Optimal SP build order for every class (2026)

a perfectly optimized SP build order that works for every player, for every class, is impossible. however, this guide is designed to be as close to that as you can possibly get.

bold text - skill will be left at this value forever
(#) - total SP in this skill

some things, like maxing warrior's improved maxHP increase first or leaving shield mastery at lv0, are non-negotiable. however, many other things are not. anyone can propose micro-adjustments to this guide, as long as the reasoning makes sense for a player who is approaching the game normally

most notable is booster duration, which is usually raised to 6 for 1 minute duration and maxed later. this 1 minute duration is completely arbitrary and you can add more SP if you wish. lv1 hero's will and max monster magnet can also be delayed until you're actually doing horntail/LHC (respectively), whatever level that may be. mw9/19 can be added earlier for players focusing on solo content

BEGINNER
3 nimble feet (3) [everyone]
3 three snails (3) [islander, bandit, 1H warrior]
2 three snails (2), save 1 SP until advancement [magician]
3 recovery (3) [archer, assassin, pirate, 2H warrior]

nimble feet is the only beginner skill that actually matters. it's recommended to use the same keybind that you'll use for monster riding later

one argument for having at least lv1 recovery is that its cooldown can be used in quick slots as a makeshift 2 minute timer (yes the skill description is wrong). you can also use it as a stupid party trick that doesn't require you to have red snail shells and a one-handed weapon. however, three snails undeniably makes for a FAR funnier party trick because of the highly visible and screenshottable 40 damage that it deals (through weapon cancel), though this is only "practical" if your class uses one-handed weapons to begin with

solo mages who are trying to complete all the maple island quests should stop at 2 three snails since it's more efficient to farm 15 HP 0 wdef blue snails for 25 damage than 40 HP 3 wdef red snails for 40 damage, and if you're completing every quest, you'll end up with ~10 extra blue snail shells but no extra red snail shells. add the last SP right before job advancement, either to three snails if you want to eventually hit that iconic 40 damage against zakum for shits and giggles, or to recovery if you think it's FOMO to not have that skill unlocked (it really isn't)

classes that need to add DEX or STR to job advance do not need three snails to get through maple island, so the decision on whether to max three snails depends entirely on whether the skill can be used with their main weapon or not, and whether you consider party members typing "lol" to be a DPS down

islanders should always max three snails

MAGICIAN
1 energy bolt (1)
5 improving MP recovery (5)
10 improved max MP increase (10)
20 magic claw (20)
11 improving MP recovery (16)
20 magic guard (20)

if using orbis etc or questing to lv13, max improved max MP increase before adding energy bolt. this nets you a grand total of 8 extra MP vs. if you added 1 energy bolt first (which is about 10% of a single MP wash in 4th job)

due to improving MP recovery, magicians prefer to use chairs that don't restore MP. it will use double the natural MP regeneration instead, which is usually considerably more than 200 MP per tick

you need magic guard maxed, but it's probably not a good idea to cast it early on since MP potions are more expensive than HP potions

WIZARD (I/L)
1 teleport (1)
1 cold beam (1)
30 thunderbolt (30)
1 MP eater (1)
19 teleport (20)
29 cold beam (30)
19 MP eater (20)
20 meditation (20)
1 slow (1)

cold beam gets 1 point early so you can 1v1 jr boogies without getting sealed

MAGE (I/L)
30 ice strike (30)
3 element amplification (3)
11 spell booster (11)
27 element amplification (30)
1 seal (1)
9 spell booster (20)
19 seal (20)
1 partial resistance (1)
30 thunder spear (30)
19 partial resistance (20)
1 element composition (1)

element composition doesn't get the bonus from elemental wand 3 so it's much worse than it's supposed to be. it still deals more DPS than thunder spear with wand 3 against neutral targets, but cold beam with wand 3 is stronger than both, so realistically you're not using either of them. thunder spear is slightly preferred because haha big number and for being your best DPS against papulatus, headless horseman, and poison golem when you don't have chain lightning

you could also max magic armor instead of thunder spear, since thunder spear is completely useless after you have chain lightning and barely useful even in 3rd job. having a single target option against ice resists is nice, but it's usually more efficient to use thunderbolt or ice strike if there are multiple targets

seal is not as essential for I/L as it is for F/P because there is no point in sealing an enemy that you can freeze. however, it works on ice-resistant enemies, and you can seal enemies while hanging on a rope (which also shortens skill delay, making the low success rate less painful) so 1 value point is added for this reason. you probably want to max it before 999 tree rods

ARCH MAGE (I/L)
1 blizzard (1)
1 chain lightning (1)
9/19 maple warrior (9/19)
29 blizzard (30)
29 chain lightning (30)
5 ice demon (5)
30 ifrit (30)
30 infinity (30)
1 hero's will (1)
25 ice demon (30)
30 big bang (30)
4 hero's will (5)
30 mana reflection (30)
1 maple warrior (10/20)
dump slow/magic armor

you can choose to stop adding SP to blizzard once you reach your desired cutoff point (such as 2hit skele or 1hit ulu2) to keep the MP cost low and start maxing chain lightning instead

arch mages don't need hw10 and arguably don't even need hw1, they're not getting invited either way

