Bowmaster In-Depth Job Guide

Bowmaster In-Depth Job Guide

Guide in 'Archer' published by Sky, Nov 21, 2022.

This is an in-depth guide about the Bowmaster job branch. Includes pros/cons, skill builds, in-depth skill explanations, Nodes setup, Link Skills, Legion, preferred Inner Abilities, Hyper Stats, and more.

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      Please note that there are several sections in this guide, such as a Skill Info section and a Gameplay/Skill Explanation section. Click on the tabs at the top of the guide (right above this message) to switch sections.

      [​IMG]
      Table of Contents ↓

      ↑ Why Bowmaster? ↓

      Bowmaster is a ranged, utility-based and varied class. Whether you like it or not depends on what sort of playstyle you prefer.

      If you're on the fence of playing Bowmaster, I'd recommend you just try playing it because the best way to know that you like (or dislike) a class is by simply playing it!

      The general pros and cons of Bowmaster are listed below:

      Pros
      • Best HP recovery skill in the game - Blood Arrows are toggled on/off with Magic Arrows without restriction.
      • High damage - in the latest KMS DPM charts, Bowmaster is rank 13. In GMS, this might make Bowmaster relatively lower (due to Attack Speed differences in KMS vs GMS) but it doesn't make Bowmaster absolutely weak or anything. It might be mid-20's ranking in GMS, which, post-Destiny is not a big deal due to the balancing gap being significantly reduced.
      • High mobility, versatile grinding - has left, right, upwards, and downwards flash jump, along with Blink Shot to teleport to specific locations with almost no cooldown. It even has a hover/second jump after its flash jump! Arrow Blaster in certain maps can allow for braindead grinding, especially when combined with Blink Shot.
      • Highest constant Status Resistance in the game - quickly stackable 120 Status Resistance from Focused Fury while attacking monsters.
      • Scales well to high PDR mobs - Armor Break gives bursts of final damage based on monster PDR (up to 100% of the monster's PDR, so 300% PDR = +300% Final Damage, etc.).
      • Mobile attacking - while using Hurricane, you can jump and move at full speed with no cast delays.
      • Strong summons - utilizing Arrow Blaster, Inhuman Speed, Fury of the Wild, Guided Arrow, and Storm of Arrows can allow you to attack effectively for half a minute while not pressing a single button.
      • Sharp Eyes - good for buffing parties, and no need for Decent Sharp Eyes. Additionally, does not require Decent Speed Infusion either.
      • Low amount of buffs - buffs last 5 minutes at minimum and only has two. If you have three pets, you have free slots for Decent Combat Orders, Decent Advanced Blessing, and two other skills as you wish (e.g. Decent Holy Symbol and Decent Speed Infusion, although Bowmaster does not need the latter for any sort of bossing).
      • Great mobbing - Arrow Blaster can take a platform (and then some) and Arrow Stream provides nice vertical mobbing. Storm of Arrows and Quiver Barrage/Fury of the Wild can be rotated in 5th Job for very excellent post-5th mobbing. Speed Mirage provides excellent coverage when it procs to clear out stray mobs.
      • Relatively simplistic Nodes - Bowmaster's nodes are easy to understand and it's relatively easy to obtain perfect trios compared to other jobs.
      Cons
      • Squishy at lower levels - when you're training at lower levels you may find yourself low on HP, but post-level 200 this should not be an issue at all or during bossing.
      • Skill rotation-heavy - you need to keep your skills up for optimal damage; Bowmaster is NOT a single-button class, BUT it's NOT one where you need to press stuff every 3 seconds like Kinesis or Evan. In KMS, BM is somewhat known as the "30-second Master" for a reason. Bowmaster needs to cast multiple buffs and summons; but after that, it's easy sailing.
      • Underplayed class - not many people play Bowmaster, so you may have difficulty finding a bow or secondary to purchase. This can be a pro depending on how you look at it.
      • -4 seconds cooldown hat is optimal - this is due to how Armor Break works. Interestingly enough, both lower and higher reductions negatively impact your damage compared to -4 seconds. There's a lot of math involved in this. While it isn't required by any stretch to get -4 seconds to make yourself do good damage (2L or 3L DEX is still very good), -4 seconds is simply the best hat potential that you can land as a Bowmaster.
      Choose a class that you have fun with, not a class that does good damage. DPM can change in the next patch. And the next patch. And the next. And the next.


      ↑ Nodes ↓

      Bowmaster's Node setup is pretty straightforward to set up.

      Must-have Skill Nodes
      • [​IMG] Storm of Arrows (for bossing and grinding)
      • [​IMG] Inhuman Speed (for bossing and grinding)
      • [​IMG] Quiver Barrage (for bossing and grinding)
      • [​IMG] Silhouette Mirage (for bossing and a little grinding)
      • [​IMG] Vicious Shot (for bossing)
      Other Recommended Skill Nodes
      • [​IMG] Fury of the Wild (for bossing and grinding)
      • [​IMG] Guided Arrow (for bossing and grinding)
      • [​IMG] Maple Goddess's Blessing (for bossing)
      • [​IMG] True Arachnid Reflection (Lv. 235+ node from Esfera, for bossing and grinding)
      • [​IMG] Solar Crest (Lv. 265+ node from Seren, for bossing and grinding)
      • [​IMG] Erda Nova (for bossing) - Lv. 25 Erda Nova has a 120 second cooldown, so Erda Nova's cooldown aligns perfectly with Bowmaster's 120 second cooldown burst.
      • [​IMG] Erda Shower (for grinding)
      • [​IMG] Blink (for bossing) - allows you to hover midair for up to 5 seconds at Lv. 25. You can link Covering Fire into Blink after an up jump for a high amount of air time. Also increases Attack passively.
      • [​IMG] Decent Holy Symbol (for grinding)
      • [​IMG] Decent Combat Orders (for bossing)
      • [​IMG] Decent Advanced Blessing (for bossing)
      Boost Node Priorities
      1. [​IMG] Hurricane (for bossing)
      2. [​IMG] Arrow Blaster/Speed Mirage (for bossing and grinding) - this Node boosts both skills at the same time, so thankfully Bowmaster only needs 2 sets of trio nodes.
      3. [​IMG] Quiver Cartridge (for bossing)
      4. [​IMG] Advanced Final Attack (for bossing)
      5. [​IMG] Arrow Stream (for grinding)
      6. [​IMG] Gritty Gust (for grinding primarily and some bossing due to its debuff)
      Sample Node Setup (for Lv. 260)
      [​IMG]
      • [​IMG] Storm of Arrows (slot enhanced)
      • [​IMG] Inhuman Speed (slot enhanced)
      • [​IMG] Quiver Barrage (slot enhanced)
      • [​IMG] Silhouette Mirage (slot enhanced)
      • [​IMG] Vicious Shot (slot enhanced)
      • [​IMG] Maple Goddess's Blessing (slot enhanced)
      • [​IMG] Guided Arrow (slot enhanced)
      • [​IMG] True Arachnid Reflection
      • [​IMG] Erda Nova
      • [​IMG] Blink (slot enhanced)
      • [​IMG] Decent Holy Symbol
      • [​IMG] Fury of the Wild
      • [​IMG] Will of Erda
      • [[​IMG]] Hurricane + [​IMG] Quiver Cartridge + [​IMG] Advanced Final Attack (slot enhanced)
      • [[​IMG]] Quiver Cartridge + [​IMG] Hurricane + [​IMG] Advanced Final Attack (slot enhanced)
      • [[​IMG]] Arrow Blaster/Speed Mirage + [​IMG] Gritty Gust + [​IMG] Arrow Stream (slot enhanced)
      • [[​IMG]] Arrow Stream + [​IMG] Gritty Gust + [​IMG] Arrow Blaster/Speed Mirage (slot enhanced)
      [Brackets] signify the "main" skill of the Boost Node. I've highlighted the combinations of Boost Nodes together. It doesn't matter what order or combination you have the skills in, as long as you have them. This is just a sample. I personally use the equipment versions of Decent Combat Orders and Decent Advanced Blessing, which is why it's not on this sample.

      Matrix Points
      See the Skill Build section on where to allocate your Matrix Points to enhance node slots.


