Techer Guide/Thread 2.0

[LonelyGaruga]

The thing is that when using Te/Br BA combos, you refill PP between Snatch Steps for Snatch JA Combo, so the lack of Charge PP Revival is barely noticeable. Plus PP Restorate dramatically increases the amount of PP restored by PP Convert, so you can do a lot of things. Since Te/Br is primarily a tech based combination, I don't think skimping on a very useful skill for techs is a good idea.

Although if you really really needed Deband Toughness, it's probably the best skill to remove. But I'm quite serious when I say might as well play Te/Hu if Deband Toughness is so important.

[zeniside]

Just as something I was musing over; in the current "default" Te/Br build you've allocated Br points towards Combat JA Bonus.
At least in my somewhat limited experience these points would seem almost counter productive towards what we're trying to accomplish by swapping to a Katana.

I'd like to suggest removing those points along with proposing a different "default" allocation for them.

Outlining some thoughts that I'd like some feedback on, in no particular order;
Admittedly as I'm relatively new to this game some of my musings & interpretations of tooltips may me incorrect.

• Katana Combat Finish damage is based upon the number of strikes completed within Katana Combat; (Upon to 40? I think hits.)
  
  • Attack speed of PAs used to hit enemy. (Largely irrelevant as there's no way to increase frame-speed of PAs & the specific PA you would use to hit x formation of enemy is generally superior to using a faster PA.)
  • Number of enemies hit. (This is the point I was more interested in, as generally the situations upon where you would want to use Katana Combat Finish are usually situations in which a large number of enemies are not available to be hit at once, (E.g. enemies unable to be Zondeel'd, or enemies on separate levels of the same room) in which case you "prep" it in a prior room on enemies that can be Zondeel'd or make due with the numbers of enemies you can reliably hit.)

• Percentage damage modifies are generally much more potent than flat damage increases.
  
  • As such something like Striking Up 1 has a much smaller contribution to damage (per point) compared to something like Combat JA Bonus.
  • However, unless I'm mistaken Combat JA Bonus does not apply to the damage done by Katana Combat Finish, wheras something like Striking Up 1 would.

• Because of these points I'm leaning towards the conclusion that giving your "Katana Combat Finish damage builder" a percentage damage increase is counter-productive.
  
  • For optimal Katana Combat Finish damage you want to increase base damage your weapon is doing. (To increase the Katana Combat Finish damage.)
  • Without giving percentile damage increases to the things you're using to build your Katana Combat "hit counter."

This allows you to both maximize the damage Katana Combat Finish is doing while minimizing the chance to kill an enemy in your grouping from either extreme RNG or simply just too much damage.

Like I mentioned I'm sure that some if not all of my thoughts are incorrect, or that monsters in zones you'd be using have enough HP that building to the Katana Combat Finish hit cap won't actually kill them in the first place. Though I'm hard pressed to believe that there isn't at least one instance of where reducing your actual auto-attacking damage will allow monsters to live longer; providing a larger increase to Katana Combat Finish damage.

EDIT: Also, too bad you're on Ship 02!

[LonelyGaruga]

If S-ATK Up 1 could be maxed out, it'd be a good option, but currently there isn't enough SP to max it out unless you take SP from other things as well, and the SP in Combat JA Bonus allows Te/Br an easier time killing things during Katana Combat so that you can use Combat Finish on a different spawn group entirely. You can use PAs to build hits as well, so it's not like Combat JA Bonus is wasted on normals or anything like that.

tbh it's mostly a TA thing, but it's really handy for when enemies can't be Zondeel'd, such as when Anga Fundarge spawns and infects everything in Ultimate. Also, Combat Finish's range is like twice as wide as a Zondeel as well, so it's actually pretty decent against regular spawns as well.

Combat JA Bonus isn't really a great choice, but taking the SP out of it just gets you 18 more S-ATK. I wouldn't really call that more useful than Combat JA Bonus. With a level cap increase, S-ATK Up would definitely be a higher priority choice though.

I guess what I should say is that you want to kill the spawns that you're building KCF hits on, so that you can move on to the next group faster. And for cases that you don't, you can just use normals to build hits until you get enough, then wipe out the mobs and move on to the next group.

[zeniside]

The fact you can just not JA completely slipped my mind when I was writing that up.

That was silly.

