Blue Protocol: Star Resonance What class to choose?

The Vanguard spec is all about triggering random chance abilities and using them as quickly as possible to maximize damage. Its signature ability is Valor Cyclone, a toggleable pulsing spear aura that constantly consumes Wind Knight’s energy resource - Courage. Gameplay is simple: get ready to punch flashing buttons faster than a control board operator while feeding Valor Cyclone Courage so it never runs out.

Vanguard is considered hard to play, as reacting to all your chance-based abilities fast is key to max damage; being slow will greatly hinder performance. One way around slow reaction times is using semi-auto, but this comes at the cost of less control.

Skyward can fly with many of their abilities, launching themselves airborne, and others causing them to crash down to earth. Skyward is the most technical Spec in the game, having to manage three resources, multiple cooldowns, and the complexities of aerial and grounded combat all at once. Gameplay simplified boils down to building and spending the Chasing Step and Sharp Stack resources on its finisher (Instant Edge) without running out of Courage (Wind Knights' energy resource).

Skyward also needs a substantial amount of Crit Rate and most of its endgame talents to function, but once it gets going, and when played well is incredibly strong and satisfying to play.

Icicle Spec is entirely focused around gaining 20 stacks of its signature resource, Endless Cold. These stacks are used alongside its potent cooldowns to deliver a devastating two-phase burst rotation. The rotation kicks off with a flurry of Frost Lances, followed by an unrelenting Meteor Storm spam. When played right, it makes for an incredibly satisfying playstyle. But when making mistakes, expect to lose a large amount of damage. Due to its spammy nature during its burst window, Icicle requires good input speed to perform well. Without it semi-auto can be used, but at the cost of control over your character.

One quirk of Icicle is that it needs all its skill slots to deal max damage, leaving no room for Maelstrom without a skill swap. To get around this, it alternates between using its optimal DPS setup against bosses and reducing damage to utilize Maelstrom against packs of enemies.

The Frostbeam spec is entirely focused on executing lengthy channels of its namesake (Frostbeam) to take advantage of its ability to deal ever-increasing damage the longer you cast. While channeling, you’ll also multi-cast Frost Mage's other channeled ability, Tidepool, simultaneously for huge AoE damage. Frostbeam is the lowest action count class in the game, making it easy to play and ideal for those without fast reaction times, but it’s not great on autoplay.

The Spec has some quirks, though. While cooldowns are unavailable and resources are limited, you’ll have to start and stop your Frost Beam casts to conserve energy, and while using Frost Beam, your movement is heavily slowed.

Wildpack focuses on pets, being able to summon up to 3 wolves at once - all of which you can command to deliver huge single-target or AoE damage with your abilities. Wildpack inherits (and enhances) Marksman's core gameplay of building Photon Energy to then enter the Photon Reforge State, which allows us to spam our special attack Storm Arrow infinitely to command our wolves to launch potent coordinated attacks.

Wildpack is both newbie and auto-friendly spec, as it gains so many free stats it doesn’t need much gear. On top of that, the AI plays it well enough, it’s capable of out-dpsing some players trying to play manually. One fatal flaw of getting so many stats early is that it hits diminishing returns far faster than other specs, making its ultra-endgame scaling far less powerful.

Falconry gives up its wolf pet in favor of a bird that only attacks when you critically strike - without high Crit, they’ll spend most of the battle just staring at the screen while nothing happens. Because of this, two things are vital for Falconry: using high hit rate abilities like Radiance Barrage (10-15 hits) and Arrow Rain (10 hits), and maximizing Crit Rate. Falconry also trades in the Photon Reforge state for Quadraflare, which becomes available at max Photon Energy instead and deals high hits and damage.

The spec's gameplay revolves around using most abilities as they become available and spamming basic attacks in downtime. Also, keep in mind that Falconry is weak early due to all its talents and its pet requiring high Crit, making it a less popular choice to begin with. Similar to Wildpack, it can be played mostly on auto.

Earthfort's survivability and mitigation are primarily tied to its shields, with many of its strongest talents only working while you have one. With that in mind, naturally, its gameplay revolves entirely around generating shields through abilities such as Rage Burst and Shield Bash, which you’ll access by spending Sand Crystals and Rage.

Earthfort also gains access to near-permanent Super Armor, making them an immovable object in the face of enemies, ensuring you’re always in control of your character. Despite having minimal heals, Earthfort's shields allow it to handle its own survival competently, even with minimal assistance.

If what you want is raw damage mitigation without too much else, Block is the go-to choice when tanking. Block spec is unique in that it gains 100% block for free almost permanently, thanks to its signature Special ability Countercrush, which applies a buff that temporarily maxes it out. Keeping this active is at the heart of Block’s playstyle. Much of the spec's damage mitigation comes through enhancing Block’s total damage reduction effect, which, with guaranteed blocks, can be treated as permanent.

Block also gains access to a second layer of block, “Lucky Block”, for further protection and mitigation, incentivising building Luck considerably. Finally, Block is capable of running the ability Sandgrip without sacrificing much, adding another control effect to its arsenal. This can also be swapped out for further resource generation, though.

Smite’s strength is the ability to output damage, healing, and shielding all at the same time, thanks to a portion of all damage it deals being converted into healing. With that said, Smite’s healing isn’t at a level where it can comfortably serve as the sole healer of the group in more difficult endgame content compared to the other three sustain specs.

While healing output is on the lower side, Smite is the sustain with the strongest team-wide shielding and cleansing abilities - something which is incredibly valuable when other healers are there to make up for your lower output. Smite’s gameplay revolves around maximizing damage by generating and spending its unique seed resource on its main ability, Infusion - a channeled seed machine gun. While Smite is challenging to play in small groups, it definitely has a strong position in larger ones.

If maximum healing output, incredible team-wide defensive cooldowns, and easy gameplay are what you’re after, Lifebind Spec should definitely be at the top of your list. This Spec enhances Oracle’s stat buff from 50 to 200 and applies near-permanent elemental damage reduction for the team.

Lifebind’s gameplay is incredibly simple and revolves entirely around the Nourish ability, which applies a Heal over Time to up to 10 nearby allies, stackable up to 5 times. The name of the game is to build up to and maintain 5 Nourish on all allies while tactically using other abilities as needed. With just this Lifebind rockets to the top of total healing output while also being one of the easiest sustains to play.