RA/FO Guide and Discussion

[branflakes325]

RA/FO (updated 10/30)


Overview

RA/FO is a T-Atk class that capitalizes on lowering PP costs with PP Save Bullet/Phantom Bullet latent and using Weak Bullet for high single-target DPS. It is most comparable to FO/TE and FO/BR/FI, all of which boast higher overall power (without WB) and less PP sustainability (without PP Convert). RA/FO should not use Ranger PA's for damage unless you're going for some sort of hybrid build. Ranger main is required for using Bullet Keep and one of its best weapon options, ガレトショコラ (Galette Chocolat). By retaining the excellent mobbing capabilities of Fire FO/TE and inheriting Ranger's game-defining Weak Bullet, RA/FO distinguishes itself as an amazingly well-rounded class combination - arguably one of the best in the game.


Pros: (in relation to other t-atk classes)
-36% PP cost reduction of all techs (20% + 20%)
-Access to Weak Bullet with Bullet Keep - useful with Rafoie and Ilbarta
-Sharpshooter (1.2x) - works with techs
-Killing Bonus PP recovery
-Instant PP recovery w/ Stun Grenades
-First Hit (1.2x) - good for one-shotting trash mobs
-Skill points to invest in two element masteries per tree
-Relatively low cost for equipment - plus weapon attribute doesn't even matter
-Infinitely sustainable Foie and Gibarta with efficient crafts (and zonde?)

Cons:
-Frail w/ loss of Mirage Escape
-Sub-palette casting limits attacking options and makes TPS usage more difficult
-No mastery of Wind/Light/Dark
-Less T-atk than Fo/Te (~140 from class and rare mastery + lower T-Atk weapons)
-Loss of Element Conversion (1.25x)
-Loss of Elemental Weak Hit (1.2x)
-Talis is no longer a viable option
-Bullet Keep does not allow an AR bullet and launcher bullet to be loaded simultaneously. Thus, WB + tech use is either costly (no PP cost reduction) or weak with AR equipped.
-Limited and exclusive options for T-atk assault rifles (as of now)



Recommended Equipment:

Galette Chocolat ガレトショコラ - A launcher with 975 T-atk and Phantom Bullet (20% PP cost reduction while bullets are loaded). Main weapon against any enemy. Can be better against Darkers than Vibras Cannon in situations where maintaining PP is more important.
Vibras Cannon ビブラスキャノン - A launcher with 950 T-atk and Negative Hunter. Useful for the 13% damage bonus against Darkers, but tech usage is more costly than with Galette Chocolat equipped. Excellent for certain situations in TD.
Hurio Snowty ヒュリオスノーティ - An all-class assault rifle with 780 T-atk and Splendid Recovery. Unfortunately it was obtainable only in PSO2es or bought for ~30m with premium. As far as I know, this weapon can no longer be obtained. Oh well. We'll get a better one soon anyway right? >_> (Note: Fo/Ra may be a better option if you have access to this weapon, in which case you should obtain two for Fire and Ice attribute)
Racist ARs - For cheaper tech spamming on WB targets. Exchange 950-975 T-atk for 13-20% damage multiplier while keeping the benefits of PP Save Bullet. No Native/Demon Hunter ARs exist to my knowledge.

Units:
11* Saiki Set OR Folly/Heiremjees
-Focus on affixing T-atk above all else; 140-150 PP is sufficient


Best Tech Options:
I generally prefer fire techs and full fire mastery, because they have lower charge times than Ice and Lightning techs. Low charge time allows faster tech spamming, which works wonders with PP reduction latents. These are, in my opinion, the best techs for RA/FO with their respective Galette Chocolat PP costs + PP cost reduction with Shifta Drink. Decimals are an invisible value in PP.
Efficient Foie - 0 PP at maximum craft
Concentrated/Ice Fang Ilbarta - 14.4 PP
Blazing Rafoie - 11.5 PP
Concentrated Gifoie - 13.2 PP
Efficient Gibarta - 3.2 PP at maximum craft
Concentrated/Efficient/Uncrafted Ilfoie - 28.8 PP (11.8 PP at maximum efficient craft)

Lightning techs - I have not tested lightning mastery, but all lightning techs would most likely be dirt cheap. PP reduction crafts and presumably Bolt Tech PP Save are taken into account AFTER the initial 36% cost reduction from PP Save Bullet and Phantom Bullet. Ilzonde costs a nice and cheap 14.4 PP without putting any points into lightning tree


Skill Build (updated 10/9): RA/FO
Force tree must choose between Ice mastery 2 and flame mastery 2. I chose full fire build because fire techs seem better overall in most situations. Full lightning investment may be a viable option that I have not tested.


Alternative Option: FO/RA
Gains:
-Element Conversion (1.25x)
-Roughly 110 T-atk (class stats + 1 SP in Rare Mastery Force)
-More talis/rod options
Loses:
-Galette Chocolat
-Sharpshooter (1.2x)
-Bullet Keep
-6 Force SP (11 w/Talis Tech Bonus)
-Dragon and Machine Hunter ARs


Misc Comments:
-Galette Chocolat is one of the dumbest looking launchers in existence. Camo is recommended.
-Grenade throwing is now fast as of ep3 as opposed to being ridiculously slow previously.
-Gravity Bombs only recover PP sometimes and against only some enemies. Not sure why. This makes it a poor choice for PP recovery (stun grenades are usually enough anyway), but the effect sometimes helps gather enemies for a stun grenade, which is less dangerous than using zondeel.
-Launcher and assault rifle PAs are pretty much useless
-Wish list:
T-atk AR with Phantom Bullet other good latent that isn't exclusive to PSO2es or something stupid
Ability to assign techs to AR/launcher PA slots


Enjoy!

