Magician Updated Fire/Poison Mage: The Young Poisoner's Handbook

Disclaimer: The guide below does not reflect opinions of staff. It is my personal experience as a player.

This guide is meant to strategize and give guidance around the Poison aspect of Fire/Poison (F/P) mages. It will mostly only cover the poison aspects as it has gotten a major indirect buff. You can refer to other guides for detailed skill builds, gear, how to wash, etc.

Why Fire/Poison Mage?
If you're reading this guide, you probably don't need any more reason to choose Fire/Poison mage. If you really need a reason, you can choose from some of the following: they're cool, washing is straightforward, they're mostly self-sufficient, some bosses are great for F/P, they level fast, you can fart on your enemies in public.

Why this guide?
There has been a singular update that made F/Ps level insanely better towards the end of 2nd job and pre-mist:



That's right, a new training spot just dropped (Sept 2023 Balance). Since then, there doesn't seem to be any updates to new guides, so I'll just take it upon myself to write about this and my experiences.

AP Build
Most people will choose to go lukless. Basically, you'll just put all your points from leveling up into int. This guide won't distinguish between Luk vs Lukless builds, as you'll see Luk mages will actually have a small accuracy advantage explained later. The advantage is pretty small, so you'd probably want to just run full int anyway, but you won't need to reset your Luk to 4 immediately.

You can wash depending on how much NX you have saved. It's very easy and straightforward for mages, with most people recommending to start from 100 to 120. Again, refer to other guides for washing.

Spoiler: Early SP Build/Training (1 to 50s)

Can refer to this guide for leveling: https://forum.maplelegends.com/index.php?threads/exact-guide-for-1-35-in-under-6-hours.29751/

Beginner (lv 1-8): Maple Island. 1 point in beginner Recovery if you ever consider the chance to Pink Bean. Snail shell throw doesn't require shells, perfect for your noodle arms.

1st Job (8-30): Refer to guide above for questlines to do for fast leveling. If you need to fill the gaps, Teddies in Ludibrium and Genins in Ninja Castle are available from late 20s to beyond. Kerning PQ is fun and nostalgic too. Protip: Grilled Cheese from NLC are literally your pots forever (until Mana Bulls+Pizza).


Essential SP: 1 energy bolt>MP Recovery (3)>MaxMP Increase (MAX)>Magic Claw (MAX)>Magic Guard (MAX, can put points early for KPQ)

Early 2nd Job (30-50): You get access to poison, but it won't be useful until later. If you're funded and can leech, you can just max poison brace/teleport immediately. If not, you can max Fire Arrow first to train better. Ninja Castle Hallway 2 should be slightly better than just Genins, as both Ashigaru and Genin are fire weak and give good EXP. Ludi PQ (35-45/50) for nostalgia people. Lv 45 can start Ellin PQ, which is very good EXP-wise.
Cookie Cutter SP: 1 Teleport>30 Fire Arrow (MAX) >9 Teleport (end with 10)>30 Poison Brace (MAX at lv 53)

Magic Accuracy
Accuracy Calculator link (set to Magical): https://mrsoupman.github.io/Maple-ACC-calculator/

Once you have maxed poison brace, it's important to understand how magic accuracy works since poison brace requires you to not miss to proc the poison effect. Magic accuracy is based solely on your INT, LUK, and character level:

INT - gain accuracy every 10 total INT. Example: for the same level character, 250 INT has the same accuracy as 255 INT
LUK - same as INT, gained separately. Example: for the same level character, 250 INT/10 LUK has the same accuracy as 255 INT/19 LUK. Both INT and LUK are weighted equally for accuracy gains.
Level - You lose accuracy for each level you are below the monster's level. Since you will be fighting mobs that are way higher level, you will essentially be gaining accuracy through leveling.

I mentioned Luk mages have a small advantage, so this is where it is. Luk mages can get slightly more stats from their equips.

Spoiler: Accuracy Tables

Below, tables represent the total INT+LUK (each stat rounded down separately to base 10, example 276 INT/19 LUK becomes 270/10 = 280)

Death Teddy

You probably want at least a 30% hit rate to even consider this over Jr. Selkies (Ghost Ship 5) or Pirate PQ.

Gatekeeper

Honestly, you just need 1% hit rate to make this worth it.

For poison mist however, the poison proc chance no longer relies on accuracy, simply something like 1 chance each second the mob is within the cloud.

