Robot's Deconstruction Hour: Ace Trainer
Feb 15, 2016 3:08:26 GMT
Seya, anonyman, and 2 more like this
Post by Robot on Feb 15, 2016 3:08:26 GMT
About The Author: Crit-terror Maximus, Scourge of the Seven Systems. I am heralded as being one of the most ridiculous powergamers on the boards, and having an extremely strong grasp of game dynamics. These breakdowns are from a min-maxer's perspective and are no means idyllic truths. Anyone looking for a debate will probably not be noticed, since I barely have the time to write these much less track their continuation on the board. That said, feel free to question or comment, I'll get back to it when I can. Similarly, I'm usually around to provide advice on homebrew and how it interacts with the system as a whole. Often those are developed in a sandbox environment alone, and don't play well with others.
Overview: Ace Trainer is the first of the introductory classes detailed in PTU's 1.05 Edition. As an introductory class it is extremely straightforward, with few notable features. It is primarily a passive support class, with little to no action cost, and greatly limited AP spenders.
Strengths
*Command as a Primary Skill: The actual validity of this as a strength in a play-by-post environment depends entirely on your GM. If they utilize time skips well, or often enough, you will see a good return on the experience gained from having a high command skill.
*Low Action Cost: Ace Trainer has a single feature with any sort of action cost associated, and that's Critical Moment. Barring other Orders Features, this frees it up to lean heavily on classes that need their standard actions to attack (Combat), or set their entire turn on fire as soon as the round starts and never move (Focused Command, Endgame Commander).
*Low AP Cost: From game start, utilizing your Ace Trainer or Champ in the Making Features sets your full team at +Combat Stages at the cost of 1 AP. Perseverance can spend another but generally isn't worth the investment, as will be discussed later.
*Versatility: Ace Trainer is a good dip for a lot of other classes. It provides a free Training Feature through Elite Trainer, which can qualify it for Commander, or the Battling Style classes while letting you ignore the prerequisites on the Training Feature itself. The +1 Default CS sets up Stat Aces to get scary just that much faster. Pairing with Mentor provides nigh infinite TP to your Pokemon between the two classes. Signature Technique goes with literally everything.
Weaknesses
*Mileage May Vary: Yields from your first +1 CS, and later your pair of +1 CSes, are based entirely on how you allocate the stat points on your Pokemon. Players that tend to lean towards balanced spreads (points evenly divided across relevant stats), are unlikely to see much return from this at all. Similarly, your selection of Training Features is really important. The weight of the training features you have is going to be based on your team composition at any given time. Hedging bets and simply selecting all of them in time isn't the worst decision you can make. I will go into the Training Features in more detail below.
*Feature Imbalance: Considering which Features really carry their weight, Ace Trainer only has three that feel like good choices. The remainder are either situational at best, or simply not worth the Feature slot when you could look to another class to fulfill those needs. Those Features are Ace Trainer, Elite Trainer, and Signature Technique. Critical Moment if you feel like getting handsy with the class.
*Boring: This is more a personal note, but taking a class solely for a small static boost in overall numbers isn't particularly exciting. Ace Trainer has a lot of roads to Wisconsin, the land of the Cheese Lords, but it's not at all exciting.
Synergies: Battling Style, Style Expert, Stat Ace, and Type Ace. Any class that uses your Standard actions more effectively then Orders.
Base Feature: Ace Trainer requires that you have the thirty minutes to do the training. From the get go, if your GM is the type to keep the party under constant pressure, don't take this class. If you don't have enough time to stop and take a shower, you'll get no training and therefore virtually no benefit. +1 CS Isn't impressive out of the gate, you'll see between a 2 and 4 point increase on average to one stat, typically your high stat of choice. Reaching the middle 30s, and having items, that +1 turns into 6-8 points. Taking the relevant Stat Ace, you're sitting on +2 for a swift action off your trainer, +4 if your Pokemon follows that up with a double boost move. Required Feature, slow to ramp up in power but always useful.
