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

[XRay]

49 minutes ago, Alkaid said:

It's too bad, since it does mesh perfectly with her assist but I'll likely have those buffs on her from allied C skills anyway. I feel like I should throw it onto her anyway since I can't imagine anyone else possibly using that Link skill better, but I feel bad killing a Laevatein for it. (even if merging her hardly accomplishes anything either)

Laevatein got Fury and Odd Spd Wave to fodder if you do not want to merge her.

Fury is always good. I personally do not like Waves since they are not very consistent, but it can self buff the unit.

2 hours ago, DefyingFates said:

Is there an established rule of thumb yet for Steady Breath vs Stance 4? What builds/ situations are each better for?

Thanks in advance for answering such a vague question!

Breaths are essentially better "Atk"/stat Stances, with the "Atk" portion being the difference in damage between a lower and higher cooldown Special. It is better since the difference in damage output is usually greater than 4.

Steady Stance 4 and Warding Stance 4 are essentially Def +8 and Res +8 respectively, with an additional "Def/Res +#" or "Bracing Stance #." Denying enemy Specials is the same as boosting both Def/Res. If we use enemy Moonbow as an example and our unit has 32 Def and is expected to be doubled, Steady Stance 4 is essentially Def +8 with "Def/Res +6" (32+8=40; 40*0.3=12; 12÷2=6).

23 minutes ago, DehNutCase said:

Tactics Buffs are slot inefficient.

You do not need slot efficiency though if you do not need to buff all your stats depending on team composition.

[DehNutCase]

Just now, XRay said:

You do not need slot efficiency though if you do not need to buff all your stats depending on team composition.

If Reinhardt had 180 BST are we going to run 180 BST armors because 'they don't need 3 move'? A weakness you can get away with is still a weakness---and I dock points for it.

 

When rating units I rate them against the best possible, not the least necessary. (This is probably one of the bigger disagreements between me and Ice Dragon, and why we start tons of arguments---I'm pretty sure we more or less agree on how strong each particular unit is, it's just that we rate them differently.)

[Ice Dragon]

1 hour ago, DehNutCase said:

A weakness you can get away with is still a weakness

A weakness that is irrelevant is not a weakness.

A weakness to red bows is not a weakness because there are no red bows in the game. A weakness to armors with Null Follow-Up is not a weakness because armors cannot equip Null Follow-Up.

 

1 hour ago, DehNutCase said:

When rating units I rate them against the best possible, not the least necessary.

That's blatantly incorrect. I rate units according to the least necessary against the best possible. Killing everything you need to kill by 100 HP and dying to the rest is functionally equivalent to killing everything you need to kill by 10 HP and dying to the rest.

[Alkaid]

@DehNutCase @Ice Dragon I guess I'll go for it and give her Atk/Def Link, since at the very least it may be nice on her for defense team usage in AR or Arena if I try her there. Still probably the best use of an extra Laevatein when I'm not planning to +10 her.

I actually have 2 spares, so now I need to think who might want Odd Spd Wave or if I should just +1 her(to show some favoritism, more than the +1 atk/hp that will do little) Like @XRaysaid, I don't really find the Wave skills very appealing with their consistency issues, but maybe I could save it for an infantry mage like Tharja, since I only have 2 Spd Tactic bearers among my barracks.

[DehNutCase]

33 minutes ago, Ice Dragon said:

A weakness that is irrelevant is not a weakness.

A weakness to red bows is not a weakness because there are no red bows in the game. A weakness to armors with Null Follow-Up is not a weakness because armors cannot equip Null Follow-Up.

That's... not the same as Tactics taking a slot for +6 stats versus Type Buffs taking a slot for +12 stats, though? Like, yeah, in certain teams you don't need your C-slot buffs to be as slot efficient (Bow Lucina teams are actually one of those, since you'd probably run more than the usual amount of drives on those teams), but Tactic Teams aren't one of those.

33 minutes ago, Ice Dragon said:

That's blatantly incorrect. I rate units according to the least necessary against the best possible. Killing everything you need to kill by 100 HP and dying to the rest is functionally equivalent to killing everything you need to kill by 10 HP and dying to the rest.

I guess I mis-worded, then.

What I meant by 'least necessary' is pretty much what you said---once a unit is good enough to defeat the best possible you don't rate it any higher, but I do rate people higher for being gross overkill.

