![Raphael](https://cdn.kimaris.gg/alchemystars-global/skins/thumbnails/90281.webp)
![profession](https://cdn.kimaris.gg/alchemystars-global/professions/2004.webp)
![primary](https://cdn.kimaris.gg/alchemystars-global/elements/1.webp)
![secondary](https://cdn.kimaris.gg/alchemystars-global/elements/1.webp)
Unit Analysis by Team BethelFrankel
Class
Decent mix of conversion, healing, tile-resetting, and damage. Extremely long Active CD.
Overall
B-
(A (N))
(S+ at BT3 (N))
Advantages
+At BT3 (N): Trivializes several endgame stages with her hybrid kit
+Hybrid DPS/Healing/Support kit allows to you to add healing to comps where DPS check units would normally be required.
+Incidental reset conversion can be helpful when cheesing stages which demand FTKs or OTKs
Disadvantages
-High CD greatly limits utility value
-Conversion value gated by MBT
-Healing and extra DPS tend to be mutually exclusive for map requirements, making her very difficult to find situations to fit her in.
Explanation
Base Raphael is one of many victims of the awful 4CD active without preemptive. She's also dead weight in most relatively easy content -- most accounts can simply raise a DPS and a healer and switch between those two as the situation requires. She's still fine in a vacuum (hence why she's mid-tier), but given that Phily is more easily accessible, it's usually better to ignore Raphael in favor of raising her + another DPS to switch in, unless there are resource concerns on your account (or you just like her).
However, BT3 makes her into a late game content all-star who seems to scale with the overall difficulty of content. She's much more than the sum of her parts; the harder the game gets, the more her oddball mix of abilities become useful. In fact, BT3 Raph is basically the ultimate hard counter to some of the most traditionally difficult bosses in the game (Bored Shatterblast, Mara Sol w/ Shattered Tiles, F96 Schummer and friends, etc.) Because of this, it's hard to give her a proper ranking - she's SS in the few stages you need her, and A-ish otherwise.