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

[XRay]

4 hours ago, ARMADS!!! said:

 I mean, its never said that the damage reduction doesnt stack but this seems insane. Also I never seen anyone doing this kind of strategy (stacking damage reduction) so idk if its possible.

The most well known and common strategy in Aether Raids is stacking damage reduction on super tanks and save tanks. It is one of the reasons why Ike: Brave Mercenary is one of the most commonly used super tanks. And with Darting Breath out now, he can partner with Flayn instead of Lucina: Brave Princess for three stacks of damage reduction (Urvan minimum 40%, Spurn 40%, Caduceus Staff 30%; total minimum of 74.8%, basically quadrupling his HP AND healing) and still get his Aether off on time against most opponents. And while Ike: Brave Mercenary is not invincible and can be killed by really strong nukes, running those nukes makes the defense team vulnerable to player phase teams, so the current Aether Raids meta basically boils down to either using a super tank team or a Galeforce team.

Most PvE content are also a joke now due to Flayn being protected by Save tanks, and Save tanks being virtually invincible with two Flayns for support.

22 hours ago, Flying Shogi said:

I've been hearing good things about LH!Lucina but can someone explain to me why she's held in high regards after her refine? She's been a unit that I've wanted to pull for but never got the chance and I figured remix banners are the best time to pull when I can spark a copy. I definitely see value in Future Vision as I'm always looking to expand my roster on units that can help with one turn clears on PvE maps(GHB, BHB, LHB etc). But for my purposes, I see her as a backup option when I need her to help with positioning, which is something I'm fine with as long as she can reliably obtain KOs.

She was held in high regard even before her Refine. In my opinion, the Refine is good, but it is not anything too crazy. She is still nowhere as good as a true Dancer/Singer, so it is not advisable to replace one with her. However, where she truly shines in my opinion is in Limited Hero Battles to get around Dancer/Singer restrictions.

In AI hands on defense, she has always been annoying (and sometimes terrifying) due to her deceptively high mobility, allowing her to snipe unwary players' vulnerable units.

22 hours ago, Flying Shogi said:

Similarly, I'm also interested going for a LH!Eirika to add to my Galeforce squad. I already have a BH!Roy at +4 but free Canto seems really good given how much work LH!Ephraim has been putting in. Would she be a good replacement for Roy?  

Yes. I would replace him with her. Roy: Brave Lion is probably a bit better on defense, but other than that, in players' hands, Eirika: Graceful Resolve is generally superior.

Edited January 9, 2022 by XRay

[XRay]

@Ice Dragon, have you maxed out your Sacred Seals yet? I have everything maxed out except Initiate and alphabet stat boosters. I do not really see the point in upgrading those, but there is nothing else for me to spend on either, so if you are upgrading them too, I guess I would too.

[Ice Dragon]

29 minutes ago, XRay said:

@Ice Dragon, have you maxed out your Sacred Seals yet? I have everything maxed out except Initiate and alphabet stat boosters. I do not really see the point in upgrading those, but there is nothing else for me to spend on either, so if you are upgrading them too, I guess I would too.

I've maxed out every Sacred Seal except for Squad Ace F and onwards. This includes the Initiate skills and all of the useless regular skills, like Boosts. I currently have no intention of leveling up the remaining Squad Ace seals.

[TheSilentChloey]

Okay I'm stuck, and not sure what to do.

 

I know by his very virtue that base Alfonse is, by and large not worth building from a pure statistical standpoint.  He's pretty much been left in the dust by anything that can get merges and requires less Dragonflowers to work.

 

But he's grown on me.

 

So I am debating between ascending his Atk or Spd stat.

On one hand if I do go with Atk, he'll hit harder (he does have QR B skill meaning he'll at least get doubles in the enemy phase), have over all higher numbers when he does a single attack and might be better off invested that way.

 

On the other, if I go with his superboon, I could make some very interesting speed based builds with him and use that to help him out by reducing (in theory) the damage he takes making him deal more in return.

 

Which really boils down to my main issue, I know I'm probably going to use IVcardos on him anyway so which stat is better as the ascended stat?

