MapleStory/Thief Guide/Builds

=Builds=

Assassins and Luk Bandits
First, get Str and Int to 4/4. Everything not in Dex, goes in Luk.


 * Level 10: Dex 25
 * Level 15: Dex 30
 * Level 20: Dex 40
 * Level 25: Dex 50
 * Level 30: Dex 60
 * Level 35: Dex 70
 * Level 40: Dex 80
 * Level 50: Dex 90
 * Level 60: Dex 100
 * Level 70: Dex 110
 * Level 80: Dex 120
 * Level 90: Dex 130

The basic stat build for Assassins and LUK bandits goes like this:

LUK values are an estimate, according to a 4 STR & 4 INT starting roll

STR Bandit build
However, STR Bandits have an slightly different build:

1st Job
Classic Bandit build

There are two builds for bandits, one for starters with no money from other accounts, and one for spoiled brats with wealthy brethrens alongside in his/her owner's account.

Why the 1 point of Double Stab so early? Simple; You got a full mana bar! You might as well use it!

Alright, not much to say here. Nimble Body helps you avoid better at lower levels (further turning down your pot cost), and you won't have enough money to spam Double Stab at lower levels anyway. I recommend that you put only 3 points into Disorder (the prerequisite for Dark Sight) and put 18 points into Dark Sight. This is for two reasons: first, while disorder may seem nice at lower levels, it works on a "flat rate" of -20 weapon defense and attack against the monster you're fighting. Against a higher-level monster that already has defense and attack levels in the hundreds, -20 will hardly be noticable, let alone useful. Also, using Dark Sight adds a penalty to your speed, which not only slows you down but cancels any effect from the Haste skill you get in second job. If you get level 18 Dark Sight while in first job, you will be able to put two points into it later for maximum (level 20) Dark Sight -- which has no speed penalty! Now you can zip through hordes of monsters unscratched, and still with your wonderful Haste.


 * Wealthy Variation: Those who have lots of money can get 20 Double Stab at lower levels, and just spam mana pots like no tomorrow. 14 MP for an average of about 120 damage isn't exactly cheap, but hey, you're wealthy, spoiled, and rolling in mana pots, you don't care. See above for arguments between Disorder and Dark Sight. Then you get Nimble Body. Levels 24-30 are the same.

Banditsin Build

2nd Job

 * Dagger Mastery (19)
 * Savage Blow (30)
 * Dagger Booster (5)
 * Haste (20)
 * Endure (20)
 * Dagger Booster (15)
 * Dark Sight/Disorder/Steal/Whatever (12)

A variation of this build is to max Savage Blow first, then Mastery and 5 booster. Let's compare the damage of two level 40 bandits with 130 LUK, 80 DEX, 5 STR, and a 52 attack dagger, one using 15% mastery max Savage Blow, one using 60% mastery double stab:

60% mastery Double Stab: Min damage 455, Max damage 746, Average Damage 601, MP cost 16, Damage/MP efficiency: 37.5 dmg/MP

15% Mastery Savage Blow: Min damage 370, Max Damage 1377.6, Average Damage 874, MP Cost 27, Damage/MP efficiency: 32.4 dmg/MP

You can see from here that if you max Mastery First, your damage will be below those who max Savage Blow first. However, your damage will also be quite stable, and your damage/MP efficiency is higher. Savage Blow first will net you bigger damage, but slightly inferiority in damage/MP efficiency and attack speed. Which one to max first, Mastery or Savage Blow, is up to you, although I'd suggest poorer players to max Mastery First.

1st Job
There are two builds for assassins, one for starters with no money from other accounts, and one for people who already have a reasonable amount of money from other accounts.

Keen Eyes is a must-max. You MUST have range to train efficiently. 10 points in lucky seven helps you to be able to kill things left and right in pig beach (which is actually pretty profitable), and you max Lucky Seven at level 25, at a point where you can train on green mushrooms. Disorder is nearly useless for assassins since it forces you to go melee.

Why the 1 point of Lucky Sevens so early? Simple; You got a full mana bar! You might as well use it!


