2013-01-31, 06:20 AM
I've always liked Thieves, had a Night Lord that I made back in 2007 which I played as an alt character to my main (a Dark Knight) because the gameplay was so much different to a warrior. Back then I loved the way Lucky 7, and later on, Triple Throw seemed to flow with the animation, it seemed really appealing to me. When Dual Blade came out in kMST I was in awe of how cool the idea of a class using two weapons was, and I ended up writing what I think was the first ever full Dual Blade guide in anticipation of the class coming to GMS.
I spent the last 2/3 months of my time playing GMS gathering equips for a Dual Blade, and was planning to be one of the first players to reach level 200 in Windia (I even reserved myself what I thought was a really cool IGN), but sadly after all that wait a mere 3 weeks before the patch hit GMS I decided to quit as a result of DC hackers and it being my final year of school.
I came back to GMS just over a year later and made a Shadower in El Nido with a group of friends, Big Bang had hit since I'd been gone and I thought it was awesome how Chief Bandits got Shadow Partner and Flash Jump, just like my old Night Lord. Having always been a fan of melee classes I thought this was perfect, and as I recall Dual Blade creation was disabled, so I opted for a Shadower. Meso Explosion is hands down the single most entertaining skill in the game in my opinion, it's flashy, strong, versatile and somewhat difficult to use if you're new to the class, which after having played an old Dark Knight I thought was a big plus. I trained all the way up to level 162 without any decent gear (9.3k buffed range at level 162) and just enjoyed how fun the class was.
The Chaos patch then hit and I decided to create a Dual Blade, I didn't get it very far though as the skills had changed significantly since I was last excited for them. I got it to about level 70 I believe and after using all the free skill books I went back to my Shadower. Ended up playing that right up until the Renegades patch.
While Thieves did need a revamp, I think if they hadn't of removed Band of Thieves and Assaulter, I'd probably still be playing my Shadower now. I was initially excited for the revamp as Midnight Carnival looks amazing compared to the old Savage Blow, but Shadowers went from being a fast, nimble class to a disappointingly bulky tank, which while entertaining, isn't what Thieves should be about in my opinion. I continued playing my Shadower as a main but started to level up my Dual Blade as an alt character this time, begrudgingly tolerating Upper Stab which I HATED as a mob skill in the hopes that it'd get better at 4th job.
Phantom came out and I loved it, he's fast, strong, extremely versatile, arguably the best class to party with in the game and looks awesome. He has a car as a mount. Who doesn't want a car? I poured all of my funds from my Shadower into it and trained it up to 200 and enjoyed every second of it. The speed of Phantom was really what made it for me, he could travel anywhere in the Maple world in less than 5 minutes, could disappear and teleport pretty much anywhere in the map leaving a trail of playing cards, and could steal skills from other players. Total badass.
...and then the Phantom nerf hit, and once again, despite thinking it wouldn't be too bad, it completely crippled the class for me. The damage aspect wasn't too bad as I had spent a lot of time funding it already, so I didn't really mind as I wasn't losing much, but the cooldown on skills and loss of critical rate was just like a punch in the face. I stripped the character of my equips and moved them to my last resort, the Dual Blade.
I was a little uneasy to start with on my Dual Blade, I'd already had my heart broken twice after the Shadower revamp and the Phantom nerf, I wasn't sure if I could handle another. I remember the first thing I did when playing my Dual Blade again was taking Upper Stab off my keyboard because it annoyed me too much, but I was pleasantly surprised when I got to MP3 in Singapore, I could effortlessly clear the entire map in seconds by jumping, using Flying Assaulter and then Bloody Storm, and jumping down to the next platform. The removal of the delay between FA and BS was really cool, and I'd forgotten all about that when I created my Dual Blade back in the Spring. It didn't take me long to get to 4th job, and I was incredibly relieved to find a stationary mob skill that I could use.
