MMM - Crushed Cuddly Cub Curbs Criticism, Crunches Core, Converts in Chiselled Chad (Lostbelt 5 Gacha Part 1)

The Modern Magus Magazine

Are you ready for the hottest servant addition of the year to bust into the new Lostbelt?

What, Europa? Get that blonde bull-breeding bimbo out of my way! I’m referring to the Grecian Pillar Man, with the self-proclaimed adorable round face and equally self-proclaimed babe magnet.

Orion may have no success with the ladies, but boy, this man is infatuated with him.

Oh yeah, and there’s also that Ricardo guy except he isn’t a sexy muscular hulk. DW really needs to share the testosterone around more.

Keeping things on track, welcome one and all to the MMM, where I think about the new servants in gameplay so you don’t have to! If the previous few lines haven’t convinced you, I’m perfectly unbiased in my assessments, so rest assured - we’ll be only talking facts and logic in this issue.

Superhuman Orion

Introduction

For once in a banner, we’re starting off strong, and I mean it both in terms of musculature and character quality. I’ll just dumb my rant about how much I like Orion as a character here, since I have to actually write quality content after.

Orion (Original) was one of my first few SSRs, was my first NP2 SSR, and to this day has been a constant in my teams for challenging difficult content, on top of being a character filled with charm, creativity, comedy, and great art. Much in the same way, Superhuman Orion (who I will refer to as Orion from now on) continues being a charming character, except now we get to experience the man behind the bravado that a teddy bear once showed.

And man, is he a beast in lore. One of the strongest statlines of any servant, then again an Archer, a collection of cool and interesting skills, and he’s even [REDACTED].

So with my fanboying out the way, let’s tackle his gameplay.

Servant Data

Archer

QABBB (Berserker)

Quick Card

Arts Card

Buster Card

3

1

5

-

Attribute	Earth
Alignment	Chaotic Balanced

Stage 1
Stage 2
Stage 3
Stage 4

April Fool's

Max HP 13,494

HP Rank

Max ATK 12,557

ATK Rank

Base Atk	1,940	Base HP	1,979
Max Atk	12,557	Max HP	13,494
Grail Atk	13,746	Grail HP	14,783

Independent Action EX

Increase your Critical Strength by 12%.

Sea God's Blessing B

Apply Damage Plus for yourself (Total Card Damage +175).
Apply Damage Cut for yourself (Total Damage Reduction +175).

Scorpius's Curse D

Increases Poison damage to self by 20% (Demerit)

Overview

There’s very few times I can pull out this phrase and be uncontroversial about it in FGO, primarily because it’s a pretty balanced game that doesn’t bind itself to comparing statistics, building teams, and competitive content to keep a cycle going:

Orion’s base stats are sheer power creep. Not only does he have the highest attack stat of any Archer in the game as of present, overtaking Arjuna by a decent margin, he also crushes a good portion of the SSR Archer lineup in HP, having...a surprisingly decent HP stat for how good his offense is.

Orion keeps the ball rolling for his passives, too. EX Independent Action is literally as good as it gets, and he also gets a powercreep form of Divinity, giving him both 175 damage up and 175 damage cut, the latter of which being far more powerful. 175 less damage taken per card is pretty crazy for a defensive passive, especially as it gets exponentially more powerful the more defensive buffs you have stacked. Won’t save him from NP’s or massive damage, though.

He also has a passive 20% amp to any poison damage he takes, which is basically just flavour. Call me back when we get a challenge quest with unavoidable poison damage all over the place. Oh, and he doesn’t have any magic resistance. I guess that’s a sizeable drawback, but he’s already got some abnormal advantages to compensate.

NP Generation

Card Hits	3	3	1	5	-
Per Hit	0.96%	0.96%	0.96%	0.96%	0.96%

	NP per Hit (%)	0.96%
NP when Attacked (%)	3%

	Star Absorption	153
Star Generation per Hit	8.0%

Servant Skills

Buster Up

Stout Arm of Brutality B+

Increase own Buster Card effectiveness (1 turn).
Apply Special Attack [Demonic] and [Wild Beast] to self (1 turn).

