2011-01-07, 01:56 PM
We've watched from afar and gotten information about Big Bang. Learned of kMS exp rates and changes and whatnot.
but there's nothing like truly playing it with it all and seeing it meld with gMS. It's been a month now and for most students Holiday break has come and gone, giving most players a chance to really play the game and feel the changes for themselves instead of just speculating.
How do you feel about it all now with the hands on experience?
For me, Since it's occured I've raised 3 jobs up to 70-80 and played around with a few already 12x characters to see how the changes affected them and learned my way around the reorganized world...
I'm impressed. There are some little changes i never really thought about pre-bb that i'm in love with now.
They've done a great job with rebalancing the mobs for one. Through the characters i've raised, i've tried to find that one map for certain level ranges that were 'ahead' of the other maps, and aside from glitched and fixed areas like Truckers, they're extremely balanced. For the 65-70 range for example, i hopped between several malaysia mobs, and several Omega sector mobs to time and see which one was truly ahead in exp rate. just to find out that the difference in xp rates between all of them were too negligible to matter where i chose to go.(roughly 20-23% every 8 minutes for 2 of the classes i raised) The only exception i had was with an assassin, who needed to 1-hit mobs to compete in leveling speed with mobbers.
They were serious about giving players options.I also like the new maps very much: most ignored areas have had their spawn fixed, though a few slipped through the cracks (cough El-Nath) but the new exp system in general, not just the faster grind, is a great improvement. Due to exp on mobs not growing as steep as before, its sometimes worth it to kill monsters on the way to your grind spot: i once did this and gained 15% before even getting there. That is a very nice feeling. Its made traveling and to an extent, questing and drop hunting a little bit less groan inducing.
The new rebalanced skills: Something i've noticed AND loved is that skills no longer start off inferior to skills from the previous job now, which means no waiting to lv 75 before you actually get stronger. The second you hit 70, most of those new job skills at lv 1 are already set to replace your previous job's skills in damage. Some may retain some form of utility though, which is nice too. This also means a lot of skills don't really grow in damage as much going from 1-Max, so i've actually managed to feel comfortable in leaving some skills at lv 10 or so to get a supporting skill such as flash jump to a decent level, allowing me to enjoy variety sooner. Lowering skill max levels on a ton of skills has also helped greatly with that as well. Its also much harder to screw up builds now: of all the characters i've skill reset and leveled: most only need to ignore just one skill from 1st- 3rd job. I gotta give these changes credit for being well thought-out.
Oh, then there's the minimum range crap on ranged classes going poof. That was a miracle for Archers and Sins. My hermit now rocks flying mobs with ease thanks to avenger, and my Ranger can now enjoy any mob as he pleases. Mages finally getting a better damage formula makes me happy as well: but it remains to be seen if their worth their salt (NX) now. Though i do like how they get a 75% mastery now. No matter, more balance patches on the way regardless.
As for the future, i have a good feeling for this game now. Enhancement/potential system, The Big Bang itself. which will soon introduce a new guild system, and Lionheart which promotes the tragically ignored party grinding concept. As well as chaos with an all new craft system. It finally seems like Maple's gotten with the times and is going to become more complex now. It's great to see MS fix so much of what i hated. I still have my eh... feeling about NANexon but i'll give them a second chance for this.
but there's nothing like truly playing it with it all and seeing it meld with gMS. It's been a month now and for most students Holiday break has come and gone, giving most players a chance to really play the game and feel the changes for themselves instead of just speculating.
How do you feel about it all now with the hands on experience?
For me, Since it's occured I've raised 3 jobs up to 70-80 and played around with a few already 12x characters to see how the changes affected them and learned my way around the reorganized world...
I'm impressed. There are some little changes i never really thought about pre-bb that i'm in love with now.
They've done a great job with rebalancing the mobs for one. Through the characters i've raised, i've tried to find that one map for certain level ranges that were 'ahead' of the other maps, and aside from glitched and fixed areas like Truckers, they're extremely balanced. For the 65-70 range for example, i hopped between several malaysia mobs, and several Omega sector mobs to time and see which one was truly ahead in exp rate. just to find out that the difference in xp rates between all of them were too negligible to matter where i chose to go.(roughly 20-23% every 8 minutes for 2 of the classes i raised) The only exception i had was with an assassin, who needed to 1-hit mobs to compete in leveling speed with mobbers.
Spoiler
They were serious about giving players options.I also like the new maps very much: most ignored areas have had their spawn fixed, though a few slipped through the cracks (cough El-Nath) but the new exp system in general, not just the faster grind, is a great improvement. Due to exp on mobs not growing as steep as before, its sometimes worth it to kill monsters on the way to your grind spot: i once did this and gained 15% before even getting there. That is a very nice feeling. Its made traveling and to an extent, questing and drop hunting a little bit less groan inducing.
The new rebalanced skills: Something i've noticed AND loved is that skills no longer start off inferior to skills from the previous job now, which means no waiting to lv 75 before you actually get stronger. The second you hit 70, most of those new job skills at lv 1 are already set to replace your previous job's skills in damage. Some may retain some form of utility though, which is nice too. This also means a lot of skills don't really grow in damage as much going from 1-Max, so i've actually managed to feel comfortable in leaving some skills at lv 10 or so to get a supporting skill such as flash jump to a decent level, allowing me to enjoy variety sooner. Lowering skill max levels on a ton of skills has also helped greatly with that as well. Its also much harder to screw up builds now: of all the characters i've skill reset and leveled: most only need to ignore just one skill from 1st- 3rd job. I gotta give these changes credit for being well thought-out.
Oh, then there's the minimum range crap on ranged classes going poof. That was a miracle for Archers and Sins. My hermit now rocks flying mobs with ease thanks to avenger, and my Ranger can now enjoy any mob as he pleases. Mages finally getting a better damage formula makes me happy as well: but it remains to be seen if their worth their salt (NX) now. Though i do like how they get a 75% mastery now. No matter, more balance patches on the way regardless.
As for the future, i have a good feeling for this game now. Enhancement/potential system, The Big Bang itself. which will soon introduce a new guild system, and Lionheart which promotes the tragically ignored party grinding concept. As well as chaos with an all new craft system. It finally seems like Maple's gotten with the times and is going to become more complex now. It's great to see MS fix so much of what i hated. I still have my eh... feeling about NANexon but i'll give them a second chance for this.
items and you wouldnt see super overpowerd people with too much money around.
