Grand Hero Battle - Julius: Scion of Darkness (May 14 ~)

[Alkaid]

@mampfoidVery nice! Once again I appreciate seeing a spicy Smite thrown in there for good measure.

Your clears really get me itching for those remaining Cordelias I need, both to finish merging her and to finally pass around some Galeforce SI. 

[Kaden]

Cleared infernal with 5* Elincia (+Def, -HP), 5* Fjorm (neutral), 5* Genny (+Res, -Def), and 4* Olivia (neutral). Team entry just had Genny and Olivia swap places. Skill inheritance and Sacred Seals: Elincia with Draw Back, Wings of Mercy 2, Spur Spd 2, and a Guidance 3 seal, Fjorm with Reposition and a Quick Riposte 3 seal, Genny with a Dazzling Staff refined Gravity+, Heavenly Light equipped, Attack +3, Fortify Res 3, and a Spur Spd 2 seal, and Olivia with Wings of Mercy 3 and a Drive Atk 2 seal. Elincia's skills were a leftover from the GHB1 fliers quests.

Basically, send Fjorm to the right side, have her counter-kill the healer and Julius, and have most of the enemy funnel through the right side while picking off stragglers coming from the left side. Olivia's Drive Atk 2 was needed for Fjorm to ORKO the blue mage that spawns over there and Elincia needs to make her way over to wherever the thief goes since without some chip damage and a +4 speed buff to Elincia, everyone gets ORKO'd by him. Scary moments include Elincia dropping to critical health against the Swift Sparrow sword infantry who I thought would have doubled her, but apparently not since he needed 39 speed to do that and I think I had Genny standing next to her for the Spur Spd buff, Fjorm getting Desperation bursted by the starting blue mage near the end of the map since I didn't check their skills after deciding to have Fjorm smack them, and Genny surviving with 3 HP against the archer near the end who she wouldn't have been able to kill without Dazzling Staff refine + Wrathful Staff passive shenanigans and if I didn't screw up getting her out of there.

The strategy idea came from someone mentioning how useful Fjorm would be for Julius and the thief which didn't happen for me, but whatever. So, I figured since she can reduce damage with Ice Mirror, but not recover it like vanguard Ike can, I'd bring along a healer to top her off for the other enemies. Elincia was the answer for flexible movement and the anti-green units, anti-squishy and/or slow units, and possibly anti-Julius unit if he didn't go towards Fjorm and Olivia was the obligatory refresh unit.

It wasn't that bad and I thought Julius would have been a bit tougher, but I guess WTA and him having low defense and nobody really to buff that didn't help him. The only enemy with a defense buffing skill is the starting healer who has Drive Def 2 and she was the first one to die for me. Also, I just noticed that Julius on infernal difficulty doesn't even have an A passive or an added skill of some kind like a Rally. Except for Julius, I think everyone infernal difficulty GHB has added or, for Xander and Zephiel, changed skills. Were they that afraid he'd be too powerful or something? They could have given him a Atk/Res +2 or a +3 stat boost A passive for the principle of it and I was expecting him to have Close Counter on infernal because why not. Oh well.

Edited May 14, 2018 by Kaden

[mampfoid]

@Alexmender @Poimagic Well, that Smite was only the opener. My favorite is still that Smite from Michalis' GHB. Also Elincia was the WoM beacon here, not Roy. ;-)

@Alexmender Eirika once again on a killing spree. Great timing with her Aether in the end (Brave+Bold armors arrived to GHBs as well). 

What did the AI wrong if you tried to tank everything on turn 1? 

@DLNarshen Usually I tend to admire your Caeda, but this time Narcian is clearly the VIP. The enemy needs to bring more mirrors to the battlefield. 

@SatsumaFSoysoy Can't stop smiting. :-) Perfect choice with Kagero for this map, I didn't know you had her already at +7, looks great! 

@Alkaid My Cordelia won't arrive to +10 anytime soon. I've already decided to give GF to Titania and Caeda, perhaps even to Minerva first. Arena is not everything after all. Good luck pulling for her, too bad 4* banners stopped to exist. 

[JSND Alter Dragon Boner]

39 minutes ago, SatsumaFSoysoy said:

@Zeo @Alexmender I was wondering what you two would do about the Lance Armor particularly.

