The Truth about Ability

[GoldenFalcon]

Through testing, I have determined an important part of how the ability stat works.

In order to do full damage with your weapon, your ability stat must be higher than the attack of the weapon. If your ability is less than the attack of the weapon, you get damage variance. Even if ability stat is only 1 or 2 less the variance is noticeable. You can imagine why it's bad if your ability is half the attack power of your +10 powerful weapon. (actual variance not tested)

This actually has interesting drawbacks with very high ability. For one, grinding makes you need more ability to fully utilize the power gained. Two, criticals are seemingly useless if your ability is high enough, only causing somewhere around 1 to 2% more damage, since you're hitting max already. Three, ability begins to yield no benefit unless you get a higher power weapon

And, well, rangers have it easy, since they're spoon fed ability stat


Reworded. Enemy Ability might as well still exist, I just got ahead of myself

[LionHeart-]

Interesting... I see where you are coming from, thanks for your thoughts.

Me personally, is treating the Ability stat as 'ATA-importance' on PSO 1. Like I might end up making a 150/160 R-atk : 50/40 Ability Mag, for my Ranger, or would you think I would need to close the gap between the two stats?

[eharima]

I currently have less ability than attack 366 / 435
I will test this theory, as i can engage in both scenarios.

okay, i very breifly tested this and in both situations with greater ability or weapon attack
there is both a wide variance, (upto 90pt difference)

have you accounted for builds? or what classes and situations have you tested with?
ima ranger and this skill tree has basically just maxed both pairs of ability up and weak hit up

[Aiex]

That explains a lot. I hit anywhere between 200 and 1200 with foie, which is frustrating. So raising ability will even out that damage, theoretically.

[eharima]

wow I didnt think the variance was THAT much
what sort of gap are eveyone getting then?

[Kanore]

thank god i can make my 50 satk 50 ability mag for now

thanks for this

[UnLucky]

I've got 248 Ability

Tested with a 244 Tech Talis (191 base) and a 334 Tech Rod (241 base) casting Ra Foie on Dagan

Talis: Damage is stable (~440), crits are double (~900)
Rod: Damage varies a bit (~480-540), crits are double (up to ~1100)

[Brindizer]

If this is true, I'm not even going to bother with the stat at all on my Hunter. 200 striking mag and all that. It's extremely unlikely that I'll be able to match ability with the best of the best weapons as we progress through the life of this game, and damage stability simply isn't worth losing out on all that damage potential.

[GoldenFalcon]

If this is true, I'm not even going to bother with the stat at all on my Hunter. 200 striking mag and all that. It's extremely unlikely that I'll be able to match ability with the best of the best weapons as we progress through the life of this game, and damage stability simply isn't worth losing out on all that damage potential.

That's exactly why Fury Critical exists, due to the nature of high weapon attack on hunters
Although spear is a bit of an exception

[Brindizer]

Exactly! With the extra 5 quest points, too, I can pick it up more easily.

[GoldenFalcon]

I've got 248 Ability

Tested with a 244 Tech Talis (191 base) and a 334 Tech Rod (241 base) casting Ra Foie on Dagan

Talis: Damage is stable (~440), crits are double (~900)
Rod: Damage varies a bit (~480-540), crits are double (up to ~1100)

Can you try equipping 3 armors with Rappy Soul for +90 ability, and see if the rod damage is higher than 540 (stable)?

[Rizen]

So according to your theory, I will stop people from pumping out pure stats to use higher equipment for more damage. Actually, I think this theory has a lot of potential and I will back it. I did observe something similar when I was using a Launcher that had 198 dmg vs a 223 dmg one, I was doing a bit more damage on the 198 dmg one, and it had a Rappy Soul on it.

I will definitely test this out earlier since I have a ton of rappy souls on units.

[gigawuts]

Excellent, I'm glad you caught on to this. I knew fury critical had to exist for a good reason, so it's actually quite handy on averaging out long term damage if you want to just keep pooling into s-atk.

