Rabbit's Reviews #238: Bartholomew Roberts (1* Rider)

Introduction

Bartholomew Roberts (also known as Barti Ddu, or Black Bart) is the Rider of the new bronze bunch. With a high level of star control and offensive buff value that surpasses even Hans, Barti is a highly valuable free servant. His own damage output is somewhat constrained by his low stats, but his offensive lean makes him a powerful budget plug buffer, and in general he’s an excellent new option for fast-moving teams, and particularly those that lean Quick.

Servant Data

Rider

QQAAB (Archer)

Quick Card

Arts Card

Buster Card

3

2

4

6

Attribute	Human
Alignment	Chaotic Evil

Stage 1
Stage 2
Stage 3
Stage 4

April Fool's

Max HP 6,720

HP Rank

Max ATK 5,461

ATK Rank

Base Atk	993	Base HP	1,344
Max Atk	5,461	Max HP	6,720
Grail Atk	8,485	Grail HP	10,359

Traits

Card Hits	3	2	2	4	6
Per Hit	0.65%	0.65%	0.65%	0.65%	0.65%

	NP per Hit (%)	0.65%
NP when Attacked (%)	3%

	Star Absorption	200
Star Generation per Hit	8.9%

Stage	Cost	Materials
2	10,000	x2 Rider Piece
3	30,000	x4 Rider Piece x8 Fool's Chain
4	90,000	x2 Rider Monument x2 Black Beast Grease x2 Ghost Lantern
Max	300,000	x4 Rider Monument x4 Ghost Lantern x4 Serpent Jewel

Level	Cost	Materials
1 → 2	10,000	x2 Gem of Rider
2 → 3	20,000	x4 Gem of Rider
3 → 4	60,000	x2 Magic Gem of Rider
4 → 5	80,000	x4 Magic Gem of Rider x1 Black Beast Grease
5 → 6	200,000	x2 Secret Gem of Rider x2 Black Beast Grease
6 → 7	250,000	x4 Secret Gem of Rider x5 Fool's Chain
7 → 8	500,000	x10 Fool's Chain x2 Shell of Reminiscence
8 → 9	600,000	x6 Shell of Reminiscence x24 Reactive Gunpowder
9 → 10	1,000,000	x1 Crystallized Lore

Np Dmg

Voyager of the Storm A+

Increase NP Strength for all allies (1 turn).
Increase ATK for all allies (1 turn).

Show Info

Lvl	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
NP Damage +	8.5%	9.4%	10.2%	11.1%	11.9%	12.8%	13.6%	14.5%	15.3%	17%
Attack +	8.5%	9.4%	10.2%	11.1%	11.9%	12.8%	13.6%	14.5%	15.3%	17%
CD	7	7	7	7	7	6	6	6	6	5

Barti’s version of Voyager is identical to Drake’s. Unlike in Drake’s case, though, Barti’s will generally be more valuable when used supportively. Barti’s low attack means the benefit of using this to buff Black Dirty Barti Howling isn’t huge, but it can significantly push an ally’s NP damage for a turn, which can be useful for hitting notable damage thresholds, especially for players who lack native support Casters. As with Drake’s version of the skill, this also provides some farming flexibility, as if Barti can wipe an early enemy wave with just his selfish buff he can use Voyager to push an ally’s damage on a higher-HP third wave.

Crit Absorb Down

Pirate Gentleman A

Decrease own Critical Star Gather Rate by 100% (3 turns).
Increase Critical Strength for all allies (3 turns).

Show Info

Lvl	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
Crit Damage +	20%	22%	24%	26%	28%	30%	32%	34%	36%	40%
CD	8	8	8	8	8	7	7	7	7	6

Pirate Gentleman is a really powerful skill. As an AoE 40% 3-turn crit amp, it matches Hans’s crit buff (albeit on a slightly longer cooldown). More importantly, though, it reduces Barti’s star weight to zero for 3 turns, significantly lowering the star thresholds needed to guarantee ally crits. This has a lot of value for newer players especially, as it makes it possible to enable reliable DPS crits with just Hans’s Innocent Monster and some active star generation—and the crit damage buff ensures those crits will be respectably powerful.

Quick Up

Swift Pillager A

Increase own Quick Card effectiveness (3 turns).
Decrease Critical Rate for all enemies (3 turns).
Gain Critical Stars.

