An Urge to Remove the Multi-Client Boss Restrictions

Hey everyone, my name is Tyler, a level 160 Buccaneer main. After not playing for like a year and a half or so, I recently started getting into the game again. This has led me to have conversations about the current state of the game with some people as well as browsing forums, and I learned and discovered one huge current topic of debate: Multi-clienting during boss expeditions. In case you did not read, the most recent major patch implemented a change where "Each unique person can now only enter a boss battle on 1 character at a time (applies to Zak, HT, and Scar only - for now)." In other words, if you have two clients of MapleLegends open on your computer, let's say for your Hero and your Bishop, you can only bring one of these characters in. This change seems like its trying to target a specific issue (which the post discusses), but I feel like this change not only fails at its goal, but has created other issues at the exact same time. This is where my post actually begins: I am trying to argue that the ban on multi-clienting is a really bad change and should be reverted back to what it was before the patch. At the very least, I hope that this post at least starts more discussions about the topic. There is already a forum and potentially more that is related to the topic, but I am arguing for one decision while giving my reasoning rather than asking for one way or the other. This does not mean the other side has no merit or value; if anything I would rather have no forms of multi-clienting rather than what we have currently. This also does not mean people cannot disagree with me or debate about anything I say or what anyone else says; if anything I heavily encourage debating and discussions. Just be respectful about the debate and don't try to go off topic. I like to be wordy and thorough if you haven't noticed already, so get your popcorn and drinks ready for a long read (or scroll down to the TL DR at the end).

As with any argument, a basis of information and the like needs to be established, as well as a further explanation of points supporting it. It is hard to understand something if everyone is not on the same page, to which I will do my best in laying out everything needed (if I miss something, feel free to call me a dipshit and tell me what it is in the comments). But first, the big question: Why do I believe multi-clienting should exist?

In its current state, people can still multi-client through different computers and not get banned for it, which means people with big ol' families or with $$$$ can still multi-client for Zakum, Horntail, and Scarga by using two or more different computers. This creates a couple of really big issues, such as a form of "pay2win" and a strange middle ground of stances and perspectives. I also want to quickly mention this rule only applying to those three expeditions and not bosses with portals (Emperor/Toad in Ninja Castle) or pqs like Crimsonwood Keep PQ also leaves people confused in where the line is drawn, but they have claimed that this change is experimental, so I do not think it is worth discussing.

In addition to creating other problems, this change, in my opinion, does not really fix the big issue they were trying to fix (as stated in the major patch notes): "By blocking multiple characters from the same person getting inside boss battles we hope users, especially newer ones, get more accepted into runs again." From my experience, I have only heard of the most competitive and you could call the "top of the food chain" groups doing things like this. And guess what? These kinds of people, more often than not, are not the majority of the population, but a much smaller fraction. Putting a limit on a small fraction of a group in theory can help the majority (scenario dependent), but it feels like in this scenario the problem is stemming elsewhere rather than this small fraction of boss runners. Simply put, the people that heavily utilize multi-clienting for boss expeditions are still doing exactly that for the most part, which is not helping those that cannot get into boss runs.

Out of all the ideas I have brought up so far, the idea I want to focus on the most is the "pay2win" issue this last patch has created. So, how is this being made, why is it an issue, and, if possible, can it be dealt with and how? To fully understand, some background information is needed.

From what I have heard from some friends who have seen it or done it first hand and a few forum comments, there are some questionable mules going into some of the boss runs (the mules I will bring up will revolve around Horntail) that are making life a whole lot simpler and easy. The two that were brought up to me are Heaven's Hammer (HH for short) Paladin mules (I have seen them also be called LUK Paladins) and Dex Buccaneer mules.

So, what are HH mules? They are essentially Paladins that just throw a metric crap ton of points into luk for avoidability, hp wash out of their minds (increasing hp without sacrificing ability points), and max HH as soon as humanly possible. These characters then pretty much just spam HH during Horntail runs whenever it is off cooldown (it is about 20 seconds or so at max level) So what is worthwhile about this? HH is a skill that pretty much brings all regular monsters down to 1 health while doing a big damage value to bosses (about 200k or 199,999 damage), like Horntail. It also ignores Weapon Cancel buff, so you don't have to worry about doing 1's instead of 200k's whenever the Horntail heads use Weapon Cancel. In addition, this skill has global range, so you can hit everything, anywhere on the map. The best part? HH will do this regardless of your stats. Stats that increase a paladin's damage do not change HH's damage due to it doing a set amount of damage, so these mules with a bunch of health and luk to get avoidability are doing free 200k damage to every Horntail body part every 20 or so seconds, while people with actual damage and existing characters are attacking the big dragon at the same time. In other words, these mules can save a decent amount of time, and I have been told can even eliminate the use of potions that increase damage, such as Onyx Apples, which can save you some $$$$. These mules do not break the game like the next mule I will talk about, but they can definitely be seen as a problem due to the convenience they can bring, such as saving time or increasing damage without having to recruit another human being. I have been told these mules are relatively common as well, so that can be seen as a positive or a negative depending on your perspective. I also do not have a solution in how to deal with them while not destroying actual Paladin players, but I thought bringing them up could perhaps spark some ideas from people on how to deal with them while also bringing up an example of a mule that could be seen as problematic but not game breaking.