Show Info

Lvl	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
Buster +	30%	32%	34%	36%	38%	40%	42%	44%	46%	50%
Special Atk +	30%	32%	34%	36%	38%	40%	42%	44%	46%	50%
CD	7	7	7	7	7	6	6	6	6	5

Brute’s Arm B+ is the first skill to tackle. It feels like an eternity since I’ve last seen a Prana Burst-style skill, but hey, here it is. 50% Buster up, 7 turn base cooldown, and a second bonus effect, which is an additional 1-turn Anti-Demon/Beast effective damage buff. His Busters for that turn are getting a total of +125% damage versus Demons and Beast enemies. Oh, and for clarification, ‘Beast’ is like the ‘Wild Beast’ trait, not the class. To date, 13 servants total fall under those two traits, and a lot of sub-boss / farming boss enemies. Unfortunately there’s some overlap (such as boars and the tar...panther things having both traits), but it’s still a pretty wide effective damage to have, on top of the regular injection of raw Buster rampage.

I could say something about deducting the skill’s value due to Orion’s lack of a damaging NP, but well, he makes up for it, you’ll see. On to the next skill!

Guts

Moon Goddess's Pressure EX

Apply Guts to self (1 time, 3 turns).
Increase own ATK (3 turns).
Gain Critical Stars.

Show Info

Lvl	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
Revive with HP	1000	1200	1400	1600	1800	2000	2200	2400	2600	3000
ATK +	10%	11%	12%	13%	14%	15%	16%	17%	18%	20%
Stars +	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	20
CD	8	8	8	8	8	7	7	7	7	6

How I would kill to be able to bear the uh, ‘force’ of Artemis on my back like him...ignoring the fact the lore says ordinary men would be snapped in half if they had the skill / NP.

At any rate, this is a Guts skill on my word something that isn’t a 9-turn cooldown. Colour me shocked, I say. On top of that, the Guts is pretty good, at 3k hp and 3-turn duration, while also coming packaged with a neat 20% atk up for Orion over the same duration, and a 20 star bomb.

Are you perhaps getting why I said he compensates for his lack of card stargen? That aside, it’s more or less an offensive steroid skill that also pops a defensive backup at the same time, so no complaints here.

Critical Star Absorption Up

Tri-Star Archer A+

Increase own Critical Star Gather Rate (3 turns).
Increase Critical Strength (1 turn) when attacking with Buster Cards (3 times, 3 turns).

Show Info

Lvl	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
Star Gather +	300%	320%	340%	360%	380%	400%	420%	440%	460%	500%
Crit Damage +	50%	55%	60%	65%	70%	75%	80%	85%	90%	100%
CD	7	7	7	7	7	6	6	6	6	5

Ah, Bowman of the Three Stars. How I love you so. You simply do what other skills would dare not to - giving star focus for 3 turns to an Archer, and also providing a skill that’s oddly convoluted in writing but simple in practice.

In addition to soaking stars, for 3 times while the skill’s active, Orion will get a +100% crit damage buff for a turn before the damage of his Buster cards. So if you did a BBB chain, he’d get +100%, then do the first Buster, then get another +100% for 200% total, then do the second...and I think you get the rest. While this skill’s buffs are locked to getting the Buster cards on hand, the duration of it means you’ll pretty much always get all the buffs, and the star focus on the skill means Orion will likely crit with the same Buster cards.

So… how does a +300% buster crit off of his insane atk stat and other offensive buffs sound? You’d better stay in your seat, because this gets even better.

Noble Phantasm

Artemis Agnós B

Increase own ATK (3 turns).
Apply Ignore Invincible to self (3 turns).
Apply Debuff Immune to self (3 turns).
Gain 10 Critical Stars every turn (3 turns).

<Overcharge>

Increase own Critical Strength (3 turns).

Show Info/Video

Artemis Agnós

	Rank	Classification	Hit-Count
	B	Anti-Army (Self)

Effect	Increase own ATK (3 turns). Apply Ignore Invincible to self (3 turns). Apply Debuff Immune to self (3 turns). Gain 10 Critical Stars every turn (3 turns).

