Rabbit's Reviews #307: Zenobia (4* Archer)

Introduction

Zenobia is, at her core, good but unremarkable. She’s an AoE Arts looper with persistent steroids. Her loopage isn’t the best and her damage is low without NP levels but as a general pool SR Servant, this is all completely acceptable. Zenobia is exciting in that she’s the first non-limited AoE Arts Archer in the game, and even the limited options have some issues—Jeanne has damage problems despite being a rarity level higher, and Helena is… well, all-around Bad. As a result, Zenobia is important in her normalcy. She’s an accessible Saber farmer in a class that didn’t really have one—at least in this card typing—until now. Zenobia isn’t really a Servant to pull for actively unless you like her art, but she’s an excellent spook and a strong addition to the general pool.

Servant Data

Archer

QQAAB (Archer)

Quick Card

Arts Card

Buster Card

3

4

5

4

Attribute	Human
Alignment	Lawful Good

Stage 1
Stage 2
Stage 3
Stage 4

April Fool's

Max HP 11,695

HP Rank

Max ATK 9,831

ATK Rank

Base Atk	1,638	Base HP	1,871
Max Atk	9,831	Max HP	11,695
Grail Atk	11,903	Grail HP	14,180

Magic Resistance D

Increase your Debuff Resist by 12.5%.

Independent Action B

Increase your Critical Strength by 8%.

Riding B

Increase your Quick Card effectiveness by 8%.

Card Hits	3	4	4	5	4
Per Hit	0.47%	0.47%	0.47%	0.47%	0.47%

	NP per Hit (%)						0.47%
	NP when Attacked (%)						3%

	Star Absorption	148
	Star Generation per Hit	8.1%

Overview

Material Requirements

Stage	Cost	Materials
2	50,000	x4 Archer Piece
3	150,000	x10 Archer Piece x18 Proof of Hero
4	500,000	x4 Archer Monument x24 Fool's Chain x3 Tearstone of Blood
Max	1,500,000	x10 Archer Monument x5 Tearstone of Blood x4 Scarab of Wisdom

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 x12 Fool's Chain
5 → 6	2,000,000	x4 Secret Gem of Archer x24 Fool's Chain
6 → 7	2,500,000	x10 Secret Gem of Archer x12 Proof of Hero
7 → 8	5,000,000	x24 Proof of Hero x5 Arrowhead of Malice
8 → 9	6,000,000	x15 Arrowhead of Malice x20 Shining Silver Crown
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 Scarab of Wisdom
7 → 8	5000000	x4 Scarab of Wisdom x15 Stake of Wailing Night
8 → 9	6000000	x45 Stake of Wailing Night x20 Rainbow Thread Ball
9 → 10	10000000	x1 Crystallized Lore

Servant Skills

Zenobia’s skillset doesn’t have a clear theme beyond providing a mix of unrelated useful tools. Recommended skill order is 1>3>2.

Arts Up

Augusta Assumption B

Increase own Arts Card effectiveness (3 turns).
Increase own NP Gauge each turn (3 turns).
Gain Critical Stars each turn (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 Regen +	10%	11%	12%	13%	14%	15%	16%	17%	18%	20%
Star Regen +	5	6	6	7	7	8	8	9	9	10
CD	9	9	9	9	9	8	8	8	8	7

Augusta is Zenobia’s strongest and most important skill. It’s a persistent Arts card buff, paired with passive NP gain, paired with passive star gain. All of these effects are nice, and this skill is a key part of Zenobia’s ability to loop. The Arts buff increases Zenobia’s damage, of course, but it also functions as an NP gain buff, letting her refund more with each NP. The passive NP gain buff, meanwhile, effectively lowers the threshold Zenobia needs to hit with her refund in order to loop. Both are excellent. The star gen is less useful, but it can be nice if Zenobia can’t quite hit damage thresholds and needs crits to finish a wave. The only drawback of this skill is that the cooldown is unusually long. That doesn’t weaken the skill in farming contexts, but it does make Zenobia less appealing for CQs specifically.

Guts

Aurelianus's Siege (Resist) A

Apply Guts to self (1 time, 3 turns).
Increase own Critical Star Gather Rate (1 turn).
Gain Critical Stars.

Show Info

Lvl	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
Revives with	1000 HP	1200 HP	1400 HP	1600 HP	1800 HP	2000 HP	2200 HP	2400 HP	2600 HP	3000 HP
Absorption +	300%	320%	340%	360%	380%	400%	420%	440%	460%	500%
Stars +	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	20
CD	8	8	8	8	8	7	7	7	7	6

Siege of Aurelius is a pretty plain skill. It’s a guts skill that also increases Zenobia’s star weight for a turn and gives a burst of stars. Zenobia can use this either as a survival tool or as a crit enabler with the guts being incidental. The uptime of the guts is good enough that using this skill offensively isn’t a huge problem, but on the flip-side one turn of crits isn’t the biggest offensive tool. This skill is, in other words, not especially exciting. Everything it provides is nice, and crit access can help Zenobia make use of the crit damage buff on her NP, but for the most part this doesn’t meaningfully advance Zenobia’s goals.

Dmg Up

Glory to Palmyra A

Increase ATK for all allies (3 turns).
Increase Critical Rate Resist for all allies (3 turns).

