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Poison Mist FAQ

Table of Contents



1. Why should I get poison mist?

2. Is poison mist based on my INT or magic attack?

3. Are there any second job skills I should make sure I have if I’m picking mist?

4. How do I use poison mist?

5. But I heard that leveling with poison mist is slow. Is that true?

6. How do I know that a monster has been poisoned?

7. Does the 'seconds' part in the poison mist description mean the poison cloud lasts that long or that the monster is poisoned for that long?

8. Won’t I get KSed by other players?

9. Do I need level 28 poison mist or level 30?

10. Do I need booster for poison mist?

11. You’ve convinced me. Poison mist sounds great! But when should I get it in third job?

12. Why has nobody told me to get poison mist before? A lot of the guides say I should choose magic composition or explosion!

13. You forgot/no that’s not right/what about/but also…?





1. Why should I get poison mist?



Poison mist is one of the most unique and powerful third job mob skills in Maple Story. When used correctly, it will allow you to level extremely quickly and can be a lot of fun.



Poison mist is one of the few skills that can do damage to a monster without aggravating it and making it attack you. In fact, mist can do strong damage to monsters that are nowhere near the mage that casted it—essentially damaging monsters while the mage is off in another part of the map.



Unlike all other mob skills in Maple Story, the number of monsters that can be affected by a poison mist cloud at any one time is not set at some predetermined limit, such as 3 or 6 at once. Instead, mist can damage a theoretically infinite number of monsters at the same time. Because of this special aspect of the skill, on some maps and in certain situations, a poison mist mage will outdamage every other class in the game including Dragon Knights.



Compared to your other third job options, magical composition and explosion, poison mist is actually useful even with just a few points in it. More on this later.



2. Is poison mist based on my INT or magic attack?



No. The damage caused to a monster when it is poisoned depends on these factors:



- the total hit points of the monster

- the duration of the poison mist skill

- the strength of the poison mist skill



A monster that is poisoned by maxed mist will take damage at a rate of 1/40th (2.5%) of the monster’s total HP per second for 40 seconds. The poison itself will not kill the monster, but it can bring it down to 1 HP so that it can be easily finished off. Here is a quick list of the damage per second that maxed poison mist will do to a few different Ludibrium monsters. This is by no means a complete list:



Ghost Pirate – 750 HP/sec

Death Teddy – 800 HP/sec

Dual Ghost Pirate – 875 HP/sec

Spirit Viking – 1250 HP/sec

Grim Phantom Watch – 1325 HP/sec

Thanatos – 1750 HP/sec

Gatekeeper – 1950 HP/sec



To calculate the damage per second for more monsters, just multiply the monster's total HP by 0.025 to find the poison damage per second.



NOTE: When cast facing a mob of monsters, poison mist will do (weak…) damage to ONE monster. This one-monster attack DOES factor in magic attack into the damage the way all other mage attack skills do. The range of this initial attack is fairly large and extends beyond the edge of the cloud that is created.



Usually the monster that takes the damage is the one that is closest to the player when the skill is used. The poison cloud itself is what causes the poison damage and acts as the mob skill. The poison damage from the cloud can affect any number of monsters and the damage is not calculated using the player’s magic attack.



3. Are there any second job skills I should make sure I have if I’m picking mist?



Yes. You will want to have maximum slow by the time you reach third job. Slow and poison mist work very well together. The reason is because of the way mist works:



Every second a monster spends moving inside of the poison cloud acts as another chance for the monster to be poisoned. Therefore, you want the monster to be as sloooowwwww as possible as it moves through the cloud, maximizing your chance at poisoning it. Slow makes poison mist even more useful at lower levels because it gives the player extra chances at poisoning a monster.



For example, let’s say that you have level 10 mist. That means that you have a 50% chance of poisoning each monster that moves into the poison mist cloud for as long as the cloud remains (which is 16 seconds). Without slow, the amount of time a monster would spend in the cloud might be just one or two seconds. With slow, it might be 5 seconds or more, which means that you will have twice the number of chances at poisoning a monster with your cloud using slow + mist than using just mist.



