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MMM - Must Magnificent Maidens Melt Away Most Morosely? Mite Morbid, Mate (JP Summer 2019 Gacha Part 2)

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The Modern Magus Magazine

Greetings, reader. We here at the 1-humanoid organisation known as the MMM come in peace. Please, feel free to sit comfy and enjoy the writing as we completely nonchalantly install jet boosters to your back and potentially send you on a 3-day bender of impending doom, at the end of which you become a twinkling star in the sky giving dual-peace signs.

I think you can already guess who my favourite swimsuit from this batch is.

Without further ado, let’s take a look at our menagerie of bunnies, penguins, and the soon-to-be-deceased. Yes, I do classify that as a kind of animal.

NA Release Date: 8/2021

Altria Pendragon (Ruler)

Introduction

Let’s all put our hands together in respect for Sir Gawain and Sir Lancelot of the round table. They have done us a great service not only for this event, but for every quest in the future where our oblivious bunny-girl graces us with her presence. Cos’ boy, do we like ‘em thicc.

Servant Data
Ruler
Magic Resistance A

Increase your Debuff Resist by 20%.

Territory Creation B

Increase your Arts Card effectiveness by 8%.

Overview

Oh boy, Jeanne actually got dethroned by a real King. With the now-highest max HP of any Ruler in the game (2nd overall, after Jinako), while tying Jeanne for her attack stat, Arturia Ruler is...excessively tanky. With the Ruler class advantage in play she essentially has nearly 34k HP to play around with, but at the cost of a lacklustre attack stat - while it isn’t as bad as it seems, due to the Ruler class’s 1.1x attack modifier bumping it over 10,000 effectively, it’s still far below the standard for a SSR servant.

In terms of passives, Arturia Ruler has been dealt a pretty simple hand (hehe) - with A-rank Magic Resistance and B-rank Territory Creation, she has a very standard level of debuff-shrugging for a Ruler, on top of a notably better boost to her Arts card...no s. Having a passive boost to a single card does suck, but hey, you take those.

NP Generation
Servant Skills
Noble Phantasm
Conclusion

How does the King of Knights in less-than-modest attire shape up? On one hand, she’s got a full house:

With her card shuffle skill, good stargen, and crit-focused skill set, Arturia Ruler makes a fairly good critical damage dealer, or support for one. While she may not be the best at either role, even in her own class (Holmes and QSH are kind of crazy), she performs well enough at the role to be desirable.

Rulers are known for their durability, and Arturia is no exception. With her colossal HP pool, natural resistance to most classes, and evasion skill, it will take a fair bit of effort to take her down, even with NP’s in the equation.

While it’s not a particularly difficult benchmark to reach, she can waveclear lesser enemies and has a (troublingly not-50%) gauge charger, making her a decent universal farm servant. But realistically, she can only NP once in a quest and has limited CE options. So not the greatest.

On the other hand, she’s gone bust:

Short of her card reshuffle, Arturia Ruler has nothing special. I don’t mean she isn’t unique, but she offers very little outside of direct damage buffs for herself and a moderate team buff. In the case of say, Amakusa, he hits similar damage values on NP while offering a targeted stun, stars per turn, AOE crit rate down, and most importantly AOE buff removal. In comparison, Arturia Ruler has basically zero utility.

This is something of a hot take, so bear with me. Card reshuffle isn’t that good. It’s unique, yes. It can save you from poor RNG, also true. But nothing about card reshuffle is guaranteed, and the fact it’s tied to a secondary, desirable effect with no way of avoiding the card shuffle also makes it annoying to use, possibly tossing away good hands in exchange for the critical damage buff. As somebody who uses the Mystic Code with the effect 95% of the time, I might end up using it once every 20 quests or so? And even when you do use it, there’s no guarantee you won’t draw the exact same hand, leaving you in the same, or at least a similar predicament. This is in contrast to something like BB’s hand freeze, which guarantees a good hand for 2 additional turns, while also giving you free stars. There’s no given risk, and it always assures a positive outcome. The cooldown should honestly be shorter, and the shuffle optional, but that’s just me.

Arturia Ruler places herself awkwardly as a servant - she tries to simultaneously be supportive and selfish as a critical damage dealer, but has a NP which doesn’t really work with it, while simultaneously being outclassed by two other servants in her own class on both ends. Hell, even Astraea has better offensive power, and a more intuitive support skill, on top of her spammable NP gimmick. As a result, Arturia Ruler is this sort of weirdo who tries to be an AOE waveclearer, Critical damage dealer, and Critical support all in one, while bringing quite literally nothing new to the table that can’t be done by a mystic code.

It’s pretty sad, if I’m being honest. Arturia Ruler could’ve had a much more supportive set in some form focused on distributing crit stars, improving crit damage, and her card reshuffle if designed that way. Instead, you get something of a mess who is sufficient, yet not spectacular, in multiple ways. She’s definitely not a waste of space when used optimally, but even managing the optimal with her comes with pitfalls and tests of luck. When you can get a similar or better performance without having to wait for attack buffs, or test your card-draw luck before a major crit damage chain, why bother with Arturia Ruler, I ask.

