Toggle Background Color

oh hey it's baal with some reviews for characters that people like, also i'm done listing unlock conditions for skills unless they happen to be out of the norm, you nerds get how these skills work by now, save my ass some typing


Tamamo-no-Mae
Lancer
5*/Only on rateup during summer 2016/18 and Lucky Bag rateups
Debuts in Fate/Extra
Originates from Japanese mythology and heat stroke

Cards: Quick/Quick/Arts/Buster/Buster

ATK: 1657/10726
HP: 2221/15147

Skills
1. Beach Flower EX: Buff party's atk by 10/20% and all Male allies' stargen by 22/42% for 3 turns (Cooldown: 7/5 Turns)
2. Midsummer Witchcraft A: Reduce one enemy's defense by 20/30% for 3 turns, 500/1000hp curse for 5 turns, and charm for 1 turn (Demerit: Enemy NP gauge increases by 1) (Cooldown: 9/7 Turns)
3. Goddess Metamorphosis B: Invincibility, NP gen, crit damage, stargen, healing received, and debuff resist by 30/50% for all buffs for 1-turn (Demerit: Delayed 1-turn self-stun that applies after the turn this skill is activated ends) (Cooldown: 8/6 Turns)

Passive Skills
1. Riding A: Quick cards buffed by 10%
2. Territory Creation A: Art cards buffed by 10%
3. Divinity A++: Increase damage dealt by 230

Noble Phantasm
Parasol of the Enamored Deity (Buster): Big damage to a single enemy, extra damage done to males (Overcharge: Increases potency of damage to males)

PROS
+Damage potential is pretty high between her numerous amount of buffs, NP damage enhanced against males, and cardset being very solid on top of having pretty okay stargen and npgen
+Very good at self-preservation with her invincibility, stun, and numerous amount of buffs
+Charm is gender-neutral and has a 100% chance to hit anything that does not have magic resistance or debuff based skills and even in the former scenario, you are at worst looking at a 1/4 chance of missing it.
+Quick card is ridiculously good and racks up a number of hits making AQQ an incredibly good way to build NP with her especially with crits
+Third skill comes with a grab bag of beneficial skills that heavily increase Tamamo's overall versatility on her cards and endurance
+The servants she optimizes most against are Male archers and male berserkers of which there are plenty for her to beat up on in the game
+The Polygamist Castration Fist
+As a random aside, she synergizes well with Summer Ishtar
+Her alignment is Neutral Summer
+Good luck bubbo


CONS
-Two of her skills have demerits that hurt her a decent bit. The NP charge can at least be worked around to some extent with using the charm when the enemy has NP up, but the self stun requires a lot of planning to work around in some scenarios and can possibly screw up the next hand.
-Has very selfish skills with low up time on them. The only skill she has that benefits a team is her first skill which only has larger value through having male servants on the team as well since 20% atk buff is v generic amongst the cast.
-Has good stargen, but no real star absorption with which to grab the stars she makes. She becomes really good at dealing consistent crit damage if she is solo or has someone to buff her star absorb, but outside of that it's gonna be very rng on who on the team gets them.
-Does not use the big parfait in her animations


Overall Opinion: Tamalancer is a pretty solid DPS servant. She's got good quick cards, a strong NP that powers up even more against half of the cast, and has one of the best stuns in the game. Her real shortcomings are that she functions at her best when she is on her own and doesn't have to share any of her stuff with other people on the team. She can go wild for two turns without being touched and do a lot during those two turns. The problem is though is one of her skills that allows her to be untouchable makes her incredibly vulnerable the next turn which can very easily mean her death. She's not the greatest DPS servant to build a team around, but she functions fine with other characters to support her and does a lot both with and without a team. She has some massive drawbacks, but I feel like the positives more than outweigh the negatives in her case.
Score: 8/10


Artoria Pendragon
Archer
5*/Only on rateup during summer 2016/18 and Lucky Bag rateups
Debuts in Fate/Stay Night
Originates from Arthurian Mythology and Super Soakers

Cards: Quick/Quick/Arts/Arts/Buster

ATK: 1742/11276
HP: 2134/14553

Skills
1. Summer Splash! A+: Buff self art cards by 20/30% and party's defense by 10/20% for 3 turns (Cooldown: 8/6)
2. Protection of the Beach House EX: Self heal for 2000/5000hp (Demerit: Reduce NP gauge by 10%) (Cooldown: 6/4)
3. Beach Flower B: Buff party attack by 8/18% and buff all male allies stargen by 18/38% for 3 turns (Cooldown: 7/5 Turns)

