NOTE, december 10th, 2008: Bear with me, this guide is still under construction. I plan to add a LOT more to it over time.

History:

version 0.1: SP builds are finished, as well as basic advancement guides, and some justification of SP distribution.
Version 0.11: Clarified some of the justifications of the White Knight builds, added justification of Ice first build.
Added thanks to Hidden Street for allowing their 3rd job questions link
Version 0.12: Expanded the Introduction. Brief section on AP distribution and base dex added.
Version 0.13: Altered the Dice Roll section, placed the Technical Dexless point, and altered the SP builds to tidy them up, made notifications of the KMS Skill updates, and got rid of the confusing SP sections.

First off, I am a player on the GMS server of Bera. I own a Paladin that is, at the time of starting this guide, level 149, named Theshinji. It' is technically felt that with a (relatively) small population and the few ways to really build pages, that there was very little need for any guides really. However with the numerous additions to the game, a lot of things after level 70 have been thrown up in the air. The old guides are out the window. Normal dex will likely shift down 10 more points by the time I finish, and certainly charge orders as a white knight are now, at the very least, open for debate.

That said, if you're making this character because you're being bullied in the real world and wanna make kids feel like 'noobs' with your ''gawdly l33t dmg'', you are looking for an extention of your e-penis, or you wanna 'pwn' everyone at everything, then this isn't the guide for you.

I'll warn you now that any email claiming that paladins need more neutral damage, or exaggerating the facts in our ability to compete with other classes when we have to will be ignored, and you will be blacklisted. I'm not a number cruncher. I don't care to spend time trying to crunch them either. I don't care if class x has the POTENTIAL to outdamage class y when they get their full attack/minute count with their optimal number of monsters. THOSE NUMBERS ARE UNREALISTIC - YOU'LL ONLY SEE THEM IF YOU'RE HACKING. EVEN AT A BOSS IT'S RARE.

You do NOT have to have 4 base dex to be any good. You do NOT have to outdamage everyone. If you're thinking i'm using excuses for being weak then hit the back button on your browser and never read this thing again. I have no time for people like you, and this guide is not aimed at you.

My aim with this is to try and produce a definitive 'best' option for an SP guide. Said SP guide will be the primary focus of this guide, however I will touch on training areas, AP distribution, and hopefully with some assistance (*looks at senyain*) some weapon comparisons As well as this 'Best'' SP guide though, I will try to provide alternatives. Easy examples of this coming to mind will be Fire vs. Ice charge at level 70, and Blast vs. ACB vs. Holy Charge at 120.

With that said, I'll divide things up into four sections. One for each stage of your life as a warrior. That said, I hope this guide serves you well. Enjoy.

Side note: regarding AP.

As I already said, 4 base dex is not necessary to be a good warrior. Even a low base dex is un-necessary. If this is your first time playing maple story, I advise you to not even try to follow a low secondary AP build. Raise your dex to between 60 and 80, keeping a multiple of 5. From there, with equips and the cheapness in acquiring them, you should be fine if you spend well. I am not one to advocate spending time learning about a game BEFORE you play it, however if you think you might get into the game and take the character a long way, I suggest you do so. Join a few sites related to ms. Get a feel for the economy, for current equip costs, and trends with equips you may want or need.

For those who are either playing as a new warrior, or making a second warrior, then you need to make sure that on deciding to go low dex you have the money to fund it.

The principle behind low dex is not that having more str = more damage outright. The principle is that your extra strength will allow you to capitalise on the symbiotic nature of strength and attack. In essence, the more strength you have, the more weapon attack will affect your range. To this end, funding a low dex warrior is not JUST about the accuracy, but also the ATTACK. As in, your cape, your weapon, your gloves. If you spend all your money just achieving a 100% hit ratio you will undoubtedly fall behind in the damage stakes. Your character in this case is essentially dexless for the sake of being dexless. It is a waste of your time, your in game money, and possibly actual money too.

*cough* that's about all the damage whoring you'll get from me. I'll comment more on this in a later edit, and perhaps go into greater detail on the reasoning behind it.

