Thief Comprehensive Shadower Guide

Marty · Jun 22, 2015

Hello my fellow MapleLegends players! I present to you the for MapleLegends altered version of my Shadower guide.

A short introduction of myself: I'm Marty and have always been a fan of Thief classes due to their stealth, spectacular and diverse skillset and high mobility, accuracy and avoidability, as well as decent damage output and fun gameplay in general. I've been playing Shadowers (and Night Lords) since I started playing GMS and I've played a Shadower on every private server I've played to date.

This guide is purely based on personal experience I gained over the years; some people might prefer other means of reaching their goals. I will present and evaluate several tough choices you will have to make as a Shadower, and explain them to the best of my capabilities. Feel free to comment on this guide, I'm always accepting constructive criticism and feedback.

Contents

Introduction to Bandits

Pros / Cons

AP Builds

1st & 2nd Job - SP Build

3rd Job - SP Build

Mechanics - Meso Explosion Explained

4th Job - SP Build, Mastery Books & More

Mechanics - 4th Job Skills

Training Locations

Bombing Techniques

Dropping Techniques

Recommended Equipments (work in progress)

HP Washing - Yes or No?

Useful Tips

Special Thanks

Introduction to Bandits

You have chosen to be a Thief, specifically a Bandit. Great choice! Thieves are known for their high mobility, stealth and damage, as well as extremely high avoidability and accuracy. They are also known to be very expensive, though! Nonetheless, Thieves are considered one of the most fun to play classes of MapleStory.

There are two Thief classes: Assassins and Bandits. Assassins use throwing-stars and -knives to deal high, single-target damage, using their claws. Bandits, on the other hand, aren't really ranged; they use daggers to inflict damage to monsters. Bandits also possess one of the most remarkable and strongest skills in the game, called Meso Explosion, which causes a lot of damage using the Mesos laying on the ground.

Why do I want to be a Bandit?

Bandits are probably one of the strongest bossers in the game due to Meso Explosion (also the most expensive), especially in such an early stage of the server. This, combined with Smokescreen, makes them highly desirable bossing partners. They are also have a very diverse skill kit and are considered fun to play by most.

Pros & Cons

Of course, Bandits have their good and bad sides. I will present them all to you now, to make your decision to make a Bandit or not a lot easier. This list should compile all aspects worth mentioning.

Pros

Very high single-target DPS (with Meso Explosion).

Very easy to level from 70 to 110 or so.

Diverse skillset, allowing several purposes (bossing, grinding, hunting, etc.).

Desired in bossing parties.

Capable of bossing early on with Meso Explosion.

Cons

Very expensive.

Training gets slow at very high levels.

Meso Explosion damage isn't stat-dependant, which means others will eventually start to outdamage you. It'll also start to lose efficiency in terms of cost/gain ratio.

4th Job skills aren't as strong compared to other classes.

AP Builds

There’s several ways of distributing your AP. I will demonstrate all used methods now. Remember, you need 25 DEX for your job advancement! Also remember that if you decide to do HP washing, the INT should be taken into account. These builds don't have any HP washing part included, so no INT!

Recommended: DEX/STR-less transitioning to Low-DEX/STR

This is the most common AP build. LUK is your main stat. It's pretty clear as to what you have to do: For the first 55-60 levels, you don't add any DEX or STR. Then, around level 55-65, you'll start adding up to 35 STR so you can wear your Fan, which will be your main weapon for a long time. Finally, between level 100 and 130 depending on your items, you'll slowly add both DEX and STR to wear your end-game items, which require 150 DEX and 75 STR. You scroll your items for DEX and STR if possible to keep the base as low as possible. All the rest goes to LUK, of course.

LUK Bandit

This is very similar to the normal Bandits; you just don’t have any base STR. Your base STR will remain 4 with this build, meaning you can't wear a Dragon Khanjar or STR Daggers. This is the best way to go early-game, but loses efficiency late-game, since the damage boost on a Dragon Khanjar outweighs the ~30-50 LUK lost.

LUK-less Bandit

Some of you might wonder now; LUK-less Bandit? Is that possible? Yes, it is! This is a rather unorthodox build, yes; it is, however, plausible with the right funding, and definitely strong end-game. Your primary stats will be DEX and STR. LUK can be added for some extra damage output. Warning: These are truly a pain to train until Level 70! After Level 70, it should be manageable to level at a high extent to a level where your DEX comes to use after you reach 3rd Job and get Meso Explosion. The key here is to get as much Weapon ATT as possible from your equips instead of LUK/DEX/STR.

This build ensures very stable damage, but also comes at the cost of ridiculously low damage output. It's only recommended for those that don't mind not being competitive and those that like a challenge.

Blood Bandit

The principle of blood bandits is quite simple: You get to 25 DEX for your Job Requirement, and then only add AP into HP. Why? Simple. From LV. 70 onwards, you'll have Meso Explosion, which deals static damage, not based on your LUK, DEX or STR. So you can just pump everything into your HP and be able to tank anything at very early levels. With this, your range will obviously be at rock bottom, but you'll have a ton of HP to tank bosses, making them excellent bossing mules.

I don't recommend this for anyone other than those that want to make a bossing/seduce mule with a ton of HP that doesn't require actual funding other than bombing costs. It's possible, but just not very good.

1st & 2nd Job - SP Build

There is two paths to choose; Sindit and the normal Bandit. Sindits are more powerful than normal bandits and use throwing-stars until Level ~40, thus the name (Assassin+Bandit=Sindit). Both builds work fine and have their good and bad sides; Sindits are faster grinders at places such as teddies, whereas normal Bandits are better at small, packed places like Evil Eyes. Now, to the SP builds! These are just recommendations of what I consider the most useful, you can tweak it around a bit.

SP Build - Normal Bandit said:

Level 10: +1 Double Stab [1]
Level 11: +3 Double Stab [4]
Level 12: +3 Double Stab [7]
Level 13: +3 Double Stab [10]
Level 14: +3 Double Stab [13]
Level 15: +3 Double Stab [16]
Level 16: +3 Double Stab [19]
Level 17: +1 Double Stab [MAX], +2 Nimble Body [2]
Level 18: +3 Nimble Body [5]
Level 19: +3 Nimble Body [8]
Level 20: +3 Nimble Body [11]
Level 21: +3 Nimble Body [14]
Level 22: +3 Nimble Body [17]
Level 23: +3 Nimble Body [MAX]
Level 24: +3 Disorder [3]
Level 25: +3 Dark Sight [3]
Level 26: +3 Dark Sight [6]
Level 27: +3 Dark Sight [9]
Level 28: +3 Dark Sight [12]
Level 29: +3 Dark Sight [15]
Level 30: +3 Dark Sight [18]

You should first max Double Stab, your main attacking skill. After that, choose Nimble Body for the accuracy and avoidability bonus, which are quite useful early during e.g. KPQ. Keen Eyes and Lucky Seven are of no use to you, as you won't be using throwing-stars and claws. Since you want Dark Sight, you have to put 3 points in Disorder; then put the rest in Dark Sight. This skill will definitely come of use! You can also choose to go for Level 18 Nimble Body and Level 20 Dark Sight, if you want; there's no significant difference, really.

After getting 2nd job...

