Post by iCyBeEeZ on Oct 13, 2006 6:21:17 GMT -5
[glow=red,2,300]Bandit : Master Thief related questions[/glow]
1) Assaulter, how does it work? When do / can you use it? Do you get hit inside and outside of the animation? Does it replace savage blow? Does the range you travel increase as you put more SP in it?
In addition to doing painful damage & stunning the monster, assaulter is actually a great movement skill. Basically your character will auto lock on a nearby enemy (in the direction you are facing) and perform a quick 1 hit attack, coming out from the other side. You can use assaulter freely anywhere, including in the air but with the restriction that there must be an enemy in the direction you are facing. Using assaulter in the air means that you can travel to places normally not possible by normal jumping means For example, a monster is on a platform high above you and to the right side, where it's impossible to touch it by normal jumping--- using jump assaulter here will teleport your character behind the monster (in addition to doing damage to it of course). You can even use it to take advantage of this flying ability in jumping quests that have monsters in it.
As for getting damaged, unfortunately if the monster is very big, at times you stll take damage using assaulter~ You are invincible in the starting dash in animation but not when you come out. In addition there is also a little lag when you come out, leaving you vulnerable. But don't worry, as you level higher the high damage from assaulter would ensure knockback on pretty much all the monsters you train on, so that vulnerability isn't as bad as it seems. Don't forget about the 80% stun bonus at maxed level.
Damage wise, 450% may seem like a smaller number, but remeber it hits only one time, compared to savage blow which is 80%x6 = 480%. Savage blow wins in stability terms & speed, generally assaulter is not a spammable skill, in melee battle most bandits like to savage blow the enemy for the stability & speed~ However assaultering solo targets will save you pots. It is not a savage blow, it dosen't replace it, but it's also very useful at the same time.
The distance you travel using a level 1 assaulter & level 30 assaulter is the same, but that shouldn't bother you because it should be long enough. But if you don't find assaulter very helpful to you, at least know that level 1 can accomplish the movement task.
2) Thieves, how does it work? Is it useful ? Are the members that come out from thieves randomly selected? Are there any difference in the members themselves? Is this skill only useful when maxed?
This is a very interesting skill, it acts like a normal melee mob skill in that you sort of target enemies around you, however it is very unique itself. Basically you have to get close enough to one enemy and attack it with thieves, you will perform a stabbing like attack but if there are additional enemies (near a big radius around that enemy) additonal members are summoned, doing similar damage to the rest of the monsters. In the event that your initial Thieves did not make contact with the enemy, none of the summons will come out! This encourages bandits to stick close to their enemies. Damage wise, it is pretty decent but not as strong as other skills~ So why people max it? The key here is the speed. Anyone having observed thieves for a minute can easily tell this is the fastest spammable, mob attack in maple. When I say spammable, I don't mean like Ice Strike or Arrow Rain spammable, the speed of thieves can be classified in its own class. It's more like savage blow spamming but except you are doing it on mobs this time.
Members are randomly selected each time you use this skill; there are however no difference between the members in terms of damage (this is a graphics aspect thing).
Because damage is lowered & raised as you gain the ability to summon more members, thieves is meant to be maxed ~~ the difference in maxing thieves and not makes a very big difference. So max it, if you want to use it, because this skill isn't very practical when it's not maxed. At max level, using thieves two times will usually outdamage savage blow & assaulter. This skill has a base damage of 250%.
With the release of the new area in ludibrium (from the recent 2nd anniversary update in JMS), thieves proved itself to be a very powerful skill. Especially on high level mobs, the rate at which thieves output damage is unmatched by other classes. This is one crazy skill for all bandits to love.
3) Meso Explosion, is this skill practical? How do people set up Meso Explosion usually? And what about Pickpocket?
Firstly, the damage of meso explosion is pretty much as much meso you can spend. It's not a skill you would be using in everyday training, but you might use it once in a while. It is very strong, mostly used to 1 hit KO bosses.. but at the same time not very practical unless you really got a lot of meso to burn. Since you can drop meso while in dark sight, people naturally use it in this way.
