How I approach TA. Probably not the best way but my style of TA play is good enough to be acceptable by high tier players.

To get the most out my theory, just think about what I say and why it can work and modify it to your own game.

Lets start with some general guidelines:
TA is about playing a role. Everyone has a role to play, don't try to exceed this role by doing everything trying to be a hero. In other words don't 'help' any HU teammates while they are fighting. Learn to trust them to handle it on their own. I call those who refuse to play by roles as ones obsessed with "being the MVP". If you see people who have to jump on every monster you fight in a TA game, you may as well either quit or not take it seriously because your TA game is going nowhere.

XP is not important. Don't feel bad if you don't gain any xp in a room at all. Tagging monsters for xp doesn't help the team, and at worse causes damage cancel or throws a HU's timing off.

1 on 1 is important. You should be able to take on any monster 1 on 1 with any weapon without getting hit 90% of the time. If you aren't able to do that, go practice first then join a TA game.

Efficiency is the key. Ganging up on a monster is overkill. Overkill that could of been spent attacking other monsters or at the very least being positioned for future waves. There are smart ways to gang up and I go into detail about that later.

Targeting theory for me is as follows:
First one in the room targets the farthest monster in the room. The ones behind the first one in follow the same pattern attacking the next farthest monster etc. If someone chooses a target leave them alone. When you finish your target, find another monster that isn't being attacked. If there are no monsters for you, then wait either at the door or at a zone of the room where no other teammate is to be ready for future spawns. If the room has multiple waves of monsters, upon finishing a spawn, simply stay in your zone of the room and take care of whatever appears. This method avoids confusion to who is attacking what, avoiding ganging up and damage cancel.

If you must attack the same enemy at the same time (namely bosses), use HHH. HHH is good at avoiding cancel.

There are two crucial concepts every TA HU player needs to know, they are known as DELAY and STUN.

Delay is the act of not activating your combo as fast as possible. There is a slight command input leeway between swings in a combo. Its about half a second to a second depending on the weapon. Delay allows you to STUNlock enemies. I advise practicing combo delay by seeing how long you can delay the next attack of the combo without losing the combo animation completely. Delay is the most important with sabers and daggers. Other weapons less so but should be considered.

Stun is fairly simple to observe, but rarely do I see a player use it to their advantage. For HUs to be able 1 on 1 effectively, stun is very important. The trick is to have every hit of a combo cause the enemy to go into a stun-reel animation. Combo DELAY is the key to do this. By using combo delay, time it so that every swing of your combo causes the enemy to go into stun. Practice until you can do it consistently, it is valuable to TA and to regular PSO as well. You can lock gibbles or mericarol down with a simple handgun if you do it right.

RAs are basically support troops in cmode games. In TA they can really speed a map up right if they are played right. Played incorrectly they are a headache and unfortunately this happens often in my opinion. So lets get down to business.

If a RA is on a team, they will go to EVERY side item room. Since they aren't a main source of damage, they can afford to make the detours gaining items which can really help the HU's out, like power materials, good weapons, and arm units.

RAs will one on one fight just like the other classes do. However RAs are expected to break from their target if a HU decides to join in. Many times RAs dont fight at all. RAs can get their share of kills though. Attack guys far away from HUs or find guys HUs aren't attacking.

RAs have specific strategies based on the stage.
C1 - Use a saber if you can, your ATA is a lot higher than a HU. Use HU strategies should you choose to wield it. Priority targets for RAs are wolves and regular Boomas. Heat and dim handguns rip c1 apart if it drops. Against dragon use a saber if you have one and fight the dragon like a HU. If you only have a gun, you can only attack when the dragon is recovering from an attack (e.g landing after flying, just after it finishes breathing fire, after its roar) where your gun has easy access to the head of the dragon. When the dragon falls down, you can shoot the head of the dragon a couple times till a HU arrives. When the dragon runs around, stay behind it as much as you can to prevent it from flying. In fact don't even attack till you have a true opportunity, otherwise you risk messing up the fight.

C2 - Use a saber. Handguns are too darn weak with one exception, you get one with heat/shock/dim. Should you get that it needs no explanation. With dim or shock weapons your priority is nano dragons. Otherwise take targets of opportunity (enemies not being engaged at the moment). Don't let the power of dim weapons get to your head. Remember one on one fundamentals, don't jump in to other people's fights. Only shoot nanos when they are on the ground and when they are about to attack. With dim or shock shoot whenever.

C3 - Now autoguns are available. Follow c2 gun strategies.

