MMM - Pellan Pretender Proliferates Peers, Pulling Plenty of Powerful Presents to Professor's Partners (Lord El-Melloi Rerun Gacha)

The Modern Magus Magazine

So, the New Year comes in with a nice, gentle start, by simply killing a meme. To be honest, I was somehow expecting it to be longer before we got a fellow Pretender to join Oberon in his class roster.

And Hephaestion is basically the most suitable canon Servant out there to fill in, so you’ll hear no complaints from me.

This is entirely tangential to the actual MMM, but El-Melloi Case Files is basically my favorite spin-off to the Fate series, encapsulating the cutthroat and intriguing environment of Magi that Clock Tower creates rather finely. And it also has Reines in it, which automatically earns bonus points. So watch it / read it / whatever you prefer when you get the chance. It has its own Seal of Approval from me.

Introduction

Boy, don’t you hate it when your boyfriend’s sister dresses up like you to redirect curses from you because the King of Conquerors has that much of a target on their head, but they still don’t like you as much as your totally-homo “best friend”?

Relatable.

Regardless of how amusing the lore setup to Hephaestion’s existence as a girl basically dragging the discount store Iskandar skillset is, having any extra Pretender in the game is nice. And her inclusion also ushers in some pretty nice NP buffs to Reines and Gray, which I’m frankly more excited for, somehow.

Servant Data

Pretender

QAABB (Saber)

Quick Card

Arts Card

Buster Card

3

5

4

Attribute	Earth
Alignment	Neutral Balanced

Stage 1
Stage 2
Stage 3
Stage 4

April Fool's

Max HP 11,168

HP Rank

Max ATK 9,879

ATK Rank

Base Atk	1,646	Base HP	1,786
Max Atk	9,879	Max HP	11,168
Grail Atk	11,961	Grail HP	13,541

Traits

Card Hits	3	3	3	5	4
Per Hit	0.59%	0.59%	0.59%	0.59%	0.59%

	NP per Hit (%)	0.59%
NP when Attacked (%)	3%

	Star Absorption	98
Star Generation per Hit	19.8%

Arts/Buster Up

He Too Is Iskandar (False) A

Increase own Arts Card effectiveness (3 turns).
Increase own Buster Card effectiveness (3 turns).
Gain Class Affinity advantage against [Caster] class (3 turns).

Show Info

Lvl	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
Arts +	20%	21%	22%	23%	24%	25%	26%	27%	28%	30%
Buster +	20%	21%	22%	23%	24%	25%	26%	27%	28%	30%
CD	8	8	8	8	8	7	7	7	7	6

For He is Also Iskandar (Fake) A is a somewhat confusing skill, at first glance, as Hephaestion is obviously not a man. But simply put, the quote is referring to Hephaestion’s brother, whom Hephaestion names herself after, since he’s the ‘real’ Hephaestion, but Hephaestion is pretending to be both him and Iskandar, so she’s not really being “also” Iskandar, but at the same time she is.

Makes sense, right?

Getting to the less-confusing gameplay of this skill, it’s your traditional dual-card buff skill, providing a 3-turn 30% Arts and Buster booster to the lady herself, as well as a spicy buff to grant her class advantage over Casters for the duration.

Boy, I wonder if there’s some Magus Killer guy who would appreciate a similar trait, but is instead having his flavor boned by arbitrary game mechanics. That’d be crazy, right?

Putting that aside, this skill provides some very plain but solid boons to Hephaestion - the Pretender class already thrives on its versatile class matchups at the cost of lesser damage output - being strong versus Sabers, Lancers, and Archers for 1.5x damage, but being able to convert one of her class’s normal resistances, Casters, into another strengths makes her offensively versatile without losing out on defense like Berserkers do.

Sure, it might only last for 3 turns, but I’d say nowadays the bulk of the damage you put out in any quest, CQ or no, happens in the first 3 turns. It’s hardly a bad thing to have at your disposal, even if it means taking a Pretender into a “disadvantageous” quest.