      ↑ Link Skills ↓

      Bowmaster's Link Skill (same as Marksman and Pathfinder. Stacks up to level 6 by sharing them into one character.):

      [​IMG] Adventurer's Curiosity [Master Level: 6]: Your curiosity and attention to detail grants you bonuses to Critical Rate and the chance of adding monsters to your Monster Collection. This bonus is multiplicative rather than additive.
      This Link Skill can be stacked up to 3 times, once for each unique Explorer Bowman job character you have on this world.
      This skill can also be used by one character you have in this world.
      Chance to add monsters to Monster Collection: +35%, Critical Rate: +10%

      Bowmaster has a standard set of [​IMG] Link Skills. Here are my recommendations.

      For Bossing
      1. [​IMG] Fury Unleashed (Demon Slayer) - up to Lv. 3
      2. [​IMG] Wild Rage (Demon Avenger) - up to Lv. 3
      3. [​IMG] Light Wash (Luminous) - up to Lv. 3
      4. [​IMG] Solus (Ark) - up to Lv. 3
      5. [​IMG] Empirical Knowledge (Explorer Magicians) - up to Lv. 6
      6. [​IMG] Elementalism (Kanna) - up to Lv. 2
      7. [​IMG] Judgment (Kinesis) - up to Lv. 2
      8. [​IMG] Focus Spirit (Beast Tamer) - up to Lv. 3
      9. [​IMG] Unfair Advantage (Cadena) - up to Lv. 2
      10. [​IMG] Terms and Conditions (Angelic Buster) - up to Lv. 3
      11. [​IMG] Thief's Cunning (Explorer Thieves) - up to Lv. 6 or a good-stat [​IMG] Core Aura (Jett)
      12. [​IMG] Spirit of Freedom (Resistance) - up to Lv. 8
      13. If not using the Spirit of Freedom link (for DPS focus, e.g. Culvert or Dojo): use [​IMG] Tide of Battle (Illium) (jump in place with Hurricane to easily activate) - up to Lv. 2

      For Grinding
      1. [​IMG] Elven Blessing (Mercedes) - up to Lv. 3
      2. [​IMG] Rune Persistence (Evan) - up to Lv. 3
      3. [​IMG] Combo Kill Blessing (Aran) - up to Lv. 3
      4. [​IMG] Wild Rage (Demon Avenger) - up to Lv. 3
      5. [​IMG] Solus (Ark) - up to Lv. 3
      6. [​IMG] Judgment (Kinesis) - up to Lv. 2
      7. [​IMG] Focus Spirit (Beast Tamer) - up to Lv. 3
      8. [​IMG] Elementalism (Kanna) - up to Lv. 2
      9. [​IMG] Bravado (Hoyoung) - up to Lv. 2
      10. [​IMG] Nature's Friend (Lara) - up to Lv. 2
      11. [​IMG] Tide of Battle (Illium) - up to Lv. 2
      12. [​IMG] Time to Prepare (Kain) - up to Lv. 2


      ↑ Legion ↓

      Prioritize Critical Damage and Boss Damage first, then Ignore Defense like other classes use. After all of those are maxed, either place into Critical Rate so that [​IMG] Vicious Shot is stronger for bursts, or into DEX for consistent damage.

      Use Xenogent's Legion Solver to effectively place your Legion blocks!

      For a more in-depth guide on Legion and how it works and what Legion effects there are, see Jushiro's Legion Guide.

      DEX Legion Effects
      • Bowmaster
      • Pathfinder
      • Wind Archer
      • Xenon (STR/DEX/LUK)
      • Angelic Buster
      • Kain
      Sample 8k Legion Board Setup
      [​IMG]


      ↑ Inner Ability ↓

      Bowmaster doesn't need +1 Attack Speed as it's a primarily key-down skill class. It also doesn't need buff duration as Bowmaster only has to cast Sharp Eyes and Maple Warrior for buffs, which can easily be placed on pet autobuff.

      If you have Legendary Ability, the first Ability line is always Legendary, but the other two will be Unique or Epic. Consult the guide here for more information.

      Recommendations from best to worst:
      1. Boss Damage - up to +20% Boss Damage on Legendary tier. Highly recommended to be first line unless if you just don't do bosses.
      2. Critical Rate - up to +20% on Unique tier. Recommended for DPS to increase Vicious Shot's Critical Damage boost. Extremely rare.
      3. Damage Increase when attacking monsters inflicted with Abnormal Status - up to +8% damage on Unique tier. If you have the Explorer Mage link skill, it's essentially a pure +8% Damage increase. Recommended for DPS. Very rare.
      4. Attack - up to +21 Attack on Unique tier. Recommended for DPS. Very rare.
      5. Meso or Drop Rate Increase - up to 20% on Legendary tier, up to 15% on Unique tier. Recommended only if you're focusing on the grind.


      ↑ Hyper Stats ↓

      I'd recommend getting most of the following list of Hyper Stats to level 7 first for efficiency purposes before you push any Hyper Stat to level 10 or beyond.

      General priority list:
      1. Boss Damage
      2. Critical Damage
      3. Ignore Defense
      4. Damage (worse scaling than Boss Damage)
      5. Attack
      6. DEX
      7. Critical Rate (going beyond 100% still helps the 5th Job Skill [​IMG] Vicious Shot slightly, but don't invest too heavily into it)

      Attached Files:

      Sky, Nov 21, 2022
    2. Guide Author Sky, Find all guides by Sky

  • Build

    Table of Contents ↓
    I won't go too far in-depth on this section since leveling is fast enough nowadays to not really matter, especially if you burn your character.


    ↑ 1st Job ↓

    I recommend putting a point into Arrow Blow, Double Jump, and Archery Mastery first when you advance. From there, max out Double Jump for mobility and the rest as you feel like.

    [​IMG] Arrow Blow
    [​IMG] Double Jump
    [​IMG] Critical Shot
    [​IMG] Archery Mastery


    ↑ 2nd Job ↓

    I recommend putting a point into Wind Arrow, Soul Arrow: Bow, and Bow Mastery when you first advance. When you level afterwards, get Bow Mastery to at least level 5 so you can use Agile Bows. From there, do as you like.

    [​IMG] Wind Arrow
    [​IMG] Covering Fire
    [​IMG] Agile Bows
    [​IMG] Soul Arrow: Bow
    [​IMG] Quiver Cartridge - automatically allocated after job advancement
    [​IMG] Bow Mastery
    [​IMG] Final Attack: Bow
    [​IMG] Physical Training


    ↑ 3rd Job ↓

    I recommend putting a point into Arrow Blaster, Speed Mirage, and Marksmanship when you first advance. When you level afterwards, I'd recommend putting SP into Reckless Hunt: Bow, Phoenix, and Evasion Boost. Don't put any SP into Focused Fury until everything is maxed. Level as you like from there.

    [​IMG] Arrow Blaster
    [​IMG] Speed Mirage
    [​IMG] Phoenix
    [​IMG] Blink Shot
    [​IMG] Reckless Hunt: Bow
    [​IMG] Mortal Blow
    [​IMG] Focused Fury
    [​IMG] Evasion Boost
    [​IMG] Marksmanship


    ↑ 4th Job ↓

    I recommend putting a point into Hurricane, Arrow Stream, and Speed Mirage II when you first advance. From there, put some points into Bow Expert, Illusion Step, and Sharp Eyes. Don't level Armor Break at all until everything else is maxed, as that's a very specific skill for more endgame bosses.

    [​IMG] Hurricane
    [​IMG] Speed Mirage II
    [​IMG] Arrow Stream
    [​IMG] Sharp Eyes
    [​IMG] Illusion Step
    [​IMG] Hero's Will
    [​IMG] Maple Warrior
    [​IMG] Enchanted Quiver
    [​IMG] Bow Expert
    [​IMG] Advanced Final Attack
    [​IMG] Armor Break


    ↑ Hyper Skills ↓

    Bowmaster has a pretty straightforward Hyper Skill build:

    Level 140: add into [​IMG] Concentration
    Level 150: add into [​IMG] Hurricane - Reinforce and [​IMG] Sharp Eyes - Guardbreak
    Level 160: add into [​IMG] Gritty Gust
    Level 165: add into [​IMG] Hurricane - Boss Rush
    Level 180: add into [​IMG] Arrow Stream - Extra Strike if you need damage for mobbing. Otherwise, add into [​IMG] Sharp Eyes - Critical Chance for post-5th job bossing for Vicious Shot.
    Level 190: add into [​IMG] Hurricane - Split Attack and [​IMG] Epic Adventure


    ↑ 5th Job (Matrix Points)

    Every level after Level 200, you get one Matrix Point that can be used to level up your nodes, even past the Rank 25 limit (up to Rank 30).

