Archer The Martial Classicist, The Strongest Drawing Arm In All The Land: The Woodsman

The Martial Classicist, The Strongest Drawing Arm In All The Land: The Woodsman

Pictured: A woodsman, variously wielding the Composite Bow and the Monkey Wrench.

The woodsman is an odd job/odd build in MapleStory that, at its core, represents the ability to both competently wield weapons of archery (bows and/or crossbows) and competently wield weapons of melee combat (spears, polearms, swords, &c.). Sindits can parallel the woodsman’s ability to do both ranged & melee physical DPS, but where the sindit is a mainstream build designed merely to overcome the awkward early power curve of dagger-wielding rogues, the woodsman represents a genuine dedication to the classical martial arts. With that dedication comes a totally different skillset and array of playstyles that makes the woodsman both unique, and redoubtable in the eyes of mortals.

Some of the content (viz. some of the info on itemisation) here is redundant, or partly redundant with my STR cleric 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/woodsman/. Also note that this guide was originally written to be agnostic to the particular version/implementation of pre-BB GMS in question. Some MapleLegends-specific notes have been inserted.

• A quick note on the name
• Pros and cons
• AP build
• Skill builds
  • Archer (archery specialisation)
  • Archer (melee specialisation)
  • Hunter (archery specialisation)
  • Hunter (melee specialisation)
  • Crossbowman (archery specialisation)
  • Crossbowman (melee specialisation)
  • Ranger (archery specialisation)
  • Ranger (melee specialisation)
  • Sniper (archery specialisation)
  • Sniper (melee specialisation)
• Itemization
  • Equipment
    • Armaments
      • Archery
      • Melee
    • Shields
    • Headgear
    • Clothing
    • Footwear
    • Gloves
    • Capes
    • Earrings
    • Eyewear
    • Facewear
  • Other items
    • Potions/food/drinks
    • Ammunition

A quick note on the name
This job is referred to throughout this document as “woodsman” (plural “woodsmen”). This job is also commonly referred to by simply prepending “STR” (or “strength”) to the name of the ordinary job in question — e.g. “STR hunter” — or more generically as “STR archer”. To avoid confusion with DEX archers who have a base STR higher than 4 (i.e. normal, but also not STRless, archers), “pure STR” can be prepended instead of simply “STR”. Other names for this job include:

• Woodman
• Huntsman
• Forester
• DEXless archer/hunter/&c.

“Woodsman”/“woodsmen” unfortunately can sound rather gendered, and so “woodswoman” (plural “woodswomen”) is sometimes used instead, when appropriate — although this only solves one of the problems. Rather than attempting to fix the English language and write a MapleStory guide in one fell swoop, “woodsman” and “woodsmen” are here used as ungendered, catch-all terms.

Pros and cons

Discussing the pros and cons of the woodsman as a job can only be done with the understanding that the woodsman 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 proficiently switch between ranged combat and melee combat.
• Ability to do ranged combat at all as an odd job, considering that most odd jobs are essentially stuck with melee only.
• Fairly powerful mobbing abilities, starting from level 30 and onwards.
• Less accuracy issues than many other jobs (including some odd jobs), due to having a head-start on their DEX (25), focusing on DEX for equipment, and having skills like The Blessing of Amazon, Focus, and even (w.r.t. ranged combat) mastery skills.
• Gets a relatively powerful mob manipulation skill by second job: Power Knock-Back (PKB).
• Has the possibility of eventually getting Sharp Eyes as a skill, for a very powerful party buff (only applicable if fourth job exists).
• Enviable aesthetics.

Cons:

• Switching between ranged combat and melee combat is not as seamless as one would hope, because you cannot be in an “alert” (i.e. “catching your breath”) stance while switching weapons. Contrast this with gishes, who may not be able to do physical ranged damage, but can nevertheless cast ranged spells and do physical melee combat, both without switching weapons at all.
• Considerably worse accuracy in comparison to an ordinary archer, due to having a base DEX of exactly 25.
• Unfortunately not as good at ranged combat, nor at melee combat, as some other jobs are (particularly non-odd jobs, i.e. ordinary/mainstream jobs). Given the same equipment, any ordinary archer build (STRless or otherwise) will be able to outperform you at range (although you will outperform them at melee, of course) easily. Any 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 (although you will outperform them at range, of course).
• Does worse PKB damage than ordinary archers and (cross)bow-whackers, although the damage is still considerable.

