PSO2 Builds Guide
PSO2 Builds Guide by UnLucky
Welcome to the build guide, your one stop shop on every permanent decision affecting your character’s performance!
Contained herein will be stat comparisons between races and genders, mag raising, class descriptions, and skill point allocation.
Character Creation
It’s the first thing you see and it’s already an important choice. Races are not simply cosmetic in this game, although there’s nothing major besides the stat distribution as shown below:
O is high, X is low, and = is average.
Do note that some values may still vary a little, even if they’re both shown with a O in the chart. Dewmen have slightly more S-Atk than Casts, and females typically have higher R-Atk or T-Atk but lower S-Atk among all races. It’s not quite as dramatic, but do consider that if you absolutely must have the best stats possible.
Any race/gender can be any class, and it doesn’t matter what you choose at the start since you can switch at any time. All that changes is your starting equipment and costume, plus you will have a couple Photon Arts or Technics already learnt. Nothing missible, in any case. One major difference is that Casts are the only race that can equip costume parts, and are also the only race that cannot wear recolorable costumes. Certain outfits can be used by all races, but these ones come in set colors. Costumes are split by gender as well.
Remember that you can make two characters for free, which can be freely deleted and recreated as many times as you’d like. You can also spend real money for Arks Cash (AC) to get even more, but these are not slots, so deleting one will not allow you to create another for free unless you have less than two total characters.
Each character will level each of their own classes separately from your other characters, but will share a common storage where you can deposit items and meseta. Most notably, they will each get their own mag for free, which you otherwise must pay AC to get more than one. With that in mind, it can be a good idea to split the kinds of classes you want to play across two characters rather than trying to do everything with only one. This way you don’t end up as a Cast Force with an R-Atk focus, or a Newman Fighter with mostly T-Atk, yet you can still pursue several optimal builds at the same time.
One other perk for having multiple characters is each one has separate Client Orders (COs), a form of request from NPCs, so you can unlock highly rewarding or repeatable ones to level up or earn meseta much faster than normal. Certain events and giveaways will send out items and bonuses to all of your characters, even if they’re still level 1, so make sure to keep a second character, even if you don’t plan to ever use it, since you can always just bank the extra goodies to have twice as many on your main character.
Classes and Subclassing
Each class also has varying stats, which can be important when deciding on a subclass or simply give you a general idea of how the class may perform.
O is high, X is low, and = is average.
Hunter has Sword, Wired Lance, and Partizan
Ranger has Assault Rifle and Launcher
Force has Rod and Talis
Fighter has Double Saber, Twin Dagger, and Knuckle
Gunner has Assault Rifle and Twin Machinegun
Techer has Wand and Talis
Braver has Katana and Bullet Bow
Bouncer has Dual Blade and Jet Boots
Every class can equip and use the Gunslash, and specific rare weapons may also be designated as equippable by certain other classes, but only the proper class can actually use that weapon’s Photon Arts (PAs), and only Force, Techer, or Bouncer can cast Technics regardless of the equipped weapon.
And that’s where subclassing comes in. You still can’t equip your subclass’s weapons unless you find a special multiclass one, however you can use the PAs or techs for either of your main or sub while getting the full benefits of both of their skill trees at the same time (barring specially marked skills that only take effect on your main class). All related passive skills will stack, and you can freely use active skills from either class. You also gain 20% of your subclass’s base stats, although this will be capped by your main class’s level if your sub is higher.
Any time your main class gains EXP, your sub will also gain 10% of that amount. This includes defeating monsters, emergency trial rewards, or turning in COs. This is entirely bonus, and is not scaled down any further, so there’s no penalty for switching out your subclass to level it up. You might even be able to get more EXP by turning in high level COs on a high level class rather than having the rewards scaled down when turning them in after switching to a low level. Note that a subclass stops gaining EXP in this way once it reaches 20 levels away from the current level cap, regardless of the level of your main class at the time. Currently the level cap is 70, so you stop gaining bonus EXP at 50. You can, of course, switch classes and level anything up to 70 to have both your main and sub capped at 70/70.
Class Descriptions and Skill Trees
Detailed below is a short description for each of the various classes in the game and one or more possible skill builds that attempt to best achieve a certain playstyle or role. The builds provided are certainly not the only way to play, however careful consideration has gone into the various choices involved in order to maximize efficiency. That said, many skills depend on personal preference or special circumstances, so what may work for some won’t be of much use to another. To help facilitate customized builds, each class’s skills have been marked with a priority guideline. Take note of the point progression and overall effectiveness of the skills you might want to take instead of the ones suggested here.
