If you are having a hard time choosing a character for Maple Story, here are some suggestions to help you out.
Step 1
Decide the type of skills you would like your character to have. Make your decision based on the skills that you will enjoy using the most in the game. Think about whether you most enjoy stealth, creating damage or cruising through the game in an even-handed manner.
Step 2
Identify the skill set of each class. Obviously, each of the classes carries a different esy of playing:
Step 3
Bowmen can use ranged attacks, and hit very hard with them. Although useless in melee early on, their high damage capability at ranged makes up for it. They have unstable damage at first. They are very hard to jump-attack with.
Step 4
Pros:
Step 5
Damage starts to shine later in the game.
Step 6
Most range in the game.
Step 7
Most uncommon whole class in the game.
Step 8
Highest accuracy among all classes.
Step 9
Relatively cheap equips (especially for crossbowmen)
Step 10
High knockback ability.
Step 11
Hurricane's (Bow Master skill) speed rivals Triple Throw (Night Lord (star thief))
Step 12
Pierce (Marksman/XBow master skill) deals very, very high damage to mobs.
Step 13
Marksmen get a skill that can one-hit KO any non-boss monster.
Step 14
Arrow Eruption/Rain allows 3rd job Bowmen to mob up close.
Step 15
Cons:
Step 16
Mediocre HP, and MP.
Step 17
Unstable damage (fixed in 4th job, where you get 90% Mastery)
Step 18
Useless up close until you attain Power Knockback and Mortal Blow.
Step 19
Attack speed is slower than that of their star counterpart (especially crossbowmen)
Step 20
Movement and jumpshooting is tougher (but possible)
Step 21
NOTE: Bowman are not as useless up close as sins, as the skill, power knockback (pkb) knocks close enemies away much more easily.
Step 22
Magicians are very abundant in the MS community. You can see any class of the Magician walking around all the time. Unlike bowmen and assassins, their attacks are both melee and ranged. 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 and the skills they can contribute.
Step 23
Pros:
Step 24
Good, stable damage in 1st job advancement.
Step 25
Very good damage comeback in 4th job in the form of mob skills.
Step 26
Incredible amounts of MP and MP recovery.
Step 27
Magic Claw can attack through walls and with stable, good damage.
Step 28
Take damage through Magic Guard, in MP.
Step 29
Higher magic defense.
Step 30
Can telecast (teleport + attack skill)
Step 31
Heal, used by Clerics, Priests, and Bishops, sorta defeats the purpose for HP potions.
Step 32
Owns all the other classes at 4th job.
Step 33
Cons:
Step 34
Low weapon defense.
Step 35
Same problem with bowmen with jumpshooting.
Step 36
Low HP.
Step 37
Somewhat overpowered by other classes in 2nd job.
Step 38
Though Magic Guard helps it so they don't die, it also costs alot of mp, and mp is more expensive than hp to buy potions for. NOTE: monsters/bosses that dispel also dispel Magic Guard, so it requires fast reflexes to recast and avoid dieing)
Step 39
Training is restricted due to their reliance on elemental advantages.
Step 40
NOTE: Although other classes overpower Priests in 3rd class, they have a whole slew of party skills that attract the attention of all parties.
Step 41
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.
Step 42
Pros:
Step 43
Fast attacks.
Step 44
Range or melee.
Step 45
Can jump-attack.
Step 46
High accuracy (though not as high as Bowmen) and avoidability.
Step 47
Triple Throw's (Night Lord) speed rivals the Bow Master's Hurricane.
Step 48
Alchemist is very useful for hermits (Heals 150% more from pots, and things like onyx apple last 15 minutes instead of 10)
Step 49
Hermit's low survivability rate is made up for their good avoidability skills such as flash jump, although it takes some practice to get used to using it correctly. Also a good skill to get around faster.
Step 50
Meso Guard greatly increases bandits survivability rate.
Step 51
Meso Explode is a very powerful skill, but you have to use your own mesos for it.
Step 52
Night Lords 4th job skill Ninja Storm knocks back all monster in range and stuns them so you have more room to attack (commonly achieved in much higher levels because of the difficulty acquiring the skill)
Step 53
One of the best choices in parties for boss runs.
