I want a 4th V for Mercedes which can be used either hunting or bossing,
especially a hunting skill.
the situation now is that Mercedes is still using all their old skills for hunting , while most of classes have at least one V skill which is good at hunting.
here's my design of skill:
벚꽃잎비 cherry blossom petal rain
Lv.30
Passive :
Collect cherry blossom petal stacks when attacking , maximum amount of 300.
(you can collect stacks even when skill is on cooldown)
you will gain different amount by using different skills.
Active :
cost MP:1000 and consume all your petal stacks.
Create
6 cherry blossom blades and automatically search for enemies.
Dealing 600% damage 4 times.
If more than one blade strikes the same enemy, the Final Damage of each additional blade is reduced by
40%.
deal more times of attack and summon more blades if you have more petal stacks
300 stacks = +8 times of attack , additional 6 blades will be summoned.
200 stacks = +3 times of attack , additional 5 blades will be summoned.
100 stacks = +2 times of attack , additional 4 blades will be summoned.
Cooldown: 12 sec
Skill delay: 450ms
this skill cannot be cloned by Spirit of Elluel
The amount of petal stacks on each skills:
now I'll explain why I made this skill and the mechanics
About how this skill looks like:
It functions just like Fire/Poison 's DoT Punisher and Wind Archer 's Merciless Winds ,
after using this skill , summons projectiles from the air and automatically search for enemies .
there are animes that are similar to my ideas:
and the projectiles animation will be cherry blossom lines or some purple-red butterflies blades
hit effect will be something like a slash with petals fading
this is the hit effect from Hayato
looks really beautiful and elegant , right?
And because there are stages to collect petal stacks ,
you can also designed animation behind the character to indicate the current stage.
About skill cooldown and the skill period :
First of all , it has a short cooldown of 12 sec.
you can keep using this skills for every 12 seconds when hunting.
But when bossing , you will need to charge the stacks after attacks,
and it will hit significantly stronger than usual after you reach the max stacks(300).
It means the skill period is actually controlled by how long you reach the full stacks.
and the skill period varies from how you attack:
(this is all based on my calculations with this skill)
If you're using Ishtar's Ring for the whole time , you'll need 36 seconds to reach full stacks.
If you're using Wrath of Enlil + Staggering Strike combo , you'll need 25 seconds to reach full stacks.
If you're using more skills combo like Spikes Royale or Unicorn Spikes , you'll need around 17 seconds to reach full stacks.
so the real period of this skill will be 17~36 seconds when bossing.
And if you're using 1stV , your attack speed will become faster ,
it helps collect the stacks faster, thus reduce skill's period into 12 seconds.
need to notice that in the real fight, you can't keep your hit rate at 100%, so the skill's period will be longer than it's theory.
Ishtar's Ring has extremely fast attack speed, so I set it the lowest amount at +1 stacks.
At the same time , I keep those beneficial skills and good skills at high efficiency according to its skill% right now.
(Wrath Enlil +30 , Spikes Royale +20)
It will reward players to use these combo skills, not just using Ishtar's Ring for the whole time.
It matches current Mercedes's play style.
And I also set 1stV's big cherry tree to +50 stacks ,
it's because I want to guarantee you can reach full stacks easily when using 1stV.
you can change its stacking cap to make this skill more difficult to reach full stacks , which means the period will be extended. (For bossing)
and change its original cooldown for adjusting hunting efficiency.
About skill's damage:
When hunting:
if you use the lowest version , it is 600%*4 = 2400% (hit 6 monsters) It is not that good.
but if you can collect at least 100 stacks , you can use the 600%*6 = 3600% version. (hit 10 monsters)
Its damage will surpass Leaf Tornado by a little (3432% at max level) , and become a good skill.
what is this for ?
It's for dynamic hunting.
It has a auto-search function which may be easily abused by those hackers
so I set the initial damage and target numbers low to prevent this happen.
If you're in a hunting normally , you can easily reach 100 stacks in 12 seconds .
so normal players will be fine to use this skill for hunting.
When bossing:
it takes at least 17~25 seconds to reach full stacks.
hitting 600%*12*12*0.6 = 51,840% damage on a single target with full stacks.
DPS = 2073%~3049% (4320% when using 1stV )
I don't know if this damage is too OP or not.
I've made a calculation from the 3rdV skill first.
dealing 366,080% damage in 150 seconds
DPS = 2440% (3563% when using 1stV , calculated as x1.46 ratio)
I design my 4thV based on the 3rdV 's damage.
So the boost overall is almost the same.
I think it's in the fair range to accept.
you can adjust this skill's bossing efficiency by changing the "final damage reduce when hitting single target" (which is -40% now) and not breaking the whole mechanic and skill period.
Overall of my design:
Advantages:
1. It helps Mercedes's hunting ability.
2. It has special mechanics related to combo skills , encourage players to use their combo skills more to aim for higher damage . It 100% fits current Mercedes's play style.
3. Although it cannot be cloned by 1stV, but it can still be interacted with 1stV by reducing skill's period. I think it's very sophisticated and not monotonous.
4. The position of this skill is just a normal skill , it gives an average damage boost over-time. It's more balancing because Mercedes's burst ability is still the same (won't become too crazy like NightLord)
5. The skill animation is based on red-purple-pink style , which balance Mercedes's current battle looks (now it's a little bit too green). And cherry blossom is a very important art element on Mercedes. It's elegant and I think many people will like the art style.
6. You can copy this skill's function from Fire/Poison and Wind Archer , so the work will be easier
Disadvantages:
1. The keyboard setting will have more problem.
2. The 12 sec cooldown might be too overpower.
3. The 12 targets numbers might be too overpower.
4. Players will know this skill is copied from F/P , it's still awkward and disappoint
5. There might be other better design
Personally ,
I don't think the keyboard will bother. I know some players complained about Mercedes's keyboard settings because there are too many skills to use.
But it feels really boring if I get 4thV as a buff skill.
And most classes have already benefit from V skills to help hunting ,
I don't get why Mercedes can't have one.
Take Aran and Eunwol for instance, their 3rdV are all really good for hunting.
I think now it's time for Mercedes to have a beautiful change.
Mercedes is released in 2012 and I know she is really overpower at that time (spikes royale with no cooldowns) .
She has always been the most popular character in Maplestory, has a huge popularity of players.
I think we can make Mercedes great again by improving the hunting efficiency (not making it overpower, please).
I am now a KMS player and originated from TMS
I've played Mercedes for a long time
I love Maplestory and I love my class
I want to express my thoughts on it , but I don't understand Korean.
(My English is not good as well.)
So I decided post it in here first and see how everybody feels
and see if I am ready to post on Korean forum.
I wish Nexon can notice and take it as a good idea.
Please leave comments about my ideas
Thanks for reading ^_^
