MMM - Monstrous Mommy Marches Matronly, Making Mulch of Moderated Minions Marred in Mall-bound Minigame (FGO Arcade Collab Pre-Campaign)

The Modern Magus Magazine

In spite of it all, I still feel the need to say it now:

ONORE, AAKEIDO!

While this day might have been a win for FGO players all around, the fact it has to be something special to receive a Servant who had all their design, voice acting, lore, gameplay, art, and so on already implemented in the more resource-intensive Arcade side-game to this franchise, but made exclusive to it simply to draw customers is a real nuisance.

Tiamat is just one of a plethora of Servants that deserve to be in the main game, but are instead kept exclusive for marketing reasons. I can only hope the event proper can introduce many of them (though getting Seasonals like Santa Suzuka seems, sadly, unlikely), but that’s yet to be seen.

But at any rate, there’s an MMM to write for.

Introduction

Let it be known that I will ALWAYS stan an Aoi Yuuki Servant, with zero exemptions. Even if it comes at great cost to my wallet. Especially if it does.

I need to buy food, y’know….

Servant Data

Alter Ego

QAABB (Saber)

Quick Card

Arts Card

Buster Card

4

3

5

6

Attribute	Star
Alignment	Chaotic Evil

Stage 1
Stage 2
Stage 3
Stage 4

Max HP 14,107

HP Rank

Max ATK 11,444

ATK Rank

Base Atk	1,768	Base HP	2,069
Max Atk	11,444	Max HP	14,107
Grail Atk	12,527	Grail HP	15,455

Authority of the Beast C

Increase your Critical Strength by 10%.

Independent Manifestation D

Increase your Critical Strength by 4%
Increase your Mental Debuff Resist by 4%.
Increase your Death Resist by 4%.

Self-Modification EX

Apply Damage Cut by 500 for yourself.

Core of the Goddess EX

Apply Damage Plus (Total Card Damage +300).
Increase Debuff Resist for yourself by 30%.

Infantile Regression A

Increase NP Gauge each turn by 5% for yourself.

Overview

As an addition to the sizeable SSR Alter Ego roster, Tiamat sadly leans pretty heavily on the defensive side of things. With the 2nd worst Attack stat and tied 2nd Highest HP stat of her class and rarity, she sits aside Kirei and Kiara in a really weird club of twisted individuals with highly defensive statlines that would really appreciate otherwise.

And as always, Kiara’s statline compared to other Alter Ego’s looks really overstatted. Why is the random cultist nun stronger in her parameters than the primordial mother Goddess of one of the most ancient Mythologies? Hell if I know.

While naturally it’d be better to have more offensive focus, Tiamat isn’t suffering that hard for her attack, as even the worst Alter Ego is closer to average overall for SSR Servants. In exchange, she has some solid bulk to back her up, and she also has more to her than just stats - passives.

As you might expect of an Alter Ego that by all reason should be in the Beast class, Tiamat has a bunch of powerful passives. Of those that technically aren’t unique, Independent Manifestation provides minor boosts to critical damage, mental debuff resistance, and death resistance, a lore passive more so than anything else. Self Modification provides an actually-impressive passive 500 damage cut at all times, pushing her solid bulk to the point of absurdity in the right circumstances, and Core of the Goddess provides a minor boost to all card damage as well as a big chunk of debuff resistance, even further boosting Tiamat’s resilience.

To pair with those, she has 2 unique passives - Authority of the Beast, a notable boost to her critical damage output, and Infantile Regression, a skill that provides an insane 5% NP gauge charge each turn.

Anybody who has touched Merlin in their life probably already knows how insane passive NP gauge charging can be on the right Servant, so that passive alone is a colossal boon for her.

So while her offensive might may be a little lacking at first glance, Tiamat has a plethora of passives to back her up, both in her defense and offense.

