Next grand hero battle: Zephiel

[Ice Dragon]

1 minute ago, Kuroi Tsubasa Tenshi said:

Was a little surprised to see Raigh over Sophia, given Wary Fighter, but after observing the strat, it's superfluous either way. That is, Raigh's Atk is good enough such that Sophia wouldn't have had an advantage with more Atk. Raigh's Spd advantage is totally also superfluous, though. That is, the double at the end allowed him to finish in style, but there was still 2-3 more turns of kiting open to the team.

Raigh has 4 less Atk than Sophia at 3-star rarity, but he has access to Seal Res 2, which allows him and Cecilia to deal 5 more damage per hit after Raigh's attack. With a Dancer, that's 2 additional damage over Sophia if neither of them can double attack, though I don't know if that made a difference anywhere.

[shadowofchaos]

2 minutes ago, Ice Dragon said:

Raigh has 4 less Atk than Sophia at 3-star rarity, but he has access to Seal Res 2, which allows him and Cecilia to deal 5 more damage per hit after Raigh's attack. With a Dancer, that's 2 additional damage over Sophia if neither of them can double attack, though I don't know if that made a difference anywhere.

I made it easier on myself and gave Rei/Lleu/Raigh Nosferatu and Dragon Gaze from a spare 3 star Sophia.

[Kuroi Tsubasa Tenshi]

10 minutes ago, Ice Dragon said:

Raigh has 4 less Atk than Sophia at 3-star rarity, but he has access to Seal Res 2, which allows him and Cecilia to deal 5 more damage per hit after Raigh's attack. With a Dancer, that's 2 additional damage over Sophia if neither of them can double attack, though I don't know if that made a difference anywhere.

Hmmm, that is true. With how slow the enemies move, I doubt it would have changed the end result. I guess it's cleaner overall execution, though.

[chirp]

Reading all these strategies makes me wish for one thing: once we have beaten a GHB, it would be nice to be able to redo it for less (possibly even zero) stamina. Such free attempts would bring less experience, of course. I'd like to try all sort of things, but the stamina cost is prohibitive.

[KMT4ever]

Cleaned up on Lunatic on my 2nd attempt using my bog standard arena defense team.

• 5* Lucina (+Atk,-Spd): Darting Blow 3 inherited, but not of any consequence
• 5* Femui (+Res,-Atk): T-Adept 2 and Reposition inherited, helped a lot
• 5* Julia (+Spd, -HP): Spd+3, QR 2, and Swap inherited, only the former of any use
• 4* Clarine: Rehabilitate and Hone Spd 3 inherited

First turn was positioning, second turn was Julia ORKO-ing the blue mage. Then it was just a game of Naga-bombing with Julia and Repositioning with Femui until the enemies were dead.

[Kaden]

7 hours ago, Elieson said:

I can say with experience that this does work, fantastically too.

I used Gunter's Hone Cavalry for overkill, but Hone Atk 3 should do the trick.

It worked, but either I entered the numbers wrong or still don't completely understand how -blade tomes work since Ursula was able to leave the red mage with ~6 HP. She wasn't able to completely trivialize the red mage like F!Robin with Gronnraven+, Hone Attack 3 or any +4 Atk buff, and an Attack Seal was to the blue mage. Selena was able to trivialize the axe knight. It was hilarious. I love my twintailed, redheaded tsundere.

About to have dinner, so I'll go through a play-by-play just to think about stuff. Team was lv. 32, 4* Olivia (neutral) with default skills except for an unequipped Knockback, lv. 40, 4* F!Robin with the above mentioned skills and seal, lv. 40, 4* Selena (+Def, -HP) with default skills, and lv. 40, 4* Ursula with Blarblade and R Tomebreaker 2.

Edited April 20, 2017 by Kaden

[wizzard of soz]

18 minutes ago, chirp said:

Reading all these strategies makes me wish for one thing: once we have beaten a GHB, it would be nice to be able to redo it for less (possibly even zero) stamina. Such free attempts would bring less experience, of course. I'd like to try all sort of things, but the stamina cost is prohibitive.

i agree with this. with zero stamina i'd say get zero xp too, though maybe only on Lunatic so no free xp grind for lower levels. though when the training tower exists, grinding like that is kind of pointless. i don't see what they have to lose by implementing this.

