Maple Story – Archer Guide

Maple Story - Archer Guide



     (¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯
                         MAPLE STORY - ARCHER GUIDE
      ____________________________________________________________________)

     FAQ Version: 0.74b
     Copyright(C) Aqueous Cross 2004


This may be not be reproduced under any circumstances except for personal,
private use. It may not be placed on any web site or otherwise distributed
publicly without advance written permission. Use of this guide on any other
web site or as a part of any public display is strictly prohibited and is
also a violation of copyright.

All trademarks and copyrights contained in this document are owned by their
respective trademark and copyright holders.





     ====================================================================
    <                     TABLE OF CONTENTS                              >
     ====================================================================


  SECTION 1: GENERAL GAME OVERVIEW

     A) Introduction
     B) Game Overview
     C) Overview of the Archer Class

  SECTION 2: BECOMING AN ARCHER

     A) Ability Point Distribution
     B) How to become an Archer
     C) Archer Skills
     D) Leveling up
     E) Advancing the Job
     F) Archer Skill Damage Calculations

  SECTION 3: CLOSING

     A) Version History
     B) Credits
     C) Contact Info

     ====================================================================

     ====================================================================


                    __________________________________________
                        SECTION 1: GENERAL GAME OVERVIEW
                    ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯
   _______________
  |> INTRODUCTION

Hello and welcome to my FAQ for Maple Story! Throughout this guide, I will
do my best to explain the benefits of being an archer, how to become one
and the point distributions for the Archer class. Enough rambling, so on to
the rest of the guide!

   ________________
  |> GAME OVERVIEW

Maple Story is a 2D MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing
Game), which is quite different to alot of the other MMORPG's that are around,
like Runescape which is fully 3D. However, since this game is only 2D, don't
let that put you off, the game play is great, and so is the leveling system
(although there are some bits here and there that could be improved on). Since
this game is only in Beta, there are still a few bugs in it, but even that
shouldn't put you off playing this game! The controls are mainly keyboard
based, with the mouse being used to interact with the game NPC's. Chat is
managed quite well, with the ability to chat in private with buddies or
just to your party. Another feature that has been included is the fame
function, which allows you to raise another characters fame (once a day)
up or down by one point (you must also be level 15 to do this). Even already
there have been a few asshats running around just randomly lowering other
peoples' fame, just make sure to watch out for them.

   ___________________
  |> THE ARCHER CLASS

The Archer class is quite a stylish one methinks, most of the equipment look
pretty cool and also have some nice stats, even though they can cost quite a
lot of meso. The advantage that the Archer has over the Warrior is that
they are ranged, why is this so good? Because it allows you to just pick a
safe spot where enemies can't reach you, and then camp there and just shoot
until they are all dead, very easy and with minimal HP (Health Points) loss.

You also have a choice between using a crossbow and a bow. The main difference
the game claims they have is that the crossbow shoots with more power, but
less speed, while the bow does the opposite. For ammo, the crossbow uses
crossbow bolts and the bow uses arrows (obviously).

The arrows also have a limited "Auto target" function, so when you shoot your
arrow, and the target's elevation is a bit higher/lower, then the arrow will
automatically compensate for this and move either upwards or down, although
sometimes the arrow will be stopped by things such as foliage/other platforms
(especially inside the trees near Ellinia).

                    __________________________________________
                        SECTION 2: BECOMING AN ARCHER
                    ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯
     ___________________________
  |> ABILITY POINT DISTRIBUTION¯

Ok, we are firstly going to start this off by creating the ideal character
for the archer class. Keep rolling the stats dice until you get at least
a 10 in DEX and possibly something between 5-8 in Strength, since some of
the equipment later on that you'll be needing have Strength requirements.
Once done, OK your character and start training on Maple Island until you
get to level 10.

Now, when you level up, continue putting all of your ability points in DEX,
once you get 25, which you can easily obtain by level10, you are good to
go to be accepted as an archer.  Once your DEX has reached 25, put some
points into Strength. Once you hit 30 on strength, stop, as that is the most
you will need until you hit level 30+. Almost throw some points into LUK if 
you want, though I recommend just continuously putting the Ability Points 
into DEX.

    _________________________
  |> HOW TO BECOME AN ARCHER¯

The requirements to become an Archer are as follows;

REQUIRED LEVEL: 10
REQUIRED DEX: 25

If you pass that, then simply go to Henesys (the archer town) from Lith
Harbor and speak to Helena.

>>>GETTING TO HENESYS

  Ok, you can instantly transport yourself there if you talk to the travel
  agent guy, but I don't recommend that, since it costs money and you won't
  get good training on the way.
  So from Lith harbor, exit and head due south, killing monsters on the way.
  Make sure that you don't reach level 11, but come close to it
  (eg; Lvl10 with 80% EXP). Just continue following the pathway until you
  reach a town, which conveniently happens to be Henesys!

