They took freezing away from you guys? Really?
So I made an I/L mage on the reboot server. It was the one mage I'd never done before. I started as a cleric but had a change of heart late in the game and job-switched a little past fourth job into an I/L AM. All I remembered of them was watching them freeze everything. I'd watched this I/L AM train once, and I remembered marveling at the way her blizzard skill froze the entire map. Cold, frozen death. When it came to crowd control, you guys were kings.
Now, holy hell. You can't freeze things anymore! When did this happen? You can slow them down and stack a nifty damage multiplier, sure, but crowd control's out the window. Monsters utilizing magic or long ranged skills can keep attacking you at their regular speed. It's frustrating, because I don't really have a way to deal with the huge mobs I aggro since I can't stop them in a feasible way beyond killing them quickly. What happened to that one spell that silenced enemy magic? It's gone! This is all just such a bummer, man. Who decided that ice spells shouldn't freeze anymore? Why isn't anyone else upset about this change? Was it so long ago that you've all ranted and gotten past it by now?
I mean, my god. When it comes to mages, Nexon can't help but ruin them the more they fiddle with their skills. I already watched them butcher poison mist to appeal to damage fiends who cared more about big numbers than interesting training mechanics. Mist's damage used to be dependent on a monster's HP; now it's all about how many cubes you've sunk into your weapon, just like every other class in the game. And paralyze as a fire element skill -- it's laughable. Paralyze's poison element made sense; the poison caused the paralysis. Same with the summons: there was an entire storyline about why fire mages had an ice summon and vice versa, but nexon threw that out the window as well, in favor of just "hurrdurr more damage!" Now they've done the same with ice mages and freezing. You got more power, definitely, but you lost the thing that made you unique.
I mean, goddamn. It's my fault for not watching more videos I guess, but all I wanted to do was freeze stuff and I can't even have that anymore. When did it change? Was it even recent? I might actually see about making a crossbowman at this rate. Maybe they can still freeze things. I just wanna freeze stuff and then blast it to bits.
9 Comments • Newest first
@silverfoxr: I don't know if you've played an I/L before, but "nearly invincible" was never even close to true. To say that it was as easy as freezing an enemy and moving a bit is a gross oversimplification. Do you remember Ice Strike? Their only mobbing skill in 3rd job that also required you to be in the middle of mobs to use effectively? You had to make pixel-perfect movements while stuck between a bunch of monsters just so you don't get hit (and despite all that, it wasn't always possible). That doesn't sound like near-invincibility to me. Being able to freeze enemies didn't magically remove touch damage. This "nearly invincible" idea of yours was far from the reality.
Totally agree with the last 3 posts above me. Couldn't be said better, I'm just lazy to type more. xD
Reading the last paragraph, I can vouch marksman CAN NOT freeze anymore. Their playstyle is so much more amazing though. While I do miss the original challenge of playing a marksman, they are still worth playing now in this time.
What CherryTigers said, back in the day it was useful to be able to freeze enemies, it really isn't anymore. And in my eyes at least, I/L mages are getting better and better.
If you think about it, having I/Ls be able to completely immobilize enemies is kind of broken. It makes them nearly invincible in training, since all they have to do is freeze an enemy in place and move a little if enemies are knocked back by the subsequent hits. Slowing monsters down instead of outright holding them in place is a bit more balanced.
It has nothing to do with ice lightning mages getting worse. It's that ice lightning mages are getting better now. The game's evolved to a faster pace game.
In your second paragraph, you talk about fighting monsters in old school maplestory: You can't freeze the lower level monsters because they die in 1 hit. You can't freeze the higher level monsters because they are immune to it. And holy hell, you most definitely can't freeze bosses.
Nexon has improved ice lightning mages by adding freeze counters and increasing their damage so they can stack up with other jobs. Let's not take anymore steps backwards.
Out with the old, in with the new.
Eh...I don't really miss it all that much, and I've played for 8-9 years (2007)
Freezing kinda became useless a few years back.
I wasn't happy with losing the ability to freeze either, but my biggest disappointment with Maplestory were the changes to Buccaneers. I used to love that class. As hard as it was to level from 70-120 using their lame third job skills, I did it for Demolition. Heck, I even named my character zDemo after that skill. Not just Demolition, but Super Transformation, Barrage, Dragon Strike, every fourth job skill they had was just so amazing to me. Then they go and get rid of everything that made a Bucc a Bucc, which led me to delete my Bucc and never look at the class again. I'll never get over those changes.
@piana: yes.
part of the reason it was removed was likely because high-level training is done on monsters that are immune to most status effects, making Freeze useless. this is in combination with early training being no more than a three-hit KO (if you're really unlucky), making Freeze a bit redundant. and for the cherry on top, it was likely to vastly improve I/Ls interaction with Storm Magic. F/Ps' equivalent, Burning Magic, is almost always active whenever they use their standard rotation: virtually everything in their kit gives a DoT. but for I/Ls, they were dependant on inserting Glacial Chain into their rotation. while it wasn't a loss of damage per se, it was certainly clunky. F/Ps benefit from their DoT stacking: by procing Burning Magic, increasing Mist Eruption's damage, and through increasing their damage output as a whole. the new Freeze mechanic gives I/Ls a way to have better interaction in their kit.
Seal was removed because it became nearly useless with how much faster the game became.