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there are really no right or wrong builds for characters or mags, it's a matter or personal preference, for eample I went with hunter/force because I prefer a smash mouth in your face offense but someone that prefers to attack from a distance might go with a combination of ranger and gunner
@AndrlCh I'll be honest, I never really tried playing Phantom as any kind of caster. Haven't even really worked through all the PAs to see if I liked any others. Just the AoE one, the one that puts a ring of constant damage around the player when you use it after a Weapon Action. When I use Rod, that's pretty much all I use. Throw out the ring, then charge in and use regular attacks until the combined damage procs a marker. Probably the absolute least efficient way for a Phantom to use the Rod I imagine, and a complete departure from my preference of avoiding melee fights. Still have that obsession with using a scythe, though. The ring of damage does seem to stun a lot of enemies and keep me from getting swamped, which are the two main elements of why I avoid close-range, but DPS is probably in the toilet.
I probably should try a more Tech-focused approach for a bit. Take advantage of those abnormally long -frames more often. So far I've pretty much only been using them to cast Shifta or Resta, not offensively.
Like many aspects of this game, I wonder if I'm approaching them all wrong. At least from a "getting the most out of it" point of view.
@zaffy2005 I haven't gotten into Phantom yet myself, but have heard good things about Azelyra's guide. Rod discussion starts at 13:31 and there's a timestamp in the description.
After getting my Force up to 80 I swapped over to Techer to do the same. I am immediately reminded why I prefer Force now. They are much more nimble than Techers when it comes to casting. Specifically, when using Techs like Ilgrants or Megid, both can move about freely while charging, but no matter what you're doing Techers must stop in order to actually cast the Tech, whereas if you are jumping a Force can "drift-cast" and maintain constant motion. I believe even Phantoms have to halt their motion when casting, even while airborne, which makes Force the most nimble caster of the three.
While for the sake of completion I will put in the time and effort to grind all classes to 100 eventually, I don't see myself choosing Techer as my main "mage class" at any point. FoTe was definitely a powerful combination, in some ways even better than Phantom; the combination of PP recovery while charging AND at a much faster rate when standing still while being able to manually recover PP from a distance using Talis or Rod Shot were a huge bonus and while Phantom's "Sprint casting" makes it easier to move around while charging up a Tech, I'm not entirely sure it's the better subclass overall. I don't know if it's "bonuses" are sufficiently higher compared to Techer to make it worth the sacrifice.
Would anyone happen to know the rough figures on that? Does a FoPh's stat bonus and shorter casting time make up for the reduction in potency (the "balance" of the speed casting skill) and the significantly longer "downtime" compared to the FoTe that will be slightly slower in casting but Techs will be at full potency plus the two PP recovery skills keeping you in the fight longer with shorter downtime? Like, say you have a 15-second window to DPS. At full PP which combo will do more damage in that time just spamming the same Tech?
@zaffy2005 I'm sure there is more accurate data out there, but I just did a quick, not super careful (ie. I wasn't frame-perfect with my charged casting) 20-second stationary Rockbear test, and got these results:
Fo/Te: 4965 TEC-Pwr/244 PP/85% Crit Rate
Fo/Ph: 4930 TEC-Pwr/264 PP/100% Crit Rate
Ph: 4761 TEC-Pwr/264 PP/100% Crit Rate
The only one that came close to running out of PP was Phantom-main when spamming Zonde-0, with Fo/Ph dropping to about half-PP, and Fo/Te staying nearly at full because I was standing still (procing the 350% PP recovery from Te's PP Restorate).
@AndrlCh Odd that FoTe fell behind FoPh in the first two but excelled with Ilgrants. Light mastery boost perhaps? But then pure Ph shouldn't have been nearly 200k higher without that skill.
Also odd that pure Ph did nearly 600k more than FoPh in Ilgrants as well. Does using it as a subclass really diminish it that much?
Heh, I swear I will never figure this game out. Thanks for the figures. Seems FoPh excels with Fire and Lightning (makes sense with mastery skills) but Techer's Light mastery apparently loses out to Phantom's raw proficiency.
@zaffy2005 Light Mastery is definitely the reason why Fo/Te had a higher Ilgrants than Fo/Ph. Also, In addition to the multipliers the two main-class-only Ph Weapon Bonus skills give, Phantom-main has an advantage with quick-charging attacks since you also get damage building up from the slashing attack that happens after every cast (which also recovers PP), and you can often release a second charged Tech before the first even finishes hitting.
EDIT: Let me also add a bit more info:
Since Ilgrants hits 10 times per cast, if we assume that Fo/Ph and Ph cast the exact same number of Ilgrants (~12 or 13), that means that the slashing attack accounts for ~200k-300k of Phantom's damage, essentially one extra Ilgrants worth of damage.
@AndrlCh What is the range on the slashing attack? Not sure I've ever had that kick in outside of melee range, and running out of PP is a very common occurrence for me when playing pure Phantom, but I tend to hang back quite a bit when casting.
And maybe it's just perception but it seems like Phantom's Ilgrants spawns a few less "seekers" compared to Force or Techer as well. Maybe that's why it never felt all that effective to me, and why I'd often forgo using Phantom as a "caster class" and focused mostly on PAs and melee attacks with the Rod.
@zaffy2005 Ilgrants always fires 10 projectiles when fully charged, no matter what class or weapon you are using, so it is likely just your perception.
The slash is not super long range, but it is wide enough that it hit the Rockbear while I was standing where the training console is, though the behavior does change depending on if you are using a forward-casting or AoE Tech.
Also, don't forget that all of Phantom's Weapon Actions recover PP when they hit, even when uncharged or when no Marks have built up yet, and the Rod's has good range. Also, speaking of Marks, Abundant Rabarta is great for building them, especially when mobbing in combination with shifted Massenvernichtungs (the PA that creates the ring around you).
Because of Stealth Tech Charge, you can afford to be a bit more daring with getting in closer range when casting on a Phantom since it gives such long invulnerability; you get 1 full second (compared to the 0.6 second of the Tech Parry ring, which doesn't block from behind), which is longer than the charge time of almost every Tech when combined with Tech Short Charge.
@RainGnyu maybe you could try the scratch tickets or exchange shops, or possibly personal shops, I don't really know so those are a few suggestions for you to try
@TURION-MOONSTAR said in Ask a veteran ARKS!:
@RainGnyu maybe you could try the scratch tickets or exchange shops, or possibly personal shops, I don't really know so those are a few suggestions for you to try
I did those options......
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