New to PSO2, need general advice

[SupraMedical68]

Well, I'm a 11 year PSO vet now and I've been needing my Phantasy Star fix lately, so I finally caved in on building a computer and I just now downloaded PSO2 JP yesterday. I'm still getting used to the feel of the game, I haven't felt like this much of a noob since I started a PSU account on 360 back in 2007. So far though, I'm pretty satisfied with PSO2. I may even continue to play on Japanese servers after the localized version is released in the States.

I've already read some great PSO2 related threads. I don't have any burning questions anymore, but I could use some advice on my Hunter build and information on the overall community.

Basically, I just want be a short range fighter that can heal and buff myself and others. I might also be soloing a lot this time so I'd like to be extremely balance and be able to survive a decent amount of punishment. I think I'll be fine just using the sword, partisan, and wired lance, provided the PAs don't suck too bad. So, from what I've already been told so far I should be a Hunter with a Techer subclass. I already looked at a skill tree calculator and I guess they look ok.

http://ryuhiroshi.funpic.de/pso2/skillcalc.html

The questions is, will a Hunter/Techer be worth the hassle or will I be wasting my time? Also, is there anything I should keep in mind for my skill trees? I already have a general idea of what I'll need on my two skill trees, but I'd hate to have to redo them and pay the extra money for new ones.

Secondly, what's the best way to find parties and making English speaking friends? It already sucks that I'm showing up to the party late, but PSO2 doesn't have that crazy lively atmosphere that PSO and and PSU had. I'm not as social as I was back on DreamCast and GameCube so it'd be nice to know where all the other easy going/laid-back players are hiding.

On a unrelated note, who is SNK on PSO2? I'm just curious. I vaguely remember seeing him as one of the people that hit 200 first on PSO EP I & II. I saw a SNK character my first couple of hours on ship 2 yesterday and it took me back on a memory trip.

[Zeota]

I've been friends with SNK from PSO for 10 years and he's been playing FFXI the past 9 years. He's posted here in the past and has repeatedly mentioned not wanting anything to do with another PSO game.

[Syklo]

if you want to be a short range fighter, you might as well be fighter rather than hunter, so FI/TE

[SupraMedical68]

I've been friends with SNK from PSO for 10 years and he's been playing FFXI the past 9 years. He's posted here in the past and has repeatedly mentioned not wanting anything to do with another PSO game.

Too bad really, that guy was an O.G back in the GameCube era. I can't say I blame him for leaving Phantasy Star though.

I guess it was mistaken identity yesterday.

[SociableTyrannosaur]

Definitely would suggest FI/TE over HU/TE if only because fighter compliments techer better. Few class combinations are useless though, so there's no harm in playing with things. Is there any reason you want to go TE over FO?

[Syklo]

Definitely would suggest FI/TE over HU/TE if only because fighter compliments techer better. Few class combinations are useless though, so there's no harm in playing with things. Is there any reason you want to go TE over FO?
He did say:


Basically, I just want be a short range fighter that can heal and buff myself and others
No real mention of using offensive techs so presumable techer is more suitable?

[SupraMedical68]

if you want to be a short range fighter, you might as well be fighter rather than hunter, so FI/TE

I guess it just depends on how much I like the game and how quickly I can level my guy.

If I can get in with a decent group of guys that like to grind I might go fighter over hunter.

I've been reading though that short range melee characters aren't even getting close to enemies, before rangers and forces take everything out in a party. And that, if use larger area weapons I may do better.

Is this true?

[SupraMedical68]

Definitely would suggest FI/TE over HU/TE if only because fighter compliments techer better. Few class combinations are useless though, so there's no harm in playing with things. Is there any reason you want to go TE over FO?

I haven't had a force type character since 2003 when I played FOnewm on PSO. I've never had much interest in offensive techs. I guess what I really want is a old school HUmar. Well, back when they had decent buffs anyway...

