Regarding forces and other stuff

[pso123hrf]

Hello, I have given the force class a little bit of thought after reading the argument about how efficient forces are compared to hunters. No I don't want an explanation of how good or bad they are, I'm still going to transfer my force to PSP2. I have a series of questions to ask about forces and other force related questions.

1. How hard is it to find a wand/rod/TCSM/RCSM with a good element percentage?

2. Do I get increased elemental bonuses if I have (for example), a wand with 15% lightning, and I have zonde and razonde assigned to either square or triangle. Would I get an extra boost?

3. Should I equip a melee weapon when playing in any scenario (offline, online, etc)? If anything, I might use a claw or a dagger since they attack fast and a TCSM for buffs/debuffs/heal. How effective would it be?

4. Are rods, bows, and cards useful at all for a female newman force?

5. Someone posted a link that gave all class related bonuses. If I level my force class to 30, can the bonuses carry over if I switch to a hunter (assuming I can equip them)?

6. In the class bonuses, there were a few that said 'lower casting time with fire/earth/lightning/etc)'. Are these worth using at all? Should I only use the elements I need for missions with the bonuses?

7. Do the light and dark elemental series suck in this game? How is grants in PSP2?

8. Can someone post the link to the class bonuses? :P

9. Is the RCSM + wand combo effective like it was in PSP1?

Thank you for answering my questions in advance. :3

[THOTH]

1. How hard is it to find a wand/rod/TCSM/RCSM with a good element percentage?
Bout the same as PSP I reckon.

2. Do I get increased elemental bonuses if I have (for example), a wand with 15% lightning, and I have zonde and razonde assigned to either square or triangle. Would I get an extra boost?
Yes

3. Should I equip a melee weapon when playing in any scenario (offline, online, etc)? If anything, I might use a claw or a dagger since they attack fast and a TCSM for buffs/debuffs/heal. How effective would it be?
Depends on your race. This is actively being duked out in the "Newmans suck" topic...but for newmans you'd be better off using a whip as they build PP faster. There's no PP recovery items, you gain PP by building chains, which also makes your techs stronger. Whips build TP fast, but you may want to have a basic weapon like twin daggers to build chains with no intent of damaging with them...but the techs after will HURT.

4. Are rods, bows, and cards useful at all for a female newman force?
Rods depend on your play style... bows are good to have around for tech resistant enemies, cards are good for tech resistant enemies AND building chains because they hit twice. Cards are probably the most useful of what you listed.

5. Someone posted a link that gave all class related bonuses. If I level my force class to 30, can the bonuses carry over if I switch to a hunter (assuming I can equip them)?

You get 8 ability points to spend. Most abilities cost 1 point, some cost 4. You'd want to probably spend about 3 points to boost TP if you plan on being a hunter.

6. In the class bonuses, there were a few that said 'lower casting time with fire/earth/lightning/etc)'. Are these worth using at all? Should I only use the elements I need for missions with the bonuses?

Your call. The final ability for mastering a class is 4 points, and increases the rate of rare weapon drops. If you want that (most do) you get 4 points to work with. Faster casting times take 2 points, and you gotta spend them on each element you plan to work with....totally your call dude.



7. Do the light and dark elemental series suck in this game? How is grants in PSP2?
They've added spells for light and dark to make them a little more balanced. Grants and megid are basically between a basic tech, like foie and an advanced tech like gifoie in terms of damage, but their PP use reflects that and they are still bound to element strengths and weaknesses.

8. Can someone post the link to the class bonuses? :P
Don't got it off hand...sorrrry.

9. Is the RCSM + wand combo effective like it was in PSP1?
Less effective. RCSM uses ATA as the main calculating damage in PSP2...granted newman females don't make them worthless. RCSM doesn't drain PP, so if you want to add damage but not drain from teching, it may be a good call. I'd say "wand+card" is the new combo you'd want to do, because that way you can build chains with cards, throw in a basic tech, end with a powerful advanced one.


Thank you for answering my questions in advance. :3

[Ceresa]

1. Define "Good" A 50% halarod is trivial. A 30% Caduceus is easier still. A good % (much less a full set) of Gravideon/Psychowand/any13star is a lot of work.

2. If you mean like in PSU where adding 4 lightning techs to a rod gives you 12%, then no.

3. A light element saber with Rising Strike is the best thing a force can use on Chaos Sorcerer, Spears are good for the other tech resistant enemies due to high ATA, weapon ATA, and PAs.

4. Rods are much better for PP efficiency then wands. I don't think Force can even get 3 hits to card, but not 100% on that. Really if you have a free hand, learn to use shield, a well-timed block for 0 pp is so much better then dodge roll.

