==>Magician Guide List <==
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// MAPLE STORY //
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// "PARTY CLERIC" WALKTHROUGH //
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// LAST UPDATED: 31 JULY 2005 //
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//TABLE OF CONTENTS// (the line numbers may be used for quick CNTL-F)
#1# Introduction
#2# Beginners, Sign Up Here!
#3# The Early Mage
#4# Becoming A Cleric
#5# Cleric Skills (And What I'm Telling You To Do With Them)
#6# The Almighty Priest (And His Symbol Of Holiness)
#7# Where Should I Be Levelling?
#8# FAQs Directly Related To This Topic
#9# Version History
#10# Contact Info (And Advisories)
#11# Thank-yous
//#1#//
//Introduction//
So, you want to be a "party" cleric, hm? Or, possibly you want to be
a cleric, but have no idea what one means by "party" cleric... can't
all clerics join parties?
Well, of course. Otherwise NO ONE would be a cleric. BUT... there's
a right and a wrong way to being a cleric which is completely set up
for optimum partying. A common thought process, for example, is: the
more expensive the spell, the flashier the spell, the more effective.
Right? WRONG! I'll explain that down below, as well.
Keep in mind, it's perfectly possible to make a cleric who can jump
into battle and do as much or more than your other mages, or even
sometimes (most of the time, really) anyone else. However... if you
want your cleric to have MP to heal with when people start taking
hits, WITHOUT burning through every Pure Water on your channel...
pay attention.
//#2#//
//Beginners, Sign Up Here!//
OK, so here we are, the character creation screen. Why so far back,
you ask? Some people DO NOT understand the stats system. And I'm
here to explain a bit about it.
Your stats, on the right, look like this:
STR (#)
DEX (#)
INT (#)
LUK (#)
With the (#)s being replaced by your actual "rolled" values. With
me so far? Good. What you're looking for is the LOWEST POSSIBLE
STR and DEX values you can get. If you get STR 4 and DEX 4, you're
probably in good shape. If you've got STR 9 and INT 4... you MIGHT
wanna consider re-rolling. Keep in mind that INT and LUK will be
your primary skills, BUT... if for some reason, you happen to get
a 4/4/6/6 or anything similar which gives you a higher LUK than
you might expect, it's still worth it to keep it. Your LUK should
end up 3 higher than your level, so if you take this, just dump
everything into INT until your level catches back up.
A word of warning: No matter HOW tempting it may be, DO NOT take
a STR or DEX of above 5. EVER. AT ALL. This eats up your valuable
AP, which could be going into INT or LUK. (Some people say 4/1, and
I tend to agree, though if you start getting behind on LUK, feel
free to adjust for a level or two til you catch up. LUK, as stated
above, should always be JUST fine at 3 more than your level.)
OK, so you've created, and you're walking through the beginning.
Your first few levels are key... you need an INT of 20 by the time
you get to level 8, and you should be in Ellenia IMMEDIATELY after
levelling, just to be safe. Trust me on this... you DON'T want to
waste a level as a beginner. That's 3 fewer SP to spend. And SP
are your skills' lifeblood, after all.
//#3#//
//The Early Mage//
Go to Ellenia. Go to the top of the city. Talk to Grendel. Pretty
straight-forward, right? It really is simple.
OK, so Grendel says you look like you're ready, gives you a bunch
of MP, a spellbook of sorts, and ONE WHOLE SP. What do you spend
it on? (Anyone who says other than Magic Bolt needs to be shot NOW.)
That's right, Magic Bolt. Kinda a waste being a mage without an
attack spell, right? Right. Get that point into Magic Bolt and start
blasting stuff on the first screen south, a large crisscrossed series
of paths known as the Field South of Ellenia. At this point, with a
good INT, you *should* be able to take out Stumps and Slimes in 2 or
3 hits max. AVOID the green mushrooms, for they spell death at this
level, and now that you've advanced, you CANNOT afford to die.
