Magician The Divinely Blessed Knight-Errant, The Holy Physician Turned Armed Zealot: The STR Cleric

The Divinely Blessed Knight-Errant, The Holy Physician Turned Armed Zealot: The STR Cleric

Pictured: A STR cleric, brandishing a Flaming Katana, Maple Shield, and Flamekeeper Cordons.

The STR cleric is an odd job/odd build in MapleStory that represents just one of the three possible specializations of STR mages, the other two being the ice/lightning STR mage, and the fire/poison STR mage. STR clerics are of particular interest because the niche of ordinary clerics/priests/bishops is largely in the realm of “utility”, which is something that STR mages can usually perform just as well at, while still dedicating all of their might to melee combat. Furthermore, STR clerics embody the archetype of the divinely blessed knight-errant: while they may be ordinary mortal combatants in the melee, they are both well-trained in this mode of combat, as well as graced with divine powers granted to them by their deit(y/ies) that can be used to heal, to aid, and occasionally even to harm. It is this potent combination of a knight’s skill with the indispensable ritualistic powers of a priest that makes the STR cleric both an enviable ally, as well as a formidable opponent.

See also Slime’s Comprehensive Permanent Beginner Guide, as STR mages and permabeginners share many similarities.

Some of the content (viz. some of the info on itemisation) here is redundant, or partly redundant with my woodsman guide, which you can find here (original).

NOTE: This guide has been adapted from its original Markdown format, which can be found here. The main version of this guide is the HTML rendering that can be found at https://oddjobs.codeberg.page/guides/str-cleric/. Also note that this guide was originally written to be agnostic to the particular version/implementation of pre-BB GMS in question.

• A quick note on the name
• Pros and cons
• AP build
• Skill builds
  • Magician
  • Cleric (normal)
  • Cleric (permadeath)
  • Priest (normal)
  • Priest (permadeath)
• Itemization
  • Equipment
    • Armaments
    • Shields
    • Headgear
    • Clothing
    • Footwear
    • Gloves
    • Capes
    • Earrings
    • Eyewear
    • Facewear
  • Other items
    • Potions/food/drinks

A quick note on the name
This job is referred to throughout this document as “STR cleric” (plural “STR clerics”). This job is also commonly referred to by various other names:

• Battle priest
• [nonspecifically:] Battle mage
• Battle cleric
• Battle bishop
• [nonspecifically:] STR mage
• [nonspecifically:] STR magician
• STR priest
• STR bishop

Pros and cons
Discussing the pros and cons of the STR cleric as a job can only be done with the understanding that the STR cleric is an odd job, and is therefore inherently suboptimal in many ways (if it weren’t, we would be very lucky indeed to be able to call it an “odd”, or “unusual”, job).

Pros:

• Ability to effectively engage in melee combat while also having the powers of a magician/cleric.
• Incredible levels of utility as an odd job, considering that most odd jobs tend to lack a good utility skillset (or, may lack skills entirely or almost entirely…).
• Very sturdy; on top of all mages having access to Magic Guard and Magic Armor, clerics/priests/bishops are naturally the sturdiest mages, due to having skills like Invincible, Bless, Heal, Elemental Resistance, Dispel, &c.
• Ability to use Teleport as a melee job.
• Doom is still an effective debuff skill, even with very low INT and LUK.
• BATTLE PRIEST!!

Cons:

• Your skills that do magical damage (Magic Claw, Holy Arrow, Summon Dragon, Shining Ray, &c.) are effectively useless due to being INTless and LUKless. Heal is only useful defensively, as its ability to deal magical damage is also useless.
• Considerably worse accuracy in comparison to an ordinary mage, and even in comparison to an ordinary warrior, due to the fact that you do not get a mastery skill.
• Unfortunately not as good at melee combat as some other jobs are (particularly non-odd jobs, i.e. ordinary/mainstream jobs). Given the same equipment, any ordinary warrior, bandit, or brawler build that could be considered “standard” or “mainstream” in any way will be able to outperform you in melee from at least second job onwards, and likely earlier as well.

AP build
STR clerics are defined, in part, by having a base (that is, not including bonuses from equipment or buffs) INT of exactly 20, and having a base LUK of exactly 4. Technically, as long as you satisfy these constraints, any AP build is valid. However, in general, you want to otherwise use your APs like a warrior would — or better, like a permabeginner would. Generally, you want to keep your DEX as low as possible and pump everything into STR. You might need some DEX though — depending on your equipment and on what monsters you are fighting — in order to reduce MISS chances (ideally to 0%, although it’s possible to just put up with small-but-nonzero MISS chances).

Note that although STR is obviously your main stat, with DEX being secondary to it, you do benefit from INT and LUK as well.

