WhenMaplestoryinitially launched back in 2003 (that’s 20 years online, and counting), only four different classes were available. These classes, known as Explorers, were Warrior, Magician, Thief, and Archer. On top of that, there were different branches of jobs for advancement that essentially functioned as the players ‘Job’. Warriors had Heroes, Paladins, and Dark Knight (with all the advancements in between). Each Job had a multitude of advancements between the starting class and the ending class. Originally there were only three ‘Jobs’ for players to advance to, but as time went on, new classes were added, the max level was raised, and more advancements were added. Currently, players can even reach a 6th Job in each class with enough work and leveling.
Now everyone knows thatMaplestoryis all about min-maxing just how quickly a player can completely wipe the screen of enemies. The quicker they can do this and the higher numbers of damage they inflict while doing this, the more bragging rights they earn. It’s sort of a self-reliant cycle where players attempt to clear enemies quickly so they can grind levels to unlock new Jobs or Skills to clear enemies even quicker and so on. So, which Classes are the absolute best at this? Let’s take a look.
Updated September 15th, 2024by Jacob Buchalter:Every class is absolutely viable in Maplestory, even the weakest ones. All of them can make it to end-game content, all of them have ways to farm mobs for levels with ease, and all of them have a wide range of skills that players steadily unlock over the course of their advancements. That said, obviously there are some classes that are better than others, and among the almost 50 different classes, some are leaps and bounds better than others. We’ve taken an in-depth look at all of the playable classes in the game and ranked the ones that seem to be the strongest (at least as of September 2024), in order.
Chakrams
Hex Seeker
Despite how new Khali is, this class sadly hasn’t received the typical ‘newMaplestoryclass’ buff where they’re completely overpowered for a period after their launch. Khali isn’t bad by any means, and it has fantastic mobbing potential, it just struggles in the bossing department a bit. Void Rush is Khali’s standout Skill and it’s a bit of a double-edged sword.
This skill is what enables Khali to be so incredibly mobile while mobbing and makes jumping around maps a lot of fun, but it’s also their main tool against bosses, and that can be awkward. Essentially, Khali just has to work for their damage and it has arelatively high bar for execution, which puts it near the lower end of the rankings, at least for now.
Knuckle
Wrist Band
This is probably just our bias speaking, as Buccaneer was our favorite and firstMaplestorycharacter ever, but in the current year 2024, Buccaneer is pretty dang good. This is a class with a ton of mobility, a ton of damage, great survivability, some incredibly visually cool effects, and is all around just a lot of fun to play. There are absolutely a ton of better options when it comes to raw overall DPS, but no one is going to turn down having a Buccaneer in the party.
The Buccaneer is a very active class during boss fights, and has a lot of solo bossing potential. This wasn’t always the case, as the Buccaneer has gone through multiple complete revamps of their kit and overall plastyle. However, nowadays, this class is obscenely popular in comparison to its original popularity, and with great mob-farming skills like Lord of the Deep and bossing skills like Octopunch and even Hexa Octopunch in 6th Job, the Buccaneer is a great choice all around.
Memorial Staff
Leaf/Shield
Moving on to Lynn, one of the newest classes introduced intoMaplestoryas of September 2024. Well, to be more precise, technically Lynn is both a new class and a reboot of an old class, as she completely replaces Beast Tamer in general. Beast Tamer is no longer a class you’re able to select inMaplestory, instead you’ll be Lynn. However, Lynn is not just a ‘new and improved’ Beast Tamer, she’s an entirely new design, and functions as a Support/DPS, having great mobbing skills and a ton of amazing ally buffing/healing skills. In general, Lynn’s core playstyle revolves around using her bear’s giant hitbox to attack and mob enemies while letting her bird and wolf toggle skills do their own thing and stack even more buffs on her overall.
Her other core mechanic revolves around her ‘Focus Target’, which is another player in the party that Lynn chooses. A lot of Lynn’s buffing and healing skills specifically target her Focus Target, and thankfully even if she’s alone this mechanic still works as it’ll just auto-designate Lynn as the ‘Focus Target’. All-in-all Lynn is sort of right in the middle of being a Support and DPS class, not really excelling at either role but doing pretty good in both, which is why she’s ranked a bit closer to the bottom.
Ancient Bows
Relics
Now typically, Archer-type characters are alwaysrelatively popular in games and anime, but they never rank among the top. There are many possible reasons for this, such as people not thinking that the bow is a ‘cool’ weapon, the fact that archers are often pigeonholed into certain types of skills, and the list goes on. But, inMapleStory, the Archers are absurdly strong, and the Pathfinder is a great example.
