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

[Humanoid]

21 minutes ago, Min-Yong77 said:

I do not play this game too often so I do have a question about merging same tier characters: is there better chance of stat gain when the source ally's level is higher and have good stats?

It's not chance-based at all, and level has nothing to do with it. It simply rotates through each stat, with each merge adding two points. The order in which the stats are added depends on their level 1 stats (with no skills equipped).

Take for example a character who, naked at level 1, has the following stats:

HP - 15
Atk - 9
Spd - 10
Def - 10
Res - 8

The first time you give them a merge, it gives them +1 HP and +1 Spd. The tiebreaker is simply the order the stats are listed above.

The second time you merge, you get +1 Def and +1 Atk.

The third time, you get +1 Res and +1 HP.

The fourth time, you get +1 Spd and +1 Def ...and so on.

_______

There is a special exception to the first merge, where the bane (the -3 or -4 penalty on the stat highlighted in red) is eliminated. If the unit is neutral, they instead get +1 each to their three highest stats are per above. Assuming the above 15/9/10/10/8 statline above was neutral for example, then the first merge would give an additional +1 to HP, Spd and Def.

Edited July 22, 2020 by Humanoid

[TheSilentChloey]

I decided to go with my gut and give Lucy four skills:

How well will she score in arena?

[Humanoid]

1 hour ago, TheSilentChloey said:

How well will she score in arena?

This well

The calculator doesn't have Spurn yet so I just substituted one of the many other skills worth the same score. The refinement is left blank because it doesn't affect the score either. There is no input for supports or Dragonflowers as they likewise do not affect score.

You can improve the score by replacing the Assist, Special, and Seal slot. All the other slots have maxed out score value.

EDIT: Giving her an elemental blessing and then fielding her alongside a Legendary hero (or more) would improve the score however.

EDIT 2: Oh, and R Duel Infantry for the A-slot, but I imagine you wouldn't want to replace Swift Sparrow 3.

Edited July 22, 2020 by Humanoid

[TheSilentChloey]

19 minutes ago, Humanoid said:

This well

The calculator doesn't have Spurn yet so I just substituted one of the many other skills worth the same score. The refinement is left blank because it doesn't affect the score either. There is no input for supports or Dragonflowers as they likewise do not affect score.

You can improve the score by replacing the Assist, Special, and Seal slot. All the other slots have maxed out score value.

EDIT: Giving her an elemental blessing and then fielding her alongside a Legendary hero (or more) would improve the score however.

EDIT 2: Oh, and R Duel Infantry for the A-slot, but I imagine you wouldn't want to replace Swift Sparrow 3.

Removing SS3 isn't really an option no.  Nor do I have any R Duel Infantry fodder to boot.

 

Her team consists of Male Grima, Regal (Legendary Chrom) and Regular Chrom.  I think they all scored around the 750~ mark, so not too bad.

[Diovani Bressan]

2 hours ago, TheSilentChloey said:

I decided to go with my gut and give Lucy four skills:

How well will she score in arena?

Not much.

She would need a 400 SP cost assist (Dual Rally+, Rally Up+ or Hash Command+), a 500 SP cost Special (Aether, which she already have, but Blue Flame and Ruptured Sky also work), and a better scoring seal. For seal, you can run a double blow, a double stance, a blade (heavy, flashing or sorcery), Close/Distant Def, Brazen, Renewal, a Bond, Solo, Wave, Chill, Smoke, Drive, Close/Distant Guard or Tactic seal can score what you need.

With these changes, she would score better, but not her max possible score... since you need R Duel Infantry for it.

EDIT:

Unless your Legendary Chrom is +10, he doesn't score close to 750. And OG Chrom scores the same as Lucina, so also not ~750.

EDIT 2:

Lucina , Chrom, L!Chrom and Grima would be a team for AA, since without bonus unit your score in Arena would be very bad. (unless one of the four is the bonus unit)

Edited July 22, 2020 by Diovani Bressan

[XRay]

2 hours ago, TheSilentChloey said:

How well will she score in arena?

As is, she does not score well, but you do not need her to score well depending on what Tier you want to be in.

If you want to bounce between Tier 19 and Tier 20, you do not need to optimize your skills for scoring, but you do need to make sure most of your skills score well. At minimum, I recommend using Aether for Special and Swift Sparrow for Sacred Seal.

If you can get by without a positioning Assist, I also recommend Rallies. I personally do not bother with Rallies since it makes the battle more frustrating than it needs to be and the score boost does not help me promote to the next Tier.

[Flying Shogi]

Hitting the feather cap soon so I'm looking for units to build, namely F!Corrin and Saizo.

I have the same question for both units, +Atk or +Spd? I'm thinking +Atk for Corrin and running a set like: Fierce Stance/QR/Res Smoke(whenever it's released in the 4* summoning pool) 

and +Spd for Saizo with a set like Fury/Desperation/Savage Blow. Mainly looking for budget builds. 

[Diovani Bressan]

1 hour ago, Flying Shogi said:

and +Spd for Saizo with a set like Fury/Desperation/Savage Blow. Mainly looking for budget builds. 

