Rabbit's Reviews #304: Sei Shonagon (4* Berserker)

Introduction

Just in case the Jet Set Radio design influences weren’t clear enough, Sei joins this Summer event with a skateboard in tow and a graffiti-themed NP. Sei has been variously referred to as a limited version of Atalanta Alter and an ST version of Xiang Yu, both of which are… pretty accurate analogies. Sei is heavily burst-oriented even by Quick standards, with next to no loop potential, but with a situationally brutal NP and easy access to powerful crits. Her kit is about as good as it could be given its intended function, but sadly bursty, crit-focused units just aren’t what they used to be. Sei is generally going to be a weaker option than ST units with more of a focus on NP gain, which makes her an easy Servant to skip, especially for players who have one of the many powerful class-neutral ST Servants. That said, she does quite well in her preferred playstyle, so if you’re willing to commit to a dated gameplay approach, Sei will do a good job of downing single targets.

Servant Data

Berserker

QABBB (Berserker)

Quick Card

Arts Card

Buster Card

4

3

4

7

Attribute	Human
Alignment	Chaotic Summer

Stage 1
Stage 2
Stage 3
Stage 4

April Fool's

Max HP 9,922

HP Rank

Max ATK 9,942

ATK Rank

Base Atk	1,657	Base HP	1,587
Max Atk	9,942	Max HP	9,922
Grail Atk	12,038	Grail HP	12,030

Traits

Tags

Self Star Gather Rate Up

Anti-Shadow Servant ATK Up

Anti-Human (Attribute) ATK Up

Madness Enhancement D

Increase your Buster Card effectiveness by 4%.

Independent Action (Selfishness) D

Increase Critical Star Gather Rate of own Quick Cards by 4%.

Teachings that Drive to Enlightenment B

Increase own Charm Resist by 100%.

Card Hits	4	3	3	4	7
Per Hit	0.77%	0.77%	0.77%	0.77%	0.77%

	NP per Hit (%)						0.77%
	NP when Attacked (%)						5%

	Star Absorption	10
	Star Generation per Hit	5.0%

Overview

Sei has middling attack and low HP by SR Berserker standards—in fact, she has the lowest HP of the bunch, tied with Summer Jalter. This is not a great starting point, but Berserker have high attack as a rule, so she still ends up with a relatively strong attack stat relative to SRs as a whole. Sei’s internals are a bit of a mixed bag. She’s a triple Buster Servant, which isn’t great for NP gain or for star gen, but her Arts and Quick cards both have good NP gain, and her NP has a high hit-count, she her NP gain isn’t as weak as her deck might imply. Similarly, her 4-hit Quick and 7-hit NP can generate a fair number of stars—not enough to flood the field on their own, but definitely enough to supplement Merlin or some 2030s. Sei’s passives, meanwhile, are kind of middling in usefulness. Madness Enhancement is nice for Sei’s Buster crits, but sadly it only provides a 4% damage buff, which is low as passives go. Independent Action (Self-Centered), meanwhile, boosts Sei’s Quick card star weight rather than giving the usual crit buff. A 4% star weight buff is barely noticeable in the best of cases, and given how low Sei’s star weight is to begin with, this might as well not exist. Dharma of the One Path, at least, is more useful, giving Sei a substantial level of Charm Resistance. Charms with success rates above 100% might still get through—this isn’t as good as Kama’s immunity—but 100% charm resist is still enough to reliably avoid random, skill-based charms, which will be much appreciated in a handful of situations.

For appends, Sei gets off relatively well as Berserkers go. Given Sei’s preference for card damage, the Extra Attack performance buff may be nice for helping to ensure she hits damage thresholds with brave chains. Mana Loading is, as always, the best append skill. Berserkers’ third append skills are a little different from other classes’—rather than providing an attack buff, Berserkers’ third appends provide a crit resistance buff against a particular class. In Sei’s case, her append reduces Rulers’ crit chance against her by 30%, effectively negating their ability to crit without crit chance buffs. These appends are generally not worth it on Berserkers—if you’re really worried about crits, there are other ways to mitigate them, or you could just counterclass instead—but Rulers have fewer natural counters, so knowing you can bring Sei to a Ruler fight and not worry about crits has some value. It’s still the least useful of her appends, but it’s not as much of a write-off as it is on most Berserkers.

