MapleStory/Demon Avenger




 * Race: Resistance
 * Class: Warrior
 * Maximum level: 250
 * Primary Stat: HP
 * Weapons: Desperados (Primary), Force Shields (Secondary)

Demon Avenger is a branch off the Demon Slayer class and was released in the Unlimited update

Demon Avengers use Desperados as their primary weapon, unlike Demon Slayers which utilize one handed blunt weapons and one handed axes. They also use Force Shields as their secondary weapon, but do not have Demon Fury. Instead, Demon Avengers use HP as their main stat.

Demon starts in the Temple of Time, at the past. He was a general, supporting and staying loyal to the Black Mage. But one day in a conference, the generals discuss attacking all of Leafre, including the southern part of Leafre, the place where Demon's family resided, and where the Black Mage promised he would not invade. Demon quickly leaves the conference and heads to Leafre, only to see the area obliterated, and his family murdered. Being betrayed by his own allies, Demon, enraged, decides to confront the Black Mage. After meeting Mastema (loyal to Demon Slayer), and Arkarium (another general), Demon battles the Black Mage, only to be sealed in an egg. Many years later, Demon "hatches" from the egg, only to see that the Black Wing has utilized a mechanism to drain the power of the egg, thus lowering the Demon Slayer's level to 10. After slaying the two Black Wing members in his proximity, he faints, where Agent J (of the Resistance) takes the Demon to the Resistance Base. Starting from here, you can become either a Demon Slayer or a Demon Avenger.

First job advancement
You start off at level 10 right after the tutorial cutscenes. After talking with members of the Resistance, you go back into the room where you were resting at and you will be given the option to choose the path of a Demon Slayer or a Demon Avenger.

Explaining Exceed: Exceed is a mechanic that is unique to the Demon Avenger. At every job advancement, the Demon Avenger receives one main attacking skill that has Exceed. It is essentially an improvement to that skill after using it a number of times, usually an increase in damage, casting speed and range of the skill. A skill not under Exceed will be bluish in color, and after activating Exceed it changes to purple.

After casting a skill that has Exceed, you gain a buff for that skill. This buff will be refreshed by attacking again with the SAME Exceed skill, and maintaining that buff for five attacks will bring you into Exceed. The buff will disappear after about 10 seconds from when the Demon Avenger stops attacking. Using another Exceed skill will cancel the previous Exceed skill's buff, therefore only enabling the Demon to attack with one Exceed skill at a time.

Another buff you gain while using an Exceed skill is an Exceed Overload debuff. Every time the Demon Avenger attacks with an Exceed skill, he gains a stack of Exceed Overload, maxing out at 20. The higher the stack, the lower the power of Life Sap. In other words, having a high Exceed Overload count makes you drain your HP more than you can gain back. This is why the Demon Avenger has Overload Release, to reset the Exceed Overload count back to zero and increase your max HP for a duration as well as replenish your HP at the same time. However, you also lose the Exceed buff for whichever Exceed skill you were using and will have to charge up again to bring that skill into Exceed.

You start off with 4 basic skills - Double Slash (Exceed), Overload Release, Life Sap and Demonic Veracity. Double Slash is your main (and only) attacking skill with Exceed, Overload Release is for resetting your Exceed Overload Count, Life Sap for regenerating HP with each attack and Demon Veracity to improve your mobility. Remember - the effectiveness of Life Sap decreases as your Exceed Overload stacks go up, so don't forget to release it from time to time!

Second job advancement
After reaching level 30, you receive a quest detailing about a monster sighted in Edelstein. You investigate and find a purple cat in the park, which you will then fight. Upon defeating the cat, you realize that it is Mastema, your loyal follower. Both of you return to the Secret Plaza, with disguising Mastema as your pet and soon after he/she advances you to second job.

Like all other classes, you gain plenty of boosts in your second job - passive stat increases, defense increases, and mastery for your weapon. You gain two buffs - Abyssal Connection (increases your attack) and Battle Pact (boosts your attack speed), as well as two new attacking skills - Demon Strike (Exceed) and Bat Swarm.

Demon Strike is a skill that rushes you forward while slashing enemies. It is a great mobility skill, and under Exceed it becomes faster and dashes a longer distance. Bat Swarm summons a swarm of bats that travel in the direction of casting and will disappear after dealing 40 hits or after 10 seconds are up, whichever comes first. Bat Swarm does not have Exceed, meaning that it is not affected by the Life Sap penalty from Exceed Overload. Therefore, having it on the field whenever possible can really help in keeping your HP count high! You can change the direction of the Bat Swarm by pressing the same hotkey used to cast it. With practice, you can maintain Bat Swarm in a bunch of enemies to constantly replenish your HP.

