How to adapt to different dodging mechanics?

[HollabackGuy]

I've been playing Braver and loving how clear cut it is - the PA's and attacks are lightning fast and I can dodge or block at any time and negate everything that comes at me.

However when I want to branch out to other classes, I get punished hard core. HU's attack animations are slow enough to where I can't block when I see an attack wind up, FI's rely entirely on sidestep, and Bouncers, as fun as they look, can get hit even when they're in the middle of moving. It's hard to adapt when I'm used to playing Br or Gu and dodging everything my way. Is it just a learning curve or are you supposed to flat out drop what you're doing and move entirely out of the way of every boss attack? Bouncers in particular is a class I want to play but binding weapon action to shift and double tapping to dodge doesn't come out fast enough. Tips?

[Nazuna]

I'm mainly a Jet Boots Bouncer in game. I gotta admit dodging is hard when first time I started playing as bouncer but later when you learned the PA and stuffs, you can time the dodge and "abuse" some PA's iFrame to avoid some massive damage.

[AzurEnd]

"abuse" some PA's iFrame to avoid some massive damage.

Kinda like on Fighter using Fist Weapons you can set Ducking Blow as your First PA and when ever you see an enemy attack coming you can use the Weapon Special Action which is also a Stationary Dodge with a bit more i-frames than a side step and then go straight into Ducking Blow for even more i-frames.

[Maninbluejumpsuit]

Just play with weapons/classes that don't of have guard/just guard that isn't Fo, or Te more. Can't really tell you how. Back when this was Deadly Archer: The Game, you were forced to adapt really.

[Sideswipe]

What are the PAs with iFrames for Ranger then? i've been getting hit far too much (it's disgraceful really) by wide AoE Boss attacks, mostly Bal Rodos (after the shield thing) and Falz stuff.

Thanks

[emeraude]

With Bouncer, if you play it long enough you'll eventually figure out how to time PAs so your iframes kick in when a boss attack comes in, or when in an enemy animation you need to hit dodge. So it's a learning curve. Just keep at it.

[Achelousaurus]

Heh.
TC I had the exact same problem at first.

Due to step all melee is pretty similar, you just need to get a feeling for the timing of pas so you can tell when it ends / can be interrupted to allow you to dodge.
I haven't used DS since the parry thingy came out but Knuckles and Dagger have dodge/parry as weapon actions which are very good (every since the move skill for dagger twile came out even lag isn't breaking it for me).

You don't want to dodge that much with weapon action using DBs. With full gear you get a 20% (?) dmg boost and weapon action depletes the gauge, refilling only if you hit and that takes some time.
You mostly want to use it during PBF where it refills instantly if all blades hit and does high dmg.

[Selphea]

The nice thing about PSO2 is that every class/weapon has marked differences so picking a new one up is like playing a new game, which keeps things fresh.

Imo Katana Braver is the easiest defensively and Gunner second or third (the third slow mo flip can either be your saviour or your death). Twim Daggers are close to TMGs since you can Shift at any time but timing is tighter.

Defenses aren't everything though, best defense is a good offense and all. Other classes do have skills that can let you skip or ignore mechanics completely.

Ra/Br for example doesn't usually need to do much dodging because its burst is so great that many bosses will outright die before they get the chance to be dangerous.

Fo/Te on the other hand can fall back to Elysion Ilbarta/Namegid if they get in trouble. No charge time, no aiming needed and ezmode dodge.

Bouncer has Megiverse so it can choose whether to facetank or dodge. Hunter has Massive Automate so it can facetank too.

It's really down to learning your options - and that covers more than just dodging/blocking but positioning, break mechanics, boss AI, skill build, subclass weapons, gear and affixes etc.

[Achelousaurus]

How much damage does uncharged Namegid with Elysion now do?
Using a good Weddle Park I did less than 25% of my charged damage.

[Selphea]

How much damage does uncharged Namegid with Elysion now do?
Using a good Weddle Park I did less than 25% of my charged damage.

Try Kemi's 70/70 boss video:

Spoiler!

Quartz Dragon at 3:12, those were pseudo-uncharged Namegids at 57k, some charging to regain PP with PP revival. So Elysion should be approximately 57k x 1.7 Pot / (1.2 x 1.16 Pot) = ~69k at 70/70. >70k should be doable with 75/75 and today's affixes. Although that's on weak point vs elemental weakness.

For non-weak there's Ilbarta. I'm toying with the idea of Fi/Fo Limit Break Crazy Heart Ilbarta build for non-weak. Seems the biggest issue with Fo/Fi isn't the damage but the PP, and Fi/Fo with Crazy Heart solves the PP issue with better multipliers on non-weak than Fo/Te.