One handed debate

[Punter]

Ok, I carry a lot of guns on my palette and my 6th slot is for the sword/knife and one handed gun. I'm having trouble deciding which combo to go with. I'm a fortegunner, so I can only use sword/knife PAs lvl 10. Which one should I go with?
And which gun should I go with? Pistol, crossbow, or mechgun? Personally, I'm just having a hard time deciding between crossbow and mechgun.

[Weakness]

I vote neither and pick up another Rifle/Grenade Launcher.

You are going to almost never have to melee as a ForteGunner. I still carry a Dagger on me for those "Just in case" moments, but to this day I have yet to use it on my ForteGunner.

But if I had to pick one, just grab a mechgun. You already get Shotguns, no need for a Crossbow which aren't quite as good (outside of the whole one handed thing... but Shotguns are indeed stronger).

[Shiro_Ryuu]

I like mechgun and crossbows. You can fire from them and use your blade when that runs out of ammo and has to recharge itself, and they're not as bland as single handguns.

[ljkkjlcm9]

crossbows are not worse than shotguns, some people even believe them to be better. Level 21+ has 3 bullets, a faster firing rate, higher ATP, SE level 3 and you can move around using it. Crossbows are awesome one handed guns. As for the other hand, doesn't matter, carry one of each I'd say.

THE JACKEL

[-Ryuki-]

1H are fun. There's some versatile combos you can do here, and it really depends on what you want to do, to be honest. On my FF, I pair up my single claw or single saber with a gun that uses NEUTRAL bullets. I find whatever weapon I have paired with the gun (either of the two) to be useful, and complements well.

On the other hand, my FiGunner uses a dagger+crossbow combo, and that oddly enough works as well. Fly in and use Dagger, then kite away using Crossbow. Yeah, it works. Even the other way around. Spam Xbow until you get in close, then use dagger.

I haven't done anything with the Mechgun yet, so I couldn't say much. Although, I have seen one of my friends Mechgun their way into the fray and then dagger spam.

[bob02]

i got a guntecher and i carry 2 wand with 2 mechgun... very good dps... and u dont need to worry of lvling the PAs

[Lastat27]

I've been having the exact same problem. Basically I couldnt figure out which weapon I wanted to strafe with. Fortegunners get S Ranks with amazing prone weapons, but we still need some form of strafing for those Megid / Techer / High-damage Speed mobs (Go Vahra).

Dagger is hands down the best single handed melee weapon with skills capped at lvl 10. Buten Shouren-zan(sp) is just amazing. Saber just can't compete with such a cap in place. The only benefit I will mention is that Bouten is able to knock down mobs with it's final attack, whereas Saber can knock enemies upward. Both are useful against different mobs.

A Rank Crossbows are not that great until level 21 where they become level 3 SE strafing spam machines. But I figured since I'm already using a Shotgun there's no reason for a Crossbow.

A Rank Machineguns definately have a "cool" factor to them and are useful against unarmored small mobs. They only get level 1 Status effects and run out of PP extremely fast however (Were talking a single battle if mobs are evenly matched).

S Rank Handguns are not very useful with so many other options available. While contemplating the effectiveness of an S Rank Handgun I figured I may as well just use A Rank Twin Handguns to strafe with. (So glad I made this choice)

Whether a 9 star Twin Handgun(8-10) will be stronger then a 12 star Single Handgun(0-3) is yet to be determined. But I can venture a pretty good guess.

Unless you REALLY must have S Rank everything then avoid the Handgun. If you MUST have a melee weapon then I'd chose Crossbow / Dagger. If it's strafing your looking for then Twin Handguns. My personal pics anyways.

[SolomonGrundy]

Dagger is hands down the best single handed melee weapon with skills capped at lvl 10. Buten Shouren-zan(sp) is just amazing.

What makes you say this? I am not saying I do not agree, but Buten takes time to "charge" while the saber does not.

Saber has lower equiping requirements, and comparing 6* tenora weapons, over 225 more ATP (about 45 more damage per hit)

[Lastat27]

Nine Star Weapons
Dagger - Shiratsuno-zashi 303 ATA, 389 ATP, 315 PP
Saber - Buccaneer 282 ATA, 595 ATP, 270 PP

Saber get's 206 more ATP. However, Rising Strike only hits two mobs twice at level 10, whereas Buten hits two mobs four times at level 10 (large mobs getting hit 300x8 damage is crazy). Twice the the number of hits makes it more powerful, more ATA, more PP. Plus it looks so damn cool.