NP Generation

Card Hits	4	4	3	5	6
Per Hit	0.44%	0.44%	0.44%	0.44%	0.44%

	NP per Hit (%)	0.44%
NP when Attacked (%)	4%

	Star Absorption	104
Star Generation per Hit	9.8%

Servant Skills

Eye of Blue Stars

Eye of Blue Stars B

Increase own NP Gauge.
Decrease Critical Rate for all enemies by 100% (1 turn).
Inflict Heal Block (disables HP recovery) on all enemies (1 turn).

Show Info

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

First in Tiamat’s skill lineup is Eye of Blue Stars. For those who may be familiar with Arcade, Tiamat’s skill set is basically the same with some bonus effects on her skills, so you may already be familiar with these.

This skill is an all-important gauge charger, providing Tiamat with 50% gauge charge on use, on top of some bonus utility debuffs - 100% Critical Rate Down and Heal Block to all enemies for 1 turn.

While the critical rate down debuff is probably familiar by this point, though not one of this potency, Heal Block is a very underused debuff in player hands. The effect is thankfully very simple - while active, an affected enemy doesn’t recover any HP from healing effects. So far as I know this doesn’t affect Guts or Max Hp Up, so it doesn’t cover all forms of HP recovery, but most of them. Both of these supplementary effects are pretty minor, if perhaps useful in niche fights, but the main draw is certainly the gauge charge.
As a Buster AOE Servant Tiamat will need every last big of gauge charge to be viable compared to the refunds on Quick/Arts Servants, and having a 50% gauge charge on a typical 8-turn base cooldown is a very good start to that goal.

Eye of Red Stars

Eye of Red Stars B

Increase own ATK (3 turns).
Increase own Buster Card effectiveness (3 turns).
60% Chance to inflict Stun on all enemies (1 turn).
Inflict Curse on all enemies (3 turns).

Show Info

Lvl	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
ATK +	20%	21%	22%	23%	24%	25%	26%	27%	28%	30%
Buster +	20%	21%	22%	23%	24%	25%	26%	27%	28%	30%
Curse Dmg +	1000	1100	1200	1300	1400	1500	1600	1700	1800	2000
CD	8	8	8	8	8	7	7	7	7	6

Paired with Tiamat’s Blue eye is her Red Eye. No, not the infected type, she’s- ugh, never mind. Eye of Red Stars is, contrasting with her gauge charger, a major offensive steroid, providing both 30% Attack Up and Buster Up for 3 turns, on top of other benefits.

On use, this skill also applies a 60% chance Stun for 1 turn to every enemy, and if that wasn’t enough, it also slaps a 2k damage Curse debuff on them for 3 turns. While the Stun is certainly handy to have for high difficulty fights, the offensive steroids are certainly the main appeal of this skill. 30% in both Attack in your primary card type results in a sizable boost to damage, especially when the damage buff trinity is filled by other sources.

Combined with the fact this skill has an 8-turn base cooldown, it means it’s back up for the 3rd wave of a double Koyanskaya loop, providing even more offensive power for her on the 3rd wave of a (typical) farming session. Saying that naturally implies she can farm, which I’ll have to get to later.

Regardless, a very good skill.

Heal

Sea of Blue Stars A

Restore HP for all allies.
Increase NP Gauge for all allies by 10%.
Increase NP Strength for all allies (1 turn).

Show Info

Lvl	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
Heal +	500	600	700	800	900	1000	1100	1200	1300	1500
NP Dmg +	10%	11%	12%	13%	14%	15%	16%	17%	18%	20%
CD	4	4	4	4	4	3	3	3	3	2

Rounding things off for Tiamat is Sea of Blue Stars, a more supportive skill for her kit. This skill provides a variety of benefits to Tiamat’s team on use, a 1500 HP heal, a 10% gauge charge, and a 20% NP Damage Up buff for 1 turn.

While those are all pretty nice perks to have on a skill, the overall numbers for them is pretty strikingly low, and the damage buff itself lasting only 1 turn is pretty lacklu-

Huh? What’s that you say? Look at the skill cooldown?

