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[Draft] Smartguy's Guide on How to Save Mesos - TheSmartGuy - 2008-09-28
Introduction
Hi, I’m TheSmartGuy/smartguy11/AznLuster11 of Broa and this is my guide on how to SAVE mesos. No, not “make” mesos. SAVE. Now some of you make think that you’re soooo freaking smart and that you don’t need this guide. If you are one of those people, please go away. Or leave a comment; either is good.
Anyways, if you follow this guide, you’ll be able to use the mesos you saved to buy a bunch of Frylock and Meatwads!
Training
In Maplestory, training is the basic stepping stone in the common Mapler’s path to awesomeness. But if you’re not careful, training can prove to be a huge money drainer too. In the following section, I will teach how to save some mesos while training.
Potions
Once you’re beyond level 20, it’s nearly impossible to train without using potions. They are extremely important to the whole concept of training. But if you’re not careful, potions will quickly burn a hole in your pocket. The purpose of this section is to prevent that from happening.
Health and Mana Potions
For Maplers who are level 50+, New Leaf City will be the best place to buy HP and MP potions. Period. Below is a list of the best deals in the NLC potion shop:
- Barbarian Elixir: Heals 1500 HP for1500 mesos
- Sorcerer Elixir: Heals 1500 MP for 1500 mesos
- Mana Bull: Heals 60% of your MP for 2800 mesos
- Honster: Heals 60% HP for 2800 mesos
- Ginseng Root: Heals 40% HP and MP for 2100 mesos
- Ginger Ale: Heals 75% HP and MP for 3800 mesos
- Grilled Cheese: Heals 500 HP and MP and adds +20 weapon defense for 30 minutes for 1000 mesos
- Supreme Pizza: Heals 900 HP and 600 MP for 1100 mesos
- Waffle: Heals 300 HP and 300 MP for 600 mesos
When these are compared to the approximate values of regular potions:
- Red Potion: Heals 50 HP for 50 mesos
- Blue Potion: Heals 100 MP for 190-200 mesos
- Orange Potion: Heals 150 HP for 160 mesos
- White Potion: Heals 300 HP for 320 mesos
- Mana Elixir: Heals 300 MP for 590-620 mesos
- Unagi: Heals 1000 HP for 1100 mesos
- Pure Water: Heals 800 MP for 1600-1700 mesos
Attack Potions
You can’t be very cheap when it comes to attack potions. But if you just HAVE to save some money, Warrior Pills (available in Ludibrium) will give you 5 attack for 10 minutes for only 500 mesos. They’re a great deal for those who don’t mind a few points cut from their attack.
If you need a lot of attack strength but are still unwilling to buy one of those expensive Warrior Elixirs from NLC, use Ciders (from Showa). They add 20 weapon attack for 3 minutes and only cost 1000 mesos each. Unfortunately, they take up one entire slot per potion, so you’re going to need a lot of extra “use” inventory space. And getting to Zipangu and back every time will get pretty pricy, too. Still, as long as you buy at least 8 ciders every time, it’ll be worth your money.
What to Train On
If you’re not careful enough, training will cost you a whole crapload of money, no matter how smart you are at potion buying. Not every map cuts it when you’re trying to save money. However, certain maps have distinct features that can be used to distinguish whether it’s good for money-saving or not. Here are a few features that MIGHT be signs of a money-saving map:
- The map includes monsters that you can 1-hit KO. This is good because easy to kill monsters are less likely to damage you then ones that take several hits to be killed.
- The map includes monsters with no magic attacks. Magic attacks are much harder to avoid than touch damage, since their ranged and sometimes unavoidable.
- The map includes monsters with 1 knockback. You’ll take less damage if you can easily hit back attacking monsters.
- The map includes monsters that frequently drop potions. If you use the potions that you pick up, you can cut than potion costs by nearly 30%.
- The map includes monsters that drop exchange quest/other popular quest items. These trinkets can be sold in the Free Market for quite a bit and will help turn your training into profit.
- The map includes several sniping spots. As long as the monsters you’re training on have no magic attacks, they won’t be able to hit you from a sniping spot.
Party Quests
Party quests are repeatable quests that can only be done with a party of people. I personally recommend you do a party-quest instead of train. Why? Read on.
Why you should do a party quest instead of train
Party quests tend to require fewer potions than regular training. When you train, all you do is kill monsters. Naturally, killing all those monsters will drain your potions. Now enter the concept of the party quest. Though many PQs (short for party quest) also require you to kill monsters, they often include extra stages where you have to solve puzzles, do jump quests, and complete other tasks that don’t require potion usage. And with less potion usage, you will save money.
