Yamanami Keisuke

 “I don't really want to be violent… But it seems that will not do.”

The gentler, kinder vice captain of the Shinsengumi who served alongside Hijikata Toshizo, Yamanami Keisuke is a support-oriented Arts Saber. He provides a mix of offensive and defensive buffs to his allies with his kit.

His NP, Yamasakura, notably is strictly supportive and deals no damage. It provides an ATK buff to all allies, 10 Stars per turn, and a Crit Damage buff to Shinsengumi allies for three turns, while also providing all allies with a small amount of NP Gauge depending on overcharge. The values of his NP are not particularly impressive, with the level 1 ATK buff being 20%, which is not much higher than the general Charisma buff value. The NP Gauge charge for all allies is also only 10% when at overcharge level 1, which isn’t the greatest. However, since his NP is Arts, he can chain Arts Cards with allies to help improve the NP gain to the party. Finally, the Crit Damage buff is generally restricted to parties that have other Shinsengumi allies, so Masters will want to assemble a party carefully if they want to most out of Keisuke’s support.

His skill kit has a mix of offensive buffs to the party, selfish buffs, and defensive buffs to the party. His first skill, “A Warrior but Literate” C is a standard-valued 3-turn ATK and NP Gain buff to all allies that comes with 10 Stars immediately. His second skill, Red Blossoms and Green Willows C, only affects himself, providing himself with a Quick and Arts buff for 3 turns, along with 20% NP charge. Unfortunately with his somewhat middling ATK stat and non-damaging NP, he does not fully take advantage of these buffs, although they improve the performance of his Cards if Masters elect to use them. His final skill, Sharp and Friendly Character B, is for defensive support, providing all party members with the useful 1-time Evade effect, along with a decent heal and removal of any damage-over-time debuffs. Across his entire skill set, his only source of offensive buffs is his first skill and NP, and he does not provide Card buffs or NP damage buffs to allies, meaning his overall offensive buff value is actually somewhat low.

Overall, Yamanami Keisuke offers support for allies, particularly in parties with multiple Shinsengumi Servants. His AoE Evade skill can come in handy in a pinch, and he has a balance of other helpful effects he provides to the party, but the values for his effects are somewhat low and make it hard to justify choosing him over other supports. Masters will probably only want to slot him in for Shinsengumi parties or if they are diehard fans of his, and the kind vice captain could certainly use an upgrade in the future.

AoE Evade

Keisuke’s third skill provides the party with the helpful AoE Evade effect for 1 hit, which can keep the party alive in the face of enemy’s AoE NP. Given this effect is not overly common in the cast, Masters can choose to slot him in the party for this effect.

Critical Support for Shinsengumi Allies

Yamanami Keisuke is most effective when fielded with other Shinsengumi Servants, where his Star bomb from his first skill and Stars per turn from his NP can be better taken advantage of with the Crit Damage buffs for Shinsengumi allies.

Low Overall Offensive Support Value

Keisuke’s NP and skills provide relatively small ATK buffs of only 20% each, which does not particularly put him above any other existing Servants. Additionally, he does not provide any Card or NP Damage buffs to allies, and ATK buffs are quite common amongst the cast, so the bonuses of his effects are generally additive rather than multiplicative. Additionally, the NP charge effect from his Noble Phantasm usually is quite low, with only 10% NP charge at level 1 overcharge, and an awkward 15% NP charge at level 2 overcharge.

Selfish Buffs on a Support

His second skill consists of Card buffs only for himself, which makes little sense given his NP deals little damage and his ATK stat is quite low. As a result many of the effects of this skill see little effectiveness, aside from the NP Gauge charge portion of the skill.

The primary offensive support value Keisuke provides comes from his first skill, making it the most important to level. His other skills actually do not provide as much direct offensive value, and their most valuable effects do not scale with level, so they can be left unleveled unless Masters wish  to improve cooldowns. The recommended leveling order is 1 >>> 2 = 3, where leveling 2 and 3 are optional.

• “A Warrior but Literate” C – This is Keisuke’s primary offensive support buff, with both ATK and NP Gain scaling with levels. The skill should be prioritized first.
• Red Blossoms and Green Willows C – The NP Gauge charge portion of this skill, which is the most important part of the skill, does not change with level. The Quick and Arts buffs do scale with level, but since Keisuke’s NP does not deal damage and his Cards aren’t exactly the biggest damage dealers, this skill can be left alone in most cases.
• Sharp and Friendly Character B – This provides the AoE Evade and a heal and poison/curse/burn cleanse to the party. The heal is the only effect that scales with level at decent return per level, although in most cases this skill can also be left unleveled. The main reason to level this skill is for cooldown reduction.

Due to being a primarily support-oriented character, Yamanami Keisuke benefits from CEs that have supportive effects such as Stars per Turn or can even be the holder for any EXP bonus CEs / Event bonus CEs. Since his NP also provides offensive support, Masters can use Starting NP Gauge CEs to make sure his NP is available as early as possible.

• A Fragment of 2030 / King of the Seraph - These Craft Essences provide Stars per turn. King of the Seraph also notably improves overcharge level by 2, increasing the NP Gauge charge from Keisuke’s NP to 20%.
• Kaleidoscope / The Imaginary Element / Winter Crystal – These are Starting NP Gauge CEs without additional effects. A non-MLB copy of Kaleidoscope will allow Keisuke to NP immediately out of the gate in combination with his second skill.