I use +Spd Saizo because he was in my Arena team before, and having +Spd allowed to watersweep dragons without problems. And if Legendary Alm had debuff in Spd, Saizo was able to double him or at least do not get doubled in enemy phase (Alm initiating the combat).

Fury Desperation works. You can run a Brazen skill in the seal slot too

Edited July 22, 2020 by Diovani Bressan

[Flying Shogi]

1 hour ago, Diovani Bressan said:

I use +Spd Saizo because he was in my Arena team before, and having +Spd allowed to watersweep dragons without problems. And if Legendary Alm had debuff in Spd, Saizo was able to double him or at least do not get doubled in enemy phase (Alm initiating the combat).

Fury Desperation works. You can run a Brazen skill in the seal slot too

Time to dust off that Brazen Atk/Def seal. Thanks for sharing.

[Dawn Miku]

Ok I'm not so sure about this one here. I have 2 male Kris, one with +attack and the other one with +resistance. Which one did you guys think will be more useful? +attack is great, but I have Fort. Def/Res 3 fodder and a +resistance is a superboon, so it will be very useful on him, but I'm not so sure. What do you guys thinks about this?

[XRay]

4 hours ago, Flying Shogi said:

Hitting the feather cap soon so I'm looking for units to build, namely F!Corrin and Saizo.

I have the same question for both units, +Atk or +Spd? I'm thinking +Atk for Corrin and running a set like: Fierce Stance/QR/Res Smoke(whenever it's released in the 4* summoning pool) 

and +Spd for Saizo with a set like Fury/Desperation/Savage Blow. Mainly looking for budget builds. 

For F!Corrin, I think either is fine. +Atk helps beef up her noodle arms, but +Spd should be okay too since her Weapon does provide a hefty amount of Atk and she gets adaptive damage as a dragon. I recommend Mirror Stance as Sylvia has it at 5*. It has 2 less Atk, but it provides 4 more Res, which is a stat F!Corrin also lack.

Similarly for Saizo, I think either Asset is fine. As for his build though, he got serious damage output issues. While his combat performance should be okay once he gets Saizo's Star rolling, his first round of combat every turn is kind of crap. If you are using him as a nuke, I recommend Life and Death since it boosts Atk/Spd. Brazen Atk/Def's boost to Def is irrelevant with Desperation, and I do not think it is worth it to have 2 more Atk for 5 less Spd. As a nuke, I lean towards +Atk to help his first round of combat so he can at least kill something and not die on the counter, although once he gets the ball rolling, +Spd would be better, so it depends on how much you much weight you place on his first round of combat.

30 minutes ago, Dawn Miku said:

Ok I'm not so sure about this one here. I have 2 male Kris, one with +attack and the other one with +resistance. Which one did you guys think will be more useful? +attack is great, but I have Fort. Def/Res 3 fodder and a +resistance is a superboon, so it will be very useful on him, but I'm not so sure. What do you guys thinks about this?

If you are using him for enemy phase combat, +Res is better in my opinion. If you are going to summon more of him, I recommend using +Spd if you can get that Asset. +Spd is the most flexible Asset as it is the ideal Asset for player phase units in general as well as the being the ideal Asset for enemy phase Spd tanks, especially when he also runs Spurn.

I do not recommend Fort. Def/Res on the A slot. Fort. Def/Res is more of a support skill rather than a combat skill in my opinion. Fort. Def/Res helps activate Sabotages and draw Chills away from allies, and the Atk decrease better synergizes with teammates like BK!Eliwood and GOW!Eirika. The only relevant combat performance application that I can think of for it is for specialized tanks who are designed to counter Blazing nukes.

[Dawn Miku]

I know +speed is the better option for him, because I already have a +speed female Kris and she is very powerful thanks to that, so with a +speed, he will be equal in power with my female Kris, but sadly I've ran out of orbs and this is what I get so far, but I'm still happy that I've summoned him! Thanks for the explanation 👍

[Flying Shogi]

43 minutes ago, XRay said:

it depends on how much you much weight you place on his first round of combat.

I usually lean towards +Spd over +Atk for units that wants both. My argument for Corrin is that as a melee unit, she's got less reach compared to Saizo so it made more sense to let the enemy come to her. +Atk is also a super boon so I wanted to capitalize on that.  

As for Saizo, I'll try out both Fury and LnD on him and see how it goes. I'm just building these units for fun so they don't need to be nukes.

[jameslove001]

I see people have referred to a potential CYL banner coming soon. I know this isn't for sure, but (as I have commented before) I am an off and on player, and am wondering should I save the orbs I have (and farm as many as I can since I still haven't beat all four story modes on hard or lunatic yet) for that banner? At least on the surface the current banners don't look too appealing...like you're just hoping for a rando not the banner characters themselves. Any thoughts? Or should I be trying for Kris and Kris? Am I missing a really amazing skill or character? I randomly got Lena on my free summon, or one of the two bond tickets I unlocked...which was kinda cool. I don't know that I will use her, but it was lucky!

