"Is Heian-Kyo Pickup 2 Summon worth rolling?” - Assessment

Fate/Grand Order FGO Discussion
#1

Ahoy there, feel free to debate or ask questions.

This is not an in-depth review, but a shorthand on whether this banner is worth your SQ.

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SSR Ibuki-Douji (Saber)

(+)

  • She’s the only Buster Saber with an up-front 50% battery
  • Her NP is one of few in the game with both ignore invincibility & defence, among AoE Servants only Kiara can make the same claim
  • Glows up substantially with Hikari Koyanskaya, largest crits among Buster Sabers
  • Fully compatible with Yami Koyanskaya, with synergistic soft-mitigation
  • Best defensive utility out of the AoE Buster Sabers (NP seal/def up/damage cut)

(-)

  • No hard survival skills, needs additional def up (e.g. Waver/Yami Koyanskaya) or external hard survival (e.g. Reines, Merlin, Castoria)
  • Only 1 Arts card, until Koyanskaya releases a BBB deck is very bricky for NP renewal
  • Traditional farming needs a kaleidoscope+ML and 3x50% chargers until Koyanskaya releases
  • No star gather to complete her crit kit; needs help to crit consistently
  • Atk buff only lasts 3 hits including NP, leaving you needing to choose between decent NP steroids and actually critting with her chunky face cards
  • Not top end of Buster from a farming perspective when Koyanskaya releases, merely good

Verdict: Not worth pulling

Why?

  • If you want a Saber looper specifically right now, Muramasa at New Year will perform better in most content with a borrowed Castoria and skilled budget supports until 6th anniversary
  • If you need a 5CE Buster looper you are better off holding off for Arjuna (Alter) rerun or Morgan
  • Melusine will be able to run 6CE and put out more consistent farming damage and has native ignore invincible (but not def) on NP, or Black Grail at 5CE and do much more damage
  • Her strength (maintaining high buffs vs unremovable invincibility/defence up) is only relevant to certain CQs, and the 1SQ to revive costs much less than rolling Ibuki

SR Medea Lily (Caster)

(+)

  • Highest burst healing in the game
  • Buff removal resist is a rare buff and usually 1 turn or 1 time in 3 turns, this is a full 3 turns
  • AAA deck is ideal for supports, allowing you to Arts chain to use their NP
  • 100% NP battery

(-)

  • Offers no offensive steroids
  • Doesn’t speed your team’s NP’s up either
  • No debuff removal on skill means she can’t cleanse a stun when you need to use other Servants
  • Healing is burst rather than a HoT (heal over time) or Max HP Increase; she is likely to overheal
  • No debuff immunity on NP - worse than Nightingale (Berserker) for your main target, and worse than Asclepius at guatanteedgimmick prevention
  • Nightingale (Santa) offers the same debuff remova resist if you have her, but also offers offensive steroids

Verdict: Not worth pulling

Why?

  • No sustained healing
  • Worse than welfare Nightingale & story lock 3 star Asclepius at this role
  • Castoria offers debuff cleansing without slowing your team down, and offers fantastic mitigation. Borrow her instead, preferably with OC up.

Babbage/Paracelsus are gen pool 3 stars and thus not worth discussing as a banner incentive. They will come with time.

CEs are gen pool and it is not worth rolling a banner for “increased” Kaleidoscope/Black Grail pull rates when the banner isn’t offering Servants you want.

These rates are awful and you need to spend a grotesque amount of SQ or be extremely lucky to walk away what you want even without event CEs hogging the rate-up.

6 Likes
Should i roll for Ibuki
#2

“But Cards, you’re pulling Ibuki-Douji!”

Yes but I don’t lie and tell people this is a good SQ investment gameplay wise. Don’t be me if you can’t afford to be me/love her irrationally.

5 Likes
#3

Morgan will provide Berserker coverage of all regular classes with a total 50% battery and party utility, so I’m going to wait it out, as much as I’d like to have the first 50% battery Saber.

5 Likes
#4

Now you mention it:

I forgot to mention no party buffs (which Artoria and eventually buffed Altera offer), but man, 90++ is 2 years away. I won’t edit it in because it’s fluff at this stage in the game.

