Link Skills and Inner Ability Guide

Demagonz

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This guide aims to provide an overview and recommendations on both link skills and inner abilities.
It is recommended to follow a "flow chart" format in determining which IA's are used for your class.
Inner abilities in Aries are currently granted as 1 legendary IA + 2 Unique IA's.
Legendary: +1 attack speed, 20% Boss damage, 50% buff duration, 30% crit chance. +1 passive skills(Goes past master level)
Unique: 38% buff duration, 21 m/att, 20% crit chance, 10% boss, 10% cd skip. 8% damage to normal monsters (This is rumoured to count as %dmg making it very good, however this is a bug. Use at your own discretion)
Typically the order of operations goes:
  • Are you a non hurricane user that doesn't go to 2 attack speed with DSI + booster? If yes, +1 attack speed. Otherwise boss damage legendary line.
  • Are you a bowman or dont have 100% crit? If yes, +20% crit rate unique.
  • Do you have boss damage as your legendary IA? If no, +10% boss damage.
  • Do you have a buff that has a cooldown like final cut or enjoy a nice quality of life change? If yes +38% buff duration.
  • Do you have a spare IA slot? If yes, +21 m/att.
You can also refer to a spreadsheet provided on reddit. Note that classes that use +1 attack speed IA may not need it here as DSI gives +2 attack speed in Aries while it grants +1 in GMS. Use @check to see whether you need it or not.

Link skills are levelled at 1/2/3 at 70/120/210 respectively. Exceptions will be noted where applicable.
Legion character stat boots are all flat stat similar to arcane symbols and do not get increased by %
Legion stat is at level 200 (SS rank). Bolded ones are recommended.
Note this is not asbolute. As Hene pointed out below, the value of some link skills change based on your characters stats.