Also, almost all PQs give you some kind of reward. Sometimes it’s a scroll, sometimes it’s a piece of equipment, and sometimes it’s just more potions. But no matter what reward you get, you will (always) break even. In fact, you’ll GAIN money most of the time. Making money off of training is much harder since good drops are difficult to get and, like I said before, potions usage is very high.
An analysis on all currently released PQs
To make things a bit easier for you, I’ve written a section that analyzes the money-saving ability of all currently released PQs in GMS. Enjoy (or not)!
Henesyes Party Quest (Level 10+): This PQ has no reward, but unless your party REALLY sucks, you won’t spend any potions either. Basically, you’ll break even here. But it’s still better than training.
Kerning Party Quest (Level 21-30): Kerning PQ is the first (and probably the best) money-making opportunity for low-level players. The rewards are good, especially if you land an expensive scroll for overall dex. The potion usage is moderate (especially in the first stage), but it’s nothing to be frantic about.
Monster Carnival (Level 30-50): Monster Carnival is the king of money-saving PQs. In fact, it’s the king of PQs in EVERY category. Where shall I start? First of all, you don’t spend any potions at all (you can only use special potions that can specifically from the quest). Secondly, you can make a Gephert (which can be NPCed for 150k) with only 7 Maple Coins (special items dropped by monsters in the PQ) OR a Spiegelmann Necklace with 50 Maple Coins. And last of all, the experience you get from here is actually good. In fact, screw that last statement. The experience you get from here is FREAKING AMAZING.
Ludibrium Party Quest (Level 35-50): Ludi PQ is totally old-school. Nowadays, everyone goes for Monster Carnival. But that doesn’t mean this PQ won’t save you money. As long as your party can successfully kill Alishar in less than 5 minutes, potion costs will be miniscule. And the prizes for Ludi PQ range from weapon attack scrolls (worth a lot) to mana potions (which will let you break even).
Amoria Party Quest (Level 40+): This PQ is only for married Maplers. And if you can afford to spend 30 dollars on marriage in an internet game, you shouldn’t need to be reading this guide right now.
Orbis Party Quest (Level 51-70): This section only covers full Orbis PQ. Rush PQ does not give any prizes. At all. Orbis PQ can drain your potions if you’re not careful. The stages are many, and Papa Pixie can be pretty painful. But if you’re pro and you know what you’re doing, potion usage shouldn’t be much of an issue. The values of the rewards in this PQ vary greatly. You could get a bunch of lame sapphire ores, OR you could get lucky and win a scroll for claw attack. It depends. But no matter what, this PQ isn’t that bad of a choice for those who want to save cash. Too bad the experience you get from it sucks.
Ludibrium Maze Party Quest (Level 51-70): Ludi Maze is ingenious. It’s the only PQ I know where you can MAKE money from NPCing its prizes. That’s right. Ludi Maze PQ gives out potions (and a few cheap scrolls) as prices. The potions aren’t worth much, but since the PQ can be finished in less than 2 minutes it adds up. Plus, potion usage is nearly nonexistent. You’ll be make 3 mil+ an hour anyways.
Zakum Party Quest Part 1(Level 50+): Part 1 of the Zakum Quest technically isn’t a party quest, but I’ll include it in here anyways. Let’s start with potions: A few white potions/unagis are needed to survive annoying traps, but besides that you won’t be spending much money. No one ever does this quest for the experience; it’s all about the quest’s rewards: Dead Mine Scrolls. These can be sold for 200-250k each in the Free Market, so you can easily make a lot of money doing this quest.
Herb Town Party Quest/ Pirate Party Quest (Level 55-100): Blehhhhhhhhh. This PQ sucks, experience AND money-wise. It gives no sellable reward at all and your potions will probably be pretty drained after a few encounters with Lord Pirate and his minions. Just avoid this one.
Where to Buy
The location of where you buy something in Maplestory will usually affect its price. Oftentimes, buying an item from a rarely visited area will cost less than buying the exact same item from an extremely popular area. The reason for comes from the regular person’s addiction to convenience. Where would you rather buy a soda: from the gas station down the street or from that superstore 20 miles down the freeway? The superstore will probably sell the soda for less than the gas station, but most people aren’t willing to travel 20 miles for something as insignificant as a cold soft drink. The same concept (more or less) applies in Maplestory.