Oh, and finally, on a somewhat related note: I will NOT post ANY DPS/M/H calculations or comparisons here. You wanna know the exact numbers in situations where paladins beat heroes, or vice versa? Go find Senyain on basilmarket. That's not my thing. This is NOT somewhere that it will become relevant to mention dark knights, heroes, whoever beats us, and where. It's for people to learn how to be paladins. Contacting or commenting on any other subject in this thread, or emailing me, will alrgely be ignored. It's not hard to learn where we excel.

As a basic breakdown, a White Knight can beat a Sader or a DK at:

FA-Less wk: 6 Target mobs, slightly winning on fire weak, a more pronounced victory on Lightning weak. Figures may be closer to lightning when using PA Fury, and potentially fire can lose. I'd have to ask to make sure.

FA: Single targets, fire or lightning weak. Of course panic has higher raw numbers, but it'll only ever serve as a catch up number.

Yeah, it's a small number of things, but if you want more diversity in training, go elsewhere. But bear in mind: ALL classes end up on one end game training ground for 80+ levels. The difference is where it is. That heroes and drks can train effectively at guardians does not somehow make paladins weak, or slow.

*cough* anyway, on with the guide.

Section 1: Warrior Basics

Ok, so you decided to make a warrior. You have your name and you're clicking the dice to get your AP roll sorted out. This is not the first time this has been covered, but it is something important nonetheless.

WARRIORS *ONLY* NEED STRENGTH AND DEX. (and dex is arguably useless >_>;; )

This brings me comfortably to the first subject in question - An INT white knight will NOT work. INT does NOT affect your damage calculation as a warrior.

Myth 1: Since Elemental Charges add magic attack, INT will boost the damage of a White Knight.

Myth 2: Following on from Myth 1, Meditate, adding LESS magic than charges, and overwriting this magic, will reduce WK damage.

Well, let me address this. Myth 1: Charges add magic attack because of a piece of code that was never removed from the game. Originally, White Knights WERE going to get damage formulae based on Str, Dex AND Int. However, realising this would be impossible to work with without horribly nerfing damage on both the weapon AND magic attack sides, the class was rewritten. You ONLY need strength and dex. Do not pay attention to anyone saying otherwise.

Now, there's no more AP Dice roll when you start, so go to town and get off of maple island ASAP. You can re-assign ALL of your ap (- the 35 needed to be a warrior) once you advance at the Warriors' Sanctuary in Perion

Also, for anyone with aspirations of level 200, your STR WILL eventually cap at 999 base if you're making a dexless, so it's ok to leave a few points in dex early on. There is a 'technical dexless', whereby you would have a certain dex base after the 999 cap is reached. I don't recall the number exactly, but it will be added into this guide immediately once I do learn of it. (I believe it's 23)

As a beginner, your SP doesn't matter - ALL of the skills as a beginner are rapidly useless after you advance. Do not worry if you overshoot level 10 - nexon implemented a system where your SP will be backdated. However, try not to overshoot too much, or you could end up nerfing HP increase. (Note: as of patch.67 it's easy to get to your advance at level 10 and somewhere between 50 - 80%. Unless you outright grind instead of doing the quests, you shouldn't overshoot at all )

Once you reach level 10, Leave Maple Island, and on victoria, head immediately to perion. Either take a taxi, or walk, using the world map. Either way It won't take long. At the top of Perion's Mountain slopes is a Building, with an NPC named Dances With Balrog. This NPC is one you will meet various times in your progression (chiefly for the second and third job advances. Beyond that there's only the odd quest or two) Speak to him, and become a warrior.

Congratulations! You now have a ton of HP, and an entirely new skillset! From now on, pay attention. This is the ONLY real way to make a warrior during 1st job.

Remember, from now on, you gain 3 SP Per level. Aside from the 4th job advance, there are no other ways to gain extra SP.

