Few questions from an old player returning.

Hastur

Hi, all! Hope you'll take your precious time to read this. Maplestory has been and always will be my # 1 MMORPG game. I am an old player, playing from waaaaay back circa 2005ish. The days where there's no cash shop yet. And I am pretty sure a lot has changed. I was a hardcore player from before, then suddenly, I had to adult. But I kept coming back on sometimes whenever I feel like it, I even made a Cannoneer and made it to 70.

Anyway, every time I log back in after a long while, there's always this free VIP Hair Coupon reward I keep getting every time. Though this time, yesterday, I didn't get to receive the free VIP Hair Coupon as a reward for returning. Did they remove it? Or am I missing it out, and I just couldn't find where?

And now, speaking of "missing it out", as I've returned (for reasons that I'm not busy anymore and I just saw the new Maplestory with the new 5th job advancement trailer and I found it great), I am bombarded with in-game notifications and I got overwhelmed, I dunno where to start. I have few lvl 30+ on my account. Do I continue them? If so, there are LOTS of pending quests, for sure. Where/how shall I do my move from that point? What should I do? And if not, do you guys suggest I create new character from scratch?

Thanks for the people who'll gladly reply. I just want to play Maplestory again - just like old times. Happy Mapling!

ASoggyRat

You may be better off starting a new character again to get used to how everything works now, and it'd give you a chance to try out one of the newer jobs that's been released since you last actively played. As for all the notifications, if you're getting them from the quest list (lightbulb) or the event list (star) on the left side of the screen then some of those are likely just npc dialog that will introduce you to a lot of the newer systems, and they do a pretty good job of it.

Getting back to level 30 or 70 shouldn't be too difficult now. It's probably much easier to level than you remember, especially as a player from so far back. With theme dungeons and all the flashy aoe skills most classes have you can probably get back to level 70 in a couple of days, depending on how much free time you have.

KamiNoBeniMizu

In case you want to know the limited time classes (they release during special events).

Zero (you need a level 100 character), Hayato, Kanna, Angelic Buster, Kaiser, Beast Tamer, Kinesis, the 6 heroes, Mihile, Demon, and Xenon. I think Dual Blade, Cannoneer, and Jett became normal classes (they can be created at any time).

Hastur

I see! Thanks for your responses. I'm planning to make a regular warrior or thief (from explorers, if I'm correct) 'cause there are different clusters now, right? And the regular ones like Bowman, Warrior, Thief etc belong to The Explorers cluster. I currently have a lvl 37 Dawn Warrior, lvl 41 Pirate, lvl 70 Cannoneer, lvl 51 Hunter.

How about the free VIP Hair Coupon as a reward for returning? Did they remove it? So there are no more returning rewards anymore?

ASoggyRat

I couldn't honestly tell you about the free VIP coupon, I'm not sure if we had that over in EMS.

You're correct about their being different clusters. Explorers are the classes you probably know from a long time ago, Cygnus Knights have their own variant of every class (warrior, bowman, magician, thief & pirate) and Resistance has their own versions of everything except thief. Whatever you choose it may also help you get to know the newer game better, so you could always go back to one of your other characters at a later date once you have a better idea of where you're going and what to do.

Edit: Xenon is Thief & Pirate, therefore the Resistance does have a thief class.

KingStarfire

ASoggyRat said:

I couldn't honestly tell you about the free VIP coupon, I'm not sure if we had that over in EMS.

You're correct about their being different clusters. Explorers are the classes you probably know from a long time ago, Cygnus Knights have their own variant of every class (warrior, bowman, magician, thief & pirate) and Resistance has their own versions of everything except thief. Whatever you choose it may also help you get to know the newer game better, so you could always go back to one of your other characters at a later date once you have a better idea of where you're going and what to do.

isn't Xenon technically a thief(that happens to be a hybrid with pirate)?

Hastur

ASoggyRat said:

I couldn't honestly tell you about the free VIP coupon, I'm not sure if we had that over in EMS.

You're correct about their being different clusters. Explorers are the classes you probably know from a long time ago, Cygnus Knights have their own variant of every class (warrior, bowman, magician, thief & pirate) and Resistance has their own versions of everything except thief. Whatever you choose it may also help you get to know the newer game better, so you could always go back to one of your other characters at a later date once you have a better idea of where you're going and what to do.

That's a very, very helpful suggestion. Thanks so much, ASoggyRat! I'm going to make an Explorer Warrior for the mean time, just to get the hang of Maple again. Thank you so much!