    Prioritizing grinding? Go ahead and boost [​IMG] Holy Symbol and [​IMG] Erda Shower as soon as you can. Otherwise, if you still feel the need to boost your grinding but not looking to ASAP, or you just want to swap out on-demand, Quiver Barrage and Vicious Shot are not very good for grinding, so they can be replaced by Holy Symbol and Erda Shower.

    Level 201 - 205: add into [​IMG] Storm of Arrows
    Level 206 - 210: add into [​IMG] Inhuman Speed
    Level 211 - 230: add into [​IMG] Boost Nodes
    Level 231 - 235: add into [​IMG] Quiver Barrage
    Level 236 - 240: add into [​IMG] Vicious Shot
    Level 241 - 245: add into [​IMG] Maple Goddess's Blessing
    Level 246 - 250: add into [​IMG] Silhouette Mirage
    Level 251 - 255: add into [​IMG] Fury of the Wild
    Level 256 - 260: add into [​IMG] Guided Arrow
    Level 261 - 265: add into [​IMG] Blink

  • Skill Info

    Table of Contents ↓
    This section contains skill info from the Global MapleStory service as of GMS v237.

    Beginner Skills ↓
    Skill Icon Skill Name Skill Description Skill Readout (Master Level)
    [​IMG] Adventurer's Curiosity [Master Level: 6]
    Your curiosity and attention to detail grants you bonuses to Critical Rate and the chance of adding monsters to your Monster Collection. This bonus is multiplicative rather than additive. This Link Skill can be stacked up to 3 times, once for each unique Explorer Bowman job character you have on this world. This skill can also be used by one character you have in this world.    		 Chance to add monsters to Monster Collection: +35%, Critical Rate: +10%



    ↑ 1st Job ↓
    Skill Icon Skill Name Skill Description Skill Readout (Master Level)
    [​IMG] Arrow Blow [Master Level: 20]
    Shoots consecutive arrows at multiple enemies.    		 MP Cost: 11, Damage: 160%, Max Enemies Hit: 5, Arrows Fired: 3
    [​IMG] Double Jump [Master Level: 10]
    Allows you to use the Double Jump skill to move very quickly.
    Double-tap the up arrow key to jump again while in mid-air. Double-tap the down arrow key to descend more quickly. If you use Action Customization, you can move up in the air with the up arrow and jump keys, and descend with the down arrow and jump keys. Right-click to toggle Action Customization ON/OFF.    		 MP Cost: 10, allows you to jump a greater distance
    [​IMG] Critical Shot [Master Level: 20]
    Increase Critical Rate.    		 Critical Rate: +40%
    [​IMG] Archery Mastery [Master Level: 15]
    Builds proficiency in the fundamentals of Archery. Increases Range, Movement Speed, Attack Speed, and Max Movement Speed.    		 Range +120, Movement Speed +30, Attack Speed: +1.
    Max Movement Speed Increased to 160.



    ↑ 2nd Job ↓
    Skill Icon Skill Name Skill Description Skill Readout (Master Level)
    [​IMG] Wind Arrow [Master Level: 20]
    Fire multiple arrows that fly like the wind.    		 MP Cost: 15, Max Enemies Hit: 6, Damage: 178%, Number of Attacks: 3
    [​IMG] Covering Fire [Master Level: 9]
    Fire arrows while leaping backwards. While firing, you'll have 100% Knockback Resistance. If you press and hold the skill key, you will fire arrows rapidly while in mid-air. You will temporarily not be pushed back by any attack after casting.    		 MP Cost: 5, if you press and hold the skill key after jumping a certain distance backward, you will attack enemies at up to 105% of damage for 2 sec while in mid-air
    [​IMG] Agile Bows [Master Level: 10]
    Increase Attack Speed and Dexterity.
    Required Skill: Bow Mastery Lv. 5    		 Attack Speed: +2, DEX: +20
    [​IMG] Soul Arrow: Bow [Master Level: 20]
    Allows you to use your bow without consuming arrows and increases Attack Power.
    The arrows in your inventory with the highest Attack Power will be used to calculate your damage.    		 Attack Power +30. Allows you to attack without consuming arrows.
    [​IMG] Quiver Cartridge [Master Level: 1]
    Use a special arrowhead. Learning Enchanted Quiver adds arrowheads you can use. Arrowheads can be changed by using the skill again.    		 30% chance to fire a magic arrow that pursues the enemy and deals 220% damage.
    [​IMG] Bow Mastery [Master Level: 10]
    Increases Bow Mastery.
    Level 10 required to learn Bow Expert.    		 Bow Mastery: +50%
    [​IMG] Final Attack: Bow [Master Level: 20]
    Grants a chance to activate an additional hit after an attack. Must have a bow equipped.
    Required skill: Bow Mastery Lv. 3.
    Level 20 required to learn Advanced Final Attack.    		 [Final Attack Skills] Has a 40% chance to deal 150% Final Attack damage.
    [​IMG] Physical Training [Master Level: 5]
    Permanently increases STR and DEX through sheer physical training.    		 Permanently increase STR by 30 and DEX by 30.



    ↑ 3rd Job ↓
    Skill Icon Skill Name Skill Description Skill Readout (Master Level)
    [​IMG] Arrow Blaster [Master Level: 20]
    Shoots an arrow at a high angle. If you press and hold the skill key, you will fire continuously. While firing, press Up or Down to control the force of the shot.
    While casting the skill, press the Interact/Harvest key to set up an Arrow Blaster--which fires arrows automatically--at your location.
    With Action Customization enabled, you can set up the Arrow Blaster by pressing the attack key, instead of the Interact/Harvest key.
    Unaffected by attack reflection.
    Right-click to toggle Action Customization ON/OFF.    		 MP Cost: 7, Max Enemies Hit: 4, Damage: 181%. While casting, use the Interact/Harvest key to set up Arrow Blaster, firing arrows that deal 85% damage for 60 sec.
    Cooldown for installed Arrow Blaster: 5 sec.
    [​IMG] Speed Mirage [Master Level: 20]
    Fire arrows fast enough to leave afterimages.
    After striking enemies with enough arrow-based attacks, creates afterimages that fires enemy-seeking arrows before vanishing. These arrows target a single enemy in front of the afterimage and damage any foes pierced on the way to the target. Arrow Blaster turret placement attacks don't count toward this skill's prerequisites.
    Empowers Wind Arrow.
    Can be toggled On/Off.    		 MP Cost: 90. After successfully striking enemies 12 times with arrow-based attacks, creates 3 afterimages that fire an arrow towards an enemy ahead of them.
    Every 7 hits with Arrow Blaster, Hurricane, Silhouette Mirage, Inhuman Speed, Quiver Barrage, and Storm of Arrows counts as 1 successful arrow-based strike.
    Fired arrows pierce up to 5 enemies and deal 420% damage 4 times on the way to its intended target.
    Cooldown: 1 sec
    [Passive Effect] Increases Wind Arrow's Range and Dmaage by 70%p.
    [​IMG] Phoenix [Master Level: 10]
    Temporarily summons a Phoenix to deal Fire damage to up to 4 enemies. Has a chance to stun enemies as well. Permanently increases Defense. Ignores enemy damage reflection skills.    		 MP Cost: 70, summon Phoenix for 220 sec. Attack up to 4 enemies at once with 390% Damage. 95% chance to Stun
    [Passive Effects: Increase Defense by 30%]
    [​IMG] Blink Shot [Master Level: 10]
    Mark the spot where you are currently standing. Use the skill again to ride a magic arrow back to that spot instantly. Use the skill again while holding the Down Arrow key to replace your original marker.    		 MP Cost: 28. Places a marker that lasts 120 sec.
    Use the skill again to teleport to the marker's location. Teleport Cooldown: 2 sec.
    Use the skill again while holding the Down Arrow key to replace your previous marker. Marker Placement Cooldown: 1 sec.
    [​IMG] Reckless Hunt: Bow [Master Level: 10]
    Reduces Defense and increases Attack Power and Final Damage.    		 DEF: -25%, Attack Power: +40, Final Damage: +30%
    [​IMG] Mortal Blow [Master Level: 10]
    If the attack hits a certain number of times, the damage increases and allows you to deal a more powerful attack.    		 If the direct skill attacks hit 30 times, damage increases by 35% for 5 sec.
    [​IMG] Focused Fury [Master Level: 20]
    Constant attacks focus your concentration, increasing your Abnormal Status Resistance. Getting an Abnormal Status while this buff is in effect will reset the increases Abnormal Status Resistance. Also increases Abnormal Status Resistance and All Elemental Resistances permanently.    		 While attacking Abnormal Status Resistance will increase by 5 for 90 sec regularly. Resets when a Abnormal Status is received.
    [Passive Effects: Increases Abnormal Status Resistance by 20 and Elemental Resistance by 20%]
    [​IMG] Evasion Boost [Master Level: 4]
    Grants you a chance to dodge enemy attacks. When you succeed, attacks made by you in the following 1 second will result in Critical Hits. Also increases Knockback Resistance and Max HP permanently.    		 Dodge Chance: 30%, all attacks following a successful dodge for 1 sec will be criticals, Knockback Resistance: +40%, Max HP: +40%
    [​IMG] Marksmanship [Master Level: 20]
    When attacking, ignores a portion of enemy Defense. Permanently increases your Attack Power.    		 When attacking, ignores 25% of a monsters Weapon DEF. Attack Power +25%



