PSP Protranser wth

[panzer_unit]

holy crap does Sega ever love this class!

sword, spear, knuckles, axes... double sabers? twin claws?!
bow, laser, grenade, shotgun, and hello rifle
HEY LOOK S-RANK RODS AND IT'S THE ONLY ADVANCED JOB BESIDES MASTERFORCE WITH ATTACK TECHS > lv10
let's not forget EX traps either

... so yeah, wow. Just the fighting stuff is awesome, plus it lets humans/newms stretch their legs a little with almost-an-SUV trap usage and some beefcake tech attacks.

(twin claws aren't listed on the class in PSUPedia by the way, is this some bizarre change for the US version)

[Akaimizu]

Actually, SEGA loved nearly every class in PSP. Protransers get a lot of good stuff, but also the other classes are super versions of their same-named versions in PSU. At least when it comes to equipment. Pick any advanced class (which includes the masters) and you have a lot of good variety to play with.

Even quite a few of the other classes gain the benefits of being able to heal themselves. However, just the classes with *Support* techs above 10 can heal or buff those other than themselves.

I guess you can say these are comparable to offline versions of themselves. Each advanced class could be seen as a combination of a couple classes you know in PSU.

It feels pretty powerful, but weapons are balanced a little differently. For instance, rifles are great weapons here, not god weapons here. There seems to be more room for using more of your weapons since they are closer to the way they were before balance shifts.

Another somewhat nice thing is that your character level is limited to 100 while monsters can be higher, and more will be. There's an increasing number of end game challenges. (While you can take someone a bit lower than endgame stats there, the challenge was meant for the end game). So if you're looking for a bit of fun to stretch your mind and utilize your newfound weapon/item access; those are it. Quite fun, and quite rewarding for pulling it off.

[panzer_unit]

That's somthing really cool, you can only support your group once your techniques hit lv11+
That puts Acromaster in a different light.

There are a lot of obvious benefits to other classes, the addition of Knuckles and Double Saber to MasterForce gives them some incredibly useful melee attacks even without access to high skill levels... Bogga Robado, Bogga Zubba, Tornado Dance. The thing though is that (IMO) the Fighter, Gunner, and Force classes needed boosts to versatility considering that a player might might have to go their entire career solo. (I certainly won't, my Monster Hunter Freedom tribe is all getting it, maybe one of my RL PSU friends too)

The extra stuff for Protranser seems so gratuitous in comparison, they already had versatility covered in spades AND the special traps... now they've got that all-important KS skill and serious attack techs. I guess it would be understandable if the job still had stats like the original PSU job but it seems quite competitive for ATP and TP as well.

One thing I'm a little surprised at was that FighMaster didn't get rifle, even though it's basic Hunter equipment, At least according to PSUPedia... but I notice that PT is missing Twin Claw in the listing there too. They did pick up Machinegun which makes awesome use of the class' ATP against melee-resistant enemies, but they get ugh handgun for dealing with flying bosses and no access to Killer Shot for robots.

[tlbww]

In the demo, PT's get twin claws? They don't even get Twin daggers....I think this is a mistake!

Funny how the only spell that can be used as support on any lvl by anyone is reverser. At higher lvls the range gets better....yup.

[panzer_unit]

Reverser's the most important support spell. There are still Atomizer items too.

[panzer_unit]

Anyone with high-level characters in the JP version want to compare/contrast race and class combinations a bit?

Protranser looks like a job custom-made for Humans. I switched my demo character from CAST to Human 'cause of this, for importing into the retail version... before realizing about copying game saves lol. It cost me some Ranger items like koltova mags and green green line.

I'll probably make a CAST character later on and bounce it between FM/GM rather than playing PT as a melee/range hybrid. I hate seeing class potential go to waste.

[Akaimizu]

Funny enough. Right now I have Tynselle Nbareh JP/PSP (human) as a Gunmaster, but unlike her PSU version which was quick to play an Acro class...I'm going to go through Protranser next before going to Acro.

I'll have the levels, but not the class levels yet. However, oddly enough, levelling PAs takes a fraction of the time you're used to. It shouldn't take long to make a pretty well-defined late-game Protranser out of her.

[panzer_unit]

Yeah, skill leveling is really intense. The trip to 30 might take a reasonable investment of time but for most abilities it seems like using them to clear a mission once is enough to get it to 10. I guess the option to disk skills is more because some skills are drops or awards and you couldn't get them back again if you overwrote it PSU-style.

As much as Protranser seems to be outfitted to make up for racial shortcomings (which helps humans since they have a lot) Acromaster weapon classes seem set up to make a point of racial strengths with low-spec rapid fire weaponry of every description. I'd hope that the stat bonus for Humans makes them about on par with CAST for damage, Newm for accuracy, and makes their tech damage considerably better than Beast.

[tlbww]

Anyone with high-level characters in the JP version want to compare/contrast race and class combinations a bit?

Protranser looks like a job custom-made for Humans. I switched my demo character from CAST to Human 'cause of this, for importing into the retail version... before realizing about copying game saves lol. It cost me some Ranger items like koltova mags and green green line.

I'll probably make a CAST character later on and bounce it between FM/GM rather than playing PT as a melee/range hybrid. I hate seeing class potential go to waste.


I play a Cast. Humans have hp MST/TP/Evasion than Cast PTs so they will do better with the lvl 20 atk techs and take less magical dmg, so on and so forth.

