Battle mage guide

[SIZE="7"]Takebacker's Big Guide to Battle Mages[/SIZE]

Hello! Welcome to my Big Guide to Battle mages. Due to my focus on the battle mage class shortly after it's release in tespia, i've come to learn many things about how battle mages work. Thus i feel it best to contribute to the community so that they may plan their characters faster than for any other job release in maple history. Enjoy!

[SIZE="5"]Table of Contents[/SIZE]

• The AP Build
  
• Equipment
  
• Advancing to 1st Job
  
• Battle mage basics
  
• Standard Build
  
• Explanation [1st Job]
  
• Advancing to 2nd Job
  
• Mastering the arts of 2nd job
  
• Explanation [2nd Job]
  
• Advancing to 3rd Job
  
• 3rd job battle mage
  
• Explanation [3rd Job]
  
• Advancing to 4th Job
  
• 4th job battle mage
  
• Explanation [4th Job]
  
• Recommended Training Spots
  
• Inspirational Videos
  
• Credits
  
• Final Statements
  

[SIZE="5"]The AP Build[/SIZE]
Battle mages are similar to all mages in that their primary stat is INT and their secondary stat is LUK. Your LUK must be your level +3 to wear equips, though it is recommended to keep your base luck as low as possible.


[SIZE="5"]Equipment[/SIZE]
Pretty much the same as any other mage. Battle mages are restricted to using staffs ONLY, so keep that in mind.


[SIZE="5"]Advancing to 1st Job[/SIZE]
Do the quests up to level 10. They're very straight forward.

[SIZE="5"]Battle mage basics[/SIZE]

Standard Build
10: 1 teleport, 2 finish attack, 2 triple blow
11-14: Teleport
15: 2 Teleport [MAX], 1 Triple blow
16-20: Triple blow
21: 2 Triple blow [MAX], 1 finish attack
22-23: Finish attack
24: 1 Finish attack [MAX], 2 Dark aura
25-30: Dark Aura [MAX]

Skill Distribution at Lvl 30: 65 Points Total

• 20/20 Triple blow [MAX]
  
• 15/15 Teleport [MAX]
  
• 20/20 Dark aura [MAX]
  
• 10/10 Finish attack [MAX]
  

[SIZE="5"]Build Explanations[/SIZE]

 Spoiler

Battle mages got it pretty good so far eh? 4 great skills all in 1st job. Dark aura is required for adv dark aura (and resistance members can't add SP into an earlier job advancement). Finish blow is an interesting attack, since it gets much stronger as you max out your #blow skills. Teleport is required for teleport mastery later on.

As for the order of the skills, teleport is maxed first because the MP cost at level 1 is horrendous and the resistance quests will take you to around 15 anyway. You can still kill the mobs from the quests really easily with 2 triple blow. Maxing triple blow is next because it's your main attack and while finish attack would give more damage, you'll be using triple blow more often. Finish attack is next because it does great damage and speeds up your killing and DPS. It is a great attack later on too. Dark aura is last because +10% of your m.att isn't much at this stage in the game.

[SIZE="5"]The 2nd Job Advancement[/SIZE]
Get to 30, talk to the instructor, and all you need to do to advance is go to the edelstein airport and fight that creepy dude in the stache. Bring back the document and you're in 2nd job.

[SIZE="5"]Mastering the arts of 2nd job[/SIZE]

30: 1 Quad blow, 1 Staff mastery, 1 yellow aura
31-32: 3 Staff Mastery
33: 3 Staff booster
34-37: Staff Mastery
38: 1 Staff Mastery [MAX], 1 Dark chains, 1 blood drain
39-44: Quad blow
45: 1 Quad blow [MAX], 2 Dark chains
46-50: Dark Chains
51: 2 Dark chains [MAX], 1 Yellow aura
52-57: Yellow aura [MAX]
58-60: 3 Staff booster
61: 2 Staff booster (14), 1 Blood drain
62-63: Blood drain
64: 1 Blood drain (9), 2 Blue aura
65-70: Blue aura [MAX]

Skill Distribution at Lvl 70: 123 Points Total

• 20/20 Quad blow [MAX]
  
• 14/20 Staff booster
  
• 20/20 Staff Mastery [MAX]
  
• 9/20 Blood drain
  
• 20/20 Blue aura [MAX]
  
• 20/20 Yellow aura [MAX]
  
• 20/20 Dark chains [MAX]
  

[SIZE="5"]Build Explanation[/SIZE]

 Spoiler

One of the best things about resistance characters is that a LOT of their skills are extremely useful with only 1 point. At level 3 get quad blow for a new animation and a stronger the finisher. Get some mastery, some booster when you can, and then max out mastery. It's the skill that increases your damage the most. So far we get to enjoy a lot of nice 1 pointers. Yellow aura, dark chains, and blood drain. Once you have those which will last you a while, max quad blow. After that max dark chains as it's damage more than doubles as you max it. At this point the skills that will raise your damage are all maxed. Max yellow aura for it's mobility, and then get 10 staff booster and 9 blood drain. 10 staff booster has a 60 second timer, and 9 blood drain is the first level that is 3% healing. Once you get that, max blue aura. You won't use it, but it's needed for advanced blue aura which is has an important passive effect.

