Aran is the best designed class in maplestory, and here is why.

[JoeTang]

Arans are poorly designed because combo finishers aren't worthwhile to be used at all. Their main defining feature and it shouldn't be used. At least Demon Slayer rewards you for spending your resource instead of punishing you. If Combo were a spendable resource like Fury instead of complete depletion whenever any of it were used, then I would agree that they are the best designed class, but I feel Mercedes is the better design and more classes should aim to imitate that; a wide range of multi-utility skills for varying situations instead of literally one thing to spam, e.g. Raging Blow for Heroes now.

The inherent problem with Demon Slayer, and in conjunction Mercedes, is their shield can have weapon potential. If Arans had a similar item, and Demon Slayers didn't have such a spammable FSAoE, Arans would be superior in every regard except being able to hit more than 10 monsters, which is rare to begin with, and mobility. And in the case of >10 monsters, Arans at least have Tempest while most characters can only hit 6 max.

Mikhail is just a piece of recycled trash.

[Whut]

Aran, from the moment he came out and up through the patch changes, has been the best designed class in maplestory. This class is the entire package that blends multiple, unique elements and it is presented wonderfully. In this thread here I'm going to tell you exactly why all of this is true, and hopefully make a compelling argument.

Up to this point, Nexon has done a mostly good job in changing aran for the better and retaining that special and sexy play style of Aran. I will promptly stop riding the Aran tip briefly to discuss some issues I do have with aran.

1. Final Toss has been phased out of usefulness for a large portion of an aran's career. Because toss is a finisher, you will have killed a group of monsters before getting the chance to toss them. This wasn't a problem when Aran was first released, because monster health and player damage were tuned differently so it required more damage out of the player to kill monsters. This is a shame too, because final toss added a very cool ability to the aran play style that made him even more engaging and fun to play.

2. Rolling Spin being out of place. Rolling spin pushes everything away. Aran is a melee character, that wants to be in the thick of things and hitting everything. Why in the world would you ever want to push something away? I don't care if it has a very high damage output, it looks stupid doing it and If I want to damage something I want to use Triple Swing, god damn it. Remove this non sense, it reminds me of the Upper Stab spamming that Dual Blades do. Why in the hell would anyone want to spam Upper Stab or Rolling Spin all day?

Hope you enjoyed reading. If you havn't played Aran yet, I suggest you do, and I bet you cannot guess what my favorite Magician class is.

Final toss spamming is so incredibly useful in 4th job for clearing LHC mobs

Rolling spin only exists for making easy combos and would keep the enemies pinned if they're standing against the wall.

[Mazz]

I don't like the combo system for Aran, Demon Slayer works much better imo. It's a cool idea, but the actual skills aren't really worth using (as Joe said). Mercedes seems to be the 'best' class for a lot of reasons, tons of different skills to use both when training and bossing, really fast and mobile, very strong and they stay interesting for the most part from what I've seen. I really don't like the idea of hurricane skills in MS, but I guess I'm in a minority on that matter. At least the animation for RoI is infinitely cooler than Hurricane/Rapid Fire.

[Haseo]

Depends on what you define to be 'best design', really.

In terms of design I'd rate Aran pretty high up the list, but Mercedes wins if you take utility and variation into consideration. Arans involve you in combat, but ultimately you're still spamming the same skill over and over to minmax your DPS.

[Chicocl]

Well in very late game Arans have a good damage, defense (-40% damage taken undispellable and if you have crazy amounts of %Str even more with max def), Drain is the best skill ever, Combo barrier is said to be one of the worst party buffs in game but the reality is that it is one of the most useful, if used correctly for example, i have saved a lot of people from dying at czak while getting dispelled, 1/1 and seduced (something that i think a paladin should be capable of but nexon seems to hate them), the mobility is what a warrior should have not more not less (demon slayers are so mobile that it is even retarded), the HP problem isn't really that bad in the first place, for example when i get seduced at czak with drain/Combo barrier and body pressure on, I can heal part of the attack received from touching damage, the finishers are almost useless as Joe said, in the past using combo fenrir was nice to ks NLs for example now FB is better or just using combat step...

