Okay let's be real, F:100 Masquerade is just a DPS check.

[Prokaizer]

Let's see what changed from the previous 99 levels :

1: Maximum time reduced from 15 minutes down to 10 minutes.
2: x2 unblockable attacks + extra attacks on x1 ultimate phase.

Why the Masquerade fight proves that NGS is in unbalanced mess :

1: You can apply elemental down in a matter of seconds, while hitting the boss for 10 minutes straight with a Sword won't apply a physical down state.
2: There is no way to remove debuffs in NGS (compared to the base Pso2) and boss can apply x2 debuffs to the players with just 1 or 2 hits.
3: The cage escaping window is very short. You either jump out of it or your only other options are to x1 Omni I-frame with Photon Blast, x2 tank the hit and get debuffed with both Poison + Damage Decrease Debuff.
4: Mobile game tactics where your time to clear the quest is very limited.

Conclusion : This fight is far from hard. It is builded that way to create a "fake" challenge. Just by looking the Elemental Down / Physical Down difference between classes, you can tell that this fight is a joke.

[Lapinoire]

So was Depth 999 Masquerade and Depth 100 Sodam.

Depth 999 Masquerade was the same as 300~998, except if you got hit by anything, you died instantly.

Depth 100 Sodam was the same as Depth 50~99 Sodam, but with 500 million HP, up from 480 million.

Either way, optimize your rotation more and you win, simple as that.

[Prokaizer]

I forgot to mention that in game core mechanics such as Tri-Shield straight up not working. It is a straight up broken mess of a fight that got the Green light untested.

[RX-3DR]

PSO2 has always been about the balance of damage output versus taking risks. NGS fixed one of the core gameplay problems of PSO2 which was infinite healing/debuffs not existing. Take bad hits and you lose damage output. Take too much hits and you run out of Restas. Play too defensively and you drop too much DPS. Timer is there to specifically make it so that you have to play as aggressively as you can go.

This was a bigger skill/knowledge check to know and react to avoid all the orange attacks compared to anything in PSO2. If you say this is a fake challenge, then what is a real challenge?

It took a few tries to get all the dodges right but I cleared it with Wired Lance Hunter (8:33), damage was less of the issue for me than taking bad hits. If you feel that Element Down helps you, then you can subclass Force for Rod and go at it that way, that's also part of the knowledge check that adds to the fight. Stop trying to cheat the system with Tri-Shield and getting mad that the game doesn't let you.

[Prokaizer]

Originally posted by RX-3DR:

If you say this is a fake challenge, then what is a real challenge?

Hard boss attack paterns without garbage artificial difficulties like time limits you typical see in gacha mobile games.

Giving a mob admin commands that can bypass in game mechanics for example Tri-Shield / Tough Mind / Iron Will or giving it the abillity to pass debuffs on players, when there is no way to debuff in the game is not a real challenge.
It is a fake artificial quest.
I cannot even consider it a challenge in the first place.
When you cripple the player in multiple ways, it's like telling a boxer to only box with his one hand.

On top of all the 5 different BS i've mentioned in my previous posts we have :

PP Recovery -25%
Photon Blast Gauge Charge -25%
MARS Battery Natural PP Recovery -50%
Status Ailment Duration Increase: Max
Restasigne Carry Limit -5

Crippling the player to oblivion and giving mob admin access commands, then calling it "challenge" is a joke.

[Lapinoire]

Monster Hunter: 30-50 minutes to finish a hunt. Is Monster Hunter a "gacha mobile game"?

FFXIV Savage and Ultimate Raids: Boss wipes the entire raid party if you don't kill it fast enough. Is Final Fantasy XIV a "gacha mobile game"?

Are you really complaining about a time limit when time limits on several bosses existed since Base PSO2, especially with Sodam and Masquerade?

You really just like to complain when you get the slightest inconvenience from NGS, then act like you're right or NGS has never done it before, when in fact, every single thing you've complained about has existed since Base PSO2.

Be thankful Masquerade doesn't have Attack immunity like it did in base PSO2, or that Masquerade doesn't hit you for 9,999,999 damage on even a tiny bullet like it did in base PSO2's depth 999.

PP Recovery -25% you won't even feel if you know how to manage PP and don't mash, Photon Blast charge you won't even notice if you were running Fixa Orgsys instead of Fixa Guard(and have class skill at 19-20).

MARS Battery? If you need MARS to win, there's more things wrong with your gameplay than the boss.

