Editing How to Vanguard Basically

== Overview ==
''A jack-of-all-trades type that can employ different combat styles to fill diverse roles in parties. A good fit with lighter weapons.''

Don't worry about the lighter weapons part: the true spirit of Vanguards, is to do whatever the hell you want! With decent offensive stats both sides, and the ability to use any Photon Arts at a barely acceptable level, Vanguards are a walking talking Gurhal's Greatest Hits album.

== Photon Arts ==
So what does having Lv20 in everything entail?

Compared to Lv15 Photon Arts, Lv20 Photon Arts generally provide a 5% increase in damage. This is pretty good, as far as inherent bonuses go. Also notably, [[Shifta]], [[Jellen]], [[Zalure]] and [[Deband]] have a significantly longer duration (around 30 seconds), which makes Vanguards the second best buff/debuff users next to Forces. 

However, Lv20 doesn't move the Photon Arts up a tier, so they don't get more benefits than Lv15 ones outside of these mentions. Notably, since Ranged Photon Arts are applied to {{Square}} rather than {{Triangle}}, their advantage over Lv15 Photon Arts is much less significant.

Moreover, Lv20 compares very unfavourably to Lv30 Photon Arts: around 10% less damage, and many missing properties, which we will cover more in the Ignited Arts section. As such, Vanguards will often find their damage lacking compared to other Types in their specialized elements, such as Hunters with their Lv30 Melee Photon Arts, and Forces with their Lv30 Technics.

To play to their strengths, a Vanguard should definitely try to mix up their weapon types.

== The Greatest Hits of Gurhal ==
As per usual, we want a weapon to chain with, a weapon to break chains with, and some weapons for utility purposes.

However, unlike other types, Vanguards has the ability to pick whatever they want!

So here's a simple chart for some recommendations. Check the other guides for specific details.
{| class="wikitable"
|+
!
!Melee
!Ranged
!Technic
|-
!Chaining
|Twin Daggers, Twin Sabers, Twin Claws
|Twin Handguns, Machine guns (Meseta Shot)
|Foverse, Sazonde, Sabarta, Nagrants
|-
!Chain Break
|Swords, Axes
|Shotguns, Crossbows
|Sazonde, Diga, Nosdiga
|-
!Utility
|Double Sabers, Daggers
|Rifles, Laser Cannons, Handguns
|Zalure, Shifta, Deband, Resta, Anti
|}
Chainbreakers and chain techs are oftentimes interchangable, dependent on your playstyle. Some utility weapons are also interchangable, for example, [[Rifles]] and [[Handguns]], which, when used for the purpose of shooting buttons and weak points, doesn't make much of a difference.

However, there are also a few weapons which provides utilities that other weapons cannot match:

[[Laser Cannons]]: Charge Shot II can easily and safely stunlock all enemies within a fairly sizable area.  

[[Machine Guns]] ([[Meseta Shot]]): allows you to chain quickly at range even with 0pp. Meseta consumes at a completely irrelevant rate (around 40 per shot, apparently). [[Slicers]] can also attack at range with 0 pp, it chains much slower but recovers pp much faster.  

[[Zalure]]: basically a free damage multiplier that lasts 1 minute and a half. Why the heck not? Weapons with Zalure effect doesn't cut it: they have a much shorter duration and doesn't hit 100% of the time.   

Of course, these are just recommendations. Try all the weapons out: finding something you are more comfortable with is more important than anything else.

== How do I palette? ==
"There's too many choices! How do I make my palettes?"

Let's go over how we make palettes, now that we have so many potential weapons to choose from.

There's a few things we need to worry about when it comes to picking a weapon. 

First, its purpose; Second, if it's an one-handed weapon, what we would using on the other hand; Lastly, what we should place next to it. 

For example, we try to put Sazonde on our palette somewhere, for chaining purposes. 

Since we just want chains, we don't care for the higher TEC score on [[Rods]]. [[Wands]] and [[Tech-Mags]] are much better as they cast faster and can strafe cast.   

Out of the two, we pick [[Wands]], as we would like to pair it with a left-hand weapon. Left-hand weapons are generally ranged weapons, which Sazonde, being a ranged technic, works really well with. Tech-Mags can work as well, as they generally have less pp consumption than Wands, but Sazonde has a range difference with most right-handed weapons (all close-range except for [[Whips]] and [[Slicers]]), which can make them awkward to use in combination.   

In this case, we pick a [[Machine Guns|Machine Gun]] equipped with Meseta Shot to go with the Wand, as the Machine Gun can add additional chains quite quickly as the Sazonde resolves, and with meseta shot, allows the player some time to recover pp to compensate for Sazonde's high pp cost. Machine Gun's Charge Shot 1 also works decently well as a chain breaker, and it aims upwards, which works well with Sazonde's launch effect.  

Since Sazonde works well with [[Shotguns]], we will place them next to each other on the action palette to be swapped back and forth easily.  

(Of course, this is just an example, feel free to fit Sazonde wherever you like.) 

== Race Differences ==
Your ability and weapon composition is really just dependent on your race, more than anything.

=== Human ===
Humans are balanced in every direction as Vanguard: ATK, TEC, DEF, MND, PP and ACC thus deal average damage output. They also excel from having high DEF, MND and STA which allows them to resist different kinds of attacks. Having enough balanced stats, they are highly suitable for the vanguard class. 

=== Newman ===
Newmans have low ATK, but very high TEC and fine ACC. In other words, they are not very good at melee weapons, but very good with technic weapons. Ranged weapons usually wind up being just fine as they rely more on ACC than they do ATK.

In esssence, focus on technic weapons and ranged weapons. melee weapons can still have uses, despite newmans being worse with them than other races. TEC-based ranged weapons especially can be very good. In my experience, Longbows CS2 tends to outdamage Rifles, but is still outdamaged by Shotgun CS2, unless the Longbow way outclasses the Shotgun. 

