Rabbit's Reviews #327: James Moriarty (5* Ruler)

Introduction

So, Moriarty is an AoE Arts Servant, in a class with an inherent attack bonus, with a 50% battery. That sounds like a recipe for a 10/10 Servant—after all, it describes Ryouma, Kama, and Spish—but unfortunately, Moriarty falls a little short. He’s just a bit undertuned in a whole bunch of different ways. Any one of his flaws would be manageable, but Moriarty is all flaws and no strengths, for the most part. He has few meaningful advantages over his competition—mostly limited to increased damage versus Good enemies—and he pays heavily for what he does have. At the end of the day, he’s a loop-enabled Arts SSR, so he’s not bad, but he’s also the least impressive of his direct competition. If you happen to get him, he’s fine, but with so many top-notch Servants who fill the exact same role, there’s very little reason to go for someone who is, ultimately, a noticeable step down.

Servant Data

Ruler

QAAAB (Caster)

Quick Card

Arts Card

Buster Card

4

5

4

Attribute	Human
Alignment	Chaotic Evil

Stage 1
Stage 2
Stage 3
Stage 4

Max HP 14,877

HP Rank

Max ATK 10,450

ATK Rank

Base Atk	1,615	Base HP	2,183
Max Atk	10,450	Max HP	14,877
Grail Atk	11,439	Grail HP	16,309

Independent Action A

Increase your Critical Strength by 10%.

Conspiracy Formation EX

Increase your Arts Card effectiveness by 5%.
Increase your NP Strength by 5%.

Panic Cut C+

Apply Charm, Confusion, Terror, and Skill Seal Immunity for yourself.

Card Hits	4	4	4	5	4
Per Hit	0.37%	0.37%	0.37%	0.37%	0.37%

	NP per Hit (%)						0.37%
	NP when Attacked (%)						3%

	Star Absorption	102
	Star Generation per Hit	10.0%

Overview

Material Requirements

Stage	Cost	Materials
2	100,000	x5 Lancer Piece x5 Caster Piece x5 Assassin Piece
3	300,000	x5 Saber Piece x5 Archer Piece x5 Rider Piece x5 Berserker Piece
4	1,000,000	x5 Lancer Monument x5 Caster Monument x5 Assassin Monument
Max	3,000,000	x5 Saber Monument x5 Archer Monument x5 Rider Monument x5 Berserker Monument

Level	Cost	Materials
1 → 2	200,000	x5 Gem of Lancer x5 Gem of Caster x5 Gem of Assassin
2 → 3	400,000	x5 Gem of Saber x5 Gem of Archer x5 Gem of Rider x5 Gem of Berserker
3 → 4	1,200,000	x5 Magic Gem of Lancer x5 Magic Gem of Caster x5 Magic Gem of Assassin
4 → 5	1,600,000	x5 Magic Gem of Saber x5 Magic Gem of Archer x5 Magic Gem of Rider x5 Magic Gem of Berserker
5 → 6	4,000,000	x5 Secret Gem of Lancer x5 Secret Gem of Caster x5 Secret Gem of Assassin
6 → 7	5,000,000	x5 Secret Gem of Saber x5 Secret Gem of Archer x5 Secret Gem of Rider x5 Secret Gem of Berserker
7 → 8	10,000,000	x36 Ashes of Forgetfulness
8 → 9	12,000,000	x15 Egg of Truth
9 → 10	20,000,000	x1 Crystallized Lore

Level	Cost	Materials
1 → 2	200000	x5 Gem of Lancer x5 Gem of Caster x5 Gem of Assassin
2 → 3	400000	x5 Gem of Saber x5 Gem of Archer x5 Gem of Rider x5 Gem of Berserker
3 → 4	1200000	x5 Magic Gem of Lancer x5 Magic Gem of Caster x5 Magic Gem of Assassin
4 → 5	1600000	x5 Magic Gem of Saber x5 Magic Gem of Archer x5 Magic Gem of Rider x5 Magic Gem of Berserker
5 → 6	4000000	x5 Secret Gem of Lancer x5 Secret Gem of Caster x5 Secret Gem of Assassin
6 → 7	5000000	x5 Secret Gem of Saber x5 Secret Gem of Archer x5 Secret Gem of Rider x5 Secret Gem of Berserker
7 → 8	10000000	x36 Twilit Ritual Sword
8 → 9	12000000	x15 Fragment of a Twinkling Star
9 → 10	20000000	x1 Crystallized Lore

Servant Skills

Moriarty’s skillset is almost good, but it suffers from a few notable flaws that keep it down. Recommended skill order is 3>2>1.