Perseverance: Costs 1 AP and a Free Action to ignore (not take) a single injury, once per Pokemon per scene. Unless your GM is running a survival campaign, or the towns in your campaign are ludicrously far apart, you should never bother with this feature. In general a Pokemon will receive two to three injuries before fainting. This is unless your GM is running Cruelty + Razor Fang Crit Sweeper Builds, then you could see as many as seven if the dice hate you. High average of four, given optimal circumstances. The short of this is that you can heal three injuries a day, ignoring one is weak. The only time this feature might bear fruit is on healing wall builds, or drain tank builds.
Elite Trainer: Receive a free Training Feature, and apply two Training Features from now on. Ace Trainer is about training, it's in the name. This gives you access to more Signature Technique choices later, and allows you to ignore a Training Feature's prerequisites when selecting it. The training bonuses alone are small. With Elite Trainer, Commander's Voice is a good choice if you want to use one of those orders features as a swift in conjunction with your Standard of choice.
*Agility Training, a must for Water Aces, since so many water types have poor overland. Beyond that, it serves to shore up Pokemon that have garbage movement. The initiative increase when paired with orders is slightly more significant then a tailwind. This can make the difference between going first or not, that shuffle can win fights.
*Brutal Training is a solid option but is steeped in the will of RNGesus. If you are bad at dice, consider other options. Critical and Effect range pair well with Accuracy if you like doing tons of damage.
*Focused Training Will always be the strongest, and least situational option of the four. Accuracy scales linearly at all stages of the game, and is reasonably hard to come by, where builds looking for it have evasion out the wazoo. Skill Bonuses aren't often used from this, but a Cool Expert with Rule of Cool can make a great use of Focused Training's skill bonuses.
*Inspired Training, the defensive option and counterpart of Focused Training. Coupled with stat evasion, it is the secondary way of easing your evasion up towards that precious number nine. Given the nature of Vulnerability, Flanking, Evasion Penalties, and other hatred directed at the nature of this Feature, the save bonus is actually more likely to do you good. This will become doubly true if the changes to Flinch come into play in 1.06.
Critical Moment: 2x Scene, Swift Action, Triples your Training Bonuses for one round. This means +3 Movement/+12 Initiative, +3 Effect/Crit Range, +3 Accuracy/+6 Skill Checks, +3 Evasion/+6 Save Checks.
*Agility Training paired with this is lackluster, as everything in the later game has more than enough movement to get wherever it's going on a reasonably sized map. Good GMs don't begin encounter ranges at 10m or more unless they're being intentionally douchey. Assuming an average movement of 5, by level 20 with Agility Training and Advanced Mobility it's rocking an 8. If you thirst for initiative this badly play Coordinator. With a basic deploy range of 6, average trainer movement of 5, advanced mobility, and Agility Training, a Slowpoke has an initial melee 'reach' of 16 squares. Seriously you don't need the movement that bad.
*Brutal Training paired with Critical Moment ups your odds of having something happen by 10%. Unless you're running a full crit build anyway, not worth.
*Focused Training paired with Critical Moment is ridiculous. Really needed to land that high AC move? Have some accuracy. +4 with Orders.
*Inspired Training getting you out of a Freeze or Sleep early with Critical Moment is nice, but having a single round evasion buff generally isn't worth it. In the course of a game you will receive many more attacks then you dish out. Evasion can be helpful, but like anything that relies on the fall of the dice it is entirely too unreliable to invest in heavily.
Top Percent: Memes aside, I can confirm from experience that it took eight months of LIVE play to see a full return on this feature. Did it make my Pokemon substantially stronger? Yes. Go play Mentor, take their feature that gives 3 TP instantly. Save yourself the money on the wedding ring, and the tears at the altar. +1 across the board, and the single TP over Mentor's feature isn't worth the ridiculous amount of waiting it takes to get anything out of this. If you're not even considering Mentor, and like to suffer in a play by post environment, take Top Percent. Also memes.
