General Character Usefulness Discussion

[Smfthegeek]

6 hours ago, Folt said:

I find Linde's hitboxes to be too frontloaded and her C1 to be unreliable. Far from the best.

Tharja, from what I can tell, is not faster than Robin. At most, she has his attack speed.

I find that Linde's issue is that she's too flimsy. She's also a bit slow compared to Tharja/Robin. However, despite that, her unique strong attacks DO set her apart so I do agree that she has some degree of superiority. She would be completely superior if it was for her glass canon-like style.

[Anacybele]

Okay. So, between the melee cavaliers, aka Freddy and Xander, I prefer Freddy more. I like playing both though.

And I know I'm biased for Frederick, yeah yeah, but there's more to it than that, I swear. I feel like Frederick clears out enemies better with how much he can hit in one swing of that axe and I feel like he gets across the map better given how his dashing attack makes the horse skid across the ground pretty fast. Also, Xander is kinda tanky, but Freddy is tankier still! Dude is SO hard to take out!

I might also just be a little too used to using Freddy since I haven't used Xander for as long, but this is what I'm feeling like so far.

[Smfthegeek]

41 minutes ago, Anacybele said:

Okay. So, between the melee cavaliers, aka Freddy and Xander, I prefer Freddy more. I like playing both though.

And I know I'm biased for Frederick, yeah yeah, but there's more to it than that, I swear. I feel like Frederick clears out enemies better with how much he can hit in one swing of that axe and I feel like he gets across the map better given how his dashing attack makes the horse skid across the ground pretty fast. Also, Xander is kinda tanky, but Freddy is tankier still! Dude is SO hard to take out!

I might also just be a little too used to using Freddy since I haven't used Xander for as long, but this is what I'm feeling like so far.

I honestly have only used Caeda and Elise along with Minerva when it comes to mounted units.  I've semi-tried Frederick but haven't even slightly used Xander yet and I'm already 105 hours into the game.

[Anacybele]

6 minutes ago, smfthegeek said:

I honestly have only used Caeda and Elise along with Minerva when it comes to mounted units.  I've semi-tried Frederick but haven't even slightly used Xander yet and I'm already 105 hours into the game.

Ah, well, some history mode battles require only Awakening characters or only Nohr characters, so Xander and Freddy might be necessary there. xP

Frederick is my most used character though, personally. :P Can't help but love him that much!

Edited April 5, 2018 by Anacybele

[Smfthegeek]

4 minutes ago, Anacybele said:

Ah, well, some history mode battles require only Awakening characters or only Nohr characters, so Xander and Freddy might be necessary there. xP

Frederick is my most used character though, personally. :P Can't help but love him that much!

Ya there's a map on Caravan Dancer thats mounted units only and I regret not using mounted units much because of it. I'm planning on using Elise and Caeda for sure but I can't decide between Xander and Freddy so can you tell me a bit about Xander?

[Folt]

1 hour ago, smfthegeek said:

I find that Linde's issue is that she's too flimsy. She's also a bit slow compared to Tharja/Robin. However, despite that, her unique strong attacks DO set her apart so I do agree that she has some degree of superiority. She would be completely superior if it was for her glass canon-like style.

If her attacks are worse than Robin/Tharja, then I'd say she's generally worse.

[Anacybele]

22 minutes ago, smfthegeek said:

Ya there's a map on Caravan Dancer thats mounted units only and I regret not using mounted units much because of it. I'm planning on using Elise and Caeda for sure but I can't decide between Xander and Freddy so can you tell me a bit about Xander?

Well, from what I know, Xander can't hit as hard as Freddy, but he's a little faster. Frederick is just all about his offense and defense, really. Neither does well against magic, but I think Xander handles it a little better. Really, you can't go wrong with either of them, you should just choose who fits your play style more. And whoever would fair better against the enemy weaponry. Lots of lancers, go Freddy. Lots of swords, Xander is better. Lots of axes, either one works.

