build Siegbert, Future King (Complete!)

[warriorman222]

NOTE: I will post the builds at a later time. for now, I have stats and a long description.

 

Siegbert: Future King

 

Siegbert has managed to extract himself from his Father's shadow and stand on his own 4 legs, trading away the defensive, Distant Counter Siegfriedfor an offensive, Swift Sparrow 2  Dark Greatsword. Compared to his father Xander has slightly lower defense and Resistance, and significantly reduced health, but slightly increases his Attack and shoots his speed through the roof, being the fastest cavalier to date.

His massive power lets him break through and kill nearly every Red unit lacking Wary Fighter, whereas a special proc from Draconic Aura or Dragon Fang let him bust through a significant portion of blue units. With Swift Sparrow 2 in his A slot, he reaches 58/43 Atk/Spd offenses at neutral, allowing him to double any unit with less than 38 base speed. Most importantly however, he is mounted, capable of initating with the range of an infantry mage/archer to improve his offensive niche,  and grabbing Hone Cavalry for a mind-blowing 64/49 initiation offense, allowing him to kill just about anyone who isn't wielding Swordbreaker/Wary Fighter, or an incredibly bulky blue. 

He pays for it however with painfully mediocre HP for a melee unit, and an utterly destructive resistance stat, with only Fredrick's 14 losing to his 15. His mediocre health may let him easily activate Desperation, but his awful Res results in a magic user needing a mere 34 magic to 2HKO him, or 43 for Green mages, a stat every single optimized magic tome reaches. This makes it dangerous for him to rest in the range of any Blade-Tome user when in Desperation range, and the range of Blue Mages, Blue and even Red Dragons are simply off limits to him at all times as he can never reliably take hits from any of them except an unbuffed Blarblade Odin, and he cannot kill either Adult nor Young Tiki on initiation without dying to Quick Riposte.

Siegbert is only summonable at 5-stars. However, he has a boosted BST that brings his stats to the level of a lower-BST Infantry unit. Similarly to Sigurd, this gives him a boost in Arena, as he has both that and an exclusive weapon to boost his weighting to that of any usual legendary infantry such as Lucina or Seliph.

 

Overall Pros/Cons

Spoiler

Benefits

• Highest speed of any horse in the game, tied with Brave Lyn
• Very high attack for a horse leads to best cavalry offensive statline in the game, making him ideal for Player Phase nuking.
• Comes with no useless skills; every single filled slot is the best or second-best option for that slot on nearly all builds.
• Dark Greatsword comes with Swift Sparrow 2, the best Player Phase skill in the game.
• Death Blow 3 leafs to 60/39 unbuffed offenses, while Swift Sparrow 2 causes 58/43. This is nearly unparalleled by any other unit in both speed and power, bar a select few.
• Combination of medium yet not-overbearing bulk allows the use of Swordbreaker as a pseudo-protective B Slot, and Desperation as an offensive B-slot.
• High power allows the use of Heavy Blade Galeforce builds to essentially become a bulkier, faster Roy that swapped weapons and ideal A skills.
• Is a cavalier, allowing access to Horse buffs to boost his offenses the the highest in the game; nothing can avoid doubles without either Swordbreaker or Hone Cavalry.
• Overall, can be relied on to kill all greens, nearly al reds, and choose between eliminating nearly all targets in 1 Phase with Heavy Blade Galeforce, or using Swift Sparrow Desperation to power through Chain Challenge/Tempest Trials.

 

Drawbacks

• Merely passable enemy phase due to taking 2 hits and no more the majority of the time.
• Cannot fight mages in the slightest, dies to just about every single one in the majority of cases. Only greens and Odin fail to OHKO, and none fail to 2HKO.
• The above 2 combined with no weapon to aid his enemy phase lock him out almost entirely from defensive or even hybrid builds; Distant Counter builds border on memetic in their effectiveness.
• As a cavalier, he does not get buffs against Zanbatos and will be left critically injured by them. Keen Wolf+ will kill him instantly regardless of color and simply becomes a zone that he cannot engage in due to infantry mages sharing his initation range (He needs a dancer or an assist to get in safely.
• Despite massive power, cannot be relied on to break through moderate-bulk blues such as Fjorm and Nephenee without a special proc. Cannot even try to break through Effie, Lukas and Nowi
• Reliance on polarized defenses and physical damage makes it impossible for him to fight Red nor Blue dragons that survive a blow and kill him with Quick Riposte.
• The above also makes him a less consistent (Though more rewarding) user of Desperation Heavy Blade Galeforce vs. Brave Roy. Brave Roy's balanced defenses are almost guaranteed to reach Desperation range from even storng green hits, while Siegbert consistently stays out of range even from moderate red blows. 
• Overall, expect him to simply not be allowed to survive magic encounters of nearly any type, or to engage Red dragons except on enemy phase, where they cannot automatically double. In addition, expect his bulk to leave him out of Desperation range, yet thankfully leave him in Swordbreaker range for 2 or even 3 encounters.