Level	1	2	3	4	5
Atk +	30%	40%	45%	47.5%	50%
Ignore Invincible
Debuff Immune
Star Regen +	10	10	10	10	10

Overcharge Effect	Increase own Critical Strength (3 turns).

Charge	100%	200%	300%	400%	500%
Crit Damage +	100%	125%	150%	175%	200%

So I would first like to say that the alternate animation for this NP is hilarious. And part of me wants to be put into a chokehold by Artemis. Orion doesn’t really know what he has right in front of him.

Staying on topic, this NP may not be a damaging NP, but it’s damn good. The effects can effectively be categorized into two sections, the things you care about:

30% Base attack buff for 3 turns
100% critical damage up buff for 3 turns that scales on Overcharge
10 stars generated per turn for 3 turns

And the stuff you might care about, the Invincible Pierce and Debuff Immunity for 3 turns.

Needless to say, this NP is an obscene offensive buff for Orion. With all of his skill active at the same time, he’ll have +112% critical damage, +50% attack up, +50% Buster up and +50% anti-Demon/Beast damage for a turn. And most of those buffs are 3 turns.

However, the Invincible Pierce and Debuff Immunity are still very useful effects, negating many gimmicks you’ll find for difficult content and also compensating for his lack of magic resistance. We can tick that weakness off, too.

Speaking of negating weaknesses, the 10 stars per turn on this NP essentially gives him a self-sufficient star supply, too. Does this goliath of a man have, well, ANY weakness?

Scorpions, apparently.

That aside, this NP also has some traits that makes it very scary to use in the right teams - you can put it at the end of a double Merlin NP chain for a total of +150% critical damage up instead (or +200%, if you’re a mad lad and use the new 3-time Overcharge boost CE, which is really strong, by the way), and its nature as an Arts NP means pretty much any brave chain Orion does following it provides him with a good sum of gauge, as shown earlier.

All I’ll say is I’m envious of whoever on this planet (let’s be real, they’re a Japanese whale) has NP5 Orion - that 50% attack buff must be delicious.

So he gets hugged by Artemis and becomes god of crits and destroyer of worlds. Sounds fair.

Conclusion

So how is our gargantuan teddy bear? On one hand, he is, quite literally, the Übermensch:

Bar none, the best critical servant in the game. With a 3 Buster card deck, a very high attack stat, huge buffs to all four of the most common damage buffs (Atk up, Card boost, Crit dmg up, and Effective damage), he absolutely pounds the opposition to a pulp, and does so with consistency, thanks to the star generation built into his kit and his 3-turn star focus layered atop Archer star weight.

He’s defensively no slouch, either. His passive 175 damage cut goes a long way to keeping his HP high, and on top of his nigh-permanent debuff immunity from his NP and Guts, Orion can at the very least survive one doomsday scenario little worse for wear. In the context of being supported by the defensive tools of his preferred supports (Waver and Merlin), he’s more durable than many other Buster critical-oriented servants, like Sigurd or Jalter.

The bear also packs pretty useful utility. While I already mentioned it, Orion’s debuff immunity effect doubles as both a defensive aid for preventing effects like burn, poison, curse, or defense down, but also allows him to bypass debuff gimmicks in challenging quests, and a variety of effects that are simply annoying, like skill / NP Seal and stun / charm. Also he has Invincible Pierce more or less on-demand, which is pretty vital to be consistent as a crit damage dealer.

However, I need to find something to nitpick about his kit, so here we go:

His NP gain, while still excellent, is limited by his card set. Only getting a singular Arts card every 3 turns can make his NP’s more intermittent than one may like, but with all his crit focus, that Arts card is pretty much assured to crit, giving him roughly half his gauge back in most scenarios. This ends up being less of a weakness and more of a setback his preferred supports already cover for him.

Not having an offensive NP is...sometimes a bad thing. The advantage of offensive NP’s people often overlook is it’s a guaranteed card on the given hand to deal damage with, so even with a poor hand you can inflict some pain to your foes. Orion, meanwhile, is pretty much only ever going to deal damage with the five cards he gets over a 3 turn period, unless you cheat and use Summer BB, like me.

