MrSmokestack SSR AOE Tier List (June 2019)

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SSR AOE Tier List
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Total SSRs: 37

EX (2)
Edmond Dantes
Gilgamesh

S (5)
Achilles
Arjuna (Alter)
Cleopatra
Katsushika Hokusai
Minamoto no Raikou

A (16)
Amakusa Shirou
Anastasia Nikolaevna Romanova
Bradamante
Ereshkigal
Francis Drake
Ishtar
Ivan the Thunder Emperor
Jeanne d'Arc (Archer)
Karna
Kingprotea
Napoleon
Nero Claudius (Caster)
Nikola Tesla
Ryougi Shiki (Saber)
Scheherazade
Sessyoin Kiara

B (9)
Altria Pendragon
Altria Pendragon (Lancer)
Ganesha
Leonardo Da Vinci
Mordred
Murasaki Shikibu
Okita Souji (Alter)
Shuten-Douji
Xiang Yu

C (4)
Altera
Arjuna
Arthur Pendragon (Prototype)
Semiramis

D (1)
Iskandar

E (0)

--EX--
Edmond Dantes- Currently the best DPS servant overall. Thanks to NP interlude and Golden Rule, Dantes has massive neutral damage (that increases with consecutive NPs) and a high refill rate. There isn't much more to him than that; he hits things hard and is really damn good at it.

Gilgamesh- Still the poster child of Buster DPS even after three years. Similar to Dantes, Gil has excellent neutral damage and NP refill, albeit slighly worse than the former. However, due to Merlin synergy Gil is better when not blitzing. Because of his NP battery, Gil also has more flexible CE options.

--S--
Achilles- Achilles is essentially Quick's "ideal" pointman, packing damage, survivability, and utility all in one kit. Pride of the Rearguard that trades scaling for battery is an interesting sidegrade that helps enable NP spam. While his buffs overlap with Skadi, he's still a strong waveclearer that can reliably make stars and crit with them. Strong, well-roundes servant overall.

Arjuna (Alter)- The Lostbelt King of Yuga Kshetra is the best AOE Berserker we've gotten since Raikou. Specializing in massive, sustained damage, his NP damage is best described as "Jeanne Alter but AOE". He even has a 30% battery to make him a viable Black Grail user for even more damage. Compared to Gilgamesh, Arjuna's durability and NP gain aren't as good, but as a nuke he is unmatched. If nothing else, he's the only gold Berserker with an NP charge, making him invaluable for farming.

Cleopatra- One of a rare breed of AOE Assassins, Cleo is a bit of an odd duck. Her cards are excellent, and she has easy access to a hard-hitting NP that tacks Nullify Buff on all enemies. She's rarely in danger of dying due to her Golden Rule and Imperial Privilege, and she shuts down buff-heavy CQ gimmicks with ease.

Katsushika Hokusai- Oi is essentially a Berserker that resists Berserkers. She offsets her low NP damage with her SE vs Man attribute enemies as well as stacking defense downs, especially when fighting solo. Her high crit weight, NP battery, and resistance to buff removal make her Arts' best pointman for AOE CQs by far.

Minamoto no Raikou- Raikou is a two-step servant. She fires off an AOE NP, then sucks up the stars to blow up whatever is left. Easy to use and hits hard. Berserker class makes her usable in any AOE CQ, and crits + Mystery Slayer let her punch much, much harder than her NP scaling suggests.

--A--
Amakusa Shirou- Despite being infamous for his atrocious cooldowns and low NP damage, Amakusa remains a valuable servant due to his niche. He is currently the only source of AOE buff removal on NP (Ivan has it on a skill), and with it he can break many otherwise difficult fights with ease. His Ruler class enhances his survivability and makes him a strong candidate for any AOE quest with obnoxious buffs.

Anastasia Nikolaevna Romanova- Nastya is both a strong farmer--packing a hefty battery--and a solid team support. Her Charisma is a considerable Attack and Defense boost for your entire team on a short cooldown, and her stun success rate caps out at a whopping 170%. Closing out her kit is an NP that ignores invulnerability, making her a reliable damage dealer for Assassin-heavy nodes.

Bradamante- Good if basic AOE DPS. Her potential to loop is weaker than the likes of Parvati and Lancelot, but she sports respectable base stats and damage amps. Similar to Parvati, she provides some utility of her own—a targetable battery and stun on an AOE NP. Brada doesn’t do anything new, but she’s easy to use and a reliable pointman for Quick teams.

