GamePress

Anniversary - 4* Tier List Change Log

Tier List Change Log for July 8, 2018

Date of discussion: July 7, 2018

A fairly minor update due to the arrival of the Strengthening Quests Part IV release during the Anniversary. Some of these skills are much-needed upgrades to some of the staple Servants in any roster. 

Lancelot: 3 → 3

Lancelot was already preemptively moved to tier 3. He’s very powerful, but remains limited in CE selection and needs specific Servants to support him properly.

Saint Martha: 3 → 3

Saint Martha was already put into tier 3 for her incredible utility during Challenge Quests. Now she can do that job even better.

Carmilla: 2 → 2

The new skill improves Carmilla, but not enough to push her into tier 1 material. Carmilla's star generation capabilities were always a bit weak, but that's generally not why Carmilla is brought into a quest anyway.

Atalante: 3 → 3

Atalante remains in tier 3, where she was placed for her massive team-wide quick buff and superb star-generating NP. This new skill helps her for extended fights, but that's not really Atalante's forte in the first place. Still, more tools are always welcome.

Stheno: 6 → 5

The addition of her powerful new Charisma buff moves Stheno from her own tier and makes her useful enough to be put into tier 5. The Stheno bullying is over at last. The Strengthening upgrade does not fix the big issues in her kit, but it does help to give her a more solid niche use and boosts her performance in general.

EMIYA: 4 → 3

The Magikarp days of EMIYA are over, and with his first upgrade he has moved on from his weakened status. With the addition of his Projection skill he will be able to produce not only excellent NP damage with an actual steroid, but also be able to deal more damage with the Extra that could follow. For now, EMIYA moves into a similar niche as Atalante as a stars-generating NP damage Servant. Unlike Atalante Emiya can do more damage in his NPAB turn, but lacks the team-wide Quick support. Emiya isn't done yet and will receive another upgrade to his skillset.

Tier List Change Log for June 6, 2018

Date of discussion: June 5, 2018

We have added additional tiers to better distinguish between the different mid-tier Servants. As the difficulty is ramping up, we’ve also changed many of the Servants who are struggling to deal sustained damage. As per usual, the ranking is based on the current NA performance. Future buffs are sometimes taken into account if nearby.

While we intend to write a larger interpretation of our tier list, here is a short overview of what we actually look at when ranking our servants:

  • Servant niche

  • Competition within niche

  • Challenge Quest performance

  • Servant value for farming

  • Sustained damage and burst damage performance

  • Free NP5

  • Statistics (attack/HP/generation, etc.)

  • Support capability and utility

Altria Pendragon (Alter): S → tier 2

The Saber Alter version suffers from the same problem as her original version. She does a ton of burst damage in her NP turn, but has problems charging her NP again while doing consistently high damage. Low Charisma rank.

Altria Pendragon (Lily): C → tier 5

Hovers between tier 4 and tier 5. Her NP5 helps her to be competitive with the other Sabers in NP damage, but her high cost and low stats make her statistically inferior. She is free however and one of the only guaranteed farming Servants on NA.

Altria Pendragon (Santa Alter): S → tier 2

Suffers from the same problem as her regular version, but has a nice heal to make up for it. Can still farm hands with her high neutral damage NP and has the star weight to make up for some of her low NP generation. As a welfare, has access to easy NP5. Has competition in Kintoki.

Anne Bonny & Mary Read: B → tier 4

Can still pack a big punch with low HP, but it’s a difficult niche to exploit. Upcoming welfare Kintoki puts her to shame. With Ushiwakamaru strengthened, an NP1 Anne Bonny & Mary Read face stiff competition from a 3* too.

Astolfo: C → tier 5

Same as before, but the bottom tier criteria has changed. Future strengthening and an interlude will make Astolfo more competitive, but until then Astolfo is only good for farming.

Atalante: B → tier 3

Has a clear niche in farming with her NP and a start NP gauge CE. NP generates a ton of stars to farm with. Can also serve as a quick buff support. Lacks her third skill though and is bad in long fights with that atrocious NP gain.

Beowulf: B → tier 3

He has one of the highest ST NP damage potential for Berserkers. Useful for if you need to punch big, but in practice might not see much use.

Chevalier d’Eon: B → tier 3

Remains the same, good tanking niche.

