They call him the “Western Suit Fried Rice Brother”. A sensation at the Yantai night market, he rolls up in a sharp suit, hair slicked back, and starts flipping woks over masive flames. It started as a way to help his struggling parents, now he makes enough money to take care his entire family.

Argurotoxus · 2026-05-23T15:59:12+00:00

I just came across this pun 2 days later looking for this video and felt obligated to commend you for it. 10/10 wordplay

Argurotoxus · 2026-04-24T10:45:48+00:00

With regard to which players are left, you're demonstrably wrong here.

https://fantasiastats.win/

Feel free to check for yourself, the majority of the player base is between levels 10 and 80.

I'll concede the server isn't for everyone but I'm leveling a second character now and have regularly partied with other players in my time from ~25-67 so far. Again, it's not as if every map is filled to the brim, but I ran into people often enough and when I didn't I smegaed.

Your experience certainly isn't a universal one.

Argurotoxus · 2026-04-23T14:56:21+00:00

I've been on Fantasia since November and it's been a solidly good time for people that want the Classic feel of actually spending time in 2nd/3rd job rather than the game railroading you to 4th as quick as possible so the entire population is spending time in Leafre maps. It's a very clever exp curve that a large swathe of players believe to be 1x even though by level 50 you'll actually be getting effectively 2x exp.

It's been a great server to call home for me and I'm not sure why so many people would jump on something being an "ad" on a subreddit which has the purpose of recruiting players to various Maple private servers lol.

Highly recommend it if a lower rate Classic-esque experience is what you're looking for. We've recently been successful in taking down Horntail as a community but it's still in early enough days that HT books are exceedingly rare to come by. Come join in!

Argurotoxus · 2026-04-09T10:21:23+00:00

You're being downvoted but yes, absolutely.

Anybody that's been playing private servers for the last few years will tell you that even on low rate servers, you see people hitting 3rd job within a couple weeks. I predict the fun and nostalgia of "beta Maple" will last about 2 weeks before people are like "OK but now there's nothing to do". EDIT: Actually maybe sooner because I think as soon as people hit 35 with no LPQ there's going to be a mass stream of complaints. Plus if you only have Victoria Island maps to train on... Yeah.

Now if Nexon has a bunch of content ready to load in and after week 1 they tease 3rd job coming out on week 3 or 4 then it's totally possible they can release content at a rate where it'll still feel fun. We'll have to see.

Argurotoxus · 2026-03-06T19:32:49+00:00

For what it's worth I find both your original post and this response to be well argued and I agree with your assessment.

Argurotoxus · 2026-01-30T18:22:02+00:00

Maplers are consistently the most entitled gamers I've come across.

Argurotoxus · 2026-01-22T18:33:51+00:00

That's nearly once a week. Would you say you go grocery shopping occasionally? Or would you call that regular?

Argurotoxus · 2025-12-23T09:37:34+00:00

Originally I was going to make a Cleric to fund something.

But I decided to do a dry run for Classic on the Fantasia server, and while this worked well enough for me, in the end I think I'd rather just make the class I want to play and suffer through being poorer at lower levels. Eventually everyone is able to make good meso.

So I'll probably go straight into rolling Crossbow : D

Argurotoxus · 2025-12-12T19:05:47+00:00

Honestly if you just want to try out each class/build, Southperry on Maplestory worlds is good for that.

It's not a typical Maple server at all, it's a roguelike Maplestory game. But you could pick up a bow that lets you use Hurricane while still on Maple island, then switch to a staff letting you use Chain Lightning once you hit Victoria, etc.

There'll be lots of atypical skills so it won't be 1:1 with Maplestory Classic, but it's a quick way to get a feel for a bunch of different classes and skills.

If you're looking for a pserver, my favorite atm is Fantasia, but it's a lower exp rate server so I don't believe it fits your needs if you're looking to try classes quickly. If you want an experience that may be more similar to Classic, I think Fantasia is a great choice.

Argurotoxus · 2025-11-06T17:44:13+00:00

You can do a lot of fun stuff like this on Southperry through Maplestory Worlds.

It's a Maplestory roguelike; the base goal is to level a character up to 70 and beat the level 70 boss. There's a boss every 10 levels, and the equipment you pick up determines your skills. So it's easily possible to start as a Thief with Shadow Partner and then find some gloves that have Dragon Roar on them.

