DigitalTQ Logo DigitalTQ

MapleStory Battle Mage Skill Build Guide

February 19, 2024

Battle Mage is a Resistance Class in MapleStory that can provide some of the best party buffs in the game. As a Mage job, Battle Mages get a unique teleport skill that can be used in mid-air, making their movement more fluid than normal mages. Whilst damage isn't their strong suit, Battle Mages are great party members for end-game bossing due to their party support buffs.

Battle Mage Overview

Battle Mages were released alongside Wild Hunter in Patch v94, which was the second part of the Big Bang Update. Battle Mage is part of the Resistance set of MapleStory classes, which include: Battle Mage, Wild Hunter, Mechanic, Xenon, Blaster, Demon Slayer and Demon Avenger. They all share the same Link Skill that can be stacked, so leveling all the Resistance Classes will give you a strong Link Skill for bossing.

Training Battle Mages from level 10-200 can feel quite lackluster compared to other classes. Their movement and mobbing is decent in 1-3rd jobs, but they get a little left behind in 4th job. That being said, once you hit 5th job, the class is going to feel brand new as you get plenty of skills to help with mobbing and your damage starts to take off. With Combat Teleport, you'll be able to navigate complex maps easier than most Mages, and you get useful Auras that provide passive buffs to you and anyone you party with.

Bossing wise Battle Mages tend to have below-average damage output, but they can scale with a high amount of funding. Their main contribution to bossing is their party buff skills, which many end-game players love having in their parties. Their summon skills can help take care of any annoying mobs, allowing you to focus on the main boss.

  • Weapon: Staff
  • Job: Mage
  • Class: Resistance
  • Shared Cash Shop Inventory: Wild Hunter, Battle Mage, Mechanic, Xenon, Demon Slayer, Demon Avenger, Blaster.
  • Legion Block: +INT (10/20/40/80/100)
  • Link Skill: Spirit Of Freedom (Do not take damage after being revived for 1 second (stacks))
  • Primary Stat: INT
  • Inner Ability: Passive Skills: +1

Battle Mage First Job Skill Build

You can max all of your skills in first job. Follow this build:

  • Triple Blow (+1), Combat Teleport (+2)
  • Combat Teleport (MAX)
  • Triple Blow (MAX)
  • Hasty Aura (MAX)
  • Staff Artist (MAX)

In first job your main attacking skill is Triple Blow. You get access to Combat Teleport, which is one of the best mage teleports in the game as you can teleport in mid air.

Hasty Aura is your first job aura party buff that increases attack speed of you and your party members.

Condemnation is a toggle skill that will summon a dark spirit that attacks mobs after you fully charge it by attacking mobs.

Skill Description & Overview

Icon Skill Description Type
Triple Blow Triple Blow Quickly attacks multiple enemies 3 times. Main Attack Skill
Staff Artist Staff Artist Years of study with a Staff have made you an exceedingly dangerous opponent. Passive Buff
Hasty Aura Hasty Aura Create a bright yellow aura that increases the Speed and Attack Speed of your party members. Press the skill key again, or use another type of aura, to cancel this aura. This skill also permanently increases your Speed, Max Speed, Jump, Attack Speed, and Avoidability. If you have learned the 3rd job skill Dark Shock, this skill increases Combat Teleport's movement range. Right-click to turn ON/OFF. Toggle Skill
Combat Teleport Combat Teleport An improved teleport for use in close-range combat. Allows you to teleport to other locations on the same map using the arrow keys. Can be used while jumping. Teleport
Condemnation Condemnation Make a pact with a dark spirit using a black magic book. The dark spirit follows you around and when you collect a certain amount of souls, they will reveal themselves to deal a wide-range attack. Its attack will ignore attack reflection and has Attack Power proportional to its level.Can be toggled On/Off Toggle Skill

Battle Mage Second Job Skill Build

You can max all of your skills in second job. Follow this build:

  • Quad Blow (+1), Staff Mastery (2)
  • Staff Mastery (5)
  • Staff Boost (6)
  • Quad Blow (MAX)
  • Dark Chain (MAX)
  • Staff Mastery (MAX)
  • Staff Boost (MAX)
  • High Wisdom (MAX)
  • Draining Aura (MAX)
  • Ordinary Conversion (MAX)

Quad Blow and Dark Chain work great together; Dark Chain pulls enemies towards you and then you can finish them off with Quad Blow.

Your new aura is Draining Aura is a healing aura, so best to stick with the Hasty Aura. Get your Staff Boost for better attack speed and your Battle Mage should start feeling very fluid.