If I compare a unit that overkills everything by 10 vs. the unit that overkill everything by 100, assuming they perform the same everywhere else, I'd rate the 100 overkiller higher. (But not significantly higher, of course---it's just that usually the guy overkilling by 100 tends to outperform the overkill by 10 guy elsewhere, since it takes a pretty odd situation that he only overkills by 100 on those exact units.)

 

Edit: Oh I think I see wording mistake now. By 'against' I meant I rate the most perfect unit currently possible as 10/10 and then dock points from people from there. Not how any particular unit performs when they're fighting the best possible teams, and giving them, say, 10/10 if they can beat all of those best possible teams.

If I used the performance versus best possible teams criteria I'd hand out a lot more 10/10s.

Edited December 2, 2018 by DehNutCase

[Ice Dragon]

4 minutes ago, DehNutCase said:

That's... not the same as Tactics taking a slot for +6 stats versus Type Buffs taking a slot for +12 stats, though?

It's really just a trade of skill slots for more lenient positioning.

 

8 minutes ago, DehNutCase said:

it's just that usually the guy overkilling by 100 tends to outperform the overkill by 10 guy elsewhere,

That was not my example, though, but I guess I really do have to spell it out so that you can't misinterpret it. If there are two units whose only difference is that one overkills everything in the game by 100 and the other overkills everything in the game by 10, the two are functionally equivalent. And by "everything", I really do mean absolutely everything without exceptions.

[DehNutCase]

1 minute ago, Ice Dragon said:

That was not my example, though, but I guess I really do have to spell it out so that you can't misinterpret it. If there are two units whose only difference is that one overkills everything in the game by 100 and the other overkills everything in the game by 10, the two are functionally equivalent. And by "everything", I really do mean absolutely everything without exceptions.

I know---and like I said I would only rate the overkill by 100 guy a little higher. Because they are identical everywhere else, after all.

 

Like, I think we both know exactly how valuable the two units are, it's just that you'd give them the same score but I wouldn't.

[Ice Dragon]

1 minute ago, DehNutCase said:

I know---and like I said I would only rate the overkill by 100 guy a little higher. Because they are identical everywhere else, after all.

And the entire point I'm making is that it's stupid to do so.

[ILikeKirbys]

8 hours ago, XRay said:

Ylgr has shit bulk, so I would not give Close Counter to her. I would just use Fjorm as the bonus unit instead.

After further consideration (mainly that I don't wanna get rid of either of my current CC-having units, though your point about Ylgr's lacking bulk was also a valid one), I'm probably gonna do that, though I'm gonna run her with Legendary Ryoma (just got him a second merge, so why not?), probably Airzura because Green, and my Xander, who I have a question about:

I gave Xander Steady Stance 4 because between the extra DEF and built-in Guard it seems like a really good skill for him (I would've preferred Warding Stance 4, but a Surtr free-summoned himself into my barracks when I was trying to get Ylgr so I burned him to make Xander better), so which of these is better for him:

1) Seigfried | Swap | Bonfire | Steady Stance 4 | Quick Riposte 3 | Drive SPD 2 | Distant DEF 3 Seal
2) Seigfried | Swap | Bonfire | Steady Stance 4 | Chill DEF 3 | Drive SPD 2 | Quick Riposte 3 Seal

Edited December 2, 2018 by ILikeKirbys

[XRay]

22 minutes ago, ILikeKirbys said:

After further consideration (mainly that I don't wanna get rid of either of my current CC-having units, though your point about Ylgr's lacking bulk was also a valid one), I'm probably gonna do that, though I'm gonna run her with Legendary Ryoma (just got him a second merge, so why not?), probably Airzura because Green, and my Xander, who I have a question about:

Xander is not bad, but he does not score too high and you only need one bonus unit. If you have a higher scoring unit, I will use that unit instead. Having more bonus units will not increase your score further.

However, having two bonus units does help you secure bonus kills more easily though, so I guess you can run two if you think securing more bonus kills will offset the lower score.

I personally would invest in an Arena core instead of changing the Arena team every time.