@Vaximillian @Arcanite @Rezzy I did my own run last night too. My first time using Smite lol @mampfoid 

@JSND Alter Dragon Boner Pinging because Unlimited Blade Works tbh

 

the real surprise is Kagero being really good there tbh(that poison dagger vantages lol). Kinda wanted to build one myself 

[Alexmender]

@SatsumaFSoysoy Really cool use of Vantage Kagero! I don't see her as much anymore but she's still a beast! I also liked the Drag Back Firesweep Peri to let Azura have an easier time dancing her. 

@mampfoid Basically the healer attacked before Julius which debuffed me to the point he would survive with 5-6 Hp and then everything else would spawn putting me in a terrible spot because Eirika would end with very low Hp. I tried stacking as much Atk as possible, changing to a full Drive set with Wo Dao+ and Lancina but then I would get hit by Julius Atk Ploy so I would end where I started. I think Roy can pull it off thanks to his refined Binding Blade but it's not like I would try that myself.

[SatsumaFSoysoy]

8 minutes ago, JSND Alter Dragon Boner said:

the real surprise is Kagero being really good there tbh(that poison dagger vantages lol). Kinda wanted to build one myself 

The only Hero Battle that she wasn't good in in recent memory is the Legendary Lyn one. I've been bringing her to pretty much every one of these. She is pretty great for PvE.

5 minutes ago, Alexmender said:

@SatsumaFSoysoy Really cool use of Vantage Kagero! I don't see her as much anymore but she's still a beast! I also liked the Drag Back Firesweep Peri to let Azura have an easier time dancing her. 

Thanks. I'm so close yet so far from that +10.

[Punished Dayni]

Well, it's time to see if Julius can be easily beaten without a +80 stat boosting weapon.

Hard: Obligatory Naga clear with Julia, Oboro, Lon'qu and Hawkeye. Mostly just a stand and take whoever out. I did make a mistake thinking that Panic staff didn't work if the enemy died, but other than that it worked fine. Julia killed her brother in one round and everything, even when panicked.

Lunatic: This fight was disastrous, mainly because I should have done better. But I did it with Roy, Rebecca, Dorcas and Fjorm. Highlights include Roy 1-shotting and Rebecca 1-rounding Julius (-6 Atk? Get outta here, eh?), Dorcas taking 4 hits from that lance when he was below half health because +Def Dorcas is a beast and somehow doing it without Roy getting to use BoL effectively at all. Those reinforcements on death are still BS and hope those don't become regular elsewhere in the series.

Infernal: If only my Reinhardts had all their skills I might have tried to use them. It won't be right now sadly, will think of something later.

[redlight]

5 hours ago, Etheus said:

To be honest, I am thoroughly unimpressed with Julius as a unit. His stats are pretty standard for his family and his tome is a fairly pointless gimmick that won't generally make a significant difference against both normal and dragon slaying opponents. It might help him tank mages, but there are tomes that do so more elegantly. 

He really should have just been a dragon. At least then, he'd have a unique role as a ranged dragon unit. 

At least he can tank a fully invested Reinhardt with some SI and minimum support. A red mage doing that without being green is pretty impressive. He has color advantage against Naga and you're probably going to EP with him so dragon effective weapons aren't a big deal. Now if only he were in the summoning pool. The things he could do with that defense boon and CC. His tome is great for EP at both ranges

Dragons can't be ranged unless they introduce a weapons which change your range, but would lock you out of something like CC. Even then, a ranged unit with melee infantry BST is absurd without flier and armor weakness as well as the movement penalty from being an armored unit. His weapon and typing is faithful. That's good enough

Edited May 14, 2018 by silveraura25

[Rezzy]

1 hour ago, SatsumaFSoysoy said:

@Zeo @Alexmender I was wondering what you two would do about the Lance Armor particularly.

@Vaximillian @Arcanite @Rezzy I did my own run last night too. My first time using Smite lol @mampfoid 

@JSND Alter Dragon Boner Pinging because Unlimited Blade Works tbh

 

Cool, I still need to try try it myself.  I'll try with my primary Horse Team, but might have to revert to Reinhardt+Bridelia again.

