Merric - Wind Mage

[BANRYU]

Merric: Wind Mage

Marth's nerd friend Merric is one of those weird experimental units from the start of Heroes who isn't so much given good stats as interesting stats... And as a result, he often has trouble competing with other green mages for a team slot-- especially as most of them are actually built to be effective rather than... interesting. Thankfully, his latest weapon refinement has given him a niche as the only tome-user currently able to take advantage of killer weapon effects, and it furthermore affords him a better offensive presence that can stack with his A-slot, which helps to make up for his lackluster Attack stat. More good news for him is the gradual increase of rare skills being made more openly available, which makes it easier to build him into a magic attacker that at least comes close to being on par with the stronger infantry green mages. He definitely relies heavily on allies for support, but that's scarcely different from the tactics Blade mages rely on, and if anything, his effect is easier to maintain due to the extra space of range he can activate it from. Overall, he might still be one of the weaker options owing to his poorly distributed stats, but at least now he has more of a leg to stand on. 

Level 40 stats:
HP: 40 / 43 / 46
Atk: 23 / 26 / 30
Spd: 29 / 32 / 35
Def: 24 / 28 / 31
Res: 16 / 19 / 22
Total: 147~149

Default skills:
Weapon: Excalibur [refinable] / Dark Excalibur
Assist: --
Special: Growing Wind
Passive A: HP+5
Passive B: -- 
Passive C: Spur Res 3

---

Killer Breeze (offensive)
*Optimal Build* General Use, Arena Offense/Defense, Chain modes

Spoiler

Suggested IV: +Atk/-Def or Res, +Spd/-Def or Res (HP bane works well with Ardent Sacrifice)

• +Spd/-Res: 43 HP | 43 Atk | 35 Spd | 28 Def | 16 Res
• +Atk/-Def: 43 HP | 47 Atk | 32 Spd | 24 Def | 19 Res

Weapon: Excalibur [Spcl]
Assist: Ardent Sacrifice / Reposition / Draw Back / flexible
Special: Glimmer
Passive A: Brazen Atk+Spd 3* / Atk+Spd Bond 3 / Swift Sparrow 2 / Fury 3
Passive B: Desperation 3
Passive C: flexible
Sacred Seal: Atk+3

Barring the Heavy Blade seal, Merric is currently the only mage capable of activating his special in Desperation range, and should aim to take full advantage of that skill, since his poor Res leaves him ill-equipped for dueling mages. Thanks to Brazen Atk/Spd becoming F2P-available, Merric now has much easier access to his best A-slot skill, becoming a very capable attacker on initiation so long as a friendly magic-user is nearby. Due to the conditions of Excalibur's bond boost, Atk/Spd Bond is also a highly useful (albeit much rarer) skill for him, and any tome/staff-user who he S-supports grants him a whopping +12 Atk and Spd while adjacent, though it is more dependent on positioning and playstyle than the other skills. (Swift Sparrow yields only marginally worse results and can be used without his partner glued to the hip, and Fury is the most budget-friendly option of the lot). 

Merric's goals are quite simple with this build; duel anything that won't kill him to put him into Desperation range (or drop Ardent Sacrifice on a friendly Fury-user, though this will only let him hit Desperation range if he is -HP), then go to town with his every-round-activating Glimmer. Note that if Merric is running Brazen Atk/Spd, +Atk is the best IV for him due to the extra speed from the skill; for all other A-slot skills, +Spd is a preferable IV. His bane is rather flexible, since he essentially has no need of any defensive stats once he is in Desperation range; if given the option, his boon should reflect whatever is the least important for him to be able to survive a duel against depending on his team. For his C-slot, a Threaten or Smoke skill to debuff the foes' Speed or Res is highly recommended if an ally buff is not needed. 

