Sacred Hunter's Handbook: Control Tower

[Random_Guy]

Oct 31, 2009 16:15:29 GMT -4 Tenshu said:

Not to mention the fact that if YOU'RE bored because YOU feel the forum is dead, why don't YOU make some new topics and give the forum some new life XD.

Sacred Hunter's Handbook

Ragol is a dangerous place. Many Hunters have lost their lives to the foul depths of our accursed home, but this comprehensive handbook will help keep you alive and fighting.

Phantasy Star Online consists of 12 classes, 11 basic areas, dozens of monsters, and hundreds of items. In the Sacred Hunter's Handbook, this is all discussed in great detail. Each week or two, one aspect of PSO will be analyzed by the Sacred community. Tips will be presented, strategies forged, and realizations uncovered.

This is more than a walkthrough. This is a community effort, very similar to Scht's "Item of the Week" thread. However, this goes one extra step and deals with all aspects of PSO. Sometimes, an open ended situation will be presented. Other times, an analysis of a specific item, monster, or other aspect of PSO will be requested.

This all starts with you. Post your opinions and experience on the topic at hand. Feel free to compare it to other things.

If you have topic suggestions, PM me either on Sacred or Scht.

Table of Contents

Equips:

Weapons
---Dual Bird 11/24/09
---S-Rank Demons Mechgun 11/08/09

Armors:
---Lieutenant Mantle 11/02/09

Areas:

Episode II:
---Control Tower 11/30/09

[Random_Guy]

This is a "trial" week. If things work out, we can keep this up.

Lieutenant Mantle
Standard issue Mobile Infantry coat for lieutenants.

dfp: 195-216
evp: 126-144

efr: 6
eth: 6
eic: 6
edk: 16
elt: 12

Notes: Built in Trap Vision.

Requirement: Level 101

Equippable by: Fleshies
-Hunter: HUmar, HUnewearl
-Ranger: RAmar, RAmarl
-Force: FOmar, FOmarl, FOnewm, FOnewearl

[Tenshu]

At least this can spark up some life into the forums.

[oto]

probably the best armor for non-androids and non-forces imo. trap vision is very helpful and the defense is still good. All those oooo i want incredibly high def armors can go die in a fire jk

I currently wear it on my ramar and dont ever think about taking it off.

[Sitrus]

Lt. Mantle made my Sense Plate totally pointless and for that reason, I hate it and it should go die in a fire!!

Lol it's alright, but to be honest I don't give a damn about traps, I just walk into them and die.
And since 3 of my characters are Androids, it's kinda useless for me lol. It was great when I had my HUney though. Well, greatish.

[SA Android Series]

I only have 1 Fleshie, but i just so happen to have it equipped on her.

I love it. =D

[Tenshu]

I find the built in trap vision only useful in Ep4 as they seem to detonate just as fast as they appear to you without trap vision, Ep1 and 2 you can just run out of the way or double-back. However the high DFP/EVP boost for a Lv.101 armor that's also relatively easy to get is good, it tides you over and replaces a Guard Wave and Brightness Circle in their defense and evp if they're not high quality.

[Laila]

i Dont know Yet if i will put it on my Huney....maybe?

[Avereth]

I used to use this a lot, but ended up dropping it for guard wave on all my characters. The reason? Barring a few things in Ep 4 I know where like all of the traps are going to be at this point. I benefit a lot more from the extra def/eva on other things than seeing traps I already know about. Additionally as a Ranger I need to have a clear line of sight to freeze or paralyze things, and a floaty trap in my vision might prevent me from doing that at at time I really need that shot to land.

I'm kind of confused why this armor is so much better than Sense Plate actually. The stats on that are really, really terrible and in my opinion need to be updated when the blasted thing requires lv 143 I believe to equip. I have like 7 of the things sitting and who is going to ever want that piece of crap when Lieutenant Mantles drop like candy in Ep 4 even with Lee's new terribad drop rates. I'd say L. Mantle is a great piece for new players but not very necessary for experienced players.

