- Melee section)
Okay, so onto details to AP/SP allocation.
Warrior info first, for DaggerThief info scroll down.
So, when creating your warrior, take time rolling the dice. Make sure you get only 4-5 points into INT and LUK- these stats are useless to warriors, and since the starting stats add up to 25, it will give you more points in STR+DEX= more damage.
Perfectly you'd get INT/LUK= 4/4, but rolling it may take half an hour or more, so 4/5 is also fine. Don't accepty 5/5.
Well, the difference isn't gonna be huge, but spending an extra minute or two rolling the dice is fair trade.
Okay, so onto your leveling. Start adding STR, at some point you may also add some AP to DEX, for accuracy required to hit stronger monsters, but not too much as less STR=less damage.
Aim to have about 50 DEX at level 30. Or read an extreme low DEX guide to go below that.
Anyway, since the first monsters you meet require no accuracy, just keep adding STR the first few levels. Your damage will skyrocket compared to other beginners, and you'll be able to kill more, and kill better, and hence level up faster.
About level 8-9 kill some orange mushrooms to get 10 hats, go to the southperry and find an NPC offering a quest. You'll get a weapon.
You should make it to level 10 in about 3 hours. And at that point you should have STR over 40, and 10-20 DEX.
Go to Southperry and take the airship to other island.
Then take a cab to Perion... OR walk there by foot. It may be difficult for a level 10 char, but it could be fun too. If you're having troubles just take the cab.
Once in Perion, climb to the top, and enter the temple thingy to find the chief of the town. Talk to him, and he'll make you a warrior.
I bet you're anxious to get some fancy attacking skill, but wait a while. With your high STR your damage is already good, so a new attack isn't essential.
Instead take HPRecovery.
Next level, put all 3 SP into HP Recovery again.
And then next level put ONLY ONE MORE SP into HPRecovery. Now the ImproveMaxHPIncrease that was greyed out will turn blue, and you should put 2 remaining points into that.
The in-game description for that skill is poorly translated, but the skill is essential- it increases the amount of HP you get when you level up, and hence getting it early means it'll work during more "level up"s, and hence more HP for you.
The next few levels put all SP into ImproveMaxHPIncrease until it's maxed.
Finally, at level 15 you'll have free points to get to the fun stuff.
So, what to take? Let's check the options:
1)HPRecovery- sounds sweet, doesn't it? But in fact it's rather useless. In later levels you'll be drinking potions instead of standing around to recover HP, so only put leftover points here (I'll get to that)
2)Endure- also sounds sweet. However, you only need 1 point here, and you don't need the skill for now. Where you're hunting there's plenty of safe places to heal.
3)Iron Body- do NOT touch this one. It's completly useless. I repeat: It's completly useless.
4)PowerStrike- now we're talking! Mastered it does 260% damage, you want you this skill mastered.
5)SlashBlast- sweet multi target damage! Kills groups of enemies fast, you want this mastered too.
You can read a more detailed guide, but I suggest raising PowerStrike to 10 now.
When you're done with that, get SlashBlast to 10.
Then don't raise any skill for 3 levels untill you have 10 SP saved, and master PS or SB in one go, depending on which one you preffer.
Then save another 10 SP, and master the other one.
NOTE: Not mastering these two skills IS NOT AN OPTION.
You may be tempted to leave them at 10, because after that the cost doubles, and damage doesnt, but let me tell you: once you're high level the cost of these skills is neglible, but a couple more % of damage is a lot.
With MaxHP, PS and SB mastered, you get to leftover points.
I suggest you put 1 point into Endure, and the rest into HPRecovery, but you can arrange them any way you want.
Once you're level 30 talk to chief warrior again, and follow his instructions to make second job advancement.
Dagger Thief
Make sure you roll 5/4,4/5 or 4/4 for your STR and INT. (4/4 being preffered, but the other two are acceptable.)
The first few levels put AP into DEX until you have 25.
Then start putting AP into LUK, and continue with that.
You should probably do the mushroom hat collecting quest: go kill orange mushrooms (One map right of Armhest), until you have 10 tops, and then find an NPC in Southperry that will give you a weapon in exhange. This weapon is a dagger and it will turn important very soon.
At level 10 go to Southperry and take airship to Victoria island, once there take a cab to Kerning, or walk there.
In Kerning find a "Bar" place with a "secret" passage in the toilet.
In there is the Thief lord, looking like some sort of vampire, hanging from the ceiling. Talk to him and he'll make you a Rogue.
You get your skillbook, and you can start taking skills.
Unlike for warriors, there are no skills that you need immediatelly, so you have some freedom here. One suggested build posted a bit down.
Note: Some will tell you you need to master NimbleBody, but it is wrong. You can if you want, but when faced with the choice "Other skill, or master NB?" Pick the other skill. The bonus from NimbleBody is nice, but it's not worth sacrificing an usefull skill for that. Especially since at later levels the benefit of Nimble gets less visible, because with your DEX+LUK you'll have a lot of accuracy and avoidability without nimble.
Equipment: Make sure your weapon is "Dagger/Cutter"!
When you use a sword/axe/mace/anything else, your damage is based on your STR (which in your case should be 4), so you'll be weak.
With dagger/cutter your damage is based on LUK, which you should have plenty of, giving you a huge increase in damage.
Buy a dagger from the store in Kerning if you haven't got one from the MapleIsland quest.
Here's my preffered SkillPoints allocation guide:
1. Get double stab to 10, then save 10SP, and master double stab.
2. Get 3 Disorder.
3. Master DarkSight.
4. Either master Disorder or raise NimbleBody to 18. I'm not sure which is better, because both are rather useless at later levels.
I guess it's ok to get Disorder to 10.
Once you're level 30, return to the Thief guy, and follow his instructions to make second job advancement. Then pick "Bandit".
Note, this is a pure bandit build.
There is also a build called banditsin, where you use both daggers and throwing stars.
To create a banditsin, just follow the StarThief path from "AP and SP allocation(Ranged)", and then pick Bandit at your 2nd job.
Banditsins are faster levelers at levels 15-35 or so, then are slightly quirky at levels 35-45, and then they match up with regular bandits.