Passive Skills
1. Magic Resistance A: Buff debuff resistance by 20%
2. Independent Action A: Buff crit damage by 10%
3. Territory Creation A: Buff arts cards by 10%

Noble Phantasm
Excalibur Vivian (Arts): Big damage to a single target, 70% chance to reduce enemy np gauge by 1, and charges own NP gauge (Overcharge: NP charges for 20/40%)

PROS
+Incredible NP gain between really good arts cards, NP recharging the gauge after use, and occasional crits
+Good star absorption making it easy for her to take advantage of anyone who can create stars
+Defense buff and significant self-heal with a low cooldown create pretty okay sustain
+Can loop NPs into more NPs very easily and NP is very strong and can reduce NP charge allowing for stall potential
+Very good self buff on arts cards
+Synergizes absurdly well with Tamamo, Tamamo actually probably makes her near broken
+Her jacket in the second sprite is pretty good

CONS
-Damage output outside of NP leaves something to be desired with her one buster card and mediocre crit potential
-Heal only benefits self and comes at the cost of NP, which while an easy resource to obtain is not worth giving up NP for in some cases. However if you have like... NP2, then you can afford it.
-Crit damage is not particularly amazing and she has no significant way to buff it so crits really serve to get more NP with her than anything else.
-Beach Flower is not a great skill on Tamamo and it is honestly kind of worse on Squirtoria, because Tamamo's options of team building can include male characters that can take advantage of that while Squirtoria's best support unit is Caster Tamamo who doesn't benefit at all from the critgen buff so it limits crit potential even more.
-Has 0 way to survive an NP. You have to hedge your bets on just stalling it to the point where it can't ever go off or else she just dies.
-I don't know if I hate her third sprite or not. This character has been around for two years and I still don't know how I feel.

Overall Opinion: Squirtoria is a very strong unit. NP looping is good and her having a chance of reducing the gauge makes her a very strong stall character in the same vein as Orion. However, her damage output is honestly not very good in the instances where she doesn't have NP to do stuff with and those turns do come here and there whether they be on turns where her cards aren't up or her skills are on cooldown. Tamamo support does help with these problems a lot, but ultimately she kind of ends up being Orion with better NP gen and no big ass damage buff on males. She's not mediocre, far from it, she is a very good character, but like Lancer Tama she also has noticeable flaws that can make or break her in some places.
Score: 8/10


Marie Antoinette
Caster
4*/Only on rateup during summer 2016/18 and a download celebration
Debuts in Fate/Grand Order
Originates from 18th Century France and the Little Mermaid

Cards: Quick/Arts/Arts/Arts/Buster

ATK: 1510/9060
HP: 1824/11404

Skills
1. Beach Flower A+: Buff party attack by 9.5/19.5% and male allies critgen by 21/41% for 3 turns (Cooldown: 7/5 Turns)
2. Sunflower's Brilliance A: Gain 5/10 crit stars per turn and regens 500/1000hp per turn to self for 3 turns (Cooldown: 9/7 Turns)
3. Princess of Loveliness (Ocean) A: Increase own debuff resistance by 30/50% for 3 turns and applies a 3-hit invincibility to herself (Cooldown: 8/6 Turns)

Passive Skills
1. Territory Creation A: Buff arts cards by 10%
2. Item Construction D: Buff debuff success rate by 4%

Noble Phantasm
Crystal Dress (Arts): Damage to all enemies, decrease crit chance by 20% for 3 turns, and increases party crit damage for 3 turns (Overcharge: Crit damage buffs for 20/40%)

PROS
+NP gain is pretty okay thanks to triple arts cards
+3-hit invincbility is pretty damn solid sustain
+NP is alright due to crit damage buff and debuff on enemies
+Second skill is good at max level
+I can almost argue Beach Flower is a good skill on her
+She actually synergizes very well with Saberlot
+She has a crab on her head
+Honestly all of her ascensions are very good
+Shoutouts to clawtopsy

