#chen gong for a tactics class?

[mako-neexu]

my favorite general headcanon in fgo is guda’s Servants being worried for their Master’s education (assuming that they haven’t finished high school and got transported to Chaldea around the time when normal teens are supposed to go to college) so not only did they throw in the basic curriculum for guda’s age but also added self-defense classes that most of the Servants fought each over on who gets to teach their Master how to fight/defend themselves using their own martial art/techniques. Of course a certain pseudo-servant caster was the one who arranged guda’s schedule so as her farming and singularity/lostbelt journey doesnt go interrupted so that means he gets to teach them a few spells that would help them outside of their mystic code’s abilities

[grailfinders]

Fate and Phantasms #49: Lu Bu Fengxian

Today on Fate and Phantasms, we’re building the General of Repetition, General of the Left, General Who Pacifies the East, and General of Repetition, Lu Bu Fengxian! Lu Bu is a Berserker/Champion combo who’s good with every form of his signature weapon, the Fāngtiān Huàjǐ. Have I mentioned I’m really glad this is a text based format?

You can check out the level-by-level breakdown below the cut, or the summary here!

Race and Background

Quick and easy, Lu Bu is a Human Soldier. That gives him +1 to all stats, and proficiency with Athletics and Intimidation. Also, because you’re a general, you might get some respect from anywhere that recognizes your rank.

Stats

Your Strength should be your highest stat, that’s the one that makes the most stabbing. You’re not a druid, so any weapon that doesn’t use strength will use your Dexterity. Third is your Constitution; you’re a berserker, so you excel at all things physical. Your Charisma isn’t amazing, probably because you can’t really talk that well. Or at all. Your Wisdom is pretty low, but you’re cognizant of the action economy which is surprisingly wise of you, so we’ll dump Intelligence instead. You typically leave tactics to Chen Gong.

Class Levels

1. Barbarian 1: First level barbarians get proficiency in Strength and Constitution saves, as well as two Barbarian skills. Red Hare liked you so much he became a servant to follow you around, so you’re probably pretty good with Animal Handling. Also, you have to see good to shoot good, so tick off Perception as well.

First level barbarians learn to Rage, temporarily gaining resistance to slashing, piercing, and bludgeoning damage and getting a whole lot of strength bonuses for as long as they keep hitting and getting hit, up to a minute. You also get Unarmored Defense, giving you AC based on your constitution and dexterity. You do have... let’s call it medium armor, but the choice is nice.

While we’re here, lets talk about weapons. Technically, your signature weapon can transform into six different modes, but that’s a lot to keep track of, and I have no idea what a “sweeping” mode would look like, so we’re keeping things simple here. We’re grabbing a Pike for the melee mode and a Longbow for the ranged weapon. You won’t start with the longbow, but it’ll be a while before you get any juicy features for it, so just buy one later when you get the chance.

2. Barbarian 2: Second level barbarians can make Reckless Attacks, getting advantage on all your melee attacks for one turn in exchange for all attacks on you getting advantage as well. Also, your Danger Sense gives you advantage on dexterity saving throws. For those of you keeping track at home, you’re now proficient in two physical saves, and have nearly permanent advantage on the third. You’re pretty well rounded, if you ignore every mental stat you have. Which is exactly what we’re doing, because you’re a berserker.

3. Fighter 1: The third level of barbarian isn’t kind to you, so we’re going to hold off on that for a second and check out fighter instead. First level fighters get a Fighting Style, your preferred way of dealing damage. Great Weapon Fighting lets you reroll 1s and 2s to damage rolls of two-handed melee weapons which, oh look, you have. Your Second Wind lets you heal a bit if you want, just remember every bonus action spent healing is another bonus action not spent killing.

4. Fighter 2: Your Action Surge lets you pack another action into a single turn. We heard you like stabbing, so now you can stab while you stab.

5. Fighter 3: At third level you become a Champion. Your Improved Critical lets you deal critical damage on an attack roll of 19 as well as 20. In case you couldn’t tell yet, stabbing is your hobby, and you’re really good at it.

6. Fighter 4: Burn your first ASI to become a Great Weapon Master. Whenever you make a critical hit or kill a creature with a melee weapon, you can use your bonus action to make a single melee weapon attack. You can also opt to take a -5 penalty to an attack roll with a heavy weapon to add 10 to the damage roll. Your reckless attacks plus your improved critical means you have four times the odds of critting as a normal person, so that penalty is basically nothing to you. Like I said, you’re good at stabbing.

