A Pocket Guide to Bishop

Introduction

Quick foreword: This guide is NA Reboot-centric!

Class Overview

Bishop is one of the best support classes in the game, with decent solo and party DPS to back it up. It is one of the three Explorer mages, with INT as its primary stat to power golden, holy magic skills themed around angels. Bishops are able to provide not only offensive support through trademark skills such as Benediction, but also defensive support through skills such as Holy Fountain. They are highly sought after for party bossing from early to endgame, and Bishops can often join parties at slightly earlier levels of progressions than other classes. If you are looking for an all-around teleport class with top-tier support to boot, Bishop might be the class for you!

Pros and Cons

Stat Window and Skills

Inner Ability

A perfect Bishop Inner Ability (IA) optimized for solo DPS would look as follows:

However, this Inner Ability can be very expensive to obtain for newer players. As such, many people opt for alternative IAs if they obtain them first, either indefinitely or until they have the meso and/or honor exp to reroll. Some temporary settles/alternatives include:

• 38% Buff skill duration
• 21 Magic Attack

Bishops do not need any Critical Rate on their Inner Ability, but those intending to swap to Ice/Lightning or Fire/Poison may want to keep that line as it is usable for them at earlier levels of account progression (though not BiS). Bishops need +1 Attack Speed on IA to reach the attack speed cap (AS0/AS10) with Monster Park Green Potion in solo play.

For their other two IA presets, Bishops usually choose to run some combination of Mesos Obtained and Item Drop Rate (depending on what the player is prioritizing), with Mesos Obtained first line being the more common choice. The third line can be 7-8% damage to normal monsters or +21 Magic Attack, whichever is rolled first (but it doesn’t really matter).

If the Bishop’s farming preset has top line Meso Obtained, most Bishops choose to use their third preset for opening boss boxes so they run Item Drop Rate +20% on their top line with any other random second or third lines.

An alternative third preset would be 20% Boss Damage/21 Magic Attack/8% abnormal status damage for those who boss often with Attack Speed buffers (Evan, Zero, Buccaneer, Thunder Breaker, etc.) because that becomes Bishop’s highest DPS IA, but this is an uncommon choice because it requires that the boss have no room separation (ex. Kaling), and that the Bishop has a semi-permanent party or person who they boss with.

Legion Grid

As of v263 Carcion Octo Fest (October 2025), Bishops’ personal damage no longer scales off of INT, though its support capabilities still do. As of v267 Maplestory x One Punch Man (March 2026), active Infinity was also replaced with a passive, reducing Bishops’ scaling off buff duration.

Bishops also have a debuff that provides 44% IED, which means that Bishops can have slightly lower visual IED than other classes, adjusted to be appropriate for the boss (ex. ~93% for Lucid and Will for other classes might mean ~90% visual for a Bishop, but more IED is always better without sacrificing other stats). As such, the priority of the stats in a legion grid looks as follows for bossing:

When mobbing, the priority is to be able to one-shot, so the general rule of thumb is to boost damage stats until the Bishop one-shots, and then add all remaining stats to Bonus EXP. Here are sample legion boards for bossing and mobbing at 9k legion.

Leveling Mercedes to 250 for legion should be prioritized alongside the critical damage blocks that are useful for every class, because it allows for everyone to burst at the same time without needing to wait for the Bishop. Mercedes legion is especially important for Bishop because Bishops do not use cooldown hats at baseline but may party with those who do. The Mechanic legion block is also useful (+20% Buff Duration at Lv 200, 25% at Lv 250). Bishops may also consider keeping the +HP legion blocks equipped to allow for greater healing for party members.

Legion Artifact

Similar to the Legion board priority above, Bishop’s Legion Artifact priority for strictly DPS is as follows:

 Magic Attack is less important than the first six stats (but is still important!), so for a balanced Artifact, most Bishops choose to start maxing Meso/Exp/Drop after their first six stats are maxed (Lv 10). As well, based on what the Bishop’s other characters are, they may consider starting to level stats that would benefit those secondary characters. The last two stats, Cooldown (CD) Skip and Status Resistance are not very important–CD skip is mostly for Culvert because Bishop’s base AB link is already so long, and Status Resistance is just for bossing QoL; it does not give much damage.

Here is a useful tool for planning your Legion Artifact: [Maplestory] Legion Artifact

Link Skills

Bishops use nearly the same Link Skills as every other class, while keeping in mind that Bishops can always have Lv 9 Empirical Knowledge equipped without using any of their link skill slots, and Bishops with moderately progressed accounts do not need extra Crit Rate.

Here are the optimal link skills for bossing at mid-endgame:

Unfair Advantage (only useful if the Bishop is higher level than the boss) and Time to Prepare can be situationally subbed out for Spirit of Freedom (great for speedruns and new players), Light Wash (low IED), Focus Spirit (if not 100% critical rate), Grounded Body, and Invincible Belief (for bosses where it is hard to survive).

Here is a sample set for mobbing:

Combo Kill Blessing and Unfair Advantage can be subbed out for Cygnus Blessing, Pirate Blessing (if same level or lower level than mobs), Tide of Battle (if active rotation), and Innate Gift.  

Hyper Stats

People often ask what Bishop’s optimal hyper stats are, but there really aren’t any that are specific to Bishop. Like any other class, optimal hyper stats depend on what bosses the Bishop is progressing, links and legion, level, and gear, as hyper stats are used to fill in what the Bishop is missing after applying the most efficient stats from other sources.

