Rabbit's Reviews #279: Ashiya Douman (5* Alter Ego)

Introduction

It seems FGO JP is finally hitting the point where long-running Lostbelt enemies will start to be added as summonable Servants. First on the docket is the oldest of those long-running antagonists, Ashiya Douman, also known as Caster of Limbo, of Shimousa fame. He’s a cool Servant! Limbo has two primary “value propositions,” so to speak, and while neither is amazing or top-class, both are strong enough for him to be a worthwhile pull if you like the guy. Limbo has decent persistent steroids with very good “stretch” on his crits, coupled with a huge battery that enables him to tri-loop easily with an MLB Kaleid or pretty much any third support who has NP charge, including Asclepius and Jinako. His other value proposition lies in the fact that he brings massive offensive buffs to Chaotic Evil Servants, to the point that his three-turn buffs nearly match Merlin’s Burst turn buffs in damage ampage, and with his Bond CE he surpasses Merlin handily (at least offensively and in a relatively short window). Limbo’s lack of targeted batteries or strong survival tools hinder his supportive value, but for certain Servants and team comps he can be highly valuable, especially if you have an MLB Kaleid to offset his lack of batteries or a Poster Girl to get him off the field quickly.

Servant Data

Alter Ego

QQAAB (Archer)

Quick Card

Arts Card

Buster Card

4

3

5

Attribute	Earth
Alignment	Chaotic Evil

Stage 1
Stage 2
Stage 3
Stage 4

April Fool's
Asagao-Patterned Yukata (Curse)

Max HP 13,266

HP Rank

Max ATK 12,252

ATK Rank

Base Atk	1,893	Base HP	1,945
Max Atk	12,252	Max HP	13,266
Grail Atk	13,412	Grail HP	14,533

Territory Creation B

Increase your Arts Card effectiveness by 8%.

Item Construction A

Increase your Debuff Chance Rate by 10%.

Magic Resistance A

Increase your Debuff Resist by 20%.

Core of Darkness B

Apply Damage Plus for yourself (Total Card Damage +225).
Increase own Instant Death Success Rate by 20%.

High Servant A

No effect.

Hedonism EX

Increase amount of NP Gained when attacked by 20%.

Card Hits	4	3	3	5	5
Per Hit	0.70%	0.70%	0.70%	0.70%	0.70%

	NP per Hit (%)						0.70%
	NP when Attacked (%)						4%

	Star Absorption	100
	Star Generation per Hit	9.7%

Overview

Material Requirements

Stage	Cost	Materials
2	100,000	x5 Caster Piece x5 Assassin Piece
3	300,000	x12 Caster Piece x12 Assassin Piece
4	1,000,000	x5 Caster Monument x5 Assassin Monument
Max	3,000,000	x12 Caster Monument x12 Assassin Monument

Level	Cost	Materials
1 → 2	200,000	x5 Gem of Caster x5 Gem of Assassin
2 → 3	400,000	x12 Gem of Caster x12 Gem of Assassin
3 → 4	1,200,000	x5 Magic Gem of Caster x5 Magic Gem of Assassin
4 → 5	1,600,000	x12 Magic Gem of Caster x12 Magic Gem of Assassin
5 → 6	4,000,000	x5 Secret Gem of Caster x5 Secret Gem of Assassin
6 → 7	5,000,000	x12 Secret Gem of Caster x12 Secret Gem of Assassin
7 → 8	10,000,000	x5 Rainbow Thread Ball x5 Glowing Star Fragment
8 → 9	12,000,000	x9 Heart of the Foreign God x9 Demonic Flame Light
9 → 10	20,000,000	x1 Crystallized Lore

Servant Skills

The theme of Limbo’s skillset is “loaded skills on long cooldowns.” Recommended skill order is 3>2>1.

