Chuk's general Forceguide

[chuk]

Welcome to my first guide, this will cover up the general basics of a good force.

This guide is more for people who are having trouble with this class and mostly avoided it.

When u are quite familiar with FO’s this guide will not be full of surprises. Feel free to

add a comment or tell me your thoughts. (constructive comments are apreciated) As you will see,

I m quite a fan of reducing TP use cause I think using a trifluid every 5 min is too much.

Important: Find ur own style, and u do not have to agree with me on all parts

Introduction

Before you attempt to make and level-up a Force, it’s recommended to have another character

that can collect good gear for your FO. HUcasts go fast through the game and are an excellent

choice for beginners and experts. Pick up Fo weapons, tech disks, mind materials, mindboosting

units and meseta as these will come in handy for your starting FO.As you start a quest, always

carry at least 9 tri- and difluids in your invent.

First things first

Playing a FO is completely different then playing another class (even for a melee FOrce).

They lack on ATP/ATA and many other stats when they start off.

Most important stat when you want to use your techniques alot, is without a doubt MST (mental strength, determines the effectiveness

of your tech’s ) followed by TP(Technique Points, determines the amount of spells you can cast

(the blue bar) ) for non-melee FO's. This brings us to

the first reason why a FO is a tad harder to play than other classes.

Change your mind

For the technique-casters and nukers among us :

Try to boost up your TP/MST as high as possible, for obvious reasons :

- More TP = more techniques with less (tri)fluids

- Higher MST required for high techniques (more effectieve)

- More damage

- Better FO equipment

It’s important to have a high amount of max TP as it fills up at much occasions.

(like leveling up, being revived, using trifluids,… )

How do I boost it?

- Feed your mag so that its mind goes up as much as possible. Try to get at

least 150+ mind as this would give you 300+ more max TP. (you can raise a mindmag on other chars as well).

- Look for a 4 slotted armor so you can equip mindboosting units. (angel, god and heavenly minds )

When u start off, those are the most important basic-units(mostly on lower difficulty’s).

- Some weapons give high MST/TP boosts (Clio, solferino, … ).

- As for shields, spirit garment or regenerate shield B.P. will make your TP go

up a little while playing (this is not very much, but all bits help).

Later you will be wanting techboosting merges/weapons to make your spells more effective.

What kind of force?

There are roughly 3 main ways to play Forces : Melee FO’s, Support FO’s and Battle FO’s.

Melee FO’s are more concentrated in ATP/ATA and

actualy fighting with weapons.

The support FO, who is the most loved by other

teamplayers but is also more reliant on the team.

And the Battle/Tech FO

who will mostly use techniques to blast up the enemies, he’s a good solo-er and,

when played right, he can clear up rooms at a very high speed (especially episodeIV).

Recommended support FO’s are

FOnewearl and FOmarl, recommended melee forces, all but FOnewearl’s (FOnewmans are not the best choise either ) .

And recommended battle FO’s are FOnewm and FOnewearl. But most mages can play all roles, it’s just an advantage with bonuses and stats.

Melee FO’s

The melee FO, quite a challenge here but you can be very effective with this playstyle. For dealing

high dammage with your ATP, take the FOmar, as he has the best ATP out of the FO-familly. Followed

by FOmarls who have a little more ATA and some better support bonuses. If u wanna take a newman FO

u'll have to demon and hell those pesky ragol monsters.

Either way, boost ur ATA to the max asap on all ur melee FO's, try to get weapons with hit and when

using ranged weapons (like Slicer of fanatic (SoF), Bringer's rifle,... ) wear a 'SMARTLINK-unit' to.

increase even more your ATA. Ofcourse, if you can afford a Red Ring(RR) it will boost out your ATA even more

Remeber to wear a v502 when using hell weapons as it doubles your effectiveness to instantkill. And another

winning unit is the ADEPT, as it lowers your TP usage by 25% and increases all other stats (even 20, mighty ATA!).

