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A Time For mADDness!

KOG Games Posted:
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Developer Journals 0

Hey MMORPG! GM Moshup here with a psychotic tale of time-travel, technology and turmoil. A tale of the twisting of a mind that would drive even the most grounded of heroes to their knees with madness. From this madness echoes the launch of Elsword’s new Job path or class update and the continued story-arch for the delightfully twisted character Add. Add’s new Job path, dubbed Time Tracer, opens the third and final chapter in the Elsword Darkness is Coming series. Like all of our recent Darkness updates, Add’s story casts some shadow onto what is already a morbid allegory, and pushes the boundaries of genius beyond the brink of insanity.

Let’s start with a recap: Over a thousand years ago, Add was born into a household of intellects and scholars ~ engineers and mechanics. His family sought only to research the life and culture of the automaton race that cohabitated peacefully with the humans on Elrios… the Nasod.

El is the source of all power and magic in the world of Elrios, and as the denizens of Elrios recklessly consumed this limited resource, The robotic Nasod and human races exploded into a bloody, all-out war over what precious El resources that remained. Seeing how the Nasod were preoccupied with their war effort, the family used this opportunity to sedate their lust for knowledge. The family elders wanted to obtain the secret of the Nasod power at any cost, and when the elders were finally discovered pilfering the source of these ancient, forbidden secrets, they were killed.

The Nasod captors took pity on the child Add and spared him. However, they sold Add into slavery.   His time spent with the Nasod taught him about technology beyond anything man could comprehend, the burden of slavery tested his resolve and rid him of any fear of death, and his desire to see his family again and the regret of not being able to save them drove him absolutely mad. In escaping his Nasod masters, he stumbled into a powerful necropolis of technology and tomes. Finding that these tomes possessed secrets to the Nasod power, Add read them… all. The unfortunate twist is that the walls of this necropolis concealed a power that froze time and space for all who entered, and Add was caught in this time maelstrom time for well over a thousand years. Realizing what had happened, he was able to escape. This is where Add runs into and joins our happy band of Elsword do-gooders.

*Flash forward*

The temporally displaced Add tried to find a way back to his own time, with the hope of changing the events that led to the murder of him family, and eventually, his own twisted misery. Using the absolute power of the Nasod tech, and a keen understanding beyond the era of man... Add crackles with laughter and energy as he unravels the secret to the forbidden time-travel verisimilitude. Now as the Time Tracer, Add is capable of moving through time and space. He directs his attention to finding an energy source large enough to allow him the means. His calculations and algorithms need to be precise… This is the ultimate journey home…

Now that Add’s journey home has begun, let’s talk about gameplay.

One huge advantage Add has over every other character in Elsword is that he effectively has two MP bars. While one is his standard MP bar, the other is called “DP” and he can choose to consume DP as opposed to MP when using skills. However, when it comes to utilizing both his DP and MP bar, the Time Tracer Job is what takes Add to a whole new level.

Thanks to the Time Tracer Job’s Passive Skill “Nasod Armor Mode - Overlimit”, Add is able to toggle between two combat modes: Configuration Mode and Dissolution Mode. Configuration Mode allows Add to use DP instead of MP when using skills. Dissolution Mode enables Add to use MP instead of DP. This passive also has an added bonus:  Every time you use a skill, it will refund back a set amount of MP or DP by factoring what mode you are in and what skill you use.  Thanks to this, Time Tracer can cast way more skills than any other class can ever hope to achieve. Though having two MP bars does allow you to have the resources to toss out many skills, there is one more concept that needs to be considered, and that would be cool-downs. The great thing about being a master of time, space, and apparently cool-downs is that it’s almost a given that you can control them in some way. To synergize with ample resources, Time Tracer has a skill called “Seal of Time” which can lower the cooldown of not just you, but all your allies as well. Combine all the factors listed above and you’re looking at delivering total annihilation in PvP and PvE. But wait... There’s more! Speaking of the end, “Seal of Time” can prevent allies from ever meeting theirs. The “Seal of Time” skill grants all allies and the caster a temporary resurrection buff. As long as the buff remains active, death can be avoided.

While Time Tracer starts any dungeon or PvP match without many resources to work with, as the fight unfolds, that is when Add starts to shine. Because of the fact that he gains MP or DP every time he uses a skill, Time Tracer can quickly become a huge threat once engages the enemy. Be careful though, your enemies will take advantage of this slow start, but ADDversaries need be cautious of this small-statured psycho, because when he starts throwing punches, the power overwhelming starts to stack, and the Gravity Balls will start rolling.  

Here’s a simple breakdown for Add’s new Time Tracer Job Path:

One last thing before I go.

What if I told you, that you had the means to go back in time and right any wrongs?

What if I told you that upon arrival, to your own place in this world, that the only thing wrong about your so called “home” was you… The very existence you lived was part of a reality that only you could feel and suffer… The macrocosm in its totality (aka the universe) acted as if you never existed… The hell you lived was yours, and yours alone.

Stick around to find out what happens when this hell falls upon our beloved Time Tracer, and he evolves into Add’s new 3rd Job… and the Final Chapter in the Masters of Darkness series: Diabolic Esper.

Playing as Add is just exciting. Every attack animation and impact crackles with explosive energy and electric current. The explosions are huge and his twisted laughter at it all is just delightfully maniacal.

Come play Elsword. Play your Manga.