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Author Topic: Phantasy Star Online 2 - Fighting a capital ship with a laser greatsword.  (Read 60065 times)

Jelle

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Mags! In 99% of cases, you want all S-atk/T-atk/R-atk. Pick the relevant one. Bravers can also add a little dex if they take braver mag but generally I wouldn't reccomend it if you're worried about messing your mag up. The issue with ti is that dex's effect falls off at some point and nobody is really sure exactly where it happens.

So as a braver do I focus on either S or R atk or is it a viable option to do a little bit of both. Having both options was most of the appeal of the class, seems like a shame to specialize in only one. :(
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Girlinhat

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That's kind of the point of a Braver, is to branch out.  Your Mag should boost your main attack stat more than anything else - for a multi-attack class, raise multiple stats.  But I believe bravers have a dex deficiency that doesn't let them get the full damage potential from their weapons.

Girlinhat

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So you're probably thinking right now, "Girlinhat's probably broken the game" and you'd be right.  Because that's what I do.  There's a set of game mechanics in place, and I game them until it bends to my will.  For today's breaking?  Weapon upgrades!

There are 5 types of ways to upgrade your weapons.
1: Grind - Spend Grinders and raise a normal weapon to +1, then +2, etc, all the way to +10.  Each grind adds about 5% to attack values, capping at a clean 150% power at +10.  This mean your weapon that does 100 damage will end up doing 150 after grinding.

2: Attributes - A weapon can have one attribute, an element.  This shows as an elemental icon, with a number, alongside the normal damage listing.  It adds (element_power/100)*weapon_power attack value as an extra elemental damage.  This means that your 100 damage weapon with 50 Ice would deal 100 physical damage and 50 ice damage - when you make an attack, it will simply pop up as "150" floating number.  This also means that your 100 damage weapon grinded to +10 would deal 150 physical damage and 75 ice damage.

You can raise the elemental damage of a weapon by sacrificing other weapons.  The sacrificial weapon must be the same rarity - it works better if the weapon has the exact same name, and EVEN BETTER if the weapon has the same name and elemental damage.  The maximum is 50.

3: Extension - You can spend rare materials to craft your weapon higher, using the 'crafting' system.  It's best to get started on this as soon as you start playing, because you have freely available 'daily crafts' that consume no resources, but reward you with resources, crafting skill experience, and other rare items related to crafting.  You WILL need this later.  What extending does, is it raises essentially any weapon towards the natural damage ceiling.  At maximum extension and +10 grind, all weapons of the same type will have the same damage value.  A 7star Red Processor and a 1Star Rod, both maxed out, will have the same base stats.  Lower rarity items take more extensions, while higher rarity items take fewer extensions to reach the same point.  It will also raise the stat requirement to wield the weapon, so be sure you have enough stat to wield the post-extension weapon!

NOTE: Extending an item will remove any hidden or class quirks.  7star+ weapons have an unlisted damage variance of 90%-100% while 6Star- weapons have 55%-100% variance, and your Dex stat helps bring that closer to 100%-100%.  Grinding a 7star will revert that 90%-100% to a 55%-100% so your damage rate may drop, initially.  High-level players of any class except Braver (who sometimes lacks dex) don't have to worry about this.  Young characters using hard-won rare items can suffer, temporarily.  Similarly, if the weapon has any multi-class abilities that are unusual for that weapon (a rod that a hunter can wield) then that will be lost.  HOWEVER an extension also has the ability to add multi-class options to a weapon!

Potential - When you grind a weapon to +10 you can unlock its potential, which will cost photon spheres (so it's costly) and reset its grind to 0, but give it a unique ability, like +10% damage to forest creatures, or +10% fire damage.  There's a list of potential abilities, some are better than others.  You can unlock potential 3 times, to a total of level 3, which will require 30 grinds up and a cluster of photon spheres.
List of potentials: http://pso2.cirnopedia.info/potential.php

Abilities - The real issue here.  While other weapon upgrades are fairly straightforward, like throwing grinders or elemental weapons at an item, Abilities are more quirky and costly.  They can be valuable, such as adding straight T-ATK or straight T-DEF, or perhaps most importantly, adding +PP.  The problem is the existential grind of collecting these items.  You see, to raise an ability, you need more items with that ability.  Luckily, any weapon can upgrade any weapon, you don't need them to match at all, but armor cannot upgrade a weapon.