Recommended weapons to deal high dammage :

- Excalibur (Berserk and hits up 3 ennemies when close togheter)

- Vivienne, female only (high atp, can also steal some TP)

- Gyrasole, if you can't use a vivenne, it has lower ATP but looks way more awesome xD

- Tyrell's Parasol (it uses charge and boosts ur support-tech range)

- Charge vulcan's (preferably with 50% hit or more)

- LK38 COMBAT (since its combo unlock, it is more accurate but still slow)

- Master raven/last swan (to hit and run)

- Soul eater (its berserk power makes it a good multihit close combat wep)

- Diska of braveman (with the smartlink and its easy obtainable hit%, making it a strong zerk weapon)

Recommended weapons to demon and hell :

- Slicer of Fanatic (high range, 4 targets and good accuracy. Use SNS-combo)

- Bringers rifle (u can easily get 50 hit on it, good for Dorphons and other though bastards)

- Hell raygun (reduced, but with enough hit and a v502 it is a free megid lvl 30)

Don't forget to Zalure/Jellen the ennemies to make your attacks stronger. Also, you can carry

multiple mags with u, one for melee and one for techniques (At falz for example).

Support FO’s

Making a good support FO, is important later in the game. Your main job is to help your

teammates with buffs, debuffs and healing.

Helping the team is above all helping yourself. You don't want finding yourself dying all the time and slow down your team. This means, protect yourself from dangerous situations/status alts. Most annoying ones are : paralyse, shock and freeze. All others can easily be auto-cured with anti. To avoid those, you can :

- Wear protecting units like cure/freeze,shock & para or an armor that prevents status effects ( sacred cloth,... ).

- Use sol atomizers, always try to carry them around with you.

- Heal rings or the medical room, however this is out of the question when time attacking.

So now you've taken care of yourself, lets move on to your role in the team :

- Buffs : you need to cast shifta and deband on your team and on yourself.

Shifta makes the physical attacks of your team stronger, while deband strengthens up your

defense against physical attacks. Note : Elemental attacks are magically based and will not

be affected by DFP or ATP. They also will not “miss” unless u cast it the wrong way.

- Debuffs : pretty much the opposite of buffs, you’ll be casting jellen

and zalure on spawning enemies. The faster they have it on them, the easier the team

can kill them. Note : u get experience when an enemy dies that u debuffed, so no need to cast

another spell on them. Very handy against bosses aswell.

- Healing : there are 3 healing spells : resta, anti and reverser.

The one you will cast the most when your team is having a tough time, is resta.

It will recover HP from you and your nearby teammates. The higher the level, the wider the

range and amount of recovered HP. Try to keep everyone’s HP above ½. Anti, will be handy

to banish negative status-changes like : poison, paralyze, shock, confuse, slow and even at higher

levels, freeze. This can be very tricky, so keep your eyes open and if your anti range is too small,

go to the players to make those unwanted status-changes disappear. When you failed above roles,

there is the handy reverser spell who will revive a fallen teammate like a moon atomizer.

Note, like I said earlier : it's important to carry some sol atomizers so you can cure yourself from paralyze and such.

A scape doll can be a literally ‘life-saver’ for you and your team. A resta merge is also extremely usefull.

Remember, you are not the one who will kill the monsters so stay back and stick to your

teammates. TP wise, you will not encounter lots of problems, support spells are relatively cheap.

When you mastered this role, people will gladly offer you their fluids when you burned out of them.

Additional, if your team is doing fine, u can still be useful after the basic support jobs.

U can crack open the boxes, hit the switches, disarm traps and stun attacking enemies with gifoie or rabarta. Again, only do this when ur team is doing fine. And perhaps when you're feel confident, combine it with another FO role.

Battle FO’s

This role is pretty fun once u get the hang of it. Most important here, u will have to change

your weapons and spell customization depending on the enemies and areas. This might be a little

confusing at first, but again, you ‘ll become used to it. This is mostly because enemies have resistances

and weaknesses to elemental spells. For example : Booma’s are weak against FOie techs, while Gobooma’s

are less resistant to ZOnde. You’ll find out pretty fast witch enemy is weak against a specific spell.

Try to get your technique levels asap to lvl 30 so they get very efficient.

note: Casting barehanded is still the fastest way to spam techniques

The trickiest part of being a Battle FO, is that u will burn your TP fast. It’s completely normal

to run out of TP after several well-filled rooms. Here are some ways to handle this problem.

- God invented fluids, use them! Try to give other stuff to your mag and pick up armor

from the ground. Trifluids aren’t cheap so you’ll need to make some quick cash by selling trash like armor, non-rare weapons, ... in the shop.