The status ailments were added around 20+, so increasing the duration just means don't turtle hits and actually avoid the right attacks.

-5 Restasignes? Don't get hit.

All orange attacks have been able to hit through tri shield and whatnot, and "giving mob admin access commands" isn't unique to Masquerade, stop acting like it is.

The game's "harder" content has always had time limits, you can't just pretend like they weren't there.

[RX-3DR]

Originally posted by Prokaizer:

Crippling the player to oblivion and giving mob admin access commands, then calling it "challenge" is a joke.

You're trying to bypass game mechanics and blaming enemies that you're not allowed to. Orange attacks bypasses Tri-shield and most forms of invincibility. This is a known game mechanic and you're blaming the game that it doesn't allow you to bypass it's mechanics.
Debuffs are debuffs, not lmao hahaha funee symbo go away. If enemies just instantly removed a Techer's Shifta everytime it gets casted, you would be complaining about it, debuffs should have always worked the same way.

Would doubling the HP and timer and removing the 5 stage conditions actually make it harder? They're there to tweak the fight to actually fit within the 10 minutes. What you're asking for a fight that can be cleared with low engagement by cheesing the fight with the only important resource being how much time you're willing to waste. Spend 2 minutes running around waiting for Tri-shield to recharge, SKILLED GAMEPLAY FOR EXPERTS ONLY. Have you ever considered that you are falling underneath the difficulty and that your execution isn't enough?

[Prokaizer]

Originally posted by Lapinoire:

You really just like to complain when you get the slightest inconvenience from NGS, then act like you're right or NGS has never done it before, when in fact, every single thing you've complained about has existed since Base PSO2.

Be thankful Masquerade doesn't have Attack immunity like it did in base PSO2, or that Masquerade doesn't hit you for 9,999,999 damage on even a tiny bullet like it did in base PSO2's depth 999.

All orange attacks have been able to hit through tri shield and whatnot, and "giving mob admin access commands" isn't unique to Masquerade, stop acting like it is.

The game's "harder" content has always had time limits, you can't just pretend like they weren't there.

So because base game did something wrong, NGS has to do it wrong too?

Nerfing the player and giving mobs stupid buffs is not a real way to measure difficulty. Souls like games doing it right. Your character stays the same during the fight, the mobs don't get game breaking mechanics that you cannot counter by any in game skills or mechanics.

The thing is what some people call "harder content" is not hard.
The boss patterns of the supposed "hard challenges" like Solo - Dark Falze Solus, F100 Masquerade etc. are easy to be countered.
When your biggest opponent IS NOT THE BOSS, but the pre fight Nerfs and the time limit, the Quest is a failure by design.

[Lapinoire]

Originally posted by Prokaizer:

When your biggest opponent IS NOT THE BOSS, but the pre fight Nerfs and the time limit, the Quest is a failure by design.

And yet, people can still clear the content just fine. Just because you can't clear it doesn't mean there's something inherently wrong with the quest.

It's inane complaints like this why Deus final phase got nerfed in JP back in 2016. "We can't beat deus in the 3 minute DPS check before he destroys the moon!!!! NERF IT SO WE CAN GET ACCESS TO QLIPHOTH WEAPONS!!!", when people that were of average or decent at the game banded together and cleared the content just fine.

The best part is, this is solo content, so you have no one to blame but yourself if you can't clear it. The content wasn't designed to be impossible, you just can't sit there doing the same button over and over again and relying on damage resistance and free hit immunity without putting in the slightest effort.

Likewise, Souls games aren't hard, people just need to learn to pace themselves and read attacks-- the same for Masquerade 100, same for Monster Hunter, same for any action combat games with remotely difficult combat.

[Prokaizer]

Originally posted by Lapinoire:

And yet, people can still clear the content just fine. Just because you can't clear it doesn't mean there's something inherently wrong with the quest.

You completely missed the point of the thread.
This is not about my skills or your skills and has nothing to do with if this quest can be cleared or not.
Because XYZ person can do 1 arm 2 finger pushups, that doesn't change the fact that it's straight up BS.
There are 6 things wrong with the quest and i pointed all of them out.

[76561199729151395]

Originally posted by Prokaizer:

Let's see what changed from the previous 99 levels :

1: Maximum time reduced from 15 minutes down to 10 minutes.
2: x2 unblockable attacks + extra attacks on x1 ultimate phase.