CONS
-Alright where to begin?
-I can also still not fully say Beach Flower is a particularly good skill here
-Second skill needs a massive investment before it actually becomes worth using
-A 3-hit invincibility is good, but it doesn't do anything for marie other than let her soak hits without getting hurt
-Her damage is terrible
-Her cooldown on sunflower's brilliance is unnecessarily long
-Needs NP for any part of what I assume is her gameplan to work
-She loses the crab after first ascension

Overall Opinion: I have looked at this character's skills and everything so much and the most I can say for her is... she's a neat idea that they implement very poorly. So Caster Marie is supposed to manipulate crit stars a lot for her team so she can make the most out of doing damage with them and attaching the damage buff to her NP basically makes it so you build a critstar focused arts team with her and Beach Flower would make it so your big boys are dropping more stars and doing more damage too, which is a very different kind of thing and is what makes me think Saberlot would be good with her. The problem though is one of the skills necessary to this has a stupidly long cooldown. She doesn't actually support the team either with defensive buffs or anything like that, she just increases stargen for half of the cast. She doesn't generate any of her own either without the second skill and the healing only applies to her as well so she can't even heal the team for a crappy 1000hp per turn that would at least maybe justify this a little bit. As it stands, Caster Marie has severe problems as a support caster that even some of the lower ranked casters don't have, but that crab tho.
Score: 5/10


Anne Bonny & Mary Read
Archer
4*/Only on rateup during summer 2016/18 and a download celebration
Debuts in Fate/Grand Order
Originates from 18th Century Caribbean Piracy and Hugh Hefner

Cards: Quick/Arts/Arts/Buster/Buster

ATK: 1574/9446
HP: 1843/11521

Skills
1. Beach Flower A+: Buff party attack by 9.5/19.5% and male allies critgen by 21/41% for 3 turns (Cooldown: 7/5 Turns)
2. Treasure Hunt (Ocean) C: Buff crit absorb by 300/600% for 1 turn and gain 5/15 crit stars (Cooldown: 8/6 Turns)
3. Pirate's Glory C+: Buff own attack by 8.5/25.5% for 3 turns and apply guts to self until death where they revive with 1hp (Demerit: Decrease debuff resist to themselves for 50% for 3 turns) (Cooldown: 7/5 Turns)

Passive Skills
1. Magic Resistance D: Increase own debuff resistance by 12.5%
2. Independent Action A: Buff crit damage by 10%

Noble Phantasm
Caribbean Free Bird Act 2 (Buster): Big damage to one enemy with an extra damage buff as they have less health and a defense debuff (Overcharge: Defense debuff potency is 10/30%)

PROS
+High burst damage potential with attack buffs, crit damage buff, NP, buster cards support, and extra damage modifier for low HP
+Beach Flower is actually okay on them as they can actually do something with the stars teammates make and more attack on a burst servant is never bad, still pigeonholes the spots in the team a bit due to male specification but you have options
+Crit gen is pretty okay even with one quick card, but also because their extra attack racks up a decent bit as well and their NP gen is pretty okay with the two cards as well
+Third skill in general is really good for playing very well to their gimmick from the Rider version that made the transition to the Archer variant
+NP is really powerful and it's cool to see Mary and Anne work together at once

CONS
-0 Defensive skills, they are strictly DPS based characters. They need help to survive any real damage or they need to kill the thing before it kills them. The guts does exist, but that is more there to help out their damage than actually keep them alive
-Glass cannon as hell, after they NP and use their guts they will be lucky if they can make it past the next round without being touched at all if the thing they hit is not dead
-Due to the previous con, when the Break mechanic gets introduced they become less effective
-The third card art just suddenly changing their pose and location in general is kinda weird, but I guess they don't want the bunny outfits in the ocean or something? Idk
-You can change Anne's sprite, but Mary's will always be the latest ascension because they didn't make it so her sprite is dependent on what Anne's sprite is weirdly enough

Overall Opinion: Anne & Mary are two characters I always liked, but don't see used a lot which I find unfortunate because I feel as far as burst gimmicks go the near death into big damage one is always a lot of fun. The summer variant having Anne on point is a fun change, too. These two were pretty good as riders and a lot of their qualities made it in the transition to archer class pretty well and they even got a really good buff in third skill being a guts and attack buff in one. About the only thing of significance they lost was their stargen skill and big ass quick NP modifier, but they still lay out damage pretty thick. Unfortunately, due to the nature of these characters they will only be able to do so much at one time given their NP gimmick needing to put them into danger to get the most of it, especially after Break is introduced and they have to deal with another health bar the turn after with only their regular cards to do anything with. If you can find a way to sustain them immediately after that then you might be able to make something out of it but that relies on a lot of things to be able to do. As it stands though they're pretty good burst monsters with the usual faults most of them come with.
Score: 8/10


