a. the skill is maxed and b. all the hits are critical.).
 * Ranger

(Only available in Korean MapleStory) 4th Job Advancement- Available Skills:
 * Bow Master
 * Maple Hero (All classes)- increases all stats by 10% for 600 seconds.
 * Hero's Will (All classes)- a probability of escaping from certain status effects. Cool-down time: 10 minutes
 * Sharp Eyes (All Bowmen)- at max, gives everyone in party 15% chance of performing a critical attack that does 40% more damage for 300 seconds. Unlike normal critical, it does a multiplication instead of adding 40% more damage.
 * Dragon Pulse (All Bowmen)- at max, 100% attack power (if not charged. Attack will increase if charged) with 100% knock back to a far distance and will go through 6 monsters. With minimum range. 100% knock back even at level 1, though only 4 monsters.
 * Advanced Bow Mastery- upon maxing, gives 90% mastery with +10 attack power (yes, it is passive). Must have Bow Mastery (2nd job) maxed.
 * Phoenix (Summon)-You must have silver hawk at least lv15. For 200 seconds,the hawk will attack up to 4 enemies with the base power of 550 at level 1 and with fire attribute. Does not stun. Does not critical.
 * Hamstring- at max, has 60% chance of decreasing 5 enemies' speed by 60 for 180 seconds.
 * Hurricane- A Bow Master exclusive skill that costs 9 MP per arrow, and each arrow does 100% damage. Once button assigned is held down, it can continuously fire arrows like a machine gun until button is released.(Do not underestimate this skill it can shoot abount 7-9 arrows per second,which makes it faster than night lords triple throw with shadow partner which shooting time ,hitting time and cooldown time takes abount 1.8 seconds
 * Concentrate- For a brief time, you can raise your attack and lessen your MP consumption. At max it raises weapon attack by 26, mana consumption becomes 50%, and it lasts 180 seconds. However, it has a cool down time of 3 minutes.

Crossbowman
Crossbowmen use crossbows and crossbow arrows, which are thicker than primary arrows and appear in a blue quiver. Crossbows are stronger but slower than bows. Their second job skills are mostly the same as Hunters, except that instead of Arrow Bomb they get Iron Arrow, a skill that causes an arrow to go through up to six monsters in a row. Iron Arrow does more damage than Arrow Bomb, and while it doesn't stun, it can knockback the monsters. Also, Iron Arrow does not divert to attack the enemy (such as a monster that is on a different platform).

For the most part, Snipers have the same skills as Rangers. They receive Arrow Eruption and Golden Eagle rather than Arrow Rain and Silver Hawk, although the difference is purely cosmetic; Eruption is pink while Rain is blue, and shoots up from the ground rather than falling from above. The prominent difference between the Sniper and Ranger class is that Sniper gets Ice Shot over Ranger's Fire Shot, which can damage up to six close enemies as well as freezes them solid, however, it does 10% less damage than Fire Shot and it does not trigger critical hits.
 * Sniper

(Only available in Korean MapleStory) 4th Job Advancement - Available Skills:
 * Crossbow Master
 * Maple Hero (All classes)- increases all stats by 10% for 600 seconds.
 * Hero's Will (All classes)- a probability of escaping from certain status effects. Cool-down time: 10 minutes
 * Sharp Eyes (All Bowmen)- at max, gives everyone in party 15% chance of performing a critcal attack that does 40% more damage for 300 seconds. It multiplies your damage instead of adding additional damage. For instance, a Bow Master using Strafe could hit up to 13k per arrow, but only 3000~5000 for non critical.
 * Dragon Pulse (All Bowmen)- at max, 100% attack power (if not charged. Attack will increase if charged) with 100% knock back and will go through 6 monsters. Even at level 1, has 100% knock back but only for 4 monsters.
 * Advanced Crossbow Mastery- upon maxing, gives 90% mastery with +10 attack power (yes, it is passive). Must have CrossBow Mastery (2nd job) maxed.
 * Freezer (Summon)-Level 15 Golden Eagle required. For 200 seconds, Freezer will attack up to 4 enimies with 500 base power with ice powers. Has been given the freeze effect but will not critical.
 * Snipe - Snipe a target with a killing shot.(which means it is able to kill an enemy in a hit regardless of its hp(does not work on bosses) Cooldown time : 15 seconds,also, when it is used on bosses it does 100k dmg. Note: It will always be a critical.
 * Blind - puts enemy into darkness any time you damage them whether it be smashing them with your cross bow, using strafe, or your Freezer attacks at 40% success rate.
 * Piercing - 850% damage that will go through up to 6 enemies. Takes 2 seconds to charge. Skill will release once hit. Comparable to the Crossbowman's Iron Arrow, although instead of losing power as it passes through monsters, Pierce grows stronger.

