"Ask Fire Emblem Heroes Questions and Get Them Answered Here" Thread

[Usana]

2 Lucina's

+HP/-RES
+DEF/-HP

What would you pick? I'll almost certainly use the other for Aether fodder. I never have enough of that.

[redlight]

14 minutes ago, Usana said:

2 Lucina's

+HP/-RES
+DEF/-HP

What would you pick? I'll almost certainly use the other for Aether fodder. I never have enough of that.

+HP one. You'll be able to tackle high attack units better

Edit: actually it's difficult to decide. Def is a super boon. You'd be exchanging 3 for 4 by having a HP bane

Edited May 10, 2018 by silveraura25

[Hawk King]

@Zeo I think Sealed Falchion almost needs to have Fury 3 run with it. Otherwise, there is no reliable way to get below 100% safely. You one-shot a green, and then you get below 100% and proceed to mess s*** up.

Personally though, I think the Falchion bond refine is the best for him. I saw a Atk/Def bond build in the Arena today and that is probably the best way to go with him. 

Like @Hilda said, your team comp has issues, but I think that Matthew and Nino are the weak links.  Nino's blade tome makes you rely on buffs and as such Tactics skills are much better for that, however, an Owl tome would be the best long term option for her and would fit your teams defensive playstyle. It would allow you to stack Def and Res Drives on your C-skills.

I can agree that Caeda would be better for you than Chrom, but I like +Atk/-HP.

Obviously you aren't going to be dropping Matthew, and if you really want those 4 to work together, Nino needs to become more tanky to match the guys. Chrom and Lukas work together just fine. Chrom can one-shot Lukas's major threat in Green Dragons, Lukas wipes the floor with Melee Blues and they both handle Reds. Nino needs to be able to bait any Green and Blue mages you may see. Leaving Red mages which Lukas can face tank in a pinch. Is Red tomebreaker an option on Mathew?

[sdgj1994]

1 hour ago, silveraura25 said:

Warding Breath would go to either Nowi or Tiki (preferably Nowi because of higher BST), but I'd recommend also giving Aether to whomever gets Warding Breath. As for res smoke, whomever you're using most often for tanking with dragons.

Atk/Def Bond scores well, but there a better options for A slot skills especially for dragons. But here's an idea for building a dark breath dragon, maybe F!Corrin as she's quite fast. Give her Pavise and Shield Pulse. You can make a disgusting build with that combo

My current Nowi is +Def -HP, putting Warding Breath on her would turn her into a mixed tank. I have plenty of feathers right now so I can always promote a Chrom to fodder off for Aether.

I have a 5* F!Corrin too, her IVs are +Spd -Atk. I have another on the sidelines that is Neutral, I wonder if I should promote that one and merge it, or would the current IV set do fine with the Shield Pulse Pavise build?

[redlight]

1 hour ago, sdgj1994 said:

My current Nowi is +Def -HP, putting Warding Breath on her would turn her into a mixed tank. I have plenty of feathers right now so I can always promote a Chrom to fodder off for Aether.

I have a 5* F!Corrin too, her IVs are +Spd -Atk. I have another on the sidelines that is Neutral, I wonder if I should promote that one and merge it, or would the current IV set do fine with the Shield Pulse Pavise build?

Neutral is much better for Corrin. Her attack is horrendously low enough already at neutral. An +atk/-res nature is highly desirable as she gets a super boon in attack

[mampfoid]

@Zeo That's a lot of options, it's a curse and blessing at the same time. I know most of the skills and refinements are pretty expensive, but at least nothing will be irreversible. In my opinion, Sealed Falchion makes him a good mixed phase offensive unit, but not the best (like you compared him yourself to Marth). If you try Sealed Falchion, go with Fury to bring him below 100% HP easily - it would be an awesome alternative set (for GHBs and so on). 

My favorite is still Spectrum Falchion with a bond skill (agreeing with @Alexmender and @Hawk King here), you could keep the current nature with this set. If you run into many TA blue dragons, you could switch to Cancel Affinity. DC would be handy in many situations, but even with DC Chrom, Nino and Matthew you would be far away from baiting all ranged threats. Better specialize him fully to 007 Chrom Bond(ed) . 

As for the team composition: All colors are present, two ranged and two melee units, perfect. Pure infantry is perhaps the weakest choice of movement types if you don't use infantry pulse, but I think you can work around the issues. No reason to switch out favorites. 

