Force and Ranger Balancing

[Brindizer]

Stuff

This. I've been having a great time as Force. I've been playing the class since vanilla PSO (including Masterforce), and this is the most fun I've had with it yet. It feels just right to me.

Edit: I'd like to add that I've never bothered with gunslash. I just whack stuff with my rod after each close-up charge shot. Never had a problem.

[Scyris]

They probally won't balance them, they never did in pso, never balanced in psu, why would they start now? forces in pso universe have always been meant to be support characters and not damage dealers. would be nice if they balance them though but I doubt it'll happen.

[Spellbinder]

This. I've been having a great time as Force. I've been playing the class since vanilla PSO (including Masterforce), and this is the most fun I've had with it yet. It feels just right to me.

Edit: I'd like to add that I've never bothered with gunslash. I just whack stuff with my rod after each close-up charge shot. Never had a problem.

Masterforce? You mean vanilla PSU?

[Randomness]

Rangers can't hit anywhere near as many enemies per attack as a force can. Nor are they playing with innate status effects on all their stuff.

I've never had trouble maintaining my PP as a force. Rods and Cards are both area weapons, and can restore massive amounts of PP in a few hits against multiple enemies.

And as noted, we have gunslashes, and fighting with them is also completely viable, you easily maintain the PP for Resta and even start with a great PA (the default gunslash PA has knockup, which makes it fairly safe to use). Not to mention, unlike rangers and hunters, you can still use techs even with a gunslash out.

[Miyoko]

Haven't touched a FO yet, it's on my list of things to do at launch, but Launchers need to get an adjustment. The amount of damage they can dish out compared to the other RA weapons is still absurdly high, even with the disadvantage of no mobility.

You clearly haven't played around with diffusion shot or that full auto PA, have you?

[LeynasMoon]

I must say, there was indeed a point in time, while playing during the CBT as RAmarl, where I thought that the Launchers were way too strong.
However, after I had invested some skills, time and money into grinding and enhancing a good rifle that I'd found, I didn't even touch my launchers again unless it was just to make lotsa things go boom once in a while for fun. Playing Ranger feels so free and fun, no matter what you do with your weapons.

I still feel that the Forces need more work on their skill tree set up. Putting element boosting skills in their own trees, then putting passive and special activation skills into their own section would be nice. It's silly to go put 8 points into fire boosting skills before unlocking something like Charge PP Revival, which all Forces are going to want to use I'd assume. Whether they want to focus on upgrading their Foie skills first or not.
We need to have a new weapon to play with, as well. Something that won't make rod or talis obsolete, but a weapon that can compliment other play styles of the Force that may come along later with new techs introduced.

[NiteShadow]

I enjoyed playing a force for the Alpha and this pre-open Beta. My biggest problem was that my basic attack hotkeys would disappear with no way of me re-assigning them. I'm hoping this has been fixed, as there was a time when I was unable to recover PP with any of my weapons. I found cards to be relatively viable as a method of replenishing PP, but at the same time, it took a bit longer than I'd like. I wish that they had a neutral spell instead..

[Jonth]

I only played as a Force in the Pre-Open, so I don't have much of a basis for comparison. However, I loved playing it, and I didn't have much of a problem with PP, but that could be because I really didn't want to tech all the time. I love magic swordsman classes, so unleashing all my PP and then smacking everything around with a rod was awesome. I actually had less problems staying alive when I was melee-ing because of the quicker stuns from the faster attacks.

[Crystal_Shard]

Though having a non PP restricted AoE in launchers is enviable from the perspective of a Force player, I think the greater versatility that the entire range of techs provides more than makes up for the occasional dip in the flow of battle. Don't forget that we haven't even seen the wind, light and dark techs yet, and even with the basic three elements, forces already have something to counter nearly every situation. I also feel they've got the best anti air response out of all the three classes. (Hello charged Foie, and his wife, peripheral damage!)

I think we've got a nice equilibrium going between the classes so far. It's always good to be careful what you wish for. ^_^

I only played as a Force in the Pre-Open, so I don't have much of a basis for comparison. However, I loved playing it, and I didn't have much of a problem with PP, but that could be because I really didn't want to tech all the time. I love magic swordsman classes, so unleashing all my PP and then smacking everything around with a rod was awesome. I actually had less problems staying alive when I was melee-ing because of the quicker stuns from the faster attacks.

Give a Gunslash oriented Force a try if you really want that magic swordsman feel. You do get a slight dip in tech attack power, but in return, you always have a way to get your PP back at both short and long ranges. Barehand casting animation also looks pretty fancy as well.

[Jonth]

Give a Gunslash oriented Force a try if you really want that magic swordsman feel. You do get a slight dip in tech attack power, but in return, you always have a way to get your PP back at both short and long ranges. Barehand casting animation also looks pretty fancy as well.

I will have to look into that.