Ice or Bishop?

I honestly chose Bishop because I wanted to attend boss runs like CWKPQ and maybe Horntail, etc later on in the future. You're primarily there to provide Heal, Holy Shield, and lastly just resurrecting while occasionally casting Genesis here and there.
There is of course a lot of bishops but with the newest anti-multi client rule maybe that'll change things (Who knows)?

When training from my understanding a lot of people are looking to use your sweet sweet Holy Symbol and luring abilities in places such as FoT and Himes.
Both classes would require funding, but it'll be a lot easier to one shot things being a Ice Lightning since you have Elemental Amplification which causes you to do more damage. In addition, you'll get bonus damage while using the proper Elemental Wand as well! *Bishops do not have such luxury*

I could be wrong but that's my nooby two cents on your post C:

 

You lose out on late to end-game content if you go with ice/lightning since they aren't desired what with lack of buffs and single-target dpm (it's still possible but bishops are way better for bossing). Here's more or less a rundown of the two classes at each job advancement:

2nd job: They are kind of equal in second job since there are a lot pqs available and classes don't matter too much at this level (maybe more favor towards clerics what with healing). Grinding with and without a party is also about the same since ice/lightning have an AOE at second job and clerics can grind using heal at wraiths and ghost ships/MP3. Clerics are cheaper since they don't need hp pots anymore and barely use mp pots if you're smart with your skills. Imo ice/lightning is still better during 2nd job since your attack skills aren't limited to mobs with holy weakness, meaning you're basically stuck at MP3 and ghost ships.

3rd job: This is where they start to deviate a bit. Ice/lightning now have a better AOE and are great for grinding solo. You can basically solo-play all the way to 4th job with this, of course its faster to train with others though. They also have magic amplification so you do more damage (downside is your skills cost more mp but we'll get to that later). Priests are more desirable to party with because of holy symbol, but you have quite a dependency to party up with people past ghost ships/MP3 since your damage stagnates at this point. Working with dragon knights or chief bandits can level you like crazy and all you have to do is heal and lure. Priests will level to 4th job far faster than ice/lightning, but that's very dependent on partying up and solo-play is slower. Priests are still cheaper since they barely need pots at this point.

4th job: Now is where things like cost and how you play differentiate a lot. Bishops are now super desirable for bossing, partying, leeching, you name it. You do have to get genesis though, which can be quite pricey if you want to max it to 30 (which you should). Be prepared to spend a couple hundred mil on that alone. Now that you can sell low-level leech, that should be perfectly doable. Ice/lightning also get their ultimate (Blizzard) which is great for grinding and its possible to leech, just requires extra work compared to Bishops. You'll have to make a lvl 81 priest and get max holy symbol since no one really wants to buy leech without it. Using blizzard is also ridiculously expensive to use because of its mp cost. This is because magic amplification not only increase damage, but also doubles mp cost. Depending on the skill level, you'll be using about 7000 mp per cast. You can still sell leech, its just a way bigger hassle since you gotten multi-client and use a lot of pots. You will do more damage so you will be able to 1hko mobs sooner (aside from holy weak mobs) so that a plus. That's all you can do with an ice/lightning at this point since they are useless for support and terrible with single-target dmg, meaning it will be hard to boss.

I personally like ice/lightning since I prefer solo-play and never had intentions of bossing with this class. Just pick whichever you think you'll enjoy (or just make both lol) Both are great starting class to fund your main later on

 

Typically players will train a spearman to level 41 and max the skill hyperbody. Hyperbody increases your hp and mp by 60%.

Some people will do this and MP wash their mage, so that after hyperbody they can reach 30k MP.

NLC Potions heal % of your mp, so if u have 30k mp, a mana bull will heal 18k mp. That's enough for more than 2 casts of blizzard. Overall, if u have a big mp pool , the potions cost is less of a burden.

 

well there's very easy one dimensional bosses like zakum, toad and others where being a bishop is extremely boring and not worth it unless you are doing it for your friends, these bosses aren't challenging and realistically you would only be there as a ress/heal/HS mule which is lame as fuck. So I don't really recommend any aspiring bossing bishop to go to those places as you'll only find bad mesos, bad exp, poor mechanics and big worthless lose of time.

Now if you really want to boss as bishop and REALLY be useful the real deal is horntail, it's the most challenging and rewarding boss for bishops, the class is essential and hard to master and now even more after the aggro changes. Horntail is the only boss that will make you use the most out of your skill kit and a boss where your team will really depend on you. Also excelent exp and good mesos~

 

Basically what Akashsky said. I personally didn't make a HB mule. Especially if you're making a first character, making a bunch of mules might be intimidating and super tedious. I did however take advantage of the NLC pots and MP washed a bit.

Here's a quick guide for MP washing: https://forum.maplelegends.com/index.php?threads/mp-washing-guide-quick-mage.8238/
While its way easier than HP washing, you still want to save a substantial amount of vote NX for all the resets by the time you reach 4th job. You can also look up some ice/lightning guides to find the most optimal skill levels for blizzard to kill certain mobs (MP per cast increases a lot until lvl 20 and then decreases until lvl 30). You essentially don't want to level blizzard higher than necessary otherwise you're wasting mp to one-shot mobs.

NLC pots are amazing. You can buy in stacks of 150 and they recover 60% mp for a cost of 2800 meso. I didn't bother to get 30k mp, but I can still cast 2 level 30 blizzards with one mana bull. Making an NLC mule (just a random character with some meso that stays at NLC so you can buy pots and trade them in storage) is the one I mule highly recommend making. Just makes it so much easier in the long run.

Other than that mages are super low cost since you don't need godly equips to do adequate damage early on so save up the money as you get to 4th job. With all the grinding you'll be doing in 3rd job, you're bound to get a good amount of gach which will help you save up more. You'll definitely lose money at the beginning of 4th job, but you'll eventually reach a point where you can make up the loss with just looting as you grind. Selling leech is of course way better to make up that deficit.

 

I think you should create both! You can use your i/L to train up the cleric first, the HS will be helpful for both in the future. Then u can decide which u feel like maining more in the long run

 

they make the spearman, and use it as a buff mule. So your spearman and mage should be in the same party same map, and when u use hyperbody skill buff, you ur mage will get it too since it is a party buff.