Hey, Tabin, I just want you to know that your MLB Scope Lv.80 Arash is good civilization.
You may or may not have gotten 300ish AP's worth of FP from me farming Gaul with him yesterday. (I leveled up somewhere in the middle, and it was hell.)
Also jfc that guy sure has six limit broken 5* CEs, huh. And two Bond 10 servants, including a 5*. I just managed to get Bond 7 Herc, so that's kind of scary.
He has 12 and perhaps 15 bond CEs now....
I spread my bond points all over the place until last week when I started to focus on what I really want bond 10 Still not 100% on everything I want to take to 10 suggestions? Have 1 9 and a few 8. In 20 years of gaming I have not met anyone that could out grind me and he does it with ease
All the friend points are going right back into the scope too so thanks!
Herc's the only one that has a really crazy Bond CE, I think. (Three times Guts effect is too strong.)
The rest are alright-to-mediocre, with a handful being pretty good or excellent in a niche. Waver's not using his CE for anything else, for instance, so having a CE that gives +15% Buster to allies is actually useful. Martha's gives +30% healing to the entire team from any source, so has a nice niche.
But on the other hand you've got stuff like Asterios, whose CE gives +15% Quick to the team. On Asterios, the debuff BBBAQ berserker. Yeah, I don't know either.
Or stuff like Arash' bond CE, which has it so that when he's defeated all allies get debuff removal and 5000HP healed. That's great, except you'll probably rather want something like Kaleidoscope to rush out his NP instead so it's all very niche. Great when you need it, but you need to build up his NP manually.
Basically, you always need to look at the CE and ask yourself "is this better than Kaleidoscope/+25% [CARDTYPE] CEs/Fragments of 2030?" In a lot of cases the answer is "no", but sometimes you get a standout since the Servant didn't really need those CEs in the first place.
There's also cases like Vlad's Bond CE, which is just straight-up worse than Formalcraft once you do the math. It's kind of sad.
Beyond Bond CEs, there's also the thing where you get +ATK bonuses in the final singularity for high Bond levels. So build up everyone you'll want to use their, I guess, but that's still a year away.
Also, do note that for various niche final boss-related reasons "who you'll want to use" may include niche Servants like Asterios and Mata Hari of all people.
There is a few unique ones. Hercules being the one everyone chases When equipped to Heracles (Berserker) only
Apply Guts with 500 HP (3 times) and there is When equipped to Arash (Archer) only
Remove Debuffs and restore HP of all allies by 5,000 when defeated or When equipped to George (Rider) only
When defeated in battle, grant all allies invincible to damage (1 time) & decrease incoming damaged by 1,000 (3 turns) for examples.
It seems like most of the bond CEs are just card-type +15% for the party? Are there any notable other kinds?
Sometimes they're +20% with a demerit (Saber Gilles gives +20% Buster -20% Debuff Resist, both team-wide, for instance), sometimes they've got more unique effects (Carmilla gives +30% NP damage to self and a 10% NP seal on attacks), sometimes they're Heracles' CE and give you a three-time 500HP Guts effect.
Generally higher rarities have more interesting ones, but it's not a given.
Vlad's, which I noted as being kind of bad, is +30% NP Damage and a 30% chance of getting +5% NP when attacking. Unfortunately this ends up being less than you'd get from the +25% Arts Formalcraft CE.
Also, do note that while +15% ATK (e.g. Altera) is better than +15% Buster (e.g. Lu Bu), +15% Arts or Quick may or may not be better since that also boosts star gen and NP gen.
Of course, one notable thing is that these stack - so if you have three Servants each with a +15% Buster CE, it's like each one has a +45% Buster CE equipped. Or +45% Arts or whatever, or +60% if you're going for ones that have demerits. Some teams may find this to their liking, although it's kind of tricky to find the right Servants to pair with. You could get a Buster Berserker team going with +50% from Lu Bu, Darius III and Caligula - but that requires you to use Caligula and restricts you to 3*s.
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SpectrumArcher of InfernoChaldea Rec RoomRegistered Userregular
Also jfc that guy sure has six limit broken 5* CEs, huh. And two Bond 10 servants, including a 5*. I just managed to get Bond 7 Herc, so that's kind of scary.
I was feeling okay about having 3 people at Bond 6...
Also jfc that guy sure has six limit broken 5* CEs, huh. And two Bond 10 servants, including a 5*. I just managed to get Bond 7 Herc, so that's kind of scary.
I was feeling okay about having 3 people at Bond 6...
I had Herc on the team in both 5AP Werewolf Hell and now in 4AP Gaul: Return of the Werewolf Hell, so that's why he's Bond 7. Same thing for Cu, who's basically been my eternal backline for obvious reasons.
Looking at my spirit origin list, I've got...
Bond 7: OG Cu Chullain, Heracles
Bond 6: Gilgamesh, St. George, Asterios (bout halfway to Bond 7, but he just gives golden apples and has a mediocre CE so who cares)
And then a bunch at Bond 5 but that doesn't matter much since it's so easy to get. Looks like Medea, Robin Hood and Carmilla are halfway to Bond 6, but "halfway" is still way too much.
There's no shame about only having three servants at Bond 6 - that just means that you branch out more in which servants you use, or don't grind low-AP high-Bond quests that much.
