Fate/Grand Order General

[Sire]

Welp, not sure if I'm going to be able to fully clear this event with the rate I'm going at. I might be able to clear out the floors, but am not sure if I'll be able to clear the Raids as well since they also put Servants on cooldown.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
As for the JP news, it seems like ever since they went to new management a lot of positive changes have been coming out for FGO.
-- The "Events" locked behind Rare Prisms are now unlocked, with any Rares being spent being refunded.
-- There's a new CE that increases the drop rates of Void Dust!
-- There's a "Story Prism" that can be exchanged for materials, making it easier to level up skills and ascend Servants.
-- ...among others.

I look forward to how FGO continues to develop under the new management. Hopefully some of these changes/additions hit NA sooner rather than later!

[DehNutCase]

The QoL improvements sound great. (And I also wonder how the drop rate increase works, if the 5% means the average number of drops is now x * 1.05 where x is previous average, or if we just straight up get 1/20 of a dust either per quest, or per enemy which drops it.)

I kind of miss FGO being the nightmare gacha that breaks your bank account if the gacha doesn't agree with you and you desperately wanted a certain unit. But making the game 'friendlier' is probably the best for everyone involved, since you have to be an actual masochist if you prefer things to be painful for the sake for things being painful.

[Sire]

Reviewing my progress on the event, it looks like I will actually be able to finish everything. I cleared all 100 extra floors, and the Raids are not bad as I thought they would be. I took out chunks of their HP with whatever I had left, and I'm sure once my ST DPS get off cooldown I'll be able to blitz through the raids with little issue.

[Alexmender]

They certainly are going fast with the events on NA. The Valentine's event seems to be practically 2 weeks before it came out on JP. I don't really mind, but I wonder how they're going to do with the dead weeks caused by the pandemic and then the schedule hell caused by the LB6 rewrite next year. 

[Silverly]

It’s been a while huh

I’m still playing the game. In fact, when the Valentines event dropped, I was able to get my first ever NP5 SSR after saving 3k saint quartz. Yes I really enjoy Sei Shonagon that much. I still have reserves left even after achieving my dream, around 1,600ish to spare for Kingprotea and especially Castoria when she’s finally available. 

[DehNutCase]

Went into the boss blind, but Eresh/Merlin/Waver happened to basically perfectly deal with the mechanics, so it ended up really easy. I was expecting the caster to be Murasaki, though.

[Alexmender]

Yeeeeees! I finally got Eresh to NP2 (with a Fionn spook as a bonus, I guess). 

Spoiler

Iirc Eresh becomes a reliable farmer after her NP upgrade if one has KoL. I didn't want to try for the fox, but I might go to use Eresh more often. 

[DehNutCase]

Going in blind in the CQ didn't work well since I didn't realize: Assassins basically don't have class advantage, and both my DPS were asssassins. The NP removes def buffs.

Swapping in Super Orion (with bond CE Herc) meant everything ended up fine though.

[Alexmender]

Kama absolutely destroys the CQ. It took 5 turns and 1 CS due to card RNG and me not knowing the boss would get a 2 hit evade after breaking his first bar, but even without class advantage she dealt ridiculous damage. 

[Sire]

Regarding the CQ, I also used Kama as my main DPS. Sure, the Assassin Offensive Advantage only works in the 2nd phase, but at least the defensive advantage stays active and Kama gets the +50% ATK from the event bonus.
-- Team was Kama, Skadi, Support Skadi, King Hassan, Mash, and Herc Insurance

I forgot about the evasion in the 2nd phase, but managed to make it through on my first attempt. In the end I had Kama, King Hassan, and Herc still standing.

[Sire]

I missed out on the first Apoc event, so doing this one and getting a Grail was much appreciated. I think I managed to get every grail save for one that was on Valentine's, so I think I'm good. It's just a shame that grails and the like are locked behind these events and new players may never get the chance to get the full amount of grails when compared to those who have been playing from the start.
-- I did make a miscalculation regarding the final set of raids, as I thought they would open up on the 18th. Looks like I missed it, so I have to make up for it by just farming the free nodes to finish the last 25% of points and clearing out the shop.
-- As for the story, it was actually okay. I guess the talk about Sieg being better than his anime counterpart is warranted, as his anime variant was one of the weakest characters in my opinion.

