BANRYU

Ahh, y'both right of course. S'cuse my lack of imagination, will adjust accordingly when I get the chance. EDIT: okay so Wrath+Glimmer sounds fantastic but I'm not terrifically sold on the whole DC+Deflect Magic thing since that seems a bit painfully specific to dealing with Reinhardt when, correct me if I'm wrong, aren't there more pressing threats in arena meta nowadays? The Deflect seals in particular don't strike me as terrifically useful in general, outside of this niche and specific uses of it (which I'll grant, CAN be warranted). Maybe that's worth such specialization....?? I'm definitely curious about its performance outside of just Rein....

Raven: Peerless Fighter A fairly unique standout among Axe infantry, Raven is distinctive for his excellent offensive stats and unique access to an extremely powerful weapon & refinement combination, making him perhaps the strongest axe infantry of the lot-- and on top of this, he is rather easy and economical to build, requiring only Divine Dew for his refinement, a handful of skills from units available at 4* or below, and the feathers to upgrade them when necessary. With a good IV, he is almost certainly bound to be worth the effort and investment it takes to build him. 5* Level 40 stats: HP: 37 / 41/ 44 Atk: 31 / 34 / 37 Spd: 32 / 35 / 38 Def: 22 / 25 / 29 Res: 19 / 22 / 25 Total: 156~158 Default skills: Weapon: Brave Axe+ -> Basilikos Assist: -- Special: Sol Passive A: Defiant Spd 3 Passive B: -- Passive C: Threaten Def 3 The Cleaner (Galeforce offense) **Optimal Build**, General Use, Arena Offense, Chain modes The Avenger (Wrath+some enemy phase) **High Investment**, Arena Offense/Defense, Chain modes (depending on skills)

Anyone think a CC mixed-range rank build with like say, Candelabra+CC+QR+CD is worthwhile on her, or is that better left to Henry and Xmas Tharja?

My personal preference would be to simply make legendary weapons difficult to obtain, a la FE6 so that acquiring them in itself is something of an achievement, and a reward as a result. Additionally or alternatively, requiring a LOT of limited resources to obtain them like in Echoes is another option for obtaining powerful (if not legendary) weapons. A LOT of FE games in the past 10 years or so have followed the pattern of just dropping those weapons into your lap, where the only real sense of accomplishment tied to them is in having units with a high-enough weapon rank to use them (the 3DS games in particular trivialized this even more, to the point where legendary weapons are basically only distinguishable by their scarcity ~___~ ....debatably) Echoes in particular had a really interesting balance with its weapons, where it's unlikely that you'll have every type of weapon in one playthrough (like my instinct is to do), so it requires you to prioiritize accordingly, which is interesting. All that said, I DO think it would be nice if they gave us back the whole FE4/5 'broken weapons can be reforged/repaired' system, so I definitely wouldn't object to that nor do I think it's necessarily mutually disclusive with my above suggestions.

I think it's pretty inarguable that Fury (and Darting Blow if you ask me, but that one will probably be more disputed) is probably the best budget A-slot skill in the game, both for offense AND defense. It's so good that it manages to be optimal on even some high-budget sets (IE Wrath-- arguably Brazen AtkSpd is outright better but it's rare enough to be basically off the table for anyone who isn't a whale). sooooo.... yeah, for general nonspecialized sets (IE Brave) it's pretty well good.

I don't really have any exceptionally competent blue infantry mages. VaLyntine, s!Corrin (who admittedly is +Def/-Atk and I had to bend over backwards to make usable), and S!catria are all pretty solid, but good ol' m!Robin with his outdated Raven adept build are all I've got on the other front. If I'm able to build him with a DD-stacking serpent build then maybe that won't be the case but eh. Kinda greedy to say I suppose but I don't really have any combat-competent dancers either; all but my 4*+10 Olivia have pretty terrible IVs and aren't really usable besides for TriAdept, buffing, and dancing lol