AP build
Woodsmen are defined, in part, by having a base (that is, not including bonuses from equipment or buffs) DEX of exactly 25. Technically, as long as you satisfy that constraint, any AP build is valid. However, only one such AP build actually makes sense, and that is leaving your base DEX, INT, and LUK at 25, 4, and 4, respectively, and putting all other APs into STR:

• STR: [all APs go here]
• DEX: 25
• INT: 4
• LUK: 4

Skill builds
Skill builds can be quite flexible here, so I’ve split skill builds into essentially two routes: the wannabe DEX archer (here called “archery specialisation”), and the wannabe permabeginner-but-with-skills (here called “melee specialisation”). Not only are these obviously not the only two viable skill builds, but their names are also perhaps misleading. The “melee specialist” is perfectly adept at archery from second job onwards (and is good enough to be useful in first job), and the “archery specialist” is perfectly adept at melee, even if they can suffer from more accuracy issues during early second job (albeit not quite as many issues as many other melee jobs).

Archer (archery specialisation)

level	SP allocation
10	+1 Arrow Blow [1]
11	+3 The Blessing of Amazon [3]
12–13	+3 The Eye of Amazon [6]
14	+2 The Eye of Amazon [MAX], +1 Double Shot [1]
15–20	+3 Double Shot [19]
21	+1 Double Shot [MAX], +2 Critical Shot [2]
22–27	+3 Critical Shot [MAX]
28–30	+3 The Blessing of Amazon [12]

Spoiler: By level 30

skill	level	max level
The Blessing of Amazon	12	16
The Eye of Amazon	8	8
Critical Shot	20	20
Focus	0	20
Double Shot	20	20
Arrow Blow	1	20

This first-job SP allocation strategy is essentially identical to your typical archer’s. The only thing that might surprise some people is that we leave Focus at level 0. Why leave Focus at 0 and spend those SPs on The Blessing of Amazon, when you could spend them on Focus and get both accuracy and avoidability? The simple answer is that buffs of the same kind (e.g. two different accuracy buffs) do not stack. This effectively means that Focus is useless at levels below 11, and situationally, it may even be useless at max level; Sniper Pills (available from any of 3 different NPCs in Ludibrium for roughly 500 mesos a pop) already give a +10 accuracy buff, and there are other consumables that give even more powerful accuracy buffs (including, but not limited to, Maple Pops, which drop from two distinct species of low-level monsters and grant a +100 accuracy buff). Plus, having a Cleric in your party typically negates the usefulness (due to Bless), and the avoidability component is already obsoleted by the Archer Elixir (available from an NPC in New Leaf City for 5k mesos a pop), which grants a +20 avoidability buff. The Blessing of Amazon, on the other hand, is a passive skill, and thus stacks with everything.

Archer (melee specialisation)

level	SP allocation
10	+1 Arrow Blow [1]
11–15	+3 The Blessing of Amazon [15]
16	+1 The Blessing of Amazon [MAX], +2 Focus [2]
17–20	+3 Focus [14]
21	+2 Focus [16], +1 The Eye of Amazon [1]
22–23	+3 The Eye of Amazon [7]
24	+1 The Eye of Amazon [MAX], +2 Critical Shot [2]
25–30	+3 Critical Shot [MAX]

Spoiler: By level 30

skill	level	max level
The Blessing of Amazon	16	16
The Eye of Amazon	8	8
Critical Shot	20	20
Focus	16	20
Double Shot	0	20
Arrow Blow	1	20

