MMM - Frigid Femme Fan of Frozen Frucose Forms Faction with Fatal Fuya, Finally, Flying Fólkvangr-Frequenting Fighters Ferry Firearms in Force (Summer 2022 Gacha Part 3)

Do you ever think camera angles in waifu-focused mobage are weird sometimes?

Why do I ask? Oh, no reason.

As a 5* Ruler, Skadi has a pretty large array of Servants to square herself up against. With the 4th best Attack and 4th worst HP of her class/rarity, she’s pretty much average in both stat spread and how much power is put into her base stats to begin with. While that attack stat may look relatively average at first glance, it’s worth remembering the Ruler class has a 1.1x Attack modifier, so she’s in fact hitting harder than most SSR’s even if she doesn’t look like it.

And the Ruler class, while packing little offensive class advantage, does offer significant bulk, which is furthered by its own defensive class advantage. Skadi is no exception, possessing a hefty HP pool, especially for her offensive might, and that only gets exemplified by her ability to resist damage from most classes in the game.

So far as passives go, Skadi is relatively normal, for a Summer Servant, at least. EX Magic Resistance provides her with a very noticeable passive resistance to debuffs, which is boosted even further by her Goddess Core passive, making her tied with Stheno and Euryale for the highest passive debuff resistance in the game, at a flat 50%. Goddess Core also provides her with typical Divinity weaknesses, and a minor boost to her card damage.

Lastly, her A-rank Territory Creation provides a notable 10% boost to her Arts card, improving both her NP gain and damage output with it.

On the whole, Skadi is working with a very solid base statline, backed by a very convenient degree of passive debuff resistance.

As you can probably surmise by my earlier comments, Skadi has a card deck of BBAQQ, packing a lone Arts card. That Arts card is, however, very good, with her base NP gain of 0.78%, 3 hits on its hitcount and her Territory Creation combining for a base Arts gain of 2.57, well above average even for a Servant with a single Arts card to their name.
While not as impressive as her Arts card, Skadi’s Quicks and Busters are also pretty solid, with her Quicks providing more or less solid NP gain, and her Busters counting among the few that provide enough gauge to not be absolute dead weights in Arts / Mighty chains. Rounded off by a solid 5-hit Extra card, Skadi frankly boasts a well-rounded NP gain profile that doesn’t lack in any singular area. Pretty much any of her cards will generate decently with the Arts first card bonus, especially if crits are on the menu.

On the stargen side of things, Skadi bizarrely manages to do even better. 4 hits apiece on both her Quicks and Busters means she generates a solid quantity of stars with 80% of her deck, and her Extra doesn’t slack in that area, either, making her something of a virtuoso of stargen - she won’t produce anything crazy in quantity, but pretty much any brave chain out of her will produce a good amount of stars.

Skadi simply doesn’t pack any weaknesses in these areas, she’s a genuine good all-rounder for NP gain and stargen alike.

So how is Skadi’s ice queen form, all things considered? On one hand, she’s a sweet and refreshing treat to supplement your Chaldea:

However, she’s also as cold as ice, and willing to sacrifice (your time for more ice lollies):

I mean, what else do I have to say? It’s Skadi 2: Electric Boogaloo. Naturally she’s good.

While Skadi’s kit on the whole has definitely begun to feel a bit outdated since we’ve seen the likes of Castoria and Proto-Merlin step on the scene, the fact of the matter is that Quick teams are still lacking a broad range of support options, and Summer Skadi provides a very welcome increase in firepower to their roster, both in the role as damage dealer and support.

I could probably go into detail on how I think as a Servant, she’s simply unimaginatively designed and fills a role in the game that would be effectively defunct if Quick already had a secondary 50% gauge support, like being the Oberon to Koyanskaya, but that isn’t really what I’m here for.

And by god, do I need to finish this MMM.

Whether you need Skadi, already own Skadi and want to further your support lineup, or are lacking a solid Universal farming option in a Quick team to begin with, Summer Skadi fills all such situations with spectacular flair. Rath™ Seal of Approval with a recommendation.

Truly, Fuya has managed to channel the greatest power available to any loli in order to simultaneously conquer her fear of the undead AND get a dynamite body - self-delusion.

No, it’s the actual reason. For the fear of undead, at least. I like to think it goes for both, though.

As an SR Caster, Fuya’s Summer form is bound to suffer the downfalls of the class - low offensive stats in general, and the Caster class’s 0.9x Attack modifier to kick her while she’s down. However, she compensates nicely with a very offensive statline, possessing the 2nd best Atk of any SR Caster, and the worst HP. Despite how bad “worst HP” may sound, Caster HP stats are reasonably high in general, so her bulk doesn’t really suffer too much in exchange for having pretty solid offense in spite of her class’s flaws.

On the Passives side of things, Fuya is pretty typical. With solid Territory Creation and Item Creation in tow, she gets a moderate boost to both her Arts cards and Debuff success rate, with a unique passive in Will of Ascension tacked on. This passive provides her with a general immunity to mental debuffs, which mostly constitutes Charm, Terror, Confusion, and some others. It’s essentially Charm immunity with extra steps.

While she’s not particularly spectacular either way, Fuya does start herself off with a strong offensive statline and some reasonable passives to form the backbone of her kit.

