KMS's latest skill changes didn't have comments on why these changes happened. But if they did, here's how I would envision them. I won't go over 5th Job skills because this would make my post too long for my taste, or skill error fixes because I see these as bugs that just got fixed.
Part 1:
https://orangemushroom.net/2016/12/21/kms-ver-1-2-269-maplestory-beyond-wonder-winter/
Hero
Hero's hunting efficiency is a little low, because Raging Blow's attack range is a bit too small, so we have extended the range. We have also adjusted Enhanced Raging Blow, which resulted a slight decrease on its total damage, but having Raging Blow's Extra Strike hyper enabled resulted a slight increase instead.
Paladin
In response to Paladin's upcoming 5th Job skill, Blessed Hammer, Elemental Charge's buff is no longer indefinite. However, we don't want to increase the difficulty of this class, so we have changed Blast to no longer consume Elemental Charge stacks and relocated the stats from Blast's buff to High Paladin, effectively turning Blast's buff into a passive effect. We realized that Combat Orders and Elemental Force's damage boosts to earlier jobs' Charge skills were multiplicative, which resulted unequal damages when comparing the four Charge skills. Thus, we have changed Combat Orders and Elemental Force's damage boosts from multiplicative to additive, so that all four Charge skills now deal the same amount of damage. Also, Paladin's hunting efficiency is a little low, because the four Charge skills' attack range is a bit too small, so we have extended the range. Finally, we have increased the success rate boost from Threaten's Opportunity hyper, so that it now makes Threaten guaranteed to inflict the debuff.
Dark Knight
Cross Surge's Final Damage boost scales in proportion to your current percentage of your HP. This is a huge problem when fighting against bosses that can hit you for a large percentage of your max HP, especially if there's also a potion cooldown. Thus, we have turned a majority of Cross Surge's Final Damage boost into a passive effect, so that getting hit by a %HP attack will feel much less punishing. Also, Dark Knight's hunting efficiency is pretty low, because Dark Impale's attack range is a bit too small, and Evil Eye Shock is very underwhelming, so we have extended Dark Impale's range and greatly increased Evil Eye Shock's power. Finally, we have removed Lord of Darkness's bonus HP drain from attacking bosses, because it helped Dark Knight stay alive too effectively while fighting bosses.
Archmage (F/P)
We decreased Mist Eruption's cast delay to speed up F/P Archmage's bossing pattern.
Archmage (I/L)
I/L Archmage is too powerful against an enemy that has 5 Freeze stacks. Thus, Lightning attribute attacks now consume Freeze stacks, but to compensate, Absolute Zero Aura now inflicts a Freeze stack to nearby enemies every few seconds.
Bowmaster
Although Armor Break is supposed to be activated mainly with Hurricane, Arrow Stream can actually become stronger than Hurricane, depending on how high a monster's PDR rate is. Arrow Stream is supposed to be a mobbing skill, not a bossing skill. Thus, we have increased Armor Break's cooldown, but also added a cooldown reduction effect, so that Arrow Stream no longer outweighs Hurricane. We have also increased Hurricane's damage slightly.
Night Lord
Showdown will generate too much value gain when compounded with the upcoming Decent Holy Symbol. Thus, we halved the EXP and Drop Rate bonus on both the skill and the Enhance hyper.
Thunder Breaker
Primal Bolt's ability to ignore Typhoon's Cooldown and Lightning Buff requirement is far too powerful, so we have added a cooldown to Primal Bolt and decreased its duration, but also changed its damage boost and its DEF Ignore boost to the Lightning Buff into passive effects, so that Thunder Breakers get to keep the damage and DEF Ignore boost active at all times, while the rest of Primal Bolt now has downtime.
Phantom
In response to the change on Dark Knight's Cross Surge, we are giving Phantom a lot of Final Damage of his own to not only make up for the change on Cross Surge, but more importantly, to also remove the large disparity between having Cross Surge as your current stolen skill in Impeccable Memory 3 and using a different stolen 3rd Job Explorer skill.
Battle Mage
Having Condemnation's character level scaling effect cap at level 180 makes it weak. Thus, we have removed the level cap on boosting its damage, so that its power continues to grow in 5th Job.
