Most content from UnLucky - Many MANY thanks for all his hard work!
As always, constructive feedback, insights, and questions are always welcome.[/size]
The focus of this guide is to offer general build advice rather than focus on individual class discussion. Try to avoid topics like gear and class balance unless it relates to an overall build. That said, a lot of info here is from other members so first I'd like to give a huge thanks to everyone for their input on skills and build optimization.
Please note that while a lot of this information is based on cold hard math, some advice comes from personal experience, play style, and skill level; so MILEAGE MAY VARY.
To start off, I'm going to assume people reading this are fairly new to PSO2. If you're unsure of what class to pick, how a certain class plays, or what race and gender to pick, you're going to want to start in this section first:
Races
Spoiler!
Human
Spoiler!Standard jack-of-all-trades race. Their Striking and Tech defenses are tied for highest of the races, with their other stats (including HP) not too far behind any particular race. This makes them ideal for people who want to do a little bit of everything on one character. If you're unsure of what you want to do, or just want to keep your options open, this is probably the race to pick.
Cast
Spoiler!Android race, tuned for enhanced Striking and Ranged combat. Casts have the highest S Atk and R Atk in the game as well as the highest HP and Dex. This makes them the ideal race if you are certain you will be sticking with either or both types of play. To offset their above average attack power, they have significantly lower Tech related stats, this includes both T Atk and T Def. If you choose to play Cast and decide to play a tech-using class, you will be at a distinct disadvantage. While your damage may not suffer significantly, this will at times restrict access to Tech related equipment which WILL impact performance. To alleviate this, you may opt to divert SP towards "stat-up" skills. This will, however, take away from damage multipliers or other skills which will put you at a further disadvantage. Bare this in mind should you choose to a roll a Cast.
Newman
Spoiler!Genetically engineered humans with a greater aptitude for Photon manipulation, resulting in a race with the highest T Atk and T Def in the game which makes them most suited for Tech classes. Their other stats, especially HP, are the lowest out of all the races which makes them unsuitable for other roles. However, they're not as far behind Casts as the other way around, so they can still be chosen as a slightly weaker human.
Duman
Spoiler!Mutated humans infected by SEED, Dumans possess great power in a slight frame. Their S Atk and R Atk match or exceed that of a Cast, but their other stats are similar to humans, with their HP tied for lowest. This makes them a potent and versatile yet fragile option for any class.
Genders - Male vs Female:
Spoiler!The differences here aren't TOO glaring, but this can be significant for anyone interested in min/maxing.
Males: Higher S Atk, Higher HP, Higher S Def
Females: Higher R Atk, Higher R Def, Higher T Atk, Higher T Def.
So males are best suited to melee combat, females are best suited to ranged and techs. Dex is the same for both genders, so it's not a factor.
Both race and gender make a bigger difference when combined, so the optimal choice for each archetype would be:
Striking:
Male Cast / Duman
Ranged:
Female Cast / Duman
Tech:
Female Newman
*ALL RACES AND GENDER COMBINATIONS HAVE THE SAME PP AND PP REGENERATION PROPERTIES. THERE IS NO ADVANTAGE IN PICKING ONE RACE OVER ANOTHER IN THIS RESPECT*
Classes and Builds
At the start of the game you only have 4 classes available: Hunter(Hu), Ranger(Ra), Force(Fo), and Braver(Br).
There are 3 "Advanced Classes" or "Supplemental Classes" that can be unlocked: Fighter(Fi), Gunner(Gu), and Techer(Te).
Once you reach lvl 30 with one of those original classes, you unlock a client order that will let you unlock another client order that will finally unlock a new class related to the one you got to level 30. Braver at lvl 30 will unlock all three classes' client orders. The first CO will come from that class' respective "trainer NPC". That means once you get Ranger to lvl 30, you can unlock Gunner by talking to Lisa and accepting her CO. Once completed you can then accept a new CO from Koffie and upon completion of that, Gunner will be unlocked. In order to unlock Fighter, however, you need to level Hunter to 30 and do two COs for that too.
