2013-03-16, 02:47 AM
Haishiro Wrote:Well yeah, but just personally I think the difference is a little too big. That's probably more of KMS' problem as far as sticking with the "new classes make old ones basically obsolete" design purpose, but 1-2 min/lvl versus 15-20+ min/lvl is absurd. And besides, weren't (adventurer) mages originally great grinders, which is why they wanted to go for a bossing mage instead in designing Kanna? But adventurer mages still suck at grinding in comparison to like half of the other classes...
The reason why I pick on this is because I really can't agree with the idea of "grinding" classes versus "bossing" classes. It makes no sense to me, because making one class excel at grinding but weak at bossing is just letting them quickly zip to endgame and then ... suck. Acceptable class differences to me would be large mobbing vs. small mobbing vs. single target or fast & low damage vs. slow & high damage, and bosses could be changed to reflect these differences so that classes could be good at different parts of bossing. But grinding vs. bossing? No. Name one successful MMO which has a class whose main strength is centered on grinding. But my thoughts on how shortsighted Nexon's designers (in general) are probably better reserved for a different thread.
Don't get me wrong: I love Hayato. The class as a whole was designed a million times better than many (or dare I say, all) of the classes churned out by KMS.
Pre-BB mages, with their spammable ultimates, were in fact "a class whose main strength is centered on grinding", who leveled much faster than the physical classes and also were never wanted at boss runs. BB took away the spammable ultimates, ostensibly in return for more "balanced" attacking skills, and now Explorer mages can't even grind particularly well. Especially when compared to newer magician classes who do have spammable full map skills (hello Reflection!)
But anyway, back then, there were people who chose to be mages for the grinding speed. Not everybody likes to boss. And back then, getting to 200 was a truly daunting task, and one didn't think about what one would do after reaching that goal.
Nowadays, however, when getting to 200 is a matter of weeks, regardless of class, I agree that a class specialized for grinding doesn't make much sense.