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Quan, Luminous Lancer [WIP]


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Overview

Rarities: 5*

Weapon Type: Blue Lance

Movement Type: Cavalry

Origin: Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War

Finally reuniting with his long-time friends, Sigurd and Eldigan, from his academy days, Quan joins the fray with the Gáe Bolg in hand, the divine lance of his crusader lineage.

Taking much inspiration from his original appearance in 1996, the Prince of Leonster makes his Heroes debut as a bulky, defensive lance cavalry unit that also boasts one of the highest Atk stats in his class. His Prf weapon, Gáe Bolg, comes with a simple effect of granting him bonuses of +5 Atk and +5 Def when in combat against non-flier units. With an +ATK nature, along with +5 Atk from Gáe Bolg's passive, Quan's Atk stat exceeds 60 before merges and buffs and can potentially surpass 70, depending on his skill set. His Def stat is also worth mentioning as, while already solid at base 31, it can easily be raised beyond 40 when factoring in the +5 bonus Def from Gáe Bolg, coupled with a +Def nature as well as Def boosting passives, such as his default A skill, Steady Posture.  

Aside from these strengths, Quan also comes with flaws of his own. His greatest weakness is, by far, his cripplingly low Res stat, making him extremely susceptible to both mages and dragons; this makes Res his most desirable dump stat, despite it being a superbane. Another trait that negatively impacts his overall performance is his very awkward Spd stat, being middling at best. Unlike his Res, however, improving his Spd can be a worthwhile investment as increasing it further may allow him to score more doubles on foes with middling speed as well as helping him to avoid being doubled by ones that are faster; a strong field buff to speed paired together with a +Spd nature and Spd boosting passives, for instance, pushes his Spd well past 40, which is sufficient to even grant him some player phase utility. For this reason, I do not consider Spd to be a good dump stat for Quan.

To make the most out of Quan's stat line, namely his absurdly high Atk and impressive physical bulk, choose passives that will help to further capitalize on those strengths. He should aim to be able to sustain damage while inflicting as much damage as possible. Due to his mediocre Spd, you will definitely want Quick Riposte to ensure follow-ups during enemy phase. From there, you can start building him in a way that is tailored to your gameplay preferences. 

LV. 40 Stats

HP: 41 / 44 / 47
Atk: 34 / 37 / 40
Spd: 26 / 29 / 32
Def: 28 / 31 / 34
Res: 12 / 16 / 19

Standard Skills (when fully learned)

Weapon: Gáe Bolg

Assist: Rally Spd/Def+ 

Special: Draconic Aura

Passive A: Steady Posture 2

Passive B: N/A

Passive C: Drive Atk 2

Sample Builds

Wall of Leonster (enemy phase)

Spoiler

Recommended IVs: +Def, +HP / -Res

Weapon: Gáe Bolg / Slaying Lance+ (+Def) / Reprisal Lance+ (+Def)

Assist:  Rally Spd/Def+ / Reposition / Flexible

Special: Bonfire

Passive A: Earth Boost 3 / Close Def 3 / Steady Stance 3

Passive B: Quick Riposte 3 / Guard 3

Passive C: Atk Smoke 3 / Threaten Atk 3 / Odd Def Wave 3

Sacred Seal: Close Def 3 / Quick Riposte 3 / Defense +3

Description: 

Pride of Njörun (dual phase support)

Spoiler

Recommended IVs: +Atk, +Def, +Spd / -HP, -Res

Weapon: Gáe Bolg

Assist:  Swap / Reposition / Flexible

Special: Draconic Aura / Bonfire / Luna

Passive A: Brazen Atk/Def 3 / Brazen Atk/Spd 3 / Atk/Def Bond 3

Passive B: Atk/Def Link 3 / Lancebreaker 3 / Brash Assault 3

Passive C: Res Tactic 3 / Drive Atk 2 / Flexible

Sacred Seal: Quick Riposte 3 / Brash Assault 3 / Drive Spd 2

Description:

March of the Lanzenritter (cavalry-centric)

Spoiler

Recommended IVs: +Atk, +Def, +Spd / -HP, -Res

Weapon: Gáe Bolg

Assist:  Rally Spd/Def+ / Reposition / Flexible

Special: Bonfire / Ignis / Aether

Passive A: Close Def 3 / Sturdy Stance 2 / Atk/Def Bond 3

Passive B: Quick Riposte 3 / Lancebreaker 3 / Flexible

Passive C: Hone Cavalry / Flexible

Sacred Seal: Heavy Blade 3 / Close Def 3 / Atk/Def +2

Description:

Quan, Brave Lancer (Brave Lance offensive)