SP: Power Strike Build

Level 10 - 12: 5 HP Recovery
Level 12 - 15: Max HP Increase
Level 15 - 22: Max Power Strike
Level 22 - 28: Max Slash Blast
Level 29: Spare SP
Level 30: Spare SP

In ALL builds, Maxing Improving HP Increase is ESSENTIAL. This is what gives warriors so much HP, and the later you max it, the more you adversely affect your game. After this, you max power strike because of the raw damage boost - Using this build you sacrifice mobbing for earlier 1 hit KO chances. It is, however, slower than the slash blast build (though it's cheaper)

SP: Slash Blast Build


Level 10 - 12: 5 HP Recovery
Level 12 - 15: Max HP Increase
Level 15 - 22: 1 Power Strike, Max Slash Blast
Level 22 - 28: Max Power Strike
Level 29: Spare SP
Level 30: Spare SP

Again, Maxing HP increase is A must. However, in this build the early, hard hitting power of PS is replaced for Mobbing and faster levelling, at a harsher cost on the wallet. This build will get to 30 at a significantly faster pace than the PS build, however it does require a little funding to do so. You can expect to be a little behind on your equipment if you use the regular armours.

In both builds, the last 6 points of SP are labelled as 'spare' You MUST use them in order to advance to the second job - However, there is nothing overly useful to add them to. All your key skills are maxed. You can place these points wherever you would like to. Personally I don't believe it makes ANY difference. However, as an FYI, you will have MORE spare SP during 3rd job, as a White Knight. Magic crash is an entirely useless skill, and placing anymore than 1 point into it is a straight up waste. For dedicated 2h sword WK that leaves 10 spare SP before 4th job. If you're going to use those SP for something like iron body, I advise unlocking it NOW. Use those spare SP to raise iron body to 3, and it might be vaguely useful when you put the other SP into the skill

Section 2: Page's Path

Congratulations! You've gotten to level 30, and you've used your SP. You're getting used to mobbing, but DAMN that lack of accuracy and stability! If only there was a way to fix that…. Well there is, it's very simple

It's time for you to advance, and become a page, the rarely walked, but lately bandwagoned path of the solo warrior

Head back to perion, and speak to Dances With Balrog. He will talk with you about advancing, and then tell you to find the instructor on east rocky mountain. Head to the first east Rocky Mountain path and start climbing. At map 5, there is an NPC at the top of the map. This is the guy you're talking to. It's a very simple task - Hand him the letter Dances gave you, and kill a bunch of monsters until you get 30 drops. Go back to Perion with the item the instructor gives you and hand it to Dances With Balrog. Congratulations, you're now a page

With that, opens a new skill book: Page's Path. You will get an MP boost (100 - 200 points) and 1 SP to allocate in any skill. Place this point into Weapon Mastery. SO, here's your new skill build. You get to increase the mastery of your weapon (raising your minimum damage significantly) and you'll get several skills which become a staple of the rest of your time along this warrior path

There is only really one set build for the page. I'll explain my own thoughts on the build later on after the Sp distribution is shown

Level 30 - 37: Max Mastery
Level 38 - 40: 6 Booster
Level 40 - 50: 3 Threaten, Max PG
Level 50 - 55: Max Booster
Level 55 - 60: Max Threaten
Level 61 - 70: (Optional) Save up 15 SP, then max FA, 1 Spare SP left over)

Note: nowadays FA can be frowned on for a WK. While it isn't STRICTLY necessary, unlike faster orb charging for a sader, it CAN help... somewhat. If you fight single targets mroe often than you mob with slash blast.