 

 

Base Kit

Spoiler

Level 1

HP: 18/19/20

Atk: 9/10/11, 25/26/27 (With Dark Greatsword Equipped)

Spd: 8/9/10

Def: 6/7/8

Res: 2/3/4

Base Stat Total: 48

Level 40 

HP:  37/41/44

Atk: 31/34/37, 47/50/53 (With Dark Greatsword Equipped)

Spd: 32/35/38

Def: 28/31/34

Res: 12/16/19

Base Stat Total: 155 ~ 156

Default Skills

Weapon: Dark Greatsword (16 Mt, 1 Range. Swift Sparrow 2 effect: Atk/Spd +4 when initating combat.)

Assist: None

Special: Dragon Gaze(4 charge: Atk + 30% for one strike.) -> Dragon Fang (200 SP, 4 charge: Atk+50% for one strike.)

A Skill: Death Blow 1/2/3 (Atk + 2/4/6 when initiating combat)

B Skill: None

C Skill: Atk Tactic 1/2/3 (To all allies within 2 spaces: gain a +2/4/6 Atk buff for 1 turn. Only activates if allies' movement type on team is less than 2) 

 

Siegbert appears with a heavily polarized statline that lends him well to risky offensive tactics. His combination of speed and attack are unmatched, giving him an offensive statline matched by no other cavalier. Due to the fact that he initiates on and kills mages in place of taking hits from them, his pitiful resistances stat works in his favor, giving him extra stat points to instead divert towards having a defense stat that can reliably take 1 hit from his own color and usually remain both within Swordbreake rand Desperation ranges. Do not expect his defense to save him from a charged Ignis however, even at full health.

HE also comes with no useful skills. Atk Tactic 3 is the best in-slot ability he can carry when he is in a mixed team. Dragon Fang is his second-best special attack due to his sky-high stacking offense.  Death Blow is the best skill bar Swift Sparrow for him that doesn't involve Galeforce builds, where Heavy Blade 3 is an automatic necessity. And finally, Dark Greatsword fits his offensive statline perfectly, rendering it actually unmatched compared to other cavaliers and almost all other Reds.

His best IV boons are +Spd, +Atk and +Def in that order. His speed is on the verge of doubling many fast units and +Spd allows him to double +Atk Ayras and Mias among others with Swift Sparrow 2 and no buffs. +Atk boosts his damage slightly, while +Def is acceptable. -Res is by far the best bane as the stat is beyond saving anyways, making it an easy placeto dump BST. Be careful of the decrease in BST, as it will cause Sigurd and Brave Roy to further outmatch him in Arena weighting, though only by 2 points.

 

 

Builds (Heavily WIP)

Legend

• Bold = Reccomended for build
• Italics = Distinctly Suboptimal yet possible for build
• Underlined Bold = Necessary for build

 

Desperate Move (General Offense)

• Usage: General-Use,  Deadly Initiator (Aim to initiate combat, risking life for more likely kills), Endurance(Becomes significantly more capable of killing as time goes on)

Spoiler

IVs: +Spd, +Atk/ -Res, -HP

Weapon: Dark Greatsword

Assist: Reposition, Flexible

Special: Draconic Aura, Dragon Fang

A Skill: Swift Sparrow 2, Brazen Atk/Spd 3, Life and Death 3, Death Blow 3

B Skill: Desperation, Swordbreaker 3

C Skill: Fortify Cavalry, Atk Tactic 3, Hone Cavalry

Seal: Spd+3, Atk+3 (Substitute the missing IV)

 

