Rabbit's Reviews #282: Vritra (5* Lancer)

Christmas 2020 brings with it Vritra, a fancy new non-limited SSR Lancer. Vritra happens to be our first AoE Arts Lancer at the SSR level, and while her kit is remarkably straightforward, she also has everything she needs to be a strong pick in Castoria world. There’s not a whole lot to say here: she’s Arts, she loops, and she doesn’t outdo the best of the best. It’s a healthy place for a new Servant to land, especially given that she can spook. Not bad.

Vritra starts strong, with the highest attack of any Lancer, just barely topping Quirinus. The high attack helps her damage, which is always valuable for an offensive Servant. Her internals are less exciting, with decidedly middling Arts cards and unexciting Quicks. For passives, she has Magic Resistance and a slightly weaker version of Ibuki’s Dragon Kin passive. The Buster buff helps Vritra less than it does Ibuki, but permanent damage cut is still nice.

Ascension Materials

Stage	Cost	Materials
2	100,000	x5 Lancer Piece
3	300,000	x12 Lancer Piece x18 Dragon Fang
4	1,000,000	x5 Lancer Monument x8 Serpent Jewel x15 Stake of Wailing Night
Max	3,000,000	x12 Lancer Monument x29 Stake of Wailing Night x5 Dragon's Reverse Scale

Skill Enhancement Materials

Level	Cost	Materials
1 → 2	200,000	x5 Gem of Lancer
2 → 3	400,000	x12 Gem of Lancer
3 → 4	1,200,000	x5 Magic Gem of Lancer
4 → 5	1,600,000	x12 Magic Gem of Lancer x4 Serpent Jewel
5 → 6	4,000,000	x5 Secret Gem of Lancer x8 Serpent Jewel
6 → 7	5,000,000	x12 Secret Gem of Lancer x12 Dragon Fang
7 → 8	10,000,000	x24 Dragon Fang x6 Eternal Ice
8 → 9	12,000,000	x18 Eternal Ice x24 Giant's Ring
9 → 10	20,000,000	x1 Crystallized Lore

Vritra needs 44 stakes for ascension, which is pretty brutal, especially given that Vritra can spook new players. Aside from that, though, her mats aren’t bad—she does need some early Lostbelt mats for high skill levels, but Ice and Rings are fairly easy to come by.

Vritra’s skillset is not complex, but it’s also perfectly serviceable for what Vritra wants to do. Recommended skill order is 1>2>3, but she really needs every bit of loop potential she can get, and all three skills contribute, so if you plan to use her she’s worth maxing out.

I alluded to this above, but the standard team of Castoria/Castoria/Tamamo with Black Grail Vritra isn’t reliable enough for farming (though it should still be strong in CQs, where cards are allowed). There are a couple of ways you can still run Black Grail and loop, though, one being the 2004 Mystic Code. If you use its NP gain buff on turn 1, Vritra’s battery can make up the difference on turn 2. Alternatively, you can plug in a Paracelsus, or start with Bride and plug her out after using her skills. Castoria/Castoria/Bride with BG on Vritra is going to be Vritra’s highest-damage generic farming setup, assuming you happen to have the necessary tools. Vritra can also loop fairly easily with Painting Summer and Sign of Smiling Face, and running those CEs with a plug Tamamo offers roughly comparable damage to running Black Grail without.

It’s worth addressing Vritra’s three AoE damage buffs, too, in her anti-Divine power mod, her NP damage buff, and her Arts resistance debuff. While these might seem to lend Vritra towards a potential semi-supportive role against Divine enemies, she’s not actually especially well-suited towards working in that capacity. Arts teams that rely on one or two semi-supports tend to be crit-oriented and involve Lanling and/or Sherlock. Not only can neither of those Servants take advantage of Vritra’s NP damage buff, but Vritra’s power mod also stacks additively with crit buffs, meaning it won’t have that much of an impact on your card damage. As such, Vritra is really only at all interesting as a Semi-support alongside another unit with partywide support value, good NP gain, and an NP damage focus. There aren’t all that many Arts Servants to whom that applies—you’re looking at Servants like Ryouma and Sheba, mostly—and trying to run a team that fully takes advantage of this potential will be an uphill climb. I’d strongly recommend sticking with using Vritra as a primary DPS.

Vritra’s CE choices depend largely on how you’re structuring your team. The Black Grail is always best for raw damage, but Vritra’s top priority is tri-looping, and it’s worth running a different CE instead if it lets you loop more reliably with the tools you happen to have.

Vritra’s card damage is always going to be low, so she’ll benefit most from CCs that provide utility, help her loopage, or improve her NP damage.

Vritra’s a very good Servant, and Lancers are good grail targets. If you get her up to NP2+, especially, and you plan to use her as your go-to Arts farmer, she’s a strong grail target. That said, there are plenty of better farmers—even within the Lancer class, Summer Melt is generally superior—so I’d hold off unless Vritra’s your favorite of the bunch.

If Vritra’s loop conditions were a little looser and her damage were a little higher, she’d be phenomenal. As-is, she’s very good, but not spectacular. She has the unfortunate distinction of being generally inferior as a farmer to Summer Melt, and she’s not generally a Servant to actively pull for given how many superior alternatives there are, but if you’re immediately in need of an Arts farmer or if she happens to spook, she’s a great pull.

Overall: 9/10
Single-Target DPS: 7/10
AoE DPS: 8/10
Survivability: 4/10
Offensive Utility: 3/10
Defensive Utility: 3/10
Farming Usefulness: 9/10
Dragon: 10/10