qoxolg and Arksenth's Guide on How to Melee TE!

[Arksenth]

Recently there has been a slight surge in interest in playing melee Techer, so qoxolg and I have banded together to create a guide for those looking to go down this path. To warn those reading from the outset: do not be mistaken in thinking that a melee TE is a viable main at all. Even at best, TE has extremely poor damage output and extremely poor survivability, and is easily crippled in many game-play situations. However, TE remains a fun challenge for those who enjoy the challenge of playing a risky front-line game while juggling multiple gauges, so this guide is intended to help those people optimize their TE gameplay, such that they can move up their TE from complete trash-tier to... merely subpar tier with insane amounts of dedication, meseta investment and skill. Yay!

This guide will briefly introduce you to the basics of TE, and then delve more in-depth into the two major options for TE subclasses and their diversified gameplay strategies - TE/FI and TE/HU.

Wand Gear:

TE's unique class feature is Wand Gear, which can be charged by landing charged techs and creates AoE elemental explosions whenever a target is smacked with a wand's normal attack. While pretty, smacking only one target with a wand doesn't do too much; despite having high multipliers, Wand Melee damage is still a normal attack, and Wand Gear Explosions cannot be Just-Attacked, making them even weaker than Wand Melee hits.

However, the side of Wand Gear that isn't immediately obvious is that it is the only multiplicative AoE damage source in the entire game, drastically scaling up damage with the more mobs you manage to hit simultaneously with a wand smack. Which is to say: each target hit by your wand smack will generate a unique explosion, which then hits everything nearby. So if you have two mobs, two unique explosions will be generated, effectively doubling the damage of your Wand Gear. And if you have fifty mobs trapped in a Zondeel, fifty unique explosions will be generated for each wand smack you deal, hitting each mob fifty times.

In this way, Wand Gear combined with territory-burst Zondeel can instantly propel Techer to the strongest mobbing option possible when large swarms are present - not only instantly demolishing every mob in the entire area with a single blow, but also providing ample support by continuing to trap and suction new spawns into a centered bottleneck for party members to finish off. Given the aggression, HP, speed, and spawn rates of mobs in SH difficulty especially, this makes TE a fairly strong asset for this difficulty mode in particular. Assuming that no Zonde-spamming FO is in vicinity, of course.

Wand Gear alone provides incentive for TE to play front-line and up-close. Even when bossing when Wand Gear no longer shines as much, the sustained DPS and PP recovery of Wand Smacks can enable some unique strategies revolving around PP dumping and quick-charge Techs that a traditional FO may not find sustainable due to PP drain.

The animation is also pretty flashy, and will vary based on the element on your wand. Note that regardless of the element of your wand, Wand Gear Explosions will paradoxically count as non-elemental damage, however...


Techniques:

As a hybrid casting-melee class, Techer has access to techniques. While not unique in this aspect - and certainly, a teching-focused FO main will do better than Techer in consistent damage/DPS from Techniques, Techer has unique playstyle considerations - charging Wand Gear and up-close combat with the option of seamless strong normals for PP regeneration - that may make its choice of techniques vary drastically from that of Force. Technique options that best cater to these playstyles will be discussed in detail in both the TE/FI and TE/HU guides below.


Skills:

The Techer skill tree has several unique skills that cater specifically to melee TEs. While these will be discussed in more detail in the sub-class specific sections with specific builds and trees, to briefly cover some of the more important skills:

Wand Gear:
A absolute must-have for all melee Techers - and in fact, I would also strongly recommend that even FO/TEs grab Wand Gear should they have access to a wand, given its only one-point cost and given how superior Wand Gear can be for demolishing swarms of mobs even over AoE Techniques.

Territory Burst:
To enable TE's multiplicative damage in Wand Gear, mobs need to be in range of each other. Zondeel is consequentially the single most important technique for a melee TE. Territory Burst effectively magnifies the range of Techer for gathering mobs for Zondeel, significantly boosting the mobbing capabilities of Techer.

Wand Lovers:
Wand Lovers is an active that brings a number of perks to Techer temporarily. It instantly fills up the Wand Gear gauge - which can be very important in situations where one doesn't have enough time to charge a technique. It adds a 35% multiplier for both wand and wand explosion damage. But most importantly, it gives Techer step attack for a limited time, giving Techer a stronger mobility and in some cases, dodging tool within its duration. Unlike most actives, it is quick activation and has only a fraction of a second of activation animation associated with it.

Wand Reactor:
Wand Reactor adds 40% of a Wand's T-ATK to your S-ATK, giving even T-ATK oriented Techers with full T-ATK affixed gear about equal amounts of T-ATK and S-ATK. The boost is extremely large, being as much as 400 S-ATK in some cases - or about 20% more wand melee damage for only 5 SP.

Element Weak Hit:
The only multiplier that impacts both wand damage and teching damage, EWH grants a 20% bonus when matching elemental weakness to the element on your weapon. It isn't a significant boost, but for melee focused TEs, there isn't much else. It does, however, work very nicely in conjunction with the diversity of wand choices that TE has, as explored below.

PP Restorate 1:
While TE doesn't have PP Charge Revival to have PP Restorate on at all times, PP Restorate does make a significant difference for moving between spawn to spawn, non-Teching down-time when TE is smacking with a wand, and dodging - which a front-line TE will be doing a lot of. Furthermore, it helps you dash faster by recovering PP faster for Assault Busters/Straight Charges.

Assist Extend:
Mainly important for FI subclasses, Assist Extend allows TE to instantly buff itself for a full two minutes in just one buff when combined with Adrenaline, making Shifta no longer a hassle but an easy-to-apply mainstay.

Elemental Masteries:
Where Elemental Weak hit gives Techer the ability to generalize in technique choices by element matching, specializing with Elemental Masteries is still an excellent option. For Wind, Light and Dark Elements, melee/hybrid Techer can achieve even greater multipliers by specializing in an element than traditional casters can, giving a truly strong impact to their techs. This works especially well with the heavy favoring of Wind these days, in addition to Technique Crafting giving Light and Dark renewed viability.

Note that while Techer is advertised as a "support class" and has skills for Shifta/Deband, these are generally ill-advised and too weak to consider. The best support that Techer can bring is in the form of creating bottle-necks with Zondeel and to a limited extent, frontline healing - any other support such as Shifta/Deband should only be considered a very minor aspect of gameplay.


Wand Options:

TE has a number of wands with excellent latents to consider - with a wand latent boosting every elemental tech family, and a wand latent boosting every enemy type, TE has an excellent array to choose from. Furthermore, TE has a unique skill called Wand Reactor, which boosts S-ATK by 40% of Wand T-ATK for only 5 SP. Below is a chart of the S-ATK/T-ATK values of Wands when Wand Reactor is factored in. (Chart by qoxolg)

Spoiler!

[Arksenth]

TE/FI

Mobbing: 4/5
Bossing: 2/5
Parties: 4/5
MPA: 3/5

TE/FI balances teching and melee by having decent multipliers for melee and excellent multipliers for teching - balanced out by the loss of PP Charge Revival coming from a FO sub, of course. The goal of TE/FI is to pump out super-charged techs and then toggle to wand smacks to do still comparable DPS while regenerating PP for the next relentless barrage of techs.

Like all melee versions of TE, TE/FI is also quite reliant on using Zondeel to bring hordes of mobs together to smash in one go. Unlike TE/HU, TE/FI does have a little bit of versatility due to its powerful teching capabilities - so therefore, if you're in a MPA that has a trash Zonde-spamming Lightning FO inside it, you can still function to some degree as a techer so long as you watch your PP burn - PP reduction cost techs are excellent for this purpose. Likewise, for difficult bosses, TE/FI has techs to fall back on when it absolutely can't get wand smacks in - although you won't be as efficient as this as a FO with PP Charge Revival. Such is the peril of playing a hybrid.

TE/FI works best with techs that can dump out large amounts of damage in short periods of time - for this reason, TE/FI has benefited immensely from the crafting update especially with its bonuses to Wind, Dark and Light techs. Since you're now using techs for damage as opposed to charging gear as with TE/HU, your wand gear charge can suffer a bit. Wand Lovers has helped significantly for this purpose.

Note that since your wand smack and explosion damage isn't as strong as TE/HU except when you manage to afflict a Status Effect, you have a harder time bringing down heavies compared to TE/HU.

Finally, as a bonus, you get access to both knuckle dashing - and the heavily prized Adrenaline, which lets you keep a very persistent buff on your character when paired with Assist Extend.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Builds

TE/FI builds tend to revolve around elements in order to take advantage of the insane multipliers afforded on both the main and the subclass for teching, similar to FO builds. Builds are ranked in order of viability, going down the list.

Wind Specialist

Spoiler!

Skill Tree

Your two main techs for a Wind Specialist build would be the all-mighty Sazan and Zan. Don't underestimate Zan especially for large bosses with many weak points! Primary technic customizations ot pick up are PP Reduction for Sazan and Charge Reduction for Zan. Also pick up power increase for Razan, as you're never going to be using it charged.

Wind Specialist EWH Build

Spoiler!

Skill Tree

Similar to the Wind Specialist build, and with similar focuses on Wind; however, EWH is also included in this build so that element matching becomes a very strong option especially when paired with FI's stances. Allows for greater variety in teching, but wand melee suffers slightly due to the loss of a full Wand Reactor - should be about 10% less striking damage on average.

Dark Specialist

Spoiler!

Skill Tree

Not as versatile as a Wind Specialist, given that Dark techs are strongest for bossing, but still fairly do-able. The interesting perk that Dark has over Wind is in its better technique customizations for charge reduction, trading PP dumping for variety and adaptability to situations. Main techs to focus are are Megid for general mobbing, Gimegid in conjunction with Zondeel and Ramegid for bossing. Main technic customizations to pick up are either of the megid customizations (power+speed if you intend to use it from a range, but PP reduction if you're using it close range), charge time reduction for Gimegid and charge time reduction for Ramegid. Your PP management tool becomes PP convert as opposed to PP Restraint 1 - this is a little clumsier than PP Restraint, and you may have to wait a few seconds before continuing a PP dump due to the lack of PP charge revival, but can also have its strengths over allowing you selectively choose when you need a large PP boost.

Light Specialist

Spoiler!

Skill Tree

Not particularly recommended as the inherently large charge times and lower variety of Light doesn't make it particularly well suited to specialization. Additionally, this build doesn't have as many PP management tools as the previous specialist builds. However, Technic customization has given Grants PP efficiency, and Ragrants and Gigrants charge reduction times, so a light specialization may still be partially viable for those who prefer to have flashy light techs.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Equipment

Unlike TE/HU, TE/FI does not have enough multipliers to make a Double Saber/Twin Dagger/Knuckle viable, so TE/FI focuses exclusively on Wands. Unlike TE/HU, TE/FI should be focusing on T-ATK, so Stina is no longer an option - however, Evil Curst and Windmill and other element latent specialist wands work even better on TE/FI than other classes. Check qoxolg's section for a more detailed explanation of wands.

Elysion, paired with Wand Lovers, works incredible on wind-specialist TE/FIs and works beautifully with the PP-dump and wand melee alternating style that TE/FI prefers.

Affixes (for both units and weapons) should focus on T-ATK and PP as your priorities. The Primula set, as with TE/HU, works very nicely.

