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

[XRay]

12 hours ago, D4RTH said:

So I'm currently running with:

• Ishtar (+Atk/-Def) +3 - Looking to build her to +10, with a view to run her in high tier arena play for fun.
• Leg. Robin (+Res/-HP) +3 - I predominantly use her for mixed tanking and appreciate the super boon for arena. 

During my Legendary Lucina summoning session today, I was able to acquire 1 merge each for both of them, but in the process, it presented me with a bit of a dilemma.

Both Ishtar & Leg. Robin have the same great IV's: 

+Spd/-Hp

------------------

My current thoughts regarding this:

• For my Ishtar setup; I feel the +Atk/-Def nature is slightly stronger. As I run Mjölnir on her & have her surrounded by Karla (Even Speed Wave) and other speed buffs anyway, increasing her Atk seems more optimal and efficient here.
• Leg. Robin is a bit trickier I feel. +Spd is great, but how much does it help her in comparison to a +Res superboon? (Especially in Arena). I may have to run the calcs on this one.

Anyways, all feedback welcomed :)

 

For Ishtar, I lean towards +Spd for better independent performance, as Waves are not super reliable in my opinion. +Atk is fine too, but it only performs better than +Spd if you have buffs but the enemy has no buffs. (I just realized your current one is -Def, not -HP, however, I think the -Def numbers will still be relatively similar to -HP.)

Ishtar +10, -HP
Mjolnir, Moonbow
Swift Sparrow, Desperation

Enemies +10, +Spd, Moonbow, Fury
Player Phase [+Spd] 192:11:71
Player Phase [+Atk] 178:11:85
Player Phase [+Spd, 4/4/0/0] 225:11:38
Player Phase [+Atk, 4/4/0/0] 234:11:29

Enemies +10, +Spd, Moonbow, Fury, 3/3/3/3
Player Phase [+Spd] 140:20:114
Player Phase [+Atk] 101:20:153
Player Phase [+Spd, 4/4/0/0] 202:21:51
Player Phase [+Atk, 4/4/0/0] 196:21:57

Ishtar +10, -HP
Mjolnir, Luna
Swift Sparrow, Desperation
Flashing Blade

Enemies +10, +Spd, Moonbow, Fury
Player Phase [+Spd] 217:11:46
Player Phase [+Atk] 186:11:77
Player Phase [+Spd, 4/4/0/0] 235:11:28
Player Phase [+Atk, 4/4/0/0] 241:11:22

Enemies +10, +Spd, Moonbow, Fury, 3/3/3/3
Player Phase [+Spd] 163:20:91
Player Phase [+Atk] 109:20:145
Player Phase [+Spd, 4/4/0/0] 218:21:35
Player Phase [+Atk, 4/4/0/0] 203:21:50

For FV!F!Robin, she functions best as a Spd tank to avoid doubles, so I would go with +Spd. +Res allows her to tank Lilina, but that means she is more vulnerable to being doubled from other units.

FV!F!Robin +10, -HP
Expiration, Moonbow
Dragon Skin, Quick Riposte
Enemies +10, +Spd, Moonbow, Fury
Enemy Phase [+Spd] 191:36:47
Enemy Phase [+Res] 154:74:46

FV!F!Robin +10, -HP
Expiration, Moonbow
Dragon Skin, Quick Riposte
Speed +3
Enemies +10, +Spd, Moonbow, Fury
Enemy Phase [+Spd] 205:21:48
Enemy Phase [+Res] 191:36:47

5 hours ago, mampfoid said:

Got my second Swordmilla today, both have bad natures. Which is the less bad nature?

+HP/-SPD or +SPD/-ATK? I'm guessing the latter, but is the difference worth one Reposition fodder? 

I would go with +Spd.

HNY!Camilla
Kadomatsu [Spd], Moonbow
Fury, Desperation
Speed +3
Enemies +5, +Spd, Moonbow, Fury
Player Phase [+Spd, -Atk] 69:5:200
Player Phase [+HP, -Spd] 44:13:217

1 hour ago, ILikeKirbys said:

Is +DEF/-RES or +SPD/-DEF the better nature for Female!Grima?

+Spd is better for her to avoid doubles; her color and stat line is better suited as a Spd tank. Def/Res tanks generally have Def/Res in the high 30s or more, as well as a reliance on color to further reduce damage per hit.