INT:

• Increases the effectiveness of Heal.
• Increases MDEF.
• Increases MAXMP gain on level-up.

LUK:

• Increases ACC (albeit not as much as DEX does).
• Increases AVOID.
• Increases the effectiveness of Heal(?)

Skill builds
Skill builds can be flexible here, in part because your ability to deal damage is usually unrelated to your skills. I’ve split the builds into two similar paths: the “normal” build, and the “permadeath” build, so called because it focuses on raising defenses as high as possible, as early as possible.

Magician

level	SP allocation
8	+1 Improved MP Recovery [1]
9	+3 Improved MP Recovery [4]
10	+2 Improved MaxMP Increase [2], +1 Improved MP Recovery [5]
11–12	+3 Improved MaxMP Increase [8]
13	+2 Improved MaxMP Increase [MAX], +1 Magic Guard [1]
14–17	+3 Magic Guard [13]
18–23	+3 Magic Armor [18]
24	+2 Magic Armor [MAX], +1 Magic Guard [14]
25–26	+3 Magic Guard [MAX]
27–29	+3 Improved MP Recovery [14]
30	+2 Improved MP Recovery [MAX], +1 Energy Bolt [1]

Spoiler: By level 30

skill	level	max level
Improved MP Recovery	16	16
Improved MaxMP Increase	10	10
Magic Guard	20	20
Magic Armor	20	20
Energy Bolt	1	20
Magic Claw	0	20

SP allocation for first job is pretty straightforward: we need to max Improved MaxMP Increase ASAP, especially considering that we are INTless and thus need all of the MAXMP that we can get. Then we quickly get Magic Guard to level 13, at which point 55% of incoming damage is taken out of our MP (and 45% out of our HP). We stop there because at this point, we don’t have much MAXMP to use Magic Guard with anyways, and also Magic Armor is just better defense at this level. So we quickly max Magic Armor, and then go back and max Magic Guard. Then we have leftover SPs; we can use these to max out the cost-saving passive skill, Improved MP Recovery. Then at level 30 we have one SP left over that we have to spend, and have literally no choice but to use it for Energy Bolt (a useless skill).

Cleric (normal)

Note that “DC” stands for “don’t care”.

level	SP allocation
30	+1 Teleport [1]
31	+3 Heal [3]
32	+2 Heal [5], +1 Invincible [1]
33	+3 Invincible [4]
34	+2 Bless [2], +1 Invincible [5]
35–40	+3 Bless [MAX]
41–48	+3 Heal [29]
49	+2 Invincible [7], +1 Heal [MAX]
50–53	+3 Invincible [19]
54	+2 Teleport [3], +1 Invincible [MAX]
55–59	+3 Teleport [18]
60	+2 Teleport [MAX], +1 DC [DC]
61–70	DC

Spoiler: By level 70

skill	level	max level
Improved MP Recovery	16	16
Improved MaxMP Increase	10	10
Magic Guard	20	20
Magic Armor	20	20
Energy Bolt	DC	20
Magic Claw	DC	20
MP Eater	DC	20
Heal	30	30
Invincible	20	20
Teleport	20	20
Bless	20	20
Holy Arrow	DC	30

The basic idea here is to put our first SP into Teleport in order to have it, and then immediately rush max Bless. Bless gives us MDEF, AVOID, and most importantly: precious, precious ACC. Then, we leave Invincible at level 5 (it’s reasonably effective even at that level, at least for now) in order to focus on maxing Heal; Heal really needs to be maxed, because being INTless and LUKless means that our Heal needs all of the help that it can get. Remember that Heal is only useful defensively as a STR cleric, as the magic damage will always MISS undead monsters. Now we can finally max Invincible and Teleport, and after that we have nothing left to spend SPs on.

Cleric (permadeath)

Note that “DC” stands for “don’t care”.

level	SP allocation
30	+1 Teleport [1]
31	+3 Heal [3]
32	+2 Heal [5], +1 Invincible [1]
33–38	+3 Invincible [19]
39	+2 Bless [2], +1 Invincible [MAX]
40–45	+3 Bless [MAX]
46–53	+3 Heal [29]
54	+2 Teleport [3], +1 Heal [MAX]
55–59	+3 Teleport [18]
60	+2 Teleport [MAX], +1 DC [DC]
61–70	DC

Spoiler: By level 70

skill	level	max level
Improved MP Recovery	16	16
Improved MaxMP Increase	10	10
Magic Guard	20	20
Magic Armor	20	20
Energy Bolt	DC	20
Magic Claw	DC	20
MP Eater	DC	20
Heal	30	30
Invincible	20	20
Teleport	20	20
Bless	20	20
Holy Arrow	DC	30

The main difference here is that we max Invincible first, even before Bless. Invincible is by far the most important defensive skill here, although Bless helps as well. Heal helps too, but not as much as Invincible or even Bless at this level. Plus, Bless gives ACC.

