Ninian, Bright-Eyed Bride

[XRay]

Ninian, Bright-Eyed Bride

Basically blue tome version of Olivia, but flying and much more physically squishy.

Dancers/Singers are the ultimate support units in my opinion. They can give buffs with their C slot and Sacred Seal slot; counter any color their team has trouble with (besides PA!Olivia since she is colorless); and most importantly, Dance and Sing their teammates to massacre the rest of the enemy team, to retreat, or to undo a minor mistake.

As support units, a bad nature will not impact Dancers/Singers as negatively as it will affect combat units since their primary job is to Assist their allies rather than fight. Unless a specific nature is absolutely needed to counter a specific threat, natures are not too important.

 

Level 40 stats:
HP: 31/34/38
Atk: 24/28/31
Spd: 30/33/36
Def: 15/18/21
Res: 23/27/30
Total: 139~141

Default skills:
Weapon: Fresh Bouquet+
Assist: Dance
Special: [none]
Passive A: [none]
Passive B: Chill Atk 3
Passive C: Drive Spd 2

Fresh Bouquet:
Arena

Spoiler

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

Fresh Bouquet+ [Speed] / Fresh Bouquet+ [Res]
Dance
Moonbow / Miracle
Triangle Adept / Mirror Stance 3 / Warding Stance 3 / Distant Def 3 / [flexible A slot]
Blaze Dance 3 / Earth Dance 3 / Torrent Dance 3 / Geyser Dance 2 / Wings of Mercy 3 / Flier Formation 3 / Acrobatics 3
Fortify Flier / Hone Atk 3 / Fortify Def 3 / Fortify Res 3 / Atk Tactic 3 / Def Tactic 3 / Res Tactic 3 / Guidance 3
Hone Atk 3 / Fortify Def 3 / Fortify Res 3 / Def Tactic 3 / Res Tactic 3 / Earth Dance 3 / Flier Formation 3 / Guidance 3

Dancer and super buffer combined! On wings too!

Wings of Mercy 3/Flier Formation 3/Acrobatics 3: If you do not need as much stats, these give her even more mobility.

Blárserpent:
Arena Assault

Spoiler

Nature: [+Atk/Res, -Def]

Blárserpent+ [Res]
Dance
Moonbow / Glimmer
Triangle Adept 3 / Mirror Stance 3 / Warding Stance 3 / Distant Def 3
Quick Riposte 3 / R Tomebreaker 3 / Guard 3
[flexible passive C]
Distant Def 3 / Quick Riposte 3

This is a more combat oriented build.

Glimmer — Triangle Adept 3 — R Tomebreaker 3: This is tailored for Arena Assault.

Mirror Stance 3/Warding Stance 3/Distant Def 3: This lets her deal with blue mages better. Mirror Stance is best in my opinion as it has a nice balance of Atk and Res. The latter options are there if survival is more of a priority.

Blárblade:
Arena

Spoiler

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

Blárblade+
Dance
Glimmer / Moonbow / [flexible Special]
Life and Death 3 / Swift Sparrow 2 / Fury 3 / Atk/Spd Push 3 / Death Blow / Triangle Adept
Desperation 3 / Renewal 3 / Swordbreaker 3 / Lancebreaker 3 / Wings of Mercy 3 / Escape Route 3 / [flexible passive B]
[flexible passive C]
Speed +3 / Attack +3 / Heavy Blade

Here is your standard Blade build.

Atk/Spd Push 3 — Renewal 3: Atk/Spd Push damages one health, but Renewal will heal her back up every second turn.

+Atk — Triangle Adept 3/Death Blow 3 — Swordbreaker 3 — Attack +3: Triangle Adept and Death Blow more easily ensures kills against reds, and Swordbreaker shuts down Sigurd.

Edited July 12, 2018 by XRay

[Ice Dragon]

Fresh Bouquet:

• Triangle Adept is the most notable skill to slash in for the A slot.
• I prefer Wings of Mercy, Flier Formation, or Acrobatics over a Dance skill in the B slot. While a Dance skill adds additional buffing capability, I feel the added mobility is more beneficial.
• Fortify Fliers should be slashed into the C slot since it allows her to single-handedly run +4/4/6/6 support for fliers with the Hone Atk Sacred Seal equipped.

Blarblade:

• I would personally suggest [+Atk, -Def] (Blarblade+, Death Blow 3 / Triangle Adept 3, Swordbreaker 3), which virtually guarantees her a win against every red unit in the game with enough buffs.
  • Swordbreaker is necessary for Sigurd because Sigurd.

[XRay]

3 hours ago, Ice Dragon said:

Fortify Fliers should be slashed into the C slot since it allows her to single-handedly run +4/4/6/6 support for fliers with the Hone Atk Sacred Seal equipped.

I knew I was missing something. I remember choosing not to put Hone Fliers up there when I looked at the buffs again, but I forgot about Fortify Fliers and I could not figure out why the C slot list felt a bit short.