  • Angelic Buster
    • Grants a 30/45/60% damage boost for 10 seconds 90 second cooldown. (Affected by buff duration)
    • Good link skill for classes with burst (Which is almost every post BLACK update). Highly recommended.
    • Legion Effect: 80 Dex
  • Aran
    • Additional 400/650/900% exp from combo orbs.
    • Good for levelling other link skills and general levelling under around 200. Combo orb exp falls off afterwards. Recommended for levelling other links/legion.
    • Legion Effect: 70% chance to heal 8% hp on hit. 10-ish second cooldown
  • Ark
    • Stacks up to 5 times in combat. Grants 1% + 1/2/3% damage per stack.
    • rants effectively 6/11/16% damage. Stacking can however be abit dodgey sometimes. Good for longer boss fights and levelling. Highly recommended.
    • Legion Effect: 80 Str
  • Beast Tamer
    • 4/7/10% crit rate and boss damage. 3/4/5% max hp/mp.
    • Good link for crit and boss damage. Useful if you aren't at 100% crit. Still useful at 100%+ crit as a bowman due to vicious shot. Recommended.
    • Legion Effect: 5% IED
  • Cadena (2 Levels)
    • 3/6% damage against enemies lower level than you. Also 3/6% damage against enemies debuffed.
    • Essentially 12% damage if you have a debuff. Alot of classes will have debuffs (Debuffs count DoTs or almost anything that places a marker on top of the enemy). Useless against enemies higher level than you. Highly Recommended if you have a debuff. Otherwise pass.
    • Legion Effect: 80 Luk
  • Cannoneer
    • 15/25/35 All stat, 5/10/15% Max hp/mp
    • Skip Unless you're a demon avenger for the %hp.
    • Legion Effect: 80 Str
  • Cygnus Knights (Stacking)
    • Stacking link skills are broken, and the highest level obtainable in Aries is 3. Note that this seems to work for some players. Which is 7% element resist and 7% abnormal status resist.
    • Elemental damage is irrelevant in maplestory currently, 7% status resist isn't worth a link slot. Skip
    • Legion Effect: Except Dawn Warrior (Flat HP) All Cygnus give 80 Stat they use (NW = Luk/TB = Str etc)
  • Demon Avenger
    • Grants 5/10/15% damage.
    • Self explanatory. More damage = Good. Must have link.
    • Legion Effect: 4% Boss damage
  • Demon Slayer
    • Grants 10/15/20% Boss damage.
    • Self explanatory. Should be used for bossing. Highly recommended.
    • Legion Effect: 4% Status resistance
  • Evan
    • 30/50/70% increased rune duration.
    • Useful for levelling. Nothing else really. Recommended for levelling.
    • Legion Effect: 70% chance to restore 8% MP on hit. 10-ish second cooldown
  • Hayato(2 levels)
    • Grants 15/25 All stat and 10/15 m/att
    • Good link skill. Outclassed by Jett, but still can be very good. Highly Recommended for legion regardless.
    • Legion Effect: 5% Crit Dmg
  • Ilium(2 levels)
    • 1/2% damage per stack. Stacks are granted on movement, last 5 seconds and stacks up to 6 times.
    • Effectively 12% damage (in most cases). You'll be moving around while mobbing and most of the time during bosses in order to dodge. Highly recommended.
    • Legion Effect: 80 Int
  • Jett
    • Provides varying levels of stat/att based on jett's core. Maxes out at level 210 (35 all stat 35 att/matt)
    • Jett's core works similar to potentials. Theres different tiers, and the "cube" equivalent to reroll the core is a universal drop called stardust in your use tab. Upon rerolling, you're granted varying levels of each stat, matt and att based on your jetts level and your core tier. Max tier is yellow and core stat caps out at level 210. The core also resets each day, however the link skill stat granted will not change unless re-linked. Must have if you're willing to commit. 35 stat/att is alot. Also has a good legion
    • Legion Effect: 5% Crit Damage
  • Kaiser
    • 10/15/20% max hp
    • Useless unless you're a demon slayer. Pass.
    • Legion Effect: 80 Str
  • Kanna(2 levels)
    • Grants 5/10% damage.
    • Self explanatory. More damage = good. Must have link.
    • Legion Effect: 4% Boss Damage
  • Kinesis (2 Levels)
    • Grants 2/4% critical damage.
    • Critical damage is always good. Good for everything basically. Must have link.
    • Legion Effect: 80 Int
  • Luminous
    • Grants 10/15/20% ignore enemy defense.
    • Solid link skill, I don't recommend using this if you have a lot of IED though (Roughly 95/96%+) unless your class has no other options. Recommended.
    • Legion Effect: 80 Int
  • Mercedes
    • Grants 10/15/20% exp when killing monsters. (Also grants a TP to elluel every half hour but that's useless)
    • Useful for leveling, basically useless for bossing unless you want exp. Must have for levelling also has a good legion.
    • Legion Effect: 5% cool down reduction
  • Mihile
    • Provides 100% stance for 90/110/130 seconds. 180 second cooldown. (Affected by buff duration)
    • Useful if you have buff duration, don't have stance and don't like getting knocked back, otherwise not really. Pass.
    • Legion Effect: 2000 Flat Hp
  • Phantom
    • 10/15/20% Crit rate.
    • Use it if you don't have 100% critical rate as a non bowman or past 100% as a bowman for vicious shot. Recommended.
    • Legion Effect: 4% Meso
  • Resistance(Stacking)
    • Stacking broken like Cygnus. Max level is currently 3. Note that this seems to work for some players Grants 1 second of immunity per level on reviving.
      (Affected by buff duration)
    • Can be useful on bosses, but as its bugged to be maxed at 3 rather than 8. Pass.
    • Legion Effects:
      • Wild Hunter: 20% chance to deal 16% more damage
      • Mechanic: 20% buff duration
      • Blaster: 5% IED
      • Battle Mage: 80 Int
  • Shade (2 Levels)
    • 5/10% chance to survive fatal attack.
    • Basically stops you dying to an attack 10% of the time. On average this technically gives you 10% more lives, i.e 11 lives in lucid. Passable link skill, not great. Recommended for the legion
    • Legion Effect: 5% Crit Damage
  • Xenon(2 Levels)
    • 5/10% all stat.
    • Its free stat. Starts falling off once you get higher amounts of %stat. Recommended.
    • Legion Effect: 40 Str, Dex and Luk
  • Zero (5 levels)
    • Grants 3/6/9/12/15% damage reduction (Does not affect %HP damage) and 2/4/6/8/10% ignore enemy defense.
    • Useful if you find yourself dying to normal mobs alot, damage reduction does not work on almost all relevant bosses. Luminous link provides more ignore enemy defense than this. Highly recommended to level for legion
    • Legion Effect: 10% exp
Thanks Excel#3014/Hene for helping me format this. Didnt want credit, but should give it to him regardless.
 