[Humanoid]

1 hour ago, jameslove001 said:

I see people have referred to a potential CYL banner coming soon. I know this isn't for sure, but (as I have commented before) I am an off and on player, and am wondering should I save the orbs I have (and farm as many as I can since I still haven't beat all four story modes on hard or lunatic yet) for that banner? At least on the surface the current banners don't look too appealing...like you're just hoping for a rando not the banner characters themselves. Any thoughts? Or should I be trying for Kris and Kris? Am I missing a really amazing skill or character? I randomly got Lena on my free summon, or one of the two bond tickets I unlocked...which was kinda cool. I don't know that I will use her, but it was lucky!

In terms of odds, the chances of getting something from the CYL banner isn't any higher than it is for any other banner, though the quality of the individual units should be higher on average.

Personally I would look to have a reserve of about 150 orbs in order to get the guaranteed 5-star pull. Using more than that will be subject to diminishing returns, especially since the same units will likely be re-run with better odds as part of the anniversary celebrations in February.

But yeah, if you're not particularly fond of Kris then hold on to your orbs for now. There's a distinct possibility of a Hero Fest featuring Sothis in a couple of week's time as well.

[XRay]

58 minutes ago, jameslove001 said:

I see people have referred to a potential CYL banner coming soon. I know this isn't for sure, but (as I have commented before) I am an off and on player, and am wondering should I save the orbs I have (and farm as many as I can since I still haven't beat all four story modes on hard or lunatic yet) for that banner? At least on the surface the current banners don't look too appealing...like you're just hoping for a rando not the banner characters themselves. Any thoughts? Or should I be trying for Kris and Kris? Am I missing a really amazing skill or character? I randomly got Lena on my free summon, or one of the two bond tickets I unlocked...which was kinda cool. I don't know that I will use her, but it was lucky!

How you spend Orbs is up to you.

While colorless CYL units are all pretty good, the colored CYL units are generally not all that amazing at launch and they are at best okay. When Brave Heroes was first released, the only decent unit was BH!Lyn; BH!Roy was not really that amazing back then since there was a lack of modes that required multiple teams, and BH!Ike and BH!Lucina were simply crap. After their Weapon Refinements though, all Brave Heroes units are pretty good. For Arrival of the Brave units, only AOTB!Veronica is really relevant in the meta game; AOTB!Celica is not too bad as a Wings of Mercy Galeforcer, but she cannot lead a Galeforce team herself, which makes her worse than Ogma in my opinion; AOTB!Ephraim and AOTB!Hector were not particularly good back then and they are still not good now. For Brave Echoes, BE!Camilla is pretty decent since has pretty heavy firepower as a Firesweep staff unit, but the others are okay at best; BE!Micaiah's vanilla kit is meh at best and I have not seen Pheonixmaster1 use her to the same degree as he has used BH!Lyn and AOTB!Veronica in his guides; BE!Alm and BE!Eliwood are pretty forgettable.

M!Kris and F!Kris are nice, but not particularly game changing. Spurn is good though, and it is better than Repel and Close Call in my opinion since there is no after combat movement to mess up your positioning. If you are building Brave Heroes Ike for Aether Raids, I recommend getting Spurn.

[jameslove001]

24 minutes ago, XRay said:

How you spend Orbs is up to you.

While colorless CYL units are all pretty good, the colored CYL units are generally not all that amazing at launch and they are at best okay. When Brave Heroes was first released, the only decent unit was BH!Lyn; BH!Roy was not really that amazing back then since there was a lack of modes that required multiple teams, and BH!Ike and BH!Lucina were simply crap. After their Weapon Refinements though, all Brave Heroes units are pretty good. For Arrival of the Brave units, only AOTB!Veronica is really relevant in the meta game; AOTB!Celica is not too bad as a Wings of Mercy Galeforcer, but she cannot lead a Galeforce team herself, which makes her worse than Ogma in my opinion; AOTB!Ephraim and AOTB!Hector were not particularly good back then and they are still not good now. For Brave Echoes, BE!Camilla is pretty decent since has pretty heavy firepower as a Firesweep staff unit, but the others are okay at best; BE!Micaiah's vanilla kit is meh at best and I have not seen Pheonixmaster1 use her to the same degree as he has used BH!Lyn and AOTB!Veronica in his guides; BE!Alm and BE!Eliwood are pretty forgettable.

M!Kris and F!Kris are nice, but not particularly game changing. Spurn is good though, and it is better than Repel and Close Call in my opinion since there is no after combat movement to mess up your positioning. If you are building Brave Heroes Ike for Aether Raids, I recommend getting Spurn.

I totally get how I spend orbs is up to me. But as a married dude with a kid, another on the way, a full-time job and finishing a doctorate...I just don't have time to research every unit/banner like I would like. So, I rely on super helpful people like you. This analysis...GOLD! If I had a bit more spare time on my hand I think I would be researching everything looking at likability of certain heroes, but as it is I just want to spend orbs in a better place to invest than a banner that isn't likely to give me much. I also heard that August will probably be Three Houses focused...so that may change everything for me since it and Radiant Dawn are my two favorite titles.

