FGO Review : Edison

FGO Review : Thomas Edison
“American Leomon”

  • ·         Default Biography

Thomas Alva Edison is an inventor originated from America.
As a person born in the 19th century, he boasts worldwide popularity, but his capacity as a Servant is somewhat inferior due such modernity.
In order to compensate for that in this summoning, the successive generations of Presidents that supported the nation called America are being treated as a kind of Craft Essence that reinforces the concept called “Edison”

  • ·         General Impressions

First I thought that somehow a Digimon got himself into FGO through some collaboration but it turns out it was Edison, and I was like “WHAT!?”. A triple Arts Caster class which is pretty common among the goldies but his true strength comes in his Concept Improvement (third skill) that boosts the Overcharge level by 2 stage and his NP that I would call the “Global Silence” of FGO since it can silence skills and NP of enemies albeit for 1 turn only but as with Ozymandias, one well placed NP can save your party a Command Seal or a Saint Quartz.
  • ·         Stats Overview

ID: 103
Cost: 12
ATK: 1325/7952
HP: 1901/11882
Grail ATK: 9628
Grail HP: 14407
Attribute: Man
Growth Curve: Semi Reverse S
Star Absorption: 51
Star Generation: 10.6%
NP Charge ATK: 0.51%
NP Charge DEF: 3%
Death Rate: 60%
Alignments: Lawful・Neutral
Gender: Male

Traits: Humanoid, Male, Servant, Weak to Enuma Elish

This is the Saint Martha (Rider) case again where HP is at the level of a 5* at the cost of attack power so if you want to use Edison as damage dealer then good luck utilizing him to the best potential but I prefer to use him as semi support since he can boost either his own damage or other members with his skills, not to mention since his HP is on par with a 5* means he can be a tank a lot of punishments without CE or skills. Star Absorption is bad but this is the Caster class standard so I think this helps other members especially if you use other servants as damage dealer aside from Berserker Class so if you are for example, use Hijikata as a damage dealer then you will need a substantial amount of Crit stars to compensate. Alignments are good though since again, there are no units that counters the neutral alignment. No need to mind the NP Charge ATK if you think it is so small since he is a triple Arts hand so its good if you want to play the NP Spammer not to mention his hit counts are more generous than Waver so it pretty much covers the small numbers in practice. The other thing that are good is his traits since there will be less specific counters to him. Edison is 4* (cost 12) to boot so more room for servants to join in if you want to make a 6 man team (again, if you have the appropriate setups of CEs).
  • ·         Command Cards


             Quick : 3 hits                                       Arts : 3 hits                                          Buster : 3 hits
Extra : 5 hits
Like I said, 3 hit Arts and a triple Arts card means no need to worry about his NP gain at all especially if you equip NP gain CE or Prisma Cosmos (8% NP charge per turn) and if you bring Tamamo or Waver along the way then all you need to think is how to deal a significant amount of damage in one turn. Buster 3 hits while it is nice since most busters are 1 hit only so its only good as a starter card if you are looking to deal damage with Edison while charging his NP gauge. Quick 3 hits on the other hand is best put last so that damage and Crit Star generation can go hand in hand. Overall your best bet is go to for Arts damage boost since it can also boost NP gain (in my experience at least) thus making NP even more spammable since his ATK stat is on a 3* level as a trade off. He is not solid solo, he needs a friend.
  • ·         Skills : Active and Passive

o   Active Skills
·         Available from the start

Shapeshift C
Increases own defense for 3 turns.
Level
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
Defense +
16%
16.8%
17.6%
18.4%
19.2%
20%
20.8%
21.6%
22.4%
24%
Cooldown
7
6
5

A fairly standard stuff, it adds to Edison’s tanking capacity. Cooldown period is also nice since on level 10 if you bring Tamamo as a partner (be it your own or your friends) you can spam this skill to keep the survivability of Edison provided you know how to abuse Tamamo’s NP (pro tip : it’s easy). Edison is on par with Vlad III (berserker), and Kiyohime (Berserker). Outclassed by Tamamo (Cat (B) and Mae (A)), Ibaraki Douji (A), Osakabehime (A+), and Nursery Rhyme (A+). Its quite sad since on rank A there is further defense up by 30% for 1 turn but at least Edison’s is above 20%.

