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

[Othin]

1 minute ago, kradeelav said:

So Valter's been a fabulous lead for a while, but he's starting to slip hardcore in effectiveness in AR (tier 18), and I'm getting the itch to make him into a Galeforce build, as well make him a bit more min/maxed with IVcados.  Is there some skills or obvious stuff I'm hardcore missing out?  

(for context as far as playstyle,  more of a serious casual?  I have no illusions at getting to the top levels of AR, lol, but would like to hit 21 once as a 'that was cool' moment.)

 

Bear in mind that Valter is one of the most likely characters to get a refine soon, possibly as early as next month. So I'd suggest holding off on investing Trait Fruits or other rare resources into him until we can see what that is and find out how it'll change his role.

As for AR tier, it's not like Arena or other modes with rank-based tiers. If you ever make it to T21, it's basically free to stay there forever.

[Vicious Sal]

3 hours ago, kradeelav said:

So Valter's been a fabulous lead for a while, but he's starting to slip hardcore in effectiveness in AR (tier 18), and I'm getting the itch to make him into a Galeforce build, as well make him a bit more min/maxed with IVcados.  Is there some skills or obvious stuff I'm hardcore missing out?  

(for context as far as playstyle,  more of a serious casual?  I have no illusions at getting to the top levels of AR, lol, but would like to hit 21 once as a 'that was cool' moment.)

 

For AR a Galeforce build would look like: 

Valter, +Atk

It's Curtains...?+

Repo/Draw Back

Galeforce

Heavy Blade 4

Wings of Mercy

Atk/Spd Rein / Def Smoke/ Savage Blow

Quickened Pulse

[TheSilentChloey]

14 hours ago, XRay said:

In 2020, no one really wants it. You can put it on an Arena core if they have a Distant Counter Weapon, but Unity skills score just as high, are easier to use, and are much more powerful.

Bonds are pretty much the new Defiants, since they are severely outclassed by better skills and are too much of a hassle to use.

Yes, but that is only really relevant in Aether Raids and maybe Arena where Pulse skills are more common.

In PvE content, the only units you will ever debuff with Pulse Smoke on a frequent basis are bosses with precharged Specials, and I do not think that is a good use of a tank's C slot since Atk Smoke is far more relevant as it can debuff anyone on the map instead of just the boss. I do not think I have seen any reinforcements spawn in with precharged Specials.

I would still give it to him anyways in case you encounter a scenario where unraveling the boss's Special is key to some strategy or something.

For other candidates, you may also want to consider Chrom: Crowned Exalt and any other commonly used bulky enemy phase/dual phase units you have.

So essentially Regal or Grimmy lol.  Also given we don't have Atk/Spd unity yet, I wouldn't completely write off Atk/Spd Bond 4 just yet.

 

So yeah.  I think having Grimmy have pulse smoke will be a definite thing because legendary Kamui was a pain to deal with due to her special.

[Kaden]

21 hours ago, XRay said:

Bonds are pretty much the new Defiants, since they are severely outclassed by better skills and are too much of a hassle to use.

Except unlike Defiant skills, Bonds grant in-combat boosts to two stats and they have a fourth tier that neutralizes penalties which while unfair to Defiant skills since they do not have a fourth tier yet or maybe ever, what Bonds offer in return for an adjacent to ally condition is still better than Defiant skills requiring the user to be half-dead, easily Panicked or hit with other HP check skills, and also scoring poorly in return for a niche and a poor one at that with -blade tomes back in the day. There never was a "new Defiant" because nothing comes close to the dogshit that are Defiant skills. Fucking Boost skills are better than Defiant skills as shitty as they are and if Virion and Tobin are any hints, fourth level Boost skills might actually be decent when their unique refinement checking max HP instead of current HP.

@TheSilentChloey, one thing to consider about Unity skills is to not put them on units with weapons or a personal skill that neutralizes penalties; Brunnya, legendary Chrom, Draug, mage knight Eirika, spring Est, CYL Hector if you want to replace his Ostian Counter for some reason, Idunn, the Krises, Setsuna, Shannan, Shiro, units with Carrot Cudgel, Gilt Fork, or similar weapons all can neutralize penalties fully or partially. Unity skills won't work if there are no penalties to reverse. Similarly, don't give berserk Ike wielding Chaos Ragnell a tier 4 Bond or neutralize his penalties or give a Dull or Lull to Legion wielding Sneering Axe.

Edited September 12, 2020 by Kaden

[SockPuppet]

I wanna build a Soren that utilizes his prf. Would Atk Res Bond 4 be good for his A or is Atk Spd Bond 4 just that much more optimal? I only have the former at the moment!

