Fate/Grand Order V - Salty Theoretical Phenomenon

[Kitten Champion]

Honest question: did you at any point use Merlin's 3rd skill?

Due to break bars, Merlin has fallen on hard times. Hes been kicked down to arts stall, as buster nukes have been removed from the game. His 3rd skill might as well not exist at this point besides maybe the bonus hp. Sure, hes still a very powerful character, and for a few farming teams his 20% np gauge works very well, but he is not nearly the threat he was for the few months between his release and break bars being added. Getting through arc 1 you could ask for no better support. But with arc 1.5 and arc 2 he has definitely fallen off in use. Its kind of sad how hes gone from the most broken support to arts stall support.

Of course I did.

I used it when Jeanne had a 100% Crit buster card. I had a Support Merlin with 2030 and Jeanne, getting stars was not an issue even if they only had three Buster cards between them.

In this case I was mostly using Merlin as a more-consistent Hans Christian Andersen with team-wide hard defense, sure, but I've gotten through quite a few challenging multi-Servant battles via Waver-Artoria-Merlin clubbing everyone to death with Excalibur... so I'm not gonna complain.

[DaedalusMkV]

Honest question: did you at any point use Merlin's 3rd skill?

Due to break bars, Merlin has fallen on hard times. Hes been kicked down to arts stall, as buster nukes have been removed from the game. His 3rd skill might as well not exist at this point besides maybe the bonus hp. Sure, hes still a very powerful character, and for a few farming teams his 20% np gauge works very well, but he is not nearly the threat he was for the few months between his release and break bars being added. Getting through arc 1 you could ask for no better support. But with arc 1.5 and arc 2 he has definitely fallen off in use. Its kind of sad how hes gone from the most broken support to arts stall support.

I mean, Merlin's still bonkers. He has a 20% NP charge tied to one of the best all-around team-wide offensive boosts in the game (to my knowledge, only Waver offers any notable improvement on a Charisma skill over Merlin's) on a very short cooldown. That alone would make him a tolerable Support; Ryoma's a pretty good hybrid Support, and he needs to pop two of his Skills to get an inferior effect. Add on a full-party Evasion on the best cooldown you'll ever find on that kind of skill (David achieves relevance almost solely for having a full-party Evasion, despite otherwise being pretty mediocre) and a deliciously spammable do-everything support NP and you get a character that supports nearly all team compositions better than just about any alternative. His only weakness, at all, is Rider and Alter Ego bosses that might one-turn-kill him from full health with normal attacks. Even if you don't build around his third skill, he generates tons of stars and every character in the game has a Buster card, and even Mash can hit like a truck when she's got +50% Buster and +100% crit. It has more incidental value than a lot of 3*s get out of their better skills! And sometimes you bring Merlin with a LAlter and BBNP an Archer boss out of existence with 600k damage with a Servant you got from a GSR ticket and a borrowed Support despite being a (mostly) FTP that hasn't been playing that long in the grand scheme of things.

Let's be honest. The only competition that Merlin has in the 'best Support in the game' category is from Waver. Skadi sits around building efficient farming teams, but the only thing she ever does in hard content is support the occasional one-turn-kill gimmick on bosses where that's possible, and Merlin has always done that better. Tamamo really is the 'Arts stall Support', and she's relatively mediocre outside of those comps (though still miles better than any Support I have, possibly excepting my brand new Lan Ling). The fact that Merlin straight broke the game into tiny pieces thanks to being able to set up million-damage combos shouldn't do anything to change the fact that even in a world specifically designed to make that not destroy everything, he's still only even approached in power by another ludicrously broken Support (because let's be honest; there's absolutely nothing fair about Waver. His skills would all be good without the NP charge). Even if you never use his third skill at all, he's still very strong. The most powerful I have ever felt playing FGO was the fight against turbo-Gorgon in Babylonia; with Mash, Lancelot and Merlin I had the fight to the point that she literally could not do any damage at all to me (watching a boss NP hit for 0 was an... Interesting experience), while Lancelot was chunking out 100-150k HP every single turn. I had her down to 300k when the fight ended, which means I did 170000 damage to her in 13 turns, and ended the fight at full health. With no class advantage. No other Support could have caused those kind of results. I think with double Merlin instead of Mash I probably could have killed her. And my roster isn't even very good!