C4 - The RA's weakest stage. I say weak because RA's can do nothing against the boss. Just going to have to hope your FOs or HUs know how to fight it. Follow c2 gun strategies.

C5 - RA's shine in the mines. They lock down nearly every enemy here with ease. RAs need to be very aware in the mines. Look for gillchichs about to fire their laser. Look for Sinows trying to beat on your allies, pegging them with N attacks till 2 teammates can attack it. Look for canadines about to shock your team. Be sure to not interfere with HUs fighting gillchics.

C6 - Lockguns are now available. RAcs are better here because they can freeze baranz easily. Follow C5 strategies. Against boss, just pick a section of the boss the others aren't attacking and hope for the best.

C7 - Now RAs are kind of shafted. Your best bet is to disarm sorcerors immediately, stun delsabers until a HU can get behind it or a FO can barta it to death, and to go after claws. Aside from attacking the occasional lone dimenian, leave them to the HUs to fight. Don't even bother with belra unless you have some way to instantly kill it. RAs only hope is to get a status weapon of some sort to do any real damage. Otherwise you are pure support more or less.

C8 - Same as C7

C9 - Railguns now available. Follow C7 strategies.

C1-6 FO is a primary attacker. C7-9 FO changes role to more of a support form.

FOs need to 1 on 1 fight just like a HU. Tagging a monster once with a tech is not very useful since most HUs finish an enemy in 2 combos max anyway. Exceptions do exist though, which I will talk about later.

If there is only 1 FO on a team, shifta is a must. If there are 2 or more FOs forget about shifta because there aren't enough HUs to benefit from it.

FOs will drop mates when they receive scape dolls in return.

Resta is not used in TA as it makes it harder for the FO to die on purpose. Resta can be used when its convenient but for the most part starting mates are enough for a decent HU.

Jellen is a useful emergency technique in dark rooms. Dark rooms increase the mistakes that HUs can make while fighting. Jellen with deband can increase your chances of not getting knocked down when hit.

FOs do not collect items C1-6. Period.

Daggers - Daggers are hard to use at first, but really fun once you get the hang of them. My method of non-HUcl dagger usage is as follows: don't initiate attacks from the front, you will get owned unless you have 35%+ hit and are doing HHH on the enemy. Instead get the enemy side or rear with a NN combo, making sure the first and third hit of the four hit series causes the enemy to go into stun. Retreat and do the combo again from the side or rear, this time adding a H to the end of the combo. The H is usually enough the 2nd time around to kill any booma class enemy. If your dagger is especially strong and the enemy is the weakest grunt monster class of the area, you can probably get away with NNH right away or even NNN at times. If you do get caught in the front of an enemy with daggers, your only choice is to NNN as fast as possible without delay to hope you cause enough damage to kill it. As for HUcl way of fighting with daggers, I can offer no advice as I don't use HUcl. But I'm sure the idea isn't that different. Dagger class weapons have lower ATA than sabers so even with NN attacks you can miss so be wary.

Swords - A lot of HU's don't like using these. I personally find it satisfying and an essential weapon to master as you are given no choice but swords in certain stages. If all the HUs are using swords, feel free to help each other out. 1 on 1 doesn't apply with swords, gang up. How I personally use sword class weapons is as follows: I try to pick enemies that aren't targeting me. If they aren't targeting me I NNH the enemy. If they are targetting me, I try to circle them getting two NN hits in then breaking off. If I think I can finish the monster off I NNH the monster while doing the circling strategy. Swords cause a great amount of stun, a lot more than partisans anyway, making them more preferable to me when both swords and partisans are available. If you are caught in a situation where you are attacking the front of a monster with a sword, your only hope is to NH and hope the H hits. The H of the 2nd hit will cause enough knockback to get out of the way of any retaliation. Swords are awesome with confuse traps. Swords with nice %s are good candidates to grind. Try to cluster enemies if you are using a sword, common sense but it needs to be said.

Partisan - I used to advocate these but for some reason they miss more often than swords. Couple that with the fact they deal less damage and cause a LOT less stun makes them blah weapons. If you are using them, NHH with no combo delay is really the only way to go.

Slicers - Great for HUcs as it allows them to detonate their own traps.

HP mats should be given to HUs normally. Since knockdowns are based on % of HP lost, increasing your HP can prevent you from getting knocked down should you get hit. The only times HUs should not get HP mats is c1 where they should go to anyone who does not have more than 40 HP by the dragon, c4 where they should go to the ranger to prevent them from dying in one hit on de rol le, and c9 where the force needs 141 HP to survive the heaven's punisher.

