How does ATA work? Can Beasts use guns effectively?

[robinhood]

1. Do you have a better chance of hitting something with a gun the closer you are? Or does shooting land the same accuracy whether you're point blank or sniping from distance?

2. And on that note, can Beasts make good close to mid-range gunmen? Or does their ATA just suck for gun usage and they'd be better off leaving the shooting to Casts?

Thanks. I really appreciate all the answers you guys have given me. It's a very friendly community around here

[xzidanex]

For the most part, if you're playing a beast, and you are some form of ranger type class, the ATA for the class is more than enough to make up for beasts bad accuracy. So yeah, they make decent rangers still.

[Tetsaru]

I'm pretty sure that distance does NOT play a part in determining whether or not a bullet hits. The whole point of using guns in combat is to attack FROM A DISTANCE, lol. If I see someone using a ranged weapon other than a shotgun or crossbow against an enemy at point blank range, I will laugh at them and tell them to play a melee class. :3

And personally, I'd go with a Cast gunner, but Beasts are good too. A good friend of mine on PSU actually plays both, iirc.

[robinhood]

Well I'm just recalling my days of playing a HUcast in PSO and I would use both melee weapons and close-range mechguns. Would a Fighgunner best imitate that style of play?

[Tetsaru]

Well I'm just recalling my days of playing a HUcast in PSO and I would use both melee weapons and close-range mechguns. Would a Fighgunner best imitate that style of play?

Yes, I would say so, and both Casts and Beasts make excellent FI's. Since they are a hybrid class, Fighgunners have access to a wide variety of melee and gun weapons.

You might also try Fortefighter (FF) if you want to be more melee-oriented, but if you do, the only ranged weapon you'll be able to use is a handgun.

[robinhood]

Alright cool.

And does anyone else know for sure whether or not distance factors into the accuracy of your shots?

[darkante]

Alright cool.

And does anyone else know for sure whether or not distance factors into the accuracy of your shots?

Distance doesn´t matter at all, the most important thing to be able to hit targets effectively is to have a high leveled bullet art. There is no way around that.

[Criss]

The only thing factored in the accuracy is the difference between your character's ATA and the target's EVP.

And as far as beast gunners go, they are arguably the best class for the job, because they have more ATP than any other race, and the class itself has so much ATA that the beasts' low accuracy doesn't really matter. Plus they have higher HP, and nanoblasts can be useful against bullet-resistant enemies. I've been playing a beast GT for over two years, and accuracy never was an issue.

[IsoDonk]

There's a great post on this subject on dps.diadu.net:

http://dps.diadu.net/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=36

[amtalx]

Beasts make fine gunners, but if you are really going to knit pick about the numbers, they are still in favor of Casts. There was a long period where players had a huge ATA advantage vs. the enemy EVP, which diminished the Cast ATA advantage to almost nothing. However, recently we have seen more competitive enemy levels with the last couple updates.

The bottom line is if you already have a Beast, it will make a fine gunner. But if you are starting from scratch, and want to have that fraction of a percent in statistical advantage, Cast is the 'better' choice. Also, SUV > Nano pretty much all the time.