Build critique thus far w/ Dilemma...

[Stickboy]

Crits are bad unless with crit damage increase shits

[Nitro Vordex]

I think I commented on that a long time ago, but basically that if a game is free to play, you should be cautious, because they'll more than likely make you spend money to fix errors.

But anyway. Just keep in mind that in general, percentages are better. Also, I think using fully charged PA's are the best thing to do, since I believe Braver gets bonuses for those. I think. If you still need to work on your countering (which is going to save your ass a lot, and also give you x factor shift action mode), you could go to the mines and counter a bunch on the turrets, or also just try to fight bosses a lot, with just counters. Get patterns down, so you know when your JG frames are.

Don't take this community too hard, by the way. Some people are just raging mad sometimes.

Reference Link: http://pso2-skill.pwnedgalaxy.net/sk...FqoeFIbJk00006

This is an overview of the Class skills that I use. Use it for reference if you like.

No crits please. Put that into Fury Combo. And put those points into Average Charge. PA's benefit off of this.

[Maninbluejumpsuit]

Reference Link: http://pso2-skill.pwnedgalaxy.net/sk...FqoeFIbJk00006

This is an overview of the Class skills that I use. Use it for reference if you like.

You should just look at mine before you go reccommending your own skill tree.

Not maxing obvious somewhat unconditional % based damage boosts = bad

More points than needed into crit skills when not maining Fi over % based damage boosts = double bad

In the hunter tree, that point in step advance, healing guard, and fury gear boost when you're not maining hunter does not need to be there.

[Bumblezel]

You should just look at mine before you go reccommending your own skill tree.

Not maxing obvious somewhat unconditional % based damage boosts = bad

More points than needed into crit skills when not maining Fi over % based damage boosts = double bad

In the hunter tree, that point in step advance, healing guard, and fury gear boost when you're not maining hunter does not need to be there.

I said it's for reference, and it's not intended to be focused on pure damage, but flexibility and general situations. I read through Maninbluejumpsuit posts as well before replying like that Katana build tree, and I can respect that you're maximizing the damage potential of it for the Katana alone. But I don't get why it's so necessary to focus so much on damage while ignoring other useful situational skills.

I decided to share my tree for reference in case XTREEMMAK or any other player decided to take a look, and then give his/her feedbacks or even build it based off it. It's intended for a fun experience, with good balance of damage and self defense and not really emphasizing anything too extreme in particular.

No crits please. Put that into Fury Combo. And put those points into Average Charge. PA's benefit off of this.

As for Fury Combo, it's kind of easy to reach max 10% dmg if you combo it correctly, but personally I can do it with 2 pts, but it varies by playstyle.

As for Average Charge, I don't like the idea that it's restricted to Charge attacks only. Personally I like the freedom to attack with my Normal as well, so I don't take it since the boost is small, but it can be worth to others who feel comfortable with it.

As for Critical, I've been thinking a while about this too. Percentage skills can stack multiplicatively towards damage and defense. Crits would cause you to do max damage. And we have an innate 5% chance to crit. Now at first I thought that increasing percentage instead of crits would deal higher damage, knowing rares could increase minimal damage. But I figured that it varies by situation as well, and I felt comfortable dealing consistant damage instead. So I decided to pick Crits knowing that 55% crits can help ease my mind with numbers, and not to overthink them.

In summary, your playstyle generally should define your class, not numbers.

EDIT: Good luck for Ultimate Quests

[Maninbluejumpsuit]

I said it's for reference, and it's not intended to be focused on pure damage, but flexibility and general situations. I read through Maninbluejumpsuit posts as well before replying like that Katana build tree, and I can respect that you're maximizing the damage potential of it for the Katana alone. But I don't get why it's so necessary to focus so much on damage while ignoring other useful situational skills.

I don't dwell on a person's choice on survival skills. It's fine you want them (as long as it's not healing guard). The one point in hunter step advance does nothing when you already have more points in your other class' step advance.

Increasing crit chance at the cost of damage serves no purpose, not even for 'flexibility'.

Preference is one thing, but totally dead points is another.

[Waku Waku]

The one point in hunter step advance does nothing when you already have more points in your other class' step advance.

I remember reading a while back that step advance stacked between classes but still maxed at 0.2. Was that not true?

[Selphea]

I remember reading a while back that step advance stacked between classes but still maxed at 0.2. Was that not true?

According to Swiki they don't stack. It counts the highest one.

[Bumblezel]

I don't dwell on a person's choice on survival skills. It's fine you want them (as long as it's not healing guard). The one point in hunter step advance does nothing when you already have more points in your other class' step advance.

Increasing crit chance at the cost of damage serves no purpose, not even for 'flexibility'.

Preference is one thing, but totally dead points is another.

I was writing a reply earlier but suddenly the page decided that I needed to relog for some reason and then my entire message was scrapped from my browser, so I'll keep this reply short instead.

Try to look at the skills in general rather than just Br/Hu.