Edited September 12, 2020 by SockPuppet

[XRay]

On 9/11/2020 at 8:55 AM, kradeelav said:

So Valter's been a fabulous lead for a while, but he's starting to slip hardcore in effectiveness in AR (tier 18), and I'm getting the itch to make him into a Galeforce build, as well make him a bit more min/maxed with IVcados.  Is there some skills or obvious stuff I'm hardcore missing out?  

(for context as far as playstyle,  more of a serious casual?  I have no illusions at getting to the top levels of AR, lol, but would like to hit 21 once as a 'that was cool' moment.)

For Counter-Vantage, I would only let units fulfill that role if they can consistently reach at least 85 Atk without merges, or reach a similar level of damage output. A Counter-Vantage unit needs at least that level of fire power to be effective at taking out bulky units. Units like Kronya gets a pass because she has a B slot open for Null C-Disrupt and Disarm Trap, and if she needs damage output, she can still run Ruptured Sky-Special Spiral. Valter got low Atk and he does not have anything else to offset that low Atk to make Counter-Vantage worth it on him in my opinion.

If you need him to Galeforce, I recommend the following if you need him to double enemies more reliably:
+Spd
Cursed Lance
Reposition
Galeforce
(Any A that boosts Atk/Spd; preferably Life and Death or better)
Desperation
Atk/Spd Rein
Heavy Blade

I also recommend aiming to reach Tier 21 as soon as possible. It is a lot easier to reach Tier 22 and Tier 23 for better rewards from there, and the maps are usually not that much more difficult in Tier 22 and Tier 23.

The cheapest team I can think of to take you to Tier 21 is to use Sharena as a super tank on Light Season when she is a bonus unit.

Spoiler

 

Sharena +0+15
Fensalir [Spd]
Reposition
Moonbow
Distant Counter
Guard
Atk Smoke
Spd/Res Solo
Neutral is more than sufficient, so I would not bother with Trait Fruits. If she is your favorite unit or something and you do not mind spending Fruits on her, I lean towards +Spd for Asset, and either -HP or -Def for Flaw. For Dragonflowers, I recommend getting her to +10 or +15 for optimal performance, but Flowering her is not too necessary with Summoner Support and bonus stats.

M!Corrin
+Atk
Yato [special]
Reposition
Moonbow
Death Blow — Triangle Adept
Axebreaker
(Any Drive)
(Any Drive)
You want 2 M!Corrins, and make sure Sharena has Ally Support with him. +Atk-Death Blow/Triangle Adept-Axebreaker is for killing Surtrs or any bulky greens. For which Drives to use, it depends on what opponents you most frequently see so you can distribute your Drives accordingly; if you are not sure, just run all four Drives, and you can customize your way from there.

BH!Lucina
Geirskögul [special]
Reposition
Moonbow
Life and Death
Desperation
(Any Drive)
(Any Drive)
If you have BH!Lucina, you can replace one of the M!Corrins with her. 

Eir #1
Her vanilla kit is fine. Just put Chill Atk or Chill Spd on her Sacred Seal slot.

Eir #2 / Peony
Same as above, but make sure you run Chill Atk or Chill Spd on the Sacred Seal slot.

 

The only Orb expenditure required is to give Sharena Distant Counter. You ideally also want 2 Eirs for healing, but 1 Eir and 1 Peony should be okay too. Since you already built up Valter, you can use Valter as well, but he is not as good of a super tank as Sharena is.

13 hours ago, Kaden said:

Except unlike Defiant skills, Bonds grant in-combat boosts to two stats and they have a fourth tier that neutralizes penalties which while unfair to Defiant skills since they do not have a fourth tier yet or maybe ever, what Bonds offer in return for an adjacent to ally condition is still better than Defiant skills requiring the user to be half-dead, easily Panicked or hit with other HP check skills, and also scoring poorly in return for a niche and a poor one at that with -blade tomes back in the day. There never was a "new Defiant" because nothing comes close to the dogshit that are Defiant skills. Fucking Boost skills are better than Defiant skills as shitty as they are and if Virion and Tobin are any hints, fourth level Boost skills might actually be decent when their unique refinement checking max HP instead of current HP.

Defiants have a very small niche with Kaden, and all he needs to do is to set off a Bolt Trap and/or use Ardent Sacrifice on the supertank to get into HP range.

