Hi guys! With the ongoing daily grind and the current Haste event, there's plenty of Nodestones to be found. Thus, it didn't take long to find the last duplicates to max out Body of Steel, since it was so close to Level 25 anyway.
Having Body of Steel going from Level 29 to 30 is quite a difference, as its duration gains one additional second and the max stacks goes from 10 to 11. Although as I mentioned in my in-depth coverage of the skill, it's a challenge to hit 11 stacks within a reasonable amount of time - even at something like the Inferno Wolf you'll only have max stacks near the end of the duration. I still use this skill as often as I can, but even after using the skill for 3 years, it remains one of those "balanced" skills that's certainly useful but not too exciting. The Superstance is still pretty great, though.
Anyway, so that huge Zipangu revamp came out of nowhere a couple of days ago. I'm quite happy to see that Nexon put some effort into it. Heck, this revamp is significant because they made sure to be thorough with the changes as aside from Present Tokyo and Neo Tokyo, no substantial part of Zipangu was left unchecked. World Tours have achievements now, huh? And suddenly, after 14 years, Neo Tokyo's best-in-slot ammunition Armor-Piercing Bullet has been dethroned by Showa's Glass Marble. Although there's still use for APB (and Giant Bullet), seeing as you can only obtain one untradeable Glass Marble per account. They still haven't dethroned MTK's after all this time, though.
Gee Zipangu, why do you always get to provide all of the best ammunition in the game? Unless we consider (defunct) supplements such as Small Flames and Blaze/Glaze Capsules to be a relevant discussion, as these had no equals.
If there's one thing I *didn't* like about the revamp, is that most of the Showa quests have been reset. I get that they reworked the rewards for most of these quests, but I really did not appreciate the need to sacrifice a third Newspaper Hat and yet another Frying Pan just to have my quests completed again. At least there were plenty of Auction House listings for these Gachapon items, but aside from that, most of the Showa quests have aged poorly in conjunction with the 2016 Mushroom Shrine revamp. Most of these modern maps contain a selection of different enemies, so there are no longer "pure spawn" maps for i.e. Cloud Fox and Water Goblin, which made farming those hundreds (!) of Fox Tails and Cucumbers tedious. Just make sure you don't die from The Boss, because the map is no longer protected and you'll lose way more than 1% if you do.
Either way, new Zipangu stuff is always hype. Having Tonosama soul shards is in line with those Maple M's Auf Haven soul shards I spotted last year, so that's a good prospect for Neo Tokyo's inevitable return... Most people forget that Kaede Castle is part of Neo Tokyo's tutorial, after all.
That's it for today - I'll see you guys again next post!