…

Oh wow, this skill is absolutely insane. Makes me wish Lasengle experimented more often with low-impact skills on very short cooldowns. The 4-turn base cooldown on this skill, meaning a miniscule 2-turn cooldown at skill level 2, completely flips its power on its head. A Koyanskaya gauge charge puts this skill off cooldown IMMEDIATELY, which can lead to some very absurd combos where Tiamat essentially converts 2 turns skill cooldown reduction into a bonus 10% NP gauge and 20% NP damage for the team.

It’s to the point where I legitimately struggle to find setups to maximize the value out of this skill, since it’s simply so absurd to have online so often. Even outside of farming, being able to fill the team’s gauge by 10% every 3 turns is like having a passive 3% gauge charge per turn on the whole team, which can really add up over extended fights.

Add in that this skill provides a huge boost to Tiamat’s NP damage output, especially if she offloads it multiple times in a single turn, and it’s no surprise that it’s insanely good.

Noble Phantasm

Nammu Duranki EX

Clear own debuffs [Activates first].
Deal damage to all enemies.
Inflict Skill Seal on all enemies.

<Overcharge>

Increase own Buster Card effectiveness (3 turns) [Activates first].

Show Info/Video

Nammu Duranki

Oh Resolute Child, Defy the Reason of Creation

	Rank	Classification	Hit-Count
	EX	Anti-World	6

Effect	Clear own debuffs [Activates first]. Deal damage to all enemies. Inflict Skill Seal on all enemies.

Level	1	2	3	4	5
Debuff Clear
Damage +	300%	400%	450%	475%	500%
Skill Seal

Overcharge Effect	Increase own Buster Card effectiveness (3 turns) [Activates first].

Charge	100%	200%	300%	400%	500%
Buster +	30%	37.5%	45%	52.5%	60%

Rounding things off, we have Tiamat’s NP. Nammu Duranki is a Buster AOE NP, so as always we’ll be examining her farming potential at the end of things.

In terms of effects, this NP isn’t too complex - before attacking, Tiamat gets two benefits, a Debuff clear on herself, and a hefty 30% Buster Up buff, scaling on Overcharge, for 3 turns. Then this thing dishes out the pain, with a fairly high hitcount of 6, so it’s likely to also produce some stars. Then lastly, she applies Skill Seal to every enemy for 1 turn.

The Skill Seal as you might expect is fairly niche and usually not impactful, but a debuff clear whenever you NP is useful in a number of fights, and the built-in damage steroid on this NP is absurdly good, even better than Melusine’s, which is considered something of the golden standard. As a result, Tiamat can hit incredibly hard, especially if she can line up NP’s in succession.

But speaking of that, let’s put it to the test in a practical sense. As a baseline, with all her own buffs active, Tiamat dishes out a respectable 29.5k damage neutral with her NP. While not breaking any records, that’s a high damage output for an AOE NP, and it’s even better considering most of her steroids are 3 turns, and she has ramping damage from her NP’s damage buff.

Placed into the most budget farming setup I can think of (1k Atk Fous, 50% gauge CE, Double Koyanskaya Support, Waver on battlesuit swap), she’ll manage about 62k damage neutral wave 1, 82k damage wave 2, and 106k damage on wave 3. For a largely budget setup, that’s some solid damage output, especially on wave 3.

But as usual, let’s see if she can manage it with Black Grail. The setup is a little convoluted for this, but I’ll run through it. The lineup is Tiamat herself, Oberon and Koyanskaya 1 on the frontline, then Koyanskaya 2 in the back. Tiamat needs level 10 Mana Loading, but otherwise that’s everything. Tiamat uses all her skills, gauge charging to 80% gauge, then Oberon tops her off with his team gauge charger. Koyanskaya 1 gives her the Buster buff, then you can NP wave 1 for 85k damage. It sounds unimpressive, but it picks up quickly.

Wave 2, you use Koyanskaya 1’s gauge charger, Tiamat’s 3rd skill again, and Oberon’s gauge charger to hit 100% gauge. You then swap out Koyanskaya 1 for Koyanskaya 2, and give Tiamat her Buster buff. The NP on wave 2 should hit for a vastly improved 118k damage neutral.

