Spaz's evan guide

As many people will know. For the first few jobs evan basically functions as a zero-choice build. You max stuff as it becomes available, and the only real choice is which job to max first.
As a result, I will only post the skill description of the final level for the first 8 jobs.

First Job

Magic Missile: Consumes MP to attack an enemy twice from a distance.

Level 20: MP -18, Basic Attack: 40, Mastery: 60%

Dragon Soul: Strengthens the Dragon's spirit to increase your Magic Attack.

Level 20: Magic Attack +20

This one is a bit of a no-brainer. Max MM first to increase your exp earning rate, and dragon soul later

Second Job

Fire Circle: Consumes MP to use a fire elemental attack on a large group of enemies.

Level 20: MP -20, Basic Attack: 55, Mastery: 60%, attacks up to 4 enemies

Teleport: Use the arrow keys to teleport a set distance within a map.

Level 20: MP -15, Teleport Distance: 150

Again a fairly simple choice. Fire Circle allows for early mobbing, and will see you easily through to third job.

Third job

Lightning Bolt: Hits one enemy with a lightning bolt, causing great damage.

Level 20: MP -24, Basic Attack: 160, Mastery: 60%

Magic Guard: All damage taken temporarily affects MP instead of HP. If MP reaches 0, your HP takes a full hit.

Level 5: MP -10, up to 25% of HP damage is taken as MP damage for 150 sec.
Level 20: MP -22, up to 80% of HP damage is taken as MP damage for 350 sec.

This is where Evan starts becoming a little controversial. Magic Guard is clearly an essential skill, but to access above level 5 you need the (cash shop only) mastery book. This put a lot of people off Evan in the first place, as it effectively becomes a pay to play class.

If you are funded, then i would recommend maxing magic guard asap. If you need to raise funds via mts (see Fleyx's awesome guide) then get lvl 5, and then work on lightning bolt until you can afford the mastery book

Fourth job

Ice Breath: Gathers cold air for a short while and then unleashes it on up to 6 monsters. Damage increases depending on how much time was spent gathering the cold air.

Level 20: MP -24, Max Attack: 120, Mastery: 60%, Freeze Chance: 90%

Elemental reset: Temporarily turns all elemental attacks into non-elemental attacks.

Level 20: MP -30, Elemental Attack -100% for 300 sec.

This one really depends on your training. Personally I recommend ice breath first: the charge time is relatively short and the damage is impressive. Plus unless you are training at ice-resistant enemies it outdamages all attacks so far

Fifth job

Magic Flare: Creates a magical flare of light that surrounds and attacks monsters.

Level 20: MP -30, Basic Attack: 270, Mastery: 60%

Magic Shield: Creates a barrier around all party members that absorbs a fixed amount of damage for 20 seconds. Cooldown: 40 sec

Level 20: MP -40, absorbs 30% damage

Both of these are pretty smexy skills. I recommend one point in Magic shield, and then maxxing flare. two points of interest

1) Flare is a one monster only attack, which isnt clear from the description, but the range is pretty unholy

2) The cooldown on MS includes the 20 seconds of active buff, so in theory two evans at bosses etc. means perma -30% damage

Sixth job

Critical Magic: Every time you use a magic attack, you have a chance to cause a critical cast.

Level 5: 20% chance, Critical Damage: 120%
Level 15: 30% chance, Critical Damage: 150%

Dragon thrust: Attacks up to 6 monsters by knocking them back.

Level 20: MP -34, Basic Attack: 160, Mastery: 60%, Knockback Chance: 95%

Magic Booster: Uses MP to increase the speed of magic attacks.

Level 5: MP -70, increases Magic Attack Speed by 1 Level for 150 sec.
Level 15: MP -50, increases Magic Attack Speed by 3 Levels for 300 sec.

Slow: Decreases the movement speed of monsters for a certain amount of time. The amount decreased depends on chance.

Level 15: MP -40, Monster Speed -40 for 12 sec with a 60% chance for 150 sec.

A few choices mounting up here. Both critical magic and magic booster require CS-only mastery books to go above level 5. Although annoying, this is not necessarily a massive burden, as you have a considerable time to build up the requisite funds. Dragon thrust functions as Rush, and slow is a familiar skill. Personally I recommend getting lvl 5 crit. and booster asap, and then working on thrust until you can max crit and booster. I don't know how much sp you get from quests for the various jobs, so if you have enough sp work on slow as a last resort.

