Initial thoughts on Soren, Ike, Titania, and Mist

[CtrlAltSandwich]

I believe that the title should be self explanatory, but I'll just put the footnote here, before I get started [Does that make it a headnote?]; These opinions are my own, and are as objective as I can make them, however, you are free to agree and disagree with me as you please, and I encourage discussion in the comments! With that said, let's get to it!

[This review does not factor in Inheritance]

UNIT REVIEW: WORLD OF RADIANCE

Soren, Shrewd Strategist
5S Kit:

Weapon: Rexcalibur+ [Mt: 13, Rng: 2]
Support:N/A
Special: Growing Wind; Charge: 5 [Before combat, deal Damage in a wide area around the foe equal to (unit's Atk - foe's Def or Res)

A: N/A
B: Watersweep 3 {New Skill} [If this unit initiates combat, no follow-up occurs. If this unit is attacking a unit with magic, staff, or dragonstone, and unit's Spd - foe's Spd > 1, no counterattack occurs]
C: Fortify Res 3 [Grants adjacent allies +4 res through their next actions at the start of the turn]

Thoughts: Soren appears to be a fairly mediocre range-killer. Watersweep is nice, but would generally would be of better use on a Setsuna or Nino. Growing Wind as a special is mediocre at best, and his weapon is nothing special. Unless his stats are anything to gawk at, he won't be seeing the light of competitive day. Fortify Res 3 is fairly nice, though.

Ike, Young Mercenary
5S Kit:

Weapon: Ragnell {New Weapon} //Legendary// [Mt: 16, Rng: 1, Enables counterattack regardless of distance if this unit is attacked]
Support: N/A
Special: Aether; Charge: 5 [Resolve combat as if unit suffered Def/Res -50%; Unit recovers HP = 50% Damage dealt]

A: Heavy Blade {New Skill} [If unit's Atk = foe's Atk > 1, then unit gains Special CD Charge +1 per attack. (If using other similar skill, only highest value applied)]
B: Swordbreaker 3 [If unit's HP > when in combat against a Sword user, unit makes a follow up attack and foe cannot.
C: N/A

Thoughts: Ike promises to be one of the best sword users added into the game, with a powerful legendary weapon in Ragnell, an excellent special in Aether, and an incredible, and seemingly reliable source of Special charge in Heavy Blade to balance out Aether's absurd cost. Swordbreaker is frosting on the cake, allowing Ike to gain up to 4 special charge in one round against a sword user. Will almost definately see high tier play, assuming his stats aren't awful.

Titania, Mighty Mercenary
5S Kit:

Weapon: Emerald Axe+ [Mt: 12, Rng: 1, Atk +20% if at a weapon triangle advantage; -20% if at a disadvantage] 
Support: Reciprocal Aid [Swap HP with adjacent ally (Unit and ally's HP cannot exceed maximum values)]
Special: N/A

A: Armored Blow 3 [Gain Def +6 when attacking]
B: Guard {New Skill} [If unit's HP > at start of combat, foe is inflicted with Special CD Charge -1 (If using other similar skill, only highest value applied)]
C: N/A

Thoughts: Titania's usefulness will be decided by her stats. Her kit is neither here nor there, but she seems to be shaping up to be a mounted tank, meaning her only major weakness is Raourwolf+. However, if her damage is limited, then so will her utility be. A truly decent kit, but the hero's stats have yet to be seen.

Mist, Helpful Sister
5S Kit:

Weapon: Slow [Mt: 5, Rng: 2, After combat, enemy suffers Spd -6 through its next actions]
Support: Recover [Rng: 1, Restore 15 HP to an adjacent ally (Special Cooldown +1)]
Special: Imbue; Charge: 1 [Increase healing from a staff by 10]

A:N/A
B:N/A
C: Spur Def/Res 2 {New Skill} [Grants adjacent allies Def/Res +3 through combat]

Thoughts: Mist seems to be an alright healer, but as healers go, Elise still reigns supreme. Mist is, in essence, the diet coke version of Priscilla. Spur Def/Res 2 is nice to have on a buffing unit, though.

