Magician Fire / Poison Mage Guide [Quick]

I think people would be pretty upset if the stat that was effectively useless for 120+ levels of their maple career suddenly became tied to important skills, set at an arbitrary number. There would have to be a pretty good reason to persuade people committing (or resetting) 20+ full levels worth of AP to a secondary stat instead of the balancing team just stepping in and saying "deal with it, chud". For warriors, only weapons(?) require DEX, and they're generally trading faster attack speeds for higher damage to justify the requirement, except Spearmen, who just use all class Fast weapons but sacrifice damage. Examples being the Fast (5) Stonetooth Sword (120 DEX req) vs. Normal (6) Dragon Claymore (0 DEX); Neo Tokyo 1h Hammer (Fast 4, 125 DEX) vs. Normal (6) Crushed Skull. And DEX helps warriors close some accuracy gaps at a rate of .8 accuracy/point of DEX, but 1 accuracy = 1 accuracy.

The best tradeoff I can think of because Mages don't worry about casting speed and aren't worried about their magical accuracy would be:
1) for LUK equipment to be reduced in levels, maybe up to 10, for equipment; but keep the LUK requirement the same. For example the Elemental Staff series 1-4 (currently level 103, 105 LUK REQ) would become level 93, 105 LUK. The theory would be that people who are investing LUK would be able to have access to weapons comparable and/or stronger than their LUKless counterparts a little bit sooner, which can help justify choosing an accepted-to-be-weaker path. Or just increase the LUK weapons' base magic attack to also be comparable and enticing.
2) For LUK to increase resistance to abnormal effects such as stuns, slows, seals, etc. for Mages. and possibly also increase the avoid mages get from LUK - reason being that they should be rewarded with a bit less potion usage in exchange.
3) For Elemental Staves specifically to have the Elemental boost increased even further to be that much more enticing over their LUKless counterparts.

 

fellow fartmage here, quick tips:

1. Brace training is costly, but NLC sandwiches are a godsend. 500 meso per 500 hp and mp come in handy in those early levels where spending gets crazy. i still use them nowadays.
2. Explosion tech: you can cast explosion on a ledge moving with enough momentum to fall off at an exact frame, and then, the casting time of explosion will be chanelled while you fall off. very useful to level on master death teddies or grim phantom watches.
3. in this server, gatekeepers give 75k xp, and thanathoses around 70k, it is useful to get mist to a certain level, lets say lv 10-15, poison twice 2 keepers/thanatos and cash in 150k xp without spending much to level faster than in any other place.
4. there is a tool developed in this forum to calculate your accuracy using variables on monsters, (check mrsoupman on the forums)
5. Fire demon tech: you can poison un-poisonable mobs using fire demon first, then casting poison mist afterwards
6. youre missing the most busted f/p training map: shaolin temple (80-130, 80 if you have someone to lasthit).
7. new info about hp/mp challenges coming soon, read the update
8. Luk is an useful stat for f/p because it marginally raises our accuracy, wich is the most critical factor on mist/brace leveling. nevertheless going full INT is the way because every 10 int is 1 more mp when you level.
9. Seal tech: seal casts around 33% faster when hanging on a rope or ladder, you can cast 3 seals on a ladder where you would cast 2 on the ground
10. in order to decide in wich map should you brace-level in, i use a formula where i calculate the exp ratio in relation to accuracy. Example: if Death teddies give 1500xp but i have 29% chance to hit i go 1500*0.29 = 435, but if master death teddy is lower hitchance (lets say 26%) but more xp (1720), i do the math again: 1720*0.26 = 447,2. in the last case scenario, it is better to level on master death teddies than on normal death teddies.
11. the goal of brace-leveling is to poison as few monsters as possible for as most hp possible per turn. in the last case i described about master teddy vs MDT, id rather take my chances poisoning 5 mdts than poisoning 6 DTs, it is more easy to juggle the aggro between 5 monsters than 6.
12. vikings as a map is obnoxious, grim phantom watches give better xp and are fire weak as well.
13. best poison xp = shaolin monk. Best poison to meso ratio with no expenditure at all while decent leveling: thanatos and gatekeepers.
14. actually i maxed meditation instead of mana drain, but then, when i maxed mist in 3rd job, i sp resetted brace points into maxing mp eater and slow, leaving brace at 11pts.
15. cast speed doesnt depend on wand/staff atkspeed, it depends on the spell speed itself and magic booster level.
16. even tho F/P needs speed equips to level faster, id still wear all my INT gear because more int when leveling = more mp per level.
17. it is critical to mention that elemental wands multiply that element spell damage by 0.25 and secondary element dmg by 1.1.
18. Elemental Staves are a nooby trap. it sucks to spend luk to equip them, unless your goal is to max LUK gear (zhelm, htp, mark, etc) to wear them, wich in said case it is better to max INT gear instead. always choose wands.