Also note that Newmans have very low DEF, which is dragged down by Vanguard's low DEF multiplier. Some defense abilities may be required to compensate.

=== Beast ===
Beasts have high ATK, high HP, but low TEC and low ACC. In other words, they have a focus on melee weapons, and are poor with technic weapons.

Don't let that scare you away from technic weapons, though. Technics provide a ton of utilities, and don't miss. Sure, you can't break using technics like Newmans probably can, but dealing 1 damage is the same as dealing 100 as far as chaining goes. 

Melee damage is less prone to missing compared to beast hunters (since vanguards have better ACC), and ranged is also more effective. Would still recommend you to break off melee as opposed to ranged if you can, though.

=== Cast ===
Casts have good ATK, high ACC, but low TEC. In other words, a focus on ranged weapons and melee weapons, but are poor with technic weapons.

Similar to beasts, don't let that scare you away from technic weapons: Technics provide a ton of utilities, and can still provide great chaining support. Forget breaking with them, though.

With high ACC, casts can lean into both Ranged and Melee weapons, dependent on the situation and playstyle.

=== Deuman ===
Deumans have good ATK, TEC, and ACC, which allows them to use anything offensively.

Theortically.

Deuman's low PP and low PP regen holds them back considerably, as they don't fare well with high PP users (such as most melee photon arts, Sazonde, and most Charge Shots). As such, they desperately need ways to either recover pp quickly, or reduce pp usage. This means either specific weapons with low PP usage, and/or PP Save skills from reaching Lv30 on other Types.

Also worth mentioning that Deumans have atrocious defenses, and very much requires defensive abilities, such as Half Defense, to patch them up. '''As a result, it's very possible that Deuman player may wind up with not enough room to fit Ignited Arts into their type abilities, which severely harms their end-game damage potential.'''

== Traps ==
Vanguards have a proficiency with Traps, and is the only type that can use both EX traps, so let's go over them.

Trap have a couple properties: their damage scales to the player's level, they don't add chains, and all of them has a chance to inflict a specific status aliement when used. They go onto the item palette as opposed to the weapon palette as well, which allows the player to bring a whole bunch without interrupting the normal gameflow, especially if the player opts to bring Auto-med abilities.

Single-hit Traps are quantity over quality, and can be used early game to quickly melt bosses: even problematic enemies, such as [[Bag Degga|Bag Deggas]], would die to a dozen traps or two exploding under their feet. However, their damage becomes irrevelant towards higher-levels, as its damage does not scale as hard as enemy HP does. It's possible to attempt inflicting statuses with them, but generally they are too inefficient for that.

Burn Trap EX produces a persisting hitbox that hits 10 times when detonated, and has a good chance of inflicting Burn. While it can't chain, it's useful for inducing Burn on problematic enemies, such as Boosted enemies. Burn deals percentage based damage every other second, and can cause quite a bit of damage if it persists for a long time.

Stun Trap EX produces a persisting hitbox that hits 10 times when detonated, and has a good chance of inflicting Stun. While its use is largely replaced by Sazonde nowadays, it can cover some situations that Sazonde does not: it has a higher amount of locks (to deal with larger mob groups), can stun boosted enemies (who will ignore Sazonde), and can deal with enemies that can't be launched or knocked down (such as [[Komazli|Komazlis]]). As such, it's still a useful tool to have on the palette.

Note that Traps don't drop from the vast majority of containers, meaning that the player cannot replenish their traps in the middle of a mission. Thus traps should be saved for particularly problematic enemies.

== Ignited Arts ==
Weird to mention a Lv50 Ability in the beginner's guide, but this is worth a write up. Unlike other Types where their high level abilities are a simple beneficial buff that doesn't really change your playstyle all that much, Ignited Arts is instead the absolute endgame for Vanguards that fundamentally changes how they work.

Ignited Arts costs 7 slots, and increases the level limit of all player Photon Arts from 20 to 25 (with the exception of Zalure, Jellen, Shifta, Deband, Anti and Resta). This may sound like a massive cost for something that seems insignificant, so let's go through what exactly it covers.

First, 5 more levels consistutes around a 5% increment to all Photon Arts damage. This is a decently sizable boost for Skills and Technics, although not so much Bullets.

Second, going from Lv20 to Lv25 moves the PAs up a tier, which gives them additional properties. 

For Technics, this means an expansion in size, range, and even hit count in some cases. The most notable of which being [[Foverse]], which upgrades from 2 hits to 3 hits, and upgrades it from a good chaining tool to one of the best chaining tools in the game.

For Skills, getting a skill to above Lv25 usually reduces some of their stages' PP use by 10. Some Skills, such as [[Assault Crush]], has both Stage 1 and Stage 2 reduced by 10 PP, which reduces its total PP use by 20. This is a huge help to PP economy, and improves the viability of high PP weapons, which are very common at high levels.

Getting Bullets to Lv25 doesn't mean all that much. Besides the aforementioned damage bonus, it also provides a 5% range bonus for Long-Range bullets (from 125% at Lv20 to 130% at Lv25), as well as a 5% elemental bonus for Elemental bullets (from 20% at Lv20 to 25% at Lv25). Neither of which are that important to be honest.

What Lv25 bullets does provide, is an additional bullet to [[Cards]], and more importantly, [[Shotguns]], which becomes a 50% damage bonus to Cards, and a 25% damage bonus for Shotguns. Shotguns are already one of Vanguard's most powerful chain break tools even at Lv20, and is absolutely nuts at Lv25.

'''When put together, an Ignited Arts Vanguard is someone with the potential damage of Hunters and Rangers, while retaining all of the best chaining tools of Forces.''' 

However, Ignited Arts costs an insane SEVEN slots, which can be a huge issue for some cases.

