Ray units from the Rising 2 Badge shop come with: Mastery III, Stamina III, Spirit III

I would seriously appreciate a detailed, step-by-step example of how to take that base Rising 2 Ray unit and optimize it for melee with 5 affix slots (would 6 slots be too crazy?).

I've done a fair amount of reading on the affixing system and have a general understanding of how it works, but have not yet tried it myself. I'm mainly looking to avoid wasting a ton of time/meseta/resources by screwing something up, or being inefficient.

Some questions to show what an idiot/novice I am: Should I just scrap mastery III since it's so difficult to pass? Do you just upslot to 5 slots, and then start worrying about abilities at that point? Let's say I buy Affix Augment (Melee & PP) to add Noble Might. I'm assuming that has to be saved for the final step?

well if you want to put more affixes then raising the quantity first will help to put better ones later however affixes are pretty much trying your luck all the time, if you fail you lose the affix and sometimes you lose the slot in the process too and with stronger affixes the chance of success is lower, so if you want to try to put several affixes then you need to do 2 things, 1 is find lots of units with the affix you want to put and 2 find units with lots of affixes

You would want augments like:

Arks Fever

Arks max

Might III (or IV or V)

Doom Break I (II, or III)

Flica Arma

Alter Arma

Deus Factor

Anga Soul (is cheap least should be)

Quartz Soul

Beari Soul

Acto Di Soul (combine 2 augments eastern soul, fullvegas soul, or escarde soul)

Alles Di Soul (same, it's another choice)

Might Boost

Noble Might

Elegant Might

Going here will help with figuring out augments (it's a augment simulator) arks-layer.com/abilitysim/na/

My most recent Ray unit has arks fever, might III, stamina III, Acto Di Soul, and Noble Might

Also yes added abilities like Noble Might must be added for the final augment step

For units, 4 affix slots can work just as fine, and would probably be safer to pull off, especially since affixing is both trickier and pricier to do on units than it is on Weapons given Units don't drop as often as weapons do and lack the 100% level 35 augment factors that weapons have. There are plenty of guides online that explain the finer details of affixing better than I could (Professor Popple's guide on affixing is a good one for beginners and Arks Layer has a an Affix simulator that can help plan out your augment fodders).

One thing I should note is that you should never try to upslot when performing an Affix on the final product, upslot your base unit and fodder units with the affixes you need first, especially if you have a soul involved. Affix items (noble might, elegant casting etc) Should always be applied when you perform the final affix, don't use it on your ray unit or unit fodder until everything else is in order. So yea, those go last.

Thank you for the responses. I know which abilities I'd like to have on the final product and have been playing around with the affixing tool. I'm just not clear on the best step-wise process to get there. Would it be something like this:

1. Downslot to 2, have to get rid of mastery III
2. upslot back to 3
3. upsplot to 4
4. Quartz Soul + Might IV + Stamina III + Spirit III, use Affix Augment to add a 5th slot with Noble Might during this final step

I've been saving gear and can put together fodder that would make that possible, just want to know if I'm doing anything stupid with those steps.

Edit: during steps 1-3 would it be wasteful to try to maintain Stamina III and Spirit III?

@Nigel-Tuffnel11 said in Affixing Help: Ray Unit Optimized for Melee:

Thank you for the responses. I know which abilities I'd like to have on the final product and have been playing around with the affixing tool. I'm just not clear on the best step-wise process to get there. Would it be something like this:

1. Downslot to 2, have to get rid of mastery III
2. upslot back to 3
3. upsplot to 4
4. Quartz Soul + Might IV + Stamina III + Spirit III, use Affix Augment to add a 5th slot with Noble Might during this final step I've been saving gear and can put together fodder that would make that possible, just want to know if I'm doing anything stupid with those steps.

1. Upslot ray to 4 or 5 slots with fodder affixes like might I that have 100% success by default, if you have them, use 30% augment aids to raise the percent, Save 40% Aids for the final augment. Do not select mastery at any point if you want it gone.
2. Upslot all the fodder you're using while keeping the affixes you want to match the number of slots your ray unit has. If you're using a soul you'll need at least 2 Units with that to even be able to select it. Farm a lot of copies just in case.
3. Some affixes like Acto Di Soul require you to mix 2 separate affixes together, get 1 of each required component on your fodder or Ray unit, and select the new affix when you perform the final augmentation.
4. When performing the final augment, select the affix augment item you want to use, and then select the 3 or 4 affixes that you want from your fodder. Never upslot during the final part, especially when using souls. Use a 30% or 40% augmentation aid for best results.

Just go straight to 5 using garbage 100% success rate affixes. You'll have an easier time getting past the success rate penalty that way. Once you're at 5 slots, you can put all those abilities on without an extra penalty. Since you're using ARKS Fever, you should do it all in one go.

Thank you all very much! I definitely had some misconceptions, but reading through all of your advice has finally cleared things up for me.

Before you go, there's one bit that I don't think anyone else mentioned directly. You can get better odds on affixing for some abilities by having multiple of the same on your fodder and main. Some souls also boost chance of certain affixes. And you can also make a higher level affix by using multiple of the rank below it, like Might III on a bunch lets you just go to Might IV. It's a lower rate though.

Taking the affix that you liked into consideration, I would do something like this... I changed the soul since i feel like its cheaper and better in stats, it will also have better % compared to 2 quartz soul (90% w/ 40% boost) unless you want to use 3 quartz soul.

Edit: You can move the spirit III where it will be cheaper to make, probably with Sta III or with your base.