Start-up question

[xenon0002]

Hi @ all,
i want start a complete new char without any highlvl support (weapons, money etc.)
i am not quite sure what i should pick since there are so many tipps. hope you can give me some helpful adive.

i am a straight forward melee type, means: charge in and attack without hesitation. that's why i need something that has a high dps ( vs single enemy and groups, i think there will be 2 builds with different weapons.)

what i would like to know is:
race
job
weapon, armor (or sets?)
pa.
abilities (sry, forgot that one

thx in advance

[Zynetic]

Cast (Sex doesn't really matter, although your physical stats will be slightly higher if you pick male).
Vanguard.
Twin Sabers with Blade Destruction and Spears with Dus Skadd. Twin Handguns for building chains (Twin Daggers may be better online) / killing certain enemies, Rifle for certain bosses and Rod or Tech Mag and Wand for SDRR.

Armour doesn't really matter, although Sangeyasha with Bugei Senba would be very good, although good luck finding a good Sangeyasha. ._.

For groups I usually just use Blade Destruction, because the multi-target weapons have low ATP (D-Saber, Whips) or ATA (Axes) (or are super slow, like Swords, although they fixed this in Infinity). I can't really say much about the ranged weapons because I don't really use them, even on RA.

[Murlocking]

Male Beast / Hunter
Twin Sabers with Blade Destruction / Spears with Dus Skadd / Knuckles / Axe / Sword AND STAFF
Skills : Spear Strike(1), Full-Custom Power(2),ATK Hi-Boost(2), ATK Boost(1), Spear Advance(1).
Unit: Power/Hit , Status Aliments Protect Unit

You can change Strike and Advance for the weapon type you prefer! Axe and Sword are not really good in Vanilla but in Infinity they do the job pretty well.

I would recommend Double Saber too because they have decent DPS and ATK/ACC.
They are also pretty good at AOE and CC.
I think they chain as fast twin saber does.
The difference between them is, Double Saber = Magic DEF (Hidden Stats) and Twin Saber = EVA (Hidden Stats).

Use your staff for Resta/Giresta, Shifta/Deband ( replace Giresta for Foverse if you use Sol Atomizer )

Try to chain for 10 combo hits or more.
This increase the damage done by PA and also sometimes give you the time for more then 1 PA move on the combo.
Try to "time" your moves. You know when you hit the "square" button at the right time, that increase the damage of the next attack, i always "perfect attack" with square 2 times then i do a "perfect PA".
With critical hit improved on your weapon you will see big numbers in your screen

Hope this can help you in your choice, have fun friend.

[Messy_Mike]

I'd definitely recommend Beast or Cast Vanguard. Both have great offense, Casts have huge HP and excellent Def, Beasts have crazy Evp and solid HP/Def (both have somewhat weak Mnd though).

Weapons: Twin Sabers/Spears if your primary concern is DPS. Dus Scadd on Spears for sure. Blade Destruction for TS is certainly overpowered, but if you go Beast, I might recommend Assault Crush instead. Better Acc to help the beast's partial blindness, and a lower PP cost so help with the Beast's less-than-desirable pp regen rate. It's an excellent and underrated PA that gets overshadowed by BD. Twin handguns/Rifle for chaining/ranged needs. Rod for heals/buffs. If you get high end daggers (Tumikiri Hyori, Lavis Blades, Twin Kamui) these kill great with the Renkai PA. Otherwise, use only for chaining. Knuckles with Bogga Ranpa are pretty great too.

Armor: I'd recommend the GRM Weaves, as they have the highest mind (something both races need), only slightly less Evp than the Rabol series, and neither race needs much Def (especially with beast's Evade). The exceptions are set bonuses, which at endgame usually come from Yohmei armors. Keep an eye out for Mitama Senba, Altera Senba, and especially Bugei Senba, although you won't have to worry about these for quite a while.

Units: Stack Eva and you'll be invincible. The only exceptions are missions like Magashi Plan and the MAX missions in which enemies have boosted Acc. It's probably best to go for pure Power here. Note that if you're seeing a lot of zeroes Beasts may need a Hit module or two. If you go Cast, the best SUVs to use are Seraphim/Exusia Fluge and the "____ Cluster" units. Status resists are never a bad idea, and using a slot on a visual module you like won't kill you.

Abilities: PP boosts, especially for Beast. Burst Bomber definitely. Acc burst for beast, Eva boost for Casts. Elemental Hit (Ra 8 ) if you have weapons with good status effects. I use guns a lot on my VAcast so I like Full Charge Shot, but that's a matter of preference. Half Defense is good for the few attacks that get through your evade.

Use traps! This is very important. Ex traps especially are your highest source of DPS and can take out big mobs and bosses in record time or get you out of a tight spot.

Both Races have their pros and cons. Beasts have slightly higher attack power, and a ton of evade: if you use the right weapons/armor/abilities and keep Deband on, you'll be virtually untouchable as long as you don't get attacked from behind and you keep your eyes out for enemy techs. Nanoblasts are mediocre, but at least they don't use up an armor slot. However, Beast Acc is somewhat atrocious, so you'll need to stack Acc and/or attack from behind, and your gun damage will never be that great. Beasts have a solid PP pool, but their regen is the slowest IIRC so you may spend some time sitting around or using extra normal attacks to ensure you have enough for your whole PA. For what it's worth Beasts are better than Casts at using techs, but attack techs in general suck in this game.