P.S. I still hope someone can still answer my query about the free VIP Hair Coupon returning reward. Does someone know if that kind of reward to returning players has been removed?

ASoggyRat

KingStarfire said:

ASoggyRat said:

I couldn't honestly tell you about the free VIP coupon, I'm not sure if we had that over in EMS.

You're correct about their being different clusters. Explorers are the classes you probably know from a long time ago, Cygnus Knights have their own variant of every class (warrior, bowman, magician, thief & pirate) and Resistance has their own versions of everything except thief. Whatever you choose it may also help you get to know the newer game better, so you could always go back to one of your other characters at a later date once you have a better idea of where you're going and what to do.

isn't Xenon technically a thief(that happens to be a hybrid with pirate)?

Oh, my mistake. I just looked that up now and the first line of the wiki says "Xenon is a member of the Resistance. He is a mixture of Thief and Pirate". Sorry about the mistake, I'll edit my other post

Hastur

ASoggyRat said:

KingStarfire said:

ASoggyRat said:

I couldn't honestly tell you about the free VIP coupon, I'm not sure if we had that over in EMS.

You're correct about their being different clusters. Explorers are the classes you probably know from a long time ago, Cygnus Knights have their own variant of every class (warrior, bowman, magician, thief & pirate) and Resistance has their own versions of everything except thief. Whatever you choose it may also help you get to know the newer game better, so you could always go back to one of your other characters at a later date once you have a better idea of where you're going and what to do.

isn't Xenon technically a thief(that happens to be a hybrid with pirate)?

Oh, my mistake. I just looked that up now and the first line of the wiki says "Xenon is a member of the Resistance. He is a mixture of Thief and Pirate". Sorry about the mistake, I'll edit my other post

What is the most fun to play Warrior job under Explorers? Any ideas?

KamiNoBeniMizu

Spearman has HP and survivability. It's also a mob trasher. At 4th job (level 100), it'll be able to revive with a skill.

Page has defense and HP but is not supposed to be a power house. It can make itself and others be even more powerful thanks to a skill that raise the maximum level of party members' skills.

Fighter is supposed to be the power house and boss hunter. In terms of survivability, it is behind the Spearman or Page, but its power is nothing to laugh at. It can raise the attack of others as well.

It all depends on your style. Since I have a level 140 Spearman (Dark Knight), I know more about it compared to other classes. Well, I could read skills on fan sites and tell you more about them if you want. I could also find videos of them hunting/bossing for you to decide too.

ASoggyRat

It's unlikely you were playing during the release of the RED update, but they added in a new system called 'Open Advancement' for the explorer type classes.

What this means is that once you reach level 101 or higher, you have the option to pay a fee (in mesos) to change your job to one of the others in your class type. So for example if you were to level a Spearman and decide you don't like Dark Knight when you get to it at 4th job, you could change your job to Paladin or Hero whenever you want.

This works for all explorer type classes, but you can only change within your basic class, so for example magicians can only change to other magician explorer jobs. The cost of changing goes up each time you change and the higher level you are, but it's a good way to try our different classes if you decide you don't like your current one or want a change.

Hastur

KamiNoBeniMizu said:

Spearman has HP and survivability. It's also a mob trasher. At 4th job (level 100), it'll be able to revive with a skill.

Page has defense and HP but is not supposed to be a power house. It can make itself and others be even more powerful thanks to a skill that raise the maximum level of party members' skills.

Fighter is supposed to be the power house and boss hunter. In terms of survivability, it is behind the Spearman or Page, but its power is nothing to laugh at. It can raise the attack of others as well.

It all depends on your style. Since I have a level 140 Spearman (Dark Knight), I know more about it compared to other classes. Well, I could read skills on fan sites and tell you more about them if you want. I could also find videos of them hunting/bossing for you to decide too.

Yes please, tell me more about them. So if I'm going to be a Paladin, I can't take bosses 1v1? Or I can't mass kill mobs on my own/train efficiently on my own?

How about Thieves (explorers), are Bandits still that strong? Those Savage Blows?

Hastur

ASoggyRat said:

It's unlikely you were playing during the release of the RED update, but they added in a new system called 'Open Advancement' for the explorer type classes.

What this means is that once you reach level 101 or higher, you have the option to pay a fee (in mesos) to change your job to one of the others in your class type. So for example if you were to level a Spearman and decide you don't like Dark Knight when you get to it at 4th job, you could change your job to Paladin or Hero whenever you want.