Priest (normal)

Note that “DC” stands for “don’t care”.

level	SP allocation
70	+1 Dispel [1]
71	+2 Dispel [3], +1 Mystic Door [1]
72	+3 Holy Symbol [3]
73	+2 Holy Symbol [5], +1 Elemental Resistance [1]
74–81	+3 Holy Symbol [29]
82	+2 Elemental Resistance [3], +1 Holy Symbol [MAX]
83–87	+3 Elemental Resistance [18]
88	+2 Elemental Resistance [MAX], +1 Doom [1]
89–97	+3 Doom [28]
98	+2 Doom [MAX], +1 Dispel [4]
99–103	+3 Dispel [19]
104	+2 Mystic Door [3], +1 Dispel [MAX]
105–109	+3 Mystic Door [18]
110	+2 Mystic Door [MAX], +1 DC [DC]
111–120	DC

Spoiler: By level 120

skill	level	max level
Improved MP Recovery	16	16
Improved MaxMP Increase	10	10
Magic Guard	20	20
Magic Armor	20	20
Energy Bolt	DC	20
Magic Claw	DC	20
MP Eater	DC	20
Heal	30	30
Invincible	20	20
Teleport	20	20
Bless	20	20
Holy Arrow	DC	30
Elemental Resistance	20	20
Dispel	20	20
Mystic Door	20	20
Holy Symbol	30	30
Shining Ray	DC	30
Doom	30	30
Summon Dragon	DC	30

The build here is pretty straightforward, with an early single SP into both Mystic Door and Elemental Resistance, because both skills are useful even at level 1. We prioritise Doom over Dispel and Mystic Door (although of course, Dispel in Mystic Door are both maxed and also get a few SPs early on), mostly because we will be meleeing mobs one by one. Doom helps to slow your enemies down, and also take away their fancy attacks so that they cannot use those fancy attacks to knock you back. Of course, you don’t have to prioritise Doom in this way, since of course Dispel and Mystic Door may potentially be more useful to you (particularly if you are bossing early on).

Priest (permadeath)

Note that “DC” stands for “don’t care”.

level	SP allocation
70	+1 Elemental Resistance [1]
71	+1 Elemental Resistance [2], +1 Dispel [1], +1 Doom [1]
72–77	+3 Elemental Resistance [MAX]
78	+2 Dispel [3], +1 Holy Symbol [1]
79–87	+3 Holy Symbol [28]
88	+2 Holy Symbol [MAX], +1 Mystic Door [1]
89–97	+3 Doom [28]
98	+2 Doom [MAX], +1 Dispel [4]
99–103	+3 Dispel [19]
104	+2 Mystic Door [3], +1 Dispel [MAX]
105–109	+3 Mystic Door [18]
110	+2 Mystic Door [MAX], +1 DC [DC]
111–120	DC

Spoiler: By level 120

skill	level	max level
Improved MP Recovery	16	16
Improved MaxMP Increase	10	10
Magic Guard	20	20
Magic Armor	20	20
Energy Bolt	DC	20
Magic Claw	DC	20
MP Eater	DC	20
Heal	30	30
Invincible	20	20
Teleport	20	20
Bless	20	20
Holy Arrow	DC	30
Elemental Resistance	20	20
Dispel	20	20
Mystic Door	20	20
Holy Symbol	30	30
Shining Ray	DC	30
Doom	30	30
Summon Dragon	DC	30

The main difference here (of the permadeath version) is that we max Elemental Resistance before getting Holy Symbol. We also get an early point in Doom, in case it happens to be useful defensively. This build is less advisable than the permadeath version of the cleric skill build, just because it puts off Holy Symbol in order to get a skill that is a good defensive skill, but perhaps a tad too situational to justify delaying Holy Symbol.

Itemization

A STR cleric is nothing without her equipment and her gear…

Equipment

Armaments

Because magicians/clerics/priests/&c. are not designed to be melee jobs, the choice of melee armaments for STR mages looks fairly similar to that for a closely related odd job: the permabeginner. As such, this section will mostly just highlight the differences w.r.t. melee armaments for STR mages, as compared to melee armaments for permabeginners.

