Casters can easily be considered to be the game’s best class. Full of some real monsters, at least in terms of support. They are the best support, usually due to them having access to Arts-focused decks that allow them to build NP insanely quickly and use them more often.

And these are the games best! At least as of April 2024, of the USA version. Traum has just come out, and any new Servants will not be included. And we shall start with…

10. Hans Christan Anderson 

Santa Claus and the Ice Cream Bunny gives him a headache.

• Low cost expense 
• Amazing, if finicky, support
• Critical Support Expert

One of the first Casters in the game, and definitely ideal for a first time player’s early-game party. He deserves a spot on his list for his useful buffs. While his low stats do mean that he suffers a lot more, there is a reason as to why he’s called a budget Merlin.

Hans’ second skill is one of the best in the game; the ability to rapid-fast charge up his Noble Phantasm. And his Noble Phantasm is amazing…potentially. After upgrading, it can grant a buff for Attack, Defense, and Critical Star Drop Rate…potentially. While he is free and you can get multiple of him easily, there’s still a chance of not getting any of the three buffs.

That being said, it does heal. Overcharge does boost its effects, both the possible ones and the heal. As a Caster and with his second skill, Hans can eventually get more buffs going.

His third skill has gotten better. It used to lower his already piss-poor defense, but now it can be used to boost one ally’s NP Regen and Critical Star Regeneration. Always a good thing. And his first skill does boost Critical Damage to all allies, and there’s a weird Alignment based buff coming in the following year.

Hans’ low stats does mean he cannot fight that well if need be, and he won’t last long if he’s attacked. But his low cost and ability to make Crit Hits more potent for the party. Do more damage, build more NP, and generate Critical Stars. Get him during the early-game and he’ll get you through a lot…

…unless, of course, you get one of the latter Servants. 

9. Helena Blavatasky 

Good evening, sir/madam. Have you heard about the Mahatma?

• Universal team support
• Arts AOE Noble Phantasm
• Team NP Building

Yes, she is a little girl. Supposedly she’s the older version of her throwing up an illusion to make her look younger. (a la Tsunade from Naruto) We don’t have any old ladies in FGO. No kick-ass grandmas. Shame.

This is the closest we got, and she’s pretty good!

All of her skills help the party in some way. The first one, considered to be her best, gives the party a good amount of NP. Coupled with her three Arts Cards, she can really get her team to spam Noble Phantasms if you play her Art cards with their Art cards.

Her second skill, after upgrading it, is the only one that directly helps her. It gives her a great amount of NP, gain a middling amount of Critical Stars, and has a chance of granting her a NP Strength buff. Her weakest skill, really.

And her third skill shoots her way up any list. A buff to ALL THREE card types to the entire party. A massive damage and generation buff. And her Noble Phantasm isn’t half bad; ignores Defense to deal Arts AOE damage that decreases Defense, Critical Rate, and Debuff Resistance.

She’s one of the rare Casters to be both Support and do some decent damage. Helena is also a Rank 4, meaning that she costs less to put in the party and upgrade. Let Granny loose, and she’ll shake the enemies loose. 

8. Xuanzang Sanzang

I’ll go west with her.

• Instant NP Charge
• High ST Damage
• Good Team Support

Time for some personal favor to sneak in! This is my favorite Caster, the one that I grailed to Lvl.100 and would love to take even higher. And she’s the strongest single-target Caster in the game currently. She is designed to do damage, which is a rare thing on this list.

Her first skill is amazing. A whopping 80% raise to her NP, along with a NP Strength buff. Sanzang’s Noble Phantasm only hits one target, but ignores Defense and decreases Critical Rate for that enemy. It’s also Buster, the only one on this list to be Buster.

Her other skills do help the party in different ways. The second skill draws fire to her while reducing damage, while boosting the party’s Attack. It’s okay, and can help protect the weaker party members while building Sanzang’s NP.

It’s the third skill where Sanzang starts to shine some more. It improves the party’s NP Gain and Critical Star Drop Rate, while giving a Debuff Immunity. While she does need Support, she is the strongest boss-slayer against Assassins. I love her! 

7. Nitocris 

Cute, right? She’s got a body count higher than most Assassins.

• Instant NP Charge
• Arts AOE Noble Phantasm
• Good Survivability

Take the best part of Sanzang, and you got Nitocris. But to make it even better, she’s an Arts AOE attacker, giving her a huge advantage over the previous slot, and Nitocris is a rank lower to boot! She is the last person on this list meant for doing damage mind you.

Nitocris’ NP raise skill lacks the damage buff that Sanzang got, but the amount of NP she gets goes over 100%. This allows her to possibly take more advantage of her Arts AOE Noble Phantasm’s Insta-Death effect, provided that you found more than one copy of her to boost her NP over 100%.

But the other big part of Nitocris’ kit is how much damage she can take. Her third skill grants her Guts while also removing debuffs. And once upgraded, her first skill heals the entire party, improves Nitocris’ Arts cards, and ups her chance of instantly killing enemies.

Nitocris is practically built for farming with her first skill and ability to insta-kill. While bosses resist Insta-Death, she can still be useful in eliminating any backup the bosses might bring. She is beloved in the community for a good reason. 

6. Chen Cong 

Every problem looks like a nail, and everyone else is a hammer. 

• Ideal for solo/raid bosses
• Good buffer for Buster-focused parties
• Low cost for amazing skills 

Arash the Archer has a special niche. His Noble Phantasm kills himself so he can wipe out a crowd of enemies to open his spot for someone to step in and take care of the rest. And Chen Gong plays that same sort of role…but he’s not offing himself.

