Review: Ishtar

(AKA: Rin Tohsaka, Defenseless Anus, Istharin, Goddess of Love and War)

Class: Archer
Rarity: 5* (Limited)

Health: 13,965
Health + GA (100): 16,289

Attack: 12,252
Attack + GA (100): 14,402

Star Generation: 8%
Star Weight: 153
NP Gain: 0.45%
Deck: QAABB
Hits: Q:4 / A:4 / B:1 / E:7
Max Hits: 19

Rin is finally a Servant! I mean Ishtar! I mean Rinisthar! Istharin. Isthar who has full control of Rin’s body. Yeah that’s it.

We will start off with: “I’m sorry to anyone who didn’t get her.” And I laugh at you.

Let the true review begin!
Isthar has the 3rd highest ATK out of all the 5* Archers.
Isthar has the 3rd highest HP out of all the 5* Archers.

All around, pretty solid. With a pretty good ATK stat and HP stat, she can wade into battle ready to dish out the damage and take a beating in the times between that. With plenty of attack bonuses of her own to stack it up even higher. A hard hitter for sure, Ishtar plays the role of a bully, constantly dealing spikes of damage to ensure the foe stays in their place.

Star generation is not all that great, aside from the hit counts on her 1 QUICK Card and her EXTRA, she won’t be generating that many stars. For optimum stars, try to cap a QUICK card at the end of a chain instead of the beginning, since her only other options are two ARTS cards which provide nearly no stars at all and your BUSTERS, who only have 1 hit each. Star Weight comes into play with her, as all Archers do. Naturally drawing in stars to grant herself critical strikes.

NP Gain wise, while it may seem low, this is but a farce due to the insane EXTRA hit count, two ARTS cards of which have decent hits as well. To give some basic math without including card bonuses, basing it just on the hits alone: 0.45 * 4 hits = 1.8%. This of course is given further boon by placing the ARTS card first and another ARTS card at the end of a rotation. Optimally, you will go AQA to get the most mana. Which is quite a lot, all things considered.

It’s honestly power creepy as hell.

Her deck is very solid, honestly super solid. QAABB allows her to spam her Noble Phantasm effectively, combined with her Archer status means that stars naturally come to her already. With BUSTER cards she can nuke harder, and with ARTS cards she can spam more NP to hurt people even more than she already has.

Skills

Skill 1: Manifestation of Beauty (B)
Increase attack for 3 turns.
Increase critical damage for 3 turns.
Rank 1 (Both): 10% / Rank 10: 20%
CD Rank 1: 7 / CD Rank 10: 5

Manifestation of Beauty is a very solid skill, giving herself the benefits of 20% Attack [at Max] and her allies as well. A suped up Charisma combining with it a 20% Critical Strike Damage bonus for 3 turns. It helps herself out considerably because of the way she attracts stars to herself naturally, giving herself a greater boost to the damage spikes she’ll obtain.

Very solid skill, works great with Star Generator teams.

Skill 2: Radiant Great Crown (A)
Chance to gain invulnerability for 1 turn.
Chance to ignore invulnerability for 1 turn.
Increase NP gauge
Rank 1: 30% / Rank 10: 50%
CD Rank 1: 8 / CD Rank 10: 6

Amazing skill in and of itself, granting 50% NP fill right off the bat and also giving you two extra bonus buffs, one of which is godly in it’s utility. Invulnerability can be utilized when you know the enemy is about to use their NP, and if anything else – it completely halts the foe’s attempts to further damage you and also gives you some NP for free from defending.

With the piercing Invulnerability, you’ll easily pierce through any dodge or invuln on her your NP and combo following it.

Skill 3: Mana Burst (Jewel) (A+)
Increases ATTACK for 1 turn after 1 turn.
Rank 1: 30% / Rank 10: 50%
CD Rank 1: 5 / CD Rank 10: 3

While it does require a bit of prediction, since it places a timer that keeps you waiting for one turn – there are ways to predict what cards are going to be shuffled into your hand. As well, it works very good with the Mage’s Association Uniform since it can allow you to reshuffle your hand if for some reason you goofed or just can’t be bothered to look into predicting deck shuffles.

That demerit aside, the buff itself is gigantic and in combination with her first skill can peak her damage performance astronomically. Using your 1st skill, having some stars prepared, and either having full mana or using your 2nd skill prior to your next turn to free up your NP – if timing your deck properly can lead to a truly devastating combo of NPBB all of which have a critical hit bonus and a whopping 70% ATTACK bonus.