 * Wealthy Build variation: Max Lucky Seven after Keen Eyes but before Nimble Body. Then, buy lots and lots of blue potions and spam Lucky Seven. This will allow you to train on tougher monsters, although you probably won't be able to 1 hit green mushrooms efficiently at that level without good stars. I wouldn't suggest this unless you're rich enough to have good attack gloves, as well as kumbis/icicles.


 * In-the-middle alternative: Get Lucky Seven to around 10 before maxing Nimble Body, after Keen Eyes. You can 1HKO pigs and 2HKO ribbon pigs consistently with L7 at level 17, which isn't too hard on your money. Good if you want to level fast without spending a hell of a lot of mesos.

2nd Job

 * Mastery (5)
 * Booster (5)
 * Critical Throw (30) [MAX]
 * Haste (20) [MAX]
 * Mastery (15)
 * Endure (3)
 * Drain (30)
 * Booster (10)
 * Endure/Booster (12)

Endure or Booster?
Now, most people will think Booster is better than Endure. But is it really so?

Mathematically, more Endure will save you more money on MP Pots, albeit on a pretty slight scale. First of all, let's remember that Booster's effectiveness is not affected by the skill level, which affects the HP/MP cost and duration only. HP cost is a non-issue with Drain, so let's focus on the MP Cost.


 * Level 3 Endure, Level 18 Booster: Booster's duration is 180 seconds, cost 12 MP, and in 180 seconds you will recover 108 MP. The amount of MP gain per 10 seconds is 5.1 MP/10 seconds.
 * Level 10 Endure, Level 11 Booster: Booster's duration is 110 seconds, cost 19 MP, and in 110 seconds you will recover 143 MP. The amount of MP gain per 10 seconds is 11.3 MP/10 seconds.
 * Level 15 Endure, Level 6 Booster: Booster's duration is 60 seconds, cost 24 MP, and in 60 seconds you will recover 108 MP. The amount of MP gain per 10 seconds is 14 MP/10 seconds.
 * Level 16 Endure, Level 5 Booster: Booster's duration is 50 seconds, cost 25 MP, and in 50 seconds you will recover 95 MP. The amount of MP gain per 10 seconds is 14 MP/10 seconds.

As you can see from above, with more points in Endure and less points in Booster, the amount of MP you gain per 10 seconds is mathematically superior (until you have less than 5 points in Booster). However, frequent stops to do "booster" makes people nervous and feels like a waste of 'time'. Since 5 points in Booster and 16 points in Endure really has the same effectiveness as 6 points in Booster and 15 points in Endure, it is prefered to do have a max of 15 Endure so that you can keep 6 Booster.

Regardless of your choice, keep in mind you need at least 3 points in Endure to unlock Drain.

Actually, the calculations neglect the benefits of booster, with booster, the thief can attack a LOT faster and earn more mesos in a shorter period of time. The mesos earned can easily be used to buy mana potions. Monsters that are level 35 and above are easily killed by level 40+ thief and even faster with booster. The mesos dropped by these monsters are normally 100 mesos and above. If the thief can kill the monster in 2 hits of lucky seven with booster, the amount of mesos earned is to mana used ratio is 48 : 100(not counting the mana booster used up as in 180 seconds, the thief with out endure can already heal 12 MP.) with every 200 mesos, the thief can buy 1 blue potion the heals 100 mana, so it is more worth adding booster.
 * The calculations do NOT neglect booster's effects, they merely show the MP gain over time with varying levels of Endure and Booster. Booster has the same speed bonus from level 1-20, so the calculations are valid. -EMP Demon

=Anti-Builds= These are a collection of builds that look great on paper but don't work in practice.

Low Dex Thief
If you have been playing for a while, know how to make mesos and find the best training spots for your character, then try to do this type of characters.

