Georgios

"I'm not fond of combat, but I fight when I have to."

A martyr, saint, and protector of the people, Georgios will fight alongside any honorable Master. This protective nature is rooted extremely well in his kit, as Georgios is an Arts-based Servant that serves as one of the most iconic Tank Servants in the game.

Georgios’ kit is defined by his three-turn Taunt, which comes alongside a huge built-in defense buff. Coupled with his availability as a bronze Servant, he is one of the best choices for protecting key allies in difficult stages. The additional defense buff on his NP helps enable defense stacking strategies, and works together with the rest of his kit to let him survive well in longer battles, especially with support from Arts-based allies.

Outside of drawing fire and survival, however, Georgios provides little else. While his NP has decent damage thanks to the easily-maxed NP level, the forced dragon trait is niche, the defense buff only lasts one turn, and he has virtually no way to buff his allies. His QQAAB deck is also not well suited for damage especially with his low base attack, though it provides him decent synergy with Arts-oriented allies. Finally, his high Rider critical star weight pulls critical stars away from more capable allies, which is generally detrimental to his role as tank support.

Gameplay Tip

Taunt is a highly prized mechanic with a couple of useful features below the surface that devious Masters can exploit. Enemies are not only forced to attack the taunting Servant, they will also cast any of their single target skills on that enemy. Furthermore, if a Servant with taunt active perishes, the enemy attack turn may often end regardless of any remaining actions left, barring a few specific exceptions such as AoE Attacks.

Thus, with the help of Battle Continuation, Georgios can protect allies for multiple turns against single-target attacks even under the most heavy of assaults.

Three-Turn Taunt

The ability to completely redirect attacks for three turns straight lets otherwise-fragile allies survive far longer, allowing them to contribute more to the fight. In addition, it can also be used to perform suicide-tanking strategies when combined with Craft Essence effects which activate upon death. Aside from Georgios, only Chevalier d’Eon and Leonidas possess three-turn Taunts, and he beats both of them in terms of availability and reliability, respectively. As such, he is one of the most relevant bronze Servants even in the most difficult of quests.

Excellent Survivability

With all three skills granting extra survivability in one way or another, and high base HP, Georgios’ survivability exceeds that of other similar-rarity Servants by far. This gives him a lot of value as a tank, especially when factoring in his low cost.

Anti-Dragon Servant Synergy

Ascalon inflicts unto any enemy the Dragon trait. While Georgios himself lacks the ability to make use of this debuff, Servants such as Siegfried possess potent anti-Dragon modifiers. 

Limited Offensive Potential

With one of the lowest Attack stats and lacking offensive buffs, Georgios’ NP is his only way to reliably dish out damage. As a result, any team he is on would have to rely on the other two members to kill any opponents.

High Critical Absorption

As a Rider, Georgios’ high natural critical absorption often leads him to gather critical stars that other team members would ideally prefer. For optimized teams reliant on critical Stars, Masters often opt for different survival solutions. 

AoE Attack Ignore Taunts

Enemies such as Dragons or Demonic Boars attack all team members at once. Taunts are naturally entirely ineffective against such opponents, and enemies even continue attacking after the taunting Servant dies. 

Georgios functions quite well even without any significant skill investment, and boosting his ascension levels first is much more important. However, for a more enduring performance, Georgios benefits immensely from having his Guardian Knight leveled and maxed. 

• Easily Georgios’ best skill, Guardian Knight A+'s 3-turn Taunt comes with a huge defense buff. This skill has an extremely high leveling priority due to increasing both the skill’s uptime and defense buff value. 

• With a mental debuff resistance buff and some healing, Martyr’s Soul B+ may seem like a mediocre skill at first sight. However, the numbers are actually somewhat deceptive - due to George’s defense buffs, he loses HP at a much slower rate compared to other Servants, meaning that this skill’s healing property is actually more effective than it looks. The mental debuff resistance, on the other hand, covers only a few debuffs such as Charm or Fear, which makes it more of a niche bonus than anything else.

• Battle Continuation A has a notably good synergy with Georgios’ Taunt. However, Servants don't typically live for long after triggering Guts effects even with this skill maxed. As such, the cooldown reduction is usually not relevant, but due to Georgios' defense buffs he may be able to survive for a while longer than most. It can be leveled - but some Masters even prefer to intentionally let Georgios die after triggering his guts once, and in doing so let more useful Servants come in from the backline. A stronger guts may make that tactic less reliable.

Georgios has a wealth of defensive CEs to select from, but ideally prefers CEs that help him either help him survive for longer or benefit the team after he is gone. Masters need to plan ahead of time whether to boost his defensive potential, or whether to let him perish as soon as he fulfilled his job. For enduring performance, high HP CEs with more Defense Up are ideal as they stack additively with his own defense buffs. For more short-term protection, more Taunts, Evasion, or Invincibility are highly potent. Finally, Georgios can carry team-boosting performance CEs, but CEs that Trigger on Death are generally more useful and highly predictable.

• Iron-Willed Training/Holy Shroud of Magdalene / Azoth Blade : With the amount of defense buffs Georgios has, these CEs allow him to reach the 100% defense up mark with a bit of external help, thus potentially allowing him to survive most NPs. They also increase his overall survivability.

• Grand New Year/Halloween Arrangement/GUDAGUDA Poster Girl : With one of these CEs, Georgios would be able to taunt for even longer periods of time, which can be crucial for incredibly fast-paced fights, or when he is put in the backline.

• What Can Be Left Behind/The Merciless One / Battle of Camlann / 500-Year Obsession : Craft Essences which provide benefits (or enemy demerits) when their holder dies are perfect for Georgios, especially when he is used in suicide-tanking strategies. These would allow him to grant even more benefits to his allies, even after he is defeated.

• Volumen Hydrargyrum: Volumen Hydrargyrym is a very situational pick for when incoming damage is immediately extremely high, or in combination with Order Change to redirect enemy NPs. Generally, more enduring CEs are preferred.