Casts have all the physical parameters for atk dmg and reduction. You won't see a human outshine them in physical dmg in any class. I always figured ppl played humans b/c they didn't want to be the worse at any one class allowing them to transition to other jobs easier.

But I like my MFCast.

[Amherst_Wind]

It's very useful to be a Human in PS Portable for a few reasons. It certainly makes getting the Play Achievements for "Get (type) to Lv5/10" easier to handle, also being able to play any type well makes it much easier hunting for all the different rares.

[Akaimizu]

Yeah, skill leveling is really intense. The trip to 30 might take a reasonable investment of time but for most abilities it seems like using them to clear a mission once is enough to get it to 10. I guess the option to disk skills is more because some skills are drops or awards and you couldn't get them back again if you overwrote it PSU-style.


Well actually, you still have the 36, at a time, PA limitation. That's the number 1 reason for being able to Disk your skills. Not to mention, switching classes (plus some classes could use 40+ PAs and swap them just for different class configs).

[panzer_unit]

For me the combination of heavy weapons and high attach tech skills on PT actually make jump out at me OMG PUT YOUR HUMANS HERE every bit as much as Master Fighter, Gunner, and Force seem tailored to the stats on Beasts, Casts, and Newmans. The race bonus underlines an already-obvious point instead of making it.

That leaves an obvious "best" race for every job except AcroMaster. I don't know what's up with that one. It seems like any given race can own the support tech part of the job and then one of melee, guns, or tech attacks... almost all of the equipment is low-power rapid-fire stuff that's incredibly dependent on base statistics for power, and with high-level buffs being part of the job the races with statistical advantages will tend to widen any gap compared to a human.
Depending on how big a race bonus they get I can see humans either just sorta sucking, or maybe they come close enough to second-best in every category that they can make up for general weakness by mixing up their damage types more effectively than anybody else.

[Akaimizu]

That's pretty much the point. Because anytime you have classes, at least in PSP, that can multi-role the techer and the direct-damage part of the class; they have the variety that any race that maximizes on its bonuses, can create a build that'll be advantagious for them. That, my friend, is the pure beauty of having less classes that have a wider spread of equipment access. The developers must've been real keen to pick up on this (not to mention, noticing the tricky balance issues Sonic Team had to go through) when they decided to redo what each class means, for PSP.

[panzer_unit]

Probably because I'm used to AOI, a few of the choices for most commonly-available weapon types make me wonder "what?"
* Knuckles and Double Sabers... all 8 classes can use these
* Spear, Saber, Slicer, Handgun, Machinegun, RCSM, TCSM... used by 7 of the 8 classes

Spear, Saber, Handgun, those guys were standard gear for everybody in PSU until Master types came along. No surprise. Mags being so common is just a shout out to PSO, and an awesome one at that.

Handing out machineguns like candy makes Handgun sort of a sad panda, then again Handgun was only used for swatting birds and flying bosses ... with machinegun every job has a sidearm with a fun special ability and capable of racking up significant damage.

Slicers spent so much time getting heat for being overpowered, seeing them on the equip list for every class except Protranser (who can't use ANY single weapons) makes my head spin a little. Like fifteen degrees.

Double Sabers were Fighgunner ONLY forever in PSU. It's wierd to see that them on the list for absolutely everybody, although strangely it's not as wierd as seeing everybody having access to Knuckles ... that just seems like an incredibly arbitrary decision, although very logical if you look at the PA lists for stuff that a character with a level 10 or 20 skill cap would want to have.

[Akaimizu]

Properties on a lot of things have changed. So you can't think of them the same way you would with PSU. Yes, you can see the equips, but they more or less may act a bit different than you're used to. It's these subtle but significant differences which are too many to easily list as a *difference* between PSU and PSP. You just have to experiment. :)

[RED_cast]

YEah! PT rocks!

[tlbww]

Double Sabers were Fighgunner ONLY forever in PSU. It's wierd to see that them on the list for absolutely everybody, although strangely it's not as wierd as seeing everybody having access to Knuckles ... that just seems like an incredibly arbitrary decision


I'm surprised people haven't noticed that this pays homage to PSO. Everyone could use these weapons.

Same goes for slicers, mechs, handguns, sabers, the basic wpnry that has shaped PSU since its creation.

[panzer_unit]

Properties on a lot of things have changed. So you can't think of them the same way you would with PSU. Yes, you can see the equips, but they more or less may act a bit different than you're used to. It's these subtle but significant differences which are too many to easily list as a *difference* between PSU and PSP. You just have to experiment. :)

Kubara knock-offs and Crea weapons got tweaked for PSP. The Kubara stuff has awesome ATP in exchange for horrible PP ... Swordoc started off about the same as Ascalon +5 and once I had it upgraded to +5 the weapon was about the same as Hanzo. I haven't seen knuckles anywhere near the power of Knuckluc.

Twin Crea Sabers have absurd PP and ATP both compared to 7* GRM. I can't wait to find some of the Swords.

EDIT: any good type selection advice for a Newman character? I whipped one up as a force just to get my friends some new drops but I'm kinda having too much fun with him to just stop. Obviously he's going Master Force but it would be good to know if and how he can do other jobs well for variety's sake (not to mention getting different rares) ... also those Tenora RCSM's freaking rock. Shotgun mag, booyah.