What I don't want is another repeat of PSU, when I had a human as my main, and he was completely useless until I quit in 2010. Sega made humans so lame back then.

[Syklo]

I guess it just depends on how much I like the game and how quickly I can level my guy.

If I can get in with a decent group of guys that like to grind I might go fighter over hunter.

I've been reading though that short range melee characters aren't even getting close to enemies, before rangers and forces take everything out in a party. And that, if use larger area weapons I may do better.

Is this true?
Somewhat, and generally just for Multi parties.

To be really technical though, Raging Waltz and Symphonic Drive (dagger PA's) are really good for closing in on enemies and that's your best chance to beating them to the chase.
And if that's soooo much of a big deal to you, you'll be having a TE subclass so you can just join in on the technic casting (weaker but still you get to land a hit).
You could argue to sticking with hunter for a bit more melee range but either way, you're aiming to HIT the enemy at least so might as well switch to techs.

The other thing to note is that fighter weapons don't have a "guard" action (but can still do so, just via parrying with daggers). Where hunter is defensive, fighter is evasive.

I mostly solo and whenever I do encounter such "speed slaughtering", i just use my TE traits to buff those around me so they can kill faster. Helps in PSE bursts.

tl;dr - You're going to have to be willing to take a back seat and switch to support/offensive techs either way.

[SupraMedical68]

Somewhat, and generally just for Multi parties.

To be really technical though, Raging Waltz and Symphonic Drive (dagger PA's) are really good for closing in on enemies and that's your best chance to beating them to the chase.
And if that's soooo much of a big deal to you, you'll be having a TE subclass so you can just join in on the technic casting (weaker but still you get to land a hit).
You could argue to sticking with hunter for a bit more melee range but either way, you're aiming to HIT the enemy at least so might as well switch to techs.

The other thing to note is that fighter weapons don't have a "guard" action (but can still do so, just via parrying with daggers). Where hunter is defensive, fighter is evasive.

I mostly solo and whenever I do encounter such "speed slaughtering", i just use my TE traits to buff those around me so they can kill faster. Helps in PSE bursts.

tl;dr - You're going to have to be willing to take a back seat and switch to support/offensive techs either way.

Everything you just stated sounded pretty legit, and made insanely good sense. I'll have to give it some consideration. It may just boil down to how much time I have as to what I make I will only be using this one character though until we see a English release.

On PSU my human was a Acrofighter for awhile and it wasn't that bad using close range weapons. I just hated having to use mates and buff items all the time.

The good thing is I do have a little time to think about what I want while I level my character up to Hunter lvl 30.

[SupraMedical68]

I think my biggest concern right now is probably going to be making friends so I don't have to solo as much.

Is it just me or are the Japanese servers really dry and boring?

[SociableTyrannosaur]

Thing about FO is you can charge your techs and regen PP at the same time. TE is better for support though for sure.

[MetalDude]

JPN server activity depends on the time. Finding a good group of friends helps a lot to keep you active during Japan morning hours.

[Syklo]

Everything you just stated sounded pretty legit, and made insanely good sense.

This is not something I see everyday.

[Zorafim]

Support overall has been severely nerfed compared to other games. While in PSO it was necessary, and in PSU where it provided a huge performance boost, it's almost unnoticeable in this game. Another thing is that it takes two seconds to cast a buff or heal, and three seconds to receive the full effect of it. Buffs only last a minute, and boost your performance by 10%. Considering you're spending 10% of your time at least setting it up, you're just breaking even. And as for healing, most people already heal themselves before you can get to them. Even though I love playing supportive, I've just found that supporting just isn't worth it in this game. Go pure offense. That's what the game was balanced around.