Each class has access to their own skill tree and weapon set:
Hunter can use Swords, Partisans, and Wire Lances.
Ranger can use Assault Rifles and Launchers
Force can use Rods and Talises
Fighter can use Double Sabers, Knuckles, and Twin Daggers
Gunner can use Twin Machine Guns and Assault Rifles
Techer can use Wands and Talises.
Braver can use Katana and Bullet Bows.
Class Stat Comparison
Spoiler!
*ALL CLASSES CAN USE GUN SLASH*
There are certain weapons that can be equipped by any class, for example Aresvis is a twin machine gun(TMG) that any class can use, however none of the PAs for TMGs can be used unless you're a Gunner (main or sub).
Subclassing:
Spoiler!You can change classes at any time. Each class has its own levels and skill tree so if you started out as a Hunter and decided you wanted to play Ranger, your Ranger would start out at level 1. All levels and skill trees are saved however, so there's no penalty for switching.
Once you reach level 20 you can get a client order that allows you to pick a second class. This second class(sub class) grants bonus stats and other benefits, and gains 10% of the exp of your main. Like your main class, you can switch your subclass at any time and there are no penalties for doing so.
*ANY CLASS CAN BE TAKEN AS MAIN OR SUB. THERE ARE NO RESTRICTIONS*
Benefits of sub class:
1: Gives you full access to its skill tree. Anything in your current subclass' selected skill tree is at your main class' full disposal. So as Fi/Hu you can activate and use Fury Stance and Brave or Wise Stance at the same time and get all stat ups from the tree too. This is also why you can use Step Attack when your Fi sub has it, but your Hu main does not.
2: Gives up to 20% of its current base stats to your main's base stats. The limitation is that its stats are capped at your main's current level. So if your Hu (main) is 50 and your Fi (sub) is 20, you'll gain 20% of your Fi's current stats as your own. However if you switch so your Fi is your main and your Hu is your sub you only get 20% of the your Hu's stats as though it were level 20. You still get the full skill tree however, so you get the skill tree of a level 50 Hu even as a lvl 20 Fi.
3: Gives full access to the PAs for the weapons your sub can use. This sounds counter-intuitive based on the fact that mains cannot equip the weapons of your sub. After all if Hu/Fi doesn't get access to double sabers what good are the PAs? Here's the trick: as previously mentioned there are certain weapons that can be equipped by multiple classes. these multi-class or in some cases all-class weapons can be equipped by classes other than their intended. For example, even though Hunters can't equip normal double sabers, they CAN equip the Double Saber Legacy and the Fossil Victor. It should also be noted that the only way to use techs is to main or sub a casting class (either Force or Techer). If you don't, even though you can learn techs or even set them to your subpalette, they'll be dummied out in missions.
Due to #3, it can sometimes be smarter to main one class over another. As a Fi/Hu you get full access to Fi weapons and can still use some pretty good Hu weapons. There are no good all-class knuckles, for example, but the Lambda Hyperion, Lambda Arestin and Lambda Patilumeira (or Neiclaw, Madam's Umbrella, and Amun Tum) are all quite powerful Hu weapons that Fi can equip so you can get a much better range of weapons this way.
The breakdown:
If there's a weapon type you really want to use but your class has a glaring weakness you'd like to overcome(say you really like Double Sabers, but you just don't feel like Fi takes hits as well as Hu, you can take Hu as a subclass and gain all their stances and survival skills as per your own personal build. Give a Fighter JA Advance and Iron Will or Automate Halfline. Or you can main Hu for that badass sword you love but still gain the bonus of fighter's stances. Similarly, you love TMGs but miss your Ranger's Weak Bullet, simply sub Ranger and you can have both. Or you can get crazy and mix and match; Maining Fighter and subbing Force for balls-to-the-wall melee while being able to sling techs, or flip it for huge tech damage bonuses from stances while foregoing melee entirely.
Each class has it own "style" or "role" though some of this is a bit dubious. I've included UnLucky's color coded charts for recommended skills for each class.
Color Priority List:
Green = Extremely important, get these first.
Yellow = Optional, but nonetheless a good choice.
