When you begin the game, you get to choose the stats that your character will begin the game with. These are STR, DEX, INT and LUK. Magician equipment, defence, and damage all depend on INT and LUK; STR and DEX are not required for anything. When creating your character, STR and DEX should be as low as possible, preferably a 4 in each, though up to dual 5 or even 6/4 is acceptable. Since INT and LUK will be raised at each level up, it doesn't matter what they are at this point, as long as STR and DEX are low. However, getting a high INT (8/9/10) would be preferable, as well as LUK. Just remember to major your AP(ability points) in INT.
<!--THIS IS NOT A TALK PAGE! Do not speak in the first person, and certainly don't sign your name at the end of your comments.-->
Detailed information about raising INT and LUK can be found on the [[../Magician Guide/Builds|Builds]] page.
;Pros:
* Can use element based attacks early (2nd job advancement).
* Very high Mana Point (often just typed as MP) level.
* When maxing mastery, additional Magic Attack is added.
* Cleric, one of the second job advancements, is the least costly and has many pro-party skills.
* Area Of Effect skills.
* An array of DOT (Damage Over Time) attacks.
Be patient at the start, It's kinda hard ;)
;Cons:
* Very low health and can die easily against most monsters without magic guard.
* Magician armors in the beginning give very low defense.
* Uses a lot of pots especially MP Pots.
* High MP consumption for [[MapleStory/Magician/Skills#Fourth Job|4th job AOE skills]] (primarily the ones that target the entire screen).
===Maple Island===
;Requirements
At the beginning, your damage will be severely limited. The best training enemy for the beginning Magician are Green and Blue Snails. Try not to use healing items now. Save them for later. If you die now, your experience stays the same. Later, during the first job, exp decreases if you die. Now since the BIG update, it will be alot easier for mages to lvl up. Luckily, the Magician's advancement level is only 8, whereas the other classes have an advancement level of 10. Also, a Hand Axe appears to be the best weapon for a Beginning Mage, since it has a higher tendency to strike for 3 damage.
* Minimum level 8.
*Have not chosen any other job.
The first few maps have an abundance of green snails. Beyond that are the two towns on Maple Island. If you wish, there are also quests on Maple Island that can be completed. One gives a helmet equip, and another gives a weapon. The second quest may require a lot of patience, as it asks for 10 orange mushroom caps (orange mushrooms have 80 hp!) as well as 30 blue snail shells. Fortunately, if you have the patience, there are safe spots you can jump and hit mushrooms without taking damage, but your hits tend to be extremely low (1). The reward for the quest is a fruit knife, which may not be very worthwhile for a beginning magician unless you want to sell it later.
==Is this the job for you?==
Magicians are ranged characters that eventually become imbued with a specific element, dealing 1.5 times the damage to monsters weak to that element. Each of the three specialized Magician jobs can get summons at the fourth job and use Area of Effect attacks (though they are slow to cast).
Once you hit level 8 and if you have at least 20 points of INT (which you should if you have read this guide so far), go to Southperry and take the ship to Lith Harbour at a cost of 150 mesos. You may also want to have at least 2200 mesos after to buy a wooden wand and to get the taxi to Ellinia.
Magicians have the highest magic defense in the game, and have the most MP, however many magician skills sap away a lot of MP. At 4th Job, Magicians can acquire elemental resistance, rendering them more resistant to element based attacks.
===Victoria Island===
On the other hand, Magicians have the lowest weapon defense and HP in the entire game, making them prone to dying without their skill Magic Guard, which diverts 85% of damage taken from monsters to MP. However, MP pots can cost twice the cost of HP pots.
First things first. By now, hopefully you should have at least 2,200 meso remaining, enough to get to the Mage town, Ellinia, and buy the first weapon that adds Magic Attack. If you have more, go to the Lith Harbour Weapon/Armour store and purchase the level 11 Common-Class top/bottom. These have more Weapon Defense than more your level 8 and 13(Male) Mage-specific equips, and no monsters apply Magic Defense to their attacks yet. The level 13(Female) Mage-specific equips have a slightly higher Weapon Defense than the level 11 Common-Class equips, but the slightly higher Weapon Defense is not worth the additional cost. Also, it may be easier for beginning mages to simply forgo clothing and invest their mesos in weapons, Red Potions, and Blue Potions.
When you are ready, either talk to the man in the ticket booth near the ship, and choose to go to Ellinia or walk to Ellinia. Walking is a good way to train, but running into high level monsters is more or less inevitable. If you walk, make sure you do not advance to level 9 before getting to Ellinia. Also, before you leave, there is an easy quest you can do in Lith Harbor. Talk to Olaf, who is near the right of the city, in the lower level. Once you've answered his questions correctly, you can choose the next quest from him. Choose path of the Magician. Once you've become a magician, you can go back and talk to Olaf again (whenever, doesn't have to be right away)and get a reward.
Mages (not Priests) gain an elemental reset skill in 3rd job that temporarily suspends elemental abilities when active. It allows magicians to attack a larger array of monsters as efficiently as other non-elemental classes.
[[Image:MS_Grendel.png|right]]
Magicians are also able to use some of the status effects magical based monsters use, such as seal, slow, poison, dispel and freeze. Priest gain unbelievable party support skills, like heal, bless, holy symbol, dispel and holy shield, and even a skill called Resurrection (which is pretty self-explanatory).
Once in Ellinia, head to the house at the VERY top of the map and go inside. Talk to Grendel. Assuming you are level 8 with at least 20 INT, advance from a Beginner to a Magician. Grendel will also increase your max MP by a large amount, and give you 1 Skill Point (SP) to use. Using that SP in magic bolt would most likely be the wisest, as it doesn't use too much MP, so you can really start fighting.
'''New patch edit (With Shell Throw)'''
In regard to Maximum and Minimum damage, Magicians deal very stable damage when mastery is maxed similar to all other classes. Mastery determines your minimum damage.
Putting a point or two as a Beginner into Shell Throw can make fighting larger monsters a bit easier as Beginner and early Magician, abeit a sacrifice of a snail shell or two. It loses its usefulness when your Magic Bolt actually hits over 25-40(the end limit of the technique), but for taking down Mushrooms FAST, it's worth the sacrifice of a pair of Red Shells.
{{-}}
Magicians can also teleport past monsters with teleport, and drain MP from monsters with MP Eater. Likewise, when Teleport Mastery is toggled it deals damage when teleporting past monsters.
Magicians start off fairly weak in the game, and start to gain power from level 8 through 35. After level 35, Magicians begin to show their powerful magic potential, with their elemental skills dealing massive damage to opposing elemental monsters (with the added boost of Meditation/Bless), and a decent damage range with non-elemental skills. Skills such as Spell Mastery, MP Eater and Meditation give the mage a boost in recovery and power, respectively, and are unbelievably helpful later on. Mages start to show their full potential from level 60, and rise through the ranks all the way beyond level 120, unleashing their fury with terrific area of effect attacks and deathly DOT skills.
Magicians are largely based on elemental abilities which in turn makes them weak in boss runs. With the implementation of elemental reset, their damage is much better on certain bosses such as Hilla and Root Abyss bosses.
==First Job: Magician==
Magicians lack the high health of Warriors, the nimbleness of Thieves, the range of Bowman and the rapidity of damage of Pirates. Magicians specialize in mastering elements, dragons and area of effect attacks, status effects, stable damage, and beautiful skills, therefore, if this is what you would like for your special Maple character, this is truly the class for you.
Welcome to the way of the Magician. For detailed information about what each skill does, refer to [[../Magician Guide/Skills|Skills]]. For detailed information about how to allocate skill and ability points, refer to [[../Magician Guide/Builds|Builds]]
1st job, low level magician training spots:
If otherwise, please turn back and choose another class, for once you choose your job, your choice is permanent.
[[Image:Aladina.PNG|frame|Magician - First job]]
The Tree that Grew 1,2 or 3 (no. 3 has green mushrooms. For all you low level magicians, WATCH OUT),
the place that people call the Slime Tree and
Henesys hunting ground (all)
However, as you are still pretty low leveled, it could be wiser to stay close to Ellinia until at least level 10.