Level 30: +1 Dagger Mastery [1]
Level 31: +3 Savage Blow [3]
Level 32: +3 Savage Blow [6]
Level 33: +3 Savage Blow [9]
Level 34: +3 Savage Blow [12]
Level 35: +3 Savage Blow [15]
Level 36: +3 Savage Blow [18]
Level 37: +3 Savage Blow [21]
Level 38: +3 Savage Blow [24]
Level 39: +3 Savage Blow [27]
Level 40: +3 Savage Blow [MAX]
Level 41: +3 Dagger Mastery [4]
Level 42: +1 Dagger Mastery [5], +2 Dagger Booster [2]
Level 43: +3 Dagger Booster [5]
Level 44: +1 Dagger Booster [6], +2 Dagger Mastery [7]
Level 45: +3 Dagger Mastery [10]
Level 46: +3 Dagger Mastery [13]
Level 47: +3 Dagger Mastery [16]
Level 48: +3 Dagger Mastery [19]
Level 49: +3 Dagger Mastery [MAX], +2 Haste [2]
Level 50: +3 Haste [5]
Level 51: +3 Haste [8]
Level 52: +3 Haste [11]
Level 53: +3 Haste [14]
Level 54: +3 Haste [17]
Level 55: +3 Haste [MAX]
Level 56: +3 Dagger Booster [9]
Level 57: +3 Dagger Booster [12]
Level 58: +3 Dagger Booster [15]
Level 59: +3 Dagger Booster [18]
Level 60: +2 Dagger Booster [MAX], +1 Dark Sight [19]
Level 61: +1 Dark Sight [MAX], +2 Steal [2]
Level 62: +3 Steal [5]
Level 63: +3 Steal [8]
Level 64: +3 Steal [11]
Level 65: +3 Steal [14]
Level 66: +3 Steal [17]
Level 67: +3 Steal [20]
Level 68: +3 Steal [23]
Level 69: +3 Steal [26]
Level 70: +3 Steal [29]

Get 1 point in Dagger Mastery, it gives a great damage boost with even 1 point. Then instantly max your main attack, Savage Blow. The only problem with Bandits is their lack of any AoE spells throughout 2nd Job, so you will have a rough time. Savage Blow deals nice damage, though, and is very fast. After that, get Mastery to 5 to put 6 in Dagger Booster, which significantly increases your DPM (damage per minute). Then max Dagger Mastery for some extra damage. After that, max Booster and Haste for obvious reasons. That's it for your useful skills; throw 2 points in Dark Sight so you max it (no speed loss and 200 sec. time), and throw the rest in Steal or Endure.
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SP Build - Sindit said:

Level 10: +1 Lucky Seven [1]
Level 11: +3 Nimble Body [3]
Level 12: +3 Keen Eyes [3]
Level 13: +3 Keen Eyes [6]
Level 14: +2 Keen Eyes [MAX], +1 Lucky Seven [2]
Level 15: +3 Lucky Seven [5]
Level 16: +3 Lucky Seven [8]
Level 17: +3 Lucky Seven [11]
Level 18: +3 Lucky Seven [14]
Level 19: +3 Lucky Seven [17]
Level 20: +3 Lucky Seven [MAX]
Level 21: +3 Nimble Body [6]
Level 22: +3 Nimble Body [9]
Level 23: +1 Nimble Body [10], +2 Disorder [2]
Level 24: +1 Disorder [3], +2 Dark Sight [2]
Level 25: +3 Dark Sight [5]
Level 26: +3 Dark Sight [8]
Level 27: +3 Dark Sight [11]
Level 28: +3 Dark Sight [14]
Level 29: +3 Dark Sight [17]
Level 30: +3 Dark Sight [MAX]

As a sindit, you will be getting 1 point in Lucky Seven at Level 10. Then max Keen Eyes to improve your mobbing capacities with range. After that, max Lucky Seven for damage output. Get 10 in Nimble Body for Accuracy and Avoidability. Then put 3 in Disorder and max in Dark Sight, since the speed reduction is annoying early on.

After getting 2nd job...

Level 30: +1 Dagger Mastery [1]
Level 31: +3 Savage Blow [3]
Level 32: +3 Savage Blow [6]
Level 33: +3 Savage Blow [9]
Level 34: +3 Savage Blow [12]
Level 35: +3 Savage Blow [15]
Level 36: +3 Savage Blow [18]
Level 37: +3 Savage Blow [21]
Level 38: +3 Savage Blow [24]
Level 39: +3 Savage Blow [27]
Level 40: +3 Savage Blow [MAX]
Level 41: +3 Dagger Mastery [4]
Level 42: +1 Dagger Mastery [5], +2 Dagger Booster [2]
Level 43: +3 Dagger Booster [5]
Level 44: +1 Dagger Booster [6], +2 Dagger Mastery [7]
Level 45: +3 Dagger Mastery [10]
Level 46: +3 Dagger Mastery [13]
Level 47: +3 Dagger Mastery [16]
Level 48: +3 Dagger Mastery [19]
Level 49: +3 Dagger Mastery [MAX], +2 Haste [2]
Level 50: +3 Haste [5]
Level 51: +3 Haste [8]
Level 52: +3 Haste [11]
Level 53: +3 Haste [14]
Level 54: +3 Haste [17]
Level 55: +3 Haste [MAX]
Level 56: +3 Dagger Booster [9]
Level 57: +3 Dagger Booster [12]
Level 58: +3 Dagger Booster [15]
Level 59: +3 Dagger Booster [18]
Level 60: +2 Dagger Booster [MAX], +1 Nimble Body [11]
Level 61: +3 Nimble Body [14]
Level 62: +3 Nimble Body [17]
Level 63: +3 Nimble Body [MAX]
Level 64: +3 Steal [3]
Level 65: +3 Steal [6]
Level 66: +3 Steal [9]
Level 67: +3 Steal [12]
Level 68: +3 Steal [15]
Level 69: +3 Steal [18]
Level 70: +3 Steal [21]

Get 1 point in Dagger Mastery, it gives a great damage boost with even 1 point. Then instantly max your main attack, Savage Blow. The only problem with Bandits is their lack of any AoE spells throughout 2nd Job, so you will have a rough time. Savage Blow deals nice damage, though, and is very fast. After that, get Mastery to 5 to put 6 in Dagger Booster, which significantly increases your DPM (damage per minute). Then max Dagger Mastery for some extra damage. After that, max Haste for obvious reasons. That's it for your useful skills; throw 10 points in Nimble Body to max it, then throw the rest in Steal or Endure.
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3rd Job - SP Build

Once again, you have a choice; you can go with the recommended, faster Meso Explosion build, or the slower but cheaper Band of Thieves build.

