MMM - Eastern Empresses of Equal Extraction Exact Elephant Entropy Endlessly (Trung Sisters Gacha)

The Modern Magus Magazine

Boy, the gap from New Year to early spring where DW Lasengle suddenly realize they have to add new Servants in the lead-up to Golden Week sure makes for a nice holiday from the writing of modern magazines of the magus variety.

And despite that, I still procrastinated this thing all week, yay!

Okay to be fair, I was kind of holding out on the hope that the Welfare would be revealed in the earlier story updates, but it seems like they’re going to be a complete Irisviel case and only be added at the end of the event story. Phooey.

In any case, I may as well focus on the Servants before me.

Introduction

Go on, get all your Pokemon jokes out of your system now. I’ll wait, even if I’m not a big Donphan of them.

…Oh no, it’s infected me, too.

Servant Data

Saber

QAABB (Saber)

Quick Card

Arts Card

Buster Card

3

4

3

5

9

Attribute	Human
Alignment	Lawful Good

Stage 1
Stage 2
Stage 3
Stage 4

Max HP 14,248

HP Rank

Max ATK 11,898

ATK Rank

Base Atk	1,838	Base HP	2,089
Max Atk	11,898	Max HP	14,248
Grail Atk	13,024	Grail HP	15,609

Magic Resistance B

Increase your Debuff Resist by 17.5%.

Riding B

Increase your Quick Card effectiveness by 8%.

Divinity C

Apply Damage Plus for yourself (Total Card Damage +150).

Overview

If there’s anything that makes assessing an SSR Saber, it’s the sheer number of other Servants you need to compare them to. As much as we may love joking about all the variants of Saberface and just the class in general, it makes sorting through their numbers pretty difficult.

But with that in mind, the Trung Sisters’ base stats are still pretty much middle-of-the-road. With the 8th best Atk stat of their class and rarity, paired with the 8th best HP stat as well, they literally landed dead on average for both scores. Okay, slightly above dead-on average, since the number of SSR Sabers in the game is now even, but you get the jist. Their Attack is right where you would expect for how big their HP is, and vice versa, giving them a pretty respectable balance of bulk and offense.

Of course, offense is typically always better, but I’ve got to put some respect on that extra chunk of 1-1.5k HP.

The Trung Sisters’ passives, meanwhile, are far from few, but not interesting, either. B-rank Magic Resistance and Riding are typical of their class, granting a good chance of shrugging off debuffs, and bolstering their sole Quick card by a decent amount, meanwhile Divinity C (Wait, since when were these girls demigods? I’ve glanced over their wikipedia article once, I should know!) provides a small boost to card damage and a whole host of weaknesses / synergies.

Simply put, they’re not lacking in any area generally, but there’s nothing to wow me in their baseline.

NP Generation

Card Hits	3	4	3	5	9
Per Hit	0.43%	0.43%	0.43%	0.43%	0.43%

	NP per Hit (%)						0.43%
	NP when Attacked (%)						3%

	Star Absorption	100
	Star Generation per Hit	10.2%

Prefacing anything else, I’ll just say one thing to set the mood on this section. The sheer horror I feel as a Servant review nerd when I use a 3rd card Quick in an Arts chain and see the Servant only gains 3% gauge in testing is unimaginable.

For those less familiar with NP gain numbers, it isn’t a good sign, and it goes to show -

The Trung Sisters’ base NP gain sits as a scarily low 0.43%. While, as always, their Arts card is designed with it in mind, possessing 4 hits, that only produces a 1.72 base Arts gain, essentially dead on average. And as a result, every other card in their deck sucks for NP gain.

Quick card? Even if it had 5 hits it’d be mediocre. With 3, this card produces as much NP gauge in Arts chains as some Buster cards. And speaking of which, the 3 hits on their Buster also doesn’t help at all, even if Busters don’t help for NP gain typically anyway.

5-hit Extra? Average, if usable, for most Servants. On 0.43% base NP gain? Yeah, no.

To surmise on the NP gain side of things, their two Arts cards work fine, everything else is a lost cause. And boy do I hate to see that.

Things are a bit better for stargen, thankfully. Those hitcounts on their cards which don’t drop under 3 are pretty useful for star generation, and their Extra, while poor for NP gain, is still going to produce a good sum of stars. Nothing exceptional, but a Brave chain from this duo will be good enough to set up a number of crits on a following turn.