I admit I like tanking and hitting hard, so Frederick works great for me no matter what. :P But I don't know what you prefer, so...

[Smfthegeek]

2 minutes ago, Anacybele said:

Well, from what I know, Xander can't hit as hard as Freddy, but he's a little faster. Frederick is just all about his offense and defense, really. Neither does well against magic, but I think Xander handles it a little better. Really, you can't go wrong with either of them, you should just choose who fits your play style more. And whoever would fair better against the enemy weaponry. Lots of lancers, go Freddy. Lots of swords, Xander is better. Lots of axes, either one works.

I admit I like tanking and hitting hard, so Frederick works great for me no matter what. :P But I don't know what you prefer, so...

I prefer quick and aggressive units like Lyn so based on that, would Xander or Frederick suit that?

Edited April 5, 2018 by smfthegeek

[Anacybele]

1 minute ago, smfthegeek said:

I prefer quick and aggressive units like Lyn

Ah, then Frederick might not be the best option for you. He's not THAT slow, but he's not fast either. Xander would probably fit you better. Frederick DOES have a lot of aggressiveness though, dude is brutal as hell!

Edited April 5, 2018 by Anacybele

[Jedi]

If you're worried about defense in a Warriors game, you need to get better at dodging or blocking, FEW enemies aren't nearly aggressive enough to have to worry about that though compared to older DW & SW games on their highest difficulties where you'd literally die in a few hits regardless of your defense, and thats including arrows. There's also the thing with FEW & HW you never have to worry about, Musou/Specials, because enemies cannot actually do them in these games purely because in these games they're unblockable (a huge flaw compared to the main series games imo).

A characters defense doesn't particularly matter in the long run if you're good at abusing your invinciblity frames or good moves along with dodges & occasional blocks.

Sorry if this is coming off as "get good" but Modern Warriors games generally aren't that difficult, to the point of worrying about something as silly as your defense stats.

Edited April 5, 2018 by Jedi

[Smfthegeek]

On 4/5/2018 at 10:27 AM, Anacybele said:

Ah, then Frederick might not be the best option for you. He's not THAT slow, but he's not fast either. Xander would probably fit you better. Frederick DOES have a lot of aggressiveness though, dude is brutal as hell!

So update I gave frederick a shot and got a hold of his axe and opus sooooo... do you think you could give me a good frederick build? Xander pales in comparison to frederick honestly.

[Anacybele]

34 minutes ago, smfthegeek said:

So update I gave frederick a shot and got a hold of his axe and opus sooooo... do you think you could give me a good frederick build? Xander pales in comparison to frederick honestly.

Man, I would, but I haven't finished building him up myself. I can recommend Armored Blow though, as that's what I'm going to get for him because it looks like it'd be great on him.

[Smfthegeek]

10 minutes ago, Anacybele said:

Man, I would, but I haven't finished building him up myself. I can recommend Armored Blow though, as that's what I'm going to get for him because it looks like it'd be great on him.

Ya im thinking: Astra,Luna,Armored Blow, Trample, and aegis or pavis

[Anacybele]

15 minutes ago, smfthegeek said:

Ya im thinking: Astra,Luna,Armored Blow, Trample, and aegis or pavis

Yeah, that sounds like that could work. Also could consider Luck+20 to help with Astra and Luna.

[Smfthegeek]

7 minutes ago, Anacybele said:

Yeah, that sounds like that could work. Also could consider Luck+20 to help with Astra and Luna.

Ya i think I may swap trample for luck+20 because his brute strength is strong enough to easily kill foot soldiers

[Anacybele]

1 minute ago, smfthegeek said:

Ya i think I may swap trample for luck+20 because his brute strength is strong enough to easily kill foot soldiers

That could work.

[Tables]

1 hour ago, smfthegeek said:

So update I gave frederick a shot and got a hold of his axe and opus sooooo... do you think you could give me a good frederick build? Xander pales in comparison to frederick honestly.

