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

[Othin]

13 minutes ago, XRay said:

It is still on Gamepedia. Under a unit's artwork, there are miscellaneous info like artist, voice artist, release date, etc.

Oh, I see. For units released immediately, it just lists their release date, but for ones with a delay like most grail units, it lists a separate addition date. Thanks!

[Othin]

...Are those addition dates accurate? It lists the first New Year's units as being added on December 31 and Gunnthra as being added on December 28, but I swear they were all added in the same update. New Year's units always get leaked that way.

[TheSilentChloey]

I'm at a free summon loss...

 

Lance guy or Selena?

[XRay]

9 hours ago, Othin said:

...Are those addition dates accurate? It lists the first New Year's units as being added on December 31 and Gunnthra as being added on December 28, but I swear they were all added in the same update. New Year's units always get leaked that way.

I am not sure about addition dates, and I am not sure if there is a way to double check. You can maybe try looking up datamine reports from Gamepress and see if those dates line up.

1 hour ago, TheSilentChloey said:

I'm at a free summon loss...

 

Lance guy or Selena?

I recommend getting a second Reginn due to how useful she is.

If you are absolutely sure you do not need a second Reginn, between Duessel and Selena, it depends on what you need. If you need more dual phase units with guaranteed follow-up like Dimitri or Ephraim: Legendary Lord, I would go with Duessel. If you need more player phase nukes or Counter-Vantage units, I would go with Selena.

Edited December 13, 2020 by XRay

[Xenomata]

2 hours ago, TheSilentChloey said:

I'm at a free summon loss...

Lance guy or Selena?

Duessel I assume.
He has magnificent raw bulk, especially if you keep Def/Res Solo 4 on him, but replacing it with DC wouldn't be the worst idea in the world either. The only thing about him you need to keep in mind is that there really isn't a shortage on bulky Lance units, and one especially (Hector the Brave) has almost all the same advantages as Duessel minus the massive Movement range and need to be alone.
Selena has the ability to run with Wind or Watersweep thanks to her weapon, and she has the stats to run with them well, though unlike others with such weapons she can really only do it against healthy foes.

I'd say it depends most on your playstyle, then what you most need. Again, blue units with good bulk are fairly easy to stumble across (Nowi, LegTiki, and Gwendolyn all have good mixed bulk), and Hector has one of the best refines in the game alongside Brave Ike. Offensive blue mages are common enough, but again Selena can run with a sweep skill, which I don't remember any other Blues being able to do.

@XRay mentioned having a second Reginn, though I gotta ask why, because as far as I know you only need one Reginn to get the AR-O bonus unit, and Altena grants the exact same stat bonuses. If it's about being able to wreck through structures twice as fast though, that's fair.

Edited December 14, 2020 by Xenomata

[Samz707]

It won't be confusing if I hop into FE Heroes?

It's not one of those online games where the game sorta kinda expects you to have been there since the start? (Characters say, referencing events from Book 4 even though I'm on book one or getting characters that only make sense later on.)

[Xenomata]

2 minutes ago, Samz707 said:

It won't be confusing if I hop into FE Heroes?

It's not one of those online games where the game sorta kinda expects you to have been there since the start? (Characters say, referencing events from Book 4 even though I'm on book one or getting characters that only make sense later on.)

In terms of the lore, no. Other books make reference to the events of Book 1 occasionally, but outside of a few battles in Books 3 and 4 and some lines near the end of Book 4 that reference the events of Book 3, the events of each book are fairly standalone.

Forging Bonds do not make reference to the books, but they do include characters you get for free at the beginning of each book, so while you don't need to have played that far into each book to receive the character, you will likely be seeing characters who you haven't met yet if you haven't begun a book yet.

That's just in terms of lore though. As with most games I assume, you are at a heavy disadvantage the later on you begin playing, as you have missed out on a good few years of powerful free units and free resources.

[Samz707]

1 minute ago, Xenomata said:

In terms of the lore, no. Other books make reference to the events of Book 1 occasionally, but outside of a few battles in Books 3 and 4 and some lines near the end of Book 4 that reference the events of Book 3, the events of each book are fairly standalone.