This build starts out with one point into Arrow Blow, because that single SP is enough to grant you a ranged single-target DPS skill that is significantly superior to simply basic-attacking with your (cross)bow. You can, if you want, forgo Arrow Blow entirely in favor of getting Focus up to level 17 (instead of level 16) by the time that you’re level 21; however, I expect that for most people, a single SP is worth it here. Because we are focusing on melee combat (for at least first job), we don’t have to frontload any archery-specific skills, and can also safely leave Double Shot at level 0 without sacrificing performance of our main second-job attack, Arrow Bomb/Iron Arrow. For this reason, we instead frontload accuracy boosts in order to allow ourselves to fight higher-level and higher-avoidability monsters at lower character levels. In order to not totally neglect archery (again, particularly because we will be getting Arrow Bomb/Iron Arrow at level 30), we do still need to max The Eye of Amazon, as well as Critical Shot. For this reason, we stop putting SPs into Focus once the skill is at level 16 (rather than at level 20, the maximum level of the skill). See the “Archer (archery specialisation)” skill build section for a justification on why we prioritise The Blessing of Amazon over Focus.

Hunter (archery specialisation)

level	SP allocation
30	+1 Arrow Bomb [1]
31–36	+3 Bow Mastery [18]
37	+2 Bow Mastery [MAX], 1 Bow Booster [1]
38	+3 Bow Booster [4]
39	+2 Bow Booster [6], +1 Arrow Bomb [2]
40–48	+3 Arrow Bomb [29]
49	+1 Arrow Bomb [MAX], +2 The Blessing of Amazon [14]
50	+2 The Blessing of Amazon [MAX], +1 Focus [1]
51–56	+3 Focus [19]
57	+1 Focus [MAX], +2 Power Knock-Back [2]
58–63	+3 Power Knock-Back [MAX]
64	+2 Soul Arrow: Bow [2], +1 Bow Booster [7]
65–66	+2 Bow Booster [11], +1 Soul Arrow: Bow [4]
67	+3 Bow Booster [14]
68–70	+2 Bow Booster [MAX], +1 Soul Arrow: Bow [7]

Spoiler: By level 70

skill	level	max level
The Blessing of Amazon	16	16
The Eye of Amazon	8	8
Critical Shot	20	20
Focus	20	20
Double Shot	20	20
Arrow Blow	1	20
Bow Mastery	20	20
Final Attack: Bow	0	30
Bow Booster	20	20
Power Knock-Back	20	20
Soul Arrow: Bow	7	20
Arrow Bomb	30	30

We start with the basics here: one point into Arrow Bomb to be able to use it, and then max Bow Mastery for the damage, accuracy, and damage stability. Then we immediately dip into Bow Booster to get it to a one minute duration of extra fast shootin’. Then Arrow Bomb is maxed, to increase the damage and the stun proc chance of our main attacking skill.

At this point, all of the super essential stuff is out of the way, which means that we can get back to dumping SP into first-job skills in order to salvage as many precious and much-needed points of accuracy as possible. First is maxing The Blessing of Amazon, for reasons outlined in the “Archer (archery specialisation)” skill build section. Then we get a little greedy and go directly from level 0 Focus to maxed Focus; it’s OK to leave this for last or whatever, especially if you aren’t having any accuracy problems or your accuracy problems wouldn’t be ameliorated by Focus, but I’ve put it here because it doesn’t cause you to really put off any super important skills. If you expect to always have at least a +20 accuracy buff from other sources, then Focus isn’t much good, but we’re assuming that maxing Focus is at least resonably important, since it allows you to guarantee that you really do always have at least a +20 accuracy buff.

Then we max Power Knock-Back, made even more powerful by your stronk arms. Finally, the rest of the SPs go into Bow Booster and Soul Arrow, keeping the two as close as possible in terms of duration. Why put off Soul Arrow for so long (first acquired at level 64)? For two main reasons:

1. The reality is that Soul Arrow is a convenience skill; that is, with just a bit of quiver management, the need for Soul Arrow is all but eliminated. Not using Soul Arrow is mostly an issue for inventory space.
2. While ordinary archers are constantly seeking more DEX and more WATK in order to boost their damage output ever higher, I would argue that woodsmen have this same need, but even more intensely. As a woodsman using an ordinary archer’s weapon, you are constantly fighting the fact that you are DEXless, and yet are wielding a weapon whose main damage stat is DEX. In your quest to ameliorate this problem as much as you can, one accessible source of WATK is that of the WATK bonuses granted by your ammunition; see the “Ammunition” section for more details. When Soul Arrow is active, you cannot benefit from any special ammunition.

