FAQ and common misconceptions about Shadowers
MapleStory Forums : Bandit, Chief Bandit, Shadower : Talk about the Bandit, Chief Bandit and Shadower classes Thread starter
 by Kazegiri Well I know I’ve only been a Shadower for a short time, but since I still haven’t seen a single Shadower guide and since a few questions have been popping here and there, I’ve been thinking about making another FAQ. Why not put this in part I or II of the bandit FAQ? Well they’re both full and I can’t add a single paragraph in either of them, so I don’t really have a choice. Once again, I do not know that much about Shadowers yet, so expect this guide to be developed with time. If there’s anything wrong in what I write, feel free to correct me! If you’re looking for information about rogues, bandits, chief bandits, info on thief stats (capping DEX and STR), making money, etc., the answer to your question probably lies in my FAQ and common misconceptions about bandits. TABLE OF CONTENTS: Updates Basic information The 4th job skill system Description of Shadower skills and where to get Skill/Mastery books Quest information for Shadower skills How to advance to 4th job FAQ 1) What are a Shadower’s important skills? 2) What’s a good Shadower build? 3) How should I train as a Shadower? 4) What kind of macros can help me? 5) What should my endgame dagger be? Updates September 27th Added a section about end game daggers Gave more info about my Taunt first build Recommended 29 BStep instead of 30 :o September 1st Added a new training ground in ToT and some other edits July 19th Links repaired, some more updates about Taunt and the ToT July 12th 2009 Some edits and some new parts about training, skills, builds, skillbooks and ToT June 30th 2009 Updated BS and Temple of Time… it’s kinda late so I’ll probably have to review it later :p June 3rd 2009 A few changes on training and a few corrections January 9th Corrected a few things in Fiel’s part of the quests to get skillbooks (thanks Yennox) Added a part about getting skillbooks January 2nd Added a section to explain the 4th job changes December 28nd Edited the monsters from which skillbooks drop according to info gotten by Hakusama December 22nd Rewrote skill descriptions, changed the build a bit (thanks for the suggestion Thiefs1honor) and changed a few other things December 19th Added a summary of El Nath PQ December 18th Clarified the build December 17th Added more about Taunt, thanks to Hakusama for helping me realize its use Noted which skills were core skills December 14th Clarified a few points, thanks to Thiefs1honor December 13th Creation of FAQ, not yet proofread The 4th job skill system The skill system in 4th job is different than what you’ve gotten used to so far: First, when you get the job advancement, you’ll notice that you have only 3 skills. Second, you’ll notice that each of these skills can only be pumped up to level 10. Yes, in 4th job, you’ll have to learn all of your new skills with quests AND you’ll have to boost the limit of SP you can put in your skills, all of this by yourself. Now that’s where Storybooks, Skillbooks and Masterybooks come in. A Storybook is a book that unlocks a certain quest. When you clear that quest, you will get a certain skill. Storybooks are dropped from different monsters and they can also be bought in the Free Market. They are in your Etc. inventory. Note that not all skill quests need a Storybook in order to be available. A Skillbook is the tool you use in order to learn a new skill. Skillbooks are either dropped by bosses or gotten from quests. They are untradeable, thus cannot usually be bought in the Free Market. However, with the NX item “Scissors of Karma” you can indeed sell Skillbooks now, but prices are usually pretty steep. When you get a skillbook, it goes in your Use inventory. Double click on it and the skill will appear in your skill menu. A Masterybook is a book that lets you increase the Mastery level of your skill. In most cases, you will have a first Masterybook (useable when you have 5 SP in a skill) which will let you put up to 20 SP in the skill, then a second Masterybook (useable when you have 15 SP), which will let you put up to 30 SP. Like Skillbooks, these books go in your Use inventory. However, Masterybooks do not work 100% of the time. Lvl 20 books have a 70% chance of success, while Lvl 30 books have a 50% chance of success. If they fail, it only means that you’ll have to find another book and try again: you have unlimited tries, but one try per book. Masterybooks are dropped by monsters and bosses, and can also be sold in the Free Market. Use these three types of books wisely to learn all the skills you need! As for the SP, the system is the same: 3 SP every time you level (books do not give any SP). Only one little surprise: when you get the 4th job advancement, you get 3 free SP! Now, how do you get the books? Well, it really depends whether or not you WANT to get them yourself. To say the truth, getting all your Mastery books yourself is almost impossible (though of course it’s only a matter of luck). BS20, BS30 and Assassinate 30 for instance, are really rarely dropped and only at places you might not want to spend too much time at. If you really do want to get all your books yourself, check the charts below, read where to get them and go try your luck. What I recommend, if you really want to try to get the book, is to at least try to get them 1 level before you actually need them, and if you don’t get them by the time you’ve levelled, just give up and buy them. You’ll have wasted enough time. Of course, what I really recommend though is to buy all the guides you need first thing. But that’s just me, and I know it’s less fun. I just think that Maple is not one of these games that allows you to do everything by yourself. Back to the table of contents Description of Shadower skills and where to get Skill/Mastery books This part partially comes from Fiel’s guide on Sleepywood. I did a few corrections, some updates, rewrote the skill description in most cases and edited the formatting.  AssassinateDescription: An attack that can ONLY be used when you’re in Dark Sight (if you want to spam it, you have to use Dark Sight, then Assassinate, then Dark Sight, then Assassinate, etc.). Assassinate makes you strike one enemy thrice, then one fourth time with an Assaulter-like attack that has a chance of dealing a critical hit. The damage of each strike will depend on how long you were in Dark Sight before using Assassinate. For example, at level 1, my Assassinate uncharged deals about as much damage total as Assaulter (around 15k). When it’s charged for 6 seconds though (the maximum charge for level 1 Assassinate), the strikes can total up to 55k. Skill and Mastery books: Skillbook - QUEST | 20 – Griffey, Jr. Newtie | 30 - Guild Party Quest, Chief Oblivion Guardian Max Level: 30 Click on the icon next to the name of the skill for more info!  