[SatsumaFSoysoy]

20 minutes ago, Rezzy said:

Cool, I still need to try try it myself.  I'll try with my primary Horse Team, but might have to revert to Reinhardt+Bridelia again.

Don't give in to evil!

[Rezzy]

4 minutes ago, SatsumaFSoysoy said:

Don't give in to evil!

I managed to beat Infernal with my primary team of Titania, Rachel, Xander, and Elise on the first try, so no cheese this time.

[SatsumaFSoysoy]

3 minutes ago, Rezzy said:

I managed to beat Infernal with my primary team of Titania, Rachel, Xander, and Elise on the first try, so no cheese this time.

All is well with the world.

[Diovani Bressan]

 

This is how I did Infernal.

Spoiler

Sorry for the bad quality, this is the first time I recorded and posted a video. ?

 

Edited May 14, 2018 by Diovani Bressan

[DarkLordIvy]

Here I come crawling out from under my rock to get beat up by a skinny kid possessed by dragon Satan.
He couldn't keep me down forever though! Just half the day.

There is a non-chipmunk version on my tumblr for anyone who hates the sped up audio (I don't blame you)
And uh, this is what my photos looked like while I was fighting with this. I started recording all my attempts so I'd be able to keep a record for when if finally worked.

Spoiler

 

[bottlegnomes]

2 hours ago, silveraura25 said:

At least he can tank a fully invested Reinhardt with some SI and minimum support. A red mage doing that without being green is pretty impressive. He has color advantage against Naga and you're probably going to EP with him so dragon effective weapons aren't a big deal. Now if only he were in the summoning pool. The things he could do with that defense boon and CC. His tome is great for EP at both ranges

Dragons can't be ranged unless they introduce a weapons which change your range, but would lock you out of something like CC. Even then, a ranged unit with melee infantry BST is absurd without flier and armor weakness as well as the movement penalty from being an armored unit. His weapon and typing is faithful. That's good enough

Not to mention both of the stats that need help, speed and def, would be super boons.

Map was fun even if I cheesed it, and Julius won't be S+, but once he got his tome, he was fairly decent in the TT going against enemies at higher levels that he is. Gave him iceberg, but really considering glacies. His speed is low enough most mages will be doubling him, but his res being almost astronomical means that he can probably take the hits. He's also pretty strong, but I'm not sure he's strong enough to OHKO most mages. With QR, that gives you bait a mage, double and hopefully kill them, and provided they doubled end up with a fully charged glacies. Next turn bomb someone for like 80 damage.

I wonder if guard is worth keeping on him to prevent specials or if he should go QR B and take the DS seal.

Edited May 14, 2018 by bottlegnomes

[DLNarshen]

@mampfoid He certainly pulled his weight this time around, that's for sure.  I laughed when I saw Bartre at the beginning of your clear, knowing exactly what was going to happen. x)  Anyone could have done it, but Bartre does it in style. 

[Thor Odinson]

I did it with my usual squad too but that was like place ryoma to win as usual, so I got a theme team clear. Granted, Seliph didn't really do much combat, but I had no good IV Seliphs so I didn't want to 5* him just yet. Drive atk and draw back is pretty useful though. Leadership stars!

Please appreciate Rein's skills for this. I gave him a super extra set for payback for sending him to die in chapter 22.

Edited May 15, 2018 by Thor Odinson

[LordFrigid]

So I haven't been keeping up on the Caeda clears, but this one wasn't too bad to figure out. Arvis even got in a thematically appropriate appearance.

Spoiler

 

 

[Fire Emblem Fan]

As always, I freaking hate stupid Infernal. Whoever thought this difficulty was a good idea needs to be fired immediately.

[SatsumaFSoysoy]

7 minutes ago, Fire Emblem Fan said:

As always, I freaking hate stupid Infernal. Whoever thought this difficulty was a good idea needs to be fired immediately.

Do you have a Reinhardt?

[Kaden]

31 minutes ago, Fire Emblem Fan said:

As always, I freaking hate stupid Infernal. Whoever thought this difficulty was a good idea needs to be fired immediately.

Do you still have any of the freebie units? Namely, 5* Arvis, 4* Barst, 5* Fjorm, 5* vanguard Ike, 4* Kaze, 4* Olivia, and chose or have a neutral 5* BH Lyn? Because they're who Pheonixmaster1 used for his three freebie infernal strategies: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rsd5yOuHwQg.