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SpectrumArcher of InfernoChaldea Rec RoomRegistered Userregular
Also jfc that guy sure has six limit broken 5* CEs, huh. And two Bond 10 servants, including a 5*. I just managed to get Bond 7 Herc, so that's kind of scary.
I was feeling okay about having 3 people at Bond 6...
I had Herc on the team in both 5AP Werewolf Hell and now in 4AP Gaul: Return of the Werewolf Hell, so that's why he's Bond 7. Same thing for Cu, who's basically been my eternal backline for obvious reasons.
Looking at my spirit origin list, I've got...
Bond 7: OG Cu Chullain, Heracles
Bond 6: Gilgamesh, St. George, Asterios (bout halfway to Bond 7, but he just gives golden apples and has a mediocre CE so who cares)
And then a bunch at Bond 5 but that doesn't matter much since it's so easy to get. Looks like Medea, Robin Hood and Carmilla are halfway to Bond 6, but "halfway" is still way too much.
There's no shame about only having three servants at Bond 6 - that just means that you branch out more in which servants you use, or don't grind low-AP high-Bond quests that much.
I admit also that I don't always get to use my AP at 100% uptime. Quests take too long because I have scrubs who can't kill things and there's no autoplay so I don't always get to use my AP in the morning (as FFRK has precedence).
Bond 6: D'Eon, EMIYA, Liz
Bond 5: literally everyone else
Bond 6: Altera, Medea (so useful to have her as my first sub slot to just shank stuff to end fights)
Bond 5: Waver, Martha
I think everything else has shifted around too much to get high.
I have every 1-3* servant in the game, along with the gold servants who I happen to have, at at least bond 4 now, with most at bond 5. Everyone is ascended at least once and I've done all of their available interludes (except Siegfried's second one, because it requires a second ascension and he is not exactly high priority). Only ones above 5 are Vlad, Herc, Waver, and Arash, all at 6.
I'm making a point to have Herc in 100% of my parties now, for reasons.
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SpectrumArcher of InfernoChaldea Rec RoomRegistered Userregular
I have every 1-3* servant in the game, along with the gold servants who I happen to have, at at least bond 4 now, with most at bond 5. Everyone is ascended at least once and I've done all of their available interludes (except Siegfried's second one, because it requires a second ascension and he is not exactly high priority). Only ones above 5 are Vlad, Herc, Waver, and Arash, all at 6.
I'm making a point to have Herc in 100% of my parties now, for reasons.
Ha...I still have Stheno's 2nd Interlude, which I've found incredibly difficult. I only got past the first arrow with all three command seals. The same will probably get me past the 2nd but I dunno about the final arrow.
So the japanese version is getting a thing where you can choose a free 4* among any of the non-limited ones in the game. Thinking I'm gonna get my first non-Angra Avenger, although it's honestly tempting to get my 5th copy of Edison, because I love that guy and his NP.
Which Avenger are you thinking about? Gorgon or Lobo?
Something to consider: Gorgon is story-locked, so you're unlikely to roll another copy in the gacha unless you roll in the story pool. This can either mean that you want to get her (because you won't otherwise) or that you don't (because she'll be eternally NP1).
Or you can just get your World Faith Domination on, but be aware that the benefits of NP5 over NP4 are pretty marginal. The jump from 862.5% to 900% isn't all that big. +37.5 percentage points, +4.3% actual.
It's mostly just for husbando points, in other words.
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MaddocI'm Bobbin Threadbare, are you my mother?Registered Userregular
Gorgon's NP is only mediocre anyway, I think she really only sees use for her Stun
Absolutely doggo. I don't particularly care for Gorgon anyway. I rolled pretty aggressively both times the Shinjuku gacha was available, and while I got everything else in there (including NP3 assassin). I sadly missed on the dog.
Also very aware that the boost from NP4 -> NP5 W.F.D. is pretty small. Would absolutely be doing that for love.
I can't decide between Emiya (made it to Camelot without any gold archers and, uh, hoo boy), NP2 Herc (seems like a marginal gain, but I already have him grailed to 90, closing in on bond 10, and nearly max skilled thanks to the Nerofest raffle box so might as well go all in), or just pick someone new.
Medea Lily or Martha would be nice since I'm really thin on support types, and there's lots of Sabers that I'd love to pick up just cause I like their design (Suzuka, Saberlot, Rama, and Alter are all really cool, but I'm flooded with Gold Sabers as it is).
Maybe I'll just pick Nitocris because everything about her is hilarious.
NP2 is the biggest gain, really - it's where you go from, in Herc's case, 600% damage to 800% damage. That's a +33% increase! It'll be less than that if they ever give him an interlude upgrade, but it's still a decent increase.
I have NP2 Herc in NA due to freak coincidence (choose him as the free 4*, immediately rolled him in the gacha), and he's pretty great!
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SpectrumArcher of InfernoChaldea Rec RoomRegistered Userregular
The Etna mines have finally given up enough Ghost Lanterns that I can 3rd Ascend Ushi. Should I? She's my highest Rider right now.
I'm still holding the 8 for Tamamo in reserve, of course. I'll need to farm up another 7 goddamn more for Ushi's 4th ascension afterwards, too.
Once you can reliably beat the 40AP EXP quest you won't be wanting for EXP anymore. This is largely dependent on party composition and level, but you can cheese your way through it with the right Supports - if you can nab a high-level Lancelot with a Kaleidoscope, that'll clear an entire wave on its own.
