Let's Play 'Help the Clueless FOnewm!'

[Kas_Althume]

Uh, hi. I'm fairly new to PSO, and I've got some questions concerning FOnewms that I'm hoping y'all can help me out with. : )
My character is level 25, section ID Oran. I have 375 TP, if that's important. I've been playing in Hard since I hit 20 (<-good idea or not?).


1) What sort of weapon should I be using? Right now I'm running around with a Wand +2 (SPARKLES!), which is really kinda lame (sparkles are... wrong).

2) Which stats should I raise on my mag? Right now it's a Vritra, level 18. It has 6 defense, 3 power, 9 dexterity, and some insignificant mind stat.

3) Around what levels should I use which 'fluids? I've been using Difluids of late, but I'm not sure if this is efficient.

4)Am I SUPPOSED to have NO MONEY?!?! (sorry. stress relief)


K, now important things.
*When my group enters a room chock full o' monsters, what should I do?*


-I've read that forces should mostly stick to shifta+deband, Jellen+zalure, and resta. However, I'm fairly certain that 'forces' was reffering to those ones in the dresses robes. S+D is out for me anyhow, as I've been completely unable to find any disks of them over level 1. >.<

-Since FOnewms are, according to the game's descs, focused on destructive techniques, I'd assume that I should be flinging offensive spells, and probably running around and healing people if there's nobody else to do it. Unfortunately, people tend to get mildly upset when I cast RAfoie and kill everything (not a problem yet on hard, but it undoubtedly will be at some point).

-So: Support is inneffective, and simple attack is (understandably) annoying. What do I do, exactly?

Thank you for the time you spent reading this (^_^), and thank you in advance to anyone who can answer any of my rather silly questions. : )

[Robomonke]

On 2003-05-10 08:20, Kas_Althume wrote:
Uh, hi. I'm fairly new to PSO, and I've got some questions concerning FOnewms that I'm hoping y'all can help me out with. : )
My character is level 25, section ID Oran. I have 375 TP, if that's important. I've been playing in Hard since I hit 20 (<-good idea or not?).


1) What sort of weapon should I be using? Right now I'm running around with a Wand +2 (SPARKLES!), which is really kinda lame (sparkles are... wrong).

2) Which stats should I raise on my mag? Right now it's a Vritra, level 18. It has 6 defense, 3 power, 9 dexterity, and some insignificant mind stat.

3) Around what levels should I use which 'fluids? I've been using Difluids of late, but I'm not sure if this is efficient.

4)Am I SUPPOSED to have NO MONEY?!?! (sorry. stress relief)


K, now important things.
*When my group enters a room chock full o' monsters, what should I do?*


-I've read that forces should mostly stick to shifta+deband, Jellen+zalure, and resta. However, I'm fairly certain that 'forces' was reffering to those ones in the dresses robes. S+D is out for me anyhow, as I've been completely unable to find any disks of them over level 1. >.<

-Since FOnewms are, according to the game's descs, focused on destructive techniques, I'd assume that I should be flinging offensive spells, and probably running around and healing people if there's nobody else to do it. Unfortunately, people tend to get mildly upset when I cast RAfoie and kill everything (not a problem yet on hard, but it undoubtedly will be at some point).

-So: Support is inneffective, and simple attack is (understandably) annoying. What do I do, exactly?

Thank you for the time you spent reading this (^_^), and thank you in advance to anyone who can answer any of my rather silly questions. : )

1.Anything that raises your MST. The more the better. Also some rare weapons boost the effeciency of spells. I don't have the link on me but check the guides section. If you really want I could give you some ok stuff if your online. (PM me about it.)

2.Go for almost completly mind on your mag with a little bit defense. (not over 20 or so.) it may be hard to make but at some point difluids will raise only mind. This usually happens in the third evolution. (But doesn;t always happen, it depends on what mag it is.)

3. Lvls really don't matter. Depends on how much TP you have. My FOnewm is on 86 and has 2405 TP. He uses only Trifluids but a Monomate gives him almost a third of his health back.

4. Yes, fluids are expensive.

Important things (according to you)

When your group enters a room blast the enemies with your best spell that they are weak to. ( some enemies are more weak to ice spells that they are to lightning for instance.) ALWAYS ALWAYS remember an enemies weakness when casting. It may seem hard but you eventually memorize it.

Yes, you should get shifta and deband on s high a lvl as you can as fast as you can. It's in some respect your "duty " to provide it to everyone since your most likely the only one who can learn 20+ shifta and deband.

As for Jellen and Zalure. I rarely use these on my FOnewm. I only use them on bosses and when the group is having an exceptionally tough time defeating a certain group of monsters.

I doubt this will happen at any point unless you tweak your character relativly soon. (but since your new that will be hard to do) If people do complain then try to let them get in a few hits and then kill. But i'm doubting this will be a problem for you. Also if it seems to be going slow because your letting them get hits just do whatever you can to kill them as fast as you can. Besides at the boss everyone gets alot of exp.

