Skill Chart Color Priority:
Green = Extremely important, very useful for most builds.
Yellow = Diversifying choices, all good skills but all won't fit.
Orange = Consider these for specialized builds.
Red = For extreme circumstances, such as unique weapons or leftover points.
Grey = You may as well have thrown those points away(avoid at all costs).
Common Skills:
Spoiler!
HP Up / *-Atk Up / *-Def Up / Ability Up - 10 SP
Grants 1-50 in the designated stat. Does not scale with your level and gear so it is of lower priority than multipliers. As these stats add to your base stats, they can be useful for equipment requirements if you or your mag are still at a low level or other circumstances prevent you from reaching certain stat thresholds.
PP Up grants 1-10 PP instead, and although HP and PP have no scaling alternatives, they provide too little compared to other sources besides the skill tree that they are still lower priority than other skills.
Rare Mastery [Class] - 10 SP
This skill gives you a bonus to your main damage type attack score whenever you have a 10*(or higher) weapon equipped. It will not activate on your subclass so you can only get one bonus at a time. The bonus itself is minuscule topping out at +50 at lvl 10. What's this sound like to you? Yes, it's a static stat bonus skill like anything else in the tree EXCEPT: IT DOESN'T ADD TO YOUR BASE STATS. This makes it less worth while than the static stat bonuses you can get since those increase the effects of Shifta, work even when they're on your subclass and actually allow you to equip better weapons (and armor).
The one benefit this skill carries is putting a single point into it gives you a bonus of 30 to its respective attack score making a 1SP investment a reasonable choice. Anything more than this is a waste.
Step/Dive Advance - 10 SP
Slightly increases the length of invulnerability during the weapon-specific dodge. Each point has diminishing returns, so maxing the skill is not significantly better than leaving it at 3 or 4.
Step Attack - 1 SP
Adds the ability to use a normal attack at the end of a Step dodge which does not advance your PA combo reel. What this means is you can lunge forward and Just Attack your first PA slot without having to cycle through all three slots first. It is also better in some situations for positioning, as it is much more fluid than attacking after a normal Step without a JA circle.
Just Reversal - 1 SP
Whenever you get knocked down, usually from more powerful attacks, this skill allows you to press the jump button the moment you touch the ground to return to your feet much faster, accompanied by a very brief moment of invulnerability.
A very useful offensive and defensive skill requiring little investment and takes effect even on your subclass so you only need it once.
Hunter:
Spoiler!
A beefy, close ranged attacker who uses heavy weapons, each with the ability to guard oncoming attacks. The individual Photon Arts (PAs) will differ, but generally Wired Lances deal high single target damage, Partisans cover a wide area, and Swords do a bit of both.
At first glance, the Hunter tree appears to have a mix of both offensive and defensive skills. But due to a limited amount of Skill Points (SP), as well as the fast paced nature of the game, it's generally a better idea to go fully offensive. All of Hunter's offensive skills boost both Striking and Ranged damage, cementing its place as "universal subclass" though since only Fury Combo boosts Tech damage it falls a bit short for Force. For a main Hunter build, or one that uses all-class Hunter weapons, it's worth a detour to pick up the various Weapon Gears and Just Guard/Counter. For any other class, you can ignore these Hunter specific skills.
Skills:
Spoiler!
Sword Gear - 1 SP
Gear gauge builds up simply by attacking the enemy, even with PAs, and decreases steadily over time.
The more full bars in your gauge, the more pronounced the effects will be, whether it's more power, range, number of hits, or faster charge time depending on the PA.
Wired Lance Gear - 1 SP
Gear gauge builds up by attacking enemies with non-grappling PAs or normal attacks.
One bar is consumed for each grapple you perform and boosts its damage by 30%.
Partisan Gear - 1 SP
Gear gauge builds up while guarding or waiting for the second JA circle after you attack.
One bar is consumed for each PA which increases its range. Damage is unchanged.
Fury Gear Boost - 5 SP
Vastly increases the rate at which your gear gauge rises for the Sword, Partisan, and Wired Lance.
Just Guard - 1 SP
While normal guarding reduces damage and drains PP, a successful Just Guard fully eliminates all damage and does not cost PP. Also grants a brief period of invulnerability which can allow you to attack during dangerous situations or even set up another Just Guard to stay invincible throughout an entire multi-hit attack.
Note that guarding only blocks attacks from the front, so even Just Guard can't prevent attacks from above or behind. Only affects Sword, Partisan, and Wired Lance.
Just Counter - 1 SP
Enables a JA circle after a successful Just Guard. This can either mean a quicker counter attack, or an easier time evading followup hits by dodging out of the JA circle early.
JA Bonus - 10 SP
Increases Striking and Ranged damage when performing Just Attacks up to 10%. Both JA Bonus skills combine to give 21%, as all percentage based skills stack multiplicatively.
Fury Stance - Active Skill - 10 SP
Must be placed on your subpalette and manually triggered every 10 minutes to keep the effect.
Increases Striking damage by 15-25%, increases Ranged damage by 1-10%, but does not increase Tech damage. Also increases Striking damage taken by 15-5%.
Further levels in the skill increase damage dealt as well as reduce damage taken, so this takes priority over most other skills.