The Challenge Quest was easily handled by Space Ishtar, using two Skadis and a Waver to finish it in two turns.

* * * * *

As for future thinking, I'm wondering if I want to go all the way to 120 with any of my Servants. That's a 10 Grail investment past 100, which can be used to get a more rounded lineup of Servants.
-- My original plan was to get my support lineup to 100 (maybe leaving the support casters at 92), but then the support lineup got expanded to 3 "rows." Now I have to consider if I want to try and have my entire support lineup around 100 or not.

As for potential 120 candidates, Herc Insurance is one for being the last man standing (and making him more impressive if others need him). However, he seems to function just fine, and increasing the stats on a Berserker doesn't seem as efficient as using a different class.
-- Space Ishtar is a candidate due to her farming abilities, and farming is an important part of FGO. Even if some nodes can't be looped, I still have Arash to fire off an NP, then Space Ishtar can fire off two NPs to finish off a 3 round fight.
-- Then there are my Valkyries, which is pure favoritism. I would also say Georgios, but I sadly don't use him enough and grailing a low rarity Servant seems to be a bad idea (unless its Arash, where a single grail can go a long way).

[Alexmender]

I finished the whole shop like 3 days after the event began despite having no gacha CEs (didn't even use the free 3* ones due to needing the slots for QP CEs). It was pretty hardcore farming as I went from 20M QP to 590M. I was also able to partake on the first Jack raid that lasted less than 2 hours, it was pretty fun to try and beat Jack in less than a minute because she was going down at a 10k/min rate. 

As for the CQ, I burned 2 CS to finish it in two turns with Fran and Double Skadi. I just didn't want to bother with it. 

Guess all that's left for now is wait until Olympus releases and struggle with the tough bosses. I'm also waiting for the SSR ticket to get my own Tamamo. It was like half a year of me not being able to choose between her and Waver, but I finally decided on the fox because I like her design/voice/character more even if she's not a super OP support. She's still top tier and gets better after Castoria, though. 

[ciphertul]

Speaking of Caster Altria, how does one plan for these upcoming banner?

Himiko is supposed to be amazing, Caster Altria is a meta changing servant and Summer Kiara rates high.

It sucks that the last 2 come right after the Seraph interlude. I would love to level my Protea’s np, but then Castor Altria and I could really use Summer Kiara because Jinako is my only cancer.

[Sire]

13 hours ago, ciphertul said:

Speaking of Caster Altria, how does one plan for these upcoming banner?

I guess it just depends on what you want to prioritize.
-- As farming tends to be a heavy part of FGO, I would try and get Servants who have NP Charge, can loop, or can charge the NP of other Servants. All you technically need is one good team composition, getting other Servants are just a bonus. // If you haven't leveled Arash and maxed out his NP Skill, I would highly recommend doing so as I still use Arash despite having a varied roster.
-- Having a Moon Cancer is nice, but I wouldn't go crazy about obtaining one as Avenger fights tend to be rare and they can be handled by other means (unlike Rulers and potentially Foreigners). Remember, you can always borrow a friend's Servant if you absolutely need one for a fight.
-- Of course, you can never go wrong by just going off pure favorites. As long as you are having fun, that's all that really matters.

For myself, I'm technically set as I have Waver, Skadi, and a fair amount of Servants who have NP Charge.
-- In other words, I have various ways to 3-turn nodes (3 Servants to NP, or 2 Servants with one firing off twice, or even try getting 1 Servant to fire an NP three times.)
-- I personally still use my Arash and opt for a repeat NP of the primary DPS (50% CE, 50% Self Charge, NP 1 // x2 50% Support Charge, NP 2) instead of having a triple NP setup. (Although I could run a Quick-Loop setup, it only works in certain circumstances and I still lack a MLB Kaleidoscope. I also rather not use the Plugsuit since it is already capped.)