Orange = Something to consider.
Red = Only for very specific builds, or for extra points after everything else.
Grey = You may as well have thrown those points away(avoid at all costs).
For information on individual skills look here.
Thanks go to UnLucky for the tables and build info here. All builds are listed using the interactive skill simulator provided by Gardios
Hunter:
Spoiler!
A beefy, close ranged attacker who uses heavy weapons, each with the ability to guard oncoming attacks. The individual Photon Arts (PAs) will differ, but generally Wired Lances deal high single target damage, Partisans cover a wide area, and Swords do a bit of both.
At first glance, the Hunter tree appears to have a mix of both offensive and defensive skills. But due to a limited amount of Skill Points (SP), as well as the fast paced nature of the game, it's generally a better idea to go fully offensive. All of Hunter's offensive skills boost both Striking and Ranged damage, cementing its place as "universal subclass" though only Fury Combo boosts Tech damage so it falls a bit short for Force. For a main Hunter build, or one that uses all-class Hunter weapons, it's worth a detour to pick up the various Weapon Gears and Just Guard/Counter. For any other class, you can ignore these Hunter specific skills.
Balanced DPS Build (Pure DPS) (Defensive):
With the essentials covered for a Hunter main, the rest is focused on pure damage skills. As a Hunter, Just Guard is such an amazing survival tool trumping all else that it is completely worth the 4 SP instead of 4% damage. It not only negates all (frontal) damage during the block, but the invulnerability lasts for a bit afterwards as well. Just Counter does the obvious thing of letting you Just Attack after a Just Guard, but simply having it actually lets you move out of your blocking animation sooner than without it, even if you didn't want to attack right away.
Sword Gear is obvious if you use more than one PA or simply run around with it for any length of time to actually build and keep the gear gauge. It modifies every PA in a different way (stronger, larger, faster) which really makes Guilty Break an effective gap closer, for example. It's optional if you only switch to it for Over End, or not at all, but those few points wouldn't help you much in Fury Critical instead unless you took Step Attack on Fighter. It's all or nothing for Fury Stance Up 2, like the Hunter sub used in other builds.
For the Fighter side, their weapons have too much overlap with Hunter weapons to be of much use, and their greatest strength is in... their strength. But using weak all-class versions cuts into your damage too much to be worth using over the much stronger Hunter weapons you can use instead, so there's not much point. After maxing the stances, Fighter can learn either Chase Advance or PP Slayer along with some extra S-Atk or Step Attack to free up SP on the Hunter side.
Braver as a subclass can be effective as well, but not as much as the stances and other skills that Fighter provides. You would also need to get very lucky or purchase a very expensive all-class Katana to make good use out of those PAs.
Fighter:
Spoiler!
A lighter and faster close ranged attacker than Hunter, with less HP and a short parry window instead of an extended guard, Fighter packs a powerful punch that their enemies won't see coming. Many of their PAs involve dodging and dashing, with Twin Daggers offering various aerial maneuvers, Knuckles dealing high close ranged damage, and Double Sabers having a bit longer range.
Fighter's two stances, Brave and Wise, depend entirely on the player's relative position to the target. If the Fighter is in front of the enemy, then Brave will take effect, if the Fighter is behind the enemy, Wise will be needed instead. Note that only the very center of the player and the enemy are compared, so this thin boundary can be crossed unintentionally on physically large enemies such as Vardha. For Falz Elder, his center point is considered to be in the middle of the entire arena, so his core and arms can be attacked with Wise stance despite seemingly being in front of him. Another exception is certain attack animations that turn the enemy in place, such as Zeshrayda when he fires projectiles out of his shell while standing on two feet, he is actually still "facing forward" as far as the game is concerned. Enemies that are actually spinning, such as being thrown using Other Spin, won't consistently take boosted damage from either stance, so you have to be mindful of these things at all times.
