The cap was 120 at one time, then 200, then 250, now 275. And there was a good stretch of time between the 250 and 275 cap
The level cap was only ever 120 for Cygnus Knights on their release. From the release of the game however it's always been 200 for Explorers.
As far as the issue everyone's having with the grind. I feel like people are failing to realize that this is a Korean MMO and Koreans typically like the endless grind that games have. There's a reason MapleStory is still one of the top 5 games in Korea.
I'm not a huge fan of grinding for multiple hours per day, but odds are if you're complaining about the grind, you're nowhere geared enough to do the content that you'd unlock upon reaching lv255.