[qoxolg]

-void-

[qoxolg]

--

*Written by LonelyGaruga

Introduction to Techer

Techer (テクター, or Tekuta) is a melee/tech hybrid class that specializes in close range combat and support tech usage. It is the only class with universal access to the wand category of weapons. Wands (ウォンド, Wand, or 短杖, which means short staff/cane) are tech weapons that feature low T-ATK, but high S-ATK. Techer's skills primarily augment wands and support techs, but skills that enhance the properties of wind, light, and dark techs are also present.

About Techer
-Techer features high T-ATK and S-DEF, but low HP and R-ATK. All other stats are average.
-Techer can equip gunslashes and talises in addition to wands.
-Techer primarily gets wind, light, and dark techs from enemy drops. Non-rare fire, ice, and lightning techs can be difficult to acquire.
-Recommended races for Techer are Newman and Dewman.

About Wands
-Wand Gear triggers an additional attack after connecting a normal attack with a wand. This attack has a different graphic based on the element of the wand, hits all enemies in the vicinity of the attack, and is calculated using T-ATK.
-Wand Gear is boosted by striking weak points and elemental weaknesses. It is also boosted by elemental PSE.
-Wands feature the strongest normal attacks in the game, even without Wand Gear. When paired with the Techer skill Wand Reactor, wands also have the highest S-ATK of all weapons.
-The basic strikes of a wand have 224/200/264 power for the first, second, and third hit, respectively, which averages to 229 power. Step Attack has a power of 100. Wand Gear has a power of 160.
-Wands generally require T-ATK to equip despite having high S-ATK stats.
-The dodge action of wands is normally Mirage Escape, but the Techer skill Wand Lovers changes it to Step and enables the use of Step Attack. Wand Lovers can be turned off freely, but has a 30s cooldown, so it is not possible to rapidly switch it on and off.
-Wands have poor reach and limited air mobility. Techs can be used to mitigate these flaws.

Techer Skills

-Unique passive skill Extend Assist extends the maximum duration of Shifta and Deband applied by the user from 2 minutes to 3 minutes.
-Staple skills include Territory Burst, Wand Lovers, and Shifta Strike.
-Skills to avoid include Reverser Field, Mirage/Panic/Poison Boost, and Poison Ignition.
-Rare Mastery Techer, Long Time Assist, Shifta Strike, Deband Toughness, and Reverser Field require Techer to be the main class.
-Cookie cutter Techer build example.
-Please check each skill in the overview for a detailed examination.

Techer Skill Overview

Spoiler!

Technique Up 1/2

-Increases base T-ATK. T-ATK Up 1 is +50 for 10 SP, T-ATK Up 2 is +75 for 10 SP.
-3 SP in T-ATK Up 1 is necessary to use most other Techer skills.
-For wand strikes and Wand Gear, T-ATK Up 1 increases damage by approximately less than 1%, and T-ATK Up 2 is approximately a 1% increase in damage.
-The increase to Wand Gear damage alone is 2% for T-ATK Up 1, and 3% for T-ATK Up 2.
-As a general rule of thumb, it can be assumed that 25 T-ATK = 1% for Wand Gear.
-For tech damage, T-ATK Up 1 is approximately a 2% increase in damage, and T-ATK Up 2 is approximately a 4% increase in damage.
-As a general rule of thumb, it can be assumed that 25 T-ATK is a little more than 1% damage for tech usage.

Striking Up

-Increases base S-ATK by up to +50.
-For wand strikes and Wand Gear, S-ATK Up 1 increases damage by approximately less than 1%.
-The increase to wand strikes alone is approximately 1%.
-S-ATK Up is less valuable than T-ATK because wands have naturally higher S-ATK than they do T-ATK. Additionally, Wand Gear is calculated in a way that makes stacking T-ATK more meaningful, as its damage is boosted by elemental weaknesses as well as striking weaknesses.
-Though the % increase is lower, S-ATK adds more damage than T-ATK for single targets, as wand strikes average 229 power, and Wand Gear is only 160. From power alone, wand strikes average to be 43% stronger than Wand Gear, but there are many more variables that prevent it from being this straightforward.
-As a general rule of thumb, it can be assumed that 50 S-ATK = 1% for wand strikes.

Wand Gear

-1 SP skill. Functionality described in "About Wands" section.
-Wand Gear is filled by using charged techs. Wand Gear can also be filled using the Techer skill Wand Lovers. Wand Lovers keeps Wand Gear maxed for its entire duration, which is unlimited. Essentially, Wand Gear is always maxed when using Wand Lovers.
-Although a Wand Gear explosion is triggered for each individual enemy hit by an attack, the explosions themselves can hit multiple enemies. This makes Wand Gear explosions quadratic (damage = d * x number of enemies).
-Due to this, the lightning tech Zondeel is a staple to wand usage, as it pulls all enemies susceptible to suction effects toward the player, making it easy to hit all of them at once.
-Wand Gear explosions use T-ATK, but are considered striking attacks. They are not techs, so Elemental Mastery skills do not apply to them, but PSE effects fully apply to damage done.

Wand Lovers

-Enhances wand melee damage (both strikes and Wand Gear) by up to 40%, changes wand dodge action to Step, enables Step Attack for wands, and maxes Wand Gear.
-Wand Lovers cannot be used unless Wand Gear is already learned.
-Wand Lovers can be used regardless of weapon equipped, but only affects wands.
-Wand Lovers does not apply to techs used with a wand.
-Wand Lovers enables Step Attack regardless of whether Step Attack is present on the subclass' tree or not.
-Wand Lovers' Step is affected by Step Advance, but because Techer does not have Step Advance on its skill tree, it must be taken on a subclass' tree.
-Wand Lovers grants the largest damage bonus to wand melee damage on Techer's skill tree and comes with major changes to how wands work, making it a staple to Techer gameplay.

Wand Reactor

-5 SP skill. Adds up to 40% of the currently equipped wand's T-ATK as S-ATK.
-Currently, this can be generalized as 300-500 more S-ATK, which is generally 30% more S-ATK from what the wand would normally have.
-For wand strikes and Wand Gear, Wand Reactor adds approximately 8% more damage.
-For wand strikes alone, Wand Reactor adds approximately 13% more damage.
-Wand Reactor adds substantially more % damage than S-ATK Up because without it, wands have substantially lower S-ATK. Wand Reactor is responsible for wands having abnormally high S-ATK.
-Without Wand Reactor, approximately 30 S-ATK = 1% for wand strikes.
-Wand Reactor does not work on weapons that are not wands. Wand Reactor also does not subtract the T-ATK used to add to the wand's S-ATK.
-Strongly recommended due to high increase in wand damage.

PP Restorate

-Increases natural PP regeneration speed by up to 140% of its natural regeneration time.
-Normal regeneration speed is 5 PP/1s. With PP Restorate maxed, this becomes 7 PP/1s.
-PP regeneration speed can also be considered 1 PP/0.2s. With PP Restorate maxed, this becomes 1 PP/0.14s.
-With this information, it can be observed that it takes 20s to restore 100 PP. With PP Restorate maxed, it takes 14s. 30s for 150 PP normally, 21s with PP Restorate maxed, and so on.
-PP Restorate stacks with other PP regeneration methods.
-Because wands do not use PP for their melee, PP Restorate is mainly useful for techs and other weapons, such as subclass weapons.
-PP Restorate is mainly a skill of convenience, having a small but constant effect that makes it possible to use more techs and PAs at a more frequent rate.
-PP Restorate has minimal value if not using PAs/techs frequently.

Shifta Advance

-Increases the effectiveness of the fire tech Shifta.
-Shifta normally adds up to 19.7% of a player's base ATK to their current ATK. Shifta Advance multiplies this by up to 25%.
-Base ATK stats include skill tree investments and mag stats in addition to the character's stats, but nothing else.
-Shifta normally adds approximately 100-200 ATK, depending on how high the base stat is. Shifta Advance makes this closer to 125-250 ATK, making Shifta Advance equivalent to 25-50 more ATK in all ATK stats.
-Because 5 SP in Shifta Advance is mandatory to use Shifta Strike, 13% of Shifta Advance's effect is almost always in play. The remaining 5 SP is a 12% increase to Shifta's effect, meaning that further investing in Shifta Advance only yields approximately 12-24 more ATK for each stat.
-Level 10 Shifta Advance adds approximately less than 1% to wand strikes, Wand Gear, and techs.
-Because Shifta applies to all players around the user instead of just the user, the total effect of Shifta Advance can be considered greater, approximately 12-24 more ATK per player for each ATK stat. This is approximately a 4-8% increase in a party's overall damage, though it may be lower or higher depending on how many players are affected and how high their base stats are.
-Shifta Advance is a better investment the more ATK stats used, since it affects all ATK stats. For wand melee, it will have a stronger effect than Striking Up or Technique Up, but a weaker effect for techs and subclass weapons.
-Because level 10 Shifta Advance is a 5 SP investment after getting Shifta Strike, it is easy to fit into most builds.

Shifta Critical

-Adds a critical hit rate increasing effect to the fire tech Shifta.
-Critical hits will occur up to 20% more frequently. 1 SP grants the largest effect per SP spent, at a 5% rate increase.
-When a player lands a critical hit, it eliminates damage variance and causes them to do 100% damage.
-Damage variance normally affects a weapon's ATK stat. At worst, 90% of a weapon's ATK stat will be used, meaning damage variance is roughly a 40-60 ATK reduction for wands on average. This is equivalent to between ~1-2% of damage done, depending on the attack.
-A player's natural critical hit rate is 5%, so a player will land criticals 25% of the time with Shifta Critical maxed.
-Shifta Critical increases damage by up to 2%, 20% of the time. This is equivalent to up to 0.4% more damage.
-Damage variance works differently for crafted weapons. For crafted weapons, an average of 90% of max damage is dealt instead, with an 80% minimum. Shifta Critical is a 2% increase in damage when using crafted weapons.
-With 1 SP, Shifta Critical is a 0.4% increase in damage for crafted weapons. Maxed Shifta Critical totals 0.2% per SP spent, making 1 SP twice as efficient.
-Assuming a party entirely of non-crafted weapons, Shifta Critical adds approximately 1-3% more damage to the entire party, depending on how many players are affected.
-Shifta Critical adds very little damage and is not recommended at all unless partying entirely with crafted weapon users, in which case it adds 2% more damage to the entire party for every person affected, for up to 24% more damage.

Shifta Strike

-5 SP skill. Adds a damage % enhancing effect to the fire tech Shifta. Requires Techer to be the main class to use.
-2% for every 1 SP is already a good investment if it only affected the user, but the fact that this affects other players makes it even better, as the total effect can be upwards of a 120% increase to the entire party's damage.
-Very straightforward skill, but one of the most potent effects on the Techer tree, making it a must-have staple skill.

Resta Advance

-5 SP skill. Increases the amount of HP healed by the light tech Resta.
-Max effect is a 20% increase.
-Resta ignores weapon T-ATK, but applies all other sources of T-ATK.
-The formula for uncharged Resta is (T-ATK - Weapon T-ATK) * Resta Power * Resta Advance * Potential * PSE * 0.08 (* 2)
-The formula for charged Resta is identical, except 0.25 instead of 0.08, and * 4 instead of * 2.
-Resta Power is the power of the disc. Level 17 is 116, or a 1.16 modifier. A +power recipe is upwards of 206 power, or a 2.06 modifier.
-With Resta's power recipe, Resta typically heals approximately 200 HP per tick uncharged, and approximately 600 HP per tick charged.
-Because of Resta's already high healing power, Resta Advance is not recommended, as Resta already heals most players to full health with 1-2 ticks.

