Hi there, for those who don't know me, I'm Pinx. I've been playing Maehwa for a very long time now as my primary and only class. The state of Awakening Maehwa is the worst it has ever been in PvP, and is upper-mid in PvE. A collection of passionate Maehwas have come toghether to collaborate on these proposed changes in order to try to save our class.

This most recent "balance" update is one of the more egregious updates we've received: Though the damage changes are warmly welcomed, we received some key changes that have made both our PvE and PvP clunky and inconsistent. The change I would like to stress most is the shift in cooldown from 5 --> 7s on Petal Drill, and the shift from it being a -30 DP shred into an AP stim of +20. Petal Drill is a core aspect of Awakening Maehwa's kit that both allows us to SA linger and regenerate stamina, but also shred DP in PvE as a consistent engage we have from pack to pack. Now that the cooldown has been extended, we no longer have consistent means to shred -30 DP from packs, we actually trip over our own cooldowns and can't apply a DP shred at the beginning of some packs, or have to use a -20 DP shred instead which feels awful.

The following list is a group of changes that other Maehwa's and myself would like to see in the future, listed from highest priority and most impactful, down to more niche and preferred changes. Please have a read:

- Revert the Petal Drill cooldown: 7 --> 5s. Revert the Petal Drill +20 AP --> -30 DP

- Petal Bloom 12 --> 10s cooldown, -30 dp reverted note, -30 dp is not very useful on this skill as it is our hardest hitter. We typically want to use this skill AFTER we have applied a -dp to the target(s) so that it hits even harder. Having this skill more often on a 10s cooldown increases our PvE consitency and puts it in line with other flagship skills (e.g., Lightning Prison on awk Sage, GRJ on awk Sorc, and Cata on awk Wiz as examples of big hitters on a lower cooldown)

- Sleetsteps changed to iframe when off cooldown, super amour on cooldown note, the SA will allow us to cancel redmoon more consistently and maneuver Petal Bloom. The iframe would allow us to actually use Redmoon against grab threats and punish them with good play. As it stands, we get grab punished out of Sleetsteps even though we move out of the visual grab range.

- Awk chase same length as pre awk note, awakening maehwa has a BAD stamina problem, and some of that can be contributed to the fact that chasing backwards in awakening takes you less distance than back chasing in pre awakening or succession. Please change this, it feels awful and makes no sense.

- Petal Swirl super amour added, +20 ap added note, our class simply needs more SA to compete with the classes currently in the game. We are so desparate for a crumb of protection. This would help our trading potential in PvP and would be an exclellent skill to shift the AP +20 to so that we can reliably have access to it in both PvP and PvE. For users that are reading thsese notes but don't play MAehwa, we already have +20 AP in our kit, so this would not be a new buff to the kit, just a reorganization of buffs.

- Core: Petal Swirl removed. Core: Frost Flower (super armour) added note, following the above, this could give us access to a new core abilitiy that actually helps us, since the only reasonably useful cores we have now are Moonrise and Frost Pillars. Frost Pillars also sucks, but you have limited our options with the removal of the knockdown from Petal Bloom. SA on Frostflower would give us a protected knockdown we so despartely need to get our back-loaded damage off.

- Petal Bloom faster charge rate or charge removed note, Petal Bloom simply charges too slow to be useful consistently in PvP, and we don't have ways to mitigate damage during the charge duration like awk Sorc with GRJ. We would happily take a (reasonably speaking) smaller damage total on the skill to make this ability come out quicker in fast-paced content like PvP. Perhaps an approximate 10% reduction.

- Chaos Crimson Gust on the same cooldown as Decapitating Dragon note, both awakening and succession would love this change. On slower to kill grind zones, we could use this as extra damage filler every pack. On faster to kill grind zones, this would allow us to consistenly alternate this skill every other pack in conjunction with Decapitating Dragon.

- Chaos Crimson Gust now flows from blue moon (awakening redmoon) using LMB note, cloud stab flowing from this skill sucks in both PvE and PvP, but if we could get into pre awakening and use gust to smoothly transition into pre awakening, it would be a very healthy quality of life buff to awakening's grinding capability. We already need to use skills like Redmoon, Whirlwind Cut, Razorblade Corolla, and Blind Thrust in combos, so this would help us do that.

