I still continue to grind my Paladin despite largely being told not to, and I was going to quit until I remembered why I started. I thought Paladin was cool and w/e, all of that snazzy stuff, but I remembered that before creation, the Open Beta thread discussed changes to Paladin, most importantly the fact that Threaten would now "Reduce Enemy Attack and Defense 20% on both Mobs AND BOSSES". I was told that this was a reason that there might be some sort of usefulness added to Paladins, so I carried on with my Page. I remembered back when I created my Arch Mage Fire-Poison, I was once again told by people that my attack advantage would bring me some sort of actual benefit, but Bishops obviously obliterated the market for Leech, which I can't blame people for. However, I feel that the same is going to happen to my Paladin. Does this buff in Threaten really mean anything? Will people begin to think twice when bringing Paladins aboard boss runs? I'll still continue playing, despite the response, as I've grown used to just having Royals open as I watch a movie or video on YouTube, and continuously grind, so it's no longer an issue. Still, I actually want to be INVESTED in the game I'm playing, rather than racking up points because god knows where else I'll get them if I spend more than a second of my time not grinding! Thanks!
In my opinion the -20% defense on enemies won't make a big enough difference to make up for the cons of a Paladin. Besides, if I recall correctly, monster defense never made a such big difference in pre-big bang Maplestory. I really think Paladin would have needed something like Thunder element being able to stack with other elements (v86 I believe) to make them more viable.
How does that work out though? If a resisted element is stacked with an element something is weak against, does it become neutral damage? I didn't know that Paladins could stack charges at any point.
I don't know exactly. I'd have to guess it kinda works out like the Mage composition attacks? Meaning if half of your total elements applied are effective you'd end up with a 1.25x multiplier against that enemy. Or in your case it would probably be (0.5 * 1.5 element bonus = 0.75) + (0.5 * 0.5 element penalty = 0.25) = 1x element effectiveness. Again that's just a guess. Either way the ability to use two elements at once really made Paladin a lot better against enemies which weren't weak to any element.
So did stacking elements also allow for the %AttackBoost to stack for the elements? So for example, Lightning Charge is sitting at +125% attack increase, alongside Ice Charge with +105%, would it end up giving a +230% Attack Increase? Otherwise, I'm not entirely sure how stacking elements comes across as helpful, but then again, I was never a GMS Paladin!
Yes, the attack bonuses would stack, otherwise it would indeed be pretty pointless. Edit: Digged this up. Gives an idea how much improved Paladin got in v.86 • Threaten: Now reduces the enemies’ ATT, DEF and ACC up to 20%. • Flame Charge: Damage has increased up to 140% • Fire Charge: Damage has increased up to 140% • Thunder Charge: This ability can now overlap with other elemental attributes such as Fire, Ice, and Holy. • Lightning Charge: This ability can now overlap with other elemental attributes such as Fire, Ice and Holy • Charged Blow: The range of this ability has been increased up to 180 and the duration of the stun effect has increased up to 6 sec • Blast: Damage has increased up to 580% • Holy Charge: Damage has increased up to 150% • Divine Charge: Damage has increased up to 150%
