Hello, I've questions. For Shadower 1) How is Shadower without Meso Explosion after the recent update? The Shadowers have been very silent on this so I'm unsure about it. From the damage chart (https://royals.ms/forum/threads/4th-job-skill-changes.135025/#post-779647) it seems like it is only slightly stronger than a 2H Paladin. 2) Prior to question 1), do the Shadowers still use Meso Explosion in boss runs? For Buccaneer 1) I've only one question for Buccaneer. Is Barrage + Dragon Striker better or Demo + Barrage? This comment seems to suggest it is the latter (https://royals.ms/forum/threads/4th-job-skill-changes.135025/#post-779647). I personally dislike how Transformation render all my outfit useless but love Barrage and I will not play Buccaneer if I need to stay in Transformation permanently for the best combo. Thank you.
Hey, Im currently lvl 173 on my Shadower. I was grinding with mostly meso explosion at Bosses as i was heavily HP & MP washing. I was using only ME at: Bigfoot, Anego, Papulatus, Zakum, Krexel and the Shaolin Boss. By the time i was able to hit properly with my bad attack gear i swapped to the Mouse Keys dropping method (If u don't know what that is, it's explained in the In-Depth Shadower guide in the Class Guides Forum). I was dropping mesos while using the darksight-assassinate-boomerang step combo. That was all before the buffs of Shadowers. I was still dealing high dmg and whiting alot of strong NLs who's weapon was probably worth 20-30 times my entire gear. I mainly used dark sight into assassinate into bstep for the good repositioning ability assassinate provides since you can cancel the 4th hit, which is a charge, by just pressing your combo key again. Also Bstep provided great iframes in which you are untargetable which was great since it was pretty annoying to reposition on where i was originally standing and dropping my mesos. I used like 5m per Papulatus, 8-9m per Bigfoot, like 15m per Anego, 20m per Zakum, 25-30m per Krexel and about 10m per Shaolin in a Duo. Now with the buffs i feel much more confident not dropping mesos, or rather not having to, to compete with other classes. I still do it at the bottom right arms at Zakum and Zakum main Body or at Bigfoot (takes about 5mins to solo with Stopper & 5m mesos dropped, so 7m compared to 8-9m with only bombing him). Assassinate has become such a strong 1v1 dueling skill. Even with my garbage gear i can hit 3x 50k in fast succession. Considering my crap gear that's quite alot. I still use the assassinate bstep combo for multiple targets such as horntail legs & Tail and then just Bstep for the right wing / right arm / head B & C (4 HT Body Parts: hits about 8x 50-70k with an Apple, and those hits connect 100% of the time on Head B and C and the Wing and like 80% of the time when Horntails right hand isn't lowered) I'd say that you don't have to drop mesos at all once you hit 4th job, however, if you think about it: Now that Shadowers are on par with most other Attacker Classes just with using spells to attack, if you drop mesos and add that to your attacking pattern (Especially if you "Speed Bombing") your DPS just Skyrockets. Just to make an example at a recent Zakum Run: My level back then: 166 My gear in the zrun: 4wa shoes, 12wa glove , 4wa 8luk cape, 123 dagger, 30 Khanjar, 28 stat top & bot, HTP, 19dex 8luk green pietra, since i still try to chaos a good Zhelm as Shadowers benefit from 3 stats so hard.) NLs Gear: 93 Claw, 21 BWG, 19 shoes, 20 cape I used stoppers entire run and dropped 11m meso for the entire run. Still whited that NL. So to summarize: you don't need to bomb at all, but if you still decide to do so, just for the sake of the time you clear the boss with, your DPS really goes nuts. Not to mention that we have Meso Guard and 40% Shadow Shifter procc chance. There is alot of potential for Shadowers i think. I'd be really curios how much the top Shadower Helicases hits with Stoppers & Apples My range is about 11.2k with an apple, mw20 and Echo. 3x80-100k with Assassinate His range is 11.7k clean (just MW20), only god knows haha. Just don't forget to HP wash a bit. I'd recommend slightly a bit more HP than 12k. Like 12.3k or so. If you can't afford that go for 10k atleast since you then can: Solo Anego (lol) (You might want to read my post in the "Latest Accomplishment Thread: https://royals.ms/forum/threads/latest-accomplishment-thread.2508/page-360#post-783854 ) and you're prepared for Pink Bean release (soonTM). With meso guard you can tank 2 hits of Shaolin, 2 hits of Bigfoot to create more room for error, once you know, your pet doesn't heal you. One thing worth mentioning is that i quit my Nerdlord for a Shadower as i disliked the playstyle of it. One thing that always bugged me is that without SE (as NL) you practically want to delete your own Character. Sure Bstep can crit with SE and it's nice to have. However not neccesarily needed. Assassinate's first 3 hits can't crit at all, even with SE. Only the 4th hit can and since we use the 4th hit to reposition only, thus not as frequent. So SE isn't that neccessary