////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// // // // MAPLE STORY // // // // "PARTY CLERIC" WALKTHROUGH // // // // LAST UPDATED: 31 JULY 2005 // // // ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (c) 2005 JasaniAVA This guide may not be replicated under any circumstances except for personal, private uses. It may not be placed on any websites or otherwise disributed publicly without advance written permission from JasaniAVA. Use of this guide or any parts of it on any other website as a part of any public display is strictly prohibited, and a violation of copyright. Any user who wishes a copy for personal use is allowed to print one copy, but may not in any manner distribute it or allow it to become in the posession of another individual unless in its absolute full context, including both this advisory and all personally identifiable information placed within by the author. This file may not, in any way, be used for monetary gain by any party, real or imaginary, or any other form of personal gain, and any using this file in such a manner, aside from the author, will be subject to copyright and royalty infringement. All trademarks and copyrights contained in this documents are owned by their respective trademark and copyright holders. At the time of the most recent update, the following sites are authorized to carry this walkthrough//FAQ: ~http://www.gamefaqs.com (GameFAQs) ~http://maple.windwhip.net/~kimenet (My personal site) NOTE :: As GameFAQs does not allow direct linking into its site, I will maintain a second copy on my personal website. Unless there are extreme circumstances, odds are that I will not authorize maintaining a copy of this guide elsewhere; however, I will allow sites to link from their pages onto my personal copy: http://maple.windwhip.net/~kimenet/maple_story_party_cleric.txt //TABLE OF CONTENTS// (the line numbers may be used for quick CNTL-F) #1# Introduction #2# Beginners, Sign Up Here! #3# The Early Mage #4# Becoming A Cleric #5# Cleric Skills (And What I'm Telling You To Do With Them) #6# The Almighty Priest (And His Symbol Of Holiness) #7# Where Should I Be Levelling? #8# FAQs Directly Related To This Topic #9# Version History #10# Contact Info (And Advisories) #11# Thank-yous //#1#// //Introduction// So, you want to be a "party" cleric, hm? Or, possibly you want to be a cleric, but have no idea what one means by "party" cleric... can't all clerics join parties? Well, of course. Otherwise NO ONE would be a cleric. BUT... there's a right and a wrong way to being a cleric which is completely set up for optimum partying. A common thought process, for example, is: the more expensive the spell, the flashier the spell, the more effective. Right? WRONG! I'll explain that down below, as well. Keep in mind, it's perfectly possible to make a cleric who can jump into battle and do as much or more than your other mages, or even sometimes (most of the time, really) anyone else. However... if you want your cleric to have MP to heal with when people start taking hits, WITHOUT burning through every Pure Water on your channel... pay attention. //#2#// //Beginners, Sign Up Here!// OK, so here we are, the character creation screen. Why so far back, you ask? Some people DO NOT understand the stats system. And I'm here to explain a bit about it. Your stats, on the right, look like this: STR (#) DEX (#) INT (#) LUK (#) With the (#)s being replaced by your actual "rolled" values. With me so far? Good. What you're looking for is the LOWEST POSSIBLE STR and DEX values you can get. If you get STR 4 and DEX 4, you're probably in good shape. If you've got STR 9 and INT 4... you MIGHT wanna consider re-rolling. Keep in mind that INT and LUK will be your primary skills, BUT... if for some reason, you happen to get a 4/4/6/6 or anything similar which gives you a higher LUK than you might expect, it's still worth it to keep it. Your LUK should end up 3 higher than your level, so if you take this, just dump everything into INT until your level catches back up. A word of warning: No matter HOW tempting it may be, DO NOT take a STR or DEX of above 5. EVER. AT ALL. This eats up your valuable AP, which could be going into INT or LUK. (Some people say 4/1, and I tend to agree, though if you start getting behind on LUK, feel free to adjust for a level or two til you catch up. LUK, as stated above, should always be JUST fine at 3 more than your level.) OK, so you've