Here's a guide to show you how to have optimal power in your 1st job for bowman and cross/xbowmen. It'll be straightforward and explain everything. [This is not a guide for people just starting Maplestory, but nevertheless it will be explained thoroughly. You may want to refer to another guide if you have questions about terms, or ask a friend.] In any case, it's all your choice in the end, so don't blame me for anything. This is only what worked for me, and I see it as logical. _Version 1.1_ Table of Contents: 1-Intro 2-Skill Build (explained) 3-Bows vs Xbows in 1st job 4-Stats (NOTE: READ THIS FIRST IF YOU'RE NEW TO MAPLESTORY) 5-Skill Build (brief version, for reference) 6-Credits =========================================================================== 1-Introduction / Logic Behind: Bowmen get a skill called Critical Shot, which causes your hits to double in damage 40% of the time, when the skill's maxed. Because of this, your already wide damage range (like any class other than mage) doubles. You also get a skill Double Shot (I'll explain later why you choose this) which effectively doubles this range yet again. Because of this, 1st job Bowmen are extremely unstable in damage. Let's do what we can to balance this. =========================================================================== 2-Skill Build (explained): Most people probably start with getting maxed range. However, Bowmen start with a longer range than Assassin-Rogues, and don't need the maxed range as much. So what I did with my bowman is wait until later, and get power early on. lv10 Arrow Blow lv1 (cheap and powerful) lv11-17 Max critical shot to 20, 1 point left over. Okay, where do we head from here? you'll be happy you're hitting high numbers with crit shot, over getting a little more range, as nice as it is. I've tried both ways. Increasing damage early on means you can compete a bit better against other low levels and 1-hit-KO more. So you may be wondering, do I go double shot now? Do I get my range? Neither. put that left over point into arrow blow. AB is now lv2. lv18 put 2 more into arrow blow, so it's lv4. 1 point left over. Why did I do this? because, you can put the damage of AB to 156% from 141% for the same MP cost, and bowmen waste their points on near worthless skills before they change to 2nd job anyways. You'll see at the end. now put that last point into double shot. lv19-20 put double shot to lv7 for 90%x2 damage at 9 MP Here's where two different builds come out. You can either get your much anticipated range here (which is what I recommend), or you can max your double shot. I will show you the range approach. Here are some things to think about... I'll continue underneath the special notes. *__________Special Note__________* Here is why I recommend against maxing double shot early: Reasons: * You should be leveling at easy places still, being orange shroom spots or pig beach (best). You do not need a ton of power. They give good exp. *green shrooms are okay exp, octos better, but octo training spots suck. green shroom spots are either crowded (hunting grounds), suck (kerning / sleepywood), or are hard for a bowman (ie. green mush tree). Also, green shrooms have high armor, so you get less benefit out of a double shot, since the armor applies twice. *max double shot doesn't get you much more power per shot compared to say, a sin's Lucky 7. Lucky 7 is even more powerful than the skill suggests, if you look at the formula for it, but that aside it says 150% x 2 hits. Double Shot is 130% x 2, for the same MP. You're leveling against these guys, and you need an advantage of some kind. Your advantage is that you are cheap with crit shot. Why waste that by pouring MP to do a lesser amount of damage to things like orange shrooms and pigs? There's no point, not yet. *from level 10 of Double Shot and on, your mp cost is 67% higher than arrow blow and you're only doing a total of 188% damage vs 156%. That's only 20.5% higher. lv9 is 50% more MP cost, and 180% (15.4% higher) attack. Con: You can't kill higher monsters as well. Argument: You have fine exp for now. There's no need to, you will be able to shortly. Con: You won't be as strong for PQ. Argument: If you've ever had a bowman in PQ with you before, you should know how useless they are until at least lv25+. Forget PQ, just level. PQ wastes time waiting and doing nothing, is frustrating, and only gives fair exp. The items are okay, but you could make a lot more money just leveling and not using so many pots. The best time to PQ is when you have a good team with lv23+ mages or lv28+ sin-rogues. Warriors are in the same boat as Bowmen. They suck for the first PQ. But they can do okay after lv25... just not good. Anyhow, PQ when no one's on, and try surfing all the channels before waiting for some track that's in 1st stage. There will often be one open when you see a bunch of channels with no