lucius Lucius: The Light

[BANRYU]

Imagine that, his FE7 art has him with a book..

Lucius: The Light

Since healer builds don't tend to have a whole lot of variation, it's safe to say that Lucius is honestly a fairly typical healer, with some of his noteworthy qualities being his high Atk for a healer (tying with Elise and Lachesis and beat only by Genny), a high Res beaten only by Wrys letting him double as a Res tank if necessary, and the fact that he comes equipped with Pain+ and Miracle from the get-go, making him fairly economical to build. He also packs a higher Speed and HP than Genny, making his survivability against magic units substantially better than hers and establishing him as a good middle ground of tanking and attacking between Genny and Wrys in terms of staff infantry. All things said, his stats are optimized rather nicely, giving him a lot of utility. 

Level 40 stats:
HP: 34 / 37 / 41
Atk: 29 / 32 / 35
Spd: 26 / 30 / 33
Def: 10 / 13 / 17
Res: 32 / 35 / 38
Total: 146~148

Default skills:
Weapon: Pain+
Assist: Martyr+
Special: Miracle
Passive A: HP+5
Passive B: --
Passive C: --
 

---

Radiant Razer (AoE attacker + high-investment healer)
*Optimal Build* General Use, Arena Offense/Defense, Chain modes

Spoiler

Suggested IV: +Atk/-Def*, +Res/-Def, +Atk/-(any)

• +Atk*: 37 HP | 45 Atk | 30 Spd | 10 Def | 35 Res
• +Res: 37 HP | 42 Atk | 30 Spd | 10 Def | 38 Res

Weapon: Pain+ [Dazzle / Wrathful]
Assist: Recover+ / Physic+ / Martyr+^
Special: Heavenly Light / Miracle^
Passive A: Atk+3 / Defiant Atk 3^
Passive B: Wrathful Staff 3 / Dazzling Staff 3
Passive C: Savage Blow 3
Sacred Seal: Savage Blow 3

As a priest of the Most High Church of Pain and Savagery, Lucius has three jobs he can perform for his team: first and foremost is bombing a clustered enemy team for massive AoE damage without fear of rebuke, dealing solid damage with his already-good (for a healer at least) Atk stat as well as 24 flat AoE damage to those around his target, which ranges from most of the HP of a squishy mage to a solid %30-ish of a high-HP tank's health, easily disabling Panic Ploys and more importantly setting them up for death at the hands of Lucius' teammates. His second job, of course, is to heal, and his high Atk makes that a simple matter; Heavenly Light can also assist with this, economizing his role to assist with small quantities of HP loss like Fury's chip damage and letting him go on the attack more frequently. However Miracle is also a useful option, and assists with his third job: magic tanking. 35 Res (or 38 with a boon) is nothing to sneeze at, and most mages except Ravens and boosted Blades will struggle to ORKO him.

Tanking should typically be his lowest priority, but he can do so in a pinch, all the better if he has Miracle primed. The combination of Miracle + Defiant Atk in particular is good for long-term engagements, such as maps with lots of reinforcements or assault modes like Chain Challenge or Tempest Trial, where he can take advantage of the benefits of increased damage + healing efficacy for longer. His native Martyr+ also works extremely well with the aforementioned combo, both being able to drastically exceed the healing offered by Recover at 1HP as well as leaving him within the HP threshold of Defiant Attack so he can continue to take advantage of its boosts. 

If Res-tanking is found to be totally unneeded on his part or he is used primarily for short-term engagements like Arena, however, then the other options listed will likely prove more useful, since Lucius would need to take a minimum of 10 damage for Martyr's healing to match that of Recover and that's less likely to occur during quick matches. 