— — — — — — —

I added everything in.

 

[Ice Dragon]

On a completely random note, I just realized that with Ninian providing +4/4/6/6 for a flier team, that frees the team up to run Goad Fliers on all of the other members.

With Ninian's buffs and both stacks of Goad Fliers, that gives +12/12/6/6. Not only that, but the team is no longer dependent on the incredibly expensive Hone Fliers.

This even works for a Litrblade flier team. With Ninian's buffs and both stacks of Goad Fliers, a Litrblade user has +32/12/6/6. This can be compared to a team with just Hone Fliers and Fortify Fliers, which only gives only +30/6/6/6. While this means your positioning while attacking is a bit more restrictive (not like it's terribly restrictive to begin with due to 2 range), it means your positioning at the end of the turn is less restrictive (the unit that needs to attack next turn just needs to be next to Ninian if you play like me and pick off enemies one per turn).

Furthermore, when comparing Ninian's buffs to just Hone Fliers, Ninian provides +24/4/6/6 to a Litrblade user whereas Hone Fliers provides +18/6/0/0.

Edited July 14, 2018 by Ice Dragon

[DehNutCase]

31 minutes ago, Ice Dragon said:

On a completely random note, I just realized that with Ninian providing +4/4/6/6 for a flier team, that frees the team up to run Goad Fliers on all of the other members.

With Ninian's buffs and both stacks of Goad Fliers, that gives +12/12/6/6. Not only that, but the team is no longer dependent on the incredibly expensive Hone Fliers.

This even works for a Litrblade flier team. With Ninian's buffs and both stacks of Goad Fliers, a Litrblade user has +32/12/6/6. This can be compared to a team with just Hone Fliers and Fortify Fliers, which only gives only +30/6/6/6. While this means your positioning while attacking is a bit more restrictive (not like it's terribly restrictive to begin with due to 2 range), it means your positioning at the end of the turn is less restrictive (the unit that needs to attack next turn just needs to be next to Ninian if you play like me and pick off enemies one per turn).

Furthermore, when comparing Ninian's buffs to just Hone Fliers, Ninian provides +24/4/6/6 to a Litrblade user whereas Hone Fliers provides +18/6/0/0.

The easiest provider of Hone Fliers, Flying Azura, starts with Earth Dance, is the problem. 6/6/0/4 is more or less guaranteed (Fort Res S-seal), and 6/6/5/4 is available on demand. She also has Hagiota for a Def/Res drive. Costing an action-turn to provide def is unfortunate, but you can have someone sacrifice 3 Atk or so and run the Fort Def S-seal.

If we run Combined Arms rather than Flier Emblem, we gain access to S-seal Def and Res Tactics, meaning it's pretty simple to get +6 all stats on the relevant units, and it frees up the dancer's B-slot.

 

Mind, Ninian has a easier time making 2 unit pairs what with her and Spring!Camilla covering all 4 colors---Raven TA Ninian, -blade Camilla with +6/6/5/6 (Earth Dance, Res Tactic)---but that's more because Azura doesn't have a good flying mage partner yet---all the blue and red flying mages are typical offensive fliers. Nothing wrong with offensive -blade fliers, mind, but they don't leverage Azura's full support abilities properly.

[Ice Dragon]

1 hour ago, DehNutCase said:

The easiest provider of Hone Fliers, Flying Azura, starts with Earth Dance, is the problem. 6/6/0/4 is more or less guaranteed (Fort Res S-seal), and 6/6/5/4 is available on demand. She also has Hagiota for a Def/Res drive. Costing an action-turn to provide def is unfortunate, but you can have someone sacrifice 3 Atk or so and run the Fort Def S-seal.

If we run Combined Arms rather than Flier Emblem, we gain access to S-seal Def and Res Tactics, meaning it's pretty simple to get +6 all stats on the relevant units, and it frees up the dancer's B-slot.

 

Mind, Ninian has a easier time making 2 unit pairs what with her and Spring!Camilla covering all 4 colors---Raven TA Ninian, -blade Camilla with +6/6/5/6 (Earth Dance, Res Tactic)---but that's more because Azura doesn't have a good flying mage partner yet---all the blue and red flying mages are typical offensive fliers. Nothing wrong with offensive -blade fliers, mind, but they don't leverage Azura's full support abilities properly.

The problem is that Azura needs to spend her turn to give one unit +6/6/5/4 (and that unit will only have +6/6/0/4 before the Sing) whereas Ninian gives every teammate +4/4/6/6 without spending her turn. This makes Azura less flexible for hit-and-run attacks and sacrifices one of the primary advantages of using a dancer, which is the ability to retreat both the dancer and attacker 2 squares with a single Reposition.