While Bonds are better than Defiants, there really is not any point in using Bonds because their requirement is very restrictive and there are better options now. Bonds are unusable in Aether Raids due to the adjacency requirement. Bonds are viable in Arena not because it is good, but because the mode is easy enough that the requirements do not pose a huge obstacle to winning. Unlike Defiants, Bonds are completely outclassed and there is not a single niche they can do that another skill could not do better.

11 hours ago, SockPuppet said:

I wanna build a Soren that utilizes his prf. Would Atk Res Bond 4 be good for his A or is Atk Spd Bond 4 just that much more optimal? I only have the former at the moment!

I would just wait and go with Unity instead. Bonds do not work if Soren is not next to an ally, but Unity can work from one space away or next to an ally. With Unity, it gives Soren some flexibility instead of forcing him to always be next to allies.

For which Unity to pick, I lean towards Spd/Res Unity when it comes out. Soren is a too fast to be a slow Res tank and his Res is not that amazing either, so I think he is better off pumping up his Spd and Res to avoid being doubled by fast nukes and to limit their damage per hit. Ruptured Sky or Moonbow should be generally enough to secure a kill. If you do need to pump up that Atk more, I would put Atk/Spd Bond on the Sacred Seal slot.

Edited September 12, 2020 by XRay

[Othin]

12 minutes ago, XRay said:

Defiants have a very small niche with Kaden, and all he needs to do is to set off a Bolt Trap and/or use Ardent Sacrifice on the supertank to get into HP range.

While Bonds are better than Defiants, there really is not any point in using Bonds because their requirement is very restrictive and there are better options now. Bonds are unusable in Aether Raids due to the adjacency requirement. Bonds are viable in Aether Raids not because it is good, but because the mode is easy enough that the requirements do not pose a huge obstacle to winning. Unlike Defiants, Bonds are completely outclassed and there is not a single niche they can do that another skill could not do better.

I would just wait and go with Unity instead. Bonds do not work if Soren is not next to an ally, but Unity can work from one space away or next to an ally. With Unity, it gives Soren some flexibility instead of forcing him to always be next to allies.

For which Unity to pick, I lean towards Spd/Res Unity when it comes out. Soren is a too fast to be a slow Res tank and his Res is not that amazing either, so I think he is better off pumping up his Spd and Res to avoid being doubled by fast nukes and to limit their damage per hit. Ruptured Sky or Moonbow should be generally enough to secure a kill. If you do need to pump up that Atk more, I would put Atk/Spd Bond on the Sacred Seal slot.

There are skills that do essentially the same thing as Bond 4 skills but better, but they're rare enough that many players will never have access to as many of them as they'd like, so they can be useful for filling those gaps. Getting random Unity fodder for the right stats could take years, so I don't think it's always the best choice to just sit around waiting for that. That's quite different from Defiants, which are outclassed in most roles by common skills.

(I'm guessing one of the times you said "Aether Raids" in the second paragraph was supposed to be something else. Arena, maybe?)

[XRay]

1 hour ago, Othin said:

(I'm guessing one of the times you said "Aether Raids" in the second paragraph was supposed to be something else. Arena, maybe?)

Yeah, I meant Arena.

[SockPuppet]

2 hours ago, XRay said:

I would just wait and go with Unity instead. Bonds do not work if Soren is not next to an ally, but Unity can work from one space away or next to an ally. With Unity, it gives Soren some flexibility instead of forcing him to always be next to allies.

For which Unity to pick, I lean towards Spd/Res Unity when it comes out. Soren is a too fast to be a slow Res tank and his Res is not that amazing either, so I think he is better off pumping up his Spd and Res to avoid being doubled by fast nukes and to limit their damage per hit. Ruptured Sky or Moonbow should be generally enough to secure a kill. If you do need to pump up that Atk more, I would put Atk/Spd Bond on the Sacred Seal slot.

Thank you! Ah, i don’t know if I can wait that long until a unity is released... haha.

Edited September 12, 2020 by SockPuppet

[XRay]

2 hours ago, SRPG Tryhard said:

Is it about time to replace all our hone and fortify emblem (cavalry/armored/fliers) skills with the respective goads and wards? At this point every single relevant unit is running some sort of buff canceling with lull skills. This is mostly in the context of Arena Assault, where you have to field various teams of low investment units. Emblem buffs are an obvious way to counter the stat difference with the enemy.

To that end, do you have a rule to decide what kind of unit gets the offensive or defensive emblem C skill? I am thinking of giving offensive support C skills to defensive units and vice versa, because it allows them to support units with their opposite role which are more likely to be fielded together.

 I do not think the question needs an entire thread, so I will be answering here.