- Max out your TP bar, the higher it is, the more techniques you can cast with one full bar.

And don’t forget its restored every time u level up, find a heal ring or healing yourself at the medic centre.

- Newmans recover TP by standing still, the higher the level, the faster it goes. This is however not recomended as it is to slow to be any good.

- Use the right techniques, keep the resistances and weaknesses in mind and cast spells

that can hit multiple enemies when the room is rather filled. (think of moths, claws recons who can

become overwhelming when not dealt right with). Sometimes running around can be good to

get the enemies close to each other.

- Equipment, there are lots of different weapons who will boost up your techniques,

meaning you’ll have to use less TP to make the same amount of damage. Try to always have weapons that

boost an elemental type. (Like ice staff : dagon, fire scepter : agni and storm wand : indra ).

As you level up, those bonuses will become more important than the stats of a weapon.

Don’t forget units that cut off TP use, like adepts or armor and weapons with the same ability. (Mother garb, psycho wand, dark bridge,… ).

- Grants and Megid are force only techniques that come in handy in higher difficulty’s.

Grants is costly but powerful, concentrates on 1 enemy. While Megid can instant kill an enemy (like a hell weapon). U can

also make megid penetrate (so it hits more enemies in one strike) with a demonic fork. FOnewearls have this capacity by nature.

A tech FO is a rusher in episode IV, meaning u can clear levels and stages at high speed.

Making it a good solo force, but you can also help out your team with some devastating techs.

More technique explanation will follow later.

In a team

Battle FO’s are less wanted in teams because of the so called ‘damage-cancelling’.

Whenever you use a multiple target hitting technique (also called a Nuke – most Ra an GI techniques- ),

all enemies in the room will get some recoil. This can cause other team-members to 'miss' their attacks and

deal less damage. So use with caution or when your teammates get overwhelmed.

Casting Megid is not a problem and will speed up the monster killing process in episode 2.

Suggested customizations

An example of a good support customization (anti,

reverser, shifta/deband and ruyker on the numbers)

Note :it’s very enjoyable to play with a controller instead of the keyboard.

Also, train urself on casting spells from the quick-menu, one big cheese and 2 burgers

if u play with the keyboard its ctrl + end, u can also sort them to acces

your favorites faster.

Handy equipment

- A solferino, its special is free resta lvl 4 what is really helpful to recover wounds

without losing TP. Very good when fighting amongst berserk-using teammates. Also handy when u use a

HP draining item, like the Psycho wand. It also doubles your resta range (but cannot combo).

Works great with FOnewearl's. Only recommended when u find urself low on TP by casting lots of resta.

- Glide Divine, this handy tool doubles your jellen/Zalure range and when worn 10 minutes

(equipped) u can use it to fully recover TP (it will bring your HP down to 1 so use it carefully).

- Psycho wand, halves down your TP cost but drains full cost of your HP. Boosts RA techniques by 20%.

- Range expending weapons/shields : clio (doubles zalure range and gives a nice 100+ TPmax boost)

, striker of chao ( doubles shifta and deband range), all kind of merges who will boost range and effectiveness of your techs.

Principal's gift parasol will als increase your Resta, Anti, Shifta, and Deband range (double).

- Like said earlier, tech damage boosting merges and weapons like ice staff : dagon,

fire scepter : agni/ hildebear's cane and storm wand : indra, must not be forgotten if you wanna max out your blasting power ^^

- Units : A v801, increases your casting speed or you can choose to cast unarmed.

Adepts, like mentioned earlier, they reduce your TP cost by ¼. Heavenly/technique helps to

upgrade your techniques that aren’t lvl 30. Smartlink for the melee FO as it gives 20 extra ATA for ranged weapons.

- Some weapons can steal enemy TP, best would be a geist weapon with some high hit (Vivienne).

- Some weapons cast techniques as a special, like hildebear/hildeblue's cane, elyson, ... This is ok if the enemies are weak

but as the difficulty rises, u won't have the time or the power to be effecient with it. Not recomended on ultimate.

- Manny more… There are so much items and combinations that work out well,

just do some look up and try things out for yourself.

Note: It's perfectly possible to combine those 3 roles, but it's more depending on your team and stats.

Most people will always ask you for shifta and deband, especially droids. The more different

roles you want to play, the more equipment you'll need to carry along, so be carefull to not "get lost" in all your stuff.

