Lady Avalon

“Hmm hmm, I look like Merlin…? Of course we would look alike! I am Merlin Onii-chan’s little sister after all !!”

Being the self-proclaimed “younger sister of our good ol’ Magus of Flower”, this mischievous and elegant lady is just essentially the Arts-centric version of Merlin, with a few modified effects and a rare class. But even though that is quite the simplistic description of Lady Avalon, being a more modern version of one of the strongest defensive Supports the game has ever seen is high praise.

Lady Avalon starts off with a very strong base. The Pretender class gives her a slightly more balanced stat distribution with good class coverage, meaning she does do noticeably more damage than most pure Support Servants. But the real prizes are her two unique passives. Mixed Blood EX gives her 5% NP Gauge per turn while Rapid Casting (Monster) EX lets her start the battle with 20% NP Gauge, both are fantastic as her Noble Phantasm is exceptionally impactful once it gets going. Speaking of which, Winds of Avalon A - her Noble Phantasm - provides three powerful team buffs over multiple turns: Max HP, NP Charge per turn and Critical Stars per turn.

It is not an exaggeration to say all her three skills are basically reskinned Merlin’s skills, but that is enough to make them top tier. Light Be in Your Hands B is the Arts form of Merlin’s Hero Creation, granting powerful three turn Arts buff and Max HP buffs to an ally and further increasing their Critical Damage for one turn. Flower Blooming On A Summer's Night D is one of the strongest Charisma-like skills in the game, providing a teamwide Attack buff, NP Damage buff and a one time NP Level Overcharge buff over 3 turns. Succubus Ridge EX is her emergency button, providing an Invulnerability buff for 1 turn to all allies, inflict a Delayed Debuff to all enemies which drain their NP Bar after 1 turn and last but not least, increase her NP Gauge by 20% for every enemy on the field. This last effect has the max ceiling of 120% NP Gauge in fights against up to 6 enemies on the field, but in general, she will get 20-60% NP Gauge to herself, which by its own is already mind boggling for a Support.

The one main criticism that one can, if at all, point at Lady Avalon is that she is not the best for farming, which, to be completely fair, not what she is intended to do. Nonetheless, she can still work in some farming setups thanks to her buff, quick access to her Noble Phantasm and teamwide NP Charge, albeit a lot more limited than any 50% Gauge Charger Supports. Furthermore, having Caster Altria already fulfills many rosters’ need for a challenge quest cheat code which may mean Lady Avalon can feel like overkill as an addition.

Still, Lady Avalon is absolutely top tier for Challenge Quests. While Arts teams are filled to the brim with powerful defensive Supports packing amazing utility like Caster Altria, Tamamo no Mae, Zhuge Liang or Sima Yi, they have been long awaiting a more specialized version of Merlin for Arts Damage Dealer, and Lady Avalon fills that void exceptionally. Pairing her with any other Arts Servant and one should already have a nigh immortal team with exceptional sustained DPS and her NP Charging capacity over long battle can create a cascade of endless NP spamming loop very quickly. There are very few challenges the game can throw that this enchanting lady cannot handle gracefully.

Provides Exceptional Protection To Allies

With teamwide Invulnerability, Max HP buff, NP Drain and a continuous stream of NP Gauge, it is exceptionally hard for any tough enemies to get through Lady Avalon once she is in her standard Arts-centric team. There are very few Supports in the game that can boast the same amount of utility and powerful generic supports that Lady Avalon provides in any given challenge quest. 

Improves Arts Damage Dealer Sustained Damage Output Massively

Lady Avalon isn’t just all about protecting her teammates, she also empowers them with a nuclear level of offensive buffs. Arts Performance, Critical Damage, Attack, Critical Stars and NP Gauge per turn are all fantastic sustained damage buffs that any Arts Damage Dealer would love to receive from their Supports. 

Exceptional NP Gain On Her Own

While her base NP Generation on her cards are not particularly outstanding, Lady Avalon has so many sources of NP Charge (i.e Arts Crit, Skill, Passive, NP) that makes it extremely easy for her to continuously spam her Noble Phantasm.

Not Stellar For Farming

Farming is still the majority of content in the game, and Lady Avalon is certainly behind some of her peers in this regard due to her lack of a front load 50% NP Gauge Charge button. While she can certainly work in some setups as there are Arts DPS who can do 3 turn looping with her Arts and NP Gauge support, it is more cumbersome than just using a straight 50% NP Gauge Charger.

All of Lady Avalon’s skills are powerful enough and scale well with level, with her first and third skills taking higher priority for general usage. 

• Light Be in Your Hands B - This is her main offensive buff and scales extremely well with level, making it a no brainer to raise. 
• Flower Blooming On A Summer's Night D – While this skill is really strong, the main value from leveling is to reduce its cooldown as the teamwide NP Charge is fixed at all levels.
• Succubus Ridge EX – The NP Charge per enemy value increases with level so it is a good skill to raise. Furthermore, it has a very high base cooldown which can be quite annoying to navigate around in longer fights without maxed level. 

Being the Challenge Quest specialist and having a very self-sufficient skill set means that Lady Avalon is best holding more supportive Craft Essences to help out her teammates. Any Craft Essence with passive NP Charge Per Turn, Critical Stars Per Turn or Teamwide Buffs are perfect for her. Good secondary effects would be Arts Performance, NP Generation Rate or Starting NP Gauge. 

• Therapeutic Spa / Prisma Cosmos / King of Heaven / A Fragment of 2030 / Chocolatier / A Fox Night's Dream: These Craft Essences all have one or multiple passive generation effects that give amazing value in long fights.
• Ideal Holy King / Golden Millennium Tree: Max HP Buffs are quite powerful for challenge quests, and synergize well with her Max HP buff, making teammates even bulkier.
• Chainsaw of The Dead / His Rightful Place / Trigger Off / Guardians of the Garden: Starting NP Gauge Craft Essences with beneficial secondary effects that she can take advantage of.