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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.
