"easiest" starting character

[mercurius]

I would not say mage seeing that when you start out you have absolutely no strength so your melee weapons don't do that much damage.

I have an archer that has strength and dex so it has been easy to level up. It's cool looking and fun at the same time.

While I do not have a thief or a warrior, I would say that those characters at my archer's same level or lower have been able to pwn monsters with much fewer hits. Also, they can melee at much closer distances than my archer which can make it easier. The thieves throwing stars look cool too. So, from my observations, you might want to go with a thief.

[nanop44]

My starting class was my first Bandit, it was pretty hard since I just first started back then, my new Bandit (my main since I deleted the first one), I just breezed through levels 10-20 at Slimes till Lvl 15 and bought lots of White pots at lvl 15, and started at Green Mushies until lvl 18, when I started at Horny Mushies

[OhanaUnited]

Mage is easy to start, you start to discover their lack of MP at around lv11-20, but from then on it's easy kill. Plus kerning pq loves you

[osayidan]

Mage is easy to start, you start to discover their lack of MP at around lv11-20, but from then on it's easy kill. Plus kerning pq loves you

Mage is hard to start if you have no items to help your melee attack (like the american flag for example), as well as no pot money. from lvl 1 - 15/18 mage is harder to train, but well worth it.

If you do your build "right" to get maximum amount of MP, that means no energy bolt for a while, your stuck with melee combat. If you are unfunded (doesn't take much funds but still, if it's your first character...) then you're stuck with a fruit knife and 4/5 str. Killing green snails, maybe blue, until about lvl 12/15.
I used an american flag + warrior elixirs + grilled cheese, it was easy, lvl 15 in about an hour or so (excluding time to get job + read guides).

[BladeStorm]

Now for a person who has many many years of experinces with maplestory.

I have gotten every job to level 30 except crossbow *ugly* and sins *never cared for assasins myself* and many of those jobs, i did twice.
I have all three mages, a few level 30+ warriors and a bandit and archer. all 30+.

here is my detailed break down.

Warriors are good in the beginning, however, you have to deal with the fact that of warriors are grinders, and I generally find warriors once you get around 22+ to be a little boring. its because you are doing the same thing you had been doing from the beginning without a change of pace. Warriors however are good because they have high defence, and are simple to play. you also do good meelee damage, and so it is a good starter.

Mages are actually one of the better charactors to start with for many reasons. yes, the early levels are annoying, but once you make mage, you have something no other class has until 2nd job; mastery. The first few levels of mage are a pain, but once you get to about level 16, your magic claw should be starting to get fairly powerful and stable. with stability, your leveling will be faster. it is possible when you are around level 18 to go to ant tunnel1, and if you know how to do it, level fast without having to waste tons of potions just by adding 2 points into magic claw and one into mp recovery. as your magic claw gets stronger, you can heal mp natrually faster, meaning less potions, and I have tested it, and you actually can go 20-30% without needing to mp potion if you do this. people might knock that, but if you try it and know where in ant tunnel 1 to hunt, you can level fast. with mastery installed into your magic attacks, you will level far faster then the other classes through 16+ to 30.

Archers. Anyone who tells you to go archer is kind of a fool. Archers before mastery have noterious unstable damage. far more unstable then other classes. Archers are fun, but you will have a far harder slog to get to 30 then the other classes. archers do have a saving grace, in critical shot in 1st job, however, it those not help until you get alot of sp into it. archers are also expensive because you have to buy arrows, and to level faster, you need to rely on attacking skills like doubleshot or arrow blow, which can be expensive, so archers are best funded. They are a fun class once you get to 2nd job and start getting mastery and stable damage.