    ↑ 4th Job ↓
    Skill Icon Skill Name Skill Description Skill Readout (Master Level)
    [​IMG] Hurricane [Master Level: 30]
    Launches a tremendous volley of arrows, like a catastrophic rainstorm. Holding the skill key will fire arrows continously. You can also move while firing. Targets the enemy with the highest HP.    		 MP Cost: 9, Damage per Arrow: 350%
    [Passive Effect: Increases damage for Arrow Stream by 50%p]
    [​IMG] Speed Mirage II [Master Level: 20]
    Your continued archery training has empowered your Speed Mirage.    		 Reduces the number of successful arrow strikes required to activate Speed Mirage to 7.
    Increases number of afterimages created to 4.
    Afterimage Arrow Damage: +120%p.
    [​IMG] Arrow Stream [Master Level: 30]
    Shoots a wild flurry of arrow straight ahead.    		 MP Cost: 32, attack up to 8 enemies with 350% damage 5 times.
    [​IMG] Sharp Eyes [Master Level: 30]
    Temporarily grants party members the ability to locate an enemy's weak spot to deal fatal damage to that enemy.    		 MP Cost: 45, Critical Rate: +20%, Critical Damage: +15%, Duration: 300 sec
    [​IMG] Illusion Step [Master Level: 30]
    Greatly increases your DEX and Avoidability, and reduces damage taken. Also increases Knockback Resistance permanently.    		 DEX: +80, Bonus Avoidability Chance: 30%, Damage Taken: -20%, Knockback Resistance: +60%
    [​IMG] Hero's Will [Master Level: 5]
    Hones your resolve to ignore certain abnormal status effects. Immune to Abnormal Status for 3 sec after use.    		 MP Cost: 30, Cooldown: 360 sec
    [​IMG] Maple Warrior [Master Level: 30]
    Temporarily increases the stats of all party members. Does not stack with Maple Warrior, Call of Cygnus, Nova Warrior, Hero of the Flora, President's Orders, Anima Warrior, or Rhinne's Protection.    		 MP Cost: 60, Increases all stats assigned APs by 15% for 900 sec
    [​IMG] Enchanted Quiver [Master Level: 10]
    Equips specialized arrowheads. You can switch between arrowheads by using the skill again. Also permanently increases Final Damage.    		 Magic Arrows: Increases Magic Arrows' activation chance to 60% and its Damage to 260%.
    Blood Arrows: Your arrows have a 70% chance to restore 5% of Max HP.
    [Passive Effect: Final Damage: +6%]
    [​IMG] Bow Expert [Master Level: 30]
    Increases Bow Mastery, Attack Power, and Critical Damage.
    Additionally, allows you to set Arrow Blaster's firing angle instantly when placing. Placing while holding the up arrow key will fire at the highest angle and placing while holding down the down arrow key will fire at the lowest angle.
    Required Skill: Bow Mastery Lv. 10    		 Bow Mastery: +70%. Attack Power: +60, Critical Damage: +16%
    [​IMG] Advanced Final Attack [Master Level: 30]
    Permanently increases Attack Power. Greatly increases the damage and activation rate of your Final Attack.
    Required Skill: Final Attack Lv. 20    		 Attack Power +20 permanently.
    [Final Attack Skills] Final Attack Chance: 70%, Damage: 210%
    [​IMG] Armor Break [Master Level: 10]
    Pierce the enemy's defenses while attacking and increases damage in proportion to enemy DEF. Does not activate for monsters with 0 DEF.    		 Final damage increases as much as 100% of Enemy DEF for direct skill attacks, ignores 50% of Enemy DEF, and 400% max limit of Final Damage Increase.
    Cooldown: 9 sec, Cooldown reduced by 1 sec every time you attack directly. Minimum cooldown of 1 sec.



    ↑ Hyper Skills (Passive) ↓
    Skill Icon Skill Name Required Level Skill Description Skill Readout (Master Level)
    [​IMG] Sharp Eyes - Persist Lv. 140 [Master Level: 1] Increases Sharp Eye's duration. Duration: +30 sec
    [​IMG] Sharp Eyes - Guardbreak Lv. 150 [Master Level: 1] Grants Sharp Eyes a bonus to Enemy DEF Ignored. Enemy DEF Ignored: +5%
    [​IMG] Sharp Eyes - Critical Chance Lv. 180 [Master Level: 1] Increases the Critical Rate of Sharp Eyes. Critical Rate: +5%
    [​IMG] Arrow Stream - Reinforce Lv. 140 [Master Level: 1] Increases Arrow Stream's damage. Damage: +20%
    [​IMG] Arrow Stream - Spread Lv. 165 [Master Level: 1] Increases the max number of monsters hit by Arrow Stream. Max Enemies Hit: +1
    [​IMG] Arrow Stream - Extra Strike Lv. 180 [Master Level: 1] Increases Arrow Stream's number of attacks. Number of Attacks: +1
    [​IMG] Hurricane - Reinforce Lv. 150 [Master Level: 1] Increases damage for Hurricane, Arrow Blaster, and installed Arrow Blaster. Damage: +30%
    [​IMG] Hurricane - Boss Rush Lv. 165 [Master Level: 1] Increases damage when attacking Boss Monsters with Hurricane. Boss Damage +10%
    [​IMG] Hurricane - Split Attack Lv. 190 [Master Level: 1] Increases the number of attacks. Reduces the damage of Hurricane. Number of Attacks: +1, reduces Damage to 75% of the original Damage



    ↑ Hyper Skills (Active) ↓
    Skill Icon Skill Name Required Level Skill Description Skill Readout (Master Level)
    [​IMG] Concentration Lv. 140 [Master Level: 1]
    Steel yourself for battle to increase damage.    		 MP Cost: 300, Duration: 30 sec, Attack Power +50, Boss Damage: +20%
    Cooldown: 90 sec
    [​IMG] Gritty Gust Lv. 160 [Master Level: 1]
    Tear nearby enemies apart with a gust of wind. Also boosts Arrow Blaster and Arrow Blaster turrets.    		 MP Cost: 200, Enemies Hit: 12, Damage: 335%, Number of Attacks: 12
    Reduces Speed of hit enemies by -30 for 20 sec.
    Cooldown: 15 sec
    [Passive Effects: Increases damage for Arrow Blaster and Arrow Blaster turrets by 90%p]
    [​IMG] Epic Adventure Lv. 190 [Master Level: 1]
    Call upon the bravery deep within to increase damage output.    		 MP Cost: 100, Duration: 60 sec, Damage: +10%
    Cooldown: 120 sec. Applies to any Explorer class in the party



