New -- Have a Few Questions

Levinas wrote:

First and foremost, despite my efforts to figure it out on my own, I can't figure out the advantages and disadvatnages of one attack setting vs. the others. (Speed/Power/Guard)  Could someone give me a rundown on what's best to use against what?

Are there any real perks between the organizations?  Or is it basicly just choosing a side to ally with in PvP?

 Are Karate martial artists any good?  I assume I'll be spending a lot of time solo, and Karate GM sounded like an appealing endgame class.

 Should I even bother grinding on NPCs, or should I just do missions non-stop?  Should I try to run through missions as fast as possible, or fight out battles that I come across?

I've been bugged with a lot of lag at times.  Is it just my connection?  Do I have my graphics settings too high? (Because tverything seems to work just fine most of the time, I just get some TERRIBLE spikes sometimes).  Could it just be limited memory?

Thanks in advance.  =)

~Erwing, Recursion

First of all, I am relativelly new here so I do not consider myself an expert but this is what I think of all the above.

Many questions , as far as a broad understanding of how combat works and how abilities influence different things in MxO, you should look at this website: www.mxoresource.com

Each one of the 3 attacks has modifiers, Speed for accuracy, Power for damage output and Grab for defense.

Each of the above can cause a status change and that is important as the changes are prerequisite for abilities, in broad terms, you should consider that most of the abilities in Kung Fu need Speed, most of Karate need Power and most of Aikido need Grab, however, there are some exceptions.

You should look at each ability you upload and use the attack that works the best, but as you progress you will realize you will have to change attack modes depending on the combination of abilities you use.

Personally I switch often between Power and Speed, I am an Kung Fu Master, however, I use Grab to attack Mobs that have Evade active as it breaks it down very fast (i.e. hackers).

Martial Arts are powerful and I think is the best option to level and to practice if this is your first character; MA are great to use solo but as you just go in, kill and get out for the most part, you will have one single problem... you alone interlocked and a room full of mobs shooting you dead in a few seconds. 

That is inevitable because of the missions randomness so, if you can, with evade on, try to lure them near the elevator, they will not follow outside the areas marked red in your mission map. 

So, you kill one or two and back in to the elevator, sit, heal and back in to action.

It's important to use healing pills and boosters if needed, as you will learn to make them yourself, if they keep you alive, that is all it counts.

Money is an issue, try to reduce the number of trees you learn and level as you will run out of cash fast.

Karate and Kung Fu are good, while I do not want to say which one is better as I can't really, the common view is that Aikido is the weakest and Kung Fu is the best, however, there are many theories about it so, try them and chose what works for you.

As far as your stat points, add them to both Belief and Focus till they are maxed out, that is a key for Martial Artists.

Please note, this is not your average game with end game classes set in stone; with time, you will learn them all and use them all, everything is changeable in MxO. 

As far as mission versus mob grinding, my opinion is that for cash and xp you should mission non stop.

Also note, if you mission you get reputation points that in the future will possibly used to have access to Organization Abilities (it's talked about, was planned but delayed for now).

Mob grinding for me has 3 purposes, 1 do gain cash without gaining xp.  Why?  Well, if this is your first character, you will soon realize that as you level you face progressively worst costs, and at time, when I want to have a cash injection, I grind for a while in an area 5 level lower than me, enough to get maximum cash output with no XP.

The second and more important reason is farm red code fragment that you will need as you develop the coder trees to craft abilities, clothes and more.

Lastly, gang member drop tools that can be traded for items from area collectors, some are nice so it's worth doing so.

For more information on coding, collectors and more, look at: www.mxoresource.com

Organization, well, the reasons to join one and as a consequence of getting positive reputation is to be able to join a faction.  Faction --> Clan, guild, group of people to help you if needed and to have social interaction.

If you do not chose one and just grind, in PvP, your default organization is Zion, however, more importantly, each have separate story arcs and Live Events so, chose one and you will enjoy the game more, beside, you can always change later if you like.

Spikes, well, I do not know;  I do not have enough information but, your RAM could be one, your Internet connection could be another.  Also, make sure you PC does not have scheduled download of updates, or background scheduled processes, when my anti virus kicks in I have bad lags as well.

Levinas wrote:

First and foremost, despite my efforts to figure it out on my own, I can't figure out the advantages and disadvatnages of one attack setting vs. the others. (Speed/Power/Guard)  Could someone give me a rundown on what's best to use against what?

To clarify further, I found this that I was given as a reply when I asked the very same question:

Speed -> Power -> Grab -> Speed

So, Speed is more likely to beat Power and so forth but again, that is assuming all the rest do not play a part.

In addition you can also generalize the following:

Hackers most likely to beat Spy
Spy most likely to beat Gunmen
Gunmen most likely to beat Martial Arts
Martial Arts most likely to beat Hackers

However, missions are quite easy even at hard setting so, with a few exceptions, with a bit of practice and experience all load outs (call it class ability combinations if you like) can solo them.

All the above really apply more in PvP and extreme situations, however, bear in mind, while you can solo almost anything in this game, there are still a few things that you will not, for example, the Pandora's Box missions.

cloudwolf wrote:

Nice post Shay, though i think you got confused between grab and block in places.

   

Thanks, I am at work and from the top of my head, I am likely be a bit confusing.  I think I corrected one but if there are more let me know.

