Grand Hero Battle of Destiny: Linus, the Mad Dog

[SatsumaFSoysoy]

5 hours ago, Fei Mao said:

@SatsumaFSoysoy I'm liking the tags lol, a Getter reference right?

Yup! I'm glad someone got it...

[Fei Mao]

18 hours ago, SatsumaFSoysoy said:

Yup! I'm glad someone got it...

(b^_^)b

Not a lot of mecha/SRW fans here it seems.

It would be neat though if Linus is voiced by Hideo Ishikawa (Ryoma) or Tomozaku Seki (Go) though probably unlikely.

 

[hinode]

Personally I would've made Getter references on the Ryoma LHB thread instead, because, well.

[SatsumaFSoysoy]

4 hours ago, Fei Mao said:

(b^_^)b

Not a lot of mecha/SRW fans here it seems.

It would be neat though if Linus is voiced by Hideo Ishikawa (Ryoma) or Tomozaku Seki (Go) though probably unlikely.

 

A bit too niche...

Yeah, neither seem like candidates for Linus unfortunately.

@hinode Well, there are a lot of Ryomas in anime and such, and there was no direct connection to be made.

Edited June 7, 2018 by SatsumaFSoysoy

[Alkaid]

Maybe Canas will turn out better than Lloyd did. Charlotte was certainly good, but maybe the artist is just better at female characters.

If he's Lloyd-tier he's going to be fodder for sure, though. I can barely look at Lloyd long enough to give my other units Iceberg.

[Titamon]

My body is so ready for Linus. The 4 four fangs need to be completed.

[Tenzen12]

So Linus is 42/37/33/32/19 and comes with, Basiliskos, Luna, Brazen ATK/SPD and Drive Defense

Putting aside merges he looks lot of better then Raven to me.

 

 

[mampfoid]

20 minutes ago, Tenzen12 said:

So Linus is 42/37/33/32/19 and comes with, Basiliskos, Luna, Brazen ATK/SPD and Drive Defense

Putting aside merges he looks lot of better then Raven to me.

Well, even with -5 BST, Raven is much faster. Linus is like a +ATK/+DEF/+DEF/-SPD/-RES Raven. 

[Zelgius]

Linus seems really cool, I'll probably build him for regular use.

[Tenzen12]

9 minutes ago, mampfoid said:

Well, even with -5 BST, Raven is much faster. Linus is like a +ATK/+DEF/+DEF/-SPD/-RES Raven. 

2 points is not much faster, especially if your regular Raven has only Fury in A skill.

[mampfoid]

9 minutes ago, Tenzen12 said:

2 points is not much faster, especially if your regular Raven has only Fury in A skill.

Ok, I compared Linus with my +SPD Raven (5 SPD difference). I just need a justification why of all units I promoted and refined him yesterday. 

[NegativeExponents-]

3 minutes ago, Tenzen12 said:

2 points is not much faster, especially if your regular Raven has only Fury in A skill.

2 points at neutral. It becomes a 5 point difference if Raven is +spd.

Regardless, Raven and Linus aren’t really comparable. There’s too much variance in their stats.

Raven is more comparable to Legion. At neutral Raven has -5hp, -2atk, same speed, +3def, and +4 res compared to Legion.

Linus is comparable to Summer!Tiki. Linus has +7hp, +1atk, +3spd, same def, -5res compared to neutral Tiki.

Overall I like how they handled him. A good spread and one of the few axe users who is fast and bulky.

[Tenzen12]

Yes, I am aware that ₊SPD Raven exist. But if compare two units of course you would use their neutral stats. otherwise you could get some weird comparison results at times.

Anyaway I certainly think that Raven and Linus are much more similiar to each other then to Tikini and to Legion respectivelly. Simply because both them are likelly use refined Basiliskos, which shift their stats heavily enough to not be practically anything like other two.

Edited June 8, 2018 by Tenzen12

[mampfoid]

1 minute ago, Tenzen12 said:

But if compare two units of course you would use their neutral stats.

If a unit is available at 3* and 4* rarity (4* since launch), why would you not use a preferable boon (like +SPD or +ATK for Raven)?

[Tenzen12]

Because he has two preferable boons? +ATK Raven has preferable boon as well, yet is not that much faster.

[mampfoid]

11 minutes ago, Tenzen12 said:

Because he has two preferable boons? +ATK Raven has preferable boon as well, yet is not that much faster.

But you would use one of them and not the neutral copy, or not? So why compare with neutral at all? 