The charts are color coded by general priority like so:
Green > Yellow > Orange > Red > Black
- Green skills have the easiest conditions or provide the largest bonus for the cost. In any case, they are very important for almost any situation, and are often the best skills to pick up first.
- Yellow skills usually come with some sort of catch, so if you don’t think you can make use of them then it’s not the end of the world to pass them by.
- Orange skills are not quite as strong, or may not even contribute to your damage at all. Nonetheless, a dedicated build can still make great use of these skills, especially if the last few points gain a larger bonus than the beginning.
- Red skills are typically not worth investing in until every other option has been exhausted. Only very specific builds with points to spare should even bother.
- Black or entirely greyed out skills can be ignored outside of prerequisites for better skills. These may be strictly worse than similar skills, extremely situational on the level of a novelty or joke build, or outright worthless for any purpose. Save your points unless you really know what you’re doing.
The border on some skills indicates whether it is learned by default (green) or if it only takes effect on your main class (red).
The gaps within the skills are there to better display the unlock requirements for other skills. Once you reach such a break point, you can either continue to level that skill or start learning a new one.
Hunter:
A heavyset close range class with several ranged options and mobility, Hunter is a great all around class. Their weapons can all block, can cover a wide area or target a single enemy, and come with several grabs. Their skills consist of both highly damaging passive abilities as well as some useful defensive options. Due to the nature of the game, a purely offensive loadout is most preferable, but that doesn’t mean you have to completely ignore the rest of the tree.
Hu/Fi – War Brave+Iron Will
War Cry will grab the attention of all nearby mobs, with War Brave increasing your damage depending on how many targets you taunted. Don’t worry about maxing War Cry since you’ll still get the full 30s duration from War Brave no matter what. The extra guaranteed aggro can be helpful against a boss, but I don’t think it’s worth sacrificing something else to get it.
Iron Will can occasionally save you from an unwinnable situation, or just a simple mistake, with its 75% chance to survive a lethal blow. You will then be temporarily invincible, allowing you to either heal up or take advantage of the various damage bonuses unhindered.
If you’d rather have a longer invuln period, you can cut back on War Cry, which would also free up some points for Fury Gear Boost.
Hu/Fi – Automate
Iron Will can be unreliable, especially in solo play where one death is all it takes to lose everything. But Automate can keep you nice and healthy, so long as you have consumables to spare and don’t die outright.
Of course, this doesn’t synergize whatsoever with Half/Deadline Slayer on Fighter, and it costs just a little bit more than Iron Will, so both trees would have to change accordingly.
Fighter:
A risk vs reward type in close quarters can be deadly… for either you or your opponent. Focusing more on dodging and quick parries, Fighter is capable of dealing lots of damage without much interruption. Not only does it lack defensive skills, Fighter’s arsenal goes so far as to reduce its own survivability in order to power up. All of the skills combine to give you very high potential damage, however it’s also possible for none of them to be active at all due to the various conditions that have to be met.
Fi/Hu – Pure ATK
This build stacks as much consistent damage as possible and is very straightforward: activate Limit Break; wreck face. And yes, it counts as its own status effect for the purposes of Crazy Heart/Beat.
Fi/Hu – Balance
Since Limit Break can be a liability, Iron Will is the best crutch to remove that sense of vulnerability. Or it could just make you even more suicidal. In any case, you have a 75% chance to survive a lethal blow, which then grants you invulnerability and a damage boost. The last 5SP reduces the duration and cooldown on Limit Break but keeps the maximum damage bonus. This allows you to play a bit more cautiously, and the spare points can go into directly powering it up.
Fi/Hu – Critical
Since Fighter is the only class that can increase critical damage, we can make good use of that by raising crit rate by +50% instead of a few stat points. With everything combined, excluding buffs given by other players, you can reach ~70% crit rate to ensure you get your 15% bonus damage. Since many Fighter weapon PAs hit multiple times, averaging out your variance won’t be much of a problem.
Fi/Hu – Dual Stances
Sometimes you just can’t effectively attack certain enemies from the front, even with something like Meteor Fist on a rear weak point. That’s where Wise Stance comes in. For the SP cost, the damage increase over Brave Stance might not seem like much, especially since Brave is much easier to use when enemies are approaching you, but at the very least it will give back the damage you lose by attacking from the wrong side without having to reposition yourself.