From my experience, buff cancelation is not very common and it is mostly found on tanks or units that comes with it by default.

Buffs are not actually necessary either unless you are running Blade mages, but I will elaborate on buffs a bit. Hones and Fortifies are generally better on a player phase teams, while Goads and Wards are generally better on an enemy phase team. Player phase teams need positioning flexibility when engaging in combat, and it simply is not feasible to waste several cavalry unit's turn to just stand by and sit on the front lines just to buff one nuke to take out an enemy. Similarly, enemy phase units generally needs a bit heavier stat stacking to compete with player phase units, and while they can use Hones and Fortifies, Hones and Fortifies do not stack and you will want to increase stat advantage further via Goads and Wards.

For Arena Assault, using movement teams is not the best way to tackle Arena Assault and the stat difference does not actually matter that much. The most efficient way to tackle Arena Assault is to build dedicated hard counters outlined in the following and give them Dark and Anima Blessings. You also want to collect as many Dancers/Singers as possible, as they give you more leeway for misclicks and mistakes.

Hard Counter
+Atk
(Any Gem Weapons) — (Any Armor Effective Weapons) — (Any Brave Weapons) (with Luna)  — (Any Blade Weapons)
(Any Assist)
Glimmer — Luna (with Brave Weapons)
Death Blow — Triangle Adept
(Any Breaker)
(Any C)
(Any Sacred Seal)

If you do want to run movement teams, it is best to use a player phase team composition with two or three nukes and one or two Dancers/Singers, and you want the Dancer/Singer to be the one carrying bonus buffs. Infantry and fliers are well suited for this. I do not recommend cavalry teams unless you have a cavalry Dancer/Singer.

I would not bother with armor units at all due to their low movement range, unless you have the means to address that mobility issue.

I do not recommend running teams mixing player phase and enemy phase units together since they each require different support units. If your strategy for a map is to counter pick the most or all of the enemy team, mixing player phase and enemy phase units is fine since you have less need for support units when you counter pick. Player phase teams need Dancers/Singers to work smoothly and generally do not want healing. Enemy phase teams want a healer on the team, and while they can use Dancers/Singers somewhat, healers are more important.

[kradeelav]

On 9/12/2020 at 12:18 PM, XRay said:

For Counter-Vantage, I would only let units fulfill that role if they can consistently reach at least 85 Atk without merges, or reach a similar level of damage output. A Counter-Vantage unit needs at least that level of fire power to be effective at taking out bulky units. Units like Kronya gets a pass because she has a B slot open for Null C-Disrupt and Disarm Trap, and if she needs damage output, she can still run Ruptured Sky-Special Spiral. Valter got low Atk and he does not have anything else to offset that low Atk to make Counter-Vantage worth it on him in my opinion.

If you need him to Galeforce, I recommend the following if you need him to double enemies more reliably:
+Spd
Cursed Lance
Reposition
Galeforce
(Any A that boosts Atk/Spd; preferably Life and Death or better)
Desperation
Atk/Spd Rein
Heavy Blade

I also recommend aiming to reach Tier 21 as soon as possible. It is a lot easier to reach Tier 22 and Tier 23 for better rewards from there, and the maps are usually not that much more difficult in Tier 22 and Tier 23.

The cheapest team I can think of to take you to Tier 21 is to use Sharena as a super tank on Light Season when she is a bonus unit.

The only Orb expenditure required is to give Sharena Distant Counter. You ideally also want 2 Eirs for healing, but 1 Eir and 1 Peony should be okay too. Since you already built up Valter, you can use Valter as well, but he is not as good of a super tank as Sharena is.

Appreciate the detailed reply especially re the counter/vantage bit!  Yeahh, once when I started hitting Tier 16, units started getting beefier in a hurry.   I have an Eir and a Peony that could work with that team comp, the only tweaks that I may have to do would be to throw in BraveBow+!Midori considering she's my good-luck nuke that's never failed. 

(Nothing like realizing your 'casual' status when I wasn't even aware that Sharena counted as a decent AR scoring unit LOL)

On 9/11/2020 at 11:59 AM, Othin said:

Bear in mind that Valter is one of the most likely characters to get a refine soon, possibly as early as next month. So I'd suggest holding off on investing Trait Fruits or other rare resources into him until we can see what that is and find out how it'll change his role.

As for AR tier, it's not like Arena or other modes with rank-based tiers. If you ever make it to T21, it's basically free to stay there forever.

Ooh, good point with the refine. Noted!