WIZARD (F/P)
1 teleport (1)
30 fire arrow (30)
19 teleport (20)
30 poison breath (30)
20 MP eater (20)
20 meditation (20)
1 slow (1)

max fire arrow first for CPQ, or for castle corridor (chunin/kunoichi) if CPQ is inactive. MP eater is less valuable for F/P because you don't have AoE attacks, and it doesn't work in CPQ2, so delay it until after max meditation if that's your primary training method. however it is nice for reducing your MP consumption in castle corridor to essentially zero

teleport is maxed before poison breath because poison breath usually won't be used until lv56, and poison breath training against a monster 29 levels above you feels really, really bad. the lack of accuracy makes poison breath training far worse than you might hope. however, you could max poison breath before teleport if you're planning to poison train at twisted jesters at lv50, where your hit chance will be pretty ok

you can max slow or magic armor instead of poison breath if you're doing CPQ2, leech, or normal training until 3rd job, since you're more likely to find a use for those skills than poison breath on a character that already has poison mist

MAGE (F/P)
1 explosion (1)
30 poison mist (30)
27 explosion (28)
3 element amplification (3)
1 seal (1)
11 spell booster (11)
19 seal (20)
2 explosion (30)
27 element amplification (30)
9 spell booster (20)
20 partial resistance (20)
1 element composition (1)

same deal with F/P elemental composition getting mogged by fire arrow, except this is even more useless because instead of a guaranteed freeze, you have a non-guaranteed single target poison effect. and there's no trash skill like thunder spear that you can afford to skip anyways

if you're using explosion as a 1 HP finisher and not for DPS, pyrope wand is better than lv70 elemental wand. black umbrella is a good alternative before you have booster

ARCH MAGE (F/P)
1 paralyze (1)
1 meteor shower (1)
9/19 maple warrior (9/19)
29 meteor shower (30)
29 paralyze (30)
5 fire demon (5)
30 elquines (30)
30 infinity (30)
1 hero's will (1)
25 fire demon (30)
30 big bang (30)
4 hero's will (5)
30 mana reflection (30)
1 maple warrior (10/20)
dump slow/magic armor

you can choose to stop adding SP to meteor once you reach your desired cutoff point (such as 2hit skele or 1hit ulu2) to keep the MP cost low and start maxing paralyze instead

arch mages don't need hw10 and arguably don't even need hw1, they're not getting invited either way

CLERIC
1 teleport (1)
30 heal (30)
1 MP eater (20)
19 teleport (20)
19 MP eater (20)
20 invincible (20)
20 bless (20)
11 holy arrow (11)

even lv1 MP eater will earn back a good chunk of MP when hitting multiple monsters with heal, so it gets an early value point

bless helps when CPQing with unfunded randoms, so it can be maxed earlier for that purpose

holy arrow is absolutely useless, but the alternative of dumping 11 SP into magic armor is equally useless because bless does the same thing

PRIEST
1 shining ray (1)
3 dispel (3)
30 holy symbol (30)
4 mystic door (4)
29 shining ray (30)
30 doom (30)
16 mystic door (20)
17 dispel (20)
6 elemental resistance (6)
15 summon dragon (15)

lv4 mystic door lasts 60 sec; add more initial SP if you need more time to NPC equips. mule character can start with lv1 mystic door instead of lv1 shining ray for the utility

if you don't care about fighting non-undead monsters, delay lv1 shining ray until after holy symbol

doom is maxed over elemental resistance because doom is required to fight holy resistant/immune enemies, and max elemental resistance is not required to avoid oneshots. yes it saves potions, but not nearly as much as doom will save if you get in the habit of using it. go ahead and max elemental resistance over doom if you're not planning to do ellin forest or neo tokyo, or if you don't mind having to spam doom 3+ times to get it to work properly. if leeching through 3rd job, you can max both doom and elemental resistance while leaving shining ray at lv16

pro doom trick: doom more than 6 enemies at once by using it from a rope a certain distance above them, depending on how tall they are. they will shrink and their hitbox will move downward, allowing other monsters to be hit

BISHOP
1 genesis (1)
9/19 maple warrior (9/19)
1 resurrection
29 genesis (30)
30 bahamut (30)
30 holy shield (30)
1 hero's will (1)
9 resurrection (10)
30 infinity (30)
14 elemental resistance (20)
30 angel ray (30)
4/9 hero's will (5/10)
30 big bang (30)
1 maple warrior (10/20)
dump mana reflection

mw is maxed before genesis because it increases your damage without increasing your mana consumption, and any party member with base INT (including yourself) will benefit from it upon levelup

max holy shield before bahamut if your bishop is focused on party bosses like zakum. bahamut is good for semi-afk stopper farming and does significantly increase your DPS, but your DPS will still be pretty bad

angel ray is not very strong, only slightly more DPS than spamming genesis, but it does give you a button you can press during boss fights so max it anytime after holy shield if you want

ARCHER
1 arrow blow (1)
1 double shot (1)
3 blessing of amazon (3)
8 eye of amazon (8)
20 critical shot (20)
19 double shot (20)
9 focus (9)

double shot is used as first attacking skill over arrow blow for damage stability. max arrow blow is the highest single line damage that BM ever gets, though that's not useful for much

don't cast focus when using heartstoppers

HUNTER
1 arrow bomb (1)
5 bow mastery (5)
6 bow booster (6)
14 bow mastery (19)
29 arrow bomb (30)
14 bow booster (20)
20 power knockback (20)
7 soul arrow (7)
11 focus (20)
1 bow mastery (20)
13 soul arrow (20)

there's not much point in having soul arrow last longer than max SE, but we max it anyway because there's nothing else to put SP into

add lv1 PKB after 6 booster for a slight benefit in CPQ

RANGER
1 strafe (1)
5 mortal blow (5)
30 arrow rain (30)
29 strafe (30)
6 puppet (6)
30 inferno (30)
14 puppet (20)
7 thrust (7)
29 silver hawk (29)

max strafe before mortal blow/arrow rain to fight balrog earlier

silver hawk is left at 29 because stun chance does not increase at lv30, and you sometimes use silver hawk even in 4th job because phoenix does not stun

leeching BM can leave strafe at lv1, add thrust until max speed, and add remaining points to mortal blow. however, note that unlike hurricane, strafe doesn't instantly kill you if you attack into damage reflect, and can be used in lower level PQs for tokens of teamwork

your pet also cannot use autoMP more than once until you release hurricane, so when your MP is about to run out, or you need to use acp/stopper, you can use strafe instead of just letting go of the hurricane button and doing nothing

