Hello.
The purpose of this post is to address some of the concerns that I have for Classic World based purely on many of my personal experiences of playing old school Maple Story, and to suggest alternative solutions WITHOUT having to update the game to a point where it's no longer the Classic experience.
Before I say anything else, I want to acknowledge that we are all aware that Classic World is still very far out, and there is very limited information to go off of as of right now. Nobody really knows what changes will take place and what version Classic World will start out in. With this in mind, I am going to use my own personal knowledge of the Vanilla version of the game up to third job advancement. It's fair to assume that Classic World will eventually progress up to third job advancement at some point or another.
Primary concern: Under powered and overpowered classes
In the original Classic MapleStory, there was a lot of issues with skill balancing and certain jobs being underpowered and overpowered. It was a legitimate issue because certain mechanics became abused or used outside of their original intention, which created a severe unbalance between job classes. These issues were later addressed through updates and patches. These updates and adjustments may not ever come to Classic World, because nobody really knows where the ceiling will be for Classic World. It was stated in the announcement that the development team will "listen to player feedback" for future content. It's safe to assume that at some point or another, Classic World will deviate from the original path of progression that MapleStory took in the past.
I would like to suggest that it would be in the best interest of everyone who plays classic world to have these disproportionate classes adjusted, even at the cost of not being entirely "Classic". If these issues are not addressed, many of the player base will use and abuse the broken mechanics of Classic World and reap the advantages that less experienced players may not know about.
Cleric is a very, VERY broken class in the original, Old School MapleStory. So I will focus on this class in particular to give an example of how to "fix" it.
Heal training with MP Eater made it very simple to solo grind to high levels without spending money on HP potions, as well as very little spending into MP potions. By level 43, a Cleric would have maximized their Heal skill, and have 9/20 skill points into MP Eater, and 1 Skill point into Teleport. This allowed Cleric to utilize "Shumi's lost bundle of money" and "Shumi's lost money sack" quests for repeated access to B2 and B3. These maps housed Jr. Wraiths, and Wraiths respectively. These maps alone would allow Cleric to advance to level 55 within about a day, while making around 10million mesos in the process. Not to mention heal training at "Coolies". It was simply a broken mechanic, that was never intended to be so powerful.
I believe that Heal training as a whole shouldn't be so powerful, or better yet just completely removed from the game.
The class could use slight adjustments to allow for realistic Skill Point allocation into Holy Arrow, which would make the class similar to Fire/Poison Wizard, just with less damage output and more support skills.
It's my belief that the original design for the Cleric class was intended to be mostly a support character that was actively sought out for party play. But as Cleric was in Vanilla, it was not beneficial to party play at all, but rather to solo play, advance quickly, and make millions of meso in the process.
I believe that the class could be fixed in such a way that would make it more beneficial for party play, and to remove the broken mechanic without breaking the character completely:
1. Remove the ability to heal undead monsters.
2. Buff "Holy Arrow" to 100 Basic attack(The original was 80).
3. Reduce "Heal" master Lv. from 30(original) to 20. Recovery rate would be the same at Master level, which was 300%.
4. Reduce Weapon Damage reduction of "Invincible" to -15%(Original was -30%), and make this a PARTY BUFF.
5. Make "Bless" Master Lv. 30, and change the effects from (accuracy, avoidability, Weapon and Magic def +20) to the effects of "Holy Symbol" from the "Priest" job advancement.
6. Remove "Holy Symbol" from the "Priest" job advancement, and add "Magic Booster(master Lv. 20)".
7. Make "Mystic Door" skill master Lv. 30, and 300second duration at max level(original was 180seconds).
In conclusion,
Cleric would have:
MP Eater: Master Lv. 20(unchanged)
Heal: Master Lv. 20(No more healing undead monsters, master level reduced from 30 to 20)
Teleport: Master Lv. 20(unchanged)
Invincible: Master Lv. 20(reduced effects from Weapon Damage -30% to Weapon Damage -15%, now acts as a party buff)
Bless: Master Lv. 30(Now works like Holy Symbol, master level increased from 20 to 30)
Holy Arrow: Master Lv. 30(Basic attack increased from 80 to 100)
Priest would have:
Elemental Resistance: Master Lv. 20(Unchanged)
Dispel: Master Lv. 20(Unchanged)
Mystic Door: Master Lv. 30( master level increased from 20 to 30, duration increased from 180sec to 300sec)
Magic Booster: Master Lv. 20( Holy Symbol removed, Magic Booster added)
Shining Ray: Master Lv. 30(Unchanged)
Doom: Master Lv. 30(Unchanged)
Summon Dragon: Master Lv. 30(Unchanged)
I know these adjustments are NOT classic, but they do address the issues of Cleric/Priest in both early game and late game, while neither buffing nor nerfing the class in such a way that breaks the class completely. These changes incentivize earlier party play with a cleric, and increase single target DPS in the mid game with stronger Holy Arrow, while also increasing DPS to both single target and multi-target in the late game through having booster.
I strongly believe changes like the ones in this suggestion, slightly adjusting values of certain skills of the ORIGINAL game, can make the game flow much better as it was intended without completely changing the original classes in such a way that takes away from the classic experience.
