Introduction:

This is a guide for a firemage. Firemages can summon considerable amounts of power and use it to great effect; their power and potency is quite unrivaled. Although they have no sense of healing, and cannot target multiple opponents until the third job [when explosion begins to slide into the action], firemages are efficient, unique, and well respected. And, though it is not a prominent attribute, firemages also have the skill of poisoning, where a monster is contaminated with a damaging, noxious gas; this is a part of what contributes to their full title: the fire and poison magician.

Second Job Firemage Skills:

These are the skills a second job firemage possess. To create an efficient firemage, we place our trust in a single, valuable attacking skill and boost it with several helpful supports that greatly magnify the effect of it. The skills are as listed along with their recommendation: a personal description and view of the spell and its usefulness:

MP eater: [master level: 20] recommendation: mp eater is a skill that helps the magician regain some mp in combat; it works at a set rate of success, absorbing a portion of the opponent’s mp to help provide for the magician’s own needs. It is quite useful and will be maxed.
Meditation: [master level: 20] recommendation: meditation is a skill that adds a considerable amount of magic attack to the magician’s active skills. At maximum, it will add a complete 20 points of magic att, making this an immediate max out essential. As an additional bonus, this skill will also provide magic attack for the members of his party.
Teleport: [master level: 20] recommendation: although this skill will tax the magician’s mp greatly in the beginning, its significance cannot be denied. Furthermore, as sp is allocated into this skill, the cost of casting it will become lesser, and the set distance of teleport will become greater. In most cases, this is another skill that will become maxed out.
Slow: [master level: 20] recommendation: slow is a skill that will lower the opponents’ rate of travel, with effect of up to six enemies around it, making it another useful skill to have. However [ although it is not a must, as there is seal in the third job, a much more effective advancement of slow ], it will be either slow or poison brace that is not maxed out in a default firemage build… you can decide to your own preferences. Note that slow will not work over twice on the same monster.
Fire Arrow: [master level: 30] recommendation: this skill will be, without a doubt, most magicians’ choice of attack, having a base attack of, at max, 120. This makes it the first skill to be maxed out because, as supportive skills are added in later levels, it becomes steadily more potent and damaging.
Poison Brace: [master level: 30] recommendation: poison brace is a skill that will release a small sphere of a dangerous toxin toward the magician’s opponent. At max, there is a 60% chance of the opponent being poisoned. Please note that poison brace will never kill an opponent and that the damage is based on a percentage of the monster’s max hp; therefore, meditation and other supports will have little effect on the success of poison brace. It is not recommended to max out.

Recommended Training Areas:

The firemage can deal up to twice as much damage to ice based monsters; it stands to reason, therefore, that several of the firemage’s recommended training opponents will be located in el nath, the snowcapped village in Ossyria. Because the cold there is intense, and the ice unbearable, it is often helpful to bring along several protective red bean porridges to neutralise the cold where it might sting.

30 to 35: horned and zombie mushroom [tree dungeon of Ellinia or ant tunnels I, II, III]
36 to 40: jr grupins, PQ [orbis garden of green]
41 to 45: jr grupins, jr peppes, PQ [orbis garden of green, orbis tower floors I, II]
46 to 50: jr peppes, PQ [orbis tower floors I, II]
51 to 56: jr yetis [watch out for icy path]
57 to 60: grupins [orbis garden of green II]
61 to 70: grupins, peppes, yetis [orbis garden of green II, cold field II, icy cold field]

Note: training a firemage is not oftentimes quite as fast as training a cleric or ice/lightning magician because it does not possess a multiple targeting attack. Do not despair however… explosion well covers up for this in the third job.

Concerning the Ludibrium PQ:

The ludibrium PQ is considered an excellent process of earning xp because of the rapidity and amount of experience each successful PQ can bring. However, the PQ is an often a gamble: it can transpire to be either extremely beneficial, or an extreme waste of time. For instance, a good PQ leader is highly recommended, and, although it is forbidden, a PQ leader with an auto clicker device will be several times more efficient.

The leader is essential in a PQ; without a trained, experienced one, do not expect to enter the PQ often. Proper members are also a high necessity; a successful PQ will require intelligent, knowledgeable members that can handle their positions with ease and cooperate soundly with the remainder of the group. If a member stumbles, the entire group stumbles; there is little room for mistake in the PQ.

Amongst that, there is the competition for entrance. If a leader does not possess the auto clicker device, his fast clicking skills will also be helpful, along with the well rounded party. Take the necessary measures to confirm that the group contains 6 proper members before the PQ. Please also note that most characters level 35 to 39 are not in high acceptance or demand in the PQ.

