Rabbit’s Reviews #449: Gray Lily (4* Lancer)

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The second of the two welfare options for the newest event, Lancer Gray Lily is a CQ-oriented single-target Buster unit. As I said in the Gray Lily Saber review, players have to choose which version of Gray to get, with Saber being an AoE Buster farmer, and Lancer being an ST Buster damage-dealer. Both are good options, and even though I do think Saber Gray is the more valuable unit overall (due to farming being more of the game, and a free CE-less Buster looper being hard to pass up), Lancer Gray actually has the better kit. She’s got great damage buffs, good ramp, good loop specs, and some nice utility on top of that. There are lots of good ST Lancers in the game already, but if you don’t have an ST Lancer you favor, you might consider snagging Lancer Gray as your welfare choice—she won’t let you down!
Gray (Lancer Lily)
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Gray has a rather defense-oriented stat spread, with low-ish attack and high-ish health for an SR Lancer. This isn’t a great starting point for a DPS, but she makes up for it elsewhere. Gray’s Arts card NP gain is just about standard for her deck, but her Quick card NP gain is quite good. Similarly, Gray’s active star gen is pretty solid, due to her two high-hit-count Quick cards.
Gray has the usual Magic Resistance for a small chance to avoid debuffs, as well as Independent Action for a mostly-trivial crit damage boost. She then gets two unique passives that boost her functional NP gain, one that gives 3% passive charge per turn, and one that slightly boosts Gray’s Quick card NP gain. Given that Gray already has high NP gain on her Quick cards, this is better than it might otherwise be. The two NP gain passives together don’t make a massive difference, but they might occasionally let Gray access an NP when she otherwise wouldn’t be able to, which is nice.
As Gray is a 30% charger, Mana Loading is her best append. Skill Reload also gives Gray a 100% guaranteed loop setup (the same one as her Saber version), but as an ST unit this isn’t all that important in most cases. As Gray is a Buster unit with limited in-kit crit buffs, the crit damage append is decent, but the other two appends don’t really matter.
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Gray is a welfare and thus functionally free to ascend, and she asks for mostly old mats for skills, so she should be pretty easy to invest in, if you’re so inclined. As a bit of trivia, both versions of Gray have the exact same mat asks.
Lancer Gray’s skillset is very similar to Saber Gray’s. It’s a bit better overall, by virtue of having an invuln and slightly higher steroids, but for the most part it will be the same story as for Saber Gray. Recommended skill order is 3>2>1.
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Seal Unleash is your typical 30% dual-card-type buff, affecting Gray’s Buster and Quick cards. This is actually nicer for Lancer Gray than it is for Saber Gray, as Lancer Gray has both better and more Quick cards and is more likely to actually be using those cards. Especially with this skill active, all of Gray’s cards are worth using, which is pretty nice! This skill also provides a hit-based invuln, which is always great for survival.
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Gravekeeper is a very nice damage buff, giving 20% NP damage and 20% attack up for 3 turns. Unlike Saber Gray’s version, this one also provides a 20% power mod against Undead and Servant enemies. Most dangerous enemies are Servants, so this will almost always be active when you need it. Power mod is the weaker form of niche damage, and 20% power mod is tiny—but when you consider that it’s almost always going to be active, and that Gray has very high steroids even without this, it’s hard to complain. This skill provides a ton of extra damage overall.
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Blessing of Chaldenia is a 30% battery that also gives 10% charge per turn. As with Saber Gray, this enables a CE-less loop setup even if Lancer Gray can’t use cards for some reason. This is less relevant to an ST unit than to an AoE unit, but it’s still nice. Aside from that, the skill provides a solid 2000 HP healing per turn to Gray herself, enough to more than make up for the Black Grail’s demerit, or to heal off incidental chip damage in a slowplay setup.
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Lancer Gray’s NP is much better than Saber Gray’s, targeting aside. This NP loses Saber Gray’s mostly-irrelevant supereffective modifier, but in exchange it picks up a ramping NP damage buff, which is a fantastic trade. The damage buff is only 10% at base, but it’s pre-cast and scales with overcharge, with takes Gray’s already-high steroids to silly high levels by turn 3.
As with Saber Gray’s NP, this removes defensive buffs before dealing damage, which is more likely to be relevant to Lancer Gray due to her CQ focus. It also inflicts buff block for a turn, letting Gray shut down any non-boxed buffs while she’s looping—and as with Saber Gray, it charges Gray’s NP gauge with each use, making it easier for Gray to loop. This is a really good NP overall.
Lancer Gray’s CE-less loop setup is exactly the same as Saber Gray’s. It uses a typical Koyan/Koyan/Oberon team, with Mana Loading and Skill Reload on Gray. On turn 1, you use all of Gray’s skills, both Koyans’ damage buffs, and one Koyan’s 50% battery. Gray NPs and gets 20% passive charge—10 from her battery and 10 from her NP. On turn 2, the other Koyan uses her 50% battery, which (with skill reload) brings all of Gray’s skills back off cooldown. Gray uses all her skills again, and her 30% battery brings her back to 100%, allowing her to NP. Gray gets 30% passive charge this time—20 from the two stacks of her battery, and 10 from her NP—at which point Oberon plugs in and uses all his skills to secure the loop.
The advantage of doing this is that it means Gray gets to loop even if you get really unlucky and draw all of her cards on turn 3… but it’s easy enough to reset to avoid such terrible luck that this is mostly just trivia. That said, this setup still maximizes three-turn damage, so you might find yourself choosing it for short fights. You can push damage even further by adding in a self-swap unit or two, with Crane and Liz of the End being great picks. Especially considering she’s automatically NP5, Gray is a great pick for quick CQ clears, especially if you’re fighting Lancers. As long as she’s looping, she also protects against annoying spammable buffs, which can make her a helpful option for single-target enemies who like to use defensive skills, or for foes who make use of huge crit buffs that lead to Servants getting one-shotted with cards.
Gray has enough consistency tools to be a solid pick for slowplay setups as well. She doesn’t provide party charge or party healing—the things that tend to be most impactful for Castoria stall setups—but she has high damage and a lot of self-sufficiency, so she’s not a bad pick for a Himiko/Castoria hard stall team. She’ll also perform well in classic Merlin/Mash teams, or really any other traditional Buster shell that makes use of the Servants you have available.
Gray has good loop specs, so there’s not a lot of reason not to run her with Black Grail. If you’re short on charge for some reason, you can give her a starting charge CE, but usually you’ll want BG to maximize her damage.
Gray is a Buster Servant with low in-kit crit buffs, so crit damage CCs are a natural pick here. Alternatively, you can put star gen CCs on Gray’s cards to help her crit a bit more consistently.
Lancers make good use of grails, and Gray is strong enough that giving her a pair of grails to take her to level 90 is probably a good investment. The more attack you give her, the better she’ll perform, so if you find yourself using her regularly, she’s a strong candidate for any grails you’re willing to throw her way.
Lancer Gray’s kit is solidly better than Saber Gray’s, with the big asterisk that being an AoE Buster unit who can loop without a CE has a lot of value. Gray is a really strong single-target Lancer, and while I’d say “strong single-target Lancer” is less rare than “CE-less Buster farmer,” Lancer Gray is absolutely not a bad choice, especially if you already have all your farming needs covered and don’t have a great Archer-killer. She has damage and utility both, and if you choose her and invest in her, she’ll serve you well.