PSO2 Game Mechanics for newbies?

[mirin]

Basically, I'm new to the Phantasy Star world and really have no idea of how or what I'm doing. I looked at the guides on PSOWorld as well as Bumped and while the guides were interesting I think some of them were actually a little too high level for me. When you combine this with a semi-English translation...very confusing for a newbie.

I think most of the information I'm looking for is the game mechanics - how to increase stats, the basics of what makes a good build and so on. Honestly I haven't played many MMORPGs so I'm right near the bottom of the ladder. I heard that Phantasy Star Universe is very similar to PSO2 so I was thinking of trying to find some newbie guides from there but I'm not sure how much the game differs to make them worthwhile reading.

Sorry I can't be more specific with my questions, there isn't really one single thing I need to know, I'd just like to understand the basics of the leveling, exp, stats and so on. Is there a guide around or a good explanation of these things? Once again, Bumped is good but seems to be more about operating the game than the mechanics (Which I assume are probably rooted in the PS franchise). I'm used to a really basic get stats on level up -> assign stats to attributes -> get stronger mechanism, but I'm under the impression this isn't used in PSO2.

Thanks in advance

[Kondibon]

I'm not really good with vague questions, but you gain stats when you level up depending on your class and race. The other ways to gain stats are through your mag, or skill trees, but most people would argue that it's best to just focus on one stat for your mag, and that stat ups on skill trees should only be taken if they're prereqs for other things. Stats are more important for equipping things than the actual stat boosts, but unless you plan on going for something like a cast force, or something you shouldn't have to worry about it.

For builds, the Gameplay subform, this thread, and UnLucky's skill tree priority suggestions should give you a general idea, but it's a good idea to lurk around to see WHY certain things are considered more important than other things. Understanding why something does or doesn't work is probably more important than just getting a good build.

Other than that I can't really help unless you're more specific about what you want to do, or how you want to play.

[isCasted]

Your game usually depends on 2 types of stats:

1) base stats. These are calculated next way: stats of your class + 20% of your subclass stats (if you have a one) + stat ups from skill trees of both your main and subclass + stats of your mag. Base stats affect what weapons and armor you can equip at your current level.

2) final stats. These are calculated by adding stats of your currently equipped weapon and armor to your base stats. Most of the time everything is calculated from these stats.
You can boost stats of your equipment by grinding and affixing (but I don't advise you to do so until you start getting 10* stuff - you'll really need lots of grinders and money for those). One good thing about affixing is that you can add offensive abilities to armor - this can do rather huge impact on your numbers if done right.

As it was said before, skill trees have skills like "<statname> Up", which add some determined number of said stat to your base stats, so you could equip weapons/armor earlier. But it's advised to invest bare minimum in those skills, because they are actually short-term investment of your SP and it's better to go with % boosts. This means: if you invest SP in skills that say something like "+50 S-ATK", you can have higher base and final stats but actually do lower damage than those who picked skills with % boost. That's also the reason why, for example, Gu/Hu has higher DPH than Gu/Ra - subclassing Ranger adds more R-ATK for Gunner, but Hunter has Fury Stance - an almost 2x damage boost.
Most of the time adding plain stat boosting abilities to your equipment works much better than getting those numbers from skill tree, because, well, you have no choice. For example, you can still have over 180 PP thanks to equipment without putting a single point into PP Boost on skill tree - other skills are much more worth your points.

As for mag raising, feed mag with weapons of type of your class: melee weapons for S-ATK mag, ranged weapons for R-ATK and tech weapons for T-ATK (or, if you want to be mixed Braver, use discs to add DEX). Most popular mag builds are 175 ATK and 145/30 ATK/DEX (and, maybe, 175 DEX for mixed Braver. It takes forever to get it, but it's also difficult to make a mistake). Main problem with feeding mag with weapons is DEX - it always adds same value, no matter what weapons you feed; ATK stats, however, add faster as weapon rarity is increased, so it's ideal to feed mag with 6*s (you can get those from Player Shop, but it can be expensive for beginning players). If you want to prevent DEX from adding, you should feed mag with room goods (4* for melee, 5* for ranged and 6* for tech).
Having mixed stats on mag is not viable. Having defensive stats on mag can be useful sometimes, but it's really difficult to keep both ATK and DEF, because when you try to add ATK, DEF level falls and vice versa.