4th job Dual Blade is everything I want in a Thief. Insane avoidability, strong and flashy attacks and god tier mobility. The only thing I'd ask for is for Thorns to be made a party skill again. Stance is a very good addition to the class though, so I can't complain.
I hope that was enough for you. I've had fun writing this
I spent the last 2/3 months of my time playing GMS gathering equips for a Dual Blade, and was planning to be one of the first players to reach level 200 in Windia (I even reserved myself what I thought was a really cool IGN), but sadly after all that wait a mere 3 weeks before the patch hit GMS I decided to quit as a result of DC hackers and it being my final year of school.
I came back to GMS just over a year later and made a Shadower in El Nido with a group of friends, Big Bang had hit since I'd been gone and I thought it was awesome how Chief Bandits got Shadow Partner and Flash Jump, just like my old Night Lord. Having always been a fan of melee classes I thought this was perfect, and as I recall Dual Blade creation was disabled, so I opted for a Shadower. Meso Explosion is hands down the single most entertaining skill in the game in my opinion, it's flashy, strong, versatile and somewhat difficult to use if you're new to the class, which after having played an old Dark Knight I thought was a big plus. I trained all the way up to level 162 without any decent gear (9.3k buffed range at level 162) and just enjoyed how fun the class was.
The Chaos patch then hit and I decided to create a Dual Blade, I didn't get it very far though as the skills had changed significantly since I was last excited for them. I got it to about level 70 I believe and after using all the free skill books I went back to my Shadower. Ended up playing that right up until the Renegades patch.
While Thieves did need a revamp, I think if they hadn't of removed Band of Thieves and Assaulter, I'd probably still be playing my Shadower now. I was initially excited for the revamp as Midnight Carnival looks amazing compared to the old Savage Blow, but Shadowers went from being a fast, nimble class to a disappointingly bulky tank, which while entertaining, isn't what Thieves should be about in my opinion. I continued playing my Shadower as a main but started to level up my Dual Blade as an alt character this time, begrudgingly tolerating Upper Stab which I HATED as a mob skill in the hopes that it'd get better at 4th job.
Phantom came out and I loved it, he's fast, strong, extremely versatile, arguably the best class to party with in the game and looks awesome. He has a car as a mount. Who doesn't want a car? I poured all of my funds from my Shadower into it and trained it up to 200 and enjoyed every second of it. The speed of Phantom was really what made it for me, he could travel anywhere in the Maple world in less than 5 minutes, could disappear and teleport pretty much anywhere in the map leaving a trail of playing cards, and could steal skills from other players. Total badass.
...and then the Phantom nerf hit, and once again, despite thinking it wouldn't be too bad, it completely crippled the class for me. The damage aspect wasn't too bad as I had spent a lot of time funding it already, so I didn't really mind as I wasn't losing much, but the cooldown on skills and loss of critical rate was just like a punch in the face. I stripped the character of my equips and moved them to my last resort, the Dual Blade.
I was a little uneasy to start with on my Dual Blade, I'd already had my heart broken twice after the Shadower revamp and the Phantom nerf, I wasn't sure if I could handle another. I remember the first thing I did when playing my Dual Blade again was taking Upper Stab off my keyboard because it annoyed me too much, but I was pleasantly surprised when I got to MP3 in Singapore, I could effortlessly clear the entire map in seconds by jumping, using Flying Assaulter and then Bloody Storm, and jumping down to the next platform. The removal of the delay between FA and BS was really cool, and I'd forgotten all about that when I created my Dual Blade back in the Spring. It didn't take me long to get to 4th job, and I was incredibly relieved to find a stationary mob skill that I could use.
4th job Dual Blade is everything I want in a Thief. Insane avoidability, strong and flashy attacks and god tier mobility. The only thing I'd ask for is for Thorns to be made a party skill again. Stance is a very good addition to the class though, so I can't complain.
I hope that was enough for you. I've had fun writing this