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

[XRay]

8 hours ago, Sil/phire said:

i'm not sure how blade tomes work. do they count visible bonuses or in-combat bonuses, or both? I was thinking it would be similar to Bonus Doubler, which only counts visible buffs, so i thought it would only be stuff like rouse and rally skills. but i noticed my unit is getting very widely varying numbers during combat so i'm confused, i have never played with blade tomes before.

Besides skills that nullifies bonuses, there are also in combat buffs/debuffs such as Drives and Reins, and there are some units out there that can manipulate stats farther or even across the map like Plumeria: Temptations Anew (Atk+4, Atk-4; 3 spaces), Peony (Atk/Spd+3; cardinal directions), Mirabilis (Atk/Def/Res-3; three columns), etc.

8 hours ago, Sil/phire said:

speaking of tomes, which are the best generic tomes? I just realized how good Floral Guide is and i lost my chance to get some fodder on the last summer banner, so if you could tell what some good ones are, for any or all of the three colors, i would appreacite it so i can keep an eye out for those. So, is there any chance summer lute may show up on a special heroes banner later this year?

For nuking, Blade tomes are the best in my opinion. Any exclusive tome that does not have Slaying or Null Follow-Up should also be replaced by Blade tomes. Fox tomes are okay if you really need the speed, but you are losing out on 21 Atk (assuming all stats+6) for a gain of 6 Spd (assuming Spd Refine). For PvE modes, you generally do not need that much Spd, but you do need the Atk due to the high bulk. In PvP modes though, Blade tomes are still good, but there are tanks designed to survive and kill a lot of nukes, so you want to bring some sort of Firesweeper or at least somebody with Windsweep/Watersweep to handle problematic enemies.

Special Heroes Foci get reruns every year, so I would not worry about missing out on it. As for Floral Guide, while it is good, I do not think it is worth spending Orbs on when Blárblade is so much cheaper. Compared to Blárblade, you are losing out on 20 Atk for a gain of 7 Spd.

Edited August 1, 2021 by XRay

[Sil/phire]

well flying units are probably the units i use the most and the unit i'm experimenting with is a flying blue tome, S!Corrin. this particular type of unit (flying tome) seems pretty restricted in their skill access; there's no NFU, no lulls, no rouse, no spurn,  and no tempest skills for them or even special spiral. i can't even use galeforce. here i was already to use up one Shamir for fodder. i hadn't done tome fliers before so i didn't realize how narrow their skill choices are. So i ended up looking at their tomes because, well, her default tome is a joke, so i ended up with the blade. I have placed her on a dedicated team with Peony, NY Plumeria, and normal Plumeria, all of them running Goad Flyers and yeah, the numbers are kind of everywhere, sometimes she's getting +10 Atk and others +40 so that's been a bit tricky to figure out.

But really, can this sort of unit be build for a more or less independent, offensive role? I have a halloween Nowi i have been thinking of too and she's also a tome, although in her case her tome actually seems competent which alone may be enough to make her work. I also have a flying Nino, and she's a more popular unit i think, but i have not paid attention to builds people use for her. It feels like outside of flyers-only teams, these type units would struggle alot without plentiful support, but even for a flyers team, melee flyers seem alot stronger.

[XRay]

2 hours ago, Sil/phire said:

well flying units are probably the units i use the most and the unit i'm experimenting with is a flying blue tome, S!Corrin. this particular type of unit (flying tome) seems pretty restricted in their skill access; there's no NFU, no lulls, no rouse, no spurn,  and no tempest skills for them or even special spiral. i can't even use galeforce. here i was already to use up one Shamir for fodder. i hadn't done tome fliers before so i didn't realize how narrow their skill choices are. So i ended up looking at their tomes because, well, her default tome is a joke, so i ended up with the blade. I have placed her on a dedicated team with Peony, NY Plumeria, and normal Plumeria, all of them running Goad Flyers and yeah, the numbers are kind of everywhere, sometimes she's getting +10 Atk and others +40 so that's been a bit tricky to figure out.

But really, can this sort of unit be build for a more or less independent, offensive role? I have a halloween Nowi i have been thinking of too and she's also a tome, although in her case her tome actually seems competent which alone may be enough to make her work. I also have a flying Nino, and she's a more popular unit i think, but i have not paid attention to builds people use for her. It feels like outside of flyers-only teams, these type units would struggle alot without plentiful support, but even for a flyers team, melee flyers seem alot stronger.