created, and you're walking through the beginning. Your first few levels are key... you need an INT of 20 by the time you get to level 8, and you should be in Ellenia IMMEDIATELY after levelling, just to be safe. Trust me on this... you DON'T want to waste a level as a beginner. That's 3 fewer SP to spend. And SP are your skills' lifeblood, after all. //#3#// //The Early Mage// Go to Ellenia. Go to the top of the city. Talk to Grendel. Pretty straight-forward, right? It really is simple. OK, so Grendel says you look like you're ready, gives you a bunch of MP, a spellbook of sorts, and ONE WHOLE SP. What do you spend it on? (Anyone who says other than Magic Bolt needs to be shot NOW.) That's right, Magic Bolt. Kinda a waste being a mage without an attack spell, right? Right. Get that point into Magic Bolt and start blasting stuff on the first screen south, a large crisscrossed series of paths known as the Field South of Ellenia. At this point, with a good INT, you *should* be able to take out Stumps and Slimes in 2 or 3 hits max. AVOID the green mushrooms, for they spell death at this level, and now that you've advanced, you CANNOT afford to die. (For those who find slimes still too much a challenge, there's always the option, as much as I hate saying it, of heading down to Henesys, or specifically, the Hill East of Henesys. There's plenty of blue and red snails there, as well as small mushrooms, all of which should be easy enough fodder for you. The only conflict of this concept is that there are many people there, and at lower levels, someone may go for a cheap KS.) Get a level! So many choices, and only 3SP to spend... where should you put it? I recommend, for the first 5 or so levels at least, to dump all your SP into Max MP Increase and MP Regen. Max MP Increase raises how much your MP goes up every time you level, and whenever you pump AP into INT. (Also if you put AP into MP, but I'm assuming my readers wouldn't do such a foolish, foolhardy thing. :P) MP Regen does just what it sounds like: regenerates your MP. (As far as I can tell, it's based on LV + skill LV. Which means, at 30, with max, you would get 50MP back every 10 seconds. Not too shabby.) Next skill to work on is... MAGIC BOLT. Now, most people will call for a straightjacket for me, but hear me out. Its max cost is 14, as opposed to Claw's 20. It does roughly 5%-10% less damage than BOTH claws. Its only real weakness is its inability to go THROUGH some objects, and its projectile tracking. However, for the party cleric, it's the perfect self-defense: maxed out, at L30, you're hitting for an average of 280-380 a bolt. Not too shabby, since part of the main fodder at this level has 300HP. (Note: Keep in mind, often your damage will look like less than that of those who are using the Claw. A lot of this has to do with Bolt's lower mastery percentage... your range is larger than theirs. The 5%-10% I mentioned above is based on max numbers, not on min numbers. With mins, it's closer to 15%.) Once you've got Bolt maxed, start investing in Magic Guard. Sure, it SOUNDS scary... your MP, run out?... but remember kids, if you end up with 0 MP, you can heal it... 0 HP is only revivable. When you get to about level 25, you can start getting in on the wonderful and oft-times trying Party Quest. (NOT recommended below that level, due to some of the monsters you'll face within.) Go to Kerning, and simply state "Looking for PQ" with your level and class. Many times, mages will get in easier, because they are WELL known for their power and range. I'm not posting a guide here on how to do the PQ, because... well, that's not what this is. If you are new to PQ and need a guide, check out the guide available on http://www.hidden-street.net. It's quite comprehensive. //#4#// //Becoming A Cleric// So, between levelling and PQs, you've managed to make level 30. Now, head back to Ellenia, and talk to Grendel again. He'll praise your newfound strength and ask if you'd like to test it. (Of course you would.) He'll tell you to head to the instructor, who's located at the very top of the Forest North of Ellenia. Get up there, and he'll send you into a special map. All the monsters there are about 3x their normal HP, and roughly twice their normal physical attack. They also give no experience, and have no normal drops. HOWEVER, they drop (80% or so of the time) an item known as the Dark Marble. Collect 30 of these, and talk to the instructor inside. He