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

[XRay]

8 minutes ago, Humanoid said:

So I'm a dummy who doesn't read skill descriptions very well, and until the recent discussion in the New Heroes thread I was simply thinking "hey, I was told Young Innes is a great foot archer and Shinon has skills that foot archers want" and that was as far as my planning went. I didn't even know Innes' whole schtick was about negating damage reduction. Now I realise it'd probably be stupid to sack one of my two spare Shinons to give Deadeye and Time's Pulse to him. Or is it? I have a bad habit of holding onto fodder until it becomes obsolete though so I figure I should still use at least one of my Shinons while keeping the other around for a future next-gen archer.

I guess what I'm asking is whether this line of thinking is correct. Would a Young Innes merged to say, +4 to +6 still benefit more from Deadeye and Time's Pulse than literally my only other reasonably current foot archer Shamir, who seems she'd have really good synergy with those skills given her ho-hum default special and C-skill? She's unmerged and neutral so nothing too impressive there either. (Speaking of which, in another doesn't-read-skills fail, I didn't realise she had conditional sweep)

 

P.S. I had a look at my non-infantry archers too of course, my most used archer by far is Pirate Hinoka, but other than Deadeye itself she seems to have no use for the other skills. And Legendary Leif is a no-go for obvious reasons. Next best in their movement classes are probably CYL Claude and Bernadetta, but I don't use either and see no particular skill synergy for them anyway.

I personally do not recommend Deadeye. If you are fast enough to nuke Spd tanks, their damage reduction is not going to be working anyways. If you are facing off against slow bulky tanks, you still might not be doing much damage against them due to their extremely high Def. Deadeye is better on defense when it is precharged so it might do something against improperly built super tanks, but that is about it in my opinion. And on Innes: Frelian Moonlight, since he already negates damage reduction on Special triggers, Ruptured Sky or Moonbow is better in my opinion if you are using him manually, or if you want a higher cooldown Special to precharge for defense, Luna or Dragon Fang. He does benefit from Time's Pulse though.

I would treat Deadeye like a scoring skill like Blue Flame.

Lethality is the better Special, but that one is locked to thieves.

[Humanoid]

@XRay So how do you feel about Shamir getting the skills? Or is there another, more recent archer that would be an even better candidate? I'm not fully up to date with what the archers released in the past year or so do, besides knowing that Valentine's Chrom is considered the best - but he comes with those skills already.

I'm aware Atk/Def Solo instead of Deadeye and/or Lull Atk/Spd instead of Time's Pulse are options, but nothing really comes to mind in terms of who'd want that either and they're more generic skills anyway that could probably be more efficiently sourced elsewhere. But then that's just my surface level impression of what Shinon offers.

Edited April 17, 2022 by Humanoid

[XRay]

1 hour ago, Humanoid said:

@XRay So how do you feel about Shamir getting the skills? Or is there another, more recent archer that would be an even better candidate? I'm not fully up to date with what the archers released in the past year or so do, besides knowing that Valentine's Chrom is considered the best - but he comes with those skills already.

I would save Deadeye for an archer with an exclusive bow with a Blade tome effect or something similar. Blade tomes are fine with Glimmer since they are able to reach ridiculous Atk numbers. However, the only bow that does anything like that off the top of my head is the inheritable Carrot Tip Bow from Henry: Peculiar Egg, but that bow sucks in my opinion since it is only half a Blade tome effect (bonus on Atk and Def) and it only works on the first attack per combat. Alternatively, if you have Micaiah: Dawn Wind's Duo, you can give Dominance to a bow unit and the bow unit can reach ridiculous levels of Atk that way by through debuffs on enemies, and you may also want to bring Hector: Marquess of Ostia or Chrom: Fate-Defying Duo to pulse down Deadeye.

1 hour ago, Humanoid said:

I'm aware Atk/Def Solo instead of Deadeye and/or Lull Atk/Spd instead of Time's Pulse are options, but nothing really comes to mind in terms of who'd want that either and they're more generic skills anyway that could probably be more efficiently sourced elsewhere. But then that's just my surface level impression of what Shinon offers.

I would say Deadeye is still more valuable than Solos and Lulls. Solos are a bit dated with Ideals and Catches being generally better, and Lulls are completely outclassed by more modern B skills like Dodge, Flow, and Trace skills. The only reason I can think of to run Lulls is because the unit already got Flow or Trace on their Weapon.

