PSU: Wartecher ReRevisited and Mastern00bs

So, it’s been a month of “Okay, what did you do with the real Sega?” for PSU. GBR Parum has arrived; and more importantly, with it has arrived Lumirus / Kaos Knight. Wartecher has finally received level 30 support techs – about time. And the world trembles at the sound of ten thousand constantly dying n00bs – err, “master” class players. Which allows me to bring up a hilarious point before we begin. Apparently, lolclass players get really, really, really butt hurt whenever you laugh at them for spending most of a mission laying on the floor, out of scape dolls.

First, they try to pawn it off on having a low job level. So sorry, nobody forced you to switch classes. And job level has nothing to do with it – I’ve seen a good level 1 Masterforce rape everything that got near her, courtesy of her taking the time to level her techs to 41. Really, look at the stats – job level really has little to do with the power and survivability (or lack thereof) of masterclasses. Next, they try to pawn it off on, “Well, my techs/PAs/bullets are low!” This is the actual truth – these classes are completely pointless if you haven’t put the time in to raising your techs/etc. However, random parties are not the place to bring your newly masterclassed butt in with level 20 PAs and techs. You know what I did when the masterclass patch hit? I started a buff party. A buff party that lasted long after I left – it was still up and running the next night.

Now, here’s my problem. I took responsibility for myself and levelled my buffs. I had then at 20 long ago, even though I only ‘needed’ them at 11 due to how buffs work. Conversely, I raised them all to 30 this time, even though I only ‘needed’ 21 – and I even took the time to level up another set of discs for an alt so that the AFs and GTs in the group could count on my body to help their experience gains. Anyway, I took the time to do this. The Acrotechers and Guntechers and Wartechers in my group took the time to level their techs.

Everyone expects AFs to have top-of-the-line buffs. Everyone now expects me to have top-of-the-line buffs as well, too. Well, except for the players that haven’t yet heard that Wartechers are now more useful than store-bought items. :p Fair enough – it doesn’t take much effort to level most techs, or most PAs, or even most bullets. However, if I’m expected to have my techs and PAs levelled, then the n00bclasses better have their’s as well. Otherwise, yes, I’m going to be rolling my eyes and making smarmy comments, and damned be the elitist trash who’s feelings get (butt) hurt as a result.

I make exceptions, really. I don’t expect Masterforces to have all their techs at 50 over night. Primary attack techs, though, should really be at 41 – there’s not much of a point to the class otherwise. I expect Fighmaster to have decent weapons and decent PAs, and not throw mobs all over the goddamned block. I expect very little out of Gunmaster, to be honest – Gunmasters are the ‘worst’ of the masterclasses, so to speak in terms of their capabilities. Not in terms of ‘awesomeness’ mind you, but whereas there’s still compelling reasons to remain as a Fortefighter, an Acrotecher or a Fortetecher – Fortegunner has little going for it compared to Gunmaster. ‘sides, if you can spew out level 31+ rifle bullets at an increased speed, that’s good enough for me. Then again, I am biased toward loving gunners.

But if you come into a party with level 20 attack techs as a Masterforce; if you run around as a Gunmaster with level 8 lasers; if your solution to everything as a Fighmaster is lolbroga, then yes, I’m going to be irritated. Not irritated enough to boot you; certainly not enough to insult you personally. I try my hardest to avoid spreading the elitist trash disease that infects even the PC/PS2 PSU servers. But yeah, I’m going to be snorting and rolling my eyes. Deal with it.

And another thing – no, it’s not acceptable to die to the point of using up ten scape dolls per block in a party, except in very rare (megid related) circumstances. Lying face down waiting for Giresta or a Moon Atomizer is not helping the party, no matter how much you’d like to believe it is. Megid’s an exception – sure, I’ll buy that. Masterclasses have absolute crap for endurance. But if you think switching to a masterclass – which was your decision, and then dying constantly is being fair to your other party members; if you think that doesn’t give, say, Wartechers the right to make smarmy comments; most importantly, if you think that the rest of the playerbase owes you something because you chose to suddenly become a mastergimp, then piss off. You have no clue.

Rant over. Now, on to the awesomeness:

I’ve finally breached 120. This, combined with level 30 support has turned Wartecher from ‘Meh’ into ‘Meh?’ Survivability continues to be epic – I soloed Scarred Planet S2 at ~118 – before the new support level. (Let’s see a mastern00b try that!)

But the combination of S2-level mobs, support 30, and the disappearance of the Fortetecher class has called for some changes to my palette and play style.

Armor:

No major changes here, though I have started buying elemental armors. 20%+ is fine. Anything more is a waste. At ~120, only five things could kill me:

• Not paying attention
• Batteries falling out of my controller
• Megid
• Attacks capable of delivering 3k+ damage (Hi, Ma Brain’s power arm!)
• Go Vahra orgies

Armor does nothing for the first two. For megid, the only thing that’d help would be an extra slot, and my thoughts on those will follow. For the last two, higher elemental percentage won’t do squat. If Ma Brain is capable of smashing you, a few measly percent won’t make the difference. And you should never leave yourself in a position to receive four simultaneous attacks from leaping Go Vahras. (And if you do, armor again will be unlikely to save you.)

Slot types remain unchanged – head, arm, body. For megid, I had pondered an extra slot just for more endurance against S2-level SEED, but the mastern00bs have ensured that dying constantly is perfectly acceptable. Given that a female WT character is already fairly immune to megid compared to a great many characters, combined with instant-masterclass death to megid… I still see no need to waste outrageous amounts of meseta on armor along the lines of a Serafi Senba.