Conclusion: Ike seems to be the best unit from this set by far. Summon as many reds as you can, and if you have the orbs, maybe go for Mist for Spur Def/Res 2, and maybe Titania if her stats dictate so.

Thanks for reading, and see you all next time!

[Xaos Steel Wing]

Wouldn't it be prudent to wait for the stats of the units to be released before reviewing them? Skills you can change, stats you can't. Do we even know the new units level 40 stats yet?

We would need to know what Soren's speed is to fully evaluate Watersweep on him, for example.

Ike looks to have a great skill set: ranged counter alone would be excellent, and then there's swordbreaker, and a unique skill that accelerates his special counter. Ike's Speed and defenses will determine just how good he is, but he has swordbreaker to deal with fast reds already.

Titania's skill set looks vastly underwhelming. I very much like Titania as a character, and she looks and sounds great in Heroes. I worry that she might not be very good, but a lot will depend on her stats.

None of her skills appear to be particularly worthwhile. Her kit seems to be aimed at a defensive/support unit... and in arena, offense is preferable. Guard seems underwhelming. A most likely once per battle increase of an opponents special counter? There may be the odd time where it comes in useful, but more often than not I would wager it has no effect on the battle at all. The problem with the Emerald Axe is that it makes her better vs blues but worse vs reds, and I find that reds tend to be more common and more threatening than blues. Reciprocal Aid uses a turn to essentially heal an ally at the cost of her own health... Again, there might be situations where it's useful but a lot of the time I don't it will have much use. Maybe if you set up a team for her to support a unit that does a lot of damage but also takes a lot of damage?  Armored Blow seems alright but it helps her survivability, when offense would be preferable.

Titania's skills seam really low impact; they focus on increasing your team's survivability. While you could potentially build a team around defense and survivability, I find that in the arena, offense is much more valuable.

Edited April 26, 2017 by XaosLogos

[eclipse]

Soren: He will live and die by his stats.  Regardless, Klein/Gordin REALLY want Watersweep.  Especially Gordin.

Ike: I think he'll be on the bulky side, but not so slow that the entire game doubles him.  He's a strong anti-red, and my personal prediction is S on the tier list, minimum.

Titania: Unless she has AMAZING stats, she looks to be the weakest of the bunch.  Emerald Axe is highly specialized, and has bad MT to boot.  She can run something like Fury in the A slot to make up for it, along with a different B skill (maybe QR), I guess.  It's a pity, because I think she's a cool lady.

Mist: Her C skill is amazing.  She's the only other source of Slow, and I think it's a great utility staff.  However, this isn't staffbot meta.  Perhaps she'll be more valuable once the defense/reinforcement maps are introduced.

[Hirotune]

I normally care for stats and skills, BUT I DON'T CARE THIS TIME. MY BOIIIIIII IKE IS COMING! HURRAY!!!

[Ice Dragon]

Stats are up on the wiki for everyone except Mist.

Minus means -4, plus means +4 for nature variations.

Ike: 42 / 35 / 31 / 32 / 18-
Soren: 36+ / 33 / 33 / 17- / 29-
Titania: 37+ / 28- / 34 / 25+ / 30-

[Alkaid]

Titania seems to have fallen into the same evenly-distributed-but-none-outstanding stat trap as Camilla. She seems to be similarly mediocre, as is Soren. Mist I don't even have an opinion on since she's a healer, though her new spur skill is kind of interesting but nothing that gets be especially excited. Ike looks like a monster as we all expected. I think he'll be up there with Lucina and Ryoma as the top swords without much doubt.

[Suichimo]

Soren: Disappointed. Can we take his title of best Tellius mage away from him for this travesty.

Titania: Disappointed even more. Emerald Axe, really?

Ike: 

 

Anyone know why they only included three characters this time?

