A little rant about the game's development.

Recently, I had a conversation like this with JoeTang and Lugin, this is what I posted:

Here's what I want.

Implement the new stuff Pirates brought to MapleStory on other classes. Such as skill charging (Corkscrew Punch) to lower job skills (I know they exist in Big Bang and Pierce), Grenade-like throwing, static summons (Octopus), "Transformations" (Transformation, Battleship), power bar charging (Energy Charge), long delays (Corkscrew Punch, Backspin Blow, Double Uppercut), invincibility (Corkscrew Punch, Barrage), etc.

Imagine if they reworked a couple of skills to use those systems, it might do wonders for some classes. Buff up my Shadower's Assassinate's last hit and make it be invincible like Corkscrew, I do not enjoy jabbing me character at high damaging monsters, praying for high avoid or Shadow Shifter to come into play, just to see a bad ass skill.

Also how Pirates can max almost all of their 1st, 2nd and 3rd job skills, makes the game feel less linear, or maybe it's because I'm forced to use almost all the skills on my Buccaneer. Each skill is perfect for a situation and useful. The only ones I don't find useful at all is Dash and Shockwave, everything else on all levels, I need or use. On my Shadower I have Disorder, Steal, Endure could go either way, Shield Mastery and Ninja Ambush that I don't find useful at all.

On my Shadower, I get unmotivated when I see that Shadow Shifter, Taunt, Ninja Ambush and Smoke Shell all max at level 30. That's 10 levels past 130 to max each, no skill maxes at level 20. Buccaneer, Super Transformation and Speed Infusion (only need 11) are only to level 20, Corsair has Bullseye, Hypnotize and Wrath of Octopi. I'd be happy just to see Shadow Shifter and Smoke Shell go down to 20, that way, I'd max them faster, get the most benefit outta 'em faster and spend less money on skill books. Hell, make Shadow Shifter max at 10, adding 3% activation each level, we are Shadowers after all.

I'm not much for damage per second augmentation, I'm looking for a better gaming experience, more innovation in skills, instead of just pressing a button and see different numbers fly. Add more dynamic stuff like Assaulter, Assassinate, Energy Orb, Battleship, Grenade, etc.

I think I posted a thread about this like half a year to a year ago. In my opinion, adventurer 3rd job is the best designed job advancement in the game (maybe barring Aran, which I don't know much about). The jobs were all quite balanced, and almost every job had interesting gameplay. 4th job was totally rushed though, you can tell that whoever designed it or whatever group of people designed it was not the same as the one that designed first through third jobs and that 3rd job was created without 4th job in mind. Why heroes even have a combo anymore is beyond me, it's basically just a damage boost now with flying pink orbs, and brandish basically destroyed axe-users, which were already at a slight disadvantage in 3rd job. Paladins become completely dependent on an elemental advantage to even keep up with heroes, and even then, it has to be lightning or holy, maybe not even fire(due to enrage). Berserk is just a terrible concept as a whole, and personal mini-priest sounds like they ran out of ideas. I don't think I have to even say anything about the magician classes. Night lords would have been okay if ninja storm and taunt were actually worth using. I think shadowers and marksmen (after the skill updates) are the two only decently well-thought out classes in 4th job because of the factor of not using only a select few (1-2, maybe 3) skills to train that makes killing stuff boring and extremely repetitive after a while. Also, as mentioned earlier, less useless skills is a huge plus.

This thread is win. Excellent points OP.

I definitely agree about the Adventurer revamp, or at least the major tweaking/defining (not the best word choice sorry) of certain skills to the point where things are actually useful.

Mostly, though, I love your comments about defense/magic defense. One of the biggest issues in this game right now is bossing HP, and the fact that plenty of people feel Nexon is a horrible business-minded company because they make it a requirement to wash non-Mage/Warrior classes in order to even survive at bosses like HT and PB. While I completely agree with that, think about this for a second: what if defense/magic defense really did play a role? How amazing would that be? You wouldn't need to worry about washing because, while you may need a certain amount, things wouldn't be able to hit you for nearly as much as they do now and you could thus survive with lower HP. On top of that, they could keep some of the wtph4x damage they have (aka things that hit over 30k) because that 30k "initial damage" would be "reduced" with your defense/magic defense to something more manageable. Still difficult to survive for ranged classes so they'd still need to wash some, but my point is instead of having to wash up to 7.5k HP without HB they'd need 5k minimum or something to survive reverse genesis due to magic defense.

In a nutshell to those who don't want to read my paragraph, want a quick and easy solution to the washing-for-bossing crisis? Make defense/magic defense pertinent abilities to damage taken.

Yea, I think on a general sense that's a great idea.

Rants about hp washing being a requirement are such a pet peeve for me... horntail and pink bean are perfectly doable at level 160/180 for a ranged class, just sub in some hp equipment when you need to take the big damages, which are such small parts of those two fights. Tail and wings make up quite a small portion of the whole fight, and for pink bean, the only time you actually need more than like 5.5k hp after HB is to cross the map when the statues are up, so technically since you can completely load up on hp equipment at that point, the hp requirement for PB is probably even lower than horntail. People are putting way too much pressure on others to hp wash.