Edited April 20, 2017 by wizzard of soz

[Tybrosion]

Like Navarre's, I beat this one on my first go easily.

Team

• Lv. 40 5* Ninian (neutral), Inherited Skills / Seals : New Moon (Fortify Def 2 equipped instead of Fortify Dragons)
• Lv. 40 5* Nino (+ATK, -RES), Inherited Skills / Seals: Draconic Aura, Fury 3, Desperation 3, Speed +1
• Lv. 40 5* Klein, +1 (+ATK, -RES), Inherited Skills / Seals: Draw Back, Luna, Hone Atk 2, Attack +1
• Lv. 40 5* Roy (+SPD, -HP), Inherited Skills / Seals: Moonbow, Spur Spd 2

Klein took out the mages, Roy handled the axe knight, Nino pelted the lance knight and Zephiel until they died and Ninian provided dance support. I did have Roy defeat Zephiel when I did the Hard version of the map but was unable to give him the finishing blow on Lunatic thanks to Reprisal allowing Zephiel to wreck Roy in one hit (Yes, I did bring Roy entirely for thematic reasons given that Nino and Klein were more than enough to handle this map). In short, strong mage with dance support (and Draw Back) stomps this map flat, but I'm sure that has already been firmly established.

[JJ48]

Trying to beat the level 30 one with the following team:

5-Star Merric, level 40

4-Star Ursula, Level 40

5-Star Tharja, Level 40

4-Star Serra, Level 39

 

No matter what I do, someone ends up attacking Ursula and one-shotting her, but she's the only level 40 Blue I have.  Can this be done without a Blue?

(Seriously, Light's Blessing should at least be allowed for the Level 30 challenge.  -_-)

[Dual Dragons]

Took me about two or three tries but I got it.

Team: (all Level 40) 4* Olivia (+Res/-Atk), 5* Minerva (+Def/-Spd; +Draconic Aura), 5* M!Robin (+Atk/-Spd; +Swordbreaker 3); 5* Ryoma (+Res/-HP; +Vantage 3)

Swordbreaker 3 didn't come into play.

It was guerrilla tactics with M!Robin and Vantage Ryoma being the main offense. Due to calculations, the Red Tome wouldn't die to Ryoma and M!Robin unless both were Hone Attack 3'd. Then funnily enough, the Lance Knight didn't swap the Red Tome after being baited by Ryoma. M!Robin killed. From there on, it was about making sure my units were not going to die on enemy phase (one of my failed attempts, I forgot Brave weapons) and backing up as they encroached into my area. I had to make use of M!Robin's Spur Defense 3 in one instance.

Kind of wish I had Nino trained since her huge power would've easily thrown those guys under 50% HP but alas she's Level 27 4* and not of the right nature really (+HP/-Res which not terrible by any means but doesn't help offense).

Still on my unbroken streak of clearing all variants of GHB's.

Edit: Oh yeah, and I did roll a Reinhardt a while ago but he's not trained fully either. That would have been good too!

Edited April 20, 2017 by Dual Dragons

[L9999]

These GHB was a trivial matter to me, even in Lunatic.

5* Nino (+Spd, -Res)

5* Eirika (+Spd, -Res)

5* Azura (+Spd, -Res)

4* Sharena

I had Nino kill the blue mage. Since she doesn't OHKO him Nino takes damage and procs Desperation. Azura dances her to safety. I chipped the knights with Nino doing the same tactic above, and in the meantime I lure the red mage to kill him with Azura. Then I proceed to kill everything with Nino now that there is no threat left.

Edited April 21, 2017 by L9999

[sleep]

A supporter with Draw Back + Klein won this map pretty easily.

- Klein steps forward to ORKO the blue mage though the wall, then gets pulled back a space (by Peri) to safety.

