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{{MapleStory/Jobs}}
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Most Explorer characters begin the game as ''Beginners'' in Maple Island. 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 5 choices: the ''Warrior'', ''Bowman'', ''Thief'', ''Magician'' or ''Pirate''. 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. It should be noted that you may be over the level to make the job advancement, but this is not recommended, especially if you are a magician or a warrior, as you will lose HP or MP, depending on your class. 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. However, for Explorers, once you reach level 101, you can change to another job in the same branch (e.g., if you are a Corsair, you can change your job to a Cannon Master or a Buccaneer, and your DEX will automatically convert to STR).

Only characters levels 30 and upward are allowed to gain more power by performing a job change. 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 is used to launch 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 pole arms, or a ''Fighter'' who uses swords or axes. Pirates may choose between ''Brawlers'' or ''Gunslingers''. 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 60, characters can once again change their job by talking to their respective 3rd job instructors at the Mystics Hut in [[MapleStory/Towns/El Nath|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 ''Berserkers'', and Fighters become ''Crusaders''. Pirates who became Brawlers become ''Marauders'', Gunslingers become ''Outlaws''.

At level 100, the character can again change classes and become even more powerful with their fourth job advancement. The Hermits become ''Night Lords'', Chief Bandit become ''Shadowers'', Rangers become ''Bow Masters'', Snipers become ''Marksmen'', Priests become ''Bishops'', Mages comes ''Arch Mages'', Crusaders become ''Heroes'', Knights become ''Paladins'', Berserkers become ''Dark Knights'', Marauders become ''Buccaneers'', and Outlaws become ''Corsairs''.  Players are granted 4th job status after they have retrieved 2 items for their respective 4th job instructors that are located in [[MapleStory/Towns/Leafre|Leafre]].

Other characters begin the game depending on their job. A Dual Blade starts out at the Secret Garden. A Cannoneer starts out at Coco Island, and then reaches the Nautilus. Mihile, after the intro, and all Cygnus Knights start from Ereve. Aran starts from Rien, Evan starts from Nautilus and Henesys respectively, Mercedes starts from the past in Elluel, Phantom starts from his ship, Lumiere, and Luminous starts off at past Temple of Time, and eventually reaches Lania's house in Ellinia. All Resistance characters, except Demon Avenger/Slayer, which starts from the past in Temple of Time, start in Edelstein. Both Nova characters, Kaiser and Angelic Buster, start in Pantheon.

At level 140, all characters receive Hyper Skills, skills to enhance their current skills. This of course needs a pre-requisite level required. At higher levels, more Hyper Skills can be obtained until Level 200. The recent patches increased the highest level that can be achieved : Level 250.

All characters have about the same job advancement level, except Dual Blade and Evan. Cygnus Knights used to have a maximum level of 120 only, but in recent patches, the maximum level is 250 for Thunder Breakers, Wind Archers, and Dawn Warriors. There is also another branch of characters named Ultimate Explorers, using Level 120 Cygnus Knights as a base, but as of these recent patches, this branch cannot be created anymore.

==Job Descriptions==
===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 Archer 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 avoidability, thus making it harder to get decent damage. Usually, when your accuracy and level isn't enough to match the level and avoidability of the monster, you either 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 Spearmen, Pages, or Fighters at level 30.

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

People usually decide to become warriors due to their large damage to opponents at around level 50 and onwards. However, there are some social issues to warriors. For example, in "Kerning City PQ" for levels 21-30, warriors are looked at as being weak, and are usually not recruited into the party quest. Yet, however, Spearmen are usually chosen at around level 40+ for "Ludibrium PQ," for their ability to "Hyper Body," which temporarily increases HP and MP for a whole party. Pages are looked at as a minority. They do not possess the raw power, in the case of Fighters, or the special skills, in the case of Spearmen, required to be a powerful character. This is why people choose not to become a page. Their only advantage are the powerful skills at around the third job advancement, but many Pages do not make it this far.

There is also another band of Warriors, called "HP Warriors." These warriors, usually, only increase their Hit Points, and not their Strength, or Dexterity. This means that they have around 10,000 HP at level 30 and hence the job advancement. However, getting to level 30 can be very monotonous, due to the high lack of Strength and Dexterity. Now, you may think to yourself, "Why would anyone want to do this?" HP Warriors, if they become Spearmen, or Fighters, possess a new skill called "Power Guard." This means that up to around 30% of damage dealt to the warriors is returned to the monster that dealt it. This is a huge advantage, due to the large amount of HP, meaning that low leveled HP warriors, at around level 40, can take on monsters that are about level 70 to 120. However, HP Warriors take far longer than any other job advancement to train and become strong, and that is why most people choose not to take this route. Demon Avenger is this type of Warrior, where he/she only uses HP in his/her skills.

Aran is Warrior Hero, while Demon Avenger/Slayer is a Warrior Resistance, and Dawn Warrior is a Cygnus Knights Warrior. Mihile is also a Cygnus Knights Warrior Instructor, while Kaiser is a Nova Warrior.

