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

[mcsilas]

4 hours ago, bethany81707 said:

I just noticed the Fresh Bouquet can get refined. Which one should I get for my Ninian (+Def/-Atk, doesn't even break 40 with Tempest buffs)?

Seconding +Spd. Always the best refine for dancers as they want to survive as much as they can and Spd gives her bulk in both defensive sides. 

I have a few questions:

1.) Should I upgrade a +Spd/-HP Marth? HP superbane is kind of disappointing though, but I haven't pulled Marth in a while and +Spd is a great boon. The refine seems good for infernal PvE content.

My main reason is I need more Falchion users besides Masked Marth for AA. It's either him or a +Atk/-Res Chrom (or both?) but I was just wondering if it's better to wait or train him now while he is a TT bonus unit?

2.) I have 4 star +Atk/-HP Soleil. Good to upgrade or wait for +Spd or a -Res? I guess if I give her a Slaying Edge I could patch the -HP? Or is Wo Dao better for +Atk?

3.) Speaking of Soleil, who wants a Firesweep Sword+? I have a -Spd one ready to fodder off. I hear Elincia can use it but I prefer Amiti (and she's -Spd as well so I feel other users can use it better). I guess Hana as well (+Spd or +Atk?) but I'm not too invested in her. The only other ones in my barracks that don't want to change their prf weapon besides Hana is maybe +Spd Ogma or Gray (Lon'qu's Atk seems to low for it and I have no good Athenas).

4.) What's a good sword for +Atk/-Res Cain? Mostly going to upgrade him out of favouritism but I'm unsure if Slaying Edge, Wo Dao or maybe even Firesweep is the best for him? I mean I can use Brave Sword for now but just as a long term weapon, what's a good suggestion?

5.) Planning to upgrade a +Def/-Res Beruka. Steady Stance for A skill seems good but I'm a bit wary of sacrificing a Shiro right now. Would a Sturdy Stance from L'Ephraim be a good A skill for her? I don't have spare Close/Distant Defense fodder for A skill.

Edited May 25, 2018 by mcsilas

[Vaximillian]

5 minutes ago, mcsilas said:

1.) Should I upgrade a +Spd/-HP Marth? HP superbane is kind of disappointing though, but I haven't pulled Marth in a while and +Spd is a great boon. The refine seems good for infernal PvE content.

My Marth is Spd/HP, and I’m pretty fond of him. He’s constantly on my arena team, and his forge is amazing:

I am sort of on the fence regarding +Atk or +Spd, but leaning more towards +Spd. He isn’t the fastest, and can use more.

[redlight]

39 minutes ago, Vaximillian said:

My Marth is Spd/HP, and I’m pretty fond of him. He’s constantly on my arena team, and his forge is amazing:

I am sort of on the fence regarding +Atk or +Spd, but leaning more towards +Spd. He isn’t the fastest, and can use more.

what happened to meta schmeta? running aether seems meta to me

[Vaximillian]

1 minute ago, silveraura25 said:

what happened to meta schmeta? running aether seems meta to me

Marth is the ancestor of the Ylissean lords who get Aether naturally. Nothing contradicting meta schmeta.

[XRay]

59 minutes ago, mcsilas said:

2.) I have 4 star +Atk/-HP Soleil. Good to upgrade or wait for +Spd or a -Res? I guess if I give her a Slaying Edge I could patch the -HP? Or is Wo Dao better for +Atk?

That nature is fine, but I would wait for [+Spd, -Res] if you are not in a hurry.

59 minutes ago, mcsilas said:

3.) Speaking of Soleil, who wants a Firesweep Sword+? I have a -Spd one ready to fodder off. I hear Elincia can use it but I prefer Amiti (and she's -Spd as well so I feel other users can use it better). I guess Hana as well (+Spd or +Atk?) but I'm not too invested in her. The only other ones in my barracks that don't want to change their prf weapon besides Hana is maybe +Spd Ogma or Gray (Lon'qu's Atk seems to low for it and I have no good Athenas).