Step 54
Cons:
Step 55
Mediocre HP.
Step 56
Dagger thieves have the hardest time leveling in the 1st job (unless they use stars until level 30)
Step 57
Assassins generally have less defense than Bandits.
Step 58
Assassins have nothing to protect their HP (But they can HP wash, requires a bit of nx)
Step 59
Dagger thieves (Bandits) are harder to level until 3rd job.
Step 60
Daggers have short range, though fixed by Boomerang Step in 4th Job.
Step 61
Assassins tend to require more meso to maintain than other classes (especially if you become dexless or low-dex)
Step 62
Thieves are very abundant, dagger and star alike (though much more of the latter).
Step 63
Assassins are known to be KSers, but they are all mostly immature people behind the screen who like to showoff
Step 64
Warriors are mostly melee fighters. They cannot use range attacks like the other classes until later in the game. 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.
Step 65
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!
Step 66
Also, it is debatable to choose 2H, or 2handed, weapons over 1H weapons. The good news is that you can use both depending on the enviroment. 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 1H and 2H axes.
Step 67
Pros:
Step 68
Highest HP and Defense of all classes.
Step 69
Choice of 8 different weapons types.
Step 70
Can choose between 1-handed and 2-handed weapons.
Step 71
First Maplers to get a mob skill.
Step 72
Pages (mace/sword users) can use elemental charges like those of Magicians to enhance attacking in 3rd Job and beyond.
Step 73
High raw damage.
Step 74
Spearmen are wanted in parties should they have Hyper Body (increases max HP and MP by 60%)
Step 75
Cons:
Step 76
No ranged attacks until 3rd (for Spear and Polearm users) or 4th job(for every other warrior)
Step 77
White Knights/Paladins (Pages past level 70) have restricted training choices since they rely on elemental advantages (like magicians) to train efficiently.
Step 78
Lowest MP of all classes (until 3rd class).
Step 79
Axe and Mace users have relatively unstable damage throughout the whole game. Spear and pole arm users also face this problem, though this is fixed in the 3rd job. Either way, this unstable damage is akin to the damage of pre-4th job (cross)bow and claw users.
Step 80
Low accuracy + avoidability.
Step 81
Pros.
Step 82
Have both Brawler which in later levels pays off with pretty cool skills such as Transformation. Also the Gunslingers are fast, can jump shot, and have fire or ice bullets/ammunition when lvl. 70
Step 83
The job doesn't get as boring like most jobs because at the 1st and 2nd job there are pretty cool skills.
Step 84
There aren't that many of them yet so you have a better chance to be well known.
Step 85
Cons.
Step 86
Pirate can be viewed as a different version of thief. They both have somewhat a same job style consisting of either short range attacker (aka. Brawler/Bandit), or throwing objects such as stars or shooting bullets (aka. Gunslinger/Assassin).
Step 87
Also, after a while they can get boring and even annoying since the release many Pirates have invaded the hpq (Henesys Party Quest) spots and now it takes even longer to get into a party.
Step 88
Ask friends for advice. If any of your friends are already playing, ask them for some advice on the class benefits. It might help you to decide.
Step 89
Step 90
Pros.
Step 91
No EXP damage when you die.
Step 92
You don't have to decide which of the five others you could do.
Step 93
Strongest Attacks.
Step 94
Just as good as the other jobs.
Step 95
Beginner cloths = best in game.
Step 96
Being part of a unique society.
Step 97
Fastest leveling.
Step 98
Taxi is cheap.
Step 99
Cons.
Step 100
No special skills.
Tips
- Choose what best suits your game-playing skills.
- Read some of the related wikiHow articles on Maple Story for more information to help you make your decision.
- Don't try to go with the flow, if everyone likes mages or thieves, you don't have to like it, choose what class you want.
- Mages and warriors hurt a lot, the difference is that warriors have more hp and mages have a lot more mp.
- If you are a Perma-Beginner, say "thanks" or just ignore them if somebody calls you noob.
Warnings
- Don't hack; it defeats the purpose of skilled game-playing
- If you aren't satisfied with your character, you have the choice to delete it or keep it.