On 9/11/2020 at 3:47 PM, Vicious Sal said:

For AR a Galeforce build would look like: 

Valter, +Atk

It's Curtains...?+

Repo/Draw Back

Galeforce

Heavy Blade 4

Wings of Mercy

Atk/Spd Rein / Def Smoke/ Savage Blow

Quickened Pulse

Appreciate the build notes!

[Xenomata]

I'm having trouble deciding on my next Divine Dew refine... been a while since the last time... anyway, I could use some input on what to refine. Normally I have to spoiler all the units who I have such idealistic plans for, but this time I've narrowed down to the 5 that I've been seriously considering the most.

• Brave Celica (+Spd +10) Celica will have arguably the easiest time triggering Galeforce with her refine. Despite her being +10 I don't use her often, though that's arguably because her base weapon used to be bleh and I was being too cheap to give her a new sword, so she should be ready for use again with her refine.
• Anamnesis Eirika (+Spd +10) I do have Raudhrblade+ on her, but I honestly keep forgetting to change it back from Gleipnir, and I don't think there's anything wrong with refined Gleipnir. At the very least Gleipnir doesn't rely on me remembering to also field a Field Buffs unit.
• Brave Hector (+Def +5) Strongest refine available in a while, only thing stopping me is the fact that I haven't used Hector in a long time and I'm undecided on if getting a refine as strong as his would change that when I already have a number of bulky blue units, even if yes their bulk roles are not as impressive as Hectors overall great bulk.
• Jagen (+Res +10) He currently runs +Res Berkut's Lance. Changing to refined Veteran's Lance would improve his normal damage output at the cost of some magic bulk against foes that did not get affected by the Sabotage Atk refine (and also a bit of Res to actually get SaboAtk to trigger) while getting Sabotage Atk for both improved bulk and a layer of support.
• Faye (+Res +8) She's been running with +Def Guard Bow this whole time, and while that's worked out just fine for bulk I've noticed lately that her actual damage output has been... pretty bad outside of Special triggers lately. Moving to Bow of Devotion would add +6 damage to her normal attacks at the cost of -5 Def and -2 Res (as long as she is being initiated on) while also freeing up her B slot to something else. Maybe just Guard since she already has Distant Def 4 and that'd overlap with Lull Atk/Def...

Special mentions to Laslow, whose refine I did consider but I then decided to pass on for now. I don't think I need his refine just yet... but after working on Gordin, I've grown on the idea of building more Brave weapon units.

[SuperNova125]

2 hours ago, Xenomata said:

I'm having trouble deciding on my next Divine Dew refine... been a while since the last time... anyway, I could use some input on what to refine. Normally I have to spoiler all the units who I have such idealistic plans for, but this time I've narrowed down to the 5 that I've been seriously considering the most.

• Brave Celica (+Spd +10) Celica will have arguably the easiest time triggering Galeforce with her refine. Despite her being +10 I don't use her often, though that's arguably because her base weapon used to be bleh and I was being too cheap to give her a new sword, so she should be ready for use again with her refine.
• Anamnesis Eirika (+Spd +10) I do have Raudhrblade+ on her, but I honestly keep forgetting to change it back from Gleipnir, and I don't think there's anything wrong with refined Gleipnir. At the very least Gleipnir doesn't rely on me remembering to also field a Field Buffs unit.
• Brave Hector (+Def +5) Strongest refine available in a while, only thing stopping me is the fact that I haven't used Hector in a long time and I'm undecided on if getting a refine as strong as his would change that when I already have a number of bulky blue units, even if yes their bulk roles are not as impressive as Hectors overall great bulk.
• Jagen (+Res +10) He currently runs +Res Berkut's Lance. Changing to refined Veteran's Lance would improve his normal damage output at the cost of some magic bulk against foes that did not get affected by the Sabotage Atk refine (and also a bit of Res to actually get SaboAtk to trigger) while getting Sabotage Atk for both improved bulk and a layer of support.
• Faye (+Res +8) She's been running with +Def Guard Bow this whole time, and while that's worked out just fine for bulk I've noticed lately that her actual damage output has been... pretty bad outside of Special triggers lately. Moving to Bow of Devotion would add +6 damage to her normal attacks at the cost of -5 Def and -2 Res (as long as she is being initiated on) while also freeing up her B slot to something else. Maybe just Guard since she already has Distant Def 4 and that'd overlap with Lull Atk/Def...

Special mentions to Laslow, whose refine I did consider but I then decided to pass on for now. I don't think I need his refine just yet... but after working on Gordin, I've grown on the idea of building more Brave weapon units.