Basil Market
Basilmarket is a Maplestory auction site that’s based on the concept of EBay. If you’re looking for a specific item, then Basilmarket is the place to go.
Why Basilmarket?
Now, you may be wondering why you should use Basilmarket instead of the Free Market. Well, one of the main reasons is that Basilmarket prices tend to be cheaper than those of the Free Market. A scroll that costs 5 million mesos in the Free Market will probably only cost about 4.6-4.7 million mesos on Basil. This is because buying things from Basil is less convenient than buying them from the FM. In the FM, when you see an item that you want, you simply double click on it and BAM. You’ve bought the item. In Basilmarket, you must place a bid to obtain an item being auctioned and wait for the auction to end, which can take up to 3 days. Then you must wait for the seller to contact you over Maplestory. This can take up to a week to happen. And sometimes, the seller never contacts you at all. Because of all these factors, you should never use Basil for a desperately needed item that you cannot wait for. Nor should you use Basil for deflation-prone items such as equips from an event or a new release.
Basilmarket becomes most handy when you’re searching for a specific item. If you want a 50 attack blue scarab and use Basil, all you need to do is check the “Claw” auctions, which takes a matter of seconds. If you want a 50 attack blue scarab and use the Free Market, you’ll need to browse through shops for hours. You might not even find one. So which is better: 2 minutes on Basil and a week or so of waiting or countless hours of painstaking FM browsing?
Short summary for the lazy people: Use Basilmarket if your character is searching for a specific item and doesn’t mind waiting a week or so to get it.
Free Market
The Free Market is a place accessible by most towns where you can buy items from other Maplers. People open stores here to sell their items. There is one Free Market per channel; most people are in the Channel 1 Free Market.
Why Use the Free Market?
Like I said in the “Why Basil?” section, it’s more convenient to buy items from the Free Market than it is to buy from Basil. When you see an item in the FM that you want, you simply double click on it and BAM. You’ve bought the item.
The Free Market is most helpful when you urgently need a common item (i.e. Scroll for Glove ATK 60%). It’s easier to buy a common item from the FM than it is to buy it from Basilmarket. Most of the time all you need to do is browse through one or two dozen shops. However, I don’t recommend you use this method to purchase less-common items such as scrolled equipment. This is due to several reasons. First of all, unless you’re willing to spend Nexon Cash on an Owl of Minerva, it is extremely hard to find rare items in the FM. You will probably have to spend 3+ hours doing painstaking browsing before you even find what you’re looking for. Secondly, even if you DO find what you’re looking for, it’ll probably be extremely overpriced. So unless you’re willing to pay up to 25% above market price for your desired item, you will probably have to keep searching. In the end, it can take you up to 9 HOURS of browsing to find the right item at the right price in the FM.
Short summary for lazy people: The Free Market is best if your character looking for a common item and is willing to pay a little extra for it.
Buying Strategies for the Free Market
- Avoid buying from people level 30 and under. Low-level sellers usually have a higher-level main character who knows the prices.
- Avoid buying from anyone in a merchant guild. To join most merchant guilds, you have to have at least several hundred million mesos. Anyone with that many mesos definitely knows how much everything costs. Note: Merchant guild names are usually related to money, stores and the FM (i.e. Bestbuy, NeoShop, Merchants, WeOwnTheFM).
- Don’t buy that item you wanted from the first person you see. The mathematical probability of getting a good deal from buying like that is very low. Browse around; check if there are any better deals (there probably are).
- Don’t buy from FM 1-6. The prices there are absolutely outrageous. I have NEVER found a good deal in any of those 6 rooms.
- Before you start browsing, check the Basilmarket price of the item you want to buy. The Free Market price is usually 20% higher than the Basil price. For example, say you wanted a scroll that costs 2 million mesos on Basil. That means it’ll cost about 2.4-2.5 million mesos in the FM. It is highly suggested you do NOT buy the scroll for more than that. I don’t care if all the shops are selling it for 4 million mesos. If you can’t find a good deal in Free Market, you might as well go to Basil. Waiting 5 days is better than getting ripped off 2 million mesos.
- Don’t buy anything right after a patch unless you’re absolutely sure about what got added. If you’re not careful, a good patch can screw over your savings. Back in 2007, the release of the New Leaf City quest “Subani’s Legacy” lowered the price of glove attack scrolls by a whopping 66%. If you had bought one of those scrolls right after the patch for its original 6 million mesos, you would’ve lost 4 million mesos by the end of the week.