I really suggest staying pure for your subjob. Diversifying just doesn't work well in this game. It's best to pick a sub which compliments your class's strengths, instead of ones that add new functionality. If you want to melee, alternating between fi/hu and hu/fi might be best. If you want to support, then... well, good luck with that.
Keep in mind that complimenting your strength may not mean picking a pure subjob. Rangers may prefer a hunter subjob to increase their damage per shot, for instance. Or they might prefer techer so they can spam more PAs during weak bullet, instead of just waiting for the current bullet to fall. Overall though, pure class combinations are best.

If you want to play with english speakers, all you need to do is go to ship 2, block 20. It's rare to see a japanese player there. It might be tough to find a party to do exactly what you want, but the parties you'll find will be enjoyable enough.

As for speccing, luckily you have some leeway. Most specs have that one ability that's amazing, and a bunch of filler. Hunters have gears, rangers have weak shot, forces have elemental masteries (to be more precise, the entire fire tree), fighters have stances, gunners have PP restore, and techers have PP recoveries. I can tell you which abilities are amazing and which provide just a little boost if you want specific details.

One thing I highly suggest you do is get each class to lv10. By that level, you get a pretty good handle on how the class plays. Though you may have an idea for one class, you may find another enjoyable. I know one friend who loves ranged but went melee, and I prefer melee but decided force was most fun. This will also give you an idea on what each class has to offer as a sub class. There's nothing saying you need only one sub class, after all. Or one main class, for that matter.

Mags in this game aren't for performance increase. They're to help equip new items. Taking back what I said about you being able to have multiple main classes, it's probably best to put at least 50 points into your class's main attack, and its main defense. This, along with ten points in your class's main attack or defense in your tree, and you should be good to equip everything. Considering the stingy equip requirements for each class, having that extra boost really helps. Consider buying two mags from the cash shop so each class will have one, if you plan on playing more than one class.

What else... if you have any minor questions, check the questions thread stickied up top. If you plan on posting on the forums, consider putting your character's face in your sig and posting in the character logbook so other posters can look you up. Make some nice autowords so we can get a nice idea of what you're like at a glance while partying with you, and make sure to talk alot while in parties.

Edit: Oh! Yes! Races! Don't worry about them. I think the difference between a newman and cast were about 10%, at most. Considering half of your performance comes from equipment, that's lowered to 5%. That's a highly acceptable level for looking fabulous. So go cast if you like armor, go newmans if you like pointy ears, and go human if you're boring. That's really all you have to worry about. At worst, you may need to put some more points into your mag or take some points out of percentage increases in your skill tree and put them into stat boosters to equip better items.

[SociableTyrannosaur]

Except a 10% difference can be the difference between good equipment and junk. That means you have to adjust your skill tree for stats (less damage mods) or wait it out for the level cap and new gear to come out that you can equip. Race at TIMES isn't a huge deal, but other times can be huge.

[LK1721]

Except a 10% difference can be the difference between good equipment and junk. That means you have to adjust your skill tree for stats (less damage mods) or wait it out for the level cap and new gear to come out that you can equip. Race at TIMES isn't a huge deal, but other times can be huge.
If you plan out well enough, you can raise a mag that will accommodate for this also.

[Zorafim]

Well, I never noticed any problems on my force, so since that's the worst draw of the lot, I would have assumed everyone else had it fine. Mind, I need to pour some extra points into Tdfp on techer since it has the same Tdfp as hunter, and I have enough ranged everything to equip anything that every existed.

[SociableTyrannosaur]

If you plan out well enough, you can raise a mag that will accommodate for this also.

P Wand would like a word with you.

[Akaimizu]

I still think it is funny that SEGA still hasn't fixed the support issues, starting in PSU (especially towards the end game), with this game. I figure, they'd finally learn how to bring support up closer to their PSO usability levels.

I guess it goes with the whole "lead a horse to water" analogy.

[jooozek]

P Wand would like a word with you.

As if you ever will get a Pwand, haha.

