What are your planned attribute builds for each character's exclusive weapon?

[Folt]

What the title says, what's your planned build for each character's exclusive weapon?

In my case, most of my builds are done to make the characters be able to tackle as many different enemy types as possible. As I haven't unlocked every character yet, one of these (Celica's Lady Sword) is theorycrafting, but I'm pretty certain that the build under that one is going to be what I'm going with for her:

Rowan's Enliron:

Spoiler

1. Strong III
2. Strong IV
3. Strong V
4. Strong VI
5. Plateslayer
6. Critical+

Rowan and Lianna's weapons have innate Beastslayer which gives room for only one more Bonus skill, so I picked Armorslayer so one other type of high-defence unit doesn't become a problem. I would have hoped that the innate Bonus skill of the twins' weapons would have been Dragonslayer so I could combine it and Plateslayer but I work with what I have.

Lianna's Facinna:

Spoiler

1. Strong IV
2. Strong V
3. Strong VI
4. Topsy-Turvy
5. Wingslayer
6. Critical+

Rowan and Lianna's weapons have innate Beastslayer which gives room for only one more Bonus skill, so I picked Wingslayer to complement Topsy-Turvy so that Peg. Knights isn't a big problem. Beastslayer actually works kinda bad given that Monster units are low-Res enemies, but I suppose this makes Lianna the ultimate monster slayer. One good thing with the twins is that they can wield each other's weapon, and their balanced stats ensure they can do the other twin's role, albeit a little bit worse if you're only bringing one of them.

Chrom's Falchion:

Spoiler

1. Strong III
2. Strong IV
3. Strong V
4. Strong VI
5. Plateslayer
6. Critical+

Unlike Rowan and Lianna, Chrom's Falchion has an innate Dragonslayer which works well with Plateslayer to cover most high-defence enemies in the game.

Lucina's Parallel Falchion:

Spoiler

1. Strong III
2. Strong IV
3. Strong V
4. Strong VI
5. Plateslayer
6. Critical+

Similiar to Chrom, Lucina's Parallel Falchion has an innate Dragonslayer. She's not very different from her father so I've used his build for her.

Corrin's Yato:

Spoiler

1. Strong IV
2. Strong V
3. Strong VI
4. Critical+
5. Plateslayer
6. Dracoslayer

Corrin's Yato does not have an innate Bonus skill which means one less slot for me, but pretty much free picking among the -slayers I want, so I've used two of the slots for appropriate Bonus skills. Plateslayer and Dracoslayer were picked due to synergy.

Ryoma's Raijinto:

Spoiler

1. Strong IV
2. Strong V
3. Strong VI
4. Critical+
5. Plateslayer
6. Dracoslayer

The Banes picked are there for much the same reason as Corrin, since Ryoma's Raijinto also doesn't have an innate Bonus skill.

Xander's Siegfried:

Spoiler

1. Strong IV
2. Strong V
3. Strong VI
4. Critical+
5. Plateslayer
6. Dracoslayer

Like Corrin and Ryoma, Xander's Siegfried lacks an innate Bonus skill so I went with the standard Plate + Dracoslayer combo.

Hinoka's Spear:

Spoiler

1. Strong I
2. Strong IV
3. Strong V
4. Critical+
5. Plateslayer
6. Dracoslayer

Hinoka's spear lacks an innate Bonus skill, and since she's physically oriented, I used the standard Plateslayer and Dracoslayer Bane skills.

Camilla's Axe:

Spoiler

1. Strong I/III
2. Strong V
3. Strong VI
4. Critical+
5. Mountslayer
6. Dracoslayer

With Mountslayer and Dracoslayer, Camilla covers the high-defence Great Knights, the sword-wielding Cavaliers, and the high-defence Wyvern Riders and Manaketes. If going with Topsy-Turvy, Wingslayer could be used over Dracoslayer to cover the high-resistance Peg. Knights, but Camilla's Strength is considerably better than her Magic. Perhaps once Minerva is a thing.

