guntecher reboot.

[SolomonGrundy]

So, I've been fooling around with guntecher on a CAST character...and they really did make it better. This has led me to a few questions and looking for some opinions as well. Feel free to chime in.

And for fun's sake, I included a poll

1. Double sabers - worth it? has anyone played around? I have been using Tornado dance with the instant 75% accuracy, and the 180% damage modifier, on bosses, and large enemies that I'd rather stun/knock over. I've now got a collection of a few 30+% nightwalkers on the cheap.

2. Rumor: crossbows shave off a small % of armor. I can test this myself by using low bullet level Dual handguns vs higher level xbow bullet against an neutral element boss, but if there is knowledge out there - SHARE

3. What are ppl using vs Mother Brain's arms? Shotgun is taking TOO LONG. Bow? Cards? Diga? Does race play into your choice?

4. Speaking of shotguns - worth using at all? I am liking the xbow/wand set up, but if there are cases where shotgunning is king

5. Onto GAM: Let's say you are sharing time with a fortegunner as your primary job. Forte gunner will definitely be raising defense (to use serafi-senba), and spears (for dumb-jarra). For guntecher, I will be raising bows...and...is there anything else critical? I was thinking sabers, since this will give me access to rising strike's second move. Other advice?

[Akaimizu]

Shotguns are very good. I especially use them on enemies with multiple target locations. Like our fire-breathing large-foe lizards in Moatoob. The double-hit properties of Shotguns really more than compensate for the Bullet resistances of many of those creatures. This is because, shotgun bullets spread and single bullets can hit multiple target points at the same time. And with 5 of them going out, you can do some major damage.

What I like about crossbows, is mainly Status Effects. They're decent travel damage, but they status effect common enemies like no other. Super fast.

Mother Brain, oddly enough, can't stand high level Ground Rifle Bullets. They ate her for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. No matter which part of the body you dealt with. This might have changed a bit given the new power of the Bow. As a Cast, I'm not sure how that balances out now. As a Human Guntecher, I've been told that I should put my efforts back into Bows again.

[Astarin]

My experience is with Human and Newman GT's, pre-supplemental update, but...

Versus Mother Brain's arms, I always used Diga with a good RCSM. I'm not sure how this fares with Casts, but given that it seemed to be one of the few cases where tech damage was highest, it might even work with them too.

What do you mean, by crossbows "shave off a small % of armor", exactly? As in, it reduces the % of YOUR armor, or enemies, or...? I'm not really sure I understand. Sounds like one of those BS rumours.

I'd up one of your melee arts to get that second hit, be it Sabers, Dagger, or Double Sabers. Whatever you use. I always used Daggers, personally - Hikai Shuha-zan is the single best one-handed weapon PA, when you can only use the first move. It's fast, strong and you can still use a crossbow or other gun. I'd always looked forward to testing out Double Sabers on GT, but PC/PS2 closed down before I got a chance.

[SolomonGrundy]

What do you mean, by crossbows "shave off a small % of armor", exactly? As in, it reduces the % of YOUR armor, or enemies, or...? I'm not really sure I understand. Sounds like one of those BS rumours.

I'd up one of your melee arts to get that second hit, be it Sabers, Dagger, or Double Sabers. Whatever you use. I always used Daggers, personally - Hikai Shuha-zan is the single best one-handed weapon PA, when you can only use the first move. It's fast, strong and you can still use a crossbow or other gun. I'd always looked forward to testing out Double Sabers on GT, but PC/PS2 closed down before I got a chance.

good info!

To your question: Bows ignore armor. The rumor is that crossbows partially ignore armor - so if an emey has 100 DFP, crossbows might ignore 30% of it, and do damage as if it had on 70 DFP.

[Ishia]

I was working on a 1337 CAST Guntecher before I took my break, but here what I was working on:

Crossbow PAs LV50 because of their incredible damage and faster firing speed. I also had two 10/10 Cubo Tumas to switch to different elements quickly.

Bows, for flying enemies, and Motherbrain's arms. I use(d) a 9/9 Edel Arrow, and it rapes.

Using Double Sabers on a Guntecher is pointless, as everything else you have will out-damage it; however, Tornado Dancing through levels makes for nice speed runs.

I also use(d) a 10/10 Van Brella, and 10/10 Battlestoppers for a little bit of variety.

