Back from a long hiatus

[AOI_Tifa_Lockhart]

Hi all,

It's been a long time since I've played PSO2. I'm needing a break from PSOBB and PSU still isn't quite there yet.

I haven't really played much PSO2 in about 18 months or so. I've had a glance through the PSUblog for updates etc although a lot of it seems a little alien to me.

I figure I'll make a new character so I can get to grips with the game from start to finish. I wanted to ask if it's still possible to play the story from Episode 1 as I never actually played it. Is the story fully translated? Is the story a sequal to the original PSO and PSOBB storyline?

Are we up to Episode 5 now? Is Ship 2 still the place to be for english speaking players? Did challenge mode ever get revitalised?

What rarity weapons are we up to now? What rarity weapons are purchaseable in player shops?

Also, is there much end game content? I seem to recall the lack of variety was what killed PSO2 for me whenever I played it for prolonged periods. The same few quests and the 12 player parties where a few OP players are racing to the finish and the whole pace of the game felt like it left a lot of people in the lurch if they didn't keep up the pace with the group.

Anyways, I'm not sure what class to play as. I tend to play solo most of the time. I tried most of the classes, although I never capped a character. I recall Ranger with weak shot had some very OP abilities. I guess I'm looking for good AOE damage for mobs and a few very powerful abilities to take down bosses without too much drama when soloing.

Did they ever balance the PA's so that there wasn't just a select few that everyone used?

Tifa

[silo1991]

1 PSO2 its settle in a diferent universe compared to the previous games in which they were sttle in the same universe
edit: you can play the history of seasons/episodes 1,2 and 3 in the omnibus quest , just do yourself a favor and avoid EP4 at all cost its bad in many and i mean "many" ways, you will constantly asking yourself why did this happen and also with tokyo , las vegas free fields is all you need to see about that season .
2 ship 2 is still the best one to find western/occidental players and challenge mode never revived unfortunly but we have arena mode(PVP) which is also dead as far as i know
3 15 star , and you can buy 13 star , i recomend you buy val weapons because if you fully grind it , it can be turned on a 14 star . just be sure of your main class and thats it .
4 is still alive the end game , you can find 1 or another fool who dies in 1 shot or dont worry for themselve if survive the hit, the average players can give good asistance anyway , like me :P
5 ranger can be a good option as antiboss class , if you want AOE you can be a force and have the techer as subclass or in the most extreme case just be a Hero class :P
6 the PA has passed trought many changes , you can even customize them for change the way they work

[Loveless62]

5 ranger can be a good option as antiboss class , if you want AOE you can be a force and have the techer as subclass or in the most extreme case just be a Hero class :P
Are you seriously implying that ranger is not good at AOE? Do you even Divine Launcher-0, bro?

[AOI_Tifa_Lockhart]

Seem to recall launchers being very capable at AOE and there was some sort of slow charging rifle PA that, when used in conjunction with weak shot could really deal heavy damage?

Tifa

[silo1991]

Are you seriously implying that ranger is not good at AOE? Do you even Divine Launcher-0, bro?

what no , ranger is one of my main classes of course it have good AOE with divine launcher and cosmo break , just i dont know what kind of focus the guy want and i dont like the -0 ver of divine launcher just because i like to stay in air when i fire it

in sumary the combinations with AOE you need are , RA/HU and FO/TE (focus on magic offesive build by max out the elemental bonus of the techer) ; even summoner can have good AOE with wanda/jinga and redran pets and for antiboss torim/aero , maron and melon pets

and yeah rifle PA with weak bullet deal a lot of damage

[Zulastar]

Hey hey hey! Lemme have some words here! Hero's the best! All old classes have their minuses, but not Hero!
(Well I'm really was bitten by Stratos lol)

I really dunno about Fo/Te 'cause it's a single class I don't know how to play properly with, but Ra/Hu is average in defence, close combat (not good for Masquerade for example) and not good at fast travel (you need to switch for Launcher and use not much comfortable PA for it).

