MapleStory/Thief/Skills

Bandits

 * Dagger Mastery: Increase mastery and accuracy when using a dagger, max at level 20. Accuracy is easy to understand, but mastery? Well, basically, your minimum damage will be higher with enchanced mastery. Put this at level 19, as the last SP doesn't increase mastery (which is what makes this skill essential), but only one point in Accuracy (rather useless)
 * Endure: Allows you to recover on ropes, and increase HP and MP recovery rate. A semi-useless skill that's saved by the fact that you have enough SP anyway, you will be able to max it at higher levels. But at lower levels... just leave it alone for now.
 * Dagger Booster: Increase dagger speed. Since Daggers are already quite fast, with booster you will be attacking at a rate of "omgwtfhaxx0r". However, more SP doesn't improve attacking speed, but cuts down the cost and make the skill endure longer. Put 5 points in in at lower levels, then max it later.
 * Haste: The skill description says it raise your speed and jumping ability, but it should say it makes you move like Superman. As an added benefit, it works on all party members, allowing everyone you want to be an unholy speedster. After your attack skills, this should be the first support skill to max.
 * Steal: Allows you to, well, you know, steal stuff. It has a low chance of success, even at high mastery levels, but it essentially gives you an extra chance at an item drop if it succeeds. It can be nice to have in some situations, but is generally a low-priority skill.
 * Savage Blow: The mark of being a Bandit rather than a dagger-thief. Not only is it an extremely cool skill visually, it racks 480% damage in one blow! (80% per hit, 6 hits). After mastery and 5 points in booster, this skill is a must-max.

Assasins

 * Javelin mastery: Increase mastery and accuracy with a claw in hand, and increase the amount of stars you can hold. Accuracy is easy to understand, but mastery? Well, basically, your minimum damage will be higher with enchanced mastery. However, since your main attack skill, Lukcy Seven, ignores mastery totally, you won't have need for this skill early on. Still, max it eventually for the storage bonus, and the fact that Drain requires Mastery to do good damage (and therefore yielding higher HP returns)
 * Critical throw: Allows your attacks to do criticals occasionally when attacking with stars. This is a must-max, as it enchances your damage by a huge leap. Basically, once you get 5 booster, max it immediately.
 * Endure: Allows you to recover HP on ropes, and increase HP and MP recovery rate. The usefulness of this skill will be discussed in detail later.
 * Javelin Booster: Increase your attacking speed with a claw in hand. This, combined with Meba (the fastest claw), you will be attacking at an unholy speed. Get 5 point in this ASAP. As for whether to max it or not... It will be discussed in detail later, along with Endure.
 * Haste: The skill description says it raise your speed and jumping ability, but it should say it makes you move like Superman. As an added benefit, it works on all party members, allowing everyone you want to be an unholy speedster. After Critical Throw, this should be the first support skill to max.
 * Drain: It allows you to heal yourself. That's basically what makes Assassins so darn powerful. However, a secondary, lesser-known use for this skill is that it allows you to sacrifice HP pots, so you can bring more throwing stars in the now empty slots. Note that unlike in Final Fantasy series, it doesn't invert damage versus undeads. Go figure.

Endure or Booster?
Now, most people will think Booster is better than Endure. But is it really so?

Mathematically, more Endure will save you more money on MP Pots, albeit on a pretty slight scale. First of all, let's remember that Booster's effectiveness is not affected by the skill level, which affects the HP/MP cost and duration only. HP cost is a non-issue with Drain, so let's focus on the MP Cost.


 * Level 3 Endure, Level 18 Booster: Booster's duration is 180 seconds, cost 12 MP, and in 180 seconds you will recover 108 MP. The amount of MP gain per 10 seconds is 5.1 MP/10 seconds.
 * Level 10 Endure, Level 11 Booster: Booster's duration is 110 seconds, cost 19 MP, and in 110 seconds you will recover 143 MP. The amount of MP gain per 10 seconds is 11.3 MP/10 seconds.
 * Level 15 Endure, Level 6 Booster: Booster's duration is 60 seconds, cost 24 MP, and in 60 seconds you will recover 108 MP. The amount of MP gain per 10 seconds is 14 MP/10 seconds.
 * Level 16 Endure, Level 5 Booster: Booster's duration is 50 seconds, cost 25 MP, and in 50 seconds you will recover 95 MP. The amount of MP gain per 10 seconds is 14 MP/10 seconds.

As you can see from above, with more points in Endure and less points in Booster, the amount of MP you gain per 10 seconds is mathematically superior (until you have less than 5 points in Booster). However, frequent stops to do "booster" makes people nervous and feels like a waste of 'time'. Since 5 points in Booster and 16 points in Endure really has the same effectiveness as 6 points in Booster and 15 points in Endure, it is prefered to do have a max of 15 Endure so that you can keep 6 Booster.

Regardless of your choice, keep in mind you need at least 3 points in Endure to unlock Drain.

[Inserpt from HappyViet] It's all-in-all good to see this but once you think about it... Endure requires you to stay on a rope. You cannot regain that much mp while running around on the floor using booster. So unless you're willing to use booster, wait until its duration is finished, and then stand on a rope to heal that mp, this really doesn't help. So to conclude my opinion, Booster is much more worthy then Endure.


 * As far as I know, that is incorrect. Warrior Endure works that way, but thief endure allows you to heal MP as you walk around, and you don't necessarily have to be on a rope for it to activate. --Dragontamer 00:23, 7 February 2006 (UTC)