    ↑ 5th Job
    Skill Icon Skill Name Skill Description Skill Readout (Master Level)
    [​IMG] Storm of Arrows [Master Level: 30]
    Arrows shot into the sky fall like rain. Unaffected by attack reflection. Has no effect in towns.    		 MP Cost: 1000, Damage: +30%, Duration: 70 sec. Arrows rain down on a zone every 5 sec for 2.5 sec when you attack with your own skills. Up to 6 of these zones can be created, but they cannot overlap.
    The falling arrows deal 1540% damage to up to 10 enemies, 7 times. If currently attacking more than one enemy, the number of attacks increase by 2 for each additional enemy, for up to 8 additional attacks.
    Has 2x more of a chance than Quiver Cartridge does to activate Magic Arrow on attacks in this area.
    Cooldown: 120 sec
    [​IMG] Guided Arrow [Master Level: 30]
    Creates spirit arrows that pursue and attack nearby enemies. Unaffected by attack reflection.
    Can be toggled On/Off.    		 MP Cost: 350, Arrow Damage: 880% damage to 1 nearby enemy. Damage Against Normal Enemies: +20%
    [​IMG] Inhuman Speed [Master Level: 30]
    [Active Effect] Causes you to attack so quickly you produce afterimages. Unaffected by attack reflection.
    [Passive Effect] After performing a certain number of attacks while the skill is on cooldown, an afterimage is created that attacks for a short time.    		 MP Cost: 800, Max Duration: 30 sec. Fires arrows at set intervals dealing 880% 3 times to enemies within range of your afterimages, for 3 sec, during the buff.
    When the attack hits, Afterimage Attack Duration: +3 sec every 1 sec.
    When the attack duration ends, afterimages stop attacking.
    Cooldown: 120 sec
    [Passive Effect: For every 10 attacks performed while this skill is on cooldown, an afterimage is created that lasts 1 sec and periodically attacks enemies within its range for 880% damage 3 times.]
    Active and Passive Effects cannot trigger simultaneously.
    [​IMG] Fury of the Wild [Master Level: 30]
    Temporarily infuses Phoenix, Frostprey, and Shadow Raven with mysterious power for a devastating attack. Can only be used when either Phoenix, Frostprey, or Shadow Raven are summoned.    		 MP Cost: 800, Duration: 40 sec, Max Enemies Hit: 10, Damage: 900%, Number of Attacks: 7
    Cooldown: 105 sec
    [​IMG] Vicious Shot [Master Level: 30]
    When inflicting a critical wound, your strike hits the enemy where they are most vulnerable, dealing greater damage.    		 MP Cost: 500, Duration: 30 sec, Allows Critical Rate to exceed 100% and Critical Damage to increase by 50% of Critical Rate.
    The attack's additional Critical Rate is not applied.
    Cooldown: 120 sec
    [​IMG] Quiver Barrage [Master Level: 30]
    Use every type of arrowhead at once, including a special flaming arrowhead that explodes when it hits an enemy. The Flaming Arrow target the boss with the highest HP first and is unaffected by attack reflection. The Flaming Arrow is prepared in limited quantities and will no longer attack once used up.    		 MP Cost: 1000, Duration: 40 sec, Attack Power: +20%, use every type of arrowhead at once, including a flaming arrowhead.
    Flaming Arrow: Launches 6 flaming arrows consecutively. Duration: 5 sec, Enemies Hit: 6, Damage: 550%, Number of Attacks: 9, fires 6 flaming arrows up to 18 times.
    The attack won't activate if the buff remains when all the prepared flaming arrows are consumed. Cooldown: 2 sec.
    Cooldown: 120 sec
    [​IMG] Silhouette Mirage [Master Level: 30]
    Evade enemy attacks by moving fast enough to create illusory doubles of yourself.
    Illusory doubles disperse the enemy's attention to either reduce damage taken by Bow Master or inflict damage on the enemy. Affected by Buff Freezer effects, but the time to create the illusory doubles isn't deducted when you are incapacitated. Illusory doubles are unaffected by Attack Reflection.
    Can be turned On/Off.    		 Creates up to 2 illusory doubles every 50 sec.
    When you either receive damage that is at least 50% of your Max HP, or you receive damage that leads to death, 1 illusory double disappears, reducing that damage by 90%.
    If you have even 1 illusory double, and there is an enemy to attack nearby when using an attack skill, 5 illusory bullets will deal 880% damage 3 times. MP Cost: 80, Cooldown 7.5 sec
    Cooldown 1.50 sec (Toggle)

  • Gameplay

    Table of Contents ↓
    This section contains gameplay-related explanations.

    ↑ Final Damage ↓

    Final Damage, huh? What is this Damage that is now Final? Well, it's literally just the final multiplier on your damage!

    Final Damage formula: (1 + sourceA) * (1 + sourceB) * (1 + sourceC) and so on, if you got more sources.

    Regular (Boss) Damage formula: (1 + sourceA + sourceB + sourceC) and so on, if you got more sources.

    Try to calculate the difference between Final Damage and Damage! Here's an example:

    +70% Boss Damage from equips
    +40% Boss Damage from skills
    +12% Damage from equips
    +30% Damage from skills
    +20% Final Damage from nodes

    Now Nexon wants to buff you by doing one of two things:

    A) Give +40% Damage.
    B) Give +30% Final Damage.

    What would be the difference?

    We are assuming that you do 8m on a line of a skill attack without any damage boost.

    Scenario A: +40% Damage
    (1 + 0.7 + 0.4 + 0.12 + 0.3) * (1 + 0.2) = 3x improvement from the equips/skills/nodes before Nexon hands out any buff.
    So (8m * 3) = 24m per line regularly.

    Now...Nexon gives out +40% Damage.

    (1 + 0.7 + 0.4 + 0.12 + 0.3 + 0.4) * (1 + 0.2) = 3.5x improvement from the equips/skills/nodes after Nexon gives a +40% Damage boost. Note that we add the 0.4 (40%) Damage boost.
    So (8m * 3.5) = 28m per line after the buff.

    24 -> 28m is a 4m increase per line...a 16% overall increase. Not bad, but...

    What if it was Final Damage...? And even a lower number to boot?


    Scenario B: +30% Final Damage
    (1 + 0.7 + 0.4 + 0.12 + 0.3) * (1 + 0.2) = 3x improvement from the equips/skills/nodes before Nexon hands out any buff.
    So (8m * 3) = 24m per line regularly.

    Now...Nexon gives out +30% Final Damage.

    (1 + 0.7 + 0.4 + 0.12 + 0.3) * (1 + 0.2) * (1 + 0.3) = about a 4x improvement from the equips/skills/nodes after Nexon gives a +30% Final Damage boost. Note the difference in calculating Final Damage.
    So (8m * 4) = 32m per line after the buff.

    24 -> 32m is a 8m increase per line! Nice! About a 30% overall increase. Sound familiar?

    There are no diminishing returns with Final Damage.

    You'll need to know this to appreciate how well Nodes and Armor Break go together, which I explain in the Armor Break section under 4th Job.


    ↑ Skill Explanations ↓

    This section attempts to explain some practical uses and quirks of some skills that may not be obvious at first glance.


    ↑ 1st Job ↓

    [​IMG] Arrow Blow
    Nothing to note. Standard 1st job mobbing skill.

    [​IMG] Double Jump
    This one is a bit special compared to other flash jumps. You can flash jump left, right, and up, but in addition to that, you can also flash jump downwards!

    The flash jump downwards doesn't have many practical uses. The only real practical use for it that I found is in Phase 2 and 3 of Lotus where he shoots players upwards - you can nullify the upwards momentum by using Double Jump downwards.

    Uses the double-tap style vertical jump key command by default, but you can right-click the skill icon in your Skill Inventory to toggle it to the more standard "hold up or down and press jump" key combination instead of double-tapping.

    [​IMG] Critical Shot
    Nothing to note. Increases Critical Rate.