will give you the Proof of the Hero and tell you to go back to Grendel. Grendel will say, basically, that he knew all along you'd succeed, and will give you the choice of which path to take. (If you're reading this, it's pretty obvious you're going for cleric, but... feel free to read the descriptions, if you'd like.) Choose cleric, and he'll go on about service to God and helping fellow man, and give you another spellbook, more MP, and send you back off into the world to be a do-gooder. (Warms the heart, doesn't it?) //#5#// //Cleric Spells (And What I'm Telling You To Do With Them)// Oh yea, he gave you 1SP again. (Cheap, huh.) You have TWO possible choices for what to do with that: either invest in a level of teleport, or a level of heal. (Heal is OK at level 1, but not impressive. Same goes for teleport. This is really YOUR decision.) Now, as you keep going, you're still getting SP each time you level. I recommend getting Heal up as fast as possible, sneaking in a point or two of Teleport fairly early (hey, it'll be useful from time to time), and NOT forgetting about Invincible. Invincible is a key spell at this point, because once you get it to 5, you unlock Bless, which is one of the most important spells for party clerics to have. On soloing, it's an OK spell, but when in a party you're giving those buffs to your entire team. (Not so shabby, hm?) Holy Arrow is OK when you've got everything else tacked down, as either the soloing tool or a new defensive, but I recommend maxing out pretty much everything else first. (MP Eater, by the by, is a waste and should be THE LAST thing on your list. It works 30% of the time and only absorbs from magic attacks. You're better off with potions in the long run.) ================================================================ A note about MP Eater (courtesy of Patrick Starfire, by email): >>i believe your logic on mp eater is wrong. i have seen people >>sniping copper drakes from a safe spot where the drakes cant >>reach, and the blue flashes that indicate the MP Eater worked >>(its a blue sparkle following the movement of your hand as you >>cast the spell) happened relatively often, even though: >>1) as i said, the drakes cant reach that area >>2) they're copper drakes. they cant fire projectiles ================================================================ //#6#// //The Almighty Priest (And His Symbol Of Holiness)// As I've not yet gotten to this point (nor has anyone, to my knowledge, at the time of writing this FAQ) I can only postulate what, precisely, we'll be doing here. So I'll skip to the spells and skills, which I *do* have access to a list of. :P Dispel is nice, removing statuses of your party members (meaning poison, weak, blind, etc) while ALSO dispelling the positive effects on enemies around the caster (and possibly the party members as well, though as I said, I haven't seen just yet). If for nothing else, get it for that and because it's a gateway spell to the one you REALLY want. Mystic Door is... well, it's there. If you don't have scrolls of nearest town, I suppose, it'd be useful. Depends on how rare they intend to make Magic Rocks, one of which is consumed every time you cast this (if you have none, you can't cast, similar to MP). I'd say keep this for later... only positive side to it is that it lasts for a length (120 seconds at mastery), so your party members can run to town, restock on potions, and come back without missing a beat. Element Resistance. What can I say, elemental attacks will end up being nasty by the time you get your grubby little hands on this, so this passive skill might well prove useful. Shutting out half the damage from elemental skills and spells (at master level, 20) will likely prove VERY useful. Doom... well, well, well. This sounds like a VERY fun spell to use on swarms of nasty monsters that're all attacking you. Turns each and every one of them, as long as they're not super-powerful, into snails. Including appearance. Now, keep in mind that this uses up a Magic Rock as well, so this should be fairly rare a thing to use unless you have 5 or 6 stacks of the things and getting them on almost every drop. Still, it's almost like a screen-clearing blast of energy. Cept the monsters are still, to an extent, there. This also appears to be something absolutely of no real value against "boss" monsters (MushMom, King Slime, and their ilk), but still impressive. Shining Ray... another of those