Pow mats depend on the stage. In general the person who needs the power mat the most is the person who needs to increase their base atp to use a weapon that drops. For example non HUcasts should get the power mats in c9 because non HUcasts need extra ATP to use a pallasch. C1 just pick one hunter to get all the power mats so they can use a dagger should one drop. Otherwise if there is no need to raise a person's atp to equip something, just give it to the weakest ATP RA/HU playing.

Mind goes to non FOnl first. If only FOnl, then spread it out as you see fit.

Evade, Def, and Luck go to HUs. TP to forces.

Grinders I recommend hoarding up till you get a nice weapon. Use your own judgment for what qualifies as a nice weapon. The only exception to grinder use is in c4 where you must save all grinders till you are about to fight de rol le.

Boomas - One of the easier enemies to beat. With sabers use delay. Booma class monsters are bit more forgiving to delay mistakes so you may as well practice now.

Wolves - Annoying, will try to pounce on you when your back is turned. Charge these guys as soon as you can. Use delay to make sure your combo hits.

Rag Rappy - Annoying. With RA, shoot from far away for an instant 'kill'. With HU NNH combo no delay to finish these guys.

Monest - These guys take way too much time to beat. HHH these enemies. Monest lags a room. After killing one, it takes awhile for the server to recognize it is dead. The best genkai maps have no nests.

Hildebear - Freeze them. Two people attack it at most. The best way to attack it is after it is frozen, one guy does his combo no delay, the next guy starts his combo with no delay once the previous hunter is recovering. Repeat till dead.

Dragon - If all party members can stay behind it, it will not fly. FOs need to barta the tail. When you knock it down, every HU takes a body part. The guy with the daggers goes for the head. FO barta the tail. Everyone else takes a leg. When its in its second form about to take off, the FO should keep casting barta until it dives. You can still hit even though its in the air. Just have faith and keep casting. After it tunnels and resurfaces, stay behind it, FOs once again go for the tail. Let it fly again you may as well restart. When the dragon is knocked down, be sure to use HHH attacks. Though the first H sometimes misses, it doesn't miss often. The damage is worth it. When its walking around, try HHH if you can. If you aren't confident use NHH but cancel happens more often when you do so be careful.

Targeting priorities for C1
FOs go for anything weak to foie first. HUs go after non-foie weak enemies. RAs are on rappy duty.

Other notes for C1
Use traps. Foie, confuse, and freeze all dominate c1. Use it. They refill easily. Don't use it and you wasted an important tool.

Lilies - In c2 leave lillies to a FO. Trying to kill them will just get non droids paralyzed. If you are going to attack, be smart and make sure you do as much damage as possible while its recovering so when you fail to kill it in one combo, it will go in its death pose. No delay to be used on these guys. With swords use HHH. Swords can sometimes hit the stalk of a lily.

Nano Dragons - These guys make a map drag. They fly around a lot, have lots of hp, and can knock you down easily. These enemies are a FO's #1 priority. Just barta them to death. Non FOnl need to use 5-6 barta to kill it. FOnl require 4-5 barta to kill it. The HU technique to deal with a nano is hard to explain but here it goes. The HU should first provoke it to fly which is simply done by charging it. Now the HU must make sure they are at the location the nano choose to land at. Do a NH combo with delay. If done right the H hit will knock the dragon back some. The dragon will get ready to shoot his laser at you. You should have enough time to do the NH combo with delay again. If done right the H hit will once again knock the dragon back. The dragon will once again try to shoot you. Repeat till it dies.

Slimes - Slime will split when hit by the third hit of a combo so by all means do not use 3 hit combos on these guys. Slime will also sometimes split when hit by techs. Use H attacks against a slime, preferably by the strongest HU. Fire traps are good against slimes, but freeze traps are better. You need to make sure the slime is frozen when its in attack form, not puddle form. Once frozen you can hit it till it dies.

Grass Assasins - Incredibly easy enemies. Not much strategy against them is required.

Pan Arms - In TA games you cannot let them split. If they split they act like monests, lagging a room, with the game not realizing that all monsters are dead for a few seconds. Confuse traps should be saved for pan arms as pan arms don't split when confused. 2 FOs are recommended versus a pan arms, each taking turns casting foie until it dies. HUs or RAs with heat or shock weapons can also help. Dim weapons are self-explanatory.

