Most Successful Defense Teams

[mcsilas]

This is a Hall of Fame thread on your most successful defense teams. I know people post them in the Arena thread but that sometimes gets lost with the number of posts, so why not post them here and maybe other people can give you tips or learn from each other's teams.

My most successful team so far has given me 10 wins. Getting double digits wins is rare, since on average I get 1-2 wins, 3 if I'm lucky. But here is my team:

The sets are:

Black Knight +1 -  Pivot, Black Luna, Steady Breath 3, Vantage 3, Spur Def 2, Panic Ploy 1 SS

PA!Azura - Sing, Luna, Triangle Adept 3, Wings of Mercy 2, Drive Res 3, Fortify Def 1 SS

Ike - Reposition, Aether, Fury 3, Vantage 3, Threaten Speed 3, Quickened Pulse SS

Anna- Reciprocal Aid, Luna, Fury 3, Desperation 3, Spur Res 3, Atk Ploy 1 SS

I'm guessing it's Axura's WoM shenanigans that catches people off guard, having good synergy with Fury damage for Ike and Anna, BK and Ike in Vantage mode and Anna in Noatun Escape Route and Desperation mode. It could also be the current map rotation with the dreaded boat map or the defense tiles.

Ike is +Spd/-Atk, and I think the Speed boon plus Fury 3 and Threaten Speed really makes him bulkier than people expected. To be honest this was an experimental team after last week's arena run, and there's a sense of satisfaction getting this many defense wins without resorting to the Reinhardt/Brave Lyn/cavalry defense team.

I could probably give BK Distant Defense to make him more annoying, but it's in Hector in my normal arena team and I forget to change seals every time. Axura should probably use the Fortify Res seal though to patch up Ike/BK's low Res.

Not sure how much this will last when the bonus units change though. I expect when Alphonse comes around it will be too weak to Blue units so I'll have to change it (maybe Hector for BK)

So what are your successful defense teams?

[Rafiel's Aria]

Back in July (I just searched through the Arena thread to double check), I had Hector, Xander, Camus, and Reinhardt as my defense team. For some reason, I was extremely lucky that season and ended up with almost 30 defense wins. I feel bad for losing count. 

They were all really standard builds too:

Spoiler

Hector (+DEF -RES) - Armads, Swap, Bonfire, Distant Counter, Wings of Mercy 3, Goad Armor, ATK+1

Reinhardt+1 (+ATK -SPD) - Dire Thunder, Reposition, Moonbow, Deathblow 3, Lancebreaker 3, Goad Cavalry, Quickened Pulse 1

Xander (Neutral) - Siegfried, Swap, Bonfire, Fury 3, Vantage 3, Fortify Cavalry, HP+3

Camus (Neutral) - Gradivus, Reposition, Bonfire, Fury 3, Vantage 3, Goad Cavalry, SPD+1

Nowadays, I don't really try for more than one defense win, but I've had some surprising luck with more unconventional characters. I usually get a few surprise wins when I run a Lucius-centered team or a Matthew centered team probably because they're not characters you encounter often, and they throw you for a loop.

[Hilda]

my best Defense Team:
 

B!Ike +10: Urvan, Rally Def/Res, Bonfire, Distant Counter, Wrath 3, Spur Spd/Def, Quickened Seal pulse 1
Boey +10: Gronnowl+, Rally Def/Res, Bonfire, Close Counter, Quick Riposte, Spur Spd/Def, Distant Defense Seal 3
P!Azura+10: Uodar or how its called, Sing, Moon Bow, Distant Counter, Wings of Mercy, Drive Res 2, Deflect Magic Seal 3
Azama +10: Candlelight, Rehabilitate, Imbue, Warding Stance 3, Dazzling Staff 3, Drive Res 2, Panic Ploy 3 seal.