The player has a maximum of 12 slots. 7 is allocated for Ignited Arts, and 1 is for Full Charge Shot (if you are using Shotgun), and there's only 4 slots left, which isn't enough room to fit all of the great abilities, such as PP Skill Save (2 slots), PP Tech Save (2 slots), Half Defense (3 slots), Damage Convert PP (2 slots), various technic hi-speeds (1 slots each). Most notably, Deumans' viability with Ignited Arts is severely hindered, as they really want both PP reduction abilities and defensive abilities, which they can't fit with Ignited Arts.

== Other Notes ==



{{Navigation}}
@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
-[[File:Curtz Vanguard Palette.png|thumb|Curtz's Vanguard Palette. Don't use it.|300x300px]]
 == Overview ==
 ''A jack-of-all-trades type that can employ different combat styles to fill diverse roles in parties. A good fit with lighter weapons.''
@@ Line 6: / Line 4: @@
 Don't worry about the lighter weapons part: the true spirit of Vanguards, is to do whatever the hell you want! With decent offensive stats both sides, and the ability to use any Photon Arts at a barely acceptable level, Vanguards are a walking talking Gurhal's Greatest Hits album.
-== Sample Palettes ==
+== Photon Arts ==
-[[File:Sample Vanguard Palette 1.png|thumb|200x200px]]
+So what does having Lv20 in everything entail?
-'''<u>Sample Melee Based Palette on the right:</u>'''
-* Tech-Mag ({{Square}} Foverse , {{Triangle}} Zalure) + Whip ({{Triangle}} Vivi Dezza)
-* Twin Sabers ({{Triangle}} Assault Crush)
-* Machine Gun ({{Square}} Meseta Fever {{Triangle}} Charge Shot I) + Wand ({{Square}} Sazonde , {{Triangle}} Zalure)
-* Handgun ({{Square}} Long Range Shoot {{Triangle}} Charge Shot I) + Dagger ({{Triangle}} Shisoku Tenkai-zan)
-* Rod ({{Square}} Sazonde, {{Triangle}} Resta,  R+{{Square}} Shifta,  R+{{Triangle}} Deband)
-* Axe ({{Triangle}} Anga Grudda)
-Foverse is positioned next to three melee weapons to allow quick swapping. Machine Gun and Wand are used for quickly accumulating chains from midrange. Machine Guns allows strafing while attacking, which allows Sazonde -> approaching while holding Meseta Fever -> Assault Crush. Handgun is used for ranged damage, and FPS sniping. Dagger is used for faster movement, and provides a boost to the Handgun's damage. Sazonde and Zalure are equipped twice for easier access from anywhere on the palette.
-Compared to Hunters, Vanguards are more accurate on their melee weapons, deal more damage on Ranged weapons, and has longer duration on their buffs and debuffs, in exchange for dealing lower damage on melee weapons. Characterized here by the use of Machine Gun and the Handgun Dagger pair, which are not commonly used on Hunter.
-[[File:Sample Ranged Based Palette.png|thumb|200x200px]]
-'''<u>Sample Ranged Based Palette on the right:</u>'''
-* Twin Handguns ({{Square}} Long Range Bullets {{Triangle}} Charge Shot I)
-* Shotgun ({{Square}} Barada Longa {{Triangle}} Charge Shot II)
-* Crossbow ({{Square}} Yak Longa {{Triangle}} Charge Shot I) + Wand ({{Square}} Foverse , {{Triangle}} Zalure)
-* Rod ({{Square}} Sazonde, {{Triangle}} Resta,  R+{{Square}} Shifta,  R+{{Triangle}} Deband)
-* Sword ({{Triangle}} Tornado Break)
-* Laser Cannon ({{Square}}Save Prism {{Triangle}}Charge Shot II)
-Twin handguns and Wand is used for chainbuilding. Shotgun is for single target chainbreaks, while Crossbow (CS1) is used for dealing with groups of mobs. Both of these works very well with Foverse. Laser Cannon (CS2) serves as a last resort to groups of troublesome enemies (stunlock go brrrrr). Sword is also used to deal with groups of mobs, specifically ranged resistant ones. It's also used to deal with large bosses (like [[Dragon]]) with multi-targets, which ranged weapons tend to have some trouble with, hence the use of Tornado Break. It's recommended to keep a Rifle in the inventory: while Twin Handguns and Laser Cannons both have FPS mode, and can be used to snipe weakness or ceiling bombs, they can't deal with flying bosses or tall bosses very well, which rifles are fantastic against.
-Compared to Rangers, Vanguard's biggest loss is the 20% less damage on Shotguns (due to having less shots), in exchange, Vanguard's get longer buff and debuff durations, and access to more Traps. Other than that, their performance is fairly similar. As a result, Vanguard can be a good choice for aspiring Rangers, until they get Lv21+ Shotgun Photon Art Discs.
-[[File:Sample Technic Based Palette.png|thumb|200x200px]]
-'''<u>Sample Technic Based Palette on the right:</u>'''
-* Machine Gun ({{Square}} Meseta Fever {{Triangle}} Charge Shot II) + Dagger ( {{Triangle}} Shisoku Tenkai-zan)
+Compared to Lv15 Photon Arts, Lv20 Photon Arts generally provide a 5% increase in damage. This is pretty good, as far as inherent bonuses go. Also notably, [[Shifta]], [[Jellen]], [[Zalure]] and [[Deband]] have a significantly longer duration (around 30 seconds), which makes Vanguards the second best buff/debuff users next to Forces.
-* R-Mag + Wand ({{Square}} Nagrants, {{Triangle}} Zalure)
-* Rod ({{Square}} Sazonde, {{Triangle}} Nosdiga,  R+{{Square}} Foverse,  R+{{Triangle}} Gidiga)
-* Rod ({{Square}} Anti, {{Triangle}} Resta,  R+{{Square}} Shifta,  R+{{Triangle}} Deband)
-* Longbow ({{Square}} Attack {{Triangle}}Charge Shot II)
-* Laser Cannon ({{Square}}Save Prism {{Triangle}}Charge Shot II)