- The red mage uses its turn to run out in front of the armor knight, which leaves it open to getting ORKOed by Klein the same way.

- Zephiel and his armored buddies take a ton more damage as they advance one space at a time but can't quite reach Klein to hit him

- Waiting in back are Hector and Serra, who spent most of their time supporting Klein with Spur & Hone Atk, and Hector ends up walling the enemy green & blue armors for kicks once Zephiel dies to many arrows.

Yeah, there are definitely a few combinations of strong ranged attacker + Draw back and/or dancer that seem to work really well here. Once you can pick off or bait out the mages it's pretty easy to abuse the enemy armors' single space movement.

Edited April 21, 2017 by Whimsical

[LordFrigid]

Ok, completed @Ice Dragon's challenge.

Not going to lie, things did not go as planned. I thought I had a reasonably solid 5-turn, but the Swap Knights have rules for swapping beyond my ability to fathom. It ended up taking me 6. I might retry it later. Also, turns out I didn't use or need Seals. Edit: Just realized that I failed super hard. It's a 5 turn. Still no seals, same team, same basic strategy up to the end, where I actually take Zephiel down instead of sitting there, watching him for a turn LOL.

Team was 4* Sully (+Spd/-HP, 'cause Swordbreaker + Draw Back = OP), along with 5* versions of Merric (neutral, for the bulk and AoE), Felicia (neutral, for the -7 Def/Res debuff and the huge Glacies damage), and Fae (+Def/-Atk, Draw Back and a bit 'o tanking). Video version below, somewhat loose turn-by-turn under that, and justifications for the +1s (Fae & Felicia) just below that.

Video

Spoiler

First attempt, complete with terrible turn 5 failure.

The 5-turn run:

 

Turn by turn

Spoiler

1. Setup turn, moved Merric and Felicia just outside the blue and red mage's ranges (respectively) and stuck Fae and Sully behind them (also respectively).
2. Merric chipped the Axe Knight, and was drawn back by Fae. Felicia dropped a hit on the Lance Knight, and was drawn back by Sully.
   
   Red Mage attacked Felicia, fully charging Glacies, and the Lance Knight basically told him "sorry bud, you're on your own". Zephiel moved down and the Axe swapped with him, trapping the blue mage in the left alcove.
3. Felicia is totally fine with free mage kills. Merric chipped the Axe Knight again. I ran the numbers front, back, and sideways during my initial planning, and knew that he could eat the Brave Axe and Thoron, living on 1 HP, with Sully next to him. Can't do without that Growing Wind charge, so I had her work her way over there.
   
   Stuff happens as expected on the EP. Seal Attack when I'm about to get off a huge AoE sucks, but oh well. Zephiel can't move 'cause he's stuck behind the mage.
4. Merric smacked the Axe, and because Growing Wind is cool enough to happen before combat, it broke Wary Fighter and let Merric double for the KO. Felicia ate the mage, and Fae moved in toward the Lance Knight.
   
   Fae can't OHKO the Lance, but it's not really that important, since Zephiel's nowhere near her.
5. Fae finished the Lance, Felicia poked Zephiel for the stat drop. Sully poked Zephiel. Merric finished the job.

And finally, the merge notes/justification

Spoiler

Felicia picked up HP & Spd from her merge. 37 at neutral/no merges is enough to double the mages (32 Spd) anyway, and she was never anywhere close to 1 HP.

Fae gained HP & Res from her merge. She never fought a mage, and was also never anywhere near 1 HP.

 

Edited April 21, 2017 by LordFrigid

[Falcom]

Oboro actually being helpful for once.

This map was quite a pain. But it's definitely a good challenge. Honestly, I think this is what every grand hero battle should aim to be. Not to hard because of the enemy placements in Narcian's map. Not to unfair because of the double poison daggers in Ursula's map. Starting positions should allow player more space to work with, unlike Robin (F)'s map. And not to easy like the Michalis map. Navarre's map is fine but definitely could've stepped up the difficulty.