Personally, I would wait for the game to release another sword flier that does not have an exclusive Weapon and give Firesweep S to them. I do not recommend giving it to Palla since she might get an exclusive Weapon.

You can also give Firesweep S to NY!Camilla if you have her as she got decent offensive stats too.

59 minutes ago, mcsilas said:

4.) What's a good sword for +Atk/-Res Cain? Mostly going to upgrade him out of favouritism but I'm unsure if Slaying Edge, Wo Dao or maybe even Firesweep is the best for him? I mean I can use Brave Sword for now but just as a long term weapon, what's a good suggestion?

Units generally go for slow Brave builds or Wo Dao.

[+Atk, Brave, Moonbow, Death Blow, Quickened Pulse]

[+Spd, Wo Dao [Spd], Moonbow, Life and Death/Swift Sparrow/Fury, Desperation, Speed +3]

I cannot check the calculator at the moment, but I think +Spd-Wo Dao-Life and Death would give him the best performance. Since yours is +Atk, I am not too sure which build is better.

1 hour ago, mcsilas said:

5.) Planning to upgrade a +Def/-Res Beruka. Steady Stance for A skill seems good but I'm a bit wary of sacrificing a Shiro right now. Would a Sturdy Stance from L'Ephraim be a good A skill for her? I don't have spare Close/Distant Defense fodder for A skill.

Sturdy Stance seems better than Steady Stance, but I need to double check later just to be sure. +8 to total stats seems better than +6 to total stats.

[Ice Dragon]

1 hour ago, XRay said:

Units generally go for slow Brave builds or Wo Dao.

@mcsilas

Cain is fast enough to run Life and Death or Swift Sparrow with Brave Sword+ on a cavalry or tactics team.

[EricaofRenais]

I am wondering how to build my G!Marth since there are only two builds I have found recommended so far.  I don't have slaying ax fodder right now, but I do have moonbow, L&D 3 and desperation 3 fodder.  I really like G!Marth's ax so I was wondering if I could keep his ax but still use this build?  The only other build I found used a whole bunch of skills I don't have and probably won't get, so I have to use what I have.

[Ice Dragon]

6 minutes ago, EricaofRenais said:

I am wondering how to build my G!Marth since there are only two builds I have found recommended so far.  I don't have slaying ax fodder right now, but I do have moonbow, L&D 3 and desperation 3 fodder.  I really like G!Marth's ax so I was wondering if I could keep his ax but still use this build?  The only other build I found used a whole bunch of skills I don't have and probably won't get, so I have to use what I have.

You basically can't go wrong with Ardent Service for the same reason that Ephraim still has a reason to keep Siegmund over Flame Siegmund. Buffs comparable to Drive or Hone/Fortify are always good to have on your weapon slot. This is the reason why Linde, Delthea, and Lute are ranked one tier above Ishtar on Gamepedia and Ephraim is ranked one tier above Legendary Ephraim (when not on a cavalry team).

If you're sticking with Ardent Service on a player-phase build, I'd opt for

Ardent Service+ [Spd / Def]
Moonbow
Fury 3 / Life and Death 3 / Swift Sparrow 2
Desperation 3 / Weaponbreaker 3 / whatever
Hone Cavalry / Fortify Cavalry / whatever

to make use of his good Spd stat.

[Kaden]

In the long run, as in +10 merged, Eliwood would want to be +Spd over +Atk, right? Also, -HP as his bane even though it's a superbane since tanking his defense probably isn't a good idea and being -Res hurts his ability to run ploys as well as he could. Blazing Durandal is a 19 Mt sword which in a way gives him 34 neutral attack. +Spd Eliwood having 34/33 offenses that way might be better than +Atk Eliwood having 37/30 offenses. Ares, paladin Chrom, Eldigan, Luke Meisterhardt, Siegbert, and Sigurd by default have higher base attack and can hit as hard if not harder than him while also having high enough physical bulk to deal with being doubled unlike Eliwood. That said, the one thing I could see +Atk having an edge over +Spd is if Eliwood is running Desperation and Brash Assault since his speed wouldn't be that important.

