Hey All,

I wanted to throw this out to the PSO2 NA Community and get a little feedback. Snarky, constructive, and all. ;~) It is also worth pointing out I am not a "Pro" player. But I feel reasonably knowledgeable of general gameplay concepts. And I tend to play more for the experience/fun than min-maxing. So if ultimately its what/how I'm playing I can accept that. Then I'll know if I want more I would have to move the slider more to the statistical builds, items, etc. that are known to allow for a solution to my problem.

Currently I have a Ra/Fo 75/55. My goal being battlefield longevity, especially during bosses when you can't go get more Trimate etc., and self-sufficiency. All was going ok until I was trying to complete all manner of SH things for ARKS Tier Mission Pass missions. I have a +35 Deo Ridoltiv /w 50 Wind Element and some Jua set armor. Looks like a bunch of multi-directions mini-scythe blades sticking out everywhere. Looks kinda cool. There is room to +10 those.

Recently in the last few weeks as I've been getting close to and achieving 75. I almost can't complete maybe half or more of the SH Exploration Quests. Vol Dragon, Zeshraider, and Quartz Dragon, etc. kick my ass so many times I lose count how many times I have to return to ship and go back out on the field to get a few more thousand in before dying again. Or incapacitating as it were. Using my 1 Half-Scape is not overal helpful. And burning AC for full Scapes defeats the point and incentive to learn the bosses moves/patterns. Unless its something I really need/want to get out of the way Quest/Mission-wise. Bringing along 3 of my favorite AIs has helped some. But only some. Not a great deal.

Long story short. Is this normal given what I've detailed above. Or am I sucking that bad. Maybe a bit of Column A and column B perhaps. At this point short of "buying my way up" from Visiphone, partying up with other humans I don't really know, or changing to a better Solo'ing class combo. AQs, EQs, etc. seem more or less out of reach.

Thanks.

o/ =^.^=

I use 3 AI with my RA/whatever leveling up just fine to solo them all. I don't use the grenade launchers though and prefer the rifle for mobility on bosses. What does your build look like? Don't waste your half scape dolls on these things either. Try to find an alliance to run things with also. Making friends is a good thing.

Vol Dragon is only annoying when his fire keeps coming up but with a rifle you can fire away and walk freely. Zesh just shoot him in the head QD just him in the face and simply dodge if he isn't dead by the time he decides to charge me.

Soloing becomes all the more easier when you pause for a bit and do a concious effort to memorize boss patterns.

All the time you spend healing and ressing and coming back, is time you are not damaging, so it is worthy to learn when to and when not to attack, because an instant of pause and repositioning here and there, while a "dps loss", it is much less of a loss than a single death or being knockbacked and having to heal.

I mean this in the kindest way possible, but those bosses are extremely low tier and back in the day we had fun making videos of soloing them with no gear or equipment on, and punching them to death with our bare fists.

I am not saying this to brag or to call you bad, but rather to exemplify the fact that those low level bosses are all about pattern and avoiding their extremely predictable attacks, and it is perfectly reasonable not to get hit once against them.

Personally, my soloing ability skyrocketed once i calmed myself down and started ignoring and not thinking about "the kill" and rather just thinking of each moment in the present and just doing my thing, attacking and making sure not to get hit, disregarding any other thought.

When you are thinking and hoping for a boss to drop dead, you will anxiously over-extend and get hit in ways you would never get hit if you were just relaxed and doing your thing with complete disregard.

Just focus on playing well and avoiding damage and the kill will happen eventually.

I'll definitely update this with a more detailed "current load out" as soon as I can. Truth on the half/full scape dolls. I mean maybe if I knew for certain I could finish the job after burning one. But even then.

Definitely noted on the Launcher. At one point I played with a Lambda Rifle thing. And it was so weird being able to fire and walk at the same time. Hehe, I started CBT as a "Launcher Ranger" and for the most part have never looked back. ;0 ;~)

o/ =^.^=

@IfrianMMO said in Me, Myself, and 3 AI Can't SH Without Dying on Certain/Most Exploration Bosses:

Soloing becomes all the more easier when you pause for a bit and do a concious effort to memorize boss patterns.

All the time you spend healing and ressing and coming back, is time you are not damaging, so it is worthy to learn when to and when not to attack, because an instant of pause and repositioning here and there, while a "dps loss", it is much less of a loss than a single death or being knockbacked and having to heal.

I mean this in the kindest way possible, but those bosses are extremely low tier and back in the day we had fun making videos of soloing them with no gear or equipment on, and punching them to death with our bare fists.

I am not saying this to brag or to call you bad, but rather to exemplify the fact that those low level bosses are all about pattern and avoiding their extremely predictable attacks, and it is perfectly reasonable not to get hit once against them.