Thief
Thieves in their first job are called rogues. To become a thief one must be level 10 and have at least 25 DEX. From there, thieves can choose to use either a claw with throwing stars, or daggers. A thief's damage is mainly dependent on LUK, with equipment requiring DEX. Some daggers require STR to be equipped. After the second job advancement, thieves are the fastest characters in the game.

Throwing star thieves require a claw equipment and throwing stars, which are stored in the "Use" inventory page. Higher level claws can increase the thief's damage, as can stronger throwing stars. Like arrows, throwing stars are used up with every attack. However, rather than buying a new set of arrows each time they run out, a set of throwing stars can be recharged at any potion shop. Throwing star names are derived from the Korean days. For example, Subi throwing stars are named after Wednesday in Korean (Suyoil [Suu-yoh-eel]). It requires both hands for claw thief to throw stars, so they are unable to wear a shield. Similarly to Bowmen, claw thieves convert to a weak melee attack when monsters get too close. Dagger thieves use daggers to perform melee attacks. There are two types of daggers: STR and LUK daggers. STR daggers tend to be faster at lower levels and require some points to be placed in STR. The dagger only requires one hand so they are able to carry a shield. This also allows bandits to have a higher defense than assassins.

Thief skills include Double Stab, Lucky Seven, Keen Eyes, Dark Sight, Disorder, and Nimble Body. Double stab is an active skill that allows the dagger wielding thief to hit twice rather than once, with higher damage than a normal hit. Lucky Seven is a similar skill for claw thieves. Claw thieves also need to raise keen eyes which increases their attack range. Dark sight allows a thief to dodge all weapon attacks and walk through monsters without being hit, though it cannot stop magical attacks. Disorder, is a melee skill that reduces an enemies attack and defence. Finally nimble body increases the accuracy and avoidability.

Assassin
Once a Rogue reaches Level 30, they can become an Assassin. Assassins receive the skills Claw Mastery, Critical Throw, Endure, Drain, Haste and Claw Booster. Claw Mastery increases the minimum damage done to a significant percentage of the maximum possible and increases the maximum amount of stars per stack. Critical Throw gives a chance of doing bonus damage with every star thrown. A thief's Endure skill is different from a warrior's endure skill since it increases HP and MP regeneration, and allows regeneration while hanging onto a rope. Drain is an active skill that absorbs some of the damage done by the attack and adds it back to the player's health. Haste is a skill that temporarily increases walking speed and jumping abilities of everyone in the party. Like the other booster skills, claw booster raises the assassin's attack speed.

