New Year's 2021 - Tier List Change Log

Tier A

Beni-Enma is a Saber-class Servant with a single target Arts Noble Phantasm, and a plethora of utility and supportive effects. She is capable of debuffing all enemies' DEF, Crit Rate, and can NP Seal, while also buffing all allies' ATK, restoring HP, applying a rare Buff Removal Resist buff, and notably providing a 20% NP Gauge charge for all allies. She also has an Evade as her defensive skill, which provides her with a Critical Damage boost. Her passives are notable for making her Skill Seal immune, such that her arsenal of effects is always available. Her NP, finally, can deal bonus damage against either Chaotic or Evil alignment enemies, and these stack if an enemy has both alignments, making her damage particularly impressive against the right enemies. Her greatest difficulties are her average NP gain, with somewhat average hit counts on her cards aside from her Quick card. As an overall package, Beni-Enma offers a great deal, and will fulfill the role of a Single Target Saber while covering many niches at the same time.

Tier C

Li Shuwen's Assassin form is a solid entry to the single target Arts damage dealer roster. He comes with potent Critical damage performance, having Critical Strength, Star Gather Rate, and instant Star gain skills, with Ignore Invincibility available to his arsenal. He also has a potent self ATK boost that has both a 1 turn and 3 turn component, which also comes with a bonus 1 turn immunity to debuffs. Defensively, however, his kit is relatively sparse, with only a self Evade skill that is tied to his Star Gather and Star gain effects. His NP inflicts a DEF down effect before damage, has the added bonus of Instant Death chance, and receives a damage upgrade. However, it only deals one hit, making its NP refund somewhat underwhelming despite being an Arts card. Li Shuwen (Assassin), despite shortcomings, is a capable addition to the roster for those in need of a single target Assassin class Servant, and will handily solve most any Rider class issues the Master may have.

Tier A+ > EX-

Tamamo recently received a remarkable Rank Up that improves her first skill, which now can provide an NP Strength boost of up to 30% to all allies except herself. An NP Strength buff is relatively rare compared to ATK or Buster/Arts/Quick buffs, which make it relatively valuable due to the multiplicative nature of stacking different buff types. Her raw support for an Arts damage dealer is unmatched in the current NA roster. Although this may change in the future (due to a certain Saberface Caster), the boost to the support she provides led to a general agreement that her rating increases a notch.

Tier B > B+

Fionn mac Cumhaill's recent New Year's Rank Up gives him a handy self NP Charge of up to 30%, making him a more attractive candidate for farming. His usage is much improved with the help of the NP Charge, although farming with him still remains somewhat clunky until later Arts Support roster changes. He is given a slight tier boost in the meantime.

Tier C > C

Marie Antoinette was discussed in light of her NP looping prowess against Casters with the help of Skadi. Her capabilities have certainly increased with the introduction of better Quick support, although her ability to loop is limited only to Caster waves, which hurts how widely applicable she is. Furthermore, when Quick support expires after three turns, her damage performance drops drastically; her cards are not particularly impressive, and her skill set caters towards a stalling playstyle without her offering much in the way of Support (outside of her NP's cleanse and heal) or offense. Her ability to loop is useful for Masters graced with her presence in their Chaldea, and those without alternative AoE Quick Riders will find Marie to serve them well. However, alternatives are numerous (including welfares), often with better offensive performance or supportive options. Moving her now may be premature, although she will be rediscussed when she receives her skill upgrade that gives her a party ATK buff.

Tier x > B+

Mash (Ortinax) first appears during the second part of the Main storyline, and has a distinctive skill set from the normal version of Mash. Her skillset has several notable differences, with arguably the greatest one being the loss of her targetable NP charge skill. She also loses her first skill's party defensive buff, instead gaining a self-Buster and Buster Crit damage buff, which does not quite mesh well with her low attack stat. On the plus side, both her second and third skills have the taunt effect, which enhance her ability to tank damage for allies by allowing her to do so for two turns instead of one. One taunt provides her with 1-turn invincibility, while the other charges her own NP gauge by 20%. Her NP reverts to a state similar to Lord Chaldeas (no ATK buff), still providing the defensive buffs at similar values it used to. Overall, she is not quite as effective as her former self, but she still has most of her kit intact, the pros of being 0 Cost, a 5% bond point sharing bonus for new Main Quests and select events, and a cool new suit.