Magician (Guide)
"Studying ancient studies is their virtue, so high intelligence is a top priority. Since they spend all their time researching, they may not have much of strength or stamina, and they use sticks and wands as their main weapons. For armour, they prefer light ones like robes with minimal defense. They can't put on heavy armour".
"The job order for the magicians reveals a three-way job route. In order to advance as one of these jobs, various requirements need to be fulfilled. You should take time deciding what kind of a magician you want to become down the road before committing to a route".
Introduction
Welcome to MapleWiki's guide for Magician. This is where you will find all that is needed to start playing as a Magician, as well as tips on training and building a balanced magician. I hope that you find what you are looking for.
Why Choose to be a Magician?
Magicians are a versatile class with many pros and cons:
Pros:
- Very high damage at lower levels, and thus, fastest levelling (chiefly, from 23 to 35)
- Highest amount of MP.
- Ranged attacks, some of which can go through walls.
- Decent accuracy.
- May use MP to replace HP with Magic Guard.
- Second Job advancement classes have elemental attacks; Clerics have many party skills.
- Decent damage at Third Job advancement levels.
Cons:
- Tedious training at beginning.
- Hard to make a perfect Magician.
- Very low HP.
- Very low Weapon Defense.
- Magic Guard may use much MP and, therefore, make the Magician replace HP potions with MP ones.
- MP potions cost a lot of money (e.g. 100 Blue Potions cost 20 000 mesos, 19 200 at Ellinia Department Store). This problem can be lessened once you acquire Improving MP Recovery, and later on, MP Eater.
- In Second Job advancement, low damage to monsters not belonging to a weak element.
Creating your Character
Create a new character and name it. Make sure your stats from the dice roll end up like this:
STR: 4 or 5
DEX: 4 or 5
INT: ??
LUK: ??
?? = Anything
The ideal values would be 4 or 5 in STR and DEX each. Magicians need LUK to wear equipment and INT to strengthen their magic attack. STR and DEX are not needed because, when you have done your Job advancement, your attack power relies all on your magic, so any additional points on STR or DEX are useless.
Becoming a Magician
Being a Beginner
Now that you have created your character, you can start exploring and doing the simple quests on Maple Island. Do not forget to talk to Roger, eat his apple and talk to him again, so that you can obtain three Red Potions. Also, make sure of doing Pio's quest and talking to him again to obtain the Relaxer. It is also advisable to do Please bring this letter to Lucas quest, in order to receive a hat to boost your defence a bit.
Train until level 8 hunting Snails and, ocassionally, Blue Snails. Try not to waste your time on Red Snails or Shrooms — the experience received is not worth the hits you deal. It is not advisable either to kill Orange Mushrooms upon Mai's or Biggs' request — you will have the hardest time killing them since you only do from 1 to 3 of damage.
When you reach level 8, it is time to head towards your Job advancement. Go to Southperry and pay Shanks 150 mesos. When you arrive in Victoria Island, you can talk to the man at the ticketing boot and ask him to take you to Ellinia, or you can travel on feet — first to Henesys and then to Ellinia.
Beginner Skills
A Beginner gets 1 SP each time (s)he levels-up, until level 7. You can spend these on the Beginner skills available to you. As a Magician, Recovery might be quite useful because you do not have much HP. Nimble Feet can be useful for flights and escapes, but once you acquire Teleport, it will be so no longer.
Distributing Ability Points
Every time you level-up, you gain five Ability Points (AP). These can be used to improve your Abilities — STR, DEX, INT, LUK, HP, and MP. As a Magician, you will only need LUK to wear equipment and INT for magic. When you level-up you should go to your character Stats List and organize your AP so your LUK is equal to (Level + 3); and put the rest into INT. Most players recommend not to put any AP into HP, MP, STR or DEX, since this will drammatically weaken the future magic attacks.
Exemplis grata: Let us say that a Magician has 9 of LUK and 7 of INT when (s)he creates his/her character. Therefore, his/her stat list would grow like this:
Level 2: 9 LUK, 12 INT
Level 3: 9 LUK, 17 INT
Level 4: 9 LUK, 22 INT
Level 5: 9 LUK, 27 INT
Level 6: 9 LUK, 32 INT
Level 7: 10 LUK, 36 INT
The general formula (when we finally reach (Level + 3) for LUK) is to put 1 AP into LUK and the remaining 4 AP into INT, every level.