Deband Advance

-Increases the effectiveness of the ice tech Deband.
-Deband normally adds up to 19.7% of a player's base DEF stats to their current DEF. Deband Advance multiplies this by up to 25%.
-Essentially identical to Shifta, but for DEF stats.
-By itself, Deband adds approximately 90-110 DEF to each DEF stat. Deband Advance further increases this by approximately 20-30 more DEF.
-Because of Deband Advance's low DEF increase, it is not recommended.

Deband Cut

-Adds a damage reducing effect to the ice tech Deband.
-Reduces damage by up to 15% of the original value. 100 damage becomes 85, 200 becomes 170, and so on. The effect of 1 SP grants the largest bonus, at 5%. Level 10 Deband Cut is 15% for 10 SP, or 1.5% per 1 SP spent, making 1 SP more than three times as efficient per SP spent.
-Because 5 SP in Deband Advance is required to use Deband Cut, it can be considered a 6 SP cost for 5%, and 15 SP for 15%, making maxing Deband Cut a more efficient use of SP in practice.
-Deband Cut applies to striking, ranged, and tech damage, but not set damage effects such as burn or poison damage, which cannot be reduced.
-Similar to Shifta Strike, Deband Cut is a strong effect for single players, but even more potent when applied in parties.
-Because of Deband Advance's minimal defense boost, Deband Cut is significantly less useful than it could be, as the 5 SP on Deband Advance is almost a complete waste. Deband Cut is still a strong skill despite Deband Advance's failings.
-Because defense is less important than attack, even on its own virtues, Deband Cut may not be worth using.

Deband Toughness

-5 SP skill. Adds an effect that increases max HP to the ice tech Deband. Requires Techer to be the main class to use.
-Increases the max HP of all players affected by the player's Deband by up to 25%.
-Deband Toughness uses the full HP of all players affected, including affixes and units.
-Deband Toughness does not increase the current HP of players affected by it. Their current HP will remain at what they had before Deband Toughness was applied, so they must be healed to take advantage of the increased max HP.
-Techer usually has the highest HP of all classes while under the effect of Deband Toughness. Because of this, Techer can be considered a high HP class if using Deband Toughness.
-Deband Toughness adds approximately 100-300 more HP for each player affected, depending on how high their HP is.
-Deband Toughness can increase an entire party's total HP by x2-4, depending on how many players are affected.
-Deband Toughness is an even better skill than Deband Cut for increasing a player's ability to survive damage, and costs half the SP. This makes it a higher priority skill if seeking to increase personal durability, or the durability of other players.
-Similar to Deband Cut, defensive skills are generally less useful than offensive skills, so Deband Toughness may not be worth using.

Reverse Bonus

-1 SP skill. Applies the effects of the player's Shifta and Deband when reviving other players.
-This includes skills such as Shifta Strike or Deband Toughhess.
-The Shifta/Deband effect will be at its max duration, or 3 minutes.
-Handy for saving time from applying Shifta/Deband after reviving a player. Because players are revived at half health normally, it would be necessary to apply Deband Toughness before healing them, or it would be necessary to heal them again, unless they healed themselves. With Reverse Bonus, Deband Toughness will already be applied, so the revived players can be healed immediately.
-1 SP so very easy to fit into most builds.
-Has no effect if playing solo.

PP Convert

-Active skill. When triggered, rapidly increases PP regeneration, but applies a max HP reduction during the effect.
-For every 1 PP regenerated, 1-5 more PP is regenerated. Lasts 30s with a 120s cooldown. Cooldown begins from the moment of activation, so in practice cooldown is 90s unless activation was interrupted.
-Normally, PP regenerated is 5:1s. With PP Convert, 5-25 more PP is regenerated every second. With level 10 PP Convert, PP regeneration is 30:1s
-Stacks with PP Restorate. PP Restorate is applied after PP Convert. With both maxed, PP regeneration is 42:1s.
-With both PP Restorate and PP Convert at level 10, it takes 2.3 seconds to regenerate 100 PP.
-Level 9 PP Convert takes 2.8 seconds, level 6 takes 3.5 seconds, level 3 takes 4.7 seconds, and level 1 takes 7.1 seconds.
-Without PP Restorate, level 10 PP Convert takes 3.3 seconds to regenerate 100 PP. Level 9 takes 4 seconds, level 6 takes 5 seconds, level 3 takes 6.6 seconds, and level 1 takes 10 seconds.
-Max HP reduction becomes stronger as PP Convert is leveled. Begins at a 20% reduction, max level is 30%.
-Deband Toughness is applied before PP Convert's HP reduction. With max Deband Toughness and PP Convert, HP will be 87.5% of normal max instead of 70%.
-Leveling PP Convert increases the max HP reduction, but only levels 3, 6, 9, and 10 increase the amount of PP regenerated. There is no advantage in levels 2, 4-5, or 7-8 compared to their lower levels.
-Regenerates PP more rapidly than PP Restorate, but is only active 1/4th of the time.
-Most effective when combined with PP Restorate.
-As with PP Restorate, PP is of limited usefulness to wand melee, so PP Convert is mainly useful for tech and PA usage.

Territory Burst

-1 SP skill. Increases the range of support techs by 50%. Support techs are Shifta, Deband, Zondeel, Zanverse, Resta, Anti, and Megiverse.
-Also affects the range of Freeze Ignition and Poison Ignition.
-Support techs normaly have a range of 2m when uncharged. Charging triples range to 6m. Territory Burst makes uncharged techs 3m and charged techs 9m.
-Some support techs can be crafted for +m. This is added to the uncharged range. A tech with +1m will normally have a range of 3m uncharged and 9m charged, or a 50% increase in range. With Territory Burst, this becomes 4.5m and 13.5m, or a 225% increase in range.
-Support techs that qualify for +m crafts are Shifta, Deband, Zondeel, and Anti.
-Because Territory Burst greatly expands the range of Zondeel, more enemies can be pulled in to attack with wand melee. The increased range also makes supporting other players easier.
-1 SP makes Territory Burst possible to fit into any build, and has an extremely strong effect on support techs, making it a staple skill.

Super Treatment

-1 SP skill. When curing a status effect, adds an HP and PP recovering effect.
-When curing a status effect, the user of Super Treatment and all players cured are healed for two ticks of 25% of their max HP, for a 50% heal.
-Also increases PP regeneration by +3 for every 1 PP normally regenerated. Same regeneration as PP Convert level 6 and Ketos Proi. Please check PP Convert overview for more information on how much PP is regenerated.
-PP regeneration lasts 30s.
-Applied by items such as Sol Atomizer and the light tech Anti.
-Does not work for self-inflicted status effects such as Limit Break. Also does not work with status effects healed by mags or the Hunter skills Guard Stance Poison and Guard Stance Burn.
-Very easy to apply in areas where status effects can be inflicted by objects, such as lava, Curse Sentries, or lightning.
-Can deliberately have status effects inflicted to repeatedly trigger PP regeneration.
-1 SP makes it very easy to fit into any build, and has a potent effect when applied. Low cost also ensures minimal loss in areas that lack common status effects.

Reverser Field

-Active skill. Generates a field around the user that revives defeated players. Requires Techer to be the main class to use.
-Revived players will be restored with up to 100% of their max HP. Requires level 8 to exceed the standard 50% Moon Atomizers and other revival methods restore players with. Level 1 revives players with 5% HP. Level 5 revives players with 25% HP.
-Reverser Field lasts up to 15s. Level 1 provides a 5 second field, levels 5-10 provide a 15 second field. Cooldown is 900s (15 minutes) regardless of level.
-If using Reverse Bonus and Deband Toughness, Reverser Field does not count the extra HP provided by Deband Toughness. Level 10 will revive players with 75% of their health instead of 100%. This makes healing after revival necessary.
-Does not qualify for the 20 FUN bonus normally received for reviving players.
-Inferior to Moon and Cosmo Atomizers in almost every way. 900s cooldown means activation will be 1-2 times a quest. If damaged during activation animation, does not trigger. Lasts a short period of time, limiting number of players that can be revived at once. Generally would not revive more players than a Moon/Cosmo Atomizer. Main advantage is healing with more HP, but if Reverse Bonus and Deband Toughness is applied, then it's necessary to heal regardless.
-Unlikely to ever be necessary to use because players can carry 5-10 revival items at once.
-Bad skill, do not use.

Territory PP Save

-5 SP skill. Reduces the cost of support techs. Requires Territory Burst to use.
-Cost reduction is up to 7 PP. 1 SP reduces the cost by 3, 2-5 further reduce cost by 1 PP per SP spent.
-Cost reduction helps mitigate PP expenses from frequent support tech usage, allowing for more techs and PAs to be used. Also allows quicker support tech usage after emptying PP gauge.
-Utility skill similar to PP Restorate. Less useful, but more practical due to support techs seeing a lot of use from Techer.
-Because of the strong effect of 1 SP, at least 1 SP is recommended due to the low cost and good effect.

Wind Mastery 1/2

-Increases the damage of wind techs by 20%. With both maxed, damage is increased by 44%.
-The first SP spent in both Wind Mastery 1 and 2 is a 5% increase.
-2 points in Wind Mastery 1 is a prerequisite to learn Wind Mastery 2. The most SP efficient increase possible is to grab 2 points in Wind Mastery 1 and 1 point in Wind Mastery 2, for an 11% increase for 3 SP.
-Wind techs are effective against Forest Naberius natives and winged darkers. Wind techs generally have lower PP costs and higher uncharged damage compared to other elements. Wind techs also often feature launching or suction effects.
-Recommended wind techs are Ra Zan, Sa Zan, Na Zan, and Il Zan.
-Applies to Zanverse. Normally, 20% of damage done when inside of Zanverse's field will be done as a separate attack. Wind Mastery is applied to this, for up to 28.8% damage from Zanverse, or an 8.8% increase in damage . 2/1 SP causes Zanverse to deal 22.2% damage, or a 2.2% increase.
-Increasing Zanverse damage means an increase to all forms of damage, making Wind Mastery skills useful even for melee oriented build. Zanverse is affected by attacks from all players within the Zanverse field and not just the user, so Wind Mastery skills also boosts the damage done for the entire party.
-The damage increase to Zanverse is greater than Shifta Advance, Striking Up, or Technique Up (except for personal tech usage), but only while Zanverse is in effect. Zanverse lasts 1.5s uncharged and 5s charged. Zanverse can be crafted for up to -0.5s charge time, for a charge time as low as 0.5s.
-2/1 SP investment for a 2.2% increase in Zanverse damage in addition to the 11% increase in wind tech damage can be a good investment for any build, but may not always be possible to fit in.