After you reach level 20 or so, Perion (which is ironically the Warrior's town) is a relatively good place to train, since the monsters, which are mostly stumps and their variants, have low magical defense and slow, good for magicians.
;As Grendel says...
"''Would you like to have the power of nature itself in your hands? It may be a long, hard road to be on, but you'll surely be rewarded in the end, reaching the very top of wizardry...''"
;LEVEL 8-13 (2-5 hrs/lvl; Can be done under 6 hrs with party)
:'''Basic Characteristics'''
:This will be the one of the boring part of becoming a Magician. This may take awhile so patience is greatly required. Due to low weapon damage, Snail, Blue Snail and Shroom are the only monsters to accompany you to Lvl 13.
''Victoria Island''
::''Magicians put high levels of magic and intelligence to good use, they can use the power of nature all around us to kill the enemies, but they are very weak in close combats. Their stamina isn't high, either, so be careful and avoid death at all cost.''
:The Tree That Grew I [Snail] [8-13]
:''Henesys Hunting Ground I'' is excellant if you manage to have a party willing to assist.
;LEVEL 13-21 (2-5hrs/lvl)
::'' Since you can attack the monsters from afar, that'll help you quite a bit. Try boosting up the level of INT if you want to attack the enemies accurately with your magic. The higher your magic, the better you'll be able to handle your magic... ...''
:At Lvl 13 with Magic Bolt (1), Red Snail and Slime can be added into the hunting list. At Lvl 20, with Magic Claw (MAX), one can effectively handle Pig, Ribbon Pig, Orange Mushroom efficiently.
''Victoria Island''
:'''Magician Weapons'''
:The Tree That Grew I [Snail, Slime] [13-15]
:Henesys Hunting Ground I [Shroom, Blue Snail, Red Snail, Slime] [13-17]
:Henesys Hunting Ground I [Red Snail, Orange Mushroom] [17-21]
:Kerning City Construction Site [Orange Mushroom] [17-21]
:Pig Beach [Pig, Ribbon Pig] [20-23] *Beware of the lone Iron Hog
;LEVEL 21-30 (3-6 hrs/lvl)
::''Staves and wands are the main weaponry of choice. These weapons have special magical powers in them, so it enhances the magician's effectiveness. It'll be wise for you to carry a weapon with a lot of magical powers in it.''
:At Lvl 21, Party Quest is available, and as a Magician, one will be invited readily for the quest. Bubbling, Green Mushroom, Horned Mushroom, Zombie Mushroom are also viable options if one is capable of 1-hit or 2-hits KO. Bubbling drop 'Scroll for Cape INT 100%', Green Mushroom drop 'Pan Lid'.
''Victoria Island''
:'''Magicians Armors'''
:Party Quest [21-31] *Kerning City
:Subway Line 1 Area 1 [Bubbling] [24-30]
:Henesys Hunting Ground I [Green Mushroom] [24-30]
:Tree Dungeon, Forest Up North II [Green and Horned Mushroom] [24-31]
:Dungeon: Ant Tunnel I [Horned and Zombie Mushroom] [29-33]
===Second Job advance preparations===
::''Honestly, the Magicians don't have much armors to wear since they are weak in physical strength and low in stamina. Its defensive abilities isn't great either, so i don't know if it helps a lot or not.''
At this point, you're a Magician, you're at level 30, and you're currently much more powerful than the other classes. Return to Ellinia and converse with Grendel. He will give you a compliment, and then send you to the 2nd Job Advance Instructor in The Forest West of Ellinia. He'll talk to you as well, and then send you into the darkness. Inside this tree, you will find several Horned Mushrooms and Curse Eyes. Kill them. Instead of EXP and Items, they give you Dark Marbles. Collect 30 of these marbles, and then talk to the Instructor. He will give you the Proof of a Hero, and then send you back to Grendel the Really Old. Here, he will inquire as to which path you wish to take...
'''Lore note''': Grendel the Really Old once experimented with dark magic, and it was he who created the cursed dolls. The cursed dolls were later stolen by Lupins, causing some of them to become zombie Lupins. You can find this out during several Ellinia quests.
You have three roads before you, each with a myriad of puzzles and adventures that await you. The least common choice is the Fire/Poison. This does not mean that it is inferior, of course. By level 38, you'll be capable of dishing out more damage faster than any other class. Or, you could become an Ice Mage, and quickly freeze and kill your enemy. Lightning comes along with ice, and Lightning gives you the ability to kill of a pack of 6 monsters all at once (Ice/Lightning are placed in the same job, so you get both eventually as an Ice/Lightning Wizard). The third, and possibly most common choice is the Cleric. As a cleric, you do the least damage, but you eventually become (literally,) the life of the party. You'll eventually end up very wealty as a cleric. This is because Clerics can cheat the system; they can gain MP from killing monsters, and HP from their MP-consuming skill, heal. Nowhere in this process is money drained.
== Basics ==
;AP distribution
*Apply your AP to INT (Mage damage = {[{(INT + Magic Attack) * 0.8) + (Luck/4)]/18} * Spell Base Damage * 0.8).
*Keep your STR and DEX to a minimum (never apply AP to these stats).
===Holy, Fire, Ice, Poison, or Lightning?===
;First job
*The first two attacking spells you learn are magic claw and energy bolt. Your Energy Bolt must be at least level 1 to use magic claw. The first two defense skills are magic guard and magic armor, and you must have at least one skill point invested into magic guard to use magic armor.
There are several paths from which this single choice can take you. Be sure to pick the one that won't bore you to death!
==Tips==
*Magicians depend solely on magic skills to attack. Use them, as ordinary weapons and weapon attacks are useless.
*Add 1 energy bolt at level 8 (6 MP per attack). Do not add magic claw (10 MP per attack) yet. 6 MP per attack is sustainable considering how little MP you have now.
*'''Fire/Poison Wizard''': Fire Wizards (or Fizards, as they seem to be commonly known) tend to spend most of their time in Ossyria, since Fire-Friendly (Or Fire Abnegant) monsters roam the beautiful white snowbanks of El Nath and the areas encompassing it. Poison is also an option in this job, but most simply choose to stay away from it and place their SP into more useful skills, as this is phased out instantly in the Third Job Advance. Leveling with a Poison Wizard is difficult. The highest level Poison Wizard on beta only reached level 42. Fire Wizards spend most of their time sniping ice monsters from afar with their magical instruments of burning death. They tend to Teleport from monster to monster, killing from afar and near when strategically advantageous. Slow is an essential skill to them as well, as it allows Fire Arrow the time it needs to destroy mobs of, say, Jr. Yetis.
*Try to max MP Increase 1st. (add 5 MP recovery 1st ONLY) This will give you plenty of MP to utilize.(MP increase formula is 15 + (total INT * 0.1), may have slight variation as decimals aren't displayed) Slower MP recovery will be remedied in the 2nd job by MP Eater. (The MP recovery formula for mages is skill level (character level/10) +3. The final +3 stands for the basic mana recovery rate for beginners. Therefore maxing MP recovery early on before Max MP Increase '''DOES NOT''' improve your mana recovery rate. If you sit on a Relaxer or a Palm Chair, MP recovery is 1.5 (skill level(character level/10) +3).)
*Do not add Magic Armour. It is not useful in the long run as monsters will deal a lot of damage later on (more than 500), so -20 damage isn't useful. Use Magic Guard instead. It diverts 80% of damage to MP, allowing you to survive many monsters, that would otherwise kill you in 1 hit.
*If you want to have as much MP as possible, just start adding Max MP after advancing as the magician. Add 1 energy bolt after Maxing your MP. As training up to level 13 (9374 experience from level 8 to 13) without energy bolt would be exhausting, it would be wise to ask a friend to train you past this stage.
*Choose MP pots that will recover about half of your MP. From level 1 to 30, try to use only blue potions and blue pills, as they won't tax your mesos too much. From levels 30 to 40 ~ 50, you could keep using blue potions, but 100 MP recovery for a 1000+ MP bar scarcely does anything. It is recommended, though, that you buy mana elixirs, pure waters, and elixirs(at this levels, monsters will start dropping elixers, keep them, don't use them yet, these are percentage based pots, so use them only if no normal pot can fill up more than 50% of your MP) as soon as you can afford them, since this will allow you to train much faster and more efficiently.