46 minutes ago, Humanoid said:

In terms of odds, the chances of getting something from the CYL banner isn't any higher than it is for any other banner, though the quality of the individual units should be higher on average.

Personally I would look to have a reserve of about 150 orbs in order to get the guaranteed 5-star pull. Using more than that will be subject to diminishing returns, especially since the same units will likely be re-run with better odds as part of the anniversary celebrations in February.

But yeah, if you're not particularly fond of Kris then hold on to your orbs for now. There's a distinct possibility of a Hero Fest featuring Sothis in a couple of week's time as well.

I like having that 150 number in front of me. It helps me figure out which way to go. I have 100 already. I have worked through Hard for Book 1, and am working on hard for Book 2, so I obviously have time to get 50 more. And thanks for talking about the Sothis banner. I have her, but would be nice to get more copies. You two are brilliant. Thanks!

[Kaden]

7 hours ago, jameslove001 said:

Or should I be trying for Kris and Kris? Am I missing a really amazing skill or character?

M!Kris is another fast, "modern" sword infantry with good all-around stats everywhere else besides being fast. His stats are the closest to Larcei, but because of Blade of Shadow, he's more comparable to Shannan. M!Kris has -1 HP and +1 Atk over Larcei, so they're pretty much the same. The difference is his weapon is more for enemy phase while Larcei's weapon can be used on either phase more easily and she has an exclusive special, Regnal Astra which you might have seen if you played when her mother Ayra was introduced. M!Kris's Blade of Shadow trades Spd+3 for a Killer effect, special cooldown count-1 which is arguably more versatile than a stat boost compared to Shannan's Balmung and he also does not have Imperial Astra which has the same effect as Regnal Astra, but M!Kris has a higher base speed than Shannan and his defenses are more balanced at 30/25 compared to Shannan's 37/18 letting M!Kris be a better mixed tank. Due to winning the vote, both the banner Larcei and Shannan debuted in will be re-run along with the Forging Bonds in September, so you can that time around, do 40 summons and get a guaranteed pick if you want a sword infantry like M!Kris, but don't really want M!Kris. Source: https://twitter.com/FE_Heroes_EN/status/1283687821903982592.

F!Kris is a lance infantry and a fast one which is rare partly because there are not a lot of lance infantry in the game. She follows merchant Anna from Awakening as the second lance infantry with 40 base neutral speed. Between the two, F!Kris has +2 HP, +2 Atk, +2 Def, and -6 Res. Your next best bet for a fast lance infantry in the 3* to 4* summoning pool are +Spd Donnel and Sharena who both have 32 base speed where Donnel's recently new prf lance is prf Brave Lance which some people were not happy about as some of them inherited more enemy phase lances like Barrier/Berkut's Lance or Casa Blanca and Sharena like Alfonse and commander Anna do not have access to merges. If you can get one of these 5* units where some are seasonal or are not in the summoning pool for new heroes banners, then CYL Lucina (36), Nephenee (35), summer F!Robin (34), Azura (33), bride Charlotte (32), and Fjorm (31) who you would go for +Spd so she could have 33 base speed. Back to F!Kris, she has the same stat spread and her Spear of Shadow has the same effect as Blade of Shadow, so she's fast, has good all-around other stats, and Spear of Shadow can let her be a speed tank who has decent mixed bulk, but the Killer effect also makes it flexible so she can run a more offensive build if you would like. Merchant Anna's Apotheosis Spear has Spd+3, lets her move to a space adjacent to an ally within 2 spaces, and she gets Atk/Spd+5 if her foe's HP is >= 75%. So, merchant Anna's fast and she can sort of warp around, but her defenses are slightly better at least in resistance than F!Kris that had she also gotten defense boosts that she might have done better being able to be a speedy mixed tank with her weapon because otherwise, inheriting Barrier/Berkut's Lance, Casa Blanca, Slaying Lance, or Vanguard might be better for her. To sum, in addition to her own merits, F!Kris being an underpopulated unit type really lets her stand out unlike M!Kris. Now, whether or not you want or need a lance infantry like her is up to you. People have been speculating if CYL Dimitri might be a lance infantry if not his whenever it will happen legendary self since Dimitri was initially introduced as a lance cavalry and at least with Edelgard, she was introduced as an axe infantry and her legendary self was introduced as an axe armor.

Julian's also good since he has the highest base neutral attack for a dagger infantry, but if you invested in Sothe who is a 3* to 4* unit, Julian might not be that worth it unless you really like Julian and want to someday get him to +10. Things like inheriting Broadleaf Fan, the Cleaner, or Ouch Pouch come to mind for having them inherit a different dagger. There's also the possibility of Sothe being part of a weapon update in the near future, so his Peshkatz could do some really neat that makes it stand out and be more worth it to run on him than Broadleaf Fan.

If you're interesting on my thoughts on CYL Eliwood, it's the last paragraph.

