Setanta

“My future is what I wanted it to be and laughed at it. And you’re you. Your future is what you want it to be. It’s that simple, isn’t it?”

Setanta is a younger form of the great Celtic hero from Ulster mythology, Cu Chulainn, back during his time of training. He is the welfare Servant of the FGO Arcade Collaboration event, and is a single target Quick Saber with a focus on powerful Critical performance.

Setanta’s entire kit contains a relatively straightforward slew of self-targeted buffs focused on his offensive performance. His first skill, Red Branch Knight B, is a well-rounded skill that provides both a self ATK buff for 3 turns, a self debuff clear, and a burst of up to 20 Critical Stars. The ability to clear debuffs on himself can come in handy for combating various gimmicks in challenge quests, and the Crit Star bomb allows him to get his crit engine started more quickly. His second skill, Savage Dog Slayer A, gives Setanta an anti-Wild Beast trait niche, and a self-targeted Quick buff for 3 turns. His third skill, Land of Shadows Arms Mastery B+, is his primary hard defensive skill, providing him with Evade for 2 times and 3 turns. Additionally, it has a chance-based effect of giving him a modest Crit Damage buff and Star Gather Rate buffs, which if the skill is maxed, are both guaranteed to succeed.

Setanta’s NP, Cruaidin Setanta, applies Sure Hit to himself before dealing damage that ignores DEF to a single target. It additionally debuffs DEF for the target for 3 turns after dealing damage. By nature of him being a welfare, his NP damage is very respectable, and only further increases against favored Wild Beast trait targets. The Ignore DEF and Sure Hit effects also help to bypass any defense or evade buffs enemies may have. However, he does entirely lack any source of immediate NP battery for himself, so he will be reliant on either Supports or CEs, or potential NP gain from his Cards to fill his gauge. This is slightly helped by his excellent capacity for landing critical hits with the combination of his first and third skill, along with his Quick-based kit’s natural tendency to generate stars and good hitcounts on his NP and Quick Cards.

Overall, Setanta is a great addition to the roster as a more critical damage-focused ST Quick Saber Welfare Servant, with an additional niche against Wild Beast enemies that give him an upper edge over the competition in some situations. He also offers great utility effects including debuff clear, ignore DEF, and Sure Hit, giving him the ability to bypass certain boss skills. What Master could say no to Setanta, especially when he comes with an adorable, fluffy friend?

Good Critical Performance

Setanta has easy access to Crits with his first skill’s 20-Star bomb and his third skills Star Gather + Crit Damage buffs. Additionally, he has good hit counts on his Quick Cards, and a Quick NP, which all improve his ability to generate stars and further deal Crits.

Welfare Status

Being a Welfare Servant, Masters have easy access to his Ascension materials and for multiple copies to reach NP5 with him. This enables him to hit high damage numbers with his NP relatively easily, making him a powerful single target damage dealing Saber option.

Challenge Utility

Setanta provides multiple useful effects in his kit. His first skill gives him an on-demand debuff clear, which lets him shed any undesirable debuffs applied by enemies if he is able to act. Additionally, his NP has baked-in Sure Hit and Ignore DEF, both of which can come in handy in challenge quest scenarios.

Lack of NP Charge

Setanta lacks an NP battery skill, which means he is mostly reliant on Supports or CEs if Masters wish for him to unleash an NP right out of the gate. He does later receive an upgrade that helps with his NP gain, although it still is not an immediate effect and requires him to attack using his Cards, so the need for NP Guage support if an immediate NP is desired is still applicable.

All of Setanta’s skills are useful to his overall performance. As a result, generally it is recommended to level all of his skills. His first skill arguably provides the most return per level, with both general offense and critical performance being improved with levels, so it is recommended to be leveled first. However, his third skill is chance-based and only becomes guaranteed at max level, so Masters who plan to use Setanta often may wish to max it as well. The general recommended order is 1 > 2 = 3.

• Red Branch Knight B – This is his all rounder skill that provides a 3-turn ATK buff, clears his own debuffs, and provides a burst of Stars. Both the ATK and Star gain buffs scale well with level, making this worth leveling as it improves all aspects of his performance.

• Savage Dog Slayer A – Setanta’s Quick buff and anti-Wild Beast niche skill, both effects scale with level. For Masters who wish to get the most out of Setanta, leveling this skill is also very much worthwhile.

• Land of Shadows Arms Mastery B+ – This is primarily his defensive skill, although this also provides two useful Crit-related effects that both scale with level: Crit Damage and Star Gather buffs. Additionally, both buffs’ chance of success scale with level, reaching 100% success rate at max level, making it very desirable for Masters to max this skill to make sure both Crit related effects always succeed. However, since the effects are relatively modest, Masters lacking materials can opt to leave this for later.

Setanta’s primary gameplan is to hit hard and fast with his NP and subsequent critical hits. Starting NP Gauge CEs are very useful for him given his kit’s lack of NP battery. Additionally, NP Damage / Quick / ATK buffs are all useful. Setanta lacks an NP damage buff of his own, so these give the most effect in most scenarios. Additionally, Crit Damage bonus CEs can be very helpful, since Setanta is very proficient at dealing critical hits, while his own Crit Damage multiplier is relatively small so additional modifiers would help improve his performance.

• Kaleidoscope / Winter Crystal / The Imaginary Element – These are pure starting NP Gauge CEs, which can help Setanta unleash his NP more quickly. Setanta, having no NP battery of his own, would require a MLB Kaleidoscope to NP immediately, or a non-MLB copy and his 2nd Append Skill maxed.

• Holy Night Supper / Mission Start / Empty Garden / Princess’s Pilgrimage – These CEs provide a trio of NP Damage/Quick buffs, Crit Damage buffs, and starting NP Gauge, supporting all of Setanta’s primary desired abilities.

• Knights of Marines / Traces of Christmases Past / Crimson Teacher’s Pointer / Imaginary Number Attribute / Cherry Icicle / Star’s Day Off / One Summer / Golden Sumo: Boulder Tournament – These are other options that provide the duo of at least one of NP Damage / Quick / ATK buffs and starting NP Gauge. Many of these are prior Event CEs and would be easier to acquire an MLB copy of if Masters participated in the past event.

• The Black Grail / Heaven's Feel – These are CEs that provide a pure NP Damage boost, and are the largest boost in damage that can be provided to Setanta.