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

[Rinco]

I'm building L!Xander for Arena and I'm thinking of giving him Atk Smoke 4 form a spare copy of F!Gustav that I have. I know he's more player phase oriented than mixed phase, so maybe a Menace skill would fit better, right?!

[Ice Dragon]

9 minutes ago, Rinco said:

I'm building L!Xander for Arena and I'm thinking of giving him Atk Smoke 4 form a spare copy of F!Gustav that I have. I know he's more player phase oriented than mixed phase, so maybe a Menace skill would fit better, right?!

Legendary Xander functions fine as a dual-phase unit. He just doesn't really benefit much from the follow-up prevention from Atk Smoke 4 due to having high Spd and Null Follow-Up and would prefer to have either Spd Smoke 4 or Atk/Spd Menace instead.

[Rinco]

Atk/Spd Menace unfortunatelly is a skill I don't have the fodder right now. I could get Atk/Def Menace from the codes 3 path, tho. It should work, right?!
I'm still waiting anyway, as I'll only need to give it to him when we hit a Fire/Wind season on Arena. Maybe I get my hands on a copy of Nott or something else till then.

[Ice Dragon]

6 minutes ago, Rinco said:

Atk/Spd Menace unfortunatelly is a skill I don't have the fodder right now. I could get Atk/Def Menace from the codes 3 path, tho. It should work, right?!
I'm still waiting anyway, as I'll only need to give it to him when we hit a Fire/Wind season on Arena. Maybe I get my hands on a copy of Nott or something else till then.

Xander would prefer to have the extra Spd to match opponents running Rally skills. Spd/Def Menace is also okay, but is less versatile than Atk/Spd Menace since you need to specifically attack a debuffed opponent to get the boost to damage, and it doesn't give you a boost to magic bulk (whereas Atk/Spd Menace gives you the boost to damage regardless of the target and only needs you to specifically attack a debuffed opponent to get a boost to bulk and gives both physical and magic bulk in this case).

I would save Atk/Def Menace for a unit that can better use it unless you're really pressed for time to give Xander a more functional C skill than his base Feud.

[DefyingFates]

What's FE8!Selena's best C Skill? I finally got Pulse Smoke on her in HoF and want to know if there are better options (like Fatal Smoke). Right now she has:
 

Drifting Grace (+Spd)

Rally Up Atk+

Ruptured Sky

Atk/Spd Catch 4

S/R Far Trace

Pulse Smoke

Thanks in advance, all! (Let me know if there are other ways to improve this too! I have some fodder for Windsweep since I know that's best for her Prf tome).

[XRay]

1 hour ago, DefyingFates said:

What's FE8!Selena's best C Skill? I finally got Pulse Smoke on her in HoF and want to know if there are better options (like Fatal Smoke). Right now she has:
 

Drifting Grace (+Spd)

Rally Up Atk+

Ruptured Sky

Atk/Spd Catch 4

S/R Far Trace

Pulse Smoke

Thanks in advance, all! (Let me know if there are other ways to improve this too! I have some fodder for Windsweep since I know that's best for her Prf tome).

I would go with Fatal Smoke or Def/Res Smoke. Fatal Smoke is good on Sweep units to stop foes from healing. Def/Res Smoke is good on nukes in general for the extra boost in power and mobility.

Def/Res Smoke is more rare, so I would try to aim for that. If you do not get that, Fatal Smoke is really good too.

[Ice Dragon]

1 hour ago, DefyingFates said:

What's FE8!Selena's best C Skill? I finally got Pulse Smoke on her in HoF and want to know if there are better options (like Fatal Smoke). Right now she has:

Thanks in advance, all! (Let me know if there are other ways to improve this too! I have some fodder for Windsweep since I know that's best for her Prf tome).

Atk/Spd Menace for immediate power.

Def/Res Smoke for mobility support.

Fatal Smoke for wall breaking against self-healers.

Pulse Smoke for turning off pre-charged Specials (Shield Pulse, Life Unending, etc.).

 

I personally prefer Rally Atk/Spd+ or Harsh Command+ over Rally Up Atk+ in the Assist slot, but it's up to how you play.

[DefyingFates]

2 hours ago, Ice Dragon said:

I personally prefer Rally Atk/Spd+ or Harsh Command+ over Rally Up Atk+ in the Assist slot, but it's up to how you play.

