Summoner

 

Overview

Pristine Lamp Launcher – © SEGA

Hello, name’s Pristine. My goal is to keep you in shape and sharp. Learn from me, and you’ll be just that. Now, let the lesson begin.  Ranger/ Summoner (or Ra/Su for short) is the strongest single-target combination Ranger has. Its excellence at bossing isn’t without the trade-off of poor mobbing capability, due to the nature of Summoner’s skill tree. With the ability to use techs, you’re able to buff, heal and export more damage.  Requiring good management skills, it’s not for the faint of heart and has a stronger learning curve than other subclasses.

Important Skills

All Attack Bonus 1 & 2

Simple, unconditional damage bonus. No reason to never take this. 115% damage bonus for both 1 & 2 (1.15x * 1.15x).

Max both of these.

All ATK UP & All ATK High UP | Total Attack UP & Total Attack Mega UP

Grants you a combined total of 200 ATK (S/R/T).

Max both of these.

Point Assist & Support Fire | Summoner’s Mark & Enhanced Mark

The main tool you’ll be using to maximize your single-target damage. Point Assist is an active skill that casts a marker onto whatever you locked on, said part receives more damage (115%). Support Fire grants an additional 110% bonus to the entire body of the marked target, not just the Assist marker. This is also the reason why Su mobbing is not as efficient, you won’t have time to Assist something and use launcher to kill them without someone else killing it first.

Max both of these. 

Pet Elemental Weak Hit | Pet Elemental Precision Hit

Matching element grants the player with a 105% damage bonus, despite the name (pets get 110%). Another reason why mobbing on Ra/Su isn’t as efficient is due to not matching element, and losing out on more damage multipliers. Still, you’ll be wanting this when bossing. It does give some reason to run multiple elements but isn’t recommended.

Max this, works best with multiple element coverage.

 High Level Boost (Su)

Unconditional 5% damage.

Max this.

Recommended / Optional

HP Restorate

Recovers 7.5% HP every 5 seconds when maxed, even when you’re at full HP.

Improves survivability, max it if invested in.

Massive Mate | Unstoppable Recovery

Reduces damage taken and prevents flinching when using -mate items.

You’re usually using techs like Resta or Megiverse to heal, and with HP Restorate this really isn’t needed, but has a low cost of 1 SP. 

Quick Recovery

Reduces the time you are affected by status abnormalities, Weak Bullet and Jellen. Duration is reduced by 70% at max.

Also helps with survivability, but you can also use Anti on the normal status effects for instant heal. Worth to dump SP into if you find nothing else. 

 HP UP & HP High UP

Gives a total of 150HP, which can help for the amount that HP Restorate heals back. Also if tanking things for Cursed Radiance procs.

Not bad to have, take if you feel you need it.

PP UP 1 & 2, All DEF UP & All DEF High UP

PP UP(s) give a good amount (15PP) to help mitigate the PP consumption when between using PAs and Technics. All DEF UP gives a total of 200 DEF (S/R/T) and 100 DEX.

Helps with PP consumption and the DEF is useful when considering Deband usage.

Damage Bonus Table:

You’ll gain the following damage modifiers from Summoner:

Skill Name	Effect(s)	Total Effect(s)
All Attack Bonus 1 & 2	1.15 * 1.15x	1.3225x
Point Assist	1.15x	1.520875x
Support Fire	1.1x	1.6729625x
Just Attack	1.3x	2.17485125x
Pet Elemental Weak Hit	1.05x	2.2835938125x
High Class Boost	1.05x	2.3977735x

Su sub total multiplier in an ideal scenario is 2.397735x (239.77%). Compared to Hu sub at 2.203342391x (220.33%), there is approximately a 19.44.% increase in raw multipliers. However, if you were to be in a everyday mobbing case (no Assist or element match), Su falls to 1.80521x (180.51%) which is -39.82% weaker than Hunter’s unconditional modifiers, in the same scenario.

How do Technics come into play?

Technics play a big part in optimizing Ra/Su’s functionality. As stated before, you can buff, heal, guard attacks and export more damage. Though the thought occurs how a subpallete might look, when thinking about Ranger’s skills that require space like traps and Weak Bullet.

Above is an example of how a hotbar might look. It can be crowded depending on your needs, like using Ilzonde for movement, Resta or Megiverse for quick heals and the like. In the case you need it, using two hotbars and having a shortcut to swap between the two is a good idea.
Keeping the image as a reference:

1. Weak Bullet
2. Point Assist
3. Nabarta Type-0
4. Zanverse
5. Stun Grenade
6. Shifta
7. Gravity Bomb
8. Upper Trap
9. Megiverse
10. Deband

Technics

Nabarta-0
Immediately guards attacks, can be held but drains PP very quickly (50PP/s). Upon successful guard, gains a short invincibility window and shoots a ice shard at the target.
Hard to master but is a life-saver and is the poster-boy of survivability. Works well Standing Snipe and is an amazing defensive tool.

Zanverse
When standing in the field, 20% of damage inflicted is dealt as Wind damage. ARKS Visiphone Wiki has notes on Zanverse’s attributes. Be sure to craft this for lower charge time (Concentrated 3). This is basically a staple in making Ra/Su’s damage even greater as it is with the Phantom subclass as well.

Shifta
Increases base attack by 19.7% (skill trees, main/subclass level, title rewards, and your MAG).
Staple in RASU rotation / upkeep. Becomes less of a hassle when you have a Techer to increase the maximum timer to 3 minutes. Be sure to craft this to get faster ticks per tap, which activates Standing Snipe! (Multi 3). 

Megiverse
Heals 1/4th of the damage dealt. Useful for quick heals that might also activate Standing Snipe (i.e Megiverse tap -> Weak Bullet).
Never not have this, it helps out anyone in the field. Tap for yourself and charge if you need sustained HP regen, like when tanking multiple attacks in quick succession. Craft for Concentrated 3. 

Resta
Heals are based off you TATK which isn’t really much considering this is an RATK build. However, it’s useful in cases where you can’t attack anything and still need a heal. Usually used in panic scenarios as you already have enough HP and HP regen natively.
Craft for Brilliant 3.

Deband
Boosts DEF by 10% of its power notation (only including MAG and DEF UP skills).
Synergizes with the All DEF UP from Summoner’s skill tree. Craft for Multi 3 if for tapping.

Safoie-0
Useful mobility tool that moves vertically and horizontally, not stopping until you reach a target or obstacle.
Not necessary due to Rodeo Drive-0 movement capability, but still useful in the height it can gain. 

Skill Builds

There are 2 skill builds with Ra/Su:

Ranger only needs 1 skill tree for best effectiveness in any given situation:
 RASU – General / Bossing

• All around build that works in a variety of situations.

If you have multiple skill trees and want to min-max, or make specialized builds:

RASU – Mobbing

• Uses Weak Hit Blast Bonus to get multiple Photon Blasts per quest and First Hit to deal 20% more damage when attacking an enemy first.

Note that some skills can be freely changed to fit whatever you need. Extra SP can go into one of the optional skills. Overall the decision is yours, these trees are simply a guideline.