Rabbit's Reviews #247: Mysterious Alter Ego Λ (4* Lancer)

Introduction

Melt is only the second AoE Arts Lancer to be added to the game, and the first since Fionn. She doesn’t really have all that much to recommend herself over Fionn if you already have him, but she’s a passable DPS otherwise provided you have the tools to enable Arts-themed fastplay.

Servant Data

Lancer

QQAAB (Archer)

Quick Card

Arts Card

Buster Card

3

2

3

5

3

Attribute	Earth
Alignment	Lawful Good

Stage 1
Stage 2
Stage 3
Stage 4

April Fool's
Ice Celebrity

Max HP 11,749

HP Rank

Max ATK 9,261

ATK Rank

Base Atk	1,543	Base HP	1,879
Max Atk	9,261	Max HP	11,749
Grail Atk	11,213	Grail HP	14,246

Magic Resistance B

Increase your Debuff Resist by 17.5%.

Riding C

Increase your Quick Card effectiveness by 6%.

Independent Action EX

Increase your Critical Strength by 12%.

Core of the Goddess C

Apply Damage Plus (Total Card Damage +200).
Increase Debuff Resist for yourself by 20%.

High Servant A

No effect.

Card Hits	3	2	3	5	3
Per Hit	0.76%	0.76%	0.76%	0.76%	0.76%

	NP per Hit (%)						0.76%
	NP when Attacked (%)						4%

	Star Absorption	91
	Star Generation per Hit	12.1%

Overview

Material Requirements

Stage	Cost	Materials
2	50,000	x4 Lancer Piece
3	150,000	x10 Lancer Piece x6 Shell of Reminiscence
4	500,000	x4 Lancer Monument x5 Warhorse's Young Horn x4 Phoenix Feather
Max	1,500,000	x10 Lancer Monument x7 Phoenix Feather x10 Aurora Steel

Level	Cost	Materials
1 → 2	100,000	x4 Gem of Lancer
2 → 3	200,000	x10 Gem of Lancer
3 → 4	600,000	x4 Magic Gem of Lancer
4 → 5	800,000	x10 Magic Gem of Lancer x3 Warhorse's Young Horn
5 → 6	2,000,000	x4 Secret Gem of Lancer x5 Warhorse's Young Horn
6 → 7	2,500,000	x10 Secret Gem of Lancer x4 Shell of Reminiscence
7 → 8	5,000,000	x8 Shell of Reminiscence x5 Eternal Frost
8 → 9	6,000,000	x15 Eternal Frost x8 Egg of Truth
9 → 10	10,000,000	x1 Crystallized Lore

Servant Skills

While it may look gimmicky at first glance, Melt’s skillset is actually pretty straightforward in practice. Recommended skill order is 3>1>2.

Arts Up

Swan Lake A

Increase own Arts Card effectiveness (5 turns).

Show Info

Lvl	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
Arts +	10%	11%	12%	13%	14%	15%	16%	17%	18%	20%
CD	6	6	6	6	6	5	5	5	5	4

Swan Lake is an Arts buff that actually lasts for longer than its cooldown duration at max level. There’s no reason not to just use this whenever it’s available, meaning it’s functionally a permanent 20% Arts buff that occasionally spikes to 40%. Melt has anti-synergy with traditional Tamamo play (for reasons I’ll get to later), but if you try to run the two together you can potentially expand that 40% window for added flexibility.

Fluidity (Water)

Complete Fluidity B

Apply Invincible to self (1 turn).
Increase own Buff Removal Resist (1 turn).
Change current field to [near water] (3 turns).

Show Info

Lvl	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
Buff Removal Res +	50%	55%	60%	65%	70%	75%	80%	85%	90%	100%
CD	8	8	8	8	8	7	7	7	7	6

Complete Fluidity is a functionally-unremovable invuln, which is nice on the rare occasion you’re up against an enemy that spams debuff removal (like Amakusa or Abby). It also grants the Waterside Field buff, which could have some corner-case value if you’re trying to run Melt alongside Summer Jeanne.

