Introduction
Starting up the list of Arts card-oriented team archetypes, we have the Arts spamfest. This team is one of the easiest to build with a budget team, due to a prevalence of low-rarity servants which function effectively with it, and there only being really one SSR servant whom is essential to the effectiveness of the team archetype. This team aims to throw out as many Noble Phantasms as possible in a short timespan, racking up mass amounts of damage and buffs. However, usually such an ideal scenario requires vast buff stacking and skill levelling to accomplish, so this team archetype only really reaches its full potential once reaching skill level 10 becomes an accomplishable feat.
Strengths
- Very safe and reliable damage, not relying on RNG or good card layouts to hit hard, since NP’s are always accessible in the card select.
- Easily producible on a budget.
- Often the best team archetype for high-difficulty quests when you don’t have the team members for a Buster Critfest team.
Weaknesses
- Regular card damage is among the lowest of any team archetype, due to the need to formulate Arts chains and a lack of stars flying around…usually.
- Dependant on having an exceptionally strong offensive Arts NP unit. If the damage of the NP you’re spamming with isn’t high in the first place, you don’t tend to get anywhere.
Battle Strategy
The key to being successful with this team archetype is to keep a proper rotation of NP’s active while keeping important skills in reserve. Do I need to use that Arts buff now? Do I need the damage? Should I use this defensive skill now or keep it? Managing skill and NP timings is one of the more difficult skills to garner from playing FGO, and this team archetype arguably requires them the most.
Generally speaking, however, keep high-cooldown defensive skills and offensive skills in reserve, while utilizing support Noble Phantasms whenever possible as to not waste NP gauge. As you may imagine, Arts cards are the highest priority for this team, and Arts chains should be formed whenever possible in order to use more and more Noble Phantasms.
Once the ‘boss unit’ of the quest is reached, offload every required offensive buff and hit them as hard as you can with your offensive servant(s). In some cases it’s better to perform a NP chain for overcharge bonuses, but normally producing an Arts Brave Chain is the ideal way to increase both damage and potential for further NP spam.
For CE’s in this archetype, Arts booster and NP gain CE’s are naturally the best options. Formalcraft, Prisma Cosmos, Puchi Devil and Divine Banquet are excellent choices, as are any Arts boost / NP gain hybrid CE’s which come along later down the line. Adding to that, Piece of year 2030 is also a good option, allowing you to get critical stars which are normally low in supply in this team. Though unlikely to be available to most players, any bond CE’s which grant a team boost to NP gain or Arts cards are also good options.
Key Members
Medea is, on the whole, the best unit for this team archetype available. With a powerful NP gauge charge skill, high NP gain, a fitting card set, and most importantly a very spammable NP, she’s practically tailor-made for this team. Once she gets her NP interlude and skill strengthening this becomes doubly true, with a NP5 Medea hurting quite a big despite her low damage multiplier, and having a powerful targetable NP gain buff at her disposal to further aid the team’s goals. Furthermore, her skillset and NP side-effect are both excellent at providing utility to the team.
Robin, even in JP FGO, holds the title of ‘King of Single Target Damage’ versus any enemy type. Though his skillset on first glance is fairly mediocre, his Noble Phantasm has an extremely powerful overcharge effect, being able of out-damaging even SSR servants’ NP’s when hitting a poisoned enemy. Furthering this, he has excellent NP gain and a skill to bolster his NP gain further, making him perfect for this team archetype. Robin’s power only becomes greater when he gains his skill strengthening, giving him arguably one of the best dodge skills in the game, letting him pierce pesky dodge skills and produce a huge chunk of stars simultaneously.
Vlad is the first SSR to grace the recommendations and, for some, questionably so. Vlad is known to have some issues as a servant, primarily his terrible NP gain and mediocre damage output compared to other Berserkers due to his lack of an offensive steroid and BBAAQ card set. However, for this team archetype, Vlad excels. His NP refund is one of the highest in the game, at 15% gauge base, and this merely increases further with NP gain and Arts buffs thrown on him. Furthermore, the stars produced from his NP allow himself and his team to crit on the following turn, further filling their gauges. While his NP damage in the vanilla game is mediocre, he eventually gets both a NP interlude and a skill strengthening much later, vastly improving his damage output while maintaining his above-average durability for a Berserker.
