Bowmaster

Welcome back to Class Design Diary! We are cleaning up some loose ends for the Explorer Magician classes, so I'm going to have to switch gears and introduce another Explorer class instead.

So let's introduce some of the stuff we've done for the Explorer Archer classes, starting with the Bow Master!

Why Archers fell behind

The Explorer Archers were amongst the least popular classes on our server. This was also somewhat the case back in Retail MapleStory around similar patch versions. Back in the pre-Big Bang days, when the Accuracy stat was extremely scarce, Archers, being a DEX class, had a natural advantage over other classes simply because they never needed to worry about the stat at all.

However, when the Accuracy formula was reworked from the Big Bang patch onwards, Accuracy became an afterthought, and when the strengths of Archers disappeared, their weaknesses became more apparent. Archers were not the most mobile class, and weren't the best mobbers. They were decent damage dealers and were wanted in parties, primarily due to their class-exclusive, overpowered buff "Sharp Eyes", which was continuously buffed from before Big Bang. But the buff was often more valuable than the Archer itself, since other classes can also fully benefit from it. So in an era where more mobile classes could do better than Archers in almost everything, there just aren't many reasons to justify playing an Archer. If the most unique thing about a class all boils down to one single party buff, then arguably it was never really that unique a class to begin with.

And so here comes our approach to address all these issues, starting with the infamous buff itself, Sharp Eyes.

Sharp Eyes 2nd Job

We deleted it. Nope, this is not an April Fools' joke. You did not read it wrongly.

But don't stop reading, because we actually reworked it rather than simply wiping it from existence.

The first change is that Sharp Eyes is no longer a castable party buff. Secondly, it is now only available to the Bow Master, and not its crossbow counterpart, the Marksman. Thirdly, it is now a Specialized Skill, available from 2nd Job onwards. Here's how it works:

There are two parts to the new Sharp Eyes skill. First, there is a passive stat boost of +10% Critical Rate upon learning the skill (it is learnt automatically). The passive stat gain is upgraded again in 4th Job, to a total of +10% Critical Rate and +15% Max Critical Damage.

The second part of the new Sharp Eyes skill requires the Bow Master to accumulate Sharp Eyes stacks, which are gained whenever the Bow Master lands an attack. The stacks are very short-lived at 3 seconds each, but the duration is completely refreshed with every attack that lands, and at 2nd Job, up to 5 stacks can be accumulated. Each stack grants both the Bow Master and the party +2% Critical Rate for 3 seconds, for up to +10% Critical Rate at 5 stacks.

There are a few reasons behind such a drastic overhaul of Sharp Eyes. We wanted Sharp Eyes to have a stronger impact on the Bow Master itself compared to other classes. Hence, we split the original bonus Critical Rate/Damage values into 2 separate components, where half of the original bonus is only gained by the Bow Master as a passive effect.

However, does this mean that we essentially nerfed its potency as a party buff? Yes, and we feel that a nerf to Sharp Eyes is more than justified, as it simply outclasses all other damage-related party buffs in terms of impact on individual and party damage. Part of our class balance objective is to ensure that there is no such thing as an overpowered skill in the game. And rest assured, this is not limited to Sharp Eyes only.

Removing Sharp Eyes as a party buff also has the useful by-product of discouraging players from creating a Sharp Eyes mule. The dynamic upkeep of Sharp Eyes stacks requires the Bow Master to be actively hitting enemies in order to generate the party buff bonuses.

It also ensures that your unique party role can't be stolen by this son-of-a-cane:

Mortal Blow 3rd Job

On to 3rd Job, where the Bow Master's skill set is arguably the most egregious example of outdated skill design, which could only ever have been relevant early in its in-game history.