[Ice Dragon]

4 hours ago, Humanoid said:

So I'm a dummy who doesn't read skill descriptions very well, and until the recent discussion in the New Heroes thread I was simply thinking "hey, I was told Young Innes is a great foot archer and Shinon has skills that foot archers want" and that was as far as my planning went. I didn't even know Innes' whole schtick was about negating damage reduction. Now I realise it'd probably be stupid to sack one of my two spare Shinons to give Deadeye and Time's Pulse to him. Or is it? I have a bad habit of holding onto fodder until it becomes obsolete though so I figure I should still use at least one of my Shinons while keeping the other around for a future next-gen archer.

I guess what I'm asking is whether this line of thinking is correct. Would a Young Innes merged to say, +4 to +6 still benefit more from Deadeye and Time's Pulse than literally my only other reasonably current foot archer Shamir, who seems she'd have really good synergy with those skills given her ho-hum default special and C-skill? She's unmerged and neutral so nothing too impressive there either. (Speaking of which, in another doesn't-read-skills fail, I didn't realise she had conditional sweep)

 

P.S. I had a look at my non-infantry archers too of course, my most used archer by far is Pirate Hinoka, but other than Deadeye itself she seems to have no use for the other skills. And Legendary Leif is a no-go for obvious reasons. Next best in their movement classes are probably CYL Claude and Bernadetta, but I don't use either and see no particular skill synergy for them anyway.

Cooldown is the most important property of a Special skill, and Deadeye should be treated like any other 3-cooldown Special. If you wouldn't use Luna on the unit, you probably shouldn't use Deadeye.

The only exception to that rule is Arena scoring, though usually only in the case where you don't have Ruptured Sky available.

 

In general, if the unit doesn't already nullify percentage damage reduction and the unit can land a guaranteed (or close to guaranteed) 3-cooldown Special on every round of combat, Deadeye is worth using on them.

Units that already nullify percentage damage reduction and can land a guaranteed 3-cooldown Special on every round of combat would generally prefer to run Luna (or Bonfire or Iceberg depending on stats), as you run into the same issue with Glimmer and Moonbow where dealing damage based on the opponent's Def/Res is typically more valuable than dealing damage based on your own damage (except in game modes with inflated HP where dealing damage based on your own damage is sometimes better).

Units that can't land a guaranteed 3-cooldown Special on every round of combat should just run a 2-cooldown Special (Ruptured Sky, Moonbow, Glimmer). However, Sweepers without any Special acceleration have the option to run Deadeye for a guaranteed Special every other round of combat if you want to run a combat skill in the C slot instead of Time's Pulse (or can't run Time's Pulse due to movement type).

Edited April 17, 2022 by Ice Dragon

[Ice Dragon]

Two questions due to my usual indecisiveness:

 

First, I just hit 999,999 feathers and need to spend them (and I have a piggy bank of several hundred thousand more in 3- and 4-star manuals, so I can splurge as much as I want). Anyone care to sell me on their favorite 4-star unit or Grail unit that is done being rerun (Grand Hero Battles units up through Panne and Tempest Trials units that were previously available through Divine Codes) for me to +10 (or +9 for Grail units that haven't yet appeared in Hall of Forms)?

Here's all of the ones that I already have at +10 (ordered by weapon, then movement type, then origin, i.e. the default when you sort by level) :

Spoiler

Sword

• Marth
• Ogma
• Athena
• Seliph
• Eirika
• Hana
• Soleil
• Draug
• Cain
• Ares
• Palla

Red Dragon

• Awakening Tiki

Red Tome

• Lilina
• Sophia
• Tharja
• Aversa

Lance

• Lukas
• Oboro
• Gwendolyn
• Effie
• Abel
• Mathilda
• Peri
• Catria
• Est
• Cordelia

Blue Dragon

• Nowi
• Female Corrin

Blue Tome

• Mae
• Tailtiu
• Male Robin
• Reinhardt
• Larchel

Axe

• Raven
• Hawkeye
• Camilla

Green Dragon

• Fae

Green Tome

• Merric
• Soren
• Cecilia

Colorless Bow

• Jeorge

Colorless Dagger

• Kagero

Staff

• Priscilla

And because it's probably relevant, here are all of the 4-star Resplendent Heroes that I have not yet gotten to +10 (ordered by Resplendent release date):

Spoiler

• Eliwood
• Roy
• Caeda
• Niles
• Nino
• Chrom
• Sothe
• Shanna
• Serra
• Florina
• Lachesis (currently at +9 pending an answer to my second question)

 

Second, I've been flip-flopping on my stance for when to run a Spd Asset versus a different Asset on staff units.

My current stance is that any unit faster than Mist should run a Spd Asset, which means any unit with more than 36 base Spd at +10 merge, max Dragonflowers, and with their weapon equipped (32 base Spd at +0 merge).