If you can't reliably beat it, grind the 30AP one until you can. And, again, don't be afraid to borrow high-level Support servants with AoE NPs that will clear out an entire wave for you. Or, if you've got some good starting NP CEs, an El-Melloi II to let you AoE your way through manually.
If you've got an Arash, he's a pretty great suicide bomber who hits way above his level with his AoE NP.
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SpectrumArcher of InfernoChaldea Rec RoomRegistered Userregular
Guessing if you get saint graphs then you get them but not something one actively try's for. If you do have 10 then that's something to save for the super limited pulls.
Okeanos release means more new servants to talk about! Let's go.
3* Archer: David
Remember what I said about Robin Hood starting a trend of 3* archers being amazing? Well, here we go. Stats (level 70): 7736 Attack, 8643 HP
Deck: QAAAB # of hits (Q/A/B/E): 2/2/1/3
David joins Emiya in being an archer with three arts cards. Unfortunately, his NP and star generation stats aren't that impressive; you're gonna be relying on arts chains to build up that gauge with David.
First skill: 1-turn defense boost (50%) and self heal (1000-2000 HP). Base cooldown: 7 turns Second skill: Removes party mental debuffs, grants 1-hit of evasion to party, and recovers party HP (300-800 HP). Base cooldown: 8 turns Third skill: 3-turn attack boost to praty (9-18%). Base cooldown: 7 turns
The skill to focus on here is his second skill. The harp of healing may not actually heal very much, but that 1-hit of evasion to the party is an incredible and unique effect. The only other character right now who can protect the whole team from an AOE Noble Phantasm is Jeanne, who is a 5* servant and requires her noble phantasm to do it. David does it casually like it's nothing. Granted, it's possible for some minion to waste your hit of evasion before the servant does their NP, but it's generally pretty reliable. This gets even better later when the mystic code is released that allows you to swap a servant with one in your back row; bringing in David to save the team is definitely a thing.
Noble Phantasm (Buster): Powerful single-target. Allows David to ignore evasion for 1 turn (including this NP), and has a 100-200% chance to seal the opponent's skills for 1 turn.
Not much to say about this NP. It's nothing to write home about, but a strong single-target is definitely what the guy wants.
Overall/tl;dr: David is a fantastic character to have in your pocket against bosses, because that second skill is just so useful. His other skills are also usable and the fact that he has a single-target NP also makes him more serviceable against bosses, but that second skill is the reason you are using him. Unless you just like the guy, which I wouldn't blame you for.
3* Archer: Euryale
You probably aren't expecting much from Euryale, since she is similar to Stheno in many ways. But don't worry; this gorgon is a 3* archer.
Stats (level 70): 7032 Attack, 9506 HP
Deck: QQAAB # of hits (Q/A/B/E): 3/2/1/3
Euryale's base attack is pretty low, but at least her generation stats are pretty good. Expect her to be absolutely on par with Robin Hood in that regard.
First skill: Chance to decrease enemy NP charge (60-80%), and increase own NP charge (18-27%). Base cooldown: 8 turns Second skill: Chance to inflict charm on enemy male for 1 turn (70-100%). Base cooldown: 9 turns
Yeah, it's just the two for now, and yeah, that second skill is pretty specific in its applications as usual. Remember though that her first skill will increase her NP gauge even when it fails to reduce the opponent's, so it's nice to have. In the future, she'll gain a skill that boosts her arts cards by 20-30% for 3 turns.
Noble Phantasm (Arts): Strong single-target, which does bonus damage to male targets (130-150%), and has a chance to charm male targets (100-200%), and also decreases enemy attack (20%)
While those anti-male mechanics might make this look bad, this thing is still pretty good against non-male targets. It just becomes EXTREMELY good against males.
Overall/tl;dr: While her sister merely has a bad chance to insta-kill male targets, Euryale here reliably does massive damage to them. It's really not hard to tell which one got the short end of the stick. Euryale's niche is a little more specific than Robin or David, but she's still a solid character outside of it. And remember: one of the most infamous opponents in the game is a male saber. Assuming you don't have Orion, leveling Euryale isn't a terrible idea.
3* Lancer: Hector
It's easy to not like Hector for a bunch of reasons. Not the least of which is the fact that he's a 3* Lancer who isn't Cu Chulainn. Why even bother? Well, let's see.
Stats (level 70): 6928 Attack, 10200 HP
Deck: QQABB # of hits (Q/A/B/E): 2/2/1/3
Hector gets a standard number of hits on his cards, but his generation stats aren't bad, at least for a lancer.
First skill: 1-turn NP damage boost for the party (8.5%-17%). Base cooldown: 7 turns Second skill: Chance to stun (60-80%), and chance to decrease enemy NP charge (60-80%). Base cooldown: 7 turns Third skill: Remove self debuffs and restore self HP (800-2000 HP). Base cooldown: 7 turns
Having a stun is actually pretty nice, even if it isn't completely reliable. First and third skill are nothing interesting, though.
Noble Phantasm (Buster): AOE attack that ignores enemy defense. Also decreases enemy defense for 3 turns (20-40%).
Not a particularly powerful NP, and he doesn't have any skills to help charge it, so don't expect Hector to be clearing waves of enemies for you very easily.