  Keep moving along until you see some sort of pedestal with an orange ball,
  make your way to that and press up to transport yourself to the other side
  of the town. Now jump up to the top level and move left and enter
  Mushroom Park (you can't miss it, it's got a giant sign). Now just head
  right, past the teleporter. Now just keep walking to the end of the map
  until you see a giant tree house-like structure. Enter it and then
  talk to Helena, tell her you want to become a bowman and voila!
  Check your class!

      ____________
  |> ARCHER SKILLS

      THE BLESSING OF AMAZON
          [Increases Accuracy]
           Master Level: 16
           Summary:
                    Contributed by Cutman:
                    Hmmm... I would like to add my 2 cents. Being a level 36
                    Hunter I say good luck hitting those snakes,
                    and other high avoidably monsters. A good idea for Blessing
                    is to put 8-9 skill points in it, not that much. I did that,
                    and my accuracy is in the 100s. You're gonna need it
                    if you plan on hitting Jr.Neckis, and such early on.
                    Other then that, I agree with your points on Maxing
                    Critical Hit, Eye of the Amazon, and Doubleshot.

      THE EYE OF AMAZON
          [Increases range of attack for bows and crossbows]
           Master Level: 8
           Summary:
                    Max this as soon as possible! It increases your range
                    of attack (obviously) and can thus let you level
                    on so many more monsters, and it doesn't even take
                    that many points to max out!

      CRITICAL SHOT
          [Allows you to perform a critical attack with a certain success rate]
           Master Level: 20
           Summary:
                    Contributed by nessie:
                    In your maple story archer FAQ, you say that critical
                    shot is not really useful. I maxed it and I can tell you
                    it's really worth it. It's, in my opinion, the most useful
                    archer skill. At level 20, you have 40% chance of doing 2x
                    damage. That's almost half of your shots.

                    Let's say you do 50-200 damage. The average would be
                    125 without critical shot.

                    With critical shot, there's 40% chance of doing 250.
                    (average of 100-400) 40% chance to do 250.
                    60% to do 200.

                    Your average damage would be 220. Almost twice.
                    Plus, it works with skills.

                    Well there you go, seems I was wrong about the Critical
                    shot skill after all, thanks for pointing that one out.
                    *Starts putting points into Critical Shot*

      FOCUS
          [Focus to temporarily increase accuracy and avoid ability]
           Master Level: 20
           Summary:
                    I haven't really tried this out, but from what the game
                    says, I probably won't anyway, accuracy and
                    avoid ability should already be at acceptable levels with
                    archers, since they need to have such high DEX.

      ARROW BLOW
          [Fires an arrow with authority, applies more damage than usual]
          Master Level: 20
          Summary:
                   Contributed by StillLife:
                   You say to totally ignore arrow blow as double shot is
                   better, but that's simply just not true. the reality is
                   that neither skill is particularly better, and it's really
                   a matter of personal choice. if you add up both skills
                   totally maxed, then add the maxed Critical Shot stats,
                   you'll be shooting for two chances at 200% damage with
                   Double Shot, or one chance at 420% (not sure if its
                   420 or 460) with Arrow Blow. Personally I prefer Arrow Blow,
                   but that's just me.

                   Another thing I'd advise is to not raise whichever one you
                   pick past a certain point, I think it's level 9 or 10. this
                   is the point where it costs 14 MP instead of 7 to use.
                   you really don't need it that high to move easily through
                   the game, because like I said you get better skills when
                   you're a hunter. the only things that should be maxed as a
                   bowman are Critical Shot, Eye of Amazon, and Blessing of
                   Amazon. If you have any leftover points you can throw them
                   into Focus (totally useless) or up whatever shot you chose,
                   but really those are the only three skills you need maxed.


      DOUBLE SHOT
          [Fires two arrows at once to attack an enemy twice]
          Master Level: 20
          Summary:
                   I love this skill, I only have 4 skill points in it and I
                   can already do some nice damage to Blue Horned mushrooms
                   at level 15.

   ______________
  |> LEVELING UP

This part only serves to list some places that can be good for leveling
up your character, so read on;

     VICTORIA ROAD - THE HILL EAST OF HENESYS
      -> Some good things to kill around here, on the upper platforms you
      can find pigs and the ribboned counterparts. On the highest level
      you will find a swarm of ribboned pigs.

     VICTORIA ROAD - THE FOREST EAST OF HENESYS
      -> Look inside the trees to find some Green Mushrooms that can give
      you some good EXP

     THE DUNGEON
      -> It may be a bit hard, but the Blue Horned Mushrooms can give you
      good money and the occasional rare drop that can be worth alot more
      :D

   ___________________
  |> ADVANCING THE JOB

  In order to advance your job from an archer, make sure that you are level
  30. Now from Henesys, head to Sleepywood (The centre of the map), along
  the way you will spot an NPC, speak to her, and choose what you want
  to be, Hunter or Crossbow Man, and done!

