August 4th Announcements

[Zorak000]

yeah, I just figured that they keep running into problems with EQs and/or that mess with the block space, and only ever fix the symptoms instead of the underlying causes.

like the subclassing system is kind of a mess anymore, there's way too many "wrong" answers, and if hero is any indication, they seem to be fine with hunter or fighter being the best subclass for every class (except force, which has literally half of it's skill tree on Techer's tree, holding them both back really) and just move forward with new classes being unable to subclass at all, so they can be designed in a vacuum

[Jene-chan]

They killed a lot of legit subclassing in EP4 -> EP5. Gunner was totally gutted as a sub -- there's actually 0 reason to use it since Chain Finish is main only and that's literally the gimmick of the class. TeRa was way more useful in EP4 but with the WB changes, it represents as much less significant damage boost for bringing WB and Techer buffs and you're better off just DPSing as a Techer normally. Even GuRa used to be a thing and now it's mostly a joke or a gimmick to show that you can still use it but there's really no reason too.

Most classes have one or two true paths with very little variation right now.

HuFi, HuSu
RaHu
FoTe
FiHu
GuFi, GuHu
TeHu, TeSu, TeBr
BrHu
BoHu
SuFi
Hr

I know there are probably some fringe builds or whatever I missed by those are by far the most common class combos you see. Honestly, I don't mind them focusing on Main class stuff since that means they can really work on fine-tuning each class.

[Zephyrion]

snip~

As crazy as it sounds I'm actually in favour of keeping the EQ schedule, and I don't think it would need a drastic change.It would be very hard anyway, given how much it takes one or a few piece of content to be run outside of EQs. PSO2 simply can't have a large pool of quest to run at the same time for various reasons (overall low-ish player pool per ship, 12/12 format, no "material/crafting" system that would warrant running things to get resources and use them). What they've been as of late I think should continue and be built upon, as in have a few quests in conjunction of EQs to be run at all times, sprinkled with revival campaigns for older content. More 4/4 quests would also help in that regard. I'd love a rotation boost for mainstay content (like boost one of the UQ per week with the campaign boosts, along with stuff like a BQ campaign that adds older weapon series to its table or something similar) to put some life back into those as well

Buster Quest tanked for a ton of reasons. Not enough variation added, stamina system was too stringent back when it was introduced, free match rewards were absolutely garbage, and you were forced to run the SAME quest just to be allowed to be played again for better rewards (just to mention a few). Ironically, most of those issues were solved as time passed (stamina is now too lenient but I guess lol), so now BQ has to bear the stigma. It's a shame since the new BQ map is gorgeous, seems to have a lot more complexity tied to it and new castle looks awesome.. Well time will tell whether or not BQ will see a resurgence or keep being hated forever

[XrosBlader821]

Tbh. I'd be in favor of Sega getting rid of the subclass system and start designing every class in a vacuum. It'd probably make some terrible design choices more apparent and Sega would probably finally fix them like for example Te not having Step Advance or Te not having PP Charge Revival, which is essential for competent tech gameplay but force being a terrible subclass since too many multipliers are either mainclass only or bound to elements Te doesn't care about, Forcing Te into a state where the dev team didn't know what to do with the class making it the mess that it is today. Stuff like Trap Search and PP Charge Revival used to be Race Perks.

They kinda realized themselves that the system isn't really working as intended since they've been actively discouraging from making any creative builds by locking 10% damage multipliers behind Mainclass weapons and not releasing as many multiclass weapons as they used to / killing the weapon extension system, which could still work if they updated it, released units with set effects again and made Craft Mastery a Skill Ring instead of being tied to Bo, which is still a very weak subclass.

[Kondibon]

like the subclassing system is kind of a mess anymore,

The subclassing system was a mess from the start. I like subclassing in games, and I wouldn't want it to go away in PSO2, but all the sub class synergies just boil down to which gives you the most raw damage and not using the class mechanics together. Or in the cases where it IS about the mechanics and playstyles being combined, you get stuff like x/Gu that gets nerfed from being stupid overpowered to completely useless instead of a middle ground. The rest are situations where a classes have mechanical and playstyle synergy on paper but the classes themselves don't have the multipliers to back up the damage, and the mechanics aren't useful enough to make up for the lost damage (Te/Bo, or the current state of Su/Gu and Su/Br for example). A lot of subs in fact ONLY bring damage despite not having good damage multipliers, Br for example.

This all just feeds back into what I've been saying about a need to normalize things. It's ok if some classes like Fi can do more damage as a sub in optimal situations, but all the classes should have roughly the same amount of baseline damage potential and the choice of sub should be about which class works best in a particular situation or has tools you want rather than which one is just the best in almost every situation. Br and Gu are probably currently the worst off in terms of subclass utility, since even Bo theoretically has the fields.