Mirage Boost

-Increases the chances of applying the status effect Mirage with wind techs by up to 10%.
-Only works for wind techs. Does not work with the special ability Mirage (I-V).
-When an enemy is under the effects of Mirage, attacks that connect with players have a random chance of missing, doing no damage and not flinching the player. Lasts 20 seconds.
-The mid-boss Decol Malluda and the EQ-exclusive boss Dark Falz Loser are immobilized by Mirage instead of its usual effect.
-The % increase is multiplicative. A wind tech with a Mirage rate of 20% will have 22% with maxed Mirage Boost.
-When crafted, Ra Zan (Multi Recipe) and Sa Zan (Efficient Recipe) have the highest Mirage rates, at 23%. Na Zan has a Mirage rate of 22% regardless of craft. Mirage Boost increases these to 25.3% and 24.2%, respectively.
-Status effects are not applied on a per hit basis, but differ from tech to tech. The actual rates are unknown.
-The low increase in status effect rates for the high SP expense makes Mirage Boost a poor skill. Not recommended.

Light Mastery 1/2

-Increases the damage of light techs by 20%. With both maxed, damage is increased by 44%.
-Essentially identical to Wind Mastery skills, but for light techs.
-Light techs are effective against darkers, distorted creatures, and evil god class enemies. Light techs generally have higher power and status affliction rates than other techs, but have longer charge times, lower uncharged damage, and cost more PP.
-Despite these drawbacks, light techs are versatile in terms of damage, range, and utility.
-Recommended light techs are Grants, Ra Grants, Na Grants, and Il Grants.
-Does not apply to Resta or Anti.
-Because darkers are the most common enemy category and all EQ-exclusive bosses are weak to light, light is a common weakness element.
-Light techs have the fewest offensive techs of all element categories.
-Light Mastery skills are recommended for tech-centric builds. As with Wind Mastery, a 2/1 SP investment grants an 11% increase in damage and is easy to fit in.
-Between wind, light, and dark techs, light can be considered the most effective of the three.

Panic Boost

-Increases the chances of applying the status effect Panic with light techs by up to 10%.
-Essentially identical to Mirage Boost, but for Panic and light techs.
-When an enemy is under the effects of Panic, its attacks will harm enemies of the same racial class. It will also begin attacking the closest target around it, instead of the one with the highest hate. In the Mining Base Defense quests, enemies afflicted with Panic will avoid attacking walls and towers. Lasts 30 seconds.
-Dark Vibrace, Dark Vibrace Yuga, Apos Dorios, and Anga Fandarge are immobilized by Panic instead of its usual effect.
-Panic can be considered the most versatile status effect between Techer's elements.
-Il Grants has the highest Panic rate, at 40%. Panic Boost increases this to up to 44%, for a 4% increase.
-As with Mirage Boost, the low increase makes this skill not recommended.

Dark Mastery 1/2

-Increases the damage of dark techs by 20%. With both maxed, damage is increased by 44%.
-Essentially identical to Wind Mastery and Light Mastery skills, but for dark techs.
-Dark techs are effective against dragonkin inhabiting Floating Continent and Dragon Sanctum as well as Kuronians. Dark techs generally possess homing features that make them easy to connect with compared to other techs, but also feature higher PP costs and unusual properties that can restrict their usage.
-Recommended dark techs include Gi Megid, Ra Megid, and Na Megid.
-Does not apply to Megiverse.
-Dark techs are somewhat recommended for tech-based builds. Some bosses that are weak to dark techs are resistant to other tech elements, making it more difficult to defeat them with non-dark techs. Having dark techs widens the variety of tools available to use. As with Wind Mastery and Light Mastery skills, a 2/1 SP investment is an 11% increase to dark techs and is easy to fit into most builds.

Poison Boost

-Increases the chances of applying the status effect Poison with dark techs by up to 10%.
-Essentially identical to Mirage Boost and Panic Boost, but for Poison and dark techs.
-When an enemy is afflicted with poison, its HP will be reduced by 3% of its maximum HP every 3 seconds. Lasts 30 seconds.
-The mid-boss Goronzoran's breakable crystal rods will take double damage if afflicted by poison instead of its usual effect. The bosses Quartz Dragon and Dragon Ex can have poison applied to their breakable parts, and will take doubled damage from attacks to those parts while poisoned instead of its usual effect.
-Poison's strong effect on mid-boss and boss class enemies that it works on makes it a very powerful status effect, but is of limited value against smaller enemies.
-All insect darkers and some aquatic darkers are immune to poison.
-Gi Megid has the highest poison rate, at 40%. Poison Boost increases this to up to 44%, for a 4% increase.
-As with Mirage Boost and Panic Boost, Poison Boost's poor increase makes it not recommended.

Poison Ignition

-Active skill. When used, causes all nearby poisoned enemies to explode, damaging the poisoned enemies. Also damages nearby enemies and has a chance to poison them.
-Leveling increases damage, chance of poisoning non-poisoned enemies, and reduces cooldown. Level 1 is 100% of damage, 5% chance of poison, and 120s cooldown. Level 10 is 300% damage, 30% chance of poison, and 30s cooldown.
-Exact damage is unverified, but very high.
-Damage uses T-ATK and is treated as a non-elemental uncharged tech attack. Does not qualify for Just Attack mechanics.
-Targets hitzones and benefits from weak point damage, but extremely difficult to aim.
-Poor range, but increased by Territory Burst.
-Can hit the same enemy multiple times if other poisoned enemies are overlapping.
-Level of Poison applied to non-poisoned enemies varies depending on the level of poison that the exploded enemy was afflicted with.
-All status effects triggered by techs are level 1. Only weapon affixes can apply levels 2-5. Level 3 Poison decreases the HP of afflicted enemies by 4% every 3 seconds, for 30 seconds. Level 5 Poison decreases the HP of afflicted enemies by 5% every 3 seconds, for 30 seconds. Level 2 is the same as level 1, and level 4 is the same as level 3.
-Does not work on the special poison effects applied to Goronzoran, Quartz Dragon, or Dragon Ex.
-Capable of extremely high damage due to qualifying for the Innocent Appearance potential, but short range and only works for small enemies and the mid-bosses Caterdra'n and Caterdra'nsa, making its uses very limited. Additionally, other players can override the status effect on poisoned enemies, making it difficult to be reliably used around others.
-Limited uses for low priority tasks makes this skill not recommended to use.

Aptitude Up

-Increases base DEX stat by up to +50.
-DEX is used for reducing damage variance. Both damage done and damage taken will have lower variance with higher DEX values.
-Minimal effect on uncrafted weapons and low effect on damage taken makes DEX a low priority stat.
-Increasing critical hit rate is more effective at reducing damage variance for crafted weapons than increasing DEX.
-Some equipment requires more DEX than a player naturally has when level capped. Aptitude Up can be used to equip these weapons, but putting DEX on a mag is more effective for this purpose.
-Not recommended for its low value.

PP Up 1/2

-Increases base PP by up to +10.
-PP is used for PA and tech usage. Typical cost ranges around 20-30 PP.
-PP can be acquired through units and affixing as well as PP Up skills.
-Units and affixes can add 50+ PP, which is generally sufficient, making PP Up skills a low priority.

Technique Attack Defense Up

-Increases base T-DEF by up to +50.
-T-DEF is used for reducing damage from tech-based attacks. Tech-based attacks are most frequently used by darkers, dragonkin, and Kuronians.
-Tech attacks are generally less common but higher in damage than striking and ranged attacks. T-DEF is the least commonly high stat among all classes, and most units lack Tech Resistance.
-Unlike skills that increase ATK, which are usually for a class' main offensive attacks, DEF skills only apply to one type of attack that will be encountered, making them poor investments. The decrease in damage is also very low.
-Technique Attack Defense Up adds less total DEF stats than Deband Advance and only applies to the user, making it an extremely poor skill. Not recommended at all.

Rare Mastery Techer

-When using a weapon that is rarity 10+, increases S-ATK and T-ATK by up to +50. Requires Techer to be the main class.
-Does not increase base stats, so unaffected by Shifta effects.
-1 SP adds +30 S-ATK and T-ATK, more than half the effect for 1/10th of the SP cost.
-1 SP is approximately a 1% increase in Wand Gear and tech damage, and less than a 1% increase to wand strikes.
-Rare Mastery Techer increases both S-ATK and T-ATK, unlike most other Rare Mastery skills which only affect one ATK stat. Increasing both S-ATK and T-ATK makes it more effective than Striking Up or Technique Up 1 for increasing damage.
-1 SP is very easy to fit in and has an SP efficient effect for what it does, recommended to use.
-More than 1 SP is not recommended due to poor increases per SP.

Long Time Assist

-1 SP skill. Increases the duration of a Shifta and Deband effect applied by the user by 30s per tick. Requires Techer to be the main class.
-Shifta and Deband apply a 15s duration per tick normally. Long Time Assist makes this 45s per tick, a tripled effect.
-Maximum Shifta and Deband duration is 3 minutes. Four ticks of Shifta or Deband will achieve the max duration, minus the time spent between ticks. Shifta and Deband have 2 ticks uncharged, 4 ticks charged, and can be crafted for +1 tick for 3 uncharged and 5 charged.
-Only one support tech field can be active at once (Zondeel counts as an offensive tech for this) per player. If a second support tech is used before one expires, the previous support tech will be overwritten. For Shifta and Deband, remaining ticks will not take effect, even if overwritten by another Shifta or Deband.
-Extremely useful for applying buffs to other players. Normally Shifta and Deband take two charged uses to apply the maximum effect to a player, and several seconds are lost during the application of these ticks, making it necessary to apply a third buff to actually get the max duration. And after applying the buffs, 15s per tick is difficult for upkeep. Long Time Assist makes it significantly easier to apply Shifta and Deband and keep them applied to players.
-Also makes keeping Shifta and Deband on the user easier. Uncharged usage of Shifta and Deband will give a minute and a half duration, two minutes and fifteen seconds if crafted for +1 tick. This makes it easy to use between spawns or during boss fights.
-Essential for keeping Shifta Strike or Deband Cut/Toughness applied.
-1 SP cost makes this possible to fit into any build. Extremely convenient skill that creates the foundation of Techer's ability to apply Shifta and Deband to itself and other players. Always recommended.

Techer Subclass Overview

-Subclasses add the ability to use PAs and techs attached to that particular class, 20% of the class' stats, and the entirety of the skill tree, minus skills that are main class only.
-In order to actually use subclass weapons, they must be equippable by the main class, in this case Techer.
-Hunter, Fighter, and Braver are recommended subclasses for Techer.
-Recommended Hunter base.
-Recommended Fighter base.
-Recommended Braver base.

Hunter Subclass Overview

Spoiler!

-Balanced melee class that specializes in offensive and defensive skills.
-Allows access to swords, wired lance, and partisans PAs.
-Many damage and defense increasing skills, including a skill that grants immunity to flinching.
-High striking damage, but poor tech damage.
-The skills Rare Mastery Hunter, Fury Gear Boost, All Guard, War Brave, and Guard Stance Advance cannot be used when Hunter is a subclass.

Hunter Weapons

-All weapons have Guard as their weapon action.
-All weapons have Step as their dodge action.
-All weapons use S-ATK and are considered striking attacks for all damage done.
-Many super armored attacks.

Swords

-Possesses wide range and powerful attacks. Many charging attacks.
-Slightly slower Step speed than normal.
-Heavily reliant on Sword Gear. Sword Gear accumulates by landing attacks with a sword. Sword Gear increases damage, range, number of hits, and charge times for Sword PAs.
-Lack of Fury Gear Boost means Sword Gear builds slowly, limiting sword's abilities.
-Limited use for Techer.