In general, however, the Trung Sisters’ regular cards aren’t going to produce much in the way of gauge or stars.

Servant Skills

Dmg Up

Rebel Charisma B-

Increase ATK for all allies (3 turns).
Increase Arts Card effectiveness for all allies (3 turns).

Show Info

Lvl	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
ATK +	10%	10.5%	11%	11.5%	12%	12.5%	13%	13.5%	14%	15%
Arts +	10%	10.5%	11%	11.5%	12%	12.5%	13%	13.5%	14%	15%
CD	7	7	7	7	7	6	6	6	6	5

Charisma clone, my old friend. Heck, you’ve even actually put “Charisma” in your name, for once. It feels like I’m back in release again.

The jist of this skill is easy to grasp. +15% Attack, +15% Arts Up for all allies for 3 turns, provided it’s at max skill level. For most Arts-focused Servants (which the Trung Sisters are, unsurprisingly) this is one of the better variants of a team buff you can get, boosting their own damage output on their primary card type by a significant margin, but also boosting the NP gain of their supports (since you’re pretty much going to be using Arts-focused Servants to support them, whether it be Castoria, Reines, Nero Bride, or whoever else.)

Paired with the skill’s typical 7-turn base cooldown, it’s uninteresting, but not unimpressive. This skill makes for a solid offensive/supportive core to the Trung Sisters’ kit.

Arts/Buster Up

Sisterly Bond A

Increase own Arts Card effectiveness (3 turns).
Increase own Buster Card effectiveness (3 turns).
Apply bonus effect to self (3 turns): Increase own Buster Card effectiveness by 10% (1 turn) when attacking with Arts Cards.
Apply bonus effect to self (3 turns): Increase own Arts Card effectiveness by 10% (1 turn) when attacking with Buster Cards.

Show Info

Lvl	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
Arts +	10%	10.5%	11%	11.5%	12%	12.5%	13%	13.5%	14%	15%
Buster +	10%	10.5%	11%	11.5%	12%	12.5%	13%	13.5%	14%	15%
CD	6	6	6	6	6	5	5	5	5	4

Now we get to the inevitable SSR spiciness. Sisters’ Bond A is at first glance a 3-turn Dual-card booster skill you’re used to, but it also packs a special pair of buffs that essentially encourage (and flavor) a certain way of using the Trung Sisters’ cards.

While the +15% to both Arts and Buster cards is decent (if a bit underpowered), they also get a +10% card booster bonus to the opposite card type for a turn whenever they use one of the two card types. To put it in practical terms, if they do a BAB card chain, they’ll get +10% Arts booster after the first Buster, which then the Arts card will benefit from, then granting +10% Buster booster, which then applies to the 3rd Buster card, which provides another +10% Arts booster (which is essentially useless after the 3rd card).

Sounds cool and interactive right? Well, the issue is, the skill sucks.

Simply put, the numbers are far too undertuned to be worthwhile, in addition to being dependent on card luck. Get a card hand on a turn with all their Busters/Arts and none of the other kind? The skill not only does nothing this turn, but since you exhausted their deck, it does nothing for the next 3 turns, where the card deck resets. Obviously you can time the usage of the skill to avoid that, and even possibly “double dip” its benefits across 3-turn card deck cycles, but that just makes it more awkward to use. And even if you do, say, get a hand with both the Sisters’ Busters and an Arts card, that only translates to a +20% Card booster at best, regardless of how you arrange the cards.

In other words, if the skill read “Gain Arts/Buster Up +20% (1 time, 3 turns)” it would be a much more apt description of how effective it is. If the buffs granted lasted 3 turns, or simply were 2-3 times as big it’d be a different story, but this skill ends up evening out to a mediocre dual-card booster.

The saving grace of Sisters’ Bond is the base cooldown of 6 seconds. That makes it a spicy hot 4-turn cooldown at max level, coming back live extremely quickly. If they’re supported by a Tamamo, it essentially means this skill is active all the time. Doesn’t improve the numbers it actually provides, but the fact you can get this skill’s buffs most of the time does make it a little more dependable.

Start Np

Holy King Trưng EX

Increase own NP Gauge.
Increase NP Gain for all allies (3 turns).
Increase Critical Rate Resist for all allies (3 turns).

Show Info

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

I would like to present the Trung Sisters with the academy award prize for “Most Generic Skill Trio”. It’s been a long road for them, but they’ve surely earned it, providing us not only the sacred trio of Charisma/Dual-card buff/Gauge charger, but even doing it in that exact order!