Generally speaking, you want to use bonus buffs like Tactics and/or Hones on player phase teams, not in combat buffs like Drives or Goads. In combat buffs are enemy phase team oriented, where positioning during combat is easier to control and manage. Player phase teams need to move around a lot, and often far away from allies, so it is not practicable to use Drives and Goads.

If you are serious about doing player phase, I highly recommend getting Azura: Vallite Songstress. While Peony is pretty good, Azura: Vallite Songstress is on a whole other level and she is what makes Blade mages really shine.

And for most nukes with decent Spd, you do not want to run anything on the B slot other than Desperation. There is no point in running Null Follow-Up, Lulls, nor Spurn if the nuke eventually dies from counter attacks, and those skills are generally run on dual phase units with much higher bulk and have more specialized support to make them work. Rouse is not ideal either due to its positioning requirement clashing with how player phase teams are positioned.

If you are building a Blade mage, the following is generally the most optimal setup for the vast majority of them:
+Spd
Blade tome
Reposition
Moonbow — Ruptured Sky
(Any A that boosts Atk/Spd)
Desperation
Spd/Res Rein — Savage Blow — Res Smoke
(Any Sacred Seal that boosts Atk/Spd)
Double Brazen Atk/Spd will give you the most stat boost. For ease of use though, I recommend Fury on A and Brazen Atk/Spd on Sacred Seal, as the recoil damage helps you enter Wings of Mercy range more easily.

For your flying player phase team, if you do not have the Orbs to spend on Azura: Vallite Songstress nor Hone Fliers, you will need to run one of each of the following: Fortify Fliers (Caeda), Atk Opening (Tatiana), and Spd Opening (Erk). How you distribute them to your Dancers/Singers does not really matter, as long as you remember to use the Dancer/Singer with Fortify Fliers last, since you need that Dancer/Singer to be next to the nuke to power them up at the start of next turn.

Nowi: Eternal Witch with her exclusive Weapon is not the kind of nuke that can carry a team. Her Weapon is more suited on defense under the control of the AI to surprise players by sniping support units.

I would not bother with Nino: Pale Flower's exclusive Weapon. Even at max investment, she is only getting an extra 14 or 15 damage, quite a bit less than Gronnblade's 24. If she is near an ally, she can get it up to 18 or 19, but that is not something consistent to rely on.

Edited August 1, 2021 by XRay

[Othin]

I used Blarblade Summer Corrin to great effect a while ago, although I've stopped using her now that there are better options. In particular, Legendary Leif has taken over as my go to for Abyssal maps. 

[Faellin]

Is there an actual difference between male and female Kris in terms of unit performance?

Got a female Kris from one of my hero fest tickets. And considering their stats and pref weapon are completely identical. And the most common build is the one I use on male Kris, the whole DC / spurn combo. (I even have male Kris merged up to +3)

So not really sure if I should keep her, since M:Kris is one of my most used units right now. But at the same time she came up +speed -HP which is an absolute perfect IV setup so foddering that would be kind of a waste

[Othin]

3 minutes ago, Faellin said:

Is there an actual difference between male and female Kris in terms of unit performance?

Got a female Kris from one of my hero fest tickets. And considering their stats and pref weapon are completely identical. And the most common build is the one I use on male Kris, the whole DC / spurn combo. (I even have male Kris merged up to +3)

So not really sure if I should keep her, since M:Kris is one of my most used units right now. But at the same time she came up +speed -HP which is an absolute perfect IV setup so foddering that would be kind of a waste

They're different colors, and color is significant. 

[XRay]

1 hour ago, Faellin said:

Is there an actual difference between male and female Kris in terms of unit performance?

Got a female Kris from one of my hero fest tickets. And considering their stats and pref weapon are completely identical. And the most common build is the one I use on male Kris, the whole DC / spurn combo. (I even have male Kris merged up to +3)

So not really sure if I should keep her, since M:Kris is one of my most used units right now. But at the same time she came up +speed -HP which is an absolute perfect IV setup so foddering that would be kind of a waste

I recommend keeping her. As @Othin has said, color makes quite a difference. In Limited Hero Battles, it helps a lot to have a variety of units for each game, especially tanks and dual phase units.

In Aether Raids, color matters much less for super tanks, but that is only because they have a ton of support from other units backing them up to make disadvantage matchups not as punishing.