Forging Bonds do not make reference to the books, but they do include characters you get for free at the beginning of each book, so while you don't need to have played that far into each book to receive the character, you will likely be seeing characters who you haven't met yet if you haven't begun a book yet.

That's just in terms of lore though. As with most games I assume, you are at a heavy disadvantage the later on you begin playing, as you have missed out on a good few years of powerful free units and free resources.

So at least if I play the books in order, there shouldn't be any issues?

[Xenomata]

1 minute ago, Samz707 said:

So at least if I play the books in order, there shouldn't be any issues?

Pretty much yeah. Book 1 establishes the fundamentals of the lore, so if anything make sure you go through it first so you don't wonder why XXXXX is helping XXXXXX even though XXXXX seemed like an enemy at first.

[XRay]

1 hour ago, Xenomata said:

@XRay mentioned having a second Reginn, though I gotta ask why, because as far as I know you only need one Reginn to get the AR-O bonus unit, and Altena grants the exact same stat bonuses. If it's about being able to wreck through structures twice as fast though, that's fair.

Not for Aether Raids (although you can run two of her there for mass Galeforce or something), but for stuff like Limited Hero Battles and Resonant Battles.

Reginn can function like a pseudo Dancer/Singer by moving your units back out of enemy range, which can be useful in Limited Hero Battles (Dancer/Singer restrictions) and Allegiance Battles (if a unit is Paired Up with a Dancer/Singer, the unit cannot be Danced/Sung to).

1 hour ago, Samz707 said:

It won't be confusing if I hop into FE Heroes?

It's not one of those online games where the game sorta kinda expects you to have been there since the start? (Characters say, referencing events from Book 4 even though I'm on book one or getting characters that only make sense later on.)

 

1 hour ago, Xenomata said:

That's just in terms of lore though. As with most games I assume, you are at a heavy disadvantage the later on you begin playing, as you have missed out on a good few years of powerful free units and free resources.

To add on about resources, most players will generally want to pimp out their favorite units and give them the best build possible, and that usually takes quite some time and resources, so make sure you are spending your resources carefully when you start.

For some general pointers:

- Do NOT Send Home Heroes for Feathers. The amount of Feathers you gain is nowhere near the value of skills that a Hero can pass on.

- Do NOT get rid of any Hero that the game gives you for free. Free Heroes have Normalized Traits, which basically means that they have a specific stat spread, and that stat spread is generally a bit different from most summoned Heroes. You also do NOT want to power up those free Heroes so you can keep their stat spread pristine. The purpose of saving and preserving free Heroes is so that you can get some rewards easily by copying free guides on YouTube.

- PARTICIPATE in EVERY mode. You get a lot of rewards from just participating. Do not worry about not playing well or ranking well. Getting better at the game can come later.

- Unless you are a whale or plan to be a paying player, Orbs will be your most important resource, so spend it carefully. Most players spend Orbs only on their absolute favorites, the best units, and/or the best skill fodder.

Edited December 14, 2020 by XRay

[TheSilentChloey]

6 hours ago, XRay said:

I am not sure about addition dates, and I am not sure if there is a way to double check. You can maybe try looking up datamine reports from Gamepress and see if those dates line up.

I recommend getting a second Reginn due to how useful she is.

If you are absolutely sure you do not need a second Reginn, between Duessel and Selena, it depends on what you need. If you need more dual phase units with guaranteed follow-up like Dimitri or Ephraim: Legendary Lord, I would go with Duessel. If you need more player phase nukes or Counter-Vantage units, I would go with Selena.

I ended up getting both, since I was looking for fodder and from what I can tell Selena isn't as crash hot with IVs, Dussel has been the better unit for my playstyle.

