Human PT? Help?

[OriginalB]

I decided to go PT on my male Human and I'm not sure what a good setup is. Mainly what I'm looking for is what techs I should use, but a complete guide/setup would be fine too.

I think I would enjoy PT because of the melee weapons: Spear, Knuckles, Doubles, Long Sword, and maybe axe. I'm not sure about Axe because of the Axe I'm using is only A rank and I been using Anga Jabroga but it seems too slow to keep up with anything and seems as though its inferior to the others.

The reason I like Long Sword is because of Magana Slayer and its lv.3 incapacitate attribute so I play on using a long sword.

I usually dont use rifle until a boss battle comes up that needs it, and I often use Shotgun. Although I'm not sure what bullet to use on shotgun because the ice bullet is great at 30 and I havent leveled up Barada Maga or w/e (the one with Acc/Eva debuff).

And Techs I honestly dont know what to use. It seems like the attack techs are rather worthless, at least the ones I use. Can someone prove me wrong on this? Please? :-/

[Akaimizu]

I wish I could help you there, at the moment. However, I haven't really gone into PT yet, with my human, on PSP. However, since you can use the best of Long staves, I'd figure you should be able to get your hands on a large amount of TP.

[OriginalB]

Yea I know, I just was using barta, gibarta, gidiga and all of them seemed to deal really slow damage in comparison to, say, my double saber. Or anything else really

[Akaimizu]

Well, on my Guntecher in PSU, I kind of know when techs become quite a useful alternative; however, it's situational and usually requires an enemy that has resistances to such (non-techs) and also make it often problematic trying to stay within optimal range, otherwise. (Plus Guntecher was modified quite a bit, to increase those techs to situational useful status)

But I'll talk about general (non-specific-class specific) ideas for techs:

Normally, I start with the primary (easy damage) techs. Just to name a few of them.

Foie (fast, and some good single enemy damage)
Diga (a lot like Foie, but slower. First ten levels seem too slow, but the 2nd ten levels and it starts to show its potential)
(Nozdiga is mainly for folks who can get level 30 techs. Level 20 or below Nozdiga pales in comparison to Diga)

I've never really been a fan of the barta damage. The Gi techs can sometimes seem a bit weak at level 20 limited, as well. However, I'm not sure how bad Gidiga would be with a fantastic staff, though.

Still, Foie and Diga are probably your easiest relatively-fast levelling techs to give you an idea of how effective offensive-tech casting can be for your character. Plus they do most of what they need to do (outside of power, visual size (and SE level, though it's often less of a thing to worry about with techniques) without going to 21 and above) However, with protranser, it's likely that much of your power behind those abilities lies with the power of your weapon. Perhaps, that is what makes up the difference, for those techs.

[Konstanse_Xx]

Uh, for techs focus on Diga, Foie, and possibly Zonde/Megid/Barta.

Not sure if they added in the Dam- spells but I only used Dambarta and Damdiga, you'll barely use the dam spells tbh.

You'll mostly find yourself burning things down with non-techs.

[OriginalB]

So its best to just.. not use them at all? It seems like Diga and Foie arent that awesome since they're both only single target that's why I wasnt using them. I have diga at 20+ (for masterforce), but it seems only useful in knocking down large bosses like SEED-Ardite and then kicking their ass with melee.

Beyond techs though, what's a generally good setup for DPS as a PT?

[panzer_unit]

For PT I use just about all the different categories of weapons...

For guns every category has its own purpose. Lasers and grenades are your best damage output, if you can hit your max worth of targets and just hammer away on them all. Shotguns are also crowd control but so-so for damage because of their low ATP. I think appropriate melee skills are more powerful than point-blanking with a shotgun for taking out one or two targets at a time up close. Rifles for sniping (it comes in handy do get a status on a distant enemy really early sometimes) ... Bows, I haven't found a good reason to use them yet.

For melee, pick whatever you can use with the best ATP and %'s for the area you're going to and bring PA's to suit what you need (usually: spin attack, multi-target damage, single target damage, messy crowd control)

Techs - I stack a rod with everything I can get in some useful element. I find for my human character (and this is before getting a top-tier rod for TP) that they do decent damage compared to my guns, and cast fast enough to be useful with a har/quick. On the downside they're not as good for area effect or SE as equivalent guns, but they make up for it by letting you dynamically switch between different AOE attacks (line when enemies spawn, ra- when they bunch up at range, dam- when they rush me) without eating up 2/3 of your palette for a single element.

The biggest problem for setting up a PT is going to be the 36 PA limit. You have to be choosy about which tech and bullet elements you learn unless you want to focus on the elements found on your favorite missions.

[Deragonite]

PT is a fun and rewarding class to play. Regardless, if you're asking for the most optimal setup, here's my recommendation.

High % Spears (preferably Muktengeks) and Dus Majarra are the bread&butter of PT (and FM for that matter). Also, use Spiral and Tornado dance for tougher, more aggressive monsters (generally large monsters like Svaltus, Kamatoze, etc. and more dangerous ones like Delnadians).

Use shotguns for mop up. Nothing else a PT uses can instantly pop 3500 damage on a straggling monster that survived your bread&butter Majarra/Dances. You may consider Gravity break, but it is much slower, and you cannot move for nearly 3 seconds the moment you use it. This immobility makes it less ideal as a quick mop up tool.

Use Rifles for flying bosses and birds that escape your other 2 main weapon types.

That's about it to be honest. Everything else is just for fun and loses to the above 3 in absolute efficiency. Only exceptions are monsters that may be resistant to bullets/melee and a different weapon might come into play. Perhaps you might consider jabroga on bosses, but with the nerf, Jabroga is hardly even usable now.

