[EMS] 7 Years!

Hi guys! Today it's my 7th anniversary of playing MapleStory Europe!

Seven years ago, I created my Hero "Rayque" and I haven't quitted since that day. Nor I did create any other potential mains if I'd ever got bored from my Hero. Having calculated to have reached 10.000 hours of playtime at the start of this year, it's still increasing impressively.

Most people might wonder how the hell am I able to play my Hero for 7 years streak. There are two easy reasons why I managed to play this long: taking my sweet time and having fun. I believe that most gamers quit a game too often because they tend to rush things. With rushing I meant leveling, improving their damage too quickly or reaching the game's limit in several months. By rushing in the game you'll probably end up becoming bored soon enough.

And if you want to know - I'm not a person in MapleStory who logs in to sit in Henesys or Free Market all day. I actually dislike Henesys and Free Market, I only go there to meet friends or trading/browsing the community market. I just do other things.

You might remember from older posts on this blog that I manage to fill in my time pretty well with all kinds of activities in the game. I don't have a consistent path of activities I do every day. In fact, it actually changes every year. I've done over 3500 (!) quests on my Hero, I've obtained even the Crazy Hyena mount, Level 5 Soul Driver, completed Neo Tokyo, and many more. If I would click my "Completed Quests" tab MapleStory Europe crashes with a runtime error. Some of my Traits are almost Level 90 or already above it, and yet I don't even daily farm for them. I have done Party Quests like "Escape!" 80 times, "Kenta in Danger!" 156 times, "Dragon Rider" 257 times, and even "Resurrection of the Hob King" almost 800 times (includes approximated 200x 15 minutes and 583x 5 minutes each). I don't allow myself to become bored, and I genuinely find enjoyment in doing all kinds of things in MapleStory.

I think that you shouldn't limit yourself with damage craving and just sitting in Henesys/Free Market... there are a lot of things you can do that enables you years of fun on a single character. It really depends on what kind if person you are - I'm sure you'll know exactly how large MapleStory is and how much content there is available. It's more than you can do in a year, maybe not even two. A lot more. However, will you allow yourself to drop the feeling "I'm bored" or "Can't be activated" and start something you haven't done yet?

That's it for today guys. I'll see you again next post!

[EMS] Several Hero-related techniques that I don't see other Heroes use often

Hi guys! Tomorrow is my 7th (!) year of playing MapleStory Europe on my Hero, without any quits or ever having created other (new) main characters. I actually had the idea to write down in my blogpost of techniques that I use often but I rarely see other Heroes use them. I actually encourage other Heroes trying these out, because it may actually become highly useful during defeating large groups of monsters. With just several of these techniques I'm actually able to solo Alien Visitor PQ, as shown in this video. Below the jump break you can see a list of useful (and rather unknown) techniques that I recommend. Prepare for a long wall of text.

[EMS] Evolving System - Maximal upgraded!

Wow, it has actually been a while since my last blogpost about the Evolving System (more than a year ago). I haven't really been doing this feature that "actively" - only for several herb collecting for crafting.

At first, you start with an incomplete Evolving System. You'll start off with a small amount of maps available (five maps) and three available core (round and square-shaped) slots. Cores expand your Evolving experience, including increasing droprates, monster spawn or experience rates. If you also like change or get bored from the default design, you can alter the background music and/or design of the maps and monsters (at a limited and fixed group of choices though). By spending more time in Evolving System, you can find Evolving Coins, which act as a currency for enhancing the Evolving experience. To upgrade the world map with more places to visit (with four new maps), the main method is to obtain these are to find rare cores which unlocks it by completing a mission. The same thing applies to upgrading the available core slots - obtaining another three (round-shaped) slots will cost you 150 (!) coins, and obtaining the hexagonal-shaped slot (whereas the cores are pretty rare and powerful) costs you a whopping amount of 300 (!) Evolving Coins. So recently I managed to get the last bunch of coins to get the final missions for a maximal upgraded Evolving System!