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Hene

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Not sure if its correct (haven't played in awhile) but I think Xenon link looks a lot stronger than it actually is. I switched it out for Hayato link and while minuscule, gave me more damage. I could totally be wrong on this but i think its worth looking at.
 

Demagonz

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I think Xenon link looks a lot stronger than it actually is..
Thats because almost everything can be considered a "relative" increase to what you currently have. So all of these links will start to fall off. Thus, later in the game, a 10% stat increase relative to your %stat is miniscule. As an example, even though kinesis is typically one of the best links in the game, at 1000% crit damage, 4% crit dmg is negligible amounts. Thus for lower statted players, it is still a very good link to have.
 

Hene

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Thats because almost everything can be considered a "relative" increase to what you currently have. So all of these links will start to fall off. Thus, later in the game, a 10% stat increase relative to your %stat is miniscule. As an example, even though kinesis is typically one of the best links in the game, at 1000% crit damage, 4% crit dmg is negligible amounts. Thus for lower statted players, it is still a very good link to have.
Fair enough, didn't think about it from early game perspective. Regardless gives a nice overview without needing to reference ayumilove that often has incorrect values (for stuff in general) so good stuff.
 

Mizu

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Could you possibly add a note on the zero link visual bug for people who are unaware of it.
 

Inn

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8% damage to normal monsters (This currently counts as %dmg making it very good, however this is a bug. Use at your own discretion)
I don't think this is a bug. According to the strategywiki page, this is the only (basically) source of damage % to normal monsters only, which does go into display but does not count towards boss damage %, as you're implying. It's not a very good line and definitely not recommended for your three optimal lines.

Resistance(Stacking)
  • Can be useful on bosses, but as its bugged to be maxed at 3 rather than 8. Pass.
My resistance link is at level 8 and functions fine, which is handy if you're a resistance character (or swap it in for difficult bosses if you require it). They did fix it to work properly recently, so it's nice.

Jett
  • The core also resets each day, however the link skill stat granted will not change unless re-linked. Must have if you're willing to commit. 35 stat/att is alot. Also has a good legion
There is a 7-day core lock for some reward points. Alternatively, you can just never log onto the Jett so the core will never reset.

Cadena (2 Levels)
  • 3/6% damage against enemies lower level than you. Also 3/6% damage against enemies debuffed.
  • Essentially 12% damage if you have a debuff. Alot of classes will have debuffs (Debuffs count DoTs or almost anything that places a marker on top of the enemy). Useless against enemies higher level than you. Recommended if you have a debuff. Otherwise pass.

I would recommend Cadena link as long as you have at least one of the requisites, which should always be the case once you're leveled, because 6% damage simply outclasses all the flat stat links. If you're going to put Recommended for Xenon's link (blargh), please do the same for Cadena. Many stationary classes will benefit more from Cadena's link than Illium's, which you've put as highly recommended. With a consistent status effect (many classes), you will benefit more from this than Ilium's simply because Illium takes time to ramp up.

The only case where this link wouldn't kick in is if you're training on elite channels (eg. eapples, ecrillas) and somehow don't have some form of a status effect/debuff (I imagine there are very few classes without). Or if you're doing Will under level 250.

Mercedes
  • Legion Effect: 5% cool down reduction

Awareness that this doesn't work on 5th jobs on Aries even though it's supposed to, pls fix thx.

Also suspicion that Shade link doesn't actually work, but never did extensive testing with that.
 
