Force: Rod or Talis?

[VaniKa]

I'm a Force player currently. At first it was clear to me to use a Rod as a Force as I remembered the Talis from the original PSO2 where you throw something away and shoot from there. Not my cup of tea as I like a more hands-on approach to combat. But now that the Talis works different in NGS I find it quite intriguing because it allows for a modification of Techniques with Convergence Shot and Spread Shot, basically tripling the amount of Techniques. So you don't have to equip AOE Techniques because you can just modify the ones without the "Gi" prefix. It spices up the gameplay as you have more stuff to manage than just spamming the same button over and over.

But I wonder, is it also more effective compared to the Rod? Is all this micromanagement actually worth the hassle? Does it give you more damage than the Rod, for example the Convergence stance where your elemental projectile becomes faster and more frequent? Right now, when I want AOE damage with a Rod, I just switch to the lightning Technique that causes chain lightning. I guess not using the element that enemies are weak to only has a minor effect on damage as there are no real resistances but just tiny weaknesses, correct? So, maybe I'm sacrificing 10 % damage with chain lightning on enemies weak to ice damage but kill three of them at the same time. Seems like a good compromise.

Can a Talis give you an actual DPS advantage over the Rod when used to its full potential? Has the Convergence stance of the Talis higher DPS than the Rod's base Techniques? And what about the Talis without Convergence Shot and Spread Shot? Is it still basically a Rod then, just with a different design? Because then I would clearly chose the Talis over the Rod as only the normal attack and weapon action would be different but the Talis giving me more options overall. But my fear is that simply spamming the ranged fire Technique for example causes less damage with a Talis than doing the same with a Rod. Is that true?

So, what do you think? Talis or Rod? And why?

[JOE◎4708]

if you want simpler gameplay for force get the rod.

but if you have a fast hand and doesnt fat finger every time then talis can be very good.
also you have multi weapon system.

[VanillaLucia]

In my experience, Talis now acts as a "magical gun" of sorts so you can set up any of your photon arts to set your intended target range (single-target, three-bolt shots in front of you, or all around you) so you can blast techniques to very quickly dispatch mobs. You don't get the "PP Remain" skill on the Talis so you might lose PP quickly and you might not build up elemental downs but it is very fast and powerful compared to the Force in the short bursts you use the Talis in.

In regards to the Rod, if you take PP Remain seriously (casting and then waiting until the white flash) you almost never run out of PP and can easily build up elemental downs on enemies. If you combine the two into a Multi-Weapon you can throw the Weapon Action for the Talis up (standing still and deploying it sends up a turret-like orb that shoots multiple enemies as moving while deploying it makes it single-target) and play with the Rod that way to simply cast away without worrying about PP Maintain. The Rod is definitely stronger, however, if you can bait the enemy into attacking you and responding by blocking (weapon action) and casting back to fire "Elemental Bullet" as a counter-attack.

[Crystal Sharrd]

I personally prefer rod because I think they look better than talises do. Though tailises will work nicely if they ever do a Yu-Gi-Oh! collab.

[Chairman Kaga]

I think Rod has better DPS than Talis.

[Hikari]

Why not use both? I myself use a Talis but I see a lot of players use a the Rod just go what you like to play with.

[VanillaLucia]

Originally posted by sonic65101:

I personally prefer rod because I think they look better than talises do. Though tailises will work nicely if they ever do a Yu-Gi-Oh! collab.

While not exactly a Yu-Gi-Oh collaboration, the Japanese version has an exchange for "Phantasy Star Online 2 Trading Card Game" where you could exchange one of the codes obtained with the actual cards in the exchange shop for some nifty camos.

Beyond that, those weapons were also obtainable in color variants as Old-Type weapons used for the Talis. I have it on my Hero on the Japanese side and was definitely working my way towards a Kaiba Cosplay at some point but unfortunately never fully committed.

Duel Gaze (Camo Version)[pso2.swiki.jp]

I really wish we had these camos and weapons on the global side of things as we are still missing a large amount of camo exchanges (such as the Legacy Weapons - you can pick up the actual "Dual Bird" for example but you cannot use them as a weapon Camo for New Genesis weapons but because we never got the Camo variant it is impossible to use on New Genesis if you move beyond the carried-over weapons).

[Garrise]

The biggest advancement of Rod is the badass Weapon Action. It has the longest invincible frames of all, and can do great damage as well as regain much PP. If you can catch any chance to counter attack, Rod is much better than Talis.
What about situation without counter attack? Different elements varies.
Due to the weak dps of Lightning technic against single enemy, FO can use Talis for situation that have no chance to counter attack, for example, BREAK or DOWN time of PettasVera/NexVera. In this case, Talis can also play a role of not letting PP overwhelm.

[Gabe Puratekuta]

You can always use both. Switching between weapon loadouts is quick.

[Hikari]

I use talis I tied rod and I did not like it but that's just me just go with what weapon you like and have fun.

[Tazz]

i use rod i had so much fun using rod...the AOE is awesome burn them all to the ground..but using force you must know enemy weakness it always changing play style some enemy weak to fire some weak to ice and some weak to lightning ....some players don,t change their attack even when fight Gigantix they still using fire to attack gigantix ...my gosh...gigantix weak to ice and sometime lightning

[Flori281]

honestly as force I don't really think you need the talis all that much
it shines more on other weapons and classes that don't have as much natural PP recovery built in

Originally posted by VerdantCross:

Honestly anything that makes Talis better just works better as part of a multiweapon. Like you can slightly increase your DPS and active (aka by normal attacking) PP regen using the talis' weapon action, but it stays there when you switch weapons if it's in the same multiweapon.

Talis is still more of a situational thing, where with certain techs and situations the Talis's modified versions of the techs will work better (like for example hitting a boss with a normally short ranged tech with convergence). I find where Talis shines more is actually in mobbing in the other mode, as you can make it shoot either 3 spread out tech bullets, or if you wait before casting a tech until the Talis circle around you changes form again, it will also make techs shoot out in a circle around you.

Talis can also be better for inflicting status effect downs on enemies too because of it's rapid rate of fire. But yeah I feel like in raw damage Talis does less in the same time as using techs normally, and the zonde-clad and barta-blot skills completely ignore the convergence and spreadshot versions of techs too.

this is basically the best answer, talis has great utility and is very solid for mobbing but loses out in raw dps. It, along with wired lance, are the 2 best utility weapons in the game right now. You can use their important attributes(the weapon action, and there's an argument to be made for talis normals on something else as they are damn fast) without having them as a subclass. Both weapon actions have guard frames(lance with the hunter skill for it active) and are great for PP regen.

honestly I really wish more counters were NOT linked up to normal attacks for the finisher, as it would totally expand multiweapons as a whole. Imagine wand or sword counter not needing a normal attack to follow up.

TL;DR no talis main is not more damage than rod main, but talis has a ton of utility that should not be overlooked, like guard frames and PP regen. and if you ever take a look at melee classes wired lance is in the exact same boat

[Ragol]

Talis shines during a PSE burst in its nova mode. Also the pb is better during boss break/downs, Tricky Capacitor is awesome for a quick pp fill when its fully charged. Rod has its guard but lower Aoe dps

I use both Rod and the talis. i find Talis better when you want to save pp and is with a party and do not have agro.