Recommended SP Placements and Builds:

For the firemage, there is no perfect or imperfect build; all builds are much the same: there are mere variations. Each will work to about the same effect, however, as variations, the skills that are placed are somewhat different, as described later in the guide. The order these skills are placed, however, has little impact on the overall result, although training patterns may shift somewhat…

Default Build:

level 30: 1 point into teleport
level 31: 1 point into mp eater, 2 points into fire arrow
level 32: 3 points into fire arrow.
level 33: 3 points into fire arrow.
level 34: 3 points into fire arrow.
level 35: 3 points into fire arrow.
level 36: 3 points into fire arrow.
level 37: 3 points into fire arrow.
level 38: 3 points into fire arrow.
level 39: 3 points into fire arrow.
level 40: 3 points into fire arrow.
level 41: 1 point into fire arrow, 2 points into meditation. [ fire arrow MAXED ]
level 42: 3 points into meditation.
level 43: 3 points into meditation.
level 44: 3 points into meditation.
level 45: 3 points into meditation.
level 46: 3 points into meditation.
level 47: 3 points into meditation. [ meditation MAXED ]
level 48: 3 points into mp eater.
level 49: 3 points into mp eater.
level 50: 3 points into mp eater.
level 51: 3 points into mp eater.
level 52: 3 points into mp eater.
level 53: 3 points into mp eater.
level 54: 1 point into mp eater, 2 points into teleport. [ mp eater MAXED ]
level 55: 3 points into teleport.
level 56: 3 points into teleport.
level 57: 3 points into teleport.
level 58: 3 points into teleport.
level 59: 3 points into teleport.
level 60: 2 points into teleport, 1 point into slow. [ teleport MAXED ]
level 61: 3 points into slow.
level 62: 3 points into slow.
level 63: 3 points into slow.
level 64: 3 points into slow.
level 65: 3 points into slow.
level 66: 3 points into slow
level 67: 1 point into slow, 2 points into poison brace. [ slow MAXED ]
level 68: 3 points into poison brace.
level 69: 3 points into poison brace.
level 70: 3 points into poison brace.

The eventual result of this build would be:

MP eater: 20 [ maxed ]
Meditation: 20 [ maxed ]
Teleport: 20 [ maxed ]
Slow: 20 [ maxed ]
Fire Arrow: 30 [ maxed ]
Poison Brace: 11

There is no need to draw out another build; the variations are simple to replace with the build above. This is the clean build, where all skills are maxed out in a perfect, sensible order except for poison brace, which is almost useless to most magicians. There are, however, some variations of this default build:

Variation A: in this variation, we will max out teleport before mp eater. This is reasonable as mp eater will not aid the firemage much because he cannot cast a multiple targeting attack and the damage produced from the fire arrow will be sufficient to cover for the mp loss. Teleport, because it costs considerable mp to cost, will be maxed out earlier because of its usefulness in battle, as explained later in the guide

Variation B: in this variation, poison brace, instead of slow, is maxed out. therefore, the final 11 levels would be replaced as follows:

level 60: 2 points into teleport, 1 point into poison brace.
level 61: 3 points into poison brace.
level 62: 3 points into poison brace
level 63: 3 points into poison brace.
level 64: 3 points into poison brace.
level 65: 3 points into poison brace.
level 66: 3 points into poison brace.
level 67: 3 points into poison brace.
level 68: 3 points into poison brace.
level 69: 3 points into poison brace.
level 70: 2 points into poison brace, 1 point into slow. [ poison brace MAXED ]

The eventual result of this build would be:

MP eater: 20 [ maxed ]
Meditation: 20 [ maxed ]
Teleport: 20 [ maxed ]
Slow: 1
Fire Arrow: 30 [ maxed ]
Poison Brace: 30 [ maxed ]

This guide is somewhat more complex; at the expense of having an incomplete slow, the magician maxes poison brace, a somewhat useful skill, though not often invested in by most firemages… now, we move to Variation C.

Variation C: in this variation, we have the smallest of all change… in variation C, we will max out fire arrow as soon as possible, therefore not earning teleport or mp eater until much later. This would be a much direct and cleaner build, where we max skills one right after the other, with no crossing or interference with other skills. It would be maxed in this direct order, I would think:

1. Fire arrow…
2. Meditation…
3. MP eater…
4. Teleport…
5. Slow or Poison Brace…

As we examine this build, we notice that teleport will not be invested in until around level 53. Although teleport is not an entirely essential spell, it is one that we must place special prominence and significance on…

Teleportation and Its Uses:

The teleporting skill is one of the most useful for a magician to have. It is first begun at level 30 in the default build for the firemage because a level 1 fire arrow is near useless [ the firemage does not begin to use fire arrow until level 36 ] and, compared with a level 1 teleport, its usefulness darkens in shame.

