Vlad III

Vlad’s skill order is built around his standard plan of winning fights via repeated usage of his NP. Vampirism thus takes priority early on in order to build NP gauge more easily, and more often. Morph comes next as a solid Defense bonus that is active the majority of the time. However, after Vlad’s second Interlude, Legend of Dracula becomes the top leveling priority to maximize its Attack and Defense buffs, as well as uptime. Lastly, Battle Continuation can be leveled or ignored depending on a Master’s resources, as it does its job fine at base.

• Vampirism is a straightforward NP charge and stalling skill. At max rank, it has a 100% chance to drain an enemy’s NP gauge by one bar. The drain itself is best when paired with other drain skills from allies to attempt to keep an enemy permanently locked out of their NP. Given Vlad’s awful base NP gain, the up to 30% self NP charge is his best way to combat that flaw. Max this skill first for the short term, or second after Morph gets its skill upgrade into Legend of Dracula. 
• Morph is a moderate value Defense buff that’s active for 3 out of every 5 turns. Generally it reduces a decent amount of damage, but nothing spectacular by itself. Post-skill upgrade, Legend of Dracula is an entirely different story. Increasing the Defense buff by an additional small amount further improves his general survivability, but adding a matching Attack buff turns Vlad into an offensive powerhouse with its up to 30% scaling and high uptime. Max this skill first after Vlad’s second Interlude, because Legend of Dracula is really what defines Vlad. 
• Battle Continuation is a standard revive-on-death skill. With its long cooldown, the chances of using this skill more than once a fight are slim to none, and its HP restored is not particularly high even when maxed out. Thankfully, it does last for 5 turns, which makes timing it relatively simple, and it serves as Vlad’s last-resort defense. The skill doesn’t benefit greatly from being leveled, but if Masters want to invest heavily in Vlad, max it last.

“I shall stand and howl my name, cursed by the world.”

Vlad Tepes, once known as Lancer of Black and the Lord of Wallachia, is a tragic monster trapped into the legend of the world’s most famous vampire. Though he once fought against his infamy, Vlad now embraces his vampiric power as a durable Arts-focused Berserker.

Vlad’s game plan focuses on building up to and repeatedly using his excellent Noble Phantasm, Kazikli Bey. This strong single-target Arts NP grants him a good sum of Critical Stars (scaling with Overcharge) and refunds a significant amount of NP gauge thanks to its high hit count. Befitting his ruinous fate, he possesses Vampirism to help charge his NP whilst draining an enemy’s NP gauge. Morph helps him survive by boosting his Defense with very good uptime, but its true power only shines after its Rank Up. Then, as Legend of Dracula, it serves as a fantastic personal steroid, increasing both his Attack and Defense by up to 30% for 3 out of every 5 turns. Battle Continuation serves as his insurance policy by reviving him in case of death, and contributes to his deceptively tanky (for a Berserker) nature.

Though Vlad doesn’t fear garlic or holy water, the vampire has other concerns, most important of which is his awful base NP gain. Without the benefit of external buffs or frequent Arts chains, it is common to see Vlad unable to use his NP even once in a battle. Furthermore, he struggles to maintain a consistent performance without significant support, and even lacks any steroids until his second Interlude. Thus, Vlad is highly dependent on properly constructed Arts teams that boost his damage, survival, and NP-spamming capabilities. Lastly, despite his Defense and Guts skills, Vlad is still a Berserker, with the requisite defensive weaknesses, and will fall quickly if Masters are not careful.

The Lord Impaler requires a good amount of assistance from allies, especially to salvage his poor NP gain. However, if he gets that help in a well-constructed Arts team, he can deliver consistently strong performances and leave any foe a bloody mess.

High Damage Via NP

Between his Berserker class advantage, 1.1x damage modifier, and the strong Attack boost on Legend of Dracula, Vlad can put out a high amount of damage through Kazikli Bey. With its high hit count and his Arts focus, Vlad’s overall damage scales incredibly well with external Arts and NP Gain buffs, which enable him to use his NP regularly.  