Weapon: Mountslayer, Dracoslayer, [Pair Up+/Critical+/Desperate+/Triangle+], Critical Focus, [Axebreaker/Tomebreaker/Strength V], Bolster

Character: Astra, Luna, Lethality, Luck+20, [two of: Lone Wolf/Solidarity/Vengeance & Awakening/Galeforce/Iote's Shield/Res +10]

 

Mount and Dracoslayer cover major weaknesses for Frederick. He can't latch Dragons, Wyverns or Mounts, so this lets him kill them without having to.

Pair Up+ or another bonus is pretty standard. If you pair up regularly, Pair Up+ is best. If you want to run Vengeance Awakening builds, Desperate+ or Triangle+ might be better than Critical+, but with Frederick's low speed I wouldn't recommend it too much. Critical+ if you don't pair up much, since with Critical Focus you should be able to break stun gauges easily enough.

Axe/Tomebreaker lets him kill some particular enemies more quickly, or you can go with Strength V as it's boosted by Bolster. You could also go with another strength skill if you prefer (Strength III is his best KO move, Strength IV has good range and is relatively quick).

 

Astra, Luna, Lethality are pretty standard on everyone. His luck is pretty bad, so there's actually the possibility of just saying "screw Lethality" and putting something else in its place (even at level 150 he only has a 23% Lethality rate by default), although this makes him basically the worst dueler in the game if you do. Luck+20 boosts both Lethality by 10% and Luna's damage bonus, plus improves item drops. Luck+20 can potentially be substituted out for something else if you prefer.

His other 2-3 slots are mostly up to you. Lone Wolf if you like not pairing up, for the +50% damage bonus. Solidarity if you like pairing up, again for the damage bonus, although this time for his partner and only the standard +25%. Vengeance for Awakening builds so you can survive at 1 HP, but with Frederick's low Spd I wouldn't recommend them. Galeforce helps build specials and Awakening quickly, which helps a ton for dealing with tricky situations. Iote's Shield negates his two weaknesses. Not usually an issue, since Armour and Mount slayer enemies are extremely rare (IIRC you only encounter them in the Shadow Dragon and Awakening DLC, and in low quantity). Res+10 is his best option for mitigating his low Res. Even with Luck+20, it has a bigger effect for him than Aegis, especially at lower levels (less than 100).

 

I saw Trample and Armoured Blow mentioned, I wouldn't really recommend either of those too much. You shouldn't get interrupted during attacks often enough for Armoured Blow to matter, but if you find it helps, you can go for it. Trample is a really pitiful bonus, only +10% damage, which if you compare to what you get from most other skills (+25%), doesn't amount to much.

 

As a final extra note, Frederick's luck is so bad (especially at lower levels) that it can be reasonable to totally skip on Luna altogether. Like, at level 99 he has 42 luck, and so gains ~12% extra damage from Luna. That's Trample level bad. Since it's not an additive bonus though it does multiply by everything else, so it becomes more like ~20-30% overall depending on how many additive bonuses you have, and that's pretty solid, but it's still nothing amazing.

Edited April 7, 2018 by Tables
Extra Luna info

[Smfthegeek]

5 minutes ago, Tables said:

Weapon: Mountslayer, Dracoslayer, [Pair Up+/Critical+/Desperate+/Triangle+], Critical Focus, [Axebreaker/Tomebreaker/Strength V], Bolster

Character: Astra, Luna, Lethality, Luck+20, [two of: Lone Wolf/Solidarity/Vengeance & Awakening/Galeforce/Iote's Shield/Res +10]

 

Mount and Dracoslayer cover major weaknesses for Frederick. He can't latch Dragons, Wyverns or Mounts, so this lets him kill them without having to.

Pair Up+ or another bonus is pretty standard. If you pair up regularly, Pair Up+ is best. If you want to run Vengeance Awakening builds, Desperate+ or Triangle+ might be better than Critical+, but with Frederick's low speed I wouldn't recommend it too much. Critical+ if you don't pair up much, since with Critical Focus you should be able to break stun gauges easily enough.

