Elemental Spirits

Four elemental companions. Five evolution stages each. 200 total levels of grinding. All to add bonus damage that veterans had and new players didn’t.

The New Player Problem

A maxed veteran dealt 50-100% more damage per hit against anyone who hadn’t finished the spirit grind. Up to 2,295 bonus damage on every attack - on top of normal damage.

On a 3,000 damage skill, that’s +76% bonus. On smaller hits, it could more than double your output.

Here’s the twist: between two maxed veterans, the bonus canceled out. Elemental attack met elemental defense, resulting in zero net advantage. The system only punished players who hadn’t finished grinding.

The Grind Scale

Element	Stages	Levels per Stage	Total Levels
Fire	5	10	50
Water	5	10	50
Wind	5	10	50
Earth	5	10	50
Total			200

Billions of spirit Exp to max all four. Until you caught up, veterans had a permanent damage advantage you couldn’t counter with skill or gear.

Rock-Paper-Scissors

Spirit	Strong Against	Weak Against
Fire	Earth	Water
Water	Fire	Wind
Wind	Water	Earth
Earth	Wind	Fire

PvP partly became about guessing which element your opponent would use. Wrong guess? Take bonus damage. Added complexity without adding skill expression.

System Bloat

L2 already has character levels, class skills, equipment, enchanting, clan progression. Elemental Spirits stacked another complete system on top - more resources to gather, more dailies to complete, more ways to fall behind.

And you could only use one spirit at a time. Three sat idle while you grinded the fourth.

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On L2Cruma, new players and veterans fight on equal terms. No hidden damage bonuses. No catch-up grind. Just the fight.