one waiting in the PQ area. If your team is good, just ask them to help you, and use AB =P. -________________________________- *__________Special Note__________* So, why use Double Shot early on instead of Arrow Blow? It's not as much for power as it is STABLE DAMAGE. Yes, it doubles your damage range, but, it also makes it average out. Theoretically you could hit 2 1's and then 2 100's with crit shot + double shot, but you're a lot 0more likely to hit somewhere in between. Toss 2 coins. the outcomes are Heads(H) or Tails(T): HH, HT, TH, TT. The odds that you'll get somewhere in between 2 highs (heads) or 2 lows (tails) are half as likely as something in between in this coin toss example. Damage calculation is similar. So, when do you use DS vs AB? AB is great for training alone, against small mobs or individual enemies at a time, like orange shrooms at kerning. It's also great for smaller enemies that you're not afraid of getting hit by, which are likely to die from a smaller hit anyways. DS is great for when mobs get big or when you're competing against other players for kills. What you want then is a bit more damage, with not TOO much MP used *cough*rogue*cough*, and you want to be able to depend on it more, rather, want it more stable. There is no need to overkill those piggies with really high damage. The normal pig is 75HP, Orange Shroom is 80HP, and Ribbon Pig is 120HP. Don't expect to always one-hit things with 1st job bowmen... go for 2-3 hits. -________________________________- Okay, back to the build. We're going Range next. lv21 The Blessing of Amazon to lv3 (required for range) lv22-24 The Eye of Amazon (range) to lv8 Maxed. 1 point left over. Now you'll really be itching to fight something different. You have two options: (A) go somewhere you can use a lot of AB and occasional DS on harder enemies and save your SP for later so you don't use MP like crazy. or (B) Max your DS and use lots of MP pots for fighting hard enemies, perhaps in PQ. and of course, (C) Fight at Pig Beach some more =P. Ribbon Pigs are good exp, easy to kill now, and have a great spawn rate. Hate hackers? Change channel, or kill things they vac, or just go somewhere out of their reach, as most often they don't affect the entire map. Be flexible. And of course, report them when possible and don't party them =P. I think that's asking for trouble personally, and it's telling them you think it's okay that they're ruining the game. Howabout no. [/rant] Save or max your DS, or raise it just a little to maybe lv13 so the MP use is only twice that of AB and your attack is higher than 100% (108% x 2). If I were you, I'd do that based on how you feel about your current strength, as it is really a personal preference on power vs spending pots. (Recommended in [ ]'s, but it's really up to you.) (1 point from before left over) lv25-26 Spend, or spend and stop at lv13, or [save SP] for Double Shot (up to lv14) lv27 [Spend], or save now, or keep saving (up to lv17) lv28 Max DS. Enjoy. Finally, you have only 2 levels of SP left to use before changing jobs. You can get the passive skill for more accuracy, but... bowmen already have tons of accuracy. Instead, I recommend getting level 6 Focus, so that you can up your evade/accuracy a little bit if you're fighting something hard, trying to escape, or just want to use a cool looking skill around other people. There is also the chance that you may end up having some points left over in your 2nd Job build, at which point you may choose to add to this skill some more. Never know =P. lv29-30 Put Focus to lv6 (+6 avoid/+6 acc for 2 minutes, 10 seconds, 8MP) And that's it for the skills! Time to change Jobs. This guide doesn't cover that yet, unfortunately. But I do intend to make a somewhat complex guide later. =========================================================================== Let's look at some other things, like stats and the bow vs xbow thingy: 3-BOWS vs CROSSBOWS (XBOWS) in 1st Job Let's talk about bows and xbows first. I recommend trying both, spending a little extra early so you can get the feel of each. Bows come on levels divisible by 5... so 10, 15, 20 etc... xbows are on 2's and 8's, so 12, 18, 22, 28 etc. until lv42, and then the next is lv50, and goes by 10s. Bows do that too from lv40 on, next being 50 also. Stat requirements work the same as low levels. If you decide you want xbow only, then forget about bows completely. They're weaker, but faster reacting, and can use arrows your xbow can't. If that doesn't matter to you, there's no reason to get a bow that's a few levels higher than your current xbow... it'll be about the same power, or slightly weaker actually. My view, as someone that wanted to go bow in 2nd job (hunter), is that I use each xbow and bow that my level allows, so that I can use both types of arrows and so I get a nice power boost from the xbows, which is fun. I like bows better, and