GBO2 Marasai: Sniper with 3 melee weapons?!
This video contains two recent matches I had in the LV1 Marasai. It is a 450-500 cost general with a very high damage stop to fire rifle, incredible melee damage, great melee stunlock ability, high durability and long melee reach with the spear. Its weaknesses would be relatively slow boosting speed, needing to stop to fire a rifle twice to stagger enemies, lacking Maneuver Armor for going into melee range with its spear, having only its awful vulcans as a shooting sub weapon when equipped with the standard beam rifle and it suffering from needing to rely on allies for set ups while using the fedayeen rifle. This suit is a pretty weird suit to learn since it basically plays like no other. It plays a little bit like a Geara Doga without Maneuver Armor and a little like Sniper II WD without uncharged instant stagger but at the same time is very different from both of them. I hope that you enjoy watching!
The Marasai can choose between a beam rifle or fedayeen beam rifle for its primary weapon. The standard rifle has the longest cooldown of any ammo beam rifle in the entire game alongside low damage and stun accumulation, so it is not recommended. The fedayeen rifle has 2100 (2500) power, 50% (85%) heat, 1.3 seconds cooldown, 12 seconds overheat, 0.5 seconds swap time, 450m (550m) range, 1 seconds focus time, 1.3x uncharged leg damage modifier and 50% (80%) stagger value. This has insanely overtuned stats on paper but is balanced out by it not staggering uncharged and it being stop to fire. It can be difficult to aim at times but the damage potential from this weapon alone is insane, especially if you can land it on a raid. Even overheating is no penalty with the short overheat time.
Its primary melee weapon is a beam saber with 2200 power, 2.5 seconds cooldown, 0.5 seconds swap time and standard modifiers. This has high damage for the cost range, fast swap time and longer reach than a standard beam saber. You can start combos with this after a heavy stagger from the wire or use it to stunlock enemies.
Its first sub weapon is a head vulcan gun with 70 power, 525 DPS and 2% stagger value. This is a pretty useless weapon most of the time but it can at least finish low HP enemies.
Its second sub weapon is a sea serpent wire with 2000 power, 5 seconds cooldown, 0.5 seconds swap time and 100m range. This is a heat rod style weapon that heavy staggers on hit. You can use this defensively against enemies coming at you in a straight line but it can be confirmed from a neutral swing by either of your other melee weapons as a combo.
Its third sub weapon is a rifle beam saber with 2300 power, 4 seconds cooldown, 0.77 seconds swap time, 85% side swing modifier and 160% downswing modifier. Normal swings have great reach that you can use to start combos on enemies with from outside of their tackle range, but downswings have insane damage.
The LV1 Marasai has 17000 HP, 20 ballistic resist, 22 beam resist and 18 melee resist. This level of durability would be high for a 500 cost general, let alone a 450 cost one. It has a 10% reduction right shoulder buffer and LV1 Emergency Evasion for defensive skills, but lacks Maneuver Armor despite its above average size and lacking stun ability for 1v1 situations.
It also has 130 walk speed, 200 boost speed, 65 thrust and 63 turning speed. This is pretty decent but the boost speed is a fair bit lower than what else is at cost, like 210 boosting speed on the Jeda and GM III Powered. It has LV2 Forced Injector but lacks Flight Control.
Overall while I think that the Marasai definitely has huge flaws, it also brings a lot to the table in the right situations while using the fedayeen rifle. It is ideal to bring along as a buddy suit with a support or general to capitalize off allied set-ups, with 3 uncharged fedayeen shots basically being guaranteed to break raids legs. It really suffers in a 1v1 situation though because of its lack of instant stun. It needs to rely on initiating with an unreliable raw melee swing from the rifle beam saber while also lacking Maneuver Armor to close the distance. This also impacts its ability to help out a struggling team that would appreciate extra instant stuns. This means you should probably be choosing Marasai on a team composition which isn't lacking in frontline ability or stun output. I think that it could deserve a tune-up considering how many overpowered generals are at 450 cost now. Buffing the beam rifle to have less cooldown, more damage and higher stun accumulation is an absolute must since it is a dead weapon in its current state. Buffing the vulcans stagger accumulation would also be great to enable it to break through enemies MA. Adding LV1 Maneuver Armor would also be nice to decrease how much it needs to rely on allies while using the fedayeen rifle. Thanks for watching, and I hope you enjoyed it!
Music used:
Metal Gear Solid 4, South America (Alert)
Dynasty Warriors Gundam 2, A Good Thing is Possible