Jakob, Devoted Monster

[XRay]

Jakob, Devoted Monster

It is not a coincidence that TOD!Jakob is dressed as Frankenstein. With the right skill set, he is a monstrous amalgamation created from the corpses of Firesweep BB!Cordelia and special Refinement Takumi. TOD!Jakob is the husbando to die for if you ever need to trade your life force for more Orbs.

 

Level 40 stats:
HP: 38/42/45
Atk: 32/35/38
Spd: 20/23/26
Def: 30/33/36
Res: 29/32/35
Total: 164~165

Default skills:
Weapon: Monstrous Bow+
Assist: [none]
Special: Ignis
Passive A: Bracing Blow 2
Passive B: Wary Fighter 3
Passive C: [none]

 

Guard Bow/Monstrous Bow:
Arena Assault

Spoiler

Nature: [+Atk/Def/Res, -HP/Spd/Def/Res]

Guard Bow+ [Defense Refinement] / Guard Bow+ [Resistance Refinement] / Monstrous Bow+ [Defense Refinement] / Monstrous Bow+ [Resistance Refinement]
Swap / Reposition / [flexible Assist]
Moonbow / Iceberg / Bonfire / Luna
Distant Def 3 / Steady Stance 3 / Warding Stance 3
Bowbreaker 3 / Cancel Affinity 3 / Wary Fighter 3
Ward Armor / Armor March 3 / [flexible passive C]
Distant Def 3 / Quick Riposte 3 / Armored Boots

With Wary Fighter, TOD!Jakob does not really need Guard Bow, but it is still nice to take little to no damage.

Guard Bow — Iceberg/Bonfire/Luna — Distant Def/Warding Stance — Cancel Affinity — Distant Def/Quick Riposte: He should be able to tank Raven-Triangle Adept mages without problem and kill them when back to Player Phase. Quick Riposte is mentioned since some Raven mages may run something other than Bowbreaker if they can counter kill their targets in one hit, rendering Bowbreaker unnecessary.

 

Budget:

Earth Boost/Water Boost: It is not very reliable since it is dependent on HP, but he should be fine if he has healing support or is only tanking one archer.

Firesweep:
Arena

Spoiler

Nature: [+Atk, -HP/Spd/Def/Res]

Firesweep Bow+
Reposition / [flexible Assist]
Moonbow
Death Blow 3
Bold Fighter 3
[flexible passive C] / Savage Blow 3 / Def Ploy 3
Armored Boots / [flexible Sacred Seal] / Attack +3 / Savage Blow 3

With Bold Fighter, TOD!Jakob is even "faster" than BB!Cordelia by guaranteeing doubles. With Armored Boots, TOD!Jakob essentially moves like Takumi with Fujin Yumi's special Refinement. Bold Fighter already gave armor units bat shit crazy performance, but Armored Boots makes that performance viable outside of an armor team and without Guidance.

Brave Bow:
Arena

Spoiler

Nature: [+Atk, -HP/Spd/Def/Res]

Brave Bow+
Reposition / [flexible Assist]
Moonbow / Aether / Luna / Ignis / Glacies
Death Blow 3
Bold Fighter 3 / Desperation 3
[flexible passive C] / Savage Blow 3 / Def Ploy 3
Armored Boots / Brash Assault / [flexible Sacred Seal] / Attack +3 / Savage Blow 3

He can take on merge +10 enemies without buffs and merges as if he were a Blade pony +10 with full buffs.

Desperation 3 — Brash Assault 3: If he manages to get below 50% health, Brash Assault activates by allowing him to make a follow up attack against any unit who can counter attack, and Desperation moves his follow up attack forward to land four hits consecutively.

Slaying Bow:
Arena Defense

Spoiler

Nature: [+HP/Def/Res, -Atk/Spd]

Slaying Bow+ [Defense Refinement] / Slaying Bow+ [Resistance Refinement]
Reposition / [flexible Assist]
Miracle
Bracing Blow 2
Bold Fighter 3
[flexible passive C]
Armored Boots / [flexible Sacred Seal] / Defense +3 / Resistance +3

Wings of Mercy beacon.

Close Counter:
Arena

Spoiler

Nature: [+Atk/Def/Res, -HP/Spd/Def/Res]

Slaying Bow+ [Defense Refinement] / Slaying Bow+ [Resistance Refinement] / Guard Bow+ [Defense Refinement] / Guard Bow+ [Resistance Refinement]
Swap / Reposition / [flexible Assist]
Bonfire / Ignis / Aether
Close Counter
Vengeful Fighter 3 / Guard 3 / Wary Fighter 3
Ward Armor / Armor March 3 / [flexible passive C]
Close Def 3 / Distant Def 3 / Quick Riposte 3

This allows him to deal with melee opponents. However, he does not have the weapon triangle to help him tank, so make sure he has buffs if he is not running Wary Fighter.

Slaying Bow: It is more applicable in a variety of situations as cool down reduction applies in both melee and ranged combat.