*Being a mage (what magicians are known as), the status effect that will lead to your downfall is Seal, cast by some monsters like Jr. Boogie and Fairies. Carry some Holy Water to remedy this.
*Some Mages choose to become a Pure INT mage. This means that they choose to add all their Ap in INT. The attack of these mages are exceptionally high, but they suffer from inability to don mage equipments, which need some luck. If you become one, wear a bathrobe. As for weapons, use the level 8 wand until level 35 (this will be somewhat difficult but worth it), and switch to a Maple Staff (Weapon attack - 25,Magic attack - 48, 100 more HP). At level 43, upgrade to a Maple Lama Staff (Weapon attack - 39,Magic Attack - 58,100 more HP, 50 more MP). At level 64, get a Maple Shine Wand (Weapon attack - 49,Magic attack - 80, 1 more INT, 100 more HP, 100 more MP) OR a Maple Wisdom Staff (Weapon attack - 50,Magic attack - 80, 1 more INT, 150 more HP, 50 more MP). Also get a Maple Magician Shield at level 64; a Stolen Fence, Pan Lid and Maple Shield can be utilized during earlier levels. Don't forget to buy a hinomaru fan from the free market too. A good one can have MORE Magic Attack than some level 90 staffs! The Maple Staff, Maple Lama Staff, Maple Shining Wand and Maple Wisdom Staff are available during anniversary periods. During other times, just buy them from the free market (although they are extremely expensive, they are well worth it).
*Beyond that, you might want to consider Elemental Wands, which can be obtained from Gachapon.
*Try not to die by standing on a platform that is a little bit higher/lower than the ground so that mobs cant` hit you (unless they can do ranged attacks)
A note on maxed Poison Breath: Only after Fire Arrow has been maxed a Fire Wizard might consider the option of maxing out Poison Breath. With a base damage of 70, a 60% mastery, and a magician with roughly 175 m attack and about 35 luk this skill can deal about 347-578 Poison damage while actual poisoning does 70 hp damage or 1/40th the enemies hp. This can allow a Fire Mage to deal with some Fire creatures they normally would not be able. There are roughly 12 enemies weak to Poison.
===Beginners===
{{details|MapleStory/Magician/Builds|raising INT and LUK|Builds}}
At the start of the game players no longer get to choose the stats for their characters by rolling dice. GlobalMS now allows you to add your stats anyway you want, and a 1st job instructor (i.e. Grendel the Really Old) will correct them. Spend your free Ability Points at each level by adding 1 to DEX and 4 to STR until you become a magician. '''Note''': as of the GlobalMS patch v0.66, beginners can only put stats into STR and DEX, to allow quick training while on Maple Island. Unfortunately, INT affects how much MP you gain every time you level up, so you will now end up with less MP than mages from other versions. In older versions you were able to gain 100+ MP from the first 10 levels by spending all of your AP on INT.
In the third job, these Mages undergo a nice power boost. Explosion has a range that rivals Fire Arrow, and a power that is equal to Fire Arrow, rendering it useless, seeing how Explosion is a mob skill, whilst Fire Arrow is stuck to one target at a time. (Explosion is, however, painfully slow) Though, Fire Arrow may find solace in the fact that it gets an upgrade in the form of the Fire Mage's Magic Composition spell! This attack is a fusion of Fire and Poison placed into an ethereal bow. When launched, this attack strikes with a Base Damage of 150, and also a 70% chance of Poisoning the enemy for 40 seconds. Fire Mages also get Poison Myst which is a poison based mob skill that initially hits one monster for damage and then creates a mist with 70% chance of poisoning for all monsters that travel within the mist.
When you advance to 1st job at level 8 or higher, Grendel will change your stats so that you only have 4 STR and 4 DEX, and give you 20 INT and 4 or 5 LUK. At first job, you have to be careful when spending Ability Points, as your selections will not be undone (typically you will only put points into INT and LUK). A basic rule of thumb for applying AP as a magician is that as long as your luck is 3 more than your level, you should be able to wear the equipment for your level.
*'''Ice/Lightning Wizard''': Ah, yes. The ultimate in icy and electrical crowd control is now at your fingertips! As a Lightning Wizard, you can wander about the country side, scaring noobs and vets alike as you massacre groups of up to 6 monsters with Lightning! Statistically, Lightning is no more powerful than Magic Claw, but the compound damage on the six monsters that Lightning strikes add up to be more. And, if you choose Ice first, you are allowed the power to freeze monsters, rendering them immobile. Though Cold Beam is 17% weaker than Fire Arrow, it's ability to freeze enemies makes up for it. Together, with ice and lightning, you will roam the countryside, laughing at the frozen forms of large monsters and burnt (electrified) carcasses of smaller creatures. Forget about slow... who needs to slow enemies down, when you can either zap them to nothingness or make them wish the Fourth Vial Judgement (Random Bible Reference) is upon them?
;Tips
*Be patient, MapleStory has traditionally been more difficult, at the start of the game, for magicians to kill enemies than for other classes.
*Spend your skill points on '''Three Snails''' and either '''Nimble Feet''' (if you have money for potions), or '''Recovery''' (if you are very new to the game).
In the Third Job, Ice/Lightning Mages are the pinnacle of crowd control. Although their Ice Strike is 10% weaker than Cold Beam, it allows Wizards to attack and freeze upto six enemies at once. They also get Thunder Spear, the strongest (currently, at least) spell among all Magicians, with 170 Base Damage maxed. Compare that to the Fire Mage's 150 Base Damage Magic Composition and a Cleric's 105 Base Damage Shining Ray. The drawback to this, like Explosion, is it's slow casting time (Some say that you should put points into Slow to prepare for this attack, but from what I have seen, the freeze time Composition grant you is more than enough). The Ice/Lightning Mage's Magic Composition has a Base Damage of 140, but it only strikes one enemy and freezes only one target, rendering this skill much weaker when compared to Thunder Spear and Ice Strike. However, it serves as an excellent replacement to Cold Beam, and a faster alternative to Thunder Spear.
==First job advancement preparation==
When you are ready to become a magician, note the following:
*Decide what kind of magician you will become: lukless or regular.
**Lukless magicians have all points added to INT, and thus, have higher damage.
**Regular has 3 added to INT and 2 added to LUK. It is not recommended to follow this.
*'''Cleric''': The weakest of the three wizards, even when this mage has an elemental advantage, Fire Wizards beat it out in damage. However, Clerics have become quite popular in the Maple Story crowd with their "Heal" skill. With this skill, you can easily heal some 2000 hp for each party member while using only 24 mana. Additionally, Heal can damage undead enemies, such as Wraiths, Jr. Wraiths, Zombies and Zombie Lupins. Also, when Heal is coupled with the skill "MP Eater", a Cleric becomes very low maintenance in the Zombie areas, allowing for them to attack with Heal, and thusly take no damage, and absorb the MP needed for the spell from other monsters via MP Eater. In other words, Clerics can just walk into a crowd of zombies, cast heal for about an hour, and take absolutely no damage in terms of neither HP nor MP. This combination is how Clerics manage to become the richest class in the game, as they tend to have no need for potions, thus allowing them to retain all of the mesos they find as pure profit. Since Clerics mainly cast Heal over and over to level on these undeads, they tend to become boring after level 45. Try your hardest to stick through, as they pay off in a big way.
===Beginner===
[[File:MS NPC Grendel the Really Old.png|frame|right|Grendel the Really Old.]]
After creating a new character and starting as a Beginner, do all the quests and level up to the required level to make your job advancement.