Dmg Down

Ridicule Cat EX

Decrease ATK for all enemies (3 turns).
Decrease DEF for all enemies (3 turns).
Apply [Terror] Status to all enemies (3 turns).
(Terror: Chance to inflict Stun each turn (1 turn), the debuff dispels once the enemy is stunned.)
Apply [Confusion] Status to all enemies (3 turns).
(Confusion: 30% chance to inflict Skill Seal each turn.)
Apply Curse to all enemies (500 damage, 3 turns).

Show Info

Lvl	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
ATK -	10%	11%	12%	13%	14%	15%	16%	17%	18%	20%
DEF -	20%	21%	22%	23%	24%	25%	26%	27%	28%	30%
Stun Chance +	30%	31%	32%	33%	34%	35%	36%	37%	38%	40%
CD	8	8	8	8	8	7	7	7	7	6

Ridicule Cat brings a whopping five different AoE debuffs all at once: attack down, defense down, terror, confusion, and curse. In most contexts in which you’d use Limbo, the defense down is the only one of these that really matters—Limbo lends himself so dramatically towards fastplay that a simple 20% attack down (especially with no way to protect against crits) might as well not even exist; Terror is a decent but highly unreliable bit of survival that can actually get in the way if you happen to, say, want defensive NP gain; Confusion is typically a non-factor at best and outright harmful at worst, since skill seal can force an enemy to swing at you three times instead of wasting an action on a mostly-harmless skill; and Curse is Damage-Over-Time is mostly worthless in FGO outside of certain gimmick teams and fights. All that said, 30% AoE defense down for 3 turns is nice to have in CQs especially, and in farming contexts it can let you push damage on a single wave. It’s also worth noting that this skill does provide two mental debuffs, which means it amps Summer Kiara’s damage considerably (although she doesn’t fully benefit from Limbo’s other skills). Overall, though, for as involved as this skill is, it really just boils down to: “helps push damage.”

Guts

Onyx Life A

Apply Guts to self (2 times, 5 turns).
Increase Critical Strength for all [Evil] allies (3 turns).
Further increase Critical Strength for all [Chaotic] allies (3 turns).

Show Info

Lvl	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
Revives with HP	1000	1200	1400	1600	1800	2000	2200	2400	2600	3000
Crit Damage + (Evil)	30%	32%	34%	36%	38%	40%	42%	44%	46%	50%
Crit Damage + (Chaotic)	30%	32%	34%	36%	38%	40%	42%	44%	46%	50%
CD	9	9	9	9	9	8	8	8	8	7

Black Fate is a super powerful skill. It starts off as a 3k guts that can proc twice. The guts gives Limbo a lot of personal bulk and can make him an attractive Poster Girl carrier, as he effectively guarantees you three turns of protection at that point while also being able to leverage Poster Girl’s huge attack buff. The disadvantage of this is that the double-guts means he’s a lot less likely to die off if you’re running Limbo in a supportive capacity and are counting on being able to bring in another support once he’s done. The main appeal of this skill, though, is the partywide conditional crit buffs. This gives any Chaotic Evil allies, including Limbo himself, 100% crit up for 3 turns. This isn’t all that valuable, relatively speaking, for Quick Servants, as the crit amp gets a little washed out with Skadi, but Arts Servants with crit access and especially Buster Servants benefit a ton from the sustained crit amp, especially since their favored supports are generally weaker in the “sustained crit buffs” department. The biggest weakness (insofar as it is one in practical contexts) for Arts Servants is that they lack the damage “stretch” Quick Servants do on their cards. Limbo’s buffs let Chaotic Evil Arts Servants like Salieri, Kiara, and Vlad push their damage against a single target much higher in CQ contexts, provided you’re able to feed them stars. Buster Servants, by contrast—think Jalter, Ibaraki, and Summer BB—become less tethered to Hero Creation’s burst turn for big damage output. Buster Servants are also less concerned with looping in general, so they have a little more freedom to run Limbo instead of, say, Reines. That isn’t to say this makes Limbo a better choice than his competition for supporting Chaotic Evil Servants, but rather that he’s an interesting option and can provide some unique value.

Start Np

Douman's Curse A++

Increase own NP Gauge.
Increase ATK for all [Evil] allies (3 turns).
Increase ATK for all [Chaotic] allies (3 turns).
Inflict Curse on all enemies (5 turns).