Wild Hunter
Having Jaguar Skills' character level scaling effect cap at level 180 makes them weak. Thus, we have removed the level cap on boosting their damages, so that their power continues to grow in 5th Job.
Mechanic
Mechanic's Rock 'n Shock and Bots 'n Tots are able to have their summon durations be higher than their cooldowns through Robot Mastery and Hyper Skills. Rock 'n Shock and Bots 'n Tots are powerful summon skills, but being able to summon them again immediately after their cooldowns finish makes them too powerful. In our test patch, we originally increased Bots 'n Tots's cooldown and decreased the cooldown reduction from Rock 'n Shock's Cooldown Cutter hyper, however, with Robot Mastery, Bots 'n Tots still last longer than its cooldown, while Mechanics can enable Rock 'n Shock's Persist hyper along with the Cooldown Cutter hyper to counteract the Cooldown Cutter hyper nerf. Thus, we have also decreased Robot Mastery's summon duration boost, because frankly, 70% summon duration increase is way too much.
Part 2:
https://orangemushroom.net/2017/01/04/kms-ver-1-2-270-maplestory-beyond-evolve/
Paladin
We have made gaining and refreshing Elemental Charge stacks streamlined by no longer requiring an enemy to be attacked by Charge skills.
Archmage (I/L)
We realized that Elquines does not inflict Freeze stacks despite being an Ice attribute skill. Thus, all Ice attribute skills now inflict Freeze stacks. We have also made Thunderstorm no longer consume Freeze stacks to avoid unnecessary Freeze stack consumption.
Bishop
We added a cooldown to Righteously Indignant, because it felt senseless to be able to toggle it on and off very quickly.
Dawn Warrior
We realized that Falling Moon doubles all number of hits, and a fully charged Styx Crossing's base number of hits is 15. Since a skill cannot hit more than 15 times, Styx Crossing at full charge effectively loses 10% Final Damage while having Falling Moon's effects. Thus, we have decreased the base number of hits on Styx Crossing at full charge while also increasing its damage per hit to keep its total damage unchanged, so that Styx Crossing at full charge will benefit from Falling Moon's hit doubling effect.
Mechanic
In our previous skill balancing, we forgot to nerf the durations of Rock 'n Shock and Bots 'n Tots. We realized that the downtimes of Bots 'n Tots and Rock 'n Shock that has both the Persist hyper and the Cooldown Cutter hyper active were too small. Thus, we have decreased Bots 'n Tots's duration and the summon duration boost from Rock 'n Shock's Persist hyper.
Angelic Buster
Final Contract feels a little too weak, so we have added a new effect to make it a strong skill.
Comments
Mihile
We realized that Mihile is really low on the DPS chart that we base our "balances" on, despite being a solid class with Royal Guard stacks. Therefore, we decided to even further enhance the skill, giving Mihile players (if any) an even stronger buff than it already is.
Bishop
We realized that benediction was causing bishop to actually be a support class again so we're adding a minute to the cooldown and reducing the amount of damage provided to the party.
Dark Knight
We realized that Radiant Evil synergizes with Sacrifice too well, due to Radiant Evil hitting many times, which shaved off a lot of seconds from Sacrifice's cooldown. Thus, Evil Eye attacks now shave off less time from Sacrifice's cooldown. On the Heroes of Maple update, we have converted several active buffs into passive skills to not only reduce the time needed to recast all your buffs, but more importantly, to also reduce the number of skills you'll have to give up when fighting Ursus. To start fulfilling this resolution again, we have changed Evil Eye of Domination into a passive skill.
Explorer Magicians
We realized that Explorer Mages under the effects of a Paladin's Combat Orders have their Infinity's Final Damage boost build up more than usual. While that's fine, if they also have additional buff duration boosts through Inner Ability and Mechanic's Maple Union Attacker Effect, Infinity's Final Damage boost can potentially reach insane amounts in the last few seconds of the buff. Thus, we have added a cap on Infinity's Final Damage boost.
Archmage (F/P)
We increased Paralyze's attack range to make hunting easier.