STR mages obviously do not have access to any permabeginner-specific armaments; this means no access to any of the following:

• The level 20 Frozen Tuna
• Sake Bottle
• Maroon Mop

STR mages do, however, have access to a small handful of armaments that permabeginners do not have access to, although they are unfortunately limited to low levels:

• Mace (level 15)
• Iron Mace (level 20)
• Fusion Mace (level 25)

Another difference for STR clerics in particular is that, unlike permabeginners, they can benefit from weapons like e.g. the Flaming Katana, which give both WATK and MATK. The MATK helps to increase the effectiveness of your Heal. Indeed, in some cases you will exclusively (or almost exclusively) be healing and buffing, in which case you will want to equip things that increase your Heal’s efficacy. When it comes to armaments, here are some of the armaments that can be equipped by a STR cleric to boost their Heal power:

name	level	MATK	type	WATK	other stats	requirements
Sky Blue Umbrella	0	15	1H sword	15
Wooden Wand	8	23	wand	15
Green Umbrella	8	25	1H sword	12	10 LUK
Fruity Bamboo	22	37	1H BW	40	+8 SPEED
Light Purple Umbrella	25	39	1H sword	41	6 STR
Poison Mushroom	30	45	staff	30	+50 MAXHP	10 LUK
Green Paint Brush	30	45	1H axe	48	+30 MAXHP	5 STR
Pumpkin Lantern	30	55	2H sword	55	+50 MAXHP
Maple Staff	35	48	staff	35	+100 MAXHP
Flaming Katana	38	40	1H sword	65	+17 SPEED
Yellow Umbrella	40	52	1H sword	54
Nocturnal Staff	43	58	staff	39	+100 MAXHP, +50 MAXMP
Maple Lama Staff	43	58	staff	39	+100 MAXHP, +50 MAXMP
Beige Umbrella	43	60	1H sword	60	5 STR, 5 DEX, 5 INT, 5 LUK
Diao Chan Sword	48	60	1H sword	69	+1 INT, +1 DEX, +1 STR
Super Snowboard	50	75	polearm	75	+8 SPEED
Heart Wand	54	68	wand	45	+2 INT, +50 MAXHP
Maple Shine Wand	64	80	wand	49	+1 INT, +100 MAXHP, +100 MAXMP
Maple Wisdom Staff	64	80	staff	50	+1 INT, +150 MAXHP, +50 MAXMP
Black Umbrella	70	85	1H sword	85	6 STR, 6 DEX, 6 INT, 6 LUK
Elemental Wand 3; Elemental Wand 4	70	85	wand	56	+1 LUK
Elemental Wand 1; Elemental Wand 2	70	85	wand	56	+1 INT
Kebob	75	90	dagger	83	+50 MAXHP
Crimson Arcglaive	100	89	polearm	102	+2 STR, +5 SPEED	300 STR, 80 DEX
Elemental Wand 7; Elemental Wand 8	130	145	wand	92	+2 LUK
Elemental Wand 5; Elemental Wand 6	130	145	wand	92	+2 INT

Shields

When engaging in melee and using a one-handed weapon, you will, of course, want a shield. As usual, the Maple Shield is the most powerful, simply because it has three extra slots, and you’ll be wanting to scroll for WATK (and/or STR). More accessible are the Stolen Fence (available from an NPC and as a monster drop) and the Pan Lid (available as a reasonably common monster drop). The Palette sports better defense than the Stolen Fence or Pan Lid, and the LUK that it grants is quite useful. My preference is the Stone Shield, if the implementation even has it, due to its superior defense. The Black Phoenix Shield (again, if the implementation even has it) is superior to either the Stolen Fence or the Pan Lid, and has twice as much MDEF (and WDEF) as the Maple Shield.

Because you’re a mage, you can use the Maple Magician Shield, a level 64 shield with good defenses, +2 INT, and most importantly, 10 slots. This is a superior choice to the Maple Shield if you can manage to scroll it well. A well-scrolled Maple Magician Shield is the endgame shield for a one-handed-fighting STR mage.

Headgear

STR mages, unfortunately, do not have access to any of the magician-specific headgear. There is, however, one notable exception: if you are fortunate enough to be playing on an implementation that has the extended first-job quests (in the magician’s case, culminating in a battle with the Marbas boss monster), you should obtain the level 18 Marbas Hat. The good defenses and accuracy are extremely nice, and the +12 INT helps too.

