#developersnote

Arisha is a female character who uses a Longblade and Castlet for combat. 

As most would expect from the name, a Longblade is a lengthy sword which Arisha swings with the power of mana instead of physical strength thus making it a magical attack.

The Castlet is a source used for Arisha's spells and its name is derived from 'Cast' and 'Gauntlet'.

Equipping a Castlet won't display an extra glove or gauntlet but will be shown as a light effect on the back of her left hand.

Arisha's combat style deviates from the traditional [normal hit + smash] sequence.

She will swing her Longblade with L and will use her Castlet to throw a Mana Stone with R.

                        [Throwing a Mana Stone with her Castlet]

The Castlet will not only be used for throwing Mana Stones but also can be used to retrieve or explode them.

       [Mana Region, one of her skills used for bursting Mana Stones]

These actions are designed so that they will require the player to access the situation to make efficient decision. When to retrieve a Mana Stone, the route between Arisha and the Mana Stone, and when to burst a Mana Stone are examples of the decision a player must make.l

One criteria we set for her controls was to allow her to freely interchange between Longblade and Castlet actions so that players will feel comfortable with the different playstyle.

So Arisha can swing her Longblade, throw a Mana Stone, then return back to her Longblade combo from where she left off. It may feel unnatural for those who are used to the traditional style but it shouldn't take too long to get used to.

Arisha will start using MP [Mana Point] as a resource once she reaches a certain level. Longblade attacks against an enemy will cause mana to flow out and she can absorb this with Drain Mana.

Mana will be used for her unique skills such as Mana Blade

Arisha will infuse her Longblade with mana when Mana Blade is activated.

Arisha's attacks will consume mana while Mana Blade is activated but she will perform more devastating attacks during this state.

Her Longblade actions will also become different with lightning speed. Attack range, damage, and fluidity will be increased when Mana Blade is active.

She can also use Warp Hole to switch places with where she threw a Mana Stone and deal damage to enemies that are caught between Arisha and the Mana Stone.

 Other skills include;

Doomsayer which is used to absorb an enemy attack in to mana and activate Mana Blade

Cast Mana which is used to fire mana against an enemy to leave a mark. Arisha can instantly move in on the marked target at well.

Ruin Blade which is a powerful strike that consumes all of Arisha's mana.

Lord of Mana which freezes time with mana.

and more can be seen as soon as the test server is opened.

We have noticed that there were many complaints about the damage and defense system of Mabinogi Heroes mentioned in the comment section of previous Developer's Notes. Many people mentioned that damage is taking too much importance in the game, which we agree with.

And in the center of the problem lies the fact that with the current damage equation, an attack of a character with less attack than the defense of the target he/she is hitting will result in almost no damage.

We went through a lot of work to find a appropriate fix for this and decided to change the damage equation.

Let us explain with some example numbers

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Attack   /   Pre-Patch Damage  / Post-Patch Damage

8000                     196                               586

10000                   315                              1086

12000                    952                             1700

14000                   1954                            2419

16000                   2956                            3231

[AFK : Yeah yeah, I'm so lazy that I didn't even bother to make a graph. Sue me]

[LIB53: I didn't want to sue AFK, so I made a graph]

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

The graph above are the damage from using a Amaranth Kick against a season 2 monster, Havan. (Smash Mastery and Amaranth Kick being the same rank of course)

In the game's current state a 16k character did three times the damage a 12k character would do. But after the patch the gap will be reduced to two times the damage.

So what we did was even out the rise and fall of damage depending on the defense of the target.

Players with high attack will either experience a slight increase or no change in damage and those with similar attack with monster defense will experience a substantial increase in damage done.

            [12k before patch]                                                     [12k after patch]

We believed that the biggest problem with the current system is that it is too difficult to achieve the amount of attack the game requires for players. This patch has been made with the intention of lowering this threshold.

So we made this patch so that players who are still advancing will get a big boost to their damage while still maintaining a reasonable distance with players who are already decked out in their gear.

It was mentioned in a previous Developer's Note but it is difficult to completely eliminate the phenomenon of high stat players looking for likewise players to finish a raid quickly. Although this patch will reduce the gap, the fact that higher damage will result in a quicker clear-time still stays the same.

Still we hope that after this patch, instead of waiting for a 16k restriction boat to fill up, quickly starting with a 14k party will become a more efficient choice. We also hope that this patch will help players reduce emphasis on attack and turn to other stats like crit or attack speed.