Reasons for a archmage to try for Lv 200?

That is quite true for a F/P, actually. I forgot about that. It is rather special to see a level 200 F/P, since they are one of the rarest classes. However, I am an I/L, and there are billions of Lv. 200 I/Ls. It just isn't anything out of the ordinary to see a 200 I/L. But yeah, I did forget about F/Ps in this aspect.

Actually, I was referring to the concept of hitting Lv. 200 for any class, considering Lv. 200 for a Magician is considered a "meaningless" achievement to many these days. FYI, for those of you who consider it pointless, tell me why you aren't Lv. 200 yet on whatever character you play. If it's so pathetically fast and easy on a Magician and you thrive for a "true" challenge, then why are you 16x-18x?

Seriously, peoples' definitions of "achievement" have gone out the window lately. Do you realize how many Lv. 200s there are in GMS? Close to 500. Out of 6 million registered players? The math works it out to roughly .0083% of the total population currently playing. If it wasn't an accomplishment anymore, then why don't we have at least 1% of the population Lv. 200; hell, even half of 1%?

The point that I was trying to make with that comment was comparing MS to any other MMO like WoW, FlyFF, etc., where the level cap is something practically expected of the best players in the game; in fact, I'd argue your average daily WoW player has at least one character at the max level. Instead, the game comes down to high-tier gear obtained through challenging raids and boss battles; there's no sense of "rankings" like there is with Maple, just showing how good of gear you have and what you've done with the game. In MS, the game is largely based on training and how much time and patience you've invested into your character. No matter what class you are, getting to Lv. 200 is no easy feat, and it's an individually impressive accomplishment to do so considering very few people can maintain full lives and achieve such a level. You should be proud of yourself for doing something many others have not done, not in just the grand scheme of MS but over the wide variety of MMORPGs out there.

I have never played LOTR, so I don't really understand that comparison...

There is a point when you hit a bottleneck with equips, though. Right now, even a 5m.atk increase would cost me multi-billions. It just isn't worth it to upgrade anymore, especially since I can already 1 hit skeles.

Well not PLAYING LoTR....I was just referring to the fantasy saga as a whole xD. My point was, Gandalf the Wise, the White Wizard in the novels, is an extraordinarily talented and powerful being, more so than practically any other creature on Middle Earth at the end of the Third Age. My point was to contrast this fact with MS, in saying that MapleStory's unbalancing of the classes disalllows Magicians of any class from attaining such unbelievable, legendary power.

I'm closing in on the bottleneck moment as well, so I know what it feels like. I'm not expecting a Lv. 200 to spend 3 years chaosing scrolling literally perfect gear, but instead working to get to that bottleneck moment. In all honesty you're one of the only Lv. 200s I can think of at that point; most quit, sell off their gear, etc. at that level, and plenty of people simply grindfested their way to 200 without doing anything about gear and thus have a long way to go. To hit 200 with such amazing gear, to be done with questing, bossing, etc., is essentially to say you are done with the game. In that sense Congratulations! for you can quit satisfied with your achievements.

I don't really like big boss runs; that's why I made an AM in the first place. I would much rather solo bosses, which si not easy for an AM. I can't really even get into a HT run at 18x, hell, I can't even get into a zakum run. (Well, I don't try to find runs at all, but what I mean is that no one ever asks me to come.)

I spent a lot of time looking for boss runs and getting to know people so I'm invited pretty frequently (or will look when I'm not), so I find bossing extremely fun and rewarding. It sounds to me like you're a very independent person who likes to do things by themselves as often as possible. While there's nothing wrong with that, I can easily see why Lv. 200 may not mean as much to you as you wanted or thought it would.

Pretty much what I have already done. All I do these days is talk to people in guild, or just go afk if my guild is all off (as is usually the case). Broa is a rather boring server, imo. Broa has alot of annoying people; I hate almost all of the big guilds in the server. I considered switching servers a few times, but I doubt that any of the other servers are going to be any better.

It is almost a waste of time to even login any more, everyone I know has pretty much quit. Used to be fun to just login so that I could talk in guild, but now we are down to 4 members, with 2 of them considering to quit.

This kind of confirms what I said earlier. Have you tried putting aside some preconceptions or standards of people and gotten to know them for who they are? I don't say this to be offensive, but I almost feel like you're the type of person who feels like they know better than most people, are more intelligent, competent, wise, you name it. Why do something with other people when they'll just drag you down and destroy the efficiency you could have by yourself? I tend to think the same way myself on some things (the reason why I've solo trained ever since I could ohko Skeles at 17x), but a game like this is meant to be enjoyed with other people. I can't name a single person who is still here solely for the enjoyment of the game itself; while people may love things here or there, the one thing that ties everyone I know to the game is the social aspect of meeting new people and forging new relationships. It sounds like that can be hard and depressing in a boring server when all of your friends have left (both on BL and in guild), and so in my opinion you have two options. Either work on being more outgoing with people to create new relationships, or consider a server change if you really want to keep logging on for the sake of friends. But what you're doing right now doesn't sound like it's working, and doing nothing is probably the worst thing of all.

Ah, I doubt Nexon will add anything challenging. They direct this game too much towards the younger players. I can only wish that they could add something that requires intellegence and skill, instead of just luck and time. I actually find messing with DPS calculations more fun than most aspects of gameplay in MS. But I don't believe that Nexon will ever increase the complexity of this game.

Thank you for a well written reply.

I'm an optimist, and while the content overall is nowhere near as stimulating as it needs to be for Lv. 200s, they have created some things in the past few years that make it still enjoyable. I think all that's left is time; again, make MS the thing you check every week for new content and whatnot if you still want to play. Otherwise, hit 200 and quit - you've done all there is to do on one character for the time being.

The choice at 200 (and honestly, any level in this game) is simple in regards to continued playing: figure out at what point you will be satisfied with what you have accomplished with the game, and choose then whether you want to keep playing, be it for social or new content reasons, or if you want to close the book once and for all and allow your experience on this game to exist merely as a fond memory.