And no, I won’t be slapping them.

Keeping on track, Good Queen Trung EX is a pretty powerful gauge charge skill. While it only provides 30% gauge on use, it comes paired with a handy duo of buffs - 20% NP Gain Up and Critical Resistance for 3 turns on the whole party. NP Gain Up’s utility should be obvious at a glance - build up NP gauge quicker, NP more often, deal more damage / get more supportive buffs from your allies. Critical Resistance, as always, is something of the dark horse of defensive buffs, safeguarding the team from crits provided they aren’t facing down a Spriggan that’s spent the past 10 turns just using its Crit buff skill. It doesn’t reduce damage taken in the strictest sense, but preventing any criticals from happening is very key for preventing random instant death and just reducing the amount of incoming damage in general.

And it certainly helps that this skill means the Trung Sisters have a respectable boost to both Arts cards and NP gain from their own kit, which in turn improves their performance as an Arts ST Saber. But I can cover that more in their NP section.

While part of me would hope for a lower cooldown, this skill is paired with the typical 8-turn base cooldown for gauge chargers, making the buffs a little slow to come back up, but it’s a fair cop.

Noble Phantasm

Let Us Walk Our Land Together B

Deal damage to a single enemy.
Restore 1,000 HP for all allies each turn (3 turns).

<Overcharge>

Increase Arts Card effectiveness for all allies (3 turns).
Increase Buster Card effectiveness for all allies (3 turns).

Show Info/Video

Let Us Walk Our Land Together

Let us Walk Together, For Our Country

	Rank	Classification	Hit-Count
	B	Anti-Army	9

Effect	Deal damage to a single enemy. Restore 1,000 HP for all allies each turn (3 turns).

Level	1	2	3	4	5
Damage +	900%	1200%	1350%	1425%	1500%
HP Regen +	1000	1000	1000	1000	1000

Overcharge Effect	Increase Arts Card effectiveness for all allies (3 turns). Increase Buster Card effectiveness for all allies (3 turns).

Charge	100%	200%	300%	400%	500%
Arts +	10%	15%	20%	25%	30%
Buster +	10%	15%	20%	25%	30%

I have to admit, this NP has a really pretty animation.

Inspiring the Sixty-Five Castles is an Arts ST NP, with a pretty nice host of effects. Going over those, this NP does its damage (shocker), then applies a 1k HP regen to the party for 3 turns, as well as a 10% Arts and Buster booster that scales with Overcharge.

While most people would turn their attention to the ramping damage boost to the Trung Sisters’ Arts/Buster cards from using this NP in succession, I actually find the HP regen on this NP far more interesting - an issue that Arts teams have suffered from ever since Castoria more or less took over the show was a lack of sustain. While you could jam Merlin in with little issue, it came at a sizeable cost to damage / instantaneous, targeted gauge charging, and while Tamamo has always been present as a healing supportive option for Arts, she tends to lack more than Merlin does.

That’s where the big brained solution comes in - just use an Arts Servant that heals. While 1k HP per turn for 3 turns may not seem like much, you need to remember it’s the same as a NP1 Merlin NP on a shorter duration, you’ll have the defensive bulwark of double Castoria preventing pretty much any damage from coming in, and your Arts spam Saber is going to be NP’ing WAY more frequently than Merlin will.

As a result, the Trung Sisters manage to shore up one of the biggest weaknesses of Arts teams, provided they’re actually worth using as the offensive Servant.

With that out of the way, let’s talk about the elephant in the room - the NP refund. With just their own buffs active, the Trung Sisters get a pretty hefty 18% refund from their NP. Higher than most of their key competitors like Dioscuri and Hokusai Saber, and on par with big names like Galatea and Vlad. It’s a neat compensation for how poor their regular card NP gain is. Throw in the support of double Castoria and you instead get a hefty 48% refund. Add in a Arts-boosting CE and the duo easily go over the 50% refund mark, which is very impressive for ST NP’s.

Add in the fact they can get even more NP refund from pulling their Buster cards and making them precede the NP, as well as their NP’s ramping boosts, and these sisters can go on an absolute tear.