Meso Explosion build said:

Level 70: +1 Meso Explosion [1]
Level 71: + 3 Chakra [3]
Level 72: +1 Meso Guard [1], +2 Meso Explosion [2]
Level 73: +3 Meso Explosion [5]
Level 74: +3 Meso Explosion [8]
Level 75: +3 Meso Explosion [11]
Level 76: +3 Meso Explosion [14]
Level 77: +3 Meso Explosion [17]
Level 78: +3 Meso Explosion [20]
Level 79: +3 Meso Explosion [24]
Level 80: +3 Meso Explosion [27]
Level 81: +3 Meso Explosion [MAX]
Level 82: +3 Meso Guard [4]
Level 83: +3 Meso Guard [7]
Level 84: +3 Meso Guard [10]
Level 85: +3 Meso Guard [13]
Level 86: +3 Meso Guard [16]
Level 87: +3 Meso Guard [19]
Level 88: +1 Meso Guard [MAX], +1 Assaulter [1], +1 Band of Thieves [1]
Level 89: +3 Band of Thieves [4]
Level 90: +3 Band of Thieves [7]
Level 91: +3 Band of Thieves [10]
Level 92: +3 Band of Thieves [13]
Level 93: +3 Band of Thieves [16]
Level 94: +3 Band of Thieves [19]
Level 95: +3 Band of Thieves [22]
Level 96: +3 Band of Thieves [25]
Level 97: +3 Band of Thieves [28]
Level 98: +2 Band of Thieves [MAX], +1 Assaulter [2]
Level 99: +3 Assaulter [5]
Level 100: +3 Assaulter [8]
Level 101: +3 Assaulter [11]
Level 102: +3 Assaulter [14]
Level 103: +3 Assaulter [17]
Level 104: +3 Assaulter [20]
Level 105: +3 Assaulter [23]
Level 106: +3 Assaulter [26]
Level 107: +3 Assaulter [29]
Level 108: +1 Assaulter [MAX], +2 Pickpocket [2]
Level 109: +3 Pickpocket [5]
Level 110: +3 Pickpocket [8]
Level 111: +3 Pickpocket [11]
Level 112: +3 Pickpocket [14]
Level 113: +3 Pickpocket [17]
Level 114: +3 Pickpocket [MAX]
Level 115: +3 Chakra [3]
Level 116: +3 Chakra [6]
Level 117: +3 Chakra [9]
Level 118: +3 Chakra [12]
Level 119: +3 Chakra [15]
Level 120: +2 Chakra [18]

Meso Explosion needs 1 point to level faster, you can go to Elderwraiths at that point. Then, you need 3 in Chakra and 1 in Meso Guard to level quickly at Himes, Headless Horseman or other places you can bomb, unless you've HP washed. Max Meso Explosion to reduce Meso costs and improve damage.

Meso Explosion will be your main skill for a long time. Max Meso Guard and Band of Thieves after this; the order doesn't really matter. Band of Thieves gives you some mediocre grinding possibilities, and Meso Guard's extended duration helps at bosses. Put one point in Assaulter for mobility, too.

Now that you've maxed those two skills, throw the remaining points in Chakra and Pickpocket. Pickpocket helps with grinding a bit, and Chakra is a fast healing method but underused and later on, not that useful. Don't ever consider Shield Mastery, it's garbage and gives you around 5 W.DEF.
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Band of Thieves build said:

Level 70: +1 Meso Explosion [1]
Level 71: +3 Band of Thieves [3]
Level 72: +3 Band of Thieves [6]
Level 73: +3 Band of Thieves [9]
Level 74: +3 Band of Thieves [12]
Level 75: +3 Band of Thieves [15]
Level 76: +3 Band of Thieves [18]
Level 77: +3 Band of Thieves [21]
Level 78: +3 Band of Thieves [24]
Level 79: +3 Band of Thieves [27]
Level 80: +3 Band of Thieves [MAX]
Level 81: +2 Chakra [2], +1 Assaulter [1]
Level 82: +1 Chakra [3], +1 Meso Guard [1], +1 Meso Explosion [2]
Level 83: +3 Meso Explosion [5]
Level 84: +3 Meso Explosion [8]
Level 85: +3 Meso Explosion [11]
Level 86: +3 Meso Explosion [14]
Level 87: +3 Meso Explosion [17]
Level 88: +3 Meso Explosion [20]
Level 89: +3 Meso Explosion [23]
Level 90: +3 Meso Explosion [26]
Level 91: +3 Meso Explosion [29]
Level 92: +1 Meso Explosion [MAX], +2 Pickpocket [2]
Level 93: +3 Pickpocket [5]
Level 94: +3 Pickpocket [8]
Level 95: +3 Pickpocket [11]
Level 96: +3 Pickpocket [14]
Level 97: +3 Pickpocket [17]
Level 98: +3 Pickpocket [MAX]
Level 99: +3 Meso Guard [4]
Level 100: +3 Meso Guard [7]
Level 101: +3 Meso Guard [10]
Level 102: +3 Meso Guard [13]
Level 103: +3 Meso Guard [16]
Level 104: +3 Meso Guard [19]
Level 105: +1 Meso Guard [MAX], +2 Assaulter [3]
Level 106: +3 Assaulter [6]
Level 107: +3 Assaulter [9]
Level 108: +3 Assaulter [12]
Level 109: +3 Assaulter [15]
Level 110: +3 Assaulter [18]
Level 111: +3 Assaulter [21]
Level 112: +3 Assaulter [24]
Level 113: +3 Assaulter [27]
Level 114: +3 Assaulter [MAX]
Level 115: +3 Chakra [6]
Level 116: +3 Chakra [9]
Level 117: +3 Chakra [12]
Level 118: +3 Chakra [15]
Level 119: +3 Chakra [18]
Level 120: +3 Chakra [21]

First, put 1 point in Meso Explosion to boost training speed a bit. Then max Band of Thieves as your main skill for grinding, since you'll need the AoE damage it offers. After that, get 1 in Meso Guard and then max Meso Explosion for more damage; you'll be using this skill a lot, regardless of your funding. After that, max Pickpocket to improve grinding with Meso Explosion+Band of Thieves. Be sure to put 1 point in Assaulter early on for mobility, then max it after you max Pickpocket and Meso Guard. Finally, throw the last points in Chakra; Shield Mastery is useless.
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Mechanics - Meso Explosion Explained

Now, this is one of your signature skills. It is, however, a rather complex skill. The skill description in-game already shows some of this, but it in no way illustrates on some important details. The in-game description...

First of all, it states that you can only blow up your own mesos. This means the mesos dropped by monsters you killed, the Pickpocket meso drops and mesos you actually dropped yourself. This is quite obvious and straightforward, I'd say.
The second thing mentioned is the Mastery, which is 100% at Level 30. The Mastery simply determines the damage, and increases up to 100% as you level Meso Explosion. At 100% Mastery, you will deal a set amount of damage, which is unrelated to your stats (LUK/DEX/STR), and will remain constant until Level 200. To give you an idea of the damage dealt, I have tested it with several amounts of mesos dropped per bag. This graph illustrates the damage dealt. This also disproves the theory that the maximum damage of Meso Explosion is reached at 10,000 mesos, since this is simply not true (I have blown up 30,000,000 mesos just to test this).

This graph displays the damage dealt by one Meso Explosion (LV. 30) with 20 bags or more of a specific amount mesos. E.g. when there's 20 bags of 1,000 mesos on the ground, ME will use them to deal a total of 88,000 damage. Formula: (27,500 + [ME level] * 2,750 / 3) * [Bag size] / ([Bag size] + 5,250) * [Bags exploded] / 2 or 55,000 * [Mastery] * [Bag size] / ([Bag size] + 5,250) * [Bags exploded] / 2 (100% Mastery = 1; 50% Mastery = 0,5).

As you can see, the damage does improve at higher meso drops, but it also gets out of proportion. For example, the damage is doubled from 1,000 to 4,000 mesos per bag, which is 4x the mesos per bag for double the damage. From 5,000 to 50,000 mesos per bag also doubles the damage, but it also takes 10x the mesos per bag to do so. This is why most Shadowers choose to find a good balance between mesos per bag and damage dealt; this amount depends on where you are. At major bosses, you can drop anywhere from 2,000 mesos per bag up to 6,000 if you have the money, but at most training places, you'll stick to 800 mesos per 'bag'.