spells you'll probably want to avoid til towards the end, since it's an attack spell. Still, though, if blasting through hoards of monsters rather than using Heal consistently appeals to you, or if you've got MP to burn and THEN some, you might want to invest in this one. Just don't make it a priority... THAT'S coming up. Summon Dragon. Yes, you read right, SUMMON DRAGON. You literally summon a dragon, who fights beside you for a varying length of time (at master level of 30, 140 seconds) and who gets nastier the higher level the spell is. Its damage ratings, if I am correct, will be SIGNIFICANTLY higher than Shining Ray's, even if it's an attacker rather than a multi-target spell. Look for this to be the Priest's ultimate attack. DEFINATELY worth the cost, and almost guaranteed to be worth the Magic Stone it costs to use it. Holy Symbol, the creme de la creme of the good Party Cleric. This spell should be maxed as soon as physically possible. It has a Dispel L3 pre-requisite, which should be no issue to obtain, since Dispel is useful anyways. This spell, when cast, increases the XP gained by the entire party. The length of spell AND the percent increase BOTH go up as it levels, to a max of 150% increase for 2 whole minutes. And costs 80MP, which anyone who's made it to Cleric can attest is literally NOTHING. (And by this time, by my calculations, you should restore that minor expenditure in your next MP Regen cycle. :P) Note that this spell does NOT cost a Magic Rock, as some of the other spells at this stage do, so it's literally spammable... as soon as it is starting to run out, throw it out again so people never have to miss a beat. (Or carry a small stack of magic pots, in case it really becomes an issue. Which you SHOULD have such a stack from the time you enter the Dungeon (L18 or so) on. Period.) ================================================================ A note about Magic Rocks and Summoning Rocks (courtesy of DDragon962, by email): >>Sup, I just read your FAQ about being a Party Cleric. Anyways, >>in it you mentioned not knowing how rare Magic and Summoning Rocks >>are. Well there's a dude in El Nath who's called Alcester and gives >>you a Level 60 quest. After finishing the quest you can buy Magic >>and Summoning Rocks from him for 5000 mesos. So, by that level >>they aren't rare at all. ================================================================ Also, according to Hidden Street, certain common monsters will drop these (though I believe they probably will hold out until either after this quest or until you've reached the 3rd Job Advancement, though once again, this is purest here-say). //#7#// //Where Should I Be Levelling?// First, let's lay a common and tragic misunderstanding to rest: those of you who run around, killing Lupins at 30, and wondering why you never level? It's because it takes you 2 minutes to kill one Lupin. 2 minutes for 77XP is abhorrent. Why, you could easily kill 40 Horned Shrooms in that time, which are 35XP apiece. So, to recap, which is better: 77XP? or 700XP? Thought so. The key is NOT XP per monster, but XP over time. Granted, if you can kill Horned Shrooms in one hit, but you're farming Red Snails, you are getting nowhere fast... but if you can one-hit Horned Shrooms, but are wasting 5 minutes and all your MP on a single Drake, you are wasting a lot of valuable time. And time is XP, if you do it right. Keep in mind, this is a guide for solo-levelling. If you're in a group, choose somewhere your strongest member can easily kill, but your weakest member won't be overpowered (or where there's places for that member to go in case of emergency healing). This may not be the end-all, be-all of lists, but... it's certainly a smooth start. LEVEL 1-8 : Maple Island. Stick to Blue Snails when possible, since your lower attack power makes Red Snails and Orange Mush a bit difficult to kill. (Keep in mind, though, the quest for the Fruits Knife... this will help til your job advancement. Although in my opinion, and it might be just that, it'd be almost more worth your time to get the razor... something you can use before you get fitted for robes.) LEVEL 9-13 : Either one map south of Ellenia (Slimes and Stumps, but avoid the Green Mush and Axe Stumps) or around Henesys (Snails of all types, occasional Pigs and Ribbon Pigs, Mushrooms). This should make a good, steady XP gain until you get to where you can easily kill the Orange Shrooms that occasionally