Killer Shot - Rifle Ult. PA Questions

[Neoptolemus]

I've been playing with my Killer Shot in Groves lately, and have some questions about it:

1) What stat. affects the instant kill of the enemy? Do any player stats affect it, or is it all based off of the enemy stats?

2) Why is it that the robots are more apt to being instant killed?

3) What happens when it reaches lvl 11? lvl 21? Does it affect the chance percentage of getting an instant kill, or does it just do more damage?

4) With the PP cost of it, do you find it useful, or do you find it better to just use an elemental bullet and use less PP?

5) Besides robotic enemies, which other ones are more likely to be instant killed? Which are least likely?

[Jey]

On 2007-04-24 13:46, Neoptolemus wrote:
I've been playing with my Killer Shot in Groves lately, and have some questions about it:

1) What stat. affects the instant kill of the enemy? Do any player stats affect it, or is it all based off of the enemy stats?

2) Why is it that the robots are more apt to being instant killed?

3) What happens when it reaches lvl 11? lvl 21? Does it affect the chance percentage of getting an instant kill, or does it just do more damage?

4) With the PP cost of it, do you find it useful, or do you find it better to just use an elemental bullet and use less PP?

5) Besides robotic enemies, which other ones are more likely to be instant killed? Which are least likely?



1) It's based solely on the enemies' STA stat (i.e. their endurance), pretty much independent of enemy level. Generally most enemies start at STA 20 (like Vahra and Koltova size things). Players start at STA 10, which is why we get so easily knocked-out with Megid... even a lv80 player at HIVE C.

2) Robots have 70% base STA, the lowest amount possible, so the status effects land on them at the fastest rate, including the already-low rate of Incapacitate.

3) Increases the chance by some unknown, very small number. Killshot lv1 side by side to lv11 and lv21 there is really very little difference when all 3 are shooting at robots.

4) It's farking awesome in robot-heavy levels like Tunnel Recapture, Grove of Fanatics, Forest Infiltration, Train Rescue, Endrum Remnants, etc. Even one gunner equipped with Killshot and enough rifles can cut down a robot-heavy Forest Infiltration S2 run from 30+ minutes to 17 or so (as it happened when we did it with a gunnerless-party... then I changed to fortegunner in disgust).

[Tykwa]

Umm, How do you earn the points to buy(trade) these PA'S?
(noobie http://www.pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_razz.gif)

[Neoptolemus]

Great, thanks for the info. I have this bullet at lvl 10, and have been very slow in leveling it up (I first got it on the day it was released). As most of my other bullets are at lvl 28 or higher (maxed), I thought I should give it a try again. It just gets soooooo costly to level it up. I can't even imagine what it will be like getting it from 24ish to 30, or even 31 to 40 in the expansion.

[Kaydin]

On 2007-04-24 14:05, Tykwa wrote:
Umm, How do you earn the points to buy(trade) these PA'S?
(noobie http://www.pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_razz.gif)


You have to earn PA Fragments. You get these by getting an S-rank grade in an S-rank or S2-rank mission.

S-rank missions will give you 1 PA Frag.
S2-rank missions will give you 2 PA Frags.

Welcome to PSU, by the way. ;D



<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Kaydin on 2007-04-24 14:11 ]</font>

[Tykwa]

Ahh, Thank you Kaydin, Looks like I won't be getting this PA in a while.

[Pillan]

Bullets actually level a lot faster at 21+ than they do from 15-21. It's really not that bad once you get past that jump.

Also I'd like to add small enemies (Pannon, Polty, Jaggo, Rappy, Ageeta, etc.) and flying enemies (Shangreece and Zoona) to the list of effective enemies. It was also decent on Mizura, but now that their HP is cut in half, burn is clearly better.

However, it's not very good against anything besides the robots mentioned earlier at incapacitate 2. At 3 it hits the others decently. I wouldn't recommend trying it on something like a Vahra until 21+. Even then, opposite element or burn spam can probably kill it faster.

[Neoptolemus]

Wait, they adjusted the HP on the Mizura? Gosh, I am so out of the loop! I think I am the only one that actually prefered the bees over most other enemies. They were the one way I could lvl up my bullets quickly, since I could drain a whole gun with just a handful of them.

[Itsuki]

On 2007-04-24 14:16, Pillan wrote:
Bullets actually level a lot faster at 21+ than they do from 15-21. It's really not that bad once you get past that jump.

Also I'd like to add small enemies (Pannon, Polty, Jaggo, Rappy, Ageeta, etc.) and flying enemies (Shangreece and Zoona) to the list of effective enemies. It was also decent on Mizura, but now that their HP is cut in half, burn is clearly better.

However, it's not very good against anything besides the robots mentioned earlier at incapacitate 2. At 3 it hits the others decently. I wouldn't recommend trying it on something like a Vahra until 21+. Even then, opposite element or burn spam can probably kill it faster.


Lets list some STA values for comparison sake (keep in mind, STA doesn't change based on level, so a C-rank takes as many hits to work as an S-rank):
Robots: 14 sta
Small monsters: 14 sta
Flying and normal sized mobs: 20sta
(Shagreece and vahra have the same sta... but keep in mind, the shield status on monsters can give them as much as 30 more sta).
Large monsters: 30sta

Its hard to say how sta works exactly... I could throw out some theories, but I don't know how likely they'd be. But basically, that 20sta is giving it double the resistance.

So if it takes like 7 hits to kill a small/robot. Then it may take 15 for a vahra. But in the time it takes to apply to the vahra, you could very well just apply virus and kill it. Of course a shield vahra has 50+sta, and is effectively never going to die from it.

