Rabbit's Reviews #301: Anastasia & Viy (4* Archer)

Introduction

It’s long been an adage within the FGO community (deservedly or not) that there are no bad Archers. Summer Anastasia fits neatly into that pattern, with strong steroids, some utility, and a 50% battery. At high NP levels, she’s an upgrade to Chloe, and even at NP1 she’s a strong replacement for players who started too late to have the now-dated welfare. This is all well and good, and Anastasia is undoubtedly a strong Servant, but unfortunately the fact that Archers do tend to be strong means Anastasia doesn’t stand out all that much. We already have three free ST Arts Archers at the 3* level who are each very powerful in their own right, and longtime players should have Chloe for their battery Archer needs. And that’s not to mention Archuria and Orion, both of whom have excellent recursion and utility. Anastasia competes with the best Servants of her class and NP type, even looking above her rarity—while she just barely loses in damage to Orion and Archuria at equal NP levels, Anastasia is easier to NP2 than they are, and extra NP levels put her solidly ahead—and that makes her look pretty special as SRs go. The problem is that Anastasia has so much direct competition that it’s hard to advocate pulling for her. Yes, there are arguments to bring her over each of her direct competitors, but when the competition is already more than strong enough, a Servant who’s situationally or marginally better just isn’t all that interesting.

Servant Data

Archer

QQAAB (Archer)

Quick Card

Arts Card

Buster Card

3

2

5

3

Attribute	Human
Alignment	Chaotic Summer

Stage 1
Stage 2
Stage 3
Stage 4

April Fool's

Max HP 11,288

HP Rank

Max ATK 9,542

ATK Rank

Base Atk	1,590	Base HP	1,806
Max Atk	9,542	Max HP	11,288
Grail Atk	11,553	Grail HP	13,686

Traits

Card Hits	3	3	2	5	3
Per Hit	0.57%	0.57%	0.57%	0.57%	0.57%

	NP per Hit (%)	0.57%
NP when Attacked (%)	3%

	Star Absorption	148
Star Generation per Hit	8.0%

Stage	Cost	Materials
2	50,000	x4 Archer Piece
3	150,000	x10 Archer Piece x6 Shell of Reminiscence
4	500,000	x4 Archer Monument x8 Ghost Lantern x4 Eternal Ice
Max	1,500,000	x10 Archer Monument x8 Eternal Ice x10 Rainbow Thread Ball

Level	Cost	Materials
1 → 2	100,000	x4 Gem of Archer
2 → 3	200,000	x10 Gem of Archer
3 → 4	600,000	x4 Magic Gem of Archer
4 → 5	800,000	x10 Magic Gem of Archer x4 Ghost Lantern
5 → 6	2,000,000	x4 Secret Gem of Archer x8 Ghost Lantern
6 → 7	2,500,000	x10 Secret Gem of Lancer x4 Shell of Reminiscence
7 → 8	5,000,000	x8 Shell of Reminiscence x4 Phoenix Feather
8 → 9	6,000,000	x12 Phoenix Feather x20 Arrowhead of Malice
9 → 10	10,000,000	x1 Crystallized Lore

Level	Cost	Materials
1 → 2	100000	x4 Gem of Archer
2 → 3	200000	x10 Gem of Archer
3 → 4	600000	x4 Magic Gem of Archer
4 → 5	800000	x10 Magic Gem of Archer x5 Seed of Yggdrasil
5 → 6	2000000	x4 Secret Gem of Archer x10 Seed of Yggdrasil
6 → 7	2500000	x10 Secret Gem of Archer x2 Spirit Root
7 → 8	5000000	x4 Spirit Root x5 Eternal Ice
8 → 9	6000000	x15 Eternal Ice x20 Vision Scales
9 → 10	10000000	x1 Crystallized Lore

Arts Up

Shwipsig (Summer) B+

Increase own Arts Card effectiveness (3 turns).
Increase own NP Gauge.

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 +	30%	32%	34%	36%	38%	40%	42%	44%	46%	50%
CD	9	9	9	9	9	8	8	8	8	7

Shwipsig is the core of Anastasia’s appeal. It’s a 50% battery on an ST unit, which is always great to have, and it also provides a solid persistent steroid. While this is a powerful and valuable skill, it’s unfortunately tied to a long cooldown, and it’s not really loaded enough to earn that cooldown. What this means in practice is that Anastasia is great for short fights and potentially for 90+ farming, but her Arts buff has low uptime and her battery is a precious resource in CQ contexts, which can be a problem. Additionally, the fact that her primary steroid is also tied to her battery can make optimal timing of this skill difficult, especially give the high commitment its cooldown implies. While this skill is the core of Anastasia’s appeal, it’s not without a set of asterisks, which is a little unfortunate.