appear. LEVEL 14-19 : Hidden Street -- Mushroom Garden is a good place to work with now, because you've got Orange Shrooms, which are decent kills worth quite a chunk of XP. Conversely, about now, you can also go kill Green Shrooms by Ellenia, if you're careful, and most types of Stumps, again being careful. LEVEL 20-24 : Ant Hill I is a good place to be now. It's a bit of a challenge at first, so I recommend updating your potion selection to include Orange Potions instead of the Red you've likely been surviving on until now... you may need the quicker heal. However, once you get the rhythm down, and a good spot to work with, this is quick XP that will carry you to 25 nicely. LEVEL 25-30 : Party Quest is the name of the game from here on out, with the occasional return to the Ant Hill if waiting around and bad parties start annoying you. It's an excellent way to both level and to get some rare items, ores, scrolls, and whatnot. Once you hit 30 and become a Cleric, go back and finish off your level there also... never too late to get one last PQ. LEVEL 31+ : From here on out, you should be able to find groups to party with, so you shouldn't need to worry about this. If you fail to do so, however, I recommend either going after Evil Eyes, Curse Eyes, or Fierries (all either Sleepywood or Ellenia areas) for decent XP without too terribly much effort. Or, if your levelling seems too slow at this point going this route, try farming Horned Shrooms and the occasional Zombie Shroom. Since now you should be one-hit killing the Horned almost every time, and two-hitting the Zombies as often, they will be a nice, steady supply of XP until you level a bit more. From there, find your favorite easy-to-kill monster (I recommend the Eyes still for this) and just keep moving up the chain. Another option at this point is Orbis Tower. Granted, it might seem slow, but given the population in the tower, this is probably the smoothest levelling you could ask for until around 37 or 38, when it becomes vastly easier to kill the various Jrs. in the Garden of Three Colors and Beyond, or even the Star Pixies. (This, of course, for those who believe Ossyria really is worth it. I'm of two minds, at this point, but I'm coming around towards Ossyria.) //#8#// //FAQs Directly Related To This Topic// Q: Why are you using Magic Bolt? Don't you know the Claw is better? (Or any of a million variants of this question.) A: I explained above... it's there as a cheap self-defense mechanism, nothing more. As a Party Cleric, you've got people who need to be kept alive... it's your place to do THAT, not to attack yourself. If you are under attack, use the bolt for a nice chunk of quick damage, until it's time to replace it with Holy Arrow. Q: This is gonna mess up people's characters. (Or any of a million variants on THIS.) A: Not if they're planning on being a Party Cleric. If they intend to solo more often than not, and want full ability to be able to run about and kill things like a regular mage, then take whichever spell you prefer, in whatever order you like. But if you want to be there to heal and NOT to run off and leave your party to die, do as I say. :P Q: Why can't I ever seem to get good XP this way? A: Because you're probably fighting monsters either that take too much effort to kill, or are FAR too weak to be worthwhile. Find the strongest monster you can kill in one or two hits, and watch the XP roll in. Usually, around L35 and so, you should still be making around .02% off most early-Dungeon monsters, but if you're fighting Slimes, you're getting almost nothing for XP. Q: Why don't you recommend MP Eater? A: MP Eater, at best, is 30% effective. For those of you who get 10% scrolls to work EVERY TIME, sure, it'll be nice to never really spend your MP. However, for those of us that live in the real world, 30% is pretty low a probability of hitting, and since your best bet would be Zombie Lupins or Wraiths for this, let's do the math. (Let's also assume that MP Eater and E. Bolt are maxed, and that you're L40 or some similar in this manner.) You will require roughly 3~4 bolts, I believe, to kill one Z. Lupin. Given sheer probability, 1 hit MIGHT go off per monster. The laws of probability claim that 3 of 10 hits should be effective. However, that's like taking a 10-sided die and claiming, if you roll it 10 times, each number will come up once. Ever tried it? As much as it is probable, the odds are stacked. Similar