Magician Beginner Mage Guide

This guide is now outdated as a result of the February balance patch that targets beginner methods. Washing applications from the guide can now only extend up level 14 (no SP loss) or 29 (last level to job advance).

Introduction
In Legends, we have a bug called HP washing so ingrained into the server that it was accepted as a feature. Unfortunately for mages, the application of HP washing is limited due to the inefficient conversion of 30 MP to 6 HP. You see 30k HP Night Lords, but magician washing to a similar degree in NX barely exceeds 10k HP. This guide presents a new concept: the beginner mage - a hybrid mage that takes advantage of the beginner class in order to attain HP at levels never before seen by sacrificing skill points.

Theory

Spoiler: Levelup Comparison

Magicians gain an average of 12 HP and 23 MP upon each level up with an additional 2-20 top off from the skill Max MP Increase.
Magicians gain an average of 8 HP per fresh wash.
Magicians lose 30 mp and gain 6 hp per stale wash via AP reset.

Beginners gain an average of 14 HP and 11 MP upon each level up.
Beginners gain an average of 10 HP per fresh wash.
Beginners loses 8 mp and gains 8 hp per stale wash via AP reset.

Both beginners and magicians can take equal advantage of MP gained via items and Maple Warrior. While both classes gain the same amount of MP, beginners edge over mages due to their favorable conversion ratio of 1 hp to 1 mp compared to 1 hp to 5 mp. Therefore, good ints and a minimum of MW20 is imperative to a successful beginner mage. As a result, a prospective mage could choose to stay a beginner, heavily wash, and then transition into a magician to take advantage of the more efficient MP to HP conversion rates available to beginners.

Spoiler: How much MP can I gain per level?

The MP formula for 5 stale washes* per level x as a beginner is the following
If x is even: Y = 2.5x -10
If x is odd: Y = 2.5x - 9.5
MP gained per level up is
L = (bINT + MW + EQ)/10 truncated down
Thus total MP gained per level is
Y+L+11
While stale washing is more rewarding in general, fresh washes could be the more realistic path to minimize NX burn. For those on a budget, adding fresh AP into HP while taking out from MP

*As a beginner mage, bINT always ends with a 3 or a 8 due to having 4 on every other stat. When bINT ends with 8, we place 2 fresh AP into MP and wash it out into INT before expending the rest. This step allows us to have 3 extra MP at no cost.

As an example of the harsh disparity (below) between the HP gained from beginner and magician classes, we use the example of 5 stale washes on a lv120 beginner and a magician (before job advancement) upon levelup. The beginner has 603 bINT while its corresponding magician will have 608, both with 5 unused AP points.

Spoiler: Disparity in stale washing

120 Beginner
The reduced formula per stale wash is bINT/10 (rounded down) -2
Thus with 5 AP with bINT of 603, we can obtain the following:
5 * (60 - 2) = 290 MP
Which translates into 290 HP at a 1:1 ratio.

120 Magician
The reduced formula per stale wash is also bINT/10 (rounded down) -2
Thus with 5 AP with bINT of 608, we can obtain the following:
2 * (60 -2) + 3 * (61 -2) = 293 MP
Which translates into 58.6 HP at a 1:5 ratio.

Spoiler: Some tables to consider

MW20, no items, washing using methods mentioned in the guide, fresh wash HP only after lv7.

There are some downsides to elongating the beginner phase. The future magician will end up permanently losing 3 SP for each level they choose to remain a beginner beyond level 14 due to a balancing decision in Jan. 2021. As a result, it is imperative to plan out your SP build and decide which skills you are willing to forgo.

Job Advancement


Most of the risk with beginner mages exist between the time of character creation and 1st Job advancement. Assuming the player followed the above advice, the risk is now concentrated on job advancements and obtaining the amount of SP required. All actions are permanent, thus the player should be very mindful going forward.

Before advancing to magician, we need to check whether the beginner is at minimum MP. The beginner can adjust stats out of MP as long as MP is above 10*x + 2. This maximizes our gains as we will be below (sometimes far below) the minimum MP of a magician. Nothing to worry about as it’ll only take a few levels back to reach above minimum MP since 1st and 2nd job advancements give 100-150 and 450-500 MP respectively.

Once we advance to the 1st job, we rush max MP increase. We will stay in 1st job for a total of 5 levels, just enough to max the skill. For every level we are in 1st job, we save all AP points until we reach lv10 max MP increase. Once the skill is maxed, we add our AP points 1 by 1 into MP and then into INT. Do not dump all AP points into MP and then all into INT as we will lose potential MP while still being under min MP.

Spoiler: 1st Job skill build

We should end up with the following skills in order for 1st job:
5 Improved MP Recovery
10 Max MP Increase
1 Energy Bolt (used for 2nd and 3rd job advancements) that is later reset into magic guard.

Spoiler: Energy Bolt to Magic Guard

Upon lv200 or some level deemed satisfactory, all SP can be washed back into Magic Guard, at cost of the skill Max MP Increase. At lv200 the following should be all the 1st Job skills:
0 Improved MP Recovery
0 Max MP Increase
0 Energy Bolt
16 Magic Guard

2nd and 3rd jobs can be adjusted to liking, but just note that the player must advance after 5 levels of their 1st job advancement. We feature 4 skill builds in the guide, for advances at 63 (bishop), 88, 95 (bishop) and 120.