These days, people like to use the FA spoints to get mastery of the alternate weapon, and can even use the threaten SP to get Booster, and go Full Hybrid. Personally, I don't see the point, as there isn't enough SP to get charges for both, but if you want to do that, then knock yourself out

Congrats, you can now advance as a White Knight Head over to el nath, and inside the 3rd job instructors' hut, talk to Tylus. He will comment on your progress and ask if you wanna ''become an even more powerful warrior with abilities far beyond what you already have''. obviously you want this

Head to Dances With Balrog in perion and hand him Tylus' letter to be instructed on part of the test you have to take. Once the dialogue with DWB is over, head to ant tunnel park and in the bottom right corner of the map (the same area where you'd go to fight zombie mushmom) there's an NPC called 'door of dimension'. NOW, be sure to take some all cures/holy water with you. The fight won't last long but you may need a few. Take 5 max. (my own fight lasted less than a minute, and by most standards I was horribly weak at the time) You now get the fun part of your test, you will fight a clone of DWB On the down side, he spawns taurospears, so if whether you're regular dex or low/dexless you may need some accuracy pots In any case, relax. Even if you die you can start over as many times as you like by re-entering the door of dimension and fighting again.

MAKE SURE YOU PICK UP THE DROP THAT DWB'S CLONE DROPS BEFORE YOU LEAVE

Once you win, head back to Perion and exchange the drop for a necklace of strength, which you then take to Tylus in El Nath. Once you've talked to tylus, you will be given one final task: to pass a quiz. yep, you read that right. After fighting your instructor you get to take a quiz. Awesome, am I right? get yourself a Dark Crystal and head up the el nath mountains to Sharp Cliff 2. In the top right is a brown door, which leads to a map called ''Holy Ground at the Snow Field''. in here, talk to the NPC. after taking the Dark Crystal from you, you have to answer 5 questions about the general maple world to pass. View all the 3rd job questions here.

Congratulations, head back to tylus for your shiny maple beam, you're a white knight

Section 3: White Knight's Code


Now, since the implementation of both showa and leafre, there are potentially 2 different ways to start off your life as a White Knight: Fire Charge first or Ice Charge first. Contrary to popular believe, ice does NOT save you more pots than fire. Why? because after being aggravated, Duals (where the fire first wk would train from 80 - 90/100) do NOT use their magic attack on you unless you are above them (hear that, jumpers?) or a set distance away from them. In addition to this, the multiplier for fire charge is much higher, so you should kill a lot quicker.

I'll start with the fire charge build.

Level 70 - 80: Max Fire Charge

BUILD A: Duals until 100

Level 81 - 90: Max Charged Blow, 1 Ice Charge
Level 91 - 100:Max Ice Charge, 1 Lightning Charge
Level 101 - 110: Max Lightning Charge, 1 Relax
Level 111 - 117: Max Relax, 1 Magic crash, 1 Spare SP
Level 118 - 120: Spare SP

Build B: Red Kents at 90

Level 80 - 90: Ice charge MAX, 1 Charged blow
Level 91 - 100: Max Charged blow, Lightning charge 1
Level 101 - 110: MAX lightning charge, 1 Relax
Level 111 - 117: MAX Relax, 1 Magic Crash, 1 Spare SP
Level 118 - 120: Spare SP

Ice Charge Build: (Note: Ice charge was buffed in KMS. When the change comes to GMS, max Ice Charge will have a base modifier of 110% instead of 105%)

level 70 - 80: Ice Charge MAX, 1 Charged Blow
Level 81 - 90: MAX Charged blow, 1 Fire Charge
level 91 - 100: Fire charge MAX, 1 Lightning Charge
Level 101 - 110: MAX lightning charge, 1 Relax
Level 111 - 117: MAX Relax, 1 Magic Crash, 1 Spare SP
Level 118 - 120: Spare SP

Justification:

Charged Blow After Fire: Now, Charged Blow at duals isn't really a LOT faster than being without it, however for the small price of recharging (about 2 seconds max) you will stun 6 duals and hit all of them with power equivalent to that of power strike, which is why you would take Build A. Note, however, that FA ONLY works with Power Strike and Slash blast. You will NOT get Charged Blow FA. Staying at duals until 100 leaves you a longer time o hunt steelies, and get more equips to NPC, and with NLC pots and generally stronger characters, you will not only break even training, but likely start making money at duals before you leave too. The downside? Pretty much all of ludibrium's clocktower maps are depressing as hell, and can quite easily sap motivation.

