making bosses better, how could it be done?

They need to re-evaluate damage reflect and weapon/magic cancel. Artificially lengthening a boss battle significantly by making it invulnerable/unattackable to most classes doesn't make the boss more challenging or entertaining, just annoying. Not sure I've ever heard/read anyone who said they actually enjoyed counting the cooldown on DR at the likes of empress/PB, or hitting 1s for x seconds every minute or two. My imagination fails me at the moment on how to make these boss buffs a good obstacle to be overcome rather than a cheesy annoyance.

Adding easy/normal/hard/hell modes for all released bosses seems to be the only way Nexon can cater to the gaping damage discrepancy between the rich and the poor (without reducing the gap itself, which they've shown little to no interest in doing).

They need to re-evaluate damage reflect and weapon/magic cancel. Artificially lengthening a boss battle significantly by making it invulnerable/unattackable to most classes doesn't make the boss more challenging or entertaining, just annoying. Not sure I've ever heard/read anyone who said they actually enjoyed counting the cooldown on DR at the likes of empress/PB, or hitting 1s for x seconds every minute or two. My imagination fails me at the moment on how to make these boss buffs a good obstacle to be overcome rather than a cheesy annoyance.

Adding easy/normal/hard/hell modes for all released bosses seems to be the only way Nexon can cater to the gaping damage discrepancy between the rich and the poor (without reducing the gap itself, which they've shown little to no interest in doing).

Magic crash should "CRASH" buffsinstead of preventing the boss from buffing.. I'd be happy with that, IDK why did they changed it e.e

Yes, let's reward overfunded players even more by giving them even higher drop rates!

yes pls

I would appreciate more EXP for killing it quick but I'm not particularly interested in extra drops.

I definitely like the way RA and Gollux has been designed (the coin shop give the poor a chance too!).

People seem to forget that this will also help hackers a helluva lot more than legits. Especially since pomegranate like No Delay and its variants are still a thing.

Not sure I've ever heard/read anyone who said they actually enjoyed counting the cooldown on DR at the likes of empress/PB, or hitting 1s for x seconds every minute or two.

This. This. So much this.

I have a notepad on my desk full of tally marks of Empress heal counts. Not fun.

When I told my brother (who quit ~6 years ago) the exact boss mechanism of Empress and the state of the game from our Beta days until now, he laughed quite hard and said, "That's what Nexon counts as fun? What a joke of a company. That's even worse than World of Warcraft."

MapleStory's bosses' saving grace would be a more reflex-oriented and team fight-oriented game that scale accordingly to players, stats, and time.

Not this MoneyStory garbage.

I just used pet foods to count heals lol

I think a boss that shuffles what kind of attacks you need to damage it would be kind of cool.
Like... in one mode, only warriors can hurt it, in another, only mages... It would promote a solid party because you couldn't beat it if it changed mode and you couldn't damage it....

Another good idea I have had was some platform interactive bosses...
Instead of hitting it completely by yourself, it would probably have some kind of a barrier or something set up randomly and you would need to find some kind of platform item like a cannon or something to break it.

You can easily get some good ideas with some decent research to make some good 2d bosses without making them sacks of HP with a single new mechanic. The problem is that Nexon keeps tacking on new and new things to sacks of HP and labels it as a new boss so it's really nothing too new. They could try a boss with low HP but high evasion, so when you do actually hit them, it hurts a lot.... Simple things like this...

I think a boss that shuffles what kind of attacks you need to damage it would be kind of cool.
Like... in one mode, only warriors can hurt it, in another, only mages... It would promote a solid party because you couldn't beat it if it changed mode and you couldn't damage it....

O.o We already have that, yes its only divided into physical and magic damage but it's pretty much the same thing.

Magic crash should "CRASH" buffsinstead of preventing the boss from buffing.. I'd be happy with that, IDK why did they changed it e.e

They didn't change it. It has always "crashed" buffs, and it still does. There are just some buffs that it can't cancel.