So now go make your own force, use my guide, find your own strategy’s and have fun ^^

It’s a challenge but If you give it a shot, I’m sure you’ll like it.

© Written by Chuk (corrected/completed by ultima community)

Edited June 23, 2011 by chuk

[sheldama]

- Glide Divine, this handy tool doubles your shifta and deband range and when worn 10 minutes

(equipped) u can use it to fully recover TP (it will bring your HP down to 1, but that's where the

solferino comes in ^^ )

And by Shifta//Deband range you mean Jellen//zalure range then yes.

Change your mind

Try to boost up your MST as high as possible, for obvious reasons :

- More TP = more techniques with less (tri)fluids

- Higher MST required for high techniques (more effectieve)

- Better equipment

)

Corrections in red

Sorry bud, but I think you need to spend a bit more time as a FO before we go making guides

[Dizzak420]

lol i would have to agree with azami , but not too bad xP

[dragon]

And by Shifta//Deband range you mean Jellen//zalure range then yes.

Corrections in red

Sorry bud, but I think you need to spend a bit more time as a FO before we go making guides

i think he did a pretty good job,if u can do a better one u can make a guide, but this is a pretty good job ^^

[purplepanda000]

"Range expending weapons/shields : clio (doubles zalure range and gives a nice 100+ TPmax boost), stick of chao ( doubles shifta and deband range), all kind of merges who will boost range and effectiveness of your techs."

striker of chao

and no, not too great

use PARASOL, YAAAAAA http://www.pso-world.com/items.php?op=viewarticle&artid=2363

that is if your fo can equip it... if not i know alot of people use that box thing, still better than striker

i also dont like your categorizing 3 types, theres no reason any fo cant throw on parasol for buffs and heals

switch to glide for debuffs and toss some rafoies on those dorphons

at least thats how i play

i also know people to use justice mechguns etc but i personally dont

and a solferino? never something recommended to me but whatever, its your guide

Edited January 7, 2011 by purplepanda000

[Whitewight]

The guide seems to be almost entirely written from a nuking perspective with minimal support outlook (S/D/J/Z as support).

Further support options would include things like the Slicer of Fanatic (ranged unreduced Demon's special that works with SNS glitch = great for helping your team out) or a bringer's rifle (easier to get high Hit % on if I remember correctly, works wonders for the bigger enemies that might not die in one hit). While rangers typically have better status weapons, you could probably do well with a high Hit arrest raygun or hell raygun as a force.

I have generally found that boosting your tech damage > higher MST. but when you can get both, that's even better. For a newbie force who wants to save money on fluids, there's always things like a geist raygun available (can get one from restless lion with hit if you've got another character that is capable of playing through RL easily enough), or you can simply go with the hildebear/hildeblue's canes and use their tech specials. I know that my force on gamecube practically lived off the Hildebear Foie special only because I was too cheap to go and buy more trifluids most of the time. I'm too lazy to add much more at the moment, but maybe I'll contribute some more in the morning.

[SunnyD]

Uhm all forces should support...and they shouldnt just clap while everyone kills everything, they can do damage... just saying

H/Tecnique > God Tecnique

Recommended support FOs are

FOnewearl and FOmarl, recommended melee forces, none but if u really want, go for the FOmar and

recommended battle FOs

(Fomarl is also a recommend battle force)

Uhm... No melee forces? Every force can and should melee given the right circunstances >.<

and in here a tech force that doesnt melee is pretty much a non soloer (Because solo mode has no quests) or EP IV if you want.

Also a solferino on Ultimate? I mean im pretty sure it will take a while to heal everyone, i think its best if you use a resta range boosting weapon for it and just use resta.

Dont know if im forgetting something.

Anyway you do have some usefull informacion, but i belive you should play a bit more to get the rest down chuck

Good luck

Edited January 7, 2011 by SunnyD

[chuk]

Thx all for the comments, already changed some stuff ^^ More tips are welcome as I feel it needs more implementing.

chuk

PS: I'm just in love with that solferino, surprisingly enough it heals plenty HP.

I got resta lvl 30 on my FO and it only heals 100 HP more, the only downside is its small range.

Swinging a wand also goes faster than cating resta (w/o the v801).