Melee Mage (Close Counter)
General use, Arena Offense, specialized PvE

Spoiler

Suggested IV: +Atk/-HP*, +Atk/-Res

• +Atk/-HP: 40 HP | 44 Atk | 32 Spd | 28 Def | 19 Res
• +Atk/-Res: 43 HP | 44 Atk | 32 Spd | 28 Def | 16 Res

Weapon: Excalibur [Res]
Assist: Swap / Reposition
Special: Bonfire / Luna
Passive A: Close Counter
Passive B: Quick Riposte 2-3* / Lancebreaker 3 / G Tomebreaker 3
Passive C: Atk Smoke 3* / Threaten Atk 3 / flexible
Sacred Seal: Distant Defense 3* / Close Defense 3

Another build that has become more accessible is Close Counter; though he is, for the most part, rather inferior to Boey as far as this role goes, Merric does boast higher Speed and his tome's killer and bond effects over his competitor, which are more than enough to justify the build. It won't hold up exceptionally well in long-term combat, but for single-round bouts like Arena, his ability to proc Bonfire for +17 damage per pop (with Close Defense) is a good way to to justify giving him Close Counter. 

Though the Distant Defense seal gives him slightly better performance overall, the choice of whether to run it or Close Defense should depend on his team composition and what threats it falls to him to cover, as should his choice of B-skill; Quick Riposte gives him the best overall performance, though giving him a green or blue breaker for specific threats is also perfectly workable. 

Bonus: WINDS, HEED ME (wind)

Spoiler

Weapon: Excalibur / Dark Excalibur
Assist: Rally Speed / Reposition / Shove / Smite
Special: Growing Wind
Passive A: Wind Boost 3
Passive B: Windsweep 3
Passive C: Breath of Life 3 / Spd Smoke 3 / Drive Spd 2
Sacred Seal: Breath of Life 3 / Atk Smoke 3 / Phantom Speed 3

Wind. 

 

Edited July 5, 2018 by BANRYU

[Elieson]

If his mag was like 8 higher, then running Excalibur vs the plethora of blue fliers that exist wouldn't be such a hassle. He just doesn't have quite enough of any one stat to really matter.

Nino/Soren/Summer!Elise have way more speed than him, and more power to boost

Boey has more physical bulk

Julia has more power and magical bulk

 

Excalibur just isn't super stellar...fliers aren't keen enough in the meta to demand a dedicated counter. Maybe in the future, Excalibur standard will prove its worth, but as far as anti air goes, just run a bow. Close Counter Excalibur memes are fun and all but sorely outclassed.

[LordFrigid]

I like your placeholder description for the WINDS, HEED ME set.

idk if this interests you at all, but you can use the [ hr ] tag (with the spaces removed) to make a line instead of that series of dashes:

---

Adapts to screen size and all that jazz.

Edited January 3, 2018 by LordFrigid

[Zapp Branniglenn]

I'm sticking with Excalibur. Flier emblem is on the rise. 3 and 4 star units practically provide you every green mage niche you could want (besides Julia and Deirdre for one hit dragon killing). So I'm sticking with Merric's anti-fliers thing. Narcian is the only non red flier that survives a hit from +Atk Excalibur Merric. A bonfire proc mops up the rest except for Palla and Ceada. Lancebreaker and B Tomebreaker give him a good chunk of ORKOs he can't otherwise have against non fliers. The tomebreaker is more of a defensive pick so Merric can not take so much damage from their doubles. 

[Elieson]

2 hours ago, Glennstavos said:

I'm sticking with Excalibur. Flier emblem is on the rise. 3 and 4 star units practically provide you every green mage niche you could want (besides Julia and Deirdre for one hit dragon killing). So I'm sticking with Merric's anti-fliers thing. Narcian is the only non red flier that survives a hit from +Atk Excalibur Merric. A bonfire proc mops up the rest except for Palla and Ceada. Lancebreaker and B Tomebreaker give him a good chunk of ORKOs he can't otherwise have against non fliers. The tomebreaker is more of a defensive pick so Merric can not take so much damage from their doubles. 