Show Info

Lvl	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
NP +	50%	53%	56%	59%	62%	65%	68%	71%	74%	80%
ATK + (Evil)	10%	11%	12%	13%	14%	15%	16%	17%	18%	20%
ATK + (Chaotic)	10%	11%	12%	13%	14%	15%	16%	17%	18%	20%
Curse Dmg +	1000	1100	1200	1300	1400	1500	1600	1700	1800	2000
CD	9	9	9	9	9	8	8	8	8	7

Douman’s Curse is a whopping 80% self-battery. It just so happens that Limbo gets roughly 20% refund off his NP with just two Skadis, which means this battery gives Limbo a loop that’s effectively “free,” provided he’s able to sacrifice the attached steroids on wave/turn 1. Unfortunately, Limbo’s NP refund is not good enough for him to run Black Grail for loop farming, but still, the battery happens to be more-or-less exactly what he needs for a single loop. The skill also buffs Chaotic and Evil allies’ attack by 20% each (so, 40% for Chaotic Evil, including Limbo himself). Pretty much everything I said with regards to Limbo as a support under the Dark Fate skill applies here as well—Limbo’s lack of batteries and defensive tools make him a weaker third support than Waver/Reines/Castoria, but still, it’s a lot of extra damage. The skill also inflicts a hefty curse, which is cool. It’s worth noting that both Dark Fate and Douman’s Curse have 7-turn cooldowns at max level, so while Limbo does provide big bonuses, he’s more-or-less dead in the water for a long time after, and he has little in the way of party protection, so he’s not the kind of Servant you want sticking around for a long time.

Noble Phantasm

Mad Maelstrom - Akuryou Safu B

Deal damage to all enemies.
Apply Curse to all enemies (1000 damage, 5 turns).
120% Chance to apply Instant Death.

<Overcharge>

Apply Curse Damage Up (5 turns).

Show Info/Video

Mad Maelstrom - Akuryou Safu

Kyourandotou Evil Spirit Minister

	Rank	Classification	Hit-Count
	B	Anti-City	5

Effect	Deal damage to all enemies. Apply Curse to all enemies (1000 damage, 5 turns). 120% Chance to apply Instant Death.

Level	1	2	3	4	5
Damage +	600%	800%	900%	950%	1000%
Curse Damage	1000	1000	1000	1000	1000
Death %	120%	120%	120%	120%	120%

Overcharge Effect	Apply Curse Damage Up (5 turns).

Charge	100%	200%	300%	400%	500%
Curse Damage +	100%	125%	150%	175%	200%

Limbo’s NP is all about dealing damage, though between Limbo’s steroids going all-in on attack and him not having access to all of them every wave (depending on how you’ve planned out your strategy), he’s… not going to hit especially hard on his own. He really needs double Skadi to be worthwhile, and even with two Skadis and a plug Reines you’re looking at a damage progression of something like 57k -> 73k -> 112k wave over wave at NP1 versus Cavalry. (The assumption here is that turn 1 you only have Reines’s attack buff and the Skadis’ Quick buffs; turn 2 you use Limbo’s battery; turn 3 you use all three defense debuffs and the Plugsuit’s attack buff). There’s a little room to maneuver by, for example, using the defense debuffs or the Plugsuit buff earlier, but doing so reduces your wave 3 damage. As with basically all Quick Servants, he’ll be dependent on NP levels for reliable farming, and as an Alter Ego he’s not going to work well against non-cavalry nodes. That said, again, this NP does give Limbo just enough refund with double Skadi to loop with just his own battery, which opens up things like the aforementioned Reines comp, and with Traces of Christmas he can loop with Jinako and Asclepius as well, which means his loop requirements aren’t as expensive as some other battery-dependent loopers. As a side-note, the NP inflicts another Curse and boosts Curse damage, so with all of his skills and one use of this NP Limbo’s dealing 7k turn-over-turn curse damage. That’s still not a ton in the grand scheme of things, but especially with NP looping Limbo does have easier access to more reasonable damage-over-time than do most Servants—which is to say, his curses are a little less of a gimmick than usual.

