Anna, Commander

[Shiki]

Anna, Commander

Stats:
41/29/38/22/28

Default Set:

Spoiler

Noatun
( - )
Astra

( - )
Vantage
Spur Resistance

Anna is one of the 3 Heroes, every player starts with. In my humble opinion she has the most potential out of the 3 but also requires the most investment to reach peak performance.

For an Axe unit she has a rather strange stat spread. She is the fastest green unit in the game (boon/banes excluded) with 38 Spd which is quite impressive. Her resistance isn't bad either, even allowing her to tank a +10 Reinhardt with Hone Cavalry (though she will not survive without help if he has Moonbow or Luna). Thanks to her superb Spd she will avoid being doubled by typical -blade mages like Linde or Nino and those will have trouble to kill Anna in a single hit.
Her Atk stat is below-average but she has enough to take out most blue mages with one hit and thanks to her Spd she can double many Lance units. You shouldn't expect her to dent green Armor units though.
She is overall fine in terms of offense though not outstanding compared to her fellow Axe infantry Raven or Legion.

Her Legendary Weapon, Noatun, gives Anna unparalled mobility akin to a Flying unit. After refining it allows her to teleport around which has various uses for a supportive role. Be it to reposition allies or granting buffs through Spur/Drive skills this kind of free movement is quite handy to have around.
That being said a refined Slaying Axe is probably better if you're looking for better combat performance as Noatun doesn't offer any benefits for combat and Anna struggles to meet some benchmarks for kills.

Not everything is well with Anna though. Her biggest weakness is her poor defense. A lot of the top tier sword units have little trouble defeating her in a single hit and she is most of the times not capable of taking more than 2 hits from any physical attacker. Even green units start to take her out pretty easily and there are not many options to fix this problem without impeding her strengths.

Overall, Anna can be described as a mage killer. But this requires her to have Distant Counter which is an expensive inheritance, so a more supportive role might fit her better if you're looking for a less expensive build. Keep in mind that there is no option to grant Anna more merge levels so she is limited in her maximum potential and will score less points than other units with merges. Despite this, she is regularly featured in the Arena so investing in her is not a bad choice, especially with the free stat bonus she receives.

 

Builds:

Mage Counter

Spoiler

Boon/Bane: ( - )

Slaying Axe+ [+Res refinement]
Reposition
Glimmer/Iceberg

Distant Counter
Green Tomebreaker 3/Vantage 3
Spd Ploy 3/Def Ploy 3/Atk Ploy 3

Distant Def 3/Atk Ploy 3/Def Ploy 3

If blue mages trouble you, look no further, friend. Anna is here to save you.
With this build she can defeat any blue or green mage that you may encounter, even if they happen to have +10 merge on them. Yes, even the terrifying Reinhardt with QP Moonbow cannot win against her. She now sports 32 Res with 46 Hp which makes her notoriously difficult to kill with a single attack
Her default Vantage can be put in good use since she doesn't have to take a hit anymore but she will lose fights against some variants of Nino though. Green Tomebreaker is advised so she can win against them.

The choice of Special is up to you though I will say that Glimmer is the better choice for consistency. With the Slaying Axe she will always counter with Glimmer charged and thanks to the poor defense on most mages she will always kill on the counter. Iceberg is there for higher damage but this Anna really shouldn't fight against physical opponents aside from those she can reliably ORKO.

Keep in mind that Anna has good resistance for a non-mage unit. Therefore she is able to use Ploy skills as her C passive which gives her an additional use as a debuff bot. All of them besides Res Ploy have a use for her in her role as well but of course you can choose any other C passive if you need something else.

In terms of Sacred Seals Distant Defense keeps her Hp up so she can last longer while Ploys have their uses for a double Ploy build.

(Budget) Support Anna

Spoiler

Boon/Bane: ( - )

Noatun [unique refinement]
Reposition/Rally Atk Spd
Iceberg/Moonbow

Fury 3/Triangle Adept 3
Desperation 3/Wrath 3
Drive Atk 2/Spd 2

Drive Atk 2/Spd 2/Def 2/Res 2

This build makes Anna a mobile Drive bot while having acceptable combat performance.
Her primary targets are blue units since Anna can reliably double them and thanks to color advantage her low attack becomes less of an issue. Be aware that she can't reliably deal with high Def units like Armors though and even some enemy phase builds can give her some trouble.
Outside of fighting exploit the fact that she can be almost anywhere you want, being able to grant some solid buffs to her allies.