[EricaofRenais]

52 minutes ago, Ice Dragon said:

You basically can't go wrong with Ardent Service for the same reason that Ephraim still has a reason to keep Siegmund over Flame Siegmund. Buffs comparable to Drive or Hone/Fortify are always good to have on your weapon slot. This is the reason why Linde, Delthea, and Lute are ranked one tier above Ishtar on Gamepedia and Ephraim is ranked one tier above Legendary Ephraim (when not on a cavalry team).

If you're sticking with Ardent Service on a player-phase build, I'd opt for

Ardent Service+ [Spd / Def]
Moonbow
Fury 3 / Life and Death 3 / Swift Sparrow 2
Desperation 3 / Weaponbreaker 3 / whatever
Hone Cavalry / Fortify Cavalry / whatever

to make use of his good Spd stat.

OK thanks, I have the fodder for that and I will keep his weapon.  I think I will give him a spd refine to make him even faster.  

[mampfoid]

7 hours ago, mcsilas said:

1.) Should I upgrade a +Spd/-HP Marth? HP superbane is kind of disappointing though, but I haven't pulled Marth in a while and +Spd is a great boon. The refine seems good for infernal PvE content.

Upgrade him immediately if you want to use him in TTs. If you ever get a better nature it won't be a big deal to add a merge. Personally I don't care much about superbanes, even my Cherche got one (-RES) as member of my arena core. 

7 hours ago, mcsilas said:

who wants a Firesweep Sword+

Like @XRay wrote, Camilla is a good choice. I would have given her FS, but mine is -SPD and I don't care much about sweeps. 

7 hours ago, mcsilas said:

Planning to upgrade a +Def/-Res Beruka. Steady Stance for A skill seems good but I'm a bit wary of sacrificing a Shiro right now. Would a Sturdy Stance from L'Ephraim be a good A skill for her? I don't have spare Close/Distant Defense fodder for A skill.

Sturdy Stance sounds good, but if you want a budget build, try double Fortress DEF & QR for a monster-Ignis. 

[XRay]

4 hours ago, Ice Dragon said:

@mcsilas

Cain is fast enough to run Life and Death or Swift Sparrow with Brave Sword+ on a cavalry or tactics team.

Cain can run Life and Death-Brave Sword as a budget option, but Life and Death-Wo Dao [Spd] does better.

 

Cain +Atk, -Res

Brave Sword, Luna

Life and Death, Desperation

Attack +3

6/6/0/0

Enemies +5, +Spd, Moonbow, Fury

Player Phase 179:45:29

Player Phase [Escutcheon] 177:20:56

 

Cain +Spd, -Res

Wo Dao [Spd], Moonbow

Life and Death, Desperation

Speed +3

6/6/0/0

Enemies +5, +Spd, Moonbow, Fury

Player Phase 200:17:36

Player Phase [+Atk] 192:17:44

 

Most units now perform better with Wo Dao [Spd] builds than fast Brave builds. The lack of Refinements and stat deficiency of Brave Weapons are suppressing Brave builds' performance quite a bit.

- - - - - - -

@Kaden Yeah, +Spd is generally better. You may want to consider keeping regular Durandal over Blazing Durandal since Durandal got 1 more Atk over Blazing Durandal, and I do not think Heavy Blade makes a large enough difference in combat to justify upgrading it unless you are planning to utilize Galeforce.

Edited May 25, 2018 by XRay

[Kaden]

25 minutes ago, XRay said:

@Kaden Yeah, +Spd is generally better. You may want to consider keeping regular Durandal over Blazing Durandal since Durandal got 1 more Atk over Blazing Durandal, and I do not think Heavy Blade makes a large enough difference in combat to justify upgrading it unless you are planning to utilize Galeforce.

I was thinking of running Galeforce on him since why not. Eliwood, BH Roy, and Siegbert can easily run Galeforce with their weapons quickening their special charges or giving them attack and speed boosts though Siegbert already has high neutral offenses. Also, Eldigan sort of through Fury 6 or Fury and L&D with unique refined Mystletainn and Raven, but Raven is foot-locked, so it's not as easy for him to move around unlike Cordelia nor do axe units still don't have Firesweep Axe.