[Zynetic]

I've glanced over things, and here is my advice:

Playing any FO depends on your class; the FOs are most balanced in their melee potential as you either have more ATP or more ATA. (1102/173, 972/180, 914/190, 683/196)

It's obvious that all FOs should support their party, no matter what 'build' they are using, since you don't need anything special -- just a Glide Divine, Striker of Chao (if male), Tyrell's Parasol/Marina's Bag (if female) and a Resta Merge (all FOs).

All FOs are capable of nuking in Episode 4 when solo'ing, as they have L29~30 techniques (it is recommended to NOT use a technique boosting unit if your offense techs are all 29; you will NOT kill things faster) and technique boosts to further that damage. A FOmarl can nuke, though a FOnewm/newearl can obviously do it better. It's usually better to melee in E1/2 though.

All FOs are capable of melee, with FOmarl being the most capable (easy to maximise her statistics) and FOnewearl being the least capable. Their equipment sets depending on your class, as FOmarl and FOnewearl are able to make use of female only weaponry (Vivienne, being the main one, and I do believe Last Swan combos here, so FOmarl can use that for decent range handgun damage). But let's delve deeper into the classes.

Note: All FOs should melee, unless you want to use Si techs for offense instead. (A good FOnewearl method of offense)

---

FOmar (NOTE: I haven't played this guy, I may be overestimating his ATA, but since it's 173 here and normal FOmarl has 170, he should be okay...)

Having the least ATA of the forces, it's pretty obvious you will need hit moreso than the other three forces. His main benefit though is definitely his ATP, being the only FO to go over 1,000 (even before the +100 boost). This is will mean he has the power to pack a punch after he supports his party, providing you have the ATA to hit (you don't need humungous amounts of ATA, but some is recommended).

When solo'ing, nuke in E4. Otherwise melee.

When playing in a party, cast supports (SD(J)Z) -> Melee -> Mob dies -> Repeat.

My recommended equipment for FOmar is:

Weapons

• Excalibur (roughly 15~20hit is required as a minimum, even more is better, obviously)
  
• Asteron Belt (if it is obtainable here, this is a good beatstick for groups, the Hell is useless though as it is reduced)
  
• Girasole (good in the earlier areas (Forest, Caves, Temple, Spaceship, Crater) without hit, perhaps so in the later areas with a Red Ring)
  
• Charge Slicer (50H+) or Diska of Braveman with the armour Thirteen (FOmar has ATP to be able to use a Charge Slicer over Braveman if you do not wish to use berserk, but if you want to pack more of a punch, Braveman and Thirteen is the way to go)
  
• Charge Mechgun (50H+) (these are a little hard to use, NNS or NHS combos will work for your general enemies, low EVP enemies should be able to be NSS'd. High EVP enemies are not to be touched; instead use SNS Slicer of Fanatic for these)
  
• Slicer of Fanatic (does not need hit, but more is better; you are to use 'SNS' combos with this weapon due to a range glitch and it has Demon's. If you're curious, please PM me, but SNS is the best combo to use)
  
• Bringer's Rifle (50H) (good for long range Demon's. Tower, Belras, etc.)

Nuking equipment should be obvious (it's the same as any other FO), but I can list these if you want.

Support weaponry: Glide Divine and Striker of Chao.

Armour

Thirteen (if you use Braveman)

Lieutenant Mantle (if it has Trap Vision here)

Aura Field / Virus Armour:Lafuteria (Defense if you need it; shouldn't be needed due to access to 30DJ)

Units

V101 (When using any sort of melee weapon)

V801 (Try to equip this at all times; decreases casting animation time)

Smartlink (When using any sort of ranged weapon; slicers included)

Fill any spare slots you might have with Heavenly/HP, it's definitely the most useful unit. If you need to fill spare slot / 801 with H/Arms, feel free to do that.

Shields

Resta Merge (if you need the range)

Red Ring (if your party is good and they don't need healing too often)

Nuke Merges (these should be obvious, I'll list them if you need)

Shifta Merge could be good if you're skilled at switching merges; range can go over 300%, so yes.

---

FOmarl

Has a little more ATA than the FOmar, but much less ATP. But even so, FOmarl can be much more capable than FOmar at melee'ing due to her access to Rambling May, Vivienne (the second strongest double saber in the game) and Last Swan. You could also say she's a better support, due to her access to Tyrell's Parasol and boosts to all support spells (excluding JZ)

When solo'ing, nuke in E4. Otherwise melee.