AwakeningDescription: Cancels the status effect you were suffering from (poison, blind, etc.). Acts more or less as an All cure potion. [Cooldown: 10 minutes] Skill and Mastery books: Skillbook - QUEST Click on the icon next to the name of the skill for more info!  Boomerang StepDescription: Attacks a certain number of monsters twice and has a certain chance of stun them. While you use the attack, you’re fully invincible. Boomerang Step has a cooldown of a bit less than one second (around 1.4 sec if you count the animation). Core skill (skill you start with) Skill and Mastery books: 20 - Skelegon | 30 - Papulatus Max Level: 30 Click on the icon next to the name of the skill for more info!  Maple WarriorDescription: Boosts the INT, STR, DEX and LUK of all your party members for some time. The animation takes quite a long time, but if you cast it on a ladder, you’ll be able to move again much faster than if you cast it on the ground. Skill and Mastery books: Skillbook - QUEST | 20 - Horntail Click on the icon next to the name of the skill for more info!  Ninja AmbushDescription by Fiel: A hidden band of thieves strikes suddenly for a fixed duration. The HP of the enemies affected cannot fall below 1. [Effective for up to 6 enemies] Skill and Mastery books: Skillbook - QUEST | 20 – Risell Squid | 30 – Right Pianus, Guild Quest Pre-requisite: Level 5 Shadow Shifter Max Level: 30 Click on the icon next to the name of the skill for more info!  Shadow ShifterDescription: As soon as you have one SP in Shadow Shifter, your character will start to avoid attacks on his own. You do not need to press a key to activate this skill. Core skill (skill you start with) Skill and Mastery books: 20 - Dark Wyvern, Left Pianus | 30 - Right Pianus, Qualm Monk Trainee Max Level: 30 Click on the icon next to the name of the skill for more info!  Smoke ShellDescription: Spreads a smoke screen around yourself. Every member of your party in the smoke screen is completely invincible as long as the smoke screen lasts. [Cooldown: 10 minutes] Skill and Mastery books: Skillbook - QUEST (Storybook from Lucidas) | 20 - Zakum | 30 - Horntail Max Level: 30 Click on the icon next to the name of the skill for more info!  TauntDescription: Throws a dagger forward in a straight line. Every monster (up to 6) hit by the dagger gets a boost in EXP, drop rate and damage reduction. This is not a simple small boost in weapon defence: the monster will really get less damage when you hit it. Monsters hit with Taunt will have little puffs of smoke coming up from the top of their head. You might also be interested to know that: - Taunt is THE reason why Shadowers get the best EXP of all 4th jobs after Mages. - Taunt does NOT unstun monsters it hits - If the small damage from Taunt kills a monster, you will not get the bonus EXP - Taunt’s animation is a bit longer than BS’ cooldown. Using BS-Taunt-BS is thus a bit slower than using BS-SB-BS - Taunt’s range is a tad shorter than BS’ - The dagger thrown is really thin, so make sure you aim well at the vertical level. You can jump and use Taunt in the air if you need, so time your jump well to hit as many monsters as possible. Skill and Mastery books: Skillbook - El Nath PQ | 20 - Manon | 30 - Guild Quest Pre-requisite: Level 10 Shadow Shifter Max Level: 30 Click on the icon next to the name of the skill for more info!  Venomous StabDescription: As soon as you have one SP in Venom, your character will start to poison monsters on his own when he strikes monsters. You do not need to press a key to activate this skill. Venom can be activated by every skill except Steal, Band of Thieves, Taunt and Ninja Ambush. The poison damage is equal to: Minimum = (8.0 * [STR + LUK] + DEX * 2) / 100 * BA Maximum = (18.5 * [STR + LUK] + DEX * 2) / 100 * BA BA is the Basic attack of Venom (credit for this info goes to JJTang of Sleepywood). Elemental Attribute: Poison Core skill (skill you start with) Skill and Mastery books: 20 - Papulatus, Dark Cornian | 30 – Zakum, Qualm Monk Max Level: 30 Click on the icon next to the name of the skill for more info! Back to the table of contents Quest information for Shadower skills This part partially comes from Fiel’s guide on Sleepywood. I only did a few corrections, some updates and formatting. Assassinate: To begin this quest, talk to your 3rd job instructor Head over to the Perion Excavation Site and talk to Shane Continue to talk to him to receive another quest. He will ask you to go to an arena. Move to the portal on the Excavation Site and enter. Once inside, there are boxes you need to hit to warp to the next level. Only 1 person may enter the arena at a time, and you have 20 minutes to finish the quest. Here's a picture guide for the boxes (you'll understand once you're in the map) Floor 4: D . A . Floor 3: x o o o Floor 2: o o x o Floor 1: D o o x D - Door to exit x- warp gates to next floor o - level 200 monsters will be summon A - the item Make sure to enter Dark Sight as soon as possible after you break a box or Muscle Stones might OHKO you. I also recommend you pray a lot not to get hit :p Give the item you found to Shane then talk to him again Return to your 3rd job instructor to finish the quest and gain Assassinate. Awakening: 1. First off, talk to Chief Tatamo in Leafre to begin the quest. He will ask you to talk to Carta the Sea Witch. 2. Head to Aqua Road Dungeon and talk to Carta the Sea Witch 3. Talk to Carta the Sea Witch again to receive the quest from her. She asks you to collect 40 Pieces of Courage in a special arena of hers. Now there should be another option in the Carta the Sea Witch's dialog box after you talk to her again. Select this new option (it should be the bottom one) to enter a special arena. You can enter the map alone as long as you create a party, and you will lose a Minature Pianus every time you try to enter the map. 4. Inside the map you will find 3 types of monsters: Bone Fish, Shark, and Goby. Some of the monsters you kill inside the map will drop one of the 40 pieces you need, and you need to collect all 40 pieces before the timer runs out. If you don’t, just go grab another Minature Pianus and try again. 