5 hours ago, XRay said:

AOTB!Celica is not too bad as a Wings of Mercy Galeforcer, but she cannot lead a Galeforce team herself, which makes her worse than Ogma in my opinion

That's a first, especially with the comparison with Ogma. I figured CYL Celica's shtick because of Royal Sword's not that great effects was that with Double Lion she could, at full health, Brave with any weapon and that can let her be an anti-armor unit and given that she comes with Death Blow 4 or whatever else like having Slaying Edge and Heavy/Flashing Blade as her seal to let her charge Galeforce without needing to double or take a hit when Double Lion is active. Replacing Double Lion with Wings of Mercy to me at that point I would rather use any other fast sword infantry for Galeforce like fallen Mareeta or Navarre where fallen Mareeta has reverse Desperation on her Shadow Sword and Navarre's Scarlet Sword and its Quickened Pulse 2 unique refinement drops Galeforce's cooldown to 2 on turn 1, so both can easily proc Galeforce with Flashing Blade as their seal. Otherwise, CYL Celica would just be another fast sword infantry from gen 2 and if you wanted to use someone with a similar stat spread to her, but was easier to merge, then there's Lon'qu where his slightly lower attack is easily made up by Solitary Blade's L&D3 unique refinement and Rutger whose only differences compared to CYL Celica are not having a prf sword, although he has Slaying Edge by default, and having +6 HP and -1 Atk where the extra HP should be fine for him to get into Wings of Mercy range. Rutger would need to take a hit from someone with at least 51 Atk for physical damage or 46 Atk for magic and with L&D3 which is cheap and is fine given his HP, then 46 Atk for physical or 41 Atk for magical.

Now I'm interesting on what you think or would consider a build for Ogma. All I know is stat-wise, he dumped resistance for everything else, while not as great nowadays, his 35/34 offenses is still fine, and that he has Gladiator's Blade has Heavy Blade and its unique refinement is Atk/Spd Bond 2 that only works on flier and infantry allies within 2 spaces.

5 hours ago, XRay said:

BE!Micaiah's vanilla kit is meh at best and I have not seen Pheonixmaster1 use her to the same degree as he has used BH!Lyn and AOTB!Veronica in his guides

I feel like part of that is because when CYL Micaiah was introduced, the later F2P units we got after her were good or offered so much like Peony was introduced 4 months after her, Heroes's Path was introduced a month after her and included a 5* Reinhardt who was the first unit you got from completing the first task, and there's Brunnya, Itsuki, Mininerva, and soiree Rinea. And some F2P guide makers who phased out CYL Lyn after guaranteed pick CYL1 banner expired replaced her with bride Louise who might not have Sacae's Blessing to cheese DC units or can negate field buffs on mages, but has comparable offenses partly made up by Bouquet Bow's Swift Sparrow 2 effect and planned positioning to bait or do whatever is easier for PvE maps since you can try them over and over until the right steps are figured out which makes her Atk/Spd Bond not that limiting compared to in PvP modes.

CYL Micaiah's effective damage against armors and cavalry is good, but very niche. Still more versatile than a fellow CYL3 unit, though. To sum, I think it's a reflection of the growth in options going from CYL1 to CYL2 to CYL3. We have so many more options and good ones at that. CYL Lyn was the best thing ever being the first cavalry archer a player could summon and then we got Fjorm and later vanguard Ike as guaranteed gen 2 units with Distant Counter, CYL Veronica was the first and still the only cavalry healer with a prf staff and one that is pretty damn good, and CYL3 offered a the second flying healer with a prf staff or a flying mage with effective damage against armor and cavalry. Both are great options, but not as impactful as CYL Lyn and CYL Veronica were. CYL4 has to offer something so substantial compared Fjorm, vanguard Ike, Eir, Reinhardt, and Peony in addition to mage knight Eirika and CYL Ike as they are also part of the Heroes's Paths or or even Brunnya, Itsuki, bride Louise, Mininerva, or soiree Rinea much less CYL Lyn and CYL Veronica and even more limited, Altina. The only thing I can think of is some kind of Galeforce unit like legendary Edelgard but without armor movement or legendary Leif, a Galeforce ranged unit or extreme damage reduction that makes CYL Ike look like Delthea, Elise, Kagero before getting her Dart or a debuffed Lon'qu or Raven -- borderline 0 defenses -- in terms of squishiness. I haven't played Three Houses, but I don't think that would make sense for Claude, Dimitri, or Lysithea and there's a chance CYL Edelgard could end up being armored again. Claude as a flying archer with Galeforce would probably be the best thing ever and even then, maybe even that wouldn't be considered great and he'd just be the CYL4 pick "everyone" agrees on for F2P.

5 hours ago, XRay said:

BE!Eliwood are pretty forgettable.