I feel an obligation, as usual, to point out that 8-turns base cooldown is a little harsh on a 3-turn card booster skill, but evidently the developers don’t agree.

Start Np

Rapid Words of Divine B

Increase own NP Gauge.

Show Info

Lvl	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
NP +	60%	66%	72%	78%	84%	90%	96%	102%	108%	120%
CD	9	9	9	9	9	8	8	8	8	7

Next up is my ancient friend, my nemesis, a sacrifice to the localization of our game, Rapid Words of Divine B. Ouch, that hurts to say even in writing.

The once-unique skill of Medea alone, it’s not unusual to see Greek magi figures have this skill, and Hephaestion fits the bill, I guess. High-Speed Divine Words is a skill that just oozes sauce, providing a mind-boggling 120% NP gauge at max skill level, a sum of NP gauge that is actually, legitimately, not in the game mechanic sense, overkill most of the time.

But I don’t think I have to tell you getting a free instant NP from 0% gauge is exceedingly good, do I? Nope, not at all. And funnily enough, this skill is even crazier than it first appears, since unlike, well, all other bearers of it, Hephaestion neither has an unnecessarily gimped NP damage modifier nor a lack of damage steroids in her kit (though I suppose Nitocris fixed that for herself, of late).

So she has the ability to NP instantly and with a modicum of might behind it, which isn’t to be underestimated. Sure, the skill does nothing else, but having the gauge charge power of two Skadis in your pocket is a pretty strong perk in itself. The skill cooldown is frankly fair for how much NP gauge gets spewed out, too, having a 9-turn cooldown at base.

Taunt

Nameless's Blessing EX

Apply Target Focus to self (1 turn).
Increase own DEF (1 turn).
Increase own NP Gain (1 turn).
Absorb Curse status effects from all allies except self [Demerit].

Show Info

Lvl	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
DEF +	30%	32%	34%	36%	38%	40%	42%	44%	46%	50%
NP Gain +	20%	21%	22%	23%	24%	25%	26%	27%	28%	30%
CD	7	7	7	7	7	6	6	6	6	5

Well, if there was a skill gimmick I could’ve Hephaestion would have in her kit, a Taunt+Curse absorption effect was definitely up there.

Unsigned Favor EX is a skill which aims to bolster Hephaestion’s flavor more so than her gameplay, but it can find some use regardless. This skill applies a Taunt, Defense buff, and NP Gain buff to Hephaestion for 1 turn, with particularly juicy numbers to it, at the ‘cost’ of moving all Curse debuffs on allies to her. Sure, it screws up Van Gough-chan’s Curse-stacking gimmick, but I’d wager the situations you’d want to bring her and Hephaestion on the same team number next-to-none.

So essentially this skill doubles up as a moderate refund boost to Hephaestion’s NP turn, as well as a situationally strong defensive tool, taking all attacks for the turn it’s used and (roughly) halving the damage Hephaestion takes from them. Not too powerful in the grand scheme of things, but it’s a nice piece of utility to have lying around. I get plenty of use out of Sanzang’s similar skill, for reference.

Noble Phantasm

Hecatic Wheel C+~A+

Deal damage to a single enemy.
Decrease Arts Resist for an enemy by 10% (3 turns).
Decrease Buster Resist for an enemy by 10% (3 turns).

<Overcharge>

Increase own NP Strength (1 turn) [Activates first].

Show Info/Video

Hecatic Wheel

Demonic Heavenly Wheel

	Rank	Classification	Hit-Count
	C+~A+	Anti-Army	4

Effect	Deal damage to a single enemy. Decrease Arts Resist for an enemy by 10% (3 turns). Decrease Buster Resist for an enemy by 10% (3 turns).

Level	1	2	3	4	5
Damage +	900%	1200%	1350%	1425%	1500%
Arts Res -	10%	10%	10%	10%	10%
Buster Res -	10%	10%	10%	10%	10%

Overcharge Effect	Increase own NP Strength (1 turn) [Activates first].

