==>All Maplestory Guide List<==

==>Thief Guide List <==

Guide to Dagger Assassins

Stage 1: A New World, A New Beginning

Okay, so you're a new guy. Gotta learn the basics first, right?

Creating your character

When creating your character, your dice roll should be as follows:

• STR: Depends. If you want to follow a STR Bandit style, then this shouldn't matter. If you're going to follow a LUK Bandit, roll a 4.
  
• DEX: Doesn't matter.
  
• INT: Roll a 4.
  
• LUK: Doesn't matter.

I'm going to follow a LUK Bandit style, so my STR will be a 4.

Training And Progress

You begin your journey on Maple Island, the land of beginnings. You'll be treated to a tutorial and some easy quests so you can get accustomed to Maple Story.

Right now, you should be training on Green Snails, Blue Snails, and Shrooms. Red Snails are far too hard to kill for the experience you gain, so avoid those. Orange Mushrooms are very fierce monsters, especially at such a level you're currently in, so avoid those unless you want to complete every single quest on Maple Island.

When you level up, put all your ability points into DEX at first. This is needed because in order to become a thief, you need to have 25 DEX at Level 10. After your DEX is 25, put all your points into LUK. LUK is the source of power among all thieves, Bandits and Assassins alike. It goes without saying that you're going to put a lot of points into this stat.

Stage 2: The Rising Thief

All right, you got your Thief status. Now your strength with daggers has increased and you can now use throwing stars! As you try out both the ways of daggers and stars, you realize the severe weaknesses that both the Assassins and Bandits have to deal with. Assassins' melee fighting abilities are practically nil, while Bandits can only fight melee. Why not use both?

In the beginning, your range with throwing stars is horrible. Start off training with your dagger until you get some Skill Points into Keen Eyes.

Training and progress

As a Dagger Assassin, you trade in some strength for versatility. This means you're going to end up fighting slightly weaker monsters than others do.

Myself, I trained on Slimes in Ellinia all the way to level 20, tackling the occassional Green Mushroom that gets in my way. Slimes are very easy to take out for how much experience it gives you, and their occassional Slime Bubble drops can add up for some nice mesos.

After level 20, you can try and deal with Green Mushrooms regularly and the occassional Horned Mushroom on occassion. If you're ever out of potions and you find yourself running short on money, training with Slimes for easy EXP and Mesos is a great way to go, regardless of what your level is.

As you progress leveling up from Level 10 onwards, keep your DEX at your level x2. (Example: If you're level 17, your DEX should be 34) Put the rest into LUK.

Skill Point Distribution

As for skills, it's pretty much an open fork. You can develop your dagger skills or your star skills first. Take one path or the other here, do not stop in the middle of one and start the other unless you want to waste your MP. Regardless of which discipline you want to develop first, the Dark Sight skill is top priority, then Keen Eyes. Dark Sight allows you to hide in the shadows, so you won't get hurt. On top of that, it gives you some time to exchange weapons in case things get ugly. Also, without Keen Eyes your ability as a star thrower turns out horrible.

• Job Advancement: +1 Disorder
  
• Level 11: +2 Disorder, +1 Dark Sight
  
• Level 12: +3 Nimble Body
  
• Level 13: +3 Keen Eyes
  
• Level 14: +3 Keen Eyes
  
• Level 15: +2 Nimble Body, +1 Double Stab/Lucky Seven (One or the other)
  
• Level 16: +3 Double Stab/Lucky Seven (Keep adding to whichever skill you started on Level 15)
  
• Level 17: +3 Double Stab/Lucky Seven
  
• Level 18: +3 Double Stab/Lucky Seven
  
• Level 19: +3 Double Stab/Lucky Seven
  
• Level 20: +3 Double Stab/Lucky Seven
  
• Level 21: +3 Double Stab/Lucky Seven
  
• Level 22: +1 Double Stab/Lucky Seven (mastered)
  