I would go with Celica she is really easy to use as a galeforce unit so I think she is worth the dew. Also since you mentioned brave weapons Double Lion cen be really spammable with the refine

[XRay]

3 hours ago, Xenomata said:

I'm having trouble deciding on my next Divine Dew refine... been a while since the last time... anyway, I could use some input on what to refine. Normally I have to spoiler all the units who I have such idealistic plans for, but this time I've narrowed down to the 5 that I've been seriously considering the most.

• Brave Celica (+Spd +10) Celica will have arguably the easiest time triggering Galeforce with her refine. Despite her being +10 I don't use her often, though that's arguably because her base weapon used to be bleh and I was being too cheap to give her a new sword, so she should be ready for use again with her refine.
• Anamnesis Eirika (+Spd +10) I do have Raudhrblade+ on her, but I honestly keep forgetting to change it back from Gleipnir, and I don't think there's anything wrong with refined Gleipnir. At the very least Gleipnir doesn't rely on me remembering to also field a Field Buffs unit.
• Brave Hector (+Def +5) Strongest refine available in a while, only thing stopping me is the fact that I haven't used Hector in a long time and I'm undecided on if getting a refine as strong as his would change that when I already have a number of bulky blue units, even if yes their bulk roles are not as impressive as Hectors overall great bulk.
• Jagen (+Res +10) He currently runs +Res Berkut's Lance. Changing to refined Veteran's Lance would improve his normal damage output at the cost of some magic bulk against foes that did not get affected by the Sabotage Atk refine (and also a bit of Res to actually get SaboAtk to trigger) while getting Sabotage Atk for both improved bulk and a layer of support.
• Faye (+Res +8) She's been running with +Def Guard Bow this whole time, and while that's worked out just fine for bulk I've noticed lately that her actual damage output has been... pretty bad outside of Special triggers lately. Moving to Bow of Devotion would add +6 damage to her normal attacks at the cost of -5 Def and -2 Res (as long as she is being initiated on) while also freeing up her B slot to something else. Maybe just Guard since she already has Distant Def 4 and that'd overlap with Lull Atk/Def...

Special mentions to Laslow, whose refine I did consider but I then decided to pass on for now. I don't think I need his refine just yet... but after working on Gordin, I've grown on the idea of building more Brave weapon units.

I would go with AOTB!Celica as well. Galeforcers who do not need Heavy Blade/Flashing Blade Sacred Seal are invaluable.

SM!Eirika Refinement is not that necessary in my opinion, and I think it is a downgrade overall compared to Blade tomes. While you do not need buffs for Gleipnir to work, bringing buffs is not a big deal in my opinion since all Dancers/Singers should be preoutfitted with buffs.

For AOTB!Hector, I do not recommend using him unless you have Armor Stride or at least Armor March. I mean, you can still use him, but I think he would just feel like a blue BH!Ike but shittier in every other way. And I also personally would not bother with an armor unit even with Armor March since it just does not feel flexible enough. After using FE!Edelgard and then ANF!Edelgard, their level of mobility compared to regular armor units feels really massive. And even though FE!Edelgard blew my mind with double Galeforce and Armor Stride, I do not think even I can go back to using her now that I had a taste of ANF!Edelgard. ANF!Edelgard's flexibility and mobility is just insane and extremely spoiling. In my opinion, double Galeforce is just a fun side gimmick, but pseudo-cavalry movement is like liberation and true freedom. I would not go as far as saying ANF!Edelgard is a meta powerhouse, but she definitely feels really good to use under player control, and I think she is the future of what subsequent armor units should be like.

I would not bother with Jagen unless you like him as a character.

Faye can be a decent ranged tank. You can go Distant Def-Guard, but I lean towards Stance-Lull. It is more expensive, but I think it is worth it if you use her in Aether Raids a lot. If you are using her in less competitive modes, then yeah, Distant Def-Guard should be fine.

For Laslow, I think he has the potential to be a decent Counter-Vantage unit. He got some glaring positioning and conditional issues in my opinion, but he is much cheaper than Keaton and those issues might be possible to be offset gradually over time with more experience and better play

[TheSilentChloey]

I got a bad IVd Rinka.  Who wants her skills for SI?

[XRay]

1 hour ago, TheSilentChloey said:

I got a bad IVd Rinka.  Who wants her skills for SI?

What is her Trait? She has a wide range of Traits she can work with. Any combination of +Atk/Spd/Def and -HP/Atk/Def/Res are all workable (-Atk helps her Galeforce better by killing things accidentally in one shot less; her Weapon has really high Atk, and you may need to tone down the Atk even further anyways by using Darting Blow). And with her level of min-maxed stat distribution, honestly any Trait is fine.

