Savior Aesc

“Master, you're my summoner, and I'm your familiar. But you have been treating me like a gentleman and never brought up our status. You are like the model friend I always see in books.”

Aesc, The Rain Witch, or Tonelico The Savior, is the youthful and idealistic version of a certain Queen of Avalon Le Fae. Just like her future self, Aesc is a prodigy with unparalleled talent for spellcraft. Still, this younger version of her differs from her adult self in her enthusiasm to overcome hardship and become the prophesied savior of the fairy land. This is translated into her gameplay, where Aesc is a character with exceptional capacity for both farming and challenge quests, and much of her value shines when she can play a hybrid between both a Damage Dealer and a Support Unit.

Last Resort A - Aesc’s Third Skill is the perfect representation of her character and the focal point of her kit. This skill is incredibly unique in that it starts with a 5-turn cooldown upon entering battle. Upon use, it increases the entire party’s NP Gauge by 50%, NP Damage by 30%, and grants them a Guts for 1 time over 3 turns. A teamwide 50% NP Gauge is mind-boggling and unprecedented, but a long 10-turn cooldown and a starting cooldown prevent it from being too abusable. This brings us to Aesc’s Noble Phantasm - Memory of Londinium A++. This is an AoE Buster Noble Phantasm that packs a large number of effects. Before dealing damage, it increases her Buster cards' effectiveness for 1 turn and reduces the cooldown of Last Resort A depending on the level of Overcharge. This Noble Phantasm also deals supereffective damage against enemies with an Evil alignment, reduces all enemies’ Defense by 20% for 3 turns, and grants a 1-time Invulnerability buff to Aesc. Needless to say, Aesc’s game plan will revolve around getting a high Overcharge level on her Noble Phantasm so she can access her third skill as often and as early as possible.

But Aesc also has several other tools up her sleeve. Fae of the Rain Clan A is another bonkers skill. It increases her own NP Gauge by 50%, grants all allies a NP Regen Per Turn buff for 3 turns, grants 10 Critical Stars per turn, and increases her own NP Damage for another 20%. Charisma of Adversity A is another teamwide buff but with a twist. At base, this skill increases all allies’ Attack by 20% for 3 turns. However, if their HP is lower than certain thresholds, they will gain an additional 10% Attack buff, with the thresholds being 99% / 75% / 50% / 25%, and the Attack buffs can reach a maximum of 60%. Furthermore, this skill will also grant 10 Critical Stars every turn for 3 turns if the whole party’s HP is full.

Each of Aesc’s skills can be some Servant’s entire kit, which speaks volumes to how powerful her kit is. Aesc is a Servant that excels both in farming and challenge quests, and she does bring something that, while not truly unique, is something that no other Servants can replicate - a massive teamwide NP Battery of the highest level. In farming, Aesc can be used as a solo attacker with Koyanskaya of Light providing her with Cooldown Reduction and NP Gauge, or as a multi-core attacker that can provide other teammates with the necessary NP Gauge to run other Craft Essences. In any challenge quest, teamwide NP Gauge is always one of the biggest boons a Servant can bring, and Aesc is no slouch on the utility department either, with a wide array of strong effects to support the team.

On the other hand, Aesc does have two distinct problems. Her first big problem is her class. Caster is notoriously bad (alongside Assassin) as a class for damage dealers due to its low class multiplier. The other flaw that Aesc possesses is that she needs Cooldown Reduction, whether from her Append Skill, access to her Noble Phantasm, or teammates that can provide Cooldown Reduction / Overcharge buff.

All in all, even when all her problems are accounted for, Aesc deserves the hype as possibly one of the strongest multi-core units in the game that can bring value in any form of content.

Aesc benefits massively from Append Skill 5 when it becomes available during the 9th Anniversary (Skill Cooldown Reduction) as this lets her access her third skill much faster, while also letting her use her first and second skill again on the second wave on most farming setups, allowing her to double-dip on the offensive steroids that her kit has to offer, while providing massive amounts of NP Gauge to the team.

Massive Teamwide NP Charge Capacity

With her 3rd Skill, Aesc can provide a whopping 150% NP Gauge to the entire team. This niche of hers is further cemented by her first skill, which gives both a 50% NP Gauge to herself and a 10% NP Regeneration Buff for 3 turns to the party. When utilized well, Aesc can set up her teammates and herself to quickly unload numerous Noble Phantasms within a short amount of time.

Fantastic Team Support & Utility For Challenge Quests

Aesc has a wide array of powerful team support effects and utilities beyond just NP Gauge. On the offense side, she provides massive teamwide Attack and NP Damage boost, enemy teamwide Defense debuff, and Critical Stars every turn. On the defense side, she has a teamwide Guts buff and an Invulnerability buff for herself. Aesc is well-suited for both farming and challenge quests as either a main Damage Dealer or as a complementary Damage Dealer alongside others.

Dependent On Cooldown Reduction And / Or Overcharge

Aesc is very dependent on her third skill to continuously provide value. Cooldown Reduction effects are exceptionally beneficial to her due to how high the cooldowns on her skills are, and Overcharge Level (which can come from teammates’ buff, chaining Noble Phantasm or Craft Essence) is just as valuable as it can let her lower the cooldown of her 3rd skill. This means she is not a unit that can be plug and play like other AoE Buster Damage Dealers.

Damage Output Can Be Underwhelming

Despite having a lot of self-buffs in her kit, Aesc’s damage output can feel underwhelming when she is not hitting Evil enemies. Generally, to use Aesc as the primary damage dealer in high-level farming missions, she will need additional boosts such as NP level 2 and above, or a lot of buffs from teammates.

All of Aesc’s skills should be maxed, but the primary focus should be both her 1st and 2nd skills as they are incredibly pivotal to her performance.

• Fae of the Rain Clan A - An incredibly powerful skill with all of its effects being useful in all situations and scales with level.

• Charisma of Adversity A – This skill is her weakest skill. While its ceiling can be high, in practice, it is hard to set up for the maximum amount of Attack boost. Nonetheless, it should still be leveled as a teamwide Attack buff is never a bad thing.

• Last Resort A – The teamwide NP Charge and NP Damage buff scales with level, and reducing its cooldown is highly beneficial in any setup with Aesc, hence it is a no-brainer to max it as soon as possible.

Aesc can work with various setups, but since she is prized for her third skill, Master should focus on Starting NP Gauge and Overcharge Buffs to quickly access it when choosing a Craft Essence for her. Beyond that, standard offensive buffs such as Attack, NP Damage, and Buster Up are all good secondary stats to look for.

• Apex / Devilish Bodhisattva / Flames of Applause / Love’s Curse / Shasmatis: These Craft Essences have the rare combination of Starting NP Gauge and Overcharge Buff, making them fantastic options for Aesc in most situations.

• The Black Grail / Inverted Rain of Mud / Heaven’s Feel: These Craft Essences should provide the biggest damage boost to Aesc. These are recommended when more firepower is needed and there are other means of Cooldown Reduction / Overcharge supports available in the team.

• First Day of Filming / Aerial Drive / Golden Sumo: Boulder Tournament: Farmable Craft Essences with Starting NP Gauge and offensive buffs that can serve as placeholders for Aesc.