Let's not pretend that just because Buster Crit isn't the be-all-end-all of FGO any more Merlin somehow stopped being broken, or that Waver and Skadi being better farmers doesn't mean that Merlin isn't still ludicrously effective in that role.

[NeoPhoenix0]

I mean, Merlin's still bonkers. He has a 20% NP charge tied to one of the best all-around team-wide offensive boosts in the game (to my knowledge, only Waver offers any notable improvement on a Charisma skill over Merlin's) on a very short cooldown. That alone would make him a tolerable Support; Ryoma's a pretty good hybrid Support, and he needs to pop two of his Skills to get an inferior effect. Add on a full-party Evasion on the best cooldown you'll ever find on that kind of skill (David achieves relevance almost solely for having a full-party Evasion, despite otherwise being pretty mediocre) and a deliciously spammable do-everything support NP and you get a character that supports nearly all team compositions better than just about any alternative. His only weakness, at all, is Rider and Alter Ego bosses that might one-turn-kill him from full health with normal attacks. Even if you don't build around his third skill, he generates tons of stars and every character in the game has a Buster card, and even Mash can hit like a truck when she's got +50% Buster and +100% crit. It has more incidental value than a lot of 3*s get out of their better skills! And sometimes you bring Merlin with a LAlter and BBNP an Archer boss out of existence with 600k damage with a Servant you got from a GSR ticket and a borrowed Support despite being a (mostly) FTP that hasn't been playing that long in the grand scheme of things.

Let's be honest. The only competition that Merlin has in the 'best Support in the game' category is from Waver. Skadi sits around building efficient farming teams, but the only thing she ever does in hard content is support the occasional one-turn-kill gimmick on bosses where that's possible, and Merlin has always done that better. Tamamo really is the 'Arts stall Support', and she's relatively mediocre outside of those comps (though still miles better than any Support I have, possibly excepting my brand new Lan Ling). The fact that Merlin straight broke the game into tiny pieces thanks to being able to set up million-damage combos shouldn't do anything to change the fact that even in a world specifically designed to make that not destroy everything, he's still only even approached in power by another ludicrously broken Support (because let's be honest; there's absolutely nothing fair about Waver. His skills would all be good without the NP charge). Even if you never use his third skill at all, he's still very strong. The most powerful I have ever felt playing FGO was the fight against turbo-Gorgon in Babylonia; with Mash, Lancelot and Merlin I had the fight to the point that she literally could not do any damage at all to me (watching a boss NP hit for 0 was an... Interesting experience), while Lancelot was chunking out 100-150k HP every single turn. I had her down to 300k when the fight ended, which means I did 170000 damage to her in 13 turns, and ended the fight at full health. With no class advantage. No other Support could have caused those kind of results. I think with double Merlin instead of Mash I probably could have killed her. And my roster isn't even very good!

Let's not pretend that just because Buster Crit isn't the be-all-end-all of FGO any more Merlin somehow stopped being broken, or that Waver and Skadi being better farmers doesn't mean that Merlin isn't still ludicrously effective in that role.

tamamo is also really the best option for doing arts np spam for now, though waver does a decent job if you don't need that many NPs, which is not the same thing as arts stall, though it can be depending on your main damage dealer and 3rd slot. 50% arts for 3 turns is great, and one of the few multi turn ally NP damage buffs is also pretty great for making an arts np spam team do good damage. and her NP is pretty great if you need the extra NP battery for a round. its no skadii loop but it can deal damage pretty hard and heavy.

[Velaryon]

I'm lagging a bit behind some others, having only completed about 2/3 of the missions in this event so far. I'm not worried though since I already have Ryouma and there's still time left.

I am currently resisting temptation to roll for a couple more copies of Izo to get him from NP3 to NP5, especially since I just got my 700-day login bonus yesterday. But I don't actually use him that often and I have no interest in Okita Alter, so I really would be better served saving my SQ for someone else. There are a few really good-looking banners coming up, after all.

[Resileaf]

I'm ¾ done with the event myself, having only used natural AP (with some bronze apples here and there) but I expect I'll have to farm a little this weekend to make sure I buy out what I need from the store.