[Xenomata]

Something I don't have a way of testing right now, does the effects of Wedding Caeda's Triangle Attack bonus trigger if the unit in question is near one of the Whitewing sisters with their refined Prfs, or does it need to be units who have been granted the Triangle Attack bonus?

[Ice Dragon]

6 minutes ago, Xenomata said:

Something I don't have a way of testing right now, does the effects of Wedding Caeda's Triangle Attack bonus trigger if the unit in question is near one of the Whitewing sisters with their refined Prfs, or does it need to be units who have been granted the Triangle Attack bonus?

I needs to be the Triangle Attack status effect. And I assume you mean Catria.

[Xenomata]

10 minutes ago, Ice Dragon said:

I needs to be the Triangle Attack status effect. And I assume you mean Catria.

Yep I don't know why I said Caeda, that's a completely different unit. Also damn, there goes that idea...

[Faellin]

Has anyone tried the new dark mysletain refine on Eldigan yet? If so, how is it for him?

Been wanting to put some use in for him for quite some time now (Plus I just got a 4 star focus copy of him a few days ago to finally patch up his defense bane), and with this refine coming out. I thought i'd finally do so.

Edited August 4, 2021 by Faellin

[Ice Dragon]

38 minutes ago, Faellin said:

Has anyone tried the new dark mysletain refine on Eldigan yet? If so, how is it for him?

Been wanting to put some use in for him for quite some time now (Plus I just got a 4 star focus copy of him a few days ago to finally patch up his defense bane), and with this refine coming out. I thought i'd finally do so.

In practice, Eldigan and Ares are basically the same.

If you don't have the Resplendent outfit, Ares is always slightly better, dealing 1.5 damage more than Eldigan on average on a Bonfire activation.

If you have the Resplendent outfit, Eldigan is still behind Ares by 0.5 damage on a Bonfire activation assuming they have the same additional stats from merges and Dragonflowers and whatnot (noting for merges that aren't +0, +5, or +10 that Def is Eldigan's 3rd merge stat, but is Ares's 4th merge stat).

 

Other than that, the refine is basically just +14.5 damage on a Bonfire compared to before the refine.

Edited August 4, 2021 by Ice Dragon

[Othin]

How effective are people finding Safety Fence so far?

[Roflolxp54]

On 8/4/2021 at 4:54 AM, Othin said:

How effective are people finding Safety Fence so far?

As the Safety Fence currently is, it's useless most of the time. When it does become useful, you're pretty much required to have some Galeforce cavalry unit that can snipe an enemy unit, get Galeforce off, and retreat to safety -- all on turn 1 (so Eliwood with Galeforce and Escape Route or Yarne could work for this role). You may potentially be screwed if the Safety Fence gets caught out by Duma/catapult.

Separate question:
Is this Forma Nino worth keeping? I got her Pact Blooms, Ruptured Sky, Distant Def 4, Vengeful Fighter (couldn't get Slick Fighter or Crafty Fighter on her in HoF), and A/R Far Save. I've done some calcs but it's looking like I may possibly skip since without Crafty Fighter and additional Mythic Heroes (for Light season, I only have Freyja and the F2P ones meaning there are seasons I could only use 2 of them rather than all 3), it's very much possible for her to die to Valentine's Lif.

Edited August 6, 2021 by Roflolxp54

[XRay]

23 hours ago, Roflolxp54 said:

Separate question:
Is this Forma Nino worth keeping? I got her Pact Blooms, Ruptured Sky, Distant Def 4, Vengeful Fighter (couldn't get Slick Fighter or Crafty Fighter on her in HoF), and A/R Far Save. I've done some calcs but it's looking like I may possibly skip since without Crafty Fighter and additional Mythic Heroes (for Light season, I only have Freyja and the F2P ones meaning there are seasons I could only use 2 of them rather than all 3), it's very much possible for her to die to Valentine's Lif.

I think she (or any Forma for that matter) is worth it, although that is assuming you are sitting on a few extra Forma Souls like I am, and you are willing to invest more into her down the line.