Looking ahead to 3rd job, Clerics continue to be weakest in terms of damage, due to their lack of Booster or Element Amplification. However, instead they get skills that all parties will love. Holy Symbol increases the amount of exp gained for every person in the party (finally giving parties some uses), and Mystic Door creates a 2-way doorway to the closest town and where you are, allowing travel to the farthest corners of Ossyria in a single step. Not to mention Doom, which allows a Priest to turn upto 6 of it's adversaries into Blue Snails for upto 20 seconds for the price of a Magic Rock, which is comically effective when you're surrounded by a mob of tough monsters. The Summoning Rock can also be used by Priests to activate their skill Summon: Dragon, in which a blue pet dragon appears and follows you around for 2 and 1/3 minutes, attacking your enemies and making your life easier. They also have a very potent mob attack, Shining Ray, with a base attack power of 105 which is only a little weaker than the explosion but stronger than ice strike still, when not factoring in Mage-specific skills. Clerics are also the most popular 2nd job in MapleStory, as their party-benefitting skills are widely welcomed by all 3 jobs.
;Beginner AP
Originally, when new characters were made, players had to randomly generate the starting AP of their character. This required knowledge of the stats used by the desired class, as well as patience, to achieve the optimal stats.
*Teleport and MP Eater are both skills shared by all three magician variations.
Now when you begin the game as a Beginner,your AP will automatically be placed into certain stats, and when you make the job advancement your character's AP will be set to the minimum stats to become that class. Any additional AP will be available for you to apply.
*Slow and Meditate (magic attack boost) are both skills shared by the Fire/Poison and Ice/Lightning variations, although only Fire/Poison has the need to max it.
*In the third job, Fire/Poison and Ice/Lightning Mages both receive Partial Resistance, Element Amplification, and Magic Booster. These three spells improve the elemental resistance, the elemental power, and the Spell Casting speed of the user, respectively. Another skill, Seal, locks enemies from casting spells of their own.
==The Second Job==
Ahah! Elemental Power! Holy, Ice, Lightning, Fire! For the next 40 levels, you will raise and discover your own, true power. Become one with nature, harness it's power, become stronger so that you can kick Grendel's floating Butt when it's time to reach the Third Job! Your goal is in sight, young mages, more power is at hand!
===For Ice/Lightning Wizards===
[[File:MS Monster Grendel The Really Old's Clone.png|right]]
Once in Ellinia, head to the Magic Library at the VERY top of the map and go inside. Talk to Grendel. Assuming you are level 8 with at least 20 INT, advance from a Beginner to a Magician. Grendel will also increase your max MP by a large amount, and give you 4 Skill Point (SP) to use. Using that SP in magic bolt would most likely be the wisest, as it doesn't use too much MP, so you can really start fighting.
As depicted before, Ice/Lightning Wizards have the highest versatility out of all mages classes, and possess the most efficient group-attack skill amongst all 2nd job advance classes.
;Three Snails: Putting a point or two as a Beginner into Shell Throw can make fighting larger monsters a bit easier as Beginner and early Magician, albeit a sacrifice of a snail shell or two. It loses its usefulness when your Magic Bolt actually hits over 25-40 (the end limit of the technique), but for taking down Mushrooms FAST, it's worth the sacrifice of a pair of Red Shells.
Note: Three snails do not use up shells from your inventory as of the latest patch in GMS.
{{-}}
====Training Grounds====
==First Job: Magician==
Welcome to the mystical way of the Magician. For detailed information about what each skill does, refer to [[../Magician/Skills|Skills]]. For detailed information about how to allocate skill and ability points, refer to [[../Magician/Builds|Builds]]
*Level 30-34: Train where you have trained before. Ant Tunnel is a good choice, and so is Land of Wild Boars. Jr Sentinels and those green and horned mushroom tree dungeons at Ellinia are profitsome alternatives. With Aqua Road out, Fish Resting Spot is not a bad choice as well.
===Skills===
First job builds can be found at [[MapleStory/Magician/Builds#First Job Skill Build|the builds page]]. Please consult that section carefully.
*Level 35-39: Ice mages can now go kill Fire Boars with ease, so do so at Burnt Land II. They can also go to Sand Castle Playground to train on Flower Fishes if they want. Lightning right now is still too weak for your purposes, so boars are a good source of exp and money for now (use magic claw, not lit!). Lightning mages can also train well on White Ratz in Floor 100 of EOS Tower. Standing on a slide allows one to rain down lightning while not getting hit.
==Second Job Advancement==
*See [[MapleStory/Training locations|Training locations]] for where to power level.
Go see Grendel at Level 30. He will say that you look much stronger and ready for 2nd job, and will bring you to a secret area, where you have to defeat Zombie Lupin and collect 30 Dark Marbles. They don't give any experience or drops except the Dark Marble.
Once you are done, climb back up and exit the map through the portal. Take the 30 Dark Marbles back to Dark Lord and he will ask you to choose between 3 jobs, Wizard of Fire and Poison, Wizard of Ice and Lightning, or Cleric.
If you start with Lightning, you can also keep it at level 15 when you reach level 35 (assuming you put 1 pt in Teleport at level 30), and train on the hamsters on the 99th floor of Helios tower. This will be a lightning wizards' fastest XP gain until at least level 55, if you work it correctly. (to compare for around level 50, better to kill 4 hamsters @ 78XP each every 6 seconds, than 1 fire drake at 200XP each, and the hamsters spawn en-masse at one spot, while larger rarer monsters like Fire Drakes require you to travel....and suffer plenty of damage).
==Third Job Advancement==
Then just work the hamsters until you get enough points stored (save at least 9) to raise Lightning to level 24 directly from 15. This is because the spell doubles in cost from 20 to 40, at spell level 16, making it very hard on your potions. At about lightning level 24, the damage increase should be worth the doubling of MP, but if you're unsure, you can wait until you get 12 skill points.
*See [[MapleStory/Training locations|Training locations]] for where to power level.
It's also very safe to train at the Hamsters as you can't get hit unless you are grabbing loot. You can possibly gain 2-3 levels a day at low experience levels this way if you're a hardcore grinder.
Once you are level 60, go to El Nath, and head to the house on the big hill (Chief Residence). Head to Robeira, and talk with her. After a chat, head to Sharp Cliff I. Go inside the crystal portal at the bottom of the map. Double click on the Holy Stone at the bottom. Head inside, fight Grendel the Really Old's evil side, and head out with the Black Charm that it drops.
Head back to Robeira and give her this item, and voila, you are third job!
If you are careful with your lightning to mob at least 4 hamsters per cast, and pick up all the loot and seeds, you should at -least- break even in mesos/potion use, unlike lorangs, which will drain your mesos like water...
==Fourth Job Advancement==
*See [[MapleStory/Training locations|Training locations]] for where to power level.
Congratulations on hitting 100! Once you hit level 100, Robeira the 3rd job instructor will contact you via lightbulb. After starting the quest, head to Leafre and talk to Gritto in The Forest of the Priest. You will then get a quest to obtain two special items for the fourth job instructor to advance. You will have to kill Manon and Griffey to get the two items, but thankfully, they're special versions of the bosses, which you will find instantly upon entering their respective boss map. Note, they don't drop any of the items the real versions do. After hunting down these monsters and obtaining the two items, go talk to Gritto. She will advance you to fourth job, give you the skill book for Maple Warrior 10, and give you 4 SP and 5 AP.
*Level 40-49: If you're an ice mage, now would be a good time to move up to Jr Celions (the red kitties) at Ossyria, and Fire Boar is a solid (but less rewarding) alternative. Thunder Mages can consider Lorang, can also train on Jr Cellions or Grupin if Lorang costs too much money. You're going to lose money on pots wherever you go anyway, unless you work the hamsters, so why not lose them on monsters that give good exp and decent drops? Party with cleric at Hot Sands occasionally if you're feeling bored.
Note: for lightning mages, 78XP hamsters are much faster XP than the lorangs, as they spawn in mobs, and travel time is reduced to near nothing. It's strongly advised to continue working the hamsters unless you are really bored. If your ice is maxed, and you're a hybrid, but poor, don't train at hamsters; go kill fire boars or Jr Kitties for safe, fast loot until you get enough mesos to have a good stock of potions. Unless you are more concerned with getting rich (item drops) as opposed to leveling fast, Hamster mobbing is -highly- recommended, and thus Hybrids/lit mages will have a big advantage over those who don't raise Lightning until after meditation.