[Crux404]

Well, comparing purely statwise, Linus is kinda a +SPD/-DEF Brave Ike:

Stat comparison (Linus vs +SPD/-DEF) Brave Ike):

Spoiler

Linus:                                               Brave Ike (+SPD/-DEF):

HP: 42 (-1)                                       HP: 43

ATK: 37 (+1)                                   ATK: 36

SPD: 33 (+2)                                   SPD: 31

DEF: 32 (0)                                      DEF: 32

RES: 19 (-1)                                     RES: 20

However, instead of getting Urvan (or a Tomahawk) he got a mostly offensive Basilikos. This makes a comparison to the other Basilikos wielder interesting

Stat comparison (Linus vs. neutral Raven)

Spoiler

Linus:                                               Raven (neutral):

HP: 42 (+1)                                    HP: 41

ATK: 37 (+3)                                  ATK: 34

SPD: 33 (-2)                                   SPD: 35

DEF: 32 (+7)                                  DEF: 25

RES: 19 (-3)                                   RES: 22

Linus' offensive spread is IMO worse than Ravens (because the latter can double more reliably, especially with IVs) his offensive spread is no better than Raven's. I think he can run a DEF+ Basilikos and Bonfire (with Infantry Pulse, it will trigger on the first counter), a Mellon Crusher+ Fury combo, or QR Breath/Stance. I would say Linus got a fairly balanced mix, making him versatile ax unit (his Res sucks, but that's nothing new).

[Othin]

• (Dark) Mystletainn: Eldigan, Ares
• Nameless Blade: Fir, Karel
• Audhulma: Joshua
• Vassal's Blade: Karla
• Hauteclere: Minerva, Michalis
• Basilikos: Raven, Linus
• Urvan: Ike
• Berserk Armads: Hector, Valentine's Hector

As of this banner, there are now 6 sword users and 7 axe users with access to one or more legendary weapons with a Killer effect. For half of them, there is no other effect until it's refined.

Not necessarily bad, but it's a bit silly.

(I do think it's kinda weird for Nameless Blade to share both its base effect and its refine with Hauteclere, though. Also Rhomphaia and Wing Sword, for that matter.)

[NegativeExponents-]

1 hour ago, Tenzen12 said:

both them are likelly use refined Basiliskos, which shift their stats heavily enough to not be practically anything like other two.

I agree that both will almost definitely be using a refined Basilikos but you do realize there’s other refine options than just the life and death one right? Just seems weird to hamper one of his strong points in order to do something another unit does better.

[Tenzen12]

1 hour ago, mampfoid said:

But you would use one of them and not the neutral copy, or not? So why compare with neutral at all? 

Because you don't know which and can't use both. Taking all boon and banes in consideration you might say Raven is faster, have higher Atk, higher defense, better resistence and has more HP (well probably even with all boons it's not true, but I just wanted make point).

27 minutes ago, Crux404 said:

Well, comparing purely statwise, Linus is kinda a +SPD/-DEF Brave Ike:

Stat comparison (Linus vs +SPD/-DEF) Brave Ike):

  Reveal hidden contents

Linus:                                               Brave Ike (+SPD/-DEF):

HP: 42 (-1)                                       HP: 43

ATK: 37 (+1)                                   ATK: 36

SPD: 33 (+2)                                   SPD: 31

DEF: 32 (0)                                      DEF: 32

RES: 19 (-1)                                     RES: 20

However, instead of getting Urvan (or a Tomahawk) he got a mostly offensive Basilikos. This makes a comparison to the other Basilikos wielder interesting

Stat comparison (Linus vs. neutral Raven)

  Reveal hidden contents

Linus:                                               Raven (neutral):

HP: 42 (+1)                                    HP: 41

ATK: 37 (+3)                                  ATK: 34

SPD: 33 (-2)                                   SPD: 35

DEF: 32 (+7)                                  DEF: 25

RES: 19 (-3)                                   RES: 22

Linus' offensive spread is IMO worse than Ravens (because the latter can double more reliably, especially with IVs) his offensive spread is no better than Raven's. I think he can run a DEF+ Basilikos and Bonfire (with Infantry Pulse, it will trigger on the first counter), a Mellon Crusher+ Fury combo, or QR Breath/Stance. I would say Linus got a fairly balanced mix, making him versatile ax unit (his Res sucks, but that's nothing new).

I don't see why run Def Basiliskos. I mean sure He would make good pseudo Brave Ike with such build but with his LaD refine and B A/S gives xx/66/46/27/15 on enemy phase without buffs. That's not something just throw away.