Stellar right?

The downside – if you fail to predict, you waste the buff completely because even if the damage is a 50% bonus, sometimes better card shuffles for other Servants are given; such as BUSTER chains, other Cards with higher Crit %, or simply someone who can perform a BRAVE-chain. It’s all in the cards.

Passive Skills

Magic Resistance (A): Increased debuff resistance by 20%.
Independent Action (A): Increased critical strike damage by 10%.
Divine Goddess Core (B): Increased flat damage by 225 and debuff resistance by 25.5%.

Ain’t nothing going to get past her innate debuff resistance, it is super good. As well, her Divinity isn’t totally useless since it’s giving out a free 225 damage per card, which can in a brave chain equal out to 900 extra damage. The IA gives you yet another Critical Damage bonus which is also good.

Noble Phantasm

Angalta Kigalshe
Kindle of Venus that Shook the Mountains

Rank: A++
Type: Anti-Mountain / All Enemies
Card: BUSTER

Increases BUSTER performance for 1 turn.
Powerful attack to all enemies.

Damage: 300-500%
Charge: 100-500%
Buster Overcharge: 20-60%

While most people won’t be able to get more then NP1 of Ishtar, those can chain her NP with others or use Edison [or the newly upcoming CE] can make great use of the BUSTER overcharge effect to capitalize on damage output. That being said, this is pretty much just wave clear plain and simple.

Try to time your 3rd skill on the turn of your NP and hopefully with two BUSTER cards to make for one powerful NPBB chain. Make sure to have your 1st skill active as well. Use your 2nd skill if enemy has dodge or invuln, or if you need this Noble Phantasm quick.

Also it’s ridiculous, the whole animation and NP itself.

Skills and Ascension Routes + Route

Ascension Path: Octuplet Twin Crystals (8) / Phoenix Plume (8) / Scarab of Wisdom (6) / Tear Stone of Blood (8)
[The materials required to fully ascend a Servant]

Not a fun grind, though the Plumes are not that big of a deal.
Camelot locked due to Scarabs.
America locked due to Tear Stones.

Hard difficulty.

Skill Path: Phoenix Plume (12) / Octuplet Twin Crystals (15) / Snake Jewels (15) / Lamp of Sealed Evil (15)
[The materials required to fully level a skill from 1-10] 

If you didn’t like plumes, crystals, snake jewels, or lamps – well good luck! It’s a hard road to Rank 10 for Ishtar’s skills. The Lamps are locked behind Camelot or event rewards, and the remaining materials usually take awhile, especially the Snake Jewels. Which you will need in bulk.

Very hard difficulty.

Skill Route: Manifestation 1-2-3-4-5-6 –> Radiant 1-2-3-4-5-6 –> Mana Burst 1-2-3-4-5-6 –> Radiant 7-8-9-10 –> Manifestation 7-8-9-10 –> Mana Burst 7-8-9-10.
[The skills you should level and in which order]

Choose which route you prefer: More NP Spam, More team based, or more deck prediction. If NP spam, go 2-3-1. If team based, go 1-2-3, if damage carry focused with deck prediction go 3-1-2.

Craft Essence Recommendations

Priority: Limited Zero Over / King’s Companion / Heroine Chan’s Eli-Adventure
Secondary: Joint Recital / Victor from the Moon / Golden Sumo Wrestling
Tertiary: Summertime Mistress / Hotspring of the Moon / Praise Me!
NP Damage only: Black Grail
Supporty: Holy Maiden Leading Chaldea
Other: Azure Magical Girl

Damage should be your only priority on Isthar. With a CE like King’s Companion you can instantly get her NP on turn 1, or aim for Heroine Chan’s Eli Adventure or Limited Zero Over for more overall damage. If critical focused, go for the Secondary Craft Essences or simply pop a Golden Sumo Wrestling and really spike that damage output from the stacking ATTACK bonuses you have from her 1st and 3rd skill.

Teammate Recommendations

Saber: All, excluding Siegfried.

Archers: EMIYA / Gilgamesh / Kid Gil / Robin Hood / David / Oda Nobunaga / Tesla / Arjuna / Billy the Kid / Tristan / Tawara / Archeria / Anne and Mary / Kuro.