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Demagonz

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Thank you for your feedback,
I don't think this is a bug. According to the strategywiki page, this is the only (basically) source of damage % to normal monsters only, which does go into display but does not count towards boss damage %, as you're implying. It's not a very good line and definitely not recommended for your three optimal lines.
As for this, This is simply what i was told by penelope/rend/pence/whatever else he's known as. I havn't tested it myself.

My resistance link is at level 8 and functions fine, which is handy if you're a resistance character (or swap it in for difficult bosses if you require it). They did fix it to work properly recently, so it's nice.

This may be the case for resistance classes (I dont play one), however as a non resistance class, the link skill for me is split (I have a level 3 link from blaster, and two seperate level 2 links from WH and Mechanic). Cant seem to get it to go above 3. And as a resistance class its not as if you have a choice to choose whether you want it or not.

Or this could be the case of, "Works for some people, doesn't for others" Like chaos lock.
There is a 7-day core lock for some reward points. Alternatively, you can just never log onto the Jett so the core will never reset.
I'm just gonna assume that basically nobody mains jett or dont plan on logging onto their jett because why would they. However I guess this is notable for jett mains, so I'll add it (for whoever players jett out there).

I would recommend Cadena link as long as you have at least one of the requisites, which should always be the case once you're leveled, because 6% damage simply outclasses all the flat stat links. If you're going to put Recommended for Xenon's link (blargh), please do the same for Cadena. Many stationary classes will benefit more from Cadena's link than Illium's, which you've put as highly recommended. With a consistent status effect (many classes), you will benefit more from this than Ilium's simply because Illium takes time to ramp up.

The only case where this link wouldn't kick in is if you're training on elite channels (eg. eapples, ecrillas) and somehow don't have some form of a status effect/debuff (I imagine there are very few classes without). Or if you're doing Will under level 250.
As stated in the guide, and in a previous comment, Xenons link skill will fall off as you get higher amounts of % stat, however it is very strong for newer players. As for the cadena link, with only 1 of the requirements fulfilled, I don't believe the 6% is worth it. Possibly while mobbing as %boss damage doesn't apply, but definitely not for bossing. Flat stat links are almost always decent because its not flat stat, it scales with %stat. So links like hayato and jett will grant hundreds of stat, as well as a sizeable amount of att which also scales with %att.

Disclaimer: This might not take into account innate crit damage variance. Tests were done over 1 minute in an effort to minimise variance.

Without cadena or hayato or xenon link, average skill damage on stunning strikes are dealing 2.7-2.71B.

With Hayato link they're going 2.76-2.77B

With xenon link. They go 2.78-2.79B (The best so far)

With Cadena link 1 condition fulfilled. They go 2.73-2.74B (Already worse than hayato link)

With Cadena link 2 condition fulfilled They go 2.76-2.77, (The same as hayato link)

With cadena link 2 condition fulfilled but no DA link (level 2) They go 2.71-2.72 (around w/o either of the 3) just to prove im actually fulfilling both conditions.

However take this with a grain of salt. These values for me, and can be skewed as. A. I'm only 40k stat(Nowhere near endgame, xenon link is still quite effective). And B. I have about 600% TD (Boss damage +DMG) making the cadena link alot less effective. But i definitely think that there are better options compared to 6% damage, especially for bosses.

As for the illium link, bosses such as magnus, lotus, lucid, damien, all force you to move. And even if you're doing a DPM test, If your class can telecast or jump attack, You can simply be stationary there attacking while jumping which will keep illium stacks built. There are rarely any classes without the ability to attack while moving.

As stated this is not absolute, use what you think to be are better or to your taste

Edit: You've also reminded me that cadena's link skill works on enemies debuffed by anyone making it good for party bossing even if your class doesnt have a debuff. (Will be recommended to level even if class doesnt have a debuff, not always use.)


Awareness that this doesn't work on 5th jobs on Aries even though it's supposed to, pls fix thx.

Also suspicion that Shade link doesn't actually work, but never did extensive testing with that.