However, now that staff units have access to a legitimately good Spd-boosting A skill in Atk/Spd Ideal and with Atk/Spd Push being much easier to obtain, it feels like it might now be worth running slower staff units with a Speed Asset if only just to creep their ability to double units with middling Spd.

Genny in particular recovers 7 HP after combat, which allows her to run Atk/Spd Push 4 + Atk/Spd Push 3 with no drawbacks, which boosts her Spd by 12 points. At +10+20, Genny has 33 base Spd, which allows her to hit 45 Spd with neutral Spd or 49 Spd with an Asset. Even without Dragonflowers, Genny hits 45 Spd with an Asset (and 47 Spd with Atk/Spd Ideal 4 if she has a Bonus).

It sounds like I should probably switch Genny over to a Spd build, but that doesn't necessarily mean that I should also switch her Asset, especially when she has the second highest Atk stat of all staff units (or highest if you run Genny with an Atk Asset and Sara with a Spd Asset). But if I do switch her Asset to Spd, it begs the question of where I should set the new cutoff.

August, for example, is a clear case of a Spd Asset being largely useless, as he only hits 37 Spd at +10+5 with a Spd Asset and double Atk/Spd Push and isn't really a combat unit, having 6 less Atk than Genny with their weapons equipped. He also can't maintain Atk/Spd Push 3 in the Sacred Seal slot and has to compete with the rest of the team for the more typical Spd-boosting Sacred Seals. However, it's likely that we'll eventually get Atk/Spd Ideal 3 as a Sacred Seal in the not-so-near future, so that problem will likely sort itself out eventually.

Winter Eirika and Valentine Lissa hit 45 Spd at +10 merge with max Dragonflowers, a Spd Asset, and double Atk/Spd Push, but also would need to compete with the rest of the team for Sacred Seals until the release of Atk/Spd Ideal 3 due to having no way to maintain Atk/Spd Push 3.

tl;dr: With staff units now having easier access to Spd-boosting skills, where should I set the cutoff for running a Spd Asset over a different Asset (assuming +10 merges and max Dragonflowers)?

Edited April 18, 2022 by Ice Dragon

[Xenomata]

39 minutes ago, Ice Dragon said:

Anyone care to sell me on their favorite 4-star unit or Grail unit that is done being rerun (Grand Hero Battles units up through Panne and Tempest Trials units that were previously available through Divine Codes) for me to +10 (or +9 for Grail units that haven't yet appeared in Hall of Forms)?

WALHART. Man I sure do promote this guy quite a bit... anyway:

• Quite large Threaten range with a frankly huge debuff effect, notably inflicting Null Counterattack. Makes him pretty good as a support unit too, since Null C-Disrupt is still not as common as it could be.
• Surprisingly fast. At +10m +15df +Spd asset and with refined Wolf Berg, AScatch4, SDnear trace, and Swift Sparrow he hits 57 Spd, not counting the field buff he gets to Spd. It is not the fastest, no, but he's still outspeeding more threats than he would be otherwise (and as a PP Cav unit, it's not like he needs his Def built up when the enemy can't even counterattack...)

...yeah Walhart is pretty much my main contribution. As for a few others...

• Ashnard, outside of just being bulky, can serve as a solid Rein beacon by inflicting Atk/Def -9 on the enemy.
• If you want a Furyball, Miriel can get some pretty high stats with Spooky Censer and two stacks of Fury.
• Boey continues to be the easiest answer to Hegemon and other physical damage blue/colorless units, but honestly I only bring it up because where most other answers are simple win buttons, Boey may as well just be a "f*ck you I got better things to do" button. I highly doubt you'd desperately need him anytime soon.
• Young Innes is of course a Special nuke. There's not a whole lot of room for discussion there.
• If all else fails, you can always invest in an old bald guy.

Edited April 18, 2022 by Xenomata

[Rinco]

Does anyone have the images with the sunday rerun banners? I want to check when will B!Hector be back after this week.

[Humanoid]

1 hour ago, Rinco said:

Does anyone have the images with the sunday rerun banners? I want to check when will B!Hector be back after this week.

Looks like the 4th of September in terms of weekly re-runs. He will undoubtedly be back next week for the CYL Hero Fests though, and I believe you get four tickets to help you out with getting him.

 

For my own purposes, I need to brush up on the previous CYL winners, their refines and how relevant each of them still are so I can plan out what to do with my ~200ish orbs I expect to have across all the events. For starters, probably 5 full rounds of CYL5 at baseline which is 75 orbs since I haven't pulled any of them aside from the freebie then see what I still need after that, bearing in mind they'll be re-run again towards the end of May. I still don't even have Lysithea, Camilla or Alm. Hell, I only pulled my first ever Celica, a CYL2 unit, earlier this month.