[Ice Dragon]

2 hours ago, TheSilentChloey said:

Which really boils down to my main issue, I know I'm probably going to use IVcardos on him anyway so which stat is better as the ascended stat?

There is no difference which stat you pick as the normal Asset and which one you pick as the Ascended Asset.

I'm also not sure it's worth investing in Spd at all. Alfonse has the 6th worst neutral Spd stat among sword infantry by base stats, tied with Chrom, and the 3rd worst neutral Spd stat among sword infantry if you count all sources of stats other than skills, tied with Nemesis at 29.

Sure, he can reliably reach 63 Spd on player phase (with 50 on enemy phase, or 60 on player phase with 56 on enemy phase; subtract 3 Spd if you want Dodge and another 2 Spd if you want Distant Counter) before support and field buffs with a build that stacks Spd, and that's high enough for PvE content, but he'd still be sitting about 15-20 points behind the current leaders. (Yen'fay, for example, can hit 74 Spd on both phases and have both Dodge and Distant Counter.)

[TheSilentChloey]

1 hour ago, Ice Dragon said:

There is no difference which stat you pick as the normal Asset and which one you pick as the Ascended Asset.

I'm also not sure it's worth investing in Spd at all. Alfonse has the 6th worst neutral Spd stat among sword infantry by base stats, tied with Chrom, and the 3rd worst neutral Spd stat among sword infantry if you count all sources of stats other than skills, tied with Nemesis at 29.

Sure, he can reliably reach 63 Spd on player phase (with 50 on enemy phase, or 60 on player phase with 56 on enemy phase; subtract 3 Spd if you want Dodge and another 2 Spd if you want Distant Counter) before support and field buffs with a build that stacks Spd, and that's high enough for PvE content, but he'd still be sitting about 15-20 points behind the current leaders. (Yen'fay, for example, can hit 74 Spd on both phases and have both Dodge and Distant Counter.)

I know, I however wanted to know which was best for him.

 

That said I'll take it into consideration.

[XRay]

9 hours ago, TheSilentChloey said:

So I am debating between ascending his Atk or Spd stat.

If you are going player phase, I would give him +Atk/Spd (does not matter which one is normal and which one is Ascendent) and -HP. His Spd would still be pretty abysmal, but it should help him against slower foes. You want -HP for easier Wings of Mercy activation.

I do not think he will do too well as a dual phase unit since he does not have access to dual phase guaranteed follow-up, and his Spd is really low for a Spd based dual phase build. You can give him Brave Sword and Quick Riposte so he will always hit twice that way, but his Atk will be pretty abysmal from Brave Sword. You can also just give him a Spd based dual phase build anyways, but do not expect him to be able to achieve similar results as other fast dual phase units.

9 hours ago, TheSilentChloey said:

I know by his very virtue that base Alfonse is, by and large not worth building from a pure statistical standpoint.  He's pretty much been left in the dust by anything that can get merges and requires less Dragonflowers to work.

Depends on the mode. For modes with frequent bonus units like Arena, the lack of merges is not a huge deal since he got bonus stats frequently to put him on par with regular units (he will still score pretty low due to lack of merges, but scoring does not matter too much unless you are trying to get into Tier 21). If you use him frequently in Arena, I think it is a good idea to give him max Flowers.

[Ice Dragon]

6 hours ago, TheSilentChloey said:

I know, I however wanted to know which was best for him.

Personally, I'd run [+Atk, +Def, -Res / -Spd] for a more typical enemy-phase build with Quick Riposte (Asset in parentheses is the less important of the two):

+0+20 Alfonse [+Atk (+Def), -Res / -Spd]
Winter Rapier+ [Def] / Steadfast Sword+ [Def]
[Assist]
Aether / Ignis / Bonfire
Atk/Def Unity / Atk/Def Solo 4 / etc.
Quick Riposte 3
Joint Drive Def / Atk/Def Menace / etc.
Steady Breath (with Aether or Ignis) / Atk/Def Solo 3 (with Bonfire) / etc. (with Bonfire)

Steadfast Sword is easier to get than Winter Rapier, but Winter Rapier is strictly better.

