Shiki Posted December 9, 2017 Share Posted December 9, 2017 (edited) Lukas, Sharp Soldier Stats:42/32/19/35/13 45/35/22/38/1748/38/25/41/20 Default Set: Spoiler Killer Lance+ ( - ) Sacred Cowl Fortress Defense Obstruct ( - ) An often overlooked unit Lukas is one of the best physical tanks in the game. With 38 Def (41 with a boon) Sword units have little hope to scratch Lukas without a charged Special while both Lance and Bow units will struggle to get rid of him within a single round of combat. Even Axe units with their color advantage will struggle to defeat him without appropriate skills and buffs. His low Spd means that he will get doubled by the majority of the roster but that plays into his hand due to the existence of Quick Reposte. This way he can charge up his Special and counter an enemy for massive damage, potentially killing them. His base 35 Atk is pretty solid, too, so he doesn't have much trouble dealing proper damage. If anything there are very few things that can survive an Ignis proc from Lukas. But he has one big weakness and it sticks out like a sore thumb. Any mage whose name isn't Henry will tear him apart due to his atrocious resistance. He has no way to compensate this flaw which makes him an easy target for Reinhardt or -blade mages, both common in the Arena. With the buffs to Breath weapons Dragons are becoming more relevant and they are just as effective as mages in killing him since they target his awful Res. This heavily hampers Lukas and puts him in a niche spot right now, as the meta favors ranged attackers. Overall, Lukas does one job well and that is being a physical tank. While he won't be reliable for regular Arena runs he is worth considering in Arena Assault where you are more likely to face diverse teams. If any team happens to have only physical units and even more focused around Red or Blue units Lukas will most definitely wipe out that team by himself. Builds: Budget Tank Spoiler Boon/Bane: +Def/-Spd or +Def/-Res Slaying Lance+ [+Def Refinement] Reposition/Swap Ignis Fortress Defense 3/Steady Stance 3 Quick Riposte 2/3/Guard 3 Atk Smoke 3/Panic Ploy 3 Close Def 3/Quick Riposte 3/Defense+3/Atk Smoke 3 This build requires less investment compared to the standard Steady Breath + Quick Riposte build since Lukas comes with Fortress Defense and it doesn't require sacrificing a Brave Ike. Quick Riposte can be salvaged from Subaki, while Ignis is carried by Henry and F!Robin, making it very accessible all around. A more expensive variant would use Steady Stance since it retains his decent Atk stat while providing 1 more Def. But it requires sacrifing Shiro or, even worse, the Black Knight so it's better to stick with Fortress Defense. Goal here is to maximize Lukas' defense. With a Def boon, Fortress Defense 3 and a +Def Refinement Lukas reaches 50 Def which makes Sword, Lance and Bow units cry in despair, especially if they tend to use Brave weapons. Instead of -Spd he can take a Res bane and avoid a quad attack from the likes of Frederick and Cherche with their respective class buffs, allowing him to survive against them. By tanking these attacks Lukas can charge up Ignis with Quick Riposte to counterkill the attacker. His Ignis does 40 damage by itself. That means any unit that has 40 or lower Hp will be obliterated regardless of their stats and there are a lot of units that will fall under this range before or during combat. This is what makes him such a formidable physical tank and a legimate threat for teams with only physical attackers. Atk Smoke will help him to tank better since it provides a hefty debuff on your enemies, allowing him to stay above the Quick Riposte threshold longer. Lukas has above-average Hp for an Infantry unit, so Panic Ploy can work with him if you need someone for that role and can provide more effective debuffs than Atk Smoke against class-specific compositions like Cavaliers or Fliers. It doesn't help his match-up against mages, however. For Sacred Seals Close Def is a good choice since Lukas is meant to be a physical tank. A Defense+ seal is an alternative to it if you are willing to invest in it or if the Close Def Seal is used by someone else. Atk Smoke can be very good if you didn't take it for his C passive. EDIT: The new Quick Riposte Seal allows him to take Guard for his B passive which makes him truly impervious against any physical attack. One thing that could chip away Lukas are Specials and due to his low Spd a lot of units with Moonbow have it ready on their 2nd attack, most of the times knocking him out of the Quick Riposte threshold. This prevents that from happening. Steady Breath + Quick Riposte Spoiler Boon/Bane: +Def/-Spd or +Def/-Res Slaying Lance+ [+Def Refinement] Reposition/Swap Bonfire/Ignis Steady Breath Quick Riposte 2/3/Guard 3 (flexible) Close Def 3/Quick Riposte 3 Pretty much the template build. A detailed analysis can be found here provided by Ice Dragon. Brave Lance Spoiler Boon/Bane: +Atk/-Spd or +Atk/-Res Brave Lance+ Reposition Bonfire Death Blow 3 Chill Def 3/Cancel Affinity 3/Lancebreaker 3 (flexible) Attack+/Panic Ploy/(flexible) Besides his impressive physical bulk Lukas has good Atk which makes him useable for a more offensive approach involving the Brave Lance. With this he reaches 52 Atk and can back it up with a strong Bonfire proc that will deal 19 damage every second round of combat he initiates. Chill Def is the best general use B passive softening up more bulkier enemies for him and his allies, giving himself 14 more damage. Cancel Affinity on the other hand shuts down TA or Emerald Axe users though these are a rare sight. Lancebreaker improves his match-up within his own color, allowing him to deal with faster ones like Lucina or Nephenee. Edited June 25, 2018 by The Priest Have a picture of this beautiful man. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bottlegnomes Posted December 11, 2017 Share Posted December 11, 2017 Granted I don't know the viability, but were you thinking any alternate builds like Berkut's Lance+Res? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shiki Posted December 11, 2017 Author Share Posted December 11, 2017 The build is worthless because Reinhardt usually has Lancebreaker on his kit for targets with better Res than Lukas (like DC Effie or Gwendolyn, now Fjorm as well). But let's assume you're facing one with Swordbreaker since Sigurd is a thing. Lukas with Res boon, Berkut's Lance with Res refinement and Distant Defense 3 has 24 Res + 13 bonus from his weapon & seal. That's 37 Res in total. Reinhardt with Deathblow and Hone Cavalry reaches 56 attack. That alone is 38 damage. With a QP Moonbow proc Lukas is very dead. Even if you have Blue Tomebreaker that doesn't save him from being defeated. I'm not counting Deflect Magic because that one allows almost any non-red to survive Reinhardt. If he cannot even do that then he will have more troubles against -blade mages. This is considering +0 btw. so once merge level come into play Lukas performs even worse against them. They are far better choices for a Res build. Lukas has awful Res and it makes more sense to capitalize on his superior physical bulk where he is almost unmatched. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BANRYU Posted December 11, 2017 Share Posted December 11, 2017 Actually, I've heard Lukas can run Berkut's + DC rather well if you add DD on there; he can't serve as a counter to Rein like Oboro can with the same build, but he DOES pack more Attack than she does, and might do well with Vantage for helping OHKO squishy mages. I don't remember details, but I've seen folks sticking up for DC Berkut's Lukas, so I'd say it's worth looking into and suggest doing so with the combat sims and such. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shiki Posted December 11, 2017 Author Share Posted December 11, 2017 (edited) 1 hour ago, BANRYU said: Actually, I've heard Lukas can run Berkut's + DC rather well if you add DD on there; he can't serve as a counter to Rein like Oboro can with the same build, but he DOES pack more Attack than she does, and might do well with Vantage for helping OHKO squishy mages. I don't remember details, but I've seen folks sticking up for DC Berkut's Lukas, so I'd say it's worth looking into and suggest doing so with the combat sims and such. 2 hours ago, Talandar said: Lukas with Res boon, Berkut's Lance with Res refinement and Distant Defense 3 Whoever claimed this nonsense didn't do his calculation right. I already showcased that Reinhardt with Hone Cavalry will annihilate Lukas even without Lancebreaker and thus he won't fare better against -blade mages, who hit much harder. Lukas can counterkill L&D Linde and Delthea but fails to do so once he faces the Fury version of them (with Eirika + Seal buffs and without a negative boon in physical bulk). This feat is replicated by Oboro, however, so his higher Atk doesn't really make him better. I would rather take Oboro's +8! Res lead which does make a bigger difference due to their low speed (it's a difference of 16 points after all). We don't even have to talk about green mages or if they are within Desperation range. He might be viable against Red mages but that's quite niche and not really worth mentioning. People overhype Berkut's Lance too much; unless you have at least acceptable resistance you're not going to become a mage tank. The only ones who can pull this off reliably are still Effie and Gwendolyn because they have the stats for these builds while Lukas' pitiful Res stat doesn't give any meaningful wins. He is optimized to be a physical tank, shoving him into being a Res tank is nothing but folly. Edited December 11, 2017 by Talandar Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ae†her Posted December 12, 2017 Share Posted December 12, 2017 Should explain how Bonfire and Aether are more practical options than Ignis for the Steady Breath build. Ignis is for overkill or jobbing very bulky units, Bonfire is continuous return of deadly damage when Lukas is hit, and Aether is for longevity. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shiki Posted December 12, 2017 Author Share Posted December 12, 2017 27 minutes ago, Logos said: Should explain how Bonfire and Aether are more practical options than Ignis for the Steady Breath build. Ignis is for overkill or jobbing very bulky units, Bonfire is continuous return of deadly damage when Lukas is hit, and Aether is for longevity. ... you noticed the link to the template builds, right? The choice of Specials are explained there in detail. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ae†her Posted December 12, 2017 Share Posted December 12, 2017 1 minute ago, Talandar said: ... you noticed the link to the template builds, right? The choice of Specials are explained there in detail. Yes, I did, but I didn't notice it was detailed with specifically Bonfire, Ignis and Aether. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BANRYU Posted December 12, 2017 Share Posted December 12, 2017 @Talandar Mm. Fair enough. I won't dispute that Oboro is certainly the superior option as it comes to DC Berkut's hah. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shiki Posted January 25, 2018 Author Share Posted January 25, 2018 Updated the analysis with Quick Riposte Seal since it allows him to take Guard now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shoblongoo Posted January 25, 2018 Share Posted January 25, 2018 (edited) Not hugely impressed with Lukas in the current meta, tbh. As far as lance wielding infantry goes I'd put him solidly below B! Lucina, Fjorm, and Ephraim (he was kinda trash before sacred forging, but that player phase auto-doubling skill on forged Siegmund gave him a huge spike in viability) As far as big blue tanks go, the impression I've always gotten from him is that he's kind of a poor man's Effie. Edited January 25, 2018 by Shoblongoo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Surge247 Posted January 28, 2018 Share Posted January 28, 2018 My Lukas had the misfortune of being a +res -spd. However, with Close Defense 6, I've found that he stands up to dragons pretty well. It should also be noted that I don't inhabit tier 19-20, so that may be different in the realm of the gods Slaying Lance + (+Def) Ignis Close Defense 3 Quick Riposte 3 Threaten Attack 3 Close Defense 3 Anyone have experience with a build like this? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts