journal of a guy who plays the game wrong

hi there, i'm an islander by the name of mase. i initially discovered the oddjob community through islanding on maplelegends. i've since found that there's so much more. there's an amazing history surrounding unique skill builds in maplestory and the maplelegends guild oddjobs is full of creative and inspiring people. for me, these unique builds breathe a new life into the game. it made me step off the island for the first time in a while. after discovering a forum poster and player by the name of deer, i was inspired to try out some odd jobs myself. deer continuously impresses with her dedication to her craft, and i urge any readers to check out her writing. i will most likely be referencing her webpage and her work for the odd jobbed community in my journal.

the first build i tried was a bullet bucc: a buccaneer who wields a gun and utilizes only its first job skill as an attack skill. with only a gun in hand, the skills you're physically allowed to use are limited. i found the playstyle incredibly fun and it went on to inspire my permapirate, who i also restricted to gun wielding, but he interchanges between melee and ranged because he will never job advance past pirate. i started documenting my progression on that character through this thread. i discovered a love for the versatility of the pirate class, and i went on to create a punchslinger, which is the bullet bucc's counterpart; a gunslinger who uses a knuckle.

i've continued to try out several other odd jobs: an axe wielding crossbowman, a strength based mage, a pure hp warrior, and a dagger wielding assassin. i began logging progression on all of these characters, and i realized my old journal about a gun punch pirate no longer aligned with what it was originally made for, so i've made this new thread to dedicate to all my characters and their progression. i love this game and i love playing it wrong

 

archive of all my posts on my old thread

ratty's journey to 70

Spoiler

introduction post

Spoiler

hi there, i'm an islander by the name of mase and i have decided to take some steps offland for the first time in a while. i will be a permapirate. i'm already level 40 but i guess it's never too late to start documenting. thanks wout for the encouragement

​

the permapirate build i'm going with is inspired by another oddjob called a bullet bucc, a challenge in which the user will wield a gun instead of a knuckle. i will be wielding a gun, which allows me to use Sommersault Kick and Double Shot interchangeably in combat. while most permapirates may lean more towards either knuckle-wielding or gun-wielding, i've decided to play into the inherent versatility of the permapirate and be both a melee and a ranged player. my friend wout has also started a permapirate, so we'll be playing together.

post 1

Spoiler

here are my stats at the moment, i'm going str and dex, with a lean towards strength due to melee damage being low with a gun. i'm also doing a light wash. looking forward to growing!

training gear ^

int gear ^

post 2

Spoiler

i've spent most my time card hunting, i'm nearing tier 1

post 3

Spoiler

tier 1 is a go

i reached level 43 and was gifted a maple weapon

and a scroll

...and boom


ty wout for the pre scrolled one <3

post 4

Spoiler

wouter and i sucessfully conquered ariant and i have reached 36 sets in my book.



ratty stands in the beating sun of the great ariant desert [not pictured- wouty]

post 5

Spoiler

dear diary, today i did some quests and discovered a quest item by the name of fresh milk; which looks like
the uncanny resemblance to a white potion establishes an assumption that white potions are milk. which is, and i don't mean to be dramatic, life-ruining information.

post 6

Spoiler

i have farmed 40 card sets and accidentally leveled up twice in the process without equipping my int gear.


in better news, i've obtained the ellin savior's ring. i struggled.


my current goal is to get the glittering altaire earrings from epq.

post 5

Spoiler

i received a donation of several mighty bullets from a guildie, so i took a break from trying to find a party for epq because i got excited to hit level 50. i still want those earrings tho.



couple runs of epq later, and yay i'm level 50 and i finally get to equip these goodies


i've also gotten the altaire earrings, just 25 more runs to go!


a quick thank-you to santa for this cutie right here, a great placeholder until i get my zhelm. speaking of which, that is my next goal in between getting glittering altaire earrings.


current card sets: 42

post 6

Spoiler

unfortunately, not much progress today. my covidcation ended

i did 8 runs of epq before i got burnt out. i reached level 52 and i have obtained 3 boss cards

i went to el nath to do my zakum prequests but these mfers damage me for almost all my hp so i gave up because i'm tired


thanks for tuning in, hopefully i'll get some more progress soon; work saps most of my motivation

post 7

Spoiler

lots and lots of epq later

level 55 and fuck yes.....earrings. i failed the first scroll but i'm still holding out for +10 dex


wouter doored us tyvm



oh hey that wasn't so ba-



and finally....stage 1 done


after gouging my eyes out with a power drill i have obtained...

....eye of fire (5)


thanks wout for sitting at the end and waiting for me to finish, u a real one

i will be getting a zhelm tomorrow

post 8

Spoiler

update on my earrings...i did not get lucky. time marches on

not much else to report for today. i got a zhelm. i plan on scrolling it whenever gacha plans on giving me a win

beat up some of nemo's cousins [insert joke about them being called krappy's]

and that's about it. card sets: 43

post 9

Spoiler

did a lot of card hunting today, i've gotten 51 sets! i wanted to get to tier 2, but i got tired.

wout and i spent a long time at master chronos grinding for helm dex 60's

we got 4 of them, and i passed 2 on my zhelm


while grinding together, wout and i compared our stats. here is my very professional testing

here's my stats vs his. he's gone with a lean towards dex, and i've gone for str.

here's some of my damage testing:

me:

ranged

melee

wouter:

ranged

melee

i'm interested to see how we progress, especially because i'm a bit higher level than him right now

post 10

Spoiler

i forgot to take screenshots of all the things i got up to today, but believe me it feels like i did a lot
wouter and i card hunted for a while, quested, hunted...

we did a lot of travelling around

and some ppq

i got level 60! i'm plugging for 70 right now so i put a small stop on my card hunt, but i definitely plan on reaching tier 2 next time i'm on. i have 55 sets

post 11

Spoiler

i started with a bang today and reached tier 2!

wout and i found one of those fun trap ropes while card hunting


we did a few runs of opq

and some ppq these alligators make me want to job advance just so i can fuck them up


while travelling around, i've collected these bad boys. gonna propose to wouty (don't tell him). he better say yes because i already told my mom about us


i threw some random scrolls on a random cape and made this

which i am now using

i've done 16 washes in total, and i have 2186hp. i just gotta keep saving for those resets. i'm level 62 and my current goal is to get 70 before event end.

post 12

Spoiler

i got 2 levels

post 13

Spoiler

haven't updated this in a minute, got a bit busy
i hit level 70 and was able to use all of my event points on the raffle but unfortunately didn't get anything worth noting.
i did however pull a cs from gacha

first time i've ever pulled something worth this much, very exciting
i finished my zhelm, it's ok

i have done 15 more washes

card sets: 68

i'm taking a break from this character for now because wout and i found new odd jobbed characters we'd like to give a try. i definitely plan on coming back to this guy, and i might start logging progression of my other characters here as well.

introduction of woodsy

Spoiler

i haven't been playing maple much lately, but meet woodsy!
woodsy is my creatively named woodsmaster



here are my stats as of when i took this screen shot. i have 25 base dex which was needed to job advance. i will not be putting any more ability points into dex. i'm also planning on doing a bit of a heavier wash on this character. i have 60 base int. from here on i'll be putting all of my points into strength.


here's the crossbow i'm using at the moment. i don't have enough dex to use any higher level ones, so i scrolled this one nicely

here's the melee weapon i'm currently using
right now my melee and ranged capabilities are fairly evenly matched. it's fun to switch around depending on the map.

i've been focusing most of my time on card hunting. i've finished the first page and i'm currently working through the maps in ariant.


in this map, the platform is small and hard to kill mobs on with my crossbow, so switching to my melee weapon makes it a breeze

then i can use my crossbow on the lower part of the map

i'm really excited to keep playing this character.

 

first update on my islander posted to my old journal on 3/24/23

Spoiler

a year has passed since i last updated this. it's a beautiful day in maple world and i am in the mood for an island vacation.
my islander mase gets some attention now ! i was about 80% of the way to level 54 when i logged in.

started today off with some raffle and i got this... thing


did a bit of grinding and then decided to do this wonderful quest

because i did not end up liking the event style i picked

got level 54 in the process.


finished Not Satisfied! and i got....


this


will keep working on that...

anyways my goal now is to get level 60. by my math if i grind ~4 hours a day i can do it in about a month lol we will see
i've never stockpiled gach tickets before because i am very poor and impatient but since i'll be grinding on my islander, i don't really have a use for mesos. until i hit level 60, i will be saving my gach tickets.
starting with this one


thanks for tuning in, good to be back
idk why my screenshots look so baked oops owell

island 4/6/23

Spoiler

i've been back to maplelegends for about two weeks now, so here's what i've gotten up to
wout and i made a guild for our islanders! (because we are besties). introducing locals:


i was able to participate in the last few days of the lunar new year event. i want to say thank you to ml staff for including us islanders in the quest for the moon


i did a few days of the raffle. best thing i got was this chair which i am very happy about.