It is unforunately not practical to train with, however it works very well with pickpocket. Pickpocket is an active-status skill which make the enemies drop small (I mean quite small) amount of mesos on the ground as you hit them hit by hit~ the amount of meso they drop is dependant on the damage, so using a skill such as savage blow will let you have 6 chances to trigger it on a target (60% chance per hit) however the amount dropped is usually very small since savage blow isn't very strong (per hit). Pickpocket works with all your attack skills, this includes double stab, savage blow, assaulter, thieves. I should mention that the money dropped from pickpocket cannot be picked up by your pet, which encourages people to use meso explosion with it. Besides serving money for meso explosion, I guess pickpocket can be used to let people know that you are using a channel since coins would be all over the place if you use this skill.
I guess you can say Meso Explosion (or nickname "meso bomb", or just "bomb") & Pickpocket work hand to hand, that they either work very very well together or they simply don't work well alone. So if you are going to use these skills, you ought to max them both.
4) Meso Guard, Chakra, & Shield Mastery
The recent 2nd anniversary update in JMS gave master thieves a new meso guard~ instead of having a damage limit each time you charge meso guard, it now has a timer. As a natural ability, meso guard blocks half damage from all physical attacks. The only requirement to activate meso guard is simply some initial mana charge, you will be taking 50% less damage as soon as you put 1 SP into this skill. UPDATE: They updated again, now taking damage will reduce mesos, depending on your level. But using Meso Guard ensures that you save money (less than 1 meso per 1 damage). More SP increases the timer as well as lowering the conversion costs.
As for chakra, it is simply a self heal ability that may save a bit of pots here & there. It works like cleric's heal in the sense that you use MP to recover HP, however chakra has two more conditions: a) your life bar must be less than or equal to half, b) you must be standing still during the time which you use chakra, getting hit while doing so will result in loss of HP. In addition to these restrictions, your character is also disabled from taking control until chakra ends. Decide for yourself if you find that useful or not~ Bandits very seldomly use Chakra.
Last but not least, shield mastery is a waste to put SP for. The only practical shields for a bandit is the palette (JMS exclusive) & those bandit claw shields. They all offer very little defense to make any meaning to your daily training~ shield mastery basically multiplies that defense number. Simply skip this skill like you would for steal.
5) Steal, how exactly does it work?
Steal works like this, you perform a slow & very weak attack, that costs some MP but doing so lets you have a moderate % (and not 100% even maxed) chance to get one more random drop from the enemy. The drop here is completely chosen from random (except for special monsters, such as the level 35-50 PQ, where steal will 100% give you an extra pass from the monster) it can be anything from an equipment, a Use item(including scrolls), an ETC item, pretty much anything that the monster could drop. While it's true that you can only get a maximum of 1 succesful drop from the monster, however the item stolen is completely independent from killing the monster itself. As I mentioned earlier, stealing on a monster in a PQ will give you an extra pass, where normally it would drop only 1 pass. This means that it's possible to receive a white potion from a zombie upon killing it even having to have stolen a white potion from it prior doing so. This also means stealing merely lets you have an extra chance to take a drop from the monster.
Of course we are only interested in getting a good drop, there is no point in getting an extra drake skull to having spend all that effort trying to steal something. Do realize that you could only get a maximum of 1 more drop from the same monster, which is the main flaw of steal. Unless you just started maple, you should note that the difficulty of finding drops in this game is far from being an easy task . Let alone getting a drop from killing the monster, out of the drops you get, what are your chances of getting something useful, say an equipment or scroll? Since killing a monster usually nets you 2 drops (a meso drop & their ETC part), this is logically equivalent to having double your chances of getting a 'good' drop using steal, yet even so what are your chance of getting the 'good' drop from killing? The logic here is that simply put, using the time to kill more monsters (instead of having to steal from them) increases your chance of finding drops over a period of time dramatically, thus randering this skill obsolete.
