Oh Maegu
What a marvel you are.
When I first tried Woosa, I really liked her. She is an absolute powerhouse in PvE, especially in higher-end spots like Orcs and Gyfin Underground. Her AoEs are absolutely massive, and her damage is equally as ridiculous. I was locked into playing her for the foreseeable future, as she was everything I wanted in a class in Black Desert.
Then Maegu was released.
Somehow, they made a class that was even more “me” than Woosa. Her damage, great. Her movement, elegant and fluid. Her AoEs are even bigger. If Woosa was the inline rollerblader, then Maegu was the figure skater. Everything about her just feels good. Almost like you’re gliding along a cloud.
She is a great mixture of the things I like about Sage, Sorceress, and Wizard/Witch. Her primary mechanic is her clone; certain skills will create an exact copy of you, right down to the icon on the minimap, your name and guild, title, and so on. I made a small complaint that Woosa didn’t feel like she was doing anything differently from any other class, but this very clearly isn’t the case for Maegu. Despite being a mage-style class, at least by Black Desert standards, the way she plays is entirely different. It feels like you’re on this delicate but deliberate balance between sequencing your skills properly and being in the position to do so.
They clearly thought about this, as they made pretty much every movement skill work in a very specific way, encouraging you to actually think about which one you want to use. In terms of her PvE grinding, it’s very obvious she’s one of the best. For the tryhard nerds out there, I managed an hour with 23k trash loot at Elvia Orcs at 273ap with normal buffs (no agris fever or agris coin), and I am not an efficient grinder.
My only complaint about Maegu, and it’s a pretty big one, is her animations. They are incredibly blinding, even with the effects turned down as reasonably as possible. It becomes very difficult for people with light sensitivities and even harder to actually keep track of things sometimes. This isn’t a complaint about her effects in general, it’s the lack of a meaningful way to mitigate them. It’s not a dealbreaker for me, but it’s certainly a strike against her.
I’m very much looking forward to taking her to grind spots past Orc Camp and Bloody Monastery, but there’s a bit of an issue at this particular gear score that I gripe about. While there are many good and meaningful grind spots when you are eventually able to do Orc Camp, the lack of viability in Serendia Elvia spots, and to a lesser extent, Calpheon Elvia spots, is pretty egregious. While it’s certainly way better than the Pirate Island days (ugh), there’s still a big problem when content that’s supposed to be fresh, isn’t worth doing because a single spot is just superior in every single way possible.
Orc Camp isn’t as big of an outlier than say, Centaurs and other low-end spots, but I think there needs to be more reason to go to other spots, without feeling like you’re just wasting your time. Altar Imps is one of my favorite spots in Elvia, but it’s particularly tough to find a second person to grind with there because, well, you can just do Orcs. Same with Castle Ruins. Star’s End is a relic of what it used to be, and there are no clear signs of it recovering at all because it’s a little out of the way, and literally, any Elvia spot is just better. If you need to farm for Black Distortion Earrings, you’re better off just buying whatever it is you’re looking to tap to. (though this can be true for a lot of items, which is another conversation)
Part of this problem is because of the way gear progression works at this point. Some of the biggest AP gains are in spots where new grind spots don’t really open up. 265 is the biggest ap bracket you can hit in terms of sheer numbers, but you’re probably still relegated to Centaurs depending on your class. 281 is a really nice bracket to hit too, but you’re probably going to just jam Orcs until you’re either a bit over-geared for places like Saunils or Gyfin Underground, or you’re really confident and your class overperforms in those places.
The overarching point is that your gains can be significant, but they don’t feel significant in practice. Major breakpoints like this should open up something for us, even if it’s a small thing. I guess the small reward is seeing the trash loot number go up just a little bit more but is that really satisfactory? Are we just okay with that and nothing more, especially when we’re spending as much silver and time to progress at all? A potential solution is to have certain difficulties of dungeons unlock at specific AP/DP brackets, or adjusting the lesser frequented grind spots to fill in. They don’t need to be better than Orcs, but they need to be worth it.