Poison Damage
Poison damage only depends on the level of your Poison Brace/Mist skill and the total HP of the mob in question. Damage does not depend on your INT or Magic Attack. Meaning, if you take the Accuracy section above, you get the most value out of INT/LUK and no value from Magic Attack. Feel free to use a washing wand, pure int cape, luk bathrobe, etc.

Spoiler: Poison Damage Table

Pulled from ancient ayumilove user research:

From the table, the notable levels are lv 30 (MAX, to reduce mob to 1hp) and perhaps lv 19. Level 19 is interesting because it's technically 2-hit poison, but it's not likely to matter for most scenarios.

Last Hitting
Note that the above poison damage can only bring the mob to 1hp. Early on, you won't need to worry about this since you need to hit poison brace anyway, then last hit with preferably magic claw (2 chances to hit).

However, once you get to Forest of Towers with maxed poison mist (no accuracy check), you'll need to enlist some help to last hit those mobs. Good choices include higher level priest (has HS), bishop (HS, genesis, no accuracy issues), any 4th job thief with taunt (+EXP, no accuracy issues). Other choices can be other ranged attackers (bow, gun, stars that have high accuracy), warrior with power guard (slower but no accuracy needed), chief bandit with meso explosion (no accuracy needed) but some struggle to keep up without movement options like teleport/flash jump/recoil shot.

Last hitters will get 1 EXP out of the party, roughly half if they are in the party, and around 62.5%(?) if they're in the party but poisoner is not present.

Poison Training (50s to 120+)
Now that there's a basic understanding of magic accuracy and poison damage, the next part is execution. Hopefully you have your Zakum helm, as it'll actually help a lot with accuracy, as well as other gears (Maple Warrior works too). If you can't train at Death Teddies well yet, consider Ellin PQ (45-55), Pirate PQ (55+), Ghost Ship 5 (Jr. Selkies weak to fire), or buying leech. Experience is usually compared using Experience Per Hour (EPH), though you might find that exp per minute is more useful since you'll be leveling so fast.

Rest of 2nd Job SP: Teleport (MAX), MP Eater (MAX), Meditation (MAX)

Death Teddy (DT)

You probably want at least a 30% hit rate to even consider this, as it is quite painful (potion-wise). Located on the right side of Path of Time. You want to try to do a clockwise loop around the map, poisoning mobs that haven't been poisoned and trying to last hit the 1hp mobs with Magic Claw (2 chances to not miss).

Spoiler: Accuracy table again

Consistently ~53 min per level on an ironman F/P with Pirate PQ helmet. It would of course be better when you have better gear and can do DTs earlier. Painful, but I don't think it's much more painful than other classes.

Spoiler: 1.79m EPH

Gatekeeper (GK)

Honestly, you just need 1% hit rate to make this worth it. Located at the end of the left side Path of Time from Ludibrium. Only 2 spawn per map, so it's manageable. If you manage to leash just one, you can teleport back and forth to keep it in the same spot while dodging its attacks. If you happen to leash just 1, you can use the FM button to try to spawn on the other side to poison the other one. Last hit when 1hp with Magic Claw. Once you have more accuracy and comfortable with poisoning 2, you can start to do multi-channel poisoning and returning to channels where the Gatekeeper is 1hp. You need to be in the channel/map to get the EXP. This is really insane EXP-wise.

Spoiler: Accuracy table again

You should hit lv 70 if you haven't already, and you'll continue to poison brace until you max Poison Mist (lv 80). You can even continue here if you can't find a partner for Forest of Towers, as you can now just mist -> poison -> change channel for an easy 6 channel training (if available).

Spoiler: Poison brace EPH, unfunded

Done on minimal gear (+PPQ helm) ironman. Absolutely bonkers still. Fastest level 11min, highest EPH 16.65m.

Spoiler: Poison Mist EPH, unfunded

Same ironman character, using mist at GK on 6 channels. 21.5m EPH.

3rd Job SP: 30 Poison Mist (MAX)>1 Eruption>11 Booster (or MAX)>29 Eruption (MAX)>Booster (MAX if you haven't)>Partial Resist (MAX)>Your choice of useless skills. Note that Poison Mist persists even if you leave the map, mobs stop moving when there are no players on the map, and mobs can still be poisoned if you have left the map.

Forest of Towers (FoT)

Also extremely busted map only plagued by a high level mob with high avoid. Located through Spinel ->China Mount Song Town->Take teleporter shortcuts (in spoiler)->Shaolin Temple Main Hall->Far Right Portal

Spoiler: Shortcut

Left side well->spawn on hidden teleporter (hold up)-> go to the right ledge for hidden portal

There are several great things about this map. It is completely flat, meaning you can just stay on the middle level and mist+tele across the whole map. When you reach the right side portal, it brings you back to the portal you entered on (wow convenient). You can rebuff with your last hitter just outside. You'll probably be able to do 2 channels with a partner. Mobs will 99% of the time be aggroed to you from taking poison damage (even if you don't explicitly hit them). The mobs also give a literal ton of EXP.