There's a few more things to know about Meso Explosion: It knocks back to the left, so always try to 'pin' monsters against the left wall, and that it always blows up the oldest mesos, meaning those that have been on the ground the longest.

Visual Bug

Another thing is the Meso Explosion visual bug. Essentially, you see this when you blow up mesos:

That was 5 hits, approximately 50,000 damage per hit. However, anyone spectating you bombing will see the following:

A spectator will see 10 hits, approximately 25,000 damage per hit. Your damage remains the same, of course; just don't be confused when you only see 5 hits instead of 10!

Advanced techniques: "Speed bombing"

This is a more advanced part of Meso Explosion, but also a very important one. Skip to the TL; DR at the end if you aren't interested in the details. Now, to start off: The Meso Explosion delay is 750 milliseconds. After 750 milliseconds, a new Meso Explosion is started (with Dagger Booster on, at speed Fastest [2]). However, for all 20 meso bags used per Meso Explosion to explode, you have to wait 2 seconds, since it takes 100 milliseconds to explode 1 meso bag. The full damage is dealt on the first 5 bags exploded. So, to sum up so far:

Meso Explosion's delay is 750 ms with Dagger Booster.

It takes 100 ms to blow up 1 meso bag.

All damage is dealt in 500 ms, the first 5 bags exploded.

Now, if you were to spam Meso Explosion, a new Meso Explosion would start every 750 ms. Up until then, you have only exploded 8 bags of the previous Meso Explosion. So, you have dealt all damage, but haven't exploded all 20 bags yet. Here's the whole point of this: The next Meso Explosion will use the meso bags that haven't been exploded on the previous one yet, and deal damage with it. So this reduces the bags used per Meso Explosion to 8 instead of 20. Now, what does this mean for your damage? This means that you can potentially deal 250% of the original damage with the same amount of mesos if you can use Meso Explosion without interruption. This makes Shadowers so incredibly strong at major bosses; you can bomb without too many interruptions at Zakum, meaning you deal way more damage with the same amount of mesos, and in a lot less time. This also makes skills like Smokescreen and Shadow Shifter incredibly important, since this will help you get interrupted a lot less at such major bosses, meaning you deal more damage overall in less time.

TL; DR: If you use Meso Explosion without any interruption, you deal 250% of the damage you are supposed to deal with that amount of mesos in less time. This, of course, is incredibly strong and makes you very good at bosses you can bomb without interruption. To bomb with even less interruptions, you should max Shadow Shifter and Smokescreen as soon as possible (look at the 4th Job SP build for more info!).

4th Job - SP Build, Mastery Books & More

Congratulations on reaching Level 120! It's time to do your fourth job advancement in Leafre. Go to El Nath to get the Recommendation Letter (or whatever the item is called) from your 3rd Job Instructor. Then head to Leafre and talk to your 4th Job Instructor, Hellin. She will ask you for two items: Heroic Pentagon and Heroic Star. Either hunt Griffey and Manon for the items or buy it from the scroll seller at Eos Tower <44th Floor> for 10,000,000 mesos, turn them in and tada! You're now a Shadower!

Skills & Skill order

Now, I don’t know which Mastery Books you have, so I will make a sort of priority list. First of all, at Level 120, after your job advancement, you get Shadow Shifter, Boomerang Step, Maple Warrior and Venom. Now, there’s several quests to get more skills. Here’s all the skills summed up for you:

Boomerang Step: Your main attacking skill. When used, you go into a so-called iFrame; this essentially is brief moment where you can’t get hit while attacking. I will explain this in the next section, where I elaborate on all mechanics of the 4th job skills. This skill has a delay of two seconds. At level 1, you deal 210% damage twice to 2 monsters in range. This goes up by 10% every level, and the maximum amount of monsters hit goes up every 10 levels (Level 1, 11 and 21). At level 30, you therefore deal 500% damage twice to up to 4 monsters. Also has a chance to stun your enemies (90% at level 30).
Shadow Shifter: Makes you completely avoid a hit with a given chance. Level 1 means 11% chance to dodge an attack, and at Level 30, this is 40% (increases by 1% every level).
Maple Warrior: Adds stats for a short period of time. At Level 10, this would be +5% all stats for 300 seconds (5 minutes).
Assassinate: Deals damage 3 times to a monster, and dashes forward to deal a critical hit to the same monster. The damage exponentially rises when you charge this attack, by staying in Dark Sight longer before using Assassinate.
Smokescreen: Summons a smokescreen that makes all party members in its range invincible. Range and duration increase as you level it. Cooldown is 10 minutes.
Taunt: Gives a monster a higher drop rate, meso drop rate and XP given. This doesn’t work on major bosses, but stacks with Holy Symbol.
Venom: Adds poison to your weapon. Deals damage over time when you hit a monster with a certain chance. This chance, as well as the damage dealt and the period of time in which it is dealt, increases as you level the skill. Impossible to kill monsters with this; they will drop to 1 HP, but not lower.
Ninja Ambush: Deals damage to all monsters around you.

Now, to put those skills in order of priority:

Boomerang Step

Shadow Shifter

Maple Warrior

Smokescreen

Assassinate

Venom

Taunt

Ninja Ambush

At Level 120, you get 3 SP. 1 goes to Boomerang Step, 1 to Shadow Shifter and the last depends on what you want: If you have the time and funding to do the Smokescreen quest, you should do it right now and put the last point in Smokescreen. If you don’t want to do this or are very poor, you can just throw it in any skill you want, except for Ninja Ambush. I recommend putting it in Venom, since this adds just a little bit of DPS.

Mastery Books

Since you will be needing Mastery Books to increase a skill’s maximum level, I will post the drop list here. Good luck farming!

Boomerang Step 20: Skelegon, Skelosaurus
Boomerang Step 30: Papulatus
Shadow Shifter 20: Dark Wyvern, Left Pianus
Shadow Shifter 30: Leviathan, Right Pianus
Smokescreen 20: Zakum3
Smokescreen 30: Horntail
Maple Warrior 20: Horntail
Assassinate 20: Jr. Newtie, Griffey
Assassinate 30: Doesn't drop - obtained from GPQ bonus
Ninja Ambush 20: Spirit Viking
Ninja Ambush 30: GPQ bonus stage
Taunt 20: Nest Golem, Manon
Taunt 30: Zakum3
Venom 20: Green Cornian, Dark Cornian, Papulatus
Venom 30: Zakum3

Job Quests

Several skills require quests to acquire them.I will start with the most important quest for a skill: Smokescreen.

Formula for the Black Cloud - Smokescreen

Go to Orbis and hunt Lucidas. Find them on the Stairway to Sky and Garden of Darkness maps. Keep killing them until you acquire the Formula for Black Cloud book.
Go to Orbis Tower and speak to Hughes the Fuse, the mad scientist in the laboratory.
Collect the items Hughes asks for:

10 Dual Pirate's Propellers dropped by Dual Pirates

50 Screws awarded by completing quests and dropped by Psycho Jack

100 Ink Bottles dropped by Squid

20 Steel Plates received from quests or refined

50 Cogs found by defeating varieties of Chronos

A Fan and a Battery, for which you have to kill Papulatus and get Propellors from Helly.