So how is he in the grand scheme of things? Still busted to hell and back, of course. We’re talking about a man who, despite being in a far weaker class for his attack stat, does over triple the damage Jalter does with a 3rd card Buster crit with an ideal chain (BBB versus BAB, both with lvl100 Victor of the Moon and 1k atk fou, 191k crit versus 57k crit), and that’s BEFORE factoring supports or class advantage. He can bypass countless boss gimmicks, he’s fairly durable, he requires zero support to get his crit machine rolling, his NP gain is pretty good even with no external help, and he’s an absolute unit.

If I haven’t sold him to you yet, I don’t know what else I can say. Rath™ Seal of Approval, with a recommendation.

Mandricardo

Introduction

I know you’re conscious over being an absurdly obscure heroic spirit in this Lostbelt filled with absolute monsters of servants, so uh, don’t die, ~~Ishigami~~ Mandricardo.

That said, I find it funny this Lostbelt features two people with weapons based on Durandal, but Roland still remains out of sight…

Servant Data

Rider

QQAAB (Archer)

Quick Card

Arts Card

Buster Card

3

2

1

4

Attribute	Human
Alignment	Neutral Balanced

Stage 1
Stage 2
Stage 3
Stage 4

April Fool's
Summer Sportswear

Max HP 9,600

HP Rank

Max ATK 6,756

ATK Rank

Base Atk	1,254	Base HP	1,728
Max Atk	6,756	Max HP	9,600
Grail Atk	9,143	Grail HP	13,016

Magic Resistance C

Increase your Debuff Resist by 15%.

Riding B

Increase your Quick Card effectiveness by 8%.

Overview

As an addition to the Silver Rider lineup, Mandricardo doesn’t have too many competitors, but ends up being exceedingly average on base stats, anyways. With the same HP as Columbus and a moderate sum more atk, he’s got a fairly well-balanced base stat total, sitting at neither the side of glass cannon or wet noodle.

For Passives, plain is also the name of the game. With very average C Magic Resistance and B Riding, Mandricardo benefits from some lesser boosts to his debuff resistance and Quick cards, but generally has nothing to write home about. Let’s move on.

NP Generation

Card Hits	3	2	1	4	4
Per Hit	0.86%	0.86%	0.86%	0.86%	0.86%

	NP per Hit (%)	0.86%
NP when Attacked (%)	3%

	Star Absorption	200
Star Generation per Hit	9.0%

Servant Skills

Attack / Defense Up

Armor of the Nine Worthies A

Increase own DEF (3 turns).
Increase ATK for all allies (3 turns).

Show Info

Lvl	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
DEF +	20%	21%	22%	23%	24%	25%	26%	27%	28%	30%
ATK +	10%	11%	12%	13%	14%	15%	16%	17%	18%	20%
CD	7	7	7	7	7	6	6	6	6	5

Armor of the Nine Worthies is this gacha’s inevitable Charisma clone, much to my resignation. However, it’s also got the equivalent of Morph mixed in, boosting Mandricardo’s own defense by a good sum for 3 turns. See why I made the George comparison?

It’s a good offensive boost for himself and his team, and it boosts his durability further. What’s not to like, sometimes plain is simply good.

Dmg Up

Brink Shot C

[Can only be used when HP is 50% or below]
Increase own ATK (1 time, 1 turn).
Increase own Critical Strength (1 time, 1 turn).
Remove Defensive Buffs from targets when attacking (1 turn).
Apply [Death] to self when attacking (1 turn). [Treated as a buff]

Show Info

Lvl	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
ATK +	30%	32%	34%	36%	38%	40%	42%	44%	46%	50%
Crit Damage +	50%	55%	60%	65%	70%	75%	80%	85%	90%	100%
CD	8	8	8	8	8	7	7	7	7	6

And I now immediately regret wishing for more complicated skills.