[DaedalusMkV]

tamamo is also really the best option for doing arts np spam for now, though waver does a decent job if you don't need that many NPs, which is not the same thing as arts stall, though it can be depending on your main damage dealer and 3rd slot. 50% arts for 3 turns is great, and one of the few multi turn ally NP damage buffs is also pretty great for making an arts np spam team do good damage. and her NP is pretty great if you need the extra NP battery for a round. its no skadii loop but it can deal damage pretty hard and heavy.

All fair. She probably does edge out Merlin and Waver in very Arts-heavy teams both stall and offense related, though those teams are probably a bit harder to set-up than 'Garden of Avalon go brr' squads with Merlin. It's all academic anyways, unless you're one of those incredibly lucky (or whalish) people who have all three. Don't get me wrong, Tamamo's great. But I think she's a bit too specialized to sit with Merlin and Waver in the 'we do everything, mostly better than the specialists' club. If anything, I think she and Skadi compare pretty well with each other (and if I was writing a tier list, I'd probably put them both in the same tier with the caveat 'but Skadi really does win farming forever'). Both are really heavily built around one type of card and composition, and do a great job of supporting it. But a noob isn't going to pick up a support Tamamo or Skadi and crush a hard boss effortlessly with whatever Servants they have on hand. Merlin... Enables that sort of thing.

I'm lagging a bit behind some others, having only completed about 2/3 of the missions in this event so far. I'm not worried though since I already have Ryouma and there's still time left.

I am currently resisting temptation to roll for a couple more copies of Izo to get him from NP3 to NP5, especially since I just got my 700-day login bonus yesterday. But I don't actually use him that often and I have no interest in Okita Alter, so I really would be better served saving my SQ for someone else. There are a few really good-looking banners coming up, after all.

Well, at least I'm not alone in the 'I play less' club. I'm at about 80 missions done, and I didn't have Ryoma from last year and desperately want to max him out. Shouldn't be a problem, I think I only need like 15-20 more fights to finish the event. But still, pretty much every time an event rolls around people start talking about Challenge Quests while I'm maybe three quarters of the way in at best. I hear there are these things called 'time locks' on big events, but I've yet to see one for myself...

I need to constantly police myself to not roll on this banner. I really like Okita Alter after seeing her in this event, and something about her tall-woman-with-a-huge-sword design appeals greatly to me. Plus she's Limited, and basically only shows up in Lucky Bag banners from here on out. But I still want Gudavenger more...

[Forum Explorer]

Actually, that's something I'd like to complain about this event. There were so many references to past GUDAGUDA events that I have no knowledge of. Like, the story assumes you already know who everyone is and what they are about. Which I find to be a problem with events that are limited time, and you know, only repeated twice.

[Kitten Champion]

I was considering just using natural AP to finish the event, that can be done just barely apparently. Having actually completed it I had just enough shop currency to clear out everything except some statues by the time I finished the very, very final mission. So it would've worked out perfectly, or just about.

Problem was I didn't know about the Bella Lisa CE coming out until the day that it actually did - I'd have spent much less at the Di Vinci shop if I did - and I have substantially less than 5000 MPs at the moment. So I decided to burn some Silver & Bronze Apples and get a few days free to grind silver XP for prisms.

[Red Fel]

Actually, that's something I'd like to complain about this event. There were so many references to past GUDAGUDA events that I have no knowledge of. Like, the story assumes you already know who everyone is and what they are about. Which I find to be a problem with events that are limited time, and you know, only repeated twice.

To be fair, at least with the GUDAGUDA events, you really don't need to know that much. Nobu is nuts, Okita is exasperated, something insane happens and shenanigans ensue. Usually involving mini Nobus. It's precisely the kind of bonkers off-the-wall humor that doesn't really require you to follow continuity much.

... at least, except for this one. This one is way more serious than past GUDAGUDAs. But again, that doesn't require you to really know anything about the past ones.

[Forum Explorer]

To be fair, at least with the GUDAGUDA events, you really don't need to know that much. Nobu is nuts, Okita is exasperated, something insane happens and shenanigans ensue. Usually involving mini Nobus. It's precisely the kind of bonkers off-the-wall humor that doesn't really require you to follow continuity much.

... at least, except for this one. This one is way more serious than past GUDAGUDAs. But again, that doesn't require you to really know anything about the past ones.

To understand what was going on? Sure, that wasn't a problem. I found my ability to care pretty hampered though, and a lot of the humor fell flat cause it seemed to be referencing some past incident that I'm not aware of.