Speak to Kay in the Omega Sector and bring her a Steel Plate and 100 Propellers dropped by Helly, the helicopter monster, to receive a Ventilation Fan.
Speak to Porter in the tower (near the Silo). He will ask you to kill Papulatus in Ludi. Having a Papulatus Certificate will be enough. Once finished, returned to Porter, and he will award you with a Long-Lasting Battery.
Return to Hughes and give him the items. He will award you with the Black Cloud Maker. Use this item to add Smokescreen to your list of available skills. To use the Black Cloud Maker, open your inventory and double-click on it. You will now be able to use the Smokescreen skill.

The One Hidden in the Shadow - Ninja Ambush

Talk to your 4th Job Instructor to start the quest.
Go to the Dark Lord in Kerning City. He will explain about the six Disciples.
Talk to him again and click the last option (under the ETC. section).
You will be warped to a map with 6 Dark Lords in it. Kill them all. Go back through the portal again to head back.
Talk to the Dark Lord again to receive the skill!

Arec and Shadower - Assassinate

Talk to your 3rd Job Instructor in El Nath, Arec. He will tell you to visit Shawn at Excavation Site <Camp>.
Go to Shawn and talk to him and follow his instructions. Once you have done this, you will have to talk to him (or Shuang, not entirely sure) to get warped to a new map. In the map, you have to destroy boxes to advance to the next stage until you get the item from the last box. Some boxes can spawn LV. 200 monsters, so be careful! Give the item to Shawn to receive the skill.

Mechanics - 4th Job Skills

A lot of 4th job skills are rather complex and I thought I’d make a special part for the skills and explain their mechanics.

Boomerang Step

Your main attacking skill. Dashes forward and back quickly, dealing 210-500% damage to up to 2-4 monsters twice. The damage increases by 10% per level, and the amount of monsters hit every 10 levels. There’s several things you have to know about this skill:

The delay is 1,950 milliseconds (~2 seconds). This makes it slow and weaker, so you have to fill the delay with other skills.

While casting, you're in an iFrame, making your character disappear and invulnerable to all attacks for a short period of time.

It can be chained with a jump if you use them at the same time. This is useful while grinding; it helps you maintain your momentum and clear faster.

The range is bigger than the animation, which you should know when training; this picture illustrates it:

Shadow Shifter

Shadow Shifter is one of your most important skills. It doesn't deal any damage directly; however, it prevents you from getting knocked back, meaning you can utilise the "speed bombing" principle more efficiently.

It also looks nice and has a humorous touch, since you F2 when it procs. At Level 1, you have 11% chance of not getting hit, which increases by 1% every level (40% at Level 30) and is 10% higher than its Night Lord counterpart. A Shadow Shifter proc is recognisable by the puppet popping up in front of you:

Now, the concept is simple: When you get hit by a monster, it first determines if a Shadow Shifter proc occurs, based on the level of Shadow Shifter. If this is the case, only the puppet will appear and you will receive no damage and no knockback. If this isn't the case, it will first see if you will get missed or get hit, just like normal. So, adding to Shadow Shifter the high avoidability Shadowers have, you get a ridiculously high miss rate in the end. I can't tell you how many times this skill saved me...

Assassinate

This is probably one of the most complex skills of Shadowers. You deal 3-4 hits to a single monster. You can only use this skill when you’re in Dark Sight, too. The 4th hit only occurs when the monster still lives after the first 3 hits, and the 4th hit is a dash. This 4th hit has a certain chance to be a critical hit, and the critical damage increases as you level up Assassinate. The damage dealt with all hits increases when you charge Assassinate. The charge time increases every 10 levels, and so does the damage.

Assassinate works well at bosses combined with Meso dropping; using Assassinate once every now and then while you're dropping in Dark sight adds some DPS if your Assassinate level is high enough.

Training Locations

Shadowers are strong grinders late-game, but have a hard time getting through 2nd job. Good luck on that, and to help you along, I'll list some good training spots and possible alternatives.

Level 10 - 29:

Recommended Places: The Rain-Forest East of Henesys, The Field South of Ellinia, Southern Forest I

Sindits should train at the first two maps (Slimes then move on to Pigs around LV. 14-15), whereas normal Bandits are very fast at Southern Forest I due to the small map and high spawn. Another great alternative is Henesys PQ and quests.

Recommended Places: Subway: Line 1 <Area 1>, Ant Tunnel I - IV, Cave of Evil Eye II

Again, this is split up. Sindits will spend most of their time at Ant Tunnel since this offers some great sniping spots, especially cave 1 and 4. Bubblings have high spawn but generally work for both builds. Evil Eyes is great after LV. 26 or so for normal Bandits; the spawn is too high for sindits. A great alternative is Kerning PQ, if you have a good party. PQing generally brings more money, too.

Level 30 - 50:

Recommended Places: Terrace Hall, Sky Terrace <1> - <5>

Now that you're 2nd job, you'll be spending your first half of it in Ludibrium! At level 30, head over to Terrace Hall. This works well for both builds. Normal bandits can stay at Evil Eyes a little longer if they want to. Around level 35-39, you'll start switching to Savage Blow as a sindit, and this works great on Sky Terrace maps. I recommend testing all 5 and seeing what's best XP every 2 levels or so, since you'll be here for a long time. Doing the quests in Ariant also gives good XP at Level 33-35 or so. You can also do Ludibrium PQ if you have a good party, but it's not very fast.

Recommended Place: The Path of Time <1> / <4>, Snake Area

Once you start 2-hitting Platoon Chronos or Serpents in Mu Lung, you should head over there. This should be around LV. 45 or so. Platoon Chronos give better mesos and drop GFA 60%, whereas Snake Area is faster XP. Partying with a Cleric at Chronos is very good and recommended. If you can 2-hit Master Chronos, go there since they're good mesos and decent XP, too.

Level 51 - 69:

Recommended Places: Suburban Area 2, Ghost Ship 1/2/5, Mysterious Path 3

Welcome to Bandit hell. Your levels are about to get really slow. Head off to Singapore and see what you can 2-hit or 3-hit. You'll most likely be at Ghost Ship 1 and Truckers for a while until LV. 55-60. Then head to GS2 or GS5 and hope that you find a Cleric or Priest to party with. There's a fast way through if you're lucky, though: Partying with 2 others (preferably 1 Priest) is very fast XP at Mysterious Path 3 and highly recommended LV. 58-70. Another option is Orbis & Ludi Maze PQ.

Level 70+ (Meso Explosion):

Recommended Places: The Evil Dead

Sweet, sweet 3rd job. You finally got Meso Explosion and if you're maxing it, you're in for some fast (and expensive) levels. Sadly, the first two levels 70 and 71 are tough since you don't have Meso Guard, so unless you've HP washed, you're stuck at Elderwraiths or at Ghost Ship. Elderwraiths are decent XP (a lot faster than GS) if you know how to do it. Here's a short explanation:

Drop mesos at the spot as shown. With LV. 1 ME, you should drop around 21-22k, 700 mesos per dropped 'bag' (so 30x 700 mesos).

Walk to the left to lure the Elderwraiths with you, then walk back to the right side of the mesos as shown in the picture. Don't leave Dark Sight, they one-hit you.

Try to cluster the Elderwraiths, then blow them up when they're on the pile of mesos. Be sure to spam ME until they're dead; this should take 3 MEs. Then either loot the mesos dropped or drop ~4k less and blow those up, too.