[Taitu]

This certainly makes more sense. Considering there's no way we could have seen the enemy's ability stat it would have been impossible to gauge our ability otherwise.

[cheapgunner]

I've been raising the ability and attack of my mag. Would doing that raise my full damage potential?

[holmwood]

This thread gave me a LOT of reassurance on what to feed my mag. :D

On a side note, people need to start thinking more in terms of DPS than max damage.

Ive made two characters so far, and the ability/tech hybrod mag was dealing far better DPS than the full tech mag due to consistently higher damage output. The spikes in damage for the full tech mag were better, of course... but not enough to compensate for the severe damage fluctuations.

[IAmSecretSpy]

so a Full Ability Mag is the way to go huh?
Nice find btw I haven't been able to play :(

[gigawuts]

It sounds like this may not be the exact case, although it might be partially true. Adelheid is doing testing in the hunter skill tree thread in the walkthroughs section.

[NoiseHERO]

Seems legit.

Thinking of how my usual damage fluctuates, yeah I have an okay amount of ability, then again my mag IS half ability.

[M3rror]

I gotta test this. I've always wondered what ABL was and if it was ever discovered or not. Surprised SEGA hasn't said anything about it.

Laser+3 no element: 208 R-Atk
ABL: 236
Enemy: The robot in the desert with the blue orb on top
Both of us are Lv20

Damage with Just Attack: stayed around 20-26. A few times it went to 16-19, not much though. I can't tell if it's a critical hit or not though. I'm guessing that's what the bold numbers are? If so, they were in the same range of 20-26.

[UnLucky]

Can you try equipping 3 armors with Rappy Soul for +90 ability, and see if the rod damage is higher than 540 (stable)?

Only got one Rappy Soul and it's on a weapon. I'm working on getting armors with ability on them that I can switch out.

[gigawuts]

I gotta test this. I've always wondered what ABL was and if it was ever discovered or not. Surprised SEGA hasn't said anything about it.

Laser+3 no element: 208 R-Atk
ABL: 236
Enemy: The robot in the desert with the blue orb on top
Both of us are Lv20

Damage with Just Attack: stayed around 20-26. A few times it went to 16-19, not much though. I can't tell if it's a critical hit or not though. I'm guessing that's what the bold numbers are? If so, they were in the same range of 20-26.

I hear crits are green. I don't pay attention to colors myself so I have nfi.

[Dark Emerald EXE]

So pretty my ability affects the curve of damage between your minimum-maximum damage output?

[Zorafim]

casting Ra Foie on Dagan

Dagans have a weak spot on their belly which is really easy to hit with RaFoie. Your double damages are likely you hitting that weak spot.

It's really nice to know what ability finally does. Now we've got to see how much we need in relation to our levels to optimize DpS.

So if I'm reading this right... Ability required is not a problem when building personal attack power (via mag, level, or class tree), but is a problem when gaining new weapons.

[IAmSecretSpy]

Yes you will do higher damage thus higher dps

[Zyrusticae]

So I suppose another way to think of it would be...

Ability = minimum damage
Attack = maximum damage
So right now, I have 946 Tech Attack... and 246 Ability. So I have great maximum damage, but absolutely massive variation in that damage?

In all honesty, I really, REALLY doubt I could ever get my Ability to match my Tech Attack, even if I had all +Ability accessories and a full-Ability mag...

[IAmSecretSpy]

No ability gives you a higher dps/ higher damage

[M3rror]

It's not your stat, it's the T-Atk on the weapon from what GoldenFalcon is saying.

[IAmSecretSpy]

I stand corrected if your ability is higher then the damage of the weapon you will do higher dps if it's lower you wont maximize the damage done.

[Sigmund]

My test, which I also posted on Hunter's talent tree discussion



My test on that ability higher than weapon attack theory...