And boy, does that question lack an answer outside of “boobs”. As good an answer as any, but it doesn’t win her any seals of approval.

Mysterious Alter Ego Λ

Introduction

Or “Meltryllis Lancer”, for the uncreative. Seriously, all the weird pseudonyms FGO tends to come up with are so amusing. At any rate, penguin gang rise up, if people decide to underseed you at a major for being European you know the best Alter Ego is your mascot. Also those sunglasses are obscenely hot.

Servant Data
Lancer
Magic Resistance B

Increase your Debuff Resist by 17.5%.

Riding C

Increase your Quick Card effectiveness by 6%.

Independent Action EX

Increase your Critical Strength by 12%.

Core of the Goddess C

Apply Damage Plus (Total Card Damage +200).
Increase Debuff Resist for yourself by 20%.

High Servant A

No effect.

Overview

Melt Lancer unfortunately seems to come bearing some of the weakest base stats for a servant in the class with, traditionally, the highest. Possessing the 3rd worst HP stat in exchange for the 6th best Atk stat, Melt is offensively-oriented but not really packing the punch she deserves for the hit to her HP.

Thankfully, she has passives out the wazoo to compensate. Firstly, she has one of my favourite passive wombo comboes in the game of Magic Resistance and Goddess Core, giving her a grand total of 37.5% passive debuff resistance, as well as 200 extra damage on all her cards. If this alone, allowing her to shrug off nearly 40% of all debuff on average, wasn’t enough, she also has C-rank Riding and EX-rank Independent Action.

With 2 Quicks in her card set, that 6% boost to them goes a decent distance, but the 12% critical damage boost is especially potent for a servant with a workable base star weight and spoilers a star focus skill.

Boy, I love it when Alter Egos are thrown amazing passives.

NP Generation
Servant Skills
Noble Phantasm
Conclusion

So how is Meltryllis Lancer shaping up? On one hand, she’s Lord of the Seas:

With her high-refund NP, looping-friendly kit and notably strong gauge charger, Melt Lancer is a very good Arts farmer, albeit with some abnormal demands in order to get the optimal farming setup. She does decent enough damage (hey, at least she doesn’t have a base 9k atk and Caster attack modifier to work off...unlike someone), has a solid base NP gain stat, and that indefinite 20% Arts booster goes a long way to helping her. This also extends to challenge quests, with the 10-star bomb on her NP and Melt Envy’s star focus letting her often get a full refund in a NPAA or NPQA chain when she would not earn it otherwise.

Our little Leviathan has a good sum of utility hiding in her hoodie - she can make the stage Water terrain so support a number of servants, including 2 Arts-focused ones like her, and her NP is also a combo evasion-remove defense pierce NP, something you don’t get too often for an AOE. While it may not seem like much, this little bonuses allow her applications to be more versatile, unlike a certain bunny-girl Ruler who lacks any such things...cough.

Not to be overlooked is Melt Lancer’s surprisingly solid durability. She has an Invincibility skill, which is already more than most, but combined with her passive debuff resistance and the buff-removal resist on her Invincibility, she tends to shrug off the tricks which often overcome just pure defensive options. The odds of Melt Lancer being locked down by a Stun, or NP Sealed, or really anything of that sort is pretty low, which is certainly a nice touch.

However, Melt Lancer is also a flightless bird ripe to be preyed on by seals, to use an analogy, in some aspects:

While Melt’s pinch durability and resilience to debuffs is good, she still packs a pretty poor HP pool and no real long-term durability tools like defense up and heals. Normally you would hope her constant AOE spam would kill her opponents before they can hit her, but she starts off a few nasty crits from death, which can be hampering in challenge quests.

As I have mentioned earlier, Melt is pretty vulnerable to buff removal effects. Her Invincibility helps with that, but it does mean she ends up being stunted in fights with servants who pack on-demand buff removal skills or buff removal on gauge break effects. Again, usually this isn’t a big issue, as everyone sucks when they get buff removed, but Melt Lancer is really dependent on her permanent 20% Arts buff, and losing it means 3-4 turns of just sucking a little bit more.

All in all, Meltryllis Lancer is a finely constructed, but great Arts AOE servant with plenty of extra kinks (of the non-sexual kind, but possibly the sexual kind), to work with. She’s a great farmer with plenty of loop potential, reasonably good at challenge quests with the tools at her disposal and cute as a button. While Melt Envy’s technical demerit does sometimes hamper her performance in difficult content, she’s certainly a servant with some clear goals in mind, and ones she achieves with thorough competence. Rath™ Seal of Approval.

Okita J Souji

Introduction

What happens when you take Heaven’s Feel Shirou and fuse it with an already-dying gag Saber then add in Evangelion memes? This apparently. Congratulations, Okita Souji. You got your swimsuit. But at what cost? At. What. Cost?

