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

[Tree]

6 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

Just got a pity break Takumi, so CC fodder. I know this isn't as valuable as DC, and it'd probably just sit around doing nothing because I just can't commit something so rare, but who likes CC? -And to narrow it, I'm not interested in Seasonals, OCs, Awakening, or Fates characters.

Ranged armor units would like it. There are at least six of them (if I remember right) and they cover every color. They are currently all seasonal, but I do think we will get non-seasonal ranged armor units at some point though, so you potentially might want to wait a bit. There are some future mythic and GHB candidates.

[mampfoid]

1 hour ago, Azure the Scale Tipper said:

Go for +Def -HP. Ike does not really need Speed, and he does not like -Atk or -Def anyway.

Like @XRay mentioned, banes will be erased at +1 with the next (?) update. That's why I want to merge at all.

+DEF and +SPD both seem useful, but also neutral will gain +2 on both ATK/HP and +1 on DEF with the first merge. As far as I understood, +SPD will help him to not get doubled in some important match-ups.

So basically I have to choose between

+3 DEF, +1 HP, +1 ATK or

+3 SPD, +1 HP, +1 ATK or 

+1 DEF, +2 HP, +2 ATK

[Tree]

@mampfoid @XRay

At +10, the +spd version would have  [37 spd, 39 def] and +def version would have [34spd, 42 def], so those would be the merged target values.

I'm in a similar situation, but the choice is +atk or +def. The extra attack would bring it up to 59 at +10 merges.

[mampfoid]

30 minutes ago, Tree said:

At +10, the +spd version would have  [37 spd, 39 def] and +def version would have [34spd, 42 def], so those would be the merged target values.

Well, I won't merge him to +10, he is just too good fodder. The first merge will help him a lot with the merge update, that's what he will get from me. 

31 minutes ago, Tree said:

I'm in a similar situation, but the choice is +atk or +def. The extra attack would bring it up to 59 at +10 merges.

Never considered to use the neutral base? 

[XRay]

1 hour ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

Just got a pity break Takumi, so CC fodder. I know this isn't as valuable as DC, and it'd probably just sit around doing nothing because I just can't commit something so rare, but who likes CC? -And to narrow it, I'm not interested in Seasonals, OCs, Awakening, or Fates characters.

In addition to regular ranged tanks, Close Counter with Pain and Vantage is pretty fun on healers, just watch out for enemies with Hardy Bearing and Firesweep.

49 minutes ago, mampfoid said:

So basically I have to choose between

+3 DEF, +1 HP, +1 ATK or

+3 SPD, +1 HP, +1 ATK or 

+1 DEF, +2 HP, +2 ATK

I completely forgot about neutral, but it seems like +Spd still outperforms them.

Challenger List: (the +HP are neutrals, so just have them take 2 damage and give them 1/0/1/0 in Spurs.)

Spoiler

CHALLENGER LIST  
Ike (VL) (5* +spd)  
Weapon: Ragnell  
Special: Radiant Aether  
A: Warding Breath  
B: Quick Riposte 3  
C: Def Tactic 3  
S: Atk Spd Bond 3  
 
Ike (VL) (5* +def)  
Weapon: Ragnell  
Special: Radiant Aether  
A: Warding Breath  
B: Quick Riposte 3  
C: Def Tactic 3  
S: Atk Def Bond 3  
 
Ike (VL) (5*+10 +spd)  
Weapon: Ragnell  
Special: Radiant Aether  
A: Warding Breath  
B: Quick Riposte 3  
C: Def Tactic 3  
S: Atk Spd Bond 3  
 
Ike (VL) (5*+10 +def)  
Weapon: Ragnell  
Special: Radiant Aether  
A: Warding Breath  
B: Quick Riposte 3  
C: Def Tactic 3  
S: Atk Def Bond 3  
 
Ike (VL) (5* +hp)  
Weapon: Ragnell  
Special: Radiant Aether  
A: Warding Breath  
B: Quick Riposte 3  
C: Def Tactic 3  
S: Atk Def Bond 3  
 
Ike (VL) (5* +hp)  
Weapon: Ragnell  
Special: Radiant Aether  
A: Warding Breath  
B: Quick Riposte 3  
C: Def Tactic 3  
S: Atk Spd Bond 3  
 
Ike (VL) (5*+10 +hp)  
Weapon: Ragnell  
Special: Radiant Aether  
A: Warding Breath  
B: Quick Riposte 3  
C: Def Tactic 3  
S: Atk Def Bond 3  
 
Ike (VL) (5*+10 +hp)  
Weapon: Ragnell  
Special: Radiant Aether  
A: Warding Breath  
B: Quick Riposte 3  
C: Def Tactic 3  
S: Atk Spd Bond 3 

 

38 minutes ago, Tree said:

I'm in a similar situation, but the choice is +atk or +def. The extra attack would bring it up to 59 at +10 merges.