Wired lances

-Possesses wide reaching attacks. Many attacks are grabs.
-Attacks are generally slow with limited mobility, but restrict enemy movement. Good for fighting regular enemies.
-Wired Lance Gear accumulates by landing non-grab attacks. Up to 3 stocks can be accumulated. Wired Lance Gear is consumed by grab attacks to increase power by 30%.
-Wired Lance Gear is easy to accumulate with PAs such as Wild Round and Kaiser Rise.
-Ultra-damaging PA Holding Current is boosted by Wired Lance Gear. Can be combined with Zanverse for top-class boss killing ability. Cannot be canceled, so dangerous to use on moving targets.
-Long-distance PA Kaiser Rise launches enemies and accumulates Wired Lance Gear while dealing good damage. Versatile PA.
-Wired lances are recommended to use as a Techer for their top-class boss killing ability. Holding Current is a centerpiece for killing bosses quickly. Build gear with non-grab PAs to boost Holding Current damage.

Partisans

-Possesses swift attacks. High mobility weapon. Possesses a few charging attacks.
-Lowest range among Hunter weapons. Possesses fewest number of PAs that can be canceled with Guard.
-Partisan Gear is accumulated by holding down Guard. Partisan Gear accumulation is interrupted if an attack is blocked. Up to 3 stocks can be accumulated.
-Partisan Gear can also be accumulated through animations at the end of Partisan attacks. These animations fill 1 stock of Partisan Gear.
-Partisan Gear is consumed by PAs to increase power and range. Partisan Gear increases the damage of PAs by 10%, except for Sacred Skewer and Vol Graptor. Sacred Skewer's damage is increased by 20%. Vol Graptor does not have its damage or range affected, but its projectile speed is increased.
-When accumulating Partisan Gear through blocking or animations after a PA, PP cannot be regenerated. PP can be regenerated while accumulating Partisan Gear through animations after normals.
-Long-range PA Speed Rain performs 5 projectile attacks rapidly. High damage output, good range, fast attack. High tendency to target weak points in range.
-High power PA Zenith Throw performs a three-stage stabbing attack. Highest DPS and PP efficiency of partisan PAs, but short range. Basic but strong PA.
-High mobility PA Assault Buster performs a thrusting attack that covers good distance, high power. 0.5s charge time. Can be used for travel or targeting weak points precisely.
-Wide-ranged high power PA Slide End performs a sweeping attack that covers a wide area in front of user. 0.5s charge time. Good for hitting multiple high HP targets. Highest damage of any single hit among partisan PAs, suitable for initiating Vol Graptor combos.
-Combo PA Vol Graptor copies damage done to a target and detonates, duplicating damage. Damage duplicated is increased by Just Attacks and charging Vol Graptor. Charging Vol Graptor is a 20% increase, for up to 56% more damage. Lasts 10 seconds until an attack is copied, detonates 3 seconds later. High power potential. Can be used with techs, but low tech power of Hunter and partisans makes this difficult to use effectively. Good for quickly eliminating high HP enemies or bosses. Copies Zanverse damage from all players, highest damage potential is with other players. Is not positively affected by enemy weak points, but is affected by resistant hitzones. Vanishes if applied to a part that breaks before detonation.
-Partisans are recommended for their high versatility and mobility. Excellent complement to wand's lack of range and mobility. High power suitable for defeating bosses quickly as well.

Hunter Skill Overview

Fury Stance

-Stance skill. Incompatible with Guard Stance. Increases striking damage by up to 20%. Both wand strikes and Wand Gear are striking attacks.
-Increases striking damage taken by 5%. Ranged and tech damage taken is unaffected.
-Required to use Fury Stance Up 1/2, Fury Critical, and Fury Combo Up.
-Minimal survival penalty for large increase in damage makes Fury Stance a staple Hunter skill to use for Techer players.

Fury Combo Up

-For every consecutive Just Attack performed during Fury Stance, increase damage by up to 10%.
-All levels of Fury Combo Up cap at a 10% increase. The difference between levels is how much % is added with each consecutive Just Attack. Level 10 maxes the damage bonus on the first Just Attack, level 5 provides a 5% damage bonus on the first Just Attack and the full 10% for all following consecutive Just Attacks.
-Works for techs, but does not work for Wand Gear.
-Not working on Wand Gear handicaps this skill's usefulness, but it's still an unconditional damage bonus. Because 5 SP gets the full bonus on the second Just Attack, it can be preferable to save the 5 SP that could be used to max the skill out for other skills.
-Using support techs before attacking can help reach the max damage bonus more quickly.

Guard Stance

-Stance skill. Incompatible with Fury Stance. Reduces striking damage taken and increases S-DEF. Striking reduction is a max of 25%. S-DEF increase is a max of +200.
-Required to use Guard Stance Burn, Guard Stance Poison, Guard Stance Up 1, and Absorption.
-Because Guard Stance is incompatible with Fury Stance, using it suffers a large decrease in damage. Guard Stance also only affects striking damage taken when other Hunter skills reduce damage more effectively and with no Stance restrictions.
-Mentioned as a skill to avoid. Do not use.

Massive Hunter

-5 SP active skill. Reduces all damage taken by up to 25% and prevents all flinching, including the status effect Shock and environmental hazards. Max duration of 45s with a 90s cooldown.
-Massive damage reduction and provides immunity to flinching for wand damage, extremely useful. Active/cooldown times means Massive Hunter can be active up to half the time.
-Duration makes for very versatile boss fighting skill. By minimizing the need to dodge, wands can use the third, strongest hit of their combo more frequently and attack when they would otherwise have to dodge.
-Healing techs Resta and Megiverse can be used to heal damage taken while attacking. Zanverse can be used to further increase damage.
-Can be combined with Deband Toughness and Deband Cut to great effect. Also pairs well with Flash Guard 1/2, Flash Tech Guard, and Halfline Automate.
-Highly recommended skill, immunity to flinching is an extremely useful quality for wand usage. Also greatly increases survival ability.
-Does not provide immunity to grab-type attacks.

War Cry

-Active skill. Instantly grabs enemy attention when used. Increases hate generation by up to 400% for 30s. 30s cooldown. Leveling increases hate generation and time duration, but does not change cooldown.
-Zondeel already allows players to actively pull enemies where they want, but War Cry can help when enemies are outside of Zondeel range, when having an enemy's attention is beneficial, or if the enemy is immune to Zondeel, like a boss.
-Primary benefit of skill is acquired with just 1 SP, so little reason to put more SP into skill.
-While not particularly beneficial, 1 SP is a minimal cost for a potentially handy skill.
-Affected enemies will have a red light appear on them.

JA Bonus 1/2

-When performing a Just Attack, increases the damage of striking and ranged attacks by up to 10%. With both skills maxed, striking and ranged damage is increased by 21%.
-Does not work for techs.
-Very straightforward skill, good damage increase. Always recommended.

Flash Guard 1/2, Flash Tech Guard

-Reduces damage taken. Flash Guard skills are up to 20% for striking and ranged damage each. Flash Tech Guard is up to 30% for tech damage.
-Damage % reductions are multiplicative. Maxed Flash Guard 1/2 is 100 * 0.8 * 0.8 = 0.64, or 64% damage, instead of 60%.
-Passive skills, low effect but are always reducing damage. Meaningful difference in damage over time.
-Stacks well with Massive Hunter and other defensive skills.
-Useful defensive skill, recommended if seeking higher defense reductions.
-Because Flash Guard 1/2 reduce 2% damage for two types of damage, and for the most common two, they are recommended over Flash Tech Guard.

Iron Will

-When HP would be reduced to 0, there will be a 30-75% chance of remaining at 1 HP. 1-5 seconds of invincibility will be triggered upon activation. Leveling increases chance of triggering and invincibility duration.
-Required to use Never Give Up.
-Random chance of activation makes this skill unreliable.
-Because the goal of a defensive build is to avoid being reduced to 0 HP, the odds of Iron Will triggering would be minimal in a well designed build, decreasing its effectiveness further.
-Not recommended.

Automate Halfline

-Automatically use a -Mate item when HP is at 50% or less. Activation rate is up to 100%. Leveling increases activation rate.
-Requires Monomates, Dimates, or Trimates to be in the user's inventory.
-Automatic heal saves time and PP from using healing techs. Dimate and Trimate heal 60%/100% of HP respectively.
-Also useful for healing when performing lengthy attacks such as Holding Current.
-Does not do anything if HP was reduced from 51%~ to 0%.
-Has a short cooldown, so a rapid succession of moderately powerful attacks will still be fatal after the first activation.
-Although Techer can already heal during lengthy attacks using Megiverse, Automate Halfline allows more opportunies to use Zanverse instead. This increases the overall damage output of everyone in the MPA.
-Automate Halfline is less helpful than other defensive skills due to Techer being able to heal itself with Megiverse effectively, but is still a handy skill to have that increases versatility.

Techer/Hunter Builds

Basic Example

-Balanced between offense and defense.
-Male Human selected for high HP and S-ATK without losing out on T-ATK.
-Emphasizes defense somewhat more than other builds.

Bulky Offensive

-Leans more toward striking damage than previous build.
-Only differs in Hunter build. Sacrifices Flash Guard skills for Striking Up.
-High S-ATK further increased by Shifta effects.

Max Wind Mastery

-Sacrifices Deband skills for max Zanverse damage.
-More suited for increasing damage through Zanverse than other builds.
-Low survival ability compared to previous builds. Possibility of death during Massive Hunter.

Wired Lance/Partisan Only

-Essentially Hu/Te, but reversed to take advantage of Techer main only skills.
-Highest support ability, but more limited and gimmicky than other builds.
-Not really recommended, but a decent for fun build.

Pure Damage

-Straightforward damage oriented build. Focuses primarily on increasing damage with minimal investment in side skills.
-Although Massive Hunter is a major draw to Hunter and discarding it almost defeats the purpose of subclassing it, wired lances and partisans are still available, and Hunter has high striking modifiers for both wand melee and Wand Gear.
-No survival skills makes this similar to Te/Fi, but trades techs for Hunter weapons.

Fighter Subclass Overview

Spoiler!

-High powered melee class that sacrifices defensive abilities in exchange for greater damage output.
-Allows access to twin dagger, double saber, and knuckle PAs.
-Features many damage enhancing skills that work for both striking and tech attacks. Many skills require conditions to be met.
-Many skills that require low HP, can be difficult to use.
-High tech damage makes Fighter a suitable subclass for tech usage paired with wand melee.
-For strictly using wands, Fighter is recommended as a subclass.
-The skills Rare Mastery Fighter, Critical Strike, and Limit Break cannot be used when Fighter is a subclass.
-High power short-ranged weapons create a lot of overlap with wands. Fighter weapons are not recommended for use.

Fighter Skill Overview

Brave Stance

-Stance skill. Incompatible with Wise Stance. Increases all damage by up to 25% when attacking in front of an enemy.
-Required to use Brave S Up 1 and Brave Critical.
-Strong boost to techs, easy to utilize.
-Lower damage increase than Wise Stance, but much easier to use.
-Easy to use and high effect makes this a top priority Fighter skill.

Wise Stance

-Stance skill. Incompatible with Brave Stance. Increases all damage by up to 35% when attacking from behind an enemy.
-Required to use Wise Stance Up 1 and Wise Critical.
-Stronger damage increase than Brave Stance, but somewhat more difficult to use.
-Some targets are easiest to attack from behind. Wise Stance becomes a consistent and powerful skill for these targets.
-May not be useful due to lack of versatility, but high damage potential.