It should also be noted (especially at later 1st job advancement levels) that it’s not viable to train the magician; it must be leeched.

Recommended Skill Builds
This section will denote the skill point builds that are recommended for each mage subclass. Depending on your preference and how you intend to use your mage, there are many different options for your skill point builds.

Bishop
Build 1 - Job advance at level 63

Spoiler: Bishop starting at 63

1st Job
16 Magic Guard (see past section under Job Advancement)
2nd Job
20 Teleport
20 Invincible
30 Heal
3rd Job
20 Elemental Resist
20 Dispel
20 Mystic Door
30 Holy Symbol
15 Summon Dragon
30 Doom
4th Job
29 Maple Warrior
30 Mana Reflect
30 Bahamut
30 Holy Shield
10 Resurrection
30 Angel Ray
30 Genesis
5 Hero’s Will

Spoiler: Explanation

For 1st Job, see past section under Job Advancement

In the 2nd Job, Bless and Holy Arrow are skipped. Contrary to popular belief, Bless is actually a useless skill.

In the 3rd Job, Shining Ray is skipped. This is completely outclassed by Genesis.

In the 4th Job, Big Bang and infinity are skipped. Big bang does provide some utility on bishop against holy resistant foes, but the gain is minor at best. If you want Big Bang, you will need to job advance 10 levels earlier.

Using the above build and MP washing all AP starting from level 19 should result in approximately 15k hp and 30k mp by level 200 without any gear. This will also cost around 8.7 million NX in total.

Bishop build 2 - job advance at level 95

Spoiler: Bishop starting at 95

Same as build 1 except with below differences
3rd Job
0 Summon Dragon
0 Doom
1 Mystic Door
4th Job
0 Bahamut

Spoiler: Explanation

In this build we choose to sacrifice summons and Doom for higher HP. Furthermore Mystic Door to 1, since it retains the same functionality, but loses some quality of life with an extremely short timer.

Using the above build and MP washing every fresh AP starting from level 19 will result in over 20k hp and 30k mp by level 200 without any gear. This will cost well over 10 million NX.

Fire Poison and Ice Lightning

Spoiler: Archmage starting at 88

Build 1 - Job advance at level 88
1st Job
16 Magic Guard (see past section under Job Advancement)
2nd Job
20 Teleport
3rd Job
20 Elemental Resist
20 Seal
30 Elemental Amplification
20 Spell Booster
4th Job
29 Maple Warrior
30 Mana Reflect
30 Elquines / Ifrit
30 Fire / Ice Demon
30 Paralyze / Chain lightning
30 Meteor / Blizzard
5 Hero’s Will
30 Big Bang

Spoiler: Explanation

Because the archmages have significantly less useful skills than bishops, they can easily afford to stay a beginner well into level 88. We skip every single 2nd Job skill except Teleport Meditate can be replaced by Wizard Elixir from NLC, and all damage dealing skills are outclassed by their 4th Job counterparts.

In the 3rd Job, we skip every damage dealing skill due to the 4th Job skills being better. There can be an argument for poison mist for FP, but it is not used in end game so we skip it.

In the 4th Job, the only skill that is skipped is Infinity, as everything else has some niche use.

Using the above build and Mp washing with every fresh AP after level 19, you can reach 19k HP and 30k MP by level 200 without any gear. This will cost around 9.7 million NX.

Spoiler: Archmage starting at 120

Build 2 - Job advance at level 120
1st Job
16 Magic Guard (see past section under Job Advancement)
2nd Job (MUST be level 125)
20 Teleport
3rd Job
30 Elemental Amplification
20 Spell Booster
0 Seal
4th Job
29 Maple Warrior
30 Mana Reflection
30 Elquines
30 Meteor Shower
5 Fire Demon
30 Paralyze
5 Hero’s Will
1 Free SP
Note: a beginner mage MUST be leeched. Upon job advancement, your MP will likely be far below the minimum allowed as a magician.

NX Farming Strategies
Because Beginner Mages requires an insane amount of NX you might need to farm it if you are interested in pursuing this route and don’t have a fresh account you have been voting on for 2+ years.

Event Abuse
Please see Gia’s damp forest guide. (link) The concept is to multi-client single target attackers in order to maximize the amount of event drops you can farm per hour.

Multimage NX sweeping
On your Beginner Mage, you can get a mount and start using it as a sweeper mule to loot items farmed by your mages. For example at Memory Lane 1, you could use 4 mages to clear the map and loot the drops with your beginner mage. Doing this strategy will yield you about 1 AP reset per hour with current NX drop rates, along with roughly 25m+ meso per hour in total compensation.

If you go super hard, it is also possible to do an octamage setup where you farm 2 channels of ML1 and use the beginner to CC and sweep both channels. If you do CC, you will need to enter the FM and come back into the map before you can loot items.

Conclusion
Beginner mage is a powerful new strategy to min max your mages HP. If executed properly, your beginner mage will have nearly the same functionality as any normal mage, while having twice or thrice the HP. Of course, the NX cost is enormous, but this is what is required to build the optimal mage.

Spoiler: Special thanks

Special thanks to Ella for the initial idea to level a beginner to about 30 to take advantage of the differences in level up HP and my co-conspirator akashsky who is also the co-writer of the guide with me.