Edited April 18, 2022 by Humanoid

[Rinco]

2 hours ago, Humanoid said:

Looks like the 4th of September in terms of weekly re-runs. He will undoubtedly be back next week for the CYL Hero Fests though, and I believe you get four tickets to help you out with getting him.

 

For my own purposes, I need to brush up on the previous CYL winners, their refines and how relevant each of them still are so I can plan out what to do with my ~200ish orbs I expect to have across all the events. For starters, probably 5 full rounds of CYL5 at baseline which is 75 orbs since I haven't pulled any of them aside from the freebie then see what I still need after that, bearing in mind they'll be re-run again towards the end of May. I still don't even have Lysithea, Camilla or Alm. Hell, I only pulled my first ever Celica, a CYL2 unit, earlier this month.

CYL banner is nice, but he has better odds on the weekly revivals (4% and 3 ppl). I went a little bit in this weeks revival and got one more copy of him (should have stopped there, but went on till I was pity broke by Dussel) and now he's at +7. Maybe I have some luck with the tickets. Having him at +8 would be nice, since there's a non-0 chance that he could appear in HoF and maaaaaybe get a resplendent. 

Now I'm back at saving orb mode. I'm around 170 orbs right now. I'll spark on the Mythic banner by the end of the month (hoping to get copies of Dimitri, Thorr, Elimine and the new Mythic), then save again till the next Legendary banner going for a spark again (Claude and M!Byleth being my targets there). So far I'm skipping June's Mythic/Legendary, but it's too soon to say for sure. July I'll spark for L!Tiki on the Remix and August has CYL. As I'm going for one spark per month in expendings, I should get to August with a nice stash. I shoud be able to +10 B!Hector by September, I guess.

Edited April 18, 2022 by Rinco

[XRay]

5 hours ago, Ice Dragon said:

Second, I've been flip-flopping on my stance for when to run a Spd Asset versus a different Asset on staff units.

...

tl;dr: With staff units now having easier access to Spd-boosting skills, where should I set the cutoff for running a Spd Asset over a different Asset (assuming +10 merges and max Dragonflowers)?

This is easier for me to answer since it is just personal preference. I go +Atk for everyone, and I put a +Spd copy in my reserves, in case I ever want to switch it; if I do not have a +Atk copy, then I will use a +Spd copy as my main until I get a +Atk copy and then move the +Spd to Reserves. If you do not want to waste Reserve space, you can just turn extra +Spd copies into Manuals or send them home if you really need the Feathers.

I do not see the point in going +Spd unless you really want a staff unit to be used like a nuke. We have tons of regular nukes already, so staff units are not needed for that role, especially if they do not even have an exclusive Weapon. If a staff unit has Spd as a super Asset, they do not have Atk as a super Asset, and have an exclusive Weapon that buffs Atk/Spd to help them nuke, then I will probably have them go +Spd instead, but other than that, I would just do +Atk all the way.

Even middling Spd staff units should still have enough Spd to double slow pokes once you give them an offensive A and/or Sacred Seal skill, so +Atk is better in my opinion to deal more damage and they are less likely to be completely walled off. And since slow pokes are also more like to have Wary Fighter, +Spd is not helping them double anyways.

Against Spd tanks, I do not see staff units winning that Spd check easily, so +Atk is better in that scenario too.

Against middling Spd enemies, while +Spd will help the staff unit potentially double and maybe kill, allied combat units on the team can probably handle it better.

If you want a hard cut off, I consider anything between 30-50 Spd to be middling, and if a staff unit cannot reach 55+ Spd easily, then I would have them stick with +Atk.

7 hours ago, Ice Dragon said:

First, I just hit 999,999 feathers and need to spend them (and I have a piggy bank of several hundred thousand more in 3- and 4-star manuals, so I can splurge as much as I want). Anyone care to sell me on their favorite 4-star unit or Grail unit that is done being rerun (Grand Hero Battles units up through Panne and Tempest Trials units that were previously available through Divine Codes) for me to +10 (or +9 for Grail units that haven't yet appeared in Hall of Forms)?

I second Walhart, and he can basically turn your whole team into Firesweepers. There is Arden and Yen'fay if you need good tanks for Limited Hero Battles. Seliph is a decent dual phase unit. Nino, Kaze, Sothe, Jamke, and Innes: Frelian Moonlight are all decent nukes too. If you like debuffs, Arvis, Saias, and Riev are the best ones in my opinion, and they are no slouch when it comes to combat either.