[Stickboy]

it is fun

[Kondibon]

I feel like a lot of this you should wait for. We're only a few days away from the update, and chances are traps and grenades are going to get some QoL that you'd have to take into account. Too early to tell if "traps suck" and "grenades are slow as shit" when they're likely gonna get changes to how fast they are.

Also, what's the purpose of this build. What was your motivation for chosing to sub FO over techer?

[ReverseSeraf]

This is a good class combo that can work in ep3 as long as they release a decent AR with T-ATK to go along with this, but because of Bullet Keep, I suppose changing to Vibras Launcher could work as well.

I made a couple of tweaks which I thought would be much more optimal in terms of DPS: http://pso2-skill.pwnedgalaxy.net/be...00fdoIb000000f

I took out the points from Mirage Shot and Bind Bullet, because with Fo as a subclass, it's already possible to inflict SE (with the exception of Bind Bullet). And you don't need Gravity Bomb when you have Zondeel, I would think. Of course, if you wanted more bullets so you have more uptime for PP Save Bullet, then I think it'd be more proper to take out points from Dive Roll Advance, instead. 10 points seem like overkill.

I put the points into Weak Blast Bonus, because launchers are capable of getting PB very quickly through Cluster Bullet, etc. And if you have Ketos Proi, which regenerates PP and is easy as heck to charge up, PP wouldn't be a problem for you. This is assuming you're facing a decent amount of mobs. Against bosses would be a bit less optimal, but I don't really see many scenarios where you'll be fighting only bosses without trash mobs to back them up.

Also, what's the purpose of this build.

Ra/Fo would actually be really good bossing class with Weakbulet + Ilbarta. Not to mention Weakbullet is just a support skill for anyone and not just yourself, so you'd be valuable to a MPA. They'd be a bit less optimal for trash mobs, I guess.

What was your motivation for chosing to sub FO over techer?

I think OP picked up Fo because of Ice Mastery for Ilbarta, since it technically does work as a long-range nuke and can sync nicely with Sharpshooter, as well as Charge PP Revival, since PP will be of utmost importance. We don't know how much they'll nerf Ilbarta, but I'm guessing it'll still be strong in tandem to Weakbullet.

If OP picked up Te, he does gain the benefit of having skills that buff his support techs, but PP would be a problem for a couple of reasons, leading to loss of DPS when Ra/Fo is already at a disadvantage compared to other casting class combinations (despite having PP Restorate and PP Convert)
- PP Convert is great, but it's activated for 30 seconds and has a 120 second CD (but actually 90, since 120-30). Not to mention that PP does not regen during casting because he lacks PP Charge Revival, so if he was (for example) Ilbarta nuking, he'd only be using PP Convert effectively for roughly 15 seconds or less. The benefit gained here doesn't even match the benefit from Fo as outlined in above paragraph.
- Only thing I can see coming out of this is PP Restorate, but you'll be facing downtime, which can't be a thing when Ilbarta nuking.

[Kondibon]

Ok, I get it now. I just find it hard to judge if a build is doing good or not when I don't know what it's supposed to be doing. :P I see a lot of people (my self included) post non-meta builds without any synergy beyond "I wanna do everything at once"
The idea of dropping WB then switching to a t-atk launcher actually seems like a really cool way to get around the limits on bullet save.

Depending on how traps get buffed I actually think this class combo could be pretty good at mobbing as well. Or at least, they could if oneshotting everything as soon as it spawns wasn't the meta.

[ReverseSeraf]

Ok, I get it now. I just find it hard to judge if a build is doing good or not when I don't know what it's supposed to be doing. :P I see a lot of people (my self included) post non-meta builds without any synergy beyond "I wanna do everything at once"
The idea of dropping WB then switching to a t-atk launcher actually seems like a really cool way to get around the limits on bullet save.

Depending on how traps get buffed I actually think this class combo could be pretty good at mobbing as well. Or at least, they could if oneshotting everything as soon as it spawns wasn't the meta.

I mean, honestly, I think the changes they're making in ep3 can make almost any class combination viable, which is definitely something I welcome.

[Kondibon]

I mean, honestly, I think the changes they're making in ep3 can make almost any class combination viable, which is definitely something I welcome.

Viable isn't the minimum for most people though so it's not like the goal of the meta is gonna change. You're still gonna be "worthless leeching garbage" if you aren't focused entirely on damage efficiency. I:

[branflakes325]

Techer sub unfortunately doesn't offer much besides elemental masteries. No charge PP revival hurts your PP sustainability more than PP restorate can make up for it, and PP Convert is also redundant yet less effective without charge PP revival. Charge tech adv, JA tech and T-atk high up offer similar multipliers to a maxed techer mastery (1.33x vs 1.44x) with the added bonus of applying to all techs.

I discussed traps in detail because stun grenades are excellent for PP recovery even in their current state. Whether or not traps themselves will get buffed doesn't matter. I'm 99% sure that they at least won't get nerfed, and I'm already satisfied with using stun grenades as my primary mode of PP recovery.

It's true that some of these ideas are merely speculation, but that shouldn't be a reason not to discuss it anyway.

EDIT: @ReverseSeraf - I like the idea of maxing WH blast bonus and maxing the gauge quickly with cluster bullet. I'll definitely try it out.

[Kondibon]

The reason I was so confused is, because I've spent so long mulling over my TE/RA build, I still see Ranger+Techs as a support combo. Now that I actually get what you're going for I totally understand. :P

[Vintasticvin]

Stop this you and many others are makung us Fo/Ra,Gu lose our uniqueness.