Nagao Kagetora

“O eight-bladed Bishamonten, blaze a trail for me!”

More commonly known by her other name Uesugi Kenshin, Nagao Kagetora was a warlord of the Sengoku period who was famed for her invincibility and valor. Kagetora carries the providence of Bishamonten to the battlefield as the first single-target welfare Lancer, with a powerful Arts NP and the affinity towards critical damage.

As with all welfares, the ease of getting Kagetora to NP5 is her greatest strength, giving her an offensive edge against most of her competitors. Her damage dealing capability is further boosted by her skills Fate Decreed by Heavens and Glory Gained on Foot, with the latter buffing her allies as well as Kagetora herself. The critical-related buffs these skills grant allows Kagetora to deal reliable (if rather average) critical damage, resulting in more damage and NP Gain, especially during her NP Brave chains. She has a reliable hard defensive skill in Armor Strengthened by Heart’s Evasion, which also comes with a 1-turn NP Gain Up buff, and her NP provides a small utility in the form of its offensive buff removal and Critical Chance Down.

Kagetora’s primary weakness is that her damage dealing isn’t quite self-sufficient. Fate Decreed by Heavens’s 1-turn duration, as well as the fact that her NP Gain Up buff is tied to the far more crucial Evasion, limit her sustained damage output. Furthermore, despite Kagetora’s critical affinity, her QAABB-A deck is quite unsuited to generate critical stars, forcing her to rely on supports and CEs as the source of critical stars.

Nevertheless, Kagetora’s few weak points can be solved through the proper use of supports and CEs. Her powerful NP is an asset even outside dedicated Arts teams, and with proper support, she reaches a new level of damage dealing capability, making her a very powerful option against Archer enemies.

High Single-Target NP Damage (Welfare)

As a welfare Servant, Kagetora’s easy NP5 naturally means that she will deal higher NP damage compared to her NP1 gacha counterparts, though this also means that while the latter can still hope to improve with additional NP levels, Kagetora’s NP damage is already at its peak from the get-go. Her NP alone would be enough to shred most lower health Archer bosses, and will deal serious damage to higher health ones when fully buffed.

Decent Critical Damage

The Star Gather Rate Up from Fate Decreed by Heavens and the Critical Strength Up of Glory Gained on Foot grant Kagetora access to the world of criticals. While her critical-related steroids aren’t nearly as powerful as that of more dedicated critical damage dealers, they still indirectly increase her overall damage and, perhaps more importantly, her NP gain.

Hard Defensive Skill, Team Support and Utility

Kagetora rounds up her kit with various smaller tools which assist her damage dealer role. Having access to a hard defensive skill allows Kagetora to easily survive enemy NPs, greatly increasing her survivability in harder fights. Meanwhile, Glory Gained on Foot’s party-wide nature means that Kagetora can support fellow critical damage dealers to an extent, making her a pretty good option for double damage dealer compositions. Lastly, her NP’s offensive buff removal and Critical Chance Down can be useful to increase the team’s overall survivability, though their use can be quite situational.

Reliance on Support

Without the capability to produce enough critical stars for herself, Kagetora needs an external source of stars in order to perform critical hits in a reliable manner. Similarly, her lower magnitude steroids and Fate Decreed by Heavens’s 1-turn duration also mean that Kagetora’s sustained damage largely depends on her supports’ buffs.

Conflicting Skill Effects

While Armor Strengthened by Heart’s Evasion is undoubtedly important for Kagetora’s survival, its NP Gain Up effect can also be very helpful to her offense, particularly when used in tandem with an NP Brave chain. However, using the skill this way carries the risk of the Evasion becoming unavailable when needed.

It’s recommended to max Kagetora’s skills if she is to be used as a main Lancer damage dealer, as all three contribute to her damage dealing capability and the reduced cooldown on her second skill allows it to be used more freely. Should resources be a problem, however, it can be left at lower levels.

• Fate Decreed by Heavens is Kagetora’s primary damage boosting skill. While the Arts Performance Up is of lower magnitude compared to other similar skills, the Star Gather Rate Up effect makes up for it, allowing Kagetora to perform critical strikes in a reliable manner. Leveling this skill gives more damage as well as refund from Kagetora’s Arts cards and makes her criticals even more reliable, while also allowing her to gain these benefits more often thanks to the reduced cooldown. 
• Kagetora’s only defensive skill, Armor Strengthened by Heart provides a 1-turn Evasion as well as an NP Gain buff. The conflicting defensive and offensive effects mean that using this skill for one effect often sacrifices the other. As such, while leveling this skill only increases the effectiveness of the NP Gain buff, the reduced cooldown allows it to be used more flexibly to get the most out of both effects. Still, it’s of lesser priority compared to Kagetora’s other two skills and should be leveled last.
• Glory Gained on Foot A’s 3-turn duration and its party-wide nature means that it provides the greatest raw damage increase of Kagetora’s three skills, assuming that the indirect damage benefit provided by Fate Decreed by Heavens’s Star Gather Rate Up is disregarded. Depending on whether Kagetora is to be used with dedicated critical supports, it may be beneficial to level this skill first over her first one.

As with many damage dealers, Kagetora works well withStarting NP Gauge Craft Essences. In terms of secondary effects, Arts Performance Up is Kagetora’s best friend, though she also works well with NP Damage Up, Attack Up, and to a lesser extent NP Gain Up and Critical Damage Up.

• Holy Night Supper / Golden Sumo: Boulder Tournament / Painting Summer / Dive to Blue / New Beginnings: These hybrid Starting NP CEs are excellent choices for most stages, giving Kagetora access to a reasonably early NP while also applying direct offensive benefits.
• Kaleidoscope / The Imaginary Element (MLB): The extra NP Charge provided by these CEs in shorter fights is incomparable to anything one might get from effects such as Arts Performance Up or NP Gain Up, though they sacrifice a bit of long-term performance in exchange. As such, they should be used when a very early NP is needed, such as in the first two turns. 
• The Black Grail: This CE capitalizes upon Kagetora’s powerful NP, allowing her to decimate even the sturdiest of Archer opponents in one fell swoop. As it doesn’t give any sort of NP Charge or NP Gain benefits, it should only be used alongside proper supports, preferably those with the capability to charge Kagetora’s NP.
• Formal Craft / Royal Icing / Mark on a Smiling Face / Meeting of the Heirs / Emerald Float / Chocolatier / Kaleid Sapphire / Projection: Similarly to the Black Grail, these CEs’ lack of Starting NP means that they are better suited for well-supported teams, and they can prove especially useful in longer fights. They may also be used as a general option should Starting NP CEs be unavailable for some reason (e.g. for newer Masters).