Tips: Kill the Phantom Trees in the map to improve the Elderwraith spawn from 4 to 6. Also, never hit the bosses in the map and avoid them. Re-enter the map if you do accidentally.

Recommended Places: Encounter with the Buddha, Cavern of Honor

At level 72, you have some more options. The fastest way of leveling by far is at Himes in Mushroom Shrine with a Priest. This will get you 10 - 14 million XP per hour, which is more than 4 levels at level 75! It's best if you have a map without Black Crow in it, especially for the Priest. Here's a short tutorial on how to bomb at Himes:

At Himes, you don't have to worry much. While your Priest goes around the map to gather monsters, you drop mesos on the portal and position yourself as shown in the picture below:

When your Priest comes back, he/she will stand at the edge of the map and spam Heal if they want to. That leaves the Himes on the portal, use 3 Meso Explosions to blow them all up! With maxed ME, this should take you 24k (30x 800 mesos) without dropped mesos on the ground; with the mesos dropped by Himes, it should only take you 12.8k (16x 800 mesos) per wave. Always remember to spam ME, don't wait after each one!

Now, Nightshadows aren't a very common training place for Chief Bandits. What many don't know it's a decent training place that doesn't eat your mesos. If you do the quests for the CWK exchange, you can sustain your mesos while training with the Badges you get. Here's a quick guide to training at Nightshadows:

The first thing you have to know is that the monsters automatically follow you. You don't have to hit them first. The first wave is killed on the top platform:

Drop mesos as shown, then blow them all up. Without the mesos they dropped on the ground, it takes 11.2k to blow up the wave (13x 800 mesos). With mesos on the ground dropped by them, a meagre 4k (5x 800 mesos) should do the trick. Sometimes, 1 Nightshadow gets left half-killed. Leave it for the next wave.

The second wave you kill is on the bottom platform:

After dropping a total of 14.4k (18x 800 mesos) to clear the first wave, you blow them up as shown above. If it's not the first wave and there's mesos from the previous wave on the ground, dropping 4.8k or 5.6k (6/7x 800 mesos) should do it. Lure them to the left, then walk to the edge of the platform on the right side of the moses to blow them up. Go out of Dark Sight there, since otherwise, the Nightshadows will jump on the small platform next to you. Again, 1 or 2 migh be half-killed, leave them for the next wave.

The middle platform should then be cleared quickly. You can do this with the mesos dropped by the Windraiders on it. If not, 4k (5x 800 mesos) should be sufficient.

So, to sum up:

The lines indicate the area of monsters to cover, the numbers in which order and where exactly to bomb it. Easy!

Recommended Places: Creeping Evil, Hidden Evil, Evil Rising/Dead, Twisted Paths 1 - 5, Hollowed Ground, Forgotten Path, Phantom Road

These are some nice bosses for Shadowers. Both give some great EXP and aren't hard to kill, but they're expensive. Killing Headless Horseman at Level 72-100 will give you really good and fast EXP, but sadly, this is also a very expensive way to go. If you take it slow with 1.5-2k mesos per bag, it'll only take you ~400k mesos to bomb it, but with 4-5k bags, you're looking at 600-700k per HH. Same with Bigfoot. HH is easy to kill; drop mesos to the left wall, then spam it. Don't forget Meso Guard. As for Bigfoot... check the next section!

Level 70 - 119 (grinding):

Recommended Places: Mysterious Path 3, Ghost Ship 2, Lower Ascent

Before level 100, you're better off training with Meso Explosion in every way; however, since some might not be able to do that all the time due to a lack of funds, you can keep on grinding at MP3 and GS2 for a long time before leaving. Duoing with a Priest still brings in some decent EXP, since Band of Thieves works well there.

If you're getting tired of killing these weird ghosts, I recommend heading off to NLC to go to Windraiders. They give good money and quite decent EXP, especially if you did the CWK exchange quests. Probably one of the best places to train up to LV. 100 or more.

Recommended Places: Encounter with the Buddha, Dangerous Sea Gorge II, Forbidden Time

Now that you're a higher level, you can go off to Aqua to train at Squids or head to Himes and grind with a Priest and Band of Thieves. It's good to combine Meso Explosion with Band of Thieves, since the mobs drop good money that does great damage and speeds up training a lot. If you have a Priest and are nearing Level 120, you can even head to Grim Phantom Watches in deep Ludibrium for some great XP and money!

Level 120+ (grinding):

Recommended Places: Destroyed Dragon Nest, The Dragon Nest Left Behind, Cavern of Honor, Forbidden Time

Congrats on reaching LV. 120! You're finally useful in terms of grinding soon. Boomerang Step opens a lot of doors for you in terms of training. You can finally move on to Leafre and party with a Bishop or other attackers and a Priest/Bishop (preferably) to get yourself some good XP and money. Especially Jr. Newties and Nest Golems are great in a party together with another attacker (e.g. Warrior) and a Priest or Bishop in terms of XP, so that's recommended. Duoing with a Bishop at Skeles also works great!

If you prefer solo training, I recommend Nightshadows in CWK. With Bstep+BoTx2, you'll be throwing out good damage to the wave of monsters and get some good money, too. The XP is sub-par compared to Leafre monsters, but the money will help you!

As alternative, you can stick with GPWs in Ludibrium with a Priest/Bishop. This, too, is decent XP and mesos. Again, not on Leafre level, but it's not too bad.

Once/if Temple of Time comes out, this will change, since it offers great duo training places.

Bombing Techniques

This is mostly just for Bigfoot bombing, against other bosses, you just drop mesos and bomb them all, often keeping them to the left wall, as fast as possible ("speed bombing"). For Bigfoot bombing, however, there's two special ways of doing so.

Normal Bigfoot bombing

This is the most commonly seen way of bombing a Bigfoot amongst Shadowers and Chief Bandits. The concept is simple: Drop mesos in Dark Sight, then bait him onto your mesos. When he jumps, bomb twice and move back a bit. When he starts moving towards you again, bomb twice again to knock him back. Rinse and repeat. This requires quite a bit of practice, but can lead to fast clearing times when mastered.

Cost: 7,000,000 mesos per Bigfoot (5k per meso bag)
Duration: Depends on how fast you drop and how many mistakes you make; 7 - 14 minutes.

Bigfoot Pinning

This is a special way of killing Bigfoot. Bigfoot gets stuck in the wall when you hit him (and knock him back) at the very end of the map (against a wall) for a bit. He then knocks back, then stays there for about a second before he will start to move again. This is called pinning. To keep him pinned, you have to time your attacks; he knocks back into the wall, and you can't hit him during this short period of time; you have to hit him in the 0.5-1 second(s) of him being "stuck" against the wall to keep him there. Too slow and he moves away, too fast and you miss, causing him to move away nonetheless. This is mostly done by Warriors and Pirates; however, Shadowers can do it, too. It's even very easy for us once he's pinned; Boomerang Step has a 2-second delay (with Booster), so we don't have to watch our timing with Boomerang Step.

The trick is to bait him to the left wall (only left because of the Meso Explosion knockback), and then move in the other direction and quickly leaving Dark Sight and turning around to pin him. To demonstrate this, again a video. Keep in mind that Dark Sight is slightly delayed!

Once you have him pinned with Boomerang Step, you can switch to Meso Explosion (if you have dropped mesos at the left wall beforehand) and pin him with that. You can't spam Meso Explosion, you have to time it! One last video to show how to switch from Boomerang Step to ME and time your Meso Explosion!