Bandits simply don't use this skill in 3rd job, it's probably wise to simply forget that the skill existed itself. No point in killing bosses such as jr.balrog or crimson, there are far better monsters who are much easier to kill that gives the same if not better drops.
6) How do bandits do comapre with other jobs? In terms of damage, since our main attack is still savage blow while the others get upgraded skills? How do M.Thief compare with Hermits?
To begin, savage blow isn't weak for its speed. While it's true that you might be killing a bit slower on a single monster, but you got assaulter & thieves~~ in a given period of time you could do the same amount of damage than other jobs if not more. Especially in the new clocktower in ludibrium which can be described as a thieves- abusable happy land, bandits take the spotlight in there.
As for hermits, they got two great advantages over bandits. Range, put quite simply, something that bandits lack very badly. While bandits overpower assasins in 2nd job (provided you have proper equips) they even out once they get shadow partner. It's true that assaulter can do much more stable damage on higher defense monsters, however hermits would have the speed edge here. In additon to this, hermits also get to move much more quickly so than bandits because of Flash Jump. Depending how you value things, movement may or may not be something as important as grinding out damage, but from a maple player's view, flash jump makes quite a bit of difference. These are some of the reasons why people think bandits simply aren't worth the effort compare to making a hermit. In order to truly make a succesful bandit, you'll really have to forget about the range & don't be tempted to jump around; bandits are up close & personal, that's why you started stabbing all those little mushrooms in the first place right?
I have mentioned many times about the clocktower mobs in ludibrium. While it's true that this place favors thieving, but that's only for JMS. What about global Maple ? Keep that in mind. Ask this question: "Will you have quitted global Maple Story by then?"
7) What are some recommended build orders for M.Thief?
People generally max assaulter first, mainly because the places you train on are usually 1-2 hit savage blow dependant. It speeds up training because it lets you move & attack more so rapidly than using savage blow only. Others recommend only 10 points into assaulter first, and then proceeding to thieves & other skills.
You would generally want to get assaulter & thieves first, dosen't really matter in which order.
Put in meso guard beforehand would help save quite a bit of money too.
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thast all for dit
1) Assaulter, how does it work? When do / can you use it? Do you get hit inside and outside of the animation? Does it replace savage blow? Does the range you travel increase as you put more SP in it?
In addition to doing painful damage & stunning the monster, assaulter is actually a great movement skill. Basically your character will auto lock on a nearby enemy (in the direction you are facing) and perform a quick 1 hit attack, coming out from the other side. You can use assaulter freely anywhere, including in the air but with the restriction that there must be an enemy in the direction you are facing. Using assaulter in the air means that you can travel to places normally not possible by normal jumping means For example, a monster is on a platform high above you and to the right side, where it's impossible to touch it by normal jumping--- using jump assaulter here will teleport your character behind the monster (in addition to doing damage to it of course). You can even use it to take advantage of this flying ability in jumping quests that have monsters in it.
As for getting damaged, unfortunately if the monster is very big, at times you stll take damage using assaulter~ You are invincible in the starting dash in animation but not when you come out. In addition there is also a little lag when you come out, leaving you vulnerable. But don't worry, as you level higher the high damage from assaulter would ensure knockback on pretty much all the monsters you train on, so that vulnerability isn't as bad as it seems. Don't forget about the 80% stun bonus at maxed level.
Damage wise, 450% may seem like a smaller number, but remeber it hits only one time, compared to savage blow which is 80%x6 = 480%. Savage blow wins in stability terms & speed, generally assaulter is not a spammable skill, in melee battle most bandits like to savage blow the enemy for the stability & speed~ However assaultering solo targets will save you pots. It is not a savage blow, it dosen't replace it, but it's also very useful at the same time.
The distance you travel using a level 1 assaulter & level 30 assaulter is the same, but that shouldn't bother you because it should be long enough. But if you don't find assaulter very helpful to you, at least know that level 1 can accomplish the movement task.
2) Thieves, how does it work? Is it useful ? Are the members that come out from thieves randomly selected? Are there any difference in the members themselves? Is this skill only useful when maxed?
