I'm going for gold, and I need your help!

[VeJi]

Hello fellow Phantasy Star fans! I am VeJi and I am new to the forums. The first article of business I'd like to attend to is to announce that this game is truly a fun experience. Its multiplayer capabilities are what I love most (and of course, rare items, for I am a true treasure hunter and character perfectionist at heart.) Phantasy Star Universe is, in my opinion, a horrible continuation from the solid gold that was Phantasy Star Online episodes I and II. This game is the best adaptation of my original beloved series, and I'm having a lot of fun at the moment. What I'm attempting to do with this thread is to collect information to proactively reach towards building the perfect character for me.

The class of my main character is a Fonewm (As it has always been from way back when), and my goal is to make the most powerful character, from a technique attack standpoint, that I can. What I've done thus far to accomplish this follows:

-Consumed the maximum 80 Mind Materials

-Built a 100 level Mag, with all 100 levels delved into the Mind compartment

In addition to this, I've been pursuing items I believe are going to help accomplish the task of building the most powerful Force from a technique standpoint. I have thus far only found one such item, with that being a Divine/Mind. I will constantly update this OP with the items my character is wearing, and will hopefully get much help from readers such as yourself as to what I should be striving to retrieve, from a strictly technical standpoint (To fit my desires.)

Weapon: RiskLoneos+10, 0/39/35/0/16, Risk Lv 2, Say Good-bye
Armor: Ancient Robe, 4 Slots
Slot 1: Divine/Mind
Slot 2: Divine/Mind
Slot 3: Divine/Mind
Slot 4: All Resist Lv 4
Mag: Niid, 0/0/0/100, PB Flozir, Nature Cautious

My weapon is not bad, but definitely fairly poor for my goals. I need help discovering a not-so-unobtainable weapon for my Fonewm (Meaning something that isn't Psycho Wand, if that were the best for me) for the time being that would outclass the weapon I have now. I also need help figuring out what the most important stats I should be looking for in the weapon should be (Among the enemy-boosts, hit percentage, Elements, and Photon Arts.)

As far as Armor and Slot-usages go, I have little clue what the best possible armor would be, and also that I believe I'm looking to obtain 4 Divine/Minds. It is important to note that I have Hero/Minds, but would rather have Master/Guards for the time being to help build my character to level 100.

Any discrepancies in my line of beliefs should immediately be chastised, because I know some there is to know, but the game is still new to me, so any lessons to be learned are very much appreciated.

Another thing: My initial goal is to just maximize my Force's MST. This is to keep it simple. Later on, I plan to possibly lower the MST in favor of defense or evasion if my Force is doing an amount of damage that wouldn't mind being lowered if defense or evasion would help keep the damage churning.

Any other questions, please ask! I am only on level 77, so I know very little, and could use all the help I know some of you possess.

Thanks for all the help.

-VeJi

[Opodomus]

I would opt for only one Divine/Mind and have PA Compress, Tech Save lvl 3, and PP Regen lvl 5 as the other slots to maximize Tech spam.

Also, a really good simple and easily obtainable armor/weapon set is the pizza box and eaten pizza. They are sold at the Pizza shop, which is a rare room in Arca Plant or Dark Shrine. I'm using a regular pizza on hard mode right now and it's a bit hard to hit even with 44 hit bonus so most likely for SH you won't use it to attack at all but would just use techs. The reason it's a good combo is because even though base stats are low, the weapon can be ground 70x and the armor can be ground 99x and the set bonus is 50 MST. In case you don't know, a set bonus is a hidden bonus you get for having both items in the set equipped.

[VeJi]

PP Regen Lv 5? Can that stack with my character's built-in PP Regeneration? Additionally, would the Compress PA be necessary given I'm not going to be attacking much in Super Hard mode?

I believe that I'm going to worry less about the amount of PP I have, and focus more on the damage my techniques produce. Having 10 Difluids, 10 Trifluids, and an already great PP Regeneration through any given run helps this fact. I may later focus on less reliance on fluids, but there is little need in my eyes at the moment.

The Pizza Box Combo is a great idea, and one I will look to get when I run into the Pizza Shop.

Thanks for the input. :)

[lavisblade]

If you aren't going to attack, then Compress PA would be essentially useless...

PP Regen does stack, though not with other PP Regen units.

Tech Save would be helpful as well, but is 3 the max level?

[Opodomus]

Compress PA works on techniques also. I have not tested this personally but I have read many, many posts testifying this to be true. So if you ever plan on using charged techniques you want it.

However if all you care about is max damage then go four Divine/Minds.

[VeJi]

Tech Save Lv 3 appears to be the highest. It also appears to be plenty helpful to your average Force, but I'm not attempting to build an average force. I'm a going for strict MST, then divvying up excess MST (as deemed from testing the maximum MST) among other traits to be determined at a later avenue.

With that said, Divine/MInd seems to be the only option. However, I still like to understand other items and what their possible effects could do if and when I reach max MST, and find a need.

Thanks for the information.

[VeJi]

Compress PA works on techniques also. I have not tested this personally but I have read many, many posts testifying this to be true. So if you ever plan on using charged techniques you want it.

However if all you care about is max damage then go four Divine/Minds.

Would a single Divine/Mind do more for my technique attack than a Compress PA? If it's true that techniques are boosted, I'm interested in how much.

Thanks for the insight, again.