Skill Description & Overview

Icon Skill Description Type
Quad Blow Quad Blow Quickly attacks multiple enemies 4 times in a row. Main Attack Skill
Staff Mastery Staff Mastery Increases Staff Mastery, Magic ATT, and Critical Rate. Passive Buff
Staff Boost Staff Boost Uses MP to temporarily increase the attack speed of your staves by 2 levels. Attack Speed Buff
Ordinary Conversion Ordinary Conversion Greatly increases Max HP. Passive Buff
High Wisdom High Wisdom Permanently increase INT through mental discipline. Passive Buff
Grim Contract Grim Contract Enhances your pact with the dark spirit. Passive Buff
Draining Aura Draining Aura Release a red aura that heals you for a percentage of the damage your party members inflict on enemies. You cannot recover more than 15% of each character's Max HP at once. Use it again, or use another aura, to deactivate. Also allows you to use enemy souls to recover some of your Max HP. Toggle Skill
Dark Chain Dark Chain A dark chain emerges from a pentacle to pull multiple enemies toward you. Pulled enemies take damage and have a chance to be knocked down. Can be linked with Blow-type skills afterwards. Can be resisted by some monsters. Secondary Attack Skill

Battle Mage Third Job Skill Build

You can max all of your skills in third job. Follow this build:

  • Quintuple Blow (MAX)
  • Battle Burst (MAX)
  • Dark Shock (MAX)
  • Battle Mastery (MAX)
  • Dark Conditioning (MAX)
  • Power Stance (MAX)
  • Blue Aura (MAX)

Your third job attacking skill is Quintuple Blow, which deals more lines and damage. You get a new movement skill called Battle Burst, which works similarly to the 2nd job skill Dark Chain except you rush through enemies this time. Dark Shock is a toggle skill that allows you to teleport between mobs and deal lots of damage; the marks you add to mobs will explode when hit again dealing even more damage.

Power stance will prevent you from getting knocked back by mobs, which makes training infinitely more satisfying as well as preventing bosses knocking you into trouble.

Blue Aura isn't very useful except in certain situations so stick with Hasty Aura again.

Skill Description & Overview

Icon Skill Description Type
Quintuple Blow Quintuple Blow Quickly attacks multiple enemies 5 times in a row. Main Attack Skill
Power Stance Power Stance Concentrates to hold your ground when struck, resisting knock-back effects. Passive Buff
Grim Contract II Grim Contract II Further enhances your pact with the dark spirit. Passive Buff
Dark Shock Dark Shock While this skill is active, using Combat Teleport will create a streak of black lightning between your starting and ending positions, injuring enemies and marking them with a Dark Brand. Attacking enemies marked by Dark Brands will consume the Brand and inflict additional damage.Learning Dark Shock causes Dark Chain and Battle Burst to inflict Dark Brands, although Dark Brands cannot be consumed by those skills or minions. Also, using Hasty Aura will increase the movement range of Combat Teleport. (To toggle that function, right-click Hasty Aura on the skill UI.) Toggle Skill
Dark Conditioning Dark Conditioning Use Resistance skills and dark magic to strengthen your reaction speed. Passive Buff
Blue Aura Blue Aura Release a blue aura from your body to increase Abnormal Status Resistance and reduce Damage Taken for nearby party members. Use it again, or use another kind of aura to remove it. Also increases your Abnormal Status Resistance, Elemental Resistance, Defense, and permanently reduces Damage Taken. Toggle Skill
Battle Mastery Battle Mastery Hones your skills in battle to permanently increase your Damage and Critical Damage. Passive Buff
Battle Burst Battle Burst Charges through enemies with Dark Chain. Can be #clinked with Blow-type skills# afterwards. Can be resisted by some monsters. Permanently increases Dark Chain's damage. Secondary Attack Skill

Battle Mage Fourth Job Skill Build

You can max all of your skills in fourth job. Follow this build:

  • Finishing Blow (MAX)
  • Dark Aura (MAX)
  • Staff Expert (MAX)
  • Spell Boost (MAX)
  • Weakening Aura (MAX)
  • Maple Warrior (MAX)
  • Hero's Will (MAX)
  • Battle Rage (MAX)
  • Party Shield (MAX)
  • Dark Genesis (MAX)

In fourth job Battle Mage get their most useful Aura: Dark Aura. Most of the time you will want to be using Dark Aura as it provides a 20% Damage buff to all party members. Switching between Weakening Aura applies a 20% Ignore Defense debuff for 15 seconds, so switching between Dark and Awakening Aura is a good strategy during bossing.

Your new main mobbing skill is Finishing Blow; Dark Genesis is a full-map attack and Party Shield is super useful during end-game bosses for reducing HP attacks. You get a couple of passive buffs with Staff Expert and Spell Boost too.