Personally, my soloing ability skyrocketed once i calmed myself down and started ignoring and not thinking about "the kill" and rather just thinking of each moment in the present and just doing my thing, attacking and making sure not to get hit, disregarding any other thought.

When you are thinking and hoping for a boss to drop dead, you will anxiously over-extend and get hit in ways you would never get hit if you were just relaxed and doing your thing with complete disregard.

Just focus on playing well and avoiding damage and the kill will happen eventually.

Oh no problem. I mean as I said I know I am not a Pro. And generally speaking take the approach in life that no matter how masterful one might be. You can always learn something from anyone. In this case I haz A LOT to learn. Which is one of the reasons I love this game so much. Combat technique being only one of countless aspects.

When I can I have been trying to make more of an effort to learn enemy/boss patterns. Especially when I don't have a high point to midair launcher them to death. Even that doesn't get past Zeshraider/Vol Dragon too much.. ;0 ;~)

Thank you for that input!

o/ =^.^=

@KnightHarb1nger said in Me, Myself, and 3 AI Can't SH Without Dying on Certain/Most Exploration Bosses:

@IfrianMMO said in Me, Myself, and 3 AI Can't SH Without Dying on Certain/Most Exploration Bosses:

Soloing becomes all the more easier when you pause for a bit and do a concious effort to memorize boss patterns.

All the time you spend healing and ressing and coming back, is time you are not damaging, so it is worthy to learn when to and when not to attack, because an instant of pause and repositioning here and there, while a "dps loss", it is much less of a loss than a single death or being knockbacked and having to heal.

I mean this in the kindest way possible, but those bosses are extremely low tier and back in the day we had fun making videos of soloing them with no gear or equipment on, and punching them to death with our bare fists.

I am not saying this to brag or to call you bad, but rather to exemplify the fact that those low level bosses are all about pattern and avoiding their extremely predictable attacks, and it is perfectly reasonable not to get hit once against them.

Personally, my soloing ability skyrocketed once i calmed myself down and started ignoring and not thinking about "the kill" and rather just thinking of each moment in the present and just doing my thing, attacking and making sure not to get hit, disregarding any other thought.

When you are thinking and hoping for a boss to drop dead, you will anxiously over-extend and get hit in ways you would never get hit if you were just relaxed and doing your thing with complete disregard.

Just focus on playing well and avoiding damage and the kill will happen eventually.

Oh no problem. I mean as I said I know I am not a Pro. And generally speaking take the approach in life that no matter how masterful one might be. You can always learn something from anyone. In this case I haz A LOT to learn. Which is one of the reasons I love this game so much. Combat technique being only one of countless aspects.

When I can I have been trying to make more of an effort to learn enemy/boss patterns. Especially when I don't have a high point to midair launcher them to death. Even that doesn't get past Zeshraider/Vol Dragon too much.. ;0 ;~)

Thank you for that input!

o/ =^.^=

If you enjoy playing with slower and more bulky weapons, such as the launcher, i would also recommend bringing a Gunblade with some of their quick/traversing PA´s and switching to it once the boss intends to go all Beyblade on you.

There is no shame in a quick weapon change and quicktailing away with a PA, out of danger (and perhaps shoot a bit from safety)

Yeah, I could see that on PC. Not sure I have the controller quickness/dexterity to pull that off on XBox. But that could be "learned up/trained" as my human self. ;0 ;~)

I did like the "Going Beyblade" reference. Very nice.

o/ =^.^=

Why do you have force as your subclass? if it's for the purpose of healing through resta, let me suggest instead that you take Hunter as your subclass and take the skill tree and max out automate. You'll also do more damage and require less mates if you take the fury tree after that. eventually there should be an item that will let you cast resta from the weapon itself anyway if you're that interested in self-sustainability. Alternatively, look at Techter instead, because deband for them will increase your maximum HP temporarily and can still use resta

Force is a really bad subclass in general, the first thing I would recommend would be to switch to a more fitting subclass.

With the classes available on NA now, Hunter is likely the best subclass overall for Ranger, since not only it offers damage multipliers that improve ranged attacks, it also offers skills for survivability in the form of Hunter Physique, Auto-Mate Half and Iron Will.

If you want to keep access to technics, Summoner would be a much better option than Force, since it offers decent damage multipliers that also improve ranged attacks, an active skill to further improve your damage towards a marked spot (Summoner's mark) and since alot of SU's skills are related to pets you get alot of leftover skillpoints for raw stats (between HP, all ATK and all defenses).

@PrinceBrightstar said in Me, Myself, and 3 AI Can't SHQ Without Dying on Certain/Most Exploration Bosses:

Alternatively, look at Techter instead, because deband for them will increase your maximum HP temporarily and can still use resta

Techter's deband only increases HP if Techter is the main class, since the skill for the HP effect is a main class only skill.