The First Job Advancement Procedure
For Magicians, the first job advancement occurs at level 8. To advance as this, you will need to travel to the city of Ellinia and talk to Grendel the Really Old. A Beginner needs at least 20 INT to become a Magician.
When you are in Ellinia, go to the Great Library at the very top of the map, where you will find Grendel the Really Old. Talk to him about advancing as a Magician. Once you answer "yes" to his question you will gain one Skill Point (SP) along with more MP.
Congratulations! You are now a Magician! Open the skill window and spend your first SP. It is advisable to spend the first SP on Energy Bolt, an attack spell. You will need this magic attack badly so you're not stuck hitting physical ones and twos. If you would like to follow the "Hell" build, then this does not apply to you.
It is suggested that you buy a Wand, if you can afford it, from the Ellinia Weapon Store.
You can also try to get your character's level close to nine after leaving Maple Island, but nothing higher than 70 exp. points. (If you did go higher, then do not do the following tasks.) When you arrive at Victoria Island, do the quiz quest from Olaf at Lith Harbour and take the other one, Path of the Magician. To complete the quest, go to Ellinia through the man at the ticketing booth, and then to the Great Library; now, do the advancement. Only after that, talk to Grendel about the Olaf's quest. This will award you with 300 exp. points, and you will level-up! Now you have 4 SP, right after doing the Job advancement!
Off to a Start
You are now free to do what you wish, but this guide will lead you through and give you some tips on where to train and how to use your skills.
Magician Skills
You gain 3 SP every time you level up. Those can be used to strengthen your Magician. The following is a list of skills Magicians can use.
| Icon | Name and Description | Max Level | Requirements |
|---|---|---|---|
 | Improving MP Recovery: With this, you'll recover even more MP every 10 seconds.
{3 + ((Skill level/10)*(Character level))} = Amount of MP recovered every 10 sec. | 16 | — |
 | Improving Max MP Increase: While having a Level UP, if AP is used on Max MP, it raises the level of increase for Max MP.
| 10 | Improving MP Recovery level 5. |
 | Magic Armour: Temporarily boosts the weapon defence by blowing magic into the armour.
| 20 | Magic Guard level 3. |
 | Magic Guard: Temporarily replaces damage with MP instead of HP. If MP reach 0, HP take full hits.
| 20 | — |
 | Energy Bolt: Fires a ball of energy to attack one enemy.
| 20 | — |
 | Magic Claw: Uses MP to attack an enemy twice.
| 20 | Energy Bolt level 1. |
Analysis
- Improving MP Recovery. Unlike Warriors, Magicians need to maximise their recovery skill. This is due to the fact that you do not need to rest in order to recover MP. MP recovery is continuous as opposed to HP recovery, where Warriors will need to rest in order to take advantage of their recovery skills (they might prefer to simply use HP potions). Maxing this MP Recovery skill will greatly reduce a Magician's need to consume expensive MP potions. With this benefit in mind, it is recommended that you max this skill.
- Improving Max MP Increase. As you can probably see, the higher the level of this skill, the more MP you get for every level-up. (When this skill is maxed, a Magician will gain much more MP every time (s)he levels-up than compared to a Magician who has not maxed this skill.) It is recommended to max this skill as soon as possible, because a Magician can be more effective (i.e. attack more times before running out of MP) if (s)he has more Max MP.
- Magic Guard. Due to the Magicians' rather low levels of HP, some higher level monsters may be able to kill you with a single hit. With this skill maxed, we can avoid that risk. It is advisable to max this skill last because, although this skill is very important, the other skills suggested to be maxed are more significant early on in the game. People are also careful about using this skill because, if not used sparingly, it will lead to a wasting of money (as you might end up having to buy MP potions rather than the cheaper HP potions).
- Magic Armour. Most players criticise the possibility of maxing this skill because 40 of weapon defense, in the long run, would be of negligible help. Besides, if we chose to max this skill, we would mess up with every other skill as it needs three points in Magic Guard — we would need three additional points (which we would have to substract from Magic Claw, Improving MP Recovery, or Improving Max MP Increase.)
