Best Use of Exalt Brand (Great Lord)

[StarBit8]

Who gets the most out of the Exalt Brand in Fire Emblem Fates Revelations? I know this topic has been posted numerous times, but none of them really provide a solid answer. I've already used my Hero's Brand (Lodestar) on Xander, and just want to get the Exalt Brand out of my inventory since there's only one of each as of now.

[maninbluejumpsuit]

It's pretty much a question of who you want to abuse vantage + awakening on imo.

Two choices I usually go with is dreadfighter/master ninja FCorrin, or witch Ophilia armed with Mjolnir with her active personal skill.

I'd go with FCorrin to have funny setups like vantage, awakening, nohrian trust + two breakers, and pair with jakob.

Edited May 15, 2016 by maninbluejumpsuit

[Ebony]

Selena, Mozu, Hinoka, Caeldori, or Oboro tend to be the best. I usually give it to Selena.

[Butterfly Pink]

Ophelia or Scarlet.

Scarlet may seem an odd choice, but if it is true you can hit her with Tankumi (Ballistician Takumi), you can easily activate Vantage, her personal, and Awakening all with consistency and ease. With this setup, and a good 1-2 crit' weapon (Barb Shuriken?), you can easily reach 85% crit'. Add Gamble and it becomes 95%. Assuming Master Ninja for the S-Rank, you hit 100% crit' without calculating for skill, pair-ups, or having to use Death Blow. Food for thought.

Ophelia is similar. She doesn't have the ridiculous personal Scarlet has for the build, but she doesn't have to be subject to friendly fire to start crit'ing either.

Another idea could be Midori. While not as powerful as the aforementioned two, with something like Quixotic/Hoshidan Unity/Nohrian Trust/Vantage/Awakening, a crit' weapon, and Kaze supporting with Miracle/(Favorite/Four/Proc/Skills) you get quite the spectacular light show.

Edited May 15, 2016 by Butterfly Pink

[haZe_]

The best thing about the Great Lord class, by far, is the Awakening skill.

When HP is under half, Hit rate, Avoid, Critical rate and Critical Evade +30

In my Birthright playthrough, I saved this for a Trueblade Hinoka!Matoi, although it could have gone to someone better.

Her skill set was Awakening, Life and Death, Duelist's Blow, Astra, and Vantage. She is paired up with Gurei, an Elite Ninja that has Dual Guardsman and other things that don't matter, because that poor boy never sees the light of day.

Matoi holds a Sunrise Katana, Hagakure, and Vengeance Katana. The strategy is for her to hold the Vengeance Katana until she is at <50% HP, which triggers Awakening. She then swaps to the Sunrise Katana as her main weapon, or the Hagakure if she absolutely needs to one-shot a single target that is separate from any enemies to attack her when she suffers her stat drops from the S-Rank blade.

She is a Trueblade, giving her high SPD, and therefore high AVO. Having the Sunrise Katana and Hagakure boosts AVO by 20 and an active Awakening boosts it by 30, giving a very very low chance for anything to land on her. The Dual Guardsman from Gurei gives more shield bars for his wife on the off chance she does not one-shot her opponent.

I would recommend this strategy, but would more carefully choose who to give the seal to. I liked Cordelia from Awakening and wanted to make her my best unit and have the (most for Birthright) correct hair color. I would give it to a child unit that can get all of the above skills that is bred specifically for high SPD, SKL, and STR.

No personal skills really mesh with this build, unless you count a Scarlet that Partner Seals into a Samurai-talent MaMU. She has a 60% growth in the aforementioned stats, so long story short, she would probably be the best first-Gen unit to reap the benefits from Awakening. A second-Gen unit would be different and be min-maxed probably more efficiently, but there you go!

Hope this helps!

[ceedicheng]

I gave it to Selena. Not only she works great in that class but it also makes perfect sense. Think it as she reached A+ support with Lucina.

[BruceLee]

^loool that ava tho.

OT: I've heard Azura is a good unit as a Great Lord, although you'd have to give up her dancer class, which may not be too appealing.

Edited May 15, 2016 by BruceLee

[Emblem Lugh]

Ophelia or Scarlet.

Scarlet may seem an odd choice, but if it is true you can hit her with Tankumi (Ballistician Takumi), you can easily activate Vantage, her personal, and Awakening all with consistency and ease. With this setup, and a good 1-2 crit' weapon (Barb Shuriken?), you can easily reach 85% crit'. Add Gamble and it becomes 95%. Assuming Master Ninja for the S-Rank, you hit 100% crit' without calculating for skill, pair-ups, or having to use Death Blow. Food for thought.

Ophelia is similar. She doesn't have the ridiculous personal Scarlet has for the build, but she doesn't have to be subject to friendly fire to start crit'ing either.

Another idea could be Midori. While not as powerful as the aforementioned two, with something like Quixotic/Hoshidan Unity/Nohrian Trust/Vantage/Awakening, a crit' weapon, and Kaze supporting with Miracle/(Favorite/Four/Proc/Skills) you get quite the spectacular light show.

Scarlet is not available in Revelations.

[Roflolxp54]

Scarlet is not available in Revelations.

Einherjar is a funny thing, isn't it?