Wout gifted me an extra warm muffler he pulled from raffle, something i really wanted

another kind islander gifted me a red whip, which is an awesome boost to my speed.


wout and i did some hair & face quests

i ended up with a couple decent ones actually, but i'm keeping this one for now, it looks nice with a hat.


i reached level 56!

current gach count:

offland 4/6/23

Spoiler

despite wanting to push my islander to level 60, i had an itch to play a punchslinger, a job that has appealed to me for a while. wout and i will once again be making the same job and playing together. we made an offland guild for our characters! (because we are besties)


i did some big time grinding to catch up to wout, who made his character while i was sleeping even though it was my idea
we got to 30 together and went to job advance, only to find out that we needed sp in double shot and a gun to damage the monsters lol



we finished the ariant questline after that, landing us at level 33. i plan on doing some card hunting here for a while

 

so basically all i've done is card hunt

Spoiler

i worked my way through all of ariant last night



except for these guys because they hurt

i ended my day at level 37

today wouter and i met back up in victoria, and did a bit more card hunting.


we did the stumpy kill quest and he dropped a card! wout let me have it


we like wings


we made our way to ludi to... i think to grind but we ended up just card hunting

i got to level 40 card hunting as far as we could in ludi

once we beat up enough teddies, we travelled back to the great sands of ariant and camped deo for his kill quest and luckily, only waited about 20 minutes before he spawned


thanks to that quest, i reached level 41


i'm at 23 sets. i plan on going back to victoria island tomorrow so i can finish off the easier card sets i missed earlier and then upgrading to tier 1

 

another day of card hunting

Spoiler

wout and i started out in henesys hunting ground to finish the first page of our books


tier 1 a go



then we went on a flight to get wout a better face


success. and card hunting.




page 1 done


worked through a few maps of perion, we left off at rocky and wooden masks.

card sets: 36
level: 43

i'm hoping to start doing some epq next time i play, i enjoy it quite a bit + glittering earrings

 

very productive day yes yes much fashionstory

island

Spoiler

decided to do some grinding on my islander at the start of my day, since wout and i weren't able to play together i didn't wanna out level him too much on beaf.
i played for about an hour, and i got this much exp before i got the itch to make another character.
gach count:

offland

Spoiler

here's gomp:

my hp warrior, who i plan on advancing to a page. so far, i've had a good time playing him. i did the quests my job instructor gave me, which was a blast because i wanted to max this skill first

so i was rollin with the basic attack

i also used this as an excuse to mule some of my spoils of pig off the island. yay funds


i did my normal set of quests; nautilus, sleepywood jq, mano kill quest, and i stopped at level 22 to take a nap

when i woke up, wout hopped on to play for a bit, so i got back on beaf and we kept working on card hunt in perion. i reached level 44


wout didn't play long, but i kept going with some card hunting in kerning area.


i went to the mushroom shrine to roll the gach tickets i collected on beaf (got shit) and then i went to ninja castle because i suddenly had the urge to complete the second tab in my monster book. gave that up after i finished genins. this map sucks

card sets: 44
i want to do epq on this character, but i wanna wait for wout because it's more fun together
so i made another character!


here's jumpz! he will be a daggersin, which i think i'll enjoy since it's similar to a punchslinger. raise your hand if you like melee and mobility ig
i dicked around a little bit too much on jumpz, getting him cosmetics and questing. old habits die hard i guess, and i card hunted while on my way to kerning. one little thing i didn't know; you can no longer receive sp if you job advance after level 14... and i advanced at 16

big brain moves. bright side is, being an oddjob i'm not going to have a use for a good majority of my sp. i will not be remaking him.
did my usual batch of quests, got him to 21.

the character creation didn't end there...

here's ooozy! my f/p str mage


all i've done so far is dress him up, which is always the first and most important thing when making a new character, of course.

 

just did a bit of grinding on jumpz today

Spoiler

also finished genin card set

i went 25-29 there and forgot to put my int gear on for almost every lvl



except i realized just in time at lvl 29, had to travel back to town to kill a snail because too weak with int gear on
after that, i did the jane doe quests in kerning as well as a few in perion while i was at it, bringing me to level 30


and i end my night there. i'm excited to play more, second job looks interesting + haste

 

1 week since i last updated ... here we go.

offland

Spoiler

​

jumpz

Spoiler

i picked up where i left off on jumpz. i got on a boat and made my way to orbis, doing a couple easy quests there before i decided to head to ludi to collect drops for the cleaning nautilus quest. did a bit of card hunting in the area.

visited the desert for the ariant questline

went back to victoria for the good ol stumpy kill quest

my memory is a little muddled on how but i got to level 37 before finishing up with jumpz for the day. i referenced my level history and it honestly didn't illuminate anything for me.