Ereshkigal- Despite her low Atk stat, Ereshkigal is a capable AOE point servant for Buster teams. Her buff value is above average (1.92 after NP), and her 50% battery gives her clear synergy with Black Grail. Her Arts card is absolutely disgusting as well, refunding up to 85% of her gauge for easy card looping. Lastly, Protection of the Underworld is also an excellent defensive skill, providing numerous beneficial effects on a reasonable CD.

Francis Drake- Drake is yet another servant that refuses to age with time. With a massive 50% battery and two sources of starburst, Drake is one of the best farming servants in the game. She even has an interluded NP and a 3-turn Invulnerability Pierce to make her a niche candidate for difficult content.

Ishtar- Ishtar compensates for her lack of NP interlude with favorable stats (3rd highest Attack of all SSR Archers) and a buff value of over 100% just from her own skills. She also frontloads her damage onto her facecards as opposed to her NP. For farming, she is one of your best choices among the Archers after Arash.

Ivan the Thunder Emperor- Compared to Ozy and Drake, Ivan trades NP charge for a unique utility: AOE buff removal. This in tandem with his Contradictory Spirit gives him reliable access to unmitigated NP damage. In the DPS department he's no slouch either, having NP Strength, Buster Up, and Buster Resist Down all in the same kit. Strong AOE pointman overall.

Jeanne d'Arc (Archer)- As far as being a DPS, Jeanne isn't winning any awards for her Attack stat. However, her NP offsets this greatly; it gens crit stars each turn, and it has a high uptime due to her refill rate.

Karna- With the highest Attack of all Lancers in the game, Karna is no slouch in the damage department. His NP after interlude demolishes Divine Archers and inflicts Buster Resistance Down, a rare but deadly debuff that lets the rest of his NPBB chain hit even harder. He has issues gathering stars, but as far as farming Lancers go you will be hard pressed to find better options.

Kingprotea- Despite her class, Kingprotea's formidable buff value of 96% and a gargantuan Atk stat that falls just short of Cu and Jeanne Alter let her hit incredibly hard. Her durability is also very impressive, as she gives herself 3,000 HP every turn for 10 turns, and extends her HP cap. With Infantile Regression and her Territory Creation EX, setting up repeat NPs is easy too. She relies on netting long-term value with Huge Scale, but for slower Buster teams Kingprotea works well as a point servant.

Napoleon- Napoleon is all about consistent, unmitigated NP damage; he ignores all defensive buffs and hits like a truck vs Divine enemies. Napoleon is really just missing an NP interlude to make him more comparable to Archer DPS like Gil and Tesla. Even so, he's such a strong all-rounder in his own right that he can't be ignored. He is obnoxiously expensive to raise however.

Nero Claudius (Caster)- With a buff value of over 100%, a crazy 2.64 Arts in a QAABB deck (nearly 4% when below half HP!), and a massive NP battery, Caster Nero is incredibly stacked. For CQs, she's a solid point servant despite her class. On top of that, she's invaluable for farming thanks to her steroids and NP battery. Overall, Nero hits hard, is fairly bulky, and has strong recursion.

Nikola Tesla- Tesla is essentially a worse Gil, and I mean that in a positive way. The majority of their SE targets overlap, but Tesla trades some stats for a bigger battery, an AOE stun, and some survivability. His buffs being chance-based hurts him somewhat, but overall he works similarly enough to Gil that his rating should reflect it.

Ryougi Shiki (Saber)- Post-interlude, Shiki is one of Art's best AOE damage dealers. Her neutral damage is now very respectable, and the team NP charge is icing. It's a huge reversal from the first list, but that can be blamed on Art's general lack of strong, class-agnostic AOE DPS servants.

Scheherazade- Schez is another stall-oriented damage dealer. However, don't let her low Attack and steroids fool you; One Thousand and One Nights is her secret weapon. Its SE modifier is much higher than usual, heaping 100% extra damage instead of the usual 50% from servants like Gilgamesh. This essentially grants her class advantage against King servants--who are surprisingly common in CQs--and the list of Kings that are already Assassin or Berserker is not insignificant. She's certainly more niche than Nero and Nastya, but Schez has the potential to hit much harder while being just as survivable.