Character's ability: 278

First weapon: 323 ATK, no elements, monkeys in forest free H, first swing non-JA, 20 swings sword
109 123 132 104 121 139 118 120 (175) 112 146 146 172 140 169 156 130 120 132 153
Range: 109~175
Range difference: 66
Average: 135.85
Tends toward: 40.7%

2nd weapon: 246 ATK, no elements, monkeys in forest free H, first swing non-JA, 20 swings sword
105 (151) 122 120 120 137 101 150 144 95 98 136 133 116 107 118 104 131 150 136
Range: 95~151
Range difference: 56
Average: 123.7
Tends toward: 51.3%

[eharima]

I stand corrected if your ability is higher then the damage of the weapon you will do higher dps if it's lower you wont maximize the damage done.

it will affect the total output of DPS because you will always be hitting the highest DMG every time, it wonat affect the ACTUAL max DMG.

in theory.

[Zyrusticae]

Ahhh!

Still, at over 400 T-Atk on my weapon alone, I'm still nowhere near hitting that much Ability...

[xBladeM6x]

I'm probably going to get weird looks over this, but I seriously thought of this picture when I read "The Truth" in the title.

[SPOILER-BOX]http://www.gameinformer.com/cfs-filesystemfile.ashx/__key/CommunityServer-Components-UserFiles/00-00-45-58-71-Attached+Files/8838.Zw_2D00_Minerva_2D00_2.png[/SPOILER-BOX]

Of course it will only make sense, if you actually played the game it's related to. xD

[Zorian]

The last I heard this only applies to basic attacks correct? I'm pretty sure Techs and PAs don't factor in ability or they do to a much lesser scale. Otherwise everyone would want to go for pure ability mags.

It be kinda silly if this was the case because raising your Atk would have a much lesser impact and be pointless to go after.

[Darki]

It be kinda silly if this was the case because raising your Atk would have a much lesser impact and be pointless to go after.

But shiny unicorn.

[IAmSecretSpy]

Apparently Ability has no affect on damage? Then what is the point of an Ability Mag?

[Zorafim]

Striking increases damage per hit, Ability stabilizes damage per hit. Ability increases average damage by having the same higher cap on damage per hit, while having a less extreme lower cap on damage per hit.

Honestly, attack still seems like a better stat overall, from what I've seen. I'll let the math wizards do their work, though.

[IAmSecretSpy]

From what they showed it has barely any affect on the weapon even average damage wise.

[GoldenFalcon]

Monkies are a bad thing to test damage on, since their body parts have different defense values it seems
It's a lot easier to test damage on something like Dark Ragne's leg where all hits are affected by the same defense / damage resistance

[Spellbinder]

So pretty my ability affects the curve of damage between your minimum-maximum damage output?

This has been said several times already in the forum. Surprised nobody took notice until this thread.

[Saffran]

What's this nonsense about ability not affecting PAs? It's written in almost every description : "技量補正100%"

Also, crits don't do twice damage.

At the moment, from memory, my wired lance attacks do between 82 and 90 dmg to monkeys, 90 is coming in bold, blueish letters (indicating a critical). I do have a ton of ability though.(and wired lance are low Satk).

[velociti]

Just going to point out that enemies have a dynamic hitbox, meaning if you hit an enemy's arm, you'll get "this much damage", and if you hit the enemy's head, you'll get "this much and more damage" - also whatever weakpoint the mob has, its tail, head, etc.
Don't get that misinformation of hitboxes with damage variance of your weapon please.

[DreXxiN]

Definitely glad I leveled ability primarily as removing bits of the damage variance decreases RNG which makes the game more enjoyable for me. :D

[soulpimpwizzurd]

why the fuck didn't they just call ability dexterity or DEX

that's basically what it is, srsly

[DreXxiN]

Maybe there's not a Japanese word for dexterity? *Clueless*

Ability seems kind of fitting though, to be honest. It's kind of like weapon prowess; since you have more ability and experience in using a weapon you'd have more consistent results whereas if you couldn't use it properly you could (and should) do less consistent damage.

