User blog:Linathan/Unit Spotlight: Sunless Warden Rahotep

Summary
So, this is what you call a New Year's unit? Anubis? Many people thought of the name of this unit being weird, but it’s actually not. Mind some trivia?

Rahotep simply means “Ra is satisfied.” Ra is the god of the Sun. Hotep means satisfied. Ra had become a major god in the ancient Egyptian religion. He was also merged with Horus, which caused them to become Ra-Horakhty, known to be “Ra, who is Horus of the Two Horizons.” He was believed to rule the sky, the world, and the underworld, practically everything.

Even Gumi put some thought into this unit. Now you might be questioning the super-low Rec stat he has. We’re tasked with going through the trouble of adjusting to his low Rec? Seems kinda troublesome. How are we ever going to make him effective in hard content?

We’ll just have to read on to find out.

Leader Skill
Score: 9/10

100% Atk, Def and 65% HP boosts are very high. 65% is the highest HP parameter we’ve seen in the entire game currently. One huge disappointing part about this is that it’s only available to Fire units, limiting the squad choices that players may take to create a squad just to revolve around this Leader Skill. It’s amazing when utilized, considering these boosts are absolutely phenomenal. Never before seen, Rahotep boosts Atk and Def by a whopping 100%. 100% Def is a type of boost that never pairs with 100% Atk and being able to utilize this is huge.

Speaking of Atk, Rahotep can boost this Atk stat ever further depending on the amount of HP lost, replicating Hadaron a little bit. It’s not a huge boost considering it’s maximum 40% at 0% HP, but even then, a total 140% Atk boost is one of the highest Atk boosts in the entire game. Even if you can’t utilize a 40% Atk buff at all (considering 1 HP is still rounds to 1% HP), enemies are bound to deal significant amounts of damage, allowing you to utilize these Atk buffs regardless.

Rahotep provides a neat 5-7 BC BB-on-hit effect, which is very neat and always nice to have. Not only does it work well in any squad, but it also serves as a very great effect to bring along in Colosseum for some synergy.

Rahotep also negates critical damage, which can come in handy in a great deal of content. This goes for content, such as Endless FG, Genius’ Challenge, etc. Either way, this helps to completely minimize the small 10% chance of enemies landing critical hits.

Overall, with the current units we have in the game, we don’t have much to choose from when it comes to essential squad building. At the time of this writing, Rain is the only fire mitigator in the entire game that can evolve to Omni Evolution. Adel is another fire mitigator, but he only reaches to 7*, making him rather squishy in a great deal of content. While not too major, Rain buff clashes with some of the common fire units we see in the current metagame, such as Alessa. Kulyuk is another status cleanser who buff-clashes heavily with Rain’s Def conversion buff, making it a more serious issue compared to clashing with Alessa’s tri-buff. Overall, there are fewer options to make a viable mono-fire squad with the units that are currently available. That’s not to say that Rahotep as a lead is not good, but it’s more of the current available pool of fire units that we have at our current disposal. We’ll likely see more use with this Leader Skill as more fire units start to fill in more roles.

Brave Burst
Score: 8/10

Rahotep’s BB damage is much higher than the standard BB damage modifier seen on most Omni units, and it doesn’t stop there. Rahotep provides 100% Atk and Def buffs to fire units, which stacks on top of the standard parameter buffs that units may provide. This also means that the unnormally high BB damage modifier that Rahotep carries will become much stronger with this buff, even if you cannot fully utilize it. Speaking of utilization, the fire Atk and Def buffs are rather selective in that they’re only available to fire units, especially considering that’s the main idea of Rahotep’s Leader Skill is.

Rahotep has access to inflict all status ailments along with a significant 170% Atk buff to combo against status-afflicted enemies. A lot of bosses in the game are highly resistant or immune to most or all status ailments, but being able to inflict status ailments on bosses when applicable can be huge with the damage boost.

Next, Rahotep brings Mai back as Mai was the first unit in Brave Frontier Global to utilize second action effects (Arthur was the first ever unit to utilize second action effects, originating from Brave Frontier Europe). This was later brought to Gaston, who was able to perform a second action on his own with a 50% chance on his BB. Rahotep receives this same effect, but with a 20% chance. Statistically and theoretically, Rahotep has a 78.75% chance of inflicting status ailments with his BB, considering he has a 75% chance of inflicting them on the first action and then another 75% chance of inflicting them on the 20% chance to proc a second action. This isn’t the highest probability in the game as Ensa-Taya still holds as the most prominent status-inflicting abuser with her random BB rolling RNG on every hit, but it’s still very nice to utilize when it’s needed.

Super Brave Burst
Score: 9/10

Rahotep carries a stupidly high SBB damage modifier. Just like BB, Rahotep gets an extra 100% added onto the modifier thanks to the 100% Atk, Def buffs provided to fire units. It’s still selective, especially considering Rahotep’s squad role is catered towards a mono-fire squad. There’s also the 60% crit rate that is exclusive to fire units with this SBB, making things rather inconvenient especially considering the critical cap is 70%.

There’s a lot to talk about when it comes to the amount of buffs that Global Exclusive units generally get. Usually, we see probable Angel Idol buffs on BB, but Rahotep has it on SBB, which is rather more desirably spammable. It doesn’t necessarily have to be spammed considering it’s a buff that only needs to be activated once to have a chance of proccing.

Rahotep also gets a sweet BB-on-hit buff, which stacks with the same effect that appears on his Leader Skill. Considering Rahotep is probably going to be used as the lead most of the time, that’s around a 10-15 BC BB-on-hit buff that units will be getting, which is a lot.

