Gareth (Saber)

“Good good, good boy Aned, good boy.”

Having never wielded a sword in her life, Gareth decided she wanted to and changed into a swimsuit servant with… a megaphone for Osakabehime. As an AoE Buster Saber, Masters may find some use with her clearing an early wave or two.

Gareth primarily acts with a Sunlight gimmick, guaranteeing it with the use of her second skill Gareth Like the Sun which will then allow her to get an extra 20% attack on the turn she uses her Noble Phantasm, Lupus Strikefang. She’s also fairly adept at generating a small pool of stars with a moderate burst on Quick Change and a small per turn gain on Lupus Strikefang. She also has the ability to take advantage of the Honey Lake CE thanks to the Burn effect on Robigus Ironside: Red Sword.

Unfortunately, Gareth is not a good Servant. Her damage is among the worst of the Saber class. She has no real niche as damage or support either, holding primarily vanilla skills. Furthermore, her Crit damage buffs are nonexistent despite her Star generation.

Masters in general should not target Gareth outside of waifu purposes, but if they were to get her she could serve to clear a weaker wave or two. Or if they just like strawberry bikinis…

Creating Sunlight

Gareth functions best in the sunlight, gaining 20% extra attack on her Noble Phantasm the turn she uses it. Thanks to her 2nd skill, she can guarantee it for herself for a full 3 turns, granting this boost for her duration. This can also come in handy for any allies that can take advantage of the Sunlight field effect.

Critical Star Generation

Gareth has two skills which create critical stars, one as a single turn burst and one as a per turn effect. These can really help guarantee Critical hits, especially when using a Quick card first. 

Burning

Her third skill gives a nice 300 Burn per turn debuff with normal attacks, essentially allowing her to keep her enemies on fire. Combined with a Honey Lake CE, this can lead to sizeable boosts in damage both from Criticals and Noble Phantasms.

Damage

Gareth has horrific damage. She only has three small steroids - a 20% Card boost on her 1st skill, 30% on her 3rd, and up to 30% Attack on her Noble Phantasm. Without any passives or major steroids in her kit, and her middling Attack stat, her Noble Phantasm is one of the worst in the Saber class. 

Weak Criticals

Gareth is good at generating stars, but horrible at using them. Without a Crit support, she’s going to do no more than double damage on a Critical hit. Combined with her low Noble Phantasm damage, she has limited ability to deal impactful damage to her enemies.

No Niche

It is incredibly hard to slot Gareth onto a team. She can’t serve as a damage dealer, there are cheaper Critical Star generators around, and her support abilities are nothing more than a targetable Guts. She could potentially serve to clear a wave, but at a 4-star cost there are cheaper options to do the same thing. Even her charge is too tiny to enable her to do Buster looping.

Gareth’s skills serve a number of purposes that do not necessarily synergize with each other. Her first and second skills are primarily about Critical star generation, while her third is about quicker Noble Phantasms. Typically a Master will pop all 3 on the first turn as they have extended effects. Recommended order is 3 > 1 > 2.

• Quick Change EX is one of Gareth’s skill steroids, giving small boosts to Arts and Buster while also dropping a moderate amount of Critical stars. Masters want to pop this the first turn as the second skill won’t generate stars turn 1, and also to take advantage of the extended Arts and Buster buffs. This skill scales better so should be leveled second, though it can be left at level 6 if missing materials. 
• Gareth Like the Sun B+ gives Gareth a targetable Guts which on its own sounds good, but her lack of other support options makes it more likely she’d just use it on herself. More importantly it will generate stars every turn as well create the Sunlight buff Gareth needs to deal more damage on her Noble Phantasm. This is best used at the start so that she has stars on turn 2. Level this last as it doesn’t scale well, and it can be left at level 6. 
• Robigus Ironside: Red Sword C is another steroid, this time for Buster damage alone. More importantly, this serves as her main source of NP gauge, giving a 20% boost, and also allows her to burn enemies with non-Noble Phantasm attacks. As Gareth will need all help she can get with her damage, this is a good skill to pop on the first turn as well. As a charge skill, level this first and to max.

Gareth’s damage is practically unsalvageable, but Masters may find some benefit by using a multiplicative scaling NP Damage CE. Otherwise, Masters primarily should be using her for her Crit Star generation abilities, boosting it with Crit Stars per Turn. Thanks to her 3rd skill, she can also benefit from Burn Supereffective CEs.

• The Black Grail: All of Gareth’s skills are either Buster or Attack based, meaning a Black Grail could increase her Noble Phantasm by the full 80% at MLB. With a decent health pool she can more than take the damage tick. However, she will need outside support for filling her gauge to use it as she only has a 20% battery skill.
• King of Heaven / A Fragment of 2030: The one thing Gareth is good at is star generation, and by boosting her stars per turn she can pretty much guarantee enough stars for another Servant to deal significant Critical damage. Celestial King comes with the added bonus of increasing overcharge, and hence, Gareth’s Noble Phantasm damage. 
• Honey Lake: Gareth can burn enemies with her third skill. This makes her a perfect candidate to use the Honey Lake CE in nodes, especially in nodes where Ignore Invincibility comes in handy.