"Ask Fire Emblem Heroes Questions and Get Them Answered Here" Thread

[steil]

When will Canas and Iago be comming back to GHB & to the grail shop?

[Karuu30]

1 hour ago, Steilison said:

 

When will Canas and Iago be comming back to GHB & to the grail shop?

 

Iago will most likely return in 6 months (I think I read it somewhere). Canas is already in the grail shop and Iago will become available in one of  the next updates (which are every month).

I do not think Canas will return as a GBH, if I remember corrctly he already got his rerun.

[steil]

On 4/11/2020 at 7:16 PM, LordFrigid said:

No, AoE specials occur before combat, Death Blow's Atk bonus is only active during combat. For AoEs, only visible stats matter.

On Heavy/Flashing blade does skills like Swift Sparrow/Luls factor in its activation or is it only visible stats? 

[XRay]

19 minutes ago, Steilison said:

On Heavy/Flashing blade does skills like Swift Sparrow/Luls factor in its activation or is it only visible stats? 

Heavy Blade and Flashing Blade considers in combat stat boosts.

Skills that only look at visible stats usually start the sentence with "At the start of combat" before listing their conditions and effects.

[EricaofRenais]

@XRay Thanks I was leaning towards +atk, but I wanted to double check before I made the final call.  +atk it is.

[steil]

on my aether raid defence I have Iago and I was wondering if I should keep his atk opening. I am not sure if there's lots of people who carry Bright Shrine(O) Seal Atk or Panic. Worst Case scenario my main damage dealer get Panic'd and best case scenario if they used atk smoke or something and it overwrites it. Should I keep it?

[XRay]

6 minutes ago, Steilison said:

on my aether raid defence I have Iago and I was wondering if I should keep his atk opening. I am not sure if there's lots of people who carry Bright Shrine(O) Seal Atk or Panic. Worst Case scenario my main damage dealer get Panic'd and best case scenario if they used atk smoke or something and it overwrites it. Should I keep it?

Aversa is pretty common, so I do not recommend Atk Opening or bonus buffs in general unless you have ways to mitigate those debuffs. If you have a unit with Harsh Command+, Restore, or a Dancer/Singer (refreshing a unit gets rid of the debuffs), then running bonus buffs should be fine on your defense team.

Bright Shrine (O) does not get rid of buffs. It applies a numerical debuff, and numerical buffs and debuffs add together. If you have Ophelia, and she gets buffed by Atk Opening and debuffed by a Bright Shrine (O) level 6, then Ophelia would have Atk+6 and Atk-6, which results in them canceling. If Iago does not have Atk Opening, then Ophelia would take the full Atk-6.

[steil]

12 minutes ago, XRay said:

Aversa is pretty common, so I do not recommend Atk Opening or bonus buffs in general unless you have ways to mitigate those debuffs. If you have a unit with Harsh Command+, Restore, or a Dancer/Singer (refreshing a unit gets rid of the debuffs), then running bonus buffs should be fine on your defense team.

Bright Shrine (O) does not get rid of buffs. It applies a numerical debuff, and numerical buffs and debuffs add together. If you have Ophelia, and she gets buffed by Atk Opening and debuffed by a Bright Shrine (O) level 6, then Ophelia would have Atk+6 and Atk-6, which results in them canceling. If Iago does not have Atk Opening, then Ophelia would take the full Atk-6.

I was reading that Harsh doesn't neutralize panic but it was outdated, guess thats why they made Harsh Command+?

I have another question. I cant test these myself because i dont have harsh command+ yet. Lets say they have Aversa or a panic ploy and i got panic'd. On my defence turn 1 would my defensive ai activate harsh command+ on ally on the turn 1? The same as the restore ai trap?

Edited April 26, 2020 by Steilison

[XRay]

1 minute ago, Steilison said:

I was reading that Harsh doesn't undo panic but it was outdated, guess thats why they made Harsh Command+?

Probably.

1 minute ago, Steilison said:

I have another question. I cant test these myself because i dont have harsh command+ yet. Lets say they have Aversa or a panic ploy and i got panic'd. On my defence turn 1 would my defensive ai activate harsh command+ on ally on the turn 1? The same as the restore ai trap?

Should be the same I believe.

[TheSilentChloey]

So Edelgard is the next legendary hero...

 

When will she rerun?