Build-Exclusive Pros

• Hits 58/43 unbuffed offense at neutral with Swift Sparrow 2 or 59/44 with LAD3, only Mia/Ayra/Lon'qu avoid doubles in the Arena, and Mia is left with 8HP while Lon'qu dies. 61/46 unbuffed offense under the effects of Brazen is straight-up ridiculous, every unit in the game is doubled and no unit survives unless they are blue or have Wary Fighter.
• This means enough power to kill medium-bulk blues before they react i.e Sharena, or even to bust through TA on Raven mages i.e Robin M
• Has easily the most consistent player phase, can be relied on to kill all greens bar one, all mages, and all unarmored reds bar some Steady breath and dragons.
• B-slot flexibility: Sacrificing Desperation for Swordbreaker allows him more Arena flexibility to avoid being killed by strong reds carrying it. It also allows him to ensure kills on Wary Fighters, and avoid dying to Arden. Using Desperation allows kills on squishy Blues or strong Reds who would otherwise kill him in his weakened state, though it may not always activate.

Build-Exclusive Cons

• Desperation ends up shooting you in the back vs. Brave Ike/Deflect Melee seal.
• Swordbreaker's usefulness is dimished in the highest 3-4 tiers in Arena, because few of them are used consistently You can expect Sigurd, BK, Arden, Mia and Ayra, the last 2 of which consistently use Swordbreaker and the last 2 of which are the only units you fight to ever avoid doubles
• This build has the worst enemy phase of the full-budget builds. Not a single new skill in the repertoire aids enemy phase at all.
• Desperation requires a hit to activate, meaning it likely doesn't exist for your first initiation unless you're taking a hit from Brave Lyn, a green mage or the such. This means it aids in 1, maybe 2 kills. per stage.

This build is a simple Player Phase build, that riskily yet rewardingly takes to the front in close combat. Siegbert aims to stack in-combat buffs from a pseudo-Swift Sparrow 4 to gain 8 Atk and 8 Spd, allowing Siegbert to blitz through all of Zenith, leaving nothing behind but his(possibly) footlocked allies. Because in-combat buffs are as-of-now unstoppable, there is little to prevent him from killing anything green or red on the screen after taking just one hit.

 

 

Our Other Boy (Galeforce Offense)

Usage: Arena Offense(Excelling either at point score or at killing meta units) , Safe Initiator (Aim to initiate combat, surviving the fallout almost assuredly alive), 

Spoiler

IVs: +Spd, +Atk/ -Res, -HP

Weapon: Dark Greatsword

Assist: Reposition,  Flexible

Special: Galeforce

A Skill: Swift Sparrow 2, Life and Death 3, Brazen Atk/Spd 3, Death Blow 3

B Skill: Swordbreaker 3, Desperation 3

C Skill: Atk Tactic 3, Fortify Cavalry, Hone Cavalry

Seal: Heavy Blade 3

 

Siegbert takes a non-traditional approach to offensive play, making use of his inherent Swift Sparrow to take the Heavy Blade, Galeforce, and end a turn with both a kill and a free ticket out. Galeforce allows him to rotate and kill another enemy, confirm a blue or bulky red kill, run into Reinhardt's range unafraid, to reach and pull in more dangerous allies to tank or kill what would have killed him, reach a danger to cross the entire map... The possibilities are endless, and unlike the standard Desperation build, he has only 1 competitor: Brave Roy.

Heavy Blade and Dark Greatsword in tandem to give Siegbert Galeforce in 1 turn vs. a unit who can counter: he gains 2 cooldown from landing a hit, 1 from taking a hit, and Dark Greatsword facilitates another hit to charge Galeforce, which will immediately activate to give Siegbert another turn. This grants him many opportunities, while numbing the massive charge cost that Galeforce usually uses to invalidate it's use on common builds.

Swift Sparrow is now viable as an A-slot due to Heavy Blade's existence as a Seal. Swift Sparrow 2 is worth losing out on Atk+3 or Spd+3. The result is just as insane as the above build, only that you sacrifice the occasional special nuke for the not-so-occasional special disengage. Life and Death 3 can solve any issues with his overbearing bulk by intentionally reducing it, though this poses a problem is he is ever forced to tank, as he will lose Swordbreaker. Brazen Atk/Spd 3 is unviable in Arena due to the mere requirement of setup removing your incredibly vital first-turn advantage, but in endurance modes can be couples with Depseration 3 to turn Siegbert into a wrecking ball. 

