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View Full Version : XBow PA's worth the effort? Also opinions on'must learn' PA'



Turbobrain
Jan 3, 2008, 12:53 AM
The past few days, my latest project has been to level up my FG(Davros). My FG friend suggested that Xbows as well as Dual Handguns and rifle where probably one of the best FG weps and I should start levelling the corresponding PA's for aforementioned weapons.

I always knew that bullet PA's are considered 'tough' to level up but my first alt on PSU was a Newman FTr so I know about levelling up 'tough' PA's.I even levelled up a few longbow bullet PA's to 30 and didnt think it was that bad.

Question. So far I have not been to suprised other than TWO things regarding difficulty(and it is early days so forgive me if I'm talking crap:)). 1/ Dual Handguns PA's are much easier than I expected. 2/ XBows are VERY hard... 1=11 was tough.... literally my alt was levelling up faster than the PA(wow they made it easy to level). So, Is it WORTH it to level XBow PA's as a proirity in these 'early' days? my 'fire' one is 14... and that was tough!. I have been levelling fire(forgive me too tired to remember name) as IMO SE effects are one of the FG's offensive strengths and destructiveness. I have also been doing this at the expense of levelling other weapons PA's?

Going back to SE's. Am I right here? I NEVER played gunners, not even on PSO. However from what I've observed many times it APPEARS the ability of gunner types to infict these SE effects probably does more than the 'initial bullet damage'.

Taking that view into account, I decided that levelling fire, and dark bullets is wise as these effects cause real damage(as opposed to silence) any advice here?

Of course, I realise that this all falls apart when it comes to fighting bosses and possibily enemies with high STA... in fact... regarding this... what do gunners normaly do as other than a few bosses like Omnagoug and to some extent Magus(Desert Goliath is a mission I intend to run a lot for Rattlesnake, Orpa, Blackbull and fun:)).

Oh yes, coming now to mission. The missions I intend to use this guy for at FIRST are. True Darkness S, Desert Goliath S2, Mother Brain S and any other mission thay drops gunner weps(GoF's?).

What PA's should I be concentrating on? I hear a lot about Killer bullet and I have it levelled to 12 in anticipation of the time I'll be fighting the robots on DG, GoF, ER etc.

As I said, I will be running True Darkness S for a while until I hit 80(and have good PA's to do the other Gunner drop missions).

What do would be considered the best PA's/weps to use for True Darkness(I see gunners using a lot of fire bullets, traps and of course SUV's). I remember that 1up I was really suprised at how well gunners faired on Hive missions AND Moatoob(good gunners that is;)).

Oh yeah, I would imagine I will be soloing these missions a lot of the time. Thanks for any help and advice. As usual, sorry for bad spelling, grammer, etc as usual I am tired. Any advice on any of the questions I have here or general advice on raising a good FG are welcome. I know this post is long and has a lot of questions but ANY advice is welcomed and really appreciated!

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Turbobrain on 2008-01-02 21:56 ]</font>

RandomTask
Jan 3, 2008, 01:14 AM
Get Zagenga for xbow asap and force yourself to level it to at least 21 and enjoy.

RACast_Raiden
Jan 3, 2008, 01:22 AM
if you got time to spare...learn all Bullet skills

Turbobrain
Jan 3, 2008, 01:26 AM
On 2008-01-02 22:22, RACast_Raiden wrote:
if you got time to spare...learn all Bullet skills



What ones to concentrate on first, especially for True Darknes S;)

Turambar
Jan 3, 2008, 01:27 AM
Light generally works. Basically, anything with Rising in the prefix.

Turbobrain
Jan 3, 2008, 01:35 AM
I would have thought that, however(ref my original post) I thought one of the main offensive strengths of a gunner is it's ability to inflict SE's. Baring this in mind.... more hits+SE lvl=more damage and more chance of inflicting SE's....

Light only confuses.

Fire and dark SE's can really give them a bad day.

