Melusine

“Even if it's just for a short dream, my wings will fly for your sake.”

At first Melusine seems like a cute girl best suited as a Single Target Arts Damage Dealer. But then, after casually hitting her third skill, everything changes! Melusine primarily serves as one of the premiere AoE Buster Damage Dealers in the game, functioning as also one of the most versatile Servants available for different situations.

Melusine’s primary power comes from her raw damage. When paired with a double Koyanskaya and Oberon, her raw damage is among the best available in the game for looping. Between Dragon Heart B’s sizeable attack buff, Ray Horizon A’s NP damage buff available in stage 3, and Hollow Heart Albion’s Buster buff on her Noble Phantasm, she is going to hit hard. Not only that, but her Noble Phantasm ignores invincibility! To add to that, Melusine is incredibly versatile. Thanks to Ray Horizon A, she can function as both a single target and an AoE DPS, depending on the need of the wave. And if for some reason the enemy isn’t finished off by her Noble Phantasm, she can use Perry Dancer B to ensure she gets a few critical hits to finish them off. Not to mention, as a single target damage dealer, she has one of the best Arts damage outputs among all Lancers in the game with her Noble Phantasm, Innocent Arondight.

There are not many drawbacks for Melusine. She has middling NP charge off of face Cards if one needs to naturally charge her. She also has issues with support in mixed forms, as her ST Noble Phantasm is Arts and her AoE is Buster. However, neither of these drawbacks are particularly detrimental.

Masters can use Melusine for quite literally everything that does not involve a Saber enemy (and sometimes even then she’s worthwhile to deploy). Just make sure she doesn’t fly off with your heart!

Damage

There is too much to say about Melusine’s damage. She has abilities among her skills and Noble Phantasm to boost all three of Card damage, NP damage, and attack damage. Further, her Noble Phantasm’s overcharge effect grants a Buster damage buff for three turns, making her hit harder every time she casts one. With a Double Koyanskaya she is capable of casting both skill 1 twice for 80% attack up, and skill 3 twice to get a NP damage boost on wave 3. With Oberon in the mix, this results in insane damage capacity. 

Versatility

Melusine is one of the premiere Buster loopers in the game. By having a 100% charge on her third skill, she opens up a ton of compositions where she can wear practically any CE and perform well. However, she is also a notable Servant in single target scenarios. With high NP generation rate and a 30% self charge available on a relatively short cooldown, she can easily get off more than one Noble Phantasm in a short period of time. This allows her to perform well in practically all situations. 

AoE Buster Looping

Of course, with all this talk about Buster Looping, it needs to be one of her strengths. Thanks to her 100% charge from her third skill she is able to use a Black Grail CE and loop despite her Buster Noble Phantasm. With a Double Koyanskaya and Oberon setup, she will have no problem regardless of node composition of getting off three Noble Phantasms of increasing strength. Without all three she will have no issues getting off at least two.

Natural NP Gain

Melusine’s NP gain off her facecards isn’t necessarily bad, especially in her first form. Rather, it is the only thing about her which can be classified as “less than excellent.” With a medium 5-hit Extra attack and 4-hit Quick, she’s pretty standard for NP gain off her face cards.

Mixed Support Types

As nice as it would be to have both single and AoE Noble Phantasms be supported by the same Servant, their form unfortunately changes. In Single Target, she has an Arts Noble Phantasm, while AoE is a Buster one. These have entirely different Servants as support, so if wanting to use her for mixed purposes she’s have to lose damage in one form in favor of the other.

Melusine’s entire kit loops around her third skill, Ray Horizon. Most masters will use Ray Horizon to transform her from phase 1 or 2 to phase 3 and gain a 100% NP bar charge, and then buff her attack with Dragonheart for the duration of the wave. Anyone interested in Buster looping should make sure to level skills one and three to max. Perry Dancer is more of a niche application and usually ignored until later.

• Dragonheart B is a standard, but powerful, steroid. It offers a sizeable attack bonus and up to 30% NP gauge charge. Most importantly, at max level it is only on a 6-turn cooldown, meaning with a Double Koyanskaya setup it can be used twice within three turns. The damage reduction and max HP buffs are nice but typically not necessary. Level this second. Ensure it is level 10 if Buster looping as the cooldown reduction is required.
• Perry Dancer B is simply a way to ensure Melusine can crit with her cards. It offers her a tremendous star absorb boost and a handful of stars every turn in case there isn’t enough for her to absorb in the first place. This skill has a few niche applications, but generally is not functionally used. Level it last to whatever level is desired. 
• Ray Horizon A is Melusine’s signature skill, and the one which makes her potential so high. In ascension 1 or 2, this will transform her into ascension 3 and give her a full Noble Phantasm charge and a turn of invincibility. In phase 3, it will boost her NP damage and again give the turn of invincibility. Both have incredible effects, especially in looping setups, and are on a short enough cooldown where a double Koyanskaya would allow two uses in three turns. This should be leveled first. In theory it could be leveled to 7 with Melusine appended to have a 20% starting charge, but typically it’s best to level it to 10 to get the best usage of her NP damage buff post transformation.

Masters typically will be using Melusine to farm AoE, which makes Noble Phantasm Damage Up CEs most helpful. In niche situations, such as 1-1-3 enemy waves, she can benefit from Starting NP Gauge CEs, specifically those which allow her to start with 100% gauge. Barring those, Masters typically would want a CE which provides NP Gain Rate Up for single target scenarios.

• The Black Grail: With double Oberon and Koyanskaya, there is no replacement for this. Even without, Masters looking to use AoE would be best served with a Black Grail as her Ray Horizon skill gives her the full charge, which surpasses most starting charge CEs. 
• Kaleidoscope: Primarily for Single Target scenarios, this could potentially allow her to get off three Noble Phantasms in three turns with only the last one being AoE. With her high damage potential, this may be sufficient for some more difficult nodes. 
• Distant Pilgrimage / Mark on a Smiling Face / Magical Girl of Sapphire / Prisma Cosmos: By increasing Melusine’s NP gain, she may be able to use her Single Target Noble Phantasm more often.