Thanks to the 1/2 AP campaigns this year I've made it to Babylonia without a lot of time invested in the game, but that's also meant I've not farmed a lot and some of my servants are lagging behind like Marie who is my only SR Rider (currently at 50 1/1/0).
My question right now is if I should still focus on ascending and leveling her for the future, or if there are better options and not waste time, exp, materials and QP on her.
If she's your only SR Rider atm, why not? Although if I were you I would've invested on Ushiwakamaru or Blackbeard early on. Since she's an SR, she would still be better than 3 stars on short skirmishes. Also, her mats are easier to farm. You can max her, level up her skills to lvl 4 then be done with it, wait for another better Rider.
I would recommemd raising Ushiwakamaru and Medusa/Alexander/Blackbeard for a ST and a AoE attacker that, no offense, deals actual damage. Marie is cute and gentle and has beautiful art, but she is one of THE worst Riders in the game. Ironically it is because she is an SR and not Silver and therefore harder to NP5, an NP5 could solve her bad attack and AoE NP but as she is sje is not good. But i use a grailed Boudica, arguably THE worst Rider in the game so i can't talk too much about it.
Marie is the cu of riders, great at surviving but not much attack. If you aren't in love with her, I second ushi and Medusa for 3 stars. Medusa became my favorite 3* AoE rider with the 20% battery (and because of Ana in Babylonia...so glad Ana came home 😊)
Kintoki rider reappears this year, don't miss out on him, amazing st rider
She's good for harder content and challenges, she is an amazing survival based unit. Like mentioned by peoples, raise Blackbeard or Medusa or Alexander first since you will use them more often compared to Marie.
Blackbeard is a lowstar Drake and he quite pack the punch.
Marie is great but her damage is pretty awful. Definitely raise her...just be aware that she's a backline servant, not a frontline servant.
I'm in the same boat as you---had no strong riders until about 5 months into the game. (And then I rolled Medb in the GSSR and Martha the day after that...and neither of them is exactly a powerhouse.)
I raised Ushiwakamaru and Alexander. Santa Alter, if you have her from the Christmas rerun, isn't a bad choice either.
Ushiwakamaru has great ST damage, a teamwide golden rule, and charisma. Plus a dodge. She's great for heart farming, so ascending her will be SOOOO worth it. She's also useful for wrecking bosses. NP5 Ushi > NP1 Medb, so she hits pretty hard too.
Alexander is more of a farming rider---charisma and teamwide quick up, plus flat stars on his NP. Medusa is similar but trades multiplicative buff stacking for a 20% NP charge and her trademark stun.
I like Alexander more...he crits quite often especially after his first NP, which gives you flat stars. His NP gain is pretty good in my experience too. Since his buffs last 3 turns, his hits a bit harder than Medusa, too.
Georgios is a tank. Boudica is pretty awful except for uber budget stall teams, and Blackbeard is the f2p Drake but much more fragile. Georgios is pretty niche and the others aren't worth investing in right now.
Definitely make marie level 80. Her materials are not rare to farm. Horseshoes and eternal gears at final ascension (which you can get from the current event though its ending soon.
Beautiful princess is great and she has clutched out boss fights for me against demon pillars and saved my ass. If you have the volumen CE, thats 6 attacks of invincibility.
When fighting demon pillars (who are weak to cavalry) and casters, she is wonderful as the last man standing. Her damage isn't that bad when she has class advantage. If you can, max her stats with fous too.
Short story, get marie to level 80. Wait for welfare kintoki rider to come out and make sure to get him as he is one of the top riders in the game.
Yes. Marie is a rider who is very good at remaining on the field and supports her allies with a team debuff cleanse on her NP. As you collect more SR Riders, you'll likely find that she is easily outclassed in damage by her competitors, but for the time being she will serve you quite well.
The Onigashima event is being rerun in a few months, which gives the welfare servant, Sakata Kintoki (Rider). He's easily the best ST Rider in the game right now, so long as you get him to NP5. I highly recommend grabbing him.
If resources are tight, (and let’s be honest they always are!) I would recommend saving mats for Rider Kintoki. With his first skill at max level, he can be an NP looping, star generating monster of a rider, and at NP 5 can out burst damage my Ozy. Him and Drake ( one of most popular riders in support lists ) are almost broken together with the amount of NP looping they can do. Best part is he is free and coming back. You do probably want to level Marie at some point, as she can be an immortal semi support, but her damage is abysmal, and unless you’re doing a stall team, she shouldn’t be the center of your team.
