Took a long hiatus, now utterly clueless

Hello, HS. I took a long, on-and-off hiatus from maple, logged on occasionally to do a solo quest or kill some monsters but did not pay much attention to anything that was going on with the economy or the updates, and now here I am at level 107 with only a few million Mesos and a rather loose grasp of just what the heck a mastery book is.

Basically, I feel like a clueless newb at a game I've played for years and years. Aaaaaaaaaahhhh!

So, I guess I'm kind of bursting with questions here, but for starters, how do people make mesos these days? (And is there an effective way to do it without much or any NX? Are there some classes that are better for making money than others?) Because it's looking like I reaaally need those mastery books. xD; Second, did they get rid of the MTS? Third, what kind of PQs are popular and/or profitable these days? (Actually, I didn't do many of those to begin with--is there an etiquette guide or something?) What does "world alliance" on the server-select screen mean? How and where do you go about doing an effective price check on an item you want to sell? Is there a forum section here that's appropriate for that?

...I probably have about 200 other questions, but those'll do to start with. X_x

Sorry it took so long to get a reply!
I'll just answer in order:

In 4th job you start with most* skills unlocked to level 10. This doesn't mean they are at level 10, you can just put 10 points into each one. After you put at least 5 points into a skill you can use a mastery book that unlocks the skill to level 20, meaning you can put up to 20 points into it. After you put at least 15 points into a skill, you can use a mastery book that unlocks the skill to level 30. For example, if you were a bishop and wanted to upgrade Genesis, you'd put 5 SP into Genesis, then pass a Genesis20 book (70% chance to pass), then put 10 more points in and pass Genesis30 (50% chance to pass).

*some skills max out at different levels; sometimes you only need a level 20 book and sometimes you need no mastery books. Sometimes you need a skillbook to unlock the skill in the first place.
Check the "Class" tab to see the various skill levels http://www.hidden-street.net/gms/database


Without Nx, the easiest way to make mesos is by participating in events and getting their special rewards. There are almost always some events going on; just check the Nexon site to see what's up now. If you have a shop permit (1.8k nx), you can sell the items much faster and at a better rate than just spamming "S>@@@@" in the entrance. No one really does that anymore.

There aren't any classes that necessarily make more mesos simply because potion costs are so minimal now. Pots drop from just about every mob, mobs are extremely weak compared to characters, and mobs do very little damage compared to ~3+ years ago. Pick a class you love and if you're smart with your money, you can make a little bit.

Keep in mind you will NEVER get rich solely from doing this. You can get a bit of good gear (potential gear with %stats), but other than that you'll remain pretty weak. With MTS gone and the market kaput, it's all but impossible for a new player to begin merchanting on any serious level. You have to either get insanely lucky, invest loads of time into making money, or buy a bit of Nx. With ~200k you can get pretty amazing gear, assuming you spend it well, but anything less than that will be average at best.


PQing is pretty dead, although Monster Park is nice for solo runs. There aren't any spectacular rewards, but if you can do Mu Lung Dojo you can get some okay stuff.


"World Alliance" just means multiple servers merged to one server. For example, players from Kradia and Yellonde interact with each other and act as if they were in the same server, but the character selection screen and storage still works from two different "servers". That just means a character created in Yellonde wouldn't access the Kradia storage, despite being in the same server.

To price check, just ask a reliable friend or go through the FM. On here, unless someone is in your same world, we can give you a ROUGH idea of prices, but nothing too exact. No forum today is reliable with price checks (not even Basil), so just go with what you see the items selling for in the FM.


Feel free to ask away with anything else! I'm sure someone on here will be able to answer



edit:
I noticed you're in bellocan!
There are a ton of active HSers who play on Bello, so we can probably answer very specific questions you have about prices or PQing in the server