But if you play Hero you can:
1 Counter! Only Braver and partly Hunter classes can do so, inflicting huge damage instead of taking it.
2 Easy fast travel with Safoie-0, Flash Trick (Sword) or Talis Weapon Action teleportation.
3 Equal powers in close and ranged combat.
4 Easy AoE with Brightness End (Sword) which hits 360 degree 10 steps long for 50-120k each target.
Easy ranged AoE with Brand New Star (TMG) which can be used in countering with increaced damage and getiing all left frames Invincible. BNS have a stagger btw!
6 Vapor Bullet (Sword) have a plenty of Invincibility Frames which can save your ass in troubles.
7 Infinitie PP without any Battery Weapons: Just spam Sword Weapon action or JA TMG weapon action for restoring much of PP right in combat.
Almost forgot:
8 Guaranteed 100% anti-death insurance (instead of hunter's which so-so) which can be refreshed by special skill after it's used.

[AOI_Tifa_Lockhart]

A lot of that kind of went over my head, but it sounds quite sword based. What other weapons do they use?

What's the details on point 8 that you raised? From memory I seem to recall working towards the prerequisites for a hero. I'll have to have a look once the game is downloaded again.

Tifa

[Renvalt]

A lot of that kind of went over my head, but it sounds quite sword based. What other weapons do they use?

What's the details on point 8 that you raised? From memory I seem to recall working towards the prerequisites for a hero. I'll have to have a look once the game is downloaded again.

Tifa

While Hero does use Swords, they use a different set of PAs and normal attacks than Hunter does. In addition, their weapon action isn't a guard, it's effectively Assault Rifle coming out of your hands (sole difference being that it uses PP to attack, but the regen-to-attack ratio is generally high enough that you could just spam it if you wanted to).

The other two weapons it uses are TMGs and Talis - and like as I mentioned with Sword, they use a different set of PAs and attack animations (that are just better overall compared to that of their origin class).

Sounds OP right? Well there's a reason for that - you can't even play the class unless you've reached Level 75 in at least one of each Attack Type class (basically, either Hunter/Fighter/Bouncer, Ranger/Gunner/Braver, and Force/Techer/Summoner - you have to have hit Level 75 with one of each of those three groups; of course, this assumes nothing's changed since I last unlocked it).

As far as Point #8, the reason is that they have an Iron Will-esque "survive with 1 HP" type skill that always activates. The catch of course is that it only goes off once per quest. This means that you can easily detect people who suck if they die as a Hero - if they actually "die", they suck because they should've gotten the hint from the first proc of Hero Will.

Obviously, as I said before, you have to have a 75 in at least one class of the S-ATK (HU/FI/BO), R-ATK (RA/GU/BR) and T-ATK (FO/TE/SU) classes before you can even play Hero. Oh, and there's also the fact that you legit cannot equip a subclass while playing on it.

Zulastar makes it sound as if it's the class to end all classes, but it DOES have its weaknesses, even if they are EXTREMELY overshadowed by its strengths.

[Anduril]

A lot of that kind of went over my head, but it sounds quite sword based. What other weapons do they use?

What's the details on point 8 that you raised? From memory I seem to recall working towards the prerequisites for a hero. I'll have to have a look once the game is downloaded again.

Tifa
While Hero is mostly Sword-based, it can also use TMGs and Talis (all of which act different on Hero).

Hero has a skill, Hero Will, that is like Hunter's Iron Will (when you take lethal damage, have a chance to survive with 1HP), but instead of having a 75% chance to proc every time you take lethal damage, it will proc with a 100% rate only the first time you take lethal damage; at lv85, Hero has access to the skill Hero Refresh that will allow you to re-up Hero Will if it has already been proced.

Hero is a good, well rounded class that has smooth, easy to grasp gameplay that can still take skill to master, but it is no longer the be-all-end-all that it was when they first released it thanks to the various balances that have been done to the other classes since then.

