I would give up all the washing I did without any refunds if hp washing wasn't a thing and my hp was reverted back to how it's supposed to be along with everyone elses. What would happen if hp washing wasn't available? More people would play Dark Knight's, isn't that a good thing? The trade off in having amazing 1v1 damage dealers is that there's a good chance they can still die fast in a boss run and they wouldn't be so dominant. People complain that "A class shouldn't need to rely on another classes buff," Well I can count on my hands and toes how many times I went to a boss run with Nightlord's that didn't have Sharp Eyes in the party in the last 3 years I played. If hp washing is "Just a luxury, you don't have to do it" Then why do we have it? Why is this odd method of permanently increasing hp in the game and other permanent methods to increase other ap points not? You don't think I want 999 avoid as a Paladin? Yes there are bosses long ranged classes can't fight cause of their low natural hp even with hyper body like Toad, so what? I can name 4 bosses that do everything in their power to make it impossible for warriors to even contribute in any positive way. Their names are Anego, Bodyguard A, Bodyguard B and Big Boss. Where's the complaints for warriors? Where's our bug abuse program to give us the accuracy and avoidability to fight these bosses? Bodyguard A- Hug a single target boss with 400million hp, take about 15k hp every second, swing a sword at a target your size and if you fail just once have fun in stun limbo or 27k damage horse kicks. Bodyguard B- Hug a single target boss with 500million hp, take about 10k hp every second, swing a sword at a target your size hugging him or deal with the constant mp reduction spam. By the way his hit box is also wonky so non-single target attacking warriors this fight will take even longer Big Boss- 400+ accuracy needed at level 175+ Anego- Constantly getting hit by 3k-15k hp as opposed to not getting hit at all Great, Warrior's can't fight those bosses without much difficulty and they're made for ranged classes to fight. That just means there is end game content only accessible to a certain class. It's a good thing classes need help from other classes or some stuff is just exclusive, because it creates incentive and diversity to make certain characters. Nightlord's with enough hp wash however, they will just be able to fight any end game boss they want. Hp washing devalues multiple classes and over powers a few of them. Roles are completely changed and even the bossing end game loses class variety which hurts the incentive for people to create other classes, so most people end up creating the over powered classes, those overpowered classes need the most hp washing, and hp washers can't train so they need the most leech. Where do we end up now? A game where most people are leeching and hp washing so bossing ends up being the big thing and bossing ends up being compromised of a few classes. There are other weaknesses of ranged classes and some of my suggestions Individual suggestions -Increase the max hp of some tankier classes -Reduce the hp cap of ranged classes by 65% and refund them a rough estimate for hp washing -Make power guard work from far away again -Create some end game bosses that hit in the 20-30k range consistently -Create some end game fat bosses that move like the wind so Nightlord's/Bowmaster's close range can be abused -Revert our hp completely Then again almost no one wanted to give up their automp/hp equips to help stop multi-client mules in the other thread, but at least have a read. Nerf Leeching vs buffing multiple things The biggest thing I see is veterans saying something like "Don't worry about what other people do, just make your own goals." What? This is a social game. Everything everyone does affects everyone in one way or another so if most people ignore over half the content in this game that requires multiple people then I'm out of luck. If the ability to reach 30k hp is on the table and and most people are trying to get at least half of that then that consciously and subconsciously looms over newer players and to think it doesn't is very ignorant based on how so many people want to hp wash. It's up to the owners of this game to make the content they add appealing so the players are naturally drawn in. If they don't then why are they even putting in the effort adding it? Most people WILL pick the best option to reach their goal, but if you have best OPTIONS isn't that even better? Why does leeching have to be so fast? The only benefit leech should give is that you level without actually being present. It shouldn't be so astronomically faster and convenient compared to all other forms of early game leveling. It's even cheaper to leech since most people will be promised their own mobbing machine once they get to 4th job. The other alternative is to buff every party quest with promises of more exp, rewards, excitement which seems like a harder task. For party grinding there could be bonus exp for people who keep getting kills within 10 seconds and the effects are excluded in boss maps.
Sometimes it might all sound good on paper, but you have to think about the practicality of your suggestions as well :/
"Party grinding and buff PQs" - I think this will help greatly, with content like Lion Heart Castle but perhaps with the addition of stuff like weapon cancel on the mobs (paladins get more incentive), mobs moving slightly faster (?) (so you need knockbacks from the likes of buccanneer to keep the mobs of distance from nightlords and bowmasters), or new PQs like Romeo and Juliet. These will help make it so that not everyone is just sitting on a rope getting leech, or simply bossing. A collaborative party grind atmosphere where you need multiple jobs to help balance between them, and ur not solo grinding forever may help a lot.