When to Buy
Timing when to buy an item is just as important as where you buy it. Inflation and deflation can screw over your meso inventory if you’re not careful.
Event and Newly Released Items
You log to Maplestory a few days after the patch and see a bunch of people with cool items you’ve never seen before. You want them too! So you rush into the FM and… STOP.
One of the most important rules in Maplestory penny-pinching is to NEVER buy an event/newly released item right after it comes out. The prices of these trinkets are horribly inflated during the first few days of the event/release/whatever. Wait a few weeks; it’ll pay off, especially if you’re targeting an event item (event items can fall up to 90% in price during the first 2-3 weeks). For example, the price of a Versalmus Cactus on the first day of the Christmas Event was nearly 8 million mesos. By the end of the second week, the price had fallen to 2.5 million mesos. At the end of the event, it was worth a mere 1 million mesos. If you had bought a cactus on the first day, you would’ve lost 7 million mesos by the end of December.
Of course, you’ll usually have to wait longer than 2 or 3 weeks for the prices of non-event items (i.e. Gachapon items and quest rewards) to lower. Deflation of those stuff like that can take an entire year to happen! But you probably won’t need these new items immediately, anyways. And even if you do, I still recommend waiting a few weeks before buying; it’ll pay off in the end.
Inflation and How to Beat It
According to dictionary.com, inflation is “a persistent, substantial rise in the general level of prices related to an increase in the volume of money and resulting in the loss of value of currency”. Though inflation is most heart-wrenching when it occurs in the real world, Maplestory has it too (believe it or not). The actual cause of MS inflation is unknown (or at least in dispute), but that’s not important. The important thing is that there is Maplestory deflation, too. Deflation of the entire MS economy is rarer than inflation, but it does happen. And you can use it to your advantage if you get the timing right.
If you want to buy a PAC for 50 million mesos and know that prices are currently inflated, wait a few months; if you’re lucky, the price of the cape will fall down over 20 million mesos. It’s still ok to buy non-inflatable items such as potions and small purchases such as a new set of un-scrolled earrings during periods of inflation, but generally you should keep as much of your money in your inventory as possible.
What to Buy
When and where to buy items are both important topics, but the best money-saving opportunities come from behind the scene: choosing what you want to purchase in the first place. That’s when a little thing called “cost vs. performance” comes into the picture. Sure, you can always buy your character a set of clean Facestompers for 170 million mesos. But did you know that bowmen can get nearly the same performance from a set of 7 dex snowshoes for 50 million mesos? Or that a warrior can get nearly the same performance from a 12 strength top for 60 million mesos? Even the cost-burden assassin can save nearly 100 million mesos upgrading from Steelys to Ilbis instead of buying a set of FS. If you always do a “cost vs. performance” analysis before buying, I guarantee you will save money. Maybe you’ll save 1 million mesos, or maybe you’ll save an entire 100 million mesos.
Buying Your Items Prescrolled
Let’s say you want to scroll your 68 attack Maple Scorpio with seven 60% polearm attack scrolls. Each scroll costs 1 million mesos, and the Scorpio costs 500k. The total cost of your venture will be 7.5 million mesos. Here are the chances of every possible outcome for your scrolling project:
Basilmarket Scrolling Referenc Wrote:1 success out of 7 trials: 1.72032%Now if you get 3 of your 7 scrolls work (the 3rd most likely result), the Scorpio will have 74 attack and be worth about 1 million mesos. That means you would have saved 6.5 million mesos if you had bought your polearm prescrolled. If you get 5 of your 7 scrolls to work (the 2nd most likely result), the Scorpio will have 78 attack and be worth about 5 million mesos. That means you would have saved 2.5 million mesos if you had bought your polearm prescrolled. If you get 4 of your 7 scrolls to worth (the most likely result), the Scorpio will have 76 attack and be worth about 2 million mesos. That means you would have saved 5.5 million mesos if you bought your polearm prescrolled.
2 successes out of 7 trials: 7.74144%
3 successes out of 7 trials: 19.3536%
4 successes out of 7 trials: 29.0304%
5 successes out of 7 trials: 26.12736%
6 successes out of 7 trials: 13.06368%
7 successes out of 7 trials: 2.79936%
ALL THREE of the most likely results would have caused you to lose money. When you add up their percentages it approximates at 74%. That’s pretty bad. And don’t forget the lingering 8% chance of getting just 1 or 2 scrolls to work! In the end, there is a whopping EIGHTY-TWO PERCENT probability that you would’ve lost money. In fact, the only way you could have possibly gained any money was if you got 6 or more scrolls to work on your Scorpio. Chances of that? Approximately 18%. That’s right. There was only an 18% chance that you would’ve gained money from scrolling your Maple Scorpio. The lesson of this section: Buy prescrolled. Period.
