| Please note this is an old article (last updated 3/8/2018), information may be outdated and should be taken with a grain of salt. For those looking for Quick team setup for a more current meta, please check out the Skadi Looping Tier List! |
Introduction
‘The Staple Quick Team’ is called what it is for quite a sad reason. In FGO, Quick-oriented teams simply aren’t very good. That isn’t to say there aren’t a bunch of servants oriented around Quick cards which are excellent, but the card itself is outclassed heavily by the other card types, for various reasons. The primary reason is that while it’s very hard to compensate for less damage or NP gain from using cards other than Buster or Arts respectively, there are dozens of tools among Arts and Buster-oriented servants which allow them to produce and use critical stars independently of Quick cards, allowing them to reap the benefits which Quick cards offer without any of the drawbacks.
As such, there are few times where a Quick-oriented team will be superior to its Buster or Arts counterparts, unless there’s a direct debuff making the other cards weaker (such as in the Onigashima event, for instance). However, the archetype does still has its advantages, some of it owing just to the strength of the servants that can be used in it.
Strengths
- Due to the abundance of critical stars, incredibly effective at both NP spam and burst damage, allowing the team to frequently rack up high damage and NP’s when set up properly.
- No cards tend to be wasted in this team archetype – the Quick chain bonus is, arguably, the best of the three types, and the aim of the team is to produce stars. With that in mind, Buster cards still aid in increasing damage, and Arts cards for NP gain. Getting a “bad” card hand is basically impossible.
Weaknesses
- Regular card damage is by far the weakest of all team archetypes, due to Quick cards’ low damage multiplier and also the relatively low attack stats of Assassins, which tend to play a major role in this archetype.
- The defensive and supportive capabilities of this archetype are often lacking, primarily because Quick-oriented teams don’t have a powerful dedicated support in the same way that Buster or Arts teams do with Merlin and Tamamo respectively.
Battle Strategy
The goal of a Quick-oriented team is very simple – keep the stars flowing, then use them to eviscerate the enemy. Criticals increase the damage, NP gain and even the star generation of any card they occur on, so keeping the number of stars produced high is key to making the team function. However, what is more difficult is being able to recognize when star generation should be shafted in favour of sheer damage or more NP gain. This is mostly because there will be times where producing stars isn’t necessary to clear the wave or to defeat an enemy, so it may be better to focus on outputting more damage or setting up your team’s NP gauges.
What is important to note is that often with star generation and NP gain, you don’t have to choose between the two – while a AQQ chain will produce much fewer critical stars than a QQQ chain, depending on the servant you will still get enough stars to function for the next turn from the second and third Quick card, while also gaining far more NP gauge. Your servants’ star weight is also important to bear in mind when playing in to this. If you rely on a Berserker servant for your team’s critical damage, even if the other two members are Casters they’ll tend to get 1/5 of the stars their allies obtain on average. As such, it’s generally a good idea to have high star weight servants such as Archers or Riders be your main critical damage dealers. Similarly, the immediate 50% damage boost from performing a BQQ chain will likely be more useful than the additional stars you would get otherwise. Compared to all other team archetypes, Quick teams require the most knowledge of how many stars and how much NP gauge your chains will give you, making it better for experienced players.
For this team archetype, Quick booster CE’s are your main aim. Compared to other card booster buffs, Quick boost raises every aspect of the card – damage, star generation and NP gain. This makes it much more valuable as a CE effect. However, for your designated critical damage dealer a devoted critical damage CE like Gem Magecraft: Antumbra or Knight’s Pride is a more fitting option. Should for some reason you be lacking on Quick booster CE’s, NP gain or star generation are good options as alternatives.
Key Members
In FGO’s current state, Cursed Arm Hassan easily holds the crown of best star generator. Despite his bronze status, he possesses an amazing skill set providing almost everything you could ever want from a Quick servant – a reasonably good Quick hitcount and BAQQQ deck, an on-demand star button with a short cooldown, a good critical damage buff to take advantage of his stars and one of the best dodge skills in the game. Cursed Arm Hassan not only spews out stars, but he can also take advantage of them and output immense damage thanks to his free NP5 in the meantime.
The evil cat may be packing a few significant weaknesses, but in spite of that she’s a very solid pick for a Quick-based team. Rising Arcadia is the best team Quick buff in the game by a fair margin, and once Atalante gets her skill interlude in Okeanos it becomes even better. Adding to that, her NP is excellent for spewing out stars while also giving a significant sum of NP refund. Once she finally gets her skill strengthening in the future, her power shoots through the roof, gaining a powerful NP gain buff and dodge skill, essentially covering for her primary weakness. On the whole, she’s quite a solid pick for a damage-dealing crit-oriented servant who can also aid with the team’s star production.
Marie, in many ways, isn’t that amazing. A good portion of her kit is oriented to landing her mediocre charm skill, however she has some strong points worthy of mentioning for a Quick team – She’s unbelievably tanky, with a good HP total, two heal skills and one of the best defensive skills in the game, granting her a 3-hit Invulnerability buff. Adding to that, her Noble Phantasm is a handy team support NP in a team archetype lacking in support, giving the entire team a weak heal and debuff cleanse, the latter of which is especially rare in the early stages of FGO. Thanks to Guillotine Breaker’s reasonably good hitcount and Marie’s high Riding rank, it also gives a generous chunk of stars, something this team archetype always appreciates.