Just my 2 meseta.

And to be completely honest it is literally nothing like DEX of old. DEX in PSO was specifically a stat to determine hit rate (which is a non-factor in this game) and ability to equip ranged weaponry (Which R-ATK fulfills in PSO2.)

[Kanore]

why the fuck didn't they just call ability dexterity or DEX

that's basically what it is, srsly

dexterity/accuracy is a simulation of your motor skills, and just a mainstay/standard of RPGs where that's one of many things simulated with dice rolls

they got rid of that since they're all about the free movement thing in this game. you hit what you swing or shoot at.

[IAmSecretSpy]

Im pretty positive im still doing the Fury Stance Build, ill hold off using any more points and wait till they add the new weapons + possibly add onto the Tree in that case ill be happy and use the points then. But even still im Hitting Higher and doing more damage then Level 30's and im only Level 24... I have a Full Ability Mag but have been trying to level the Attack on it so when i use the Photon Blast it does more than 100 damage. I Still find it funny that i do more damage then 30+ haha except for the Rangers >_> They do incredibly stupid about of damage and since the PP is basically always Full they can SPAM it and always do crazy damage which i think is unfair to the other classes.

[Rob2003ert]

Can you people please stop taking all the theories that get posted here as gospel until more testing is done? There's been a whole bunch of different theories so far and every single time one is posted, everyone latches on to it and starts passing it off as fact. OP didn't post any numbers or data at all and almost every poster in here believed it without a second thought. Far more testing needs to be done before a conclusion can be drawn on how Ability works unless SEGA outright states exactly how it functions. If someone posts a theory, take it with a grain of salt, test it yourself, wait for more people to test it and draw similar conclusions. Right now the only official word we have to go off is the online manual which clearly states it compares your own ability to the enemies ability. I'm not writing off OPs theory, but it contradicts that entirely. To just believe it on the word of one poster and no data would be silly.

[Arika]

Sorry to say that this is wrong.

Enemy do have "skill/ability"

It is in official guide book FAQ. start at the first phase : "Same as player character, enemy also have their skill stat set, ... (then it explain how it effect highest damage you can land on variance with high skill stat etc) "

[Dark Emerald EXE]

Hmm....so working with Weapon Choice/ Ability still a viable combo?
Currently I'm just feeding my MAG nothing but range weps

[GoldenFalcon]

Sorry to say that this is wrong.

Enemy do have "skill/ability"

It is in official guide book FAQ. start at the first phase : "Same as player character, enemy also have their skill stat set, ... (then it explain how it effect highest damage you can land on variance with high skill stat etc) "

If enemies have their own ability stat, then it should affect how erratic their damage is while hitting you, and nothing else
Unless you're saying that high level enemies' ability should cause a penalty to your own ability

[steverowland]

did a test with launcher and didn't notice that having more ability then weapon damage/skill required would increase damage. Her are the stats

tested on yetis in tundra, hitting non critical spots



ability 377
R-ATK 922

weapon dmg 397, 400 required skill (my skill 505) - rappi barrel +8

153 159 157 155 153 154 159 160 154 158
avg: 156.2

now replacing my normal item (with shootI and some other stats) with rappi soul



ability 407
R-ATK 912

weapon dmg 397, 400 required skill (my skill 505) rappi barrel +8

157 151 152 152 157 153 157 154 152 156
avg: 154.1

ability was higher then the weapon damage/skil required, yet average damage was lover, probably because of the 10 missing R-ATK

[彩音~]

You can't even call 20 shots a sample

[steverowland]

I think from 20 shots the "significant" difference could be seen... If I would git 180 instead of 150 then I would do more testing, I did more shots but didnt write them down, the damage range was always around 155, never in like 10 minutes of runing and shooting random yetis have I seen 170 with either of the speces

[彩音~]

Your stat differences are barely noticible

[steverowland]

yes but the point wasnt to test what stat gives more damage or anything, the test was to prove that increasing ability to get over the number you have on your weapon does not do anything significant/



It's actually quite simple: In order to do full damage with your weapon, your ability stat must be higher than the attack of the weapon. If your ability is less than the attack of the weapon, you get large damage variance. Even if ability stat is only 1 or 2 less the variance is considerable enough to be annoying.

so once again, if I saw like 140 or 170 numbers, that would be significant, this isnt. If there is difference (I am not saying there is not) then it is really small.

