9th Anniversary - Tier List Change Log

norseftx
Table of Contents
Tier List Change Log History
Introduction
The latest 9th Anniversary Campaign introduces a new Servant:
Space Ereshkigal
Additionally, other Servants have received upgrades since the last change log:
Rank Up Campaign Part 17:
Beni-Enma
Gilles de Rais
Cleopatra
Asclepius
Iskandar
Nitocris (Assassin)
Abigail Williams
Billy the Kid
James Moriarty (Ruler)
Charlotte Corday
Katsushika Hokusai
Red Hare
Merlin
Nursery Rhyme
All Servants that were discussed for tier placement or movement are detailed below.
Staff were allowed to assign the following scores.
After some debate, the staff generally agreed to have only EX-/A+/B+/C+/D+ tiers aside from the standard EX/A/B/C/D/E, so for the purposes of tiering the average scores were then rounded to the closest score to obtain the final tier as below. 
As a result, any A-/B-/C-/D-/E+/E- votes, after averaging, would round out to the next closest tier.
5 Star Servants
Space Ereshkigal
Tier A+
Space Ereshkigal is the 9th Anniversary Servant, with her own unique bond system, the Master Favorability gauge, which Masters level up from the beginning in every encounter. She is a Beast-Class AoE Arts Servant, who has Class Advantage against all Extra Classes (deals 1.5x and takes 0.5x damage) except Avenger. She is weak against Avenger (deals 0.5x and takes 2.0x damage), and is neutral to all other Classes. She is a capable looper, having both a party 20% NP charge skill as well as a self 50% NP charge skill, totaling 70% for herself. She also has a huge array of both offensive and utility support effects. For the entire party, she provides both ATK and NP damage buffs. Utility wise, she can clear her own debuffs, has Buff Removal Resist for herself, can reduce her own skill cooldowns, and provides Instant Death resist to all allies in exchange for a minor amount of Poison damage each turn. She also has extremely potent Crit capabilities, with a special buff that gives her up to 100% Crit Damage every time she Crits (applying before damage) for 1 turn, meaning up to 300% Crit Damage buff on her 3rd Card in a single turn. Her survival capability is also quite impressive, having a 2-time, 3-turn Invincible, Guts, and a small healing skill. Her passives are also very notable, giving her Debuff Immunity 3 times at the start of every combat, as well as permanent Stun immunity (although not to Charm or Sleep). Finally, her NP itself removes offensive buffs, can inflict Instant Death, deals damage to all enemies, and increases her special Master Favorability gauge. 
Various actions during combat can increase her Favorability gauge in addition to usage of her NP, including putting her in the front of the lineup, being at least Bond Lv5, using her Cards or Skills (especially first during a turn), or using Master Skills on her. Her most important buffs to her NP happen at Favorability Lv7 and Lv10. At Lv7, she gains both Ignore Invincible and Ignore DEF on her NP. At Lv10, she gains 50 Critical Stars when she uses her NP. The Stars are particularly synergistic with her Crit damage buff capabilities, making her all but guaranteed to hit hard every turn after her NP. However, be wary that Space Ereshkigal has only eyes for her own Master, so bringing a Friend Support Space Ereshkigal will entirely disable the Favorability gauge. Given her serviceable farming performance and extremely potent performance in longer battles and excellent utility, Space Ereshkigal makes a compelling appeal for a spot in Master's Chaldea.
1Space Ereshkigal: x -> A+ (Avg Score: 9.33) - 
2[NorseFTX - A+][Meliran - A+][Rathilal - A+]
Tier List Movements
5 Star Servants
Beni-Enma
Tier A > A+
Beni-Enma gets a 3-turn Arts buff and a self 30% NP charge skill. As is, she already is among the top ST Sabers, with two relatively common Special ATK traits that often overlap. With the upgrade, she now effectively has 50% NP charge for herself when combined with her other skill, giving her easier access to her damage while also increasing her damage ceiling.