Comments
add a "Quick Move", teleport to Void Zone...unlike normal Quick Move..that 1 can be use in ANY map, not just town
the Void Zone contain nothing, just a space for players to receive the buff
add an NPC into the void zone that give Holy Symbol for 30 minutes upon speaking to it, the NPC will not give Holy Symbol again untill 1 hour later
upon exiting the void zone you are return to the map you were in previously
grabbing the buff with 1 char count as having using it on ALL char on your account(no char switching every 30 mins for it)
while quick move isn't quite classic....i dont think putting a NPC in says henesys, then having to walk ALL the way to say dragon canyon//Cave of Trials would work well
that would eat the entire buff b4 you even get back to the training map....so having it be in a quick access map is a must
as for nerfing heal, nah, that would change the classic experience big time..and i believe it was intended..there a few games that healing undeads hurt them
in the later areas heal can't be use to damage monsters so...its fine if it get a lil perk early on....they can't use it forever
power balancing however is fine...quite a few skills were underwhelming..or in some case a lack of mobbing skills
Fire/Poison should also be accomodate for
instead of making attacks miss reduce the DIRECT dmg of the players by 2% for each lvl under the monster, however the dmg reduction doesn't affect poison damage
as the poison effect isn't direct damage type
that way they can poison highter lvl enemies and level up that way
well...at least dont keep the "miss" to be as drasticly low as it were....instead of 10% chance to hit.....make it a -2% chance to hit for each lvl under the enemy(cap at 60%)
that way F/P got a unique way to lvl compare to other classes
it has to wait for the poison to burn down the enemies anyway b4 delivering the killing blow so
originaly poison dmg wasn't very viable.......doing this change will give the poison path a solid way to lvl for a F/P mage instead of just the fire arrow option
Fire Arrow should pierce and hit up to 3 targets instead of just 1 enemy.....that way F/P got a way to hit multi-enemies if they wish to level up as a fire build
i gotta go do my dailies...so i leave it at that but just tossing ideas on how to improve classic without changing the classic feel too much
I don’t think Heal training was overpowered, I know it was. Personally, I have spent the past several years playing vanilla 1x/1x/1x rate private servers, and heal training is without a doubt overpowered in cost vs leveling speed in comparison to other classes.
Heal training is not just comparable to Ice/Lightning’s lightning training, is leaps and bounds better.
Heal is an omni directional attack. Up, down, left and right. Lightning is not.
Heal also recovers full health per use, thus removing the need for “Magic Guard”. A magician without magic guard is very squishy, however, this lack in HP value is made up through scrolling a shield, cape, and helmet for HP.
With the HP value being larger in Classic World(to remove the need for HP washing) the health pool for Magician will be even larger. Making the need for HP gear even less of a requirement.
Not needing Magic Guard, means a lot less MP usage. Paired with MP Eater, Cleric doesn’t use potions at all. They’ll use a pure water every few minutes at most.
This is overpowered because every other class in the game has to weigh out the cost vs dmg vs experience gain when training. Cleric does not.
The whole point of giving Cleric holy symbol earlier, as well as increasing Holy Arrow’s damage output is to rebalance their lack in training capability from removing Heal training, and incentivizing earlier party play for them. Holy Symbol is the main reason people chose to party play to begin with, which makes little sense to me because party play without holy symbol is still better experience gain than solo training.
honestly, i just want to kill mobs without my screen looking like an arcade. i miss when mobs had some knockback beef to them and i could almost feel my attacks, but not blinded by the flashy bs. i want to just play a few characters that appeal to me like xbowman, and drk so i'm not worried about bishops being OP.
i can understand why players who are more into bossing or maybe are more competitive might care more about this stuff, but personally it just feels like taking the game too seriously.
i like that different characters have different flavors, even if some are way more op than others. i simply don't care because i don't play the game to be competitive or meta chasing.
You and many people feel this way, I also used to see it this way until I became a lot more passionate about it. I can completely respect the neutral stance. Hopefully, with the help of player feedback and input, we can keep the game from becoming too streamlined like it was after Big Bang.
Rigid versions of this game really do seem to feel more immersive and captivating.
Hi,
I put the big No in the Cleric changes. I don't play the class myself, never have. The class might have itself an little extra in the game but I love to see the class. Have it in my party etc. Maple was one of the few that did good to the somewhat quo to quo support class. All other games always brutally put them down and is a 100% a reason you don't see them in other games. I don't know if they did it on purpose or not but changing it will definitely change the amount the class will be played and be seen. Let the Cleric players have their little extra... I have never had a problem with it and never will.
Have a good one!
(Edit)
What I would love to see tho, which I feel like would be amazing for everyone in this game is taking away the lvl cap of Party Quests and than I don't mean just let in way to high lvl characters but instead of the lvl cap they scale down the characters. This way you can always revisit when a friend starts playing or just for fun. I remember it was only possible between certain lvl's and it always bummed me out. By scaling the characters to either max lvl and power of the lvl cap that was there/the dungeon is for or to what the majority of the party is lvl wise you can always replay it. I think this would be amazing since the party quests were always loved.