Why the Masquerade fight proves that NGS is in unbalanced mess :

1: You can apply elemental down in a matter of seconds, while hitting the boss for 10 minutes straight with a Sword won't apply a physical down state.
2: There is no way to remove debuffs in NGS (compared to the base Pso2) and boss can apply x2 debuffs to the players with just 1 or 2 hits.
3: The cage escaping window is very short. You either jump out of it or your only other options are to x1 Omni I-frame with Photon Blast, x2 tank the hit and get debuffed with both Poison + Damage Decrease Debuff.
4: Mobile game tactics where your time to clear the quest is very limited.

Conclusion : This fight is far from hard. It is builded that way to create a "fake" challenge. Just by looking the Elemental Down / Physical Down difference between classes, you can tell that this fight is a joke.

bruh what even is a 'real' challenge to you? also the downs are fine because only fo and te actually want the down, for everyone else it's a dps loss lol

[Lapinoire]

Originally posted by Prokaizer:

There are 6 things wrong with the quest and i pointed all of them out.

All of which RX-3DR and I pointed out and listed as non-issues.

There's literally nothing wrong with the quest, people just have to play on a semi-competent level to win.

[Prokaizer]

Originally posted by Lapinoire:

Originally posted by Prokaizer:

There are 6 things wrong with the quest and i pointed all of them out.

All of which RX-3DR and I pointed out and listed as non-issues.

There's literally nothing wrong with the quest, people just have to play on a semi-competent level to win.

Really, nothing wrong with the quest?
Then explain to me why you can Elemental Down the boss in a matter of seconds while it takes ages to Physical Down it.

[Lapinoire]

Originally posted by Prokaizer:

Really, nothing wrong with the quest?
Then explain to me why you can Elemental Down the boss in a matter of seconds while it takes ages to Physical Down it.

Originally posted by aurora:

also the downs are fine because only fo and te actually want the down, for everyone else it's a dps loss lol

Aurora put it nicely, why do you want the down? Casters need the down, while everyone else needs the counters to do more damage.

Besides, Masquerade doesn't stay down long enough to do any meaningful damage that you couldn't already do via counters lol.

[76561199729151395]

it's really funny to me because masq has harder and more complex/varied attack patterns than any other boss in ngs, and it isn't close.

on top of being a reasonably strict but still lenient dps check that rewards high skill and knowledge by allowing you to play safer and still clear if you know how to play your class

on top of not being a oneshot fest, yes, full tank (with sufficient dps) is absolutely viable for this fight, i have proved this by clearing it first try on tank build fo/wa on day 1 and later with nearly 0 experience on bouncer soaring blades (not first try though, due to skill/knowledge gap).

on top of having attacks you can't brainlessly counter, oh no, having to care about timing your attacks, your super moves, your buffs, having to pay attention and position properly...the horror

on top of actually, for once in your life, being punished for being hit. jellen is a 30% chance, the rng factor is a bit annoying but it means it's lenient enough where if you take a stray you might not be punished for it, almost like the game understands making the occasional error is human (unlike pso2 d999). but make too many and you'll suffer, AS YOU SHOULD.

this fight is reasonably difficult, it's not the hardest thing ever but it certainly raises the bar when it comes to ngs, and i think that while it's not perfect, it's still pretty well and fairly designed to allow most playstyles some flexibility and capability to handle it, which is more than you can ask for a lot of the time.

my masq clears

day 1 first try 1 death tank force (9:54 mostly blind run): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_rTvwzOVUY

improved dps force (8:09 exhaustion run): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qpG0JhHLUys

first time ever bouncer, tank build (8:41 4th clear, 4 hours total experience on bo, got 1st clear at around 2 hour mark): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_TR5IrMUvQo

best dps force run after which i'm done with masq since it was a generally good and clean run with cinema moments (7:25 not exhausted clear): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WF_N59AxHyE

[Prokaizer]

Originally posted by Lapinoire:

Originally posted by Prokaizer:

Really, nothing wrong with the quest?
Then explain to me why you can Elemental Down the boss in a matter of seconds while it takes ages to Physical Down it.

Originally posted by aurora:

also the downs are fine because only fo and te actually want the down, for everyone else it's a dps loss lol

Aurora put it nicely, why do you want the down? Casters need the down, while everyone else needs the counters to do more damage.

Besides, Masquerade doesn't stay down long enough to do any meaningful damage that you couldn't already do via counters lol.

Bro, why you dodging the question?