Questions from a new player

[2xHero]

I have been playing for a little while, and learning how to play on a HUmar. Although this is my first Phantasy Star game, I have made some progress and completed the story mode and the eternal tower on normal difficulty. Still, there are a lot of things that I still want to learn about this game.

The first questions I have are about weapon types. Are there certain weapon types are just plain better than others? To me, it seems like swords are just about the best hunter weapon because they have high damage and can hit multiple targets. What would some of the advantages of using different weapons be?

Then, how beneficial are the damage bonuses from photon types (e.g. native, beast) and accuracy adjustment. What bonuses an item can have seem very random, and I was wondering what the maximum bonuses are. For someone who doesn't have tons of time to play, do you think it would be better not to worry about getting the best possible photon/accuracy for a weapon.

Next, I want know more about photon arts. I have a hard time understanding this guide. So far, I have been just buying cheap weapons to try out the different PAs, but that makes it hard to measure the overall power of a PA. If someone could help explain how to use that guide, that would be a lot of help. Is there a ranking of how good PAs are, or is it more up to preference?

Then, I want to learn about elements. This guide is helpful for some things, but it still doesn't help for explaining the difference between burn level 1 and burn level 5. Also, what are the advantages of different elements. It seems like burn is much better than dark because burn can cause flinching. Is there an advantage to using dark. It seems the same with stun and ice, but I saw someone say that ice is better. I don't understand why, since you can attack a stunned target without curing them. Is there a basic ranking of how good elements are? For example, it seems like celeb is very popular; but meseta, life, and risk are very bad.

My last question for now is "What should be the highest priority for building a decent weapon?" Let's assume that I will use a 4 or 5 star weapon and maxing out grinders. My guess is that getting a PA that I like would be a high priority. Element wouldn't necessarily be a big deal because that can be changed. Can elements on all weapons be changed? I guess I'm saying that photon/accuracy bonuses sound very beneficial, but trying to get the perfect weapon seems like it would take forever and not be fun.

[HeartBreak301]

Swords will fall short later on, in normal enemies aren't very evasive, get to higher difficulties and they becom increasingly unreliable imo. As for PAs, preference mostly. Elements, I like heart and heat personally. Although, everyone will tell you to slap Celeb on everything possible, I've never liked Charge/Celeb so I'm biased against it due to how overpowered it is. Just my two cents.

[Parasite159]

in my opinion(honest or not) swords are too slow and leave you unprotected against faster and more agile enemies.
i'm much rather have a good dagger, hit three times with the first 2 parts of the combo and dodge if i need to or finshing up with the last 3 hits if i'm safe to do so