Looking for some FOmar advice

[Tamlin42]

It really depends on what you want to do. If you plan on spamming Techs, you're going to burn through fluids no matter which Force you use. Once you get to Hard mode, though, you'll be getting more money than you'll spend on fluids so you won't be wasting money.

I chose a FOmarl over a Fonewearl because I really like Slicers and a Fomarl has the highest Accuracy of all the Forces. I also like supporting the party with my Techniques so my Pallet looks like: Evasion, a Tech appropriate to the area I'm in (usually its Zonde), Normal Attack and my 2nd Pallet is: Shifta, Resta, Anti. In areas where Rolling won't help (as in many Boss battles) or I need an extra Technique, I'll swap out Evasion for Difluid (vs a Boss) or Jellen.

On Super Hard, I have a 99 Hit (and 1 Guard) Mag (that looks like Wings), carry 3 Master Swifts and my Compress PA as Units in my 4 slot Pizza Box ground to +99. I used 100 Mind Materials on her. At lv95, she still misses about 15% of the time but I'm willing to accept that. This setup gives her 475ATA, 604EVP, and 949MST.

In combat, its VERY situational. I tend to use my Slicer but if the room contains a Hunter Killer Robot (in Peru) or a Tank Bot (in Arca Plant) I dash in and start hammering it with Zonde. I try to cast Alshifta on the party before entering a room. If someone is badly hurt, I'll toss out a Alresta. If someone goes down and doesn't get up, I toss an Alanti followed immediately by Alresta. (You don't want to know how often that happens. People often forget to pick up more Scape Dolls after a run...) In Peru or Arca, I use up all of her 645PP every other room that contains one miniboss and ALL of it if the room contains 3 or more. It takes 1 Monofluid and 1 Difluid to refill her PP. If I run out of fluids, I Telepipe back to town and reload.

So, as you can see, I'm using the all Techniques I carry and my choice of Force was made based on the role I wanted to take.

[Gofr]

Yeah what you're doing is kind of the idea I had. How well does that extra accuracy work out? Is it worth getting in those extra melee hits? I was thinking in the long term going with a 50/50 mst/ata mag with my mats being mst. Of course I have no idea how much melee I actually plan to use (at least in end game lol, level 12 melee ftw). For sure I think I'll need some ata since I do intend to mix things up a bit. I'm really interested in trying out a whole tech like mad thing then melee with a heart weapon and go back and forth like that.

[Jessums]

Yeah what you're doing is kind of the idea I had. How well does that extra accuracy work out? Is it worth getting in those extra melee hits? I was thinking in the long term going with a 50/50 mst/ata mag with my mats being mst. Of course I have no idea how much melee I actually plan to use (at least in end game lol, level 12 melee ftw). For sure I think I'll need some ata since I do intend to mix things up a bit. I'm really interested in trying out a whole tech like mad thing then melee with a heart weapon and go back and forth like that.

That's a good call. I did that with my FOmar back in PSO and it really worked wonders.
You really won't need to do that when you are in hard or super hard though. You gain way more money than you need. Trust me.
I'm a FOnewearl that only spams techs. I can get away with only one trip back to town per run on Super hard. I never need a trip back to town on Hard.

Keep in mind Rods and Wands have some pretty good mob Photon Arts. You can do some pretty heavy damage with the right weapon even if it's melee. Throughout normal my weak little FOnewearl dominated with the Rodeo PA.

[earthsenshi]

I'm a FOmarl @ lvl 74 right now. I tend to use slicers and techs. I was fine using a slicer and teching a bit until I got to sh mode. I then had to rely on techs more. The tech compress and pp regen items really do help.
Stats really do depend on whether you are spamming techs, using weapons, or a combo of both.
Statwise, I created a mag for different purposes and partially based on the FOmarl's lvl 100 base stats compared to all the other classes. (ex. fomarls have the 3rd lowest def and the 4th lowest ata) I have a larg for tech and slicer usage g36, h31, m33 and a feo for spamming techs g36, m63. I also have an urado for atp based weapons p52, g25, h23. I am waiting to use my materials till I get closer to lvl 100. I think that feeling and observing what stats need boosting is more effective than playing with numbers that might not have much meaning to you other than how they compare to stats of others. So later on, I will be playing and thinking "I don't want to make another mag with the hit pumped up more. I need be be able to hit things more in general, so I will use some hit materials."
If you will be a meleeing force, you have another decision to make. Are you mostly going to use weapons based on atp or mst? That could completely change how you make your build.