[Sunwoo]

Okay, so. When I was summoning last night, I stumbled upon a Nowi who is +atk -HP. That's a pretty good nature for her. I also have a 4-star one that's waiting to be promoted one day (not anytime soon though) who is +def -spd. I've heard that nature could still work depending on how I build her. Currently, she has TA3 and bowbreaker 3 as a skill, and I'll give her QR3 someday. When no one else needs it. I'm not attached to Nowi as a character and she is a low priority project, so she will be a slow build.

My question is whether the new +atk -HP or the old +def -spd would be a better nature for her. I don't care for Nowi as a character, so I don't need the absolute best nature on her ... but if +atk -HP is just leagues above the current one maybe I should consider switching to the new one. I also don't plan to give her things like steady breath and she'll stay with her current TA3 as a low budget build. Thoughts?

[Zeo]

Ok, let's do this. Responding to everyone here in order.

@Alexmender 

He's reaching a ceiling of 47 DEF on enemy phase without any sort of external boost with the bond build and his ATK... we don't even need to talk about that. It's definitely a simple, synergistic build and a cheap one since I don't care to merge my Fjorm and I won't need to use Steady Breath on him. I really like the idea of being able to proc Aether multiple times quickly but as my feathers pile up I'm starting to realize that I can have more than one powerful unit. Chrom is just the first.

You've convinced me that the DC build is a bad look. Firesweep means it's worthless against archers and it's unreliable against red mages as well as being a complete liability against blue mages, healers and Windsweep daggers, making him a green mage tank only. Fire Boost I also agree upon, the units he'd need it against the most would have higher HP than him in some cases like armors and certain dragons, which makes it moot. Fierce Stance would definitely be the way to go but Kana didn't demote and even if I pulled her or Zelgius with a bad nature I don't think I'd fodder either of them off to him for that skill. 

That leaves me with either the ATK/DEF Bond build or waiting for Steady/Warding Breath for more Aether procs. The latter would be more satisfying, but the former is practical, can be done now and means my next Breath fodder can go to another unit (like Fae!) so I'm not sure what route to go there. But the other two are definitely out, so thanks for that. Lukas and Chrom are both out of the running for DC, which means I officially have 2 DC fodders 100% available again.

For Sealed Falchion, I actually have a -ATK FH!Celica that I don't necessarily want. But there's no room on my team for that skill unless I toss it on Matthew or Chrom himself (and then the latter loses Desperation) but I actually can just give my Matthew SPD Smoke 3 and that basically fixes that problem anyway. The issue is like you said, M!Marth can run it just as well after > 100% and better before that, and she does it without sacrificing her seal slot. I've ruled out 2 of the EP builds but I'm still conflicted about the rest.

@NegativeExponents- I actually am starting to think twice about the DC build because mages still roast him even stacking all those resistance buffs and Firesweep + Windsweep is a thing the higher up I get in arena (as well as the occasional spook in PvE maps). I really wanted to give it to a unit on my main team, but realizing at this point I'll probably +10 more than just these units I think it may be better spent elsewhere.

For Sealed Falchion I absolutely love the idea of this on Chrom. It completely changes the way he's used in a way no one would ever use him. The issue is it requires the sacrifice of his seal slot, 200 Dew (as that means what I spent on his initial refine was wasted), Quick Riposte 3 (I promoted a Subaki for him) and even then he still needs a +SPD/-HP or -RES nature and potentially support from another unit to reach his full potential. It's just a lot, I like him enough to do it, but is it worth it is the question.

I have to look at Lucina (we'll just call M!Marth that in this case), but not because I prefer to build her over him or anything like that. It's not even a question of preference here, but redundancy and optimization. For optimization Lucina can do what Chrom can do but she can do it 200 Dew, 20k feathers and one seal cheaper and she has the virtue of being able to be +5'ed unlike unmasked Lucina who I'd have to whale for so Chrom's merge lead is less significant.

For redundancy, the build is great for M!Marth and Chrom can run it too, or I can let M!Marth run it and Chrom can run a still powerful EP build and I can have two powerful and versatile Falchion users, both of different types and at a cheaper Dew cost. Now, do I like Chrom and want to build him enough that redundancy and optimization don't matter and I'll just do what I want? Yes, I really think so. But would the Sealed Falchion build feel cooler and superior to his great wall of death build with the Spectrum Falchion? I'm not sure, and without knowing that I can't make the decision, so I have to weigh all the factors.

