Maplestory "High Five" Private Showcase

Do they take a lot of exp at the lower levels?

Also any guesses at what nexon will do to make Arcane Symbols pay to win?

On Tespia, they give 50 level 1 Arcane Symbol: Road of Vanishing each day.
My level 5 one got 3% experience per ^ fed to it, and now I'm at level 6 and it gets 2% per.

You can also get them from daily quests in Road of Vanishing (which I assume will be the main way in the official servers).

@spadow the arcane symbols are like the cores that you need to fuse? i still confused on how it gain a level

Yep, exactly like Cores. You combine duplicate Arcane Symbols into the one you have equipped to give it experience.