Information July 2024 Balance Changes [Explained]

Reminder: This only contains the balance related changes.



Welcome to our balance changes thread for the July 2024 Patch! Our main focuses for this patch were the expansion of the Ellin Forest quest/storyline, the release of Tier 3 of HP Challenges, and a slight rework of Ellin Party Quest.

We hope you enjoy this patch!



The server overview section is back with insights into the state of our economy, boss entries, and class distribution!

Spoiler: Population Trends

Our server population (based on unique players) has been performing phenomenally in the past few months, which you can see with the trend line shown in orange. This means lots of new/returning players, so hopefully we see this trend continue with the newest patch!



"If that's the player count, what about the characters they make? And how are they distributed?"

A few interesting/notable observations to note are:

1. There are far more characters clustered in the lower level ranges than higher level ranges, but this is to be expected.
2. The level 40 to 50 range specifically holds the largest amount of active characters.
3. Following a slight dip in the level 70 to 80 range, there is an uptick in character numbers in the level 80 to 90 range.
4. There is a fairly even tapering off between the level 130 through 200 ranges.

When there are higher number of characters in a particular level range, it is something that we need to look into a bit more. One reason we see this is because of players who may be "stuck" in this level range due to bottlenecks in gameplay. There are numerous reasons this could be, such as there perhaps being not enough content, a lack of availability of level-appropriate maps, and so forth. For the 40 to 50 and 80 to 90 level ranges, we do consider that these things may be a factor; however, these level ranges are also prime levels for various mules (e.g., Hyper Body, Holy Symbol, Meso Up, etc.), which is something we also keep in mind. Regardless of such a fact, we still plan to keep an eye on the gameplay experience of characters in these level ranges.

On the other hand, an even tapering off like what we see from level 130 to 200 is arguably quite good, as it indicates that players are not getting disproportionately stuck at a particular level range. Overall, these figures are viewed positively, with overall distributions seeming to be quite healthy!

Spoiler: Class Distribution

"How is the meta shaping up in terms of classes?"

Well, largely the same as 2023 it seems. The rankings are essentially identical, with Bishop, Night Lord, and Dark Knight being the top three most-played classes, while Marksman, Corsair, and Paladin remain the three least-played classes. However, while the rankings themselves haven't changed, there are still some differences compared to the past year:



One notable observation is that the Paladin line has had a pretty big increase in its relative percentage of characters compared to last year, with a total change of +11.90%. The Corsair line has also increased, albeit at a much smaller rate of +1.96%. Marksman too have seen a similarly slight increase of +1.21%.

However, some classes seem to have fallen in popularity. The Dark Knight has faced a -6.10% change while Fire/Poison has seen a -2.28% change. However, for the Fire/Poison line, when we compare the number of 4th Job characters with Ice/Lightning, the numbers are pretty much identical. So the disparity seems to be occurring more at the earlier levels. With this information, we'll continue to pay close attention to the classes that seem to be gaining and losing popularity and consider what the reasons are, and further whether there's anything we can/should do in the future regarding these changes.

Spoiler: Boss Entry

Section revised on 13 Jul 2024 with more accurate figures.



For this patch we decided to look at the distribution of boss entries, as this is something we haven't looked at previously. Do note that in these charts, the x-axes represent the total of number of attempts per character (as a range), while the y-axes represent the number of characters in that entry range. It seems that with Zakum, Horntail, and Aufheben, the most common range of attempts per character for each fight in the past 6 months is in the 0 to 10 ranges. As the number of attempts per character increases, the fewer number of characters we see in these ranges, which generally is to be expected. For a higher level boss such as Aufheben, far fewer characters overall fall within the 0 to 10 attempts ranges relative to lower level, more popular bosses such as Zakum and Horntail.

Such a trend however is notably not observed for Pink Bean, which as can be seen, has the highest number of entries per character in the 15 to 20 range. In other words, this fight has relatively more characters who regularly return to run it than the other three fights in this comparison.

Looking at the distribution of Neo Tokyo boss entries, the distribution trends seem rather similar across the board, with Core Blaze being a bit more evenly distributed, reflecting its popularity.

Based on what we can glean from this data, we'll continue to investigate which bosses might need a bit of a helping hand - in terms of gameplay or rewards - which we may or may not have already done for this patch. The only way to find out will be to continue reading!

