A crutch or a blessing from... well....

[Saison]

During the early days of leveling up my HUmar, I came across a Hell Raygun, something I normally would have sold or merely left as is? but being my HUmar had a still young ranger (20 level difference) to look after, I did an item transfer and gave my ranger the hand-me-down.

Even as a mere urchin, I stacked ****/Arms upon this blossoming ranger so that it could use this weapon? but it was only after flying through each stage without a scratch that I noticed the run desensitized me to how unready my ranger was for each boss. I found myself having to do solo runs under multiplayer to compensate for in insufficient level.

Now? are Hell weapons, especially ones with long ranged capacities or multi-enemy targeting, too much of a crutch or are they an ?honorable? and legit way to go?

[Hiirigazawa]

They're legit, but I wouldn't rely on them too much. Since the Hell element isn't as good as you'd think. Just get him a good rifle and shoot away.

[VulpesMundi]

It's a good crutch when you're soloing all the way through Very-Hard mode. A weak ATP character (any class) can do wonders with a Hell weapon, particularly a Handgun or Rifle since they have decent ATA and good range to keep you safe. If you're playing in a team, or when you reach Ultimate, it's better to switch to a Demon's weapon, as the Hell will almost never hit. A Demon's has almost as high an effectiveness rate in Ultimate as any other difficulty, and cutting an enemy's HP to 1/4 can turn them into Jell-o in a big hurry, particularly if a character can't do much damage with standard attacks. There's no shame in using special attacks, that's what they're there for. Just be wary of teammates, if you're playing with other people, and allow them to get their licks in as well.

[KendraKirai]

Yeah, even on Very Hard, I'm using my Varista far more often than I'm using my Hell Raygun or by Hell Beam, simply because they don't hit often enough. I'm taking punishment I'd normally be postponing by whacking them with my Varista or even my new Justice.

Still can't get to ruins 3 on very hard tho...maybe a Hell Launcher, or Hell Vulcan...

[VulpesMundi]

Shotgun, mechgun, and slicer-class weapons are kinda bad when it comes to these things. They act a little differently than other weapons. Both a shotgun and slicer-class special attack has 1/5 the effectiveness (since they both can hit up to five targets), and a mechgun-class has 1/3 the effectiveness (since it has three shots per burst) than other weapons. This is proven by using an HP steal, TP steal, or EXP steal special attack. For example: A Gush Gladius can steal a maximum of 120 HP from one critter. A Gush Arms can only steal a maximum of 24 HP per hit, but since there's five bullets you can technically still steal the maximum 120 HP (assuming every bullet hits).

[KendraKirai]

Hmmm, Vulpis, does ATA play any part in whether a special such as Hell kicks in? If so, perhaps I should load up with ***/Arms when I take out my Hell Beam....

[Saison]

My ranger is stacked on ***/Arms and it would be rare when it would miss... and if it did, I'll load one normal hit in to slow them down, giving time to get in another special attack which lands perfectly.

[VulpesMundi]

In my experience, ATA doesn't effect whether or not a special attack will take effect. The special attack itself can hit the target (in which the ATA is necessary), but the special still miss. This tells me that the special has an effectiveness rate (perhaps a percentage chance of success) and each critter has resistance that lowers this effectiveness rate. The thing is, different specials seem to be resisted differently. For example, the Hell type is highly resisted in Ultimate, but the Demon's type is still decently effective. So either critters resist each type differently or the effectiveness rating of each type works differently.

[Kupi]

Maybe Luck has a part in it? I don't know, don't take my word for it, it just seems like how it would be.

[fahdiz]

On 2003-01-09 13:13, Kupi wrote:
Maybe Luck has a part in it? I don't know, don't take my word for it, it just seems like how it would be.

No, Luck just gives you a better chance of scoring a critical hit. It doesn't improve your accuracy with special attacks.