BOWMASTER
1 hurricane (1)
1 bow expert (1)
1 dragon's breath (1)
30 sharp eyes (30)
30 hurricane (30)
1 phoenix (1)
25 bow expert (26)
9/19 maple warrior (9/19)
1 hero's will (1)
4 bow expert (30)
30 hamstring (30)
if <140% speed, add thrust until 140% speed
29 phoenix (30)
4/9 hero's will (5/10)
20 dragon's breath (21)
30 concentrate (30)
dump mortal blow

lv1 dragon's breath can be used to bunch enemies together so they all fit within the inferno/arrow bomb hitbox

phoenix can be moved before hamstring if you want to afk stopper farm and don't mind being worse in CWKPQ

CROSSBOWMAN
1 iron arrow (1)
5 crossbow mastery (5)
6 crossbow booster (6)
14 crossbow mastery (19)
29 iron arrow (30)
14 crossbow booster (20)
20 power knockback (20)
7 soul arrow (7)
11 focus (20)
1 crossbow mastery (20)
13 soul arrow (20)

add lv1 PKB after 6 booster for a slight benefit in CPQ

SNIPER
1 strafe (1)
1 blizzard (1)
5 mortal blow (5)
30 arrow eruption (30)
29 strafe (30)
6 puppet (6)
20 blizzard (21)
14 puppet (20)
20 thrust (20)
9 blizzard (30)
15 golden eagle (15)
1 mortal blow (6)

max strafe before mortal blow/arrow eruption to fight balrog earlier

blizzard is not a primary source of damage because it never crits, but it's a good utility skill

if already at max speed (not counting speed from equips that will be replaced), stop adding thrust and continue with other skills. dump mortal blow at the end

MARKSMAN
1 snipe (1)
1 frostprey (1)
1 marksman boost (1)
30 sharp eyes (30)
1 dragon's breath (1)
29 snipe (30)
29 marksman boost (30)
1 hero's will (1)
30 piercing arrow (30)
9/19 maple warrior (9/19)
30 blind (30)
29 frostprey (30)
4/9 hero's will (5/10)
20 dragon's breath (21)
dump mortal blow

lv1 snipe gives you a nuke option to use against poison golem and crimson balrog in solo dojo, which can hit you for almost 4k if you don't oneshot them

for boss-focused build, swap piercing arrow and blind

for grinding/LHC focused build, swap snipe and piercing arrow

use snipe as a macro to avoid delays when weaving snipe --> strafe

ROGUE (assassin)
1 lucky seven (1)
3 nimble body (3)
8 keen eyes (8)
19 lucky seven (20)
7 nimble body (10)
3 disorder (3)
20 dark sight (20)

disorder is not useless since it de-aggros monsters and bosses that are not innately aggressive, but it does that just fine at lv3

you can leave dark sight unmaxed and bypass the speed drop in 2nd job by macroing dark sight + haste (any level), since the speed buff overrides the speed drop and using the skill as a macro allows haste to be executed before the game processes that you've entered dark sight. you can also do this with the beginner skill nimble feet. with the SP you save, you can max nimble body and dump endure in 3rd job, with the drawback being that dark sight effectively takes longer to cast. you may consider this if you're not using dark sight much anyways. shadower cannot afford to do this because they are constantly going in and out of dark sight

ASSASSIN
3 claw mastery (3)
30 critical throw (30)
2 claw mastery (5)
6 claw booster (6)
6 haste (6)
14 claw booster (20) **
14 haste (20) **
3 endure (3)
28 drain (28)
15 claw mastery (20)
** raise these skills together to match duration

max haste before maxing booster if you are focusing on party content. if you didn't max dark sight, you can start with a value point in haste to overwrite the speed drop without being reliant on nimble feet and its 60 second cooldown

endure can potentially save you from seduce 1/1, but you won't need it until lv150+ and you'll have SP to spare for it at that point

HERMIT
1 avenger (1)
30 shadow partner (30)
4 avenger (5)
20 flash jump (20)
25 avenger (30)
20 shadow web (20)
20 alchemist (20)
20 meso up (20)
2 drain (30)
9 nimble body (19)

if you left dark sight unmaxed and are still okay with that, you can max nimble body and dump the rest in endure

max alchemist before avenger if you want higher apple duration in balrog PQ

washing NL with less than ~300 LUK can add 1 shadow meso to deal more damage than lucky seven, as long as they have enough accuracy to hit. with shadow partner it deals about the same damage as a weak priest's magic claw. it also becomes your only way of dealing damage if you had a brain issue and forgot to recharge your stars (but don't let this happen)

max meso up first if you're leeching yourself

NIGHT LORD
1 triple throw (1)
reset 1 lucky seven into nimble body (20)
1 shadow stars (1)
29 triple throw (30)
9/19 maple warrior (9/19)
10 shadow shifter (10)
1 taunt (1)
20 shadow shifter (30)
29 shadow stars (30)
5 hero's will (5)
17 endure (20) OR 5 hero's will (10)
30 ninja storm (30)
29 taunt (30)
30 venom (30)
reset 17 lucky seven into disorder (20)
dump endure/shadow meso

lv1 taunt can be used as melee range gathering skill. so can lv1 ninja storm, but it's just as slow and offers no other benefit so it's not worth a value point

if you have hero's will 10, you don't need maxed endure for 1/1 sed. it could come into play during dojo however

disorder gains a lategame use for deaggroing auf while dealing with her clones, so you can reset lucky seven into disorder if you don't need it for RJPQ/PPQ (tokens of teamwork). i'm not 100% sure that the duration matters though, so maybe hold off on that