<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Lastat27 on 2007-01-25 01:37 ]</font>

[Carbinne]

Anyone who says that a shotgun is better than a crossbow has clearly not taken the time to try one out and level the bullet art up to 21! I at first didn't think much of the crossbow myself, and then I took the fire bullets to 21. It's outstandingly powerful, with solid status effect rate and strong Lv3 versions as well. The main problem with the crossbow is you have to go through that utterly painful period where it's a gimped handgun, then struggle through that okay-ish period where it's comparable to dual handguns.

If I could find 5 other people who have lv 21+ ice crossbow bullets and get them all together, one of the first things I would do is head down to Neudeiz to see how fast we can annihilate the worms there.

[imfanboy]

Neither of the saber skills are truly impressive until the 2nd combo. Gravity strike is pretty good, but Buten is probably the superior choice. Rising Strike doesn't even compare.

And there are several good spots to melee, even with a gunner. multi-spot enemies like the Kog Nadd, crocodile monsters in the desert, the Strateria (provided you can synth an awesome Dark dagger), and even the Dragon or Onma/Dimma when they're on the ground, if you have daggers of the appropriate elements.

But I would heartily endorse Crossbow. While it's a pain to level up, at 21+ it is quite simply cruel to the enemy. ^-^

[Gen2000]

On 2007-01-25 01:52, Carbinne wrote:
If I could find 5 other people who have lv 21+ ice crossbow bullets and get them all together, one of the first things I would do is head down to Neudeiz to see how fast we can annihilate the worms there.



Yes I mentioned this before, Ice Xbow = new Spread Needle and I hope to meet other lv.21+ Ice Xbow users, we neet to meet. I'm not even looking for 5 people, just 1 more person lol. I can already lock down areas pretty just by lonesome, two lv.21 Ice Xbow users would be nasty. Any more would be overkill I think.

On topic, with my Xbow I use a random Dagger, a Crank Yohemi and the second PA the one that causes launch. I'm not looking for damage that's why it's Crank, I'm just looking for an effective launcher so all I need is PP. However even with that low class Dagger the PA is surprisely strong.

The Saber PA is ok but often times I find it doesn't launch the enemy, the Dagger 2nd PA seem to have a better success rate at launching.

Launching is just another way to be useful to party, i.e. vs. Vandras or some other enemies it's good knock them down. For an Xbow user, the launch makes doing point blank shots even easier since you can do a loop of launch > point blank > launch point etc, etc until the enemy dies. I do this to solo Mad Creatures S easily.

[Sephlock]

Don't you run out of PP doing that?

And am I the only one who thought this was another debate on people using the swimsuit bug?

[SolomonGrundy]

whoops! Ok, I was thinking the of the second dagger photon art, where you charge up, then do a quick dash forward, knocking enemies over.

*ahem* so...ok, "Buten" is great, but I think rising strike has it's place. Don't forget, rising strike knocks enemies over, so if you have a smaller group (2-3), you can keep them locked down.

but my ForteFighter rocks the Buten - on a DPS basis, it competes with two handed weapons for damage, AND allows your off hand gun to recharge

Anyone looked at claw? Yeah it's ugly, but can it dish some damage?

[Gen2000]

On 2007-01-25 10:10, Sephlock wrote:
Don't you run out of PP doing that?

And am I the only one who thought this was another debate on people using the swimsuit bug?



Run out of PP of what? The Xbow? I have like 7 of them. The Dagger? It's a Yohemi Dagger, crazy PP amount plus combined with the fact that I mainly attack with the Xbow then the answer is no I don't run out of PP from them. Two C rank Daggers (to go with the two Xbows on my pallete) last me a whole Srank Mission.

Even taking the charge time into account I still prefer the second Dagger PA to Rising Strike or Buten, the charge time isn't that great and once the move executes it goes lightining quick and the knockdown effect works on more enemies than Buten can.



<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Gen2000 on 2007-01-25 14:17 ]</font>

[akratic]

what are the best xbow bullets to level up? I have Ice over 21 and Dark at 14 already. Thx!

[Gen2000]

Ignoring the ones you already have: Fire, Plasma, and Light (mass mob lv.3 Confusion rocks) for SE/General purpose.

If you want max element damage would level them all (duh).

[juno-6]

mechgun, your not gonna' be using melee all too often so you might as well go with a quick dps weapon like the machinegun.

[akratic]

On 2007-01-25 23:16, Gen2000 wrote:
Ignoring the ones you already have: Fire, Plasma, and Light (mass mob lv.3 Confusion rocks) for SE/General purpose.

If you want max element damage would level them all (duh).

Well, naturally. I'm more interested in SE at the moment. For damage I still generally prefer my dual handguns, but pulling out the over 21 ice xbow on a tengoh (after lighting it on fire or infecting it w/ my rifle ) is too fun.