You need to put "make support skills effective" at the top of your to do list. ( right behind getting higher lvl RA techs.) The GI thechs are all useless, slow, costly, and weak with a minor exception to GIzonde. GIzonde is ok in some situations. But i strongly suggest ignoring the GI tree. That doesn;t mean don't get any disks for them. I mean just put RA techs as your priority and use them mostly.( Irecomend getting high rafoie disks as soon as you can, along with Mind Materials and some decent armor with slots in it to put whatever the best ???/mind units are.( I.E. angel/mind+, i think you know what i'm talking about. you can usually buy some ok ones in the blue store. But odds are you will find better ones.) Just try to get high defense armor and sheilds and mind boosting mags, weapons, units, and materials. (you may probably want to slip in a few defense materials and try to get alot of HP because each class has a certain amount of materials they can use, but HP materials are a whole seperate category.)

FOnewm can use:

150 def,eva,mind,luck,pow mats. (any combo of them I.E. 120 mind & 30 def=150)

AND 125 hp MATS.

I also rarely use simple techs on my FOnewm. It's ok to be annoyed with them

Aslo your welcome in advance and hope youy have fun on PSO.

P.S look at my info (it's the leftmost button on the bar right underneath my post.) and check for my character names and lvls. If you see me online sometime say something to me and ill help you out.

Adios!

[hypn0t1c]

Heheh. I know this is kinda late, but uhh force as your first PSO character was a bad idea. They're by far the hardest and most complex character to play well. Not to mention extremely weak in the beginning with no passed down gear, and totally broke very quickly with no higher lvl chars to fund them (fluids are expensive).

[Kas_Althume]

Sweet. Thank you-- that was very informative. : D Especially the bit about materials. I hadn't known that. I'll keep looking for shifta and debands that affect other people. Again, thanks.

And yeah, I know newbies aren't supposed to play Forces. I played one in spite of this. See, I tried a hunter and a ranger first, and didn't like either too much. One got hit too often, and aiming was CRAZY hard when using a gun. The FOnewm is was actually the easiest to play, until I went online (and my head started hurting). I think this is mainly because of the auto-aiming of the spells.

I've started a new ranger, and now that I'm slightly more competent with the whole movement thing, I'll agree that RAcasts are probably easier to use than FOnewms. Of course, that might be in part becuase I did a tiny bit of cheating and transferred an Ice Autogun +4 to the RAcast from my FOnewm, but...

Still, it's good the techniques autotarget. ^_^

[Neoluke12]

Im a Fomar but that shouldn't Change much as were both forces. The other people forgot to mention this but get a special mag and then just get its mind up like crazy. Look in guides under mags and select mag guides, after that go into ep 1&2 new mags guide, everything you need will be there. Hope this helps as well.

[Robomonke]

woo hoo 200th post!

[somerandomplayername]

After 104 levels of FOnewm goodness on the X-Box (and 80 something not so good ones on the dreamcast) I have quite a bit to say about them. First of all yes they can be a bit difficult to learn but played properly they are incredibly powerful.

1. In my experience a little MST boost is not worth losing your unarmed casting speed. I wouldn't recomend using anything but tech-boosting weapons. Make friends with a Pinkal and they can give you one of the many Agnis, Dagons, and Indras they collect. I'm still using these three (thank goodness for quick select) and will continue to do so until I can get a Prophets or C-sorcerer's.

2. For your mag you should have either an Ila with as much Mind as possible (I think the max without a mag cell is 189), or a Nidra with as much mind as possible. (my Nidra's stats are 49,1,1,149)

3. Stick with Difluids for now until you have plenty of cash and Trifluids become a neccessity for in combat. Difluids are still economical out of combat though. (as are monofluids but the store will stop selling those eventually)

4. For now yes but not for long. Use TP rationing. (see below) And pick up everything you see (Hunters and Rangers should stop caring about non-rares soon). Doing an offline run or two now and then helps too and your smarter and friendlier non-force friends should help you keep up on fluids as well.

Tactics:

The key from early Hard to late Vhard is TP rationing. Your role is to damage large groups of enemies and to support your team. When a gang of weak monsters show up blast them (I use Rafoie, Gizonde, and Ra or sometimes Gi barta) until they're just one or two spells short of death then let your party clean up. When smaller groups of stronger enemies show up just tag them with zalure (I only use jellen when we're having a tough time) and hide until it's over. Also you should Always always always have Shifta and Deband cast on your party as soon as you have them to lvl. 3.

Equipment:

Tech boosts all around. Slots are always more important than stats on armor and said slots should be filled with /techniques and /minds. Get a Rafoie merge ASAP and never take it off again except perhaps in Mines and late ulimate mode.

Phew, I went on for awhile but hopefully this will help some people out.

P.S. This is all written with Ep. 1&2 in mind of course. You will have to look elseware if you want Dreamcast tips.