[ILikeKirbys]

32 minutes ago, XRay said:

+Spd is better for her to avoid doubles; her color and stat line is better suited as a Spd tank. Def/Res tanks generally have Def/Res in the high 30s or more, as well as a reliance on color to further reduce damage per hit.

Cool, so I'll keep that one! Thanks! Any idea as to what I should do with the other one? I haven't given her anything besides her base kit, so I'd be fine with using her for Inherit Skill (generally, who would want RES Smoke?), or I could merge her into my normal one if there isn't much that Grima is good for inheritance-wise.

Also, I have a bit of a long question too:

I have a Faye that I've been meaning to finish building, and I want to go this way:

+2 Merged, +RES/-SPD, Summoner-S, Water Blessing
Guard Bow+ [DEF]
Reposition
Iceberg
Close Counter
Quick Riposte 3
Panic Ploy 3 [may become SPD Tactic 3 if I get a second Legendary Lyn, since it's the one Tactic that she most likely won't care about receiving and thus should go on her so her teammates can benefit from it, but for now it's Panic Ploy because 50-53 HP seems like a good amount for running Panic Ploy]
Close DEF 3 Seal
Player Phase Stats: 50 HP | 45 ATK | 23 SPD | 32 DEF | 37 RES
Player Phase Stats During Water Season: 53 HP | 45 ATK | 23 SPD | 36 DEF | 37 RES
Enemy Phase Stats: 50 HP | 45 ATK | 23 SPD | 38 DEF | 43 RES
Enemy Phase Stats During Water Season: 53 HP | 45 ATK | 23 SPD | 42 DEF | 43 RES
Enemy Phase w/ All Tactics Stats: 50 HP | 51 ATK | 29 SPD | 44 DEF | 49 RES
Enemy Phase w/ All Tactics During Water Season Stats: 53 HP | 51 ATK | 29 SPD | 48 DEF | 49 RES
[I hope I calculated all of those correctly]

I think that, with 50 HP, 38 DEF and 43 RES (44 DEF and 49 RES with DEF & RES Tactic), Faye should be able to tank decently on Enemy Phase, and with 45 ATK (51 with ATK Tactic, which I can finally put on someone since I just pulled a Legault), she should be able to stack her defenses to the point where she can survive getting doubled and strike back with a fairly-high-power Iceberg to finish off her foes. Panic Ploy's just there because she should be able to get something out of it with 50 HP. Also if it's Water Season then Ryoma puts her up to 36 base DEF, which can max out at 48, so she'll be even better at tanking physical hits during Water seasons. Which I think is nice.

At the moment, her teammates are going to be:

Legendary Lyn [+DEF/-SPD]
Swift Mulagir
Reposition
Iceberg
Laws of Sacae
Chill DEF 3
SPD Tactic 3 [may become ATK Smoke 3 if Faye gets SPD Tactic, since it'll be redundant if it's on both of them]
Distant DEF 3 Seal

Another Enemy Phase archer, in case I need a second one (plus she gives Olivia extra HP, and also a little more ATK, but mostly the HP is what I'm interested in here). Lyn forgoes Close Counter in exchange for having pretty alright Enemy Phase stats when she's surrounded by friends and being able to double people sometimes [54 ATK | 42 SPD | 34 DEF | 40 RES, which becomes 60 ATK | 42 SPD | 40 DEF | 46 RES with all non-SPD Tactics applied, assuming I've calculated everything correctly].

Falicorn Olivia [Neutral] Wind Blessing
Slaying Edge+ [DEF]
Dance
Moonbow
Bracing Stance 2
Chill SPD 3
ATK Tactic 3
DEF Tactic 3 Seal

General support, can possibly take a hit and retaliate with Moonbow if I need her to with fairly balanced defenses, as long as she doesn't have to face arrows (but Faye and Lyn can do that on Enemy Phase, if Ryoma doesn't nuke them on his turn).

Legendary Ryoma [+HP/-ATK]
Wo Dao+ [SPD]
Reposition
Moonbow
Darting Blow 3
Bushido
RES Tactic 3
SPD +3 Seal

Player Phase ally for emergencies. With this setup, Ryoma hits 57 SPD on Player Phase, so he should be able to double, and when he does he'll drop a +20-damage Moonbow on whoever I need dead. ATK/SPD/DEF Tactic are there to allow him to take a hit if he needs to, to reach that 57 SPD (it's 51 without SPD Tactic, which is still pretty good, but it's not 57 good), and that he'll still be reasonably strong despite being -ATK (I mean, +20-damage Moonbow is there to mitigate this already, but still).