7. Barbarian 3: Back in barbarian, you’re now a Berserker. You were a Berserker before, but now it’s official. Don’t think about it too much. Berserkers can use a Frenzy when they rage, letting them use their bonus action to make an extra attack, but after their rage ends they take one level of exhaustion. Oh look, it’s literally what you got last level, but with a debilitating side effect. Don’t use Frenzy.

8. Barbarian 4: Use your next ASI to start beefing up on Strength. It will be a while before we can really make your bow shine, so best get really comfortable with that pike while we’re waiting.

9. Barbarian 5: Fifth level barbarians get an Extra Attack, letting you make two attacks in one action. This means you now have eight times the chance to deal a critical  per round compared to most people, and that will give you a bonus attack to boot. You also get Fast Movement, adding 10′ to your movement speed while not wearing heavy armor. You’re not even proficient in heavy armor, so if you do end up in some you’ll have bigger problems than moving slower.

10. Barbarian 6: Your second berserker feature is your Mindless Rage, making you immune to being charmed or frightened while raging, and suspending any charms or spooks affecting you if you where charmed/frightened before the rage started. Most charms try to bring a person over to the caster’s side: you don’t do sides. They’re all just “People I haven’t stabbed yet”.

11. Fighter 5: Fifth level fighters also get an extra attack, but it doesn’t stack with your other extra attack, so this level’s also does nothing. Now both of your classes have given you a dead weight level. Does that make this a balanced build?

12. Fighter 6: We’re gearing up for some shooting, so put this next ASI into the Resilient feat to round out your Dexterity and give you proficiency with dex saves. This also increases your AC, so it’s great all around.

13. Fighter 7: Seventh level champions are Remarkable Athletes. You can now add half your proficiency score to strength, dexterity, and constitution checks that you’re not proficient in, and add your strength modifier to your long jump distance. Now I’m wondering if there’s a third thing like this to make a fighter/bard that’s better in things they’re not proficient in....

14. Fighter 8: Another ASI to make your Dexterity equal to your strength. Now you’re almost as deadly at range as you are up close. Some people are smart enough not to come near you, but they’re only prolonging the inevitable.

15. Fighter 9: Ninth level fighters are Indomitable, letting you reroll one failed saving throw per long rest. Most people are probably going to try and charm you out of a fight, but you’ve got other ways to deal with that (read: stabbing them). Wait for someone to wisen up and try to Banish you, you’ll probably need it then.

16. Fighter 10: Champions get an Additional Fighting Style at level 10. Archery lets you add 2 to ranged attack rolls. It’s not complicated, but it works. Like you.

17. Fighter 11: Eleventh level fighters get another Extra Attack, which stacks, unlike the last one. Figuring out exactly how much hitting you can do now wastes valuable hitting time, but it’s probably a lot.

18. Fighter 12: Use your next ASI to become a Sharpshooter. You can now attack at long range without disadvantage and can ignore anything but full cover. You can also subtract 5 from a ranged attack to add 10 to its damage, just like your melee attacks. Sadly you can’t get extra attacks like GWM, but you’re slapping 30 damage onto attacks happening 300 feet away, so it’s still a good pick.

19. Fighter 13: You get a second use of Indomitable, because sometimes people try the same thing twice. You should know, you’ve tried the same thing (read: stabbing) every time, and it always worked.

20. Fighter 14: Your last level gives you your last ASI. Spend it on Constitution for better saves and some more HP.

Pros: 

You’re a well balanced killing machine. Unlike Herc, you don’t have to worry about speedier enemies giving you the runaround when you can just shoot them, and you’re still plenty useful in close quarters combat as well.

Three to six attacks per round times twice as many crits times constant advantage equals a whole lot of dice being thrown around.

Your mental saves (Int, Wis, and Chr)... are terrible. But, you have ways to instantly shut off any charm effects you catch wind of, and multiple rerolls to protect yourself from the occasional banishment.

Cons:

Splitting your attention on both strength and dexterity means you aren’t at the peak of either. Herc can out-sword you, and Robin Hood can out-arrow you. So shoot Heracles and stab Robin.

None of your attacks are magical, so some higher level creatures may be an issue if you’re in a low-magic item setting. Maybe you should find some sort of super cool tactician who can make magical weapons for you. Who knows where you’ll find one of those, though...