If you want to run a more Spd-focused build, replace +Def with +Spd:

+0+20 Alfonse [+Spd (+Atk), -Res / -HP]
Cake Cutter+ [Spd]
[Assist]
Ruptured Sky / Moonbow
Atk/Spd Solo 4 / etc.
Lull Atk/Spd 3 / Spurn 3
Joint Drive Spd / Atk/Spd Menace / Fatal Smoke 3 / etc.
Atk/Spd Solo 3 / Blade Session 3 / etc.

For easier PvE content, you can run Galeforce with Flashing Blade, though it comes at a pretty big loss in Spd, so it probably won't work consistently in Abyssal-level content where enemies often reach 50+ Spd.

But again, his Spd isn't great to begin with, so even though he can run a Spd-focused build, I wouldn't really recommend it unless you really, really like Alfonse and would rather use him than a better unit.

 

As a side note, it's worth noting that for the Askr trio, since you can't remove a Flaw with merges, if (and only if) you have the resources for it, if you can only give them one Asset, it's preferable to give them an Ascended Asset over a normal Asset. If you are planning to give them both, it doesn't matter which is which.

[TheSilentChloey]

12 hours ago, Ice Dragon said:

Personally, I'd run [+Atk, +Def, -Res / -Spd] for a more typical enemy-phase build with Quick Riposte (Asset in parentheses is the less important of the two):

+0+20 Alfonse [+Atk (+Def), -Res / -Spd]
Winter Rapier+ [Def] / Steadfast Sword+ [Def]
[Assist]
Aether / Ignis / Bonfire
Atk/Def Unity / Atk/Def Solo 4 / etc.
Quick Riposte 3
Joint Drive Def / Atk/Def Menace / etc.
Steady Breath (with Aether or Ignis) / Atk/Def Solo 3 (with Bonfire) / etc. (with Bonfire)

Steadfast Sword is easier to get than Winter Rapier, but Winter Rapier is strictly better.

If you want to run a more Spd-focused build, replace +Def with +Spd:

+0+20 Alfonse [+Spd (+Atk), -Res / -HP]
Cake Cutter+ [Spd]
[Assist]
Ruptured Sky / Moonbow
Atk/Spd Solo 4 / etc.
Lull Atk/Spd 3 / Spurn 3
Joint Drive Spd / Atk/Spd Menace / Fatal Smoke 3 / etc.
Atk/Spd Solo 3 / Blade Session 3 / etc.

For easier PvE content, you can run Galeforce with Flashing Blade, though it comes at a pretty big loss in Spd, so it probably won't work consistently in Abyssal-level content where enemies often reach 50+ Spd.

But again, his Spd isn't great to begin with, so even though he can run a Spd-focused build, I wouldn't really recommend it unless you really, really like Alfonse and would rather use him than a better unit.

 

As a side note, it's worth noting that for the Askr trio, since you can't remove a Flaw with merges, if (and only if) you have the resources for it, if you can only give them one Asset, it's preferable to give them an Ascended Asset over a normal Asset. If you are planning to give them both, it doesn't matter which is which.

Thanks.

 

This is pretty much what I needed to know.

[Ether]

Does anyone know the specific mechanics of Blade Session? Does it check whether allies other than the holder have acted, or just whether actions have occured that turn, including the holder? The interaction I'm looking at is whether it will tick up if Legendary Lucina is holding it, and uses Future Vision. I figure that, if using Future Vision counts as an ally having taken an action, then it's better for my build to use flashing blade on A and blade session on seal, as opposed to her default Swift Sparrow and blade on S. 

[Ice Dragon]

25 minutes ago, Ether said:

Does anyone know the specific mechanics of Blade Session? Does it check whether allies other than the holder have acted, or just whether actions have occured that turn, including the holder? The interaction I'm looking at is whether it will tick up if Legendary Lucina is holding it, and uses Future Vision. I figure that, if using Future Vision counts as an ally having taken an action, then it's better for my build to use flashing blade on A and blade session on seal, as opposed to her default Swift Sparrow and blade on S. 