1Beni-Enma: A -> A+ (Avg Score: 9.33) - 
2[NorseFTX - A+][Meliran - A+][Rathilal - A+]
Cleopatra
Tier B+ > A
Cleopatra's upgrade gives her the coveted 30% NP charge. As an AoE Buster Servant, this enables her to comfortably loop with a double Koyanskaya / Oberon setup. Additionally, the buff also adds a buff success rate buff for her, giving her the ability to guarantee the success of her Imperial Privilege buffs, both of which are potent and greatly improve her consistency.
1Cleopatra: B+ -> A (Avg Score: 8.67) - 
2[NorseFTX - A][Meliran - B][Rathilal - A]
Iskandar
Tier C+ > A
Iskandar's Charisma skill gets an upgrade, and he also joins the 30% NP charger club. This allows him to do the double Koyanskaya / Oberon loop. He additionally gains a small bit of utility with the Ignore DEF buff for 3 turns. He overall has always been one of the hard hitters in the AoE Buster Rider roster, and this upgrade solves one of the biggest issues he had since he now has much easier access to his devastating NP. He now is essentially at the same level as other looping AoE Buster Riders.
1Iskandar: C+ -> A (Avg Score: 8.89) - 
2[NorseFTX - A][Meliran - A-][Rathilal - A]
Abigail Williams
Tier C+ > B
Abigail Williams' skill upgrade gives her a handy 20% NP charge, which when combined with her other upgrade, puts her at 50% total NP charge that she can generate for herself. The newest upgrade also gives her a very sizable 1-turn bonus damage multiplier against Terror-afflicted enemies, which her own kit is capable of providing. The boost to both her burst damage and increased ease of access to her NP are great improvements to her overall performance.
1Abigail Williams: C+ -> B (Avg Score: 8.11) - 
2[NorseFTX - B+][Meliran - B][Rathilal - B]
James Moriarty (Ruler)
Tier A+ > A+
Moriarty Ruler's NP gets an upgrade, providing the standard damage increase, along with an extension of the duration of his NP damage buff from 1 to 3 turns. This comes in handy in looping scenarios, allowing his NP damage buff to stack across three turns so that the damage is maximized by the third wave (which generally is the highest HP wave). The upgrade is an excellent improvement to his already great performance. However, being at A+ currently, as great as the upgrade is, it is not enough to push him into the EX tiers.
1James Moriarty (Ruler): A+ -> A+ (Avg Score: 9.33) - 
2[NorseFTX - A+][Meliran - A+]
Katsushika Hokusai
Tier B+ > A
Hokusai's NP gets an upgrade, giving her a decent NP Gain buff and Arts Resist debuff on enemies before damage, along with the standard NP damage improvement. This both makes looping on her more consistent and also increases her overall damage output, being an all around great upgrade for her.
1Katsushika Hokusai: B+ -> A (Avg Score: 8.78) - 
2[NorseFTX - A-][Meliran - A-][Rathilal - A]
Merlin
Tier EX- > EX-
Merlin's upgrade is a huge improvement to his supportive capability. It reduces the cooldown of his party Invincibility skill, improving its overall uptime, and the uptime of the Star Drop Rate buff. Importantly, it also adds a 50% Crit Damage buff, meaning his total Crit Damage buff provided across his entire kit is a whopping 150%. Also, the skill now gives 10% NP Gauge for all allies, which means he can give up to 30% to the entire party, which is a notable improvement. Even including these buffs however, in the Buster support meta, most cases Masters will still prefer double Koyanskaya and Oberon over a slot for Merlin. His upgrades are substantial and amazing for teams running him, but it was agreed his rank remains the same given other Buster support options are still preferred.