Doesn't a properly built reinhardt still f*** merric up? Iote's Shield seal definitely doesn't help his case when tackling tankier units...though I guess he's fast enough to take on the likes of DefTank!Beruka and such. Does he OHKO speedy/firesweep lance fliers?

[Zapp Branniglenn]

1 hour ago, Elieson said:

Doesn't a properly built reinhardt still f*** merric up? Iote's Shield seal definitely doesn't help his case when tackling tankier units...though I guess he's fast enough to take on the likes of DefTank!Beruka and such. Does he OHKO speedy/firesweep lance fliers?

Reinhardt isn't the sort of speedy Blue mage I was referring to, but yeah, unmerged +Atk Reinhardt w/Moonbow and Death Blow is just shy of killing Merric when he keeps his native HP +5 or has Fury. But if you add cav buffs to the equation then Reinhardt will drop Merric. 

Edit: Oh wait you're right, it's the -Res nature that puts Reinhardt over in those scenarios. 

With the Iote's Shield seal, I figure most people will put it on the physically tanky fliers. Since a lot of archers use brave/firesweep builds to start with and can still OHKO fliers without the bonus damage. So Merric would really shine there. Killing michalis and needing Fury or some other Atk booster to get Beruka. And yeah like I said in my post, +Atk is such a crucial nature since it knocks out all fliers except Narcian and the reds. Narcian gets added to the list if you give Merric any further boost to his atk like fury.

As for Merric's seal, Deflect Magic is sensible in order for him to check Reinhardt more reliably. It's kind of annoying that most green mages can do that naturally when Merric can't. Panic Ploy can be good if you cheap out and keep his HP+5. Since the only units with 48 or more health are armors, Bartre, and Nowi whom you can generally expect with the +Def upgrade to Lightning Breath.

Edited January 4, 2018 by Glennstavos

[BANRYU]

On 1/3/2018 at 1:40 PM, Elieson said:

If his mag was like 8 higher, then running Excalibur vs the plethora of blue fliers that exist wouldn't be such a hassle. He just doesn't have quite enough of any one stat to really matter.

Nino/Soren/Summer!Elise have way more speed than him, and more power to boost

Boey has more physical bulk

Julia has more power and magical bulk

 

Excalibur just isn't super stellar...fliers aren't keen enough in the meta to demand a dedicated counter. Maybe in the future, Excalibur standard will prove its worth, but as far as anti air goes, just run a bow. Close Counter Excalibur memes are fun and all but sorely outclassed.

....k thanks!

On 1/3/2018 at 1:55 PM, LordFrigid said:

I like your placeholder description for the WINDS, HEED ME set.

idk if this interests you at all, but you can use the [ hr ] tag (with the spaces removed) to make a line instead of that series of dashes:

---

Adapts to screen size and all that jazz.

Spoiler: the description for the meme set is not going to change lol. 

And thanks for letting me know, I'll keep that in mind.

[Elieson]

9 hours ago, BANRYU said:

....k thanks!

Man, I'm not even gonna lie though, before Skill Inheritance was a thing, I was all over Merric too. I hope something else comes out to make his Excalibur more worthwhile.

[BANRYU]

Analysis complete.

Couldn't find enough of a reason to justify any Raven Adept or CC builds so I just took them out. What we're left with is better than I thought, at least. 

[mcsilas]

I love meme wind builds.

@BANRYU maybe Phantom Speed as an option for the Winds Heed Me build? Should work well with Windsweep.

or Hardy Bearing to bypass Vantage after letting loose a Growing Wind 

[BANRYU]

9 hours ago, mcsilas said:

I love meme wind builds.