All this can be done in any map where Bigfoot spawns (Twisted Paths 1 - 5, Evil Rising, Evil Dead, Forgotten Path).

Cost: ~10,000,000 mesos per Bigfoot
Duration: Depends on how fast you drop and how fast you can pin; approx. 15 minutes.

Dropping Techniques

There's several ways to drop your mesos quickly and efficiently. I will elaborate on the common way of dropping, what you're not allowed to do and some tips and tricks to make you drop quicker. There's two ways of dropping: One with Mouse Keys and one without.

Normal dropping

Put the amount of mesos per bag you want to drop, plus another six 0's before that, on your clipboard (so if you want to drop 5,000 per bag, copy 0000005000).

Place the meso drop window so that the OK button is on top of the meso icon in your inventory, like this:

Now, you can keep down Ctrl + V (Cmd + V on Mac) and spam click to drop.

Mouse Keys dropping

Turn on Mouse Keys.

Put the amount of mesos per bag you want to drop on your clipboard, so you can access it with Ctrl+V (Cmd+V on Mac).

Place the meso drop window so that the OK button is on top of the meso icon in your inventory, like this:

Now, you can keep on doing this: Num5 > Ctrl+V (Cmd+V for Mac) > Num5 to drop a bag of mesos. You can repeat this. Another way is to keep Ctrl + V pressed and spam click Num5; however, not all keyboards will be able to do this. Check if yours does.

This is just the basic procedure; there's a few tricks to make it go faster. There's a limit, though: You can't drop faster than 6 bags per second! This is simply not possible, period. Even the fastest droppers around have trouble passing 5.

Mouse Keys: Mouse keys basically means you turn your numpad into a mouse on your keyboard; you can move your mouse and click with it. On Windows, you can turn it on by clicking Alt + Left Shift + Num Lock. You will see a little icon at the bottom right corner of your screen, looking like this: , indicating that it's turned on. You have to have Num Lock on to use mouse keys normally; clicking on the icon will allow you to change the settings manually. This is up to you to decide. On a Mac, go to your Accessibility settings (System Preferences > Accessibility) and go to Mouse & Trackpad. Here you can turn MouseKeys for Mac on.

Trick: To make it go even faster, you can simply bind the paste command (normally) to a single key, which will allow you to click it faster (you only have to click 1 key instead of 2 at the same time), turning the Ctrl+V in step 3 into a single button. This is only useful if you don't use the first option (The first option is where you keep Ctrl+V pressed and spam click).

In the end, the Mouse Keys will be the faster option, if you have a keyboard that allows you to keep Ctrl+V pressed and spam click Num5. If your keyboard doesn't allow the second option, then just stick to normal dropping.

Careful!: I have to stress this to those wanting to try: MACROING IS NOT ALLOWED. This is considered robot play and is bannable!

Recommended Equips and Weapons

To be updated soon!

HP Washing - Yes or No?

This is one question most people ask me, so I've decided to make a short section about it. I hope this clarifies things for most of you! If you have any other doubts or questions concerning HP Washing in general, you should check out some HP guides here on the forums.

What is HP Washing?

HP Washing is a way of using your AP to lower your MP and get more HP in return. It's something that is quite expensive, but considering that we're playing on a private server, it's manageable. HP washing is needed for some classes to do certain late-game bosses properly.

How does it work for Shadowers?

First, you need to calculate your Minimum MP. The formula for this is Minimum MP = (14 * Level) + 148. Then you check how many washes you can do. One AP Reset resets 12 MP and gives you 16 - 20 HP. AP you get from levelling will add 20 - 24 HP. So you subtract your MP from the Minimum MP of your level, then divide it by 12 to get the amount of washes you can do. You then put 1 AP into HP, use an AP Reset and take it out of MP. Then you put it in a stat you want (so LUK most likely). You can repeat this process by putting the MP you take out back into HP until you hit your minimum MP and can't wash anymore.

How do you get the extra MP, then? That's simple. For every 10 INT you have when leveling, you get 1 MP extra when you level. So that means you can do 1 wash per level if you have 120 INT when you level. You can get INT from equips (you will get 20 or so from a Zhelm and Deputy Star), since you can scroll equips for INT and wear it when you level only. These are called INT gear and make INT scrolls so valuable. Another way is putting AP into INT and later resetting it back to any other stat you need/want.

Do Shadowers need to HP wash and how much?

This is for everyone personally to decide. It's possible to do most bosses without HP Washing thanks to Meso Guard, which halves all damage received. So my assessment of this question would be:

Yes, HP wash if you have the time/money, but you don't need that much. One wash per level is more than sufficient. Even one wash per two levels should suffice for BF and Zakum if you start early with washing. I myself never had INT gear and was able to get to 5300 HP at Level 150 with just my Zhelm and Deputy Star by washing out excess MP from Job Advancement and equips. To give you an idea of the amount of damage bosses deal (MG = Meso Guard):

If you have any more questions concerning HP washing, check out some guides on it for more details.

Useful Tips

Try to be as efficient as possible with bombing! Don't blow up mesos at Zakum when it uses its Cancel Weapon Attack skill, you'll be blowing up your mesos without purpose.

Always keep track of your Dark Sight and Meso Guard timer to prevent any unwanted deaths.

This goes for all jobs, but: Don't focus on getting a single perfect equip. Try to get an all-rounded set of equipment.

Remember, Meso Explosion always knocks back to the left!

Never depend on Auto HP of your pet to save you.

Try to use Smokescreen at the most beneficial times at bosses! For example after one of Zakum's Cancel Weapon Attack skills so the attackers can have their way at him.

Speed Infusion does not buff a Shadower's attack speed, since Daggers are Fast(4) and reach max speed with booster alone. The exception here is a Kebob, which is why you don't use one.

Test around with Meso Explosion training to find out the optimal amount of money to drop per wave of monsters.

Minimum MP: (14 * LVL) + 148 MP
Maximum Attack Formula: floor((LUK * 3.6 + STR + DEX) / 100 * ATT)
Minimum Attack Formula: floor((LUK * 3.6 * Mastery * 0.9 + DEX + STR) / 100 * ATT)
[A floor function means the integer are returned. e.g. floor(103.53) would be 103.]
Meso Explosion average damage (20 bags): (27,500 + [ME level] * 2,750 / 3) * [Bag size] / ([Bag size] + 5,250) * [Bags exploded] / 2 or 55,000 * [Mastery] * [Bag size] / ([Bag size] + 5,250) * [Bags exploded] / 2
Meso Explosion maximum damage (1 bag): (25,000 + [ME level] * 2,500 / 3) * [Bag size] / ([Bag size] + 5,250) or 50,000 * [Mastery] * [Bag size] / ([Bag size] + 5,250)
Meso Explosion minimum damage (1 bag): (25,000 + [ME level] * 2,500 / 3) * [Bag size] / ([Bag size] + 5,250) / 2 or 50,000 * [Mastery] * [Bag size] / ([Bag size] + 5,250) / 2
[100% Mastery = 1; 50% Mastery = 0,5]

If you have any other useful formulae, please post them below!

Special Thanks

First of all, special thanks to an old GMS friend for proof-reading this. Second of all, thanks to everyone that helped me create/improve this guide so far! And finally, thanks for reading this. I hope you liked it and learnt from it. I'm always open to feedback, constructive criticism or questions, so feel free to post and I'll be sure to reply ASAP.

