Guide: Protranser class

[panzer_unit]

I tend to 2-hit with fists and swords because you're right on that the last hit is something of a liability. I'll only use it from safety, otherwise it's better to take the really fast recovery and reposition. It's not like PSO where the later hits in your combo are more accurate or anything so it's not a huge loss when you can't get them out.

I would expect silence traps are Earth element, damage and burn both look pretty firey of course... I haven't tested for element bonuses on Damage Trap damage.

BTW M Cast lv53/PT2 exactly meets requirements for GRM 5* melee at 232 ATP. That's the second level/rank combo that's exactly met the requirements for a weapon.

[Alisha]

do damage traps still knock enemies up online? i've seen nobody mention that in any protranser topics that why i ask.

[panzer_unit]

Unexpected pregnancy jokes aside, yes damage traps still flip monsters. The problem is that it doesn't seem terribly useful since you can do the same thing a lot of the melee PA's (1st hit with Rising Strike, 2nd with Bogga Danga, 3rd with Tornado Break) repeatedly and practically for free. Really, re-stocking traps from the NPC should be on par with recharging PP (use traps whenever possible) or at the very worst purchasing the amount of 'mate you would save bu using a trap to avoid being hit (use traps whenever you're without a Fo). As it is, a single G trap would have to wipe out an entire A rank encounter or an entire block in C rank to justify costs vs loot and rewards.

Damage traps are justifiable against Kogg Nad since the spikes can trigger EVP and screw up your PA... and Kamatoze because if you don't flip 'em you are very likely to get smoked by the Nosubarta they're 99.9% likely to hit you back with... supposing you have a huge number of melee characters who are waiting on that safe chance to rush and pile up the damage.

[AC9breaker]

I doubt damage traps are fire based, but I might do some tests later on tonight to verify it for myself. If Damage traps are neutral, then I would also assume that silence and poison are both earth elemental.

Actually I've found damage trap to be pretty useful and I speculate they will be even more useful once we gain access to Axes. A strategy I've been contemplating is knocking down the enemy then taking adavantage of its recovery period with a hard hitting weapon. If you notice, just about all of Protransers weapons are hard hitting. While saber and knuckle PA's can knock enemies down, its kinda hard to switch to weapons fast enough & get a good string off. Meanwhile, with explosion traps, you could potentially, knock enemies down, switch to axe while you position yourself behind them then unleash a combo, PA Shotgun blasts, or whatever intill they regain their composure.

Also, I think we should get a discussion going on the roles of traps. Lets put aside the detail of cost and talk about their effectiveness.
While traps are great and all, we should realize a few things. The amount of traps we have is limited. So therefore we should reserve what traps we decide to use for the appropiate situation. Burn, Virus, and Poison traps. Obviously these should be saved for the Huge mobs. Tenghoghs, Kogg Nadd, etc.

I think Damage traps would serve nicely in mage enemy formation. You could throw down a trap in the middle of the formation and blast them all across the screen making it safer to take them out individually for the close combat specialists in the groups or yourself. I've yet to use shock and Silence traps and I've still to make up my mind on freeze traps.

[Neith]

I was in a party with a Protranser last night, and nearly died when I saw how much G-Traps annihilate enemies. 600+ every few seconds to Tengohgs is sick. We NEED more Protransers, dammit.

[panzer_unit]

I get a normal (e.g. bad) weapon-switching lag... both going from weapon -> trap and trap -> weapon... so there's no more advantage flipping a monster over with a weapon skill then changing weapons to pile on the damage, vs flipping a monster over with a damage trap. Personally I go sword. The third swing on Tornado Break can knock large monsters over (and farther than usual lol) and you can get in there for 2-3 hits and another full Tornado Break combo so the last swing hits just as they're on their feet and ready to be knocked over again. Just hope the effect goes off... it's not 100% in my experience.

