Got spooked by Banana Oni while rolling for Mama, and I also have Herc from the 3M campaign. Was wondering what would be the ideal way to utilize both of them.
From what I understand, Herc is the King of Survivability (maybe aside from the Cu's), best used as a Last Man Standing. Ibaraki seems to have a similar niche, but with more offensive potential at the cost of survivability. So my conclusion is that Ibaraki is better used as a Buster ST dealer (maybe the 2nd option on a crit comp), while Herc is the better last man standing.
Can anyone offer me some more insight regarding these two?
I'd lean towards Herc if you want a Berserker that could stay in the field for a long time. He has a dodge after all.
Ibaraki on the other hand has a better NP gain than most 4* Berserkers provided that you get an arts card and a quick card which is rare as her kot is the standard BBBAQ. Her NP also removes buffs on the enemy if I remember correctly.
It all goes down to preference i guess
Herc and Ibaraki actually works in different way.
Herc like you said is best used as last man standing. This means literally. He shines the best when he is the only servant left in the team. Having a team around him would actually hinder him. It is quite a common mistake to put Herc in the frontline instead the last spot in the backline. There's several reason why a team would hinder Herc's performance. First, Herc's skill is selfish. Second, his bond ce would be wasted when there's someone else alive in the team aside from Herc as the enemy turn won't end despite killing Herc and triggering his guts making his 3 guts can be gone in a single turn.
Unlike Herc, Ibaraki works great when she's inside a team making her a solid choice for a frontline berserker. As a berserker, Ibaraki is actually tanky because of her 2nd and 3rd skill. Not only that, unlike other berserkers, Ibaraki actually have a very good NP gain because of her number of hits. Making a team around Ibaraki would increase Ibaraki performance in general.
In summary:
Herc is used for solo or last man standing when all of your servant dies except him. Ibaraki is used for frontline main dmg dealer.
What would a team built around ibaraki look like? Got her and want to invest in her
You'll always want the usual supports for Berserkers: The ones who buff their damage and keep them alive for as long as possible.
Tanks like George, D'eon, Mash, Leonidas etc, and buffers like Hans, Nightingale, Waver, Ushiwakamaru, Shakespeare, Blackbeard etc.
