GT's: When to switch from crossbows to cards?

[chibiLegolas]

As a Guntecher, I'm just love'n my crossbows at bullet 21+.
I'm finally high enough to start joining in some S rank rooms, but am starting to learn the drawbacks to the crossbow.

Yes, they're pretty strong at point blank range if you can hit a single enemy with all 3 shots. But there are certain enemies where I just can't get that close to anymore in S. So my crossbows are just then solely for SE3 on mobs.

But there are situations where the damned mobs are SE resistant (King/shield versions comes to mind), or I wanna back off a bit if they're tech spewing mobs (I'm a Caseal, so techs hurt).
So there are times I'd want to switch to cards. They only get SE2, but they have a slightly longer range, plus I don't have to worry about repositioning myself for optimum hits all the time anymore.

Any advice from fellow Cast Guntechers or fG on what element to learn for cards (they are a step down on the SE scale afterall) and when's the ideal situation to use them? Mini bosses/bosses?
At 25% element compared to crossbow's 15%, I can see they're a mob/creature specific weapon for GT/fG.

Yes, I'd always have my SE4 rifles/long bows. But I'm concearned for my offhand weapon for now. Gotta dish out the wands on S rank afterall.
http://www.pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/anime1.gif'

I've yet to check out the other S missions to see when I'd need them. But for now, I'd like to hear from other players with experience.
Thanks.



<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: chibiLegolas on 2007-03-02 11:23 ]</font>

[imfanboy]

As I said in my gunteching guide here linked here:

http://www.pso-world.com/viewtopic.php?topic=132022&forum=22&140


You should get all the elements of the cards, or at least all of them that the enemies you regularly run into are weak with. They deal IMMENSE damage (at least from a GT standpoint) once you get them to 21+, and they level close to 3-4 times as fast as the crossbows - heck, I was in an S-rank game where it was just me and a friend and I was using my fire card exclusively, and it went from 11 to THIRTEEN and got halfway to 14 in just one run.

My solo strategy is to virus my enemies with my crossbow, then wave them to death with the cards - I can deal about 750 damage a hit with 21+ cards as a newearl guntecher; of course that IS at a rather high level....

[curlack45]

Well, my lv 31 force newman could do 750's with ra-foie xd, until he got saved over =[

[Akaimizu]

That's not the point. Forces always deal insane damage with each hit, in this game. The tradeoff is that they have to stop to cast it and that their casting speed is a lot slower than bullets.

[Midicronica]

^Ouch.

Yeah, I believe using a combination of both (Xbow's and Cards) will be a good idea. I'm going to have to change my playing style a bit to make way for when I get myself a Xbow in my inventory.

[amtalx]

On 2007-03-02 11:37, curlack45 wrote:
Well, my lv 31 force newman could do 750's with ra-foie xd, until he got saved over =[



My condolences...

[Jey]

The only cards I use on a regular basis are the light-based ones for HIVE... for everything else pretty much I can use rifle or crossbow. Crossbow hits weaker, but fires faster than cards, so in my limited parsing faculties (i.e. my eyeballs) they've been doing about the same unless the mob is highly mobile and evil (like... Carriguines and Gaozoran </3)

Maybe earth cards on the super-rare occasion I run through Moonlit Beast, but on bosses I tend to use rifle or bow anyway...

[iono]

Fans are recommended for any monster that spams projectiles like barta or foie. Fans allow you to keep shooting while strafing and are probably the easiest gun to not lose a lock-on with while doing it. They're also good for enemies that strafe you constantly like most human/cast enemies do. Actually it's more like Fans are very effective on any monster that moves around sideways a lot. Fans are also good (alongside bows) for killing bugs due to their accuracy. You could have the EVP debuff on a wand in the off-hand during those missions where you'd fight bugs. Fans are not very good from short range, but you can actually still use them if you line up the shot because even without a lock-on the fan blades will still hit a target - it's just not very easy to do and Crossbow is much better at it.

Then you'd want to be using a Crossbow for enemies that try to get in your face. Strafing backwards while shooting is generally effective although you'll end up going outside their range and having the monster teleport back home. Crossbows can be effective against worms but I don't recommend it because it means getting in close, but Fans are much worse against worms. If ever get a spawn with a lot of monsters all spread out, you can use a Crossbow to great effect by spamming your status. Crossbows are usually easier to land the status effect with than Rifles or Bows, but the problem it the status effects are a bit weaker and won't land on some things. Because they shoot 3 times on potentially 3 different monsters, you should be using a Crossbow for SE instead of a Rifle whenever it's possible to do so.

It's good to see when people try to use both. ^.^