'Ultimate' Photon Art Bullets

[Genoa]

Masei-sou (bow)
Masei-shiki (card)
Yak Maga (crossbow)
Phantasm Prism (laser)

What do they do? PSOW's database likes to tell me ... well, only how much it costs >___> but not what it actually does...

Also, I'd like to just comment... Half of those UPA bullets look like they suck HARD <___< I mean... Elements play a huge role, and Status Effects are the most important in my opinion... a handful of those status effects are junk. Sleep? You've gotta be kidding me... When is sleep a good thing? ANYTHING can wake you up from sleep. Melee, bullets, techs... They'll wake up right after you shoot them <_>

Burn, Infection, Shock, and Confusion are amazing status effects... not having those on my guns for something like Zalure (which pretty much sux for the most part) isn't worth it in my opinion...

My other question... is what UPA bullets do you think are ACTUALLY worth investing in (I'm considering at least Killer Shot), and if they're specific to certain gunner jobs, please elaborate.

--
Mod edit: 'ultimate' or frag PA



<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Dhylec on 2008-01-08 05:57 ]</font>

[biggabertha]

Masei-Sou is the second longbow neutral element bullet from the PA exchange. It has a stun effect built into it's non-elemental bullet that I think is fixed at Stun Lv. 2 throughout it's levels. It's two drawbacks before the expansion update was that it had shorter range (about the same as a handgun or less) and it has a slower rate of fire than normal longbow bullets. I'm not sure on it's PP cost per bullet though.

Masei-Shiki is the Throwing Blades' second Fragment PA neutral element bullet that inflicts the defence down (Zalure) effect. It has an incremental growth at Lv. 11 and Lv. 21 for it's status effect so it caps out at Zalure Lv. 3. Again, I'm not clear on the PP cost but otherwise, it behaves similar to the other throwing blades bullets.

Yak Maga is the Crossbow's second PA fragment neutral element bullet that inflicts the attack down (Jellen) effect. It has an incremental growth similar to Masei-Shiki in terms of it's status effect so it caps out at Jellen Lv. 3. I'm ot clear on the bullet price itself per shot throughout it's levels but I'd assume it's the same as a normal Crossbow bullet. You still get three Crossbow bolts at Lv. 21+.

Phantasm Prism is the Laser Cannon's second PA fragment neutral element bullet that inflicts the sleep effect fixed at Lv. 2 (until perhaps Lv. 31 where it upgrades to Lv. 3 like all of the other elemental Laser Cannon lasers). It costs a bit more PP per shot than regular elemental Laser Cannon lasers (18PP at Lv. 1-10, 22PP at Lv. 11-20, 26PP at Lv. 21-30 and 30PP at Lv. 31-40 but this is details before the expansion update. I haven't considered using it since so I'd have to recheck all of that again I'm afraid). It's also as strong as the fire, ground and dark elemental bullets but it's just as accurate as the elemental ones (At least at Lv. 13 it is).

Despite what you think about the Sleep Status Effect, it works rather well for a Laser Cannon laser. Anything pushed out of the way of your laser shot sleeps while you continue firing on the other ones still in your range of fire. It's a shame that the lasers' fired from Phantasm Prism are a tad more expensive than the elemental lasers but it is slightly more versatile than the elemental lasers in terms of damage across enemies of multiple elements.


For your last question however, Fragment Bullet Arts are rather a hit and miss. Most people swear that Mayalee Fury for the Mechgun is useful while some claim it is useless. Boma Maga, Boma Duranga, Chousei-Sou, Masei-Sou, Kyumeisei-Shiki, Masei-Shiki, Mayalee Prism, Phantasm Prism, Mayalee Hit, Penetrating Hit, Twin Penetration, Twin Mayalee, Barada Maga, Barada Chamga, Killer Shot, Mayalee Shot, Yak Maga and Yak Zagenga all have their situational uses but most would swear by Killer Shot, Boma Duranga and Yak Zagenga for the fastest kills. All of the others are based more around the party supporting you while setting up for the shot then you supporting the party afterwards with it's effect.

The majority of all the bullets have now been reduced in cost, Boma Maga, Mayalee Prism and Killer Shot just to name the three that I know of but there are very few instances where you will use any of these bullets/laser.

Mayalee Hit seems best suited for soloing gunners without access to resta with a decently high level bullet level (Fortegunners, Protransers, Fighgunners and Fortefighters. Acrofighters have access to Kyumeisei-Shiki which is the same effect) but it's high cost per bullet makes it more favourable to Fortegunners.

Barada Maga seems best suited for gunners that cannot apply the Zoldeel effect (Fortegunners and Protransers) but it's party orientated effect makes it favourable to Protransers.

Masei-Shiki and Kyumeisei-Shiki seems to be suited for Acrofighters because other Job Classes that have access to Thowing Blades have access to their effects in some form or another.

Yak Maga and Twin Mayalee seem best suited for Fortegunners and Fighgunners but because these two effects are rarely worth using in large parties, it would probably be better to use elemental bullets or the strongest bullet you have access to.

Boma Maga and Boma Duranga have their specific uses that Boma Duranga is better suited for Fortegunners rather than Protransers for consistent damage and Boma Maga is more suited for Protranser's role in supporting the party.