*Points to Yamata-Misaki... IMO opinion one of the best FF weps(I play FF a fair amount)... not only is it a CLAW:) it has set bonus and SE REALLY hurts them in addition to set bonus..... for soloing Mother Brain S and taking out those neutral guys it cannot be beaten.... however I want to know about FG's!*

Aralia
Jan 3, 2008, 01:37 AM
rising and burning stuff for TD.
just 1 burning since you'll wanna burn the dilnazen and jushnaguns.

Miyoko
Jan 3, 2008, 01:47 AM
On 2008-01-02 22:35, Turbobrain wrote:
I would have thought that, however(ref my original post) I thought one of the main offensive strengths of a gunner is it's ability to inflict SE's. Baring this in mind.... more hits+SE lvl=more damage and more chance of inflicting SE's....

Light only confuses.

Fire and dark SE's can really give them a bad day.

*Points to Yamata-Misaki... IMO opinion one of the best FF weps(I play FF a fair amount)... not only is it a CLAW:) it has set bonus and SE REALLY hurts them in addition to set bonus..... for soloing Mother Brain S and taking out those neutral guys it cannot be beaten.... however I want to know about FG's!*



SE's can be handy early on in the game, but the stronger your character becomes, the less useful SEs become. I pretty much only use shotguns and lasers now. Xbows are out-damaged by shotties (with the exception of the UPA, or so we're told), and SE's are pretty much pointless. Stuff dies too fast for it to matter.

I SOMETIMES use my rifle/SEs on two or three enemies in a map. :/

RACast_Raiden
Jan 3, 2008, 01:50 AM
SE is quite "meh" now in AoI...so it doesn't really matter now.

UNLESS, you're soloing of course

Kion
Jan 3, 2008, 02:22 AM
S ranks

rifle - fire, ice, dark, killer shot
shotgun - fire, ice, lightning, ground, light, dark
laser- fire, ice, lightning, ground, light, dark
grenade- fire, ice, ground, dark, beserk
handgun - fire, ice

A ranks
twin handgun - what ever you feel like. mostly used for tagging
mechgun - none. use it to stun lock enemies when you need to move
crossbow - silence, light
spear - majjara
saber - rising strike, spinning strike

darkante
Jan 3, 2008, 02:33 AM
When iīm soloing TD S, i canīt argue and say Crossbow light bullets rules there.
Confuse is very handy for those pesky megid casting enemies.
Twin Handguns is good to put on those mages at the end.
But i usually stick with those light rounds on crossbow and make shortwork of the whole mission in 10 minutes.
The boss falls down easiely for that weapon if you donīt prefer to bring out a rifle.

But i godamn hate the mission, nothing really drops there.
Blackbull seems nowhere to be found after weeks of seaching.

Turbobrain
Jan 4, 2008, 03:49 AM
On 2008-01-02 23:33, darkante wrote:
When iīm soloing TD S, i canīt argue and say Crossbow light bullets rules there.
Confuse is very handy for those pesky megid casting enemies.
Twin Handguns is good to put on those mages at the end.
But i usually stick with those light rounds on crossbow and make shortwork of the whole mission in 10 minutes.
The boss falls down easiely for that weapon if you donīt prefer to bring out a rifle.

But i godamn hate the mission, nothing really drops there.
Blackbull seems nowhere to be found after weeks of seaching.




I feel your pain. I have had 2 Blackbulls drop when I was levelling Azatoth and they went to others.... both dropped within 4 missions of each other. I have since run over 140+ S runs and only got Dedda on boss.

I have ran S2 about 180+ times and got 3 Vipers, 2 Gizaha's, 1 Skela... and a Agito Repca(!), about 12 Agito Blades and misc other mats. Intrestingly enough not one Gazoran drop(board or mat) and I have only ever seen a mat drop once(outside 1up) on Hive B about 9 months back. Not ONE boss drop... meh the drops from Fakis S2 are tough.

OT:) So shotguns huh? I don't see many people using these abd thought they were slow but.... I guess I will have to level up my light XBow and rifle bullets for soloing True Dakness S.

This is gonna be funny at this low level:)... then Desert Goliath S2... gunner wep drops are touger, it semms

stukasa
Jan 4, 2008, 04:21 AM
Damaging SEs like burn and virus can be useful on large enemies like Gol Dolva, Svaltus and others but aren't as useful against small and medium mobs. Also, the more people you have in your party, the less useful virus and burn will be, because...stuff always dies fast in a large party. http://www.pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_razz.gif In a small party or soloing is when burn and virus are at their best.