5. After you exit the map, talk to Carta the Sea Witch again. 6. Keep talking to her until you receive another quest 7. Now head to Leafre again and look for the NPC named Fu. He'll ask you to collect: * Broken ring (Griffey) * 10 Mithril plates 8. Return to Fu and give him the broken ring and the 10 Mithril plates. He will give you a new ring. 9. Head back to Aqua Road and talk to Carta the Sea Witch to finish the quest. She will give you the potion. Use the potion to acquire the skill. Ninja Ambush: Talk to the 4th job instructor to begin the quest Head to Kerning and talk to your 2nd job instructor Keep talking to him. He'll give you a quest to defeat 6 ninjas Talk to him once again to enter an arena. Defeat the 6 ninjas in the arena before the 20 minute timer runs out. If you die or don't defeat all 6 ninjas, you must restart the quest (but they’re really weak so that won’t happen). Once you finish, head out of the arena. Talk to the 2nd instructor to finish and receive your skillbook Smokescreen: Lucidas should drop the Smokescreen storybook that you need to begin the quest Once the book is found, check your quest log. A new quest should appear in there about the Mad Scientist Travel to aqua tower and talk to Hughes to continue the quest. Keep talking to him to receive another quest from him. He asks for the following: 1 Ventilating fan 1 Long Lasting Battery 100 Ink Bottles (Squid) 20 Steel Plates 10 Dual Pirates Propellers (Dual Ghost Pirates) 50 Screws 50 Cogs (Chronos) Another quest should appear in your quest log stating that Kay, the engineer in Omega Sector, needs to see you. This subquest will give you the fan you need. Head over to Omega Sector and talk to Kay. She will ask you for the following: 100 Plane Propellers (Helly) 1 steel plate Once that’s done, go back to Kay, and she will give you the fan Stay at Omega Sector and talk to the scientist Porter in the tower. He'll ask you to get a Papulatus Certificate from Papulatus. This subquest will give you the battery you need. Travel back to Ludi and kill Papulatus until he drops the Certificate Bring that statue back to Porter. He will give you a battery. Finally, go back to Hughes in Orbis tower and talk to him. He will give you a computer. Use the computer, and Smokescreen should be in your skill list now Taunt: El Nath PQ Kaze’s El Nath PQ summary: 1) Find a 4th job warrior that does NOT have the skill Stance. 2) Ask the warrior to create a party and invite you (or pay him to do so). 3) Enter the PQ via Tylus, the 3rd job advancement NPC for warriors in El Nath (the party leader has to make the party enter, just like in all PQs). 4) During this PQ, you will have to protect Tylus and defeat all Crimson Balrogs and Lycanthropes that are coming. 5) Some of the monsters will drop 4th job skills. Be sure to pick up only Taunt (it looks like a scroll with a steely) and to leave the others (Dragon Pulse, Infinity) to your party members. Of course, if a lot drop, you can pick up the other skills and sell them with Karma Scissors, but leave some for your party members first. 6) Whether you successfully protect Tylus or not, once you’ve got your skill, you’re set. However, if you intend to clear the PQ (some warriors prefer selling El Nath PQ and won’t want to clear it in order to do it again, some others will want to clear the PQ to get their new skill), Archmages are VERY recommended. It’s pretty hard to clear otherwise (Tylus dies quite quickly). 7) If the PQ is about to be cleared and you still don’t have Taunt, beg the warrior to restart the PQ so you can get it. Otherwise, once the PQ is cleared, the warrior cannot EVER enter the PQ again. Back to the table of contents How to advance to 4th job This part comes from Fiel’s guide on Sleepywood. All credit goes to him (all I did was a few corrections, some updates and formatting). Pre-Requisites: Level 120, Third job *NOTHING ELSE* 1. Go to El Nath and talk to your 3rd job instructor to begin the quest. 2. Keep talking to your instructor until you receive a quest to obtain two special items for the fourth job instructor to advance. 1. If you like to hunt, go kill Manon and Griffey to get the two items. After hunting down these monsters and obtaining the two items, skip to step 6. 2. Otherwise, if you are willing to spend 10 million mesos, continue with step 3. 3. Now head to Leafre and talk to the Village Chief. He will ask you for a very special scroll. 4. Head over to Eos Tower 44th floor to buy the scroll from the NPC for 10 million mesos. 5. After you are done go back to the Village Chief from Leafre. He will give you the two necessary items. 6. Now go to your 4th job instructor. 7. Give the 2 items to the instructor to complete the quest. The instructor will advance you to fourth job, grant you the skillbook for Maple Hero, and give you 3 SP and 5 AP. 8. Congratulations! You’re now on the path to the wonders of 4th Job Back to the table of contents No 1: What are a Shadower’s important skills? Main attack skills Shadowers get two main attacks in 4th job: Boomerang Step (BS) and Assassinate. Think of BS as your 4th job BoT, and Assassinate as your 4th job Assaulter: BS will be your main EXP maker (thanks to its mobbing effect), while Assassinate will be your main attack against single targets, bosses for instance. Of course, both skills need to be maxed in order to reach their full potential. If you want to get the best EXP possible, BS will be the first thing you’ll want to max. BS is ranged, mobs, deals great damage and gives you temporary invulnerability. However, you have to wait a bit between each use of BS, which is why you’ll want to combo it with your good old SB, Assaulter and BoT. Main support skills You get two main support skills in 4th job: Venom and Shadow Shifter. Both are a must. Venom has a certain chance of dealing poison damage to monsters you hit either with BS, SB or Assaulter, though it doesn’t work with BoT. Perhaps that doesn’t sound as appealing as it should be, but to give you an idea, level 1 Venom can add more than 30k to your damage in a few seconds to a monster you’re not even attacking (as long as you did hit it at least once). When it activates, it speeds up the kill quite a bit. Furthermore, Venom is stackable up to three times: in other words, an enemy poisoned can be poisoned some more at the same time for even more damage (the 30k figure I gave earlier is when Venom is stacked, of course). Shadow Shifter gives you a chance to avoid any attack, ranged or not, that targets you. If Shadow Shifter does not activate, then you still have a chance of avoiding the attacks with your usual avoidability. At level 1, Shadow Shifter gives you 11% chance of avoiding attacks. That’s an 11% chance of surviving mortal blows, an 11% discount of HP pots, an 11% reduction of time wasted during training because of knock-backs and of potting. These two skills also get better as you put more SP in them, but you shouldn’t focus on either of those at the beginning. 