And, as far as archers go, the Pathfinder is really creative in its execution. Instead of constantly worrying about ammo, Pathfinders use a magical resource called ‘Cardinal Force’. Instead of just having different types of shots that use extra or fewer arrows, many of Pathfinder’s Skills have an Emblem attached to it that will change the symbol seen in the Pathfinder’s Relic Gauge. Depending on the emblem, Pathfinder’s Skills may work differently or have different effects. This creates a real ‘mix-and-match’ playstyle for the Pathfinder, and it works incredibly well, given that this class is one of the best mobbing options out there currently.
Claws
Jewels
Night Walkers are pretty diverse when it comes to dishing out damage. Being the ‘thieves’ of the Cygnus Knights, they’re capable of attacking quickly and use throwing stars in a lot of their Skills to deal damage. Like a lot of Thief classes, this means players will be refilling on Throwing Stars quite often while grinding (which makes upmost ofMapleStory’sgameplay loop).
While most Classes on here are ones that are great at mobbing, the Night Walker isn’t, or at least wasn’t until Cygnus Knights as a whole were buffed and Night Walkers in particular had a lot of small changes to make their mobbing better. In any case, the class is still one that shines in boss fights rather than in mobbing situations and is a great pick for anyone in lovewith the ‘shadowy edgy ninja’ aesthetic.
Knuckles
Abyssal Path
Next up is a Pirate Class, believe it or not, compared to how it looks based oncompared to other famous pirates.It’s Ark, a class that has actually fallen a lot in popularity in 2022-2024 due to the Ignition Update improving a lot of classes more than it.
Still, Ark is a class with fantastic mobbing skills, absurdly large AoE attacks, a lot of edgy dark magic, and a lot of attacks that move it around a map. While its transformation is one of the shortest in the game, the Class is still good enough outside of that to warrant putting it on here.
Fans
Haku Fans
Yet another amazing mobbing class with a unique mana system, it’s Kanna. Kannas are a class that’s obviously inspired by the Onmyoji of Japanese Folklore based on the way Kanna dresses and the fact that they use Shikigami.
Kanna’s Mana system passively recovers over time whenever it isn’t topped off, but it also spawns these Mana Veins around each map when Kanna uses certain skills. When Kanna stands in these, their Mana recovery rate is massively increased. Overall, Kanna is just another more ‘modern’Maplestoryclass withincredibly visually appealing Skillsand amazing mobbing potential. Plus, it’s one of the only classes with an ability that actually increases the Spawn Rate of nearby mobs (which of course means faster farming).
Lucent Gauntlets
Lucent Wings
The Flora are one of the more recent races introduced into theMapleStoryuniverse, and the Illium class is one of them. This is a Magician Class that uses all types of ‘ancient’ magic to fly or teleport all around, mobbing enemies with ease using their Radiant Orb and Radiant Javelin skills. The high-mobility playstyle takes a bit of getting used to (especially positioning his orb) and their bossing DPS is near the middle of the pack (though on the lower side) but overall this class is just very solid.
The way thatMapleStoryhandles the concept of a ‘pirate’ is one of the easiest things to point to and provehow unique this game’s classes are. For players that want to dish out melee damage close up but also like the thrill of ‘spellcasting’, Thunder Breaker offers a great middle-ground. These storm-loving Pirates are capable of chaining together their weather-based attacks and abilities, giving them great maneuverability and damage output. Honestly, while grinding maps with them, it’s very easy to lose track of the player character behind all of the gigantic electric effects and other visuals behind their Skills.
They require a bit more button presses during grinding than other classes and their bossing is mid-range at best, but Thunder Breakers have to be one of the smoothest classes to mob with since they move so fast, have so much maneuverability, and have Skills that cover so much screen space.
One-Handed or Two-Handed Swords
Shields & Jewels
Those looking for a more ‘traditional’ warrior in the Cygnus Knights can opt for Dawn Warrior, a class with interchangeability on the battlefield. These powerful damage dealers can use one-handed or two-handed swords and have multiple mechanics revolving around their stance switching.
This is another Class that was massively improved with the Knights of Cygnus rework and the Dawn Warrior is better at mobbing now than ever before. With tons of maneuverability, a whole lot of large AoE (and visually appealing Skills), and way too many dashes with invincibility frames, the Dawn Warriors’ DPS output is honestly absurd.