Saintly Soul (AoE Attacker + budget healer)
General Use, Arena Offense, Chain modes

Spoiler

Suggested IV: +Atk/-(any), any

Weapon: Pain+ [Dazzle]
Assist: Martyr+ / Recover(+) / Rehabilitate(+) / Physic+
Special: Heavenly Light / Miracle / flexible
Passive A: Atk+3
Passive B: Live to Serve 2-3 / Wings of Mercy 3
Passive C: Savage Blow 3 / flexible
Sacred Seal: Savage Blow 3 / flexible

The primary difference here is first and foremost in lacking the rare Wrathful Staff skill, but despite losing out on his boosted damage against his target, Lucius can still distribute the full range of AoE pain thanks to Pain+ being his native weapon and Savage Blow being relatively affordable both as a skill and as a seal (this also makes the build a good option for -Atk variants of Lucius, since he doesn't need to rely quite as heavily on the stat for dealing damage). The tradeoff is allowing Lucius to heal himself by means of Live to Serve, which lets him tank more frequently/reliably if need be, or else to improve his mobility and healing opportunities with the ever-useful Wings of Mercy. 5* healing skills are recommended, since they will take advantage of Lucius' naturally good Atk and make healing less of a chore, though the budget 4* skills (or even his native Martyr when combined with Miracle) can work in a pinch. And lastly, though Savage Blow stacking is recommended above all else, Lucius can serve as a more dedicated team supporter by running two Hone/Fortify buffs in his C and Seal slot, or even by stacking a Spur in the same two slots. 

Brutal Bishop (high-investment attacker)
*High Investment* General Use, Arena Offense, Chain modes

Spoiler

Suggested IV: +Spd/-Def, +Spd/-HP

• -Def: 37 HP | 44 Atk | 36 Spd | 10 Def | 35 Res
• -HP: 34 HP | 44 Atk | 36 Spd | 13 Def | 38 Res

Weapon: Slow+* / Fear+ [Wrathful]
Assist: Martyr+ / Recover+ / Physic+
Special: Miracle
Passive A: Brazen Atk/Spd 3 / Atk/Spd Bond 3
Passive B: Desperation 3
Passive C: Speed Ploy 3
Sacred Seal: Spd+3

It should be said plainly: this build is, in its entirety, a whale build. It relies so heavily on high-budget and limited skills that, frankly, without them it is not worth building (and even then... it could be argued that there are better candidates for inheriting them). But, that said... When all's said and done, Lucius is among the best candidates for a fully offensive healer build-- the closest thing to his performance as an offensive unit in his native game, which is surely a prospect that will endear the option to many longtime FE7 fans. 

Brazen Atk+Spd is pretty much necessary for Lucius to make the most offensive threat possible, synergizing extremely well with Desperation, Miracle, and potentially Martyr, and is the crux of what makes Lucius such an offensive threat as a non-offensive class. Lucius main goal at the outset of a battle should be to tank some magic damage and take a minimum of 10 (9 with an HP boon) damage in order to hit his Brazen Desperation threshold, after which his offensive potentially rises drastically. Speed Ploy and the Slow+ staff will assist this by enhancing his doubling potential, though Fear+ can, at the very least, match Slow for the highest offensive staff damage, even if its actual effect isn't particularly needed for him. Once active, Miracle allows Lucius to tank if necessary as well as providing a massive bomb of healing via Martyr while still leaving him well within the HP threshold of his offensive skills, which makes it particularly useful if large quantities of healing are needed infrequently for his team. Otherwise, Recover and Physic may offer more consistent performance. 

As an alternative to Brazen Atk/Spd, Atk/Spd Bond offers similar offensive performance that isn't dependent on HP levels, but at the cost of requiring a chaperone to keep it active-- not necessarily a bad thing by any stretch, since an S-support teammate next to him grants the same boost as Brazen Atk/Spd's does alone, and an ally with Hone Speed and Atk or a stacked Spur can assist his offensive potential all the more. Ultimately it would not be quite as optimal as the Brazen alternative, since an adjacent S-supported ally would be able to pump his stats even higher with the same means (and Lucius wants to be in range of Desperation anyway), but its performance is similar enough as makes no substantial difference. 

 

---

Other Options: 

• Warding Stance and Distant Defense are powerful options for making Lucius into a strong Res tank, however, both are quite rare and high-budget skills, and it's normally more practical to simply boost Lucius' Attack in order to increase his healing efficacy anyway. 
• Breaker skills can offer him some degree of offensive or defensive specialization, keeping tome units from doubling him or allowing him to more easily kill speedy melee units like swords, but it's rarely worth using over staff-specific skills or even simply Wings of Mercy. 

 

Updated 2/8/18 with offensive build, other options, and added mention of Wings of Mercy to budget healer build

Edited February 8, 2018 by BANRYU

[Viridianveil]

"Lucius-The Light"

More like

"Shota who are you crushing on this time"

-My friend in reference to me

[Shoblongoo]

Lucius is great.