ROGUE (sindit)
1 lucky seven (1)
3 nimble body (3)
8 keen eyes (8)
9 lucky seven (10)
17 nimble body (20)
3 disorder (3)
20 dark sight (20)

ROGUE (bandit)
10 double stab (10)
20 nimble body (20)
3 disorder (3)
20 dark sight (20)
8 keen eyes (8)

double stab is not maxed because you need to max other skills that have long-term use. marginally higher damage in 1st job and early 2nd job is not worth 10 SP resets

that includes keen eyes, which even shadowers should max because claws are optimal in events that force you to use regular attacks. it also allows you to fulfill the range requirement for LPQ. lv1 lucky seven is not needed, just use your regular attack

you can use the same dark sight --> nimble feet macro to erase the speed drop before dark sight is maxed

BANDIT
19 dagger mastery (19)
6 dagger booster (6)
30 savage blow (30)
6 haste (6)
14 dagger booster (20) **
14 haste (20) **
20 endure (20)
11 steal (11)
1 dagger mastery (20)
** raise these skills together to match duration

max haste before maxing booster if you are focusing on party content

savage blow starts weaker than lv10 double stab, so mastery is maxed first. sindit will either continue to use lucky seven until savage blow is stronger, or add lv1 savage blow after advancement

you can leave dagger mastery at 19 with the extra SP eventually going into chakra, but chakra isn't much more useful than +1 accuracy, and 19/20 dagger mastery is horrible to look at

CHIEF BANDIT
1 meso explosion (1)
1 assaulter (1)
3 chakra (3)
1 meso guard (1)
29 meso explosion (30)
30 band of thieves (30)
29 assaulter (30)
19 meso guard (20)
19 steal (30)
18 chakra (21)
1 pickpocket (1)

add 3 chakra + 1 meso guard first if you're unwashed and want to buy zhelm at lv71 instead of lv72

lv1 pickpocket can be used to squeeze a bit more meter out of summons in dojo by exploding them for intentionally low damage. note that trying to blow up your pickpocket money almost always triggers the meso explosion glitch, so it basically ruins normal meso explosion training

SHADOWER
1 boomerang step (1)
1 smokescreen (1)
30 assassinate (30)
29 boomerang step (30)
29 smokescreen (30)
30 shadow shifter (20)
5/10 hero's will (5/10)
9/19 maple warrior (9/19)
30 taunt (30)
30 venom (30)
9 chakra (30)
reset double stab into disorder
dump disorder

hero's will is higher priority because shadower is the preferred seduce target

mobbing focused shadower can get 11 or 21 bstep before assassinate

chakra and disorder can be swapped depending on whether you'll be doing dojo or auf. chakra falls into the category of Technically Not Useless outside of dojo because you could set your autoHP settings really low and use chakra as an extremely laggy but essentially free self-heal

SWORDMAN
5 improving HP recovery (5)
10 improving max HP increase (10)
1 power strike (1)
20 slash blast (20)
19 power strike (20)
3 endure (3)
3 iron body (3)

unlike magician, you can actually deal damage with your regular attacks, so there is no need for a value point in power strike before maxing your HP skill

iron body is added instead of improving HP recovery or endure because it technically has an effect that doesn't require you to be doing nothing, although the benefit is extremely marginal and not worth casting. DK eventually gets skills that outclass iron body, but adds the last few SP to iron body anyway because every other remaining option increases HP recovery which they don't want

fun fact, warriors get HP recovery from chairs every 5 seconds instead of every 10 seconds (no effect on MP recovery). this is either tied to being a warrior or having at least 1 SP in improving HP recovery. further SP investment does not affect this

PAGE
5 sword mastery (5)
6 sword booster (6)
14 sword mastery (19)
14 sword booster (20)
1 sword mastery (20)
30 power guard (30)
30 final attack: sword (30)
20 threaten (20)
1 iron body (4)

final attack + power strike serves as your single-target mode and should be turned off when mobbing with slash blast

power guard reduces knockback taken from contact damage, allowing you to not get knocked off some platforms even when stance fails

swap sword/blunt weapon if you are Not Like Other Girls and don't mind being locked to 1H, since crushed skull is the only blunt weapon that's considered viable

hybrid paladin is not viable, ignore mastery/booster/FA for the weapon you're not using

WHITE KNIGHT
30 lightning charge (30)
30 ice charge (30)
30 fire charge (30)
20 total crash (20)
1 charge blow (1)
11 improved mp recovery (11)
29 charge blow (30)

lightning charge is taken first to maximize DPS against balrog head, and it is also the best for goby training because gobies resist fire and you don't want to freeze them

if doing gobies exclusively, you can also max total crash after lightning charge so you can hit bombing fish houses through weapon cancel

lv1 charge blow is used purely as a convenient shortcut for removing your charge, in case you're fighting monsters that resist all 3 elements (bombing fish house, lord pirate, several dojo bosses)

max either ice or fire after lightning, depending on whether you value freeze utility or hitting more common weaknesses

PALADIN
1 rush (1)
1 heaven's hammer (1)
10 advanced charge blow (10)
30 blast (30)
30 power stance (30)
30 monster magnet (30)
1 hero's will (1)
29 heaven's hammer (30)
9/19 maple warrior (9/19)
30 holy charge (30)
27 rush (28)
4/9 hero's will (5/10)
30 achilles (30)
dump improving mp recovery

blast isn't stronger than power strike until lv6, and acb isn't practical until lv10, so yes, you're going to be using power strike and slash blast until lv123