All of that being said, if you, for example, are playing on a server where you are starved for “use” inventory space, you can simply slip in the first two levels of Soul Arrow somewhere earlier in the build.

Hunter (melee specialisation)

level	SP allocation
30	+1 Arrow Bomb [1]
31–36	+3 Bow Mastery [18]
37	+2 Bow Mastery [MAX], 1 Bow Booster [1]
38	+3 Bow Booster [4]
39	+2 Bow Booster [6], +1 Arrow Bomb [2]
40–48	+3 Arrow Bomb [29]
49	+1 Arrow Bomb [MAX], +2 Focus [18]
50	+2 Focus [MAX], +1 Power Knock-Back [1]
51–56	+3 Power Knock-Back [19]
57	+1 Power Knock-Back [MAX], +2 Soul Arrow: Bow [2]
58–59	+2 Bow Booster [10], +1 Soul Arrow: Bow [4]
60	+3 Bow Booster [13]
61–62	+2 Bow Booster [17], +1 Soul Arrow: Bow [6]
63	+3 Bow Booster [MAX]
64–67	+3 Soul Arrow: Bow [18]
68	+2 Soul Arrow: Bow [MAX], +1 Double Shot [1]
69–70	+3 Double Shot [7]

Spoiler: By level 70

skill	level	max level
The Blessing of Amazon	16	16
The Eye of Amazon	8	8
Critical Shot	20	20
Focus	20	20
Double Shot	7	20
Arrow Blow	1	20
Bow Mastery	20	20
Final Attack: Bow	0	30
Bow Booster	20	20
Power Knock-Back	20	20
Soul Arrow: Bow	20	20
Arrow Bomb	30	30

This skill build ends up being more similar to the “archery specialised” hunter, in comparison to the more stark difference between their first jobs. As a result, many of the justifications for these skill builds are more-or-less the same, so refer to the “Hunter (archery specialisation)” skill build for those.

One difference here is that the “melee specialised” hunter had a significantly different first-job skill build, which affects the exact course of the second-job skill build. Also, we prioritise Power Knock-Back over ranged single-target DPS, because the “melee specialised” hunter probably just wants to melee when the situation arises to be dealing single-target DPS. The “melee specialised” hunter (generally) pulls out their bow for one skill and one skill only: Arrow Bomb. Power Knock-Back helps to control mobs that get close enough to disallow Arrow Bomb from being used. Double Shot is neglected because by the time that you would ever get around to using it, you would already be level 70 and have level 1 Strafe.

Crossbowman (archery specialisation)

Ditto of “Hunter (archery specialisation)”, but replace “Bow Mastery” with “Crossbow Mastery”, “Arrow Bomb” with “Iron Arrow”, and so on.

Crossbowman (melee specialisation)

Ditto of “Hunter (melee specialisation)”, but replace “Bow Mastery” with “Crossbow Mastery”, “Arrow Bomb” with “Iron Arrow”, and so on.

Ranger (archery specialisation)

Note that third and fourth job builds can vary considerably just depending on implementation, since it depends on what version of the game you are playing, what balance changes have been applied, and what training spots are accessible and/or worthwhile. Also, these builds are inherently flexible, and will inevitably vary from player to player. Pay close attention to the skill descriptions at all levels of each skill when deciding how to modify these builds to fit.

With that in mind, this guide assumes that the skills are identical to the MapleLegends implementation.

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

level	SP allocation
70	+1 Strafe [1]
71	+3 Mortal Blow [3]
72	+2 Mortal Blow [5], +1 Arrow Rain [1]
73	+2 Arrow Rain [3], +1 Inferno [1]
74–80	+3 Arrow Rain [24]
81	+2 Strafe [3], +1 Arrow Rain [25]
82–90	+3 Strafe [MAX]
91	+3 Arrow Rain [28]
92	+2 Arrow Rain [MAX], +1 Puppet [1]
93	+3 Puppet [4]
94	+2 Silver Hawk [2], +1 Puppet [5]
95–103	+3 Silver Hawk [29]
104	+2 Thrust [2], +1 Silver Hawk [MAX]
105–106	+3 Thrust [8]
107	+2 Thrust [10], +1 Inferno [2]
108–111	+3 Inferno [14]
112	+2 Inferno [16], +1 Puppet [6]
113–116	+3 Puppet [18]
117	+2 Puppet [MAX], +1 DC [DC]
118–120	DC