I just picked a + Assist skill, but I was considering changing it anyway, so I'll keep an eye out!

2 hours ago, Ice Dragon said:

Atk/Spd Menace for immediate power.

Def/Res Smoke for mobility support.

Fatal Smoke for wall breaking against self-healers.

Pulse Smoke for turning off pre-charged Specials (Shield Pulse, Life Unending, etc.).

 

2 hours ago, XRay said:

I would go with Fatal Smoke or Def/Res Smoke. Fatal Smoke is good on Sweep units to stop foes from healing. Def/Res Smoke is good on nukes in general for the extra boost in power and mobility.

Def/Res Smoke is more rare, so I would try to aim for that. If you do not get that, Fatal Smoke is really good too.

Thank you for this, both of you! I think I had a Menace skill on her at one point (Spd/Res IIRC): I hope I don't regret getting rid of that...

I assume Fatal and Def/Res Smoke are her best options? I'm assuming there's no hierarchy to decide if one is objectively better than the other or something, is there?

[Ice Dragon]

42 minutes ago, DefyingFates said:

I assume Fatal and Def/Res Smoke are her best options? I'm assuming there's no hierarchy to decide if one is objectively better than the other or something, is there?

It mostly depends on what you're using her for and who you're using her with.

Atk/Spd Menace allows her to activate both stacks of Atk/Spd Catch without support from her teammates. It also gives her Atk/Spd Bonuses without support and can be helpful if you're running fliers with Catch + Rein as teammates, as they are unable to activate the second stack of Catch on their own.

Def/Res Smoke requires a more aggressive play style, as she needs to engage in combat to apply the debuffs and Pathfinder, and then you need to have her teammates follow up to take advantage of them. If you're typically just picking off one enemy each turn (like what is common in the high Arena, for example), then Def/Res Smoke is mostly wasted.

Fatal Smoke is specifically intended to be used for wall breaking (or Aether Raids defense).

[Faellin]

Would legendary Xander be a good user of speed smoke 4 by chance? For general useage. Not just arena or competetive modes. Just in general

Edited October 4, 2022 by Faellin

[Ice Dragon]

33 minutes ago, Faellin said:

Would legendary Xander be a good user of speed smoke 4 by chance? For general useage. Not just arena or competetive modes. Just in general

Yeah, he's fine running Spd Smoke, though in non-competitive modes, the extra damage reduction is probably unnecessary outside of some challenge maps.

[XRay]

34 minutes ago, Faellin said:

Would legendary Xander be a good user of speed smoke 4 by chance? For general useage. Not just arena or competetive modes. Just in general

Spd Smoke is good for having an extra stack of damage reduction if you are using him as a dual phase unit.

[Faellin]

16 minutes ago, XRay said:

Spd Smoke is good for having an extra stack of damage reduction if you are using him as a dual phase unit.

That was my plan, a dedicated mix phase physical tank

[DefyingFates]

I got a Bridal Catria from the DSH banner! Can anyone direct me to any guides for building Catria ball teams, please? What types of units (or team compositions) fit that strategy best?

Thank you in advance! I've found this so far, for what it's worth:

 

[XRay]

9 hours ago, DefyingFates said:

I got a Bridal Catria from the DSH banner! Can anyone direct me to any guides for building Catria ball teams, please? What types of units (or team compositions) fit that strategy best?

I generally agree with the video, and it is a good starting point.

You want multiple nukes with really high raw damage output, and ideally they should have some way to mitigate or nullify damage reduction. This is easier said than done though. Chrom: Fate-Defying Duo is a good option, but I do not think he is good enough by himself; he gets hard countered by Hector: Brave Warrior, who seems pretty common in my opinion, and he is particularly hard to take down if he has Hardy Fighter too.

I would personally run Triandra over a combat Mythic. Combat Mythics just plain suck in my opinion, and they do not really do anything against super tanks and Save tanks. And with your Dancer/Singer also being a Mythic, that also frees up a slot for the second nuke to compliment your first one. Even if Triandra gets shut down by Mila, at least a non-Mythic properly built nuke will stand a better chance of damaging and killing something. To compliment Chrom: Fate-Defying Duo for example, you would want to use a green nuke. Hinoka: Fiar Pirate Pair is good option for example, but even she might have difficulty against Hector: Brave Warrior depending on his setup.