 

Edited October 1, 2018 by The Priest

[Zapp Branniglenn]

Anna has always been cool because, with fury, she could survive Hone caved, +Atk Reinhardt w/QP Moonbow as you bait him to a convenient spot. But now that Deflect Magic seal exists, you could have a lot of units potentially fulfill that niche if you care so much. But fury is still very synergistic with her Prf weapon and presumed Desperation. While Escape Route is often seen as inferior to WoM, it's fun to have access to a warp skill of any kind without having to give up your B slot. Escape Route may become a seal one day, but until then, Anna is still unique and can pull her weight as an Arena bonus unit unlike the two other Askrs. Tank mages, get low on health, then keep her back until there's an opening for her to snag a kill.

Unfortunately the only really synergistic seal is Brash Assault, improving her matchups against the highest speed tier melee units. She behaves like a F2P, green version of Lyn that warps but needs Galeforce fodder.

Edited December 11, 2017 by Glennstavos

[Florete]

10 hours ago, Glennstavos said:

But fury is still very synergistic with her Prf weapon and presumed Desperation.

Seriously, sometimes I feel like I'm the only one who ever thought of this. There are two units who can combine Escape Route and Desperation, Anna and Lyn, and it's a good combo for tempest trials. Now we can even throw Brash Assault on top of it. I really hate when people call Noatun a "gimmick."

[Zapp Branniglenn]

3 minutes ago, Florete said:

Seriously, sometimes I feel like I'm the only one who ever thought of this. There are two units who can combine Escape Route and Desperation, Anna and Lyn, and it's a good combo for tempest trials. Now we can even throw Brash Assault on top of it. I really hate when people call Noatun a "gimmick."

Yeah, it bothers me Anna has always felt so "undiscovered" by the community despite being a F2P character that everybody owns. She may not have the requisite 35 base attack that most legendary weapon users have, but any 16 MT weapon was no joke for the first six months of the game before they started power creeping. Only with the weapon refinery and seal upgrades do I feel like you could make a case that she's slipped below the average for green units. And they'll probably update the Askr units or weapons in the near future anyway.

[Shiki]

18 minutes ago, Florete said:

Seriously, sometimes I feel like I'm the only one who ever thought of this. There are two units who can combine Escape Route and Desperation, Anna and Lyn, and it's a good combo for tempest trials. Now we can even throw Brash Assault on top of it. I really hate when people call Noatun a "gimmick."

Tell me what benefit teleporting around has, especially if you have to be at 40% Hp or less (that's 16 Hp for the record) which is pretty much at death's door. 

Doesn't really benefit in TT anymore than in Arena if you're not giving any proper examples. What is she supposed to do? In terms of support Double Ploy never really needs the teleport thanks to the infinite range of these skills and that's one of Anna's main draw in the C slot.

Anna doesn't benefit much from the Brash Assault Seal either. Her Spd is good enough to double most blues which are her main targets. Being able to double buffed -blade mages can be useful but she can already kill the blue ones with a single hit. Otherwise she lacks offensive presence to reliably kill units with her 2 attacks and if she takes Brash Assault she doesn't even have the option of the Attack+3 seal for a damage boost.

Lyn never wants Escape Route for her optimal set, she wants Wrath. Not only becomes her offensive much more frightening, it doesn't require her to be under 50%. Wrath's 75% threshold is far better for her Sol Katti.

So yes, Noatun is a gimmick, especially after Weapon Refinery. Slaying Axe+ or even Silver Axe+ with any of the refinement benefits Anna more because they help her in raw stats which she is lacking in some areas or could use even higher stats like Spd or Res. The Escape Route effect does not benefit her in terms of wins and she isn't sporting a good ratio either. It is never the optimal choice so it naturally becomes a gimmick.