This works for all explorer type classes, but you can only change within your basic class, so for example magicians can only change to other magician explorer jobs. The cost of changing goes up each time you change and the higher level you are, but it's a good way to try our different classes if you decide you don't like your current one or want a change.

So for example I have advanced to Fighter, then advanced more to Crusader. I can switch to Paladin when I'm about to commence my 4th job advancement?

Another thing, where can I find class guides? Like the correct skill and stat points to distribute to and all? Thanks!

ASoggyRat

Hastur said:

ASoggyRat said:

It's unlikely you were playing during the release of the RED update, but they added in a new system called 'Open Advancement' for the explorer type classes.

What this means is that once you reach level 101 or higher, you have the option to pay a fee (in mesos) to change your job to one of the others in your class type. So for example if you were to level a Spearman and decide you don't like Dark Knight when you get to it at 4th job, you could change your job to Paladin or Hero whenever you want.

This works for all explorer type classes, but you can only change within your basic class, so for example magicians can only change to other magician explorer jobs. The cost of changing goes up each time you change and the higher level you are, but it's a good way to try our different classes if you decide you don't like your current one or want a change.

So for example I have advanced to Fighter, then advanced more to Crusader. I can switch to Paladin when I'm about to commence my 4th job advancement?

Another thing, where can I find class guides? Like the correct skill and stat points to distribute to and all? Thanks!

There's a short guide on Open Advancement on the wiki here. You can change to any other class once you're level 101+ and have completed the 4th job advancement, and change back at any time. Stat points for all warrior type classes want to go all into strength, secondary stat requirements were removed a very long time ago, and there's an auto assign button now to assign your stat points.

As for skill points, you may be able to find out by googling "maplestory [class] skill point guide". My personal way of assigning skill points is to put 1 point into every attacking skill at each job, max out passive skills first, and then buff skills and attack skills last. Most jobs get enough skill points to max out all of their skills at each job anyway, the only thing you really have to look out for is if the tooltip for a skill tells you that you need it at a certain level to learn another skill at a higher job. The text that tells you that you need to invest a certain amount of skill points into one skill is orange when you highlight the skill, so it's fairly easily noticeable.

Hastur

ASoggyRat said:

Hastur said:

ASoggyRat said:

It's unlikely you were playing during the release of the RED update, but they added in a new system called 'Open Advancement' for the explorer type classes.

What this means is that once you reach level 101 or higher, you have the option to pay a fee (in mesos) to change your job to one of the others in your class type. So for example if you were to level a Spearman and decide you don't like Dark Knight when you get to it at 4th job, you could change your job to Paladin or Hero whenever you want.

This works for all explorer type classes, but you can only change within your basic class, so for example magicians can only change to other magician explorer jobs. The cost of changing goes up each time you change and the higher level you are, but it's a good way to try our different classes if you decide you don't like your current one or want a change.

So for example I have advanced to Fighter, then advanced more to Crusader. I can switch to Paladin when I'm about to commence my 4th job advancement?

Another thing, where can I find class guides? Like the correct skill and stat points to distribute to and all? Thanks!

There's a short guide on Open Advancement on the wiki here. You can change to any other class once you're level 101+ and have completed the 4th job advancement, and change back at any time. Stat points for all warrior type classes want to go all into strength, secondary stat requirements were removed a very long time ago, and there's an auto assign button now to assign your stat points.

As for skill points, you may be able to find out by googling "maplestory [class] skill point guide". My personal way of assigning skill points is to put 1 point into every attacking skill at each job, max out passive skills first, and then buff skills and attack skills last. Most jobs get enough skill points to max out all of their skills at each job anyway, the only thing you really have to look out for is if the tooltip for a skill tells you that you need it at a certain level to learn another skill at a higher job. The text that tells you that you need to invest a certain amount of skill points into one skill is orange when you highlight the skill, so it's fairly easily noticeable.

Well that is convenient! If you're a Warrior and you press "auto-assign" will it automatically assign all the points to STR?

Thanks so much for your help mate, everything is clear now. Hope I can add you in-game. I'm from Scania, btw. THE ORIGINAL!

KamiNoBeniMizu

I haven't forgotten about you, it's really big what I do for now (searching and telling about over 20 classes in MapleStory!? oh boy!).

For videos, I search for normal funded players, not the ones doing 700m damage at "low" levels and killing bosses in a few seconds. Which is rare for the most up-to-date revamps.