PDA

View Full Version : Ability vs S-ATK



Kirukia
Jul 16, 2012, 06:32 PM
I'm wondering what you guys think is "enough" ability for a hunter.
Ability seems to be more helpful in DPS than S-ATK (assuming you aren't getting Fury Critical, which I'm not) but it's pretty useless in excess. What is a good amount of ability for a hunter to have? Or to place on their mag?

I'm kind of stuck about what I want to do with it.

GoldenFalcon
Jul 16, 2012, 06:36 PM
I just use Rappy Soul on all 3 of my units
Does me good

Thermalwolf
Jul 16, 2012, 06:40 PM
I'm in the same predicament. My mag is at 50 S-Atk, should I keep maxing S-Atk or should I jump over to ability now. I haven't gotten Fury Stance yet cause Ive been dumping points in my S-Atk skill tree so I can equip my 3* early, but I'm only like 5 S-Atk away so now that I'm where I'm at should I now start focusing Ability on my mag?

Also I have realllll bad timing. I got on PSO2 5 seconds before maintenance. Didn't even know there was till I just got 630'd AND Ive been sitting at my comp for a few hours dicking around before deciding it was time for some PSO2, damn me...

Geistritter
Jul 16, 2012, 06:44 PM
Calm down, it's only an hour long. Some of you are genuinely worrying with how adversely you react to not being able to playing this freaking thing.

As for Ability versus attack stat, it really starts to show when you don't have enough Ability when you're consistently hitting 2000 or more damage; my range using a Launcher is currently about five to six hundred damage, making me consider putting Arm affixes and Rappy Souls onto my gear. I decided awhile ago that my mag was going to be a strait 100/100 split, though, or a 101/99 if that's going to force it to evolve into something else.

Coatl
Jul 16, 2012, 06:46 PM
I'd say from 400-500 ability is good.
Since we don't know the ability stats of our enemies, no one can tell you an exact answer.

Kirukia
Jul 16, 2012, 06:47 PM
@Geistritter: I'm referring to my current character, not one I'm creating after the maint.

But yeah, I know a lot of people were planning to go ~50 ability and the rest S-ATK but I'm wondering if more would be better. Just wanted to take in some opinions.

Geistritter
Jul 16, 2012, 06:49 PM
Attack stat doesn't really make a big difference except in huge piles, while a little Ability seems to go a long way.

It's easy to test it for yourself, though; get some units with Rappy Souls, and test your hardest hitting attacks with them and without them.

gigawuts
Jul 16, 2012, 06:50 PM
I've gone straight S-ATK across the board while raising an alternate 50 ability & 100 S-ATK mag.

It functions. It is almost definitely not optimum, but it's not like I'm literally unable to kill things.

Right now the best way to go isn't really certain, so just like any new game we're all experimenting to see what works for us.

Thermalwolf
Jul 16, 2012, 06:50 PM
Attack stat doesn't really make a big difference except in huge piles, while a little Ability seems to go a long way.

It's easy to test it for yourself, though; get some units with Rappy Souls, and test your hardest hitting attacks with them and without them.

But as a Hunter wouldn't more S-Atk stat be a good thing?

Kirukia
Jul 16, 2012, 06:51 PM
I'll probably take that advice, thanks. That's exactly what I was thinking though. S-ATK might be useful in hitting high, but in terms of better DPS ability seems to make or break it.



But as a Hunter wouldn't more S-Atk stat be a good thing?

More S-ATK is always good, but not always in this case, since you'd be sacrificing Ability for it.
Ability helps you hit high consistently, while S-ATK just raises your "damage cap" or how high you are able to hit.
So Ability could effectively increase your DPS more than S-ATK.

gigawuts
Jul 16, 2012, 06:53 PM
But as a Hunter wouldn't more S-Atk stat be a good thing?

Raising your max damage isn't bad, but raising your minimum damage becomes the better route after a point. It's no good if your top damage is high but your minimum is so low that you effectively deal only a tiny bit more average damage per second. Raising your minimum damage by the same amount may raise it considerably higher, and allow you to deal more consistently improved damage.

Coatl
Jul 16, 2012, 06:53 PM
I would definitely recommend you up that ability.
I find it primal.

Though, it only helps a lot if you have a lot of offensive power.
If you had a defensive spec, it wouldn't do much for you.
Met my first 1.2k S-def friend today btw.


High Ability will make increase your dps overall.
Instead of hitting 400, 400, and then 1.6k, You'll be hitting 1k consistently, which makes a difference on bigger and smaller targets.