Tech Arts JA Bonus

-5 SP skill. Increases damage by up to 15% when performing a Just Attack with different PAs or techs in a row.
-Can alternate between different PAs and techs, but because wands lack PAs and Fighter's weapons are of limited use, this is not very useful for Techer.
-Normal attacks do not qualify for the damage bonus.
-Exact functionality of what disables the damage bonus is difficult to verify.
-Can use support techs before offensive techs to easily trigger the damage bonus.
-Somewhat limited for general usage, but some tech combos have higher power with Tech Arts JA Bonus.
-Good for techs, but has no effect on wand melee.
-Recommended for tech usage.

Halfline Slayer, Deadline Slayer

-When low on HP, increase all ATK stats. Halfline Slayer is up to +100 for all ATK stats at 50% or less HP, Deadline Slayer is up to +150 ATK at 25% or less HP.
-Halfline Slayer is approximately a 2% increase to wand strikes, a 4% increase to Wand Gear, and a 5% increase to tech damage. Deadline Slayer is approximately a 3% increase to wand strikes, a 6% increase to Wand Gear, and an 8% increase to tech damage.
-Attack increase is not affected by Shifta.
-Difficult to use. Cannot heal or be healed by others or effect will be lost.
-No means for lowering own HP makes the effect difficult to acquire.
-Techer's low HP makes getting hit almost certainly fatal while using either Slayer skill.
-Decent damage increase, but difficult to take advantage of.

Halfline Boost

-5 SP skill. When at or below 50% HP, increases status effect rates by up to 100%.
-1 SP is a 50% increase, for half the effect at 1/5th of the cost.
-Multiplicative skill. A 50% status rate is 100% when maxed.
-Much stronger increase than Mirage/Panic/Poison Boost.
-Allows for reliable status effect application, but condition can be difficult to use.
-High effect for 1 SP, easy to fit in to most builds.

PP Slayer

-When PP gauge is at or below 50%, increases all ATK stats by up to +200.
-PP Slayer is approximately a 4% increase to wand strikes, an 8% increase to Wand Gear, and an 11% increase to tech damage.
-If the user had more than 50% of their PP and performed a PA or tech that reduced their PP to below 50%, PP Slayer will still activate.
-Extremely limited usage for wand melee due to PP being regenerated with each hit. Strictly for tech usage.
-Effective with techs that cost low PP. Can quickly reduce PP with high cost techs such as Il Foie or Na Megid to trigger PP Slayer, then use low PP techs to maximize damage increase.
-Can also combine with PP Convert for high PP cost techs for a consistent damage bonus.
-Useful for tech usage, but high SP cost.

Crazy Beat

-5 SP skill. While under the effect of a status effect, S-ATK is increased by up to +200.
-1 SP is +100 S-ATK, for half the effect at 1/5th of the cost.
-Crazy Beat increases damage done with wand strikes by approximately 4%.
-Does not increase R-ATK or T-ATK.
-Extremely difficult to use due to requirement. Freeze, Shock, Mirage, and Panic are best cured with Anti.
-If under the effect of Burn, status can spread to other players. Trying to use Crazy Beat means not applying Super Treatment to those players.
-When partying with other players, high probability that one or more of them will cure the status effect, disabling Crazy Beat.
-Too impractical to recommend.

Crazy Heart

-5 SP skill. While under the effect of a status effect, PP regeneration is increased by up to 100%. Also affects PP regenerated by attacks.
-1 SP is a 50% increase in PP regenerated, for half the effect at 1/5th of the cost.
-Primarily useful for techs, since wand melee does not cost any PP.
-Can deliberately wait until a status effect is almost expired and then apply Super Treatment for continued PP regeneration.
-High effect, but suffers from the same practicality issues as Crazy Beat. Because there is a high probability that at least one other player is suffering from a status effect, it is most sensible to apply Super Treatment so that all players that were affected have increased PP regeneration.

Chase Advance, Chase Advance Plus

-Increases damage done to an enemy suffering from a status effect. Chase Advance increases striking damage done by up to 25%. Chase Advance Plus increases all damage done by 15%, and is a 5 SP skill. With both skills active, striking damage is increased by 43%.
-In addition to status effects tied to techs, the status effects Bind, Injury, and Stun will trigger Chase Advance skills.
-Special animations caused by status effects do not qualify as status effects for the purpose of Chase Advance skills. Chase Advance skills are also not triggered on enemies afflicted with Jellen.
-High status effect rates of techs allows for easy usage of Chase Advance skills, but limited value outside of mid-bosses. Cannot be used on boss-class enemies.
-Wand's high power against regular enemies makes it difficult to benefit from Chase Advance skills. Trying to apply a status effect will generally be slower than attacking the targets normally.
-Good damage increase for both striking and tech attacks against mid-bosses. Can focus primarily on tech damage or move in for melee after applying a status effect successfully.
-Inability to work on all targets limits usefulness, but powerful effect when active.

Chase Bind

-When performing striking attacks on an enemy suffering from a status effect, creates a chance to apply the status effect Bind up to 70% of the time.
-1 SP generates a 20% chance to apply Bind whenever a striking attack is landed, 28% of the effect for 1/10th of the cost.
-Can be applied by wand melee and Wand Gear, but not techs.
-Bind prevents an enemy from moving. It does not prevent an enemy from attacking, and enemies can still move if performing an attack that involves movement.
-Most mid-bosses and all bosses are immune to Bind.
-Limited usefulness of Bind makes it difficult to recommend. 1 SP investment generates a decent probability of activation with a minimal loss, more SP than that is not recommended.

Adrenaline

-1 SP skill. When a Shifta or Deband effect is applied, Adrenaline increases the duration applied by 30s per tick.
-Only works on the user of Adrenaline. Does not work on other players.
-Works regardless of who applied the Shifta or Deband effect to the Adrenaline user.
-With Adrenaline and Long Time Assist, Shifta and Deband effects last a minute and 15 seconds per tick. Uncharged will give 2 and a half minutes and the full duration if crafted for +1 tick.
-Makes keeping Shifta and Deband effects easier, but does not help other players.
-1 SP cost makes this easy to fit in to any build and reduces time spent using Shifta and Deband. Useful for self-support.

Techer/Fighter Builds

Basic Example

-Balanced between melee and tech damage.
-Sacrifices damage in specific areas for general increases.
-Versatile, but lacks any particular focus.

Tech-Centric

-Emphasizes tech usage. No elemental specialty.
-Higher fire, ice, and lightning damage than other builds.
-High T-ATK beneficial to Wand Gear. Lower damage than melee builds still.
-Lower potential damage for wind, light, and dark techs.

Specialized Tech-Centric

-Emphasizes specialized tech damage. Retains high melee power, but lower than other builds.
-Can be altered for wind and dark.
-Can take 2 SP from Territory Burst PP Save for Wind Mastery 1 and Dark Mastery 1 for more balanced tech damage.
-High wind, light, or dark tech damage.

Melee-Centric Hybrid

-Retains tech damage, but favors melee skills.
-Similar to basic build
-Good wand and tech usage, but does not excel in any area

Limit Break

-Fighter/Techer build. Sacrifices Techer main skills for Fighter main skills.
-Highest striking damage, but poor support ability.
-Fighter weapons are usable.
-Also has high general tech damage, but not as high as builds centered around techs.
-Not recommended due to poor support skills and poor selection of Fighter equippable wands.

Braver Subclass Overview

Spoiler!

-Hybrid class that uses melee and ranged attacks to operate effectively in any range.
-Allows access to katana and bullet bow PAs.
-Many skills that enhance katana and bullet bows.
-Skills that enhance the power of normal attacks and charged attacks are present.
-Skills that add additional effects to Step such as a damaging effect or the ability to Just Attack are present.
-High number of skills that emphasize Braver weapons limit build options.
-High powered normal attacks and techs, but poor Wand Gear damage.
-The skills Rare Mastery Braver and Combat Escape cannot be used when Braver is a subclass.
-Versatility and power present from Braver skills and weapons make Braver the highest recommended subclass to use.

Braver Weapons

Katana

-Striking weapon. Weapon action is guard. Dodge action is Step.
-Possesses many high speed and charging attacks.
-Katana Gear is accumulated through landing attacks. Katana Gear is activated by performing a Just Guard. Surrounds user in an aura that increases S-ATK (minus weapon S-ATK) by 30%. Also increases critical hit rate by 50%. Lasts until Katana Gear is depleted. Effect ends upon switching to a non-katana weapon.
-Katana charges require a timed release instead of a held charge. Charge times are universally 0.5s at the first release timing.
-Normal attacks are very rapid, short range. Good for building hits for Combat Finish. Short range can be compensated for with Zondeel.
-High-speed travel PA Asagiri-rendan performs a quick dash before a flurry of slashes. Can be canceled with Step, allowing for rapid movement. Excellent travel ability with PP Convert.
-Wide-range PA Kanran-kikyou performs a circular two-hit slash. Requires charging, extremely fast attack. Knocks enemies down. Good for building hits for Combat Finish.
-Several skills tied to katana usage. Please check Braver skill overview for more information.
-Recommended for high travel speed and Combat Finish. Not recommended for offensive purposes outside of Combat Finish. Katana Gear requires extended use of katana to be effective, not recommended for use.

Bullet bows

-Ranged weapon. Weapon action switches available PAs. Dodge action is Step.
-Possesses many charging and combo attacks. Step Attack and some PAs are striking attacks. Normal attacks can be charged.
-Some bows feature high T-ATK, making them suitable for tech usage. Techs must be used from the subpalette.
-Slightly slower Step speed than normal.
-Combo PA Banish Arrow copies damage done and detonates. Increases copied damage by 30% if performed with a Just Attack. 1.5s charge time, charging increases projectile speed and explosion range, but does not increase damage. Lasts 10 seconds until an attack is copied, detonates 3 seconds later. Is not affected by hitzones. Can be used with techs, high damage potential when using bows with high T-ATK. Copies Zanverse damage, but not damage done by other players, only the user.
-Extremely high boss killing ability through Banish Arrow combos makes bows, specifically those with high T-ATK, highly recommended for use.

Braver Skill Overview

Counter Edge

-1 SP skill. Adds a shockwave when performing a Just Counter with a katana.
-Damage is double the regular counter's damage.
-Katana can be used to block attacks instead of avoiding them with Step, then switch back to wands or bows. Counter Edge adds a small amount of damage for a low SP cost.
-Extremely limited use, but easy to fit into most builds.

Average Stance

-Stance skill. Incompatible with Weak Stance. Increases all damage done by up to 15%.
-Required to use Average S Up, Average S Critical, and Average S Charge.
-Versatile, but weak effect. Good for wand strikes and katana, poor for Wand Gear, techs, and bows.
-Not particularly recommended, but does have a good damage bonus for when Weak Stance can't be used.

Weak Stance

-Stance skill. Incompatible with Average Stance. Increases all damage done to weak points by up to 35%, but reduces damage done to non-weak points by 5%.
-Required to use Weak Stance Up, Weak Stance Critical, and Weak Stance Charge.
-A weak point is any hitzone of an enemy that takes more than 1x damage. Hitzones affected by Weak Bullet become weak points unless damage taken would still be 1x or less.
-For tech attacks, in addition to weak points, elemental weakness is checked. Weak Stance can be applied by attacking a weak point with a non-weakness element or by attacking a non-weak point with a weakness element.
-Wand Gear qualifies as a tech attack for the purposes of Weak Stance.
-Unless attacking a weak point, wand strikes will be penalized even if matching elemental weakness.
-Damage increase is lower than Average Stance for wand melee on single targets, but higher for multiple targets.
-Strong bonus to tech damage and bow attacks as well.
-Recommended for tech usage.