[Saambell]

Finally finished the event. Had to rush it at the end, as I had missed a lot of natural AP regen, and if I had stayed at that pace I would never finish. This event had some of the worst missions, very little overlap of usable nodes. The better ones have a lot of nodes that fill several missions in one go, this one had very few of those.

The final boss was a joke compared to the first run of the event, as this time I had a character who I swear was tailor made to counter this boss. Summer BB backed by Waver and Merlin really put a stop to the tantrum throwing princess. I could give the challenge quest a go, but I'm not really feeling it. Though I hear its one of the easier ones, so I might give it a try in the two days I have left.

Edit: Well, gave it a go. Scathach, Skadi, Support Skadi, Magical Girl Shuten, Kama, Ryuma. It was going very well for the first few turns, but a mix up on positioning in the team having not considered where the plugsuit would swap them to made it crumble quickly after, losing both Skadi in one turn. Ended up using my Seals to get 2 Gae Bolg Alts in a row with the full revive, and finish the battle. It was easy, and I'm sure I could have done it without seals if I had considered the actual placements in the team line ups.

[Hunter Noventa]

I actually broke my login streak, I totally space out logging in all day saturday because i was done with the event and the usual time i take to log in got taken up by something else.

Doesn't matter THAT much, sets me back on my weekly tickets,but still, can't believe I did that.

[DaedalusMkV]

I actually broke my login streak, I totally space out logging in all day saturday because i was done with the event and the usual time i take to log in got taken up by something else.

Doesn't matter THAT much, sets me back on my weekly tickets,but still, can't believe I did that.

Happens to me occasionally when maintenance hits during my normal login time. I normally remember to log in in the morning to make up for it, but sometimes it slips my mind and ruins the streak.


Finished the event myself earlier today. Turned my brain off and used Command Seals to finish the challenge quest, and by the time I had finished all the missions the shop was empty of everything but QP (I have 400 million, I'm probably okay for a while) and statues (which, frankly, I've never been short of at any point). I'm feeling a bit burnt out of FGO right now. I was playing the main story pretty hard (by my standards) between events, and 100% cleared both SERAPH and this one, so I've been going strong for a while. Might just revert to daily mode for a week or two, then get back to working my way up to date on the Lostbelts. Never going to get to SiN before the next event anyways, so I'll catch it on the rerun.

[Forum Explorer]

Speaking of the next event, I was a little confused by the wording. How far do I have to be to play the event?

[DaedalusMkV]

Speaking of the next event, I was a little confused by the wording. How far do I have to be to play the event?

After Lostbelt 2 there's a prologue to Lostbelt 3, just like there was a prologue before Lostbelt 1. That prologue needs to be completed.

[Forum Explorer]

After Lostbelt 2 there's a prologue to Lostbelt 3, just like there was a prologue before Lostbelt 1. That prologue needs to be completed.

Oh cool, just the prologue? Already done that then.

[Velaryon]

I ended up having to use a few apples to complete the event, partly because I failed to notice the "Put Ryouma in your party X times" missions, and I hadn't been using him. Whoops. Fortunately after I'd finished everything else I was able to just do QP farming and those quests still counted.

For once I managed to tackle the challenge quest without having to use Command Seals or even losing any party members. I used Merlin, Heracles, and Mash and was able to just barely soak up enough damage to keep everyone alive, though they all came close to dying a few times.

[NeoPhoenix0]

Its been over a month since I did a purge of my friend list... I tried to be what I thought was very forgiving but I somehow ended up purging 10 accounts... Granted 3 of them seemed to be first pull resets or trials but that still leaves 7 others... Seems like a lot to me but I guess I might have been like cky in the past with some early adopters who ended up being in it for the long haul. Not

[Leon]

E plubis est boredum is finally done. That was a slog to get thru.

[NeoPhoenix0]

E plubis est boredum is finally done. That was a slog to get thru.

The next two are pretty good imo. Maybe some of the best chapters we have.

[Forum Explorer]

E plubis est boredum is finally done. That was a slog to get thru.

Since you just finished it, what did you find so boring about it? I hear that complaint a lot.

The next two are pretty good imo. Maybe some of the best chapters we have.