If you cannot obtain the Marbas Hat, or just want something that will increase your DPS, you still have some good options (“ordinary” methods of availability — that is, NPCs, (party) quests, monster drops, and crafting — are bolded):

level	name	availability	notable stats	notes
0	Mark of the Beta; Genesis Bandana; Maple Bandana Yellow; Maple Bandana Red; Maple Bandana Blue; Yellow Maple Bandana; Red Maple Bandana; Blue Maple Bandana	event	+1 all-stat, +15 WDEF; +1 all-stat; +2 all-stat; +3 all-stat; +4 all-stat	These are event-exclusive all-stat hats that range from +1 all-stat to +4 all-stat. Also, the Mark of the Beta and the Genesis Bandana in particular have 15 WDEF, which is nice (unlike the others, which lack defense entirely). These are highly desirable in the absence of the Amdusias Hat, as you can benefit from almost all of the stats (particularly DEX).
5	Red Headband	NPC	+1 ACC
8	Maple Hat [2]	event	+1 all-stat, +20 WDEF, +40 MDEF, +10 MAXHP, +10 MAXMP	An event-exclusive +1 all-stat hat that is superior to any of the +1 all-stat hats that are level 0.
10	Red Bandana	drop, gachapon	+1 ACC, +8 WDEF	Basically just the Red Headband, but with slightly better defense. If you’re lucky, you got a +2 ACC one from a Zombie Lupin (or from a monster in China, if you’re playing MapleLegends).
10	Blue Bandana	drop, gachapon	+1 STR
10	Yellow Bandana	gachapon	+1 DEX
10	Brown Bandana	gachapon	+5 ACC	Gachapon-only ACC hat that is far superior to the Red Headband/Bandana, with +5 ACC on average.
15	Blue Metal Gear	craft	+1 STR, +12 WDEF	+1 STR hat that can be fairly easily crafted. Better WDEF than the colored bandanas.
20	Black Old Wisconsin	gachapon	+20 MAXHP, +20 MAXMP, 10 slots	Defensive hat. Does not exist in MapleLegends, as far as I know.
20	Talking Witch Hat	event	+1 all-stat, +100 MAXMP	Halloween event item.
20	Blue Old Wisconsin	gachapon	+7 ACC	Gachapon-only ACC hat that is even better than the Brown Bandana, with +7 ACC on average.
20	White Starry Bandana	gachapon	+50 MAXHP, +15 WDEF, +50 MAXMP	Defensive headgear.
25	Ribboned Pig Headband	quest	+50 MAXHP	+50 MAXHP hat that can be obtained from quests, unlike its gachapon-only counterparts; good for racking up HP gear.
25	Green Bamboo Hat; Blue Bamboo Hat	party quest	+3 DEX; +3 STR	A +3 DEX hat and a +3 STR hat, respectively, available from KPQ. Usually, try to get a blue one. Or get one of each!
30	Maple Hat [3]	event	+2 all-stat, +35 WDEF, +50 MDEF, +12 MAXHP, +12 MAXMP	An event-exclusive +2 all-stat hat that is preferable to any of the +2 all-stat hats that are level 0.
30	Black Starry Bandana	gachapon	+10 ACC, +25 WDEF	Gachapon-only ACC hat that is even better than the Blue Old Wisconsin, with +10 ACC on average.
40	Toymaker Cap	quest	+1 all-stat, +27 WDEF, +15 MDEF	+1 all-stat hat with good WDEF, and decent MDEF(!), that can be obtained from Haunted Mansion quests.
60	Lord Pirate’s Hat [1]	party quest	+2 all-stat, +45 WDEF, +45 MDEF, +30 MAXHP, +30 MAXMP, +3 SPEED, +1 JUMP	Available from PPQ/HTPQ (Pirate Party Quest = Herb Town Party Quest).
70	Maple Hat [4]	event	+3 all-stat, +50 WDEF, +60 MDEF, +15 MAXHP, +15 MAXMP	An event-exclusive, +3 all-stat hat with very good defenses.
70	Lord Pirate’s Hat [2]	party quest	+3 all-stat, +60 WDEF, +60 MDEF, +40 MAXHP, +40 MAXMP, +4 SPEED, +1 JUMP	Available from PPQ/HTPQ (Pirate Party Quest = Herb Town Party Quest).
80	Lord Pirate’s Hat [3]	party quest	+3 all-stat, +70 WDEF, +70 MDEF, +60 MAXHP, +60 MAXMP, +5 SPEED, +2 JUMP	Available from PPQ/HTPQ (Pirate Party Quest = Herb Town Party Quest).
90	Lord Pirate’s Hat [4]	party quest	+5 all-stat, +90 WDEF, +90 MDEF, +90 MAXHP, +90 MAXMP, +7 SPEED, +4 JUMP	Available from PPQ/HTPQ (Pirate Party Quest = Herb Town Party Quest).
93	Time Traveler’s Circlet	quest	+5 all-stat, +120 WDEF, +120 MDEF, +120 MAXHP, +120 MAXMP	Requires that your implementation have Neo Tokyo in it.