Ice After Fire: This build gets you out of the gloomy Ludibrium maps as soon as possible, taking you over to leafre to use Ice Charge on Red kentaurus. Their magic attacks are harder to avoid, but by and large the exp ratio on both maps is almost identical. The down side of this build is that you will no longer get regular equip drops, and you will not get lucky and find the occasional steely. On the other hand, aside from kents spawning on you, you can quite easily spare damage as much as you do at duals.

Either way, it's Red Wyverns from 100/110 - 120, depending on your accuracy and when you get bored of red kents . 11x is STILL crappy for white knights, it hasn't improved much since we had ludi from 80 - forever, but Red Wyverns really is the best option unless you wanna spend a lot on pots for a few extra % an hour at best. If you lack motivation, do try splitting Red Wyvern's nest with another wk or an IL mage.

Charged Blow after Ice Charge: This is the same justification as fire. Naturally you wanna get fire charge asap so as to allow half decent neutral damage for bossing, or something as backup when you meet with ice resistance. However, by going ice first your training for the whole 50 levels will primarily focus on ice weakness - harps, red kents, bains, red wyverns, that kind of stuff. The low boost of your damage from ice charge means it can take more time to kill, even with element advantage, compared to other elements. For this reason, Charged Blow is a good power boost to the Ice Charge user.

IN ANY CASE, WELL DONE. You've done the hard part. if you stuck it out this far, the big payoff is here

For enduring the first and second job as a crappy warrior with no notable skills (that goes for all of them, i'm not just talking about pages) and third as a somewhat stronger pages, here's the BIG jump this time. Fortunately there's no annoying quiz this time, nor a huge fetch quest taking you between orbis and victoria numerous times. First off, go to see Harmonia in leafre (i'll clean up this section when I remember how it happened xD) Harmonia will send you to tylus, where he should comment on how you've advanced as far as you can as a White Knight. At the end of this chat he will hand you a letter to take back to harmonia. Do so. This will open a quest with Chief tatamo of leafre (the NPC above the Maple Admin NPC in the town itself) here you can choose one of two paths for your advancement: You either kill Manon and griffey and get a drop from each, or you can go to the 44th floor of Eos Tower/whatever floor it is on Orbis tower and buy a Scroll of Secrets for 10 million mesos. Either way, hand the results back to tatamo to get the Heroic Pendant, and turn this in to harmonia to pass your test. Congratulations, you're now a paladint (you'll get the joke when you advance) You have 5 AP and 3 SP to spend. Use them well.


Section 4: Paladint Of Light


The first 10 levels as a paladint is ridiculously easy, provided you have:

1) The ACB skillbook/friends to help you hunt it.
2) people to complete HTPQ with you.

If your preparations have gone well and you have everything you need for now, then this is the start of your paladint life:

Level 120: 1 Rush, 1 heaven's Hammer (optional) 1 ACB/Saved SP
Level 121 - 123: Max ACB/10 Saved SP
level 124 - 130: Max Holy Charge.

Why is this simple? It's the only way to start things quickly. You either max acb or spare the SP first because even ICE blast/ACB would outdamage Holy PS/SB.

After this, there's two real SP paths for the paladint to follow: One seeks to neutralise our disadvantage in a neutral bossing situation, the other will make you train faster. I won't say that one is better than the other. I took the bossing route. If you take the training route, it doesn't mean you screwed up. And no, contrary to certain posters on basil, I did NOT nerf my paladin either, tyvm

*ahem* starting with the Bossing Build

Level 130 - 140: Max Blast, 1 Stance
Level 141 - 150: MAX stance, 1 hero's Will (preperation for ht)

(note: Blast was altered in kms recently, and the update is expected to come to gms within months. The update means that blast will have the same fixed horizontal range as brandish, as well as 3/5ths of it's vertical range)

Boss Build A: STOP (Hammer tiem, geddit? )

