Rabbit's Reviews #302: Charlotte Corday (4* Caster)

Rabbit's Reviews Charlotte Corday Summer

Introduction

Contrasting with Summer Anastasia, Summer Corday fits into an underserved niche. ST Casters are a rarity in FGO, and strong ST Casters are even rarer. While she has a mix of interesting utility and distinct effects, Corday is ultimately most notable for being a conventionally strong ST unit in the Caster class. The closest Servant to fitting that description prior to now—Sheba—has severe damage issues, and all the other ST Casters mostly rely on either massive batteries or one-shot Burst damage for their value. Corday, by comparison, is an Arts Caster with persistent steroids and a battery, which makes her substantially better for general use than pretty much all of her competition. She doesn’t lack for 90+ potential, either, as her battery is still substantial and can be split with an ally. She still suffers from the usual Caster drawback of having low stats, and her NP gain isn’t the best, but all-in-all she’s a solid ST unit of a rare type, which gives her a lot of value.

Servant Data

Caster

QAAAB (Caster)

Quick Card

Arts Card

Buster Card

3

4

5

Attribute	Human
Alignment	Chaotic Summer

Stage 1
Stage 2
Stage 3
Stage 4

April Fool's

Max HP 11,882

HP Rank

Max ATK 8,417

ATK Rank

Base Atk	1,402	Base HP	1,901
Max Atk	8,417	Max HP	11,882
Grail Atk	10,191	Grail HP	14,407

Traits

Card Hits	3	3	3	4	5
Per Hit	0.53%	0.53%	0.53%	0.53%	0.53%

	NP per Hit (%)	0.53%
NP when Attacked (%)	3%

	Star Absorption	51
Star Generation per Hit	10.7%

Stage	Cost	Materials
2	50,000	x4 Caster Piece
3	150,000	x10 Caster Piece x6 Forbidden Page
4	500,000	x4 Caster Monument x8 Shell of Reminiscence x4 Serpent Jewel
Max	1,500,000	x10 Caster Monument x7 Serpent Jewel x6 Lamp of Evil-Sealing

Level	Cost	Materials
1 → 2	100,000	x4 Gem of Caster
2 → 3	200,000	x10 Gem of Caster
3 → 4	600,000	x4 Magic Gem of Caster
4 → 5	800,000	x10 Magic Gem of Caster x4 Shell of Reminiscence
5 → 6	2,000,000	x4 Secret Gem of Caster x8 Shell of Reminiscence
6 → 7	2,500,000	x10 Secret Gem of Caster x4 Forbidden Page
7 → 8	5,000,000	x8 Forbidden Page x15 Mystic Gunpowder
8 → 9	6,000,000	x45 Mystic Gunpowder x60 Mystic Spinal Fluid
9 → 10	10,000,000	x1 Crystallized Lore

Level	Cost	Materials
1 → 2	100000	x4 Gem of Caster
2 → 3	200000	x10 Gem of Caster
3 → 4	600000	x4 Magic Gem of Caster
4 → 5	800000	x10 Magic Gem of Caster x10 Deadly Poisonous Needle
5 → 6	2000000	x4 Secret Gem of Caster x20 Deadly Poisonous Needle
6 → 7	2500000	x10 Secret Gem of Caster x2 Scarab of Wisdom
7 → 8	5000000	x4 Scarab of Wisdom x5 Eternal Ice
8 → 9	6000000	x15 Eternal Ice x60 Bell of Amnesty
9 → 10	10000000	x1 Crystallized Lore

Arts Up

Illusionist (Imposter) C+

Increase own Arts Card effectiveness (3 turns).
Apply Evade to all allies (1 time, 1 turn).
Inflict [Confusion] on all enemies (3 turns).
- [Confusion]: 30% Chance to apply Skill Seal (1 turn) each 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%
CD	8	8	8	8	8	7	7	7	7	6