The two things to keep in mind are that Critical Rate should be at 100% if it is not already from other sources, and when bossing, IED should meet or be close to certain checkpoints for different bosses (in broad strokes, visual 80% for Chaos Root Abyss and below, 90% for Normal Lotus and Damien and below, 92% for Hard Lucid and Will and below, 94% for Chaos Tenebris and Black Mage, and 95%+ for Grandis bossing, adjusted only for Angelic Wrath and not other party debuffs). Additionally, adding points to Arcane Force may help with achieving the Arcane Force breakpoints needed to do extra damage.

For mobbing, most Bishops would add points evenly into Critical Damage, Normal Monster Damage, Damage, Arcane Force as needed, and Bonus Exp, with leftover points into MATT/ATT and INT. For bossing, most Bishops would add points evenly into Critical Damage, Ignore Defense, Damage, and Boss Damage, with leftover points into MATT/ATT and INT. Examples of these builds can be seen below. Use the calculator (or Maple Scouter) to optimize what is best for your character: https://brendonmay.github.io/hyperCalculator/ 

Keep in mind that Bishop receives non-visual 44% IED from Angelic Wrath and some damage % from Arcane Aim, Peacemaker, and various link skills at 100% uptime, which need to be accounted for manually in the calculator.

Here are some example loadouts at Level 285:

Familiar Badges

The BiS Familiar Badges are:

However, as can be seen in this table, some of the badges are difficult to obtain–the Hard ones require opening booster packs, while the Medium ones require farming of low mob count maps. Here is a more realistic set of the easiest badges to obtain, especially given that it is hypothesized a third MATT badge is coming soon:

The last two badges do not give any really useful stats to the Bishop, but they’re better than nothing. Other easy badges that people obtain to finish their set of 10 badges and unlock their third Familiar Slot are the Apocalypse Badge and Swamp Badge.

Buff Duration and Infinity

As of v267 Maplestory x One Punch Man (March 2026), active Infinity was also replaced with a passive, negating Bishops’ extra scaling off buff duration. Infinity management is no longer part of the class.

Skill Overview

Benevolence and Vengeance

 Righteously Indignant

This skill is so core to Bishop’s gameplay that it deserves its own section. At level 140, Bishop unlocks a skill called Righteously Indignant, which is a toggle. It allows the Bishop to toggle between Benevolence and Vengeance mode. In the skill tab, Vengeance skills are outlined in purple when in Vengeance mode. Swapping between the modes changes the functions of certain skills, where Benevolence focuses on defensive abilities and Vengeance focuses on offensive. It is suggested that players stay in Benevolence as much as possible for survivability, and to swap into Vengeance only to refresh and cast Triumph Feather, Blood of the Divine, Fountain of Vengeance and Angelic Wrath. In this skill overview, the Benevolence skill will be on the left (yellow), and the Vengeance skill will be on the right (purple).

Notable Passives

Active Skills

Common V-Skills

Summary of Support Capabilities

These effects are described based on max level, with Decent Combat Orders.

Defensive

Offensive

Miscellaneous

Hyper Skill Passives

Most Bishops will find that they want to keep Holy Symbol - Experience as opposed to Preparation while leveling because the extra 20% exp is too good to pass up.

Which option do I pick?

I personally take Shell - Persist over Enhance because I don’t find the 10% to 15% damage reduction difference noticeable, but the Persist can help with tanking an extra pattern. For those who never use Holy Magic Shell, Holy Symbol - Preparation is better than nothing. The bottom three are functionally non-negotiable.

V-Matrix (Fifth Job)

Perfect Boost Node Trios

Bishops boost six skills spread across two different trios (for a total of four boost nodes).

Mains and higher level boss mules will boost all of these skills because they are all Bishop’s HEXA Mastery skills, so these skills can be boosted in any combination. However, certain trio combinations may make the leveling experience easier as the Bishop unlocks more slots.

Here is a sample trio combination that separates the most important bossing skills from less important ones (See the relative contribution of various skills here):

A lower level boss mule (i.e. level 220 or below) may consider using the trio combination below to make leveling easier. For a majority of the time, only the top trio would be equipped.

Decent Skills

Bishops make use of several Decent Skills, including Decent Speed Infusion, Decent Sharp Eyes, Decent Combat Orders, and in niche scenarios, Decent Hyper Body. Here is the order of priority in which they should be equipped:

Speed Infusion is important for Bishops to feel less clunky, as Bishops just barely make it to AS0 self-buffed with +1 AS inner ability and Monster Park Green Potion. It is not necessary in party bosses with classes that provide AS buffs (including Ark, Evan, Thunder Breaker, and Buccaneer). Sharp Eyes is necessary because of the crit damage boost. Combat Orders is equipped to better the effects of Bishop’s fourth job skills, almost all of which are useful.