Signature Technique: This is why people take Ace Trainer in the first place. Everybody wants to be Signature Tech's best friend. Signature Tech gets better grades then you, knows all the cute girls at school, and already has a scholarship at three Ivy League schools. It's just weighing it's options between going to Uni and touring with your favorite band as their new drummer. Ironically, though the worst Training Features on their own, Agility and Brutal give the best signature techs of the bunch.
Cone, Burst, Blast Moves.
*Scattershot - Agility Training, Struggle Bug, Acid Spray, Razor Leaf, Hydro Pump. Grab Marksman Orders for maximum carnage. 3 Targets and not being an AoE means you make three rolls to check for crits. Long Shot crits. Turns your AoE attacks that require things like 'positioning' and 'situational awareness' into status/crit death blossoms. Also Burst 1's are dangerous to utilize effectively.
*Shock and Awe - Inspired Training, Terrible. -2 To Saves and a piddly -1 Evasion. One of the few ways to apply a save penalty in the game. I suppose if you were running a Provocateur/Ice Ace you could aim for perma-freeze by stacking a constant -4 Saves so that they only succeed on a natural 20? Not worth 2 TP.
*Vicious Storm - Brutal Training, AoE Move gains Smite. You want to hit with your attacks. Most of the strongest AoEs already have Smite. Why is this a thing? Vicious Storm feels more like Vicious Consolation Prize.
Single Target Moves.
*Guarding Strike - Inspired Training, +5 DR Vs. Attack's Target. Great for battlers in singles that need just a little more bulk on both sides. Not recommended outside of these one on one circumstances though.
*Unbalancing Blow - Brutal Training, Trumping Shock And Awe by factors of yes, single target attack makes the target vulnerable until they're hit again. Great for setting up a high AC move, or a finisher of any kind. If you're going to take evasion, take all of it.
*Reliable Attack - Focused Training, If you hate RNGesus, and he hates you. As with Vicious Storm, spending 2 TP to make a signature technique that relies on failure to work does not seem like a good investment of your time. Given Ace Trainer's desire to be the cream of the crop, I can understand the need for fall backs. Still, this reserves your good attacks until they actually connect.
Damaging Moves.
*Alternative Energy - Focused Training, Great for getting a ranged physical move on your melee sweepers, or improving coverage options on literally anything. If nothing else pops at you, or you went with Focused Training, this is always a good option. Swaps which attacking stat a move uses.
*Bloodied Speed - Agility Training, Under 50% Hp, this move becomes priority. BELLY DRUM ON ALL THE THINGS! No, seriously. Snorlax with min speed. Belly Drum, start of the following round Body Slam at +6. You'll never laugh so hard as your GM is buried in numbers. I'm a horrible person. At any rate, it's a good pick.
*Double Down - Brutal Training, Effect moves, moves with the Drain Keyword, and anything looking for an appreciative boost in power (Power-up Punch, Fell Stinger) really likes Double Down. It's one of the best choices you can make.
Status Moves
*Burst of Motivation - Inspired Training, Raises your negative CSes when you use the move +2, up to 0. Burning 2 TP for the sake of doing something that switching would accomplish... Or you could Take a Breather, or Haze, or Clear Smog yourself, or just... Misty Terrain. Don't use this. It won't even give you back your +1s from Champ in the Making.
*Supreme Concentration - Focused Training, You're the juggernaut! If the frequency of moves weren't such a concern in this game, it could let you hilariously chain Outrages and Thrashes together without consequence, sadly those have usage limits. If you don't like being status haxxed out of your turns, it's not a bad call. Play test packets have detailed changes to the statuses that currently wreck action economy for 1.06, making this a strong option for the time being, but less so if it's kept in the coming revision.
*Double Curse - Agility Training, Single Target Status hits two targets. I just recently got introduced to Hypnotic Drowzee with Double Curse. Two Targets, No-Miss Sleep. Double Curse is very strong and pairs nightmarish well with Hex. Hex Maniac/Ace Trainer lets you double double. Not in the nice coffee way either.
