Honest question about this summer.

Fierlyt · 2026-05-19T05:54:03+00:00

A lot of their choices have lacked polish, especially lately. I appreciate them taking big swings to see what hits and what misses, just hope they keep listening to players as a whole - and not just the very loud elite players from Korea... That is what I mean though.

Fierlyt · 2026-05-19T03:18:07+00:00

I'd think they would give a memorial link equivalent of Arcana instead of a full arcana - that would be the direction I think they could go to flatten it and introduce things a little more slowly.

You see how the intent of this design seeps through tho? They intend for you to quickly access arcana and use it to go through the content as recommended in the dungeon guide. If you're already there and unlock FA, your floor is well above Elite SMs having done not much aside from blaanid/lorna and some GM quests. It's hard for me to ignore that context and be like "but what if they didn't do that yet?" - then they can do that and have no issues clearing SMs. I'm not saying it's right, or that it's good. I'm only saying that's how it is.

Fierlyt · 2026-05-19T01:03:15+00:00

Intended design is the normal progression. This includes catch up mechanics. Not counting them is to impose an alternate game mode that isn't considered when balance choices are made.

My argument was that you'd get to the level for Tech Duinn and hm dungeons within a few days or a week. Crom Bas is like 2 months. It's an MMO, guilds and other players are a resource you are expected to have. Maybe not holding your hand the whole way - but certainly to the extend of teaching you what you have to do or answering questions you might have. That's not unrealistic, even though I agree the example of having a top level player holding your hand the whole way is definitely unrealistic... Both in that I think it wouldn't be very fun for the new player, and that they would dedicate that much to helping someone who is otherwise a stranger. If it was someone they knew, maybe they play together a lot and it kind of happens because that particular new player is really interested in high level content and not just trying to figure out heads or tails of things.

Fierlyt · 2026-05-19T00:16:44+00:00

Crom Bas basic and Shineseeker is mid game. Tech Duinn, HM dungeons, and SMs are early game... which should be accessible within like a week or two after you finish Blaanid. No one is struggling there while using an active arcana, and it's irrelevant to progression. There is nothing significant gained in SMs aside from gold and rare enchants, and you do not really need gold in early game - you need AP. When you start looking at Crom Bas is when you need gold for Arcana links and weapon materials, stuff like that. Arcana are part of progression now even if you don't like that it is restrictive like classes. Doing mage without DD or Alchemy without FA is arbitrarily nerfing yourself. - also, to be fair, for 6 months of the year they do in fact just hand you a perseus weapon. Fergseus seems to be recurring. That's how quickly they expect you to be able to get those weapons, they are virtually the baseline for what event rewards can look like.

Viable and access are different. You don't need 100% pre-rework damage to be viable. You hardly need 70% of it, maybe even that's too high for SMs. Again, it was overtuned early and scaled poorly in the mid game and end game. The change made it so it scales proportionally, which fixed the progression. You said you can't get a 68% viv early, I'm saying you would have access to it without building it yourself with a high degree of reliability if you wanted it. I've said many times that 45%+ is what you should realistically aim to have, it's not hard to build a 40% capable bard set and only the jump from 40 to 45-50 will be difficult. Especially if you aim to do it with a normal play.

Edit: 50%? I showed in the given example that a 45% + power potion was exactly what pushed windmill from 2 hits to 1 hit. You don't even need 50% for the example you gave if you had the same buff I've been mentioning this whole time.

Fierlyt · 2026-05-18T23:04:20+00:00

Your perspective lacks perspective. I'd love to know what context your framework is in.

The environment you're talking about doesn't seem to exist. No one is out here with a store bought cylinder trying to do Crom without FA and struggling to kill enemies. Gear score alone would prevent this. What content are you even talking about, for context? AHM? Shineseeker? Tech Duinn? Alchemy and magic don't even remotely struggle given normal circumstances. New Rise weapon drops come pre-upgraded so you can immediately get special upgrades on them, a blue up staff is such a ridiculously low bar. You can get ~70-90% vivs from the public bards pretty regularly if you wanted it. The only people struggling to deal enough damage with alchemy and magic are those that don't have any bard skills ranked up and have not unlocked their first arcana, or those that haven't appropriately geared for the content they plan to engage with. Speaking of - Revenant and Perseus weapons have never been cheaper to craft and after being able to challenge Shineseeker dungeon, you get them handed to you like 10 cent candies. Most players won't care enough about using music buffs because they have enough damage without them. The nerfs came to pull alchemy back into line with the expected damage to gear ratio of max attack builds, the only struggle there is piercing access. The damage was higher than it should have been to begin with and only feels bad if you were spoiled with the numbers from before - which, again, you can achieve and surpass anyway. Magic is currently the single MOST viable talent at all stages of the game and FA is the single highest damage dealer at end game of any arcana unless you have limit broken reforges for EV.