Node Leveling Priority

Most veteran Bishop players would suggest having Unreliable Memory at 5 levels above other skills and prioritizing it, because increasing its level decreases its cooldown, thus leading to higher Infinity uptime (Learn more about this skill in Buff Duration and Infinity and Common V-Skills). Here is the suggested priority of skill nodes for Bishop mains:  

• It is recommended generally to keep most V-Matrix skills leveled evenly, despite this priority list, so as to not waste nodes if the intention is to eventually max everything.
• Mana Overload specifically has certain breakpoints of levels, and so it may only be worth it to push when breakpoints can be reached at each multiple of 10.
• Bishop boss mules may consider prioritizing Unreliable Memory, and then choose to preferentially level their boost nodes instead of Bishop’s skill nodes. Keep in mind that boost nodes are naturally maxed before skill nodes, so this is not recommended if the Bishop will eventually max their nodes

At endgame, Bishops have an excess of node slots, so Bishops hoping to level to 260+ are advised NOT to disassemble anything other than Decent Holy Symbol (as Bishops have real HS that is better). (OUTDATED) As such, 260+ Bishops should have a full V-Matrix that look as follows:

Remember to place the decent skills on slots with +1 level (or until they give a maximum of +5 all stats as a passive) for the extra stat at higher level brackets. Decent Mystic Door, Decent Holy Fountain, and Decent Advanced Blessing are micro-gains equipped purely for the stat because there is space and nothing else to equip.

Hexa Matrix (Sixth Job)

Here is Bishop’s Hexa Matrix leveling priority based on a 6-minute dummy BA, taken from MapleScouter (v263 Carcion Octofest):

Because HEXA and fragments are so accessible these days, I’d recommend unlocking HEXA stat 1 and 2 ASAP after unlocking M1, M2, M3, and M4. Bishop’s Hexa Stat prio is MATT > INT > Crit Dmg.

My own Extreme Seren, CKalos, and Extreme Lotus BAs in GMS Reboot have led to the following calculated, optimized Hexa Matrix leveling chart  based on my gameplay and timings (pre-v267): https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/e/2PACX-1vRAciuaG8hkEBY9r2IZ62e32Mql_18mqTxmOpfj7bf7eNAjLTJv3UqPuPVy1lz4Gay5RFrlkOmYZok4/pubhtml 

Finally, here is a useful tool for general Sol Erda Fragment counting: HEXA Matrix Progression Tracker Template by Subluxe

Pet Autobuffs and Buff Favorites

Many folks have been asking about what to autobuff and for inspiration for what types of buffs people are favoriting.

With the removal of Maple Warrior and Speed Infusion as pet autobuffs since v255, this is what I take:

Here are my buff favorites:

I have them sorted by 1). DPM; 2) Long burst buffs; 3) Short burst buffs; 4) Survivability skills/other. What an individual Bishop does is up to their preferences.

Equipment

Wand or Staff?

This question comes up often–the answer is always Staff. Wands provide Bishops with 5% Critical Rate at the cost of some MATTK, but Bishops do not need this Crit Rate. The attack speed of the weapon does not affect spell casting speed.

What Secondary do Bishops use?

Bishops use the Deimos Sage Shield, which is crafted from a recipe that drops from Normal Cygnus. While it allows for a 100% craft success rate with Lv 10 Smithing, most players with an abundance of recipes find that it is ok to craft at lower Smithing levels, with lower success rates. Smithing can be leveled easily by crafting various Arrows (under Projectiles section).

It is recommended for Bishops to keep up with their Auto-Harvest, which will provide the materials necessary to level Smithing and obtain Lidiums. Immediate Abrasives can be bought from the shop in Ardentmill, and Superior Item Crystals come from extracting equips (UI in Inventory).

Bishops use the Deimos because it can be Starforced, unlike the Holy Book. Because the Deimos is so easy to craft, many Bishops craft multiple so that they can cube their spare with cubes from bossing without losing their current potential. As well, some Bishops keep a mobbing shield separate from their bossing shield.

Rolling INT WSE & Souls

Many players talk about how valuable INT is to Bishop and Bishop’s supportive abilities, so valuable that players consider rolling for INT lines on their weapons, secondaries, emblems (WSE), gloves, and souls. This is something that Bishops used to do, many years ago. However, now, in Bishop’s current state, purposefully rolling for INT is not recommended!

It can get expensive, and that meso is better spent making real gains, as keeping solely an INT WSE can really hinder a Bishop’s solo bossing and mobbing ability. The only scenarios in which INT WSEs are equipped are when a Bishop lacks funding, levels, Arcane Force, or Sacred Force to do enough damage, and this scenario typically resolves itself over time as the Bishop gets stronger, levels, and levels up symbols, thus forcing the INT WSE to be replaced. Many times, Bishops doing this will not be able to meet the 5% threshold, thus giving up their loot. As such, in very limited situations, INT WSEs are only kept and used if they are rolled on spare gear–ex. the Lv 100 emblem if a Bishop obtains a Seren Emblem, or a spare Deimos Sage Shield, but even this is very, very rare.

Bossing

Bishop Boss Mules & Legion Champs

Bishops are not recommended as optimal and efficient boss mules or legion champs.

PROS

Some of the advantages to Bishop boss mules are that Bishops:

• Benefit from easy boost node combinations
• Have good survivability
• Are relatively easy to grind
• Have high base critical rate and IED
• Can sometimes party finder for parties more easily than other classes, due to positive perception by the community

CONS

At the same time, Bishops:

• Have some of the lowest solo damage of all classes at early HEXA progression (>2000 fragments)–The class scales very far into HEXA progression
• Have an expensive IA to perfect
• Use Continuous Ring at low HEXA, which needs to be charged per boss
• Are dependent on having link skills and legion set up for Buff Duration
• Are DPM-heavy, so punished for bosses with many mechanics to dodge
• Have a high node requirement in general, due to needing leveled Unreliable Memory.