Guard Bow: It gives him more bulk against ranged units, but it does not work with Close Counter since the two skills work on two different types of units.

 

Edited February 22, 2018 by XRay
I just realized TOD!Jakob cannot run Steady Breath/Warding Breath.

[Johann]

No mention of Close Counter? He's a perfect candidate for it.

[XRay]

17 minutes ago, Johann said:

No mention of Close Counter? He's a perfect candidate for it.

I will add it in.

He needs Wary Fighter though and that limits him to just being a wall. Without Wary Fighter, a lot of units curb stomps him. Unlike colored armor mages, TOD!Jakob does not have that benefit to help him tank anyone. I do not think he is good candidate for it.

Edited February 20, 2018 by XRay

[a bear]

15 hours ago, XRay said:

He needs Wary Fighter though

Does he? His defensive stats are only a little worse than Tharja's (Jakob's down 1 HP, 1 Def, 4 Res before weapon effects), and Tharja handles reds and colorless just fine. No reason you couldn't run her default kit on him.

[XRay]

2 hours ago, a bear said:

Does he? His defensive stats are only a little worse than Tharja's (Jakob's down 1 HP, 1 Def, 4 Res before weapon effects), and Tharja handles reds and colorless just fine. No reason you couldn't run her default kit on him.

Ayra, Lucina, Raven, and Nephenee can all slaughter him. TOD!Jakob can survive them if they are not built optimally or if they Speed stack, but most melee units are well built and not all of them Speed stack.

Unilke WE!Tharja who is red and can rely on her color to help her tank despite being slow, TOD!Jakob does not have that benefit, and most melee units have higher Defense than Resistance so he may also have a little more difficulty killing them.

Having high Defense/Resistance does not help too much if you lack the Speed to avoid doubles. Without Speed, Defense and Resistance has to be insanely high to reliably tank doubles and Special activations. Without color for additional protection, those two stats have to be even higher.

WE!Tharja does not handle offensive red units well. She easily dies to Ayra [+Atk, vanilla] and Celica [+Atk, Luna, Life and Death, Heavy Blade].

Edited February 20, 2018 by XRay

[Johann]

You're using a few specific examples as pretty poor reasoning for why he shouldn't run skills that can serve him extremely well against a large number of opponents. Being an armor with high Def and Res gives him the rare luxury of stacking defensive buffs to very high levels. A Slaying Weapon build that uses Aether and Vengeful Fighter would work well on him too.

[a bear]

12 minutes ago, XRay said:

WE!Tharja does not handle offensive red units well.

She doesn't? News to me, I've been using her to completely stop anything that isn't blue in every game mode.

46HP/37Def/40Res on my Tharja (+Res/-Spd, +1, Def refine) would translate to 45HP/36Def/35Res on Jakob. Takes 58-59 Atk on a raw double to kill him, ignoring special procs or skills/support. That's as beefy as anything, and he can't get cheesed with WTD outside of the odd Raven tome.

[XRay]

On 2/20/2018 at 4:01 PM, Johann said:

You're using a few specific examples as pretty poor reasoning for why he shouldn't run skills that can serve him extremely well against a large number of opponents. Being an armor with high Def and Res gives him the rare luxury of stacking defensive buffs to very high levels. A Slaying Weapon build that uses Aether and Vengeful Fighter would work well on him too.

A lot of opponents are Ayra and Nephenee. Raven is not a common sight yet, but I assume he will be since he is the green equivalent with similar offensive stats, so I included him in. I am not interested in TOD!Jakob's match ups against the rest of the cast that rarely, if ever, show up. Even when they do show up, they are not exactly great.

If TOD!Jakob is getting 0/0/12/12 in the calculator, then it would also be reasonable to factor in enemies with a bare minimum of 4/4/0/0 buffs.

Without buffs on either side, TOD!Jakob will die to Ayra [+Atk, Vanilla, Attack +3], Nephenee [+Atk, Slaying Lance [Spd], Luna, Life and Death, Wrath, Attack +3], and Raven [+Atk, Basilikos [special], Luna, Fury, Desperation, Attack +3]. With buffs on both sides, TOD!Jakob will survive Ayra but die to the other two.

On 2/20/2018 at 4:07 PM, a bear said:

She doesn't? News to me, I've been using her to completely stop anything that isn't blue in every game mode.

46HP/37Def/40Res on my Tharja (+Res/-Spd, +1, Def refine) would translate to 45HP/36Def/35Res on Jakob. Takes 58-59 Atk on a raw double to kill him, ignoring special procs or skills/support. That's as beefy as anything, and he can't get cheesed with WTD outside of the odd Raven tome.

Anything goes in every game mode that is not Arena or Arena Assault. My BB!Cordelia running Brave Bow is pretty great in Tempest Trials and Grand Hero Battles, but that does not mean much in Arena when she dies on the counter to every single Distant Counter melee unit, rendering her Brave Bow unusable and Desperation worthless unless someone runs Reciprocal Aid or she runs Ardent Sacrifice. Her damage output is a quite a bit less now with Firesweep Bow, but she is at least reliably usable.