De Rol Le - The goal is to beat this guy upon its first landing. Here are strategies to accomplish that. FOs need to barta it when its about to shoot its first purple ball attack. Barta the body and practice so that your barta hits the most segments of its body as possible. HUs and RAs during this point are to clear the two mines closest to the worm's body at this point. De rol will then switch to the other side of the raft about to land. Before it lands once again FOs must barta the body. Now it lands. The HUs must be at the extreme corner of the raft which grants the most access to the body of de rol le and use there most powerful sword they have against it. Now FOs if they have Gifoie or Gizonde are to use it now. If they don't stick to barta and go for the body of de rol. De rol will then pick someone to attack. Try to guess who it is and once you know, make sure that hero chosen does not put others into danger. The one targetted can still attack but make sure you are smart about it.

C2-4 Other notes
Targeting priorities - Nanos and Guil Sharks are for FOs. FOs need to hit these guys immediately. Lilies are the FOs next priority. HUs are supposed to go for non guil sharks and grass assasins first. HUcs deal with slimes. HUcs are given a gun as soon as possible.

In C2 the HUcasts will feed the mags antidotes to get 1 level of dex which will enable them to use a handgun at level 6

Gillchic - These guys will always fall down in one hit, so when things get hairy, just use a normal attack to level things out. If gillchics aren't paid attention to, they will fire a laser which can really mess up your TA rhythm. They are hard to block since they attack twice in one swing. Best bet for HUs when they don't have a buster is to NHH. HUcasts with shifta should be able to NHH once to kill it assuming they don't miss an attack. Other HUs need some power mats or a brand with some percents to be able to kill a gillchic in a single NHH combo. With a 0% buster you should be able to kill a gillchic in a NNH combo. If your buster has 50%+ you should be able to kill a gillchic in a single NH combo. Do not use delay on a gillchic and do not team up on gillchics. FOnl just needs two zondes to kill a gillchic so keep that in mind. Other FOs need 3 zondes to kill a gillchic.

Canadine - Annoying guys. These are the HUs first target when they enter a room. Try to kill em before they take off. If they refuse to come down, let the FOs deal with them and switch your focus to gillchics or sinows.

Sinows - You can't one on one these guys easily. There are only two ways to take these guys on 1 on 1. You either have an uber buster with hit% that allows you to HHH a sinow and kill it in one shot, or you do the following: A sinow will always try to swing at you twice before it decides to leap back and try somethings else. It is important that they make two full double swings against you. Once you make them miss twice, they will cross their arms and jump back. Now is your time to strike. While it crosses its arms, use a NN combo with some delay. The sinow will then try to cross its arms again. Do the NN combo again with delay. With brands you may miss so that cant be helped, but busters should rarely miss and you can kill it in about 3-4 NN combos. Sinow golds are easier since after leaping back they will always try to heal themselves. Once they try to heal themselves they are pretty much dead to a HU. Sinow beats are a little harder to predict. 1 on 1 isn't crucial against this enemy, but you still need to know how to team up appropriately against this enemy. My way of dealing with them is if I am targetted I will lure them to a HU or FO teammate who will then attack it. From this point the sinow may change targets or continue to pursue me. I then wait till my ally is recovering before I begin my attack. My ally should be able to finish it off after I'm done with my combo against it. By all means WAIT till your ally is finished attacking otherwise you just experience insane damage cancel. Only 2 team members at most should attack a sinow. Anymore is unnecessary and just makes the fight drag on longer than it should.

Garanz - I think the fastest way to fight this guy is to freeze him. Even though its sloppy one guy should take damage while another HU is finishing it off. Spinning around garanz takes too long and in a TA game mates should not be an issue. 2 HUs max against a garanz and be sure to attack during your ally's combo recovery.

Dubchic - This guy has no purpose except to waste your time. The best way to deal with this guy is to have a HU with the strongest weapon deal with it as soon as it is spotted in a room. Dubchics have a certain damage threshold before it attempt to collect its pieces again. Your goal is to do enough damage per combo to make it reform itself after the combo is over. Use all H hits if you need to. Another thing is to make sure while you are beating the dubchic up you keep its pieces close together so it doesn't take 10 seconds for it to reform itself. Getting it stuck against a wall or in a corner is probably the best way to deal with them.

Vol Opt - 1st form make sure each person attacks a different pillar. Once someone is on the attacking (red) pillar, go look for a blue one to destroy. 2nd form try to pick a different portion of the boss to avoid damage cancel. Once all pieces of vol opt are gone, do HHH combos to avoid damage cancel as much as you can. Gizonde or zonde can make a difference here.

Targeting Priorities - Flying Canadines are the FOs 1st priority. Then gillchic. Then sinows. Canadines which just spawn are a HU's priority, followed by gillchics/grounded canadines, then sinows.

Other notes - There are some difficult rooms which involve confuse or slow traps, which can spell a lot of damage if a garanz decides to be there, use caution or try to disarm as soon as you can.