If you started with Ice and are hybriding, continue training on fire boars and Jr. Kitties until you raise lightning to level 15 at around experience lvl 45. (assuming you are becoming a hybrid). Then use the same advice as above, for the hamsters in Helios tower. Being a hybrid is STRONGLY advised, as working the hamsters will let you level as fast, or faster, than any other class for now.(Yes, that includes bandits).
*Level 50-59: If you have both Ice and Lit, Hot Sands is a very good choice, but Hamsters are still your fastest XP gain. With only Ice, Red Drake should now be what you're training on (you can also go for Celions and Lioners if Red Drakes hurt too much), while with only lit, Hamsters are still your best bet right now, even though you're earning less than 0.01% exp per kill, mobbing them should let you level every 6-8 hours until you reach level 55. Move to hot sands if you're going for Ice after med, when you have level 15 ice. With the new lands coming out, Platoon Chronos in The Road of Time <I> is also a good choice. Many still recommend Lorangs, but due to the travel time required (lots of walking), plus the constant damage you will take, Hamsters are your best choice if you want to gain mesos. You should level 3-4x as fast on Hamsters as you would on Lorangs.
==Attacking Methods and Styles==
At around level 55, you should be getting sick of Hamsters by now, and may have more fun tossing ice around at Clangs or freezing Red Drakes. Although hamsters will *still* give you the fastest XP, but all but the most dedicated will be immensely bored of sitting in one spot.
This section will explain the types of attacking methods, styles and combination of skills used by many mages for effective training.
And since the hamsters don't give good item drops, you should visit red drakes/Celions often for the drops.
*Level 60-69: Celions, Lioners, Red Drakes, Hot Sands, Helios Tower, the old spots. You can TRY to train at Buffoons if you like, but that's not generally a good idea. If you're not so obsessed with big damage, electrifying some jr yetis may not be a bad idea, as with freezing up some hectors and zombies.
===Magician===
*Level 70-75: Same old, samd old. Zombies, Hot Sands, Red Drakes. Buffoons might be more practical to hunt right now, but there isn't much change in training. If you're still doing hamsters, you must be a masochist :)
When you start off as a mage, your mana recovery will be terribly low. With no MP recovery at lvl 8, your MP recovery is 3, 4.5 on relaxer. If you follow the More MP build, it will be 3.8, 5.7 on a relaxer. Maybe you can do Grendel's Magician traning to boost your exp bar. You might need to find safe spots in ellinia slime/stump maps(Field South of Ellnia has a safe platform with an NPC on it, and Field Up North of Ellinia has a new platform at the top of the map, with a green round portal that leads to Leafre, and '''do not enter the portal'''! if you have completed Grendel's Holy Water of Protection (lvl 8 quest, removed in some versions, upgraded to lvl 70 in others) and has been rewarded 2 magic seeds by Chief Tomato.) Try to maybe read something while recovering MP on a relaxer, or just forgo the trouble and sip mana pots '''IF''' you are '''funded'''. If you have around 1,000 mesos, you can take a cab to henesys and train at henesys hunting ground, where you can train safely on slimes and snails, and there are 8 resting spots (the ones within reach of the jumping slimes and orange mushrooms are risky).
*Level 76-83: IS mages can start killing Death Teddies now, since there are some sniping points present where you can hit them without worrying about getting hit. It's not great on your wallet, but it's very fast training. If you need money, Zombies are your friend again. You can also try Buffoons. Comp Mages should just stay at Zombies or Buffons right now.
*Level 83-88: IS mages got some options now. Bains are a pain to get to and there aren't many sniping spots, but they're like Death Teddies with more money, though the map isn't pure Bains and poison geysers are annoying. Death Teddies are as good as always. If you feel bold, you can try Vikings. Comp mages should probably go for Bains now, or Vikings if you're bold.
*Level 88+: Vikings are the best target for you now, at least in GMS and MapleSEA. JMSers could probably go for Bains in Weapon Storage (the map after Anego), while KMSers could probably try the red centaurs in Riprey (though I'm not sure about their spawns).
;LEVEL 31-35 (6-8 hrs/lvl)
===Fire/Poison Wizard===
:Due to insufficent of SP into the new skills, the earlier levels will be focusing on earlier monsters for efficient leveling. Any monsters that gives you the highest EXP with 1-hit KO are recommended. If one's INT and equipment are desirable enough, Wild Boar are an alternative choice to the Mushrooms.
Fire wizards are pretty straight forward. You use magic claw until around lvl 34-35, when you can train on things weak to fire, such as jr. grupins. After that, it's all about spamming fire arrow. Also, learn to use teleport in conjunction with fire arrow. At the later levels (around 50) it becomes useful. Even though teleport at lvl 1 uses 60 MP, it will cost more MP to get hit by an enemy than to teleport.
''Victoria Island''
===Fire/Poison Mage===
:The Land of Wild Boar II [Wild Boar] [33-38]
Stay on the monsters you have trained on before.
Level 70-80 When you get a reasonable amount of points in Poison Myst, spam it on DT. You will need patience. Poison Myst takes a while to weaken monsters. Once you feel like it, use fire arrow and give 'em oblivion
;LEVEL 35-40 (8-9 hrs/lvl)
Level 81-90 ........
:At Lvl 35, with Cold Beam (15), one is still too weak to take on Fire Boar for effective training. Thus, it is recommended to return to earlier training grounds for efficient leveling till one is capable of 2-hits KO Fire Boar. Fire Boar drop good amount of meso and 'Kumbi'.
Choosing hamsters should let you level at 4hrs/lvl if you started with Lit.
''Victoria Island''
:The Burnt Land II [Fire Boar] [35-45]
''Ludi''
:Helios Tower [Hamsters] [35-55]
;LEVEL 40-50 (7-10 hrs/lvl)
===Fire/Poison Archmage===
:At Lvl 40, with Cold Beam (MAX), all should continue to take on Fire Boar till one can efficiently 1-hit KO Jr. Cellion/Jr. Lioner; average damage of 1100 and above. Due to the map layout, it is more efficient to train at Garden of Red, as compare to Garden of Yellow. Jr. Lioner drop 'Ore of Wisdom Crystal' and 'Kumbi'. Jr. Cellion drop 'Ore of Power Crystal'.
Now that you have paralyse, remember to make good use of it. It's like the ice/lightning's freeze effect.
:This is the 2nd most boring period of Ice/Lit Wizard, so as again, endurance will see one through.
''Victoria Island''
===Ice/Lightning Wizard===
:Dangerous Valley I [Fire Boar, Copper Drake] [40-45]
'''NOTE:''' Regardless of whether you decide to max out Cold Beam or Thunder Bolt first, you're likely not going to dominantly use either until around level 35. Magic Claw does far more damage until you're able to put at least 10-15 points into one of the two.
''Ossyria=
''ICE-BASED:'' Cold Beam's stops targets on a dime, even if the skill level is only 1. Use this to your advantage. If on a long straight platform (w/o sniping points), position yourself at the far end of either side. Then let those ice shards fly. If you've trained up Cold Beam well enough, you should be able to juggle between multiple targets with knock-back. Cold Beam is even good as a support move. If a party member (I.E. during a PQ) is facing a mob too big for him, you can use Cold Beam to hold some of the monsters still and rescue him. Just be wary of the amount of MP you consume with it--if your MP starts to get low and you can't find a place to rest and recharge just yet (especially during the Carnival PQ with no elixirs around), it's never a bad idea to alternate between Cold Beam and Magic Claw to save precious MP.
:Garden of Red [Jr. Cellion] [40-55]
:Garden of Yellow [Jr. Lioner] [40-55]
:Helios Tower [Hamsters] [40-55]
;LEVEL 50-70 (9-10+ hrs/lvl)
===Ice/Lightning Mage===
:On average, one will hit Red Drake 100% at Lvl 55. With Meditation (MAX), Red Drake will require an average of 4 hits to fall. At around Lvl 65, Red Drake will always fell at 3 hits. As of now, "Dangerous Valley II" will be the most economical map for training without fear of KS from other class. Red Drake drop 'Steely' and 'Diamond Ore'. Copper Drake drop 'Dark Scorpio' and 'Black Crystal Ore'.
