GamePress

MMM - Diminutive Draconic Dame Dances Dirks, Doubly-Dressed Dragoon Delivers Divine Demitasse (LB6 Gacha Part 2)

Submit Feedback or Error
Article by GamepressRath
MMM Lostbelt 6 P2

The Modern Magus Magazine

Hello everyone. This is the CEO of MMM ㋏ corporation,MMMaki Rathigo. Thank you for supporting and enjoying my works. Now as you’ve all been anticipating, we have a second gacha for LB6, with multiple new talents to examine. As for how good they are…

Sou desu ne.

Lostbelt 6 Banner 3
NA Release Date: 6/20/2023

Fae Knight Lancelot (Melusine)

Introduction

For some reason it feels like an eternity since we’ve gotten a ‘real’ loli Servant, but in reality it’s only been since Ibuki-douji. I just use her onee-san form so much I’ve forgotten she’s also packing the opposite end of the spectrum.

While it may be kind of spoilery to do so, I’m just going to refer to this Fae Knight by her true name, much like before. Melusine definitely has a lot more plot related to her identity than the other Fae Knights, but I’m just glad there’s a true name which is easier to type than Barghest or Baobhan Sidhe. Speaking of vampires, I can’t bring myself to shorten her name to Mel, it’d cause too much confusion.

...and she might get banned.

Servant Data
Lancer
Magic Resistance B

Increase your Debuff Resist by 17.5%.

Territory Creation B+

Increase your Arts Card effectiveness by 9%.

Overview

As almost seems tradition, Melusine joins the new SSR Lancers in their habit of powercreeping Karna’s statline. With the 3rd best attack and 4th worst HP of her class rarity’s lineup, Melusine establishes herself with a strong setup of base stats, packing some respectable offensive power but maintaining a fairly chunky health pool at the same time. Offensively she’s entirely kosher, and that’s primarily what matters.

Moving on to passives, Melusine is in a simpler but equally solid situation. Her B-rank Magic Resistance is fairly handy for shrugging off debuffs in more crucial situations, but more importantly her B+ Territory Creation gives her a notable 9% Arts Booster, enhancing her primary card type of Arts cards.

...you guys hear something? Must just be me.

NP Generation
Servant Skills
Noble Phantasm
Conclusion

So with all said and done, how is Melusine in practice? Well, one one hand, she’s a dragonheart in all possible meanings of the word:

So far as Arts ST spammers go, Melusine is definitely in the upper end of those out there. Her main perks can pretty much be surmised as consistency and longevity - unlike Kagetora and some others she isn’t reliant on 1-turn buffs or even skills in general to net her 3-turn loop, with her two sources of increased NP gain being a passive and tied to her NP itself. Add in the 3-turn offensive buff and a gauge charger and she’s more than capable of being a staple for ST Arts offense, provided she has the double Casturia to back her up.

Defensively Melusine has a very solid backing. Her base HP isn’t bad, but it’s also bolstered by her Max HP buff off of Dragonheart, which combined with the damage cut gives her a solid buffer of defense to handle regular attacks. In the meanwhile, she has the Invincible buff tied to Ray Horizon for emergencies where her supports can’t cover her.

As it stands, unless you count Chen Gong / Arash killing off someone else / themselves respectively in the frontline to bring in an alternative Servant, Melusine is the only Servant out there who can provide both ST and AOE NP damage in a single quest, albeit with some limitations. There have been multiple 90+ farming nodes thus far (and, I expect, in the future) which have been composed of 1 enemy wave 1, 1 or 2 enemies wave 2, and 2+ enemies wave 3. Melusine is practically built for such nodes, able to out single enemies with her Arts NP spam and chain damage, then swap to her Buster AOE form for the large wave at the end.

However, she’s also got no legs to stand on:

Melusine’s NP damage output in either of her NP modes is pretty mediocre, but especially her Buster form when you’ve got her 2 frontline support options locked on being Casturia. Without the aid of an event damage CE in proper event quest farming she’s unlikely to meet damage thresholds in higher level nodes, and even then farming with a limitation on her CE might be rough. It won’t matter as much for her CQ performance since her Arts NP output is passable with how spammable it is, but it will impact her effectiveness in farming.

As much as I’d like to tout the ability to proverbially “just” ignore her 3rd skill and play Melusine like an Arts ST Servant all the time in challenging content, being forced to ignore her 3rd skill to keep her in Arts form essentially means she’s one skill down all the time when in Arts teams, outside of emergencies or very niche strategies. Now the two skills she does have there are pretty powerful for what it’s worth, but it’s a drawback nonetheless.

Melusine represents a breach into new territory for DW, and I don’t mean the Arts-boosting skill. Ever since FGO first came out I’d always speculated what they would do for Servants with multiple NP’s, especially those whom we couldn’t really imagine having certain NP’s in other classes (for Riders particularly, it presents an issue). While we got plenty of Servants who had some of their NP’s condensed into skills, the actual idea of having multiple NP’s available on one Servant stuck in my mind.
And so here we are. Melusine is, frankly, a very cautious approach at the idea. Outside of niche circumstances, the swap from Arts ST spam god to generic noodle Buster AOE is no doubt a nerf, but that’s why the 100% gauge charge is there to incentivise it. And as a result Melusine ends up as a very unique but promising Servant, at least in terms of the future for FGO.