There are more efficient boss mules out there. However, at higher levels of account funding, at which point people start splitting parties or providing red dot support mules to improve loot rotations, having a mule Bishop can be a valuable resource.

Burst & DPS Rotation

Given that all the appropriate toggles, buffs, and Decent Skills are already on, Bishop’s main burst (including Origin skill) looks something like this:

When using Continuous Ring, ensure that all Divine Punishment procs are used during a Cont proc (even if that means using them outside of Blood of the Divine). During Benediction, DP stacks should be used as they are coming up, on as many burst buffs as possible. The FD given by various burst buffs is in this priority:

Infinity > Benediction > Continuous Ring proc > Blood of the Divine > Angel of Balance > Terms and Conditions (AB Link)

If a Bishop is missing any of these skills (ex. No Oz Rings, no Origin), they should just skip it in the burst rotation. Players typically choose to use natural Infinity before using Unreliable Memory Infinity to guarantee at least three Infinities in a row.

Off-burst, Bishops aim to keep up their Triumph Feather buff, Angelic Wrath debuff, and Fountain of Vengeance summon while DPS-ing the boss with Angel Ray and popping Terms and Conditions and Peacemaker off cooldown. After their main burst, Bishops can mini-burst every 60s with Terms and Conditions and ~2 Divine Punishment stacks, ensuring that 5 will still be up for main burst. Keep in mind that Divine Punishment provides some damage reduction during use, so this can be used to your advantage!

Skill Sequences

Burst:

It is also recommended to add Infinity and Unreliable Memory to skill sequences so that their animations are much shorter:

Timing Infinity

[This skill will be removed in an upcoming KMS update. Please see Upcoming KMS Updates.]

When bursting, it is optimal to try and time Infinity for it to be ramped up for burst, as it takes ~79 seconds for Infinity to become fully charged (115% FD). All else held equal, a perfect burst would involve Infinity ending right as burst ends. However, this is more often than not, impossible–bosses move and teleport, binds are missed, and mechanics need to be completed. It would be worse to burst with a fresh Infinity than to burst with a slightly less charged one. As such, most players find that with 193% buff duration, it is easiest to pop Infinity right after Benediction ends on the previous burst. For most players, this leaves a 55s window of charged Infinity after burst comes up in which to bind and burst the boss.

As a Bishop is learning to time their Infinity, keep in mind that it is always better to burst with a weaker Infinity than no Infinity at all.

Culvert

Generally, the rotation is that the Bishop uses the DPS rotation until they prepare to burst by ring swapping to RoR at 68s left on the timer, burst at 60s, and then continue to DPS afterwards. YMMV, as this will also depend on the levels of the Oz Rings being used. Bishops with Continuous Ring would keep Continuous equipped until burst. As of v255, Bishops only swap rings once, not twice.

Here is a video where the Bishop swaps between ROR4 and WJ4: 6th Job Bishop Is CRAZY In Maplestory Reboot

Here is a video where the Bishop swaps between Cont4, ROR4, and WJ4: 비숍 컨티링 1프레이 수로 빌드(96286점, 자막설명)

Here are (slightly OUTDATED) timestamped rotation descriptions for Bishop GPQ, dependent on whether the Bishop has cooldown reduction. They are mostly still accurate through v263.

With -4 or -5 cooldown hat:

With no cooldown hat:

(Source: Surisu, GMS Reboot)

Bluedotting

A lot of players are worried about bluedotting (AKA contributing 5% of the damage and being eligible to see loot) and what that means for Bishop in party play. Among the many support classes in the game, Bishops perform just fine at DPS-level gearing for bosses, or even a little under (the required damage contribution is ⅓ of equal contribution in a 6 man, even lower with fewer party members). It should be reiterated again that Bishops themselves do great damage. Essentially, the 5% change does not prevent an appropriately-geared, leveled Bishop with enough AF/SAC from receiving loot. It simply prevents Bishops from running bosses at much lower damage/gear requirements than DPS classes, as everyone is now held to the same minimum requirement in order to receive loot.

As seen here in KR Reboot’s first normal Kaling clear, the Bishop is in the green (contributed 10%+ of the total boss HP damage): https://youtu.be/akX496KzVkk

My best recommendation for Bishops wondering how close they are would be to walk solo into Practice Mode of the boss that the Bishop is interested in and use the Battle Analysis feature to analyze how long it would take them to hit the 5% threshold, shown in the following chart. Don’t forget to use the practice mode Noblesse skills too!

(Source: iljilji on Reddit)

Specific Boss Strategies

Bishop’s kit offers many unique privileges in boss fights. Bosses without Bishop-specific mechanics are not mentioned below. In general, remember that Holy Magic Shell can be used for damage reduction in any boss, and Holy Fountain can be placed for healing in almost every boss. Be careful with the animation locks of casting Holy Fountain, Angel Ray and Peacemaker. Divine Punishment does not have any end lag; Bishops can move as soon as Divine Punishment stops being cast. Learning to duck teleport in general can be useful for most bosses, but notable attacks include Seren’s P1 banana attack, Seren’s P2 dashes, Limbo’s P3 grasp attacks, and Baldrix’s P3 dashes.