[SociableTyrannosaur]

lol true, but the point is some of the really high end stuff is difficult for even the "correct" race to equip. Even gender can make a difference when S Def is more prevalent on males and T def on females. Having to shift 20-30 points on your mag can also affect your equipment options. So to say it doesn't matter at all is silly. Admittedly, it's LESS important than it used to be, but it certainly can't be dismissed.

[SupraMedical68]

Support overall has been severely nerfed compared to other games. While in PSO it was necessary, and in PSU where it provided a huge performance boost, it's almost unnoticeable in this game. Another thing is that it takes two seconds to cast a buff or heal, and three seconds to receive the full effect of it. Buffs only last a minute, and boost your performance by 10%. Considering you're spending 10% of your time at least setting it up, you're just breaking even. And as for healing, most people already heal themselves before you can get to them. Even though I love playing supportive, I've just found that supporting just isn't worth it in this game. Go pure offense. That's what the game was balanced around.

I really suggest staying pure for your subjob. Diversifying just doesn't work well in this game. It's best to pick a sub which compliments your class's strengths, instead of ones that add new functionality. If you want to melee, alternating between fi/hu and hu/fi might be best. If you want to support, then... well, good luck with that.
Keep in mind that complimenting your strength may not mean picking a pure subjob. Rangers may prefer a hunter subjob to increase their damage per shot, for instance. Or they might prefer techer so they can spam more PAs during weak bullet, instead of just waiting for the current bullet to fall. Overall though, pure class combinations are best.

If you want to play with english speakers, all you need to do is go to ship 2, block 20. It's rare to see a japanese player there. It might be tough to find a party to do exactly what you want, but the parties you'll find will be enjoyable enough.

As for speccing, luckily you have some leeway. Most specs have that one ability that's amazing, and a bunch of filler. Hunters have gears, rangers have weak shot, forces have elemental masteries (to be more precise, the entire fire tree), fighters have stances, gunners have PP restore, and techers have PP recoveries. I can tell you which abilities are amazing and which provide just a little boost if you want specific details.

One thing I highly suggest you do is get each class to lv10. By that level, you get a pretty good handle on how the class plays. Though you may have an idea for one class, you may find another enjoyable. I know one friend who loves ranged but went melee, and I prefer melee but decided force was most fun. This will also give you an idea on what each class has to offer as a sub class. There's nothing saying you need only one sub class, after all. Or one main class, for that matter.

Mags in this game aren't for performance increase. They're to help equip new items. Taking back what I said about you being able to have multiple main classes, it's probably best to put at least 50 points into your class's main attack, and its main defense. This, along with ten points in your class's main attack or defense in your tree, and you should be good to equip everything. Considering the stingy equip requirements for each class, having that extra boost really helps. Consider buying two mags from the cash shop so each class will have one, if you plan on playing more than one class.

What else... if you have any minor questions, check the questions thread stickied up top. If you plan on posting on the forums, consider putting your character's face in your sig and posting in the character logbook so other posters can look you up. Make some nice autowords so we can get a nice idea of what you're like at a glance while partying with you, and make sure to talk alot while in parties.

Edit: Oh! Yes! Races! Don't worry about them. I think the difference between a newman and cast were about 10%, at most. Considering half of your performance comes from equipment, that's lowered to 5%. That's a highly acceptable level for looking fabulous. So go cast if you like armor, go newmans if you like pointy ears, and go human if you're boring. That's really all you have to worry about. At worst, you may need to put some more points into your mag or take some points out of percentage increases in your skill tree and put them into stat boosters to equip better items.

Man, that's depressing. Why would Sega feel the need to nerf the support role? What's so great about being a Techter then?

I wonder how the feel of the gameplay will change as PSO2 ages. Maybe the hybrids will be more useful later on. If not then humans maybe useless again except for having the ability to change playing styles.

The more I think about it, the more it would make sense to be a Cast if i'm never going to use any offensive techs. Humans just aren't as useful as there were back in PSO. Then again, I'm not going to break 11 years of tradition by not having my main as a human.