I'm still unsure about what to do. Sealed Falchion is a steep cost, but it's 100% original and I know it'll feel awesome sweeping units like he's one of the player phase nukes. But normal Falchion makes him a (touch me and you die) type of unit and seeing the Bond Skill or a Breath in his A slot is incredibly appealing. I need to pull more Chroms. If I pulled a +SPD/-HP or -RES one I think I'd be closer to making a determination. For now I'm in limbo and so is Chrom.

@Hilda

That sounds like a mirror of your team, which I honestly admire. But throwing away my personal preferences I'm going to have to be technical here as a F2P unit with all bias aside.

• I don't have a single L!Lyn
• I've never pulled a La'Rachel.
• I've never pulled a Tana.
• I'm not interested in Gwendolyn.
• The best Shiida I've ever pulled is +ATK/-RES
• I've only ever pulled 4 Effies.

If I could pick any units I wanted to +10? Lyn and Ephraim would be in Chrom and Lukas' spots and they actually fill 2 different roles, but that's an impossibility as a F2P.

If Oswin was the armor lance of choice, I could probably get with this idea, as it is the option isn't really available to me as I have no interest in Gwendolyn and Effie is somewhat rare for me. Then you have Lance cavs none of whom I'm willing to invest in enough to +10 them. For a sword unit Caeda would be a cool unit to +10 but to drop Chrom in favor for her it just wouldn't happen. If I was going to go for a RES tank with DC as my first red sword +10 it would be Eirika, Eliwood or Fir. Eliwood being the most common and the most realistic.

For your idea Caeda and Clair are the most realistic choices and they are good ones, just not something I'm interested in doing right now as I lack the resources and the drive to make such a large shift from my current goals. The moment I drop favoritism in favor of generalist optimization is the moment I become frustrated that I don't have what I need to be optimal. If that makes sense.

A team like this would probably blow mine out of the water in performance. Once I +10 this initial 4 (and likely Serra and Fae) then I'll consider working on some non-infantry options. Versatility is important and these Tactics buffs shouldn't be ignored, but I'm not there yet.

@Hawk King

I don't think I'll be able to change everyone's mind about Dagger units, it's his BST that hurts him more than anything in this case, but you're right, there's no way I'd drop him. But for Nino, considering how feathers are in relative abundance, an Owl tome is something I can seriously consider if we're being honest, but now I have to give Nino Close Counter which at no point was I ever interested in doing and I'm still not. I like the idea however and she can be bulked up with it. I'd really have to see how this team performs at the highest level in order to gauge weather or not I want to make that investment. However it would free up Lukas and Chrom's C slots as they are both designated to hones for her sake and that would be a welcome change.

Caeda is a unit I've been interested in since the refine, but she lacks a nature worth building at the moment, so she's not a consideration right now. Outside of Chrom, red units that have caught my eye for merges are M!Morgan, Lilina, Eirika, Athena and maybe Roy if he would start showing up. We're getting ahead of ourselves here though.

For red mages Matthew is currently +SPD/-HP so he doesn't really need a breaker to be able to deal with them. W!Tharja is destroyed by Lukas and in the worst case if she's not running Bold Fighter Matthew can bait and kill her with a Bonfire proc on the next player phase I've noticed. His B slot is flexible if he's not running Seal ATK or Seal ATK/SPD though. Based on your analysis of this team, Nino, Lukas and Chrom provide a solid core capable of dealing with most threats while Matthew is basically a wild card that can deal with any unexpected problems or mitigate issues caused by mono-color teams. And I'm ok with that.

What I've realized is that I need to look beyond the scope of these 4. This will be my first team but at this point with feathers in the abundance that they are I'll almost certainly be building +10's once these 4 are done. With that In mind I'm not going to worry about alternative units and focus on building this first 4. Once favoritism is out of the way I can think about optimization a bit more (in terms of other units).

That being said... I'm leaning towards the Spectrum Falchion for Chrom, but I'm still on the fence.

@mampfoid Pushing me further towards the Spectrum Falchion. The Sealed Falchion as an alternative set would be cool though for GHBs... maybe I should consider that instead of being so rigid.