-R-Mag + Nagrants combo is used for super fast chain building via strafe casting abuse. Since strafe casting runs out of pp fairly quickly, a Meseta Fever Machine Gun is used during PP recharge. A Dagger is used to improve the machine gun's damage, and to provide additional movement. The rod is loaded with chainers and chainbreakers: Nosdiga is used for midranged single target breaks, which combos well with Sazonde; Gidiga is used for dealing with groups of mobs: it combos well with Foverse, knocks down all enemies at close range, and deals high damage. A longbow is used for FPS sniping, as well as close up single target breaks. And finally, a Laser Cannon is used to deal with a wide groups of enemies at midrange, which technics don't provide much cover for.
+However, Lv20 doesn't move the Photon Arts up a tier, so they don't get more benefits than Lv15 ones outside of these mentions. Notably, since Ranged Photon Arts are applied to {{Square}} rather than {{Triangle}}, their advantage over Lv15 Photon Arts is much less significant.
-Compared to Forces, Vanguards lose all the tier 3 Technics, the bread and butter of Forces. As a result, Vanguards lose a ton of damage from technics, and has significantly worse buffs and debuffs, in both potency and duration, without anything relevant to show for it. Similar to Rangers, Vanguards can be a good choice to transition through, picking up useful abilities, until they get access to Lv21+ Technic Photon Art Discs.
+Moreover, Lv20 compares very unfavourably to Lv30 Photon Arts: around 10% less damage, and many missing properties, which we will cover more in the Ignited Arts section. As such, Vanguards will often find their damage lacking compared to other Types in their specialized elements, such as Hunters with their Lv30 Melee Photon Arts, and Forces with their Lv30 Technics.
+To play to their strengths, a Vanguard should definitely try to mix up their weapon types.
-Of course, the entire setup goes out of whack once the player reaches Vanguard Lv50 and gets [[How to Vanguard Basically#Ignited Arts|Ignite Arts]].
-== Pros and Cons of Vanguard ==
-=== Pros ===
-* Good stats in ATK, ACC, and TEC, which allows good performance on every type of weapons.
-* Lv20 Photon Arts represents a 5% damage increase over Lv15 ones, and a 30 seconds extension to [[Shifta]], [[Jellen]], [[Zalure]] and [[Deband]].
-* Stun Trap EX.
-=== '''Cons''' ===
-* Less stats in ATK, ACC, or TEC compared to the dedicated types (Hunter, Ranger, and Force respectively).
-* Lv20 Photon Arts represents 10% less damage compared to Lv30 ones, along with the lack of any tier 3 advantages, such as reduced PP usage, more shots, or wider hitbox areas.
-* In fact, lack of any tier 3 Photon Arts all across the board, resulting in a lack of heavy hitters.
-=== '''Notes''' ===
-* Taking everything in total, Vanguard loses 10% to 20% in damage relative to the dedicated types in their areas, in exchange for a 5% to 10% damage boost in everything else.
-* Since the primary drawback of Vanguards is the lack of Lv21+ Photon Arts, this means little for early to mid game players that does not have access to any Lv21+ Photon Arts yet. '''As such, Vanguards makes for a good intermediary class,''' with good [[Abilities]] that are useful on other types or [[Partner characters]] purposes, and a good stat spread for the player to try out every weapon with.
-* Ranged Photon Arts applies to {{Square}}, and the 5% to 10% damage loss on {{Square}} is largely irrelevant to your damage output, and Charge Shots are generally unaffected by Photon Arts levels. Thus, Ranged Weapons are quite invaluable, due to being hindered the least by Vanguard's drawbacks.
-** However, the one exception to this, [[Shotguns]], the best ranged damage dealer, loses around 20% damage due to lack of Lv20 Photon Arts, so Vanguards are still worse than Rangers. [[Cards]] lose about 33% damage for similar reasons.
 == The Greatest Hits of Gurhal ==
@@ Line 87: / Line 28: @@
 !Technic
 |-
-!Press {{Square}} a lot
+!Chaining
-|[[Twin Daggers]], [[Twin Sabers]], [[Daggers]]
+|Twin Daggers, Twin Sabers, Twin Claws
-|[[Twin Handguns]], [[Machine Guns|Machine guns]] (Meseta Fever)
+|Twin Handguns, Machine guns (Meseta Shot)
-|[[Foverse]], [[Sazonde]], [[Sabarta]], [[Nagrants]]
+|Foverse, Sazonde, Sabarta, Nagrants
 |-
-!{{Triangle}} Damage go brrr
+!Chain Break
-|[[Swords]], [[Axes]], [[Twin Claws]]
+|Swords, Axes
-|[[Shotguns]], [[Crossbows]], [[Longbow]] ({{Triangle}} Charge Shot II)
+|Shotguns, Crossbows
-|[[Sazonde]], [[Diga]], [[Nosdiga]], Gi-things
+|Sazonde, Diga, Nosdiga
+|-
+!Utility
+|Double Sabers, Daggers
+|Rifles, Laser Cannons, Handguns
+|Zalure, Shifta, Deband, Resta, Anti
 |}
-Chainbreakers and chain makers are sometimes interchangable, dependent on your play-style and how it fits with your race.
+Chainbreakers and chain techs are oftentimes interchangable, dependent on your playstyle. Some utility weapons are also interchangable, for example, [[Rifles]] and [[Handguns]], which, when used for the purpose of shooting buttons and weak points, doesn't make much of a difference.
-Special Mentions
+However, there are also a few weapons which provides utilities that other weapons cannot match:
-{| class="wikitable"
-|+
+[[Laser Cannons]]: Charge Shot II can easily and safely stunlock all enemies within a fairly sizable area.
-!Utility
-!Weapon
+[[Machine Guns]] ([[Meseta Shot]]): allows you to chain quickly at range even with 0pp. Meseta consumes at a completely irrelevant rate (around 40 per shot, apparently). [[Slicers]] can also attack at range with 0 pp, it chains much slower but recovers pp much faster.
