Astolfo (Saber)

“Why? I have no idea.”

After years of clamoring for a true bunny girl, the Fate Gods answer and gave us… Astolfo. As a Single Target Quick Saber Servant, Astolfo serves to blow up their enemies in a quick and efficient manner. They’re best served on teams looking for a high-HP boss killer.

As a Single Target damage dealer, Astolfo’s main goal is to kill enemies, and they do so with effective ease. They have one of the highest single target bursts of all characters with Riding A’s passive combined with an Attack boost on Majestic Triumphant Return EX and an overcharge on their Noble Phantasm which buffs their Quick attacks before doing damage. A combination of their La Black Luna C’s evasions and Declaration of Destruction C’s debuff cleanse also makes them quite durable against incoming damage. What really makes them shine is Declaration of Destruction’s charging skill, which allows them to use better CEs than their competition and hence do more damage.

While cute as a bunny girl, Astolfo as a Saber has some pretty severe weaknesses. For one, they have poor self-synergy, such as having a skill which boosts Critical Star Gather for their Buster cards when they only have one. They also have an RNG skill in La Black Luna. Their NP gain is also a little lackluster, having poor hit counts on their Quick cards.

All in all, Astolfo serves as a rather vanilla damage dealer and could be a good addition to a team lacking a single target Saber. They work well for larger HP final bosses, and also provide some measure of utility for challenge quests with their debuff clear, stun, and NP Seal capabilities. As a plus, they’re a bunny girl. But for those waiting for a true bunny girl, you’ll have to wait for Scathach’s costume.

Charge Skill

Unlike Astolfo’s most comparable counterpart in Okita Souji, Astolfo has access to a 20% per turn charge. This skill not only allows quick access to Noble Phantasms, but also to use more efficient CEs for less cost. For instance, with a Skadi and a Mage’s Association Mystic Code, Astolfo could fire off a Noble Phantasm turn 3 with a Black Grail CE, without considering any other sources of NP charge. 

Damage

Astolfo has high damage thanks to their attack up skill and Quick up overcharge. Combined with Quick typing which allows external Skadi support, they can really pack a punch with their hits. Unfortunately, this is burst damage as their lack of an effective gather skill or star creation skill until their interlude makes them a less-than-optimal sustain. Although they have a Buster Card Star Gather skill, their card set only has a single Buster card, which in practice makes it less likely to be applicable.

Durable

Astolfo really makes sure they don’t get hit. Their 3-hit 3-turn evasion skill acts as a stronger-than-usual hard counter against damage, and even if they avoid it for a turn they still have it on for the next. They also have Terror on skill 2, which gives a chance of avoiding all damage from an enemy for a turn via Stun, as well as a Debuff cleanse on skill 1 to take care of any debuff-related problems. To add to these, whenever they use their Noble Phantasm, its NP Seal effect ensures the enemy cannot counter with a Noble Phantasm of their own. 

Poor Synergy

Astolfo’s skills are all over the place. Some boost Noble Phantasm gauge and attack, and others boost Critical performance, but they typically do not work together making Astolfo (Saber) a Jack of all trades and master of none. Most notably is how they have a skill to boost Criticals and gather stars to their Buster card, yet they only have a single Buster card. Astolfo also unfortunately cannot guarantee stars on a turn until after their skill upgrade.

Chance-Based Skill

Terror is one of the worst debuffs in the game as it is only a chance of happening each turn and never occurs the first turn it is used. The chance at maximum level is only 40%, so Masters relying on it to succeed will often be disappointed, and it may  fail to proc at the worst possible time.

Low NP Card Gain

While Astolfo’s Noble Phantasm and charge skills give fairly good regeneration, their cards are not particularly impressive with respect to NP Gain. Their two Arts cards are standard and their Quick card has low hit counts, which further contributes to their mediocre card NP Gain.

A Master looking to make the best use of Astolfo will attempt to improve their Noble Phantasm’s damage as much as possible, given that their NP is arguably one of the greatest assets Astolfo offers over other competition in the ST Saber roster. Their skill selections should be based solely upon how hard the Noble Phantasm hits as well as how fast they can use it with as minimal effort as required.

• Declaration of Destruction C is an absolutely massive NP gain skill, giving Astolfo access to a 40% charge by the start of turn 3. With outside support, this charge can effectively allow them to use their Noble Phantasm with any CE they choose even if they don’t get the right cards. Getting this charge up to max is crucial and should be done first by all Masters. Its ability to remove debuffs is rather niche and not commonly used, but nice when the situation calls for it.
• La Black Luna C provides a powerful evasion of 3-hits and 3-turns, such that even if Astolfo gets hit they still are safe the following turn. Its terror skill is not reliable, only giving a small chance to stun an enemy each turn for three turns. Leveling it only levels the stun chance a trivial amount, so this skill can be safely ignored for leveling purposes aside from improving its cooldown. 
• Majestic Triumphant Return EX provides Attack up, Critical Up, and Critical Gather for Buster cards up buffs for Astolfo. None of the three buffs are particularly strong, and the Critical parts have minimal synergy with the rest of Astolfo’s kit until the first skill’s interlude upgrade. Masters should level this second to take advantage of the attack up and use it with Astolfo’s Noble Phantasm. It can be left at lower levels if necessary if Masters are missing materials. 

Thanks to Astolfo’s first skill, they should mainly try to concentrate on damage via NP Damage Up CEs. Lacking that, a Mixed Damage / Starting Gauge CE will give them quick and easy access to their Noble Phantasm on the usually boss-containing turn 3. Masters may wish to give them a Starting NP Gauge CE to give them earlier access to their NP, but these typically are worse options than Mixed CEs for a charger like Astolfo.

• The Black Grail: Most Masters will want to use Astolfo’s skill 1 on turn 1. This would mean on turn 2 they have 20% charge, and on turn 3 they have 40%. As a Skadi can provide a 50% charge and 10% Charges are much easier to find, this would allow them to give a super-boosted Noble Phantasm on turn 3.
• Knights of Marines / Holy Night Supper / Golden Sumo: Boulder Tournament: Mixed CEs work well for Astolfo since their skill can help fill in any remaining gauge. Knight of the Marines is especially good in MLB form as it begins at 60% charge so the 2 turns of charging will lead to a filled gauge. 
• Kaleidoscope / The Imaginary Element / Dragon’s Meridian: It is always good to have a starting NP charge, although due to the nature of Astolfo’s charge skill, these will prove to be less effective.