Soleil, Adorable Adorer

[Ae†her]

Soleil, Adorable Adorer

"Seen any cute girls?"

Soleil is the only unit to come with Firesweep Sword+, a weapon that prevents the enemy from counter attacking at the cost of sacrificing your unit's ability to counterattack.This makes her a very valuable unit not just for Skill Inheritance, but also for utility (if you choose not to give Firesweep Sword+ to anyone or can't do it anyways.). She has very good offensive stats, and some decent defensive stats as well, which allows her to be built in a variety of ways.

Stats:
HP 34/37/41
Atk 35/38/41
Spd 32/35/38
Def 24/28/31
Res 21/24/28
BST: 161~163

Skills:
Firesweep Sword+
Blazing Wind
(-)
Darting Blow 3
(-)
Drive Res 2

Movement: Infantry (2) - This means she can Infantry Pulse and other skills that come with the benefit of not being a Cavalry or Flier, like Wrath or Steady Breath.

Murdersweep+

Spoiler

Nature: +Spd/+Atk, -Res/-HP (-Def also pretty fine)

Weapon: Firesweep Sword+
Assist: Repostion / Varies on Team
Special: Moonbow / Luna

A: Life and Death 3
B: Wrath 3 / Cancel Affinity / Drag Back / Swordbreaker 3
C: Infantry Pulse 3 / Varies on Team
SS: Spd+3 / Heavy Blade 3 / Quickened Pulse

Note: When considering these builds keep in mind that a huge concern for running a Firesweep Sword+ build is whether you'll be able to double your opponent or not because Soleil's Atk stat while high is still not enough to one shot a lot of units, but having that high Spd is what makes her great because she can double and kill a lot of things.

Life and Death 3 - Soleil does not need to work on her bulk with a Firesweep Sword so Life and Death 3 rids her of worthless Def and Res, and maximizes her Atk and Spd permanently.

Wrath 3 + Moonbow + Heavy Blade 3 - This build will be insanely powerful because with her high attack Heavy Blade 3 seal will cause Moonbow to proc on a follow-up attack, and Wrath will provide +10 damage giving Soleil actual unretaliated against murders. Doubling your opponent is essential for this build so any buffs increasing Soleil's Spd is a must have on the team.

Cancel Affinity 3 / Drag Back + Luna + Spd+3 / Quickened Pulse - Cancel Affinity assures there will be no Triangle Adept or Sapphire Lance+ interloper cock-blocking Soleil, and Luna will proc if Soleil doubles once and can double again. Spd+3 is highly recommended here to let Soleil to get as many doubles as possible. Drag Back is another option to help Soleil come back to your other units so you can Reposition her back into safety. You could also run Soleil with Quickened Pulse and have an ally run Infantry Pulse to help bring Luna's cooldown to 1, that way she can proc it on the first foe she doubles.

Swordbreaker 3 - This is particularly useful in arena due to the presence of very fast Red Sword units such as Ayra, Mia, Ryoma...etc. all of whom Soleil most likely won't be able to double without Swordbreaker.

Axebreaker 3 - Good for ensuring a complete dominance over the green spectrum of unit due to being able to kill speedy axes like Amelia, Spring Chrom, Summer Tiki... Or Wary Fighter Axe units too like Sheena, and Winter Chrom.

True Hero

Spoiler

Nature: +Spd/+Atk, -Res

Weapon: Slaying Edge+ (+Spd) / Armorsmasher (+Atk / +Spd) / Zanbato (Neutralize') / Wo Dao+ (+Spd)
Assist: Repostion / Varies on Team
Special: Bonfire / Aether / Glimmer

A: Fury 3 / Swift Sparrow 2
B: Wrath 3 / Desperation 3 / Chill Spd 3
C: Varies on Team / Savage Blow 3 / Def Smoke 3
SS: Spd+3 / Heavy Blade 3

Fury 3 - Improves her Defensive giving her a decent amount of defense that allows her to survive encounters from a variety of melee units. (Works great due to the HP+5 boost from Slaying Edge+ upgrade.)