First strategy uses 5* Fjorm (neutral) with a Quick Riposte 1 seal, 5* vanguard Ike (neutral) with an Attack +1 seal, 4* Kaze with a Breath of Life 1 seal, and 4* Olivia (neutral) with a Hone Spd 1 seal, second strategy uses 5* Arvis with an Attack +1 seal, 4* Barst (neutral), 5* Fjorm (neutral) with a QR1 seal, and 4* Olivia (neutral), and the third strategy uses 5* Fjorm (neutral) with a QR1 seal, 5* vanguard Ike (neutral), 5* BH Lyn (neutral), and 4* Olivia (neutral).

Brotel used 4* Arvis, 4* Donnel (neutral) with a Spur Atk 1 seal, 5* Fjorm (neutral) with a QR1 seal, and 4* Olivia (neutral) a HP +3 seal: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gXKSlCSW81A.

sukwindallinrush used 4* Arvis with a Spur Atk 1 seal, 5* Fjorm (neutral) with a QR1 seal, 4* Lissa (neutral) with Gravity and Imbue equipped, and 4* Olivia (neutral): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=91RGnicBLUQ.

Ventus used 4* Cecilia (neutral), 4* Donnel (neutral), 5* vanguard Ike (neutral) without Def Tactic equipped, and 4* Olivia (neutral): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8rQGHFWkDi0. Yeah, no seals used for this one.

Edited May 15, 2018 by Kaden

[Lewyn]

My dragon team (Ninian+1, Nowi, Myrrh, Y Tiki+2) after several attempts was able to clear Infernal.  

6 hours ago, bottlegnomes said:

Not to mention both of the stats that need help, speed and def, would be super boons.

Map was fun even if I cheesed it, and Julius won't be S+, but once he got his tome, he was fairly decent in the TT going against enemies at higher levels that he is. Gave him iceberg, but really considering glacies. His speed is low enough most mages will be doubling him, but his res being almost astronomical means that he can probably take the hits. He's also pretty strong, but I'm not sure he's strong enough to OHKO most mages. With QR, that gives you bait a mage, double and hopefully kill them, and provided they doubled end up with a fully charged glacies. Next turn bomb someone for like 80 damage.

I wonder if guard is worth keeping on him to prevent specials or if he should go QR B and take the DS seal.

With Iceberg he gets to proc it everytime he is attacked and doubled if he has QR.  This should allow him to KO many mages.  I'm having trouble how to build him besides that.  Mirror stance seems pretty attractive A option if one has it (I don't) to boost his attack higher as well as res.  I don't know if he can really survive many physical hits considering how most stuff can double him, so I don't know how useful the +6 defense of DD3 is.  If you put a lot of work like double DD3, tactics team for another +6 def then maybe he can tank physical hits somewhat but almost all ranged physical attackers are fast or run brave bow and usually have low cooldown specials.  

Triangle adept can be used and then axe breaker so he can take on all greens.  Another B skill option (A skill not important for this) is swordbreaker.  Then he can take on green tome users and sword users.  

I'm always thinking teams.  However first think pairs.  Ishtar and Julius.  The other two I'm thinking maybe Fae with Infantry pulse 3.  With that Ishtar starts with Moonbow charged, for Julius it allows him to proc Iceberg even if he isn't doubled first encounter.  The other unit I'm thinking is Lene, and she is -atk/+spd so pulse will help her alot, can put TA3 and have Luna as her special that should be enough that she can actually kill some things (green things) if needed.  Ishtar really wants a dancer as well.  

 

[mampfoid]

2 hours ago, LordFrigid said:

So I haven't been keeping up on the Caeda clears, but this one wasn't too bad to figure out. Arvis even got in a thematically appropriate appearance.

  Hide contents

 

 

And accidentally she did your second one turn clear of this map, nice! 

[bottlegnomes]

14 minutes ago, Lewyn said:

My dragon team (Ninian+1, Nowi, Myrrh, Y Tiki+2) after several attempts was able to clear Infernal.  