1H paladin maxes guardian before achilles and must give up on some combination of maple warrior/achilles/rush/hero's will. guardian is the only reason to choose 1H, so if this doesn't appeal to you, use 2H sword

you could max power stance before blast for more convenient bossing, since advanced charge blow is surprisingly adequate single-target DPS for just 10 SP and is better than lv1-9 blast

you won't have enough SP for all useful skills by lv200 if you get both hw10 and mw20, even as 2H

FIGHTER
5 sword mastery (5)
6 sword booster (6)
14 sword mastery (19)
10 sword booster (16)
20 rage (20)
1 sword mastery (20)
30 power guard (30)
30 final attack: sword (30)
4 sword booster (20)
1 iron body (4)

final attack + power strike serves as your single-target mode and should be turned off when mobbing with slash blast

the -12 w.def from rage is a pretty irrelevant drawback, but if you macro rage with iron body, it removes the drawback entirely

power guard reduces knockback taken from contact damage, allowing you to not get knocked off some platforms even when stance fails

swap sword/axe if you are Not Like Other Girls. endgame 2H axe makes a case for itself due to not requiring 120 dex, but isn't considered mainstream atm

hybrid hero is not completely terrible because brandish uses both weapon types, but maxing both boosters and masteries will require you to give up on final attack and 10 points in coma, as well as only allowing max panic to be used with one weapon type. the lack of final attack makes you worse in balrog, the lost points in coma make you worse at mobbing in 3rd job, and there isn't really any benefit to show for it

CRUSADER
30 combo attack (30)
30 panic (30)
30 coma (30)
30 shout (30)
20 armor crash (20)
11 improving mp recovery (11)

panic for balrog at lv90, then coma for himes at lv100. using these skills at 5 orbs is, in fact, a DPS increase compared to purely using 1st job skills. i can't believe i have to say this

shout can be used for low level mob farming for quests/event drops. it can also be used to farm meter off summons in dojo

if you're leeching through 3rd job, you can max improving MP recovery and leave coma at lv21, but coma is still kinda nice to use right before recasting combo attack, and it's only really important for improving MP recovery to be at least lv9

HERO
1 advanced combo attack (1)
1 rush (1)
30 brandish (30)
29 advanced combo attack (30)
30 power stance (30)
30 monster magnet (30)
1 hero's will (1)
30 enrage (30)
9/19 maple warrior (9/19)
27 rush (28)
4/9 hero's will (5/10)
30 achilles (30)
dump improving MP recovery

1H hero maxes guardian before achilles and must give up on some combination of maple warrior/achilles/rush/hero's will. guardian is the only reason to choose 1H, so if this doesn't appeal to you, use 2H

power stance and advanced combo attack can be switched if you prefer convenience over DPS in the short term

macro panic + combo attack and use it when combo attack is about to expire. this is free DPS since panic deals higher damage per cast than brandish, but you still need combo attack on a different key

SPEARMAN
5 spear mastery (5)
6 spear booster (6)
14 spear mastery (19)
14 spear booster (20)
1 spear mastery (20)
3 iron will (3)
30 hyper body (30)
20 polearm mastery (20)
20 polearm booster (20)
8 iron will (11)

unlike crusader and white knight, dragon knight does not use final attack, so there is no upside to a spear-only build at this point. the last 8 points go into iron will instead of final attack because lv8 FA is not a DPS increase with power strike, though you could dump FA anyway if you want to see the animations, and there's no harm in doing so

polearm and spear can be skilled in reverse order if you prefer higher average damage per hit (default ratio is 60% swing, 40% stab which favors polearm). however, maple scorpio is slower than maple impaler, and before lv43 you'd rather be using the lv25 pumpkin spear or lv30 maplemas tree than the lv15 gold surfboard or any of the normal speed snowboards

if you are absolutely sure, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that you will never touch a polearm for your entire career, you can max iron will and either max iron body (because it gives 2x w.def compared to iron will) or dump FA. but the benefit from this is so marginal that it's better to max your polearm skills in case you change your mind

DRAGON KNIGHT (spear)
1 dragon fury: spear (1)
15 spear crusher (15)
save 12 SP
15 spear crusher (30)
20 dragon blood (20)
3 sacrifice (3)
30 dragon roar (30)
12 dragon fury: spear (13)
20 element resistance (20)
20 power crash (20)
0-15 sacrifice (3-18)
dump dragon fury: spear

build for dragon knights who will never touch a polearm and don't mind slightly slower mobbing in 3rd job

DRAGON BLOOD DOES NOT KILL YOU AT 1 HP. the buff simply expires prematurely

spear fury is taken first for its range and mob gathering utility at lv1. it will never be higher DPS than crusher no matter how many targets there are, so it's no big deal to leave it unmaxed. lv1 crusher is useless

max dragon roar before dragon blood if the gold richie exp egg event is active

sacrifice is useless for dragon knight, but you will use it as a dark knight. however, you don't want to max it because it's only used for lowering your HP, and it lowers less HP at higher skill levels. it always leaves you with at least 1 HP, but it doesn't give you iframes and that can be dangerous if mistimed. lv3 sacrifice will lower your HP by a lot, so it's more skill-based since you have to actually watch the boss animations in order to not die, but it's also more effective at lowering your HP. if you're not sure what's best for you, then go with lv18 sacrifice and adjust later if necessary