Though often mocked for his…unique stature and habit of sometimes spooking rolls, Caesar is an excellent servant who only gets better in the future. With a Quick-oriented card set and NP, Caesar’s NP gain is actually better than most servants, and he also comes with three solid team support abilities, including his Incitement skill, which particularly helps in furthering the damage output during a turn with crits flying about. Adding to this, his NP produces a vast amount of stars due to its high hitcount and overcharge effect, while also giving Caesar a reasonable sum of NP refund. For both single target damage output and support, Caesar is a superb option.
Ushi is a solid option in most teams, but her home surely lies in Quick teams. With two excellent team support skills, Ushi is a good pick for almost any roster, raising the team’s NP gain and attack by a good sum, with little downtime. Where she truly excels, however, is in how she can utilize her NP’s overcharge effect to produce a good amount of stars despite her low hitcounts. Once she gets her skill strengthening, this is even more prominent, gaining a massive 100% star generation buff attached to a dodge skill. First and foremost, however, Ushi is a rarity among 3* servants, gaining a NP interlude early on and having the benefit of being relatively easy to NP5, making her NP damage insanely high, even compared to Gold rarity competitors. Even though she may not excel right now, keep an eye on her for the future.
Okita is essentially what you get if you take Jack, throw her into the Saber class and lose some of her utility for more powerful offensive tools. With a similar 5-hit Quick and a BBAQQ card set, Okita leans on the offensive side of a Quick-oriented team, but easily for the better. Okita’s kit is essentially the archetypical “Single target damage servant” formula – NP damage steroid on a 1 turn duration, 7 turn cooldown, utility / critical damage skill, dodge / defensive skill. As plain as she is, Okita is also very good, providing consistent, high damage with a spammable NP, good critical team synergy and star generation. There’s very little to fault her for.
Jack holds the title of Best Assassin in the game quite firmly, and for very good reasons. A versatile and solid skill set, a powerful NP with an interlude to further its power and even defence pierce stacked on top of that. However, Jack’s biggest appeal is her amazing star generation, possessing a 5-hit Quick and a BAQQQ card set with high ranking presence concealment and Assassin base star generation. A Jack on her own will produce over 50 stars in a QQQ chain, no questions asked. If that weren’t enough, Jack also has one of the best NP gain rates in the game, capable of performing a NPQQ chain and getting enough refund to use her NP back-to-back on the next turn. Jack is practically the definition of what Quick-oriented teams aim to accomplish, and she’s amazing as a result.
Dantes, as a SSR Avenger, was the first to be added to the game, and is frequently overshadowed by his Buster-oriented and more offensively powerful compatriot, Jalter. However, in Quick teams Dantes is a scary contender, with an immensely high attack stat, the best defensive NP gain in the game (receiving a whopping 9% NP gauge per hit he receives, with his Golden Rule up), strong utility skills and a powerful NP on the whole. With his own buffs on Dantes can get some impressive refund from his NP, but with a Scathach or Atalante in the mix supporting him this Avenger can spam his NP twice in a row, producing an immense sum of stars while also double-stacking his defence debuff and curse. His main weakness would be his paper defences, and ultimately not much can be done about that, with the lack of strong defensive supports in this team archetype.
Future Stars
Often overlooked in the JP game, Kotaro is well deserving of the title of ‘Poor man’s Jack’. With a BAQQQ card set and 4-hit Quick, Kotaro is very effective at producing stars for a team, only furthered by his AOE Quick NP’s excellent hitcount and the star generation buff on his dodge. As a result, he overtakes Cursed Arm Hassan as the best budget star generator. However, where Kotaro really excels is his supportive capabilities – his dodge, while great by its own merits, it targetable to any ally, and he also possesses a solid attack debuff skill, and the strongest debuff resistance debuff in the game, practically guaranteeing any debuff to hit on the turn he uses it. While he may not take advantage of the stars already in play particularly well, Kotaro has a strong supportive skill set and excellent star generation, making him a worthy pick.
Kintoki Rider is yet another welfare servant for the future, being available for all players at NP5, however he has one thing different about him compared to all other welfares mentioned in this article. Kintoki Rider is by far the best servant of his rarity and class, even if he weren’t a free NP5. Kintoki Rider has practically everything going for him – with a good Riding rank, high base NP gain, a 4-hit Quick and an excellent skill set to aid his Quick cards, Kintoki Rider not only fills his NP gauge ridiculously fast, but also produces a bunch of stars in the meantime. Adding to that, his NP hits like a truck, and gains unbelievable damage scaling with overcharge, dealing almost double damage at 500% overcharge! If that weren’t enough, said damage amplifier is in the form of a 1-turn Quick buff, meaning a 500% overcharge Kintoki Rider NP can benefit from the immense damage buff for the rest of his Quick cards in the chain. Not only is performing a NP two turns in a row possible, but doing it 3 turns consecutively is easily within the realms of possibility. So far as single-target damage goes in this archetype, Kintoki Rider is the undisputed king.