[Florete]

1 minute ago, Talandar said:

Tell me what benefit teleporting around has, especially if you have to be at 40% Hp or less (that's 16 Hp for the record) which is pretty much at death's door. 

Doesn't really benefit in TT anymore than in Arena if you're not giving any proper examples. What is she supposed to do? In terms of support Double Ploy never really needs the teleport thanks to the infinite range of these skills and that's one of Anna's main draw in the C slot.

Anna doesn't benefit much from the Brash Assault Seal either. Her Spd is good enough to double most blues which are her main targets. Being able to double buffed -blade mages can be useful but she can already kill the blue ones with a single hit. Otherwise she lacks offensive presence to reliably kill units with her 2 attacks and if she takes Brash Assault she doesn't even have the option of the Attack+3 seal for a damage boost.

Lyn never wants Escape Route for her optimal set, she wants Wrath. Not only becomes her offensive much more frightening, it doesn't require her to be under 50%. Wrath's 75% threshold is far better for her Sol Katti.

So yes, Noatun is a gimmick, especially after Weapon Refinery. Slaying Axe+ or even Silver Axe+ with any of the refinement benefits Anna more because they help her in raw stats which she is lacking in some areas or could use even higher stats like Spd or Res. The Escape Route effect does not benefit her in terms of wins and she isn't sporting a good ratio either. It is never the optimal choice so it naturally becomes a gimmick.

Teleporting allows her to hold back when needed and jump in for a kill. It also makes it easier to use Reposition, since she can theoretically move any ally in any direction no matter where she is. With Fury, getting below the required HP threshold isn't an issue. If you have a WoM dancer then you just have units moving everywhere around the field. And don't forget that if she's warping next to an S rank partner she's getting the full boost.

Atk +3 or Spd +3 are certainly also good options. I'm just saying the ability to guarantee a double is nice, especially since those faster units tend to be defensively weaker, so the two attacks are more likely to kill. With a special ready, she can occasionally even use this to jump in and kill swords. I'm not pulling this out of theory alone, I've used the build to great effect myself.

Wrath is better, but also locked to a 5* pull. It's a good idea to take budget options into account.

Weapon Refinery definitely gives more viable options, but a teleporting build still shouldn't be discounted.

[SoulWeaver]

7 hours ago, Talandar said:

Tell me what benefit teleporting around has, especially if you have to be at 40% Hp or less (that's 16 Hp for the record) which is pretty much at death's door. 

coughliterallyanyStafforArmorUnitcough

8 hours ago, Glennstavos said:

Yeah, it bothers me Anna has always felt so "undiscovered" by the community despite being a F2P character that everybody owns. She may not have the requisite 35 base attack that most legendary weapon users have, but any 16 MT weapon was no joke for the first six months of the game before they started power creeping. Only with the weapon refinery and seal upgrades do I feel like you could make a case that she's slipped below the average for green units. And they'll probably update the Askr units or weapons in the near future anyway.

The thing here is that the game gives you 15 Orbs almost straight off the bat, and your first full 5 Orbs is now only 15 if you're just starting out because your first pull is free, and the chances of not having at least one of those 5 Orbs be a Green Unit unless you're specifically aiming for, say, Rhajat you stupid game, is fairly small, and unless you pull Barst or Bartre you're likely to both recognize your pull and be more attached to them than to Anna, not to mention the fact that Anna will start out at 2S while whoever you pull will, depending on the character, come anywhere between 3 and 5S meaning better stats, access to more of their base kit, etc.

You guys have made a good case for her, though, and I've been meaning to dust off my Askran Trio anyways, so I guess Anna gets to be first when that happens. Thanks for the info!

[MrSmokestack]

14 minutes ago, SoulWeaver said:

coughliterallyanyStafforArmorUnitcough

Armored units prefer being at max HP to have Quick Riposte up. Don't need to approach the enemy when they're more than happy to suicide onto you.

Healers have their B slot taken so they can't make much use of teleporting.

Also, availability shouldn't be taken into account; the analysis assumes the unit is actually being used.

[SoulWeaver]

1 minute ago, MrSmokestack said:

Healers have their B slot taken so they can't make much use of teleporting.