• Level 23: +3 Double Stab/Lucky Seven (Whichever you haven't mastered yet)
  
• Level 24: +3 Double Stab/Lucky Seven
  
• Level 25: +3 Double Stab/Lucky Seven
  
• Level 26: +3 Double Stab/Lucky Seven
  
• Level 27: +3 Double Stab/Lucky Seven
  
• Level 28: +3 Double Stab/Lucky Seven
  
• Level 29: +2 Double Stab/Lucky Seven (mastered), +1 Dark Sight
  
• Level 30: +3 Dark Sight

Stage 3: The Turning Point: Level 30

As you approach the turning point that is Level 30, you start to look into the future. "Should I be a Bandit, or an Assassin?" You've come to realize that bandit are way better because of their savage blow attack, so you start to focus on your daggar disciplines. But, there are times when your beloved claw is needed to wipe out the mob you surely couldn't do with your daggar in your situation. (Tch, stupid tiny platforms.) After what seemed to be hours of reflection, you've decided to become an official Bandit. So, you approach the Dark Lord and ask for the test...

The Job Advancement Test

When you approach the Dark Lord to take the test, he'll give you something to show to the Thief Job Instructor in the West Construction Site. (Note: I can't recall the item or the actual name of the area, someone help.) Show this to the Instructor and the test will commence.

This is basically one big training session. The downside is, you get no EXP whatsoever, so you're best off finishing this as soon as possible.

The objective of the test is to collect 30 Dark Marbles in a special area filled with Blue Mushrooms and weakened Cold Eyes. Before you take the test, make sure you stock up on potions. Lots of potions. You're going to need them because you can only get the 30 Marbles in one go, so if you have to go because you ran out of potions, all the marbles you collected are gone.

Once you clear the test, congratulations! You'll get a letter from the Instructor to show to the Dark Lord. Show that to the Lord and you'll get your job advancement. Congratulations, you're now an official bandit!

Stage 4: The Stage of Evolution: Level 70

I haven't reached this point in the game, and I won't be there for a while...

Appendix: Pure Vs. Dagger Assassin

If you're torn on deciding whether to be a Pure Assassin or a Dagger Assassin, this little section might help you.

Pure Assassins

Most importantly (and obviously), since Pure Assassins focus on their one discipline, they're capable of doing a lot more damage compared to Dagger Assassins. But then again, this discipline offers almost nil power when it comes to melee fighting. That means when these poor guys are caught in a mob where there's no breathing room to throw a star, they'll have a lot more difficulty dealing with it.

Also, since Pure Assassins only use claws, those skill points spent on Double Stab can be invested elsewhere, allowing Nimble Body or Dark Sight to be more developed than Dagger Assassins.

For Dagger Assassins, they (are supposed to) carry two weapons at all times: a dagger and a claw (with stars, of course). Pure Assassins only have to worry about a claw and stars. This means as Pure Assassins level up, they won't need to spend as much as Dagger Assassins.

Dagger Assassins

The top reason why an assassin may become a Dagger Assassin is because they want to have the ability to fight well in melee. When a Pure Assassin can't clear that packed mob on the tiny platform, the Dagger Assassin can jump in, switch to his/her dagger, and wipe out the mob before you can say Leeroy Jenkins.

Also, what does an Assassin do when they're out of stars? Run, right? What if they can't? They have to resort to melee fighting with something, whether a dagger, the claw's fist, or some axe you picked up. When a Dagger Assassin runs out of stars, they got a dagger holstered at their waist, ready to be pulled out for some quick finishes. Pure Assassins can't fight well with daggers, so they have no choice but to run! (Or attempt to finish it off with a dagger. Highly unlikely.)

Even though Pure Assassins have more pros than Dagger Assassins, the two Dagger Assassin's strengths over their Pure counterparts is huge. The ability to fight in melee may just save your life. It saved mine more than once.

==>All Maplestory Guide List<==

==>Thief Guide List <==