I think +Def would be better. Enemy Phase units generally want to run +Spd to avoid doubles or +Def/Res to reduce damage.

Challenger List: (You can just copy and paste this into the above Challenger List for comparison.)

Spoiler

Ike (VL) (5* +atk)  
Weapon: Ragnell  
Special: Radiant Aether  
A: Warding Breath  
B: Quick Riposte 3  
C: Def Tactic 3  
S: Atk Spd Bond 3  
 
Ike (VL) (5* +atk)  
Weapon: Ragnell  
Special: Radiant Aether  
A: Warding Breath  
B: Quick Riposte 3  
C: Def Tactic 3  
S: Atk Def Bond 3  
 
Ike (VL) (5*+10 +atk)  
Weapon: Ragnell  
Special: Radiant Aether  
A: Warding Breath  
B: Quick Riposte 3  
C: Def Tactic 3  
S: Atk Spd Bond 3  
 
Ike (VL) (5*+10 +atk)  
Weapon: Ragnell  
Special: Radiant Aether  
A: Warding Breath  
B: Quick Riposte 3  
C: Def Tactic 3  
S: Atk Def Bond 3 

 

Edited January 30, 2019 by XRay

[mampfoid]

10 minutes ago, XRay said:

I completely forgot about neutral, but it seems like +Spd still outperforms them.

Challenger List: (the +HP are neutrals, so just have them take 2 damage and give them 1/0/1/0 in Spurs.)

i won't need to haste, but I'm leaning towards +SPD as well. Thanks for the calcs! 

 

[Alastor15243]

What determines which unit i’m sending to reinforce people in the voting gauntlet? I wanna make sure it’s my Tibarn.

[redlight]

26 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

What determines which unit i’m sending to reinforce people in the voting gauntlet? I wanna make sure it’s my Tibarn.

The first unit on team 1

[Zihark11]

Ok so i have 200 divine dew and i can either upgrade my Julia or my Tailtiu.

 

is Tome of thoron better then Blarblade+? Both seem like good weapons and i cant determine if its worth it. I like Julia cause shes a dragon killer which my line up sorely lacks except lucina who isnt the greatest.

[Ice Dragon]

3 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

What determines which unit i’m sending to reinforce people in the voting gauntlet? I wanna make sure it’s my Tibarn.

It's the left-most unit on team 1 (the same unit that appears at the top of the stairs in your castle), but if you change it, it won't update for other players until you run a map (you can surrender or lose).

[Xenomata]

1 hour ago, Zihark11 said:

Ok so i have 200 divine dew and i can either upgrade my Julia or my Tailtiu.

 

is Tome of thoron better then Blarblade+? Both seem like good weapons and i cant determine if its worth it. I like Julia cause shes a dragon killer which my line up sorely lacks except lucina who isnt the greatest.

Blarblade+ on an Infantry unit isn't as bad as it used to be, now that Legendary Azura is a broken thing, but Tome of Thoron possessing Wrath on a ranged unit, in addition to Darting Blow refine, can be deadly if Tailtiu is packing enough speed. Tome of Thoron is also not as limited in teams comps as Bladetomes are, since you'd have to have entire units dedicated to buffing the Bladetome whereas Tome of Thoron is perfectly capable on it's own as is. It should be noted, however, that in terms of raw power Blarblade+ will always come out on top (even just a simple 4/4/0/4 buffs will outdamage the bonus damage from Wrath), while Tome of Thoron offers speed and powered up special triggers.

I'm not gonna say go for it though, because Julia being able to lure Dragons in can be downright deadly with the right setup. Fierce Stance stacking, for instance, can lead to the death of just about every Dragon excluding Garon and Spooky Myrrh (if I remember the calculations I did before), and throwing in Vantage will mean she gets the kill before the enemy can even attack.

I'd say, is it important you have a Dragon killer now, or can you wait a few weeks to get the Divine Dews together again to give Tailtiu the refine, assuming the coming months of Refinery updates don't give us anything overly spectacular.

[Ice Dragon]

1 hour ago, Zihark11 said:

Ok so i have 200 divine dew and i can either upgrade my Julia or my Tailtiu.