   ___________________________
  |> ARCHER SKILL DAMAGE CALCULATIONS

  Well, the main reason that I added this section is because a kind GFaqer
  (starlitsky) thought that this info would be quite useful to those people
  out there that would probably want the most out of their archer skills.
  So read on, and may the calculations help you :)

  //
  - ARROWBLOW/DOUBLESHOT
     (Copied from starlitsky's thread with permission)

  Let's pretend we have a bowman who does 1-100 damage.

 Arrow blow maxed (14 mp):
 (1-100 damage) x 260%

 Double Shot maxed (16mp):
 (1-100 damage) x 130% + (1-100 damage) x 130%

 If we were doing AVERAGE damage every time, then it would look like this:

 Arrow blow maxed (14 mp):
 50 damage x 260% = 130 damage

 Double Shot maxed (16mp):
 50 damage x 130% + 50 damage x 130% = 130 damage

 Unfortunately, we seldom do average damage. we usually go above or below.
 so now, it looks like this:

 Arrow blow maxed (14 mp):
 (chance to do damage x damage) x 260%

 Double Shot maxed (16mp):
 (chance to do damage x damage) x 130% + (chance to do damage x damage) x 130%

 Now here's the thing. with Arrow blow, you get 1 shot to do the damage.
 let's assume the worst case scenario. on your first chance, you did 1 damage
 (your min), and on your second chance, you do 100 damage (your max).

 Arrow blow maxed (14 mp):
 1 damage x 260% = 2.6 damage = 2 damage

 Double Shot maxed (16mp):
 1 x 130% + 100 x 130% = 131.3 damage = 131 damage

 Of course, if you want to do an additional arrow blow, you would get:
 100 damage x 260% = 260 damage

 But then you'd have to spend another 14mp on it.

 So it all boils down to this:
 what are the chances of you doing poor damage two times in a row?

 The same thing applies for energy bolt and claw, of course.
 \

 Now this is how the calculations between Arrow blow and Doubleshot are
 according to Zephy84:

Arrow Blow is obviously more powerful than Double Shot since the difference
factor affect less.
i.e. once compared to twice in Double Shot.
Say, your base damage was 1000. For the fairness, say, you always hit with
base damage of 1000 and all without Critical Shot or you may assume all with
Critical Shot.
Also say defence factor reduce 100. (It was known that if a monster's D is
200, it reduces 100 damage.)
Arrow Blow: 1000 * 260% - 100 = 2500
Double Shot: (500 * 260% - 100) = 1200 * 2 = 2400
Dark Golem knocks back when it got 1500+ damage.
So, only Arrow Blow will knock Dark Golem back.

However, stable damage is also important.
Critical Shot has 40% chance to attack at 200% at max level.
Now take that into account.
Arrow Blow with C.S.
1000 * 260% * 200% - 100 = 5100 (40% chance)
Arrow Blow without C.S.
1000 * 260% - 100 = 2500 (60% chance)
Double Shot with 2 C.S.
(500 * 260% * 200% - 100) * 2 = 5000 (16% chance)
Double Shot with 1 C.S.
(500 * 260% * 200% - 100) + (500 * 260% - 100) = 3700 (48% chance)
Double Shot without C.S.
(500 * 260% - 100) * 2 = 2400 (36% chance)
Say, you are hunting a monster with 3500 HP.
You will have 40% of one-kill and 60% of two-kill for Arrow Blow.
You will have 64% of one-kill and 36% of two-kill for Double Shot.
In this damage range, with double shot, you can train efficiently with
double shot by finding monsters with HP around 3500


                     __________________________________________
                                SECTION 3: CLOSING
                     ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯

   ___________________
  |> VERSION HISTORY

  Version 0.69 (October 16, 2004)
    -> Completed all most of the sections, an item list may come soon

  Version 0.70 (October 17, 2004)
    -> Added contribution sent in by nessie

  Version 0.71 (October 21, 2004)
    -> Added contribution sent in by Cutman

  Version 0.72 (October 21, 2004)
    -> Added contribution sent in by StillLife

  Version 0.73 (October 26, 2004)
    -> Added contribution sent in by starlitsky

  Version 0.74 (October 30, 2004)
    -> Added in contribution from Zephy84

  Version 0.74b(November 9, 2004)
    -> Corrected a few spelling mistakes and some of the info in the guide


     ________
  |> CREDITS

  - GameFAQ's Maple Story board
      Nice bunch of people

  - nessie
      For his contribution to the Critical Shot skill

  - Cutman
      For his contribution to the Blessing of Amazon skill

  - StillLife
      For his contribution to the Arrowblow/Doubleshot skill

  - starlitsky
      Great contribution to the FAQ about the damage calculations

  - Zephy84
      Contribution to the Arrowblow/Doubleshot calculations section

    _______________
  |> CONTACT INFO

  All emails (which include contributions, praise, criticism) can be sent
  to my email, which can be found here:
  http://www.gamefaqs.com/features/recognition/39844.html
  And remember, if you are going to criticize my work, at least try and put
  in some valid points on how I can improve it ok?



                          -------------------
                          |      E O F      |
                          -------------------

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *