Released in KMS in 2020 with the Full Moon Party event as part of a major class balancing, the rulings behind all skills that function as or similar to Enrage have been adjusted to soften the noticeable imbalance between classes. Today we'll thoroughly discuss these Enrage changes and how this affects Hero moving forward.
This blogpost was originally planned for the Spring of 2021, but due to the new 5th Job skill "Crest of the Solar" being notoriously difficult to obtain for the time being (explained here), this blogpost takes that vacant July blogpost slot.
Time for another history lesson.
Most people are probably unaware that this change to Enrage brings it closer to its original concept, back when 4th Job was released in 2006 (released in EMS in 2010). Pre-Big Bang's Enrage would provide the player with a (back then) respectable Weapon Attack buff without compromising on the amount of targets all of your skills would hit.
During this particular era, Weapon Attack buffs through the use of potions were very limited and weak, and Enrage would provide one of the highest boosts in the game (+26 Weapon Attack). Unlike Rage, it would not crumble your Weapon Defence, and its duration of 240 seconds puts other standard Attack potions to shame. Add the fact that Enrage has a generous uptime or no Combo Orb consumption whatsoever, it would initially prove to be a valuable skill indeed - albeit Mastery Books for Enrage being a disaster to farm for, and a skill that players would only have sufficient SP for when they're already close to Level 200 - during a time with only a few hundred Level 200's to begin with.
Back then, not all 4th Job skills could be maxed out. You would only have 3 SP per level - skills such as Brandish, Advanced Combo Attack and Power Stance had absolute priority, meaning that if you wanted to have Enrage, you'd have to be at least 150+. Even so, skills such as Maple Warrior and Achilles would prove to be far more valuable, which would bench Enrage until at least Level 171. Full SP Reset Scrolls had yet to exist.
The great uprising of World Tour content during their golden age however, put Enrage into perspective. You could only have one active Weapon Attack buff at a time, and while that was initially to Enrage's favor, it would slowly turn against it as the supply and variety of Weapon Attack buffs became greater than ever.
Zipangu's Mushroom Shrine had an initial fair source of cheap Takoyaki, but Showa's release saw the release of the omnipotent and ever-popular Cider. Masteria's mainland saw multiple sources of new items that would even rival Cider's presence. New Leaf City came with the reliable Warrior Elixir and a consistent daily supply of Leaf Crystals, Amoria introduced the paywall of marriage for a very limited supply of extremely-powerful-but-super-expensive Onyx Apples and Crystalized Pineapple Chew, and if you were lucky enough to obtain an Omni Key from the Haunted Mansion, you would have access to an unlimited supply of burst-like potions in the form of Heartstoppers.
Further paywall methods surfaced with iTCG, but that was something we never saw in EMS during its heyday. While to us most iTCG items such as Ssiws Cheese and Naricain's Demon Elixir have never been legally obtainable, the series of Battery Juices were made available from T-1337's exchange quest after the migration of 2016. This was short lived though, as T-1337's exchange quest was retired three years later with Glory's grand Masteria revamp.
However, none of these have been anywhere close to game-breaking as the release of Premium Mini Dungeon.
Premium Mini Dungeon, or PMD for short, was a recurring event to provide players with maps that contained the best loot and EXP rates. Mini Dungeons was a staple at the time: instanced private maps, made to combat map availability as there was really only one valid map to grind between Level 110 and 200. Keep in mind, that back then in EMS, players only had access up to five channels per language (six if you played on English). Given the meta of Mini Dungeons, Nexon saw a way to monetize it with Premium Mini Dungeon. Tickets were only obtainable through Cash Shop, and this was of course a decade before Meso Market's implementation. Trading for tickets was a small fortune due to its high demand, so players would usually end up charging NX themselves. It is by all means a paywall, and it's arguably "the worst" pay-to-win model the game has ever seen. It still puts even the likes of Frenzy Totem and Breath of Divinity to shame. I don't think anyone these days can comprehend how much of an understatement that is.
The Premium Mini Dungeon has been the reason why Level 200 before Big Bang was easier than the many years after Big Bang. It was a ridiculously lucrative event for both Nexon Europe and the player economy. There was really no reason to do anything but PMD. It invalidated Party Quests, invalidated other events, invalidated bosses, and it also invalidated other paywalls. PMD was the true and only valid endgame, bar none.
Nothing comes close to describing the true terror of PMD's legacy, as it provided a near infinite supply of:
- Onyx Apples in absurd quantities, invalidating the need of paywall marriage. It was more optimal to do one round of PMD by yourself than it was to do weeks worth of Amoria Party Quest with 5 others.
- Neo Tokyo's Energy Drinks in absurd quantities, invalidating the need of Neo Tokyo even years before it came to EMS. These potions pretty much gave the same attack boost as Enrage.
- All-around best in slot scrolls (which remained relevant until the release of ICOG), invalidating the need of Pigmy (Gachapon) paywall. These scrolls had a 100% success rate and gave the stat boost of a 10% scroll, invalidating pretty much every other single scroll (and scroll resources) in the game.
- Elemental Staves, which are (still) the best in slot weapons for any Staff mage. Invalidates the Pigmy paywall and the Crimsonwood Keep Party Quest meta.
- Coveted one-off event chairs and best in slot anniversary weapons, invalidating the need of doing any other events, including Maple's own anniversary event, but PMD.
- The most top of the line Mastery Books, such as Triple Throw 30, Genesis 30, Maple Warrior 20/30. This invalidates the need to do any boss, such as Zakum, Horntail and Pink Bean, and thus also invalidates the need for the aggressive mandatory HP wash paywall, Potential and Enhancement Scrolls. That kind of stuff puts even Breath of Divinity into perspective because BoD relies on the need to do bosses - if there's no reason to boss, then BoD loses its main purpose to justify its existence or value.
And that's not even all. Premium Mini Dungeon yielded EXP rates up to a staggering thirty-two EXP multiplier. Yes, you read it correctly: 32x. This is arguably even worse than Frenzy Totem because totems don't even come close to the same EXP rates as PMD. And getting to this 32x rate requires even a 2nd PC for the infamous "Welcome Back Mule" meta, which literally makes PMD predate the "Kanna 2 PC-meta" by at least four to five years, before Big Bang.