So you see a monster and cast slow on it, followed by mist. The monster will slowly move towards you and into the cloud. Let’s say the slowed monster is in the cloud for 3 seconds. The first second it is in the cloud, there is a 50% chance to poison it. The next second it is in the cloud, there is another 50% chance to poison it, but it still hasn’t poisoned it yet. But the next second, there is another 50% chance and the mist has triggered, poisoning the monster.



4. How do I use poison mist?



The idea behind poison mist is to mist and run…mist and run…moving in a pattern around the map. As you cast and recast mist, you will be constantly finishing off monsters that have been poisoned down to 1 HP, while creating new clouds of poison for new monsters to come into contact with. The result is that you will travel from platform to platform, one-hitting monsters that would otherwise take you a lot of time and fire arrows to kill. Think of yourself sitting on a wheel, going around and around and killing every monster in one hit as you go. If that sounds like fast, efficient leveling, then you’re right.



The key to using poison mist effectively is to carefully select the monsters that you will be training on. What you’re looking for are maps with good spawns of poisonable monsters that have lots and lots of HP. Death Teddies (in a party), Spirit Vikings, and Dual Ghost Pirates are all good choices. In your early 80’s, I would strongly recommend that you try Grim Phantom Watches. You will love the experience rate there.



Here is a picture of the map there so that you understand a good route for you to take. By studying this, you will also learn how to use mist on other maps, too:







OK, so why counterclockwise? The reason is because Grims will attack you if you have aggravated them and they are facing *left*. To minimize this situation, it is best to approach the monsters from the right side, sticking to the inner ring portion of the map and going farther onto the platforms only to loot. If you go counterclockwise, then you will be doing the topmost part of the map (where there are more monsters than in the middle part and so more danger) while facing the monsters from the correct direction.



There are problems with doing this map at any level. For starters, Grim Phantom Watches are strong monsters that do 1700+ damage to you just if you run into them. They also have a very fast magical attack that will also put the hurt on you. Many players lose mesos here, although as a poison mist mage, your losses will be less than many other classes. This is because you will be doing your best to stay in the inner ring of the map, misting on the nearest parts of the platforms. Delivering the killing blow to monsters with 1 HP left might be an issue if you’re still missing sometimes. Just feed it a couple of fire arrows to remedy it. As with all poison mist situations, your first pass through the map will be very dangerous because nothing will be poisoned yet. Excercise a lot of caution and don't be afraid to use seal and slow to create safe pockets to teleport into as you move around.



The bottom of the map will be a problem. The best strategy for doing the bottom is to pretty much mist everything you see and then run like hell to the rope leading up. When you come back to the bottom, the monsters will be hovering below you. Just seal + slow, jump off to the right-hand side, and then finish them all off with a low-level explosion or a few fire arrows. Good luck finding your Kage!



5. But I heard that leveling with poison mist is slow. Is that true?



Absolutely not! Poison mist damages at a fixed rate regardless of the monster. That means that a player with poison mist will be able to kill some of the hardest monsters in the game much earlier than a player with just comp arrow or explosion. As a result of this, the poison mist mage’s experience rate will skyrocket. For example, let’s say that you are a level 80 mage and you want to go to where the experience is—Grim Phantom Watches. Here is what would happen depending on the attack skill you have:



Scenario A: You maxed comp arrow. Prepare to get your butt kicked all over the map, because you probably won’t be able to consistently knockback a Grim by doing the minimum 5500 damage per arrow. Also, your arrow will miss often as well, meaning that you will take even more damage as you “MISS” and the Grims run right into you. You will die a lot. You will hate life.