 

is Tome of thoron better then Blarblade+? Both seem like good weapons and i cant determine if its worth it. I like Julia cause shes a dragon killer which my line up sorely lacks except lucina who isnt the greatest.

Thoron is effectively fully functional with just its base effect and doesn't cost Dew if you aren't refining it. You can test it out and see how much you like it before you make a decision.

[Zihark11]

On 1/31/2019 at 10:19 AM, Xenomata said:

Blarblade+ on an Infantry unit isn't as bad as it used to be, now that Legendary Azura is a broken thing, but Tome of Thoron possessing Wrath on a ranged unit, in addition to Darting Blow refine, can be deadly if Tailtiu is packing enough speed. Tome of Thoron is also not as limited in teams comps as Bladetomes are, since you'd have to have entire units dedicated to buffing the Bladetome whereas Tome of Thoron is perfectly capable on it's own as is. It should be noted, however, that in terms of raw power Blarblade+ will always come out on top (even just a simple 4/4/0/4 buffs will outdamage the bonus damage from Wrath), while Tome of Thoron offers speed and powered up special triggers.

I'm not gonna say go for it though, because Julia being able to lure Dragons in can be downright deadly with the right setup. Fierce Stance stacking, for instance, can lead to the death of just about every Dragon excluding Garon and Spooky Myrrh (if I remember the calculations I did before), and throwing in Vantage will mean she gets the kill before the enemy can even attack.

I'd say, is it important you have a Dragon killer now, or can you wait a few weeks to get the Divine Dews together again to give Tailtiu the refine, assuming the coming months of Refinery updates don't give us anything overly spectacular.

Hmm i see. Tome of thoron makes her a better stand alone while blarblade makes use of teamates buffs. Makes sense and both seem good. ill probably go Julia first now cause i love that you said Vantage, i was so focused on G tomebreaker 3 i didint consider much else. fierce stance 3 plus vantage seems really cool. Thanks man!

[Xenomata]

27 minutes ago, Zihark11 said:

Hmm i see. Tome of thoron makes her a better stand alone while blarblade makes use of teamates buffs. Makes sense and both seem good. ill probably go Julia first now cause i love that you said Vantage, i was so focused on G tomebreaker 3 i didint consider much else. fierce stance 3 plus vantage seems really cool. Thanks man!

Vantage is great, but Breakers are always welcome to. Julia can also benefit from QR3 for general matchups, but against Dragons at least nothing really changes.

The FS/Vant/FS build I gave you is what I gave to Julia myself, with the intent of throwing her into full dragon teams, but her B slot is flexible in that regard.

[Azure the Scale Tipper]

1 minute ago, Xenomata said:

Vantage is great, but Breakers are always welcome to. Julia can also benefit from QR3 for general matchups, but against Dragons at least nothing really changes.

The FS/Vant/FS build I gave you is what I gave to Julia myself, with the intent of throwing her into full dragon teams, but her B slot is flexible in that regard.

Guard also works, I think.

I mean, just about anything that slows cooldown charge is good nowadays.

[Zihark11]

1 hour ago, Xenomata said:

Vantage is great, but Breakers are always welcome to. Julia can also benefit from QR3 for general matchups, but against Dragons at least nothing really changes.

The FS/Vant/FS build I gave you is what I gave to Julia myself, with the intent of throwing her into full dragon teams, but her B slot is flexible in that regard.

Yeah. im struggling at pulling a Henry for the G tomebreaker 3 so ive been looking for substitutes. you mind sharing your full build with me? id appreciate it! 

[Xenomata]

1 hour ago, Zihark11 said:

Yeah. im struggling at pulling a Henry for the G tomebreaker 3 so ive been looking for substitutes. you mind sharing your full build with me? id appreciate it! 

Julia [+Atk -Def]

• Naga [special refine]
• Swap/Draw Back
• Dragon Fang/Draconic Aura

1. Fierce Stance 3
2. Vantage 3/Quick Riposte 3
3. Fortify Res

• Fierce Stance 3

QR3 was really only for the Duma Abyssal GHB, but again it has potency when taking on non-dragon foes.

Draconic Aura/Dragon Fang outdamage Iceberg/Glacies when Julia has both Fierce Stances activated. I'm not sure the special you pick matters unless you would want to use Dragon Fang for a delayed powered up attack against one last enemy.

The build works pretty much exactly as you'd think it would. Julia gets attacked and kills one dragon, and then Vantage kicks in and all dragons face absolute extinction (except Spooky Myrrh and Garon). She would have 64 Atk on enemy phase btw.

