I was going to do a Black Mage Event Feedback post, but that would be rather large. So I'll do this as a warmup instead...
I've seen this Event three times now. But I think I've only opened around 20 boxes per event. However, this is not a "butthurt" post. I don't expect to get any decent rewards from any event. I don't have a lot of money to spend on games, so I give feedback instead.
There are several things that look like they might need some changes:
1) Many areas don't get Runes, Portals or Elite anythings. Rewarding people for playing certain content is fine, but a 4 week long event encouraging a specific type of play, or they miss out on a big shiny, is pretty oppressive. Playing a game in a way you don't really want to for 4 weeks is likely to cause burnout and changing to a different game.
Instead, how about adding some alternate ways of completing the objectives? You have loads of options: Completing Surprise Missions, Monster Park, Boss kills, Crafting, Party Quests, Completion Stamps, other quests...
2) Inferno Wolf seems way more common that Elite Bosses to me. Are you sure that this the right way around? And by "seems" I mean that my Achievements list says I've done the Inferno Wolf 32 times (not sure if that got frozen when half the achievements got frozen too, so it might be higher). I've only fought an Elite Boss 3 times, and one of them creamed me, and there was nobody else around, so I went elsewhere. Apparently being creamed by an Elite Boss does not count as "Participation", perhaps the wording needs a tweak too?
3) Since I've never opened the second tier cumulative reward box I don't know, but I really hope those Arcane Symbol Selectors are tradable within account and not time limited. Having to complete the Vanishing Journey questline to get an event reward doesn't make a lot of sense.
4) Its really easy to miss claiming the boxes. There is no warning when you try to quit. No obvious notification when there is a box ready. And you can't just keep the UI open, as something keeps closing it.
5) The amount of leeway for getting the tier 4 cumulative box seems a bit harsh. If you get a bit behind for whatever reason, there is no way to catch up. And it doesn't look like it would require much getting behind before its impossible to complete.
6) This didn't work for the last Maple Missions completion. I would have got 2-3 rewards if it had registered. I don't really care about not getting the rewards, but a bug is a bug.
Comments
2) When an Elite Boss spawns, a message about it appears in the middle of the screen for everyone in the same continent (and same channel). Many people also smega when they have spawned an elite boss or are about to. So while an Elite Boss appearing in your map is indeed more rare than an Inferno Wolf portal doing so, keeping an eye out for Elite Bosses spawned by other people gives you more opportunity to complete this mission.
Regardless, it doesn't really matter which order you complete the missions. They all count even if done out of order. You just need to wait out the timers in that case.
3) The symbol selectors in the Tier 2 box are not movable in account and do expire. However, you can claim the box on any character on your account, and the box itself lasts a month. Which should be long enough to reach 5th job.
My only complaint about the Tier 2 box is that it requires 15 free Use slots to open. After it's opened, the symbol selectors can be manually stacked in a single slot. I think the 15 selectors should be issued as a single stack, to begin with.
4) Agreed.
5) We used to have Relays with more spare days. I don't know why it was changed to require more dedication.
6) It did work for Maple Missions, but you had to collect 14 boxes after the Maple Missions started. It didn't count boxes already obtained before that. Not a bug, just bad design. But Maple Missions deserve their own feedback thread.
Responses in bold, a couple to the both of you
Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't it 20 elite mobs? Was it lowered to 15?
I thought it was always 15?
Only just occurred to me that as I was running a Tera Burning character through Theme Dungeons, I can't really say if the area doesn't have runes, or I was just too high level at the time. Sorry, sleep deprived. Should have thought of that earlier.
I'll check my quest log for what I did.
I remember being over levelled for the first half of the Fairy Academy. Second half might have gone past too quickly to see anything.
Apparently I did Gold Beach, Riena Strait and the Mushroom Castle in one day, so I'm going to assume I was over levelled.
I'm pretty sure you don't get Runes/Elites/Portals in the Afterlands.
I think Ellin Forest was fine.
Mushroom Shrine content is all weird, so I'm not surprise there was nothing appearing there.
I was totally over levelled for Heliosium, so we can ignore that bit.
Blackgate City doesn't do Elites, neither does the Yu Garden section of Shanghai.
I don't recall seeing any of the requirements in the Fantasy Theme World, but I might have been over levelled.
From there I went to the Gate of the Future, which works fine for the Relay requirements.
PS: I think areas like the pre unlocked Kritias maps also don't spawn the required things. I think they miss the burning bonus too.
Re 2)
I think it is still 20, the message just changes after 15.
I might have been having trouble with this due to being on a basically empty world.
The first time I met an Elite Boss, nobody else came to help kill it.
The second time, I went to help someone else kill it. It was just the two of us.
The third one, I think the person who spawned it just moved to the next area and ignored it. I couldn't do it by myself.
@Aggraphine. I can't rule out over hitting the esc key. But I got the feeling some transitions were closing the UI too. Not the standard area transitions, but ones like bounty hunter portals that change the UI. I didn't spend enough time trying to work it out. Was in a hurry to get that character to complete up to the start of Vanishing Journey.
https://www.reddit.com/r/Maplestory/comments/3lsx59/updated_guide_to_elite_monsters_bosses/
http://forums.maplestory.nexon.net/discussion/22587/elite-bosses/p1
https://strategywiki.org/wiki/MapleStory/Elite_Monsters_and_Elite_Bosses#Spawn_Criteria_2
According to several sources, it's 20. Even the game itself said this during the hair hero event.