@BANRYU maybe Phantom Speed as an option for the Winds Heed Me build? Should work well with Windsweep.

or Hardy Bearing to bypass Vantage after letting loose a Growing Wind 

I mean. I dunno if you can tell by the descriptions, but it's pretty much a wind-focused meme/joke build lol. I suppose Phantom Speed might sort of work with that but otherwise... yeah. That build isn't meant to be taken it very seriously, just the idea of giving Merric all wind-related skills makes me laugh lol. (because damn, he talks about wind a lot seriously, have you heard his dialogue?)

[mcsilas]

8 hours ago, BANRYU said:

I mean. I dunno if you can tell by the descriptions, but it's pretty much a wind-focused meme/joke build lol. I suppose Phantom Speed might sort of work with that but otherwise... yeah. That build isn't meant to be taken it very seriously, just the idea of giving Merric all wind-related skills makes me laugh lol. (because damn, he talks about wind a lot seriously, have you heard his dialogue?)

Haha I know, but if you have the Sacred Seals, might as well make it work a bit better haha

I'd be crazy enough to do it if I had the fodder lol

[BANRYU]

Okay, I've been running the numbers on sets with Excalibur's new refinements, and it seems like it pretty much hard-outclasses both of the non-joke builds.

For reference, the set is Excalibur [refined], Glimmer, Brazen Atk/Spd, Desperation, and Atk+3 (+Spd/-Def or Res IV). also probably works fine with Atk/Spd bond, Swift Sparrow, etc.

....are there any other sets we think Merric could run? Considering how low his Res is I don't think he makes for much of a blow-trading duelist; as much as this update helped him out, his stats are still pretty bad =x= 

There's possibly Close Counter for countering fliers, but that still isn't all that great on him outside of that. Being able to instantly proc Glimmer on counterattack is pretty good for bait'n'killing fliers that aren't red (or Nino), but flying mages are only getting more prominent and his Res is still quite bad. 

EDIT: I'm thinking maybe a variation of the antiaircraft set with Watersweep... maybe. It seems to work for Julia, so why not Merric? 

Edited June 9, 2018 by BANRYU

[bottlegnomes]

I haven't looked into it at all, but his defense and speed aren't too terrible, so I feel like there might be something to a close counter build. I'm thinking maybe something like:

+atk, speed, def/-res
Excalibur (unique)
Bonfire/Luna
Close Counter
Quick Riposte
Whatever
Close Defense

With that he's hitting 37 speed with an ally in range which should let him be okay at avoiding doubles and 34 defense. Attack is still a little shaky, being 45 neutral, again assuming ally is in range, but he can guarantee a luna every round, or bonfire for a guaranteed +17 damage on the second hit. +atk gets him to 49 which is respectable for a mage, +spd gets him to 40 which is pretty solid for avoiding doubles, and +def gets him to 37 with CD, which is respectable.

Like I said, I haven't looked into this at all, and I can't imagine it'll be stellar (he's screwed without the pseudo bond in effect), but maybe there's something to it?

Edited June 9, 2018 by bottlegnomes

[BANRYU]

9 hours ago, bottlegnomes said:

I haven't looked into it at all, but his defense and speed aren't too terrible, so I feel like there might be something to a close counter build. I'm thinking maybe something like:

+atk, speed, def/-res
Excalibur (unique)
Bonfire/Luna
Close Counter
Quick Riposte
Whatever
Close Defense

With that he's hitting 37 speed with an ally in range which should let him be okay at avoiding doubles and 34 defense. Attack is still a little shaky, being 45 neutral, again assuming ally is in range, but he can guarantee a luna every round, or bonfire for a guaranteed +17 damage on the second hit. +atk gets him to 49 which is respectable for a mage, +spd gets him to 40 which is pretty solid for avoiding doubles, and +def gets him to 37 with CD, which is respectable.

Like I said, I haven't looked into this at all, and I can't imagine it'll be stellar (he's screwed without the pseudo bond in effect), but maybe there's something to it?

Yeah, that looks like it does pretty decently well after running the numbers. +Atk is definitely outright the best IV for it, and Distant Defense actually seems to do a bit better at times but I guess both are options. I'll add it for consideration. 