Currently my fully upgraded Evolving System - having obtained all the available core slots after some hard (and often delayed) work. The core slots are the metal-looking square, round and hexagon shapes. As aforementioned, you only start off with three round and square-shaped slots. Unlocking the other three round and single hexagon-shaped slot really makes the bonuses interesting, however, is it worth the effort? I'm afraid that obtaining 450 Evolving Coins in MapleStory Europe takes either longer than you getting through early 4th job (since Evolving System is mainly for early 4th job) or longer than making the "late" bonuses sufficient to outspeed regular grind. Keep in mind that you can only pick one core-colour per slot, so it's unfortunate that you can't stack multiple experience cores. Also, obtaining the 450 Evolving Coins really takes a lot of time and dedication, so it's not also really in reach for most players (mentally).

Unfortunately, in MapleStory Europe, this system is not as powerful as it is in MapleStory Korea. Hence why I really slowly upgraded it on my main. There is still a lot more (in my opinion) interesting features or goals for me to achieve in this game. Evolving System is pretty powerful for early 4th job levels in most versions, however, as noted in my Angelic Buster Skill Link Level 2 post, with World Tours such as Singapore and Veracent (in combination with the right set-up) this kinda becomes obsolete for training...

In MapleStory Europe's Evolving System, Link 3 is really the best map to train, if you are in Evolving System. However, Hero's reach is rather limited, and since most Heroes can't really make good use of their skills, flying monsters can be hard to reach, even if the (re)spawn is pretty high for this game standards. Not to mention that, even though I'm able to solo Alien Visitor PQ as a Hero, increasing the experience (system-wise and monster-wise) isn't really that sufficient compared to the other available maps for any level. I'm afraid that's one of the reasons why Evolving System isn't that popular here compared to other versions. Another reason is probably the time- & daily limit.
Currently in MapleStory Korea these limits even became worse because in most versions without Singapore/Veracent it's considered too powerful for (early) 4th job.

It has to be noted that when it just got released, it surely was a good option. But with all the new available maps, new skills and in-game tools (not including the current nerfs to this feature and the ones yet to come), it really lost its shine. One of the only reasons at my level to go here is for Shadow Cygnus. But since already a large group of players in our version already cover this market, the price has decreased quickly (from bills to mills), making the profit feel like more an extra instead of a major income.

I'd love to see some major improvements, on the level Nexon improved almost all Party Quests, since I find that this system can have much more potential than it (already) has. That's it for today - until next post!

[EMS] Level 205!

[EMS] Angelic Buster Skill Link Level 2 GET!

Well, that was rather unexpected, even for me. Just shortly after I managed to reach my Luminous on Level 120, I've decided to work on my Angelic Buster.

It was already near Level 86 before I stopped training on it. However, my old friend & guildmember Kasukay, was working on his new alternative character (a Kanna). He actually gave me the idea to train together to Level 120, so that he could manage to speed up his training to a higher level and get my Level 2 Skill Link significantly earlier.

In MapleStory Europe we are lucky to have a majority of the World Tour content. For most people it might seem like a dull filler, but there are some real exceptions. For example, Zipangu actually has an impressive possibility of loot (but as you know from my Ribgol's origin, it has rather harsh droprates for MapleStory's standards), Singapore & Malaysia has a few impressive maps to train at, and Veracent has a few exceptional (broken) maps and pretty good loot for all players (unfunded and majorly funded) too. Let's not even forget about the version exclusive classes, which are for most people rather weak - however in my view some exclusive classes are even better designed than the current majority of the newer classes (I'm especially looking at you, Hayato).