[Humanoid]

5 minutes ago, TheSilentChloey said:

So Edelgard is the next legendary hero...

 

When will she rerun?

That will be announced in the notifications when the banner actually launches in a couple of days.

[Baldrick]

How is it that a premium unit that copies a nuke niche of multiple launch common units, which are better at player phase due to being ranged instead of melee, is a top tier player phase unit.

While a premium unit that sets a new bar in base speed, that is still unrivalled among units with access to Null Follow-Up, a kit with high attack and speed stacking, built-in NFU, and introducing a speed check damage reduction skill to make it extra difficult to fight without matching speed, is underwhelming? 

[XRay]

8 minutes ago, Baldrick said:

How is it that a premium unit that copies a nuke niche of multiple launch common units, which are better at player phase due to being ranged instead of melee, is a top tier player phase unit.

I do not recommend taking tier lists too literally, and I am not sure which unit you are referring to. Everyone has a different standard of which game mechanic they prioritize more.

Anyways, melee units have one really strong advantage over ranged units in that they can Galeforce, but other than that, I would say ranged units are superior in just about every other nuking role from Blazing nukes to Firesweep nukes.

12 minutes ago, Baldrick said:

While a premium unit that sets a new bar in base speed, that is still unrivalled among units with access to Null Follow-Up, a kit with high attack and speed stacking, built-in NFU, and introducing a speed check damage reduction skill to make it extra difficult to fight without matching speed, is underwhelming? 

Yes. Null Follow-Up is unnecessary compared to something more basic like Desperation. Null Follow-Up and similar effects are only really relevant against tanks. Desperation is relevant against all matchups. The value of Null Follow-Up plummets once a player employs a Firesweeper on the team who can deal with Wary Fighter tanks, Counter-Vantage units, and a whole bunch of other problematic units.

And there is no such thing as a "high" Atk melee unit outside of Laevatein (the Hero) by virtue of Laevatein (her sword) (I am just figuratively speaking here; Laevatein is not the only one with stupid high Atk as a few other units can achieve similar Atk numbers; and melee units with high base Atk in the 40s exist, but it is just way below Laevatein's level once you factor in skills and such). Laevatein can hit mid 90s at +0+0, reaching well over a 100 at max investment, as a Counter-Vantage unit, meaning her Player Phase is gimped. As a full fledged Player Phase unit, Laevatein easily hits the 100s at +0+0, and 120+ at max investment depending on the build.

[Baldrick]

1 hour ago, XRay said:

I do not recommend taking tier lists too literally, and I am not sure which unit you are referring to.

“A unit also does not need to match the performance of a top tier unit to be useful. Laevatein shits on every single Player Phase infantry sword unit,”

 

Quote

Yes. Null Follow-Up is unnecessary compared to something more basic like Desperation. Null Follow-Up and similar effects are only really relevant against tanks. Desperation is relevant against all matchups.

Except anti-Desperation matchups. Close Call is weaker but harder to counter; nevertheless, Mareeta can use both skills, though ranged units make better Desperation nukes.

Quote

The value of Null Follow-Up plummets once a player employs a Firesweeper on the team who can deal with Wary Fighter tanks, Counter-Vantage units, and a whole bunch of other problematic units.

The value of NFU is in its lack of hard counters, such as Null C-Disrupt, and it’s ability to allow quick and decisive kills to avoid Wings of Mercy shenanigans.

Quote

And there is no such thing as a "high" Atk melee unit outside of Laevatein (the Hero) by virtue of Laevatein (her sword) (I am just figuratively speaking here; Laevatein is not the only one with stupid high Atk as a few other units can achieve similar Atk numbers; and melee units with high base Atk in the 40s exist, but it is just way below Laevatein's level once you factor in skills and such). Laevatein can hit mid 90s at +0+0, reaching well over a 100 at max investment, as a Counter-Vantage unit, meaning her Player Phase is gimped. As a full fledged Player Phase unit, Laevatein easily hits the 100s at +0+0, and 120+ at max investment depending on the build.

Abusing blade+blue buffs is powerful, but isn’t foolproof. it takes a lot of setup, has a lot of soft and hard counters, and most importantly, is better used by ranged units, which have advantages in variety, availability, and some can match her raw damage potential.

Edited April 30, 2020 by Baldrick

[XRay]

34 minutes ago, Baldrick said:

Except anti-Desperation matchups. Close Call is weaker but harder to counter; nevertheless, Mareeta can use both skills, though ranged units make better Desperation nukes.