Her C slot can be replaced with anything else.

[Zihark11]

2 hours ago, Xenomata said:

Julia [+Atk -Def]

• Naga [special refine]
• Swap/Draw Back
• Dragon Fang/Draconic Aura

1. Fierce Stance 3
2. Vantage 3/Quick Riposte 3
3. Fortify Res

• Fierce Stance 3

QR3 was really only for the Duma Abyssal GHB, but again it has potency when taking on non-dragon foes.

Draconic Aura/Dragon Fang outdamage Iceberg/Glacies when Julia has both Fierce Stances activated. I'm not sure the special you pick matters unless you would want to use Dragon Fang for a delayed powered up attack against one last enemy.

The build works pretty much exactly as you'd think it would. Julia gets attacked and kills one dragon, and then Vantage kicks in and all dragons face absolute extinction (except Spooky Myrrh and Garon). She would have 64 Atk on enemy phase btw.

Her C slot can be replaced with anything else.

rip just realized fire stance is a 5 star skill. im sad now. dont got my dorcas anymore.

[XRay]

2 hours ago, Azure the Scale Tipper said:

Guard also works, I think.

I mean, just about anything that slows cooldown charge is good nowadays.

Yeah, Guard is pretty good, especially if the the unit is getting constantly doubled; by negating the damage from Specials, Guard is essentially an extra Fort. Def/Res or Bracing Stance but on the B slot.

On a Spd tank, Guard is not as useful in my opinion since most enemies cannot double to activate their Specials. While it is useful in tanking against slow Brave nukes, the unit might as well just take the initiative to take out the slow Brave nuke on Player Phase so they can run something else on the B slot instead.

54 minutes ago, Xenomata said:

She would have 64 Atk on enemy phase btw.

@Zihark11 She would have 96 Atk against dragons, which makes Vantage a very good option against them.

Remember this is a niche build, so she is pretty vulnerable against other green mages (she is still highly effective against blue mages though). 64 Atk is no where near enough to knock out most green mages in one hit. With her HP already so low to activate Vantage and Res compromised for more Atk, she is not going to withstand a hit from green mages.

5 minutes ago, Zihark11 said:

rip just realized fire stance is a 5 star skill. im sad now. dont got my dorcas anymore.

If you cannot get Fierce Stance, you can obtain Brazen Atk/Def from Ares 4* or Brazen Atk/Spd from Linus. They will not work for her first round of combat, but Brazens do offer 1 more point in Atk once she meets the HP threshold.

[DefyingFates]

Is Catria worth using without the Triangle Attack refine? I got a +Atk/-Def one from the Link banner and enough manuals to make her a +10 unit for my Arena core, but the other members are Infantry.

I also have 8 Florina manuals, so would she (or even Est) be a better option?

(Of course the best solution would be Tana getting demoted for the anniversary...)

Edited February 2, 2019 by DefyingFates

[Ice Dragon]

10 minutes ago, Zihark11 said:

rip just realized fire stance is a 5 star skill. im sad now. dont got my dorcas anymore.

Mirror Stance is a good alternative and is available on 4-star Gharnef, who is available using Grails, and 5-star Sylvia, who is in the 4-star summoning pool.

 

2 minutes ago, XRay said:

If you cannot get Fierce Stance, you can obtain Brazen Atk/Def from Ares 4* or Brazen Atk/Spd from Linus. They will not work for her first round of combat, but Brazens do offer 1 more point in Atk once she meets the HP threshold.

Brazen skills are not particularly good with Quick Riposte unless you're also running both Vantage and Special Spiral (i.e. your name is Ares) since the activation overlap of the two skills is tiny.

[Xenomata]

3 minutes ago, XRay said:

Remember this is a niche build, so she is pretty vulnerable against other green mages (she is still highly effective against blue mages though). 64 Atk is no where near enough to knock out most green mages in one hit. With her HP already so low to activate Vantage and Res compromised for more Atk, she is not going to withstand a hit from green mages.

I did mean to say (because I guess I completely forgot to?) that the build I supplied is pretty much exclusively a dragon killing build, and that against other units Julia is pretty much average. Though she does the dragon killing thing VERY well.

The B slot, in that regard, is meant to fix Julia's matchups against other units. QR3 is the most flexible since she's already an enemy phase unit at this point and lets her lure in enemy mages decently well, but does hold the issue of not disabling the enemies second attack if Julia can't outspeed them, which the most popular Green Mages either run circles around Julia or have Bold Fighter. A breaker is less flexible, but does do that.