Certain items are still worthless after ten years because of PMD, and that's saying something: 2,7 out of three million EMS characters were deleted with the migration purge - and all of these took most of the supply with them.
When Neo Tokyo came out in 2010, the Energy Drinks found from its bosses were worthless because we already had tens of thousands in the economy. The Mystery Mastery Book, which existence was solely to soften the market prices of super-expensive Mastery Books in KMS, was dead on arrival because we had no expensive Mastery Books to begin with. The game state was an absolute mess, but dare I say it was one hell of a fun time to have been there.
But that shift in power creep, as you can imagine, put Enrage into perspective. In a time where everyone is running perfectly scrolled gear and an abundance of clearly superior Attack potions, why spend SP into Enrage when you can just buy a lifetime supply of Energy Drink, months before you even had enough SP to begin with? Energy Drinks not only give almost the same amount of attack, the buff also lasts about four times longer. And because it's a potion, it couldn't be dispelled back then, while Enrage however, could. With dispel being so common at many bosses, even in the lower brackets such as Papulatus and Pianus, Enrage would end up being rarely used. Everyone had Energy Drinks in spades before Big Bang, Onyx Apples could be purchased in bulk and there wasn't really a reason for Enrage to exist anymore. Unless you really were low on cash and wanted to be more conservative with resources.
Point being, the original Enrage suffered from both poor skill and poor game design. That was a problem.
So, the Big Bang update addressed this particular practical issue of Enrage's usefulness by changing its core concept to something less influenced by the game's own economy and game state. Gone are the days of using Enrage with Brandish to hit three enemies at once. Using Enrage would now function similar to Captain's Homing Beacon: you will now only hit one enemy, but you'll hit that single target much harder.
At the time, it was a direct upgrade in most situations. Players became relatively powerful (thanks to Potential and Enhancements within a meta dominated by the newly introduced Neo Tokyo weapons and Pigmy accessories), there was a genuine lack of HP sponge bosses, boss expeditions allowed up to 30 players to give strength in numbers and to compensate for the low line count on all skills, and bosses had generous time limits (i.e. Horntail's time limit was about 12 hours). There was really no concern of running out of time; the scariest a boss could get was dying (from non-% HP attacks, mind you) as this was still years before respawns and the removal of EXP when dying at bosses.
At its worst you could argue that the inability to hit multiple targets matters, but this was still during a time where MapleStory was designed with a small game resolution, which also meant that bosses and skills were adjusted accordingly. The hitbox of Brave Slash (or Brandish before that) was only great because it was easy to reach enemies consistently compared to other melee skills - it was rarely praised for its ability to hit multiple enemies during boss fights, unless you want to give the non-profitable 50 minute Zakum arms solo or CWKPQ argument. For the potentially few bosses where it could matter, i.e. Core Blaze's endless spawns of Mavericks or in the early days of the Van Leon meta, you wouldn't be allowed to enter these bosses on your own and neither was Maple at the point of having the "solo everything in the game but Ravana" mentality that it has today.
Suffice to say, as we move further down the (time)line, all of these points have changed drastically. What was once considered a direct upgrade, is unfortunately no longer the case. Bosses have much more health, expeditions are gone and players can now only enter with up to six (unless you count Urus or the now-defunct Hekaton). Time limit and DPS checks are much more of a concern than limited respawns. The changes made to Status and Knockback Resistance made boss summons more lethal than ever. MapleStory's resolution went up a significant portion and Hero's toolkit evolved with that in mind. All changed but Enrage, which now had the same core functionality for a decade. Only dealing increased damage to a single target was no longer viable; Enrage became stagnant.
Raging Blow replaced the short-lived Brave Slash during the Champions update in 2012, but "wet noodle" Raging Blow (as some joke it to be) originally didn't have its Enraged form until a year later with the RED update. Now, "Enraged Raging Blow" (or, ERB for short) boasts an incredible hitbox under the effects of Enrage, but the old concept of Enrage locking Hero to a single target started to see diminishing returns. Its hitbox was simply too large.
With the new standard set with 5th Job in 2016, several burst skills now upgrade Raging Blow to its ERB hitbox without the need of Enrage. While this improved Hero's mobility and bossing capabilities, we could not make any use of burst skills affecting multiple enemies when Enrage is applied. In order to hit multiple enemies with our burst skills, you would be forced to toggle Enrage off, losing out on a great portion of (potential) DPS, while any other burst-heavy classes did not even have this problem.
The benefits that Enrage gives stat-wise has changed a number of times throughout history, but I won't go into that. What needs to be said about these benefits however, is that Hero's class balance is with Enrage in mind. Balancing between classes in MapleStory is rarely done without considering the "complete picture". However, that complete picture is made moot when the game's variety is not designed with Enrage in mind. Thus, Hero's full potential could not always be met by fault of the game's design. Nexon has been trying to adjust boss designs or content (such as Mu Lung Dojo) to avoid single-target classes being at a disadvantage, but this is by no means a waterproof "one-size-fits-all" solution for every situation. Hence a more thorough change to Enrage (and other skills like it) was required: allow the high damage boost to remain as it is, but at least allow it to affect a small group of enemies.
A return to form, a middle-ground that encapsulates the core concepts and functionality of both previous generations of Enrage, but all executed appropriately and functional within context of modern MapleStory. Well done.
Return to Table of Contents
The 1/3 Split Rule
Moving forward, Enrage no longer reduces the amount of targets to one. Instead, it is changed to the following:
- Rule 1: Using skills with Enrage will now always affect at least 2 enemies.
- Exception: single-target skills (i.e. Three Snails, Erda Nova) will remain single-target skills.
- However, if a single-target skill is successfully upgraded to a double-target skill, this exception within this rule will be lifted.
- The logic behind Ryude's Sword and how it behaves with Enrage remains the same.
- Rule 2: Using skills with Enrage can affect more than 2 enemies, but only if a certain condition is met.
- The eponymous "1/3 Split Rule": divide the total target count of an attacking skill by three, and for each multiples of 3 in the resulting value, add one target count to Enrage.
- The resulting value in this calculation is always rounded down.
