General

@piana AFAIK they fixed that, which is nice.

OT: In terms of mobbing, you're pretty much looking at it evenly.

As a Bishop you get your +70% EXP from HS and its Hyper skill. Mobbing's a breeze but I wouldn't count on leveling fast as DIPQ was a great high density place, perfect for Big Bang to be used. Worked wonders during 2x events with a 2x EXP card and everything but given that it's been nerfed so hard it's basically buried, I wouldn't count on it as the fastest way to level. Plus their overall damage won't get the +40% boost from VoA's passive effects until 150, which is also when you can start bossing.

As an I/L, the moment you hit 4th job, the lack of +%EXP will be compensated with I/L's reach with Chain Lightning and distance with Teleport, though I don't think you can use that until 143? . It's not perfect but as your training areas will more or less be limited to Leafre, given the terrain of the maps as well as the spacing of the mobs, Chain Lightning will do the trick.

In terms of bossing, Bishops don't really get to do much after lv150. But after that, VoA adds a ton of lines to your attacks. You'll lose out a bit given that you can't turn off your Holy Element. To me, even with the +1 attack speed, VoA is a little slow. However, it's simpler given that you can just hold AR until the boss is dead or you need to rebuff.

I/Ls on the other hand can boss successfully a bit earlier. Despite their recently nerfed Elemental Ignore (from -100% to just -10%) it still gets +40% damage. However to get your maxed damage, you'll have to cast Frozen Orb and then spam Chain Lightning until the Ice counters on the boss wears off.

So really at this point it's just up to you to decide which one you think is better. I'd say given that you're unfunded, if you're playing in a populated world it's a bit easier to party with a Bishop but... then again now that even PQs like RJPQ have been nerfed, I'd say it's better to level up to 4th Job as a Bishop and then change jobs later.

Just know that you can only job change once a day and that as you level up, it'll get pricier. I think that the job change also becomes more expensive the more times you job change.

@rainfall: Bahamut kills the little creep mobs just fine.
Also, you can hit mobs with teleport mastery, which is more than enough.
VoA (the hyper skill wer'e talking about) is meant for 1v1 situations, plainly. It's easy to manipulate.

@natty2 bishops are really annoying in hell gollux though because you cannot use genesis and other skills. And while that hyper is on, you cannot hit mobs.
However, bishops have insane atk speed especially with the inner ability atk speed +1.

Bishop is rly fun so far haha bishop was my first class back in 2007 but then i became a lumi the day it came out. Went bback to bishop a few days ago and i forgot how much fun it is. So hard for us to die with our self heal attacks and if we do die we have an extra life due to door buff. then we got shields that protect us from zak hands hehe <3 Only thing i miss is bind though. :o

Thanks for all the input guys!

You know what would be great? A minimum damage versus certain bosses thread/ video share. Similar to that series of Shadower videos on YouTube.

I think that would help bishops realize how strong they really are/ can be

@natty2: Ah that totally slipped by me, didn't know that. Thanks. That's pretty neat!

@greenteamochi: Yep what she said, I think the required buff duration to reach unlimited stance is 67%, which is fairly simple to reach!

@mochapk & @serrebi456 Mihile link skill still works as the how it was before the change. So it still gives u stance. With a bit of buff duration u can go even past break even. My stance duration is now longer than the cd time.

Buff duration
mechanic card
mercedes card skill cool down
inner ability

@funkyflame: When bishop turns on VoA, Teleport becomes Client Side as opposed to any other teleport (which is Server-Side).

Client Side means it happens on your computer rather than in their servers.
The teleport is as fast as your computer can think, not as fast as it communicates with the servers.
Basicly, 0 delay, it's ideal, as if you're directly connected to their servers, you cast teleports even if you get a lag, or momentarily disconnect.

Best video about it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TuKkH8-u9gc

@natty2: What's a client side teleport? :o

OT: Try them both, you can pretty easily change jobs, coins are given out on a fairly regular basis, and mastery books drop from bosses. As for I/L, don't worry about the elemental decrease, the final damage really made up for it! You'll be capping with about 16k ish? I'm on about 18.4k + whatever m.atk I have and I cap on all bosses + regular mobs. (Without infinity) They're both very similar in bossing, you wont have any issues no matter which you choose.

Good luck with your magician Hope you find what suits you the best. Feel free to ask if you have any questions about I/L! @serrebi456:

With the recent updates in v172, is it still far easier (aka does it require less funding/ less int/ BD / ied) to solo end game bosses on I/L than bishop? Or has that gap been closed enough that they're on equal playing fields?

Bishops have Client Side Teleport.
Even without being Biased, that's a K.O. in favor of Bishops.

@serrebi456: AR hits 6 enemies 4 times w/out VoA on. With VoA on AR hits 1 enemy 8 times.

probably bishops even though i hate bossing on them

@rainbowpotato: Thanks for the input!

I think I've landed on bishop . I think I just prefer them more. Their utility, speed and aesthetic fit me more. Btw how many hits does Angel Ray do in v172 with VoA?

Thanks!

I would say bishops have even better mobbing, Big Bang hits 10 while CL hits 6/7 now. I think bishops are a lot better utility wise but I/L are aesthetically prettier ^.^ and the mihile link is still stance

@serrebi456: I'm the same way. I'm madly in love with stance.

I thought that it changed to that too, but someone told me that effect is only for Mihile himself. And that the old effect still works. Please don't take my word for it though. I haven't tried it, and I'd hate to make you level a Mihile to 120 if it won't work. So keep asking around elsewhere.

@mochapk: True, but the mihile link changed with v172 didnt it? it now reads:

"Barrier duration: 30 sec, Enemy blows absorbed: 6, Damage +20%. Damage -20% only for attacks that inflict damage at a certain ratio of Max HP."

That's for level 2.

So i'm not sure what to think @_@. I don't think I can play a mage class without stance =/

@serrebi456: You're lucky, because I just looked into this yesterday because I had the exact same question and love for Stance. A level 2 mihile link (lvl 120 mihile_ will last 110 seconds. However, with mages' Buff Mastery, it'll last 165 seconds. So that's only a 15 second cooldown. If you really want to have no cooldown, you can also get an S card mechanic (I think that means level 101 on a mechanic) and kick the cooldown down even further, to like 4-5 seconds.

Thanks for the input guys! I'm leaning more towards bishop cause of more exp, easier access to parties, and drop rate tbh. Plus cleric was the first class I ever made in Maplestory lol

On another note, now that the mihile link skill has changed, how long does the lvl 2 mihile link stance last for? I find that having stance is such an important part of training/ doing things efficiently =O

I've played both an I/L and Bishop in 4th job, and I'd say their mobbing is about the same. I/L has better horizontal mobbing, with slight vertical. But Bishop is basically a body explosion around you. I honestly love them both, so I can't sway you one way or the other.

I'd say you play Bishop (might be biased) cause our mobbing isn't as bad as people think it is, I/L's isn't even that great either. I'd say our hyper is definitely more useful though. Also, our hits per second is pretty high as our AR with hyper will soon be 10 lines. Just my share of opinion