Can this team work? Is there something else I should consider?

Edited August 1, 2018 by ILikeKirbys

[mampfoid]

1 hour ago, XRay said:

would go with +Spd.

HNY!Camilla
Kadomatsu [Spd], Moonbow
Fury, Desperation
Speed +3
Enemies +5, +Spd, Moonbow, Fury
Player Phase [+Spd, -Atk] 69:5:200
Player Phase [+HP, -Spd] 44:13:217

Ok, thanks! Now I have to decide if it's worth to sacrifice that Reposition fodder and the refining stones I've already invested in the other copy to have a bond fodder (no candidate in sight). 

[Vaximillian]

Got a weird idea and want to know whether it’s bad or terrible.
Atk/Spd Push on Renewal Celica, yay or nay? This doesn’t nuke her Res as L&D does and provides the same Atk and Spd boost while it’s active.

[Xenomata]

6 minutes ago, Vaximillian said:

Got a weird idea and want to know whether it’s bad or terrible.
Atk/Spd Push on Renewal Celica, yay or nay? This doesn’t nuke her Res as L&D does and provides the same Atk and Spd boost while it’s active.

 

What worries me is that because Celica doesn't have that good a defensive spread, any form of retaliation will heavily damage her even without the after-combat damage, so even with Renewal she'd need Healer support to get back to 100% HP, and her Attack isn't high enough to simply kill the enemy before they can counterattack like Lilina's is.

It's not like Celica has good Res to begin with, even if it's a boon nature.

I'd only say bad though, since it is the same boost as LnD3 and is technically worth more in the Arena...

[Xenomata]

How do I want to build an Arena Defense team?

My Arena Defense team has always been my Arena Offense team, so I've always wound up only getting about one win a week, at best. I wanna try to guarantee at least one Def win a week though, so what is it I wanna do to guarantee at least that one win?

I'm not concerned about SCORE, mind you.

[XRay]

1 hour ago, ILikeKirbys said:

Any idea as to what I should do with the other one? I haven't given her anything besides her base kit, so I'd be fine with using her for Inherit Skill (generally, who would want RES Smoke?), or I could merge her into my normal one if there isn't much that Grima is good for inheritance-wise.

In this specific case, I prefer merge due to my play style preferences, but merging her and foddering Res Smoke are both fine.

Res Smoke can be very useful on Lilina and maybe Gunthrá to increase their one hit potential. I personally prefer running buffs over debuffs so I would go for merges, but if you like debuffs, then I would go for foddering Res Smoke instead.

1 hour ago, ILikeKirbys said:

I have a Faye that I've been meaning to finish building, and I want to go this way:

1 hour ago, ILikeKirbys said:

Close Counter

I am generally wary of running Close Counter on most ranged units. Faye does not have access to Owl tomes to even up the stat deficit between range units and melee units, and 26 Def is also really low to use her like a Def tank. Most ranged Def tanks are usually mages like Boey and Sophia with around 30+ Def and equip Owl tomes to give them about another +4 to Def when adjacent to 2 allies. Faye is basically missing that crucial 8 Def that other ranged Def tanks have. Faye is also colorless, which means she cannot rely on color to further reduce damage per hit. Additionally, a Def/Res tank normally does not mind being slow since they can shrug off most attacks with their massive Def/Res, but since Faye does not have that kind damage reduction per hit, being doubled by everyone is a huge problem.

I would go for Distant Def or Bracing Stance on the A slot if you have access to that so she can be a ranged tank.

6 hours ago, Vaximillian said:

Got a weird idea and want to know whether it’s bad or terrible.
Atk/Spd Push on Renewal Celica, yay or nay? This doesn’t nuke her Res as L&D does and provides the same Atk and Spd boost while it’s active.

Yay. Celica generally should not be attacking anyways if she does not have 100% HP. It would also help hide her Atk/Spd from Chills.

5 hours ago, Xenomata said:

How do I want to build an Arena Defense team?

A good defense team aims to capitalize on a player's mistakes and punishes them for it. The point is not to win every battle, but to increase the chances of winning a battle when the player screws up. Common mistakes include not checking for enemy skills, not having a balanced team, accidentally moving a unit into enemy range, etc.

