Rabbit's Reviews #313: Jiang Ziya (5* Rider)

Tunguska brings with it a pair of non-limited Riders. The SSR, Jiang Ziya, is pretty good as non-limited Servants go. He’s a decently strong AoE Quick unit, especially in niche, and he brings some nice supportive utility as well. There are situations in which his supportive value can be his primary selling point—if you specifically need AoE buffs for Quick units, he’s a great option, and for players without a deep roster of supports he’s a solid pull—but for the most part, his value is as a damage-dealer. Jiang Ziya hits ST-level damage thresholds against Divine enemies, which is notable on the rare occasion where you’re fighting multiple Divines at once. As a whole, Jiang Ziya does a lot of things well but nothing spectacularly. He’s a great early Servant for new players building out their rosters, but he doesn’t have a ton of value for players with more established boxes due to his lack of specialization.

Fitting with his jack-of-all-trades kit, Jiang Ziya has decidedly middling stats, with pretty average attack and HP. As with the rest of his kit, it would have been better for him to have committed to a direction, but the balanced stats make him flexible, I suppose. His star gen is pretty good, with an AoE NP and good Quick hit-counts. His NP gain, though, is decidedly unremarkable. His Arts cards are solid-but-not-unusual, and his Quicks are not especially good, but between his batteries and his refund potential, he shouldn’t have too hard of a time getting access to his NP. His only passive is Riding, which props up his Quicks a bit and (more importantly) boosts his NP damage output. None of Jiang Ziya’s appends, by contrast, matters a whole lot. Mana Loading is always the most useful, but given how Quick teams’ batteries are spread out, it’s unlikely to matter much except in cases where Jiang Ziya’s running a CE with at least 30% but less than 50% starting charge. The Extra attack buff is okay for NP gain and damage, but it’s not hugely meaningful given Jiang Ziya’s focus on NP damage output specifically. Anti-Foreigner damage is extremely niche, but Foreigners do tend to be Divine, so this can make Jiang Ziya a gimmicky Foreigner-killer if you really need him to be.

Ascension Materials

Stage	Cost	Materials
2	100,000	x5 Rider Piece Open Rider Piece configuration options
3	300,000	x12 Rider Piece Open Rider Piece configuration options x8 Forbidden Page Open Forbidden Page configuration options
4	1,000,000	x5 Rider Monument Open Rider Monument configuration options x6 Primordial Lanugo Open Primordial Lanugo configuration options x2 Heart of the Foreign God Open Heart of the Foreign God configuration options
Max	3,000,000	x12 Rider Monument Open Rider Monument configuration options x4 Heart of the Foreign God Open Heart of the Foreign God configuration options x5 Mysterious Divine Wine Open Mysterious Divine Wine configuration options

Skill Enhancement Materials

Level	Cost	Materials
1 → 2	200,000	x5 Gem of Rider Open Gem of Rider configuration options
2 → 3	400,000	x12 Gem of Rider Open Gem of Rider configuration options
3 → 4	1,200,000	x5 Magic Gem of Rider Open Magic Gem of Rider configuration options
4 → 5	1,600,000	x12 Magic Gem of Rider Open Magic Gem of Rider configuration options x3 Primordial Lanugo Open Primordial Lanugo configuration options
5 → 6	4,000,000	x5 Secret Gem of Rider Open Secret Gem of Rider configuration options x6 Primordial Lanugo Open Primordial Lanugo configuration options
6 → 7	5,000,000	x12 Secret Gem of Rider Open Secret Gem of Rider configuration options x5 Forbidden Page Open Forbidden Page configuration options
7 → 8	10,000,000	x10 Forbidden Page Open Forbidden Page configuration options x4 Lamp of Evil-Sealing Open Lamp of Evil-Sealing configuration options
8 → 9	12,000,000	x11 Lamp of Evil-Sealing Open Lamp of Evil-Sealing configuration options x10 Egg of Truth Open Egg of Truth configuration options
9 → 10	20,000,000	x1 Crystallized Lore Open Crystallized Lore configuration options