So, let’s throw the benefits aside for a second and assess this skill by _when_ you can use it. It’s only usable when Mandricardo is below half health, and the turn after you use it, he dies with no means of preventing it short of Guts. So in other words, you will rarely ever get a chance to use this, and even when you can, it’s an incredibly punishing option that you should only ever use if you want to sub in someone from the backline, or you’re certain he’s going to die next turn anyway.

With that in mind, the buffs from this skill are very good - +50% atk and +100% critical damage for one hit is pretty nice, almost as much as what Orion gets on all his cards for 3 turns. Get what I mean when I sa- Okay, no more talking about how amazing Orion is, Rath. This is Mandricardo’s page.

Back on topic, the defensive buff removal is also very useful, allowing him to tear through normal def buffs or Invincible / Dodge with no hassle.

Buuut...this still is still really bad. As in, you’ll pretty much never get to, or WANT to use it. The flavour is certainly cool, and it has that clutch coolness factor which might almost boost Mandricardo’s self-confidence to a reasonable level. Almost.

Quick/Arts Up

Brigliadoro's Neigh A

Increase own Quick Card effectiveness (3 turns).
Increase own Arts Card effectiveness (3 turns).
Apply Target Focus to self (1 turn).

Show Info

Lvl	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
Quick +	10%	11%	12%	13%	14%	15%	16%	17%	18%	20%
Arts +	10%	11%	12%	13%	14%	15%	16%	17%	18%	20%
CD	7	7	7	7	7	6	6	6	6	5

Brigliadoro’s Bray. Try saying that ten times in a row. Wait, have I made that joke already? At any rate, this skill, to combo with the generic Charisma skill Mandricardo also has, is our typical generic dual-card buff skill. 20% card up to his main two cards for 3 turns is naturally good for his damage output, and results in a fairly good +44% damage boost in total to his Arts cards, on top of the NP gain / stargen benefits.

This thing also puts a taunt on Mandricardo for a turn, just to help me with the George parallels. While the duration isn’t as great as George’s, having a means to redirect fire to someone who has both a solid defensive buff and a skill that can only be used when he’s half-dead isn’t too bad. Nothing exceptional, but also pretty neat.

Noble Phantasm

Serment de Durandal A

Deal damage to a single enemy.
Decrease own ATK by 10% (1 turn). [Demerit]

<Overcharge>

Increase own Quick Card effectiveness (1 turn). [Activates first]
Increase own Arts Card effectiveness (1 turn). [Activates first]
Increase own Buster Card effectiveness (1 turn). [Activates first]

Show Info/Video

Serment de Durandal

	Rank	Classification	Hit-Count
	A	Anti-Personnel	4

Effect	Deal damage to a single enemy. Decrease own ATK by 10% (1 turn). [Demerit]

Level	1	2	3	4	5
Damage +	900%	1200%	1350%	1425%	1500%
Atk -	10%	10%	10%	10%	10%

Overcharge Effect	Increase own Quick Card effectiveness (1 turn). [Activates first] Increase own Arts Card effectiveness (1 turn). [Activates first] Increase own Buster Card effectiveness (1 turn). [Activates first]

Charge	100%	200%	300%	400%	500%
Quick +	20%	25%	30%	35%	40%
Arts +	20%	25%	30%	35%	40%
Buster +	20%	25%	30%	35%	40%

I can’t really explain why, but I really love this NP’s animation. It’s nothing overly fancy or flashy, but something about a guy with a drowsy voice standing full figure atop a horse and drive-by sword beamu’ing someone really gets me going. Like much of Mandricardo’s kit, it’s also pretty straightforward.

Before dealing damage, he gets a 20% base Card booster to all 3 cards for a turn, slaps the enemy with his NP, then eats a minute 10% atk down for the same turn. Essentially, he hits slightly harder for his NP than the rest of the turn, but still technically gets a NP steroid. With the pre-damage boost, he has a 68% NP damage steroid, which is pretty solid for a servant who gets an easy NP5.