Sessyoin Kiara- Kiara is the most unique of the Alter Egos. She packs onesided class advantage vs Rulers and gets a passive defense boost against nearly every servant. Although she has damage issues due to her class and lack of steroids, Heaven's Hole ignores all forms of defense. A niche but powerful choice versus long, mixed cavalry nodes.

--B--
Altria Pendragon- Another AOE Saber with interlude. Like Mordred, she has an NP charge, but she also has charisma to go alongside it. That extra bit of team support arguably pushes her ahead of her son, but the two function about the same in practice.

Altria Pendragon (Lancer)- The Lion King is a decent if bland farming Lancer. She has a massive 50% battery backed by decent base stats and steroids. Aside from invuln pierce on NP, she doesn't have much to offer in difficult content.

Ganesha- I personally think Jinako was intended to be a point servant in a similar vein to Qin Shi Huang, but her support role is still pretty strong. Sporting one of the best Charismas in the game and a taunt on short CD, she's very durable and provides good team support.

Leonardo Da Vinci- Sporting a short cooldown Guts, passive healing and NP charge, and a massive battery, Da Vinci is bulky and can easily fire off repeat NPs. Defense Ignore also gives her a good damage floor.

Mordred- Mordred is a straightforward AOE Saber; charge NP, nuke. She won't have much trouble keeping herself alive thanks to her defense buff and debuff clear, but she doesn't offer much besides damage.

Murasaki Shikibu- Much like Benienma and Semiramis, Murasaki is most valued for her AoE Cleanse Resistance. As a point servant however, her class is not ideal. Fortunately, Demonic enemies are not uncommon when it comes to farming, so she might see some use there.

Okita Souji (Alter)- First, the positives: Okita is tied with Arthur for the 5th highest Attack of any servant in the game. In addition, her cards are excellent and her skills are focused. Unfortunately, it's wasted on a farming servant at best. Alter Egos are not famous for their damage, and having a non-interluded NP on top of that puts a severe cap on her potential.

Shuten-Douji- Shuten is saved by having high base stats, an awesome damage amp in Demonic Magic, and an AOE charm that works regardless of gender. Unfortunately, that's where the positives end. The debuffs on her NP are miniscule even when stacked, and the charm chance is a static 60%. Overall, she's an interesting if unreliable pointman for Arts teams.

Xiang Yu- My previous evaluation of Yu as "worse Lancelot" was probably too harsh. His card damage is massive, and a support Bryn lets him go places. Pair that with a dodge and Invuln Pierce for stability, and you get a serviceable if not stellar point Berserker.

--C--
Altera- Altera fares worse compared to the other AOE Sabers because she lacks an NP battery, even if everything else is equal. Her facecard damage is quite good, but exchanging a harder-hitting NP for that is not a good trade.

Arjuna- After going through so many strong Archers, Arjuna seems incredibly disappointing. His skills don't help matters either; his best one is on an obnoxiously long cooldown, and the other two are either niche (5 turn debuff immunity) or vanilla (Mana Burst). Furthermore, his NP is by far the worst out of all of them; it would be downright terrible if it lacked an interlude. On the whole, Arjuna isn't bad, but he is definitely the worst SSR Archer by a long shot.

Arthur Pendragon (Prototype)- He has the highest Atk stat of all Sabers in the game...and that's it? Not many servants have massive starburst skills, and Arthur is one of the few lucky ones with it. He's still not as good as Artoria, Mordred, and Shiki, but he's more comparable to Altera. I consider him better by virtue of his passive NP generation.

Semiramis- In a lot of ways, Semiramis is a highly experimental servant; she's an Assassin with a Caster deck whose primary damage amp is an enemy debuff. In this case, unfortunately, "experimental" doesn't equate to being very good. Double Summon's bonus effect is generally not relevant unless you're bringing her vs mixed nodes. Arrogant King's Alcohol is hampered by two very pointless and debilitating downsides for what is essentially a Mana Burst. At the very least, NP battery and interlude gives her a niche in farming. She isn't terrible or anything, just mediocre.

--D--
Iskandar- 3 damage skills. 1 interlude NP. The result? An overly bursty Rider that is not doing anything for the rest of the battle.

--E--
There is no such thing as a useless AOE SSR. Not a one.