[彩音~]

I see. My mistake. Come to think of it, OP proclaimed ability had to do with weapons but he hasn't posted any stats

[Adelheid]

http://www.pso-world.com/forums/showpost.php?p=2793719&postcount=251

http://www.pso-world.com/forums/showpost.php?p=2793788&postcount=258

[GoldenFalcon]

It seems that ability makes a lot more difference at lower magnitudes, since the ratio of it to weapon attack changes a lot more with 10 point differences

If this thread has anything to say, then it is to not worry about ability past level 20

[GrandTickler]

the question is, will sacrificing precious s-r-t-atk be worth it to stabilize your damage with abl, or will the dmg boost from s-r-t be worth more?

i rather have 500-1500 instead of a steady 800dmg.

[GoldenFalcon]

the question is, will sacrificing precious s-r-t-atk be worth it to stabilize your damage with abl, or will the dmg boost from s-r-t be worth more?

i rather have 500-1500 instead of a steady 800dmg.

I'd need to see the difference between like a level 40 character with a +150 attack mag, and a +150 ability mag
Because right now I don't know which is more worth it

[Arika]

If enemies have their own ability stat, then it should affect how erratic their damage is while hitting you, and nothing else
Unless you're saying that high level enemies' ability should cause a penalty to your own ability


From the book, it says that the skill stat work by compare your skill to enemy skill. it says that you will land your max damage more often if you skill is higher, basically.

[Hrith]

I'd rather have 500-1500 instead of a steady 800dmg.Variance is very bad for good performance.
Were you around in PSO1 days? Weapons with high variance sucked compared to weapons with fixed damage, even when they had a higher average damage.
The gameplay in PSO2 is very different, though, so it may not matter so much to know in how many hits you will kill a monster, but a variance of 1000 damage is a no go.

If ABL reduces damage variance by increasing the minimum damage value (which would be the contrary of what was the case with high-variance weapons in PSO1), then it's the statistic to go, because it will automatically increase DPS more; but that needs more testing, apparently.

[GoldenFalcon]

From the book, it says that the skill stat work by compare your skill to enemy skill. it says that you will land your max damage more often if you skill is higher, basically.

Can you type/paste the section that explains this?

[ClothoBuer]

i rather have 500-1500 instead of a steady 800dmg.

This also depends on your class. As a Ranger, I'd much rather have a steady stream of damage, rather than massive fluctuations. I would suspect the inverse for Hunters and Forces, to simply tap into that max hit potential, but for class that specializes in constant and consistent damage, large fluctuations = bad.

Either way, until someone can actually confirm the function of Ability, I'll continue with my hybrid Shot/Ability Drill Tank Mag :3

[Gama]

my mag is atm 50 skill 47 tech

wasted on skill?

[Spellbinder]

Can you type/paste the section that explains this?

I've also been saying this for the past month in various threads, but this still keeps coming up. Here you go from the PSO2 website.

攻撃に関する能力です。相手より技量が高ければ、ダメージの期待値を上げることができます。キャラクター自 身の値やそのほかの補正が合計された値になります。

What the previous poster is referring to is this part.


相手より技量が高ければ、ダメージの期待値を上げることができます

The higher your damage is in comparison to your opponent, the higher your expected damage output will be.