The rest of the points can go towards the other skills featured in previous builds. Options include maxing Wise Stance, Limit Break to 5 or 10 with or without lv1 Crazy Beat/Heart, Tech Arts JA, Crit Strike, or S-Atk Up.
Ranger:
A mid-ranged class that prefers a hail of bullets and explosives rather than melee weapons, Ranger is all about precision. Headshots deal bonus damage by default, and Ranger’s skills boost this even further, so you’ll definitely want to make use of that. Any time an enemy doesn’t have a weak point to exploit, or even if it does and you just want to deal even more damage, Weak Bullet will make short work of them.
Instead of the 13SP going into R-Atk Up, since it’s a minor damage increase at best, you may opt for any of Killing Bonus, PP Save Bullet, or Tactics Trap for PP management.
Killing Bonus requires you to be near your target when it dies to gain PP, but it has the potential to give you the most consistent gain.
PP Save Bullet only takes effect if your equipped weapon is loaded with a special bullet (aka WB), but that is when you need PP the most anyway since you can’t use normal attacks without wasting valuable ammo. It’s not a lot, especially since you won’t always be running around with WB all the time, and with the new Bullet Keep skill you can switch to a Launcher to regain PP (Gunslash or any other weapon will squander the loaded bullets), but at least you’re guaranteed the bonus whenever you want it.
Tactics Trap costs less points than the others, but it’s one of the best for pure PP regen. It works per hit, so simply tossing a grenade into a pack of enemies could very well fill your entire PP bar right there. The catch, of course, is that you need to use traps, so it’s not automatic from normal play like the other two options. The traps also have a cooldown period (15s for the bombs and 20s for the mines) so it won’t always be available, but you’ve got multiple shots which work on any target and refills at least 20% of your bar making it well worth the effort.
Subclass trees are set up in a way that assumes you will only use Ranger main weapons. Hunter for consistent JA damage with defensive options, Fighter for potentially higher damage based on several stacked conditions, Gunner for WB+CT combo and PP regen if you dislike Ranger’s own options, and Braver to stack weak point damage and stronger Launcher normal attacks. If you plan on using your sub’s weapons, look to the respective class’s section for a more appropriate build, though do take note of any skills that are main class only.
Gunner:
A close range class with a unique dodge, Gunner avoids attacks in the midst of danger. But even though it has more bonuses for being close to their target, they still tout some impressive reach.
Gu/(Hu|Fi|Ra|Br)
With many skills hinging on being in close range, having full health, relying on a cooldown, or all of the above, the only reliable damage available to a Gunner is Stylish Roll JA. That said, all of the various conditions can combine for some very impressive numbers.
While Showtime might seem situational, and High Time by extension, it only costs a single point to get the full 45s duration. From there, consider High Time as a second Perfect Keeper that is active half of the time for half of the cost, since you can potentially get a 20% damage bonus for 31s (with 14s gradual buildup) without ever getting hit.
Subclass options mirror Ranger’s, however the largest consistent damage comes from Gu/Ra even without Weak Bullet due to the incredibly potent WHA skills. Hunter still provides unconditional damage along with helpful survival skills, and Braver’s Attack Advance would be useful for building up Chain (although only SRoll Up stacks with that, whereas SRoll Arts does not). Fighter can match or exceed Ranger’s weak point damage if multiple conditions are active, but nothing can beat WB.
Force:
An offensive caster but little else, Force knows its role and does it well. With a strong foundation and three elements to choose from, Force can stack damage on damage. More importantly, they also gain the ability to regen PP while casting, further cementing them as the definitive casting class.
Fo/(Fi|Te|Br) – Fire
Fo/(Fi|Te|Br) – Ice
The Fire build can easily be converted into a Lightning build just by transferring all of the points over to relevant skills, however Ice is a little different. Freeze Keep isn’t entirely necessary, maxing it less so, but even then it only costs 5SP as opposed to 10 like the other elements. With the spare points, you can opt for T-Atk Up as in the linked build, grab Normal Tech Advance for use with Elysion, or a variety of assorted skills like so.
Subclass choices include Fighter which has a surprising amount of skills applicable to Force, Braver for weakness matching and access to Bullet Bows, or Techer for more elemental masteries, PP regen, and extended range on support techs (including Zondeel).