Status Effect DPS Build (maxed Chase Bind variant):
The trick here is to affix a status effect (SE) on your weapon and use multi-hit attacks for a better overall chance for it to apply. The major drawback to this approach is that every large boss is immune to all SE and minibosses are only susceptible to one or two. You can inflict bosses with a special condition (like Burn on Banther, Freeze on Vol, or Poison on Quartz), but you do not get Chase Advance for these cases since they are not actual SE (Banther/Quartz take no damage from the "status" itself, and Vol's freeze cannot shatter from attacks).
Worth noting is that the Fighter stances themselves don't scale very well, but the Stance Up skills do. This lets us save SP while only missing out on 1% damage per point, opting for a dramatically higher chance to Bind status inflicted enemies, which itself counts as a status ailment for Chase Advance. Chase Bind procs rather frequently even with only 1 SP, and can actually land on the first hit, locking your target down for your entire attack.
All of the Fighter weapons have at least one good PA, and their respective Gear skill improves them to some degree. In any case, they are worth the 1 SP if you ever think you will use the appropriate weapon. Even still, Hunter weapons will be very useful to a Fighter main, and the drop in damage from using all-class equipment doesn't detract from that utility at all. Sword's Over End still has wide sweeping damage (but its Gear is not worth the SP in this case), Partisan's Assault Buster is still quick/powerful/AoE, and Wirelance's Other Spin can gather mobs together in place of Zondeel for obvious benefits. Just Guard won't be needed since it doesn't apply to Fighter weapons. If you don't plan on ever using Hunter weapons, then you can fill up the JA Bonus skills, though the Gears will definitely help for leveling Hunter up to cap.
PP Slayer DPS Build (lower Wise Stance variant):
Since SEs don't work on large bosses, this build focuses on more reliable damage instead, which also frees up an affix slot on your weapons. PP Slayer's 200 S-Atk roughly equates to a little over 10% damage in the current end game, and takes effect any time your PP is less than or equal to 50% at the point of contact. This means you can use a PA at 65% PP and still get the bonus. Do note that the game truncates decimals, so 50/100 may not be exactly 50%, and thus not apply PP Slayer.
Just like before, you can choose to lower Wise Stance in order to max something else, such as S-Atk Up 3 which provides a smaller boost but for both stances.
Ranger:
Spoiler!
Ranger is a high damage potential, mid to long range class with several support options. The support is mostly trumped by the high damage options that Ranger has under the right conditions, especially since many enemies have Ranged-specific weak spots (the head). Weak Bullet (WB) alone makes Ranger a desirable class, since it not only turns any one point on a target into a weak spot for Ranger's own passive damage multipliers, but it also grants everyone triple damage on the target which stacks with whatever regular weakness the enemy already had.
While rifles are the obvious boss killers since they're tied to WB, launchers and gunslashes are your AoE trash mob cleanup tools. You'll want to carry all three to maximize your damage potential in every situation, with a Hunter sub for the best damage multipliers available.
Pure DPS Build:
Maximizing damage on your Ranged attacks, with frequent usage of Weak Bullet to further boost your and your party's damage by 3x. I can't stress this enough, but Weak Bullet is the best support in the game, allowing everyone multiple chances to deal vastly increased damage that stacks with any and all skills and effects (except more WB, that only refreshes the effect, maximum one per enemy at a time).
Killing Bonus doesn't directly increase your damage, but it can be surprisingly helpful at times. That said, each point isn't significant, since it's only 1 PP per kill, so you could choose to max Weak Hit Blast Bonus, First Hit, or Trap Search with your spare SP along with however much from KB as necessary.
Weak Hit Blast Bonus is fairly minor since Rangers should be getting a full PB gauge quick enough already, not to mention the PB itself is not helpful enough to be using regularly.
First Hit doesn't boost every hit in a multi-hit PA, so only a launcher could get much use out of it for mobbing. Against bosses, even if you do get the first hit, WB actually deals a bit of damage on its own, so First Hit will never stack.
Trap Search is for relief from a common annoyance and not so much extra damage or anything. If the other skills don't catch your heart, we finally have enough SP to justify taking this skill (along with Just Reversal if you can't fit it on your subclass).
The Hunter tree is purely as supplementary damage and not for any of Hunter's weapons outside of dashing or fun times.
