Gathering Stars: Am I getting it wrong?

[Paladin Larec]

So the gathering stars factor says (I just got enough fish to get that ring of the deep king as a reward) says it increases ATK/DEF/HIT/AVD/INT by 20% when three of the same factor are equipped. Well, I have CRT HEAL 1%HP on chisato, but she's not getting the effect. Is this me misreading it? It seems like 3 of any factor would work. Do they instead want three of the gathering stars factor instead? Somewhat confused.

[This PC]

you need 3 "gathering stars"
worth mentioning also that 3 crit heal 1% don't add up to 3%/doesn't proc three times on a crit afaik. There's a button to check which factors are active in the equip screen.

[Paladin Larec]

Originally posted by This PC:

you need 3 "gathering stars"
worth mentioning also that 3 crit heal 1% don't add up to 3%/doesn't proc three times on a crit afaik. There's a button to check which factors are active in the equip screen.

Good tip, because i did that to beat the last boss of the survival mode in fun city arena (Needed the mp drain to cancel out the mp loss from chisato's psychic gun and hp drain to combat the bloody armor hp loss, it worked too)

I managed to get Opera's greaves and reflecting plate to have gathering stars, and now she's using the deep king ring. HUGE improvement. Finally got her to 5K attack with the rest of the warriors.

[Xengre]

I also want to point out Gathering Stars is a noob trap most of the time.

Fighters and mages have certain stats and combat skills they essentially cannot use such as a mage with ATK or HIT while fighters don't need INT.

HIT & ADV are, essentially, worthless stats as long as they're not insanely low and even when stacked extremely high ADV's value is highly questionable and probably still never that relevant.

You can only get ATK and INT on certain gear and trading three armor/accessory slots just to get + ATK or INT isn't worth it at all unless going bloody armor tactic. DEF is the only stat that actually matters to stack when you got space left over from putting on your core factors and DEF is only validated when you actually have stacked "enough of it", actually becoming an all or nothing issue later in the game if not using bloody armor trick.

Don't waste your time on Gathering Stars that will provide extremely minimal gains for a pain in the butt process of making enough of it. Again, the only exception is if you are using Bloody Armor because then you're just aiming for more dmg and don't care about anything else, but even then you're only gaining +20% keep that in mind in exchange for a pain in the butt process of manufacturing enough of this for your party.

[Paladin Larec]

Originally posted by Xengre:

I also want to point out Gathering Stars is a noob trap most of the time.

Fighters and mages have certain stats and combat skills they essentially cannot use such as a mage with ATK or HIT while fighters don't need INT.

HIT & ADV are, essentially, worthless stats as long as they're not insanely low and even when stacked extremely high ADV's value is highly questionable and probably still never that relevant.

You can only get ATK and INT on certain gear and trading three armor/accessory slots just to get + ATK or INT isn't worth it at all unless going bloody armor tactic. DEF is the only stat that actually matters to stack when you got space left over from putting on your core factors and DEF is only validated when you actually have stacked "enough of it", actually becoming an all or nothing issue later in the game if not using bloody armor trick.

Don't waste your time on Gathering Stars that will provide extremely minimal gains for a pain in the butt process of making enough of it. Again, the only exception is if you are using Bloody Armor because then you're just aiming for more dmg and don't care about anything else, but even then you're only gaining +20% keep that in mind in exchange for a pain in the butt process of manufacturing enough of this for your party.

Figured as much, which is why I only grabbed it to use on opera since she was lagging behind until I find her better gear. Everyone was over 5K ATK except for her. I just hear people on forums talking like it's godlike, but apparently that isn't the case.

Originally posted by Deathknightleo:

Gathering stars sucks.

Yup

[Oragepoilu]

Chisato advantage is being able to use equipment limited to grown up women; so basically, the one that do +200%atk -50% hit (craft) and +2 hit (loot). IIRC. I haven't tested playing with her so I'm not sure she can on par with ernest rose spam late game (special weapon) or bowman pills spam.

[Paladin Larec]

Originally posted by Oragepoilu:

Chisato advantage is being able to use equipment limited to grown up women; so basically, the one that do +200%atk -50% hit (craft) and +2 hit (loot). IIRC. I haven't tested playing with her so I'm not sure she can on par with ernest rose spam late game (special weapon) or bowman pills spam.

You mean the psychic gun letting you use the earring of frenzy without worrying about it cursing your HIT? Yeah, that's the build I'm running for her and she's by far the most powerful person in my party. I give her a bloody armor and the 2%hp/2%MP drain on her armor and that more than compensates for her hp drain and the mp drain from the psychic gun. I have the variable volt but still use the psychic gun for that reason (frenzy earring)

[Almighty Boof]

Originally posted by Xengre:

I also want to point out Gathering Stars is a noob trap most of the time.

I am interested to know what Factors are better to take than Gathering Stars? I assume using more defensive factors would not be a "noob trap?" I think most people run with Gathering Stars because it is one of the few ways you can increase your damage with armor/accessory equipment slots. Yes, it gives ATK to mages, and INT to fighters, but it also gives INT to mages and ATK to fighters, which is the most important part. There are no other armor/accessory factors that offer unconditional stat increases the way Gathering Stars does.

Also, Gathering Stars seems to get applied a decent amount in Remaking. On top of that, Remake is an end-game activity for those who are really into the IC grind. Some people like grinding for "that one" specific bonus and get a dopamine hit when it is finally applied to their equipment after 20+ tries.

