Best mage for new player?

The Bishop is going to be the most popular recommendation. Great for making money (selling leech), very versatile, useful in many bosses, great utility, and most importantly the best for leveling future characters.

Though the Fire/Poison and Ice/Lightning mages are also very strong. While they're not as useful in many bosses, they do more damage, thus allowing you to farm a few different high level maps much sooner than a Bishop would.

 

The answer to this would be subjective seeing that you're a casual player. I would suggest that you make a choice based on what seems like it would be the most fun for you personally. If you're new to maple I would suggest that you first take a look at the kits of each mage variety throughout each job advancement.

But as Krythan said, Bishop is a popular choice based on the utility they provide (Holy symbol, resurrection, dispel) and the leeching potential for either making mesos when selling, or purely for the efficient advancement of other characters you may make should you choose to explore other classes later on.

 

That's correct, most people recruiting for bosses will typically prioritize a bishop first over any other mage class. You would have an easier time finding parties.

 

Bishop has an active role in a few bosses, most notably Zakum and Horntail which are quite popular.

There are other bosses such as Krex and JC where Bishops are muled, but it's not like Archmages are recruited for those bosses either.

Each of the Archmages also has a specific niche they fill in a specific boss, but for the most part people aren't doing a lot of bossing on Archmages.

 

It's also very popular for players to start with a Bishop, then use that Bishop to fund and level an attacker class in the future. So keep that in mind

 

I made so much money on my cleric the moment Heal was maxed and I had a little bit invested in MP Eater. Literally only profits from grinding from 41-75, and then I moved to CDs and had to use Magic Guard and started having to use resources, but still less than probably any other character type.

 

If you are new to the game as well, I would recommend I/L a little more over Bishop due to its overall consistency in terms of damage output and flexibility in grinding. I/L has access to many more maps if you wish to have a change of pace, making it less likely to get bored or burn out during the 3rd to 4th job phase.

Since you are casually playing, I personally feel I/L would offer a more enjoyable interaction with the Maple world, without having to rely on others to grind, hunt, or farm. You will have a better time during events, as many of them involve killing mobs and hunting for drops.

If you are not looking to sell leech, I/L’s Chain Lightning from their 4th job is excellent for solo farming cards, gachapons, and other drops. I/L alone can farm about 2k Banana Peels per hour (if I recall correctly), which sell for about 8k meso each to players, theoretically yielding a 16 mil/hr farming rate.

If you decide you want to sell leech later, you can train up a Priest for HS on a separate account, allowing you to sell high-level leech much sooner than you would as a Bishop.

 

Bishop technology is limitless. Only the most unfathomably based can bring out their full potential in bossing

 

I'd also agree with kiwiz 's sentiment. If you think you'll play the one character, the I/L class is also a lot of fun as an off-meta pick. Lots of maps and farming options, and some unique niches in bossing.

And true what DrChuchu said, all the mage classes are good. Pick the one who's ultimate ability (Genesis, Blizzard, or Meteor Swarm) you think looks the coolest... As you'll spend a LOT of time looking at it

The F/P is also quite good, albeit doesn't have as many unique niches they accel at. Rather, just reaching the 1-hit thresholds sooner due to highest damage. I guess their main draw is the ability to level 80-120 very very quickly due to some funny shenanigans thanks to their poison skills.

 

If you think about using it further in boss, bishop, hs mule, hss mule, for pure grinding I think IL is a good one, fp after 78 too

 

Nah don't do Bishop it is a noob trap. Do Ice Lightning Archmage, they actually do damage and can do Neo Tokyo. Your bishop can always be your mule.

 

Although bishop is quite versatile, playstyle can be super boring if u decided to grind or joining pq at low lv. I also recommend making IL or FP archmage.

 

I would go with a Bishop first. Once youre sick of Ghost Ship you could consider making a new Char with decent Funding.

Pros:
Possible great for Bossing
Making great Money (selling leech)
Grinding with much lower cost - kind of Zero cost from 40-80 (Worst case: can Keep it as HS/Door Mule)

I/L
Pros:
NT Lategame
DMG Increase on niche Bosses
Can also sell Leech with HS Mule

F/P
Pros:
Speedruns from 78 to 130 (You will be on low Money due you dont make enough Income if you decide to Level fast)
DMG Increase on niche Bosses
Can also sell Leech with HS Mule

 

Awesome stuff! Good luck!