Next up: He’s not the rebellion we deserve, but he’s the one we need.

[prettycottonmouthlamia]

F/GO 2-star Tier List

Come here for the drill in how this is done.

2-star Tier List

S-Rank Georgios: Georgios is a bit of a lower S than some other S-ranks that might show up, but he earns his spot. He is the most reliable 3-turn Taunter in the game, with Taunting, Defense up, Healing, and Guts that make his role incredibly reliable. While his NP will not do a lot of damage, it also provides additional Defense which can make it useful for surviving strong attacks. D'Eon may be able to survive an NP but is less bulky than Georgios is overall.

Grails will boost Georgios' ability by increasing his HP. This will make it more likely he can use his Taunt skill multiple times and protect the rest of the party a lot more effectively.

Hans Christian Anderson: Hans is a very valuable support unit. Access to critical star regen, NP regen, critical damage up, attack up, defense up, and HP regen make Hans a very good overall support. He can fit into a wide variety of teams and isn't really strictly outclassed by some of the higher rarity support Servants, as he offers a lot of everything. This doesn't mean Hans is perfect, as the extra survivability he gives can be less than other supports and he may not be able to guarantee everything you need, but he'll still be very good.

Grails give him more HP, but because he's more of a support unit than a tank it is not worth as much for him as other units. Since he is not a burst supporter, it can still be useful however.

Chen Gong: Chen Gong might look at initial glance like a discount Merlin, but Chen Gong offers enough to the table in addition to a completely unique niche that make him an easy S-rank Servant. First of all, he has one of the only two targetable taunts in the game that also comes with a crit rate down, dramatically reducing RNG. He can boost survivability, which is especially useful for the class he most synergizes with, Berserkers, and his third skill is a strong Buster up with a Max HP and critical damage buff for Berserkers. The Buster bonus is enough to make him useful for any class though. By far the best part of his kit, however, is his NP, which not only has Arash level numbers but also kills the frontline unit, allowing for easy switching out of supports for potentially massive damage outputs for a Servant. It also allows for the easiest solo set-ups in the game.

Grails will boost Chen Gong's damage output, and this will allow him to delete waves in farming a lot easier. It won't strictly benefit him if you use him purely for support, but it makes his NP even more potent.

A-Rank

Leonidas: Leonidas is a rather incredible Servant, but a bit more flawed than Georgios is. His personal Taunt skill comes with a massive NP gain up which makes his NP a lot more consistent than it otherwise be. He also packs a really useful Buster boost for the entire party, as well as a fairly decent Guts. His NP is a 3 turn Taunt with a decent Def up that generates a lot of crit stars. Leonidas however isn't perfect. It can be difficult to build his NP gauge if the enemy doesn't have a lot of hits to their attacks and you don't get his Arts card quick enough, and he's less sturdy overall than Georgios is. He's more offensive and tempo based than Georgios; less likely to be consistently useful but has the definite possibility of completely changing the game.

Grails are great for Leonidas, and boost him up to a decent S-rank. He'll still be less consistent than Georgios but will have more bulk to tank hits, and can even be useful against Archers as a secondary DPS if need be thanks to hit crit star bomb and Buster up.

William Shakespeare: Shakespeare qualifies as a lower A-rank Servant. He's very outclassed by Merlin, but Shakespeare is still good on his own and one of the better Buster supports. Enchant provides the party with a large Buster up that isn't focused on one Servant, and his 3rd skill provides a massive Star gen up that can help make Servants like Raikou or Suzuka a lot more consistent. He even has the ability to protect himself if need be, although this is more important if you want a CE with Taunt on it. Unfortunately, his NP is pretty bad, and doesn't do a lot of damage even with Enchant.

Grails don't improve Shakespeare's situation much. You really don't want to use him for damage since he's better off supporting better DPS and the extra HP is arguably a hindrance since he's a very burst support.

Hassan of the Cursed Arm: Cursed Arm qualifies as one of the best budget Assassins due to his Protection from Wind, giving him a lot of survivability and bonus star gen. He also has pretty good NP gain, and a crit damage boost to do extra damage. Cursed Arm is more meant to be a survival Servant rather than a strong damage dealer, which is something he does very well. He can even provide support with two star bombs wrapped into one skill. His major flaw is that his damage isn't especially high, especially without an upgraded NP.