Takumi's Fujin Yumi:

Spoiler

1. Strong I
2. Strong V
3. Strong V
4. Strong VI
5. Plateslayer
6. Critical+

Takumi's Fujin Yumi does have an innate Bonus skill. Unfortunately for Takumi, that skill is Wingslayer which cover only Wyvern Riders as a high-defence enemy he might struggle against. I went with Plateslayer over Dracoslayer (to not have any overlaps, Wingslayer do cover Camilla and the Wyvern Riders after all) and Beastslayer (because only Monster units in general are weak to that skill).

Leo's Brynhildr:

Spoiler

1. Strong III
2. Strong V
3. Strong VI
4. Critical+
5. Mountslayer
6. Wingslayer

Leo's Brynhildr does not have an innate Bonus skill, so I went with Mountslayer and Wingslayer. Wingslayer covers those annoying Peg. Knights and Mountslayer nabs you enemy Leos and Elises which work out pretty well in terms of targetting as many high-res enemies as possible.

Sakura's Spellbane Yumi:

Spoiler

1. Strong IV
2. Strong V
3. Strong VI
4. Topsy-Turvy
5. Mountslayer
6. Critical+

Like Takumi, Sakura's Spellbane Yumi has Wingslayer as an innate Bonus skill. Unlike Takumi, Sakura wants Topsy-Turvy so she can use her superior Magic stat and that conveniently opens up Mountslayer to cover Leo and Elise, and mobile enemies in general.

Elise's Moonlight:

Spoiler

1. Strong III
2. Strong V
3. Strong VI
4. Critical+
5. Mountslayer
6. Wingslayer

Mountslayer and Wingslayer are picked due to good synergy in terms of covering as many high-res enemies as possible (and because Elise's Moonlight doesn't have an innate Bonus skill.)

Marth's Exalted Falchion:

Spoiler

1. Strong I/III
2. Strong IV
3. Strong V
4. Strong VI
5. Plateslayer
6. Critical+

The Exalted Falchion has an innate Dracoslayer, so Plateslayer was picked to stand firm against most high-defence enemies.

Lyn's Sol Katti:

Spoiler

1. Strong III
2. Strong IV
3. Strong V
4. Strong VI
5. Plateslayer
6. Critical+

Sol Katti's innate Dracoslayer means I complement it with a Plateslayer.

Celica's Lady Sword:

Spoiler

1. Strong V
2. Strong VI
3. Topsy-Turvy
4. Critical+
5. Mountslayer
6. Wingslayer

Proving herself the worse Marth in every way except in her magic stat and staff use, Celica's Lady Sword also lacks an innate Bonus skill so she only gets two slots for raising specific strong attacks I like/find useful. Oh well, with the Topsy-Turvy skill, she wants Mountslayer and Wingslayer instead of what has become my go-to Bonus skill combo for sword users (Plate- + Dracoslayer) which conveniently solves almost all of her problems and even gives me (and you if you're using a similiar build to my Marth) a reason to field her alongside Marth if I wanted to.

I could theorycraft further if I wanted to and assume the characters who don't have exclusive weapons will get them through DLC which would mean that every character in the game, base and DLC, will ultimately have their own personal weapon but I think I'll stop here for now. How about you guys? Do you have any personalized/finalized builds for these weapons?

[Arthur97]

The only one I've put much into is Parallel Falchion (I wait to unlock their true potential before building, I've done a little with the Exalted Falchion) and I gave it diving which can be removed if I come across something I like better, rainstorm, and strong attack 5, 4, and 3 boosters. I want a Warrior+ to put on it though I didn't know there was a critical + skill.

[wissenschaft]

The strong skills are pointless when theres Rainstorm (it boosts all your standard attacks). Slayer skills are good to have but end game you'll want one of these three: Triangle+, Critical+, and Warrior+. Skills like pair uo+ can be powerful too.

While I'm still grinding up a character, I put Divining, Power Up, First Class on my weapon to boost the quality of my weapon drops. 

Edited October 27, 2017 by wissenschaft

[Folt]

8 minutes ago, Arthur97 said:

The only one I've put much into is Parallel Falchion (I wait to unlock their true potential before building, I've done a little with the Exalted Falchion) and I gave it diving which can be removed if I come across something I like better, rainstorm, and strong attack 5, 4, and 3 boosters. I want a Warrior+ to put on it though I didn't know there was a critical + skill.