Slaying Edge+ (+Spd) + Wrath 3 + Aether + Heavy Blade 3 - Soleil can boost her Spd to very high amount or 44 with a Spd Boon and Spd Refinement from Slaying Edge+  and Fury 3. Letting her naturally double, and her with her high Atk she can use Heavy Blade 3 to build up Aether, and hit hard with Wrath 3.

Desperation 3 + Spd +3 + Bonfire - This set makes Soleil a bulky speedster, and lets her use her increased defense to deal guaranteed damage from Bonfire, and let her battle more safely.

Armorsmasher+ (+Atk / +Spd) + Swift Sparrow 2 + Chill Spd 3 + Glimmer - Due to having very high Atk in addition to Spd unlike most sword-wielding speedsters, Soleil can take advantage of her high Atk to kill armored units in addition to being able to deal with all kinds of units in general, since she is a speedster herself. Swift Sparrow 2 gives her additional Atk and Spd during the player-phase when she needs it most against armors since she does not want to tank hits from armored units. Chill Spd 3 helps with general combat against very fast units in the Arena, and Glimmer works well due to her high Atk.

Zanbato+ (Neutralize') - Also she can run a Zanbato+ that neutralizes bonuses on pesky cavs, and generally since cavs are not as tanky as armors, neutralizing effect works best with Soleil's hight Atk. The same build as the Armorsmasher works well with this set too for about the same reasons.

Savage Blow 3 / Def Smoke 3 - Savage Blow 3 helps inflict some damage on jumbled up armors and units, while Def Smoke melts their Def by a lot, and makes them easier to kill should they try to take out Soleil with an Armorsmasher or Aether up.

Wo Dao+ (+Spd) + Wrath 3 + Fury 3 / Swift Sparrow 2 + Heavy Blade 3 + Moonbow / Luna / Draconic Aura - Gives some insane +20 damage when you trigger Moonbow on the second hit. If you're attacking against melee units with Soleil most of the time that can counter her, then Luna or Draconic Aura is the better choice due to the extra cooldown charge from the opponent retaliating.

Relentless Onslaught

Spoiler

Nature: +Spd, -Res

Weapon: Wo Dao+ (+Spd)
Assist: Repostion / Varies on Team
Special: Moonbow

A: Life and Death 3
B: Desperation 3
C: Varies on Team
SS: Heavy Blade 3

Life and Death 3 - This is important to let Soleil maximize her attack and speed. The Spd is to get ensured doubles against the foe, and the Atk is to ensure Soleil has more than her opponent so she can get a cooldown charge+1 per attack.

Desperation 3 + Heavy Blade 3 + Moonbow - Avoids damage thanks to Soleil high speed, and Heavy Blade 3 allows Soleil to proc Moonbow (and get +10 damage from Wo Dao+), if her attack is higher than the opponent.

Mercenary Leader

Spoiler

Nature: +Spd/+Atk, -Res

Weapon: Safeguard+ (+Spd)
Assist: Repostion / Varies on Team
Special: Dragon Fang / Moonbow / Ignis / Noontime / Aether

A: Steady Breath
B: Quick Riposte 3 / Wrath 3
C: Odd Atk Wave 3 / Def Smoke 3 / Varies on Team
SS: Heavy Blade 3 / Spd+3 / Quick Riposte 3 / Quickened Pulse

Safeguard+ (Spd+) - With a Spd boon on Soleil a Spd refine is necessary to help her reach a decent Spd tier of 41.

Steady Breath + Quick Riposte 3 + Luna / Dragon Fang / Moonbow / Ignis + Heavy Blade 3 - Steady Breath helps with Def stack from Safeguard, and with Quick Riposte 3 helps build up 4 turn cooldown Specials and use them during the Enemy Phase. Heavy Blade 3 helps build up Special cooldown during the Player Phase, and though it works better with 3 turn cooldowns it can at least build up the Special to be used in the next fight. Luna and Moonbow are great alternatives though if you want good performance in single rounds of combat both in Player Phase and Enemy Phase.

