James Moriarty (Ruler)

“Hmm? A mastermind who lords all over Europe? What are you even on about?”

Younger, more smug but just as dandy, this Ruler version of James Moriarty is still the same criminal mastermind with intellect that criminal organizations dream of. Staying true to his roots as an Arts-centric Servant, Ruler Moriarty however differs himself by going with Arts Looping AoE Damage Dealer coupled with extraordinary survivability. 

Every skill that Ruler Moriarty has packs several strong effects. Mathematical Thinking A gives him a 2 time, 3 turn Evade buff, a 3 turn Sure Hit buff, and reduces all enemies’ Arts Resist with an additional Arts Resist debuff onto all [Evil] alignment enemies on the field. Slide Rule Weapon+ gives him four simple but powerful 3-turn buffs: Quick, Arts, Buster card effectiveness and Critical Damage. Roll of the Dice EX provides a whopping 50% NP Gauge at max level, a Critical Star Bomb and a 50% chance to get either Arts or Buster Card Star Gather Rate buff for 1 turn. Similar to his skill, Moriarty’s Noble Phantasm - Mathemalignancy: Annihilate B++ is just as packed. It has a very rare effective bonus damage modifier against [Good] alignment enemies, an NP Damage boost for 1 turn before dealing damage, and after dealing damage it inflicts Skill Seal and applies [Evil] trait to all enemies. While the [Evil] trait application can be combined with his first skill, it is a rather small interaction that does not change his gameplay much in the grand scheme of things, but can be somewhat handy in enabling any Anti-Evil Servants.

Ruler James Moriarty is very clear on what he wants to do, being the criminal mastermind that he is. He has strong NP Battery, a good amount of offensive self-buffs and rare anti-trait damage modifier at his disposal, an Arts AoE Noble Phantasm with decent hitcount to utilize the fabled Double Altria Caster setup, and insane survivability thanks to his class and decent defensive utility in his kit for harder content. 

On the flipside, he has some not-so-cool flaws that his dandy style cannot mask. For an Arts Looper, his base NP Generation rate is not particularly high. Furthermore, since he is a Ruler, his class coverage is poor, meaning very rarely will Moriarty enjoy class advantage. While his base damage is decent, he will struggle against any waves with 1 high HP Target as it is not at a level where he can bruteforce everything with neutral damage. All these factors combined mean Moriarty has a lot of trouble against the irregular nodes (90+ / 90++) with non 3/3/x enemy composition, a very noticeable disadvantage for an omni-looper. Arts omni-looper is also a more and more competitive niche by the day and is filled with complete monsters such as Space Ishtar, Summer Musashi, Summer Kama, Muramasa or Summer Ibuki Douji. Generally, most Masters only need one or two and they’re set, meaning his pull value plummets significantly if there is already good coverage for that role.

Overall, James Moriarty Ruler has a lot of good things going for him, but unfortunately he is just shy of that coveted prestige that top tier omni-loopers get. It is not a major slight against him as his baseline is still very strong for a Servant, and if Master lacks a dedicated omni-looper, Moriarty will be more than fine enough.

Good Looping Performance

Packing an AoE Arts Noble Phantasm with 50% NP Gauge Charger already qualifies one as an Arts Looper, but Moriarty also has more than that. His base damage is quite decent especially when he hits [Good] Alignment enemies which is a very common occurrence, and he possesses several self-buffs to further amp up his damage output. 

Incredibly Resilient For Challenges

Being a Ruler means Moriarty is already naturally tankier than most against the vast majority of enemies in the game. Furthermore, Moriarty has a very powerful defensive skill in Mathematical Thinking A and powerful Immunity to a lot of nasty debuffs from one of his passives, making him extremely durable if managed right. Moriarty also has a few tricks up his sleeve that can be quite useful to counter gimmicks, namely Sure Hit and Skill Seal.

Inconsistent Against Irregular Nodes In Farming

One of Moriarty's primary weaknesses is that his base refund is actually not that high compared to other top tier loopers. His Arts face cards also have poor NP Generation, thus he relies a lot more on raw NP Gauge Support to keep his looping going. Furthermore, his damage will lower noticeably when not hitting the right traits. While against traditional 3/3/x nodes he will be more than fine enough, many events do feature 90++ level nodes with various irregular enemies compositions. Thus, Moriarty can be a lot more frustrating to run in these scenarios compared to naturally high base refund Servants like Muramasa or Summer Ibuki Douji.

Long Downtime In Challenge Quest

All three of Moriarty’s offensive buffs last 3 turns, with a 3 turn downtime in between, and all his skills have 6 turns of cooldown. He does have some forms of Critical niche, but they aren’t particularly powerful enough to pull his damage output up until his buffs come back up. His main damage output is via his Noble Phantasm and if the enemy does not die within the first three Noble Phantasms, then his performance will dip for a while until he can pull it back up again, a problem further exacerbated by his base NP Generation Rate. 

As a looper, maxing NP Gauge Charger and offensive buffs are no-brainer. Masters can definitely delay maxing the first skill as the scaling is not that good and it is mainly a defensive skill for Moriarty.

• Mathematical Thinking A - While the Arts Resist scales with level, its effect on Moriarty’s performance is rather lackluster. This skill can be left at level 6 if resources are constrained.
• Slide Rule Weapon B++ – His main offensive buffs and all of the buffs scale with level. It should be leveled after Roll of the Dice EX but still highly recommended to be maxed.
• Roll of the Dice EX – Easily the most important skill amongst the three, as Moriarty really needs the raw NP Gauge to kick start his looping and compensate for poor refund. 

Starting NP Gauge is the de facto comfort stat for any and all loopers. For more firepower, Attack, NP Damage and Arts Card Effectiveness are the secondary stats to look for. Moriarty can somewhat dive into the Critical niche by looking for Critical Damage or Arts Card Critical Damage which can be quite handy in Challenge Quests to bolster his sustained damage.

• Ocean Flier / Golden Sumo: Boulder Tournament / A Reward For Your Studies / Thank You For Your Hard Work!: Any Craft Essence with 50% NP Gauge in conjunction with one or more of Attack, NP Damage and Arts Cards Effectiveness would be great generic options for Moriarty. A Reward For Your Studies has the added benefit of making his [Evil] alignment trait application more useful, so it can be quite handy in boosting his overall damage.
• The Black Grail / Heaven’s Feel: To make use of these, it is best to use Moriarty alongside a Plugsuit + Double Altria Caster + An extra NP Gauge Charger like Oberon or Zhuge Liang in the back row for ease of looping. 
• Demonic Sun-Princess / Another Ending / Cosmo Chaldea Academy: Good Arts-Centric Critical Craft Essence that can help improve his Critical niche.