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MMM - Temperate Temptress Turns Away Tempering Tincture, Tianshui Thaumaturge Typically Turbulent (Summer 2020 Part 2)

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Article by GamepressRath
MMM Summer 5 Part 2

The Modern Magus Magazine

You know an event is weird when the biggest twist is that Kiara ISN’T the villain. And this is the second time they’ve done it. At this point I feel like Nasu has given a directive to groom Kiara as some sort of Vegeta-type character (well, a much more sexy Vegeta) to cultivate her return in the inevitable CCC remake, with the Extra remake in progress.

And as you’d expect from a mess of a horror movie / mystery mix event, the “There was a second camp identical to the first!” twist is solid but pretty expected.

At any rate, we have a welfare and three more Servants to go over, so let’s get to it.

NA Release Date: 08/2022

Yu Miaoyi (Summer)

Introduction

Ah yes, our immortal death flag meatshield. Truly the only thing better than a Lancer is a Lancer who uses their terrible luck to bite the bullets meant for you. We shan’t forget your service, paisen.

Servant Data
Lancer
Max HP 11,245
HP Rank
Max ATK 9,896
ATK Rank
Base Atk1,649Base HP1,799
Max Atk 9,896 Max HP 11,245
Grail Atk 11,982 Grail HP 13,634
Magic Resistance B

Increase your Debuff Resist by 17.5%.

Overview

Yu takes the approach I think any player can appreciate with an offense-focused Servant, and just slides the Attack bar aaaaaallll the way to the top. Who needs HP anyway? The only hit point that matters is the last one, after all. To that point, Yu has the tied 2nd highest attack of any 4* Lancer (because Lancer Alter is, as always, very dumb), in exchange for the lowest HP. While you can wish for a better stat total on the whole, I wouldn’t look a gift horse in the mouth.

In the way of passives...Yu really doesn’t have any. The standard Magic Resistance for her class, giving her a solid chance of shrugging off debuffs passively, but that’s it. I guess Riding isn’t suited for her, despite having a horse-man to, uh...actually, I won’t go in that direction. Imagining anything involving Xiang Yu’s...size is going to put my head in a bad space.

NP Generation
Servant Skills
Noble Phantasm
Conclusion

So how does Yu shape up in her Summer form? Well I can tell you now, she’s much better than her vanilla edition:

Yu has pretty good critical damage offense for Quick ST. With Dance of the Day’s great critical damage boost, on top of the small Quick buff it brings, she can bring the pain, provided she has stars provided for her. With double Skadi, she can probably do this just throwing her NP out then spending the next turn reaping the rewards, but a couple of 2030’s never hurt anyone. And following the natural benefits of being a Quick crit damage dealer, her crits feed into her NP, her NP feeds into her stars, then her stars feed into her crits. It’s a very neat vicious cycle directed solely at the enemy.

Tied in with her critical damage, Yu has solid looping power. A NPQA chain from her will more or less get 50% gauge refund under double Skadi even without crits, which makes her offensive power as unrelenting as it is strong. Without the power of Skadi Quick steroids, she may struggle a bit, however. Still, she plays to the advantage of her card type, even moreso if she has the fortune of fighting on Water or Sun nodes.

She has a defensive option and the possible utility of a taunt skill. While not the most overwhelming support option available, being able to eat a ST NP for the team and live it is still something. And that aside, the cooldown on her Guts means the odds of her cooldowns lining up to pull it off is pretty high.

Then again, she’s still got some aspects of her joke of a vanilla version:

While having the welfare NP5 is still good, Yu’s offense pales compared to that of her direct welfare competitors. Nagao Kagetora has a harder-hitting NP, compatibility with, admittedly, a more powerful support in Casturia, and much stronger tools for challenge quest scenarios, on top of her superior looping. While going for a Quick option can still have its benefits, assuming your support for both card types is even, there’s rarely a reason to opt for Yu when Kagetora is around.

While it feels like I’ve repeated myself to death with this recently, Yu is an all-around solid servant whose drawbacks get pretty much carried by her NP5. While her competition from Kagetora is pretty stiff, she makes a vicious crit damage Lancer with Skadi support, and her offensive output surpasses Kagetora’s if she happens to be spearing a man. To that end, she’s a good welfare to keep in the back pocket if you have Skadi and not Casturia, or just never got Kagetora to begin with. Rath™ Seal of Approval.

Abigail Williams (Summer)

Introduction

Imagine getting a Summer alt and using it to...not really be an Alt. I know BB pulled the same thing, but lore-wise, she can really only be a Mooncancer without straight up saying she got the full power Domina Coronam or something.

At any rate, behold the power of a girl whose official art violates reddit community guidelines. And now I realize I can’t joke about that anymore without inevitably angering someone. So, I’ll just cover the stuff that doesn’t involve a loli in a mini-bikini.