I build them as I get the skills I need. I don't wait to unlock True Power since it does take some time getting all the materials and crests needed for that so I end up having a pretty good grasp about the character and what skills they need/want before I actually get to the part where I need to unlock their weapon, and that has everything to do with how the personal weapons come with all 6 usable slots from the beginning.

EDIT: @wissenschaft Ah, the skill that boosts your Y string?

Edited October 27, 2017 by Folt

[wissenschaft]

11 minutes ago, Folt said:

EDIT: @wissenschaft Ah, the skill that boosts your Y string?

Yes, I find that more useful than filling up your slots with nothing but strong attack skills. I would only use a strong skill if theres a specific combo a character relies on. Such as Marth who only really has one good AoE skill.

Edited October 27, 2017 by wissenschaft

[Folt]

4 minutes ago, wissenschaft said:

Yes, I find that more useful than filling up your slots with nothing but strong attack skills. I would only use a strong skill if theres a specific combo a character relies on. Such as Marth who only really has one good AoE skill (I think thats the 6 combo).

Hm... I think that depends more on how good the character's regular string is, but I can see the reasoning behind this. I should test it out and see if it fits my style.

[wissenschaft]

3 minutes ago, Folt said:

Hm... I think that depends more on how good the character's regular string is, but I can see the reasoning behind this. I should test it out and see if it fits my style.

When I have WTA, often I''ll just spam the light attacks because it breaks the weapon gauge the fastest. Critical attacks do more damage than any combos, which makes Critical+ a great skill to place on weapons. Some characters have strong combos that can break the weak point guage quickly but even then the combo isn't the damage dealer, thats still the critical attack.

Edited October 27, 2017 by wissenschaft

[Folt]

Just now, wissenschaft said:

When I have WTA, often I''ll just spam the light attacks because it breaks the weapon guage the fastest. Critical attacks do more damage than any combos, which makes Critical + a great skill to place on weapons.

All of my planned builds have Critical+ as one of the skills so I'm pretty good there. (Ignoring the fact that Hyrule Warriors's Finishing Blow+ really made me appreciate that kind of skill.)

[Arthur97]

Are Critical+ skills unlockable by kill count?

[Folt]

49 minutes ago, Arthur97 said:

Are Critical+ skills unlockable by kill count?

It's one of the skills locked away behind 5000 kills.

[Shadow Mir]

2 minutes ago, Folt said:

It's one of the skills locked away behind 5000 kills.

Now that you mention it, what are all the sealed skills?

[Folt]

13 minutes ago, Levant Mir Celestia said:

Now that you mention it, what are all the sealed skills?

Defeat-type Skills (locked behind 2000 kills):

• Healing Gift (Full HP after every 300 kills)
• Warrior Gift (Full Warrior gauge after every 300 kills)
• Awaken Gift (Full Awakening after every 300 kills)

Boost-type Skills (locked behind 5000 kills):

• Triangle+ (Increases weapon triangle advantages)
• Pair Up+ (Increases damage while paired up)
• Critical+ (Increases Critical Ht damage)
• Warrior+ (Increases Warrior special attack damage)
• Health+ (Increases damage when at Max HP)
• Desperate+ (Increases damage while at low HP)

As well as True Power, a skill found on each character's personal weapon (provided they have one) which requires a separate unlock for each character, first by getting the Mastery Crest, and then getting 10000 kills using that character's personal weapon which fixes the weapon's power to 240 (so skills which decrease weapon power like the Bonus skills do not decrease the power of a personal weapon with True Power unlocked).

Edited October 27, 2017 by Folt

[Anomalocaris]

All I've really done so far is stick Divining, Power Up, First Class, and Rainstorm on everybody's weapons. Plus Topsy-Turvy on Sakura's and Lissa's, and I'll probably put it on Lianna's and Cordelia's too.

