Holy, Fire, Ice, Poison, or Lightning?

There are several paths from which this single choice can take you. Be sure to pick the one that won't bore you to death!

* Fire/Poison Wizard: Fire Wizards (or Fizards, as they seem to be commonly known) tend to spend most of their time in Ossyria, since Fire-weak monsters roam the beautiful white snowbanks of El Nath and the areas encompassing it. Poison is also an option in this job, but most simply choose to stay away from it and place their SP into more useful skills, as this is phased out instantly in the Third Job Advance. Leveling with a Poison Wizard is difficult. The highest level Poison Wizard on beta only reached level 42. Fire Wizards spend most of their time sniping ice monsters from afar with their magical instruments of burning death. They tend to Teleport from monster to monster, killing from afar and near when strategically advantageous. Slow is an essential skill to them as well, as it allows Fire Arrow the time it needs to destroy mobs of, say, Jr. Yetis.

A note on maxed Poison Breath: Only after Fire Arrow has been maxed a Fire Wizard might consider the option of maxing out Poison Breath. With a base damage of 70, a 60% mastery, and a magician with roughly 175 m attack and about 35 luck this skill can deal about 347-578 Poison damage while actual poisoning does 70 hp damage or 1/40th the enemies hp. This can allow a Fire Mage to deal with some Fire creatures they normally would not be able. There are roughly 12 enemies weak to Poison.

In the third job, these Mages undergo a nice power boost. Explosion has a range that rivals Fire Arrow, and a power that is equal to Fire Arrow, rendering it useless, seeing how Explosion is a mob skill, whilst Fire Arrow is stuck to one target at a time. (Explosion is, however, painfully slow) Though, Fire Arrow may find solace in the fact that it gets an upgrade in the form of the Fire Mage's Magic Composition spell! This attack is a fusion of Fire and Poison placed into an ethereal bow. When launched, this attack strikes with a Base Damage of 150, and also a 70% chance of Poisoning the enemy for 40 seconds. Fire Mages also get Poison Myst which is a poison based mob skill that initially hits one monster for damage and then creates a mist with 70% chance of poisoning for all monsters that travel within the mist.

* Ice/Lightning Wizard: Ah, yes. The ultimate in icy and electrical crowd control is now at your fingertips! As a Lightning Wizard, you can wander about the country side, scaring noobs and vets alike as you massacre groups of up to 6 monsters with Lightning! Statistically, Lightning is no more powerful than Magic Claw, but the compound damage on the six monsters that Lightning strikes add up to be more. And, if you choose Ice first, you are allowed the power to freeze monsters, rendering them immobile. Though Cold Beam is 17% weaker than Fire Arrow, it's ability to freeze enemies makes up for it. Together, with ice and lightning, you will roam the countryside, laughing at the frozen forms of large monsters and burnt (electrified) carcasses of smaller creatures. Forget about slow... who needs to slow enemies down, when you can either zap them to nothingness or make them wish the Fourth Vial Judgment (Random Bible Reference) is upon them?

In the Third Job, Ice/Lightning Mages are the pinnacle of crowd control. Although their Ice Strike is 10% weaker than Cold Beam, it allows Wizards to attack and freeze up to six enemies at once. They also get Thunder Spear, the strongest (currently, at least) spell among all Magicians, with 170 Base Damage maxed. Compare that to the Fire Mage's 150 Base Damage Magic Composition and a Cleric's 105 Base Damage Shining Ray. The drawback to this, like Explosion, is it's slow casting time (Some say that you should put points into Slow to prepare for this attack, but from what I have seen, the freeze time Composition grant you is more than enough). The Ice/Lightning Mage's Magic Composition has a Base Damage of 140, but it only strikes one enemy and freezes only one target, rendering this skill much weaker when compared to Thunder Spear and Ice Strike. However, it serves as an excellent replacement to Cold Beam, and a faster alternative to Thunder Spear.http://strategywiki.org/wiki/MapleStory/Magician_Guide