This is mainly for @jameslove001, CYL Eliwood's niche is, well, niche. Effective damage against beasts and dragons is unique, but that's it as there are only four units with effective damage against beasts: him, picnic Felicia, picnic Flora, and Petra, and only two lance units with effective damage against dragons: him and CYL Lucina with a refined Geirskogul. Spectrum Blow is great along with his default Swift Sparrow 3, but for a Galeforce build, he might just one-shot someone, especially beast or dragon, and fail to proc Galeforce. Another issue is that like his legendary self for some reason, he leans towards having high defense over resistance instead of at least even defenses as against dragons or healers and mages with Close Counter, he has 22 Res on initiation with Ninis's Ice Lance or 18 Res on enemy phase or with a different weapon that doesn't boost his resistance. Sothis negates effective damage against dragons on her where taking on her green armor self doesn't need to be discussed, but against her red infantry self if he somehow fails to kill her in one shot, he's going to die. Neutral Sothis has 50 Atk which becomes 40 due to weapon triangle disadvantage, but she's likely to proc Sirius on counter which with her 39 Spd gives her 11 damage and she's also likely to be in Wrath range after taking a hit and surviving against CYL Eliwood, so that's 10 damage dealt for 61 total damage. That's 1 point off from one-shotting CYL Eliwood on counter as he has 62 total magical bulk from his 40 HP + 18 Res + Ninis's Lance Atk/Spd/Def/Res+4 Spectrum Blow. He in turn deals 43 damage to her from his 63 Atk which becomes 75 and against her 32 Def, that's 43 damage, 3 damage over her 40 HP. He would also double her if she is adjacent to someone with her default Atk/Spd Solo 3 as he has 49 Spd on initiation from his 35 Spd, Ninis's Ice Lance's Spd+3 and Atk/Spd/Def/Res+4 Spectrum Blow. It's blue vs. red, but with just a little bit of more attack and defense, Sothis takes advantage of Eliwood's low resistance.

Sirius and Perceval have prf Slaying Lances where Sirius essentially swaps offenses compared to CYL Eliwood with his 34/37 offenses compared to CYL Eliwood's 37/35 and has Spectrum Solo instead of Spectrum Blow as his other effect, but his resistance is even worse than CYL Eliwood's by 2 points which is mitigated by both Sirius and Perceval having Lull Atk/Spd 3 by default. Perceval has lower attack than the two with his 32/37 offenses, but has better mixed bulk with his 28/27 defenses and while he's reliant on fighting foes at full health for his other effect to work, he also gets Atk/Spd/Def/Res+4 and inflicts special cooldown charge -1 (Guard) on his foe.

[XRay]

5 hours ago, Kaden said:

That's a first, especially with the comparison with Ogma. I figured CYL Celica's shtick because of Royal Sword's not that great effects was that with Double Lion she could, at full health, Brave with any weapon and that can let her be an anti-armor unit and given that she comes with Death Blow 4 or whatever else like having Slaying Edge and Heavy/Flashing Blade as her seal to let her charge Galeforce without needing to double or take a hit when Double Lion is active. Replacing Double Lion with Wings of Mercy to me at that point I would rather use any other fast sword infantry for Galeforce like fallen Mareeta or Navarre where fallen Mareeta has reverse Desperation on her Shadow Sword and Navarre's Scarlet Sword and its Quickened Pulse 2 unique refinement drops Galeforce's cooldown to 2 on turn 1, so both can easily proc Galeforce with Flashing Blade as their seal. Otherwise, CYL Celica would just be another fast sword infantry from gen 2 and if you wanted to use someone with a similar stat spread to her, but was easier to merge, then there's Lon'qu where his slightly lower attack is easily made up by Solitary Blade's L&D3 unique refinement and Rutger whose only differences compared to CYL Celica are not having a prf sword, although he has Slaying Edge by default, and having +6 HP and -1 Atk where the extra HP should be fine for him to get into Wings of Mercy range. Rutger would need to take a hit from someone with at least 51 Atk for physical damage or 46 Atk for magic and with L&D3 which is cheap and is fine given his HP, then 46 Atk for physical or 41 Atk for magical.

Double Lion is not that great in my opinion since you could only use it once reliably. If the player uses AOTB!Celica as the lead Galeforcer to keep Double Lion, that means she eats up Heavy Blade on the Sacred Seal slot. I think she is better off just skipping Double Lion and run Wings of Mercy. The only issue with being a Wings of Mercy Galeforcer is that she cannot lead a Galeforce team due to Royal Sword needing an ally nearby.

Ogma on the other hand can both lead a Galeforce team and swoop in with Wings of Mercy, so he is a lot more flexible.

While Lon'qu is really good stat wise for performance, I think Ogma is more useful in practice since he does not need Heavy Blade or Flashing Blade on the Sacred Seal slot. In my opinion, freeing up the Sacred Seal is more important than raw stats and combat performance.

5 hours ago, Kaden said:

Now I'm interesting on what you think or would consider a build for Ogma. All I know is stat-wise, he dumped resistance for everything else, while not as great nowadays, his 35/34 offenses is still fine, and that he has Gladiator's Blade has Heavy Blade and its unique refinement is Atk/Spd Bond 2 that only works on flier and infantry allies within 2 spaces.

