[Serious] Tier List

Maple Legends Tier List
by: BoldAsLove

pally, dk, hero
night lord, shadower
bowmaster, marksman
corsair, bucc

Mages: Bishop > FP > Ice
Comments: Bishop has the greatest overall utility and no barriers to leveling or bossing. It is the perfect utility character in the game and still has end game spots somewhat comparable to the arch mages spots. Obviously Bishops will always be considered before other mages for bossing.
Fire mage and ice mage could be equal on the tier list. Fire mages are noticeably more powerful than ice mages so it depends on the current end game spot to decide which class is "better". For now, Fire mages are the best for Shaolin so they're "better" than ice mages. However, other than Shaolin, Ice mages have all the same 1hko potential and a nice spot in Ob4. I would claim the gap between ice and fire is negligible although fire mages do get earlier 1ho's (roughly 8 levels difference) and ice mages make more mesos.
Note: Comparing Bishops and the other mages is futile as they're used for different things. The gap between ice and fire really is negligible and I'd say their real differences shine in third job rather than fourth.
Update: Thread shows mages arguing about bossing and putting ice mages first. Interesting bossing perspectives in thread.


Attackers -
S tier: Night Lord
A tier: Hero, DK
B tier: Shadower, Bowmaster
C tier: Corsair, Marksman
E tier: Buccaneer, Paladin

Comments: Play the job you want regardless of tier!!

S tier: Night Lord is self explanatory - it has no barriers at any boss and thrives in every map situation due to flash jump and high mobility. Night Lord benefits the most from any stats and gear and also Sharp Eyes.
Update: Thread asks if washing is a concern and players consider sharp eyes still overwhelming.

A tier: Hero and DK have high damage potential, little to no barriers at bosses, and thrive in every map situation due to high livability. Despite Hero's 180% damage on Brandish, the 30% from ACA and much needed boost from Speed Infusion make Hero a consistently stronger attacker than DK's. DK's can offer more to parties in varied scenarios such as HB'ing at grandpa boss or joining ranged parties who may not need a Hero.
Update: No argument here but maybe Shadower can move up

B tier: Shadower has reliable damage, varied uses at bosses, tend to be smart players on a high level, and offer strong and consistent multi target damage. Conversely, Bowmaster offer strong single target damage and the most important damage buff in Sharp Eyes. Shadower get the slight edge here with more training opportunities and more versatility overall.


C tier: Corsair, Marksman suffer from the same issue: inconsistency. Corsair offer great damage potential but it is inconsistent, requires nearly as much luck as skill maneuvering boat, and has low HP with high washing costs. On top of this, Corsairs are extremely poor grinders with a linear leveling path due to poor mobility, a janky play style, and mediocre livability. It is also important to note the amount of support Corsairs need in order to thrive.
Marksman are also inconsistent relying on Snipe but have less washing costs, slightly better livability, better utility with Sharp Eyes, and have much greater overall utility for grinding situations. Marksman in theory should be above Corsair but Corsair DPM can be remarkable although they require significantly more support and have an inherently unreliable play style. I can see this being a controversial opinion and I would agree with putting Marksman equal but not ahead of Corsairs and I would not put Marksman equal with Bowmasters.
Update: Corsairs tough to rank and describe - good information by Corsair players in the thread

E tier: "Everything else tier" couples Paladin and Buccaneer for two jobs that can truly be defined as "labor of love". These jobs require intense amounts of patience and have little versatility. They offer limited benefits to both the player and other party members aside from SI from Buccs. Paladins and Buccs will be overlooked for other attacking classes but are cool to see, have flashy and interesting skills, and still deal some damage. They shine at grinding as Buccs have a variety of skills to use and Paladins nuke with HH (great coupled with a Bishop) and have high single target damage. Their faults in particular are Paladins not having a specialty (need a better way of saying this) and Buccaneers having low damage and single line damage skills as mob skills.
Update: A lot of Paladin player representation in the thread. Extremely difficult class to rank and comment on from my perspective.


Insight:

Spoiler: Insight

Bowmaster vs Marksman - why different spots?
Marksman have the best overall utility out of the ranged classes. It has the better freezing skill compared to Corsairs, deals better with mobs than Bowmasters, and is able to hold their own in flat maps with strong mobs as well as a Night Lord can. The reason why Bowmasters are ranked above them is because they're more consistent in terms of single target damage and in the current end game that matters the most for ranged classes. I think that Marksman damage with Snipe is calculated with perfect timing on every Snipe and I think human error on Snipe bumps Marksman down a lot. That could be nitpicking on my part and attitudes may vary but I've always thought of it as making a difference. Bowmaster for the simple reason of only using one button during bossing instead of two are superior on the tier list which may seem stupid given Marksman overall utility but it matters because they each use singe target bosses for leveling, so the great variety of skills the Marksman has becomes less valuable.

