Maplestory’s New Age expansion has been a breath of fresh air for the franchise (despite its rocky start), and more players have been playing now than the past long while. Of course, with any resurgence in an MMORPG, there are new players looking to figure out a class/job to play. As I normally do with anything I play, I delve deep, going as hard as I can to get as far as I can.
My foray into Maplestory has been great, and I feel confident enough to give newer players a small bit of guidance of classes to look into. With over 40 different classes, it can be hard to figure out what you want to spend time on. After all, you would be playing this class long term, and you want to make sure your time investment is enjoyable.
Of course, the usual disclaimer with any of these pieces: What’s listed here is just an opinion from me, a single person. No class, no matter how good they are, is worth taking away from the enjoyment you think you’ll have with another class. The one you enjoy is the true #1, and the classes listed here are (mostly) from an efficiency and simplicity point of view.
Ice/Lightning Mage
Ice/Lightning Mage (I/L for short) is an incredibly efficient class, and specializes in mobbing specifically. It has a ton of full map attacks that you can rotate constantly, and it’s made even easier once you get your 6th job origin skill. All explorer mages have one of the best abilities you can get, Infinity. This skill amplifies your damage by so much that you can train in maps that you aren’t supposed to train in. Its bossing takes a bit of getting used to, because Infinity is a backloaded skill. You get the maximum damage at the end of the buff, and because of this, you’ll want as much buff duration as possible, on top of much needed crit rate, and ignore enemy defense. This makes gearing it up a tad slower than other classes who can just pick up and go, but it’s well worth it in the end!
- Training/Mobbing: 8.5/10
- Bossing: 8/10
- Difficulty: Easy
Bishop
Bishop is the best support class in Maplestory by quite a bit. It has access to a plethora of healing for yourself and your party, is an explorer mage, which means it has Infinity, its training is incredibly good and easy. Gets a ton of bonus exp and drop rate due to Holy Symbol, and its bossing isn’t too bad either. Because the support it provides is so busted, you’ll always be welcome in groups, which could theoretically accelerate your gear progression. You don’t have the highest bossing damage, but it’ll be very comfy and safe, which is worth its own weight.
- Training/Mobbing: 9/10
- Bossing: 7.5/10 (11/10 in a group)
- Difficulty: Easy
Dawn Warrior
By far the easiest class in Maplestory. Dawn Warrior does big damage, has humongous range, ridiculously easy training, great bossing with built in invincible frames, and great mobility. I could go on and on. The biggest selling point, and the reason why I’m going to make one as a boss mule, is how little resources you actually need for it. It only uses one set of V matrix nodes for its boost skills, and the current Identisk event, combined with login rewards and the hyper burn event, will get your main skills maxed out in no time at all. If you want to maximum efficiency for minimum effort, this is your class
- Training/Mobbing: 9.5/10
- Bossing:9/10
- Difficulty: Very Easy
Fire/Poison Mage
If I didn’t enjoy Ice/Lightning Mage, I would almost certainly play Fire/Poison. Many have touted it as one of the best, if not the best 6th job class, and for good reason. Its mobbing can be either sweaty or lazy, boasting a ton of summon/like skills and massive full map attacks. In some maps, you can legitimately stand in a single spot and let your skills do the rest. Its bossing is also among the best, mostly because unlike a lot of other classes, Fire/Poison actually has incredibly sustained damage, on top of a powerful burst Origin skill in 6th job. The class is much tougher than any of the classes listed here, requiring a lot more buttons at a much faster pace while bossing. It also has a higher node investment than most as well, as you have quite a few skills to rotate through. The payoff is a much higher ceiling than most, meaning more damage, more sustainability, and arguably better (and easier) time mobbing!
- Training/Mobbing: 9.5/10
- Bossing: 9/10 (up to 10/10 when mastered)
- Difficulty: Medium
Night Walker
This class is busted. Full stop.
There are maybe two classes that can realistically do higher burst damage than Night Walker, and one of them, which is Night Lord, has way less utility than Night Walker. Night Walker has great health sustainability, a free extra life for bosses (a.k.a “door” effect). A shield, which can be used as a buffer for some enemy percent damage skills. You actually have two different ways of mobbing on this class, the standard “jump around and kill stuff” way, and something called “bite farming”, which consists of the skill Shadow Bite, standing still in a suitable map, hitting that button, and repeating.
No, that’s seriously it!
Outside of that, it has all the tools you could ask for when it comes to mobbing and bossing, and then some. It’s only weakness is that it doesn’t provide a party buff, which is acceptable, considering how much damage it does by itself.
- Training/Mobbing: 9/10
- Bossing: 9.5/10
- Difficulty: Easy-ish
Of course, these aren’t the only classes that are good. Classes like bowmaster, Marksman, Hero, Hayato, Wind Archer, Buccaneer, and Shadower, are all so very powerful, it would behoove you to check them all out, and beyond. It’s very hard to go wrong with whatever you pick, but it’s worth spending time to do a bit of research into a choice that you’re going to spend a lot of time with!