Fury Stance Up - 10 SP
Further increases Striking/Ranged damage dealt up to 10% while Fury Stance is active, but does not affect damage received.
Fury Combo Up - 10 SP
Greatly increases all damage dealt (including Tech) from Just Attacks while Fury Stance is active. Lower levels of the skill can still reach the maximum 20% damage with successive JA, but the full 10 SP investment ensures every JA you perform always deals that maximum damage.
As 20% is the largest passive damage bonus you can receive after Fury Stance itself, maxing this skill is of utmost priority.
Fury Critical - 10 SP
Additively increases critical hit rate by up to +20% while Fury Stance is active. However, since critical hits themselves are not any stronger than the maximum damage you could deal normally, this skill is not very useful.
Guard Stance - Active Skill - 10 SP
Reduces Striking and Ranged damage dealt by 15-5% and reduces Striking damage received by 15-25%. Also increases S-Def by up to +200.
Does not stack with Fury Stance, so the only damage multipliers you can use at the same time are JA Bonus and skills from your subclass (or main if Hunter is your sub).
The opportunity cost of missing Fury Stance is reason enough to avoid this skill, but a further damage penalty for very little survivability in return makes this a poor choice. Since it does nothing for Ranged and Tech damage received, Guard Stance is not an all-purpose tanking skill.
Guard Stance Up - 10 SP
Further reduces Striking damage taken by up to 10% and increases S-Def by up to +50 while Guard Stance is active, but does not affect damage dealt.
Guard Stance Poison/Burn - 1 SP
Removes the specified status effect when activating Guard Stance. Does not provide immunity, even while the stance is active.
Pretty Good - 5 SP
Reduces duration of status effects by up to 70% (30% of the original length). Does not require Guard Stance, but is buried very deep in the tree. Status effects in general are rarely threatening, but if you really did want to cleanse them then you can just use a Sol Atomizer instead.
Absorption - 10 SP
Heals up to 10% of your max HP whenever an enemy dies at close range while Guard Stance is active. Since you miss out on Fury Stance, you'll likely not be triggering Absorption on your own, but relying on your party members to kill enemies for you, yet due to the difficulty of regularly drawing aggro as a tanking class, mobs will often not be in range for Absorption. It becomes even more difficult hunting down mobs to kill during a boss fight when you would need regular healing the most.
War Cry - Active Skill - 10 SP
Instantly grabs aggro of all nearby targets for the full duration (up to 30s) and multiplies generated Hate to hopefully retain aggro even after the skill ends or to help take aggro of new targets that were not in range of the initial activation of the skill.
At max level, War Cry can be refreshed to consistently hold the aggro of a boss for the entire fight, however this does not allow for traditional "tank and spank" strategies as bosses will often stay just as mobile and damage other party members no matter who has aggro.
The long cooldown prevents it from seeing regular use for tanking regular mobs, and even the longer duration from higher levels of the skill does very little for grabbing aggro on new spawns.
Iron Will - 10 SP
Grants up to a 75% chance to survive lethal attacks with 1HP. Does not work at 1HP, but otherwise has no cooldown or other limiting factor.
Best used in conjunction with Automate skills or HP Recovery mag actions to automatically heal past 1HP so Iron Will can function on subsequent attacks.
Never Give Up - 5 SP
If Iron Will succeeds, grants 200-300 S-Atk for 60s and up to 5s of invulnerability.
That's a big if, but it's a moderate boost whenever it does activate.
Automate Halfline - 10 SP
When an attack leaves you under 50% HP, grants up to 100% chance to automatically consume the lowest level Mate in your inventory without an animation.
You can get more out of the skill if you intentionally don't carry Monomates, but this means you can quickly run out of consumables if you rely too much on Automate. Also take note that you can still die with heavy lag and/or fast successive attacks before Automate should have triggered, and it does nothing if you take more than your current HP in damage.
Flash Guard - 10 SP
Grants up to a 100% chance to reduce Striking and Ranged damage received by 20%.
Note that Flash Guard 1 goes from 30-100%, whereas Flash Guard 2 is 10-100%
Flash Tech Guard has a 30-100% chance to reduce received Tech damage by 30%.
These skills do not require Guard Stance, but are buried deep in the tree away from Fury Stance so it's still difficult to use them together.
Note that these are your only consistent source of Ranged and Tech damage reduction from skills, as Guard Stance only reduces Striking.
Massive Hunter - 10 SP
Reduces all damage by up to 25% and prevents flinch and knockdown for up to 25s, with as low as 100s cooldown when maxed.
Does not require Guard Stance, but is buried deep within the tree and costs too much SP for such a short duration.
Does not protect against grabs or status effects.
Builds:
Spoiler!
Hu/Fi - Full Featured
All Weapon Gears with maxed Fury Gear, Just Counter, a bit of War Cry, and full Chase including Bind from the Fighter subclass.
Sacrificing a bit of damage in order to take quite nearly everything else for a well-rounded style of play gives you a great taste of what this class has to offer. Effective with every available weapon, and with all the major defining skills at your disposal, you can play Hunter however you want.