- Increasing a skill's target count through external sources is allowed.
- Rule 1 is absolute: you will always have an Enraged target count of at least 2.
- Examples of Rule 2:
- If a skill hits 3 enemies without Enrage, then with Enrage, you'll end up hitting 2.
Explanation: 3 / 3 = 1, but Rule 1 is absolute, forcing it to become two targets. - If a skill hits 8 enemies without Enrage, then with Enrage, you'll end up hitting 2.
Explanation: 8 / 3 = 2 ⅔. Just shy of ⅓, it is not enough to bump the targets to 3. - If a skill hits 9 enemies without Enrage, then with Enrage, you'll end up hitting 3.
Explanation: 9 / 3 = 3. - If a skill hits 15 enemies without Enrage, then with Enrage, you'll end up hitting 5.
Explanation: 15 / 3 = 5.
- Rule 3: Because the physical limit of targets set by the game is 15, the highest target count that can be achieved with Enrage is only 5 per attack.
- However, there are two skills that are an exception to this rule, which I will address later.
Because of these rules, some of Hero's skills will naturally benefit more than others. In general, having always at least two enemies hit is great, but one must understand that if you only hit two enemies during bosses, one target is always lost to the boss itself. However, don't panic just yet. In reality, it is not that bad as it might seem.
The Magic Numbers
In the case of Enrage, now that the amount of enemies you can hit is decided by dividing a skill's target count by 3, certain target counts become desirable to players as it can make a difference for certain skills' performance.
These desired target counts become "the magic numbers", of which only three exists: 9, 12 and 15.
Suffice to say, because target counts vary between attacks and are all over the place, certain magic numbers on certain skills can never be obtained within the current limitations of skill upgrading. Sometimes certain attacks will not even reach a magic number of 9 because of their low base target count. So, there aren't many correct ways of being "optimal" within this environment, as views on what's useful or not will understandably vary between players, and there's also the matter of available resources being different between servers. That said, despite the inconsistent environment, there are some pieces of advice that can be said, and that's the main purpose of this blogpost: to give you the basic awareness and know-how to tackle this environment.
In the end, what magic numbers one should strive for, in my opinion, is best judged in context of each skill. There aren't many ways to upgrade skills in terms of target count, but for the few that one can obtain, it certainly makes all the difference if you reach a certain magic number or not. Sometimes utilizing one resource is more than enough, but sometimes a skills may require two. Going through the effort of obtaining all of them may yield diminishing returns (especially in context of Inner Ability), so that particular route is only viable to those who know what they're doing.
Upgrading a skill's target count
There are several ways to upgrade a skill's target count. Only two resources are reliably consistent enough to work on every skill that does not already hit 15 enemies, and then there are a handful of resources that are very specific or exclusive to certain skills. Due to the nature of MapleStory being a continuously developing game where everything is always subject to change, I can only list the few resources that are available as of the writing of this blogpost. As with my
Adventure Ring blogpost, I prefer to have my readers well-informed, aware and smart enough so they can decide/search for themselves, instead of having them spoon-fed with direct answers that are subject to change.
Just to clarify: there are skills in the game that exist that do not allow for upgrading a skill's target count, such as Illium's
Radiant Javelin. However, this restriction is exceptionally rare, as there are only a handful of skills with it. Skills that do come with this restriction often have this mentioned in their description. Hero has no skills with such restriction, but as Maple continuously adds more skills, that may or may not change. If it would happen, it's most likely a new common skill that comes with this restriction (i.e. an Erda or Soul Weapon skill), if anything.
So, the first resource is possibly the most well known of the only two reliable options. Inner Ability has a chance of giving "Number of enemies hit by multi-target skill +1" on a Legendary-ranked line. As the name implies, it'll increase the target count on every applicable skill by one. Now, it is debatable whether this line is worth choosing over other lines such as Passives +1, 20% Cooldown Skip or Attack Speed Increase, but I would highly recommend to at least care enough to remember about this source for future endeavors. Here's why.
The current debate on the most optimal IA is only relevant as long as players are forced to only have one Legendary-ranked line. Inner Ability in its current form is stale, and the popularity of the "Attack Speed Increase" line is only there because of the "hard cap" attack speed. It's currently exclusive to GMS and EMS, and because players can only choose one Legendary-ranked line, the Attack Speed Increase line is pretty much exclusively chosen due to hard cap's existence, regardless whether players are going to use Extreme Green Potions all day to bypass the soft cap.
Thing is, it's a hot topic, an unhealthy obsession within the community, and all the red flags surrounding it reeks of upcoming (fundamental) changes. Nexon has openly stated multiple times that they will make adjustments to Inner Ability. What these adjustments are going to end up being however, is currently unknown. That said, Hero did receive an additional Attack Speed Increase recently in KMS, and this can be expected in EMS this Fall.
Exclusive content is usually not a problem to have in a regional version of MapleStory, until it becomes an unhealthy "meta" that defines and affects way too many things for its size. Imbalance between regional versions usually falls on deaf ears by the local community that benefits from said exclusive content, but those regional communities without will let themselves be heard. Remember when the old GMS community envied EMS for its exclusive content, wished to be more like EMS, to a point where GMS now has become EMS in every aspect but its name? Nexon has shown to care enough about regional differences to a point where they are willing to do as they see fit, no matter how controversial a decision can be. For those reasons alone, the removal of "hard cap" is long overdue to a point where it's inevitable.
As a silver lining, players will then have the option to choose something else, as they are no longer obliged to force such an expensive slot on something that could be solved more optimally with Self Speed Infusion instead when they only need to drop a single stage of Attack Speed instead of three. Point being, do not rule out Inner Ability entirely just yet, as it may prove to be invaluable in the near future...
And for those who are still adamant about "hard cap" staying, do not forget that the current producer is the one from EMS - and if there's something Anna dislikes, it's when the community is hell-bent on not letting certain mentalities go. It's the reason why the Gollux meta has been nerfed several times and why the fate of Level 3 skill links is uncertain, and one must remember that the "hard cap" attack speed removal wouldn't be the first time in EMS either.