With 0.61% base NP gain, and 3-hit Arts cards, Fuya’s base Arts gain comes out to a respectable 2.01 after her Territory Creation’s factored in, a little bit above average for most Casters. While that makes her two Arts cards respectable, it’s not all to her card deck:

Her two 2-hit Busters are pretty much deadweights for NP gain, but in compensation Fuya packs a pretty meaty 5-hit Quick card, producing a large sum of NP gauge and stars alike when she fits it into a chain. Rounded off with a typical 5-hit Extra card, Fuya ultimately is pretty average in her NP gain, with solid Arts cards, a pretty good Quick and Extra, though offset by her two Busters essentially not contributing to her NP gain in the slightest.

On the stargen side of things, she’s a little polarizing. While her Quick and Extra cards are great for stargen, it’s pretty much only them, and they’re quite outnumbered by Fuya’s deadweight stargen-wise Busters and Arts cards. As a result, that Quick is only particularly impressive when fit into a Mighty/Quick chain, and for few other occasions.

So how is Fuya’s bigger, bolder form? On one hand, she’s managed to obtain the dynamite body a certain other retired necromancer wishes they had:

However, she ultimately can’t escape her personal flaws, no matter how far she deludes herself:

Honestly, I was worried for a second. We almost had a Summer this year without a stinker in the gacha.

While she doesn’t pack the same level of shocking mediocrity some Summer Servants have managed to bring to the table on release, the fact remains Fuya’s Caster form has some severe issues, and her strengths either come with enough strings attached or don’t compete enough with similar options to really justify bringing her to the table. Pretty much any AOE Berserker will have her beat for damage in difficult content (and in some cases, supportive options), then again the top Caster options, while her utter incapability to farm pretty much annihilates her viability in all other aspects of the game.

It’s a shame all things considered, but hopefully she can be sated with the accomplishment of overcoming her fears, since she’s not going to accomplish much else.

Last, but far from least, we round off with the welfare(s) of this event. It seems Lasengle are not content to merely torment us with Gacha, but must also force upon us the most tragic Catch-22 of the game’s history - picking one out of the three Valkyries to be your welfare (until the presumed rerun).

For the purposes of this MMM we’ll use uncontested best girl Ortlinde, though just to prevent myself from being exposed and canceled down the line, I did pick Hildr as my Valkyrie for the welfare.

Why Hildr, if Ortlinde is the best, you ask? It’s simple - if I close my eyes, the green-haired Valkyrie costume is Calico M950 from Girls Frontline. Maybe Kiritsugu has rubbed off on me a little.

The Valks join with a pretty damn impressive statline from the get-go. Packing the highest Attack of the 4* Assassin lineup by a notable margin, these girls pay for it relatively lightly by having the tied 3rd worst HP in return.

Even with the Assassin attack modifier of 0.9 holding them down, that’s still a pretty high attack stat to work with, even more so when it’s going to be working in tandem with the standard welfare perks of freebie Servant coins and free NP5.

Their weakness, if anything, emerges from their passives. With only Presence Concealment providing a minor boost to stargen, and Divinity giving them a small boost to damage at the cost of the Divine trait’s weaknesses, they don’t have much to supplement their otherwise-excellent baseline.

But then again, most welfares don’t, so it’s not much of an abnormality. It’d sure be nice, though.

Ughhhck!

Sorry, I just had to puke a little at the sight of the Valks’ base NP gain. I’ll clean it up in short order. I just take lethal internal damage when I see abysmal NP gain.

Case in point, with their base NP gain of 0.23% and 4-hit Arts cards, the Valks’ base Arts gain comes out to a shockingly bad 0.92, enough for them to claim the crown of worst base NP gain and worst Arts card NP gain in one clean sweep, though they tie with Kiritsugu and Ranmaru X for the worst Arts card NP gain. It’s almost impressive if it weren’t so sad.

As you might expect with such a terrifyingly low base NP gain, it doesn’t improve with any of their other cards. Their cards simply produce a complete pittance of gauge, with only their Arts cards coming close to something respectable. And that’s relatively speaking. They’re lucky if they get double-digit NP gauge in a turn from the normal cards, then again generating anything respectable.

On the stargen side of things, they thankfully perform far better. With reasonably high hitcounts across the board and Assassin stargen supplementing them, pretty much any chain out of the Valks will produce a fair sum of stars. Best believe they’ll need them and the crits that follow, with how utter shite their NP gain is otherwise.

Got to admit, not the greatest start for a Servant to work with, here.

So how are the Valkyries’ summer forms on the whole? Well on one hand, they’re tactically tutored to tangle with even the testiest of tangos:

However, they’re also tearing me apart, and not with the 5.56x45mm NATO rounds they’re unloading:

I never thought I’d say this for a Servant(s) whose base NP gain actually physically pained me to read, but the summer form of the Valkyries is really, really good. In terms of their farming consistency and damage output, they’re basically on par with Habetrot, trading an incredibly good gauge charger for outright insane NP refund, which in turn means they’re oddly more dependent on buffs to boost their damage output than gauge charge or refund.

While certainly not the greatest farmers out there, they’re pretty high-class, and to get that in a free package is a blessing for most players, making farming on Rider nodes a thing of the past, and universal farming in general far more accessible, provided you can make a Black Grail setup work. Their performance in high-difficulty content, while hampered by their awful NP gain, is still pretty good, so they end up being fine all-rounders to add to one’s collection and overuse to their heart’s content.

Just be wary of igniting a 3-way war between the fanbases of each girl. And the 3 extra Valks we now have to contend with from the spiritual dresses. Hoo boy. Rath™ Seal of Approval.