Also, just to note, when Episode 6 is released, the unlock condition for Hero will simply be get any 2 classes to lv75.

[MyNameIsHawk]

A lot of that kind of went over my head, but it sounds quite sword based. What other weapons do they use?

What's the details on point 8 that you raised? From memory I seem to recall working towards the prerequisites for a hero. I'll have to have a look once the game is downloaded again.

Tifa

for now, hero can be unlocked ir raise 1 striking class (hunter, fighter, bouncer), 1 ranged class (ranger, gunner, braver) and 1 tech class (force, techer, summoner) to lv 75, can be in diferent characters as you need gather some titles, and titles are account wide, in a couple of months, a new class will be added, and when that happens the requirement to both hero and phantom will be having 2 classes to lv 75

hero use swords, twin machine guns and talis, currently is the only class that have PAs for talis

i really din't mind episode 4, and also you can do it and gather some SG, i heard you can create a char, make it go trought all the ep4, delete it, create a new one, go trought all ep 4 againg for SG gathering, but i could be wrong

[Renvalt]

While Hero is mostly Sword-based, it can also use TMGs and Talis (all of which act different on Hero).

Hero has a skill, Hero Will, that is like Hunter's Iron Will (when you take lethal damage, have a chance to survive with 1HP), but instead of having a 75% chance to proc every time you take lethal damage, it will proc with a 100% rate only the first time you take lethal damage; at lv85, Hero has access to the skill Hero Refresh that will allow you to re-up Hero Will if it has already been proced.

Hero is a good, well rounded class that has smooth, easy to grasp gameplay that can still take skill to master, but it is no longer the be-all-end-all that it was when they first released it thanks to the various balances that have been done to the other classes since then.

Also, just to note, when Episode 6 is released, the unlock condition for Hero will simply be get any 2 classes to lv75.

Thank you Anduril for making a much simpler version of what I said. I genuinely mean that, btw. Also thank you for including things I forgot to add or wasn't even aware of.

[Dark Mits]

I will go on the entirely other end and suggest that you try and play whatever class combo you find interesting as a concept. 90%+ of the game is soloable with even the least performing combinations (like Gunslash Te/Gu). Failing EQ or other MPA quests is nearly impossible; it just takes longer depending on how un-optimally the group plays.

I would suggest following metas only if you like to participate in cutting-edge content, like the newly released solo UQ or boss triggers, or intending to play with Expert mode groups. Or if you like timed runs.

As for end-game content, I don't think it can be defined easily in PSO2. The part of the game that currently drops the "best" equipment is Persona EQ, and that definitely does not belong to the difficult portion of the game. There are also ways to farm equipment that is at the same levels (or better/worse depending on build) which do not rely on EQs but on pure RNG and farming Limited Quests and other active campaigns.

[AOI_Tifa_Lockhart]

Thanks for all the replies peeps. The game update is taking an age to download. I'm guessing there's a cap on download speed as I'm on 400mb internet and I'm barely past 6500/73719 files downloaded

Renvalt:

When I left game I thought all 3 main classes had to be capped. Has that changed now?

Swords, mechs and talis seems like such an odd combo for a class type to utilize.

With regards to point 8 - so if you subbed as HU you still get iron will but the Hero ability acts as a guaranteed back up if Iron Will doesn't activate? Hmm nevermind sorry you just said you can't equip a subclass whilst as Hero.

So speaking plainly, what are the real disadvantages to Hero class?


Anduril:

You said there's a Hero Refresh to this ability. Is it something within a skill tree? Is there some sort of penalty for enabling it?


Dark Mits:

I agree, I kinda want to go with the class that I feel suits me best. I used to love Force and they felt quite OP on SCHT PSO and PSU. But after several nerfs in the early days of PSO2 I struggled to find my nieche with Forces afterwards.

I used to do an RP style character using knuckles and claws - I'm not sure what class compliments that best? I used to run HU main but I'm not sure what works best as a subclass.