- Energy Bolt vs. Magic Claw. These are the two available attack skills for the Magician. Maxed Energy Bolt has 55 basic attack with 14 of MP cost. Maxed Magic Claw has two hits of 40 basic attack (40 x 2) with 20 of MP cost. That means that Energy Bolt's effectivity would be of:
(3.93 Basic attack) for (1 MP),
- and Magic Claw's would be of:
(2 Basic attack + 2 Basic attack) for (1 MP).
- So that, if the target monster has little or no Magic Defence, Magic Claw's effectiveness would be greater than Energy Bolt's. In addition, Magic Claw can do more damage than Energy Bolt in the same amount of time: compare 55 base damage to two times 40 base damage (80), and both spells taking about the same time to cast. Moreover, Magic Claw can go through obstacles (like walls), unlike Energy Bolt. That is why almost all players choose to max Magic Claw over Energy Bolt. However, opposers of this skill argue that Energy Bolt is more effective with high-Magic Defence monsters, because their Magic Defence value is applied twice on Magic Claw and only once on Energy Bolt. This argument is flimsy though, because by the time you're facing these stronger monsters, you should've already acquired more effective attacking skills (i.e. from the Second or Third Job Advancement skill books).
- The only real reasons for choosing Energy Bolt over Magic Claw would be either because the monsters you are killing take one hit of Energy Bolt to kill (using Energy Bolt, therefore, would save 6 MP per cast) or because you would rather higher damage in one hit than medium damage in two hits (this would allow for knockbacks of certain monsters more often — but knockbacks occur rather infrequently anyway).
Skill Distribution Charts
Here are some recommended skill charts or builds to help you decide where to put those Skill Points:
First-Timer Build, or Meso-Saving Build
This build is the most common for all tiers of players (from beginner to advanced). It aims to maximise recovery skills before adding points to Magic Claw. Because it does not use up a lot of MP at lower levels, you will not need to spend much money on potions with this build.
Level 8: 1 to Energy Bolt
Level 9: 3 to Improving MP Recovery
Level 10: 2 to Improving MP Recovery, 1 to Improving Max MP Increase
Levels 11-13: 3 to Improving Max MP Increase per level (maxed at lv. 10)
Levels 14-16: 3 to Improving MP Recovery per level
Level 17: 2 Improving MP Recovery (maxed), 1 Magic Claw
Levels 18-23: 3 Magic Claw per level
Level 24: 1 Magic Claw (maxed), 2 Magic Guard
Levels 25-30: 3 Magic Guard per level (maxed at lv. 30)
Power-Levelling Build
The opposite of the above, this build is aimed for those who have money and are willing to spend it on potions. People following this build will level faster from level 15 onwards.
Level 8: 1 Energy Bolt
Level 9: 3 Improving MP Recovery
Level 10: 2 Improving MP Recovery, 1 Inmproving Max MP Increase
Levels 11-13: 3 Improving Max MP Increase per level (maxed at lv. 10)
Levels 14-19: 3 Magic Claw per level
Level 20: 2 Magic Claw (maxed), 1 Improving MP Recovery
Levels 21-23: 3 Improving MP Recovery per level
Level 24: 1 Improving MP Recovery (maxed), 2 Magic Guard
Levels 25-30: 3 Magic Guard (maxed at lv. 30)
"Hell" Build
This build will give you the most MP possible. However, you will still be stuck hunting snails until level 13. Only try this is you have a lot of patience, cf. the name — hell. Of course, there is always the option of finding a stronger friend to help you out (party) until you get Energy Bolt.
Level 8: 1 Improving MP Recovery
Level 9: 3 Improving MP Recovery
Level 10: 1 Improving MP Recovery, 2 Improving Max MP Increase
Levels 11 and 12: 3 Improving Max MP Increase per level
Level 13: 2 Improving Max MP Increase (maxed), 1 Energy Bolt
Levels 14-16: 3 Improving MP Recovery per level
Level 17: 2 Improving MP Recovery (Maxed!), 1 Magic Claw
Levels 18-23: 3 Magic Claw per level
Level 24: 1 Magic Claw (maxed), 2 Magic Guard
Levels 25-30: 3 Magic Guard (maxed at lv. 30)
Training
Training is one manner of gaining experience, and it includes doing a Party Quest or Quests. There are two different "styles" of training to level-up:
Normal Levelling
This type of training is somewhat effective for Magicians, since they recover MP fairly rapidly. To level this way, buy few potions and only use them when you are about to die. When you run out of MP, stand in a safe spot and wait, and, if you want, do something else — for instance, make good use of your time doing interesting things — while your MP recovers. This method is slower than power levelling, but will allow you to save mesos.