For more niche things, there is Laslow, Finn, and Lex for Counter-Vantage. Mordecai can Smite. Soleil and Eliwood can Galeforce, and the former even got Firesweep. There are some Raven mages for Arena Assault if you need more.

[Karuu30]

Speaking of 4 stars units and their possible use. Is Raven still a decent investment nowadays? I’ve a +4 one that’s been sitting on my barracks for a while.

The main issue I can see is that he may seem to be overshadowed by Linus, who got a good weapon refine which makes him more versatile.

 

15 hours ago, Ice Dragon said:

Anyone care to sell me on their favorite 4-star unit or Grail unit that is done being rerun (Grand Hero Battles units up through Panne and Tempest Trials units that were previously available through Divine Codes) for me to +10 (or +9 for Grail units that haven't yet appeared in Hall of Forms)?

If you enjoy spamming AoE specials, then Sothe is a pretty good option. I been using him for a while in AR-O and PvE content in general, and he can fulfill that role thanks to his refine without the need to run heavy blade on the seal slot, which opens the possibility to use LnD as a seal.

His support capabilities are also pretty decent. The -/+5 debuffs and buffs, the special spiral 2 on his weapon and pulse smoke can be helpful for the team.

[Ice Dragon]

29 minutes ago, Karuu30 said:

Speaking of 4 stars units and their possible use. Is Raven still a decent investment nowadays? I’ve a +4 one that’s been sitting on my barracks for a while.

The main issue I can see is that he may seem to be overshadowed by Linus, who got a good weapon refine which makes him more versatile.

There's no reason to use Raven over Linus now unless you don't have the Grails to buy copies of Linus. Linus has -1/+6/+1/+10/+0 over Resplendent Raven even before applying the in-combat Panic effect from Fanged Basilikos, so Linus is just strictly better, even if you have Raven's Resplendent outfit.

If you have the resources to merge up Linus, just use Linus.

[Rinco]

Did the datamine spoil what we'll have for Golden Week or are there things we don't know yet? 
I know that there will be CYL banners with tickets, but they usually do a Feh Channel for Golden Week, so I guess there will be more stuff?

[Humanoid]

33 minutes ago, Rinco said:

Did the datamine spoil what we'll have for Golden Week or are there things we don't know yet? 
I know that there will be CYL banners with tickets, but they usually do a Feh Channel for Golden Week, so I guess there will be more stuff?

We know this much so far. I don't expect a whole lot more, looking at last year's announcement, besides the banners and tickets there was, uh, a Twitter quiz and a quintuple XP/SP period and that was about it.

P.S. Looks like technically we don't know what tickets I, II and III are for when strictly talking about the datamine, but it doesn't take a rocket surgeon to figure it out. 😛

Edited April 19, 2022 by Humanoid

[XRay]

On 4/18/2022 at 8:15 PM, Karuu30 said:

Speaking of 4 stars units and their possible use. Is Raven still a decent investment nowadays? I’ve a +4 one that’s been sitting on my barracks for a while.

The main issue I can see is that he may seem to be overshadowed by Linus, who got a good weapon refine which makes him more versatile.

Raven's main minor advantage is signficantly lower bulk if you need to get in Desperation/Frenzy range more easily. Basilikos' two main minor advantages over Fanged Basilikos is lower bulk and you do not have to worry about any HP conditions.

I still lean towards Linus since he can still run double Life and Death to lower bulk and the HP conditions are generally pretty lenient. The main issue with Fanged Basilikos is that it does not work with Fury, but unlike ranged units who are more likely to explode when eating a counter attack, melee units have access to Frenzy to more easily stomach counter attacks and dip into the HP range between 25% and 50%, so you can just run Life and Death or any other A skill.

[Ice Dragon]

Asking for more Asset opinions for my indecisiveness now that I have more merge bases to work with on CYL units:

Brave Alm: +Atk or +Spd?

Alm has 78/52 offenses with an Atk Asset at +10+15 with just his weapon and Scendscale equipped or 74/55 offenses with a Spd Asset.

Alm can swap out Scendscale for Atk/Spd Ideal 4 to reach 70 Spd with the Atk/Spd Solo Sacred Seal with a Spd Asset, which lets him activate Windsweep on everything with 69 Spd or lower. A Spd Lull or Tempo can push his effective Spd up to 73.