[Gofr]

Thanks for the all the help. I've got some ideas flowing arund in my head as to where I may want to go. Much of it will be dependant on how my playstyle does turn out, but I like already having some ideas. If anyone has any more advice, feel free to post, I'm always lookin for more insights.

[Shadeerror]

The only big issue you will have with FOmar/marl is that they are a sub-par class to run SH Eternal Tower in the game. In case you don;t know what the Eternal Tower is, it's a 101 floor dungeon that unlocks after completing the game. As a FO you will rely very heavily on Fluids throughout the tower and will only be able to pipe back to town every 10 levels to restock on fluids. This makes for a very tough time for FOmar/marls unless they have a PP Recovery unit to regenerate PP. If you plan on undertaking the Eternal Tower for it's one-of-a-kind rare goodies I would suggest a Newm/newearl.

[Tamlin42]

I found the extra accuracy of a FOmarl CRITICAL for my play style. I want to contribute to a battle with my Slicer not hover around waiting for someone to get hurt or spamming Techs. If I wanted to JUST Spam Techs, I'd have chosen a FOnewm for the Tech bonus and PP regeneration. If I wanted to Spam Techs AND heal, I'd have chosen a FOnewearl. If I wanted to Smack hostiles with non Force weapons, I'd have chosen a FOmar.

When I first started the game, I didn't know what to pick so I ended up choosing what was most popular: A FOnewearl. She was great in Normal mode. She could heal the party, evade hits, whack hostiles with a Slicer... but as soon as she got to Hard mode, she suddenly started missing. A LOT. I drove her all the way to lv55 before I decided she was NOT going to suit my play style in Super Hard mode. So I emptied her locker and inventory and replaced her with a FOmarl.

By lv40 my FOmarl was outperforming my lv55 FOnewearl with the exact same equipment. When she got to lv65, I tried her in Super Hard mode and found that she couldn't hit anything with her Slicer. So for the next 20 levels, she became a Tech Force using my best Rod. (I knew this was going to happen so I planned accordingly: I had a 99 Mind Mag and a nice Rod all ready for her. Since both Force weapons and Techs rely on MST for damage, I was fine with her 100 Mind materials.)

Eventually, she was again able to hit stuff reasonably often (as far as I was concerned) so I switched her back to a Slicer. I suppose I could have given her Hit Units to get her hitting stuff sooner but I don't like it when the hostiles hit her while I'm charging a Tech or Photon Art because then I have to start charging all over again (in most cases) or stop to heal. That's why she carries Swift Units: Hostiles can't hurt her if they can't hit her.

I tried a 50/50 MST/ATA Mag and found it just wasn't enough. My FOmarl has the highest Accuracy of a Force and even at lv95 she STILL needs a 99 Hit Mag to hit stuff with a Slicer. If you're planning on using a weapon with higher Accuracy than a Slicer you may be able to pull off a 50/50 Mag.

Jessums is quite right: Another way to play a Force is spam Photon Arts. I didn't go that route because I don't really want my Force in melee. You do. So try out various wands and rods with different PAs and see which ones you like. NOTE: Magical Sign only LOOKS like it hits stuff in front of your character. It actually hits EVERY hostile in a full circle around your character and often causes slow. Good stuff.