Furthermore, it limits the effectiveness of a mixed-phase team (1-2 player-phase units and 1-2 enemy-phase units) because if you do end up using your Sing on your attacker, your baiter no longer has the ability to run that Def buff.

Finally, all combat reasoning aside, using Earth Dance and Fortify Res prevents Azura from running Wings of Mercy or Flier Formation.

As for having another teammate run the Fortify Def Sacred Seal, that defeats the entire purpose of having one unit able to provide the entire suite of buffs for the team, which is the end-of-turn positioning convenience.

[DehNutCase]

2 minutes ago, Ice Dragon said:

The problem is that Azura needs to spend her turn to give one unit +6/6/5/4 (and that unit will only have +6/6/0/4 before the Sing) whereas Ninian gives every teammate +4/4/6/6 without spending her turn. This makes Azura less flexible for hit-and-run attacks and sacrifices one of the primary advantages of using a dancer, which is the ability to retreat both the dancer and attacker 2 squares with a single Reposition.

Furthermore, it limits the effectiveness of a mixed-phase team (1-2 player-phase units and 1-2 enemy-phase units) because if you do end up using your Sing on your attacker, your baiter no longer has the ability to run that Def buff.

Finally, all combat reasoning aside, using Earth Dance and Fortify Res prevents Azura from running Wings of Mercy or Flier Formation.

As for having another teammate run the Fortify Def Sacred Seal, that defeats the entire purpose of having one unit able to provide the entire suite of buffs for the team, which is the end-of-turn positioning convenience.

Azura is actually 6/6/2/6 for non-blades, and 22/6/2/6 for -blades, because of Hagoita. This is very comparable to Ninian's 4/4/6/6 for non-blades and 24/4/6/6 for -blades.

It's 2 Atk/2 Spd for 4 Def or 2 Spd for 2 Atk, 4 Def.

 

Mind, Hagoita's drive positioning requirements are a bit stricter than Hones or Forts---at least in my opinion---but that's the price you pay for flexibility. You can be slightly worse than Ninian but not pay your action-turn, or you can be slightly better at the cost of your action turn. Kind of 'Charms' in MTG, if a card has multiple options that you get to choose from, then every option has to be below average or else you have a broken card.

Off-topic: If it's a card with multiple options that the opponent gets to choose from, then every effect has to be completely busted or you have a trash card, but that's not Azura's situation. This was why I liked when you linked the Galeforce effect with Firesweep on your dagger proposals, since you don't really get to choose which effect to trigger outside of AI manipulation.

 

Fair enough on the mobility B-slot things, though---that's what I'd probably replace the B-slot with in a combined arms team.

 

The Fort Def S-Seal is meant to give the team's buffs a bit of a higher cap, since it stacks with her Hagoita. I do agree it does cost positioning, though.

[Ice Dragon]

2 minutes ago, DehNutCase said:

Mind, Hagoita's drive positioning requirements are a bit stricter than Hones or Forts---at least in my opinion---but that's the price you pay for flexibility.

The other thing about running a Drive on a dancer is that it's less reliable than the same Drive on another unit on player phase (same reliability on enemy phase, though). Mind, it's not by a big difference, but enough to potentially be frustrating once every now and then.

The dancer is expected to move after your attacker moves (assuming you aren't intending to use Earth Dance to buff), so there's a higher chance that the attacker needs to move outside of the reach of the Drive to attack. This is different from non-dancers, who are allowed to move first to set up their Drive (and Goad and Ward) skills.

Again, it's not a difference that will factor in very often, but it's there.

 

7 minutes ago, DehNutCase said:

Azura is actually 6/6/2/6 for non-blades, and 22/6/2/6 for -blades, because of Hagoita. This is very comparable to Ninian's 4/4/6/6 for non-blades and 24/4/6/6 for -blades.

It's 2 Atk/2 Spd for 4 Def or 2 Spd for 2 Atk, 4 Def.

The other thing that I'm a bit leery of is the fact that the 4 Def difference is actually meaningful for tome fliers not named Camilla because as Distant Counter becomes more common on enemy units, you're easily toeing the line of dying to a counterattack, more so if you're running Life and Death instead of Swift Sparrow due to skill availability.

[DehNutCase]

20 minutes ago, Ice Dragon said:

The other thing that I'm a bit leery of is the fact that the 4 Def difference is actually meaningful for tome fliers not named Camilla because as Distant Counter becomes more common on enemy units, you're easily toeing the line of dying to a counterattack, more so if you're running Life and Death instead of Swift Sparrow due to skill availability.

This one's actually fairly simple---albeit expensive as hell---to fix. We don't have Torrent Dance 3, but we do have Geyser Dance 2 for 4def/4res, meaning if Def is the bigger concern you can run S-seal Fort Def on Azura and kill Shigure for his Geyser Dance.

[Frosty]

I find it sad that I never got Ninian. She could have been interesting in my Flier team as she can play both support and offensive at the same time.