Spoiler: By level 120

skill	level	max level
Thrust	≥10	20
Mortal Blow	≥5	20
Puppet	20	20
Inferno	16	30
Arrow Rain	30	30
Silver Hawk	30	30
Strafe	30	30

At level 70 we get a point into Strafe, since this is usually superior to maxed Double Shot. Then we immediately get Arrow Rain to a level (25) that is useful and effective for training and general multi-target combat; note that level 5 of Mortal Blow is a requirement to put any SPs into Arrow Rain. Level 25 of Arrow Rain is also the point beyond which you no longer get quite as many percentage points of damage per SP spent in it. One point is put into Inferno for use in luring mobs; Arrow Bomb could be used for this, except that Arrow Bomb stuns, and thus prevents the lured mobs from immediately coming towards you. From there we max Strafe, since it never falls off in terms of the damage-percentage-point benefit per SP invested. Then we come back to Arrow Rain to max it out and thus maximize effectiveness in multi-target combat.

We then max out Silver Hawk (note that level ≥5 Puppet is a requirement for Silver Hawk). This helps to increase single-target DPS and also is a useful little stun that you don’t really have to do anything for (no need to use Arrow Bomb and pray that it works). Then we squeeze some SPEED out of Thrust by getting it to level 10. Note that after level 10, Thrust only grants 1 SPEED per SP spent, instead of 2 SPEED. Now that mobility is largely out of the way, we take Inferno to 16, which maxes out the distance over which it is effective. Taking this skill to level 16 (rather than leaving it at level 1) is almost purely for the extra distance, as the damage is basically irrelevant (but some extra damage can be nice). Note that Inferno is your mob luring skill forever, i.e. it is not replaced by any fourth job skills.

We then max Puppet for the utility of it; 6000 HP is considerable enough that it can typically take at least a single hit without going down. The rest of your SP can be spent basically anywhere; Thrust and Mortal Blow are the usual suspects here.

There are a lot of things that you can tweak here, and you should definitely think about what you really want from your skill build, even adjusting it on the fly as you get comfortable using these skills.

Ranger (melee specialisation)

Note that third and fourth job builds can vary considerably just depending on implementation, since it depends on what version of the game you are playing, what balance changes have been applied, and what training spots are accessible and/or worthwhile. Also, these builds are inherently flexible, and will inevitably vary from player to player. Pay close attention to the skill descriptions at all levels of each skill when deciding how to modify these builds to fit.

With that in mind, this guide assumes that the skills are identical to the MapleLegends implementation.

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

level	SP allocation
70	+1 Strafe [1]
71	+3 Mortal Blow [3]
72	+2 Mortal Blow [5], +1 Arrow Rain [1]
73	+2 Puppet [2], +1 Inferno [1]
74	+3 Puppet [5]
75–84	+3 Silver Hawk [MAX]
85—87	+3 Thrust [9]
88	+2 Puppet [7], +1 Thrust [10]
89–92	+3 Puppet [19]
93	+2 Thrust [12], +1 Puppet [MAX]
94–95	+3 Thrust [18]
96	+2 Thrust [MAX], +1 Arrow Rain [2]
97–103	+3 Arrow Rain [23]
104	+2 Arrow Rain [25], +1 Strafe [2]
105–113	+3 Strafe [29]
114	+2 Arrow Rain [27], +1 Strafe [MAX]
115	+3 Arrow Rain [MAX]
116–120	+3 Inferno [16]

Spoiler: By level 120

skill	level	max level
Thrust	20	20
Mortal Blow	5	20
Puppet	20	20
Inferno	16	30
Arrow Rain	30	30
Silver Hawk	30	30
Strafe	30	30

This build starts by getting the third-job archery basics out of the way. Once we have access to Strafe (much better single-target DPS than your level 7 Double Shot), Arrow Rain (technically worse mobbing than your maxed Arrow Bomb, but much more versatile since it cannot be stymied by enemies that are too close to you), and Inferno (for luring mobs), we go ahead and max Silver Hawk. Note that level ≥5 Puppet is a pre-requisite for Silver Hawk. Silver Hawk is our bread and butter for third job, since it provides us with both a bit of DPS and a bit of crowd control, even while we’re in melee.