 

Edited May 11, 2018 by Zeo

[sirmola]

I just got a +res/-atk ares. Can/should I use him (i have several other red sword cavs, and a tiltyu for tempest trials/arena bonuses)? THat being said, if i fodder him, what kind of unit would want either of his skills? Would leo want brazen atk/def? (he has a placeholder A skill atm.) Or is it worth it to just keep him for variety, given that i can't be sure of getting him ever again.

[Sias]

On 29.4.2018 at 5:27 AM, XRay said:

I am not sure which calculator you use and how you set up the calculator, but Moonbow is generally better. I use arcticsilverfox's calculator; I set up the enemies with +5, +Spd, Moonbow overwrite, and Fury overwrite, while the units I am testing will have 0 merges.

Glimmer is better on Triangle Adept/Gem Weapon units, effective Weapon units, and Blade mages (sort of). Moonbow is generally superior to Glimmer in most situations as it scales with the enemies' Def/Res, while Glimmer is ineffective against high Def/Res units. For Blade mages, if you need them to fight high Def/Res units, Moonbow is sometimes better than Glimmer.

I actually redid the calculations (using the same calculator as you btw) and noticed how the difference lay in the fact that I had left the special charge at 3 (after testing some cases like Julia having it ready after being attacked by Reinhardt). This means that Moonbow is usually better, but Glimmer has the edge when going into battle with it precharged.

Anyways, after pulling some more characters, I'm left with some more questions!
First of all, I got a bunch of additional Lachesis' and Lissas, and since I have one five star each of those two since quite a while, I'd thought I'd finally inquire about good natures. Is their speed decent enough to be somewhat fixed with a +Spd nature and Spd+3 or should I just try to dump it and build Atk with +Atk and Atk+3? Lissa could also reasonably pull of some kind of Azama build with -Atk and Fortress Def, I guess, considering her low Atk and the tiny heal scaling of Rehabilitate+. (Also, please remember that I don't have acces to enough Wrathful Staff to throw that on everyone)

Secondly, should I keep my current +Spd/-Res legendary Robin or switch to +Spd/-HP? Similarly, +Res/-Spd Sheena or +Def/-Spd (sadly without Distant Counter) and +Spd/-Def or +Spd/-Res Nino (using LoD)? I'm generally leaning towards the former, but any second opinions would be appreciated. :)

[XRay]

On 5/10/2018 at 3:53 AM, sdgj1994 said:

So I have a few 5* dupe units just sitting in my barracks waiting to be used as skill fodder, but right now I have no idea who to use them on. The units in question are Legendary Ike, Fjorm, Spring Catria and Legendary Robin. I was thinking of giving Reinhardt Chill Res but was wondering if it is worth giving up Lancebreaker for it. As for the others I don’t have a clue. I will most likely use Ike for Warding Breath and Robin for Res Smoke as Cancel Affinity can be found on Mathilda who appears at lower rarities, and Fjorm most likely for Atk/Def Bond as the skill is unique to her. Any suggestions would be appreciated, thanks.

Reinhardt definitely wants Chill Res over Lancebreaker, as Chill Res can really screw up some green mages in addition to high Res lance users.

Atk/Def Bond can work with dragons if you use them in a Ward Dragon team, similar to Ward Armor teams. If you do not use dragons like armor units, then I recommend going for Triangle Adept, Steady Breath, or Warding Breath instead.

Res Smoke can also be used on Firesweep healers for Arena. Pain-Savage Blow-Savage Blow is fine in Arena Assault since you can preview the enemy team, but that is pretty risky in Arena since you cannot see Wings of Mercy and Vantage units before the battle, so Gravity/Slow-Res Smoke-Attack +3 is a much safer option for Arena.

17 hours ago, Sunwoo said:

Okay, so. When I was summoning last night, I stumbled upon a Nowi who is +atk -HP. That's a pretty good nature for her. I also have a 4-star one that's waiting to be promoted one day (not anytime soon though) who is +def -spd. I've heard that nature could still work depending on how I build her. Currently, she has TA3 and bowbreaker 3 as a skill, and I'll give her QR3 someday. When no one else needs it. I'm not attached to Nowi as a character and she is a low priority project, so she will be a slow build.

