Future viability of support.

[Kondibon]

I love playing support in a lot of games but I've noticed a few people don't seem to regard support Forces very highly. Even I find it needlessly bothersome to have everyone stop to get buffed in such a fast paced game.

As things are right now, rangers, with weak bullet, jellen bullet, poison traps, etc have a better support game that forces do. So my question is, do you think the viability of playing support as a force will get better as the game goes on and hopefully becomes more difficult?

[Jakosifer]

When more Time Attack missions are introduced, people will at least want Shifta, and the duration will definitely get an increase as well. Along with an AoE increase hopefully. The problem with buffs now is the four ticks to get the full effect for such a short duration.

I'm hoping that a class that is better at support gets unlocked, or that there is a support skill tree at some point. As it stands now you get the most out of buffs as a Force yourself or at boss portals. Otherwise its just a time sink, same goes for Resta, despite pretty much being a full heal if the Force has good T.Atk.

[Ueno54]

PSO has never been the type of game where a person can sit in the back doing mostly if not purely support. You can thank the support items in the game that let us keep ourselves alive instead of relying on a healer.

[Zyrusticae]

This is pretty much the wrong game to be playing if you just want to play pure (or even medium-heavy) support.

[Kondibon]

I feel that people misunderstand what playing support means to me. Healing and buffing is fine, but what about things like Jellen and Zalure? I never said anything about playing PURE support (the idea of me playing pure anything is lol), it's just an option I like to have.

If worst comes to worst I can always switch to ranger. *shrugs*

[Shadowth117]

I love playing support in a lot of games but I've noticed a few people don't seem to regard support Forces very highly. Even I find it needlessly bothersome to have everyone stop to get buffed in such a fast paced game.

As things are right now, rangers, with weak bullet, jellen bullet, poison traps, etc have a better support game that forces do. So my question is, do you think the viability of playing support as a force will get better as the game goes on and hopefully becomes more difficult?

Support force as you seem to enjoy would involve some excellent talis play with buffs and healing techs. In the end really isn't even worth it whatsoever since players will do the most damage by avoiding damage on themselves generally. You flinch in this game from most attacks which will cancel PA's and Tech charging so no one should be trying to tank stuff unless they really can't avoid it or on the rare occasion it won't matter. An occasional resta or anti would likely be welcome, but it shouldn't be your priority, especially when its so easy for others to heal themselves.

Now if you consider that there should be little reason to heal in the first place, we can go onto the buffing situation. Now as it is right now, Shifta and Deband are about equal to Shiftaride and Debandaride or whatever they're called. These also group buff in this which is an interesting change. Obviously Shifta and Deband will grow stronger as time goes by so this may change gameplay a bit. However we don't know that there won't be upgraded buff items to go with them. Even if there aren't, its often a waste of time to buff a group during the middle of a mission since the radius is so small and you waste time gathering the group.

This isn't even mentioning the fact that force is a legitimately powerful class itself just like the other two. If you're playing it well, you can dish out massive amounts of damage. Particularly so on groups of enemies which is where force has always excelled, but you can also hit very far away with precision now if you need to using TPS mode. Talises in certain situations can be amazing for getting AOE out there this way, although there haven't been a lot of reasons to do this yet in my opinion.

And then there's the fact that Rafoie in this game (Zonde and grants sort of, but not as good) can be used with lock on to hit specific enemy targets from long range and around walls. That one feature is something that's completely impossible for rangers or hunters currently. For example, unlike a ranger who has to be very precise to hit ragne's weak point when he's not down or a fighter who can only hit that weak spot when ragne is down, you as a force can spam techs into his weak point repeatedly without issue. Doesn't matter if he jumps around or what. And if you lose the lock, its never hard to get it back. And of course, if you feel like breaking specific parts, nothing stops you from hitting a leg from the opposite side of him say if you so choose.

So really, I personally feel it to be wasteful to play a force as a support class in this. But if that's a fun way to play for you than I say go for it. I sometimes look at the game from too much of a speedrunning/time attacking perspective myself while ignoring certain things that make the game interesting to play for others.

Edit: Ah, didn't see that last post. But yeah, like you said there aren't many support options. Zalure and Jellen are noticeably absent from our techs this time around it appears. Even aside from that though, there really aren't many support based things on Force while Ranger on the other hand gets stuff like Weak and Jellen shot among other things. Its hard to say if they'll really add more to the game to make either class excel at being primarily support, but at the moment I don't think they're really going for it.

[Blizz3112]

So, what you really want is being able to cast Zalure and Jellen as a Force... Maybe they will reintroduce them as the game gets build up. They DO need to get better, along with Shifta and Deband to actually be worth the trouble, though...

Also remember, the Force is also granting support by giving status-effects along with their damage-dealing spells, which is a good plus when using it constantly on enemies...

[Kondibon]

Support force as you seem to enjoy would involve some excellent talis play with buffs and healing techs. In the end really isn't even worth it whatsoever since players will do the most damage by avoiding damage on themselves generally. You flinch in this game from most attacks which will cancel PA's and Tech charging so no one should be trying to tank stuff unless they really can't avoid it or on the rare occasion it won't matter. An occasional resta or anti would likely be welcome, but it shouldn't be your priority, especially when its so easy for others to heal themselves.

Now if you consider that there should be little reason to heal in the first place, we can go onto the buffing situation. Now as it is right now, Shifta and Deband are about equal to Shiftaride and Debandaride or whatever they're called. These also group buff in this which is an interesting change. Obviously Shifta and Deband will grow stronger as time goes by so this may change gameplay a bit. However we don't know that there won't be upgraded buff items to go with them. Even if there aren't, its often a waste of time to buff a group during the middle of a mission since the radius is so small and you waste time gathering the group.

I agree with like... all of that actually. It's why I'm hoping it'll get better. That said the build I'm going for is pretty silly, and probably not viable in terms of pure dps. XD

I actually tend to focus buffing one person at a time even if it isn't as effecient. Or waiting for those moments when a boss falls down and everyone goes after one spot.

Also remember, the Force is also granting support by giving status-effects along with their damage-dealing spells, which is a good plus when using it constantly on enemies...

This is true actually... and one of the reasons I like fighting Vol Dragon as a force. I can freeze his feet. I hope they continue to add things like that.

[GoldenFalcon]

Or waiting for those moments when a boss falls down and everyone goes after one spot.

When I was playing Force with 100% gunslash in the city, I used shifta and resta around things like Ragne falling down or the Code Destruction. With Ragne, I didn't have an excuse not to charge shifta while maneuvering up to the weakpoint to spam Rage Dance

[Husq]

So, what you really want is being able to cast Zalure and Jellen as a Force... Maybe they will reintroduce them as the game gets build up. They DO need to get better, along with Shifta and Deband to actually be worth the trouble, though...

Thing about Zalure and Jellen is, the ranger class already have Weak Bullets (weakening defense) and Jellen shot.
Nevertheless I would welcome both techs, because they are useful, if your party is caught in multiple emergency codes like attack and duel, which seem to be quite common in the mines.