Spoiler: Misc. Moderation Stats

Just for fun we've also included the distribution for banned characters. The curve seems to mostly follow the active character level distribution, which indicates that the moderation efforts are proportionally aligned with player activity across various levels.

And with that, the overview section is done! We've tried to change up our visualization methods a bit this time around and such a task is still a work-in-progress. Please let us know if there's any other types of data you'd be interested in seeing, as well as any suggestions you may have in order to improve how we do things! Now onto the balance changes themselves...




「 Ellin expansion 」

Ellin Forest will be receiving a continuation of the questline, and this expansion will unlock 2 new area bosses: Chao and Ephenia. Chao and Ephenia are instanced bosses that can only be killed twice a day. Ephenia will need to be summoned with a crafted Fairy Heart. Materials for this item can be obtained in the new Ellin Forest areas, and the Hearts themselves can be obtained by exchanging the relevant materials with Athena Pierce in the Altaire Camp Conference Room. Upon killing Ephenia the first time, the questline will allow you to upgrade your existing Ellin Savior's Ring to Ephenia's Ring.

Ephenia's Ring

Code:

All four primary stats: +2
HP: +100
MP: +100
Accuracy: +1
Avoidability: +1
Upgrade Slots: 3

Upon killing Ephenia, she may also drop Ephenia's Soul Shards. These are Untradeable Use items that may either be directly consumed for a 5 minute, +25 Accuracy and +25 Avoidability buff, or may be exchanged - in combination with other new items - with Ellin Forest's Athena Pierce to obtain 1 Ephenia's Soul Crystal, which itself may be used to scroll Ephenia's Ring for +50 HP, +50 MP, +3 Accuracy, and +3 Avoidability, with a success rate of 15% (failing an applied Crystal will not consume an Upgrade Slot).

Several new maps have been added as well as part of the expansion, and while some of them maintain their original layout/design, two of the maps have had notable, custom-tailored tweaks in order to make them viable training areas intended for characters in the level 100 to 110 range, which hopefully will serve to improve the grinding experience for characters of these levels. Ideally these will provide a nice alternative for two to three-person parties; do let us know how these maps feel in this respect should you get the chance to try them!

Spoiler: Ellin Forest custom changes

• The new questline is a combination of the old and revamped Ellin Forest storylines from MapleStory.
• All of the new mobs and bosses in Ellin Forest have had custom changes made to their HP, EXP, avoidability, damage, and loot tables.
• Ephenia is now spawned via a custom item - the Fairy Heart - instead of naturally occurring in her map.
• Ephenia's teleportation movement skill required a completely custom implementation, and thus may seem not GMS-like.
• Ephenia's lightning attack has had a stun debuff added, though players will be able to dodge the stun element through skillful gameplay.
• Ephenia's summons have been tweaked to not apply touch damage or knockback to players (do note that this is an experimental feature).
• The new mobs Ancient Fairy and Shining Fairy have been given resistances to Fire, Ice, and Holy elemental damages.
• Custom changes to the maps Fairy Forest Entrance and Fairy Forest II.
  
• Added teleporters to the Queen's Hiding Place map.

「 Challenges System 」

• The drop rate of Thunder Catalyst (from both Taurospears and Tauromacis) has been increased.

We have found that the average time for completing the Thunder Catalyst component in Tier 1 has been too lengthy compared to the other parts of this Challenge's quest. Given the low number of Taurospear and Tauromacis mobs in the relevant maps, as well as the fact that Tier 1 serves as the introductory tier and thus should not be much lengthier than other tiers, we have decided to increase the drop rate of this item so that this quest portion realigns with the difficulty relative to the other quest portions as well as with respect to other Tiers' Challenge quests.

• Tier 3 is now available from Rosa.

The tier 3 main questline will take place in the area of Ludus Lake, including the Omega Sector and Korean Folk Town. The questline is entirely custom-made for MapleLegends with the main storyline written by Ariami and further tweaked by Pasta. As usual, the new tier can be started from Rosa.

Without spoiling too much, there will be:

• New maps to travel to and jump quest in.
• New mobs to kill and obtain Monster Cards from.
• New gameplay that requires player to "charge" and "detect".

Lots of work has been put into the development of the Tier 3 Challenge questline and content; we hope that players will enjoy these things!

