William Tell

“Please don’t make me shoot at the wrong things.”

Who needs a bow and arrow when you can have a semi-automatic rifle which shoots… arrows. As a strong counter to evasion, William Tell easily fits in a niche as a Single Target Arts damage dealer who positively blows up any enemy who thinks they can evade his sight.

William Tell may not seem like much at first, but when an enemy activates an evasion skill, he shines with his Noble Phantasm, Apfel Schießen C. This Noble Phantasm not only gives him Sure Hit, but at least doubles his damage against any enemy with an evasion buff on. He’s also capable of levying out some heavy criticals on a burst turn due to Aiming EX’s critical boosts, and can generate enough stars to practically guarantee his crits with Uri's Hunter B. This critical ability, along with good hit counts and a 3-turn Arts boost from Unwavering Perseverance C can lead to insane levels of NP regeneration and potentially allow for spamming of Noble Phantasms.

That said, William Tell is still a 3-star, and an offensive one at that, so he has next to nothing for defense. Aside from the 3-turn debuff immune of Unwavering Perseverance and a skill seal on Uri's Hunter, he has nothing to mitigate incoming damage and a generally low health pool. He also lacks proper sustained damage, often leaving him a dead weight much of the time. His evasion damage boost is also very niche, making Masters need to actively search for the best time to utilize him.

William Tell is an easily acquired high-damage burst Arts DPS for anyone who needs a quick way to burn through an enemy. He also is the subject of a rather nice song that Masters should listen to.

Evasion Murderer

Many encounters have an enemy which buffs themselves with an evasion on a break bar effect or at a certain HP level. William Tell is the hard counter to that with his Noble Phantasm not only piercing through it, but doing massive bonus damage on par with 5-stars at their best. Properly planned, he can be a savior of party cost. Of note: his damage boost only is effective when the enemy’s evasion is removable.

High Critical Damage

William Tell has the full Critical package, being able to create a boatload of stars, increase his gather rate to put all the stars onto his Cards, and increase his Critical damage by a full 100%. Not only does this allow for high burst damage, but it also allows for great gauge regeneration. 

Great NP Gauge Regeneration

With decent hit counts and his Critical abilities, William Tell easily regenerates a good chunk of his gauge on his burst turn. This is further boosted by his Arts up skill which carries on over three turns in the fight. An NPAA chain can almost refill his entire bar if used on his burst turn.

Squishy

William Tell has no defenses. Any damage which is directed at him will hit him at full power, and he does not have much in the way of HP to mitigate it. At best he has a skill seal and a debuff immune, but neither of these do much in preventing damage from coming in. 

Poor Sustain

Everything about William Tell is about his burst turn, but after it is over he has nothing lasting except his 3-turn Arts up boost. While that may help him get another Noble Phantasm off, he’ll likely not be the greatest performer on the field during his off turns.

Niche

In order for William Tell to best utilize his Noble Phantasm, he needs to face a Saber with an evasion skill, as other classes are best matched up against their counter-class. To make matters worse, he has direct competition with male Sabers as Euryale can do similar damage as he does against them on any turn and prevent them from taking action via Charm. As a result, he primarily sees usage against female Sabers with evasion skills hardcoded, and against males when his Sure Hit will be needed. These cases are few and far between for the most part, unfortunately.

All of William Tell’s skills work together on his burst turn, creating a pool of stars, gathering them to himself, and then boosting both his damage and NP gain. While the skills are ordered based on priority, they all should be leveled rather simultaneously to amplify his burst and make him shine.

• Uri's Hunter B is William Tell’s primary star drop skill. In practice, he creates these stars for himself as opposed to the rest of the team, and should use this on his burst turn. It also can skill seal an enemy to prevent further buffs should he not kill them on his burst turn. As there may be other ways to create stars this is listed last, but just barely. It should be leveled to level 10 as 30 stars with his star gather skill will very likely make 3 of his cards guaranteed crits. 
• Unwavering Perseverance C is the primary difference maker between William Tell having good NP Regeneration and great NP Regeneration. Its Arts up will boost his NP gauge gain off his card hits, and with proper supports allows him to use multiple Noble Phantasms. While it also provides a Debuff Immune effect, that aspect tends to be more niche. This should be leveled first as it is his primary way of boosting his NP regeneration regardless of how hard his criticals hit, but could be left at level 9 should Masters want to spare materials.
• Aiming EX is William Tell’s critical steroid, both providing a huge star gathering boost and increasing his critical damage by 100%. It unfortunately only lasts for a single turn, but Masters are going to want to make that turn count. Masters will want to raise this given its damage increases with scaling, and could leave it at level 9 if needed (especially considering Uri's Hunter has the same cooldown at level 10 as Aiming EX has at level 9). It’s best leveled second; it will reliably gather the stars needed to boost his NP regen at level 1, so it is not as important as Unwavering Perseverance, although the Critical Damage boost is still useful and scales with level.

William Tell has two approaches to CEs: Increasing Noble Phantasm access, or increasing Noble Phantasm frequency. If a master wants him to get early access to his Noble Phantasm, Starting NP Gauge CEs provide him that, while Mixed Staring NP Gauge / Damage CEs can provide him a boost while requiring external supports. However, if one wants to have him regenerate and use his Noble Phantasm more often, NP Gain CEs will stack with his Arts up skill, and NP Gain Per Turn could assist him in longer fights. 

• Kaleidoscope / The Imaginary Element / Dragon’s Meridian: That standard starting gauge CEs help William Tell like they do all damage dealers, allowing for earlier access to his Noble Phantasm. 
• Holy Night Supper / Golden Sumo: Boulder Tournament / Painting Summer: By providing William Tell with some starting gauge and some extra damage, he can hit his enemies with more effectiveness than before. Holy Night Supper has the added bonus of increasing his Critical damage, but that mathematically may be similar to Sumo’s attack boosts. 
• Magical Girl of Sapphire / Little Halloween Devil / Distant Pilgrimage / Summer Little / A Fox Night’s Dream: With a boost to NP Gain, William Tell’s Arts cards will boost his gauge much more quickly. A Fox Night’s Dream can help with critical star generation instead of starting gauge if necessary. 
• Prisma Cosmos: In longer fights, this CE can help William Tell access his Noble Phantasm more frequently and fill in the gaps left by NPAA chains.