 

5 hours ago, Xenomata said:

Duessel I assume.
He has magnificent raw bulk, especially if you keep Def/Res Solo 4 on him, but replacing it with DC wouldn't be the worst idea in the world either. The only thing about him you need to keep in mind is that there really isn't a shortage on bulky Lance units, and one especially (Hector the Brave) has almost all the same advantages as Duessel minus the massive Movement range and need to be alone.
Selena has the ability to run with Wind or Watersweep thanks to her weapon, and she has the stats to run with them well, though unlike others with such weapons she can really only do it against healthy foes.

I'd say it depends most on your playstyle, then what you most need. Again, blue units with good bulk are fairly easy to stumble across (Nowi, LegTiki, and Gwendolyn all have good mixed bulk), and Hector has one of the best refines in the game alongside Brave Ike. Offensive blue mages are common enough, but again Selena can run with a sweep skill, which I don't remember any other Blues being able to do.

@XRay mentioned having a second Reginn, though I gotta ask why, because as far as I know you only need one Reginn to get the AR-O bonus unit, and Altena grants the exact same stat bonuses. If it's about being able to wreck through structures twice as fast though, that's fair.

I think one Reginn is enough, I don't care for her and she's only there for guides, but I will take the potential builds for Selena under advice.

[Faellin]

Just got a winter Altina off my free summon, +def -HP which seems pretty good.

Personally i've never been a huge fan of seasonals. Even if they are characters I like. I typically just do the usual ordeal and HM farming and once thats done if they have good fodder, i'll just do that.

In this case it looks like her winter alt trades vantage for higher bulk, but I have regular Altina at +7, and her stats are more or less the same as this alt. And while I usually keep a single copy of duo units for the one duo skill. But not these harmonic ones since they carry that restriction on them and I just never end up finding a use for it.

So in this case, does anyone else actually want that atk/res unity skill?

[XRay]

56 minutes ago, Faellin said:

Just got a winter Altina off my free summon, +def -HP which seems pretty good.

Personally i've never been a huge fan of seasonals. Even if they are characters I like. I typically just do the usual ordeal and HM farming and once thats done if they have good fodder, i'll just do that.

In this case it looks like her winter alt trades vantage for higher bulk, but I have regular Altina at +7, and her stats are more or less the same as this alt. And while I usually keep a single copy of duo units for the one duo skill. But not these harmonic ones since they carry that restriction on them and I just never end up finding a use for it.

So in this case, does anyone else actually want that atk/res unity skill?

A lot of Duo Skills have restrictions too on team composition (DM!Ephraim, TSOIA!Palla, etc.). ITM!Lyn's effect is completely selfish, so it can be thought of as having team restrictions against even her own game. When thought of this way, AFM!Altina is a lot more generous than ITM!Lyn.

I strongly recommend keeping her for Resonant Battles and Limited Hero Battles, as those modes have team composition restrictions on games anyways. Harmonic effects are global, so it is extremely powerful in those modes. Even outside of those modes, once you have a big enough Barracks, you can eventually duplicate your favorite team composition using units exclusively from almost any single game, so the team composition restriction on games is not a big deal. I can create a player phase team exclusively using units from any one game, with the sole exception being TMS since they do not have any Dancers/Singers yet.

AFM!Altina has Vantage as her Harmonic skill, so it frees up her B slot for Null C-Disrupt. For Aether Raids, as a Counter-Vantage unit, you generally only need Vantage for one or two turns to sweep the entire enemy team, and with Duo's Indulgence (O), you can use it twice per map. She also has access to Mythic stat buffs to give her more stats, and you can choose which Season you want to use her in. As an infantry unit, she also has access to Fierce Breath to trigger Twin Blades consistently.

In my opinion, her usefulness in Resonant Battles and Limited Hero Battles far outweighs the value of her skill fodder, and her skill fodder can easily be replaced with other equally viable options.

If you still insist on foddering her for Atk/Res Unity, Res tanks are the most obvious candidates. Def/Res tanks can also work to balance their bulk. I would not give it to super tanks since most of them want Spd.

Edited December 17, 2020 by XRay

[Sias]

I have both Fae and Nowi sitting around in my barracks at +9 with the standard Lightning Breath/Steady Breath/Quick Riposte combo that was popular on them back in the days when they were, like, pretty top-tier tank units. Now that they've both got a shiny new exclusive weapon, I've decided to return to them and polish them up a little by giving them their last merge and unique refine (Fae probably also needs Distant Counter since she loses hers when switching out her weapon).