I guess if you're packing the right variety of traps you could have enough to mess up every large monster you see in a mission. Let's take nasty casters as an example: you could use Silence, Freeze, and Sleep traps ... maybe some Confuse, it seems effective but I've only dropped on packs of enemies ... making a total of 15-20 ways to shut up a Jarbra for a while. On the other hand it takes so long to beat those guys up, I wonder how many you could get through if your plan was just to totally stop it from casting while other people do the damage.

I wonder: maybe it's enough to get started with a fast status from a trap (sleep, say) then start working with Ice and Earth bow skills to alternate between freeze and silence.

Note that early in the PT job it's DANGEROUS to be up close trapping Kamatoze and Jarbra, thanks to the awesome tag team of super low HP and awful MST. Maybe it's wise to highly suggest Gi-Senba for missions where you're facing a creature with that persistent Barta spell.

[Cav]

For referense Virus is 5% hp every 4sec for 32sec, burn is 4% every 2sec for 10secs and poison is 2% <.< didnt bother getting the times. I would only recommend using traps on large annoying mobs if you value your wallet at all.
fire bow 21+ is really nice too, lvl 4 burn is definately hax and trap saving. took me one day of skilling bow to get 21 so it's not like other ranged weapons.
Only G traps are really worth it imo. Since normal traps only hit one mob and aren't instant. G traps have 100% lvl 4 status while normals have lvl 2 status.
Also, carry scapes as PT1, >.> with <700 hp you had better.

[Genoa]

IMO, I think Protranser is a horrible class to rush into if you just hit HU 5, RA 5, and FO 5 only. Now i'm definately not bashing Protranser... Infact someday I plan on making my M-Cast go Protranser. But for the easiest Protranser development... I think i'm going to max all all the bullet levels I have as Fortegunner (for the guns that Protranser can equip) and switch to Fortefighter and max out all the melee PA's that Protranser can use.... By then i'll be a high enough level to do decently run S rank missions. This will be the time to go Protranser and wear all the lower grade equipment I've collected on my long voyage towards PA perfection. I have no shame in doing lower grade runs for faster mission points to secure the safety of the party and the rewards of others. We all have friends that we fly by in levels, why not still be able to join them with crippled lvl.1 Protranser stats?

I'm all for Protranser, but try not to do things way over your head in a party who really admires the S rank <_> ... (almost every party admires S rank...)

[Rizen]

I do agree with MegamanX here, dont rush into Protranser. I rushed Protranser on my alt and made the change at lv 27ish I believe. I had a hard time adjusting to the change of very low stats with underlevel'd PAs. For the most part, I was able to hang in on missions using bow but other than that I was doing 0 damage or almost getting 1-shot any given enemy. I had to retreat to low level C rank missions until I was able to level up my PAs and use better equipment. If you wait til you are higher and/or plan out your Protranser the change wont be as harsh.
Currently Im lv 40 Protranser 2 1/2 with my main PAs from 16~22ish. Im able to melee in A rank missions now but I have to be careful of the heavy hitters like the Buls in Moatoob. I mostly use Swords, Spears, Shotgun, and Longbow. Getting Tornado Break to lv 21 is well worth it, the knockback from the 3rd attack will save your hide if you get surrounded. As far as traps, you only really need to use them for the more annoying enemies that have high HP, high defense/evasion, or just need to die quick.
As far as grouping, if you dont have a group you are familiar with, going one rank lower than what you normally would to be safe. S/A rank missions can get nasty if the group doesnt know what they are doing, resulting in you being in a tough spot if you need help. B/C ranks are a bit more forgiving than the other two. If you got a group you run with on the daily basis, keep at your normal pace. Your team probably knows how you play by now and/or be more friendly for helping you adjust to the new role.

Hopes this helps a bit.

[rena-ko]

a few thoughts about the issue...
job level 1: 50% HP
job level 2: 60% HP
job level 3: 70% HP
job level 4: 80% HP
job level 5: 90% HP
job level 6: 100% HP
job level 7: 105% HP
job level 8: 110% HP
job level 9: 115% HP
job level 10: 120% HP


overall, very lousy stats. some of them get out of the sub-100% range (based on raw stats) around level 6. before that, it will be tough.