Thats it, i guess most of the wins can be accounted for the fact that Reinhard cant kill 3 of the 4 units rendering him useless. BLyn cant one shot B!Ike and gets killed by Boey on the Counter attack, and the fact they tend to clumptogether for whatever reason. Also Azama allways keeps my allies toped I guess!!!
+ BIke with Bonfire and quickend pulse + Wrath 3 is a beast

[Prince Endriu]

7 minutes ago, Hilda said:

my best Defense Team:
 

B!Ike +10: Urvan, Rally Def/Res, Bonfire, Distant Counter, Wrath 3, Spur Spd/Def, Quickened Seal pulse 1
Boey +10: Gronnowl+, Rally Def/Res, Bonfire, Close Counter, Quick Riposte, Spur Spd/Def, Distant Defense Seal 3
P!Azura+10: Uodar or how its called, Sing, Moon Bow, Distant Counter, Wings of Mercy, Drive Res 2, Deflect Magic Seal 3
Azama +10: Candlelight, Rehabilitate, Imbue, Warding Stance 3, Dazzling Staff 3, Drive Res 2, Panic Ploy 3 seal.

Thats it, i guess most of the wins can be accounted for the fact that Reinhard cant kill 3 of the 4 units rendering him useless. BLyn cant one shot B!Ike and gets killed by Boey on the Counter attack, and the fact they tend to clumptogether for whatever reason. Also Azama allways keeps my allies toped I guess!!!
+ BIke with Bonfire and quickend pulse + Wrath 3 is a beast

And somebody said red sword units are the worst class  ☺

Congrats on your pa azura10, sort of whaled out on that banner but got only to +6

[Infinite Dreams]

My current defense team of Laslow, Summer Corrin, Brave Ike, and Anna/Sharena/Alfonse is consistently getting me 10+ wins a week.  Goes to show that you don't need horsies or dancers to have a solid defense team.  

Skills for the main 3 dudes:

Laslow +9 (+Atk/-Res): Brave Sword+, Reposition, Draconic Aura, Death Blow 3, Swordbreaker 3, Hone Speed 3, Attack +3 seal.  Just recently upgraded to +9.  He was sitting at +5 for a long time before that. 

Summer Corrin +1 (+Def/-Atk): Blarblade+, Reposition, Moonbow, Fury 3, Swordbreaker 3, Hone Attack 3, Guidance 1 seal.

Brave Ike +3 (+Def/-Spd): Urvan, Rally Def/Res, Aether, Distant Counter, Vantage 3, Hone Attack 3, Quickened Pulse seal.

[Mackc2]

My best defence team has been Robin, Minerva, Ike and a dancer. They aren't exactly fantastic for defence, but their record is 5 wins, all of the losses had Byns as their representatives so I think people just forgot about the raven tome.

[LuxSpes]

Surprisingly enough, my best defense team has no Reinhardt or Brave bow user and is more often than not all infantry :

 Al

These three were the core of my offense team, but are now my arena core period, with the last place being filled by the season's bonus unit. All three are +Spd, with a -HP bane for Lucina and a -Res bane for the other 2. I consistently get more than 10 defense wins per week with this team.

[DLNarshen]

I don't think I've ever gotten 10+ wins in any given season, but I've gotten quite a few this week from my main flier team, which is a little surprising considering two of them are TA users.  Here are the builds:

Spoiler

(Caeda pic is outdated, she's +2 now)

 

 

Edited November 12, 2017 by DLNarshen

[XRay]

Spoiler

Triple Reinhardt team is my most effective defense team. I get like 10+ wins every week. I took the picture when I swapped my Death Blows for Close Counters; Close Counters got me almost 10 wins that week, so it is not as effective as Death Blow.

My triple BH!Lyn team gets like maybe a few at most per week. I have not used my triple Hector team in a while, so I am not sure how that one fares.

[thecrimsonflash]

my most effective team has been this past week's, I am running Delthia, Black Knight, Legion, and H!Nowi, I cant tell if it is H!Nowi, but I've managed 6 wins this week. as opposed to my usual 0-3.

Edited November 12, 2017 by thecrimsonflash

[Stroud]

My Team is pretty lame.
B!Lyn, Gwendolyn, Selena, P!Azura and I also got 10 wins this week, I guess this works pretty well. 

[LordFrigid]

My most successful defense team was probably [Askr bonus unit], Julia, Celica, Caeda (Talys’s Bride), which I switched to for fun after running what I believed was a more cancerous Katarina/Reinhardt (complete with QP/Moonbow)/Linde Team. Surprisingly, it consistently got double-digit win counts...I don’t know exactly what the high point was.

I suspect that it was due to the fact that all of their skill sets had a “gotcha!” element that would really screw over certain units if the player wasn’t being careful. So really, it was just a trap team for the inattentive =P .

