Van Gogh

Van Gogh’s primary role as a Critical Damage support is largely supported by the effects of her third skill, and indirectly by her first skill (via the NP gauge charge and quicker access to her NP). However, all three of her skills benefit her ability to support the party’s overall performance. 

• Void Space Art B+ – This skill is a Guts skill that also self-inflicts three stacks of Curse and increases her NP Gauge for every Curse stack active (which includes the three stacks provided by the skill). Levels in this skill improve how much NP charge she receives per Curse stack, and also increase the HP recovery from the Guts effect. The NP charge is doubled from its initial level when maxed, so this skill is worth leveling to max as materials will allow.
• Het Gele Huis A+ – Although this skill provides a plethora of effects, the only one that changes with skill level is the DEF debuff effect (aside from cooldown). Having her party Evade on a lower cooldown can still be helpful, and the increased potency of the DEF debuff helps with damage output, although this skill is not as high priority for leveling. This one can be left safely at a lower level.
• Soul of the Water Channels EX – This provides a sizable, targetable ATK buff at base that scales with level. Additionally, the Star Gather buff scales with level. Improving this skill helps with his offensive supportive capacity (either for himself or for a party member), and is worth leveling as high as possible to reach her maximum potential.

“Dear Master, please use Gogh with vigor, and grind my body like flour as if I was cattle… Although cattle are normally used to grind flour… Eheh, Gogh Joke…”

In keeping with Fate tradition, despite being historically male, Van Gogh manifests with a female spirit origin. She is a Supportive Foreigner Servant with an Arts NP, and their kit makes her an excellent and highly unique Quick-focused Critical Damage support Servant, particularly for Foreigner allies.

A theme of curses runs throughout Van Gogh’s skill set, with Het Gele Huis applying Curse to all allies, Soul of the Water Channels absorbing all Curse stacks from both enemies and allies onto herself, and Void Space Art applying three stacks of Curse to herself. She can also take advantage of Curse stacks she has in multiple ways, with Void Space Art increasing her own NP Gauge by up to 10% for every stack of Curse she has, while Soul of the Water Channels allows her to remove a Curse stack with every Quick attack while gaining a minor ATK buff stack in exchange. Helpfully, she has a passive that prevents her from succumbing to Curse damage, always leaving her at 1 HP. She also provides a multitude of benefits to allies both offensively and defensively. Offensively, she can increase ATK and Star Gather rate for a single ally, and can decrease DEF and Quick Resist for all enemies. Defensively, she has a party 1-time Evade, and a very minor HP regen skill that largely offsets Curse damage. She also has a Guts skill of her own as her hard defensive measure.

The centerpiece of her kit is her Noble Phantasm, De Sterrennacht, named after Van Gogh’s most famous work. As is suiting for a painting detailing the stars of the night sky, Van Gogh gains passive Critical Stars each turn after the NP. In addition, all allies receive sizable ATK and Critical Damage buffs, and if any allies are Foreigners (including Gogh herself), they receive an even larger Critical Damage buff. Enemies are all inflicted with Terror, which gives a chance-based Stun effect. Given the NP’s Arts typing, and Van Gogh’s high hit-count Cards and generous NP Gain, an NP-Extra chain from Van Gogh herself can quickly fill her NP Gauge back up. Continued usage of her NP allows the Critical Damage and ATK buffs to continue stacking, which can quickly snowball into extremely high Card damage. Their Foreigner Class tends to be more of an advantage since she will very rarely have Class disadvantage, and her raw Crit Damage output is so substantial that oftentimes Class advantage bonus is rendered moot.

Given her three Quick Cards with high hit counts and star gain from her NP and passive, her Star generation is also highly impressive, and the party usually won’t have any shortage of Critical Stars. Her performance only improves with the presence of Quick Support. She also plays particularly well with other Foreigners, who also reap the benefits of additional Crit Damage buffs from her NP; she also can synergize with Servants that have Curse, since she can absorb more Curse stacks to enhance the potency of her skills.

Overall, Van Gogh is a unique and extremely effective Quick-centered Critical Damage support who is more than capable of being the primary damage output of the team if needed. Masters who have the famed artist in their Chaldea will have their party blessed with countless Stars, with Gogh painting their damage numbers in her color of choice, a warm sunshine yellow.