The only anti-Desperation units are Hardy Bearing users and tanks with extreme bulk like BH!Ike. Hardy Bearing users are squishy, and I have not seen anyone use it defensively. BH!Ike is more tricky, but he can be killed on Enemy Phase with a Counter-Vantage Rauðrblade mage or just be Firesweeped to death if time is not a concern. Other tanks with extreme bulk can just be weakened with Firesweep or out right Firesweeped to death.

The value of Close Call on a Player Phase unit is minimal. It makes Dance/Sing Reposition easier, but it does not provide the nuke with infinite sustainability. And because its purpose to is to keep the unit's HP as high as possible, it does not work well Wings of Mercy.

Any enemy that a Desperation nuke cannot kill can be dealt with using a Firesweep nuke.

34 minutes ago, Baldrick said:

The value of NFU is in its lack of hard counters, such as Null C-Disrupt, and it’s ability to allow quick and decisive kills to avoid Wings of Mercy shenanigans.

Firesweep being countered by Null C-Disrupt is not a big issue because there are other nukes on the team who can take care of Null C-Disrupt users.

The problem with Null Follow-Up is that it is only relevant against Wary Fighter tanks, which can already be handled by a Firesweep nuke, so the main nuke can stick with Desperation for infinite sustainability. Not being hard countered is not a really good benefit if it is not even relevant against the vast majority of matchups. Tanks with Wary Fighter are few and far between, and most of them are armor units who pose little to no threat.

A Firesweep archer "hits really hard" with double Poison Strike, allowing any other nuke on the team to finish a tank off. 20+ HP is a pretty big deal, and a tank with 20+ HP gone becomes very vulnerable.

34 minutes ago, Baldrick said:

Abusing blade+blue buffs takes a lot of setup, has a lot of soft and hard counters, and most importantly, is better used by ranged units, which have advantages in variety, availability, and some can match her raw damage potential.

VS!Azura makes bonus buffs super easy to set up. Only Dulls hard counters it, and I do not see a lot of Dulls. Lulls are a little more common, but that is what you have other nukes for. Panic can be easily avoided or simply be Danced/Sung off.

Edited April 30, 2020 by XRay

[Baldrick]

44 minutes ago, XRay said:

The value of Close Call on a Player Phase unit is minimal. It makes Dance/Sing Reposition easier, but it does not provide the nuke with infinite sustainability. And because its purpose to is to keep the unit's HP as high as possible, it does not work well Wings of Mercy.

 

Any enemy that a Desperation nuke cannot kill can be dealt with using a Firesweep nuke.

 

Firesweep being countered by Null C-Disrupt is not a big issue because there are other nukes on the team who can take care of Null C-Disrupt users.

It increases the number of rounds you can survive and isn’t cancelled out by any skill. You will activate Wings of Mercy after enough rounds, I don’t see why that’s such a disadvantage.

The problem with Firesweep and Desperation is that you need both to cover the other’s hard counters, leading to less deployment slots for support units, tanks and bonus units, and more unit-turns needed to attack, dance and reposition out. And even then, what happens when you encounter a tank with both Null C-Disrupt and Hardy Bearing? Use your third nuke?

44 minutes ago, XRay said:

The problem with Null Follow-Up is that it is only relevant against Wary Fighter tanks, which can already be handled by a Firesweep nuke, so the main nuke can stick with Desperation for infinite sustainability. Not being hard countered is not a really good benefit if it is not even relevant against the vast majority of matchups. Tanks with Wary Fighter are few and far between, and most of them are armor units who pose little to no threat.

Null Follow-up is not meant to always be active, it is meant to patch up a weakness. Would Null Hardy Bearing not be a good skill because it’s only relevant when the enemy has Hardy Bearing? 
 

Not being hard countered by anything means there are no matchups that it is bad against. I think that’s a pretty good benefit.

44 minutes ago, XRay said:

VS!Azura makes bonus buffs super easy to set up. Only Dulls hard counters it, and I do not see a lot of Dulls. Lulls are a little more common, but that is what you have other nukes for. Panic can be easily avoided or simply be Danced/Sung off.

I’m not saying those weaknesses are insurmountable, but that being so easy to counter means they don’t “shit on” every other kind of nuke like you suggested earlier.