The question I have is: Would it be better to go for a +Spd nature or higher mixed defenses instead (which means +Def on Fae and +Res on Nowi)? With how fast many offensive threats nowadays are, I'm honestly not sure if the dragon girls can really keep up, even considering the +4 Spd from merges and the possibility of slapping another +3 onto that through dragon flowers...

And on a similar note: I know he's not really an especially good unit anymore, but since he was my first five star character, I'm kinda attached to him, so... Is M!Robin's Spd still salvageable or would it be better to switch to an Atk asset now?

Thanks in advance for any advice 🙂

[XRay]

44 minutes ago, Sias said:

I have both Fae and Nowi sitting around in my barracks at +9 with the standard Lightning Breath/Steady Breath/Quick Riposte combo that was popular on them back in the days when they were, like, pretty top-tier tank units. Now that they've both got a shiny new exclusive weapon, I've decided to return to them and polish them up a little by giving them their last merge and unique refine (Fae probably also needs Distant Counter since she loses hers when switching out her weapon).

The question I have is: Would it be better to go for a +Spd nature or higher mixed defenses instead (which means +Def on Fae and +Res on Nowi)? With how fast many offensive threats nowadays are, I'm honestly not sure if the dragon girls can really keep up, even considering the +4 Spd from merges and the possibility of slapping another +3 onto that through dragon flowers...

Depends on what you want to do with them.

If you are using them as super tanks, +Spd is mandatory to help avoid doubles. Not having super high base Spd is not a big deal since you can offload stats to support units and Mythics to further customize your stat distribution that way. So for example, you can run something like triple Peonys/Plumerias with double Drive Spd on the stat buffer to turn a slow unit really fast.

If you are just using them as regular tanks, I still recommend turning them into Spd tanks anyways since avoiding doubles still help a lot in PvE modes. Fae is not slow enough to reliably activate Iceberg, and Nowi is not slow enough to reliably trigger Aether. That said, slow mixed tanks can still do well in PvE modes, especially easy ones like autobattling Tempest Trials, even if they are not technically slow. In PvP modes though, you have to be more careful with slow tanks since enemy nukes are much more capable of overwhelming tanks without relying on color advantage.

Edited December 18, 2020 by XRay

[DefyingFates]

Can someone please explain or at least point me to a resource that explains how arena calculations work please? I know about BST bins and how the higher the cost of a Skill the more its value but not what points are aassigned to each or how caps work. For example I hear people say that units need either a Prf and Tier 4 Skill or 2 Tier 4 Skills to hit their max score: is that accurate?

P.S. Do weapon refines increase Arena scoring? I always assumed not but Akariss said they did in his Ninja Hana video, so I wanted to double check.

Thank you all in advance!

[XRay]

31 minutes ago, DefyingFates said:

Can someone please explain or at least point me to a resource that explains how arena calculations work please? I know about BST bins and how the higher the cost of a Skill the more its value but not what points are aassigned to each or how caps work. For example I hear people say that units need either a Prf and Tier 4 Skill or 2 Tier 4 Skills to hit their max score: is that accurate?

P.S. Do weapon refines increase Arena scoring? I always assumed not but Akariss said they did in his Ninja Hana video, so I wanted to double check.

Thank you all in advance!

Here is Gamepress's Arena scoring explanation. There is also Gamepedia's but it is not very detailed.

I think every 200 SP is 1 Arena point, every merge is 2 points, and each BST bin is worth 2 points, based on testing the score calculator.

Edited December 19, 2020 by XRay

[Othin]

34 minutes ago, DefyingFates said:

Can someone please explain or at least point me to a resource that explains how arena calculations work please? I know about BST bins and how the higher the cost of a Skill the more its value but not what points are aassigned to each or how caps work. For example I hear people say that units need either a Prf and Tier 4 Skill or 2 Tier 4 Skills to hit their max score: is that accurate?