Eh, I guess that depends on the build for your Healer - I run Wings of Mercy Sakura as my main Staff Unit, so I guess I forgot there are other Skills that can be useful, my bad!

[Shiki]

I assume you mean something like this:

Spoiler

Boon/Bane: ( - )

Noatun
Reposition/Reciprocal Aid
Iceberg

Fury 3
Desperation 3
Spd Ploy 3

Atk Ploy 3/Speed+3

 

7 hours ago, Florete said:

With Fury, getting below the required HP threshold isn't an issue.

I consider 75% or lower not an issue with Fury but 40% is definitely not easy. Taking 31 points of damage is not easy even if we take Fury's 6 damage penalty in account.

7 hours ago, Florete said:

If you have a WoM dancer then you just have units moving everywhere around the field.

Having that kind of mobility doesn't help if you aren't able to defeat your opponents and that's one of the issues Anna has. 48 Atk with Fury and a legendary weapon is just too average to be threatening. This is particularly painful for her since she has no merge levels. While she achieves the kills on their base level, once high merges are in play she may miss kills and that's pretty fatal.

Brash Assault doesn't help her to deal with Brave Lyn, Nino or Rhajat if we want to name some key units. After all the requirement is that the target can counter. Other fast units have mostly a Sword so unless Anna wants to skewered she wants to avoid them and Brash Assault doesn't help her if she doesn't have Iceberg charged.
I would rather try to give her Speed+3 so she reaches 44 Spd; that's enough to punish most units in the game that rely on buffs or Swift Sparrow for their Spd.

7 hours ago, Florete said:

Wrath is better, but also locked to a 5* pull. It's a good idea to take budget options into account.

Escape Route is a pretty poor choice for a budget build though. The Hp requirement is still quite steep and -breakers are usually the better choice because they give the most impact without reaching max. rank. They expire because of Fury and potential battle damage but if it gives you a free win in the arena then it has paid for itself.

While I don't disagree that Noatun builds are somewhat useable they are still gimmicky and not something I would recommend if you are serious about using Anna. Unlike Alfonse and Sharena she has something like a meta build which is an important trait for a unit that is always featured in the Arena and these 2 builds are just more reliable.

[Zapp Branniglenn]

10 hours ago, Talandar said:

Tell me what benefit teleporting around has, especially if you have to be at 40% Hp or less (that's 16 Hp for the record) which is pretty much at death's door. 

Escape Route plus a movement based assist like reposition can be very potent. There are plenty of scenarios where your ranged sweeper can reach a kill, but the dancer can't reach them for extraction.

 

1 hour ago, Talandar said:

Brash Assault doesn't help her to deal with Brave Lyn, Nino or Rhajat if we want to name some key units. After all the requirement is that the target can counter. Other fast units have mostly a Sword so unless Anna wants to skewered she wants to avoid them and Brash Assault doesn't help her if she doesn't have Iceberg charged.
I would rather try to give her Speed+3 so she reaches 44 Spd; that's enough to punish most units in the game that rely on buffs or Swift Sparrow for their Spd.

Anna won't be killing those units. Well, she can kill Nino if she has Life and Death. But Anna doesn't have to be the team's carry in every match. Save that role for your standard mages, Reinhardt, Brave Lyn, etc. Blue melee units actually make up a lot of the fast speed tiers. Brash Assault can ensure Anna gets the double on them. Speed +3 could too, namely against mages, but again, think of your standard carries first and whether they'll make better use of it. Brash Assault is just an alternative choice that synergizes with other, low HP skills that Anna would be expected to have.

Edited December 12, 2017 by Glennstavos

[MrSmokestack]

27 minutes ago, Glennstavos said:

Escape Route plus a movement based assist like reposition can be very potent. There are plenty of scenarios where your ranged sweeper can reach a kill, but the dancer can't reach them for extraction.

Being in a situation where the ranged unit can’t be danced for after getting a pick is a niche scenario to begin with, and is usually the result of poor choices on the part of the player, especially in symmetric maps like Arena where baiting the AI is predictable in the abscence of enemy dancers and block tiles. Player error shouldn’t be accounted for since the build’s responsibility isn’t to make up for that lack of skill.