Gunner:
Spoiler!
A nimble, close ranged powerhouse with potent long ranged capabilities as well, Gunner makes for an excellent solo class. The Twin Mechgun's weapon action has the Gunner perform a side or backflip during which the player is completely invulnerable yet still able to attack. Many PAs involve positional kicks and dives with something for every occasion.
Chain Trigger marks a target much like Weak Bullet, but does not take effect right away. The Gunner's party can build the displayed chain up anywhere from 1 to 100 hits, which will make subsequent attacks stronger once it is activated when struck by one of the Gunner's PAs. Other party members cannot activate someone else's CT, but their own PAs will count towards the chain combo. Also unlike WB, only the Gunner's immediate party can see or interact with the CT, not anybody else in the MPA, and only the Gunner themself will get the damage boost.
Sustainable DPS Build:
The idea is to stack a lot of general damage boosts that are always active while regening PP during the SRoll that you should be using to start every PA to double your damage. But note that SRoll Up/Arts themselves do not get any bonus from JA, so these should not be used for damage purposes, only PP regen (for which SRA is counter productive).
Without ever switching from the Twin Mechguns, this build still has a lot of utility and damage, either at close range or from a distance, to a single target or many, and is not obligated to hit weak points as their only form of damage. Of course, with everything at once you can see some insane numbers, and it's easier to achieve than when subbing Ranger.
Burst Damage Build:
Its ace in the hole is the deadly WB+CT combo for achieving incredible maximum damage on a single target on a cooldown. That doesn't mean you can neglect the other three WBs in your rifle, as simply going AFK between each shot could still add up to more total damage than your own little party trick.
Your general TMG (or even rifle) damage doesn't suffer too much of a drop compared to the /Hu builds, albeit with a much higher reliance on weak points, though you should always be looking for an opportunity to use your Chain Trigger. And not to a 100 hit combo, either. About 20 or 30 hits gives you the greatest bonus per hit, and any more can actually end up being less damage over time, even if you don't miss the Chain Finish which is entirely likely.
The extra points in SRoll Up and SRArts are mainly for building up your Chain and doing respectable damage doing it, since neither will set off the Finish. They can also boost your general damage since you can shoot before getting your SRoll JA.
Force:
Spoiler!
With low HP, a vast array of long ranged techs, and an incredibly long dodge, Forces are happy to stay a safe distance away from their enemies while raining down death or supporting themselves and allies. Unfortunately, their buffs aren't very substantial, either in potency or duration, and due to the fast paced nature of the game, it becomes incredibly difficult to support other players.
The techs themselves aren't locked to a weapon, and can even be set to the subpalette along with consumable items and active skills. The difference is in the normal attack of the weapon, namely throwing a card from the Talis which can then become the origin of your next tech. Rods are more straightforward, having a simple melee attack and always cast techs directly from the Force, but come with higher stats.
Wide Elemental Coverage:
With only one skill tree, as any extras cost real money, one can be hard pressed to find a good Force build that can be effective in any area. This attempts to equalize the elements without sacrificing too much in any single one.
The result avoids any embarrassment against all Darkers and Natives, being able to use any technic from any elemental school at any given moment. With a focus on general tech damage and targeting elemental weaknesses, the potency is there, and coupled with increased PP regen both passively and on command means you can stay in the fight much longer than most builds.
You can also opt to use Braver as a sub (included in above) instead of Techer for increased damage to elemental weaknesses, but you miss out on extra Mastery skills as well as PP regen. Luckily, Braver's Weak Stance also boosts tech damage on glowing weak points, even if the element doesn't match, which makes the build a bit more general purpose.
Pure Fire (ice variant) (lightning variant):
You can obviously reach higher maximum values by going solely into a single element, but then just as obviously you will fall very far behind a different pure build on different targets.
But that's the beauty of Fighter stances: they boost all tech damage no matter the element. So not only do they completely obliterate the specific targets you're specced against, but anything you didn't directly counter will still take heavy damage often on par if not surpassing that of a generalized build.