~ Marty (Broken)

Marty · Jun 22, 2015

To-do list:

Rework the 'Recommended Equipment' section

Update with training location list and XP gains at said locations

Add seperate bossing section with video material if needed

Get a better banner because this one sucks

Ryan · Jun 22, 2015

Wow, very in depth guide.... Good job Marty! Now someone make one of these for a hero!

Marty · Jun 22, 2015

Ryan said: ↑

Wow, very in depth guide.... Good job Marty! Now someone make one of these for a hero!
Click to expand...

brb i got dis hero guid

jk idk crap about warriors

Charizard · Jun 22, 2015

I have been a dedicated shadower since 2005. Nice guide. Although I have never seen lukless or blood bandits before, I imagine that might be fun in a x1000 exp rate server.

The only thing I'd stress is that sindits are way better than bandits (in general, and more so in this server). Lucky7 is easier/better/faster/stronger than double-stab, and with tobis being extremely cheap in this server, your L7 damage will be even greater! Also many of your conventional training sites like octopus and teddies have great spots for you to stand where you can spam L7 without getting hurt; if you noob like me, you can save lots of $$$ by not using up all your HP pots.

Also, if you are going to go the traditional route of getting DEX, please don't. Stick with this guy's AP build, it's the only way to go. I found out that Lvl20L7+meba+tobis are stronger than Lvl20SB+kfan. Talk about a slap to the face where the opposite tier-1 skill is stronger than your main tier-2 skill; you'd be more useful if you max haste first for LPQs.

Marty · Jun 22, 2015

Charizard said: ↑

I have been a dedicated shadower since 2005. Nice guide. Although I have never seen lukless or blood bandits before, I imagine that might be fun in a x1000 exp rate server.

The only thing I'd stress is that sindits are way better than bandits (in general, and more so in this server). Lucky7 is easier/better/faster/stronger than double-stab, and with tobis being extremely cheap in this server, your L7 damage will be even greater! Also many of your conventional training sites like octopus and teddies have great spots for you to stand where you can spam L7 without getting hurt; if you noob like me, you can save lots of $$$ by not using up all your HP pots.

Also, if you are going to go the traditional route of getting DEX, please don't. Stick with this guy's AP build, it's the only way to go. I found out that Lvl20L7+meba+tobis are stronger than Lvl20SB+kfan. Talk about a slap to the face where the opposite tier-1 skill is stronger than your main tier-2 skill; you'd be more useful if you max haste first for LPQs.
Click to expand...

Savage Blow does offer easier training since you're not ranged anymore, so the XP rates you're getting are about the same once you max Savage Blow at Teddies; later on at Ghost Ship, SB>L7 all the way due to the high spawn. But yes, until you're done at Teddies, you can remain playing with a claw easily, it's what I did.

And yes, LUK-less and blood Bandits aren't something you normally see. I've seen 2 LUK-less bandits and about a handful blood Bandits on low-rate competitive private servers (pre-BB), but I added it to the guide as alternative if you think the normal way to go isn't challenging enough. I could put that in a quote or spoiler to make it clearer.

Edit: I actually have a level 12x blood Bandit on another v62 server... It's around 17,000 HP now. I stopped playing that, though.

Charizard · Jun 22, 2015

It wasn't so much the damage but the number of attacks. Yes SB was stronger, but not enough; it still took 2 hits to kill a teddy. L7 would kill in 2 hits as well, but since claws are faster+ranged compared to daggers which are fast+melee, L7 was faster at teddies. And when people don't want the nooby level 35 bandit using a claw for LPQ, it's an even greater "wtf am I doing with this class..."

Clown · Nov 29, 2015

Is there a guide somewhere how to get to this map, the evil dead?

nanop33 · Nov 30, 2015

FearMeNow said: ↑

Is there a guide somewhere how to get to this map, the evil dead?
Click to expand...

It's the map right before the CWK JQ. Hidden portal on the top platform sign post.

Soblet · Nov 30, 2015

Best bandit guide I've read (just read the whole thing)!

2 small things meant to possibly improve not criticise;

- I'd get shield mastery over chakra for the same reason I'd skip drain on a sin. It's more efficient to use an attack and a pot. Also to me 5 w.def is better than a skill I won't use.
- In the useful tips section at the bottom you mention kebob being the exception slow 5 dagger but the shinkita and the nlc dagger(s) are slow 5 as well.

Marty · Dec 2, 2015

Soblet said: ↑

Best bandit guide I've read (just read the whole thing)!

2 small things meant to possibly improve not criticise;

- I'd get shield mastery over chakra for the same reason I'd skip drain on a sin. It's more efficient to use an attack and a pot. Also to me 5 w.def is better than a skill I won't use.
- In the useful tips section at the bottom you mention kebob being the exception slow 5 dagger but the shinkita and the nlc dagger(s) are slow 5 as well.
Click to expand...

I've used Chakra twice and I'll have you know it saved my life. I doubt 5 W.ATT would do that. x)

And yeah, you're right. I forgot about those... However, the most commonly used daggers are all 4.

Planisphere · Sep 1, 2016

Marty said: ↑

Rework the 'Recommended Equipment' section

Update with training location list and XP gains at said locations

Add seperate bossing section with video material if needed

Get a better banner because this one sucks

Click to expand...

More than a year ago
For 4th job SP allocation, after the initial 3 SP allocation. Should I be maxing each skill based on the order of priority e.g max boomerang step then move on to max shadow shifter etc. Or be lenient with the SP? e.g 2 boomerang step 1 shadow shifter

Soblet · Sep 1, 2016

Whatever works for you but it's most efficient to max boomerang step asap since that will be your main source of damage when you stop bombing.

The 2nd point in shadow shifter won't help you out as much as a point in boomerang step would (1st point in shifter adds 11% 2nd point adds 1%).

Planisphere · Sep 1, 2016

good to know in advance before reaching 4th job.

Soblet said: ↑

(1st point in shifter adds 11% 2nd point adds 1%).
Click to expand...

rip 1%

Qanu · May 10, 2017

Quick question on 1st job sindit build. Wouldn't be better to Max nimble body over L7? Not that it matters much but I mean once you got savage blow Max or a decent level I doubt we would use L7 ever again. This means you won't waste your 2ND job sp on 1st job skills, right?

Soblet · May 10, 2017

Qanu said: ↑

Quick question on 1st job sindit build. Wouldn't be better to Max nimble body over L7? Not that it matters much but I mean once you got savage blow Max or a decent level I doubt we would use L7 ever again. This means you won't waste your 2ND job sp on 1st job skills, right?
Click to expand...

If you really want a higher lvl steal go for it but overall it's better to max L7. L7 stays useful with LPQ and GPQ.

Joy · May 10, 2017

Just make a nightlord and save yourselves while you still can

United · May 11, 2017

Joy said: ↑

Just make a nightlord and save yourselves while you still can
Click to expand...

#1 shadower ladies and gentlemen

Qanu · May 11, 2017

Joy said: ↑

Just make a nightlord and save yourselves while you still can
Click to expand...

This makes me sad....

Joy · May 11, 2017

Qanu said: ↑

This makes me sad....

Click to expand...

I will help you as much as I can on your journey <3

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Thief Comprehensive Shadower Guide

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Ryan Slimy

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nanop33 Capt. Latanica

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Soblet Zakum

Joy Capt. Latanica

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Joy Capt. Latanica

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