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Phantasy Star Online 2

PSO2 – April 20th Balance Changes

I’m still peeking around the corner at PSO2 and… there’s balance patch notes! A lot of them.

The Wired Lance changes are fairly significant, considering it was mostly relegated to Holding Current. Still, I’m not sure if it solves the underlying issue of short AoEs and over-reliance on grabs. They take so long to do damage that the enemy usually moves by then.

The Twin Dagger changes give a weapon that’s good at killing bosses and has a lot of redundant attacks slightly better redundant options for killing bosses.

Launcher changes are good and Teching changes are nice I guess.

Jet Boots changes don’t fix the underlying problem that Jet Boots DPS is too much effort for too little reward.

In all, this is an overly conservative balance pass that doesn’t really fix a lot of fundamental issues, like the lack of good melee main class skills not called “Critical Strike” or “Limit Break”, Twin Daggers’ lack of AoE, Gunslash’s poor anti-boss ability, Jet Boots’ lack of range and PP management, Dual Blades’ low damage outside of Photon Blade Fever.

Still, free reset pass so I can’t complain.

Full translation follows.

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Summoner Guide Pt.3: Gearing and Raising Pets

So the planning part is done, now we get to the actual doing. Summoner does not use a traditional gearing system. Instead of continuously upgrading and replacing gear, you start with a low level pet which needs to be fed and given candy in order to become stronger.

Instead of the 13★ weapon hunt, Summoners are subject to the 13★ candy hunt instead, with the average candy requiring about a quarter of the effort of a max element 13★ weapon. On the bright side, there is no need to deal with Dudu nuking affixes or grinds.

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Summoner Guide Pt.2: Class Combos & Builds

Summoners (Su) are unique in that the damage type they do is neither Striking, Ranged nor the typical Technique. All pet damage is classified as Tech-typed, but pet attacks cannot be Just Attacked, charged or affected by an Element Mastery.

That presents big problems for choosing a subclass. Even subclasses with good synergy can still have half their skill tree dead in the water. Most classes tend to aim for a subclass that multiplies damage by around 1.7x, while the average subclass boost for Summoner tends to hover around 1.27x.

These are the subclasses that can put at least some of their skills to use when paired with Summoner.

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Summoner Guide Pt.1: Skills

Summoner, a new class introduced in Episode 4, commands an army of cannibalistic kleptomaniacs. These vicious creatures, known simply as “pets”, are bent to a Summoner’s will via an awe-inspiring 100 TATK Tact. They revel in mass slaughter, grow stronger by devouring the eggs of their own kind, and hoard candy without eating them for some reason.

In missions, the Summoner is a balanced class that can handle both mobs and bosses well… as long as there’s a pet still standing. Here’s a quick rundown of what to expect as a Summoner.

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