And yeah, even if you could think of a reason to skip Combat JA Bonus there isn't actually anything that's really worthwhile.
Your options are like you said; 18 S-Atk, some points in Step Advance & J Reversal Cover (these are two skills I bank in the same department as the Deband ones in the Te tree) or points in Aptitude Up 2.

Interestingly enough I think the points in Aptitude Up 2 probably get the most mileage if you're limited to only having one tree ever. Obviously this is a very unrealistic constraint to place a comparison under, but allowing yourself access to things like Pristine Small Hammer very early on & the additional bonuses it provides to crafted weapons seems like a very realistic benefit, even if completely outside the scope of your guide.

Also a separate note about TAs and killing packs of mobs. As someone who has has experience running content of this vein (two world fastest challenge mode times in WoW for a period, Shadowmoon Burial Grounds & Skyreach) you typically refine these things up to a point where you know exactly what you need to clear a group of mobs as fast as possible; in which-case Zondeel & 1-2 Wand strikes, then swapping to a Katana, using Katana Combat & building a specific number of hits in one room before using the KCF in another room is something that I imagine would be quicker than simply bashing them with katana JAs to build a random number of KCF "stacks".

And certainly the mobs you're actively whacking are irrelevant as far as killing them goes, if you plan to use your KCF in the same proximity, as they will die regardless.

Of course maybe that's being too nit-picky but it's certainly something I would try to do, even if it would only end up saving 1-2 second between weapon swapping & skill activation animations.

[Resta]

I want to be Te/Br and using a bow for Banish Arrow. But should I use an S-atk mag or T-atk and can I still be wanding as well as teching? Or is it up to me? Lol

[Perfect Chaos]

Definitely a pure T-ATK Mag for that. S-ATK only contributes to the physical hit of the wand (Wand Gear explosions use T-ATK), which is the minority of the damage when mobbing. And bossing is all Banish + Techs, pretty much, so S-ATK also doesn't contribute there.

[zeniside]

Would you mind adding section for weapon & unit affixes? 3/4/5+ slots, ect.

I'd also like some feedback on my TE/HUnewearl build.
I'm almost positive that's how I'll keep the Te side, but I'm unsure what to do with the last two points on the Hu side of things.

Also you mentioned

... For Te/Hu should aim for at least 600 S-ATK and at least 750 T-ATK in order to equip all of its relevant weapons. ...

Is there a reasoning for that? As far as I figure I'd want 735 for Slave weapons since;
A) I'll only have the minimum amount of S-Atk required to wield it, thus receiving more benefit from the latent.
B) Generally when I'd be using a wand (mobbing) I'll be > 50% PP, whereas the only time I'd usually drop below that threshold is on bosses & large mobs where I'm not using a wand anyways.

[LonelyGaruga]

I'll probably get to the affixing section next maintenance. Want to make the most of this week's boost first hahaha. I've figured out what to do with the section now at least.

For the Hunter tree, if you remove the SP from Iron Will and Step Advance, you can max out S-ATK Up 3. Would be my recommendation.

The 750+ T-ATK number is for future wands. Doesn't hurt to have more T-ATK either way, you can max out T-ATK on the mag and Slave will still be preferable to Ares unless PB is half full or more, in which case Ares will be preferable. Which basically means Ares is preferable to Slave, but Slave is a little easier to get at least.

[zeniside]

Ah, alright. Personally I think I'll just sit at the requirement to equip the currently avaliable ones & hurl stacks of Excubes at my mag if they release new wands with increased T-Atk requirements.

Dropping Step Advance is probably a good idea (I realized I haven't been playing with any points in it on my Br tree since they gave us the free skill reset pass & haven't noticed any difference), but my unpopular opinion is to keep one point in Iron Will, as I'm fairly terrible.
I can understand the arguments for skipping on it as Te/Hu with my specific point allocation is already incredibly resilient, however a 30% chance for one point is seemingly almost too good to pass up, unlike something such as Healing Guard.

Do Wired Lances offer any specific bossing advantages over Volg Combos with PP Convert, aside from being less PP-intensive? Might want to drop a point from the gear and focus specifically on Partizans.

[LonelyGaruga]

Holding Current is better than Volg on weak points since Volg doesn't take into account weak point damage when it explodes. For particularly weak areas like Bal Rodos' mouth Holding Current holds a very notable advantage.

Otherwise, not much use, though there's Kaiser Rise for not-bosses.