Grails will massively boost Cursed Arm's performance. The extra HP goes a long way with his survivability and it helps his damage. It puts him at the very tip top of A-rank, and if Hassan gets an NP upgrade in the future or a buff to his Self-Modification, he'll be an easy S-rank.

Paris: Paris is often compared to Robin Hood, and two work pretty similarly. Paris works best against an opponent who will often buff itself, and he can do massive damage to them. He also debuffs crit rate which is very useful, provides himself some protection, healing, and debuff resistance. Paris can consistently do a lot of damage, and as an added benefit, doesn't have to worry about Invulnerability thanks to his NP. However, his major flaw is that his NP gain is rather seriously gimped, only having decent NP damage on his Arts card, which while mitigated by an NP charge, can hurt his consistency. It's why he's A-rank instead of S-rank.

Grails will boost his damage output considerably and give him some truly incredible numbers, making him an easy S-rank. A grailed Paris will easily outperform Robin Hood in terms of damage, which is kind of crazy to think about.

Gareth: Gareth is a hybrid tank and damage dealer in one. Her skills have really solid synergy and she can do good damage on her own, along with the ability to ignore invul. She gets even better with even budget supports, such as Leonidas or Bunyan, but has special synergy with Chen Gong, thanks to her second skill. Gareth + double Chen Gong is a high risk, high reward team comp that can make Gareth do an incredible amount of damage, with 180% Attack up and 100% Buster up for her NP. Her Taunt, Defense up, and Guts allows her to tank as well, although not quite as good as other Taunters, she makes up for it by doing quite a bit of damage.

As is becoming a common theme with 2-stars, a grailed Gareth is also S-rank. She definitely benefits the most from Grails due to her unique role of both a tank and a damage dealer, giving her a lot more HP and damage output.

Salome: Salome is probably the most controversial choice here, but she warrants the spot. She has the very unique niche of being an Arts Berserker, something only shared by two 5-stars, and has a very powerful first skill. There's enough Lawful Good Servants to make the extra damage modifier good, and she does a lot of damage in that regard. Her second skill provides extra survivability if you're using her as a tactical nuke. Her 3rd skill is very unique but hard to pull off, as it requires a dedicated team built around her. Her ability to fit into Arts teams, and her damage bonus are more important overall, but it is fun to get her 3rd skill off. Salome is very frail even with her second skill though, which hampers her.

Grails boosts Salome's power output, but they don't do much for her survivability. It's not really enough to bump her into S-rank, because overall she is less useful than Vlad is, but it makes her a high A-rank instead of a low A-rank.

B-Rank Edward Teach: Teach is a very straight forward Servant. He has a lot of damage and a Buster AoE NP. It's good, and his Guts has an infinite duration which can be really good if used correctly, but he has a lot of competition with some Silver and Gold servants for the Buster AoE slot. His third skill is unique and potentially viable, but there aren't a lot of Buster supports that are female, and Teach is only a mediocre support Servant. His NP gain is the real limiter to his viability, and its pretty bad all things said.

Grails will improve the amount of damage he can do, but its not enough to make him go into A-rank. He doesn't have enough that's special about him, even with the extra damage.

Caligula: Caligula has two roles that are interesting. The first is that his skills give him the potential for massive face card damage, granting some very large Atk and Buster ups, with his Buster up on a very low cooldown. The second is his NP, which inflicts three turns of NP Seal and Skill Seal onto all opponents, which will basically shut down all enemies for 3 turns and lock them into normal attacks. This is very useful against certain bosses with high hit counts. However, the problem with Caligula is that he requires support for both roles, and more importantly, cannot be put into a team where both roles happen at the same time. This makes him a lot more gimmicky than inconsistent than most Servants, but his output in either role is enough to stick him in B-rank.

Grails will boost Caligula's damage and make it higher, but like Edward, its not enough to bump him up into A-rank. Potency is not the issue with Caligula, its consistency, something which grails do not provide.

Eric Bloodaxe: Bloodaxe is a very by the numbers AoE Berserker. He does decent AoE damage to all enemies, but has some survivability mixed in as well with an Attack down, Guts, Debnuff clear, and Max HP up. Unfortunately, he still can deal pretty quickly to enemies, his debuffs last only two turns, and his NP's effects aren't potent and cost HP. It's not that Bloodaxe is bad, but AoE Berserkers is a niche with a lot Servants and Bloodaxe, without big steroids or a way to make his NP more consistent falls behind.