Scenario B: You maxed explosion. There aren’t many explosion sniping spots on the map, so you thought you’d just jump right into your first mob of Grims and start getting that sweet, sweet experience. Whoops! One explosion is not enough to keep the monsters knocked back and away from you, and a lot of your explosions are missing. The Grims are just devastating your HP and MP with magic guard on. You have died 4 times at Grims already, and only have 2 percent to show for the 2 million mesos you spent on potions. You weep openly. But good thing this didn’t really happen and…



Scenario C: You did the sensible thing and put points in mist. Now, you can damage mobs of Grims with poison even if you’re still “MISS”ing them, and you don’t have to be right in the middle of the mobs, taking huge damage just to do damage of your own. You will travel counter-clockwise around the map, one-hitting monsters for 2800 experience each. Welcome to the big time. Soloing rates of 35-40% an hour are not uncommon. You will barely remember being a level 80 because you will zoom to 90 incredibly fast.



6. How do I know that a monster has been poisoned? (asked by Antragone)



The short answer is you don’t. A monster that is taking poison damage will turn green, and the numeric damage it’s taking from the poison will pop up each second. But after the poison wears off, you really have no way of knowing which monsters have been poisoned and which have not when you return to the same place on the map.



This is less of a problem when poison mist is at higher levels, because pretty much everything gets poisoned at some point. But while you are putting points into mist, your only way of knowing if you did poison damage to something is to try to finish it off with another poison mist cast or a fire arrow. If you don’t see a little white number in the lower right corner of the screen showing you that you got experience for the kill, then keep on moving—fast. Teleport away, casting slow or seal on the unpoisoned monster if you have to. Not only will this save you from taking damage, but it is in the spirit of how to use poison mist—you mist and run, mist and run.



Occasionally you will run into this problem because the layout of the map you are on just isn’t that great for misting. Gigantic Vikings, for example, would be a good example of a bad misting map. It zig-zags left to right/right to left, and there are many chokepoints where your only options are to fight through a monster or take damage in order to continue on your route. There are few if any safe places where you cast mist and then safely move on.



Sometimes you will get cornered by a newly-spawned monster that has not been poisoned yet. The monster will be just sitting there, blocking your path and preventing you from moving forward on your misting route without taking damage. To minimize this problem, I suggest leveling on monsters that you can knockback and kill with your fire arrow if you really, really had to. You may be in a situation where a monster is just in your way, and you want to be sure that you can deal with that problem quickly when it arises.



7. Does the 'seconds' part in the poison mist description mean the poison cloud lasts that long or that the monster is poisoned for that long? (asked by Pikmintaro)



It means both. The cloud will stay around for that length of time AND any monster that is poisoned will be poisoned for that length of time, too. For example, let’s say you have 10 points in poison mist and the skill description says something like “50% success rate to put enemy into the state of poison for 16 seconds.” That means that the poison cloud will hang around for 16 seconds, and that any monster that is poisoned by the cloud will be poisoned for 16 seconds as well.



The poisoned state and the cloud will last for the same amount of time. However, a monster can be poisoned more than once by the same cloud. If the monster reenters a poison mist cloud, even after it’s already been poisoned, it can be re-poisoned, starting up the 16 second poisoned state yet again. The effect is that the poison mist cloud will have disappeared, but the re-poisoned monster will still be taking damage from the poison. (Thanks goes to danger_99 for his re-poisoning insights)



8. Won't I get KSed by other players? (asked by Sexymaru)



No. Other players might try from time to time, but you probably won’t be getting chased out of any maps anytime soon. In fact, you will be in better shape against KSers with mist than with explosion or comp arrow. The reason is that if you are leveling on a map that favors mist (i.e. it has good spawns of high-HP monsters) then your cumulative damage per second will be far greater than most other classes can manage until they reach a very, very high level.