Fighter’s Half/Deadline skills and Crazy Heart aren’t too useful since you will always have easy access to healing, but they do indeed work. Feel free to take advantage of those if you’d rather them over Wise Stance, for example. Just take note that Crazy Beat does not give any T-Atk, and something like Shock or Mirage can lower your DPS more than Crazy Heart could make up for.
Braver sub with multiple skill trees can be remarkably versatile since Force’s main elements cover many enemy weaknesses, with most anything else having an exploitable weak point (or Weak Bullet). Vibras Bow has respectable T-Atk which makes casting with one a completely reasonable strategy, especially with Rapid Shoot active since that applies to tech damage as well. Bow PAs won’t be of much help, but Banish Arrow can multiply your tech damage against a single target, or even expanding that to multiple nearby targets as well. Even without anything special, Rapid Shoot can still be used for fast PP regen with charged normal attacks.
Techer may seem like the obvious choice, but only Element Weak Hit provides a sizable damage bonus towards Force’s elements. However, the extra PP regen can be an incredible boon for any build, and a permanently expanded Zondeel can increase efficiency much more than a simple power increase. The extra masteries can help ensure you get EWH’s bonus or simply bolster your versatility. If you’d rather take only one Techer element, you could opt for T-Atk Up and Shifta Advance instead. Switch out Wind for Light or Dark at your preference (or get all three with multiple skill trees).
Techer:
A support oriented melee caster, Techer can be played in a variety of ways. Without too much in any one direction, Techer relies on a complimenting subclass more than anything else. With its own separate elements, doubling up with Force can be an effective pure caster, but pair it with a melee subclass and the Wand becomes a surprisingly damaging weapon.
Te/(Hu|Fi|Br) – Melee
Techer main, even with a Force sub, is an underwhelming caster, since they lose out on Element Conversion and can’t equip most Rods. If you want to main Talis for tech damage, you would be better off as a main Force, which still beats Shifta Strike even if you don’t have multiple weapons with varying elemental attributes.
That aside, Wand’s melee attacks are surprisingly powerful, with its weapon gear causing an explosion for every enemy you hit, which can then each hit all nearby enemies. A Hunter sub for pure melee, Fighter sub for an even boost across melee and techs, and Braver for the strongest regular attacks and targeting weaknesses/weakpoints. Sadly, a Force sub does very little for your melee attacks besides a bit of extra T-Atk for explosions, so it’s not conducive for hybrids, but even as a melee spec, you might still want to cast some techs (or improve your Zanverse at the very least), so feel free to grab the Mastery of your choice.
Te/He scales the highest with multiple nearby targets (like with Zondeel) since everything except Fury Combo boosts the explosions just as much as the regular attacks. You can either go for S-Atk Up like in the linked build to achieve similarly powerful regular attacks as Te/Br, or opt for some of the survival skills instead. And since Hunter doesn’t boost tech casting very much, you can drop PP Convert for stats or even max out Deband Cut for further survivability.
Te/Fi is the best for general tech usage mixed in, since their skills boost everything equally. Nothing like a Force main, but they wouldn’t have powerful normal attacks so it’s not a direct comparison. To further pursue a more balanced loadout, you can drop the S-Atk Up for other skills like so, or you could try something similar if you’d rather keep the extra stats but hate Wise Stance. Do note that PP Convert does NOT trigger Crazy Skills on its own, unlike Limit Break.
Te/Br would be best against a single target since its normal attacks themselves are so much stronger than the explosions, not to mention Weak Stance being incredibly useful against most bosses. If you have a Tenelfter bow, you could make use of Banish Arrow on larger targets with a specialized bow build.
Braver:
Split between melee and range, Braver is comfortable in any situation. Its skills heavily reinforce its own weapons to give them a unique feel, but waiting for them to reset can feel a bit limiting. Either one sports great versatility and power to be effective on their own, together, or with another class’s weapons.
Bouncer:
Coming Soon!