After the Stances, only Chase Advance Plus (not Chase Advance itself) will directly increase your damage, but Knuckle Gear and Step Attack let you move much quicker than anything Force could do on its own, Adrenaline makes a quick uncharged buff into a full 60s duration, and Crazy Heart makes even Caves tolerable to run by giving you such ridiculous PP regen rivaling both Techer and Gunner's PP passives combined, though it's only during status effects.
For Braver, Average Stance is less damage than Brave, so there's little point in bringing Fo/Br to areas where you can't target enemy weaknesses, but there isn't much else that can benefit a casting class other than the two stances.
A Techer subclass, if not used for its own Masteries, can supplement Force's elements rather well. For Fire, max PP Convert can help sustain the high PP cost of Nafoie and shorter charge times on them all. For Lightning, max Territory Burst makes Zondeel extra devastating, and then TBPP Save along with the other PP skills make the already cheap techs even cheaper, so you can afford to take points away from Bolt PP Save and instead max Tech JA Advance.
Pure Dark (light variant) (wind variant):
To be used strictly as a subclass for Force or Te/Fo only. These builds do not work as Te/Fi or Te/Br because they lack PP Charge Revival, resulting in drastically lower PP regen even with everything else. Force still provides plenty of general damage, rivaling even Braver's Weak Stance, so it's not a difficult choice.
The Light Build gains access to Super Treatment, which not only allows you to heal 50% of your HP instantly with an uncharged Anti, you also gain PP Convert levels of regen. The limiting factor is being inflicted with a status effect, which can be difficult to achieve (especially without dying). The trade-off here is 5/10 PPR, but with many Light techs taking longer to charge, 3/10 PPC is still enough to sustain indefinite casting.
Wind Masteries are, unfortunately, out of the way of Techer's most useful skills, requiring a sacrifice of some kind. Thankfully, Wind techs are generally cheaper than most, so even without PPC you can still cast a great number of times in a row.
Fire/Dark Build:
Combining two otherwise pure element builds is usually a simple process, but Fire is an exception due to its high PP consumption. Though PPR is lower in this build, maxed PPC is well worth it.
Here we opt for Talis Tech Bonus instead of maxing Tech JA, since even though Rods grant precision aiming with Foie and Nafoie, Ra/Gifoie and Namegid can easily be used with a Talis. Following a Zondeel with Nafoie or Gi/Ramegid is a powerful mobbing tool, especially with Territory Burst active.
Techer:
Spoiler!
A close ranged Force with higher S Def and lower T Def yet the exact same HP, Techer focuses much more on melee damage and support.
The Wand is a weaker, shorter Rod with an added delay for casting techs, but deals extra melee damage instead. Coupled with Wand Gear, Techer's normal attacks can be surprisingly powerful.
Again, the support skills aren't all that great, as Shifta/Deband Advance only add a fraction of a fraction of players' stats. Consider someone with 1000 base Atk stat, with another 1000 Atk from their equipment, for a total of 2000 Atk fueling their damage. Shifta lv16 acts on only the base stat, adding 19.5% of 1000, or 195, nearly a 10% damage increase. 10/10 Shifta Advance acts on Shifta directly to turn that 19.5% into 24.4%, to then give 244 Atk instead of 195, or an extra 49 Atk. Compared to that player's stat total, your 10 SP gave them a 2.5% damage increase.
Considering how hard it is to land even one 15s buff on just one person, keeping your entire multiparty refreshed is a full time job. Instead of doing that, you could be attacking enemies yourself for a lot more total damage than the combined buffs of every other player.
Melee Build (no EWH variant) (no Wind Mastery variant):
Maining Techer means to use a wand for its melee attack. If you're not, then playing Fo/Te makes much more sense as a caster than Te/Fo (not to mention Fo/Fi or Fo/Br).
Swinging your wand is obviously a Striking attack, and as such gets boosted by Fury Stance a great deal more than anything Force or Techer could provide. But oddly enough, even the Wand Gear explosions count as Striking damage and also get the majority of Fury Stance's bonuses despite being based on your T-Atk. Sadly, they do not get Just Attack bonuses, so the tech portion will always fall short of the physical whacks. Element Weak Hit does apply for all Striking (and Ranged) damage, but it requires the correct element on your weapon so that can get a bit costly. With the 25 SP it takes to get EWH freed up, you can instead max pretty much everything else relevant to a melee Techer. Longer Territory Burst means much easier mobbing, and a longer Wand Lover means easier boss battles.