Thief with 25 dex and only add LUK

Thief Build (to be merged)
In becoming a bandit, you will get 61 skill points (1 at lvl 10, and 3 at each level up until level 30). To have a rich character, your skills are best distributed as follows:


 * LVL 10: 1 Nimble Body (1)
 * LVL 11: 3 Nimble Body (4)
 * LVL 12: 3 Nimble Body (7)
 * LVL 13: 3 Nimble Body (10)
 * LVL 14: 3 Nimble Body (13)
 * LVL 15: 3 Nimble Body (16)
 * LVL 16: 3 Nimble Body (19)
 * LVL 17: 1 Nimble Body (20, Maxed); 2 Double Stab (2)
 * LVL 18: 3 Double Stab (5)
 * LVL 19: 3 Double Stab (8)
 * LVL 20: 2 Double Stab (10);1 Saved SP (1)
 * LVL 21: 3 Saved SP (4)
 * LVL 22: 3 Saved SP (7)
 * LVL 23: 10 Double Stab (20, Maxed)
 * LVL 24: 3 Disorder (3)
 * LVL 25: 3 Dark Sight (3)
 * LVL 26: 3 Dark Sight (6)
 * LVL 27: 3 Dark Sight (9)
 * LVL 28: 3 Dark Sight (12)
 * LVL 29: 3 Dark Sight (15)
 * LVL 30: 3 Dark Sight (18)

The reason that this setup makes you rich is that Nimble Body increases your avoidability by 20 at only level 17. This means that slimes will do either 1 or 0 damage to you, eliminating the need for potions as you fight slimes. They drop a fair amount of money each, which builds up to a healthy amount of money resting in your inventory by the time Double Stab costs 14 Mana. Since Double Stab begins to cost 14 Mana instead of 7 Mana once it is level 11, it is best to save skill points until you can level Double Stab all the way to 20, rather than have the inefficient use of 80% damage per strike costing double the mana that 75% damage per strike costs. After maxing Double Stab, you can either get Disorder or Dark Sight. Since Double stab is used until the mid 30's of levels, where it is replaced by Savage Blow, Disorder is relatively useless except to deter monsters from attacking. The three levels required to gain levels in Dark Sight is sufficient to accomplish this task, so Dark Sight is the better choice to level to 18. After leveling to 30, you become a bandit and need the following skills:


 * LVL 30: 1 Dagger Mastery (1)
 * LVL 31: 3 Dagger Mastery (4)
 * LVL 32: 3 Dagger Mastery (7)
 * LVL 33: 3 Dagger Mastery (10)
 * LVL 34: 3 Dagger Mastery (13)
 * LVL 35: 3 Dagger Mastery (16)
 * LVL 36: 3 Dagger Mastery (19)
 * LVL 37: 3 Savage Blow (3)
 * LVL 38: 3 Savage Blow (6)
 * LVL 39: 3 Savage Blow (9)
 * LVL 40: 3 Savage Blow (12)
 * LVL 41: 3 Savage Blow (15)
 * LVL 42: 3 Savage Blow (18)
 * LVL 43: 3 Savage Blow (21)
 * LVL 44: 3 Savage Blow (24)
 * LVL 45: 3 Savage Blow (27)
 * LVL 46: 3 Savage Blow (30, Maxed)
 * LVL 47: 3 Dagger Booster (3)
 * LVL 48: 2 Dagger Booster (5); 1 Haste (1)
 * LVL 49: 3 Haste (4)
 * LVL 50: 3 Haste (7)
 * LVL 51: 3 Haste (10)
 * LVL 52: 3 Haste (13)
 * LVL 53: 3 Haste (16)
 * LVL 54: 3 Haste (19)
 * LVL 55: 1 Haste (20, Maxed); 1 Endure (1); 1 Dagger Booster (6)
 * LVL 56: 3 Dagger Booster (9)
 * LVL 57: 3 Dagger Booster (12)
 * LVL 58: 3 Dagger Booster (15)
 * LVL 59: 3 Dagger Booster (18)
 * LVL 60: 3 Dagger Booster (20, Maxed); 1 Endure (2)
 * LVL 61: 3 Endure (5)
 * LVL 62: 3 Endure (8)
 * LVL 63: 3 Endure (11)
 * LVL 64: 3 Endure (14)
 * LVL 65: 3 Endure (17)
 * LVL 66: 3 Endure (20, Maxed)
 * LVL 67: 1 Dagger Mastery (20, Maxed); 2 Dark Sight (20, Maxed)
 * LVL 68: 3 Disorder (6)
 * LVL 69: 3 Disorder (9)
 * LVL 70: 3 Disorder (12)