Don't downplay the usefulness of non-damaging SEs. Shock, freeze and confuse are all good SEs. If you plan to use shotguns (and you should, because they do good damage at higher levels), definitely get lightning and ice because shock and freeze keep the enemies from knocking you around all the time.

As a good rule of thumb, if you want to know what PAs to get for each weapon, think about the following two things:
1) What enemies will you be fighting most often with this weapon?
2) Would a damaging SE (burn, virus) or a disabling SE (shock, freeze, confuse) be more effective in the missions you're running? This depends on the enemies, but like I said, I find myself using burn and virus mainly on larger baddies and using shock, freeze and confuse on the smaller and medium-sized ones.

beatrixkiddo
Jan 4, 2008, 04:37 AM
On 2008-01-02 23:22, Kion wrote:
S ranks

Rifle - Fire, Dark, Killer Shot
Shotgun - Any, these are your most damaging elemental bullets
Laser- Any, these can be excellent elemental damage in the right circumstances (not the frag ones)
Grenade- Berserk
Handgun - don't touch with a 10-foot pole

A ranks
Twin Handgun - Any, these are your second most damaging elemental bullets
Mechgun - None, unless you're still living in the mech glitch state of mind
Crossbow - Any, these are your third most damaging elemental bullets (the SE used to make them the best choice, but shotguns are #1 until enemies have more HP)
Spear - Majarra
Saber - Spinning Strike
Dagger - Hikai Shuha-zan or Buten Shuren-zan



There's my take on Kion's list.

Turbobrain
Jan 4, 2008, 05:01 AM
I'll be soloing a lot on this guy I imagine as I do a lot of rare hunting.

Well, at least while hunting Blackbull/Rattlesnake and Orpad/Guard and legs.

My FF can do DG S2 in 35 minutes solo... not a great time but I've only ran it a few times solo and the Magus is a pain once we loses his bottom half with FFr. I can do TD s2 fastest 17 minutes solo with FFr... IMO a good time. I'm hoping to be able to beat the DG S2 time by far(relying on Killer Shot to take out the robots) and get near the TD s2 time. Mother Brain I have down to about 35 minutes(last form can be pretty quick or seems to takw forever sometimes....). I'd be interested to see how well a FG fares on that mission.

Of course, I would not need to solo as much if more people learnt how to share drops/)

amtalx
Jan 4, 2008, 08:49 AM
I can't stress enough the importance of Shotgun and Laser Cannon bullets. That combo provides a majority of the real "punch" in fG offense. Leveling Shotguns is easy...Laser Cannons suck almost as much as Rifles. Speaking of Rifles, get Mayalee Shot if you aren't going to level all your Rifles elements. You'll need it for bosses.

panzer_unit
Jan 4, 2008, 09:45 AM
Lasers don't suck for leveling. I guess they level "like rifles" except for the ability to hit infinity targets in a shot... solo a place that gives up a lot of fights where you can hit 5-6 monsters at a time (Sakura Blast, White Beast) and you're set.

Laser and Grenade have huge stat gains from 30-40 so I'd suggest picking one skill to use all the time with it and stick to that until it hits max.

darkante
Jan 4, 2008, 09:50 AM
I advice you if are you are a true FG, you will try to level all S-rank weapons element photon bullets to max eventually.
I canīt stop saying the big satisfaction i got from finally leveling Fire elemental aligned Rifle to max some days ago.
Itīs take alot of patience and by that i mean alot!
Itīs just a matter of staying focused on a goal and never stop.