that's what I commit to in 2nd job, but early on a bit more power is nice, and you're not fighting anything so dangerous that not reacting fast will kill you. So there you go. *__________Special Note__________* The power of xbow over bow: By lv12 your attack will be at about 7~54 with bow lv10. with xbow lv12 you'll be at 8~66 with the same stats. (My test stats here are reasonable: 10 str for leveling as a beginner, 4 and 5 of the unused stats, and rest [61] into dex. You do not need str until the 2nd bow/xbow.) -________________________________- =========================================================================== 4-Now, Stats: What does a bowman need? well it depends on if you're going xbow or bow. Bows require 5 str higher than your level, while xbow and bowman clothes require only your level's worth of str. The rest goes into dex. When you make your character, make sure you have no higher than 5's in int and luk... roll your dice until you get that. It's not that hard. I'd never accept two 5's... always at least one 4, if not both. Consider this your training to level from 0 to 1 =P. People pay good money to get a bit higher stats via weapon/clothing scrolls, so why not spend a little time here? Example STR no higher than say 10 DEX anything INT 4/5 LUK 4/5 You need to pour into dex or you won't have any power after becoming a bowman. 10 str will help you kill things as a beginner, and so will dex to a lesser extent, but you'll be stable. It's actually not bad at all. You could skip str altogether until lv15 if you're going bow (need 20dex), or lv18 if you're going xbow (need 18dex). So did you decide to go my path for bow vs xbow, as in use both until 2nd job? If so, here's your stat build: _Build using both bow and xbow_ lv10 no more than 10 STR, rest into DEX (must have at least 25), change your job NOW. Consider using a polearm/spear or 2-handed axe/mace along with bow for killing slimes/snails easily. lv11 put all into DEX lv12 STR at least at 5, rest into DEX, buy lv12 xbow lv13 STR at least at 10, rest into DEX lv14 STR at least at 15, rest into DEX lv15 STR at 20, rest into DEX, buy lv15 bow lv16 all into DEX lv17 all into DEX lv18 all into DEX, buy lv18 xbow lv19 all into DEX lv20 STR at 25, buy lv20 bow lv21 all into DEX lv22 all into DEX, buy lv22 xbow lv23 all into DEX lv24 all into DEX lv25 STR at 30, buy lv25 bow lv26 all into DEX lv27 all into DEX lv28 all into DEX, buy lv28 xbow lv29 all into DEX lv30 STR at 35, buy lv30 bow, change jobs lv31 all into DEX lv32 all into DEX, consider buying lv32 xbow even if hunter, less expensive from other players probably than making or buying for 200k npc outside of Victoria Island. It has good knockback, and your mastery and attacks aren't so bow specific yet, so if you're out of MP for your Arrow Bomb attack, switch to xbow and save some arrows maybe =P. Up to you. =========================================================================== 5-Skill Build (brief version, for reference): Finally, for those who want a quick overview of how the skills work in this guide, or just want to refer back since the first explanation is messy, here it is again: lv10 Arrow Blow (AB) lv1 (cheap and powerful) lv11-17 Max critical shot to 20. Then 1 to AB for lv2 afterwards. lv18 2 more into arrow blow for lv4. NO MORE, EVER. Save 1 point. lv19 put double shot to lv4 for 82%x2 damage at 8 MP (same as lv1). lv20 put double shot to lv7 for 90%x2 damage at 9 MP. lv21 The Blessing of Amazon to lv3 (required for range) lv22-24 The Eye of Amazon (range) to lv8 Maxed. 1 point left over. (Recommended in [ ]'s, but it's really up to you.) (1 point from before left over) lv25-26 Spend, or spend and stop at lv13, or [save SP], for Double Shot (up to lv14). lv27 [Spend], or save now, or keep saving (up to lv17) for DS. lv28 Max DS. Enjoy. lv29-30 Put Focus to lv6 (+6 avoid/+6 acc for 2 minutes, 10 seconds, 8MP) Change Jobs. =========================================================================== 6-Credits: Written in a few hours entirely by me, Striker X 22, also known as Decay from my current main character VYTDecayTYV in Maple Windia, though I still use a good 4 characters regularly. I have made literally dozens of characters in Maplestory and have spent far too much time in the 1st job realm, so I'm quite familiar with it. Please don't buddy randomly. Please don't beg for stuff. And if you question my knowledge, I will only refer you to http://global.hidden-street.net to look at the damage calculation section and the character skills section, which I referenced some for this guide. Please do not take excerpts from this, or post this anywhere without a quick check with me first, okay? Just e-mail me what you want to do with it. Contact me at StrikerX22@msn.com for e-mail or messenger for worthwhile questions or clarifications. Time for lunch. =P Completed 4-27-07 Reformatted 6-9-07