This is a very interesting skill, it acts like a normal melee mob skill in that you sort of target enemies around you, however it is very unique itself. Basically you have to get close enough to one enemy and attack it with thieves, you will perform a stabbing like attack but if there are additional enemies (near a big radius around that enemy) additonal members are summoned, doing similar damage to the rest of the monsters. In the event that your initial Thieves did not make contact with the enemy, none of the summons will come out! This encourages bandits to stick close to their enemies. Damage wise, it is pretty decent but not as strong as other skills~ So why people max it? The key here is the speed. Anyone having observed thieves for a minute can easily tell this is the fastest spammable, mob attack in maple. When I say spammable, I don't mean like Ice Strike or Arrow Rain spammable, the speed of thieves can be classified in its own class. It's more like savage blow spamming but except you are doing it on mobs this time.
Members are randomly selected each time you use this skill; there are however no difference between the members in terms of damage (this is a graphics aspect thing).
Because damage is lowered & raised as you gain the ability to summon more members, thieves is meant to be maxed ~~ the difference in maxing thieves and not makes a very big difference. So max it, if you want to use it, because this skill isn't very practical when it's not maxed. At max level, using thieves two times will usually outdamage savage blow & assaulter. This skill has a base damage of 250%.
With the release of the new area in ludibrium (from the recent 2nd anniversary update in JMS), thieves proved itself to be a very powerful skill. Especially on high level mobs, the rate at which thieves output damage is unmatched by other classes. This is one crazy skill for all bandits to love.
3) Meso Explosion, is this skill practical? How do people set up Meso Explosion usually? And what about Pickpocket?
Firstly, the damage of meso explosion is pretty much as much meso you can spend. It's not a skill you would be using in everyday training, but you might use it once in a while. It is very strong, mostly used to 1 hit KO bosses.. but at the same time not very practical unless you really got a lot of meso to burn. Since you can drop meso while in dark sight, people naturally use it in this way.
It is unforunately not practical to train with, however it works very well with pickpocket. Pickpocket is an active-status skill which make the enemies drop small (I mean quite small) amount of mesos on the ground as you hit them hit by hit~ the amount of meso they drop is dependant on the damage, so using a skill such as savage blow will let you have 6 chances to trigger it on a target (60% chance per hit) however the amount dropped is usually very small since savage blow isn't very strong (per hit). Pickpocket works with all your attack skills, this includes double stab, savage blow, assaulter, thieves. I should mention that the money dropped from pickpocket cannot be picked up by your pet, which encourages people to use meso explosion with it. Besides serving money for meso explosion, I guess pickpocket can be used to let people know that you are using a channel since coins would be all over the place if you use this skill.
I guess you can say Meso Explosion (or nickname "meso bomb", or just "bomb") & Pickpocket work hand to hand, that they either work very very well together or they simply don't work well alone. So if you are going to use these skills, you ought to max them both.
4) Meso Guard, Chakra, & Shield Mastery
The recent 2nd anniversary update in JMS gave master thieves a new meso guard~ instead of having a damage limit each time you charge meso guard, it now has a timer. As a natural ability, meso guard blocks half damage from all physical attacks. The only requirement to activate meso guard is simply some initial mana charge, you will be taking 50% less damage as soon as you put 1 SP into this skill. UPDATE: They updated again, now taking damage will reduce mesos, depending on your level. But using Meso Guard ensures that you save money (less than 1 meso per 1 damage). More SP increases the timer as well as lowering the conversion costs.
As for chakra, it is simply a self heal ability that may save a bit of pots here & there. It works like cleric's heal in the sense that you use MP to recover HP, however chakra has two more conditions: a) your life bar must be less than or equal to half, b) you must be standing still during the time which you use chakra, getting hit while doing so will result in loss of HP. In addition to these restrictions, your character is also disabled from taking control until chakra ends. Decide for yourself if you find that useful or not~ Bandits very seldomly use Chakra.