Overall/tl;dr: Overall, Hector's actually okay. Decent generation stats and access to a stun skill alone make him plenty usable. However, he has to directly compete with Cu Chulainn, who is not only arguably the best 3* in the game, but also possibly the single most popular servant of any rarity. Sorry, Hector. Being Lancer is suffering.
Details on new gold servants (including the story unlock, which I'll keep entirely in spoilers) to come when I get home.
To clear this lesbian duo up right away, Anne is the tall one and Mary is the short one. And while our servant is technically both of them, Mary going to be the one doing most of the work. Anne just supports during their NP. If you want me to talk more about Anne, you're going to have to wait until next summer. Stats (level 80): 9029 Attack, 11,286 HP
Deck: QQAAB # of hits (Q/A/B/E): 2/2/1/3
This is the biggest problem with Mary right here; her NP and star generation are both below average. She's going to need some help in both regards.
First skill: 3-turn increase in star generation rate (30-50%). Base cooldown: 8 turns Second skill: 1-turn increase in critical damage (50-100%). Base cooldown: 7 turns Third skill: 1-turn attack boost (20-30%) and 1-turn increase in critical star weight (300-600%). Base cooldown: 7 turns
It's a shame that her second and third skills only last for one turn, because they are very powerful. As a Rider, Mary's star weight is already high, so further increasing that while significantly boosting critical damage is going to cause some rather large numbers. Provided, of course, that she is paired with someone who can help generate stars for her to use.
Noble Phantasm (Quick): Powerful single-target. Does bonus damage based on own current HP relative to maximum (higher damage if lower HP).
Alright, so lets be clear on how this works. If Mary's HP is maxed, then this NP is going to deal regular damage for a single-target NP. Which is to say, a lot of damage. For any amount below, it starts getting boosted. Even with a fraction of health lost, this gets a noticeable damage boost. At around half health, it becomes extremely strong. At very low health, it becomes the strongest NP in the game. But don't think they are required to have low health for this to be strong; it's always strong.
Overall/tl;dr: Mary is a very, very strong character, but one with some significant weaknesses. She is one of the best users of crit stars in the game and also has an insanely powerful NP, but her star and NP generation stats are both below average, and she has no defensive skills either. Overall I still consider her to be one of the better 4*s (especially compared to her current competition as a Rider), but it's important to be aware of her flaws.
5* Rider: Francis Drake
If you played Fate/Extra, then congratulations, you already know that Francis Drake is awesome. That saves you the time in reading the rest of this. For everyone else, let's take a look! Stats (level 90): 11,326 Attack, 12,830 HP
Deck: QAABB # of hits (Q/A/B/E): 6/4/2/4
Drake's arts cards might only be average, but that singular quick card is absolutely insane. Stick an arts card at the beginning of the chain and it will generate quite a bit of NP for her; and it's going to be shitting out crit stars regardless. It's an absolute shame she only has one quick card, but I suppose that's balance for you.
First skill: 1-turn NP damage boost for the party (8.5%-17%) and 1-turn attack boost for the party (8.5%-17%). Base cooldown: 7 turns Second skill: 3-turn NP-gain boost for herself (18-45%). Base cooldown: 8 turns Third skill: Increases own NP gauge (30-50%), and generate 10 critical stars, and ignore invincibility for 3 turns. Base cooldown: 8 turns
That first skill isn't going to boost her own damage or her NP damage as much as what some other characters can do. Mana Burst it isn't. However, the fact that it boosts the entire party means that it's pretty good when your full team is going off all at once. Her second skill boosts her already great NP gain, and... yeah, that third skill is a thing. Pioneer of the Stars is the type of skill that you are probably going to want to get to as high of a skill level as possible, and eventually max. Even at level 1, it will result in Drake being able to fire off her NP on turn 1 if she has a kaleidoscope. By level 6, a 4* CE will do the trick, and when maxed, a mere Dragon's Meridian is enough (or more importantly, any of the event 5* CEs that give 50% NP charge plus some other effect).
Noble Phantasm (Buster): AOE attack, which also generates 20-40 critical stars.
Kind of a plain AOE NP. When boosted by her first skill, it's just strong enough to clear out most waves of enemies, but you won't be impressed against single targets.
Overall/tl;dr: When it comes to wiping out waves of enemies, Drake is one of the best there is. She instantly charges her own NP without any need from a support Waver, and uses it to wipe out a wave of enemies. With Drake, it's absolutely possible to set up a party that can reliably sweep three waves of enemies in three turns. As for more difficult battles, her NP is a little lackluster and she lacks any form of defensive skill, but she's great at both generating and utilizing critical stars (because she's a Rider), and her NP generation is good enough that she'll probably get to fire it off multiple times.
And finally, the story unlock servant.
4* Caster: Medea Lily
Remember: as a story unlock, you cannot roll Medea until Okeanos is completed. And even then, she will not turn up in non-story gachas unless she is specifically featured on it. If you want her, either roll in the story gacha after completing Okeanos, or better yet, wait until she is featured on a banner. Trust me, you won't be disappointed with who accompanies her. Stats (level 80): 7766 Attack, 13,070 HP
Deck: QAAAB # of hits (Q/A/B/E): 4/4/3/5
I bet you weren't expecting those hit counts from a caster. Medea's animations are pretty impressive. Her NP gain isn't much above average even with those hit counts, though, so she wants arts chains. Also, sadly, her attack stat isn't so impressive.