Illusionist is Corday’s primary damage buff. It’s a 30% Arts buff for 3 turns at max level, which is nice for damage and for NP gain. The skill has a slightly longer cooldown than buffs of this power level usually do, but in exchange it gets two pieces of utility, in the form of Confusion and a 1-hit party dodge. The Dodge is the most obvious benefit here, but in practice it’s actually the less useful of the two bonuses. While an AoE hit-based dodge looks great, this one only lasts a single turn, which means it’s wasted if not used (unlike its most obvious comparison, Harp of Healing). The fact that this dodge is also paired with Charlotte’s primary steroid means this skill forces a survival/damage trade, and usually Charlotte is going to be better off using this for damage than waiting to use the dodge for survival. In practice, the dodge is likely to be a nice bonus that eats up a little bit of damage rather than a meaningful piece of defensive utility. Confusion, by contrast, is considerably more valuable on Charlotte than on basically anyone else. Skill Seal is one of the worst forms of defensive utility, and an unreliable skill seal is even worse—but Charlotte is a special case. Charlotte’s NP deals bonus damage against enemies with Skill Seal, turning Skill Seal into a de facto Mana Burst effect. The randomness of Confusion isn’t amazing, but this essentially adds a free 50% damage to Charlotte’s NP on the turn it procs, making it a nice-if-unreliable offensive tool. This further reinforces that this skill should be used offensively, with the dodge treated as an incidental bonus, as you likely want confusion rolling for the potential for extra damage on a later turn. Overall, this is at minimum a persistent Arts buff, and it may provide extra benefits if you’re lucky, so it’s a good skill on the whole.

Supression

Haphazard Show Planning A

Chance to inflict Skill Seal on a single enemy (1 turn).
Apply Gain Critical Stars each turn to self (3 turns).
Increase NP Strength for all allies by 20% (3 turns).

Show Info

Lvl	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
Skill Seal Chance	50%	55%	60%	65%	70%	75%	80%	85%	90%	100%
Stars per turn +	5	6	6	7	7	8	8	9	9	10
CD	8	8	8	8	8	7	7	7	7	6

Haphazard Show Planning is both a persistent damage buff and a functional Mana Burst. It inflicts Skill Seal for a turn, which, as mentioned above, buffs Corday’s effective NP damage, making this a powerful offensive tools. The skill also buffs the whole party’s NP damage by 20% for 3 turns and provides a passive star gen buff. Aside from the implications for Corday’s own damage, this skill also plays into her value for 90+ farming, as Corday can push her own damage while also supporting an ally’s damage and generating stars for damage stretch. Good skill given Corday’s other strengths.

Start Np

Stage Magician Angel EX

Increase own NP Gauge.
Increase NP Gauge for an ally.

Show Info

Lvl	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
NP + (Self)	20%	21%	22%	23%	24%	25%	26%	27%	28%	30%
NP + (Ally)	20%	21%	22%	23%	24%	25%	26%	27%	28%	30%
CD	8	8	8	8	8	7	7	7	7	6

Angel of Magic is a nifty battery skill. It gives Corday 30% charge, and then it provides another 30% charge that can go to any ally, including Corday herself. This means Corday can use this as a selfish 60% battery, or she can pass half the battery off to a support or a second damage-dealer. In CQs, this flexibility can help access a support’s NP in a pinch, while in 90+ farming this can enable certain two-damage-dealer farming setups. This skill is as powerful and flexible as it is simple, and it works well for Charlotte.

Noble Phantasm

La Féerie d'une Nuit C++

Deal damage to a single enemy.
Gain 20 Critical Stars.

<Overcharge>

Deal supereffective damage against a [Skill Seal] afflicted enemy.

Show Info/Video

La Féerie d'une Nuit

喝采されるは一夜の夢

	Rank	Classification	Hit-Count
	C++	Anti-Personnel	5

Effect	Deal damage to a single enemy. Gain 20 Critical Stars.

