I start to save sq from january for future summons. Can u give me an advice who is better? Or you have a better servant?
Depends. Offensively, Nero caster and she’s great as an AOE caster. Merlin is one of the absolute best supports in the game. You simply can’t compare the two. I recommend Merlin over Nero caster though if you don’t have many support servants.
to put it extremely short, it will depend of your team.
Nero Caster is the best Wave clearer farmer caster and merlin is the best Buster caster also Being very valuable in challenge quests, that is for answering your question.
Just aim for Nero Caster, you could just borrow a Waver or Merlin to your friends if you dont have Merlin, + Farming with her with the 50% NP charge on her 1st skill (correct me if im wrong) combined with other 50% CE is Fantastic! Plus, even she fails a wave, she can be kind of tanky thanks to her 2nd skill which denies class affinity disadvantage (like bersekers, get rekt random bezerk crits!)
Myself, I believe that a player that is going to be mostly F2P should concentrate on their own support servants. This in my mind gives the most bang for the buck, as you can then pick and choose from a multitude of DPS servants from your friends list.
If you rely on a support support :), then you only have your own DPS servants available to you. Sure, it would be nice to have a good gold ST and AoE servant in every class, but I don't even come close... You do lose the ability to pick the ideal CE for the given situation, but I'll accept that.
And I think this is even more true in the new break bar paradigm, where you'll have to target bosses weaknesses, or counter their strengths, for at least a few turns, rather than nuking them before they can react. I think this means needing to use servants with specific skillsets more so than in the past, which requires you to have access to more DPS servants than before with those traits.
Merlin is a tier 1/ SS rated servant and as far as I know will NOT be on rate up again anytime soon according to the JP schedule.
Nero Caster is the premiere AoE caster. She is A rated and will probably be listed as tier 2 when she comes out. She will be on solo rate up two more times: next summer and as part of the 2021 New Years banner (again if they follow JP which they might not).
While I do LOVE Nero and think that your current roster of support should be considered... I don’t think I could in good conscience advise anyone to roll over Merlin due to his rarity. Who knows how long you might have to wait for him.
So roll for Merlin.
Lol no servant can beat support in terms of gameplay, they will always stand at the top.
For the second question, Waver pretty much equal to Merlin and both is still the best servant on NA for a long time.
Nero if you're lacking ST or AOE Offensive Caster, Nero herself can take both of that roles which is nice and she's freaking strong for a Caster. If you only care and love big damage plus want to clear stuff easier or even want to use some servant almost everywhere ( overworking universal unit LOL ) then Merlin or Waver is your man.
The need for an ST or wave clear caster is nice to have, but their effectiveness in damage dealing even against assassins even isn't overly impressive with the class modifer. So in terms of usefulness and summon priority a berserker or wave clear archer like Ishtar or Gilgamesh holds more value. When it comes to summoning casters, full support casters take priority, but a caster damage dealer I would rate as 'nice' to have.
However take whoever you want if you don't care about pure effectiveness. Nero caster is not a bad pick if you intend to make use of her. With my line up I can't see myself using her anytime soon so won't be rolling for her. As the others have said Merlin is a no brainer so are any of the big 4, Waver, Tamamo, Skadi.
It really depends on what you need. As the previous replies have mentioned, if you don't have a support, go for Merlin. If you need an AOE offensive caster, go for Nero Caster.
As for what other servants you might want to roll for, you might want to be on the lookout for Sherlock Holmes; he is reputed to make challenge quests easier. Currently on my list is either Ishtar or Archuria, but apparently Gilgamesh is on CCC Event, so you might want to give him a roll.
Merlin is a support, AOE 10-20% charge, AOE invuln+1 turn huge stargen up and crit down on enemies+targettable 3 turns mana burst with HP up and 1 turn 50-100% crit up (making buster crits rather ST NP-tier). And his NP gives stargen, AOE heal and AOE small NP charge for everybody for some turns, it can stack, making it spammable comps quite broken.
Caster Nero is the stronger AOE Caster, she has a ton of attack buffs, and a skill who ignore class affinity disavantage for some turns (meaning you can use her safely in riders and berserker nodes if you are fast). She can Buster brave chain with her NP, a thing right now only Babbage and Geronimo can, increasing her dmg potential. But the Caster class is quite overflooded with AOE Casters (ST Casters about as uncommon as AOE Assassins), and if you want a heavy hitter AOE to clear hard assassin nodes, there allways AOE Berserkers for that, as risky as they are.
So, it depend in your party config. Have Buster Centric powerful servants with good starweight (or with skills that force you crit, like Raikou and Zerckalot), or you can do arts spam setups? Merlin is the way to go, it's very easy mode if you get him. He's just not as good for farming as Waver and quick Merlin, Skadi.
If for some reason you don't have any assassin-node good farming unit, or just love Nero, go for her. But you can roll for her in the next year, not for Merlin, mind you.