Invi Shield

Freezing Summer Time A

Apply Invincible to self (1 turn).
Apply Buff Removal Resist to self (1 turn).
Gain Critical Stars.

Show Info

Lvl	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
Buff Removal Res +	50%	55%	60%	65%	70%	75%	80%	85%	90%	100%
Stars +	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	20
CD	7	7	7	7	7	6	6	6	6	5

Freezing Summertime, by contrast, is a much cleaner—if less useful—skill. Hard survival is always great to have, and this skill also gives Anastasia debuff removal resistance, which can be situationally important. It’s on a 5-turn cooldown at max level, which is respectably quick for a hard survival tool, and it gives Anastasia an infusion of stars for easy crits. Very nice all-around.

Target

Accelerated Viy Viy Viy B

Apply Sure Hit to self (3 turns).
Increase own Arts Critical Star Gather Rate (3 turns).
Increase own Critical Strength (3 turns).
Increase own NP Strength (3 turns).

Show Info

Lvl	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
Arts Star Gather +	300%	320%	340%	360%	380%	400%	420%	440%	460%	500%
Crit Damage +	20%	21%	22%	23%	24%	25%	26%	27%	28%	30%
NP Damage +	10%	11%	12%	13%	14%	15%	16%	17%	18%	20%
CD	6	6	6	6	6	5	5	5	5	4

In exchange for the long cooldown on her first skill, Anastasia gets a remarkably short cooldown on her third. This skill gives a mix of miscellaneous 3-turn effects. Truesight is a nice utility effect, especially with such good uptime, which helps Anastasia get past dodging enemies (which would be more interesting if Tell didn’t already accomplish essentially the same thing). It also draws stars to Anastasia’s Arts cards, which is more useful for NP gain than for damage—Arts crits will help Anastasia’s NP gain feel a bit more impressive than it looks on paper. The skill then boosts Anastasia’s crit damage by an anemic 30%, which is part of why I say the star weight buff is more for NP gain than for damage. An SR Archer with limited card buffs, unremarkable attack, and 40% total crit damage up (counting her passive) isn’t going to be outputting remarkable crit damage. The best piece of this skill, though, is the NP damage buff. As with the rest of this skill, it lasts 3 turns, which means it has very good uptime and can be used freely. NP damage is a rare support bracket, which makes this a nice steroid assuming you can get Anastasia looping.

Noble Phantasm

Snegleto Snegurochka B

Deal damage to a single enemy.
Inflict Skill Seal on a single enemy (1 turn).

<Overcharge>

Decrease Arts Resist for a single enemy (1 turn) [Activates first].

Show Info/Video

Snegleto Snegurochka

Summer Snow, The Beauty of a Drop of Hoarfrost

	Rank	Classification	Hit-Count
	B	Anti-Personnel	3

Effect	Deal damage to a single enemy. Inflict Skill Seal on a single enemy (1 turn).

Level	1	2	3	4	5
Damage +	900%	1200%	1350%	1425%	1500%
Skill Seal

Overcharge Effect	Decrease Arts Resist for a single enemy (1 turn) [Activates first].

Charge	100%	200%	300%	400%	500%
Arts Res -	20%	25%	30%	35%	40%

Snegurochka is a pretty plain ST NP. It inflicts Arts resist down to the target for a turn pre-damage, which helps Anastasia’s damage and NP gain (assuming it isn’t resisted). This isn’t the best type of pre-NP damage boost—ideally it would be sustained and/or a buff instead of a debuff—but free damage is free damage. The NP’s hit-count is a bit on the low side, so Anastasia is highly dependent on cards or batteries to loop, but that’s not a huge detriment in a world where Castoria exists. The NP also inflicts skill seal for a turn, which can be a pro or a con depending on the fight. Sometimes you’d rather an enemy waste an attack using a useless skill, and Anastasia’s NP ensures the target will swing at you with all of their attacks. That said, it can be nice to know that an enemy won’t use an ill-timed random invuln or stun skill.

Usage Tips

Grail Potential

Conclusion

Anastasia has a lot going for her, and having access to another Arts Archer with a 50% battery is great. Unfortunately, she has cooldown issues on her most important skill, and her kit is just “fine” outside of her battery access. She’s a good Servant, no doubt, but she’s in a super crowded field and a good chunk of her competition is free, which makes her largely unnecessary.

Rabbit's Arbitrary Ratings

Overall: 8/10
Single-Target DPS: 8/10
AoE DPS: N/A
Survivability: 5/10
Offensive Utility: 2/10
Defensive Utility: 2/10
Farming Usefulness: 6/10
Fashion (Viy): 10/10