Charge	100%	200%	300%	400%	500%
NP Damage +	10%	20%	30%	40%	50%

Rounding off Hephaestion’s kit is Hecatic Wheel, everyone’s favorite, actual ripoff of the Gordius Wheel. Well, not truly a ripoff, as the chariot is actually the same as the Gordius Wheel, simply without the divine oxen pulling it.

In any case, this is an Arts ST NP with a good sum of sheer offensive effects backing it. Before dealing damage, Hephaestion gets a small 10% NP Power buff for a turn, scaling with overcharge. Then, after dealing damage she dumps a 10% Card Resistance debuff for both Arts and Buster cards on the target for 3 turns.

If it weren’t clear enough, this NP is aiming to gradually grind down a singular target, ideally. While the effects may provide a good offensive profile, there’s no real notable utility effects packed in - the whole thing is just raw damage. Not necessarily a bad focus, especially if you’re the first Permanent summon addition of your class. I’d rather have MHXX than Van Gough-chan if I could have only one Foreigner, after all. It’s good to be plain and forceful, in this case.

The real area to cover, knowing Hephaestion’s focusing on her Arts cards, is this NP’s damage output and refund.

On the refund front, Hephaestion pulls a respectable, if average sum of refund for an Arts ST NP. With her own buffs active it comes out to 13% refund, a little on the lower end if taking all of the more crazy Arts ST options in account, but certainly workable. If you toss in some standard double Castoria support into the fray she’s looking at 32.55% refund from her NP, which will get higher with possible overkill, her CE choice, and the Caster defensive NP gain modifier if you’re really putting her kit to the test, I suppose.

And it goes without saying, but Hephaestion would primarily be used in CQ’s, so there’s also the odds of just doing a NPAA chain and very easily getting back to 100% from the extra Arts cards in play.

But keeping on track, how does the damage pan out? Considering her skills themselves don’t provide much to amplify it, not too bad - with her own skills in play she’s pulling out 34.8k damage neutral, something in the grounds of average for a looping-centric ST NP, but not anything overwhelmingly powerful. Taking her into a more practical scenario with double Castoria support (and using a sweet, sweet 0% gauge CE since High-Speed Divine Words is a nutty skill), she’s doing a much more impressive 128k damage neutral, amplified even further if hitting any of her numerous class advantage targets (seriously, hitting Sabers, Archers, Lancers, Berserkers, Alter Egos, and Casters for class advantage is a pretty diverse spread). Once you factor in her reasonably good looping ability and she’s offensively fairly strong.

In fact, her High-Speed Divine Words alone probably makes her a strong candidate for the rare cases you need an easily subbed-in, high damage NP, or just a candidate to 3-turn loop a ST farming node (as uncommon as they tend to be). Having a freebie 120% gauge from the gates is, shockingly, a very potent trait to have around, and it tends to make 3-turn looping with a Black Grail much simpler than it is for her competitors.

Conclusion

So, how does Hephaestion fare in practice? On one hand, she’s built up steam and all ready to chug along:

As one of the few Pretenders implemented in the game, and the first that’s ST, Hephaestion gets an automatic bump for being an option for class advantage against Alter Egos that doesn’t come with any clean disadvantage. Using Oberon offensively comes with some issues, and while Kama has technically possessed the niche for a while, her class advantage being tied to a skill and not covering defensive class advantage does leave her a little vulnerable, especially as she is typically weak to Alter Egos. Simply put, she has the market cornered for the moment.

Even with supply and demand economics ignored, Hephaestion’s offensive profile is not bad at all. While her damage output may not be too impressive, she can compensate with her CE options due to how flexible High-Speed Divine Words makes her, and the standard double Castoria support lineup tends to compensate for her offensive shortcomings more than enough.

Hephaestion is notable for having one of the broadest class advantage repertoires available. While it doesn’t mean much from a farming sense, as her NP isn’t AOE, it does make her particularly versatile when you need a ST damage dealer, capable of getting class advantage on 5 classes, as well as Berserker like basically everyone else, 4 of which are very common. And even then, Alter Ego is like, the 2nd most common Extra class after Ruler, maybe tied with Avenger.

