Advice for FM

[redroses]

I have finally started playing FM on JP PSU, I play a female Newman FM. I am still very new to FM, and eventhough I used to play it on the EU/US servers, I never really played it seriously. So I hope somebody will help me with some questions that I have, I would really appreciate any help!

1. I guess the most important question I have is about PAs, I am really outdated when it comes to strength and weaknesses of the FM PAs. For example, what PA is best for single hitbox enemies (rygutass for example). And of course, what PAs just don't do it anymore or have better alternatives?

2. Next question would be equipment suggestions when having little meseta.

• Spears: I have the most trouble when wanting to buy spears because most of them are quite expensive. Are there any good spears that aren't that expensive but still good? I luckily have some Triden Crusher but not in all elements.
• Double Saber: I mostly use Meteor Cudgel, which I love because of their freeze effect (and they glitter <_<). I am currently saving up for an Eternal Heat, and I guess trying to obtain a Ten'imuso would be recommended?
• Axes: I am totally open when it comes to axe recommendations, I feel quite lost when it comes to them for some reason. I have some Galebringer and for the future some Svaltia Tomahawk(but don't really know if they are any good)

3. This is for the future, but I would also like to ask for GAS options.
I don't think I would be a good revenge blast user because I often do not pay as much attention as I should when I play. I think going for the element weapon options would be better. For extra style, I think Avenge would be quite good. And by shield style I am not quite sure.



Thank you very much for reading and thank you in advance for any help!
If I think of something else, I will add it!

[str898mustang]

Spears:
Dus Skadd

Swords:
Tornado Break(hitting mutiple enemies)
Gravity Break(for multiple box and single hit boxes)


Axes:
Jabroga

Double Saber:
Spiral Dance
Cyclone Dance (hitting multiple enemies and knocking them off their feet)


If you wont be using RB, then get Elemental Burst. For shield style, use Core Shield and Avenge for Extra style.

I would stick with the Meteor Cudgels....good ATA, high Freeze SE, and you can get decent %'s. Those eternal heats aren't programmed to give a high % that often (i got a 14% fire one, I WAS NOT HAPPY)

[redroses]

Thank you very much! Sounds good, especially Core Shield sounds useful.

Sad to hear that Eternal Heat doesn't give high%, and with it not aving a SE, I guess it's noth worth the trouble of buying or collecting the flamestones.

[Cloudstrife xx]

Fighmaster Photon arts -

Double Sabers: Cyclone Dance - Spiral Dance - Tornado Dance
(Quick statement about Cyclone Dance) this photon art is amazing imagine Assualt Crush where you dont have to do the 1st and 2nd part thats close to what Cyclone Dance is.

Swords: Gravity Break - Tornado Break
Gravity Break is now the Ultimate Single Target - 2 Box Target Killer, Dulk Fakis(First Form) MotherBrain Killer too.
Only Photon arts that come close in the running are Dus Skadd for its speed and range and Spiral Dance steals some thunder when you need to keep a monster(s) Stun Locked.

Spears: Dus Skadd - Dus Majarra - Dus Robado however these last 2 you wont use very often they barely have a use Dus Majarra has abit more use than Dus Robado i guess...

Axes: Anga Jabroga - Anga Redda ,Again Anga Jabroga is very situational now, it has some small use for spawns that are running towards you that you know you can one shot and few other uses in a big Team TA.

And Anga Redda after 4 years is now very good hits 1 1 3 with its combo respectively & and has insane range on the last part, it has some use situational once again but it does sometimes perform better than Gravity Break's efforts really depends on what you are fightning though.

Please feel free to check out some of my Fighmaster Video's showcasing some of what i have said here in practice




Also i strongly recomend you check out my Jp friend's Channel http://www.youtube.com/user/NightmareDrowsy he has some amazing Fighmaster runs even if you dont care to TA these videos might help you to running smoother casual runs with friends.

Now for Weapon on a budget

Swords: Trade in for either Magana Slayers or Akatsuki in's Magana's are easy and cheap to trade for Akatsuki's are gonna cost you alot more time and effort and alittle bit more pricey but not much. Akatsuki in is miles better than Magana though.
Tradicion and Dark Flow are the best swords but 1.5-3bil each will break most people including me so i stick to Akatsukis for now....