Level 151 - 160: Max Heaven's Hammer
Level 161 - 167: MAX MW, 1 achilles/rush
Level 168 - 177: MAX achilles/Rush, 1 Achilles/rush
Level 178 - 187: MAX achilles/Rush, 1 Spare SP (note: if you raised the 1 point of rush like you should, then whenever you raise rush it starts at 2 points. If you do it first, then at level 177 you add 2 rush and one point spills over. If you do Achilles first, then the point spills over at 187 instead.)
Level 188 - 200: Spare SP

NOTE: SAVE 14 SP. MAPLE WARRIOR AND HERO'S WILL WERE ALTERED IN KMS TO HAVE 30 AND 5 SP RESPECTIVELY. SAVE YOUR SP FOR IF/WHEN THIS CHANGE IS IMPORTED TO GMS.

BOSS BUILD B:

Boss Build B is really simple. Simply switch around the order of MW and Heaven's Hammer, then continue as build A describes. This is merely for those who consider HH unworthy of raising before other skills, but if you're following the boss build, you really should have hammer maxed by 170.

The reason for this is simple: Heaven's hammer at max will deal a guaranteed 99k every 70 seconds. Not very impressive, sure, but consider this - you will do that to all 8 of zakum's arms, and likely most (if not all) of ht's body parts, as well as nerfing summons so they die instantly (obviously within reason, Heaven's Hammer only ever hits 15 max)

With the KMS skill updates coming soon, This will get boosted up to potentially over 100k every 20 seconds.

Training Build:

Well technically this one is simple too. Once the skills to maximise training speed are maxed you will move on to bossing skills and efficiency.

Level 130 - 140: MAX Rush, 1 MW
Level 141 - 143: 9 MW, 1 Stance
Level 144 - 153: MAX Stance, 1 Blast
Level 154 - 163: MAX blast, 10 MW
Level 164 - 167: MAX MW, 2 achilles
Level 168 - 177: MAX achilles 2 Heaven's Hammer
Level 178 - 187: MAX Heaven's Hammer, 2 Spare SP
Level 188 - 200: Spare SP

The same note posted in the bossing guide applies here. Save SP for hero's will and Maple Warrior

So there you have it, the SP builds are complete.

Justifications:

Training Build: You would max stance after rush and 9 MW in order to go to HT. Grinding to 160 just to be able to get into ht doesn't sound too appealing, so i'd recommend stance to get in earlier. BEAR IN MIND that for sacrificing blast for faster training, you most likely will just be mobbing, as opposed to attacking ht properly. But regardless, I assume most will want to earn their pendant sooner rather than later

9 MW: don't buy the MW 20 book. it's that simple xD It's not really worth it, as soon as you have the SP to spare to max it immediately, some ht groups will put you high on the loot list to get it. And there are better skills to max rather than having 20 MW so early, to be blunt

Bossing Build: I've already stated my case for maxing hammer early. However I realise there may be some debate as to whether you max achilles or rush first - this is a choice left to each player. Bear in mind that achilles helps you save more hp during 1/1, but you can train faster with rush. Use less pots or get more exp, choose for yourself.


Credits:

For this version, I only have to thank my friends and guild members, past and present, for making the game enjoyable

Obviously, this guide is all my own writing. As I build things up and add more content, the appropriate credits will be added. So far this guide is only available at Mapletowers.com, and taintedsouls.darkbb.com. If you see it anywhere else, it is posted without my permission.

Thanks to hidden-street's 3rd job questions page, it's link in this guide being used with permission of their administrator smile.gif

Oh, and a bit of housekeeping >_> Copyright 2008, Theshinji. This guide was not composed under the direction or request of Nexon, or any of it's affiliate companies, and is an unofficial work as a result.

(side note: I hate copyright laws, but do pay attention. This ISN'T public domain. >_>)


NOTE: I lost all my formatting Sorry if it looks plain -_-

Sorry for the triple post. The original guide had to be split in two

I'll add in my Elemental Cheat Sheet soon TK, and let you know where I trained Shinji to rise through the ranks

EDIT: oh, and to see it's original form, there's a guide section on the other forum listed as authorised to host it