Transformations vs Stat Increases

[Revan Noctis]

So I was reading about transformations/powerups and I was wondering do people consider these more or less important than stat increases? And how often do people actually use their transformations both in pvp and in general story posting?
Feel free to let me know what your favourite means of gaining more power for your character is.

[Crocodile]

This is better suited to the Discussion Forum, Revan. This thread is easily answered questions, not discussions.

[Blink]

Split and moved.

[Blink]

I think transformations are more important from a narrative standpoint. They create moments of escalation in a story that really help visually show how dangerous things have gotten based on how far your character is powering up. I'm a 99% PvE kinda guy so its easy for me to say that. A stat increase is important for PvP because a lot of the time, due to the solid writing around here, a fight can literally come down to one stat point or solid move.

[Desman Black]

Like Blink daid, I think it really comes down to what type of writer you are.

Me personally I use both as a story telling device, stats to show that they have been incresing in power in power IC and tranformations/power ups cuase it's part of the charater or can put them into interesting situations.

[Revan Noctis]

Tier 1 Powered-Up Form – 15 stats total – 1 SP per post – 1000 OM

This can be used in pvp right?
Is it better then a stat increase?

[Crocodile]

Nothing is better or worse. It all boils down to how you want your character to be.

[Revan Noctis]

I prefer to try to win through improving my writing, I however feel I need to know this stuff I feel I ever want to win the big pvp fights. PVE I should say is more my thing and I have little interest in spending Om on pvp things unnecessarily.

[Crocodile]

If you want a PvP advantage: anything that uses SP will certainly help you. Doesn't matter what, but generally speaking... Super Attacks give the biggest Bang for your Buck.

[Revan Noctis]

Alright thank you.

[Drake Oneir]

Power-Ups are mutable. If you have no transformations or power-ups, you can't adapt your elevated stats to the situation. High defense and low speed won't help you against a flying speedster like Cirno, so you need to have options.

[King Ghidorah]

I'd actually argue that at least two stat upgrades are essential to round out your character's statline and really make them excel at whatever it is they do. Take my characters for exmple:

Kelly is a tactician. I loaded him down with 5 in TEC right away, but that left him with a 1 in DEF and a 2 in ATK, which was a little weaker physically than the way I wanted to write him - so I made the stat-upgrades part of the story, and got him to spot where he can be himself. I may get him more when I have the spare OM, but two was what I needed. Yay stat-upgrades!

Ghidorah thinks tactics are a kind of snack-food (metaphorically speaking), but he's a goddamn wrecking-ball. I bought him 2 stat upgrades during character-creation and put them both in SPD, because I put all of his base-stats into ATK and DEF. Without buying those stat-upgrades, he would have been too slow to be threatening, and he couldn't possibly have less than 5 in either of his other physical stats .

Admittedly, I play two examples of heavily skewing a character stat-wise - but even if what they do is mostly defined by fluff or by their moves, a 3/3/3/3 gives you a solid basis for whatever it is your non-stat-focused character does.

I agree 100% with Blink about the narrative role of transformations (Ghidorah's whole story revolves around the fact that he turns into a 115-foot-tall - and soon to be much larger than that - three-headed dragon; Kelly's vector-sketch power-up changes the entire flavor of any encounter in which its used because it makes him tremendously more powerful and durable). They're also pretty crucial for fights, though: not just because they give you a way to spend that delicious SP, but also because they can help you close the gap in areas where your character's basic build is deficient, or push your advantages high enough to compensate. In a graded fight, they give you the advantage of both a moment of drama for that story-telling boost and increased latitude for what you can write your character doing, and how you can respond to what your opponent(s) bring to the table.

Also, they cost way less. WAY less. A tier 1 power-up gets you a temporary 5 stats for the cost of a single stat-upgrade.

[Sasuke Uchiha]

You also have to consider cost when trying to determine what is best for you. For instance, the first two stat increases are relatively cheap, the third one a stretch, and by the fourth one there are definitely less expensive ways to become more efficient in fights. Also, be careful not to discredit stat increases, for stats determine how powerful or not they are in a roleplay. For instance, if your speed is less than your opponent, then they are faster than you. No getting around that, and their difference in power could give them realistic advantage that couldn't be ignored by a judge. Example: You're opponent would have been further away from the blast than you, due to his speed, so in this attack you would have taken more damage. Etc, etc.

