Is Maplestory "Cheaper" then before?

But you don't need all that extra damage except in LKC and at Chaos HT and higher bosses. All the normal monsters are designed to die in 2-3 hits even if you have clean gear.

This. Although I'm even willing to argue you don't need all that much damage at LHC either. Good party members >>>>> High damage (although of course, good party members with high damage damage is the best).

Unless you're playing a Bishop, you have all the damage you need if you play normal AP builds with 100% scrolls on everything. The BigBang damage change allows for casual players to reach Oblivion ToT mobs without needing to do massive amounts of damage. (Casual play includes Zak, HT, Papu, etc, too)

However, if you want to play "competitively" for high damage, then you'll need more NX than ever for Miracle Cubes, Premium Miracle Cubes, AP Resets, Vicious Hammers, Pam's Songs, Vegas Scroll enhancers, and soon to come Protect Shields.