Photon Arts and Technics
Gunslash PAs:
Tri-Impact
AoE
Rage Dance
Single Target
Ein Raketen
Ranged Knockdown
Serpent Air
Single Target
Aiming Shot
Ranged Single Target
Thrillsplosion
AoE
Slash Rave
AoE Grab
Additional Bullet
Ranged AoE
Kreisenschlag
Radial AoE
Regenschlag
Travel
Sword PAs:
Rising Edge
Height Gain
Twister Fall
Single Target
Nova Strike
Radial AoE
Ride Slasher
Piercing Travel
Over End
AoE / Single Target
Stun Coincide
Single Target Stun
Sonic Arrow
Ranged
Cruel Throw
Single Target Grab
Guilty Break
Travel
Sacrifice Bite
Single Target Grab / Buff
Wired Lance PAs:
Bind Through
Single Target
Grapple Charge
Gap Closer
Heavenly Fall
Single Target
Other Cyclone
Radial AoE
Other Spin
Frontal AoE Suction
Holding Current
Single Target
Air Pocket Swing
Single Target / Gear Builder
Cerberus Dance
Frontal AoE / Gear Builder
Wild Round
Frontal AoE / Gear Builder
Kaiser Rise
Ranged Gear Builder
Partisan PAs:
Slide Shaker
Radial AoE
Speed Rain
Frontal AoE
Rising Flag
Single Target
Zenith Throw
Single Target Grab
Trick Rave
Single Target
Slide End
Frontal AoE
Assault Buster
Piercing Travel
Bandersnatch
Single Target / Escape
Sacred Skewer
Long Range
Vol Graptor
Single Target / Buff
Twin Dagger PAs:
Raging Waltz
Travel
Shoot Polka
Single Target
Scar Fugue
Single Target Grab
Wild Rhapsody
Radial AoE
Dark Scherzo
Ranged
Quick March
Single Target
Symphonic Drive
Single Target / Travel
Ooorchestraaa
Single Target
Bloody Sarabande
Frontal AoE
Facet Folia
Radial AoE
Double Saber PAs:
Tornado Dance
Piercing Travel
Scissor Edge
Single Target
Rumbling Moon
AoE
Illusion Rave
Single Target
Fake Capture
Single Target Grab
Surprise Dunk
Travel
Deadly Archer
Single Target
Acro Effect
Single Target
Deadly Circle
Radial AoE
Chaos Riser
Radial AoE Suction
Knuckle PAs
Ducking Blow
Single Target
Flicker Jab
Frontal AoE
Pendulum Roll
Single Target
Slide Upper
Knockdown
Straight Charge
Piercing Travel
Quake Howling
Radial AoE Stun
Surprise Knuckle
Frontal AoE
Flash Thousand
Frontal AoE
Backhand Smash
Single Target
Meteor Fist
Ranged
Assault Rifle PAs:
Diffuse Shell
Frontal AoE
Homing Emission
Single Target
Impact Slider
Travel
Sneak Shooter
Single Target
Piercing Shell
Piercing AoE
Grenade Shell
AoE
One Point
Single Target
Glory Rain
Radial AoE
Parallel Slider
Escape
Launcher PAs:
Divine Launcher
AoE
Concentrate One
AoE
Cluster Bullet
AoE
Rodeo Drive
Piercing Travel
Crazy Smash
Single Target Melee
Cracker Bullet
AoE
Zero Distance
Single Target Melee
Fake Silhouette
Escape
Flame Bullet
Continuous Frontal AoE
Cosmo Breaker
AoE
Twin Machinegun PAs:
Aerial Shooting
Single Target Melee / Height Gain
Bullet Squall
Single Target Melee
Dead Approach
Travel / Stun
Messiah Time
Single Target Melee
Infinity Fire
Single Target
Satellite Aim
Frontal AoE
Elder Rebellion
Single Target
Reverse Tap
Radial AoE Suction
Heel Stab
Frontal AoE
Shift Period
Radial AoE
Katana PAs:
Tsukimi Sazanka
Single Target / Height Gain
Gekka Zakuro
Single Target
Kanran Kikyou
Radial AoE Knockdown
Sakura Endo
Frontal AoE
Hien Tsubaki
Single Target
Asagiri Rendan
Travel
Hatou Rindou
Ranged
Shunka Shunran
Travel[/indent]
Fudou Kuchinashi
Radial AoE Stun
Kazan Nadeshiko
Single Target / Gear Builder
Bow PAs:
Master Shoot
Single Target
Penetrating Arrow
Piercing AoE
Torrential Arrow
AoE
Gravity Point
AoE Suction
Kamikaze Arrow
Travel
Sharp Bomber
AoE
Tritt Shooter
Single Target Melee
Banishing Arrow
Single Target Buff
Last Nemesis
Single Target
Million Storm
Continuous Single Target
Technics:
Coming Soon!
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