Also sticking to knuckles and claws sometimes left me struggling to keep up with groups during EQ's and LQ's etc when people were rushing ahead.

Tifa

[Anduril]

~snip~

Tifa
There has been no change in the Hero unlock conditions since its release: 1 Melee (Hu/Fi/Bo), 1 Ranged (Ra/Gu/Br), and 1 Tech (Fo/Te/Su) class to lv75. This will change with Ep6 to just be any two classes to lv75, however.

Hero's biggest disadvantage is that one of its biggest multipliers takes a full minute to reach full power and can be lost when you take too much damage; essentially, if you get hit too much, you lose out on damage, but if you can easily dodge and get counters off, you will be good.

Hero Refresh is a skill that unlocks when you hit lv85 as a Hero; it doesn't require any SP, but you still need to make sure you enable it from the Class Counter. Also, it is a subpalette skill that re-ups (as mentioned) Hero Will, fully heals you, and gives you a bonus to Hero Boost, but it has a 300 second cooldown and uses up 50% of your Gear Gauge (at full Gauge, you can activate Hero Time, which is like Katana Combat, complete with its own finisher, so it is a balance of trying to do max damage in the short term or over a longer period of time).

For the best damage multipliers, HU works best with a FI subclass, but for a "tankier" build (geared more toward soloing rather than being in MPAs), you can go with Summoner since it has good general damage multiplier and Stat Up skills that don't require the use of Pets and even has its own personal version of Weak Bullet, Point Assist.
Also, if you were using Knuckles, then you were likely playing as a FI already (or you were using all-class Knuckles as a Hu/Fi), since that is the class that can use them.

I would say that the best thing you can do is just play around with classes when you get back on to see what fits you best; the balances (like the general movement buffs) that have been made make it easy for most "meta" combos to keep up in MPA content.

[AOI_Tifa_Lockhart]

So I hammered out 5 days solid on PSO2. I started off with trying the Tifa style Fi/Hu but I wasn't really feeling it in all honesty. The severe lack of range became irksome rather quickly.Instead I opted for a female cast ranger for the decent AOE and single target damage. I spammed the bejesus out of the previous LQ and got my main and sub to level 75. I was looking forward to sampling what XH difficulty had to offer, but I was left a little dismayed to be honest.

Is it just a poor memory or did XH difficulty used to be a lot easier? I joined 1 game of the latest LQ in the Urban level and it felt like a raid from other MMO's. Stupidly buffed enemy HP and stats and it slowed the progression of the quest to an absolute crawl. Some of the bosses took an unimaginable amount of damage before they died. I know this gameplay style forces teamwork, but the jump in difficulty between SH and XH on the LQ seems a little mind boggling. I mean you can happily take on a mob of enemies on SH and if you're quick and strong enough you can dispatch them with ease. But on XH? You might as well be attacking these enemies with a plastic sword. It feels like the gameplay suddenly grinds to a hault. Whereas all the other difficulties 12 player quests feel like a race to the finish, the XH variant felt like an unbearable sluggish pace due to seemingly neverending enemy hit points.

If an XH 12 player game was run with people who had decent/excellent equipment would it still feel like your typical raid? Where progress is slow and enemies are picked off in small batches rather than diving head first into a mob on SH quests and usually coming out alright?

I'm aiming to get to level 90 on both this weekend, although with the huge jump in exp required to level up after level 75 I don't really feel like client orders are of any use anymore unless I'm running the daily orders for the boosts or the event CO's to get badges or other items. At the same time however, spamming LQ's is burning out my enjoyment of the game.

