Sakamoto Ryouma

"Nice to meet you, human. By the way, you look delicious!” - Oryou-san

“Now now, you must not eat them, okay ?” - Sakamoto Ryouma

30% revolutionary hero, 30% detective and 40% cute dragon stalker, Sakamoto Ryouma’s aloof appearance belies his charming optimism and idealism. An Arts Rider whose main attributes are his supportive capacity, Ryouma and Oryou-san are a goofy yet competent duo who serve as a DPS / Support Hybrid for Arts-centric teams. 

Sakamoto Ryouma’s defining trait is his selflessness, which manifests in all three of his skills’ teamwide beneficial effects at reasonable cooldown. Charisma C+ is a simple yet ever useful Party Attack buff that lasts for 3 turns. Ryouma’s second skill - Senchu Hassaku A offer two handy yet modest effects in teamwide NP Gauge charge and Debuff Resistance. Further improving his party offensive prowess, Hero of Reform A grants a notable 3-turns Arts Performance buff and an instantaneous chunk of Critical Stars. Last but not least, Sakamoto Ryouma’s Noble Phantasm - Amakakeru Ryu ga Gotoku has a moderate chance to lower an enemy NP gauge by one upon dealing damage, which fits his Arts-centric team support role. Thanks to the two buffs and his naturally high NP level being an Event Servant, Ryouma’s damage on his Noble Phantasm is quite respectable, particularly in a team archetype that facilitates frequent NP usage and with his innately high Rider Star Weight. 

On the other hand, Ryouma has several issues that prevent him from being more than just a solid Servant. All of his skills suffer from lackluster values relatively compared to other Servants’. While this does not break him, it does make him a jack of all trades, master of none type of Servant who often finds it hard to justify a slot over a specialist. Furthermore, Ryouma has no hard survival, which makes him less appealing for challenge quests. 

All in all, Ryouma is a capable Rider who occupies a rare niche as an ST Arts Rider. While he may not blow your mind away, he is more than enough to fill any Rider-size hole in most Masters’ roster. 

Good Supportive Skill Set

Packing several teamwide buffs such as Attack, Arts Performance, NP Gauge and Critical Stars bomb, all with relatively high uptime, Ryouma makes a fantastic teammate in general and for Arts-centric teams in particular. 

Good Sustained NP Damage

Ryouma’s Attack and Arts Performance buffs plus the ease of raising his NP level make his Noble Phantasm damage hit moderately hard. Furthermore, his naturally high Rider Star Weight, good hit count on normal cards and high synergy with Arts-centric teams allow him to charge his NP gauge quite easily, ensuring his damage output is not too hampered by his low base Attack.

Lackluster Value on His Skills

While all of them possess universally useful effects, Ryouma’s skills all have mediocre value, even at max skill level. This means he is rarely the best choice for a certain role, as other Servants with stronger value on certain effects will make better specialists. 

No Hard Survival

Despite his synergy with Arts-centric teams, Ryouma lacks any form of Hard Survival to avoid being taken out by hard-hitting enemies. His high HP base and the NP Gauge drain effect on his Noble Phantasm do help him directly in surviving, but Ryouma will still be at the mercy of his teammates’ supports against powerful attacks like Noble Phantasm or Critical Hits. 

Mediocre Damage on Normal Cards

Unfortunately for Ryouma, he has a somewhat poor Attack base compared to his peers of the same rarity. Furthermore, Ryouma buffs don’t grant particularly strong value to properly mitigate this, and while his natural Star Weight is high, he also lacks any form of buff to his Critical Damage. All in all, Ryouma’s damage output on his Normal Cards will be rather unimpressive.

Ryouma’s skills are all quite straightforward and don’t scale particularly well with level, thus it should be raised in order of their universal usefulness and mainly for the reduced cooldowns. A 6/6/6 skill level spread is usually enough for most situations, but if Masters use Ryouma as the main ST Rider, then further leveling can also be considered. 

• Charisma is a simple teamwide Attack buff with no string attached. The max value on the skill is 17%, which is neither great nor bad. However, it has a very good uptime of 3 / 5 turns. Generally, while the skill itself is good, it is less influential to Ryouma as a unit compared to his two other skills, and can be considered leveling after them. 
• Senchu Hassaku has the best effect amongst Ryouma’s skill being Party-wide NP Gauge. Sadly, this effect does not scale with level, and is solely a 10% NP Gauge which is underwhelming compared to other skills of the same effect. Raising this skill level thus is mostly for the reduced cooldown, as the Debuff Resist effect is not particularly influential in most cases. 
• Both of Hero of Reform’s effects are good effects and scale with level, making this skill easily Ryouma’s best to level. This skill is also more influential in an Arts-centric team, as it also indirectly boosts everyone’s NP Generation through Arts cards and Critical Hits. Thus, it is highly recommended to raise this skill level first. 

Ryouma is mostly used as a Support, but his Damage Output is also not poor through frequent usage of his Noble Phantasm. As he has both Attack buff and Arts Performance buff, Ryouma gains the most increase in damage output with NP Damage buff. Starting NP Gauge is an universally strong choice to help him access his Noble Phantasm easier, particularly for shorter fights. While not as potent, Arts Performance, NP Gain or even Critical Damage buffs are also good choices to improve his overall prowess. In practice, hybrid Craft Essences that grant multiple of these effects are generally good options.

• Black Grail / Heaven’s Feel: These two granted the biggest increase in his NP Damage, and should be considered should Ryouma be used as the main Single Target DPS in the team. 
• Royal Icing / Sign of Smiling Face / Heavenly Demon Princess / Bitter Sweet / Kaleid Sapphire: Hybrid Craft Essences that grants him several beneficial effects and high ATK value to improve his overall damage output.
• Kaleidoscope / The Imaginary Element: Particularly useful for short fights, these CEs allow Ryouma to quickly access his Noble Phantasm to finish off his enemies or join an Arts NP chain with his teammate.