Some trainingspots in these World Tours are actually pretty damn good to go through third and fourth job. For the versions who have Singapore with Mysterious Path 3: this map is probably in my view one of the best maps to train due to the spawn. You can even train there pretty well even if you are Level 110 (the spawn outwins the experience over time compared to standard maps). However, utilizing Kishin Shoukan (an unique skill from Kanna to increase the spawn and respawn of a map, similar to having multiple people in the same map but much more effective) in this Veracent map is beyond what I'm used to from almost 7 years (non-stop!) of MapleStory Europe (and I even dare to include having experienced 21x EXP rate to this matter).

Earlier today, before I got the Skill Link. Consider I partied with my friend's Kanna, utilizing Kishin Shoukan. This is only HALF of the map you see on screen. One of Veracent's best maps, and possibly one of the best maps in the game for early 4th job if you can one hit kill these enemies. Both of these enemies have about 100.000 HP. The small enemies on top, called "Dark Oberon", actually use the infamous Super Knockback, so make sure a class with enough Power Stance fights them unless you can one hit kill them or kill them out of their range. It was impossible for me to keep up with the respawn, since Kasukay was defeating enemies on the left side of the map (see the orange dot on the mini map on the top left). It'll even be unlikely for an early 4th job Hayato or Luminous (GMS-version) to keep up with this massive (re)spawn.

With only having 1x experience rate, we zoomed through Level 110 to 120 in just a few hours. The same thing can be applied to going through Level 80 to 110 in Mysterious Path 3. Probably would've taken about twice the time if I did it on my own as an (inexperienced) Angelic Buster, until I would reach 4th job to max its skill "Affinity Heart IV". Nevertheless, I would probably have reached Level 120 on my own before midnight as well, however training with friends you know for several years in the game really makes it a lot less tedious and it even makes it much more fun! Let's get back to the skill upgrade, shall we?

"Terms & Conditions" has been improved by 15%. The Level 1 version gives 30% damage for 10 seconds, and the Level 2 gives 45% damage for 10 seconds. Both versions share the same cooldown, a fair 90 seconds.

This upgraded Skill Link will surely come useful - it greatly increases my burst damage. Currently I can stack multiple short buffs that greatly increases my damage, although with the skills having a respective cooldown for it. This includes the "Terms & Conditions" from Angelic Buster, the Mu Gong buff "Memories" from its Boss Soul, my Level 150 Hyper Skill "Valhalla" and my Level 200 one, "Epic Adventure". Since Hero works with many crazy multipliers to compensate a rather "weak" (read: low) range, combining those skills actually does more than double my damage for 10 seconds. This might not seem that much, but when used at the right locations, it can actually destroy most bosses like Mori Ranmaru, Gollux, Pink Bean and Akyrum.

Well, that's it for today, until next post!

[EMS] Luminous Skill Link Level 2 GET!

Hi guys! Recently I finally managed to obtain the second level of the Luminous Skill Link.

Level 1 gives 10% Percentual Defence Reduction (PDR) ignore, when you level a Luminous to Level 70. When reaching Luminous on Level 120, the Skill Link will upgrade to Level 2. Level 2 gives an increase of 5%, which making the transferable bonus in total 15%.

For now the following classes are still on my list, in this particular order:
1. Angelic Buster (increasing my burst damage in combination with Mu Gong, Valhalla and Epic Adventure)
2. Striker & Wind Breaker (increasing my Cygnus Blessing for more status & elemental resistance, to reduce fragility)
3. After release: Flame Wizard & Night Walker (maximizing Cygnus Blessing to Level 10)
4. If released: Beast Tamer (mostly for the % Critical and % HP/MP increase)

Eunwol will be my first priority if that will be released, due to the percentage of ignoring death. It must be noted that this Skill Link is truly much more powerful on a fragile class like Hero, since dying is quite common at bosses with potion cooldown. This will make a form of abusing this Skill Link, even if it's still considerd a low percentage of succeeding. Though, if I would be honest, it might be hard to get used to this gimmick since I die that often during bosses - instantly reviving would be unexpected to me (consider it a low % chance). Oh well, we'll see soon enough.

That's it for today, until next post!