 

Edited June 8, 2018 by Tenzen12

[Ice Dragon]

1 hour ago, Tenzen12 said:

Yes, I am aware that ₊SPD Raven exist. But if compare two units of course you would use their neutral stats. otherwise you could get some weird comparison results at times.

As @mampfoid said, there's zero reason to compare with neutral when a more optimal nature exists. You should instead compare with one or more of the optimal options because anyone who has one will be using it instead of a neutral copy.

 

30 minutes ago, Othin said:

As of this banner, there are now 6 sword users and 7 axe users with access to one or more legendary weapons with a Killer effect. For half of them, there is no other effect until it's refined.

Not necessarily bad, but it's a bit silly.

(I do think it's kinda weird for Nameless Blade to share both its base effect and its refine with Hauteclere, though. Also Rhomphaia and Wing Sword, for that matter.)

As of this banner, there are also 7 weapons that are exactly identical to each other where the only differences are their name, weapon type, and battle sprite: Alondite, Gradivus, Leiptr, Ragnell, Raijinto, Siegfried, and Stout Tomahawk.

Of these, 4 of them are exactly identical to each other except for their name and battle sprite.

All three Falchions are identical to each other without their refines except for their battle sprite. All three Falchions have the same effect as Mist Breath when unrefined other than the breath weapon shared passive on Mist Breath.

Aura and Excalibur have the exact same unique refine.

So I don't see a problem with Nameless Blade being the same as Hauteclere or Rhomphaia being the same as Wing Sword.

[Crux404]

1 hour ago, Tenzen12 said:

I don't see why run Def Basiliskos. I mean sure He would make good pseudo Brave Ike with such build but with his LaD refine and B A/S gives xx/66/46/27/15 on enemy phase without buffs. That's not something just throw away.

To make a free pseudo Brave Ike really. I agree that the LaD is the optimal choice, but having other viable options is something to considerer in BHB/GBH, especially for those who do not have/do not want to use B!Ike or just like Linus.

[Tenzen12]

Fair enough.

That said I believe you mentioned breath skills in pseudo Like builds (among others). Idea of free pseudo Ike created by scarifying real deal is quite entertaining xD. Actually does is there anyone else who comes with either of breaths aside of Ike's. I am not sure. 

[bottlegnomes]

1 hour ago, Tenzen12 said:

Fair enough.

That said I believe you mentioned breath skills in pseudo Like builds (among others). Idea of free pseudo Ike created by scarifying real deal is quite entertaining xD. Actually does is there anyone else who comes with either of breaths aside of Ike's. I am not sure. 

Nope, just the two Ikes. I'm waiting for when they add Lord Ike with Darting Breath and Yune bessed Ike with Fiery Breath.

I feel like I'm the only one who's disappointed by Linus, or rather than he just got a port of Basilikos. I mean, yeah, he can take a hit better than Raven, but 59 physical bulk with double L&D is generally enough to take a hit and get into desperation range, so I'm not sure how much Linus's extra physical bulk will really matter. Statwise, he has a good line for being a mixed phase unit, which infantry axe doesn't really have much in the way of, but his weapon definitely tilts him toward PP nuke, which Rave will still beat him in since merges and IVs. I can't imagine there's a lot that 63/43 is 2HKOing that 60/45 isn't, and and Raven can go +speed to double quite a bit more at 60/48, given how ridiculous speed is getting in this game.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying he's bad, rather he's pretty solid, but he just kind of ends up seeming like a free Raven, who isn't exactly super hard to come by.

[Kaden]

7 hours ago, NegativeExponents- said:

Raven is more comparable to Legion. At neutral Raven has -5hp, -2atk, same speed, +3def, and +4 res compared to Legion.

Linus is comparable to Summer!Tiki. Linus has +7hp, +1atk, +3spd, same def, -5res compared to neutral Tiki.

Raven is more closer to Ryoma. Raven has 41 HP, 34 Atk, 35 Spd, 25 Def, and 22 Res (157 BST) to Ryoma's 41 HP, 34 Atk, 35 Spd, 27 Def, and 21 Res (158 BST). So, -2 Def and +1 Res and a difference in their weapons. Legion is more comparable since he's another axe unit.

