Dioscuri

“Something I like? What is there other than Sister?Brother, the phrasing… The phrasing is a bit…What. You say it too. “I don’t need anything other than my brother.”

An eternal bond honored by the constellation Gemini, the divine twins Castor and Pollux have manifested in a single Saint Graph as proof of their inseparable relationship. A single-target Arts damage dealer, the Dioscuri are known for their ability to perform NP spam.

Their Noble Phantasm, Dioscures - Tyndaridae, boasts an impressive hitcount of 8 hits, on top of having built-in Ignore Invincible and Ignore Defense, letting the Dioscuri bypass all but the most powerful defensive measures. It also slightly reduces the opponent’s resistance towards Arts and Quick cards for 3 turns, the benefits of which can stack up over time in longer fights. Mana Burst (Light/Ancient) boosts their Quick and Arts cards for 3 turns, further improving upon their already-high base NP gain. Star of the King of the Gods, combined with the stars from Dioscuri’s two Quick cards, provide some extent of critical play to boost their performance even more. Rounding up their kit is Guardian of Sea Voyages, which aside from being a party-wide damage boosting skill also provides the Dioscuri and their allies with a 1-time Debuff Immunity.

The Dioscuri’s main noticeable weakness is that their Evasion is contained within Mana Burst (Light/Ancient), forcing Masters to choose between using the skill for offense or defense. Despite the critical stars they can generate, the twins also lack a Star Gather Rate Up skill, which can cause them to lose out on some critical stars especially when Archer or Rider allies are involved.

Ultimately, these are all minor issues which do not take away from Dioscuri’s main draw as a Servant, which is their NP-spamming capability. Accompany them with a couple Arts supports, and watch as the eternal twins demonstrate their bond through their ultimate combination attack!

NP Spam

The twins’ ability to spam their NP is a result of a mix between high base NP gain, high NP hit count, as well as powerful passive skills (namely Self-Restoration (Magical Energy) and Core of the Twin Gods). This capability allows the Dioscuri to apply their NP’s Arts and Quick Resistance debuffs nearly continuously on a single target, increasing their own long-term performance. Keeping in mind Arts teams’ capability to supplement such a style of play, Dioscuri’s spammable NP makes them a terrific single-target damage dealer option even against neutral damage enemies. 

Good in Challenge Quests

While the high hitcount of Dioscures - Tyndaridae is its greatest strength, the NP’s other effects shouldn’t be overlooked, as it contains both Invincible and Defense Ignore, with the former even applying to any other command cards the Dioscuri use for the rest of the turn. Coupled with Guardian of Sea Voyages’s Debuff Immune effect, the twin gods are quite well-suited to the harsh environment of challenge quests, further increasing their value as a Servant.

Conflicting Skill Effects

The fact that Mana Burst (Light/Ancient) contains Dioscuri’s best damage boosting effects often means that its Evasion effect will be used suboptimally in order to maximize the skill’s offensive benefits. With the skill’s quite lengthy cooldown, this means that the twins will likely need external support to survive enemy Noble Phantasms.

Mediocre Critical Damage

Despite having several critical-related skills, the Dioscuri lack both Star Gather Rate Up and Critical Strength Up skills (save for a measly 6% from Oblivion Correction) to fully make use of them. Therefore, their criticals generally act more as a bonus to their already-high NP damage and NP gain, though the critical affinity they do have does help the twins fulfill a critical damage dealer role with the right supports.

All three of Dioscuri’s skills provide some sort of offensive benefit, and should all be leveled at some point. However, due to the twins’ emphasis on natural NP gain, there isn’t a specific threshold for any of the skills, meaning they can generally be leveled at the Master’s leisure.

• Although Star of the King of the Gods is the only skill which does not provide a direct offensive advantage, its Star Generation and NP Charge effects can stack up quite a lot over the long term, and should be leveled second after Mana Burst (Light / Ancient) to further improve on the twins’ consistency.
• Unlike the rest of Dioscuri’s rather selfish kit, Guardian of Sea Voyages notably applies three party-wide effects, even though at the end of the day it’s still going to be utilized for the twins’ own use for the most part. Aside from the Debuff Immune, this skill provides raw burst damage, which is arguably less important compared to the NP gain consistency provided by the other two skills. As such, this skill should be leveled last.
• Mana Burst (Light / Ancient) is Dioscuri’s strongest skill, as it provides direct benefits to both damage and NP gain, on top of having its offensive effects last for 3 turns. This skill should definitely be leveled first, especially due to its considerable cooldown.

As an Arts damage dealer, Dioscuri works best with either Starting NP or Arts Performance Up effects, with NP Damage Up and NP Gain Up also being desirable effects. Critical Strength Up is also an alright choice if none of the others are available.

• Kaleidoscope / The Imaginary Element (MLB): These CEs can jumpstart Dioscuri’s NP spam cycle, greatly increasing their early damage output and helping the party to go through the early waves much faster.
• Dive to Blue / Painting Summer / Holy Night Supper / Golden Sumo: Boulder Tournament / Mission Start / Halloween Princess:  With any sort of NP Charge support, these hybrid CEs become very enticing choices, as they also provide long-term aid to Dioscuri’s damage as well as NP gain through their effects.
• Formal Craft / Another Ending / Mark on a Smiling Face / Royal Icing / Meeting of the Heirs / Twinkle Star : While the previous two categories are generally the better choice in most situations, these CEs can be used in long extended fights, particularly when very defensive teams are deployed. While the start of the fight will be considerably slower, these CEs’ greater magnitude of effects will, given enough turns, eventually overtake the value obtained from Starting NP CEs.