Material Requirements

Stage	Cost	Materials
2	50,000	x4 Berserker Piece
3	150,000	x10 Berserker Piece x6 Eternal Gear
4	500,000	x4 Berserker Monument x8 Shell of Reminiscence x2 Dragon's Reverse Scale
Max	1,500,000	x10 Berserker Monument x4 Dragon's Reverse Scale x4 Glowing Star Fragment

Level	Cost	Materials
1 → 2	100,000	x4 Gem of Berserker
2 → 3	200,000	x10 Gem of Berserker
3 → 4	600,000	x4 Magic Gem of Berserker
4 → 5	800,000	x10 Magic Gem of Berserker x4 Shell of Reminiscence
5 → 6	2,000,000	x4 Secret Gem of Berserker x8 Shell of Reminiscence
6 → 7	2,500,000	x10 Secret Gem of Berserker x4 Eternal Gear
7 → 8	5,000,000	x8 Eternal Gear x3 Fruit of Eternity
8 → 9	6,000,000	x9 Fruit of Eternity x8 Demonic Flame Light
9 → 10	10,000,000	x1 Crystallized Lore

Level	Cost	Materials
1 → 2	100000	x4 Gem of Berserker
2 → 3	200000	x10 Gem of Berserker
3 → 4	600000	x4 Magic Gem of Berserker
4 → 5	800000	x10 Magic Gem of Berserker x10 Dragon Fang
5 → 6	2000000	x4 Secret Gem of Berserker x20 Dragon Fang
6 → 7	2500000	x10 Secret Gem of Berserker x3 Primordial Lanugo
7 → 8	5000000	x5 Primordial Lanugo x5 Eternal Ice
8 → 9	6000000	x15 Eternal Ice x20 Giant's Ring
9 → 10	10000000	x1 Crystallized Lore

Servant Skills

Sei’s skills are all about facilitating power crits. Recommended skill order is 1>2>3.

Dmg Up

Summer Street! A

Increase own ATK (3 turns).
Increase own Critical Strength (3 turns).
Increase own NP Gauge.

Show Info

Lvl	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
ATK +	20%	21%	22%	23%	24%	25%	26%	27%	28%	30%
Crit Damage +	20%	21%	22%	23%	24%	25%	26%	27%	28%	30%
NP +	10%	11%	12%	13%	14%	15%	16%	17%	18%	20%
CD	8	8	8	8	8	7	7	7	7	6

Summer Street is a grab bag of useful effects. It’s a 30% 3-turn attack buff, which is always appreciated, although (as with several of the Summer Servants this year) it’s on a 6-turn cooldown at max level rather than the usual 5-turn cooldown. The other two effects on this, while nice, don’t really merit the extra turn. It’s a 20% battery at max level, and while battery Berserkers are always awesome to have for emergencies, 20% is not overly impressive. That said, even with Sei, there are only five ST Berserkers with batteries in the entire game, and Sei is the only one with a Quick NP, so she does gain some points for the rarity of that role. The skill also boosts Sei’s crit damage by 30% for 3 turns, which is pretty underwhelming on its own—sustained crit buffs typically need to be larger to be worthwhile, and Sei doesn’t really have easy crit access outside of her burst turn regardless. Overall, this is a skill that feels just a little weaker than it should be on several fronts. It’s a weak battery, it’s on a long cooldown for a steroid of its power, and it’s an underwhelming crit buff. The fact that it does all of these things at once maybe makes up the difference, and it’s not a bad skill overall, but it’s still a little disappointing.

Evade

Night Pool Slider A

Apply Evade to self (2 times, 3 turns).
Increase own Critical Strength (1 turn).
Increase own Critical Star Gather Rate (1 turn).

Show Info

Lvl	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
Crit Damage +	50%	55%	60%	65%	70%	75%	80%	85%	90%	100%
Absorption +	3000%	3200%	3400%	3600%	3800%	4000%	4200%	4400%	4600%	5000%
CD	8	8	8	8	8	7	7	7	7	6

We have had a ton of hit-based dodges this summer, and Night Pool Slider adds itself to the list. It’s a 2-hit, 3-turn dodge paired with offensive effects, and, like the others this summer, the offensive benefits are powerful enough that Sei will typically want to use this offensively. Berserkers benefit somewhat more than other classes from incidental card mitigation—they can only take so many hits before dropping—so Sei is generally okay with using this proactively. Offensively, this skill boosts Sei’s star weight and gives her a whopping 100% crit damage up for a turn. With Sei’s first skill factored in, Sei gets 130% crit up. A few other Berserkers can spike up to 100% crit up, but Xiang Yu is the only other Berserker who surpasses that buff level. There are other factors that contribute to damage output, of course—Arjuna Alter, for instance, has much higher functional damage output by virtue of having extremely good non-crit steroids—but that doesn’t change the fact that Sei’s crit damage output will be quite impressive, at least for a turn. The cooldown is unfortunately quite long given that the offensive component of this only lasts a turn, but if nothing else this should give Sei a great turn of burst.

Heal

Dependable Summer Sweet A

Restore HP for an ally.
Apply Burn Immune to an ally (3 turns).
Gain Critical Stars.

Show Info

Lvl	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
Heal +	1000	1200	1400	1600	1800	2000	2200	2400	2600	3000
Stars +	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	25
CD	7	7	7	7	7	6	6	6	6	5

Summer Sweets is a bit of an odd skill. It’s a remarkably solid targeted heal, and it gives the target immunity to burns for 3 turns. The heal is oddly mismatched with Sei’s fast-moving kit, and burn immunity is extremely niche, but neither form of utility is bad to have around. More importantly, though, this skill provides 25 critical stars. With this and Sei’s second skill in play, Sei can facilitate a turn of power crits without much outside help, which is quite nice.