5. Yes, there isn't anything force gets that you will want to use on another type though, other then generic stuff like exp boost and rare item boost that all types gets.

6. They suck. I take one for the boss of the mission I'm facing and that's it. Full rod combo of Rabarta (like the slowest possible spell) went from 6 seconds to 5. For the stuff you would actually use, Gibarta went from a little over 4 seconds, to a little under 4 seconds on a full rod combo.

7. Grants is super short range, almost every dark enemy has a form of knockback...DamGrants is nice damage but it rapes your pp. Pick your poison. Ramegid is good, rest of dark techs suck.

8. http://spoiler.sakura.ne.jp/srv/psp2/E382A2E38393E383AAE38386E382A3E382ABE382B9E382BFE3 839EE382A4E382BA.html

9. No. Shadoogs are primarily ATA, and have crap ATA. Forces won't hit much with them, and won't hit hard. The 5 way shots have been nerfed to 3 way shots every 3 seconds as well.

[RemiusTA]

1. How hard is it to find a wand/rod/TCSM/RCSM with a good element percentage?

About as hard as it is to find a striking weapon the same, imo.



2. Do I get increased elemental bonuses if I have (for example), a wand with 15% lightning, and I have zonde and razonde assigned to either square or triangle. Would I get an extra boost?Nope. Its set on the weapon. I dont believe opposite elements are affected, but regardless no you cant change it.



3. Should I equip a melee weapon when playing in any scenario (offline, online, etc)? If anything, I might use a claw or a dagger since they attack fast and a TCSM for buffs/debuffs/heal. How effective would it be?To be truthful, for a good half of the storymode i needed nothing but technics, but as you get farther in, the game becomes extremely difficult using technics alone. Unless you had another character feeding you higher level techs, you'll likely be better off using striking weapons anyway. My primary weapons as a force are Wands, Rods, Shields, Cards, and Axes. And if your asking why axes, in situations that give technics hard problems (you know, the fast agile annoying mother fuckers), a spinning axe to the face will kill them far more efficiently.

Multimode? Take a striking weapon. Technic spam alone will likely get you killed.



4. Are rods, bows, and cards useful at all for a female newman force?Rods do heavy damage with technics, but are pretty slow with some spells. You have to judge when wands are simply better than rods, because the casting time on some spells + rods will either equate to a complete miss or getting killed.

Cards do horrible damage on my force, but they give you a nice source of chain building with low PP cost and good distance. I perfer them over handguns while using wands, makes life very easy on most enemies. They're my new best friend, actually.


5. Someone posted a link that gave all class related bonuses. If I level my force class to 30, can the bonuses carry over if I switch to a hunter (assuming I can equip them)?all type abilities carry over



6. In the class bonuses, there were a few that said 'lower casting time with fire/earth/lightning/etc)'. Are these worth using at all? Should I only use the elements I need for missions with the bonuses?It really depends. I personally am not high enough to have anything but the Resta one, but i dont really use it because the points are better allocated. Im sure the ones for lightning/ice/earth would increase your offense and survivablity by a very good margin though, espically since Ice and Lightning have good technics but HORRIBLE casting time. Ice sucks unless Barta is the chain finisher, and the only reason Lightning is worth something is because Gizonde rapes everything on this game.



7. Do the light and dark elemental series suck in this game? How is grants in PSP2?Grants and Damgrants to amazing damage imo. In terms of damaging potental Damgrants is up there with Nosdiga, and that counts double vs. Dark enemies. Grants does good damage, is very fast, and has a good radius but a short distance which is good for the annoying ones that move alot. But Megid and its class of technics still suck to me. Ramegid and Megid are the only useful ones, and as you know Megid doesnt incapacitate anymore. At higher levels of course they get alot better.

Also a little fun fact, Nosmegid and Noszonde suck ass in this game. They have very high damage modifiers but for some reason cant finish chains no matter what button you assign them to, so they instantly become the weakest technics you'll ever encounter.



8. Can someone post the link to the class bonuses? :P
http://psp2.psupedia.info/Type_abilities


9. Is the RCSM + wand combo effective like it was in PSP1?Not as effective, no. With the inclusion of comboing on wands and rods, RCSMs are now the slowest offensive technic weapon. Because they're slower than wands, there is no point in using them for technic chains. They're weaker also, and therefore are unfit in finishing chains. They may be useful as healers or de/buffers, but in my opinion you're better off with a shield or secondhand weapon. I use them perodically, though, yeah.


edit: oops, you ment shadoogs?

Uh, they can be useful, but your better off with something else. It'll be like running around with an NPC character for chains; useful but not entirely reliable. Regardless of how you use them, you wont be using them for damage, that is if you can pull anything but a zero or 12 from them. They're only useful on a force as a source of chain numbers.