Servant Data
Foreigner
Max HP 14,250
HP Rank
Max ATK 11,781
ATK Rank
Base Atk1,820Base HP2,090
Max Atk 11,781 Max HP 14,250
Grail Atk 12,896 Grail HP 15,611
Entity of the Outer Realm EX

Gain 2 Critical Stars per turn.
Increase your Debuff Resist by 12%.

Insanity B+

Increase your Buster Card effectiveness by 9%.

Divinity B+

Apply Damage Plus for yourself (Total Card Damage +185).

Overview

You know, I just realized Abigail Summer presents a golden opportunity, as she is (in so far as I know) the first alt to be the exact same class and rarity as their original while being essentially the same character. Meaning, we can see with Abbie’s new stat spread how much DW “values” attack over HP when balancing Servant stats.

Abigail Summer has 480 more HP over her regular form, in exchange for 319 less attack. Rounding that to 320, 480/320 = 1.5. Look at that, we officially know now that DW balances servant base stats assuming 1 attack is worth 1.5 HP.

Putting that aside, Abbie Summer lies on the more defensive end of the Foreigner class, packing pretty solid bulk but an attack stat that would only be impressive on a Rider or Assassin. Unfortunately, she has higher standards to be held to, but she’s offensively far from a dead weight, and comes paired with decent durability as a bonus.

So far as Passives go, Abbie Summer is frankly almost identical to her vanilla version. She literally just has an extra plus on her Insanity and Divinity rankings. But putting comparisons aside, passive 2 stars per turn is pretty handy to have around, as is some debuff resistance, even if minute. Adding in the notable damage boost to her primary card type from Insanity and what little modicum of a boost Divinity offers, and it’s not a bad haul. No overwhelming, game changing passives, but she’s packing a neat little set there.

NP Generation
Servant Skills
Noble Phantasm
Conclusion

So, how frighteningly forceful is Abbie? On one hand, she’s a horror beyond our comprehension (in a good way):

Debilitating effects like Abbie’s Sleep and Stun can be fairly useful, and with her Debuff Success rate up buff, she can land them consistently. There may be time in the future similar to the Nobu/Jaguarman/Summer Jeanne challenge quest where focusing down one Servant at a time instead of AOE’ing is important, and Abbie plays to that scenario quite well, being able to lock down a single target for multiple turns with consistency, on top of her Terror debuff being able to steal a turn at some undetermined moment in the future.

Abbie uh, has a gauge charger. This may sound like picking for straws, but it does mean she can roll with a LB Kaleido and do 3-turn farming with Battlesuit and 3 50% gauge charger supports. It’s just...her damage is probably too lacking. Especially on Wave 1, where she can’t benefit from the supports’ offensive buffs (outside of Skadi’s, or using LB Kaleido on Waver/Casturia/Reines, too) and as a result deals pitiful damage, unless it’s a Berserker node. Wait, this is a positive point. Let me rephrase. She’s good at 3-turn looping...only on Berserker (or, pfft, Foreigner) farming nodes. It’s a thing. She can do it. Give her headpats for it.

However, she’s more of a horror within our comprehension (that’s a bad way):

For an AOE servant, her damage is just bad. Even putting her Foreigner class aside, her kit feels built for a ST Servant instead, with both Sleep’s mechanics being better suited to not having your NP just automatically wipe it off, as well as her biggest offensive steroids being single target. With the Foreigner issues added in...well, you know release Amakusa? Yeah, basically that.

With all the funky mechanics, it’s easy to miss that outside of those stun buttons, Abbie has no defensive options for herself. While being a Buster-focused Servant means you just have to cry for papa Merlin and he’ll sort you out, it still limits her options for deployment if you don’t want her to crumple to the first NP she eventually faces.

It’s funny how you don’t realize what you had until something worse is put before you. OG Abbie may have been a little niche, with some NP gain issues and an eclectic kit, but she at least had that niche of ripping through Berserkers and cheese, and did it well. Abbie Summer is like what happens if you take her original form and slice it in half, then stitch an AOE Servant together with the remainder. She’s part OG Abbie, but OG Abbie was about ruining a single boss’s day and doing it well. Abbie Summer essentially tries to be a farmer and fails miserably, then tries to be a niche CQ Servant and very literally shoots her main gimmick in the foot. I frankly wouldn’t know how to fix her even if I had the power. Truly a Lovecraftian horror.

Archer (Saber) of Inferno (Summer)

Introduction

Yes, we all know, it’s a Beat Saber reference. It’s almost a shame her NP always remains in the VR Gamer aesthetic, since her ascension outfits are damn fine. And yes, I’m aware the name of Inferno’s Summer form is dumb, but I’d also say the EoR’s insistence on having pseudonyms for Servants where it doesn’t really matter is also dumb.