This brings us to the ideal end-game hats: Zakum Helmets, and “Scar/Tar” (Scarlion and Targa) hats. These headgears are so incredibly powerful that they need no introduction. Zakum Helmets are generally more accessible, as Zakum tends to be run fairly often in most implementations, and only requires level 50 (instead of the level 80 of Scar/Tar hats). Scar/Tar hats aren’t really better than Zakum Helmets, although it depends on what you want to optimize for; obviously, the ideal Scar/Tar hat for a STR mage is generally a Scarlion Hat (STR).

When it comes to scrolling headgear, obviously you ideally want to scroll for DEX, but scrolling for ACC is similarly good, and even 10%/30% DEF scrolls can give a +1 ACC, which could be nice. All-stat hats can be effectively Chaos Scrolled, if you’re feeling really saucy, or somehow have a large supply of Chaos Scrolls.

Clothing

Again, like with headgear, STR mages unfortunately largely lack access to magician-specific attire of this kind (tops, bottoms, and overalls). This, again, puts the STR mage in a similar situation as their permabeginner counterparts. The idea here is typically to scroll an overall for DEX and/or STR — unfortunately, tops cannot be scrolled for DEX, although it is also possible to go the route of scrolling a bottom for DEX and scrolling a top for STR. If going the route of overalls, this leaves you with essentially two options: bathrobes, and sauna robes.

Bathrobes:

• Are able to be purchased from an NPC, and thus highly available for scrolling.
• Have a lower level requirement (20 < 30).
• Give a nice SPEED boost (+10 SPEED), but are defensively inferior (+20 WDEF < +30 WDEF; +0 AVOID < +10 AVOID).

Sauna robes, on the other hand:

• Are more difficult to acquire, since you have to do a rather difficult quest (and one that has a minimum level requirement of 30) just to get one.
• Have a higher level requirement (30 > 20).
• Are defensively superior (+30 WDEF > +20 WDEF; +10 AVOID > +0 AVOID), but do not grant any SPEED.

The fact that bathrobes can be purchased from an NPC makes them, by and large, the clear favorite, since we really care about the scrolling outcome, not the base stats of the armour.

Footwear

Again, not much magician-specific footwear here, unless you have access to Marbas Shoes, in which case, just use those. The plan here is to scroll for DEX (unless you end up with Facestompers, in which case you might(‽) try Chaos Scrolling before scrolling for DEX).

The usual suspects here are:

level	name	availability	notable stats	notes
10	Red Christmas Sock	event	+1 WATK, 7 slots, +6 MDEF	Facestompers Lite™. Good luck getting your hands on one of these, if they exist in your implementation. Notably has two more slots than Facestompers!
10	Navy Christmas Sock	event	+1 STR, 7 slots, +6 MDEF	Red Christmas Sock Lite™. Good luck getting your hands on one of these, if they exist in your implementation. At least they should be easier to get than red ones.
10	Purple Christmas Sock	event	+1 DEX, 7 slots, +6 MDEF	Navy Christmas Sock Lite™. Good luck getting your hands on one of these, if they exist in your implementation. At least they should be easier to get than red ones.
26	Whitebottom Boots	NPC, drop	+3 SPEED	If all else fails, a little SPEED and a little WDEF is better than nothing. They even come in four different colors!
30	Squishy Shoes	party quest	+1 all-stat, +3 SPEED, +5 MDEF	Nab one (or more) of these if at all possible, from KPQ.
30	Blue Snowshoes	NPC	7 slots, +10 MDEF	The only footwear in this table that has any job requirements. The idea here is to make use of the two extra slots to get even more DEX from scrolling. The availability from an NPC for just 28k mesos makes this really possible.
50	Yellow Snowshoes	rare drop	+3 DEX, 7 slots, +10 MDEF	Although this is a dropped item, good luck getting it from Female Boss! Very powerful.
50	Facestompers	rare craft	+2 WATK, +5 MDEF	For obvious reasons, the highest potential power of any footwear (actually, this distinction technically goes to the Red Christmas Sock, because it has more slots). Implementations vary widely on whether or not these are obtainable, and if so, how you get them, but in GMS, these were craftable (but not easily, of course!).
80	Violet Snowshoes	rare drop	7 slots, +5 JUMP, +5 SPEED, +20 MDEF, +50 WDEF	Mostly known for having 7 slots (instead of 5), these also have pretty decent stats. Good luck getting a pair from The Boss!

Gloves

Again, no access to magician-specific gloves. Generally, there are two kinds of gloves that you might want: gloves scrolled for WATK, and gloves scrolled for DEX/ACC. The usual suspects here are obvious: various colors of Work Gloves, Green Mittens, various colors of Markers, &c. Scrolling for WATK is obviously ideal, although scrolling for DEX/ACC is very useful when you are having accuracy troubles.

