Class Choosing Guide

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Introduction

First off, and sorry to disappoint, but unfortunately there is no "best" class. This is because of a procedure that game creators use called "balancing classes". If there WAS a "best" class, everyone would be that class and there would be no need for other classes. That is why game creators balance every class to make sure they are all played. Instead each class has its own pros and cons.

Therefore, the hard part is deciding which class is fit for you, not for anyone else. It might be because of the massive damage, looks, or just fun, but it must be fit for you to play it. Otherwise, you will bore of it quickly and it won't be fun for you at all. Now, you don't want that, do you?

Warriors

Warriors are melee fighters, thus they cannot use ranged attacks like the other classes. Therefore, and as presumed, warriors have the far more health and defense than other classes. Attacking melee is sometimes boring, but the sheer damage of every hit makes it worthwhile.

Warriors do a lot of damage at higher levels, but are eclipsed by Mages in the intermediate zone. At this point, Warriors seem pretty pathetic, but don't give up.

Also, it is debatable to choose two-handed, which is commonly abbreviated to 2H, weapons over 1H weapons. The good news is that you can use both depending on the environment. This is resulting because of the Warrior's "Mastery" skills. For example, Fighters get Sword and Axe Mastery. If you pick Axe Mastery, you get a higher minumum damage + accuracy for BOTH one-handed and two-handed axes.

Pros:

• Highest HP and Defense of all classes.
• Choice of 5 different weapons types.
• Can choose between 1-handed and 2-handed weapons.
• Get area of effect skill, also called "mob attack" (can attack multiple monsters) Slash Blast, in first advancement.
• Highest attack

Cons:

• No ranged attacks.
• Lowest MP of all classes.
• Unstable damage; varies a lot.
• Low accuracy and avoidability.

NOTE: It is hard to realize it, but warriors always do the most damage. It is very hard to tell, of course. But for example, mages do the "most damage" at intermediate levels because they have skill mastery. Also, mages are always using a skill that uses 20 mp (magic claw respectively) and to compare, warriors would be compared always using power strike. Sorry for ranting, but the bottom line is that warriors do the most damage if you were easily comparing them.

Warriors - Fighters

Fighters have very high damage to a single target, from the Warrior's second class. They get effective attack skills like Final Attack and Rage. They also have the ability to choose between fierce swords to cool-looking axes. Extremely high damage as a Crusader, with Panic, Coma, and Combo Attack.

Pros:

• Very high HP.
• Great offensive skills (Rage)
• High damage to single targets.

Cons:

• Extremely low MP.
• Horrible at mob-control.

Warriors - Pages

Pages are similar to Fighters only during 2nd class because of the usage of swords, but Pages get more MP. They are average at single targets and multiple targets. Pages can do elemental attacks as a White Knight. This will allow the Page to do more damage to a type of enemy while also doing good damage to others.

Pros:

• More HP than Spearmen
• More MP than Fighters.
• Does moderately well against single + multiple targets.
• Deals elemental damage.

Cons:

• Less HP than other Fighters.
• Less MP than Spearmen.
• Not specifically good at one thing.

Warriors - Spearmen

Spearmen are different from other 2nd adv Warriors. They use slow pole arms and spears, but they do a lot of damage at once. These weapons have very high max damage, but very low minimum damage. Therefore, they have unstable attack. However, they are very good at mob-controlling. They have good party skills such as Hyper Body that will make all parties want one. They also have a balanced amount of both HP and MP.

Pros:

• High maximum damage.
• Mob-controlling masters.
• Acquires Party skills (i.e. Hyper Body).
• More balanced amount of HP and MP.
• Has far more MP than Fighters and Pages
• Higher Melee ranger than Fighters and Pages.

Cons:

• Less HP than the other two classes.
• Low minimum damage.
• Unstable damage, varies a lot.
• Slow attack.

NOTE: In 4th Job, ALL warriors get a skill called "Rush". Its skill name itself, describes that the slowness speed of 2-H swords/axes/blunt weapons, and spears and polearms, are all canceled, as to the skill itself...

Magicians

Magicians are very abundant in the MS community. You can see any class of the Magician walking around all the time. Sure, they can't melee for their lives, but who needs melee when you can use magic spells either in the monster's face or far away? Using spells like Energy Bolt and Magic Claw, they can inflict good damage in the intermediate levels, and protect themselves with Magic Guard. They are liked in Party Quests for the damage they are able to do.

