Rabbit's Reviews #237: Gareth (2* Lancer)

Gareth is an interesting new Lancer who’s built around a very specific gimmick: drawing enemy fire and then firing back with an attack that gets more powerful the more she’s hit. She’s very much a one-and-done kinda servant, but taunters in general are nice to have and if she’s able to draw three hits Gareth gets surprisingly high NP damage.

Gareth has really low attack and high (for her rarity) HP to compensate. Since Gareth is first and foremost a tank, the extra health is helpful, and it makes her more likely to be able to eat the three attacks she needs for her optimal NP damage. Gareth is a Buster servant, but she has high-hit Quicks and a very high-hit NP, so with a star gen buff an NPQQ chain should be able to make quite a few stars. Her NP gain is also pretty normal—she’s not obviously penalized in the way many of the other new bronzes are. Her Arts card is quite standard, and her Quicks are reasonably good, plus she has Riding to buff her Quicks a little more. She also has Magic Resistance for staving off debuffs.

Ascension Materials

Stage	Cost	Materials
2	15,000	x3 Lancer Piece Open Lancer Piece configuration options
3	45,000	x6 Lancer Piece Open Lancer Piece configuration options x11 Proof of Hero Open Proof of Hero configuration options
4	150,000	x3 Lancer Monument Open Lancer Monument configuration options x3 Warhorse's Young Horn Open Warhorse's Young Horn configuration options x5 Great Knight Medal Open Great Knight Medal configuration options
Max	450,000	x6 Saber Monument Open Saber Monument configuration options x10 Great Knight Medal Open Great Knight Medal configuration options x3 Dragon's Reverse Scale Open Dragon's Reverse Scale configuration options

Skill Enhancement Materials

Level	Cost	Materials
1 → 2	20,000	x3 Gem of Lancer Open Gem of Lancer configuration options
2 → 3	40,000	x6 Gem of Lancer Open Gem of Lancer configuration options
3 → 4	120,000	x3 Magic Gem of Lancer Open Magic Gem of Lancer configuration options
4 → 5	160,000	x6 Magic Gem of Lancer Open Magic Gem of Lancer configuration options x2 Warhorse's Young Horn Open Warhorse's Young Horn configuration options
5 → 6	400,000	x3 Secret Gem of Lancer Open Secret Gem of Lancer configuration options x3 Warhorse's Young Horn Open Warhorse's Young Horn configuration options
6 → 7	500,000	x6 Secret Gem of Lancer Open Secret Gem of Lancer configuration options x8 Proof of Hero Open Proof of Hero configuration options
7 → 8	1,000,000	x15 Proof of Hero Open Proof of Hero configuration options x6 Great Knight Medal Open Great Knight Medal configuration options
8 → 9	1,200,000	x18 Great Knight Medal Open Great Knight Medal configuration options x12 Aurora Steel Open Aurora Steel configuration options
9 → 10	2,000,000	x1 Crystallized Lore Open Crystallized Lore configuration options

Gareth’s mats aren’t that bad, though she does need a few proofs and a decent number of medals. Proofs tend to be in short supply for longtime players (since so many servants use them) and medals are a pain to farm if you don’t have enough handy.

Gareth’s skillset is uniformly aimed at her tank-and-punish goal. Recommended skill order is 2>3>1.

Gareth is pretty simple to use. She uses all three skills, draws some enemy fire, uses her NP, and then dies. Chen Gong is a great partner for her, as he can push her NP damage (if you don’t have a better use for his skill) and he can ensure she gets out of the way once she’s done either by using his targeted taunt or by using his NP.

Starting NP CEs are probably a good idea here to ensure Gareth gets her turn-2 NP. Kaleid guarantees it, while 50% starting NP CEs can boost Gareth’s damage a little in exchange for slightly less reliability.

Gareth is a neat servant and as a low-rarity Lancer isn’t a bad grail target. That said, giving her more health can actually be a drawback in certain situations, especially if you aren’t running Chen Gong. If Gareth ends up surviving longer than you want her to it may slow down the team and interfere with whatever was set to replace her.

Gareth is a gimmicky servant, but her gimmick is both straightforward and useful. Having more taunt options is always a good thing, and even if you aren’t sold on Gareth’s offensive usefulness she can at least buy you a turn or two of survival.

Overall: 7/10
Single-Target DPS: 7/10
AoE DPS: N/A
Survivability: 5/10
Offensive Utility: N/A
Defensive Utility: 7/10
Farming Usefulness: 1/10
Admiration for Lancelot: 10/10