Rabbit's Reviews #282: Vritra (5* Lancer)

Introduction

Christmas 2020 brings with it Vritra, a fancy new non-limited SSR Lancer. Vritra happens to be our first AoE Arts Lancer at the SSR level, and while her kit is remarkably straightforward, she also has everything she needs to be a strong pick in Castoria world. There’s not a whole lot to say here: she’s Arts, she loops, and she doesn’t outdo the best of the best. It’s a healthy place for a new Servant to land, especially given that she can spook. Not bad.

Servant Data

Lancer

QQAAB (Archer)

Quick Card

Arts Card

Buster Card

4

3

2

5

3

Attribute	Heaven
Alignment	Neutral Evil

Stage 1
Stage 2
Stage 3
Stage 4

April Fool's

Max HP 13,632

HP Rank

Max ATK 12,332

ATK Rank

Base Atk	1,905	Base HP	1,999
Max Atk	12,332	Max HP	13,632
Grail Atk	13,499	Grail HP	14,934

Magic Resistance A

Increase your Debuff Resist by 20%.

Dragonkin A

Increase own Buster Card effectiveness by 10%.
Apply Damage Cut by 180 to self.

Card Hits	4	3	2	5	3
Per Hit	0.55%	0.55%	0.55%	0.55%	0.55%

	NP per Hit (%)						0.55%
	NP when Attacked (%)						4%

	Star Absorption	88
	Star Generation per Hit	12.2%

Overview

Material Requirements

Stage	Cost	Materials
2	100,000	x5 Lancer Piece
3	300,000	x12 Lancer Piece x18 Dragon Fang
4	1,000,000	x5 Lancer Monument x8 Serpent Jewel x15 Stake of Wailing Night
Max	3,000,000	x12 Lancer Monument x29 Stake of Wailing Night x5 Dragon's Reverse Scale

Level	Cost	Materials
1 → 2	200,000	x5 Gem of Lancer
2 → 3	400,000	x12 Gem of Lancer
3 → 4	1,200,000	x5 Magic Gem of Lancer
4 → 5	1,600,000	x12 Magic Gem of Lancer x4 Serpent Jewel
5 → 6	4,000,000	x5 Secret Gem of Lancer x8 Serpent Jewel
6 → 7	5,000,000	x12 Secret Gem of Lancer x12 Dragon Fang
7 → 8	10,000,000	x24 Dragon Fang x6 Eternal Ice
8 → 9	12,000,000	x18 Eternal Ice x24 Giant's Ring
9 → 10	20,000,000	x1 Crystallized Lore

Servant Skills

Vritra’s skillset is not complex, but it’s also perfectly serviceable for what Vritra wants to do. Recommended skill order is 1>2>3, but she really needs every bit of loop potential she can get, and all three skills contribute, so if you plan to use her she’s worth maxing out.

Arts Up

Piercing Vajra A

Increase own Arts Card effectiveness (3 turns).
Increase own Arts Card Star Gather Rate (1 turn).

Show Info

Lvl	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
Arts +	20%	21%	22%	23%	24%	25%	26%	27%	28%	30%
Arts Star Gather +	300%	320%	340%	360%	380%	400%	420%	440%	460%	500%
CD	7	7	7	7	7	6	6	6	6	5

Vajra is a 3-turn 30% Arts buff on a 5-turn cooldown. This isn’t an exciting skill, but a persistent Arts buff is what every Arts Servant wants, so there’s nothing to complain about here. The Arts card star weight buff isn’t likely to matter in most practical contexts—especially since Vritra will typically use this on turn 1, before you have stars to use—but it can help Vritra loop a bit easier if she’s alone on the field for some reason.

Special ATK

Sworn Enemy of Gods A

Apply Special ATK [Divine] to all allies (3 turns).
Increase own NP Gauge.

Show Info

Lvl	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
Add. Atk +	20%	21%	22%	23%	24%	25%	26%	27%	28%	30%
NP +	20%	21%	22%	23%	24%	25%	26%	27%	28%	30%
CD	8	8	8	8	8	7	7	7	7	6

Fated Enemy is a 30% battery, and that’s all that really matters. This battery is critical to Vritra’s ability to loop, so it’s important to max it out. The skill also gives the whole team a small power mod versus Divine Servants, which can be nice for Vritra in certain CQs but isn’t worth counting on for farming. The partywide nature of this buff (in conjunction with some of Vritra’s other stuff) might also make Vritra look like an interesting semi-support when fighting Divines, but her kit doesn’t really work well in that direction, so you’re better off treating this as a primarily selfish skill.

Guts

Indestructible Demon EX

Apply Guts to self (1 time, 5 turns).
Increase own NP Gauge each turn (5 turns).
Increase NP Strength for all allies (1 time, 5 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
NP Regen +	5%	5.5%	6%	6.5%	7%	7.5%	8%	8.5%	9%	10%
NP Dmg +	10%	11%	12%	13%	14%	15%	16%	17%	18%	20%
CD	9	9	9	9	9	8	8	8	8	7

Demon is an interesting skill. It combines a standard Guts with a passive NP charge effect, getting around the usual disadvantage of a Guts cooldown by letting the NP gain last for a full 5 turns. The skill also boosts the party’s NP damage by a bit once during its duration, which is cool, but since Vritra needs the NP charge active for farming, the damage boost is likely to be “wasted” on the first wave, and Vritra’s preferred partners have non-damaging NPs anyway, so that particular steroid isn’t terribly helpful.