However, with an Atk Asset, Scendscale, and the Atk/Spd Solo Sacred Seal, he reaches 105 effective Atk and becomes a powerful wall breaker, dealing 21 damage that ignores Def and the weapon triangle while having more than enough Spd to activate Windsweep against all slow tanks, but loses the ability to do so against fast tanks. Valentine Lucina is the most notable fast tank, and she hits 65 Spd at +10+5 before accounting for her Sacred Seal (I use Darting Breath for 69 Spd, but Atk/Spd Form can get her to 72).

Brave Dimitri: +Atk, +Spd, or +Def?

Brave Dimitri is the slowest of the infantry versions of Dimitri, having only 38 base Spd after Dragonflowers and no boost to Spd from either his weapon or his exclusive skill. I don't think I'll run a Spd Asset on him, but it's technically still an option.

Dimitri's primary gimmick is Blue Lion Rule, which grants him a guaranteed follow-up on enemy phase if his Def is higher than his opponent's and also grants him Dodge with a Def comparison instead of a Spd comparison. The main issue is I'm not sure it's worth giving up 4 Atk to gain 4 Def to improve his ability to activate Blue Lion Rule.

At +10+10, his has 66/46 Atk/Def with an Atk Asset with just his weapon equipped or 62/50 Atk/Def with a Def Asset. With Atk/Def Solo 4 + Atk/Def Solo 3, he has 79/59 with an Atk Asset or 75/63 with a Def Asset.

As far as bulky attackers go, Thorr, Fallen Edelgard, and Legendary Sigurd are perhaps the most notable. +10+5 Thorr has 62 Def with Sturdy Impact / Sturdy Surge + Atk/Def Solo 3. +10+10 Fallen Edelgard has 65 effective Def with Atk/Def Ideal 4 + Mystic Boost 3. +10+10 Legendary Sigurd has 57 Def with Atk/Def Catch 4 and his B slot and Sacred Seal empty.

Gatekeeper: +Atk or +Def?

Having no guaranteed follow-up on either phase and having an exclusive skill that is pure support, it feels like Gatekeeper should run a maximally bulky set with a Def Asset instead of going for Atk. However, he does have a good Atk stat and has a damage-boosting effect on his weapon.

Edited April 23, 2022 by Ice Dragon

[XRay]

2 hours ago, Ice Dragon said:

Brave Alm: +Atk or +Spd?

+Atk. There are better options to take down other nukes and Spd tanks in my opinion. While wall breakers are more common now, tank busters with Sweep are still kind of rare.

2 hours ago, Ice Dragon said:

Brave Dimitri: +Atk, +Spd, or +Def?

Depends on how you want to use him and how much you want to invest. I personally would not invest too much into him until he gets a Refine and we know what it is.

If he is mostly just going to be used in PvE content, I lean towards +Def to trigger his gimmick and he can still achieve decent damage output with Bonfire.

In Aether Raids as a super tank, he will want +Spd/Def, but I am iffy on him and I am not sure if his performance justifies spending a Floret on him. Without a Floret, I would go with which ever Asset is harder to stack for you. I got a bunch of Spd Mythics, so I would personally go with +Def; but if you have trouble stacking Spd, then +Spd on him might make better sense.

2 hours ago, Ice Dragon said:

Gatekeeper: +Atk or +Def?

Having no guaranteed follow-up on either phase and having an exclusive skill that is pure support, it feels like Gatekeeper should run a maximally bulky set with a Def Asset instead of going for Atk. However, he does have a good Atk stat and has a damage-boosting effect on his weapon.

I lean towards +Def because it is a super Asset and it helps him survive better in case he gets attacked, but I do not think it really matters.

[Xenomata]

So I wanna +10 merge Young Ilyana, and I'm currently only 1 total copy of her short of being able to eventually attain that (the other copies are 4* and I don't have the feathers for such right now)
I have not claimed the Unlikely Friends spark unit yet, as I cancelled my Feh Pass a while back. If I used my spark on her, I'd be able to +10 merge Ilyana without having to continue summoning on the banner. A few cons that I have noted:

• Using the spark on a 4* unit may be considered a waste compared to one of the 3 other units (though in fairness to that I have no need for any of the other 3 units fodder or merges, so it's not like I would be considering it a waste)
• I would be receiving a Resplendent Hero for whom I have absolutely no plans to use (Saber is so utterly... middle of the road... though his art is good, and Faye is following him who I already plan to sub for anyway)

So... any input?

[Ether]

If you're planning to sub for Faye anyway, it's really just getting Saber vs getting whoever would be the second resp after Faye. We have no way to know who that is yet, but considering you plan to make Ilyana a project, it's likely worth the gamble. That said, it might just be better to pull for your last copy, given she's a 4 focus, you might be able to get her without too many more pulls. If you don't intend to pull on the mythic after it's revealed, that's what I would go with.

