Should Inheritable DC Weapons Be Available?

[NekoKnight]

In FEH, there are ranged and melee units, and with few exceptions, melee cannot counter ranged nor can ranged counter melee. The units who can counter both are quite strong and can be difficult to take down. So far, only Manaketes can inherit weapons with DC, and for other units who want that flexibility, they have to rely on rare skill Inheritance. I considered this a positive as the game is more interesting when units have weaknesses (things they can't counter) that can be exploited, but it does leave a certain "class" high and dry. That is the melee res tank.

There are a number of melee characters with low attack/defense and high speed/res such as Clair, Fir and Caeda. While they can tank a magic hit better than most, their inability to counter makes them inadequate at countering mages. Some people will remedy this with sacrificing a Hector for DC, but as a 5* lock, most players aren't going to be seeing many of him.

If Inheritable DC weapons (which could have lower attack and/or increased special cooldown) existed, these units would now have a niche in the game. Would this be a good idea? Would the meta be flooded with handaxes, javelins and throwing swords?

[Zapp Branniglenn]

Sure, I think these would be great. I always envisioned Javelins and Hand Axes would be balanced if they had the same stats as Lightning Breath. 11MT, +1 to cooldown charge. Added forge options are iffy, but if they stick to the basic stat increases it probably wouldn't be a problem. DC weapons would drastically increase anti mage options. And Close counter daggers and bows could help out those unfortunately bulky wielders that struggle to find their niche.

[Armagon]

Honestly, yeah. I know some people might complain about it "unbalancing the meta" but it really won't. These regular DC weapons would be weaker than their Legendary counterparts and it's not like every unit is better with a DC weapon. As the OP said, this would really only be best used on units who have the right stats to be a physical/mage tank but can't counter normally due to range limitations.

[Refa]

Units with inheritable DC weapons would be just as hard, if not harder, to acquire than Hector, defeating the purpose in the first place.

[Zeo]

Realistically if the units didn't demote, it wouldn't change anything except marginally for whales.

Most players only pull 1-3 of a unit during a banner and that's if they get lucky. Say Ross (a Favorite of mine!) were to drop in the game with Hatchet+, a 14 MT Axe with inherit DC. Whales would have plenty of him and you'd see people in Tier 20 Arena at the highest level and maybe some of them would run this axe, but those players also have access to other great Axes like Handbell, etc and likely have Distant Counter fodder to begin with and so, depending on it's capabilities to be refined (or not) and their various other potential better options it may not even be the optimal weapon, and if so, on units that are potentially inferior to other units running a different skillset/weapon. Then you have the F2P and Dolphins who'll only have 1 or 2 copies of him so they'll likely keep him or SI one or two units.

Then we factor in IS' tendencies and likely Ross would stay as a *5 only because of his weapon/skillset/powercreep which puts him in the same category as Saber, (IE. Ultra rare) until he shows up on another banner. Making the weapon premium and borderline impossible to acquire for however long he's off banner. Nevermind the fact that this is a single weapon and the Sword/Lance variants probably wouldn't show up for another 1-3 months and could possibly show up on seasonal units, making them even rarer and more premium.

tl;dr It wouldn't change anything unless the unit in question was demoted. Otherwise it would be months before the meta was effected in any meaningful way except possibly at the very top of arena.

@Refa Essentially 100% your comment. +1.

Edited January 19, 2018 by Zeo

[Lord_Grima]

As much as I would like to see Inheritable DC weapons, IS has shown that is not happening. Dorcas could have gotten a basic Tomahawk to inherit, instead he got a Legendary DC weapon (Maybe because he was a CYL unit...). 

If inheritable DC weapons do appear, they need to have a low might. 11 sounds good. Add a "Unit cannot make a Follow up attack, and +1 to cool-down count(litrBlade/Lightning Breath effect)" similar to javelins in Fates.

 

[Infinite Dreams]

That would be neat.  I'd like that.  I'm so used to most of the enemies having DC in the arena anyway.  