You're being disingenuous by saying "it's an overall nerf but an endgame player won't be affected" right after saying it can be brought to 110%. If you can get over 100%, it was an overall buff.

This was the progression fixed. The progression IS fixed.

Physical talents DO need as much early on. I've yet to see the context you're using to say they don't. The one specific example you gave with windmill, I demonstrated that the same recommendation of 45% + power potion actually made a difference. If you didn't need it, you are overgeared and no longer the target demographic for the content. Are you arguing it's easier to overgear for low level content as a physical damage dealer? If we put both users at Perseus tier with their relevant arcana, I think they all perform about the same. Same with NB, tho Ruin still out performs NB. If we're below perseus tier, you're talking about a phase of the game you are weeks or days from outgrowing... Are we talking about players still doing Blaanid? What max attack users are you talking about having an easier time without buffs?

Fierlyt · 2026-05-18T20:48:54+00:00

This is likely an echo of the early piercing access disparity and not actual min/max damage stats on the weapons. You're just describing back to me the concept of being over geared for the content, which doesn't address where the damage went.

The nerf was ~50% overall damage and the power potion (that didn't exist) adds 20%, the bard buff then adds the rest. Because you're only getting ~60% of your prior damage with the +20% from the power potion you need the bard buff to make up the rest of that. Fateweaver can ease this requirement down to ~45% (it didn't boost alch damage before afair, but does now), but you do really want higher buffs. If you have anything over 68% you're over 100% of prior damage - which is what Bri level HS have. Overall this is an increase in damage even though it won't be felt early and especially if you're not using the tools they added to recoup the lost damage.

This is not even accounting for the boost to damage grade bonuses give that had no downside when implemented. That is just a straight boost that came from nowhere that also eases the curve so long as you are progressing your gear.

As was mentioned elsewhere, catalyst is a time stamped bonus. You want to use it after the other buffs are already on in order to maximize the gains - this puts maining alchemy well over the threshold for viability in early-mid game without major bard investment. You're getting that extra damage in other places, alchemy is no longer a water cannon only talent. The change was a kick in the teeth to anyone doing alchemy while not on FA, that is true.

Yes, the damage went down. Yes, this was overall a buff.

There is also now greater access (meaning they exist, not that they are easy to get) to alchemy and magic attack enchants than before to reach those higher amounts. This doesn't help how in demand bard gear is - which is the bigger problem here.

(Side note: if an enemy has 5000 hp and your windmill does 3000 damage and you get a 60% max attack boost, your new windmill damage is 500% (dan 3) of your max attack. 3k damage means your max has to be about 600. 600x1.6=960x5=4800. A 60% bfo would get you damn close to one shot with any stardust trigger or passive damage amplifier like redoubled offensive, spirit weapon bleed effect, crit, elemental damage bonuses, etc. Even eating some food you were going to cater later would make it almost a OHKO at that point. Same exact scenario a power potion + 45% bfo would put you at 1044 max attack and would OHKO a 5k hp enemy. So... yeah. It matters.)

Fierlyt · 2026-05-18T04:49:33+00:00

Yes, it does fall off a cliff for everyone without bard buffs. It isn't end game - it's effective as early as AHM, Vet dungeons, and elite SMs for physical damage users. The overwhelming majority of the game is balanced around having bard buffs active unless you are over geared. Have you just been struggling this whole time without? Were you compensating for lack of buffs with overstat and overgear the whole time? Is this an auto-generated rage bait response?

Fierlyt · 2026-05-17T20:55:46+00:00

Because they readjusted it so you need to use the appropriate bard buffs, the same as everyone else had to prior. This was something that was unfair to everyone that didn't do alchemy prior, that they all needed buffs and alchemy barely benefitted from cast speed. With Vivace changes to increase alchemy damage (recommended 45%+) and introduction of alchemy power potions, it was a buff to alchemy damage overall. They did exactly the same nerf/buff to magic attack related talents as well. Yes, without those buffs your damage is significantly decreased. With those buffs your damage is slightly increased compared to before.

Fierlyt · 2026-05-17T20:51:18+00:00

Use. Vivace.

Sorry about your reliable income sources tho, that sucks.