(For those who find slimes still too much a challenge, there's
always the option, as much as I hate saying it, of heading down to
Henesys, or specifically, the Hill East of Henesys. There's plenty
of blue and red snails there, as well as small mushrooms, all of
which should be easy enough fodder for you. The only conflict of
this concept is that there are many people there, and at lower
levels, someone may go for a cheap KS.)
Get a level! So many choices, and only 3SP to spend... where should
you put it? I recommend, for the first 5 or so levels at least, to
dump all your SP into Max MP Increase and MP Regen. Max MP Increase
raises how much your MP goes up every time you level, and whenever
you pump AP into INT. (Also if you put AP into MP, but I'm assuming
my readers wouldn't do such a foolish, foolhardy thing. :P) MP Regen
does just what it sounds like: regenerates your MP. (As far as I can
tell, it's based on LV + skill LV. Which means, at 30, with max, you
would get 50MP back every 10 seconds. Not too shabby.)
Next skill to work on is... MAGIC BOLT. Now, most people will call
for a straightjacket for me, but hear me out. Its max cost is 14,
as opposed to Claw's 20. It does roughly 5%-10% less damage than
BOTH claws. Its only real weakness is its inability to go THROUGH
some objects, and its projectile tracking. However, for the party
cleric, it's the perfect self-defense: maxed out, at L30, you're
hitting for an average of 280-380 a bolt. Not too shabby, since
part of the main fodder at this level has 300HP. (Note: Keep in
mind, often your damage will look like less than that of those who
are using the Claw. A lot of this has to do with Bolt's lower
mastery percentage... your range is larger than theirs. The 5%-10%
I mentioned above is based on max numbers, not on min numbers.
With mins, it's closer to 15%.)
Once you've got Bolt maxed, start investing in Magic Guard. Sure,
it SOUNDS scary... your MP, run out?... but remember kids, if you
end up with 0 MP, you can heal it... 0 HP is only revivable.
When you get to about level 25, you can start getting in on the
wonderful and oft-times trying Party Quest. (NOT recommended below
that level, due to some of the monsters you'll face within.) Go
to Kerning, and simply state "Looking for PQ" with your level and
class. Many times, mages will get in easier, because they are WELL
known for their power and range. I'm not posting a guide here on
how to do the PQ, because... well, that's not what this is. If you
are new to PQ and need a guide, check out the guide available on
http://www.hidden-street.net. It's quite comprehensive.
//#4#//
//Becoming A Cleric//
So, between levelling and PQs, you've managed to make level 30.
Now, head back to Ellenia, and talk to Grendel again. He'll praise
your newfound strength and ask if you'd like to test it. (Of course
you would.) He'll tell you to head to the instructor, who's located
at the very top of the Forest North of Ellenia. Get up there, and
he'll send you into a special map. All the monsters there are about
3x their normal HP, and roughly twice their normal physical attack.
They also give no experience, and have no normal drops. HOWEVER,
they drop (80% or so of the time) an item known as the Dark Marble.
Collect 30 of these, and talk to the instructor inside. He will
give you the Proof of the Hero and tell you to go back to Grendel.
Grendel will say, basically, that he knew all along you'd succeed,
and will give you the choice of which path to take. (If you're
reading this, it's pretty obvious you're going for cleric, but...
feel free to read the descriptions, if you'd like.) Choose cleric,
and he'll go on about service to God and helping fellow man, and
give you another spellbook, more MP, and send you back off into
the world to be a do-gooder. (Warms the heart, doesn't it?)
//#5#//
//Cleric Spells (And What I'm Telling You To Do With Them)//
Oh yea, he gave you 1SP again. (Cheap, huh.) You have TWO possible
choices for what to do with that: either invest in a level of
teleport, or a level of heal. (Heal is OK at level 1, but not
impressive. Same goes for teleport. This is really YOUR decision.)
Now, as you keep going, you're still getting SP each time you
level. I recommend getting Heal up as fast as possible, sneaking
in a point or two of Teleport fairly early (hey, it'll be useful
from time to time), and NOT forgetting about Invincible. Invincible
is a key spell at this point, because once you get it to 5, you
unlock Bless, which is one of the most important spells for party
clerics to have. On soloing, it's an OK spell, but when in a party
you're giving those buffs to your entire team. (Not so shabby, hm?)