NP Drain

Melt Envy EX

Decrease NP Gauge for all allies except self.
Increase own NP Gauge by the total amount drained.
(NP Gauge charge amount directly matches the actual amount drained;
allies with 0 NP Gauge will give 0 NP Gauge to Meltryllis)
Increase own Critical Star Gather Rate (1 turn).
Increase own ATK (1 turn).

Show Info

Lvl	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
NP - (Ally)	20%	21%	22%	23%	24%	25%	26%	27%	28%	30%
C Star Gather Rate +	300%	320%	340%	360%	380%	400%	420%	440%	460%	500%
ATK +	30%	32%	34%	36%	38%	40%	42%	44%	46%	50%
CD	7	7	7	7	7	6	6	6	6	5

Melt Envy is the skill that makes Melt unique. On top of functioning as a star weight boost and a Mana Burst, this drains up to 30% NP gauge from each of Melt’s allies, giving Melt an amount of meter equal to what she drains. This means Melt can potentially charge her NP gauge by 60% every five turns, provided her allies have the meter for her to steal. This directly conflicts with typical Tamamo-centric Arts setups, as most standard Arts teams want the supports to NP as often as possible. The fact that Melt’s Mana Burst is here as well means Melt can’t really push her own damage without interfering with her allies’ NP gain, making her a poor fit for all but the most selfish builds. In exchange, it means Melt can essentially convert AoE batteries into selfish ones, allowing her to more easily NP immediately with the Black Grail.

Noble Phantasm

Blue Summer Palladion B+

When [near water], remove Evasion buffs from all enemies. (Activates first)
Deal DEF-ignoring damage to all enemies.

<Overcharge>

Gain Critical Stars.

Show Info/Video

Blue Summer Palladion

Glass-like dew of summer

	Rank	Classification	Hit-Count
	B+	Anti-Personnel	3

Effect	When [near water], remove Evasion buffs from all enemies. (Activates first) Deal DEF-ignoring damage to all enemies.

Level	1	2	3	4	5
Buff Removal
Damage +	450%	600%	675%	712.5%	750%

Overcharge Effect	Gain Critical Stars.

Charge	100%	200%	300%	400%	500%
Stars +	20	25	30	35	40

Blue Summer Palladion is an AoE Arts NP with decent looping potential, particularly in CQ contexts. Her refund is a bit worse than burst-turn Fionn and a bit better than off-turn Fionn while also scaling better with outside NP gain buffs. Her damage output is nearly identical to his as well, although the fact that she can more easily run with better CEs will result in higher damage output in ideal setups regardless. The NP also removes evasion buffs while Complete Fluidity is up and pierces defense buffs no matter what, meaning Melt’s damage is pretty hard to stop. It also has a star burst tied to overcharge, letting Melt set up crits for more NP gain and easier looping in CQ contexts. Melt’s deck and lack of crit buffs (outside of her passives) mean her crits won’t actually deal all that much damage, but her bases are good enough that Arts and Quick crits should generate a fair bit of meter.

Usage Tips

Grail Potential

Conclusion

Melt almost qualifies as a solid-if-bland AoE Arts servant, but her odd battery forces her into something of a unique role. If you have the tools to enable Melt-centric fastplay, she might have value, but if you don’t have the right CEs and servants to make her shine she’s likely to fall flat—especially relative to Fionn, who’s generally excellent now that he’s been buffed. This leaves her in a pretty rough spot overall. Her ceiling is just “passable” and her floor is quite low. She’s not particularly good.

Rabbit's Arbitrary Ratings

Overall: 5/10
Single-Target DPS: 4/10
AoE DPS: 8/10
Survivability: 5/10
Offensive Utility: -2/10
Defensive Utility: -2/10
Farming Usefulness: 7/10
Leviathan Parka: 10/10