Seventh job

Magic Amplification: Increases your Magic Attack damage but also increases the amount of MP consumed.

Level 15: MP consumption +180%, Magic Attack damage +120%

Fire Breath: Summons fire out of the air for a while, and then unleashes it on up to 6 enemies. Damage increases depending on how much time was spent summoning fire.

Level 20: MP -28, Max Attack: 180, Mastery: 60%, Stun Chance: 30%

Killer Wings: Attacks a monster from a distance. All successive attacks target that monster.

Level 20: MP -35, Basic Attack: 320, Mastery: 60%

Magic Resistance: A buff that gives nearby party members resistance to magic attacks.

Level 10: MP -36, Magic Attack resistance +20% for 150 sec.

Again, a lot of funky looking skills. Killer wings looks useful, but I would want to see it in action before fully endorsing it. Magic amplification is useful if you are funded or bossing, but otherwise an almost doubling in your pot cost might not be justifiable for a 20% attack increase. Magic resistance looks like a useful skill to pick up (e.g. making zak magic attacks do less damage to NLs). Fire breath functions jsut as a replacement for ice breath, plus with elemental reset it should become your default mobbing move.

In terms of order, unless you are regularly partying at heavy magic enemies, i recommend leaving resistance to last. Therefore max fire breath fire (effective +50% damage on ice breath) then amplification (+20% damage) followed by killer wings/resistance

Eigth job

Dragon Fury: The Dragon concentrates more furiously when your MP is within a certain range, causing increased Magic Attack. The effect is canceled when your MP falls out of that range.

Level 10: Magic Attack 110% when MP is over 50% and under 80%.

Earthquake: The earth trembles violently, causing damage to a large number of monsters.

Level 20: MP -31, Basic Attack: 250, Mastery 60%, hits up to 8 enemies

Phantom Imprint: Imprints a curse on monsters. Monsters that are cursed take more damage for 5 seconds.

Level 20: MP -40, Basic Attack: 380, Mastery: 60%

Recovery Aura: Creates an aura around you for 30 seconds. This aura continuously recovers the MP of all party members affected by it. Cooldown: 1 min

Level 15: HP -34, MP -34, recovers 80% MP

More interesting skills. If Phantom Imprint works on bosses then it's unbelievably awesome, if it doesn't then it's slightly more meh depending on cast time. Dragon Fury seems to be a mage zerk which should work well with the other m.att boosting skills that evan has. If using it I would recommend elixers as you can generally stay within the range mentioned using them. Earthquake might make a nice opening move when tackling a big mob, although i'm guessing it has a fairly long cast time, which might make it not overly practical as a standard move. Recovery aura seems most useful when in a party with mages, which should be cool when combined with some of the later moves (i'm thinking that once lvl 13x evans are more common bish and evan would make the ultimate protective combo for a party)

In terms of order it really depends on how much you party and solo. I would recommend recovery aura first anyway (by my maths it reduces your mp consumption by 40% on average) followed by dragon fury then phantom imprint then earthquake

Ninth Job

Maple Warrior: Increase all players' stats within a party by certain percentage.

Level 30: MP -60; +15% Base Stats; 900 seconds; 400% Range

Magic Mastery: Increases Magic Mastery and Magic Attack.

Level 30: Magic Attack Mastery +90%, Magic Attack +15

Illusion: The dragon's clone attacks a monster 4 times.

Level 30: MP -48 , Basic Attack: 130, Mastery 60%

Flame Wheel: Generates a wheel of flames that attacks up to 6 monsters at once.

Level 30: MP -42, Basic Attack: 300, Mastery: 60%

Hero's Will: Enables one to escape from abnormal conditions. The higher the skill level, the less the character has to wait.

