General

Maybe it's just me then. It just seems hella different to me now, idk. I still love the class. I still play my Aran, but I've been doing a bit of class hopping and finally stuck with my DA.

[quote=MageKing]@Iced they barely changed Aran they've been the same since release o.o [/quote]

Where tf have you been...?

The were only two times I/Ls got shafted for casting speed.

The first was in Chaos when Ice Strike had an additional 200 ms delay added.

The second was in the first KMST RED when CL got nerfed hard enough to piss every user off.

I/L in my eyes has always been shafted and kinda halfway swept under the rug. I've mained one for 8.5 years. We have never at any one point been a fast training class compared to others in game, never been one of the top tier dps classes. By all rights we should at least be able to handle training grounds and mobs better than any class (says every rpg ever other than maple) but we do not. We had a period post BB with spammable blizzard but that was very expensive and didn't last long. Even if blizzard was spammable today (as it should be) luminous and demon slayers still have much more op mob skills with much larger range (and blizzard costs a chunk of mp).

Side note:Glacier chain is totally pointless and a complete oxymoron to chain lightning. Think about it. Casting time and damage for frozen orb is a joke. It's outright insulting that they brought in reflection as luminous' main attack which puts chain lightning to shame on the training grounds. That was cold blooded. Another cold blooded action of nexon is removing the freezing effect from all of our skills WTH is that about. Marksman can still freeze, but [b][i]ICE[/i][/b] mages can't? Our summon is incredibly weak, and DOESN'T FREEZE ANYMORE, it's pointless, only good to annoy monsters. Thunderstorm is pathetically slow, also basically useless. Blah, if anyone from nexon with any authority ever browses basil to read our thoughts on the classes and one of you happen to see this, eff you guys for 9 years of no love for the i/l mages.

edit: i've been waiting to rant a bit about this.

@JVIaplevoyager: Eh well I really enjoyed my I/L before the RED revamp, and I've quit him now but I'm looking to switch characters again and I am considering an I/L again or a F/P which I've never play before. So if you actually could state more facts as to why they're a good class, I would appreciate it.

[quote=Saru79]I've played an Ice Lightning Mage before these last several updates, and I've tried them since, the cast speed is the exact same. I do agree that the old play style was better though. I miss glacial chain's usefulness, frozen orb's cast speed is far too slow and just lowers dps significantly. They definitely have ruined the class with these new, unneeded skills.[/quote]

I disagree. Alternating between CL and glacial chain to maximise dps felt incredibly clumsy and slow. Glacial chain is much much better off being solely used as an utility skill which is to pull enemies/bosses. Also, the DPS of I/L is much better than before and that is a fact. The gameplay is much more diversified. Before RED, all we could do was alternate between CL and GC which got old pretty fast. Frozen orb doesn't lower dps although I agree the cast time could be faster and that the cooldown is unnecessary. It's necessary to bring up freeze counters which brings up dps by a significant amount. All in all, I/L is a hell of a lot better than before RED and if you can't seem to understand that, I could state more facts if you want.

I've played an Ice Lightning Mage before these last several updates, and I've tried them since, the cast speed is the exact same. I do agree that the old play style was better though. I miss glacial chain's usefulness, frozen orb's cast speed is far too slow and just lowers dps significantly. They definitely have ruined the class with these new, unneeded skills.

[quote=IcED]Dunno about that. The more I play my I/L nowadays the more I hate it. Thats a lot to say since I loved
it during Big Bang and even before that.
Sure, they made our damage stronger. But speed and agility? Hell no, were so damn slow now. [/quote]

Let's see.. Delay hasn't changed. Teleport's distance has actually INCREASED for ice lightnings. Speed's a real easy stat to raise (I've had max speed since pre-Big Bang)

[quote=IcED]I don't know when they changed the animation of CL, but people who played five to six years ago during pre-BB and post BB should know the smoothness of the old CL. The old CL had literally no delay and you can keep tele-casting forever.
This new CL stalls right after the charge orb and before it shoots and is just really clunky.
The new CL falls behind when I try to pull my fast tap tele-cast. Something I never had an issue with the old CL. [/quote]

All you need for this is a little practice. Most of the time tele-casting isn't even helpful anymore since the main monsters to fight now are very immobile. Just gotta know when to teleport.

[quote=IcED]Then again, newer players probably don't know what tele-casting is or can even do it fast or properly. I guess its no issue for you.
But for me, LF> OLD CL.