The real meat and potatoes of this NP is its spammability. Mandricardo, much like how I hinted in his similarities to George’s NP gain, has really good NP refund, getting 14% NP gauge back from just his own buffs. In a NPAA crit chain, he gets 81% at the end of it. With Tamamo and Paracelsus or Nero Bride supporting him, he doesn’t even need the crits, getting 117% refund from a NPAA chain with Royal Icing as his CE. You can even fit in one of his Quicks as the second card, and he still barely gets 100% gauge refund. And that’s not pitting him against Casters, which increases his refund even further due to their 1.2x NP gain multiplier when attacking.

In addition to that NP spam, the damage he can pull out with his NP is pretty outstanding. With Royal Icing as his CE and NP5 he pulls out a hefy 57k damage per NP, running off 3-turn buffs. As a comparison, Jalter with similar givens (but NP1, obviously) does 65k in a NP, with far less spammability.

Conclusion

So how is our forgettable fella with the stick for a sword? On one hand, he strikes like Occam’s Razor, simple and to the point:

Dude has some great NP spam. His Rider class and solid base NP gain means we won’t struggle to get stars for building gauge, but with a proper Arts support team, he doesn’t even need it, getting full gauge refund with very average brave chains. Honestly, it reminds me a lot of Ryouma, but as a 3* servant - few gimmicks, but effective as what he does. Compared to Ryouma, however, his NP refund is far better, so he’s still a worthwhile alternative for welfare options.

Even with spam out the picture, Mandricardo has some great NP damage. His buffs built into his kit (Arts and Atk) tend to meld well with the primary CE and offensive support options for his specialty, meaning he pulls out good damage numbers as highlighted earlier. For budget Arts-focused offense, you can’t get much better.

While minor, Mandricardo does bring some...interesting utility. Theoretically you can use The Instant Before the Strike to get a free ‘battlesuit’ via his untimely demise, as well as a free defensive buff removal, while having a taunt is just...generally handy. It’s not game-breaking on its own, but supports like Reines can turn a 1-turn taunt into a team survival versus single-target NP’s with little hassle, so it can have its highlights. Or you can just use it with the Atlas Academy Mystic Code. That probably works better.

On the other hand, he’s a second-rate servant with a third-rate sword:

In spite of his incredible NP spam, Mandricardo lacks the tools to get that gauge ready in a reasonable time frame. Running Kaledioscope on him can hurt his potential damage output a fair bit, and even with a 50% gauge CE he would have to run alongside Nero Bride and either Ascelpius or the Clocktower Uniform to get a turn 1 NP. For challenge quests and general difficult content it may be fine to simply build up his gauge normally, but it does harm his flexibility.

In spite of the def buff and taunt, Mandricardo lacks a hard defensive option, meaning he’s reliant on the (annoyingly lacking) hard defensive options of his teammates in an Arts composition.

Lastly, since I think it needs re-stating, his second skill is more or less a deadweight. I’ll be keeping a count of how many times I’ve been able to, or even then wanted to use it. Currently, the tally is zero.

All in all, Madricardo is a good example of how basic is sometimes best. He has no flashy gimmicks, interesting dynamics or swiss army knife kits, he just boosts his stats in some areas then smacks the enemy to kingdom come. And hey, it works. He hits hard, is fairly well-rounded, has an effective and useful position in Arts comps and can accomplish all that without really investing too much quartz in the gacha. You did good, bucko. Rath™ Seal of Approval.

Europa

Introduction

So, how about those women who get involved in Zeus’s philandery and still somehow like him for it, even when he’s stuck in the form of an Ox? Yikes. Yikes a hundred times over.

Sometimes you have to wonder if the Greek Gods are completely fucked up on their track record of love. Artemis, Zeus, Poseidon and now Europa aren’t setting a good example.