Remember: whether Nexon has plans about keeping, adding or removing content means very little when it directly comes from themselves - there are many confirmed compensations such as the Zakum R/P/S event that never came to be, Twin Zakum and Hekaton were supposed to return, the migration purge was promised not to happen, and initially Nexon had no plans to return Additional Options. Relying on their words is naive. Use common sense.
The second resource is one I have mentioned
three years ago; Monster Life's signature Pipsqueak Luminous.
Back then I did mention in passing that this little pipsqueaky fellow would play a pivotal role in my build and that I would write about my reasoning in a distant future. Behold my fellow reader, as that distant future is now.
Pipsqueak Luminous is possibly the most valuable resource on this list. While other resources require sacrificing limited slots, Monster Life comes with a staggering capacity of up to 28 active effects, allowing for a great variety in options. And best of all, Monster Life applies to every character on that same world.
That said, Pipsqueak Luminous is locked behind the dreaded timesink that is Level 40, and I did show some criticism regarding certain aspects of Monster Life back then. How does it hold up today after many updates? The thing is, Monster Life has unfortunately not seen many changes after that blogpost. However, only recently has Nexon (slowly) made some genuine improvements that benefits all Monster Life users. About time.
Gems can now be obtained in spades. Literal hundreds per coin shop event. And by "in spades", I mean like, I'm swimming in thousands of gems. The drastically improved gem rates allows new Monster Life users to speed up their progression significantly. Warus production can be greatly improved early on by purchasing better buildings from these gems and afford those larger (but moderately expensive) baseplates as soon as they reach the required level.
In a few months, an improvement arrives where you'll need to spend less time to gain EXP, which will affect the ease of leveling in Monster Life. Pharoah Yeti's are still a necessity, but at least you no longer need to fatigue or strain your arm by clicking relentlessly for 8 hours per level to reach Level 40. While there have been some new Level 40 farms in the past couple of years, dare I say there are still not enough of them - there are more Level 275's in EMS than there are Level 40 farms. And then there are also idiots who have a Level 40 farm, but don't have Pipsqueak Luminous.
Anyway, when you reach Level 40, it's the same as it was three years ago. You hop in Monster Life, you only have to replace your Pipsqueak Luminous once per month, and it costs about 600k Warus each. Even with the most lazy approach, it doesn't take much to generate several hundred thousands Warus daily, and if it's only 600k a month, just logging in to auto-collect once two to three days in a row is going to suffice. Geez, how much easier can it be?
The next common resource is one many own, but from this point forward the resources become more specific and limited in which skills are upgraded. Enhancement Cores are incredibly popular within the 5th Job environment due to the high damage increase per core slot. But a particular overlooked matter with Enhancement Cores is that starting at Level 20, any Enhancement Core provides a passive targets +1 for the skills listed, when possible. Because the requirement is only Level 20, there is no need to sacrifice two core slots if you're only after the +1 target count.
That said, as most people know with Enhancement Cores, one core can only affect up to three skills at a time. So, in order to reinforce every skill, one must not only own enough of the appropriate cores, they also need to have enough space in their Matrix to equip them. Assuming you want to have a +1 target count on everything except for Brandish and Brave Slash, you'll need at least three Enhancement cores. Realistically, players would be required to sacrifice four Matrix slots as at least a pair of Raging Blow / Final Attack / Rage Uprising is highly recommended to maximize damage output. But within this conundrum, also lies a inherent limitation of Enhancement Cores.
Enhancement Cores will only affect skills listed between 1st and 4th Job. This means that any skill from your Beginner tab and 5th Job are excluded. This rule so far has been absolute, and consistently executed since release. Since most skills that are newly acquired tend to go straight to one's Beginner or 5th Job tab, it rules them out for having any Enhancement Core support by default. And that's a damn shame, because skills that could use the damage reinforcement and/or targets upgrade the most are often from these two tabs.
The final resources that I have yet to cover here are all specific upgrades exclusive to certain skills (i.e. Hyper Skills and the occasional Skill Quest), so I'll mention them when relevant. Now, onto the relevant skills themselves.
Analyzing Hero's skills
And now I'll go through most of Hero's skills to discuss the minimum target count on each, and the potential maximum with the currently available resources. I'll group most of these together where relevant, as there's some overlap.
While there's something that can be said about the benefits of increasing a skill's target count for the sake of utility or efficiency, I'm only going to discuss the benefits for Enrage. Remember: just because some skills can't reach certain magic numbers, it doesn't invalidate the benefits of upgrading target counts for non-Enrage uses!
Soul Driver
Starting off with the most peculiar of Hero's skill tree. SD is absent from any starting Hero's skill inventory and needs to be earned by completing the infamous
Power of the Spirit of Light series of quests. Completing the first quest gives you Soul Driver at Level 1, and subsequent quests must be completed to have it Level 5. You'll gain one skill level per quest clear.
What sets this apart from other skills is that Soul Driver still uses a very old skill design philosophy from before Big Bang. Level 1 Soul Driver has a max target count of only 4, and for each two levels, this is increased by one. Back then, it was standard that skills would gradually improve different attributes every few levels, not limited to targets, hitbox, and line count (i.e. Rush, Shout and Monster Magnet). Only at Level 5 will Soul Driver have a base target count of 6.
Soul Driver is a Beginner tab skill, so it can only receive Pipsqueak Luminous and Inner Ability. There are no other resources to exhaust after that. It'll be one upgrade short of reaching the first magic number of 9. Shame.
So in regards of magic numbers, Soul Driver is already the first skill that hits a common roadblock. No matter how many upgrades you apply, it'll always remain stuck at two targets. The silver lining in all of this, is that any level of Soul Driver yields the same results with Enrage - although Soul Driver isn't really a skill designed with Enrage in mind. But what probably kills it the most is its relatively low damage (even at Level 5) and its inability to activate many of Hero's staple follow-up skills. It really is a skill for mobbing first and foremost, as it has little value in the bossing environment.
Slash Blast
Slash Blast is the only Hero skill between 1st and 4th Job that
does not have an Enhancement Core. This limits Slash Blast to have a maximum target count of 8.
As with Brandish and Brave Slash, Slash Blast is pretty much never used again once you have Raging Blow, as it's a direct upgrade.