Third job advancement
Upon reaching level 60, you will receive a quest to fight Mastema in human form. Defeating him/her will allow you to complete your third job advancement. You gain three new attacking skills - Lunar Slash (Exceed), Shield Charge and Vitality Veil, along with other useful passives and buffs to complement your wrath.

Lunar Slash is a 360 degree circular slash that increases in range under Exceed. Shield Charge is a rushing skill that knock-backs all the monsters you push into, finishing off with a flurry of spikes from the shield that stuns them at a chance - use this to group up monsters and take them out with Lunar Slash! Vitality Veil is a channeling skill which requires you to hold down the hotkey you assign it to. It is an awesome skill that deals damage and absorbs HP from the monsters within the range, and it heals back plenty of HP. It has a cooldown that decreases as the skill level goes up, so use it sparingly whenever your HP is dangerously low and you don't have Overload Release ready.

You receive two passives - Pain Dampener and Advanced Life Sap. Pain Dampener essentially reduces the Life Sap absorption penalty from Exceed Overload while increasing the damage of your skills under Exceed, and Advanced Life Sap increases the HP absorption from Life Sap. These skills complement each other greatly and prevents the Demon from losing HP too quickly.

You also gain two buffs - Diabolic Recovery and Ward Evil. Diabolic Recovery regenerates a percentage of your HP at fixed intervals, further reducing the penalty of maintaining Exceed, as well as increasing your max HP. Since Demon Avenger's damage is based on HP, this skill can also be considered a damage buff! Ward Evil reduces the damage done to you and increases your resistance to elemental damage and status conditions (you will see the word "Resist!" pop up on top of your Demon), such as darkness, seal, weakness and seduce. This greatly improves the defensive capabilities of the Demon Avenger.

Fourth job advancement
Reaching level 100 will allow you to proceed with your fourth job advancement. When Mastema asks if you are okay, you need to select "No" to proceed with the quest. You will then fight with your inner rage at the destroyed house where you found your pendant. After defeating your inner rage, you will complete the advancement. Like all fourth job characters, the Demon Avenger will also receive Maple Warrior, but with an additional +15% HP increase as a passive effect when maxed (since the stat increase does not do anything for a Demon Avenger).

You gain four new attacking skills - Execution (Exceed), Nether Shield, Nether Slice, and Blood Prison. Execution is the bread and butter skill for the Demon Avenger from this point onward, with great frontal range and an additional defense ignore as a passive effect of the skill. Nether Shield summons two shields that fly around the map and randomly targets monsters to attack. They may or may not change targets after every hit, and will disappear after six hits. Nether Shield can be utilized in the same way as Bat Swarm - by constantly having it out on the field, you can maintain a healthy HP count. However, Nether Shield has a cooldown of 6 seconds, so it is not possible to continually cast it. Nether Slice is more of a debuff, as it reduces the defence of monsters that are hit by this skill. Blood Prison is a long cooldown skill that traps and stuns enemies in an area, and it works on certain bosses (Zakum is an example)! Use this to your advantage.

You gain three passives - Advanced Desperado Mastery further improves your mastery of the Desperado, Infernal Exceed gives final attack for Exceed skills after entering Exceed, and Defense Expertise that allows you to ignore a certain percentage of the monsters' defense, while improving the ignore damage percentage and damage of your shield-related skills (Shield Charge and Nether Shield).

Hyper Skills
Like other classes, you gain active Hyper skills at levels 150, 170 and 200.

150: Forbidden Contract - This skill increases your max HP and reduces the HP consumption of your skills to ZERO. This means you are casting skills at a free cost under the buff, which means you will be getting health back with every hit. It has a cooldown of 90s, so use it wisely.

170: Thousand Swords - A new attacking skill with a relatively short cooldown of 8s. It has great area of effect, decent damage, and a cool animation to top it off.

200: For Liberty - This buff increases your damage and maximum damage cap for you and all resistance members in your party. To put it in simple words, just a damage buff.

You also gain a few passive Hyper skills that focus on three aspects - Ward Evil, Nether Shield and the Exceed effects of your skills. You have three different options to improve for each aspect. For Ward Evil, you may further reduce incoming damage, further increase your elemental resistance or further increase your resistance to status conditions. For Nether Shield, you can increase its damage, its range, or its hit count. For Exceed, you can increase the chance of producing a final attack, reducing the cap for Exceed Overload or increase the damage of your skills under Exceed. Out of the nine options, you can only have five of them, so choose wisely!