Qin Liangyu

“I’ll be happy to serve you faithfully. However, Master, doing bad things is a big ‘no’.”

Once a female general who defended the Ming Dynasty in its dying days against the Jin dynasty, Qin Liangyu has returned to defend Chaldea against the Chibiko Empire! As a bastion, Qin Liangyu uses her Support Arts Noble Phantasm to provide supportive utility against enemy attacks, lowering their overall damage.

Qin Liangyu’s kit all comes down to her Noble Phantasm, Chóngzhēn Dì Sì Shīgē B, which nerfs enemies based off of the types of attacks she dishes out. Should a Master want to strip buffs, they can do so by having her land a critical attack after her Noble Phantasm, which they can mostly guarantee by using Qin Liangyu’s Countenance of Loyalty’s star gather boost. Her first three attacks will also reduce enemy defense even if they do not land a critical hit. Further, attacks made by enemies onto Qin Liangyu provide benefits to the party’s survivability either by decreasing their critical strength (when Qin Liangyu is struck by a normal attack), or healing the party (when Qin Liangyu is struck by a critical). With her boosted survivability from a 2-time Guts on Abolishing Thieves B, this makes her a true bastion for her team’s survival.

Being a bastion means, of course, low offensive output. Her attack stat is among the lowest of her rarity and class, and her White Cavalry Spear B skill does little to mitigate it. With no damage on her Noble Phantasm, she’s going to struggle to keep up with many lower rarity Lancer options outperforming her overall. She also struggles due to a lack of a star gather reducing skill, which would otherwise allow her to choose between buff removal or defense down when attacking enemies. In addition, when her Noble Phantasm buffs are not activated, she provides nothing to the team.

While Qin Liangyu does provide Masters some general utility, she can often be replaced by a supportive Caster for survival and/or defense. But if a Master did wish to use her, they would look to use her for a quick Noble Phantasm and then neutering a challenging boss, or as a possible last stand option given her Guts skill.

Team Utility

Everything about Qin Liangyu is in her Noble Phantasm, providing buff strips, defense downs, heals, and critical strength reduction to enemies depending on the attacker and the type of attack. Against a tough boss, this could tame them into a more manageable foe.

Sturdy

With high HP levels and a rare two-time Guts skill, it is hard to bring down Qin Liangyu in battle. With her nerfing enemies, it becomes even harder from there to eliminate her. Her second skill Debuff Immunity and Buff Removal Resistance takes the icing on the cake in making her a cockroach. 

Low Damage

Qin Liangyu has damage boosts on her first skill and an attack up on her Noble Phantasm, but without a damaging Noble Phantasm Masters should not expect to see her hitting hard. Sporting only a 30% Critical Damage up does not compensate enough for her low overall attack stat. 

Noble Phantasm Effects require Card Use or Sustained Damage

The most interesting aspect of Qin Liangyu’s NP effects are also tied to having her receive damage, or dealing damage using her own cards. This can be made more difficult with the presence of other teammates by reducing the likelihood of her cards to appear or by enemies choosing not to attack Qin Liangyu, which in turn essentially reduces the effectiveness of her NP. For this reason, she is arguably more effective solo, but given her poor damage it may be tough to utilize her effectively.

Terrible Downtime

Qin Liangyu’s Noble Phantasm is the bread and butter of her kit, and without it activated she provides nothing to the team. Despite dealing no damage, without her Noble Phantasm activated her skill set is very selfish.

Qin Liangyu’s skills are primarily designed to support her Noble Phantasm by manipulating her Critical hits and charging her Noble Phantasm. Like most Servants, Masters want to aim for what will allow her to use it fast, and then support its effects.

• White Cavalry Spear B gives Qin Liangyu a boost to Quick, Arts, and Critical Strength. All of these are rather low modifiers and do little to compensate for her low base damage. This skill can be left at last and leveled to wherever Masters wish to spend their materials. 
• Countenance of Loyalty B is key for Masters needing a buff removal on an enemy. By gathering Critical stars, Qin Liangyu can apply a Critical hit on an enemy after her Noble Phantasm, eliminating their buffs. It also makes Qin Liangyu close to invincible against buff removal and debuffs at max level, supplying 3 resistances over 3 turns. This should be leveled to max to guarantee buff removal resistance, and second in order.
• Abolishing Thieves B not only provides a charge but also a powerful Guts skill, giving her 2 survivals over three turns. As the NP charge scales with level, and because her entire kit revolves around her Noble Phantasm, this should be leveled first.