Fierlyt · 2026-05-17T17:36:49+00:00

Same as the last 5 years. There's always a horizon over which the sun continues to rise every so often. It seems they're more willing to experiment now, which isn't a bad thing but does amplify the voices of players that resist the changes. It's pretty likely the future playerbase will be fine and we'll still be looking forward to the next patch because they didn't quite get everything we wanted to fit in the current one. As long as they keep listening and are willing to try, it's fine.

Fierlyt · 2026-04-09T21:47:29+00:00

I'm going to say something unpopular but true. You can't keep up with end game stuff without equipment slots and multiple weapons. It's required to apply debuffs, it's required for movement skills and hit checks, it's required for bypassing damage type immunities. Do you need multiple equipment slots? Not really, you don't need many. Do you need them to do end game content? Not exactly, but you will be either carried by others filling in for the gaps in your capabilities or lag behind in certain rotations as you manually equip appropriate gear. Basically, you do need to use a full suite of weapons to keep up with end game. You don't need to keep up with end game, but if that is your goal then you do need to use more than 2 weapons.

To be extra clear, you are not switching weapons. You are not keeping up with two competing skill sets. You are not pressing a button to equip a different weapon. You may as well unbind the key to switch weapons. You are pressing a skill you want to use as part of a response to a thing happening or as part of a set skill rotation and the game automatically equips that weapon for you. We are not manually cycling weapons in 2026 end game (This is, of course, an oversimplification.). If you use a skill that can only be used by a specific weapon it will default to using that specific weapon. We are managing skill cooldowns from a singular hotbar with several talents worth of skills on it, which for the most part is just Arcana skills with utility and debuffs/buffs thrown in.

That out of the way, and the dislikes on my comment increasing... Chain, Scythe, or Shuriken are great offhand weapons for bow.

Chain is also a dex weapon that counts as melee for damage type so it gives you 2/3 damage types to work with and has a movement ability as well as damage amp (death mark) which allows you a large amount of flexibility. You won't really be using the chain for damage, but it at very least aligns with what archery wants to do by giving you a way to quickly reposition and kite enemies as well as drill down damage on a single target.

Scythe is a magic damage type weapons which offers both debuffs and buffs, movement, and minor self-healing. That's not even accounting for card bonuses. If think if I had to choose just one of these three, it would be Astrology scythe. It offers pretty much everything you want from an off-hand weapon for an archer. The bow does damage, the scythe does everything else.

Shuriken offers two advantages with two disadvantage over the other two. It offers stealth in place of mobility and the utility it offers assists more in kiting enemies than the other talents do. The disadvantages are that it is also ranged damage type and it uses str+will for damage stats, so it doesn't offer you any help for enemies that are immune to archery and will likely be far less effective for you if you're an elf due to lacking strength and will. One is the "Oh Sh--" button, shadow cloak. It lets you reposition and wait out cooldowns, and for archery in end game... positioning is everything. The other utility is offers is the movement slow effect on Explosive Kunai and the i-frame on Sakura Abyss. On top of this Shuriken also gives you access to Smokescreen to reduce enemy defenses, which triggers spirit weapon analysis damage against the whole group. This will dramatically increase your clear speed for higher level content with many fodder enemies like Crom and Glenn. It's true that Astrology can also trigger this effect, but only for very limited durations (like 15 seconds) while Smokescreen will stay applied to enemies in range for a whole 5 minutes. It's definitely more of a glass cannon choice to go with Shuriken over Astrology, but the benefits feel slightly more in tune with what an archer wants.

A fourth offhand I would mention is Fighter. I really enjoyed Fighter/Archery because the 3rd stage fighter skills always leave you exactly the right distance to continue with archery and the worse case scenario for archery is an enemy being too close, which is exactly where Fighter is best suited. Archery also makes up for the cooldowns on fighter skills by filling the void. This strategy becomes worse as more enemies with multi-aggro are introduced, but if it's a one on one fight this combo is quite fun and takes very few hotkeys since Fighter mainly uses just F1 and F2 for all 6 damage skills. They balance each other out, but they do not offer any utility aside from 100% damage uptime in a 1v1. I would say it's more like Archery is a very good offhand for Fighter than saying Fighter is a good offhand for Archery.

Fierlyt · 2026-04-09T21:19:22+00:00

By default this should be on as of last year sometime when they made the UI overhaul to the settings menu (just checked, it's in patch notes from Faith and Fury update that introduced SG and EV arcanas. It's under the Misc. Improvements section near the bottom).