Without washing ranged characters are in a far worse position than warriors. Warriors could tank Anego and only have troubles with the Showa boss. Ranged characters without washing and HB at around lvl 150-160 can't do Anego at all (they can't tank 5.4k hit). They also can't do Papulatus (unless you use dark sight), Pianus, Toad in his 2 forms, the boss in himes, Lyka, Horntail, the samurai boss in ninja castle, Leviathan, Pink bean if he comes and can't even tank some mobs like the ones in Ob4. They'd also die in 2 hits from Zak which means they have a much higher chance to die in Zak compared to warriors. Even with HB you couldn't tank the himes boss, samurai boss, toad and have serious problems with horntail. Honestly if you remove washing but don't buff the HP of some classes/nerf the damage of bosses nobody would play a ranged character anymore and you'd only see warriors and mages.
I feel like the server's exp rate is already pretty quick for low-lvls, I'd rather see a leech nerf than a PQ buff. Players who do less damage to a boss get less exp, right? Why should players who sit afk get any at all? I guess it could be a discussion for after a decision is made about hp washing since that kind of determines a lot.
Leeching doesn't make any sense from a role play perspective. I mean the whole thing about leveling is that by killing monsters and doing quests your character get trained and become progressively stronger, it's basically a learning experience. I don't see how would you get any stronger and learn new skills from sitting on a rope and doing nothing for hours. Leeching doesn't work in real life and doesn't work in most games either, it's just an exploit of the party exp system and is kinda like a glitch abuse (same with washing)
HP washing is like 6 month Horntail weapon cancel. A giant f** you from the Shrek dragoness herself. Only way around the cancel is to play mage. Washing turns all boss "battles" into DPS timesinks against a brick wall. Instead of requiring skill, strategy, or teamwork, like they normally would, the only thing Royals bosses require is a good Netflix or Anime show so you don't get bored while holding down Triple Throw! Yaay! Did you think making bossing incredibly dull and murdering class diversity wasn't enough? Well, there's more where that came from Charlie Brown. Now, for a limited time only, you can relieve your nostalgic past by sitting stationary on a rope for levels 1-135 while getting leech!! This will remind you of all the times in your life you've sat stationary doing nothing: sitting in a chair while riding a boat to Orbis, sitting at your desk while listening to your teacher drone on for 8 hours M-F for grades K-12, or even while sitting in a chair at a home playing Maplestory! Ah, sweet, sweet, memories. What kind of person couldn't love this gameplay Royals has to offer? Taking months and months of leeching and voting just to join the club like everyone else and start AFKing at bosses while holding down 1 button is totally worth it. The only people who couldn't love this? Only lazy people who don't want to put in the work themselves, clearly.
I used to not agree with Lion Hearst Castle, but at this point I'm all for it. At least have a buttload of custom adjustment so it suits this server better like you mentioned (weapon cancel, mobs walk faster). I still think leech can use some kind of nerf cause to the point that people who buy leech only buy it cause they gotta be out the house for about 6 hours and they wanna get from 78-80 without being present as opposed to how it currently is and hitting 85 by the time they get back. Without washing, Drk's will share a role just like Sharp eye's for Nightlord's. Once the Nightlor'ds get their buffs they become the dominant class in almost every single boss. With Hp wash Warrior's are in a worst position than Nightlord's now that they can even fight the melee exclusive boss toad while Warrior's can't even stand in a Big boss map without ruining the whole fight. Most monsters like Anego and Crow and the Bodyguard's were killed in the original Maple just cause those kinds of monsters would get stuck in pin limbo without ever getting out 1 attack. People knew they would die in 1 hit, but it never stopped them from learning how to never take that 1 hit in hour long fights. With Hyperbody you would definitely be able to tank 1 hit of damage vs all those bosses/maps and with 999 avoid and 30% dodge chance all you have to do is pay extra attention to your hp which should be the purpose of playing a fragile class that blows everyone else in damage. Only one they couldn't fight there is Pink Bean, but I'm sure there's a better way than just having Nightlord's be able to hit 30khp. I still bossed in the original Maple and most people did not have hp washing, but Nightlord's were still supreme in Zakum and Horntail. The way this game is designed is that if you can tank just 1 hit then it's really all about damage at that point and Nightlord's and Bowmaster's base hp with Hyperbody reach that standard. Not everyone will be able to handle that though so other classes would be created or picked, because the risk of inviting this random Nightlord that may or end up using multiple resurrection based on his potion skill. Nerfing to leech I feel is the big one. It's completely worth it for a new player to gacha and use all his winnings to leech his first Bishop to 120 thus 1 less player to have around other content during the low levels. Yeah why even have any strategies or class combinations to cover other classes weaknesses. There's a ranged class with 18k hp waiting to be picked up for any boss.