[Kupi]

Anyway... don't forget the shop for your tech disk needs. A low-level Force can actually get some pretty good stuff there until you hit Ultimate. By the way, Ultimate is when you'll want to start casting Jellen and Zalure on enemies, as it's the time when they've got the most to lose and it makes the meleers do so much more damage. That, in turn, will save you TP since support techs cost less TP than the average attack tech and since the meleers do more damage with Zalure in place, you have to cast your attack techs less.

As for the Shifta, Deband, and Resta, a word of encouragement: Shifta and Deband's actual power depends on the tech's level only; the only penalty you suffer is range, which can be alleviated by a call for grouping the team together at a doorway. As for the relatively limited Resta range... don't forget, you've got the second most powerful Resta in the game. It just takes a little more legwork.

Money problems are best solved by doing the offline quests, though if you're in Hard mode you're probably beyond what those can do for you. I advise going for the armor as fast as you can online... without, of course, abandoning your team's efforts to remove the monsters from the room. People that go for the boxes while monsters are still in the room are terribly annoying. I guess what I'm saying is: help clear the monsters first, then make a beeline for the armor and ??? weapons. Best of luck to you! May people say of ye, "Golly, that is a good Force!"

[Logical2u]

On 2003-05-10 08:20, Kas_Althume wrote:
Uh, hi. I'm fairly new to PSO, and I've got some questions concerning FOnewms that I'm hoping y'all can help me out with. : )
My character is level 25, section ID Oran. I have 375 TP, if that's important. I've been playing in Hard since I hit 20 (<-good idea or not?).


1) What sort of weapon should I be using? Right now I'm running around with a Wand +2 (SPARKLES!), which is really kinda lame (sparkles are... wrong).

2) Which stats should I raise on my mag? Right now it's a Vritra, level 18. It has 6 defense, 3 power, 9 dexterity, and some insignificant mind stat.

3) Around what levels should I use which 'fluids? I've been using Difluids of late, but I'm not sure if this is efficient.

4)Am I SUPPOSED to have NO MONEY?!?! (sorry. stress relief)


K, now important things.
*When my group enters a room chock full o' monsters, what should I do?*


-I've read that forces should mostly stick to shifta+deband, Jellen+zalure, and resta. However, I'm fairly certain that 'forces' was reffering to those ones in the dresses robes. S+D is out for me anyhow, as I've been completely unable to find any disks of them over level 1. >.<

-Since FOnewms are, according to the game's descs, focused on destructive techniques, I'd assume that I should be flinging offensive spells, and probably running around and healing people if there's nobody else to do it. Unfortunately, people tend to get mildly upset when I cast RAfoie and kill everything (not a problem yet on hard, but it undoubtedly will be at some point).

-So: Support is inneffective, and simple attack is (understandably) annoying. What do I do, exactly?

Thank you for the time you spent reading this (^_^), and thank you in advance to anyone who can answer any of my rather silly questions. : )

I am ALMOST a RaFoMar. I have a Mind Mag, and 200 TP, so maybe I can help you....
1. If you are going for Upgraded Techs... Try the Clubs (Laconium, ETC,) or Scepters(AGNI, ETC)
If you are going for Strength, try Pillars/Maces. On hard Ruins you can find a ???? Mace/Pillar often. I had a Dark Pillar.
2. Defense and Mind. Defense is good for Fos, because they have ultra weak defense (or so I've heard). Mind is good for you TP and MST. Dexterity only increase your ACC, and Magic isn't affected by it. Power... well... we all know what power is...
3. If you are lazy about money/Fluids... get a unit known as TP/Restorate. It gives you a Newman-like Regeneration capacity... however it is 10x slower.
Also, try to pick up your fluids in boxes/sell the other weapons you find...
4. No-Money = fine until rares...
Hard= Good.
1. Most fo's concentrate on ONE Tech group...
Foie. Good for blasting flying things, getting you out of tight jams, and Busting up everything at higher then LVL1.
Barta. Linear Attacks/Area. Good for when you corral enemies...
Zonde. Good for Flyers...
Upgrade: Shifta and Deband... Only good when with Hus/Ras because MST isn't affected by Shifta.
Downgrade. The farther I get into the game, the more I see jellen and Zalure. this is because most enemies farther up have about 200x the attack strength of their earlier counterparts.
Heal. This is good for everyone. It helps everyone in a large area with healing affects, and saves you money on Moons.
You should try some online runs and get the rarer technique discs by buying them...

[Kas_Althume]

So, the general consensus is that on the offensive side of things, I should mostly use attack spells instead of J+Z until higher levels?

Logical brought up one more random question: Does TP/Restorate speed up the newman mana regeneration? I wasn't sure whether or not I should buy it when I saw it in the shop (buy it for later use, that is. my armor only has one slot ATM, and that's for Angel/Mind).

Thanks, all. This is very informative. : )