Interestingly enough, it did have a dedicated Enhancement Core when the first wave of 5th Job was still in Tespia. It still remains unreleased to this day, so it's very likely to have been scrapped, as with many other things in Maple, including bits of 5th Job (i.e. Level 50 Sword of Burning Soul).
Leap Attack / Upper Charge
Upper Charge and Leap Attack are bound to the same limitations as Soul Driver. They can never reach the magic number of 9, and are therefor bound to seeing only two targets while using Enrage.
Leap Attack only has a base target count of 4, while Upper Charge only has 5. As Rule 1 states: Enrage will now always target (at least) two enemies, so upgrading either to a target count of 6 will not add anything here.
It should be mentioned that Upper Charge and Leap Attack's Enhancement Core is shared with Rush. Upgrading Rush will also upgrade these two.
Either way, both only really exist for the sake of moving away from danger during bosses, so it's not a big deal that they don't do much with Enrage. Sure, if you want to be technical about it, the two can trigger follow-up skills such as Sobs and Aura Weapon, but that's neither here nor there.
Combo Force / Combo Hookshot
Combo Force has a base target count of 8, which is mainly abused for guaranteeing Combo Orb recharges as it's 80% rate of "activating Combo Attack's recharge once" is rolled an equal amount of times to how many enemies the skill successfully connected with. It's very unlikely to fail a recharge with Combo Force, and this hidden effect is still exclusive to it.
Seeing as it's only one target short to reach the magic number of 9, having Pipsqueak Luminous is undeniably the most optimal resource to use, as it's pretty much free. With three Enraged targets, failing a recharge is a rare occurrence - but it can still happen though.
Although as mentioned before, one must be aware that
Combo Instinct disables Combo Synergy and Combo Force's special effects. At that point,
Sword Illusion will be invaluable, although the skill comes with a half minute cooldown.
What about Combo Hookshot? Combo Hookshot is a single-target skill, and while it originally did affect multiple enemies (
in a hilarious manner, that is), it's unfortunately no longer the case. Nexon made sure that you can't upgrade its target count, so no matter how many upgrades you slap onto Combo Force, it won't affect Combo Hookshot.
Panic / Brandish / Brave Slash
The two attacks of Brandish and Brave Slash are immediately replaced by Raging Blow once you reach 4th Job, so there's not much of a reason to spend much time on these. However, since they are identical to Panic in circumstance as far as Enrage goes, I ought to include them here.
Panic starts out with only six enemies, and the skill can only reach the magic number of 9. In order to do so, one must exhaust all three resources - Inner Ability, Monster Life and the Enhancement Cores. It's not worth exhausting all three resources exclusively for Panic; you're better off toggling Enrage if you happen to need to use it against three enemies. The most likely situation where this might happen is when an Elite Boss spawns... assuming you're unable to kill the two Elite Monsters fast enough without Chance Attack. And because it can never reach the magic number of 12, you can't avoid toggling Enrage off when you're up against at least four enemies who need the debuff.
So realistically speaking, as with most of Hero's secondary/tertiary skills, if one would end up having a fully-maxed-out Panic, it's because one exhausted all resources for an important primary skill.
Rush
Rush starts out with a whopping 12 target count, which makes it comfortably start with four Enraged targets! It's not worth exhausting all resources exclusively for Rush in order to have it reach a base target count of 15.
Here's the thing. From a practical perspective, Rush with Enrage isn't much of a great combination to rely on. Rush is mainly used during bosses to move yourself away from danger. For the few bosses that do have a flat map and lots of summons for you to deal with, you wouldn't use Rush to deal with them, unless you want to put yourself at risk.
It's certainly isn't like the old days of Papulatus anymore, where Rush was key to safely get rid of
High Dark Stars...
Shout
Shout starts out with a target count of 10, so with Enraged, you'll affect three enemies. You would only need two resources for it to reach 12 - although I don't think it's worth improving Shout solely for Enrage.
Shout is one of the few reliable skills that has a hitbox that covers all directions really well, but it is held back by its 10 seconds cooldown and Combo Orb consumption. While it probably won't be exclusively used to save your skin, Shout pairs well with most movement options that Hero has. Though these moments might end up being rare, there's some value to that.
Interestingly, it's likely for die-hard Heroes to reach 12 targets with Shout. Shout's Enhancement Core has a high skill damage increase as it's a 3rd Job skill, which fully upgraded (including Incising's passive bonus damage to Shout) will outperform Raging Blow. Those who go through the effort of maximizing Shout's damage will unlock the inherent +1 target bonus from its Enhancement Core, and combined with Monster Life's "free" Pipsqueak Luminous, will reach 12.
Raging Blow
Raging Blow, Hero's main attack skill, is the one with the most amount of options. Starting with a target count of 8, Raging Blow not only has access to all of the standard resources, it also can be further upgraded through a dedicated Hyper Skill. This Hyper Skill adds two targets, which allows Raging Blow to hit 10 enemies.
It would only require one upgrade for Raging Blow to reach the magic number of 9, but it can also be upgraded to 12! It is the only Hero skill that has enough upgrades to jump two magic numbers.
The best part about it, is that you don't even have to exhaust all resources in order to achieve the magic number of 12. Combined with its Hyper Skill, one would only need an Enhancement Core and Pipsqueak Luminous to add 4 targets. There is no need for Inner Ability here. Heck, magic number 12 is impossible without the Hyper Skill. It is required.
So, is overextending Raging Blow from 8 to 12 targets really worth it? Yes, it is. While I can't confidently say it's an absolute must have by all means, it does make a difference in the few places where it matters. I'll explain why.
As I've mentioned before, certain bosses heavily rely on summons to justify their difficulty. For these types of bosses, getting rid of these summons is crucial, as in most cases leaving them alive for too long can be a run-killer. Summon-heavy bosses are present in every difficulty bracket, as early as Level 50 players facing Easy Zakum, all the way to the top with the Tenebris commanders. It's been a deadly staple in MapleStory boss designs as early as the original 3rd Job certificate trio (Pianus, Papulatus, Zakum) long before 4th Job's release in 2006, and summons remain a looming threat to this day. Here's the thing: the newer the boss, the more devastating their summons become.
