Elisabeth Bathory (Brave)

Strong Single Target Buster Damage

Elisabeth Bathory (Brave)’s NP damage ranks slightly above average among SR Sabers (just above Lancelot Saber) and she can easily reach NP5 due to her welfare status. The NP additionally ignores defense and inflicts some burn damage based on overcharge. She is a decent F2P alternative for those lacking access to the SSR single target Saber with ignore defense, Okita Souji.

Decent Survivability

Elisabeth has an on-demand 1 turn Invincibility skill, which can be used to help tank an NP turn. Two of Legend of the Crimson Hero’s effects are also great survivability boosts to the party, granting either 1 turn invincibility to the entire party, or healing the party for up to 3000 HP. She additionally has a 20% self defense buff tied to her Buster buff. In practice though, Masters will likely be using that particular skill simply as an NP boost.

Third Skill Not Usable in Most Situations

As mentioned in the overview, Legend of the Crimson Hero has a total of five possible effects, which means getting a getting a specific desired effect only happens 20% of the time. This makes it inherently unreliable and difficult to plan around. In addition, the 100% NP gauge is costly. Although she has decent NP gain, it is still difficult to get her to 200% NP. Ideally, this skill should be used while still being able to use her NP to take full advantage of the damage buffs (if the damage buff happens). Alternatively, it could be used as a last resort in hopes that one of the durability effects are granted.

Skill Effects cover Different Situations

Both Hero’s Principles and Mana Burst (Courage) have two effects, and in both cases each of the effects would be most useful in different situations. Invincibility with NP generation on Hero’s Principles often means sacrificing invincibility at a later time for more NP generation now, or vice versa. Buster damage up and defense up on Mana Burst (Courage) also can lead to situations where all enemies in a wave are eliminated by an NP and the defense up buff ends up not being utilized. It can be difficult to get use out of the secondary effects of her first two skills.

Hero’s Principles EX: Leveling this skill will increase the NP generation boost and reduce the cooldown for the invincibility effect. In most cases, it is best to save this skill to tank an NP rather than using it early for the NP generation. The cooldown reduction is thus the more helpful change that comes with skill investment. Beyond hitting the skill level thresholds to get the cooldown reductions (Lv6, Lv10), leveling this skill can wait.

Mana Burst (Courage) D: This is her primary self damage buff, and the Buster Up effect increases with levels (from 20% up to 40% Buster up at max level). Given damage is her main role in the party, this skill is worth leveling first.

Legend of the Crimson Hero EX: This is her signature skill that embodies her fickle nature. Almost all effects of this skill benefit from leveling except the 1-turn party invincibility. However, in most cases using her NP is better than using this skill. The decreased cooldown is also not necessarily useful since the skill has a secondary requirement of 100% NP gauge minimum, which may not be available even when the cooldown is finished. Investing in this skill is probably not worthwhile, except for those who wish to display dedication to our Halloween heroine.

OVERALL: Elisabeth Bathory (Brave)’s goal is to slice and pierce her opponents using her attacks and her Choudenji Spin Giga Drill Breaker NP, and maybe gain enough NP gauge to roll the dice on her third skill once in a while. Buster Up / NP Damage Up / Damage Up / NP Gauge Up Craft Essences work well with her.

• Golden Sumo: Boulder Tournament / Halloween Princess: Given that Elisabeth Brave already has a guaranteed self Buster buff with her second skill, these two Craft Essences provide an Attack or NP damage bonus, which will stack multiplicatively. In addition, these Craft Essences give a bit of starting NP, which helps her along towards filling her NP gauge.
• Limited/Zero Over / Verdant Sound of Destruction: These Craft Essences provide a Buster performance enhancement, which will help enhance both her NP and her Buster card damage output.
• Black Grail: This CE provides a huge boost to NP damage at the cost of some HP loss per turn. The raw bonus on this CE (80% with MLB) is the largest boost to damage that can be provided to Elisabeth Brave given that all her other possible buffs are Damage up or Buster up buffs.
• Kaleidoscope / The Imaginary Element: These options provide NP gauge at the start of the battle, and can be useful to run for getting her NP out ASAP or if attempting to get more use out of her third skill.