[Darkmoon6789]

Question, how do you think Edelgard, Flame Emperor compares to Edelgard, the future? Is Edelgard, Flame Emperor still in mixed phase unit? I would guess that Edelgard, flame Emperor is more of a player phase unit, I am a bit worried about her lack of follow-up attacks against non-Dragon opponents, but combining raging storm with galeforce might make up for that. She also have so much better resistance that it is not even funny. I am guessing her basic still set works for the most part

Also, what are some good skills to give Naga? If my understanding of her is correct, she is able to make any adjacent unit count as effective against Dragons for the purposes of the benefit granted by her breath weapon, right? The only thing I am a bit iffy about always having on her is the ability that only works in aeither raids.

[TheSilentChloey]

I pulled a +Spd OP Student (Emperor Edelgard) (oh boy here comes the most dangerous part lol).  She's minus Def, and I'm thinking of giving her Galeforce (20k fodder), Moonbow (Odin manual) or Ignis (spare Henry manual from the 10+ marathon I got).  Problem is I'm not sure which and what A skill I want her to have (DC? L and D 3? Atk/Res solo?)

[XRay]

6 hours ago, Baldrick said:

It increases the number of rounds you can survive and isn’t cancelled out by any skill. You will activate Wings of Mercy after enough rounds, I don’t see why that’s such a disadvantage.

Compared to Desperation, it reduces the number of rounds the nuke is viable. The nuke goes from being able to nuke indefinitely to only being able nuke a limited number of times. Being able to activate Wings of Mercy means that the nuke at that point means the nuke is no longer as effective as it once was. The nuke becomes dead weight after it can no longer eat counter attacks.

6 hours ago, Baldrick said:

The problem with Firesweep and Desperation is that you need both to cover the other’s hard counters, leading to less deployment slots for support units, tanks and bonus units, and more unit-turns needed to attack, dance and reposition out. And even then, what happens when you encounter a tank with both Null C-Disrupt and Hardy Bearing? Use your third nuke?

A Player Phase team does not need tanks. I strongly recommend against mixing Player Phase and Enemy Phase units together because they require different types of supports to work well. It is far easier to just focus on one Play style so you can bring as much support units relevant to that play style as possible.

Yes, you use a third nuke or use a different team. The likelihood of encountering a Null C-Disrupt and Hardy Bearing is tiny.

Unless the player is ranking for Thrones, leave the bonus unit home if the player cannot handle lugging around a dud. You do not need the bonus unit if all the player is trying to do is to just get a decent score. I have no issue ranking into Tier 24 without any bonus units and that also factors in imperfect play.

Similar to Arena and Arena Assault where the effort to match Blessings simply is not worth it unless you are aiming to rank competitively, the effort to bring a bonus unit is not worth it in Aether Raids unless you are trying to rank.

6 hours ago, Baldrick said:

Null Follow-up is not meant to always be active, it is meant to patch up a weakness. Would Null Hardy Bearing not be a good skill because it’s only relevant when the enemy has Hardy Bearing? 

Null Hardy Bearing would not be a good skill. It is niche and not applicable in the vast majority of cases. On nukes, you want to bring skills that are the most applicable matchups as possible. Leave the niche skills for units specifically built as hard counters.

6 hours ago, Baldrick said:

Not being hard countered by anything means there are no matchups that it is bad against. I think that’s a pretty good benefit.

Not being hard countered means nothing if it is a useless dead weight skill in the vast majority of matchups. It like saying saying Poison Dagger is a good Weapon because there are no hard counters to it since Infantry Shield does not exist. Poison Dagger is not a good Weapon because it is irrelevant in most matchups.

6 hours ago, Baldrick said:

I’m not saying those weaknesses are insurmountable, but that being so easy to counter means they don’t “shit on” every other kind of nuke like you suggested earlier.

Blade tomes and Desperation are really easy to counter, but they are NOT being countered because the opportunity cost to do so is too high. Running Dulls instead of Lulls makes the tank vulnerable to every other type of nuke that is not dependent on bonus buffs. Running Hardy Bearing on a tank is just asking the tank to get die sooner to Brave nukes and one shot nukes, and Hardy Bearing would be a thousand times more useful on a nuke like Ophelia.