[Refa]

DC weapons could stand to be 14 might w/no draw backs and be objectively worse than Lightning Breath+.  I wouldn't lower their might and have an increased cooldown unless they could be forged in a similar fashion to Lightning Breath+.

[bottlegnomes]

5 minutes ago, Lord_Grima said:

As much as I would like to see Inheritable DC weapons, IS has shown that is not happening. Dorcas could have gotten a basic Tomahawk to inherit, instead he got a Legendary DC weapon (Maybe because he was a CYL unit...). 

If inheritable DC weapons do appear, they need to have a low might. 11 sounds good. Add a "Unit cannot make a Follow up attack, and +1 to cool-down count(litrBlade/Lightning Breath effect)" similar to javelins in Fates.

No follow-up seems a bit excessive. Dragons weren't exactly broken with the inheritable DC weapons prior to refinery. Even after it, they're still not exactly broken, more just really, really good, and I don't see DC weapons having that benefit.

[LucarioGamer812]

Honestly I agree with @Glennstavos, that's the way I would want them incorporated.

[Humanoid]

Yeah, even if you compare "normal" weapons to breaths, I don't see why javelins would need the extra penalties. For comparison, Flametongue+ and Silver Sword+ have the same might (15), so they're balanced pretty much 1:1. When forged they gain the same stats except Flametongue gets the dual-type damage thing as a freebie, but we'll disregard that for this purpose. (If you like, that perk is balanced out by dragons being vulnerable to Falchion/Naga). With that in mind, it makes sense for javelins to have the exact same attributes as Lightning Breath+.

[Alexmender]

I don't know about having them be super weak with a ton of restrictions like no follow up but I know that a 14 MT inheritable weapon with DC would be a bit too much if it can be refined. Make them 11-12 MT if they are able to be refined or keep them at 13 MT without refinement options and it would be perfect. 

[NekoKnight]

The way I envision it, they would have 12 attack, have standard melee refinements, would increase special cooldown by 1 and be available in the 4-5* pool. They would be weaker than unique DC weapons but much more accessible.

[Ae†her]

I think it could be nice if axes and lances got a weak (10Mt ish + Special cooldown count+1) Handaxe+ and Javelin+ to DC with just because it could give them an advantage that swords don't have that balance the advantage that swords do have over the other melee weapons currently. The advantage I'm speaking of here is the Wo Dao+, which gives a guaranteed 10 damage (minor exception of percentage mitigation skills) which can be very much abused with the right setups. It doesn't have to be this way, but I just like uniqueness among weapon types in what they have to offer. 

Anyways, yes, I think it would be great to have weak DC weapons similar to dragons except they're even weaker than Lightning Breath+. However, it would also be very hard to get unless they make them available on 4* units otherwise it would be similar to trying to get Hector (probably initially only available on one character).

[XRay]

I think it is a good idea. However, I disagree with nerfing inheritable Distant Counter Weapons with cool down count increases and/or preventing follow up attacks. Player Phase units can still easily overpower Enemy Phase units with Desperation or slowly whittle them down with Firesweep Weapons, so giving Enemy Phase units Distant Counter Weapons that increases cool down count and/or prevent follow up attacks is counter productive to making Enemy Phase builds more viable.

[Charmeleonbrah]

It's more likely that Distant Counter Sacred Seal will be released.  IS has shown they will release expensive/OP skills with the latest additions of Heavy Blade and Quick Riposte.  Wouldn't it be great?  We could have Brazen Atk/Spd, Vantage 3, Distant Counter Ayra.

[bottlegnomes]

5 hours ago, Charmeleonbrah said:

It's more likely that Distant Counter Sacred Seal will be released.  IS has shown they will release expensive/OP skills with the latest additions of Heavy Blade and Quick Riposte.  Wouldn't it be great?  We could have Brazen Atk/Spd, Vantage 3, Distant Counter Ayra.

That'd be a bit much even with what they've been doing. QR and HB are great skills, but you have to operate within certain constraints. DC is just always good.