With Iceberg he gets to proc it everytime he is attacked and doubled if he has QR.  This should allow him to KO many mages.  I'm having trouble how to build him besides that.  Mirror stance seems pretty attractive A option if one has it (I don't) to boost his attack higher as well as res.  I don't know if he can really survive many physical hits considering how most stuff can double him, so I don't know how useful the +6 defense of DD3 is.  If you put a lot of work like double DD3, tactics team for another +6 def then maybe he can tank physical hits somewhat but almost all ranged physical attackers are fast or run brave bow and usually have low cooldown specials.  

Triangle adept can be used and then axe breaker so he can take on all greens.  Another B skill option (A skill not important for this) is swordbreaker.  Then he can take on green tome users and sword users.  

I'm always thinking teams.  However first think pairs.  Ishtar and Julius.  The other two I'm thinking maybe Fae with Infantry pulse 3.  With that Ishtar starts with Moonbow charged, for Julius it allows him to proc Iceberg even if he isn't doubled first encounter.  The other unit I'm thinking is Lene, and she is -atk/+spd so pulse will help her alot, can put TA3 and have Luna as her special that should be enough that she can actually kill some things (green things) if needed.  Ishtar really wants a dancer as well.  

My thinking with glacies is that he might be able to ORKO mages with a QR double regardless of special procs, though I have to actually check that to see if it's true. That would give him a fully charged glacies if they double, which he's free to use on whomever the next turn, meaning he can take care of two enemies. Iceberg would let him do that if he doesn't get doubled, or in a single round, and I'm not necessarily sure if the extra damage from glacies is worth it or if he really can 2HKO most mages. Then again, moonbow is always an option since it's guaranteed to proc.

Mirror stance sounds like a good option, but is unfortunately rare. Having given him fury just to use some SP, I can't say I'm especially fond of the kickback, so I'd like to switch it out with something. Plus it's not like he needs the res boost for ploying. Then again, I was also solo-training in the TT so he'd probably never be trying to take on 4-5 units himself realistically.

Well, shit, did some checking, and even against +10 enemies, +3 to all stats, and fury, with fully charged glacies, attack +3 seal, and fury he gets 205 kills. Iceberg for comparison gets him 79. If you can manage to charge it, that's pretty impressive, though I imagine that might be a bitch to pull off.

Edited May 15, 2018 by bottlegnomes

[Lewyn]

37 minutes ago, bottlegnomes said:

My thinking with glacies is that he might be able to ORKO mages with a QR double regardless of special procs, though I have to actually check that to see if it's true. That would give him a fully charged glacies if they double, which he's free to use on whomever the next turn, meaning he can take care of two enemies. Iceberg would let him do that if he doesn't get doubled, or in a single round, and I'm not necessarily sure if the extra damage from glacies is worth it or if he really can 2HKO most mages. Then again, moonbow is always an option since it's guaranteed to proc.

Mirror stance sounds like a good option, but is unfortunately rare. Having given him fury just to use some SP, I can't say I'm especially fond of the kickback, so I'd like to switch it out with something. Plus it's not like he needs the res boost for ploying. Then again, I was also solo-training in the TT so he'd probably never be trying to take on 4-5 units himself realistically.

Well, shit, did some checking, and even against +10 enemies, +3 to all stats, and fury, with fully charged glacies, attack +3 seal, and fury he gets 205 kills. Iceberg for comparison gets him 79. If you can manage to charge it, that's pretty impressive, though I imagine that might be a bitch to pull off.

I think there are quite a few red mages he won't be able to ORKO with QR double unless he has Iceberg or some other special proc, maybe even some really high res green mages.  The few really slow mages that see play, I guess he can proc Iceberg next encounter.  Moonbow has the guarantee but I don't know how much damage it will add, iceberg adds a ton.  Just without any skills it is 19 extra damage and that can go into the 20s with distant defense and other res boosting skills or buffs.  

Mirror stance is rare, but so is DD3.  I was lucky to pull 2 Celicas awhile back on that Fallen voting gauntlet banner, however one of the Celica was foddered to H! Jakob for it and I am keeping the other.  Rajat and Miciah are 5 star locked also, and PA Olivia is seasonal. I guess that is more than Mirror stance which is right now on only one unit, but yeah none of those are easy fodder to acquire.  Fury I don't like cause you want him to keep in QR range and his HP is already kind of low. 

If you run infantry pulse you can get Glacies able to proc if he is doubled on first encounter.