5 hours ago, Darkmoon6789 said:

Question, how do you think Edelgard, Flame Emperor compares to Edelgard, the future? Is Edelgard, Flame Emperor still in mixed phase unit? I would guess that Edelgard, flame Emperor is more of a player phase unit, I am a bit worried about her lack of follow-up attacks against non-Dragon opponents, but combining raging storm with galeforce might make up for that. She also have so much better resistance that it is not even funny. I am guessing her basic still set works for the most part

I prefer Edelgard over Edelgard: Flame Emperor. Edelgard is easier to use due to better mobility. FE!Edelgard does have a niche in being able to Galeforce twice per turn though.

5 hours ago, Darkmoon6789 said:

Also, what are some good skills to give Naga? If my understanding of her is correct, she is able to make any adjacent unit count as effective against Dragons for the purposes of the benefit granted by her breath weapon, right? The only thing I am a bit iffy about always having on her is the ability that only works in aeither raids.

She sucks as a support unit compared to Eir and Peony, and she is horrible as a combat unit compared to Altina.

Personally, I lean towards trying to make her better as a support unit, so I gave my Naga Chills. I also recommend Life and Death so she can draw Chills away from her teammates.

You can also try to make her a more competent combat unit. In this scenario, I would just give her a standard Player Phase skill kit, with Reposition, Moonbow, any A that boosts Atk/Spd, Desperation, and any Sacred Seal that boosts Atk/Spd.

1 hour ago, TheSilentChloey said:

I pulled a +Spd OP Student (Emperor Edelgard) (oh boy here comes the most dangerous part lol).  She's minus Def, and I'm thinking of giving her Galeforce (20k fodder), Moonbow (Odin manual) or Ignis (spare Henry manual from the 10+ marathon I got).  Problem is I'm not sure which and what A skill I want her to have (DC? L and D 3? Atk/Res solo?)

I would just stick with her default skill kit, but swap out Bonfire with Galeforce and add in Reposition and Heavy Blade Sacred Seal.

If you do not need the double Galeforce, you can also just turn her into a dual phase unit instead using Moonbow/Ruptured Sky and Quick Riposte Sacred Seal. This allows her to double on Enemy Phase, and "double" on Player Phase via Galeforce from Raging Storm.

 

[Darkmoon6789]

29 minutes ago, XRay said:

 

I prefer Edelgard over Edelgard: Flame Emperor. Edelgard is easier to use due to better mobility. FE!Edelgard does have a niche in being able to Galeforce twice per turn though.

She sucks as a support unit compared to Eir and Peony, and she is horrible as a combat unit compared to Altina.

Personally, I lean towards trying to make her better as a support unit, so I gave my Naga Chills. I also recommend Life and Death so she can draw Chills away from her teammates.

You can also try to make her a more competent combat unit. In this scenario, I would just give her a standard Player Phase skill kit, with Reposition, Moonbow, any A that boosts Atk/Spd, Desperation, and any Sacred Seal that boosts Atk/Spd.

I would just stick with her default skill kit, but swap out Bonfire with Galeforce and add in Reposition and Heavy Blade Sacred Seal.

If you do not need the double Galeforce, you can also just turn her into a dual phase unit instead using Moonbow/Ruptured Sky and Quick Riposte Sacred Seal. This allows her to double on Enemy Phase, and "double" on Player Phase via Galeforce from Raging Storm.

 

One thing I really like so far with Edelgard Flame Emperor is that both her defence and the resistance is really high, so she doesn't really have a weakness when it comes to defences. It is really just her speed being awful that is kind of bad. I also really like how raging storm allows her to move and attack twice, this could be ridiculous with galeforce. But this is assuming she will be able to kill with only one attack in most cases. Doesn't armoured stride cancel out her mobility problems however? I usually use either version of Edelgard on her own anyway. I think this is the only time I have seen any unit have high values in both resistance and defence.

[XRay]

1 minute ago, Darkmoon6789 said:

It is really just her speed being awful that is kind of bad.

Low Spd is good, not bad. If you decide to give her an Enemy Phase skill kit in the future for whatever reason, being slow means that she can reliably count on enemies to double her so she can activate a stronger Special. And since she got Aymr and Raging Storm, her low Spd is not really relevant on Player Phase.