Te not having PP Charge Revival, which is essential for competent tech gameplay

I actually disagree that this is a bad thing, I don't think any class should be using techs the same way Fo does. I do agree that Fo should be a better subclass option for Te, but I think people overstate how bad Te is as "weaker X with Te buffs". It's supposed to be a trade off, if Te/Fo was as strong as Fo/Te then why would anyone want a Fo at all?

[Jene-chan]

Tbh. I'd be in favor of Sega getting rid of the subclass system and start designing every class in a vacuum. It'd probably make some terrible design choices more apparent and Sega would probably finally fix them like for example Te not having Step Advance or Te not having PP Charge Revival, which is essential for competent tech gameplay but force being a terrible subclass since too many multipliers are either mainclass only or bound to elements Te doesn't care about, Forcing Te into a state where the dev team didn't know what to do with the class making it the mess that it is today. Stuff like Trap Search and PP Charge Revival used to be Race Perks.

Yes, please! Also, I did a quick look over a few of the trees lately and realized how much borderline useless stuff still exists on many of the trees. Guard Stance Poison, Guard Stance Burn, Pretty Good, Jellen/Mirage/Panic/Bind Shot, Aerial Advance, Deadline Automate, and REVERSER FIELD just to name some of the worst offenders. Honestly, it would probably beeasier for them to balance too since they wouldn't have to be concerned about the effects of certain skills when paired with another class' skills.

[Zorak000]

yeah, that's what I mean for the most part; subclassing would be in a better place if they could properly balance it out. like bouncer would be a really good subclass for fights like Omega/Loser where you're usually breaking something for most of the quest, or 90% of the quest if your main class can reach the jewels around his headdress to break. but at this point Brave Stance is already stronger than Break Stance, before you even get into stuff like TAJA or PP slayer pushing fighter sub beyond. They just don't quite have a grasp of the concept of "opportunity costs" when it comes to balancing skills for subclass use.

[XrosBlader821]

I actually disagree that this is a bad thing, I don't think any class should be using techs the same way Fo does. I do agree that Fo should be a better subclass option for Te, but I think people overstate how bad Te is as "weaker X with Te buffs". It's supposed to be a trade off, if Te/Fo was as strong as Fo/Te then why would anyone want a Fo at all?

There already is a trade off, it's called Te not having as many Tech multipliers as Fo does. It's Wands having less T-ATK than Rods. Also in a scenario where the subclass system would be gone, both Te and Fo would be masters of different Tech elements.

The way both of the classes are designed atm half of Forces Skill tree is on Te and half of Te's Skill tree see's very little use since Te gameplay basically boils down to Wand bonking / HH and territory Techniques. Even the deliberate Hybrid builds aren't as effective at Tech casting as Fo/Te is. It wouldn't even be that bad if the Wand PA scaled with T-ATK but no. We needed more reasons to go with S-ATK on our affixes, a stat that is useless for Techs.

[Kondibon]

The main reason I don't want to lose the subclass system is because I value build and game-play diversity within the classes, and while it's certainly not great right now, getting rid of subclasses would just get rid of any chance of it ever being a thing again with how the classes are being designed now, so I'd rather focus be put into balancing the classes as subs more, rather than nuking the subclass system entirely.

[Zephyrion]

There already is a trade off, it's called Te not having as many Tech multipliers as Fo does. It's Wands having less T-ATK than Rods. Also in a scenario where the subclass system would be gone, both Te and Fo would be masters of different Tech elements.

The way both of the classes are designed atm half of Forces Skill tree is on Te and half of Te's Skill tree see's very little use since Te gameplay basically boils down to Wand bonking / HH and territory Techniques. Even the deliberate Hybrid builds aren't as effective at Tech casting as Fo/Te is. It wouldn't even be that bad if the Wand PA scaled with T-ATK but no. We needed more reasons to go with S-ATK on our affixes, a stat that is useless for Techs.

That's also understating how stupidly strong TE utility is, which also comes with the issue that not having a TE slows down the mpa, but having 2 or more does too. TE will never be properly balanced unless they take a close look at Shifta and Deband skills, since they are enabling so much stuff you can't possibly have TE have power levels remotely close to FO/other melee classes. RA has a similar issue. You just can't make classes that heavily boost the 11 other player's damage be too strong, otherwise you fall back in the good old problem of people leaving mpa if they don't have a RA or a TE in them. You can only either nerf Shifta/Deband/Weak bullet by a lot and rework the class accordingly, or just accept their power level will never be quite close to the less supportive classes. SEGA never has reworked a class, so Imma go and just hope they implement some kind of stacking effect for said skill to prevent having several Rangers or Techers from being a liability (i.e 10% base for shifta strike, + 2 % for every other TE in the mpa and something similar for other buff skills, 20% for WB with +4% for each RA putting an additional WB on top)