Spoiler

idk why i was traveling back and forth between victora and ariant. this is why i need to update daily. i depend too much on the random screenshots i take throughout the day.
i've definitely enjoyed playing this character. it feels decently matched to the non-odd thief jobs right now. while i was hoping for more usable skills my second job, haste has been good enough for me. looking forward to third job. jumpz gets his jumps

beaf

Spoiler

next day wout and i finally got together for some more playtime on our punchslingers. i quickly got level 45 with some nautilus quests and we ran to ellin forest to do some epq. we did a couple runs with a really fun party. feelin a bit weak right now but jus wait till i get my zhelm its over for this boss

got level 46 before our party was done and we couldn't find another, so we decided to do the ring quest. it took a bit of convincing, but we settled on collecting the etcs by ourselves "for the journal content"


... which did not last long


we did collect what we could by ourselves, but we purchased what we couldn't in the fm and damn them etcs are pricy

we definitely felt the struggle doing this quest, but it was a lot easier than soloing it on my permapirate

yay

looking forward to running some more epq with wout, and getting my zhelm. third job should be interesting for these guys, we're gonna get a few skills we can use with a knuckle.
these were wout's parting words to me as i logged for the night. he wants me to get level 60 on my islander so i can use all the gach tickets i'm saving up

and you know i followed that

ooozy

Spoiler

it's a new day and i want to play my str mage

i did the quests my job instructor gave me upon 1st advancement


then i card hunted, which is starting to feel like a fallback when i don't want to quest


i did end up doing my usual set of quests. i've been referencing this guide when i feel stuck. also card hunted while waiting for mano spawn



as a str mage, i want to stay dedicated to being intless, but i have been equipping my int gear when i level up so i can stack mp. i'm hoping that isn't cheating lol. i've also been mp washing. i've done about 15, which is all i had enough cash for.

hey level 30... that was easy!


i was having too much fun playing this character so i went to ariant. u know the drill



i was hoping this skill wouldn't be dependent on magic attack but it seems it is. i'll have to wait for fart clouds. despite essentially being a beginner, i find this character to be a blast. teleport is awesome and mage buffs make me feel really tanky. right now, i'm able to kill mobs fairly easily with my basic attack, so it's been a breeze to level. might have to brave being a leech in lpq pretty soon though.
i finished my time with ooozy at level 33. i'll be taking a break from this character after i hit level 30 to save up some more vote cash so i can do more mp washing.

gomp

Spoiler

after i got ooozy to second job i was like, now i gotta do my hp warrior

i did my usual set of quests, which for the most part i had no issue doing.

a good majority of them don't require much killing or collecting so i admit i was a bit blindsided when i got to this part of my "usual" quests.

it set in a bit that i am essentially statless. this is one of the first odd-job classes i've tried that actually allows me to use all of its attacking skills, and it didn't occur to me that all my points being in hp is gonna make me weak.

i had to call in some backup from my permapirate

thankfully, i was able to struggle the rest by myself


i only did a small bit of the ariant questline, enough to get me to level 30 because i was impatient.

and i did just that
not too sure how it's gonna feel to play this character until i get power guard but i am definitely excited for that part

island

Spoiler

after all that excitement it was time for a vacation. i spent last night whacking pigs and got much exp

aaand gach count. nice

i'll be spending most of my alone time training my islander. i'll only step offland when wout is on to play our punchslingers. we have pretty different schedules so it may not take too long to get level 60 and then i can bust into them gach tickets.

 

beaf gets a zhelm

Spoiler

wout and i did a few runs of epq yesterday in which we basically sat to the sidelines during the boss. we ended the day at level 49. that's about all i did.

today we tried to get some more epq in but it was dead, so we went to ludi and aquarium for card hunting.


and we hit level 50! which means...

it's definitely a lot more fun to do zakum pres together. i did way better on the jump quest than i did on my last character. all the sleepywood jump questing i did to level my new characters paid off ig

i did start to worry i'd run out of potions before finishing but thankfully i made it in the end


after that we were quickly able to find some zhelm sellers, super friendly group, gave us a chair that dropped + reloots!

success

 

haven't played much the last few days but i did a good bit of grinding on my islander today:

might be able to get level 57 tomorrow

for the hell of it i did an hour long exp test

i'm not really sure how it compares to other islanders. i wanna say it's a bit slow because i don't pay much attention to the screen during long hours. just binged the last of us tv show

gach count

nice nice

 

offland​

​

wout and i were able to play together a bunch this weekend.
epq was slow so we did some farming for helm dex scrolls. we got like 4 and then bought the rest

ended up with a +7 helm, pretty happy w that

after that we were able to find a solid party, and did a loooot of epq

we got to level 55, and we got earrings!


after that, we were pretty burnt out from pqing and broke from buying helm dex scrolls, so we decided to do some valuable scroll quests and card hunted on the side. i'm at 46 sets


all my scrolls sold today so i did this, very nice


next up for beaf may be some ppq, i'm very excited for his 3rd job.

island​

made it to level 57 today

gach count


probably gonna keep grinding on my islander for the rest of the week.

 

nice rate, mine was close to that during event lol
maybe i should test out different rotations, my speed is also max so i can't figure out why mine seems so low
tyty and grats on 68