Healing Guard: 5% heal is worth alot in most situation depending on how you use it and the Classes you use. It can negate low damage entirely and you can save up on your mates.

Crits vs Damage: Damage may be more effective, but Crits also works well with certain weapons and skills, depending on the situation. I'm still uncertain for this one though but I prefer Crits at the moment.

All Guard & Guard Stance Advance: You can combo them effectively with Healing Guard and the new Ignite Parrying PA.

Step Advance: It has it uses on other classes, not just the melee Classes (ie Gunslash and multi-class Sword), and Braver's much bigger on the Step tree like the J Reversal Cover and the new Step JA Combo.

There you go, now compare these skills against pure damage in a multitude of situations.

[LonelyGaruga]

There's no point in looking at skills in general unless you plan to play more than Br/Hu.

Healing Guard isn't going to get much use. There are better uses for that SP.

Criticals are never superior to straight up damage. If you want to say otherwise, prove it with math.

Nobody said anything about All Guard or Guard Stance Advance, but for the former, it only works for Hunter main, and the latter offers less damage than Fury Stance, so why bother? And Ignite Parrying is attached to the worst weapon Hunter has to offer as a subclass, since the lack of Fury Gear Boost really hurts swords.

Step Advance's problem is, if you have 3 SP in Braver's Step Advance, there is zero gain from putting ~3 into the Hunter skill tree.

[Maninbluejumpsuit]

Healing Guard: 5% heal is worth alot in most situation depending on how you use it and the Classes you use. It can negate low damage entirely and you can save up on your mates.

I made a short writeup as to why healing guard isn't good in my opinion in another thread.

healing guard sounds nice and free, but doesn't alter my playstyle at all (I have 856HP. #newearl problems).

-If something can be outhealed with that 50ish HP heal, I wouldn't care about the missing HP in the first place.

-If I took enough damage that a heal would be nice to have, I'm going to use a dimate the moment i get the chance.

To me, that skill makes less of a difference than 4 S atk does. I'm either not getting hit, taking ignore-able damage, or need to use a daimate despite that 50HP heal I just got. If I had that skill, I'm going to be playing as if it wasn't there.

Only time I'd concede healing guard being worth... anything meaningful would be if you're attacked so relentlessly while wounded that you can't use a mate, and can only JG. I somehow doubt even Ult will make that a common thing.

~250 damage is low damage

~50 damage isn't considered damage unless you're taking that every other second.

It heals as much damage as a single tick of standing in lava, and no one pulls out mates because they took one tick of lava damage.

Crits vs Damage: Damage may be more effective, but Crits also works well with certain weapons and skills, depending on the situation. I'm still uncertain for this one though but I prefer Crits at the moment.

That's pretty much only for Fi mains, and even then pure damage is better.

Damage variance for crafted weapons went down to the point of possibly being totally eliminated using saiki set, which many people have at this point, so crit lost a niche.

There's no justifying giving up % damage increases for crit chance. Hell, your build gave up the most versatile multiplier Hu has being fury combo up, which increases striking, ranged, and tech damage for... crit... just no...

All Guard & Guard Stance Advance: You can combo them effectively with Healing Guard and the new Ignite Parrying PA.

I'll give you that. I like that if that actually works. The one catch is the fact that assuming this does work, it'll only work against enemies with super armor/projectiles. Anything else would be hitstunned by the attack, and unable to trigger JG+healing guard anyway, unless you have your back turned while using ignite parrying as mainclass HU, so you're losing damage anyway... well so much for that gimmick.

Step Advance: It has it uses on other classes, not just the melee Classes (ie Gunslash and multi-class Sword), and Braver's much bigger on the Step tree like the J Reversal Cover and the new Step JA Combo.

You made a BR/HU tree. I commented on your BR/HU tree. The one point in step advance for HU does nothing need to be there when you have 3 in BR tree for snatch step.

Also:

Te/Hu with wand lovers active gains the effects of max level step advance from what I've read.

Gu/Hu uses TMG I-frames the vast majority of the time, and if anything, that's an understatement.

You already know the deal with Br/Hu and getting snatch step.

That's just a few things that defeat the purpose of that one point.

There just has to be something better you can do with a skill point than gain 1/20th of a second on step I-frames assuming you're using a weapon capable of step, and a subclass/mainclass that doesn't already have their own.

There you go, now compare these skills against pure damage in a multitude of situations.

Already did. You wasted points. The one good thing you brought up is the possibility of healing guard+ignite parrying. Other than that, the points you wasted resembled a far more niche skill tree that actually isn't as versatile.

You gave up average stance charge damage for crit chance, and talked of using a sword, which is a weapon known for charged PAs, and you still have access to partisans, katanas, and bows known for the same thing. Why?

You gave up fury combo which is pure damage to everything for crit chance. Why?

That point in step advance for Hu is pretty much dead.

There are several point choices in your build that's counterproductive to your 'versatility'.

Garuga pointed out a few other things I didn't mention.