Decent Survivability for a Berserker

Despite not having self-healing or an evasion skill, Vlad is still one of the bulkier Berserkers in the game, due to the persistent Defense buff from Morph/Legend of Dracula. Battle Continuation serves as a last-resort method to survive fatal blows, and Vampirism’s NP drain slows down enemy NP charging to buy time for defensive skills or to simply kill the enemy. His focus on NP Drain and Defense Up for defensive effects works very well with Arts supports who can provide more of the same effects. When stacked, Defense Up can render any almost enemy attack toothless while successive NP drains can prevent NPs from firing indefinitely..

Excellent Refund Potential and Critical Stars From Noble Phantasm

Even with his low base NP gain, Vlad gets a significant amount of NP charge back from using Kazikli Bey thanks to its 10 hits, especially if he can Overkill with it. Once he manages to use it once, his path to doing so again is much easier. In addition, post-Interlude Kazikli Bey will produce at least 20 Critical Stars on use (increasing with extra levels of Overcharge), which greatly improves the chance for critical hits on the next turn. Note that Vlad may not be able to fully take advantage of them himself thanks to his very low Berserker star weight.

Very Low Base NP Gain

Vlad suffers from one of the lowest base offensive NP generation rates in the entire game. Even with his two Arts cards, he will need Arts chains or direct NP charge from allies, or sometimes both, to use Kazikli Bey. His access to up to 30% charge from Vampirism alleviates this issue somewhat, but it still holds him down if he is not properly supported. This also heavily restricts team composition, usually requiring pairing him with allies with Arts and NP Generation buffs or direct NP charge skills. Some Servants that fit his needs include Tamamo-no-Mae, Zhuge Liang, or Nero Claudius (Bride).

Still Relatively Fragile Overall

Though Vlad has a decent HP stat and a good Defense buff, Vlad is still a Berserker, and especially one without an Evasion or Invincibility skill. Unless his Battle Continuation is up or he has stacked multiple defense buffs from allies, he will almost never survive a Noble Phantasm or a barrage of high damage enemy crits without a large amount of external help. Additionally, even if he revives, he only regains a maximum of 2500 HP (if Battle Continuation is maxed), which may mean he only lives for one more hit afterwards given Berserker defensive disadvantages.

Lower Noble Phantasm Multiplier

Despite the fact that Kazikli Bey is a strong Noble Phantasm, it suffers from a damage multiplier that is lower than the norm for single-target NPs. This issue was helped by Vlad’s NP Interlude, but his NP damage remains lower than that of other Servants whose single-target NPs received Interludes. Combined with access to only a single steroid from Legend of Dracula, Vlad’s NP damage has low burst damage potential, but instead deals significant damage over time through its constant use in the right Arts teams.

Vlad heavily leans on his Noble Phantasm for damage, and generally sees use in Arts teams built around him and his Arts performance. Because of this, his favored CEs include Arts Performance Up, NP Damage, and Starting NP Gauge CEs. If Vlad is getting enough Arts buffs from allies, NP Gain CEs can also greatly help his NP spam capability.

Formal Craft / Projection / Kaleid Sapphire

These CEs boost the damage and NP Gain on Vlad’s 2 basic Arts cards and Kazikli Bey. This helps him get to his NP faster, deal more damage with it, and benefit from a higher NP refund. Kaleid Sapphire has a lower Arts buff in exchange for adding some NP Damage for a more damaging single NP, but less NP gain overall.

Black Grail / Heaven’s Feel

This is an option which becomes much stronger after Vlad’s second Interlude. Between his own Attack steroid and any Arts buffs he should be receiving from allies in his favored teams, NP Damage CEs provide the maximum amount of multiplicative damage stacking on Kazikli Bey. The Black Grail is the best possible pure damage option. Note that Vlad will need even more help than usual to charge his NP, and the health demerit on Black Grail may be risky for a Berserker to handle.

Kaleidoscope / The Imaginary Element / Holy Night Supper

If Vlad is needed for a short fight, Kaleidoscope will allow for a turn 1 NP with base level Vampirism. The Imaginary Element takes slightly longer, or if MLB requires level 6 Vampirism for an instant NP. Holy Night Supper sacrifices a small amount of immediacy for a higher damage payoff when Kazikli Bey gets used.

Magical Girl of Sapphire / Cute Orangette

Vlad can really up his Kazikli Bey spam with the multiplicative NP generation from these NP Gain CEs and Arts buffs from allies. Magical Girl of Sapphire provides Starting NP Gauge for a faster first NP, whereas Cute Orangette will take a little longer to reach the first NP but hits harder in exchange.