When using his Noble Phantasm, Chen offs the leftmost member of your party other than himself to deal AOE damage to the enemies. This allows for some unusual strategies; such as getting the intended sacrifice to use all of their skills to buff someone before being turned into a bomb. Or triggering on-death effects for certain characters and Craft Essences. 

He does possess a good Buster buff, one that gains additional effects when paired with a Berserker. Coupled with a skill that raises Defense and the other that draws fire to one Servant in the party, Chen Gong works insanely well with Berserkers. And, hey! His good old buddy Lu Bu is a Berserker!

Chen Gong’s main benefit is working with parties with the intent of building buffs up as high as they can go. For raid bosses, or if you want someone to fight on their own, he fits in that party. Not bad for a Rank Two, huh? 

5. Tamamo-no-Mae

What does ‘Mikon’ mean? 

• Arts Support
• Amazing support, rare cooldown reduction
• Great healer

Healing in FGO is not really an ideal strategy. Most healing skills cap out at 3,000, with most Servants having HP higher than 10,000 and tend to have long cooldowns. Or at least cooldowns long enough that it will negate any HP you got back. 

Tamamo-no-Mae is one character that actually does healing a lot better than most people. Her third skill heals (After you upgrade it) and provides an Arts Buff. And her Noble Phantasm, it heals the entire party, adds some NP to the party, and even reduces their cooldowns! That’s rare!

Tamamo is part of the stall meta, where she and other Casters on this list, last as long as possible by negating damage and healing what little they end up getting. It’s not a really strong meta, let alone a sane one. It can help with certain challenge missions in which you don’t have a real good damage dealer.

She was the first of the Arts support, but is beaten out by the number one on this list in terms of Arts. Still, she serves a purpose of allowing the party to use their skills more often and keep them alive. If you get her, you’re set! 

4. Scathach-Skadi 

Give her some ice cream and she won’t throw you to the giants. 

• Best Quick support
• 50% NP to any Servant
• Allows for Looping of Noble Phantasms

The ability to loop Noble Phantasms is a real big benefit. Using the game’s strongest attacks more often? Always a good thing! And the first one to really provide for that aspect was Scathach-Skadi, the Savior of the Quick Meta.

Quick Cards build both Critical Stars and NP, but mostly the former. Critical Hits build even more, and look! Skadi can boost Quick Card effectiveness and give any Servant a 50% NP. She might not have Critical boosting, but she can make Quick Servants do a lot more! A lot more!

Her Noble Phantasm isn’t the greatest, but it can keep the party alive. This is the reason why she’s lower on this list, her Noble Phantasm isn’t as strong as the ones higher up. Skadi is still amazing…amazing that I haven’t gotten her. Literally the only one list that I haven’t gotten.

3. Zhunge Liang/Waver

About to die from work…again. 

• NP Generator
• Fits into any party
• Amazing Noble Phantasm

Waver is the first real best Support Servant in the game. While Hans was brought down by bad stats and needing some upgrades to improve his kit, Waver…needed a major overhaul to be good. But that came immediately.

All of his skills build the party’s NP, along with buffing some universal stats. Because he’s not particularly focused on buffing a single thing, Waver fits into any party. While he is expensive, he’s so worth the Cost.

His Noble Phantasm also does so much for the party by hitting the enemies with a wide variety of debuffs. Lowers their NP Charge, decreases Defense, Curses them for some additional damage, and a good chance of Stun. He can buy the team some more time.

The only time he’s not brought out is because you need someone more specific, like Skadi, or the top two. But his abilities make him universally useful. If you get him, you got someone that can take your team several steps forward. 

2. Merlin 

Scum! Bite it to death!

• Great Buster Support
• Can keep the party alive for a long time
• Best pick for challenges 

This man broke the meta. All things changed when Merlin arrived. Everyone had a Merlin. If you didn’t have him, then you could use your friend’s. And if you did have one, then you would use him and your friend’s.

This is where the Steroid Meta began. This is where players started to rely more on Servants that can boost the main damage dealer of the party to greater heights. Merlin really made everyone focus on overpowering.

Not only did he give a huge buff to the Buster, but he can also keep the party going with on-demand Invincibility, he can also heal the Party with his Noble Phantasm. And his Noble Phantasm also provides Critical Stars and NP to the entire party as well!

There’s so much he does, and I already have talked about Merlin in other articles at greater length. Just know that that’s fully capable of playing in any party, not just in Buster-focused. 

1. Altria (Caster)

Her best magecraft: fistcuffs. 

• Best Arts Support
• Ideal for challenges/raid bosses
• Special form of invincibility 

I have repeatedly made it clear that this Servant is the best in the game. And that’s true in terms of being a Caster. Normally I would put the absolute strongest of a class at the top of the list; the one that’s best for the class. And while that usually means that the one that does the most amount of damage…

Casters are mostly built for providing for the party. And this one provides the most. 

Arts Support is always the strongest form of cards in the game, capable of allowing for looping of Noble Phantasms. And she’s the one that provides the biggest Arts buff, along with skills that raise NP. 

But her biggest thing is that of her unique Invincibility. While it can be stripped off, it cannot be Pierced through. This trumps a lot of bosses/challenges, and coupled with her ability to loop her Noble Phantasm, you can stack this special Invincibility over and over again.

She is the best Caster in the game for a good reason. She makes all of the other Casters better by allowing them to make greater use of their Arts Cards. She can go further, much further than any Caster.

If you liked this article, please check out the others I've done: 

• [Top 10] Fate: Grand Order Best 5 Star Servants (Ranked)
• [Top 15] Fate: Grand Order Best Servants
• [Top 10] Fate: Grand Order Best Archers (Ranked)