For banners, this year I plan on just focusing on Caster Artoria, although a part of me would like to get Kama to NP2.
-- There are a bunch of Servants I would like to have, but focusing on Caster Artoria to open up more compositions is better for me (even though Space Ishtar will likely remain my primary DPS). Having a varied composition is nice as I may be able to run Event Servants instead of just relying on my classic teams.
-- There's also the thing about next-year lineup being insane, so I'm also trying to save some Quartz for that.

One thing to keep in mind is I believe future events deliberately try to set up battles to discourage Quick or even Arts looping, so having NP charge supports or another DPS Servant can be quite valuable when it comes to 3-turning encounters. 

Edited March 19, 2022 by Sire

[Alexmender]

On 3/18/2022 at 4:48 AM, ciphertul said:

Speaking of Caster Altria, how does one plan for these upcoming banner?

Himiko is supposed to be amazing, Caster Altria is a meta changing servant and Summer Kiara rates high.

Outside of whaling it's just a matter of setting priorities and hoping your 1st target is kind on you and doesn't take all your SQ. 

Castoria is easily the most important servant to get this year, because she's not only an arts looping enabler but is also like a superior combination of Waver and Jeanne for teams that aren't Arts based. Unless you don't like her for any reason, you should focus on getting her and leave everything else on the backburner. 

Moon Cancer isn't that great of a class, tbh. They beat Avengers, but you can also do that with a Berserker which tend to edge out on damage a bit because Moon Cancers tend to have a Caster-like stat spread (high Hp, low to mid Atk). Still, Kiara comes after Castoria so you can go all in with whatever you have left if you really want her. And if worse comes to worst she has a rerun next year. 

That being said, it's always better to go with your favorites rather than follow the meta, although I'd argue it's worth trying to get the meta supports to make said favorites even stronger. I may not like Tamamo Vitch's character, but I'll still pull for her in 2023 because I want to make my Ereshkigal the best she can be. 

[DehNutCase]

Finished Olympus, hardest fight was due to me taking 3 attempts to figure out that maybe I should run a def ignoring CE if I'm running into a boss that spams def up. (Did like 2 or 3 attempts without running buff removal or def ignore for some reason.) Dioscuri felt pretty strong, they were quite good even at 8/8/8 level 80, which was more or less the limit since I couldn't farm mats until finishing Olympus.

[Alexmender]

Done with LB 5.2. I had lots of trouble with an early fight that needed like 7 attempts because I couldn't deal with it (stupid bronze giant and his special dmg reduction). After that no other fight took more than 2 tries. The big bad required a CS for a full heal when the fight was almost over, but that's fair enough I think. 

The story was a too wordy at the beginning, but it got better during the last third and it was pretty awesome. I'm not too keen on 90% of the downtime being focused on praising Olympian food, and a certain moment towards the end felt kinda convoluted, but overall I liked the story. 

Spoiler

Yes, I'm talking about Musashi's sacrifice. I didn't like that they added Chaos right after Zeus was beaten. It felt forced and I would've preferred if Musashi had sacrificed herself to stop Zeus from blowing Olympus (and Earth) or something like that. Adding an intergalactic super threat that wasn't defeated and won't be relevant ever again is just...ugh.

Something to note is that I kinda wanted to roll for the Dioscuri twins before the chapter, but now I don't. Who cares if they're strong servants when Castor is an unbearable ass. I'll make due with Hokusai and Saberlot for my ST Arts saber needs.

Funnily enough it was the opposite for Caenis. I couldn't stand Caenis all the way from LB1 to LB5.1, but here I warmed up to them although I can't say I like them but at least I respect their hustle, and I won't roll because I have way too many Lancers as it is and this is the year of the welfare Lancers. The last Lancer I'll probably roll for will be Fae Lancelot, and if I roll for another one it'll be just for favoritism (and Eresh NP levels, of course).

Edited March 27, 2022 by Alexmender

[DehNutCase]

So 17 million downloads campaign is coming and so is the SSR selector ticket. I'm probably going to pick up Osakabehime since she's the only one I want out of the ones I don't have already---the other option was picking a dupe of someone I like.