The equally slow Frozen Orb doesn't help much either. And Freezing Breath is a huge joke, like what are we, cheap imitiations of an F/P's DoT?[/quote]

Trying to understand this last phrase. So what you're saying is, is that Fire Poisons have a giant ball of fire that moves forward, attacking mobs as it goes along with slowing them, also allowing you to do more damage to them.
They also have a giant burning dragon that freezes the enemy completely and reduces their defense. This is terrific against bosses. You could literally be invincible with just a few Ice Lightnings doing a boss that uses protect, seduce, and other nonsense annoyance.

this is y i deleted my i/L

I have no problems telecasting at all. Up, down, forwards, backwards, Chain Lightning, Glacier Chain, Frozen Orb. Haven't had any issues with it, and I've played my I/L for a few years now.

[quote=JVIaplevoyager]I agree that I/L could be stronger than what it is now. However, the job is a lot stronger now than what it was like pre-RED. Chain lightning's delay is unchanged. Maybe you need to reanalyze the situation since I believe that the gameplay of this job is a lot more smooth and better than what it was like before RED.[/quote]
Dunno about that. The more I play my I/L nowadays the more I hate it. Thats a lot to say since I loved
it during Big Bang and even before that.
Sure, they made our damage stronger. But speed and agility? Hell no, were so damn slow now.

I don't know when they changed the animation of CL, but people who played five to six years ago during pre-BB and post BB should know the smoothness of the old CL. The old CL had literally no delay and you can keep tele-casting forever.
This new CL stalls right after the charge orb and before it shoots and is just really clunky.
The new CL falls behind when I try to pull my fast tap tele-cast. Something I never had an issue with the old CL.

Then again, newer players probably don't know what tele-casting is or can even do it fast or properly. I guess its no issue for you.
But for me, LF> OLD CL.

The equally slow Frozen Orb doesn't help much either. And Freezing Breath is a huge joke, like what are we, cheap imitiations of an F/P's DoT?

I agree that I/L could be stronger than what it is now. However, the job is a lot stronger now than what it was like pre-RED. Chain lightning's delay is unchanged. Maybe you need to reanalyze the situation since I believe that the gameplay of this job is a lot more smooth and better than what it was like before RED.

[quote=MeiGuiHua]Lol i have an i/l and wind archer who I hardly ever train.[/quote]

Well that added a lot to this topic...

@IcED: When I played mine after the ReD patch I didn't notice any noticable difference with CL and telecasting, the only real problem I got (and that is a bug among multiple skills in Ems) is that Frozen Orb does not move properly, like it's supposed to. Other than that all skills worked nice and smoothly for me.

Lol i have an i/l and wind archer who I hardly ever train.

[quote=FreeIcecream]Talking about Chain Lightnings speed, it has been the same for more than 5 years now.
You're sure you don't remember it being faster than it really was?
([url=http://ayumilovemaple.wordpress.com/2009/09/06/maplestory-attack-speed-reference/]Source 1[/url] [url=http://www.southperry.net/showthread.php?t=67621]Source 2[/url])[/quote]
Tele-casting isn't as smooth and quick as it used to be.
I tried to practice my usual fast 'tap-attack-tap' method with chain lightning while hunting for leaves inside the Evolution dungeons. It frequently did connect any hits even when the monster is literally right in front of me.
I never had that problem with the Big Bang CL, tele-casting around LHC back when it was still new.
Heck even the pre-Big Bang CL was smoother and more comfortable to use.

Its formula and description may not have description may not have changed, but in practice, its just so much more different from the old CL.
I'm not sure if its the animation or if they changed the way teleport interacts with attack skills. I just miss the old fast CL.

Well let's see, they added extra damage, gave us a weapon multiplier, and ice stacks onto monsters which deal bonus critical damage and all that jazz.
Also, the chain lightning (If I remember correctly) may have only lost a couple frames per cast. Not a huge biggee compared to the buffs.
EDIT: Even better, the guy above me proved that there actually wasn't even a frames loss.

Talking about Chain Lightnings speed, it has been the same for more than 5 years now.
You're sure you don't remember it being faster than it really was?
([url=http://ayumilovemaple.wordpress.com/2009/09/06/maplestory-attack-speed-reference/]Source 1[/url] [url=http://www.southperry.net/showthread.php?t=67621]Source 2[/url])

I honestly just miss the fast and streamlined playstyle of the old I/L.
I tried playing an F/P back then. DoTs weren't as fun or fast as high speed telecasting with chain lightning.

Coincidentally, they also ruined Aran, which I play as a second main.

Lol. There's nothing I can return to now. Uninstalled Maple again.

I'm a former I/L as well, and I really disliked our last revamp too.
It feels like Nexon tried to combine I/L's playstyle with F/P's (Stacking freezes instead of DoT that is), and IMO they didn't do a great job at it.
I switched him to a F/P, because I'd rather play the full class, than something which tries to resemble it.

Switch to F/P! We're not as cool (huehuehue) but I prefer the playstyle, which hasn't [i]really[/i] changed [i]much[/i] over the years.