First skill: Increase self NP gauge (80-150%). Base cooldown: 9 turns Second skill: Remove poison from party, and restore their HP (1000-2000 HP). Base cooldown: 7 turns Third skill: Increases potency of her heals (50%-100%). Base cooldown: 10 turns
It wouldn't be Medea if she couldn't instantly charge her NP in one skill. If it wasn't obvious, Lily here is a healer, and there's not much else to be said about these skills. Except I guess that her second skill is going to get its HP values boosted in an interlude later.
Noble Phantasm (Arts): Remove debuffs from party, increase their debuff resist for 3-turns (20-100% based on overcharge), and heal them (3000-5000 HP based on NP level).
And this is where most of Medea's healing comes from. One skill instantly charges this thing up, and she can fuel out enough NP chains pretty quickly to use this gain. Rinse, repeat.
Overall/tl;dr: Medea Lily is a dedicated healer, and she is quite good at that role. Is that a role you need? Well, maybe. Maybe not. Up to you, but there's no denying that she's good at what she does. Worth noting that we will eventually get a welfare 4* caster who is also a dedicated healer, but Medea is the better of the two.
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MaddocI'm Bobbin Threadbare, are you my mother?Registered Userregular
I've been saving all of my FP for Okeanos, because of Euryale and David
Another thing you get with Okeanos incoming is a bunch of new locations - and, thus, a bunch of new interludes. One of them is Asterios' interlude, which upgrades his NP from this:
Decrease ATK 20% (6 turns) & DEF (6 turns) <10%-30%, effect increases with Overcharge> for all enemies
to this:
Decrease ATK 20% (6 turns) & DEF (6 turns) <10%-30%, effect increases with Overcharge> for all enemies. Further decreases the Attack and Defense of all enemies by 40% for 1 turn.
Also, at level 10 Asterios' Natural Demon A++ skill gives him +40% DEF for 3 turns with a 5 turn cooldown. You'll note how 20% + 40% + 40% = 100%!
This interlude is what takes Asterios from being interesting (-20% ATK for 6 turns?) to able to solo some select late-game bosses (-60% ATK for one turn is huge, and if the enemy has high hit counts they'll just build your NP right back up again with their 0-damage hits).
Also, well, just kind of neat for stalling. Stack his NP multiple times, for instance.
Expect to see a grailed 10/10/- lv.85 Asterios in your Supports as soon as I can get the mats. Probably with a Kaleidoscope.
I love my fluffy boy.
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MaddocI'm Bobbin Threadbare, are you my mother?Registered Userregular
Also there's finally another map to farm Serpent Jewels that is probably better than the daily
I am still super upset that they changed Drake's line for her first skill after her animation update. At least I'll have a year and a half to enjoy her original line.
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// Switch: SW-5306-0651-6424 //
And all the other CEs are max ascended.
And his Herc's first skill is lvl10.
// Switch: SW-5306-0651-6424 //
You may or may not have gotten 300ish AP's worth of FP from me farming Gaul with him yesterday. (I leveled up somewhere in the middle, and it was hell.)
Also jfc that guy sure has six limit broken 5* CEs, huh. And two Bond 10 servants, including a 5*. I just managed to get Bond 7 Herc, so that's kind of scary.
I spread my bond points all over the place until last week when I started to focus on what I really want bond 10 Still not 100% on everything I want to take to 10 suggestions? Have 1 9 and a few 8. In 20 years of gaming I have not met anyone that could out grind me and he does it with ease
All the friend points are going right back into the scope too so thanks!
3DS: 0473-8507-2652
Switch: SW-5185-4991-5118
PSN: AbEntropy
The rest are alright-to-mediocre, with a handful being pretty good or excellent in a niche. Waver's not using his CE for anything else, for instance, so having a CE that gives +15% Buster to allies is actually useful. Martha's gives +30% healing to the entire team from any source, so has a nice niche.
But on the other hand you've got stuff like Asterios, whose CE gives +15% Quick to the team. On Asterios, the debuff BBBAQ berserker. Yeah, I don't know either.
Or stuff like Arash' bond CE, which has it so that when he's defeated all allies get debuff removal and 5000HP healed. That's great, except you'll probably rather want something like Kaleidoscope to rush out his NP instead so it's all very niche. Great when you need it, but you need to build up his NP manually.
Basically, you always need to look at the CE and ask yourself "is this better than Kaleidoscope/+25% [CARDTYPE] CEs/Fragments of 2030?" In a lot of cases the answer is "no", but sometimes you get a standout since the Servant didn't really need those CEs in the first place.
There's also cases like Vlad's Bond CE, which is just straight-up worse than Formalcraft once you do the math. It's kind of sad.
Beyond Bond CEs, there's also the thing where you get +ATK bonuses in the final singularity for high Bond levels. So build up everyone you'll want to use their, I guess, but that's still a year away.
Also, do note that for various niche final boss-related reasons "who you'll want to use" may include niche Servants like Asterios and Mata Hari of all people.
Apply Guts with 500 HP (3 times) and there is When equipped to Arash (Archer) only
Remove Debuffs and restore HP of all allies by 5,000 when defeated or When equipped to George (Rider) only
When defeated in battle, grant all allies invincible to damage (1 time) & decrease incoming damaged by 1,000 (3 turns) for examples.
