I agree - currently level 39 and doing minimal damage to Chronos right now (3-4 hits w/ M. Claw, 10+ heals) - granted I'm doing the traditional LUK build since this is my first character. I've been sticking to LPQ, and Teddies as 90% of my grinding as LPQ is EZ EXP if you can get a party, and Teddies are 1-2 hit KO which helps my overall DPS, and mana expenditure.
Unless you a Unless you are doing luk based for a specific reason like nostalgia and what not I would not recommend to do a luk build. We need a lot of damage later on and adding things to luk will surely hinder your damage. You are 39, this level can be achieved in a day or two if you know the right places. I would recommend redoing the char if that does not bother you. Also there's the option of AP resets, but they are constly, 15m a pop. It is surely cheaper to just redo a char. If you are fine with lesser damage its alright nobody is forcing you but there is a chance you will regret later on if you are not stern about it.
I do agree that AP resets would be pointless at this lower level - I guess I could restart since I haven't put many hours into this newer character, especially if it will heavily impact my late game. Do you know if there are any equips for LUK-less between Magician's Metal Wand to Maple Lama Staff? Or will the additional INT make up for that lower damage until those higher level Maple equips? Thanks for the advice though!
My advice: From 8-30 you do not have a choice. It is the wood staff. Even so, investing all in int will get you your needed damage. I'm sure its enough to carry you trought the lower level stuff. Mage damage is calculated on INT. So each INT is one point in damage(Magic, or we call it TMA(which is INT+Magic attack from an equip). Let me compare stuff: LVL8 Wooden wand = 23 TMA LVL23 Ice wand = 38 TMA +25LUK(Lost 21INT) = 17TMA So as you can see, with a pure int build is better to use the lvl8 wand. As for equips, There are the Purple Umbrella(lvl25 or 26) and the Green paintbrush(lvl30). The first is from Gacha the second is 300k on Showa NPC. Their downside is that they require 6/5 str to use. The way around this is to get a blue christmas sock(its worthless, maybe some people are selling for 1-3m, but its rare in this time of the year) or scrolling a 25 ragged cape(you can get from the quest) with 100% or 60% str scrolls which are super cheap. A less cheaper way is invest in 1 str then use one apr. I did that, but it was costly. way cheaper is the cape/sock method. At lvl 30 you may also have the slimy shoe from KPQ that will give you str, getting you rid of the problem For damage boosting, Buy the magic pot from NLC(it gives 20 magic) which is a nice boost. If you don't have money sell NX(a day of vote 8k could net you 20-40m). You can also use 60% or 100% wand(they are cheap because they drop like crazy on certain maps, and the 100% can be bought on NPC 70k each) on your lvl8 wand for extra damage. You can also start already gearing up with tma equips. Most of them are low level(15 earring, 20 robe with speed, 20 glove, 20 shield) but they are costly but it is an investment that will last. For leveling I would recommend doing some quests. Honestly I think is super fast to level with quests, there is a guide here called "Quests worth doing"https://royals.ms/forum/threads/quests-worth-doing.106856/ go here and learn the quests and plan ahead of doing them(some are area specific and drop specific, so you can get the drops and later do the quest for faster xp). For exemple I did this when leveling my new sin: Did the class quests 10-15, then I went to the stoneface mobs at perion and leveled til 20. The drops I used to do a quest then went ahead to sleepywood and did the KILL 99 quests, mainly horny and zmush quests. While doing this I gather 100 zmush drops for the raggy cape. This got me to 25. I went and got 50 yellow tail for the lvl25 strange dish quest then went to perion, killed the boars for the raggy cape quest. The rest I did some KPQ and got my 2nd job. I did this all in one day, however I was kinda geared so my damage was high, but mages are incredebly strong as a first class.
This is perfect - I just recently asked that question, statistically the difference between equips of pure INT vs. INT w/ LUK - the example I used was: Yellow Snowshoes have ~3 INT but require no LUK, where Dark Neli Shoes have ~4 INT, with possible 0-2 MA. I guess the aforementioned Wooden wand vs. Ice wand answers that question - so that's perfect.