Hu/Fi - Pure Damage
Sacrificing Sword Gear since it costs the most SP to get, this build intends to get the most passive damage boosts possible, while still retaining Just Guard.
The idea is to deal as much damage as you can with your weapon of choice, as such there is no singular best build. Since certain PAs cannot be Step canceled, forgoing Just Guard can make avoiding damage impossible. But on the other hand, certain PAs can become outright terrible without the gear gauge partially or completely full.
Hu/Br - Autoheals
A more defensive approach without completely ignoring offense, this build minimizes time spent after taking damage by healing automatically without watching long drinking animations. As long as you have enough HP to survive a single hit, and have consumables left in your inventory, you can heal back a majority of your health every time.
Combat Escape is only there as an emergency option using a weak all-class katana to save yourself or your fallen party members. If you have a stronger katana to use, you could try more of a main katana Hu/Br build.
Since Average Stance is weaker than anything from Fighter, especially for uncharged attacks, another option would be to swap between both Braver stances.
Fighter:
Spoiler!
A lighter and faster close ranged attacker than Hunter, with less HP and a short parry window instead of an extended guard, Fighter packs a powerful punch that their enemies won't see coming. Many of their PAs involve dodging and dashing, with Twin Daggers offering various aerial maneuvers, Knuckles dealing high close ranged damage, and Double Sabers having a bit longer range.
Fighter's two stances, Brave and Wise, depend entirely on the player's relative position to the target. If the Fighter is in front of the enemy, then Brave will take effect, if the Fighter is behind the enemy, Wise will be needed instead. Note that only the very center of the player and the enemy are compared, so this thin boundary can be crossed unintentionally on physically large enemies such as Vardha. For Falz Elder, his center point is considered to be in the middle of the entire arena, so his core and arms can be attacked with Wise stance despite seemingly being in front of him. Another exception is certain attack animations that turn the enemy in place, such as Zeshrayda when he fires projectiles out of his shell while standing on two feet, he is actually still "facing forward" as far as the game is concerned. Enemies that are actually spinning, such as being thrown using Other Spin, won't consistently take boosted damage from either stance, so you have to be mindful of these things at all times.
Status Effect DPS Build
The trick here is to affix a status effect (SE) on your weapon and use multi-hit attacks for a better overall chance for it to apply. The major drawback to this approach is that every large boss is immune to all SE and minibosses are only susceptible to one or two. You can inflict bosses with a special condition (like Burn on Banther, Freeze on Vol, or Poison on Quartz), but you do not get Chase Advance for these cases since they are not actual SE (Banther/Quartz take no damage from the fire itself, and Vol's freeze cannot shatter from attacks).
Worth noting is that the Fighter stances themselves don't scale very well, but the Stance Up skills do. This lets us save SP, opting for a wider range of skills and a bit more S-Atk which will work regardless of facing.
Taking the build in another direction, focusing on a higher crit rate and Fighter's unique crit damage skill, a Chase+CritBuild could even have moderate success with crafted weapons. But note that you still only have about 45% chance to crit, and inflicting SE is still as random as ever, so your damage will vary quite wildly.
PP Slayer DPS Build
Since SEs don't work on large bosses, this build focuses on more reliable damage instead, which also frees up an affix slot on your weapons. PP Slayer's 200 S-Atk roughly equates to 10% damage in the current end game depending on your weapon and other factors. It takes effect any time your PP is less than or equal to 50% at the point of contact. This means you can use a PA at 65% PP and still get the bonus. Do note that the game truncates decimals, so 50/100 may not be exactly 50%, and thus not apply PP Slayer. But with a precise amount of starting PP, such as 120PP and using two Deadly Archers in a row, you will get the bonus at exactly 50%.
Just like before, you can try a Crit+PP Slayer Build, but at least the variance will average out over multiple hits on a boss.
If you're feeling especially indecisive, you can always use a build that does both Chase+PP Slayer, but there's no way you would have enough points to also invest in crit skills without ending up lowering your damage overall.
Ranger:
Spoiler!
Ranger is a high damage potential, mid to long range class with several support options. The majority of support is trumped by the high damage options that Ranger has under the right conditions, especially since many enemies have Ranged-specific weak spots (the head). Weak Bullet (WB) alone makes Ranger a desirable class, since it not only turns any one point on a target into a weak spot for Ranger's own passive damage multipliers, but it also grants everyone triple damage on the target which stacks with whatever regular weakness the enemy already had.
While rifles are the obvious boss killers since they're tied to WB, launchers and gunslashes are your AoE trash mob cleanup tools unless you happen to have a level 16 diffuse shell. Even so, you'll want to carry all three to maximize your damage potential in every situation, with a Hunter sub for the best damage multipliers available.
Pure DPS Build:
Maximizing damage on your Ranged attacks, with frequent usage of Weak Bullet to further boost your and your party's damage by 3x. I can't stress this enough, but Weak Bullet is the best support in the game, allowing everyone multiple chances to deal vastly increased damage that stacks with any and all skills and effects (except more WB, that only refreshes the effect, maximum one per enemy at a time).
Killing Bonus doesn't directly increase your damage, but it can be surprisingly helpful at times. That said, each point isn't significant, so you won't really miss the last couple of points, but it still helps.