While at first glance Mozart’s kit is rather mediocre, possessing weaker support skills than his fellow Caster, Hans, while also lacking a 3rd skill until his skill strengthening. However, Mozart quite importantly possesses a team Arts boost buff, with a fairly big number behind it and a short cooldown. Generally speaking, supportive Arts buffs are harder to come by than the other kinds, especially at the strength Mozart offers. Combined with the reasonably good debuffs he can provide with his Noble Phantasm, he’s worth considering for this team archetype if your options for superior support servants are lacking.
George is an abnormal member on this list, however it is for similar reasons as to why Leonidas is present on this guide as well. For a 2* Servant, Georgios has an incredibly solid skill set, with inarguably the best taunt in the game, even in JP, and two handy defensive skills, all of which come together to make him a superb tank. However, for this team archetype, Georgios excels in spamming his Noble Phantasm. Due to his good base NP gain, reasonable hitcount on his NP and good sum of Arts cards, this Rider is more than capable of using his NP in succession with team support and crit stars aplenty, not only allowing him to spit out damage, but also offload a powerful defensive buff on himself. Georgios is a strong pick on the whole, and perhaps that speaks for why he’s the only release Bronze servant to never receive a NP interlude or skill strengthening.
Tamamo is the centrepiece of this team archetype, and for good reason. She possesses two good defensive stalling skills, a well-rounded sum of heals from both her skills and NP, and unmatched benefits to aid any Arts spam team. Fox Wedding gives the biggest Arts boost buff in the game, providing a 50% bonus for 3 turns, while also sitting on a very low cooldown. Meanwhile, her Noble Phantasm reduces the cooldown of the ally team’s skills by a further turn, while also healing the team and charging their NP gauges slightly. While she herself cannot provide any direct offensive power, her entire kit is unmatched in providing a tanky, offensive and utility-oriented support who fits this kind of team composition like a glove.
Nero Bride is a strong option for this team archetype, but in a more offensively-oriented fashion. Bride is often called the “support Saber”, possessing three targetable buffs with incredibly potent effects, including a 50% NP gain buff for 3 turns. This buff alone is incredibly useful for Arts spam teams, but she also packs excellent defensive and offensive buffs, as well as strong potential on her own to bring the pain with her NP’s post-interlude damage and high base NP gain. While not necessary to complete this team archetype, when paired with Tamamo she can really bring it to new heights.
As one of the earlier welfare servants added to the game, and the first collab servant, Ryougi stands out quite prominently. Compared to most Assassins she’s strongly Arts-oriented, with 3 Arts cards in her deck including her NP, and a powerful Arts booster skill to aid with them further. The reason Ryougi is on this list, however, is simply due to how much damage she deals with her Noble Phantasm compared to typical Arts spam team options. Compared to a NP1 Vlad with his skill strengthening and NP interlude, Ryougi still deals nearly double his damage in a single NP before class advantage is accounted for, despite the rarity gap between them. This is mostly due to the fact Ryougi gets a free NP5 from farming event materials, while packing a powerful damage steroid. When Riders are plentiful and Tamamo feels threatened, Ryougi is more than a reliable bet.
The star of the first summer event in FGO, Archer Altria sets out to impress. Simply put, she’s the single best single-target NP spammer in the entire game, and she couldn’t do it without Arts cards. Not only can she pump out her NP across multiple turns consistently without further support, but she aids her team with an offensive damage and star generation buff, as well as having a powerful emergency heal if she gets badly damaged. When she has the proper team backing her, it can feel like Swimsuit Altria makes the game too easy.
Future Stars
CasGil is an abnormal option for this team archetype, and one oft-overlooked. As an Arts-oriented Caster, he possesses a very powerful support skillset, including high-ranking Charisma, the best star generation buff in the game and a reasonably strong team Arts buff, packaged with a debuff success chance buff. If that weren’t enough, he also has a good AOE Arts NP with reasonably high NP gauge refund and a team defence buff packaged into it. When CasGil is properly placed into this team archetype, he can aid the team’s offensive power, utility, defensive power and damage output personally, all in one. He may be a while off compared to some others on the list, but he’s well worth the wait.