1 SP in both is a good start, try to get a decent attack after that. Maple Warrior is another great skill that boosts all your stats, but since it does no good at level 1 and since it can be shared between parties, you shouldn’t focus on it early on. Smokescreen is also pretty good: it creates a small space where all your party members can be invincible for 30 seconds at level 1, 60 seconds when maxed. However, because the storybook is pretty hard to find and because of the 10 minute cooldown, you shouldn’t bother too much with it. If you do have the skill though, 1 SP in it might be a good idea, especially if you plan on bossing a lot (in which case you should put 1 SP early on). Finally, Taunt. Taunt hits up to 6 enemies with a rather long range, boosting their EXP, their drop rate and their defence. It’s pretty useful as long as it doesn’t slow you down: if the increased defence makes you waste more hits to defeat the enemies, you might as well not use Taunt at all (don’t forget Taunt also takes as long to use as another attack skill). However, if you can use Taunt just before the enemies die (be sure to use the Show Enemy HP option), you’ll get a little boost of EXP that just might do you good. You could put Taunt in between two BS for instance, while waiting for the end of the cooldown. However, do not expect to have Taunt early in Shadowerhood, since it requires 10 points in Shadow Shifter. Also, you shouldn’t use it if there’s only one monster in front of you, at least not if you only have level 1 Taunt: that 11% EXP is not worth an attack that would defeat the monster (if you normally defeat the monster in five attacks, you can count that each attack is worth 20% of its EXP). Back to the table of contents No 2: What’s a good Shadower build? Boomerang Step should be maxed as soon as possible. Shadow Shifter needs 1 SP whenever you can. Venom also needs 1 SP, unless you intend to train solo at the same places where you were training (Himes and Typhons, since both are immune to poison). Smokescreen could use 1 SP in your first few levels if you intend on bossing a lot. All other skills aren’t necessary yet, but if you really want to try them out, you can put 1 SP in them when you want. Knowing this… 1) The first thing you should do is get 1 SP in Boomerang Step, Shadow Shifter and Venom (unless you’re training at Himes or Typhons, in which case go with 2 BS and 1 Shadow Shifter – you’ll reach a 3 hit BS one level earlier). 2) Your first priority is Boomerang Step. However, since Mastery books are rare and expensive enough, you might not be able to put all the SP you want in it. If possible, try to get at least the BS 20 Mastery book, since every SP up to level 20 adds 10% damage to both hits of BS (after level 20, each SP adds only 5% to damage). You might also want to know that BS hits 3 enemies at level 11, and 4 enemies at level 21 (though if you can get BS to level 21, you might as well max it). 3) Once you’ve got as much BS as you want (or can), you should put 1 SP in Smokescreen (if you haven’t already done so) and get at least 5 in Maple Warrior (unless you train with a party that already has Maple Warrior). 4) After putting some SP in Maple Warrior, you’ll want to boost Shadow Shifter. Once it reaches level 5 and 10, it’ll unlock two skills (Ninja Ambush and Taunt) that you might want to try out. I’d suggest to focus on what’s important though, and put only one SP in Taunt and none in Ninja Ambush. 5) Now what you do will depend on what skillbooks you have. Boosting Venom will boost its damage and its rate of occurrence, but it only becomes substantially better when it reaches level 11 and level 21, so you really need the skillbooks. In all cases, 11 in Venom will probably be more than enough for now to defeat monsters fast, but don’t forget that when Venom gets more SP, it occurs more frequently (and if you fight monsters with tons of HP like Chief Oblivion Guardians, the extra damage can really help). Boosting Assassinate will also boost its damage, but it won’t be really useful for regular training until you put quite a few SP in it (when it will deal good damage without needing to be charged in Dark Sight). Boosting Shadow Shifter will decrease your pot use and boosting Taunt will increase the EXP bonus it gives you. Finally, boosting Maple Warrior will increase your stats boost (but don’t bother if your party already has it). If possible, go in the order 11 Venom -> Assassinate (switch Venom and Assassinate if you intend on bossing a lot) -> Shadow Shifter -> Maple Warrior -> Taunt > back to maxing Venom. Most other skills will not change much to your training speed, so you might want to see for yourself what can help you the most. In summary: 1) 1 in BS, Shadow Shifter and Venom (go with 2 in BS and 1 in Shadow Shifter if you’re going to be training at Himes or Typhons, this way you’ll reach a 3 target BS one level earlier) 2) Get 29 or 30 in BStep 3) Add 1 SP in Smokescreen, 5 in Maple Warrior (if your training party doesn’t have it), 9 in Shadow Shifter and 1 in Taunt 4) Get Venom to 11, then max Assassinate (switch if you intend to boss a lot). SIDE NOTE: I’m personally going to try maxing Taunt here instead and see how it works. 