August 4th Announcements

[Dark Mits]

I had typed a whole paragraph regarding a "new" mixxed EQ+Free Field style event, and at the end I realized I was describing Enemy Triggers but for powered-up level-capped infected rare versions of enemies (or enemies like Hunar, Apostolo, etc.)

Then I tried to describe an event where a certain field temporarily changes to lvl85 version, and I realized I was describing Advance Quest at max rank.

Then I tried to describe an event where the game implements hunts where we need to kill a specific enemy, and this was ARKS League / Daily Orders for 99 enemies/items.

Those 3 above led me to think that there is actually content that can satisfy our gameplay needs. It's just that this content doesn't reward "end-game" equipment for us to run it. We just flock to the FotM content and burn out by running it to death to complete the CFs or to get the drops we desire.

-=Edit=-
Regarding TE's utility, it's just as Zephyrion said; it's too much power on 1 single player, and if a 2nd appears then the latter (or former) becomes useless. This is the problem with all games that treat buffs/debuffs as a target-property and not as a caster-property. What I mean is this:

Imagine if Shifta was not mutually exclusive, meaning that if 2 players cast Shifta, you have 2 Shifta effects on you. And each Shifta effect has its own timer and its own contribution to the subject's output. But to balance this out and not make a 12-TE party as the go-to, you have to change the way Shifta behaves from a damage multiplier with just a timer to a "pool" of extra damage that is slowly dished out until its timer or the "pool" expires. Example:

Player A has Shifta Advance, and casts Shifta on Player C. The game calculates that Player's A Shifta should last for 3mins, or until 400,000 damage is dealt. The damage multiplier of Shifta from Player A is 24.625%
Player B who has less T-atk and no Shifta skills casts Shifta on Player C too. The game calculates that Player's B Shifta should last for 3mins, or until 300,000 damage is dealt. The damage multiplier of Shifta from Player B is 19.7%
Player C sees both Shifta effects on his bar (yes, it would make for a messy bar with lots of buffs). Each hit Player C does is strengthened by 24.625% from Shift A, and 19.7% from Shifta B. So if Player C would normally hit for 10000, he will now hit for 10,000 x (1 + 0.24625 + 0.197) = 14,432, as long as he remains affected by both Shifta effects. And after this first hit, Shifta A would have a remaining pool of 400,000 - 2462 = 397,538, and Shifta B would have a remaining pool of 298,030

Damn, I am such a great armchair developer.
The above numbers are for demonstration purposes only

[XrosBlader821]

And I'd prefer if the subclass system was balanced too but I'm waiting for Bo to become more viable as a subclass for almost 4 years now and we still haven't moved an inch in that regard. Te could easily capitalize on Elemental, Break stance and Bouncer Mag if the stances weren't weaker versions of Br stances, which are already slightly weaker compared to the multipliers Fi has to offer. But I don't have to tell you that, this topic has been talked to death.

[Kondibon]

I still want an all-class tact with good, or at least decent t-atk so I can play Fo/Su and use techs while my pet fights.

[MyNameIsHawk]

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.

my main is Ra/Br, i don´t feel motivated to raise Hu due the ammount of exp it requires cap it at 85. The only advantage is having a 5% more damage that HU only if the PA can be charged. Also can go Br/Ra and the tree synergy well itself, altrought im limited to hit weak spots

[Jene-chan]

my main is Ra/Br, i don´t feel motivated to raise Hu due the ammount of exp it requires cap it at 85. The only advantage is having a 5% more damage that HU only if the PA can be charged. Also can go Br/Ra and the tree synergy well itself, altrought im limited to hit weak spots

If this is what you run, this actually enforces what we're talking about cuz RaBr is in no way superior to RaHu. lol

[Reilet]

You can Su Sub for all the classes actually. And FoBr, FoFi, TeFi

[Velmoria]

my main is Ra/Br, i don´t feel motivated to raise Hu due the ammount of exp it requires cap it at 85. The only advantage is having a 5% more damage that HU only if the PA can be charged. Also can go Br/Ra and the tree synergy well itself, altrought im limited to hit weak spots

Actually to Ranger.
Fury Stance gives 61.4% damage boost.
Weak Stance (charged) gives 63.4% damage boost only to weak point.

They are multiplies, not additive
Fury Stance = 100% * (1.1^4) * (1.05^2)
charged Weak Stance = 100% * 1.35 * (1.1^2)

[GHNeko]

rabr isn't anything special for rifle. if anything, RaBr Rifle is lacking in some areas. requirement to hit weak points or you get shit damage, no durability and ability to ignore knockback. things like this.

what made RaBr super powerful was using Bow but also having access to the highest tier of Rifle. You would use Rapid Shoot for typical crazy bow damage and once that was on cooldown, you'd swap to rifle to help maintain your sustain. But considering there are no Ra usable 14* bows, that makes bow a weaker choice than rifle and no bullet keep is more of an issue now than it was before; so RaBr as a class is severely limited. I havnt even listed all the reasons either.

[Jene-chan]

You can Su Sub for all the classes actually. And FoBr, FoFi, TeFi

FoBr I'm pretty sure is dead right now and I don't think FoFi is a thing (if you're referring to the Quelle Rod). TeFi I've seen some people talking about it in the Techer thread and I believe it has the highest damage potential but all-around TeSu is probably the better combo in that space for damage/survivability/utility.

[AnikaSteinberg]

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)

Techer not on par with other classes is something I can understand. But if Sega really wants to keep the class(es) alive, they'd have to make some sort of gimmick to make it attractive to new players. So far, other classes have their own visual perks that makes them attractive to new players (HR "Dante" style, FI "Brawler" style, GU "Gun-kata" style, RA "Kiritsugu" style, FO "default caster", etc.), but imo only Techer just doesn't have this kind of "luster" other classes have.

In fact, most casual players probably only know Techer as "that class that spams Shifta, Deband and Zanverse, and occasionally Restas that nobody really wants to use but at least one person has to". I'd really like my class to be known for something active if Sega adamantly insists on the support route they forced on Techer (at the latter end of EP2 going the start of EP3, to make way for the redesigned ST-atk specialist aka Bouncer). It should be a distinct attribute that defines this class in an action-genre MMO.

Something as simple (and probably stupid) as a "Supportive Compound Technic" could help make them "flashier" to new players that might be potentially interested in the class while also giving the merit of having multiple Techers (at least 3) in an MPA. Each Techer could tactically count their cooldowns while executing the last "Supportive Compound Technic" in a quest.



TL;DR
Sega needs to make Te more "active" if they want to keep it as a support class. Otherwise, just bury and delete the class altogether. No new player would ever want to play a "follow crowd, spam F1 F2 F3 repeat" class in a high action-oriented MMO.