+Spd
Gladiator's Blade
Reposition
Galeforce
(Any A that boosts Spd or Atk/Spd)
Wings of Mercy — Null Follow-Up* — Desperation*
(Any C) — Atk Smoke — Spd Smoke — Drive Atk — Drive Spd — Infantry Rush* — Infantry Flash*
(Any Sacred Seal that boosts Spd or Atk/Spd)
* If he is a dedicated lead Galeforcer.

Skills marked with * is only if he is the dedicated lead Galeforcer for the team. It does not really make sense to run Infantry Rush and Infantry Flash on an infantry Galeforce team if the team does not have a dedicated lead Galeforcer, since point in running those skills is so that Wings of Mercy Galeforcers do not have to run Heavy Blade or Flashing Blade.

6 hours ago, Kaden said:

Now I'm interesting on what you think or would consider a build for Ogma. All I know is stat-wise, he dumped resistance for everything else, while not as great nowadays, his 35/34 offenses is still fine, and that he has Gladiator's Blade has Heavy Blade and its unique refinement is Atk/Spd Bond 2 that only works on flier and infantry allies within 2 spaces.

In my opinion, BE!Micaiah's problem is that she is double dipping as both a support unit and a combat unit. If she is going full combat, she should not be running Yune's Whisper. Similarly, if she is going full support, she should run Madness Flask over Light of Dawn for more Res. Double dipping makes her worse in both roles. I think a team that is clearly divided between combat units and support units is better than a team of generalists with a hodgepodge mix of skills that tries to do both.

For free guides, I am not convinced Light of Dawn is that great since the extra damage from effectiveness can simply be substituted with Gronnblade. While Yune's Whisper is sort of reliable in the sense that there will always be clumps of enemies, it is also woefully insufficient because there are scattered enemy reinforcements coming from all sides, so debuffing a clump of enemies over-there-yonder does not really help the fact that your team is being flanked on the sides and from behind by enemies immediately close by. Compared to Guidance, Ground Orders is also kind of hard to use since the allies need to be adjacent to get the effect.

[Kaden]

3 hours ago, XRay said:

Double Lion is not that great in my opinion since you could only use it once reliably. If the player uses AOTB!Celica as the lead Galeforcer to keep Double Lion, that means she eats up Heavy Blade on the Sacred Seal slot. I think she is better off just skipping Double Lion and run Wings of Mercy. The only issue with being a Wings of Mercy Galeforcer is that she cannot lead a Galeforce team due to Royal Sword needing an ally nearby.

I do not disagree with Double Lion being not that great and I forgot to expand by detailing that her shtick was more for Arena, Arena Assault, or some sort thing where you have her at full health, Brave someone with Double Lion, and that's it. Not the greatest thing to be able to do, but being able to Brave with any sword of her picking is still useful, albeit, in limited situations.

3 hours ago, XRay said:

While Lon'qu is really good stat wise for performance, I think Ogma is more useful in practice since he does not need Heavy Blade or Flashing Blade on the Sacred Seal slot. In my opinion, freeing up the Sacred Seal is more important than raw stats and combat performance.

To which my point of bringing up Lon'qu, fallen Mareeta, Navarre, and Rutger is like you bringing up Ogma: any other fast sword infantry would probably be better than CYL Celica for Wings of Mercy Galeforce. Skills get replaced all the time, but I figure that with CYL Celica being a 5* locked unit and one who if the developers repeat their exasperating decision to remove the gen 2 and possibly gen 3 5* units from future new heroes banners then her being even more difficult to summon is not worth it unless you really like her and this version of her. Stats aren't everything, but it would be easier to get a lot of copies of Lon'qu, Navarre, Ogma, Rutger, or Silvia and for the non-grail units, get the asset you want on them.

3 hours ago, XRay said:

+Spd
Gladiator's Blade
Reposition
Galeforce
(Any A that boosts Spd or Atk/Spd)
Wings of Mercy — Null Follow-Up* — Desperation*
(Any C) — Atk Smoke — Spd Smoke — Drive Atk — Drive Spd — Infantry Rush* — Infantry Flash*
(Any Sacred Seal that boosts Spd or Atk/Spd)
* If he is a dedicated lead Galeforcer.

Skills marked with * is only if he is the dedicated lead Galeforcer for the team. It does not really make sense to run Infantry Rush and Infantry Flash on an infantry Galeforce team if the team does not have a dedicated lead Galeforcer, since point in running those skills is so that Wings of Mercy Galeforcers do not have to run Heavy Blade or Flashing Blade.

I'm guessing in general choose the speed refine for Gladiator's Blade, but if you can work with the position and team requirements, then run the unique refinement.

3 hours ago, XRay said:

For free guides, I am not convinced Light of Dawn is that great since the extra damage from effectiveness can simply be substituted with Gronnblade. While Yune's Whisper is sort of reliable in the sense that there will always be clumps of enemies, it is also woefully insufficient because there are scattered enemy reinforcements coming from all sides, so debuffing a clump of enemies over-there-yonder does not really help the fact that your team is being flanked on the sides and from behind by enemies immediately close by. Compared to Guidance, Ground Orders is also kind of hard to use since the allies need to be adjacent to get the effect.