Are you skeptical? Let’s revisit the “level 80 mage at Grim Phantom Watches” example for just a moment. Grim Phantom Watches are something that most level 80 players would not dare touch. Each Grim has strong weapon defense and over half the HP of a Crimson Balrog. Now consider the fact that they spawn in mobs. Most players lower leveled than you would die trying to KS. But let’s say some mean-spirited dragon knight is trying to KS you anyway. So let’s see how your damage stacks up against his:



You’re moving around the map poisoning Grims for 1325 damage a second, per monster. You just poisoned 10 on two of the platforms, and it only took you two casts of poison mist and a little climbing on a ladder. Now you are doing a steady 13,250 damage every second. The amount of poison damage on the 10 Grims is never less or more. It’s always a constant 13,250 every second. With just two casts of mist, you are already doing more damage than most level 80’s can dream of. But maybe the dragon knight has good equipment, and is using buster to do about the damage you’re doing. So you continue to one-hit Grims as you move around the map, casting and recasting mist as you go.



But wait, you’re not done. You maintain your movement in a pattern around the map, poisoning even more monsters. You just did 3 more platforms and you’ve poisoned 20 monsters total. Now you’re doing 26,500 damage every second. You are now outdamaging even the hypothetical dragon knight who can only manage, at most, perhaps 2 powerful attacks every 3 seconds.



Hold on, though. You still have another half of the map to do. There are even more monsters to poison. By the time you’re working on your 30th Grim (39,750 damage a second, for those keeping track) the dragon knight is lagging far behind. He might be two platforms back, still trying to “KS you” by doing damage to as many as 3 poisoned monsters at a time, never mind the 27 other monsters above and below him that are already taking poison damage as well. Maybe he believes that he is even KSing you at that point, even though he is only damaging 1-3 monsters at a time while you’re damaging 30, and even though he’s not really KSing YOU so much as he is standing there, trying to outdamage a skill you activated half a minute ago on one place on the map.



You are still getting most of the experience every time he attacks something that’s already poisoned. The dragon knight seems to need quite a few hits to kill each monster (after all, the monsters do have 53,000 HP). Meanwhile, you’ve already made another pass around the map, and you’re still one-hitting everything that was poisoned the last time around.



By that point, the dragon knight will realize what has really happened here—that he can follow you around from platform to platform, doing much more damage to any small mob of monsters than you can, but that there is no way in hell that he can KS an entire screen of monsters. Every skill he uses can only damage a limited number of monsters, while yours can damage as many monsters as are on the screen. The dragon knight gives up in disgust, calls you a nasty name, and moves on.



It is at this point that I should emphasize that with great power comes great responsibility. Because you see, the concern is not so much “will the poison mist mage get KSed” as it is “will the poison mist mage KS others.” Imagine if everything that spawns on a map almost instantly starts to take damage from a skill and gives the player who used the skill experience, regardless of where they are on the screen. Sounds good, right? That’s what mist does, and you can see how that would be extremely unfair to other players who are trying to level on the same map. There would be nowhere they could go where they could get the full, normal experience from the monsters they kill. This tends to make a poison mist mage a kind of “bully” class, and reemphasizes the need for restraint and courtesy on the part of the mage. Nobody wants to work hard and raise their character all the way to a high level only to get KSed by mages AGAIN.



But this “kill everything on the screen” aspect of poison mist also makes it an ideal party skill. The answer to crowded maps and potential KSing is to party up. Instead of going toe-to-toe against another player, vying to see who is strongest, why not make a party, or at the very least, just share the map? One player takes the top half of the screen, the other player takes the bottom. The spawn rate will improve and you might have just made a new friend. :-)



9. Do I need level 28 poison mist or level 30?



Level 28 gives you the same size poison cloud as level 30 (max) mist, and the poison damage lasts just as long (40 seconds) at level 28 as it does at level 30. This makes level 28 mist a logical stopping point for the skill.



10. Do I need booster for poison mist? (asked by illirica and funkeymonkeyz)



It is true that mist is a fairly slow skill. You can shoot about two boosted fire arrows in the time it takes to use poison mist once. The misting animation is fairly quick, but there is a noticeable delay after it is cast. You can still teleport and use potions during this delay period, but you cannot attack again.