There's two types of ways to upgrade abilities, by depth and by width.  That is, you can make one ability better, or you can add more abilities, or both.  Preferably both.

First the depth, to make one ability better.  You have to either find an existing high-value ability, or combine low-value abilities.  Technique I gives +10 T-ATK, while Technique II gives +20 T-ATK.  To upgrade from I to II, you need to combine 2x or 3x of I's.  Combining 2xI will give you a 60% chance of upgrading to a II.  Combining 3xI will give you 80% chance of upgrading to a II.  This means you'd need 3 separate items, each with Technique I, select one as the target of upgrade, and sacrifice the other two items.  Going from II to III (which has +30 T-ATK) would give you a 30% or 50% success rate, if you're combining 2 or 3 items with II.  This means, ideally, you'd be burning 2 items into 1 each step.
To hit Technique II, you'd need 3 Technique I's. (80%)
To hit Technique III, you'd need 9 Technique I's. (50%)
To hit Technique IV, you'd need 27 Technique I's. (40%)
To hit Technique V, you'd need 81 Technique I's. (30%)

These abilities can be transferred, painfully.  Moving a I to an empty weapon has 100% success.  Moving a II to an empty weapon has 60%, and it gets worse from there, with moving a V value ability to a weapon, intact, has a 10% success rate.  You can improve this by sacrificing multiple of the same ability.  If you (somehow) have 3 items with Technique V, and want to change one ability on one of them, you can combine all three items, giving you a 50% chance for your Technique V to remain intact.  This failure chance ALWAYS occurs any time that weapon is used in an ability transfer.  If you've got a weapon that already has Technique V, and you want to add a different ability to it, then keeping the Technique V would only have a 10% chance.  This makes your existing high-level ability weapons rather important and difficult to add new abilities to them.

That's for ONE ability.  For TWO abilities (the width), such as Technique for +T-ATK and Spirita for +PP, you'd need to expand a 1-slot weapon to 2-slot.  Expanding slots has a failure chance, which raises as the number of slots raises.  To raise slots, you'd combine a 1-slot and a 1-slot weapon into a 2-slot - such as you have one weapon that has Technique I, and another that has Spirita I, you may want to combine those to get Technique and Spirita on the same item.  These I's normally have a 100% success rate, but because you're trying to add a slot to an item, you take a penalty, in this case 90%.  If you've got one item with Technique II (60% transfer rate) and a second with Spirita I (100% rate) and try to combine them into one item with both abilities, then you'd have (.60*.90) = 54% rate to add Technique II and (1.0*.90) = 90% rate to add Spirita I.

But wait, there's ways to raise the transfer rate!  Two ways, in specific.  The first are consumable items.  The best booster is +30% flat success rate, and comes at the cost of 20 excubes.  When your character hits level 70, every time they'd normally gain a new level, they instead gain 2x excubes.  This makes those 30% booster items quite valuable, as you have to gain 10 levels over cap, and means experience is always valuable.

The other method is boss souls, items gained from the big red crystals that bosses drop when they die.  If any weapon involved in an ability transfer has a boss soul on it, that soul will be burned and a boost will be given to the transfer rate.  MOST weapons with boss souls are only 1 or 2 slot items, but if you have 3 weapons, one is blank, the second has a boss soul, and the third has the same boss soul, you can expend those to put the boss soul on the first weapon - unlike normal abilities that transfer normally, a boss soul can ONLY be transferred if you have 2 or more of that soul in the mix.



So, you may be asking, that's all well and good Miss Hat, but what's the practical breakdown?  Well here it is...  it's a lot of planning.
Step 1: Decide what abilities you want to have at the end. http://pso2.cirnopedia.info/abilities.php  I suggest +ATK +PP and one boss soul.  Due to limitations, you CANNOT get 2 boss souls on the same weapon - you'd need to combine 4 different weapons to accomplish this, which isn't possible.  The fewer abilities you choose, the easier this will be.