Magnus

• Bishops can use Heal outside of the blue zone with no healing penalty
• Dispel can be used to remove the blue web mobility debuff

Papulatus

• Holy Magic Shell protects Bishops from the FMA when the lasers touch
• Door can be consumed as an extra life to protect from the laser touch FMA
• Holy Magic Shell can mitigate enough damage from the Rift of Time and pillar skills to allow players to survive them

Arkarium

• Holy Magic Shell can proactively protect Bishops and their party members from the FMA when the mirror cracks
• Door can be consumed as an extra life to protect from the mirror crack        

Pink Bean

• Bishops can use Dispel reactively and Divine Protection proactively to deal with the many status effects inflicted

Lotus

• Holy Magic Shell can be used to mitigate damage generally
• Holy Magic Shell can be used to mitigate some damage from floor lasers in P1, making it so that it is no longer a one-shot
• Divine Punishment can also be used during floor lasers in P1 to avoid getting one-shot
• Mana Wave acts as super stance—Bishops are not knocked out of the air if they hit debris or Lotus’ push, though they are still stunned and maintain the direction they were facing when stunned
• Bishops can use Holy Magic Shell to mitigate damage from the spiderweb stun FMA in P3 to save themselves and party members from losing a life

Damien

• In P2, Bishops can use Divine Punishment from the ground and hit Damien when he is up casting red fireballs—in P1, Bishops may consider jumping up and using Big Bang
• Divine Protection can protect Bishops from the arrow key popup inflicted by the blue claws from the sky

Lucid

• Holy Magic Shell can protect a Bishop and their party members from the full damage of bombs
• Unreliably, Holy Fountain can be placed down and spammed to heal through Lucid’s dragon attack in P1 and P2 and lasers in P2 (ping-dependent!)

Will

• In P1, Bishops can cast Holy Magic Shell preemptively for tests (cast early, at xx:50) and protect themselves and party members on the same side from the screen crack
• No form of Bishop healing works in Will P2, except when a player uses moonlight to unlock their healing capabilities
• Holy Magic Shell can protect Bishop and their party members from the effects of Poison in P3, allowing everyone to safely stack together for buffs and barriers (including Benediction)
• Holy Magic Shell can be used to mitigate enough damage from a white eye attack to allow players to survive without moving
• In P2 and P3, the reverse key debuff can be Dispelled
• Bishops should cancel their HEXA Angelic Wrath summons during P1 test because it will summon many, many balls

Gloom

• Bishops can use Dispel reactively and Divine Protection proactively to deal with the many status effects inflicted by the balls falling from the sky and the mobs in darkness
• Be careful when using Heal, because it will kill anyone with the Zombify debuff (including the Bishop themselves)
• It is a good habit to Dispel before using Heal
• Holy Fountain can be used to heal through Zombify, which can be especially useful in darkness

Verus Hilla

• No form of Bishop healing works through Verus Hilla’s heal block—as such, these skills only heal after an altar is cleansed
• Heaven’s Door does still provide an extra life for HP deaths but not string deaths
• Immediately after getting hit by Verus Hilla’s knockback, Bishops can teleport downwards to prevent being flung too far
• If Fountain of Vengeance is strong enough, it can be used to manipulate the Cursed Dolls into staying in one spot, making it easier to plan where to burst and DPS

Darknell

• Bishops can use Dispel reactively and Divine Protection proactively (typically before burst) to deal with the many status effects inflicted by the balls falling from the sky and the Elite Bosses
• Mana Wave can be used to avoid many ground-bound attacks from the Elite Bosses

Black Mage

• Bishop’s various methods of healing can heal through Black Curse—for this reason, Bishops can comfortably play with white aura in P4 for more DPS, with a Holy Fountain, Heal, and Angel Ray healing
• Holy Fountain is typically placed in the center near BM in P2, slightly to the right of the boss
• In P3, Holy Fountain is typically placed in the right corner, or on the left if anyone is playing on the left side, as Holy Fountain (and Holy Waters) can bypass the potion block outside of Black Mage’s bubble
• The skill lock from a curse death can be Dispelled from the Bishop themselves and from the Bishop’s party members, but Bishop cannot Dispel White or Black curses from their party members
• Bishop can dispel P2 Blind from themselves and nearby party members
• Mana Wave can be used to dodge rollings and up FMA, but Blink is often more ideal as it locks the Bishop in place as opposed to moving the Bishop downwards slowly, which can knock the Bishop into kick range or lasers; on the other hand, Mana Wave can be used by skilled Bishops to bait kicks and move away, to reposition faster for higher DPS uptime
• With AS inner and green pot, Bishops can usually fit between 4-6 Angel Rays between kicks—Six if the Bishop’s timing is near perfect, 4 if the Bishop is still learning

Seren

• Bishops can learn to TP while ducked to avoid the bananas in P1 by casting TP and basic attack/Genesis/Heaven’s Door with the right timing (Genesis and Heaven’s Door only work if they are off cooldown)
• The stun inflicted by the laser in Noon can be Dispelled if the party member is not gauged at the same time, and the stun from being gauged cannot be Dispelled
• The healing debuff in Sunset can be Dispelled
• Holy Fountain and Holy Waters can be used in Sunset as a form of healing