High NP Gain

Van Gogh has excellent Card hit counts and base NP Gain, giving her relatively easy access to her NP. Furthermore, her first skill also charges her NP Gauge for every Curse stack she has on herself. With a minimum of 3 stacks provided by the skill itself, and another 3 stacks from her second and third skills, this is a 60% NP Gauge charge at base without counting any additional sources of Curse (which can be provided by party members). As a result, she can access her NP with ease, and any Crits will only further enhance her NP refund for subsequent turns.

Critical Damage Support

Van Gogh’s NP provides at base a stackable 3-turn +50% Crit Damage buff (+100% at NP5), and gives Foreigners (including herself) an additional flat +100% Crit Damage, making it up to a whopping +150-200% Crit Damage for three turns. Furthermore, she can stack her NP multiple times given her high NP gain, which allows her to reach up to +150-300% Crit Damage (or +450-600% (!) for Foreigners) from her own kit alone by the third turn. The Critical Damage buffs apply to the entire party as well. She also can provide Critical Stars each turn from her NP and her passive, and can increase the Star Gather for a single select ally to better increase chances of landing a Crit. Her 3-Quick Card deck additionally only further enhances her star generation capabilities. As a Critical Damage support, she ranks among the best as a result. The fact that her ATK buffs are also above-average (and similarly stackable) is also worth noting.

Party Evasion

AoE hard defensive skills are a valuable tool, particularly against damaging enemy AoE NPs. Van Gogh can provide a 1-time Evade to allies, giving her valuable defensive support in addition to her critical support.

Order-Dependent Skill Usage

Her skills tend to benefit her the most when used in a specific order. For example, in order to maximize her NP Gauge gain, she might start with her second skill to inflict Curse on all allies, then use her third skill to absorb all Curse stacks on herself, followed by her first skill that gives her NP Gauge for every Curse stack she has. However, this also means that she consumes her DEF/Quick Resist debuffs and her party Evade in the process, which may be something better saved for later depending on the encounter. As a result, it can be difficult to reach the full potential of each of her skills, and Masters will have to make compromises regarding how to time the benefits of each of her skills depending on the situation.

Chance-Based Stun

Her non-damaging NP inflicts Terror on all enemies, which has a 60% chance of inflicting Stun once on subsequent turns. Although this can be helpful, the chance-based aspect of this debuff makes it inherently unreliable.

Curse Demerit

Due to her skill set frequently inflicting herself and the party with Curse, and having only a very minor HP regen effect that just barely offsets the Curse damage (the HP regen lasts only 5 turns, while the Curse effects last 10 turns), prolonged battles can result in Gogh losing quite a bit of health to self-inflicted damage over time, especially if Curse stacks aren’t removed using her own Quick Cards with her third skill. Thankfully this does not come into play often, since her damage output is extremely high, although this makes her generally better suited to shorter encounters, whereas in lengthier battles it may be helpful to bring some source of healing support to offset her self-damage demerit. 

Conversely, in shorter encounters, the fact that she takes advantage of Curse stacks can also make Debuff clear support (such as Altria Caster’s NP) sometimes undesirable (for example, if more Curse stacks are desired for more NP charge or ATK buff stacks), so it can be important to use Debuff clear effects mindfully with Van Gogh in the party.

Van Gogh’s CE choice can depend on whether she plans to be the primary attacker of the party, or whether she primarily will be Critical Damage Support. Quick Card Performance and Critical Damage CEs are helpful to her if she is the primary damage dealer, while Stars per Turn CEs are more helpful in general usage of her as a Support.

• Crimson Teacher’s Pointer / Princess’s Pilgrimage / Midsummer Moment / Bestia del Sol / The Dantes Files: The Case of the True Mastermind / Can’t Fight on an Empty Stomach: These all provide a mix of Quick Card and Crit Damage buffs, which benefit Van Gogh’s overall damage output. Both Crimson Teacher’s Pointer and Princess’s Pilgrimage also provide starting NP Gauge, which Van Gogh can use to get an NP out on the first turn without support using proper ordering of her skills (2 > 3 > 1).
• A Fragment of 2030 / Dangerous Beast: Stars per turn will help improve the consistency of Critical Hits to fully benefit from Van Gogh’s multiple Critical Damage buffs.
• Self-Portrait At Chaldea: Van Gogh’s Bond CE is particularly useful, giving 8 Stars per turn while also boosting all allies’ Crit Damage by 15%, supplementing Van Gogh’s primary role as a Crit Support.