The reason that you start with Dagger Mastery, and not the much higher regarded Savage Blow is that Dagger mastery increases your mastery. This plays a very large role in determining minimum damage. If you do 1 to 1000 damage, you are good, but you are not very useful. If you do 800 to 900 damage, you will be much more useful. That is why Dagger Mastery is a must. However, it is only on odd numbered levels that the actual mastery increases, so it is not until the other useful skills have all been maxed, at LVL 67, when you gain the final bonus to your accuracy. In addition, witholding that single skill point lets you have 6 attacks at LVL 43 instead of LVL 44. This means that you will do much more damage a whole level earlier than what is normally possible. After maxing out Savage Blow, you will be very powerful, doing nearly 5 times as much damage as you do with a normal attack. A small amount of Dagger Booster is then appropriate, to increase the speed with which you can use Savage Blow on enemies. Haste is, however, then necessary to join parties with. After maxing out Haste, you have all of the useful skills that are needed as soon as possible. There is more choice, but the recommended setup is to get a single level of Endure at LVL 55 to have the ability to heal on ropes, even if it is very slow. Then Dagger Booster can be maxed out to decrease the mana cost and increase the length of time for which it is effective. Endure can then be made more powerful, Dagger Mastery maxed out, Dark Sight from being a Rogue maxed out, and then Disorder made more powerful for whatever reason. The skill Steal, seemingly a hallmark of being a Bandit, is not mentioned in this guide. This is because Steal is utterly useless. To use, you must attack at a lower power than your normal attack. You then get a % chance equal to your level in the skill, up to 30 to have the enemy drop the item they were going to drop anyway if you had killed them. It is a waste of 30 skill points, and is more useless than Disorder, which is pretty useless in itself. That is why it is neglected.

Leveling abilities is simple for a thief until about level 50. When first rolling your character, you do not look for high numbers. Instead, you want 4 STR and 4 INT. If you are going to become a STR bandit, then you only need 4 INT and need not worry about any of the other statistics. However, since a luck bandit is more powerful, the statistics required for a STR bandit will not be detailed. Assuming you have 4 STR and 4 INT, at level 10 you should have exactly 25 DEX and 37 LUK. LUK plays a larger role in determining damage than DEX or STR, so it gains all the extra AP you gain after the minimum requirements to wear the thief equipment at each level. The requirements, until level 40, for DEX is to have it being twice your level. The levels 12, 17, 22,27, etc that have a LUK dagger for them also require a level up in DEX 5. In essence, after level 10, at every second and fifth level, you should raise DEX 5. Every other level, LUK should be raised by 5. Therefore, the stat increases should look as follows:


 * LVL 10: DEX 25, LUK 37
 * LVL 11: DEX 25, LUK 42
 * LVL 12: DEX 25, LUK 47
 * LVL 13: DEX 25, LUK 52
 * LVL 14: DEX 25, LUK 57
 * LVL 15: DEX 30, LUK 57
 * LVL 16: DEX 30, LUK 62
 * LVL 17: DEX 35, LUK 62
 * LVL 18: DEX 35, LUK 67

...etc.

By level 40, you should have 80 DEX and 132 LUK. At this point, you need only increase your DEX by five at every seventh and tenth level. Therefore, at level 47, 50, 57, 60, 67, and 70; your DEX should increase by 5. At every other level, LUK should be increased by 5. If this is followed through, at level 70 you should have 110 DEX and 247 LUK.

The reason that DEX is kept to the bare minimum is that it plays a much smaller role in determining damage than LUK for a thief. The formula to find maximum damage is

(LUK * 0.9 + (DEX + STR) * 0.25) / 25 * Weapon Atk.

Minimum damage is found using a slightly different formula that involves mastery.

(LUK * 3.24 * Mastery + DEX + STR) / 100 * Weapon Atk.

Assuming you are a Claw Rogue or LUK Dagger Rogue, STR is not needed for your equipment. It can be kept at 4 with INT, which plays no role whatsoever in determining damage. DEX does play a very small role in finding damage, and is needed for equipment, so is slightly useful. It is LUK that makes a thieves damage higher, however.