Rangers

[wtosh]

I know there is very little difference between the races but which is better for rangers. Cast or Newmans. I'm going to roll female.

[Shadowth117]

I know there is very little difference between the races but which is better for rangers. Cast or Newmans. I'm going to roll female.

Casts all the way for that. And luckily for you, females have better Ratk in this game.

[Anduril]

At lvl 55 the R-ATK is 441 for Female Cast and 428 for Female Newman.

Also, for future reference, when you have questions like this, just use the Quick Questions (http://www.pso-world.com/forums/showthread.php?t=195866) thread.

[wtosh]

Yes!! Awesome, I just need to delete me Newman since I thought they were the "Ranger" class.

[Seravi Edalborez]

If you're min-maxing for race in this game and you're not a Force, you're doing it wrong.

(Says the female cast, I know)

[wtosh]

If you're min-maxing for race in this game and you're not a Force, you're doing it wrong.

(Says the female cast, I know)

What's min-maxing?? I'm new to the PSO series.

[Shadowth117]

What's min-maxing?? I'm new to the PSO series.

General MMO term for maximizing a stat in exchange for all others essentially.

[wtosh]

General MMO term for maximizing a stat in exchange for all others essentially.

So sacrificing all your other stats just to have R.att maxed out?

If so, how would I do this?

[Anduril]

So sacrificing all your other stats just to have R.att maxed out?

If so, how would I do this?
Probably just make your mag a 150 R-ATK one, try to get Mizer Soul/Fang Soul+Shoot IV on all your weapons and units, and put skill points into all the R-ATK Up skills; however, you should know that as you get to higher levels, modifiers based on % create more noticeable damage increases than just getting higher R-ATK, so putting skill points into R-ATK Up would not be as beneficial in the long run.

[wtosh]

Probably just make your mag a 150 R-ATK one, try to get Mizer Soul/Fang Soul+Shoot IV on all your weapons and units, and put skill points into all the R-ATK Up skills; however, you should know that as you get to higher levels, modifiers based on % create more noticeable damage increases than just getting higher R-ATK, so putting skill points into R-ATK Up would not be as beneficial in the long run.

Alright, so get a R.att mag. I'm guessing "Mizer Soul/Fang Soul+Shoot IV" are all abilities or enchantments into items. Do you have a link or image of a skill calculator that is filled out that I can see/have?

[Anduril]

http://ryuhiroshi.funpic.de/pso2/skillcalc.html
Skills like Weak Hit Advance and Weak Bullet are better investments than R-ATK UP.

[wtosh]

Is there no way to fill it in and link it?

[UnLucky]

Well it's not exactly sacrificing everything else. You aim for the highest overall gain possible, with higher priority on certain things.

If you did trade all your other stats for just R-Atk, you could end up weaker than someone who had a better spread.

But starting as a Caseal is a good start.

[Shadowth117]

http://cirnopedia.frostsabre.com/

Actual calculators are in the bottom of the bar on the left, but this site gives info on weapon abilites, weapons themselves, armor, etc.

[wtosh]

Well it's not exactly sacrificing everything else. You aim for the highest overall gain possible, with higher priority on certain things.

If you did trade all your other stats for just R-Atk, you could end up weaker than someone who had a better spread.

But starting as a Caseal is a good start.

What's a Caseal?

I want to do above-average dmg during the end-game.

[UnLucky]

Female Cast

Get enough R-Atk/R-Def/Dex to be able to equip the best gear.

Get the best class skills for the point cost.

Use the best attacks for the PP cost/time/range.

[Anduril]

Caseal is just the PSO term for Female CAST. And really the best way to do good damage is to have a balanced build taking into account weapon types, Photon arts, enemy weak spots, and the skills from your skill tree.

[Shadowth117]

What's a Caseal?

I want to do above-average dmg during the end-game.

Caseal = female cast and is really just old, neat sounding PSO terminology.

More than likely, any race/gender you picked would do good damage endgame if you set things up properly. Upgrading your gear properly and having a well put together skill tree matter a lot during endgame. Making sure to max your MAG a specific way is part of this as well.