Holy Arrow is OK when you've got everything else tacked down, as
either the soloing tool or a new defensive, but I recommend maxing
out pretty much everything else first. (MP Eater, by the by, is a
waste and should be THE LAST thing on your list. It works 30% of
the time and only absorbs from magic attacks. You're better off
with potions in the long run.)
================================================================
A note about MP Eater (courtesy of Patrick Starfire, by email):
>>i believe your logic on mp eater is wrong. i have seen people
>>sniping copper drakes from a safe spot where the drakes cant
>>reach, and the blue flashes that indicate the MP Eater worked
>>(its a blue sparkle following the movement of your hand as you
>>cast the spell) happened relatively often, even though:
>>1) as i said, the drakes cant reach that area
>>2) they're copper drakes. they cant fire projectiles
================================================================
//#6#//
//The Almighty Priest (And His Symbol Of Holiness)//
As I've not yet gotten to this point (nor has anyone, to my
knowledge, at the time of writing this FAQ) I can only postulate
what, precisely, we'll be doing here. So I'll skip to the spells
and skills, which I *do* have access to a list of. :P
Dispel is nice, removing statuses of your party members (meaning
poison, weak, blind, etc) while ALSO dispelling the positive
effects on enemies around the caster (and possibly the party
members as well, though as I said, I haven't seen just yet). If
for nothing else, get it for that and because it's a gateway
spell to the one you REALLY want.
Mystic Door is... well, it's there. If you don't have scrolls
of nearest town, I suppose, it'd be useful. Depends on how rare
they intend to make Magic Rocks, one of which is consumed every
time you cast this (if you have none, you can't cast, similar
to MP). I'd say keep this for later... only positive side to
it is that it lasts for a length (120 seconds at mastery), so
your party members can run to town, restock on potions, and
come back without missing a beat.
Element Resistance. What can I say, elemental attacks will end
up being nasty by the time you get your grubby little hands on
this, so this passive skill might well prove useful. Shutting
out half the damage from elemental skills and spells (at master
level, 20) will likely prove VERY useful.
Doom... well, well, well. This sounds like a VERY fun spell to
use on swarms of nasty monsters that're all attacking you. Turns
each and every one of them, as long as they're not super-powerful,
into snails. Including appearance. Now, keep in mind that this
uses up a Magic Rock as well, so this should be fairly rare a
thing to use unless you have 5 or 6 stacks of the things and
getting them on almost every drop. Still, it's almost like a
screen-clearing blast of energy. Cept the monsters are still, to
an extent, there. This also appears to be something absolutely
of no real value against "boss" monsters (MushMom, King Slime,
and their ilk), but still impressive.
Shining Ray... another of those spells you'll probably want to
avoid til towards the end, since it's an attack spell. Still,
though, if blasting through hoards of monsters rather than using
Heal consistently appeals to you, or if you've got MP to burn
and THEN some, you might want to invest in this one. Just don't
make it a priority... THAT'S coming up.
Summon Dragon. Yes, you read right, SUMMON DRAGON. You literally
summon a dragon, who fights beside you for a varying length of
time (at master level of 30, 140 seconds) and who gets nastier
the higher level the spell is. Its damage ratings, if I am
correct, will be SIGNIFICANTLY higher than Shining Ray's, even
if it's an attacker rather than a multi-target spell. Look for
this to be the Priest's ultimate attack. DEFINATELY worth the
cost, and almost guaranteed to be worth the Magic Stone it
costs to use it.
Holy Symbol, the creme de la creme of the good Party Cleric.
This spell should be maxed as soon as physically possible. It
has a Dispel L3 pre-requisite, which should be no issue to
obtain, since Dispel is useful anyways. This spell, when cast,
increases the XP gained by the entire party. The length of spell
AND the percent increase BOTH go up as it levels, to a max of
150% increase for 2 whole minutes. And costs 80MP, which anyone
who's made it to Cleric can attest is literally NOTHING. (And
by this time, by my calculations, you should restore that minor
expenditure in your next MP Regen cycle. :P) Note that this
spell does NOT cost a Magic Rock, as some of the other spells
at this stage do, so it's literally spammable... as soon as it
is starting to run out, throw it out again so people never have
to miss a beat. (Or carry a small stack of magic pots, in case
it really becomes an issue. Which you SHOULD have such a stack
from the time you enter the Dungeon (L18 or so) on. Period.)
