Search the Community

I finally got around writing my envisioned build for Eliwood after some theorycrafting and procrastination. I should mention first that if anybody ever want to use Eliwood, then the place in which he truly belong is with Ninian Cavalry team. Ergo, this build is specific to said team where he can unleash his inner beast and become a Hero. One thing of note is that this analysis is based on his matchup against neutral 5* units similar in vein to Ice Dragon's analysis column and partially inspired by Elieson's idea of Horse Emblem meta. LIMIT BREAK ELIWOOD General recommended nature: +Atk -Res EDIT: +Spd -Res is also recommended. This analysis is based upon +Atk -Res, however. I've got two builds in mind for him. One is focused on him one punching a lot of things and the other is more focused on ORKing a lot of things, both achieved with the help of Goad and Hone. So allow me to start with the first build. One Punch Wood Stats: 39/50/30/23/29 Weapon: Durandal Assist: Swap/Reciprocal Aid Special: Moonbow Passive A: Death Blow 3 Passive B: Swordbreaker 3 Passive C: Ward/Hone/Fortify/Goad Cavalry Moonbow is wanted as Horse Emblem generally plays by setting up good positioning for blitzkrieg. As such, it won't be a stretch to see Eliwood buffed consistently, doubling units that he couldn't one shot, which will let him activate Moonbow for guaranteed kill (35 out 118). Death Blow is the centerpiece of this build, it essentially allows him to one shot a lot of neutral natured units (76 out of 118) when buffed with Goad and Hone. Considering the popular sword units are speedy, Swordbreaker will help him out in defensive turn when the worst comes to shove. For his C, I would recommend Hone/Ward Cavalry if you're running with a Blade unit. Goad makes a good substitute due to it's versatility Swap and Reciprocal Aid plays a role in helping him survives after rounds of combat if he has sustained some damage. Enough with the formality, on to his analysis! Usage Tip It's recommended to run him together with units who has Hone and Goad to capitalize on his Blade tier Might. It's a plus to equip them with Reposition or Swap since Eliwood doesn't really like to be physically beat up (even though he fares quite well against many units). Remember to pair him up with Wings Ninian for some crazy shenanigans. Against Reds On the offensive, unbuffed Eliwood with his 60 Might will almost ORK every Reds in the game sans Tharja, Y!Tiki and Raigh, When buffed with a Hone/Goad, Eliwood is able to one shot Tharja, and Raigh (Y!Tiki sure is a tough cookie huh). With both of these stacked, however, he will be rocking a ridiculous 70 worth of Mt and 40 spd, That's enough for him to ORK every Reds in this game. Even better, this sheer Mt allows him. to one punch popular non- +HP or +Def natured Reds such as the likes of Marth, Lucina, Ryoma, and Eirika without suffering any counterattack. On the defensive, unbuffed Eliwood is able to tank a hit from every Reds except Ogma, who outright kills him. Other than that, he is capable of winning against a majority of Reds except the bulky one like Y!Tiki, Seliph, Hinata, etc (neutral Chrom dies exactly at 47 dmg, interestingly enough), When stimulated with a Hone he is able to ORK all the aforementioned units. Topping that off with a Goad the only Sword he isn't capable of killing is the fearsome wall carrying the name of Draug. In conclusion, Eliwood with Swordbreaker will fare really well against Reds if you choose to have him fight against one. His good Res allows him to survive an attack from Raigh, too Against Blues Don't ever make Eliwood attack blues if he doesn't have his buffs with him since he will not be able to kill any of the blues except Reinhardt. If he has one of the buff with him, he'll be able to ORK some of the blues, notably neutral Ephraim, Robin. and Nowi. A single Hone will enable him to one-shot Linde and ORK Cordelia. At his most powerful state, he is able to ORK a lot of blues (including Ninian....). There are 4 units -who can't be beat by any Red Sword everrrrr- which will kill him and 3 he won't be able to ORK: Subaki, Sully, Abel, Effie, and, Azura, Wendy, Lucina Jordan respectively, who make the rest 7 out of 118 units he couldn't outright kill. If you somehow for some unspeakable reasons decide to make Eliwood tank blues, then he won't be able to do much when unbuffed. Other than the units he lose against as mentioned above, Sharena and Linde will also deliver the same fate to him. Buffing him with a Hone/Goad will help him survive a bit more but it's unwise to do so. For the best survival against blues, it's best to stack both Fortify and Ward. Though if you're stacking Goad and Hone he'll be able to ORK a couple of blues, prominently Sharena (and Ninian...). In conclusion, super Eliwood is able to ORK a lot of Blues, which is really fun to see, but don't make him tank blues because he won't be able to tank much and will die most of the time . Against Greens Offensively, unbuffed Eliwood will kill a majority of Greens except Michalis, Merric, Barst, Spring Chrom, and Bartre. Stacking a Goad is enough for him to kill every Green known to existence. Stacking Goad and Hone will let him one punch all greens except Bartre and Hector. Nuff said. Axebreaker Eliwood would be able to kill every Green without buff but hey, he's already good enough without, don't you think? Unfortunately, on Defense, he won't be able to produce the brilliant result he brings in offensive primarily because of no DB and Durandal effect. He is capable of ORKing some Greens unbuffed, notably Hector and Camilla (the latter lets him activate Moonbow on counter), but lots of Greens will survive against him. That being the case, a single Hone remedy this unremarkable result. With Hone, there's only 1 unit (Mages are obviously excluded because Eliwood can't throw Durandal like Hector can with Armads) who can survive against Eliwood. His name is neutral Spd Chrom, the harbinger of Spring. Against Colorless My biased requisite of a good unit is one who is capable of ORKing Takumi. Unbuffed Eliwood can't achieve this feat however (neutral Takumi survives with 5 HP), but he does kill neutral Klein exactly, and Kagero, though she's a puny nuisance for Cavalry team to begin with. Giving him a Hone will be enough to one-shot neutral Takumi, or almost all the Colorless really (Saizo and Matthew are tank). There's nothing much to say for his defense, apart from that the only unit capable of offing him is Klein. OP huh. Wished I had him. That said, Eliwood stacked with Ward can survive against non-+Atk Klein.Oh yeah, just a heads up, if you want to make Eliwood tank speedy physical colorless, be sure to stick a Hone and a Ward/Fortify on him because he's barely scraping against them as is. Gordon will deals 36 damage to him, nonetheless. -To be Continued? Actually, the 2nd build is awfully similar to this one, just less nuke-y so I'm quite unsure if I should make another analysis for the 2nd build.