[unicorn]

Single Targets : Mechguns. Surprised no one has mentioned using them, since they are awesome-sauce.

Lots of enemies : Crossbows

Bosses : shotguns for dragon-type bosses. Rising-strike for Mother Brain. Bows for ranged bosses.

Melee: I personallly LOVE Tornado Dance on GT, but I'm also a Beast, so I dunno how that fairs with other races. On enemies like Kogg Nad TD works wonders.

[SolomonGrundy]

Single Targets : Mechguns. Surprised no one has mentioned using them, since they are awesome-sauce.

Lots of enemies : Crossbows

Bosses : shotguns for dragon-type bosses. Rising-strike for Mother Brain. Bows for ranged bosses.

Melee: I personallly LOVE Tornado Dance on GT, but I'm also a Beast, so I dunno how that fairs with other races. On enemies like Kogg Nad TD works wonders.


I'm saving the mechgun upgrade for Fortegunner (the ATP bump really makes this impressive)

I like your thoughts on on double sabers for GT - someone suggested the single target saber PA, which hits hard, 2 hits each strike, with great accuracy. For Kamatoze, Kognad, Dru Gohra, Cariguines - any bullet resistant enemy, with 2 hits spots (and will be affacted by the blowaway), this seems like a winner.

[unicorn]

I'm saving the mechgun upgrade for Fortegunner (the ATP bump really makes this impressive)

I like your thoughts on on double sabers for GT - someone suggested the single target saber PA, which hits hard, 2 hits each strike, with great accuracy. For Kamatoze, Kognad, Dru Gohra, Cariguines - any bullet resistant enemy, with 2 hits spots (and will be affacted by the blowaway), this seems like a winner.

Mechguns on FG isn't much stronger than GT. Most of the damage comes from the weapon's ATP boosted by the ATT mod of the PA.

Beast M Fortegunner (highest ATP)
2400

Beast M Guntecher (highest ATP)
2118

L&K14 Combat 10/10 (A-rank and highest FG can use): 133 ATP
Yasminokov 9000 10/10 (S-rank and highest GT can use): 216 ATP

Beast FG's damage with lvl 41 Dark Fury and Lumirus/Kaos Knight + Shifta lvl2: 1426
Beast GT's damage with lvl 41 Dark Fury and Lumirus/Kaos Knight + Shifta lvl2: 1328

Keep in mind, GT can use lvl3 self-buffs due to being able to use lvl 30 support techs. S-rank mechs also have a lot more PP and more ACC, so that might change some things too (although FG has more ATA than GT anyway).

[TheAstarion]

For GT, the thing to do is usually have a lv42 bullet and element+ for each type of gun you use regularly. Left Hand + is also nice to have.

Not played PSU on my main account in a long time, Microsoft's incompetence, Mass Effect's distractions... it all adds up. As a result I don't know if Elemental Weapon/Elemental Arms works with guns. Anyone throw any light on that? If so, it could be a good idea to stack it with existing lv41+ element bonuses, sometimes ignoring the element+ ability (twin handguns anyone?). Any spare points can be pumped into your favourite weapon type, which for most people will be the exclusive crossbows. That said, please please please don't forget the cards! A 10/10 Regas has the same ATP as a 10/10 Shi-Kikami, and is basically the long-range homing counterpart to the point-blank crossbow.

Tornado Dance on a double saber is solid, as much as I hate to admit it. Great for keeping dangerous enemies such as Magashi from attacking. Yoakisobra wins out on PP and accuracy, and a stec double saber +10 has the best PP of all for an A-rank. Keeping them all at lv10 also stops the PP cost from increasing! CASTs arguably have the best deal on double sabers, they're naturally a low accuracy weapon but robovision fixes that.

For right-handed melee, I personally use daggers. When I knew I was going to be using the dagger exclusively, I paired it up with a range-mag. This was before the Tenora ones came out too. Hikai part 1 is great, part 2 takes some getting used to but is extremely damaging. Failing that, Buten is Hikai for kids, and Shunbu is Rising Strike with a slower start-up. Either way, I prefer them to sabers, if it's a choice between the two, I'd pick the dagger every time.