3 Likes
#5

I think she is a very good saber but by the time Koyanskaya gets here I feel that Morgan will be the go to DPS to pair with Koyanskaya. Until then Muramasa is also going to make her feel inadequate. She is in a bad spot, releasing between Gogh, Douman and Muramasa.

#6

Yu-huh, that’s why it was my first mention after Muramasa:

Agree that Ibuki is very much a love roll because the generic solutions are excellent.

Easy to forget that Spishtar can change to Buster and where the event has starting NP/you don’t mind she is better in a Buster team.

So even if you aren’t rolling Morgan, you might have an NP2-5 Spishtar already.

#7

For me, it really is more of a roll for the sake of rolling. My main has np2 artoria, while my alt has np2 mo-san. For me to roll Ibuki on my ain wouldn’t make much sense, but on my alt? I think it makes more sense. I dont think, or it doesn’t seem like mordred cranks out the damage I want or maybe I’m just doing something wrong, I don’t know. I just know I want to roll. :fgo_gudao:

#8

Don’t.

There are a ton of characters to come, many of which are insanely busted. Roll because you genuinely want (like/love) the character; you do not have infinite SQ.

If you “just need to scratch the itch” then I don’t know what to say other than “that’s a gambling addiction friend.”

Even on your alt the “makes sense” is keep your SQ and roll Muramasa at NY if you specifically want an AoE Saber.

3 Likes
#9

Wise words. I wouldn’t call it an addiction. Moreso excitement. I usually get like this on nearly every banner. The only ones I didn’t were thanksgiving and saber astolfo banner. Mostly because I dont see the point in saber astolfo regardless of the joke his character is. Thanksgiving banner just isn’t my type. I dont see the need for an extra hassan, or summer bb; dont like eresh, summer nero, and dont need an extra beni.

So for most banners, I usually just roll out of excitement. The only time i actually get sad is on banners with servants I really really want.

The only servants I really wanted, were around a total of 4-5 since I started playing: skadi, castoria, arjuna alter, super orion, and Merlin. Every other servant was basically an excitement roll :catskully:

#10

I’ll be rolling because I instantly loved the design and the kit. She’s lower-priority for me than Vritra(my #1 2022 target), but only a little.

I have NP5 Artoria (all spooks) but she literally just hit bond 10 on Friday farming Oni Lanterns for Ibuki.

She gets a well-deserved rest until I need her for a lotto comp. Or if my rolls are the absolute worst and Ibuki is amused by my failures.

1 Like
#11

If you “just need to scratch the itch” (just need to roll so excite about rolling) then I don’t know what to say other than “that’s a gambling addiction friend.”

“Do I like the character?”
“Do I actually want or like them more than [Other Characters]?”

Your SQ is limited, your targets are much less so. You haven’t at any point said you like Ibuki as a character or love her art (and even say her job is better covered by existing roster), so why exactly are you rolling SQ that could go towards a character you actually like, or a character who is stupidly busted?

1 Like
#12

:fgo_shutenwink:

5 Likes
#13

Very tempting just because of how good she looks, and being a usable farmer in future is a nice bonus, but unfortunately the NA banner structure might stop me from rolling. I was hoping to focus Vritra and then switch banners to Ibuki once I got her like on JP, but it sounds like NA might be changing things, and Vritra is the priority pick for me, so… bye bye 'buki :fgo_jeannoo:
Summer’s better anyway (cope)

2 Likes
#14

Good luck rollers. I was planning to skip this to save for Muramasa but Douman took me to the cleaners so I’ll probably have to skip him too while restock my SQ.

Saber-wise, Okita Alter Saber is the one I really want on my main.

#15

Maybe you meant buff removal resist? Zerker Nightingale has debuff immunity on her skills, and IIRC Santagale has no debuff immunity.

A bit of a nitpick in an already detailed and accurate in-depth summary - Lily has debuff resist on her NP with an immediate access. Coupled with some OC, she can reach and surpass 100%, which covers the entire party for 3 turns. Said NP also removes debuffs, which as you mentioned Asclepius does as well. However Asclepius only has 1 time debuff immunity on NP which in a fight with many debuffs will get spent quickly. Unlike Lily Asclepius cannot access his NP as easily and his debuff removal has a fixed CD.