And lastly, Wave 3. Unload Koyanskaya 2’s gauge charger on Tiamat, then use all her skills once again, then use Oberon’s giga buff 3rd skill on her. Optionally also use the Battlesuit attack buff if you like overkill. If my calculations are correct, the NP on this wave should hit for about 363k damage on a neutral target.

For the record, that’s basically the same damage output as Melusine on wave 3 in an identical setup (well, besides putting Oberon in the frontline, but you get the idea).

While it’s a finicky setup, it’s 100% consistent, and results in an absolutely obscene wave 3 damage output that can even effectively ignore the Alter Ego class’s disadvantage versus knight classes.

I think that more or less speaks for itself.

Conclusion

So how is Tiamat on the whole?

Well, on one hand, she’s got depth to her like the deepest ocean, and you can lose yourself in her eyes:

While it feels like I say this far too often, Tiamat has an excellent farming profile backing her. I may have listed setups using Koyanskaya and so on, it’s worth remembering with her solid damage output and gauge chargers, she can easily function using Kaleidoscope with any 3 50% gauge chargers on battlesuit swap, or similar setups, and still do respectable damage for most farming purposes. It’s just in the best setups, Tiamat competes with the best farmers in the game for consistent high-damage farming, something that is incredibly valuable with the amount of 90+ nodes with HP stats surpassing 1,000,000 that have cropped up of late. So yeah, a consistent and versatile universal farmer with very high damage output.

Tiamat doesn’t just limit herself to farming. In high difficulty content she has a number of niche supportive tools that can see her be of use in the right fights, with Heal Block, Skill Seal, and AOE Stun all being potentially vital options to aid in a difficult fight. And that aside, her persistent team healing and gauge charging means that she also supports the supporters in a way few offensive Servants can, even providing long-term durability to team compositions that may otherwise lack it. And of course, her excellent offensive might can also apply to such content.

However, she’s quite likely to eat you up and leave you a gibbering mess…literally:

The Alter Ego class, as always, is something of a detriment. While having a broader range of class advantage to hit is certainly nice, being set back versus a large swathe of classes is also not exactly ideal. While Tiamat’s damage output for the most part is enough to compensate for class disadvantage, most of the time you would prefer for her to be in a normal Knight/Horseman class, or ideally Berserker / Avenger for the raw power they bring.

I’d honestly host a riot if Tiamat were awful in FGO, but thankfully I’m proud to say that’s not the case. In spite of the somewhat uphill battle Buster Servants have to fight to be a competitive farmer, Tiamat does more than enough to compete with the big dogs, and on top of that still boasts a strong performance in difficult content.

With a number of unique utility tools at her disposal, high damage output and an overall resilient kit, Tiamat is unlikely to show a clear weakness in most content. The only true stain to her capabilities, if anything, is the convoluted farming setup she needs to farm with Black Grail optimally. While it’s usually safer to just build a lazier, less optimized setup, sometimes that isn’t an option.

Nitpicking aside, Tiamat is an excellent Servant with good applications for both farming and difficult content, and one of the better Buster Servants overall available in the game. Rath™ Seal of Approval, with a recommendation.

Outro

With a standalone banner occupying our time, it’s now really just a case of counting down to Golden Week. Damn you, Japan, and your incredibly holiday-shy culture! I’m sure if they didn’t have all their public holidays based on a single week we wouldn’t get this absurd cycle of content famine into feast every year leading into May.

But hey, more content for FGO means more writing for me, so maybe I should appreciate the content lapses while I can. Until next time!

Links

Rathilal's MMMs - Archive

Search

MMM - Monstrous Mommy Marches Matronly, Making Mulch of Moderated Minions Marred in Mall-bound Minigame (FGO Arcade Collab Pre-Campaign)

The Modern Magus Magazine

QAABB (Saber)

Quick Card

Arts Card

Arts Card

Buster Card

Buster Card

Traits

Tags

Eye of Blue Stars

Eye of Red Stars

Heal

Nammu Duranki

Outro

Links

About the Author(s)

Comments

Latest Content