Magician Guide Levels 1–30 in MapleStory Classic World: Job Advancement, Skills, AP and Training

In Classic World you become a Magician at level 10 by talking to Grendel the Really Old in Ellinia, not at level 8 like the old game. From there it is INT on almost every level, one maxed attack (Energy Bolt or Magic Claw), Magic Guard 3 to unlock Magic Armor, and a lot of MP management until your 2nd job at level 30.

Level 8 or level 10? Classic says 10

If you played the original game, you remember Magicians advancing at level 8. Classic World doesn't do that. Nexon's Grand Launch notes put all four jobs at Lv 10, and Magicians specifically "at Lv. 10" with Grendel the Really Old in Ellinia.

Some fan guides still say level 8 (a few even put "level 8" in the title), because they were written against older data. Trust Nexon here: plan for level 10.

There's also a small disagreement about stat gates. Sources disagree: one says Classic has no stat requirement for 1st job, another lists an INT 20 gate. It barely matters in practice: if you put your AP into INT as a Beginner, you'll be far past 20 INT by level 10 either way.

Levels 1–10: Maple Island to Ellinia

Clear the Maple Island quests, sail to Victoria Island and head to Ellinia. Grendel the Really Old sits in the Magic Library.

• AP: A common suggested starting spread is 4 STR / 4 DEX / 12 INT / 5 LUK, with all 45 AP from levels 2–10 going into INT. That puts you at 57 base INT at level 10.
• Beginner skills: Three Snails, Recovery and Nimble Feet can all be maxed (3 each) by level 10.
• Weapon: You reportedly get a free Beginner's Wooden Wand on advancing. The item data gives it 26 M.ATK, only 1 less than the regular Wooden Wand (27), so don't rush to buy one.

First-job skills at a glance

Max levels, MP costs and prerequisites below are from the Classic World skill data.

Some community tables list Energy Bolt at 6 → 14 MP and Improved MP Recovery at +20% item MP; the Classic World skill data says 8 → 16 MP and +25%.

Energy Bolt or Magic Claw?

You only need one of them maxed. There's no first-job mobbing skill, so this is your bread and butter until 30.

Both reach 130 total Basic Attack at max (skill data): Energy Bolt as one 130 hit, Magic Claw as two 65 hits. Community launch data adds that both share the same 810 ms cast, so average damage is the same. The differences:

• Energy Bolt: cheaper per cast (16 MP vs 20 at max), longer reach (350 vs 300 range in the skill descriptions), a bigger single hit for knockback, and it saves 1 SP because Magic Claw needs Energy Bolt Lv 1 first.
• Magic Claw: steadier damage cast to cast, and its hits reportedly reach through walls and platforms.

On a tight potion budget, Energy Bolt is the cleaner pick. If you play cramped, platform-heavy maps, Magic Claw can save time. Community guides call maxing Magic Claw "from old habit" one of the common Magician mistakes in Classic.

SP build: levels 10–30

This is a community "budget" (Armor-first) plan, built to keep potion spending low. Second-job SP can't go into first-job skills, so finish this by level 30.

End state: EB 20 / MG 3 / IMR 3 / MMI 15 / MA 20. The same plan lists two alternatives:

• Safety: MG 15 / IMR 3 / MMI 15 / MA 8. Bigger emergency buffer, but every hit costs more to refill.
• Low-contact: MG 3 / IMR 15 / MMI 15 / MA 8. For players who rarely get touched and spend most MP on attacks.

Going Magic Claw instead? Put 1 point in Energy Bolt first, then follow the same order with Magic Claw in its place. Without an SP Reset Scroll (7,000 NX in the Cash Shop, per Nexon's Grand Launch Cash Shop notes), the split you hold at level 30 is permanent.