Evade

Mathematical Thinking A

Apply Evade to self (2 times, 3 turns).
Apply Sure Hit to self (3 turns).
Decrease Arts Resist for all enemies (3 turns).
Further decrease Arts Resist for all [Evil] alignment enemies (3 turns).

Show Info

Lvl	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
Arts Res -	10%	11%	12%	13%	14%	15%	16%	17%	18%	20%
Arts Res (Evil) -	10%	11%	12%	13%	14%	15%	16%	17%	18%	20%
CD	8	8	8	8	8	7	7	7	7	6

Mathematical thinking is a weird skill with a lot going on, and while none of the pieces are inherently bad, none of them really go together, and that lack of synergy is detrimental to Moriarty as a whole. The skill starts off with a 2-hit dodge, which isn’t bad, even on an offensive skill—it’s unlikely to be wasted even if it’s not needed right away, although Moriarty can’t really hold onto this for emergencies. The skill also gives a three-turn ignore evasion, which is… worse than the equivalent duration of pierce-invul (such as in the case of, say, Caster Da Vinci, who’s legitimately quite good in a post-Oberon world), but it’s still a consistency boost in CQs, so we’ll take it. More important, though, is the pair of Arts Resist Down debuffs on this skill. These are an important part of Moriarty’s damage output, which is unfortunate for two reasons. First, it’s a debuff, which means it only applies to a single wave in farming and can be resisted in CQs. Second, in CQs, Moriarty has to choose between getting this buff immediately, or waiting until turn 2 (once he’s applied Evil to the enemy) to get the skill’s full value. Moriarty doesn’t have to make this choice against enemies who are innately Evil… but he loses out on a ton of damage in exchange, as his NP deals supereffective damage against enemies who are Good. The only Servant for whom this is theoretically not the case is Arjuna Alter, who is both Good and Evil, but in AA’s only notable enemy encounter, he’s immune to debuffs, and the skill is useless for damage regardless. This skill has a lot of pieces that are nice individually, but them being all in one place, paired with the Arts boosts being debuffs instead of buffs, seriously weakens Moriarty in practice.

All Type Up

Slide Rule Weapon B++

Increase own Quick Card effectiveness (3 turns).
Increase own Arts Card effectiveness (3 turns).
Increase own Buster Card effectiveness (3 turns).
Increase own Critical Strength (3 turns).

Show Info

Lvl	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
Quick +	20%	21%	22%	23%	24%	25%	26%	27%	28%	30%
Arts +	20%	21%	22%	23%	24%	25%	26%	27%	28%	30%
Buster +	20%	21%	22%	23%	24%	25%	26%	27%	28%	30%
Crit Dmg +	20%	21%	22%	23%	24%	25%	26%	27%	28%	30%
CD	8	8	8	8	8	7	7	7	7	6

Slide Rule Weapon is… fine? It’s a 30% buff to all card types, plus a 30% crit damage buff. Moriarty generally doesn’t care much about crits, or about his non-Arts cards, so aside from letting his singular Buster deal a bit of extra damage if it really needs to, this doesn’t do much a straight 30% Arts buff wouldn’t. Honestly, I’d rather this had a standard 5-turn cooldown and just buffed Arts. Oh well.

Start Np

Roll of the Dice EX

Increase own NP Gauge.
Gain Critical Stars.
Chance to apply one of two effects:
- 50% Chance: Increase own Arts Card Star Gather Rate by 500% (1 turn).
- 50% Chance: Increase own Buster Card Star Gather Rate by 500% (1 turn).

Show Info

Lvl	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
NP +	30%	32%	34%	36%	38%	40%	42%	44%	46%	50%
Stars +	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	20
CD	8	8	8	8	8	7	7	7	7	6

Dice Selection is a 50% battery and therefore good. Aside from the charge, though, it gives Moriarty 20 stars and randomly increases either his Buster or Arts card star weight. Buster is the losing roll here, as Moriarty is probably going to be running with Castoria and therefore will do much more damage on his Arts crits unless you’re doing, like, a weird Himiko setup. Facilitating relatively easy crits is nice, but Moriarty teams won’t generally have a lot of outside stars available, so if Moriarty rolls the wrong star weight target, those 20 stars may not go very far.

