Bishop

Welcome back to Class Design Diary! You've probably seen the changes to the Fire/Poison and Ice/Lightning Arch Mages, and you probably want to know what we did to the favourite child amongst the three wisemen, Bishop.

We've more or less already discussed why Bishop fell off hard in our server in the previous diary entry. Go check it out if you haven't, but the summary is simple: less EXP% gain from Holy Symbol, and supporting skills that were a non-factor.

But the Bishop class didn't fall off in a vacuum. It is the result of many progressive decisions added to the game from the pre-Big Bang era onwards that contributed to Bishop's fall in popularity. The Potential System (i.e. cubes) was introduced to ensure that every class could solo bossing content by hyper-inflating stats, which inflated the survivability and damage output of all classes. In even shorter words, content just got easier and easier over time. A class that was founded on supporting others would hardly have a place in the meta if there was no one in need of support.

But still, there's no way we will forsake the classic support-utility identity of the Bishop class. Our goal is to make the Bishop relevant once again as a support-focused class. So let me show you how we approached the class overhaul.

Making support matter again

Starting off with a big disclaimer: making Bishop great again required way more than class and skill changes. For a support class to not be redundant, at least some of the following have to hold:

1. Content, especially endgame content, has to be challenging for any individual class.
2. There must be a higher net benefit for a party to have a support class compared to simply having another damage-focused class.
3. The support class itself must still have relevant output in endgame content, i.e. it can't be doing insignificant damage.

And hence, that's what our server set out to do: make content challenging once again. Even though a casual player is still expected to be able to comfortably clear all of the basic content in our server, there will be exclusive content made to deliver an extreme challenge for players. No spoilers at this point in time, but we will be releasing this content from launch onwards, such as bosses with working mechanics and endgame content with punishing restrictions, e.g. recovery potion cooldowns. These changes alone would already incentivise players to consider building classes with supporting and bossing utility capabilities.

Blessing Ensemble

But on to the actual class changes. The Specialized Skill we decided to give Bishop is related to the skill that made Bishop the best party member to have.

Blessing Ensemble is essentially a reworked Holy Symbol, which first and foremost provides passive EXP% gain for the Bishop alone. Then, instead of granting bonus EXP% as a party buff, the bonus EXP% is now gained as stacks of Blessing Ensemble, which last up to 10 seconds only. To gain a stack, the Bishop must successfully land a hit on a mob, and up to 5 stacks can be accumulated. The EXP% bonus also increases with more active party members (i.e. in the same map) in the party.

This specific implementation has a neat byproduct of preventing "Holy Symbol" mules, since the Bishop now has to actively land attacks on mobs, and misses don't count. At the end of the day, a supporting class is a class with great party appeal, and Bishop is definitely the prime contender for the Best Party Member title with a patented party EXP% gain skill. Go forth and gather your teammates, aspiring Bishops!

Holy Symbol 3rd Job

So this begs the question: what happens to the original 3rd Job Holy Symbol skill then? It has a new effect now:

It is now a passive skill (thank the heavens, as Bishops used to have to deal with upkeeping many buffs). Every 3 successful Heal (i.e. restores HP), Dispel (i.e. cures abnormal status) or Resurrection (i.e. revives a party member) casts make your next damaging skill, except Heal, deal twice the damage. The buff lingers for 10 seconds and is used up by the next attack skill that hits.

Classes that use active skills for utility purposes (i.e. cast non-damage-dealing skills) will always have to sacrifice their personal damage-output uptime. Every purely utility skill they have is a personal damage skill they gave up for that slot. And it hardly comes as a surprise that the premier supporting class, Bishop, has plenty of utility-only skills. Hence, for the Bishop class to remain viable in clearing content, we have to make sure the class has mechanics that let it catch up on personal damage output while staying active in supporting the party.

This is where we found the opportunity to convert Holy Symbol into a skill that enables this much-needed catch-up mechanic. Holy Symbol also works on Heals and Dispels cast on the Bishop themselves (except Resurrection, because if you die, everything gets reset anyway), so that it remains a purposeful skill outside of party play.

Divine Protection

I remember the pre-Big Bang days of MapleStory, when there was no such thing as multiple lives or revival tools like Wheel of Destiny, and the Bishop class was extremely crucial to the survival of many bossing expeditions. So crucial that oftentimes, the whole expedition had to plan around making sure the Bishop did not get targeted by really nasty debuffs such as Seduce. Indeed, it's hard being the only dedicated supporting class in a party, yet being put out of commission by nasty statuses. So we think some level of innate protection is deserved for the Bishop.

So we added Divine Protection, a skill that passively protects the Bishop from 1 status effect. Upon shielding an effect, the skill goes on a hefty cooldown, but the cooldown is reduced for every successful Dispel (i.e. curing a party member of a status) cast. Adding effects that benefit or synergise with Bishop's utility skills will greatly incentivise players to make use of the plethora of utility skills in Bishop's arsenal.

Genesis & Big Bang 4th Job

4th Job used to be really iconic for Bishop as well, back when no-cooldown Full Map Attack (FMA) skills were a thing. The effective 30-second cooldown, as well as general improvements to regular mobbing skills, have largely left FMAs untouched. But we think it would be such a waste for the Explorer Magicians to have such a hallmark skill fall out of use.

One way to bring relevance back to FMAs is to lower their cooldown. So for Genesis, Bishop's FMA skill, we created a synergistic effect with Big Bang, its main mobbing skill: every 2 consecutive casts of Big Bang cut 2 seconds off Genesis' cooldown, if it is already on cooldown. Far from a one-trick pony, Bishops can be a mean machine when it comes to training and levelling if players utilise this synergy well.

Don't forget, Holy Symbol's bonus damage buff to the next attack skill cast works on powerful spells like Genesis too! Skillful Bishops will always keep a close eye on Holy Symbol's proc, as well as big bad Genesis' cooldown, to maximise their opportunities to contribute respectable damage.

The class fantasy

These changes are our attempt to bring back the relevance of the support-oriented Bishop. There are many reward systems built into the Bishop's kit that reward proactive use of their party utility and support spells, so Bishops will not go back to an era where they were relegated to heal-bots or dispel-spammers. Players who truly enjoy the backline supporting role should find the new Bishop a very fun and engaging class, letting you live out the healing fantasy etched into this timeless class.

Behind every successful group is a selfless Bishop, who gracefully accepts being bestowed with skills that empower their allies and put them in the spotlight. But make no mistake, capable healers are naturally capable annihilators of evil, purifying masses of evilspawn with a finesse no other class has.

That's it for our Class Design Diary for Bishop and the Explorer Magicians. Stay tuned for the last Explorer class to be presented, and see for yourself whether we truly saved the best for last...