GamePress

MMM - Bootylicious Bounty Hunters Bounce Beyond Celestial Bodies, Bopping Baddies (Saber Wars II Gacha)

Submit Feedback or Error

The Modern Magus Magazine

Greetings, one and all, from the outermost reaches of the Universe! You Core World folks may not know what life on the Outer Rim is like, but boy can I promise you this - It’s far more than Bantha farming and scrap scavenging. Once in a while, we get one of ‘em fancy gachas in our humble game of FGO, and, once in a blue moon, even a welfare servant.

Ma’ says last time we got a welfare, Hokusai was a master swordsman and a little girl! Sounds outlandish, though I have no idea what the heck a Hokusai is.

At any rate, the most rootin’ tootin’, point ‘n shootin’ gunslingers in this part ‘o the Outer Rim are ready to bustle on into yer Chaldea - just got one thing to ask ‘bout ‘em, though…

Why aren’t they the Gunner class?

Space Ishtar and Calamity Jane Summon Banner
NA Release Date: 10/18/2021

Space Ishtar

Introduction

Being honest, the trend of a gag servant suddenly becoming an eldritch god is so overused by now I actually saw this coming. So instead she’s not only Ishtar, but also Astarte (Combined form of Fertility Goddesses) and Astaroth (One of the highest ranked demons from the Ars Goetia, and also by association a Demon Pillar). I like it when Nasuverse actually implements linguistic history into their servants, though. Anyways, servant analysis, stay on track, Rath!

Servant Data
Avenger
Magic Resistance C

Increase your Debuff Resist by 15%.

Independent Action C

Increase your Critical Strength by 6%.

Core of the Goddess A++

Apply Damage Plus (Total Card Damage +270).
Increase Debuff Resist for yourself by 27%.

Avenger EX

Increase NP Gain when damaged by 22%.
Decrease Debuff Resist for all allies (including sub-members),
except yourself by 12%. [Demerit]

Oblivion Correction A

Increase your Critical Strength by 10%.

Self-Restoration (Magical Energy) B

Increase NP Gauge each turn by 3.5% for yourself.

Overview

Being an Avenger, Space Ishtar packs pretty much what you’d expect from the class - high base attack, albeit barely the lowest of the SSR Avengers, poor star weight, amazing defensive NP gain, awful HP-wait.

Why do I see a “13” in front of her HP stat? Surely she knows as an avenger that’s illegal? At any rate, her HP somehow manages to be “Below average” rather than “Painstakingly low” for once, despite not losing too much attack in comparison to her fellow Avengers for it. Surely she packs some other weaknesses in exchange for not dying to a mild breeze?

NP Generation
Servant Skills
Noble Phantasm
Conclusion

Well, I kind of got carried away, but if you fell asleep reading me talk about looping numbers, or simply skipped to the end, then here’s the bit where I say the good stuff and the bad:

Space Ishtar simply hits hard in general. With her Avenger attack, 3-turn buffs on all sides of the Holy Trinity of Atk up, NP dmg up, and Card Up, on top of her very high Divinity and passive critical damage, she’s got a lot going for her in the offensive department. God protect those who receive her NPBB crit chain, because I know at least one Goddess won’t.

Her durability, uh, isn’t bad? It feels weird wording this as a plus, but it feels necessary when most servants who pack monstrous offense like other Avengers or Beserkers like to die themselves just as much. Space Ishtar has a decent HP stat and an Invuln skill on a short cooldown, so she can actually live NPs and may not die to a stray Buster crit. Her high passive debuff resistance on top of that means she won’t get locked down by Stuns or Charms too easily, either. Huzzah for her?

NP looping. While not the best option available for Arts NP looping, she can still do it with a budget composition, and is capable of looping on even Berserker and Assassin targets with the right setup. Naturally, this works for both 3-turn farming and challenge quests, so she can cover both fronts if need be.

This is the part with the bad stuff, as is custom:

While I did go ahead and praise her potential damage with Buster crit chains, Ishtar is still an Avenger with no star focus skills and mediocre stargen, so it isn’t going to happen without copious support from her team. She doesn’t tend to focus on that aspect, however, so it’s more like a loss of a neat extra instead of a crippling weakness to the foundation of her kit.

When she isn’t using her gauge charger and NP refund to NP constantly, her NP gain isn’t spectacular. While I did establish that it’s better than it seems, it was only to prove she’s about even with Proto Arthur, who isn’t exactly Cleopatra or anything himself. Getting Space Ishtar to full gauge from 0% without using some cheesy strats involving robots and the Poster Girl CE is going to need a couple of Arts chains, which isn’t the most reliable means of building a NP gauge. But hey, at least she gets a full gauge from being Sanzang NP’d with Divine Banquet as her CE. Isn’t that cool?

So on the whole, Space Ishtar is a servant which manages to accentuate the good points of the Avenger class without succumbing too hard to its drawbacks - she has some blistering offense that can be put to good use through class neutral AOE loops, if she so wishes to end someone’s career in a Brave Chain with her really cool Extra card animation she can, and she accomplishes without needing a friendly neighborhood Merlin or Skadi to protect her every NP. Which, in turn, makes her an excellent fit for Arts teams who lack such support.