Teleport will allow your magician to evade mass groupings of monsters, to maneuver for a better assault or attack on a monster, and to escape a monster or monsters because of lack of health or mp. Please note that, apart from the obvious combat reasons, teleport can also be useful for traveling; it hastens the rate and speed of a magician’s walking considerably. Because it requires but 16 mp to cast at maximum, your magician might find it more appealing to teleport to save time than to walk without it.

Apart from that, we look at another view of teleportation: it saves both MP and HP… Un a combat scenario, if a monster deals more damage on contact than you will exhaust from using teleport to evade it, the use of teleport becomes acute in another fashion: teleport as often as possible to evade more damaging attacks. This will save large amounts of MP, perhaps more than the MP eater would if invested in [ read Variation A of the default build ].

About Poison Magicians:

There are some firemages who prefer to not begin with maxing out fire. The difference in this choice is substantial; poison will make the leveling process move much more slowly and the training guide will shift entirely. Please note that poison damage is based on a percentage of the opponent’s max mp and that poison will not kill monsters. It will continue to poison a monster until its hp has dropped to one point and then, the effect will diminish. The monster will continue to smoke with a green mist but damage will no longer be applied. Another attack must be contributed, in addition, to accomplish the task and retrieve the experience. Because of this and other inconveniences, most magicians do not prefer a poison mage. However, for those who would care to test it, I should imagine this build:

Poison Mage Build:

level 30: 1 point into teleport.
level 31: 3 points into poison brace.
level 32: 3 points into poison brace.
level 33: 3 points into poison brace.
level 34: 3 points into poison brace.
level 35: 3 points into poison brace.
level 36: 3 points into poison brace.
level 37: 3 points into poison brace.
level 38: 3 points into poison brace.
level 39: 3 points into poison brace.
level 40: 3 points into poison brace. [ poison brace MAXED ]

And afterwards, in the direct order of maxing out:

1. Fire arrow…
2. Teleport…
3. Meditation or MP eater or Teleport…
4. Meditation or MP eater or Teleport [ choose from one that was not maxed on step 3 ]

Note: because all three [ meditation, mp eater, and teleport ] contain a max level of 20 sp, there should be one last sp inserted into whatever of the three skills you did NOT choose to max out.

Concerning MP eater:

Notice that, in the beginning of the poison mage build, there is no mp eater added. This is due to the fact that, instead of continually hitting a monster to the death, poison mages will hit a monster once and wait until it is drained of life because of the poison. Now, let us examine the numbers and percentage.

Poison Brace: there is a 60% chance of poisoning opponent.
MP eater: there is a 30% chance of regaining mp from monster with successful hit.

The amount of times out of all attempts that mp will be regained from the monster will be somewhat insignificant. Therefore, it is not advised to max out MP eater until after fire arrow has been invested in, giving it a solid footing on which to purchase.

A Look into the Third Job

Although this guide was meant for the second job firemage, there is little doubt about the most direct route into the third job, which will obscure the levels between 70 and 120… I will make an attempt to guess the first 30 levels for the third job, up to level 100:

Hint: fourth job, which has not been released in any version of maplestory, will PROBABLY take place between levels 120 and 190.

level 70: 1 point into explosion.
level 71: 3 points into explosion.
level 72: 3 points into explosion.
level 73: 3 points into explosion.
level 74: 3 points into explosion.
level 75: 3 points into explosion.
level 76: 3 points into explosion.
level 77: 3 points into explosion.
level 78: 3 points into explosion.
level 79: 3 points into explosion.
level 80: 2 points into explosion, 1 points into poison mist. [ explosion MAXED ]
level 81: 3 points into poison mist.
level 82: 3 points into poison mist.
level 83: 3 points into poison mist.
level 84: 3 points into poison mist.
level 85: 3 points into poison mist.
level 86: 3 points into poison mist.
level 87: 3 points into poison mist.
level 88: 3 points into poison mist.
level 89: 3 points into poison mist.
level 90: 2 points into poison mist, 1 point into magic composition. [ poison mist MAXED ]
level 91: 3 points into magic composition.
level 92: 3 points into magic composition.
level 93: 3 points into magic composition.
level 94: 3 points into magic composition.
level 95: 3 points into magic composition.
level 96: 3 points into magic composition.
level 97: 3 points into magic composition.
level 98: 3 points into magic composition.
level 99: 3 points into magic composition.
level 100: 2 points into magic composition, 1 into magic booster. [ magic composition MAXED ]

And that is my prediction into the third job.