Casts have slightly lower attack power but the highest Acc in the game. A Cast Vanguard has higher Acc than Beast and Human Rangers. You'll very rarely miss and your gun damage will be great. Casts have a tiny PP pool but it regenerates super fast, so it's difficult to run out and it always feels like you have much more. SUVs are great, as they can add huge buffs or do solid damage to every enemy in the area. Cast HP and defense are great, but they have the lowest Evp in the game. Being a Vanguard, using Eva-boosting weapons like Spears/Twin Sabers/Twin Handguns and using Exusia Fluge will mitigate this somewhat, but you'll never really hit 100% melee invincibility like a beast will. Also, never touch an attack tech if you're not a masochist.

tl;dr: VAcasts and VAbeasts are both fantastic, although the former plays more offensively and the latter more defensively. Choose whichever is better suited to your playstyle.

[xenon0002]

wow, guys! thank you!

didn't expect such detailed and informative suggestions.

a little summary:

for race: beast vs cast

for job: hunter vs vanguard

weapons:
dps: definitely spears (Dus Scadd) and twin sabers (blade destruction vs assault crush for acc)
chainbuilding: twin handguns and twin daggers(personally i prefer handguns, safe distance)
aoe: double sabers (optional)
range need: rifle (optional)
magic casting: rod, wand
somehow does knuckle not fit in any of them? but i will keep an eye on good ones.

armor:
grm line @messy: you suggest to go for mnd for mag-def. i will follow it
and all the "good" sets or extraordinary ones.


so the remaining questions are really about race and job.
like i said, its all about dps for me. and especially for bosses with higher lvls, so a high acc is important. from that point maybe cast would be the right one to choose, but in the max missions like messy_mike said is pure power better. i want to avoid being slow in high lvls just because the race is wrong.
as far as i understand, it doesn't matter which job i take since i can change it.

and the last point (finally, took me for ever to think about and balancing all the arguments): Traps...
i read about it and some have the opinion that it kind of takes the fun from the game. it is awesome no doubt, i would like to have a bit more info about that playstyle ( can anyone recommend a youtube video or something?). if its good than vanguard is set

thx again for all the infomations.

[Kurosu]

Knuckles are good weapons too, with Ranpa you can do a lot of damage and it knocks down on the first hit. Makes for a safe playstyle which is good in things like Magashi mission.

ATA doesn't really matter against bosses, since against most you won't ever miss.

(EX) Traps just make things faster, after awhile you will want to do runs fast when you've seen it all, so using them is a good idea.

[xenon0002]

okay just saw a trap-using video , thats definitely the style i like

and @ kuroso does ata really count so less?

i think the job is set: vanguard.

now the race:
the video shows.... well perhaps someone who spent 500+ hours playtime but... he wasn't even hit once?! and other videos from him shows the same. i like this style, since you just have to concentrate on dealing damage and almost nothing else. since beast has a higher eva, i think this should be my first char second will be hunter then

[Murlocking]

okay just saw a trap-using video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CsjVyX2WaHI&NR=1, thats definitely the style i like

and @ kuroso does ata really count so less?

i think the job is set: vanguard.

now the race:
the video shows.... well perhaps someone who spent 500+ hours playtime but... he wasn't even hit once?! and other videos from him shows the same. i like this style, since you just have to concentrate on dealing damage and almost nothing else. since beast has a higher eva, i think this should be my first char second will be hunter then

My first two characters were Beast/CAST then i made a new toon -Female Newman- and i'm leveling her vanguard/ranger/force.

I swear ! The newman female are OP!!!! Crazy Evade and almost infinite PP.
If you wanna go Vanguard instead of Hunter i'll suggest you make a newman female.

Sure you won't have that high amount HP and ATK a beast as but you will be almost invicible.

The mission you see in this video, i did it in 3m10sec and its like 1 1/2 level per run + 136 type points.

I think you can start doing it at level 50.

[Messy_Mike]

VAnewearl would not be right at all for what the TC is looking for. Female Newmans have inferior melee potential to every single other combination in the game. Male beasts have about 5% more Evp than femal Newmans, and therefore reach total melee invincibility easier and sooner. They also deal FAR more damage, which is what the TC asked for. Casts would probably do more overall damage still due to sky-high acc, but it's true that their Evp is pretty far behind a Newman's.

Over 3 minutes for Gemaga as a Vanguard is actually quite slow. Barring the rare spawn or aura'd Shizuru, I generally complete it with my VAcast in the 1:50's, and I'm nowhere near the fastest. You can start doing the mission at level 1, but the minimum enemy level is 50.

If you're going to make a second character and you're interested in hunters, I'd suggest making a Cast. Second highest Attack power, but Hunter acc is low enough compared to Vanguard that beast hunters will miss a lot and generally end up doing less damage in the long run. Evp is usess as a hunter, so the Cast's other defensive stats really shine. Alternatively, you could choose a human, who would deal significantly less damage a d would run out of PP faster but could tank a few more hits.

[Messy_Mike]

Excuse me? Nothing I said was wrong, unless you'd like to point out where I was mistaken.