You paid HOW much?!
Let’s take an example: Joe Shmoe is a hermit who just reached level 100. In the past few months, he has obtained a variety of great equips, including a Zhelm, 11 attack WG, 10 dex earrings, and 25 dex bathrobe. Now all he needs is a claw. After selling his 55 attack Scarab and adding up his savings, he gets 700 million mesos and encounters two great Red Cravens on Basilmarket. One of them is 58 attack and costs 500 million mesos, and the other one is 60 attack and costs 700 million mesos. Which one should he buy?
Most people would jump for the 60 attack one. However, that (in most aspects) is the wrong answer. Now if you were REALLY loaded (which some of you are), the 60 attack Craven might be worth it. But in most peoples’ case, it isn’t. First of all, 2 attack points isn’t enough to compensate for 200 million mesos. Joe Shmoe could have just upgraded his 11 attack WG to 13 attack SCG, which would give the same effect for nearly 50 million mesos less. And secondly, if he had bought the 700 mil Craven he would’ve spent all his money. That means he wouldn’t even be able to TRAIN! It could take weeks for him to make enough cash to buy enough potions.
Cost vs. Performance doesn’t just apply for hundred-million meso purchases, though. There are cheap alternatives for everything from PACs to dex bathrobes! I call these alternatives item substitutions. Item substitutions are generally as good (or almost as good) as their more common counterparts, but are less popular for specific reasons. These “reasons” range from shortage of potential users to rarity and lack of slots.
Common Item Substitutions
Popular (and overpriced) item | Substitute
1 attack Pink Adventurer Cape | 8-12 STR 2 DEX 6 speed Sirius Cloak
1-2 attack Pink Adventurer Cape | 2-3 attack Black Raggedy Cape
1-2 attack Pink Adventurer Cape | 2-3 attack Pink Adventurer Cape with no slots
1-3 attack Pink Adventurer Cape | 10-15 STR Goblin Cape (warriors only)
3-4 attack Pink Adventurer Cape | Taru Cape (warriors only)
Facestompers | Snowshoes scrolled for DEX (bowmen only)
Facestompers | Facestompers with 0 slots
Sauna/Bathrobe scrolled for luck | Level 50-80 thief top scrolled for luck (thieves only)
Sauna/Bathrobe scrolled for DEX | Blue Chainmail scrolled for DEX (warriors only)
Overall scrolled for STR | Level 50-90 warrior top scrolled for STR (warriors only)
10-20 LUK shield | 2-6 attack shield (thieves only)
10+ attack shield | Khanjar (STR bandits only)
15+ attack shield | Dragon Khanjar (STR bandits only)
Work Glove scrolled for attack | Class-specific glove scrolled for attack
Zakum Helm | Lord Pirate’s Hat (4)
3-5 LUK Brown Bamboo Hat | Goblin Cap (poor dexless assassins only)
Silver Deputy Star | +90 HP and MP Spiegelmann Necklace
Gold Dragon | Maple Snowboard (polearm DKs only)
Shinobi Bracer | Maple Skanda (dexless assassins only)
Class Specific Money-Saving Advice
The following is advice that only applies to certain jobs. Some sections will have more information than others.
Advice for Warriors
- The Goblin Cape (+5 STR, 5 slots) can be obtained by finishing the quest “Goblin at Black Mountain”. Scroll it with five 100% STR scrolls and you’ve got a cape comparable to a scrolled 1 ATT PAC (which costs 6 times more!).
- Instead of a 4 attack PAC, you can buy a Taru Cape (3 attack, +5 strength) for only two-thirds the price.
- ALWAYS use sniper pills while training. They’re an easy way to get 10 accuracy for almost no cost at all.
- Don’t use Slash Blast unless there are at least 3 monsters.
Advice for Spearmen
- If you’re a Hybrid, set your points into Final Attack instead of booster. The skill is basically a free Power Strike once maxed out. It might slow down your training, though.
- Use Iron Will. It’s not even close to as good as Power Guard, but the damage difference is still noticeable…
- Use polearms instead of spears. They’re much cheaper to buy and scroll.
- Do not use Dragon Blood. Its HP and MP drain makes the cost actually higher than that of a Warrior Elixir.
