What Do We Know About the Defense Rework? (Discussion/Suggestion)

We haven't heard much of anything about the defense rework from the staff, what their plans are or how it would even work and since the announcement of the HP challenges, they've decided that would be their focus now, which leaves me a little bit disappointed because personally I believe a defense rework is better as it is more applicable to all classes as Warriors dont see as much benefit from the challenge and are better off just washing.

So it would be nice if whoever, GM, Balance Team, or whatever could provide with us what their progress is or what their plans are, but maybe they shouldn't or they're not allowed to and that's fine.

In the meanwhile, I'd posit my own suggestion for defense rework, or rather, something more of a rebalancing of numbers and stats, and it's probably completely worthless or useless depending on what is already in store.

I don't think a reconfiguring of defense formulas is needed, rather I think a rebalancing of numbers is easier and perhaps not so complicated.

How I see it, Maplestory up to around lvl 70-80 is rather very well balanced in terms of how much HP your characters have and how much damage enemies do and the defense of gear that you wear at those levels makes a noticeble difference. Bosses may hit for 500 - 1000, but the mobs hit for like 200. It's only when you reach CD's (custom content) and Wolf Spiders that for some reason, somehow, these mobs have their damage go up like 5 to 7-fold. And in that moment ranged characters like Hermits, Marksmen, etc get 2-3 shot by mobs and Warriors take like 5,6,7 shots from mobs (which isn't very tank to me in Maplestory). In the first 60-70 levels of the game, Warriors do take that mantle of the tank class that survive considerably better than the rest of the other classes, but once that lvl 70 mark is reached, it feels a bit more null, although the difference exists, and the defense of equipment does not match up to the damage monsters do and is basically a useless, dead stat.

So in my opinion, I think a reconfiguring of defense values and some monster damages is all that is needed from lvl 70,80 and onward. A reconfiguring of numbers wouldn't make HP washing irrelevant or no longer needed, but is more of another kind of way to extract more HP that isn't part of the HP stat, and ultimately reduces to some extent how much HP/washing is needed. And as part of good game design, this makes good use of an actual stat in the game that is more or less irrelevant.

Below is my table for reconfigured stats, which is really just a bunch of brainwork and typing that probably won't be put into the game, but hey maybe the staff see it, like it, and decide to drop what they're doing and go with this. After all how hard would it be to change arbitrary numbers lul?

Warrior Equipment:
Battlelord - MS defense: 132 W. Hypothetical defense: 420 W, 100 M.
Commodore - MS defense: Top - 95 W(weapon defense). Bot - 76 W. Hypothetical Defense: Top - 280 W, 60 M (Magic defense). Bot - 240 W, 60 M.
Neos - MS Defense: Top - 105 W. Bot - 84 W. Hypothetical Defense: Top - 350 W, 80 M. Bot - 300 W, 80 M.
Blue Dragon Armor (not in the game)- MS Defense: 180 W. Hypothetical Defense: 850 W. 300 M.
Reverse Taragon - MS Defense: 196 W. Hypothetical Defense: 1100 W. 400 M.
Timeless Taragon - MS Defense: 196 W. Hypothetical Defense: 1500 W. 650 M.
Gloves and Boots - Hypothetical Defense - 3x the W defense of whatever they are now.
Helmets - lul what a joke. But would be nice if Reverse/Timeless helmets were relevant.

So we can see here the defense value of equipment is dramatically more than what we see right now. These new numbers don't make monsters do 0 damage (with the exception of Reverse/Timeless). These new numbers are significant enough to reduce monster damage, but also make a literally noticeable difference in how much damage you take from bosses as well, Ravana, Zakum, HT, etc, also without making them do 0 damage. It's not until Warriors wear the nonexistent Blue Dragon Armor that lvl 100ish monsters start doing close to Zilch damage. Meanwhile Warrior armor doesn't provide nearly as much magic defense and take a lot of damage from ranged attacks.