Steady Breath + Wrath 3 + Noontime + Spd+3 / Quick Riposte 3- Noontime with Wrath 3 lets you heal twice for each attack your opponent deals while dealing additional +10 damage, and a guaranteed follow-up with Quick Riposte 3. Spd+3 is alternative option if you think 44 Spd is enough to double most things you expect Soleil to tank, while also giving you more Spd to do follow-ups when you attack with Soleil.

Steady Breath + Wrath 3 / Quick Riposte 3 + Aether + Quick Riposte 3 / Quickened Pulse - You can also run Aether with Quickened Pulse to ensure Soleil gets the Aether, Wrath 3 can ensure if Soleil is at 75% HP or lower she gets Aether at 4 turn cooldowns as well or if you want to ensure Soleil gets follow-ups with Aether she can run Quick Riposte 3 in the B Slot. Secret Tip: If you run another infantry unit in your team with high HP you can give them Infantry Pulse 3 so that they help Soleil get coodown count-1 for the first round of combat, while also running Wrath 3 can Quick Riposte 3

Conclusion: Soleil is a true hero.

Edited May 23, 2018 by Ae†her
Minor Fixes, New Build, Wo Dao+Wrath Finally Added

[Ice Dragon]

I think the option of Swordbreaker is worth a mention for the Firesweep build to target Ayra, Mia, and vanilla Ike, all of whom Soleil cannot double attack normally.

Axebreaker is an option for Arena Assault to handle Amelia and Minerva.

[Ae†her]

17 hours ago, Ice Dragon said:

I think the option of Swordbreaker is worth a mention for the Firesweep build to target Ayra, Mia, and vanilla Ike, all of whom Soleil cannot double attack normally.

Axebreaker is an option for Arena Assault to handle Amelia and Minerva.

Definitely will thank you, I'm busy writing away an essay at the very moment, but you can expect Sword Breaker 3 to be there and Axe Breaker 3 mentioned.

Edit: It's done.

Edited January 3, 2018 by Logos

[Xenomata]

Well since it's what I've been running and has proven good when I do use her, I'll just leave this build for reference.

Spoiler

+Atk -Res

Weapon: Armorsmasher+ (+Atk or +Spd refine)

Special: Glimmer

Passive A: Swift Sparrow 2

Passive B: Chill Spd 3

Passive C: Savage Bow 3/Flexible

Sacred Seal: Attack +3

This build makes her a VERY strong armor destroyer. Other units can run it better, but among them Soleil doesn't have a personal weapon that already gives her great results (TBK!Chrom has Sealed Falchion for instance), can have an Attack boon that puts her at 40 or above, and isn't a seasonal character (as well as currently still being in the 4*-5* pool), which makes her more accessible than one of the units who runs the set better.

This is a player phase intended build, as her below-average defensive ability renders her not quite able to take most hits, especially from the lances and mage armors. While she could possibly take a hit from a Green armor and enter Vantage 3 range, it doesn't make her any better at taking on Lance Armors and, without Distant Counter, leaves her vulnerable to ranged units, and she still does die to most of the armors anyways (the second hit is valuable after all).

The reason I chose to run Armorsmasher+ with an Attack refine instead of a Special Skill refine is simply because, on most Armor teams I encounter anyways, they don't run Fortify Armor or Fortify Sacred Seals over higher scoring skills or Ward Armor. It also doesn't actually make that big a difference, as (with Fortify Armor buffs applied) she only loses a kill against LA!Lyn at +10 fury, and no more than a lower-quality battle against Effie (who she didn't kill anyways) without. Speed refine is Better, but only in oddly specific cases (against high-merge units with fury 3).

Glimmer doesn't change her matchups against armors, but increases her kill quantity over Moonbow. Right now I personally run Growing Wind, but only because I'm running her in Grand Conquests, but it and other AoE skills are worth a mention since they all work greatly with her high attack (61 before Swift Sparrow kicks in).

Swift Sparrow is recommended. Life and Death renders her unable to survive some Lance attacks against armors, and Fury, while not significantly different against armors, does impact her general kill quantity in a bad way.

