Absolute Zero

Anyone else expecting the voting gauntlet to be Hero Rises vs Fallen Heroes?

Because that's what an Arena Assault build does. Arena Assault allows you to counter pick your opponent's team, meaning it is valuable to have a unit that is guaranteed to win against a handful of common threats. You see that unit on your opponent's team, and you know that you are guaranteed to take that kill. Fair point, thank you for the explanation. Another fair point, I totally neglected her magical bulk.

Ok then what is the point of running an enemy phase build if it only counters 3-4 units that the player phase build reliably kills without sacrificing Roy's utility (Especially since firesweep bow is fairly common for 2 of them)? My whole point is that building the enemy phase build that way overspecializes Roy to the point of being useless if there are no archers (or fliers, I guess) on the enemy team, and it's overkill unless you are running +0s against +10s for some reason. You don't want dead weight in Arena Assault that's why I offered a much more versatile build. It doesn't handle those two units you designed the build specifically for as well, but it's not useless if neither of them are on an opponent's team. Even a neutral atk LA! Roy one shot's neutral def/hp Lyn before she can get the second shot after hone cav. Again, with an Atk boon and hone cavalry Roy (at +0) can one-shot BH! Lyn up to +4 at = def/hp, and up to +9 at -def/hp, the two most commonly taken banes. And no one would ever use a 3 charge special and heavy blade with mulagir, Lyn doesn't have the defenses to run a set that requires a trade to proc her special. It would also keep her from always proc'ing against units that can't counter. As for heavy blade heavy buffed units, yeah no one can reliably tank those (unless they ignore buffs), but the deadliest in the meta right now are fliers and get blown up before their special goes off, and a fair few of the non-fliers are squishy enough to get one-shot by Roy after hone cav. I guess I'm just trying to understand why you think a build designed to handle only 2 units is somehow any good for a mode like Arena Assault.

After about 60 orbs on Love Abounds, got a +Atk, -Spd LA!Hector! That's probably my luckiest IVs in a loooong time. I still have a spare Nephenee around from my absurd luck on Dauntless Crimeans too. Hmmm double wrath shenanigans is pretty tempting.

That guard bow set is kinda niche, neglecting his fantastic res by running bowbreaker, and moonbow is a pretty big waste of the fantastic damage LA! Roy gets from Iceberg/Bonfire. QR + Iceberg suffices against most archers, and anyhow straight wrecking bows is something Cecilia already does better anyway. I think a more generalist tank build is better for him with the guard bow, considering , and he doesn't need bow breaker to deal with other LA! Roy or BH! Lyn. With an Atk boon and hone cavalry Roy can one-shot BH! Lyn up to +4 at = def/hp, and up to +9 at -def/hp, the two most commonly taken banes for high merge Lyns, and anyway both BH! Lyn and LA! Roy get blown up by quick riposte Iceberg Imo a Guard Bow set should look something like: Enemy Phase Tank (Horse Emblem Arena Assault/Generalist) Roy @ Guard Bow+ Atk+/ Res+/ Def+ Spd- Refinement: +Res/+Def Assist: Reposition/Flex Special: Iceberg A: Distant Defense 3 B: Quick Riposte 3 / Cancel Affinity 3 C: Cavalry Buff 3 / Flex S: Distant Defense 3 / Quick Riposte 3 With this set Roy reaches either 48/48 or 45/51 defenses on enemy phase, capable of shrugging off ranged attacks with ease, tanking doubles and firing back a nasty extra 24/25 damage iceberg on top of his already amazing base atk. +Res is probably the more useful refine as mages are more common and tend to output more damage per hit than bows. After fortify Cavalry Brave Bow users running Luna need to hit 54 Atk to kill neutral def Roy (-25 from Luna + 3 x 4 = 37>36) At +0 vs +10, at +Atk with Death Blow only Bridelia and Leon have the Atk to hit that 3 damage per round baseline necessary to Luna kill LA! Roy with a quad unbuffed) (Other LA! Roy cannot quad unless they have hone cavalry or non spd- and you don't). They have to hit 57 if they are packing moonbow. Obviously like any horse unit Roy performs best with access to Cavalry buffs, both hone and fortify being of great use to him. Also with fortify support you have the option of shedding a distant defense layer to run Cancel Affinity and QR as a seal, which allows Roy to tank and defeat TA-Raven mages, only leaving Thani/Keenwolf, and the rare Non-TA Raven tomes as a magical threat.

Ah I was running my maths at a +6 buff that's why I missed those guys. Yeah if you're not packing Dark Aura or Attack Tactics support you definitely want to be able to handle those guys.