Once warriors are able to wear lvl 110+ and beyond equipment, then most mobs do like 0 damage, which would make a decent amount of sense since a Warrior needs to be lvl 150 and should be laughing at monsters 50 levels below them. (Shaolin Temple would probably requirement an uptick in the damage they do at 5-6F/7F, again more reconfiguring of numbers)

Thief:
Pirate Top- MS Defense: 60 W. Bot: 51 W. Hypothetical Defense: Top: 120 W, 75 M. Bot: 100 W, 75 M.
Osfa Top - MS Defense: 70 W. Bot: 57 W. Hypothetical Defense: Top: 180 W, 110 M. Bot: 160 W, 110 M.
Katinas - MS Defense: 105 W. Hypothetical Defense: 500 W. 350 M.
Garina - MS Defense: 115 W. Hypothetical Defense: 650 W. 450 M.
Reverse Prinsid - MS Defense: 125 W. Hypothetical Defense: 750 W. 650 M.
Timeless Prinsid - MS Defense: 125 W. Hypothetical Defense: 900 W. 800 M.

Archer:
Pris - MS Defense: 85 W. Hypothetical Defense: 320 W. 150 M.
Ades - MS Defense: 95 W. Hypothetical Defense: 450 W. 240 M.
Armis - MS Defense: 105 W. Hypothetical Defense: 580 W. 320 M.
Red Mantle - MS Defense: 115 W. Hypothetical Defense: 750 W. 400 M.
Reverse Evernew - MS Defense: 125 W. Hypothetical Defense: 900 W. 480 M.
Timeless Evernew - MS Defense: 125 W. Hypothetical Defense: 1050 W. 590 M.

Pirate:
Pioneer - MS Defense: 85 W. Hypothetical Defense: 360 W. 120 M.
Marquini - MS Defense: 95 W. Hypothetical Defense: 500 W. 180 M.
Red Belly Duke - MS Defense: 105 W. Hypothetical Defense: 620 W. 240 M.
Canopus - MS Defense: 115 W. Hypothetical Defense: 850 W. 300 M.
Reverse Burgunt - MS Defense: 125 W. Hypothetical Defense: 1000 W. 420 M.
Timeless Burgunt - MS Defense: 125 W. Hypothetical Defense: 1200 W. 500 M.

Mage:
Enigma - MS Defense: 68 W. 34 M. Hypothetical Defense: 120 W. 420 M.
Fury - MS Defense: 76 W. 38 M. Hypothetical Defense: 180 W. 650 M.
Varuna/Bazura - MS Defense: 84 W. 42 M. Hypothetical Defense: 240 W. 880 M.
Czar - MS Defense: 92 W. 46 M. Hypothetical Defense: 300 W. 1100 M.
Reverse Myst Blue - MS Defense: 100 W. 50 M. Hypothetical Defense: 400 W. 1300 M.
Timeless Myst Blue - MS Defense: 100 W. 50 M. Hypothetical Defense: 500 W. 1600 M.

Shields:
Aquila - MS Defense: 60 W. 25 M. Hypothetical Defense: 250 W. 100 M.
Kalkan - MS Defense: 68 W. Hypothetical Defense: 400 W. 200 M.
Crossheider - MS Defense: 80 W. 30 M. Hypothetical Defense: 550 W. 300 M.
Hoflon - MS Defense 72 W. 25 M. Hypothetical Defense: 500 W. 250 M.
Dragon Shield - MS Defense : 78W. 30 M. Hypothetical Defense: 650 W. 400 M.
Timeless Kite Shield - MS Defense: 100 W. 35 M. Hypothetical Defense: 1000 W. 600 M.

Khanjar - MS Defense: 3 W (lul). Hypothetical Defense: 80 W.
Dragon Khanjar - MS Defense: 5 W (lul). Hypothetical Defense: 200 W. 100 M.
Timeless List - MS Defense: 84 W. Hypothetical Defense: 400 W. 200 M.

Timeless Prelude - MS Defense: 60 W. 110 M. Hypothetical Defense: 600 W. 1000 M.

(Can we reduce the level req of Reverse please?)

Super blammy cool idea: Weapons provide defense too!

Again these suggested new numbers (anyone can posit their own ideas for what makes good numbers) I think would make a noticeable difference in both the training process and bossing, without doing away with the need/usefulness of HP washing. I think the only mobs that need a reconfiguring of their damage as a result of these changes might be Shaolin Silver/Gold monks but hey correct me if I'm wrong. But yea if a lvl 200 warrior is sitting on full Timeless gear, I think he should take like 0 touch damage from a freaking DREAMY GHOST.