[EMS] Third Level 20 Arcane Symbol GET!

Hi guys! Today my Arcane Symbol for the Arcana region has hit Level 20! This means I'm already halfway done with maxing out my symbols...

It took me a bit longer than it normally should to get my Arcana symbol maxed out.

At first I couldn't get maxed out daily scores with Spirit Savior, resulting in just a few symbols a day for a couple of weeks and slowly crawling up that high score to a decent-but-still-not-amazing number. But after doing Spirit Savior for several months, I managed to figure out how Spirit Savior works (i.e. how the respawn locations for Rock Spirits are programmed, how the Toxic Spirit's movement behavior can be manipulated) and get consistent 10.000 scores for each run, even if I required three to five hits to free each Rock Spirit. Of course nowadays it's easy for me to hit a score of 15.000 each run while only requiring two hits for each Rock Spirit, but that still results in the same amount of symbols because of the rewards-based-on-scores limit.

So for now I can take a break with Spirit Savior until they release the maximum level of 25. I'm actually curious to how Nexon will approach this, given the "max Level 15 to 20" change hasn't been received all too well and the process of maxing out the Lacheln/Arcana symbols is often disliked by the community because it's slow, punishing when making mistakes and tough to manage maximum daily rewards. It doesn't stop me from doing those dailies anyways, but I could understand why people dislike it. It's a shame that I haven't been able to make good use of the ticket or pitty systems for Spirit Savior, but at least the system will be there to help out new or returning players.

I should unlock my Esfera symbol next month after I hit Level 235. Expect my Lacheln symbol to be maxed out next Spring, my Morass symbol next Summer and my Esfera symbol before the end of 2019.

Anyway, I should reach a thousand Arcane Force in a few days (expect a small blogpost to celebrate by then).

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

[EMS] Level 234!

Ding! I took the opportunity today to grind out 20% because my room is currently being worked on until the end of this week, and thus I couldn't do more than messing around on my PC since everything else is unavailable to me. It took me about four hours for that 20%, but at least I'm getting close to Level 235! The Bug Brawl event certainly gives a lot of additional EXP...

I've grinded out a total of 40% in the past four days, so you can imagine I feel a bit tired. Time to take it easy for 235 and start with 3% a day again. I should hit that level somewhere next month. Even if the Black update is planned to arrive in (late?) November, there's still plenty of time and space left.

That's it for today! I'll probably see you guys again tomorrow!

[EMS] Ryude's Sword - Still a relevant option for Hero, if you ask me.

Sup guys! Today's blogpost is that "special column" I've mentioned I was going to write about. In this (hopefully informative) post we're going to take a look at a sword that was a popular weapon for only a moment - Ryude's Sword!

Ryude's Sword, without upgrades.

Ryude's Sword had an interesting life so far. When it came out, a vocal majority went nuts for it - it was deemed a top tier sword for a very long time, and it was used in many major builds. It even was unaffordable to many players and it has remained a tough-to-find weapon. Then, a fair balancing adjustment happened to this weapon when it became too popular... Suddenly nobody talked about it any longer, and people moved on with their lives.

MapleStory has a respectable list of special(ized) equipment that allow for certain gimmick builds. The majority of this list involves equipment that has a specific stat modified to distinct itself from the norm, or it has a special effect or skill applied to it. These things have been around since almost the beginning of the game, and even to this day, new ones are released almost each year.

Gimmick builds are usually not a popular choice among the majority of the community (although there are exceptions every now and then), and they often require players to have advanced knowledge and experience in order to pull this off. That, or at least an insane budget in order to afford said items or to even get them running in the first place.

Although, Ryude's Sword has fortunately been a rather easy-to-implement-sword in most cases. This is due to its special effect it has to offer. One that is still pretty much unique to Ryude, and can be outright broken in the right hands.

"So, what does Ryude's Sword do?"
It's simple. According to the item's description, it has a 70% chance to increase the number of attacks by 1 when using a skill. "Not applicable to all skills".

Imagine your main attack has 10 lines. Using this skill with Ryude's Sword gives you a 70% chance to get another line on top of that. That makes 11.

Now, of course there is an actual ruling behind the "Not applicable to all skills" part. It almost takes the same general ruling as the "increases the amount of targets on multi-target skills by 1" from Monster Life and Inner Ability.

Imagine your main attack with 10 lines affects three targets. This means it falls under Ryude's ruling so it gets that 70% chance to get another line. But imagine you also have another attack, which only affects a single target. This attack will not be affected by Ryude. This is an essential difference that is very important - it's the reason why Ryude's Sword is broken for a class like Hero or Kaiser, but loses a lot of appeal for a class like Paladin.