[HellsHaven]

Has anyone used it on Hana? I'm kinda curious if she would be decent as GL since I just started my Birthright file.

[Solcalibre]

Has anyone used it on Hana? I'm kinda curious if she would be decent as GL since I just started my Birthright file.

I'm thinking about it this very moment. I'm currently doing some research and i'm seeing Selena pop up a lot but that requires patience x_x

[Ike Gawain]

Hana as a GL is a good option, but I can see other units benefiting more from the Awakening skill, because that skill is what it always comes down to. GL growths in Fates are weird, so I would suggest switching Hana over for the skills, then back to Swordsmaster for her SPD and STR growths, unless you want more control of the weapon triangle; you could just go Weapon Master if you wanted control of the triangle. Her high speed growth would ensure she could use the same setup as quoted before with Matoi/Caeldori - dealing only Venge Katana damage then switching to another weapon after Hana hits the threshold of Awakening. As I've said before, other units like Matoi, Selena, or possibly even Kagero (though her avoid is lacking because of her low SPD growth) would benefit a bit more from Awakening as opposed to Hana, but I can see Hana could be reliable with the skill.

[Flareblade]

I would say Scarlet but since you're playing Revelation...

You could still give it to her and make her an Einherjar

[spoiler=REVELATION]before she dies in Chapter 18.

In Extremis, her personal skill, combined with Awakening, Vengeance, and Vantage can make her amazing at half HP. You could also give her Ganglari to get her to half quicker, but you'd probably need skills like Lifetaker and Sol to do that.

Edit: In Extremis actually activates at 1/4 HP, but it could still be useful.

Edited May 26, 2016 by Flareblade

[Xenomata]

I don't know about the BEST unit, but since I play as M-Corrin I use it on whoever I S-ranked with. On my first playthrough that was Felicia, on other playthroughs it was Selkie (BR and Rev) and Velouria (CQ).

Though I do wonder if it would be better to use it on someone who can always counter-attack, basically if the unit will end as a Master Ninja, one of the tome-wielding classes, or in two weeks time a Point Blank Bow user (coughcoughSnipercoughcough)

Edited May 27, 2016 by Xenomata

[maninbluejumpsuit]

or in two weeks time a Point Blank Bow user (coughcoughSnipercoughcough)

They nerfed so many things deemed OP, yet we get point blank, and shurikens...

[Xenomata]

They nerfed so many things deemed OP, yet we get point blank, and shurikens...

Probably doesn't help that Bows are many times more powerful than other ranged weapons without the downside of being inaccurate like axes...

[maninbluejumpsuit]

Probably doesn't help that Bows are many times more powerful than other ranged weapons without the downside of being inaccurate like axes...

If you can call them inaccurate thanks to sniper's free hit, high skill, and the option to forge iron bows instead of iron yumi for +10 hit. Point black really didn't need to be a thing. Now I wonder what was the point of nerfing axe, and lance ranged options to the point of not wanting to use them on anyone but wary fighter walls.

[paladin21]

The main issue with this class is that it gives skills that fulfill a variety of roles. It has Dual Striker to support offensively, Aether for a main attacker and Awakening as a third offensive skill that could be used either way. However, it also gives Charm, an area-support skill.

Dual Striker merges perfectly with Selena's personal skill, and it would work for anyone that values attack stance over defense stance.

Charm could be stacked to other skills like Inspiration, Demoiselle, Gentilhomme, and some personal skills for massive bonus for nearby allies (Sakura could get +4/-4 for women and +4/-6 for men and Hinoka +6/-2 for women and +6/-4 for men).

Aether is just another proc skill that works both offensively (by healing) and defensively (by negating defense). Anyone could benefit of it (anyone not using Vantage for the healing part).

Awakening is a game breaker for eny character with high HP and decent/high defenses, so any character may benefit of it, but Kagero, Nyx, Setsuna and Scarlet may be more biased towards using it since their personal skills are based on being dealt damage (though Setsuna's skill involves being healed). It's however useless in the arena, since you'll start every round over half MHP due to resting between fights.

[maninbluejumpsuit]

The main issue with this class is that it gives skills that fulfill a variety of roles. It has Dual Striker to support offensively, Aether for a main attacker and Awakening as a third offensive skill that could be used either way. However, it also gives Charm, an area-support skill.

You're overthinking it. Great lord's dealbreaking perk is awakening, and nothing else it gets.

Dual striker isn't worth committing an entire skill space for, and severa's personal skill is arguably the worst personal skill in the game next to dwyer's. May as well put a weaponfaire/heavy blade in its place.

Aether comes from a scroll in vanguard dawn.

[karamatsu]

ophelia is great for the great lord class because she gets awakening, and i've actually gotten her crit rate to 100% a few times because of that. caeldori's a good choice if you plan to make her a swordmaster afterwards, because the other way around would limit your stats. the other kids are pretty 'meh' with great lord, especially selkie because she prefers swordmaster better most of the time.

great lord's basically a balanced out swordmaster, and should probably be used for a person you'd like to stack crit rates on.

[DragonFlames]

Has anyone used it on Hana? I'm kinda curious if she would be decent as GL since I just started my Birthright file.

I did. Hana with Aether wrecks house. Also, her durability issues fall flat if you give her Awakening, Vantage and Miracle. It's awesome!