Level 5: MP - 30 escape from abnormal condition, terms between skills 360secs

We now reach what is effectively 4th job for other classes. Maple warrior is fairly familiar and well known. Flame wheel becomes the new basic attack, and with ER will become the default mobbing move. Depending on cast time, Illusion could well function to finish off individual monsters, whilst magic mastery just adds further to the attack boosting skills of the evan

I personally recommend flame wheel first, with a mix of MW and magic mastery following, ending with illusion

10th job

That's right, when other classes are about to wind down, evan has a whole other set of skills, and what skills they are:

Blessing of the onyx: Increases Weapon and Magic Defense. Increases Magic Attack. Cooldown: 2 min

Level 30: MP -42, Weapon and Magic Defense +100, Magic Attack +50

Blaze: Attacks 1 monster with a powerful flame. Monsters near the target may also take damage.

Level 30: MP -44, Basic Attack: 330, Mastery: 60%, hits up to 6 enemies

Dark Fog: Gathers all the dark elements in the area to create a dark, chilly fog that attacks up to 15 enemies. Cooldown: 20 seconds

Level 30: MP -800, Basic Attack: 750, Mastery: 60%

Soul Stone: Casts a buff that holds Souls. A character who dies whose Soul is being held will be resurrected immediately in the same location. This buff is randomly cast on 1 or 2 party members. Cooldown: 10 minutes

Level 20: MP -100, Duration: 300 sec, HP Recovered: 50%, 2 members

Let's just take a moment to admire those skills one by one

Blessing of the onyx: annoyingly the buff duration isn't given, but follow the evan pattern I think it will be 1 minute. Therefore, 50% of the time an evan will have a +50m.att buff (+55 if you include amplification) that also ups m.def and w.def

Blaze: The real reason for killing wings: Select out one monster and pound it with very strong attacks, whilst dealing mob damage to any enemies near it.

Dark Fog: The Evan version of meteor/gen/bliz: massive damage to a large amount of enemies, but with the cooldown being introduced at BB already present

Soul Stone: I think this is a really exciting skill. True it isn't as focussed as rez, but i think it is a welcome addition to the whole 'bringing people back to life' area of the game. Using the magic of mathematics, it has a 33% chance of being attached to any one character in the party (more if it doesn't apply to the evan) and then a 50% chance of being active (5 mins out of the 10 min recast time). Therefore, if you die during a boss, there is a 18.67% chance of you being instantly revived when you die, without a bish having to use rez. In addition, there is a small chance that two people can be revived within 5 minutes, compared to the coolodwn on rez.

In terms of order: if you have reached level 150 and still need help in choosing your skills.... O_o

Q&A:

Q: Why should I choose evan over an F/P or even a bish? I don't want to have to spend nx on skills.

A: This is a very valid criticism of the job. Spending nx for skills is very close to pay to play games, and I know some people will object to it on prinicple. If this doesn't put you off, however, then I recommend it on the grounds that it is a strong competitor to all the mage classes, and has the added advantage of 10 jobs, which means that you feel as though you are progressing very quickly through the game. Also, DRAGONS!

Q: Your build makes no sense

A: This is the first time I have attempted a mage-like character (hell, it's the first time i've attempted something that isn't a thief). It is probably unconventional, but i've tried to assess the skills available on their merit and use in training.

Q: There are a lot of points in this guide where you say you want to know facts about skills, such as cast time and effects on bosses. Why don't you just go onto forums and find the information yourself?

A: I'm lazy. I am planning on answering some of those questions, and therefore the overall build mentioned may change at certain points, but as everyone knows builds are guides to making characters, not laws set in stone. If you think i've got it wrong, then don't do what I say.

Q: How come you are so 1337?

A: Some of us are born that way (not including wing)

edit: actually wrote the guide, and added a q and a. If you want a q answering or have found a mistake, please let me know

Is there anyway you could format the guide to make it easy to read by any chance? I got a feeling some headings, bold and underlined text might head alot.

Purely just a visual thing, will read it in full another time.

Yeah. Need to do a last check for spelling as well, and check up some of the more dubious facts. If i have another slow day at work i'll do it tomorrow

Why the hell have that "why you so 1337?" question when the question above it is "why is this build not 1337?" O_o

I'll adjust the guide as i research stuff, so I intend to change the FAQ once i'm more certain. Besides, are you questioning my 1337n355, 1s 1t 7ha7 1 hav5 700 mch 5ki115 4 j00

That seemed clever when i wrote it, but somehow not so much anymore

Any guide for AP allocation? Lukless or low luk build etc?

Another possibility is equipment guide, Evan dragon equips are weird.