GC: I'm a force with no TP problems... hehe.

[CaArtist]

Well, first off, hi everyone on the board, I've been looking around for quite a while, but have never joined till now. You can call me CA (pronounced like "C.A")

Anyway, I played a force on Version 2 (FOnewm, RunemasterCA), and I didn't enjoy him very much, as I unfortunately was corrupted with someone most-likely hacked mind mag, and the "greedy mst monster" bug got me. My spells where too high to use at my level, and overall, I never liked the "FOPnewm" (heh.)

Anyhow, On E1&2, I've been playing a FOmar as my 2nd character (primary guy is a HUmar), and I must say, GC Forces ROCK. I notice alot of people complaining about potion cost, and about the speed at which they use their TP. I also notice a lot of negative comments on the new card weps, and TP sucking in general. Well, here's my 2 cents, as alot of you here say.

-I've had a Mahu since level 30 or 40. You couldn't seperate me from that thing. I don't know if many of you notice this, but there is an interesting plus to it's TP sucking ability. If you're close to an enemey while using the 3rd move in your card-throwing combo, all 3 shots will "hit" the enemy. Now, while it doesn't do any more DAMAGE (I don't think), doing this, you register TP recovery for all 3 card hits. With my lvl 63 FOmar, with 1100TP, I can get back 150+ TP this way (around 54 TP a card hit). Doing this, in single player, I never use potions after clearing rooms, I simple leave one enemy alive and suck off him until my hits kill him. It works VERY well.

-For those who worry about getting close to suck TP with a Card wep/Double Saber... Freezing the enemy works wonders. And, as you probably know, casting Deban on yourself, and then Jellen on the enemies can up your defense considerably. Episode 2 enemies also are kinda slow to counter-attack, so sucking TP out of one enemy, and then sniping the others around you with spells (I love these huge Open-areas!) also works REALLY well. If you circle around and hit from the side or the back, you can nomrally evade an enemy if you keep holding BACK from the enemy, so that you turn as soon as the pause is over...

-As far as card weps and dbl sabers becoming useless when ya get to ult... I can't completly back this idea up, but, from what I can tell from my humar in ult, and where his accuracy was when I started, I believe I could still utilize my card TP suck on enemies in ult. My Mag Has fairly high Mind, ATP and MST, And with Shifta and Zalure, With a few extra levels, I find myself comparable with my other chars (Ranger, Hunter, and my little brothers Ranger and Hunters).

Blah. Sorry, I'm a wordy and lengthly post-er, heh. I hope this helps a few people a bit, it should actually work for some forces having problems out there... I think http://www.pso-world.com/psoworld/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_smile.gif

[CorneliusPower]

This sounds like good news to me. I am currently playing my 3rd character lvl 37 FOnewearl, and currently using a Hildebear Cane...well I got my MINd on my SATO mag high enough to where I can finally use my TALIS/MAHU cards. Well I'm just happy to hear that these cards have some use for I only have 8 more MST till i can use my Gaurdiana staff. i will experiment with the TALIS/MAHU cards. It's good to know they have some use, I havent even tried using them yet,lol. Thanks CA for your INFO. Peace.

[SaitoH]

I have a problem with your technique. It may work offline, because you can decide to leech some tp of a few creatures, but online things are too frantic.
Your chance to actually Leech tp on Vhard and especially ultimate are so low, that you'll be lucky to hit 1 in 3. That's assuming that the enemies aren't killed, while wasting your time trying to do this. You need something with a good bonus hit % or high dex mag to make it even remotely worthwhile on ultimate, IMO.

Of course, I'm of the opinion that forces should cast spells and not melee.

^w^

[CrashCat]

I think he's saying that he uses the weapon just to suck up TP after pummeling things to death with his spells. I see no reason you can't supplement your normal spell attacking with something to get some of that precious TP back when you get low. Of course if you've got megabucks to spend on fluids, that's faster than running around trying to suck some TP back.

I'm probably barking up the wrong tree, but with my FOmarl (a whopping level 20, ugh) I run around and zalure everything and then try to pop things with my heart autogun and get some TP back. I haven't heard anyone complain yet, they're happy enough that I'm quick on the resta/reverser since I'm just taking pot shots to get my TP back. There's probably issues in later difficulties with the ATA but I imagine it's just going to be a matter of whether I really need that extra MIND on my mag or if I could substitute some more DEX instead.

I'm thinking online the card-weapon TP-steal strategy might actually work better than offline since there's more of a chance to find a distracted enemy to pop in the backside.

[Zae]

I use those cards also they work very well i love them becaause i dont have to use Fluids wich i kill everything in one hit any way but its always good to have that

[SaitoH]

I don't really understand your sentence Zae ... Takes me a good 3-5 spells to kill things, offline, in ultimate.

Leeching 1400 TP points take A FRIGGIN' long time to do with the low hit ratio. Just not worth it, IMO.

^w^

[Elusive_Llama]

I don't really understand your sentence Zae ... Takes me a good 3-5 spells to kill things, offline, in ultimate.