Here are some common elements that takes advantage of players' mistakes:

Ranged ponies
Firesweep archers/healers with Savage Blow-Savage Blow
Dancers/Singers
Mono color (or mono unit if you got like three Hectors or Reinhardts)
Vantage
Wings of Mercy (GA!Lucina is the best with this)
Chills

[D4rthNoctis]

9 hours ago, XRay said:

For Ishtar, I lean towards +Spd for better independent performance, as Waves are not super reliable in my opinion. +Atk is fine too, but it only performs better than +Spd if you have buffs but the enemy has no buffs. (I just realized your current one is -Def, not -HP, however, I think the -Def numbers will still be relatively similar to -HP.)

Ishtar +10, -HP
Mjolnir, Moonbow
Swift Sparrow, Desperation

Enemies +10, +Spd, Moonbow, Fury
Player Phase [+Spd] 192:11:71
Player Phase [+Atk] 178:11:85
Player Phase [+Spd, 4/4/0/0] 225:11:38
Player Phase [+Atk, 4/4/0/0] 234:11:29

Enemies +10, +Spd, Moonbow, Fury, 3/3/3/3
Player Phase [+Spd] 140:20:114
Player Phase [+Atk] 101:20:153
Player Phase [+Spd, 4/4/0/0] 202:21:51
Player Phase [+Atk, 4/4/0/0] 196:21:57

Ishtar +10, -HP
Mjolnir, Luna
Swift Sparrow, Desperation
Flashing Blade

Enemies +10, +Spd, Moonbow, Fury
Player Phase [+Spd] 217:11:46
Player Phase [+Atk] 186:11:77
Player Phase [+Spd, 4/4/0/0] 235:11:28
Player Phase [+Atk, 4/4/0/0] 241:11:22

Enemies +10, +Spd, Moonbow, Fury, 3/3/3/3
Player Phase [+Spd] 163:20:91
Player Phase [+Atk] 109:20:145
Player Phase [+Spd, 4/4/0/0] 218:21:35
Player Phase [+Atk, 4/4/0/0] 203:21:50

For FV!F!Robin, she functions best as a Spd tank to avoid doubles, so I would go with +Spd. +Res allows her to tank Lilina, but that means she is more vulnerable to being doubled from other units.

FV!F!Robin +10, -HP
Expiration, Moonbow
Dragon Skin, Quick Riposte
Enemies +10, +Spd, Moonbow, Fury
Enemy Phase [+Spd] 191:36:47
Enemy Phase [+Res] 154:74:46

FV!F!Robin +10, -HP
Expiration, Moonbow
Dragon Skin, Quick Riposte
Speed +3
Enemies +10, +Spd, Moonbow, Fury
Enemy Phase [+Spd] 205:21:48
Enemy Phase [+Res] 191:36:47

I would go with +Spd.

Thanks for that. +Spd/-HP Ishtar looks the go however:

Funnily enough, whilst pulling for some merges today, I actually pulled a +Spd/-Def Ishtar haha. It would be interesting to compare the +Spd/-HP & +Spd/-Def copies, though like you said, it would be fairly close still. Once again, I have a tough dilemma haha.

As for Female Grima, after further analysis and your feedback, I've decided to run with the +Spd/-Hp copy. Thanks again.

Edited August 1, 2018 by D4RTH

[Vaximillian]

28 minutes ago, XRay said:

Yay. Celica generally should not be attacking anyways if she does not have 100% HP. It would also help hide her Atk/Spd from Chills.

So it is worth it replacing L&D on her (which she is currently running) with Atk/Spd Push?

[Xenomata]

1 minute ago, Vaximillian said:

So it is worth it replacing L&D on her (which she is currently running) with Atk/Spd Push?

If it seems a good investment, then you should. I myself forgot about Chill passives, and Celica without LnD3 is just fast/powerful enough to avoid triggering "Highest Attack/Speed" chills and some of the "Lowest Speed" chills.

[XRay]

1 hour ago, Vaximillian said:

So it is worth it replacing L&D on her (which she is currently running) with Atk/Spd Push?

I think so, unless there is another Renewal nuke who can use it and you want to give it to them instead. So far other than Celica, I think only Alm, FH!Celica, and Ylissean Weapon users got additional offensive effects at 100% HP.