Katana Combat

-Active skill. Requires a katana to use. Allows high speed attack movement for 20s. Activate Katana Combat again to perform a powerful shockwave attack, Katana Combat Finish. Leveling decreases cooldown, level 1 is 180s, level 10 is 90s.
-Required to use Combat JA Finish, Combat Escape, and Combat Finish.
-Katana Combat Finish is strengthened by landing attacks during Katana Combat. Caps at 30 hits. Techs do not qualify. Normal power is 300, increases by 30 for each hit, cap is 1200 power.
-Can quickly max hits by using Zondeel to pull many enemies to attack. Basic combo is 4 hits for each enemy.
-Katana Combat Finish's damage is increased by performing a Just Attack.
-Invincible during Katana Combat Finish.
-When performing normal attacks during Katana Combat, teleport to the closest enemy to attack. Normal attack speed is increased. Good aerial combat ability.
-Katana Combat Finish is the primary draw for katana as a Techer. Deals with enemies that cannot be pulled with Zondeel effectively. Invincible for dealing with dangerous situations.
-Because the main use of Katana Combat is to quickly perform Katana Combat Finish, leveling is low priority.

Combat JA Bonus

-5 SP skill. During Katana Combat, increases striking damage by up to 15% when performing a Just Attack.
-Does not apply to Katana Combat Finish. Performing Katana Combat Finish ends Katana Combat.
-Good skill, but requires extended katana usage to benefit.
-Not recommended for Techer.

Combat Finish

-5 SP skill. Increases the damage of Katana Combat Finish. Level 1 is a 100% damage increase. Level 5 is 200%.
-At 0 hits, Katana Combat Finish has 600 power with Combat Finish at level 1, and 900 power at level 5. At 30 hits, Katana Combat Finish has 2400 power with level 1 Combat Finish and 3600 power at level 5.
-Extremely high damage potential. Annihilates high HP enemies.
-Recommended to maximize Katana Combat Finish damage.

Rapid Shoot

-Active skill. Requires a bullet bow to use. Reduces the damage of normal attacks to perform three attacks at once. Also increases the rate at which a Just Attack can be performed after a normal attack. Lasts 60s, cooldown is 150s. Leveling increases damage and Just Attack speed, but does not change active time or cooldown.
-Required to use Rapid Shoot Up 1/2, Rapid Shoot Mastery, and Rapid Shoot Advance.
-At level 10, damage done per normal attack is 34% * 3, making normal attacks 2% stronger during Rapid Shoot.
-PP regenerated on a per hit basis remains the same. Without Rapid Shoot, normal attacks regenerate 3 PP when uncharged, and 9 PP when charged. During Rapid Shoot, uncharged normal attacks regenerate 3 PP * 3, and charged attacks regenerate 9 PP * 3, for 27 PP per attack.
-Necessary in order to use other bow skills. Leveling increases damage and attack speed, making it easier to fit normals between techs and slightly increasing damage output. PP Convert makes PP regeneration less helpful than it would be, but can be used without PP Convert.

Rapid Shoot Mastery

-During Rapid Shoot, increases all damage by up to 15%.
-Increases striking and tech damage as well as ranged damage.
-Straightforward skill, enhances tech damage for bow combos.
-Recommended to use.

Rapid Shoot Advance

-5 SP skill. Increases PP regenerated by bullet bow attacks. Also reduces Rapid Shoot cooldown. PP regeneration is increased by up to 40%, Rapid Shoot coldown is reduced by up to 30%.
-When maxed, bow normals will regenerate 4.2 PP * 3 for uncharged attacks and 12.6 PP * 3 for charged attacks. Uncharged attacks regenerate 3.6 more PP than without Rapid Shoot Advance, and charged attacks will regenerate 10.8 more PP than without Rapid Shoot Advance.
-Rapid Shoot's cooldown is reduced to 105s from 150s, for a 45s reduction. With an active time of 60s and a cooldown of 105s, Rapid Shoot can be used every 45s.
-Recommended for lowering cooldown of Rapid Shoot. Enhanced PP regeneration is a plus, but not particularly important.

Attack Advance

-5 SP skill. Increases the damage of normal attacks by up to 50%.
-Does not apply to uncharged techs, Wand Gear, or the Step Attack of wands.
-Also does not apply to Katana Combat Finish, Counter Edge, or Snatch Step.
-Counting both wand strikes and Wand Gear, the damage increase is approximately 20%.
-Extremely high damage increase for wand strikes. Largest damage bonus from a single skill.
-Also applies to bow normal attacks. Bow normal attacks have 200 power when charged. As ranged attacks, bows qualify for headshot bonuses, doubling damage.
-Recommended for wand usage. High effect for small SP investment. Bow damage increase is a small bonus.

Charge Shoot

-5 SP skill. Requires a bullet bow to use. Increases damage and speed of bow normals. Damage is increased by up to 15%, speed is increased by up to 50%.
-Does not affect bow PAs or techs used with bows.
-Speed increase reduces angles, increases accuracy.
-Minimal value skill. Good damage increase, but only applies to bow normals. Speed of projectiles are of nominal importance.
-Not recommended, but lack of useful Braver skills makes Charge Shoot an option for maximizing bow damage.

Quick Mate

-1 SP skill. Reduces the usage time of -Mate items.
-Does not affect X Atomizer or other items.
-Without Quick Mate, it takes 100f to use a Monomate, 151f to use a Dimate, and 200f to use a Trimate. With Quick Mate, it takes 62f to use a Monomate, 94f to use a Dimate, and 125f to use a Trimate.
-PSO2 runs at 60f per 1s. Without Quick Mate, it takes 1.66s to use a Monomate, 2.51s to use a Dimate, and 3.33s to use a Trimate. With Quick Mate, it takes 1.03s to use a Monomate, 1.56s to use a Dimate, and 2.08s to use a Trimate.
-Quick Mate reduces -Mate usage time by roughly 40%.
-Monomates heal 30% HP, Dimates heal 60% HP, and Trimates heal 100% HP. Trimates are half as fast as Monomates, but heal more than three times the HP. Dimates are roughly 3/4ths as fast as Monomates, but heal twice the HP.
-An uncharged Resta is faster than Monomates and heals approximately 50-75% HP with a +power recipe, depending on T-ATK and HP. A charged Resta is faster than either Dimates or Trimates and heals approximately 100% HP with two ticks.
--Mate items do not require PP, but Territory Burst PP Save reduces the PP expense of using Resta. Megiverse can also be crafted for -PP to cost as little as 3 PP when combined with Territory Burst PP Save.
-Superior healing speed and power of Resta makes -Mate items not recommended for use.

Braver Mag

-5 SP skill. Adds S-ATK and R-ATK to base stats depending on how much DEX is on the user's mag. Level 5 is a 50% conversion rate.
-With 190 DEX, Braver Mag adds 95 S-ATK and 95 R-ATK.
-Does not subtract from DEX given by mag.
-More effective with more DEX on mag. Should not be used without a pure DEX mag.
-Small increase in S-ATK and non-existent increase in T-ATK makes Braver Mag not recommended for use.

Snatch JA Combo

-1 SP skill. When performing a Step, adds a Just Attack timing at the end.
-Works for all Step actions except dual blades and jet boots.
-Timing differs depending on weapon. Some weapons are faster than others, some slower. Wands have normal speed.
-Highly practical skill for mobile combat. Increases damage of Step Attack, enables faster Just Attacks of techs.
-Recommended for versatility. Adds attack options otherwise not present to wands. Low SP cost.

Techer/Braver Builds

Basic Example

-Balanced build. Does not specialize in anything.
-Best for unspecialized tech usage.
-Lack of specialization reduces effectiveness in important fields. Wind/light/dark tech damage suffers.

Specialized Tech Usage

-Focuses on one element to maximize damage for it.
-Recommended for high damage bow combos.
-Can be altered for dark.
-Wind is not recommended due to lack of enemies weak to wind. Weak Stance requires an elemental weakness to be effective.

Average Stance/Wind

-Emphasizes wand melee and wind techs.
-Less damaging but more versatile than other builds.
-Not particularly recommended.

Dual Stances

-Wand-centric build. Relies on switching stances to optimize damage.
-Max Wind Mastery skills for optimal Zanverse damage.
-Weaker techs, poorer bow combos.

Bow Main

-Sacrifices wand skills for two elements. Light and dark recommended, but can use any two of three Techer elements.
-Higher focus on bow skills in Braver tree. Retains katana skills.
-Almost strictly for tech usage. Not recommended.

Generalized Bow Main

-Focuses more on general tech damage than specialized elements.
-Lower damage capacity for non-maxed elements, but higher overall damage for targets not weak to maxed element.

Specialized Bow Main

-Focuses on one Techer element instead of two.
-Highest T-ATK capacity makes for best fire/ice/lightning tech damage.
-Highest potential damage for wind/light/dark, but less useful for using more than one Techer element.

Techer Equipment

Weapons

Spoiler!

-Element Weak Hit and (Te/Br only) Weak Stance require weapons of all elements except wind to use effectively. The only enemy weak to wind exclusively, Bantha Ong, is a rare variant of the boss Fang Banther, which is weak to fire.
-Recommended to acquire weapons of many different elements to use Element Weak Hit and Weak Stance most effectively.
-Does not apply to techs. Techs ignore weapon element.

Wands

Acru Carta

-10* wand. Oceanid Hunter potential. Recommended for ice element.
-Specialized wand for fighting oceanids. Natives of planet Wopal.
-Requires 450 DEX to equip.
-Braver equippable.
-Drops from Talobecko. Level 61+.
-Motif of female Cast parts Avilda Series. Wopal motif.

King Yede Club

-10* wand. Native Hunter potential. Recommended for fire element.
-Specialized wand for fighting Naberius natives.
-Requires 550 S-ATK to equip.
-Drops from King Yede. Level 66+.
-Motif of King Yede.

Noire Wand

-10* wand. Dragon Hunter potential. Recommended for ice and dark element.
-Specialized wand for fighting dragonkin. Natives of planet Amduscia.
-Requires 425 R-DEF to equip.
-Has a set bonus with Noire units. +60 (120) to all ATK stats, +30 (60) HP.
-Drops from rare boss Noire Draal. Level 66+.
-Motif of Noire Draal.

Pristine Small Hammer

-10* wand. Discerning Eye potential. Can be used with any element. Recommended for ice, lightning, light, and dark.
-Abnormally high S-ATK, potential increases all damage types. Well balanced.
-Requires 425 DEX to equip.
-Bouncer equippable.
-Drops from level 41+ Leran-gam. Can also be found in Emergency Quest Advent of the Annihilator at VH or above.
-Motif of all-race male costume Pristine Grand Armor and all-race female costume Pristine Lovely Armor.

Elysion

-11* wand. Innocent Appearance potential. For tech usage. Element is irrelevant.
-Increases uncharged tech damage by 70%. Extremely powerful effect.
-Recommended for Techer/Fighter. Best uncharged tech damage among Techer main classes.
-Requires 500 S-ATK to equip.
-Force equippable.
-Drops from level 56+ Dark Falz Elder. Can also be found in all three Mining Base Defense quests at VH or above.
-Retro weapon from PSO. Formerly a Saber-class weapon.