I feel stuck in a bit of a limbo to tell the truth. I tend to play solo and yet at this level now I'm finding almost every quest I play I'm finding too easy. The level 20 L/Slow Dive Roll ring feels like a bit of a game breaker tbh. With a little practice and enough concentration you're basically impervious to any attack. Although the Launcher L/L Non Weak Bonus ring is also a bit overkill, but I prefer to prioritise survivability over all out damage. I will try the skill tree dive roll invulnerability extension to see if that would enable the Non Weak Bonus ring to be taken over the Slow Dive Roll. Having the best of both worlds would be nice, and being able to simply aim in the general direction of an enemy and dish out more damage without aiming for specific parts would make the game a lot easier...possibly too easy.

Anyways, I digress - back to my current in game limbo. The AOE damage of the launcher which is regularly dishing out 20-60k per hit along with the boss destroying damage and ludicrous duration of the Sphere Eraser PA when used with over 200 PP. I used to prioritise weak bullet followed by End Attract or Satellite Cannon, but the almost instantaneous Sphere Eraser PA along with it's mesmerising duration make it far more appealing in terms of my gameplay style and also how it looks visually.

However, with this in mind the difficulty curve has sort of levelled out for solo quests that I've encountered. Yet the XH big party games feels like all these OP abilities and SH and solo quest ability counts for almost nothing on XH when an enemy or boss will happily use up your entire PP worth on powerful photon arts and still be alive.

Another issue I seem to be faced with is gaming outside of the 90% of so in game time spent playing solo. When I'm in a party I enjoy playing for hours on end, either relentlessly spamming a quest or going for a variety of different quests and activities. It seems most groups aren't very talkative, or they leave after a couple or runs or as soon as an EQ is finished. It seems like a lot of quests are overlooked outside of EQ's, LQ's and Daily Order quests. Considering the amount of variety in game modes and quest types, why does it feel like most of the playerbase is fixated on such an obtuse portion of the game?

Ah well, I'll keep on at it I suppose. Although I do feel like I'm close to burning out on PSO2 and I'm trying to find alternative quests and things to do in an attempt to revitalise my interest in the game.

Tifa

[Dark Mits]

Is it just a poor memory or did XH difficulty used to be a lot easier? I joined 1 game of the latest LQ in the Urban level and it felt like a raid from other MMO's. Stupidly buffed enemy HP and stats and it slowed the progression of the quest to an absolute crawl. Some of the bosses took an unimaginable amount of damage before they died.XH hasn't been made tougher, but the enemies that spawn in newer content have more HP than enemies of Episodes 1 through 4. And at the same time, they have more aggressive attacks. This HP sponges exist exactly to promote partying up and not just blind soloing, unless you belong to the best of the cream (like those who reached 70million at Endless). With enough party members, even XH Limited Quest has you trying to catch up to the rest if you try to collect everything that drops.


I'm aiming to get to level 90 on both this weekend, although with the huge jump in exp required to level up after level 75 I don't really feel like client orders are of any use anymore unless I'm running the daily orders for the boosts or the event CO's to get badges or other items. At the same time however, spamming LQ's is burning out my enjoyment of the game.Don't rush it because you'll just get burnt out. Just level at your own pace. There is no content currently as far as I know that requires you to be higher than 80/80 except Specter of Destruction XH which requires 85/85 I think?


I feel stuck in a bit of a limbo to tell the truth. I tend to play solo and yet at this level now I'm finding almost every quest I play I'm finding too easy.First you say XH LQ is too hard and slow, now you say it's too easy? Make up your mind :-P On a serious note, there is no "hard" ARKS Quest or Free Field if you are levelled up enough. If you are still 75, you may find challenge in Naberius Forest XH, Volcano Caves XH, Coast XH and Enchanted Forest SH (not XH), where enemies do not instakill you, but do not die in one hit either. They're slightly stronger versions of enemies at +50 Risk SH Advance.


but I prefer to prioritize survivability over all out damage.Anything that doesn't kill a 5000HP Hunter with Massive Hunter, TE's Deband, Party L-ring and RINA R-ring, and 25% from All Resist, will not kill a 500HP Fo/Te with enemy WB on them. Hyperbole, but damage in PSO2 is not really on a curve. It's either something that you ignore entirely because of autoheals (S4 gunslash OP), or something that instakills you unless you actively avoid it.