DARK KNIGHT (spear)
1 rush (1)
1 beholder (1)
30 berserk (30)
30 power stance (30)
9 beholder (10)
30 monster magnet (30)
30 achilles (30)
1 hero's will (1)
9/19 maple warrior (9/19)
21 hex of the beholder (21)
27 rush (28)
17 dragon fury: spear (30)
4/9 hero's will (5/10)
4 hex of the beholder (25)
dump aura of the beholder

achilles is maxed earlier than other warriors to aid zerking, and can be moved even earlier if necessary to zerk specific bosses

you can max beholder before berserk if you want an earlier DPS increase, but berserk is the entire point of dark knight, so max it first you coward

hex gives w.def and m.def, which this class actually cares about because all dark knights have the same HP

once you learn to zerk comfortably, after achilles either add SP to sacrifice or reset out of sacrifice and into spear fury if you want to decrease/increase the amount of HP lost by using sacrifice

aura of the beholder can be maxed if you cap at lv9 maple warrior and lv1 hero's will. if you don't struggle with accuracy because you have auf helm and/or pyrope spear, you can also max aura and get lv5 hero's will instead of lv25 hex

DRAGON KNIGHT (hybrid)
30 dragon fury: polearm (30)
1 dragon fury: spear (1)
15 spear crusher (15)
save 12 SP
15 spear crusher (30)
20 dragon blood (20)
3 sacrifice (3)
30 dragon roar (30)
20 element resistance (20)
17 power crash (17)

build for dragon knights who have a scrolled maple karstan/maple snowboard to use immediately. max polearm fury can be delayed until after spear crusher if you want to fight balrog earlier, or if you plan to use purple snowboard/crimson arcglaive as your first polearm. polearm fury is more effective than spear crusher for mobbing 5+ targets, and polearms are cheap

with the custom buff to dragon's blood resulting in an even tighter 3rd job SP distribution, you'll have to give up on some SP in useful skills to max both polearm fury and spear crusher. the result is a slightly less effective power crash and a significantly more dangerous (but more effective) sacrifice, requiring you to watch the boss animations to ensure that your self-inflicted damage doesn't stack with incoming damage. you'll also be stuck with lv1 spear fury as long as your polearm fury remains lv30

DARK KNIGHT (hybrid)
1 rush (1)
1 beholder (1)
30 berserk (30)
30 power stance (30)
9 beholder (10)
30 monster magnet (30)
30 achilles (30)
1 hero's will (1)
0-15 sacrifice (3-18) [optional]
9/19 maple warrior (9/19)
3 power crash (20)
21 hex of the beholder (21)
27 rush (28)
29 dragon fury: spear (30) if you didn't SP reset polearm fury
4/9 hero's will (5/10)
dump aura of the beholder

lv17 power crash isn't too bad (88% success rate) but you may want it maxed for CWKPQ, or RG at the latest

if you have no more use for polearms, SP reset all your points out of polearm fury to match the spear-only build

PIRATE (brawler)
1 flash fist (1)
20 somersault kick (20)
19 flash fist (20)
20 bullet time (20)
1 dash (1)

bullet time is maxed because brawler needs accuracy more than gunslinger needs avoid. if you have good DEX gear, max dash instead of bullet time, and finish maxing bullet time in 2nd job

you could leave dash at 0 and reallocate points to double shot if you don't like the idea of activating dash by accident, but it only costs 5 MP and doesn't override haste or speed pots so there is no reason not to invest in it

BRAWLER
10 improve maxHP (10)
1 knuckle mastery (1)
1 backspin blow (1)
1 corkscrew blow (1)
4 knuckle mastery (5)
6 knuckle booster (6)
14 knuckle mastery (19)
14 knuckle booster (20)
19 corkscrew blow (20)
9 dash (10)
19 backspin blow (20)
1 double shot (1)
10 MP recovery (10)
1 knuckle mastery (20)
10 oak barrel (10)
1 double uppercut (1)

leaving double uppercut with <10 SP enables infinite washing (expensive method that does not require fresh AP). this method requires you to reset improve maxHP to 0, which is impossible if you didn't spend at least 1 2nd job SP on a 1st job skill

corkscrew blow must be used uncharged if you want to stay fully invincible. for that reason, its damage isn't that important in the long term, but it is pretty good damage in the short term when charged up

lv1 double shot is used for the chinese new year boss. even without gun booster, it deals higher DPS than any of your 2nd-4th job skills, and you can still use SI with a gun. use a lv10 pistol from the nautilus weapon store if you don't have a maple gun on you

you can even get lv19/20 double shot in late 3rd job to max out its attack range, if you really don't care about shockwave and would rather have a skill that's useful for 2 months every year than a skill that will never be used again

MARAUDER
1 transformation (1)
1 shockwave (1)
1 energy charge (1)
1 energy blast (1)
1 energy drain (1)
39 energy charge (40)
29 energy blast (30)
20 shockwave (21)
19 energy drain (20)
20 stun mastery (20)
19 transformation (20)

lv1 transformation is added first purely for the boosted speed/jump, giving you more tangible benefit than any of your energy-related skills would at lv1. lv1 shockwave gives you your first ranged-ish skill, though at lv1 it's only useful for drawing aggro

shockwave is a low priority skill because not only do you not have 100% uptime on transformation, but assuming that you switch to energy blast when it's available, shockwave has worse DPM compared to using somersault kick to charge energy because it charges energy so much slower. leave it at lv21 so that you can occasionally transform and use it to gather 6 mobs from a longer range than somersault kick, and max stun mastery and energy drain which are both skills that you'll use in the long-term

fun fact, stun mastery stacks with SE the same way that assassin's critical throw and archer's critical shot stacks with SE. not useful for bossing, but for grinding it is noticeable if you use backspin blow