After Silver Hawk, we want level 10 Thrust in order to be more mobile, which is useful regardless or whether you are meleeing or ranging, but particularly when meleeing (since you have to be in melee range!). Then comes Puppet, another useful skill that can be used in melee. And once that is maxed, we go ahead an finish up Thrust.

Beyond this point, this build is essentially the same as the archery-specialised ranger build.

There are a lot of things that you can tweak here, and you should definitely think about what you really want from your skill build, even adjusting it on the fly as you get comfortable using these skills.

Sniper (archery specialisation)

Note that third and fourth job builds can vary considerably just depending on implementation, since it depends on what version of the game you are playing, what balance changes have been applied, and what training spots are accessible and/or worthwhile. Also, these builds are inherently flexible, and will inevitably vary from player to player. Pay close attention to the skill descriptions at all levels of each skill when deciding how to modify these builds to fit.

With that in mind, this guide assumes that the skills are identical to the MapleLegends implementation.

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

level	SP allocation
70	+1 Strafe [1]
71	+2 Mortal Blow [2], +1 Blizzard [1]
72	+3 Mortal Blow [5]
73–80	+3 Arrow Eruption [24]
81	+2 Strafe [3], +1 Arrow Eruption [25]
82–90	+3 Strafe [MAX]
91	+3 Arrow Eruption [28]
92	+2 Arrow Eruption [MAX], +1 Blizzard [2]
93–98	+3 Blizzard [20]
99	+2 Puppet [2], +1 Blizzard [21]
100	+3 Puppet [5]
101–110	+3 Golden Eagle [MAX]
111–113	+3 Thrust [9]
114	+2 Puppet [7], +1 Thrust [10]
115–118	+3 Puppet [19]
119	+1 Puppet [MAX], +2 DC [DC]
120	DC

Spoiler: By level 120

skill	level	max level
Thrust	≥10	20
Mortal Blow	≥5	20
Puppet	20	20
Blizzard	21	30
Arrow Eruption	30	30
Golden Eagle	30	30
Strafe	30	30

This build is an example build similar to the archery-specialised one given for rangers. The main difference here is that we actually want to get Blizzard to level 21 (as opposed to level 16, as with Inferno), because we only care about the freeze duration, and the freeze duration peaks at level 21.

If you’re playing on a server that has fourth job, it’s acceptable to not max Golden Eagle, so long as you get it to at least level 15.

See the comments on the ranger (archery specialisation) skill build.

Sniper (melee specialisation)

See the ranger (melee specialisation) build. In order to get level 21 Blizzard, you will have to make up 5 SP from somewhere. Where you get these 5 SP — or if you just don’t bother, and instead leave Blizzard at level 11 or similar — is totally up to you.

Itemization

A woodsman is nothing without her equipment and her gear…

Equipment

Armaments

Archery

The armaments of archery that are available to the woodsman are fairly obvious: with their base DEX permanently stuck at exactly 25, the woodsman has no choice but to favor armaments with no DEX requirements (or low DEX requirements). The breakdown, by character level, looks vaguely like this (note that, of course, you can always skip certain weapons, or acquire them later on):

