Rabbit’s Reviews #373: Ptolemy (5* Archer)

In the abstract, Ptolemy is a really cool unit. He switches between two forms, with his third skill and NP changing between them. In theory, this means he’s a Servant who can switch playstyles flexibly depending on the needs of the fight, reacting tactically to the situation at hand. In practice, though, FGO’s card-type-specific supports and rigid fight gimmicks mean Ptolemy will only get to use his third skill once, and he ends up as either a decent ST Buster Archer or a decent AoE Arts Archer. There are teams in which Ptolemy can switch back and forth, but they aren’t really optimal, which on the whole means Ptolemy is a much less interesting Servant than he might otherwise be. Alas.

Ptolemy has middling attack by Archer standards, but most SSR Archers have very similar stats (and quite high attack relative to SSRs as a whole), so this isn’t as bad of a starting point as it might sound. His star gen is quite bad, as he only has a single Quick and his hit-counts are very low. His NP gain is also really bad, with very weak Arts cards and a truly terrible Quick. This is a bit less of a problem when Ptolemy is in Arts mode, since he has very good refund, but in Buster mode it’s really unfortunate.

Ptolemy has a nice set of passives, though. Magic Resistance is generically nice for avoiding debuffs, and Ptolemy’s unique passive lets him sometimes avoid buff removal if you’re lucky. Independent Action helps crits be a little stronger, which is mostly relevant for Buster mode, and Territory Creation provides a very nice permanent steroid while in Arts mode.

Mana Loading is the best append, as always, letting Ptolemy loop more flexibly and making him capable of immediately NP-ing in Arts mode with no starting charge CE. The other appends are kinda useless—there’s not much reason to use Ptolemy when fighting Archers, and his cards are so bad the Extra card buff won’t do much.

Ascension Materials

Stage	Cost	Materials
2	100,000	x5 Archer Piece
3	300,000	x12 Archer Piece x8 Octuplet Crystals
4	1,000,000	x5 Archer Monument x10 Forbidden Page x3 Reactor Core of Dawn
Max	3,000,000	x12 Archer Monument x6 Reactor Core of Dawn x5 Egg of Truth

Skill Enhancement Materials

Level	Cost	Materials
1 → 2	200,000	x5 Gem of Archer
2 → 3	400,000	x12 Gem of Archer
3 → 4	1,200,000	x5 Magic Gem of Archer
4 → 5	1,600,000	x12 Magic Gem of Archer x5 Forbidden Page
5 → 6	4,000,000	x5 Secret Gem of Archer x10 Forbidden Page
6 → 7	5,000,000	x12 Secret Gem of Archer x5 Octuplet Crystals
7 → 8	10,000,000	x10 Octuplet Crystals x4 Reactor Core of Dawn
8 → 9	12,000,000	x11 Reactor Core of Dawn x24 Ether Light Collector
9 → 10	20,000,000	x1 Crystallized Lore

Append Skill Materials

Level	Cost	Materials
1 → 2	200000	x5 Gem of Archer
2 → 3	400000	x12 Gem of Archer
3 → 4	1200000	x5 Magic Gem of Archer
4 → 5	1600000	x12 Magic Gem of Archer x3 Lamp of Evil-Sealing
5 → 6	4000000	x5 Secret Gem of Archer x6 Lamp of Evil-Sealing
6 → 7	5000000	x12 Secret Gem of Archer x2 Scarab of Wisdom
7 → 8	10000000	x4 Scarab of Wisdom x3 Fragment of a Twinkling Star
8 → 9	12000000	x8 Fragment of a Twinkling Star x24 Sun Leather
9 → 10	20000000	x1 Crystallized Lore

Ptolemy’s skillset is… pretty good. He pays a little too heavily for his gimmick, but he has most of the basic things, at least. Recommended skill order is 3>2>1.

Buster Ptolemy is not particularly relevant to farming, but Arts Ptolemy is a very good farmer if he has the damage—which is a big if. He can loop any nodes due to his batteries and loop specs. On turn 1, Mana loading plus skill 3 plus skill 2 gives him 100% charge. He refunds 15% against a single enemy. A Castoria Charisma, two Castoria 20% batteries, and 20% charge from a plug Oberon brings him to 100%. With the Castorias’ NP gain buffs factored in, Ptolemy refunds 24% against a single enemy, and Oberon’s 50% charge plus the other Castoria charisma secures the loop. This makes Ptolemy a great farmer for anything 90+ or below, though his damage won’t generally be sufficient for 90++, except with Black Grail, class advantage, and significant investment.

Ptolemy’s CQ usage is somewhat more interesting, as he can work as either a good Arts Servant or a good Buster Servant, with the usual strategies for each. Arts Ptolemy can burst down AoE fights with the same setup as for farming, while Buster Ptolemy prefers a double Koyan setup, with a plug Oberon or Merlin depending on preferred strategy. Ptolemy can also stall with (for example) Lady Avalon and Castoria, with the caveat that he’s effectively a two-skill Servant in this context.

If you want to actually use Ptolemy’s gimmick, the best team for it is Himiko/Castoria. Himiko/Castoria teams are extremely safe and, most importantly, provide a mix of Buster and Arts buffs, meaning Ptolemy can freely switch NPs and reliably have useful buffs in either case. He also provides the one notable thing that team is missing: healing. This is a weaker strategy overall than just committing to Arts and using Lady Avalon, and it still runs into the fact that one NP is ST and one NP is AoE, meaning one or the other will likely be less useful for any given fight… but it’s an option.

It’s also worth noting that Ptolemy does provide a decent number of partywide buffs, and he can even apply his defense down effectively for free by starting in Buster mode to gain access to the extra 30% charge on skill 3. If Ptolemy NPs, he effectively provides 40% attack up and 20% Arts and Buster up for 3 turns. There are better support options out there, and Ptolemy’s lack of supportive charge limits his usefulness in this role, but especially for players with limited boxes or for fights that want two damage-dealers, it can be helpful.

Arts Ptolemy always wants the Black Grail if not running an event CE, as he has innate healing and very much benefits from the extra damage. Buster Ptolemy is less clear-cut, though. A CE that provides both starting charge and damage—something like Cranking or Aerial Drive—is probably the cleanest choice.

Crit damage CCs are pretty good for Ptolemy, as he has decent crit access and limited crit buffs, especially in Arts mode.

Ptolemy is a pretty good unit. Archers aren’t the best grail targets and Ptolemy isn’t really a standout, so I wouldn’t recommend grailing him in the abstract. That said, if you like him enough to want to commit to him, and if you have him at high NP levels, grails will help him hit damage thresholds and are definitely worth it.

Ptolemy is both a good AoE Arts Archer and a good ST Buster Archer. He’s… probably the best option in both roles, currently, but that’s more a testament to the lack of great options in either role than it is an endorsement of Ptolemy. He unfortunately can’t really function effectively as both at once, as the roles are too different to work well in tandem.

Objectively speaking, there’s nothing wrong with Ptolemy. He’s two Servants in one, and both of those Servants are entirely respectable. The problem is just that there are a lot of better options once you look outside of the realm of Archers specifically, which makes Ptolemy a hard sell… and less rationally, it just doesn’t feel good when the best way to use a Servant is to ignore their key gimmick. He’s almost a really cool unit, and it’s too bad he falls short in the particular ways he does.

Overall: 8/10
Single-Target DPS: 7/10
AoE DPS: 8/10
Survivability: 3/10
Offensive Utility: 7/10
Defensive Utility: 2/10
Farming Usefulness: 8/10
Time: Day/Night