My question is whether the new +atk -HP or the old +def -spd would be a better nature for her. I don't care for Nowi as a character, so I don't need the absolute best nature on her ... but if +atk -HP is just leagues above the current one maybe I should consider switching to the new one. I also don't plan to give her things like steady breath and she'll stay with her current TA3 as a low budget build. Thoughts?

If you are using Triangle Adept, I would go with +Atk to make sure she kills anything red.

If you want to take the high investment route down the line, [+Def, -Spd] is much better for a generalist Enemy Phase build.

For an independent Nowi, [+Atk/Def, -Spd] is her second best nature after [+Spd, -HP].

Nowi +Def, -Spd
Lightning Breath [Def], Bonfire
Steady Breath, Quick Riposte
Close Def
Enemies +5, +Spd, Moonbow, Fury
Enemy Phase 170:52:27
Enemy Phase [+Atk] 172:60:31

Nowi +Spd, -HP
Lightning Breath [Spd], Bonfire
Steady Breath, Quick Riposte
Close Def
Enemies +5, +Spd, Moonbow, Fury
Enemy Phase 171:47:31

Nowi +Atk, -HP
Lightning Breath [Spd], Bonfire
Steady Breath, Quick Riposte
Close Def
Enemies +5, +Spd, Moonbow, Fury
Enemy Phase 170:59:20

If you factor in buffs for Nowi, you will probably have to recheck her builds.

14 hours ago, sirmola said:

I just got a +res/-atk ares. Can/should I use him (i have several other red sword cavs, and a tiltyu for tempest trials/arena bonuses)? THat being said, if i fodder him, what kind of unit would want either of his skills? Would leo want brazen atk/def? (he has a placeholder A skill atm.) Or is it worth it to just keep him for variety, given that i can't be sure of getting him ever again.

I would always prioritize keeping at least one copy of each unit for variety. Hero Merit Feathers, bonus unit scoring, and Arena Assault options are a package of benefits too good to pass up for just skill inheritance in my opinion.

If you really want to fodder him off, I would go with Brazen Atk/Def. Not many units want to give up their first round combat performance though. Lyn is the only one who comes to mind so far, but she primarily wants Brazen Atk/Spd, although any Brazen Atk/stat is fine.

13 hours ago, Sias said:

First of all, I got a bunch of additional Lachesis' and Lissas, and since I have one five star each of those two since quite a while, I'd thought I'd finally inquire about good natures. Is their speed decent enough to be somewhat fixed with a +Spd nature and Spd+3 or should I just try to dump it and build Atk with +Atk and Atk+3? Lissa could also reasonably pull of some kind of Azama build with -Atk and Fortress Def, I guess, considering her low Atk and the tiny heal scaling of Rehabilitate+. (Also, please remember that I don't have acces to enough Wrathful Staff to throw that on everyone)

Firesweep builds want Atk stacked healers, as Dancers/Singers will do the doubling for them. You can go with Speed +3 or Atk/Spd 2 if you want better independent performance and/or if you do not want to run a Dancer/Singer.

Pure support healers want [+Spd/Def/Res, -Atk] depending on the unit. Most want +Spd to prevent being doubled, but some like Azama and Wrys want +Def and +Res respectively since they are so slow that increasing their Spd does not really do anything for them. The -Atk is not a big deal in my opinion since getting a few less HP per heal is not going to make much difference.

13 hours ago, Sias said:

Secondly, should I keep my current +Spd/-Res legendary Robin or switch to +Spd/-HP? Similarly, +Res/-Spd Sheena or +Def/-Spd (sadly without Distant Counter) and +Spd/-Def or +Spd/-Res Nino (using LoD)? I'm generally leaning towards the former, but any second opinions would be appreciated. :)

For FV!F!Robin, it depends on what you need her to do. I would go with [+Spd, -Res] to keep her physical bulk intact, as -HP reduces both physical and magical bulk. If she is in a Ward Dragon team though, I would go with -HP since her Def/Res can get so high that taking less damage is more important than having more HP.

Edited May 11, 2018 by XRay

[redlight]

@XRay healers can't use smoke skills

[Hawk King]

8 hours ago, Sunwoo said:

Okay, so. When I was summoning last night, I stumbled upon a Nowi who is +atk -HP. That's a pretty good nature for her. I also have a 4-star one that's waiting to be promoted one day (not anytime soon though) who is +def -spd. I've heard that nature could still work depending on how I build her. Currently, she has TA3 and bowbreaker 3 as a skill, and I'll give her QR3 someday. When no one else needs it. I'm not attached to Nowi as a character and she is a low priority project, so she will be a slow build.