Sometimes they're +20% with a demerit (Saber Gilles gives +20% Buster -20% Debuff Resist, both team-wide, for instance), sometimes they've got more unique effects (Carmilla gives +30% NP damage to self and a 10% NP seal on attacks), sometimes they're Heracles' CE and give you a three-time 500HP Guts effect.
Generally higher rarities have more interesting ones, but it's not a given.
Vlad's, which I noted as being kind of bad, is +30% NP Damage and a 30% chance of getting +5% NP when attacking. Unfortunately this ends up being less than you'd get from the +25% Arts Formalcraft CE.
Also, do note that while +15% ATK (e.g. Altera) is better than +15% Buster (e.g. Lu Bu), +15% Arts or Quick may or may not be better since that also boosts star gen and NP gen.
Of course, one notable thing is that these stack - so if you have three Servants each with a +15% Buster CE, it's like each one has a +45% Buster CE equipped. Or +45% Arts or whatever, or +60% if you're going for ones that have demerits. Some teams may find this to their liking, although it's kind of tricky to find the right Servants to pair with. You could get a Buster Berserker team going with +50% from Lu Bu, Darius III and Caligula - but that requires you to use Caligula and restricts you to 3*s.
"Behind"
Ha
Ha
ha...
(Your Arash works wonders, if you needed more people saying that)
I was feeling okay about having 3 people at Bond 6...
Looking at my spirit origin list, I've got...
Bond 7: OG Cu Chullain, Heracles
Bond 6: Gilgamesh, St. George, Asterios (bout halfway to Bond 7, but he just gives golden apples and has a mediocre CE so who cares)
And then a bunch at Bond 5 but that doesn't matter much since it's so easy to get. Looks like Medea, Robin Hood and Carmilla are halfway to Bond 6, but "halfway" is still way too much.
There's no shame about only having three servants at Bond 6 - that just means that you branch out more in which servants you use, or don't grind low-AP high-Bond quests that much.
I admit also that I don't always get to use my AP at 100% uptime. Quests take too long because I have scrubs who can't kill things and there's no autoplay so I don't always get to use my AP in the morning (as FFRK has precedence).
Bond 6: D'Eon, EMIYA, Liz
Bond 5: literally everyone else
Bond 5: Waver, Martha
I think everything else has shifted around too much to get high.
3DS: 0473-8507-2652
Switch: SW-5185-4991-5118
PSN: AbEntropy
I'm making a point to have Herc in 100% of my parties now, for reasons.
Ha...I still have Stheno's 2nd Interlude, which I've found incredibly difficult. I only got past the first arrow with all three command seals. The same will probably get me past the 2nd but I dunno about the final arrow.
Time to work on Kintoki.
I've been having no luck on monuments for the final stage on her.
Of course, if I get another feather first I'm using them for Nero stage 3 instead, but...
3DS: 0473-8507-2652
Switch: SW-5185-4991-5118
PSN: AbEntropy
Something to consider: Gorgon is story-locked, so you're unlikely to roll another copy in the gacha unless you roll in the story pool. This can either mean that you want to get her (because you won't otherwise) or that you don't (because she'll be eternally NP1).
Or you can just get your World Faith Domination on, but be aware that the benefits of NP5 over NP4 are pretty marginal. The jump from 862.5% to 900% isn't all that big. +37.5 percentage points, +4.3% actual.
It's mostly just for husbando points, in other words.
Also very aware that the boost from NP4 -> NP5 W.F.D. is pretty small. Would absolutely be doing that for love.
(The right answer is probably Astolfo.)
Medea Lily or Martha would be nice since I'm really thin on support types, and there's lots of Sabers that I'd love to pick up just cause I like their design (Suzuka, Saberlot, Rama, and Alter are all really cool, but I'm flooded with Gold Sabers as it is).
Maybe I'll just pick Nitocris because everything about her is hilarious.
I have NP2 Herc in NA due to freak coincidence (choose him as the free 4*, immediately rolled him in the gacha), and he's pretty great!
I'm still holding the 8 for Tamamo in reserve, of course. I'll need to farm up another 7 goddamn more for Ushi's 4th ascension afterwards, too.
Now I have a bunch of characters and no idea what to do
I guess I clear Septem and then...grind for EXP cards and ascension items? I really need EXP
If you can't reliably beat it, grind the 30AP one until you can. And, again, don't be afraid to borrow high-level Support servants with AoE NPs that will clear out an entire wave for you. Or, if you've got some good starting NP CEs, an El-Melloi II to let you AoE your way through manually.
If you've got an Arash, he's a pretty great suicide bomber who hits way above his level with his AoE NP.
Okay, did it, 4th 3rd Ascension
She needs, like, 3 more Ascensions and she'll be fully dressed
Rolled into that support last night all NP5 with level 100 CEs.
Feel total scrub now..,
...Do you reckon that they actually got to use the Special Summon shop, or are they not that much of a whale?
Excessive whaling though. Most people stop at NP5 so I don't think they'd try for saint graphs.
Also, ten quartz!
3* Archer: David
Stats (level 70): 7736 Attack, 8643 HP
Deck: QAAAB
# of hits (Q/A/B/E): 2/2/1/3
David joins Emiya in being an archer with three arts cards. Unfortunately, his NP and star generation stats aren't that impressive; you're gonna be relying on arts chains to build up that gauge with David.
