Manannan mac Lir (Bazett)

“I am the Seal Designation enforcer. My job was to use my power to capture and collect mages the Association assigned Seal Designation. If there are any dangerous mages around, leave it to me to dispose them.”

Manannan mac Lir, a pseudo-Servant with Bazett, a Seal Designation Enforcer as their vessel, arrives with the 2024 Valentine’s event as a unique ST Quick Alter Ego. Bazett is the very first Servant whose NP functions as a delayed counter attack, giving her a unique playstyle that cannot be replicated by other Servants.

The highlight of her kit, her Noble Phantasm Fragarach, gives Bazett Target Focus for a turn, buffs her ATK, and gives her a counter attack state that deals high damage, drops 10 flat Critical Stars, and debuffs Quick Resistance of the enemy (or enemies) that attack her. Since all enemies in a wave usually will act, if all enemies attack her, she is entirely capable of clearing an entire wave in 1 turn despite being a single target damage dealer. However, enemies that opt not to do an action targeting her (such as using self-buffing skills) will not activate the counter, and the counter cannot break an enemy’s Break Bar, instead leaving them at 1 HP, presumably to avoid allowing multiple break effects to occur in a single turn. Of note, she also has a unique passive that allows offensive buffs to last until the end of the enemy turn instead of the end of her own turn, so that her NP hits can take advantage of offensive buffs that would otherwise be ending on that turn.

Bazett’s skill set also provides her with a well-rounded arsenal largely composed of offensive buffs for herself. Seal Designation Enforcer is her primary damage steroid, providing Quick/Buster buffs, a Critical Damage buff, and anti-Caster bonus damage for three turns. Sea God’s Runes is the ever-handy 50% self NP gauge charger, which comes with an additional Crit Damage buff and Star Gather buff which last for a single turn. Finally, Red Branch Successor functions as her defensive skill, giving her a full turn of Evade (which can come in handy in combination with her NP’s target focus effect), along with a turn of Debuff Immunity and a couple Critical Stars to work with.

All in all, Bazett is a highly unique yet effective Quick-oriented damage dealer. She functions very well with other Quick Supports, and has an impressive damage ceiling since she can land multiple Fragarach shots on a single target if it attacks or attempts to debuff her multiple times. She is capable of looping her NP as well, functioning as a non-standard farmer that performs particularly well against Caster enemies. There isn’t another Servant quite like her, so Masters who are a fan of unique mechanics will have a great time with her in their Chaldea.

High Damage Ceiling

Bazett’s NP, despite being single-target, can activate multiple times a turn for a target due to the fact that most enemies act multiple times per turn. Alternatively, she can give every enemy that takes their turn a taste of Fragarach and clear an entire wave in a single turn with her counter attacks. This includes waves that have six enemies, which can lead to a turn in which she activates her counter six times.

Strong Anti-Caster Damage

With the Alter Ego Class Advantage bonus of 1.5x along with her 30% anti-Caster damage buff, she sits at ~1.95x damage bonus against Casters, which essentially gives her nearly normal Class advantage against Caster enemies. This has the unfortunate demerit when many Caster boss enemies only act 2 times per round instead of three, reducing the total number of possible counter hits.

NP Requires Taking Hits to Deal Damage

Bazett must survive incoming hits for her Fragarach counter to work, and this means she likely will eventually start accumulating damage in order to get counters off. She does have a 1-turn Evade skill to help offset this, although with repeated use, she will likely be taking a good amount of damage. As a note, the counter does not work if an attack activates a Guts buff on her. 

Also, certain enemies (even in farming scenarios) can prefer to spend their turns activating self-buff skills, which can end up wasting the Counter state of Fragarach and make farming with Bazett somewhat inconsistent. It should be noted that the Counter activates if a debuff is used on Bazett, however. It may be best to avoid using Bazett for farming if facing enemies that have a chance of using self-buff skills. Having allies that have skill seal can help offset this and force the enemy to use an attack.

NP Cannot Break Bars

Likely to avoid game mechanic issues, her NP cannot actually reduce an enemy with break bars to 0 HP (such that it is impossible to break an enemy’s HP bar multiple times in one turn). This also means, however, that Masters will have to spend an extra turn to deplete that 1 remaining HP from the enemy to advance to the next break bar. This makes Bazett not the most ideal damage choice against break bar enemies in general.

Bazett’s skill set all enhance her performance as a damage dealer. The bulk of her damage comes from her NP’s counter effect, and leveling skills that best enable the counter give her the biggest boost in effectiveness. The general recommended leveling order is 2 > 1 > 3, with 2 being the most important to max due to giving 50% NP gauge at max level.

• Seal Designation Enforcer A – Her primary damage buff, this skill improves Card damage, Crit damage, and the bonus damage vs Casters, all at decent levels. This is worth leveling at second priority, and taking it to max will maximize Bazett’s performance.
• Sea God's Runes EX  – The prized 50% NP charger skill, this should be leveled first so that she has access to 50% charge on demand. The secondary effects of Crit Damage and Star Gather scale rather nicely with level as well, and this skill should be first priority for leveling.
• Red Branch Successor B – Bazett’s defensive skill, this is the lowest priority for leveling since the only benefits are increased number of Stars generated, and the decreased skill cooldown. This can be left at 6, although for better cooldowns, maxing this skill is still helpful since Bazett often takes the brunt of enemy attacks due to her NP effect.

As a support Servant, Santa Martha’s CE choices are relatively flexible. She can hold Bond Up or Event Bonus CEs. Since she can provide a targetable Star Gather boost, Stars Per Turn CEs can help increase the pool of stars the party has to work with. She can also hold Taunt CEs so that enemies will target her when her stock of buffs are on cooldown. If desiring a quick NP for an additional offensive boost, Starting NP Gauge CEs are also fine. 

• Kaleidoscope / The Imaginary Element: With her 50% NP charge skill, Bazett can do 3-turn farming with an MLB Kaleidoscope and double Skadi support, or a non-MLB Kaleidoscope and her second Append skill maxed. Even outside those circumstances, having the extra starting NP charge allows her easier access to her NP, which helps get the Fragarach engine going.
• Knights of Marines / Crimson Teacher’s Pointer / Warlords’ Rivalry / Traces of Christmases Past / Mission Start / Empty Garden / Cherry Icicle / One Summer / Golden Sumo: Boulder Tournament: These Hybrid Craft Essences provide 50% Starting NP Gauge, which Bazett can top off using her own skill, along with another offensive buff to boost her performance.
• Black Grail / Heaven’s Feel: NP damage CEs maximize the amount of damage her counters deal with Fragarach. It should be noted that Black Grail’s HP demerit can be dangerous to deal with however, since Bazett will also be taking damage from enemy hits.
• Volumen Hydrargyrum / Under the Sun: Invincibility/Evade Craft Essences that can help prolong Bazett’s survivability if she’s falling too early for her Counters to deal enough damage.