Rabbit’s Reviews #396: Dobrynya Nikitich (4* Lancer)

Introduction

In contrast to Ciel, Summer Dobrynya is an extremely simple unit. She’s a generic ST Arts looper with some crit tools, passable ramp, and some niche damage. Her kit is actually quite similar to Kagetora’s, but with a handful of extra bells and whistles. This means Dobrynya is almost strictly better at equal NP levels… but Kagetora already does the role well enough, and is free besides. Overall, Dobrynya’s a solid but unexciting Arts ST. If you happen to pull multiple copies—whether because you’re targeting one of the other Servants on her banner, or because you love Dobrynya specifically—she’ll be a small upgrade over her direct competition. Otherwise, though, she’s easy to ignore.

Servant Data

Lancer

QAABB (Saber)

Quick Card

Arts Card

Buster Card

4

3

5

Attribute	Earth
Alignment	Neutral Good

Stage 1
Stage 2
Stage 3
Stage 4

Max HP 11,360

HP Rank

Max ATK 9,726

ATK Rank

Base Atk	1,621	Base HP	1,817
Max Atk	9,726	Max HP	11,360
Grail Atk	11,776	Grail HP	13,774

Traits

Magic Resistance B

Increase your Debuff Resist by 17.5%.

Riding B

Increase your Quick Card effectiveness by 8%.

Card Hits	4	4	3	5	5
Per Hit	0.45%	0.45%	0.45%	0.45%	0.45%

	NP per Hit (%)						0.45%
	NP when Attacked (%)						4%

	Star Absorption	91
	Star Generation per Hit	12.0%

Overview

Material Requirements

Stage	Cost	Materials
2	50,000	x4 Lancer Piece
3	150,000	x10 Lancer Piece x6 Meteor Horseshoe
4	500,000	x4 Lancer Monument x8 Shell of Reminiscence x3 Primordial Lanugo
Max	1,500,000	x10 Lancer Monument x5 Primordial Lanugo x4 Dragon's Reverse Scale

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 x4 Shell of Reminiscence
5 → 6	2,000,000	x4 Secret Gem of Lancer x8 Shell of Reminiscence
6 → 7	2,500,000	x10 Secret Gem of Lancer x4 Meteor Horseshoe
7 → 8	5,000,000	x8 Meteor Horseshoe x10 Great Knight Medal
8 → 9	6,000,000	x30 Great Knight Medal x8 Dragon's Reverse Scale
9 → 10	10,000,000	x1 Crystallized Lore

Level	Cost	Materials
1 → 2	100000	x4 Gem of Lancer
2 → 3	200000	x10 Gem of Lancer
3 → 4	600000	x4 Magic Gem of Lancer
4 → 5	800000	x10 Magic Gem of Lancer x10 Dragon Fang
5 → 6	2000000	x4 Secret Gem of Lancer x20 Dragon Fang
6 → 7	2500000	x10 Secret Gem of Lancer x3 Primordial Lanugo
7 → 8	5000000	x5 Primordial Lanugo x5 Eternal Ice
8 → 9	6000000	x15 Eternal Ice x20 Sun Leather
9 → 10	10000000	x1 Crystallized Lore

Servant Skills

Dobrynya has a pretty standard Arts looper skillset. Recommended skill order is 1>2>3.

Arts Up

My Beloved Horse in Summer B

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

Show Info

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

Horse is a standard battery and Arts buff. 30% Arts up for three turns is typical, and a 30% battery is entirely reasonable. The skill also grants a burst of 30 critical stars, which can give Nikitich relatively easy crit access—not super relevant to Castoria teams, but potentially nice if you’re running Lady Avalon.

Dmg Up

Anti-Dragon Combat Skill (Waterside) EX

Increase own ATK (3 turns).
Increase own Critical Strength (3 turns).
Apply Special ATK [Dragon] to self (3 turns).
Increase own ATK by 20% on [near water] battlefields (3 turns).
Increase own Critical Strength by 20% on [near water] battlefields (3 turns).
Increase own DEF by 20% on [near water] battlefields (3 turns).