BUCCANEER
1 barrage (1)
1 dragon strike (1)
1 time leap (1)
11 speed infusion (11)
29 barrage (30)
29 dragon strike (30)
1 super transformation (1)
30 demolition (30)
19 super transformation (20)
1 hero's will (1)
30 snatch (30)
9/19 maple warrior (9/19)
30 energy orb (30)
29 time leap (30)
4/9 hero's will (5/10)
dump speed infusion

your starter attacking macro will be barrage + energy blast + energy blast for single target, and pure energy blast for mobbing until dragon strike is maxed. if energy charge isn't up, weave barrage with somersault kick to charge it up as fast as possible, or flash fist for single target. when barrage and dragon strike are both maxed, that will be your main attack combo when not transformed. the two skills are slow enough that a macro isn't really necessary

lots of lv1 value points for this class.

lv1 barrage is used for iframes + fast energy charge + pin
lv1 time leap so you can TL echo, smokescreen, and res
lv1 dragon strike is for aggroing mobs/low level mob farming, replacing shockwave

you can swap demolition and snatch for an earlier RG (lv160 instead of lv170), but demolition provides more general value in boss runs and you're still desired for your SI

PIRATE (gunslinger)
1 double shot (1)
1 somersault kick (1)
19 double shot (20)
19 somersault kick (20)
10 dash (10)
11 bullet time (11)

double shot and somersault kick can be maxed in either order. somersault kick is best used with a spear, but it's not totally useless with a gun, and can also be used while holding an INT weapon for washing. feel free to max bullet time and leave somersault kick at 11 forever, but the only benefit of not maxing somersault kick is getting lv10/11 grenade instead of lv1 grenade in 2nd job, and grenade is even worse than somersault kick and flash fist

GUNSLINGER
1 invisible shot (1)
5 gun mastery (5)
6 gun booster (6)
14 gun mastery (19)
19 invisible shot (20)
5 wings (5)
20 recoil shot (20)
5 wings (10)
14 gun booster (20)
20 blank shot (20)
9 bullet time (20)
1 gun mastery (20)
1 grenade (1)
1 flash fist (1)

maxing wings earlier allows you to substitute for max keen eyes/eye of amazon in LPQ, in case you can't find a sin or archer, or your party's bandit followed the wrong SP build

both grenade and flash fist are for comedy value only. do note that you can use flash fist with a gun, and lv1 flash fist hits harder than both maxed grenade and blank shot (because none of these 3 skills have gun mastery)

OUTLAW
1 ice splitter (1)
save 9 SP
20 burst fire (20)
6 flamethrower (6)
6 ice splitter (7)
6 flamethrower (12)
6 ice splitter (13)
6 flamethrower (18)
6 ice splitter (19)
6 flamethrower (24)
6 ice splitter (25)
6 flamethrower (30)
1 ice splitter (26)
1 gaviota (1)
30 octopus (30)
14 gaviota (15)
30 homing beacon (30)

flamethrower and ice splitter are raised in this order because flamethrower gains more damage per SP than ice splitter, but you never want flamethrower to hit more enemies than ice splitter because it would leave one enemy aggroed but not frozen. during the early levels when you're still maxing burst fire, the ice splitter + flamethrower macro is worthless for damage, so we don't bother with a value point in flamethrower and simply use ice splitter as a disabling skill with a faster cast time than blank shot

burst fire is weaker than double shot until lv7, so it is better to save SP and add 9 at once

you can set up octopus + gaviota macro instead of just octopus. it's the same macro you'll use in 4th job, just weaker due to the octopus not being wrathful

homing beacon/bullseye are your highest single-line damage until battleship torpedo, allowing you to hit certain knockback thresholds

CORSAIR
1 rapid fire (1)
1 elemental boost (1)
1 air strike (1)
1 wrath of the octopi (1)
1 battleship (1)
30 battleship cannon (30)
20 bullseye (20)
10 wrath of the octopi (11)
29 rapid fire (30)
1 hero's will (1)
9 battleship (10)
9 wrath of the octopi (20)
9/19 maple warrior (9/19)
1 hypnotize (1)
30 battleship torpedo (30)
29 elemental boost (30)
4 ice splitter (30)
29 air strike (30)
4/9 hero's will (5/10)
dump gaviota/hypnotize

if ship feels too weak early on, max battleship after 11 battleship cannon. if you can dismount like a god, feel free to delay max battleship as much as you like, though it should probably be maxed before adding battleship torpedo

put cannon in a macro by itself so you can buffer it during remount animation

lv1 hypnotize works as a scuffed pseudo-puppet if you need to de-aggro something. feel free to add 1 SP at any point after core skills

 

Very nice guide!

As a paladin, is early monster magnet purely for LHC? I preferred holy charge first for damage increase at Chao/Ephenia and others since I never went to LHC.
Also for 1H, what would you recommend to skip over guardian?

 

monster magnet is for LHC, but even for chao/ephenia it's 130% for fire charge and 140% for holy charge so I would not call that essential at all
the guide does say what to skip over guardian. though personally, i think that paladin has such a severe shortage of SP that you can't really justify guardian

 

Holy Charge will do 1.4*1.5 rather than 1.3*1.0 since elemental advantage gives the extra 1.5 boost. Pretty significant, but agree if you plan to just lhc, can delay it a bit.

Edit: thanks for clarifying

 

Whoops sorry my bad, I missed that one sentence, thanks! I do notice pala had a shortage yes. On the other hand, having meaningful skill points all the way to 200 is nice!

Chao and Eph are also fire weak, so it's not that big a dps increase. There's other mobs that are only holy weak where it's super nice though!