Show Info

Lvl	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
Quick +	10%	11%	12%	13%	14%	15%	16%	17%	18%	20%
Crit Chance -	10%	11%	12%	13%	14%	15%	16%	17%	18%	20%
Stars +	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	20
CD	7	7	7	7	7	6	6	6	6	5

Gale’s Plunder is yet another powerful skill. As a damage buff it’s underwhelming—20% for 3 turns is rather weak considering 30% is the standard—but in exchange it comes with a strong star burst and an AoE crit chance reduction. The star burst combined with Pirate Gentleman makes it quite easy for Barti to enable a turn of ally crits, and it can also be used to let Barti himself crit past his star weight reduction in some situations. The crit chance reduction isn’t huge, but keeping enemy crits under control is exceptionally valuable in general and even more so with Barti on the field (as Barti’s low HP pool makes him particularly vulnerable to stray crits).

Noble Phantasm

Black Dirty Barti Howling C+~B-

Deal heavy damage to all enemies.
Decrease DEF for all enemies by 20% (3 turns).

<Overcharge>

Deal extra Supereffective damage to [Low-Rarity] enemies.
(All Bronze or 1-2 star count as [Low-Rarity])

Show Info/Video

Black Dirty Barti Howling

Roar of the Noble Pirate Baron's Cannons

	Rank	Classification	Hit-Count
	C+~B-	Anti-Army	6

Effect	Deal heavy damage to all enemies. Decrease DEF for all enemies by 20% (3 turns).

Level	1	2	3	4	5
Damage +	600%	800%	900%	950%	1000%
Defense -	20%	20%	20%	20%	20%

Overcharge Effect	Deal extra Supereffective damage to [Low-Rarity] enemies. (All Bronze or 1-2 star count as [Low-Rarity])

Charge	100%	200%	300%	400%	500%
Add. Damage +	150%	162.5%	175%	187.5%	200%

Black Dirty Barti Howling is a nifty NP that in most cases is more valuable as a support tool than as a damaging one. A 20% defense debuff isn’t huge on its own, but in conjunction with Voyager and Gentleman it brings Barti to a level of damage enabling that’s well above what’s typical of a semi-support. An NP chain led by Barti’s NP and fueled with Voyager has Barti boosting ally NP damage by roughly 60%, and while this is both short-lived and inferior to most full supports it’s exceptionally high by budget servant standards. Very nice! The NP also drops a lot of stars versus multiple targets, setting up subsequent crit turns. Additionally, it gets bonus damage against low-rarity enemies, which can have some niche farming use and means Barti is actually capable of surprisingly good damage on the rare occasion someone like Hans or Shakespeare turns up in a Challenge Quest.

Usage Tips

Outside of farming, Barti has two notable use cases. The first is as a budget semi-support for low-end Quick teams. His flexible buffs and crit enabling make him an alternative to (or a partner for) Hans in teams that want to move fast. He can help another DPS to drop a bar while also boosting party crit damage and providing a bit of damage himself (particularly against Casters). He won’t be especially valuable in this role if you have higher-end Quick tools like Osakabehime and Skadi, but for newer players or those with few Quick options he makes the playstyle a lot more accessible.

Barti’s second potential use case is as a sacrificial- or plug-buffer. Barti’s one-turn damage ampage has the potential to be very high, so rather than trying to keep him around and dealing with his low stats, you can let him drop all his skills, NP, and then die off. There are several ways to accomplish this, ranging from using a taunt CE (which likely precludes using his NP) to having Chen Gong use him as fodder for his own NP. Barti/Buster ‘Zerker/Chen Gong is a really strong Buster fastplay shell provided you have the starting NP CEs to make it work and can survive the turn or two needed to fill their NP gauges to full. A Barti->DPS->Chen Gong NP chain is likely to drop the first health bar of pretty much anything, and then the DPS has a 20% defense debuff and a 40% crit amp to make use of on the next two turns. Arjuna Alter is a particularly strong candidate for the DPS slot, and as Barti and Chen Gong are both free, you can safely grab Arjuna off support, even if you don’t actually have the guy.

Outside of taunt CEs and starting NP CEs, Barti can work well with passive star gen CEs (whether that’s 2030 or something that provides stars and another effect) or even with his bond CE. Barti’s bond CE boosts party NP gain and NP damage, which complements his kit wonderfully provided he stays alive long enough for it to matter.

Grail Potential

Conclusion

Barti’s gotten a touch lost in the mix amidst all the (well-deserved) excitement about Chen Gong, but if you’re able to set aside the ludicrous Caster for a moment, Barti is a super impressive budget tool. He lacks Hans’s stability, but in exchange he fits much more elegantly into fastplay teams, and he opens up a lot of possibilities to players without high-end tools—and high-end Quick tools in particular.

Rabbit's Arbitrary Ratings

Overall: 9/10
Single-Target DPS: 5/10
AoE DPS: 7/10
Survivability: 2/10
Offensive Utility: 9/10
Defensive Utility: 3/10
Farming Usefulness: 9/10
Preference for Hidden Eyes: 10/10