================================================================
A note about Magic Rocks and Summoning Rocks (courtesy of
DDragon962, by email):
>>Sup, I just read your FAQ about being a Party Cleric. Anyways,
>>in it you mentioned not knowing how rare Magic and Summoning Rocks
>>are. Well there's a dude in El Nath who's called Alcester and gives
>>you a Level 60 quest. After finishing the quest you can buy Magic
>>and Summoning Rocks from him for 5000 mesos. So, by that level
>>they aren't rare at all.
================================================================
Also, according to Hidden Street, certain common monsters will drop
these (though I believe they probably will hold out until either after
this quest or until you've reached the 3rd Job Advancement, though
once again, this is purest here-say).
//#7#//
//Where Should I Be Levelling?//
First, let's lay a common and tragic misunderstanding to rest:
those of you who run around, killing Lupins at 30, and wondering
why you never level? It's because it takes you 2 minutes to kill
one Lupin. 2 minutes for 77XP is abhorrent. Why, you could easily
kill 40 Horned Shrooms in that time, which are 35XP apiece. So,
to recap, which is better: 77XP? or 700XP? Thought so. The key is
NOT XP per monster, but XP over time. Granted, if you can kill
Horned Shrooms in one hit, but you're farming Red Snails, you are
getting nowhere fast... but if you can one-hit Horned Shrooms,
but are wasting 5 minutes and all your MP on a single Drake, you
are wasting a lot of valuable time. And time is XP, if you do it
right.
Keep in mind, this is a guide for solo-levelling. If you're in a
group, choose somewhere your strongest member can easily kill, but
your weakest member won't be overpowered (or where there's places
for that member to go in case of emergency healing). This may not
be the end-all, be-all of lists, but... it's certainly a smooth
start.
LEVEL 1-8 : Maple Island. Stick to Blue Snails when possible,
since your lower attack power makes Red Snails and Orange Mush a
bit difficult to kill. (Keep in mind, though, the quest for the
Fruits Knife... this will help til your job advancement. Although
in my opinion, and it might be just that, it'd be almost more worth
your time to get the razor... something you can use before you get
fitted for robes.)
LEVEL 9-13 : Either one map south of Ellenia (Slimes and Stumps,
but avoid the Green Mush and Axe Stumps) or around Henesys (Snails
of all types, occasional Pigs and Ribbon Pigs, Mushrooms). This
should make a good, steady XP gain until you get to where you can
easily kill the Orange Shrooms that occasionally appear.
LEVEL 14-19 : Hidden Street -- Mushroom Garden is a good place to
work with now, because you've got Orange Shrooms, which are decent
kills worth quite a chunk of XP. Conversely, about now, you can
also go kill Green Shrooms by Ellenia, if you're careful, and most
types of Stumps, again being careful.
LEVEL 20-24 : Ant Hill I is a good place to be now. It's a bit of
a challenge at first, so I recommend updating your potion selection
to include Orange Potions instead of the Red you've likely been
surviving on until now... you may need the quicker heal. However,
once you get the rhythm down, and a good spot to work with, this is
quick XP that will carry you to 25 nicely.
LEVEL 25-30 : Party Quest is the name of the game from here on out,
with the occasional return to the Ant Hill if waiting around and
bad parties start annoying you. It's an excellent way to both level
and to get some rare items, ores, scrolls, and whatnot. Once you
hit 30 and become a Cleric, go back and finish off your level there
also... never too late to get one last PQ.