Notable, however, is the fact that STR clerics are the only job besides gishes that can make full use of Flamekeeper Cordons. The ACC is extremely helpful, and the MATK helps make your Heal more effective.

Capes

Not much to say here, since capes work essentially the same, regardless of build. The ideal here is a pink cape that is Chaos Scrolled for WATK and/or scrolled for DEX.

Earrings

You will, predictably, want to scroll your earrings for DEX. To this end, earrings that can be purchased from NPCs (and possibly others that are similarly easy to farm) are likely going to be what you end up with. However, there are some earrings that come with stats (particularly, DEX) right out of the box:

level	name	availability	notable stats	notes
45	Piercing of the Free Spirit	quest	+1 all-stat, 4 slots	May be available if your implementation has all of the Kerning Square quests implemented. Unfortunately only 4 slots (rather than the usual 5).
50	Altaire Earrings; Glittering Altaire Earrings	party quest	+1 all-stat; +2 all-stat	May be available as a reward for Ellin Party Quest.
80	Gold Emerald Earrings	rare drop	+2 DEX, +5 INT	Dropped by The Boss. Good luck getting a pair. STR clerics and gishes are the only jobs that can really make use of both the DEX and the INT from these earrings.

Eyewear

We’re mostly looking for DEX and ACC here. Eyewear can be scrolled for ACC (and 10%/30% scrolls for eyewear for ACC will give +1 DEX on success). Eyewear is the same for all jobs, essentially, but of particular note here are Broken Glasses (+1 all-stat, available from LPQ) and Spectrum Goggles (+1 STR, +1 DEX, gachapon-only).

Facewear

Again, mostly looking for DEX and ACC. Facewear is easier to scroll for DEX than Eyewear, simply because scrolls for facewear for AVOID will give DEX on success, even in the case of 60%/70% scrolls (as opposed to only giving DEX on the success of 10%/30% scrolls). Of particular note are Sad Masks, which give an average of +10 ACC out of the box. There are also various other face accessories that may or may not be available, depending on your implementation, and the ones that you’ll want are generally any that give WATK and/or DEX and/or STR and/or ACC right out of the box. However, anything with slots can be scrolled with AVOID scrolls.

Other items

Potions/food/drinks

As a STR mage, you want all of the WATK that you can get. To this end, you will probably want potions/food/drinks that give WATK buffs. This is true particularly because your expected damage capabilities in melee are going to be subpar when compared to ordinary (non-odd) jobs specialized in melee combat (warriors, bandits, brawlers). Being smart with how you acquire and use WATK buffs can help to narrow this gap. For WATK buffs that are available from NPCs (“WATK⋅s/meso” is the magnitude of the WATK buff given, multiplied by the duration, divided by the price per unit, and “meso/s” is the cost of one second of the buff):

name	WATK	WATK⋅s/meso	meso/s	duration	meso/unit	available from	notes
Mapleade	2	0.024	83.333	30:00	150,000	NLC	Not actually a good idea, of course, but just here for completeness.
Cherry Pie	2	0.320	6.250	8:00	3,000	NLC	Not actually a good idea, of course, but just here for completeness.
Warrior Potion	5	1.800	2.777	3:00	500	Henesys, Kerning City, Ellinia, Perion, Lith Harbor, Nautilus, Orbis, El Nath, Aquarium, Mu Lung, KFT, Herb Town, Omega Sector, Leafre, Ariant, Magatia, Singapore, Malaysia, Ellin Forest, Mushroom Castle
Warrior Pill	5	6.000	0.833	10:00	500	Ludibrium
Chili Crab	8	0.706	11.333	10:00	6,800	Singapore, Malaysia
Pepper Crab	8	0.750	10.667	5:00	3,200	Singapore, Malaysia
Takoyaki (Jumbo)	8	1.143	7.000	10:00	4,200	Mushroom Shrine
Takoyaki (Octopus Ball)	8	1.200	6.667	5:00	2,000	Mushroom Shrine
Kangkung Belacan	8	1.263	6.333	10:00	3,800	Malaysia
Mini Coke	8	8.727	0.917	20:00	1,100	Coke Town	Requires access to Coke Town, which is somewhat unusual.
Coke Pill	10	12.000	0.833	15:00	750	Coke Town	Requires access to Coke Town, which is somewhat unusual.
Warrior Elixir	12	1.152	10.417	8:00	5,000	NLC
Coke Lite Pill	12	7.200	1.667	15:00	1,500	Coke Town	Requires access to Coke Town, which is somewhat unusual.
Coke Zero Pill	15	4.500	3.333	15:00	3,000	Coke Town	Requires access to Coke Town, which is somewhat unusual.
Cider	20	6.000	3.333	5:00	1,000	Showa, Dead Man’s Gorge	Gives a −5 ACC debuff for its duration, but this is easily cancelled out by any other ACC buff (e.g. Focus, or Sniper Pills). Also, be warned that these only allow up to 5 per stack, so they use up inventory space very inefficiently.