My main goal is to get the Blackbull rifle but at the same time i level my rifle bullet on DF...my fire rifle were at 30 when i began so you see my dedication to get it.
Good reason to bring out that crappy Killer shot and lv it on him also..itīs sad that he can be beaten while not even trying at least on S.

majan
Jan 4, 2008, 10:54 AM
On 2008-01-02 22:14, RandomTask wrote:
Get Zagenga for xbow asap and force yourself to level it to at least 21 and enjoy.



yak zagenga,that is. ultimate PA. costs 75 PA frags. go grind some frags and get this PA. easily it is one of the strongest in the ENTIRE GAME. base damage at 21+ you match the element bullet shots,but then as you lose HP,the damage multiplies at a rate of 3% damage for every 5% hp lost. so with 19% of your health missing,at maximum,you'll be doing a 57% bonus damage. multiplied by 3 bullets,and firing at the rate of a handgun...yeah...zagenga is strong. get it.

I also reccomend twin handguns ultimate PA:twin mayalee. it matches the elemental PA damage and also adds zalure,which in turn can be used as a status effect to boost damage on all your other weapons. also,get those rifle bullets up because even though now status effects mean dick,while soloing or in the future it may be helpful to be able to burn and infect those big baddies.

pikachief
Jan 4, 2008, 10:54 AM
Crossbows are my second best gunner weapon!(shotguns first of course)


Its quick, one-handed, has 3 bullets, does really good damage, and can SE very quickly ^.^

at 21+ crossbows are very good http://www.pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif

desturel
Jan 4, 2008, 11:10 AM
I'll just work off of Kion's list, but keep in mind that I'm a beast fG so I probably employ a different strategy than cast gunners.

rifle - fire, ice, dark, killer shot

I can't argue with any of these. I'd also throw in Ground since you plan on fighting Magahna. It's a bit safer when soloing to hit Maggahna with the rifle than to run around him with dualies.

shotgun - fire, ice, lightning, ground, light, dark
laser- fire, ice, lightning, ground, light, dark

I'd say the ground shotgun is optional. It's pretty situational. The Jarba in Lightning beast fall to it pretty hard, but most of the other lightning creatures you'll run into are strong against bullets or better taken care of by the laser. Gainozeros, Grass Assassin and Polavohra are better taken care of by a grenade launcher. Or if you are going to use a striking weapon, Buten shuran-zan, Gravity Strike, Rising Strike, Dus Majarra, etc. Polty, Lightning Distova, Lightning Go bajila are better taken care of by Laser. Lightning Shagreece are better handled by twin handguns. The robots and buggs are better handled by Killer Shot. Go Vahra are too mobile for reliable shotgun damage. Using a xbow would likely be a better option. If you are using it for silence, earth xbox is much more useful. You don't want to be standing still while buffed fire Olgohmon are tossing fastball foie at you.

grenade- fire, ice, ground, dark, beserk

I would replace the fire grenade with Light. You are mainly going to be using grenades against bosses and large enemies. Ice for De Ragan, berserk for Ragnus. Light for Fakis and Alterazgohg. Dark for Alterazgohg. Ground for Zoal Goug. Ice for Drua Gohra. Light for Seed Ardite, etc... Kamatoze and Ubakrada I use berserk on.

handgun - fire, ice

I use fire handgun on my fortetecher. I don't bother with it on my gunner unless I'm playing fF at the time. Even then I use lightning (dimma) and ice (onma)

twin handgun - what ever you feel like. mostly used for tagging

Ground for Gohmon. Ice for flying enemies. Ground if you don't plan on using a rifle on Maggahna

mechgun - none. use it to stun lock enemies when you need to move

ice mechgun isn't bad. I had my ice up to 30 when I learned about the glitch. I hated it because everyone thought I glitched it up to 30. http://www.pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_argh.gif

crossbow - silence, light

Silence, light, burn, and Zagenga

spear - majjara

Maybe add Dus Daggas. Daggas is quicker and easier to hit Degahna with. Majarra can miss the middle point of Degahna and takes longer to execute. Majarra is better for things like Grass assassin tho.

saber - rising strike, spinning strike

Spinning Strike and maybe Gravity Strike. Rising is good for getting out of trouble in hurry, but you are planning to do robot missions. Robot missions don't tend to have a ton of rushdown ememies that you aren't going to be using killer shot on. Maybe if you are doing Train Rescue or Stolen Weapon using it for the Rogue Oggs is good, but I prefer the laser cannon.