1 hour ago, D4RTH said:

It would be interesting to compare the +Spd/-HP & +Spd/-Def copies, though like you said, it would be fairly close still.

I will have to double check, but I lean towards -Def. -HP is sort of a bane to both Def and Res since her bulk is not super high to begin with. With -Def, at least her magic bulk is intact. I am not sure if it really matters though. I guess you can also have her run Ploys, but her Res is not super great; although at +10, most enemies would have perfect natures by then and melee units generally would have -Res.

[Vaximillian]

@XRay @Xenomata Alright, your advice helped me decide!
She’s “only” neutral but maybe I’ll get a +Spd or a +Atk one day.

[Khid]

I was thinking of building Subaki and making him my first +10 merge but I’m not exactly sure how to build him. I was thinking of giving him Aether as his special, CD for his A slot, keeping QR as his B, attack smoke as C, and maybe the CD seal? I can’t decide between Harmonic lance and Slaying lance, but I’m leaning more towards harmonic because Shigure pity broke me and it matches Subaki’s hair. His IVs are what I’m most unsure about. I want Def as his boon, but I can’t choose between banes. An HP bane will keep his Res up in case I need him to deal with dragons, but I do plan on using M!Marth as part of my core, so a Res bane might be more favorable instead. I was also thinking of a Spd bane since he’ll mainly be an enemy phase unit and he’ll have QR to double anyway and his Spd isn’t totally awful at +10 anyway. Any advice on the overall build will be helpful!

Also, how common are mages and archers at the higher end of tier 20? If they’re still common, then that might affect how I build him.

Edited August 3, 2018 by Khid

[XRay]

On 8/1/2018 at 6:51 AM, D4RTH said:

Funnily enough, whilst pulling for some merges today, I actually pulled a +Spd/-Def Ishtar haha. It would be interesting to compare the +Spd/-HP & +Spd/-Def copies, though like you said, it would be fairly close still. Once again, I have a tough dilemma haha.

I would go with -Def/Res over -HP. -HP seems to give the worse performance. -Res gives the best performance, probably due to having enough magic bulk to survive most mages, so she will need some physical bulk to survive archers and dagger units. However, you may still want to consider using -Def so she can ploy enemies, and dagger units are not very common in the higher tiers, and I do not think Ishtar can reliably survive a counter attack from TOD!Jakob and most Distant Counter melee units even if she keeps her Def.

Ishtar +10, +Spd
Mjolnir, Moonbow
Swift Sparrow, Desperation
Enemies +10, Moonbow, Fury, 3/3/3/3
Player Phase [-HP] 140:20:114
Player Phase [-Def] 140:13:121
Player Phase [-Res] 143:11:120
Player Phase [-HP, 4/4/0/0] 202:21:51
Player Phase [-Def, 4/4/0/0] 202:14:58
Player Phase [-Res, 4/4/0/0] 206:11:57

5 hours ago, Khid said:

Also, how common are mages and archers at the higher end of tier 20? If they’re still common, then that might affect how I build him.

In the 730s, ranged units are still common enough. However, I do not think their presence should dictate how you build Subaki unless you are giving him Distant Counter, as baiting ranged units (or any unit that you cannot counter attack against) without killing them is generally a bad idea in my opinion.

I would give Subaki +Atk. Giving him +Def does not really reduce his deaths against non green enemies, and leaving enemies alive is basically asking for trouble from shit like Vantage and Wings of Mercy.

Subaki +10
Slaying Lance [Res], Bonfire
Close Def, Quick Riposte
Close Def
Non green, non ranged Enemies +10, +Spd, Moonbow, Fury, Bold Fighter, 3/3/3/3
Enemy Phase [+Atk, -HP] 74:0:39
Enemy Phase [+Def, -HP] 53:0:60

I personally prefer a higher kill ratio, but that it requires him to compromise his survivability a little

Subaki +10
Slaying Lance [Def], Bonfire
Sturdy Stance/Atk/Def Bond, Quick Riposte
Close Def
Non green, non ranged Enemies +10, +Spd, Moonbow, Fury, Bold Fighter, 3/3/3/3
Enemy Phase [+Atk, -HP] 86:3:24 (Subaki will die to F!Corrin and FV!F!Robin. The third is M!Kana, but he cannot be merged to +10.)
Enemy Phase [+Res, -HP] 78:2:33 (Subaki will die to FV!F!Robin. The second is M!Kana.)