Yeah, you're right it would make sense to have Knights also be able to upgrade to Baron... ...Hmm. Only trouble with that is there aren't really any other classes besides Knight that would make sense upgrading into Halberdier, an I'm honestly kinda loathe to introduce yet another base class... I guess there's always villagers, though I'd have preferred to make them the basic/generic catch-all Trainee class. hmm. I was trying to think of more armored upgraded classes as well (was toying with the idea of Blacksmith being an armored promote), but none of the others besides General, GK, DK, and Baron feel like they make a lot of sense... hmm. ...DID I have Battlemages turning into Malig Knights? Hmm. Forgot about that. Guess this wasn't quite as nailed down as I hoped.... hmmm.... EDIT: Oh, realized I forgot to address the other Battlemage question. I'm not positive yet, but I'm thinking either they'll be more or less like ToD!Henry/LA!Lyn in Heroes in terms of the lowered movement and higher (mage-centric though not terrible frail) stats, or else will have normal movement and balanced defenses with lesser offenses, IE Awakening dark mages. Haven't quite decided between the two yet, suppose it will depend on how I decide to build the Shamans and other magic classes. I'm thinking Mages will have a balance of Mag/Skl/Spd/Res, Shamans will be Mag/Res focused, and Monks will be Skl/Spd focused, which would open up Battlemages for the 5 mov + Def/Res focus niche. Maybe they don't need to necessarily be armored even, hmm. Welp looks like I got some more to think about, thanks for the input.

I don't have a lotta time and energy to read through, but.... I know this is bound to be an unpopular opinion, but I think Fates was onto something. CERTAIN weapons, like Javelins/Handaxes, steel weapons, Nosferatu, and a few 'special' weapons like Odin's Grimoire, Iago's Tome, and some other stuff I can't recall offhand were reasonably balanced for having infinite durability, I feel. It's definitely annoying that a lot of the upper-ranked weapons had SO MANY drawbacks, and I definitely feel they tried TOO hard to overcompensate for the lack of durability on a lot of weapons in ways that don't really feel right in one way or another, BUT if anything, Echoes and Heroes have only increased my hope that durability-less weapons can streamline the gameplay and make things more interesting and fun. I realize that managing the weapon durability IS part of the fun for some people, and to some extent I agree, but a lot of times the issue of weapon durability and managing units' inventories mid-combat gives me a very paralyzing feeling-- like I have to make sure everything's straight constantly, instead of just being able to gear up and go at it like in Heroes, and not having to worry about weapons mid-combat (most of the time) like in Echoes. (Single-slot weapon inventory is another idea I kind of want to see them mess with more, incidentally.) That's just my take though. Honestly it's hard to see them actually implementing a lot of what I'd like to see since durability is such a core mechanic of the franchise, but those are my feels on it.

"*sigh* Figures." I don't have it in me to be dramatic anymore lol

Eyyy I dunno if anyone still cares about this, but I've continued work on it and consolidated! Full doc with class list and weapon list can be found here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1BULlK1skm1Kk9iFNoz1zXckNErHom2OrD3iEaiA9mjI/edit

Eyyy I dunno if anyone still cares about this, but I've continued work on it and consolidated! Full doc with class list and weapon list can be found here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1BULlK1skm1Kk9iFNoz1zXckNErHom2OrD3iEaiA9mjI/edit

Just wanna toss a mention of Marth's Ardent Service+ (or whatever it's actually called if I'm remembering the name wrong) as a good option for her; with Fort Fliers, that weapon, and a Hone Spd 3 seal she can singlehandedly provide +4 Atk/Spd and +6 Def/Res in field buffs to her team, leaving the others all free to run Goads or something and that feels like it's worth a mention to me. Consolidating buffbot duty AND dancing altogether seems like a pretty substantial benefit that merits mentioning IMO. Similarly, I feel like the passive buffstack combo of Hagoita + Ward Fliers is probably worth a mention too? Maybe? shrug

Ooh. Maybe I'll hold onto at least one of him in case I'm ever able to actually pull Lyn, then. Aight cool, thanks!