My question is whether the new +atk -HP or the old +def -spd would be a better nature for her. I don't care for Nowi as a character, so I don't need the absolute best nature on her ... but if +atk -HP is just leagues above the current one maybe I should consider switching to the new one. I also don't plan to give her things like steady breath and she'll stay with her current TA3 as a low budget build. Thoughts?

My +10 Nowi is +Atk/-Hp. The only negative is that she is slightly less effective with Panic Ploy. I have seen all sorts of natures for her from opponents I see. I would personally stay away from -Spd because with enough Spd support she can avoid doubles and get some of her own. I run Drive Spd on most of my Arena units because Tailtiu is fairly common and it scores well.

As for builds, she really wants a Breath skill. I switched from TA3 and bowbreaker to Stready Breath and (240 SP skill here), and she became significantly better. She is the main user of my QR3 seal.

+Def/-Spd could work if you want to go for a super physical tank build. But again she would want Steady Breath (Stance could work too) QR 3 and Close Defense seal.

For the TA3 build +Atk is better as you will be able to 1 hit KO most reds.

7 hours ago, Zeo said:

Based on your analysis of this team, Nino, Lukas and Chrom provide a solid core capable of dealing with most threats while Matthew is basically a wild card that can deal with any unexpected problems or mitigate issues caused by mono-color teams. And I'm ok with that.

That's exactly how I see it. And it totally works. I know how good dagger units can be I just don't like Mathew's stat spread as much as some of the others. No offense, but he's just kind of a jack of all trades master of none to me.

7 hours ago, Zeo said:

But for Nino, considering how feathers are in relative abundance, an Owl tome is something I can seriously consider if we're being honest, but now I have to give Nino Close Counter which at no point was I ever interested in doing and I'm still not.

Close Counter isn't a must for her with the  Owl tome. You have no need for her to tank melee units. The Owl tome just fits better with your defensive units.

 

Sealed Falchion would be a fun build for Chrom, but it doesn't fit as well with your defensive team composition. And you would need to pull a +Spd Chrom to run it most effectively.

[TheWill]

Right now I have a 4★ Clair with +atk/-res. 

I really like Clair as a character, but I'm not sure whether the bane is worth the upgrade. I've been saying feathers, so I'd prefer to not upgrade if it is that big of a detriment. I imagine it is since she surely would run Iceberg, no?

[redlight]

2 hours ago, SlipperySlippy said:

Right now I have a 4★ Clair with +atk/-res. 

I really like Clair as a character, but I'm not sure whether the bane is worth the upgrade. I've been saying feathers, so I'd prefer to not upgrade if it is that big of a detriment. I imagine it is since she surely would run Iceberg, no?

To be honest, you're only losing about 1-2 damage from Iceberg with that bane. You might not be able to ploy as well as a non-res bane Clair, but you can just merge later down the line. If you're looking for a budget A-slot skill then darting blow will do it's job just fine. Iceberg is the go to option unless you want Luna

Edited May 11, 2018 by silveraura25

[XRay]

7 hours ago, silveraura25 said:

@XRay healers can't use smoke skills

Woops. My bad. Healers keep getting the short end of the stick in skill inheritance.

[Rinco]

So, free Takumi means free Close Counter. I was wondering who should I give it to and I have some options. 

- H!Jakob seems a solid choice, even more if I manage to get some fodder for Bold/Vengeful fighter. Slap a refined Guard Bow and he should turn into a monster.
- Reinhard with CC could be kind of a monster, with Vantage and Blarblade, but I don't think that's the best option
- LA!Lyn, I think it's worse than giving it to Jakob, since she loses her Bond A slot that makes up a lot of her build (mine has Owl tome). She also has lowish def compared to Jakob.
- Nino? Mine is +10 +Spd/-Def. Blade/Vantage/CC Nino seems nasty, but she's already a monster and that seems excessive.
- Felicia?

As I see, my best option is H!Jakob. Even mine being -Atk (he is +Def or +Res, can't remember now), it should make him pretty strong and it would make me use him more, I guess.

Any advices?

[Hawk King]

5 hours ago, SlipperySlippy said:

Right now I have a 4★ Clair with +atk/-res. 