For Astra season specifically, I do not think I have encountered anyone that uses multiple Elmines on a Save tank team except for me, but if you really want to screw a player like me over, C Feud on a powerful nuke can fuck me over big time by reducing two or three stacks of damage reduction on the Save tank.

[DefyingFates]

2 hours ago, XRay said:

I would personally run Triandra over a combat Mythic.

She's the only Fairy I still don't have, I'm afraid. I'd love for her to be on a Hero Fest one day...

But apart from that, if I should run multiple nukes, does that mean I shouldn't invest in any defensive units for a Catria team, just go full offence? Thanks for the advice!

[XRay]

Just now, DefyingFates said:

She's the only Fairy I still don't have, I'm afraid. I'd love for her to be on a Hero Fest one day...

But apart from that, if I should run multiple nukes, does that mean I shouldn't invest in any defensive units for a Catria team, just go full offence? Thanks for the advice!

That depends on you.

The more nukes you run, the harder it is for offense teams to use enemy phase teams to tackle your defense team. On the other hand, if you do not use any Save armors, then your team becomes really vulnerable to offense teams using player phase teams, especially Galeforce, to take your defense team out.

I think two Save armors, three nukes, a Mythic Dancer/Singer, and a bonus Mythic (could also be another Mythic Dancer/Singer if the season allows) would be good to start out with since it is relatively balanced. Then you can test out later if you want to replace any of the Save armors with another nuke.

[DefyingFates]

4 minutes ago, XRay said:

That depends on you.

The more nukes you run, the harder it is for offense teams to use enemy phase teams to tackle your defense team. On the other hand, if you do not use any Save armors, then your team becomes really vulnerable to offense teams using player phase teams, especially Galeforce, to take your defense team out.

I think two Save armors, three nukes, a Mythic Dancer/Singer, and a bonus Mythic (could also be another Mythic Dancer/Singer if the season allows) would be good to start out with since it is relatively balanced. Then you can test out later if you want to replace any of the Save armors with another nuke.

I'll see what I can do, thanks! Hopefully we get some good armors in future HoFs to make the process easier too. Fingers crossed for H!Myrrh.

[Ice Dragon]

10 hours ago, XRay said:

I think two Save armors, three nukes, a Mythic Dancer/Singer, and a bonus Mythic (could also be another Mythic Dancer/Singer if the season allows) would be good to start out with since it is relatively balanced. Then you can test out later if you want to replace any of the Save armors with another nuke.

@DefyingFates If you want another team slot for something else, it's viable to drop the Near Save unit and simply put traps to block melee attackers. If at all possible, you'll also want one of your units to have Canto Control to make it harder for the opponent to trigger a trap and then use a unit with Canto to get the unit back out of range.

[DefyingFates]

26 minutes ago, Ice Dragon said:

@DefyingFates If you want another team slot for something else, it's viable to drop the Near Save unit and simply put traps to block melee attackers. If at all possible, you'll also want one of your units to have Canto Control to make it harder for the opponent to trigger a trap and then use a unit with Canto to get the unit back out of range.

Thanks for the advice! I'm afraid I don't have Canto Control, but I'll try and find a guide for trap placement? I'm... pretty terrible at pretty much everything to do with AR-D and most of AR-O 😐

[Ice Dragon]

6 minutes ago, DefyingFates said:

Thanks for the advice! I'm afraid I don't have Canto Control, but I'll try and find a guide for trap placement? I'm... pretty terrible at pretty much everything to do with AR-D and most of AR-O 😐

Trap placement is pretty simple in this case. Since you have a Far Save unit and not a Near Save unit, you just need to cover the spaces where a melee unit can attack any of your units that are exposed. Use the Heavy Trap and the Hex Trap. Your units are capable of teleporting, so the Heavy Trap doesn't really do much of anything to you.

I don't recommend bluffing with fake traps, but if you want to try, you can run a real Bolt Trap, fake Bolt Trap, and have one of the two traps actually protecting your units be fake so that the opponent still has to guess which one it is even when they realize that one of them has to be fake.

[DefyingFates]

37 minutes ago, Ice Dragon said:

Since you have a Far Save unit and not a Near Save unit, you just need to cover the spaces where a melee unit can attack any of your units that are exposed.

So basically immediately in front of them, right?