Guntechers are the only job class that can use all but two of the bullets mentioned but they have access to TECHNICs that can better most of these effects to a greater output. Depending on how much you want to help the party, getting a wide spread of these bullets for either Guntecher or Protranser wouldn't be a bad idea.

[panzer_unit]

Phantasm Prism is really good. I've got it at 32 now... it keeps gaining ATA% from lv21-30 so it's quite accurate, and the sleep effect is second-best to freeze (which has a lower apply rate, and worse ATA/ATP) for helping manipulate targets so you can maximize the number of things you're hitting.

The debuff bullets are solid. They're good in big teams because the status applies on almost every hit, so you're guaranteed to get a SE of some sort in there on a target even if monsters are dropping left and right. Also there are very few targets that are immune to debuffs while SE immunities are pretty common.
Boma Maga is a lot like that too, at least you're sure to get immediate impact from of firing that thing. Protransers get Freeze EX traps which are a way better means of delivering the same effect, but I'm sure a Fortegunner could make good team support use with it.
Also: I've heard Twin Mayalee can hit 2 targets per bullet like Mayalee Hit, which would make it a huge damage win against certain enemies.

[Akaimizu]

Twin MayaLee can be quickly applied to an entire group (with strafing), then you can quickly switch to the elementals particularly if you have 2 Twin Handguns. I tend to carry 2 both for saving bullets (even with Bullet Save, Twin handguns can dry up rather quickly, and I'm talking about some of the higher PP ones), 2 of the same for levelling, or setting up two different elements for the majority 2 anti-elements of the level.

The thing is, pre-expansion, they had SE3 Zalure access, and a near guarranteed land on any damage over 0. Near that is, as sometimes it takes a couple of shots to get the more resistant ones. Still, they quickly apply with a high guarrantee on even the highest stamina guys.

Post expansion, the bullet got a nerf and a powerup. The Zalure it delivers is now dropped to SE2, but the damage seems to have gone up. Pre-expansion, it was a very useful Guntecher tool. It's lost a little of its luster in the expansion. Still good to use until your Zalure gets up there. It'll get back some of its use with even stronger monsters, in the future, I would guess. That is, giving more cases where it's too dangerous for a low DFP/MST/EVD guntecher to run in and cast Zalure.

I'm thinking of adding another Laser Cannon bullet, so what do people believe are the most important Laser Cannon bullets to have (outside of MayaLee Prism), at this time?

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Akaimizu on 2008-01-08 07:16 ]</font>

[panzer_unit]

Phantasm, Grav, and Freeze are my top 3 for laser bullets. Sleep and Freeze are nice for nailing your targets in place while you spam shots at the group. Giving casters a STFU is also really good, lasers are pretty good at stopping melee enemies, but casters sometimes get the chance to pop a tech between shots... then you can lose control of the whole group if you miss a beat from getting hit, putting out a fire, dodging, anything.

With the top-heavy way lasers gain stats, it's much better to drive one bullet to max than get a bunch and try leveling them evenly. High-level stats and SE beat out getting an element bonus.

[Akaimizu]

The Lasers now SE the entire group now, correct?

I actually used Twin MayaLee as a cast stopper, myself. If there's a better alternative that lands better than Twin MayaLee, that might be something to shoot for.

I was thinking about Confuse, but I'm not sure on how well it lands. Mostly because all the dangerous enemies use techs, but they aren't all considered tech casters. Only Confuse handles them both.

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Akaimizu on 2008-01-08 07:34 ]</font>

[panzer_unit]

Silence procs better than confuse and stops more than enough casters. Bysha robots are the one place where I think Confuse is clearly superior, but they're terrible laser targets with all the bounding around.

[Akaimizu]

Thing is, most techs-like things come not from casters. You can't silence or Shock Deljabans. Nor any of those mobs that spew fire, spew dark, etc. The only thing I know that works on them is confuse, but it also works on true casters as well. And now, you have rooms with both the real and non-real tech lobbers in them. (White beast)

Another problem is, I'm seriously running out of PA slots for my GT. And I'm using all of them. It's not as much the case of whether I store them off as a PA item, it's the case of needing so many of them on me, all the time. Plus I tend to have a fairly mandatory 36+ slots in use just on equips, does mean that my inventory space isn't exactly all that great.
I might resort to a different strategy. Offload a bunch of stuff to a different character to clear my common box. Use that as a quick way to trade off my PAs and only run missions for which I can afford to leave a few PAs behind.

It'll just be another step for when somebody decides to switch missions, that I go to my room to switch PAs.


<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Akaimizu on 2008-01-08 08:28 ]</font>

[panzer_unit]

Silence works on anything Vandas do now, from what I've seen. Diga, Damfoie, Radiga, Gidiga. I assume Deljabans are the same (same animation for Diga/Foie/Megid casting) ... it also shuts up that light-element tech. I use it exclusively over Confuse to stop casters except for blue Bysha, since robots are immune to Silence and not Confuse.

[Akaimizu]

No. They still toss megid balls while silenced. Always had.

Are you saying the Vandas, post expansion, or recently have suddenly been changed to have those attacks stopped by silence? I've tested them countless times pre-expansion and 110% sure it didn't work then.

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Akaimizu on 2008-01-08 08:45 ]</font>