25 minutes ago, ILikeKirbys said:

I gave Xander Steady Stance 4 because between the extra DEF and built-in Guard it seems like a really good skill for him (I would've preferred Warding Stance 4, but a Surtr free-summoned himself into my barracks when I was trying to get Ylgr so I burned him to make Xander better), so which of these is better for him:

1) Seigfried | Swap | Bonfire | Steady Stance 4 | Quick Riposte 3 | Drive SPD 2 | Distant DEF 3 Seal
2) Seigfried | Swap | Bonfire | Steady Stance 4 | Chill DEF 3 | Drive SPD 2 | Quick Riposte 3 Seal

I recommend Renewal-Quick Riposte for Enemy Phase bonus units so it has sustainability to secure more bonus kills, but since you are running two bonus units, I guess Renewal is not necessary. In this case, I would go for option 1 since Distant Def directly affects his combat performance.

47 minutes ago, ILikeKirbys said:

I would've preferred Warding Stance 4, but a Surtr free-summoned himself into my barracks when I was trying to get Ylgr so I burned him to make Xander better

I would not sacrifice expensive fodder on a whim just to fill out a unit's skill slot. If you prefer Warding Stance 4 on Xander, then the better option in my opinion would be to just wait for Warding Stance 4 to come out and save Steady Stance 4 for someone else.

Unless you are a whale or the unit is your favorite or something, I personally do not recommend giving a unit an expensive skill only to replace it with another skill later in the future.

[Ice Dragon]

1 hour ago, ILikeKirbys said:

I gave Xander Steady Stance 4 because between the extra DEF and built-in Guard it seems like a really good skill for him (I would've preferred Warding Stance 4, but a Surtr free-summoned himself into my barracks when I was trying to get Ylgr so I burned him to make Xander better), so which of these is better for him:

1) Seigfried | Swap | Bonfire | Steady Stance 4 | Quick Riposte 3 | Drive SPD 2 | Distant DEF 3 Seal
2) Seigfried | Swap | Bonfire | Steady Stance 4 | Chill DEF 3 | Drive SPD 2 | Quick Riposte 3 Seal

If he is babysitting for Arena, then Chill Def. If he is supposed to be killing things, then Distant Def.

[Faellin]

As some cruel twist of fate. The latest banner gave me Luke on my free summon. I'm also curious as to why he is a 5 star exclusive...

 

Alot of people told me that he is basically an inferior sword Reinhardt in every way. So is he actually good for anything? Also he came up -speed +res if that helps.

I'm half tempted to build him up as a joke at this point. That and he always was a fantastic unit in my new mystery runs.

Edited December 2, 2018 by Faellin

[XRay]

13 minutes ago, Faellin said:

As some cruel twist of fate. The latest banner gave me Luke on my free summon. I'm also curious as to why he is a 5 star exclusive...

 

Alot of people told me that he is basically an inferior sword Reinhardt in every way. So is he actually good for anything? Also he came up -speed +res if that helps.

I'm half tempted to build him up as a joke at this point. That and he always was a fantastic unit in my new mystery runs.

Give him Death Blow-Breaker and he is good to go for Arena Assault; I prefer Axebreaker, but I guess Swordbreaker can work too if you do not have enough units and need coverage. Might also want to give him Swap or whatever cheap Assist you have too.

[Ice Dragon]

17 minutes ago, Faellin said:

As some cruel twist of fate. The latest banner gave me Luke on my free summon. I'm also curious as to why he is a 5 star exclusive...

He was the first character with Panic Ploy, so he didn't get demoted after his release banner. They haven't yet done any demotions from the 5-star-exclusive pool, so he's just stayed there ever since.

[Vaximillian]

18 minutes ago, Faellin said:

I'm also curious as to why he is a 5 star exclusive...

Alot of people told me that he is basically an inferior sword Reinhardt in every way.

Because he introduced Panic Ploy to the game, and Intsys wanted to not make that too accessible. Also Intsys thought back then that boost skills were good. Which they weren’t.

Keep in mind that Luke and Reinhardt are separated by a gap of almost a year long. So yeah, The Luke didn’t stand the test of time… but he was bound to lose anyway. He hits hard, at least.

[Kektor]

I'd like to build a 5*+10 Eirika (the basic one, with Sieglinde): at the moment I'm stacking my copies on a +SPD -HP, but I wonder if it could be better a +ATK nature, because I think she might outspeed everyone too much with her actual IVs (like an overkill, but it's godspeed). At +10 she would be 45 speed (assuming Fury 3) without boosts. Considering what her weapon does, she might surpass easily 50 in that stat...

Any advise?