to this situation. Sure, it's probable to do it, and it's probable to get 40MP from a Zombie Lupin to counter the 56MP you're spending to kill it, by simply having it activate once every monster. (As said before, those of you who get that lucky should be spending more time putting 10% scrolls into EQ.) So yes, in this unlikely situation, that'll be useful. And as the last thing you get, it's not too terribly hateful and/or harmful. [Further FAQs will be added as I get them, which I'm sure I will. It's part of the inevitability of writing a FAQ.] //#9#// //Version History// 0.83 Fixed some faulty info I'd had about MP Eater, along with a couple random notes here and there, as I reread my former writings. (DATE: 31 JULY 2005) 0.82 Notes about Magic Rocks and Summoning Rocks. (DATE: 07 JULY 2005) 0.81 Added a couple notes to clear up misunderstandings, and also added a Where-To-Level guide. (DATE: 03 JULY 2005) 0.8 Initial Release, took about an hour to write. Still need to actually confirm a number of Priest, as well as a list of ArchBishop, abilities. (DATE OF SUBMISSION: 17 JUNE 2005) //#10#// //Contact Info (And Advisories)// Feel free to contact IF: ~There is something I didn't cover DIRECTLY pertinent to this walkthrough. ~If, by some chance, you have proof that something I wrote is not 100% correct. (I would greatly prefer to see screenshots to back this up, since I've seen people flame my idea without any real proof and in a manner I found... incorrect, to say the least.) ~There are any grammatical errors (typos and the like) found within... It's difficult, after all, to read something which l00kz liek thiz. (Note, do NOT email me about my example.) ~If you see this ANYWHERE AT ALL aside from GameFAQs, because I did NOT give permission for it, and the person who's using it there will be hunted down by my pet C. Balrog and eaten for a light afternoon snack. DO NOT contact me: ~To flame my concept. If you don't like it, don't use it. It is REALLY very simple. ~To ask for hacks. I don't hack, I don't like hackers, and if I manage in any way to deduce your IGN from your email, I can guarantee that I *WILL* forward it to Maple with your IGN. (If not, I'll simply forward the email and let THEM deduce who it is from.) Hacking ruins the game for others. Don't do it. ~If I already mentioned it above. ~If you are not capable of typing in a legible, thoughtful manner. I give exception to people who don't speak English as their native language, especially since most of the world's population DOESN'T. However, netspeak and 1337 annoy me to the point of homicide. If I get emails that match one or more of the "DO NOT"s listed above, I hereby reserve the right to vent my spleen upon the writer in one of the following manners: ~Post their email here, with identifying information, for people to poke fun at them and to harass them for their idiocy ~Sign them up for all manner of nasty mailing lists. And I know the ones that DO NOT honor "remove me"s. I know A LOT of those. (Of course, a fair smattering of those mailing lists will be pr0n. And I'll scour the web for the most offensive pr0n I can find.) ~Figure out their IGN, if possible, and publicly announce, on many occasions, that they are a n00b and need to be defamed. And use my characters to do so, as well. (And all my friends' characters too... and I know a LOT of friends on oMS.) Following all that, if you'd like to contact me: EMAIL : jasani666@hotmail.com MSN : jasani666@hotmail.com AIM : DarkSinestre ICQ : 21009696 Include, if emailing me, a topicline which actually means something related to this, as your email will be sent to my Bulk Mail folder, and unless I recognize the subject line as being important, it WILL be summarily deleted. I get about 40 spam messages a day... I don't bother checking them. //#11#// //Thank-yous// I'd like to thank the following: ~Wizet, for creating such a wonderful, if at times frustrating, games I've ever played. (Not to mention the addictive powers of it on me.) ~Hidden Street (http://www.hidden-street.net) for their PQ walkthrough, which I read twice before trying PQ for myself, and which helped me vastly in not looking like an utter n00b when I went to do it. ~DDragon962, for your info about the L60 quest for Magic/Summoning Rocks. ~Patrick Starfire, for your email about MP Eater. ~GameFAQs, for hosting this FAQ on their wonderful site, along with so many other FAQs which have helped me in the past.