• A new item has been introduced: Rosa's Charm!
  • Upon completion of Tier 3, a new quest will become available from Rosa for eligible players to obtain a statless item called "Rosa's Charm".
  • After obtaining the Charm, talking to Rosa again will infuse the Charm with the full HP/MP bonuses they would obtain from the Challenge tiers that have not yet been released. In other words, if an example player level 180 or above has fully completed all three tiers of the available HP Challenges, this item will grant them the appropriate amount of HP (and MP, if applicable) for a level 180 player who had completed all 9 tiers of the HP Challenges (even though Tiers 4 through 9 are yet to be released).
  • When players level up or reach levels of a new tier, they may talk to Rosa again to re-infuse the Charm for any higher HP/MP bonuses, should they be appropriate for them.

Rosa's Charm is a temporary equip provided to players participating in the Challenges system so that they can experience the full effect of the HP/MP bonuses while not being subject to any further delay of the content release. However, whenever a new tier of Challenges is released, existing Charms will be removed, and players will need to complete the newest tier in order to re-claim them item as well as their bonus HP/MP it grants. The requirement to obtain the Charm will also be shifted to complete all the currently-released Challenge tiers.


More details of the Challenge System release can be found here.

• Gaviota is no longer affected by the Summon skills droprate nerf, a suggestion which was accepted here.

The fact that Gaviota needs to be recast after each hit makes it virtually similar to any other single-target attack, and thus it was considered not to really warrant an anti-AFK-related nerf.

• [MobSkills] Ephenia's teleport skill has been further polished.
• [MobSkills] Poison clouds are now directional and based on where the monster faces when it casts the skill.
  • Note: Most of the existing mobs except the EPQ bosses have the poison cloud skill with a symmetrical width, so no noticeable change should be observed from them.
  • Spoiler: List of mobs with poison cloud

    • Commander Skeleton
    • Green King Goblin
    • Squid
    • Snowman
    • Zakum's Arm 3
    • Horntail's Tails
    • Ariel
    • Franken Lloyd
    • Angry Franken Lloyd
    • Poisoned Spright
    • Spright
    • Poison golem
    • Charged Poison Golem
    • Super-Charged Poison Golem
    • Zoo Snowman
    • Frankenroid

Refining these monster skills yields the possibility to open the doors for more interesting gameplay. If these skills work properly as intended, they can then be implemented on other existing or new monsters in the future to help create a more interesting gameplay experience.


「 Ellin Party Quest (EPQ) 」

EPQ has been reworked!

EPQ scripts and instance handling:

• The PQ and all its scripts have been fully recoded.
• The maximum number of party members allowed to participate EPQ is now 6 instead of 5.
  • Note: The minimum number of party members is still 3.
• Leaving and disbanding party in EPQ will no longer affect the run.
• Players may now leave the PQ via NPC or by disconnecting.
• There will be an implicit party captain now to act as the party leader. In cases that the captain DC, the captain role will automatically be passed to another player, preventing the whole party from getting kicked out of the run.
  • Note: The captain can manually pass the captain role via the command !captain <ign>

EPQ General changes:

• The Glittering Altaire Earring now only need 15 fragments to craft (instead of 25).
• The 104k exp reward at the end has been redistributed across the various stages.
• Stage 1, 2, 3, and 4 now requires all members to be present in the map to proceed.

Changes to how the PQ play is as follows:

Stage 2:

• Poisoned Stone Bug HP and EXP is increased by 3x.

Stage 3:

• Now requires 3 people in Ellin's room to trigger clear.
• Reduced Ellin's clickable range in the maze so that it can only be interacted when players are in Ellin's room.
• The Ellin Forest Milepost now can be used to return player to the start of the maze.
• After clearing stage 3, the Ellin Forest Milepost can be used to teleport into Ellin's room.
• The maze now gives hint whenever the player enter a room with portals to Ellin's room.

Stage 5:

• The number of boxes at the top have been reduced to 6 (from 9).
• The boxes that don't drop the Stone will now teleport players back to the middle of the map.
• The hidden teleporters at the top will now teleport players to the bottom of the map instead of teleporting to the same spot.

Stage 6:

• Levels of all bosses have been reduced to level 60, suggestion accepted from here.
• Charged Poison Golem (Body 2) and Super-Charged Poison Golem (Body 3) have had their HP increased by 25%.
• The bosses now have a wider poison cloud but directionally based on where it faces when it casts the skill.
• Added Golem's Marble as a guaranteed drop from Super-Charged Poison Golem.