[Oragepoilu]

On acc you can put Full bonus (+20% effect from your gauge that fill with sphere once it's full) and some item related bonus that aren't that great at best, break up (deplete shield slighty faster), or meditation (+3%mp if you don't move, assuming you are crazy enough to use caster).

so yeah it's not a bad idea to put gathering star on both acc and have an armor slot fill the third spot, since you would technically swap a 20%def on that armor for the gathering star bonus that also give 20% def it's not a big deal. Reminder, you *want* more def more often than not unless you run bloody armor, otherwise you can get slapped quite hard quickly.

You only gain 20%atk/int/avd in the end though, since hit is pretty much never an issue (if you miss, you are against a monster that use a specific spell to make you miss and that won't help or you are underleveled) so clearly, while not great, it can be less bad that most other acc bonus.

it really barely matter though, at least for me. The atk bonus isn't that noticeable since more fight on universe are only so long, even boss.

[Paladin Larec]

Originally posted by Oragepoilu:

On acc you can put Full bonus (+20% effect from your gauge that fill with sphere once it's full) and some item related bonus that aren't that great at best, break up (deplete shield slighty faster), or meditation (+3%mp if you don't move, assuming you are crazy enough to use caster).

so yeah it's not a bad idea to put gathering star on both acc and have an armor slot fill the third spot, since you would technically swap a 20%def on that armor for the gathering star bonus that also give 20% def it's not a big deal. Reminder, you *want* more def more often than not unless you run bloody armor, otherwise you can get slapped quite hard quickly.

You only gain 20%atk/int/avd in the end though, since hit is pretty much never an issue (if you miss, you are against a monster that use a specific spell to make you miss and that won't help or you are underleveled) so clearly, while not great, it can be less bad that most other acc bonus.

it really barely matter though, at least for me. The atk bonus isn't that noticeable since more fight on universe are only so long, even boss.

So Gathering stars on both accessories and one armor slot, then the rest of your armor, put DEF 20%?

What about your weapon? I put HP drain on all of mine. Good or nah?

[Oragepoilu]

IMO, since I was using opera I didn't need any heal from my gear.
So on my armor I used 2%hp/mana on crit, def, gathering star, and on my weapon I used lone wolf for the arena early on because I got it on first try, then +20%crit. All for one could be better though but lot of monter die before they get their guard down so having crit really help.
I used the accessory that give 30%def untill I didn't needed it and switched for +2 hit, and the one that give tons of guts depending on your affection level.

On full wipe (4 down in one swipe) I rarely get more than one people dead this way. and while most encounter are slighty longer, damage was never an issue for me (even harder boss drop around one or two minute, so I have way enough item in stock to deal with it).

Combine with the formation that prevent status in case of.

That or just grab bloody armor, use life steal and call it a day.

Between claude on the front, ernest spaming roses non stop for a tons of damage, bowman spam pills a bit further away and opera alternating between heal and ice the only time I had a frustrating fight was again target that keep moving at light speed (hint : L-off in case you don't want a minor spoiler).

[This PC]

Even when using opera, you will probably want healing on hit/crit. I happened to roll HP drain on all my weapons trying to get other things and I stuck with that. The thing is, when things go south, they go south really fast when you're towards the end of the maze or doing other hard post-game content. In most cases, your character will have died well before you land your heal with Opera, unless you're constantly healing with her. She stands very well on her own as a fighter, I don't really consider her a healer. ;p

Once you're at 6~7000k atk, I don't feel like you need more ? Maybe am wrong, am only level 210 or so atm, but nothing am doing is really challenging me, and am on uni.

I read somewhere in this thread that casters aren't good. Idk man, Celine breaks the entire field everytime she lifts a finger. She also deals a fair amount of damage ? Of course, I've invested into her and she's just as geared as the rest of my party. If your Dias has optimal gear with optimal factors and you compare that with half-slapped together Celine or Leon, then yeah, you're gonna feel casters suck. I tried hard enough to make it work without casters like I used to on the psx. It works, but not nearly as well as running Celine. I also don't really see myself clearing really any faster ? :x Also, casters will absolutely deal with enemies that are too fast for melees.

[Oragepoilu]

Yeah. While Opera is a good fighter, she is also the best healer IMO (outside of the need for buff). and yes I did spam heal with her at time, with a ice attack now and then to get the MP back.

[AH-1 Cobra]

Originally posted by Xengre:

I also want to point out Gathering Stars is a noob trap most of the time.

Gathering Stars is not a noob trap, it's meta, regardless of whether you get it from accessory slots or from certain armor pieces, all the bests builds have it, because it's a factor that can use used in any slot.

The reason gathering stars is good is because certain equipment slots can roll less desirable factors than others. It would be nice if I could just slot attack on every slot, or put HP and MP leech on whatever pieces I want, but the current limitations on factors are what makes a factor like gathering stars as valuable as it is.

[AH-1 Cobra]

Also, for Full Bonus, you only need this factor equipped on one character in your battle party, and everyone gets the bonus. It's best on a ranged fighter who isn't going to be engaging the enemy in close quarters.

[Nyet Diem]

Gathering Stars requires you to equip three pieces of gear with the Gathering Stars factor on the same character. And it's fine, provided you have it on decent (or the best) gear in your inventory. I'm currently running it on a Battle Suit, Valiant Greaves, & a Ring of Lightspeed. Throw in a Levantine & a Ring of Might, my main melee is running about 9.7k ATK & 2k DEF at lvl 255 on Galaxy.

But I will agree that stacking defense is an all or nothing topic at endgame. You either have enough to be competitive, or you get smoked. There is a very fine line in this version.