WE!Tharja has to make a choice between stopping sword users or red mages, not both, if she wants to be a reliable tank. If WE!Tharja is not stacking enough Resistance, she will die to Celica [+Atk, Ragnarok Luna, Life and Death, Heavy Blade]. If WE!Tharja stacks her Resistance, she will be vulnerable to Ayra [+Atk, vanilla, Attack +3]. If WE!Tharja attempts to tank both, both sword users and red mages will kill her.

Edited February 22, 2018 by XRay

[a bear]

I'm counting Arena/AA in my "stops anything that isn't blue" statement. She handles Ayra and Celica just fine. Not at the same time of course, she'll get worn down usually, but in general? Yeah, she does that. That's the beauty of mixed bulk and poop speed.

People have been running CC without Wary Fighter on Jakob since Christmas. It works. Yes, there are times where it doesn't, just like any other build in the game, but generally speaking it's very effective. Don't write off practiced methods just because of theories and calculators.

[XRay]

1 minute ago, a bear said:

Yes, there are times where it doesn't, just like any other build in the game

I personally would not invest in builds that has a chance of failure for Arena Assault. Arena Assault is the mode where you can invest in cheap counter units running Gem Weapon/Triangle Adept-Breaker to shutdown a whole weapon type with zero chance of failure. On the physically bulky archers, [Guard Bow [Def], Moonbow, Distant Def, Bowbreaker] has zero chance of failure against its intended targets: BH!Lyn and LA!Roy. [Ignis-Close Counter-Vengeful Fighter] guarantees nothing.

22 minutes ago, a bear said:

Don't write off practiced methods just because of theories and calculators.

I like my builds to be foolproof, especially on Enemy Phase units.

[Johann]

35 minutes ago, XRay said:

I like my builds to be foolproof, especially on Enemy Phase units.

Nothing is foolproof. If you write off perfectly viable skills/setups out of personal preference, then your analysis is stunted and unhelpful.

[XRay]

39 minutes ago, Johann said:

Nothing is foolproof. If you write off perfectly viable skills/setups out of personal preference, then your analysis is stunted and unhelpful.

TOD!Jakob [+0, neutral, Guard Bow [Def], Moonbow, Distant Def, Bowbreaker] can take out BH!Lyn [+10, Brave Bow, Luna, Death Blow, Attack +3, 6/6/0/0] and LA!Roy [+10, Brave Bow, Moonbow, Death Blow, Heavy Blade, 6/6/0/0].

That is fool proof. That is reliable. If the enemy has a bow pony, drop TOD!Jakob into the team.

 

I will put his Close Counter build in a separate section as a compromise since I do not think it belongs well under Arena Assault.

Edited February 22, 2018 by XRay

[Johann]

35 minutes ago, XRay said:

TOD!Jakob [+0, neutral, Guard Bow [Def], Moonbow, Distant Def, Bowbreaker] can take out BH!Lyn [+10, Brave Bow, Luna, Death Blow, Attack +3, 6/6/0/0] and LA!Roy [+10, Brave Bow, Moonbow, Death Blow, Heavy Blade, 6/6/0/0].

That is fool proof. That is reliable. If the enemy has a bow pony, drop TOD!Jakob into the team.

 

I will put his Close Counter build in a separate section as a compromise since I do not think it belongs well under Arena Assault.

Again, stunted and unhelpful. Who needs to be told that Bowbreaker helps you deal with archers? I'm telling you from experience as someone who has Jakob with Close Counter and regularly uses him in all kinds of content that it works beautifully. This includes AA. Just because you're personally not comfortable with it doesn't make it a bad choice.

You shouldn't be making analysis threads if you're not willing to take reasonable outside input.

[XRay]

5 minutes ago, Johann said:

Again, stunted and unhelpful. Who needs to be told that Bowbreaker helps you deal with archers? I'm telling you from experience as someone who has Jakob with Close Counter and regularly uses him in all kinds of content that it works beautifully. This includes AA. Just because you're personally not comfortable with it doesn't make it a bad choice.

You shouldn't be making analysis threads if you're not willing to take reasonable outside input.

I have edited Close Counter into a separate build under Arena. Arena builds are implied to be usable in Arena Assault as they are flexible, whereas Arena Assault builds are not necessarily flexible enough to be run in Arena.

I generally only label something as Arena Assault if the skills are cheap/plentiful enough to be built and they are guaranteed to counter something. Guard Bow is not cheap, but it is plentiful with Sestuna from the 3*-4* pool; it can be substituted with Distant Def Sacred Seal if it is not affordable. Distant Def on the A slot is not cheap or common either, but Earth Boost is available and Steady Stance from Black Knight is available to every player who has gotten far enough in his Tempest Trials.

[a bear]

I'd argue Steady Stance is rarer than Distant Def considering only one summonable unit gets SS3 compared to three for DD. Even for anyone who still has a 4* BK, they may prefer to save him so someone can inherit Steady Breath and Aether from a single Ike.