-|-
-|Stunlock go brrrrr
-|[[Laser Cannons]] ({{Triangle}} Charge Shot II), Stun Trap EX, [[Sazonde]], [[Grenade Launchers]] ({{Square}} [[Boma Banga]])
-|-
-|Did someone say free PA
-|[[Machine Guns]] ({{Square}} [[Meseta Fever]])
-|-
-|Did someone say free chains
-|{{Square}} [[Foverse]]
-|-
-|[[Dragon]]<nowiki/>slayer
-|[[Swords]], [[Axes]], [[Rifles]], [[Grenade Launchers]]
-|-
-|Stupid flying bosses
-|[[Rifles]], [[Handguns]], [[Longbows]] ({{Triangle}} Charge Shot I)
-|-
-|Buff is free damage
-|[[Shifta]]
-|-
-|Debuff is free damage
-|[[Zalure]]
-|-
-|Living is free damage
-|[[Deband]], [[Resta]], [[Jellen]], [[Anti]]
-|-
-|Movement Tech
-|[[Double Sabers]] ({{Triangle}} [[Tornado Dance]]), [[Daggers]] ({{Triangle}} [[Shisoku Tenkai-zan]])
-|}
-== Race Differences ==
+[[Zalure]]: basically a free damage multiplier that lasts 1 minute and a half. Why the heck not? Weapons with Zalure effect doesn't cut it: they have a much shorter duration and doesn't hit 100% of the time.
-Your ability and weapon composition is really just dependent on your race, more than anything.
-=== Human ===
+Of course, these are just recommendations. Try all the weapons out: finding something you are more comfortable with is more important than anything else.
-Humans are balanced in every stat such as ATK, TEC, DEF, MND, PP and ACC thus deal decent damage from just about any weapon.
-[[Mirage blasts]] also provides a sizable range of utility, and their damage is relatively quite good, due to Vanguard having the second highest TEC out of all four types.
+== How do I palette? ==
+"There's too many choices! How do I make my palettes?"
-'''As such, humans can slot in just about any weapon, into just about any setup.'''
+Let's go over how we make palettes, now that we have so many potential weapons to choose from.
-Notably, [[Mirage blasts#Kun'ne|Kun'ne]] provides a 40% attack speed boost, which is a very significant boost to melee weapons, but means little to ranged weapons (whose attack speed is already very high) and technic weapons (as attack speed boost does not affect tech casting speed). For more ambitious players looking to take advantage of Kun'ne (which is perhaps human's one standout trait) a melee build is a great choice.
+There's a few things we need to worry about when it comes to picking a weapon.
-=== Newman ===
+First, its purpose; Second, if it's an one-handed weapon, what we would using on the other hand; Lastly, what we should place next to it.
-It's a newman, they have no redeeming factors besides TEC and PP regen, of course focus more on tech weapons. nNwman's ACC is okay too, so throwing in some ranged weapons, especially TEC based ones such as [[Longbows]].
-Also note that Newmans have very low DEF, which is dragged down by Vanguard's low DEF multiplier. Some defense abilities may be required to compensate.
+For example, we try to put Sazonde on our palette somewhere, for chaining purposes.
-=== Beast ===
+Since we just want chains, we don't care for the higher TEC score on [[Rods]]. [[Wands]] and [[Tech-Mags]] are much better as they cast faster and can strafe cast.
-It's beast, they have no redeeming factors besides HP and ATK, so of course focus more on melee weapons.
-Relative to Hunters, Beast Vanguards has lower damage, but higher accuracy, and longer duration on buffs and debuffs. Prior to Lv30 Photon Arts and Rebirths, Beast Vanguards are potentially stronger than Hunters just because they hit more times.
+Out of the two, we pick [[Wands]], as we would like to pair it with a left-hand weapon. Left-hand weapons are generally ranged weapons, which Sazonde, being a ranged technic, works really well with. Tech-Mags can work as well, as they generally have less pp consumption than Wands, but Sazonde has a range difference with most right-handed weapons (all close-range except for [[Whips]] and [[Slicers]]), which can make them awkward to use in combination.
-=== Cast ===
+In this case, we pick a [[Machine Guns|Machine Gun]] equipped with Meseta Shot to go with the Wand, as the Machine Gun can add additional chains quite quickly as the Sazonde resolves, and with meseta shot, allows the player some time to recover pp to compensate for Sazonde's high pp cost. Machine Gun's Charge Shot 1 also works decently well as a chain breaker, and it aims upwards, which works well with Sazonde's launch effect.
-Casts have good ATK, high ACC, which lets casts lean into both '''Ranged''' and '''Melee weapons''', dependent on the situation and play-style.
-Cast Vanguard sits somewhere in the middle of Cast Hunters and Cast Rangers, exchanging the damage output for versatility.
+Since Sazonde works well with [[Shotguns]], we will place them next to each other on the action palette to be swapped back and forth easily.
-=== Deuman ===
+(Of course, this is just an example, feel free to fit Sazonde wherever you like.)
-Similar to humans, Deumans has well rounded stats, which allows them to utilize anything.
-Theoretically.
+== Race Differences ==
+Your ability and weapon composition is really just dependent on your race, more than anything.
-Unfortunately, Deuman have a stupid amount of drawbacks:
+=== Human ===
+Humans are balanced in every direction as Vanguard: ATK, TEC, DEF, MND, PP and ACC thus deal average damage output. They also excel from having high DEF, MND and STA which allows them to resist different kinds of attacks. Having enough balanced stats, they are highly suitable for the vanguard class.