Champ in the Making: Doubles up your base Ace Trainer feature. If you're going to drain the 1 AP for a combat stage, may as well drain 1 AP for two. As capstones go it's fairly uninteresting, but it gives more speed or attack to your sweeper, makes for scary mixed sweepers, decent mixed walls, whatever you want really. Good pick, but optional.
Overview: Ace Trainer is the first of the introductory classes detailed in PTU's 1.05 Edition. As an introductory class it is extremely straightforward, with few notable features. It is primarily a passive support class, with little to no action cost, and greatly limited AP spenders.
Strengths
*Command as a Primary Skill: The actual validity of this as a strength in a play-by-post environment depends entirely on your GM. If they utilize time skips well, or often enough, you will see a good return on the experience gained from having a high command skill.
*Low Action Cost: Ace Trainer has a single feature with any sort of action cost associated, and that's Critical Moment. Barring other Orders Features, this frees it up to lean heavily on classes that need their standard actions to attack (Combat), or set their entire turn on fire as soon as the round starts and never move (Focused Command, Endgame Commander).
*Low AP Cost: From game start, utilizing your Ace Trainer or Champ in the Making Features sets your full team at +Combat Stages at the cost of 1 AP. Perseverance can spend another but generally isn't worth the investment, as will be discussed later.
*Versatility: Ace Trainer is a good dip for a lot of other classes. It provides a free Training Feature through Elite Trainer, which can qualify it for Commander, or the Battling Style classes while letting you ignore the prerequisites on the Training Feature itself. The +1 Default CS sets up Stat Aces to get scary just that much faster. Pairing with Mentor provides nigh infinite TP to your Pokemon between the two classes. Signature Technique goes with literally everything.
Weaknesses
*Mileage May Vary: Yields from your first +1 CS, and later your pair of +1 CSes, are based entirely on how you allocate the stat points on your Pokemon. Players that tend to lean towards balanced spreads (points evenly divided across relevant stats), are unlikely to see much return from this at all. Similarly, your selection of Training Features is really important. The weight of the training features you have is going to be based on your team composition at any given time. Hedging bets and simply selecting all of them in time isn't the worst decision you can make. I will go into the Training Features in more detail below.
*Feature Imbalance: Considering which Features really carry their weight, Ace Trainer only has three that feel like good choices. The remainder are either situational at best, or simply not worth the Feature slot when you could look to another class to fulfill those needs. Those Features are Ace Trainer, Elite Trainer, and Signature Technique. Critical Moment if you feel like getting handsy with the class.
*Boring: This is more a personal note, but taking a class solely for a small static boost in overall numbers isn't particularly exciting. Ace Trainer has a lot of roads to Wisconsin, the land of the Cheese Lords, but it's not at all exciting.
Synergies: Battling Style, Style Expert, Stat Ace, and Type Ace. Any class that uses your Standard actions more effectively then Orders.
Base Feature: Ace Trainer requires that you have the thirty minutes to do the training. From the get go, if your GM is the type to keep the party under constant pressure, don't take this class. If you don't have enough time to stop and take a shower, you'll get no training and therefore virtually no benefit. +1 CS Isn't impressive out of the gate, you'll see between a 2 and 4 point increase on average to one stat, typically your high stat of choice. Reaching the middle 30s, and having items, that +1 turns into 6-8 points. Taking the relevant Stat Ace, you're sitting on +2 for a swift action off your trainer, +4 if your Pokemon follows that up with a double boost move. Required Feature, slow to ramp up in power but always useful.
Perseverance: Costs 1 AP and a Free Action to ignore (not take) a single injury, once per Pokemon per scene. Unless your GM is running a survival campaign, or the towns in your campaign are ludicrously far apart, you should never bother with this feature. In general a Pokemon will receive two to three injuries before fainting. This is unless your GM is running Cruelty + Razor Fang Crit Sweeper Builds, then you could see as many as seven if the dice hate you. High average of four, given optimal circumstances. The short of this is that you can heal three injuries a day, ignoring one is weak. The only time this feature might bear fruit is on healing wall builds, or drain tank builds.