[JSND Alter Dragon Boner]

1 minute ago, Alkaid said:

Titania seems to have fallen into the same evenly-distributed-but-none-outstanding stat trap as Camilla. She seems to be similarly mediocre, as is Soren. Mist I don't even have an opinion on since she's a healer, though her new spur skill is kind of interesting but nothing that gets be especially excited. Ike looks like a monster as we all expected. I think he'll be up there with Lucina and Ryoma as the top swords without much doubt.

 

Titania's only notable thing is being the fastest Horse right now, although it probably doesn't mean much with her Attack score.

Funny enough with her base kit, she is 6RKO'd by Reindhart, and 3RKO'd by Ursula, and iirc 1RKO'd by Olwen at full power, so thats..... something

[Silith13]

That C skill on Mist seems interresting. It seems like a lot of stats for a single character.

[Ice Dragon]

16 minutes ago, Suichimo said:

Soren: Disappointed. Can we take his title of best Tellius mage away from him for this travesty.

Soren's stats are literally Nino with 3 less Spd and 3 more HP.

 

18 minutes ago, Suichimo said:

Titania: Disappointed even more. Emerald Axe, really?

Triangle Adept 3 makes up for her lower Atk and synergizes well with her good mixed defenses. She's also tied with Sully for fastest melee cavalry unit.

 

19 minutes ago, Suichimo said:

Anyone know why they only included three characters this time?

Because Mist's stats weren't up on the wiki when I posted them. They are now.

[Great Dane]

Hmm... I don't know, Soren seems alright to me, I can see him being part of a RES build, Ike is definitely the best of the four, (as we all probably expected) Mist is a healer... yeah she's likely to be low-tier like the rest, and finally, Titania seems alright I guess. I think most of these guys are gonna be pretty average, but we'll see as builds are constructed and tested.

[Silith13]

Eh Mist seems like a worse Maria.

[Xaos Steel Wing]

Titania seems really disappointing.

5	34/37/41	24/28/31	31/34/37	22/25/29	26/30/33

She's fairly fast, I was not expecting that. She's also got good resistance. But her attack is quite low, and her defense isn't the best. But at least she doesn't have to worry about getting doubled (much).

I'm not a fan of her skillset either, but I went over this above.

If Titania looked like a good unit, I might have been inclined to spend all my orbs going for her. As she is, even if I did get her, I probably wouldn't use her at all. Ah well...

As for Ike... he looks pretty good. Slow but not to the point of getting doubled a lot, and Swordbreaker takes care of the fast sword users. Good defense too. His weakness might be fast mages that can double him with his low resistance.

5	39/42/45	32/35/38	28/31/34	29/32/35	14/18/21

An interesting idea popped into my head.

What about focusing on boosting Ike's speed so that he can double a lot? With a +Speed Ike, a +Speed buff like Eirika and a +Spd skill is all he needs. 39 Speed Ike with Heavy Blade would be amazing.

Alternately, for a neutral Ike, give him Life and Death, run him with a speed buffing unit like Eirika (for 40 speed), and give him a skill like Moonbow. Sure, you'll have to give up his Heavy Blade for Life and Death and replace Aether with a lower count skill... but a hard hitting melee unit that can double a lot of others and counterattack at a distance? That would be AMAZING.

Life and Death replacing Heavy Blade gets him +5 damage per attack and the possibility to double plenty and (almost) never get doubled himself. It does however leave him with atrocious resistance, but since he won't be getting doubled by mages, he could still take a hit, and he'll be at 27 neutral defense which isn't too bad.

Edited April 26, 2017 by XaosLogos

[Silith13]

Ironically I can see Titania working. With the Emerald Axe and Triangle adept (do those two stack?)  She could becomes a total wrecker of Effie Robin and Reinhardt.

[Ryu Yuki]

Just now, Silith13 said:

Ironically I can see Titania working. With the Emerald Axe and Triangle adept (do those two stack?)  She could becomes a total wrecker of Effie Robin and Reinhardt.

No, they don't stack.

[Silith13]

Guess another A skill will have to suffice. She still seems pretty good at being a magewrecker.