If you still want to fodder her anyways, the only relevant skill is Wrath, but I do not think it is in super high demand by anyone right now. Most melee unit's niche is either as a super tank, Galeforcer, or dual phase units, and Wrath does not really fit those builds. Distant Foil is not that good in my opinion since mages are super common, Alm: Saint King will demolish any Def tanks you have, and Lyn: Brave Lady cannot be countered by most melee units anyways with Sacae's Blessing or Firesweep Bow.

Personally, I would just keep her around and build her up as a Galeforcer. Her Res is kind of iffy so I would not use her as an Enemy Phase unit. You can also build her as a Blazing nuke, but that is very expensive and it is not as effective as a ranged Blazing nuke in my opinion.

Edited September 14, 2020 by XRay

[TheSilentChloey]

23 minutes ago, XRay said:

What is her Trait? She has a wide range of Traits she can work with. Any combination of +Atk/Spd/Def and -HP/Atk/Def/Res are all workable (-Atk helps her Galeforce better by killing things accidentally in one shot less; her Weapon has really high Atk, and you may need to tone down the Atk even further anyways by using Darting Blow). And with her level of min-maxed stat distribution, honestly any Trait is fine.

If you still want to fodder her anyways, the only relevant skill is Wrath, but I do not think it is in super high demand by anyone right now. Most melee unit's niche is either as a super tank, Galeforcer, or dual phase units, and Wrath does not really fit those builds. Distant Foil is not that good in my opinion since mages are super common, Alm: Saint King will demolish any Def tanks you have, and Lyn: Brave Lady cannot be countered by most melee units anyways with Sacae's Blessing or Firesweep Bow.

Personally, I would just keep her around and build her up as a Galeforcer. Her Res is kind of iffy so I would not use her as an Enemy Phase unit. You can also build her as a Blazing nuke, but that is very expensive and it is not as effective as a ranged Blazing nuke in my opinion.

+HP/-Spd, in otherwords not even workable.

[Xenomata]

2 hours ago, XRay said:

SM!Eirika Refinement is not that necessary in my opinion, and I think it is a downgrade overall compared to Blade tomes. While you do not need buffs for Gleipnir to work, bringing buffs is not a big deal in my opinion since all Dancers/Singers should be preoutfitted with buffs.

For AOTB!Hector, I do not recommend using him unless you have Armor Stride or at least Armor March. I mean, you can still use him, but I think he would just feel like a blue BH!Ike but shittier in every other way. And I also personally would not bother with an armor unit even with Armor March since it just does not feel flexible enough. After using FE!Edelgard and then ANF!Edelgard, their level of mobility compared to regular armor units feels really massive. And even though FE!Edelgard blew my mind with double Galeforce and Armor Stride, I do not think even I can go back to using her now that I had a taste of ANF!Edelgard. ANF!Edelgard's flexibility and mobility is just insane and extremely spoiling. In my opinion, double Galeforce is just a fun side gimmick, but pseudo-cavalry movement is like liberation and true freedom. I would not go as far as saying ANF!Edelgard is a meta powerhouse, but she definitely feels really good to use under player control, and I think she is the future of what subsequent armor units should be like.

I would not bother with Jagen unless you like him as a character.

Faye can be a decent ranged tank. You can go Distant Def-Guard, but I lean towards Stance-Lull. It is more expensive, but I think it is worth it if you use her in Aether Raids a lot. If you are using her in less competitive modes, then yeah, Distant Def-Guard should be fine.

For Laslow, I think he has the potential to be a decent Counter-Vantage unit. He got some glaring positioning and conditional issues in my opinion, but he is much cheaper than Keaton and those issues might be possible to be offset gradually over time with more experience and better play

I actually thought about why I didn't like using Raudhrblade on Eirika, and it occurred to me that it was because there were no Cav Dancers or other units who could pass on a number of buffs easily and keep up with Eirika. Yeah units like Titania existed who could easily put a large number of field buffs on the Bladetomer, but you still had to keep them away from combat since most of their skills are geared toward support and not combat. You said it yourself to, dancers are usually the ones who should be carrying such buffs, and dedicated Field Buffers need to be kept in a safe place, not 2 spaces away from where the action is. But... that's not an issue anymore. Duo Sigurd IS a Cav Dancer, and we now know that the original Hone/Fortify Movetype skills are up for grabs as sacred seals. So... now I gotta try a little harder for Sigurd...

