Talk:Christmas 2016 Event/@comment-77.13.56.41-20161123194835/@comment-29893250-20161124101427

These would be the ones I'd look at first. Generally 1-2 star aren't your servants to hit like a truck other than niche ones (though sometimes those niches are large) so we're primarily looking at support servants. I'll list them in order of which ones I'd prioritize in the sense of bang for your buck if you're super new.

Mashu. Mashu is good to start. She costs 0 to field. She gets good at London. She gets ridiculous in Camelot. She will get even more ridiculous probably in Babylon and if not there some time following.

Saint George. If you're just starting, you can go through quite a few campaigns with the strategy called "support your support servant". In other words, keep that level 90-100 support alive while it murders your enemies. Saint George is the best meatshield for that. He's good but falls closer to the middle of the pack out of this later. Which is still good.

Cu Chulainn (Fate). So there's this 3 star that out-survives 5 stars. His name is Cu. He does not die when he is killed.

Hans Christain Andersen. Imagine a more squishy Waver that keeps everyone going like the Energizer Bunny and makes things take a little longer. He will, however, make you heal for days while doing just about everything else better too. He also pairs excellently with Jalter, making her crits hit even more nicely. Arguably one of the strongest on this list but until you have a couple more arts based servants not the best if you're totally new without much. He works once you have the engine to help him support you. Of course you could easily have that Bathory Caster....

Euryale. The male slayer. Where there are males, she does hit like a truck, outdamaging 5 stars.

Cursed Arm Hassan. Not bad. Easy to raise. However unlike the others on this list who I'd often use even with a bunch of gold servants, he generally won't make that cut. y

Paracelsus von Hohenheim. Another case that will generally be replaced once you have a gold caster. However, he's got a lot going for him. Target guts, massive NP gen, a respectable noble phantasm, and a big arts team buff makes him really nice for a starting arts team. If you lack a caster to actually do damage because you went with Hans (like you should), he may be the early hitter you're looking for.

Here are some things I'd recommend not starting out with as far as game mechanics go. Talking bronze and silver of course.

Berserkers in general. Berserkers are all about hitting hard and 1-3 stars generally aren't up that alley. Asterios can get pretty good but only if you can tailor support to him... or if you're trolling Tristan. Chances are you don't have that support to make Asterios do silly things.

Servants that you will have big difficulties ascending. Look at their ascension materials first. Look at what the events are giving you. If it is asking for a bunch of stuff that you're going to have a hard time farming, save it for later. You'll have no shortage of others in line.

Sabers in general. Do you NEED a saber to go through the story? No, not really. You can get away with support only. Gold sabers are plentiful. You will get one soon enough either because you did (Bathory) or because you'll roll one. There are 3 star saber that aren't bad but none with the gameplay longevity I'd really want. The "There are too many sabers" meme doesn't exist for no reason.

Servants that aren't on your main team. Spreading your exp around to level 20 servants evenly is a great way to move through the game like a snail. Even splitting so you're leveling one servant of each class is a great way to go slow. Focusing on your main team and shoving all your exp to them for a while till they're stable is going to get you places faster and once you get places, you'll have a better idea of where to allocate future exp. I had a level 50, a 45, and 3 level 40s on my first day with no apples or quartz through some efficient use of the leveling AP full recharge. Have others probably done better than that? I'm sure. However, that's a team I took halfway through Okeanos by the time the day was over. Seems a decent enough start to me. The most important thing is to bring yourself up to event readiness as quickly as possible because events are the quickest way to make headway either by event servants or just getting a bunch of mats that you'll need. A team in the 40-50 range is enough to be useful in events and can get you started while you're acquiring the exp cards from said event. 20+ servants all in the 20s... You're just praying for your support to carry you if you do that. I've seen someone insist on doing that. Then he fell on his face when the event mandated that he use a particular servant for a main quest that wasn't a level 100 Jalter. Don't let that be you. Even without a support, smart use of bronze and silver servants can support themselves. Mashu, Hans, and anyone with 3 arts cards has a tendency to stay alive for days. And even if you're not doing much damage, if you're living for long enough, they're dying.