If you only have one Forma Soul and/or you are not willing to invest more into her later, I am not sure if she is worth it. I think she can still be worth it on a Save tank team if that team is just a secondary tanking team rather than your primary tanking team. If she is not on a Save tank team or the Save tank team does not have enough good supports (I recommend having at least one Flayn), then I do not think she is good enough as is. If you have a Close Save tank and at least one Flayn, I think she can be worth it to complete a Save tank team, but without some kind of Guard on her kit and further investment, I would not use the team as your primary tanking team, but the Save tank team would still be good enough to warrant a slot in my opinion as a counter pick option against defense teams with Lunging Galeforcers, since those can really mess up regular super tank teams by dragging their super tank out of position.

In general for Forma units, if you do not plan to give them merges and investment down the line, then the only type of units that is worth it in my opinion would be player phase units since plenty of them can still function well without any merges, and certain strategies actually hinge on no merges/Flowers since they need low HP to trigger Wings of Mercy. Most Counter-Vantage units similarly can work with no merges too since they want the low HP for Vantage. For enemy phase, the only units I can think of that have strong reason to go without merges are Gustav: Majestic Love and Surtr: Pirate of Red Sky, since they want to dump Spd for bulk.

Edited August 7, 2021 by XRay
semantics

[Othin]

1 minute ago, XRay said:

For enemy phase, the only units I can think of that can work with no merges are Gustav: Majestic Love and Surtr: Pirate of Red Sky, since they want to dump Spd for bulk.

There are many enemy phase units that can do just fine without any merges. Unmerged Henriette and Dedue, for example, are already near-invincible.

[XRay]

6 minutes ago, Othin said:

There are many enemy phase units that can do just fine without any merges. Unmerged Henriette and Dedue, for example, are already near-invincible.

But those units still want merges though. They might not need it to the same extent as regular super tanks if they are on a good team, but giving them more merges means they will still perform better. Green and blue Gustav has a justification to not have any merges, since they want to keep their Spd Flaw.

[Othin]

25 minutes ago, XRay said:

But those units still want merges though. They might not need it to the same extent as regular super tanks if they are on a good team, but giving them more merges means they will still perform better. Green and blue Gustav has a justification to not have any merges, since they want to keep their Spd Flaw.

"Does this unit benefit from getting merges" is an entirely different question with no real relevance here.

[XRay]

2 hours ago, Othin said:

"Does this unit benefit from getting merges" is an entirely different question with no real relevance here.

I do not think you get my point. The main point I was trying to get across is that player phase and Counter-Vantage units in general have a strong justification to forgo merges. Enemy phase units in general do not, and I do not think that the benefit of -Spd outweighs extra bulk for most slow tanks either (assuming the player can give a lot of merges to the slow tank); HOWEVER, because of the way how Gustav: Majestic Love and Surtr: Pirate of Red Sky works, -Spd helps offset bulk by making sure the first hit deals less damage.

If a person does not want to invest in merges for their Forma units, then the units that benefits from that the most would be player phase units and Counter-Vantage units in general, and like two enemy phase units.

[Ice Dragon]

17 minutes ago, XRay said:

I do not think you get my point.

3 hours ago, XRay said:

the only units I can think of that can work with no merges

3 hours ago, XRay said:

But those units still want merges though.

"Units that work with no merges" and "units that do not want merges" are two very different things.

[XRay]

33 minutes ago, Ice Dragon said:

"Units that work with no merges" and "units that do not want merges" are two very different things.

Yes. I get it. Semantics matters. Blah blah blah... Fixed it now.

[Sil/phire]

speaking of merges, i have a -hp +spd fury/desperation Tatiana with flora guide and brazen. but i so do want a +10 tatiana too. should i just build a different one entirely? her 38 hp is just perfect for kicking up desp/brazen on a single combat, and i don't think she can take more than 3 flowers before her perfect hp line breaks. if i do go with a different tatiana, i wonder if a +Atk would be a better choice, but her spd is not terrible either.

 

Also, would pirate Sutr be a better near save tank than Gustav? Gustav does serve me well, and it sucks that Sutr's unique skill is on the C slot of all places, like seriously IS.

[XRay]

51 minutes ago, Sil/phire said:

speaking of merges, i have a -hp +spd fury/desperation Tatiana with flora guide and brazen. but i so do want a +10 tatiana too. should i just build a different one entirely? her 38 hp is just perfect for kicking up desp/brazen on a single combat, and i don't think she can take more than 3 flowers before her perfect hp line breaks. if i do go with a different tatiana, i wonder if a +Atk would be a better choice, but her spd is not terrible either.

