Future viability of support.

[sugarFO]

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.

Did you play PSO? I was a full support FO and I would always be casting jellen/zalure, resta, anti and buffs. People appreciated it a lot. So yeah, PSO has been the type of game to have someone in a support role. It's just now that FO's are forced to use their weapons to regenerate PP and also that buffs suck and there's no current debuffs, we might as well spam attack techs.

[UnLucky]

I want to see speed (de)buffs as well as the typical wider area and longer durations.

I've always liked playing support in games, but when everyone's buffed and healed up, I help out with damage output as best I can. Ya don't just take a break

[ThePendragon]

Basically all that needs to happen is:

1) More support buffs and debuffs.
2) Much larger AoE.
3) ???
4) Profit!

[Kondibon]

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.

Yeah, like I said, it seems that rangers have a lot or support type stuff. Which is tempting me to go with ranger/techer if subclasses work the way I think they will.

Basically all that needs to happen is:

1) More support buffs and debuffs.
2) Much larger AoE.
3) ???
4) Profit!

'xactly

I've always liked playing support in games, but when everyone's buffed and healed up, I help out with damage output as best I can. Ya don't just take a break

Yeah, that's usually what I do too, but because I'm not focusing on a particular element on my skill tree my damage output is likely going to be lower in the long run than other forces.

[Saffran]

I don't want to be too cynical, but the force buffs are not good enough. I didn't try it out so I don't know if the following is possible or not, but you're better off leaving some money in the Camp Ship so thta they can buy a Shifta Drink. The effect lasts for the whole of the mission anyway.

[Kondibon]

I don't want to be too cynical, but the force buffs are not good enough. I didn't try it out so I don't know if the following is possible or not, but you're better off leaving some money in the Camp Ship so thta they can buy a Shifta Drink. The effect lasts for the whole of the mission anyway.

I'm asking if you think it will improve. I already know playing support right now isn't that great.

[GoldenFalcon]

I don't want to be too cynical, but the force buffs are not good enough. I didn't try it out so I don't know if the following is possible or not, but you're better off leaving some money in the Camp Ship so thta they can buy a Shifta Drink. The effect lasts for the whole of the mission anyway.

Shifta Drink and Shifta stack
Also, Shifta has a higher bonus for people with high attack stats on their mag, and the attack skills on their skill tree
Because of this, powerful weapons and Fury Stance (or Photon Flare) do not benefit from Shifta

Unless I'm totally wrong

[mhjc]

I don't want to be too cynical, but the force buffs are not good enough. I didn't try it out so I don't know if the following is possible or not, but you're better off leaving some money in the Camp Ship so thta they can buy a Shifta Drink. The effect lasts for the whole of the mission anyway.

They last 30 minutes, and they stack with force buffs...

For the topic, I don't think it'll improve at all. The subclass thing will likely make the game even easier by giving everyone access to a variety of spells that will likely focus on more nukes instead of support skills, so more people will want to solo or just focus on damage.

I don't even need to support apart from healing to keep my party in the face of the enemy. My support role consists of reviving someone, healing when on the attack, and buffing with shifta (rarely deband). The rest is just nuking everything to death or using flinch spells to keep the enemy from attacking.

You limit yourself if you just focus on support, when you can support in better ways by simply staying on the offensive against targets.

[redroses]

If the PAs work like they did on PSU, they should change once they reach lv 11, 21 etc. and gain more range, give better stats and last way longer.
In PSU there were many people that played the pure support class Acrotecher. It had access to buffs, debuffs, a technic that gave you regen and could revive you, later on also got technics that gave even more protection against attacks and technics that would freeze, poison or shock enemies almost 100% of the time.

I think when the harder levels come and technics reach higher levels, support players will come very much in handy! I also plan on one day playing a supporter as soon as it brings more benefits. Currently it's not so much needed yet, especially with the support technics not having much range yet.

[GoldenFalcon]

Everyone compares these buffs to the level 31+ buffs in PSU
It would be funny to have Shifta cover an entire room though. Someone would have to be dead weight to not be in the room to get Shifta'd