Long gone are the days where summons can be dealt with as a group. No matter if it's Neo Tokyo in 2008, the early Black Mage commanders after Big Bang, the release of Lotus in 2015 or Lucid the year after. It's been undeniably proven that well organized parties will make short work of even the most aggressive or relentless hoard of summons.
2018's raid boss Dusk changed everything after it received a revamp in 2020. Utilizing the most modern tools at Nexon's disposal, summons from Dusk are now instanced, meaning that other party members cannot see or interact with them. These summons are thus exclusively your own problem to deal with, and to make matters worse - they will pester you with status effects such as Seal, Crazy Skull and Petrify. If you happen to die when they are around, your party members are punished for your incompetence, further snowballing into what may become a run-killer. Good luck.
Whether this sets a precedent for future boss designs is anyone's best guess. Yours is as good as mine. However, the jump from any Lotus or Lucid to Dusk is clear: the higher we climb, the more lethal summons are designed to be. The cooldowns on powerful skills, such as Sobs and Combo Instinct, make them unreliable for the purpose of getting rid of any summons as soon as they spawn in. In many situations, Raging Blow will have to do the dirty work instead. During these moments, no matter how brief they may be, having one or two additional targets will make all the difference.
Make no mistake: in a lot of cases, one target count is always lost on the boss as Enrage is designed to always give priority to it. So let's say you only have an Enraged target count of 3. This will only allow you to hit up to two summons. Any leftover enemies will have to be defeated by any follow-up skill (i.e. Sobs, AW, CI), and that's only if these skills are available when you need them. While it's fair to say that Enraged Raging Blow having the "ideal" target count of 4 wouldn't allow you to entirely ignore the game's difficulty either, softening it as much as you can is invaluable.
However, choosing the Hyper Skill "+2 targets" for Raging Blow has always been a hot topic. Truth is, Hero has a selection of 9 Hyper Skill upgrades to choose from, but only up to 5 can be active at a time. This is the main reason why I can't confidently say it's an absolute must, as there are too many useful Hyper Skills to choose from. Choosing "+2 targets" will come at the cost of dropping something else. Concessions Ray, concessions.
In moments like these, I've always been an advocate (or avocado, depending how you look at it) of choosing stats that are hard to come by over small damage upgrades that will only affect one skill. Especially in context of 5th Job, where most of Hero's damage does not come from Raging Blow or AFA, there's more room to choose for utility, performance and consistency over slightly increasing Raging Blow's or AFA's skill damage. Ya know, that stuff matters too.
Okay. Let's say we narrow down the list of Hyper Skills to only include those who truly matter. Even if we're limited to choose up to only five Hyper Skills, we end up with six Hyper Skills that are worth considering. They are the following:
- ACA - Reinforce: Final Damage is the best damage improving stat, bar none. Do I need to say more?
- ACA - Opportunity: Guarantees to recharge two Combo Orbs when you proc recharge. Together with Level 32 ACA, you'll have a 2% chance of recharging three. Combo Orb management has always been important. Even more so with the introduction of skills such as CDF, Combo Instinct and Sword Illusion.
- ACA - Boss Rush: While not supported by Combo Death Fault's "ghost orbs", it does give a measly additional 2% Boss Damage within Combo Instinct's short duration.
- AFA - Opportunity: Maximizing AFA's proc rate helps to dish out more and consistent damage. Combined with Level 32, AFA's proc rate can go up to 76% - which becomes invaluable with Sword Illusion as it adds up to 51 additional lines to it.
- Raging Blow - Spread: The two extra targets Hyper Skill that I just talked about.
- Raging Blow - Extra Strike: Adds an additional line to Raging Blow. Mandatory.
By all means, it should be clear that the weakest Hyper Skill in this list is ACA - Boss Rush. A bold statement, that's for sure - but keep in mind that in reality, many high-end Heroes runs Boss Damage in the hundreds, so the extra 20% will hardly add up. The stat is so common these days, even in versions without Familiars, that it's hard to justify spending a very expensive and limited resource (which is one of only five Hyper Skill SP) in something like this.
To make matters even worse, any compatibility or nice combinations this Hyper Skill could (or, should) have with other Combo Attack skills leaves a lot to be desired. Combo Death Fault's "ghost orbs" only gives additional Final Damage. While ACA - Reinforce's for additional Final Damage does work with these ghost orbs, ACA - Boss Rush and Combo Attack's native attack boost do not. Yes, it is true that Combo Instinct does not give any Boss Damage if ACA - Boss Rush is not selected, but if you do, it'll only add a measly 2% extra for 30 seconds, with a 4 minutes cooldown.
So, all things considered, justifying to choose ACA - Boss Rush over Raging Blow - Spread is questionable. One is obliged to make hard calls while selecting Hyper Skills, but the overall benefits that the +2 targets provides for both Enrage and non-Enrage endeavors outweighs the small damage reinforcement that Boss Rush offers.
Remember: damage improvement is always good, but you still need to clear a boss run in order for it to matter. While it's very easy to become a victim of the obsessive power creep mentality, there's a reason why utility and quality of life stuff exist. They are not to sell your damage short; it's to give you a better chance at victory. Play those cards well.
Incising
Ah, Incising. The skill that Nexon
keeps buffing for some stupid reason, and nobody seems to notice. With it's
ridiculous hitbox, it still suffers from the "Zero's Shadow Rain" syndrome as its target count is only 8.
The main difference between Incising and Raging Blow is that Incising does not have any Hyper Skills. Thus, it'll only have access to the three main resources. You will only need one to boost Incising's Enraged target count to three, so a Pipsqueak Luminous will do the job.
Unlike our other "support" skills, there's a valid reason to boost Incising to 9 targets, and that's only because of its stupid hitbox - it's easy to maintain a safe distance from summons that you do not want to have nearby.
Rage Uprising
Rage Uprising has a base target count of 10, which is only shared with Shout and Aura Weapon. Because it's a Hyper Skill, it has access to all three resources. Only two is required to reach a target count of 12.
Rage Uprising starts with an Enraged target count of 3. While its hitbox is great, its cooldown hinders its ability to make quick work of summons while maintaining a safe distance. Regardless, the skill has come a long way since its original release in 2013.