On the subject of yellow vs dark aura, if dark aura were better than yellow aura then we wouldn't get the one point of yellow immediately. 1 attack speed is equal to or better than 10% damage, and yellow adds speed on top of that.

[SIZE="5"]The 3rd Job Advancement[/SIZE]
Ferdi tells you to go to your instructor. Talk to Brighton, and he tells you to go to Power Plant Security. Enter the Power Plant and defeat the machine, and go back to Brighton.


[SIZE="5"]3rd job battle mage[/SIZE]

70: 1 Adv Dark Chain, 1 Quin blow, 1 tele mastery
71: 2 battle mastery, 1 Body boost
72-77: Battle mastery [MAX]
78-80: Teleport mastery [MAX]
81-86: Body boost
87: 2 Body boost [MAX], 1 quin blow
88-93: Quin blow [MAX]
94-96: Adv dark chain
97: 1 Adv dark chain (11), 2 Dark Shock
98-103: Dark Shock [MAX]
104-106: Conversion
107: 1 Conversion [MAX], 2 Advanced blue aura
108-113: Advanced blue aura [MAX]
114-119: Summon reaper
120: 2 Revive [MAX], 1 Advanced dark chains (12)

Skill Distribution at Lvl 120: 153 Points Total

• 20/20 Battle mastery [MAX]
  
• 20/20 Quin blow [MAX]
  
• 10/10 Conversion [MAX]
  
• 20/20 Summon reaper [MAX]
  
• 20/20 Adv blue aura [MAX]
  
• 20/20 Dark Shock [MAX]
  
• 20/20 Body boost [MAX]
  
• 10/10 Teleport mastery [MAX]
  
• 12/20 Advanced dark Chains
  

[SIZE="5"]Build Explanation[/SIZE]

 Spoiler

Even better 1 pointers in 3rd job. Advanced dark chain pretty much doubles it's range, death blow is more blow and finish upgrades, and tele mastery is absolute rape. We also get battle mastery and super body early for a speed/evasion boost 1/3rd of the time and 11% damage with a single point. Maxing battle mastery will increase your damage the most so do that first. After that comes teleport mastery for it's devastating power and mobility increase. Super body is next for it's great aura upgrades. 40% damage, or 40% evasion +2 wep speed and +40 speed. Death blow is next because it's your main attack. Advanced dark chains we will leave at 11, since 1 second of stun and 45% damage on chains isn't a big loss. Maxing dark lightning next since it's a nice strong attack with some range (which we lack so far). Conversion next for if we need the extra survivability. Advanced blue aura for it's passive effect of 20% immunity to status and resistance to elements. Finally, max summon reaper and dump the last point in advanced chains.

Due to body boost glitch, just follow the build and you'll still have points to max it when the glitch is fixed.

[SIZE="5"]Advancing to 4th Job[/SIZE]
I don't know how advancement works for resistance.



[SIZE="5"]4th job battle mage[/SIZE]

Preliminary 4th job build:

1 tornado, 1 dark gene, 1 finishing blow -> 9 stance -> max cyclone -> max finishing blow -> max stance -> max advanced dark aura -> max dark gene -> max adv yellow aura -> Max MW -> Max energize -> Rest in shelter.

[SIZE="5"]Inspirational Videos[/SIZE]
L> Battle mage videos. ;-;


[SIZE="5"]Credits[/SIZE]
Thanks to:

• Me myself and ii, and Mike for letting me use his KMST account to get this information.
  

[SIZE="5"]Final Statements[/SIZE]
Copyright Steven Rivera. Do not plagiarize this guide on any other site. Always ask permission before using or reposting any portion of this guide elsewhere. Unauthorized reproductions will be traced and removed.

You get five skill points when you do your first job advancement.

You get five skill points when you do your first job advancement.

I'm aware. There's a quite a few things wrong in this.

Blood drain is not as useless as you make it out to be. 13 BD/10 Booster will suffice. Thats 4% drain and 60 second booster. I haven't used HP potions in the longest time, even with the nerfed drain.