When playing in a party, cast supports (SD(J)Z) -> Melee -> Mob dies -> Repeat.

My recommended equipment for FOmarl is:

Weapons

• Rambling May (I mean, duh. A 450ATP shot that fires two bullets at handgun speed, equalling six shots in a combo. Sphered, this weapon is a monster on FOmarl. Does not require hit.)
  
• Vivienne (An extremely powerful beatstick if sphered and coupled with at least 20~25Hit. It is advised to get two, both with hit and all four percents between them)
  
• Last Swan (Decent gun for range)
  
• Excalibur (though the animation is not as favourable as male's (or even female's), it is still a good weapon for certain mobs (2/3 enemies, closely grouped, lizards; though you can megid lizards. Hit is recommended).
  
• Charge Mechguns (50H+) (Good for single target damage, though Rambling May can be better, especially if sphered. This is for lower EVP enemies)
  
• Diska of Braveman (45H+) with Thirteen (it is recommended to use this weapon and armour combination for multi-target damage, as the damage can be very high, especially with spheres)
  
• Slicer of Fanatic (does not need hit, but more is better; you are to use 'SNS' combos with this weapon due to a range glitch and it has Demon's. If you're curious, please PM me, but SNS is the best combo to use)
  
• Bringer's Rifle (50H) (good for long range Demon's. Tower, Belras, etc.)

Nuking equipment should be obvious (it's the same as any other FO), but I can list these if you want.

Support Weaponry: Glide Divine and Tyrell's Parasol (if you are able to obtain Parasol with a very nice amount of it, it can be a good beatstick with NHS combos)

Armour

Thirteen (if you want to use Braveman)

Lieutenant Mantle (if it has Trap Vision)

Aura Field / Virus Armour:Lafuteria (for defense, but it shouldn't be needed due to access to 30DJ)

Units

V101 (when using any sort of melee weapon)

V801 (always keep this equipped if you can)

Smartlink (when using any sort of ranged weapon; slicers included)

Fill any blanks with Heavenly/Arms or Heavenly/HP. They are the best choices.

Shields

Resta Merge (if your party needs healing alot)

Red Ring (if your party is decent or if you are solo'ing and melee'ing)

Nuking Merges (should be obvious, but I can list them if you want)

Shifta Merge can be good for extra range if you're skilled at switching merges; range can go over 300%, so yes.

---

FOnewm

A little more ATA than FOmarl, and a little less ATA. Good, yes? Well, not really... FOnewm needs 61 ATA to reach his maximum once he is 200, requiring the use of Adept whether you like it or not. (I'll talk about what I think of Adepts later on...)

He doesn't get access to the female exclusives of the FOmarl, so it's pretty obvious he's much worse at melee'ing, but he can do it. He's also much worse at supporting, due to no boosts to his support ranges, but using some equipment will rectify that.

He is the best E4 nuker, so don't worry. If you want his strengths, that is definitely it.

You will also require two mags on a FOnewm due to his horrible time maxing, one for melee and one for nuking (MST isn't really important when you're melee'ing, 200 less MST won't hurt as you'll heal 100 less HP, but just cast Resta more than once, right?)

When solo'ing, nuke in E4. Otherwise melee. (Nuking could work in early E1 maps)

When playing in a party, cast supports (SD(J)Z) -> Melee -> Mob dies -> Repeat.

My recommended equipment for FOnewm is:

Weapons

• Excalibur (hit is not required on a FOnewm, but more is better. Good for multitarget damage)
  
• Girasole (a decent beatstick for FOnewm. Good for the earlier maps, even better in the later maps with Red Ring)
  
• Charge Mechguns (50H+) (good single target damage; due to FOnewm having 190 ATA, NSS should work on middle-ish enemies, NHS if that does not work (Red Ring helps))
  
• Diska of Braveman (45H+) with Thirteen (a good multitarget damage weapon for FOnewm coupled with the armour.)
  
• Slicer of Fanatic (does not need hit, but more is better; you are to use 'SNS' combos with this weapon due to a range glitch and it has Demon's. If you're curious, please PM me, but SNS is the best combo to use)
  
• Bringer's Rifle (50H) (good for long range Demon's. Tower, Belras, etc.)

