Update Skill Changes Phase 1

Hello Maplers!
As mentioned in the Staff Blog: 2025 Recap we've had plans for Skill changes for quite some time.
Some of the changes we selected from feedback, our own input, the direction we want jobs to go and for the future of MapleRoyals are quite challenging to achieve from a technical aspect which made the scale of the project too large for us to release at once.
We decided to split up this project in two phases for which Phase 1 is being released today in update #97!

Without further ado here are the changes that were implemented in update #97:


Party Buffs
The following party buff skills have had their range increased:
- Rage
- Total Crash
- Hyper Body
- Iron Will
- Power Crash
- Meditation (both IL and FP mages)
- Bless
- Holy Symbol
- Haste (Both Assassin and Bandit)
- Speed Infusion
- Armor Crash (not a party buff, but same range increase)

We decided that the variety of active range that these skills had were arbitrary, and having a more uniform standard for these skill ranges made more sense to us. We matched their ranges to that of Sharp Eyes which had the furthest range out of all of them.

What does that look like in game?
The blue/teal, smaller field around the character in this screenshot represents the range some of these skills used to have.
The green larger field around the character in this screenshot represents the range the listed skills now have.

Spoiler: Buff range

Rage
Rage now stacks with other weapon attack boosts like consumables (potions).
We felt like Heroes needed a more party contributing position similar to Dark Knights supporting their parties with Hyper Body, and Paladins providing their Total Crash.

What does that look like in game?
At max level your party gets +12 weapon attack and -12 weapon defense alongside other buffs and weapon attack boosting potions you may be using.

Spoiler: Rage

Enrage
Enrage now stacks with other weapon attack boosts like consumables (potions) and Rage.
As the goal is to make Heroes more of a solid pick for party content, we wanted to make sure their damage wouldn't be lacking either to help prevent a 'multi client mule' situation. Heroes should pack a real punch now.

What does that look like in game?

At max level you can get +26 weapon attack on top of your Rage and other weapon attack consumable. Keep in mind that Enrage has a longer cooldown than duration. If you were to use it at optimal timings consistently you average out an attack boost of 171⁄3

Spoiler: Enrage

Brandish
We increased the reach of the Brandish skill slightly to reach targets slightly more consistently and to open up new opportunities for certain spots at bosses. By adding vertical reach we made it possible for Heroes to strike two Horntail heads simultaneously for example. Other than that they can utilize the platform straight above Dunas v1 better and the ever-wiggling Zakum Arms are more often within reach.

What does that look like in game?
The blue/teal, smaller field around the character in this screenshot represents the range this skill used to have.
The green larger field around the character in this screenshot represents the range this skill now has.

Spoiler: Brandish

Charged Blow
We increased the horizontal range of the Charged Blow skill slightly because we felt like it should be an upgrade over the range of Slash Blast for multi target training. It matches the reach that Paladin's Blast has (in one direction) now.

What does that look like in game?
The blue/teal, smaller field around the character in this screenshot represents the range this skill used to have.
The green larger field around the character in this screenshot represents the range this skill now has.

Spoiler: Charged Blow

Dragon Blood
Dragon Blood now stacks with other weapon attack boosts like consumables (potions), however it does not stack with Rage.
We wanted to make sure that Dark Knights would still be self sufficient and not fall behind in damage output, even if they didn't party up with a Hero for their Rage.

What does that look like in game?

At max level you can get +12 weapon attack on top of your weapon attack consumable.

Spoiler: Dragon Blood

Hex of the Beholder lvl 21-25
We noticed that nearly every DrK would not allocate any SP above lvl 20 because that introduces a weapon attack buff which would overwrite your attack potions or other attack buffs. We have removed the weapon attack buff and added more accuracy per lvl on top of the accuracy it already provides to make sure there are no negatives to maxing this skill, and to assist DrKs in their accuracy struggles for certain targets.

What does that look like in game?
Level 21: Accuracy +24
Level 22: Accuracy + 28
Level 23: Accuracy + 32
Level 24: Accuracy + 36
Level 25: Accuracy +40


Aura of the Beholder
We noticed that players tend to not use this skill as they don't want Beholder to take them out of Berserk range by over-healing them. We introduced a hard cap on Aura of the Beholder to not heal you past 50% of your HP so it will never provide you with its healing effect at unwanted moments, but you can enjoy its benefits on lower HP.