His native martyr+ actually isn't a terrible option for his support slot, if you're running miracle as your special. He can drop down to 1 HP on-the-proc and then do a full heal on your ally (and heal yourself without blowing a B Slot on live-to-serve)

Martyr+ is particularly useful for chain runs, where Lucius is your only source of healing and needs to be able to keep both himself and his allies topped off.

Hard to come by and not budget friendly, but if you have sac-bait to spare, worth noting that Warding Stance and Distant Defense are options for Slot A. Lucius in addition to being a Pain Machine, as you mentioned, actually makes for a competent res-tank with a little bit of investment.

Finally, note that Lucius has the option of running Wrathful staff effect in his sacred forge slot and dazzling staff effect in his B slot in the alternative to dazzling staff on the sacred forge slot and wrathful staff in slot B. 

This allows him to be  a bit more flexible on who he uses as sac-bait for his slot B.

If bride lyn and genny are unavailable as sac bait, wings of mercy and ~breaker are less-then-ideal but still reasonably useful options for Slot B. Wings of Mercy lets him instantly teleport next to any injured ally, and either pull off a massive heal or attack an enemy in said allies melee range with his staff.  

~breaker, as always, becomes a more attractive option when using a speed-reducing nature.  




 
 

Edited January 18, 2018 by Shoblongoo

[BANRYU]

1 hour ago, Viridianveil said:

"Lucius-The Light"

More like

"Shota who are you crushing on this time"

-My friend in reference to me

Tell your friend Lucius isn't a shota ¬ 3 ¬ he looks adult, he's just androgynous lol. There might be a japanese trope name for that (if so I'm not sure what it would be), but he's not shota lol. 

1 hour ago, Shoblongoo said:

Lucius is great. Yes!

His native martyr+ actually isn't a terrible option for his support slot, if you're running miracle as your special. He can drop down to 1 HP on-the-proc and then do a full heal on your ally (and heal yourself without blowing a B Slot on live-to-serve)

Martyr+ is particularly useful for chain runs, where Lucius is your only source of healing and needs to be able to keep both himself and his allies topped off.
Ehh I'm not a huge fan of it, and here's why... Yes, it can get allies fully healed up when he takes a Miracle hit, but so can a Defiant Atk-boosted Recover, which for +Atk Lucius, is healing 36 damage a pop with no HP threshold requirements. (For my purposes even Physic usually does the trick, since I wind up healing / needing to heal my units when they're hovering around half HP or so.) TBH, it seems more practical to simply avoid letting a healer take a hit (not terribly difficult to do) and not having to worry about self-healing, which would be my preference. 

Giving Martyr an adequate look, though... at 1 HP from Miracle, Martyr+ can top out at 52 (36/37 HP damage + 26 DefAtk-boost Atk) HP, which admittedly is pretty impressive. In order to match the healing of Recover he needs to take at least 10 damage, so in instances where he does wind up needing to tank more I suppose that would actually be an acceptable option, fair 'nuff. 

Hard to come by and not budget friendly, but if you have sac-bait to spare, worth noting that Warding Stance and Distant Defense are options for Slot A. Lucius in addition to being a Pain Machine, as you mentioned, actually makes for a competent res-tank with a little bit of investment. True! I was thinking the Atk-boosting skills were more important since they boost healing as well as damage, but if for whatever reason someone wants to focus on his tanking ability I suppose that would be an option. It is a little hard to recommend them since as you say, they're not exactly low-budget and the Atk-boosting roles seem more practical for him to focus on.

Finally, note that Lucius has the option of running Wrathful staff effect in his sacred forge slot and dazzling staff effect in his B slot in the alternative to dazzling staff on the sacred forge slot and wrathful staff in slot B. It's true. My thinking was that Wrathful is more readily available than Dazzling for slot B since Bride Lyn is limited, but I suppose it can't hurt to at least mention the possibility.

This allows him to be  a bit more flexible on who he uses as sac-bait for his slot B.

If bride lyn and genny are unavailable as sac bait, wings of mercy and ~breaker are less-then-ideal but still reasonably useful options for Slot B. Wings of Mercy lets him instantly teleport next to any injured ally, and either pull off a massive heal or attack an enemy in said allies melee range with his staff. Ooh yeah good call, I forgot about Wings of Mercy but that's also useful for healers who don't need to worry about self-healing, and it's easier to get rank 3 of it than LtS. 