Servant Data

Rider

QAABB (Saber)

Quick Card

Arts Card

Buster Card

3

1

5

4

Attribute	Heaven
Alignment	Neutral Good

Stage 1
Stage 2
Stage 3
Stage 4

April Fool's

Max HP 12,571

HP Rank

Max ATK 11,737

ATK Rank

Base Atk	1,813	Base HP	1,843
Max Atk	11,737	Max HP	12,571
Grail Atk	12,848	Grail HP	13,772

Traits

Humanoid Servant Female Divine Riding Heaven or Earth Weak to Enuma Elish Hominidae

Card Hits	3	3	1	5	4
Per Hit	0.58%	0.58%	0.58%	0.58%	0.58%

	NP per Hit (%)	0.58%
NP when Attacked (%)	3%

	Star Absorption	205
Star Generation per Hit	8.9%

Invi Shield

Innocent Princess B

Apply Invincible to self (3 times).
Increase own Debuff Resist (3 times).

Show Info

Lvl	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
Debuff Res +	50%	55%	60%	65%	70%	75%	80%	85%	90%	100%
CD	8	8	8	8	8	7	7	7	7	6

Princess of Purity, for those with excellent taste in their homies, will seem very familiar to you. Yes, it is essentially the exact same skill as Marie’s, except it trades the moderate HP regen for a 3-time 100% debuff resistance increase. Why not just make it debuff immunity, you ask? Uh...Waver’s def down on his NP (which is nearly impossible to stop with debuff resistance)? I’m not too sure, but it’s still effectively “ignore debuffs 3 times”, so I’m not gonna complain.

Invincibility is an excellent defensive option. Hit-based Invincibility is also good. 3-hit Invincibility with no expiration and bonus middle finger to debuffs? An amazing skill, in all aspects. The cooldown is thankfully also typical at 8 turns base, meaning it can be up relatively quickly despite the power of its buffs. Be sure to use this thing immediately every battle.

Arts/Buster Up

Grace of the King of Gods A+

Increase own Arts Card effectiveness (3 turns).
Increase own Buster Card effectiveness (3 turns).
Increase own NP Gauge.

Show Info

Lvl	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
Arts +	20%	21%	22%	23%	24%	25%	26%	27%	28%	30%
Buster +	20%	21%	22%	23%	24%	25%	26%	27%	28%	30%
NP +	20%	21%	22%	23%	24%	25%	26%	27%	28%	30%
CD	8	8	8	8	8	7	7	7	7	6

“Creepy Affection of the Promiscuous King of Gods” might be a better title. If I had a choice, I’d throw this skill out when I had the chance. But since we can’t, it’s better to just evaluate it. This skill’s a typical 3-turn dual-card buff skill, albeit with better buff values than most (30% at level 10 instead of 20%), and a bonus deal of a 30% gauge charger.

Gauge charger built into NP steroid is a golden combo which never ages, so ultimately my only gripe with this skill is that the gauge charger isn’t 50%. I mean, Ereshkigal got a full-powered NP steroid and gauge charger, as did BB Summer, so why not Europa too? Ah well, she can get 100% gauge with a 50% gauge CE and Merlin, which is still pretty handy. A solid skill on the whole.

Charm

The King of Gods' White Bull C

60% chance to apply Charm to all enemies (1 turn).
Decrease DEF for all enemies (3 turns).
Decrease Critical Rate for all enemies (3 turns).

Show Info

Lvl	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
DEF -	10%	11%	12%	13%	14%	15%	16%	17%	18%	20%
Crit Rate -	10%	11%	12%	13%	14%	15%	16%	17%	18%	20%
CD	9	9	9	9	9	8	8	8	8	7

Hey, Shuten called. She wants her unique skill back. Seriously, you’d even steal the flat AOE 60% Charm with no conditionals and the defense down, then have the gall to add an extra crit rate down on the skill? I’d say my Oni is mad, but I’m just mad for her.

The King of Gods’ White Ox is a good skill. It has a fairly good chance to disable multiple enemies in a turn, on top of increasing their damage taken and slapping their crits out of their hand for good measure. While the 9-turn cooldown may seem harsh, it’s more or less typical for AOE stuns/charms, unless you’re a cheater like Saber Astolfo. While that makes it an infrequent tool for drawn-out fights, the sheer power of this skill’s effect more or less balances it. Until it misses and you cry.

Noble Phantasm

Sfyrí tou Tálos A

Deal heavy damage to all enemies.
Increase own DEF by 50% (1 turn).

