Roland

“Servant, Saber! I'm Roland! I’ve a sturdy body, am incredibly handsome, and have a reputation for nudity! Master, if you give me permission, I'll strip immediately!”

The cheerful and dazzling Paladin of Charlemagne, Roland, joins the roster, and is thankfully (mostly) clothed. He is a powerful single target Buster Servant capable of unleashing multiple NPs in quick succession with the help of Buster Support and his innate NP charge capabilities.

Roland’s NP, Durendal, comes with handy 3-turn ATK and Crit Damage buffs that can continually stack with successive uses of his NP, and helpfully activate before dealing damage. Additionally, the NP ignores Invincibility, ensuring that he deals damage in the face of most hard defensive measures. Being a single target NP, this makes Roland a particularly powerful option for dealing with Lancer bosses that can have multiple break bars, giving him the opportunity to continually stack his own ATK and Crit Damage buffs from his NP.

His skill kit is also quite respectable, providing a healthy balance of defense, offense, and NP charge, with a hint of utility. His first skill, Diamond Body A, is a testament to the sturdiness of his build, providing him with a turn of invincibility, and a very strong 1-turn DEF buff. Additionally, he can gain up to 20% NP Gauge, making this also his primary NP Gauge charger skill. Bitter Tears Shed for Love of Love C is his primary damage steroid, providing him with a 3-turn Buster buff, while also clearing him of debuffs and removing buffs from all enemies, plus a niche demerit that decreases his Charm resistance. Finally, Roncesvalles Olifant EX is a notably short-cooldown Crit Star bomb that also boosts his Star Gather Rate for a turn, charges his NP Gauge by a flat 10%, and deals a small amount of damage to himself. All of his skills have modest values but are powerful in combination and make Roland a rather consistent damage dealer due to low cooldowns, long lasting buffs from his second skill and NP, and his ability to quickly shed debuffs and ensure enemies have buffs removed as well. Notably, since his self NP Gauge charge totals 30%, he is capable of looping his NP across 3 turns with double Koyanskaya and Oberon setups as well.

Overall, Roland is an excellent addition to the roster of single target Buster Sabers, and holds up to his name as the bravest and most loyal of the legendary paladins. Masters in need of a Servant that can dispose of Lancer enemies with bravado need look no further than Roland!

Buster Looping with Support

Due to having up to 30% NP Charge in his own kit, with the help of double Koyanskaya and Oberon, Roland is capable of chaining his NP for 3 turns in a row. With at least 70% starting NP Gauge, he can fill his NP Gauge with his own kit for turn 1. Two Koyanskayas can supply with him 100% Gauge for the second turn, while the third turn can be topped off with his own skills once again along with an Oberon. Combined with the 3-turn buffs that are granted by his NP, his NP’s damage ramps up each turn, making him a force to be reckoned with by the third turn with up to 60%-120% ATK depending on overcharge.

Buff Removal and Ignore Invincibility Utility

Roland’s second skill provides an AoE buff removal, which can be particularly helpful against enemies that may have gimmicks in some challenging scenarios or from break bar effects. Additionally, his NP has an Ignore Invincibility effect, which bypasses both Evade and Invincibility buffs that enemies may have, making him particularly good at ensuring his NP deals unmitigated damage to enemies.

Defense Tied to NP Charge

Masters at times may need to choose between sacrificing his one defensive measure for the NP Gauge charge on his first skill, or holding off on charge to ensure his defensive skill is available when needed. Since both defensive buffs only last for one turn, they may not come into play if Roland’s NP (enabled by charge) kills the last enemy in the wave.

Roland’s skills are all helpful to his performance, with his looping capability best served by leveling his first skill. The generally recommended order is 3 > 2 > 1, although his third skill is quite helpful for critical burst damage for a turn as well and has low cooldowns.

• Diamond Body A – The primary reason for leveling this skill would be for the NP Gauge gain and cooldown reduction. Leveling this to max is necessary for three turn looping due to both the NP Gauge amount as well as 6-turn cooldown being required for the skill to be back up by the third loop.
• Bitter Tears Shed for Love of Love C – This is Roland’s primary damage steroid, with only the Buster buff scaling with level. For Masters wishing to maximize his performance, getting this to max level helps as well since this allows him to stack two Buster buffs for the third NP loop.
• Roncesvalles Olifant EX – This is probably the lowest priority skill, although the star drop and gather rate buffs both scale well with levels. The NP Gauge charge Is unfortunately static, and the cooldown of this buff is already very low, so Masters lacking materials can afford to leave this skill for last or at a lower level.

Roland is primarily an offense-focused Servant. His CE choice generally combines Starting NP Gauge along with NP Damage, Buster Card effectiveness, or ATK Up. 

• Holy Night Supper / Ocean Flier / Golden Sumo: Boulder Tournament / Aerial Drive / First Day of Filming / Partake with the King / Starry Nights - These are hybrid Craft Essences that provide a form of damage buff in addition to at least 50% starting NP Gauge. With a maxed 2nd Append Skill and Roland’s own skills, he can NP right off the bat. 
• Kaleidoscope / The Imaginary Element / Winter Crystal – These are Starting NP Gauge CEs without additional effects. These provide more starting gauge and can save on leveling Roland’s append skills while still supporting 3-turn looping.
• The Black Grail / Heaven's Feel – Roland benefits particularly well from an NP Damage buff, since his kit does not have an NP Damage buff for himself. These CEs provide the most sizable boost to his damage.