While she may not have any ground-breaking niches or amazing unique supportive options, she aims to be a powerful universal Arts farmer with strong offense for more difficult quests, and she accomplishes it with bonus style points. She is, for all intents and purposes, pretty neat. Rath™ Seal of Approval.

Calamity Jane

Introduction

Hustling into our purview with an outfit as spacey as her enunciation in her voice lines, Jane somehow manages to feel less like an Eiyuu Senki* character the more I use her. Which is a good thing. And don’t search for Eiyuu Senki* at work, for the record.

Servant Data
Archer
Magic Resistance C

Increase your Debuff Resist by 15%.

Riding A

Increase your Quick Card effectiveness by 10%.

Presence Concealment A

Increase your Critical Star Drop Rate by 10%.

Independent Action A+

Increase your Critical Strength by 11%.

Overview

In something of a shock for what is, essentially, a modern-era servant, Jane actually has a good base statline, with identical attack to EMIYA Alter, but more HP. While that still places her on the lower end of attack stat for 4* Archers, she’s at least getting a fair sum of HP out of the deal, actually having the highest HP of any 4* Archer. Despite Atalanta having far less attack. Give my catgirl some more strengthenings, please.

Jane, joining in the same gacha as Space Ishtar, seems to have been infected with her excessive passives, though thankfully not to the same degree. Her Magic Resistance gives her some extra safeguards against debuffs, but the real point of Interest is her Riding, Presence Concealment and Independent Action, increasing her Quick card damage and star generation, then giving her some extra oomph for when she comes to spend those crit stars.

While Independent Action is a given for an Archer, the high-ranking Riding and Presence Concealment really helps Jane out a lot, increasing her overall stargen in a chain using both her Quicks by about 17.5% or so. Naturally, the damage increase to her main card type also helps.

NP Generation
Servant Skills
Noble Phantasm
Conclusion

So how is Jane, now that I’ve gotten bored with breaking my usual format from Space Ishtar’s conclusion? On one hand, she’s a hot shot and rocking the world as we know it:

For a mostly offense-based Archer, Jane has some surprising supportive utility. She can provide some weak defensive support from Destruction Construction, has a team Charisma, a gauge drain, a team gauge charge, and can provide some pretty powerful targeted buffs with the right team environment.

Jane’s own offensive prowess is nothing to scoff at. With her passives boosting her damage a fair way, on top of her own offensive buffs, she can do some pretty good crit chains provided she has at least 20 stars on the turn. Adding in her reasonable NP damage and the further increased damage output from its debuffs, and she has some respectable damage output both with and without her NP.

Not only does she have some supportive tools, but she has some rare ones, too. While she has to step through some rings to do so, targeted star focus and targeted Invincible Pierce are rarities for supports, then again on the same support. There are a number of more-difficult quests where it may be worthwhile just keeping Jane around with LB Golden Koi to plugsuit swap into a quest and dump some handy buffs on a main damage servant. Worth bearing in mind, at the least.

On the other hand, she may be better off cheering on the sidelines:

Short of hitting the requirements for her 3rd skill’s Evasion effect, Jane isn’t the most durable, and her weak attack debuff won’t save her from a NP. Most Archers around tend to have some sort of safety net durability skill to their name, but Jane is definitely lacking in that area.

While Jane’s damage isn’t underwhelming, it certainly doesn’t beat any existing Archers in consistency or sheer might. If you want to use her over other Archers, it will most likely be for her unique supportive moveset, rather than her individual potential as a damage dealer. As such, it’s almost like her NP and personal damage potential are...an accessory of sorts.

Lastly, and probably the most simple. Her kit relies a lot on generating stars - she’s not amazing at generating stars. To hit, at the very least, the 40 star and 50 star buffs on her 3rd skill will require some form of team support, or sacrificing your Mystic Code choice for the Saber Outfit. Which is, unfortunately, Buster-focused. Not exactly convenient, to say the least.

In conclusion, Calamity Jane is certainly a calamity, though both to herself and her foes. Speaking in real terms, her own potential as a critical damage dealer or ST NP Archer, or Skadi-looping Quick monster isn’t better than anything already around, even among welfares, which leaves her seeking a niche she can fulfil. While she isn’t going to break the support meta with her skill set, it isn’t wrong to say that Jane has a plethora of handy supportive buffs that can both aid herself and an ally, should she so desire.

While said supportive potential won’t shine in most content existing in the game, it does exist, and allows her to reach a role which would otherwise necessitate 2 existing SSR servants (Holmes and Brynhildr) to reach the same result. As such, I would say she has enough of a niche to be considered a worthwhile servant. Maybe the jab about being a cheerleader wasn’t so inaccurate. Rath™ Seal of Approval, provided her supportive ability can be properly used in the future.

Final Conclusion

So, we still yet lack any kind of welfare for this event, there’s not a single spooky creature in sight, and nobody has yet explained why OG Saber is the only person with an Artorium rate up in this event. Am I going insane? Have DW forgotten their Halloween spirit? Am I just glad I only have two servants to review for this MMM? Will I ever stop asking questions that I imply the audience already knows the answer to?

Find out, next time, where I have no idea what event or gacha will be next!

Enjoyed the article?
Consider supporting GamePress and the author of this article by joining GamePress Boost!
Join!

About the Author(s)