ST AR-15

Overview

ST AR-15 is the third obtainable story T-Doll and a member of the ‘Anti Rain’ team. She is granted upon completion of the sixth stage in chapter three.

Don’t take the fact that she’s free to mean that she’s anywhere near mediocre, however. ST AR-15 possesses a good stat distribution that is further reinforced with amazing equipment slots. Since she is able to equip two accessories and one magazine, ST AR-15 can boost her Damage stat to exceptional levels by using a Holo Sight and her exclusive Ammo, which is dropped in 3-4 Night. She also carries an excellent 45% RoF self-buff with an Initial Cooldown of 4 seconds to boot. Moreover, this Skill features an amazing uptime of 15 seconds and will help her get to the 116 RoF soft cap with little assistance. If one is looking for a strong, self-sufficient T-Doll that can keep up even with the strongest ARs, ST AR-15 will not disappoint.

Strengths

Good Stat Distribution

Although ST AR-15’s Damage isn’t the best, she trades it for excellent RoF.

Story T-Doll

ST AR-15 is granted stat boost across some story events and chapters because of her status as a free story AR.

Great Equipment Slots

ST AR-15 was gifted with the ability to attach two accessories, enabling her to make up for her mediocre Damage with a EOT 518 Holo Sight without sacrificing a VFL Crit Scope.

Special Equipment

ST AR-15 possesses a special equipment, the .300 Blackout Ammo, which helps further boost her Damage stat. Moreover, it’s dropped in 3-4 Night, meaning that players won’t have to spend Contracts rolling for it.

Strong Skill

Toting a 45% RoF self-buff, AR-15’s Skill — Assault Focus T — helps her keep up in DPS with even the strongest of ARs even when she receives less buffs.

Weaknesses

Limited Scalability

All RoF self-buff Skill ARs face the inherent problem of limited scaling because of the RoF cap, an issue that self-buffing Damage up ARs are not plagued by.

Mediocre Tiles

Bestowing a 10% RoF and 12% Evasion buff directly in front of her and to her diagonals, AR-15 carries a great tile placement but mediocre buffs, making her Tile buffs good, but not great.

High Dummy Linking Costs

Although being a story T-Doll has its perks, it also has its disadvantages. ST AR-15 has a naturally high Dummy Linking cost because it is impossible to gain duplicates of her.

Full Analysis

As a story AR that seems to pride herself on being independent, ST AR-15 combines the best aspects of self-sufficiency to result in her being a great choice of AR for almost any Echelon.

ST AR-15’s stat base is incredible not because it is particularly outstanding by itself, but also because her deficiencies are completely mitigated by her excellent Equipment slots. A fully equipped AR-15 will see her Damage stat increased to 81, which is the highest out all of conventional ARs. Furthermore, her above average RoF stat helps her all but shrug off an EOT Sight’s RoF penalty — despite the reduction in RoF this piece of equipment causes, AR-15’s RoF will stay above average for her class.

ST AR-15’s skill, Assault Focus T, will push her RoF within the 105 — 106 RoF zone, virtually capping this stat and thus helping AR-15 minimize wasted shots. While she does face scalability issues like all RoF self-buff ARs, AR-15’s equipment slots as well as her exclusive .300 Blackout Ammo help mitigate this issue.

Additionally, ST AR-15 — like most story T-Dolls — is granted a boost to certain stats during events she takes part in. Further adding to her versatility is the fact that she is also able to equip both VFL Scope and PEQ Laser Sight, allowing her to compete with even the best Night Skill ARs during regular Night Battles.

No T-Doll is perfect, though, so it is unsurprising that ST AR-15 does have a weakness, and that is her Tile buffs. Consisting of a 10% RoF and 12% Evasion buff for SMGs, the buffs AR-15 offers are rather unimpressive as SMGs have innately high RoF, though her tile coverage is practically infallible. ST AR-15 does, however, provide a decent 12% Evasion buff that most SMGs can make use of, although it is on the lower end of the spectrum for Evasion buffs given by ARs.

The comparison to Type97 when examining AR-15 is unavoidable, though the two are rather similar to one another in practical performance. Type97 is also a self-reliant AR who is almost able to reach the 116 RoF threshold by herself and will outperform AR-15 when extra RoF buffs aren't employed. With the addition of RoF buffs, however (most usually applied through Welrod), AR-15 outperforms Type97, with the disparity only becoming larger as the battle drags on. It is also worth noting that in Night Battles, AR-15’s supremacy is uncontested by Type97 or any other AR not especially geared towards them, making her utility unmatchable in the current state of the game.

In summary, AR-15 is one of the most versatile ARs due to the myriad of strengths and relatively few weaknesses that add up to make her the monster she is. ST AR-15 will remain one of the strongest ARs throughout all stages of the game and therefore it is advised to use her in an Echelon that will see a lot of use as soon as possible.

Team Options

M4A1

MP-446

Gr Mk23

Gr G36c

Welrod MKII

Strong Damage Buffers

ST AR-15’s RoF is naturally high, therefore one should capitalize on this by buffing her Damage with units such as M4A1, MP-446 and/or Mk23.

Hybrid Buffers

Welrod and G36C will do wonders by helping AR-15 reach the maximum RoF threshold while still providing her with Damage buffs.

Recommended Formations