Advice for Fighters
- Once maxed, use Rage instead of Warrior Elixirs; a free 10 attack buff is better than an expensive 12 attack potion.
- Keep Power Guard on at all times. It reduces health loss and will eventually add a few points to your damage per minute (though not necessarily a good thing).
- If you're poorly funded and not expecting to reach 4th job, use 2-handed axes. They're disadvantaged towards swords, but infinitely cheaper to buy and scroll.
Advice for Pages and White Knights
- Keep Power Guard on at all times. It reduces health loss and will eventually add a few points to your damage per minute (though not necessarily a good thing).
- If you're poorly funded and not expecting to reach 4th job, use 2-handed blunt weapons. They're disadvantaged towards swords, but infinitely cheaper to buy and scroll.
Advice for Thieves
- Instead of buying luck equips to increase your attack strength, buy dex equips to lower your base dexterity. It’s the same effect, except buying dex equips is cheaper and easier.
- If you’re normal-dex, wear regular thief armor instead of a sauna/bathrobe; the enormous defense boost will save you a substantial amount of mesos.
Advice for Assassins and Hermits
- Use Icicle Throwing Stars. They’re ridiculously cheap (10-20k mesos each in the Free Market).
- Max Drain before setting any points into Claw Booster. It’ll slow down your training, but you’ll save tons of mesos in HP potion costs.
- Max Claw Mastery before setting any points into Claw Booster. An extra two hundred extra throwing stars per set can save you millions of mesos (total savings depends on the set of stars you’re currently using).
- Do not use Shadow Partner until it is at least level 21.
- Once you have maxed out Shadow Partner and Avenger, max out Alchemist.
Advice for Bandits and Chief Bandits
- Pickpocket + Meso Explosion = A way to use ME without draining your pockets
- If you don’t mind inflicting lower damage than your peers, become a strength bandit.
- Turn on Meso Guard. Yes, Meso Guard actually saves money.
Advice for Magicians
- Use teleport sparingly until it is maxed/close to max. Teleport is ridiculously expensive to use in its earlier levels.
- Avoid using Magic Guard in first and second job.
- In first job, set all of your extra points into the skill “Improving MP Recovery”.
- Scroll your items for LUK instead of INT. INT scrolls tend to be mind-blowingly expensive.
- Use a wand. They’re twice as cheap as staffs.
- If you have maxed/almost maxed Teleport, you can telecast (attack and teleport at the same time) to avoid damage.
Advice for Ice/Lightning Wizards and Mages
- Once you max out Meditation, use it instead of a Wizard’s Elixir. They add the same amount of magic attack, but Meditation is free.
- Max MP Eater after you max out your two basic attacking skills.
- Ice Strike has great range. Take advantage of that and make good use of sniping spots.
- Use Seal when you’re attacking monsters that can’t be frozen.
Advice for Clerics and Priests
- Use Heal instead of HP potions (I really shouldn’t need to tell you this…
.
- Max the skill MP Eater instead of Holy Arrow. It’ll save you quite a bit of money on those pricey MP potions.
- Use Dispel instead of All Cure Potions (also kind of “duh” suggestion).
- Use Mystic Door instead of a Dead Mine Scroll while repotting from training at Coolie Zombies/Zakum.
- Use Invincible whenever possible. Though it is of limited use in second job, it’ll still knock off a good 50 or so points a hit when maxed.
- Try to avoid using Magic Guard in 3rd job. You’ll be training with heal anyways, so with some practice dying will become pretty unlikely.
Advice for Fire/Poison Wizards and Mages
- Once you max out Meditation, use it instead of a Wizard’s Elixir. They add the same amount of magic attack, but Meditation is free.
- Max MP Eater after you max out your two basic attacking skills.
- When killing misted monsters, make sure you can 1-hit KO them first. Explosion is very slow and a 2-hit KO will give the monsters time to respond to your attack.
Advice for Bowmen
- Though this decision should probably be based on your personal preferences, I recommend you use crossbows instead of regular bows due to the fact that crossbow scrolls are much, much cheaper.
- Train in areas with sniping spots (i.e. Monkey Forest II). The bowman's long range and ranged multi-hit 2nd job skills make sniping ideal.
- It’s a good idea not to use Strafe until level 73 or so, since maxed Double Shot with maxed Final Attack is slightly stronger and much cheaper to use than Level 1 Strafe.
Sorry, but I don’t have any advice for hunters or crossbowmen.
Credits
I would like to thank:
-Fiel and his $25 event prize for convincing me to write this guide.