First Hit doesn't boost every hit in a multi-hit PA, so only a launcher and Diffuse Shell could get much use out of it for mobbing, but it can and often will be the difference between wiping a group with a single PA and having to send out a second volley. Against bosses, even if you do get the first hit, WB actually deals a bit of damage on its own, so First Hit will never stack.
Standing Snipe and Sharpshooter also won't be active all the time, but every skill together adds up to a lot of damage which makes short work of even the toughest bosses.
The Hunter tree is purely as supplementary damage and not for any of Hunter's weapons outside of dashing or some fun times with Assault Buster since it can potentially kill certain mobs a bit faster while dashing.
Gunner:
Spoiler!
A nimble, close ranged powerhouse with potent long ranged capabilities as well, Gunner makes for an excellent solo class. The Twin Mechgun's weapon action has the Gunner perform a side or backflip during which the player is completely invulnerable yet still able to attack. Many PAs involve positional kicks and dives with something for every occasion.
Chain Trigger marks a target much like Weak Bullet, but does not take effect right away. The Gunner's party can build the displayed chain up anywhere from 1 to 100 hits, which will make subsequent attacks stronger once it is activated when struck by one of the Gunner's PAs. Other party members cannot activate someone else's CT, but their own PAs will count towards the chain combo. Also unlike WB, only the Gunner's immediate party can see or interact with the CT, not anybody else in the MPA, and only the Gunner themself will get the damage boost.
Sustainable DPS Build:
The idea is to stack a lot of general damage boosts that are always active while regenerating PP during the SRoll that you should be using to start every PA to double your damage. But note that SRoll Up/Arts themselves do not get any bonus from JA, so these should not be used for damage purposes, only PP regen (for which SRA is counter productive).
Without ever switching from the Twin Mechguns, this build still has a lot of utility and damage, either at close range or from a distance, to a single target or many, and is not obligated to hit weak points as their only form of damage. Of course, with everything at once you can see some insane numbers, and it's easier to achieve than when subbing Ranger.
Burst Damage Build:
Its ace in the hole is the deadly WB+CT combo for achieving incredible maximum damage on a single target on a cooldown. That doesn't mean you can neglect the other three WBs in your rifle, as simply going AFK between each shot could still add up to more total damage than your own little party trick.
Your general TMG (or even rifle) damage doesn't suffer too much of a drop compared to the /Hu builds, albeit with a much higher reliance on weak points, though you should always be looking for an opportunity to use your Chain Trigger. And not to a 100 hit combo, either. About 20 or 30 hits gives you the greatest bonus per hit, and any more can actually end up being less damage over time, even if you don't miss the Chain Finish which is entirely likely.
We build into Chain Finish because you should be close enough to the enemies while mobbing to proc Killing Bonus Regularly, rendering Attack PP Restore obsolete.
Instead of extra R-Atk, you could opt to put extra points in SRoll Up and SRArts mainly for building up your Chain and doing respectable damage doing it, since neither will set off the Finish. They can also boost your general damage since you can shoot before getting your SRoll JA.
Force:
Spoiler!
With low HP, a vast array of long ranged techs, and an incredibly long dodge, Forces are happy to stay a safe distance away from their enemies while raining down death or supporting themselves and allies. Unfortunately, their buffs aren't very substantial, either in potency or duration, and due to the fast paced nature of the game, it becomes incredibly difficult to support other players.
The techs themselves aren't locked to a weapon, and can even be set to the subpalette along with consumable items and active skills. The difference is in the normal attack of the weapon, namely throwing a card from the Talis which can then become the origin of your next tech. Rods are more straightforward, having a simple melee attack and always cast techs directly from the Force, but come with higher stats.
Wide Elemental Coverage:
With only one skill tree, as any extras cost real money, one can be hard pressed to find a good Force build that can be effective in any area. This attempts to equalize the elements without sacrificing too much in any single one.
The result avoids embarrassment against any type of Darkers or native species, being able to use any technic from any elemental school at any given moment. With a focus on general tech damage and targeting elemental weaknesses, the potency is there, and coupled with increased PP regen both passively and on command means you can stay in the fight much longer than most builds.
You can also opt to use Braver as a sub (included in above) instead of Techer for increased damage to elemental weaknesses, but you miss out on extra Mastery skills as well as PP regen. Luckily, Braver's Weak Stance also boosts tech damage on glowing weak points, even if the element doesn't match, which makes the build a bit more general purpose.
But that's the beauty of Fighter stances: they boost all tech damage no matter the element. So not only do they completely obliterate the specific targets you're specced against, but anything you didn't directly counter will still take heavy damage often on par if not surpassing that of a generalized build.
After the Stances, only Chase Advance Plus (not Chase Advance itself) will directly increase your damage, but Knuckle Gear and Step Attack let you move much quicker than anything Force could do on its own, Adrenaline makes a quick uncharged buff into a full 60s duration, and Crazy Heart makes even Caves tolerable to run by giving you such ridiculous PP regen rivaling both Techer and Gunner's PP passives combined, though it's only during status effects. But since you miss out on Techer's higher PP regen, you will have to pause to regen a lot more often which is why the recommended Fo/Fi Lightning build has Bolt PP Save maxed whereas the Fo/Te Lightning build does not.