Linus I'd say is closer to +Atk, -HP Barst. Linus has 42 HP, 37 Atk, 33 Spd, 32 Def, and 19 Res (163 BST) to +Atk, -HP Barst's 43 HP, 36 Atk, 32 Spd, 30 Def, and 17 Res (158 BST). -1 HP, +1 Atk, +1 Spd, +2 Def, and +2 Res. +Atk, -Res Gray: 43 HP, 38 Atk, 32 Spd, 30 Def, and 19 Res (162 BST), and +Spd, -Def BH Ike: 43 HP, 36 Atk, 31 Spd, 32 Def, and 20 Res (162 BST) are comparable too.

Anyway, I know Wrath isn't exactly easy to get, but Linus would like that. Linus and +Atk Raven have the same 37 base attack, but Linus's physical bulk is greater than Raven's. Merged, Raven wins out, but that's an issue with all GHB and TT units, unfortunately. With unique refined Basilikos, Linus has 45 HP, 58 Atk, 38 Spd, 27 Def, and 14 Res. 72 total or 50x2 physical bulk and 59 total or 37x2 magical bulk. He just needs to take 12 damage to drop to Wrath's range and that's not that difficult with 27 defense. When that happens, then he gets +7 Atk/Spd with his default Brazen Atk/Spd, 65 Atk/45 Spd, and +10 damage whenever he triggers a special. Give him Glimmer or Moonbow and after one round of combat where he takes at least 12 damage, he'll have it charged every turn. Linus isn't as fast as Raven much less +Spd Raven who'd be able to pull off a L&D6 or L&D3 + Fury 3 or Brazen Atk/Spd build better, so the speed part of Brazen Atk/Spd might not matter as much for him compared to the attack part. Swapping in Brazen Atk/Def would maximize his attack while also giving him 34 defense as a back-up in case he still needs to take a hit. In some miracle where he takes exactly 12 damage, he'd have 33 HP and 34 defense after that. His remaining physical bulk would be 67 total or 51x2 instead of 60 total or 44x2.

Desperation, Brash Assault is always an option. He hits hard, he has Brazen Atk/Spd as a default skill and it would synergize well with Desperation and Brash Assault, and Desperation and Brash Assault lets him double anyone that can counter back.

4 minutes ago, bottlegnomes said:

Statwise, he has a good line for being a mixed phase unit, which infantry axe doesn't really have much in the way of

I'd say they do and they're okay, but axes in general get screwed out of new units being introduced who aren't limited in some way like seasonals or TT units and who have a chance of being demoted like hell Dorcas was ever getting demoted. There's also the issue of them having less units with crazy stat spreads or weapons. I mean this entirely on quantity like how axe units at the moment can only get an anti-cavalry weapon and a Wo Dao weapon through Gerome and spring Alfonse where one was a one-time TT unit and the other a seasonal unit. They don't have a Firesweep Axe, there is still yet to be a regular axe flier to be introduced, Titania is still the last regular axe cavalier introduced, and Boey was the last green unit demoted. Of the units who have legendary/personal weapons than can be obtained at 4* or lower, it's only Anna (Noatun), Camilla (Camilla's Axe), Linus and Raven (Basilikos), and Michalis (Hauteclere). On "quality", however, axes and greens in general have good units and weapons. It's just in terms of regular summoning, greens, especially axes, are stagnant.

Barst (46/33/32/30/19), spring Chrom (43/35/32/28/20), BH Ike (43/36/28/35/20) who might want to be +Spd in this case, Linus (42/37/33/32/19), summer adult Tiki (35/36/30/32/24), summer Xander (43/32/30/36/16) can function well as mixed phase units. Four of them are 5* units of which three of them are seasonal units and one's a GHB. For some, Barst is outclassed in general since other units do player phase, offense better like Anna (41/29/38/22/28), Bartre (49/36/25/33/13), Legion (46/36/35/22/18), Raven (42/34/35/25/22), and summer adult Tiki or enemy phase, defense better like Bartre, Dorcas (45/35/23/35/24), Hawkeye (45/33/22/28/30), BH Ike, and summer Xander. They either have higher offenses or defenses than him. Arthur (43/32/29/30/24) is slower than Barst and is essentially an infantry Narcian, but if you go +Res, -HP on him where +Res is a superboon on him, then you get a decent mixed tank with 40 HP, 30 Def, and 28 Res. Arthur and Hawkeye would definitely appreciate an axe version of Berkut's Lance or Safeguard. Anyway, there's also the issue of spring Chrom and Linus who are basically Barst, but with better offenses for less HP and 2 less defense in spring Chrom's case.

Edited June 8, 2018 by Kaden