Jagen does have solid magic tanking abilities, to be fair. As for liking him as a character... well... I +10ed him...

Your speech on Edelgard is something to consider about armors, but we just got Edelgard so I'm not exactly sure how soon we should begin seeing massive movement buffs on Armors...

I honestly don't know if the positioning issues is as big an issue as it sounds. Kinda sucks yeah, but his Prf provides +12 total buffs to anyone he uses Reposition on, and he only needs 10 or more so that ally is all he needs nearby (and unlike the dedicated supports as mentioned above, they don't need to be support units, they could just be an offensive nuke you're getting out of the way). You mentioned Keaton though, and I have Keaton +10 already, albeit not built yet...

...probably gonna refine Celica anyway... thanks @SuperNova125 as well.

Edited September 14, 2020 by Xenomata

[Othin]

15 minutes ago, TheSilentChloey said:

+HP/-Spd, in otherwords not even workable.

Even with that, you could still probably get more mileage out of just using her as she is rather than foddering her for mediocre skills.

[XRay]

4 minutes ago, TheSilentChloey said:

+HP/-Spd, in otherwords not even workable.

-Spd is still 36 Spd, and she is still like one of the fastest combat axe unit in Fates. I would still keep her around for clearing Limited Hero Battles and Resonant Battles, since those games lock you into using units from certain games. If you get a copy of her in the future, you can just merge her up to fix the Flaw.

6 minutes ago, Xenomata said:

and it occurred to me that it was because there were no Cav Dancers or other units who could pass on a number of buffs easily and keep up with Eirika

You do not need to use a cavalry Dancers/Singers with cavalry nukes. If you are trying to player phase Arena Assault, it is easier to use a mixed team for Tactics so the positioning requirements are even less strict. Double cavalry nukes with Hone Cavalry and double Dancers/Singers with any assortment of bonus buffs on their C and Sacred Seal slots are generally sufficient in most cases.

[TheSilentChloey]

13 minutes ago, XRay said:

-Spd is still 36 Spd, and she is still like one of the fastest combat axe unit in Fates. I would still keep her around for clearing Limited Hero Battles and Resonant Battles, since those games lock you into using units from certain games. If you get a copy of her in the future, you can just merge her up to fix the Flaw.

You do not need to use a cavalry Dancers/Singers with cavalry nukes. If you are trying to player phase Arena Assault, it is easier to use a mixed team for Tactics so the positioning requirements are even less strict. Double cavalry nukes with Hone Cavalry and double Dancers/Singers with any assortment of bonus buffs on their C and Sacred Seal slots are generally sufficient in most cases.

I have better units (aka both Fallen Corrins) so she's not even that useful in limited hero battles/resonate battles.

[Othin]

37 minutes ago, TheSilentChloey said:

I have better units (aka both Fallen Corrins) so she's not even that useful in limited hero battles/resonate battles.

The Fallen Corrins are quite different units from her. They aren't green, they have dragon weaknesses, they don't have even partial DC unless you've had them inherit it... There's lots of roles other units can fill.

[XRay]

29 minutes ago, TheSilentChloey said:

I have better units (aka both Fallen Corrins) so she's not even that useful in limited hero battles/resonate battles.

When building Barracks diversity, it is not always about who gets the most used or who is the most powerful. Having diversity in your Barracks is to prepare for situations when you cannot use your strongest units or favorites, whether it is due game restrictions or an enemy unit hard countering your best units. A lot of times, it is easier to just switch to a different unit or even change the entire team composition.

[TheSilentChloey]

9 minutes ago, XRay said:

When building Barracks diversity, it is not always about who gets the most used or who is the most powerful. Having diversity in your Barracks is to prepare for situations when you cannot use your strongest units or favorites, whether it is due game restrictions or an enemy unit hard countering your best units. A lot of times, it is easier to just switch to a different unit or even change the entire team composition.

Usually the stronger units win out I've found and I also have Legendary Kamui, so even less of a reason to field Rinka, because a) DC and b) damage reduction.  Plus I have some other fates units that are pretty much golden and can handle most things thrown at them, and are better than Rinka across the board.  Also a thing to note is I go for the lower difficulties and don't bother with anything higher than Lunatic, and the Corrins can handle that fine.

[Vicious Sal]

If you don’t want to keep her and don’t have any skills to pass on, take a page out of Ana’s book and just send her home for 1000 feathers. Since you seem to disregard any reasonable advice, this unreasonable suggestion might just do the trick.

So for real, keep her, she’s a good unit and you might just find a use for her at some point down the line.