Techer without a Force sub for PP Charge Revival absolutely kills your PP regen while casting, so both PP Restraint and PP Convert are next to useless for a Te/Hu. Fortunately, we only need those to charge the Wand Gear or gather enemies using Zondeel, so casting is kept to a minimum whereas normal attacks are thrown around as often as possible so PP management isn't as hard as it may first seem. Wand Lovers is also there for those times when building Wand Gear just isn't practical and you don't need Zondeel, like during a boss fight.
Wind spells, or rather Zan, is an excellent way to charge Wand Gear in most any situation. At close range, the multiple blades all hit at once, and at a distance they spread out to hit multiple enemies at least twice. That said, the actual damage of the techs are not the focus of the build, so points in Wind Mastery can be freely reallocated into the other skills.
The only thing that makes this build more than a gimped gimmick with no PAs is the fact that one Wand Gear explosion procs per enemy struck with the wand, and each explosion can hit all nearby enemies. That means if you Zondeel 10 enemies together, that's 11 hits on each of them every time you swing. 110 total hits with one melee attack! As many as eleven tens! And that's not terrible.
Elysion Builds
Spoiler!This build is overly specialized with the express purpose of using uncharged techs with an Elysion - an 11* wand with a potential that enhances the damage on uncharged techs. Many techs you were using before will no longer be used as their DPS will be compromised by the changed to the force tree. I doesn't matter though because if you want to cast spells, Te/Fo will out damage most any other casting class with arguable differences for Te/Fi. Te/Fi will do better damage per hit but suffers from not being able to regen PP during charging which surprisingly is still a thing. You'll find that Namegid must be charged for ~1 second to form it's first sigil and only then will this spell work. if you release it before then, you just wasted 60PP. In addition if you hold a tech for a half second before releasing to regen PP and have the tech still be uncharged. In addition you will still be using zondeel quite a bit and ilzonde to zip around. That said, PP charge revival is still a thing.
Your main form of damage will be Sazan. With Elysion, your uncharged Sazan will be doing as much as your charged Sazan used to. Keep crafting "efficient sazan" getting as close to -10 as you can get. An 8PP Sazan is much more spammable than an 18 or even a 12 and with no PP regen between casts, you're going to need every scrap of PP you can get.
*Note the 7 S atk on the mag in these builds. if you are a human or newman female you must have -AT LEAST- 7 S Atk on your mag to be able to equip your Elysion as a 65/65 Te/Fo*
Generic "all purpose" build:
This build focuses almost exclusively on Sazan. Passive PP regen is worth going out of the way for and expending 3 points for territory burst is always worth it. PP Convert is also useful as a pocket Cetus Proj. The bolt tree is granting us a 21% damage boost to all uncharged techs and sparing us the pain of a 26PP Zondeel and a very efficient ilzonde. Because fire techs are no longer our heavy hitters, we're actually spending 11PP for PPCR, but it's worth it. In addition we're dipping into the ice tree for T Atk High Up, trying to squeeze every bit of damage we can out of force. In this case, we're putting points into PP Up 2 which normally sounds like blasphemy, but now gives you an extra sazan or two from a full meter. If you're only using 1 tree for your Te/Fo this is it.
EWH Wind Build:
This build forgoes the passive regen boost from PP create and picks up EWH. This is only used in places where enemies weak to wind are in high concentration, like the forest on naberius. Anywhere else, EWH does nothing to help you. 2SP in PP up because there's little else to do with it. feel free to leave it off or put a point in Extend Assist.
Dark Tree:
This is only going to be used in places where most everything is weak to dark. Here, Namegid is extremely good as it actually has a small AoE effect which can be expanded with the "Wide Namegid" tech extension, but a well placed Zondeel can usually get the job done. Because Namegid is going to be so heavily used you'll want PPC to be able to regen your PP as quickly as possible so we're maxing it out. With 4 points remaining we're going to dip down and grab another 4% boost on our dark techs to get the most out of our Namegid.