Spoiler

Recommended IVs: +Atk / -Spd

Weapon: Brave Lance+

Assist:  Rally Spd/Def+ / Reposition / Flexible

Special: Draconic Aura / Luna / Moonbow

Passive A: Death Blow 4 

Passive B: Lancebreaker 3 / Brash Assault 3 / Chill Def 3

Passive C: Def Smoke 3 / Threaten Def 3 / Odd Atk Wave 3

Sacred Seal: Attack +3 / Heavy Blade 3

Description:

Conclusion

With how saturated the blue lance cavalry pool is becoming, especially with other defensive lance cavalry units that make up this group, such as Legendary Ephraim as well as the recent addition of Silas, it can be difficult for Quan to carve out a niche of his own. To make matters worse, pitting him against any flier unit diminishes Gáe Bolg's usefulness, reducing it into what is essentially a pre-refined Silver Lance+ with 16 Mt.

Still, that does not mean Quan is entirely out of options as his solid stat distribution allows for a variety of different builds. For one, he could opt for a Slaying Lance and experiment with builds that revolve around abusing the cooldown trigger to quickly proc powerful Specials. Another alternative is to utilize a Brave Lance build that focuses solely on his high attack stat. 

Fun Facts

  • Quan's default A skill, Steady Posture, creates a recurring theme with two other Fire Emblem Heroes characters belonging to Leonster royalty, Ethlyn and Leif, whose default A skills also grant bonuses to the Spd and Def stats.
  • Quan's voice actor in Fire Emblem Heroes, Chris Hackney, also provided voice work for Boey; both characters also share the same artist, Aoji.

Revision History

Spoiler

Oct. 3, 2018: Analysis created with first four builds. 
Oct. 5, 2018: Wall of Leonster build updated with the +Def variants of Slaying Lance+ and Reprisal Lance+ added.

 

Edited by Zhu Qiao
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For the EP set, did you try out Slaying Lance with a def refine? He can proc QR bonfire without having to get doubled, and it ups his total bulk thanks to the +5 HP. It lowers his attack by 7 effectively, but my thinking is, bonfire makes up for that, and 51 attack pre-skills is pretty solid anyway.

Reprisal Lance is another good candidate. You can't get the specials, and it gets rid of the PP aspect, but it gives him better overall buffs: +5 HP, +6 str, +4 def against everyone vs +5 str/def vs non-fliers.

Also, actually Wo Gun so he can run moonbow instead.

Mixed phase I'm iffier on, but he might be able to get something out of a refinable weapon there too. With a speed boon and a speed refine he hits 51/35/31 which is decentish. That's not to far off from Libra, who I think can run mixed phase builds fairly well.

I'm a big fan of Quan as a character, but I just feel like Gae Bolg doesn't do him any favors with his somewhat unimpressive statline. He's not too far off from Ares actually, but Ares has a fantastic weapon that he really benefits from. Quan just feels like Gae Bolg doesn't stand out from the  inheritable lances. He's in a similar boat to Shiro, but Shiro had a gen 1 weapon, IIRC.

Edited by bottlegnomes
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@bottlegnomes

Gae Bolg is simple but much underrated.  +5 atk/+5 def is huge.  Attack is a much more valuable stat than HP, def, res.  You only get 2 attack if you do an attack refine.  

Reprisal+ Lance is 14 might so it still is one less strength vs Gae Bolg.  So one less attack, one less defense for 5 more HP.  Plus you only get the attack on enemy phase which is very limiting for a cavalry unit.  Much worse.  Cavalry and Fliers definitely want to take advantage of their mobility.  

Wo Gun is an axe so I don't understand, did you mean Harmonic lance?  I think Quan with his high defense really wants Bonfire rather than moonbow.  I think the loss on attack as well as weaker special though quicker makes for a weaker option.  

Also Shiro's weapon is much much worse.  It is +4def/+4 attack only on enemy phase.  Gae Bolg is +5 atk/+5 def with no requirement, you can be attacking or defending.  This is infinitely better.  The only bad thing about Gae Bolg is how it is just a 16MT lance against fliers.  It is a nice flavor touch obviously but hurts nonetheless.  

Slaying lance as in all slaying weapons is near always a powerful option cause of how absurdly powerful accelerating specials are in this game.  It would be nice if Gae Bolg got the slaying effect to make up for inefficiency towards fliers but don't know if that would be too powerful. 

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@Lewyn I did mean Harmonic Lance.

So the thing for any of those is, I'm talking the purely EP set here. Even losing out on that 7 attack, Quan is dealing a sum total of 51 + 68 damage across 2 hits with Bonfire, pre buffs. Anything that can survive that, Quan shouldn't be baiting in the first place. For reference, that works out to a combo of 40 HP and 39 def, ignoring WTA/D.

Regarding moonbow, to match the 20 damage a bonfire + stance + Gae Bolg gives him, the enemy needs 34 defense, which is a bit higher than I was thinking initially, but doesn't change things that much. Anything under that, Quan is probably killing anyway, seeing as he's doing 54 damage to a 34 def enemy with a QR moonbow proc. Above 36 def, moonbow actually helps more than bonfire.

