Rabbit's Reviews #295: Percival (4* Lancer)

Introduction

Percival is a classically strong Servant. He has a multi-hit AoE Arts NP, strong persistent steroids, an NP battery, and multiple ways to protect the team. Sure, his cards aren’t the best, and sure, there’s already a host of strong AoE Arts Lancers, but Percival stands out in spite of these factors. Where Melusine is complex, Percival is extremely simple: He’s Arts, he loops, and he helps his teammates.

Servant Data

Lancer

QAABB (Saber)

Quick Card

Arts Card

Buster Card

3

2

3

5

4

Attribute	Earth
Alignment	Lawful Good

Stage 1
Stage 2
Stage 3
Stage 4

April Fool's

Max HP 12,112

HP Rank

Max ATK 9,168

ATK Rank

Base Atk	1,528	Base HP	1,938
Max Atk	9,168	Max HP	12,112
Grail Atk	10,130	Grail HP	13,393

Traits

Card Hits	3	2	3	5	4
Per Hit	0.64%	0.64%	0.64%	0.64%	0.64%

	NP per Hit (%)	0.64%
NP when Attacked (%)	4%

	Star Absorption	89
Star Generation per Hit	12.0%

Stage	Cost	Materials
2	50,000	x4 Lancer Piece
3	150,000	x10 Lancer Piece x18 Proof of Hero
4	500,000	x4 Lancer Monument x16 Great Knight Medal x4 Octuplet Crystals
Max	1,500,000	x10 Lancer Monument x8 Octuplet Crystals x6 Warhorse's Young Horn

Level	Cost	Materials
1 → 2	100,000	x4 Gem of Lancer
2 → 3	200,000	x10 Gem of Lancer
3 → 4	600,000	x4 Magic Gem of Lancer
4 → 5	800,000	x10 Magic Gem of Lancer x8 Great Knight Medal
5 → 6	2,000,000	x4 Secret Gem of Lancer x16 Great Knight Medal
6 → 7	2,500,000	x10 Secret Gem of Lancer x12 Proof of Hero
7 → 8	5,000,000	x24 Proof of Hero x3 Warhorse's Young Horn
8 → 9	6,000,000	x9 Warhorse's Young Horn x12 Fruit of Eternity
9 → 10	10,000,000	x1 Crystallized Lore

Arts Up

Protection of the Holy Grail A

Increase own Arts Card effectiveness (3 turns).
Increase own NP Gauge.
Increase NP Strength for all allies (3 turns).

Show Info

Lvl	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
Arts +	20%	21%	22%	23%	24%	25%	26%	27%	28%	30%
NP +	10%	11%	12%	13%	14%	15%	16%	17%	18%	20%
NP Dmg +	10%	11%	12%	13%	14%	15%	16%	17%	18%	20%
CD	8	8	8	8	8	7	7	7	7	6

Protection of the Holy Grail is a fantastic skill. It’s a damage boost comparable in power in to a mana burst, but split between two buff brackets, meaning it amounts to a larger increase in damage than a full Arts buff would. Furthermore, as it is partially an Arts buff, the skill helps Percival’s NP gain. On top of that, the other half of the buff—the NP damage buff—is both a relatively rare buff bracket and AoE, meaning it can help push damage for Percival’s allies if Percival isn’t the only damage-dealer on the field. These buffs last for three full turns as well, meaning Percival sustains his damage across multiple turns, which is especially useful if he’s looping. In short, this is one of the best damage buffs in the game—and then it adds a battery on top of that. A 20% battery isn’t huge, sure, but it’s enough to matter on occasion. This is a really strong start for Percival’s skillset.

Taunt

Guardian Knight (Sacred Lance) B+

Apply Target Focus to self (3 turns).
Increase own NP Gain when taking damage (3 turns).

Show Info

Lvl	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
NP Gain (Taking Dmg) +	30%	32%	34%	36%	38%	40%	42%	44%	46%	50%
CD	7	7	7	7	7	6	6	6	6	5

Knight of Protection is a very rare three-turn taunt. The only other Servants with three-turn self taunts on skills are George and Chevalier, both of whom are extremely useful for certain hard content on the basis of those skills alone. Percival could have nothing else in his kit and still be situationally valuable for his ability to draw fire alone. The skill also increases Percival’s defensive NP gain for the duration, meaning enemies with high-hit-count attacks will charge Percival’s NP gauge substantially while they swing at him. Another great skill.

Invi Shield

Light of Salvation B

Apply Invincible to one ally (1 turn).
Restore HP to one ally.

Show Info

Lvl	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
Heal +	1000	1100	1200	1300	1400	1500	1600	1700	1800	2000
CD	8	8	8	8	8	7	7	7	7	6

Light of Rescue is a targeted invuln that also comes with a small heal attached. The heal is minimal and will sometimes be wasted anyway—if Percival is proactively defending himself on the first turn of his taunt, for example—but targeted invulns are strong utility in general, so this remains a valuable skill. Percival can use this to guarantee himself a turn of survival while he’s taunting, or to protect a vulnerable teammate, as needed.