Noble Phantasm

	Rank	Classification	Hit-Count
D++	Anti-Personnel	7

Effect	Apply 50% Special ATK [Lawful] to self (1 turn) [Activates first]. Apply 50% Special ATK [Shadow Servant] to self (1 turn) [Activates first]. Deal damage to a single enemy.

Level	1	2	3	4	5
Bonus Damage (Lawful) +	50%	50%	50%	50%	50%
Bonus Damage (Shadow) +	50%	50%	50%	50%	50%
Damage +	1200%	1600%	1800%	1900%	2000%

Overcharge Effect	Apply Special ATK [Human (Attribute)] to self (1 turn) [Activates first].

Charge	100%	200%	300%	400%	500%
Bonus Damage (Human) +	50%	62.5%	75%	87.5%	100%

Usage Tips

Sei is ostensibly a Quick fastplay Servant, but she doesn’t fit the usual patterns for such Servants. She doesn’t have any good way to loop her NP without battery spam, and she generally prefers Buster crits to Quick crits. As such, while she can run with double Skadi, she’ll likely have more success with slightly more atypical teams.

If you’ve used Xiang Yu in CQs, you probably already have a good sense for how to use Sei. Like Xiang Yu, most of Sei’s sustained damage is likely to come from crits rather than from NPs. This is especially true when Sei isn’t swinging at her niches. As such, while bringing a Skadi isn’t a bad idea, Sei may want Buster supports rather than Quick supports. Supports who make stars and boost crits are particularly good here. Merlin and Hans are both good picks, as they make stars passively and can help Sei gain access to her NP. Jinako works for similar reasons—she’s a bit more plug-and-play for Sei than Merlin is and provides more survival than Hans does. Jinako also has the advantage of being card-type-neutral, letting her help Sei with both her Quick NP and with Buster Crits.

Himiko/Castoria teams are also an option here, as Himiko provides stars, crit damage up, and Buster up to facilitate Sei’s crits, while also overcharging Castoria for maximum survival. Sei provides a little bit of the key missing element in Himiko/Castoria teams—healing—so she synergizes nicely in that sense. Additionally, Himiko’s Overcharge boost means Sei’s NP will hit a little harder than usual against Man enemies, which is nice.

Speaking of Man enemies, Koyanskaya is a deceptively good partner for Sei when fighting such targets. With a pair of Koyanskayas, Sei gets 100% Buster up to fuel her crits, and those Buster cards also help Sei refuel her NP. Koyanskaya’s cooldown reduction gets Sei her second turn of power crits far more quickly, and despite Koyanskaya’s lack of Quick buffs, Sei’s NP will hit hard by virtue of getting 150% power mod against Man. With, say, Koyanskaya/Sei/Skadi/Koyanskaya, Sei can NP and crit on turn 1, NP again on turn 2 with Koyanskaya 2’s battery and a little card luck, and then get a second powerful crit turn on turn 3. Alternatively, you can run Koyanskaya/Sei/Oberon/Koyanskaya to let Sei NP on turns 1 and 2 with no card luck involved, provided Sei has her Mana Loading append. This is pretty much the most fastburn-oriented Sei can get, and while she’ll be completely tapped out after turn 3, she should be able to output a lot of damage in the interim.

Sei’s preferred CE will depend on how you’re trying to use her. If you’re playing fast and leveraging her NP, The Black Grail is always good. Otherwise, you probably want a CE that contributes to her Attack or her Buster Cards. Golden Sumo is quite good for Sei, as the attack buff helps everything Sei is doing. Wolves of Mibu is also a decent option, as it buffs Sei’s Quicks and Busters while also providing some extra stars each turn.

Sei will benefit from CCs that increase her damage or make it easier for her to crit. Wedge of the Heavens, for instance, is a nice pick for increasing general Buster Crit damage. The Nun with a Bodhisattva’s Merciful Gaze is also a natural pick here, as it gives bonus damage against Lawful enemies (which is one of Sei’s niches anyway) and helps with taking out Rulers. Beyond that, CCs that give flat critical stars are nice for Sei in order to set up more reliable crits, and healing CCs can help keep Sei alive longer if you plan to use Sei more often in sustain-oriented teams.

Grail Potential

Conclusion

Sei is an odd Servant in that while her playstyle is not top-notch, her kit is top-notch relative to her playstyle. She’s a very strong Buster crit unit with the potentially for powerful burst Quick NP damage against her favored enemies. She’s an easy skip from a pure powergaming perspective—especially if you already have a good ST Berserker—but if you want to use her anyway she’ll do quite well for you. Even with the obvious comparisons to Atalanta Alter and Xiang Yu, Sei does enough to differentiate herself that she’ll be fun and unique for those who choose to invest in her.

Rabbit's Arbitrary Ratings

Overall: 8/10
Single-Target DPS: 9/10
AoE DPS: N/A
Survivability: 6/10
Offensive Utility: 1/10
Defensive Utility: 2/10
Farming Usefulness: 4/10
Understanding the Concept of Love: 10/10