F2P guides usually and even in the face of abyssal maps try to not have units inherit skills if possible. Even with minor or common things, some people try and succeed in making F2P guides for the toughest of challenges. Granted, recent F2P units are coming with decent if not good skills or at least have the stats or something to back up maybe not having the best of skills like soiree Rinea could have had a supportive C passive instead of Bracing Blow, but Distant Guard on her Silver Goblet and being a recent, ranged dancer without as compromised of a BST penalty as in the past more than makes up for not having a C passive. In her case, she can run a seal to cover for not having a C passive, but if she had a Fortify or Spur, then that probably would have been more helpful that having Bracing Blow. Anyway, it's not like back in the day when we had stuff like Defiant Res on Virion or L&D and Wary Fighter on Zephiel.

I was primarily addressing CYL Micaiah's use in F2P guides. She's specific at what she does and that's fine, but that does limit her compared to the F2P units of which we have more versatile or very useful options now and continuing on. I do remember her being used at least once in さるGames's Chain Challenge guides for chapters with a lot of armor or cavalry units like Paralogues 39-40 and for me, she's usually picked for Arena Assault when I need an anti-armor and anti-cavalry unit or a mage tank. Otherwise, yeah, she floats about with her ghost pal.

The Chain Challenge guide if you're interested in seeing being used: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yn0vOglhZSc.

Edited July 24, 2020 by Kaden

[XRay]

5 hours ago, Kaden said:

I'm guessing in general choose the speed refine for Gladiator's Blade, but if you can work with the position and team requirements, then run the unique refinement.

Yeah, forgot the Refinement part. Spd Refine is better for Ogma if you want him to have the option to lead. Special Refine is only if he is not the lead.

5 hours ago, Kaden said:

To which my point of bringing up Lon'qu, fallen Mareeta, Navarre, and Rutger is like you bringing up Ogma: any other fast sword infantry would probably be better than CYL Celica for Wings of Mercy Galeforce. Skills get replaced all the time, but I figure that with CYL Celica being a 5* locked unit and one who if the developers repeat their exasperating decision to remove the gen 2 and possibly gen 3 5* units from future new heroes banners then her being even more difficult to summon is not worth it unless you really like her and this version of her. Stats aren't everything, but it would be easier to get a lot of copies of Lon'qu, Navarre, Ogma, Rutger, or Silvia and for the non-grail units, get the asset you want on them.

I think it is important to highlight the difference between units like Lon'qu and units like Ogma. I think Lon'qu and Rutger are a tier below Ogma, Navarre, and AOTB!Celica. I specifically mentioned Ogma because he has Heavy Blade on his Weapon to free up the Sacred Seal for better team compositions. In my opinion, AOTB!Celica would be better than Lon'qu and Rutger because she does not need Heavy Blade nor Flashing Blade.

Being able to field multiple Galeforcers on multiple teams requires rationing of Heavy Blade and Flashing Blade Sacred Seal, which is why I think any melee unit that comes with Heavy Blade or something similar is better than units that do not come with it.

Edited July 24, 2020 by XRay

[jameslove001]

@XRay and @Kaden This has been quite a useful thread to read. I have characters like Lon'qu, Ogma, Navarre just sitting on the bench using Legendary Ike as my primary source (which I realize is probably not the best sword, but I like his distant defense since again, I play a more defensive style of play). I think I am also learning I need to research what a Galeforce team is. I think being a F2P I just learn how to use specific characters and adapt and plug and play someone else if I am struggling. 

I am also reading that some units that I don't care for are great in certain modes. For instance, I found out that Reyson is an "S" tier character for Aether Keeps, so am working on him right now specifically to add with Tibarn and Eir.

[Flying Shogi]

What are some non-staff support units that I can build in the 3*/4* pool? I've +10'd Titania and I'm waiting on copies for Seth. Still waiting on good assets for Marth and M!Corrin so they're on the back burner for now. Any other units good for support that I can look into for budget builds?  

Edited July 25, 2020 by Flying Shogi

[Kaden]

7 hours ago, Flying Shogi said:

What are some non-staff support units that I can build in the 3*/4* pool? I've +10'd Titania and I'm waiting on copies for Seth. Still waiting on good assets for Marth and M!Corrin so they're on the back burner for now. Any other units good for support that I can look into for budget builds?  

To what extent do you mean with build? Heavy investment like +10 and giving them uncommon skills, 5* and giving them skills you want on them for support, or a one and done deal like 5* a Virion and have him learn his Dignified Bow to get Sudden Panic unit?

Edited July 25, 2020 by Kaden

[Flying Shogi]

23 minutes ago, Kaden said:

To what extent do you mean with build? Heavy investment like +10 and giving them uncommon skills, 5* and giving them skills you want on them for support, or a one and done deal like 5* a Virion and have him learn his to Dignified Bow to get Sudden Panic unit?

Mostly one and done budget builds but I'm willing to give them 2 merges and use them a little bit based on their own merits to see how well they fare as a unit.