Thankfully, most players have Rage Uprising included in their main Enhancement Core duo, so you would only need to add a Pipsqueak Luminous to have that Enraged target count of 4.
Erda Nova
Unfortunately, Erda Nova is exclusively a single-target skill. Originally when it came out, one was able to apply upgrades to it, which resulted in some
hilarious shenanigans where you could shoot multiple Erda Nova's projectiles, binding one enemy each.
Nexon patched this out
in about a year after I wrote about it on my blog. It's not the first time that this happened, and it won't be the last time either. That said, let's say, what if they kept it as it is? I guess Erda Nova would've had only up to two binds with Enrage - only one target if no upgrades were present, but also not more than two if several upgrades were applied to it.
Anyway, to be clear: Erda Nova is a single-target skill, it cannot be upgraded in target counts, therefor it's an exception in regards to Rule 1, and it will remain the same (a single-target skill) with Enrage.
Sword of Burning Soul
Sobs has a base target of 8, and this applies to both its normal and stationary forms. As it's a 5th Job skill, it has no Enhancement Cores available, and its target count can only be upgraded through Inner Ability and Monster Life. Only one of either is required to reach a total of 9.
One of the main reasons why I recommend maximizing Raging Blow to a magic number of 12 is because Sobs cannot be relied on to clean up any enemies left over if Raging Blow fails to do so. Sobs will mainly be used to deal with the boss and that means that almost half of the time, it's on cooldown. And even if it's active, it'll only have two targets left to hit because Enrage gives the boss priority.
Fortunately, if you have all the required resources for Raging Blow 12, you'll also have Sobs 9. Convenient.
While one should always use Sobs' normal form to maximize damage output, stationary's utility provides an unique advantage that's exclusive to it. As
discussed before, the maximum allowed distance between you and a stationary Sobs before it returns is generous - in most cases, as long as you can still see Sobs on your screen, it'll stay there.
At certain bosses this can allow you to keep summons in certain areas at bay, providing you're able to successfully place a stationary Sobs there. It also gives the benefit of "spawncamping" in some situations, as stationary receives a high damage priority, which means that damage dealt this way is calculated and processed earlier than many other actions within the game. In short, the game lets Sobs stationary shoot first, so incoming summons are most likely to be killed before they are allowed perform attacks and status effects. There are not many skills in Hero's toolkit that allows to win a "priority match-up", as most of its skills are considered "neutral". But damage priority is a topic for another day.
Just keep in mind that despite this sounds great and all, if Enrage is applied, you're likely to only make good use of this priority-based advantage against up to two summons at a time. Toggling off Enrage for the sake of getting rid of as many summons as you can at certain bosses might be more important than maintaining the most optimal DPS.
Aura Weapon
Aura Weapon has a base target count of 10. It's a 5th Job skill, so you can only use Inner Ability and Monster Life to reach that magic number of 12. However, due to Aura Weapon's narrow hitbox, it's very unlikely for the skill to connect with summons, especially when they are small (and flying).
It's a shame, and they should make its hitbox at least equal to the skill's projectile appearance, as it's incredibly common for every warrior class to miss a shot with this skill.
It's never good to have a skill's hitbox be smaller than its appearance.
Combo Death Fault / Erda Shower
Both Combo Death Fault and Erda Shower already have a target count of 15, so they cannot be further upgraded whatsoever. With Enrage, they'll give you an Enraged target count of 5.
All things considered, it's always good to have a skill that comes with the target cap, fresh out of the box. Makes you wonder if Nexon would ever increase the target or line count of 15... maybe after the implementation of the much-anticipated 64 Bit client that they've worked on for years.
Blitz Shield
Blitz Shield has a target count of 12 - starts with 4 Enraged targets. Because it's a 5th Job skill, it does not have enough upgrades for it to reach the magic number of 15. Not that it's a big deal or anything, as its hitbox is great, and it's ability to overlap with any other skill as it's a no delay effect is fantastic.
I feel like I'm the only one who sometimes considers Blitz Shield to be more valuable than CDF. It really is a great skill.
Return to Table of Contents
Spider in Mirror / Sengoku Secret Manual
Sengoku Secret Manual (Beginner skill) and Spider in Mirror (5th Job) are grouped together as they are the only two skills in Hero's toolkit that target 15 enemies
with Enrage active. Yes, you read that right. Because that's a thing, there's really no reason to
not use Enrage with these. The damage boost more than makes up for that single Combo Orb consumption.
As explained in its
dedicated blogpost, Spider in Mirror's follow up barrage can only target one enemy each, and because of that, these barrages cannot be increased in target count. These barrages being exclusively single-target attacks means that it falls within the exception of Rule 1, therefor it will stay single-target, with or without Enrage.
Although because both skills have a pretty high cooldown, it's unlikely for one to make good use of this benefit. While you could argue that it's reasonably balanced because of its high cooldown, I'm pretty sure that the Enrage bypass is an oversight and I won't bet my lunch on Nexon keeping this one. Remember that many years ago, Soul Driver, one of our weakest skills at our disposal, could bypass Enrage, and even that was patched out rather quickly.
That said, because these attacks already hit 15 enemies, it cannot be further upgraded with Inner Ability or Monster Life. None of them have available Enhancement Cores, either.
Unfortunately because
Sengoku Secret Manual is locked behind the Sengoku High event, it's very unlikely for people who missed out on it to get their hands on this skill. It is uncertain whether this event will ever return, as it's existence is stigmatized and condemned for introducing the controversial
Sengoku Hakase Badge, even if most people are unaware that the event ran for many years without the badge as a reward, and that it was only added in after the event's
third revamp. For your information: all of the good rewards are behind a paywall,
including the badge and skill. Entry tickets
can be bought with Maple Points, and Maple Points can be bought with mesos through the Meso Market.
Anyway, Nexon could easily bring back the event with everything but the badge, but that would probably do more harm than good, so they probably won't bother to ever bring it up again. Thus, for the time being, Sengoku Secret Manual is now an
end-of-life product, another unfortunate case of Nexon's "leave it behind, let's move on" mentality.
