Durga

“This goddess is made to destroy all evils. Please take great care when operating her.”

Durga is the Hindu goddess of war and a divine consort of Shiva. With multiple godly armaments, Durga is a slayer of demons and has a terrifying aspect called Kali, the goddess of fear, massacre, and destruction. In Fate / Grand Order, Durga is a powerful AoE Arts Archer with strong NP looping performance and good utility for Challenge Quest.

Durga’s skillset is relatively straightforward, with no unique gimmick compared to her peers. Mahamaya EX is a 50% NP Gauge Charger, and it also increases all allies' NP Overcharge level by 1. Unapproachable A is a standard all cards’ performance booster for Durga herself over 3 turns, while also giving her a 3 times, 3 turns Invincibility buff. Trinayani Durga EX increases Durga’s NP Damage for 3 turns, changes all her cards to Arts cards for 1 turn, and also grants her a 1-turn Ignore Invincibility. Durga’s Noble Phantasm - Mahisasuramardini EX is an Arts AoE attack that deals extra damage against enemies with the Demonic trait. Before dealing damage, it will also increase her damage against all enemies with Heaven attribute for 1 turn. After dealing damage, it will reduce enemies’ Defense by 20% for 3 turns.

As an Arts looper, Durga has a lot going for her. While her base NP generation rate is low, her refund is quite decent thanks to the high hit count from her Noble Phantasm and a 50% NP Gauge charger. She also has a pretty wide coverage, hitting both Demonic and Heaven for solid damage, with a lot of common enemies from events having the Demonic trait. But Durga is also quite solid in tough and lengthy battles, as she has hit-based Invincibility, Ignore Invincible, ramping damage boost from her Noble Phantasm in the form of a Defense debuff, a party Overcharge buff, and exceptional debuff resistance.

However, Durga falls into the pitfall of many Arts loopers - she lacks an overwhelming advantage in a role that already has a horde of strong alternatives. Most people with a standard Altria Caster team for Arts looping have already invested in one or two omnifarmers, such as Space Ishtar, Summer Ibuki, or Summer Kama, at this point. Durga, while solid, does not compete with these options when not hitting the right traits, and even when she hits the right trait, her class is strictly worse as an omnifarmer compared to classes like Berserker, Avenger, or Alter-Ego. As a challenge quest Servant, while Durga certainly brings a good amount of utility, she’s nowhere near a Challenge Quest specialist.

All in all, Durga is genuinely a good Servant, but in an ever-expanding roster of Fate / Grand Order, being good is not enough to set one apart. As such, Durga is a good option for an underdeveloped roster that is still looking for a good Arts looper, but is a redundant pull for developed accounts. However, she does have both graceful and deadly form, and will excel in the AoE Arts Archer niche for any Masters in need of one. Additionally, some Masters may not be able to refuse a Servant that sometimes has eight arms.

Good Looping Specs and Wide Trait Coverage

With solid NP refund, high NP Battery, and strong damage boost against two rather common traits which are Demonic and Heaven, Durga is a great AoE looper and amongst the best in the Archer class.

Good Challenge Quest Utility

While not on the level of challenge quest specialists like Tezcatlipoca, Durga is still an incredibly solid Arts-centric Servant for tough content. She is highly durable with her own Invulnerability, can bypass enemies’ Invulnerability, increase the team's Overcharge level, and can ramp up her damage via her 3 turns Defense debuffs.

Lackluster Damage When Not Hitting Enemies With Demonic And Heaven Traits

As Durga has rather mediocre self-buff and Archer class being one of the weaker ones to be an omni-looper, Durga’s damage will fall off significantly when she does not hit these two traits, which diminishes her usage.

Stiff Competition For Her Role

Within her class, Durga already faces stiff competition from Zenobia and Summer Jeanne d’Arc. Outside of her class, there are a significant number of powerful AoE Arts loopers. Unfortunately, Durga does not differentiate herself enough from these heavyweights.

Durga does require all her skills to be raised to function well. Of these, her first skill should be maxed, while her two other skills can be raised to a sufficient level, like Level 6, and only maxed when there are a lot of materials available.

• Mahamaya EX - As the NP Gauge Charge scales with level, maxing this skill is a must to maximize Durga’s looping capacity.

• Unapproachable A – This skill is the least important of her three skills since only the Arts cards’ performance boost and Invincible effects are relevant to Durga, and the scaling is also quite mediocre.

• Trinayani Durga EX – The NP Damage does scale with level but it does not scale very well, so this skill can also be left at level 6.

Like all Arts loopers, Durga will want a combination of Starting NP Gauge, Arts Card Effectiveness, Attack, and NP Damage from her Craft Essence. Any Craft Essence that features 2 or more of these stats will be good enough for her.

• The Black Grail / Heaven’s Feel / Inverted Rain of Mud: As Durga has lackluster damage when not hitting the right trait, these Craft Essences can patch up her damage output when she is not fighting the right enemies. Durga’s refund is not as great as some other Arts loopers, so sometimes she may require a third NP Gauge charging Support Servant with a Mystic Code that has Order Change effect to guarantee 3 turn looping.

• Ocean Flier / Golden Sumo: Boulder Tournament / Thank You For Your Hard Work! / Magical Sion / A Reward For Your Studies: These are all farmable Craft Essences from Events with Starting NP Gauge and offensive buffs that benefit Durga.