General

I maxed AB first because I got the free skill book and wanted to use it before it expired. Also, I didn't have the level 20/30 mastery books for AR ;o
But yea... AR for solo, AB for party. Your pick.

In order of importance:
Parties: AB, AR, AA, Buff mastery
Solo: AR, AA, Buff mastery, AB
To max all that you will need to be lvl 154 (more if you put points into other skills). If you are going to be doing some serious bossing in parties, now is the time to max Ressurection and Hero's Will.
Then max the other skills however you want.

Easy, ppl love adv bless, and not ar. Most don't even care if you can do damage, although they think its fun when they see you attacking too, but then they won't care about you being weak, because hs and adv bless is enough contribution to the pt.

If you do solo then max ar first can improves your damage over ab. ab does give other benefits too like hp/mp boost etc, but amount of hp for many bish isn't a problem.

X) it was easier for me, because then windia bishops were glitched and i really do get dc on every boss runs.... So i never had a chance to get my ar. I was stuck using shinning ray for a bit of time. But then I didn't have meso to buy adv bless 20.... Then failed few of them, till i got enough sp to max ar and ab at the same time

[quote=Icephoenix21]Well...back in my earlier training days, it was with another mage at skeles ;P so genesis...[/quote]

Ah, the nostalgia. Good times. Good times.

Advanced bless. Angel ray if u never enter parties though I still recommend adv bless even then.

[quote=DrStrangenoob]Look at it this way.

If you choose to max AR first, you go from 230% --> 375% damage per line.
That's 63% more damage on your main attack skill by maxing AR. No matter how you cut it, an extra 15 matk from lvl 30 AB will never beat that out in terms of pure damage.

For a theoretical comparison, assuming you have 250 matk (Very easy to get at early 4th job, +10 magic mastery +30 buff master +15 normal bless +20 wizard elixir and + 175 from weapon, BoF/BoE, other equips, etc.) the extra 15 matk from AB only equates to a whopping 6% increase in total damage by maxing AB first compared to the 63% damage increase from maxing AR. Pretty easy choice based on damage alone.

Though of course, damage isn't the only benefit from maxing AB, as there are other benefits as extra HP/MP, def, and reduced MP consumption, and the fact that it benefits your party as well. But then again, normal bless already gives a stackable +15 atk boost by itself, and I have yet to meet an LHC party on any of my characters who cared whether a bishop had AB maxed so long as they had HS. I was lvl 15x during the Jump revamp and I didn't have AB maxed until mid 16x since I went for damage buffs first, and no one really cared since I was an active member of the party.

So, decide which one benefits you more based on your playstyle. If you prefer to actively attack and get more EXP yourself while supporting, AR would be the obvious choice for faster training. Though chances are you may have to wait a few levels before getting AR, seeing as they nerfed the heck out of the drop rates for skillbooks after Zak was instanced.[/quote]

I agree with this
Well...back in my earlier training days, it was with another mage at skeles ;P so genesis...

But imo if you're an attacking bishop, I'd go AR or balance it between AR and AB

My build

1 Arrow
1 Res
1 AB
1 Buff Mastery
1 Genesis
1 Arcane Aim
29 AB (there is no point on maxing it)
5 Res (MAX)
10 Buff Mastery (MAX)
1 Hero's Will
30 Arrow (MAX)

AR to 9, max Adv Bless is what I did.

i maxed advanced blessing first only because below level 140 or so, a bishop CAN NOT DAMAGE monsters, you'll just not deal enough to even be noticed not even with good funding.

you will want to max AB first, then AR soon after[you do want a few points in AR to help survive but ye]

Look at it this way.

If you choose to max AR first, you go from 230% --> 375% damage per line.
That's 63% more damage on your main attack skill by maxing AR. No matter how you cut it, an extra 15 matk from lvl 30 AB will never beat that out in terms of pure damage.

For a theoretical comparison, assuming you have 250 matk (Very easy to get at early 4th job, +10 magic mastery +30 buff master +15 normal bless +20 wizard elixir and + 175 from weapon, BoF/BoE, other equips, etc.) the extra 15 matk from AB only equates to a whopping 6% increase in total damage by maxing AB first compared to the 63% damage increase from maxing AR. Pretty easy choice based on damage alone.

Though of course, damage isn't the only benefit from maxing AB, as there are other benefits as extra HP/MP, def, and reduced MP consumption, and the fact that it benefits your party as well. But then again, normal bless already gives a stackable +15 atk boost by itself, and I have yet to meet an LHC party on any of my characters who cared whether a bishop had AB maxed so long as they had HS. I was lvl 15x during the Jump revamp and I didn't have AB maxed until mid 16x since I went for damage buffs first, and no one really cared since I was an active member of the party.

So, decide which one benefits you more based on your playstyle. If you prefer to actively attack and get more EXP yourself while supporting, AR would be the obvious choice for faster training. Though chances are you may have to wait a few levels before getting AR, seeing as they nerfed the heck out of the drop rates for skillbooks after Zak was instanced.

i maxed AR first since the AB books were pretty expensive when it first came out.
if you can get the AB books, i would max that first, since it benefits the whole party.

I personally did AB first since I didn't have AR til mid 130's. You can try something like 2 AB and 1 Ar every level. Also it depends on what books you can get.

@cupofcoffee Hey there

I maxed AB first, since I was training at LHC for the majority of those levels.

advanced blessing, so I can have it