Take a look at the example of Mortal Blow:

Mortal Blow turned out to be extremely underwhelming, as farming metas around this version of MapleStory heavily skewed towards efficiency. Players learnt that farming should be about clearing as many mobs with as few skill casts as possible. This meant that players want to farm in maps where they are 1- or 2-shotting monsters. No matter how you put it, Mortal Blow's activation window of below 15% HP is a range Bow Masters rarely even engage in. It's also not a guaranteed activation, but a measly 30% chance within that 15% HP ceiling. Furthermore, this passive does not even work in bossing situations.

Hence, we decided to rework Mortal Blow so that it becomes beneficial in both training and bossing situations, with an activation criterion that aligns with the Bow Master's combat playstyle.

3rd Job clean-up 3rd Job

We also did a lot of clean-up to the 3rd Job skill table where possible. Examples are:

Removed underwhelming skills that were hardly keybound over the whole course of the Bow Master's playtime, such as Roasting Shot, Puppet etc.

Combined two or more active skills together in order to reduce keybind bloat. E.g. Concentrate, an active skill that simply increased Weapon ATT, is now combined into Soul Arrow, which originally only had the one effect of making arrows usable infinitely.

Improved class thematic identity where possible, by giving a visual upgrade or rework to an existing skill's mechanism, preserving the skill effect while making it sensible within the lore of the Bow Master's identity. For example, Drain Arrow, a simple skill that shoots 1 arrow to absorb HP from the damage dealt, has been converted into something that works with the Bow Master's strafing arrow playstyle.

Focused Fury 3rd Job

I forgot to update everyone about this change that applies to all Explorer classes: we've given bonus Abnormal Status Resistance to every Explorer class, something they were sorely lacking, leaving them victims of boss harassment such as insanely lengthy stun-locks, seduces etc. The Bow Master received this upgrade too, in the form of a passive utility skill, Focused Fury, which also temporarily adds Abnormal Status Resistance whenever the Bow Master lands an attack:

Hurricane 3rd Job

Finally, the biggest 3rd Job change has to be moving the Bow Master's signature Hurricane skill from 4th to 3rd Job. It will deal scaled-down damage in 3rd Job. But the change that you will be most excited about is this:

Finally, the ability to move while casting Hurricane!

Binding Shot 4th Job

4th Job is where we focused on improving the Bow Master's lacklustre bossing and mobbing capabilities. I do expect that some might find the changes controversial. Nonetheless, here's what we've done:

We introduced a utility skill, Binding Shot, that inflicts up to a 60% reduction in Healing on enemies, as well as reduced speed. This should become increasingly significant with harder bossing content, so we think Bow Masters should gain some party appeal here.

Armor Break 4th Job

We brought in another bossing passive: Armor Break.

Armor Break gives the Bow Master's attacks a chance to ignore 50% DEF (i.e. gain +50% IED), along with a whopping bonus to Damage% (we are still in the midst of balancing these numbers, so expect some of them to receive further adjustments post-launch).

Many of these bonuses directly synergize with Hurricane's rapid-fire nature. That is also to say, attacking skills without Hurricane's rapid fire rate would gain comparatively less benefit.

Arrow Stream 4th Job

And this is the angle we chose for introducing the Bow Master's 4th Job mobbing attack... which is Hurricane, but with a multi-mob count.

This comes in the form of a toggle skill, Arrow Stream, which reduces Hurricane's damage to 70% of its original value in exchange for multi-mob hits. We are still deliberating details such as what the mob count should be, but we can assure you that this change will improve the Bow Master's mobbing capabilities compared to its previous iteration.

The class fantasy

And that sums up our key changes to the Bow Master. This is a class we invested heavily in to achieve better output, synergy, and adherence to its class fantasy. The central focus of the new Bow Master should be obvious, but still, this is our take on the Bow Master:

The Bow Master embodies the art of focused firing, where each arrow religiously follows the last. Every arrow that pierces his enemies fills the Bow Master with adrenaline, until he becomes an unparalleled and unstoppable force of destruction, where even the sturdiest of monsters are left with no opening to recover and escape.

If you like what you read, do stay tuned for the next Class Design Diary, where we will show off changes to the crossbow-wielding Marksman.