Assemble! Nah, not those Avengers. These are revenge-seeking Servants, ones that will never break free from their desire. These are the Dark Avengers…and one of them is on vacation. Never change Fate: Grand Order.
These are the Top Seven! Currently there’s eleven Avengers in the USA version, so my editor asked to only do Top Seven. Doesn’t make the list too obvious…well, save for one character if you read my previous list.
7. Antonio Salieri
This is the version of the famous composer from the movie Amadeus.
- Powerful burst damage
- Arts Based Character
- Decent Critical Damage dealer
And starting off with a weird one. This isn’t the original Antonio Salieri, but the one based around the rumors that he killed Mozart out of jealousy. Yup, FGO is weird. And this version plays Dies Irae while you fight off a mammoth-sized Ivan the Terrible.
Oh, we need to talk about him! Salieri is an Arts-focused character, with his second skill giving him an Arts buff for three attacks. Best use it to build up his NP or to make his Noble Phantasm greater…or both! Refill his NP quickly!
And helping him is his first skill; which grants him Critical Stars each turn while boosting his Critical Damage. And after upgrading his third skill; it can give him even more Critical Damage while drawing Critical Stars to his cards AND debuffing the enemy. He can do a ton of burst damage.
His Noble Phantasm does have a small issue with it. It actually lowers Critical Stars generation done by the party afterwards, which can make using his Critical Damage-based loadout a lot harder. But it does hit all enemies and decreases their resistance to Arts cards, allowing him to do even more damage.
Salieri lacks defensive options, and he’s only available to players who clear the Anastasia Lostbelt. You will have to complete all of the Part One Story to get that far and go through a long chapter. But he’s a good pick if you need an Avenger, as most of them are Limited.
6. Edmond Dantes
The first Avenger…
- Good damage
- Versatile skills
- Can build NP quickly
Yup, he’s the first one! Didn’t really get off to the best start, and suffered due when Merlin came in. He has gotten better over time thankfully, and exists comfortably within the Skadi Looping Meta. You might have seen this guy pop up in a big fighting game that also had Mash and Ushiwakamaru in it as well.
His skills are pretty good, although his second skill needed a buff. It used to only increase how fast he built NP but now it builds a great amount of NP while also allowing him to strip buffs of the attacked enemy with Critical Hits. That means he can strip Defensive buffs, provided that he can land a Crit. His third skill can help with that by generating some Critical Stars, while removing any debuffs on him and decreasing the enemy’s charge.
And even then, Dantes has access to Ignore Invincibility as part of his first skill, so he can just go through anything in the first place. It does grant him a short Attack buff and Debuff resist, so it’s designed to work alongside his Noble Phantasm. And after upgrading that, his Noble Phantasm hits all enemies, puts a layer of Curse on them, lowers their Defense, and provides a debuff that makes them take more damage from Curse.
He’s still a bit lacking in a few areas, but still reliable. Dantes can do a bit of everything, so he can fit well into any party as a backup damage dealer, or pair him up with Quick support. Suppose I should make a pun about waiting and hoping…but people who did wait got a better Avenger:
5. Jeanne d’Arc Alter
…and the real first Avenger.
- Stupid high damage
- Can nullify buffs on enemy
- Powerful single-target Noble Phantasm
Dantes might have been the first Avenger, but it was Jeanne d’Arc Alter, Jalter for short, that really defined the Avenger class. Highly popular, highly beloved, literally a member of the Top Ten Most Popular Servants. An event in which the playbase could vote for an ending as detailed by one of the characters has always led to Jalter’s ending. She just won before the voting even started.
All of her kit is about maxing out damage. First skill draws Critical Stars to her and buffs her Critical Damage. Do more and damage OR build her NP. Her second skill gives a party-wide attack buff while adding on a second layer to Dragon characters. A weird niche, but guess it does have some use.
And Jalter’s third skill grants her Buster card buff and Invincibility while draining a thousand HP off her. Risky, even more with the buffs only lasting a single turn. It is meant to work with her Noble Phantasm, a single-target Buster that does a crapton of damage, can Nullify one buff the enemy can apply, Curse them, and grant a huge chunk of Critical Stars following an upgrade.
She can be fragile, but man, give her some good support and she’ll kill anything besides those of the Moon Cancer. Merlin is practically meant to work alongside herself, given that he can heal her, grant more protection and damage output. Jalter is pretty great, but she will lose against those with focus on Arts or those with AOE attacks.
4. Demon King Nobunga
This came from a joke event.
- Powerful Buster AOE Noble Phantasm
- High Damage
- Divine Slayer
GudaGuda isn’t really to be taken seriously…at first. Over time, the events got more serious, although retaining their comedic edge. This version of Nobunaga combines aspects of her original Archer version and the summer Berserker version…and it took some time for her to get up to be seen as good. Kinda memetic how weak she used to be.