Spears: you have quite a choice
Right now there are 40% Black Requiems 10/10 for sale for around 30-45mil
Tornado Stingers are abit more expensive
Lanzananta are good choice too but there are not many up for sale they have very good range like Black Requiem's also 800+ pp and 500+ ata all make for a good spear
Another Choice is Bajunata's those are pretty decent and dont cost to much depending.
and lastly you could go for Rep Nasur's these spears have decent stats all around and 45%+ are cheap to buy at 0/10 15-25mil i have yet to see any 10/10 for sale though...

So with spears on a budget these are all good picks just check them out and see what you like best.
Ofcoarse Grandia's are the king of spears best pp best ata best atp but they will set you back alot only buy if you can afford.

Double Sabers:
You said you have some Meteor Cudgel's those are pretty decent double sabers and you cant go wrong with them
as you will need alot of Double Sabers 2sets atleast Unity Will is a good option they are super easy to trade for and dont cost much and come out high % decently
Absolute Blades are decent but 40% 10/10 might be around 60mil+
If you have some Gold Coins spare then Ten'imuso is worth a try are trying to get Lvl 2 stun is very nice and stats id would say tie along side Eternal Heat and Ashveins with exeption to Ten'imuso's low ata do ofcoarse those double sabers are worth a try too.
Jinrai is a decent double Saber too so like the spears you have choice lol
Im sure you know of the Double cannon those atm seem to have dried up there is barely any for sale 2bil+ for one isnt cheap either...

Axes just trade in for as many Ank foils you can afford you can easliy do this by trading in your event points if you want for Ank Gearz/M and trading those in for foils tho if you lack points for you Ank Gearz/M you can just buy them from player Shops for around 10mil maybe cheaper.


Now for Gas upgrades
Lets do styles first shall we

Weapon Styles:
You said you didnt wanna use Revenge Blaster thats fine no problem
Elemental Burst is in the range of Revenge blaster at around 1.5k hp left so if you struggle with hp levels Burst is for you.

Sometimes like that last event we had with the Super Buffed Lutus Jigga Overswing will come in handy it relies on your team mates dying (with you using avenge extra style) but its a very good Weapon Style if you are in a run where people are dying a decent amount say for example when someone dies with you having overswing on and avenge on say you are doing 6k damage before anyone died all of the sudden you will be doing 7k thanks to avenge and random and quite often crits of 10-11k thanks to Overswing its very much a wild card weapon style but its still worth alook.

Shield Styles:
Reduce light, dark, fire, ice, ground, lightning these styles are only really good for missions where the monsters can hit you really hard otherwise Core Shield is just better.
Talking of Core shield/Photon Shield 2 you obviously should get this style reduces 200 damage from all melee attacks and reduces the damage you take over time from megistride.
If its a magic heavy mission then use Soul Barrier/Photon barrier 2

Extra Styles:
Avenge you must get this.
Skilled Trapper
and Double time why not lol
a note Skilled Pharmacist is very useful for helping solo Converging roads S4 that we have right now

Now for basic abilities
HP LVL 5
ATP LVL 5
ATA LVL 5
What you have left you could put on Stamnia or Defense or if you can just counter well then adds some more Evp.

Special Abilities
Full Custom Power level 2
Exact attack damage+ Level 2
Exact Counter Damage+ Level 2
Critical Rate

Weapon Abilities
Dont worry you can buy all Fighmaster Weapon Abilties with tons of points to spare so just go crazy on those.

Anyway i hope this is of some help ofcoarse this is coming from someone who likes to TA and do speed runs doesnt mean it cant apply to anyone i still use these same set of values even when playing casual with friends doing runs at a nice steady pace is always a nice thing faster runs more chance of rares also more ap per time spent due to fighting the boss alot quicker.

If you want anymore Info my characters if you dont already have my card (i think you do) are VictoriX VII / ジェス. / ソラリス・アトレイデ.

[redroses]

Oh my, thank you so much for all this help Cloudstrife! I am really amazed by your post!

Eventhough I am a casual player, I still try to play the best I can, because I am not too fond of runs taking longer that they need. Especially when it comes to hunting items and stuff like that.

Watching your TA videos is also really helpful, because they show wich photon arts work best in givin situations, as you said, they give good advice when wanting to run better casual runs. Which is exactly what I want to do.
I see your TA setup as the best possible setup for a FM, therefore I think it will work perfect on casual runs aswell.

I didn't even know Gravity Break could hit Dulk/Mother so good. I have been using Dus Skadd or Spiral Dance, but will try out Gravity Break next time.
When it comes to using Majarra or Robado I always think Skadd or Tornado Break would work better. Which is sad, I always enjoyed using Robado.
Also, is Ank Grudda, worth using at all? Mine is still quite low leveled, so I am not so sure about its usefulness.


