How do you guys feel about the latest changes to experience and bossing?
Note: I'm going to try really hard not to rant, but prepare for a wall of text.
In case you're unaware of the latest changes, here's a run down:
EXP:
- EXP now has a "Bonus" line for EXP buffs and cards and no longer stack with base EXP.
- Misc. EXP bonuses (like Mercedes Elven Blessing and Guild Experience Buff) are on their own line but now only multiply off the base EXP line.
- Because of the two above points, party experience (and party play bonus experience) doesn't multiply in a way that makes it beneficial, unless you're severely under powered and training with an overpowered player (the overpowered player would suffer a lot)
- Because of the point above, the only beneficial way of getting HS is to have an HS mule; solo play is the best experience in most cases.
- 2x cards do not work anymore for players above 201.
- The HP:EXP ratio for Mixed Golems in Twilight Perion was altered for worse
BOSSES:
- Bosses like Empress and Chaos Root Abyss have a once a week clear limit.
I'm pretty annoyed and confused as to why these changes are necessary to "preserve the integrity of the level cap" and I have no idea what Nexon was thinking with the boss limitations; the only thing that remotely makes sense is so the market doesn't get saturated too quickly with high level gear.
I'll try to put this into perspective.
At level 210, I need 24 billion experience points to level. That's roughly going from 200-201 12 times over. At 220 I'll need 84 billion, or equivalently going from 200-201 42 times. Now, I don't mind the fact that the EXP curve becomes steep at later levels, hell I am all for harder leveling, but the way Nexon went about it is so awful.
At 210, with a 1.5x buff (from the anniversary event, unobtainable at the moment) and a non leeching HS mule, my solo experience in one hour was roughly 2.4%, or 574,000,000 experience. At 210. 10 levels into the new level cap. At 249 where I need 650 billion experience to level, I'll be getting 0.088% an hour, 1132 hours of grinding will level me, granted I have 1.5x coupons and HS constantly. That's over 47 straight days of training.
With a 600k range.
I know 600k isn't godly by any standards, but it's way way way above average when you consider all the players who are 200+. I imagine someone like @Mazz would be getting higher rates, but do you think your experience gain should be dictated by how strong you are to such an awful degree? Bossing sure, that's fine, strength is a necessity there, but at least before (read: pre big bang/EXPlosion rates) training and leveling took perseverance, not a big wallet.
And party play. What. It's pointless, it was a great system that could have worked wonders, but they messed it up so bad that it's actually worse to party in almost every scenario than to solo. I'm not sure what they were thinking with this one. In my eyes, a large map (much bigger than deep Ludibrium clocktower) with reasonable HP and a decent party play system and nice spawn would be the solution in my eyes, enough mobs to keep all players occupied, and a party play system to discourage leeching and to encourage activity and team play.
And speaking about team play, what about the recent changes to bosses? Bosses like Empress and CRA can only be cleared once a week. Why? It leaves us with nothing to do for the rest of the week. We don't even have the split drops or increased drop rates like KMS does, so we're still getting the same amount of stuff as we were before the limit was put in place.
I'd go do other bosses like Arkarium or HM Hilla, but every time I die in those battles, I lose exp (Arkarium can use his crazy 1hit ko move like 10 times a run, that's 10% or 4 hours of training gone down the drain). There is literally NOTHING to do.
So what do you guys think? What changes do you think are necessary to vitalize end game content in Maplestory again? Sorry if this sounded like kind of a rant, I tried to not go full out hate-mode on Nexon, but I do think their choices as of late have been really stupid.
TL;DR: Exp rates are stupid, soloing is stupid, limitations on bosses are stupid, everything is stupid.
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