Anyway, as you probably can tell from the blogpost's title (or, if you're a frequent reader of my blog), we're only going to take a look at the skill tree of Hero. And we're also going in-depth for some of these skills, in order to explain why they are affected by Ryude, or why they aren't.

[EMS] Level 233! Ribgol upgrade!

Ding! I had a bunch of EXP coupons and attack potions that would expire in a couple of days, so I took the opportunity to grind out that remaining 13% I had left. Two levels left until I have access to Esfera!

Speaking of Esfera and the Ark update: I think it's better to postpone the Ark-related 5th Job blogpost until I hit Level 235 after all. While I'm still here in Norway with my toaster laptop, it's difficult to gather all the GIFs and spend time/focus on writing something that is of the quality I desire.

I could write it in September when I'm back, but I would be Level 234 by then. So I might as well delay the blogpost even further until I have the actual 4th wave 5th Job skill on that next level, right?

I'll probably remove that planned additional column I mentioned two months ago and make it its own blogpost, given it will be "another one of those lengthy articles". Maybe I could write that column in September...

Hopefully this wouldn't disappoint too many of you - but at least you should be able to have the full blogpost somewhere in October. Probably better than having to wait until the Black update somewhere in November or December this year. Anyway, on to the next subject...


Ribgol related blogposts are rare, even for this blog - so it always feels like something major happened when I can write "Ribgol" in the header.

With the current Maple Missions event coming to an end in less than two weeks, I somehow managed to finish all of them in time. This particular event wasn't so difficult to complete - it was just rather tough to complete the weekly Julieta missions because the boss has a hair trigger for disconnecting everyone and making it impossible to finish all of the daily missions if you run out of entrees. On top of that, all of the other milestones are time consuming, which doesn't help at all if you're running a full time job during your Summer holiday.

One of the final rewards are two Additional Potential Cubes, which is one of the first times in Maple's history to give them out as a reward for events. So, from just a pair of two cubes I wouldn't expect anything decent or something - but it wouldn't be *that* difficult to roll something more useful than +5 All Stats, +3 Jump and 50 MP. I would've been satisfied with anything that would increase my range, even if it's just something very minor like additional flat attack or more flat STR...

But well, damn. The first Additional Potential Cube I've ever gotten just straight up did a rank up on my Ribgol to Epic! And on top of that: it immediately came with 6% STR. I don't expect to work on my Additional Potential any time soon, so leaving my Ribgol on 6% STR for the time being is pretty fantastic. I still don't have many % STR lines, so.

With the Lab server closing near the end of this month, I might as well just show off my Ribgol from Lab. Getting a Ribgol in Lab was easier said than done... Equipment drops at an incredibly high rate in this server; but that is only true for non-World Tour locations. At least I did get lucky with the Potential ranks, although only the Additional Potential is really useful.

I originally intended to scroll all of the 255 slots with 15% Spell Trace scrolls, but given I don't have more than a few hours to play each day, this would be impossible to finish... Context: it takes a few hours to scroll a handful of slots. Maybe next time?

At least I'm satisfied to have a Ribgol that is just impossible to have in normal servers, and I've been able to hit the visual cap for my damage range (read: I might have had a bit too much fun with the Lab server). I know how the damage range display works, just let me have my moment with seeing a lot of 9's in a row, okay?

I can't wait to get my Lab rewards later this month! Those Union blocks are more than welcome.

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

[EMS] Lab server - Level 200!

Sup guys! Yesterday I managed to hit Level 200 on the Lab server, but since it was getting late at that point, I decided to sleep first and publish this blogpost today instead.

The Lab server event has been pretty fun - even though it was a huge time sink on the upgrade department. About three-quarters of my time spend in Lab was Spell Tracing equipment. At least smart play and planning ahead is greatly rewarded here... It's just a shame that the reward requirements have been changed in EMS and that it's unlikely for anyone to even meet those for receiving the best rewards. Maybe next time.

Anyway, in order to get that Level 200 on Lab done, I had to drop that daily 3% grind on Rayque since last week. I will most likely have to keep this short break from grinding until I'll be back home next month (given my stay in Norway has been extended to also include the entirety of August), given the amount of sleep I've had since July has been pretty low - so being able to sleep one additional hour each day is probably something I really need.

But for what it's worth: I'm already pretty close to Level 233, and with that EXP from daily bosses/Arcane River quests I should hit it by the end of the month!

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