Not every unit and build wants every stat to be high. For slow tanks, they want their Spd to be as low as possible. The only bad Spd is Spd that ranges from 30 and 40; mediocre Spd is bad Spd because it is a Spd range that no unit wants. It is too high for slow tanks to reliably activate a strong Special, too low for a Spd tank avoid doubles, and too low for a Player Phase unit to double. You ideally want to avoid Spd between 25 and 45 too, but at least 25-30 Spd and 40-45 is not so bad that it is unusable. The best Spd is anything below 20, and anything above 50.

15 minutes ago, Darkmoon6789 said:

Doesn't armoured stride cancel out her mobility problems however?

Yes, but there will be times when you need a Dancer/Singer to extract her out of Enemy Range for emergency purposes, and her mobility on turn 1 is also usually limited since she will be next to allies. It is not a huge deal once she is out there on her own, but it can be a hassle when she needs to come back to the team for healing or avoiding certain enemies.

 

[Baldrick]

2 hours ago, XRay said:

A Player Phase team does not need tanks. I strongly recommend against mixing Player Phase and Enemy Phase units together because they require different types of supports to work well. It is far easier to just focus on one Play style so you can bring as much support units relevant to that play style as possible.

It depends on the situation, they can sometimes act as supports for each other. For example, a highly mobile setup means you can’t fall back quickly enough to avoid being attacked, or particularly nasty tank means it’s better to let them engage, or a particular nasty nuke needs to be eliminated pre-emptively before your super tank can handle the onslaught.

Quote

Yes, you use a third nuke or use a different team. The likelihood of encountering a Null C-Disrupt and Hardy Bearing is tiny.

Well, you can now only fit 1-2 support units, it may not always be enough.

Quote

Null Hardy Bearing would not be a good skill. It is niche and not applicable in the vast majority of cases. On nukes, you want to bring skills that are the most applicable matchups as possible. Leave the niche skills for units specifically built as hard counters.

It literally patches Desperation and Vantage users’ biggest weakness, how is that not good?

Quote

Not being hard countered means nothing if it is a useless dead weight skill in the vast majority of matchups. It like saying saying Poison Dagger is a good Weapon because there are no hard counters to it since Infantry Shield does not exist. Poison Dagger is not a good Weapon because it is irrelevant in most matchups.

It is not Null Follow-Up that has no hard counters. Null Follow-Up neutralises the hard counter to units with very high speed, effects that disregard the speed check for follow-up attacks.

Quote

Blade tomes and Desperation are really easy to counter, but they are NOT being countered because the opportunity cost to do so is too high.

Using any kind of hard counter has the opportunity cost of not being to run another type of hard counter again. If those counters don’t see much use, then it means the strategy they counter isn’t commonly seen.

[XRay]

35 minutes ago, Baldrick said:

It depends on the situation, they can sometimes act as supports for each other. For example, a highly mobile setup means you can’t fall back quickly enough to avoid being attacked, or particularly nasty tank means it’s better to let them engage, or a particular nasty nuke needs to be eliminated pre-emptively before your super tank can handle the onslaught.

In that case, you can bring a Counter-Vantage unit rather than an Enemy Phase unit, and they can also function as one shot nukes. A Counter-Vantage unit works on both phases and can use any type of supports. An Enemy Phase unit is dead weight most of the time on a Player Phase team.

35 minutes ago, Baldrick said:

Well, you can now only fit 1-2 support units, it may not always be enough.

3 nukes and 2 Dancers/Singers is more than enough for an Aether Raids Player Phase team. A Player Phase team does not need any other types of supports outside of Dancers/Singers. Outside of Dancers/Singers, the only other units that can actually support a Player Phase team somewhat well are Líf and DW!Berkut to knock their ally nukes into Desperation range if the player needs recoil damage to enter Desperation range but needs an A skill that hits harder than Fury. Dancers/Singers is really all a Player Phase team needs. Maybe they will need Líf and DW!Berkut for recoil damage, but that is pretty much it.

35 minutes ago, Baldrick said:

It literally patches Desperation and Vantage users’ biggest weakness, how is that not good?

Null Hardy Bearing would be taking up the B slot, which means Desperation and Vantage are off the table unless the unit got Desperation and Vantage on their Weapon, which is not common. If they release it as a Sacred Seal, then it can be decent, but I do not see them release Null skills on the Sacred Seal slots anytime soon. We do not even have Dull Sacred Seals yet.