Servant Data
Saber
Magic Resistance A

Increase your Debuff Resist by 20%.

Riding B+

Increase your Quick Card effectiveness by 9%.

Overview

You know, I still don’t really know by what metric DW decides which Servants should have a higher or lower base stat total than each other. Since Archer of Inferno’s vanilla form has a relatively low base stat total, but her Summer form...it’s pretty chunky.

Inferno Summer’s Saber form has very average attack for her rarity, at 8th best / 9th worst. While that doesn’t mean it’s unservicably low, she compensates with high HP for her attack, having the 5th highest of the SR Sabers. While, as always, we’d prefer a monstrous attack stat over simply unexpectedly good bulk, you can’t turn down better stats, even if it’s better in the way you don’t want.

So far as Passives go, Inferno Summer is very typical for her class, packing high-ranking Magic Resistance to provide some passive resistance to debuffs, on top of B+ Riding, giving an appreciated boost to her sole Quick card. Nothing too impactful, however.

NP Generation
Servant Skills
Noble Phantasm
Conclusion

So, how much of a real Gamer is Archer of Inferno Summer Saber Lily Alter Santa Black SSJ4 Ultra Instinct? On one hand, she successfully hurt main brain cells from typing that out:

She be a crit god, my boy. 100% critical damage up is more than most Servants focused on crit get, then again for 3 turns. Paired with her Arts Star Focus on a short cooldown, and Star-production skill, this girl is an incredibly self-sufficient and powerful Arts crit Servant. While sadly Arts doesn’t really possess a broken support to further supplement that (Lanling is the closest), it still makes her powerful offensively, and focusing on crit for Arts essentially feeds into NP spam since Arts be silly like that.

NP spam farming, you know the deal. While Inferno Summer is a little harder to set up for farming than most Arts farmers, she does have a unique niche in that...Sabers don’t really have great farmers. Arturia and Mordred both have 100% consistent 3-turn loops with 3 50% gauge charger supports, LB Kaleido, and battlesuit swap, but that’s pretty demanding on your gacha luck. And Lakshmibai, while theoretically capable of looping with Skadi, isn’t too great at it. Inferno Summer may be a minor improvement over that, but it’s still an improvement. Actually thinking about it, with Casturia Nero can technically loop too, but it’s kind of like a refund-dependant version of Arturia/Mordred, so it’s not exactly the same. Getting back on track, looping farming is great, Inferno Summer can do it, it’s not a particularly contested niche in her class.

Inferno Summer’s Challenge Quest is notable here. It wasn’t until I got into depth with her Burn damage that I realized “Damn, this girl can actually shred up AOE CQ’s”. While you could argue just doing higher NP damage to begin with is stronger, getting an extra 64k damage on every target from doing a very consistent 3-turn NP loop on top of the already not-awful damage of her NP itself can be quite powerful. And DoT damage alone does have its perks - it hits through Evasion / Invincible, ignores special defense boosts CQ’s tend to have, can be an extra damage source to proc multi-hit Guts, and carries through gauge breaks, while overkill NP damage does nothing for it. I don’t think it’s going to be new meta or anything, but I’d bear it in mind - her DoT is surprisingly strong.

However, she also is something of a rhythmless noob using an out-of-date Vive:

Let’s get this out the way. Self-stun is bad. It might lock Inferno Summer out of a key turn (though how it’s tied to her main crit steroid means it won’t be a crit turn, at least), and just generally limits you options in fights. While you can try to plan around it, it’s frankly not as bad a drawback as you’d think. Primarily because of the next weakpoint.

Inferno Summer doesn’t have any particular utility or defensive tools to aid her. That Guts is a thing, but you’ll be using Midnight of Summertime for the crit boost, so the Guts is never going to be in the back pocket. The plus side of this is her self-stun won’t ever stop her from using a theoretical Evasion/Invincible skill to survive a NP, but she still has to depend on her supports to protect her. Now, if only there were some Arts support with an infallible Invincible buff that can be used on her easily-charged NP to save Inferno Summer in her time of need...ah, semantics.

Inferno Summer is on the whole, a pretty aggressive but effective Arts crit Saber. Normally, I’d say the niche is pretty hotly contested with Saberlot, Yagyu, Hokusai Saber (who, if I’m being honest, a lot of people are sleeping on now Casturia’s around), and uh...well, I guess Medb Saber is trying to be one. Unlike all those competitors, though, Inferno Summer is AOE, and actually packs the most vicious crit power of all of them, while still having fairly consistent star supply and, as a result, crits. Her status as an AOE Arts Saber has its own drawbacks of course, but the benefit is she’s applying herself to a very uncontested niche, and despite the weaknesses in her kit, is very well suited to the more Arts-focused meta we find ourselves in. Rath™ Seal of Approval.