Congratulations. You have now obtained Ice strike (field attack) and lightning spear(single attack)! Ice strike is capable of freezing multiple enemies, and when used in conjunction with cold beam, allows you and your friends to take on monsters without worries. This is especially useful when you have to kill dangerous or higher level monsters. However, freeze is not effective against bosses. This is when Lightning Spear comes in handy. As a powerful single attack spell, this skill allows you to deal high damage to bosses, none of which should be composite(many pieced monster) at your level. Both skills can be used simultaneously when killing higher level monsters become necessary. Freeze them up with cold beam/ice strike and slash them with Lightning Spear. During ordinary training, use ice strike if you are surrounded, and use the freeze and attack method if monsters are sparse.
''Victoria Island''
===Ice/Lightning Archmage===
:Dangerous Valley II [Fire Boar, Copper Drake, Red Drake] [53-70]
Still, same tactic, freeze them, after that it's a choice between Chain Lightning and Ice Field.
===For Fire/Poison Wizards===
===Cleric===
Clerics are pretty efficient, once they have max heal and max MP eater. You can just stand at a sniping spot and heal to your delight, draining hp and MP from the undeads, transform it's hp to exp, and keep the MP for yourself.
Fire/Poison Wizards are also often called Fizards, since Poison is a rather meh-ish skill that does not represent the power of the wizard. Despite the lack of versatility, Fire Wizard has the highest damage power out of all mages.
Here is a list of monsters you can train on. When you feel you are strong enough, upgrade to the next option. The list~~
====Training Grounds====
*Level 30-34: Train where you have trained before. Ant Tunnel is a good choice, and so is Land of Wild Boars. Jr Sentinels and those green and horned mushroom tree dungeons at Ellinia are profitsome alternatives.
*Level 35-39: The Jr Grupins in Ossyria are a good choice as you should be able to 2 or 3 hit KO them with minimum MP usage per attack (especially since level 1 MP Eater recovers 14 MP). You could also go clawing up Boars, which might be more profitable. Also, Jr Wraiths in the sewers of Kerning City provide good experience because they are very weak to fire. They also give 5 more experience each than Jr Grupins.
*Level 40-48: Kill things you can OHKO. Jr Grupins and Jr Wraiths are good initially, then eventually you can 1HKO Jr Pepes semi-consistently.
*Level 49-60: Jr Yetis, or Grupins. Jr Yetis are for the lower levels of this stage while Grupins are better for when you can two-hit ko them. They both give a lot of meso so profits aren't a problem
*Level 61-70: Grupins are the best exp you can get at this point. White Pangs are alright, but they have the most HORRIBLE maps to train on. Poison Wizards at this point should be leveling at the same place if they have Fire Arrow. If not, they should either be training on Dark Stone Golems or Werewolves. Yetis and Pepe are pretty decent aswell, but when they seperate, they are a pain to kill.>;0 If you have Poison, you can also kill Death Teddies as you approach 3rd job.
===For Clerics===
As some of you might have noticed, monsters like Pac Pinky, Slimey, Selkie Jr., Mr. Anchor and voodoos and hoodoos are not available in all versions. For versions who lack this exp efficient monsters, another option is to train on mixed golems at the Forest of Golem in Sleepywood, a hidden-street accessible from Sleepy Dungeon 5, press up under a blue flower.
Although Clerics are the weakest in terms of damage, their high wealth and the fact that they are virtually invincible more than makes up for it. Clerics are one of the more sought after classes in Party Quests and are never absent during tough raids.
===Bishop===
====Training Grounds====
: Finally, after what seems to be a millennia of waiting, your patience and training has paid off. The Bishop wields Genesis, an extremely powerful magic attack. People will be swarming you with pleads to join their party for bossing. And with the new skill Resurrection, you don't just heal anymore. With the additional boost of Infinity, the Bishop is the most powerful job.
*Level 30-34: Train where you have trained before. Ant Tunnel is a good choice, and so is Land of Wild Boars. Jr Sentinels and those green and horned mushroom tree dungeons at Ellinia are profitsome alternatives.
Note : Although F,P (meteor) and I,L (blizzard) archmage's attack is 71 basic attack more than Genesis when Element Amplification is taken into consideration, bishops have the advantage of self support skills and party support skills, while the archmages have to fork out twice as much MP for their higher attack skills, therefore, bishops are much more efficient, especially during the late levels when you often kill bosses to level.
*Level 35-39: Zombie Mushrooms should about do right now. Your Heal is still too weak to 1HKO Zombie Mushrooms, or any other undeads for that matter, but you can hurt a large amount of them at once.
*Level 40-48: At this point, try to stick to hunting with parties as opposed to hunting alone. The PQ in Ludibrium is a nice option and so are raids to difficult dungeons with high damaging monsters (more damage you Heal, more exp you get). For healing Clerics, if you have the patience and skill, it is possible to train on zombie lupins with heal at around level 42.
*Level 49-60: Wraiths, Jr. Wraiths, and Zombie Lupins. Your Heal should be maxed out by this point, so you should have no trouble killing a mob of Jr. Wraiths and Zombie Lupins with 2 hits flat. Wraiths should be a bit tougher than that, but they give more exp and you can still kill a large gang of them at once.
*Level 61-70: At this point, you should be able to kill most undeads out there. El Nath dungeons and the Golem Hunting Grounds are recomended because they have dark type monsters that take extra damage from holy attacks like Holy Arrow although they are not damaged by Heal. Clerics were made for parties, so try to limit your times hunting solo and try to hunt more in parties with high leveled users in more difficult hunting grounds. Both Balrogs are dark type monsters, so you may consider them as well, although Crimson Balrog is probably still too hard right now. also wraith is a good training spot, if u party a priest with max HS the exp can go really high
*level 71-78 you could go train anywhere that you think is good exp, grim phantom watches are still too hard to fight but ive seen lv 7x train there
*level 79+ your holy symbol should be nearly maxed and you should be able to train with dragon knights at grims easy, i personally gain around 800k exp per hour at grims and im lv 87 at the moment, others might train somewhere else, and by now you should be able to hit crimson balrog, but dont get too confident that you can solo it
==The Third Job==
When training switch between meso training and exp training, as spamming genesis at skelegosaurus is not economical and sustainable. Utilize Heal and Shining Ray until you have earned 1 million, buy suitable MP pots, and start spamming Genesis once again, until your 1 million is used up. Then, start earning mesos again.
===Ice/Lightning Arch Mage===
====Training Locations====
;LEVEL 70-80 (10-20+ hrs/lvl)
:One can continue at Dangerous Valley II or choose to travel to El Nath. Coolie Zombies are an excellant choice during this period due to the map layout and the spawn rates. Do take note of the varities of attacks they possess, esp. poison. KS is commonplace at the Coolie Zombie maps among ALL classes.
Magicians are ranged characters that eventually become imbued with a specific element, dealing 1.5 times the damage to monsters weak to that element. Each of the three specialized Magician jobs can get summons at the fourth job and use Area of Effect attacks (though they are slow to cast).
Magicians have the highest magic defense in the game, and have the most MP, however many magician skills sap away a lot of MP. At 4th Job, Magicians can acquire elemental resistance, rendering them more resistant to element based attacks.
On the other hand, Magicians have the lowest weapon defense and HP in the entire game, making them prone to dying without their skill Magic Guard, which diverts 85% of damage taken from monsters to MP. However, MP pots can cost twice the cost of HP pots.
Mages (not Priests) gain an elemental reset skill in 3rd job that temporarily suspends elemental abilities when active. It allows magicians to attack a larger array of monsters as efficiently as other non-elemental classes.
Magicians are also able to use some of the status effects magical based monsters use, such as seal, slow, poison, dispel and freeze. Priest gain unbelievable party support skills, like heal, bless, holy symbol, dispel and holy shield, and even a skill called Resurrection (which is pretty self-explanatory).
In regard to Maximum and Minimum damage, Magicians deal very stable damage when mastery is maxed similar to all other classes. Mastery determines your minimum damage.
Magicians can also teleport past monsters with teleport, and drain MP from monsters with MP Eater. Likewise, when Teleport Mastery is toggled it deals damage when teleporting past monsters.