First skill: 1-turn defense boost (50%) and self heal (1000-2000 HP). Base cooldown: 7 turns
Second skill: Removes party mental debuffs, grants 1-hit of evasion to party, and recovers party HP (300-800 HP). Base cooldown: 8 turns
Third skill: 3-turn attack boost to praty (9-18%). Base cooldown: 7 turns
The skill to focus on here is his second skill. The harp of healing may not actually heal very much, but that 1-hit of evasion to the party is an incredible and unique effect. The only other character right now who can protect the whole team from an AOE Noble Phantasm is Jeanne, who is a 5* servant and requires her noble phantasm to do it. David does it casually like it's nothing. Granted, it's possible for some minion to waste your hit of evasion before the servant does their NP, but it's generally pretty reliable. This gets even better later when the mystic code is released that allows you to swap a servant with one in your back row; bringing in David to save the team is definitely a thing.
Noble Phantasm (Buster): Powerful single-target. Allows David to ignore evasion for 1 turn (including this NP), and has a 100-200% chance to seal the opponent's skills for 1 turn.
Not much to say about this NP. It's nothing to write home about, but a strong single-target is definitely what the guy wants.
Overall/tl;dr: David is a fantastic character to have in your pocket against bosses, because that second skill is just so useful. His other skills are also usable and the fact that he has a single-target NP also makes him more serviceable against bosses, but that second skill is the reason you are using him. Unless you just like the guy, which I wouldn't blame you for.
3* Archer: Euryale
Stats (level 70): 7032 Attack, 9506 HP
Deck: QQAAB
# of hits (Q/A/B/E): 3/2/1/3
Euryale's base attack is pretty low, but at least her generation stats are pretty good. Expect her to be absolutely on par with Robin Hood in that regard.
First skill: Chance to decrease enemy NP charge (60-80%), and increase own NP charge (18-27%). Base cooldown: 8 turns
Second skill: Chance to inflict charm on enemy male for 1 turn (70-100%). Base cooldown: 9 turns
Yeah, it's just the two for now, and yeah, that second skill is pretty specific in its applications as usual. Remember though that her first skill will increase her NP gauge even when it fails to reduce the opponent's, so it's nice to have. In the future, she'll gain a skill that boosts her arts cards by 20-30% for 3 turns.
Noble Phantasm (Arts): Strong single-target, which does bonus damage to male targets (130-150%), and has a chance to charm male targets (100-200%), and also decreases enemy attack (20%)
While those anti-male mechanics might make this look bad, this thing is still pretty good against non-male targets. It just becomes EXTREMELY good against males.
Overall/tl;dr: While her sister merely has a bad chance to insta-kill male targets, Euryale here reliably does massive damage to them. It's really not hard to tell which one got the short end of the stick. Euryale's niche is a little more specific than Robin or David, but she's still a solid character outside of it. And remember: one of the most infamous opponents in the game is a male saber. Assuming you don't have Orion, leveling Euryale isn't a terrible idea.
3* Lancer: Hector
Stats (level 70): 6928 Attack, 10200 HP
Deck: QQABB
# of hits (Q/A/B/E): 2/2/1/3
Hector gets a standard number of hits on his cards, but his generation stats aren't bad, at least for a lancer.
First skill: 1-turn NP damage boost for the party (8.5%-17%). Base cooldown: 7 turns
Second skill: Chance to stun (60-80%), and chance to decrease enemy NP charge (60-80%). Base cooldown: 7 turns
Third skill: Remove self debuffs and restore self HP (800-2000 HP). Base cooldown: 7 turns
Having a stun is actually pretty nice, even if it isn't completely reliable. First and third skill are nothing interesting, though.
Noble Phantasm (Buster): AOE attack that ignores enemy defense. Also decreases enemy defense for 3 turns (20-40%).
Not a particularly powerful NP, and he doesn't have any skills to help charge it, so don't expect Hector to be clearing waves of enemies for you very easily.
Overall/tl;dr: Overall, Hector's actually okay. Decent generation stats and access to a stun skill alone make him plenty usable. However, he has to directly compete with Cu Chulainn, who is not only arguably the best 3* in the game, but also possibly the single most popular servant of any rarity. Sorry, Hector. Being Lancer is suffering.
Details on new gold servants (including the story unlock, which I'll keep entirely in spoilers) to come when I get home.
4* Rider: Anne Bonny & Mary Read
Stats (level 80): 9029 Attack, 11,286 HP
Deck: QQAAB
# of hits (Q/A/B/E): 2/2/1/3
This is the biggest problem with Mary right here; her NP and star generation are both below average. She's going to need some help in both regards.
First skill: 3-turn increase in star generation rate (30-50%). Base cooldown: 8 turns
Second skill: 1-turn increase in critical damage (50-100%). Base cooldown: 7 turns
Third skill: 1-turn attack boost (20-30%) and 1-turn increase in critical star weight (300-600%). Base cooldown: 7 turns
It's a shame that her second and third skills only last for one turn, because they are very powerful. As a Rider, Mary's star weight is already high, so further increasing that while significantly boosting critical damage is going to cause some rather large numbers. Provided, of course, that she is paired with someone who can help generate stars for her to use.
Noble Phantasm (Quick): Powerful single-target. Does bonus damage based on own current HP relative to maximum (higher damage if lower HP).
