This may be a lengthy read but potentially a good one, so bear with me.
When Classic World was revealed to the world, Ranged classes were proposed to have the capability to attack enemies without needing to generate space. This was reverted back to the original, where ranged classes outside of Magicians needed room to attack enemies. This was a good reversion, because we all want to relive the past a bit and that change would have taken away from the identity of ranged classes.
With this in mind, there was a lot of feedback during the second beta testing in regard to the skills Arrow Rain and Arrow Eruption having a cooldown. Players were mad about cooldowns being added to these skills because in the original game, both Arrow Rain and Arrow Eruption were spammable skills.
I understand why the development team wanted to try something different with these skills. I think it’s safe to say that we’re all seeing a trend here with the development of Classic World.
The Classic World development team is NOT trying to recreate the past. The Classic World development team is trying to create MapleStory into what it SHOULD HAVE BEEN. I think many of my fellow MapleStory enjoyers are failing to understand this.
So, why add cooldowns to these skills? Simple. Arrow Rain and Arrow Eruption take away the identity of Archers. You can agree or disagree but this take is less of a discussion and more of a truth. Arrow Rain and Eruption turn the Archer class into more of a Mage than an Archer.
Let me extend an olive branch; the purpose of a diversity of skills in a “kit” is to create play-style dynamics within a class. We have elements, stuns, knock-backs, etc. All of these features serve a purpose in the game. Arrow Rain and Eruption remove every single need of these mechanics. This is not a new development, the original game suffered from this balance as well.
Both of these skills were the only skills within the Archer’s kit that behaved this way. And in my honest opinion, it took away from the class completely. In fourth job advancement, both Archer classes returned to their original identity of being a ranged class with skills like Hurricane and Piercing Shot or Snipe.
I will agree with the player base on one thing, Arrow Rain and Arrow Eruption should not have cooldowns. However, if any skill were to need to be changed in its behavior I think it should be these two skills.
Power Knock back, Amazon’s Judgement, Puppet, Silver Hawk(Stun) & Golden Eagle(Stun) become meaningless if the Archer can just stand in the midst of enemies and Rain or Erupt AoE damage. Every other skill in the Archer’s kit other than Strafe becomes pointless.
So here is my proposal.
Puppet no longer requires a summoning rock, lasts 120 seconds(instead of 60) and has 8,000 HP(instead of 6,000). No Cooldown.
Arrow Rain and Arrow Eruption requires 5 Skill Points into Puppet in order to become available, and in order to use the skills Arrow Rain or Arrow Eruption, a Puppet must be present on the map and within a certain distance of the player. When using the skill, arrows will rain down or erupt around the puppet respective to the class, and the skills can be used even if a monster is near the player. The Rain/Eruption attack happens ON the puppet, not the player. No cooldown.
With these proposed changes, Arrow Rain and Arrow Eruption should be balance in such a way that the damage is comparable to the damage dealt by Inferno Shot and Blizzard.
The purpose for this change: Puppet is worthless. It has literally zero purpose and no, you weren’t going to use puppet ever. Don’t lie. This gives Puppet real purpose and utility, as well as gives Ranger and Sniper their identity of being a ranged class back. It also indirectly buffs all of the other skills within the Archer’s skill kit, because some players might not want to use the puppet. Some players might want to use Wind Step with Inferno Arrow or Evasion Step with Blizzard.
These proposed skill changes give real skill building dynamic back to the Ranger and Sniper, as well as unique play style and utility.