 

I'd disagree on this. Max rush is very useful, skip either monster magnet (more niche than rush), Achilles (weird choice but I can see it, if you're running guardian for the KB resistance and chance to not insta die to rocks. Slightly sketch in auf sed scenarios, but still reasonable choice), or MW (I have mw0 on mine and it just perfectly adds up. Useful if you don't plan to do solo content or have mules with mw20 and don't plan to rg much). All options should end up with rush 28, where the rush distance maxes out.

Res on bishop can be skipped for earlier gen if you don't plan to boss on it. I also saved 9 SP unspent for mw30 in the future if/when it ever comes out, which is probably better than maxing big bang or mana reflection with them.

 

as a dk enthusiast, i have notes.

First/second job:
iron body and later on, iron will is completely useless. only dump excess sp into it and never cast it.

dragon knight:
- i advise most new dks against doing a split spear/polearm build.
-polearm mobbing is only better dps when you have consistently 5+ targets which isnt even always the case at himes.
-you will use spear fury for micro-hp adjustments when zerking
-i statted sacrifice pretty high (~20) it gives you more control in burning hp

dark knight:
-donn1e's guide https://royals.ms/forum/threads/a-guide-to-dark-knight-2026.230387/ gives several sp builds
-achilles or mm first is dependent on whether you want to run bosses or lhc first, respectively.
-bosses are more fun, lhc is more exp
-skip pole arm 3rd job skills and max rush for mobbing QoL
-a few points into aura of beholder is good for stuff like bigfoot where your hp doesnt fluctuate much and you appreciate the free heals keeping you close to 15k. I have 10 points in it
-mw before rush for more dps especially if you do solo content
-only stat hero's will when you start doing ht, hw1 is fine

 

You should throw in 1sp into hypnotize somewhere around lv175.
Hypnotize is quite a useless skill to max, but it comes in handy particularly for de-aggro purposes in Auf or solo NT for Sair. 1 point will do the job.

And thanks for mentioning holding 7 points before putting sp into burst fire. It's a very dumb design that not many are aware of.

 

Did they not change this a while ago so 1SP outdamages Double Shot? Or am I misremembering and that's 1SP of Rapid Fire > Maxed Burst Fire?

If so I need to add this into the guide...

 

Perhaps you should read iShotMyBoss's Guide. It's a great guide with accurate information.

 

Yep I have! It's a LOT of info though so I probably missed out on some. I'll go give it a runthrough again.

 

i don't see how the difference between losing 25 HP and 30 HP per use spear fury would realistically matter for hp adjustments

if the point of sacrifice is to drop yourself back into berserk range, why wouldn't you want it to sacrifice as much HP as possible? this is a genuine question

they'll still be funneled into hybrid unless you can make a really solid argument for >4 sacrifice and early max spear fury

i will update this

 

Less points in Sacrifice makes it loses more HP too, what far better than having many points and never use due to take too long to a real HP Drop, and in the end of the day, using Dragon Roar instead for open your Spear Crushes earlier.

 

Nice minimaxes! Wanted know that one month ago xD

 

Would start with Pole Arm before Spear because of for non Spear Crusher/Dragon Fury hits, the "cut" hit is more frequent (60%) than the drill hit for both Spears and Pole Arms, and Pole Arms deals 100% damage while that Cut and 60% on Drill, the opposite for Spears.

 

To avoid potentially dying, sacrifice for small hp adjustments, roar for big hp adjustments

 

A higher level fury is more dps when you use it to pull aggro when mobs are out of range or to hit multiple targets before casting crusher.
I haven't played early game dk in a while. I use it to aggro golems that are walking, or bring my HP from 15100 and under back to zero range.

What donn1e said for sacrifice. Her guide is goated for dk info.

I went to crusher then roar then spear fury third job. I never statted pole arm skills. I cleared ToT and grinded himes and there were fewer times that you'd expect hitting consistently 5+ targets since especially for himes, you don't have rush

 

question since i'm unable to test this myself (I can't test lv3 sacrifice and lv15+ sacrifice at the same time)

how much recoil damage do you expect to take from sacrifice? surely it's going to be less recoil damage than dragon roar regardless of level? one could also argue that sacrifice is better than roar if you need to make larger adjustments, since the animation is faster

i also want to ask how dangerous it is to use dragon roar at 51% HP. i could see it being dangerous back when pets would only pot a single time per hit, but this isn't the case in the current version, so it may be worth reevaluating

when i was grinding himes, i could hit 6 targets almost all the time because i would start gathering more mobs as soon as there were fewer than 5 left. himes are seen as the main use case for polearm fury, so if fury is truly not worth it for himes, then a lot of people are very, very wrong about this skill

i've seen DK players that I respect who argued both for and against taking polearm fury, so it would be great to hear from them as well. i don't think there are many people who played both hybrid DK and spear-only DK

 

I got my sacrifice to 29 at the highest, but the hp adjustment was too small. I think it's 21 now. both are dangerous cause they don't seem to consistently put you into i-frames. You can get double tapped and killed at something like vl or auf.

been a long time since i have grinded mobs like himes or tot. i recal 2-3 hitting himes as a total noob and attacking as I cross the map, rarely building up the full 5+ targets. One case that comes to mind is as a low level drk i was farming silvermane sets for some mesos. I wasn't 1-hitting every mob consistently, but using crusher+fury I would clear mobs consistently.
Even at a higher level, I would maybe three-hit rose garden mobs and tap them with one fury to clean up. By skipping pole arm skills it also saves you SPRs if you ever want to reset them later in 4th job.

 

what total % of your HP do you ideally want to lose when using sacrifice? i will update the guide to suggest adding some SP to sacrifice, though this will be an approximate range rather than a fixed number