5) Max Shadow Shifter 6) Max Maple Warrior (if your party doesn’t have it) 7) Max Taunt 8) Max Venom 9) Max other skills If you don’t have the Mastery books you need, just skip to the next step once you’ve put all the SP you can in the skill. As soon as you get the Mastery book, go back to maxing the skills in the same order. Why 29 in BStep instead of maxing it? Reverse daggers have a chance of giving you +1 in BStep. If you already maxed the skill, this bonus SP is wasted. What I recommend, then, if you intend on making a Reverse Dagger, is to leave BStep at 29 until your dagger is done. Dealing 5% less damage on BStep (495% instead of 500%) will NOT make a big change in your training speed. Once you’ve made and levelled your Reverse Dagger: -If you’ve got +1 BStep, great! You got one free SP and your BStep is now maxed. -If you don’t have +1 BStep, just put one SP in there when you can. Too bad, at least you tried! About my build: As I said earlier, I’ve been maxing Taunt right after BS. Results so far? Well it seems that with only 21 in Taunt, I’m already training 10-15% faster than Shadowers my level that went with another skill build. And that’s despite the fact that they’re quite more funded than I am. Now 10-15% isn’t as much of a difference as it might sound. I’m getting 10% an hour while the other guys are getting 8-9%. Of course, I also get more drops, and since I’m a card hunter, that pays off quite a lot. What do I lose? - I can’t boss as well as the ones who went with Assassinate. - I use more pots than the ones who went with Shadow Shifter. But really, I don’t care that much since I barely boss. If you want to train faster and don’t mind not bossing, then you can follow the same route I did: 1) 1 in BS, Shadow Shifter and Venom (go with 2 in BS and 1 in Shadow Shifter if you’re going to be training at Himes or Typhons, this way you’ll reach a 3 target BS one level earlier) 2) Max BS 3) Get 10 in Shadow Shifter 4) Max Taunt I also got 1 in Assassinate (pretty nice for the Dojo) and 1 in Smoke Screen (useful for bosses) in there, as well as 5 Maple Warrior (I needed it to wear my dagger, but I don’t recommend it otherwise). Once that’s done, you can continue to follow the build I mentioned earlier. I think I’m going to go with 11 Venom, then max Assassinate. No 3: How should I train as a Shadower? Let’s start with a bandit’s training chronology. During first job, you didn’t really have to bother training. Just killing stuff in front of you whichever way possible made you level pretty fast. During second job, you realized that your best bet was to jump around with SB trying to kill monsters in one shot: STDs, Gryphons, Golems, etc. During third job, killing monsters in one shot wasn’t enough for decent EXP anymore, so you had to group the monsters in mobs to defeat them all at the same time. Now that you’re a Shadower, even mobbing monsters will progressively lose its charm. Mobs that used to give you 15% an hour will give you 10%, then 8, then 7, then 5. Of course, that’s just the way EXP goes in Maple: the more you play, the more you need to play in order to level. However, just like after every other job, a change of strategy can help you make the most of things. Now that you’re a Shadower, you won’t go one hit killing every monster. You won’t group monsters and then destroy the mobs. You’ll have to kill the monsters as soon as they spawn in front of you using your huge arsenal of skills. Now that’s pretty easily said, but how exactly can you do that? First of all, two new skills add to your destructive power: Boomerang Step and Venom. In the first few levels of 4th job, Boomerang Step will hit only 2 monsters. However, it’ll inflict as much damage on these 2 monsters as you’d inflict on a whole mob with BoT. In other words, BS removes the need to form big mobs in order to get the maximum damage out of your skills. BS is also ranged, so in almost each and every situation, you’ll hit 2 monsters with it when you’re training. It’s not that hard to hit 3 then 4 monsters with it either. Now in order to kill the monsters as fast as possible, you’ll have to learn to use all your skills as effectively as you can. Venom: you don’t have to bother about Venom, it activates by itself and gives you quite a nice boost of damage. However, the poison resistance of an enemy now becomes a factor you need to take into account when you train. Venom is no use against Himes and Typhons. Boomerang Step: BoT is the only skill that can deal as much damage as BS… but only when BS is level 6 or less. As soon as your BS reaches level 7, it deals more damage than each and every of your other skills and thus becomes your main damage dealer. In other words, this is the ONE skill you have to use as much as you can. However, because of the cooldown, you cannot use BS again and again. That’s where all your 3rd (and 2nd) job skills come in. Whenever you cast BS, you’ll have to wait a bit to reuse it, so use BoT or SB once and you’re good to go again. Four more points about BS: a) you CANNOT use it in the air, unless you press jump and BS at the same time. It’ll take some practice to get the timing right (unless you already have a bowman who jump-shots), but a jump-BS is definitely something you want to use. b) you CANNOT use BS if you don’t have enough room in front of you to use Assaulter. In other words, you cannot be too close to a wall or to the edge of a platform. c) as I stated before, using BS makes you invincible. If you use it as much as you can, you’ll automatically avoid more than half of the attacks directed towards you. If you fight monsters with magic attacks, you might want to try to time your BS in order to avoid damage. You might kill a bit slower this way, but your pot funds will thank you. d) since BS hits on a certain range in front of you, the closer you are to the monster before you, the more monsters you will be able to hit. Keep this in mind and don’t be afraid to get close to monsters. Assassinate: If your Assassinate level is low, don’t use it for training, unless you can charge up a bit while moving between monsters. However, since you’re trying to train in small places, you shouldn’t have much to move too much, and Assassinate won’t be really useful. However, once your Assassinate level starts being high enough, you can try going into Dark Sight as soon as you defeat a monster to unleash Assassinate on the next without losing too much time. Alternate with the usual BS-SB-Assaulter-BoT combo depending on the proximity and the number of monsters. BoT: Use BoT only during BS’ cooldown and only if three or more monsters have appeared in range. If there’s 2 monsters or less, stick with SB and Assaulter. BoT cannot activate Venom, so don’t expect it to. Assaulter: Use Assaulter only for mobility (moving from one monster to another) and for moving immediately after using BS (this way, after being invincible from BS, you can zip out of a monster and avoid its hit). In all other times, stick with SB. Assaulter doesn’t activate Venom as often as SB, that’s mostly why SB is your best bet. SB: Use SB when monsters are close by and when there’s only one or two. Since SB deals 6 hit, you have 6 chances of poisoning an enemy with Venom, so it’ll activate more than 50% of the time. Now there’s