[Rezzy]

I used to get 10-20 Defense wins per week with my team of Titania, Ursula, Xander, Bonus Unit.  A few weeks ago, my team started getting a lot less wins for some reason, so I gave into the dark side, and changed my team to Titania, CYLyn, Reinhardt, bonus unit.

[Dark Holy Elf]

I run three Horse Emblem (Xander/Reinhardt/Bow Lyn) + one Level 1 bonus hero if I have one. It's a bit mean due to how matchmaking is done (people who have a team of Level ~30 units can draw it and will get crushed) but it works really well; it's still valuable enough to score over 450 which is all that matters. I have no incentive to stop doing this until they change the matchmaking to stop rewarding me for this.

[Alkaid]

My best team has been Hector, Black Knight, Effie + bonus unit. Seals are: elfect Magic 3 on Hector, DD3 on BK, and Panic Ploy 1 on Effie. They all have standard builds but Pivot instead of Swap, and Effie's also a Brave Lance build (no DC). 

This team's done pretty great for me, getting 5-10 defenses on average, with some weeks going over 10. I think the best was when Sigurd was my bonus unit and I got like 15 or so. Not really sure how mixing with a high move horse with armors did the best but I won't complain.

Funny enough I've had almost no luck with cavalry-heavy teams anymore ever since B Lyn came out, no matter how cancerous of a team I've tried. At least the armors got my back instead.

[mampfoid]

I'm running this team currently and got 10 wins last week:

Spoiler

 

 

Even if very red heavy, 3 times WoM/ER, 1 dancer and 2 times DC surely helps. 

[DarkLordIvy]

My team of Soren, Ike, Seliph, and Arvis has been way more successful than I would have expected this week specifically. I have ten defense wins with these guys at the moment with what I’m pretty sure is my highest def score yet at 592.

-Soren is +5, but was +4 for most of the week.

-Ike is +1, and in bad need of more merges, but he does have Galeforce now so I’ll make do. 

-Seliph is +4, I like to think that my weird build has caught at least a few people off guard. It is not often that you see Seliph with over 30 spd. 

-Arvis, the bonus unit. I’ve enjoyed using him and his debuf shenanigans but I am hoping we aren’t having another three week arena session. I’m ready to try this team with a different unit. 

[mcsilas]

@Hilda Wow, that's very anti-meta! The merges might also be a factor, but yeah I can see Azama being quite annoying to face!

@LordFrigid Yeah I remember facing your team, in that bridge map with the square defensive tiles. Quite annoying map since I was running out of space to run away from Katarina, Linde and Reinhardt. It's actually inspired me to build up my new Katarina with the red blade tome soon as well!

@Dark Holy Elf Oh that's an interesting approach, when I tried to a very low level bonus unit it didn't really work for me. Is it very consistent? Or how fast do you get your first defense win for the week?

[Arthur97]

I think the most I've gotten in one season is about six. My team typically consists of: Male Robin, Lucina, Nino, and Bonus Unit. Their builds have varied, but that is my main defense team at the moment. The bonus unit can really make or break it though. Also, I think the fact I had Robin as the lead may have deterred some people from fighting my team since he can be hard to kill without a green. I've now switched it to Lucina to hopefully draw out more attempts.

[Xenomata]

Back when Performing Arts units were still bonus units, I ran the following:

Spoiler

 

Frederick (+Atk -Spd)

• Brave Axe+, Reposition, Bonfire
• Death Blow 3, Drag Back, Fortify Defense 3, Attack +1

 

Elincia (+Spd -Res, +5 merge)

• Amiti, Reposition, Luna
• Life and Death 3, Desperation, Hone Speed 3, Fortify Defense 1

 

Performing Arts Shigure (+Att -Res, +1 Merge)

• Blarraven+, Sing, Moonbow
• Triangle Adept 3, Wings of Mercy 3, Hone Speed 3, Distant Defense 1

 

Bridal Blessing Cordelia (+Att -Spd, +3 merge, Summoner Support)

• Brave Bow+, Reposition, Luna
• Life and Death 3, Desperation, Hone Attack 3, Speed +1

 

I don't know how, but in the 2 or 3 weeks that Performing Arts units were bonus units, I got somewhere between 10 to 11 wins both weeks. I didn't even mean to make them my Defense Team, I just kinda left them in the same team slot I made my Arena Defense team.