Could a super move or transformation have saved you in this same example, sure, but would you have the sp needed? Depends. This game, ultimately, is about balance. You need to find the best balance for you.

[Artoria Pendragon]

Personally, I'll probably dump all my OM into stat upgrades forever.

Why?

Rather simple, honestly. I'm all about writing canon characters accurately to their canon, and Artoria is a monster as far as that goes. Her stats simply aren't high enough for me to do that in combat, so it's about the only option I have - to dump OM into stats for 100-200k worth of OM, to try and get all stats at 10 minimum, so that I'm anywhere near.
(Obviously this is the least efficient way ever to spend your OM.)

[Dane Regan]

One other thing to add. Stat increases can increase your highest stat to 6 (with 2 stat increases) or 7 (with 4 stat increases). If your character has a "main" stat and you're not a fan of increasing much else, you can guarantee that most opponents will have to spend SP to beat that stat.

People can argue that prevents you from being well rounded, but I'd disagree - you can get alt forms to go with it. Then with the right powers and moves you can specialise in basically everything you need to.

That's not to handwave powerups - they'll give you more stats than a stat increase will for a lot less OM. Sometimes you're gonna need a quick boost to your stats in battle, and paired with alt forms you can get a lot of arrangements. A super attack might do a lot more damage at once, but when your stats are temporarily a lot better, you have a lot more options. You can also reach 10+ in a stat with them and meme on people.

If I could only have one of stat increases and powerups, I'd probs go for the stat increases. You can have a solid build without powerups - the main thing that wins a fight is the moves and powers in my opinion.

[Revan Noctis]

Where it says a stat increase can’t be over half your other stats how does that work?

[Reece]

Where it says a stat increase can’t be over half your other stats how does that work?

It rounds down, meaning that if your total stat points are 10 or 11, the highest a single stat can be is 5. With 12 or 13 stat points in total, you can have one stat at 6. With 14 or 15 total, a stat can be as high as 7. Etcetera.

[Alex]

I've always viewed stats/stat increases as ic fluff. I got a character who is stat-maxed, because it makes sense for the character and another who is balanced because it's what makes sense.

Power ups, while they can serve a purpose IC, I think I've used them predominately as PvP stuff and for insurance policies during events.

[Omni]

Pff, Transformations don't get enough credit around here. Design-wise, Transformations were always built as the basis of power development rather than straight stat increases - which were added as a 'luxury' for players with lots of OM. (Caveat: I decided later to have 12 stats as a new baseline, so the first two stat increases are super cheap, basically freebies. Pick 'em up ASAP.)

Comparatively:

A character with only stat increases: 20 stat points maximum, 176,000 OM spent.
A character with only transformations: 30 stat points maximum, and assuming you buy a single of each tier, 4500 OM spent.

Looking at raw power ceiling, Transformations are how you get to fight Diablo et al. I recommend getting one of each tier ASAP once you get to the required levels.

Also, what's gonna make the bigger difference, narratively and in terms of a real impact: increasing your stats slightly overall, or doubling/tripling your stats for a single post?

If you realistically only wanted to look at sustained effects (treating Power-Ups as permanent, like stat increases), then let's look at a level 12 character with 112,000 Earned OM.

Player A sinks them all into stats, and now has 18 stat points.
Player B gets Transformations, and can sustain a Tier 2 Transformation for a whole fight. They still have enough money to buy 8 stat points, so they do that, and can sustain 28 stats for the entire fight.
(Bonus: Player C sticks with a Tier 1 Transformation and gets 15 stats for a whole fight at 6 SP. They can still buy 8 stat points, and can now sustain 23 stats for the entire fight AND still have enough SP left to drop three Tier 2 super moves.)

Realistically, you do a bit of each. That's the best approach, due to scaling costs. You also just get what you want - at the end of the day, we look at level as a general idea of how strong a character is going to be, how much SP was spent on the fight, and how injured they were at the start. When you boil it down to pure mechanics, that's the 'numbers' part of the system. How you express those numbers is up to you.