About buyin swords, may I ask why I should go for Magana, and not for Soul Pheonix or Steel Hearts for example? I am just going by the ATP that the weapons have, so I might be missing something.


GAS suggestions are very helpful!
I am always so unsure where to put my AP into when it comes to Basic Abilities, as I am never too sure how much it actually changes. So thank you very much for that!

I will make sure to get those extra, weapon and shield styles.


Again, thank you very very much for the post Cloudstrife, it is really helpful! I will be checking all of those videos, and if anything comes up, I will ask you for advice!
And I do have your card!

[Cloudstrife xx]

Oh my, thank you so much for all this help Cloudstrife! I am really amazed by your post!

Eventhough I am a casual player, I still try to play the best I can, because I am not too fond of runs taking longer that they need. Especially when it comes to hunting items and stuff like that.

Watching your TA videos is also really helpful, because they show wich photon arts work best in givin situations, as you said, they give good advice when wanting to run better casual runs. Which is exactly what I want to do.
I see your TA setup as the best possible setup for a FM, therefore I think it will work perfect on casual runs aswell.

I didn't even know Gravity Break could hit Dulk/Mother so good. I have been using Dus Skadd or Spiral Dance, but will try out Gravity Break next time.
When it comes to using Majarra or Robado I always think Skadd or Tornado Break would work better. Which is sad, I always enjoyed using Robado.
Also, is Ank Grudda, worth using at all? Mine is still quite low leveled, so I am not so sure about its usefulness.


About buyin swords, may I ask why I should go for Magana, and not for Soul Pheonix or Steel Hearts for example? I am just going by the ATP that the weapons have, so I might be missing something.


GAS suggestions are very helpful!
I am always so unsure where to put my AP into when it comes to Basic Abilities, as I am never too sure how much it actually changes. So thank you very much for that!

I will make sure to get those extra, weapon and shield styles.


Again, thank you very very much for the post Cloudstrife, it is really helpful! I will be checking all of those videos, and if anything comes up, I will ask you for advice!
And I do have your card!

Ah yes i forgot about Steel Hearts thats a decent sword that alongside magana slayers but the reason Magana Slayers before Akatsuki and Tradicion came out were so good was they have over 600+ ata and they can Incap with Level 2 i believe Soul Phoneix is okay but i would say the worst of the 3 due to High Variance sadly....
Zamba has high atp too.... but has even worse Variance but i guess either way they are all decent swords and dont cost much so use whatever you enjoy most if anything get a lightning and Ground Magana for incap on robots.

Lost breaker is pretty decent i might add (Forgot about this one) it has level 3 Defense down which for Fighmaster in this S4 mission will let you freeze trap Zamphapas without skilled trapper on.

[Kinujou]

i officially love you all for this topic -takes notes-

[OokamiRei]

As far as Fm goes i tend to only use one or two pas per weapon, namely tornado break, spiral dance/tornado dance/cyclone dance, anga redda/anga grudda, and dus skadd. with the recent change to fighter pas are any others worth using?

also might be a difference in play styles but why are you using traps as a FM?

[Cloudstrife xx]

As far as Fm goes i tend to only use one or two pas per weapon, namely tornado break, spiral dance/tornado dance/cyclone dance, anga redda/anga grudda, and dus skadd. with the recent change to fighter pas are any others worth using?

also might be a difference in play styles but why are you using traps as a FM?

Right now on jp psu if you are playing Fighmaster the 2 pa's you should be using the most are Dus Skadd and Spiral Dance however Photon arts like Dus Majarra, Dus Robado, Gravity Break, tornado break, Anga redda and Cyclone Dance to some degree have Situational uses it just really depends but 80% of the time you will want to be spamming Dus Skadd and Spiral Dance.

Why do i use traps?
Freeze traps can be very useful on certain missions like in my Holy Ground Video freeze trapping the Tenghos is very handy for my suv it stops them fly behind me while i suv at the end of b2 i should have done that but used the wrong suv which cost me about 20 secs

Other uses for freeze traps are when you are in a team with other fighters one traps then that person runs to next spawn while 2nd player kills frozen spawn in 1 pa the type of spawn you might commonly freeze would be stuff that can fly around too much or things that can burrow underground like Rappy Polecs,lapucha,bul buna ect ect

Point is Freeze Trap G's are very useful for TA a must have!