Death Blow is worth mentioning solely for the fact that if your Siegbert exists on the team solely to kill green units, given that the fastest green unit ever taking a hit from him (Excludes Nino and Annaa at 36 and 38 neutral speed respectively) reaches 35 speed, you may not need SS2, as any speed buff in any manner will result in a kill. This will seriously hurt your matchups against the faster meta reds such as Mia and Ayra, and it can end up incredibly difficult to deal meaningful damage to remotely bulky blues.

Galeforce, thanks to Heavy Blade, becomes a godsend on an offensive Cavalier. Against blues, he can hit-and-run, firmly in Desperation range. Against Reds and Greens, he can pivot to another target, firmly in Swordbreaker range to all but guarantee another  engaged-upon Red dies. Against surviving infantry melee, flier melee or armored ranged, he can ride out of their range safely. He can Reposition or Swap an ally into range of surviving cavaliers and mages to take the blow for him. He can reach closer to a previously set-up dancer who can dance him into pure safety. Needless to say, being a fast cavalier with this build makes it truly shine.

The rest of the build is highly flexible. The C Slot is as always flexible, taking a cavalry buff like Fortify Cavalry for buffing defensive units on emblem teams, Hone Cavalry on a hyper-offensive diving team, Atk Tactic 3 as a near-unparalleled mixed team buff. In 1:3 cavalry:other ratio team (Such as Blade+Buffer+Dancer+Coverage), Siegbert can take a Spur, Fortify or Hone of his choosing. The B Slot is less so, but there are 2 nearly equal options: Desperation gives Siegbert kill where he should have died in endurance challenges, and Swordbreaker gives Siegbert kills where the lower speed due to lack of a second Swift Sparrow would have screwed him vs. Mia/Ayra, or where their Swordbreakers would have left him dead instead.

As for the B-Slot decision, Swordbreaker can be used in Arena to all but guarantee 2 kills; no axe unit can force him out of Swordbreaker and few if any swords can (It would take 54 attack), allowing him in both instances to transition to and kill another sword/axe user, allowing him to bolster his effectiveness in the very diffcult and decisive first 2 turns of most Arena matches. Desperation works for endurance gamemodes, allowing Siegbert to kill a green axe, and still finely transition away from mages who will almost all OHKO him, or to transition over to a sword to kill unharmed.

Siegbert vs. B!Roy

Siegbert now competes directly with Brave Roy in his previously nearly-exclusive niche. In a stat comparison given the same build but swapped A skills, Brave Roy has +1 Atk and +8 Res on Siegbert. This lets Brave Roy engage Red Dragons with some hope of survival with Fortify Cavalry, as Fortify Cavalry'd Siegbert still dies with less Res than neutral B!Roy. On the other hand, Siegbert has +1 Spd, +3 Hp and +5 Def. This +1 Spd is an important speed tier, as the most common speed number in the game is 34, and Siegbert now doubles an addition 15+ characters than B!Roy does when all parties are unbuffed or equally buffed. In addition, the greatly improved physical bulk allows Siegbert to survive Quick Riposte Reds to kill or escape with Galeforce, Fierce Stance blues to escape from, and even the odd enemy phase where he may be forced to handle a melee target or two. This is when Siegebert does not use the Heavy Blade seal.

Of course, this mostly falls out the window when Swift Sparrow and Life and Death come into the equation. Siegbert has 5 more def, allowing LAD3 to match B!Roy's physical offense, and get rid of any notion that B!Roy's defenses do him any good compared to Siegbert. Assuming SS4, B!Roy can now choose either an Atk+3 or Def+3 seal and be 5 Spd behind and match in Atk, or be 3 Atk and 2 Spd behind, and still 5 Def behind in exchange for 8 Res that will win him zero extra matchups, though he may survive an extra mage or two.