level	armaments
10–11	Just use the War Bow (or Beginner’s War Bow, or whatever it is that Athena Pierce may give you).
12–14	If you want, you can switch to the Crossbow. If you plan on advancing to crossbowman at level 30, you might want to buy up a bunch of these and try your hand at scrolling them, if possible, because it will likely have to last you until level 35, at the least.
15–17	Because the Composite Bow only has a DEX requirement of 40 (thus requiring just ≥15 DEX from your other equipment), it makes a good choice here, if you can equip it. Unlike the Crossbow, the Composite Bow actually drops from a small handful of monsters, so it is even possible to try to get some above-average ones and then try your hand at scrolling those. Or you can just buy them up from Karl and scroll those. If you choose to advance to hunter at level 30, this will likely have to suffice until level 35, at the least.
18–34	If you can manage to equip the Battle Crossbow (requires ≥55 DEX, meaning ≥30 from equipment!), and you plan on advancing to crossbowman at level 30, you might try your hand at scrolling one here. Otherwise, just keep whatever you’ve been using.
35–42	Finally, some maple weapons. If you’re a hunter, you’ve the Maple Bow. If you’re a crossbowman, you’ve the Maple Crow.
43–63	If you haven’t switched to a maple weapon already, or you just want an upgrade right now, there’s the Maple Soul Searcher for hunters, and the Maple Crossbow for crossbowmen. If you’re playing on an implementation that lacks maple weapons, you may want to revisit exactly which archery weapons you can equip (given the amount of DEX you’re getting from your other equipment) and how you can optimize them as much as possible, through scrolling, and possibly also through getting above-average drops of said weapons.
64	If you are fortunate enough to be playing on an implementation that has the full set of 2008 GMS Three Year Anniversary Event maple weapons, then you can make a considerable upgrade at this level: for Hunters, the Maple Kandiva Bow; for crossbowmen, the Maple Nishada.
65–200	Again, depending on your implementation[1], hunters may have an alternative to the Maple Kandiva Bow (with a level requirement of 65, rather than 64): the Bow of Magical Destruction. Whether or not this is a better choice than the Maple Kandiva Bow is situational. Assuming that both bows cost you equally much (unlikely, given that the Maple Kandiva Bow is an event-specific weapon, and the Bow of Magical Destruction drops from an ordinary monster), and assuming that both bows are completely clean and have average stats, the Maple Kandiva Bow is somewhat superior: identical WATK, a faster speed (5 (“Fast”) vs. the Bow of Magical Destruction’s 6 (“Normal”)), a slightly better knockback rate (48% > 47%), and a nifty +100 MAXHP. The Bow of Magical Destruction, on the other hand, is potentially easier to optimize (as it drops from an ordinary monster), and gives a (probably negligible, but nevertheless nice) +1 AVOID.

Spoiler: Footnotes for “Archery”

[1]: The earliest attestation of this weapon that I can find is from 2007-05-04 at the latest (actually predating the 2008 GMS Three Year Anniversary Event (2008-05-07 – 2008-06-10) by almost exactly a year), due to MapleTip. However, it’s unclear at what point this weapon actually became available in the game, as it would (at some point) drop from the ordinary level 64 monster, Leader B (exclusive to Zipangu) — yet, MapleTip lacks this knowledge, and so it is possible that the weapon’s info was available in the *.wz files only, before the weapon properly existed in the game. The earliest attestation (that I could find with a quick search) of the Bow of Magical Destruction actually existing in the game is from 2011-01-07, exactly one month after Big Bang. Notably, however, MapleLegends (v62), MapleRoyals (v62–83), and MapleSaga (v62) all have this bow.

Melee

Because archers/hunters/crossbowmen/&c. are not designed to be melee jobs, the choice of melee armaments for woodsmen 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 woodsmen, as compared to melee armaments for permabeginners.

Woodsmen 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

Woodsmen 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:

• Wooden Sword (level 10)
• Metal Axe (level 10)
• Wooden Mallet (level 10)
• Monkey Wrench (level 25)

The Monkey Wrench is of particular note due to being the highest level of these four, although its expected DPS (assuming zero DEX and assuming that the monster has zero WDEF) is roughly 98.88% that of a Fish Spear; however, the expected damage per hit is roughly 114.7% that of the Fish Spear under the same conditions. This advantage for the Monkey Wrench is, of course, amplified by higher monster WDEF.

Shields

An archer? Wearing a shield? Blasphemy! But with woodsmen, anything is possible. 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 useful for the accuracy (and avoidability). 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.