For Mother Brain, as a Beast GT I used diga when her arms were over the barriers, and Nosdiga when they were sweeping the platform. If you have the patience, GASing ground-type techs to level 40 gives you a 50% ground spell on hand. It also gives Diga (and by extension Gidiga) level 4 silence, which admittedly is pretty situational, and inferior to a confuse trap G, but again, it's there if you want it. If you're going to miss the 100TP as a CAST, don't be afraid to use a har/smart rather than a har/quick, it only affects the range of simple and RA-techs, and you still have enough range on diga with it active.

For stat enhancements, females get 20 END with Orachio and an S-rank SUV, so one point of stamina is fine. Males need to spend three points to get their get-out-of-deljabans free card, so it might not be worth doing. CASTs currently get 4 (max 2 in one field) enhancements, up to 8 (max 5 in one field) later.

The only problems with CAST Guntecher are its low TP for Diga (high level resta still heals well), the low END boost of SUVs nowadays, and the relative lack of customisation options that humans in particular enjoy. On the flipside, you have the traditional CAST advantages they enjoy in any class.

[SolomonGrundy]

Does Har/Smart affect Buff or resta range at all?!

[TheAstarion]

Nope Gi-, Dam-, buffs, debuffs, resta, giresta, Regrant, Megiverse and nos-techs are all unaffected. Mostly why I use it whenever I can afford it. The range nerf isn't so bad either; I still megid robots by the truckload as a WT with no problem. Of course, GT has Killer Shot, but still.

Huntable in Magashi Plan A, drops before the escape route, Dancing Birds S2, or (I think) that new-ish party mission on Neudaiz where you escort the guy from the clothes & parts lobby.

[SolomonGrundy]

Nope Gi-, Dam-, buffs, debuffs, resta, giresta, Regrant, Megiverse and nos-techs are all unaffected. Mostly why I use it whenever I can afford it. The range nerf isn't so bad either; I still megid robots by the truckload as a WT with no problem. Of course, GT has Killer Shot, but still.

Huntable in Magashi Plan A, drops before the escape route, Dancing Birds S2, or (I think) that new-ish party mission on Neudaiz where you escort the guy from the clothes & parts lobby.

Can I get a few GTs to chime in with Diga Damage vs Elemental Bow damage? I am leaning towards diga for a few reasons

1. I can use "attributes" to increase the level of Diga to 31+ without impacting Fortegunner GAS at all (it counts as a seperate area, right?)
2. I already have diga 30
3. I have a few 10/10 sertdotes that would work well - especially when if I ever pick up the 10/10 special ability
4. Diga, resta, diga, resta, diga, resta...you get the idea

But if the damage of Bow is just better...well, It might be worth the investment.

EDIT also - does Elemental Weapon/Elemental Arms works with guns? Does it work with techs?

[Akaimizu]

Well, the reason I like to go with long range, is that you can spend more time attacking Mother Brain, less time, having to deal with not attacking her when she goes through Barrier fits. Too many times, she spends all day using the travelling barrier as a *pushback* to keep folks from attacking with techs, melee, and short to medium ranged guns. So I often like the idea of standing in the far back, and almost constantly dealing damage, simply choosing which part to target 90% of the time.

Of course, when she's being more aggreeable, I did like the Diga. It's luck of the draw, to a degree. That is, until the Arms go.

[rayner]

I recently got back to playing PSU again and my main is a Human Guntecher and I love the new customizations and I'm trying to make him an offensive powerhouse. I've decided on a few things and basically I'm going to use the following GAS:

Crossbow PA lv +5
Longbow PA lv +5
T. Handgun PA lv +5
Left Hand +
Right Hand +

This will bring me to 19/20 and 3 Bullets to lv 50... I'm aware that using an Elemental + will ultimately do MOAR damage but I don't always use the opposite element on enemies.

Fire Technic PA lv +5
Ice Tecnic PA lv +5
Dark Technic PA lv +5
Ground Technic PA lv +5

I wanted to bring 4 Technic elements to lv 40 and add to that Right Hand + I don't play many missions where I use Lightning so I'm going to keep Lightning and Light @ lv 30.

I like using Gi & basic Technics with him and I will customize it with added range... I forget what it's called but at lv 2 it will add 25% to Attack Range and Area of Effect of those techs.

Being a Human I need a TON of AP... 20 a piece to raise each Bullet and 25 per Techinc Element. Just to get those complete I need 160AP which is 80 million EXP!!!