Noble Phantasm

Mathemalignancy: Annihilation B++

Deal damage to all enemies.
Deal 150% supereffective damage to [Good] alignment enemies.
Inflict Skill Seal on all enemies (1 turn).
Apply [Evil] trait to all enemies (3 turns).

<Overcharge>

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

Show Info/Video

Mathemalignancy: Annihilation

Calculated, Malicious Elimination

	Rank	Classification	Hit-Count
	B++	Anti-Personnel	4

Effect	Deal damage to all enemies. Deal 150% supereffective damage to [Good] alignment enemies. Inflict Skill Seal on all enemies (1 turn). Apply [Evil] trait to all enemies (3 turns).

Level	1	2	3	4	5
Damage +	450%	600%	675%	712.5%	750%
Supereffective ATK +	150%	150%	150%	150%	150%
Skill Seal
Trait - Evil

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

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

Moriarty’s NP is… less good than it should be. Moriarty gets your standard AoE Arts NP, albeit with slightly lower refund than you’d normally expect, and he gets a pre-cast NP damage buff, but unfortunately it only lasts one turn, meaning Moriarty doesn’t get the damage ramp most other AoE Arts SSRs do. In exchange, he deals supereffective damage against Good enemies. This isn’t a small niche, and his damage against Good enemies is impressive… but he still has other issues, and being reliant on niche to output decent damage isn’t a good look for farming, even if it’s workable for CQs. The NP also inflicts skill seal for one turn, and Evil trait for three. Inflicting Evil is mostly useful for proccing Moriarty’s first skill, though it can also be used to trigger other Servants’ anti-Evil supereffective or power mod effects. Skill seal, meanwhile, is… iffy. On the one hand, preventing random invulns and stuns and other such annoyances is nice, but on the other hand, you’re ensuring the enemies swing at you three times on your turn, which (unless you’re running Bazett) is not a positive.

Overall, it’s not a terrible NP, but the low refund and lack of stacking buffs hurts.

Usage Tips

Like Ryouma before him, Moriarty’s refund is such that he’s dependent on either CEs or plug in order to loop. His NP gain is unfortunately not where it would need to be to tri-loop with just Castoria and the 2004 Mystic Code, although the right event CE can make up the difference, especially with Mana Loading further increasing his flexibility. Against Casters, at least, he can loop standard nodes plugless, though he has to use a mystic code buff on one turn and his first skill on another. On turn 1, Mana Loading, his own battery, and two Castorias’ 20% batteries bring him to 100% charge for his first NP. With Moriarty’s Arts resist down buff on one turn and another buff (such as 2004’s NP gain buff) on another turn, Moriarty refunds 70% per turn and reaches 100% with a Castoria Charisma on turns 2 and 3. It’s not the best setup, and it doesn’t work against all classes, but it’s there.

With plug, though, things look a little better for Moriarty. His loop conditions are nearly identical to Ryouma’s, in that with Mana Loading, two Castorias, and Oberon, Moriarty can loop any node with at least four enemies in the first two waves. On turn 1, Moriarty gets both Castorias’ charismas and Arts buffs, and one Castoria’s NP gain buff, taking him to 100% charge. Moriarty also uses his own Arts buff. You use Moriarty’s battery on turn 2 and Oberon’s 50% battery on turn 3, plus the remaining two 20% batteries (Castoria’s and Oberon’s) to make up for each “missing” enemy. In 3/1/x nodes, Moriarty will also need either an extra hit of overkill or his first skill’s Arts resistance debuff to refund the necessary 50% on the first wave, but it’s still doable.

Additionally, while Moriarty can’t farm 2/1/x or 1/2/x nodes on his own, he has a 50% battery and can work well paired with an ST DPS (such as Hephaestion) for those nodes. He can even use his first skill to push the ST DPS’s damage if need be (though this comes at the cost of his own damage, which is often at a premium in those sorts of nodes).

For CQs, Moriarty can blitz with your usual optimized Arts strategies. That is to say, double Castoria and whatever other supports you want to run. While Moriarty’s individual Arts cards are bad, he does have three of them, which mitigates RNG if you’re relying on cards to loop. There are lots of ways to set Moriarty up if you’re running conventional Arts blitz, so feel free to experiment with what you have until you find a setup that works for you. Do note, though, that ideally Moriarty wants to be fighting Good enemies for his supereffective bonus, and if he is, that means he’s not hitting Evil, which then means Moriarty has to wait until turn 2 to use his first skill to maximize his damage. Whether this is the optimal play or not will depend on how much health the first set of break bars has; if Moriarty needs the extra damage from the jump, he has to sacrifice later-turn damage-potential, but if he doesn’t need the extra damage on turn 1, he can hold onto the skill for more damage on turns 2 and 3.