IMO if you want heavy duty debuff counter Medea Lily is your go-to doctor, but these fights only come once a year and usually not mandatory anyways, + Castoria will carry the party easier.

But still a great post, very detailed and useful for the players who dont know the value of the servants.

#16

I wrote this a little late, so references changed. Thanks for the heads up!

As for debuff prevention:

You need OC4 to offer 100% resist; no CE offers +OC3, even with Devilish Bodhisattva you’re looking at being the 2nd NP on the chain.

After that first cast you won’t reach OC4 again unless you happen to have the Amakusa OC up CE.

I think for debuffs you really want immunity. Some Servants with magic resist, especially the goddesses with 40%, can make do with a lower OC. But immunity also prevents any mechanics with 500% success rate, at the cost of being a bit rarer as a turn in turn buff.

My problem is her kit isn’t rounded enough and despite being such a specialist you need specific CEs to get the most value out of her NP.

Murasaki offers more valuable utility to newer accounts and will be on rate up soon, for example.

The thing with Asclepius is he helps your team operate faster (team charge/team NP gain) too, and on top of high healing he has guts for hard survival and the ability to NP seal. Medea meanwhile has no hard survival tools despite being a dedicated healer - and that is the biggest dealbreaker between the two of them imo.

His debuff removal being on skill means you can unfreeze a stunned ally whose skill or NP you need right now.

While his NP debuff immunity is only 1 hit he does offer 3t 50% resistance on s1 to a target, with no need to carry a specific CE for it and at a lower team cost.

So he offers a more complete set of tools at a lower cost with high enough efficacy at burst healing and protecting a main target, with a large HoT for the whole team. He doesn’t fully self-charge but comes in at a lower cost for CE/team management.

Medea has some advantages over him (more upfront team healing and the 3t resist is teamwide, niche utility for Servants with self-heals) but I don’t think it’s enough to call her a straight up better healer. Particularly as to get her resistance up turn 1 you’re wasting her burst heal - if it were max hp up like ~Pro-~~ Lady Avalon it’d be a different story but I’d still want to see a hard survival tool.

2 Likes
#17

Medea Lily, aside from being an abomination (real Medea alt when?), is indeed one of those Servants who has strong-appearing skills but almost no practical use except for those players who build parties just for her.

It’s a little like Tamamo hobbyism but more extreme, since you can’t even get any damage support out of Medea L.

2 Likes
#18

I am saving for LB6 currently but i think there’s plenty of time to get enough SQs for that banner, it’s still half a year away.

I know getting Muramasa would technically be the smartest investment but i never rolled for such reasons and i’m not about to start now, although he is easier to recommend given his insane farming potential and the fact that he only had a single rate up.

#19

There’s nothing wrong with rolling someone suboptimal if your goal is not to have optimal everything, I just wouldn’t give that out as favouritism-blind generic advice.

If I made suggestions based on likability, well, there’s even someone Gilles Saber appeals to.

1 Like
#20

Yea in most situations he’l have a tool that will help the team, whereas Medea is hyper specced into a specific niche (debuffs & healing). In those two niches though, she’s more capable then him.

It depends on the fight. Certain stages(Kiara/Kama/Setsuburn Tomoe comes to mind) with loads of debuffs generally dont have a single deadly debuff - its death by thousand cuts debuffs. In which case youd like spammy debuff removal and/or debuff resistance and/or immunity. The latter, esp as a team support comes with strings attached - in no.of targets/turns/times . Debuff resist will still be more useful in those situations even at OC 2 or 3 which even without CE’s is not overly difficult to facilitate (remember S1 almost gets you 200%), and the debuff resist can be stacked as well. The more debuffs churned at you, the more Lily’s NP outpaces Asclepius’, even at OC1.

His guts is somewhat overrated imo - its more of a last ditch survival rather then a hard defence, as you remain very low health afterwards. Worse, Asclepius cant spare the guts to himself and cant recover the team’s hp afterwards even if he survived( his best heal is only 1 target).

That said, in most of the cases you’l get more milage from Asclepius, and in the cases where Lily would outperform him you can get someone else to complement his weakness.

1 Like