[OriginalB]

I havent even used jabroga before Portable so I wouldnt know what "the nerf" is. What made it good before as opposed to now?

I use the spear from the 80% title as of now. What about claws? I used them as an AM and I kinda liked them with the skill you get from lvl 10 AM. I also like knuckles a lot I think, and I think I'll like them even more when I get ikk hikk. Are any of the axe skills useful? I know majarra is the absolute beast in this case but I'm tryin to find other playstyles I suppose.

panzer, you mentioned using grenades. I don't particularly like grenades because the knockback from them makes them not bunched up anymore, especially for enemies that roll after you knock them back. Is there a way to combat this? Am I just bad with grenades?

I do like lazers, they're a lot of fun. I just havent gotten a good one for this character yet. Also, panzer you mentioned using a stacked rod... What element? or would this just vary depending on the enemies element?

I really think I'll be using Swords a lot. I know tornado dance isnt that great but I think its pretty good when used with Magana Slayer because of the incapacitate. Any thoughts on this? Magana slayer can only hit 3 targets on a regular swing, but the skill hits more so isnt that useful?

CURRENTLY IM USING:
-Gudda Igga (80% knuck reward) with Bogga Danga lvl 30
-Mugunburga (80% spear reward) with Majarra lvl 30
-Sweet Death with Spiral and Tornado at 30
-Shigga Baret 11* Shotgun, using lvl 30 ice bullet
-Svaltus Sword with tornado dance. I dont use this one that much I only used it to level tornado dance until I get Magana Slayer like I have on my cast
-Rod with random sht that I shouldnt be using

I switch to my weak rifle that I have for boss battles considering for most boss battles you will need it. I'm planning on getting both Magana Slayer and that other 12* Sword incase I need it. I obviously need a new Double also. I originally wanted to play PT for the techs that are available but I'm quickly finding out they're not worth it.

[panzer_unit]

I havent even used jabroga before Portable so I wouldnt know what "the nerf" is. What made it good before as opposed to now?

Jabroga got nerfed? I haven't been a fighter since I hit FM10. I know that it's missing a LOT of its damage modifier as compared to ForteFighter or FighMaster online, damage modifier is 330% at lv30 (max for Portable, and for online Protranser) and it goes to 410% at lv40 (hello Fortefighter) ... which sends damage from "scatter nearly-dead enemies all over the room" to "kill whole spawns in one shot"

panzer, you mentioned using grenades. I don't particularly like grenades because the knockback from them makes them not bunched up anymore, especially for enemies that roll after you knock them back. Is there a way to combat this? Am I just bad with grenades?
...
I really think I'll be using Swords a lot. I know tornado dance isnt that great but I think its pretty good when used with Magana Slayer because of the incapacitate. Any thoughts on this? Magana slayer can only hit 3 targets on a regular swing, but the skill hits more so isnt that useful?
...
I switch to my weak rifle that I have for boss battles considering for most boss battles you will need it. I'm planning on getting both Magana Slayer and that other 12* Sword incase I need it. I obviously need a new Double also. I originally wanted to play PT for the techs that are available but I'm quickly finding out they're not worth it.

Knuckles and Claws are good weapon types. They're low power but have fast attacks and skills with high ATP% modifiers. Most of the rares are packing status attacks too (sleep, shock, stun, infect, freeze, hp absorb) which can make completing combos against groups of enemies easier.

Anga Dugrega is my favorite axe skill. I use it to take enemies down one at a time out of a large dangerous group... it lets you kick one enemy all over the room while jumping and running after them, great for doing damage while preventing and avoiding counterattacks from everyone else.

I like swords, they've got the usual couple generic 1-on-1 and large monster damage skills plus Tornado Break which is pretty unique and great for taking down crowds of small targets.

There are a lot of targets grenades don't work against, you're not screwing up, but the monsterous ATP and damage modifier on element skills makes them worth getting a feel for and using whenever you can get away with it. Humanoid enemies seem to fly straight up and down for easy repeat shots, and large monsters just stagger around so you can just go hardcore on the fire button in a lot of cases. The skill Boma Maga doesn't have launch, making it easier to pound on soft targets with, but it has a very low ATP%

What do I put on a rod? OK suppose we're doing some missions on Parum... like Dual Sentinel or Eco Protection maybe.

Laser (earth) - dealing with lightning-ele mobs at range
earth Sword (tornado break) - same guys, killing them up close now
earth Knuckles (bogga danga) - midbosses and stragglers
Yamata Misaki (renzan seidan-ga) - great for ripping up golmoros, I hate them
Grenade (dark) - golmoros and fricking stateria
... lots of weapons to deal with various earth and dark enemies effectively.

How the hell am I supposed to cover all the fire types running around?
Rod (barta, gibarta, rabarta, dambarta) - boom, cha.

It's got range, crowd control, close combat, etc. It's not the strongest Ice attacks I could be rocking (Psycho Wand will change that though) but it fits them all in one palette slot so I don't compromise on gear for other elements. Right now my TP is close but definitely above ATP equipping any of my best weapons except for Axe, which puts linear attack techs below but still in the same ballpark as laser cannon skills, and ra-type technics a reasonable second-best to elemental damage attacks from my high-PP GRM grenade launcher (without throwing everything into the air too) ... but the frustrating thing about Rod weapons is that the normal A and S-rank gear is all Yohmei which has a huge TP disadvantage compared to Kubara weapons. A Gao Rod or Psycho Wand would skyrocket my tech and there just isn't that sort of increase available for most physical weapons.

[OriginalB]

Interesting thoughts panzer. Thanks a lot!