Berserk
We consider Berserk a skill based damage buff where DrK players are heavily incentivized to stay within Berserk range (0.1-50% HP) for maximum damage output as that provides a 210% damage boost, but stay above the range of their enemy one-hitting them. With the introduction of more enemies that can wipe a DrK player in one hit if they choose to stay on 50% of their HP the difficulty of timing their attacks and healing potions has increased significantly.
We understand not every DrK player is willing to risk their lives for a mistimed incoming hit, but they still want to participate in content with the high hitting enemies while doing good damage.
This has lead us to introduce an additional threshold on Berserk that does 20% less bonus damage, but allows you to be 10% higher HP to survive incoming damage. The daredevil high skill DrK can still choose to do the most damage by risking their HP restore timing, and the DrK that wants to play it slightly more safe can still do a decent amount of damage this way.

What does that look like in game?
This scales throughout all levels of the skill, for example:
Level 1: Damage: 132% IF HP is 21% or lower
Level 1: Damage 112% IF HP is between 21% and 31%
Level 1: Damage 'normal' IF HP is above 31% (You are not in Berserk mode at this HP %)
...
Level 30: Damage: 210% IF HP is 50% or lower
Level 30: Damage 190% IF HP is between 50% and 60%
Level 30: Damage 'normal' IF HP is above 60% (You are not in Berserk mode at this HP %)


Spear Crusher
Similar to Brandish we decided on adding vertical reach which makes it possible for DrKs to reach two Horntail heads simultaneously. Other than that they can utilize the platform straight above Dunas v1 better and the ever-wiggling Zakum Arms are more often within reach. Do note that unlike Brandish, Spear Crusher has a slight negative reach horizontally (behind the center point of the character) by default meaning any mob you stand on that has its hitbox slightly behind you will get struck.

What does that look like in game?
The blue/teal, smaller field around the character in this screenshot represents the range this skill used to have.
The green larger field around the character in this screenshot represents the range this skill now has.

Spoiler: Spear Crusher

Dragon Fury: Pole Arm
While we're not planning on adding a new job like Aran, we do want to fill a niche for pole arm use. We noticed that Dragon Fury: Pole Arm did not have a significant utility over Crusher attacks as more than 3 mobs would often not be within your reach and depending on the swing you were doing, your reach differed. We have eliminated the reach inconsistencies with this skill as well as reshaped the hitbox for it for a further reach. This made playing the Pole Arm or Hybrid version of Dragon Knight and DrK more engaging at flat maps with a decent amount of mobs like Himes/Dreamy Ghosts and the large Temple Of Time area.

What does that look like in game?
The blue/teal, smaller field around the character in this screenshot represents the range this skill used to have.
The green larger field around the character in this screenshot represents the range this skill now has.

Spoiler: Dragon Fury: Pole Arm

Meditation
For both IL and FP mages Meditation now stacks with other magic attack boosts like consumables (potions).
This buff may help you and your party get over that edge of one-hitting your targets more consistently.

What does that look like in game?

At max level you can get +20 magic attack on top of your magic attack consumable.

Spoiler: Meditation

Seal
As one of the first steps on making mages less one-dimensional we made Seal a 100% success rate at max level which makes this skill useful for specific boss runs where the summoned mobs can ruin the boss run. One example of this is sealing mobs at Core which is part of the Auf Haven expedition. If your mage can seal the tornado-blasting mobs as they get summoned, those mobs will no longer be able to use their mob skills and you don't risk getting blasted across the map into the Core itself.


Doom
This skill as also received the 100% success rate treatment at max level. Previously this was 90% which felt arbitrary.


Arrow Bomb
This second job multi target skill outperformed his third and fourth job 'upgrades' Arrow Rain and Inferno when fully buffed up as a Bowmaster due to how Arrow Bomb was programmed to have critical hits multiplicative instead of additive like all the Bowmasters' other skills are. We have changed Arrow Bomb critical damage to also become additive which means Arrow Rain and Inferno now properly outperform it.

What does that look like in game?