Kalos

• Holy Fountain can be placed on the mid-right of the middle platform to help the tank with consuming purple arrows during burst
• Left laser and Kalos’ laser can be tanked with max-level Ethereal Form
• Bishops with low damage/Bishops who are planning to red dot may consider casting two Holy Fountains for P2 by selecting Holy Fountain with Unreliable Memory–due to the long cooldown of Unreliable Memory, Fountain may be particularly useful if saved for 2-3. Common fountain placement locations include directly under the left or right towers when they are being cleansed, or in the middle of the map
• Bishops and other Explorer Mages have the easiest time surviving when playing from the top platforms in P2, due to Mana Wave, which allows Bishops to avoid clumping with other party members and to avoid being hit by dives
• P1 can be used to allow Sacred Force-gated Bishops to still meet the 5% threshold, as the Sacred Force requirement is lower

Kaling

• For P1, Bishops can technically play well in any of the three rooms, and they are well-suited for dodging the Frenzy pattern in the Dog room. Because of a shortage of classes who can play comfortably in Dog, Bishops are usually placed in Dog.
• Remember that Benediction is split based on the number of people in the room with the Bishop–so at the start of P1, it’ll just be as if the Bishop is duoing until more people join the room. Benediction is split as it would be for a party of 6 for P2 and P3.
• In P3, Bishops should be trying to upkeep de-buffs on all perils and Kaling that are being hit, especially if there are multi-target classes in the party
• In P3, for the cheese strategy, Bishops will place their fountain close to the border between two zones to visually mark that border and dictate where the party will stack. It also allows party members to heal comfortably
• In P3, chalices can be placed often for the person tanking Kaling

Limbo

• In P3, the shark can be e-formed to extend burst for better uptime

Baldrix

Check out this guide by Plaudible to see some of these Bishop bossing tips in action: MapleStory - Bishop Bossing, Burst & Support Guide

Training

Cooldown Hats

Bishops primarily make cooldown hats for training. Reducing the cooldown of Peacemaker with 4 seconds of cooldown reduction and Lv 200 Mercedes legion block (typically achieved through a -4 seconds of cooldown reduction on a hat or -3 with -1 from Wings of Fate) allows it to comfortably come up for every mob spawn wave. Bishops are definitely encouraged to keep -3 seconds of CDR on hats too instead of chasing only for -4, as it is viable too, just a little bit less comfortable. This has become less impactful with the introduction of the Sol Janus summon and enhanced Big Bang. For both Culvert and mobbing, as much cooldown reduction as possible is ideal. Otherwise, Bishops do not need a cooldown hat to optimize their DPS in bossing (except if playing with other CD hat classes–but that’s a very, very specific min clear scenario).

1 second of cooldown reduction is achieved with Wings of Fate by reaching at least 50 closeness with Izuna, Yorozu, and Tengu.

General Training Strategy

Bishop training is generally pretty relaxed. Most Bishop training rotations utilize Erda Fountain, Fountain of Vengeance and Sol Janus to cover large parts of the map, making it so that most Bishops do not move to a training map until their Fountains at least two-shot. From there, Bishops rotate Peacemaker, Heaven’s Door and Genesis to cover other parts of the map, and they Big Bang in between. Divine Punishment is used to cover higher platforms, as its hitbox reaches higher than Big Bang’s. Bishops that have trouble one-shotting may consider rotating both Infinities and Benediction/Angel of Balance/Blood of the Divine when both Infinities are on cooldown.

A fun Bishop trick is that the HEXA Angelic Wrath summon can proc Sol Janus: Dusk (but not Dawn). As such, low levelled Janus Bishops can farm fairly passively with just the HEXA Angelic Wrath summon and using Dusk to cover the map.

Map Suggestions & Videos

Many of these videos are from KMS, where they have lower input lag, shorter times between spawn waves, and less server lag when taking portals. As such, it may not be realistic for Bishops in GMS to make the same rates. Maps labeled ⭐ are extra lazy, with minimal or easy  movements and generous timings outside of summon placement, without a cooldown hat. Many of the map rotations can be made much easier with a cooldown hat–these maps are labeled 🧡.

As well, now with the advent of Sol Janus, Bishops have gotten even more placeable summons. Bishops were already training in maps with the highest mob counts, but now many of those rotations have become even easier to execute. As well, Bishops can now use maps that are often Burning or harder to rotate, but with the same high mob counts. Over the next little while, the following chart will be updated as Bishops find more comfortable rotations. In the meantime, please see the #bishop-training forum on the Explorer Mage Discord server to see them being created in real-time. Many folks are also using the following website to create their own rotations:

https://maplemaps.net/

Bishops can functionally use any map in Tallahart.

See this video by Plaudible: MapleStory - [NEW AGE] Bishop Training Guide 260-300 (EXTRA LAZY)

Advanced Gameplay

Upcoming KMS Updates

In the August 14, 2025 KMST update, KMS removed Infinity from all Explorer Mages, including Bishop. This change has now hit their live servers. With some other small tweaks in-between, Infinity has become a passive 91% Final Damage, and a new skill, Arcana Override has been introduced.