I really like Clair as a character, but I'm not sure whether the bane is worth the upgrade. I've been saying feathers, so I'd prefer to not upgrade if it is that big of a detriment. I imagine it is since she surely would run Iceberg, no?

+Atk is way more important than -Res is a detriment. With Flashing Blade refinement on her Rhomphaia, she can run higher cooldown skills like Glacies, Aether, and Galeforce. Personally, I think Galeforce would be her best option. Her effective damage against Cavalry and Armors allows her to get kills without the need of extra damage from specials, and Galeforce allows her to do it more.

[Humanoid]

13 minutes ago, Rinco said:

So, free Takumi means free Close Counter. I was wondering who should I give it to and I have some options. 

- H!Jakob seems a solid choice, even more if I manage to get some fodder for Bold/Vengeful fighter. Slap a refined Guard Bow and he should turn into a monster.
- Reinhard with CC could be kind of a monster, with Vantage and Blarblade, but I don't think that's the best option
- LA!Lyn, I think it's worse than giving it to Jakob, since she loses her Bond A slot that makes up a lot of her build (mine has Owl tome). She also has lowish def compared to Jakob.
- Nino? Mine is +10 +Spd/-Def. Blade/Vantage/CC Nino seems nasty, but she's already a monster and that seems excessive.
- Felicia?

As I see, my best option is H!Jakob. Even mine being -Atk (he is +Def or +Res, can't remember now), it should make him pretty strong and it would make me use him more, I guess.

Any advices?

Of those, Jakob would indeed be the common pick, yeah. Lyn isn't a terrible choice as Owl tomes synergise pretty well with CC, which is why Boey is another common pick. A bulky ninja like Saizo or Matthew will be another frequent suggestion.

Personally though, if/when I can justify promoting Takumi, I'm going with glorious close counter Azama.

[Rinco]

5 minutes ago, Humanoid said:

Of those, Jakob would indeed be the common pick, yeah. Lyn isn't a terrible choice as Owl tomes synergise pretty well with CC, which is why Boey is another common pick. A bulky ninja like Saizo or Matthew will be another frequent suggestion.

Personally though, if/when I can justify promoting Takumi, I'm going with glorious close counter Azama.

I won't even spend feathers on promoting Takumi, since I have a bad IV one from the early days that I'm going to use as CC fodder. The neutral one is going to sit on my barracks to be upgraded when I have something to do with it (or even to be more CC fodder)

[XRay]

20 minutes ago, Rinco said:

So, free Takumi means free Close Counter. I was wondering who should I give it to and I have some options. 

- H!Jakob seems a solid choice, even more if I manage to get some fodder for Bold/Vengeful fighter. Slap a refined Guard Bow and he should turn into a monster.
- Reinhard with CC could be kind of a monster, with Vantage and Blarblade, but I don't think that's the best option
- LA!Lyn, I think it's worse than giving it to Jakob, since she loses her Bond A slot that makes up a lot of her build (mine has Owl tome). She also has lowish def compared to Jakob.
- Nino? Mine is +10 +Spd/-Def. Blade/Vantage/CC Nino seems nasty, but she's already a monster and that seems excessive.
- Felicia?

As I see, my best option is H!Jakob. Even mine being -Atk (he is +Def or +Res, can't remember now), it should make him pretty strong and it would make me use him more, I guess.

Any advices?

I would give Close Counter to a colored ranged armor unit. You can still give it to TOD!Jakob, but I think he is the weakest option out of all the ranged armor units since he does not have a color to help him tank. For LA!Lyn, unless she is -Def or something, she got Ward Armor buffs from at least two of her allies, and that is more than enough to make up for her lowish Def in my opinion.

Nino and Felicia should not run Close Counter unless you want them on your defense team and are trying to catch players off guard.

14 minutes ago, Hawk King said:

Personally, I think Galeforce would be her best option. Her effective damage against Cavalry and Armors allows her to get kills without the need of extra damage from specials, and Galeforce allows her to do it more.

That depends on the player's tier and how often they see armor units. Unless the player is at the very top of Tier 20 and see primarily just armor units, Galeforce is pretty bad for performance. Galeforce is weak to Vantage enemies, and Wings of Mercy enemies will more likely ambush your team with half dead enemies lying around if she spends her extra turn retreating instead of finishing off the half dead enemy. Damage Specials are far more efficient and are much less vulnerable to Vantage.

