Thread:Hitsuji Mamoru/@comment-27971189-20180124150902/@comment-36470477-20180805050548

When I saw Skadi's 1st skill boosting crits only on Quick cards, I couldn't help but laugh a little. If it was simple 50% general crit buff to stack up with her NP effect, it would've been amazing, and I might've considered throwing in more tickets than a mere handful.

One of the first noticable problems with Quicks is their damage multiplier: 0.8x, which is almost half of the Buster's 1.5x.

You might say, but that's only fair. After all, Quicks are cards that can gen both stars and NP gauge, and absolutely, for some servants, it works out. But there are far too many servants in game who have 2 hit Quicks that do NEITHER, essentially making them dead draws. For some, this is only one card of their deck, and so it can be somewhat excused, but for others (many in the Lancer class suffer from this in particular w/ QQABB decks, and would probably prefer QAABB instead) with 2 Quicks cards, it just becomes awkward attacks that maybe you'll be forced to throw out just for stalling to get some NP/skill charge before moving forward.

For servants with one Arts card, this is never an issue. Why? The NP gain stat is balanced on the Arts hit count of each individual servant, also taking into account how many Arts cards the servant has. As such, Arts cards are practically never dead draws for any servant, more or less always being worth the use to gain NP gauge. (In cases of triple Arts servants not really getting much out of each individual Art card, it balances out with more reliable Arts chains, which is actually another important mechanic I'll address later.)

Star generation, however, does not share this convenience, for whatever reason being more or less static within a servant class. Additionally, the cap of getting 3 stars per hit severely limits the performance of some Assassins who are unfortunate enough to have 2 hit Quicks, as all the star gen in the world simply won't help create a decent amount of stars. (Notably, when DW strengthened the star gen buff of Kojirou's 3rd skill from 30 to 90%. It kinda helps, but ultimately I would've much preferred them simply giving a +1 to his Quick hit count during his animation update. It also wouldn't be completely unprecedented, given that they have increased some Extra hit counts in the past.) The lack of a cap of NP gain on each hit of an attack is quite fantastic in comparison, leading to some amazing things like Mordred Rider being able to spam NP turn after turn with the help of one or two Tamamos and/or a good CE. (In fact, my method of choice for quick QP farming.) Arts crit overkill should also be sufficient evidence for how ridiculous things can get.

I will make a slight note for some 2 hit Quicks actually not being complete garbage, but that is only due to such situations of where they simply have a relatively high hit count compared to their Arts hit count. (In essence, a 2 hit Quick and a 1 hit Arts, meaning double the Quick hits.) The NP gain stat being balanced around the Arts hit count really shows itself here. A servant like Kiyo may not be able to make many stars at all with her Quick, but just by using an Arts boosted, Overkill, and/or critical Quick, she can get a decent enough NP charge off of it. Compare this to servants like Emiya or Tamamo, who actually have higher hit counts in their Arts than Quick for whatever reason, and as such have almost completely useless Quick cards. (Like I said earlier, dead draws that you just kind of wish weren't in the deck at all.) Ironically, however, this system also means some servants with high hit count Buster cards can do some crazy things like Kiyo Lancer with her 6 hit Buster (triple that of her 2 hit Arts), Mad Enhance EX, and 3 turn Buster buff, who can gain some decent NP gauge with an Arts boosted Buster.

Now we get to another core mechanic of Quicks that make them just unfortunate compared to Arts and Buster cards. Chains. Arts and Buster chains are pretty good, right? We typically have some urge to do them if they are available for a reason. Buster, rather self explanatory, servants capable of performing NP-B-B Buster chains being well noted as one might expect, and Arts giving a 20% NP charge to any involved servant. Note that this 20% charge is quite generous, as Prisma Cosmos, even LB'd can only give half of that charge each turn, and even then, only to the servant it's equipped to. Compare to Fragments of 2030, which gives 10 stars each turn at LB, already having the same effect of a Quick chain by itself, and, of course, it doesn't matter which servant you equip it on. Simply put, just having two or three Fragments, even if none are LB'd, already is just a more convenient, reliable way of consistently getting stars each turn. Also of note is that chaining NP with their respective types is just better with Arts and Buster cards. Chaining an Arts NP with other servants' regular Arts cards allows them to advance their NP gauges, and again, Buster chains; self-explanatory. Becuase many Quick NPs already provide a decent amount of stars, putting them in a Quick chain and getting those meager 10 stars is underwhelming, and in some cases (Atalante) just takes you past 50, which renders the point of the Quick chain moot.