[Shadow Mir]

3 hours ago, Folt said:

Defeat-type Skills (locked behind 2000 kills):

• Healing Gift (Full HP after every 300 kills)
• Warrior Gift (Full Warrior gauge after every 300 kills)
• Awaken Gift (Full Awakening after every 300 kills)

Boost-type Skills (locked behind 5000 kills):

• Triangle+ (Increases weapon triangle advantages)
• Pair Up+ (Increases damage while paired up)
• Critical+ (Increases Critical Ht damage)
• Warrior+ (Increases Warrior special attack damage)
• Health+ (Increases damage when at Max HP)
• Desperate+ (Increases damage while at low HP)

As well as True Power, a skill found on each character's personal weapon (provided they have one) which requires a separate unlock for each character, first by getting the Mastery Crest, and then getting 10000 kills using that character's personal weapon which fixes the weapon's power to 240 (so skills which decrease weapon power like the Bonus skills do not decrease the power of a personal weapon with True Power unlocked).

I see then. That's a hell of a lot less than I was expecting. Also, what's this about the power drops from bonus skills? Are they the only ones which do this, and how much is the power drop?

[nocturnal YL]

I just raised their weak attacks (since other than strong 1, all attacks involve weak attacks at some point, and I'm uncreative and use weak 7 all the time), add Topsy-Turvy if they have better magic and strength, Slayer attributes are hard to find (and I won't want to use the original slayer weapons for forging, because I don't want to lose permanently a weapon actually named Hammer or Wyrmslayer), and raise the weapon quality/slots and rare item drop rate. I'm still in the process of collecting materials.

[Folt]

6 hours ago, Levant Mir Celestia said:

I see then. That's a hell of a lot less than I was expecting. Also, what's this about the power drops from bonus skills? Are they the only ones which do this, and how much is the power drop?

Yes. The bonus skills are the -slayer skills you sometimes see on the weapon (which subtracts 20% of the weapon's power after you've added the power from stars), and True Power overrides the weakening effect of those weapons. There are also versions of those skills which don't decrease your attack but they are the often the ones a weapon comes with innately (like the Falchions versions of Dracoslayer) and you only get to have a max of two such skills on your weapon (though the second Bonus skill won't weaken your weapon any further).

[Technoweirdo]

14 hours ago, Folt said:

Defeat-type Skills (locked behind 2000 kills):

• Healing Gift (Full HP after every 300 kills)
• Warrior Gift (Full Warrior gauge after every 300 kills)
• Awaken Gift (Full Awakening after every 300 kills)

Boost-type Skills (locked behind 5000 kills):

• Triangle+ (Increases weapon triangle advantages)
• Pair Up+ (Increases damage while paired up)
• Critical+ (Increases Critical Ht damage)
• Warrior+ (Increases Warrior special attack damage)
• Health+ (Increases damage when at Max HP)
• Desperate+ (Increases damage while at low HP)

As well as True Power, a skill found on each character's personal weapon (provided they have one) which requires a separate unlock for each character, first by getting the Mastery Crest, and then getting 10000 kills using that character's personal weapon which fixes the weapon's power to 240 (so skills which decrease weapon power like the Bonus skills do not decrease the power of a personal weapon with True Power unlocked).

How much of a boost are Health+ and Desperate+? While I do have Critical+ planned for all mages, archers, and Tiki (they are crit machines, after all), Health+ might be a good choice too. Maybe moreso for the archers than mages thanks to their range. Considering Desperate+ for Tiki as, far as I can tell, you can't die during Awakening and Awakening's her specialty, though I suppose getting to low HP might be annoying.

Edited October 28, 2017 by Technoweirdo

[wissenschaft]

Desperate isn't useful for S ranking missions. Health+ might be better except the rest of the boost skills are superior.

[Tables]

The best two Boost skills are generally Pair Up+ and Health+. I've done some testing, and as far as I can tell, all of them give the same damage boost (except possibly Desperate+, I didn't test that because even if it gives a bigger boost it isn't worth it). All that changes are the conditions or moves that it's active for. So you really want the ones with the conditions that are easiest to meet, and those I would say are Pair Up+ and Health+.