I think dragon fang is worth a mention (IMO it's his best option) in conjunction with Heavy Blade, as it only costs Alm a couple of KOs against a few bulky blues, and gives him massive OHKO potential, allowing him to retain his offensive presence even with Double Tiger offline. With it charged he picks up every almost every kill he forfeits, even with Double Tiger offline. And with a +6 atk buff only Shiro, Subaki, and W!Robin avoid the OHKO at neutral, with Lukas and Effie also surviving at +Def. It also has the benefit of allowing him to 1-shot any TA Nowi build when charged. And if both Dragon Fang and Double Tiger are online, pretty much everything dies. (He one rounds every neutral unit in the game after a +6 attack bonus) If you only need 1 KO out of Alm on any given turn Double Tiger is online, Draconic Aura and Glimmer are probably better options but Dragon Fang allows Alm to make use of dancer support and snag multiple kills, or stay out on the front line and snag an OHKO on enemy phase. Overall it makes Alm less tied down to needing full hp and gives him a little more flexibility in how you use him.

How does Firesweep Bow stack up against Brave Bow for Bridelia? Pulled a +Spd, -Hp one and I don't really know which to give her. Leaning towards brave bow because I only have the one Faye, but it's not a dealbreaker if Firesweep is a better choice.

So I've pulled 2 more Celica from the legendary heroes banner (both -atk, which makes 3/4 of my celicas -atk rip). Gonna merge them to my +1, +def, -hp, But I want to make sure that +speed, -atk isn't any better than +def, -hp. Considering the Atk+3 seal is available it seems like it might be. A quick check on the calculator (LnD/Moonbow/Atk+3 Seal) puts them at about equal performance, with +spd doing a bit better against fury boosted units. Any thoughts?

Hmm, I guess the question is then is a +1 Brave Ike worth more than steady breath inheritance? I do use Ike almost always in the arena, but I've managed to stay in tier 20 without him being merged, so I'll probably go for it since it seems like a pretty darn fun combo. Now to decide whether to keep the +HP, -Spd Ike or the +Spd, -Def one lol.

So, after godly luck from Dauntless Crimeans (4 Focus heroes and 1 off-focus 5*, spending ~40-45 orbs) I have 2 spare nephenee. I also have a spare BIke from last focus. Thinking of doing Steady Breath + Wrath on the Black Knight, but I want to make sure that there isn't another unit that utilizes that combo significantly better.

First pull from banner jeez. Both Nephs are plus res lol but hey 2x of my favorite PoR unit and one's not minus attack! And Elincia is +Spd, -Def lmfao this is by far my best session ever. Luck was so good I went Yolo with the last five orbs to see if I could nab Oscar and finish out the banner and got a second Tana. 4 golds for 20 orbs kinda want to know the odds on that one. Well I certainly get to hoard orbs for a while now.

ID:Dingus 9717828461 Need some Team Maria friends!

Mine too :(

Edit: stupid question, I can't read.

1st pull from focus YEEEEAAAAH. Hmm to hunt for Julie or keep on rolling. Decisions decisions. But who cares I got best princess Ragnarok and now my taxes are done

Joining team Leo now that Linde is out. 9717828461 if anyone needs a team Leo friend. Currently leading Nino.

Clocking in at 4768 this week Rank 401 right now (Tier 12) Team was Nino Nowi+1 Ryoma and vanilla 4* Zephiel. Nino removes blue mages Ryoma takes out greens Nowi handles everything else Zephiel just sits there

Haha well only 16 matters since nothing hits both res and defense

+22 actually. Haha we just need hone/fortify mages and she'll be unstoppable. -Owl looks neat. I wanna see an armor mage with it.

Just pulled a +hp -atk linde. Since -atk still has the same atk as neutral Nino I imagine -blade is still perfectly viable, probably best with lnd desperation? Or is there a better way to build her?

Went for Julia with the bonus orbs and the game gave me a mission. I got no greens to pull twice but I got Odin and Linde (+hp -atk lol). Here's blarblade and Linde go make blue Nino.

Reading one of your posts made me give fury 3 a try on my +spd -hp Nino over LnD 2. Gotta use a def buff to make up for the -hp (1 hp shy of getting into desperation just from fury, hp -1 seal pls) but being able to trade to get into desperation is faster than ardent sacrifice and having access to draw back has pulled my ass out of the fire a few times, so thanks for that!

Yes I am aware, was just trying to counter their point that fury causes Xander to take more damage than no fury. Sorry if that was unclear

Fury doesn't change the damage a unit that always gets doubled takes (-3 def x2 = 6). What it does is get him out of his crap ass speed tier and since he has access to movement based buffs (from a free unit, no less) he can get to a decent 33 speed with fury, where the six damage will usually be less than a second hit. QR almost always breaks in one round unless your packing TA which as already has been stated is overkill on Xander. On a slightly different note I think as a stand alone no hone cavalry Heavy Blade Wary Fighter is a silly combo that makes him a pretty good frontliner (anything that doesn't die can't get a second hit in, bulky enough to engage a couple units). Too bad heavy blade is so resource intensive. EDIT: Xander can't inherit wary fighter I'm dumb.