The Reprisal Lance, I was blanking a little on, so true, it is basically an even swap.

The reason I actually bring up the HP is because it actually matters for him. His def is pretty middling, and his other stats aren't helping. His only real standout stat is strength, meaning he can skimp there a little to improve his bulk and still deal damage effectively. It also doesn't help matters that two of his options indirectly help his bulk by making it so he doesn't need to get doubled to activate a fairly powerful special with QR or let him run vantage + QR and setup an even more powerful special for next round.

For comparison, Quan with Gae Bolg is actually quite similar to Catria with a def refine in terms of concrete durability. Catria has 44/45/34/33/25 to Quan's 44/58/29/36/16. The differences are that Catria has the speed to avoid quite a few more doubles and that Quan hits about 10 times harder. And Catria while potentially solidly durable, isn't know for her ability to be a stellar EP tank, unlike Lukas, Oboro, or Silas.

I don't think Gae Bolg is a terrible weapon, but the alternatives have a fairly strong case, so I think they should at least be considered.

Even PP, while I'm on the subject of sagging off Gae Bolg, feels a bit iffy. With a brave lance and DB3, he's hitting 51 twice versus Gae Bolg's 64 once. You can go for a OHKO build, but that doesn't really seem much if at all more reliable and is potentially a lot of investment, capping out at 72 damage.

On a quick side note, I feel like Catria would actually get a lot more mileage out of Gae Bolg than Quan, since its major selling point is the +5 attack, basically giving it DB 2.5 + Fierce Stance 2.5, and she's a unit whose attack stat could use some help.

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@bottlegnomes

I'll remember to note Reprisal Lance and the Def-refined Slaying Lance for said build. Thanks for the suggestions. 

And I agree that his stat distribution closely resembles that of Ares', given their min-maxed Atk and Res as well as having solid Def and awkward Spd. I also think Gáe Bolg could be better with a stronger passive; its current state may not be meta-defining nor does it break new ground for lance cavalry, but the bonuses it gives versus non-fliers, with three of the four movement types triggering its effect, still makes it at least decent. Maybe one day we'll see it refined to give it another passive on top of the one it already has, or even a different variant of Gáe Bolg (i.e. Dark Mystletainn).

I made a post in the Weapon Refinery Speculation topic recently regarding Gáe Bolg's possible refinements and mentioned that I was hoping its refined version gives it something that helps reduce the amount of turns needed to proc a Special, such as a Heavy Blade-esque effect, except that it uses the Def stat for comparison.

Like you, I adore Quan's character very much, and I was more than willing to invest time and resources into him. I didn't even care whether or not he is relevant in the current meta. Here is the build I currently use on him. The build may look somewhat unusual, but the intent here is versatility. 

Spoiler

From the beginning, I have decided on him being a physical wall as his primary function, hence why I chose the nature +Def/-HP. I also had access to a +Atk/-HP nature while I was building him, but I ultimately settled with the former due to him already hitting hard enough at neutral 37 Atk, and that opting to further raise Def instead would allow for a more balanced stat spread.

For skills, although there are good options for inheritable lances, I did not hesitate with Gáe Bolg since, for me, that is what makes Quan... well ... Quan. I mentioned earlier that wanted to create a Quan that is versatile. By that, I didn't want him to be a purely enemy-phase unit, but rather I would prefer for him to be functional in both phases. In order to achieve this, I gave him Brazen Atk/Spd for his A slot; he would not be able to double without Quick Riposte once his HP drops below its activation threshold, but at Brazen range, especially with the help of a field buff to spd, he could have enough spd to continue doubling, even on player phase. Ideally, I would like to give him Brazen Spd/Def for his A slot, once it gets released, to allow him to better fulfill his given niche of being a physical wall. 

To further add to his versatility, I wanted him to have some form of team support, so I gave him Atk/Def Link for his B slot. It will allow him to provide buffs to allies, while also buffing his two strongest stats. Swap was chosen as his Assist skill for more effective linking, especially in maps with impassable terrain and areas cluttered with units. My ideal Link skill to give Quan in the future is Atk/Spd as this will enable him to buff his own spd without the help of buffs from allies; he also would not have to wait until he enters Brazen range to gain Spd. Additionally, it will make having Odd Def Wave in his C slot less redundant. 

Tt0A05Z.png

 

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I run a Brazen ATK/SPD Quan myself. Pretty fun once he's in Brazen range especially if he's +SPD. I gave him a +3 SPD seal and once he's in range, that's 42 SPD without Cavalry buffs.

For spoilers; my Quan is +SPD/-DEF so that means I'm going all-out offensive.

Edited by Frosty
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