35 minutes ago, Baldrick said:

It depends on the situation, they can sometimes act as supports for each other. For example, a highly mobile setup means you can’t fall back quickly enough to avoid being attacked, or particularly nasty tank means it’s better to let them engage, or a particular nasty nuke needs to be eliminated pre-emptively before your super tank can handle the onslaught.

And those hard counters are not common, and they can be dealt with in other ways. Null Follow-Up is only relevant in scenarios where the enemy tank is utilizing some sort of Wary Fighter, and that scenario is not common enough to warrant giving up Desperation for. Those units can be weakened with Firesweep or just outright killed via one shot nukes.

35 minutes ago, Baldrick said:

Using any kind of hard counter has the opportunity cost of not being to run another type of hard counter again. If those counters don’t see much use, then it means the strategy they counter isn’t commonly seen.

Just because the counter to a strategy is not common does not mean that strategy is not common. Player Phase teams use buffs all the time, and I do not see Lulls everywhere because it is expensive. Dull Range is not often used because it does nothing against melee Galeforcers and super tanks.

Edited April 30, 2020 by XRay

[Rinco]

What build should I go for a +HP/-Atk Duo Ephraim? Got him in this banner randomly. Won't use him on any of the competitive modes, just want to have him built to use here and there eventually

[TheSilentChloey]

10 hours ago, XRay said:

Compared to Desperation, it reduces the number of rounds the nuke is viable. The nuke goes from being able to nuke indefinitely to only being able nuke a limited number of times. Being able to activate Wings of Mercy means that the nuke at that point means the nuke is no longer as effective as it once was. The nuke becomes dead weight after it can no longer eat counter attacks.

A Player Phase team does not need tanks. I strongly recommend against mixing Player Phase and Enemy Phase units together because they require different types of supports to work well. It is far easier to just focus on one Play style so you can bring as much support units relevant to that play style as possible.

Yes, you use a third nuke or use a different team. The likelihood of encountering a Null C-Disrupt and Hardy Bearing is tiny.

Unless the player is ranking for Thrones, leave the bonus unit home if the player cannot handle lugging around a dud. You do not need the bonus unit if all the player is trying to do is to just get a decent score. I have no issue ranking into Tier 24 without any bonus units and that also factors in imperfect play.

Similar to Arena and Arena Assault where the effort to match Blessings simply is not worth it unless you are aiming to rank competitively, the effort to bring a bonus unit is not worth it in Aether Raids unless you are trying to rank.

Null Hardy Bearing would not be a good skill. It is niche and not applicable in the vast majority of cases. On nukes, you want to bring skills that are the most applicable matchups as possible. Leave the niche skills for units specifically built as hard counters.

Not being hard countered means nothing if it is a useless dead weight skill in the vast majority of matchups. It like saying saying Poison Dagger is a good Weapon because there are no hard counters to it since Infantry Shield does not exist. Poison Dagger is not a good Weapon because it is irrelevant in most matchups.

Blade tomes and Desperation are really easy to counter, but they are NOT being countered because the opportunity cost to do so is too high. Running Dulls instead of Lulls makes the tank vulnerable to every other type of nuke that is not dependent on bonus buffs. Running Hardy Bearing on a tank is just asking the tank to get die sooner to Brave nukes and one shot nukes, and Hardy Bearing would be a thousand times more useful on a nuke like Ophelia.

I prefer Edelgard over Edelgard: Flame Emperor. Edelgard is easier to use due to better mobility. FE!Edelgard does have a niche in being able to Galeforce twice per turn though.

She sucks as a support unit compared to Eir and Peony, and she is horrible as a combat unit compared to Altina.

Personally, I lean towards trying to make her better as a support unit, so I gave my Naga Chills. I also recommend Life and Death so she can draw Chills away from her teammates.

You can also try to make her a more competent combat unit. In this scenario, I would just give her a standard Player Phase skill kit, with Reposition, Moonbow, any A that boosts Atk/Spd, Desperation, and any Sacred Seal that boosts Atk/Spd.

I would just stick with her default skill kit, but swap out Bonfire with Galeforce and add in Reposition and Heavy Blade Sacred Seal.

If you do not need the double Galeforce, you can also just turn her into a dual phase unit instead using Moonbow/Ruptured Sky and Quick Riposte Sacred Seal. This allows her to double on Enemy Phase, and "double" on Player Phase via Galeforce from Raging Storm.

 

Wouldn't DC be better for dual phase combat? I know I will eventually be pulling more merges for her in the long term.