Corsair vs Marksman
Single target damage potential puts Corsair slightly over marksman. Considering Marksman ahead for their overall utility and less reliance on support.

Hero vs DK
I've seen some frighteningly powerful DK's and their overall utility combine to make them more or less equal with Heros.


Note: My personal favorite class is Marksman along with Ice Mages and Heroes. My current ML character collection include: Ice mage, hero, buccaneer, bishop, assassin, archer, mage along with a long line of mules.

Since making the tier list:
Since making this tier list I've noticed the Pallys represent, the Mages are aspiring bossers, and Shadowers are held in a high regard. Buccs haven't had too many strong arguments from what the thread shows. Night Lords were discussed about washing being a disadvantage but it was agreed their power is overwhelming despite missing stat points. Corsairs have began making arguments and describing their class.
I also realized after making this list that there are many criteria and the google doc tier list by Angbak below illustrates that. I've identified the various categories and feel Paladins are difficult to rank like Corsairs.
About the GoogleDoc Tier list: This was submitted by Angbak and there's a lot there. It gives a broader perspective by ranking various categories. It's interesting and I suggest checking it out here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1WKsScPNAtifUIJkgAnmzh72fMUvL5LHGMNrhZOtSd48/edit?usp=sharing
This is still my original list with updates included. There's more information by the players in the thread.




This is a tier list based on in game stuff. Other tier lists could be cool like flashy skill tier list, looks tier list, popularity tier list, etc. Anyone else can try making theirs in this thread. Have fun discussing something that is all sheer opinion despite whatever facts we each bring to the table. I have another write up coming out "Is Maple Legends Easy?".

 

Feel free to make a case / let us know!

I thought about it and even a half blood NL is still freakishly OP. A lot of thieves still haven't washed out and a lot of them are still very successful. I don't think other jobs fare nearly as well in that situation.

Yea this tier list is cut throat. Anyone who can survive, be friendly, use vc on discord is usually good to go.

 

Good discussion from Hiyo and Tillim about mages and bossing
Igni having a lot of good points / arguments about a variety of things and a solid post

and yea.. Paladins getting a lot of attention which realistically is a good thing.

Edit: It's good we're hearing from diff perspectives and seeing different facets of classes unfold. Hearing from Paladins about Paladin life and Mages about bossing comparisons is refreshing.
Igni's post was a solid critique of basically the entire tier list also.

I could see how some of the information is incomplete but I feel like we're at a good starting point for right now.

 

Igni I definitely appreciate the scrutiny, man. I'm not sure I agree "can't be remotely accurate". I agree it takes more than one person to put together a list, that's for sure. It's good discussion and solid scrutiny.

I judge the characters mainly by their ability to perform their *current* role in the end game.
In this sense, Pally could be brought up because they do great at BF, they're solid at a fair amount of the bosses, and they can grind with HH+Ultimate tactic which Nise once posted about.
I did not make this tier list to consider each jobs overall ability in every journey of their class. Other than mentioning FP/IL differences in 3rd job being more prevalent than 4th I didn't mention much of pre4th job or pre-end game things. As I said, it's the ability to perform their current role in the end game. This is why FP was put ahead of IL because the goal of Arch Mage is to reach 200 and FP happens to have a slight edge in the current end game grind spot. That boils down to me "FP performs slightly better in the end game thus they're slightly higher on the tier list". As I mentioned and you seemed amused by, there could be a variety of tier lists including flashy skills tier list. This tier list may as well be labeled "Ability to perform their role in the end game". This could lead to a number of classes being more even than they're presented here but I didn't find any significant gaps other than with Pally and Bucc which we've seen have come up in question already by yourself and some Paladin players.

I agree not everyone can agree on a tier list and those are some of my criteria I was judging by and some of my thought processes. There most likely won't be a consensus list but so far the discussion has been really good and I hope that continues in the thread. I'll likely end up revising my post with a pastebin to the original, and I'll make changes based on what we decide here but of course that won't be perfect either.

edit: One thing I think of is the discussion about NL being S tier in the list and then posters saying they can be sub optimal for a long time due to washing, they're meso burners, reliant on sharp eyes, etc. and to me that would be more important in a casual tier list rather than one more cut throat -- but when I evaluate that thought.. I'm not sure. Should those factors be important in this type of tier list? Or are they more meaningful in a casual manner and overall tier list. NL is S tier but the tier list isn't saying it's easy to be an NL, either.

 

Zebezian
SwordArt

Should they be C or is there a gap between them and the field? Traditionally there's always been a gap but maybe it's a common misconception by me? Should the E be changed to a C?