Divine Punishment/Guide
Divine Punishment Optimization Theorycrafting
Is it Worth it?
Is it worth making a "pure" (or at least high) MIND Striker Unit?
Yes, sort of. It can be, if:
- you have a second POW/DEX mag for other uses
- you are exclusively using Striker Unit for Divine Punishment
- and you value the amount of attacks you conserve via maximizing its output at lower levels (it can reduce required hits to kill by around 25%; from 8 attacks down to 6 in an example below).
- Or you have specific solo hunts planned that you intend to purely DP through for a long time.
If Striker Unit is your only mag, probably make it RAmarl's suggested mag stats on her guide page (5/149/46/0). This lets you access all of the important weaponry on any Ranger and deal physical damage at reasonably low levels, allows for "minimum" (it's not too far from maximum) effectiveness DP damage output, and also allows a level 200 RAmarl with Min-Max build to have fully maximized DP damage output while maintaining max ATP and ATA, and 2 free Unit slots.
Pros & Cons
Pros
- High DP output for sub-Ultimate difficulties and Heaven Striker equippable as early as level 14 (4x Heavenly/Arms units).
- High DP output for sub-Ultimate difficulties with Heavenly/Battle attack speed at level 42.
- High DP output (only -141 MST from RAmarl's cap) and Heavenly/Battle attack speed at level 80.
- Max DP output as early as level 105.
- levels assume 5/7/34/154 mag listed below, Heavenly units, and completed Important Stats Only materials used (0 Mind mats).
Neutral
- Demons weapons are still effective. Slicer of Fanatic ATP requirement (570 ATP) already barely achieved at level 80.
- Handgun animation (especially RAmarl's) is already so fast. Is it really worth investing so heavily, and losing so heavily on ATP and ATA that are very important for other weapons / other types of content and gameplay, just to save around 2 handgun attacks per wave?
- DP solo episode 4 strats are typically understood to be easy and low focus anyway, and in multiplayer it's typically used in conjunction with other player(s) DP or FO techs. Outside of Time Attack, DP is not some precisely calculated attack method - it's just a spam-until-they're-dead kind of thing - so being slightly slower on killing things isn't a big deal or very noticeable.
Cons
- Low ATP and ATA throughout leveling; physical damage and your ability to use other weapons will be very weak until very high levels.
- A lot of MST is wasted as overcapped points at very high levels.
Other thoughts
Ideally/Optimally, you could carry 2 mags and magswap during the quest, but I don't expect most players to want to do this sort of effort (and lose any accumulated PB gauge).
If there are example quests that are high efficiency to 100% DP through, then the high MIND Striker Unit is more appealing. I can't think of any though - there seems to always be some spawns that are inefficient to purely DP through, but are much easier to purely physically damage through or Demons -> damage (or maybe DP) cleanup.
Example for amount of attacks to kill
for the example of Ultimate One Person Mode, 40 ELT crater Yowie with 2040 HP (400 base damage. +5MST = +1 base damage)
- 0mst (racast/racaseal) = 400 damage before ELT -> 240dmg = 9 shots to kill
- 279mst (ramar min at level 80) = 455 damage before ELT -> 273dmg = 8 shots to kill
- 351mst (ramarl min at level 80) = 470 damage before ELT -> 282dmg = 8 shots to kill
- 665mst (ramar max) = 533 before ELT -> 319dmg = 7 shots to kill
- 1031mst (ramarl max) = 606 before ELT -> 363dmg = 6 shots to kill
high MIND investment on mag + Important Stats Only materials:
- 890mst (ramarl level 80) = 578 before ELT -> 346dmg = 6 shots to kill
- (Exclusively for maxing DP uses; sacrifices a lot of ATP and ATA, making other weapons far less effective)
RAmarl
(this can be integrated into the RAmarl/Guide page eventually, or maybe Divine Punishment guide page. people always ask what stats to put on Striker Unit. this type of early stat cap level breakpoints is what I'd like to include for a detailed section of the builds table on each class guide page).
Important Stats Only + quick high MIND Striker Unit mag
5/7/34/154 Striker Unit mag.
(Min-Max materials will only be slightly quicker to max MST, with an additional 39 Mind materials = 78 MST. around 10-25 levels in early Ultimate when it is very quick to level up already)
- by level 14, equip HS (no Heavenly/Battle speed) [572 MST]
- by level 42, equip HS [695 MST]
- by level 80, equip HS [890 MST]
- by level 105, equip HS [1031 MST, capped]
- by level 130, ATA+MST capped (she only has 830 ATP at this point, -315 from her cap. Demons is still effective at least) [1031 MST, capped]
- (requires an expensive Adept) by level 199 with v101, Adept, and 2x H/Powers she can barely cap ATP while maintaining capped ATA and far overcapped MST (+216 MST overcapped) [1031 MST, capped]
- http://pso.ffsky.cn/tools/status_simulator/en.htm?c=ramarl&lv=199&mdef=5&mpow=7&mdex=34&mmind=154&pow=129&mind=93&lck=28&unit1=49&unit2=4e&unit3=54&unit4=54
- sorta irrelevant; at this point you should be using something much closer to the current guide-suggested mag stats with more POW and DEX
Important Stats Only
5/149/46/0 mag.