Step 2: Get 81 weapons that each have that ability at level I, including your target weapon.  If you want a boss soul (and you do) then make sure each weapon has the same soul, so prepare to grind one particular boss a lot.

Step 3: Start fusing those weapons, combining I's into II's and II's into III's until all 81 have been forced down into one weapon that has all of them at V's.

Why is this so?
You could technically work with only 54 of the boss souls, but what they give importantly is a boost to transfer rate, which is important.
Combining abilities has a higher success rate than moving an ability.  So you do NOT want a weapon with Technique V and a weapon with Spirita V and toss both of those onto the same weapon.  If you're combining those onto a 1-slot weapon, you'd only have a 9% success to raise the slot number and add those abilities.  If you were adding those two from separate weapons onto a weapon with 2 slots already, it's still only 10% success.  However, if you have IV and IV and IV and combine them onto the final weapon, that's a 30% success rate.  Start adding in boss soul burns and those excube 30% boosters, and things start to look a lot better.

The good news?
ANY weapon works.  If you want 3 final abilities, then ANYWHERE you find those abilities, on any weapon, can go into the mix.  You simply need to start pairing up weapons to combine slot values and end up with 3-slot weapons that have the abilities you want, which has a decent success rate when you're only dealing with I's and low slot numbers.

Jelle

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This is pretty much exactly the information I was looking for. Many thanks for writing it all down.

Jeez I thought it was starting to get a little complex at around potential but nope why not add a whole slew of abilities on top. It's not like it can get to complicated or anything haha.

Edit:
What exactly are the client orders? Side quests?
Client orders are pretty much how you progress through the game asides from the story. Some involve specific quests, or just killing specific monsters sometimes with certain criteria. They give a good amount of xp and sort of guide you through the various levels. The orders from coffee are required to acces new areas.

Unrelated but something I didn't quite figure out straight away so I'll share as well, the matter board is for progressing the storyline. It's...a little strange if you ask me. You unlock nodes by witnessing certain events, finding specific items and whatnot. Unlocking the nodes let's you take on the ones connected to it. Clear the board enough and you I think you unlock a story quest and after that a new board. 's how it seems to work for me so far.
« Last Edit: May 25, 2014, 03:05:24 pm by Jelle »
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Seriyu

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Mags! In 99% of cases, you want all S-atk/T-atk/R-atk. Pick the relevant one. Bravers can also add a little dex if they take braver mag but generally I wouldn't reccomend it if you're worried about messing your mag up. The issue with ti is that dex's effect falls off at some point and nobody is really sure exactly where it happens.

So as a braver do I focus on either S or R atk or is it a viable option to do a little bit of both. Having both options was most of the appeal of the class, seems like a shame to specialize in only one. :(

Most bravers focus on katanas. However, I am totally all in for trying nonstandard builds, so I want you to know that I fully back this up. Not that I can really offer much support with the traing restriction.

In this case, a mag has 175 levels (I think). I'd, as girl in hat said, pick a "main type". Katanas are considered the better half of braver, if you care.

So, what I'd do is put 100 levels in your primary attack stat (out of S-atk/R-atk), and 75 in the other atk stat. Be sur to look up mag evolution on cirnopedia so you can get the one you want, although it's primarily a looks thing rather then a photon blast thing, because photon blasts will universally fuck everything up and then fall off and become terrible as you progress. So keep that in mind.

Quote
Words from girlinhat

Good work!

If you haven't posted this on the team room bulletin board I can condense this post down do that for ya. If it's already there it's fine, I can edit it down if people complain about length.
« Last Edit: May 25, 2014, 04:37:02 pm by Seriyu »
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Girlinhat

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T-ATK photon blast is to restore PP.  Always relevant.

Seriyu

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That's true, there are a couple of restorative photon blasts that are always good, I dunno if r-atk is one of them. Pretty sure S-atk isn't at least.