    [​IMG] Archery Mastery
    Nothing to note. Increases movement speed, attack speed, and attack range.


    ↑ 2nd Job ↓

    [​IMG] Wind Arrow (KMS: Arrows of Wind)
    Nothing to note. Standard 2nd job mobbing skill.

    [​IMG] Covering Fire (KMS: Retreat Shot)
    A backwards jump skill! And you can use it mid-air. Not really much to say here other than it's extremely useful to have in certain bosses such as Lotus, where you may need to hover above something for a while. Careful of the debris falling though. You can link this up with Blink. The best way to link Covering Fire and Blink, due to certain skill delays, would be to use up jump -> Blink -> let go of Blink key manually, and then immediately use Covering Fire.

    To generally use it for horizontal mobility, you can flash jump, turn around, and then use Covering Fire. Make sure to use Covering Fire at the peak of any jump to get additional height.

    History lesson: after the Illium patch, there was a bug where you could use Covering Fire in jump quests, such as Flag Race and Tower of Oz. That was fun for a week...

    [​IMG] Agile Bows (KMS: Bow Acceleration)
    Nothing to note. Passively increases attack speed by 2 stages and gives permanent DEX.

    [​IMG] Soul Arrow: Bow
    Makes you consume no arrows, and adds the highest attack power bundle of arrows on top of its 30 attack power boost, for a maximum of 39 attack with Titanium Arrows. Bone Fish and Nest Golems drop the recipe for Titanium Arrows, which can be crafted through the Smithing profession.

    [​IMG] Quiver Cartridge
    Bowmaster's Specialized Skill! With this, you can infuse your arrows with magical quiver arrowhead powers. At 2nd job, you'll only have the Magic Arrows arrowhead. However, at 4th job, you get to choose from the Blood Arrows or Magic Arrows with no downtime - simply toggle between the two as you wish.

    Magic Arrowhead: standard Final Attack-type skill, though it's not technically categorized as a "Final Attack" skill.

    [​IMG] Bow Mastery
    Nothing to note. Standard Mastery skill.

    [​IMG] Final Attack: Bow
    Nothing to note. Standard Final Attack skill.

    [​IMG] Physical Training
    Nothing to note. Standard Training skill.


    ↑ 3rd Job ↓

    [​IMG] Arrow Blaster (KMS: Arrow Platter)
    Arrow Blaster was once a pretty large part of Bowmaster's damage, but now it's more or less 3-6% of the total DPS. It is however an extremely good mobbing skill and a stable bossing skill thanks to it having a very nice 60 second summon duration with only a 5 sec re-installation cooldown.

    Arrow Blaster has some an odd properties, though. First off, it's technically NOT a summon skill. It's an installation skill, which initially made it activate damage reflect (but was manually patched later to not activate damage reflect). Secondly, it will not activate any of Quiver Cartridge's Arrowheads or Advanced Final Attack. And lastly, it can instantly hit and kill monsters in its path before a ton of other skills in the game, making it the ultimate KS skill. Cool!

    For some reason, Arrow Blaster does not activate the Fatal Strike special node unless if it hits a monster. Which is a good thing, since it allows for you to install it in preparation for boss spawning without activating Fatal Strike.

    Arrow Blaster's Installation is slower than the keydown version. Installation Attack Speed: ~200ms (~5 hits per second)

    [​IMG] Speed Mirage (KMS: Flash Mirage)
    A very key part of both Bowmaster's mobbing and bossing capabilities. After a certain number of attacks, afterimages will appear next to enemies and shoot out piercing arrows, dealing damage on the way to the targeted monster. Deals a great amount of damage when it gets boosted in 4th job with Speed Mirage II.

    [​IMG] Phoenix
    Phoenix is not much of a contributor to damage, but occasionally helps with mobbing and is required to be summoned for Fury of the Wild to work.

    [​IMG] Blink Shot (KMS: Quiver Flow)
    Blink Shot is a great bossing and mobbing assist utility. It can be reinstalled at any time to full duration by pressing the down arrow along with the skill key. You can only teleport to it while you're on the ground though.

    Use Blink Shot as a panic button in bossing - for example, in Lotus you can place it on the other end to teleport away in a pinch, or fight Verus Hilla in the middle-left-ish, and if you're in a pinch, use it to teleport to the safe spot on the right corner where you have it installed. In Darknell, you can goad him into attacking you and then teleport to his other side and repeat.

    [​IMG] Reckless Hunt: Bow (KMS: Extreme Archery: Bow)
    Nothing to note. Big final damage increase that's finally a passive as of GMS v237! The Defense reduction doesn't matter.

    [​IMG] Mortal Blow
    The Mortal Blow buff duration is not affected by buff duration, and you can't stack it while the buff is active.

    [​IMG] Focused Fury (KMS: Concentration)
    Every hit you do with Focused Fury, you get +5 Status Resistance, stackable up to 100. Thanks to Bowmaster's high hits per second, it stacks pretty quickly and is basically passive as long as you keep attacking with something, even just Arrow Blaster and Guided Arrow. Bowmaster has one of the highest innate Status Resistance values in the game.

    [​IMG] Evasion Boost (KMS: Dodge)
    Nothing to note. Standard evasion skill, though it also gives Knockback Resistance and HP.

    [​IMG] Marksmanship
    Bowmaster's Marksmanship skill is +25% Attack Power, while Marksman's Marksmanship skill is +15% Damage. Apparently Bowmaster is better at being a Marksman than Marksman is...


    ↑ 4th Job ↓

    [​IMG] Hurricane
    The original Hurricane skill. You can jump and move at full speed while casting as of Destiny! Hurricane is a single-target skill that targets the highest HP boss monster within range.

    Attack Speed: 120ms (8.33 hits per second)

    [​IMG] Speed Mirage II (KMS: Flash Mirage II)
    Improves Speed Mirage's damage and adds 1 to its illusion count.

    [​IMG] Arrow Stream (KMS: Uncountable Arrows)
    Nothing to note. Decent vertical mobbing skill, and pierces monsters, as well as hits on all layers (foreground and background) of a map.

    [​IMG] Sharp Eyes
    Great party skill! When boosted by its passive Hyper Skills (+5% IED and/or +5% Critical Rate), those boosts are applied to the party as well.

    [​IMG] Illusion Step
    Nothing to note, other than it gives Knockback Resistance and increases DEX mainly.

    [​IMG] Hero's Will
    Nothing to note. As with all Will-type skills, cleanses your character of multiple statuses, breaks out of seduce, and gives invincibility to abnormal statuses for 3 sec.

    [​IMG] Maple Warrior
    Nothing to note. Everyone's got this.

    [​IMG] Enchanted Quiver (KMS: Advanced Quiver)
    Adds the Blood Arrows arrowhead, which gives significant HP recovery when attacking any monster. Also increases Final Damage...by 6%. Okay.

    Blood Arrows: recover 5% of max HP at a 70% rate per each hit done to a monster. It's more or less the best HP drain skill in the game thanks to Bowmaster's high hits per second. You lose ~13% of your DPS, but you can't do damage if you're dead!

    In battles where HP recovery is restricted, such as Will Phase 2 and Verus Hilla, Blood Arrow will not bypass the HP recovery block, but it will allow you to start recovering once the block is lifted (e.g. in Will Phase 2: moonlight activation and Verus Hilla: altar cleansing).

    [​IMG] Bow Expert
    Standard 4th Job Mastery skill. But it does additionally give a passive effect that allows you to instantly install Arrow Blaster at the topmost and lowest angles if you pressed up or down respectively while pressing the install key. Pretty handy in select situations, such as Chaos Vellum, as the lowest angle can't hit him, but if you instantly install Arrow Blaster to the up position, it hits! Also useful in Gloom and Damien to instantly activate the up-angle from the bottom of the map to hit them.

    [​IMG] Advanced Final Attack
    Nothing to note. Simply enhances Final Attack: Bow and gives some Attack Power.

    [​IMG] Armor Break (KMS: Armor Piercing)
    Armor Break increases your final damage in proportion to the boss's PDR. Basically, if the boss has 300% PDR, you will do an extra +300% Final Damage to it when Armor Break activates.