P.S. Do weapon refines increase Arena scoring? I always assumed not but Akariss said they did in his Ninja Hana video, so I wanted to double check.

Thank you all in advance!

To my understanding, you add up the SP costs of all of a unit's skills, then round down to the nearest 100.

Inheritable weapons cost 300 SP if they're not refined, and 350 SP if they're refined. Personal weapons always cost 400 SP. So refines matter for inheritable weapons, but not for personal weapons.

Edited December 19, 2020 by Othin

[Sias]

9 hours ago, XRay said:

Depends on what you want to do with them.

If you are using them as super tanks, +Spd is mandatory to help avoid doubles. Not having super high base Spd is not a big deal since you can offload stats to support units and Mythics to further customize your stat distribution that way. So for example, you can run something like triple Peonys/Plumerias with double Drive Spd on the stat buffer to turn a slow unit really fast.

If you are just using them as regular tanks, I still recommend turning them into Spd tanks anyways since avoiding doubles still help a lot in PvE modes. Fae is not slow enough to reliably activate Iceberg, and Nowi is not slow enough to reliably trigger Aether. That said, slow mixed tanks can still do well in PvE modes, especially easy ones like autobattling Tempest Trials, even if they are not technically slow. In PvP modes though, you have to be more careful with slow tanks since enemy nukes are much more capable of overwhelming tanks without relying on color advantage.

I've never really used Fae or Nowi for Aether Raids since I honestly doubt that either of them would fare all that well against the rather extreme offensive threats you frequently have to face there, hm. There's also the slight problem that I simply can't just combine them with lots of Peonys/Plumerias due to the fact that those aren't exactly the most accessible units if you're F2P.

When you recommend turning them into full Spd tanks, how far would you go? Atm they're running Steady Breath/Quick Riposte/Atk Smoke/Close or Distant Defense, and I sadly don't really have a lot of five star exclusive skill fodder. Also, why would you use Iceberg on Fae? If she's supposed to tank, wouldn't some kind of healing special be more optimal?

And finally: Did the part about Spd tanks also apply to M!Robin even though you didn't specifically mention him?

[XRay]

3 hours ago, Sias said:

I've never really used Fae or Nowi for Aether Raids since I honestly doubt that either of them would fare all that well against the rather extreme offensive threats you frequently have to face there, hm. There's also the slight problem that I simply can't just combine them with lots of Peonys/Plumerias due to the fact that those aren't exactly the most accessible units if you're F2P.

Generally speaking, you want to use different types of offense teams to tackle different types of defense teams, similar to how you would approach Arena Assault. Super tank teams should not be the only team type you deploy, so if you see Thrasir or Lucina or something, you would not deploy Nowi/Fae and you would run a player phase team or something instead.

If you cannot run a ton of Mythics, you can just replace them with more support units. If you are running Nowi, you can run two or three M!Corrins if you only have Reginn and Altina as your Mythics.

3 hours ago, Sias said:

When you recommend turning them into full Spd tanks, how far would you go? Atm they're running Steady Breath/Quick Riposte/Atk Smoke/Close or Distant Defense, and I sadly don't really have a lot of five star exclusive skill fodder. Also, why would you use Iceberg on Fae? If she's supposed to tank, wouldn't some kind of healing special be more optimal?

A Spd tank should stack as much Spd as possible. Every skill slot should boost Spd if possible. In my opinion, the only exceptions to that rule is to make sure Quick Riposte is in the build somewhere (Weapon, B, or Sacred Seal slots), and that for the C slot, you may want to run Atk Smoke over Spd Smoke since Atk Smoke boosts more of your stats (Atk-7 on the enemy is the equivalent of Def+7 AND Res+7 on your unit, whereas Spd-7 on the enemy is just the equivalent of Spd+7 on your unit). If you are in a mode where units generally do not go above a certain Spd threshold, you can replace Quick Riposte with another Spd stacking skill (e.g.: Lull Atk/Spd, Swift Stance) to achieve the same effect of doubling your enemies while increasing your bulk at the same time.