darkante
Jan 4, 2008, 11:11 AM
On 2008-01-04 07:54, pikachief wrote:
Crossbows are my second best gunner weapon!(shotguns first of course)


Its quick, one-handed, has 3 bullets, does really good damage, and can SE very quickly ^.^

at 21+ crossbows are very good http://www.pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif


Heh hugs my dark and light crossbow shots both at lv 38. http://www.pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/anime1.gif

Aviendha
Jan 4, 2008, 11:35 AM
On 2008-01-04 01:37, beatrixkiddo wrote:

On 2008-01-02 23:22, Kion wrote:
S ranks

Rifle - Fire, Dark, Killer Shot
Shotgun - Any, these are your most damaging elemental bullets
Laser- Any, these can be excellent elemental damage in the right circumstances (not the frag ones)
Grenade- Berserk
Handgun - don't touch with a 10-foot pole

A ranks
Twin Handgun - Any, these are your second most damaging elemental bullets
Mechgun - None, unless you're still living in the mech glitch state of mind
Crossbow - Any, these are your third most damaging elemental bullets (the SE used to make them the best choice, but shotguns are #1 until enemies have more HP)
Spear - Majarra
Saber - Spinning Strike
Dagger - Hikai Shuha-zan or Buten Shuren-zan



There's my take on Kion's list.


Agreed. Hikai over Buten and Rising Strike over Spinning Strike tho.

panzer_unit
Jan 4, 2008, 12:11 PM
Wait, are you starting from scratch on this guy? Everyone's giving a laundry list of skills.

Laser - get earth or phantasm (and level it to 40). Caster enemies are the ones that give me the worst headaches when firing lasers. Gotta dodge foie/diga all the time. The hits themselves will stop your targets cold.
Shotgun - start with ice, shock, or maga and get it to 31. All these SE's will do pretty well for stopping swarming melee enemies. Ice is best (stops stuff mid-attack, stops guys who run around a lot being hard to point-blank repeatedly, etc) but has the lowest apply rate.
Grenade - fire, berzerk, and maga all ASAP. Level and use fire for soloing (most of your targets will catch 2-3 burns along the way which is > proper element) and one or the other frag PA's on teams depending on if someone's got you covered for HP or not (huge damage, or rapid-fire freezing).

Rifle - I'd go for mayalee (or proper element, if you're really pounding on just one boss) and killer, just using them "naturally" whenever they're appropriate. Since you'll probably shoot laser, shotgun, and grenade 80% of the time it's good to minimize the rest of what you need to level up.

Mechgun - I'd get all elements use just that as my one-handed gun, again to get maximum effect out of . They do great damage without much effort spent leveling them (10% ele to start, no extra bullets to earn) and they're a midrange single-target DPS weapon, which covers a gap left by Laser and Shotgun.

Kylie
Jan 4, 2008, 02:36 PM
I HATE leveling bullets, so I feel your pain. Personally, I don't care for crossbows (I even forget they exist), but thewy really aren't -bad- weapons. Just a pain to level. >_>;

Golto
Jan 4, 2008, 02:55 PM
You shouldn't worry about using bullets for se against large monsters, use traps.

Akaimizu
Jan 4, 2008, 03:26 PM
Funny enough, I generally do. There's just never enough traps you can carry for the mission. Also, I do hate lag sometimes. The good ol' "Hey, you really didn't switch to that gun right there (from where I'm sitting) so those times you were trying to fire were all your 5 traps right there." It's one thing you can't replenish without leaving to the lobby.

I don't think I speak for all of the trap users, but I certainly use up all my usable traps, most missions, and there's plenty of large monsters left to require me to rely on bullet SEs. ST made it that way, on purpose, you know.

darkante
Jan 4, 2008, 03:31 PM
On 2008-01-04 11:55, Golto wrote:
You shouldn't worry about using bullets for se against large monsters, use traps.


If said target has multiple weakpoints, then Grenade launcher is a real good way to eliminate them now that we got the atp boost on expansion.
Stuns and knocks back..thatīs more then enough to kill it easiely.

Otherwise on big targets with only one weak point, traps is the way to go to quickly apply SE.
Virus traps btw rocks. http://www.pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_smile.gif