I don't think you were meant to. *cough*troll*cough*

[CaArtist]

Hey, CashCat, you understand me idea perfectly:) heh.

Saito, I haven't been online yet, but, from the way stats jump up on enemies in multiplayer, I assume that the Online stats and Multiplayer stats are the same (so you know, I played V1 and 2 Online extensively on Dreamcast. I even earned myselft 3 challenge weps:) )

When I plan to go online, I plan to ask people if they wouldn't mind leaving one lone enemy around for me to suck TP out of. I dunno how well this will work with GCPSO players, I guess I'll see when I get the BBA:)

The interesting thing about my FOmar is that I COULD play him as pure combat, with S/D J/Z on his side, and, at level 63, Very Hard enemies can't knock him down, and the damage they do is minimal. At times when my MST is seeming too low to play "hit with the card", and my lil bro's char is killing levt and right, I 'll use a monofluid, cast S/D/J/Z on myself and the enemies, and I can then stand toe to toe with my Caduceus or Elysion, OR Hildebear/Blues cane (I feel like such a hacker, having all those weps! but they're ALL legit, found between my lil brother and I's 6 chars:) )I prefer to go "All magic", have since Dreamcast PSO Version 1, But sometimes, the fact that my Force can do 230+damage on a Heavy Attack (not a critical) is WAY too fun:)

Anywho, that's all I have to say as far as playing advice and style goes for forces. Next post I'll have a few unit theories/Ideas that I wann discuss, but that's beyond this topics scope. Sayos!

[Munki]

There is one other problem with your theory. It won't work well for newmans. Their god awful ATA should keep them from doing this method often.

But still, I have honestly not had a huge problem with TP. When I am with my normal group, I can usually go through an entire area without running out of Trifluids. As long as I am picking up a good amount of the items nobody needs, I won't be having to front much more mesata for a fluid restock (maybe 10-20 thousand, but c'mon, what's that out of a 500,000 mesata bank?).

Besides, once you get high TP (my lv 106 FOnewearl has just under 1800 TP), a trifluid starts to go a LONG way. If I am playing by myself, I just return everytime I fill up on items. Also, using 10 Difluids everytime helps cut down on the cost... as well as my longevity in an area.

[CaArtist]

One thing I like about the Mags is that you BASICALLY just use the mag to suppliment and somewhat eleminate a classes weakness, at least for a while. If I was a Newman, I'd probably would have put more into my mags accuracy, less into my power, and kept my mind about the same (I have about 50 pow, 40 dex, and 100 Mst)

Yeah, trifluids can go a long way. My personall favorite way to use fluids is to destory a room with all the magic I can muster, and then go on a "Find a Fluid, use a fluid" scavenger hunt throught the room. Doing this, and budgeting my magic useage, I generally only have to buy 10 trifulids once every stage aree (as in, Ruins 1, Ruins 2), and I fully stock up when going aganist bosses (though I often have leftovers that carry to the next area). Instead of maxing my MST with fluids each time I use them, I just use a fluid, figure how many shots of masic I should have, and then figure the best way to kill as much as I can with that amount of TP.

[DirewolfX]

Or you use the MAG to accentuate an existing strength. I'm a FOnewearl, but I still use a MIND mag. The result: Lots of magic power, very little of anything else. This makes me very dedicated to technique use... which isn't a bad thing, since techniques are very strong.

[CaArtist]

That's why I love the mag system. It allows you to do whatever you want with your char. While giving you a virtual pet ot raise at the same time, lol.

My Philosophy is this: Im gonna have strong magic anyway. So why not make some of my weak stats strong. My mind will be strong wheither I boost it up HUGELY or not. Not to mention that Giving a star over half of the abilities of your mag is wasteful, to me, that is. I see WHY you'd like to do it, but, I've seen people who get to high levels, and then their "concentrated on JUST strength" mag is useless, because, well, they have MAX strength with it on already. Now they notice that they don't have the resta to heal themselves thanks to low MST, and that their evasion REALLY sucks. Not to mention they take too much damage, thanks to little to no defence.

Just as to avoid insulting anyone, I DO think a "centralized" mag can be very cool. I had a Panzer tail in V2 that had exactly 100 Strength, and 100 defense.... or was it just 200 strength? At any rate, it was very fun to use it to boost low level chars with. I think, in the end, owning a multitude of mags for diffrent situations makes a person an UBER PSO nut, lol. Mags allow you to completly exploit exactly what you want, so, have fun raising a myriad of them.

(of course, also, I wouldn't have been able to raise a DIWARI (the "starfighter" rare mag) if I didn't have somewhat balanced stats at 100. And since I found out about this at lvl 40 or so with my mag, which was being raised fairly even at the time, I decided to stick with it:) Not that'd I'd change his way of life now. I think having 100 mind is enough for me to be satisfied, seeing as how I can use 205+ spells almost all around already. I'm slightly over 1/4th to maximum level, (I'm 63) And I only have 5 levels of spells till I'm maxed? eeesh.)