I was following your 3rd job build, and I wasn't happy with that. I used a full SP reset from a recent event and maxed out Teleport mastery right after 5x Blow. After that I did Battle Boost. Battle boost provides a serious increase to damage and speeds up training considerably. With max teleport mastery and Battle Boost, I opt for teleporting like the fist of the north star and spamming 5x blow as opposed to pulling with dark chain. Its faster.

Conversion comes too early. I can recover any touch damage in a single 5x blow w/ drain. But then again I don't do much other than grind. Maybe it'll be useful in another situation.

I'll probably max advanced chain after battle boost.

70: 1 Adv Dark Chain, 2 5x Blow.
71-76: 5x blow
77-80: Teleport Mastery.
81: 1 Teleport Mastery, 2 Battle Boost.
82-86: Battle Boost.
87: 1 Battle Boost, 2 Chains.

I threw a point into Dark Lightning somewhere in there for shits and giggles. Its pretty cool. Helps when mechanics roll up into B-3 drill arming my balls off.

Blood drain is not as useless as you make it out to be. 13 BD/10 Booster will suffice. Thats 4% drain and 60 second booster. I haven't used HP potions in the longest time, even with the nerfed drain.

I was following your 3rd job build, and I wasn't happy with that. I used a full SP reset from a recent event and maxed out Teleport mastery right after 5x Blow. After that I did Battle Boost. Battle boost provides a serious increase to damage and speeds up training considerably. With max teleport mastery and Battle Boost, I opt for teleporting like the fist of the north star and spamming 5x blow as opposed to pulling with dark chain. Its faster.

Conversion comes too early. I can recover any touch damage in a single 5x blow w/ drain.

Do you live in korea?

Do you live in korea?

No.

Also, Evil Wings are GOD-TIER.

All other staffs in KMS are baby-tier garbage.

Blood drain is not as useless as you make it out to be. 13 BD/10 Booster will suffice. Thats 4% drain and 60 second booster. I haven't used HP potions in the longest time, even with the nerfed drain.

Lag is the only reason drain was useless for me. 60 second booster...all your buffs have s'hit duration to begin with so why bother?

I probably wouldn't have used HP potions either if i played 2nd job after big bang though.

Its faster.

Not before BB it wasn't... D:

Conversion comes too early. I can recover any touch damage in a single 5x blow w/ drain. But then again I don't do much other than grind. Maybe it'll be useful in another situation.

Conversion comes early simply because it's a 10 point skill and the timer on level 1 kinda sucks, but yeah.

Lag is the only reason drain was useless for me. 60 second booster...all your buffs have s'hit duration to begin with so why bother?

I probably wouldn't have used HP potions either if i played 2nd job after big bang though.

Not before BB it wasn't... D:

Conversion comes early simply because it's a 10 point skill and the timer on level 1 kinda sucks, but yeah.

Yeah, the buff durations suck. I slapped the 3 points into BD somewhere around 4x. I figured I wanted to try it for myself, and I wouldn't be messing up. I liked it. Wasn't too bad and was saving me potions. Towards the end of 2nd job I was training at Francis' puppets. They have a high amount of HP, so the recovery worked very well there. I decided to put more points into it and wound up at 13 Booster/10 BD. I swapped them when I realized 13 BD was another % of recovery and Booster's timer would be just as bad.

Maybe the teleporting/slapping feels faster because most recent training maps are all flat.

Nice guide lol (from basil)
One very minor thing, in 2nd job you put "20/20 Dark chains" and not [MAX]
And your skill names are weird :f6:

Skill names refer to translations rather than official translations, since official ones don't exist.

Does Weapon Speed affect Battlemages.

Does Weapon Speed affect Battlemages.

Yes it does.

Well that's something the guide should probably mention, does Weapon Speed only effect Battle Mages or all Magician classes after BB.

for the "Equipment" part.
do the element weapons like thunder staff work on Dark Lightning? and no effect on triple/quad/dead/finish blow?

Dark Lighting/Shock is Dark Attributed, and no currently there is no penalty for using Dark Attacks with Elemental Weapons, and the same holds true for Normal Magic Attacks like Finish Blow.

If they made an Elemental Wand/Staff with Dark Attribute, that'd be the end of it.
Yes I know Battle Mages can't use Wands, but I don't think they'd make a Staff alone.

30: 1 Quad blow
31-36: Quad blow
37: 1 Quad blow [MAX], 2 Staff booster

How do you get Booster if you have Zero points in Staff Mastery?

Its greyed out for me in my JMS Battle Mage..

The skills per level range is also inconsistent with the explanations.

You need 5 staff mastery before you can get booster btw.

*edit Already posted F3.

Appreciate the guide, maxing tele 2nd was definitely best for me cause I have no money in the new world.