Now, time for the big problem mule: Dex Buccaneers. What are they? They are buccaneers that max out their dex and once again hp wash (though I heard it is not required but it is an option) like no man's business, max out Time Leap, which resets all cooldowns besides another Time Leap, and "max" Speed Infusion (aka they get it to level 11 and get the max attack speed needed out of it). Their purpose? To abuse their two party skills that they maxed out and be a seduce mule in Horntail. Why is this a problem? Because Horntail's seduces, even his mass seduce, are no longer major threats and ruin the job of other classes. In particular, regular Buccaneers and Bishops get hurt by this badly.

So you might be thinking, "this does not sound THAT bad Tyler you're rambling for nothing IDIOT." First of all, I should tell you that for whatever reason, Buccaneers receive a bit more avoidability from dex than most other classes, and these Dex Buccaneers are easily capping their avoidability at 999 with just 450-500 base dex which is achievable before level 120 (can get more with buffs like bless) while also having the choice of getting a crap ton of hp from hp washing. Time Leap also resets the cooldown of Hero's Will, the only skill that can remove seduce, so some Dex Buccaneers all with maxed Time Leap using that on Hero's Will whenever mass seduce happens really makes mass seduce go from "gonna maybe team wipe" to "lol what a joke xDD." In actual English, the biggest threats that Horntail offers, mass seduce and regular seduce, are no longer threats due to the existence of Dex Buccaneers. This is a really big problem. I have also heard that people that are still multi-clienting through different computers are heavily utilizing these mules, to which this past patch they actually became even more useful and stronger to use.

What did they change to make Dex Buccaneers even better? For those that do not know, both of Horntail's right and left hands can seduce a singular person. This has always been the case. The previous patch, however, had it so that if you had aggro on a hand, lets say the right hand, and moved to the opposite side of the map, the left side, that hand would become locked up and essentially do nothing until either the person with aggro goes back to the same side as the right hand or someone else took aggro (it seems that the major patch notes states this as a bug, but I am not 100% sure as it just says "Bugfix for Horntail attacks not being map-wide" which is probably referring to this change but I am not 100% certain. Regardless of what it was, it was in the last patch and that is how those hands worked). Obviously, this mechanic was abused and made hands a joke and not a threat. Obviously once again, the staff did not like that, especially if it was just a bug, and changed that this past major patch, making it so that the hands will always function regardless of who has aggro and where this person is.

I am sure you're wondering. "But Tyler, that sounds like a good change to make the boss harder/just fixing a bug. Why is this bad?" Yes, I could not agree more; it is a good change/I am glad they fixed the bug. What this does, however, is now give the Dex Buccaneer another role: seduce mule. Not only is it helping give more damage through Speed Infusion and being a big party saver with Time Leaping Hero's Will, but now its an effective seduce mule due to it rarely getting hit. In other words, this mule gives an insane amount of utility to Horntail parties to the point where teams can get away with a small party to maximize their profits from the drops. Wanna know the best part? The same patch that introduced this aggro change/bug fix to Horntail's hands also made it so that multi-clienting is now illegal unless you do it on a different computer. In other words, only people that can afford to leech off of family member's computers or throw money into computers can now utilize Dex Buccaneers for Horntail. In other words (am I repeating myself yet?), the staff has unintentionally (hopefully) created a pay2win system that is really powerful when accessed.

To further explain, this set up allows the potential of people to control the prices of Horntail drops in the economy. How? The smaller the party of people for a boss run, the bigger the splits each person gets, which means these groups can afford to lower their prices compared to bigger groups to not only sell their drops quicker, but still be able to make just as much profit or more. To use some numbers, let's say there are three groups selling Maple Warrior 20, and it is going for about 320mil. Group #1 has 4 people, Group #2 has 8 people, and Group #3 has 12 people. Let's now all three groups are trying to sell a Maple Warrior 20, and Groups #2 and 3# are selling it at the average price of 320mil, while Group #1 decides to sell theres at 200mil. Wow, how could you not buy the 200mil one as a consumer right? So much cheaper than the other two groups. Despite selling it for 120mil cheaper, each person in Group #1 makes more money than everyone in Groups #2 and #3 (50mil for #1, 40mil for #2, 30mil for #3) while being able to sell it much faster. The downside to having 4 people only in your run is that it is extremely hard to consistently complete successful Horntail runs... in theory that is. Guess what? Dex Buccaneers make this kind of behavior so much easier to do. Now what if Group #1 also uses HH mules? Pretty likely if they've made one type of mule already, so now they can save money from not having to get items like Onyx Apples and make their runs even easier and faster. Now the final nail in the coffin: what if I also said that only Group #1 can afford to buy the computers needed to multi-client and the other Groups cannot? Talk about a literal oligopoly set up right there. But guess what? If it isn't already, that is a real possibility currently because people require multiple computers in order to multi-client during bosses like Horntail now, and the people trying to maximize their profits and efficiency are extremely likely to use any legal method to achieve these goals, and using HH and Dex Buccaneer mules are exactly what they're looking for.