For now I'm just going to work on my Hunter and Fighter classes, and if time allows I might try something else.

[Zorafim]

Again, race doesn't matter. Pick what you think looks best. Casts will have an easier time equipping physical weapons, and newmans an easier time equipping magic equipment, but otherwise you won't notice the difference. Again, my favorite class on my caseal is force.
Because of the lack of focused support, the game's more action focused. You can still support by using moons on any dead party members. You can still be a valuable party member if you moon everyone in a difficult fight (Falz is a good example).
Techer is pretty bad until they get wand gear (which really boosts their melee attack power), PP restorate (boost their PP regeneration by 40%) and PP convert (30 seconds of multiplied PP regeneration). It makes an amazing sub to fire force, allowing you to rapid fire flame techs with little rest.

Overall, they did a pretty amazing job on this game. You'll see why they made the choices they made pretty quickly.

[RocK_M]

Techter have higher base S Def (on par w/ a Hunter) and slightly better S Atk compared to Force. Their buffs/heals also get boosted range w/ the territory burst skill. Their Wand weapon also gains "charge" for every Tech you cast which boosts the melee dmg.

They also get passives for Wind, Light and Dark/Poison as well as the Elemental Weakness passive. Their basically a bit fatter and can melee compared to a Force using a Rod.

That being said I do agree on the support skills needing some sort of buff. Having to rebuff every minute kinda makes it redundant. I wish they would up the duration w/ the Shifta/Deband Boost Passive to make it a bit more viable.

[NoiseHERO]

Rule number 1

EN players less social than JP players

[Syklo]

Rule number 1

EN players less social than JP players
As if.....

[Nidramag]

I miss Vanguard. And Support. That was one of the first things I noticed, how shitty support is in this game.

[SupraMedical68]

Again, race doesn't matter. Pick what you think looks best. Casts will have an easier time equipping physical weapons, and newmans an easier time equipping magic equipment, but otherwise you won't notice the difference. Again, my favorite class on my caseal is force.
Because of the lack of focused support, the game's more action focused. You can still support by using moons on any dead party members. You can still be a valuable party member if you moon everyone in a difficult fight (Falz is a good example).
Techer is pretty bad until they get wand gear (which really boosts their melee attack power), PP restorate (boost their PP regeneration by 40%) and PP convert (30 seconds of multiplied PP regeneration). It makes an amazing sub to fire force, allowing you to rapid fire flame techs with little rest.

Overall, they did a pretty amazing job on this game. You'll see why they made the choices they made pretty quickly.

I'm talking about playing for pure power, where the cast is going to have a marginal advantage for melee only players. I already glanced over the different base stats before posting the thread and there wasn't much difference between the three. Not yet at least

However, I'm going on the assumption that the game will receive updates in the future, and then higher class levels will continue to modify the base stats for the three races.

Either way, the game still seems more balanced than PSU. That was the whole point of making this thread, so I wouldn't have to make the same mistakes I made on there. Not to mention mistakes this time around cost real money. Worst case scenario is my human will just be slightly mediocre like before.

[Coatl]

Diversifying is bad? RA/FI and FO/FI would like a word with you.
Hell, even FI/TE or FI/GU works. Except with those you sacrifice dps for more utility, which has the potential to deal greater dps anyway.

[VorpalMech]

Lots of great info on this thread! Thanks all.

I'm new to pso2 JP, but I did play a fair amount of psu 360, so this stuff is helpful. I also am BEYOND THRILLED that I'll be able to support pso2 NA, pso2 Android, and pso2 JP, in the coming months. As long as all servers will have me, I'll be there and contributing financially.

Just thought I'd interject and say hi, rather than starting another topic. Looking forward to seeing you all on Ship 2 or otherwise :)

[Nidramag]

I thought the android version was just going to be, essentially, a chat program?

