Elemental Staves & Wands Known Issue

Well Maple be different from other MMO's coz you actually have to pay for you equips (Potential), also your equips in Maple are what define you (not much skill involved in maple).
Maplestory is not you Average MMO.

You don't need to pay money to use potential, using miracle cubes is optional and only necessary in excessive amounts if you're trying to overpower yourself.

It works exactly like other games in which you're not spending ridiculous amounts of money but instead, ridiculous amounts of time to get overpowered equipment.

There's not much skill required in most MMOs, it's just basically dependent on how much patience you have to farm for items and/or how much you're willing to spend.