Show Info

Lvl	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
ATK +	10%	11%	12%	13%	14%	15%	16%	17%	18%	20%
Crit Damage +	20%	21%	22%	23%	24%	25%	26%	27%	28%	30%
Special ATK +	30%	32%	34%	36%	38%	40%	42%	44%	46%	50%
CD	7	7	7	7	7	6	6	6	6	5

Anti-Dragon Combat is a busy skill, but not an especially powerful one. It only has two universally-applicable effects: 20% attack up, and 30% crit damage up. The attack buff is decent, bringing Dobrynya to 50% total in universal steroids—more or less average for an ST SR. The crit buff, on the other hand, is too weak to have much of an impact, and Arts Servants don’t tend to make great use of crit damage regardless. Aside from that, this skill gives 50% power mod against Dragon enemies, which is nice on the rare occasion it matters, along with an additional 20% attack, crit, and defense up on Waterside fields. The Waterside buffs are decent—with the arguable exception of the crit damage boost—but Waterside isn’t common enough to rely on, so they’re mostly just a small extra bonus when they happen to proc. Mostly this skill is a weak attack up, which Dobrynya does appreciate, even if it’s not the most exciting.

Critical Star Gains per turn

Summertime Nikitich! B++

Apply to self: Gain Critical Stars each turn (3 turns).
Increase own NP Gauge each turn (3 turns).
Restore own HP each turn (3 turns).
Increase own NP Gain (3 turns).

Show Info

Lvl	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
Stars per turn +	5	6	6	7	7	8	8	9	9	10
NP per turn +	5%	5.5%	6%	6.5%	7%	7.5%	8%	8.5%	9%	10%
HP per turn +	500	550	600	650	700	750	800	850	900	1000
NP Gain +	20%	21%	22%	23%	24%	25%	26%	27%	28%	30%
CD	8	8	8	8	8	7	7	7	7	6

Summertime Nikitich is a consistency skill. It gives stars per turn, passive NP regen, passive healing, and passive NP gain. Mostly this just serves to make it easier for Nikitich to loop. This is certainly welcome—loopage is always nice—but it doesn’t have a huge impact outside of that.

Noble Phantasm

Kladenets Zmei Tatar A

Deal damage to a single enemy.
Inflict NP Seal on an enemy (1 turn).
Decrease Arts Resist by 20% for an enemy (3 turns).

<Overcharge>

Apply Special ATK [Earth Attribute] to self (1 turn) [Activates first].

Show Info/Video

Kladenets Zmei Tatar

Divide in Four, Great Mother Earth

	Rank	Classification	Hit-Count
	A	Anti-Dragon	5

Effect	Deal damage to a single enemy. Inflict NP Seal on an enemy (1 turn). Decrease Arts Resist by 20% for an enemy (3 turns).

Level	1	2	3	4	5
Damage +	900%	1200%	1350%	1425%	1500%
NP Seal
Arts Res -	20%	20%	20%	20%	20%

Overcharge Effect	Apply Special ATK [Earth Attribute] to self (1 turn) [Activates first].

Charge	100%	200%	300%	400%	500%
Special ATK +	30%	40%	50%	60%	70%

Dobrynya’s NP is decent. It’s a typical ST Arts NP, and it inflicts Arts resistance down after dealing damage. Ramp is always nice, although this only applies if Dobrynya is focusing on a single target, and it activates post-damage, so it’s one of the weaker forms of ramp. Similarly, this NP grants power mod against Earth enemies. This is a fairly broad niche, and niche damage is always nice… but power mod is mostly worse than Supereffective damage, and this scales from 30-70%, instead of the usual 50-100%. Here, more than anywhere else, it feels like Dobrynya is being penalized for her rarity.

The one interesting thing about this NP is that it inflicts NP seal on hit. Against a single non-debuff-immune enemy, Dobrynya can effectively keep them from using their NP, which is a neat trick, even if not a particularly unique one.

Usage Tips

Grail Potential

Conclusion

There’s really nothing wrong with Dobrynya. She’s got solid damage, good NP gain, multiple niche cases, and some utility. She’s cleanly better than her direct competition, too—at equal NP levels, she’ll definitely outperform Li and Kagetora. It’s just hard to be excited about such a mechanically plain unit. If you’re really hurting for an ST Lancer, Dobrynya will absolutely satisfy, but she doesn’t do anything unique enough or powerful enough to merit targeting her if you already have a solid Lancer. She’s a nice pickup if you’re targeting her banner anyway, and if you like her, she’ll do well for you, but overall she’s a pretty forgettable unit.

Rabbit's Arbitrary Ratings

Overall: 8/10
Single-Target DPS: 8/10
AoE DPS: N/A
Survivability: 4/10
Offensive Utility: 3/10
Defensive Utility: 4/10
Farming Usefulness: 2/10
Dragon Horse: 10/10