My ARs suck at night, help!
For the plots alone, see here.
Note: this was written before the release of Isomer on EN.
A bit ago, I tried starting out a fresh account to see what the new player experience is like and how much harder the game is without numerous maxed out dolls and fairies. Turns out that doing night missions is rather tricky when your only level 90+ characters are the AR team once the armor starts showing up. So, I got to wondering exactly how much armor hurts the performance of ARs in comparison to RFs and at what point they really start struggling.
All setups are at night (PEQs on ARs) with Mk23 and a 3* Damage I Artillery Fairy. That's a little out-of-budget for a new player but it's a relatively achievable FP-focused loadout for more established players. Enemies have 0 evasion. ICDs are not considered and Mk23's skill is ignored (its uptime is annoying to account for with all the different skills).
Looking at the uptime-averaged DPS (above), AR-15 starts off with insane DPS compared to the other ARs. Besides her being a generally amazing AR and being able to equip a critscope at night, there is also her superior uptime, which only becomes relevant in longer fights but boosts her uptime-averaged DPS. G11 holds an edge over the FP-buffing ARs until about 35 armor, and AR-15 stays on top until around 75 armor. Groza consistently stays just above G41 at any armor threshold until 160-170 armor, where G41 falls behind further.
As the sole ROF rifle in the mix, WA2000 falls off faster than the rest past 195 armor but only gets beaten by Lee just before 220 armor. Even past that point the actual percent difference is tiny. SRS overall performs suboptimally compared to the rest, which was expected as accuracy isn't considered here.
But wait, doesn't Isomer have armored enemies with evasion? Here's that same plot but with enemies gaining 15 evasion across the board. The AR's DPS sees a uniform DPS decrease on the order of 20-30%. Their accuracies are all similar so no major changes are expected here. The rifles, on the other hand, plummet down losing more than half their DPS. Interestingly, SRS sees a decent relative improvement, tying with IWS at almost any reasonable armor value and beating WA/Lee across the board.
The AR's superior accuracy in this case carries them until 80-130 armor where rifles once again perform better.
Finally, let's say we only care about burst damage. This plot is a straight in-skill DPS comparison with no enemy evasion. Mk23's skill is still not applied. It should shock no one that G11 instantly rockets to the top at low armor values, with her crazy 4.5 seconds of fame. At around 50-70 armor, however, night ARs like Groza and the various rifles start to look better for burst than her. Rifles in general come out ahead past 60-80 armor.
I only remembered 6P62 existed as I was about to submit this and this seems like the perfect time to include her, so here's her brief summary:
- Uptime-averaged/no evasion, she's only decent past 140 armor vs other ARs but even then does only half of what any good rifle does
- Before the AP buff, she was essentially never better than Groza
- Her in-skill DPS is rather awful and Groza is always much better here (Groza's skill even lasts 1 second longer!)
- With enemy evasion thrown in, she ties with Lee up until 195 armor where she falls off faster than any rifle
All-in-all, I don't see a real niche here that she can shine in.
Enemy armor will vary pretty wildly, especially looking at night story chapters, so check what you're up against here. A few of the more dangerous enemies: Core 8 Doppelsoldners (197), Hydras (199), Core 8 Uhlans (226). Most other armored KCCO/SF cap out around 135 armor. Chapter 2N has armor values around 68-72, so it ramps up quickly. The buffs and fairies in your setup are probably not the same as my setup, so don't take the exact values literally here. The fairy + talent + Mk23 tiles here gives an effective 103% FP buff.
As always, simulate and test your setups for best results.
These were made using the recently buffed AP ammunition, so the RFs see no dropoff until after 195 armor.
Extras
Bonus plot with pre-buff AP.
C-MS included, versus 0 EVA armor.
C-MS included, some evasion.
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