Head, I’ve actually swapped out – I had removed my +TP unit for a Har / Quick during my buffing party run and completely forgot it was in there. I still prefer +TP over Har / Quick for day to day use – Noszonde and Nosdiga are slow as all hell and Har / Quick does not make enough of a difference there to be worth sacrificing damage. It’s insanely useful for Diga, however, which has become my new best friend during this GBR.

Arm, I’m still using +ATP/-ATA. I intend to replace it with a Lumirus / Kaos Knight as soon as I find/buy one. (In terms of buying, I’m waiting for post-GBR, when prices will inevitably fall a la Paradi.) Moving to fighting level 150+ creatures at level 115 has given me more zeros than I would like; however, the increase in support tech levels pretty much nullifies the difference. As I’m now approaching level 130, I believe I can swap in an L/KK with no ill effect.

Body remains the general purpose anti-effect slot. Currently, I don’t leave home without Freeze and Stun resists. Freeze is the general purpose here – all four of the GBR missions have freeze-capable creatures. Stun is swapped in for Grass Assassins and Ma Brain. (I’m tempted to swap it in for SEED Ardites as well, but since they can freeze *and* stun, it’s really a toss up.)

Weapons:

I’m finding myself using single claw/Shato and Tesbra/Shato combinations more and more. This has to do with the disappearance of the Fortetecher class, and the comparative rarity of Acrotechers – Wartecher has certainly taken on a much greater support load. The Shatos usually have a combination of Resta and Giresta. In the case of the Tesbra, it alternates between Diga/Nosdiga and Nosdiga or Noszonde and a debuff for tagging. I generally go with the Noszonde/debuff for Illusionary Shaft – I’m polite and don’t feel the need to instantly kill low-HP creatures that are providing 500% experience before my party members have a chance to hit them.

Twin Claws are still my mainstay, with Renzan remaining my PA of choice. Renzan is useful in any situation, from crowd control to spike damage to singular large targets. (Especially since it’s capable of multi-hitting on those.) Despite the increased support workload, I find a level 30 Giresta still allows plenty of time for twin claw action, once you learn to let the constantly dying masterclasses fend for themselves.

I’m also considering upgrading my buff equipment from the current… purple something or other TCSM and Magical Wand. Purple is good, and the Magical Wand is hideous; but as much as I love the combination, level 21+ buffs eat through PP far too quickly. Pity we still haven’t gotten the single-photon-charge-charges-both-weapons fix.

Techs:

I’ve finally picked up Giresta, as at level 30, it finally makes sense to own. Took all of fifteen minutes to raise to level 30, too – no excuse for not having it there. Since I’m now finding myself in parties without any other support character, healing is now falling to me. I’m happy to say that level 30 support is up to the challenge.

To quote that annoying iPod commercial that I still haven’t gotten out of my head, Diga is my hot, hot sex. For day to day use, I still prefer Nosdiga, but Diga is glorious on large, slow-moving targets such as Grass Assassins and Ma Brain’s arms. The latter is most important, because if you’re soloing or dualing Ma Brain at the S2 level, at level ~120, you really need to take out an arm to be able to deliver the damage necessary to win. Especially if you’re partnered with a Fortegunner instead of a tech using class.

Man, that was an epic fight.

NPCs (hah):

The next installment of the story line missions allows one to gain Karen Erra and Ethan Waber’s partner cards. Do it. Ethan massacres hordes of small to medium creatures, as does Karen. Karen’s a bit on the fragile side, but as Sega ripped off my PSO character when designing her (seriously, all that’s missing are S-Beat Blades – speaking of which, Sega, can haz S-Beat Blades in PSU nao k thx?), she’s the logical choice for a partner NPC when soloing.

That said, I still prefer the Tonnio/Leo combination when dealing with… annoying enemies. Sleeping Warriors, for example, with the three Svaltus fight at the end. As I doubt the melee-on-large-humanoids bug will ever get fixed, I find it far less annoying to merely spam Diga/Nosdiga and Resta whilst two nanoblasted beast NPCs tear the living shit out of the Three Annoyanceteers.

In General:

So far, I’m liking the current batch of changes. WT support levels at 30 were long overdue. With the time and money I spent getting a full palette of 40%+, decently-ground claws during the MAG rewards, my melee is… acceptable. Still meh, but once I throw an L/KK in, I should be good to go. The death of Fortetecher as a class and rarity of Acrotechers combines with increased support levels to give Wartechers a very solid role in a party. It’s the equivalent of Rika vs. Raja – sure, everyone loves Raja, but he’s really not that necessary to have in your party when you already have Rika. Unless you need very bad puns, then Raja wins hands down.

My big fear here was that WT would get level 30 support and… it’d be completely pointless, as FTs and ATs can do support better. Masterclasses, for all the idiocy involved therein, have pretty much ensured this isn’t the case. Hopefully, the mass exodus of FTs and ATs won’t turn into a mass exodus from MF. I’m doubting that, though – unless a player is a complete putz, MF’s insane numbers should be very attractive… And force HP was always something to sneeze at, so the lower HP of MFs shouldn’t make too much of a difference.

I’m actually very happy with Wartecher now. I’d still like S-rank single claws, but as it stands, Wartecher has finally become something similar to Nei and Rika – which is what it should have been from the start.