more to it. Partying Even with all these marvellous skills, the amount of EXP you’ll be able to get will still be limited, which is why partying in 4th job is almost a must. Of course, you could’ve been leeching or partying with 4th jobbers for a while now, but to be honest, you would probably have gotten free EXP while not doing much to help (or you wouldn’t have gotten much more EXP than you would’ve gotten solo). Considering your 4th job purpose, defeating monsters as soon as they spawn, what you need is a bunch of close by monsters with nice spawn. Newties (map) are pretty good. You can take the bottom platform easily enough, but since the monsters are rather spaced, since they have quite a lot of HP and since they deal lots of damage, you probably won’t be that effective. Since spawn doesn’t really depend on the number of active people in the map, you won’t be much help either: an Archmage using Meteo/Blizzard on the Newties on the top would get even more EXP alone than if you were there. It’s not very different at Skelegons: lots of pot waste, spaced monsters, slowing down your team mate’s EXP rate. The best alternative I have found so far is Wyverns. The Red Wyvern Nest (map) and the Blue Wyvern Nest (map) consist of three/four platforms as wide as the screen with plenty of monsters. If you can share a map and get a single platform for yourself, you’ll have plenty of monsters to kill while barely needing to move. Wyverns are vulnerable to Venom, so that’s also pretty good. If you’re partying with an Archmage, the Archmage also won’t need to move: one Blizzard/Meteo will be enough to cover all the monsters you’re not defeating. For Archmages, less moving = more EXP and less pots used. That’s always nice. Both of these training grounds are ONLY for parties. If you want good EXP and you’re soloing, don’t bother trying them. You’ll be able to join Newties and Skelegon parties as soon as you can defeat these monsters fast enough, which should get you even better EXP. Just like you did for Wyverns, attack exclusively the monsters that aren’t hit by your party members (the monsters not in the range of the Archmage or Bishop’s ultimate skill for instance). But then again, I really suggest not bothering with Newties and Skelegons before you have a high level BS. However, with BS around level 15 (high damage, high stun), Skelegons will become your best training ground, either solo or in party. Solo If you’re not into partying, you can either solo the usual monsters (Himes are still very good despite their resistance to poison – the map is perfect for Boomerang Step. Cornians aren’t bad either, but they deal pretty high damage and they’re also resistant to poison, so you might want to wait until your skills are pumped up a bit more… as for Skelegons, they WILL be good, but not during the first few levels of Shadowerhood – don’t forget, as soon as your BS is around level 15, Skelegons will probably be the best for you) or, if you’d rather change strategy and waste less pots (though also earn less EXP), you can now snipe. Sniping Hermits, bowmen, mages and all other ranged classes have always been able to snipe: you stay on a safe platform, far away from monsters, and you use your skills to defeat the monsters. Now that Shadowers have a ranged skill (BS), we can snipe too to take a break from constant melee battles. Of course, sniping is not the best EXP – level 120 is a bit too high if you hope to kill monsters one by one, far from them, and still get incredible EXP. However, for everyone who was longing for a more relaxing training, you too can now stay in place and kill stuff without risking anything. Sniping is usually done at Newties since they always spawn at the same place and since they can’t move, but I’ve also done it a bit at Crimson Guardians (map). However, Guardians deal quite a lot of damage and they can seal your skills. Nevertheless, if you have a few All Cure potions just in case, you could have a bit of fun sniping them. Just make sure that you’re in one of the safe spots, and use Dark Sight to move from one to another. Higher level BS is always recommended for sniping, since it lets you hit more targets at the same time. About Temple of Time… I love this place :p Even when I’m not training seriously and using my Super pot saving training method (see below), I’m earning more than 10% an hour at level 13X without double EXP. That’s probably not as much as I would be getting at Skelegons, but since it’s really fun, since the drops are great (I already found Assassinate 30, Shadow Shifter 30 and Venom 30 – and don’t forget the Pieces of Time for the Reverse weapons that will come out soon enough) and since I’m more of card hunter, Temple of Time is heaven for me :p Since the monsters in the Oblivion rooms (at the end of the temple) start being a bit strong and start having too much HP to just be defeated quickly before moving on, you might want to group them like you used to do with BoT: when you arrive on a large platform (the bottom or the top one usually), hit each monster once, twice or thrice with BS or SB without slowing down too much, then get to another smaller platform above or below. While you defeat the monsters on the smaller platform, the ones you hit on the large platform will regroup, which will let you constantly hit 4 monsters with BS when you’ll go kill them. My policy in the Oblivion rooms is to never focus on killing lone monsters or groups of two: three is my minimum. I prefer letting the smaller groups regroup with others before defeating them all. If you train with Taunt, try to stand back from the 5+ monsters mob before using Taunt so you hit only 4 monsters (and so you don’t give the def bonus to monsters you’ve barely damaged). One more thing about training in (or simply visiting) Temple of Time. All rooms have two teleports: one smack-dab in the middle of the room, that leads from the bottom to the top (hurray, no need to climb up ladders!) and another that lets you teleport from left to right (very useful, though not in all maps). Find these two teleports before training in a room so you can go around faster. I usually circle most rooms in an horizontal 8 (or infinity symbol). Here’s an example for the first room of Oblivion (applies to a lot of other rooms, really): Take the middle teleport to the top, defeat the right part of the map from top to bottom, then go back to the middle teleport and go back to the top, defeat the left part of the map from top to bottom, and so on. I really