question about hunter vs ra/fo

[Alisha]

from what we have seen so far do hunters have to work harder to do their damage as opposed to ranger and force? i feel this became a problem with a lot of the content that was added to infinity so im concerned about this here. though its possible this wont be known till the game is released and people get to high lvls where the game tends to change quite a bit.

[Angelo]

From my experience it seems hunters have to be more aware of their surroundings than FO or RA. The exchange for damage output for a HU is the risk of being in the range of enemy melee attacks, which are conventionally much more potent than their ranged ones (if they have one at all).

Strangely enough, the difficulty in the classes has almost flipped, in my opinion. In the original PSO FO was recommended for advanced players and HU was recommended for newcomers. Due to the advancements in the combat system and overall speed of the game compared to PSO, playing a FO, in my short experience was more or less a cakewalk, even if at times it took longer to kill an enemy due to MP conservation in comparison to HU. This doesn't mean FO is overpowered, it just means that there was much less risk involved. HU took a bit more strategy when it comes to twitch thinking and placement, where as FO takes more strategy in terms of conservation and multi-tasking. All classes feel very dynamic and offer a fairly unique experience compared to PSU, and PSO. All are fast-paced and fun, but require you to think in different ways.

[rezakon]

In most action oriented games your gonna make your melee work harder then the ranged players, even in most mmorpgs that is the case as well because the closer you are to something the more limited your perspective of the battlefield comes (and enemy animations). So like Angelo pointed out your situational awareness has to adapt and you literally are doing more work because you have to play aware or die a lot.

I played kTERA for the last year and that as any melee class vs ranged shows the situational awareness of players in those melee roles become far too focused were they should actually be more aware, so most the smart players in those roles are doing way more work then anyone 10yards or more away.

Everything has it's trade off though, FO & RA have their strengths but again they do have weakness (either class can't take hits worth jack) and it just comes back to different styles of play and how to effectively play them.

[Arika]

So, in PSU and PSO1, Hunter is easier to play compare to FO, but now people is saying PSO2 FO is easier to play than Hunter, hmph. :3

[moorebounce]

So, in PSU and PSO1, Hunter is easier to play compare to FO, but now people is saying PSO2 FO is easier to play than Hunter, hmph. :3

In PSO Hunters could take more damage so you tend to spend less on your monomates, dimates and trimates. If you pair a hunter up with a Force a hunter rarely uses their mates because if the force is doing their job right they're healing you as needed. As a Force you tend to go through a lot of your monofluids, difluids and trifluids because of casting attack techs and support techs. The difficulty was in having enough meseta to buy your fluids in your early levels.

[Strider_M]

From what I remember from PSO1, as soon as I got the ability to use Resta, all mono/di/trimate usage was limited to emergency use. This is especially true when everyone in the party could use resta that could heal others.

But since this is PSO2 I'm not sure how everything will be balanced out but based on what I saw/and what I know from PSU, when attacking Hunter types rarely miss when compared to Ranger and Force types

Rangers on the otherhand are more likely to miss their attacks when compared with Hunters, but they are at a safer distance anyway so there's no worry for them to be attacked as often.

Forces..... well I don't play force as much so I can't speak for them completely. However I can say that I don't play Force like I would play as a Hunter or Ranger.

This game should be balanced; all classes should be easy to play with unless there's a newcomer who hasn't played a game with these types of classes at all.

Anyone who has played a Hack'n'Slash can play Hunter and people who has played a FPS/TPS game can play Ranger.

[Shadownami92]

I think classes might balance out more as new areas get put in. Like I think I remember in the caves that there was some tech casting lizard guys.

So I think with the introduction of new enemies that Hunters might not be harder, as they might be better against tech casting or ranged attacking enemies (As these enemies could possibly have better resistance to elemental damage than melee focused enemies.)

Doesn't the Caves also have that weird laser shooting thing that reminds me of Beamos from Zelda? If I recall it had a platform like back that was it's weak spot that make melee fighters well suited to dispatching them faster than rangers or forces.

[Mike]

Doesn't the Caves also have that weird laser shooting thing that reminds me of Beamos from Zelda? If I recall it had a platform like back that was it's weak spot that make melee fighters well suited to dispatching them faster than rangers or forces.

Everybody, not just hunters, can take those things down without much trouble. As long as you hit the weak spot, it dies fairly quickly.

[Dinosaur]

It's true that FO and RA have an easier time than HU in this game. Due to the long lock-on range and TPS mode, FO and RA can sit back and blow everything up from great distances. With the addition of cards, Force can attack from every angle possible in any position. Hunter, on the other hand, must constantly put itself in the most risky position: directly in front of the enemy.

[Shadownami92]

Everybody, not just hunters, can take those things down without much trouble. As long as you hit the weak spot, it dies fairly quickly.

Everybody can easily take them down on easy mode sure. On the current mode I think everything is incredibly easy to take down, so in that sense there really isn't any class imbalance by that mindset either, since it's just so easy to stay alive and destroy stuff.

I'm thinking that in higher difficulties where enemy damage and health get higher there is the possibility of seeing the examples of monsters with varying attack types and attack range to actually pose as a sort of threat to the varying classes in different ways.

EDIT: Not to mention we have no level that is an equivalent to the Ruins of PSO. That level had lots of enemies that covered ranged attackers pretty well. Chaos Bringers could charge fast, shoot strong long ranged shots, Del Sabers were fast, and had a jump attack, Bel Arms could shoot their arms at you from off screen.

I wouldn't be surprised if enemies of a similar nature were introduced that would cause Rangers and Forces more trouble in the future in new levels.