About Demon slayers being crap, they aren't, they are a nice class, the only think that made them retarded was their mobility (it is insane at first job), the DF system is like a combo system but better, it is kind stupid to use tempest at 1000 combos and you lose all of them, you should be able to use only the amount you spent for a skill (or at least give a % increase by every 100 extra combos, like a 1000 combo tempest does 7 times the damage or 100% critical), you could think about DS as an Aran2.0 that doesn't replace the original, since demon slayer is more solo oriented and arans for parties.

I can't talk about mercedes because I don't really like archers.

Mikhail is just a recycled bin...... with lasers.

[Stereo]

I disagree,i have both as well in kms and i prefer arans.
Yes sure he is nerfed atm but i had him before the nerf and he was nice but imo aran is just more smooth experience

So much of this.

Most of DS's skills lock up the keyboard so bad you can't even open your stat window while using them. Whereas with Aran, just tap the combos in at your leisure and it executes them.

Mobility's a fraud, cause their main attack locks you in place, it's like hurricane but with a longer warmup and it skips every 9 attacks or so. And they use that type of attack in every job...

Of the 3 'excitement adventure' classes we got this spring (DS, Cannoneer, Mercedes) I found the DS to be the slowest playing of the three. Most of your time is spent waiting until you can do something. Insane mobility skills just mean you spend all your time sitting next to a monster waiting for it to die. Not to mention, where's the challenge in a class that has FJ, float, super jump, and combat step but you can use it in the air? It's more interesting getting around when you don't just automatically win everything.

[byakugan]

IDK if it's the best designed, but I can say it is a pretty "realistic" class, in that it has pros and cons which are greatly balanced. It has great elements like great animations, mobility, damage, unique gameplay, etc and is one of the very few classes that actually requires practice to master it, this without being freaking overpowered in every one of them like lolDemonSlayer or Lol Mercedes.

Mercedes and DS are just power houses with no drawbacks at all, and in the case of DS it requires little to no skills to master it.

[JoeTang]

So much of this.

Most of DS's skills lock up the keyboard so bad you can't even open your stat window while using them.

Mobility's a fraud, cause their main attack locks you in place, it's like hurricane but with a longer warmup and it skips every 9 attacks or so. And they use that type of attack in every job...

When I played DS, the mobility was pretty insane with Demon Jump. I would imagine most people try using Glide, but Demon Jump is so much better for instantaneous movement. They have the same traveling speed, but Gliding requires you to spend the time to reach max/reasonable jump height to get any good distance. I never had an issue with skill placements.

[Stereo]

I never had an issue with skill placements.

When I'm using Demon Lash (or any of the 'hold down skill button' skills) or in the middle of a regular attack sequence, no other key on the keyboard works. For example, Attack Attack E Attack Attack = regular 4 sequence attack, does not open equip inventory.

Whereas on Aran, as long as you hit the keys in time, you can for example turn around between double and triple swing. Or take a small step forward between each attack, by timing things carefully (potions delay attacks = free time to move)

Demon Slayer mostly just actively discourages doing anything quickly and it's kinda frustrating.

[Dark Zero]

My main is an Aran... I love it because is the most dinamic class in the game... Evan should been like this.... then Phantom is unique also....

[Exidous]

I like the idea of class differentiation and specialization. I like that some classes have glaring, horrible, practical flaws that they have to account for in their playstyle in order to be effective. I hate that Nexon is removing those things to make every class do everything well with and no degree of differentiation. Czak doesn't dispel mg anymore. Arans don't need to build up combos anymore. New classes never had weaknesses anyway.

Aran design is "good" to the extent it embraces the first part of my statement. But being the poster child for spamming flashy pomegranate in one direction speaks more to MS having a crappy aesthetic than being inherently good game design. There's nothing more depressing than being a mage in pvp and your only opponent is an aran. It feels like child abuse. Aran's design, in a game with variety, would be damning. They'd be a glass cannon thats only good for attacking relatively stationary bosses. "Fortunately" 95% of this game is attacking things that barely move and don't hit back.

[LiquidSwing]

Arans are poorly designed because combo finishers aren't worthwhile to be used at all. Their main defining feature and it shouldn't be used. At least Demon Slayer rewards you for spending your resource instead of punishing you. If Combo were a spendable resource like Fury instead of complete depletion whenever any of it were used, then I would agree that they are the best designed class, but I feel Mercedes is the better design and more classes should aim to imitate that; a wide range of multi-utility skills for varying situations instead of literally one thing to spam, e.g. Raging Blow for Heroes now.