Generally, that's all you have to know about stats up until you get to lv40. Then you can start studying art of grinding/affixing (and, eventually, get outraged by amounts of RNG they involve).

[SociableTyrannosaur]

I'll admit my guide which UnLucky has taken over a good portion of neglects to mention some of the reasoning behind certain choices over others. I keep thinking I'll be able to get back to adding data to it and I never can. The guide gives very straight forward builds to maximize certain play styles.

Kondibon and IsCasted gave you some info and I'm sure others will too, but basically the main school of thought is that the game is predominantly damage oriented. since pretty much all damage can be marginalized with skill, raw DPS tends to be the way most go with very little variation. This game's support classes unfortunately fail at support, offering little even in the way of party healing.

So generally if you really want to excel, the best way to go is to build for damage, but at the same time, it's not as if having a little fun with your builds is going to ruin your experience either. Just build for synergy between your class and subclass if you want to make the most of your skill trees.

[Sylphia]

Hum,

Here's my take in general for people starting out. You can, as recommended, look at other guides for more in depth information on various specific things like tweaking a build or mags.

First of all, the game is meant for you to solo and learn the game by yourself and with partners, not powerlevling. Powerlevling is fine for your 2nd and 5th jobs, but you'll do yourself a disservice tagging along with veterans pew pew'ing your way to lvl50.

Contrary to Tyrannosaur, there are no support jobs. Every job is designed so it can solo just like any other job. Some jobs have very offensive skills yes, and some (force [FO], and techer [TE] have supportive skills. But neither Fo or Te is a 'support' job in pso2. Imho, you should learn to fight without relying on other humans. If you can't solo it, you need to learn how.

The best thing you can offer to a group is your brain. The highest attack power in the game is meaningless if you don't know when and where to aim. (bosses have quirks and breakable parts that affect drops and how the boss attacks etc)

You can change jobs any time you like at the counter, job stats are seperated, weapon, unit and mag stats are 'what they are'. Weapons are equipable by class, units are only stat restrictive (if you have 300tattk for example you can wear Xunit, no matter your job) and a Mag can help, not help, or hurt your stats for a type of job (strike/ranged/tech)

Stats affect your damage output and/or resistance as well. Check cirnopedia or jpwiki for item information.

You can impove a weapon or unit's stats by grinding. Early on, grind your weapons to safe levels (5-7 or so), and you will get alot of benefit from that. Spending money to grind a lowbie sword to 10, is wasteful. (this can all certainly change with the upcoming crafting).

Units, wear units in sets, check cirnopedia for item information and set bonus information. Grind your units. Past lv30 you should be wearing sets, and grind them all the way. It's inexpensive and the benefits are easily seen whenever you get hit.

Weapons and units have things called slots, and abilities. A "no slot" weapon is a sword, for example. A 1slot sword, is a sword with a "power1" ability. They can also have 'souls'. A 2slot sword with "vol soul" and "power1" is a great weapon for a melee class. A rod, with vol/power1, isn't a good rod for a force. You can get all this info easily from cirnopedia. You don't want to spend tons of money on a lower weapon with great abilities, you will outgrow it quickly. At later levels you can make weapons with abilites you want, via 'affixing' them. It will cost you lots of money! Improving lower weapons, keeping some, selling other to npc, you can decide what/which to do once you understand what makes a good weapon, and have an idea of what it costs to grind/affix weapons, then it's up to you. Advice:Avoid red weapons they carry a stigma, and a hidden dex penalty.