GoldenFalcon
Jul 16, 2012, 06:54 PM
Well, when you can get over 1000 S-Atk easily, and like.. 300 Ability, it's obvious to me which one benefits from +50 (or higher)

Geistritter
Jul 16, 2012, 06:54 PM
But as a Hunter wouldn't more S-Atk stat be a good thing?

I don't understand what you're getting at.

Yeah, as a Hunter, S-Atk is a good thing; it's the class' primary attack stat. But Ability is also good, because it narrows your damage gap, effectively raising your overall damage. In what I've experimented with, when a character is behind on Ability (as in, doesn't have any that they don't get purely from their level and class modifiers), Ability will give you more damage overall than the same amount of one's attack stat. But because the game's needlessly complicated in areas, it's hard to test this for sure, so again, the best way to do so is to experiment with adding and subtracting large sums of Ability without affecting your Attack and seeing what happens.

Thermalwolf
Jul 16, 2012, 06:56 PM
I don't understand what you're getting at.

Yeah, as a Hunter, S-Atk is a good thing; it's the class' primary attack stat. But Ability is also good, because it narrows your damage gap, effectively raising your overall damage. In what I've experimented with, when a character is behind on Ability (as in, doesn't have any that they don't get purely from their level and class modifiers), Ability will give you more damage overall than the same amount of one's attack stat. But because the game's needlessly complicated in areas, it's hard to test this for sure, so again, the best way to do so is to experiment with adding and subtracting large sums of Ability without affecting your Attack and seeing what happens.

Thank you, this is what I wanted to know!

Coatl
Jul 16, 2012, 07:01 PM
Ok guys let's get number cramin'.


http://i712.photobucket.com/albums/ww123/Storm_06/2868493b.jpg

As you can see, all classes get around 269-274 just by being lv40.
The only class who has a much higher base offensive stat than their base ability stat are rangers, and they have skill tree branches to fix that.

To get around 400 ability ,you will need around 130 ability from either your mag or affixes.

Kirukia
Jul 16, 2012, 07:06 PM
Ok guys let's get number cramin'.


http://i712.photobucket.com/albums/ww123/Storm_06/2868493b.jpg

As you can see, all classes get around 269-274 just by being lv40.
The only class who has a much higher base offensive stat than their base ability stat are rangers, and they have skill tree branches to fix that.

To get around 400 ability ,you will need around 130 ability from either your mag or affixes.

So with Rappy Souls, a good 50 Ability on a mag would probably be sufficient I suppose? For 400 Ability.

I use WLances, and the strongest WLance (currently available) at +10 has 467 S-ATK. So with 269 base Ability, 90 from 3 Rappy Souls, and say, 100 Ability on my Mag....

459 Ability, which is near the strongest WLance you can aquire at +10.

Someone posted somewhere that they were testing Ability and found that once Ability is near your weapon's S-ATK, it stops being useful. They stated that crits were only increasing their damage by like 2% (Since crits hit for your max cap). I might go with a 100/100 mag for now then.

iwerkout
Jul 16, 2012, 07:07 PM
Ok guys let's get number cramin'.


http://i712.photobucket.com/albums/ww123/Storm_06/2868493b.jpg

As you can see, all classes get around 269-274 just by being lv40.
The only class who has a much higher base offensive stat than their base ability stat are rangers, and they have skill tree branches to fix that.

To get around 400 ability ,you will need around 130 ability from either your mag or affixes.

Thanks for this info Coatl!

Was unsure if going ability on my mag this entire time was worth it.

Btw, raising your base atk stat also allows you to weild higher stat weapons. So the choice is all yours. I would honestly do a 100-100 ab/whatever mag, then a pure atk stat mag. Remember, the level cap will rise along with our abilities so it won't be a necessity later on.

Geistritter
Jul 16, 2012, 07:08 PM
Keep in mind that what may require 400 Ability (a number we don't even have any solid reason to regard as a standard, by the way) now won't later on.

GoldenFalcon
Jul 16, 2012, 07:10 PM
Someone posted somewhere that they were testing Ability and found that once Ability is near your weapon's S-ATK, it stops being useful. They stated that crits were only increasing their damage by like 2% (Since crits hit for your max cap). I might go with a 100/100 mag for now then.

The issue is high level enemies after that
I can be 100 ability over my gun's attack, but against level 37 El-Arda's, my variance was just unacceptable. So I got more ability

Geistritter
Jul 16, 2012, 07:12 PM
Not worth going for a ton just in case one guy gives you a large variance, if you ask me.

GoldenFalcon
Jul 16, 2012, 07:19 PM
I prefer my sneak shooter to always hit exactly 6k on my weakpoints