Bloodaxe rises to a low A-rank after Grails. He'll naturally do more damage, and it's good enough to make a difference, but the extra HP he gets is the real winner, as his kit is more defensive and he can have a potential 14k HP after Grails, making him tougher than expected.

C-Rank Sanson is a rather unfortunate case. He'd be so much better if certain skills were made more usable, but with a complete dud of a 3rd skill except in incredibly niche situations. His only damage up is against Evil enemies, and although it is a pretty large boost, he has nothing for general use which means his damage is very middling. Coupled with his low NP gain and he just ends up being a mediocre damage source. If his third skill worked on Servants he'd probably be a high B-tier, but he doesn't have enough damage unfortunately.

Grails will push Sanson to a low B-tier. He'll do good damage against Evil Servants, but his overall damage will still be pretty mediocre in all even with Grails.

Musashibo Benkei: Benkei is really close to being a solid B-rank. He's got a pretty powerful Taunt skill with a large Defense buff, and a powerful NP Seal ability. Unfortunately, for as good of a defensive tank Benkei could be, he falls short in a few ways. His first skill only inflicts Skill Seal, which isn't great, his NP seal, while AoE, is inconsistent and has a huge cooldown, and his NP doesn't do anything useful. He's already got some of the fundamentals, but he needs more to shine and become a good tank.

Grails will give Benkei more HP, but its not useful for him.

D-Rank Phantom of the Opera: Phantom has exactly one niche: the ability to dramatically reduce all enemies debuff resistance for 6 turns. If you don't need that, Phantom will give pretty much zero value to team comps. His NP does not do a lot of damage, he has bad NP and star gen, and his stun only works on Female enemies.

Grails won't make Phantom much better. It's not that Phantom's stats hold him back, it's his lack of utlity and niche.

Angra Mainyu: For the only budget Assassin, Angra falls really short of the mark. His skills are decent, although mostly defensive. Crit rate down, NP drain, and Atk down are nice, but don't have a lot of synergy. His 3rd skill is crazy powerful but insanely risky, especially before getting to Bond Level 10. It will kill Angra after using it, and even with the upgrade and the Guts, it undermines his defensive skills. His NP is basically dead weight, maybe only useful for a heal.

Bond Level 10 is special for Angra as it unlocks the buff for his third skill, and a bond CE with a unique niche of being anti-Beast. This, along with Grails, will put him into C-rank. He's still not strong enough to be very effective without support, as his niches are incredibly specific and he lacks a damaging NP, but it gives him something unique, which is always appreciated.

[tainbocuailnge]

actually sosei is right and making nero bride a better support unit IS a smarter move than buffing any of the pure offense sabers even if they desperately need it because a HUGE problem with the game as a whole right now is that 90% of supports are (5*) casters. creating more support options of various classes and improving the ones that exist seems to be the idea of this batch as a whole, every buff except gorgon’s so far has been to increase the servant’s party utility by either making it so they can perform their role as support better or giving them new utility next to their existing role. 

medea lily’s cooldowns are brought up to date as well as giving her buff remove resist, romulus can now survive and use his np more easily so you can stack the atk buff it gives, kotarou gains even more ways to criple the enemy, nero becomes even better at facilitating np spam, iskandar and altera’s military tactics now provide real team support with more leeway in when you use them thanks to the extended duration, alexander became one of the few servants with buff removal, boudica can serve as both offensive and defensive support thanks to her crit buffs, and medusa lancer stacks quick resistance down for meme teams. all of these are legitimately useful buffs that vastly improve not only the servant in question’s life but also those of their teammates.

the strengthen quest model as a whole is dumb as fuck but the more stories of spaghetti code i hear the more I’m willing to believe they really can’t just outright buff servants without some kind of in-game trigger. they’ve clearly actually thought these buffs through for a change and they’re trying to improve the Meta(TM) as a whole instead of individual servants. the fact that nearly all the new bronzes have a bunch of party utility also shows that they’re genuinely trying to unfuck the game balance (jason bartholomew and chen gong’s party buffs, chen gong and gareth’s taunts for crowd control, paris making buff removal available to even the most f of 2ps, salome’s instant np gimmick) so like, rip mordred but ultimately he benefits from this too