...actually, Spd Ploy in the C slot could attempt to fix the issue as well, since Julia does have somewhat decent Res to trigger it on enemies...

7 minutes ago, DefyingFates said:

Is Catria worth using without the Triangle Attack refine? I got a +Atk/-Def one from the Link banner and enough manuals to make her a +10 unit for my Arena core, but the other members are Infantry.

I also have 8 Florina manuals, so would she (or even Est) be a better option?

Catria is perfectly fine without the TA refine on Whitewing Lance. My own Catria (+Spd -Res +1 merge) has been running Firesweep Lance+ for ages now, and she's never really had a reason to switch over yet. Plus it's just a fancy Slaying Lance+, so you can just run Catria with a simple build and never really need to give her the Triangle Attack refine.

Est has and will continue to run perfectly well with a Brave Lance, but I feel if you want to run her Whitewing Spear, she needs the Triangle Attack refine. Florina, meanwhile is completely unreliant on fliers being around.

I can't really give a solid answer to what to do, but that's all what I believe.

[DefyingFates]

Thank you, @Xenomata! I'll look at some typical Slaying Lance builds for Catria then, but I'll also keep my fingers crossed for more demotes in the coming week :)

[XRay]

11 minutes ago, DefyingFates said:

Is Catria worth using without the Triangle Attack refine? I got a +Atk/-Def one from the Link banner and enough manuals to make her a +10 unit for my Arena core, but the other members are Infantry.

Catria is pretty good. You can still use the regular +Spd Refinement if you have Dew to spare and do not think she will be able to use the special Refinement that much.

11 minutes ago, DefyingFates said:

I also have 8 Florina manuals, so would she (or even Est) be a better option?

I lean towards Est since she essentially got a 19 Mt Brave Slaying Spear. She can even take out Surtr in one round.

Est +10 +Atk
White Wing Spear [special] [near flying ally]
Reposition — (Any Assist)
(Any Special)
Death Blow (Death Blow 3 is fine if Surtr is not getting Def buffs.)
Chill Def (Again, not super necessary if Surtr is not getting Def buffs.)
(Any C)
Attack +3
6/0/0/0

Surtr +10 +Def
Sinmara
(Any Assist)
(Any Special)
Steady Stance
Wary Fighter
(Any C)
Close Def
0/0/8/8

18 minutes ago, Ice Dragon said:

Brazen skills are not particularly good with Quick Riposte unless you're also running both Vantage and Special Spiral (i.e. your name is Ares) since the activation overlap of the two skills is tiny.

I am assuming the build to be run with Brazens is with Vantage, since they both operate under a maximum HP threshold.

10 minutes ago, Xenomata said:

The B slot, in that regard, is meant to fix Julia's matchups against other units. QR3 is the most flexible since she's already an enemy phase unit at this point and lets her lure in enemy mages decently well, but does hold the issue of not disabling the enemies second attack if Julia can't outspeed them, which the most popular Green Mages either run circles around Julia or have Bold Fighter. A breaker is less flexible, but does do that.

Quick Riposte alone does not fix Julia's green mage match ups in my opinion because she is really slow. Even assuming Julia is at full HP and can land a Spd Ploy, green mage nukes can reach well over 40+ Spd, so even if you get them down to 35 Spd or something, they can still double Julia and cut her Res with a Moonbow trigger. Julia at the bare minimum needs to swap out one of her Fierce Stance for Distant Def if she wants to take on green mages.

[D4rthNoctis]

I've been mulling over which optimal IV asset (Still getting use to calling it that) to run with of late, with a few different heroes:

+Atk or +Spd??? for the following:

1. Leif - Running the calcs, it seems fairly close between the two. Probably one of the hardest to make a call on.

2. Spring Catria - +Spd seems optimal (Especially for Bladetome builds), though +Atk looks to be stronger in some cases.

3. Exalted Chrom - Leaning towards +Spd, but only because I predominantly use him in a Cavalry team. +Atk seems better though.

4. Summer Linde - Recently picked up a +Spd/-Def (My current one is +Atk/-Def). Leaning towards using the +Spd copy tbh.

5. Maribelle - Same analysis as Summer Linde.

 

The other two units I'm still deciding on our Performing Arts Azura & New Years Azura (I have 2 of each):

I've got a +Atk & +Res copy for both. I currently use the +Res copies as they're both dancers (And it obviously helps their survivability), but I mean, the +Atk copies always seem tempting to use.

 

Any feedback/thoughts on the matter, is much appreciated :)