Megidolaon wrote:Just to confirm, Silent Eden is Kuhn's Bayonet and Eternal Light is Sakubo's tome?
Yip.
Megidolaon wrote:I just boosted Kuhn's lost weapon as much as you can with virus cores and next up is the boss fight, lvl 135 was it?
I'm only lvl 103/105/108 with Kuhn/Atoli/Haseo, but I'll try beating that boss.
Should be ok as long as I do at least 1 damage and don't get oneshotted by every attack...then again with that damage formula it might be impossible after all.
The damage formula only helps damage, it does not hinder it. If your level is four or less than the opponent's, you're just not getting any Level upgrade, that's all. By late Reminisce at worst, your statistics should be making up for some of the difference here.
But yeah, you're gonna get one-shotted by every attack without the proper protection, as there's no upper limit to Level's assistance (it will eventually take every applicable attack to its maximum of 9999 or some fraction thereof). The only noteworthy difference between the bosses for the final Lost Weapon versions is that they use the weapon effect for the weapon they guard, so Haseo's will absorb 75% HP/35% SP on random regular attacks (so you have to use Beast Awakening at those levels), Atoli's will only absorb SP but can't be interrupted on spell casts either, Kuhn's gets Critical +50% on physicals but can't make use of the Art upgrade, etc. If you can't use Indulgence for whatever reason, use 2 Anti-Light effects to nullify OrLei Zas (the only long range it has) and get a full Morale gauge going, then finish the fight using powerful damage-based weapons and Skill Boost on Beast Awakening. They're slow enough that you can get a Rengeki going first before initiating the Beast.
This:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=brzFO631DWY
will horrify any of those bastards into a coma.
This is an alternative if you want to pick on them:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CcIr-XgH0aI
That second one won't work on the Undying because with such high damage, its HP Drain +75% will be like Pha Repth in practice. That's the painful truth of HP Drain in .hack; it only produces useful healing when your damage is overkill, and unfortunately, the only time a powerful enemy is mixed with weak enough scum for that to help
you out is the final storyline boss (Level is around 135, minions at 123).
Megidolaon wrote:Dust Bullet? Is that a skill? What's the problem?
It's the Lv.3 Art for Steam Gunners. However, "Lv.2.5" is a better way of describing it because it mixes the benefits of Lv.3 Arts (lower SP cost and lower recharge time at higher weapon levels) with the key benefit of Lv.1 and 2 Arts (speeds up during Beast Awakening).
The problems start with Dust Bullet being painfully slow to come out; once the cursor finds a target, the caster goes into a spin, stands still, fires upward, and then the shower of bullets comes down for four powerful hits. This all takes a few seconds to play out before doing any damage, unlike every other Art in the entire game, and makes any Steam Gunner a wide-open target for Hangeki in the Arena. If enemy leaders were more aggressive against your teammates, you could never bring Kuhn or Matsu in after they reached weapon level 21, at least not under Free Will or Rage.
When you fight Taihaku, this is the Art he keeps trying to use on you.
Problem 2 is that your teammates limit themselves to their most powerful skills unless they're using healing spells, at which point they actually try to use something more appropriate. "Most powerful" is in regards to the Art level, not actual damage done, which is why someone like Zelkova will spam Reaper's Dance when Heavenly Wheel outclasses it in pretty much every way. For some classes, this isn't a bad idea, but during Beast Awakening or for Steam Gunners, this is a horrible practice.
Speaking of which, remember how I said Dust Bullet is the only Lv.3 Art Beast Awakening speeds up? Guess what? The quicker animation causes two of its four hits to miss completely! That of course means Dust Bullet actually weakens overall under Awakening conditions, so the one advantage it has over other Lv.3's
backfires! Isn't that just precious.... -_-
Megidolaon wrote:Been actually wondering how useful charm and confuse are. I'd stick to paralysis which was awesome in Reminiscence, but enemy resistance against it has gotten too high to bother.
Confusion and Charm are pretty much the same ailment, but with one key difference; Confusion can be knocked away by another damaging attack, and it has an item and spell designed to remove it (Lucid Soda and Rip Ranki). Charm requires the all-ailment removing Wonder Soda or Rip Palam, or else you have to wait for the timer to run out. Thankfully or unfortunately, Charm's timer isn't very long.