I would build two or three, especially if your favorite unit is a player phase unit, since they are pretty cheap to build. For Tatiana, or any player phase mages, the ideal Trait would be [+Atk/Spd, -HP], and I would keep one of each of those copies unmerged and unFlowered. I would not do this for every mage though unless you are swimming in Barracks space. If you want to use her in Arena too, then I would build a separate copy and merge that one to +10, and I recommend +Spd for the +10 copy. In general, +Spd is better than +Atk since you need to make sure you double, as not doubling means you are not dealing your full potential in damage. There are exceptions to this though, since Brave nukes and Blazing nukes are some that want +Atk over +Spd. For performance, I recommend Blárblade on Tatiana since it is cheap and powerful. Flora Guide and most non-Blade Weapons got issues with damage output against higher bulk enemies in higher level difficulties.

The most in demand skills in my opinion for player phase inheritance would be Reposition, Desperation, and Wings of Mercy. Reposition used to be relatively harder to acquire compared to other positioning Assists since few units have it back then, but Reposition is pretty plentiful now. Desperation is still somewhat an issue though for me, but as long as you are not spam building nukes like I was, there should be enough Desperation to go around; and keep in mind that you do not actually need Desperation 3 in many cases, and you may want to downgrade to Desperation 2 so you do not get stuck in the HP range between 75% and 50% HP where Desperation works but Wings of Mercy does not. Wings of Mercy is crucial for Dancers/Singers and some Galeforcers; while I do not have an issue with my Wings of Mercy supply, a lot of other players do have issues with it though, so make sure not to waste it.

In most PvE content, having low HP range is not huge deal since you can restart over and over without any repercussions, and there is usually an enemy or two early in the map that you can eat a counter from that lands you into HP range. Having low HP is still good for convenience though, and it can definitely save a lot of hassle in Abyssal if you can get into Wings of Mercy range right from the start.

Low HP matters more in competitive performance modes, which is basically just Aether Raids right now, since you have limited number of tries. In Aether Raids, depending on which tier you are in, you may be able to rely on defense teams having extremely poor Bolt Trap placement, and you can use their Bolt Trap to your advantage. Any Bolt Trap level three or over is basically just free Wings of Mercy activation.

[Ice Dragon]

12 hours ago, Sil/phire said:

speaking of merges, i have a -hp +spd fury/desperation Tatiana with flora guide and brazen. but i so do want a +10 tatiana too. should i just build a different one entirely? her 38 hp is just perfect for kicking up desp/brazen on a single combat, and i don't think she can take more than 3 flowers before her perfect hp line breaks. if i do go with a different tatiana, i wonder if a +Atk would be a better choice, but her spd is not terrible either.

If you compare the two choices (build a +10 vs. keep the +0 and build a +10), the only difference between them is the fact that the second choice has an additional +0 copy. Building an additional +0 copy with these skills comes at negligible cost (assuming you have spare copies of Flora Guide lying around), so there's really no reason not to pick the second option and build both units.

In general, I prefer +Spd on fast units unless they have a very good argument for a different stat (like +HP on units that have an HP comparison exclusive skill effect, +Atk on units that are built for one-hit kills, or +Atk on units with extremely low Atk).

 

12 hours ago, Sil/phire said:

Also, would pirate Sutr be a better near save tank than Gustav? Gustav does serve me well, and it sucks that Sutr's unique skill is on the C slot of all places, like seriously IS.

Pirate Surtr and Gustav are functionally identical to each other other than their color. Surtr hits a bit harder and has more Res, but Gustav has a bit more HP and Def, but the difference is small enough that it really doesn't matter all that much.

Surtr being blue, however, makes him pretty good for Aether Raids, as his color gives him an advantage against Eliwood and Legendary Sigurd compared to Gustav, whereas there are fewer threatening melee green units (though Harmonic Catria can potentially be a problem for Surtr).

[kradeelav]

So I got my last +10 merge on Legault (+ATK) on the free pull today (wahoo!). Being a favorite of FE7 and my favorite thief in the series after Volke, I'd like to turn him into a competitive AR-O utility guy. Bonus if he's useful against save balls.

What's the status of colorless daggers in AR-O (aka how do they tend to be used these days)? I remember Sothe and Leila being meta for a while.  Do I go for a pure nuke build or a Blazing Wind AOE for Legault?  (leaning towards the latter - I don't have an AOE character yet, so he'd be doubly useful for Abyssals.)