There are plenty of ways to make boss fights more engaging and interesting, but two problems need to be addressed first:
1) The large gap between funded and unfunded players
2) The homogenization of classes

After that, a bunch of different things could be incorporated based on classes' strengths:
Large groups of summoned mobs which heal the boss, for mobbing classes
High hp, low density of summons which give buffs to the boss, for single target classes
"Armor" stat on monsters which reduces damage per line, to encourage/discourage multi-hit, low dmg-per-line skills versus single-hit, high dmg-per-line skills
Avoidable attacks which are actually dangerous, like how Anego slap was, to encourage ranged classes to actually leverage their range rather than tank everything and pot
Make potions recover over time instead of instantly (and with short cooldowns), so that a strong DoT casted by boss can actually kill players

There's so much more Nexon can do to improve the bossing experience even though Maplestory is 2D. Use your imagination.

O.o We already have that, yes its only divided into physical and magic damage but it's pretty much the same thing.

Only problem is there's classes that can completely ignore said damage cancels, I.E. Kaiser.

Only problem is there's classes that can completely ignore said damage cancels, I.E. Kaiser.

Exactly. There could be something that sorts based on class type instead of damage.

Yes, let's reward overfunded players even more by giving them even higher drop rates!

Yeah, because they don't already have the means to always kill bosses on 8x drop or better.

Hmm. Before going into the topic, I'm just curious. Are most people who complain about pay-2-win model funded or unfunded? I'm an unfunded (or slightly funded), so I obviously hate p2w model very much



What I would like to see in future bosses are...

1). Bosses that aren't focused too much on DPS
I want a more skill-based boss where no matter how godly your DPS is, you will fail if you don't know what you are doing. Right now, all of the bosses focus largely on your DPS. Crazy DPS + noob control = still can kill. Insufficien DPS + excellent control = useless

2). Bosses which require cooperation
I honestly hate how this game has been somehow turned into SoloStory. Make the boss require different classes to deal with different stages/the boss itself. Make the boss require different player skills to deal with its different skills. No mules/fillers for the expedition. Everyone has to play his/her role inside.



Anyway, I don't really like the idea of what the thread starter proposed. The gap between the funded and the unfunded is too HUGE right now, which is the main issue. What's the point if 30 unfunded players (full expeditions) still can't deal with a particular boss in a reasonable amount of time (are you willing to take 20 hours or more? seriously?) while it can be killed single-handedly by a super funded guy in less than 30 min?

Exactly. There could be something that sorts based on class type instead of damage.

There's Pierre's hat thing...

oh god worst boss ever
Why won't he stop cloning himself ahhhhhh

There's Pierre's hat thing...

oh god worst boss ever
Why won't he stop cloning himself ahhhhhh

Oh my god, something that requires you to actually think!

Truly horrifying, yes.

The introduction of bosses which take only a set amount of damage like event bosses (e.g no matter the range you hit a set number based on your specfic class so dps is "balanced") would be nice, especially if teamwork and/or character control played a major factor.

The introduction of bosses which take only a set amount of damage like event bosses (e.g no matter the range you hit a set number based on your specfic class so dps is "balanced") would be nice, especially if teamwork and/or character control played a major factor.

Actually, I think there needs to be a new stat system. The rewards for leveling are just minimal compared to the equipment.

Imagine a new "stat" window. You get 3 points to spend per level up or something.

In said window, there are icons like skills, but with ridiculous master levels, like 100. Said "skills" are things like "+% luk" or "% boss damage" or even "+damage cap", "status resistance", "critical rate", "Critical damage", etc. Tweak them to have like +1% stat every 2 points for example, or even use them to improve skills like maple warrior, adding more stats to it (and therefore your party). The best ones get unlocked at the next job advancements, and each job has its own pool, that you can spend with points from higher jobs if you desire.

This may seem something stupid, but basically, what you have here, is narrowing the difference in damage from a player to another without relying on NX, without touching potential. Suddenly, leveling is relevant, and gives better rewards than "5 LUK, yay..." at higher levels, and leveling actually makes you more up to par with NX spenders.

Basically putting everyone on a more similar level, teamwork should be easier to achieve.

There's Pierre's hat thing...

oh god worst boss ever
Why won't he stop cloning himself ahhhhhh

Last I checked, that was random. A group of kaisers or something else could all swing in and easily win.
I'm thinking of something that's like pierre's hat mixed with Akarium's snakes. It chooses what can and cannot damage it class wise, so you'd be forced to partner up with other classes.