Servant Data
Assassin
Entity of the Outer Realm E

Gain 2 Critical Stars per turn.
Increase your Debuff Resist by 4%.

Magic Resistance (J) C

Increase your Debuff Resist by 15%.
Reduces your Instant Death Resistance by 10%

Presence Concealment (J) B-

Increase your Critical Star Drop Rate by 7.5%.
Reduces your Instant Death Resistance by 10%

Overview

Is anybody surprised that Okita Assassin has the lowest HP total of any 4* Assassin? Nobody? Good. Okita’s base statline is honestly as fitting as can be, sacrificing any and all durability for maximum attack power. Except she only has the 4th best attack stat of her rarity. D-dai shouri? At any rate, she’s still got good offense, only at the cost of having lower HP than some 3* servants, and the lowest HP of any non-Avenger / Berserker.
But hey, she’s got some nice passives - giving her a grand total of -20% Death Resistance…

Don’t die, Okita, okay?

Now that might sound bad, but in practice it makes her Death Rate a little less than a Berserker’s, and in the first place Death Rate is pretty minor in influencing how often an instant-death effect kills you - especially due to the rarity of it in enemy hands, outside of gimmicks for challenge quests. Definitely don’t take her to a fight with KH, at any rate.

The other benefits of her passives are pretty standard. With both her Magic Resistance (J) C rank and...Foreigner class skill (...is that from the Jets?) she has a respectable 19% passive Debuff Resistance, something most Assassins lack. In addition, she’s a walking quarter-2030, producing 2 stars each turn, and produces more stars than normal due to her Presence Concealment. If that isn’t a win, what is?

NP Generation
Servant Skills
Noble Phantasm
Conclusion

So how good is Okita Assassin? On one hand, she’s shooting for the stars:

This lady is made of critical stars. She makes ‘em, consumes’ em, makes ‘em some more, crits even ‘arder using ‘em, makes more, does it again, you get the idea. Her AOE NP and passive 2 stars/turn probably puts her ahead of Jack for the best personal stargen in the game, and she deserves it. It goes doubly that she’s also a very good critical damage dealer who can use her own stars at full force.

Hey, she can hit a button and live a NP without sacrificing her damage too much. Lots of servants can’t do that, and she can. It’s especially important for a Quick servant since the traditional options for Quick teams lack a super on-demand evasion, unless you like running Kaleidoscope Skadi all the time.

She can loop...sort of. She has a bunch of hoops to run through, but she can get a consistent setup versus her class advantage, more than most can manage. More importantly, she has synergy with a support who covers her weaknesses and enables her to loop, and works for challenge quests on a budget.

Short of her sustain, this girl is 1000% self-sufficient. You will never see a woman more independent than one who has the best star generation and one of the best NP gains in the game. Actually, outside of super exemptions like Merlin and his cheat-passive combined with just his...everything (Does having a lot of NP gain even count when all your NP really does is let you NP more?), she has arguably the best NP gain in the game, especially when taking her stargen, NP refund, and Quick booster into account.

Last positive, I swear. Sure-hit and Defensive buff wipe are really good effects for breaking through defenses, and Okita Assassin can spam the latter to high hell. Even I feel Amakusa can be excessive with how often he can NP and just clear out the enemy’s buffs - imagine Okita. It’s a sight to behold, that’s for sure.

And on the other hand, Okita is the shooting star:

Those demerits. Oof. The stun on her NP particularly adds a random element to her gameplay which I don’t have much love for, but thankfully we currently have two fairly good supports (Medea Lily and Ascelpius) who can prevent her from suffering her harsh penalties, remove them, and, with Medea Lily, prevent herself from removing her defensive buffs, too. Still, they suck.

Okita’s made out of paper. Low max HP, only a pinch option for defensive skills, and literally two side-effects on her skills which make her die faster. All things considered, they’re not too difficult to compensate for, but I’d definitely rather be without them. Thankfully, Okita’s main strength is inflicting damage in a huge burst, so it’s not like her game plan relies on sticking around for longer than 3 turns.

Okita Jets Japan Journey Souji is loaded with charm and fitted with all the things I like most - self-sufficient NP gain and stargen, unique skill and NP design, fun gimmicks to work around, and not being a Buster monstrocity with just big numbers to its name. She has great offensive power, great responsibilities and great risks, while both hitting all time highs and all time lows, but at the same time having enough unique tools to not be made redundant in case some Assassin with better NP refund and damage comes along to steal her thunder. You can probably realize by now I’m very biased towards her, and you’re 100% right. Rath™ Seal of Approval, with a recommendation. I don’t care if it’s unjust.

Final Conclusions

Just as soon as it arrived, Summer has ended, and so has the MMM...for now. We can likely expect a long break following Summer, and with LB5 confirmed for Winter, who knows what lies on the horizon, just beyond the Pillar of Humanity that is big tiddy waifus in swimsuits?

Only time shall tell, my friends...Or intern-kun slipping up and putting a news post up early. But most likely time, let’s stick with that.