For Braver, Average Stance is less damage than Brave, so there's little point in bringing Fo/Br to areas where you can't target enemy weaknesses, but there isn't much else that can benefit a casting class. However, Rapid Shoot Mastery increases Tech damage, which pairs incredibly well with Banishing Arrow (more than doubles all damage you deal to a target). That means you will have to cast all your techs using the bow itself since you lose the bonus when you switch weapons, however there's no need to switch when using the Vibras Bow since it has such high T-Atk.
A Techer subclass, if not used for its own Masteries, can supplement Force's elements rather well. For Fire, max PP Convert can help sustain the high PP cost of Nafoie and shorter charge times on them all. For Lightning, max Territory Burst makes Zondeel extra devastating, and then TBPP Save along with the other PP skills make the already cheap techs even cheaper, so you can afford to take points away from Bolt PP Save and instead max Tech JA Advance. But even without Force's elements, Techer is to be used strictly as a subclass for Force, as these builds do not work as Te/Fi or Te/Br (or even Te/Fo). Element Conversion is such a huge bonus that only applies when you main Force, and without PP Charge Revival you will suffer drastically lower PP regen even with every other PP bolstering effect stacked all at once. Force still provides plenty of general damage, rivaling even Braver's Weak Stance, so it's not a difficult choice.
The Light build gains access to Super Treatment, which not only allows you to heal 50% of your HP instantly with an uncharged Anti, you also gain PP Convert levels of regen. The limiting factor is of course being inflicted with a status effect, which can be difficult to achieve (especially without dying). The trade-off here is 5/10 PPR, but with many Light techs taking longer to charge, 3/10 PPC is still enough to sustain indefinite casting.
Wind and Dark builds should be rather straightforward.
But of course, feel free to mix and match builds to suit your own needs, such as combining an Ice tree and a Wind tree. Take note that some extra consideration might be required, especially for a Fire/Dark Build since it's such a heavy drain on PP.
Elysion Builds[/SIZE]
Spoiler!
These builds are overly specialized with the express purpose of using uncharged techs with Elysion - an 11* wand with a potential that enhances the damage on uncharged techs. Many techs you were using before will no longer be used as their DPS will be compromised by the changes to the force tree. That won't matter because the speed and power on the techs that do mesh well with Elysion can match or outperform many other casting builds. That said, charging isn't completely eliminated since Namegid must still be held for about one second before any damage can be done, and charged Zondeel as well as Sazan are extremely useful for the extended reach. Not to mention PP Charge Revival can still regenerate a small amount of PP even if you try to cast as fast as possible, so it is often worth taking even for an Elysion build.
Your main form of damage will be Sazan, since with Elysion it does just as much damage uncharged as it does charged. Keep crafting the "Efficient Sazan" recipe to get as close to -10PP as you can get. An 8PP Sazan is much more spammable than an 18 or even a 12, and without any PP regen while casting back to back, you're going to need as much PP conservation as you can get.
*Note the S-Atk on the mag in these builds. As a female human or newman, you need at least 32 extra S-Atk to be able to equip your Elysion as a 70/70 Fo/Te or 31 S-Atk as Fo/Br. If you don't have enough from your mag, you will need to use an alternate build with the necessary S-Atk on the skill tree instead.*
All Purpose Build (Pure Tech Mag):
Since there are useful uncharged techs from most of the elements, this build attempts to account for them all. Of course, this means you will need a 50% Elysion for each element you wish to use in order to get the full bonus from Element Conversion. Don't worry, though, you still get half of the bonus for offtype elements.
Ice Mastery for Nabarta and Ilbarta, Bolt Mastery for Sazonde and Bolt Tech PP Save for Zondeel and Ilzonde, Wind Mastery for Sazan, and Dark Mastery for Namegid. The rest is in general damage bonuses, PP regen, or extra utility like Territory Burst.
Uncharged Nafoie or Ilfoie are still decent for mobbing with Zondeel, but the main reason to go into the fire tree is for PP Charge Revival. This will mainly allow for a lot more PP regen when casting Namegid with PPC or your mag's skills. Faster charged Shifta could also be of some use.
Pure Wind Build: (Pure Tech Mag+EWH)(Pure Tech Mag+PPC)
If you want to use Sazan 90% of the time, then look no further than this build which attempts to power up that single tech as much as possible. In some cases, Sazan can be the entirely incorrect choice due to its suction properties relocating that precision weak point, preventing you from destroying your target utterly. When that happens, it's ok to use Ilbarta or Namegid instead. If it's more often than you'd like, consider dropping PP Up for PP Charge Revival.
Pure Dark Build: (Pure Tech Mag+EWH)(Pure Tech Mag+PPC)
Since uncharged Namegid has such a huge damage output, a heavy focus on the dark element is extremely effective against bosses. Yet it's also surprisingly useful for mobbing due to its slight AoE to go along with Zondeel or the "Wide Namegid" crafting recipe. And it's going to have to be, since no other dark tech is especially worthwhile uncharged, and no other element has much power behind it in this build.