either. I really like going to bosses Solo not having to bring my SE Mule anymore. SE dc'd at Zakum/Krexel/Horntail or whatever Boss? Nerdlord's reaction: Shadowers reaction: Whatever Disclaimer: please don't think im bragging or so, but i think that it's quite strong for a Shadower (Being amongst the lowest DPS Classes without Meso explosion, prior to the buffs) to white a absolutely stronk NL (also prior to the buffs, now with buffs, maybe even without Booming up ones wealth ) Edit: for most Bosses i don't use Meso Explosion anymore. Edit#2: Basically Bstep got a % dmg increase and Assassinate's "Charge" was entirely removed and % dmg increased. A huge thank you to everyone from the staff being involved with both the class changes and the server in general. Thank you for your hard work! To say the least, the staff decided only to change these 2 things, which was the best they could've done. Veteran Shadowers will still play their beloved class and New Beginners will enjoy the dmg buff in general, so they kept the nostalgic spirit of Maplestory alive while improving the gameplay and making meso explosion obsolete once a player hits the 4th job. Shadowers are really fun to play. I still have to adjust my combos according to the boss and general circumstances, however i do not have to burn my mesos for that. I hope the staff see's this reply as some kind of feedback for Shadowers as there is no feedback thread. I assume that's because most Shadowers are just really happy with the changes that have been made and also you hear only complain about things, never actually praise other people for their work. I guess that's just how humans operate. Great job Ladies and Gentlemen @Yan @Muff @Shane @Luna @Kai @Matt And every other person involved. (GMs,Staff,Devs, etc..)
@FuminoAya , That's one hell of an essay, and I appreciate that. I actually have done some research and decided to go for Shadower but now I've new question which I need an example so I hope you don't mind to be one (or any Shadower who is willing to help). 1) Is your assassinate and bstep 30? If not, what are their current levels? 2) What's the average hit per line for your savage blow, assaulter, bstep and assassinate? 3) What's your 2) with SE if you happened to have a record of that? 4) Do you find yourself performing dark sight + nate + bstep combo with some lag due to latency (ie dark sight taking longer to appear / disappear to trigger nate)?
1. Both Assassinate and Boomerang Step are Level 30, however Assassinate should be stronger even at level 1 than Savage Blow. Both are spells which hit only 1 Target at a time. One thing to note worth mentioning is that savage blow is a 2nd job spell, a 4th Job Spell should be stronger, even at level 1 than any 2nd/3rd job attacking spell (Meso Explosion excluded). Im pretty certain Assassinate is stronger, i barely use savage blow anymore. However it looks hella cool with the "Shadow Style Effect" from the Cash Shop and a NX weapon such as the "Shadow Lamp". 2. Here is a video of me soloing Anego with Heartstoppers, i also brought my SE Mule. So you can see my hits pretty clearly. 3. Refer to number 2. 4. Personally i don't have latency issues (Playing from Germany, they mostly do have terrible internet speeds here, if not living in a big City. (16Mbit Download speed / 2.4Mbit Upload speed) However if you press your combo key Button, which for example is "V" on the keyboard (to copy paste the amount of mesos while attacking and dropping it simultanously) and also press any button on the keyboard at the same time (e.G a Heartstopper) you will stay in dark sight instead of continuing with the assassinate - bstep / assassinate combo. Now that's not much of an issue as you can just "Basic Attack" to go out of dark sight and re-cast your combo. However if you for example, only have 6k HP, were inside of the Zakum body and got hit by the Body (3rd Body hits about 10k, so 5k with meso guard) you are only left with 1k HP. So now you have 2 options: 1. Use a basic attack inside of the Zakum Body and pray that you either get missed or Shadow Shifter Proccs, so you can use a potion 2. You stay in dark sight, walk out of the Zakum body, use a basic attack and then use a potion. Now the issue with number 1 is pretty obvious. The issue with number 2 is also pretty clear, as walking out of the Zakum Body while in Dark Sight takes time. If you get hit by a magic attack while being in dark sight you'll pretty much just die. So the more HP you have the easier and smoother any boss run gets. I personally washed my Shadower to 30k HP clean, which was my 1st goal, and now that i reached it i can easily tank Horntail Heads / Tail and literally go afk within them. (I didn't go afk mid-run ofcourse ) Just a sidenote: I noticed that when you get hit by any dmg source and your pet wants to use a potion and you press any button while it wants to do so, it will fail to use the potion and you will to manually use a potion. Conclusion: More HP = more room for error. However that is for any class the case. Hope i answered your questions.