Spoiler: Damage % data

Critical hits from maplestory are generally additive that mean crit gives +100% instead of multiplying dmg x2
Old situation:
- Arrow bomb with normal crit: 130%*2 = 260% total dmg
- Arrow bomb with normal crit + Sharp Eyes: 130%*3.4= 442% total dmg

New Situation:
- Arrow bomb with normal crit: 130% + 100% = 230% total dmg
- Arrow bomb with normal crit + Sharp Eyes: 130% + 100% + 140% = 370% total damage

Other skills for context:
- Arrow rain with normal crit: 160%+100% = 260% total dmg
- Arrow rain with normal crit + Sharp Eyes: 160%+100%+140% = 400% total dmg
- Inferno with normal crit: 150%+100% = 250% total dmg
- Inferno with normal crit + Sharp Eyes: 150%+100%+140% = 390% total dmg (however this comes with Fire element too)

Arrow Ammunition
We felt like the importance of ammunition for the archer jobs should be reevaluated to provide more incremental damage upgrades for players that play archers. Similar to how Throwing stars are very important to Night Lords damage output, we have redesigned how arrow ammunition improves your archer. Alongside that we introduced a new Futuristic Quiver for Bow that can be crafted at Noran in Neo Tokyo.

What does that look like in game?
Arrows and Quivers now provide the following quantity, weapon attack and level requirements:

Icon	Name	Quantity	Attack	Level requirement
	Royal Quiver for Bow	6000	24	180
	Futuristic Quiver for Bow	5000	20	150
	Teamwork Quiver for Bow	4000	16	70
	Diamond Arrow for Bow	5000	14	120
	Red Arrow for Bow	4000	12	120
	Steel Arrow for Bow	3000	8	70
	Bronze Arrow for Bow	2000	4	30
	Arrow for Bow	2000	1	10

Crossbow Arrow Ammunition
Just like arrows for bow, we have redesigned how crossbow arrow ammunition improves your archer. Alongside that we introduced a new Futuristic Quiver for Crossbow that can be crafted at Noran in Neo Tokyo.

What does that look like in game?
Crossbow Arrows and Quivers now provide the following quantity, weapon attack and level requirements:

Icon	Name	Quantity	Attack	Level requirement
	Royal Quiver for Crossbow	6000	24	180
	Futuristic Quiver for Crossbow	5000	20	150
	Teamwork Quiver for Crossbow	4000	16	70
	Diamond Arrow for Crossbow	5000	14	120
	Blue Arrow for Crossbow	4000	12	120
	Steel Arrow for Crossbow	3000	8	70
	Bronze Arrow for Crossbow	2000	4	30
	Arrow for Crossbow	2000	1	10

Avenger
The multi target option for Hermit and Night Lord was slightly lacking, making it not worth to use in many situations. We decided to up the damage output slightly to make it a viable multi target attack.

What does that look like in game?
The damage % of the skill now scales slightly higher from lvl 21 onwards, previously maxing out at 180% at lvl 30.
Level 21: Damage 153%
...
Level 25: Damage 175%
...
Level 30: Damage 200%


Taunt
For both Night Lord and Shadower we reworked the Taunt skill to count its increased EXP and Drop rate even if the hit was the killing blow effectively allowing you to one-shot mobs and get increased EXP and Drop rates from it. Keep in mind that Taunt still does not work on bosses. With this change you can go out and farm for interesting rare drops or potentially even develop a leech method that doesn't require mage ultimates on mobs with low HP.


Dark Sight
While this change affects both thief classes, we think Shadowers will benefit the most from the quality of life changes we added to Dark Sight as being in Dark Sight is part of their attacking skillset:
- You can now press Dark Sight again to cancel it, like a toggle
- You can now press any attack to leave Dark Sight (attack will not register, you will have to re-press it)
- You can now use Heroes Will while being in Dark Sight


Assassinate
When doing research on Assassinate, including checking various reports, we eventually found out that first person and third person damage displayed differently. First person damage displayed was wrong, so we have rectified the issue and made the damage displayed the actual damage dealt for all perspectives.


Smoke Screen
As the game has been around for many years now, we have seen various meta changes. One of those was the rise of a cheese strategy to certain hard level content where parties would bring as many Smoke Screens and Time leaps for those smoke screens as they could, and chain them together to stay 'permanently smoked', and thus always out of danger of being hit.
Generally we leave it up to the players to develop new strategies and experience the game the way they want, however being permanently out of danger for an otherwise punishing piece of content is not something that makes for interesting gameplay. That's why we have introduced a new feature to the Smoke Screen skill:
- Casting Smoke Screen will start a 150 second hidden timer on the map
- You can only cast Smoke Screen once per 150 seconds per map (regular skill cooldowns apply)
- Other Shadowers can't cast Smoke Screen on that same map within that time period either
- The chatbox will show you how many seconds of cooldown are left if you or any other Shadower on your map attempts to cast Smoke Screen (again)


