Ok so I was messing around with a few things on my Braver. I equipped the Katana Focus Guard Release ring to start leveling it and at the same time customized Volcanic Carnation to Type 0. Through some manner of folly, or most likely bad programming, I am 90% sure my character got totally screwed over. First off he starts every quest with the Katana gauge maxed out. Sounds nice, but I'm pretty sure it was never like that. 2nd, and this is the major issue, he cannot, even with all his previous gear equipped before this happened, regain ANY gear during the gear's use. 3rd, and again this is a MAJOR ISSUE, his gear build rate seems to still be very low, as if he still has the ring equipped.

I have relogged, changed both his classes, put the ring in storage, and the problem still persists. Segac, my character was just BROKEN. This needs to be fixed NOW as a vital part of my charcater's class has been damaged in a way I can't fix. I can confirm there is some manner of bug because as I was messing with things trying to figure stuff out, my character somehow activated an infinite Katana Gear as the aura around him never went away until changing areas.

This needs fixing ASAP, no doubt someone else will be influenced by this.

It sounds like they added the newest Braver balance that had been added to the JPN server after the XBox launch.

Assuming they did, these are the adjustments:

Katana Focus

• Adjusted the skill so that the damage dealt in its un-released state exceeds the previous released state:
  • Focus Lv.0: +35% Damage
  • Focus Lv.1: +38% Damage
  • Focus Lv.2 or Focus Released: +40% Damage
• Katana Focus will be maxed at the start of the Quest, and the Focus gain is reduced.

Counter / Counter Edge

• Counter and Counter Edge's power will no longer be affected by Katana Focus. Its power will now be at the maximum power value prior to this change.
• Counter will no longer consume Focus when Katana Focus is not released.

Katana Focus Boost

• PP Recovery will be increased even if Katana Focus is not released.

@AndrlCh Wait really? Is the gain after this balance suppose to be that low because it's so low that I can't regain any gauge during the focused state. (purple aura) Also Type-0 Volcanic isn't refilling the gauge at all even though it's supposed to according to Visphone.

@Hatsodoom Yes, it is supposed to now be near impossible to stay in the released state, and all ways that previously increased Focus have been drastically reduced. Basically, the only major benefit to the released state is the increase in Critical Rate since all the damage bonuses are now applied in the non-released state. This also came with a change to Braver's lv85 Skill being rebalanced to give a 50% Crit Rate regardless of Focus state.

I really don't like this rework, makes it sound like it's a bad idea to counter since it takes so long to get the full damage boost back. But if this is how it is now (with no notification from Segac about it, still a problem) then whatever I guess. (Even with the +50% from the skill it's still low AF.)

@AndrlCh I found the patch notes on bumped, but it says nothing about the gauge gain reduction.

@Hatsodoom Just for your reference here are the previous numbers for each Focus level:

• Focus lv.0: +0% Damage
• Focus lv.1: +5% Damage
• Focus lv.2: +10% Damage
• Focus Relesed: +40% Damage

Also, bumped doesn't always add the entirety of the patch notes. Here are the official patch notes: http://pso2.jp/players/support/measures/i_measures_20200225_1/

The section that mentions it is the set of bullet points at the bottom:

• 上記の調整にともない、通常攻撃やフォトンアーツ、潜在能力効果など「カタナギア」の上昇量を下方修正します。
• 対象となる潜在能力および特殊能力
  • 潜在能力「風視の太刀」「風視の太刀・改」において、ギア上昇量を下方修正します。
  • 潜在能力「煉獄紅蓮」において、カウンター成功時のギア上昇量を下方修正します。
  • S級特殊能力「S4：刃機放縮」において、ギア減少速度の低下量を下方修正します。
  • S級特殊能力「S5：反撃鋭刃」において、カウンター成功時のギア上昇量を下方修正します。
  • S級特殊能力「S6：機魂の守護」において、カタナ装備時のギア上昇量を下方修正します。

Through Google Translate (bolded emphasis mine):

• With the above adjustment, the amount of increase of "Katana Gear" such as normal attacks, photon arts, and potential effects will be revised downward.
• Target potential and special abilities:
  • The amount of gear increase has been adjusted downwards in the latent ability "Kaze no Tachi" and "Kaze no Tachi/Kai".
  • In the potential "Purgatory Guren", the amount of gear increase when the counter succeeds will be adjusted downward.
  • In the S-class special ability "S4: Releasing the blade machine", the reduction amount of the gear reduction speed is corrected downward.
  • In the S-class special ability "S5: Counterattack Blade", the amount of gear increase when the counter succeeds will be adjusted downward.
  • In the S-class special ability "S6: Guarding the Soul," the amount of gear increase when Katana is equipped will be adjusted downward.

Well dang, I feel like they lowered it too much. I can do an entire exploration and it won't have refilled completely. Least we get more damage outside the release. Thanks for clearing this up. And someone tell Segac to give us some patch notes next time!

But wait... this doesn't explain the infinite release I got...

@Hatsodoom The infinite release state is definitely a bug; with the new balance it should only last about 20 seconds.

I'll have to see if I can replicate that so i can provide more details to the devs.