[Kierto]

Female Cast
Pure R-ATK Mag
Max Standing Snipe 1 & 2 + Max Weak Hit Advance 1 & 2
Weak Bullet 1, 3, 6 or 10
Subjob Fighter w/ Stance + Stance Up (or Hunter w/ JA Advance), activate stance
Weak Bullet+Homing Emission on multi-part bosses (Weak Bullet+Standing Snipe the rest of them), Gunslash w/ Additional Bullet or Launcher w/ Divine/Rodeo/Cluster on trash mobs (everything else)
Mizer or Fang Souls/Shoot III as minimum all round on equipment
Black Wing units (or Vardha Set to taste, Female Cast can equip Vardha at level 51 Ranger with a non-Gunner sub at level 50 assuming no points in R-Def Up or Mag), most will say Black Wing for PP, ease of use and earlier access

Congratulations~

[Seravi Edalborez]

That's why I said race min-maxing doesn't matter. The difference between best (cast) and worse (newman) is extremely small for R-ATK. Where you spend your skill points and how you build your mag matter more. Pick the race you want aesthetically.

[Soultrigger]

Both Newman: 102*Base RATK
Both Human: 103*Base RATK
Cast: 104*Base RATK
Caseal: 105*Base RATK

The only real benefit is 105*Base RDEF, shared only with Male Newman, which allows you to equip any RDEF units with base stats alone.

[Z-0]

.___.

Correction:

Newmans: 99% R-Atk
Humans: 100% R-Atk
Male Cast: 101% R-Atk
Female Cast: 102% R-Atk

http://pso2wiki.net/%E3%82%B9%E3%83%86%E3%83%BC%E3%82%BF%E3%82%B9%E6%A F%94%E8%BC%83

[Soultrigger]

Compare RATK of level 50 Ranger
Base stat of Human: 412
Base stat of Newman: 408
Base stat of Cast: 416
Base stat of Caseal: 420

Notice a trend? (I've looked into data mined stats and essentially reversed the numbers to figure out the base stats at level 50 prior to the 55 cap, there is a pattern and multiplying it off an arbitrary 412 is NOT how it works.)

EDIT: Thought I should add this for clarity

Compare TATK of level 50 Force
Base stat of Male Human: 400
Base stat of Female Human: 416
Base stat of Newman: 432
Base stat of Newearl: 440
Base stat of Casts: 378

If you don't see they're all based of 400, something is wrong with you.

[Z-0]

There is something wrong with me (ps: its kinda obvious it's based off 400).

It does work multiplying off an arbitrary 412 for R-Atk, I even did all the calculations, however this was relative to humans at level 50. Looking at the datamined tables here (http://dl.dropbox.com/u/9259868/pso2_final/pso2_2013_01_23_base_stats.txt), it does seem your numbers are right.

Could do a little better than "something is wrong with you", though.

[Soultrigger]

Eh. I try. :/

Well, if you're curious, essentially the pattern is that each ATK stat has 3 different growth rates, while DEF has 2. So in order of HP, SATK, RATK, TATK, SDEF, RDEF, TDEF

HU: High - High, Mid, Low - High, Low, Low
FI: Mid - High, Low, Mid - High, Low, Low
RA: Mid - Mid, High, Low - Low, High, Low
GU: Mid - Mid, High, Low - Low, High, Low
FO: Low - Low, Mid, High - Low, Low, High
TE: Low- Mid, Low, High - High, Low, Low

Oddly, FI RA and GU have the same HP growth rate but have a negligible difference of 5HP between each other (SEGA logic at its finest).
RA and GU have identical growth rates otherwise, whereas the other two branches have mirrored growth rates for their secondary attack stats.
And then TE wants to screw everyone over with high SDEF, low TDEF, and TDEF passives. Also SEGA logic.

The growth comparison is probably obvious just looking at your stats when you change main classes, though I could understand people not seeing the pattern due to the numbers being obscured by race/gender multipliers.

[wtosh]

Wow, lots of replies. Thank you! Sorry, I was gone for 2 hours to take a test.

So what would you say I should max and advance on my skill tree with Caseal?