The Modern Magus Magazine
Well well well, season’s greetings to you all, and have a happy horrendous death at the hands of gun-morphed monstrosities and raid bosses that you gasp can’t just kill with Kintoki turn one!
I’m glad DW have learnt so much since their initial inclusion of raids in FGO, including ensuring they don’t end in less than 2 hours after they open despite being designed to run for a full 24 hours! They fixed that, right?
…right?
Jiang Ziya
Addition to the game’s pretty-boy roster (and boy, we’ve been lacking in those this year), and honorary member of the Akatsuki, Jiang Ziya finally finishes off the Servant silhouette image.
…boy, that ribbon on his weapon and the way his hands were posed made me think it was Archimedes for so long.
Extella collab when? Extella 2 when, even? There’s still a lot unresolved to deal with, there.
Base Atk | 1,800 | Base HP | 1,986 |
---|---|---|---|
Max Atk | 11,651 | Max HP | 13,543 |
Grail Atk | 12,754 | Grail HP | 14,837 |
Increase your Quick Card effectiveness by 11%.
DO NOT DELETE OR EDIT! This contains formatting CSS.
I find that two things are eternal for Riders: Medb’s statline never ceases to be hilariously bad, and Iskandar never stops getting powercrept by other Servants. Joining and surpassing Ivan in the Iskandar bullying gang as Achilles and Odysseus both look on with pride, Jiang has the 6th best Attack and 5th best HP of the Riders, meaning he has one of the strongest statlines in the class overall, even if not as offensively leaned as others.
Considering he’s certainly an offensive Rider, it’s not a bad place to be in.
His base stats are also supplemented by (sadly) only A+ rank Riding, something of an anomaly as he’s definitely not a recent enough historical figure to lack Magic Resistance. Ah well, at least the rank is high, giving him a notable boost to his primary card type - Quick cards.
So, how is Jiang Ziya overall? On one hand, he’s got a foxy fervor to exterminate that can’t be beat:
However, he also needs to get whipped into shape:
Jiang Ziya is one of those Servants who surprisingly looks like they were built to be very meta-oriented but ultimately they just don’t have the juice or versatility to be that crazy.
It’s not to say he’s bad, or even mediocre. He remains a solid farming option with occasional applications in difficult content, owing to his potential to dish out insane damage to enemies with his trait bonuses. It’s just that he doesn't really offer much in the way of utility for CQ’s, and his farming is still ultimately inferior to welfare options in most circumstances.
A perfectly serviceable Rider for what he offers, and one that would probably be incredible were it 2 or more years ago he released, but in present times, mostly another good non-universal farmer to add to the pool. Rath™ Seal of Approval.
SERVANT 2 NAME
For as much as I’d like to be outraged over the artist for Dobrynya basically modelling them after their Mistral OC from FFXI, I’d probably end up doing the same if I had the opportunity and/or artistic talent. Since I lack either.
And that aside, Dobrynya’s profile actually leaves it vague whether the catgirl is either Dobrynya himself or his wife, with the dragon being rode being the badass russian dude. Confusing all round, but it’s not like Fate isn’t full of similar Schroedinger’s Cat-type situations. Take Drake possibly being Elizabeth I in disguise, for one.
Base Atk | 1,632 | Base HP | 1,710 |
---|---|---|---|
Max Atk | 9,795 | Max HP | 10,692 |
Grail Atk | 11,860 | Grail HP | 12,964 |
Increase your Quick Card effectiveness by 12%.
Increase your Debuff Resist by 20%.
As an SR Rider, Dobrynya comes packing with a very hard offensively-leaned statline. Bearing the 2nd best Attack stat of her class/rarity and tied 2nd worst HP, she’s definitely following the route of a glass cannon, though as always, she’s entirely outclassed in raw stats by Rider Kintoki, since that boy is just a madman.
In the Passives lineup, Dobrynya furthers her aggressive statline with EX-rank Riding (well, you need it to ride dragons, anyway) and impressively-high A-rank Magic Resistance, giving her a neat line of protection against debuffs.
On the whole, Dobrynya has a pretty good start from her bases and passives.
So how is Dobrynya on the whole? On one hand, she’s geared up to unleash a Burst Stream of Destruction all over the competition:
However, she’s also doomed to get Busted by the Blade of a Dragon-Destroying Swordsman before long:
Well, I can at least take solace in the fluffy catgirl, if nothing else. Dobrynya is a case of a Servant leaning too hard into the possible merits of an intense anti-trait focus, and not having the right tools to be viable, well, generally. It’s funny seeing her side-by-side in a gacha with a Servant who has a similar niche, but actually manages to perform outside of it, becoming a reasonable pick for certain farming and CQ scenarios instead of, as Dobrynya is, something you take as a meme or for thematics.
At least, unlike Siegfried, you can pair her with Georgios in a quest and not feel out of place from your class selection. I would just use Georgios to kill the dragons at that point, however.
Isn’t it sad, Nikiticchin?
Outro
I’ve got to say, writing the MMM isn’t exactly the ideal activity to perform on Christmas Eve, but it certainly does take your mind off family gatherings for a day. Tunguska itself is also a welcome distraction, for as long as the unfortunate raid bosses remain alive, acting as fuel to our tea-addled Bond-burning minds.
…I’m trying my hardest to get Karna to Bond level 12 so I can get him to 120, okay? I’m not addicted to Kama’s bath water tea!
Christmas is hardest on the downtrodden addicts, whether it be gacha or otherwise. With that in mind, remember to be kind and generous this Christmas and I hope you all have a great Holiday season. See you all in the New Year!