Paris

“Apollo is multiplying! I can juggle him now!”

Apollo’s favored hero, Paris takes on the role of Archer for the fourth anniversary bronze servant batch. Paris is a pretty straightforward Servant, with a standard single-target Quick Noble Phantasm and skills to boost his damage. Paris’s most notable feature, though, is his ability to remove enemy buffs and then do additional damage to those enemies, making him a useful free Servant for Masters in need of buff removal.

Paris’s Sun God's Eye (Fake) skill removes enemy buffs, and his Noble Phantasm, Troia Vélos, grants Paris Ignore Invincible. Collectively, these skills mean Paris has multiple ways to get around enemy buffs. Additionally, when the debuff removal is successful, Paris deals heavy damage to the target, giving him conditionally high damage output. All three of Paris’s skills also help him survive longer, meaning he is surprisingly durable as bronze Servants go.

That said, Paris’s damage tends to be underwhelming unless he gets his damage bonus from removing buffs. He also has very weak normal attacks, leaving him heavily dependent on his Noble Phantasm for his damage output. Unfortunately, Paris’s NP gain is not particularly good, especially on his Quick cards, which means he may struggle to use his Noble Phantasm repeatedly, and, as such, his sustained damage may not be particularly high.

While there are many accessible single-target Archer options, Paris is notable for his reasonable survivability and his strong utility. He is not a Servant to bring against every Saber enemy, but he can be a useful tool for countering specific fights, which is a solid place to be as a bronze Servant.

Useful Anti-Buff Tools

Sun God's Eye (Fake) can remove all types of buffs from enemies, and Troia Vélos ignores Invincible and Evade buffs. Together, these mean Paris can work around enemies with dangerous offensive and defensive buffs, making him a strong cheap option for certain tricky fights.

Strong Conditional Damage

When Paris removes an enemy’s buffs, he applies a debuff that gives him a super effective damage bonus on his NP for 3 turns. With this in effect, Paris deals very high damage and can compete effectively with higher-rarity Archers.

Multiple Durability Skills

All three of Paris’s skills provide defensive tools. Sun God's Eye (Fake) gives Paris a one-hit Evade buff and mitigates enemy critical attacks. Grace of the God increases Paris’s defense. Dystychía Milo restores Paris’s HP. These effects together mean Paris is better at staying alive than his status as a bronze Servant would suggest.

Low Base Damage Output

Without his buff-removal damage in play, Paris’s NP damage falls behind that of his competition. Furthermore, his only damage buff outside of that only lasts for one turn, meaning his sustained damage is unimpressive. This makes Paris much less appealing outside of situations where he will have buffs to remove.

Weak Normal Attacks

As a 2* Archer, Paris has low attack. Furthermore, his only buff that applies to normal attacks only lasts for one turn, and he has no way to facilitate critical attacks. Altogether, this means Paris is unlikely to do much damage outside of his Noble Phantasm.

Low NP Gain

While Paris has decent Arts cards, his Quick cards have very low NP gain. This means Paris will have difficulty using his Noble Phantasm consistently. As most of his damage comes from his Noble Phantasm, this inconsistent NP access functions as a notable detriment to Paris’s overall damage output.

Grace of the God is Paris’s primary general-purpose damage buff, and both the attack and defense buffs on the skill scale with level, so it should be leveled first. Dystychía Milo is an NP charge skill and reaches 20% at max level, so it should be leveled second in order to help Paris use his NP quickly. If a battle-start NP is desired in combination with a copy of Kaleidoscope, this skill can also be leveled first instead, depending on the Master’s priorities. Sun God's Eye (Fake) is also worth leveling for situations where Paris is present in fights for longer stretches of time, but it gains the least from levels and can be saved for last. Ideally, all three of Paris’s skills should be maxed out, as they have fairly short cooldowns, and Paris may be able to use them more than once in a fight.

• Sun God's Eye (Fake) lets Paris remove enemy buffs and apply his Weakness Found debuff. This skill is central to Paris’s value and is the primary reason Masters are most likely to want to bring him. The skill also reduces enemy critical attack rates and gives Paris one hit of Evade, which makes it a useful survival tool in emergencies, but generally this should be saved for situations where Paris can remove a buff.
• Grace of the God boosts Paris’s damage for one turn, letting him hit reasonably hard even without his NP’s bonus damage. As with Sun God's Eye (Fake), this skill also has defensive components, but Paris will likely want to use this when he is ready to use his NP for the extra damage, rather than prioritizing the defensive aspects.
• Dystychía Milo is a fairly straightforward NP charge skill that also restores Paris’s NP. At max level, this skill lets Paris use his Noble Phantasm immediately with the help of a Kaleidoscope Craft Essence, which may be useful in situations where Paris is kept in the back line to deal with dangerous or annoying buffs late in a fight.

Starting NP Gauge Craft Essences are useful to Paris, as they let him more reliably have access to his NP when he has an opportunity to remove enemy buffs. Alternatively, NP Damage Up Craft Essences are useful for maximizing Paris’s damage output. Quick Performance Up Craft Essences can also help, albeit to a lesser degree, as Paris has no Quick Performance buffs in his own kit.

• Kaleidoscope / The Imaginary Element / Golden Sumo: Boulder Tournament / One Summer / Christmas Locus: These starting NP CEs help Paris get early access to his NP. Kaleidoscope in particular lets Paris use his NP as soon as he arrives on the field. Golden Sumo, One Summer, and Christmas Locus provide less starting NP gauge, but in exchange they help boost Paris’s damage.
• The Black Grail / Heaven’s Feel: These CEs will provide the largest overall damage increase for Paris, letting him hit significantly harder every time he uses his NP.
• Imaginary Around / Gandr / Crowning Beauty, Greater Glory: These CEs all boost Paris’s Quick Performance. Crowning Beauty, Greater Glory provides a smaller Quick boost, but in exchange it also helps Paris’s Arts cards (and, by extension, his NP gain) and provides a burst of critical stars when he enters the field.