[GoldenFalcon]

So basically, putting together the definition and the data; ability has to be higher than your own weapon's attack AND the enemy's invisible ability stat, in order to have negligible damage variance

I was stuck thinking it had to be one or the other, but this makes more sense actually

[IAmSecretSpy]

Lets see here: ( "攻撃に関する能力です。相手より技量が高ければ、ダメージの期待値を上げることができます。キ ャラクター自 身の値やそのほかの補正が合計された値になります。" --> "The higher the skill is the ability of attacks. Than the opponent will be the correction value and other values ​​can increase the expected value of the damage. Of character itself is total."

Basically if im understanding this correctly The higher your Skill in Ability over the enemies determines if your attack can increase. But i still feel health has a roll in this.


So basically, putting together the definition and the data; ability has to be higher than your own weapon's attack AND the enemy's invisible ability stat, in order to have negligible damage variance

I was stuck thinking it had to be one or the other, but this makes more sense actually
I don't think its both only the overall Ability needs to be higher then the Enemies.

Huh this means that the people in the Hunter Tree Discussion are already above the Ability of the Yellow Monkeys giving them the highest damage output. Which in turn wont show any difference unless something is different with their armor or weapons in which case they do more damage. But still Health mush have a roll in this as i do possibly 50% more damage to any given boss on any mission.

Great find though! Mind linking the source?

[Tycho]

http://pso2.jp/players/manual/preparations/info/character/
技量： 攻撃に関する能力です。相手より技量が高ければ、ダメージの期待値を上げることができます。キャラクター自 身の値やそのほかの補正が合計された値になります。
ABL: related to attack; can raise your expected damage based on having higher ABL than the foe (after taking into account ABL bonuses and modifiers).

Pretty audacious to completely ignore the official source while theorizing. :P
But your theory implies that at one certain point your average damage can DROP by strengthening your weapon. Have you tested that? I feel skeptical.

I'd rather base theories on what the official player guide says, but it'd raise the question whether the same mechanic would be applied the other way around as well (relative ABL affecting the damage monsters do to you). Wonder if anyone could test that.

[IAmSecretSpy]

http://pso2.jp/players/manual/preparations/info/character/
技量： 攻撃に関する能力です。相手より技量が高ければ、ダメージの期待値を上げることができます。キャラクター自 身の値やそのほかの補正が合計された値になります。
ABL: related to attack; can raise your expected damage based on having higher ABL than the foe (after taking into account ABL bonuses and modifiers).

Pretty audacious to completely ignore the official source while theorizing. :P
But your theory implies that at one certain point your average damage can DROP by strengthening your weapon. Have you tested that? I feel skeptical.

I'd rather base theories on what the official player guide says, but it'd raise the question whether the same mechanic would be applied the other way around as well (relative ABL affecting the damage monsters do to you). Wonder if anyone could test that.

Audacious? I was going based off what i was given... I asked for the source so don't give me that.

Anyway what i said still applies, If your Ability is higher then the enemy then your Damage will rise. I also believe Health plays a role in this or something of the sort. I do more Average damage to Bosses then i do Normal Mobs of any sort. What does this mean? Well either Normal mobs don't have Ability at all thus making the damage you do the base damage or some other modifier plays a role. Thoughts?

[Hrith]

Tycho was talking to the OP.

[Tycho]

Yeah, whoops, that was funny, took a while to reply to the thread and hadn't seen the new replies that'd been posted since then.
On higher damage to bosses, are you talking minimum damage? maximum? both?

As for testing the weapon vs. monster theories (ignoring combinations for a bit), could someone with an ABL mag or Rappy Souls check whether ABL has more of an effect for:
(1) strong weapons vs. low-level monsters (as implied by the OP's theory), or
(2) weak weapons vs. high-level monsters (as implied by the hint on pso2.jp)?

[Lostbob117]

You can't technically say it's the turth, where is your proof?

[IAmSecretSpy]

Yeah, whoops, that was funny, took a while to reply to the thread and hadn't seen the new replies that'd been posted since then.
On higher damage to bosses, are you talking minimum damage? maximum? both?