~breaker, as always, becomes a more attractive option when using a speed-reducing nature. Since he's colorless I'm not terribly positive it will be worth running over his other slot-B options, but maybe I can at least mention it as an extra option.

^ ^ green stuff

Thanks for the input! I'll edit it accordingly when I get a chance.

[Rafiel's Aria]

Oooooh! I missed this. XD I was actually considering doing a write-up for Lucius, but I never have enough time to simply sit down and pound it out. Easily one of my favorite FEH characters though. I like using him more as an offensive "gray mage" than AoE support, but the Pain+ build is really good for Lucius Solos (something I'm challenging myself to do). This is the build I run for a mostly offensive build:

Recommended Nature: (+SPD -DEF) - My current merge base is +ATK which functions really well actually, but I find he's usually JUST on the cusp of being able to double. +SPD would really help him out.
Weapon: Candlelight+, Slow+, Pain+ (Dazzling Refine)
Assist: Any staff works (I like Physic+)
Special: Any special works; Miracle is the most battle oriented healer skill, but he shouldn't really be taking hits
A: SPD+3
B: Wrathful Staff
C: Ploy Skill (RES or SPD would be good--I currently have ATK Ploy because that's the fodder I had at the time).
S: SPD+3/ATK+3

Candlelight is partially for aesthetic purposes, partially because the support effect it has is amazing when I'm dealing with Arena Assault units. Its 11 MT is just 1 point short of Slow and Fear, so it's not too terrible of a sacrifice if you want him to help out your teammates. As I mentioned, Pain is great for my solo clears because the AoE chip-damage is invaluable. Slow is a great high MT staff for him because he likes having the extra SPD. If you're running him with a dancer, he can pick off the slower or lower-RES enemies first and then move onto the ones he couldn't double before once the debuff kicks in. Whether he runs ATK+3 or SPD+3 seals varies. If he's running SPD Ploy or Slow, he could run one of each. With Candlelight+, I'd like to have one of each seal to give him 46/36 offenses which turn into 50/40 once he gets Hone buffs. And things only get better if he's running a ploy skill. He could even run Slow+ and RES Ploy for some serious debuff damage. Naturally, it's a high investment build, and it's not going to be AS good as normal mages, but Dazzling helps him function as a Firesweep mage of sorts, and that's not something we have quite yet.

[Viridianveil]

18 hours ago, BANRYU said:

Tell your friend Lucius isn't a shota ¬ 3 ¬ he looks adult, he's just androgynous lol. There might be a japanese trope name for that (if so I'm not sure what it would be), but he's not shota lol. 

^ ^ green stuff

Thanks for the input! I'll edit it accordingly when I get a chance.

Nibba I'm the shota

[eclipse]

You can also shove Wings of Mercy in the B slot so that he can warp and heal anyone who needs it!  Currently doing that for Tempest Trials, and it's funny.

[BANRYU]

Yes of course, Wings of Mercy. Silly of me to forget honestly - 3 -

On 1/18/2018 at 4:20 PM, Rafiel's Aria said:

Oooooh! I missed this. XD I was actually considering doing a write-up for Lucius, but I never have enough time to simply sit down and pound it out. Easily one of my favorite FEH characters though. I like using him more as an offensive "gray mage" than AoE support, but the Pain+ build is really good for Lucius Solos (something I'm challenging myself to do). This is the build I run for a mostly offensive build:

Recommended Nature: (+SPD -DEF) - My current merge base is +ATK which functions really well actually, but I find he's usually JUST on the cusp of being able to double. +SPD would really help him out.
Weapon: Candlelight+, Slow+, Pain+ (Dazzling Refine)
Assist: Any staff works (I like Physic+)
Special: Any special works; Miracle is the most battle oriented healer skill, but he shouldn't really be taking hits
A: SPD+3
B: Wrathful Staff
C: Ploy Skill (RES or SPD would be good--I currently have ATK Ploy because that's the fodder I had at the time).
S: SPD+3/ATK+3