Nuking equipment should be obvious (it's the same as any other FO), but I can list these if you want.

Support Weaponry: Glide Divine and Striker of Chao.

Armour

Thirteen (for Braveman usage)

Lieutenant Mantle (if it has Trap Vision here)

Aura Field / Virus Aura:Lafuteria (Defense; not really needed due to access to 30DJ)

Units

V101 (use this when using any sort of melee weapon)

V801 (try to keep one equipped at all times; if you need to replace with Arms, do so)

Adept (needed for maxing ATP/ATA/LCK, unfortunately)

Smartlink (use this when using any sort of ranged weapon; slicers included)

Shields

Resta Merge (if your party needs constant healing)

Red Ring (if your party is decent or you are solo'ing and melee'ing)

Nuking Merges (should be obvious)

Shifta Merge can be good. Range goes over 300%, so yes. Make sure you're good at switching merges fast!

---

FOnewearl

Seen her ATP? I'm sure you have. It's horrible. But fret not, you can still do something in a party after supporting without having fear of damage cancelling enemies. You can switch to a Pow/Dex mag for 580ATP/196ATA and use Demon's with Fanatic and Bringer's, with access to Tyrell's Parasol! This makes her very good for support AND able to melee with a party just as well. You will need two mags just like FOnewm, one for Demon's gear, and one for nuking.

She is also very good at nuking due to her high MST, put some boosts on her and away you go.

When solo'ing, nuke in E4. Otherwise melee. (Nuking could work in early E1 maps, may have to be done in E2, but works with Demon's use.)

When playing in a party, cast supports (SD(J)Z) -> 'Melee' -> Mob dies -> Repeat.

My recommended equipment for FOnewearl is:

Weapons

• Slicer of Fanatic (does not need hit, but more is better; you are to use 'SNS' combos with this weapon due to a range glitch and it has Demon's. If you're curious, please PM me (too lazy to explain here), but SNS is the best combo to use)
  
• Bringer's Rifle (50H) (good for long range Demon's. Tower, Belras, etc.)

Nuking equipment should be obvious (it's the same as any other FO), but I can list these if you want.

Support weaponry: Glide Divine and Tyrell's Parasol.

Armour

Lieutenant Mantle (if it has Trap Vision)

Aura Field / Virus Armour:Lafuteria (defense; not needed due to access to 30DJ)

Units

V101 (when using Fanatic/Bringer's)

V801 (try to keep this equipped at all times)

Smartlink (when using Fanatic/Bringer's)

Use any free slots with a H/HP; H/Arm if you need to. (Replace 801 if you need to)

Shields

Resta Merge (if your party needs constant healing)

Red Ring (if your party is decent and you want more Demon's ATA)

Nuking Shields (this should be obvious)

Shifta Merge can be good if you're good at switching merges. Boosts can go over 300%, so yes.

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Other tips:

• Using Gi/Ra techniques in a party with HUs/RAs is not a good idea. You will generally take 6/7/8+ (or much, much more) casts to kill a group with FULL BOOSTS, in which HUs/RAs can clear MUCH faster as long as you have Shifta and Zalure up. You also cause damage cancel with your techniques, as they'll hit every enemy in the room, causing damage cancel on EVERYTHING HUs/RAs hit. HUs and RAs can control their targets and also kill fast to avoid damage cancel.
  
• Solferino is not really recommended. It does not give any sort of range increase, and though it does not cost TP, why do you need TP reduction at all? Once a FO has 2,000+ TP, you can just pop a trifluid every 5 minutes or so, 36,000 isn't much, considering how much more HUs/RAs use Meseta. If you're really needing to spamspamspam Resta, your party is obviously very bad (Berserkers don't need spamspamspam at all, since they should be playing smartly)
  
• Adepts are also not recommended as you can put more useful units in those free slots. You do not need 25% TP Reduction. Want something better for TP? How about Trifluids? Having a huge TP pool, you need not worry about your TP at all.
  
• Technique units are also not recommended if your offense techniques are 28+ (which are not too hard to find; Gibarta is useless). Increasing your techniques by one or two levels will NOT make you kill faster at all; just have a bit of a higher number. Instead, you could replace that Technique slot with something more useful, like a HP Unit or V801 or whatever.
  