As for testing the weapon vs. monster theories (ignoring combinations for a bit), could someone with an ABL mag or Rappy Souls check whether ABL has more of an effect for:
(1) strong weapons vs. low-level monsters (as implied by the OP's theory), or
(2) weak weapons vs. high-level monsters (as implied by the hint on pso2.jp)?

I'd have to check it out and record some data tonight but it seems atleast Double the Average Damage. My minimum is about the highest normal damage i do to normal Mobs. Like i said ill have to check it out later tonight and confirm what i said.

I have a ABL Mag and one Armor with Rappy Soul. Ill see if there is a difference but cant promise any results.

[Ryock]

Yeah, whoops, that was funny, took a while to reply to the thread and hadn't seen the new replies that'd been posted since then.
On higher damage to bosses, are you talking minimum damage? maximum? both?

As for testing the weapon vs. monster theories (ignoring combinations for a bit), could someone with an ABL mag or Rappy Souls check whether ABL has more of an effect for:
(1) strong weapons vs. low-level monsters (as implied by the OP's theory), or
(2) weak weapons vs. high-level monsters (as implied by the hint on pso2.jp)?

Testing Materials: Rod with 118 Tech and 97 Atk. Total ability using this rod is 399. Rod with 516 Tech and 379 Atk. Total ability using this rod is 419. Also went unarmed with a total ability of 267. All tests used Rafoie, since Rafoie can target the same area of a monster each time without failure.

When testing the low level rod in the high level tundra free field with my much greater ability stat(399), the damage was very consistent, but not 100% consistent. It varied between 393-400.

When testing the high level rod against the same enemy with an ability of 419 vs my tech of 516 on my rod, the damage variance was similar. Damage numbers were 699-733.

When taking the low level rod and ability to a low level area, using the same low level rod and the same 399 ability, the damage variance was really no different for them. The damage numbers were between 553-561.

When taking the high level rod with 419 ability against the same low level monsters, the damage numbers were between 926-966.

In addition, I decided to do a third test. I went unarmed and took off all my ability gear, including my units and my mag, leaving me with 267 ability. I tested damage again, and this time damage was 100% consistent both against the low level monsters in the free field forest and the high leveled monsters in free field tundra. Numbers did not vary whatsoever.

Thinking this somewhat odd, I performed a 4th test. I took the small amount of ability I had(267) and equipped the low level rod again. Damage varied greatly this time around on the tundra in the high level tundra. 255-313, and most of the time, the numbers were closer to the lower variance rather than the higher variance. Clearly the monster's ability has an effect on your damage variance, but to what degree? The weapon seems to be more important than the monster's ability, simply due to the fact that damage didn't vary whatsoever with 267 ability going unarmed.

These tests have led me to believe there may be a third, total ability determining factor. While the weapon and ability variances clearly have a determining factor, as well as the monster's invisible ability, there seems like there may in fact be a third factor. This is all hypothetical and theoretical though.

[GoldenFalcon]

This would be because ability affects weapon attack, causing unarmed to have no change no matter what

[GoldenFalcon]

Pretty audacious to completely ignore the official source while theorizing. :P
But your theory implies that at one certain point your average damage can DROP by strengthening your weapon. Have you tested that? I feel skeptical.

No, I think it would be something more like..
doing 198-200 damage consistent with the same ability as weapon attack, then grinding and doing 200-215

[Scyris]

Interesting... I see where you are coming from, thanks for your thoughts.

Me personally, is treating the Ability stat as 'ATA-importance' on PSO 1. Like I might end up making a 150/160 R-atk : 50/40 Ability Mag, for my Ranger, or would you think I would need to close the gap between the two stats?

Well since when you have the same or higher ability than your attack power (I assume its total attack and not just the weapons) its bascally like critting every shot, so I'd rather go for that myself. Maybe a 100/100 mag. 100 ranged, 100 ability. I also relly effing hate how they split attack into 3 diff things, insted of tech, or attack. They prob did it just so they can sell more mags.