Lancers: Elizabeth Bathory / Benkei / Leonidas / Romulus / Hector / Artoria (Alter) / Artoria / Karna / Fionn / Brynhildr / Li Shuwen

Riders: Saint George / Edward Teach / Boudica / Ushiwakamaru / Artoria (Santa) / Medb / Iskandar / Ramesses II / Mordred (Surfer) / Saint Martha

Casters: Gilles de Rais / Mephistopheles / Hans / Shakespeare / Mozart / Cu Chulainn / Elizabeth Bathory (Halloween) / Tamamo / Nursery Rhyme / Helena / Edison / Irisviel / Xuanzang / Marie Antoinette (Volleyball) / Illya

Assassins: All, excluding Phantom of the Opera.

Berserkers: Heracles / Lu Bu / Spartacus / Asterios / Nightingale / Ibaraki Doji

Other: Joan of Arc (Alter) / Dantes / Joan of Arc

Teammate Synergy

Star Generator + Attack Buffer
EX: Stheno + Elizabeth Bathory (Lancer)

[Truly insane… 20% + 50% + 40% + 40% = 150% Attack Bonus]

Arts Star Generator + Buster Buffer
EX: Hundred Faced Hassan + Shakespeare

I want Overcharge
EX: Edison + Nero Bride
[How’s 40-60% BUSTER performance sound? Sound good doesn’t it?]

BUSTER Buffs
EX: Leonidas + Shakespeare.

Two Star Generators
EX: Shuten Douji + Hassan of Serenity

Back Together
EX: EMIYA + Hercules + Cu Chulainn + Gilgamesh + Artoria Pendragon + Medea + Medusa + Regend

Buster ST Nuker + Super Buffer
EX: Ramesses II + Hans

Pros and Cons + Role

Pros: Power Creepy / Strong ATTACK / Stacking Attack Buffs / VERY Splashable due to skill set and deck / high NP Gain due to crazy high hits and deck / 50% NP fill WITH 2 Side Effects / Nuke with overcharge damage / nearly perfect unit design due to high carry weight, hits, and deck + skill kit

Cons: Star gen is shit / No Survival / requires timing for 3rd skill, or prediction. If you can’t do either, then it’s your own damn fault now isn’t it you whiny bastard / very expensive material costs

Role: Nuker / Wave Clear / Semi-Support with Damage Focus

Overview

Ishtar is honestly overwhelming as fuck. That’s the best way to describe her. If you can accurately time her 3rd skill with your chains and Noble Phantasm, she can top nearly every other Servant at her level on the damage charts. Excluding presently, Gilgamesh due to his insane damage bonus versus Servants.

She’s got NP fill, Invuln, high hit counts, proper deck, team aid, high star weight for critical ARTS or BUSTER for NP spamming or damage focus. Her CD’s are all average for what they are worth. One of the most splashable Archers I’ve seen in awhile, due to that 1st skill and deck. Capable of dipping into Critical Focus teams, NP Damage-Spam teams, ARTS teams, BUSTER teams, which covers nearly all the bases aside from stalling, debuffing, and survival.

That being said, Isthar has the best damage potential out of all the 5* Archers due to the stacking attack bonuses and overcharge bonus. It’s her entire focus. It’s what she’ll do best and outperform others in this role.

If you want more anti-Servant focus, go Gilgamesh.
If you want more CC and survival, go Tesla.
If you want anti-Divine, go Arjuna.
If you want better ST damage, go Orion or Archeria.

But if you want someone who can deal great levels of damage without relying on others, use Isthar. She’s very self reliant, and would be one of the best if she had any form of survival, which she doesn’t. This will prevent her from soloing a number of future events.

Her optimal damage performance will be with a Star Generator focused team, Attack buff focused team, or simply an overcharge team with the aid of Edison who can provide stars and NP Overcharge without needing to rely on others.

All that aside, I see Ishtar as a problem child due to the above mentioned. Her skills are what previous skills were, and automatically stack them in her favor. Giving her what others would require Interludes and plenty of SQ’s to even compare to. From NP fills to insane Attack stacks w/ BUSTER overcharge: Ishtar has it all in one package, making previous 5* pale in comparison.

This isn’t to say the others aren’t good, or better in their own fields versus her, it’s just saying that Ishtar has a much easier time getting damage for very little effort or design since it’s all built in to roid her up from the get-go. She’s quite literally a no brainer Servant, with the only demerit being the Master [yes, the Master] if they time her 3rd skill poorly. And even then, you can just use the shuffle suit and escape the problem [potentially].

Great Archer, great pick, super power creepy though.

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Now on to the next review, everyone have a great day!