I see talk that these are pretty good CEs, but as a newbie I don’t know quite how all the stats work. Do the two boosts stack multiplicatively assuming you’re using their appropriate type of NP? Otherwise I would think stuff like formal craft and the like would have more overall value over the the course of a fight?
Or is it because you’re guaranteed to get them which makes them infinitely more valuable than a formal craft that you haven’t rolled?
Buffs stack multiplicatively. Meaning NP (buster or arts) multiplied by NP damage multiplied by Performance up. So yes this is a a great CE, and is a better alternative than True Samadji flame which does the same thing as it's free and could easily be MLBed, so you're right about that. Generally I think for NP damage it's better with Kaleido Sapphire rather than formal craft, but if you want to spam NP then Formalcraft.
Okay. Duely noted. That will help in my future team building. I had the impression most buffs in this game were additive so some stuff was fuzzy
Same buffs are additive. Meaning if you stack two charisma buffs they'll add and increase in percentage that's the only thing that adds.
Identical buffs: additive (example: Ushi and Caesar Charisma skills stacking with each other).
Different: usually multiplicative (Tactics effect+Buster Up to fire a Buster NP, for example).
Also, OP, Sapphire MLB is very good for Illya and Xuang, as their NP is Buster, so Formacraft does nothing on them. Kaleidos MLB gives dragonkind level NP dmg up, and one card effectiveness up (projection/verdant sound levels).
For Kaleid Sapphire, whether it's multiplicative or additive doesn't really make a huge difference. Say that it's not MLB, then your NP gets almost a 19% boost, since it's multiplicative. It would be 18% if it were additive, so not a huge difference. Whether or not the overall value is better than something like Projection probably comes down to your preference, the situation, and the particular servant. Assuming neither is MLB, then Projection gives you a 4% weaker NP, but your normal arts attacks will do 5% more damage and you will gain NP 5% faster. Maybe if the servant's NP gain isn't that great and you aren't confident that you will get to spam your NP a lot, then Projection would be better for a longer battle. But if you know that you're going to have an NP spamfest, then Kaleid Sapphire is better.
This is probably less of a consideration for the arts CE, though. The buster variant is a bit more cut and dry. For example, a berserker like Heracles is rarely going to be able to even build up his NP gauge without external help, so I'd sooner use a pure buster boosting CE on him than the Buster + NP option.
Of course, as you mentioned, the fact that these are free and will be MLB is pretty important. A MLB Kaleid Sapphire is better than a non-MLB Projection any day.