And for Eliwood specifically, Blazing Durandal would still be good for enemy phase against dragons and mages if he's running Distant Counter since he'd have +3 attack at all times unlike Durandal which requires him to initiate. Eliwood doubling should probably lead to a special proc on his second hit and that's a safer bet than +1 attack in my opinion.

Now to figure out his bane. Probably not going to go with -Def. -HP is a superbane, but I don't really care much about arena scoring and if Blazing Durandal or regular Durandal could be refined, I'd probably jump on it since he can get +3 to +5 HP from refining them. At +10, he should have 36 resistance as =Res and 33 as -Res. >= 32 resistance is, from what I remember, the sweet spot for ploys, but at +10 merge, everyone's resistance is going up by 4, so I don't really know.

[Ice Dragon]

44 minutes ago, XRay said:

Most units now perform better with Wo Dao [Spd] builds than fast Brave builds. The lack of Refinements and stat deficiency of Brave Weapons are suppressing Brave builds' performance quite a bit.

The difference between Wo Dao and fast Brave Sword is that fast Brave Sword has the same wins at max HP and at 1 HP because you always activate Luna regardless of if the opponent is capable of counterattacking (actually, you typically have more wins at 1 HP because you don't need to survive the counterattack).

Wo Dao has better performance from full health, but becomes less reliable at lower HP because you won't get a Moonbow off on every round of combat afterwards. Of particular note, the second round of combat (assuming you activated Desperation) will be unable to trigger Moonbow, which is my biggest problem with running Wo Dao + Desperation builds.

[Ginko]

@mcsilas I can't answer all of them but here is what I know.

#2 Slaying Edge is better overall , but Wo Dao is cheaper if you have it on pity breakers

#3 All high speed swordmaster can enjoy Firesweep Sword. In your case, I recommend Ogma if you want to bring him out from the bench. But you have to invest a lot for him to be good.

#4 Personally, I think Cain is more hopeless than Ogma, just leave him be a WoM fodder.

#5 Don't you dare to sack a Shiro!!

Earth Boost, Fortress Def, Atk/Def Bond, Double Stance from Ephraim all can be good alternatives.

Edited May 25, 2018 by Ginko

[XRay]

2 hours ago, Kaden said:

Now to figure out his bane. Probably not going to go with -Def. -HP is a superbane, but I don't really care much about arena scoring and if Blazing Durandal or regular Durandal could be refined, I'd probably jump on it since he can get +3 to +5 HP from refining them. At +10, he should have 36 resistance as =Res and 33 as -Res. >= 32 resistance is, from what I remember, the sweet spot for ploys, but at +10 merge, everyone's resistance is going up by 4, so I don't really know.

You may want to consider building two different Eliwoods if resource allows if you have a hard time deciding, at least that is what I usually do.

I personally prefer to bane Res on all my Player Phase melee units unless they run slow Brave Builds (I do not really care what they have as banes since they kill things in two hits), since running -HP/Def lowers makes them easier to be knocked out on the counter during their first round of combat. However, if you have trouble getting units into Desperation range, then -HP/Def is actually fine and maybe better than -Res on a practical level.

2 hours ago, Ice Dragon said:

The difference between Wo Dao and fast Brave Sword is that fast Brave Sword has the same wins at max HP and at 1 HP because you always activate Luna regardless of if the opponent is capable of counterattacking (actually, you typically have more wins at 1 HP because you don't need to survive the counterattack).

Wo Dao has better performance from full health, but becomes less reliable at lower HP because you won't get a Moonbow off on every round of combat afterwards. Of particular note, the second round of combat (assuming you activated Desperation) will be unable to trigger Moonbow, which is my biggest problem with running Wo Dao + Desperation builds.

Good point. I generally prefer to prioritize first round combat since I like to fight the most difficult enemies first, although that is not possible sometimes if the enemies has positioning Assists and Assist each other all over the place.

