Buff the Damage of Final Attack

[Osan]

Final Attack has always been a controversial skill in pre-bb MapleStory. People who like it love it, and people who don't hate it.

There was a previous post suggesting implementing a toggle to turn on/off Final Attack, but I feel like the RNG of it hitting or not is one of the original features of FA, just like crit. However, I do feel like the DPS of FA needs a buff. On single target the damage is slightly weaker than the skills of the classes with FA have, which doesn't make sense as it is a 2nd-job skill.
FA: 250%
Power Strike: 260%
Double Shot: 150%*2

Compared to the AOE skills, FA decreases DPS by A LOT.
Versus Slash Blast, FA is bad due to the weird attack decrease formula of FA.
Versus Bomb Arrow and Iron Arrow, FA is bad since it is only single target.

So, investing 30 SP in Final Attack is inferior than... not adding it at all?
Can we conclude that Final Attack is useless in the current state of the game?

To buff FA, I suggest that buffing the rates of FA to 350% (with 60% success rate), or 300% but with 70% success rate. It would still be bad when using AOE skills, but this would be a buff for those who prefer single-target training. I'm not sure about the rates, but a buff is definitely needed to balance Final Attack.

 

[devious]

Amen to this, skill is basically useless in 4th job servers.

 

[DrewDragoon]

A much better buff in my opinion would be to simply make it to where it doesn't have diminishing damage on multiple enemies, so basically when you use slash blast and it procs you will do the same percent damage to all of the enemies instead of less damage per enemy hit.

 

[Kami]

A much better buff in my opinion would be to simply make it to where it doesn't have diminishing damage on multiple enemies, so basically when you use slash blast and it procs you will do the same percent damage to all of the enemies instead of less damage per enemy hit.

Aka changing the final attack's slash blast formula

 

[Osan]

A much better buff in my opinion would be to simply make it to where it doesn't have diminishing damage on multiple enemies, so basically when you use slash blast and it procs you will do the same percent damage to all of the enemies instead of less damage per enemy hit.

Welp, I called the formula "weird" so you know I definitely have opinions on that and I hope that is also changed.
And you mentioned "simply"... I really hope that the change in the code can be as easy as "oh let's change this decrease variable in the formula from 1/3 to 1/2 or 0.9" and the code just works and the server doesn't crash or something like that. Of course that would be a decent change for warriors, and I'm afraid that would actually make FA too "OP"... crazy right?

But what about bowman/xbow?
My main rant comes from that double shot is buffed to 300% total damage total but final attack is still 250%, which doesn't make sense to me at all.

 

[WillardDog]

Can we conclude that Final Attack is useless in the current state of the game?

I will copy + paste what I wrote in the other thread:

Some people like Final Attack but in general people avoid it because it decreases DPS with Slash Blast (250% instead of 6×130%=780% damage) - Basically lowers overall damage.

You are correct. FA is bad damage for multi-target. But Coma is even better for multi-target damage. FA is used for the utility of the ability, not the damage, as explained by Kami:

Fighters tend to spend their sp on final attack because they charge their combo faster, thats the only positive i've got in mind regarding final attack, that and as said before, bossing.

Fighters sometimes will dump 30 points into it right at level 70. It's useful for charging combo's faster, so you can use Coma more quickly. However, still better forgo FA early and simply choose to max it after Combo + Coma from levels 90-100; saving SP until level ~100ish. Coma training is best at DGP + gobies. Neither of these training locations are out yet, so its ideal for fighters to skip FA for now, and simply come back to it later in 3rd job when these areas are released. No other sader skills are really that important, except maybe panic; but even then you will never use it in training. It's simply not worth wasting your combo orbs over unless you're fighting a boss.

However In those early versions of the game its mainly about grinding and lvling up, and final attack actually reduces exp per hour ratio, hence I dont see it benefiting White knights as much as Fighters (faster combo charge = greater damage).

Yup. FA on White Knights is pretty bad, because there is no utility for it. One of the reasons in which FA increases bossing damage is faster Panic charges. A significant chunk of your damage will come from Panic. White Knights don't care about that, and therefore should really just skip it completely. The slight buff in DPS you'll get from FA while bossing is not worth it in grindstory for WKs.

So the Answer? It has niche, late-game usefulness. If you want to max it in 2nd, it's best to save 30 points and dump @70. It's better not to though until later in 3rd job.

To buff FA, I suggest that buffing the rates of FA to 350% (with 60% success rate), or 300% but with 70% success rate. It would still be bad when using AOE skills, but this would be a buff for those who prefer single-target training. I'm not sure about the rates, but a buff is definitely needed to balance Final Attack.

No. This doesn't fix anything. Also, FA increases 1v1 damage despite being 250% because it activates faster than your normal attacks.

Aka changing the final attack's slash blast formula

This is the way. FA should be a QoL passive BUFF to the class, not a NERF. Warrior's already have it hard enough wasting pots in 2nd job. DKs already have very strong 1v1 and 1v6 mobbing capabilities. This would put Saders / WKs to be more equal. It doesn't address the main downsides of the class (lower range than Dragon fury), but it helps. Making FA deal 250% to 6 mobs is pretty strong though. Perhaps nerf it slightly to 220%.