The very concept of Quick snowballing has always been somewhat silly to me, because you want the crit stars to ultimately have some sort of payoff, usually in the form of a crit providing strong NP gain from an Arts card, or high damage from a Buster. Of course, these cards typically aren't too good with star gen, meaning the snowball is over once you get the payout. As Hikaru notes, this means you need RNG to be somewhat on your side to provide Quick cards the turn before you get the necessary Arts/Buster cards. Card counting can somewhat alleviate this, but seeing what's ahead cannot always save you from what's just poor RNG, not to mention counting only has significant potential to benefit you one out of three turns.

Passive star regen just completely circumvents this headache, and one of the most significant things is that this isn't limited by silly things like poor Quick hit counts, low star gen stats outside of the Assassin class, or the 3 star per hit cap. Any servant can realize crit potential to some degree with the inclusion of Merlin, Hans, Lancelot, and/or Fragments, etc. to the team.

And finally, going back to the dead draw concept, the value of Quick cards in a servant's deck. As I mentioned, many servants have rather disappointing 2 hit count Quicks. Now some servants, notably supports like Tamamo, Jeanne, or Mashu have a 1 hit Buster that doesn't really do all that much when they come out. Why isn't this as bad as a pointless Quick card? Earlier, I touched upon Arts and Buster chains being intrinsically better than Quick chains, so they can contribute in that sense, and even then, a Buster from a support just leading into your attacker's Buster card is already a decent enough justification. An Arts card lead boost can have a noticeable effect on making other servant cards gain NP, and again, I point towards examples like Kiyo Lancer's 6 hit Buster, and even Kuro's 6 hit Arts also really enjoys being boosted by other Arts cards. A Buster card lead boost boosting damage is, much like the value of the Buster chain, very self-explanatory, and helps with your attacker's damage output if they've drawn less than 2 Buster cards, especially in cases of triple Arts attackers like Rhyme, Emiya, or Abigail, who cannot have their own Buster card boosted by a second Buster card of their own (well, in Emiya and Abi's case, it would require leading with their Buster NP).

The effect of a Quick card lead is not as potent, meaning that there is a sort of consistent value of Arts and Buster cards shared throughout the entire cast of FGO that is not present within Quick cards, for which only a portion of servants can make use of properly. Even the Assassin class of servants, which should be exemplifying Quick cards done right are not completely unified, beacuse of unfortunate stories like triple Quick, yet 2 hit count Kojirou and Keika. Kojirou's latest buff granting a 20% Quick buff for 3 turns upon NP is DW's attempt to put a bandage on this, but a 20% Quick buff means that regular Quick cards will still do less damage then Arts cards (1.0x modifier), and since Kojirou's 2 hit Quick can only make up to 6 crit stars no matter what, I can't help but imagine Kojirou being at least somewhat better if his deck was QQAAB NPA in the first place. In such a case, we could've even seen a Arts performance buff on his NP instead, which could've led to Kojirou being more aligned towards NP spam, in a similar vein to Kuro. (The NP gain off of Kojirou's Quick cards is actually not too bad, but since they can't be that effective at making stars, they're otherwise just worse Arts cards.)

I'd like to make clear that I'm still very much glad Kojirou has gotten an NP buff like this, but because the value of a Quick card lies almost entirely in its hit count, as Quick chains and lead boosts have little potency, a 2 hit count is extremely debilitating for a Quick focused servant.

TL;DR: The value of a Quick card is more or less entirely self-contained. If it's not good on its own in a vacuum, whether through being able to make a good amount of stars or NP gain by itself, which I feel doesn't apply to a significant fraction of servants, then it's just a dead draw, since Quick chains and lead boosts are ineffective compared to that of Arts and Buster.

Like the above Youtube video says, Jack and Kintoki Rider are great Quick servants, and that speaks more to their status as exceptions rather than the rule.

On a more personal note, I believe a good way to buff Quick cards would be something like making their chains gain the effect of boosting next turn's critical damage for servants who participated in the Quick chain. While I would also like if the 3 star per hit cap was removed, it would absolutely bust Jack, so that's a no go. The next turn crit damage would still make things pretty dependant on RNG, but it's honestly the only way I can see Quicks getting better.

Tamamo and Merlin did not suddenly make Arts and Buster cards amazing. Those card types were always solid in their own right, and these two just added complementary support especially through their own unique skillsets. Tamamo with skill and NP charge through her own NP, and Merlin through powerful regenerative and critical based effects.

In my opinion, there can't really be a support that "saves" Quick cards. If there was such a case, then the value of Quick cards would become entirely dependant on using that servant, and that's not exactly what I'd consider saving Quick cards would be. Releasing another Jack or Kintoki Rider wouldn't change anything either. It would just be another powerful monster, leaving the rest of the Quick servants in the dust. I can't imagine much saving Quick cards save for changing an actual mechanic or aspect of the game in order to increase the value they're able to bring to a deck.