2010-11-26, 05:28 AM
Stereo Wrote:No, that's definitely Slash Blast. It's completely replaced by Ground Smash as soon as you can (lv.35-41) and used until level 7x.
Believe me, once you try Ground Smash you'll never want to use Slash Blast again. It's decent on paper, absolutely useless in practice.
Anyone who's played a Dawn Warrior in GMS will be familiar with Soul Blade, which in 2nd job completely replaces Slash Blast. It's the same issue - you have a short ranged attack that hits more mobs for less damage, or a long ranged attack that hits fewer mobs for more damage - the longer range almost always comes out on top.
As someone who has made 2 Post-BB Pages now, one in KMS and another in JMS, I can say that I simply do not agree in the least.
Ground Smash is a decent skill, however in many situations I find myself taking unneeded damage simply because I'm fighting more than 3 monsters at once. As is the nature of Maplestory, it attacks the furthest way monsters first, leaving the closer ones to get even closer and cause damage. With Slash Blast, this is rarely an occurance.
Let's face it, you're a WARRIOR. You're going to be always close range. If you're complaining about the fact that you have to actually hit a monster before the extra range is in effect, you are the wrong class, and you should change before you waste more time into something you obviously are not going to like. Skills like Blast have a similarly short range, and abilities like Rush will throw you into the fray. You're GOING to be close to the enemy. Period.
Taking the range out of the equation, if you're training in proper locations, you will almost always have more than three enemies in your range at all times. Such is the nature of Warrior training. If your enemies are too far away, you're wasting time because you have to walk up to them. The best training for a Warrior is the training where the monsters are in your face always. If they are not, you make them in your face by gathering huge mobs. This is easily achieved with Rush, however you don't get that until 4th Job. Due to this, HUGE platforms are NOT your friend. The extra on swing range granted by Ground Smash is not something you should be concerned about. You should be concerned about how many monsters you can obliterate at once, because that's what you're going to be doing.
Areas like Ludibrium's lower clock area, with Clocks, and the guys that drop Cogs (Name escapes me at the moment), are NOT suitable for Warrior, regardless of how much range you have! You should be on smaller, compact areas, or large single platform areas like Mossy Mushrooms, B2, C3, etc, where you can get huge mobs to slaughter all at once.
I made a 72 WK in JMS long before any of these newer areas were available. I can tell you now that the best training I ever got back then was at Kappas in Jipangu (Before they became stupid with Himes). Why is this? Not because of the extra range of Ground Smash, a skill that didn't exist back then. No, I trained 10 levels, 60-70 in literally 10-15 hours simply because Kappas is a single, long platform in which I could gather the mobs and then kill them all at once. As inefficent as it sounds, it works. This is not nearly as fast when you're hitting half the mobs. Your range is not a factor in these situations. Plain and simple.
Of course, the entire idea of a build is simply a suggestion. When I read builds that other people have made in MMOs that I've never played before, I never follow them to the letter. Instead, I look at them and ask myself "Why did this person add into that skill?" It may seem useless to me until I think about it. "Oh hey, in most areas in Maplestory, the monsters are stacked in huge amounts. Maybe 6 hits a swing over 3 is better regardless of the slightly larger amount of damage." These types of things are what you should be asking yourself. You shouldn't be judging the guide as if you will follow it to the letter, no one does. Instead, you should think about why they are used, and contemplate maybe that your thinking could be incorrect, or at least the reasoning from the other player is indeed valid, even if it doesn't fit your play style. The point is to get you thinking, not to get you going "OH THAT'S USELESS BECAUSE IT DOES LESS DAMAGE." You're not being open minded, you have to contemplate why someone would indeed put into those points.
When I originally made my WK in JMS, it was a 1h Sword Warrior, even back then. People called me insane, stupid, etc. But when I explained my reasoning, people started to understand. Yes, you lose attack, but you also GAIN attack speed. PURE numbers are not necessarily better. If I can do 1,000 a hit, and hit 10 times in a second, while you do 1,500 a hit, and only hit 6 times in a second, I am doing more damage. It might not look it, but let's look at the math for a second. 10x1,000 = 10,000, while 6x1,500 = 9,000. I might do less damage, but the speed I gain from using a faster weapon actually causes me to outmatch you. I'm not trying to say anything specific here, because at this point it's pretty clear that Paladins are now meant to be the Shield class, however the point is this: You may think your thoughts are absolute, but when you open yourself up to new ideas and suggestions, you may realize that you are actually at fault, regardless of how much you "know".