A big part of the Avenger version revolves around being on a Burning Field-type of stage, at least after upgrading the second and third skills. Thankfully she can trigger it with her first skill, combined with an Attack buff that scales higher each turn…and it inflicts her with Burn. Yeah, not really a strong aspect of her out of the gate.
Her second skill grants an one-turn Invincibility and Buff Removal Resistance, which does help. The buff improved it to give Nobunga extra damage towards those with the Sky attribute as long as she’s on a Burning Field. That covers characters with Divinity and there’s a good amount of them.
Her third skill generates Critical Stars and give her a small amount of NP to work with, with the buff granting more NP and buffing her Buster cards while on a Burning Field. Seeing how she has three Buster cards like a Berserker, she can do some stupid high damage. Her Noble Phantasm reinforces her anti-Divine power by first stripping any Defensive Buffs off any Divine enemy, deals a ton of damage to all enemies (More so if, again, they are of a Divine nature) and then burns them. Pair her up with Buster Support, and she’ll do even more damage, or with Koyanskaya of Light and Nobunga can loop her Noble Phantasm!
3. Taira-no-Kagekiyo
Look, a walking dictionary definition of ‘edgelord’!
- High survivability
- Crit Machine
- High ST Damage
If you read my list regarding the best Riders, you might remember Ushiwakamaru. No, this isn’t an older version of her, but rather her greatest rival inhabiting the body of an older Ushiwakamaru!…if you think that is weird, keep in mind, that there used to be a long-standing historic rumor that Minamoto-no-Yoshitune and Genghis Khan were the same person. FGO is weird, but so is our world. Truth is stranger than fiction!
Taira hates the Genji, and she makes it clear with her first skill giving her bonus damage against those of the Genji, while also giving her a good amount of NP and Crit Damage. It also prevents all other allies from using Critical Stars, making it an inverted Critical Star Gather buff. Hey, if it works…!
Her second skill needs a little more explaining. It grants her Guts and resistance towards Instant Death…and yet, you want her to die. By dying, it grants her a Grudge of Vengeance. On its own, it does nothing, but it does improve her Noble Phantasm. This does mean you need to play her as incredibly risky as possible, or just take her into a battle where death is common enough to boost her. Speaking of boosting, her third skill grants her Evade and an Attack buff, while Cursing enemies.
This all leads into her Noble Phantasm. First it strips the targeted enemy of their buffs. Then it hits the enemy for heavy damage, with those Grudges coming into play to boost the damage. It also Curses the enemy, but Cursing isn’t not really apart of Taira’s loadout. It’s all about damage! She can destroy enemies while surviving anything she’s thrown her way!
2. Kama (Avenger)
Summer break! Whoo! Let’s get drunk and make some awful mistakes!
- Arts AOE Attacker
- Great damage
- Capable of looping
I usually put Arts characters higher on my lists due to the fact they’re fully capable of spamming their Noble Phantasms. Being able to use their best attack over and over again is always a boon in any game ever. As a result, an Arts-focused Character like the summer version of Kama goes higher up.
Her Arts Card buff comes with an Evade, a special Evade that voids two attacks instead of lasting one turn. Already great, what about her second skill? It boosts NP Damage and Charms enemies. While this version of Kama cannot Charm-lock, Charm in this form is built around making her Noble Phantasm do more damage.
It’s Kama’s third skill that does have a unique gimmick. It grants a huge amount of NP while adding on a special trait. Everytime she attacks an enemy, she applies a stack of something called ‘Flame of Love’. She does more damage to enemies with that trait, and that scales higher with each stack applied.
This allows her Noble Phantasm to do some insane damage if you make sure to apply a lot of stacks. Oh, and it can do even more damage thanks to it lowering the Defense for all enemies and doing bonus damage to those charmed. Use her skills at the right point and she can output a ton of damage…and then loop it over again!
But there is someone that outdamages her…
1. Space Ishtar
Oh hello Space Cowboy!
- Best Arts AOE NP attacker
- Capable of looping NP
- Insane damage
Yup, this is to be expected. I put her on a few lists beforehand, so she shoots to the top of this list. You would have to be hard-pressed to name an Avenger stronger than her, but that might come in latter years. There is a good reason as to why she’s so good.
A big part of that is her ability to clear any wave and work with almost everyone else in the game. Because her second skill allows her to swap out the card type of her Noble Phantasm, she works with any support characters. Coupled with her first skill giving an Attack buff and her third skill granting her a huge boost to NP and a great chance of giving a buff to all card types, and she’ll be able to do a little bit of everything.
She can do challenges. She can farm. Space Ishtar is the best Avenger because she can work in a majority of scenarios more than any other Avenger!