As an Arts Servant, Moriarty can stall effectively with Castoria as well. Reines/Moriarty/Castoria is the best setup for this, as Reines boosts Castoria’s (and Moriarty’s) overcharge levels while also providing charge, damage buffs, and NP gain buffs. Tamamo is also an option, providing healing, Arts buffs, and NP damage buffs in exchange for contributing less to hard survival. Himiko/Moriarty/Castoria is an interesting team as well; it’s a little less stable than the equivalent Reines team, but in exchange it gives slightly more safety with each Castoria NP than the Reines team does, and—more importantly—Himiko provides attack and crit buffs to the whole party, making Moriarty’s crit turns more impressive and letting the whole team hit harder (in exchange for weaker NPs from Moriarty).

Speaking of Himiko, if you want a flavorful team, you can run a triple-Ruler setup: Himiko/Moriarty/Sherlock is an interesting team where all three Servants can force crits, and Himiko and Sherlock both provide teamwide crit damage buffs. With a Himiko->Sherlock->Moriarty NP chain, you get 125% teamwide crit damage up for the next three turns, ensuring whoever draws cards can deal solid damage, while also getting nice damage out of Moriarty’s own NP. Also, since you’re running a team full of Rulers, all of whom have selfish defense tools, the team is surprisingly bulky. Is this optimal? Definitely not. Will it work well enough for lower-difficult fights? Probably.

For more conventional lower-end play, though, Moriarty has enough basic in-kit tools that he can function decently with less-powerful supports. Lanling in particular is a good pick, as Lanling augments Moriarty’s crit damage and lets Moriarty leverage his decent hit counts to generate stars. Hans is a solid option for similar reasons: he provides stars and charge while also boosting Moriarty’s crit damage.

As a final note, Moriarty’s ability to apply Evil makes him a surprisingly good support for Astraea specifically. Much like George for Kriemhild, Moriarty’s trait debuff gives Astraea an extra 50%+ on her NP that stacks multiplicatively with everything. He also gives 20-40% Arts resist down, solidifying him as probably the best offensive buffer Astraea can get. Beni is also an Arts Servant with anti-Evil damage, but hers is Power Mod rather than Supereffective Damage, so it doesn’t stack as nicely as in Astraea’s case.

The Black Grail is, as always, the best CE for raw damage output. In stall contexts, though, or if you need to push Moriarty’s NP refund a bit more, you could also consider something like Formal Craft or Sign of Smiling Face. Starting NP gauge CEs are also an option, as they make it much easier for him to loop.

Crit damage up CCs are generally nice on Moriarty, as he has a way to rig easy crits, but he doesn’t have a ton of in-kit crit damage up. Aside from that, there’s not a lot Moriarty needs that CCs can help with. NP damage up CCs (on his Buster, for instance) can help offset his low base damage, if you remember to put the card you choose before his NP.

Grail Potential

Conclusion

Moriarty is very close to being very good. With better NP gain, or buffs instead of debuffs on his first skill, or substantially better attack, or a 3-turn buff on his NP instead of a 1-turn buff, or some other advantage, he’d be great. As it is, though, he just has one too many flaws and one too few meaningful advantages, which makes him look underwhelming, especially relative to his direct competition. If he had a meaningful class-advantage context, at least he’d have that argument in his favor, but as a Ruler he’s stuck hitting neutral in almost all cases.

At the end of the day, Moriarty is in the weird position of being the worst example of the best “type” of Servant. AoE Arts SSRs with multi-hit NPs and 50% batteries are fantastic as a rule thanks to their synergy with the best support in the game. Moriarty, though, has a ton of unique drawbacks despite falling into that larger category. Relative to SSRs as a whole, he’s fine—more than fine, really—but at the same time, when you’re inviting comparisons to Space Ishtar, you need to do better.

Oh well.

Rabbit's Arbitrary Ratings

Overall: 8/10
Single-Target DPS: 5/10
AoE DPS: 8/10
Survivability: 7/10
Offensive Utility: 5/10
Defensive Utility: 2/10
Farming Usefulness: 8/10
Ruler Proficiency: 10/10