aims to max ATP and ATA early, does not max MST, DFP, or EVP at level 200
- by level 7, equip HS (no Heavenly/Battle speed) [231 MST]
- by level 35, equip HS [359 MST]
- by level 85, cap ATA (without v101) [557 MST]
- by level 139 cap ATP+ATA [756 MST]
- by level 194 cap MST, far overcapped ATP (+151 ATP overcapped), -3.1ATA from max with V101, V801, 2 H/Minds, and Red Ring [1031 MST, capped]
- by level 200, ATP+ATA capped. requires 2x Heavenly/Minds to cap MST [1031 MST, capped]
Min-Max
5/149/46/0 mag, same as ISO.
(aims to max ATP+ATA+MST at level 200 with 2 free unit slots and extra mats dumped into Defense)
- by level 7, equip HS (no Heavenly/Battle speed) [309 MST]
- by level 35, equip HS [437 MST]
- by level 85, cap ATA (same as Important Stats Only above) [635 MST]
- by level 161, cap MST [1031 MST, capped]
- (requires an expensive Adept) by level 167, cap ATP+ATA [922 MST]
- by level 187, cap ATP+ATA+MST with V101, V801, Adept, Centurion/Ability, and Red Ring [1031 MST, capped]
- by level 200, cap ATP+ATA+MST with only V101, V801, and Red Ring [1031 MST, capped]
Mag Feeding Guides/Examples
mag plans done using the Magatama tool from here https://www.pioneer2.net/community/threads/magatama-a-modern-mag-planner-calculator-beta-9.4552/
Fast and Easy 5/7/34/154 (Leilla, Pilla, Mylla&Youlla
it would be sorta nice to have Estlla PB from first evolution on a RA to help with an ep4 boss cave strategy, but Divine Punishment works pretty good for evenly damaging the crystals anyway, and the feeding tables are more of a pain on the RA-evolved first and second mag evos.
It is also slower to level them up and harder to reach required stats for DEX > POW > MIND Ila or Kaitabha (Twins PB) and Garuda (Heaven Striker Coat mag cell).
- Antidote to level 10 on FO (Leilla PB) - Vritra 5/1/4/0
- Antidote to level 35 (Pilla PB) - Ashvinau 5/7/23/0
- Antiparalysis to level 49 - Ashvinau 5/7/33/3
- HU ViridiaSkylyPurplenumRedriaYellowboze DEX > POW > MIND feeds final Antiparalysis to level 50 (Mylla & Youlla / Twins PB) - Ila (5/7/34/4)
- any HU/FO GreenillBluefullPinkalOranWhitill DEX > POW > MIND feeds any single item (Difluid is fine) - Garuda 5/7/34/4
- use Heaven Striker Coat - Striker Unit 5/7/34/4
- to this point: 79 Feeding Cycles, 276.5 Minutes, 15,220 Meseta
- Difluids to level 200 - Striker Unit 5/7/34/154
- to this point: 279 Feeding Cycles, 976.5 Minutes, 314,720 Meseta
- Sol Atomizers (or Moon Atomizers) to Synchro 120
- total: 291 Feeding Cycles, 1018.5 Minutes, 325,420 Meseta
Slow but with Estlla PB 5/15/16/164 (Estlla, Pilla, Mylla&Youlla)
for comparison, check the Feeding Cycles, Minutes, and Meseta used on this other more complicated build from another player, which DOES get Estlla:
- Monofluid to level 10 on RA (Estlla PB) - Kalki 5/0/0/5
- Alternate between a few Trifluids until DEF almost levels up, followed by MANY Antiparalysis to lower DEF. Repeat to level 35 (Pilla PB) - Mitra 5/0/16/14
- Monomates to level 49 - Mitra 5/14/16/14
- RA GreenillBluefullPinkalOranWhitill DEX ≥ POW > MIND feeds final Monomate to level 50 (Mylla & Youlla / Twins PB) - Kaitabha 5/15/16/14
- any HU/FO GreenillBluefullPinkalOranWhitill DEX > POW > MIND feeds any single item (Difluid is fine) - Garuda 5/15/16/14
- use Heaven Striker Coat - Striker Unit 5/15/16/14
- to this point: 213 Feeding Cycles, 745.5 Minutes, 101,110 Meseta
- Difluids to level 200 - Striker Unit 5/15/16/164
- total: 413 Feeding Cycles, 1445.5 Minutes, 401,110 Meseta
Credit for this page and guide goes to Thunder