Rabbit’s Reviews #399: Tenochtitlan (4* Moon Cancer)

Introduction

The second summer banner this year brings yet another Moon Cancer, filling out an otherwise underused class just in time for the Ordeal Call chapter in which they feature. While Jinako, Arc, and Ciel all have cases in which they’re uniquely strong, Moon Cancers as a whole don’t have the best reputation, gameplay-wise, and Tenochtitlan isn’t likely to change that. She’s a CQ-oriented AoE Quick Servant, and while she does have some fun tools that can make her a solid choice for AoE challenge quests, she suffers from being a low attack Quick Servant in a neutral class. She’s also effectively useless for farming. If you like her as a character, you can probably find fights where you can reasonably slot her in, but she’ll never be the best option available.

Servant Data

Moon Cancer

QQABB (Lancer)

Quick Card

Arts Card

Buster Card

4

5

6

Attribute	Earth
Alignment	Lawful Good

Stage 1
Stage 2
Stage 3
Stage 4

Max HP 12,718

HP Rank

Max ATK 8,971

ATK Rank

Base Atk	1,495	Base HP	2,034
Max Atk	8,971	Max HP	12,718
Grail Atk	10,862	Grail HP	15,421

Traits

Territory Creation EX

Increase your Arts Card effectiveness by 12%.

Divinity E

Apply Damage Plus for yourself (Total Card Damage +100).

Waterside Activities A+

Increase own Critical Strength by 20% when on [near water] battlefield.

City-State Alliance -

No effect.

Lunar Capital B

Increase own Quick Card effectiveness by 5%.
Increase own Arts Card effectiveness by 5%.
Increase own Critical Strength by 5%.
Apply Damage Cut by 200 to all allies while on the field.

Card Hits	4	4	4	5	6
Per Hit	0.58%	0.58%	0.58%	0.58%	0.58%

	NP per Hit (%)						0.58%
	NP when Attacked (%)						3%

	Star Absorption	48
	Star Generation per Hit	15.0%

Overview

Material Requirements

Stage	Cost	Materials
2	50,000	x4 Archer Piece x4 Rider Piece
3	150,000	x10 Archer Piece x10 Rider Piece
4	500,000	x4 Archer Monument x4 Rider Monument
Max	1,500,000	x10 Archer Monument x10 Rider Monument

Level	Cost	Materials
1 → 2	100,000	x4 Gem of Archer x4 Gem of Rider
2 → 3	200,000	x10 Gem of Archer x10 Gem of Rider
3 → 4	600,000	x4 Magic Gem of Archer x4 Magic Gem of Rider
4 → 5	800,000	x10 Magic Gem of Archer x10 Magic Gem of Rider
5 → 6	2,000,000	x4 Secret Gem of Archer x4 Secret Gem of Rider
6 → 7	2,500,000	x10 Secret Gem of Archer x10 Secret Gem of Rider
7 → 8	5,000,000	x6 Shell of Reminiscence x6 Giant's Ring
8 → 9	6,000,000	x7 Tsukumo Mirror x14 Ball of Rainbow Thread
9 → 10	10,000,000	x1 Crystallized Lore

Level	Cost	Materials
1 → 2	100000	x4 Gem of Archer x4 Gem of Rider
2 → 3	200000	x10 Gem of Archer x10 Gem of Rider
3 → 4	600000	x4 Magic Gem of Archer x4 Magic Gem of Rider
4 → 5	800000	x10 Magic Gem of Archer x10 Magic Gem of Rider
5 → 6	2000000	x4 Secret Gem of Archer x4 Secret Gem of Rider
6 → 7	2500000	x10 Secret Gem of Archer x10 Secret Gem of Rider
7 → 8	5000000	x6 Eternal Ice x6 Meteor Horseshoe
8 → 9	6000000	x10 Fruit of Eternity x14 Scale of Fantasy
9 → 10	10000000	x1 Crystallized Lore

Servant Skills

Tenochtitlan’s skillset is pretty simple and fairly restrained, especially relative to other recent Servants. Recommended skill order is 2>3>1.

Start Np

Squall Panic! A

Increase NP Gauge for all allies by 20%.
Restore HP for all allies each turn (3 turns).
Increase ATK for all allies (3 turns).
Increase ATK for all enemies by 10% (3 turns) [Demerit].

Show Info

Lvl	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
HP per turn +	500	550	600	650	700	750	800	850	900	1000
ATK +	10%	11%	12%	13%	14%	15%	16%	17%	18%	20%
CD	8	8	8	8	8	7	7	7	7	6

Squall Panic is a partywide 20% battery plus a Charisma effect, along with a heal-per-turn effect. All of this is nice, though this being Tenochtitlan’s only battery severely limits her loop potential. The skill also slightly increases the enemies’ attack. Normally this wouldn’t matter much, but since Tenochtitlan is a CQ-oriented Servant and is reliant on defense buffs for survivability, this actually does have an impact. Fortunately, you can get rid of the enemy attack buff with CCs in a pinch.

Taunt

Summer Wars A

Apply Target Focus to self (3 turns).
Increase own DEF (3 turns).
Apply buff to self (3 turns): Increase own NP Strength by 10% (3 turns) when receiving attacks.

Show Info

Lvl	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
DEF +	30%	32%	34%	36%	38%	40%	42%	44%	46%	50%
CD	8	8	8	8	8	7	7	7	7	6

Summer Wars is Tenochtitlan’s most important skill. It’s a 3-turn taunt, which is always a powerful form of defensive utility, and it comes paired with a 50% defense buff to keep Tenochtitlan safe. With other defense buffs, such as from Waver/Reines/Mash, this can let Tenochtitlan negate most damage for three turns. The skill also grants Tenochtitlan 10% NP damage up each time she gets attacked, letting her scale her damage as long as she can stay alive.