-* Deuman's low PP and extremely low PP regen, meaning much less uses of photon arts compared to all other races.
+=== Newman ===
-** This especially doesn't help on Vanguard, which relies on mixing various photon arts to catch up in damage, most of which has a high PP cost.
+Newmans have low ATK, but very high TEC and fine ACC. In other words, they are not very good at melee weapons, but very good with technic weapons. Ranged weapons usually wind up being just fine as they rely more on ACC than they do ATK.
-* Atrocious defense stats, combined with low defenses on Vanguard, makes them arguably the most fragile class/race combination in the game.
-** While defensive abilities, such as Half Defense, can keep Deumans alive quite effectively. This means ability slots that cannot be used by other abilities, especially strong late game abilities such as Ignite Arts.
-* [[Infinity blasts]] are tied to Type, thus deuman only has access to one blast, much worse in versatility compared to other races.
+In esssence, focus on technic weapons and ranged weapons. melee weapons can still have uses, despite newmans being worse with them than other races. TEC-based ranged weapons especially can be very good. In my experience, Longbows CS2 tends to outdamage Rifles, but is still outdamaged by Shotgun CS2, unless the Longbow way outclasses the Shotgun.
-** It also doesn't help that the blast is [[Infinity blasts#Blade Stream|Blade Stream]], which is quite infamous for getting the player killed for using it in tight spots.
-== Traps ==
+Also note that Newmans have very low DEF, which is dragged down by Vanguard's low DEF multiplier. Some defense abilities may be required to compensate.
-Vanguards have a proficiency with Traps, and is the only type that can use both EX traps, so let's go over them.
-Trap have the following properties:
+=== Beast ===
+Beasts have high ATK, high HP, but low TEC and low ACC. In other words, they have a focus on melee weapons, and are poor with technic weapons.
-* Damage dealt scales to the player's level (usually about as high as a few {{Square}} presses). This can be boosted via Burst Bomber.
+Don't let that scare you away from technic weapons, though. Technics provide a ton of utilities, and don't miss. Sure, you can't break using technics like Newmans probably can, but dealing 1 damage is the same as dealing 100 as far as chaining goes.
-* '''<big>Adds 0 chains.</big>'''
-* Has a chance to inflict a specific status aliment when used.
-* Takes up item palette as opposed to the weapon palette.
-** No harm in bringing some, since it takes up no weapon slots, and healing items effectively takes up no item slots when Auto-heal is equipped.
-Single-hit Traps are quantity over quality, and can be used early game to quickly melt bosses: even problematic enemies, such as [[Bag Degga|Bag Deggas]], would die to a dozen traps or two exploding under their feet. However, their damage becomes irrelevant towards higher-levels, as its damage does not scale as hard as enemy HP does. It's possible to attempt inflicting statuses with them, but generally they are too inefficient for that.
+Melee damage is less prone to missing compared to beast hunters (since vanguards have better ACC), and ranged is also more effective. Would still recommend you to break off melee as opposed to ranged if you can, though.
-Burn Trap EX produces a persisting hit-box that hits 10 times when detonated, and has a good chance of inflicting Burn. While it can't chain, it's useful for inducing Burn on problematic enemies, such as [[Aura of power]] enemies. Burn deals percentage based damage every other second, and can cause quite a bit of damage if it persists for a long time.
+=== Cast ===
+Casts have good ATK, high ACC, but low TEC. In other words, a focus on ranged weapons and melee weapons, but are poor with technic weapons.
-Stun Trap EX produces a persisting hit-box that hits 10 times when detonated, and has a good chance of inflicting Stun. While its use is largely replaced by [[Sazonde]] nowadays, it can cover some situations that Sazonde does not: it has a higher amount of locks (to deal with larger mob groups), can stun [[Aura of power]] enemies (who will ignore Sazonde), and can deal with enemies that can't be launched or knocked down (such as [[Komazli|Komazlis]]). As such, it's still a useful tool to have on the palette.
+Similar to beasts, don't let that scare you away from technic weapons: Technics provide a ton of utilities, and can still provide great chaining support. Forget breaking with them, though.
-Note that Traps don't drop from the vast majority of containers, meaning that the player cannot replenish their traps in the middle of a mission. Thus traps should be saved for particularly problematic enemies.
+With high ACC, casts can lean into both Ranged and Melee weapons, dependent on the situation and playstyle.
-== Abilities ==
+=== Deuman ===
-'''GRM Fan, Yohmei Fan, Tenora Fan''' (ALL level 5): these abilities has the incredible cost efficiency of 1 slot for 10% extra damage, and Vanguard, being a hybrid class, has the easiest time exploiting these abilities.
+Deumans have good ATK, TEC, and ACC, which allows them to use anything offensively.
-{| class="wikitable mw-collapsible mw-collapsed"
-|+Manufacturers and the max rank weapons they make
-!Icon
-!Name
-!GRM
-!Tenora
-!Yohmei
-|-
-|https://psp2i.wiki/images/1/1f/Sword.gif
-|[[Swords]]
-|S
-|A
-|A
-|-
-|https://psp2i.wiki/images/5/52/Knuckles.gif