1Merlin: EX- -> EX- (Avg Score: 9.67) - 
2[NorseFTX - EX-][Meliran - EX-][Rathilal - EX-]
4 Star Servants
Nitocris (Assassin)
Tier C > C+
Nitocris Assassin's NP has always been plagued by inconsistent NP refund due to the Instant Death effect occurring before damage, which potentially robbed her of any NP gain the killed enemy would have generated. The upgrade changes the Instant Death to happen after damage, which greatly improves her usability in NP looping; the damage upgrade helps a great deal as well. The other added effects, Skill Seal and near water battlefield type changes, are a bit more niche but still welcome.
1Nitocris (Assassin): C -> C+ (Avg Score: 7.33) - 
2[NorseFTX - B-][Meliran - C][Rathilal - C+]
Nursery Rhyme
Tier C+ > B
Nursery Rhyme gets a skill upgrade that gives her and all Child trait allies 20% NP charge, and gives her and all Fairy Tale trait allies 20% NP damage. Additionally, she will also gain an Arts damage buff for 3 turns. This adds a total of 50% damage buff for herself, and combined with her charge skill, this makes for a potent upgrade to her overall ease of use. It should be noted that since the party buffs are trait based, they may not always be applicable to all allies, but can still be useful to keep in mind for allies that her buffs do apply to.
1Nursery Rhyme: C+ -> B (Avg Score: 8) - 
2[NorseFTX - B][Meliran - B-][Rathilal - B+]
1-3 Star Servants
Gilles de Rais
Tier E > D
Gilles de Rais's Saber form gets an upgrade to his skill, adding alignment-based party buffs: Crit damage buffs for Lawful allies, Overcharge buffs for Good allies, and 20 Stars if a Star attribute ally is on the field. He also gains a Star regen buff of up to 15 Stars per turn. This increases how useful he is as a support for Lawful Good Servants. However, while this improves his supportive capacity, it does not change the biggest issue with his kit, which is arguably his NP (which deals no damage and buffs his own offense while debuffing his own defense). He at least has some niche use cases with this upgrade, but there are many other support options that would generally be preferred.
1Gilles de Rais: E -> D (Avg Score: 5.56) - 
2[NorseFTX - D][Meliran - E][Rathilal - D-]
Asclepius
Tier B+ > A
Asclepius gets a skill upgrade that most importantly adds a party Arts buff for 3 turns. This makes him a great stand-in low rarity Arts support option. The other buffs, healing received and self Guts, are a bit less impactful, but do improve the overall survivability of him and his party.
1Asclepius: B+ -> A (Avg Score: 9) - 
2[NorseFTX - A][Meliran - A-][Rathilal - A+]
Billy the Kid
Tier C > C+
Billy the Kid gets some Crit-focused upgrades to his evade skill. The total value of the Crit Damage buff is improved. Additionally, the skill gains three new effects: a Quick buff for 3 turns, Star Absorption for 1 turn, and a burst of up to 30 Stars on use. Masters can now pop this skill on a turn where his Cards are available, helping to guarantee his Cards will gain Stars and deal some devastating damage.
1Billy the Kid: C -> C+ (Avg Score: 7.33) - 
2[NorseFTX - C+][Meliran - C+][Rathilal - C+]
Charlotte Corday
Tier D+ > D+
Charlotte Corday's skill upgrade allows her to select one of the three possible effects rather than it being random, and additionally gives her a burst of up to 20 Stars. It is a nice upgrade that allows Masters more control over which buff they would like active depending on the situation. However, the upgrade does not particularly change her performance ceiling substantially.
1Charlotte Corday: D+ -> D+ (Avg Score: 6.33) - 
2[NorseFTX - D+][Meliran - D+][Rathilal - D+]
Red Hare
Tier C > C+
Red Hare's skill ugprade now guarantees both the Ignore Invincible and Star Gather buffs. Additionally, it gives 15 Stars immediately, and another 15 Stars across 3 turns, improving the consistency of his ability to deal critical hits across turns.
1Red Hare: C -> C+ (Avg Score: 7.22) - 
2[NorseFTX - C+][Meliran - C][Rathilal - C+]
Tier List Change Log History
See the full tier list change log history here.