In my opinion, the vast majority of combat units generally should not be running any form of healing skills, as support units are much better at healing combat units than combat units are at healing themselves. There is no point in running Noontime/Sol when you can just bring a healer to heal the damage back up, and they can do it much more efficiently. The only reason to run healing skills on combat units is if you are having trouble protecting the healer. Healing skills that most combat units have access to generally heal too little to matter, and the opportunity cost to running a healing skill is reduced damage output and reduced bulk, which makes the tank easier to kill. In my opinion, it is much better to ensure your enemy is dead with Moonbow or increase your bulk with Lull Atk/Spd, than it is to run Noontime/Sol or Mystic Boost.

Healing skills like Aether and Sirius are fine on combat units since they do not completely sacrifice damage output for healing, but I would avoid Noontime and Sol unless you are playing Abyssal maps, Tempest Trials, or something similar where enemy nukes are less potent but it is more difficult to protect healers due to being swarmed by reinforcements or the AI being stupid.

Edited December 19, 2020 by XRay

[DefyingFates]

9 hours ago, XRay said:

Here is Gamepress's Arena scoring explanation. There is also Gamepedia's but it is not very detailed.

I think every 200 SP is 1 Arena point, every merge is 2 points, and each BST bin is worth 2 points, based on testing the score calculator.

 

9 hours ago, Othin said:

To my understanding, you add up the SP costs of all of a unit's skills, then round down to the nearest 100.

Inheritable weapons cost 300 SP if they're not refined, and 350 SP if they're refined. Personal weapons always cost 400 SP. So refines matter for inheritable weapons, but not for personal weapons.

Thank you both! And thank you for explaining the refines, Othin!

[TheSilentChloey]

Anyone else have their pity rates fully reset from pity breakers?

 

I was on ~3.5-3.75% both times when I got pity broken by Fallen!Ike and Helbindi and dropped all the way back to 3%, despite FEH channel stating that pity breakers won't reset the pity rate now when I was summoning on this Christmas banner and your rate would be 'adjusted' accordingly.  Either I'm missing something or the problem is in the FEH channel not explaining the pity rates properly.

Edited December 19, 2020 by TheSilentChloey

[Othin]

15 minutes ago, TheSilentChloey said:

Anyone else have their pity rates fully reset from pity breakers?

 

I was on ~3.5-3.75% both times when I got pity broken by Fallen!Ike and Helbindi and dropped all the way back to 3%, despite FEH channel stating that pity breakers won't reset the pity rate now when I was summoning on this Christmas banner and your rate would be 'adjusted' accordingly.  Either I'm missing something or the problem is in the FEH channel not explaining the pity rates properly.

No, what's happening is exactly what they said. The pity rate drops by the equivalent of 20 summons. On a basic 3% banner, that's 1% from both your focus and non-focus 5* rates, so you need to be at 4.25% or higher to avoid dropping all the way to 3%.

The Feh Channel very clearly showed the pity rate still dropping, just by 1% rather than all the way.

[TheSilentChloey]

14 minutes ago, Othin said:

No, what's happening is exactly what they said. The pity rate drops by the equivalent of 20 summons. On a basic 3% banner, that's 1% from both your focus and non-focus 5* rates, so you need to be at 4.25% or higher to avoid dropping all the way to 3%.

The Feh Channel very clearly showed the pity rate still dropping, just by 1% rather than all the way.

Hmm...well my pity rate dropped all the way, so I don't think that's right.  Like I said I was ~3.5-3.75% and pity breakers dropped the pity rate back to 3% with no focus units.

[Othin]

Just now, TheSilentChloey said:

Hmm...well my pity rate dropped all the way, so I don't think that's right.  Like I said I was ~3.5-3.75% and pity breakers dropped the pity rate back to 3% with no focus units.

Again, that's exactly what's supposed to happen. Like I said, anything 4% or less drops all the way back down to 3%, because it decreases your pity rate by 20 summons' worth. 3.5-3.75% means you've accumulated less than 20 summons' worth of pity rate, so you're back to zero.