Note that in all these trees, force stays the same. Uncharged ilfoie is powerful but difficult to hit with and costly. If you were rushing bosses weak to lightning, you can change the force tree by getting out of ice completely and maxing both lightning masteries like so. Here you're going to be spamming sazonde which will kill your PP extremely fast but stacks damage very quickly. Don't use this for anything other than boss rushing things like wolga zesh or maybe falz though. Lighting is very much a utility element and building into it for damage is pretty impractical as of now.
Braver:
Spoiler!
A split melee and ranged class with a focus on Dex as opposed to a single Atk stat, Braver borrows a few aspects from other classes to be its own thing. With a guard like Hunter, varied ranged attacks like Ranger, both single target and AoE damage, along with unique active skills, Braver has a lot to offer.
Katana:
Katana has wide AoE and quick single target PAs to make it a well rounded weapon. Combat Escape turns Katana Combat into your greatest defensive option when it already was your greatest offensive option. Cruise through any boss fight or enemy spawn with 20s of invincibility followed by an incredibly powerful finisher over a massive range.
The actual damage of Combat Finish depends on the total number of hits during Katana Combat. The skill must be manually toggled off, and will not unleash itself once the timer hits zero. Also note that Combat JA does not boost the Finish since it is technically performed after Combat is over.
If you do not want Just Reversal Cover and don't have a pure Dex mag, you could try putting those points into Weak Stance for stronger uncharged PAs and Combat Finish on weak points, but it won't help charged PAs any.
Bow:
Now, Br/Hu definitely still applies for bows, especially for Kamikaze Arrow since that counts as Striking for some reason so it gets the full effect of Fury Stance and none of Weak Hit Advance, but the main benefit is Weak Bullet.
WB makes any target receive Weak Stance's bonus even if it otherwise shouldn't. This means you can still efficiently break boss parts or fight certain enemies without (easy) weak points to target normally.
Average Stance Hybrid (Weak Stance variant):
Average Stance is straight forward, since it's pretty much Fury Stance Lite. But Weak Stance relies either heavily on equipment and the Hunter tree alone to clear groups of small enemies with the Katana, or the Bow's single target damage to quickly take them out one after the other. The Bow does have some mobbing capabilities, but despite seeming to have a bit of everything, it's actually nothing special, similar in that regard to the Rifle.
For bosses, you can either hope for someone else to bring Weak Bullet for the breakable parts, or go straight for the weak point. The bow or Katana Combat should make targeting weak points a lot easier, and Weak Stance makes Combat Finish even stronger.
With only one chosen stance, you have plenty of SP for both active skills. Now instead of waiting on only one cooldown for your main weapon, you can switch between the two of them as the skills come up.
Dual Stance Hybrid:
Involving lots of switching back and forth, this build attempts to be the best it can be at any given time. That means hitting weak points when available with either the Bow's strong single target PAs, or the Katana's AoE, and switching off to Average Stance in order to avoid Weak Stance's penalty.
While Combat Finish and uncharged PAs aren't any worse than with other builds, your SP is spread a little too thinly, reducing the effectiveness of both weapons.
About: Rare Mastery (Class)
Spoiler!This skill gives you a bonus to your main damage type attack score whenever you have a 10*(or higher) weapon equipped. It will not activate on your subclass so you can only get one bonus at a time. The bonus itself is minuscule topping out at +50 at lvl 10. What's this sound like to you? Yes, it's a static stat bonus skill like anything else in the tree EXCEPT: IT DOESN'T ADD TO YOUR BASE STATS. This makes it less worth while than the static stat bonuses you can get since those increase the effects of Shifta, work even when they're on your subclass and actually allow you to equip better weapons (and armor).
The one benefit this skill carries is putting a single point into it gives you a bonus of 30 to its respective attack score making a 1SP investment a reasonable choice. Anything more than this though is a waste.
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