Jelle

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So since it appears reallocating skill points isn't free I figure I should sort out where I want to spend those points in advance (and probably remake this character). There's a couple of things I don't know yet to go about deciding all that though.

What are charged attacks? Is that when you time your attacks just right as per the red circle indicator, in other words just attacks? Or are those attacks you genuinly have to hold and release, like most bulletbow attacks?
What does dex do exactly? I know there's dex requirements, and that it brings weapon damage range from a 55-100% towards a 90-100%, but not much else. I assume the damage range dex scaling hits a wall at some point, or however else it scales? Is there some optimal value here?
On that matter is braver mag worth it? A 50/50 s and r atk return per point of dex on the mag doesn't seem bad, if the dex itself is also useful. I've only heard bad things about dex mags though, so I take it it's not worth raising dex much?
I've already gathered stances don't stack, at least stances in the same skill tree. What about two stances, one from a main class and the other from sub class?
What's the max lvl? I'm serious I don't know and I need to know the total available skill points. -_-

And class specific, is braver's rapid fire awful or what? At rank 1 it actually reduces my overall damage. How many skill points does it take before the damage is on par with regular shots I wonder.
Lastly, any reccomendations for a subclass in my case? All these skill trees can be a little overwhelming.  :o
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Facekillz058

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As an MLG Braver, I have a few things to tell you folks.
Each weapon has many different ways to play, depending on how you want stuff to die.
Firstly, Katana:
Sort of meh damage, but SUPER fast, which allows you rebuild PP quickly. The Katana can also do very heavy AoE DPS.
The BIGGEST bonus of the Katana, though, is the Katana Combat skill, I think it is. Upon activating it, you'll be like, super deadly for 20 or so seconds, but if you use the skill again before it's over, you hit EVERYTHING in a pretty huge radius for MASSIVE damage. I'm talking like, 8k at level 18 here.
The second awesome thing about the Katana, though, is your ability to juggle things, and keep them in the air for long periods of time. That's enough to either keep you out of harms way, or to keep an enemy from doing anything at all.
Countering is also nice.

I use two weapon slots with my Katana for two skill sets: One is a super fast single target juggler set, to attack enemies in the air and keep them there, and the other is slower, with the heaviest AoE damage abilities, just for bosses or groups.

I find Bows to be the consistent damage king, though.
You can build it to do AoE but you won't be getting the most out of it.
If you focus on single target abilities, your damage will go through the ROOF.
I use Master Shot, Kamikaze Arrow, and Sharp Bomber, which is a very close ranged build with a very large amount of damage, though single target for the most part. Sharp Bomber is good for taking out groups of weaker enemies.
Bow's ONE fault is that it's harder to build PP, which I recommend Rapid Shot for, because frankly, you shouldn't be auto-attacking much with this thing.

So it's not about focusing on one weapon type, but rather, switching between the two to get the best out of each. Bow as much as possible for the heavy DPS, Katana for the Katana Combat burst, and utility.
« Last Edit: May 25, 2014, 05:30:42 pm by Facekillz058 »
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Seriyu

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So since it appears reallocating skill points isn't free I figure I should sort out where I want to spend those points in advance (and probably remake this character). There's a couple of things I don't know yet to go about deciding all that though.

What are charged attacks? Is that when you time your attacks just right as per the red circle indicator, in other words just attacks? Or are those attacks you genuinly have to hold and release, like most bulletbow attacks?
What does dex do exactly? I know there's dex requirements, and that it brings weapon damage range from a 55-100% towards a 90-100%, but not much else. I assume the damage range dex scaling hits a wall at some point, or however else it scales? Is there some optimal value here?
On that matter is braver mag worth it? A 50/50 s and r atk return per point of dex on the mag doesn't seem bad, if the dex itself is also useful. I've only heard bad things about dex mags though, so I take it it's not worth raising dex much?
I've already gathered stances don't stack, at least stances in the same skill tree. What about two stances, one from a main class and the other from sub class?
What's the max lvl? I'm serious I don't know and I need to know the total available skill points. -_-

And class specific, is braver's rapid fire awful or what? At rank 1 it actually reduces my overall damage. How many skill points does it take before the damage is on par with regular shots I wonder.
Lastly, any reccomendations for a subclass in my case? All these skill trees can be a little overwhelming.  :o

Allow me!