[Tamlin42]

I disagree with Shadeerror about fluid use in the Eternal Tower. You risk running out ONLY if you spam Techs. My lv80 FOmarl survived all 101 floors in Super Hard mode EASILY killing the Bosses using NOTHING but Zonde while holding my best Rod. On non boss floors, she used a Slicer and zapped those Hunter Killer Robots from Peru and the Tank Bots from Arca Plant with Zonde. She cast Alshifta whenever it wore off and Alresta to heal the party whenever necessary. She didn't need Alanti becuase everyone stands back up whenever the party enters a new room and everyone ELSE in the party heals whenever we go to a new floor. I NEVER ran out of fluids.

Sure, I had to remember to restock after dumping my junk every 10 levels but that was easy to remember. If you get killed and run out of Scape Dolls, the game simply tosses you back to the city where you can restock. Then when you go back to the teleporter you get transported back to the start of whatever floor you were on. How hard is it to run through some EMPTY rooms to get back to where you were?

So if you actually DO run out of fluids and you simply can't proceed without them, you can always drop all your Scape Dolls, remove your armor, get killed ONCE and get sent back to the city. How hard is it to dump your junk, stash your good stuff, restock, put your armor back on, and spend 15 Photon Drops to restock your Scape Dolls?

This game does NOT punish you for dying. You don't lose ANY experience or levels or items. Does it really matter how many times you die when you NEED to die a MINIMUM of 100 times (spread through ALL your characters) to get a title that you NEED to get all 100 titles? (That is if you want all 100 titles.)

[LouieW]

My FOmar has not encountered much trouble making contact in super hard using mostly heavy attacks and I do not have hit on my mag nor have I used hit materials. Instead I use a pure power mag with a saber type weapon (stormer) that has pretty good percents and a mid-level celeb element. So far things have worked out fine with that setup. Still, there are some situations when I need to switch to a more traditional force and when that happens I just swap to a pure mind mag and a rod (or slicer when against some bosses). My FOmar still does pretty good damage in such situations with techniques even though I am only using power materials.

I do not know if you would want to use a dual threat force like that, but if you do Shifta and Deband are key. Weapons are also important. You do not need to have a bunch of ten meseta rares though, just some six or seven star weapons with good percents and decent elements. The trade-off to the dual threat approach is less damage with your techniques and an inability to use slicers very well outside of boss fights. Of course, many people probably would not want to play as a melee force and feel more comfortable just using force weapons and techniques. Obviously there is no problem with that. I personally like the dual threat approach because you can save a lot of PP and I find it more enjoyable especially since FOmars have decent attack stats.

[Gofr]

My FOmar has not encountered much trouble making contact in super hard using mostly heavy attacks and I do not have hit on my mag nor have I used hit materials. Instead I use a pure power mag with a saber type weapon (stormer) that has pretty good percents and a mid-level celeb element. So far things have worked out fine with that setup. Still, there are some situations when I need to switch to a more traditional force and when that happens I just swap to a pure mind mag and a rod (or slicer when against some bosses). My FOmar still does pretty good damage in such situations with techniques even though I am only using power materials.

I do not know if you would want to use a dual threat force like that, but if you do Shifta and Deband are key. Weapons are also important. You do not need to have a bunch of ten meseta rares though, just some six or seven star weapons with good percents and decent elements. The trade-off to the dual threat approach is less damage with your techniques and an inability to use slicers very well outside of boss fights. Of course, many people probably would not want to play as a melee force and feel more comfortable just using force weapons and techniques. Obviously there is no problem with that. I personally like the dual threat approach because you can save a lot of PP and I find it more enjoyable especially since FOmars have decent attack stats.

Yeah, that sounds interesting. I wasn't planning on going for any atp, though it may be something to keep in the back of my mind once I'm higher level and can better determine how to go about things. For the time being I'm thinking of going mainly tech and hopefully I'll run into a nice heart weapon and use that to melee when I'm low on pp. It's trying to work in the melee and play with techs at the same time that I was hoping to pull off, with more focus on techs, but still some melee so I don't get bored just tech spamming. Of course I don't plan on grabbing any atp other than what a melee weapon might give me, but I'm not too concerned about that, not now anyway. Again, that's something time will tell. I'm really looking forward to this.