[XRay]

6 hours ago, Xenomata said:

So I wanna +10 merge Young Ilyana, and I'm currently only 1 total copy of her short of being able to eventually attain that (the other copies are 4* and I don't have the feathers for such right now)
I have not claimed the Unlikely Friends spark unit yet, as I cancelled my Feh Pass a while back. If I used my spark on her, I'd be able to +10 merge Ilyana without having to continue summoning on the banner. A few cons that I have noted:

• Using the spark on a 4* unit may be considered a waste compared to one of the 3 other units (though in fairness to that I have no need for any of the other 3 units fodder or merges, so it's not like I would be considering it a waste)
• I would be receiving a Resplendent Hero for whom I have absolutely no plans to use (Saber is so utterly... middle of the road... though his art is good, and Faye is following him who I already plan to sub for anyway)

So... any input?

I would just wait a week or two for the Feathers, as we get in excess of 15,000 Feathers per week on average if not more. If you do want to use the guarantee summon, I would save it for other 5* exclusives instead; even if you do not need their merges, they got skills for fodder.

[Xenomata]

2 hours ago, XRay said:

I would just wait a week or two for the Feathers, as we get in excess of 15,000 Feathers per week on average if not more. If you do want to use the guarantee summon, I would save it for other 5* exclusives instead; even if you do not need their merges, they got skills for fodder.

I don't care about feather usage though, I'm asking if it would be worth using the spark to get a copy of Ilyana AT ALL. I'd have to wait on feathers for the 7 copies of her at 4* anyway.
As stated, I do not care about the skill fodder offered by the other 3 units. I don't have any strong need for SDtempo or Distant Dart right now, and Soren doesn't offer anything that isn't available elsewhere already (and I already have one of each from stray summons)

It's a matter of weighing the worth of continuing to use normal summons to try and get her or just using the Feh Pass spark to not leave it up to chance.

[Ice Dragon]

8 hours ago, Xenomata said:

So I wanna +10 merge Young Ilyana, and I'm currently only 1 total copy of her short of being able to eventually attain that (the other copies are 4* and I don't have the feathers for such right now)
I have not claimed the Unlikely Friends spark unit yet, as I cancelled my Feh Pass a while back. If I used my spark on her, I'd be able to +10 merge Ilyana without having to continue summoning on the banner. A few cons that I have noted:

• Using the spark on a 4* unit may be considered a waste compared to one of the 3 other units (though in fairness to that I have no need for any of the other 3 units fodder or merges, so it's not like I would be considering it a waste)
• I would be receiving a Resplendent Hero for whom I have absolutely no plans to use (Saber is so utterly... middle of the road... though his art is good, and Faye is following him who I already plan to sub for anyway)

So... any input?

It should take, on average, about 9-10 pulls to grab another copy of Ilyana, counting pulls on summoning sessions with no green orbs.

I would personally summon for the last copy of Ilyana with orbs.

As for when to buy Feh Pass, this depends entirely on how often you summon enough to reach the spark on Special Heroes banners. If you rarely reach the spark, then it's absolutely worth it to buy Feh Pass now and use the spark on someone other than Ilyana. If you normally reach the spark, then you should wait until the next rotation to buy Feh Pass so that you have more chances for a Resplendent that you'll use. If you don't know if you'll reach the spark on the next banner, wait until the trailer for the next banner drops before deciding.

[Xenomata]

2 hours ago, Ice Dragon said:

As for when to buy Feh Pass, this depends entirely on how often you summon enough to reach the spark on Special Heroes banners. If you rarely reach the spark, then it's absolutely worth it to buy Feh Pass now and use the spark on someone other than Ilyana. If you normally reach the spark, then you should wait until the next rotation to buy Feh Pass so that you have more chances for a Resplendent that you'll use. If you don't know if you'll reach the spark on the next banner, wait until the trailer for the next banner drops before deciding.

This ultimately depends on the banner. As of late, I've not even been reaching the spark on regular banners where the spark is available to all units (this months NH&Aishtar I've only got 15/40 summons), but seasonal banners I tend to go beyond the summons needed to get the spark. Legendary/Mythic banners it tends to be a tossup of not needing the spark and badly needing it for the unit I want.

As is though, I only sub to Feh Pass for the Resplendent Heroes regardless of the banners I could spark from. Generally it's when a unit that I have +10ed is featured (as will be the case with Faye) or units whose merge counts are high enough that I could use the extra merge on them (as was the case with Resplendent Ishtar some months back), and I would not even be considering the option of sparking Ilyana if the Resp unit coming up was someone like... I dunno, Fates Arthur.