Magicians start off fairly weak in the game, and start to gain power from level 8 through 35. After level 35, Magicians begin to show their powerful magic potential, with their elemental skills dealing massive damage to opposing elemental monsters (with the added boost of Meditation/Bless), and a decent damage range with non-elemental skills. Skills such as Spell Mastery, MP Eater and Meditation give the mage a boost in recovery and power, respectively, and are unbelievably helpful later on. Mages start to show their full potential from level 60, and rise through the ranks all the way beyond level 120, unleashing their fury with terrific area of effect attacks and deathly DOT skills.
Magicians are largely based on elemental abilities which in turn makes them weak in boss runs. With the implementation of elemental reset, their damage is much better on certain bosses such as Hilla and Root Abyss bosses.
Magicians lack the high health of Warriors, the nimbleness of Thieves, the range of Bowman and the rapidity of damage of Pirates. Magicians specialize in mastering elements, dragons and area of effect attacks, status effects, stable damage, and beautiful skills, therefore, if this is what you would like for your special Maple character, this is truly the class for you.
If otherwise, please turn back and choose another class, for once you choose your job, your choice is permanent.
As Grendel says...
"Would you like to have the power of nature itself in your hands? It may be a long, hard road to be on, but you'll surely be rewarded in the end, reaching the very top of wizardry..."
Basic Characteristics
Magicians put high levels of magic and intelligence to good use, they can use the power of nature all around us to kill the enemies, but they are very weak in close combats. Their stamina isn't high, either, so be careful and avoid death at all cost.
Since you can attack the monsters from afar, that'll help you quite a bit. Try boosting up the level of INT if you want to attack the enemies accurately with your magic. The higher your magic, the better you'll be able to handle your magic... ...
Magician Weapons
Staves and wands are the main weaponry of choice. These weapons have special magical powers in them, so it enhances the magician's effectiveness. It'll be wise for you to carry a weapon with a lot of magical powers in it.
Magicians Armors
Honestly, the Magicians don't have much armors to wear since they are weak in physical strength and low in stamina. Its defensive abilities isn't great either, so i don't know if it helps a lot or not.
Lore note: Grendel the Really Old once experimented with dark magic, and it was he who created the cursed dolls. The cursed dolls were later stolen by Lupins, causing some of them to become zombie Lupins. You can find this out during several Ellinia quests.
Basics
AP distribution
Apply your AP to INT (Mage damage = {[{(INT + Magic Attack) * 0.8) + (Luck/4)]/18} * Spell Base Damage * 0.8).
Keep your STR and DEX to a minimum (never apply AP to these stats).
First job
The first two attacking spells you learn are magic claw and energy bolt. Your Energy Bolt must be at least level 1 to use magic claw. The first two defense skills are magic guard and magic armor, and you must have at least one skill point invested into magic guard to use magic armor.
Tips
Magicians depend solely on magic skills to attack. Use them, as ordinary weapons and weapon attacks are useless.
Add 1 energy bolt at level 8 (6 MP per attack). Do not add magic claw (10 MP per attack) yet. 6 MP per attack is sustainable considering how little MP you have now.
Try to max MP Increase 1st. (add 5 MP recovery 1st ONLY) This will give you plenty of MP to utilize.(MP increase formula is 15 + (total INT * 0.1), may have slight variation as decimals aren't displayed) Slower MP recovery will be remedied in the 2nd job by MP Eater. (The MP recovery formula for mages is skill level (character level/10) +3. The final +3 stands for the basic mana recovery rate for beginners. Therefore maxing MP recovery early on before Max MP Increase DOES NOT improve your mana recovery rate. If you sit on a Relaxer or a Palm Chair, MP recovery is 1.5 (skill level(character level/10) +3).)
Do not add Magic Armour. It is not useful in the long run as monsters will deal a lot of damage later on (more than 500), so -20 damage isn't useful. Use Magic Guard instead. It diverts 80% of damage to MP, allowing you to survive many monsters, that would otherwise kill you in 1 hit.
If you want to have as much MP as possible, just start adding Max MP after advancing as the magician. Add 1 energy bolt after Maxing your MP. As training up to level 13 (9374 experience from level 8 to 13) without energy bolt would be exhausting, it would be wise to ask a friend to train you past this stage.
Choose MP pots that will recover about half of your MP. From level 1 to 30, try to use only blue potions and blue pills, as they won't tax your mesos too much. From levels 30 to 40 ~ 50, you could keep using blue potions, but 100 MP recovery for a 1000+ MP bar scarcely does anything. It is recommended, though, that you buy mana elixirs, pure waters, and elixirs(at this levels, monsters will start dropping elixers, keep them, don't use them yet, these are percentage based pots, so use them only if no normal pot can fill up more than 50% of your MP) as soon as you can afford them, since this will allow you to train much faster and more efficiently.
Being a mage (what magicians are known as), the status effect that will lead to your downfall is Seal, cast by some monsters like Jr. Boogie and Fairies. Carry some Holy Water to remedy this.
Some Mages choose to become a Pure INT mage. This means that they choose to add all their Ap in INT. The attack of these mages are exceptionally high, but they suffer from inability to don mage equipments, which need some luck. If you become one, wear a bathrobe. As for weapons, use the level 8 wand until level 35 (this will be somewhat difficult but worth it), and switch to a Maple Staff (Weapon attack - 25,Magic attack - 48, 100 more HP). At level 43, upgrade to a Maple Lama Staff (Weapon attack - 39,Magic Attack - 58,100 more HP, 50 more MP). At level 64, get a Maple Shine Wand (Weapon attack - 49,Magic attack - 80, 1 more INT, 100 more HP, 100 more MP) OR a Maple Wisdom Staff (Weapon attack - 50,Magic attack - 80, 1 more INT, 150 more HP, 50 more MP). Also get a Maple Magician Shield at level 64; a Stolen Fence, Pan Lid and Maple Shield can be utilized during earlier levels. Don't forget to buy a hinomaru fan from the free market too. A good one can have MORE Magic Attack than some level 90 staffs! The Maple Staff, Maple Lama Staff, Maple Shining Wand and Maple Wisdom Staff are available during anniversary periods. During other times, just buy them from the free market (although they are extremely expensive, they are well worth it).
Beyond that, you might want to consider Elemental Wands, which can be obtained from Gachapon.
Try not to die by standing on a platform that is a little bit higher/lower than the ground so that mobs cant` hit you (unless they can do ranged attacks)
Beginners
For more details on raising INT and LUK, see Builds.
At the start of the game players no longer get to choose the stats for their characters by rolling dice. GlobalMS now allows you to add your stats anyway you want, and a 1st job instructor (i.e. Grendel the Really Old) will correct them. Spend your free Ability Points at each level by adding 1 to DEX and 4 to STR until you become a magician. Note: as of the GlobalMS patch v0.66, beginners can only put stats into STR and DEX, to allow quick training while on Maple Island. Unfortunately, INT affects how much MP you gain every time you level up, so you will now end up with less MP than mages from other versions. In older versions you were able to gain 100+ MP from the first 10 levels by spending all of your AP on INT.
When you advance to 1st job at level 8 or higher, Grendel will change your stats so that you only have 4 STR and 4 DEX, and give you 20 INT and 4 or 5 LUK. At first job, you have to be careful when spending Ability Points, as your selections will not be undone (typically you will only put points into INT and LUK). A basic rule of thumb for applying AP as a magician is that as long as your luck is 3 more than your level, you should be able to wear the equipment for your level.
Tips
Be patient, MapleStory has traditionally been more difficult, at the start of the game, for magicians to kill enemies than for other classes.
Spend your skill points on Three Snails and either Nimble Feet (if you have money for potions), or Recovery (if you are very new to the game).
First job advancement preparation
When you are ready to become a magician, note the following:
Decide what kind of magician you will become: lukless or regular.
Lukless magicians have all points added to INT, and thus, have higher damage.
Regular has 3 added to INT and 2 added to LUK. It is not recommended to follow this.
Beginner
Grendel the Really Old.
After creating a new character and starting as a Beginner, do all the quests and level up to the required level to make your job advancement.
Beginner AP
Originally, when new characters were made, players had to randomly generate the starting AP of their character. This required knowledge of the stats used by the desired class, as well as patience, to achieve the optimal stats.