Append Skill Materials

Level	Cost	Materials
1 → 2	200000	x5 Gem of Rider Open Gem of Rider configuration options
2 → 3	400000	x12 Gem of Rider Open Gem of Rider configuration options
3 → 4	1200000	x5 Magic Gem of Rider Open Magic Gem of Rider configuration options
4 → 5	1600000	x12 Magic Gem of Rider Open Magic Gem of Rider configuration options x5 Ghost Lantern Open Ghost Lantern configuration options
5 → 6	4000000	x5 Secret Gem of Rider Open Secret Gem of Rider configuration options x9 Ghost Lantern Open Ghost Lantern configuration options
6 → 7	5000000	x12 Secret Gem of Rider Open Secret Gem of Rider configuration options x1 Dragon's Reverse Scale Open Dragon's Reverse Scale configuration options
7 → 8	10000000	x4 Dragon's Reverse Scale Open Dragon's Reverse Scale configuration options x3 Mysterious Divine Wine Open Mysterious Divine Wine configuration options
8 → 9	12000000	x5 Mysterious Divine Wine Open Mysterious Divine Wine configuration options x24 Rainbow Thread Ball Open Rainbow Thread Ball configuration options
9 → 10	20000000	x1 Crystallized Lore Open Crystallized Lore configuration options

Jiang Ziya has three very strong skills, and if they synergized even a little bit more—if 2 and 3 were targetable, for instance—he’d be amazing. As it stands, though, all three are still very much worth leveling. Recommended skill order is 3>1>2.

For farming, Jiang Ziya is mostly relegated to battery farm setups. With Kaleid and proper supports, Jiang Ziya can loop through batteries alone. Odds are you have better farmers, though—even Habetrot is likely a better option, assuming you’ve cleared LB6—so I won’t be devoting a whole lot of attention to farming setups beyond “they exist, though they mostly need Kaleid.”

Jiang Ziya is much more interesting in CQ contexts. As a DPS, he’s remarkably self-sufficient. He brings high steroids and a selfish battery by default, which means anything else you can give him is bonus. Any standard Quick setups will work well here—Skadi/Skadi/Oberon for blitzing, Skadi/Castoria for stall, etc. Skadi/Jiang Ziya/Castoria is a particularly good team, as Jiang Ziya’s battery helps the other two to use their NPs more reliably. You can also slot in any of the alternative Quick supports or semi-supports if you’re missing meta Support Servants or are having cost issues. Barti gets a special shoutout here, as Barti can push Jiang Ziya’s crit damage (which he’s missing otherwise) while also being able to leverage Jiang Ziya’s party buffs for good damage output himself, especially versus Casters.

Jiang Ziya’s supportive value is more questionable, but he can function in that role too. Given his long cooldowns and lack of survival tools, he really wants to be supporting fast-moving Quick teams. He’ll work best as a third-support for double Skadi teams, especially for players who missed Oberon and Santa Martha. You can also run Jiang Ziya/DPS/Skadi, or even Jiang Ziya/DPS/Jiang Ziya. In these teams, Jiang Ziya functions as a semi-support, outputting good damage himself while also propping up the DPS.

As a damage-dealer, Jiang Ziya benefits most from Black Grail, as always. Traces of Christmas is also a strong option, letting Jiang Ziya NP immediately with just his own batteries and boosting his effective NP gain. In supportive contexts, Devilish Bodhisattva is a strong pick, as it lets him NP immediately and increases the buff value of his NP. Poster Girl is also an option if you don’t want to worry about his long cooldown times—Jiang Ziya can take hits for a few turns before dying to make way for someone more sustain-oriented.

Jiang Ziya has decent crit access due to his star gen and Rider star weight, but he lacks crit damage buffs. As such, crit up CCs are a good pick here. You can also give Jiang Ziya anti-divine CCs to increase his firepower versus divine enemies, especially if you only plan to bring him against his niche.

Extra stats will help Jiang Ziya do his job better, by and large, but he’s not so impressive a Servant that gameplay grails are really warranted. I’d skip this one, personally, unless you really love the character. If you want to grail an AoE Rider, Habetrot brings a lot more value.

Jiang Ziya does a lot of things well. He has great anti-Divine damage, he’s a solid looper when cards are allowed, and he brings a fair bit of supportive value. Unfortunately, not going all-in on any of these things means his power ceiling is lower than it might otherwise be. He’s the kind of Servant who can always find ways to contribute but will usually be outclassed by a specialist. I’d say he’s a welcome spook but probably not a Servant to actively target unless you’re very new.

Overall: 8/10
Single-Target DPS: 7/10
AoE DPS: 9/10
Survivability: 2/10
Offensive Utility: 7/10
Defensive Utility: 1/10
Farming Usefulness: 6/10
Fishing: 10/10