Another issue I seem to be faced with is gaming outside of the 90% of so in game time spent playing solo. When I'm in a party I enjoy playing for hours on end, either relentlessly spamming a quest or going for a variety of different quests and activities. It seems most groups aren't very talkative, or they leave after a couple or runs or as soon as an EQ is finished. It seems like a lot of quests are overlooked outside of EQ's, LQ's and Daily Order quests. Considering the amount of variety in game modes and quest types, why does it feel like most of the playerbase is fixated on such an obtuse portion of the game?This isn't PSO2 specific, it permiates literally every game with automatching content. Every game that allows you to just jump in the action without requiring any community interaction is 99%+ full with players who treat you like an NPC. It's up to you to form friendships in game and play with them.

[Loveless62]

Is it just a poor memory or did XH difficulty used to be a lot easier? I joined 1 game of the latest LQ in the Urban level and it felt like a raid from other MMO's. Stupidly buffed enemy HP and stats and it slowed the progression of the quest to an absolute crawl. Some of the bosses took an unimaginable amount of damage before they died. I know this gameplay style forces teamwork, but the jump in difficulty between SH and XH on the LQ seems a little mind boggling. I mean you can happily take on a mob of enemies on SH and if you're quick and strong enough you can dispatch them with ease. But on XH? You might as well be attacking these enemies with a plastic sword. It feels like the gameplay suddenly grinds to a hault. Whereas all the other difficulties 12 player quests feel like a race to the finish, the XH variant felt like an unbearable sluggish pace due to seemingly neverending enemy hit points.

If an XH 12 player game was run with people who had decent/excellent equipment would it still feel like your typical raid? Where progress is slow and enemies are picked off in small batches rather than diving head first into a mob on SH quests and usually coming out alright?
Are you aware that the game has "expert" MPAs now? If they were around when you played before, are you aware that the requirements for being an expert changed? Yes, XH mobs have a lot more HP than SH mobs, but, in expert MPAs, XH mobs still get cut down pretty quickly.

[ArcaneTechs]

Have you even attempted the solo XQ yet? Or the 4 man version which are required for the Expert matching. Do the solo one first, guranteed youll be frustrated but happy once you clear it, if not get some people and do the 4man version or solo it, theyre both essentially the same except stage 3: Phaleg on solo, Fang/Snow Banshee/Banther all 4 at the same time which isnt as bad as it sounds. Just a suggestion for something to do and to get off non expert mpas unless thats your thing.

I wouldnt say 70mill in EnQ is god tier exactly, its a massive feat to achieve definitely but the RNG on stages is so stupid sometimes that it can easily throw your run into the ground (aka break parts on Elder, Rodos, Rodos+Nepto+Rheo) but if you can be still efficient, skilled and other cases lucky youll definitely pull through but my hats off to people who pull even 2 laps, I love EnQ but also hate it but its fun to do

Oh and dont base the Daily Recommended LQ off like game difficulty, everything has reduced hp and hits too low to be taken too seriously. Even the current LQ isnt as bad outside the higher level mobs since they have a increased drop rate (Lv90 stuff i think)

[TheFanaticViper]

Anything that doesn't kill a 5000HP Hunter with Massive Hunter, TE's Deband, Party L-ring and RINA R-ring, and 25% from All Resist

+ Def buff from team tree, 3 Guardian Armor SSA on the weapon & marinade :-D


Ah well, I'll keep on at it I suppose. Although I do feel like I'm close to burning out on PSO2 and I'm trying to find alternative quests and things to do in an attempt to revitalise my interest in the game.

Sounds like you played too much in a short time to get your 75/75 ASAP. All the interest of the game is in XH, the game really start now for you !

[Dark Mits]

+ Def buff from team tree, 3 Guardian Armor SSA on the weapon & marinade :-DHow could I forget those!

...and Lightstream pot which rezzes you once per quest!