Seras Cure

-11* wand. Dragon Hunter potential. Recommended for ice and dark element.
-Less S-ATK than Noire Wand, but higher T-ATK. Stronger techs and Wand Gear, weaker wand strikes. Weaker when fighting single targets, stronger when fighting multiple targets.
-Difference between Noire Wand and Seras Cure is minimal. If no preference, Seras Cure is recommended.
-Requires 425 T-DEF to equip.
-Force and Braver equippable.
-Drops from Goronzoran. Level 66+.
-Motif of female outfit Seras Alicia. Dragon Sanctum motif.

Mangus Grin

-11* wand. Negative Hunter potential. Recommended for light element.
-Specialized wand for fighting darkers. Darkers appear on all planets. Some quests feature darkers exclusively.
-Requires 700 T-ATK to equip.
-Drops from Ultimate Quest enemy Yugadrahda. Level 80+. Exclusive to Emergency Trials.
-Duplicate of weapon used by Yugadrahda. Part of "clone" weapon set. Darker motif. Palette swap of Grim Grin and Bloody Grin.

Traitor Cage

-11* wand. 常昂気功 (Normal Rising Fighting Spirit?) potential (20% increase to normal attacks). Recommended for any element.
-Extremely high striking damage, best of all wands next to Ares Wand. Low Wand Gear and tech damage. Specialized for single target combat.
-Competes with Pristine Small Hammer. Stronger wand strikes, weaker Wand Gear and tech damage. Stronger for single targets, weaker for multiple targets. Pristine Small Hammer is recommended over Traitor Cage.
-Requires 435 S-DEF to equip.
-Hunter and Ranger equippable.
-Has 682 R-ATK.
-Has a set bonus with Traitor/Abyss Minion rear unit. +40 to all ATK stats, +10 HP. Weapon and rear unit set.
-Drops from Breeahda. Level 76+.
-Motif of female outfit Funny Traitor and male outfit Vanis Traitor. Tundra motif.

Ares Wand

-13* wand. Strongest wand. Phantom Blessing potential. Recommended for any element.
-Highest performance of all wands without exception, but extremely rare.
-Requires 730 T-ATK to equip.
-High difficulty of acquisition makes acquiring and maxing element for 5 different Ares Wands an extremely difficult endeavor. Recommended to gather other wands prior to attempting collecting a full set of Ares Wands.
-Drops from Ultimate Quest boss Anga Fandarge. Level 80.
-Motif of the Phantom Beast Ketos.

Recommended Wand Selection

Fire: Ares Wand or King Yede Club
Ice: Ares Wand or Acru Carta + Noire Wand/Seras Cure + Pristine Small Hammer/Traitor Cage
Lightning: Ares Wand or Pristine Small Hammer/Traitor Cage
Light: Ares Wand or Pristine Small Hammer/Traitor Cage + Mangus Grin
Dark: Ares Wand or Noire Wand/Seras Cure + Pristine Small Hammer/Traitor Cage

Special: Elysion (techs)

Subclass Weapons

Wired lance: Glorious Wing (Ancient Oath)
Partisan: Trident Crusher (Ancient Oath), Soul Banish (Discoidal Spear)

Katana: Aseracta (Dragon Hunter, Ice/Dark recommendation), Bio Janen (Immediate Destruction)
Bullet bow: Rikauteri (Ancient Oath)

Units

Spoiler!

Crafted XQ

-PP craft: +30 PP, +12% shooting resistance. 1008/924/924 defenses.
-Set bonus: +90 to all ATK stats.
-Highest ATK bonus. High defenses. Highest shooting resistance.
-0 HP bonus. No striking resistance.
-Recommended for offensive purposes. Best offensive set.
-Can be found from boss drops in XQs. Trade 50 tier 2 XQ spellstones for a 2s XQ unit.
-Motif of default outfits.

Saiki

-Units: +150 HP, +12% striking resistance, +12% shooting resistance, +24% ice resistance. 960/846/999 defenses.
-Set Bonus: +60 to all ATK stats, +80 DEX, +25 PP.
-High overall defenses, good HP and PP. Well balanced.
-Highest striking and shooting resistance, second highest S-DEF. Highest T-DEF. Good for defensive use.
-Lower ATK and PP bonuses than crafted XQ.
-Can be crafted for PP. Highest PP bonus when crafted, but lower HP and striking resistance.
-Uncrafted is a balanced defensive set, crafted is a high PP offensive set.
-Drops from Gigur Gunne-gam. Level 66+.

Brisa

-Units: +120 HP, +15 PP, +9% striking resistance, +12% shooting resistance, +9% fire, wind, and light resistance. 885/924/885 defenses.
-Set Bonus: +70 to all ATK stats, +50 DEX, +9% ice, lightning, and dark resistance, +80 HP, +5 PP. Total of 200 HP and 20 PP.
-Slightly higher ATK than Saiki. High HP and R-DEF, highest shooting resistance. Lower PP and striking resistance. Excellent overall elemental resistances.
-Primarily a defensive unit set.
-Drops from Emergency Quest boss Magatsu. Level 66+.

Faren ("Zieg")

-Variable unit set. Units are interchangeable. 4 sets, S-DEF, R-DEF, T-DEF, DEX.
-Recommended units are S-DEF and T-DEF.
-S-DEF units: +240 HP, +9% striking, shooting, and tech resistance, +6% fire and wind resistance. 960/846/846 defenses.
-T-DEF units: +24 PP, +9% striking, shooting, and tech resistance, +6% lightning and dark resistance. 846/846/960 defenses.
-Set bonus: +50 to all ATK stats, +30 DEX, +45 HP, +4 PP.
-Set bonus is enhanced by equipping Faren weapons. +100 ATK, +60 DEX, +90 HP, +9 PP.
-S-DEF has highest HP and S-DEF. T-DEF has highest T-DEF. Both sets tied for highest tech resistance.
-S-DEF has lower striking resistance but more HP than Saiki. Tied for S-DEF. T-DEF has best overall defenses and resistances, but low HP.
-Lowest ATK bonus of listed sets.
-S-DEF set has highest defensive ability of listed unit sets, but lowest ATK and PP. Can mix S-DEF with other Faren units for more PP, but less HP.
-Obtained from doing NPC Zieg's Client Orders.

Unit Comparison

HP:

Faren (S-DEF): 285
Brisa: 200
Saiki: 150
Faren (T-DEF): 45
Crafted XQ: 0
Crafted Saiki: 0

PP:

Crafted Saiki: 55
Crafted XQ: 30
Faren (T-DEF): 28
Saiki: 25
Brisa: 20
Faren (S-DEF): 4

ATK:

Crafted XQ: 90
Brisa: 70
Saiki: 60
Crafted Saiki: 60
Faren (S-DEF): 50
Faren (T-DEF: 50

S-DEF:

Crafted XQ: 1008
Crafted Saiki: 1008
Saiki: 960
Faren (S-DEF): 960
Brisa: 885
Faren (T-DEF): 846

R-DEF:

Crafted XQ: 924
Crafted Saiki: 924
Brisa: 924
Saiki: 846
Faren (S-DEF): 846
Faren (T-DEF): 846

T-DEF:

Saiki: 999
Faren (T-DEF): 960
Crafted XQ: 924
Crafted Saiki: 924
Brisa: 885
Faren (S-DEF): 846

Striking Resistance:

Saiki: 12%
Brisa: 9%
Faren (S-DEF): 9%
Faren (T-DEF): 9%
Crafted XQ: 0%
Crafted Saiki: 0%

Shooting Resistance:

Crafted XQ: 12%
Saiki: 12%
Crafted Saiki: 12%
Brisa: 12%
Faren (S-DEF): 9%
Faren (T-DEF): 9%

Tech Resistance:

Faren (S-DEF): 9%
Faren (T-DEF): 9%
Crafted XQ: 0%
Saiki: 0%
Crafted Saiki: 0%
Brisa: 0%

Offense: Crafted XQ (90 ATK, 30 PP), crafted Saiki (60 ATK, 55 PP)
S-DEF: Saiki (150 HP, 960 S-DEF, 12% Striking Resistance), S-DEF Faren (285 HP, 960 S-DEF, 9% Striking Resistance)
R-DEF: Brisa (200 HP, 924 R-DEF, 12% Shooting Resistance)
T-DEF: S-DEF Faren (285 HP, 846 HP, 9% Tech Resistance), T-DEF Faren (45 HP, 960 T-DEF, 9% Tech Resistance)
Overall defense: S-DEF Faren

[Lorne]

Excellent guide! Thank you very much.

I just have one thing that I'd like clarification on...

The animation is also pretty flashy, and will vary based on the element on your wand. Note that regardless of the element of your wand, Wand Gear Explosions will paradoxically count as non-elemental damage, however...

Are you sure about that? I asked before if the wand attribute percentage affects wand gear explosions, and was told the following:

@Lorne - Yes Wands elemental attribute % does affect Wand Gears explosions.

So, how exactly does this work? The attribute percentage increases the explosion damage, yet it still counts as non-elemental damage? Or does the attribute percentage actually not affect the explosions after all?

[Arksenth]

Wand Explosions work really, really weird. It uses your T-ATK, but counts as a "Striking Elemental Attack" and thus is granted the (weapon elemental attribute/100) bonus - but despite this, it's still non-elemental damage. All striking multipliers will impact Wand Explosions in general. Also, even if you JA your smack, the Wand Explosion itself will not be JAed, and thus cannot benefit from the 30% JA multiplier or any class-related JA skills.

[MetalDude]

I've been running through the wand equipment list over and over and I'm still not sure where I should be diving into in terms of TE/FI. It sounds like Windmill and Evil Curst would cover all of my teching needs, but I don't know how important it would be to consider having every element covered in terms of smacking.

[Arksenth]

Depends on what kind of build you're going for, duh. A Windmill is fine for standard wind builds, but if you're going to element match - which is a very good idea on TE/FI, by the way, you might want a wand for most if not all elements. The chart is there for you to decide what set of wands you want to tote around.

[gigawuts]

I just want to stop by and advocate for TE/BR, which I find to be a very compelling combination. It's got similar power to TE/FI but with an omni-directional stance (although the missing Chase Advance Plus is a fairly large downside).

What really adds to the class are the snatch step and just reverse cover skills, which augment the Wand Lovers step and lack of hyper/super armor into having additional flinch and recovery. The two skills are certainly more useful for TE than other classes.

My build is far from complete (I still have yet to get a fast charge recipe for Nafoie, which is going to make a big difference), and I'm only using a 24 light Elysion so the results may be skewed, but the bonus damage on the explosion with a tech mag against darkers, weak points, and boost points is pretty notable and against groups of darkers seems to more than make up for the lack of bonus damage to the direct wand strike.

I find it to be pretty fun.

[MetalDude]

Depends on what kind of build you're going for, duh. A Windmill is fine for standard wind builds, but if you're going to element match - which is a very good idea on TE/FI, by the way, you might want a wand for most if not all elements. The chart is there for you to decide what set of wands you want to tote around.

Alright, just wanted to understand how important it was to make use of EWH. I was already a little bit in progress but didn't want to dump too much money before making any mistakes.