Quote

Anna won't be killing those units. Well, she can kill Nino if she has Life and Death. But Anna doesn't have to be the team's carry in every match. Save that role for your standard mages, Reinhardt, Brave Lyn, etc.

So it’s okay for a unit to underperform and run a gimmick build because their teammates can pick up the slack. Cute.

The more self-sufficiently a unit can be built, the better. Refined weapons are better for Anna’s matchups and make her less reliant on team support, not to mention there is no setup required for those builds to actually do her good. Her Prf only gives some niche positional utility, is difficult to set up due to the steep HP% requirement, and doesn’t actually improve her damage output.

Quote

Brash Assault is just an alternative choice that synergizes with other, low HP skills that Anna would be expected to have.

It’s already been stated that Anna still has trouble one-rounding even when she is able to double.

There is a difference between an “alternative” option and a “gimmick” option. Alternatives all have equal value while the gimmick is inherently less valuable than other choices.

For example: Swift Sparrow is an alternative to Life and Death; Defiant Atk is a gimmick. Lancebreaker is an alternative to Swordbreaker; Windsweep is a gimmick.

And why would Anna be “expected” to have skills that require her to be a low HP? There is no reason to run her Prf when better options clearly exist. You’re free to run gimmicks like Brash Assault and Escape Route, don’t get me wrong, but they only work sometimes and are relevant—as in making the difference between a win and a loss—even fewer times. Good luck trying to get serious use out of those when your opponents need no such toys to wipe your team.

Edited December 12, 2017 by MrSmokestack

[Zapp Branniglenn]

5 minutes ago, MrSmokestack said:

Being in a situation where the ranged unit can’t be danced for after getting a pick is a niche scenario to begin with, and is usually the result of poor choices on the part of the player, 

Niche? Horses have three move. Dancers have two. You also split up your units to bait in creative ways. These scenarios happen all the time.

Quote

So it’s okay for a unit to underperform and run a gimmick build because their teammates can pick up the slack. Cute.

The more self-sufficiently a unit can be built, the better. Refined weapons are better for Anna’s matchups and make her less reliant on team support,

Don't get smart. You're not even the person I was responding to. Keep up like that and I'll have no inclination to respond to you. What I'm proposing is the budget Anna build. The one players rely on when she's the only bonus unit they have at the ready for Arena.

[MrSmokestack]

5 minutes ago, Glennstavos said:

Niche? Horses have three move. Dancers have two. You also split up your units to bait in creative ways. These scenarios happen all the time.

I’ll concede the bit on horses, but Horse + Dancer seems like a low-scoring team because of all the stat penalties. But I digress.

5 minutes ago, Glennstavos said:

Don't get smart. You're not even the person I was responding to. Keep up like that and I'll have no inclination to respond to you.

I had no intention to antagonize. Unless I am mistaken, this is a public forum where anyone can drop into a thread, read other people’s thoughts about it, and respond to whatever they agree or disagree with, whenever they want, so long as it is within reason and isn’t being disrespectful.

5 minutes ago, Glennstavos said:

What I'm proposing is the budget Anna build. The one players rely on when she's the only bonus unit they have at the ready for Arena.

I appreciate you clarifying your position on the subject, since that wasn’t exactly clear before.

[Florete]

2 hours ago, Talandar said:

I assume you mean something like this:

  Reveal hidden contents

Boon/Bane: ( - )

Noatun
Reposition/Reciprocal Aid
Iceberg

Fury 3
Desperation 3
Spd Ploy 3

Atk Ploy 3/Speed+3

 

I consider 75% or lower not an issue with Fury but 40% is definitely not easy. Taking 31 points of damage is not easy even if we take Fury's 6 damage penalty in account.

Having that kind of mobility doesn't help if you aren't able to defeat your opponents and that's one of the issues Anna has. 48 Atk with Fury and a legendary weapon is just too average to be threatening. This is particularly painful for her since she has no merge levels. While she achieves the kills on their base level, once high merges are in play she may miss kills and that's pretty fatal.