However, she can also find herself rapidly derailed when she hits a bend:

While Unsigned Favor is technically something in that area, Hephaestion is otherwise very…plain in terms of what she brings to a team. Her entire kit is leant toward NP’ing quickly, and dishing out damage, which is certainly respectable, but leaves her with very little to stand on if another competing Servant creeps ahead of her in the damage numbers, when other Servants can lean on fun gimmicks or rare utility effects. While that Taunt+Def buff of hers is nice, it isn’t going to make her a premier pick over the competitor with a bigger impact.

I may have glossed over this subject for Oberon since he’s more a support than an offensive presence for a Pretender, but Hephaestion shares the eternal conundrum of Alter Egos - why use the versatile, singular Servant with 1.5x class advantage when you can very easily raise multiple Servants with 2x class advantage, some of them even Welfares, to tackle each class individually? The virtuoso path may be useful for starting players lacking in resources, but when you have a broad Servant pool, the number of situations Hephaestion will be the optimal choice versus Kagetora for an Archer, or Summer Hokusai for a Lancer is going to be few.

So far as the real, permanent introduction to the Pretender class goes, not cursed by the despair of a limited banner or the SSR pull rate, Hephaestion is far from a bad start. She’s simplistic, sure, but simplicity is her weapon to bear like a sword and cut the knot of this game’s rock-paper-scissors class triangles, paving way to an actual option to handle Alter Egos.

Being a looping-focused Arts ST Servant with a very clean, damage-focused kit and a nutty gauge charger certainly helps in that, but she honestly could’ve distributed some of the raw offensive power in her kit into more generalistic supportive or utility effects and she would’ve accomplished the same effect - you wanna take down an Alter Ego? Bring Hephaestion. You wanna bring down any of the 7 OG classes except Rider or Assassin? Hey, she can do that too. In fact, she’s a rather convenient tool for the lazy player in us all that hates swapping around team formations to match class advantage, though Berserkers still do it better.

So yes, she’s very solid, if not anything to write home about. Just the fact she can pop up randomly in your pulls in the future to fill out your class options sells her better than most of her actual gameplay power, so it’s very good to have her around. Rath™ Seal of Approval.

Outro

The thing they don’t tell you when I write MMM’s about any Foreigner-Alter Ego-Pretender triangle Servant is I have to constantly double-check the class advantage between the three, since I keep getting it wrong. But I was prudent…this time.

I suppose since it isn’t in my tradition to dedicate whole sections to Servant buffs, I will just add that the buffs to Reines and Gray both are fairly impactful for them - I believe Gray’s 10% gauge charger post-NP theoretically allows her to NP loop now (Kaleido+Mana Loading, double Koyanskaya of Light into Oberon battlesuit swap just barely gets her there), which is a solid win for the welfare Assassin farming meta. Kiichi Hogen worked but…well, Quick farming can be annoying depending on your offensive option.

And Reines is now essentially a competitor to all NP refund-based farm loops, and in some situations is actually superior to Skadi (at least, I believe if damage output can be sacrificed a little, Skadi+Reines is now better than double Skadi). And I’m all for evening out the SSR support balance a little more.

…So, when is Merlin getting that Hero Creation strengthening, huh?

~~I’m not even kidding, he could kind of do with another gauge charger.~~

Links

Rathilal's MMMs - Archive

Search

MMM - Pellan Pretender Proliferates Peers, Pulling Plenty of Powerful Presents to Professor's Partners (Lord El-Melloi Rerun Gacha)

The Modern Magus Magazine

QAABB (Saber)

Quick Card

Arts Card

Arts Card

Buster Card

Buster Card

Traits

Tags

Arts/Buster Up

Start Np

Taunt

Hecatic Wheel

Outro

Links

About the Author(s)

Comments

Latest Content