Murasaki Shikibu (Summer)

Introduction

Somehow, Raita manages to sneak his MILF’s into Summer. And believe me, I’m not normally that into the chuunibyou eyepatch thing, but when it’s on a mature lady...well, it somehow just works.

Also, the interactions between her and Sei this event have been adorable. Don’t sleep on the Japanese literary girls.

Servant Data
Rider
Max HP 11,880
HP Rank
Max ATK 8,730
ATK Rank
Base Atk1,455Base HP1,900
Max Atk 8,730 Max HP 11,880
Grail Atk 10,570 Grail HP 14,404
Riding B+

Increase your Quick Card effectiveness by 9%.

Overview

So far as base stats go, Murasaki Summer leans on the more defensive side of things. With the 4th lowest attack stat of Riders in her rarity, she gets a respectable HP pool to compensate. While her general base stat total is the highest, it is better than Ryoma Sakamoto’s, who happens to have an identical HP stat on top of being her main competitor in the ST Arts Rider niche (well, in that rarity, at least. Mandricardo and George are pretty good). Her attack leaves something to be desired, but at least she gets above-average bulk out of the deal.

Sadly, Murasaki Summer isn’t particularly loaded on the Passives, only possessing, you guessed it, Riding. If there were any Passive to have at a decent rank if you got to choose one, a card booster to one of your primary card types isn’t a bad choice though. It just means she isn’t really loaded with the passive goodies some other Servants benefit from.

NP Generation
Servant Skills
Noble Phantasm
Conclusion

You know the jist by now, this is a pretty long edition. Murasaki Summer - Good or bad? On one hand, she’s quite the suitor:

Murasaki Summer has a fair bit of stall support. Between her debuff aids, NP / Skill seals, and the NP gauge drain on her NP, she can keep a target locked down fairly effectively. Paired with an Arts support who plays the same game, like Tamamo, she can perform particularly well when tackling a singular boss. It also helps that most of the strong stall Servants in the game are also Arts, so she plays to the correct archetype.

While not as outstanding as some options, Murasaki Summer has fairly good NP spam offense when supplemented by Arts supports. Most of the time she’ll need to draw an Arts card on the chain to manage, but her Rider star weight, star bomb, and generally good stargen doesn’t make netting crits to refill her gauge that difficult. And the more successfully she loops, the more Arts Resist Down she builds up, which then makes it even easier.

It may not appear so at first glance, but Murasaki Summer’s ST NP damage isn’t too lacking, and remains consistently solid even after repeated loops due to its inherent debuff effect. Some Servants in a similar niche as her can have issues with possessing the raw damage to back up the frequency of their NP’s, but Murasaki mostly doesn’t encounter those issues, even with her attack stat not being the greatest.

However, she also has the makings of a failed harem king:

Now this may sound harsh as a negative, but Ryoma Sakamoto exists, and fills practically the same niche Murasaki Summer does. Even down to the NP gauge drain on NP. While Murasaki Summer has some tools over Ryoma, the fact of the matter is, Ryoma’s free NP5, better NP refund, and general welfare-ness puts her in a bad spot. Over a 3-turn NP spam session, Ryoma’s NP’s do roughly 1.5x as much damage as Murasaki’s, while generally being easier to loop with. So she just faces pretty harsh welfare competition. It’s a similar story for Mandricardo to be frank, though he more exchanges the stall effects for damage.

I was tempted to not note this, due to her strength in stall, but I still think it’s worth saying Murasaki Summer lacks any directly defensive tools. You can delay NP’s a lot, but frequently gauge break insta-NP’s or just bad luck with her NP’s gauge drain is gonna happen, and she has no real means to tackle that. Casturia patches that issue quite easily, but it does mean your dreams of ignoring the Caster Saberface’s existence and running double Tamamo may be dashed by a laser to your face.

All things in consideration, Murasaki Summer is pretty serviceable. In comparison to some other Servants I’ve given the pass in this MMM, she may not be as unique in what she offers, but generally she’s not directly outclassed by anyone in her niche, even if said niche is populated by some conventionally fairly good Servants. Adding in the general Arts meta we’re walking in nowadays, and there’s little wrong with adding some extra Ara Ara to your roster, especially if you’re lacking in solid Rider ST, or just never got Ryoma when his event came around. Rath™ Seal of Approval.

Outro

This is Future Rath, speaking to Past Rath. I hate this work you threw upon me.

The future is now uncertain. The great ‘rona is ravaging our livelihood, and gacha is the only solace from constant fear and despair.

We know not what lies ahead in FGO, our vision blinded by the days of unbearable anniversary anticipation that came before us.

If you can hear this message, you must know this much:

Change da world. my final message. Goodb ye.

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