Which brings us to the second key question - how’s the damage? Unfortunately the Trung Sisters don’t have a particularly great offensive buff setup, producing a mediocre 36.8k damage on their neutral NP. For reference, Dioscuri, whom I recall stating have mediocre NP damage output as well, deal 38.8k on their first neutral NP. While in comparison the Trung Sisters don’t share the Atlantean sibling duo’s issue of damage fall-off after the first NP (as all the Trung Sisters’ buffs, or at least, those that matter, are 3 turns), it still presents issues.

While most damage issues can largely be shored up by support lineup and CE options, the sheer baseline these two are working with is largely below par, sadly, even if their NP spamming power is certainly top class.

Conclusion

So, how are the Trung Sisters in practice? On one hand, they can turn up their trunks in pride:

For an Arts ST Servant, the Trung Sisters have some of the best refund out there. With a very good sum of Arts boosts and NP gain boosts, as well as their own gauge charger, the duo can continually NP spam very dependably, as well as be more flexible with CE options compared to competitors without gauge chargers. With 3-turn buffs across the board, reasonably low skill cooldowns, and ramping NP damage, they have a lot going for them in CQ’s, even if their damage isn’t their selling point.

The Trung Sisters are one of those pseudo-supportive damage dealers who, while competent at their job, also provide a number of team benefits in the process. Their offensive buffs are mostly also team-wide, providing notable boosts to Arts cards and NP gain to their allies, as well as providing some long-term defensive aid in their Critical Resistance buff and HP regen, the latter of which will be frequently re-applied.

However, they also have some flaws that they can, sadly, never forget:

Damage output is the pillar to every offensive Servant, and sometimes no number of neat supportive perks can hide it when you’re behind the curve offensively. Hokusai Saber, via welfare privilege, massively out-damages the Trung Sisters, Dioscuri, while lacking in similar supportive tools, has the perk of Invincible/Defense pierce, as well as a similar amount of refund when they get rolling, and the Arts Berserkers of Galatea and Vlad simply outdo them in class advantage. That’s also ignoring that some of their competitors also have stargen/critical niches which further their damage output and NP gain outside of their NP refund, something the Trung Sisters lack.

While the Trung Sisters have a host of team defensive support, they equally have zero hard defensive options to their name. While that means little usually if glued to Castoria’s back, those clutch Evasion or Guts buffs tend to have their time in the sun one way or another, especially in high-difficulty content, and lacking one can often leave you high and dry. At the very least, all the competitors I’ve listed in this MMM have one or the other, so the Sisters stand out in lacking a hard defensive tool.

Ah, Servants like these are always the roughest to write conclusions for. The Trung Sisters have many perks going for them, things that heck, even I’ve sometimes wished for when using their primary competitors in difficult content. However, everything comes with a price, and when weighing the two against the multitude of solid options in the realm of Arts ST Sabers/Berserkers, I’m left unsure if they either stand as an equal, or in the shadow of Servants who will make the better choice most of the time.

But the thing I can say for sure is that they perform their role competently, and with niches that no other option offers, while equally in demand. The issue is that I can say the same for their competitors. I use Dioscuri absurdly frequently just because they’re the Invincible/Defense pierce ST Servants with the best performance, even if, for Arts ST Servants, they’re not that impressive. And likewise, Hokusai Saber does…a lot of damage. Like, a lot. It leaves me wondering if the healing and improved gauge charging (by proxy, from their Arts/NP gain buffs) for their supports is really worth the drawbacks.

What I can say, though, is if you lack any Arts ST Saber options to put to use, the Trung Sisters fill the role excellently. Simply because they’re not the best, doesn’t mean they won’t do it well. It just makes it a little harder when their key competition is a reasonably recent Welfare.

Ah well. Rath™ Seal of Approval.

Outro

Due to the more unique format of this event’s Servant release, it seems I’m not done with just this. Rest assured, I’ll also be reviewing the welfare for the event, it’s just there’s literally nothing to be found of them at the moment, whether in story or in datamining.

…and no, I’m pretty sure it isn’t construction hat Semiramis. As much as I wish it were.

Until next time, very shortly in the future!

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MMM - Eastern Empresses of Equal Extraction Exact Elephant Entropy Endlessly (Trung Sisters Gacha)

The Modern Magus Magazine

QAABB (Saber)

Quick Card

Arts Card

Arts Card

Buster Card

Buster Card

Traits

Tags

Dmg Up

Arts/Buster Up

Start Np

Let Us Walk Our Land Together

Outro

Links

About the Author(s)

Comments

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