Of course, I am exaggerating a bit for the sake of my example, but the point is that not many people are going to have access to mules now for bosses like Horntail due to the recent changes, and instead of stopping or even discouraging mule usage, it is kind of encouraging it more. Not only is using multi-clients through computers and using HH and Dex Buccaneer mules not a bannable offense (in other words literally no reason not to use them), but if you want to keep up with the groups that are utilizing the mules, now people will feel pressured to also utilize mules like Dex Buccaneers, to which some people will be unable to do so because they can't afford to get another computer.

Truth be told, I feel like this change is taking the wrong idea and approach completely. If you ask me, multi-clienting is something that not only will always exist, but you can't just say "yeah, but no" to. There are too many slippery slopes and different perspectives on the matter. I am someone that loves to take both sides of an argument into consideration and try to compromise, but sometimes that can be the worst solution to take, and this scenario with multi-clienting is one of them. Either make it a bannable offense in any form or allow free reign, to which I think free reign is the better choice here. Forcing people to change their behaviors is also not the ideal path to take a lot of the time, which is what prohibiting multi-client use is trying to do. If you really want to stop a behavior or have people perform another behavior more, make them WANT to, not HAVE to. Don't want people using mules so often? Look at why people are using mules. Dex Buccaneers are a thing because they are abusing mechanics in a way originally not intended that is extremely efficient and useful and Buccaneers still have a really small player base at the level to where Horntail takes place (which has its own plethora of reasons that is for another forum).

On topic of Dex Buccaneers, I also want to take a paragraph and a bullet point list and say Dex Buccaneers should not be a thing or at least nowhere near as effective as they are, and offer some insight or methods as to deal with them. Even with multi-clienting being a thing again, these mules are far too destructive and insane and I believe no one should have access to the power and utility that they bring. Other ideas and thoughts are more than welcome. Here are my thoughts in a bullet list:

1. Time Leap should not apply to Hero's Will. This will make mass seduce an actual threat at all times, and also make Time Leap a more valuable skill to save for other skills such as Smokescreen and Resurrection.
2. Destroy the effectiveness of avoidability gain for Buccaneers. I do not like this option but it is an option, as it does hurt actual Buccaneer players. If it were to happen, I do not think it would be a huge deal, as honestly as a Buccaneer myself I rely more on using i-frames from my attacking moves than my actual avoidability stat to avoid damage. Destroying the avoidability gain would make Dex Buccaneers not only harder to keep alive, but not as effective of seduce mules.
3. Change seduce aggro. This is in my opinion a great option to deal with Dex Buccaneers, as combined with the first bullet, can make seduce a full on threat and make seduce mules that are not actual people less useful. However, I also imagine people will not be happy with changing the current seduce aggro, so I am betting this bullet point is also the most controversial. Here's another issue: how to implement this. I am not an expert at coding, lend alone how this game's coding works, but ideally I would argue that characters that do not attack the hands at all should not be able to gain seduce aggro whatsoever, but can still be affected by mass seduce. I also think an active aggro system rather than just "whoever enters the map first Horntail wants more" should exist. Truthfully, I do not even know if this is possible to code, but I would suggest a system that whoever is doing the most damage and is closest to the hand would gain seduce aggro. This would make it impossible for mule characters that just sit there and do pretty much nothing but buff or look pretty from gaining seduce aggro (at least, without any effort).

If you read the whole post and now you're here, congratz! Hope I didn't make you cringe too hard or make you hate my guts eternally. Thanks for taking the time to at least glance at my post for 2 seconds or reading the whole thing. I mean no ill will towards anyone in the community or the staff, just a concerned angry man that just wants what he thinks is best for the server, which of course is not up to me to decide but hey I gave my two cents at least right? If you jumped for the TL DR, here you go:

1. Multi-clienting should either be allowed completely or not at all. No half-assing nonsense, to which I would heavily argue in favor of it being allowed.
2. Banning multi-clienting has only created more and bigger issues; I would also argue that it does not even solve the issue of people being excluded from boss raids, the issue it was trying to solve.
3. Do not force behavioral changes onto people, but instead try to encourage or discourage behaviors. The change on multi-clienting is trying to force a behavioral change which isn't working anyway because there are loopholes.
4. Mules like Dex Buccaneers are an issue and should be dealt with directly rather than just trying to stop people from using mules in the first place.