Pair Up+ only requires, well, Pair Up, which is possible on basically everything except the Prologue and Chapter 1 of the Story, and Timed Attack stages (you might also not want to pair up on some of the harder Timed Onslaught - but in those enemies are super weak anyway). And when you can pair up, about 80-90% of the time, you want to be paired up - Dual Specials are extremely powerful, Dual Strikes are very useful for officer dueling and covering weakness, Dual Guard helps with health requirements, and it makes support building much quicker.

Health+ is second best. It requires full health, which is a bit awkward but managable. You do a lot of fighting in forts, which heal you over time once you take them, which you can usually do. You also have healing items and/or staves on your team for healing. Plus Dual Guards help keep you at full health. The only issue there is... Dual Guards. Means pair up. So Pair Up+ is just better. In general Health+ is pretty much poor man's Pair Up+ for if you haven't unlocked enough of them yet.

Triangle+ is probably next. On Tiki it might even be the 2nd best option. Triangle+ is active permanently during Awakening (as you have permanent WTA), so you can also think of it as Awakening+ as well as standard Triangle+. The big downside here is that it's only active less than 1/3rd of the time during normal combat in theory, but assuming you're switching characters around to get an advantage, it's probably more like 50-75%. Still, if you can switch characters around, again... Pair Up+.

Warrior+ and Critical+ come in a distant 4th. They only boost a single attack. The upside is that there's no other condition on it, and it's attacks that typically make up a significant chunk of your damage output.

[Shadow Mir]

5 hours ago, Tables said:

The best two Boost skills are generally Pair Up+ and Health+. I've done some testing, and as far as I can tell, all of them give the same damage boost (except possibly Desperate+, I didn't test that because even if it gives a bigger boost it isn't worth it). All that changes are the conditions or moves that it's active for. So you really want the ones with the conditions that are easiest to meet, and those I would say are Pair Up+ and Health+.

Pair Up+ only requires, well, Pair Up, which is possible on basically everything except the Prologue and Chapter 1 of the Story, and Timed Attack stages (you might also not want to pair up on some of the harder Timed Onslaught - but in those enemies are super weak anyway). And when you can pair up, about 80-90% of the time, you want to be paired up - Dual Specials are extremely powerful, Dual Strikes are very useful for officer dueling and covering weakness, Dual Guard helps with health requirements, and it makes support building much quicker.

Health+ is second best. It requires full health, which is a bit awkward but managable. You do a lot of fighting in forts, which heal you over time once you take them, which you can usually do. You also have healing items and/or staves on your team for healing. Plus Dual Guards help keep you at full health. The only issue there is... Dual Guards. Means pair up. So Pair Up+ is just better. In general Health+ is pretty much poor man's Pair Up+ for if you haven't unlocked enough of them yet.

Triangle+ is probably next. On Tiki it might even be the 2nd best option. Triangle+ is active permanently during Awakening (as you have permanent WTA), so you can also think of it as Awakening+ as well as standard Triangle+. The big downside here is that it's only active less than 1/3rd of the time during normal combat in theory, but assuming you're switching characters around to get an advantage, it's probably more like 50-75%. Still, if you can switch characters around, again... Pair Up+.

Warrior+ and Critical+ come in a distant 4th. They only boost a single attack. The upside is that there's no other condition on it, and it's attacks that typically make up a significant chunk of your damage output.

I dunno -  I'm rather highly inclined to disagree on Health+, since if you have to switch to another character for any remotely notable length of time, you might as well kiss the boost goodbye. An all-around boost is nice, but I can't help but question the practicality when you have to stay full - needless to say, you're likely not staying at full health for very long, and as stated before, odds are if you wind up switching characters midfight, that character's likely going to have gotten damaged by the time you switch back to them, especially if you do so for any notable period of time.

Edited October 30, 2017 by Levant Mir Celestia

[Tables]

Yeah, that's another bit that makes it awkward. But on the other hand allies that battle in keeps tend to end up at full health, as keeps heal them. That's why I think Pair Up+ is just much better.

