Irisviel (Holy Grail)

“Please, protect the world. The world that man loved, the world in which that child must live...”

Even in this form, Irisviel von Einzbern deems the love she holds as wife and mother as being more important than even the Holy Grail itself, of which she is a vessel of. Befitting such a disposition, she is a Caster-class support who specializes in keeping her allies alive through healing and Guts.

Irisviel’s primary selling point is the Guts provided through her NP Song of Grail, as it allows her to counter enemy Servants with the means to bypass normal defensive measures. Furthermore, she is relatively decent at providing burst heals for her team through her NP and Magical Healing, both of which can be further buffed with Sacrificial Resolve. She is also quite survivable, not only because of her own Guts and heals, but also the Invincibility from Child of Nature.

Unfortunately, Irisviel suffers from several issues, the most visible of which is her poor NP Gain. Despite having three Arts cards, her base NP gain is well below average, with Child of Nature’s NP Gain buff only bringing it to a slightly subpar level. Combined with her first skill’s long cooldown, she has quite a long downtime, which makes Irisviel difficult to work with considering that she doesn’t offer any sort of offensive benefit or utility. Lastly, her Guts niche, which is her only redeeming point, is very situational, as few stages (even among the more gimmicky ones) can create a situation where it would be preferred over other defensive options.

Irisviel’s AoE Guts niche does provide something unique for Masters to play around with, but her various shortcomings end up crippling any potential the mechanic might have. While the Holy Grail’s vessel might work as a starting healer for a new Master, veterans will find her value outmatched by nearly every other alternative in most imaginable situations…. even when compared with those of lower rarity.

AoE Guts

Song of Grail’s AoE Guts is quite powerful, affecting the entire team and lasting for 3 turns if it is not used. Even considering Irisviel’s NP Gain, it is not unreasonable to expect around 50-60% uptime from this buff (assuming they last for the full 3-turn duration). This means that any team with Irisviel on it is relatively safe from surprises such as, say, an unfortunately-timed enemy NP Charge which leads to an NP. More importantly, this allows Irisviel to counter effects such as Instant Kill, Invincibility Pierce, Defense Ignore, and even Poison/Burn, an advantage which can prove decisive in certain (rare) occasions. 

Good Burst Healing

With the aid of her first skill, Irisviel is capable of restoring 4,500 HP to the entire team and 9,000 to a single target through her NP and third skill, which is a very respectable number as far as raw healing goes. Alternatively, she can also use her two heals on different turns, increasing her healing flexibility to some extent.

Good Survivability

Irisviel benefits from her own NP’s healing and Guts, which would already make her quite difficult to kill, but she further complements this with her second skill’s Invincibility, which allows her to avoid deadly enemy hits even if her Guts is unavailable.

Subpar NP Gain

Irisviel’s base NP Gain is one of the worst among all Casters, and her second skill’s NP Gain Up only brings it to a somewhat acceptable level. She has no NP Charge skills to speak of either, forcing her to fill her NP gauge solely through the use of her Arts cards. This also means that in order to reliably make use of Irisviel’s healing and Guts, her Arts cards need to be used almost every time they appear, reducing the party’s overall damage.

Long Downtime

The aforementioned poor NP Gain already means that Irisviel’s NP will have considerable downtime, and her first skill’s unreasonably long cooldown merely adds to the problem. While her third skill has a reasonably low cooldown, it only affects a single target, and as such can barely make up for the rest of her kit.

No Offensive Support or Utility

In the process of devoting her entire kit to sustain the party, Irisviel leaves herself with zero amount of other supporting tools, be it in regards to damage or utility; if anything, the need to use her Arts cards means that she is, in a sense, a negative contribution to the party’s damage. This means that any team with Irisviel in it should be prepared for more drawn-out battles, and hope that no one gets killed during her downtime.

While Irisviel needs all the help she can get from her skills, the fact that she is hardly relevant in virtually all content means that investing into her skills is not recommended. However, those who like and wish to use her properly should aim to max every single one of those skills, in order to gain the most from their effects and reduced cooldowns.

• Sacrificial Resolve A is capable of boosting Irisviel’s heals by a significant amount, and is typically used alongside Song of Grail. However, its extraordinarily long cooldown is even longer than that of Irisviel’s NP, making syncing the two quite a challenge. As such, it should be maxed first over her other skills to get the maximum amount of cooldown reduction.
• While Child of Nature A’s scaling with additional levels is mediocre at best (as it only increases the NP Gain Up), as with the case of Sacrificial Resolve, the reduced cooldowns at levels 6 and 10 is the main draw of leveling this skill, which would allow for increased uptime on the NP Gain Up effect, as well as an easier access to the skill’s Invincibility. This skill should be leveled second.
• Magical Healing A acts as an on-demand single target heal, but is rather average in terms of both healing amount and cooldown, especially when compared to Irisviel’s NP. As a result, this skill should be prioritized last among Irisviel’s three skills, though it’s a good idea to get it to level 6 as early as possible for the first tier of cooldown reduction.

Due to Irisviel’s low NP gain, CEs with Passive NP Charge are her most stable picks for longer fights. In certain situations, Starting NP Gauge CEs are also great picks, with Arts Performance Up being the preferred secondary effect over NP Gain Up.

• Prisma Cosmos / Awakened Will / Afternoon Party / Innocent Maiden: These are Irisviel’s best CEs thanks to the fact that their NP Charge is not tied to her base NP Gain. With a stable supply of NP Charge every turn, it becomes easier to time Irisviel’s abilities, and can even reduce the need to use her Arts cards in moments with less pressure.
• Kaleidoscope / The Imaginary Element: Sometimes, Irisviel would be used against a first-turn NP from a story boss (particularly those equipped with Invincibility Pierce). These CEs are the clear winners in such a situation, allowing access to a first-turn NP with a bit of external aid from supports with NP Charge.
• Painting Summer / Little Halloween Devil / Magical Girl of Sapphire / Distant Pilgrimage: These CEs stand somewhere between the first two categories, providing extra NP gain for Irisviel in the long-term while also allowing for a reasonably early first NP even without the aid of a support.
• GUDAGUDA Poster Girl / Grand New Year / Halloween Arrangement: While the above categories are generally better options for Irisviel, the Taunt provided by CEs of this category allows her to redirect single-target attacks from the rest of the team early on. Irisviel’s high survivability means that she won’t usually have problems weathering the storm, and she even gains some NP charge in the process!
• Dress of Heaven: Irisviel’s Bond CE provides a powerful healing boost to the whole party, and as such deserves a mention on this list. With the Dress of Heaven, even lower levels on her first skill wouldn’t matter as much, and her burst heals are also stronger, which helps alleviate her downtime problem to an extent.