Chill Speed 3 may sound an odd recommendation, but here me out (add +3 for speed refine). 35 base Spd is not impressive, and 39 spd on initiation is still a little less than what would be liked, but when her targets suddenly have an actually significant chunk of their Speed missing, she gets a much larger number of doubles. She doesn't actually need any of the other B skills to do her job well, and in fact they hurt her ability to kill in most cases.

The reason why I list Savage Blow specifically is to let her improve her ability to dual the armors she'd otherwise fail to kill, assuming they are all huddled together. Because she can OHKO every Green Armor and a few others, that's at least 7 damage against the other armors. If she can net another OHKO,  then she will not only have the enemy at -14 hp, but she will also have Glimmer charged up, which guarantees that whatever problem armor was there is now guaranteed to die. This also means that the last armor is now also able to be OHKO by her no matter what. But of course there are other C skills.

Attack +3 is recommended to further her already great Attack, of course.

 

It's not a perfect set, yes. But when Green Armors are some of the most frightening units in the game by far, it's a set I was willing to make sacrifices for, and now that I've had it in use for a while, I no longer regret making the choices I made.

Edited May 6, 2018 by Xenomata

[Ae†her]

On 5/6/2018 at 3:32 AM, Xenomata said:

Well since it's what I've been running and has proven good when I do use her, I'll just leave this build for reference.

  Reveal hidden contents

+Atk -Res

Weapon: Armorsmasher+ (+Atk or +Spd refine)

Special: Glimmer

Passive A: Swift Sparrow 2

Passive B: Chill Spd 3

Passive C: Savage Bow 3/Flexible

Sacred Seal: Attack +3

This build makes her a VERY strong armor destroyer. Other units can run it better, but among them Soleil doesn't have a personal weapon that already gives her great results (TBK!Chrom has Sealed Falchion for instance), can have an Attack boon that puts her at 40 or above, and isn't a seasonal character (as well as currently still being in the 4*-5* pool), which makes her more accessible than one of the units who runs the set better.

This is a player phase intended build, as her below-average defensive ability renders her not quite able to take most hits, especially from the lances and mage armors. While she could possibly take a hit from a Green armor and enter Vantage 3 range, it doesn't make her any better at taking on Lance Armors and, without Distant Counter, leaves her vulnerable to ranged units, and she still does die to most of the armors anyways (the second hit is valuable after all).

The reason I chose to run Armorsmasher+ with an Attack refine instead of a Special Skill refine is simply because, on most Armor teams I encounter anyways, they don't run Fortify Armor or Fortify Sacred Seals over higher scoring skills or Ward Armor. It also doesn't actually make that big a difference, as (with Fortify Armor buffs applied) she only loses a kill against LA!Lyn at +10 fury, and no more than a lower-quality battle against Effie (who she didn't kill anyways) without. Speed refine is Better, but only in oddly specific cases (against high-merge units with fury 3).

Glimmer doesn't change her matchups against armors, but increases her kill quantity over Moonbow. Right now I personally run Growing Wind, but only because I'm running her in Grand Conquests, but it and other AoE skills are worth a mention since they all work greatly with her high attack (61 before Swift Sparrow kicks in).

Swift Sparrow is recommended. Life and Death renders her unable to survive some Lance attacks against armors, and Fury, while not significantly different against armors, does impact her general kill quantity in a bad way.

Chill Speed 3 may sound an odd recommendation, but here me out (add +3 for speed refine). 35 base Spd is not impressive, and 39 spd on initiation is still a little less than what would be liked, but when her targets suddenly have an actually significant chunk of their Speed missing, she gets a much larger number of doubles. She doesn't actually need any of the other B skills to do her job well, and in fact they hurt her ability to kill in most cases.

The reason why I list Savage Blow specifically is to let her improve her ability to dual the armors she'd otherwise fail to kill, assuming they are all huddled together. Because she can OHKO every Green Armor and a few others, that's at least 7 damage against the other armors. If she can net another OHKO,  then she will not only have the enemy at -14 hp, but she will also have Glimmer charged up, which guarantees that whatever problem armor was there is now guaranteed to die. This also means that the last armor is now also able to be OHKO by her no matter what. But of course there are other C skills.

