Charlemagne

“I feel like I became cooler and cooler!.”

Don’t let his youthful exuberance fool you, this is the one and only Great Father of Europe in his earlier days. Befitting his status as well as endless enthusiasm, Charlemagne is an AoE Centric Quick Damage Dealer with various applications for both farming and clearing hard content. 

Charlemagne has a few interesting quirks as most of his skills have a multitude of effects, despite functioning as a rather standard Damage Dealer. His first skill - Kingship Traversal C grants him a whopping 5 turns NP Gain buff, while also being a targetable Invincibility buff for 2 times, 3 turns, with an added demerit of sealing his own Noble Phantasm for 1 turn if he does not have Invincibility when casting it. This skill gives him an unique buff which lasts 5 turns and grants him a stack of [Brave King] status whenever he is attacked. [Brave King] can be stacked to the maximum of 12 stacks and directly increases his NP Damage output. Holy Knight Emperor EX is Charlemagne’s version of Charisma, offering a decent Attack buff to everyone on the team, while further increasing his own Damage against enemies with [Demonic] trait, his Defense against enemies with [Divine] and an NP Gauge Charge. Last but not least, Mana Burst [Light] A is Charlie’s personal steroid. It grants him a Quick card effectiveness buff, Critical Damage and extra Critical Damage when attacking [Evil] alignment enemies. 

Joyeuse Ordre EX - Charlie’s Noble Phantasm - is an AoE Quick Noble Phantasm that deals extra super effective damage depending on the amount of [Brave King] stacks that he has, and decreases all enemies’ Quick Resistance for 3 turns. This Noble Phantasm also has the extra benefit of very high hit counts, and when paired with Charlie's innately high NP Generation Rate, his refund is quite significant in any proper team set-up, on top of naturally good damage output and can ramp up against the same enemies over multiple turns thanks to the debuff.  

It is best to think of Charlemagne as an all-rounder. He has good damage, strong refund, is quite bulky and has some teamwide utility as well. His performance as a farmer or as Challenge Quest damage dealer are both respectable, making him quite possibly one of the best AoE Sabers in the game. When supported with powerful supports like Scathach-Skadi, Reines or Taigong Wang, Charlemagne is a force to be reckoned with. His Critical Hits are also no slouch, as they can get nasty if he can keep stacking the Quick Debuff, and/or abusing his anti-traits multiplier on his skills.

On the other hand, Charlemagne is, in the end, still a Quick Servant, who is naturally at a disadvantage in terms of power level compared to Buster and Arts Servants, who enjoy some of the strongest support Servants in the entire game. AoE Quick Damage Dealers as a whole are exceptionally competitive, with Servants at similar specs like Okita Souji (Saber Alter), Voyager, Ashiya Douman, Taigong Wang and more. While Charlie is no slouch, at the end of the day most Masters are spoilt for choice when it comes to Quick AoE Damage Dealers, and Charlie might not be at the highest echelon amongst this niche to justify going for if Masters already have good coverage. Nonetheless, Charlie is still a highly fun and cool Servant and if any Master decides to go for this best bro, he will certainly not disappoint.

Strong Looping Performance

Charlemagne has a lot of perks in his skill set to set him up for success as a Quick Looper. His NP has strong refund, he has NP Battery, NP Generation Buff and a Quick Card buff. In a typical double Skadi team or even Skadi with Reines, Charlie is a very reliable farmer with good damage and even has a strong ceiling with Black Grail with any Plug Suit setup.

Good Sustained Damage 

Charlie’s damage output is quite consistent and comes from both his Noble Phantasm and his face cards. He has a lot of ways to increase his damage, either via Attack buff, Quick Cards buff,  Anti-Trait Modifier against Demonic enemies, Brave-King modifier for his Noble Phantasm, Critical Damage Boost, Quick Resist debuff and Critical Damage Boost against Evil enemies. All of these make Charlemagne very versatile and can be put into great use in any content.

Lots of Competition

Being an AoE Quick Damage Dealer in the current landscape means facing tons of strong competition. Unfortunately for Charlie, while he is certainly strong, he is not on the highest echelon of this niche, and the abundance of options mean his pulling value is not particularly high.

Lackluster Without Premium Supports

Charlemagne scales very well with strong Quick Supports that can give him more buffs and especially NP Gauge. Units such as Scathach-Skadi, Sima Yi (Reines) and Taigong Wang are fantastic options for his team.

Raising an Emperor of Europe does not come cheap, and Charlie is definitely a Servant one would want to break the resource bank for if he is to perform at a good level. His second and third skills are absolute must to level, while the first skill can be prioritized later. 

• Kingship Traversal C - The only effect that scales with level is the NP Generation buff, and the incremental increase is not impactful. It is fine to leave this skill at Level 6.
• Holy Knight Emperor EX – This is Charlie’s NP Battery so it’s natural to be maxed. All his other effects on this skills scale with level as well so it’s a pretty good investment. 
• Mana Burst [Light] A – This skill is the main bulk of Charlemagne’s offensive buffs and it scales quite well with level, thus there is no reason not to invest into it.

Like all loopers, Charlemagne loves Starting NP Gauge to kickstart his combo. The lack of NP Damage Buff in his kit means that this is also a highly desirable effect as it’d scale multiplicatively with his other buffs. Outside of these, Quick Card Performance, Attack, NP Generation Rate or even Critical Damage are good secondary stats to look for.

• Traces of Christmases Past / Cherry Icicle / One Summer / Imaginary Number Attribute: These are affordable / Event Craft Essences that Charlie can use for general usage. Any Limited Craft Essence that offers Starting NP Gauge with additional offensive stats can be a good alternative or upgrade.
• The Black Grail / Heaven’s Feel: Charlemagne is one of the few Servants that can do a Black Grail setup without a plugsuit, but it is very reliant on enemy composition. Still this is the strongest damage output offered.
• Fist of Hail / Looking Up At The Starry Sky / Three Anglers: Placeholder Craft Essences that can be used to amplify Charlemagne’s Critical niche instead.
• GUDAGUDA Poster Girl / Grand New Year / Halloween Arrangement / Outrage: This is more of a gimmick but can be surprisingly effective, as Charlemagne has an Invincibility skill that he can use in conjunction with Target Focus effect to quickly increase his [Brave King] stacks.