 

[mcsilas]

Thanks for the responses! I've ended up on a feather spending spree and upgraded both Marth and Chrom, plus Beruka, Kaze and a Setsuna for Guard Bow (although I guess I have to upgrade Assassin's Bow first before changing it to Guard Bow it seems).

@XRay Fair enough on Newmilla, I don't have her though so maybe I'll just wait if she pitybreaks me in a future legendary banner or another good sword unit comes out.

@mampfoid @Vaximillian Ah fair enough, I was more worried about the -HP in terms of PvE like GHBs with their inflated stats and his physical bulk being slightly less. but I guess I'll just upgrade him now to get as much SP from the TT, then merge a +Spd/-Res one if he ever drops by in the future. He's mostly a support bot anyway so arena scoring from the superbane is less of a worry compared to lesser physical bulk (although I guess Chrom is there if I need a bulkier Falchion user).

@Ginko I didn't want to! Unless I'm saccing a Brave Ike for Steady Breath + Aether (maybe Adult Tiki could use it). 

As for Beruka, thanks, I'll just inherit my spare L'Ephraim then. Don't have spare Fortress Def or Earth Boost fodder anyway.

@Ice Dragon Ah okay, I guess Wo Dao (and I guess Slaying Edge) is more if a unit can be good in both phases. Good to keep in mind. I don't have a +Spd Cain anyway (can't pull Cains to save my life) so I'll just work with I have. Even with Wo Dao I can at least refine +Spd for a pseudo-Spd boon as well as having the +Atk boost that I can't emulate from a +Atk refine. Brave Sword can still be an option anyway if I just want to Player Phase delete things in PvE then where he doesn't want to get hit.

I guess similarly, I'll just upgrade Soleil in the near future and go +Spd refine for now. I guess I have 1 more spare Athena, but I also a few more spare Lon'qus so I'll just decide the weapon based on current availability.

----

Another quick question- I decided I'll fodder off my 5 star Catrias with bad natures to clear barracks space for Slaying Lance and Luna. What's the most efficient way of giving someone the Slaying Lance? Have Catria learn it then inherit her away I assume? I already have a +Spd/-Res in the 4 star anyway so she's free to fodder off.

Also out of these candidates for Slaying Lance, who would use it the best? (Order is current train of thought in priority)

Main account- Oboro (+Def/-Res but I also have a +Atk/-HP that needs to be trained), Finn. 

Second account- Finn (already have a +Atk Abel for Brave Lance needs) or Oscar (+HP/-Res, although Sapphire Lance + Lancebreaker is also a thing for AA). Maybe LA!Eliwood and Oboro as well, although maybe these two could be Berkut's lance users (have a choice +Atk, +Def or +Res Oboro).

(Yeah I know Oboro isn't the most meta lance unit but it's more out of favouritism and she needs a weapon change anyway)

[Xenomata]

23 minutes ago, mcsilas said:

Another quick question- I decided I'll fodder off my 5 star Catrias with bad natures to clear barracks space for Slaying Lance and Luna. What's the most efficient way of giving someone the Slaying Lance? Have Catria learn it then inherit her away I assume? I already have a +Spd/-Res in the 4 star anyway so she's free to fodder off.

Also out of these candidates for Slaying Lance, who would use it the best? (Order is current train of thought in priority)

Main account- Oboro (+Def/-Res but I also have a +Atk/-HP that needs to be trained), Finn. 

Second account- Finn (already have a +Atk Abel for Brave Lance needs) or Oscar (+HP/-Res, although Sapphire Lance + Lancebreaker is also a thing for AA). Maybe LA!Eliwood and Oboro as well, although maybe these two could be Berkut's lance users (have a choice +Atk, +Def or +Res Oboro).

(Yeah I know Oboro isn't the most meta lance unit but it's more out of favouritism and she needs a weapon change anyway)

I don't know if Slaying Lance+ can still be inherited by someone if they haven't learned Slaying Lance beforehand, but either way it may be smartest to learn Slaying Lance+ before inheriting, if the option is open to you. 200 for Killer Lance plus 300 from Killer Lance+ plus another 300 from Slaying Lance+ and 350 from the refined Slaying Lance is 1150 sp. x1.5 is 1,725 total SP. In comparison, Catria would only need 300 SP because she already has Killer Lance+ and only need to get Slaying Lance+, and isn't boggled down by inherited skill multipliers.

