Challenge Quests Post-Patch Thoughts/Discussion

[TaigaUC]

Yes. I'm honestly hesitant to even try WL when Holding Current isn't available.
Not that it'd be much use with Vomos flying all over the place.

Had another run with bad loot, but got lucky with good weapons and discs in M10.

[Lyrise]

Yes. I'm honestly hesitant to even try WL when Holding Current isn't available.
Not that it'd be much use with Vomos flying all over the place.

Funny you mention Holding current - it IS available, but it's got the misfortune of being placed in the red boxes in M6.

For anyone curious, here's the whole list of what in those boxes, as revealed by Sega in the latest edition of Dengeki PS. All PAs are level 10. All weapons are random grind values

• Guilty Break
• Holding Current
• Slide End
• Orchestra
• Illusion Rave
• Flash Thousand
• Slash Rave
• Kazan Nadesico
• Kestral Rampage
• Impact Slider
• Cosmo Breaker
• Elder Rebellion
• Last Nemesis
• Vent Sieger
• IlZonde
• Quickmate
• Bolt PP Save
• Heretic End
• Heretic Kali
• Heretic Saw
• Storm Shade

I'll post some scans of the latest Dengeki here, since it is basically a cm guide for 1-7. Outlines what items drop from what, and has pretty decent maps at that (better than what you can find on swiki IMO). As for data for 8-10, we have to wait till next month.

[Vatallus]

I actually posted that red box info before. S wiki has all of that info months before Sega actually put it in the Dengeki PS.

Other sad thing is I got told all of that stuff was crap compared to the taga units when you can still get 9* units from the boxes in M8 and M9. A lot of those PAs in that box are literally boss killers.

I think for most people the objective is just to win so we take the safer route. (Killing Taga) over fighting with RNG for the best times possible.

It is pretty much a situation where your choices are:

1. Cake
2. RNG Factored Very Good Cake or Rotten Tomatoes from a trash can.

That said... random grinded heretic saw with talis boost and element conversion might be pretty hilarious to see in CM.

But yes, it is still good to see Sega put things in Dengeki PS telling us how things work, even if most people still won't listen to them. xD I mean I can't blame the people. I'm still pretty sure Sega doesn't even extensively play test their own game.

[Lyrise]

Definitely. I hope more people actually bother to pick up the next issue for the full blown 8-10 guide - never hurts to have more informed players, as I can clear cm in PUGs, but all it takes is 1 or 2 uninformed people to severely screw things up - Sometimes we can recover, and other times, it's unsalvageable.

[Z-0]

That stuff is crap compared to the Tagami units, because Tagami gives you a lot of extra levels and the best unit set of the 3. Late-game, only S-Atk and R-Atk are really useful, S-Atk moreso, so Blitz and Vent sets should be the only ones that should be considered -- Fengali is generally not very useful except for people who manage to put up Kurotov in Mission 9. I only use Fengali to wear a third rare unit with Blitz or Vent for extra tankiness.

To expect to get a full party with unit sets with only Vent is a pipe dream, considering you might not even get a unit, while the Blitz units are guaranteed (not necessarily sets, but you always get 2 units). Sometimes we even miss a full party with a set of Blitz or Vent, and have to give one or two people Fengali which hurts their DPS quite a bit when using proper setups for time.

The thing with the box PAs is that there's 17 items in it, and with only 8 or 12 players in the party, it's very unlikely you'll manage to get something that's actually useful. To be honest I'd say that the only good thing in there is probably Elder Rebellion 10 (which Kurotov comes with anyway, although at level 1) and probably Slash Rave. Guilty Break might be useful but Slide End does like no damage in CM (it's been tested), and I don't trust Holding Current considering that everything has 40% more attack power in Mission 10 -- it's very easy to get one shot in there. Holding Current is generally not great DPS unless it one shots anyway, due to the huge cooldown, this applies to the main game too.

You're talking about the best times possible -- for the best times possible, I am pretty sure Tagami is the way to go, especially since Techniques are utterly useless for fast times after that point, except for like one spawn in M8.

[Xaelouse]

In a well designed quest, there wouldn't be complaints about what weapon so-and-so is using as long as he's using it in the right situation and it's the best thing he has available. You could be as good at using WL against Vomos as you can be, but since Symphonic is widely available without any RNG it's a waste of time.

Or have an entire attack type become useless throughout half the quest due to Cluster being , again, widely available without any RNG.
Then there' weapons like Double Saber that are completely useless and can be ignored throughout the entire quest (and they have the nerve to throw acro effect into M10 and make illusion rave not available outside red box, and even if it was it would again be inferior to symphonic).

The list goes on, but really why have all these useless options in one quest? Remove them all and there would be no complaints, more efficient players in PUGs, easier clears in PUGs as you guys believe.
Or on the flip side, make all the good stuff as RNG riddled as possible, or consume even more resources in their shops. Maybe then there would be no one-track strategy.
Or buff all the PAs in the red box to lvl17.

[Vatallus]

I thought it was pretty self explanatory when I said Tagamikazuchi was the safer route. Going to really suck if I have to start posting with a pessimist mind set and note every little thing just to avoid unnecessary walls of text.

No hate against you either. I know you just want the best for everyone. I also should of noted that the RNG was heavily favored to the rotten tomatoes.


There really is just one safe option for everything in CM Quest 1. Hopefully when they get around to releasing CM Quest 2 there will be more options instead of very limited options. Would be nice if ALL weapons were useable so a person can use what they are best with. Yeah only these 2 or 3 weapons are viable, only these PAs are viable, and everything else is trash.

Remember true skill is the ability to adapt. The ability to handle what is thrown at you under any circumstance, or to make the best of it with what you have. The first Challenge Mode Quest fails hard at that by forcing us to only a few viable options. When we are forced to the same few options it turns into repetition.

[Friyn]

If only the Red Box had "PA tokens" instead, which then could be exchanged for a PA of your choice. Dunno, m6 overall feels a bit wonky. Both the Red Container and Hunar route are a waste of data. Maybe it would have been different if there had been player testing to provide feedback. But imho they did a good job with PSO2's first Challenge Quest.

[TaigaUC]

A long time ago, the few groups I did the Hunar route with almost always failed it.
It was like they'd never seen Hunar before.
He'd go to do his huge AOE slam attack and everyone would just sit in his face and take it full-on.
All those deaths of course emptied the meter.

And I don't recall seeing any of those drops on that list.
So, yeah... why bother with that shit when the good stuff isn't going to drop anyway.
Chances are you'd end up with 4 Deband Raids.

[Remz69]

i've only seen that hunar route once, a long time ago
if we're talking about time then maybe it could be worth investigating.
hunar may be done faster than left route, i don't remember that well though, can't remember what you fight alongside the hunar

i'm not exactly sure how big of an impact the units and couple of lvls have on m7-8-9-10
but if i had to guess i'd say the lvls and units have a limited impact on the overall dmg output of the group, you're probably looking at an 80-100atk/person loss, which is a lot but could be not significant enough in regards to killing speed compared to the time possibly saved in m6 (an then you have the other unit set that can drop, so not everyone loses on so much atk)

i'd need to get to see that hunar route again but that's not gonna happen