Super Transformation
While we were defining the jobs and classes and the direction we wanted to head to with their identity we feel like we over-tuned the Super Transformation with our previous skill changes many years ago. The identity of the Pirate class is one of utility. They have a variety of skills in their arsenal and some of them are boosts that come with a cost. For example Corsair has a battleship, however that can break when taking damage. Buccaneers should also utilize their skillset, without suffering too much damage loss.
We feel like Super Transformation had to be brought back to being a 'transformation' and not a 'permanent mode'. However we did keep into account that Buccaneers wouldn't have a major damage drop off due to this change. You should still be about 97-98% as good as you were before in dealing damage with this change as you navigate your attacks differently during your Super Transformation cooldown.

What does that look like in game?
- Super Transformation duration has been increased from max level 120 seconds to max level 180 seconds
- Super Transformation has regained a cooldown of 240 seconds that starts when you cast it, leaving you with a 60 second cooldown between Super Transformations at max level.


Corsair Avoidability
Despite being considered a nimble ranged attacker, Corsair has suffered from getting hit seemingly more frequently than other classes. We took a look at their avoid formula and have adjusted it to match some other classes.

What does that look like in game?
- Adjusted the Avoid Formula from DEX * 0.125 + LUK * 0.5 to DEX * 0.25 + LUK * 0.5 making their primary DEX stat contribute more.


Recoil Shot
This skill was rarely used because the cooldown on it seemed uncomfortably long at 2 seconds. We have reduced it to a 1 second cooldown.


Battleship
While Corsairs like to spend most of their time attacking their targets while mounted on the ship, they also spend a lot of time dismounting to avoid incoming damage and to cast other skills. We felt like some of these skills should be available while mounted on the Battleship:
- You can now cast Echo while riding the Battleship
- You can now use Hypnotize while riding the Battleship
- You can now cast Aerial Strike while riding the Battleship

In addition to that we decided to reward proper Corsair gameplay of dodging damages by making mounting the Battleship free of MP cost, meaning you can mount and dismount even during times where a boss has just struck you with a 1/1 attack or an MP drain attack.
- You no longer require any MP to mount the Battleship



Consumable buffs retention
Your previously used consumable will now be remembered and remain 'active' for its regular duration, even when the effect of it is temporarily overwritten by a stronger consumable.

What does this look like in game?
An example would be:
- You use an Energizer to get +25 weapon attack at the start of your boss run (this potion lasts 30 minutes)
- 5 minutes into the run you feel the need to step up the pace, and decide to use some Heartstoppers that give +60 weapon attack that overwrite the effect of the Energizer (these last 1 minute each)
- After using 5 heartstoppers, you feel like you're on track again in damage dealt and you don't use another one
- Your original Energizer, which was still active but just hidden behind the stronger buff of heartstoppers, will give you its +25 weapon attack boost again for the remaining 20 minutes (5 minutes passed, another 5 minutes of heartstopper use passed so the original 30 minutes - 10 minutes = 20 minutes remaining)


What's next?
As mentioned before this is Phase 1 of the Skill Changes that we wanted to release. There are still many interesting adjustments that we are experimenting with for a Phase 2 release. Some of you may be disappointed that your favorite job hasn't had much of a rework yet so as a closing statement I'd like to present some of the ideas we're experimenting with:
- Testing if we could and should make Hyper Body carry a 25% 'stance' like ability for parties to stack on top of current stance jobs, but also introduce its sturdiness to jobs that never had any.
- Introduce more sturdiness to archer jobs to reduce knockbacks either by Puppet or Focus reworks
- Make mages less one-dimensional and rework their high level single target / non ultimate spells for specific purposes
- See if we can introduce a 'Battleship Buster' skill to destroy a Battleship on purpose, starting its cooldown for a full HP version
- Taking another look at warriors with shields and differentiate them in a meaningful way from 2-Handed counterparts
- Finding a better purpose for Soul Arrow
- Review more skills primarily used in the earlier jobs, not just 3rd and 4th

I hope you understand that we decided to split up these changes in multiple phases. As always we welcome your feedback and input on previous, current and potentially future skill changes on our feedback forum thread.

Thank you for being patient with us, we're looking forward to finishing up the next piece of content soontm!

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