suggest you defeat only mobs of 3+, use BS+Assaulter to go through the smaller groups and let them regroup. Some maps are not that clearly divided between right and left. Use your brain and try to find the way that lets you go quickly through the room without always passing by the same spot. This is all, of course, for soloing. If you’re partying, just share the map with your teammates (one takes the top and one takes the bottom for instance). A few notes about the monsters now. There are 4 types of monsters in the Temple of Time, and each can be of three different levels: Memory (easy), Qualm (medium) and Oblivion (hard). Monsters of different levels have almost the same attacks, but higher level monsters deal more damage and have more HP. Monks, the first monster, only have one attack: some kind of magic blast attack. You cannot dodge their attack, but if you go behind them or go far enough (about 1 1/3 BS), it won’t hit you. Also note that Monks are very very very thin. You can get really close to the monster without getting hit. Monk Trainees, the second monster, have varying attacks, most of which you cannot dodge, even if you go behind them or go far enough. Your only hope of avoiding them is timing your BS. Monk Trainees are not as thin as Monks. Guardians, the third monster, are the most annoying of all. They have an arrow attack that can hit you wherever you are on a platform, even if they are at the far left and you’re at the far right. What’s more, once you hit them once, they WILL keep attacking you, even if they’re not in your screen. Chief Guardians, the last monster, are the largest. Even if you don’t seem to touch the sprite, you can get hit. Their attacks aren’t as annoying as the Guardians’ arrow, but they do deal more damage, so be careful. Final note, I do not recommend you try the rooms of Oblivion without lvl 21+ BS :p Oh yeah, also note that you need to clear quests to advance through the Temple of Time. The quest to get access to the final room (Oblivion 5) is available at level 131. Where to train in all the temple? Well I really like Road of Oblivion 1. The truth is, after 4 levels there, I still didn’t get the Monster Card, but I really don’t mind because: -I get about 11% an hour there at level 135 by following the road I gave earlier -You can get plenty of diamond and wisdom crystal ores, as well as some pretty nice drops (got two Elquines 30 already). And don’t forget the masks! I got about 30 masks in those four levels, which I was able to sell in average 5m each. And don’t forget the pieces of time, too. They’ll be pretty valuable when Maker comes out. -Since the monsters are so thin and since their range is barely longer than BS, I barely lose pots. I use 100 barbarian elixirs and 75 supreme pizzas per hour. Just the money dropped by monsters is enough to compensate. Road of Memory 5 seems to me like a very good spot too because there’s tons of monsters everywhere. I’m pretty sure it’s the Temple of Time map with the best spawn. Just teleport from bottom to top, then come cascading down. If you want to kill the boss that spawns at the top sometimes, feel free, but don’t expect good EXP from it :p Of course, monsters will hit you quite a lot more than at Road of Oblivion 1, but they don’t deal as much damage. Super pot saving training If you really want to save pots, you can train exclusively with BS. When your BS starts being high level enough, the stun rate gets really high. If you stun monsters with BS then BoT them, though, they’ll just keep attacking you normally. Keep attacking the monsters with only BS and you’ll most probably defeat a lot of mobs without using a single HP pot. Of course, you have to make sure you’re attacking a lot of monsters at a time in order to hit for 4000%, so you’ll probably still get hit a few times, but seriously, I barely use a few hundred pots per level at 13X… it really saves cash. This technique might sound like a huge slow down for EXP, but it isn’t really. Don’t forget that the measly damage of one SB (480%) or one BoT (1260%) is almost nothing compared to the damage of one BS (4000%). If the monster you train on doesn’t have that much HP, using skills between each BS might not even make you kill it faster… especially if you’re attacking mobs. What can you do between BS so you don’t just wait around? You can: a) pick up drops around you b) recast buffs c) get closer to the enemy in front of you to reach further behind OR do the back-and-forth BS trick. You probably realized already that BS lets you walk into a monster and come out of it without getting damaged if you time your move and your attack well enough. You perhaps also realized that BS’ range seems longer when you’re walking forward. Taking those two facts into consideration, you can understand what I call the back-and-forth BS trick: if you keep moving back and forth between your BS’, you can reach a bit further and hit more monsters. Of course, if you have Taunt, you should still use it before the final hit. The only big let down of the Super pot saving training is that it is…well… kind of boring. Didn’t we always say how CBs and Shadowers were fun because they let you use tons of different skills? Using only BS is indeed a bit more boring, but if you need cash or if you don’t mind, it’s a pretty good way to go. I know that personally I won’t use it that much… I much prefer jumping around using all my skills :p Back to the table of contents No 4: What kind of macros can help me? Back in 3rd job, macros had only one use: put all your buffs (Haste, Booster, Meso Guard) on a single key. Personally, I never really liked that since I’d rather cast everything when I want it rather than do three things at a time. Now, in 4th job, macros become quite more useful for two purposes: Covering BS’ cooldown: Since you need to use two skills between each BS, why not make a BS+SB and a BS+BoT macro? This way, by keeping the Macro key pressed you’ll continually attack with BS, then SB (or BoT), then BS, etc. Note that I personally prefer freedom of movement :p I prefer jumping around using different skills whenever I can, but try it and it just might help you. Cancelling Assassinate’s last hit: The last hit of Assassinate is a sort of Assaulter: it teleports you right on the enemy. Though it also has a chance of dealing a critical hit, it also makes you suffer damage you’d rather avoid. By making an Assassinate+BS macro, you can cancel Assassinate’s last hit and become invincible with BS. Follow this by Assaulter to