As for what I did, I kinda had to cheese the mages a bit with Felicia. It's a bit risky since she's right in front of the armors. But Olivia should prevent that from happening (maybe Nino's draw back just in case). Nino is quite the powerhouse, so I had her take out both generic armor knights. Finally, I left Oboro to finish off Zephiel in two rounds. One thing to note, this map definitely requires your patience. Many of the times I lost was because I rushed in there like an idiot.

[Cute Chao]

Finished on my main account. No Reinhardt there, but a three mage, one dancer team still made it easy. Finished it first time. Julia, Sanaki, Ursula and Olivia laughed 4* Zephiel (and 3* Zephiel but he's not worth mentioning) all the way home ^.^

[wizzard of soz]

2 hours ago, JJ48 said:

Trying to beat the level 30 one with the following team:

5-Star Merric, level 40

4-Star Ursula, Level 40

5-Star Tharja, Level 40

4-Star Serra, Level 39

 

No matter what I do, someone ends up attacking Ursula and one-shotting her, but she's the only level 40 Blue I have.  Can this be done without a Blue?

(Seriously, Light's Blessing should at least be allowed for the Level 30 challenge.  -_-)

try bringing a dancer or someone who can help reposition your mages to safety (like with the skill Reposition, Draw Back, or even Swap).

[SatsumaFSoysoy]

1 hour ago, LordFrigid said:

Ok, completed @Ice Dragon's challenge.

Wow, Merric and Fae doing work. I've always just treated them as a joke in the Arena lmao. 5 turns is pretty good. My other 5*s were either high tier or useless on this map, which was kinda annoying.

59 minutes ago, Falcom said:

This map was quite a pain. But it's definitely a good challenge. Honestly, I think this is what every grand hero battle should aim to be. Not to hard because of the enemy placements in Narcian's map. Not to unfair because of the double poison daggers in Ursula's map. Starting positions should allow player more space to work with, unlike Robin (F)'s map. And not to easy like the Michalis map. Navarre's map is fine but definitely could've stepped up the difficulty.

I actually think Ursula's map is the best of the bunch so far. This one is way too easy as long as you have access to mages, which everyone does with Raigh, Cecilia and Sophia. The Poison Daggers did basically nothing to fliers and horses, so it just required different set-ups, and couldn't be brute forced since the breakable walls control the pace of the map. This one you just keep blasting with magic until everything's dead. Navarre's map was kinda uninspired to me, and Michalis' felt slightly unfair in the same vein as Narcian. Like how if you didn't have Hector, Camilla or M!Robin you'd have a super rough time with Narcian, if you didn't have access to Smite to get past the giant killzone, you'd have to run straight into said killzone and live.

[MaskedAmpharos]

8 minutes ago, SatsumaFSoysoy said:

Wow, Merric and Fae doing work. I've always just treated them as a joke in the Arena lmao. 5 turns is pretty good. My other 5*s were either high tier or useless on this map, which was kinda annoying.

I actually think Ursula's map is the best of the bunch so far. This one is way too easy as long as you have access to mages, which everyone does with Raigh, Cecilia and Sophia. The Poison Daggers did basically nothing to fliers and horses, so it just required different set-ups, and couldn't be brute forced since the breakable walls control the pace of the map. This one you just keep blasting with magic until everything's dead. Navarre's map was kinda uninspired to me, and Michalis' felt slightly unfair in the same vein as Narcian. Like how if you didn't have Hector, Camilla or M!Robin you'd have a super rough time with Narcian, if you didn't have access to Smite to get past the giant killzone, you'd have to run straight into said killzone and live.

Smite wasn't actually necessary for the killzone as people with fliers could bait the lance peg from the mountain. 

But yeah, I agree that Ursula's is probably the best designed map with Navarre's being the worst. 

Zephiel's map is decently challenging without any dancers or positioning skills though since that greatly limits your ability to kite (I also tried emulating your strategy, but it's only possible with a +Atk Jaffar, which I do not have. Otherwise you can't ORKO the red mage at the beginning). 

[silverserpent]

11 hours ago, Lord-Zero said:

It's fun to watch, though. 

