Fortetecher/Masterforce ?s

[Gibdozer]

I've started a new character(male newman), I gave him all my techs from my Acro/Wartecher and recently made Fortetecher.

I like having options in combat, even with a PA cap whips and daggers are fun to use, but should I be pressing to become Master force instead? I will almost certainly try it out regardless, but I would be interested in hearing opinions.

Second question, I noticed that rods/mags color by tech element and get a consistency bonus. Is this the way to go, or do most of you mix and match your techs?

[6_8_10]

FT vs MF will depend on your own preferences quite a bit. MF are fragile, but faster and with the potential for larger damage numbers. I'm currently going MF until I get all techs to 50, then I'll probably bounce back and forth between FT and MF depending on the situation/mission, whether I'm running in groups or solo. Until you have some techs to 40, there's really no advanage to switching to MF, when you can start pushing them to 41+.

As for rods, I say keep them grouped together as far as techs for the bonus. If you absolutely need to have resta on the same pallete block as diga (or whatever) then go with wands/doogs (and match both techs for the smaller bonus there, too. A resta/reverser wand coupled with a radiga/nosu-diga 'doog, for example). Wand style will cast a little faster, rods will have more power/pp. I personally use rods almost exclusively, though lots of people out there swear by the wands setup for that extra little bit of speed. A good general rule for most people is to put the hold techs (damu-techs, for instance) on the rods with other techs of the same group for the bonus, and the fire-and-run techs (basic foie, diga, etc) on wands.

[MSAksion]

To be truly honest i do not like MF at all. I have my reasons.

1) Buffs & healing cap of 10 - Horrible.
2) No Longbow, Card Fan, Saber, or Whip. Yeah i still carry them. Ever notice they do more damage to Bosses than your magic due to the One Hit Box deal?
3) Lower Stats than ForteTecher. You will die a lot with your 1800 HP @ lvl 160.
4) No PP Reduction. Fortetecher has a built in Reduction in Spell Cost. Master does not. Master's Faster Casting speed will drain you faster.
5) Increased Casting Speed? Do you really need to fire an extra spell? is an extra 1800 damage necessary? Your team of Rangers and Hunters do that job very well faster anyway. Instead i hurt a squad then go to healing mode.

6) Most important question - are all your Magic spells level 40? If yes then by all means go Master. But if youre not even close to 40 per spell then stay Fortetecher.

ForteTecher in all aspects works beautifully for me. Its not attack magic gimped like AT and its not dependant on Guns or Swords like GT & WT. Its pure teching support.

As for the Consistency Bonus - YES. absolutely. Why people put spells of different elements on one rod? There is a significant damage boost if you put 4 of the same element so go for it - says 12% but its more like 20% according to the Rod damage update a year ago.

People who put all the Ra spells on one rod, all the Gi spells on another etc etc- doesn't make sense. Unless you are fighting 4 different element enemies in one room (never happens) there's no point. You usually will fight only 2 different elements. pick off all the fire enemies with your ice rod, dodge, then pick off the lightning monsters with your earth rod.

I asked a few why they have green rods - they have resta linked to 3 attack spells. Interesting. But why not put Resta/Reverse on a wand + Card or Resta/Reverser Madoog/Whip/saber ? Wands and madoogs are faster to Heal than Rods.

[Shou]

Since it sounds like your charecter is still in the making I will assume that the supplemental update will be here before your done maxing your charecter.

MF will totally PWN FT offensivly and will pretty much be equal in terms of defense. But, in return FT will be able to have buffs and attack techs to lvl 50 depending on how you customize your character. The buffs, even at lvl 50, will not match the extra damage you are doing as a MF in most situations.

If you like to use melee and more support teching rather than offensive teching, maybe you should check out Acrotecher.

Always use the element combo. The only time that you may consider not doing so and mixing up tech elements is when you are fighting dark enemies or doing a really easy mission in a full party.

[Ceresa]

1) Buffs & healing cap of 10 - Horrible.
2) No Longbow, Card Fan, Saber, or Whip. Yeah i still carry them. Ever notice they do more damage to Bosses than your magic due to the One Hit Box deal?
3) Lower Stats than ForteTecher. You will die a lot with your 1800 HP @ lvl 160.
4) No PP Reduction. Fortetecher has a built in Reduction in Spell Cost. Master does not. Master's Faster Casting speed will drain you faster.
5) Increased Casting Speed? Do you really need to fire an extra spell? is an extra 1800 damage necessary? Your team of Rangers and Hunters do that job very well faster anyway. Instead i hurt a squad then go to healing mode.
6) Most important question - are all your Magic spells level 40? If yes then by all means go Master. But if youre not even close to 40 per spell then stay Fortetecher.

