Evasion-based Newmen

[CelestialBlade]

With Newmen getting very high natural EVP growth and not having much DFP to be worth anything, it's logical to want their primary defensive stat to be EVP. It's the path I'm taking my Guntecher down. Now, being EVP-based, the obvious armor manufacturer choice would be Tenora Works, but there's a catch--really high DFP requirements for their armor. It's like it's specifically designed to be out of reach of Newmen.

I figure there's plenty of you who use EVP as the primary defensive stat for your Newmen characters, and I'm wondering....how have you built them? What armor/units have you chosen? I'm just looking for ideas on how to improve my own, and at the same time I'm just curious as to how everyone's building their Newmen defensively.

I appreciate any input.

[Randomness]

Honestly, you're probably better off with good %s coupled with Mega / Rainbow in the body slot. Of course, if you can get that with a Tenora armor, go ahead.

Really, you're going to take hits, and secondly, EVP is worth squat against techs. Yes, Newmen get plenty of MST, but its not at the crazy levels of Force and Fortecher...

[Zorafim]

I don't at all like building on evasion. I'll admit, in a real fight, I'd much rather evade a blow. But the way that most RPGs are based much prefer defense to evasion. Even if you can make it so that the amount of damage evaded equals or even surpasses the amount of damage that would have been prevented with additional defense on average, there's still the risk of you getting unlucky multiple times in a row or getting thrashed by a huge attack. I'd much rather have a reliable form of absorbing damage than taking unstable amounts of damage.

[Tsavo]

The thing I like about Evasion with Newms at high levels is that you either A) block hit for 0 damage or B) fly across the room, keeping you from getting continually comboed. Rabol Tero works well for this. Can suck in the middle of a PA I guess. *shrugs* I tend to use daggers with my Newm and carry extras so it doesn't really affect me much. Really though, I focus more on building towards MST defense, Megid immunity is something few class+race combos can claim.

[SolomonGrundy]

Evasion tends to be great when used with ranged weapons, as there are no gun "combos" every shot begins a new cycle.

[Dymalos]

A Newman GT will functionally have about the same EVP as a Beast, the higher defense on Beasts actually allows them to equip high level Tenora far earlier than a Newman. Now granted that's contingent on affording that armor, but on PS2/PC I don't think it'd be a problem. The problem with Evasion in general, however, is that it is completly unreliable. The best solution to damage in general is to carry around a 6* (or 7* if you need the A Slots) line shield keyed to each element. I do this on Xbox 360, and it wasn't too expensive as many of the elements can be bought off the rack at NPC stores with decent percents, the benefit is that even a percent in the mid 20's when combined with a Mega / Rainbow unit is functionally equivalent to shaving off 50% of the damage you take from an enemy or spell of the same element. I know that it doesn't make numerical sense that 24% would halve any incoming damage of that element, nonetheless it is true.

[CyarVictor]

A good combo as a evasion based newman is to have a good % armor for enemies of that area and good evasion cause if you do get hit, not much damage to you even if it has a crappy def stat. I was on Desert Terror S yesterday and got caught in 2 Bil De Vear tornados due to server issues, how everyone sees different things at times. I deflected every hit till the end where I got two hits. My cast protrancer buddy who has class 10 and is the same level as me, got hit for 200-300 damage where i got hit for only 114. The thing was that he is wearing sori-senba with mega / wall and i had the Rabol giga with 26% ground element.

If you are a melee fighter, you don't want evasion since it causes you miss out on hits and interrupt PA's. As a ranger, it usually is whatever you need since you can stay out of the mix. As a techer, though, I prefer high evasion cause some dipsh*t doesn't know how to use armor and healing items who is across the field soloing, and i have to run through Bil De Vears and Vanda Merchas(or equally hard hitting enemies).

[Tra]

On 2007-02-16 08:00, CyarVictor wrote:
A good combo as a evasion based newman is to have a good % armor for enemies of that area and good evasion cause if you do get hit, not much damage to you even if it has a crappy def stat. I was on Desert Terror S yesterday and got caught in 2 Bil De Vear tornados due to server issues, how everyone sees different things at times. I deflected every hit till the end where I got two hits. My cast protrancer buddy who has class 10 and is the same level as me, got hit for 200-300 damage where i got hit for only 114. The thing was that he is wearing sori-senba with mega / wall and i had the Rabol giga with 26% ground element.

If you are a melee fighter, you don't want evasion since it causes you miss out on hits and interrupt PA's. As a ranger, it usually is whatever you need since you can stay out of the mix. As a techer, though, I prefer high evasion cause some dipsh*t doesn't know how to use armor and healing items who is across the field soloing, and i have to run through Bil De Vears and Vanda Merchas(or equally hard hitting enemies).



You do realize that this applies to every class right? lol Evasion has nothing to do with it.

[CyarVictor]

True

[Samaine]

Yes

[CelestialBlade]

I guess I should explain my interest in an Evasion build....I do understand it isn't playing by the numbers, and I also understand that it's certainly not as reliable as Defense. But it's also a lot more exciting to me, and I've already got a tank of a Fortefighter. Sori-senba, high DFP, working on building his MST, you know the drill. I wanted to do something completely different for my Guntecher, and seeing how she's always ranged, why not make her Evasion based for some variety? I say it's more exciting for the same reason I love missions stuffed with monsters constantly throwing Megid at you--it keeps you on your toes and it makes it seem so much more realistic. Gives you the feeling that you really are running around a deadly place with ferocious creatures that want to tear you the fuck apart. It's also a form of training for me. I know I can render most attacks directed at me useless, but damn it's made me good at manually dodging attacks. That's something you don't find too often anymore, like when people insist on continuing to attack De Ragan while they're engulfed in a freaking firestorm.

Additionally, I had a lot of success in PSO with an Evasion-based HUnewearl. Even in Ultimate runs I dodged nearly everything, and thus far in PSU, almost nothing hits me in C-rank missions and few things in B-rank. It was fun and it was something different (as I realized in PSO when everyone's all HOLY GOD YOU EVADE EVERYTHING).

But thanks for the ideas thrown out here. For now I'm just trying to devise a way that I can get a decent Tenora armor without having to wait until level 70 for it.