 

 

[Sias]

12 hours ago, XRay said:

Firesweep builds want Atk stacked healers, as Dancers/Singers will do the doubling for them. You can go with Speed +3 or Atk/Spd 2 if you want better independent performance and/or if you do not want to run a Dancer/Singer.

Pure support healers want [+Spd/Def/Res, -Atk] depending on the unit. Most want +Spd to prevent being doubled, but some like Azama and Wrys want +Def and +Res respectively since they are so slow that increasing their Spd does not really do anything for them. The -Atk is not a big deal in my opinion since getting a few less HP per heal is not going to make much difference.

Is there a specific cutoff point for you where +Spd isn't worth it anymore? You mentioned Azama, and Lissa/Lachesis are even slower than him, so I guess they don't get too much value from it either? What about someone like Mist, wo is a bit faster but still below average?

Quote

For FV!F!Robin, it depends on what you need her to do. I would go with [+Spd, -Res] to keep her physical bulk intact, as -HP reduces both physical and magical bulk. If she is in a Ward Dragon team though, I would go with -HP since her Def/Res can get so high that taking less damage is more important than having more HP.

I think I'll keep the -Res one then, thank you. As you didn't mention the other two characters, I guess my preference regarding those was okay?

[Ice Dragon]

15 hours ago, Sias said:

Anyways, after pulling some more characters, I'm left with some more questions!
First of all, I got a bunch of additional Lachesis' and Lissas, and since I have one five star each of those two since quite a while, I'd thought I'd finally inquire about good natures. Is their speed decent enough to be somewhat fixed with a +Spd nature and Spd+3 or should I just try to dump it and build Atk with +Atk and Atk+3? Lissa could also reasonably pull of some kind of Azama build with -Atk and Fortress Def, I guess, considering her low Atk and the tiny heal scaling of Rehabilitate+. (Also, please remember that I don't have acces to enough Wrathful Staff to throw that on everyone)

Secondly, should I keep my current +Spd/-Res legendary Robin or switch to +Spd/-HP? Similarly, +Res/-Spd Sheena or +Def/-Spd (sadly without Distant Counter) and +Spd/-Def or +Spd/-Res Nino (using LoD)? I'm generally leaning towards the former, but any second opinions would be appreciated. :)

Staves:

I'd venture to say that Mist's 28 base Spd is the borderline for where Spd starts or stops mattering. Everyone slower than her definitely doesn't care about their Spd, and everyone faster than her generally does. I just don't know if Mist herself cares or not (but I'm leaning towards not).

If you aren't able to run Wrathful Staff, I suggest using either Pain+ or Gravity+ on everything. The former doesn't care about direct damage and is made useful simply by stacking Savage Blow on top of it as many times as you can. The latter can be used purely for support with no need to care about its damage.

 

Robin: I prefer [+Spd, -Res] for a player-phase or mix-phase build. If you are stacking Ward Fliers or Ward Dragons, [+Spd, -HP] is better for an enemy phase build.

Sheena: Both are fine. I would personally go for +Atk over either of them because I run my enemy-phase armor teams with 2 or 3 stacks of Ward Armor.

Nino: If you see a lot of dragons or Distant Counter users and are noticing that you get killed in one hit a lot, go for -Res. Otherwise, -Def is better for dealing with tome users that are actually capable of counterattacking.

[NegativeExponents-]

@Zeo I’ve been thinking about it, and I think the biggest issue is not Chrom or his builds but the fact that he just overlaps with Lukas. I’m not saying you should stop building Chrom or anything, but maybe think about using a different red sword unit for this team and make another team in which Chrom is better suited for? You already mentioned Eirika, Fir, and Eliwood, which are all good choices, but it doesn’t have to be a res tank, just someone that adds more versatility to your team.

[Chrom-ulent]

Should I postpone my Cordelia 5+10 and consider Clair or Shigure instead? Currently, Cordelia and Shigure are 5+1. Clair, I don't have a 5-star at the moment.

It looks like Shigure will require the least investment. Cordelia requires me to promote a Roderick to yoink Firesweep+, while Clair requires dew to forge the Flashing Blade refinement onto Rhomphaia.

Also, should I make Sothe or Nanna my first 5+10 colorless? They're tied at +4 right now.

Edited May 11, 2018 by Chrom-ulent