Archmage (I/L)
Even though all Lightning attribute attacks, except Thunderstorm, consume Freeze stacks, when Lightning Orb is used along with every Freeze stack generating skill, Lightning Orb deals a ludicrous amount of burst damage, due to the Freeze stacks being produced faster than being consumed. Thus, we have significantly decreased Lightning Orb's damage.
Marksman
The more enemies Piercing Arrow hits, the more damage it does to farther enemies. When used along with every max target increasing effect available, the damage difference between the first enemy hit and the 11th enemy, if Piercing Arrow hits that many enemies, is wildly enormous. Thus, we have increased Piercing Arrow's damage and decreased its Final Damage boost rate to reduce the damage difference between enemies at the front and enemies at the back. We've also increased the arrow speed of Piercing Arrow and Snipe, which allows them to hit enemies faster and easier, and decreased the cast delay of High Speed Shot, because it was a slow skill.
Night Lord
Although Night Lord is supposed to be bossing oriented, he is better at mobbing through Night Lord's Mark and Bleed Dart. Thus, we have lowered his hunting efficiency greatly by decreasing the number of stars created by Night Lord's Mark, decreasing Bleed Dart's DoT duration, increasing Bleed Dart's cooldown, and decreasing his Critical Damage, but to compensate, we have increased Bleed Dart's Weapon Attack boost.
Shadower
We realized that Trickblade's primary effect works too similarly to Mihile's Royal Guard, allowing Shadowers to cheat against instant-death attacks from most endgame bosses very effectively. Therefore, we have reworked Trickblade to no longer have a counterattack function.
Dual Blade
We increased Blade Fury's damage to make hunting easier.
Buccaneer
The debuff from Dragon Strike is a little short, so we have increased it.
Cannoneer
Even though Mega Monkey Magic is a party buff, we have decreased its duration, so that it matches with Cannoneer's other buffs, and also because learning Mega Monkey Magic caused regular Monkey Magic's duration to jump from 3 minutes to 5 minutes, which didn't make sense.
Mihile
Royal Guard's attack boost at the 5th guard is pretty small, so we have greatly increased the amount of Weapon Attack you gain from reaching 5 consecutive guards. We have decreased Soul Blade and Soul Driver's cast delays and increased Trinity Attack's attack range, so that his pre-4th Job training will be faster. We have also increased Four-Point Assault's attack range to make bossing easier.
Dawn Warrior
We realized that after we made Styx Crossing at full charge benefit from Falling Moon's hit doubling effect, Dawn Warrior's burst damage from Styx Crossing while Elysion is active was far too much. Thus, we have decreased the damage of fully charged Styx Crossing both directly and indirectly through Elysion. In addition, when in a party with classes that have very high Final Damage, True Sight would generate too much additional damage, due to Final Damage being multiplicative, plus it makes Elysion Styx Crossing burst even more bursty. Thus, we have decreased True Sight's Final Damage boosting debuff as well.
Blaze Wizard
Blaze Wizard's Critical Damage was a little too strong, so we removed Pure Magic's Critical Damage boost.
Wind Archer
We decreased Spiraling Vortex's cast delay to make hunting slightly smoother.
Night Walker
Night Walker has become a surprisingly weak class nowadays, so we have given him several damage boosts.
Thunder Breaker
Thunder Breaker's Critical Damage was a little too strong, while the Thunderbolt skill was too slow, so we have made adjustments on the two details.
Mercedes
We increased Leap Tornado's damage to make hunting easier.
Phantom
On the Heroes of Maple update, we have converted several active buffs into passive skills to not only reduce the time needed to recast all your buffs, but more importantly, to also reduce the number of skills you'll have to give up when fighting Ursus. We tried to turn Clair de Lune into a passive skill back then, but unfortunately, there was a stubborn problem in the way of changing the skill, but our developers finally resolved the problem, and so, after a 15 month delay, Clair de Lune has finally been properly changed into a passive skill.
Luminous
Apocalypse and Morning Star were far too slow, so we have decreased their cast delays.