I just legit play it safe 100% of the time, Im only risky when I have more than half my heals.

There should not really be any hard bosses you can not solo. It mostly depends on who your running with what your doing. But the main thing is to learn every boss. Dont go whacking or shooting at it randomly. Wait for an opening. Some bosses do have some cheap one hit moves you need to watch out like daybreaks exploration sword thrust. have FO as sub means you REALLY cant risk a hit.

• Buy Nox or Sigma tier ranger weapons from the shop
• Don't use launchers on bosses
• Exchange weapon badges for the 13* ranger weapons
• Upgrade your units to +10
• Upgrade the units you are currently using
• Change your subclass to Hunter

Super Hard will become much more manageable after doing all of these things.

Without being snarky;

• Force offers no damage multipliers so you're doing literally zero extra damage compared to Hunter subclass.
• You should consider a new launcher like a nox or sigma. Or even a Revolsio if you have the stats for it.
• Consider some better units to equip and upgrade.

you'll notice a big difference switching to hunter. I am a 75/75 Ra/Hu main and my biggest damage increases came from using elder rifle with special augment unlocked (shoot for +30, it's not too bad). Launcher for mobbing only and really , since they're all kinda meh, just pick a 12 star with 50 light and level it up.

light element is generally the safe bet on bosses for your weapons

make sure your mag is 200 in ranged attack.

with those above taken care of, start focusing on units. A 3 piece vardher set with somewhat decent augments is under 50k. Or you can spend on brissa and saikhi which should be the ultimate goal.

if you are still kinda learning, make sure to get automate halfline in the hunter tree. Load up on dimates, trimates, they don't even need to be on your pallete (i keep trimate on there for the rare occasion i actually have to click it). When you get whacked you'll use a mate instantly.

With the hunter's JA bonuses (just attack) you'll be doing sufficient damage. My ra/hu is not exactly epicly geared. Kid you not, i am using a varder set with some decent augments, elder rifle, and my range damage i think was 2800. When i am bossing, i can usually wipe the floor in a fwe seconds with my combo.

i decided to make my brissa and saikhi for gunner/summoner because a lot of what i want for my ranger comes later. It's still fun, but it's one of the least cost heavy character to function in all content. You need to make some changes though, because you should be able to walk through everything.

when you get past forrest in superhard and start doing more of the harder expeditions, urgent quests etc.. it's important to know boss mechanics. Abuse your blight bullet and know when to move around. Make sure you are targeting weakspots etc..

if you are on ship 1, add Tacoknight and i'll walk you through some shaq's .

Wow, thank you all SO MUCH for this information. It may also be worth stating that since my PSO Dreamcast Dayz (non-interwebbed) life took my in other directions that sadly didn't include anything PSO until now. To get up and going as fast as I could I chose what I knew, remembered, loved about PSO and went never looking back/elsewhere.

That and nerfing my own 8 Slot Deo Ridoltiv STUPIDLY tryiing to unlock the Augment Factor and thinking I'd chance throw on some other stuffs. Really SUCKED the wind out of that day and the few following it. Almost come to terms with it now. A video floating around here helped me see better how that works. And whats thresholds, items, etc. are needed based on how important what you have to you is.

On all of the advice any information above hands down I definitely need to at least switch my sub-class to Hu fo sho! And at least carry a rifle for bosses maybe. I do have a Nox Steyer in my storage. Since I'm such a diehard Launcher lover I was like "cool.. ..fancy rifle.. storage.." ;0 ;~) I've known about weak points, blight bullet, etc. But between using a launcher 100% and not having yet figured out what Xbox Controller maneauvering I need to do I'd glossed over/past them until now. I know the R-Stick is suppose to do it. But that moves the camera. Will fiddle with the controller settings more to see.

I know overall I want to do the Max all classes on one character thing. And baring another reason may leaves Summoner as a main that I do last. I'm a best for last kinda person. And I love my animals. So that seems to fit that "ideal". All in all LOTS to take in and meld and balance my desire for playing to enjoy/experience. And also to be effective and get somewhere.

On my armor I know I went out of my way to get the set that has the "Rear / Jua Grease, Arm / Jua Fellow, and Leg / Jua Thrust". And I have the Non-Weak Dmg Ring L and the Boost Normal Damage R Ring. I had a PP Booster R ring but switched in lieu of the Normal Damage boosting one.

I've heard and read on the Brissa and Saikhi Sets a bit. Does the choosing of one over the other depend on Ra/specific sub per. Or for a Ra/Hu its whichever you can get ones hands on?

Of the Elements types. It does seem Light and Lightning are the most common and/or best. And secondarily Dark/Wind. Fire and Ice being the least of sorts.

o/ =^.^=