Force LF>Advice

[XephyrEnigma]

So I'm just coming back to the game after a couple of years, Ultimate ep 1 kicked me in pretty hard. Even at full HP (600 or so) with buffs I was getting oneshotted by most bosses. On top of that, my damage seems to be lacking compared to some other players? None of my techs seem to be breaking 300 damage a cast. What can I do to improve this, exactly? I know this is asking a ton, although I do understand weapon choice has a fair bit to do with tech damage as well. I suppose I should be asking is it normal to expect more out of what im doing with these stats.

 

Stats as of L107

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[Kikori]

The buffs given to enemies on Ultimate make it really hard to be a powerful nuking Force. It's my understanding that you need to either have an insane amount of Fluids on hand and damage buffing items out the wazoo to be a full-on Nuker, or to find a weapon to play more Red Mage style sword-and-spell instead of Black Mage style nuke nuke nuke.

Most Force I see who try a route for cheap (myself included) are more in the realm of support. Shifta/Deband Jellen/Zalure Resta/Anti whenever possible or appropriate, Rabarta to freeze problem enemies in a group, use what elemental weakness you know is accurate when safe. If that fails, remember versaitlity; carry some kind of special effect gun or reliably accurate yet strong weapon to strike incapacitated, isolated foes. Full nuker is difficult, but your buffs and debuffs are invaluable enough that even a level 107 can be a FREAKIN' HUGE help to a team of level 200 endgame pros. Just, don't be surprised if you have to get revived a lot from bosses, or crits.

Edited September 25, 2017 by Kikori

[XephyrEnigma]

Ah, so i guess it is kind of normal to be this fragile. What exactly do you mean by damage buffing items, ive already got things like Dagon/Agni/Indra or Caduceus. Though as for your other point I guess nothing but practice is going to help me not getting pasted in there.

[Kikori]

Merge barriers, for one. Barriers that buff either the power of individual spells, or an entire family of the Foie / Barta / Zonde spells. I remember having Yellow and Red Merges on my Force on Gamecube, and the time it took to swap to them in-game on the GC was worth the boost.
Centurion-quality units if you can get a hold of them. Centurion/Technique would free up another slot for something like V801 for all around faster casting.
I can't remember the name of it, but an insanely expensive item you can hold onto that boosts offensive spell damage by roughly 400%.

It's also not a bad idea to test and figure out what Megid works against. Instant kill is a pretty popular tool in some quests. I personally haven't tested it a ton.

[Fyrewolf5]

This is just kinda normal. The ep1 enemies are the same as vanilla, there is no difference in their hp or resists, the vanilla game is just a bit biased against tech damage since techs have more widespread aoe, more targets, consistent damage, and stunlock potential over regular weapons. 600hp is also extremely low still, you may want to get your char some hp mats for a bit of a boost. Soloing with techs is possible in most areas with the right gear (some of which can be hard to come by, specifically the pbridge) though it works best in ep4 and the first half of ep1 (the other areas are still manageable with techs at the highest level of gear, but not necessarily the ideal option for those areas).

Generally the best way to increase tech damage is through various gear that gives % bonus to specific techs. The elemental wands you have give only 20% bonus to that element (e.g. agni is 20% foie/gifoie/rafoie). Stronger things would be things like Psycho Wand (45% ra- techs, -50% tp cost but takes full cost from hp), hylian shield which drops for a few more days from gal gryphon (100% grants, 75% rafoie, 60%razonde), 3 seals (25% ra-), Psycho Bridge (Dark Bridge + Proof of Sonic Team, 85% rafoie/razonde 95% rabarta, difficult since it's made out of a dark weapon). There are also the elemental cloak armors, ignition/congeal/tempest cloaks which give 30% boost to that element (e.g. ignition cloak is 30% foie/gifoie/rafoie). For simple tech bonus there is the Glide Divine v00 (200% foie, 100% barta/zonde) which is nice to use some tech damage in team game without spamming ra- techs, which is quite detrimental in team play (causes bad monster reactions and a lot of damage cancel). A v801 unit is also highly recommended at all times in any force playstyle for faster techcasting speed; these are generally free, I can get you one if you need it.

In team games forces usually play more redmage style with buffs/debuffs for the team and also some melee/ranged weapons, and use of demon's special alot for fonewearl (demons does -75% current HP damage, thus ignoring foneys low atp to deal massive damage), and some si- tech use with glide v00 if you choose to. For supporting a fonewearl would like to have a Glide Divine (boosts jellen/zalure range, +15 all resists, restores tp with a use option if held for 10 consecutive minutes), Striker of Chao (Shifta/Deband Range), Bringer's Rifle (demon rifle), Slicer of Fanatic (Demon Slicer 3target extended range), Samba Fiesta (demon mechguns, samba maracas + harmonic resonance core), Lindcray (spirit rifle, resta/anti range boost), and an assortment of other things situationally. Even if it's not the flashiest form of play with large numbers flying on the screen, they are actually technically one of the most damaging chars in a team due to demon's doing 3k+ damage on many mobs and the overall increase from shifta+zalure adding 3x-4x more damage to the other players numbers. On top of that you can make enemies merely tickle with high level jellen, and resta will nearly fullheal your hp. Fonewearl does take awhile to get going though; as a newman, they have very slow growth rates and high base-max differences, but those potential maxes are comparatively strong when they do get reached.

[mudkipzjm]

tl;dr Don't bother with attack techs unless it's ep 4, use melee stuff, make sure stuff is debuffed and your team mates are buffed, don't suck.

[XephyrEnigma]

Thanks for the advice. Though, does that Hylian Shield drop from a specific quest or does it have a chance of dropping where you'd normally fight GG?

[Lemon]

Purplenum, Skyly, Greenill 1⁄146 Gal Gryphen (normal drop).  But only for a few more days since it's an event drop from this event.