[Courtesy of Orange Mushroom Blog]

This change, along with a shortening of Benediction (40 -> 30s) and removal of server lagged buffs, has a few implications for Bishop:

• Bishop loses its reliance on Buff Duration, making it value Buff Duration just about as much as any other class does. Anywhere in this guide that Buff Duration and/or optimizing for Infinity is currently mentioned will no longer be relevant. This includes Inner Ability, Link Skills, Legion and event stats.
• Bishop solidly becomes a RoR class, with a quick swap to WJ

This change is anticipated to hit GMS right after the winter update, sometime around January or February 2026.

Oz Rings

For Bishops, the best Oz Ring generally is Ring of Restraint 4 (6 with successful Grindstones).

However, this is really nuanced and changes in specific bosses and at higher HEXA levels. This means that nearly every ring is useful, and Bishops need Continuous 5, RoR 5, and WJ 5 at endgame. The higher a Bishop’s HEXA, the burstier they become. When Bishops use RoR, they ring swap to WJ

In Kalos, for example, if the party can burst down a segment within the bind timer, using RoR/RT/WJ would be better, with Origin synced to the RoR burst. In Seren, Bishops can swap from Continuous to RoR for the last burst of each day in Sunset, and then swap back to re-charge their Continuous during Dawn.  

As such, the strength of Oz Rings generally looks as follows for Bishop, but should be taken with a grain of salt:

When RT is usable (i.e. the boss is easy to dodge), it is used preferentially over WJ. Most other Oz Rings are not worth swapping for or using off-burst except in niche scenarios, such as Gloom or Dojo.

Oz Ring Suggestions

The FD difference between ROR4 and ROR3 or WJ4 and WJ3 is similar to the FD difference for other classes, so decide your Oz Ring usage accordingly. The comparison becomes much more nuanced if any level 3 rings are involved, but generally Lv 4 rings > Lv 3 because Cont and RoR are very close for Bishop.

WSE Optimization

The optimal endgame WSE for Bishop is 9/0/0. Bishops in particular do not need IED on their WSE, as their base IED is very high with Arcane Aim and Angelic Wrath. All of these optimizations change when double primes are factored in. Most situations are unique, so ask about your specific configuration! Maple Scouter is a great calculator for all these optimization questions: https://maplescouter.com/ 

How to BA

Explorer Mage full rotation BAs on dummies(Fog Forest Training Grounds) are based on a six-minute rotation. When Infinity is charged, the Bishop pops all of their burst skills (See Burst Rotation). Bishops can burst three times in one full rotation BA. (OUTDATED) Pre-sixth job, assuming two Oz Rings, the approximate damage contribution of each skill in a full rotation is as follows:

The numbers do not add up to 100% because these numbers are approximate and vary with gear, Oz Rings, Special Nodes, and server lag. These numbers also change a lot depending on a Bishop’s Hexa progression. Post Sixth Job skill contributions are hard to provide because they depend on the Bishop’s progression through Sixth Job.

Remember not to BA with multiple people in a party because of the effect of Blessed Harmony.

With the addition of Sixth Job, Bishop BAs have become more complicated. Bishops should now aim to start their BAs with a burst including Origin, Holy Advent (i.e. pre-charge Infinity to the extent that it would be charged in a real fight, usually 60s into Infinity) The Bishop should then be able to burst twice more, before ending the rotation when Holy Advent comes off cooldown.

Pitched Boss and Superior Gollux Set

Because Bishops have such high base IED and because they benefit from the extra stat of Pitched Items vs. Gollux, Bishops can typically swap to Pitched Boss set and Superior Gollux earlier than other classes. Bishops can swap as early as 4-set, when they have finished Commander Force Earrings, a Dreamy Belt, a Source of Suffering, and one other Pitched item of their choice, as the extra stat can offset the lost Boss Damage and IED. Some Bishops might also consider forgoing Superior set to equip Dreamy Belt (no CFE) with Estella Earrings and Daybreak Pendant/Sweetwater Pendant because of additional set effects and the extra stat. Bishops at this stage in the game may still want to BA with both configurations or enter their numbers into Maple Scouter to determine what is individually best for them, as it will depend on the set effect gained and individual familiars/stats/party configurations.

Random Trivia

• Bishops can use Big Bang to hit multiple boxes at once in APQ—this allows Bishops to open more boxes in the same amount of time compared with auto-attacking

Credits

Written by Angella (IGN: Angella, Kronos NA Reboot)

Skill icons are from Orange Mushroom (https://orangemushroom.net/) and the Maplestory Wiki (https://maplestory.fandom.com/wiki/MapleStory_Wiki)

Some graphics and resources taken from the Explorer Mage Discord server (https://discord.gg/69ek2mUDfz)

Inspired by The Comprehensive Guide to Mercedes and Ice Lightning Guide and FAQ

Feel free to tip me here 🙂https://ko-fi.com/angella 

Many thanks to the many friendly eyes that looked over the guide and gave me suggestions :)

Thank you to the Bishop content creators out there for sharing their rotations and boss runs.

Thank you to the veteran Bishops who discovered much of the information found here, and had the passion to rigorously optimize and share their discoveries.

Thank you to the many of you who come up to me in-game to thank me.
Finally, thank you to the entire Bishop/Explorer Mage community–you all inspire my gameplay all the time.

Changelog

Last edited: 2026-03-29

2026-03-29

• Overhauled IA, legion grid, legion artifact, and buff duration and infinity sections d/t Infinity removal
• Updated link skills section to account for Infinity removal and addition of Kanna + Hayato links
• [WIP] Changed BIS Oz Ring from Continuous to RoR (which should’ve been done earlier?), but some changes still to come. Needs a few lines about ring swapping and when to swap to WJ.