move out of an enemy while dealing great damage! If you want to continually attack with Assassinate without charging it, you can also make a Dark Sight+Assassinate macro. This will also cancel Assassinate’s last hit. Both of these macros will mostly be used in bossing situations: during regular training, you should stick to the usual keys. How to create macros In case you didn’t know, here’s how to create macros: -Open the skills tab -Click on Macros on the bottom right to open the Macros tab -Drag and drop your skills in the different slots of a Macro. There can be up to three skills (different or the same) in a single Macro. -Drag and drop the Macro on your key configuration, on the key you want to assign it too. When you’ll press that key, you’ll do all the skills in the Macro. -If you want, you can give a name to the Macro on the bottom right of the Macros tab. Make sure you click on Save after giving a name. Whenever you will use the Macro, your character will say the Macro’s name (so if the name is “SUPA-CHOP”, your character will say “SUPA-CHOP” whenever you use the Macro). Back to the table of contents No 5: What should my endgame dagger be? The nice thing now that we have maker is that even if you don’t have a lot of funds, as long as you’re patient, you can get yourself a dagger almost as strong as the best daggers ultra funded Shads have. Yes, I’m talking of course about the Reverse daggers. Whether you’re STR or LUK, the Reverse dagger will obviously be the best choice for you. Since most Shads are STR, let’s take for example the Reverse Pescas, the level 120 STR dagger. The default stats are 105 ATK. If you use Maker and you add an Advanced Diamond and an Advanced LUK Crystal (and you still have another slot for gems, but let’s say you only add those two), if the result is average, you’ll already have a 108 ATK 5 LUK dagger. It seems that most results end up over-average, but let’s say your dagger is now 108 ATK 5 LUK. Reverse weapons can level 3 times, and each time they level, they can add 0-2 ATK and 1-2 LUK. Let’s say you get an average result. After you have maxed the level of your weapon, it is now 111 ATK 8 LUK. And don’t forget that it’s clean! Now it’s time to scroll it :p With average luck and 60% scrolls (in other words 4/7 scrolls working), your dagger will end up 119 ATK 12 LUK. That’s pretty high compared to weapons you might’ve been able to buy on the market. If you’re funded and you want even better results, you can try your luck with 30% scrolls, use the 100% scrolls that give +2 ATK +2 LUK, use white scrolls, use stimulators and black crystals to try and boost the attack with Maker, etc. And you can hammer it, too, of course. But for unfunded bandits, get your 45 pieces of time and with average luck, you’ll end up with a 119 ATK dagger. Back to the table of contents That’s it for now! I’ll probably update or change a few things every once in a while. Don’t hesitate to give comments and to ask questions! Oh and may every Shadower help me with this guide please XP If you know something useful that you’d like to share, any help will be appreciated :D (and will receive due credit of course). Thanks! Kaze Replies
Nice guide <33333333
i have a question, to train at all those stronger lvl monsters, your suppose to use meso guard right? and how do u get to that place where u said u found venom 30 and the other skill books? hidden street doesnt show
flames91: i have a question, to train at all those stronger lvl monsters, your suppose to use meso guard right? and how do u get to that place where u said u found venom 30 and the other skill books? hidden street doesnt show Whenever the monsters deal more than 50 damage when they hit you, you should use Meso Guard, yes :p And to get to the Temple of Time, go to Leafre Station, climb up the tree and talk to the dragon trainer guy. You barely mention Ninja Ambush, I am assuming it isn't a very important skill to have, or BoT is better
djf00p: You barely mention Ninja Ambush, I am assuming it isn't a very important skill to have, or BoT is better ninja ambush is a worthless skill very useful i will use tius build but is it ok if i max out maple warrior last
loonaticaaron: very useful i will use tius build but is it ok if i max out maple warrior last Yes of course, especially if you train with a party that already has it. Otherwise, Maple Warrior can be much more useful than some others of your skills (including Ninja Ambush and Smoke Screen), so make sure it's the right choice for you. You did not really mention where to train at 120 - 130 at the moment i dont know of any good spots to train at. I Might have miss read and not seen that you actually have it in there but could you tell me where i could train from 120 - 130 please.
Thelilfight: You did not really mention where to train at 120 - 130 at the moment i dont know of any good spots to train at. I Might have miss read and not seen that you actually have it in there but could you tell me where i could train from 120 - 130 please. If you can find a party, Wyverns are most recommended. If not, Himes and Typhons still. Are wyverns better than newts at that level ?
Newts will destroy you. They deal really high damage and they have quite a lot of HP compared to wyverns.
Personally, I've always hated them :p Never considered them a good training spot for Shads. But wyverns are exclusively for parties, you don't want to waste time climbing the robes. whered all the comments go?
also, you should mention how bad Ninja Ambush is, because no other guide does djf00p: whered all the comments go? also, you should mention how bad Ninja Ambush is, because no other guide does All the stickies were reset, so all the comments were lost. As for Ninja Ambush, I can't really say much about it since I don't even have it yet :p However, I do say not to put any SP in it, so I think that's good enough Would be a bad idea to put 1 in assassinate once im at 120 instead of venom, because i plan to pap and pianus and well since bosses are poison resistant id rather have assassinate
Register / login
|
^
BasilMarket.com is not an official site, nor is it affiliated with Nexon.
BasilMarket is Copyright 2004-2010 BasilMarket.com. All rights reserved.
Use of any BasilMarket.com content without permission is strictly forbidden.
Contact | Privacy Policy | Rules
BasilMarket is Copyright 2004-2010 BasilMarket.com. All rights reserved.
Use of any BasilMarket.com content without permission is strictly forbidden.
Contact | Privacy Policy | Rules