This is not to say that B!Roy is bad, he is still a stellar offensive cavalier and 1 of 3 in total hitting both the 34 speed mode and more than 30 attack. However, should you have a Siegbert, it is more than worth keeping him in favor of pulling for B!Roy... Unless you pull him because he's your boy

 

 

Penny Pincher (Budget Offense)

Usage: Extremely Cheap (3-4* inherits only, <= 3 inherited units) Deadly Initiator (Aim to initiate combat, risking life for more likely kills)

Spoiler

IVs: +Spd, +Atk/ -Res, -HP,  Neutral

Weapon: Dark Greatsword

Assist: Reposition, Flexible

Special: Dragon Fang

A Skill: Death Blow 3

B Skill: Desperation 2/3, Swordbreaker 3, R.Tomebreaker 3

C Skill: Atk Tactic 3, Fortify Cavalry

Seal: Spd+3, Atk+3 (Substitute the missing IV)

Pros(Will include base-kit induced benefits):

• Only requires 2, maybe 3 3* summonable units to work, and 1-2 4* promotions: Very cheap
• Easy to farm required SP due to using all of the base kit
• An effective initiation build with unbuffed 60/39 offense
• Reliance on stacking in-combat effects mutes the disadvantages of bad IVs
• Horse= access to Horse Emblem buffs and automatic synergy with top tier units i.e Reinhardt, Brave Lyn, Gronnblade Cecilia
• Base Atk Tactic gives him access to the single best support C in the game, heavily boosting the attack of mixed teams to soften the disadvantage of lacking an emblem team
• Atk Tactic lets him run an optimal Blade-Tome buddy while freeing up options for support units (No longer has to be Eirika/Ephraim with their inherent Hone Atk)

Cons:

• Lacking full potential due to lack of Swift Sparrow and Draconic Aura, though open to eventual transition to both "Desperate Move" and "Our Other Boy"
• Heavily reduced power makes it difficult to reliably kill blues nor bulky reds vs. Desparate Move
• Dragon Fang is cumbersome to charge and timer does not synergise with order of combat
• As usual, nothing is done about resistance, mages are a no-go barring green mages to charge desperation
• Shares the other builds' mediocre, though thankfully salvageable enemy phase

Siegbert comes with a great base kit that is functional solely on it's own. As such, his kit only really needs an assist skill and B to be complete. Nothing really needs to be changed as everything already there complements him quite nicely.

Reposition, as usual, takes advantage of Cavalry movement to extract a unit as far as possible from danger, or to push them as far forward as possible. Other assist skills may be taken, but Reposition is just stellar. It can be gotten from 3* barst or Selena.

Desperation 3 comes from 4* Shanna, and massively boosts Siegbert's potential nearly to the level of the first build, allowing him to output massive damage off a 60/39 unbuffed initiation offense. With the game's speed mode at 34, this lets him double and subsequently kill many more units than going 1 speed down would do, and lets him stay effective in Chain Challenge. Swordbreaker 3 comes from 4* Abel, and lets him go into Arena and outduel every single meta Red in the game that lacks this skill without fail bar Swordbreaker Raven-Tomes.

Fortify Cavalry is an option for Cavalry  or Cavalry+dancer teams to grant Blade Tomes an extra 6 in bulk and 12 in power, letting them soften blows coming their way. In any other team with 1 other cavalier or less, Atk Tactic grants the largest Atk buff in the game outside of Defiant Skills, which are all unreliable for +1 effect compared to Atk Tactic's incredibly expansive range and lack of HP requirement.

 

Edited January 7, 2018 by warriorman222
Adding to Base Kit.

[warriorman222]

Just a question to maybe encourage discussion:

 

With the new Heavy Blade Seal, do you think Siegebrt is better than B!Roy, worse, or mostly equal? At this point, I'd say he performs slightly better, as every single Red is putting him into Desperation range, but he also dies to less blues, while being able to run SS4 on his Heavy Blade, and having the option of a non-Galeforce build.

[Ice Dragon]

21 minutes ago, warriorman222 said:

With the new Heavy Blade Seal, do you think Siegebrt is better than B!Roy, worse, or mostly equal? At this point, I'd say he performs slightly better, as every single Red is putting him into Desperation range, but he also dies to less blues, while being able to run SS4 on his Heavy Blade, and having the option of a non-Galeforce build.

Siegbert has 2 more Atk, 1 more Spd, and 5 more Def than Roy. Including their weapons' effects, Siegbert has 3 more Atk, 5 more Spd, and 5 more Def. Even if you give Siegbert the Heavy Blade 3 Sacred Seal and Roy Attack +3 to even things out in terms of non-stat weapon effects, Siegbert still has 5 more Spd and 5 more Def.