The inherent problem with Demon Slayer, and in conjunction Mercedes, is their shield can have weapon potential. If Arans had a similar item, and Demon Slayers didn't have such a spammable FSAoE, Arans would be superior in every regard except being able to hit more than 10 monsters, which is rare to begin with, and mobility. And in the case of >10 monsters, Arans at least have Tempest while most characters can only hit 6 max.

Mikhail is just a piece of recycled trash.

I do not feel that because combo consuming abilities are useless now makes Aran a poorly designed class overall. I agree, the combo consumers have very little place in an Aran's actual arsenal anymore, outside of Drain and Combo Tempest when you have combo recharge available.

It wasn't always like that, however. When arans were first released, as Stereo pointed out, combo consuming abilities were used alot because they did non-distributed damage, unlike the swing abilities.

I don't like how mercedes was made though. She is literally nothing but re-hashed things from old classes. The dual-blade esque rush mobbing ablities, the aran toss up, and on top of that she has a bunch of free stats via Skills thrown at her, and passive haste. The only other class I dislike more is Demon Slayer, and thats because it steals literally everything from everyone, on top of having all the mobility in the game.

However Iam glad we all agree mikhail is garbage lol

[babagreensheep]

i wonder if aran would be better if it were made little fighter 2 style. yknow, with each attack requiring you to press different combination of keys instead of just spamming a single button, and the ability to chain different skills into really spectacular combos (like davis strafe->dragon punch thing)

[Alex123123]

Hmm, I find Arans to be a bit..."constrained" because the class is plagued with delays between the few actions it can take. Imo, the class should be allowed to have some of its skills transition without delay similar to how it was done for DBs and Mercs. It should also get more combo skills (NOT finishers) which coupled with transition would encourage the player to use different skills between their xSwings instead of spamming xSwing and using a finisher when they get tired/their combo is in danger of getting cancelled. Also, I still believe sacrificing combo for a buff (drain) is a bad idea.

Don't get me wrong, I love the idea behind the Aran, but I believe there's more that can be done to provide a more varied and fun experience (+ flashy!).


Personally I find Merc to be the class with the most fluid gameplay and variety so far. Of course, variety does not mean much if you can kill anything with one hit (not my case). I also value flashyness and fun over training efficiency. So I'm always using a combination of 7 skills to traverse a map instead of jumping and spamming that bowgun skill.

[Joe]

Aran used to be my favorite class before i made a DS. I loved its unique combo system and the fact that you actually had to pay attention to play it, rather than just spam a key like most other classes. The revamps made it even better, with gorgeous looking skills and the awesome combo recharge skill. I only ever had 2 problems with aran: first, that idiotic rolling spin skill that pushed monsters away, when what you needed is to keep the monsters close at hand to keep your combo counter up, specially at first, when you lost it super fast. second, i always found it conflicting that keeping a high combo count increased your att, but you had to reset it to use any skill.

Then came DS, and I fell in love. To be fair, I liked it even before I knew how the class worked; the awesome looking skills, the badass looking character, and the fact that it was a friggin demon. Then i experienced the mechanics of the class and liked it even more. For me, the DF system worked kind of like the combo system, but way easier to fill up, and as JoeTang mentioned, you get rewarded for spending it rather than sacrificing attack like on Aran. This, combined with the ridiculous mobility and the fact that they're friggin tanks, made this my new favorite class.

[MrTouchnGo]

"Best" is a value word and you can't really say any class is the "best" - because I sure as hell would disagree and say Shadowers are the best because ________. That said, there's no denying that Arans' combat system was very well thought-out.

[bast963]

*doesn't read thread*

YES I AGREE.

[Kuraitou]

This system was revolutionary on release because no other class operated like this.

Crusaders/Heroes had the concept of a combo system years before Aran was released. The only difference is that they don't lose their orbs until the (A)CA buff runs out. (or dispel fffff)

Also, like Satellite said, it's a very subjective experience. I have made 4 or 5 Arans and deleted them all because I just can't get into the groove. All Aran does for me is pomegranate up LHC.

[CarrionCrow]

Spoiler

Kayne West and this thread share about as much credibility.

[LiquidSwing]

Spoiler

Kayne West and this thread share about as much credibility.

Rubbish. Kanye West has never played this game in his life.