Fanboy's Guide to Beginners

[Pillan]

On 2007-09-22 03:30, imfanboy wrote:
Also, the only stat that IS way out of proportion (in my 'umble opinion) that should be noted is Newman TP. It's so radically higher than even the next closest, Human, that there's no comparison.

Well, yeah, but my point there was that Cast TP (60% of Newman on the JP server; more like 50% right now) isn’t much lower than Beasts (68% of Newman on the JP server) and both are much lower than human (88% of Newman on the JP server), which is also much lower than Newman. You also see the same thing to an even more ridiculous extent on MST.

And, yeah, the other differences aren’t as radically different, but the DFP difference between Newman and Cast as Fortefighter is only 50 after the DFP buff on the JP version (a 20% gap), which is only 13 less damage per hit on neutral armor (no idea how that will change with the percent nerfing though). 13 less damage when enemies are hitting you for 300-400 is a pretty BS difference to me, which is why I said Casts just equip armor faster.

When you look at MST, Casts have around 40% of Newmans, Beasts have around 45%, and humans have 60%. Of course, on a non-techer class, that clearly doesn’t do anything to offset the HP difference, and you can even argue it doesn’t offset it on any class outside of fT, which has low HP and ridiculously high MST (903 on Newman female fT 10/100 on the JP servers now).

The low actual evasion rate difference is a lot harder to prove. I’d suggest you do some experiments yourself watching Casts and Newmans as various classes. It’s really hard to tell the difference between a Newman and Cast block rate with the same equipment outside of fT, and even then it’s one of those “watch 20 runs before you start to see a small difference”. And you’ve already admitted the hit rate deviation is tiny, as anyone can argue a Beast ranger is better than a Newman one.

And, for reference, Newmans have about 77% Beast ATP and 81% Beast HP.


So, yeah, around a 20% difference between the highest and lowest for HP, DFP, and ATP, but the 20% DFP difference doesn’t add up to much, so I wouldn’t list it in the same group. There’s almost a 30% difference for ATA and EVP, but the actual hit rate and block rate differences are pretty negligible outside of the extremes. And the TP and MST differences are extremely high, but both of those are only useful on Force classes.

You always see new players asking “I want to play X race as Y class, so will A stat offset the races natural weakness in B?” Personally, it’s information I would have liked to know from day 1, but I have no idea if everyone else cares.


And why didn’t you add the Newman bonus to Fighgunner? You don’t believe in it since it’s not on PSUpedia?

Anyway, you can check the JP Wiki for all the numbers I just said and the Newman FG bonus on the link here. The bold numbers are the stats that changed/have been updated. They’re still missing a few class and race combinations though, so I just calculated the differences from the ones they had (avoiding bonuses in my calculation, of course).


EDIT:

Yeah, Cast are 4th on EVP and Beasts are 3rd.

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Pillan on 2007-09-22 09:30 ]</font>

[imfanboy]

The main problem is figuring out HOW to relate it in a relevant, easy to understand way.

Do you think I should do it like: The race with the highest stat has 100% of said stat, and all the other races have a set % of that stat as compared to the highest? That's not a bad idea.

And I just forgot to add in the newman figunner bonus is all. My guides are ever-evolving; I never let them stand still unless I'm waiting for more information.

[Pillan]

On 2007-09-22 11:36, imfanboy wrote:
The main problem is figuring out HOW to relate it in a relevant, easy to understand way.

Do you think I should do it like: The race with the highest stat has 100% of said stat, and all the other races have a set % of that stat as compared to the highest? That's not a bad idea.

Well, you could do that, but I wouldn’t suggest since, as I mentioned above, Newmans have 20% DFP less than Casts, but that’s only 13 more damage per hit on the highest DFP mod class. I’d suggest like a modified letter grade system. Something like giving Casts a D- on TP, Beasts a D, humans a B, and Newmans an A+, so you realize Casts and Beasts are horrible, humans are okay, and Newmans are quite a bit higher.

Something like the following:

Human:

HP: B
ATP: B
ATA: B+
TP: B
DFP: B+
EVP: A-
MST: C

Newmans:

HP: C
ATP: C
ATA: A-
TP: S
DFP: B
EVP: A
MST: A

Beasts:

HP: S
ATP: S
ATA: B
TP: D
DFP: A-
EVP: B+
MST: D

Casts:

HP: A
ATP: A
ATA: A
TP: D-
DFP: A
EVP: B
MST: D-

That way you could see though Beasts have the lowest ATA, it’s still not that bad, even in the worst case scenarios (Fortefighter/Protranser with an axe or Fighgunner with a crossbow), etc. You could also make note in the Newman section that the MST difference only offsets the HP difference on classes with high MST and low/mid HP.

On 2007-09-22 11:36, imfanboy wrote:
And I just forgot to add in the newman figunner bonus is all. My guides are ever-evolving; I never let them stand still unless I'm waiting for more information.

Ah. I was just a bit worried about that.

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Pillan on 2007-09-22 15:05 ]</font>

[imfanboy]

*steals your system wholeheartedly*

[Pillan]

I don’t think you mentioned the gender differences anywhere here. Males get more HP, ATP and ATA while females get more TP, DFP, EVP, MST, STA, and an extra attack on twin claws. Not a huge deal, but it is worth noting for someone who’s trying to decide how to design their character.

I think it’s fairly obvious that ST is biased toward female characters…

[SStrikerR]

nice guide. even i found it a bit interesting.
although, to you list of terms, you should add:
AoE.
area of effect of course.

[Shonky]

Nice guide! I found your Fortetecher guide especially helpful

[RedX]

An excellent guide thats for sure. Just a few little things though, for the terms section you should add the abbreviated form of Bullet arts (BA, add abbreviated form of Partner machinery (PM), add AoE (area of effect) and DPS (damage per second) to terms section. In the type section you have the abbreviation of fortetecher and fortefighter as FT and FF when they should be fT and fF, really unimportant when just talking but we should at least try and teach people the proper way.

For the PT part, ranger is also a good time to work on your saber and handgun skills, which come in useful later.

A section on Traps and mission flow wouldn't be a bad idea either.

Other then those excellent guide.

Edit: adding links to the sticked advanced class guides might be a good idea to.

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: RedX on 2007-09-22 20:51 ]</font>

[imfanboy]

Yes, Seth, but those guides SUCK because I haven't written them.

OK, I'll add those terms to the shorthand list in my next update, but question: Mission flow? I don't think I've bumped across the concept with THAT name before.


Oh, and Pillan: EVERYONE should be more biased towards female characters.

[Kion]

On 2007-09-22 23:52, imfanboy wrote:
Yes, Seth, but those guides SUCK because I haven't written them.

Very true. The other advance "guides" are outdated and more written from topics and listed as a complete source by someone who really analyzes all aspects of the class. Another great guide fanboy.

My leveling guide isn't complete, but the low level half is decent to give new players an idea of good places to go for exp. I don't know if it lives up to your standards, but you may considder linking it in there.