MMM - Diminutive Draconic Dame Dances Dirks, Doubly-Dressed Dragoon Delivers Divine Demitasse (LB6 Gacha Part 2)

So with that talk of Noble Phantasms, we finally get to the section for it.

Now while I framed Melusine’s situation as having two NP’s, the reality of playing her is that 9 times out of 10 you’re going to be using her Arts NP, Innocence Alondite instead of the Buster one, Hollowheart Albion. The reasoning is simply because Arts good, Buster bad.

But more seriously, it’s because Melusine’s ST NP spam is absolutely bonkers.

Innocence Alondite has 3 effects to it outside of the damage. Firstly, it applies a respectable 20% NP gain buff for 3 turns before dealing damage, actively increasing the refund it provides from the outset. Secondly, it applies the Alondite-specialty damage up debuff, making every hit on the target following the NP deal 1k extra damage for 5 turns. It’s like DoT damage, but with extra steps! Lastly, it drops a neat 10 critical star bomb, which in combination with Melusine’s Parry Dancer allows her to set herself up with a consistent 20 star supply each turn if she’s constantly NPing.

And interestingly, let me do some math for you - with Melusine’s NP occupying a card slot, you pick 2 cards from in her NP turn to put in the chain. Each card can contain up to 10 critical stars. 10x2 = 20 critical stars, the same as her star supply per turn. Interesting, is it not? Almost like DW can design a game. But that’s crazy talk. They’d have to also give Melusine an insanely powerful star focus buff to make that a consistent gameplay interaction…

In any case, the real meat and potatoes of Innocence Alondite is the refund. With 5 hits and Melusine’s base NP gain in play, this NP refunds 12.7% NP gauge. That’s frankly a lot, competing with well-known ST refunds like Orion’s. Naturally, you’ll want to know how it is with double Casturia in the mix. With two copies of the Arts Queen in play the refund bumps up to 36.6%. Add in the assumption that the last 2 hits are overkill (which is frankly pretty typical) and we get 44% refund. Really, not bad at all for a Servant who has a gauge charger. She hits the benchmarks for 3-turn loop using a 50% gauge CE, Kaleido, or LB Kaleido with ease, not even factoring for the possibility of demolishing in a brave chain.

That’s also furthered by how Melusine’s NP gain buff stacks on itself, increasing her refund more the longer she keeps her Arts loop going. The third Np in a 3-NP Arts loop of hers will be providing 53.8% refund under double Casturia, a pretty important benchmark for being able to NP again off of 50% gauge chargers.

The flaw, if anywhere, in Melusine’s game plan will be the damage output. With just her own buffs in play her NP is producing 40.2k damage per NP. While it doesn’t sound too bad on paper, it does get cowed pretty badly by competing Lancer ST’s, such as Enkidu’s 60.9k damage, or Kagetora, who punches at 54.3k damage while having somewhat comparable NP spam potential.

But that’s about what you expect when comparing a newly-released SSR to one with a NP upgrade and a welfare. Not that it changes her inferiority in that area, but it does contextualize things. The damage output boost from double Castoria does enough to compensate, letting her hit well past the 150k dmg threshold versus Archers and Berserkers, but it may prove an issue where higher output is needed.

So now I can finally talk about Hollowheart Albion. Melusine’s Buster NP is almost like a mirror of her Arts one, having somewhat similar effects but adapted for a different purpose. Instead of a 20% NP gain buff before damage for 3 turns, it’s a 20% Buster Up buff. In place of the star gain, she gets Invincible Pierce for a turn before dealing damage. And in place of a pseudo-DoT, she gets an actual DoT in a 1k dmg burn over 5 turns.

In any case, Hollowheart Albion’s merits are pretty much entirely tied to its damage output - the unique niche Melusine’s setup gives her is the capability to be a ST NP for the first 2 waves, then pop her 3rd skill, instantly gauge charge to full and be the AOE NP for the final wave. We’ve had plenty of lvl90+ nodes which would make great use of this niche lately, so the only real hindrance to Melusine’s effectiveness is whether she can net the waveclear with her AOE NP.