But again, that's only if Slaying Lance+ can be inherited without first getting Slaying Lance. (I took a moment to check, and yeah it's doable.)

I can't really answer who would like the Slaying Lance better though, since I myself have never given one to anyone in my army besides my crappy Hinoka. It's a good lance, I will admit that, but I've no experience using it myself.

[Kaden]

3 hours ago, XRay said:

You may want to consider building two different Eliwoods if resource allows if you have a hard time deciding, at least that is what I usually do.

I personally prefer to bane Res on all my Player Phase melee units unless they run slow Brave Builds (I do not really care what they have as banes since they kill things in two hits), since running -HP/Def lowers makes them easier to be knocked out on the counter during their first round of combat. However, if you have trouble getting units into Desperation range, then -HP/Def is actually fine and maybe better than -Res on a practical level.

I only have 5 extra Eliwoods including the 5* one in use, so no.

My question right now is would 33 resistance be enough at +10 or would 36 be better considering everyone would gain +4 resistance at that point.

Edited May 26, 2018 by Kaden

[Nanima]

So I just pulled a Bride!Charlotte from the old banner. Unfortunately, she is +Def -Spd. Is there any she can still make a good unit? And not in the "she'll do okayish if you give her these 20 exclusive skills and ignore the 10+ units she's hopelessly outclassed by ." kind of way.

[Humanoid]

7 minutes ago, Nanima said:

So I just pulled a Bride!Charlotte from the old banner. Unfortunately, she is +Def -Spd. Is there any she can still make a good unit? And not in the "she'll do okayish if you give her these 20 exclusive skills and ignore the 10+ units she's hopelessly outclassed by ." kind of way.

Defense is a superboon which takes her to a servicable 28 def. Quick Riposte and Slaying Lance+ probably would be the default loadout for a unit like her. Her excellent 36 attack is untouched so she'd do fine with a Brave Lance+ and something like Lancebreaker too. I'd just choose based on what other lancers you already have.

[NekoKnight]

Got Ninian on the bridal banner (the, um... 2017 bridal banner) with a +Atk -Res nature.

My older Ninian(+1) is +Spd -Res and I'm wonder who should get merged into who. I'm currently using Dark Breath (+Def) Fury build which brings her stats to 48/41/40/30/26. The question is, how much spd is enough and at what point should other stats be invested in? One option I considered was switching to the +Atk nature and changing the weapon refine to +Spd so Ninian is trading +4 def for +4 atk.  Her support buddy is Myrrh, so she has access to Hone Dragons.

Thoughts?

[Nanima]

16 minutes ago, Humanoid said:

Defense is a superboon which takes her to a servicable 28 def. Quick Riposte and Slaying Lance+ probably would be the default loadout for a unit like her. Her excellent 36 attack is untouched so she'd do fine with a Brave Lance+ and something like Lancebreaker too. I'd just choose based on what other lancers you already have.

Well I do have Fjorm and Shiro as enemy phase lances (even if Shiro is -Def +Spd ironically. It still makes him better at it than Charlotte). I do also have a built up Finn, though I plan on giving him a Firesweep lance at some point. Charlotte can take over Brave Lance duty for him.

[bethany81707]

I have a shiny new Bride Lyn, who is my first real exposure to Rehabilitate+. I've heard it's the worst of the + healer specials, in contrast to how Rehabilitate compares to the other low-level ones, but should I be concerned about replacing it? I've certainly got the Serras...

[mcsilas]

@Xenomata Ah thanks for the tidbit. I'm always paranoid when inheriting 5 star units/skills.

@NekoKnight Personally, I say you can never have too much Spd on a dancer. Especially since there are many speedy swordies out there, so even with color advantage I think avoiding doubles (and possible special charging) is an advantage. Might need a second opinion though.