[XRay]

10 minutes ago, Kektor said:

I'd like to build a 5*+10 Eirika (the basic one, with Sieglinde): at the moment I'm stacking my copies on a +SPD -HP, but I wonder if it could be better a +ATK nature, because I think she might outspeed everyone too much with her actual IVs (like an overkill, but it's godspeed). At +10 she would be 45 speed (assuming Fury 3) without boosts. Considering what her weapon does, she might surpass easily 50 in that stat...

Any advise?

I would personally go with [+Atk, -HP/Res]. She does not really need more Spd in my opinion since she can easily get a lot Spd from buffers. She can get Spd +8 with a buffer ally supplying Hone Speed to both her and another buffee ally. If the buffer ally got Spd Tactic, Eirika would get Spd +12.

[Ice Dragon]

2 hours ago, Kektor said:

I'd like to build a 5*+10 Eirika (the basic one, with Sieglinde): at the moment I'm stacking my copies on a +SPD -HP, but I wonder if it could be better a +ATK nature, because I think she might outspeed everyone too much with her actual IVs (like an overkill, but it's godspeed). At +10 she would be 45 speed (assuming Fury 3) without boosts. Considering what her weapon does, she might surpass easily 50 in that stat...

Any advise?

Units with noodle arms typically want to have their noodle arm fixed more than anything else unless they're compensating for it by landing high-power Specials (like Henry) or with Litrblade (like Odin).

[Zihark11]

So i just pulled an extra laevetain but i dont feel like starting a merge project for her. She actually has some good skills so who do you think would be a good choice to inherit? I dont wanna use her as a fury fodder cause the skill is more accesible then the other 2 she has. 

 

Any suggestions on builds or units that would go well with atk/def link or odd spd wave?

[redlight]

3 hours ago, Zihark11 said:

So i just pulled an extra laevetain but i dont feel like starting a merge project for her. She actually has some good skills so who do you think would be a good choice to inherit? I dont wanna use her as a fury fodder cause the skill is more accesible then the other 2 she has. 

 

Any suggestions on builds or units that would go well with atk/def link or odd spd wave?

I think you mentioned wanting to build a Lukas so maybe him with the link skill. Swap, Pivot and Reposition are best used for a unit like him

[XRay]

6 hours ago, Zihark11 said:

So i just pulled an extra laevetain but i dont feel like starting a merge project for her. She actually has some good skills so who do you think would be a good choice to inherit? I dont wanna use her as a fury fodder cause the skill is more accesible then the other 2 she has. 

 

Any suggestions on builds or units that would go well with atk/def link or odd spd wave?

Depending on your play style, Links and Waves are not very useful. I find Waves to be highly unreliable since they do not work half the time, but they do self buff the unit though; if you find the independence worth the unreliability, you can go for Waves.

Links are just plain awful in my opinion, since you have C slots for that and you rarely, if ever, need to buff more than two stats for most units. I guess you can use it for your core Arena cheerleaders since they are not going to face much combat. If you really need to buff all stats on your team for some reason, you can compress all your buffing ability onto one buffer to save space; you can also give it your one shot nukes and Brave nukes since they got their B slots open, but there a lot of better B skills in my opinion for them.

[Xenomata]

7 hours ago, Zihark11 said:

Any suggestions on builds or units that would go well with atk/def link or odd spd wave?

Following up on what @XRay said. Wave skills typically require some form of planning to make them work, such as timing when the enemy will raid your team that the Wave skills will be triggered at the same time in the case of Def and Res waves, or the opposite for Atk and Spd waves. Some Arena maps, unfortunately, just don't offer this luxury.

I'm not quite in agreement about Link skills, though I understand where Xray is coming from: they are B slot skills that are doing the function of a C slot skill. I can give you my own suggestion though: give a Link skill to Male Corrin with a Supportive Yato refine, and let him be an insane supportive unit to someone. I'm currently doing such with my Chrom, and he is nigh on untouchable by any physical units, and Corrin doesn't even have a Link skill yet.

[Zihark11]

15 minutes ago, Xenomata said:

Following up on what @XRay said. Wave skills typically require some form of planning to make them work, such as timing when the enemy will raid your team that the Wave skills will be triggered at the same time in the case of Def and Res waves, or the opposite for Atk and Spd waves. Some Arena maps, unfortunately, just don't offer this luxury.

