MapleStory/Jobs

All characters begin the game as Beginners. Once players have received their characters to the appropriate levels and have met the stat requirements, they are able to complete the first job advancements and choose new jobs. There are four choices for the first job: Magician, Bowman, Thief, and Warrior. All of the jobs require a minimum level of 10 except for the Magician, which requires a minimum level of 8. Each job also has different stat requirements, which are discussed below. This choice decides the class of the character and 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, it cannot be changed.

Once a player reaches level 30, they are able to complete the second job advancement. After completing a quest in which they must collect 30 Dark Marbles at a given location, players are given the option of selecting their specialities and changing to the second job. The classes that are made available this time differ based on the class chosen at the first job advancement. Thieves will be given the option of choosing between becoming Assassins or Bandits. An Assassin's weapon of choice is a claw with throwing stars, whereas the Bandit's weapon of choice is a dagger. Magicians will be given the option of choosing between becoming Clerics with healing and Holy-based attacks, or two different types of Wizards with either fire and poison or ice and lightning attacks. Magicians have a weapon choice of either a wand or a staff. A Bowman can choose to become a Hunter with a bow, or a Crossbowman with a crossbow. Finally, a Warrior can choose between becoming a Page who attacks with blunt weapons or swords, a Spearman who uses spears or polearms, or a Fighter who uses swords or axes. Each class has its own merits and disadvantages. With each new job advancement, new skills are introduced to the player.

At level 70, characters can once again change their job at the Mystics Hut in El Nath of Ossyria and receive their third job advancement. Unlike previous job advancements, the player is not given a choice for their third job. 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. Lastly, Warriors who became Pages become Knights, Spearmen become Dragon Knights, and Fighters become Crusaders.

At level 120, the character can again change classes and become even more powerful with their fourth job advancement. The only version that has the 4th Job is the KoreaMS. The Hermits become Night Lords, Chief Bandit become Shadowers, Rangers become Bow Masters, Snipers become Crossbow Masters, Priests become Bishops, Mages comes Arch Mages, Crusaders become Heroes, Knights become Paladins, Dragon Knights, become Dark Knights. The way of getting the fourth advancement is still fuzzy.

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 20+ levels above them, Warriors will have trouble hitting foes the same level as them unless they sacrifice their strength for dexterity or scroll their equipment to provide additional accuracy. For example, a level 25 crossbowman could hit an Iron Hog at pig beach despite it being 17 levels higher.

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 kill faster, increasing their training rate as a result.

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

Abilities such as Dragon Roar can be learned by Dragon Knights in the third job, as well as Elemental Charges for White Knights and Combo Attacks for Crusaders.

Bowman
Bowmen are the exact opposite of Warriors. They use dexterity to take down a foe. While their damage is 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, however, so don't be surprised if you see 400 damage in one shot, and 1000 in another. Archers have the second highest weapon-defensive equipments of all the classes.

Because of this, Archers have the most unstable damage in the game until they learn Bow Mastery (which will raise their minimum damage).

The Archer's greatest weakness is its lack of mobility. Archers have long range, but their average speed, and the fact that they cannot move while attacking is a hitch. Although they do not specialize in melee attacks, their weapons allow them to knock an enemy away to a safer distance. 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.

The Archer's greatest strength is accuracy. Hands down, Archers have the greatest accuracy in the game. They 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 they can actually deal damage.

In later classes, Archers can split between Hunters and Crossbowmen, with the main difference being the use of regular bows or crossbows. Unlike class splits such as Assassins/Bandits, these two classes are remarkably similar, with skills that have easily noted similarities. The general consensus is that while Crossbowmen do more damage every individual hit, Hunters have the ability to fire more arrows (Hit more hits) in a period of time than Crossbowmen.

As well, it should be noted that the Archer class tends to lean more towards individual players, as compared to 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 that raise party member statistics. Because of this, parties will generally select other classes other then the archer.