I've personally seen shade link activate, however it doesnt do it in the manner that happens in GMS (Where it flashes and prevents the damage that wouldove killed you). It simply seems to just restore your hp back up to max when you were supposed to have died. (Itll flash to 0 and then go back up).

As for mercedes, Yes it is supposed to affect 5th job skills as it does in GMS, however as previously in one of the updates on 03/02/2018, "Fixed cooldown for 5th job skills affected by Mercedes Legion bonus". It is unclear whether fixed means "removed it" or "added it". But assuming it WAS "fixed" this is most likely intended. However, confirmation is needed by staff.
 
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Inn

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My point is that if you're going to put Illium as highly recommended, and Xenon's shitty link as recommended, you should at the least put Cadena as recommended or highly recommended with both requisites. (You can legit bring a mutant snail familiar in any boss and it'll debuff the boss lol) With two requisites, Cadena link is literally the same value (12%) as Illium's, except Cadena will be more consistent (and thus marginally better) because you have to stack Ililium's up at the start, can lose it during death or a bind etc. It sure as hell is much better than Xenon's with just one requisite (so the one case of training on elite channels without a debuff as stated before). Xenon is ONLY good for early game players that haven't cubed their gear yet, or for anyone that has extra slot because they're not using Jett or have a built in link or whatev. Not saying to replace Illium with Cadena, you should have both, but rather it's unfair that you're putting it as a situational/pass link when they're equally good.

Hmm, strange, my resistance link (3/2/2/2) works fine on all my characters. Guess it's just one of those things.

A lot of things that are "fixed" in patch notes aren't actually fixed, or simply unfix themselves later, as we all know. Hopefully it'll actually be fixed :^)))
 

Demagonz

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Once again, thank you for your feedback, it is appreciated.
Illium link was highly recommended as it is always up and 12% while mobbing.

Xenon i've tested to be a good link even at 40k stat which i wouldnt consider early game and definitely with cubed gear, and a note is already there that it does fall off as you go later into the game. So it will stay recommended.

Cadena link has been changed from recommended to highly if able to fulfil both prerequisites.

Mercedes bug has been noted (Spyro implied that it was unintended/thought it wasnt supposed to affect 5th job).
Stacking link skills changed to be functional for some people.
Edit:Mercedes legion has been fixed.
 
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cye97

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a site question about cadena link skills, the first condition is mob level lower than character will deal 6%dmg, in this case im wondering how do we know what level the boss is? training mob has their own level showed, but how do i know which boss level is lower than me to fulfill the first condition?
 

Hene

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a site question about cadena link skills, the first condition is mob level lower than character will deal 6%dmg, in this case im wondering how do we know what level the boss is? training mob has their own level showed, but how do i know which boss level is lower than me to fulfill the first condition?
I'd use the maple wiki for that, has most of the monster/boss levels (excluding eczak).
 
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Inn

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The main bosses' levels are 230 for Lucid, 250 for Will, and 210 for Lotus and Damien.
 

jinyoonok

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Thanks for the guide :)

When I first started it was inconvenient to find one by one from GMS charts but the new players now can just search up and find it here

Great job b
 

Demagonz

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For the IA, u said 21A/MAtk? I just got a 30 Attack, or did you mean 21%A/Matk?
30 attack is a legendary line. 21 Attack is the max for the unique line. You can only have 1 legendary line, which means 30 attack isn't good for its slot compared to boss damage or attack speed. (10% extra BD will basically always outperform 9 atk)
 
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Jejejem

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Is there a bug with Jett's Link? I'm level 210 with Jett but still giving Core Aura Level 1. It shows level 3 but when click on "Link" it comes out as Level 1. :(
 

Demagonz

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Is there a bug with Jett's Link? I'm level 210 with Jett but still giving Core Aura Level 1. It shows level 3 but when click on "Link" it comes out as Level 1. :(
Jetts link does not have levels, it stays at level 1. However as your level increases, the range of stats which your core can roll when using stardust increases, levelling to 210 increases the maximum stat it can roll to 35 at the highest tier (Blue > Green > Purple > Yellow)