Candlelight is partially for aesthetic purposes, partially because the support effect it has is amazing when I'm dealing with Arena Assault units. Its 11 MT is just 1 point short of Slow and Fear, so it's not too terrible of a sacrifice if you want him to help out your teammates. As I mentioned, Pain is great for my solo clears because the AoE chip-damage is invaluable. Slow is a great high MT staff for him because he likes having the extra SPD. If you're running him with a dancer, he can pick off the slower or lower-RES enemies first and then move onto the ones he couldn't double before once the debuff kicks in. Whether he runs ATK+3 or SPD+3 seals varies. If he's running SPD Ploy or Slow, he could run one of each. With Candlelight+, I'd like to have one of each seal to give him 46/36 offenses which turn into 50/40 once he gets Hone buffs. And things only get better if he's running a ploy skill. He could even run Slow+ and RES Ploy for some serious debuff damage. Naturally, it's a high investment build, and it's not going to be AS good as normal mages, but Dazzling helps him function as a Firesweep mage of sorts, and that's not something we have quite yet.

TBH I have a hard time seeing Lucius as any sort of doubling unit... :o 30 base speed, even with a boon, isn't enough to reliably double much, and even if we give him Spd+6 that still only hits 39 max which I don't find terribly impressive, personally. Maybe with like Brazen Atk/Spd or something, but that carries its... own issues lol ;; (can still give it some consideration ofc if you think it's worth investing?) Slow would definitely help with that ofc, but he has to hit them with it first... though I suppose it could be useful for debuffing and consequently tanking bunches of mages, a la Celica's squad in the final map of her Echoes chapters. Speed Ploy could... maybe make it work. 

I don't see it as being substantially better than the Panic AoE blaster, but I suppose an extra build for speed-focused Lucius would be worth taking a look at. My main issue is it taking more investment than what I think we can safely call his optimal build, but I won't deny that it's an option. 

On 1/19/2018 at 8:06 AM, Viridianveil said:

Nibba I'm the shota

....ah. No yeah I see how I misread that now, my mistake .w.'

[XRay]

5 hours ago, BANRYU said:

Maybe with like Brazen Atk/Spd or something

As long as enemies are not at a significantly higher merge level, Lucius has Blade tome levels of performance once he hits the HP threshold and got buffs. Lucius got the best offensive color so no one can resist his attacks outside of Raven mages.

Lucius +Spd, -Def
Pain [Wrathful Staff]
Brazen Atk/Spd, Desperation
Attack +3 Sacred Seal
4/4/0/0
HP 27/37
Player Phase 189:4:15
Player Phase [Enemies Merge+10] 126:16:66
Player Phase [Slow] 196:3:9
Player Phase [Slow, Enemies Merge+10] 137:14:57

Here is Nino for comparison:

Nino +Spd, -Def
Gronnblade
Brazen Atk/Spd, Desperation
Attack +3 Sacred Seal
4/4/0/0
HP 23/33
Player Phase 196:4:8
Player Phase [Enemies Merge+10] 181:10:17

Edited January 23, 2018 by XRay

[BANRYU]

10 hours ago, XRay said:

As long as enemies are not at a significantly higher merge level, Lucius has Blade tome levels of performance once he hits the HP threshold and got buffs. Lucius got the best offensive color so no one can resist his attacks outside of Raven mages.

Lucius +Spd, -Def
Pain [Wrathful Staff]
Brazen Atk/Spd, Desperation
Attack +3 Sacred Seal
4/4/0/0
HP 27/37
Player Phase 189:4:15
Player Phase [Enemies Merge+10] 126:16:66
Player Phase [Slow] 196:3:9
Player Phase [Slow, Enemies Merge+10] 137:14:57

Here is Nino for comparison:

Nino +Spd, -Def
Gronnblade
Brazen Atk/Spd, Desperation
Attack +3 Sacred Seal
4/4/0/0
HP 23/33
Player Phase 196:4:8
Player Phase [Enemies Merge+10] 181:10:17

Are these generic-kit enemies? :0 or are we taking into account common defensive skills/build possibilities and/or optimal IVs? Testing against generic kits alone isn't reliable enough data IMO. 

Regardless, I will do some testing later to see how it does against +Spd and/or Fury foes etc with that build.

[XRay]

49 minutes ago, BANRYU said:

Are these generic-kit enemies? :0 or are we taking into account common defensive skills/build possibilities and/or optimal IVs? Testing against generic kits alone isn't reliable enough data IMO. 