37 minutes ago, Ice Dragon said:

Use the Heavy Trap and the Hex Trap. Your units are capable of teleporting, so the Heavy Trap doesn't really do much of anything to you.

And this makes sense, thank you very much!

Is Valentine's Robin worth using, by any chance? I know her tome is pretty gimmicky and she needs a new B Skill, but I'm still surprised that no one mentions her... ever. Was she dead on arrival? And if so, is A/D Far Save better for Bector than A/R?

---

Completely separate from the above and won't be relevant unless the appropriate HoF happens, but does H!Myrrh need a Fighter skill post-refine, or is she better off using Dragon's Wrath or Ire 4? I want to use her with A/D Near Save, for what that's worth.

[Ice Dragon]

1 minute ago, DefyingFates said:

So basically immediately in front of them, right?

Yes.

 

1 minute ago, DefyingFates said:

Is Valentine's Robin worth using, by any chance? I know her tome is pretty gimmicky and she needs a new B Skill, but I'm still surprised that no one mentions her... ever. Was she dead on arrival? And if so, is A/D Far Save better for Bector than A/R?

Robin is worth using, but it's usually not worth building Robin if you already have a perfectly serviceable Brave Hector. Brave Hector's Hardy Fighter + Deflect Magic build is better suited for Aether Raids than Robin is since he can deal with both Duo Chrom and Harmonized Lysithea with one build, whereas Robin can only deal with one of the two at a time (and even then struggles with Lysithea). However, Robin isn't vulnerable to Windsweep and doesn't get hard countered by Harmonized Tana (in case Tana becomes more common).

 

1 minute ago, DefyingFates said:

Completely separate from the above and won't be relevant unless the appropriate HoF happens, but does H!Myrrh need a Fighter skill post-refine, or is she better off using Dragon's Wrath or Ire 4? I want to use her with A/D Near Save, for what that's worth.

Dragon's Wrath is fine.

Special Fighter is fine, but is relatively easy to get.

Hardy Fighter is usable on a Save build.

Dragon's Ire is situationally useful due to the offensive Null Follow-Up effect and the stat penalty.

The guaranteed follow-up on Slick Fighter and Wily Fighter are superfluous, but their secondary effects can be situationally useful.

Bold Fighter and Vengeful Fighter are mostly useless since Special Fighter is better than either of them.

Savvy Fighter is mostly useless because Myrrh doesn't have the Spd to make use of its primary effect.

Daring Fighter is mostly useless.

[DefyingFates]

21 minutes ago, Ice Dragon said:

Dragon's Wrath is fine.

Special Fighter is fine, but is relatively easy to get.

Hardy Fighter is usable on a Save build.

So these are the main ones to look out for?

21 minutes ago, Ice Dragon said:

However, Robin isn't vulnerable to Windsweep and doesn't get hard countered by Harmonized Tana (in case Tana becomes more common).

Somehow I only just got why A!Idunn is used for Far Saving despite not having DC by default... Doesn't Robin also suffer from Tana's weapon though, or were you saying she counters Hector because of her weapon and her native Windsweep?

EDIT: I just remembered that I also have a V!Henriette lying around that I could use too, though she could only handle Tana. Hmm...

Anyway, thanks as always, Ice!

Edited October 7, 2022 by DefyingFates

[Ice Dragon]

4 minutes ago, DefyingFates said:

So these are the main ones to look out for?

Yep.

Dragon's Wrath is the hardest one to get right now, so it should be your highest priority until an easier-to-get source is released.

Special Fighter should be the lowest priority of the three since it's significantly easier to get than the other two.

 

4 minutes ago, DefyingFates said:

Somehow I only just got why A!Idunn is used for Far Saving despite not having DC by default... Doesn't Robin also suffer from Tana's weapon though, or were you saying she counters Hector because of her weapon and her native Windsweep?

Tana has Windsweep, "Triangle Adept", and native weapon triangle advantage against Brave Hector, whereas she lacks both Windsweep and native weapon triangle advantage against Valentine Robin.

Not only does Tana have an easier time killing Hector in one round, but even if she fails to do so, she's not at risk of being killed by a counterattack. Robin is more likely to survive, and if she does, Tana is unlikely to survive a counterattack (noting that Tana doesn't have the defensive half of Null Follow-Up to block Robin's guaranteed follow-up).