Fire/Poison Magician Skill Distribution Guide

Welcome to the latest Fire/Poison Mage Skill Distribution Guide! All Questions/Comments/Suggestions are welcome
Latest updates:
June 27th, 2013 - guide is finally stickied! I'll have to make a few small changes to make it unleashed -friendly and what-not.
January 29th, 2013 - made a ton of alterations to some builds. Removed some unneeded/redundant builds, changed a few things on the Hyper section. Currently Prepping the guide to be Unlimited-friendly (where the damage cap will be raised).
January 9th, 2013 - added a recommendation level section to every build, did some tweaking to DOT Lover's 3rd job build. Today is the first day the guide has been posted on SP. Enjoy :]
November 29th, 2012 - restructured 2nd, 3rd, and 4th job builds to accommodate Tempest job advancement changes!
November 8th, 2012 - Added a section on which hyper skills would be best to raise, and ratings for them @.@

 2nd job Fire/Poison Wizard Build

[INDENT]

 Poison Attacker Build

(lvl 30) +1 Teleport (1), +1 Poison Breath (1), +1 Flame Arrow (1), +1 Spell Mastery (1)
(lvl 31-33) +9 Spell Mastery (10 - max)
(lvl 34) +3 Teleport (4)
(lvl 35) +1 Teleport (5 - maxed), +2 Poison Breath (3)
(lvl 36-40) +15 Poison Breath (18)
(lvl 41) +2 Poison Breath (20 - maxed), +1 High Wisdom (1)
(lvl 42) +3 High Wisdom (4)
(lvl 43) +1 High Wisdom (5 - max), +2 MP Eater (2)
(lvl 44) +1 MP Eater (3), +2 Meditation (2)
(lvl 45-50) +18 Meditation (20 - max)
(lvl 51-53) +9 Slow (9)
(lvl 54) +1 Slow (10 - max), +2 MP Eater (5)
(lvl 55-59) +15 MP Eater (20 - max)
(lvl 60) +3 Flame Arrow (4)

Result: Everything maxed except for 4 points in Flame Arrow

Explanation and reasoning: Start with 1 point in Teleport, 1 point in Poison Breath, 1 in Flame Arrow, and 1 in Spell Mastery . Then focus on the basis of Poison Breath (which is your main attack), Spell Mastery and Teleport. It is most important to max these 3 first because they will be needed down the road. Poison Breath is your best attack in 2nd job, in my opinion, since it hits up to 6 mobs with this at early levels can be very quick because of the high mob volume!). Meditation and High Wisdom are crucial buffs up to lvl 200. Slow won't be useful in 2nd job but it will in 3rd and 4th. Please do avoid raising Flame Arrow past 4, since it completely gets replaced by skills like Explosion, Fire-Demon, etc. If you are making a new F/P wizard, I still recommend maxing MP Eater instead of Flame Arrow, and leaving FA at 4. Why? Because, while MP Eater is not very useful, I think it serves a better purpose than Flame Arrow and can be at least slightly beneficial past lvl 60, unlike Flame Arrow.

If you've read all the above and still want to max Flame Arrow despite everything I've said, you've dishonored the FP gods. But if you want to anyway, go ahead, but you'll end up sacrificing other skills I consider more useful.

Recommendation Level: I Highly recommend this build.

[/INDENT]

 3rd Job Fire/Poison Mage Builds

[INDENT]
[SPOILER=Fire-Lover's All-Out Attack Build] The Fire-Lover's All-Out Attack Build - 124 sp

Do this build if:
-you wouldn't care much for poison mist until mid-to-late 3rd job or 4th job rolls around
-Explosion's awesome power suits you just fine

+1 Teleport Mastery (1), +3 Explosion (3)
+3 Element Amplification (3)
+3 Spell Booster (3)
+17 Explosion (max)
+7 Element Amplification (max)
+10 Arcane Overdrive (max)
+7 Spell Booster (max)
+20 Mist (max)
+10 Fire Demon (max)
+10 Burning Magic (max)
+9 Teleport Mastery (10 - max)
+10 Elemental Decrease (max)
+14 Seal (14)

Explanation and reasoning: Good build for those not very into poison (although you'll have to be into poison in 4th job because the poison attacks in 4th job are much more powerful/effective than the fire attacks in 4th job). Delves right into mobbing, disregarding the importance of poison/DoT until mid 3rd job hits.

Recommendation Level: I recommend this build the most.