Now when you begin the game as a Beginner,your AP will automatically be placed into certain stats, and when you make the job advancement your character's AP will be set to the minimum stats to become that class. Any additional AP will be available for you to apply.
Once in Ellinia, head to the Magic Library at the VERY top of the map and go inside. Talk to Grendel. Assuming you are level 8 with at least 20 INT, advance from a Beginner to a Magician. Grendel will also increase your max MP by a large amount, and give you 4 Skill Point (SP) to use. Using that SP in magic bolt would most likely be the wisest, as it doesn't use too much MP, so you can really start fighting.
Three Snails
Putting a point or two as a Beginner into Shell Throw can make fighting larger monsters a bit easier as Beginner and early Magician, albeit a sacrifice of a snail shell or two. It loses its usefulness when your Magic Bolt actually hits over 25-40 (the end limit of the technique), but for taking down Mushrooms FAST, it's worth the sacrifice of a pair of Red Shells.
Note: Three snails do not use up shells from your inventory as of the latest patch in GMS.
First Job: Magician
Welcome to the mystical way of the Magician. For detailed information about what each skill does, refer to Skills. For detailed information about how to allocate skill and ability points, refer to Builds
Skills
First job builds can be found at the builds page. Please consult that section carefully.
Go see Grendel at Level 30. He will say that you look much stronger and ready for 2nd job, and will bring you to a secret area, where you have to defeat Zombie Lupin and collect 30 Dark Marbles. They don't give any experience or drops except the Dark Marble.
Once you are done, climb back up and exit the map through the portal. Take the 30 Dark Marbles back to Dark Lord and he will ask you to choose between 3 jobs, Wizard of Fire and Poison, Wizard of Ice and Lightning, or Cleric.
Once you are level 60, go to El Nath, and head to the house on the big hill (Chief Residence). Head to Robeira, and talk with her. After a chat, head to Sharp Cliff I. Go inside the crystal portal at the bottom of the map. Double click on the Holy Stone at the bottom. Head inside, fight Grendel the Really Old's evil side, and head out with the Black Charm that it drops.
Head back to Robeira and give her this item, and voila, you are third job!
Congratulations on hitting 100! Once you hit level 100, Robeira the 3rd job instructor will contact you via lightbulb. After starting the quest, head to Leafre and talk to Gritto in The Forest of the Priest. You will then get a quest to obtain two special items for the fourth job instructor to advance. You will have to kill Manon and Griffey to get the two items, but thankfully, they're special versions of the bosses, which you will find instantly upon entering their respective boss map. Note, they don't drop any of the items the real versions do. After hunting down these monsters and obtaining the two items, go talk to Gritto. She will advance you to fourth job, give you the skill book for Maple Warrior 10, and give you 4 SP and 5 AP.
Attacking Methods and Styles
This section will explain the types of attacking methods, styles and combination of skills used by many mages for effective training.
Magician
When you start off as a mage, your mana recovery will be terribly low. With no MP recovery at lvl 8, your MP recovery is 3, 4.5 on relaxer. If you follow the More MP build, it will be 3.8, 5.7 on a relaxer. Maybe you can do Grendel's Magician traning to boost your exp bar. You might need to find safe spots in ellinia slime/stump maps(Field South of Ellnia has a safe platform with an NPC on it, and Field Up North of Ellinia has a new platform at the top of the map, with a green round portal that leads to Leafre, and do not enter the portal! if you have completed Grendel's Holy Water of Protection (lvl 8 quest, removed in some versions, upgraded to lvl 70 in others) and has been rewarded 2 magic seeds by Chief Tomato.) Try to maybe read something while recovering MP on a relaxer, or just forgo the trouble and sip mana pots IF you are funded. If you have around 1,000 mesos, you can take a cab to henesys and train at henesys hunting ground, where you can train safely on slimes and snails, and there are 8 resting spots (the ones within reach of the jumping slimes and orange mushrooms are risky).
Fire/Poison Wizard
Fire wizards are pretty straight forward. You use magic claw until around lvl 34-35, when you can train on things weak to fire, such as jr. grupins. After that, it's all about spamming fire arrow. Also, learn to use teleport in conjunction with fire arrow. At the later levels (around 50) it becomes useful. Even though teleport at lvl 1 uses 60 MP, it will cost more MP to get hit by an enemy than to teleport.
Fire/Poison Mage
Stay on the monsters you have trained on before.
Level 70-80 When you get a reasonable amount of points in Poison Myst, spam it on DT. You will need patience. Poison Myst takes a while to weaken monsters. Once you feel like it, use fire arrow and give 'em oblivion
Level 81-90 ........
Fire/Poison Archmage
Now that you have paralyse, remember to make good use of it. It's like the ice/lightning's freeze effect.
Ice/Lightning Wizard
NOTE: Regardless of whether you decide to max out Cold Beam or Thunder Bolt first, you're likely not going to dominantly use either until around level 35. Magic Claw does far more damage until you're able to put at least 10-15 points into one of the two.
ICE-BASED: Cold Beam's stops targets on a dime, even if the skill level is only 1. Use this to your advantage. If on a long straight platform (w/o sniping points), position yourself at the far end of either side. Then let those ice shards fly. If you've trained up Cold Beam well enough, you should be able to juggle between multiple targets with knock-back. Cold Beam is even good as a support move. If a party member (I.E. during a PQ) is facing a mob too big for him, you can use Cold Beam to hold some of the monsters still and rescue him. Just be wary of the amount of MP you consume with it--if your MP starts to get low and you can't find a place to rest and recharge just yet (especially during the Carnival PQ with no elixirs around), it's never a bad idea to alternate between Cold Beam and Magic Claw to save precious MP.
Ice/Lightning Mage
Congratulations. You have now obtained Ice strike (field attack) and lightning spear(single attack)! Ice strike is capable of freezing multiple enemies, and when used in conjunction with cold beam, allows you and your friends to take on monsters without worries. This is especially useful when you have to kill dangerous or higher level monsters. However, freeze is not effective against bosses. This is when Lightning Spear comes in handy. As a powerful single attack spell, this skill allows you to deal high damage to bosses, none of which should be composite(many pieced monster) at your level. Both skills can be used simultaneously when killing higher level monsters become necessary. Freeze them up with cold beam/ice strike and slash them with Lightning Spear. During ordinary training, use ice strike if you are surrounded, and use the freeze and attack method if monsters are sparse.
Ice/Lightning Archmage
Still, same tactic, freeze them, after that it's a choice between Chain Lightning and Ice Field.
Cleric
Clerics are pretty efficient, once they have max heal and max MP eater. You can just stand at a sniping spot and heal to your delight, draining hp and MP from the undeads, transform it's hp to exp, and keep the MP for yourself.
Here is a list of monsters you can train on. When you feel you are strong enough, upgrade to the next option. The list~~
As some of you might have noticed, monsters like Pac Pinky, Slimey, Selkie Jr., Mr. Anchor and voodoos and hoodoos are not available in all versions. For versions who lack this exp efficient monsters, another option is to train on mixed golems at the Forest of Golem in Sleepywood, a hidden-street accessible from Sleepy Dungeon 5, press up under a blue flower.
Bishop
Finally, after what seems to be a millennia of waiting, your patience and training has paid off. The Bishop wields Genesis, an extremely powerful magic attack. People will be swarming you with pleads to join their party for bossing. And with the new skill Resurrection, you don't just heal anymore. With the additional boost of Infinity, the Bishop is the most powerful job.
Note : Although F,P (meteor) and I,L (blizzard) archmage's attack is 71 basic attack more than Genesis when Element Amplification is taken into consideration, bishops have the advantage of self support skills and party support skills, while the archmages have to fork out twice as much MP for their higher attack skills, therefore, bishops are much more efficient, especially during the late levels when you often kill bosses to level.
When training switch between meso training and exp training, as spamming genesis at skelegosaurus is not economical and sustainable. Utilize Heal and Shining Ray until you have earned 1 million, buy suitable MP pots, and start spamming Genesis once again, until your 1 million is used up. Then, start earning mesos again.