1. Certain PA's can be charged. It's most prevalent with the hunter's sword attacks, but I've found a fist attack that can be charged, and it sounds like braver has some too. Just attacks are what you just described and do not intersect with charged attacks in any way. They are, however, very important to get down for reasons I will describe in a moment.

2. Dex from what I understand mostly narrows your damage range via raising your min damage. There is an optimal amount but I haven't found it.

3. Dex mags are useful soley on braver solely because of that skill. But, I'm unsure of precisely how many points to invest in mag dex/the skill. People seem convinced it's at least worth a point or two though.

4. Stances between classes and subclasses do stack. It's the main reason hunter is so valued as a subclass. So you could have weak stance and fury stance active at the same time.

5. Max level is 70, your subclass will level up seperately, with another cap of 70. Similarly, any skill points you put into a class while it's your main class will remain in your subclass. Subclasses level slower, so if you're in a hurry to get that subclass up switching your main and subclass is a legit way to speed that up.

6. (I'm skipping rapid fire because I have no idea), the best subclass for offense, presuming you're not trying to do anything fancy and are not a force/techer, is hunter, no questions asked. Focus on getting fury stance as beefy as possible (ignore crit skills, crits are terrible in this game), and you won't go wrong.

And finally. There is a skill simulator in the OP in the "useful links" spoiler. If you could replicate your current skill build and show me it, that'd be nice. I'd be willing to bet you're fine as far as skills right now, you probably don't have to restart.

Jelle

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And finally. There is a skill simulator in the OP in the "useful links" spoiler. If you could replicate your current skill build and show me it, that'd be nice. I'd be willing to bet you're fine as far as skills right now, you probably don't have to restart.

Indeed I saw, very useful! :)
Not sure about my current skill setup, but here's one I quickly put together based on your helpful advice.

Still, would need to know if dex that high is actually useful. Decisions decision!
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Seriyu

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Crit skills are universally awful, if you have to get them to get to another relevant skill, get the min amount of points for them an put those points somewhere else. I'm also unsure on ability up, but as we've covered dex is kind've an engima. Braver mag I'm unsure that you need that many points in for similar reasons. You could probably keep ability up/braver mag in the current state, but I'm not 100% on how good it'd be. It won't break things I'm willing to bet, I guess.

Consider reallocating the extra points from critical skills at the very least, to one of your tree's step skills, probably braver, for that HP recovery just reversal thing. Don't put points into both tree's step skills, it'll have no additional effect, they do not stack. I've found step attack very very useful, and a lot of people take just reversal, it looks like braver also gets HP recovery on just reversal activation so maybe some points in there too if you have them. Get the minimum three from step advance. If you remove any skills from ability up/braver mag, resulting in extra points, consider putting them in an S-atk up skill, they're a pretty great dump skill.
« Last Edit: May 25, 2014, 06:31:24 pm by Seriyu »
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majikero

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I've hit a slump in my Lightning Force. It just doesn't have he punch to kill bosses in a timely manner.
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Girlinhat

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I've hit a slump in my Lightning Force. It just doesn't have he punch to kill bosses in a timely manner.
I haven't found it, but apparently there's one Lightning spell that shoots an orb of lightning that embeds in an enemy and amplifies all lightning damage done while it's there.  That'll probably help tons.

Seriyu

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Okay, so, there's a team tree.

Here's the thing, the tree gives out buffs. Hooray! Offense, defense, drop rate, other things probably, I've forgotten. Feel free to get buffs!

On one condition. You see, the tree needs water to give buffs, and TP converts into water. Soooo please buff responsibly. Don't use them for every little thing, and do try to do team quests/party up with people to make up the TP, or we're never gonna get anywhere with it.

Watering can only be done by team leaders and managers, so that's a thing too. I'll assign some managers eventually.

Okay? Okay.
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