Jeanne d'Arc (Alter)

“My hatred, my resentment... Shall I make you see how it feels?”

The corrupted Holy Maiden, Jeanne d'Arc (Alter), materializes as a manifestation of Gilles de Rais' vengeful hatred towards the people of France for burning Jeanne at the stake. In contrast to her saintly counterpart, Jeanne Alter is an Avenger-class Buster Servant heavily focused on dishing out damage.

Offense really is her forte, as Jeanne Alter boasts the highest attack stat in the game, and conversely the lowest HP stat of her rarity. Coupled with her amazing passives, high hit counts and good generation stats to go with them, Jeanne Alter can bring the pain with both critical hits and repeated use of her Noble Phantasm.

Jeanne Alter’s true potential though, lies squarely in exploiting the massive critical steroids of her Self-Modification skill. With both a Critical Damage buff and a crucial Critical Star Gathering buff to compensate for her low Avenger star weight, Jeanne Alter synergizes incredibly well with additional (Buster-based) Supports such as Merlin, Hans or Waver.

Nonetheless, despite access to an on-demand Invulnerability, Jeanne Alter is quite fragile due to her low base HP and lack of resistances against the basic 7 classes. However, Jeanne Alter’s largely neutral set of class matchups is both an advantage and disadvantage. It allows her to be fielded anywhere and perform well in almost any situation. But it also makes her a second-best option against any non-Ruler/Berserker enemies, as she will not profit from class advantaged damage either. While she is a strong and versatile servant, as a Master’s Servant roster increases in size and options, her usefulness often diminishes a little.

Nonetheless, Jeanne Alter remains a potent Servant with some additional nifty tools such as Buff-blocking on her NP, and strong synergy with Dragon-trait Servants through her Dragon Witch skill. Woe betide any enemy she does deal class-advantaged damage to.

Flexible Avenger Class Typing

Dealing double damage to Ruler and Berserker class Servants, with normal damage against all other classes except Moon Cancer, Jeanne Alter is a one-size-fits-all offensive servant. Furthermore, the Avenger-class has a built-in 1.1x damage modifier to further boost her offense. Jeanne Alter can thus function as a primary damage dealer for most situations and excels in quests with multiple enemy classes, much like a Berserker.

Incredible Single Target Damage Potential

With a deck of two Buster cards allowing for an NP-B-B Buster Brave chain, Jeanne Alter’s sheer damage potential through her self buffs and attack stat is stellar. Her Self-Modification skill in particular grants her a Star Gathering buff that lasts for 3 turns, enabling her to keep up the high damage through multiple turns and break bars. Its synergy with additional critical and Buster supports allows her to reduce any opponent to ash even without resorting to her NP if she is supplied with a good dose of Critical Stars.

Good NP Generation

Jeanne Alter’s NP gain is excellent due to a number of variables. A combination of high hit counts and good generation stats enable her to generate good amount of NP gauge from her basic cards (especially her Extra card). Her two decent Arts card also enable her to create Arts chains more easily with any (Caster) supports, while her Self Modification skill can further attract critical stars to improve her NP gain even more. Lastly, Jeanne Alter passively gains an additional 4% NP gauge every turn from her Self-Restoration passive, while the Avenger class passive boosts her NP gain upon being attacked even past Berserker levels.

Nullify Buff on NP & Dragon Compatibility

Jeanne Alter’s NP inflicts a rare debuff on the targeted opponent that will nullify the next buff cast on the opponent. In certain quests, this will be very useful in preventing opponents’ buffs that are potentially game-changing (dodge, invulnerability, etc). Her affinity with dragonkind allows Jeanne Alter to further support the team with her Charisma-like Dragon Witch skill. Any Servant with the Dragon trait will receive a doubled attack bonus.

Limited Class Advantage

The main area she falls short as a damage dealer is that she does normal damage against the basic 6 non-Berserker classes. Servants with class advantage can manage to outperform Jeanne Alter damage-wise while also profiting from a reduction in damage taken. Additionally, in the rare situations in which Moon Cancer class enemies appear, Avengers will be at a class disadvantage.

Mediocre Durability Despite Invulnerability

Despite having a 1-turn invulnerability skill from Ephemeral Dream, Jeanne Alter is quite fragile. Ephemeral dream is often used for its Buster buff alone, and comes with an added -1000 HP demerit. While she excels in challenging content, without additional protection, Jeanne Alter dies relatively quickly compared to Servants with full class advantage. Her fragility is less problematic against Ruler or Beast class opponents due to her Avenger class defensive advantage.

All of Jeanne Alter’s skills contribute heavily towards her primary purpose: burning her enemies to a crisp. All skills ought to be leveled to full to reduce the downtime between her spikes in damage output. A Master can either focus on her critical aspect first, or go for improved general performance first. Since good supports are easily available for Jeanne Alter, her critical aspect is ideal to level first.

At max level Self-Modification EX grants an incredible +50% Critical damage boost and +800% Star Gathering rate for 3 turns at a 5 turn cooldown. Add in her passive critical damage boost and other damage improvements, and a single Jeanne Alter crit can rival her NP. Jeanne Alter only needs a medium amount of Critical Stars to unleash her critical potential, which most Supports with critical stars per turn can provide. Level this first.

Dragon Witch EX is a standard Charisma skill, except that it doubles in value for allies with the [Dragon] trait. The actual damage boost itself is not as great as her third skill (up to 20% at max level), but stacks multiplicatively with her other skills and affects the entire party for 3 turns. Dragon Servants are also fairly plentiful, featuring all variants of these Servants: Altria, Mordred, Elisabeth Bathory, Kiyohime, Siegfried-related, and Shuten. This can be leveled last.

Ephemeral Dream A is Jeanne Alter’s greatest damage boost to her NP and Buster cards with an up to 50% personal Buster buff. It also functions as Jeanne Alter’s primary Survival skill, and comes with a -1000 HP demerit. Ephemeral Dream generally offers the most stable damage increase for her NP or for non-crit Buster Brave Chains, but lacks the sheer potential of Self Modification. Level this second unless critical support is not available, in which case level it first.

Jeanne Alter embodies the ideal Buster Critical Servant. As such, Buster Performance Up, Attack Up, Critical Damage Up and to a lesser extent NP Damage Up, are all welcome. Starting NP Gauge is useful too, if she needs to NP quickly, but she’s not very reliant on her NP for damage. Notably, Jeanne Alter benefits from other Servants carrying Passive Stars / Per Turn Craft Essences.

• Victor of the Moon / Joint Recital: Providing a mix of Buster and Critical Damage, these two Craft Essences perform incredibly well for bosses and difficult content.

• Holy Night Supper / Golden Sumo: Boulder Tournament /  First Sunrise / Partake with the King : During farming, a timely NP is often more useful than better long-term effects. Hybrid Craft Essences with Starting NP gauge are usually sufficient for Jeanne Alter.

• Limited/Zero Over / Verdant Sound of Destruction: For general improved Buster Performance, these Craft Essences still perform well. A substitute for the Buster Critical Craft Essences.