Pros:

• High damage during 1st class adv
• Fastest leveling after Lvl 15+
• Incredible amounts of MP and MP recovery
• Magic Claw can attack through walls and with stable, good damage

Cons:

• Very low HP
• All money spent on MP pots until you get MP Eater in 2nd job

NOTE: Magicians can "jump attack" by pressing your spells "hotkey" and jump in the same time, although its very difficult to use. NOTE: Although other classes overpower in 3rd class, they have very strong mob attacks and party skills that help you to be invited to parties.

Magicians - Fire/Poison

Fire/Poison wizards deal a lot of damage and can drain away at the monster's HP using poison.

Pros:

• Highest damage of 2nd adv Magicians
• Effective drain against high level enemies with poison
• Fire has the second most elemental advantage, second to holy.
• Have party skills

Cons:

• Poison is difficult to use properly
• The only fire offensive spell, Fire Arrow, is blocked by terrain

Magicians - Ice/Lightning

Ice/Lightning wizards can freeze their opponents and bombard them with spells that hit multiple enemies at once. This calls for faster leveling.

Pros:

• Fast leveling with lightning, multiple monster hitting
• MP Eater + Lightning will often get a great amount of MP back
• Cold Beam isn't blocked by terrain
• Cold Beam can freeze monsters
• Spamming Cold Beam damages enemies, and since it freezes, the monster will not be able to touch you
• Stronger than clerics against normal monsters
• Have party skills

Cons:

• Not quite as raw damage
• Lightning as the second least elemental advantage
• Lightning is expensive in mp; 40 Mana

NOTE: In 4th Job, Mages get a skill which where they can have infinite MP, but of course, to use the skill itself, it uses a big amount of MP, only lasts for 40 seconds, and has a cool-down timer of 10 minutes.

Magicians - Clerics

Well, Clerics... a bit different from the other mages. They don't do much damage, no, but they have the unique ability to heal. A party player, the Cleric tends to stick to parties for the offensive actions and just hang back, heal, and buff the members. In 3rd class, Priests have awesome spells that can turn monsters into snails and summon dragons. Making the trouble of level 30-70 worth the trouble. They can also do great damage against undead enemies.

Pros:

• Can heal
• A lot of damage against evil/undead monsters
• Great party skills
• Jump-attack using Heal
• Easily accepted into parties
• Gains EXP from healing people (More Hit Points equals More EXP)

Cons:

• Weakest damage
• Slow physical attack rate
• Due to constant massive amounts of MP used, MP recovery items turn expensive
• Leveling process pits you against same enemies over and over
• Limited enemies for heal (holy attacks undead monsters)

Thieves

Thieves are a very interesting class in MS. They can jump-attack with throwing stars and attack up close with daggers (although you will have to choose between those). They also have the coolest-looking equipment (debatable). Thieves don't get much defense, but they have high avoidability, making the enemies tend to miss. They get fast attacks instead of few strong blows, and as a 2nd class, they get one of the most fun skills in MS, Haste.

Pros:

• Fast attacks
• Range or melee
• Jump-attacks
• Cool equipment
• High accuracy and avoidability
• Fast leveling ranged
• Has a passive skill that enables them to avoid an avoidable attack for 40% when mastered

Cons:

• Low HP and defense
• Dagger thieves are hard to level
• Daggers have short range
• Claw thieves stink up-close
• Assassins tend to need an incredible amount of meso
• Thieves are also abundant

Thieves - Assassin

An Assassin (or, abbreviated, sin) is the ranged thief, using throwing stars and claws. They have more stable damage than bowmen but compared to Bandits, they do less damage in general because of the unstability. With Haste, they are very fast and fun to play. People say that sins are the most fun class.

Pros:

• More stable damage than Bowmen
• Benefits from Warrior Potions

Cons:

• Stinks fighting up-close
• Extremely expensive in meso
• Repeatedly uses Lucky Seven skill
• Sins are VERY common

Player's note: Warning, stars are extremly expensive nowadays so be prepared that if you want to get nice/strong stars, they're gonna cost you. Normal stars are less expensive than their "flashier" counterparts. (i.e. kumbis and icicles)

Thieves - Bandits

Bandits (or, strangely, abbreviated... dit) is the dagger thief, the melee kind. Although they have less HP and defense than Warriors, they can avoid many attacks and can attack fast. They get a high-damage skill during 2nd class adv called Savage Blow.