Noble Phantasm

Asurasreshta EX

Deal damage to all enemies.
Apply Skill Seal to all enemies (1 turn).
Decrease Critical Rate for all enemies by 20% (3 turns).

<Overcharge>

Decrease Arts Resist for all enemies (3 turns).

Show Info/Video

Asurasreshta

O Demon, Cover The Wrathful Heaven And Earth

	Rank	Classification	Hit-Count
	EX	Anti-World	3

Effect	Deal damage to all enemies. Apply Skill Seal to all enemies (1 turn). Decrease Critical Rate for all enemies by 20% (3 turns).

Level	1	2	3	4	5
Damage +	450%	600%	675%	712.5%	750%
Skill Seal Chance
Crit Chance -	20%	20%	20%	20%	20%

Overcharge Effect	Decrease Arts Resist for all enemies (3 turns).

Charge	100%	200%	300%	400%	500%
Arts Res -	10%	15%	20%	25%	30%

Vritra has an AoE Arts NP with 3 hits, which is just enough to let her loop in some setups. Her loop conditions are a bit tight, relatively speaking, to the point that the standard big-damage team of Castoria/Castoria/Tamamo with Black Grail Vritra can’t loop reliably without a ton of overkill. There are plenty of other setups that will work, though, ranging from Black Grail and the Fragments of 2004 Mystic Code to Painting Summer to a plug Paracelsus team, so while the tight loop conditions do hurt Vritra’s effective damage ceiling a little, she’s still more than sufficient for most standard Archer farming.

The NP also inflicts skill seal for a turn, which is usually a questionable form of utility. On a loopable NP, though, it is somewhat interesting in that it can prevent annoying random defensive skills from shutting down a loop in a CQ. It can’t stop break buffs, sadly, but it still functions as a sort of soft consistency buff for Vritra. The NP also inflicts crit chance down for 3 turns, which helps to offset the usual disadvantage of skill seal forcing opponents to attack. The NP’s overcharge effect is a small Arts resist down, which lets Vritra’s damage scale up a little each turn in CQ contexts, slightly offsetting the fact that she’s only going to get her third skill’s damage buff once.

Usage Tips

I alluded to this above, but the standard team of Castoria/Castoria/Tamamo with Black Grail Vritra isn’t reliable enough for farming (though it should still be strong in CQs, where cards are allowed). There are a couple of ways you can still run Black Grail and loop, though, one being the 2004 Mystic Code. If you use its NP gain buff on turn 1, Vritra’s battery can make up the difference on turn 2. Alternatively, you can plug in a Paracelsus, or start with Bride and plug her out after using her skills. Castoria/Castoria/Bride with BG on Vritra is going to be Vritra’s highest-damage generic farming setup, assuming you happen to have the necessary tools. Vritra can also loop fairly easily with Painting Summer and Sign of Smiling Face, and running those CEs with a plug Tamamo offers roughly comparable damage to running Black Grail without.

It’s worth addressing Vritra’s three AoE damage buffs, too, in her anti-Divine power mod, her NP damage buff, and her Arts resistance debuff. While these might seem to lend Vritra towards a potential semi-supportive role against Divine enemies, she’s not actually especially well-suited towards working in that capacity. Arts teams that rely on one or two semi-supports tend to be crit-oriented and involve Lanling and/or Sherlock. Not only can neither of those Servants take advantage of Vritra’s NP damage buff, but Vritra’s power mod also stacks additively with crit buffs, meaning it won’t have that much of an impact on your card damage. As such, Vritra is really only at all interesting as a Semi-support alongside another unit with partywide support value, good NP gain, and an NP damage focus. There aren’t all that many Arts Servants to whom that applies—you’re looking at Servants like Ryouma and Sheba, mostly—and trying to run a team that fully takes advantage of this potential will be an uphill climb. I’d strongly recommend sticking with using Vritra as a primary DPS.

Vritra’s CE choices depend largely on how you’re structuring your team. The Black Grail is always best for raw damage, but Vritra’s top priority is tri-looping, and it’s worth running a different CE instead if it lets you loop more reliably with the tools you happen to have.

Vritra’s card damage is always going to be low, so she’ll benefit most from CCs that provide utility, help her loopage, or improve her NP damage.

Grail Potential

Conclusion

If Vritra’s loop conditions were a little looser and her damage were a little higher, she’d be phenomenal. As-is, she’s very good, but not spectacular. She has the unfortunate distinction of being generally inferior as a farmer to Summer Melt, and she’s not generally a Servant to actively pull for given how many superior alternatives there are, but if you’re immediately in need of an Arts farmer or if she happens to spook, she’s a great pull.

Rabbit's Arbitrary Ratings

Overall: 9/10
Single-Target DPS: 7/10
AoE DPS: 8/10
Survivability: 4/10
Offensive Utility: 3/10
Defensive Utility: 3/10
Farming Usefulness: 9/10
Dragon: 10/10