Pure Ice Build:
Using Ilbarta at a distance and Nabarta up close, with Zondeel facilitating AoE, you can achieve incredible DPS with this build. Just make sure to charge the seventh consecutive cast of Ilbarta on the same target, even with Elysion, since it takes a heavier penalty when uncharged than the previous six. Because of that, it could be a better idea to use a standard ice tree for stronger charged techs and access to better AoE from Gibarta and Rabarta.
For subclassing options, you can take any of the above Techer trees for a second element, any standard Fighter tree for higher damage in general, or a Braver tree with necessary points in S-Atk. Do note that a Braver sub loses effectiveness with Elysion since part of its damage is tied to charged attacks.
Pure Lightning Build:
Pretty much solely for Sazonde, which actually does more damage uncharged even without Elysion, but hits half as many times. Because there are practically no other useful uncharged lightning techs, and the fact that lightning disrupts nearby Zondeel, this build is far from general purpose. Just like above, taking a second element through a Techer subclass, or simply speccing for charged damage even with an Elysion, will grant you a lot more versatility.
That said, Sazonde will rip through bosses weak to lightning incredibly fast, so it can be quite useful for farming or doing certain EQs (Vardha, Mizer, Falz).
Techer:
Spoiler!
A close ranged Force with higher S-Def and lower T-Def yet the exact same HP, Techer focuses much more on melee damage and support.
The Wand is a weaker, shorter Rod with an added delay for casting techs, but deals extra melee damage instead. Coupled with Wand Gear, Techer's normal attacks can be surprisingly powerful.
The support skills aren't all that great, as Shifta/Deband Advance only add a fraction of a fraction of players' stats. Consider someone with 1000 base Atk stat, with another 1000 Atk from their equipment, for a total of 2000 Atk fueling their damage. Shifta lv16 acts on only the base stat, adding 19.5% of 1000, or 195, nearly a 10% damage increase. 10/10 Shifta Advance acts on Shifta directly to turn that 19.5% into 24.4%, to then give 244 Atk instead of 195, or an extra 49 Atk. Compared to that player's stat total, your 10 SP gave them a 2.5% damage increase.
Considering how hard it is to land even one 15s buff on just one person, keeping your entire multiparty refreshed is a full time job. Instead of doing that, you could be attacking enemies yourself for a lot more total damage than the combined buffs of every other player.
Te/Hu - Pure Melee Te/Fi - Hybrid Melee/Tech
Maining Techer means to use a wand for its melee attack. If you're not, then playing Fo/Te makes much more sense as a caster than Te/Fo (not to mention Fo/Fi or Fo/Br).
Swinging your wand is obviously a Striking attack, and as such gets boosted by Fury Stance a great deal more than anything Force or Techer could provide. But oddly enough, even the Wand Gear explosions count as Striking damage and also get the majority of Fury Stance's bonuses despite being based on your T-Atk. Sadly, they do not get Just Attack bonuses, so the tech portion will always fall short of the physical whacks. Element Weak Hit does apply for all Striking (and Ranged) damage, but it requires the correct element on your weapon so that can get a bit costly.
Techer without a Force sub for PP Charge Revival absolutely kills your PP regen while casting, so both PP Restraint and PP Convert are next to useless for a Te/Hu. Fortunately, we only need those to charge the Wand Gear or gather enemies using Zondeel, so casting is kept to a minimum whereas normal attacks are thrown around as often as possible so PP management isn't as hard as it may first seem. Wand Lovers is also there for those times when building Wand Gear just isn't practical, like during a boss fight where the added damage makes all the difference, especially considering you can't always Zondeel a stack of mobs to super power your Wand Gear.
Wind spells, or specifically Zan, is an excellent way to charge Wand Gear in most any situation. At close range, the multiple blades all hit at once, and at a distance they spread out to hit multiple enemies at least twice. That said, the actual damage of the techs are not the focus of the build, so points in Wind Mastery can be freely reallocated into the other skills.
The only thing that makes this build more than a gimped gimmick with no PAs is the fact that one Wand Gear explosion procs per enemy struck with the wand, and each explosion can hit all nearby enemies. That means if you Zondeel 10 enemies together, that's 11 hits on each of them every time you swing. 110 total hits with one melee attack! As many as eleven tens! And that's not terrible.
Braver:
Spoiler!
A split melee and ranged class with a focus on Dex as opposed to a single Atk stat, Braver borrows a few aspects from other classes to be its own thing. With a guard like Hunter, varied ranged attacks like Ranger, both single target and AoE damage, along with unique active skills, Braver has a lot to offer.
Katana Main:
Katana has wide AoE and quick single target PAs to make it a well rounded weapon. Combat Escape turns Katana Combat into your greatest defensive option when it already was your greatest offensive option. Cruise through any boss fight or enemy spawn with 20s of invincibility followed by an incredibly powerful finisher over a massive range.
The actual damage of Combat Finish depends on the total number of hits during Katana Combat. The skill must be manually toggled off, and will not unleash itself once the timer hits zero. Also note that Combat JA does not boost the Finish since it is technically performed after Combat is over.
