[dwaynedays]

Hey everyone im a longtime original pso fan (haven't touched anything after that really mostly the fees to play put me off) and I have a few questions here now that im lv 20.

I chose ranger as I did in original pso and im confused about a few things at the moment gonna put it in number list so its easier to answer.

1. I keep hearing assault rifles are heavily preferred over launchers or at least that seems to be the huge consensus. Now im using launchers yet because they seem to have a huge damage boost over rifles, im just wondering when this changes as it seems there are quite a few rifles I cant even equip yet that I see in the player shops. To put it into perspective my launcher does 308 damage and AR damage doesn't seem to even get near that yet.

2.I've been pumping ability and rng atk into my mag, more ability than ratk though. I believe its a 19-12 split atm. Is that ok or is it still too early game to worry much about that

3.If I decide to go launcher will my damage be horrible and will it prevent people from wanting to group with me.

4.Im the cyborg race (sorry I dont remember X_X) is that a bad choice for ranger?

5. What client do you get the extra skill points from I believe its 5 of them and at what level?

I think that's all I have at the time thanks for your help!

[XionAsuka]

Little tired at 7 AM, but here's my 2 cents. Don't accept it as fact, some of these are merely my opinion.

1. Rifles are reliable due to their high versatility from PA's. An attack that effectively shoots 15 times, a grenade shell, a shotgun blast, a homing barrage (that requires manual aiming), a piercing shot, and a highly damaging sniper shot. All of these allow the assault rifle to fit a veriety of situations. Ontop of that, you can shoot while moving, something that can help greatly in some situations.

The Launcher indeed has very high DPS, but it locks you down with each shot. In addition, you may draw the attention of something best left on someone else. If you do, hope your dodging skills are up to snuff. There's a good number of great skills for Launcher. Divine Launcher does absurd damage, but can be a bit disruptive to Hunter comboes. A good alternative might be the aerial flak shot whose name I can't remember. Also, the triple grenade blast, which doesn't cause knockdown, I think. Also, the multi-cracker blast is really good for breaking enemy parts and rooting some annoying enemies in place.

2. R-Attack and Ability are alright. It should give you Fornax, which is more or less the Ranger-geared Mag. Once you get it, then you need to worry about what you want it to become: Pure shooting (Cepheus), Hybrid Strike/Shoot (Tucana), or Hybrid Shoot/Tech (Caelum). I myself went with Caelum for the unique look and PB.

3. Launchers always stay very damaging. You just need to learn how to use it around teammates. Like I mentioned above. don't use Divine Launcher on a Hunter's target or you may interrupt their comboes. However, if they're getting swarmed, it may not be a bad idea to use it to bust them out of trouble. Use your disgression (?) and judge when to best use your skills. If you're worried about being disruptive with Divine Launcher, use the air-burst or triple grenade attacks instead.

tl;dr, don't walk around nuking everything and thinking you're promoting good use of the Launcher. Be mindful of teammates and choose the best times to use it!

4. CAST is perfect for Ranger due to naturally high R-Attack (I think the highest of the other two, actually...), though any race can be a Ranger.

5. Lisa, the CAST girl with the creepy eyes (<3 her). And I believe it's at... 30-35? Probably 30 first. You need to kill 7 big-head Rappies (They're rare spawns on all planets), and 5 Dark Ragne's, all with a Launcher. They need to be level 21 and up.

[QueenVernice]

Great post. I'm just starting with my ranger myself and I feel a little panicked over my mag. I read on another forum that the armor requirement for later leveled sets are far too high with just base R-Def.

I'm starting to think that I should start investing on R-Def for my mag? I'm not sure. I've been feeding my mag nothing but range weapons and it's at level 17 atm. 13 R-Atk and 4 Ability. What would be a good spread and what should I probably feed it to get there?

Any help? :[

[dwaynedays]

These photon arts, are they learned? Or will they show up when I equip a weapon that supports them. Asking because I only have like 4 for rifles

[soulpimpwizzurd]

if you want decent armor parts but you want the most RATK as possible, just don't give a shit about the high end parts. as a ranger chances are high you'll have just enough ability to equip the sub/stamina part that increases HP by +50. at first i thought otherwise, but playing with hp+ equipment is basically the best defense in this game. defense does not help that much at all.

plus, the hp+50 sub units already have decent defense, and can be max grinded to +10 to have the same def as the 9 star def units AND give you +50 hp. a nice unique quirk about sub units too is that they are nicely well rounded. they excel in one stat modestly (say, striking), and the other two stats are the same defense but at a decent amoount (range def and tech def.)

so yeah, that's what i'm doing. i have 3 hp+50's all with vol souls. even though striking atk doesn't benefit any of my other classes as i main hunter, +210 HP makes me pretty much never die. also, mates heal %'age wise, so your self heals last longer as well.

technically speaking though, hopefully you'll be playing properly enough so you don't get hit much often in the first place. but it's good insurance, and allows you to be more bold and less afraid in some situations, like if you're soloing the panthers.

[dwaynedays]

See I dont understand quite all the lingo yet like 50hp sub unit and vol souls on them

[10011408V3.9]

Originally Posted by dwaynedays

See I dont understand quite all the lingo yet like 50hp sub unit and vol souls on them

They're affixes to the gear beyond the baseline (or increased via grinding) defense/offensive stats on the gear. If you've played stuff like WoW this would be similar to enchanting gear (make the sword set people on fire, etc).

[dwaynedays]

Yeah I did play wow for awhile. I've browsed the affixing guide on here I guess ill check that out more in depth thank you

[dwaynedays]

Started dabbling with ARs damage when weak bullet is on compared to not seems about the same so far (only 1 point in it) Im lv 18 and was doing about 40 damage each hit on vol dragon with my regular attack and about 200ish with my PAs. Doesnt seem too solid so far but I managed to not get hit at all and I haven't begun to understand affixes yet so Im sure when I get into that it'll help

Anybody got anymore ranger help or advice

[Jiraiza]

Originally Posted by dwaynedays

Started dabbling with ARs damage when weak bullet is on compared to not seems about the same so far (only 1 point in it) Im lv 18 and was doing about 40 damage each hit on vol dragon with my regular attack and about 200ish with my PAs. Doesnt seem too solid so far but I managed to not get hit at all and I haven't begun to understand affixes yet so Im sure when I get into that it'll help

Anybody got anymore ranger help or advice

If you want to maximize your Assault Rifle's damage with Weak Bullet, you need to be aiming at the weak spots on the enemy (ie the red spots on the Darkers). Well, this applies even without Weak Bullet. You need to be aiming for the certain points on an enemy to fully get the maximize damage for each 3-shot burst.

Besides, 40 to 200 is a huge damage increase.