<Overcharge>

Increase own Buster Card effectiveness (1 turn). [Activates first]

Show Info/Video

Sfyrí tou Tálos

Bronze Giant’s Ultra-Heavy Mallet

	Rank	Classification	Hit-Count
	A	Anti-Army	4

Effect	Deal heavy damage to all enemies. Increase own DEF by 50% (1 turn).

Level	1	2	3	4	5
Damage +	300%	400%	450%	475%	500%
Defense +	50%	50%	50%	50%	50%

Overcharge Effect	Increase own Buster Card effectiveness (1 turn). [Activates first]

Charge	100%	200%	300%	400%	500%
Buster +	20%	25%	30%	35%	40%

Sfyri tou Talos is what I like to call yet another generic Buster AOE Rider NP. You get a 1-turn steroid beforehand, yippee! It has mediocre stargen with its four hits off of Buster card base stargen, and the only other notable effect is a 50% def up for a turn on Europa, which is admittedly pretty nice in some circumstances.

So, the only real thing to evaluate this NP by is damage. At the very least, I can say Europa out-damages Drake, but even with Drake’s NP interlude, that isn’t much of a benchmark. Achilles does slightly less but he has the benefits of NP looping under Skadi, and meanwhile Iskandar and Ivan blow her damage out the water.

She meets a weird intermediate where she has a gauge charger and 3-turn buffs, but doesn’t do that much more damage than Drake, nor does the 30% gauge charger present too huge an advantage when compared to Kaleidoscope Ivan or Iskandar. So, while this NP isn’t really sitting in wet noodle territory, it brings little new to the table, either.

Conclusion

Plain, Boring, Boring, Plain, and most importantly, boring! I need to get through the points for the sake of my format, but jeez, does this lady drain all my enthusiasm writing about her:

Europa is pretty durable. Princess of Purity is arguably the best selfish defensive skill in the game, and for good reason. It’s not tacked with a long cooldown, it’s hard to break past, it can be popped then forgotten about, and even shrugs off debuffs for you. This skill alone makes her insanely durable, then again the Charm and Crit rate down she packs, or her NP’s defense buff.

She has a reasonably good setup for basic AOE farming. 30% gauge charger is what you need to just swap into a Merlin or Waver setup and get 100% gauge with a 50% gauge CE, and her damage is more than passable for most farming comps. Not more to say about that, though.

AOE Charm, def down, and critical rate down is a pretty good team support skill. That’s all the point is. I might as well throw it in since I’d rave about how good Shuten’s charm is if you asked me, and this is a powercreep version of it.

And the downside is this:

Europa is plainer than a tortilla wrap. While she has good skills, they simply amount to something existing servants do better. If you want farming, she’s outdone in every reasonable aspect by NP2 Astolfo. If you want raw damage, you can always use any of the AOE Rider welfares, since they’ll crush her any day of the week. She has no appeal in regular card damage, support, or any special property of her NP. If you already have an AOE 5* Rider, you’re probably better off using them.

So yes, I’m not a fan in the least. There’s nothing in this world to make me more apathetic toward a servant than a kit which lacks any ingenuity, unique mechanics, or powerful niches. Like being a release servant when we’re not too far from servant #300. She’s fine to go for if her design or character really is what you like, but she’s a good contender for “worst servant of 2019” in my book. On what may be the penultimate banner of the year. Good job, DW.

Final Conclusion

That’s one half of the mess that LB5 has turned out to be, eh? Thankfully, unlike in previous story chapters, the chapter itself is also segmented into two parts, like my MMM. Which means no stressing over having to write the story locks’ MMM’s super fast, either. Hallelujah. With that said, sounds like Odysseus-Zeus, Caenis and probably Castor and Pollux will be in the second banner? Only time will tell, especially since the second banner will probably drop on Christmas day...talk about timing.

Until then, my dear readers!

MMM - Crushed Cuddly Cub Curbs Criticism, Crunches Core, Converts in Chiselled Chad (Lostbelt 5 Gacha Part 1)

The Modern Magus Magazine

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Sfyrí tou Tálos

Final Conclusion

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