Skill Description & Overview

Icon Skill Description Type
Finishing Blow Finishing Blow Quickly deals 6 attacks on multiple enemies. Main Attack Skill
Weakening Aura Weakening Aura Release an ominous aura to weaken your enemies. Use it once more, or use another aura, to cancel it. Weakening Aura has some delay before its effects begin to work, but those effects will linger for a time even after the aura deactivates. Does not apply Combat Orders. Toggle Skill
Staff Expert Staff Expert Increases Staff Mastery, Magic ATT, and Critical Damage Passive Buff
Spell Boost Spell Boost Uses a special tool to boost your magic skills. Passive Buff
Party Shield Party Shield Creates a magical protective shield around you to protect party members. The shield protects you from enemy attacks and decreases the damage when hit with an attack that deals fixed damage. Buff
Maple Warrior Maple Warrior 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. Buff
Hero's Will Hero's Will Hones your resolve to ignore certain abnormal status effects. Immune to Abnormal Status for 3 sec after use. Buff
Grim Contract III Grim Contract III Further enhances your pact with the dark spirit. Passive Buff
Dark Genesis Dark Genesis Uses deadly lightning to hit and temporarily stun up to 15 enemies. Dark Genesis ignores attack reflection. Learning Dark Genesis skill will permanently increase damage on Dark Chain, Battle Burst, and Dark Shock, and attacking an enemy during cooldown will deal damage with a lightning attack to a single enemy. Full Map Attack
Dark Aura Dark Aura Produce a mysterious aura that increases the damage done by your party members. Cancel the aura by pressing the skill key again or using another aura. Permanently increases your Magic Attack Power. Does not apply Combat Orders. Toggle Skill
Battle Rage Battle Rage Focus on the enemy, significantly increasing damage against that enemy. Also permanently increases your Max HP and MP. Can be toggled On/Off Toggle Skill

Battle Mage Hyper Skill Build

Hyper skills are available at level 140. You get Hyper Skill Points as you level towards 200, but not enough to max all the skills, so choose wisely. These skills mostly help increase the damage of your current skills.

  • Dark Genesis - Additional Reinforce
  • Dark Aura - Boss Rush
  • Party Shield - Cooldown Cutter
  • Party Shield - Persist
  • Party Shield - Enhance
  • Sweeping Staff
  • For Liberty
  • Master Of Death

Battle Mage Fifth Job Skill Build

Upon reaching level 200, you will now have access to the V Matrix, which acts as your new fifth job skills. Each class gets their own skills to use, along with boosting nodes to increase the damage of existing skills. To obtain new skills, you open up items called Nodestones, which drop from every mob in Arcane River. You have limited number of slots in your V Matrix, so you want to obtain perfect nodes for maximize your character's damage.

Battle Mage's Nodes should include:

  • Aura Scythe
  • Altar of Annihilation
  • Grim Harvest
  • Abyssal Lightning
  • Trio: Finishing Blow, Condemnation, Dark Shock
  • Trio: Sweeping Staff, Dark Chain, Dark Genesis

All 5th Job classes should try to also obtain these:

  • Decent Holy Symbol
  • Decent Sharp Eyes
  • Decent Speed Infusion
  • Erda Nova
  • Rope Lift
  • True Arachnid Reflection
  • Resistance Infantry

Skill Description & Overview

Icon Skill Description Type
Aura Scythe Aura Scythe Combine all of your auras and become a grim specter of death. While using Aura Scythe, aura type skills cannot be used. While a Battle Mage in your party is using Aura Scythe, you cannot use aura type skills, except for Weakening Aura or Aura Scythe. Summon Skill
Altar Of Annihilation Altar of Annihilation Summon an altar of destructive magic. Once two or more have been placed, the first altar fires an orb of deadly void energy, which travels between the altars, decimating all in its path. Each orb can only strike a given enemy once until recharged by the next altar. The orbs' travel time is the same regardless of the distance between altars. Additional altars must be placed within range of the previous altar. Enemies hit are marked with a Dark Brand. If you the skill with the Down key while there are no altars placed, you can place 2 altars at once, one at the character's current location and the other in front of the character. Burst Skill
Grim Harvest Grim Harvest Master the art of black magic and summon death itself to deal with your enemies. The Summon duration gets longer as there are more souls to be sacrificed. The god of death's attack deals damage to enemies even when they are under attack reflection. Iframe
Abyssal Lightning Abyssal Lightning Immerse your surroundings in dark magic to gather up black lightning. When Dark Shock is active, using Teleport will activate Abyssal Lightning instead. Creates a netherworld passage around the Battle Mage periodically. Pressing a directional button will teleport you to the nearest passage in that direction, then close that passage. During your teleportation, black lightning will flash in your wake, damaging any enemies in reach and afflicting them with Dark Brand. Skill is unaffected by attack reflection. Max Level 25. Summon Skill

Changelog

22/06/2021 - First update

Discussion

User Icon

Aleph - Editor In Chief

Aleph is the main writer and programmer of DigitalTQ. His aim is to provide quality gaming guides, articles and news from the video game industry. We've been playing games since the 90s and are always on the lookout for new gems to play.

Twitter

Learn About Us