Hermits, like Assassins, are fast and evasive. They have several support skills, including Alchemist, in which potions are used with increased efficiency; Meso Up, which temporarily causes monsters killed by party members to drop more money than usual; Flash Jump, which enables the character to do another jump whilst in mid-air after normal jump; and Shadow Web, which holds nearby enemies still. They also have several attacking skills, such as Avenger, which attacks up to 6 enemies in a single line by throwing a large star, and Shadow Meso, in which mesos are used rather than throwing stars. Their most frequently-used skill, Copycat - A.K.A. Shadow Partner -, creates a double of the caster which mimics every attack. The shadow's damage is slightly lower when performing a normal attack, but significantly lower for a skill attack.
 * Hermit

(Only available in Korean MapleStory) 4th Job Advancement - Available Skills:
 * Night Lord
 * Maple Hero (all class)- adds 10% to all stats for 600 seconds.
 * Hero's Will (all class)- a probability of escaping from certain status effects. Cool-down time: 10 minutes
 * Showdown (all thieves)- for a certain amount of time, exp rate, drop rate, and monster's defense power will increase by 40%. Works only for 1 monster at a time.
 * Fake (all thieves)- 30% chance of totally evading monster's attack (passive). A block of wood will appear when this skill is activated and character will automatically smile.
 * Venom (all thieves)- All attacks will have a 30% chance of putting the monster in a state of poison for 4 seconds. Also increases your magic attack by 60.
 * Ninja Ambush (all thieves)- summons fellow ninja and attacks with 125% attack power for 12 seconds to any monsters within 150 range.

(max 15 monsters) •Ninja's Dance-a meelee attack that either knocksback monsters or sucks them in.
 * Spirit Javelin - sacrifices 200 stars to have unlimited stars for 120 seconds. Similar to an Archer's Soul Arrow, Spirit Javelin will "create" an imaginary slot of stars to draw from, with the Weapon Attack of the active throwing stars at time of casting..
 * Triple Throw - throws three stars with 150% damage each.

Bandit
At level 30, rogues can choose to take the class of bandit. Rather than throwing stars, the bandit uses daggers to fight. The main offensive Bandit ability is Savage Blow, which hits up to 6 times with a dagger. Haste, another Bandit(/Assassin) skill, increases jumping and speed abilities temporarily. Bandits that use stars to train in the earlier 2nd job levels are commonly referred to as Sindits/Banditsins.

Chief Bandit is the Job Advancement at level 70 for Bandits. A Chief Bandit's most devastating attack is Meso Explosion, where massive damage is dealt depending on the amount of meso you drop. They also have a skill called assualter which is similar to a "quick draw", teleporting you to or past the enemy dealing damage. Other Chief Bandit skills include Pickpocket, Meso Explosion, Assaulter, Shield Mastery, Chakra, Band Of Thieves, and Meso Guard.
 * Chief Bandit

(Only available in Korean MapleStory) 4th Job Advancement - Available Skills:
 * Shadower
 * Maple Hero (all class)- increases all stats by 10% for 600 seconds.
 * Hero's Will (all class)- a probability of escaping from certain status effects. Cool-down time: 10 minutes
 * Showdown (all thieves)- for a certain amount of time, exp rate, drop rate, and monster's defense power will increase by 40%. Works only for 1 monster at a time.
 * Fake (Bandit version)- 40% chance of totally evading monster's attack (passive). A block of wood will appear when this skill is activated and character will automatically smile.
 * Venom (all thieves)- at max, all attacks will have a 30% chance of putting the monster in a state of poison for 4 seconds. Also, it somehow increases your magic attack by 60. This is a passive skill.
 * Ninja Ambush (all thieves)- summons ninja warriors and attacks with 100% attack power for 12 seconds any monsters within 150 range.
 * Assassinate- Must be in dark sight upon activation. Attack increases as the length of time spent under dark sight increases. Attacks 3 times, but a 4th attack is triggered with a certain success rate. At max, has a base damage of 120% with a 90% chance of unleashing the 4th attack with 250% damage. Only increases the damage after entering dark sight. Damage will not further increase after going into dark sight for more than 18 seconds.
 * Smoke Bomb- for 60 seconds, all party members cannot be damaged within a range of 200. Cannot use for 10 minutes upon activation.
 * Boomerang Step- attacks up to 6 monsters twice with 500% damage each.