Noble Phantasm

Longinus Count Zero C+ ~ A+

Apply Ignore Invincible to self (1 turn). [Activates first]
Deal damage to all enemies.
Restore HP to ally with lowest HP percentage remaining.

<Overcharge>

Increase own NP Strength (1 turn). [Activates First]

Show Info/Video

Longinus Count Zero

Shining Lance of Fate

	Rank	Classification	Hit-Count
	C+ ~ A+	Anti-Fortress	4

Effect	Apply Ignore Invincible to self (1 turn). [Activates first] Deal damage to all enemies. Restore HP to ally with lowest HP percentage remaining.

Level	1	2	3	4	5
Ignore Invincible
Damage +	450%	600%	675%	712.5%	750%
Heal	3000	3000	3000	3000	3000

Overcharge Effect	Increase own NP Strength (1 turn). [Activates First]

Charge	100%	200%	300%	400%	500%
NP Damage +	20%	25%	30%	35%	40%

Longinus is a solid AoE Arts NP. It pierces invuln buffs, which means Percival is pretty hard to stop, and it also comes with a selfish NP damage buff every time it activates. In conjunction with Protection of the Holy Grail, this means Percival effectively has 30% Arts up and 40% NP damage up for 3 turns, so his damage output is remarkably high for an uninterluded SR Servant. The NP also provides a respectable 3000 HP heal to the most injured ally, helping to keep the team stable. The heal is more important than it may first appear, too, as Castoria teams typically have no healing and are thus susceptible to being worn down by incidental damage over time. Between this heal and Percival’s taunts, Percival-centric Arts teams are remarkably bulky in the long term. It’s also worth noting that while Percival’s Arts cards are not great, his NP refund is pretty fantastic, to the point where he gets about 23% refund against 3 targets without any buffs in play, and 86% with his own Arts buff and a pair of Castorias. This is before any overkill, so Black Grail looping is very much within reach for Percival.

Usage Tips

The most obvious setup for Percival is to bring a pair of Castorias and let him loop. A plug Tamamo makes his loop more or less guaranteed, on top of further enhancing his damage, so she’s probably the best pick for a plug support if you have her. Castoria/Percival/Tamamo/Castoria gives Percival three turns of strong damage output right out of the gate, and Percival can use his taunt to nearly guarantee the team lasts through those three turns even against dangerous enemies. Castoria’s Arts buffs come with an invuln, which protects Percival through the first turn of his taunt, and Percival can use his own invuln to protect himself through the second.

Even for longer-form fights, though, Percival’s ideal is still double Castoria. In longer fights, you can use Castoria’s Arts buffs on separate turns, using the two Castoria invulns and Percival’s own invuln to protect Percival through all three turns of his taunt. This gives three turns of complete safety with which to prepare Castoria NPs to protect the party while Percival’s skills are on cooldown, while also resulting in a much faster stall comp than, say, something centered on Himiko and/or Merlin.

Even without native Castoria, though, Percival has plenty of tools to work with less-optimal comps. Since Percival’s first skill provides a small party buff, you can run him alongside another Arts Servant with party support—someone like Ryouma or Fionn—for a more collaborative (albeit less powerful) type of team. You can also make use of non-Castoria supports with skills that complement Percival’s value. Reines and Jinako are good picks here, as both have targeted defense skills that can protect Percival while he’s taunting, and Jinako has her own taunt she can alternate with Percival’s for further protection.

Percival has such good refund and so much healing that there’s little reason not to run The Black Grail. Percival teams are stable in general, but faster fights mean less likelihood of something surprising going wrong, and no CE speeds fights up as much as Black Grail. Lacking that, any CE that pushes Percival’s damage meaningfully can be useful, such as Formal Craft, Mark on a Smiling Face, or a max level Holy Night Supper.

Percival isn’t missing anything obvious that a Command Code can cover. You might consider giving him First Servant, as it provides a damage cut effect that could be useful to him while taunting. You could also give him CCs that remove buffs in order to help Percival keep his team stable.

Grail Potential

Conclusion

Percival is a fantastic Servant. He has great refund, great utility, and solid damage. His cards are bad and he’s somewhat stuck while his skills are on cooldown, but aside from that, there’s very little to criticize here. He offers different team support than Fionn does, on top of being better at most everything else. Melt has a much stronger battery, which makes her better for 90+, but Percival’s higher sustained damage and much less selfish kit make him more appealing for most other things. He probably loses out in blitz contexts to Vritra—that 3k attack difference is tough to overcome—but personally I would take Percival’s superior utility and looser loop conditions over Vritra’s extra damage any day of the week. Percival is, in my opinion, the standout unit of LB6 so far, and he’s a fantastic spook for anyone who happens to snag him in the future.

Rabbit's Arbitrary Ratings

Overall: 10/10
Single-Target DPS: 5/10
AoE DPS: 9/10
Survivability: 7/10
Offensive Utility: 3/10
Defensive Utility: 9/10
Farming Usefulness: 9/10
Humility: 10/10