Nevertheless, you do not need booster if you are going with poison mist. Unlike your other attack skills, poison mist is not a skill that you really need to spam, so the effect of booster is minimized. Furthermore, mist does not seem to improve in speed as noticeably with 11 booster as fire arrow, explosion, and comp arrow. There is even some debate as to whether poison mist works with booster at all. I think that it does. There is a delay afterwards when mist is not boosted, and when it is boosted the delay is less. At least, it feels less. In either case, the improvement in casting speed is not significant enough to improve leveling speed. Booster is best taken as a prerequisite for other third job skills such as explosion. However, it is not at all critical to have it if you are a poison mist mage.



11. You’ve convinced me. Poison mist sounds great! But when should I get it in third job?



If you’re going to take poison mist in third job, you should take it as your FIRST third job attack skill. The reason for this is that if you have already invested 10-15 levels in raising another attack skill, then you will already be close to the point where poison mist has outlived most of its usefulness as your primary attack skill. If you pick another third job attack skill first, then you will miss out on an easy trip from level 80 to level 90 over at Grim Phantom Watches.



Also, by the time you have maxed out another 3rd job attack skill AND put 28 or 30 points into mist, you will be such a damage-dealing powerhouse anyway that it will often be faster and easier to simply attack monsters directly using comp arrow or explosion. Mist will still be useful, just not like it would be if you just hit your 80's and you have 28 or 30 in the skill. Usually, mist starts to lose a lot of its initial value at or around level 95. From that point on, mist is best used as a secondary skill for poisoning mobs while they are simultaneously being damaged with comp arrow or explosion, or even with an amplified fire arrow.



It is important for me to point out that this is not because mist starts to get “bad” at later levels—it is because the biggest benefit of mist tends to become its biggest problem later. The poison from the mist cloud ALWAYS damages at a fixed rate, regardless of the monster and regardless of your level.



In the earlier levels, the damage done to higher leveled monsters vastly exceeds anything a fire/poison mage can achieve using the other skills. That is why mist at Grim Phantom Watches translates into such high leveling rates. An 8x mist mage leveling there is far ahead of the leveling curve because they are killing difficult, high-experience monsters that they ordinarily could not kill. But at higher levels, explosion and comp arrow essentially “catch up” to mist on most of the Ludibrium maps.



The only way to ramp up the experience rate when you are leveling solo with mist is to move on to a map where each monster gives better experience or spawns more often. When you finally run out of maps, that’s it. You have peaked. I mention Grim Phantom Watches a lot because that is the best map for poison mist. Unfortunately, there is no better map to go to after that. In your late 90’s, you will gain only a few percent more an hour than a mage with maxed comp arrow and maxed amp. The leveling advantage will have disappeared almost entirely.



If there were other maps available filled with more challenging monsters (for instance, some kind of map where 60 Thanatos spawn on platforms…), then mist would continue to stay far ahead of the other skills. In the meantime, it stands tall as a great way to hit level 90 quickly, after which you can make intelligent choices about which skills to take next. That fact alone makes it a very valuable skill to have.



12. Why has nobody told me to get poison mist before? A lot of the guides say I should choose magic composition or explosion!



Many of those guides are old and outdated, and were created before the release of Ludibrium in Global Maple Story. The authors of those guides cannot be blamed for dismissing mist as a third rate skill best taken after comp or explosion. Before Ludi came out, mist really was limited to use on only a couple of different maps where good spawns of high-HP, poisonable monsters could be found, such as at Bains and Yeti and Pepe. Before the release of Ludi, it just did not make sense to pick poison mist over other skills.



Now Ludi has been released, with its many maps filled with good spawns of high-HP monsters just waiting to be poisoned for big damage at insane leveling rates. Mage players on every server have now realized how great poison mist really is. Maybe you will too. :-)



13. You forgot/no that’s not right/what about/but also…?



Have suggestions or comments? Send me a private message and I will be happy to include your insights along with proper credits.

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