- Smooth transition from pre awakening into Petal Drill, remove the running auto attack animation note, in PvE this would be VERY useful as a way to go from pre awakening to awakening without having to waste the time to Sleetsteps. Please change this functionality so that if we lock carver in pre awakening, we can use Shift + LMB to get into Petal Drill more consistently.

- Revert Ice Fang changes and return it to a forward guard with old flows. Dragon bite gets the stiff back in PvP nobody likes the new Frost Fang, and everybody hated the removal of Dragon Bite stiff, which is integral to the class as a whole.

- Royal Rage, added forward guard note, this used to be in our kit, but was removed. Nobody knows why - it was a stationary FG stun to punish bad play. Right now, we can't use this skill, there is no point and we will instantly be punished for it by any competent player.

- Frostfeint > Moonlight Dash flow reverted to Frostfeint > Cloud Stab note, this used to be one of our best flows after a Frostfeint catch, and since, nobody uses the Moonlight Dash flow. It really sucks and is useless. Cloudstab provided us a fast, unprotected re-cc and is a very useful option if Frostflower is on cooldown, or if we want to get some health back mid fight. This also opened up a big HP leech by using Cloudstab BSR, which few people use these days. 

- Oppression is now add-on capable note, beleive it or not, a -30dp skill with no add-ons kinda sucks when it's the skill you engage mobs with. This skill doesn't flow particularly well into anything, and feels awfully clunky to use in PvE as a core to our DP shred arsenal. This change is significanlty less important (not needed) if Petal Drill is reverted to how it was.

- Evasion Stub Arrow Fully Protected note, Awakening Maehwa's stub arrows are much worse than Succession's - clearly that is by design. Since they are offensively low-impact, having a higher value defensive option would be great, and would grant us the ability to mitigate some damage when we have to play on our toes.

Changes that don't feel nearly as needed, but would be a great way to start exploring more of the kit in both PvE and PvP:

- Tenacious Edge turned into a Succession Divider type skill note, Prime: Red Divider currently functions as a stationary SA that deals moderate damage in PvE and PvP. Tenacious Edge is not a skill used at all in Awakening but is somewhat similar to Divider already. Placing a SA on this skill and increasing the number of hits to make it similar to Prime: Red Divider would both be huge from a stamina conservation perspective, but would also help us bridge the gap on some of our cooldowns in PvE.

- Flow: December added. Separate the skill from Petal Drill. Keep it on a 5s cooldown, and allow it to have separate add-ons. Keep it super armour. Add flows into December from the following skills: Petal Drill, Moonlight Dash, Frostflower, Petal Swirl, Frost Pillars, Tip of the Iceberg, Cold Snap note, this would allow easier add-on application in both PvE and PvP, and would give us an easier way to get into December's damage in PvP without having to go through the Petal Drill animation, which cuts a lot of our combo time for very little damage return. 

I sincerely hope you will take these proposed changes into consideration when making future changes to Awakening Maehwa.

Thanks,
Pinx, and the Greater Maehwa Community

disagree, (didn't read any of this) maehwa is overpowered and broken, needs nerfs 

i didnt read a single thing but i left a like

I really hope the development team listens, amazing suggestions.

I like this. PA listen to this man. AWAK MAE IS DOGSHIT MAKE IT BETTER

This man is the MLK of maewhas, I say do it.

I don't really play in NA/EU, but I kinda agree with you. Pillars is trash core — it needs a full rework. They never properly look at Maehwa. It's always nerf after nerf, or "buffs" that are just nerfs in disguise.

TBH i would be happy if they just make Petal Drill back to 5 sec CD and gave its core a KD instead of bound ,made Moonrise base SA and then core would give Float, and if they just impelemented the Sleet Steep changes you proposed or just make it iframe in 3sec CD or hell even if they changed it from SA to iframe as it is now without anything else changing.Another thing which i find really weird on awakened maehwa is her Q block not following your camera direction,its the only class that has this i think,maybe some more experienced awakened makehwas can tell if this a good thing or not but it really feels off.