 

Reinhardt makes the map very easy. 

Reinhardt or Olwen, I used Olwen and Bunny Camilla. Poor Elise felt useless outside of one unneeded heal and Olivia was exhausted after so many dances. Olwen and Camilla completely wrecked the map since I really turned Camilla into a true Malig Knight with Dragon Aura and Savage Blow. Olwen is vanilla.

[Lyrai]

24 minutes ago, SatsumaFSoysoy said:

Wow, Merric and Fae doing work. I've always just treated them as a joke in the Arena lmao. 5 turns is pretty good. My other 5*s were either high tier or useless on this map, which was kinda annoying.

Oh, how could you. Merric makes easy work of most fliers while Fae is actually very, very scary in the right hands. Trust me, I never once underestimated Fae of her cuteness. Just wait till she does a cute roar (Special attack) then you'll be gasping for breath.

Edited April 21, 2017 by Lyrai

[silverserpent]

Just for giggles, beat this again using only Binding Blade characters. Had to throw on Drag Back on Wendy, but otherwise left things to Lilina and Cecilia. Poor Roy sat in the cornor while his friend and mentor took the spotlight XD

[LordFrigid]

48 minutes ago, SatsumaFSoysoy said:

Wow, Merric and Fae doing work. I've always just treated them as a joke in the Arena lmao. 5 turns is pretty good. My other 5*s were either high tier or useless on this map, which was kinda annoying.

What about Felicia D: .

Yeah, I was only half-expecting that sort of performance as well when I first flicked through my units, trying to figure out who would make the best team for that map. I was actually toying with using Spring Princess Camilla at first, but ended up deciding on Merric, mostly because of that AoE. This map practically screams "Growing Wind us, please!"

[garrisoncade_3576]

If it weren't for Jaffar, I wouldn't be able to KO those two annoying mages. Robin (M) and Reinhardt did the rest of the work. Also, I would have finished this battle quicker if I had put Olivia on my team, but instead I chose Camilla who just sat there without doing anything.  

[Lyrai]

27 minutes ago, silverserpent said:

Just for giggles, beat this again using only Binding Blade characters. Had to throw on Drag Back on Wendy, but otherwise left things to Lilina and Cecilia. Poor Roy sat in the cornor while his friend and mentor took the spotlight XD

... as usual. Since Roy only promotes far, far later, we need to grind the other characters, who can promote... like me! :)

[SatsumaFSoysoy]

1 hour ago, Lyrai said:

Oh, how could you. Merric makes easy work of most fliers while Fae is actually very, very scary in the right hands. Trust me, I never once underestimated Fae of her cuteness. Just wait till she does a cute roar (Special attack) then you'll be gasping for breath.

Well, I have Julia, and Merric does nothing to Julia. Also, my first 5* was Lucina, soo.... RIP the chicken.

1 hour ago, MaskedAmpharos said:

Smite wasn't actually necessary for the killzone as people with fliers could bait the lance peg from the mountain. 

But yeah, I agree that Ursula's is probably the best designed map with Navarre's being the worst. 

Zephiel's map is decently challenging without any dancers or positioning skills though since that greatly limits your ability to kite (I also tried emulating your strategy, but it's only possible with a +Atk Jaffar, which I do not have. Otherwise you can't ORKO the red mage at the beginning). 

I must have missed the fliers one then, that makes it better I guess.

Oh, that's a shame. Would have liked if my strat didn't require Boon/Banes, but oh well. Maybe I can come up with a new one if I have time.

45 minutes ago, LordFrigid said:

What about Felicia D: .

Yeah, I was only half-expecting that sort of performance as well when I first flicked through my units, trying to figure out who would make the best team for that map. I was actually toying with using Spring Princess Camilla at first, but ended up deciding on Merric, mostly because of that AoE. This map practically screams "Growing Wind us, please!"

Felicia is cool too. I expected her to be useful, just didn't have her trained up sadly.

Yeah, Growing Wind must have shaved off like, two turns of kiting. That's the good stuff.