Advice on who to roll for January banners

Fate/Grand Order
#1

I’m planning on throwing a muti this month, but am unsure of who to pick between this 3:

  • Qin Shi Huang: The ruler soloer, QSH is a stapple in many formations, with cool animations and quite the egotistical NP. While I’m still ****** at his actions in LB3, I still like the character overall, so I’m throwing a multi at him. However, he has a banner in September, where Yu also shows up. Those two are the only two I’m interested in for that banner, but I’m not rolling just for Yu. So I either roll for him now or in September.
  • Tamamo: Currently the best Arts support, Tamamo is currently my number 1 pick for the 5* Ticket, as she can synergise with Castoria in Arts teams, and still has value for CQ ( I think it was Christmas where she was very valuable for me). If I try to get her now and succeed, the ticket will go to either Enkidu or Artoria.
  • Yang Gufei: Representing the only class I still have 0 servants of, Yang does make for a good ST Foreigner, who would be slot in for tricky Berserker bosses and specific CQ, as she has good synergy in her skills. Her ability to taunt and gain np per turn, then burn when attacked, and get NP gauge while reducing the opponents’ is a very fluid tactic. However, she seems the be the most niche of my list.

All opinions and advice are appreciated. I’m aware that I should roll for those I like. Liking too may is a thing. I also known I could choose not to roll at all, but let’s assume I will anyway.

#2

Be aware that is not a lot by any stretch.

But given the question you asked, I would say the one you will probably get the most general use from is Tamamo.

She is a really strong Arts buffer, in pure damage she beats Castoria, and she has several tools useful for general stalling and longer battles that make her a nice complement to Castoria as well.

QSH and Yang aren’t bad, but they are more luxury items than real needs.

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#3

Be aware that is not a lot by any stretch.

I’m aware and fully prepared to only get Mapo Tofu. But I still feel like I should try. And the options this time seem quite good.

But given the question you asked, I would say the one you will probably get the most general use from is Tamamo.

Yes, I suspect a plugsuit-Tamamo-DCast-DD will be a hard set to beat. And Tamamo has a lot of value in CQ thanks to her NP gauge drain and CD reduction+NP charge on NP.

However, I could also take her in the ticket, so I’m trying to make sure that the possibility of getting QSH/Yang Guifei outweights the possibility of getting Enkidu/Artoria.

QSH and Yang aren’t bad, but they are more luxury items than real needs.

QSH, due to having another banner this year, being a solo’er, and there certainly existing people with NP5 10/10/10 I could borrow, is probably at the bottom of this list at the moment.

Yang, however, is where my doubts lie. I’ve been trying her for the event, and she seems like a good alternative to deal with Berserker bosses, other than taunters + blitzing them. Her whole kit seems geared towards weakening, burning and NP the enemies.
Having said that, I’m terrible at assessing servants, and might be vastly overestimating her.

#4

Try looking at the Yang Guifei discussion thread - you’ll find a lot of commentary about pros and cons both in the initial post and in the following ones.

Yang Guifei Discussion - Fate/Grand Order / FGO Discussion - GamePress Community

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#5

Skimmed through it and the general idea I got was that her kit wasn’t quite up to par to what her task would be.

Would it change anything if I mentioned my Arts ST are NP5 Kagetora, Ryouma, Hokusai (Saber) and Robin Hood and NP1 Li Shuwen, as well as the fact I have no foreigners?
I’m thinking of trying for Hokusai on her banner, so the “no foreigners” is temporary. I’m just trying to decide on what my best decision would be.

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#6

Foreigners in general are a luxury class - it’s pretty rare to find a Berserker fight that you can’t blitz down before a Foreigner’s defensive advantage ends up making a real difference (especially once we get the blue prisms), and even rarer to find an Alter Ego or another Foreigner they get a unique advantage over. And most Foreigners are around the same level of good, with the exception of the Abbys just both being complete piss, for some reason and Van Gogh being more support-oriented for other Foreigners. So any Foreigner is about as good as any other Foreigner, aside from Abby x2 at the bottom and Van Gogh off to the side.

ST Arts Servants start at a pretty big disadvantage because baseline they need to compete with some of the best welfares like Saber Hokusai, Kagetora and for long-time players Chloe, before even counting in other excellent SR range options like Saberlot. My assessment would be that Yang doesn’t do enough to differentiate herself from pretty stiff competition, unless you have a particular fondness for slowplay builds where she might be able to shut down a couple of enemy NPs with her taunt/invuln combo.

I’d say QSH occupies a similar category - there are plenty of non-luxury critters like Inshun that you can run, and soloers are usually better off borrowed than owned. Peruse your friend list for QSHs (or see if you can pick up some friends with one in the recruitment thread), and if there’s a few there, you can easily delay rolling on them until September, if at all.

Long story short Tamamo is, to my eye, the optimal target, but as pointed out one multi isn’t going too far. Probably just worth rolling whichever character you think has the nicest design and not thinking too hard about it.

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#7

Yang isn’t someone you roll to fill a gaping hole in your roster; she’s a fun Servant who plays a little differently than most and has a high NP damage ceiling at the cost of being dependent on her Burn gimmick to achieve it. Those welfares are perfectly good Servants, as of course is Robin Hood (who has a similar gimmick but for poison). Li Shuwen is often overlooked, but he’s good aside from his NP1 damage not competing well with your other options.

Edit: @OwlCafe mentioned slow play in regard to Yang, and that’s kind of what you end up with by default if you depend on her kit alone to make the magic happen. Fast play can be achieved even now, but you must have and continue to collect Burn Command Codes to make that happen, and strong starting gauge CEs are of tremendous help since Castoria isn’t here yet.

If you’re looking for an SSR Foreigner, and if it’s between Hokusai and Yang, the gameplay money is more on Yang. They are both Servants geared for more difficult content rather than farming, but Yang is more likely to be desired when it really pays to have a strong Foreigner (i.e. the rare Berserker boss you can’t easily blitz down with damage alone).

QSH is another fun Servant no one really needs. They feel very powerful when you can supply them appropriately with stars, but there’s no strict demand for their role. If you like to solo or like to play with big crit Servants, you’ll likely enjoy them.

Yes, Tamamo is generally more useful just by virtue of being the big Arts supporter for now. That said, I rarely ever use my own Tamamo these days, and Castoria probably won’t help that situation except for the odd case where I might want to plug Tamamo in for even bigger Arts boom and refund.

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#8

If I had 1 multi to use this month I just wouldn’t bother and I’d save it for Castoria instead.

The odds are like… 9% or something? Is it even worth considering that much?

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#9

Closer to 8.

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#10

But sometimes one ticket is all it takes :fgo_insane:…

(or two in the case of :fgo_bbsmile:… Which is why I’m still an unrepentant yoloer, I’ve had just enough wins on 60 sq or less that I can’t help myself)

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#11

I’d recommend only rolling for Character reasons

In my case, Yang is super cute and I felt obligated to roll for her because I gravitate towards Cute Characters

And I don’t regret it because after I got her I fell in love with her and her adorable voice

None of these three are particularly necessary for a complete roster or an Ideal, Post-Castoria, Farming Set Up and like you acknowledged, Tammy will be available for free in a few months so if you aren’t particularly attached to any of them, don’t roll

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#12

I have Tamamo and Yang and of those choices I would take Yang personally. Tamamo can be acquired with the free SSR ticket unless you already have other plans for that ticket. Qin Shi Huang just depends on how much you like solo gameplay. Yang, is adorable/beautiful/cute and has amazing animations, gameplay has already been touched on by others. Only down side to her is that you have to further invest into her as time goes own with command codes and possibly the addition of Honey Lake CE.

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#13

If you don’t have a waifu, and can’t decide, maybe keep saving? I’d never pull just to pull. That said, of the 3 you listed:

  • Tammy is really “worth” pulling for gameplay. Yes, she’s on the SSR Ticket, but so is Waver and a bunch of other cool stuff. Low odds, but luck could really expand your roster in a good way!

  • Yang is a super-luxury, because you can almost always burst Zerks, especially if you borrow a Foreigner. I wanted a Foreigner so badly during my first few months, because Zerks were so tough. Then my roster developed and I’ve never really felt I needed one since then.

  • QSH is super niche, but you should be able to borrow him if you want to solo; otherwise, you can just use CS revives every 3 days. Absolute worst case if you’re running out of time, you CS revive a good run, and then rainbow revive if you have bad RNG trying to close out.

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#14

Thanks, everyone, for your advice. Based on it, I decided to single-yolo all 3, and add the rest of the SQ for the Castoria pull.

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#15

I wouldn’t classify the Emperor as niche. He works almost all the time in almost all content. Though he is a luxury that isn’t neccesary. He is very rarely the fastest option, but against everything except an avenger he is always a good option.

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#16

FTFY. Even Avengers aren’t really a problem once QSH gets going (at least not in a team; I haven’t tried to solo one yet).

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