It counts the number of units that are grayed out.

The Japanese description is more precise, using the term "行動済み" (kōdō-zumi), meaning "action completed" (the state of being grayed out), rather than "has already acted" (the state of having previously performed an action).

[Ether]

Hmm, I see. In that case, keeping SS3 and FB seal is probably best for consistency. Thank you for the answer.

[XRay]

40 minutes ago, Ether said:

Does anyone know the specific mechanics of Blade Session? Does it check whether allies other than the holder have acted, or just whether actions have occured that turn, including the holder? The interaction I'm looking at is whether it will tick up if Legendary Lucina is holding it, and uses Future Vision. I figure that, if using Future Vision counts as an ally having taken an action, then it's better for my build to use flashing blade on A and blade session on seal, as opposed to her default Swift Sparrow and blade on S. 

It is better to have Blade on A and stat booster on Sacred Seal, assuming winning stat checks is not an issue. So if you are using Lucina: Glorious Archer to screw bulky tanks, she should win the Spd check with very little effort and having Blade on A will give her some guaranteed damage and offset opponent's Guard.

I would use Atk/Spd Solo on Sacred Seal, since she is not likely to be near allies when she goes in for the kill, and it gives almost as much stats as most tier 4 skills.

If you are having her fight fast tanks though, then I would just double up on stat boosters since she needs the extra Spd to make sure she wins the Spd check, as they are likely to run Null Follow-Up.

Edited January 15, 2022 by XRay

[Ether]

Well, if it helps, this is what I have on her at the moment:

[XRay]

18 minutes ago, Ether said:

Well, if it helps, this is what I have on her at the moment:

 

  Hide contents

 

 

 

I would replace Deadeye with Ruptured Sky or plain old Moonbow. Deadeye does not do much to bulky tanks due to their sky high bulk. Even with Time's Pulse, I still would not use a three cooldown Special since slow tanks often run Guard so you would not get your three cooldown Special triggered on time.

Desperation is fine, but I would also add Windsweep for Arena Assault so she has more options.

Time's Pulse is decent, but it is more for Galeforcers and Slaying-Ruptured Sky/Moonbow in my opinion. It is not bad against slow tanks either, but Fatal Smoke is more effective at stopping slow tanks like Edelgard: Hegemon Husk from healing; it is a lot more pricey though. For something cheap and effective, I would also give her Savage Blow.

Flashing Blade is better on the A slot for killing tanks and sniping support units, but you can leave it on Sacred Seal until you get the higher tier A slot version. Against fast tanks, you want to run another stat booster on Sacred Seal, like Atk/Spd Solo or Brazen Atk/Spd.

[fates is based]

So I recently got into Heroes and I would like to know of any way to get Peerless Samurai Ryoma. I have been struggling to get him for a couple of weeks. 

[XRay]

13 minutes ago, fates is based said:

So I recently got into Heroes and I would like to know of any way to get Peerless Samurai Ryoma. I have been struggling to get him for a couple of weeks. 

He comes back on Weekly Revival Foci rotation, and the Weekly Revival cycle lasts about 9 months, so he will come back later this year. You can find the schedule on Reddit or by Googling it.

If you want a copy right now, you can buy Feh Pass and then buy the Respledent version, which gives him extra stats and new artwork.

Edited January 16, 2022 by XRay

[fates is based]

36 minutes ago, XRay said:

He comes back on Weekly Revival Foci rotation, and the Weekly Revival cycle lasts about 9 months, so he will come back later this year. You can find the schedule on Reddit or by Googling it.

If you want a copy right now, you can buy Feh Pass and then buy the Respledent version, which gives him extra stats and new artwork.

Thanks for the help I refuse to spend money on Heroes, so I'll wait a bit for him, or maybe I'll get lucky on a summon.

[Ice Dragon]

So, +Spd or +Res for New Year Anna?

She's obviously intended to be used as a support unit, as her default weapon has Sabotage Def/Res on it, and she has Sabotage Atk, Atk/Spd Gap, and Rally Def/Res+ on her base kit. She also has the fourth highest visible Res of all bow units and the second highest of all infantry bow units, so there's an argument for running +Res to sacrifice her combat performance for debuffing ability.