Last but not least, shield mastery is a waste to put SP for. The only practical shields for a bandit is the palette (JMS exclusive) & those bandit claw shields. They all offer very little defense to make any meaning to your daily training~ shield mastery basically multiplies that defense number. Simply skip this skill like you would for steal.
5) Steal, how exactly does it work?
Steal works like this, you perform a slow & very weak attack, that costs some MP but doing so lets you have a moderate % (and not 100% even maxed) chance to get one more random drop from the enemy. The drop here is completely chosen from random (except for special monsters, such as the level 35-50 PQ, where steal will 100% give you an extra pass from the monster) it can be anything from an equipment, a Use item(including scrolls), an ETC item, pretty much anything that the monster could drop. While it's true that you can only get a maximum of 1 succesful drop from the monster, however the item stolen is completely independent from killing the monster itself. As I mentioned earlier, stealing on a monster in a PQ will give you an extra pass, where normally it would drop only 1 pass. This means that it's possible to receive a white potion from a zombie upon killing it even having to have stolen a white potion from it prior doing so. This also means stealing merely lets you have an extra chance to take a drop from the monster.
Of course we are only interested in getting a good drop, there is no point in getting an extra drake skull to having spend all that effort trying to steal something. Do realize that you could only get a maximum of 1 more drop from the same monster, which is the main flaw of steal. Unless you just started maple, you should note that the difficulty of finding drops in this game is far from being an easy task . Let alone getting a drop from killing the monster, out of the drops you get, what are your chances of getting something useful, say an equipment or scroll? Since killing a monster usually nets you 2 drops (a meso drop & their ETC part), this is logically equivalent to having double your chances of getting a 'good' drop using steal, yet even so what are your chance of getting the 'good' drop from killing? The logic here is that simply put, using the time to kill more monsters (instead of having to steal from them) increases your chance of finding drops over a period of time dramatically, thus randering this skill obsolete.
Bandits simply don't use this skill in 3rd job, it's probably wise to simply forget that the skill existed itself. No point in killing bosses such as jr.balrog or crimson, there are far better monsters who are much easier to kill that gives the same if not better drops.
6) How do bandits do comapre with other jobs? In terms of damage, since our main attack is still savage blow while the others get upgraded skills? How do M.Thief compare with Hermits?
To begin, savage blow isn't weak for its speed. While it's true that you might be killing a bit slower on a single monster, but you got assaulter & thieves~~ in a given period of time you could do the same amount of damage than other jobs if not more. Especially in the new clocktower in ludibrium which can be described as a thieves- abusable happy land, bandits take the spotlight in there.
As for hermits, they got two great advantages over bandits. Range, put quite simply, something that bandits lack very badly. While bandits overpower assasins in 2nd job (provided you have proper equips) they even out once they get shadow partner. It's true that assaulter can do much more stable damage on higher defense monsters, however hermits would have the speed edge here. In additon to this, hermits also get to move much more quickly so than bandits because of Flash Jump. Depending how you value things, movement may or may not be something as important as grinding out damage, but from a maple player's view, flash jump makes quite a bit of difference. These are some of the reasons why people think bandits simply aren't worth the effort compare to making a hermit. In order to truly make a succesful bandit, you'll really have to forget about the range & don't be tempted to jump around; bandits are up close & personal, that's why you started stabbing all those little mushrooms in the first place right?
I have mentioned many times about the clocktower mobs in ludibrium. While it's true that this place favors thieving, but that's only for JMS. What about global Maple ? Keep that in mind. Ask this question: "Will you have quitted global Maple Story by then?"
7) What are some recommended build orders for M.Thief?
People generally max assaulter first, mainly because the places you train on are usually 1-2 hit savage blow dependant. It speeds up training because it lets you move & attack more so rapidly than using savage blow only. Others recommend only 10 points into assaulter first, and then proceeding to thieves & other skills.
You would generally want to get assaulter & thieves first, dosen't really matter in which order.
Put in meso guard beforehand would help save quite a bit of money too.
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thast all for dit
