Tulip build questions

So, after a RIDICULOUSLY long hiatus (caused by me not having a decent enough computer, sadlife) I finally came back just in time for the second round of free gara tickets and I rolled a Theia.

People complain left and right about her being overpowered, I frankly don't get it so I decided to ask the ever-wise and helpful fan forums for some pointers. I currently have two builds planned out, an "alpha" build and a "stock" build.

Alpha Build:

Crystal beam gun because I don't think I have anything better. I want to see if I can get the rapid pulse missile from halloween gara but I doubt it. Any advice on other weapons would be appreciated.

Stock Build (APPL+Sonic Cannon):

Basically the same as the alpha but with BR. Extra cost to fit in more hp or something...

The two WP slots at the bottom are for her bracelet's orbital bombardment thing. 20 cost for something I can just use with the F key isn't worth it IMO.

As for the questions...

• What tunes would be best on her Anti-personnel pulse laser? G.Force and force give her 20 force, which I feel is okay considering it has 330 speed already. I thought about G.Reach but as a homing weapon I don't know if extra range is a good thing. G.rapid also crossed my mind for added speed. I only went with force for the 20 force since I feel 18 is too low for her to really get any decent score in today's meta.
  
  
• How to play her? Different airs seem to have a different playstyle (inb4 shoot things). I just want to know if I should focus on just hanging back and shooting stuff that comes in range or if she's meant for a more aggressive playstyle. Her shield seems quite OP considering it blocks almost everything, but it only has 5 uses and doesn't really last all that long.
  
  
• Is glide boost any good on her? I know it's good on Air Eve due to the ghost hits, but Theia doesn't have prolonged flight, so it drains her boost gauge a bit too fast.
  
  
• Which of the two builds would be more recommendable? The idea behind the alpha build is to do a 5-shot burst of the laser, then alpha for another five with LMB, and then repeat with little to no cooldown, but the Sonic impact cannon hits fairly well on lnds and even against other airs, and some people claim that taking off the cannon is "playing her wrong". I'd like someone to shed some light on that if possible.
  
  
• Other good weapons for the alpha build. I have a PBC but I don't know if that'd be any good.
  

That's it for now. Any help/feedback on the builds would be greatly appreciated, as well as any answers to my questions. Thanks in advance!

Both builds are good, but i prefer the stock build, shooting the sonic cannon first
and spamming her APPL with Q button while SC is in cooldown...

I have changed her Genesis buster for a propeller bit, and tuned an wonder balancer
in her core...

I am planning to tune 2x force tunes in her wep, i don't think it need g.rapids or reachs...

I donqt have Glide boost yet, so idk about this...

this is my build, most tunes are +1, so it isn't a great thing...

i don't like handhelds:

well, i haven't tuned it yet...

don't put extra weapons on her what the hell is wrong with people? Cannon is manual aim, hard stun, sets up for subweapon combo on airs by doing cannon -> subweapon laser -> APPL for free damage. Huge AoE nukes healgroups, AoE is lingering so can do damage even on a miss.  There's about 500 uses for the cannon that you're going to get rid of because "i can do more damage with X weapon" when the cannon can even do that as well if you feel brave enough to waste your ammo on it.
LMB tune with stock setup allows you to shoot the cannon twice.

20cost attachment allows targetted ranged casting. F key is self-cast. Basically attachment allows you to place it above people camping who would shoot you if you tried to fly over there to press F. That's what it does. In my experience taking the lockon part off makes it very situational whereas with the lockon part on it actually has really long range and can be used from a semi-safe distance to force people to scatter or take the hit when you drop it on something like a lumeria shield or a powerspot or whatever people want to cluster around.
(In all honesty it's better to have prop bits anyway due to glide boost, which you note drains her boost rather fast)

gforce in this situation is pretty wasteful here since you are paying 30cost for only 2 force. I'd suggest force +grapid+hshooter to get the basic extra damage and add more long range capability and ensure basically no misses.

i have two theias that I don't use because this thing is pretty stupid.
here's a prop bit build.

Spoiler:

here's an MB build that uses the genesis buster.

Spoiler:

So LMB allows her to alpha with her sonic impact cannon? I wasn't sure if the extension really was enough, but I'll definitely look into it now. Thanks for the replies.

I was actually sticking to it until someone told me basically the opposite, about how it was wasted potential using it and NOT spamming her laser 24/7. Glad I asked before I bothered building around it. I'll give the cannon a shot and see if I can fit in the prop bit (sadly the bouquet's already tuned...)

I only got rid of the attachment for more cost on the alpha build, and then I realized I could've fitted it in anyway. Derp.

I'll rework the builds a bit and see what I can come up with. Appreciate the help.


EDIT: Holy crap I actually managed to hit LagLoli's Eve with the cannon. I'm keeping this thing

yeah, cannon being manual aim allows you to hit a lot of things that either fuck with homing weapons via movement, or even just things with antihoming bits.(it'll probably also kill the bit, allowing you to then shoot them with lasers.)
the cannon is amazingly useful and just because someone "did the math" on DPS and says you can do more damage without it doesn't mean it's useless. Theia with cannon is a far bigger threat than Theia without cannon.

I redid the build fairly easily, got her up to 550 HP and worked the tunes on her APPL. Though, is quick boost really worth sacrificing? I've always used it on my airs ever since I flew my old regular seraph and it just feels a bit odd without it, but if I gave it up I could take both beam guard and fast recovery.

I mainly had it since I was using the buster, but now that I've switched to prop bits I guess it wouldn't be too necessary considering I won't be running out of boost that often, even with glide boost and everyone and their brother keeps telling me how quick boost on airs is a waste of a cart, especially since her barrier step refills her boost gauge.

i don't really see a reason to take it since you won't be landing in danger which is the only time it's of great use. On older airs where you have short range weapons and run hop carts and such it's a pretty big thing to have, but if you're just going to fly around at the top of the map and retreat when low on boost it doesn't matter if it takes 2 seconds or 5 seconds to refill since you're in a safe spot. That's really the logic behind it.

I see, that makes sense. Guess it's time to get to tuning then. Thanks for all the help.