LEVEL 31+ : From here on out, you should be able to find groups to
party with, so you shouldn't need to worry about this. If you fail
to do so, however, I recommend either going after Evil Eyes, Curse
Eyes, or Fierries (all either Sleepywood or Ellenia areas)
for decent
XP without too terribly much effort. Or, if your levelling seems too
slow at this point going this route, try farming Horned Shrooms and
the occasional Zombie Shroom. Since now you should be one-hit killing
the Horned almost every time, and two-hitting the Zombies as often,
they will be a nice, steady supply of XP until you level a bit more.
From there, find your favorite easy-to-kill monster (I recommend the
Eyes still for this) and just keep moving up the chain.
Another option at this point is Orbis Tower. Granted, it might seem
slow, but given the population in the tower, this is probably the
smoothest levelling you could ask for until around 37 or 38, when
it becomes vastly easier to kill the various Jrs. in the Garden of
Three Colors and Beyond, or even the Star Pixies. (This, of course,
for those who believe Ossyria really is worth it. I'm of two minds,
at this point, but I'm coming around towards Ossyria.)
//#8#//
//FAQs Directly Related To This Topic//
Q: Why are you using Magic Bolt? Don't you know the Claw is
better? (Or any of a million variants of this question.)
A: I explained above... it's there as a cheap self-defense
mechanism, nothing more. As a Party Cleric, you've got people
who need to be kept alive... it's your place to do THAT, not
to attack yourself. If you are under attack, use the bolt for
a nice chunk of quick damage, until it's time to replace it
with Holy Arrow.
Q: This is gonna mess up people's characters. (Or any of a
million variants on THIS.)
A: Not if they're planning on being a Party Cleric. If they
intend to solo more often than not, and want full ability to
be able to run about and kill things like a regular mage,
then take whichever spell you prefer, in whatever order you
like. But if you want to be there to heal and NOT to run off
and leave your party to die, do as I say. :P
Q: Why can't I ever seem to get good XP this way?
A: Because you're probably fighting monsters either that take
too much effort to kill, or are FAR too weak to be worthwhile.
Find the strongest monster you can kill in one or two hits,
and watch the XP roll in. Usually, around L35 and so, you
should still be making around .02% off most early-Dungeon
monsters, but if you're fighting Slimes, you're getting almost
nothing for XP.
Q: Why don't you recommend MP Eater?
A: MP Eater, at best, is 30% effective. For those of you who
get 10% scrolls to work EVERY TIME, sure, it'll be nice to
never really spend your MP. However, for those of us that
live in the real world, 30% is pretty low a probability of
hitting, and since your best bet would be Zombie Lupins or
Wraiths for this, let's do the math. (Let's also assume that
MP Eater and E. Bolt are maxed, and that you're L40 or some
similar in this manner.) You will require roughly 3~4 bolts,
I believe, to kill one Z. Lupin. Given sheer probability, 1
hit MIGHT go off per monster. The laws of probability claim
that 3 of 10 hits should be effective. However, that's like
taking a 10-sided die and claiming, if you roll it 10 times,
each number will come up once. Ever tried it? As much as it
is probable, the odds are stacked. Similar to this situation.
Sure, it's probable to do it, and it's probable to get 40MP
from a Zombie Lupin to counter the 56MP you're spending to
kill it, by simply having it activate once every monster.
(As said before, those of you who get that lucky should be
spending more time putting 10% scrolls into EQ.) So yes,
in this unlikely situation, that'll be useful. And as the
last thing you get, it's not too terribly hateful and/or
harmful.
[Further FAQs will be added as I get them, which I'm sure
I will. It's part of the inevitability of writing a FAQ.]
//#9#//
//Version History//
0.83 Fixed some faulty info I'd had about MP Eater, along
with a couple random notes here and there, as I reread my
former writings. (DATE: 31 JULY 2005)
0.82 Notes about Magic Rocks and Summoning Rocks. (DATE: 07
JULY 2005)
0.81 Added a couple notes to clear up misunderstandings, and
also added a Where-To-Level guide. (DATE: 03 JULY 2005)
0.8 Initial Release, took about an hour to write. Still need
to actually confirm a number of Priest, as well as a list of
ArchBishop, abilities. (DATE OF SUBMISSION: 17 JUNE 2005)
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