However, her combat performance is not bad. 40 base Spd with a superboon is only 3 points behind the current leader, and Dragonflowers bring that difference down to only 1 point. Her Atk is a bit less solid, but 34 base Atk puts her only 2 points behind Louise.

Now, I'm probably never going to actually use her, but I'd like to at least clear out the extra copy from my barracks and have a decent-enough unit as a result.

 

Basically, do I lean fully into her support role or do I say "37 Res is good enough" and run her as a hybrid combat-support unit?

 

EDIT: Also +Atk or +Spd on New Year Laevatein (36/30 offenses)? My old standard for staff units was "anything faster than Mist runs +Spd", though I'm unsure if it's time to raise that threshold or not.

Edited January 20, 2022 by Ice Dragon

[XRay]

1 hour ago, Ice Dragon said:

So, +Spd or +Res for New Year Anna?

I would build both, but if you only plan on keeping one, I am not sure if either choice makes much of a difference. She is super outclassed in both roles. I lean towards support if you do not really want to spend too much on her since she already comes with it. 

Nukes are very competitive, and I do not see Anna: Wealth Wisher being all that relevant, with Fáfnir: Fresh Ambition being a thing if you need a Red physical ranged nuke amongst Heroes game, and there are a bunch of better nukes in general within Heroes and other games.

Similarly, support is very competitive and we got Gunnthrá right now and Hrid in the future who can debuff and fight at the same time.

Edited January 20, 2022 by XRay

[Moltz23]

Can you forge the Serpentine Staff+ like most staffs?

[Ice Dragon]

2 hours ago, Moltz23 said:

Can you forge the Serpentine Staff+ like most staffs?

Yes. Every staff with a "+" at the end can be refined with either Wrathful Staff's effect or Dazzling Staff's effect.

[Rinco]

Hey guys. I have a B!Hector with A/D Near Save and I want to use fruits to change his IVs (Neutral at +6 at the moment). Which would be the best IV using fruits and thinking ahead for the best IVs possible when I eventually give him an ascended stat as well?

Would +Atk +Def be the ideal?

[XRay]

5 hours ago, Rinco said:

Hey guys. I have a B!Hector with A/D Near Save and I want to use fruits to change his IVs (Neutral at +6 at the moment). Which would be the best IV using fruits and thinking ahead for the best IVs possible when I eventually give him an ascended stat as well?

Would +Atk +Def be the ideal?

If you plan to keep giving him merges, and especially since he can be 4* special summoned now, I would not bother using Trait Fruits on him and just wait for the right Asset to show up, which is really flexible since it could be anything besides +HP.

For Aether Raids, as a Save tank, any combination besides +HP is good. As a regular super tank though, then I lean towards +Spd/Res.

Outside of Aether Raids, as a Save tank or super tank, then I would go for any combination of +Atk/Def/Res, I personally lean towards +Def/Res. 

If you are using him as a dual phase unit without significant support, I lean towards +Atk/Res.

Honestly, normalized Trait is not that bad either, especially as a Save tank where having the right support matter much more than Assets in my opinion. Normalized gives HP/Atk/Def+1 if I remember correctly, which is not bad. Even +HP technically is not bad either since if you are using a lot of damage reduction, +HP generally contributes more to bulk than +Def/Res would, but if you are using tons of damage reduction already, I am not super concerned about HP anymore and I would focus more on trying to wall nukes off.

Edited January 28, 2022 by XRay

[Ice Dragon]

5 hours ago, Rinco said:

Hey guys. I have a B!Hector with A/D Near Save and I want to use fruits to change his IVs (Neutral at +6 at the moment). Which would be the best IV using fruits and thinking ahead for the best IVs possible when I eventually give him an ascended stat as well?

Would +Atk +Def be the ideal?

For Near Save, I'd run either +Atk +Def or +Atk +Res depending on how often you run into dragons and other melee units that target his Res. +Def +Res is also an option if you find his bulk to be insufficient against stronger attackers (though the best wall breakers are still likely to get through him).