Elisabeth Bathory: B → tier 4

It will be a while before her Charisma strengthening arrives, and her current damage is lower than Fionn. Her NP damage is especially on the low side.

Elisabeth Bathory (Halloween): A → tier 3

Elisabeth is facing some stiff AoE caster competition. While she has a big NP5 AoE NP to make up for it, her skills aren’t very strong and she becomes weaker in longer fights.

Emiya: B → tier 4

Emiya is very weak right now and has mismatched skills. He can generate NP well and stars with his NP, but that’s about it. However, expect a massive boost in tier placement once his strengthening quests arrive. Magikarp Servant.

Emiya (Assassin): B → tier 3

Clear arts niche, good stargen and nice utility. No change.

Fionn mac Cumhaill: C → tier 5

Same as before, but the bottom tier criteria has changed.

Frankenstein: A → tier 2

Has access to the strongest AoE NP Berserker damage for now. With buffs she will still be able to clear nodes with her AoE NP that the other AoE Berserkers won’t be able to.

Helena Blavatsky: B → tier 3 (tentative tier 2)

Helena has very long cooldowns which makes her a weak pick for sustained fighting. But the flexibility of her skills and the massive value of her team-wide NP gauge boost must not be underestimated for quick fights. She functions very well for a budget Waver and for farming with Kaleidoscopes. Furthermore, her AoE NP damage is quite high due to her 2nd skill. Upgrade her Team-wide NP battery to 10 immediately.

Ibaraki (Sneak peak): → tier 2

High utility, high damage, good survivability. Good Charisma buff. Buff removal and debuff cleanse. Great A tier material.

Irisviel: B → tier 4

The only thing she really has over Medea (Lily) is her AoE guts. But it’s hard to charge her NP plus she heals for less and lacks a debuff cleanse. Utility supports are also hard to appreciate and not used very often, and she only supplies heal + guts.

Lancelot: A → tier 3

Lancelot doesn’t have his strengthening yet. He farms well, but his non-interlude NP damage is lacking compared to Tamamo Cat and Frankenstein. His star generation potential puts him above Tamamo Cat, but he doesn’t pack the massive punch Frankenstein has.

Li Shuwen: A → tier 2

Remains the only good arts lancer, which is a useful niche. Has long cooldowns for buffs that last very short but performs well with good arts support. Tentative tier 2 positioning however.

Marie Antoinette: A → tier 4

Mobs are getting stronger and her survivability does not make up for her low damage. Her AoE NP competition is getting stronger too, with both Alexander and Medusa having received strong skills on their strengthening.

Medea Lily: A → tier 2

Her heal remains the strongest in the game and she is going to be very useful in the coming period and Nero Fest. She has a good niche of her own and a team-wide cleanse to use during specific challenge quests.

Nero Claudius: A → tier 3

Has great survivability, but lacks the damage of other Sabers. Her triple guts is very strong for last-man-standing situations, but the best teams try to avoid such a thing in the first place. Once she is alone however, her AoE NP doesn’t let her do the damage a Heracles or Cu would do. However, she is also strong for arts team farming.

Nursery Rhyme: B → tier 3

Remains in tier 3 by virtue of a nice assortment of buffs. Self NP charge skill, critical damage and survivability.

Oda Nobunaga: A → tier 2

Clear niche, decent skills, no competition AoE-wise until strengthenings kicks in for Emiya. Does have some problems generating enough NP gauge, expect a drop in tier in the future.

Saint Martha B: → tier 3

Remains the same, team-wide debuff cleanse and future strengthenings make her very valuable in the future. Can generate NP well too for farming.

Siegfried: B → tier 4

Same as before, but the bottom tier criteria has changed.

Stheno: C → Stheno tier

Even the Servants in tier 5 are vastly more powerful and less niche than her. To properly convey this we introduced the Stheno tier. Her utility isn’t entirely bad and the defense debuff is good, but it is mismatched (Buster NP that does no damage) and already in a niche. Only her future strengthening might move her out this tier.

Tamamo Cat: A → Tier 4

Mobs are getting stronger and she has little to offer outside of quick farming. Frankenstein does what Tamamo Cat does, but better. Her survivability is also rather poor despite some skills to help her. Kiyohime post-strengthening also outdamages an NP1 Tamamo Cat NP-wise.

Thomas Edison: C → tier 5

Same as before, but the bottom tier criteria has changed.