Nero Claudius

“Umu! Behold my talent and listen to the thunderous applause! Then praise me!”

The innocently selfish, supremely cheerful Emperor of Roses appears as a rose in full bloom, a self-styled artist ruling the battlefield from her golden theater. An Arts-based Saber, Nero Claudius boasts a multitude of methods to keep her majestic self alive, making her an ideal choice for last man standing situations.

Nero possesses a good survivability baseline, one built on a mixture of healing from Migraine and Imperial Privilege, as well as a chance-based defense buff on the latter. While these effects already enable her to tank a lot more hits compared to other Servants, Nero’s third skill, Invictus Spiritus, is what truly distinguishes her defensive aspect. The triple-use Guts buff provided by this skill guarantees Nero several free turns when she is alone on the field, a rare and extremely powerful defensive ability.

On the offensive side, though Nero’s NP gain stat is somewhat mediocre, her AoE Arts NP Laus St. Claudius and her 5-hit Extra card allow her to use her NP slightly more often compared to other Sabers, especially once she gains acces to an NP charge post-Rank Up. This is a pretty considerable advantage, as Nero’s upgraded NP deals decent AoE damage if under the influence of Imperial Privilege’s attack buff. Said NP also provides a one-turn defense debuff, increasing the party’s damage output for that turn.

Although Imperial Privilege is Nero’s most versatile skill, its chance-based nature is also her biggest weakness, as failing to trigger either of the powerful buffs severely decreases her performance. This poses a problem as the rest of her kit does not improve her actual performance - at least until Migraine’s Rank Up into Goblet of Wealth. Despite her various survival skills, Nero also lacks a reliable way to block incoming damage, which can be detrimental outside of solo situations.

Armed with multiple survivability tools, Nero’s superb durability above all provides more strategic options for any Master, making some problematic quests far easier. However, Imperial Privilege’s random nature causes her performance to be rather inconsistent, and those using her should prepare some backup methods to overcome this potential problem… or perhaps, a tiny bit of help from the Goddess Fortuna.

High Survivability

With two separate ways to heal herself, a powerful 3-turn defense buff, as well as a triple Guts, Nero is easily one of the most durable Servants in the game. Pairing her with a defensive support would further improve her survival potential, opening up options such as defense buff stacking. Her Arts orientation also helps in this regard, allowing the team more Arts chains and, in turn, faster access to defensive NPs.

Decent Offensive Presence

Despite having such a defensive kit, Nero’s relatively-spammable, upgraded, defense-ignoring NP and Imperial Privilege’s attack buff allow her to put out damage that matches more offensive Servants. This capability can be further improved with Goblet of Wealth, which adds an instant NP charge and a situational Arts Performance Up to her repertoire.

Great Solo/Last Man Standing Potential

Aside from being able to stay alive on her own for several turns, Nero also possesses the capability to recover a large part of her HP pool right afterwards through her two healing skills, making her one of the best choices to potentially solo Lancer stages. She also excels as the last member of a party, as the few extra turns she gets via her guts allows the team to deal higher damage overall - especially as she is guaranteed a Brave chain on each of those turns. After all, a single surviving Servant that has its guts trigger will end the enemy's turn. 

Inconsistent Performance

Imperial Privilege’s chance-based buffs are the crux of Nero’s all-around competent performance, and failure to activate either of the two may throw a Master’s calculations off during crucial moments. As such, a Master using her should keep other options ready as backup, which can be accomplished through support Servants or Mystic Code choices. Alternatively, effects that improve the activation chance of Chance-based skills such as Ozymandias's Protection of the Sun God can grant Masters the certainty they desire.

No Evasion or Invincibility

As Nero has no skill which completely mitigates damage, she may be required to use Invictus Spiritus early to keep herself alive. This is undesirable considering the skill’s long cooldown, and especially so outside of solo situations because she may be able to get ‘killed’ more than once in the process.

Among Nero’s skills, Imperial Privilege and Migraine benefit from being leveled, as the lower cooldowns would help her survive more consistently. On the other hand, leveling Invictus Spiritus is a rather bad investment despite it being her defining skill.

• Migraine B/ Goblet of Wealth: Before its upgrade, Migraine acts as a complementary heal to Imperial Privilege’s, allowing Nero to recover even more HP in one turn. It also has a secondary effect of mental debuff resistance (affects Charm, Fear and Disorder), which can be occasionally useful. After this skill’s upgrade into Goblet of Wealth, it also provides an instant NP charge as well as a situational Arts Performance Up buff, greatly increasing its usefulness. This skill should be leveled after Imperial Privilege, and it is recommended to max it after its upgrade.

• Imperial Privilege EX: With a 3-turn modifier as well as a whopping 44% maximum modifier on both attack and defense buffs, Imperial Privilege is easily Nero’s most powerful skill in terms of numbers. While the 60% proc chance somewhat hurts its consistency, it is on a fairly low cooldown, and it also contains a guaranteed heal which can help Nero survive in dire situations. Max this first.

• Invictus Spiritus A: Invictus Spiritus’ recovers 600 of Nero’s HP when maxed, which is a very small upgrade from its initial 300. Additionally, it starts off with an obscenely long 12-turn base cooldown, and it is very unlikely to be used twice in the same fight even when maxed. As such, this skill’s level can be ignored unless the Master simply seeks to completely max Nero out.

Nero Claudius generally prefers Arts Performance Up CEs as her first choice, or Starting NP Gauge ones depending on the stage. In a well supported team, CEs granting NP Damage Up are also an option to make use of her decent Arts NP gain.

• Formal Craft / Kaleid Sapphire / Kill on Sight / Projection: Aside from increasing her Arts cards’ damage, these CEs also let Nero charge her NP faster through her Arts cards, and she is guaranteed to get them every turn when she is the only Servant on the field.

• The Black Grail: The Black Grail may be used when Nero is used as a main damage dealer in a proper Arts team. As her generation would be more or less covered by her allies, she is able to focus on damage and utilize her NP to its fullest potential.

• Kaleidoscope / The Imaginary Element : Starting NP gauge CEs enable Nero to unleash her NP near the start of a fight, helping her to start spamming her NP Arts Brave chains as well as providing some early burst.

• Maid in Halloween: While Nero’s own skills already provide a lot of healing, Maid in Halloween increases this capability to obscene levels - the combination of Migraine/Goblet of Wealth and Imperial Privilege would be able to recover most of her HP pool every five turns.

• Holy Night Supper / Dive to Blue / Painting Summer / Little Halloween Devil: Hybrid Starting NP CEs allow Nero to charge her NP early enough, while also providing some long-term benefits. They can also be used when NP charging allies are brought in, where pure Starting NP Gauge ones would be overkill.