Battle Mage
Battle Mage is a weak class nowadays, so we have given him more Critical Damage.
Wild Hunter
Wild Hunter is a weak class nowadays, so we have boosted Wild Arrow Blast and Drill Salvo's damages.
Kinesis
On the Heroes of Maple update, we have converted several active buffs into passive skills to not only reduce the time needed to recast all your buffs, but more importantly, to also reduce the number of skills you'll have to give up when fighting Ursus. At that time, Kinesis was still a relatively new class, so we didn't want to touch on his buffs yet, but now that the class is over one and a half years old, he's due for this resolution, and so, Pure Power, Psychic Reinforcement, and Telepath Tactics have all been changed into passive skills.
Part 4: https://orangemushroom.net/2017/03/29/kms-ver-1-2-275-game-related-changes-colourful-maple/
All Jobs
When using a Hero's Will skill, there's always a possibility of being re-inflicted an abnormal status immediately. Thus, Hero's Will and all of its variants, except Kinesis' Clear Mind, now give you a window of immunity from abnormal statuses. Clear Mind wasn't given this effect, because 3 minutes is the shortest cooldown among all Hero's Will skills, which makes Clear Mind exceptionally powerful, and if it was given the window of status immunity, it would be way too OP.
Dual Blade
We realized that Mirror Image makes Chains of Hell's number of hits go over 15, which results wasting some hits created by Mirror Image. Thus, we have decreased the base number of hits on Chains of Hell while also increasing its damage per hit to keep its total damage unchanged, so that Chains of Hell will fully benefit from Mirror Image's hit doubling effect.
Mercedes
To reduce keyboard clutter from Mercedes' attack skills, we have added commands to Rising Rush's 3 followup skills. Parting Shot, Aerial Barrage, and Rolling Moonsault can now be activated with the Attack Key right after using Rising Rush and whatever arrow key you are holding changes which Rising Rush followup skill will activate.
Part 5: https://orangemushroom.net/2017/04/27/kms-ver-1-2-276-maplestorys-14th-anniversary/
We have a common goal this time around. If a skill with its base number of hits being at least 8 is used by a class that can double the number of hits, the skill will lose some damage due to the number of hits being capped at 15. Therefore, any skill with this problem will have its base number of hits decreased, while its damage per hit is increased to balance out, so that the skill will now fully benefit from the hit doubling effect. We've already done so with Dawn Warrior's Styx Crossing at full charge and Dual Blade's Chains of Hell, and the following skills are going to be changed to no longer have this problem: Shadower's Midnight Carnival, Dual Blade's Fatal Blow and Blade Tempest, Thunder Breaker's Lightning Cascade, Luminous' Ender, and Demon Slayer's Demon Cry.
Paladin
In order to make keeping track of Divine Shield's remaining guards easier, we have added the remaining guard count to its buff icon.
Dark Knight
In order to make keeping track of Final Pact's remaining cooldown easier, we have added the cooldown timer to its buff icon.
Buccaneer
We've reworked Corkscrew Blow so that it can now be linked with Octopunch and Spiral Assault. When used right after Spiral Assault, Corkscrew Blow acts very similarly to Blaster's Muzzle Flash.
Aran
We realized that while Adrenaline Rush activated via Adrenaline Burst cannot have its buff duration increased except by the Surging Adrenaline Hyper Skill, if Adrenaline Rush is activated normally, in addition to the Hyper Skill, all buff duration increasing effects does affect Adrenaline Rush's buff duration. This allows Aran to have ridiculously long Adrenaline Rushes, which is far too powerful. Thus, Adrenaline Burst's restriction is now applied to Adrenaline Rush that was activated normally.
Evan
Earth Breath is very weak when used with max target increasing effects, therefore, a portion of Earth Breath's damage can no longer be divided by the number of enemies being attacked, no matter how many there are.
Luminous
The Larkness gauge will no longer lose its progress toward your next Equilibrium state when you die, improving bossing gameplay.
Battle Mage is a weak class nowadays, so we have given him more Critical Damage."
Hue, BaM's are soooo underrated, which is fine with me. But there's a reason we're at the upper part of the DPS charts.