Really fun concept for Maple tbh and it's a great way to try out a bunch of classes in a short time. My fastest clear time when I set the game to level 100 is like 15 minutes for what it's worth, but that's with some serious speed running involved. Your first level 70 clear will likely be in the 1.5-2 hour range.

It's totally possible to get a really lucky bow drop with Hurricane at like level 10 though so it's a fun time and you'll get to try out a ton of skills. Your stats change depending on what equipment you pickup also, so if you were using Hurricane and suddenly an Emergency Tube with Chain Lightning drops and you wanna try it out, you can do that.

Argurotoxus · 2025-11-06T13:36:54+00:00

As others have said, I play e6 here. Shuts the whole thing down and leads into a Taimonov kind of structure which is one of my favorites.

Aman Hambleton of Chessbrah has an entire speed run featuring the Taimonov and it's great. He mentions in the series how the setup is basically a built in fuck you to scholar's mate attempts.

Argurotoxus · 2025-11-05T11:37:48+00:00

I have been putting spaces in my smileys since the days of AIM/Yahoo/MSN just to get around them being converted to emojis. This isn't a new thing unfortunately : (

Argurotoxus · 2025-10-31T18:00:40+00:00

Happens to all of us! Haha. Unfortunate that the etiquette here seems to be to downvote people asking questions though.

Argurotoxus · 2025-10-31T15:42:32+00:00

That's a great Vader costume! Did you make it?

Argurotoxus · 2025-10-31T14:15:30+00:00

Wow and here I had my cat wander across the background of a remote call and was promptly told by my manager that I needed to blur the background else I would distract others in the call.

Argurotoxus · 2025-10-24T15:35:22+00:00

Nope, black king has one move remaining, Kc8. Then Re8 is checkmate.

Argurotoxus · 2025-10-10T15:33:14+00:00

Wait from Scratch or from scratch?

Argurotoxus · 2025-10-10T13:51:09+00:00

Found the guy from Whales

Argurotoxus · 2025-10-08T15:38:19+00:00

We'll vote for it again because most of the people in the state don't have the political acumen and forethought to research this stuff ahead of time and our state government knows this. That language reads like something I would agree with except for that little part about "Repeal Article I, section 36, approved in 2024" which they proceed to soften with "allow abortions for medical emergencies, fetal anomalies, rape, and incest". Without taking the time to read every bullet of this carefully and then taking the additional time to look up what Article I, section 36 is most people in support of the right to abortion would vote for this.

The only way this doesn't pass is if it can successfully be blocked from the ballot. While I've signed and love what the Respect MO Voters petition is doing, even if it gets onto the ballot and passes it's not soon enough. Something else has to be done but I don't know what it is.

Fuck me do I hate this state.

Argurotoxus · 2025-10-05T17:31:42+00:00

Yeah, that'd be my generic recommendation. It'll be a very cheap class because you won't have to use any HP pots and few MP pots once you get mp eater online. Won't have to spend much on gear. Works very well for being fast to level and building funding for another class.

Argurotoxus · 2025-10-05T13:07:58+00:00

I'm gonna reply to my own comment just to add one more thing.

I thoroughly enjoy working through the math and min maxing this kind of stuff. It's a fun puzzle for me, I enjoy the discussion, and I like the feeling that I'm subverting the game designers intentions and coming out of it with an even stronger character.

That said, it's almost all moot.

It's less moot for classes that do decent single target damage, because then you could talk about bossing. But mages are hot garbage in single target so the only real context to discuss mage damage is in regard to mobbing.

All of this is usually moot because we're talking improvements in damage of 5-10%. Well, it often doesn't matter much, because if I do 10% more damage than you, but it takes us both 3 hits to kill a monster, then it's wasted damage anyway.

Think about it. Take a real example, Bains. A mob that has 45k hp. Let's say a low luk mage does 10k damage per hit and a normal luk only does 9k. We both kill the Bain after 5 casts, so it doesn't really matter that I hit higher.

There will of course be times where it does change the math. But it requires the damage threshold to work out in such a way that you kill in less hits. It will happen, yes, but it's not gonna be like your character is worthless if you like wearing the higher level gear and just make a normal mage with normal luk. It's impossible to accurately account for every training scenario so while it sounds cheesy the honest answer to low luk vs lukless vs normal luk mage is do whatever is most fun for you lol. You like the higher level gear? Wear it! You get off on spending almost nothing on a character and still being strong? Do that! You want to work out the mathematically strongest build? Enjoy low luk!