1. Use items, hurray lvl 20 buffs. Soloing you can make up the damage of lvl 40 vs 20 buffs with the speed. What buffs do FT bring if there's an AT in party? How superior are 40 buffs vs 30 from a GT/WT? Not very.
2. Factor in FT's complete rubbish ATP, horrible ATA, 20% of your hits hitting 0, all of your whip's already tiny hits getting raped by boss DFP, getting stomped on mid combo, and the actual length of a whip combo, and suddenly MF chilling and throwing rocks looks pretty good. Only the bow on flying bosses holds any merit as an advantage. But since the TC has an AT and WT, he would be better off using that type for the three flying bosses and MF for all the rest. Of course MF is faster for Dimma once the supplemental hits too, so longterm it's only a two boss advantage.
3. This sounds like a personal problem.
4. Use Photon Charges, the cost is negligible once your character reaches level 2 or so.
5. How contradictory, you say later in your post to use elemental rods to squeeze out more damage, but here casting an extra tech is meaningless? Which is it? And healing mode? Heal them when the room is clear, if they need heals mid-fighting they can use mates or get blacklisted for sucking.
6. 31+ is sufficient to switch to MF.

As for the Consistency Bonus - YES. absolutely. Why people put spells of different elements on one rod? There is a significant damage boost if you put 4 of the same element so go for it - says 12% but its more like 20% according to the Rod damage update a year ago.

I asked a few why they have green rods - they have resta linked to 3 attack spells. Interesting. But why not put Resta/Reverse on a wand + Card or Resta/Reverser Madoog/Whip/saber ? Wands and madoogs are faster to Heal than Rods.

The 12% rod bonus is more like a 10% damage increase. It's incredibly far from 20. It also only comes into play if it will actually help you kill stuff in one less hit while soloing. In a party you won't hit stuff ten times for the bonus to make any real difference. Using resta from a rod you already have equipped is faster then swapping weapons to do it and then swapping back.

If you're actually soloing in a situation when the bonus damage helps then taking the elemental bonus is of course better. This will vary on a mob by mob and mission by mission basis so plan accordingly. And of course it's useless against dark enemies.

MF will totally PWN FT offensivly and will pretty much be equal in terms of defense. But, in return FT will be able to have buffs and attack techs to lvl 50 depending on how you customize your character. The buffs, even at lvl 50, will not match the extra damage you are doing as a MF in most situations.

Support techs cannot be raised by any type other than MF. Frankly FT has no future once supplemental hits. Easily the worst type after that update.

[Shou]

RLY? I thought that Fire Tech+ would raise shifta cap too since it is a fire tech! D:

[Ceresa]

Only offensive techs get raised by those.

[FOnewearl-Lina]

Compared to MF and it's limit breaks, fT is a shitty hybrid.

[unicorn]

As of right now, Fortetecher is a class thats on the verge of uselessness along with Guntecher and Wartecher. Acrotecher and Masterforce are noticably better techers.

Once we get the supplemental update, I feel that Fortetecher is going to be COMPLETELY useless. Fortetecher is the only type that gets NO % increases at all. Plus FT lacks the use of limit breaks, which REALLY hurts Fortetecher since they are useless against bosses. Also, MF gains higher raw TP than FT (which is technically supposed to be the other way around) and even higher EVP.

Yes, bows do get muuuch better, but Fortetecher is still the worst wielder of them. Wartecher even uses them better, and they only have access to A-rank bows. I really feel if they wanted Fortetecher to be a "battle mage" type of force, they should have given it higher HP, ATP, and TP for its supplemental update, but ST decided to leave Fortetecher unchanged (terrible move).

[Shang]

The biggest decider between FT and MF as of now, in my opinion, is whether you generally solo or party.

I personally hate playing an online game only to solo and don't do too many runs outside of a party, so the techer I'm working on will be AT/MF. However, as others have stated, it depends on your PA levels at the time. If your PAs are below 40 there's really no point in switching to MF when FT has higher TP, HP, and EV right now before the supplement. Personally, I'd stay FT until my PAs were up since doing runs is that much easier with 40 buffs. Only reason my new tech is already a MF is for the MPs. I can't see FT as being a permanent class since they're outclassed by the acro or MF in a party. I would say soloing is the only area where they excel.

The worst part about FT is their lack of defense. A lvl 1 newman Protranser has more defense than a lvl 1 FT for Christ's sake. FT has the lowest DFP of all classes and a lvl 20 FT can't even use an Yiel-senba until about lvl 110. If you plan to stay FT, expect to wear a Serafi-senba for a very long time. Among other problems is the tech speed. FT may be more suitable for soloing but casting time with a rod is unbearable. It feels slow even with a har/quick-smart.

In the end, it's a personal desicion. I'm weighing the two classes as they are now. I'd say don't even worry about the supplement until it comes. It's not as if you can't change class whenever you feel like it.