===Bowman===
Bowmen are the antithesis 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 second lowest weapon-defensive equipments of all the classes, whereby the lowest would be Mages, (Though they have very high magic defense.) 

Bowmen have the most unstable damage in the game until they learn Bow/Crossbow Mastery (which will raise their minimum damage) in their second job advancements. However, in the 4th job, the stability improves somewhat when they get advanced mastery, but it goes back to being even more unstable once they activate the buff sharp eyes.  

The Bowmen's greatest weaknesses are its lack of mobility and low HP (same as Thieves on average). Archers have long range, 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 counterpart, 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 luck based thieves as the LUK stat adds more avoid.

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 special 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. Arrows are not that pricey though, it's 1 meso per 1 arrow or 1.400 meso per 2.000 arrows. Alternatively, Vicious at Henesys market can forge 1.000 arrows for 1 stiff feather and 1 processed wood.

Bowmen have the highest accuracy in the game, because they add DEX for their attack and it is the stat used to determine accuracy. LUK also adds a small amount of accuracy, so Assassins get less accuracy. This means a Bowman could hit monsters much higher leveled than them before other classes can hit it. Because of this ability, Bowmen 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. It is unfortunate that there is no benefit to having more accuracy than you need to hit the monster 100% of the time.

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 monsters) 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.

Mercedes is a Bowman Hero, while Wind Archer is a Cygnus Knights Bowman. Wild Hunter is a Resistance Bowman.

===Thief===
A Thief is basically a fast Warrior and a fast Bowman 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 (same as the Bowmen) 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 Assaulter. But, Boomerang Step attacks up to multiple monsters, and it's a double Assaulter, 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. 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 possesses.
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 difficulties, 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 and 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 a Hermit's Lucky Seven and a BowMaster's Hurricane (also known as Storm of Arrows) is faster than Night Lord's Triple Throw (tested and confirmed), though a BowMaster'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. 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. So assassins naturally have fewer slots for their 'use' inventory, thus limiting their 'use' space. A second weakness of the Assassin is that they do not carry the Power 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 damage 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.

Dual Blade is a new branch of Explorer, Night Walker is a Cygnus Knights Thief, and Phantom is a Thief Hero.

===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 their equipment than those of 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 level 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.

Evan and Luminous are  Magician Heroes, Blaze Wizard is a Cygnus Knights Magician, while Battle Mage is a Resistance Magician. 

===Pirate===
Pirates are an expansion job which many versions have. To make the Job Advancement as Pirate, a player needs at least 20 DEX and must be level 10. It is similar to a cross between a warrior and an archer; it needs STR and DEX, just like those two classes. In 2nd job you get to decide if you want to be a Brawler that uses knuckles (short-ranged) or a Gunslinger that uses guns and bullets. Just like assassins the bullets have to be recharged when they run out.

Cannoneer is a new branch of Explorer, Thunder Breaker is a Cygnus Knights Pirate while Mechanic is a Resistance Pirate. Angelic Buster is a Nova Pirate.

===Others===
There is a hybrid job among all characters. Xenon is a hybrid job that mixes Pirate with Thief. Therefore, he can be considered as a Pirate and a Thief. He uses three main stats : STR, DEX and LUK, which Pirates and Thiefs use.

==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 reflect your damage. Most jobs require the player to raise one stat only. 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.

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 [http://global.hidden-street.net/general/damagecalc.php 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 a 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 5 (1st Job) or 4 (2nd Job onwards) Skill Points (SP)  and every level up when not a Beginner will give 3 SP. All the SP for a level range must be used before the next job advancement. (i.e. Level 10-30 SP must be used before 2nd job, 30-60 SP before 3rd job, etc.) 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.

==Beginner==
Most 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 [[MapleStory/Towns#Victoria Island|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.

[[Image:MS Skill Three Snails.png|frame|right|Beginner's Skill Three Snails.]]
On May 2006, KoreaMS and GlobalMS (MapleSEA released them in September 2006) introduced 3 new skills for Beginners<ref>[http://maplestory.nexon.com/WebModules/BBS/Board.aspx?mode=view&bbsidx=3255&uid=828&cat=0&reqpage=1&type=1 KoreaMS site] ''Beginners new skills announcement''</ref>.  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 that cannot be equipped, named "Legendary Spirit." The second skill allows the player to ride a captured monster.

;Super-Beginner
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.

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, certain versions of MapleStory have released very powerful weapons for use exclusively 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.

==References==
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==External links==
*[http://www.hidden-street.net Hidden Street] - In-depth character skill information.
*[http://www.happymapling.net Happy Mapling] - Organized MapleStory job information.
*[http://sauna.gibbed.us/ Sauna] - Library of skills for all classes, as well as Game Masters.
*[http://www.sleepywood.net/forum/showthread.php?t=1125384 Sleepywood Forum] - Organized 4th job skills description with pictures.
*[http://www.maple-aria.com/ Maple Aria] - Japanese MS info site.