Hi. I am fairly new to Phantasy Star in general and even though I have played around enough to vaguely understand what is what I still have a few questions.

I know that the strength of an attack technique is based upon the level of the technique and the mental strength of the user. Rests appears to be the same way. However, what of the support techniques like Shifta and Deband? Are the bonuses they give fixed based on the technique level or does mental strength play a part there as well? Also does your attack accuracy play a role in your attack techniques? So far they seem much more accurate than other attacks to me.

I know that rods, wands and slicers deal damage based on mental strength instead of attack power which is why they are great weapons for forces, but this leaves me wondering that if I am playing a non force character like a Newman hunter then how do I best maximize the effectiveness of my techniques to supplement my melee attacks? Do I just add more mental strength to my mag to compensate for the lack of it on my weapon?

I like my FoNewm that I have, but I realize a FoNewarl in many ways appears to be the better choice. It has greater attack accuracy which forces lack in generally as well as having greater evasion, mental strength, photon points, and that 30% bonus to rests which I am sure all come quite in handy. However, before I go scrapping the FoNewm that I have to switch for one what play style will best play to the strengths of my FoNewm? I know it gets a 15% boost to it's attack techniques which it can further couple with the boost from a good wand for some really nice technique damage. Alternatively I could take a rod and place multiple attack techniques in my pallet to switch between different techniques all with somewhat equally boosted strength. Though the latter would leave less room for support techs.

I know slicers seem to work really well in boss fights since bosses are nice big targets that are hard to miss and have multiple points to hit on them..I also know wands are great for boosting tech damage as they seem to be the only weapons that get tech element modifiers. However, what is the main benefit of a rod? It does seem to get the highest mental strength but lowest accuracy of the three. I suppose the high MST grants better resta healing and possibly better support techs if MST affects their level.

I think I will shut up for now as I know I have asked a lot of questions here already.