Edited August 3, 2018 by XRay

[Jingle Jangle]

Does normal Chrom with his special refine work better as an offensive or defensive unit?

Edited August 3, 2018 by Jingle Jangle

[Ice Dragon]

2 minutes ago, Jingle Jangle said:

Does normal Chrom with his special refine work better as an offensive or defensive unit?

Normal Chrom is absurdly slow, and Falchion's special refine is a Bond skill, both of which are traits better used on enemy phase.

[Xenomata]

I got HNY!Camilla with a horrid nature. Obviously not gonna keep her when my base HNY!Camilla is better, but what I wanna know is not if I should merge into my base HNY!Camilla or if I should fodder her, moreso... should I expect Spd/Def Bond to be put in the Summoning Pool anytime soon?

I ask because it doesn't really feel like it will, given HNY!Camilla is still the only holder of it and pretty much all the holders of Bond skills are limited-time units (Save BSW!Hinoka), but I also don't know what the pattern is for skills once exclusive to seasonal/limited time units being put into the normal summoning pool.

...plus it might be fun to give Spd/Def Bond to Sharena given the new refine...

[XRay]

14 minutes ago, Xenomata said:

I got HNY!Camilla with a horrid nature. Obviously not gonna keep her when my base HNY!Camilla is better, but what I wanna know is not if I should merge into my base HNY!Camilla or if I should fodder her, moreso... should I expect Spd/Def Bond to be put in the Summoning Pool anytime soon?

I ask because it doesn't really feel like it will, given HNY!Camilla is still the only holder of it and pretty much all the holders of Bond skills are limited-time units (Save BSW!Hinoka), but I also don't know what the pattern is for skills once exclusive to seasonal/limited time units being put into the normal summoning pool.

...plus it might be fun to give Spd/Def Bond to Sharena given the new refine...

It takes time for them to implement it in game. Dazzling Staff took like about a year I think.

I do not think Spd/Def Bond is in high demand though, so I would not worry too much about saving it. Most of Enemy Phase units seem to want Atk/Spd Bond, Atk/Def Bond, or Atk/Res Bond. Felicia and a few mage tanks may want Spd/Res Bond, but I do not remember anyone notable preferring Spd/Def Bond.

[Xenomata]

34 minutes ago, XRay said:

It takes time for them to implement it in game. Dazzling Staff took like about a year I think.

Over a year, to be specific!

I do not think Spd/Def Bond is in high demand though, so I would not worry too much about saving it. Most of Enemy Phase units seem to want Atk/Spd Bond, Atk/Def Bond, or Atk/Res Bond. Felicia and a few mage tanks may want Spd/Res Bond, but I do not remember anyone notable preferring Spd/Def Bond.

The only units I could possibly think of wanting Spd/Def Bond are enemy-phase units who specialize in Speed and Defense... which the only one I can think of who fits the bill would be Nephenee. Sharena would be interesting to give it to, since it'd stack with refined Fensalir, but she is far from my next Divine Dew refine...

[NegativeExponents-]

@mcsilas

Quote

@NegativeExponents- What Niles do you recommend, +Res or +Atk? Or should I wait for +Spd? Your Niles does really good work on the clears.

I’m rocking a Neutral Niles and he works wonders for the most part but I do find his atk to be underwhelming and that +4 atk superboon would go long ways in mitigating that problem. It’s just a good all purpose stat that Niles will be needing no matter what he’s running.

However, with Flashing Blade now being available as a seal +spd is an even better option than ever before. Niles will be activating Iceberg on every follow up attack he performs which makes easily makes up for his low base atk stat. He will need some speed stacking to reliably pull this strategy off. Other than that it’s not really all that relevant if you want an EP Niles but still has it’s uses in preventing doubles.

+Res is ok if you want to turn him into an anti-mage/ploy-support unit along with increasing his damage from Glacies/Iceberg but not much else. I honestly don’t recommend it even you wanted to make him an anti-ranged unit with Guard Bow+ I just think +atk or even +def would be better for that. You could always just give him a res refined weapon to increase that stat instead.

Spoiler

Here’s one of the Niles from my friend list. This one happens to be +atk/-def and has Guard Bow+, Reciprocal Aid, and Glacies.