Interesting idea, I'll keep it in consideration. Anyone else? What other units or types of units like Brazen Atk/Def?

Pulled an Ares and tryna decide who should get his Brazen skill. Who are some generally good candidates for Brazen Atk/Def? I feel like Brash Desp users are probably the top of the pile but who else might be a good choice?

I use asterisks to denote optimal setups in my stuff, for whatever that's worth

I've heard that Ares can also be good with the Growing/Blazing AoE specials due to Dark Mystletainn's unique effect, is that worth exploring at all in a set?

@SoulWeaver ....okay judging by your responses to some of the suggestions, it sounds like you may be a bit confused as to how the whole analysis thing works.... So just to clarify, you do not have to personally own the skills you're testing out for the unit in question (or even the unit himself, as the case may be). That is what the dueling simulators are for. Half or more of the units I've written up analyses for I don't have the means to build or just flat-out don't have outright, but that shouldn't stop you from exploring what the objectively best builds and strategies are that the unit can run. The point of the analyses isn't to share what we run on our own units, it's supposed to be a guide of how to optimize the unit in question, whether or not you have the means to do it yourself. It's supposed to be a resource for other folks who want to know what they should run on a character, not show-and-tell.

Is it worth mentioning again just how powerful Quad Goad (or even Hone + 3 goads) can make flier units, especially ranged ones (+12 Atk&Spd // +14 each w/ a Hone & 2 goads) even more so now that Camilla grants an extra +3 Atk/Spd on top of a potential goad (max of +17 each) on top of being able to stick Drive Atk 2 in someone's seal slot (+20/+17) And how being able to ignore terrain makes it REALLY EASY to maintain these buffs

Fair. Sorry if I took it too seriously lol As for the above thing; it's okay to do whatever you want with your own build, but the build writeups here should reflect what gives a unit optimal performance, so the ability to distinguish between a build you like that may not necessarily be optimal (but is fun!) and what's actually optimal for that unit. tl;dr, (and at the risk of sounding like a jerk) it's best to keep your personal builds to yourself if they're not strictly optimal in some form or fashion. In any case, I'm confident you'll be able to sort all that out ~3o If ye be needing help I'm sure the rest of us can supply it.

Seconding eclipse about the C/S skills, they're not particularly intuitive to what the other skills are trying to do. Also, why no DC? His Res and weapon effect seem pretty well suited for a DC build, no? Also wanted to comment that, as cute as the thread title is, it should be changed to match the format of all the others. It should just be 'Roy, Young Lion'

So I have a question. What does the Blade build do that the Mjolnir build doesn't already accomplish, if anything? I know blade builds are considered obligatory on mages (or were once), but if she's not gaining something that her default tome can't already do then there isn't much point to wasting 20k feathers to give her the weapon, the way I see it.

Can y'all remind me what the ideal IV for the typical flat-damage-stacking skills build is again? Was thinking of doing something like Bow knight with Malefic Aura, Elbow Room, Quick Draw, Strong Riposte, Trample with Shining Bow, Yato, and Hunter's Bow for being able to do extra damage on everyone

Welp! Seems like we're due for a (minor =__=) update on this one. Seems like Yato's new refine is basically only good for making your husbando/waifu even more broken by having him support them along with summoner support-- the ultimate third wheel. I feel like this is one of the few legendary weapons where one of the generic refines is actually better than the special one for general usage... flat boost of Spd+5 or Def+6 is actually pretty useful along with the other boosts. Actually now that I think about it, this could warrant more variety for Corrin after all...

For me personally yeah I generally try to run calcs before doing the full writeup =v= Like I'll brainstorm things they can do and put those in the claim/template post, but like when I wrote Merric I found his Raven and CC builds were pretty abysmal so I was like 'eh screw it' and took them out (just as an example) And hey no worries, s'what the QC checks are for no one's perfect lol