2026-02-03

• Removed irrelevant information from Kalos, since e-form changes and using blink and over around the edges of the map

2025-11-03

• Added general viability of duck TP, examples given for Limbo and Baldrix
• Added use for HMS in Baldrix

2025-10-31 & 2025-11-02

• Updated class description to remove reliance on INT
• Updated IA section to add note about upcoming 8% abn
• Updated legion grid suggestion to remove reliance on INT
• Removed description of Mercedes’ legion effect interacting with unlocked Blood, Bene, and Angel of Balance and suggestion to keep both skills unlocked
• Renamed The 5% Change section to Bluedotting and moved to the Bossing section
• Updated Legion Artifact section to include Final Attack % Damage
• Updated Link Skills section to reflect newly released MX and Sia links - [Updated again to remove Kain link and replace with Lynn link]
• Updated Active Skills section to update some skill descriptions based on support nerfs and 2 min patch changes, mostly about Benediction cap per pt member
• Updated Offensive and Defensive Support descriptions to match support nerfs
• [WIP] Updating HEXA section with new BAs for a new ordering, changed HEXA stat prio to just MATT > INT > Cdmg, removed old outdated charts
• Updated Buff Favorites section to include HEXA Angelic Wrath
• Added note to Will section about desummoning HEXA Angelic Wrath during P1 test
• Added note to Training section about HEXA Angelic Wrath proccing Janus Dusk
• Added some Carcion maps to Training section
• Added some uses for DP’s damage reduction to Bossing
• Added Infinity Skill Sequences
• Changed Timing Infinity to start Infinity at end of last Benediction
• Added Sia Link to Buff Duration sources, updated base Buff Dura to 198% up from 188%
• Updated Burst Sequence
• Updated Oz Rings to account for RoR BiS at Endgame
• Added section on Upcoming KMS Updates to describe removal of Infinity, referenced throughout the guide
• Secondary section updated to account for Auto-Harvest
• Updated Boss Mule section to account for people considering Bishop as a legion champ
• [WIP] Added Familiar Badge section upon request

2025-03-06

• Added table with Oz Ring suggestions for various bosses
• Added emphasis that DP stacks should be used on Cont procs
• Double-checked, and the new hexa optimization sheet has both Ckalos and Xseren BAs post-v255
• Added that Light Wash is dropped for Tide of Battle at endgame

2024-11-24

• Edited Active Skill descriptions to reflect the changes brought over in v255
• Modified summary of support capabilities
• Modified burst & DPM rotations to account for Cont and condensed DP
• Modified Angella’s hexa optimization sheet, which is based on her own BAs
• Updated Oz Ring section to prio Cont over WJ/ROR
• Added (OUTDATED) tag to things that have not been updated yet

2024-09-02

• Updated Hexa section to include second mastery in present tense
• Updated where Lidiums come from for crafting Deimos–heartstones and mysterious veins no longer spawn :(
• Added Surisu’s Culvert spreadsheet graphics, removed old 5th job 2 min rotation graphic
• Removed Lotus mechanics that are no longer relevant with the Remastered Lotus
• Added consideration for Sol Janus to the training section, as well as the Maplemaps website

2024-07-06

• Updated IA section to include presets
• Updated link skills section to remove mentions of Jett link & to include new Focus Spirit sprite
• Added Legion Artifact section
• Added Sixth Job resources
• Cleaned up Culvert, Burst and DPS to reflect new updates (2 minute -> 3 minute Culvert rotation with Sixth Job)
• Added encouragement to BA in practice mode to the 5% Change section
• Updated Timing Infinity and information about typical Buff Duration to reflect new typical Buff Duration with 250 Mech instead of 200 and max Legion Artifact Buff Dura (163 -> 188)
• Added the usability of -3 hats for training
• Generally checked for grammar, consistency, and clarifications in all sections
• Removed Tower of Oz note :^)
• Updated descriptions of Resurrection because Nexon fixed it so that party members are still ress’d where they died

2024-02-14

• Touched up a couple of sections
• Updated IA section values for New Age IA adjustments
• Added Plaudible’s video to training section
• Updated the link skill section to remove Jett link

2024-02-01

• Added a SS and description of a finished Bishop V-Matrix
• Updated section with what we know about the second mastery core

2024-01-15

• Made major updates to many sections for Sixth Job
• Expanded training section to include Shangri-La+

2023-10-24

• Added a section on hyper stats by popular demand

2023-10-12

• As of a recent patch, Resurrection no longer keeps the Resurrected party member where they died, and instead moves them to the usual re-spawn point in the map. As such, it no longer allows the Resurrected party member to keep their Ring of Restraint and Spirit Domain buffs

2023-09-22

• Small additions to the Kalos section about fountain placement

2023-09-19

• Changed description of Blessed Harmony to match changes made in v.244

2023-08-04

• Added a section about the upcoming 5% minimum damage requirement and its impact on Bishops

2023-07-16

• Removed the information that Divine Protection shields against Damien’s petrify

2023-06-24

• Removed the information that Divine Protection shields against Verus Hilla’s blue stun and the string stun–this is no longer the case since a recent patch