There's pretty much nothing Roy can do to outperform Siegbert.

 

On another note, I'd also suggest adding Life and Death 3 to both of the non-budget builds. Siegbert has 31 base Def, which is plenty enough to sacrifice 5 points of to give him +1 Atk and +1 Spd over Swift Sparrow 2.

Edited January 7, 2018 by Ice Dragon

[Ae†her]

Siegbert is one of the best Heavy Blade 3 users, it's ans absolute must on him in my opinion. And also yeah Life and Death 3 is great for him since 31 is not the best for tanking, but also high enough that it can be sacrificed to let him survive physical encounters. Life and Death 3 is also more easily available than SS 3 so that's another benefit to consider. Also with it he can proc things like Draconic Aura, Luna, or Bonfire (if using Swift Sparrow 2) which can be more appreciable than Galeforce at certain times due to opponents with Vantage, Defensive Specials...etc.

Edited January 7, 2018 by Logos

[XRay]

If he has easy access to Hone Cavalry or 4/4/0/0 buffs from his teammates, I do not think Siegbert needs more Speed. +Spd and Swift Sparrow together is overkill, since you are not going to double any more units if there are no units that fast. Since he is going to double most units anyways, +Atk and Death Blow will increase his damage output better since he can do more damage per hit.

[Ice Dragon]

40 minutes ago, XRay said:

If he has easy access to Hone Cavalry or 4/4/0/0 buffs from his teammates, I do not think Siegbert needs more Speed. +Spd and Swift Sparrow together is overkill, since you are not going to double any more units if there are no units that fast. Since he is going to double most units anyways, +Atk and Death Blow will increase his damage output better since he can do more damage per hit.

48 Spd (38 Spd with +Spd nature, 4 Spd from Dark Greatsword, 6 Spd from Hone Cavalry) is not enough to double attack merged Ayra (+1 Ayra [+Spd] has 44 Spd) running Distant Counter or Swift Sparrow 2, and 66 Atk (34 Atk with =Atk nature, 20 Atk from Dark Greatsword, 6 Atk from Death Blow 3, and 6 Atk from Hone Cavalry) is not enough to kill Ayra in one hit (and fails to kill neutral +1 Mia by 1 HP). (Ayra and Mia are moderately common in 730-746, but I'm not sure about the lower score ranges.)

I think it's still worth speed creeping with Swift Sparrow or Life and Death if you aren't running Swordbreaker because fast swords are really fast. If all he needs to do is fight axes, he's probably fine with Death Blow since axes aren't quite that fast.

Edited January 7, 2018 by Ice Dragon

[XRay]

1 hour ago, Ice Dragon said:

48 Spd (38 Spd with +Spd nature, 4 Spd from Dark Greatsword, 6 Spd from Hone Cavalry) is not enough to double attack merged Ayra (+1 Ayra [+Spd] has 44 Spd) running Distant Counter or Swift Sparrow 2, and 66 Atk (34 Atk with =Atk nature, 20 Atk from Dark Greatsword, 6 Atk from Death Blow 3, and 6 Atk from Hone Cavalry) is not enough to kill Ayra in one hit (and fails to kill neutral +1 Mia by 1 HP). (Ayra and Mia are moderately common in 730-746, but I'm not sure about the lower score ranges.)

I think it's still worth speed creeping with Swift Sparrow or Life and Death if you aren't running Swordbreaker because fast swords are really fast. If all he needs to do is fight axes, he's probably fine with Death Blow since axes aren't quite that fast.

That is missing out on +2/3 damage per hit just to out Speed those two sword units. I guess it is ultimately down to team composition, especially if the player is running blue units or BH!Lyn, so Siegbert does not need to go after every single Sword unit.

[Ice Dragon]

14 hours ago, XRay said:

That is missing out on +2/3 damage per hit just to out Speed those two sword units. I guess it is ultimately down to team composition, especially if the player is running blue units or BH!Lyn, so Siegbert does not need to go after every single Sword unit.

You're only missing out on 1-2 damage per hit if you're using Life and Death, which isn't that big of a deal when your Atk stat is already through the roof. I don't think there are any green units that Siegbert cannot kill in one round (excluding Wary Fighter), and it's worth giving up blue kills to be able to take down two common red units.