[Ryock]

This would be because ability affects weapon attack, causing unarmed to have no change no matter what

Ahhhh, okay that makes sense then. I wasn't aware of that. I thought it would simply count my "weapon atk" as 0.

[Brindizer]

The undeniable truth about Ability is that some armors and weapons require generous amounts of the stat to equip it.

[xBladeM6x]

All I need to know about this is if it is useful.

Answer? o_O

[Ryock]

All I need to know about this is if it is useful.

Answer? o_O

Stupidly useful... for a force anyways, as well as rangers. I can't speak for hunters, cause I don't play one, but I can tell you my damage variance on some monsters used to be as high as between 1200-1900 on particular weak spots due to really low ability. Doubling my ability has brought that variance to around 1850-1900 now. It is a stat that is definitely worth the effort to put up.

[xBladeM6x]

Stupidly useful... for a force anyways, as well as rangers. I can't speak for hunters, cause I don't play one, but I can tell you my damage variance on some monsters used to be as high as between 1200-1900 on particular weak spots due to really low ability. Doubling my ability has brought that variance to around 1850-1900 now. It is a stat that is definitely worth the effort to put up.

Ah, good. Then I can feel much better about my MAG being like 60 Striking, and 30 Ability. Thanks. :D

[MasterSpark]

Stupidly useful... for a force anyways, as well as rangers. I can't speak for hunters, cause I don't play one, but I can tell you my damage variance on some monsters used to be as high as between 1200-1900 on particular weak spots due to really low ability. Doubling my ability has brought that variance to around 1850-1900 now. It is a stat that is definitely worth the effort to put up.

Do you have any advice for a force on how to increase the ability stat? So far, with my rod on and shifta + photon flare activated I've got about 1300 Tech-ATK vs. <300 ability, and I'm seeing a lot of damage fluctuation.

What venue is the best for adding to my ability stat? Edit: Also, what number is a good point to be aiming for with an offensive stat around 1000?

[GoldenFalcon]

Do you have any advice for a force on how to increase the ability stat? So far, with my rod on and shifta + photon flare activated I've got about 1300 Tech-ATK vs. <300 ability, and I'm seeing a lot of damage fluctuation.

What venue is the best for adding to my ability stat? Edit: Also, what number is a good point to be aiming for with an offensive stat around 1000?

The important thing is your Rod's T-atk
I assume it's like 470

The easiest way to get lots of ability is to put Rappy Soul on your armor units

[MasterSpark]

The important thing is your Rod's T-atk
I assume it's like 470

The easiest way to get lots of ability is to put Rappy Soul on your armor units

Oh right, I remember reading about weapon vs ability before. Sorry for my forgetfulness.

Have there been any discoveries in the proportional ratio between the weapons offense and your ability for a good effect?

[Ryock]

Do you have any advice for a force on how to increase the ability stat? So far, with my rod on and shifta + photon flare activated I've got about 1300 Tech-ATK vs. <300 ability, and I'm seeing a lot of damage fluctuation.

What venue is the best for adding to my ability stat? Edit: Also, what number is a good point to be aiming for with an offensive stat around 1000?

Being a user of photon flare myself, along with a very similar tech amount to you, I've gotten the best results with about 370+ ability.


Oh right, I remember reading about weapon vs ability before. Sorry for my forgetfulness.

Have there been any discoveries in the proportional ratio between the weapons offense and your ability for a good effect?

I've found that as long as your ability is no lower than about 100 below your weapon's tech atk, you're in the clear. My tech atk with my weapon is currently 516, and I'm running around with 433 ability. I see at most, 100 damage of variance. And that's just speaking on bosses, like Ragne and such where my damage numbers are 2k+. On smaller mobs where I'm only doing at most 1k damage, the variance is much smaller.