Mordred
Rider
4*/Only on rateup during summer 2016/18 and a download celebration
Debuts in Fate/Apocrypha
Originates from Arthurian Mythology and Sony Pictures Animation

Cards: Quick/Quick/Arts/Arts/Buster

ATK: 1535/9212
HP: 1824/11400

Skills
1. Cerulean Ride A: Buff own arts card by 20/30% (Cooldown: 7/5 Turns)
2. Rodeo Flip A+: Apply evade and 30/50% crit star drop rate for 1 turn (Cooldown: 9/7 Turns)
3. Perpetual Summer B: Apply 1000hp guts to self for 3 turns and charge np for 20/30% (Cooldown: 9/7 Turns)

Passive Skills
1. Magic Resistance B: Increase debuff resistance by 17.5%
2. Surfing A: Buff arts cards and stargen by 5%

Noble Phantasm
Prydwen Tube Riding (Arts): Damage all enemies and decrease NP gauge by 1 (Overcharge: Increases chance of NP gauge reduction by 50/90%)

PROS
+NP having mass NP charge reduction is a pretty unique and cool thing to have
+With skills mordred has pretty good NP gain, especially on arts teams
+Decent sustainability with evade and guts
+Stargen is also pretty okay with her skills
+Arts buffs up the ass benefit her NP gain combined with hitting multiple enemies with it
+Has one of my favorite april fools arts in this game

CONS
-Damage is mostly subpar even with crit damage here and there
-Against single enemies she is a lot less effective as a character and at gaining NP
-Her NP charge reduction being 50% at 100% charge is pretty not great and you would need to NP chain to get it more consistently and this does not factor in anything with magic resistance
-Two of her skills that help sustainability and give her NP charge have really long cooldowns that hurt her longevity in a fight quite a bit

Overall Opinion: Summer Mordred is probably one of the more realized summer characters in that they do a lot with her surfing gimmick and making it a big part of her and that's a lot of fun. She's also pretty okay as an AOE arts character too, having the potential to mass stall entire enemy teams. The problem with that though is only so much challenge or even higher end story content has multiple enemies in a boss fight. So it limits her useability on that front quite a bit, especially compared to her swimsuit dad who has a higher charge reduction for the tradeoff of hitting a single person. Mordred's pretty decent and has a solid niche, but more often than not it's very unnecessary.
Score: 7/10


Kiyohime
Lancer
4*/Only on rateup during summer 2016/18 and a download celebration
Debuts in Fate/Grand Order
Originates from Legend of Anchin and Kiyohime and Super Mario World 64

Cards: Quick/Quick/Arts/Buster/Buster

ATK: 1489/8936
HP: 1899/11870

Skills
1. Blazing Summer Passion A: Reduce all enemies crit chance by 20/30% (Cooldown: 7/5 Turns)
2. Bathing Transformation A: Buff own buster cards by 20/30% for 3 turns (Cooldown: 7/5 Turns)
3. Stalking A: Reduce enemy defense by 20/30% for 3 turns (Demerit: Buff enemy attack by 20% for 3 turns) (Cooldown: 7/5 Turns)

Passive Skills
1. Madness Enhancement EX: Buff own buster cards by 12%
2. Magic Resistance D: Increase own debuff resistance by 12.5%

Noble Phantasm
Doujouji Kane, Hyaku-Hachi Shiki : Ka-Ryuu Nagi (Buster): Big Damage to a single enemy, seal skills for 1 turn, and inflict burn for 5 turns (Overcharge: 500/2500 hp damage from burn)

PROS
+Good Buster damage
+Very decent and simple skills that buff her own damage and reduce enemy defense
+Crit rate reduction skill makes her good for minimizing stupid random bullshit from enemies
+Seal skill on NP has about 150% chance of hitting and even after stuff like magic resistance reducing the chance of it hitting is absurdly high
+Busters are 6-hits so something like ABB is a decent way to get np for her

CONS
-Does not do anything particularly special outside of seal skill debuff
-Attack buff demerit can potentially hurt you a lot
-DoTs still suck
-NP gen is not great, her turns where she is able to get ABB only come once every three turns and that's if you're lucky enough to see that combo every three turns or so. It's still gonna take a bit to get her to NP even with that.

