[KMST] [1.2.375] Monster Park

Recount.
Currently in GMS:
Battlemage - Blood Drain
Mechanic - Healing Robot H-LX
Aran - Combo Drain
Bishop - Heal
Bucc - Energy Drain
NL - Drain
Shadower - Chakra
Paladin - HP Recovery
Dark Knight - Dragon Wisdom/Aura of the Beholder
That's 9.

Post-Chaos:
Dual Blade - Vital Steal
Making 10.

Post-Class Balancing (so far):
Hero - Self Recovery
Dark Knight - Beholder's Revenge.
Making 11 while giving one class their third recovery skill.

The fact that they insist on adding recovery skills shows that they have at least a little drive to eliminate pot reliance. Granted, there are still issues such as the fact that, even among the classes that get HP recovery, there are issues of when they get it.

Ah, missed Chakra. I have a DK and I don't think Dragon Wisdom does pomegranate. Might as well add Infinity to that list; I use that to heal in town but it's still extremely marginal. Still, that's half the classes that are missing a recovery ability. Self Recovery is a mere 80 HP, that is not going to make a difference at all. If our HP/MP bars are meant to be meaningful and potions a limited source of emergency healing rather than an endless supply of HP/MP, and the game is still meant to be soloable, then every class needs recovery abilities. Also, other classes need party recovery. There's too many classes in the game for every party to require a Bishop. Mechanics don't really count.

Is HP washing isn't necessary since Big Bang hit? While HP and MP (and defense) probably could still be adjusted, I don't believe they need to be. Mages don't need as much HP because they have Magic Guard which means that only 20% of the damage they take affects their HP anyway. Keep in mind that pot delay would affect MP pots as well.

It'd take a lot of testing and adjusting, but I'm confident that pot-reliance could be eliminated purely by allowing every class to either recover some HP or just avoid taking damage. For example, while the archer class doesn't have any recovery skills, they do get a skill that allows them to dodge at a 20% rate.

Of course, like you said, bosses would still have to lose their "fake hard" attributes, but that's something for which I've been hoping for a long time. The only reason they have them in the first place is, as you said, because of the horrible pot system. "Fake hard" is the effect, not the cause.

The problem with Magic Guard is that it makes mages the only class that is remotely reliant on MP, and that it makes us about as tanky as warriors. What's the point of having low HP then? Why not just give us a huge amount of HP, other than for flavor reasons, and for Dispel to be an incredibly crippling curse when combined with stuns? Mages are just extremely poorly designed in general.

First of all, despite rumors, I don't see a "Maplestory 2" ever happening. Maplestory is a game that relies on players continuing the characters they already have, and Nexon would be alienating their consumers by making everyone start over.

MapleStory is 8 years old. It predates WoW (and its mechanics make that pretty obvious). It hasn't kept up with the times and it's extremely impressive that it has survived until now. It may be hard to imagine a MapleStory 2 happening, but Nexon will have to change its focus at some point.

Most of what you suggested is actually possible in the current MS anyway. The only one that wouldn't work would be one-target buffs (since there's no current interface to choose a specific party member to cast on).
An AoE placer already exists (Healing Robot H-LX).
Not sure what a "burst heal" is, but it sounds like an AoE.
Chain Lightning and Sparks already demonstrate chain-targeting, which could be adjusted to player characters.
MP Recovery gear already exists via Potential.
Int could easily be made to determine how much a skill heals.

A burst heal is a fast, large heal. It's for situations where you don't have time to wait 2 seconds to deliver a heal. My point wasn't that those skills aren't possible in MapleStory, but that it's possible to make a healing class fun. Heal in MapleStory is an extremely boring AoE that costs next to no mana to spam.

A final note that I want to add is that I believe that the penalty for dying in Maplestory is too harsh.
Having to get back to where you were is punishment enough. If you're training, you can lose your map.
If you're bossing, you don't finish the run and lose out on exp/items.

Simply by getting rid of the exp loss would open up doors in this game. Players could actually explore and experiment with training instead of being punished for walking outside the lines.

Yeah, exp loss is a peach, especially with the ridiculous level up times that this game already requires.

Boss runs should be designed so that if the entire party fails, the boss can be summoned again. There also needs to be reconnect support. This game is way too punishing for disconnects and deaths (especially when many disconnects are the fault of the game's many glitches).