[SPOILER=DoT-Lover's Poison Training Build] The DoT-lover's Poison Training Build - 124 sp


Do this build if:
-you don't mind not maxing seal since it only really helps in PvP, and you don't even do PvP much if at all.
-you enjoy the concept of poisoning and you're fine with the unorthodox way Mist works even though it is slightly less effective for training than Explosion is.
-you don't really mind not using Explosion much until a bit later in 3rd job.

(lvl 60) +2 Mist (2), +1 Teleport Mastery (1), +1 Explosion (1)
(lvl 61) +3 Elemental Amplification (3)
(lvl 62) +3 Spell Booster (3)
(lvl 63-68) +18 Mist (20 - max)
(lvl 69-71) +9 Burning Magic (9)
(lvl 72) +1 Burning Magic (10 - max), +2 Elemental Amplification (5)
(lvl 73) +3 Elemental Amplification (8)
(lvl 74) +2 Element Amplification (10 - max), +1 Explosion (2)
(lvl 75-80) +18 Explosion (20 - maxed)
(lvl 81-83) +9 Arcane Overdrive (9)
(lvl 84) +1 Arcane Overdrive (10 - maxed), +2 Spell Booster (5)
(lvl 85) +3 Spell Booster (8)
(lvl 86) +2 Spell Booster (10 - max), +1 Fire Demon (1)
(lvl 87-89) +9 Fire Demon (10 - maxed)
(lvl 90-92) +9 Teleport Mastery (10 - maxed)
(lvl 93-95) +9 Elemental Decrease (9)
(lvl 96) +1 Elemental Decrease (10 - maxed), +2 Seal (2)
(lvl 97-100) +12 Seal (14)

Explanation and reasoning: Start off with 1 tele mastery so that aggro-ing poisoned or soon-to-be-poisoned monsters is easy. Raise 2 points in Mist since that'll be your main attack in 3rd job. Also raise 1 point in Explosion for variety. Subsequently, 3 points into Amp and Booster for faster attacking speed. Then I prefer maxing Mist followed by Burning Magic to really make your DOT a force to be reckoned with. Max amp next for the sole purpose of widely increasing your damage. Explosion is maxed next to utilize skill variety and explosion is a great finishing move for poisoned monsters which are about to die. Maxed next is Arcane Overdrive in order to add more critical hit percentage and therefore more damage. Next, max Spell booster. Fire Demon next because it isn't crucial for 3rd job but it is for 4th job. Next max tele mastery to compliment Burning Magic and to also increase tele damage and distance. Elemental Decrease is a good skill to have for training at fire-immune or poison-immune monsters (i.e. one of chaos zakum's/zakum's arms) and also for a lot of future bosses down the road which are element-strong or element-immune. And finally we put 14 into Seal because there's nothing else left to put into and seals are sometimes-cute aquatic creatures who fight an infinite war against their bitter rivals, the dolphins.

Random nonsense aside, this build seems to make sense due to poison-related (DoT-centered) skills being a lot more prominent than fire-related skills.
Recommendation Level: I recommend this build but not nearly as much as the previous one. It's there if you like to slightly experiment but solid nonetheless.
[/INDENT]

 4th job Fire/Poison ArchMage Builds

[INDENT]

 Ultra-Simple Build

The Ultra-Simple Build

Do this build if:
-you want to focus on maxing one skill at a time before even touching another one
-you think raising combinations of skills isn't highly necessary
-you'd like a simple yet highly-effective build

1. lvl 100: 1 Mist Eruption, 1 Paralyze, 1 Big Bang, 1 Meteor Shower (for level 100 only)
2. Max Buff Mastery
3. Max Mist Eruption
4. Max Paralyze
5. Max Arcane Aim
6. Max Infinity
7. Raise Maple Warrior to 29 (skip this and max it last if you have trouble affording Maple Warrior 20/30 skill books)
8. Max Hero's Will
9. Max Ifrit
10. Max Big Bang
11. Max Meteor Shower
12. Max Maple Warrior

Explanation and reasoning: This build makes things simpler with a similar end-result as the other 4th job build. Focus is slightly higher on skills more suitable for training than for bossing. However, training and bossing can go hand-in-hand with this build.

Recommendation Level: Great build for most players. Highly Recommended.

[SPOILER=Unfunded Player's Build]
The Unfunded Player's Build
Special thanks to @ClericBoyZ15 (of basilmarket) for the idea and parts of this build!