Exit map:

• The Spring of Purification is now properly working, dropping a Golem's Marble on it will now activate a custom buff for players in the map. The buff will provide:
  • Full heals
  • All cures
  • 20 accuracy and avoid
  • 20 speed and jump

Upon looking into EPQ, we realized that many parts of EPQ were pretty much solo-able with little interaction needed from other party members. As party quests should be more teamwork based, we decided to tweak some of the stages in hopes of encouraging more interaction between players. Players should be moving together along the stages and work things out together.




「 Aufheben 」

• Pouch 4 now drops instead of pouch 3.
  • Note: The drop rate remains the same and pouches is still allowed to have a maximum of 2 drops.
• Aufheben now has a chance to drop a custom made Bronze Aufheben Chair, which also unlocks the Silver Aufheben Chair, and then the Gold Aufheben Chair after achieving certain amount of Aufheben kills.
  • Note: The Aufheben Chair exchange is done via Noran, and the option to upgrade the chair will only appear appear if the player has the Bronze version in their inventory and has completed the Neo Tokyo questline to the same point necessary to craft "safe" Aufheben Circlet scrolls.
  • Note: The amount of Aufheben kills only starts recording after this patch.
• Aufheben now gives a custom Aufheben buff after Aufheben is killed, similar to how HT buff and PB buff are given.
  • Weapon Attack +25, Magic Attack +35, Weapon/Magic Defense +150 for one hour.

• The following maps have their dungeon portals removed:
  • Haunted House - Sophilia's Bedroom (aka Heartstopper farming spot)
  • Singapore - Ghost Ship 1
  • Singapore - Ghost Ship 2
  • Taiwan - Star Avenue South Section (aka CDs)
  • Singapore - Ulu Estate I
  • Singapore - Ulu Estate II
  • Singapore - Ulu City Center (aka Petris)
  • China - Sutra Depository 5-6 F
  • China - Sutra Depository 7 F

Dungeons have always been a temporary solution for the sudden spike of players that occurred during the COVID period. As the player count decreased, they were disabled but were not fully removed. We decided that we will no longer make use of the dungeons (even in the case of another player spike) and have properly removed them. The use of dungeons have never been the ideal case when there are plenty of other maps available for players to grind at. While the other maps may be less rewarding than some, we will try to improve them over time either via improving the map themselves or giving them some other purposes via quests or Challenges. While it is impossible to make every map great, we hope that players can find more use in other maps so that the maple world will feel more populated instead of jamming everyone into a handful of meta maps (especially instanced ones in the case of dungeons).

• A relatively safe spot rope has been added for the following maps:
  • Singapore - Ghost Ship 1
  • Singapore - Ghost Ship 2
  • Singapore - Ghost Ship 5
  • Taiwan - Star Avenue South Section (aka CDs)
  • China - Sutra Depository 5-6 F
  • China - Sutra Depository 7 F

As these maps have been suffered from multiple reports of griefing, we have decided to add a safe rope farther away from the spawn point, reducing some of the moderation issues.

• "The Test of Agility" - Some footholds have been reworked in an attempt to prevent the use of Assaulter to skip the jump quest.

Following the CWKPQ rework that prevents the skipping of the JQ via mobility skills, we realized that Assaulter still manages to do so in certain situations. This change should now prevent them to do so.

• "Akihabara - Rooftop"
  • Reworked the foothold across the entire map
  • Added teleporters
  • Added 4 new mob spawn points

This map has been a poor map to grind or farm at due to how terrible the pathing is, and perhaps due to how the mobs are as well. Hopefully these changes will improve the map experience and offers a decent alternative to higher level grinding. Let us know how it feels!

• Changing channels and entering FM is now allowed for the following maps:
  • Shibuya (Dunas 2 expedition map), suggestion accepted from here.
  • Roppongi Top Floor (Aufheben expedition map)
  • Hall to Inner Sanctum (CWKPQ expedition map), suggestion accepted from here.

Since there are already no restrictions to changing channels and entering FM for the one map directly before these maps, we saw no reason for these maps to be restricted.

• Changing channel is now allowed but entering FM is not allowed in the following maps:
  • Ninja Castle Hallway (Post JQ but pre-Toad map)
  • Forgotten Twilight (PB expedition map)

These maps are gated by a JQ or by a prequest item, thus FM entry will be restricted, especially for lore purposes.




We hope this round of changes will offer some interesting new things to explore and play with. While there are many more changes we would like to do, we'll need to save them for another patch. As always, your sincere feedback is much appreciated!

Special thanks as usual to all our current staff members who were involved with the changes!