• You want to play all three builds (support, nuke and melee) no matter what class you're playing. It's really the most efficient way to play. All you'll need to do is switch gears. Not really hard.

Okay, ummm, I got way too carried away. xD Have fun.

I may add if I remember anything.

NOTE: You don't have to follow anything I have written. If you want to use something, go ahead, I am just speaking from a more efficient (AKA good play) standpoint.

Edited January 7, 2011 by Zynetic

[SunnyD]

I love Zynetics posts

and i 100% agree with what you said about the tp. I mean what is the obsession with tp reduction? you would waste an adept over something just for tp reduction?

also the solferino thing

Edited January 7, 2011 by SunnyD

[Artist]

Thanks for the guide and posts everyone.

I'm new to PSO and obviously new to the server. I want to make a melee FOmar (:

[Larva]

well this guy may help me if some day i decide to use a FO XD.

awesome post from Zynetic and Chuck

this guide is pinned and move it to general guides.

[chuk]

Updated!

Now covers up :

- melee FO's

- A customize image-example

- More units

still in progress :

- More images

- Techniques explanation

Feedback time

[shion255]

It's not really that I found "big blunders" in your guide like I said when we met in-game, but either things, by you or by others, where either the conditions for this or that to be true that are not explained, or perfectly obvious, or depending on personality. The "this is what you should do, no buts, no ifs" are bugging me. Not so much from youas, as I told you, you seem to value flexibility. The only non-vague piece of info I will give here is that unless I dealt with a boss, I never carried a weapon, which still seems pretty optional to me, even on a boss. So the "you should melee" stuff"... Hmmm, I wouldn't be so adamant. Not so adamant either regarding either a by-default or a circumstantial ideal equipment. Because telling people to "just equip this and you'll have no problem" thing is not quite to be applied to everyone. Even those who possess all those things may find that such or such advice is wrong. Now some people are going to tell me: "well you should do it because this, etc." One, I don't think it's so true and two, if it doesn't fit the Force's taste, he will keep playing as he used to anyway. This depends on personality, as I'm an extremist and the word "intermediate" is not quite part of my vocabulary. Also, I've had a very sharp exemple recently of how your mood can affect your playing-style. A revelator trather than an exception, I suspect.

<3

I never read guides, the word itself sounds annoying to me, but then again, you are a friend.

Peace

[shion255]

OK for some more down-to-earth piece of info, i'll correct a few things:

_ Higher level of Resta and MST willl not increase resta's radius.

_Battle Fos do not have to change their spell customization all the time. I personally have, with my fonewm, RA techs on the 3-buttons palette withough ctrl, SI techs with ctrl, grants on 9, megid on 0, occasional gifoi spamming from the F3 shortcut menu which does perfectly. The only moments when i change (and which are rather optional) are before barba ray and n-vh gol dragon for gizonde instead of razonde.

_Standing still is nothing great, even past the 150'.

_damage cancel is nothing,seriously. Even while playig with other advanced players, it does not "always" slow a team down.

_Something you told me in-game: that enemies' recoil from your spells depend on the damage you inflict to them. This is absolutely not true!

Now things you haven't talked about:

_Being immune makes a better support FO. How will the white mage unparalyse others if he is paralysed? Equip cure/para; freeze; shock; confuse units.

Def mats on this server. As the max for DFP has been raised by 100 (same for MST, less importantly), and given this can be made even more profitable with high deband, we can as well take advantage of it. I say use 50 more def mats for an elf FO than you would on the normal PSOBB game to have those supplementary 100 points in DFP., disdaining the other stats than DFP and MST. You'll do perfectly well if you're an elf FO.

_Rythm breaking? Far more considerable to me than damage cancelling. It is, on the side of the FO, the disturbance in the rythm with which he makes monsters have some recoil with say rafoie created by his support spells (which do nothing to make enemies have recoil), thus letting the enemies time to act -noticeably dangerous against gorans and ill-gills- ; and, on the side of the team, the disturbance in said recoil created by them attacking the enemies. But I won't personally tell them about it, as they have fun the way they want, mm?

_The elemaental staves to increase damage of simple attack spells by 40% each (namely adaman, laconium and zumiuran) are very useful against bosses.

And that's pretty much all. I know it's confusing about the rythm breaking part, but be a battle FO and you'll see.