[Random_Guy]

Things seem to have died down, so I'll post my opinion on the matter.

The Lt. Mantle is a very amazing armor that is available at a very low level. The only other comparable item with the same level requirement is the Luminous Field, which has higher dfp but generally lower resists in comparison to the Lt. Mantle. Additionally (and more importantly) is the fact that the Luminous Field has HP drain, which renders zerking fairly impractical. Conversely, the Lt. Mantle's biggest selling point, the Trap Vision, can be extremely useful no matter what level you are.

Incidentally, the Lt. Mantle actually has higher total resists compared to other endgame armors. Most notable is the fact that it has 6 efr, 6 eth, and 6 eic while other high end armors tend to only have edk and elt. Out of all these resists, the one with the most lasting potential is edk as you eventually get enough hp to tank through pretty much any normal damage. The Lt. Mantle has a modest 16 edk, but most high end armors run somewhere from 17-25 edk so Lt. Mantle loses out there. The main feature from a resist standpoint is the presence of efr, eth, and eic.

Similar to the fact that you can tank pretty much any elemental damage at high levels, you can also tank pretty much any physical attack at high levels. An Aura Field can have almost 100 dfp over the Lt. Mantle, but I find that this doesn't matter. If the Aura Field was available at level 101 like the Lt. Mantle then it would be a valuable trade. However, in my opinion, by the time you hit level 152 you just don't need 100 more dfp.

With that said, the Lt. Mantle is not the end-all armor. It has a number of shortcomings. The first of which is the lack of dfp, which may be important or meaningless depending on who you ask. The second is the lack of a visual effect. Face it, this is basically an MMORPG and having a badass character is almost as important as having a practical character. The only other real downside is the fact that it uses up your one and only armor slot. This means that if you wanted to use BOVN, Ignition Cloak, or some other armor that sells on its special effect you would have to sacrifice the Lt. Mantle and its Trap Vision.

This brings us to the primary selling point of the Lt. Mantle: Trap Vision. As many have said, this gets less useful as time goes by. As you play the game and learn where traps are in the quests you play, you have to worry less and less about dealing with them. Still, for a new player, the Trap Vision can be a Godsend. Stationary traps are also fairly meaningless in the first place because you can just Menu Trick away from them.

This leaves homing traps and instantaneous traps. Homing traps are easily handled if you have Zonde hotkeyed, although it is fairly annoying. The instantaneous traps are a pain when they actually exist and they tend to do a lot of damage on top of just being annoying. All in all, unless you consistently play somewhere that has instantaneous traps you can probably handle any unexpected surprises with a half decent reaction time, knowledge of the Menu Trick, and Zonde hotkeyed. When everything is said and done, the characters that don't have free Trap Vision (fleshies) can just Resta away minor pains.

This leaves the ability to clear traps for the sake of clearing traps. There are several reasons why one might do this. For one, knowing a trap's location is fairly useless if you cannot do anything about it and wish to go to the location guarded by the trap. There is one particular point in RT where I like to go to one exact point on the field to have the greatest advantage over a certain wave. This point happens to have a trap on it.

Additionally, clearing traps is helpful to others in the party. For this reason, support builds on FO's or RA's may want to have Trap Vision to effectively clear the room for their allies. Fleshies have techs, which make them much more apt at clearing traps than droids.

Recommendation: If you are a low level fleshie, then the Lt. Mantle is a cheap and effective armor. If you are inexperienced or wish to have supporting elements in your build, then Trap Vision may be useful for you. Things like BOVN for Hunters (depending on units) and Ignition Cloak for nuking FO's would probably be preferable to the Lt. Mantle. At some point, you may want to upgrade to a higher dfp armor.

Finally, I just want to say that I'm excited about the excellent turnout we are having for this thread! We will definately have another topic up next week.