Attack +3 is recommended to further her already great Attack, of course.

 

It's not a perfect set, yes. But when Green Armors are some of the most frightening units in the game by far, it's a set I was willing to make sacrifices for, and now that I've had it in use for a while, I no longer regret making the choices I made.

I added the Armorsmasher build in the True Hero category, I hope the explanation is what you meant and were trying to demonstrate. I get why Soleil running Armorsmasher is very sensible due to her high Atk in addition to decent Spd.

[Ice Dragon]

1 hour ago, Ae†her said:

I added the Armorsmasher build in the True Hero category, I hope the explanation is what you meant and were trying to demonstrate. I get why Soleil running Armorsmasher is very sensible due to her high Atk in addition to decent Spd.

Honestly, you can also make the exact same argument to add Zanbato+ [unique]. Soleil runs both it and Armorsmasher+ [Atk / Spd] extremely well because the effective damage multiplier scales off of her massive base Atk.

I'd argue both Armorsmasher and Zanbato should be added as "other options" designed to be specific counters.

[Ae†her]

2 hours ago, Ice Dragon said:

Honestly, you can also make the exact same argument to add Zanbato+ [unique]. Soleil runs both it and Armorsmasher+ [Atk / Spd] extremely well because the effective damage multiplier scales off of her massive base Atk.

I'd argue both Armorsmasher and Zanbato should be added as "other options" designed to be specific counters.

I as going to add it with Armorsmasher initially, but Vikings (show) was getting intense on the other tab xP. Added it now,  I may have to come back as well for Safeguard+.

[Xenomata]

@Ae†her Yep that explanation does a good job conveying the original message. Better than the very casual essay I gave anyways.

I agree with Zanbato+ [Unique], but to be very honest, Cavalry almost never pop up for me anymore, so I didn't even think of it.

Edited May 9, 2018 by Xenomata

[Ae†her]

On 5/8/2018 at 11:07 PM, Xenomata said:

@Ae†her Yep that explanation does a good job conveying the original message. Better than the very casual essay I gave anyways.

I agree with Zanbato+ [Unique], but to be very honest, Cavalry almost never pop up for me anymore, so I didn't even think of it.

While I do think cavalry is not as common as it used to be in Tier 19-20, I know some people and I still get quite a lot of cavalry folk, and while I do think Armorsmasher could be more useful since Soleil can just straight up kill a lot of Cavs anyways, I think it can be useful in certain scenarios to just straight up murder them before they get buffed and/or overrun your other units.

[Ae†her]

Added Safeguard+ build. Hopefully I wrote the best builds that can be made with it.

[XRay]

On 12/28/2017 at 5:31 PM, Ae†her said:

Steady Breath + Wrath 3 + Noontime + Spd+3 / Quick Riposte 3 - Noontime with Wrath 3 lets you heal twice for each attack your opponent deals while dealing additional +10 damage, and a guaranteed follow-up with Quick Riposte 3. Spd+3 is alternative option if you think 44 Spd is enough to double most things you expect Soleil to tank, while also giving you more Spd to do follow-ups when you attack with Soleil

Is Aether a good option? Or is 5 cooldown still too slow with Steady Breath?

[Ae†her]

54 minutes ago, XRay said:

Is Aether a good option? Or is 5 cooldown still too slow with Steady Breath?

I mean with Slaying Edge+ it would've been fine especially since the bigger heal makes up for more of the damage taken, plus you still get the kill. Without a Special if Soleil is attacked, she may not get a lot of kills due to not having a Special. However, Quickened Pulse and Infantry Pulse could make up for this in the first round of combat.

There's also the possibility of Wrath giving a cooldown count-1 at the start of the turn, if her HP is at 31/42 or lower, and while she does get 39 Def, that's a very low amount of HP to tank hits from red units that do more than one hit, however that's only if the enemy can get a follow-up attack on Soleil (at 31 HP a sword user will only need two 55 Atk hits to kill Soleil, if Soleil gets the +11 Def that is).

So in short, yeah it probably can be a good option.