Introduction Luk versus Luk-less Skill Build Training Locations Recommended Equipment Formulas Credits Ice/Lightning Mages are one of three Mage classes available for MapleRoyals. Their main focus is to freeze and deal massive amounts of damage to monsters in a large range. In this guide, I'll be covering their ability/skill spread, training locations, recommended equips and various formulas for Ice/Lightning Mages. Although their primary focus is extremely fast training and mob farming, they lack in raw DPS when it comes to bosses. Still, Ice/Lightning Mages are one of the most fun and unique classes that MapleRoyals has to offer. There's been a debate on whether going the traditional route of adding Luk to wear higher tier weapons and armors is better than going Luk-less and stick with only weapons and armors that require no Luk, but still give a sizable amount of Magic Attack and Int. I'm going to give my side of this argument, but feel free to choose one over the other for whatever reason you may have. I believe going Luk-less is the better choice between the two. Why? I'm going to prove my stance by debunking common claims: While this is true, most of them also require a bunch of Luk. Take, for example, Elemental Staves 5-8. They have extremely high Magic Attack, but with an extremely high Luk requirement to wield them. 1 Int equals 1 Magic Attack whereas 1 Luk doesn't increase Magic Attack at all so we can just subtract the Luk requirement from the Magic Attack and we'll get the actual value of the Staves itself. Of course, you will have equipment that will add Luk, but it's not going to be enough to even consider the higher level weapons. Again, true, however let's not forget that Luk-less Mages will also have a good amount of Luk from equips such as Zakum Helmets and Horntail Necklaces. With those Luk boosts, Luk-less Mages have access to lower tier Luk Mage equips that also play a role into the Godly System without having to put a single point into Luk. Weapon defense doesn't matter much when you're thinking long term. Most of the monsters hit high on you whether you have a lot of weapon defense or not. The armor pieces that arguably gives the most weapon defense are Zakum Helmets and Horntail Necklaces which both are Luk-less. Levels 8-30 This is the typical build for every Mage starting out. If you're using an alternative method to level up from the lower levels, level up Energy Bolt after you've maxed out Improve MaxMP Increase. You'll want to max out Magic Claw right after because it's going to be your main skill for training. Level 30-70 For optimal leveling, I suggest going with Teleport first for mobility and Thunderbolt. A mobbing skill is always extremely useful for training. Cold Beam isn't very useful because you'll be leveling up very fast anyway and there isn't any training location that's ice weak that gives very good XP or mesos. After Thunderbolt, Teleport should maxed right after to maximize distance per cast. I don't recommend putting points into Meditation early on because Wizard Elixirs from New Leaf City do the exact same thing, but last longer. Slow is not commonly used because most end game bosses are either stationary or already very slow. You'd probably be better off maxing out Magic Armor in your first job skill tree. Levels 70-120 The core skills you'll be focusing on are Element Amplification, Ice Strike and Spell Booster. Other than these three skills, the rest of them aren't really important to max out. Thunder Spear is extremely slow, Seal has little to no use in many situations, Partial Resistant to Ice/Lightning doesn't happen very often and Element Composition a subpar 1v1 skill. This is where skill builds will depend on what Elemental Wand/Staff you've obtained. Focus on Ice Strike unless you have an Elemental Wand 4 (25% Lightning Damage/10% Ice Damage). With an Elemental Wand 4, you'll be able to do a lot of damage with Thunderbolt and can still be very useful post level 70 because of the extra speed it has over Ice Strike and the fact that attack range doesn't matter too much in early 70s and 80s. You'll have an easier time in the beginning 3rd job levels because the main training location will be Wolf Spiders. Focus on getting Spell Booster to level 11 for the +2 casting speed. After that, you'll go back to the traditional route of maxing Ice Strike, Element Amplification and Spell Booster. Ice Strike is an extremely fun and effective skill. The range is amazing and really shines in certain training areas like Petrifighters. Make sure to get an Elemental Wand 3 for Ice Strike for the +25% Ice Damage. If you have an Elemental Wand 4: If you have an Elemental Wand 3: Levels 120-200 Funding will play a major role in this build, but assuming you have access to most of the books, this is the best build you can do. The books that are difficult to obtain as of the writing of this guide are Maple Warrior 20 and Blizzard 30. If you don't have either of these books, skip to the next skill. You'll want to max out Blizzard as soon as possible because that's going to be your main attacking skill for the rest of the game. While Maple Warrior is important, base Magic Attack gives more DPS than a percentage of base Int that Maple Warrior provides. Plus, you can always party with someone that already has Maple Warrior. Most of the other skills are very situational or downright useless so after you've maxed out Blizzard and Maple Warrior to the most you can possibly can, play around with the other skills as you please. Chain Lightning is pretty fun at Zakum Arms and whenever it spawns a bunch of small mobs. Chain Lightning can be used to finish off monsters that need a bit more to die, but since it also mobs and can attack unprovoked monsters, it better to leave the revenge killing to Ifrit. These levels go very quick. If you have the money, 8-20 can be done quickly just by turning in around 2,000 Orbis Exchange Etc. Items which only costs around 7m. I highly recommend doing this if you're not a starting player. If not, just head over to Slimes until level 15 and head over to Green/Horny Mushrooms