Fomalhaut / Annihilator

TL;DR:

What does more damage?

A 30k Coronach?

Or a dead ranger?

Thats the Fomal vs Anni debate in a nutshell.

I personally use Fomal more than Anni atm, but thats because im either using Trueflight, or im doing something that im not fighting for extended periods (or im just doing lilith on easy in a duo and its just kill it asap before it kills us because august wont hold hate anyway. Fun fight, bouncing hate between a ranger and a corsair.)

My anni is also not R15 yet. But once it gets R15, its going to be *very* difficult to justify using Fomal for last stand outside of a short fight.

If youre in a long fight and using Fomal, youre either not doing as much DPS as you could be, or youll be pulling hate soon.

I will say, however, now that RNG/DRG is a more viable option, if mob positioning wont wipe you, its not nearly as bad to go balls to the wall Fomal.

I tested each weapon last month in ambu multiple times. Other than Fail-Not and Gastra obviously. I have each weapon R15 and purely dmg based the only weapon that clearly pulled ahead was Arma followed by Gandiva with Anni and Foma pretty close together. The big difference between each weapon which has been posted here multiple times:

Foma, Arma, Gandiva
Anni
Yoichi
I will admit that I'm very pro Anni but seeing the numbers that Arma and Gandiva can pull puts a big smile on my face as long as they're used correctly.

I haven't read everyone's comments, but I'll offer a couple of observations:

1. Chrono Bullet and Eradicating Bullet are about evenly matched. One has 11 more damage but 10 less R.Acc/R.Attk. than the other. But if you fire off a Coronach and get the afterglow every few minutes, then that adds another 10% to ranged attack.

2. You have to consider the job that the weapons support. Fomalhaut is specifically good for Last Stand given the R15, the TP bonus, and the ability to do Radiance. Additionally, it's a balanced gun for 2 jobs. Anni. is for RNG only, and you have to consider the traits and other gear RNG has.

Both guns are good to have, but for RNG, I'd say keep Fomalhaut handy for scenarios where you'll be spamming Last Stand. For Trueflight...run a test for yourself. But if you want a truly impressive weapon for RNG, get the Su5 R15 Crossbow with Scout Bolts. The bolts alone are expensive as hell, but the damage output...

The two bullets are not even closely matched. Its the Chrono bullet that makes R15 Annihilator even compete in terms of raw damage with Fomalhaut.

Ranger is the most accurate job in the game. We don't need the extra racc on the bullet.

Ranger really only shines in high buff situations, be that magical for Trueflight/Wildfire moments or physical for Last Stand/Coronach/Jishnu's moments. As such, we are going to be at capped Ranged Attack more often than not. Sadly the +10% ratk aftermath from Annihilator isn't doing much for you outside of 6 man situations, and sometimes not even then.


Its very valuable to look at the use for both weapons, sure. But I find Radiance to be a complete waste more often than not on RNG. Let me get AM1 or AM2 up for making constant Light with a variety of 2 step options between many jobs vs getting AM3 up, meaning giving up some WSs along the way, blowing that Radiance for maybe 15% more damage over a Light, then have to get that AM back up again and missing a possible skillchain.

Also the STP+5 from R15'ing an Annihilator REALLY helps close the gap between the two weapons.


I hope you weren't discusing Trueflight with Annihilator. That's the absolute worst possible option for Trueflight. Fomalhaut has its TP bonus to boost TF numbers. Armageddon has its insane +70AGI for both WS mod and dSTAT. And Gastra....well, is Gastra.

The Sharanga might be a fun weapon to use, but when using a crossbow your only real option is Trueflight or Wildfire. Last Stands are paltry at best compared to ANY of the RMEA guns, and even compared to say a Holliday's Last Stand. And when using Trueflight, even with Scout's Bolts, you're looking at a Weapon Skill/TP mode damage ratio of at least 80/20- if using Gastraphetes its more like 90/10. It might look pretty in your chatlog with the added effects, but its still gonna lose when using Last Stand to any of the guns, and its gonna lose to Gastraphetes AND Fomalhaut (under 2250TP) for Trueflight. And I'm not talking just in the WS numbers- I'm talking parse.

I think you should go ahead and go back and read thru some of the responses- a lot of what you mentioned was covered and "shot down" per se.

Even though Forma's dmg is superior to Anni, as a RNG I find myself using Anni far more when I need to do phys dmg. Anni just has so much more utility and competes well when buffed. Only recently used Forma on bozetto imps ambu because i was able to 2-shot them really quick (with double shot up) before they could get to the pt and mess us up.

Not pulling hate and getting amnesia or silence on mages etc is really important though so Anni is a no brainer for me if you want phys weapon for RNG.

In terms of TF, well tbh if you are making RNG imo you should be building a TF set and working towards Gastra. Forma is certainly good for TF - if the rest of your gear is up to scratch - but Gastra is night and day. I think if you're gonna spend 100m on a wep though prob get your aeonic clears and get forma over the Su5.

Since OP has Forma already and a non AG Anni would say AG the Anni then get working on Gastra because you will enjoy RNG 1000 more with it. Get a SCH buddy, open fusion on a T3 Ru'an and close with a gastra TF for cap dmg and light, its a lot of fun!

It's not the first time I see people calling Fomalhaut "Forma", is that some joke I don't know about, or people somehow keep repeating the same mistake over and over again?

If mob has amnesia and silence, why would you stay close to mages? Just stand on side. Also I think that Anni really helps if you multibox or do some non ilvl content. Good tank shouldn't have problem to keep hate in ilvl content, especially when you help him by utilizing Decoy Shot.

Also I think Malignance set changed situation a lot. RNGs are no more a paper dolls that need to stay far back and ***their pants when mobs start to chase them. Your midshot and idle/engage set can now have like 30-50%PDT and super high meva. You can actually benefit from correct ranged attack distance too, or you can actually simply melee for TP.


RNG can easily self skillchain light with last > trueflight. You don't really need SCH.
EDIT: and if you want to close with 3000TP Trueflight, you can also use any job with Fusion WS (plenty of them) or Ayame trust will open with Kasha for you, if you use trueflight once to give her a hint what you want to use.

Oh for sure you can do it all solo. Was more referring to getting aurastorm 2 and adloquium to go with the fusion. Have personally enjoyed rng most when duo with SCH.

Fair point on malignance too, didnt have it for imps ambu but do now and it makes staying in range of aoes a different ball game.