[leviayurashyguy]

if have a sky survey, you don't need eaten pizza. if you plan to use a slicer most of the time (less MST overall) then you need a 100 HIT mag for normal mobs because with slicer low ATA on top of the fact that FOnewms can't aim worth a damn, you will missing quite often on non-boss enemies

Rods yield the most MST. the top three in terms of MST are the Psycho Wand, White Disaster, and Kerykeion. coincidentally, they are in order of decreasing rarity. if you just plan to tech spam, you don't need to worry about the %', elements, and PA on the weapon.

its just my opinion but i find PP recov wonderful. sure you can use fluids but who wants to dedicate a slot to Fluids on your already restricted Action Pallette

EDIT: from experience tho i may just be crazy, Compress PA affects tech charge but in most cases you would want to use the non-Ra versions of techs to deal damage so i would use D/M instead and use that Compress PA on a HU or RA.

[VeJi]

if have a sky survey, you don't need eaten pizza. if you plan to use a slicer most of the time (less MST overall) then you need a 100 HIT mag for normal mobs because with slicer low ATA on top of the fact that FOnewms can't aim worth a damn, you will missing quite often on non-boss enemies

Rods yield the most MST. the top three in terms of MST are the Psycho Wand, White Disaster, and Kerykeion. coincidentally, they are in order of decreasing rarity. if you just plan to tech spam, you don't need to worry about the %', elements, and PA on the weapon.

its just my opinion but i find PP recov wonderful. sure you can use fluids but who wants to dedicate a slot to Fluids on your already restricted Action Pallette

EDIT: from experience tho i may just be crazy, Compress PA affects tech charge but in most cases you would want to use the non-Ra versions of techs to deal damage so i would use D/M instead and use that Compress PA on a HU or RA.

Ah, so Compress PA may only affect "Rafoie" as it may be. That's useful information. In rooms with many tiny enemies, such as bats, I do use the charged Foie, so this is something to consider and test.

The Fluid-usage hasn't been a problem, but the slot it uses may be. That is definitely considerable, though I never have Difluid and Trifulid both slotted at once. In other words, can I make my guy regenerative enough to never or rarely have to fluid my guy?

So it appears I'm striving for a Psycho Wand, and it's helpful to know that I'm not looking for a 1 in a billion super teched out Psycho Wand with a level 5 Element and super PA (Though I wouldn't mind receiving one of course. :))

Keep the information flowing, I am learning at breakneck speed, the most I could ask for.

[leviayurashyguy]

you can also quickly access your fluids by holding L when you press Start, but you can't move and FOnewms are too squishy

PP recovs don't stack with each other, only with natural regen. Recov 5 (the max) regens 5 pp every 5 secs

and don't get it twisted, Psycho Wands are still incredibly rare and from my experiences, no one is to trade let alone tell you they have one =(

[Opodomus]

I did the math, he's right about not needing the eaten pizza. Even with the higher grind limit and the set bonus it can't match a fully ground sky survey.

Keep in mind that a lower MST weapon with 120% to a specific tech damage can be better than a Psycho Wand (and far easier to obtain). For techniques:

Damage = (Character MST * Shifta Bonus + Weapon MST + MAG MST + Total Armor Unit MST + Set Bonus) * Class Bonus * Weapon Bonus * Spell Power * (100 - Resistance * Zalure Effect) / 100 / 5

FOnewm max MST is 484 and you have 80 mind material for 564. Shifta bonus is 130%, so you're up to 733. Add 100 from Mag and you have 833. Add 4x Divine Mind and you have 933.

933 + Psycho Wand (533 fully ground) = 1466
933 + Diopside, a six star wand (283 fully ground) = 1216 BUT add 20% of that again when using foie/rafoie for an effective 1459, almost the same as Psycho Wand
933 + Alice Olivia, a 7 star wand (371 fully ground) = 1304 BUT add 20% of that again when using barta/rabarta for an effective 1564, almost 100 more than Psycho Wand

[VeJi]

Extremely informative. Thank you! Just a few simple questions:

How do you know if a weapon has a tech boost stat (or obtain one for a weapon?) And can the Psycho Wand itself receive such bonuses to any technique, or are boosts weapon-dependant?

[Cruciarius]

Wands state right on them what tech boost they give, at the bottom of page 1 of the item info.

[VeJi]

Wands state right on them what tech boost they give, at the bottom of page 1 of the item info.

Are you speaking of the 2-letter boxes, or am I way off-base?

Edit: I was looking at a slicer. Only wands give tech boosts?

[leviayurashyguy]

wands will say what tech they boost and by how much. pretty much weapon dependent

you shouldn't be too pressed on wands tho, rods out class them in most cases (except PA's i think magical sign out DPS's rodeo drive). the wand Opodomus mentioned, Alice Olivia, is the only 7* wand that gets a 20% bonus, the other 7*'s get 10% and affect techs only effective in 1 stage

also FYI, Psycho Wand is considered a rod and doesn't get a tech bonus

[VeJi]

wands will say what tech they boost and by how much. pretty much weapon dependent

you shouldn't be too pressed on wands tho, rods out class them in most cases (except PA's i think magical sign out DPS's rodeo drive). the wand Opodomus mentioned, Alice Olivia, is the only 7* wand that gets a 20% bonus, the other 7*'s get 10% and affect techs only effective in 1 stage

also FYI, Psycho Wand is considered a rod and doesn't get a tech bonus

Pretty much sums up what I was missing. Thank you.