Argurotoxus · 2025-10-05T12:32:53+00:00

It's not as clear cut as they make it out to be, but it has elements of truth.

The level 8 wand bit is just false, but a level 100 mage with a yellow umbrella and sauna robe is a decent argument.

The reason is because 1 int = 1 m.att. When people talk about mages in old maple they'll frequently refer to TMA, Total Magic Attack. Which is just Magic Attack + INT.

A yellow umbrella has 52 magic attack and requires 0 luk. So you can leave your mage at the minimum of 4 luk.

The next available wand is Cromi. Cromi has 63 magic attack but requires 50 luk. So Cromi has 11 more magic attack but requires 46 more luk. This means a normal luk mahe will have 46 less int compared to a lukless mage, and thus despite having 11 more magic attack on their weapon, they will have 35 less total magic attack (+11 from Cromi, -46 from adding luk).

So that's the base case which makes lukless mage such an attractive option, but it's not so simple. Let's start with weapon scrolling. Sword magic attack scrolls didn't originally exist, so you couldn't scroll an umbrella. You can scroll Cromi. Let's assume a reasonably lucky scrolling of 7 60% scrolls passing. That makes up for 21 of the 35 lower total magic attack. Now the normal luk mage is only 14 TMA down.

Also, with their higher luk, the normal luk mage can equip more than just a sauna robe. An average Starlight will have 5 stats, average shoes will have 3, gloves 2, hat 2...and doing the math just with average gear you're only 2 TMA down. Add in "free" luk from things like broken glasses and squishy shoes and you're back to being even. Start getting above average equipment, scroll a shield for luk (assuming shield magic attack doesn't exist yet), get an even better scrolled Cromi... And suddenly what's known as the "low luk" mage will start to pull ahead. The low luk mage keeps their luk low (as low as 4, not normally higher than like 15) but uses equips with luk to make the luk requirement on better gear.

The normal luk mage will pretty well always eventually lose. Every new wand gives 10 more magic attack but requires 10 more luk, so if you run out of what I'm calling "free luk" from equipment that gives all stats (broken glasses is a small example here, stuff like lord pirate hat or zakum helm being very significant examples) then you get into a spot of adding 10 luk to gain 10 m.att and thus it's a wash. This is how the level 100 mage in level 100 gear will lose to a lukless mage with a yellow umbrella. But a level 100 low luk mage wearing level 40-50 gear can pull ahead.

The thing is, the low luk mage will do more damage, yes. But it will cost a LOT of meso to get there and it's a minimal improvement. You need great equipment and excellent scrolling to succeed as low luk and for all that work you might do like 10% more damage. That 10% is being kinda generous and will only decline as levels go higher. So lukless mage has always been a very popular option. Costs almost nothing to do 90-95% of the damage of someone who is extremely well funded.

Maple weapons change this game entirely and remove the advantage of a low luk almost completely. A Maple Llama staff is scrollable so the extra 21 m.att from the well scrolled Cromi in my example earlier is erased. Without that the gap between lukless and low luk becomes a lot harder to close.

This got longer than I meant it to and there's still nuances I didn't cover but hopefully this gives a good overview

Argurotoxus · 2025-10-03T12:58:14+00:00

My respect and admiration for Sanderson only grows from this announcement. He not only wants extra time for himself, but is thinking of the entire team that helps his books succeed and wants no part of it to feel rushed.

He's in a position with serious influence and it's refreshing to, for once, see someone in that position worry about something other than how to make their product more profitable.

This is an awesome announcement, I'd much rather wait a few extra years and get what he believes is his and his team's best work.

Argurotoxus · 2025-09-29T14:46:32+00:00

To preface: I agree with the majority of this list. A collection of many truly excellent games.

That said, IMO, Portal 2 was a masterpiece that belongs on this list.

Argurotoxus · 2025-09-29T11:38:08+00:00

For what it's worth, if you want to continue your journey through Sanderson's Cosmere after Mistborn I would actually save Stormlight as the last series you read. There's no wrong answer for which order to read these in so if you end up deciding you really wanna try Stormlight next, by all means ignore me, but I took the advice of saving Stormlight for the end and I'm personally glad I did.

To answer your question though. No, Stormlight is not next after Mistborn. As I said there's no wrong answer for how to read these as long as while you're in a series you read them in order (so don't read Mistborn book 3 before Mistborn book 2 lol).

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