[Ice Dragon]

Opinions on Mediuth's Asset? I'm currently leaning towards Atk instead of Res, but it's still hard to decide.

Mediuth has 43 base Res, +1 from Dragonflowers, +4 from merges, and +6 effective Res from his weapon. Def/Res Ideal 4 gives him a permanent +7 Res due to En Garde.

This gets him to 61 Res if the opponent matches his Bonuses. In the Arena, I'd be running either Close Def or Def/Res Solo in the Sacred Seal slot to bring him up to 67 Res. At this point, I don't think an additional 3 Res from an Asset will make much of a difference, as he'd be able to get the full Dragon Wall damage reduction against any opponent with 57 Res or lower.

However, I'm also considering running him with Mystic Boost since 6 HP recovery is worth 10 Def/Res with 40% damage reduction if the opponent cannot double. However, this comes at the cost of only being able to get the full Dragon Wall damage reduction against opponents with 51 Res or lower, which is dangerously close to Fallen Edelgard's Res (49 with an Asset and her standard build, though I'm seeing bulkier builds appear more often). On the other hand, breaking through Edelgard's defenses is already tough, and the extra Atk from an Asset would certainly be welcomed.

With Close Def 4 instead of Def/Res Ideal 4, Edelgard loses the ability to use Bonuses to match Mediuth's Res and has no way to nullify his Bonuses on any of her usual builds, giving Mediuth 68 Res and Edelgard 49. However, bulkier builds, namely Def/Res Ideal 4 + Def/Res Solo 3 can get her up to 64 Res.

Canto Control is a bit less relevant in the Arena, so I could also switch that out for Joint Drive Res for more Res or Fatal Smoke/Pulse Smoke to counter Edelgard, but I kind of want to wait for Joint Close Guard.

As for arguments for an Atk Asset, Edelgard is stupid bulky, even with Mediuth targeting Res, and it doesn't help that Mediuth is too slow to double Edelgard through her Wary Fighter without getting at least +2 Spd from teammates, which I don't consistently have access to on my Arena team (I should really give Duo Dagr Spd/Def Rein instead of her default Atk/Def Rein).

[XRay]

23 hours ago, Ice Dragon said:

Opinions on Mediuth's Asset? I'm currently leaning towards Atk instead of Res, but it's still hard to decide.

Mediuth has 43 base Res, +1 from Dragonflowers, +4 from merges, and +6 effective Res from his weapon. Def/Res Ideal 4 gives him a permanent +7 Res due to En Garde.

This gets him to 61 Res if the opponent matches his Bonuses. In the Arena, I'd be running either Close Def or Def/Res Solo in the Sacred Seal slot to bring him up to 67 Res. At this point, I don't think an additional 3 Res from an Asset will make much of a difference, as he'd be able to get the full Dragon Wall damage reduction against any opponent with 57 Res or lower.

However, I'm also considering running him with Mystic Boost since 6 HP recovery is worth 10 Def/Res with 40% damage reduction if the opponent cannot double. However, this comes at the cost of only being able to get the full Dragon Wall damage reduction against opponents with 51 Res or lower, which is dangerously close to Fallen Edelgard's Res (49 with an Asset and her standard build, though I'm seeing bulkier builds appear more often). On the other hand, breaking through Edelgard's defenses is already tough, and the extra Atk from an Asset would certainly be welcomed.

With Close Def 4 instead of Def/Res Ideal 4, Edelgard loses the ability to use Bonuses to match Mediuth's Res and has no way to nullify his Bonuses on any of her usual builds, giving Mediuth 68 Res and Edelgard 49. However, bulkier builds, namely Def/Res Ideal 4 + Def/Res Solo 3 can get her up to 64 Res.

Canto Control is a bit less relevant in the Arena, so I could also switch that out for Joint Drive Res for more Res or Fatal Smoke/Pulse Smoke to counter Edelgard, but I kind of want to wait for Joint Close Guard.

As for arguments for an Atk Asset, Edelgard is stupid bulky, even with Mediuth targeting Res, and it doesn't help that Mediuth is too slow to double Edelgard through her Wary Fighter without getting at least +2 Spd from teammates, which I don't consistently have access to on my Arena team (I should really give Duo Dagr Spd/Def Rein instead of her default Atk/Def Rein).

I lean towards +Res to make triggering his skills more reliably. If you want to go against a unit like Edelgard: Hegemon Husk, I would just bring a wall breaker.