Dimenians - These enemies are even more unforgiving when it comes to delay. Practice delay to be able to combo them from their front. Learn how to use a sword against these guys as in c7 and c8 you have no choice but to use them at the beginning. With really strong busters or semi-strong pallasches you should be able to NHH the Dimenian and La Dimenian in one combo. With strong pallasches the NHH will kill So Dimenians in one combo.

Claws - These guys are annoyances. Use NNH combos without delay to dispatch. With a stronger weapon you can NH these guys to kill. By no means should more than one person attack a claw.

Bulclaw - Sometimes its useful to let these guys split just so you can kill claws to gain useful items. If you have adequate equipment, just have a FO deal with them.

Chaos Sorceror - Only one HU should deal with this. There is a judgment call when one spawns, either go for the kill or an immediate disarm of his Bee L which casts the attacking magic. Make sure you choose right away what you want to target. Disarming it when it is about to attack you with a spell wastes a lot of time. If you choose to kill his Bee L right away, he will sit there helpless allowing you or a teammate to finish it off for you.

Dark Belra - These guys take a lot of time to kill. Use confuse traps when available against belras for a quicker kill. When confused it will mindless attack in a predictable pattern, allowing a HU to combo it as much as they can till they are in the way of its rampage. If no one is attacking a belra, it will fire its arm cannon at you, causing a lot of damage, even outright killing certain classes, so when one spawns, it should be the priority of a HU with a strong weapon, or if one is not present, the FO. Non FOnl should use grants if available.

Chaos Bringer - This guy is intimidating but not very hard. He has a blind spot which a HU can attack from. This bilnd spot is the chaos bringers left front corner. You must HHH this guy at all times because it charges its cannon based on how many hits it takes. While attacking at this position every attack done by the horse will whiff. With a %buster or pallasch, just HHH normally. If you don't have a strong weapon, make sure you freeze it before you start attacking. You need to kill it before it charges its cannon. Its not the cannon thats dangerous but the fact that his cannon steals tp from FOs while it charge up. Only one HU is to take care of a chaos bringer, no more.

Delsabers - Delsabers are a FO's responsibility until a HU gets a decent weapon. When no HU has a good weapon, FOs are to barta it alone until it dies. Once a HU has a decent weapon, it can be dealt with one on one with the following technique, provoke a delsaber to do its 3 hit combo, get out of the way, and while it recovers do a NNH combo with delay. Repeat the strategy till it falls. With hit% weapons you can NHH or HHH depending on your skill at timing to kill it easily.

Dark Falz - The dragon head form is dealt with in this fashion: FOs barta the darvants it spits out. Once all are dead, start casting zonde. HUs or RAs with guns should target either of the side heads. HUs with pallasches or blades go for the grounded center head. The sac form has the following strategies associated with it. FOs use grants if they have it, otherwise barta. Use HHH or delayed NHH against the sac to avoid excessive cancel. Know how to dodge his rabarta. While it moves around, don't follow it by tracing the perimeter of the battle field, rather cut at an angle predicting where it will stop, you will get there faster this way.

Other notes:
In C7 and C8 the HUs start with gigushes. The main attacking will be left to the FOs until HUs can get decent weapons to start 1 on 1 with. HUs will need to use traps if they have it. Save freeze traps for delsabers and confuse/foie traps for dimenians. Bunch up the dimenians and have the HUs start teaming up to kill them as efficiently as possible. In c7-c8 the FO will assist a HU in dealing with belra, with the FO making sure they cast during the HU's combo recovery.

I don't think anyone knows exactly when damage cancel occurs. There have been times I swear it should of been cancel but fortunately was not, as well as other times where it doesn't look like cancel but you end up seeing it. Cancel does seem to happen more often on dimenians or sinows, but all enemies have cancel potential. Lag could be a factor with canceling as well.

I avoid cancel just by watching the weapon swings of my allies. I try to start my attack once an ally connects one of their attacks so the enemy basically gets hits in by me in between my ally's attacks. Granted I am not always successful, but its better than mindlessly attacking. Avoiding cancel is even harder when 3 or 4 people are attacking it since there is no real way to time the hits. In that case use HHH, it seems to avoid cancel and it does more damage.

As for your miss affecting damage cancel, I don't have a clue of what causes cancel and what doesn't. I do think ex attacks that miss cancel damage so spamming ex attacks could do more harm than good.

Yeah, it is kind of stupid that this game can't calculate all the damage that takes place when people gang up but its just going to have to be accepted and worked around.