Phantasy Star Online 2 is largely a skill-based game,
with a constantly fluctuating class balance. However, in any game there is a certain
a balance will be found in which certain classes stand out from others,
for various reasons.
For this reason, I decided to classify the classes of this
game largely based on versatility rather than raw power, as being an MMO (and
an action MMO to that), every character can pretty much any content if the
mechanical freeze with you pretty well.
Canonnier
Gunner is the first ranged class in the game. While Ranger
is good enough (and upgrading or Braver to 30 is a prerequisite for unlocking
Gunner), the Gunner has a lot of power to kill a single target that the
Ranger is relatively lacking.
Gunner is good both as a main class and a subclass,
that's what makes it a perfect fit for this list.
Fighter
The fighter is to melee combat what the shooter is to a distance
combat; simply a great all-around melee fighter with access to a good variety
weapons and dual-use capability.
Much like the Gunner, Fighter is a good peanut butter for
chocolate from another class. It pairs well with a wide variety of other options like
both a main class and a subclass, including with Gunner itself, for a versatile switch
batting style of play.
hunter
Hunter is a bit of the odd duck for this list, being a class that is generally not suited as a main class. Hunter is basically the main class of "tanks" and uses a wide variety of large weapons to fight in close quarters combat.
This role in itself (apart from the big guns) is not great
unique, and probably why it is not chosen much as a primary class. However, Hunter
blends well with almost every other class in the game, increasing strengths
and reinforce the weaknesses of a variety of other classes. Rather
everyone likes a little more durability.
hero
Hero is a "successor class", a kind of uber class which is
balanced by not being able to choose a subclass (although the other two
Successive classes can at least be chosen as subclasses; This is not the case
for Hero).
Heroes do great damage and are fairly easy to use, but
limited by this relative lack of versatility and by the fact that they must be
unlocked first by reaching a very high level with another class. In essence, unlike
the other three, the Hero class is probably a better choice for the "better" class
in terms of raw numbers, but in terms of versatility and new player
usability is a bit worse.