Thief
A Thief is basically a fast warrior and a fast archer combined. They can be ranged or melee. However, they are not given enough skill points to max out both a melee skill and a ranged skill early in the game, so they must choose whether to be a Bandit (a faster but slightly weaker melee class) or an Assassin (ranged and faster than Archers). 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. Their HP is the second lowest in the game, and their MP is average. 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 high accuracy too, but when compared with archers, they will still lose out because dex increases accuracy more than luck.

The Bandit's weakness is simple: they do not have a ranged attack. They will have to walk up to enemies just like Warriors and slash them (however, they're better than Warriors because they have more mobility). Additionally, Bandits hit multiple times, doing little damage each time, while Warriors generally do a one-hit massive attack. Therefore, Bandits generally don't get to knockback larger monsters, such as Stone Golems. However, this works to their advantage when using Haste, a speed-boosting skill, to jump clear over the enemy and attack it at the same time.

Assassins are Archers without most Archer weaknesses. Assassins have extremely high mobility, as they are the only ranged class that can shoot in the air. Assassins do not have the same range as Archers; they tend to have a smaller range. They can shoot projectiles much faster than any other class in the game(though not as much in 3rd job due to ranger's strafe). The weaknesses of Assassins are that they have to carry large amounts of projectiles (throwing stars). Unlike Archers, they do not get a skill similar to "Soul Arrow" until fourth job, which has only been released in KoreaMS. Additionally, better stars are often very expensive to purchase(a weapon attack 25 steely throwing star costs several million mesos). A second weakness of the Assassin is that they do not carry the knockback ability which the Archer class has.

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 damage with their short-ranged "Savage Blow" that can probably kill most monsters in one execution too. Both jobs have their ups and downs, and it highly depends on the style and skill of playing.

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

The Magician's main strength is that their MP Recovery is quite legendary. They receive the skills "MP Recovery" and "MP Eater", which essentially make magic attacks cost near nothing. Additionally, Magicians have the highest MP of all the classes. Magicians also have the highest magic defense in the game.

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

Which class of characters should I start with when playing MapleStory?
User Opinions (Note: these opinions are not written from a neutral point of view and reflect the views of individual players. In no way should these opinions be viewed as facts.)


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

-B Man


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


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


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

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


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


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

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

However, if you look at either the Korean or Japanese Maple Story (the original MS and the 2nd oldest MS), the top players are all assassins, which would suggest that assassins are the fastest class to level overall.

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

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

RandomGuy---

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

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

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

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

Choosing you're class is the most important decision you make in Maple Story. I generally prefer Harder classes, such as the Magician or Thief, I never choose Warrior, because it's the easiest to do, and it's cowardly to do it. I believe that the Thief is the hardest to master, however it's one of the most powerful (not in terms of general brute strength). If used correctly, a thief could easily kill a Mushmom/Mushdad in 1-5 hits, while it takes a warrior at least 10 hits. It is also the fastest, so you cant rain faster, and you lose less Exp when you die due to the amount of LUK you train. You can use Long and short range as a rogue and whichever works better for you will be the deciding factor for the next job advancement, in addition to this the weapons and armor look really cool (and are strong at the same time).

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

They're all good
No class is the "best." Although some classes may be less powerful in the beginning, in the long run they can become extremely powerful. Archers and Magicians are very good examples of this. 1st job Archers and Mages are weak in attack, but skills majorly improve in the 2nd job. The following is a basic summary of the different classes:

Thieves might have more exciting fighting styles and effects, but they are very expensive, as they have to spend a lot of money on pots and equips. Assassins train faster because Lucky 7 (a ranged and speedy attack) is inherently fast. Bandits, however, are one of the most powerful characters at levels 50+ due to their savage blow damage.

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

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

Archers are also strong. Rangers and Snipers can use Strafe, and it deals incredible damage. Hunters can use Arrow Bomb, which kills multiple enemies and also stuns them. They are a smaller class, but they're very powerful.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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