And I'm on ship 6 :(

[jooozek]

It's essentially going to be shovelware.

[Ce'Nedra]

I thought the android version was just going to be, essentially, a chat program?

Probraly PSP2 Online with all the "sex 4 me" and "looking 4 bf" rooms

[Akaimizu]

Diversifying is bad? RA/FI and FO/FI would like a word with you.

Heh. With those acronyms, it almost really makes me wish there was such a thing as FU/FI in the game.

[VorpalMech]

Hmmm well, I guess I'll have to see about the Android version. I've read nothing about it other than that it's coming. I was assuming a simplified variation of a Droid mmo.

[Akaimizu]

I wish I got to see the mobile (Android/iOS) versions in motion instead of just reading impressions on it. From what it sounds like, it almost sounds like an advanced version of Phantasy Star Eternal Planets. The Mobage game that ran for about 7 months before it was dropped.

Kind of a shame it ran so short, and while people denounced it as not being much of a Phantasy Star Online game, I thought the one novel thing about it was that it was the closest to a turn-based Phantasy Star (original series) style game (in combat) that the new Phantasy Star franchise ever got to. So if you had a bit of an open mind about going old-school with PSU/PSP-style art, it wasn't a bad diversion.

Still, PSO-mobile was described as the idea that you go through areas not with regular real-time controls, but by making path decisions which lead to different parts of the map (psuedo old school first-person style) with different encounters and/or finds to reach a boss. This falls in line with Eternal Planets' style of gameplay. The combat is never described whether it is real-time or turn-based combat, though.

This, of course, could be the main reason why they shelved Eternal Planets so they can put all support behind PSO2 and PSO2-related mobile gaming. I wouldn't be surprised if some of the mobage game design was inherited by that move.

[VorpalMech]

I wish I got to see the mobile (Android/iOS) versions in motion instead of just reading impressions on it. From what it sounds like, it almost sounds like an advanced version of Phantasy Star Eternal Planets. The Mobage game that ran for about 7 months before it was dropped.

Kind of a shame it ran so short, and while people denounced it as not being much of a Phantasy Star Online game, I thought the one novel thing about it was that it was the closest to a turn-based Phantasy Star (original series) style game (in combat) that the new Phantasy Star franchise ever got to. So if you had a bit of an open mind about going old-school with PSU/PSP-style art, it wasn't a bad diversion.

Still, PSO-mobile was described as the idea that you go through areas not with regular real-time controls, but by making path decisions which lead to different parts of the map (psuedo old school first-person style) with different encounters and/or finds to reach a boss. This falls in line with Eternal Planets' style of gameplay. The combat is never described whether it is real-time or turn-based combat, though.

This, of course, could be the main reason why they shelved Eternal Planets so they can put all support behind PSO2 and PSO2-related mobile gaming. I wouldn't be surprised if some of the mobage game design was inherited by that move.

Interesting. I could get into that concept.

Turn-based would be great for my mobile device's daily usage. I'd probably be popping in and out on the thing anyway.

[SupraMedical68]

Interesting. I could get into that concept.

Turn-based would be great for my mobile device's daily usage. I'd probably be popping in and out on the thing anyway.

I liked PSP and PSP2 so depending if the Vita version is any good I may try it. I'll probably pass on the mobile version though.

I wonder if there is any chance of a "Slim Vita" in the next year or so... I still haven't bought a Vita because there is nothing out that I must have. I'm also worried that when I do they'll release a really nice upgraded version.

Just an update, everything is going well, I'm in my low teens. I still haven't played in any parties yet though. Luckily the NPC characters definitely have way better A.I than PSU and it makes soloing suck less.

Looks like I'll just work on my HU/FI til I hit the level cap, and then maybe I'll consider working on something else. The techs just don't seem worth the hassle at the moment.

[Syklo]

I wonder if there is any chance of a "Slim Vita" in the next year or so

Vita Slim: Now portable in your own wallet!