Unlocks after 1st Ascension

Mass Production A
Gain critical stars each turn for 5 turns
Charges own NP gauge for 5 turns.
Level
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
Stars +
5
6
6
7
7
8
8
9
9
10
NP +
5%
5.5%
6%
6.5%
7%
7.5%
8%
8.5%
9%
10%
Cooldown
12
11
10

A unique skill that only Edison got, but it got a flip side that can be quite annoying but nevertheless can be ignored. It is true that 10% NP gauge per turn is very nice since it goes for 5 turns thus 50% total not to mention the Arts card usage you already have and 10 crit star per turn is always appreciated but the cooldown is so long that on any level before 10 makes it not that viable. Let’s count for a bit, for level 1 to 5 the cooldown is 12 turns but the duration is 5 turns which means the clean cooldown goes for 7 turns (if this calculation is wrong the error range will be about one turn which can be ignored) and it will still be long that a double Tamamo team might have problem spamming this skill on Edison but on level 10 the clean cooldown is 5 turns so spamming gets a lot easier.

Unlocks after 3rd Ascension and Interlude

Concept Improvement A+
Boosts an ally's NP Overcharge by 2 stage for 1 turn.
Increases an ally's critical star generation rate for 1 turn.
Level
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
Star Rate +
10%
12%
14%
16%
18%
20%
22%
24%
26%
30%
Cooldown
8
7
6

Another skill that only Edison has and this one is absolutely unique since there are no servants that can do the same or similar to him. Crit star generation 30% can be completely ignored if you are using a non critical oriented servants, which is a small loss not to mention the effect last for 1 turn. The only thing that I am putting my eyes on is the Overcharge level boost by 2 and this is going to be very useful to servants that have defense down as OC (Ozymandias, Moriarty and Gilgamesh (Caster) for example) or Curse/Poison/Burn/Any other form of DoT (Tomoe, and Gorgon for example) to name a few, and we all know there are many type of OC that is very useful if on a higher level. The only thing that can replace this skill is the CE Demonic Bodhisatva but the OC boost effect goes for only one use per run and this skill can be spammed so this adds to Edison’s main strength.
My recommendation for skill leveling goes like this :
Concept Improvement > Mass Production > Shapeshift (3rd skill > 2nd skill > 1st skill)
For 2nd and 1st skill which one to level up first I entirely up to your choice, if you prefer helping the party with crit stars then level up 2nd skill but if survivability comes first then 1st skill is the go-to skill. My playstyle is to use Concept Improvement on a damage dealer Servant and swap Edison out for another buffer or just straight to Mash instead.

o   Passive Skills
Territory Creation EX (D)
Increases own Arts card performance by 4%.

Ignore the EX since its actual rank is D, maybe because Edison is a modern day Servant that these skill fall short to others. His only on par Caster is Marie Antoinette (Summer) and is outranked by many Casters, still it is nice since it helps especially his triple Arts card hand.
Item Construction EX (D)
Increases own debuff success rate by 4%.

Again, ignore the EX. He is on par with Hans Christian Andersen but far outranked by many Servants. It’s not really reliable either since his NP guarantees a lock unless ailment immunity is on.
  • NP

Before Strengthen

After strengthen

There is a reason why I call this NP “Global Silence” since it locks both skill and NP so the enemy is forced to normal attack. Damage addition after strengthen is nice since Edison’s ATK stat is so low for an SR and his OC is nice and synergize with his Shapeshift thus ensuring the survival of the party. NP lock works the same way as I explain in Ozymandias review in that natural NP gain is disabled and NP activation is also silenced and the only cure is either to rush fill with skills or NP regen buff or just straight removes the debuff entirely but with Edison, enemy skills are also silenced meaning the only cure is to have NP regen buff before you pop Edison’s NP and I highly doubt few enemies have the cure after getting hit by Edison’s NP. Overall I think this is a utility NP that is unique in its own way that can be used both aggressively and saved for that important moment between a win and a wipe. My recommendation since this is Arts NP is to put this either on 1st slot to refill NP or 3rd slot if you want to play Overcharge. Also his NP animation reminded me of 20th Century Fox intro.
  • Bond CE

Bond 10 Reward
Lights of Civilization
When equipped on Thomas Edison,
Increase NP accumulation of all allies by 15% while he's on the field.