    It has a 9 second cooldown, but attacking an enemy will reduce the cooldown by 1 sec each hit, though it has a minimum cooldown of 1 second no matter what. The skills that can reduce Armor Break's cooldown are many, but what can use the Armor Break's final damage increase are limited to direct impact skills.

    There's a lot of math behind the interaction between Armor Break and cooldown reduction, but the net of it is: go for -4 sec cooldown reduction on your hat if you want "the best" potentials and DPS. It isn't required by any stretch to do "good" or even great damage - 2L or 3L DEX is pretty great still - but -4 sec is simply is the best hat potential you can get as a Bowmaster. (Join the Bowmaster Discord server if you want more...math behind that.)

    Direct impact. Boosted by Armor Break and also reduces Armor Break cooldown:
    [​IMG] Hurricane
    [​IMG] Arrow Stream
    [​IMG] Arrow Blaster Keydown
    [​IMG] Gritty Gust
    [​IMG] Inhuman Speed Active Effect

    Not direct impact. Only reduces the Armor Break cooldown:
    [​IMG] Speed Mirage
    [​IMG] Storm of Arrows
    [​IMG] Quiver Barrage
    [​IMG] Guided Arrow
    [​IMG] Silhouette Mirage
    [​IMG] True Arachnid Reflection

    So, on Chaos Vellum, (+300% Final Damage), your damage will look like this every 1 second, using the Final Damage formula from the Final Damage section at the top:

    (1 + 3) = 4x Final Damage. So if you hit 100m regularly with Hurricane you'll burst to like 400m every 1 second due to Armor Break.

    Source by source breakdown:

    Regular Hurricane damage (+0% Final Damage) so (1 + 0) = 1x = 50m without nodes

    Max nodes (+100% Final Damage) so (1 + 1) = 2x = 100m regularly with max nodes

    Armor Break (+300% Final Damage) so (1 + 3) = 4x = 400m bursting with Armor Break


    ↑ Hyper Skills ↓

    [​IMG] Concentration (KMS: Preparation)
    Nothing to note. Hyper Skill that gives a nice amount of Boss Damage and Attack Power.

    [​IMG] Gritty Gust (KMS: Wind of Frey)
    Excellent mobbing skill and also slows monster movement speed by 30. Affects bosses. Seems to have significant impact against specific bosses such as Magnus and Will for some reason.

    [​IMG] Epic Adventure
    Nothing to note. Standard Hyper Skill buff for 10% damage that stacks with other Explorers.


    ↑ 5th Job ↓

    [​IMG] Storm of Arrows (KMS: Arrow Rain)
    Storm of Arrows is skill that scales better the more monsters are in its spawned zones. When you directly hit a monster, it takes the direction that your character is facing, scans a certain distance from the hit mob in your character's direction, and spawns an Arrow Rain zone for each monster in that range, but the zones cannot overlap. If there are more than 1 monster within a single zone, up to 8 additional lines can be added to the Arrow Rain zone for a maximum for a 15 line Arrow Rain, each monster adding 2 lines.

    In content such as Dream Defender, Storm of Arrows can do great damage due to the amount of mobs bundled close together.

    [​IMG] Guided Arrow
    Combine Guided Arrow with Storm of Arrows to keep Storm of Arrows always firing on a boss, such as Lucid Phase 2. It also can consume Quiver Cartridge and activates all of its arrowhead effects, including Magic Arrows. It does not activate AFA.

    [​IMG] Inhuman Speed (KMS: Afterimage Shot)
    In a full burst scenario, Inhuman Speed is the highest contributor to damage for Bowmaster. When casting the skill, it creates a 30 sec burst opportunity, but you need to be attacking along with the skill to extend the actual duration of the attacks. Every 1 sec you attack, the internal skill duration will be increased by 3 seconds. This is additive every 1 second. If you attack for 10 seconds, the duration will be increased by 30 seconds. But the attacks will end at the 30 second mark regardless.

    The 30 second active effect is considered a "direct attack"-type of skill, so it increases Mortal Blow's stacks and is boosted by Armor Break.

    Anyways, these are just some technicalities that you don't need to worry about - all you need to really know is to make sure you attack when you're bursting with this skill too!

    [​IMG] Fury of the Wild (KMS: Evolve)
    Your evolved Phoenix will attack when you attack (even if there's no target nearby) or if a skill hits a monster (e.g. Guided Arrow). Phoenix is re-summoned at its full duration once this skill expires.

    Generally speaking, if you attack, Fury of the Wild will fire off even if there's no monster in range, but for some reason key-down Arrow Blaster doesn't make it fire until you actually impact a monster - so here's a Dojo strategy with floors 21-29 with that in mind: just use only Arrow Blaster and Fury of the Wild to wipe the map quickly! The moment Arrow Blaster hits a mob, Fury of the Wild will clear the floor.

    Phoenix Boost Nodes do not affect Fury of the Wild's damage.

    [​IMG] Vicious Shot (KMS: Critical Reinforce)
    Nothing special to note, other than it isn't really worth trying to sacrifice anything else for Critical Rate to make this skill better.

    [​IMG] Quiver Barrage (KMS: Quiver Full Burst)
    This skill does a great amount of damage by both increasing Attack Power and adding Flaming Arrows to your Quiver Cartridge, as well as enabling both Magic Arrows and Blood Arrows to be utilized at the same time for maximum damage and HP recovery!

    Flaming Arrows fire out every 2 seconds and has a limit of 18 volleys of Flaming Arrows, so if you're attacking constantly after casting, you'll run out of volleys with 4 seconds to spare. The buff will remain and still give you Attack Power in this case, but it won't shoot any more arrows. You can switch arrowheads while using Quiver Barrage.

    Flaming Arrows are fired out only when you directly impact a monster (see: Armor Break section) or if Arrow Blaster and Guided Arrow attack, AND only if you're in a certain horizontal range, unlike Magic Arrows. The vertical range for the Flaming Arrows is practically infinite (it can go between the two rooms in Will!). Horizontally, it's actually a little shorter than Hurricane's range.

    Also, Quiver Barrage's Flaming Arrows doesn't fire out when you're sitting on a chair. Just a random tidbit.

    A tip during Damien (can be applied to any boss, but using Damien as an example) is that when Damien is midair shooting out his Magnus meteors-like skill, you can use Guided Arrow and hit him with Gritty Gust to lock Guided Arrow on him. Since Guided Arrow is a direct impact skill, Flaming Arrows will fire upwards and damage him as long as Guided Arrow is attacking. Be wary of the limited horizontal range that you have to be in to fire out Flaming Arrows, though.

    [​IMG] Silhouette Mirage
    This skill's "defensive" feature, when activated, can take any attack (including %HP attacks) that does 50% or more damage or leads to death (e.g. you have 10% HP and an attack that does 20% hits you, that will protect you as well) and reduce the damage you take by 90% at level 30. This skill stacks twice for two consecutive (or non-consecutive) preventions of certain death.

    As for the "offensive" feature, it's not really that powerful at all. It accounts for around 3% of DPS during a 40 sec burst. Any attack, even normal attack, or skill will activate the illusory attack. It has pretty good horizontal range (longer than Hurricane), but poor (but not bad) vertical range.

    99% of this skill is meant for increasing your survivability - do not get this skill thinking it'll boost your DPS by any good amount.


    ↑ Skill Rotation ↓

    (DPM ratio is per GitHub - ParkKyuSeon/Maplestory_DPM)

    Skill DPS Contribution Duration Cooldown
    [​IMG] Hurricane ~23% - -
    [​IMG] Advanced Final Attack ~6% - -
    [​IMG] Speed Mirage ~9% - -
    [​IMG] Silhouette Mirage ~3% - -
    [​IMG] Enchanted Quiver (Magic Arrows) ~8% - -
    [​IMG] Guided Arrow ~3% - -
    [​IMG] Arrow Blaster ~6% 30 sec 5 sec
    [​IMG] Concentration - 30 sec 90 sec
    [​IMG] Terms and Conditions (AB Link) - 10 sec 90 sec
    [​IMG] Storm of Arrows ~9% 70 sec 120 sec
    [​IMG] Epic Adventure - 60 sec 120 sec
    [​IMG] Fury of the Wild ~2% 40 sec 105 sec
    [​IMG] Vicious Shot - 30 sec 120 sec
    [​IMG] Quiver Barrage ~12% 30 sec 120 sec
    [​IMG] Inhuman Speed ~17% 30 sec 120 sec
    [​IMG] Maple Goddess's Blessing - 60 sec 180 sec
    [​IMG] Tower of Oz Ring - 9/11/13/15 sec 180 sec

    It may look like a lot to keep up with, but when it comes down to it, many of the cooldowns align with each other for simplicity. You once cast them, you don't need to worry much about upkeep until they go off of cooldown.