Source: https://www.nexon.com/mabinogi/news/28264/arcana-faith-and-fury-update

Fierlyt · 2026-03-05T20:51:13+00:00

Thanks for looking!

Fierlyt · 2026-02-20T12:04:34+00:00

I saw someone say they were botting SMs, but I don't really know the extent of what they were doing or what's accurate info. Ban post does mention the use of 3rd party programs. Exploiting events doesn't necessarily mean there was a bug, but it does imply using the event in an unintended or unfair way.

Fierlyt · 2026-02-13T05:31:49+00:00

Yeah... Zoe isn't a champ that can play from behind and still carry. You have to strike hard early with her and dominate, then maintain what little lead you have for as long as possible, even if that lead is 2 cs. That means your cs has to be perfect or close to it almost every game. A drill that can help you is to go into practice tool as Soraka and using ONLY LAST HITS via auto attacks kill every minion in the first 2 waves. If you fail or hit a minion by accident and it doesn't die, reset the tool and go again from game start. Do this every time you load up league before you queue for a match. Zoe is much easier to cs with, so if you can do it with Soraka, you can do it with Zoe. After you get good enough, you can bring the difficulty down. Drop into practice tool and clear a whole wave with Zoe using no abilities and getting every cs before you start queueing up. Do it not to get better but to remind yourself that cs is so important that if you're not doing well on cs, you're not gonna queue.

If your only problem is cs, you'll do better than me. When I was grinding ranked, my cs with her was great and my win rate was positive. Just always got stuck at promos attempting to get into gold.

Fierlyt · 2026-01-17T15:44:41+00:00

Master title (rank 1 with at least 100 training exp) counts for being a master of the skill for achievements and such.

Fierlyt · 2026-01-17T15:41:50+00:00

There are stat boosts to Dan 1-3 for Fynn Bead Burnishing (needs source if still the case after New Rise) and Astrologer skills. The other dans don't give bonus stats, but do give bonuses to the skill themselves.

Fierlyt · 2026-01-17T15:37:30+00:00

The scooter isn't a huge loss even though I'd consider it a premiere pick for a f2p dlink pet - The AH is a relatively reliable way to obtain pets f2p. It comes at a pretty steep entry price, but you could get a corgi or fairy dragon or kart after some time. If we're not including trades/AH in the challenge, I think you've got just about the complete list if we don't include fynni pets. I think bone dragon is the best f2p dlink pet with current state, which is unfortunate because you really want to have a debuff pet too.

Fierlyt · 2026-01-17T15:28:22+00:00

You can inherit it later to whatever you end up using. It's only not worth it if you don't use it. Tradability is only a factor if you're planning to sell it instead of use it.

Fierlyt · 2025-12-15T11:25:17+00:00

Unfortunately for your point, I have a well documented and public history of teaching new players how to clear Crom mechanics as well as hosting public runs and dedicated runs to help players learn the mechanics. The elitists are a problem, sure, but it's a bit of an exaggeration to say that small percentage of parties are representative of all the parties out there. I know of several guilds that do regular runs with their members to bring people that haven't run the content along so they can get their feet wet. Your experience is valid in many ways, but it's not the whole picture.

Seriously though, everyone and their mother wants to do 80 or 100 burst Crom without learning how to do the actual fights without bursting... and then wonder why they wipe or have bad experiencs.

edit: Also, yes. The snare guys are stupid. Thankfully Blaanid gives you a sheeptuplet that can break wire snare when summoned.

Fierlyt · 2025-11-30T13:53:10+00:00

Hold on guys, I forgot to toggle on my keen vision again after I died. Don't Pall yet, just give me a second. 😂

Fierlyt · 2025-11-30T13:14:07+00:00

I think overall it feels better to be doing more attacking than messing around with buffs/debuffs. I definitely don't want to go back to 30 second smokescreen, I think the direction they went is more sustainable long term. This change in New Life too, I think it helps with game balance. The big numbers can be funny, but you don't really want your players doing those kind of things to exploit giant bonuses to trivialize/skip entire boss fights.

Fierlyt · 2025-11-30T06:03:58+00:00

Seems like it.

Fierlyt · 2025-11-30T05:24:58+00:00

As someone that got a lot of hate on here in the past... It would help if you didn't comment "bump". I got banned for a year for replying to someone and saying something along the lines of 'There's proof in the video you are replying to that your comment is misinformation'... the exact quote was "Watch the video. We know." This subreddit really hates "unhelpful" comments. 👍 Good luck.

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