until level 20. After level 20, you should have maxed Magic Claw and should be able to 1-2 shot Wild Boars and Dark Axe Stumps over at Land of the Wild Boar. This whole process shouldn't take longer than 3-4 hours. Right when you get to level 30, I highly recommend you head over to Carnival Party Quest and get some Free Wins. Free Wins is when you go against one person in a solo party against a whole bunch of other people of which you will be a part of that bunch of people. In the end, you will get 120,000 XP for winning if you manage to stay over your opponent and maintain a score of over 500. This is an extremely fast way to get over the early levels of being an Ice/Lightning Mage, but Free Win parties can be hard to come by. If you're not able to find a party, go ahead and keep training at Wild Boars and Dark Axe Stumps. They're still really fast and with Teleport, the XP is still great. Once you get a good amount of skill points into Thunderbolt, you can either make some mesos at Platoon Chronos or head over to Slimys @ Ghost Ship 2. Platoon Chronos drops Maple Shields quite often that can sell for around 2m and drop Scroll for Gloves Atk 60% and Power Crystal Ores. Slimys are weak to Lightning, but are pretty high level. However, even in lower levels, Slimys are the best mobs to train on until level 70 because of the massive spawn in the map. During your late 50s or early 60s, you can head over to The Forest of Golem for some mesos and XP. While Slimys @ Ghost Ship 2 is still better in XP, Forest of Golem is no slouch. The mobs in the map are extremely thick and you can get a lot of mesos just by NPCing the equips and selling the Scroll for Gloves Atk 60%s. Whether you go with the Elemental Wand 3 or 4 path, it's the same for the most part. Slimys are still pretty good very early on, but if you're funded enough to hit Wolf Spiders, they can give pretty good rates as well. At level 75, leeching will become something to consider. Leeching gives you the best XP rates until you reach Petrifighters with very high funding or until you hit 120 where you can use Blizzard. If you have an alternative account that can leech your Ice/Lightning Mage, I suggest doing that. If not, you can always buy leech, but it can get very expensive. The only time I recommend going out of your way to buy leech is right when you hit level 75 because you're still trying to max out your core skills and you can take advantage of leeching to help you out. Wolf Spiders are really nice for both XP and mesos thanks to their Ilbi Throwing Star drop and high value equips. Once you have enough Int to hit Slygies and you have a good amount of your core skills maxed out, head over to Veetrons and Slygies @ Ulu Estate II or Dreamy Ghosts @ Encounter with the Buddah. Dreamy Ghosts are slightly faster in XP, but Veetrons drops Red Cravens which can be sold for upwards of 200m for a 55 Attack. During the later levels, you can either stay at Ulu Estate II for the mesos or head over to Petrifighters @Ulu City Center for the best XP until level 120. Petrifighters have a unique map where you can attack both the platform you're standing on and the platform below you. This makes for amazing XP and can be on par with leeching. With Blizzard, training will change drastically. All you mainly need to worry about is whether you can be able to one or two shot many of training locations listed down below. You'll be able to make an optimal amount of money for the most part as well as gain the best XP for any class in the entire game. The XP rates for these locations will vary based on mastery books and funding so be aware that the locations and levels that I put down may not be best locations for you so experiment on your own time and you'll find some place you'll enjoy. With that being said, I will not be putting down what level should go where, but that shouldn't be an issue because they give around the same ballpark in terms of XP. Right when you get Blizzard, you should be able to one shot Wolf Spiders if you have a decent amount of Magic Attack as well as an Elemental Wand 3. You can also sell leech at this point, but not many people are going to want Wolf Spider leech without an Holy Symbol Mule. No matter, money at Wolf Spiders even without a leech is great. Once you hit 130, Ulu Estate II can be possible to one shot. I suggest staying here for the long haul because Ulu Estate II gives great XP for a long time, amazing NPC rates, leechable map and the coveted Red Craven drop. Also at 130, you should be near two shot range of Oblivion Monk Trainees @ Path of Oblivion 2 which is a very popular training location for many high level players. With Holy Symbol, Road to Oblivion 2 can get you one of the best XP rates in the game. If you have access to Blizzard 30, you should be able to one shot Petrifighters at level 165. One shot Petrifighters is the best XP rate at this level and is highly recommended to train here straight to level 200. This location is also prime for leeching and I suggest that you make a Holy Symbol mule to sell leech at Petrifighters. Jr. Newties and Nest Golems @ Leafre: Destroyed Dragon Nest is an extremely relaxing area to train. All you need to do is stand on one platform and hold down the Blizzard key. You should be able to attack 6-7 monsters every single cast without even having to move from your location. This is also a great place to farm one of the most expensive drops in the game, Concertos. This will be a work in progress because I'm going to be covering a lot, but here's a quick quote that I've written previously on another thread: This is the formula for determining how much XP per kill your leech will get. Keep in mind that if you're using a Pre Big Bang database that you need to multiply the XP per monster by 4 because of MapleRoyals server rates. This is the formula for determining the minimum amount of damage your magic spells can do. This is very useful to figure out if you can one shot a monster to make it a viable training location:
If you want to participate in my writing contest with this, please post the full, unedited version there.