Usage Tips

For all his kit’s complexity, Limbo’s use-cases are super straightforward. You run him in a battery loop setup with two Skadis and one of Waver/Reines/Castoria/Jinako/Asclepius and bring him to farm cavalry nodes, or you stick Black Grail on him and rely on card draws so you can loop clear CQs, or you bring him as a third support for a Chaotic Evil Servant. The first two are pretty self-explanatory. If you’re running Waver, Reines, or Castoria, you’ll want to start Limbo with a CE that gives damage and 50% starting NP gauge, like Holy Night Supper or Tenkihime. You’ll want to start with the third support, drop all their buffs on Limbo, then plug that support out for your second Skadi, use their Quick buffs, let him NP, and then rely on batteries for the next two rounds. CQ setups will look much the same, with the caveat that you’re using one of the Skadi batteries (or Limbo’s battery, if you’re feeling lucky and need the damage) on turn 1 and then relying on getting genning cards to bring Limbo to 50%.

If you’re using Limbo as a support, though, you’re more-or-less committing to winning fast, or at least to getting Limbo out of the way quickly. Limbo is pretty much dead weight once his buffs are gone, which actually makes his guts something of a liability. You can solve this problem in a couple of ways, the most effective being Poster Girl (especially against enemies with mega-high damage) or Chen Gong. Poster Girl can be particularly effective against an enemy with an ST NP, since you can more-or-less guarantee the first guts will proc on turn one, the second on turn 2, and then have Limbo die on turn 3, so long as you plug Limbo in when the target’s about to NP.

As I said above, Limbo wants a 50% starting CE for farming, or the Black Grail for CQs. Traces of Christmas specifically lets Limbo hit 30% refund with Jinako or Asclepius, pushing him into loop territory with their 20% batteries, but otherwise Holy Night Supper, Golden Sumo, and Tenkihime are good farming CEs. If you’re running Limbo as a support, your best option is generally going to be Poster Girl, a star burst CE (like Carp), or Limbo’s own Bond CE. Limbo’s Bond CE boosts Chaotic Evil allies’ NP damage by 30%, which solidifies Limbo as a better offensive buffer than Merlin, at least for 3 turns out of 7.

Limbo’s mixed use cases mean there’s not one specific set of command codes that jumps out as being especially valuable. Star gen command codes are nice on Limbo in that he really wants his team to crit, but he’s an AoE Quick Servant with good cards, so the extra stars may be overkill. Similarly, star-weight-boosting command codes are nice for Limbo as a DPS, but they might get in the way of Limbo as a support. Crest of Titan’s Pit, which increases a single card’s NP gain by 5%, complements Limbo’s good cards nicely, and might be a good pick that works for all of Limbo’s use cases. Similarly, the various command codes that remove specific buff types can be nice on Limbo, giving him a little extra utility as a support and a little more stability as a DPS.

Grail Potential

Conclusion

Limbo is a strong Servant, but not a necessary or uniquely powerful one. He has solid farming potential, but he does need native Skadi and one of a handful of third supports to do it, and he’s limited to cavalry classes as well. Battery loopers are generally more reliable for 90+ nodes, at least, but those nodes also tend to favor unorthodox teams in general, and if you have a deep bench already you can probably handle the various 90+ nodes that pop up with or without access to Limbo. As a support, he brings a ton of offensive firepower but very little in the way of defense, and he’s hampered by the long cooldowns on his skills. Ultimately, if you like him or get lucky on his banner, you can use him in ways that will make him feel strong, but he’s probably not a Servant to actively target if gameplay is the only draw.

Rabbit's Arbitrary Ratings

Overall: 8/10
Single-Target DPS: 7/10
AoE DPS: 7/10
Survivability: 8/10
Offensive Utility: 8/10
Defensive Utility: 3/10
Farming Usefulness: 8/10
Heat: 10/10