Medusa (Saber)

“These glasses are a seal I placed on myself. You understand, right? When they come off someone will turn into stone, so keep that in mind.”

First introduced during the Ordeal Call I: Paper Moon chapter, Medusa's Saber form falls between her Rider and Lancer form in terms of chronological age. Medusa (Saber) mixes with aspects of Athena and makes for one of the strongest single target Quick Sabers available in the roster.

Her Noble Phantasm, Chrysaor, buffs her own Quick damage before dealing heavy damage to a single enemy, which is further amplified with a supereffective multiplier against Human attribute enemies. In addition, after damage it has a 40% chance to inflict Petrify (similar to Stun), and further increases ATK for all Earth attribute allies including herself for three turns. Her NP is an all around powerful collection of useful effects, giving her potential stalling capability with the stunning effect of her NP, and a decently common damage bonus trait.

Her skills are also a varied assortment of beneficial effects. To facilitate quick usage of her NP, Evil Lineage A provides a useful NP charge of up to 50%, along with a party ATK buff and a Critical Damage buff for all Demonic allies (of which she unfortunately does not count). Combined with her excellent NP Gain and Card hit counts, she will have little issue filling her NP Gauge or generating Critical Stars. Her first skill, Breaker Gorgon B, also provides great utility with an essentially guaranteed Petrify at max level, along with Quick Crit Damage buffs for herself and the niche ability to inflict Curse when attacking with Quick Cards. Finally, her defensive skill comes from Factor Predation (Goddess of War) EX, which gives her a 3-time, 3-turn Invincibility, along with the same duration of Debuff Immunity, and minor Critical Hit Rate resistance, decreasing the likelihood of an enemy successfully landing a Crit on her.

Taken together, Medusa (Saber) is a well-balanced ST Quick Saber with many abilities that can come in handy for challenging quests, and also ease her use in general encounters due to her great ability to generate Stars and fill her NP gauge. Her ability to potentially petrify-lock an enemy also is worth noting, due to her high NP refund. Her damage against non-favored (Human attribute) enemies leaves a bit to be desired, however, although few can survive a continued onslaught of her NP. Overall, Medusa (Saber) is among the most effective and stylish ST Quick Sabers available in the roster, and any Masters in need of a Servant to fill a niche will find her to be a great asset to their roster.

High NP Gain and Star Generation

Due to having excellent hit counts, three Quick Cards in her deck, and an NP with a massive 9 hits, her NP and Star generation from Cards is highly impressive even within the ST Quick niche.

Challenge Utility

Having access to 3 time, 3 turn debuff immunity help make sure any debilitating debuffs can bounce right off her, which comes in handy in many challenge quests. Additionally, her ability to Petrify on demand with her skill, and chance based with her NP, give her additional stalling utility.

Quick Looping

As a consequence of her great hit counts and NP refund, Medusa (Saber) is fully capable of Quick Looping with the help of premiere Quick Supports such as Skadi or Skadi Ruler. If she is able to also get off NPQQ crits after her NP, she can self-refund very quickly without support as well.

Mediocre Damage without Trait

Against enemies that do not have the Human attribute, her damage is somewhat on the lower end. This is partially offset by the fact that she is capable of both stunning enemies as well as looping her NP more readily than other Quick Saber options.

The primary skill that is most crucial to Medusa (Saber)’s offensive performance is her second skill, which comes with both her NP charge and her damage buff. Otherwise, her other skills are more tuned for challenge or non-farming scenarios, but can be still useful to level. The recommended order is 2 >> 1 > 3.

• Breaker Gorgon B – This is the petrify-on-demand skill that also provides additional Crit Damage to her Quick Cards, and a small Curse when attacking with Quick Cards. The chance of petrify maxes out at 100% when reaching level 10, making this very much worth maxing if Masters are in need of a guaranteed stun in the party. The Quick Crit Damage effect also scales decently with level. This should be leveled after her second skill.

• Evil Lineage A – All three effects including self NP charge, party ATK buffs, and Crit Damage buffs for Demonic trait allies scale well with level. The NP charge is notable for reaching 50% charge at maximum, making it very much worth leveling to reach charge thresholds that allow her to NP right off the bat with 50% starting NP Gauge CEs or a single 50% charge support. This should be highest priority for leveling.

• Factor Predation (Goddess of War) EX – Primarily her defensive skill, the only effect that scales with level is the relatively minor Critical Rate Resist effect, which decreases the chance of enemies dealing a crit to her. The other great effects of this skill (Invincibility, Debuff Immunity) do not scale with level unfortunately. However, cutting the cooldown for this skill can come in handy in some scenarios. This skill can generally safely be left for last.

Medusa (Saber), being a Quick ST damage dealer with a 50% NP charge of her own and is capable of looping, works well with Starting NP Gauge CEs. Other useful effects on CEs include Quick Effectiveness, NP Damage, ATK, and Critical Damage buffs for her offensive performance.

• Kaleidoscope / Winter Crystal / The Imaginary Element – Medusa (Saber) can comfortably NP right off the bat with non-MLB versions of all three of these CEs. Having an MLB Kaleidoscope lets Masters save her own NP charge for a subsequent turn and a second NP in the near future.

• Holy Night Supper / Mission Start / Empty Garden / Princess’s Pilgrimage – These CEs provide all three of NP Damage/Quick buffs, Crit Damage buffs, and starting NP Gauge, which compliment Medusa (Saber)’s kit well.

• Knights of Marines / Traces of Christmases Past / Crimson Teacher’s Pointer / Empty Garden / Imaginary Number Attribute / Cherry Icicle / Star’s Day Off / One Summer / Golden Sumo: Boulder Tournament – These are other options that provide at least two NP Damage / Quick / ATK buffs and starting NP Gauge. Generally, NP damage is the most desirable, as Medusa doesn’t have an NP Damage buff of her own (only Quick and ATK), so it will multiplicatively improve her damage instead of additively. Also, many of these are prior Event CEs and would be easier to acquire an MLB copy of if Masters participated in a past event.

• The Black Grail / Heaven's Feel – These are CEs that provide the highest NP Damage boost available. Medusa (Saber) is technically capable of looping her NP with these as well, so long as Quick Support is also available.