Elite Trainer: Receive a free Training Feature, and apply two Training Features from now on. Ace Trainer is about training, it's in the name. This gives you access to more Signature Technique choices later, and allows you to ignore a Training Feature's prerequisites when selecting it. The training bonuses alone are small. With Elite Trainer, Commander's Voice is a good choice if you want to use one of those orders features as a swift in conjunction with your Standard of choice.
*Agility Training, a must for Water Aces, since so many water types have poor overland. Beyond that, it serves to shore up Pokemon that have garbage movement. The initiative increase when paired with orders is slightly more significant then a tailwind. This can make the difference between going first or not, that shuffle can win fights.
*Brutal Training is a solid option but is steeped in the will of RNGesus. If you are bad at dice, consider other options. Critical and Effect range pair well with Accuracy if you like doing tons of damage.
*Focused Training Will always be the strongest, and least situational option of the four. Accuracy scales linearly at all stages of the game, and is reasonably hard to come by, where builds looking for it have evasion out the wazoo. Skill Bonuses aren't often used from this, but a Cool Expert with Rule of Cool can make a great use of Focused Training's skill bonuses.
*Inspired Training, the defensive option and counterpart of Focused Training. Coupled with stat evasion, it is the secondary way of easing your evasion up towards that precious number nine. Given the nature of Vulnerability, Flanking, Evasion Penalties, and other hatred directed at the nature of this Feature, the save bonus is actually more likely to do you good. This will become doubly true if the changes to Flinch come into play in 1.06.
Critical Moment: 2x Scene, Swift Action, Triples your Training Bonuses for one round. This means +3 Movement/+12 Initiative, +3 Effect/Crit Range, +3 Accuracy/+6 Skill Checks, +3 Evasion/+6 Save Checks.
*Agility Training paired with this is lackluster, as everything in the later game has more than enough movement to get wherever it's going on a reasonably sized map. Good GMs don't begin encounter ranges at 10m or more unless they're being intentionally douchey. Assuming an average movement of 5, by level 20 with Agility Training and Advanced Mobility it's rocking an 8. If you thirst for initiative this badly play Coordinator. With a basic deploy range of 6, average trainer movement of 5, advanced mobility, and Agility Training, a Slowpoke has an initial melee 'reach' of 16 squares. Seriously you don't need the movement that bad.
*Brutal Training paired with Critical Moment ups your odds of having something happen by 10%. Unless you're running a full crit build anyway, not worth.
*Focused Training paired with Critical Moment is ridiculous. Really needed to land that high AC move? Have some accuracy. +4 with Orders.
*Inspired Training getting you out of a Freeze or Sleep early with Critical Moment is nice, but having a single round evasion buff generally isn't worth it. In the course of a game you will receive many more attacks then you dish out. Evasion can be helpful, but like anything that relies on the fall of the dice it is entirely too unreliable to invest in heavily.
Top Percent: Memes aside, I can confirm from experience that it took eight months of LIVE play to see a full return on this feature. Did it make my Pokemon substantially stronger? Yes. Go play Mentor, take their feature that gives 3 TP instantly. Save yourself the money on the wedding ring, and the tears at the altar. +1 across the board, and the single TP over Mentor's feature isn't worth the ridiculous amount of waiting it takes to get anything out of this. If you're not even considering Mentor, and like to suffer in a play by post environment, take Top Percent. Also memes.
Signature Technique: This is why people take Ace Trainer in the first place. Everybody wants to be Signature Tech's best friend. Signature Tech gets better grades then you, knows all the cute girls at school, and already has a scholarship at three Ivy League schools. It's just weighing it's options between going to Uni and touring with your favorite band as their new drummer. Ironically, though the worst Training Features on their own, Agility and Brutal give the best signature techs of the bunch.