...of course now that I changed my team I'm only getting like 2-3 wins per week, but I'll never understand how such a barren team got 10+ wins... I was probably getting a lot of pity wins though...

[NSSKG151]

I managed to hit a new record of seven defense wins this week using a team of Anna, Delthea, Azura, and Y!Tiki. I used to use Ryoma instead of Tiki but I guess bow users are common on people's arena team.

[mcsilas]

7 hours ago, Xenomata said:

Back when Performing Arts units were still bonus units, I ran the following:

  Hide contents

 

Frederick (+Atk -Spd)

• Brave Axe+, Reposition, Bonfire
• Death Blow 3, Drag Back, Fortify Defense 3, Attack +1

 

Elincia (+Spd -Res, +5 merge)

• Amiti, Reposition, Luna
• Life and Death 3, Desperation, Hone Speed 3, Fortify Defense 1

 

Performing Arts Shigure (+Att -Res, +1 Merge)

• Blarraven+, Sing, Moonbow
• Triangle Adept 3, Wings of Mercy 3, Hone Speed 3, Distant Defense 1

 

Bridal Blessing Cordelia (+Att -Spd, +3 merge, Summoner Support)

• Brave Bow+, Reposition, Luna
• Life and Death 3, Desperation, Hone Attack 3, Speed +1

 

I don't know how, but in the 2 or 3 weeks that Performing Arts units were bonus units, I got somewhere between 10 to 11 wins both weeks. I didn't even mean to make them my Defense Team, I just kinda left them in the same team slot I made my Arena Defense team.

...of course now that I changed my team I'm only getting like 2-3 wins per week, but I'll never understand how such a barren team got 10+ wins... I was probably getting a lot of pity wins though...

I think it's the fact Shigure teleports with Wings of Mercy after your Bridelia and Elincia activates desperation. Depending on the map, that can be really annoying.

Actually how much do the map rotations affect your defense wins? I think I just got lucky with this week's map rotation, since I only had 1 extra defense win when I changed to my new team last week.

I guess defensive tile map rotations favour armour-based Defense teams?

[Ae†her]

Whatever ranged unit you leave on a horse will get you 582+.

Spoiler

 

 

[NekoKnight]

On 11/13/2017 at 2:56 AM, Alkaid said:

My best team has been Hector, Black Knight, Effie + bonus unit. Seals are: elfect Magic 3 on Hector, DD3 on BK, and Panic Ploy 1 on Effie. They all have standard builds but Pivot instead of Swap, and Effie's also a Brave Lance build (no DC). 

This is basically my team but I have DC Berkut's Lance DD3 Seal Effie instead. I'm honestly surprised it gets as many wins as it does considering Brave Lyn can kite DC units. My best win streak was when I had Polivia as mu bonus unit, but the team was doing well with Arvis too.

[Locke087]

I always gotten at least 10 or More Wins for months on end with this team (i’ve been using this same cookie cutter team for months for both offense and defense).

The team is changed a bit since then but I’m just gonna give you their most recent kits

Lead Unit: +Atk -Res Lyn+2 (L&D 3,  Escape Route 3, Spur Spd 3, Rep Aid, Galeforce, Brass Assault 3 Seal)

Bonus Unit (usually one of the Askr Trio in the event Cecilia is a bonus unit I field Brave Lucina, Bonus units are usually equipped with Fort Def 3 Seal).

Camus (Fury 3, Vantage 3, Hone Cav, Reposition, Aether, Fort Res 3 Seal)

+Spd -Atk Cecilia (Gronnblade +, Fury 3, G Tome Breaker 3, Hone Cav, Reposition, Draconic Aura, Atk +3 Seal)

Lyn is mostly there to act as bait and to weigh down the team with her higher merge count and Galeforce, she only recently got a scarier kit I just used to run TA 3, Brass Assault 3 on her.  Also even while being minus attack (48 Base Atk without Summoner support it’s not bad at all) my Cecilia is downright scary she is likely the reason for the bulk of my wins her and Camus are just a great combo. Camus is chosen over Reinhart for a couple reasons that basically all come down to Camus being heavier while doing much the same job that I would need him to do.

Edited November 14, 2017 by Locke087