Axe/Tomebreaker lets him kill some particular enemies more quickly, or you can go with Strength V as it's boosted by Bolster. You could also go with another strength skill if you prefer (Strength III is his best KO move, Strength IV has good range and is relatively quick).

 

Astra, Luna, Lethality are pretty standard on everyone. His luck is pretty bad, so there's actually the possibility of just saying "screw Lethality" and putting something else in its place (even at level 150 he only has a 23% Lethality rate by default), although this makes him basically the worst dueler in the game if you do. Luck+20 boosts both Lethality by 10% and Luna's damage bonus, plus improves item drops. Luck+20 can potentially be substituted out for something else if you prefer.

His other 2-3 slots are mostly up to you. Lone Wolf if you like not pairing up, for the +50% damage bonus. Solidarity if you like pairing up, again for the damage bonus, although this time for his partner and only the standard +25%. Vengeance for Awakening builds so you can survive at 1 HP, but with Frederick's low Spd I wouldn't recommend them. Galeforce helps build specials and Awakening quickly, which helps a ton for dealing with tricky situations. Iote's Shield negates his two weaknesses. Not usually an issue, since Armour and Mount slayer enemies are extremely rare (IIRC you only encounter them in the Shadow Dragon and Awakening DLC, and in low quantity). Res+10 is his best option for mitigating his low Res. Even with Luck+20, it has a bigger effect for him than Aegis, especially at lower levels (less than 100).

 

I saw Trample and Armoured Blow mentioned, I wouldn't really recommend either of those too much. You shouldn't get interrupted during attacks often enough for Armoured Blow to matter, but if you find it helps, you can go for it. Trample is a really pitiful bonus, only +10% damage, which if you compare to what you get from most other skills (+25%), doesn't amount to much.

THANK YOU SO MUCH!!! ??????

[Tables]

No problem. I also added a little extra info about Luna in that post that might be useful, especially if your Frederick is like under level 100ish.

[Smfthegeek]

2 hours ago, Tables said:

No problem. I also added a little extra info about Luna in that post that might be useful, especially if your Frederick is like under level 100ish.

Hey so is Olivia worth my time? I have her opus but I was wondering about her worth before i put the effort in :/

[Tables]

Olivia seems very strong to me. She has the highest luck in the game, which is already a good sign she's gonna be kinda busted damage wise at least, but her moveset feels pretty solid. I'd need to experiment more to work out if she or Xander is the best sword user, but I'm reasonably confident it's between those two.

[Jedi]

5 minutes ago, Tables said:

Olivia seems very strong to me. She has the highest luck in the game, which is already a good sign she's gonna be kinda busted damage wise at least, but her moveset feels pretty solid. I'd need to experiment more to work out if she or Xander is the best sword user, but I'm reasonably confident it's between those two.

I feel she might win out, because she can do massive quick damage to weakness gauges, her Strong attacks seem tailor made to break those gauges too.

But I think Navarre beats out Xander as well, because of just how good the Lyn/Navarre moveset is and just how his statspread is.

[Folt]

I think Xander will beat out both Olivia and Navarre: Projectile C4 is pretty clutch and he can follow it up with C5 to C5 for crits + his mobility is awesome on top of that.

[Jedi]

12 minutes ago, Folt said:

I think Xander will beat out both Olivia and Navarre: Projectile C4 is pretty clutch and he can follow it up with C5 to C5 for crits + his mobility is awesome on top of that.

I wasn't considering moblity oops.

[Tables]

Navarre's (/Lyn's) moveset is pretty solid as well. It's main weakness is actually the same as Xander's main weakness I feel, which is a fairly slow C4. Except, Xander's C4 has huge range, while Navarre's doesn't. Still, Navarre's C6 is pretty crazy and breaks gauges easily, while AoE damaging heavily. Xander has mobility going for him, as well as slightly better stats.