[BANRYU]

Sorry for double post in relatively short succession but Merric is all good to go.

This update did more for him than I imagined it could. Finally he can be usable =w= And hecc, I might just build that Brazen kit now that Lloyd is coming out soon. 

[Ice Dragon]

@bottlegnomes @BANRYU

I was reading Gamepedia's update notes for their tier list, and they're listing this build as his optimal set for the 710 Arena range:

[+Atk, -HP]
Excalibur [Res]
Bonfire
Close Counter
Quick Riposte 3
Distant Def 3

From what I gather from the comments and the build itself:

• -HP is preferred over -Def and -Res to preserve his mixed bulk as an enemy-phase build.
• The Res refine is preferred over the unique refine to deal with Reinhardt. That's kind of what a green tome user needs to do on an Arena team in the 710 range.
  • Note that a +0 Merric needs a +4 Res buff to survive a +10 Reinhardt running his standard Moonbow Quickened Pulse build.
• The unique refine, while excellent, requires a specific team composition and isn't actually helpful on this particular build.
  • At +10 merge, Merric survives Reinhardt without the Res refine while only needing minimal buffs, and can therefore run a mixed-phase build with the unique refine if your team composition permits it.
    • +10 Merric [+Atk/Spd] needs +0 Res if -Def, +2 Res if -HP, or +4 Res if -Res.
• Distant Def helps with his otherwise questionable Res when dealing with blue tome users.
• Being an enemy-phase Close Counter green tome user with this build gives him one important advantage over player-phase green tome users: He can deal with common Fjorm and Effie builds.
  • Ice Mirror cannot activate if Fjorm initiates combat (because it's based on the range that combat occurs).
  • Berkut's Lance doesn't get its +7 Res boost when Effie initiates combat.
  • Merric can always pick which phase he engages Effie on with a Close Counter build.

[BANRYU]

I did notice that Distant Def seems to be the more helpful skill of the two when it came to his matchups at large. 

Allright, sounds fine to me. I'll adjust accordingly when I get some time to edit. It's fine if I just copypasta the info provided there into the build itself, right? 

[Ice Dragon]

1 hour ago, BANRYU said:

I did notice that Distant Def seems to be the more helpful skill of the two when it came to his matchups at large. 

Allright, sounds fine to me. I'll adjust accordingly when I get some time to edit. It's fine if I just copypasta the info provided there into the build itself, right? 

You might want to clean it up a bit from my notes, but yeah, go on ahead.

[bottlegnomes]

@Ice Dragon I'm not familiar with Effie's usual builds, so does CC Merric have to worry about bold fighter on her?

[Ice Dragon]

1 minute ago, bottlegnomes said:

@Ice Dragon I'm not familiar with Effie's usual builds, so does CC Merric have to worry about bold fighter on her?

Bold Fighter is dealt with on player phase.

The only Effie build that Merric cannot handle reliably with his Close Counter build is Bold Fighter with Berkut's Lance. It depends heavily on the buffs and merges that Merric and Effie have on them.

 

@BANRYU I'd also slash in Luna for dealing with Res tanks like Effie, Julia, etc. I forgot to mention that earlier.

[bottlegnomes]

@Ice Dragon Does BF Effie not generally run BL+ or is it just the combo is rather pricy and subsequently not as common? That combo being, from my understanding, BL+, DC, BF, QR seal.

[Ice Dragon]

1 hour ago, bottlegnomes said:

@Ice Dragon Does BF Effie not generally run BL+ or is it just the combo is rather pricy and subsequently not as common? That combo being, from my understanding, BL+, DC, BF, QR seal.

Yeah, that's the build.

It's a build I'm not expecting to see on an Arena defense team partly because of the investment necessary and partly because a player can only have one Quick Riposte Sacred Seal. However, I'm not particularly familiar with the 710 range that Gamepedia uses for its match-up testing, so I don't actually know how common the build is.