Altria Pendragon (Lily)

Note: Altria Pendragon (Lily) will be added to the Friend Point gacha from January 2022 for the global server at around 0.05% Summoning Chance. 

"Please watch me---as I emerge victorious!"Named “Lily” for her dress sharing the appearance of the flower by the same name, Altria Pendragon (Lily) is a form of Altria as she was after drawing Caliburn from the stone, but before she receives Excalibur. She is a younger, more naïve incarnation of Altria, and as such, is not as proficient in combat as the other Altrias.

Altria Pendragon (Lily)'s main strength, and essentially her only purpose as compared to other available lower rarity options, is that of a massive (budget) AoE Buster NP cannon. And, despite what her stats may tell you, she does that exceedingly well. Due to both her Rank Up and her Mana Burst, Saber Lily will readily surpass any NP1 gacha Sabers with her own NP5 Caliburn when it comes to raw NP Damage alone. In addition, Caliburn packs a decent hit count, allowing Masters with Star Generation Up to generate some Critical Stars while doing so.

Unfortunately, Saber Lily is the only welfare Servant that costs 12 to field, yet only possesses the stats of a 3* Saber along the lines of Fergus or Bedivere. While this greatly reduces her offensive potential on its own, both her Intuition and her Journey of the Flowers have poor skill values to boot. In addition, her use outside of farming is rather limited considering she only has the healing from her Overcharge to improve her poor survivability. 

Thus, Saber Lily is a Servant best supported with (Buster) Supports such as Shakespeare, Waver, Merlin or Helena Blavatsky that charge her NP for her and add even more steroids to her already chunky NP. That way, her low base stats are not as noticeable considering her high cost. In its own way, her Rank Up provided her with a decent budget niche of her own at last.

Decent Budget AoE Damage

With an extraordinarily high, and unique, NP Damage modifier, Caliburn deals far more damage than is to be expected from someone with stats similar to a 3* Servant. Altria Pendragon (Lily) can therefore keep up with Servants such as Suzuka Gozen even at equal NP levels when it comes to NP Damage.

NP Gain and Critical Star Support

While Saber Lily's support potential is rather small, she can provide that extra boost to charge NPs a turn earlier and/or set up a critical turn with some clever buffing. Her 8-hit NP along with a sizable Star Generation buff, Overkill and/or her Intuition can set up a strong wave 3 for another Servants.

Poor Base Stats

For a 4* unit, Altria Pendragon (Lily) has base stats comparable to a silver Servant. While this is not an issue for her NP Damage, it is an issue when it comes to any follow up attacks as her Command Card damage is below par for her cost and she may struggle to carry a Master through a node on her own.

Weak Support Skills

While on release Saber Lily skills were fairly rare and somewhat competitive in value, both Intuition and Journey of the Flowers are woefully undertuned and have very little noticeable impact especially at lower levels.

Expensive to Level

Unlike all other welfare Servants, Saber Lily behaves exactly like a normal Servant when it comes to material costs. As such, ascending her is more expensive material-wise for new Masters, while the returns on leveling her skills past 4 need to be seriously considered.

Poor Durability

In spite of her Overcharge's sizable heal, Saber Lily's durability is rather terrible, with a lower base HP stat for her rarity and a complete lack of means to attempt to survive any heavy enemy damage.

There is but one skill that truly helps Saber Lily do her job better, Mana Burst, while the other skills provide minimal returns. Masters who lack a powerful AoE Saber may want to invest heavily into Mana Burst however, but the rest of her skills are probably best left at rank 4 at which point skill material costs shoot up.

• Intuition B might well be any launch Servant's nightmare skill. With undertuned values and for only a single turn on a kit that has little synergy with Critical Hits, Masters can best leave this alone or leave it for last.
• Mana Burst A is Saber Lily's bread and butter and scales very well with Caliburn's stupendous NP Modifier. Getting it to level 6 is a good middle of the road solution for Masters relying on her NP Damage, and fans of her should definitely consider bumping it to 10. Given the nature of her kit though, don't expect to use this skill twice very often though. Level this first!
• While compared to Intuition, Journey of the Flowers EX is rather decent, its values are not high enough to truly justify investing heavily into raising the skill past 4 or 6. It works quite well with Arts-deck Supports though, which help to set up Arts chains to unlock more damaging NPs For Saber Lily. 

Note: Given Saber Lily's low attack stat, it is essential that her CE grants as much attack stats as possible for better performance.

Altria Pendragon (Lily) finds her best use in farming or wave-clearing situations. As such, Masters should try to get her to fire Caliburn as soon as possible and/or as hard as possible depending on how strong the unfortunate enemies will be. Prioritize Starting NP Gauge first and foremost, followed by providing her with NP Damage Up or Attack Up. Buster Performance Up is always an option as well, but stacks additively with Mana Burst.

• Kaleidoscope / Imaginary Element / Dragon's Meridian: Generally, the best way to speed up a fight with Saber Lily is to get her to fire her NP faster. 

• Aerial Drive / Golden Sumo / Holy Night Supper: A hybrid 50% Starting NP Gauge CE is best when more damage is needed for farming and/or NP Charging supports are available.

• Black Grail / Heaven’s Feel / Hero Elly's Adventure: If a certain wave has exceedingly high HP, and Masters have time to actually charge Saber Lily's NP from scratch, well, a heavy NP Damage CE scales the hardest by far. Doubly so in combination with Buster supports.

• Limited/Zero Over / Verdant Sound of Destruction / The Crimson Black Keys: In absence of better options, simply boosting her Buster performance is always a safe option.