Pros:

• High damage with Savage Blow
• Less common than sins
• Much cheaper than sins
• In 4th job, they have a nice skill, called "Assassinate"; when maxed, gives four powerful strikes, with the last strike, critical.

Cons:

• Less damage than Warriors
• No ranged attacks
• Weak defense shields
• Savage Blow takes a lot of mp

NOTE: The use of Savage Blow, taking 27MP when maxed, therefore, results in use of MP pots. This does surely take up money, but not as much money as Assassins', because they have to also pay for the cost of stars.

Bowman

Bowmen can use ranged attacks, and hit very hard with them. Although useless close-range their high damage capability at ranged makes up for it. They have unstable damage at first. They are very hard to jump-attack with.

Pros:

• Extremely high max damage
• Good ranged
• Not over-abundant, in fact they are pretty uncommon, but they are very powerful but there is no strongest class anyway
• Highest accuracy among all classes
• Cheap armor, arrows
• High knockback ability

Cons:

• Unstable damage when starting out until the 2nd job advancement
• Useless up close
• Hard to jump-attack
• Slow attack and less avoidability than sins although avoidability with bowmen is pretty high
• Very long training but it'll be worth it

NOTE: Bowman are not as useless up close as sins, as the skill, power knockback (player abbreviated "PKB") knocks close enemies away much more easily.

Bowmen - Hunters

Hunters are Bowmen who use bows. Although Hunters and Crossbowmen are very similar, Hunters tend to attack faster. Hunters can hit mobs with a ranged attack skill.

Pros:

• Faster attacks
• Higher knockback
• Arrow Bomb can hit mobs in different terrain, and can stun
• In 4th Job, they have a skill called "Hurricane" or "Storm of Arrows", which can fire multiple arrows at will, until button is released. (9MP per arrow, 90% damage per arrow)

Cons:

• Lesser damage than Crossbowmen
• Arrow bomb isn't that powerful compared to iron arrow
• Slower attacks than Assassins

Bowmen - Crossbowmen

Crossbowmen are the type of Bowmen who use crossbows. Again, Hunters and Crossbowmen are very similar, Crossbowmen do higher damage at once with slower attack speed. They can attack enemies in a line.

Pros:

• Higher damage
• Crossbowmen aren't common, meaning cheaper equipment
• Iron arrow does more damage than arrow bomb
• Iron Arrow has a farther range than Arrow Bomb
• Iron Arrow can attack through walls unlike Arrow Bomb
• Requires 5 less STR, resulting in slightly higher dexterity
• Extremely good in 3rd job with Blizzard Arrow, which can freeze monsters for 3 seconds

Cons:

• Slower attacks
• Iron Arrow does not stun like Arrow Bomb

Level Power of Classes

Beginner [1-10]

Most powerful: Pre-Warriors

Least powerful: Pre-Magicians

1st class [10-20]

Most powerful: Warrior

Least powerful: Pre-Bandits

[20-30]

Most powerful: Magicians

Least powerful: Pre-Bandits

2nd Class [30-70]

Most powerful: Assassins in the beginning, then Bandits middle to end.

Least powerful: Bandits and Warrior in the beginning, Mages in the end.

3rd Class [70-120]

Most powerful: Warriors/Bowmen/Hermit, all depending on what you mean by powerful and where. (Maps, party type, solo, etc.)

Least powerful: All magicians

All classes are powerful at one time, and there will eventually be level 120+

Therefore, Mages are early gamers, Sins are early-mid gamers, bandits are mid-late gamers, and warriors and bowmen are late gamers all the way.

Hope you learned something from this read!

Conclusion

Hopefully, you have realized that there is no best class to Maple Story. All classes have their good points and bad points.

Remember class-balancing and also keep in mind that although one class might dominate at a certain level, at later levels your class may be stronger than they. Do not forget that you should also allow your personality to dominate the decision on which class to choose, rather than choosing a class because many people choose it, or because it is reccomended by your friends.