-|[[Knuckles]]
-|B
-|S
-|A
-|-
-|https://psp2i.wiki/images/c/cf/Spear.gif
-|[[Spears]]
-|B
-|S
-|A
-|-
-|https://psp2i.wiki/images/d/d3/Doublesaber.gif
-|[[Double Sabers]]
-|S
-| -
-|A
-|-
-|https://psp2i.wiki/images/3/31/Axe.gif
-|[[Axes]]
-| -
-|S
-|S
-|-
-|https://psp2i.wiki/images/b/b7/Twinsaber.gif
-|[[Twin Sabers]]
-|S
-|A
-|A
-|-
-|https://psp2i.wiki/images/e/eb/Twindagger.gif
-|[[Twin Daggers]]
-|A
-|A
-|S
-|-
-|https://psp2i.wiki/images/2/2e/Twinclaw.gif
-|[[Twin Claws]]
-| -
-|A
-|S
-|-
-|https://psp2i.wiki/images/c/c4/Saber.gif
-|[[Sabers]]
-|S
-|A
-|A
-|-
-|https://psp2i.wiki/images/3/3a/Dagger.gif
-|[[Daggers]]
-|A
-|A
-|S
-|-
-|https://psp2i.wiki/images/2/2b/Claw.gif
-|[[Claws]]
-| -
-|A
-|S
-|-
-|https://psp2i.wiki/images/d/d6/Whip.gif
-|[[Whips]]
-|S
-|S
-| -
-|-
-|https://psp2i.wiki/images/6/6c/Slicer.gif
-|[[Slicers]]
-| -
-| -
-|S
-|-
-|https://psp2i.wiki/images/8/86/Shield.gif
-|[[Shields]]
-|S
-| -
-| -
-|-
-|https://psp2i.wiki/images/9/91/Rifle.gif
-|[[Rifles]]
-|S
-|B
-|S
-|-
-|https://psp2i.wiki/images/6/6b/Shotgun.gif
-|[[Shotguns]]
-|B
-|S
-|B
-|-
-|https://psp2i.wiki/images/1/1b/Longbow.gif
-|[[Longbows]]
-|B
-|B
-|S
-|-
-|https://psp2i.wiki/images/b/bc/Grenade.gif
-|[[Grenade Launchers]]
-|A
-|S
-| -
-|-
-|https://psp2i.wiki/images/f/f7/Lasercannon.gif
-|[[Laser Cannons]]
-|S
-| -
-|S
-|-
-|https://psp2i.wiki/images/1/10/Twinhandgun.gif
-|[[Twin Handguns]]
-|S
-|A
-|A
-|-
-|https://psp2i.wiki/images/1/15/Handgun.gif
-|[[Handguns]]
-|S
-|A
-|A
-|-
-|https://psp2i.wiki/images/5/51/Crossbow.gif
-|[[Crossbows]]
-| -
-|S
-|A
-|-
-|https://psp2i.wiki/images/b/bd/Card.gif
-|[[Cards]]
-|A
-| -
-|S
-|-
-|https://psp2i.wiki/images/b/b0/Machinegun.gif
-|[[Machine Guns]]
-|S
-|A
-| -
-|-
-|https://psp2i.wiki/images/0/00/Rmag.gif
-|[[R-Mags]]
-|S
-|A
-| -
-|-
-|https://psp2i.wiki/images/8/84/Rod.gif
-|[[Rods]]
-|B
-| -
-|S
-|-
-|https://psp2i.wiki/images/b/b7/Wand.gif
-|[[Wands]]
-|A
-|B
-|S
-|-
-|https://psp2i.wiki/images/d/d7/Tmag.gif
-|[[Tech-Mags]]
-|S
-| -
-|S
-|}
-'''Partnership''' (Vanguard level 6): 35% extra damage for your NPC buddies, very useful for 1 slot (as long as your party members are strong).
-'''Wild Blast''' (ALL level 5): Hey, more blasts is always good! Especially if you are a race that really like having more blasts, such as Beasts, or Humans with Kun'ne.
+Theortically.
-'''Elemental Hit''' (Ranger level 8): Want to build around a status aliment? Here you go!
+Deuman's low PP and low PP regen holds them back considerably, as they don't fare well with high PP users (such as most melee photon arts, Sazonde, and most Charge Shots). As such, they desperately need ways to either recover pp quickly, or reduce pp usage. This means either specific weapons with low PP usage, and/or PP Save skills from reaching Lv30 on other Types.
-'''Half Defense''' (Vanguard level 8): Helps with Vanguard's paper thin defense. Most useful for Deumans and Newmans, or when you take on enemies significantly stronger than you are.
+Also worth mentioning that Deumans have atrocious defenses, and very much requires defensive abilities, such as Half Defense, to patch them up. '''As a result, it's very possible that Deuman player may wind up with not enough room to fit Ignited Arts into their type abilities, which severely harms their end-game damage potential.'''
-'''Auto-heal Critical/Half''' (ALL level 1): Automatically uses Monomates, Dimates, Trimates, and Sol Atomizers; very convenient, and gives you more palette space to put in traps. Combos with Half Defense to make you effectively invincible.
+== Traps ==
+Vanguards have a proficiency with Traps, and is the only type that can use both EX traps, so let's go over them.
-'''Healing Item Boost''' (Hunter level 2): Makes your healing items significantly more potent. Most notably, saves monomate uses when used with Auto-heal Critical and Half Defense.
+Trap have a couple properties: their damage scales to the player's level, they don't add chains, and all of them has a chance to inflict a specific status aliement when used. They go onto the item palette as opposed to the weapon palette as well, which allows the player to bring a whole bunch without interrupting the normal gameflow, especially if the player opts to bring Auto-med abilities.
-'''PP Defense Save''' (Hunter Level 3) / '''Soaking Guard''' (ALL Level 10): Reduces PP consumption, or increases the potency of guards, very useful if you guard a lot.
+Single-hit Traps are quantity over quality, and can be used early game to quickly melt bosses: even problematic enemies, such as [[Bag Degga|Bag Deggas]], would die to a dozen traps or two exploding under their feet. However, their damage becomes irrevelant towards higher-levels, as its damage does not scale as hard as enemy HP does. It's possible to attempt inflicting statuses with them, but generally they are too inefficient for that.
-'''PP Escape Save''' (ALL level 3): Reduces PP consumption, great if you evade a lot.
+Burn Trap EX produces a persisting hitbox that hits 10 times when detonated, and has a good chance of inflicting Burn. While it can't chain, it's useful for inducing Burn on problematic enemies, such as Boosted enemies. Burn deals percentage based damage every other second, and can cause quite a bit of damage if it persists for a long time.
-'''Full-Charge Shot''' (Ranger Lv2): if you want to play with any ranged weapons, slap this on and never take it off.