Levinas, I guess, when we speak of Grab, it enhance the defense and allows you to reduce the ability of others to avoid interlocking.

Block, is a defense mode that prevent you from attack but increase your recovery rate and reduce dramatically the damage you receive.

As far as more information you can also look at this, a document prepared for the change ofer from the old combat system to the new one:

http://www.radiomegacity.com/cr2/CR2low.pdf

Levinas wrote:

Yeah, lots of qwuestions. xD  I played for about 2 days trying to figure some stuf out on my own, but meh, it's hard when you don't have the time/knowledge/levels to do real tests on some things.

I kinda figured as much on the speed/power/grad, but I just wanted to make sure. x3  I noticed I did better with some things when I started fighting level 9 NPCs, until then I just stuck with Speed since it seemd to hit most often.

When I noticed thi had a changeable class system like in FFXI I was happy.  =P  No more having to have 5 alts to make myself happy, yay!~  I just ment that as a starter tree, it seemed to fit pretty well.  And I did seem to do a lot more damage in close combat than in ranged.

I was gonna go for Karate based on just the abilities I saw in the tree, but if Kung Fu really is better, I'll look into that a bit more.  If it's just widely belived but not actually proven, I'll probably just stick with Karate and see for myself.  Not like I can't just farm money to go into a different tree later if need be.

I can understand the speed->power->guard->speed, simply because of their bonuses...but ranged meating mele and melee beating "mage" seems reversed to me. xD  Oh well, can't really complain, just something to get used to I guess.

Another question, with the 4 different Hyper (defense) in the Awakened tree, which one is most useful in the early stages and which shoulkd I save to upgrade for later when I have the spare cash?  I've been using the one that gives melee defense so far, but I noticed that most NPC mobs end up pulling out guns in close combat anyway.  I haven't seen any need to work on the Viral defense or anything yet, since I've only been fighting against guns and fists.

And, is it possible to fight multiple things at once, or are you stuck fighting only one thing once you pull it into interlock?  If so, what the multi-fighting ability actually do? 

Later on, in mission you will find Hackers and the viral could be handy, especially because you can have only 2 active, Viral + one of the other so, if you have a spare memory point to use and cash to level is not a bad idea to have it uploaded and active but not necessary.

The next level up are just as pointless but Adrenaline Booster, I generally have it loaded, especially in tight mission area with many mobs, as they all shoot, it gives you that extra buff while you start reducing the opponents.

Also, talking of abilities that do not work, Hyper Jump does not give any bonus past 25; Cryptology do not work either, or so I was told.

Levinas wrote:

Okay then, I'll stop wasting memory space on multi fighting then.   ^^

So basically, as long as I can afford to, keep all of them upgraded, but keep Dodge on 90% of the time?  Sounds simple enough.

Okay, just hit level 10, and I noticed I can get Karate/Kung Fu/Aikido styles now.  Where do I buy them?  If I explore until I find stuff my own level, will I generally be able to buy skills for around that level nearby, or are there certain places that are generally accepted as the main places to shop for abilities?

There are specialized vendors like Martial Art vendors, check this:

http://www.mxoresource.com/p/vendors/

However, the best option is to find somebody that can code them for you or, better still, you learn to code them yourself.

Look at the Coder trees and you will se path all the way to Abilities Maker, that is where you need to get to with time but low level abilities, you should be able to code already if you level Write Code (not sure the coding level of the one you need but you could try).

If you have any more questions, just ask or look at the coder section in this forum.

Shayel

I noticed that later down the line they split to Ability Coder, but I'm no where near that level now so I didn't know how much good coding things for myself would do at this point.  I'll give it a shot though if it'll work.  =)

Shayel: Very good, always try but remember, to get codes you need to decompile things, do not try to decompile difficult things, and so decompile only green, blue and gray items.  Later on you can decompile harder things when you get apareals that gives decompiling bonuses (Enhanced Upgrade).

Okay, made all 3 and upgraded them to level 10...and can't decide which one's best at this point in time.  The only skill I have that has any special stance on it is GUard Breaker and it says Kung Fu, and seeing as how, right now, both Kung Fu and Aikido have one less Melee Damage point than Karate, and both have equal or greater Defense and Accuracy, would it be smart to go for Kung Fu, and upgrade Karate later if I decide to continue into the Kratate Master/Grandmaster tree, or go with Karate anyway?  I have a personal preference of kicks versus punches, and I noticed more kick-ish abilities down the Karate tree, otherwise I'd just go with Kung Fu since it's supposedly better anyway.  I have a preference of speed over power too, so it wouldn't be much of a loss I guess, even though this game's combat system's different than most I've ever played, so my old preferences may not work out here in the way I like.

Shayel: Well, there are nasty kick moves in Kung Fu, the Piston Kick is devastating and looks cool!  You chose but as a starter for now I would go Kung Fu.

Normally I'd choose the one that just looks coolest to me, but meh.  >.>;;;  It's kinda important to pick the right one and not waste a lot of money upgrading something early on when money's tight, right?  I went down from just over 1 mil down to about 200k after buying and upgrading the Coder tree, then upgrading the new stances.

Shayel: I feel your pain, try to get in a faction or ask level 50 you see around, it’s fast and cheap to code you a few abilities, that should save you a few $inf.