My highest EPM with a priest last hitter was 58m EPH, doing 2 channels.

Spoiler: 58m EPH

Spoiler: Full Ironman Poisoner Level History

Didn't include 1-40 since it's mostly just following the quest guide with some Genins mixed in. There are some 1-2F, 3-4F that I may have tested with guildies who couldn't hit/tank gold monks, so these are left out of the guide. 3-4F might be better than gatekeepers at a certain point, so I suppose that exercise is left up to the reader.

Well that's pretty much the end of the guide. I wrote these up pretty quick so there are probably errors or other secret esoteric knowledge I forgot about. For people building larger character infrastructures, I have included an extra section below highlighting some ideas.

Spoiler: Advanced Poison Strats

Leeching other characters while poison training: As you might notice, you gain just a ton of EXP from gatekeepers and beyond. As buying leech might be expensive and considerably slower, you can level other characters alongside your poison mage. They just can't be lower than 5 levels than your F/P mage doing the damage. For example, a level 65 F/P can leech EXP to any character lv 60+.

Mules: You can improve your EXP with Holy Symbol, improve accuracy with Maple Warrior (giving +% to base INT and LUK), improve drops and EXP with a 4th job thief with Taunt. If you have your own high-level character, you can just keep them out of the party for last hits so they don't leech any EXP. Remember that even having HS with 1 leecher is 10% better than solo without HS.

Below are highly optimized setups (single channel):

Spoiler: GK min accuracy, HS, taunt 30

At GK min accuracy, main attacker getting 7m eph, 2 leechers getting 3.5m eph (trio party getting 14m eph total), HS and taunt 30

Spoiler: GK good accuracy, HS, taunt 30

At GK decent accuracy, with FP swapping, 6.5m+8m+12m = 26.5m EXP over average time of 1hr 39m = 16m EPH total. Of course, might be missing some EXP since start/end EXP is extremely skewed, also drop trading gear can be optimized.

Spoiler: FoT, 4 in party, HS, Taunt 30

At FoT, main attacker 23.8m eph, 3 leechers getting 11.7m eph each (quad party getting 59m eph total), HS and taunt 30

Selling gatekeeper leech: You can really get some insane EPM at gatekeepers for the level. Thus, there is a way to make money by selling this EXP (leech). Since it is extremely competitive with GS/WR/CD leech, it should be pretty straightforward to sell package leech for things like 58+ (depending on your F/P gear for accuracy). Party EXP is calculated based on party damage done, the actual attacker does not have to be in the map for leechers to get EXP. So, the strat would be leash Gatekeepers in the middle (keep leechers safe on right portal), have FP poison, HS leechers, then last hit with only leechers on the map. FP can use FM to spawn on left/right side to poison if you want to save pots, FP shouldn't gain any EXP. Middle leash character prefer to be NL or shad with taunt 30, but warrior with stance also works well.

EPH should be around 4.3m split for lv 57+ using my lv 62 FP (geared-ish, MW20, HS, taunt 30)

Selling FoT leech (75+): Extremely competitive versus WS leech (even vs ulu2 leech with taunt 30, but drops eat cheeks). Requires no gear for FP. Same concept as gatekeeper leech except you keep the party on the archway above the right portal. FP mists the whole map, which aggros 99% of mobs to the right side. Then leave map on FP and last hit them with out of party hitter. Better with taunt 30. You can probably even maintain 2 channels if you have more than one HS, though last hit strat might struggle if they aren't clumped on right.

EPH should be around 16.2m split for lv 75+ (HS, taunt 30)

Other stuff
(Experimental) 2h FoT at lv 76 with lv 19 mist. Possible upgrade over gatekeepers.
(Experimental) Shaolin map 1 with bears. Lower avoid and level than DTs, but there are a lot of tiger swordsmen if you don't clear them. Doesn't seem feasible.

Spoiler: Last Update June 25, 2024

June 24, 2024: added EPH tests for optimized gatekeeper/FoT self-leech setup
June 25, 2024: better formatted, removed a lot of spoilers, added peak EPM for FoT, added note on last hitting, added some more pictures, added some level history to give estimated EPH (unfunded ironman char), added some EPH results for optimized setups, added EPH for leech selling (w/ taunt 30)