Headgear

Woodsmen, unfortunately, do not have access to any of the bowman-specific headgear. They can, of course, equip the level 10 hats, but there is no reason to, considering that better hats (all with no job requirements) can be purchased from NPCs as well. 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 archer’s case, culminating in a battle with the Amdusias boss monster), you can (and must!) obtain the level 18 Amdusias Hat. This hat is so powerful as to almost be comparable to a good Zakum Helmet.

If you cannot obtain the Amdusias Hat, 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 green 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 woodsman is generally a Scarlion Hat (DEX).

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. Scrolling for HP is also viable for obvious reasons. 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, woodsmen unfortunately largely lack access to bowman-specific attire of this kind (tops, bottoms, and overalls). This, again, puts the woodsman in a similar situation as their permabeginner counterparts. The idea here is to scroll an overall for DEX — unfortunately, tops cannot be scrolled for DEX, although you could go the unusual-but-viable route of scrolling a bottom for DEX and scrolling a top for STR, or similar. 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 bowman-specific footwear here, unless you have access to Amdusias 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	Purple Christmas Sock	event	+1 DEX, 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	Navy Christmas Sock	event	+1 STR, 7 slots, +6 MDEF	Purple 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	Green Snowshoes	NPC	7 slots, +5 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 29k 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 bowman-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 ideal, although scrolling for DEX/ACC can be useful when you are having accuracy troubles and/or troubles getting enough DEX to equip something.

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	Dropped by The Boss. Good luck getting a pair. Also gives +5 INT.

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 woodsman, 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 regardless of whether you are engaging in melee, or in archery, particularly because your expected damage capabilities in both of these areas are going to be subpar when compared to ordinary (non-odd) jobs specialized in these areas (warriors and archers, respectively). 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. For woodsmen that are doing more of the “melee specialised” kind of build (see above), these are not really of much concern, since you get access to useful levels of the Focus skill relatively early on. For other woodsmen, I recommend the use of Sniper Pills (+10 WACC for 10 minutes, available for 500 mesos a pop in Ludibrium) until you get Focus to at least level 10. Of course, you only have to use these on an as-needed basis.

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.

Ammunition

Like potions/food/drinks that give WATK buffs, ammunitions that give WATK buffs are a useful way to eke out a few extra WATK, whenever you are engaging in archery. Particularly, the cheapest kind are bronzed ammunition, which grant +1 WATK and can be purchased from various NPCs (in the Aquarium, Ludibrium, KFT, Leafre, and the Omega Sector) for 10 mesos per unit (20k mesos for a ream of 2k units)[1]. More beneficial are colored ammunition (red for arrows, blue for quarrels), which grant a whopping +4 WATK, and can be purchased in Showa Town for 40 mesos per unit (80k mesos for a ream of 2k units)[2]; diamond ammunition grants the same bonus for half the price[3], although diamond ammunition can only be purchased by those who are allies of the Raven Ninja Clan.

Note that although we are using two thousand as a “ream” here — because that is the size of a stack of normal arrows[4] — bronzed ammunition stacks up to 1.8k per slot[4], and colored ammunition up to 1k[4]. Also note that when Soul Arrow is active, you cannot benefit from any special ammunition.

MapleLegends-specific note: Diamond ammunition is actually superior to coloured ammunition in MapleLegends, granting 5 WATK instead of 4. If possible, I recommend getting access to Mo’s store (i.e. becoming an ally of the Raven Ninja Clan); he sells Ciders, diamond ammunition, All Cure Potions, Return to New Leaf City Scrolls, and some other possibly useful stuff. MapleLegends also tweaked prices to be generally cheaper for arrows and quarrels, and made them stack more readily per-slot. So you have little excuse to use Soul Arrow in MapleLegends!

Spoiler: Footnotes for “Ammunition”

[1]: In MapleLegends: 2 mesos per unit (4k mesos for a ream of 2k units).

[2]: In MapleLegends: 5|8 (arrows|quarrels, respectively) mesos per unit (10k|16k mesos for a ream of 2k units).

[3]: In MapleLegends, diamond ammunition grants +5 WATK, not +4 WATK, and costs 10|16 (arrows|quarrels, respectively) mesos per unit (20k|32k mesos for a ream of 2k units).

[4]: In MapleLegends, all arrow types stack up to a maximum of five thousand units per slot.