Cone, Burst, Blast Moves.
*Scattershot - Agility Training, Struggle Bug, Acid Spray, Razor Leaf, Hydro Pump. Grab Marksman Orders for maximum carnage. 3 Targets and not being an AoE means you make three rolls to check for crits. Long Shot crits. Turns your AoE attacks that require things like 'positioning' and 'situational awareness' into status/crit death blossoms. Also Burst 1's are dangerous to utilize effectively.
*Shock and Awe - Inspired Training, Terrible. -2 To Saves and a piddly -1 Evasion. One of the few ways to apply a save penalty in the game. I suppose if you were running a Provocateur/Ice Ace you could aim for perma-freeze by stacking a constant -4 Saves so that they only succeed on a natural 20? Not worth 2 TP.
*Vicious Storm - Brutal Training, AoE Move gains Smite. You want to hit with your attacks. Most of the strongest AoEs already have Smite. Why is this a thing? Vicious Storm feels more like Vicious Consolation Prize.
Single Target Moves.
*Guarding Strike - Inspired Training, +5 DR Vs. Attack's Target. Great for battlers in singles that need just a little more bulk on both sides. Not recommended outside of these one on one circumstances though.
*Unbalancing Blow - Brutal Training, Trumping Shock And Awe by factors of yes, single target attack makes the target vulnerable until they're hit again. Great for setting up a high AC move, or a finisher of any kind. If you're going to take evasion, take all of it.
*Reliable Attack - Focused Training, If you hate RNGesus, and he hates you. As with Vicious Storm, spending 2 TP to make a signature technique that relies on failure to work does not seem like a good investment of your time. Given Ace Trainer's desire to be the cream of the crop, I can understand the need for fall backs. Still, this reserves your good attacks until they actually connect.
Damaging Moves.
*Alternative Energy - Focused Training, Great for getting a ranged physical move on your melee sweepers, or improving coverage options on literally anything. If nothing else pops at you, or you went with Focused Training, this is always a good option. Swaps which attacking stat a move uses.
*Bloodied Speed - Agility Training, Under 50% Hp, this move becomes priority. BELLY DRUM ON ALL THE THINGS! No, seriously. Snorlax with min speed. Belly Drum, start of the following round Body Slam at +6. You'll never laugh so hard as your GM is buried in numbers. I'm a horrible person. At any rate, it's a good pick.
*Double Down - Brutal Training, Effect moves, moves with the Drain Keyword, and anything looking for an appreciative boost in power (Power-up Punch, Fell Stinger) really likes Double Down. It's one of the best choices you can make.
Status Moves
*Burst of Motivation - Inspired Training, Raises your negative CSes when you use the move +2, up to 0. Burning 2 TP for the sake of doing something that switching would accomplish... Or you could Take a Breather, or Haze, or Clear Smog yourself, or just... Misty Terrain. Don't use this. It won't even give you back your +1s from Champ in the Making.
*Supreme Concentration - Focused Training, You're the juggernaut! If the frequency of moves weren't such a concern in this game, it could let you hilariously chain Outrages and Thrashes together without consequence, sadly those have usage limits. If you don't like being status haxxed out of your turns, it's not a bad call. Play test packets have detailed changes to the statuses that currently wreck action economy for 1.06, making this a strong option for the time being, but less so if it's kept in the coming revision.
*Double Curse - Agility Training, Single Target Status hits two targets. I just recently got introduced to Hypnotic Drowzee with Double Curse. Two Targets, No-Miss Sleep. Double Curse is very strong and pairs nightmarish well with Hex. Hex Maniac/Ace Trainer lets you double double. Not in the nice coffee way either.
Champ in the Making: Doubles up your base Ace Trainer feature. If you're going to drain the 1 AP for a combat stage, may as well drain 1 AP for two. As capstones go it's fairly uninteresting, but it gives more speed or attack to your sweeper, makes for scary mixed sweepers, decent mixed walls, whatever you want really. Good pick, but optional.