Do this build if:
-you have trouble affording skillbooks that are worth over 25 mil mesos
-you especially have trouble affording MW 20 and MW 30 skillbooks

lvl 100: +1 Mist Eruption (1), +1 Paralyze (1), +1 Big Bang (1), +1 Buff Mastery (1)
lvl 101: +2 Mist Eruption (3), +1 Meteor Shower (1)
lvl 102-104: +9 Buff Mastery (10 - maxed)
lvl 105-113: +27 Mist Eruption (30 - maxed)
lvl 114-122: +27 Paralyze (28)
lvl 123: +2 Paralyze (30 - maxed), +1 Arcane Aim(1)
lvl 124-132: +27 Arcane Aim (28)
lvl 133: +2 Arcane Aim (30 - maxed), +1 Infinity (1)
lvl 134-142: +27 Infinity (28)
lvl 143: +2 Infinity (30 - maxed), +1 Ifrit (1)
lvl 144-152: +27 Ifrit (28)
lvl 153: +2 Ifrit (30 - maxed), +1 Maple Warrior (1)
lvl 154-156: +9 Maple Warrior (10)
lvl 157-165: +27 Meteor (28)
lvl 166: +2 Meteor (30 - maxed), +1 Big Bang (2)
lvl 167-175: +27 Big Bang (29)
lvl 176: +1 Big Bang (30 - maxed), +2 Hero's Will (2)
lvl 177: +3 Hero's Will (5 - maxed)
lvl 178+: Raise as much Maple Warrior as you can afford to.

Explanation and reasoning: This build focuses on skill variety very early. It also focuses on mobbing skills as-early-as-possible because mobbing tends to yield better drops/money gain comparing to 1v1, naturally. MW is disregarded for the most part until the end because of the cost of it's skill-books being very expensive.

Recommendation Level: Great build for a player with very low funding.

[/INDENT]

 Hyper Skill Ratings and Reference

Hyper Skill Ratings and Reference
Passive stat enhancements for F/P (can only choose 6 out of 13):

[required level: 198] Hyper Critical Rate (increases crit rate by 10%) - Easily the best out of the bunch when it comes to adding damage. Only downside is the lvl 198 level requirement, not really a downside if you're 198+ atm or approaching there. My Personal Usefulness Rating: 10/10

[required level: 192] Hyper Max Heart Point (increases HP by 15%) - great for HP, one of AMs' weaknesses (not so much after this ). However, be aware that's it is optimal to keep your HP/MP ratio at about 1:4. Rating: 10/10

[required level: 186] Hyper Max Magic Point (increases MP by 15%) - More MP doesn't hurt either. However, be aware that's it is optimal to keep your HP/MP ratio at about 1:4 Rating: 10/10

[required level: 140] Hyper Intelligence (INT + 50) - If you have a lot of %INT/ALL, prepare for your range to climb substantially. As soon as you reach 140, RAISE this! 10/10

[required level: 140] Hyper Luck (LUK +50) - Not as significant to raising range as the above, but it only helps; and 50 luk is not a small amount by any measure. If your weapon of choice is the elemental staff 5/6, which has a 165 LUK requirement, this skill may help you quite a bit. 9/10

[required level: 165] Hyper Physical Guard (Physical Defense + 500) - 500 is quite a lot comparing to what AMs are used to. Can't possibly hurt. 9/10

[required level: 174] Hyper Magical Guard (Magical Defense + 500) - 500 is quite a lot comparing to what AMs are used to. Can't possibly hurt. 9/10

Honorable mentions: Hyper Speed/Jump (required lvls: 152, 146 respectively) - If you're willing to forego Magical/Physical Def and you want to feel quicker, this isn't bad either. Though I still would go with Def personally (we've got teleport so yeah). I rate them both 7/10

Not-so-honorable mentions: Everything else.

Questions I have: Is it possible to somehow HP wash by tinkering with 'Hyper Max Heart/Magic Point' and 'Hyper Intelligence' (since these can be reset constantly)? I'm not sure how the HP washing process works at all, so maybe someone can help out here.

Passive Skill Enhancements for F/P (can only choose 5 out of 9):

Okay, lol, these are QUITE A BIT tougher to choose from because they're all seemingly quite useful at first glance. But I'll take a stab at it..

[required level: 195] Mist Eruption - Cooltime Reduce (reduces ME's cooldown by 50%) - Unless you have ridiculous funding this would be HUUUGE for bossing and good for training after lvl 195 as well (keeping in mind that the level cap will increase to 250 in the future). 11/10

[required level: 155] Mist Eruption - Bonus Attack (adds another hit to ME, for 9 total) - Pretty awesome, and also much better for normal training than the above because it's unlocked 40 levels earlier! Good for bossing too. 10/10

[required level: 177] Mist Eruption - Ignore Guard (adds 20% Ignore Def to ME) - Not as noticeable as the above two, but still great. Particularly great for low-funded players. 10/10

[required level: 143] Poison Mist - Reinforce (increases Mist's attack by 20%) - Not on the level of most of the others, depending on funding. Rating for super-high-funded: 0/10, Rating for medium-funded: 2/10, Rating for low-funded: 6/10. This is one to avoid if need be.

