End Game Mag Stats

[word2own]

Is it really a good idea to just focus on, say for example, Striking Damage stat for Mag? I mean I can understand it's good for Hunter, but what if you decide to change class to Ranger or Force? I'm hearing that you have to pay to get more than 1 Mag and Mags aren't transferable. So are you supposed to spread your Mag stats in anticipation you may play other classes or would going for Ability/defensive stats be better overall?

This is what I've gathered and thought about from playing and reading around. If there's something I'm missing or I'm way over thinking this, please correct and inform me lol. Thanks.

[Sizustar]

There isn't a "right" or "wrong" way to raise a mag, some people go for Mag/Photon blast look, other people want Max DPS, and plan to focus on one class, etc.

[Hrith]

From what I have seen of the game, the damage you receive (one hit from about anything is usually a huge chunk of my HP gauge) is a much bigger problem than the damage you deal (shit dies fast).
I'm betting DEF Mag builds would be very useful.

The fact that the Mags have separate ATK and DEF gauges is a big problem, because 1) if you want to raise your defensive power, you either have to choose which DEF, or raise them all equally, severely diminishing the defensive potential and 2) if you raise one ATK gauge, your mag becomes useless when you change classes.

SEGA obviously did this to force us to buy more Mags, because mags having one gauge for all ATK types and one gauge for all DEF types would have been a lot better gameplay-wise.

My other problem - and not pertaining to Mags alone - is that it's still rather unclear what R-DEF does: it's assumed it protects from ranged attacks, but what attacks qualify as ranged as opposed to striking? Technic attacks are easy to tell, of course (and usually really powerful, so investing in T-DEF is a significant plus).
If R-DEF only protects against projectiles, it's not worth much compared to the other two types of defence.

[iwerkout]

Until you get to bosses that have un-dodge-able ranged attacks, but hey, that's probably way far down the line lol!
Defense mags don't sound like a bad idea, unless you're really good at dodging and just make an ATK mag anyway.

[Hrith]

I'm good at dodging, and as a ranger, I rarely jump into the fray, but I still get hit enough for me to contemplate more defensive options.

[Dinosaur]

Your MAG build needs to work with your character's base stats and class stats in order to equip strong gear. Most(if not, all) of the high level gear have stat requirements that exceed base stat caps. For example, there is an 8-star back unit that requires 407 R-def. At level 40, only RAcaseal and RAnewm get 378 R-def while the others get 360. In order to equip it, you will need some R-def from your MAG and maybe even R-def from the RA skill tree. Another example: a 9-star rifle has a 458 R-atk req. when at level 40, characters have around 370 base R-atk.

[Macman]

My other problem - and not pertaining to Mags alone - is that it's still rather unclear what R-DEF does: it's assumed it protects from ranged attacks, but what attacks qualify as ranged as opposed to striking?

From what I've seen so far, the thrown rocks from Za Oodans, Aginis's spit attacks, the blue shots the ranger Dinians shoot. I'm almost positive some of the machine enemies on desert use ranged attacks, too.

[Vylera]

Your MAG build needs to work with your character's base stats and class stats in order to equip strong gear. Most(if not, all) of the high level gear have stat requirements that exceed base stat caps. For example, there is an 8-star back unit that requires 407 R-def. At level 40, only RAcaseal and RAnewm get 378 R-def while the others get 360. In order to equip it, you will need some R-def from your MAG and maybe even R-def from the RA skill tree. Another example: a 9-star rifle has a 458 R-atk req. when at level 40, characters have around 370 base R-atk.

These base stat caps are temporary. Once the level cap gets increased, getting the stats you need won't be a problem.

I sure as hell don't remember equiping a 9 star rifle at level 40 back in PSO1/BB.

[Zyrusticae]

I strongly recommend just getting another mag or outright buying another character slot if you plan on playing more than one class.

Too much compromise involved if you try to split one mag between multiple classes.

[Dinosaur]

These base stat caps are temporary. Once the level cap gets increased, getting the stats you need won't be a problem.

I sure as hell don't remember equiping a 9 star rifle at level 40 back in PSO1/BB.

Lets be realistic here. We aren't getting level 100 anytime soon. Post-level 20, the stat gains are around 4-5 per level, which means at level 50(the next cap in line for us), a Ranger will have around 400 base R-Atk. That's still not enough to equip that 9-star rated rifle and BARELY enough to equip 7-8 star launchers. Also consider the fact that when the level cap is raised, there will certainly be newer and stronger equipment with even higher stat requirements.

Also, PSO2 is not PSO, so there's no point in comparing the two.