[SatsumaFSoysoy]

31 Spd on Ike is a bit awkward, but thank god he's not fast. Him getting Aether in one round is too dumb.

[predator_21476]

1 minute ago, SatsumaFSoysoy said:

31 Spd on Ike is a bit awkward, but thank god he's not fast. Him getting Aether in one round is too dumb.

Against another sword unit that does not have sword breaker he will. They probably gave him sword breaker to make up for his mediocre speed.

[SatsumaFSoysoy]

Just now, predator_21476 said:

Against another sword unit that does not have sword breaker he will. They probably gave him sword breaker to make up for his mediocre speed.

I know.

[predator_21476]

Just now, SatsumaFSoysoy said:

I know.

He's gonna be completely destroyed by Linde and Reinhardt like everyone expected so at least there that. He still seems pretty ridiculous that stat spread is still pretty damn good.

[SatsumaFSoysoy]

1 minute ago, predator_21476 said:

He's gonna be completely destroyed by Linde and Reinhardt like everyone expected so at least there that. He still seems pretty ridiculous that stat spread is still pretty damn good.

It's alright I guess. Speed is definitely the most important stat to Swords, and 31 puts him in a really awkward and crowded tier. 32 Def is great, but doesn't actually matter that much.

[pianime94]

How about if you slap the Speed seal on him?

[predator_21476]

3 minutes ago, pianime94 said:

How about if you slap the Speed seal on him?

Then he loses sword breaker and seal skills aren't the greatest, there are lots of better options for his b skill. 

[FallenVanguard]

Speed Seal doesn't fix much.

Units that double Ike and actually threaten him are Linde, SF Lucina, and Olwen

Reinhardt one rounds him like he does to Lucina and Ryoma so the comparison there is irrelevant.

31 speed just means he gets doubled by 36 and up. He has Swordbreaker for Lucina, Lyn, Lonq. Archer that outspeed trade even or outright lose because of his Def and Distant Counter. Green mages have to hit 60 dmg with WT disadvantage, otherwise he kills them on counter. Nowi chunks him but doesn't double him, but Swordbreaker Nowi WILL ORKO him like she does to Ryoma.

LnD Kagero leaves neutral Ike with 7 HP and dies. Reg Kagero survives with 2 HP.

Looking at the 31 alone isn't quite enough lol, the calcs have to factor in. Sorry to say, but the only things SERIOUSLY threatening Ike threaten his competition just as fiercely. He's equal to Ryoma and Lucina at worst, and with Swordbreaker beats them both 1v1 (provided THEY don't have Sword Breaker).

EDIT: This isn't factoring full team comps, buffs, and super janky builds, but basic builds strictly on the individual level since that's what is being judged. That said +Spd Tharja is a worthwhile threat if you are counting buffs and the like. I think she can get up to the 60 dmg needed to kill him in one hit, and, even if she doesn't one-shot she lives a counter with 11 HP and kills on double.

Edited April 26, 2017 by FallenVanguard

[Xaos Steel Wing]

10 minutes ago, SatsumaFSoysoy said:

It's alright I guess. Speed is definitely the most important stat to Swords, and 31 puts him in a really awkward and crowded tier. 32 Def is great, but doesn't actually matter that much.

 

6 minutes ago, pianime94 said:

How about if you slap the Speed seal on him?

Here's another idea: how about giving Ike Life and Death or Fury?

With Life and Death 3 + Speed Seal 1, that puts him at 37 speed. If you run him with a unit with a +4 speed buff, he gets up to 41. Or 39 if you choose to go for Life and Death 3. There's certainly ways to increase his speed to the point where he'll be doubling many other units and won't be getting doubled himself. So no need to worry about getting doubled and destroyed by those pesky fast mages any more; one hit he can take from them.

Yes, you give up his unique Heavy Blade. You should probably replace Aether with Moonbow or a 3 count skill to make up for losing Heavy Blade if you're going to do this. But you'll have 3-5 more damage per attack, the ability to double often, and a low count skill will make up for the loss of Heavy Blade's effect on Aether.