Since S-Atk Up isn't too significant, you could instead max Just Reversal Cover, or take Braver Mag if you're raising yours as pure Dex. If you don't want JRC at all (or get Just Reversal on your Hunter sub), you could try putting those points into Weak Stance for a stronger Combat Finish on weak points as well as uncharged PAs since those only get 22% from Average Stance.
Br/Hu - Bow Br/Ra - Bow
Now, Br/Hu definitely still applies for bows, especially for Kamikaze Arrow since that counts as Striking for some reason so it gets the full effect of Fury Stance and not Weak Hit Advance, but the main benefit is Weak Bullet.
WB makes any target receive Weak Stance's bonus even if it otherwise shouldn't. This means you can still efficiently break boss parts or fight certain enemies without (easy) weak points to target normally.
Average Stance Hybrid Weak Stance Hybrid
Average Stance is straight forward, since it's pretty much Fury Stance Lite. But Weak Stance relies either heavily on equipment and the Hunter tree alone to clear groups of small enemies with the Katana, or the Bow's single target damage to quickly take them out one after the other. The Bow does have some mobbing capabilities, but despite seeming to have a bit of everything, it's actually nothing special, similar in that regard to the Rifle.
For bosses, you can either hope for someone else to bring Weak Bullet for the breakable parts, or go straight for the weak point. The bow or Katana Combat should make targeting weak points a lot easier, and Weak Stance makes Combat Finish even stronger.
With only one chosen stance, you have plenty of SP for both active skills. Now instead of waiting on only one cooldown for your main weapon, you can switch between the two of them as the skills come up.
Last edited by UnLucky; Jun 19, 2014 at 05:19 AM.
Reason: working skill sim page
Comparing the 2 trees, you lose super treatment from your tree to gain max shifta advance, max t-atk up 1, and 2 more points in territory PP save. Those boosts seem like they will be more useful more often than super treatment.
I also don't really like talis tech boost on fire tree, just because of how most fire techs work. Especially foie, nafoie, and ilfoie.
And also, on your BR sub trees, what do you think about getting 8 points into s-atk up? So you are able to equip elysion. Also, I noticed you get snatch step on a lot of your sub BR trees, is there any reasoning behind that?
In the dark FO/TE tree, what do you think about lowering TB down to 1 point from max and moving those points to max t-atk up and 1 point shifta advance?
Ah, I don't really recommend Ra/Br in the first place since you would need a multi-class Bow and Hunter would be a stronger subclass for Ranger all around.
But the way you've spent your points on the Ranger tree wasn't how I intended the charts to be followed... Going partway into the Stat Ups on the right is only to unlock the skills below them, of which you've taken none. You would get more total R-Atk by putting 6SP into one instead of 3SP in each, but you'd get a lot more damage by putting 5SP into either First Hit or Sharpshooter.
Perhaps I need to revise those charts again to account for this.
Originally Posted by ChinaSue
I was looking through your force builds and I have a different opinion on some of them. Like for instance, what do you think about this for fire FoTe?
Comparing the 2 trees, you lose super treatment from your tree to gain max shifta advance, max t-atk up 1, and 2 more points in territory PP save. Those boosts seem like they will be more useful more often than super treatment.
I also don't really like talis tech boost on fire tree, just because of how most fire techs work. Especially foie, nafoie, and ilfoie.
And also, on your BR sub trees, what do you think about getting 8 points into s-atk up? So you are able to equip elysion. Also, I noticed you get snatch step on a lot of your sub BR trees, is there any reasoning behind that?
In the dark FO/TE tree, what do you think about lowering TB down to 1 point from max and moving those points to max t-atk up and 1 point shifta advance?
I just like Super Treatment (and Crazy Heart) because of the extra PP regen which is really beneficial to a pure fire build.
You could totally get TB or Shifta or something else instead if you don't like how unreliable ST is. Just that Shifta and 50 T-Atk are fairly minor, the only reason to take them is due to a lack of anything better.
As for fire techs using a Talis, the obvious benefit here is with Zondeel. Gifoie, Nafoie, and Ilfoie work really well on Zondeeled mobs, and Rafoie doesn't matter what you cast it from. Aiming Foie, Nafoie, and Ilfoie is certainly a lot easier with a Rod, I agree. A pure fire build is the best example to opt out of Talis Tech Bonus and instead fill up Tech JA for stronger casting from a Rod.
As for Snatch Step, it's mostly just due to an excess of points more than anything. Though you will still use a gunslash for PP regen, so you may need to occasionally Step dodge, or even specifically switch weapons just to dash. Even still it's not a huge deal, so drop it if you need SP. I'm looking through possible Elysion builds for Fo/Te, Fo/Fi, and Fo/Br now.
Comparing the 2 trees, you lose super treatment from your tree to gain max shifta advance, max t-atk up 1, and 2 more points in territory PP save. Those boosts seem like they will be more useful more often than super treatment.
I also don't really like talis tech boost on fire tree, just because of how most fire techs work. Especially foie, nafoie, and ilfoie.
And also, on your BR sub trees, what do you think about getting 8 points into s-atk up? So you are able to equip elysion. Also, I noticed you get snatch step on a lot of your sub BR trees, is there any reasoning behind that?
In the dark FO/TE tree, what do you think about lowering TB down to 1 point from max and moving those points to max t-atk up and 1 point shifta advance?