Your mag. Your mag is permanent. You can't get rid of it, only reset it or get an additional mag, both require you to buy AC. Check this site for the mag guides and understand what you're doing before you feed your mag. And best advice is, grow your mag based on offensive stats, not defensive, and have a good understanding of what job you want to lvl. If you want to level them all, a mag can greatly help a particular class (melee ranged or tech), which of course gimps it's usefullness for another class. A strike mag of 125strike/50dex, has very little benefit if you decide to level force. So in general, mags are specialist devices, or mediocre jack of all trades.
You can make a mag that is 40sattak, 40rattak,40tattack and 55dex. Loosing 80 strike or 80 ranged, or 80 tech attack from your mag will make it take longer to equip higher weapons (if at all) but it can be mitigated by getting a really good weapon. Or, by increasing via skilltree, but that's hardly recommended. With a hybrid mag, your overall damage will not be as high as a pure mag (again, fairly obvious, ne).
It is complicated, and the first thing you have to do is try and forcast what you will do with your character.

Your SkillPoints (SP's) allocated per job can dramatically affect how well you do in situations. Check the pso2 skill simulator, and talk to poeple to understand what is what on the skill trees. It's much easier to understand and implement if you start with a general cookie cutter approach to skill trees. They will do well for you, and won't fubar your build, like it is so very easu to do if you are uninformed. Don't allocate sp's till you're past lvl30, and you'll be fine, don't allocate points every time you get 1. Talk with people or read the discussion threads, just try to not get a aneurysm as you read.

- whenever there is a skill addition or adjustment, sega issues skill tree resets. Unless you want to spend money, go conservative before you try someone's personal tweak untill you have 3 or 4 skill tree resets in the bank.

Client orders (CO's) and matterboard. These will pay off in the long run. Do your co's, you will hurt yourself by not slogging through the beginer co's, because the later co's are unlocked by completeing the begining ones.

Matterboard, it can be tediuous especially if you don't like lore, but the benefits of the matterboards is at the least, equipment fodder you can sell or use in improving weapons and units later (but you have to get to mb9+ or so).

The Matterboard and Arks Road (via npc at the mid elevator at the gate area) is meant to guide you through the areas, unlocking maps as you go. Do your arks quests, and story quests as they become available to unlock additional areas, and additional matterboards. Check the jpwiki for good story quest guides.

You can solo missions, but by doing co's and matterboard, you can also obtain partner cards and bring npc's along with you (after completing certain co's). I would recommend starting with the npc's. More poeple (includes npc's) = more mobs=more experience. Starting out partying with humans however, basically puts you in a powerlevel situation frequently. You really ought to avoid this in the begining. As far as friend(human) npc's on quests, you can invite anyone that's registered as a free npc partner. You can try them, and you'll quickly find out that some aren't worth bringing along....

There's alot of new things in pso2 like autowords with cut-ins for most any event. It's novel, but hopefully you've learned in your solo'ing in forest and playing with the monkey, seeing a boss's moves is important. Excessive cut-ins and autowords can easily get you ignored. It's just bad form imho.

But the overall basic mechanic is pso2 is not P2W. But it does share plenty of 'gotcha's that without doing any homework or reasearch, will gimp you later and you'll be forced to think about buying ac to correct a mistake.

Take your time and have fun.

[SociableTyrannosaur]

Contrary nothing, they've been making changes to techer because it was too support oriented which made it the least viable class in the game.

[ShinMaruku]

And techer is still shit. They can't fix that class until a complete redesign.

[SociableTyrannosaur]

I wouldn't know, I stopped playing techer over 6 months ago. I believe it though. Over generalizing (trying to do everything at once) and support are the worst things you can do in this game.

[ShinMaruku]

They are slowly making them less terrible but as a of now they are still bad. I would assume they'll get something weighty at the next big update. But I give them 2 revisions before it's something to look at. At this moment I am just using my techer sub for the dark tree with level 15 namegid.

[Skyly HUmar]

The thing with classes is that if theyre bad, sega doesnt fix them, they just make them op.

As far as i know the best classes for damage (aka, good classes lol) are fughter, gunner, and braver, thats all im hearing about these days.