[required level: 162] Poison Mist - DoT Persist ("Poison Mist's damage over time duration is increased by 10%". This one is tricky to figure out. The question is whether this is affected by Burning Magic or not. By the description, it does not seem to be. If it would be, the DoT duration increase would be 2.5 seconds (rounds up to 3?). If it wouldn't be, the DoT duration increase would be 1.5 seconds (rounds up to 2?). Tentative Rating: 1/10

[required level: 183] Poison Mist - DoT Reinforce (Mist DoT damage increases 20%) - Good for just about everyone but not as significant as some of the others. 9/10

[required level: 149] Paralyze - Reinforce (Para damage increases by 20%) - 10/10. Crucial.

[required level: 168] Paralyze - DoT Reinforce (Para DoT damage increased by 20%) - 9.5/10

[required level: 189] Paralyze - Bonus Attack (adds a hit to Paralyze for a total of 7!) - 10/10. Crucial.

And of course for active attack/buff skills, definitely raise both Fire Aura and Meggido Flame. They are great skills!

For the full reference of F/P hyper skills, check this out: http://orangemushroom.wordpress.com/2012...ng-system/
For a better explanation of how hyper skills work, check this out: http://orangemushroom.wordpress.com/2012...er-skills/

 Questions and Answers

Questions and Answers
Q: How does DoT work?
A: DoT stands for Damage Over Time. Most of F/Ps' crucial attacks come with DoT accompanying their regular attack. DoT does a set amount of damage (based on your range and based on the skill you're applying DoT with and the skill's level) every second for a set amount of seconds (depending on the skill). DoT of one skill can be combined with DOT of another skill. For example, for me: if I were to attack with Mist and it's DoT every second is about 120k (for me) damage and then attack with Paralyze and it's DoT every second is 70k damage, I would be seeing a combined damage of 190k every second. Quickly add in skills like Poison Breath, Fire Demon, Meteor, Big Bang, and that combined DoT can only get higher and higher! Isn't this an awesome way to attack? And the best thing is that DoT works on bosses too. Not only does DoT have the ability to work on any monster but DoT also ignores all defense of a monster. That means if you can do 300k combined DoT on a snail, you can also do 300k combined DoT on Pink Bean, regardless of the fact that Pink Bean has a lot more defense of regular weapon or magic attacks than the snail (though the snail would probably be dead before any DoT can be applied to it )!

Another good note on DoT - If I attack a monster with Fire Demon and that monster is neutral, my Fire Demon DoT (for instance) would be 30k each second. But if I were to attack a monster Fire Demon and that monster is fire-weak, that DoT would be 45k each second because DoT is also element-based!!!

Q: How does Mist Eruption and its DoT work?
A: Passively, maxed Mist Eruption will raise Mist's DoT from 180% to 240%, a very good thing. Also, in a nutshell, the more different DoT attacks I use on a monster, the more damage I can do with Mist Eruption when exploding the mist and that monster is inside the mist cloud or very close to it.

You can stack up to 5 different DoT attacks to make full use of Mist Eruption. I usually use Mist, Fire Demon, Poison Breath, Big Bang and Paralyze as the setup attacks for Mist Eruption; but Meteor and Flame Gear (if you're a UA) can substitute any of the above.


@Zenarkenstin explained Mist Eruption's effectiveness pretty well here:

The more "poison-like effects" (DoT) you have stacked, the more damage you will do with Eruption. If I just use mist (and it doesn't poison) and Erupt, I do around 50k (times 5 hits = 250k). But if I stack Paralyze, Poison Breath, Fire Demon, Big Bang, Meteor, Mist poisons, THEN Erupt; I'll be hitting 290-300ks (times 5 hits = 1,500k [1.5m])

Credits: thanks Phistoff, ClericboyZ15, Zenarkenstin of basilmarket.com, and thanks Valhala556 of southperry.net for the in-depth feedback and advice.

Copyright Notice: This guide is not to be used and/or posted anywhere outside of Southperry.net or Basilmarket.com without the owner's permission. Violators shall be prosecuted. In the event that an unauthorized version of this guide appears, angry chinchillas will sniff out the I.P. address of the violators, track them down and bite their face off within due law.