The items here are in ascending order of WATK, breaking any ties by sorting in ascending order of WATK⋅s/meso. The two stand-out items here (in the absence of Coke Town) are the Warrior Pill and the Cider. Both are tied for first place w.r.t. WATK⋅s/meso, with the Warrior Pill being the low-cost but low-WATK alternative to the higher-cost but higher-WATK Cider. This makes Ciders great for doing big damage without breaking the bank or running into scarcity (as you might with items that give WATK buffs greater than +20), and Warrior Pills great for a WATK buff that you can have on at all times for a very low meso cost (just 0.833 meso/s!).

With Coke Town, Ciders are still useful (they are still the largest WATK buff), but Coke Pills are then firmly in first place with respect to WATK⋅s/meso, and Coke Zero Pills become very viable as well, due to being the largest WATK buff that is inventory-space efficient. Ciders are burdened by only stacking up to 5 per inventory slot[1] (they are not burdened by the −5 ACC debuff, because that is easily cancelled out); as a result, if you want the highest store-bought WATK buff possible, and you haven’t the inventory space for Ciders, Coke Zero Pills are your best bet — or Warrior Elixirs, in the absence of Coke Town. Other entries here (besides Ciders, Coke Pills, Coke Lite Pills, Coke Zero Pills, Warrior Pills, and Warrior Elixirs) are either not useful, or are situationally useful when you happen to be near an NPC that sells them.

Also of note are accuracy potions/food/drinks. I recommend the use of Sniper Pills (+10 WACC for 10 minutes, available for 500 mesos a pop in Ludibrium) until you get Bless to at least level 10. Of course, you only have to use these on an as-needed basis.

When not in a party with someone who can cast Meditation on you, you may want a MATK buff to make your Heal more substantial:

name	MATK	MATK⋅s/meso	meso/s	duration	meso/unit	available from
Magic Potion	5	1.800	2.778	3:00	500	Henesys, Kerning City, Ellinia, Perion, Lith Harbor, Nautilus, Orbis, El Nath, Aquarium, Mu Lung, KFT, Herb Town, Omega Sector, Leafre, Ariant, Magatia, Singapore, Malaysia, Ellin Forest, Mushroom Castle
Magic Pill	5	6.000	0.833	10:00	500	Ludibrium
Kangkung belacan	8	1.263	6.333	10:00	3,800	Malaysia
Mini Coke	8	8.727	0.917	20:00	1,100	Coke Town
Yakisoba (x2)	10	1.579	6.333	10:00	3,800	Mushroom Shrine
Yakisoba	10	1.667	6.000	5:00	1,800	Mushroom Shrine
Coke Pill	10	12.000	0.833	15:00	750	Coke Town
Coke Lite Pill	12	7.200	1.667	15:00	1,500	Coke Town
Coke Zero Pill	15	4.500	3.333	15:00	3,000	Coke Town
Wizard Elixir	20	1.920	10.417	8:00	5,000	NLC

The items here are in ascending order of MATK, breaking any ties by sorting in ascending order of MATK⋅s/meso. Note that the Coke Town entries from the WATK potions/foods/drinks table are here as well, because they all also grant a MATK buff that is equal in magnitude to their respective WATK buffs (this makes Coke Town pills extremely useful for STR clerics, as well as for gishes/gishlets). The highlights here are the Coke Town pills and the Wizard Elixir: Wizard Elixirs simply give the largest buff, at a whopping +20 MATK buff making Meditation unnecessary for its duration, and the Coke Town pills are the most efficient (with the Coke Pill coming in at a whopping 12 MATK⋅s/meso!).

In the absence of Coke Town, Magic Pills are also quite efficient.

Spoiler: Footnotes for “Potions/food/drinks”

[1]: The actual maximum number of Ciders that stack per inventory slot can vary; the “5” figure used here is based on MapleLegends.

 

Wow, very cool!! I'm flattered that you were inspired by my guide to go on your own journey and document it ^^

I'll keep a lookout for updates!

Oooh, yeah, I seem to have forgotten that one when writing up a list of usable MATK weapons! I'll have to go back and add that one now ^^

The Super Snowboard, in particular, is perhaps even more useful for its melee capabilities; a polearm with a speed of 5 and an avg of 75 WATK is really great for level 50, even if it didn't have the MATK (MATKless weapons equippable by beginners aren't listed here, as they would be redundant with permabeginner guides).