With just her own offensive buffs, Hollowheart Albion clocks in at a very unimpressive 22.1k damage. Not even enough to clear hands without class advantage. However, it’s best kept in mind she will have 3 turns worth of support buffs lined up for her on the last wave. So let’s assume she’s gotten 2 Casturia charisma buffs, and you battlesuit swap in Merlin on the last wave, popping Battlesuit’s attack buff for good measure - with that in account her damage output bumps to 51k neutral, just clearing the 100k mark when in class advantage.

It’s going to largely depend on where you use her, and if she can manage farming with a damage / drop CE if applicable in events, but I believe Melusine can probably barely inch out enough damage to clear that 3rd wave with AOE, even if she needs to slap the boss with 1 Merlin-boosted crit to be sure afterward.

Frankly, even if the NP swap gimmick doesn’t work out, she’s still very serviceable off her ST NP spam.

Where’s my boy Sir Balin. Where the heck is he?

You can’t just write The Lance of Longinus into FGO for the first time, Nasu and not have it on the dude who went nuts with it in Arthurian lore! Well at least he kept to the more mythologically contingent lore of it being a holy relic with a somewhat grim aesthetic instead of being an EVA rip off weapon.

Longinus Count Zero is an Arts AOE, but keep your farming pants off for now, since I’ll run down the effects. Before damage, Percival applies 1-turn NP Strength Up and Invincible Pierce buffs to himself, with the NP Strength Up scaling on overcharge. Then afterward, the lowest-hp ally (based on percentage) gets a pretty chunky 3k heal.

In all honesty, it’s a far better set of effects than I’d expect out of a spammable AOE NP. Invincible Pierce is very nice to have around, and the pre-NP damage buff just throws Percival’s NP steroid even higher by default. Rounding things off, the post-NP heal is fairly extra, but with how Percival is incentivized to taunt and each regular attack damage, he could probably do with the benefit to keep his own HP topped off.

But you’re looking for a NP spam breakdown, and here it is: Hitting a wave of 3 enemies with just his own Arts booster buff up, Percival gets a very impressive 29.95% gauge refund. That alone is something a lot of Quick farmers under double Skadi would envy. Add in double Casturia to the mix, and you’re looking at a refund of 84% gauge. Yup. Literally a Kaleidoscope of NP gauge each NP. And that’s not even factoring in CE or overkill. With 1 hit of Overkill (aka, if he actually clears the wave) Percival gets 95% gauge refund. At that point I don’t think I have to go further.

Yeah, Percival can loop. Obscenely easily. Honestly I’m shocked they didn’t give his NP a base NP gain rate nerf for NP only like they did with Casgil, since Percival’s refund is shockingly close to what Casgil’s would’ve been without the nerf.

However, with that in mind we need to evaluate Percival’s damage output, too. Percival’s NP just going off his own buffs does a modest 18.1k damage neutral. While that may not seem like much, it’s best to bear in mind his competition doesn’t hit too pretty, either. Vritra outside of her turn where she uses her NP damage buff hits for 17.4k damage, and Fionn hits about as hard as Percival...for one of his NP’s, as his Arts buff only lasts a turn. I’d probably throw Erice in her too, if her NP’s death effect didn’t entirely invalidate her for farming. Sucks to be her I guess.

Point being, Percival’s damage output is competitive, and more than passable once you throw Casturia buffs and the right CE in the mix. He pulls out 54.7k damage neutral with double Casturia buffs active, and his attack stat adjusted for CE attack and 1k atk fous, breaching the 100k damage mark with class advantage. Add in a Black Grail (as he can very easily farm with it), and you get 78.1k damage neutral, or 156.2k damage with class advantage. And that’s not even making the Black Grail LB.

So Percival farms incredibly easy, meets damage benchmarks for farming in most circumstances, and is absurdly composition flexible. And that’s even ignoring the perks this NP pulls out in CQ scenarios.