Show Info

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

Palmyra is a specialty Charisma. In addition to the basic attack boost, it also increases the party’s crit resistance by 30%. The persistent attack buff is nice for general farming usage, but the crit resist is actually the bigger draw here in CQ contexts. A 30% reduction to enemy crit rates means enemy units won’t be critting without buffs, and this being a buff instead of a debuff (as is more common) means enemies can’t resist it. Solid utility skill for harder fights.

Noble Phantasm

Authentic Triumph A+

Increase own ATK by 10% (1 turn) [Activates first].
Deal damage to all enemies.
Deal 150% supereffective damage against [King] enemies.

<Overcharge>

Increase own Critical Strength (3 turns).

Show Info

Authentic Triumph

Break, oh Golden Chains, oh Golden Shame

	Rank	Classification	Hit-Count
	A+	Self-Control	4

Effect	Increase own ATK by 10% (1 turn) [Activates first]. Deal damage to all enemies. Deal 150% supereffective damage against [King] enemies.

Level	1	2	3	4	5
Attack +	10%	10%	10%	10%	10%
Damage +	450%	600%	675%	712.5%	750%
Extra Damage +	150%	150%	150%	150%	150%

Overcharge Effect	Increase own Critical Strength (3 turns).

Charge	100%	200%	300%	400%	500%
Crit Damage +	50%	62.5%	75%	87,5%	100%

Authentic Triumph is pretty nice as NPs go. It’s an AoE Arts NP with a pre-damage buff, bonus damage against a sizable niche, and a solid boost to card damage. No significant complains here. It would be nice, though, if the attack buff were more substantial or longer-lasting—10% for a single turn is pretty negligible. Zenobia’s steroids are unremarkable and she’s an SR Archer, so without high NP levels, damage will not be a strength unless she’s fighting Kings. Against Kings, though, Zenobia’s damage is truly impressive, making her a strong pick for fights against her favored enemies. After dealing damage, the NP also increases Zenobia’s crit damage, which would be nicer if Zenobia had better crit access and a better deck. As is, though, Zenobia only has one Buster card and only one turn of easy crits, which limits her ability to function as a crit-centric unit. The crit damage buff will mostly serve as a small incidental damage boost while Zenobia builds up to her NP.

Usage Tips

With just double Castoria, Zenobia is about 20% short of being able to loop her NP against three enemies. This means, for standard nodes, a plug Tamamo gets her there with a little bit of overkill, and a plug Paracelsus gets her there always. Any other 50% charger outside of Skadi (who can’t split her battery across two turns) also works.

With the right supports, Zenobia can also loop against slightly less common enemy formations. With maxed Mana Loading and a plug charger, you can save a Castoria battery for turn 2, which lets Zenobia clear 2/3/x waves. Oberon, meanwhile, enables 2/3/x and 3/2/x even without Mana Loading—his 50% battery covers one turn of lessened refund but isn’t quite enough to cover two. Double Castoria gives Zenobia roughly 20% refund per enemy, and Zenobia gets another flat 20% per turn on top of that, so she needs access to at least 20% in charges per turn, plus another 20% per “missing” enemy, in order to loop.

In CQ contexts, Zenobia has access to cards, so she has more flexibility to run damage-boosting supports instead of NP charge supports. Oberon remains fantastic for this, especially if Zenobia has Black Grail equipped, but Tamamo is also a good choice for longer fights, and even Servants like Lanling and Sherlock can play nicely with Zenobia’s looping while also enabling a more impressive crit-themed gameplan.

Zenobia’s kit is complete enough that she should work in less expensive Arts teams as well, at least in CQs. Mozart in particular is a great partner for Zenobia, since as of his recent buff he provides a persistent Arts boost with the ability to spike damage for a turn. His crit chance debuff also pairs nicely with Zenobia’s crit resistance, offering solid protection even from enemies with crit buffs. To make the synergy even better, Mozart can flood the field with stars to give Zenobia an extra turn of crits.

Outside of Mozart, Mash is always good for defensive play, and Hans is another free Servant with crit-enabling and loop-supporting tools. Jinako is also another higher-rarity Servant who plays well with Zenobia, between her star gen tools and her defensive utility, and Summer Da Vinci provides general-purpose support that helps literally anyone.

If she’s not using an event CE, The Black Grail is (as usual) Zenobia’s best pick. It helps offset her damage issues, and she can loop easily enough to make good use of it. Lacking that, CEs that support NP damage and loopage on Arts Servants are good picks. Painting Summer and Ocean Flyer mix starting NP gauge with damage boostage (and are free), with Painting Summer providing more NP gain and Ocean Flyer providing more damage. Mark on a Smiling Face is also a great Black Grail alternative for Arts, as always.

As a crit unit with unremarkable damage, crit-damage-boosting CCs are a solid pick for Zenobia. Star gen CCs are also a good idea, especially if you plan to bring supports who boost crit damage, as they can help Zenobia get access to crits without burning Siege of Aurelius.

Grail Potential

Conclusion

Zenobia is good. She’s not special, per se, but she’s an Arts looper with persistent steroids, and that makes her good. She doesn’t do anything to really stand out, but she’s the first non-limited Servant with this NP type and class, so as a new spook possibility, she’s a solid win.

Rabbit's Arbitrary Ratings

Overall: 8/10
Single-Target DPS: 5/10
AoE DPS: 8/10
Survivability: 4/10
Offensive Utility: 2/10
Defensive Utility: 3/10
Farming Usefulness: 8/10
Crown Plausibility: 10/10