Honestly I wasn't that fond of Camelot. I found that Artoria and her knights to be kinda boring, though Belvidere and the Assassins were an absolute treat. Mad props to Arash too. Ozzy was just kinda there in my opinion. He felt like a side character rather than an actual part of the story.

But I absolutely hate Tristan. To the point where if I do ever draw him, I'm immediately burning him for rare prisms. I hate his fake angst BS so much.

[Resileaf]

But I absolutely hate Tristan. To the point where if I do ever draw him, I'm immediately burning him for rare prisms. I hate his fake angst BS so much.

Eh? But his fake angst is only present in his Camelot self. He has no angst whatsoever otherwise (except for his interlude where he feels ashamed of himself for the actions of his Camelot self even though they have no relation).

[Leon]

The story as a whole was mediocre, the occurrence of two overused and generally obnoxious servants didn't help particularly when they were on your side and you therefore cant take enjoyment in beating them.

[Velaryon]

E plubis est boredum is finally done. That was a slog to get thru.

It only gets better from here. For me, that was the absolute worst story chapter in the entire game. Even the much-hated Agartha was more interesting than E Pluribus Snoozefest.*

Spoiler: *

Show

It probably does not help that most of the prominently-featured characters in this chapter are either some of the ones I consider most boring (Arjuna, Cu Alter) or the ones I hate most (Edison, Medb), but that entire chapter ranged somewhere between "hoo boy, is this still going on?" and "oh my god I hate this so much! someone take away my skip button or I'm not going to be able to sit through this for much longer."

The next couple chapters are much better, as you move directly from the worst story chapter we've ever gotten to the best.

[Saambell]

The story as a whole was mediocre, the occurrence of two overused and generally obnoxious servants didn't help particularly when they were on your side and you therefore cant take enjoyment in beating them.

Yeah, I didn't like Scatatch or Nightengale either.

[Forum Explorer]

Eh? But his fake angst is only present in his Camelot self. He has no angst whatsoever otherwise (except for his interlude where he feels ashamed of himself for the actions of his Camelot self even though they have no relation).

Which is like what? 95% of what you see of him before you roll him up? I know he was in BB's Singularity, and he was better there, but he had a bit role than, and was kinda annoying anyways.

The story as a whole was mediocre, the occurrence of two overused and generally obnoxious servants didn't help particularly when they were on your side and you therefore cant take enjoyment in beating them.

I'm guessing Elizabeth and Nightingale?

Overall, I didn't feel like the story was any worse than any of the singularities before it, with London being a bit better. (I feel like the ending of London against Tesla was weak when we got saved by Tamano and the Lightning Guy showing up) But I liked Rama, and Cu Alter was interesting to see. Medb is annoying, but she's an enemy so you do get the satisfaction of beating her. And I liked seeing the various Celtic heroes.

[Hunter Noventa]

Is it just me or has the game suddenly become a lot more prone to hanging/freezing all of the sudden in this event? I keep getting freezes for several seconds at random and it's kind of annoying.

Also how the hell are you supposed to this terribly muklti-Benkei fight? You get hit with six stacks of poison and then die before you can do anything at all to cleanse it.

EDIT: Ah of course, Skadi cheese, Why didn't I think of that.

[Leon]

I'm guessing Elizabeth and Nightingale?

Half right, Nightingale while being a bit OTT isn't nearly as over done as ()&*^$ nero is.
Speaking of Zerkernurse she and Valkyrie have both turned up while trying to roll up the new ruler,i do really like Martha Ruler but having another would be good and in my preferred Arts/Buster is even better.

[Hunter Noventa]

So I went and got myself setup for the Raid battle. It looks like I'll be able to 1-turn it with my second favorite servant, Mecha Elly-chan, assuming I don't have the misfortune of getting the Buster Down debuff...but even with that I stand a good chance of still hitting hard enough.

I found a very useful NP Damage Calculator for anyone else who needs to figure outhow to go about it.

[Resileaf]

I found a very useful NP Damage Calculator for anyone else who needs to figure outhow to go about it.

Hmm, considering I don't have a Merlin of my own, but I do have a Nightingale and Shakespeare, and through using a maxed out berserker Jalter, the calculator tells me I'll do about 300K damage in a single NP. It's a hefty chunk of the raid boss' health, so hopefully it'll be enough to make the rest of the battle easy.