-The Basilmarket warrior, I/L, and bowmen forums for helping me on the class-specific advice section
-SilverFoxR for his cost vs. performance guide, which helped me overcome my writer’s block on the “What to Buy” section. http://www.basilmarket.com/forum/815791/1//Guide_Cost_vs_Performance__more_bang_for_your_buck.html
-Charismatic’s Complete Scrolling Guide and Reference for saving me a LOT of work in the “prescrolled items” section.
-You for reading this guide.
[Draft] Smartguy's Guide on How to Save Mesos - KajitiSouls - 2008-10-01
Hmm, no one's commented on this...
It's a nice start, but first thing's first: GET A TABLE OF CONTENTS! Unless it's a 1-page guide or something, a Table of Contents is an absolute must!
Okay, now down to the smaller stuff that I've found and bothered to mention...
--You could organize the pots section a little better. People aren't exactly going to break out a calculator and find out the HP/meso or MP/meso ratio and find out why NLC pots win. You'll have to tell them that.
--The advice you give to Warriors is that Power Guard reduces damage. That much is true. Power Guard adding DPM however is a bad thing. In order for Power Guard to add DPM, the Warrior would have to touch the monster, which causes the Warrior damage. The damage returned is also fairly negligible. Shouldn't you be avoiding that damage in the first place?
--White Knights have a buff called Ice Charge. It lets them freeze things!
--White Knights and Paladins have a move called Charge Blow that lets them stun things at a 90% rate at maximum level. Paladins can spam this move indefinitely once they max ACB =P Hella good stuff.
[Draft] Smartguy's Guide on How to Save Mesos - butterfλi - 2008-10-01
KajitiSouls Wrote:Hmm, no one's commented on this...
It's a nice start, but first thing's first: GET A TABLE OF CONTENTS! Unless it's a 1-page guide or something, a Table of Contents is an absolute must!
yeah table of contents will tell people what youre (gonna be) talking about so people will know what to look for/read rather than read the whole thing then regret.
you can introduce tables to make "Common Item Substitutions" look more organized. also add pics for eye candy. its what i did here. fiel's database is a great source.
[Draft] Smartguy's Guide on How to Save Mesos - Blankout - 2008-10-01
TheSmartGuy Wrote:[noparse]
- [/noparse]
Advice for Pages and White Knights
Keep Power Guard on at all times. It reduces health loss AND adds a few points to your DPM (damage per minute).
Use 2-handed blunt weapons. Though not exactly as good as swords, theyre infinitely cheaper to buy and scroll.
Advice for Thieves[noparse][/noparse]
Advice for Magicians[noparse][/noparse]
A couple of minor coding errors here.
Also, do you consider Ariant Coliseum to be a PQ?
[Draft] Smartguy's Guide on How to Save Mesos - Katie - 2008-10-02
Nice guide. I also think there should be a Table of Contents. I think without one it just looks like a wall of text and hard to find different sections. Otherwise nicely done =)
[Draft] Smartguy's Guide on How to Save Mesos - psychopat - 2008-10-02
Regarding Ciders, they're sold by Mo in CWK as well. You do have to do the quests to enable his shop, though. Mo also sells icicles for 2k (you state 20k in the guide somewhere)
Also, you have erroneous information in the assassin/hermit section where you say to get Ilbis with lots of subis. There are a few problems with this. First, doing what you say forces the player to never use drain because it'll use the last Ilbi. Secondly and more importantly, you don't keep doing Ilbi damage. The stat window will show Ilbi damage but you're actually throwing subis (and doing subi damage). This has been tested more than once.
The same thing applies for archers using fancy arrows & Soul Arrow, although you didn't mention it
[Draft] Smartguy's Guide on How to Save Mesos - TheSmartGuy - 2008-10-04
psychopat Wrote:Regarding Ciders, they're sold by Mo in CWK as well. You do have to do the quests to enable his shop, though. Mo also sells icicles for 2k (you state 20k in the guide somewhere)
Also, you have erroneous information in the assassin/hermit section where you say to get Ilbis with lots of subis. There are a few problems with this. First, doing what you say forces the player to never use drain because it'll use the last Ilbi. Secondly and more importantly, you don't keep doing Ilbi damage. The stat window will show Ilbi damage but you're actually throwing subis (and doing subi damage). This has been tested more than once.
The same thing applies for archers using fancy arrows & Soul Arrow, although you didn't mention it
When I said Icicles were 10-20k in price, I meant their Free Market price. I'm not much of a quester, so I usually don't take quests into consideration when writing.