Level	1	2	3	4	5
Damage +	900%	1200%	1350%	1425%	1500%
Stars +	20	20	20	20	20

Overcharge Effect	Deal supereffective damage against a [Skill Seal] afflicted enemy.

Charge	100%	200%	300%	400%	500%
Supereffective ATK +	150%	162.5%	175%	187.5%	200%

Corday’s NP is fairly straightforward. It’s an ST Arts NP that gets bonus damage against enemies with Skill Seal. Corday is in an interesting position in that her NP damage goes from underwhelming to quite good when she has skill seal access. Skill Seal isn’t a common form of utility on supports, unfortunately, but there are a few low-rarity Servants who can provide Skill Seal to fill in the gaps in Corday’s kit, which makes this a more manipulable niche than, say, waterside field. It’s a solid NP effect and gives Corday good damage-dealing potential. The NP also provides a burst of 20 critical stars. Casters have low star weight, so even with this burst of stars and Corday’s passive star gen, Corday will likely need help to crit reliably—and even if she does crit, her damage is going to be deeply unimpressive—but crit access equates to better NP gain for Charlotte and her supports, so it’s not a terrible bonus effect.

Usage Tips

Charlotte will work well in typical Arts setups. You can run two Castorias and whatever third support you prefer and Charlotte will do fine. Corday’s damage will be a bit spikey in these setups as skill seal comes and goes, but she’s strong enough in general that she should do fine.

That said, it’s also worth considering Mata Hari and Caligula as supports. Mata Hari brings a good mix of general utility, and (most importantly) she can provide a turn of skill seal to help keep Corday’s damage consistent. Mata is also quite flimsy, which means, with a taunt CE, you can let her use her skills, die, and make way for a better support. Caligula, by contrast, has worse general utility, but his NP can inflict skill seal for 3 turns, making him even lower effort than Mata Hari provided you can enable his NP.

At lower levels of investment, it’s a good idea to run Charlotte with Mata Hari and/or Caligula, plus whatever Arts supports you happen to have on-hand. Mash is great as always, and Mozart (with his recent buff) brings a good mix of utility as well. Charlotte is flexible enough that you can layer in whichever supports you happen to have and expect her to perform well.

The Black Grail is a good CE for maximizing Charlotte’s damage, as always. You can also give Charlotte starting NP CEs or Arts buff CEs in order to facilitate easier NP spam, especially since raw NP gain isn’t really a strength of hers. Generally speaking, Corday’s kit is generically strong enough that any of the usual useful Arts CEs will work for Charlotte.

Charlotte’s biggest weakness (outside of the need to maintain Skill Seal) is card damage, so Command Codes that boost crit damage or otherwise help Charlotte’s non-NP damage output are good picks. Also, if we ever happen to get a Command Code that can inflict Skill Seal, that should immediately go to Corday. Sadly we don’t have one of these yet, but Skill Seal is a weak enough form of utility that I don’t think it’s outside the realm of possibility.

Grail Potential

Conclusion

Corday is not without her flaws. Her reliance on Skill Seal for damage makes her uneven and necessitates running some less-powerful supports to maximize her performance. She also has long-ish cooldowns, and some of her “strength budget,” so to speak, is spent on crit tools she can’t really leverage. She also has weak bases in general. That said, she’s a real rarity in that she’s a conventionally powerful ST Caster, and she brings potential 90+ farming utility on top of that. While she comes with a lot of caveats, Charlotte is such a rare type of Servant that her various strengths really stand out, making her probably the most attractive pull on her debut banner. She doesn’t raise the bar for anything in particular, but she fills a gap in the existing Servant roster, and for that, she’s a definite win.

Rabbit's Arbitrary Ratings

Overall: 9/10
Single-Target DPS: 8/10
AoE DPS: N/A
Survivability: 4/10
Offensive Utility: 5/10
Defensive Utility: 4/10
Farming Usefulness: 7/10
Making Your Quartz Disappear: 10/10