The Mystic Code + QP CE is kind of uncomfortable---even if I didn't have all my Mystics Maxed I doubt I'd ever bother farming the QP dailies at this point when I get the vast majority of my QP from events. And I'd probably use some of my CE slots for damage rather than QP for events, since QP tends to drop from moderately difficult quests---and in the same vein I'd probably want to use a max level'd Mystic Code to farm more efficiently.

I'll probably roll for Musashi, although I don't see myself using her much.

[Sire]

I'm still working on the latest story chapter as I haven't had time to properly sit down and play through it. // Currently, I'm trying to get through all of my Interludes since the 1/2 AP event is going on.

As for the SSR Ticket, my options are...
-- Artoria, NP4: She is my primary AoE Saber, and getting another copy of her may help with the Servant Coins down the line. I don't know how much a need for her +20% charge, but the more coins she has, the better I suppose. Also, getting a Servant to NP5 would be kinda cool, especially when choosing her for supports.
-- Altera: I love huke's artstyle and Altera is one of the characters I always wanted to get. It's just a shame her skillset is a bit "meh" for my needs, save for niche situations where I need to remove Invul or Evasion from enemies. Altera would be my "favorite" pick if I disregarded gameplay mechanics.
-- Waver NP2: Going from 30% DEF Down to 40% DEF Down can be worthwhile, and makes him a more appealing support since he has a higher NP rank.
-- Sanzang: I do lack a good, favored ST Caster, although personally I'm hoping to roll an Illya someday to fulfill that role. At the moment I just use Alter Egos or Berserkers (or use a support if I really need an Anti-Assassin). Alternatively, I run Circe and/or Medea.
-- Tamamo NP3: Mostly for fluff, as a 250 HP increase is insignificant for her NP.
-- Vlad: He's a cool Servant, it's just a shame he is a bit niche and I have an outfitted Herc for outlasting opponents.
-- Jeanne Ruler: A support Jeanne helped me a lot in my early days, and a part of me would like to have another Ruler (aside from Summer Martha) on my team. Alas, time has seemingly not been that kind to Jeanne as other options seem superior at the moment.

[YotsuMaboroshi]

5 hours ago, Sire said:

-- Vlad: He's a cool Servant, it's just a shame he is a bit niche and I have an outfitted Herc for outlasting opponents.

From a strictly gameplay perspective, with Castoria's release Vlad stops being niche and starts being one of the better single-target DPS (one of the best actually, though NP1 hampers his damage just a bit).  That somewhat assumes you can pull Castoria, but since you already have Tamamo and Waver, you could always borrow a support Castoria to run Vlad comps and he'd probably still work fairly well.

Edited April 8, 2022 by YotsuMaboroshi

[Alexmender]

Getting that ticket Tamamo to 90 10/10/10 instantly felt really good. Now I just need to bond farm with her to make her permanent. Then it'll be time to start working on Odysseus. 

[ciphertul]

I know a lot of players are really enjoying this GSSR ticket… but that list is really weak.

[Rezzy]

On 4/15/2022 at 8:31 AM, ciphertul said:

I know a lot of players are really enjoying this GSSR ticket… but that list is really weak.

Waver and Tamamo are both really good supports if you don't have either of them.  

[ciphertul]

1 minute ago, Rezzy said:

Waver and Tamamo are both really good supports if you don't have either of them.  

That is an IF, players who have been playing awhile probably already have them

[Alexmender]

On 4/17/2022 at 5:12 PM, ciphertul said:

That is an IF, players who have been playing awhile probably already have them

You're really underestimating that 1% SSR rate on the gacha. I've been playing this game for like 4 years now and I needed the ticket to get Tamamo (and still don't have Waver). And it's not like I didn't get those 2 by a lack of trying, they just never showed up whenever I rolled on their rate up banners. I'm sure those that are extremely happy about the SSR ticket are in a similar spot, they tried time and time again to get whatever permanent SSR they wanted but luck wasn't on their side.