After all, they made entirely new interface changes just for Melusine, it’d be a shame to waste them, right?

Case in point, Melusine is a combination of a solid Arts ST looper and a very niche farming option that might be able to secure super-optimal farming compositions in the future. While she isn’t blowing benchmarks out the water, she does play to meta quite well, and presents a fine addition to my collection of farming Servants I’ll forget to use when they actually become relevant. Rath™ Seal of Approval

With Oberon and Koyansaka's release, a reassessment for Melusine has been made and can be found here: MMM: Lostbelt 6 Finale

Percival

Introduction

I’m glad we can finally welcome another big name of the Round Table to the gang. And even better, he’s “The Mentally Stable One”, which in itself is worrisome that being mentally secure is notable. In some interpretations “not being taught in the ways of men” until he was 15 meant he was raised as a girl, but with how jacked he is I don’t think FGO follows that interpretation.

...I wanted to see him in a dress.

Servant Data
Lancer
Magic Resistance B++

Increase your Debuff Resist by 18.5%.

Riding C+

Increase your Quick Card effectiveness by 7%.

Overview

With how many 4* Lancers there are out there, comparing Percival’s base stats is a little more burdensome than normal. In any case, he has the exact same statline as Summer Raiko, with the tied 9th best Attack stat and tied 8th best HP stat of his class and rarity pool. Or to put it in other words, he’s very middle-of-the-road. His HP isn’t completely dumped in exchange for attack, but conversely attack pays off a lot more due to the Lancer class’s 1.05x attack modifier.

So while he’s not in a poor position for his bases there, he could certainly do better.

Following on from that, Percival has a modest package in his passives. His B++ Magic Resistance is extra as hell, but does produce some reliable resistance to debuffs for when that becomes relevant. And putting that aside, his only other passive is C+ Riding, giving him a humble 7% Quick booster for his sole Quick card. No real help from his passive lineup, in other words.

NP Generation
Servant Skills
Noble Phantasm
Conclusion

With everything said and done? How is our veritable Disney Princess in himbo form? On one hand, his lance is some bloody good drip:

The man is a farming machine. It’s not very often you get Servants who can get over 100% gauge refund from their NP without excessive setup, and those who can tend to be pretty useful farmers (Summer Musashi for one is a prime example). Percival has a gauge charger on top of that, and deals very respectable damage when you orient his composition for it.

While there are plenty of means to be helpful or unhelpful as secondary support in a team composition, providing HP sustain to teams which are pretty much undoubtedly going to running double Casturia is one of them. Not only can Percival draw regular attack fire to himself and aid his NP spam in the process, but he’s recovering a chunk of HP with each NP, more or less fuelling his own defensive engine. His targeted Invincible buff is another layer to this, providing an emergency option to soak a ST NP or just cover an ally who would be left vulnerable to an AOE.

But on the other hand, he can sometimes fail to read the room:

I’ll admit this is almost nitpicky, but Percival’s poor NP gain on regular cards can run him risk of becoming a beached whale should his buffs and NP gauge run dry in CQ scenarios. There’s going to be times where 4-5 successive NP’s aren’t going to automatically win a fight, and following that Percival is gonna have to depend on his poor Arts card gain to build his next NP, or wait for gauge charger skills to come up. But it’s still a flaw to deal with.

Honestly it feels like a true rarity that we run into a gacha SR who is positioned to become royalty in farming. Helena has her days in the sun, sure. Lanling is a decent choice for battlesuit options in Arts looping, and there are a handful of SR’s who can fill out an AOE looper position, but none of them have really felt so decidedly competent as Percival to me.

He has a gauge charger, he refunds for an absurd sum of gauge, he does sufficient damage to farm the nodes you’d reasonably throw him at, and he even has enough utility in his kit to offer something in CQ’s. Realistically, especially if you manage to get additional NP levels on him, you shouldn’t need any other AOE Lancer in your life for farming or CQ purposes.

Now naturally, I’m a Karna fanboy, so I reject that reality and substitute it with my own where a Buster AOE with a 25% gauge charger is playable, but we’re all allowed our delusions.

Percival is absolutely incredible for farming purposes and useful for CQ’s, making him a highly desirable Servant. Rath™ Seal of Approval, with a recommendation.

Outro

Boy, Nasu really does outdo himself with every new story chapter. We went from a halfway point between main story scenarios with EoR, to splitting a story chapter in half, to dividing one into thirds. I personally can’t wait for LB7.14159265359 Birth By Sleep - A Realm Reborn with New Funky Mode featuring ORT from the Tsukihime series.

But all joking aside, there’s going to be a third gacha, and that simply means more work for me before inevitably getting swamped by the Summer Event. Fun, fun fun. See you all then.

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

About the Author(s)

Comments