There's a couple catches to Charm (and presumably Confusion for one of these), however: it messes with allies when you inflict it on an enemy (and presumably vice versa), and it causes the afflicted to be considered something of a neutral party. The ally AI will often be reluctant to attack a Confused or Charmed opponent, which is great for Confusion, but for Charm, where it's safe to attack without removing the ailment, it gets annoying quick. The "neutral party" thing only comes into play if you have a habit of unleashing guard breaks, like I do. The punted enchantee will be able to hit anyone in-flight, enemy and ally alike, including you. This won't kill you unless you're playing at really low levels, but it's rather inconvenient all the same for me because I love spamming the broadsword break.
Megidolaon wrote:I don't have any Doppelganger stuff cause I didn't kill any yet. I tried in Reminiscence, but that ridiculous HP regen made it impossible to kill him. Is there a way to bypass it (my left arm for dispel/dekaja) or what's a lvl when you can dish out enough damage so it doesn't really matter anymore?
Awakening nullifies almost all attachment effects the enemy has for its duration, with exception to status immunity. This includes Damage Change, Physical/Magic -%, regeneration, etc. It is, in practice, .hack's version of Ultima.
Besides, Dispel usually doesn't remove equipment-based status, which is exactly what you're dealing with here (Doppel Accessory 2: An attachment effect on Doppel's Truly Feared and Shadow accessories that grants permanent IMOQ-style Rig Saem). :\
Megidolaon wrote:Though, fighting him is pointless if I can't get the doppelganger equipment anyway.
If you haven't played Rebirth, you can still get Heine's Shadow and Heine's Zero by going back to Reminisce; Heine's Invasion, the missing weapon, is crap anyway, you aren't missing anything there. Without beating Doppel once in Rebirth and twice in Reminisce (the latter of which you have to do for Heine's Zero anyway), you can't get Other Self and Shadow, but that armor and accessory are LV. 150 equipment and are only available in the post-game anyway. You can get DG-0 from him in Redemption no matter what after you've achieved Xth Form (there's no such form limitation in Reminisce on Heine's Zero).
Megidolaon wrote:Then again, Yata's weapons are trash for the most part anyway.
Last time I didn't even look at Yata, didn't strike me as particularly useful.
He's actually very useful once you solve his Affection problem. He's the only character who has Ap Do, Rig Saem, Rig Geam, AND combo Favorites, the most easily abused Favorite of all once you have Xth Form. For an Awakening spammer, he is the perfect support mage and an irreplaceable character in the FoP.
If you're not an Awakening spam-artist, though, stick to Clerics. You don't really need Lapu Do anyway. :\
Megidolaon wrote:I'm trying to focus on Kuhn/Atoli cause they seem to be my forced team for the tournament, but will others get forced into my party, like that awful last minute switch for the last arena fight in Reminiscence?
For the Arena? No.
Megidolaon wrote:I have one question regarding rengeki spamming for lvling.
I tend to use either equip exp boosting stuff (need me more sapphire eyes) or a time conch for quick trigger recharge (so I don't miss a rengeki chance).
This strikes me as more useful than quick rengeki/jet stream attack because frequently you get a rengeki, but your skill trigger is empty, so I probably wouldn't be able to use more rengekis that way.
BUT, does jet stream attack also works if I have other party members equip it?
Like giving Haseo a time conch to be ready for rengeki and having the others quickly build rengekis all the time?
First, Item LV. 116+ Fire fields. Leviathan loves handing out Sapphire Eyes on those, as his repertoire doesn't change that much on Sigma server. You can sell them in the shop by attaching them to accessories if you get too many (or just trash them; only Radars and Lost Weapons can't be trashed).
But yes, other party members can initiate the Rengeki status, they just can't make use of it because they lack the Skill Trigger. While they're crappy otherwise, Blade Brandiers have the same Rengeki induction ability as their more useful Edge Punisher counterparts. If you get two Brandiers and Haseo to gang up on some schmuck with JSA weapons, you'll get Rengeki in no time flat compared to what would happen otherwise.
Just remember that Quick Rengeki, Jet Speed Attack, and their equivalents work on anyone
regardless of level (a rare breed of offensive upgrade), but only affect your regular attacks and anything else that falls into that category (a Punisher's charge attack shockwaves for example); they do not boost Skills or guard break strikes.
EDIT: Speaking of Time Conch, if you've yet to do the Reminisce Bike Missions, take time out to go do 1, 2, and 5 at least, most importantly 2. If you wait until Redemption, the items are heavily improved in the first five missions.