Brash Assault doesn't help her to deal with Brave Lyn, Nino or Rhajat if we want to name some key units. After all the requirement is that the target can counter. Other fast units have mostly a Sword so unless Anna wants to skewered she wants to avoid them and Brash Assault doesn't help her if she doesn't have Iceberg charged.
I would rather try to give her Speed+3 so she reaches 44 Spd; that's enough to punish most units in the game that rely on buffs or Swift Sparrow for their Spd.

Escape Route is a pretty poor choice for a budget build though. The Hp requirement is still quite steep and -breakers are usually the better choice because they give the most impact without reaching max. rank. They expire because of Fury and potential battle damage but if it gives you a free win in the arena then it has paid for itself.

While I don't disagree that Noatun builds are somewhat useable they are still gimmicky and not something I would recommend if you are serious about using Anna. Unlike Alfonse and Sharena she has something like a meta build which is an important trait for a unit that is always featured in the Arena and these 2 builds are just more reliable.

Something like that, yes. For the brave, Vengeance can be run for 20 damage (compared to Iceberg's 15ish) when Anna is at 1 HP. I also prefer Def Ploy in C because it helps to mitigate her lowish atk and, while limited, isn't locked to a 5* pull.

Anna has her flaws, I know that, and if people want someone better, they can do so, but this isn't about that, it's about getting out of Anna what you can, so naming units she doesn't handle isn't really pertinent to this discussion (Brave Lyn doesn't show up in TT anyway). Spd +3 is fine, too; I said as much myself. I'm just saying BA is a pretty viable option for her.

This isn't about Lyn, so I won't continue discussing Lyn builds.

I wouldn't recommend a teleport build for Arena. For that, your builds are good. I specifically mentioned Tempest Trials (and potentially chain challenges, but since those are fixed there are probably better options) because it's a place where keeping Anna at low health is not unreasonable. You can switch around different builds for different purposes.

I hope if/when Noatun gets its upgrade it gets the Sol Katti treatment and she gets Escape Route 4 and maybe Desperation 3 on top of it.

[Shiki]

After much thought, I think I will just add Noatun to the Fury build and add Budget to it.
@MrSmokestack summed my thoughts up nicely:

On 12.12.2017 at 6:36 AM, MrSmokestack said:

So it’s okay for a unit to underperform and run a gimmick build because their teammates can pick up the slack. Cute.

The more self-sufficiently a unit can be built, the better. Refined weapons are better for Anna’s matchups and make her less reliant on team support, not to mention there is no setup required for those builds to actually do her good. Her Prf only gives some niche positional utility, is difficult to set up due to the steep HP% requirement, and doesn’t actually improve her damage output.

Besides, the Fury build is as budget as you can get with her because you need to replace at least her B passive since Noatun has no synergy with Vantage.

Edited December 18, 2017 by Talandar

[MrSmokestack]

Keep in mind that while Anna’s Prf isn’t her best choice of weapon, it’s most likely the one you will use when doing arena runs because legendary weapons cost more SP for scoring. That’s really the only advantage it has over refined weapons though.

[XRay]

On 12/11/2017 at 10:17 PM, Florete said:

I hope if/when Noatun gets its upgrade it gets the Sol Katti treatment and she gets Escape Route 4 and maybe Desperation 3 on top of it.

It is a little off topic, but I rather see a more gimmicky Nóatún with Escape Route 8/Wings of Mercy 8 (I think it is 100%HP at tier 8 so it should always be active). I would throw in Guidance too to make her more gimmicky, and Infantry and Armor units need every movement advantage they can get to make countering ponies easier.

That way, she actually keeps her teleporting flavor with a gimmick that is worth considering competitively.

2 hours ago, MrSmokestack said:

Keep in mind that while Anna’s Prf isn’t her best choice of weapon, it’s most likely the one you will use when doing arena runs because legendary weapons cost more SP for scoring. That’s really the only advantage it has over refined weapons though.

I am going to add that if the player has strong 3 member Arena core, it is probably better to build Anna for scoring potential than combat. My Askran Trio (or any bonus unit) usually sits in the back doing nothing except maybe help out using Reposition every once in a while.

[Johann]

Triangle Adept isn't a bad skill for low-investment Anna, giving her zero issues with Reinhardt and Nowi

[Shiki]

@Johann Forgive me, I seem to have missed your input.

I added TA to the budget build.