Theif. Theifs do less damage then warriors if you are going bandit, but as I dont do sins myself, I can only speak for bandits. theifs however are fun in my mind once you get 21+ when they can speed up. however, theifs are best if you are funded. they have a high accuracy and avoidability which can make up for their lower then warrior damage. the thing about bandits is the skills you get in 2nd, 3rd, and 4th jobs. think about those if you choose this path, and try to make them your desire, because savage blow is sexy, and once you have it maxed and if you did endure to improve mp recovery, you can do great damage, though it eats mp up fast, which is why they gave bandits endure.

if you want to do a class that really needs funding. you can always do gachapon. I often go to sleepywood to do gacha and can make 5-15million depending on what I get through it, and just sell everything in a free market npc stall. then I buy potions, and now, with new leaf city, I like to buy the +12 attack warrior elixers. they are spendy, but they can really really really make your attack stronger. it gives my level 32 warrior 20-30 minimum damage and 70 maximum damage added to my attack, which really speeds up leveling, just for 5k every 8 minutes. its spendy, but can speed up your leveling if you can afford it.

however, if you want a charactor to fund, go with mage. what you do is make a cleric, and you can heal yourself, so no hp potions, and you can save all of your excess money not used to buy needed equips to fund the other charactors.

[ripened_oranges]

Hey, this is kinda off topic, but what happened to that guy who was gonna level all the classes to Lvl 50+?

[Darkness280]

So after the first few levels of becoming a magician it gets easier? I always see people using magic claw non stop for long periods of time. Does your MP not go down when using it at like level 15 or so?

And kinda off topic, i looked through the Windia marketplace section but didn't see any posts. Anyone know how much the american flag costs in windia? I doubt i can afford it :X but just wanting to know.
Also, are these cakes worth anything? I got them from slime king or whatever.

[nawruz]

Archers. Anyone who tells you to go archer is kind of a fool. Archers before mastery have noterious unstable damage. far more unstable then other classes. Archers are fun, but you will have a far harder slog to get to 30 then the other classes. archers do have a saving grace, in critical shot in 1st job, however, it those not help until you get alot of sp into it. archers are also expensive because you have to buy arrows, and to level faster, you need to rely on attacking skills like doubleshot or arrow blow, which can be expensive, so archers are best funded. They are a fun class once you get to 2nd job and start getting mastery and stable damage.

2 months ago and I would have agreed with you. However, after starting my crossbowman, my thoughts have changed on this class. It's really nice to be hunting high-leveled monsters at low levels due to our high DEX.

Also, it's a unique class, where you really get to hone your skills. It takes a little thinking and coordination to train archers. Too close and you'll be bow-whacking.

A tip I learnt from H-S under the Archer subforum, station a mule char at Henesys near Vicious (NPC). He makes arrows for free with 1 Processed Woods (5 firewood or 10 tree branches) and one Stiff Feather. You get 1000 arrows with this. So train at monsters, which drop the wood and feathers. Pass them to the mule account and make arrows and then pass them to the Archer when you run out. Saves you 1000 mesos each slot.

My crossbowman is now level 36 and I'm enjoying every minute of it. It was a little tough in the beginning as I was using a melee weapon till Level 20, but then it was a breeze from there on with some funding and determination. Also, training at the right spots help a lot.

[emailbox]

alright, well so far i have.. a level 16 thief going bandit, a level 10 warrior and a level 8 magician. The only one i actually have gear for is the thief with the level 15 armor set and the level 15 weapon from the NPC. I'm finding it hard to level on past anything but slimes. I.E. the pigs with ribbons do like 40s to me so pig beach is outta the question.

I tried a magician because they seemed cool and killed quickly. When i realized that i ran out of MP after a few energy bolts i couldn't figure out how to level him.

A warrior seems self explanotory?

Hey, look at that. My first set of charaters was exactly the same. Anyway.
Get the warrior to level 20ish. Dont waste money on MP potions or anything you don't need. Once you're done that, sell everything and transfer your money onto the magician.

Use at least half the money (well at least 20k) on MP potions. This should last you to level 12 ish, where you'll have gotten some MP recover points in. Then train your magician to 30+. It'll be able to fund your other charaters after that.

Well it did for me anyway, untill I got HAXED. Hate haxors.