Well the build is mostly for a support class roll. The talisman tech is more for being used with shifta, deband and resta. Rather then the more offensive moves the force and teacher class normally use. This is mostly due to the fact most hunters will be in the thick of a giant mob, or right in a boss face. The talisman can be thrown and then a skill activated from where the talis is. Due to talis tech bonus these skills gain a little extra umph to them, or they should in theory. The fire tree is mostly gone done for the PP charge skill and the tech charge advances. I would normally keep the elemental skill to the class other weapons so either a rod or staff. I forget if force, teacher have another class specific weapon.
To be honest I have no idea what you mean by elysion, but I'm assuming its some sort of bow, given that I think your referring to the ranger/braver build. Well snatch step allows one to do damage while performing a step. Considering that I'm most likely going to be using the bow in replace of the rifle, for single target damage or as a boss weapon. I figure it would be nice to do damage while I'm dodging. It actually works rather well if you also use the katana from time to time for those instances you need to whack something that gets too close.
Um...I'm actually not sure about that one. I'm pretty sure I never made a dark force/teacher build. I know I go down the dark tree in it but that is more for pp convert then anything else. The last thing you want is to run out of pp if your playing a more support role.
I just like Super Treatment (and Crazy Heart) because of the extra PP regen which is really beneficial to a pure fire build.
You could totally get TB or Shifta or something else instead if you don't like how unreliable ST is. Just that Shifta and 50 T-Atk are fairly minor, the only reason to take them is due to a lack of anything better.
As for fire techs using a Talis, the obvious benefit here is with Zondeel. Gifoie, Nafoie, and Ilfoie work really well on Zondeeled mobs, and Rafoie doesn't matter what you cast it from. Aiming Foie, Nafoie, and Ilfoie is certainly a lot easier with a Rod, I agree. A pure fire build is the best example to opt out of Talis Tech Bonus and instead fill up Tech JA for stronger casting from a Rod.
As for Snatch Step, it's mostly just due to an excess of points more than anything. Though you will still use a gunslash for PP regen, so you may need to occasionally Step dodge, or even specifically switch weapons just to dash. Even still it's not a huge deal, so drop it if you need SP. I'm looking through possible Elysion builds for Fo/Te, Fo/Fi, and Fo/Br now.
I guess it's just a personal preference thing then. I would just rather consistently be doing more damage, even if it is fairly minor. It all adds up!
I am not talking about the step branch as a whole, but only Snatch Step. I understand the importance of getting at least up to step attack. However, I have been told that Snatch Step can cause some FPS drops for some players. So, if there isn't a reason to get it other than nothing else to get, it might be possible to avoid it.
And I was not looking for an Elysion-specific build, but the ability to equip elysion. As you seemed to imply earlier, you have a lot of points in BR subclass. Using those points into getting enough s-atk to equip elysion can give you more options for bosses. Even if you aren't using elysion-focused skill trees.
Am I missing anything? All it does is add one extra slash that's weaker than the original counter.
pretty sure counter edge was supposed to be a penetrating attack hitting multiple enemies with a shockwave. haven't tried it yet but that's what i remember reading.
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Ship 2 ID - SociableT
Character - Myria (FoTenewearl 46/26)
View "The Official Build Thread 2.0" for info on classes, skill trees and character build advice!
Also why is Ranger/Hunter stronger then Ranger/Braver ?
Yeah, though I would fill up Standing Snipe and Sharp Shooter instead of Weak Hit Blast or Trap Search, but you don't have to if you like those skills.
As for Braver vs Hunter as a subclass, Weak Stance gives you 1.43x damage on uncharged attacks and 1.57x for charged ones. Fury Stance+JA Bonus give you up to 1.93x for Ranged attacks and 2.2x Striking (Crazy Smash, Rodeo Drive) as long as you can time Just Attacks.
It's a huge difference.
Originally Posted by ChinaSue
I guess it's just a personal preference thing then. I would just rather consistently be doing more damage, even if it is fairly minor. It all adds up!
I am not talking about the step branch as a whole, but only Snatch Step. I understand the importance of getting at least up to step attack. However, I have been told that Snatch Step can cause some FPS drops for some players. So, if there isn't a reason to get it other than nothing else to get, it might be possible to avoid it.
And I was not looking for an Elysion-specific build, but the ability to equip elysion. As you seemed to imply earlier, you have a lot of points in BR subclass. Using those points into getting enough s-atk to equip elysion can give you more options for bosses. Even if you aren't using elysion-focused skill trees.
Wasn't aware of any FPS drops from Snatch Step, but if you do ever Step through enemies then it's extra damage. For 1SP I just threw it in there.
Fair enough to enable the use of Elysion on a standard build. Not much else to do with those points.
Originally Posted by SociableTyrannosaur
pretty sure counter edge was supposed to be a penetrating attack hitting multiple enemies with a shockwave. haven't tried it yet but that's what i remember reading.
It should be similar to the normal hit if you don't have Katana Gear active. But for just 1SP it gives you a bit more extra damage/range so whatever. Not like there's much else to get on a pure Katana build.
Originally Posted by SociableTyrannosaur
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