Ashiya Douman

Douman is mainly used as a wave clearer and pseudo-support. His two latter skills are best to max first, especially his third skill as they are central to his role. 

• Ridicule Cat EX – While weaker than his other skills, this is still an amazing skill that should be raised when possible. The debuffs are both meant to improve his team's Damage but also their survivability. 
• Onyx Life A – This skill serves as both Douman’s survivability and Critical steroids. While the Guts does not fundamentally change with skill level, the increase in Critical Damage boost makes this worth raising. 
• Douman’s Curse A++ – This skill is definitely Douman’s most important skill and should be maxed first without question. Both the NP Battery and the Attack buff scales with the Skill Level and the sooner this skill is maxed, the more flexibility Douman can get with his Craft Essence or team composition.

“My lord, give me your commands. If it's for your sake, I won't hesitate to do anything. Not even slaughter, nor trampling. I shall not doubt to do everything that makes you hesitate. By doing every evil, I shall pave a way for you to advance.”

Turning from an archenemy to a reliable (?) comrade, Ashiya Douman surely raises any Master’s eyebrows with his unique Critical-centric support and damage-dealing hybrid skill set. A highly versatile and multi-purpose Servant, Douman is an excellent pick for Masters looking for a powerful Alter Ego that can serve in both farming and challenge quests. Furthermore, he can elevate the performance of sinister Servants with [Evil] and [Chaotic] traits in their roster. 

Famed as an onmyouji and rival to Abe no Seimei, Douman’s skill set is highly reflective of that theme as he focuses on both buffing his team and himself while massively cursing the enemies with multitude of powerful debuffs. Ridicule Cat EX applies four powerful debuffs, including a Defense Reduction, an Attack Reduction, Terror, and Confusion to all enemies. Onyx Life grants himself two stacks of long-lasting Guts, while also skyrocketing the Critical Strength of his [Evil] and [Chaotic] allies for three turns. This is two separate Critical Strength buffs which mean any Servant with both of these aforementioned traits will get both of the buffs, turning them into dangerous Critical machines. Douman’s Curse does not lag behind his other two skills either, granting him a whopping 80% NP Gauge at max level, two Attack buffs for [Evil] and [Chaotic] allies for three turns, while inflicting a Curse debuff onto all enemies. To tie everything together, Douman’s Noble Phantasm deals massive AoE damage to all enemies, has a high chance of inflicting Instant Death after damage, and applies another Curse stack and a Curse Damage Amplification debuff on them. 

Altogether, Douman already makes an excellent support for any [Chaotic] or [Evil] Servants, let alone one with both traits. And Douman himself, being the maniacal villain that he is, possesses both traits as well. Even on his own, Douman is a fantastic AoE Damage Dealer with easy access to his Noble Phantasm immediately, courtesy of his NP Battery and Append Skill. His Instant Kill chance is reliably high against most bronze enemies, making him a fantastic option for quickly clearing any weaker nodes and preserving an AoE Noble Phantasm of another teammate. His damage is nothing to scoff either, with incredible Attack and Critical Damage buffs, a Defense Debuff, wide Class Advantage coverage as an Alter Ego, and Curse Damage that can add up overtime. But his true potential is truly unlocked when playing with other birds of the same feather, of which one of his best teammates is hilariously another copy of himself. 

Douman is not flawless, however, with his biggest problem being his high skill cooldowns. Once out of steam from his buffs and debuffs, Douman’s drop in damage is extremely noticeable, and while it is hard to get him killed with his Guts, Douman won’t really do much on the field until his skills are back up again. Thus, he is best fit in any strategy that intends to end the battle within 3-4 turns. His lack of a Star Generation tool outside of his multi-hit Noble Phantasm is also an issue, as Master will have to utilize some other means to make the most use out of his Critical Damage buffs. 

All in all, Douman is a fantastic Servant to have for any Master. He is not the best at any specific thing, but he does many things very well and is quite unique in his Support capacity for [Evil] and [Chaotic] Servants. The amount of Servants with these traits in the game will keep increasing naturally over time, giving him a good level of longevity. As long as you have faith in not his morality but his capacity, Douman won’t ever disappoint you. 

Powerful Support for Evil and Chaotic Servants

At max skill levels, Douman provides 20% Attack and 50% Critical Damage buffs to any ally with one of [Evil] and [Chaotic] traits, and double the amount if they have both. Douman is one of those, and thus he also enjoys the benefit of the ridiculous double buffs. A Double Douman’s composition is an incredibly powerful team that double-dips on this, with two on-demand AoE Noble Phantasms to handle any first two waves of most farming nodes with ease and can even perform very well in many Challenge Quests. 

Fantastic Wave-clear Potential

Douman’s Noble Phantasm has a high Instant Kill rate against most low-rarity enemies. Coupled with his class dealing effective damage against 5 different classes in the game, and his 80% NP Gauge, Douman is an effective farmer, either for clearing the first / second wave with his Noble Phantasm while buffing other teammates, or as an actual looper in the Skadi system. His huge battery also grants him massive freedom in terms of Craft Essence choice, which is valuable for any Master aiming for max drop bonus Craft Essences during an event.

Good survivability

Having two stacks of Guts that last for 5 turns does wonders for Douman’s survivability. The Attack Reduction and the Terror debuff on his first skills also make Douman’s a tough nut to crack, even against hard hitting enemies.

Very High Skill Cooldown

To make up for their ridiculous power, all of Douman’s Skills have high cooldown, especially his latter two skills with a base 9 turns of cooldown. This essentially means that Douman is mostly effective in short fights while his buffs are online. While he is not particularly a deadweight in longer fights provided there is a means to reduce his cooldown or keep him alive long enough, the tradeoff is not worth building a team around. 

Lack of Means to Generate Critical Stars Reliably

For a Critical-centric Servant, Douman does not have a reliable form of generating Critical Stars. His hit counts and base Critical Star Generation Rate are both mediocre, with his Noble Phantasm having 5-hits being the only saving grace. It is highly recommended when building a Critical team with Douman in mind to have someone that compensate for this weakness, as his massive Critical Buffs can be wasted easily.

As stated before, Douman is very flexible in Craft Essence choice thanks to his massive NP Battery. Any Craft Essence ranging from boosting Douman’s NP Damage, Starting NP Gauge (for a potential double Noble Phantasm in several setups) / Quick cards effectiveness / Critical Damage or grant him a good chunk of Critical Stars over time will all be great for Douman. As Douman’s buffs have fantastic modifiers, it is highly recommended to use any Craft Essences that give a high amount of flat Attack on him. 

• The Black Grail / Heaven’s Feel: While he is generally used to clear weaker waves, Douman’s damage can be quite scary when boosted by a max limit-broken Black Grail or Heaven’s Feel. 
• Midsummer Moment / Dangerous Beast / Crimson Teacher's Pointer / Fist of Hail: These Craft Essences provide several helpful stats that help Douman’s Critical niche.  
• Trace of Christmases Past / Kaleidoscope / Golden Sumo: Boulder Tournament: Craft Essence with good starting NP Gauge that might facilitate any setup that intends to use Douman’s Noble Phantasm two times in a row.