Alright, so lets be clear on how this works. If Mary's HP is maxed, then this NP is going to deal regular damage for a single-target NP. Which is to say, a lot of damage. For any amount below, it starts getting boosted. Even with a fraction of health lost, this gets a noticeable damage boost. At around half health, it becomes extremely strong. At very low health, it becomes the strongest NP in the game. But don't think they are required to have low health for this to be strong; it's always strong.
Overall/tl;dr: Mary is a very, very strong character, but one with some significant weaknesses. She is one of the best users of crit stars in the game and also has an insanely powerful NP, but her star and NP generation stats are both below average, and she has no defensive skills either. Overall I still consider her to be one of the better 4*s (especially compared to her current competition as a Rider), but it's important to be aware of her flaws.
5* Rider: Francis Drake
Stats (level 90): 11,326 Attack, 12,830 HP
Deck: QAABB
# of hits (Q/A/B/E): 6/4/2/4
Drake's arts cards might only be average, but that singular quick card is absolutely insane. Stick an arts card at the beginning of the chain and it will generate quite a bit of NP for her; and it's going to be shitting out crit stars regardless. It's an absolute shame she only has one quick card, but I suppose that's balance for you.
First skill: 1-turn NP damage boost for the party (8.5%-17%) and 1-turn attack boost for the party (8.5%-17%). Base cooldown: 7 turns
Second skill: 3-turn NP-gain boost for herself (18-45%). Base cooldown: 8 turns
Third skill: Increases own NP gauge (30-50%), and generate 10 critical stars, and ignore invincibility for 3 turns. Base cooldown: 8 turns
That first skill isn't going to boost her own damage or her NP damage as much as what some other characters can do. Mana Burst it isn't. However, the fact that it boosts the entire party means that it's pretty good when your full team is going off all at once. Her second skill boosts her already great NP gain, and... yeah, that third skill is a thing. Pioneer of the Stars is the type of skill that you are probably going to want to get to as high of a skill level as possible, and eventually max. Even at level 1, it will result in Drake being able to fire off her NP on turn 1 if she has a kaleidoscope. By level 6, a 4* CE will do the trick, and when maxed, a mere Dragon's Meridian is enough (or more importantly, any of the event 5* CEs that give 50% NP charge plus some other effect).
Noble Phantasm (Buster): AOE attack, which also generates 20-40 critical stars.
Kind of a plain AOE NP. When boosted by her first skill, it's just strong enough to clear out most waves of enemies, but you won't be impressed against single targets.
Overall/tl;dr: When it comes to wiping out waves of enemies, Drake is one of the best there is. She instantly charges her own NP without any need from a support Waver, and uses it to wipe out a wave of enemies. With Drake, it's absolutely possible to set up a party that can reliably sweep three waves of enemies in three turns. As for more difficult battles, her NP is a little lackluster and she lacks any form of defensive skill, but she's great at both generating and utilizing critical stars (because she's a Rider), and her NP generation is good enough that she'll probably get to fire it off multiple times.
And finally, the story unlock servant.
Remember: as a story unlock, you cannot roll Medea until Okeanos is completed. And even then, she will not turn up in non-story gachas unless she is specifically featured on it. If you want her, either roll in the story gacha after completing Okeanos, or better yet, wait until she is featured on a banner. Trust me, you won't be disappointed with who accompanies her.
Stats (level 80): 7766 Attack, 13,070 HP
Deck: QAAAB
# of hits (Q/A/B/E): 4/4/3/5
I bet you weren't expecting those hit counts from a caster. Medea's animations are pretty impressive. Her NP gain isn't much above average even with those hit counts, though, so she wants arts chains. Also, sadly, her attack stat isn't so impressive.
First skill: Increase self NP gauge (80-150%). Base cooldown: 9 turns
Second skill: Remove poison from party, and restore their HP (1000-2000 HP). Base cooldown: 7 turns
Third skill: Increases potency of her heals (50%-100%). Base cooldown: 10 turns
It wouldn't be Medea if she couldn't instantly charge her NP in one skill. If it wasn't obvious, Lily here is a healer, and there's not much else to be said about these skills. Except I guess that her second skill is going to get its HP values boosted in an interlude later.
Noble Phantasm (Arts): Remove debuffs from party, increase their debuff resist for 3-turns (20-100% based on overcharge), and heal them (3000-5000 HP based on NP level).
And this is where most of Medea's healing comes from. One skill instantly charges this thing up, and she can fuel out enough NP chains pretty quickly to use this gain. Rinse, repeat.
Overall/tl;dr: Medea Lily is a dedicated healer, and she is quite good at that role. Is that a role you need? Well, maybe. Maybe not. Up to you, but there's no denying that she's good at what she does. Worth noting that we will eventually get a welfare 4* caster who is also a dedicated healer, but Medea is the better of the two.
This interlude is what takes Asterios from being interesting (-20% ATK for 6 turns?) to able to solo some select late-game bosses (-60% ATK for one turn is huge, and if the enemy has high hit counts they'll just build your NP right back up again with their 0-damage hits).
Also, well, just kind of neat for stalling. Stack his NP multiple times, for instance.
Expect to see a grailed 10/10/- lv.85 Asterios in your Supports as soon as I can get the mats. Probably with a Kaleidoscope.
I love my fluffy boy.