Rabbit’s Reviews #358: Setanta (4* Saber)

Table of Contents

Introduction
Servant Data
Overview
Material Requirements
Servant Skills
Noble Phantasm
Usage Tips
Grail Potential
Conclusion
Rabbit's Arbitrary Ratings
More Servant Reviews

Introduction

While it’s fun to have Setanta in mobile now, he’s definitely the least interesting Servant of the Arcade collab. He’s completely fine—he’s a solid ST Quick Saber—but he overlaps a lot with Caesar and Santa Karna, and more or less anything you’d say about them applies to Setanta as well. If you need a Lancer-killer and have Quick supports, he’ll do fine. That’s about it.

Servant Data

Saber

QQAAB (Archer)

Quick Card

Arts Card

Buster Card

Attribute	Earth
Alignment	Lawful Balanced

Stage 1
Stage 2
Stage 3
Stage 4

Max HP 11,248

HP Rank

Max ATK 9,999

ATK Rank

Base Atk	1,666	Base HP	1,799
Max Atk	9,999	Max HP	11,248
Grail Atk	12,107	Grail HP	13,638

Magic Resistance B

Increase your Debuff Resist by 17.5%.

Divinity B

Apply Damage Plus for yourself (Total Card Damage +175).

Card Hits	4	2	3	5	5
Per Hit	0.83%	0.83%	0.83%	0.83%	0.83%

	NP per Hit (%)						0.83%
	NP when Attacked (%)						3%

	Star Absorption	102
	Star Generation per Hit	10.0%

Overview

Material Requirements

Stage	Cost	Materials
2	50,000	x1 Celt Training Sword
3	150,000	x1 Celt Training Sword
4	500,000	x1 Celt Training Sword
Max	1,500,000	x1 Celt Training Sword

Level	Cost	Materials
1 → 2	100,000	x4 Gem of Saber
2 → 3	200,000	x10 Gem of Saber
3 → 4	600,000	x4 Magic Gem of Saber
4 → 5	800,000	x10 Magic Gem of Saber x12 Proof of Hero
5 → 6	2,000,000	x4 Secret Gem of Saber x24 Proof of Hero
6 → 7	2,500,000	x10 Secret Gem of Saber x5 Seed of Yggdrasil
7 → 8	5,000,000	x10 Seed of Yggdrasil x5 Meteor Horseshoe
8 → 9	6,000,000	x15 Meteor Horseshoe x8 Cursed Beast Gallstone
9 → 10	10,000,000	x1 Crystallized Lore

Level	Cost	Materials
1 → 2	100000	x4 Gem of Saber
2 → 3	200000	x10 Gem of Saber
3 → 4	600000	x4 Magic Gem of Saber
4 → 5	800000	x10 Magic Gem of Saber x3 Warhorse's Young Horn
5 → 6	2000000	x4 Secret Gem of Saber x5 Warhorse's Young Horn
6 → 7	2500000	x10 Secret Gem of Saber x3 Primordial Lanugo
7 → 8	5000000	x5 Primordial Lanugo x5 Aurora Steel
8 → 9	6000000	x15 Aurora Steel x60 Twilight Ritual Sword
9 → 10	10000000	x1 Crystallized Lore

Servant Skills

Setanta’s skillset is about as bland as they come. Recommended skill order is 2>1>3.

Dmg Up

Knight of the Red Branch B

Increase own ATK (3 turns).
Clear own debuffs.
Gain Critical Stars.

Show Info

Lvl	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
ATK +	10%	11%	12%	13%	14%	15%	16%	17%	18%	20%
Stars +	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	20
CD	7	7	7	7	7	6	6	6	6	5

Knight of the Red Branch is a generic damage buff, giving a small attack increase for 3 turns. Selfish buffs of this type typically cap out at 30% instead of 20%, and Setanta ends up with below-average steroids as a result—something that used to be typical of welfares but that makes Setanta feel a bit behind the curve now. The skill also removes Setanta’s debuffs, which can be handy, he’s likely to want this on turn 1 for the damage which means the debuff removal won’t be useful until a second buff cycle at the earliest. Finally, the skill provides a burst of critical stars, potentially enabling crits to start a fight.

Special ATK

Savage Dog-Killer A

Apply Special ATK [Wild Beast] to self (3 turns).
Increase own Quick Card effectiveness (3 turns).

Show Info

Lvl	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
Special ATK +	50%	55%	60%	65%	70%	75%	80%	85%	90%	100%
Quick +	10%	11%	12%	13%	14%	15%	16%	17%	18%	20%
CD	7	7	7	7	7	6	6	6	6	5

Savage Dog-Killer is the same story as Setanta’s first skill: It’s a generic three-turn Quick buff that caps out at 20% instead of 30%. In exchange, it gives a huge, sustained power mod against Wild Beast enemies. This is a very small niche, but it does make Setanta very good at killing relevant Servants—especially the applicable Lancers and Berserkers. Currently that means Taiga, Tamamo Cat, and Atalanta Alter. Is Setanta worth raising just to deal with those three? Probably not. But if you do it anyway, he’ll be great for those situations.

Evade

Shadowlands Arms Training B+

Chance to increase own Critical Strength (3 turns).
Chance to increase own Critical Star Gather Rate (3 turns).
Apply Evade to self (2 times, 3 turns).

Show Info

Lvl	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
Crit Dmg +	30%	31%	32%	33%	34%	35%	36%	37%	38%	40%
Crit Dmg + (Chance)	60%	64%	68%	72%	76%	80%	84%	88%	92%	100%
Star Gather +	300%	310%	320%	330%	340%	350%	360%	370%	380%	400%
Star Gather + (Chance)	60%	64%	68%	72%	76%	80%	84%	88%	92%	100%
CD	8	8	8	8	8	7	7	7	7	6

As Setanta is a Cu variant, a Protection from Arrows skill is practically required. Shadowlands Arms Training fills that role, giving a 2-hit, 3-turn dodge. Hit-based dodges are always great survival tools, so no complaints there. The skill also increases Cu’s crit damage and star weight by a bit—both of which are chance-based effects, but they reach 100% success at level 10, making that a nonissue on a maxed Setanta. A 40% crit damage buff isn’t much on a Quick Servant, since presumably there will be Skadi crit buffs in play as well, but the increased star weight is nice, at least.

Noble Phantasm

	Rank	Classification	Hit-Count
B+	Anti-Personnel	5

Effect	Apply Sure Hit to self [Activates first]. Deal damage that Ignores DEF to a single enemy.

Overcharge Effect	Decrease DEF for a single enemy (3 turns).

Charge	100%	200%	300%	400%	500%
Def -	20%	25%	30%	35%	40%

Usage Tips

Grail Potential

Conclusion

Setanta is fine. He’s about even with Caesar and Santa Karna, with some small utility-centric advantages and some damage-related disadvantages. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with him, and if you haven’t invested in either of the other two (or someone like Okita or Saber Diarmuid), you might consider leveling his skills. He’s pretty easy to max out, too. Overall, though, there’s not a lot to dig into here. He’ll kill Lancers decently well, and that’s about it.

Rabbit's Arbitrary Ratings

Overall: 7/10
Single-Target DPS: 7/10
AoE DPS: N/A
Survivability: 6/10
Offensive Utility: 3/10
Defensive Utility: N/A
Farming Usefulness: 2/10
Doggo Cuteness: 10/10