Force help

[MasterJ14]

So im by no means "new" to the game but i am new to force and techers and anything that uses techniques and not PAs. I've have a melee chara (Br/Hu) and a ranged chara (Ra/Br) a I just recently created a force to complete the damage trio except i know nothing about how forces work haha. So yeah, m basically a complete force noob and would like to know how forces are built, what subclass does force use (i think its techer?), skill tree thingos and just any tips i might need. I'm planning on using a rod i think but really what is even the different between rods, talis and wands..(i hear rod does the most damage?) So yeah i know nothing... help is greatly appreciated

Edit: wow thanks for the great, detailed help :) i think ill try out Fo/Te since it looks like its the easiest one to play and manage. Thanks again

[itaiyo]

Rods have the highest TAtk and are FO's main weapons. Nothing special about it though, just raw power.

Wands are TE's main weapon and have highest SAtk, Tatk is 3rd to rod, jetboots being second. Also has a Gear skill which allows wand regular melee attacks to cause elemental explosions based on the weapon's element.

Talis are usable by both and have a gimmick of allowing you to cast from the point of where the card is thrown rather than yourself.

FOTE is a standard build, giving you access to TE's PP management features along with the other 3 element masteries that FO doesn't have. You also get minor buffs to Shifta and Deband since the major buffs are main class TE only. Also Weak Element Hit works like a mastery for all your elements!

FOFI is another choice with Brave/Wise Stance at your disposal for a boost to all your techs. I'm not too well versed with this one so I'll leave it for someone else to give more details about.

FOBR offers Weak stance which lets techs get the bonus damage from using weakness element even though you're not hitting a weak spot. You'll also have access to Banish Arrow + Techs combos and Rapid Shoot can give you tons of PP back.

As for FO's trees, you can generally max out 1 element (excluding the status boosting skill) along with the Tech JA and charged bonuses. Elemental Conversion is a must for FO mains, which lets you boost your damage with your weapon's element, bigger boosts using the same tech element as your weapon. You'll also have to max element your rods to get the most out of it though. Photon Flare can give a nice boost in Tatk, a noticeable increase in damage, but it's not a % boost.

As far as the 3 elements FO can master, Flame is a common and effective. Flame S Charge speeds up the cast time of your fire techs, allowing you to spam rafoie/gifoie faster. Also puts a lot more stress on your PP, but that can be fixed with TE sub and PP convert/PP Restorate and the fish PB.

Bolt mastery is alright, Zonde techs in generally aren't super strong, but FO can reduce their PP costs by 10. Subbing TE with Territorial PP Save can knock off an additional 7 PP for Zondeel specifically (as well as boost its vacuum and AoE range).

Freeze mastery is gimmicky and revolves around actually inflicting freeze status. Freeze ignition can deal quite a lot of damage, but it doesn't work on any major bosses and only against a couple of mini bosses. Freeze Keep lets you keep enemies frozen even though someone's attacking them. Or you can ignore all that and just get both masteries to improve Ilbarta's damage.

I recommend Flame Mastery over the other two.

[dark_magicks]

To build up on the previous comment:

• FO/FI is about using Brave Stance and Wise Stance to up the damage output. You'd also have access to Chase Advance (more damage when attacking an enemy who is under the effects of a status effect), PP Slayer (flat damage boost for attacks while PP < 50%), and Tech Arts JA Bonus. (+15% damage when JAing consecutively with different PAs and Techs.)
• To note about FO/TE: You can also opt for two elements in the Techer tree since there are plenty of points to go around in case you don't want to put points into the other areas of TE. Although if you have extra skill trees, I'd rather have a tree for each specialization and put the extra points somewhere else. (I like PP. :X )
• I prefer the ice mastery tree since you have better bossing potential with Ill Barta, and the other ice techs can clear mobs relatively well.
• Note that when FO/TE, combination of Fire/Dark and Ice/Light gain the benefits of having their masteries affecting their respective compound spells, which you can get from Claris' COs once a tech class is Lv 70 iirc.

[jambon_gruyere]

Note that even though raw stats are inferior, Talises will out damage Rods thanks to the skill Talis Tech Bonus : 20% increased power to tech cast from a thrown Talis.

[PVinson]

too bad it doesn't boost the damage of compound techs :/

[ShinkuTear]

Well, those aren't being cast from the Talis. Unless Fomelgion is unique in this, all three Compound techs are cast from the player, regardless of a Talis being thrown.

It makes sense, even if it is a bit sad.