Also, thanks for the tip about the Ilbis thing. I never really got to test it, but lots of people said it worked so I assumed it was true. :f6:
And finally, to everyone else: I'll probably add a Table of Contents... eventually. This whole guide was rushed (most of my guides take about 3-6 weeks to write but I didn't start this until the 2nd week of the event).
[Draft] Smartguy's Guide on How to Save Mesos - Retalion - 2008-10-04
errr, its a good guide but I dont agree with the archer section to saving money...
The reason most archers dont get final attack is NOT because it takes out of PKB but rather because it makes us vulnerable in certain situations. The pots we'll burn cause we're station FAing instead of dodging an attack will in the long run cost more than the MP you save during those 30 levels of 2nd job its actually useful for.
Yes it saves money, but its also highly misleading and the downsides to it far outweigh the advantages.
Note: I have nothing against final attack. If you're getting it to level faster in 2nd job, then by all means get it but if you're doing it to "save mesos", then dont bother as that's not the purpose of it and in the long run, you'll probably spend more than you lose.
A better archer tip would be to train at places with sniping spots (Monkey Forest II, etc.). And while you're at it, you can mention being smart with strength to save money similar to dex items for thieves (overalls with more str/less dex will cost significantly less than one with more dex/less str but the same amount of stats)
Also, mentioning about getting a z-helm early for the wep def might be possible too. It makes quite a bit of difference in pot money to my experience.
[Draft] Smartguy's Guide on How to Save Mesos - TheSmartGuy - 2008-10-05
Retalion Wrote:errr, its a good guide but I dont agree with the archer section to saving money...
The reason most archers dont get final attack is NOT because it takes out of PKB but rather because it makes us vulnerable in certain situations. The pots we'll burn cause we're station FAing instead of dodging an attack will in the long run cost more than the MP you save during those 30 levels of 2nd job its actually useful for.
Yes it saves money, but its also highly misleading and the downsides to it far outweigh the advantages.
Note: I have nothing against final attack. If you're getting it to level faster in 2nd job, then by all means get it but if you're doing it to "save mesos", then dont bother as that's not the purpose of it and in the long run, you'll probably spend more than you lose.
A better archer tip would be to train at places with sniping spots (Monkey Forest II, etc.). And while you're at it, you can mention being smart with strength to save money similar to dex items for thieves (overalls with more str/less dex will cost significantly less than one with more dex/less str but the same amount of stats)
Also, mentioning about getting a z-helm early for the wep def might be possible too. It makes quite a bit of difference in pot money to my experience.
I'll take your advice for the FA, but a Zhelm is too costly for most people to consider it as a "money-saver".
[Draft] Smartguy's Guide on How to Save Mesos - KajitiSouls - 2008-10-05
TheSmartGuy Wrote:I'll take your advice for the FA, but a Zhelm is too costly for most people to consider it as a "money-saver".
It's only a money saver in the long run. It DOES shave off roughly 100 damage at least per hit (except 1/1).
Also, it almost seems like you neglected my advice with WKs/Paladins. I mean, they're the class that are born soloers.
[Draft] Smartguy's Guide on How to Save Mesos - Acim - 2008-10-05
Awesome guide. You just spelled Henesys wrong in the Henesys PQ section (or I spelled it wrong...) and it's sort of like Ludi PQ in a way with the bonuses. If you decide to do the bonus, the Iron Hogs drop an equip almost 75% of the time (based on my experiences), and I guess that would be counted as the "reward" of the PQ. It's like Ludi PQ, you have a chance to get something in the bonus or you just get crap (small amounts of mesos and pathetic noobo potions). Still a great guide.
[Draft] Smartguy's Guide on How to Save Mesos - TheSmartGuy - 2008-10-06
KajitiSouls Wrote:It's only a money saver in the long run. It DOES shave off roughly 100 damage at least per hit (except 1/1).
Also, it almost seems like you neglected my advice with WKs/Paladins. I mean, they're the class that are born soloers.
It only shaved off 80 damage for me.
I'm trying to avoid giving high-level advice in this guide, since I don't know crap about any of the 4th job classes.
[Draft] Smartguy's Guide on How to Save Mesos - Flaxative - 2009-04-05
Thank you for posting this guide! I saved lots of money on pots and am now happier!
[Draft] Smartguy's Guide on How to Save Mesos - Alloy - 2009-04-05
Remember that ciders got changed to last 5 minutes now! That helps quite a lot more.