MP management: the real Magician skill

Everything you do costs MP, and every miss still burns the cast. A few habits matter more than any build choice:

• Magic Guard costs mesos. One community calculation: at basic shop prices, 100 incoming damage costs about 50 mesos to refill with Guard off, and about 90 mesos through Magic Guard 15, because MP pots cost twice as much per point as HP pots. Keep Guard low early unless dying would cost more.
• Magic Armor cuts the hit before Guard splits it. That's why the budget plan builds Armor before maxing Guard.
• Buy the efficient pots. Reported shop prices (shop prices aren't in the game data; the restore amounts are): Red Potion 100 HP for 50 mesos, Orange (the fruit, not the Orange Potion, which restores HP) 50 MP for 50 mesos, Lemon 150 MP for 150 mesos. The same comparison rates White Potions and Blue Potions as worse value per meso.
• Watch your MP bar under Guard. If MP hits 0, Magic Guard stops working and all damage goes to HP.
• Don't fight above your Accuracy. Community data gives Magicians +0.24 ACC per INT and +0.39 per level. A map that misses a lot today can be clean two levels later.

AP: INT first, LUK only for wands

From level 10 on, the usual rule is simple: put all 5 AP into LUK at levels 20, 25 and 30, and everything else into INT. LUK is only there to meet wand requirements. LUK on gear counts too, so check your total before adding base LUK.

All five wands can be crafted: Wooden Wand (Woodcrafting 2), Hardwood Wand (Woodcrafting 3), Metal Wand (Arcforge 4), Ice Wand (Arcforge 5) and Mithril Wand (Arcforge 6). See the Arcforge guide for recipes.

Gear: wands, robes and a shield

• Wand over staff (usually). The item data has every wand from 10–25 at 3 more M.ATK than the same-level staff (Wooden Wand 27 vs Wooden Staff 24 up to Ice Wand 48 vs Wizard Staff 45). Spells cast at a fixed speed, so a slower weapon doesn't hurt your casting. If a staff drops and you can't afford the wand, use the staff.
• Robes. Blue Plain Robe (+3 INT, Lv 15), Blue Doros Robe (+5 INT, Lv 25) and Blue Wizard Robe (+6 INT, Lv 30) are male-only in the game data, so female Magicians use Yellow Arianne sets, the Brown Doroness Robe and the Blue Fairy set instead.
• Always wear a shield. Wands and staves are one-handed. Community testing rates the Pan Lid (Lv 10, 44 W.DEF, usable by every class; about 8.1% block chance) above early mage shields for physical blocks. Community sources say Green Mushrooms drop it; drop tables aren't in the game data.
• Gloves: scroll for Magic Attack, not W.ATK. W.ATK does nothing for spells.

Citizenship at level 12

Citizenship opens at Lv 12 (Nexon). Community guides recommend Kerning City for Magicians because its scroll shop later unlocks INT overall scrolls and glove Magic Attack scrolls. Sign up with Roxy in the Kerning City Civic Center. More in our citizenship and housing guide.

Where to train, levels 10–30

From level 15 on, the map-and-monster pairs below appear in more than one community training list; the level 10 row comes from a single source. The EXP/min figures are a community training calculator's estimates for sample builds, not measured runs.

Line 1 <Area 1> (64 Bubblings, the only monster on the map) stays good all the way to 30 because Bubblings have low magic defense (10 M.DEF vs 20 W.DEF in the monster data) and are weak to Lightning. The Kerning City Party Quest opens at Lv 21 if you want a break from grinding: see our KPQ guide. For a broader list, see where to train from 10 to 30.

Level 30: your 2nd job

At Lv 30, talk to Grendel the Really Old again. He sends you with a letter to the Magician Job Instructor in The Forest North of Ellinia, where you collect 30 Dark Marbles (per the quest data) in a test map and trade them for The Proof of a Hero (2nd job quest guide). Bring it back to Grendel and pick your path:

• Fire/Poison Wizard: Fire Arrow and Poison Breath.
• Ice/Lightning Wizard: Cold Beam and Thunder Bolt.
• Cleric: Heal, Bless, Invincible and Holy Arrow.

Not sure? Read which Magician path to pick. There is no 3rd job in Classic World yet, so your 2nd job is your endgame for now. The general flow for every class is in our job advancement guide, and the class overview lives at /classes/magician.