The real catch of this SBB is the 7% chance of proccing second action. At this low proc rate, you will have a 35.3% chance of having at least one unit proccing second action. When enhanced to 12%, this probability increases to 53.6%, which is a pretty huge difference. It’s quite powerful effect considering units can have a second chance of proccing certain effects, such as status ailment infliction and revival.

Ultimate Brave Burst
Score: 7/10

Rahotep gains access to a whopping damage modifier of 2800% at full HP, which is a lot to ask for when it comes to newly released units nowadays. This works in combination with Rahotep’s SBB buff of second action, allowing him to take on the low 12% chance to activate his UBB a second time. This UBB comes with some great effects, especially if you have a UBB efficient squad.

Rahotep has an 80% chance to revive units if they’re dead. This can serve as a huge lifesaver, especially considering an 80% chance is a very high chance. Rahotep also provides 350% Atk, Def buffs to fire units, which is great but selective as mentioned before. The 3000% DoT damage modifier can come in handy in passing certain thresholds without the need to sacrifice one unit to do so, but it isn’t that much of a significant damage contributor considering it cannot receive any additional effects, such as crit and spark, whatsoever.

Extra Skill
Score: 9/10

This was just the Extra Skill that Rahotep needed to make up for his atrocious Rec stat. The 5000-7000 base is the most important part of this heal considering the Rec is very insignificant to the healing formula. Rahotep already has trouble healing without this Extra Skill that this self-HoT buff becomes so important that he’ll need it to survive.

The 70% probable Angel Idol is amazing considering that’s one of the highest probable Angel Idol buffs seen in the game. This plays a huge role in Colosseum, especially considering mono-fire squads are most prevalent there with Rahotep + 4 Azurai combos.

Arena
Score: 10/10

Amazing. Period. There has to be a reason why a lot of people have been using Rahotep leads so much lately. Azurai has been a huge component of the Colosseum metagame since his release, even as far as getting four copies of him to create one of the most threatening Colosseum squads in the entire game. Rahotep brings this a huge step forward by providing the highest parameter boosts to Azurai squads that allow it to become so bulky and threatening.

Rahotep has a Type 3 AI, which is not too shabby. Rahotep deals so much damage with the high damage modifiers he carries that it’ll definitely help to cross 20% HP Angel Idol thresholds and remove one layer of Angel Idol buffs. As a lead, Rahotep helps to generate as much of the BB gauge as possible with the amazing BB-on-hit buff, which is available to all units upon usage. The one thing that cripples Rahotep immensely is DoT, as Rahotep will barely see opportunities to recover HP back to full after being infected by Ilm’s massive DoT debuff.

Stats
Score: 8/10

Insanely high HP, Atk, and Def stats. As intended, Rec is atrocious as it is literally in lines of a 1* or 2* unit.

In terms of typing, my type preference for Rahotep is…

Anima > Breaker > Guardian > Lord > Oracle

Usefulness
Score: 8/10.

Rahotep carries a lot of buffs that are very specific to fire units, and mono-element squads aren’t exactly the most common trend in the current metagame outside Arena and Colosseum. This essentially means that you need specific units that are fire element to fulfill the likes of Rahotep. To couple with that, Rahotep needs to rely on high base heals to make himself viable. His Rec is so atrocious that you’re best with probably two burst healers to help him reach full HP.

The main weakness that cripples Rahotep immensely is the DoT debuff, considering HoT buffs take effect after DoT. This is more the reason why Rahotep cannot rely on HoT alone considering most hard content carries heavy DoT debuffs that will likely decimate Rahotep.

Being able to use Rahotep is what will make Rahotep shine. It does require the squad to use a lot of healing to keep him alive. Alternatively, Rahotep can use spheres that drain HP, but that’s rather gimmicky for the most part.

SP Enhancements
Score: 9/10

See SP Enhancement Options: Sunless Warden Rahotep

As Gumi stated in their forum post, these enhancements are there to help make up for Rahotep’s horrid Rec stat. Essentially, Rahotep receives a bunch of defensive parameters and healing buffs that he will need to survive. Rahotep has access to HoT buffs for the squad and for himself, allowing him to fulfill part of the healing role. It would be nice for Rahotep to get a burst heal so he doesn’t have to rely on more healers to do the role for him.

The real highlight of using Rahotep is his second action effect, which is unique in so many ways. Rahotep has the option to increase the odds of second action proccing, which will immensely help for units that rely on proc rates.

Sphere Recommendations

 * Leomurg & Vitality Device
 * Leomurg & Impiety Orb
 * Leomurg & Demon Heart
 * Leomurg & Schism Orb
 * Beiorg's Armor & Vitality Device
 * Beiorg's Armor & Impiety Orb
 * Beiorg's Armor & Demon Heart
 * Beiorg's Armor & Schism Orb
 * Armor of Seals & Vitality Device
 * Armor of Seals & Impiety Orb
 * Armor of Seals & Demon Heart
 * Armor of Seals & Schism Orb
 * Nevana Crown & Vitality Device
 * Nevana Crown & Impiety Orb
 * Nevana Crown & Demon Heart
 * Nevana Crown & Schism Orb

Conclusion
Total Score: 8.6/10

Anubis much? What do you think of Rahotep’s Rec stat? Balanced. Too low. Why… just why??

Comment below on what you think of Rahotep! How do you make Rahotep viable in your squads? Are you interested in learning more about ancient Egyptian religion? Leave a comment below!

Check out my list of analyses in [http://bravefrontierglobal.wikia.com/wiki/User_blog:Linathan/Spotlights:_Table_of_Contents! Spotlights: Table of Contents!]

Check out my other Unit Spotlights:
 * Doombringer Azurai
 * Mai Shiranui
 * Rain
 * Dancing Flames Rengaku