I think this is a good example as to why +res is overkill.

This Niles is heavily merged but even without the merges he’ll be reaching 46 res on EP. Not to mention he’ll be debuffing enemies for -7atk making his res stat effectively 53. I don’t even think I need to mention that Brazen def/res will bump that to 60 res as it already feels like overkill as it is but I did anyway. And this is a neutral res Niles.

Meanwhile look at his atk. Despite his merges Niles is only reaching an atk stat of 43. Were he to be a neutral atk Niles that would be 39 atk. Needless to say that would be low. Very low. A teddy bear would hit harder.

He might survive every thing magical thrown his way with +res but he won’t be damaging anything that shows any signs of physical bulk.

In short, +atk or +spd should be prioritized. If you already have a +atk one you should use him. Or wait for a +spd one to show up if you prefer. Avoid that +res it’s not worth it imo

[Ice Dragon]

13 minutes ago, NegativeExponents- said:

However, with Flashing Blade now being available as a seal +spd is an even better option than ever before. Niles will be activating Iceberg on every follow up attack he performs which makes easily makes up for his low base atk stat.

Flashing Blade only works when Niles hits the opponent and not when the opponent hits him. Only Steady Breath and Warding Breath add extra Special charge rate when the opponent hits your unit, and Niles can't learn either of them.

[NegativeExponents-]

2 minutes ago, Ice Dragon said:

Flashing Blade only works when Niles hits the opponent and not when the opponent hits him. Only Steady Breath and Warding Breath add extra Special charge rate when the opponent hits your unit, and Niles can't learn either of them.

Yeah exactly every follow up. As in every double he performs. Niles attacks once with a Slaying Bow+ and Flashing Blade, Iceberg’s cooldown goes down by two, and on the double he procs Iceberg.

Maybe you thought I meant counter attack?

[Ice Dragon]

20 minutes ago, NegativeExponents- said:

Yeah exactly every follow up. As in every double he performs. Niles attacks once with a Slaying Bow+ and Flashing Blade, Iceberg’s cooldown goes down by two, and on the double he procs Iceberg.

Maybe you thought I meant counter attack?

I did think you meant counterattack, but realized after I posted that Niles would be difficult to double in the first place when running a Spd set.

But if you're running Slaying Bow, you'd want to be using Glacies instead. I don't think Niles is quite fast enough to consistently double on player phase (34 base Spd is no longer quite as high as it used to be, especially with ranged units getting 1 fewer points of Spd on their refine), so he'd be more reliable with an enemy-phase with a set like

Niles [+Spd / Atk, -Def] (Slaying Bow+ [Spd / Res], Glacies, Spd/Res Bond 3, Quick Riposte 3, Flashing Blade 3)

Edited August 3, 2018 by Ice Dragon

[NegativeExponents-]

@Ice Dragon I agree. With surge of units that have their spd stat cranked all the way up to 40 and the likes it’s hard to consider his doubling potential as reliable.

14 minutes ago, Ice Dragon said:

Niles [+Spd / Atk, -Def] (Slaying Bow+ [Spd / Res], Glacies, Spd/Res Bond 3, Quick Riposte 3, Flashing Blade 3)

Ooh that does sound neat. I guess EP spd stacked Niles does have potential after all. @mcsilas take notes. Ice Dragon knows what they’re talking about.

[Ice Dragon]

6 minutes ago, NegativeExponents- said:

@Ice Dragon I agree. With surge of units that have their spd stat cranked all the way up to 40 and the likes it’s hard to consider his doubling potential as reliable.

Ooh that does sound neat. I guess EP spd stacked Niles does have potential after all. @mcsilas take notes. Ice Dragon knows what they’re talking about.

A went back to run the numbers and he gets rather impressive results (against ranged units on enemy phase) when running

Niles [+Spd, -Def] (Slaying Bow+ [Spd], Glacies, Spd/Res Bond 3, Quick Riposte 3, Spd Ploy 3, Flashing Blade 3) +4/4/0/0,

pretty much only failing to win against Brave Bows and armors (granted, there aren't any daggers on my enemy list). I mean, sure, it's only against ranged units on enemy phase, but it's definitely something.

And it's also hella expensive with Spd/Res Bond only coming from Spring Kagero and Spd Ploy from Deirdre or Saias. I really wish they would improve the availability of Bond skills (skill shop when?).