    Maple Goddess's Blessing can be linked up with your Oz ring. It's not worth waiting the extra 60 seconds for Maple Goddess's Blessing and Oz Ring cooldowns - just use your 120 sec bursts whenever they're up.

    I've highlighted the groups of skills you can just use pretty sequentially thanks to their same cooldowns.


    ↑ Culvert Strategy
    Bowmaster's Culvert strategy is fairly straightforward, but as noted in the Armor Break section, you may want to consider getting a cooldown hat, which can impact Culvert. Therefore, I created a table below for when you should enter Culvert as part of the guide.

    I won't go over some things that pertain to every class, such as external buffs (MPE pot, Boss Rush, etc), swapping link skills (switch from Spirit of Freedom, etc), etc. - only things really for Bowmasters to know.

    But before going further, when entering the buffing room for Culvert, make sure you have your toggle skills on:
    [​IMG] Silhouette Mirage - wait for 1 stack to charge as well.
    [​IMG] Speed Mirage
    [​IMG] Guided Arrow
    [​IMG] Familiars

    After that, to start, cast these two skills together:
    [​IMG] Storm of Arrows
    [​IMG] Epic Adventure

    When Epic Adventure hits 51 seconds, cast:
    [​IMG] Quiver Barrage
    [​IMG] Fury of the Wild

    When Epic Adventure hits 45 seconds, cast:
    [​IMG] Inhuman Speed
    [​IMG] Vicious Shot

    Then, depending on your cooldown hat reduction, enter Culvert when Epic Adventure hits this amount of time remaining:
    Cooldown Reduction [​IMG] Epic Adventure Time Remaining
    0 seconds reduction 26 seconds
    -1 second reduction 27 seconds
    -2 seconds reduction 28 seconds
    -3 seconds reduction 29 seconds
    -4 seconds reduction 30 seconds
    -5 seconds reduction 31 seconds
    -6 seconds reduction 32 seconds
    -7 seconds reduction 33 seconds
    -8 seconds reduction 34 seconds

    Now that you've entered Culvert, follow the steps below.

    After entering, at the end of the countdown (when it says 1), cast:
    [​IMG] Maple Goddess's Blessing (first stack)
    [​IMG] Arrow Blaster
    [​IMG] Concentration
    [​IMG] Terms and Conditions

    If you have multiple Tower of Oz rings, such as a RoR3/RoR4 and a WJ4, cast your weaker Oz ring a few seconds after Culvert starts.

    Then allow for your first Arrow Blaster to expire, turn off Guided Arrow, bind the boss with Erda Nova (optional, but makes it easier), and run over to the other corner (while dodging attacks), and swap your Oz ring out.

    Alternatively, if you're liberated, you can use Aeonian Rise to become invincible instead of binding the boss and running to the corner.

    Otherwise, if you only have one Oz ring, it's recommended to just keep it on the entire battle.

    At 60 seconds remaining in Culvert, re-cast Arrow Blaster and your second Maple Goddess Blessing stack:
    [​IMG] Maple Goddess's Blessing
    [​IMG] Arrow Blaster

    At 55 seconds remaining in Culvert, cast (if you have the applicable skills):
    [​IMG] True Arachnid Reflection
    [​IMG] Solar Crest

    As they become available, cast:
    [​IMG] Fury of the Wild
    [​IMG] Storm of Arrows
    [​IMG] Epic Adventure

    At 37 seconds remaining in Culvert, cast:
    [​IMG] Quiver Barrage

    Cast the rest of your buffs as they become available:
    [​IMG] Concentration
    [​IMG] Inhuman Speed
    [​IMG] Vicious Shot
    [​IMG] Terms and Conditions
    [​IMG] Tower of Oz Ring (very last buff, after everything else has been casted)

  • Guide Version

    4.3

    Game Version

    237

    Changelog

    v1.0 (2018-02-03)
    • Initial write-up
    v1.1 (2018-02-04)
    • Fixed formatting errors
    • Added a bunch of images
    • Fixed table of contents anchor links to not reload the page
    v1.2 (2018-02-04)
    • Fixed table of contents anchor links to refer to the published guide
    • Added Skill Info tab
    v1.3 (2018-02-04)
    • Split some parts of the guide into different tabs
    • Added Hyper Skills into Skill Info section
    • Added horizontal rules to break up sections
    • Significant cleanup of the internal BB code
    v1.4 (2018-02-06)
    • Added up/down navigation to tops of each section
    v1.5 (2018-02-09)
    • Fixed some formatting errors
    • Added GMS v193 changes
    v1.6 (2018-04-16)
    • Improved Changelog section
    • Added DPM rank details
    • Added reference links for stuff that goes too outside of the guide's scope
    • Added KMS ver. 1.2.294 Reckless Hunt: Bow change in Skill Info section
    • Added Final Damage section under Gameplay tab
    • Improved Armor Break section
    • Added various images
    • Other miscellaneous improvements
    v1.7 (2018-04-19)
    • Added anchor links to headers of each section so you can click on them to focus onto the section
    v1.8 (2018-06-20)
    • Added Matrix points allocation to Skill Build section
    • Updated 5th job skill damage amounts
    • Added Master Levels to skill info list
    • Added passive Hyper Skills info
    • Other miscellaneous improvements
    v1.9 (2018-07-18)
    • Added Esfera training areas
    • Other miscellaneous improvements
    v2.0 (2018-10-05)
    • Updated for GMS v199
    • Updated DPS contributions
    v2.1 (2018-12-16)
    • Updated for GMS v201 (added Quiver Barrage)
    • Added additional tips to the Gameplay section
    • Other miscellaneous improvements
    v2.2 (2018-12-19)
    • Corrected Hyper Skills build
    • Added missing sentence in Storm of Arrows's skill description
    v2.3 (2019-06-14)
    • Updated for GMS v205
    v2.4 (2019-10-03)
    • Updated for GMS v208
    • Corrected skill info for Fury of the Wild
    • Added some more info to the Nodes section
    • Updated Hyper Stats section
    • Updated Training section
    • Updated skill DPS contribution table
    v2.5 (2019-11-21)
    • Updated node section
    • Updated link skills section for GMS v209
    • Updated skill build for GMS v209
    v2.6 (2020-06-10)
    • Updated Hyper Stats section
    • Updated Poison Arrows explanation
    • Updated Quiver Cartridge explanation
    • Updated Arrow Blaster explanation
    v2.7 (2020-11-22)
    • Updated for GMS v218
    v3.0 (2021-08-05)
    • Updated up to GMS v224
    • Updated link skills to not be so outdated
    • Removed 200+ training locations (not being maintained properly)
    • Updated gameplay section with more tips and information
    v3.1 (2021-11-14)
    • Updated up to GMS v228
    v4.0 (2022-06-18)
    • Updated up to GMS v233 - Explorer Redux
    • Added Culvert Strategy section to Gameplay tab
    v4.1 (2022-06-19)
    • Updated Culvert strategy section for missing skills and better timings
    • Updated link skill suggestions
    • Added grinding with Arrow Blaster in pros section
    • Added consideration for Sharp Eyes - Critical Chance hyper if you don't need Arrow Stream mobbing damage
    • Other miscellaneous formatting improvements
    v4.2 (2022-07-02)
    • Improved phrasing and information for Inner Ability recommendations
    • Added missing Blink node mentions
    • Improved Build section formatting
    • Small formatting improvements to Culvert guide
    v4.3 (2022-11-21)
    • Updated up to GMS v237 for skill info and Culvert strategy
    • Added grinding consideration for V Matrix Points
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