A good CE and since Edison is not the best damage dealer this bond CE is also viable if you want to help the whole party.
  • Best to combo with…
Waver : Since this is so obvious should you feel that he has no more need to be in a best to combo with then please tell me in the comments. That aside his hand helps for faster NP refill since Edison is also a triple Arts card servant.

Tamamo no Mae : Use double Tamamo (if you have one) to spam both Concept Improvement and his NP, making sure both enemy skills and NP stays down the whole fight. Good luck with damage dealing though since it will be pretty low. Also Concept Improvement helps Tamamo a lot since her OC fills the NP gauge of the entire party

Mash : Def up 40% from OC boost? Why not? Her hand also helps with NP refill and her NP also has an attack boost which helps Edison

Jeanne d’Arc : Health regen OC, the better the OC level the better the regen. Simple as that.


Osakabehime : This irks me the most since her Quick boost depends on her OC level thus Demonic Bodhisatva and Concept Improvement is required for full OC effect (the guaranteed method at least), it is true her skill last for 3 turns but I prefer to take 50% for 1 turn with no setup required rather than 50% for 3 turns with setup that screams a hassle for me. Her Command Cards hand helped both Edison and Osakabehime in filling NP gauge though so that’s a plus.


(just to name a few) (AND MANY MANY MORE!)
Damage Boost OC (regarless of after NP like def downs, before NP like NP damage up or against certain targets) : This has got to be one of the hardest part to write about since there are so many of them so I just hand-picked one of each class. Anyway, Concept Improvement can boost their damage in a significant way and if used in combo with Demonic Bodhisatva then I can guarantee the first NP will have OC on level 5 which is AWESOME!


(just to name a few)
DoT (Damage over time) OC (poison, burn, curse, other kinds) : Concept improvement, again. If you are playing the long game then along with Tamamo no Mae you can do more DoT to the point of 3000+ damage per turn and watch the enemy lose their health while you recover yours. Watch out for debuff immunity or debuff purge skills though since it can ruin all your work in 1 turn.

  • Best CE to use

o   Limited event CE (free CE priority)


Starting NP gauge with other buffs : There is a reason I am not giving sumo to Edison and to be honest Edison Atk stat is so low I think there are few of these kind that suits him. Aside from that Golden Carp Figure (Kintoki icon) is always my go to since I prefer to put Edison in back line and swap him in to give damage dealers a boost with Concept improvement along with 20 crit stars if limit break it helps damage dealer boost their damage after NP use. Final Destination is also a viable choice since it gives 4 crit stars per turn thus synergizes with Mass Production.


o   Non-Limited CE (Get them anytime, anywhere)

Starting NP Gauge : Pretty much the safest bet for all servants since it can help to use NP faster.

Demonic Bodhisatva : Use this with Concept Improvement in combo to get the best damage your NP has to offer for the first use regardless whether Edison is using it or other servants.

Command card boosters (Arts priority) : Better Arts card equals better NP gain, and better NP gain means faster NP use, faster NP use for Edison (a triple Arts card Servant to boot) means silencing enemy skill and NP usage come more often and that is great. Comes with the risk of unstable gains though as it is not guaranteed to have triple Arts Edison card pop up.

NP regeneration : Almost the same as the previous argument, for faster NP use and since Edison is a triple Arts card hand means the NP fill boost will be good and a more stable alternative to the previous one

Fragments of 2030 : Again, it synergizes with Mass production making Edison capable of giving 20 crit stars per turn if limit break.
  • Conclusion

Edison, albeit has some skills far outclassed by other Servants in its respected departments has a unique skill no other servants have at the time of writing which is his Concept Improvement. His HP along with his Shapeshift makes for a durable servant viable for long battles. His NP is also unique in its own right since it forces the enemy to use normal attacks (regardless critical or not) and can save your party when used in a specific situation. To be honest, all he offers me is only Concept Improvement and since I always play the brute force way critical stars are not my number one priority unless I am using Lancelot (Saber) as my main damage dealer. He is a solid pick but unless you know what you want in a certain fight then I suggest bringing in another buffer.

Final score and verdict : 7.5/10 “offers a unique  and delicious meal that is sadly too small for my appetite”

 I took the data on skills, NP, and stats along with the icons from The Wiki. Thank you for reading and if i miss anything, if you spot a typo, or if you have a setup of your own, opinion of your own whether you agree with the score or not or advise for further writing then leave it in the comments! 

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