Overall Opinion: There is not much to say about Kiyohime, to be honest. She has pretty solid sustained buster damage and her crit reduction and skill seal can help her to get through a good part of a fight. With no real defensive skills and ways to stop the enemy from NPing though she needs to kill things before they kill her and as far as a DPS race goes she's not that great there due to her lackluster NP gain. She's good, but her role is fulfilled a little bit better by quite a few other characters.
Score: 6/10


Martha
Ruler
4*/Only on rateup during summer 2016/18 and a download celebration
Debuts in Fate/Grand Order
Originates from 1st Century Israel, the Bible, and the Yakuza Franchise

Cards: Quick/Arts/Buster/Buster/Buster

ATK: 1591/9546
HP: 1800/11250

Skills
1. Waterfront Saintess B+: Charge NP by 20/30% and buff own atk on maps with Water/Beach by 10/20% for 3 turns (Cooldown: 8/6 Turns)
2. Natural Body (Ocean) A: Gains debuff immunity for 1 debuff and heals self for 1000/3000 hp (Cooldown: 7/5 Turns)
3. Jacob's Limbs B: Buff own attack against demon, divine, and undead-attribute enemies by 50/100% for 1-turn (Cooldown: 7/5 Turns)

Passive Skills
1. Magic Resistance EX: Increase debuff resistance by 25%

Noble Phantasm
Tarasque (Buster): Big damage to single enemy and reduce defense for 1 turn (Overcharge: Defense debuff increased by 10/50%)

PROS
+Heavy buster focus creates consistent damage in card chains
+Ruler classification gives Martha mass resistance to normal classes & Moon Cancer and only takes weakness damage from Berserkers and Avengers giving her good longevity in fights against a lot of enemies in the game
+NP charge from first skill helps martha along to NP quite a bit
+Third skill damage buff is very significant she actually handles a few of the problem enemies in the game pretty well like Sphinxes and Demons
+Second skill is pretty solid as a heal at max level and immunity resistance is an alright bonus
+NP does pretty decent damage in buster chain and Martha having buster support means her damage potential can get higher than some others
+NP gain is surprisingly decent? If you start a chain with her arts card and then eventually lead into her quick card at the end she gets a pretty damn good amount of NP charge due to the number of hits she racks up from both.
+Has a very good quick card but only one so you won't see quick chains very often with the team, but the stars you get from a full chain with her are alright. I wouldn't recommend starting with the card though, you'll get close to as much starting with arts then moving to quick at the end and get a decent bit of np too.
+Is incredibly powerful against the sole Moon Cancer in the game
+Has one of my favorite NPs in the game
+Every sprite she has is really good


CONS
-Due to Ruler specification she is only strong against two servant classes, one of which has a single servant seen only in an event that has still not rerun and the other is the one everyone is strong against.
-Optimizing damage with this character is a little difficult due to the above condition as only five whole servants in the game are Divine and weak to Ruler class and then you need to be on a map with a Beach or a River limiting the possibility even further of optimizing her damage.
-TWO conditional damage buff skills the former of which isn't even a significant fucking attack buff! Was someone high when they made that effect on the first skill and then decided "Ehhh, it'll be about the same as a regular max level charisma."
-Very average star absorb, you aren't gonna really see crits with her much unless she's alone

Overall Opinion: I really really love Ruler Martha, but she is very confused I feel. Two conditional buffs put her in a really weird spot where you want to optimize her damage and the triple buster gives her a very gorilla cardset, but her being ruler class also makes that incredibly questionable. Two of the Rulers are support based and the last one is as well, but is offense inclined while having a toolkit more suited to it for his class. As she is she's pretty alright and different, but if she had some pretty solid buffs I could see her getting really good. As it stands though, it's hardly bad to ever have a ruler even one like Martha... especially Martha, she is the best and I love her.
Score: 7/10

Summer Scathach is in the second half of the 2016/2018 writeups, just fyi