Power Levelling
This type of training is very expensive, sometimes costing more than you earn from the monsters you hunt. Basically, what you do is buy about 50 to 100 MP potions and about 25 to 50 HP potions. Fight your training monsters without resting for too long to regain MP. Everytime you see your MP is on the low side, use a few of the MP potions you have. Even with this method, you should rest every once in a while, unless you are funded and can afford to waste mesos on potions. When you reach Second Job advancement, this problem is prone to diminish, because you acquire MP Eater and, in the case of Clerics and Wizards (Ice/Lighting), because of multi-target skills like Heal and Thunderbolt — this way, you end up using fewer potions and thus, you don't waste a lot of money.
Potion Use
- Main article: List of MP potions/foods
- Main article: List of HP potions/foods
As you level-up, you will need to consume potions or food according to your Max MP or Max HP and their usage, so that you don't need to have or use too many potions at once. Put your mouse over the image of the potion to see how much MP and HP you recover when you use it.
MP:
HP:
Training Spots
Magicians, due to their versatility, are able to hunt many different kinds of monsters. However, in order to do rapid levelling, they sometimes need to focus on a particular kind of monster. Here is some advice.
- Levels 1 to 7 (before the obtaining of Energy Bolt): Snails and Blue Snails on Maple Island; chiefly at Snail Hunting Ground I. You might see that, as other Beginners level-up, they are able to face stronger monsters. Don't be jealous nor try to invest AP into STR, as even a single point in STR is a waste. You should try and do the simple quests and train with weak monsters until level eight.
- Levels 8 to 13 (with Energy Bolt): Blue Snails, Shrooms and Red Snails; occasionally, Stumps, Slimes and Orange Mushrooms. All of them around Henesys, chiefly at Henesys Hunting Grounds, Forest West of Henesys or The Hill East of Henesys. Magicians following "hell" build should still hunt Snails.
- Levels 13 to 18 (with Energy Bolt and early levels of Magic Claw): The election can be made between Slimes at Dungeon, Southern Forest I or The Tree That Grew I and II and Orange Mushrooms at Henesys Hunting Grounds or Mushroom Garden.
- Levels 18 to 21 or 23: It is now time to take on Pigs and Ribbon Pigs at Pig Beach ot The Rain-Forest East of Henesys. While in Pig Beach, try to avoid the occasional Iron Hog — do not hit it, as it will start to pursue you until you leave, change channels, or someone kills it. If you cannot train because of a high amount of people hunting, you can stay with Orange Mushrooms until level 21, or try with Green Mushrooms, which are stronger than Pigs.
- Levels 21 or 23 to 28: Green Mushrooms and Horned Mushrooms at Tree Dungeons near Ellinia. From level 23, some people opt for the Horned Mushrooms only at Ant Tunnel I; and others prefer hunting Stirges at Transfer Area in Kerning City Underground, but beware — in some worlds, this location is full of hackers. Another choice would be Kerning City Party Quests (PQs), a special kind of quest that requires a party of four, which offers nice rewards and experience. The main problem with PQs is that only one party can be doing a PQ at any one time per channel. There are always many people trying to enter, and waiting for the PQ might take quite a while. However, since you are now powerful, you will have no problem being accepted into a party.
- Levels 28 to 30: Until level 31, you can still do PQs. But some players will find it boring or time-demanding, so they prefer hunting monsters like Wild Boars at Land of Wild Boar and Land of Wild Boar II and Zombie Mushrooms at Ant Tunnel, along with Horned Mushrooms. If you find Wild Boars and Zombie Mushrooms take too much MP (i.e. if you cannot take them down with one hit), you can stick with Green and Horned Mushrooms until level 30 — by which time you will be onto your Second Job advancement.