Going to leave my thoughts on training grounds here: 1. CPQ is bad. Between scrubs looting the whole potion platform and leaving you without MP to attack or tank hits, and everyone wanting trojans (which seem to have a very high magic def) you're just not going to do a lot of damage. From 30-40, teddies arent bad. Wild boars like plenty says above are good, though at this point they're more for money than exp. Jr. Pepes at the bottom of orbis tower aren't terrible, and they're a nice change of pace. Retz in helios towere were an old school GMS favorite for lightning first as well. 40-50 IMO master chronos are the #1. Great map layout (especially for someone with tele) wonderful drops, and towards the later levels you can even hunt timer who spawns there for NX and scrolls. 2. LMPQ is fast 50-60 without the pot burn or map struggles of GS2, but then you unfortunately have to deal with people. Pick your Poison. Try to get the zombie rooms, but if you can't get 1/11 (because your leader is smart or because you have clerics) go for 11/8, because you're pretty good with the aliens. LMPQ really slows down in the 60s though. 3. Ice Strike will hit 75% of the map at voodoos. If you get bored of GS2 in your early 70s, or want a bit of extra money head over there and farm heartstoppers for an hour. 4. Wolfspiders are great. I stayed there exclusively until 100, and am still going there when I cant find someone to himes. Ulu 2? Not so good. It's full of people leeching, it's harder to find a partner and a priest, and IMO the spawn is kinda spread out. For most classes that's not an issue - just aggro and mob them all up, but unfortunately for you when you go to aggro, you freeze things, so they won't follow you around. Petris aren't bad though. These are the hard levels while you wait for 120. 5. ToT is available in 10X. It's not exactly efficient training, but at 103 you can complete memory lane (green mobs) and at 120 you can complete RoR (blue mobs) though regrets mobs resist ice. This opens up some fun areas that are more "goal-oriented" than straight grinding out levels. There are some nice scrolls and occasionally nice equips to hunt at these maps as well, so dont rule them out for a change of pace.
Thanks for the reply. I'll put down these suggestions later tomorrow. CPQ really isn't that bad even with Trogens being magic resistant. You're constantly doing damage to 6 monsters at once which really adds onto the XP, but finding yourself a Ghost Ship 2 channel is much better and easier.
Good guide, though some of ur 'endgame' things are a little over the top.. 24+ tma gloves? 20+ tma cape? That's not endgame that's nearing godly... endgame is a wider perspective imo. Overall good guide though (Maybe add a mastery book & drop location/how to get it section, just for completion's sake?)
If you consider your mage your main character, I think as you near level 200 those things are expected, and most people will actually have (significantly) better than that. If you don't consider your mage to be a main character, then of course the level of effort you put into it changes and naturally so will the quality of the equips. Plenty has a separate guide covering all mastery books, so I think at most a link to that post would cover that information, and at best people could be proactive and do a search for "mastery book guide" if that was information they needed.
Plenty, I only have 1b left, I've already gotten an int robe, Cape, hat, earings. What tma maple shield is a good start and how much will it cost me?
For 1b, you could get yourself a shield with around 27 Total Magic Attack. That should last you for quite a while our even end game if you're not looking to one shot Petrifighters ASAP.
@Plenty, there's a small typo in the Level 8-30 skill build section. You skipped Level 22, and went from Level 21 to 23. Not a big deal, but just figured I'd point it out for continuity and for a little bit of my OCD's sake.
Never said anything about going to Jr. Selkies. You may miss a lot on Slimys, but the weakness and spawn of Slimys more than makes up for it.
No, I mean grind till 42 at teddies then move to Selkies. They are decent, especially when GS2 is full... which is almost always. Master Chronos are good too, 60% helmet dex, nice spawn, average exp.
I'd say wait for a map. The XP is unmatched and even better Free Win CPQ. Your patience will be rewarded, for sure.