[Pillan]

Really? From personal experience, I've seen it hit those flying monsters far more often than a Vahra, which gets hit significantly more than a Koltova or any other 4-legged animal. I suppose it could be just chance since you don't fight Zoona or Shagreece very often.

And I know large mobs have some variance between STA values. Try using burn 4 on a Junsugun and compare that to a Kog Nadd. I'm sure the Kog will get hit noticeably more often.

Oh. I almost forgot about Gohmon. Just from the difference in silence landing between Vahra and Gohmon, you can't begin to argue that those 2 have the same STA value.

There's definitely a lot more monster STA variance than you mentioned.

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Pillan on 2007-04-24 14:48 ]</font>

[Itsuki]

On 2007-04-24 14:41, Pillan wrote:
Really? From personal experience, I've seen it hit those flying monsters far more often than a Vahra, which gets hit significantly more than a Koltova or any other 4-legged animal. I suppose it could be just chance since you don't fight Zoona or Shagreece very often.

And I know large mobs have some variance between STA values. Try using burn 4 on a Junsugun and compare that to a Kog Nadd. I'm sure the Kog will get hit noticeably more often.


There are a few exceptions. Junsugun is the only large monster I can name that has more than normal (40 instead of 30). Gohmon is the only medium monster I can think of that has more than normal (24 instead of 20). Ageeta is the only small monster I can think of that has more than more than normal (16 instead of 14).

EDIT: Keep in mind, the buffs on a monster sometimes confuse the values. Even a sword or wand buff on a monster will add to its STA. A significant number of gohmon have atleast one buff (and thus, increased STA). That may make it seem like they have even more sta than normal.

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Itsuki-chan on 2007-04-24 14:53 ]</font>

[Pillan]

Thanks for clearing that up. The shangreece thing was apparently just do to chance.

But, yeah, insanely high HP and normal STA or low STA are the obvious conditions where Killer Shot shines. It's also fun for the "WTF?" effect when you get a 1 shot kill.

[Soukosa]

On 2007-04-24 14:49, Itsuki-chan wrote:
There are a few exceptions. Junsugun is the only large monster I can name that has more than normal (40 instead of 30). Gohmon is the only medium monster I can think of that has more than normal (24 instead of 20). Ageeta is the only small monster I can think of that has more than more than normal (16 instead of 14)

Gaozoran, the armed servants, and Bul Buna all have 24 STA and are medium. Just to add that in http://www.pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_razz.gif ST needs more consistancy with things ;x

[Jey]

Can you even land status effects on Jusnaguns outside of traps? n.n;;;;; I've never, ever been able to, not even with SE4s. 40 STA bites.

Don't bother using Killshot on anything but 14STA mobs. Try OHKO'ing Go-Vahra and more often than not you'll end up emptying an entire rifle and overkilling them.

[SolomonGrundy]

how about mini bosses? I've set the kubijar..whatever it's name is on fire quite a few times.

[Jey]

Kagajibari has 30STA, supposedly. So do Grinna Betes, Gol Dova etc. Jusnaguns just cheat.

[Pillan]

On 2007-04-24 18:55, Jey wrote:
Can you even land status effects on Jusnaguns outside of traps? n.n;;;;; I've never, ever been able to, not even with SE4s. 40 STA bites.


To my knowledge, burn is the only SE 4 that works, but burn lands more often than the other effects in general.

[DemonCloak]

Keep in mind, some things are totally immune to certain status effects, I think the same thing applies to incapacitate.

[Soukosa]

Yep. Some things are down to the Down SE that Killer Shot inflicts. Likely anything with 40+ STA will be a pain to inflict SEs on. A little higher and they're virtually immune to SEs outside of perfect inflictions (i.e. traps and the grenade ult PA).

Chart (http://psu.amesani.org/project/enemy/status.php) listing what SEs work on what according to the bible. Do note that ST changed some things since then so some things may be off. *needs to update Carriguine because of that*

[Alpha-Hunter]

Man, this bullet is a PP hog! I swear I use up 3 yohmei rifles in a few mins and i'll only kill a few bots!!!

[Jey]

Yeah, it can be that way.

Even under ideal conditions (lv21+ skill with high acc vs. tankbots) I'd say the chance to OHKO is around 15%. My average last time I counted was about 8 shots a bot.

That's why I always carry 10 Falgohohs http://www.pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif

[SolomonGrundy]

speaking of andriods, how hard are the andriods in Endrum to use killer shot on? you know, the one's with rifles that shifta, and resta?

Also, how about the claw and shotgun andriods in Moatoob?

Final quesiton: I notice the mages in Temple of fanatics were easy to set on fite, but tough to silence? I sta variable?

[Jey]

They're all Casts, not robots (I guess there's a slight... technical difference) so if you believe the Perfect Bible then they're about as easy to killshot as your typical Vahra. But they have normal defense, so who cares? The reason you use killshot is for mobs with high defense and/or hp but low stamina.

The newmans have slightly higher stamina. Personally it's about as hard for me to burn them as to confuse them, so I don't know about status resistances.

[Pillan]

The androids you mentioned are in the general 20 STA medium-enemy group that was mentioned earlier.

I think the guys in the temple were mentioned to have slightly higher STA. Given that Gohmon and Gauzoran also have a slightly higher STA, I'd assume that everyone noticed this was to make them more annoying technique casters. The reason burn hits them more often is because burn hits enemies more often in general. (Burn, poison, and shock seem significantly easier to land and both burn and poison can hit subbosses at level 3 while the other effects require level 4. I would assume shock could land at 3 if all subbosses weren't immune to it...)