+Stun Trap EX produces a persisting hitbox that hits 10 times when detonated, and has a good chance of inflicting Stun. While its use is largely replaced by Sazonde nowadays, it can cover some situations that Sazonde does not: it has a higher amount of locks (to deal with larger mob groups), can stun boosted enemies (who will ignore Sazonde), and can deal with enemies that can't be launched or knocked down (such as [[Komazli|Komazlis]]). As such, it's still a useful tool to have on the palette.
-'''Lightning Hi-Speed''' (Force Lv13): Makes Sazondes faster.
+Note that Traps don't drop from the vast majority of containers, meaning that the player cannot replenish their traps in the middle of a mission. Thus traps should be saved for particularly problematic enemies.
 == Ignited Arts ==
@@ Line 397: / Line 130: @@
 Ignited Arts costs 7 slots, and increases the level limit of all player Photon Arts from 20 to 25 (with the exception of Zalure, Jellen, Shifta, Deband, Anti and Resta). This may sound like a massive cost for something that seems insignificant, so let's go through what exactly it covers.
-First, 5 more levels constitutes around a 5% increment to all Photon Arts damage. This is a decently sizable boost for Skills and Technics, although not so much Bullets.
+First, 5 more levels consistutes around a 5% increment to all Photon Arts damage. This is a decently sizable boost for Skills and Technics, although not so much Bullets.
 Second, going from Lv20 to Lv25 moves the PAs up a tier, which gives them additional properties.
-For Technics, this means an expansion in size, range, and even hit count in some cases. The most notable of which being [[Foverse]], which upgrades from 2 hits to 3 hits, with a much longer duration, upgrading it from a good chaining tool to one of the best chaining tools in the game.
+For Technics, this means an expansion in size, range, and even hit count in some cases. The most notable of which being [[Foverse]], which upgrades from 2 hits to 3 hits, and upgrades it from a good chaining tool to one of the best chaining tools in the game.
 For Skills, getting a skill to above Lv25 usually reduces some of their stages' PP use by 10. Some Skills, such as [[Assault Crush]], has both Stage 1 and Stage 2 reduced by 10 PP, which reduces its total PP use by 20. This is a huge help to PP economy, and improves the viability of high PP weapons, which are very common at high levels.
-The most important part of obtaining Lv25 bullets, meanwhile, is an additional bullet to [[Cards]] and [[Shotguns]], which becomes a 50% damage bonus to Cards, and a 25% damage bonus for Shotguns. Shotguns are already one of Vanguard's most powerful chain break tools even at Lv20, and is absolutely nuts at Lv25.
+Getting Bullets to Lv25 doesn't mean all that much. Besides the aforementioned damage bonus, it also provides a 5% range bonus for Long-Range bullets (from 125% at Lv20 to 130% at Lv25), as well as a 5% elemental bonus for Elemental bullets (from 20% at Lv20 to 25% at Lv25). Neither of which are that important to be honest.
+What Lv25 bullets does provide, is an additional bullet to [[Cards]], and more importantly, [[Shotguns]], which becomes a 50% damage bonus to Cards, and a 25% damage bonus for Shotguns. Shotguns are already one of Vanguard's most powerful chain break tools even at Lv20, and is absolutely nuts at Lv25.
 '''When put together, an Ignited Arts Vanguard is someone with the potential damage of Hunters and Rangers, while retaining all of the best chaining tools of Forces.'''
@@ Line 412: / Line 147: @@
 The player has a maximum of 12 slots. 7 is allocated for Ignited Arts, and 1 is for Full Charge Shot (if you are using Shotgun), and there's only 4 slots left, which isn't enough room to fit all of the great abilities, such as PP Skill Save (2 slots), PP Tech Save (2 slots), Half Defense (3 slots), Damage Convert PP (2 slots), various technic hi-speeds (1 slots each). Most notably, Deumans' viability with Ignited Arts is severely hindered, as they really want both PP reduction abilities and defensive abilities, which they can't fit with Ignited Arts.
-[[File:Sample Vanguard Palette.png|thumb|200x200px]]
-Sample Palette on the right:
-* Twin Claws ({{Triangle}} Sougacho Sekka)
+== Other Notes ==
-* Crossbow ({{Square}} Yak Longa {{Triangle}} Charge Shot I) + Wand ({{Square}} Foverse, {{Triangle}} Zalure)
-* Shotgun ({{Square}} Baraga Maga {{Triangle}} Charge Shot II)
-* Twin Handguns ({{Square}} Attack {{Triangle}} Charge Shot I)
-* Machine Gun ({{Square}} Meseta Fever  {{Triangle}} Charge Shot I) + Wand ({{Square}} Sazonde, {{Triangle}} Zalure)
-* Rod ({{Square}} Anti, {{Triangle}} Resta,  R+{{Square}} Shifta,  R+{{Triangle}} Deband)
-Foverse combos right into either the melee weapon, Shotgun for single target break, or crossbow for mob control. Twin handguns is used while approaching, for FPS sniping, and, if you are using the [[T. Heaven Punishers]] (I can assume you have that by now, right?), deals with multi target enemies and grouped mobs from a distance. It also plays well with Sazonde. Meseta Fever once again returns for PP management (feel free to drop that if you are newman).
-While Vanguards ultimately still has less damage than the other types, since they miss assets like lv21+ Shifta, Hi-speed charge, Burst Shooter, Attack Booster, and just less room on their ability slots, Vanguards are unique in that they can get the most out of every weapon and almost every technic, at the same time. And traps too!
-== Other Notes ==
-{{Getting Started}}
+{{Navigation}}