Please fix the steal skill

https://forum.maplelegends.com/index.php?threads/buff-the-bandit-skill-steal.12217/

Hello, I've seen a thread 4 years ago that discusses the same problem with the Bandit's Steal skill. Right now, mesos counts as an item so the only item you're pretty much stealing are mesos. I've spent up to 5-10 minutes punching a cloud foxtail with a level 10 claw to make sure I am not just unlucky. It really just drops mesos only. Edit: Not that it just drops mesos, it can also drop items too, but 99% of the time it will drop mesos, and since mesos are counted as an item, that's the only thing that will ever be dropping. If your Steal procced and the monster drops mesos, that's the only thing it'll drop and further Steal procs won't do anything else. Mesos are not items, you can't interact with mesos like you do with items. Hence, they're mesos and should not count as items!

In that old thread, the consensus is that Steal should not be fixed because it'll break the game and Shadowers are already balanced as is. But I don't care about the damage or the mob or the stun or whatever. I just want the skill to work as intended... there's no way it'll break the game when we have literal mules created for the sole purpose of camping at the entrance of FM just casting only one skill... hyperbody, sharp eyes, speed infusion, etc. They're all literally camping in the portal entrance of the FM. That's how overpowered those other skills are. There's no way fixing the Steal skill will upheave the entire balance of the game and make everyone want to build a Bandit and not play any of the other classes.

It just sucks that I wasted points into this skill and that I probably have to delete this character. In the old thread, another argument is that all classes have useless skills so it's fine, but this skill doesn't even work as intended. It's entirely misleading!

I'm just a bit upset that this issue hasn't been resolved since the 4 years it was brought up. At this point, I don't think it's a bug but a deliberate design decision by the staff at Maple Legends. So I ask... why?

 

It doesn't drop items... that's the problem. Once it drops mesos, it won't drop anything else. Mesos shouldn't count as items, they're mesos! It's entirely misleading.

The previous thread mentioned about this problem. I mentioned it in my thread. Please test it for yourself if you have a bandit, or at least read the previous thread. It's not just me.

 

I'm not saying it doesn't drop items, I'm saying you're going to get mesos 99% of the time and when you do, it won't drop anything else. That's the problem. I am not sure why half the posts here including yours are not understanding that or deliberately reading over that, I literally stated the problem in the topic. I already said this 3 times already throughout the thread. I would really appreciate if someone just really took the time to hear my complaint before trying to prove me wrong. You even read the claw part, which I appreciate, so it really irks me that many posters here are not understanding the true issue here. Please look at the topic as a whole picture, not picking out the individual sentences.

Mesos shouldn't count as items, they are mesos. It's misleading, so either reword the skill description or remove mesos from the droploot. Items take up inventory space, mesos do not. You can sell items. You can't sell mesos. You can equip items, but not mesos. You can use items, not mesos. You can scroll items, not mesos. Why is that distinction lost upon many of you, and to the previous posters in the old thread? That is why mesos are not items and shouldn't be counted as such. I linked the old thread because I'm not the only one upset about this.

Here is the current description for Steal:

"Steals one of the monster's items with a given success rate. It works only once against the same monster. The effort can be continued till its success."

Everyone, do you finally see the problem here? Am I finally being clear about what the issue is?

You showed gifs of them dropping items, but how many monsters and tries did you do before you recorded the clip? That, I would like to know. I am sure it took more than a dozen tries at least, and that is why Steal is not just useless, it's deliberately misleading and is why I feel like I wasted so much time trying to build this bandit for this skill. I know I am not the only one taking an issue with this.

Edit: I read my topic post and I can see how people misinterpreted it. I added an edit to my topic to be more clear. I'm sorry for being an ass, everyone. I appreciate everybody here taking the time to post on this thread.

 

What are you saying? Go NPC it.

 

Yes, you are the only poster in this thread who understands what I am trying to say. Thank you, I really appreciate it. I do not think removing mesos from the possble drop pool would break the game. There are already a handful of other skills so powerful that players spent weeks or months creating a character for... you can see them camping in the entrance of the FM with the names [nameHB] or [nameSI] or [nameHS]. I don't think even half of these players actually enjoy playing a DK, or a bishop, or a buccaneer, or a bowmaster. It's all for that 1 skill alone. So fixing Steal should hardly break the game, if at all.

 

No, just simply removing mesos from the drop pool is fine. No need to remove the 1 drop limit. Although I can understand how it can be abused for certain monsters with limited drop pools. I always assumed Steal is the equivalent of killing a monster and grabbing its loot, but the difference being leaving the monster alive. So for your case of Miner Zombie, a Steal is the equivalent of killing it. It may not drop the golden tooth, even if the Steal procs successfully, but you can Steal again until it does drop, or the monster dies.

 

You made great points and raised a great question. I get you, it's totally understandable that the change won't make a big impact, but I won't say it's useless. I don't think Steal will ever be as good as an archmage or bishop clearing the entire map, and I don't think it should be. You are right, I also have heard too that it does remove the stolen item from the drop pool as you say, so it brings the question you mentioned: why not just kill the monster instead?

With this change, it'll introduce niche utility purposes, which I think will make the skill balanced and healthy compared to the obvious HB/HS/SI skills that define Maple Legends. It won't be a skill that is mandatory for all players if they want to play end-game. It'll encourage exploring the world and trying the ability on different monsters and go treasure hunting. Ideally the most times you use the skill you'll just be picking up the monster's common ETC items. But think of it this way, a Steal skill is the equivalent of killing the monster, without killing it. So if you don't get a drop that you like, you get another chance by killing the monster. Essentially, it's a slow and mediocre 2x drop, but still 2x, if you're only looking for one particular item. And because the loot table has decreased by 1, your chances to get the item you want slightly increases when you do kill it. Alternatively, if the monster is still alive and Steal has procced, but nothing drops, you get an almost infinite number of chances until something does drop or the monster dies. Overall, this is really good for, again, niche cases like getting newspaper hats from cloud foxes or pig heads from pigs. That map with the cloud foxes is huge and the enemies are spread out, so you'll be doing a lot of traveling. On the other side, every map with pigs is also filled with ribbon pigs, and ribbon pigs do not drop those pig heads. So hunting for pigs and their heads is a challenge. The Steal ability will work very well in these 2 situations. Even though it's a low chance to get the newspaper hat or pig head, getting those extra chances really adds up over time. You will still have to kill many monsters before you can find your desired item, but the ability will make the bandits stand out compared to the rest of the classes. It won't be replacing any other classes' damage or mobbing skills anytime soon, and it shouldn't. At the very least, it's fun to use and not totally useless and misleading as it is in its current state. Since you shouldn't use this skill for everything, it'll force players to be creative with its uses and that's what I really love about this proposed fix.

 

Because mesos aren't items. And stop parroting the "being unlucky isn't a bug", it's not about luck.

And yes, I think it's totally broken that people create characters for just 1 skill. So fixing the Steal skill so that it can be at least usable should have been done 4 years ago and will NOT break the game in the slightest. There is no reason why it should not be fixed. Go add some points into Steal if you really think Steal is fine as is.

 

Oh that's actually not bad for level 1 steal. For first clip that's still a lot of drakes though