Rulers are the tanks of FGO since they don’t do that much damage, but it’s not so easy to take them down either. Rulers are known to have very high HP, so they can last in a boss raid for multiple turns. Like all servants, Rulers deal double damage to Berserkers, but take twice as many hits from them. Rulers are weak against Avengers and effective towards Moon Cancers. It’s not often that you’ll use a Ruler servant and the game creators know that. At the time of writing, there are only four Ruler heroic spirits. Why are there only four? What’s the point in having the Ruler class if you’re rarely going to use them?

In Fate/Apocrypha, Ruler servant Jeanne D’ Arc was used as a referee in the third Holy Grail War. If she fought a servant who was disobeying the rules, Jeanne would use command seals to make the servant surrender. Rulers are stallers, not fighters or healers. You use a Ruler if you’re in a pinch and need some time to prepare another servant. The only time you’d want a Ruler on your team is during boss raids. When it comes to a boss raid you have two choices; kill it or survive its attacks for 15 turns. For a newbie FGO player, stalling is essential for victory. Rulers can stun, decrease the Noble Phantasm charge, decrease defense, and eliminate the use of Noble Phantasms on a single enemy.

The Ruler class has three SSRs and one SR, making them harder to summon. What’s worse is that three out of the four Rulers are limited. Although they’re hard to grab, it’ll benefit your team greatly if you summon at least one of the following servants.

Martha is the only four-star Ruler, and with good reason. She’s most definitely the weakest out of the four because she’s an “offensive Ruler”. It’s impossible for a Ruler to be offensive since they’re only effective against berserkers and moon cancer (and you’ll rarely fight a Moon Cancer). Rulers naturally inflict low damage, but Martha is made to be a Buster Ruler. What’s even stranger is that one of her skills requires Martha to be near water for it to be activated. So unless Martha is in Oceanos or it’s another summer event, chances are you’ll never use it.

Jeanne D’ Arc is the only Ruler servant that isn’t limited, so you can summon her at any time throughout the game. She has the highest HP in all of Fate/Grand Order at 16,500, but if you grail her, her HP becomes 18,076. Jeanne’s Noble Phantasm can grant your party invincibility for one turn, and can heal them for two turns. This may make her sound OP but there is a huge drawback. Every time she uses her NP, she inflicts a stun on herself. If you end up using Jeanne’s NP, make sure to equip the Atlus mystic code to remove the debuff on Jeanne.

Amakusa Shiro is a great all-rounder with decent attack stats, skills to support his team, and high HP. Of course, his attacks aren’t the strongest due to his class, but they’ll get the job done better than any other Ruler. Amakusa’s NP is especially good with its ability to remove all enemies’ buffs and damage them. His deck is Buster-based with a Buster NP, making his NP damage go from decent to effective. Finally, Amakusa can spam his noble phantasm thanks to his skill Baptism Rite, which charges his NP gauge around 10% for five turns.

Sherlock Holmes is another excellent all-rounder with his skills and Noble Phantasm allowing him to support his team, crit the enemy, and survive. Sherlock has the highest attack out of all the Rulers at 11,495, plus a decent star generation rate at 10%. But with his deck made up of Quick and Arts cards, and skills that make him gather more crit stars and fill his NP gauge, Sherlock is able to deal some heavy damage. You’re probably thinking that Sherlock is an offensive Ruler, but keep in mind that a Ruler’s job is to stall until their team is ready to fight. Proving this point is Sherlock’s Noble Phantasm which grants the party immunity to the enemy’s increased defense and invincibility. He also has an evade and can seal the enemy’s NP for one turn. It’s best to keep Sherlock at the back of your team during boss fights. Therefore, if your party dies, Sherlock will be stick around to survive till the very end.