I'm not quite in agreement about Link skills, though I understand where Xray is coming from: they are B slot skills that are doing the function of a C slot skill. I can give you my own suggestion though: give a Link skill to Male Corrin with a Supportive Yato refine, and let him be an insane supportive unit to someone. I'm currently doing such with my Chrom, and he is nigh on untouchable by any physical units, and Corrin doesn't even have a Link skill yet.

Cool thanks for the suggestion!

44 minutes ago, XRay said:

Depending on your play style, Links and Waves are not very useful. I find Waves to be highly unreliable since they do not work half the time, but they do self buff the unit though; if you find the independence worth the unreliability, you can go for Waves.

Links are just plain awful in my opinion, since you have C slots for that and you rarely, if ever, need to buff more than two stats for most units. I guess you can use it for your core Arena cheerleaders since they are not going to face much combat. If you really need to buff all stats on your team for some reason, you can compress all your buffing ability onto one buffer to save space; you can also give it your one shot nukes and Brave nukes since they got their B slots open, but there a lot of better B skills in my opinion for them.

Yeah i agree. im not always thinking about my skills when im just going through some maps unless im playing arena. You think it would just be better to merge her or fodder her off for fury then?

4 hours ago, silveraura25 said:

I think you mentioned wanting to build a Lukas so maybe him with the link skill. Swap, Pivot and Reposition are best used for a unit like him

im building a Resistant build Lukas. Odd res wave Berkuts lance+ with res refine, distant counter and quick riposte 3. i think his res can go up to like 34 on odd turns so for the team i have built around him hes taking the hits while the rest of the team can clean up. its worked out pretty good so far. 

[Xenovia]

On 12/2/2018 at 12:09 AM, Alkaid said:

 

I actually have 2 spares, so now I need to think who might want Odd Spd Wave or if I should just +1 her(to show some favoritism, more than the +1 atk/hp that will do little) Like @XRaysaid, I don't really find the Wave skills very appealing with their consistency issues, but maybe I could save it for an infantry mage like Tharja, since I only have 2 Spd Tactic bearers among my barracks.

I put Odd Spd Wave on Ayra and Kagero and that's worked pretty well.  I wouldn't merge Laevatein imo since +1 won't do much for Arena scoring or stat boost.

 

Question: if I have a +1 Marisa, how many Heroic Grails will I need to get 9 more copies to promote to make her a +10?

[XRay]

1 hour ago, Zihark11 said:

Yeah i agree. im not always thinking about my skills when im just going through some maps unless im playing arena. You think it would just be better to merge her or fodder her off for fury then?

If you like her, I would merge; if you do not really care about her, I would fodder for Fury. If you are not really sure, you can always turn her into a Manual first to save space and decide later.

1 hour ago, Zihark11 said:

im building a Resistant build Lukas. Odd res wave Berkuts lance+ with res refine, distant counter and quick riposte 3. i think his res can go up to like 34 on odd turns so for the team i have built around him hes taking the hits while the rest of the team can clean up. its worked out pretty good so far. 

In my opinion, if you are using Lukas as a combat unit, I would give Atk/Def Link to one of his support teammates so Lukas's combat performance is not comprised.

Most combat units need a B slot to function, namely Desperation and Quick Riposte. As mentioned before, some Player Phase units have more leeway with their B slots, but Enemy Phase units generally do not have that luxury as they need Quick Riposte-defensive Sacred Seal or Guard-Quick Riposte combo to perform well. If you are planning to run a Link skill on an Enemy Phase unit, I recommend giving it to an Enemy Phase unit with access to Quick Riposte on their Weapon like Roy, AOTB!Ephraim, etc.

56 minutes ago, Xenovia said:

Question: if I have a +1 Marisa, how many Heroic Grails will I need to get 9 more copies to promote to make her a +10?

Here is the simple method:
+2: 100
+3: 150
+4: 200
+5: 250
+6: 300
+7: 350
+8: 400
+9: 450
+10: 500
Total: 2,700

If you want a formula:
Grail Cost = (25(N^2)) + 75N
N = Number of copies you wish to obtain.
This assumes the character still has a reserve of 20 and you do not need more than 9 copies.

Grail Cost = (25(N^2)) + 75N
Grail Cost = (25(9^2)) + 75(9)
Grail Cost = 25(81) + 675
Grail Cost = 2,025 + 675
Grail Cost = 2,700

Edited December 4, 2018 by XRay