What a shame, as the skill is a nice thing to have on any character, really. All of that commotion, and for what? A single item that caused so much out-of-hand controversy, that it took down three different recurring events with it, including all of those rewards, fun additions to the game's storyline, and any prospects of it ever returning in any shape or form, without valuing or considering to perpetuate the merits that it had. So much asking for fun in a video game.
Combo Instinct
Combo Instinct comes with a target count of 6, which with Enrage will only provide you with the minimal two. Having two enemies with your main burst leaves a bit to be desired, but it's at least sufficient enough for stuff as Eunwol's Soul Split.
Because it's a 5th Job skill, it only has access to two resources, so it cannot reach the magic number of 9 as it would need 3.
Keep in mind that Combo Instinct is fired after Raging Blow, so in most cases, the short-handed two enemy target count of the skill is irrelevant, as a decked out Raging Blow (and Sobs) would tend to get rid of summons before CI would do even anything. The sum is greater than the parts, I guess.
The only exceptions here would be if you're unable to one shot enemies with RB (i.e.
10b HP or 30b HP summons), or if the amount of incoming summons is too large for Enrage to overcome. If the latter is the case, it's best to toggle off Enrage to melt as many enemies as soon as possible in order to mitigate any risk of keeping them alive.
Sword Illusion
Sword Illusion is a bit of an oddity. Yes, it has a base target count of 8, so you could consider to upgrade it to 9 by using either the Pipsqueak Luminous or Inner Ability, but even without any upgrades, it's always straight up overkill.
Because the skill attacks 17 separate times in quick succession, you'd basically get rid of up to 34 enemies while Enraged, or up to 51 if you've upgraded the skill to the magic number of 9.
The only real difference that makes is that each barrage will hit now three enemies instead of two, which may have its uses for multi-part bosses, or to be simply more optimal/efficient with the skill, even if it only lasts for two seconds.
Enrage outside bossing?
Surprisingly, there's more to the "new" Enrage, as it also offers benefits outside of bossing.
The enlarged Raging Blow originally started with Enrage in 2013, dubbed "Enraged Raging Blow" (or "ERB" for short). With 5th Job's release, ERB was no longer exclusive to Enrage, as it was upgraded to become Hero's now-staple mobility through Sword of Burning Soul and Valhalla. However, five years later, as ERB mobbing is still on cooldown, there is no reliable means of having the larger hitbox everywhere, at any given time. That limitation however, is no longer as apparent with the recent introduction of the 1/3 Split Rule.
With the new changes, Hero receives a back-up with Enrage where they're able to have a guaranteed, reliable and always-available ERB mobbing, albeit at a greatly reduced target count. Thing is, the cycle of Sobs → Valhalla → Sobs → CI is very precise and prone to human error, where the order of skills matter, and if the cycle is broken through disconnecting, dying without Buff Freezers or by Hunter Portals, they're left vulnerable and forced to play with "wet noodle" Raging Blow (and Incising) until the cooldowns have reset. Heroes now have the option and choice to at least maintain a consistent hitbox when they desire to do so, instead of being left empty handed. Plus, being no longer obliged to always follow the cycle would allow you to substitute CI for ERB in times when you're expecting something like an Elite Boss or Inferno Wolf to spawn in soon, in case you prefer not to waste that burst skill for mobbing.
Then, there are situations where the lower target count doesn't matter at all, and that makes the improved RB hitbox a direct upgrade. For bosses like Gollux or Hilla, the added reach makes dealing with the early mobbing stages much more convenient. For (daily) locations that lack MultiKO's and EXP rewards, such as Hungry Muto, Monster Park and Maple Tour, one might even want to use Enraged Raging Blow there too.
Interestingly enough, the 1/3 Split Rule did get rid of one niche: Sudden Missions. You see, having old Enrage lock every attack to only affect one target at a time meant that it was easy to finish Combo Kill missions. Doing 300 Combo Kills is now more than twice as time consuming, and it can no longer be managed within a single Commerci run. It's a shame, I miss that already. Why are many Sudden Missions superfluous, time-consuming and not worth the effort?
Verdict
So, the "new" Enrage is a pretty nifty and fair addition to our collection. Despite Hero's target counts among skills are all over the place, it should be clear that many of them will only require one or two upgrades in order to make them far more worthwhile with Enrage.
In fact, this change to Enrage almost makes Level 40 Monster Life mandatory. While many skills can benefit from an Enhancement Core, the ones that affect general gameplay the most require the Pipsqueak Luminous. If you really have no access to Monster Life, it's difficult to recommend substituting Monster Life with Inner Ability as long as we're limited to a single Legendary-ranked line. However, like I said, it should remain on the table as a valid option, as with something like Inner Ability long-term, it can only improve in what it has to offer.
As MapleStory continues to evolve, many resources will come and go. Keep your eyes peeled for new methods to gain more of that elusive target count attribute, and always make sure to carefully reassess how that affects the performance of all Hero skills - today and tomorrow.
That said, toggling off Enrage should remain a habit in everyone's playstyle, because the 1/3 Split Rule does not invalidate Hero's gameplay without. There are still many situations where not using Enrage can make all the difference in surviving or DPS - it's really up to the player to make the best out of the tools they're given.
Last but not least, they've added in a neat little detail: toggling off Enrage now comes with its own animation. It helps to have this visual feedback since your eyes tends to follow your character a lot. It certainly reads a lot quicker than trying to find Enrage among the many skill icons on the top right corner of your screen. Although for some reason, they've added a little delay between toggling, so you can no longer spam or mash it. Nooo, my niches!
Oh, I should probably mention that there's perhaps one boss that became more difficult with the new Enrage, depending how you look at it. Because Enrage no longer locks to a single target, one must be more cautious and careful when facing Chaos Pierre during phase 3. Nothing a good dose of practice can't fix, and thankfully these days it's common to see players skip phase 3 by binding him or by nuking him with sheer damage output. What a clown.
Anyway, apologies for the delay, as it's literally the last day of the month. I have been dealing with a pretty tenacious and fearsome swarm of vermin in my room for over a week now. It's been both mentally and physically demanding, to say the least. Now, back to brandishing my fly swatter like a madman, as I fear them more than they'll ever fear me...
That's it for today - I'll see you guys again next post!
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