[Technoweirdo]

13 hours ago, Tables said:

[Boost stuff]

Ah, good to know they all boost equally, just differently. I'll be stubborn and not use Pair Up+ though simply because I like being able to spread my forces thin, even if unnecessary when the S-rank requirements are generally lax. :P

On that note, Triangle+ for melee attackers. Assuming it affects AI damage output -- WTA and effective damage certainly do -- I can expect them to do their job alone faster while their would-be partner is off doing their job alone.

Health+ for archers. If I ever deploy one, chances are it's to swat flies or because I'm personally going to control them. If the latter, I know how to keep them unharmed.

No idea for the mages. <.<

Edited October 30, 2017 by Technoweirdo

[Folt]

2 hours ago, Technoweirdo said:

Ah, good to know they all boost equally, just differently. I'll be stubborn and not use Pair Up+ though simply because I like being able to spread my forces thin, even if unnecessary when the S-rank requirements are generally lax. :P

On that note, Triangle+ for melee attackers. Assuming it affects AI damage output -- WTA and effective damage certainly do -- I can expect them to do their job alone faster while their would-be partner is off doing their job alone.

Health+ for archers. If I ever deploy one, chances are it's to swat flies or because I'm personally going to control them. If the latter, I know how to keep them unharmed.

No idea for the mages. <.<

Basically what I usually do, so Pair-Up+ isn't really that favourable to me.

I'm rather fond of Critical Hitting enemies so Critical+ stays for me.

[Tables]

Curious why you went for Strength I on Hinoka over Strength VI or Strength III. It seems to me like C1 barely does any damage (it mostly just lifts enemies up or attempts to), while C3 is nice for quick damage and stun gauge breaking, and C6 for general AoE damage. C4 & C5 I definitely agree with though, they're the Pegasus Knight's two best moves.

 

Also curious on your opinion of Rainstorm. GFaqs users seem pretty enamoured with the skill, but personally I've been saying I think it's mediocre. The main places I can imagine using it are weapons whose string is really good (like... uhh... ... some of them?) or weapons where you'd otherwise be using more than 3 strength skills - boosting all of those basic attacks might not add much extra damage, but it likely adds more than boosting your 4th most used charge considering how often you're landing those weak blows.

Edited November 1, 2017 by Tables

[Folt]

2 hours ago, Tables said:

Curious why you went for Strength I on Hinoka over Strength VI or Strength III. It seems to me like C1 barely does any damage (it mostly just lifts enemies up or attempts to), while C3 is nice for quick damage and stun gauge breaking, and C6 for general AoE damage. C4 & C5 I definitely agree with though, they're the Pegasus Knight's two best moves.

 

Also curious on your opinion of Rainstorm. GFaqs users seem pretty enamoured with the skill, but personally I've been saying I think it's mediocre. The main places I can imagine using it are weapons whose string is really good (like... uhh... ... some of them?) or weapons where you'd otherwise be using more than 3 strength skills - boosting all of those basic attacks might not add much extra damage, but it likely adds more than boosting your 4th most used charge considering how often you're landing those weak blows.

I'm more of a fan of Strong attacks than the regular attack string as I find most attack strings not really that special to warrant a boost over other attacks, though I having played a bit more, I do think Rainstorm might be a good 4th skill after three Strong Attacks (or on certain characters like the horse people).

As for the Peg. Knights, I've been experimenting with their Dash Strong Attack for crowdkilling and thought maybe it could be useful and mybe it gets boosted by Strength I.

Looking over my planned weapons, I've been thinking of boosting Marth's and Celica's C3 instead of C1 (for Marth) and C6 (for Celica) because Marth's C3 could be a damn good crowdkiller-slash-crowdclearer and comes out much earlier than C6.

I'm also thinking of removing Strong Attack III on Leo and Elise and putting Strong Attack I instead because there's no reason not to reveal a yellow stun gauge if C1 is charged up n you're battling an enemy. I'll likely go with a similiar build (Str. Atk. I, Str. Atk. IV instead of VI, Str. Atk. V, Critical+, Mountslayer, Wingslayer) for Robin once/if his prf weapon is released because of the same reason.