Quick/Buster Up

Moon Rabbit EX

Increase own Quick Card effectiveness (3 turns).
Increase own Buster Card effectiveness (3 turns).
Apply Evade to self (1 turn).
Increase Critical Strength for all [Bunny Servant] allies (3 turns).
Decrease Skill Cooldown by 1 for all [Bunny Servant] allies.

Show Info

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

Moon Rabbit boosts Tenochtitlan’s Quick and Buster cards, helping her NP damage and crit damage. It also gives a turn of evasion, helping with Tenochtitlan’s taunt survival. Additionally, the skill gives a small 30% crit buff and a turn of cooldown reduction to Bunny Servant allies. 30% crit damage up is small even for a generic skill, and it’s especially sad on something that only applies to certain Servants… but usually this will only matter for Tenochtitlan herself anyway. CDR is nice more broadly, but there aren’t many Servnats with the bunny trait, so you should generally just treat this as a selfish skill. It’s also worth noting that Tenochtitlan only has the bunny trait while in her stage three outfit. This doesn’t actually make her weaker in practical terms, but it is annoying, because if you prefer her first two outfits, you can’t use them without actively hurting yourself.

Noble Phantasm

Armoured Tenochtitlan B+

Apply Ignore Invincible to self (1 turn) [Activates first].
Deal damage to all enemies.
Deal 150% supereffective damage to all [Super Giant] enemies.
Decrease DEF by 20% for all enemies (3 turns).

<Overcharge>

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

Show Info/Video

Armoured Tenochtitlan

Heavy-Armoured Decisive Battle City

	Rank	Classification	Hit-Count
	B+	Anti-Personnel	6

Effect	Apply Ignore Invincible to self (1 turn) [Activates first]. Deal damage to all enemies. Deal 150% supereffective damage to all [Super Giant] enemies. Decrease DEF by 20% for all enemies (3 turns).

Level	1	2	3	4	5
Ignore Invincible
Damage +	600%	800%	900%	950%	1000%
Supereffective ATK +	150%	150%	150%	150%	150%
Def -	20%	20%	20%	20%	20%

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

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

Tenochtitlan’s NP is… fine. It’s fairly standard for a limited AoE SR. It deals damage and grants Tenochtitlan a nice damage increase for a turn, and even without getting hit, Tenochtitlan has buffs in all three buff brackets, which is nice. It also has ramp, but the ramp is debuff-centric and post-damage, meaning it will only matter in CQs. Tenochtitlan can’t really farm anyway, so this is fine, but it’s still worth noting. The NP does also have a Supereffective niche, but only against Super Giant, which is a fairly rare trait. Finally, the NP gives Tenochtitlan pierce invuln before damage, which is nice for consistency but not hugely impactful otherwise.

Usage Tips

Even if her ramp was farming-compatible, Tenochtitlan’s loop specs wouldn’t be good enough to farm with unless you’re running Kaleid as your CE. It’s just not worth it—plenty of free Servants are better at farming, not to mention the usual SSR suspects.

For CQs, though, Tenochtitlan is a bit more interesting. She’s pretty good at keeping fire off your team and retaliating in the process. You can run the usual triple Skadi team for a combination of high damage and relative safety in the short term, or you can opt for a team more oriented towards long-term survival. The typical Caster Skadi/Castoria setup can work here, especially since Tenochtitlan brings healing, though there is a bit of antisynergy between Tenochtitlan’s taunt and partywide, hit-based protection, so your milage may vary. You can also lean towards stacking enough defense up to render Tenochtitlan immune to damage, in which case Servants like Mash, Waver, and Reines can be good partners.

Another unusual option for a Tenochtitlan partner is BB Dubai. Tenochtitlan and BB Dubai both have the ability to protect the party for two or three turns out of six, so they can trade off, with BB using her support NP and her second skill to cover for the turns where Tenochtitlan isn’t taunting. You then want your third support to provide defense up, and probably NP charge, meaning, again, Waver, Reines, and Mash are your options.

Since Tenochtitlan is oriented mostly towards slower play, the Black Grail isn’t as good of a choice here as it usually is. It still may be worthwhile if you’re trying to use Tenochtitlan to clear a CQ quickly, but otherwise something slightly safer can be a better option. Traces of Christmas is a solid non-BG Quick option in general, though you also might consider something like Shroud of Magdalene, which raises Tenochtitlan’s defense by 30% against Male enemies, bringing her to 80% defense up while taunting just on her own.

Attack buff removal CCs are a good option for Tenochtitlan, since they can let her remove her own demerit. Outside of that, Tenochtitlan should be critting reliably and has low in-kit crit buffs, so the usual crit damage CCs will be fine.

Grail Potential

Conclusion

Tenochtitlan is sort of like a parallel-world version of Jinako. Jinako’s skill buff solidified her role as a support, but as initially released, she could have been pushed more in a tanky-DPS direction. Tenochtitlan is the tanky Moon Cancer DPS Jinako originally wanted to be. The actual value of that is somewhat questionable, since Castoria teams are almost always the best stall option, and the two things that tend to stymie Castoria—buff removal and AoE cards—both stop Tenochtitlan as well. She’s a mildly interesting Servant, but not a particularly good one, and her complete inability to farm is pretty rough.

Rabbit's Arbitrary Ratings

Overall: 6/10
Single-Target DPS: 2/10
AoE DPS: 6/10
Survivability: 7/10
Offensive Utility: 3/10
Defensive Utility: 7/10
Farming Usefulness: 1/10
Sister City Diplomacy: 10/10