Regardless, I will do some testing later to see how it does against +Spd and/or Fury foes etc with that build.

Yeah, it is against neutral, vanilla enemies. Against Fury and Speed +3, his performance drops quite a bit.

Lucius +Spd, -Def
Pain [Wrathful Staff]
Brazen Atk/Spd, Desperation
Attack +3 Sacred Seal
4/4/0/0
HP 27/37
Enemies with Fury overwrite and Speed +3 Sacred Seal
Player Phase 118:18:72
Player Phase [Enemies Merge+10] 50:35:123
Player Phase [Slow] 124:18:66
Player Phase [Slow, Enemies Merge+10] 53:35:120

Switching to Speed +3 Sacred Seal fixes a lot of that, but it is nowhere near the performance level of Blade tomes anymore, so maybe it is not as good of an idea as I thought.

Player Phase 153:9:46
Player Phase [Enemies Merge+10] 49:30:129
Player Phase [Slow] 166:8:34
Player Phase [Slow, Enemies Merge+10] 63:30:115

Again, for comparison, here is Nino:

Nino +Spd, -Def
Gronnblade
Brazen Atk/Spd, Desperation
Attack +3 Sacred Seal
4/4/0/0
HP 23/33
Enemies with Fury overwrite and Speed +3 Sacred Seal
Player Phase 193:5:10
Player Phase [Enemies Merge+10] 159:19:30

[Rafiel's Aria]

21 hours ago, BANRYU said:

TBH I have a hard time seeing Lucius as any sort of doubling unit... :o 30 base speed, even with a boon, isn't enough to reliably double much, and even if we give him Spd+6 that still only hits 39 max which I don't find terribly impressive, personally. Maybe with like Brazen Atk/Spd or something, but that carries its... own issues lol ;; (can still give it some consideration ofc if you think it's worth investing?) Slow would definitely help with that ofc, but he has to hit them with it first... though I suppose it could be useful for debuffing and consequently tanking bunches of mages, a la Celica's squad in the final map of her Echoes chapters. Speed Ploy could... maybe make it work. 

I don't see it as being substantially better than the Panic AoE blaster, but I suppose an extra build for speed-focused Lucius would be worth taking a look at. My main issue is it taking more investment than what I think we can safely call his optimal build, but I won't deny that it's an option. 

....ah. No yeah I see how I misread that now, my mistake .w.'

Reaching 50/40 offenses (with buffs) really isn't that terrible, and because he's a healer, he may as well find him next to someone when his turn ends more often than not. I'm definitely biased however because it's the build I'm investing in, and it's been rather successful so far.

I'm not saying it's better than the AoE build. That's the one I use for my Lucius map solos since he doesn't have to deal with the consequences of Vantage or Desperation or anything like that if he's running Dazzling Staff. But I will say it's amazing against the likes of something like armor emblem especially with Wary Fighter. In an AA situation, it can be a bit more dangerous on an offensive team, but it's definitely annoying on a defensive team.

Lucius isn't going to be doubling speedy units like Ayra or Brave Lyn any time soon, and I won't deny that building an offensive healer is incredibly niche, especially since he doesn't have access to a much needed special. But +SPD would ensure, that in a pinch, he could handle some tanky lower RES units on his own (like a merged or buffed Hector) or tank one hit from mages instead of two. Out of the healers (aside from Elise and perhaps our other two horses), he has the most salvagable ATK and SPD stats (though Serra might potentially work), so if someone wants to try for an offensive healer, he's not a terrible option.

Not really much of an argument I guess.

[BANRYU]

@Rafiel's Aria @XRay It might not be as good as Savage DazzlePain but at the end of the day, it at least performs differently, so I suppose tossing a build for it on there can't hurt so long as I'm objective about its capabilities lol. I'll get to it when I have some time (mine is dreadfully scarce these days sadly =3=)

[BANRYU]

Allllllllright, after running some calcs against more competitive variations of everyone (+Spd, Fury, Distant Def etc.), I've deemed the offensive build suggested by @Rafiel's Aria and @XRay to be worthwhile (if extremely costly lol), and have added it to the analysis along with some Other Options and the mention of Wings of Mercy for the budget healer.