I remember finding out WAY too late into Maplestory that you have to basically know how to distribute stats from the get-go, because there was no going back. when you hit level milestones the game expects you to have a near-perfect stat distribution to buy level-appropriate gear, and when the game is as grindy as oldschool Maplestory every level you had to spend past that milestone adjusting for the imperfect stats was a SLOG. I think the first 5 levels after every milestone my first character spent with the previous milestone’s equipment because i was just too stubborn to make a new character and start over