I've been repeating myself a lot in several different threads since the Kishin nerf was put into place, and I feel as if there should be more discussion on what the changes people are advocating for would have on the game as a whole. I would like to keep this as civil as possible - if there's anything that I miss, please let me know and I'll add my piece of all of it so that everyone's points are made. None of these are in any order, simply explaining my personal thought process on the pros and cons as they're brought up. If there's anything that I've missed or anything that you'd like to argue, please, please do so - the more feedback received, the better fleshed out alternatives can become.
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Suggestion #1: Make Kishin Shoukan and its spawn increase effect a V Node/5th job skill
Pros:
-Easily accessible for the most important and longest content in the game - Arcane River and beyond
-Rates can be adjusted like other skills and have its maximum effect achieved at level 25
-Makes every class viable without needing to rely on Kanna to increase spawn rate for them
-Removes the reliance on the limited 15 totems a month to make any substantial progress when leveling slows to a crawl
-Keeps Frenzy Totem relevant for those who have it but keeps the gap small enough between them and Kishin/Wild Totem rates that there's less pressure to access Frenzy services, or punish Reboot players who have no access to Frenzy at all
Cons:
-Doesn't solve the 2 PC problem for 1-200 on its own and would need a secondary fix (ie unlimited totems at a cheaper price) to fully remove the problem
-Puts another wedge in progression for brand new players until they can become self-sufficient and farm enough nodestones to reliably max the skill on level 200+ characters
-Makes the current cooldown on Kishin Shoukan a hard nerf to Kanna
-Might have the side effect of maintaining 2 PC meta anyways with Beast Tamer or Bishop having Kishin V Node + HS/passive party abilities
Solutions/adjustments:
-Make totems cheaper and unlimited so players leveling characters under 200 can use totems to train them instead of relying on a second PC and a Kanna mule to achieve the same effect
-If implemented, remove the cooldown from Kishin Shoukan so Kannas can maintain their identity as a summoning class (can include removal of spawn rate increasing effect, or probably SHOULD in order to make the cheaper, easily accessible totems far more appealing as an option VS having a Kishin mule.
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Suggestion #2: Add the spawn rate effect of Kishin Shoukan to Kanna's link skill.
Pros:
-Vastly more accessible/universal, as Kanna's link skill is one of the best in the game for every class
-Completely removes the need to have a second Kanna mule as everyone would have the spawn rate increasing effect, rendering them 100% pointless and killing 2PC meta for good
-The ability to have multiple effects on link skills and to keybind/use them already exists, making it a very simple fix
-Keeps Frenzy Totem relevant for those who have it but keeps the gap small enough between them and Kishin/Wild Totem rates that there's less pressure to access Frenzy services, or punish Reboot players who have no access to Frenzy at all
Cons:
-Possibly TOO universal - would effectively be a free, 100% uptime spawn rate increase which speeds up progression (goes against Nexon's current rhetoric to maintain player retention by slowing progression down)***
-Renders Wild Totems completely and totally irrelevant except for the newest of new players, but even then, getting a Kanna to 120 can be done in hours from scratch
Solutions/adjustments:
-Compromise would need to be achieved between spawn rates and desired player progression speed between Nexon and the community in order to find the most success
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Suggestion #3: Remove Frenzy and Wild Totems, remove Kishin Shoukan, increase global spawn rates.
Pros:
-Puts each and every player on an equal playing field, similar to KMS
-Removes 2PC meta from the picture entirely beyond those crazy enough to make Bishop/Beast Tamer mules, which is virtually non-existent today
-Abolishes the need to build a second Kanna to achieve desirable rates
Cons:
-Those who own Frenzy Totems and have spent thousands upon thousands of dollars on the game are among Nexon's biggest profit-makers and most dedicated players - alienating them could cause a huge drop in an already minuscule percentage of the game's overall profits.
-Equal =/= fair - arguments could arise on how legacy players have profited vastly off of old systems, as they have with other changes that have fundamentally altered the way the game has been played and how progression has worked (regardless of the stance people take on this topic)
-The mess of coding from over a decade of different regions implementing different content in different ways could make a universal spawn rate increase across every piece of content absurdly taxing and difficult, with inevitable bugs as a result
-Unfairly removes one of Kanna's summons without addressing the reason why it has been a problem this entire time - the spawn rate increase.
Solutions/adjustments:
-???
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Suggestion #4 [Reboot-focused]: Make Wild Totems as accessible as Hyper Teleport Rocks.
Pros:
-Makes spawn rate effects incredibly easy and affordable for all, removing the need for a Kishin mule
-Can be purchased as 1, 3, or 7 day intervals at an unlimited rate
-Much longer duration, making them simple to use for everyone
Cons:
-Does nothing to address non-Reboot servers, the existence of Frenzy Totems or the cooldown on Kishin Shoukan
-Makes a bigger gap between progression speeds between Reboot and non-Reboot servers, a source of conflict and debate within itself.
-May be made as inaccessible as the current Wild Totem through Reward Points if the rates are outlandish.
Solutions/adjustments:
-Find a sweet spot between duration and meso price so it remains reasonable/affordable for most players
-Remove spawn rate increase effect on Kishin so Wild Totem is more appealing of an option
-Provide MUCH more options to non-Reboot servers to be able to benefit from Wild Totem in order to bridge the gap between them and Frenzy Totem users, eg Maple Point Wild Totems, unlimited RP Wild Totems, etc.
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***: An argument against having spawn rate increase entirely is that it "speeds up the progression" of the game, and while this is a topic all on its own, I feel that it needs to be addressed here as it has a direct tie in with Kishin Shoukan and has for years. The fear is that if players are leveling faster, then they will quit faster and money will be lost as a result. However, this fails to address that leveling and farming speed already exist within a time-gated MONSTER of a curve through Arcane Force. People who want to even look at the highest content in the game still have to go through months, if not YEARS, of daily quests, leveling, gear progression, cubing, Star Forcing, etc etc etc to reach that point in the first place. For a single character.
At the current moment, to get Morass and Esfera Symbols to level 20, you need to do the daily quests every day for 335 DAYS in order to max them. How is this not "slow enough", exactly? And you have to do on every single character that you want to progress deeper than level 235. There's more than enough of a time sink to get to the endgame content.
There should be nothing wrong with players wanting a faster-paced experience to get closer to that point, especially when they're going to have to wait to get enough Arcane Force to get to the content they want us to reach. There are going to be players who will never reach that point, and those aren't the people that should be factored into the progression curve at all because they'll come and go no matter how much you try to achieve player retention as a result of slowing the process down. The primary focus should be on making the experience for the players that will stick around MORE ENJOYABLE versus more tedious and longer. Player enjoyment and happiness will always increase retention rates and spending more than nerfs and the chase for hollow metrics.
Comments
T
You cant remove frezy totem, thats not a solutio, people spent thousads of dollars to get 1, you cat just egate them that benefit.