Ursula, Blue Crow

[XRay]

Ursula, Blue Crow

She might not be as impressive as the Dire Thunder siblings, but she is still quite formidable in her own right. If you already got Reinhardt and Olwen as your offensive blue mage cavalry units, Ursula can specialize as a defensive unit by being a Reinhardt counter if she upgrades her default Weapon and equip Deflect Magic.

 

Level 40 stats:
HP: 35
Atk: 29
Spd: 32
Def: 19
Res: 30
Total: 145

Default skills:
Weapon: Blárwolf+
Assist: [none]
Special: Growing Thunder
Passive A: Death Blow 3
Passive B: [none]
Passive C: Threaten Res 3

 

Keen Blárwolf — Deflect Magic:
Arena Assault

Spoiler

Keen Blárwolf+ [Special Refinement]
Reposition / Swap / [flexible Assist]
Moonbow / Glimmer
Triangle Adept 3 / Distant Def 3 / Warding Stance 3
Quick Riposte 3 / Guard 3
[flexible C passive]
Deflect Magic 3

Ursula can double as both a red mage tank and a Reinhardt tank, although she is might not be able to do both in the same battle without support.

5*+2 — Distant Def 3/Warding Stance 3 — Guard 3 — [NO SACRED SEAL]: She will be less effective at dealing with red mages, but she also does not need a Sacred Seal to deal with Reinhardt [+10, +Atk, Dire Thunder, Moonbow, Death Blow, Quickened Pulse]. However, she will need Merge +7 (+4 is currently the highest) to deal with a similar Reinhardt that runs Attack +3 instead of Quickened Pulse.

Blárblade:
Arena offense, Arena Assault

Spoiler

Blárblade+
Reposition
[flexible Special] / Glimmer / Moonbow
Life and Death 3 / Brazen Atk/Spd 3 / Swift Sparrow 2 / Fury 3
Desperation 3
Hone Cavalry / Fortify Cavalry / Savage Blow 3 / [flexible C passive]
Speed +3 / Attack +3 / Brash Assault 3 / Heavy Blade 3 / Quickened Pulse / Savage Blow 3

This is your standard Blárblade set.

Desperation 3 — Brash Assault 3: If you are consistently able to get her to under 50% HP without trouble, she is guaranteed to double anything that can counter attack her.

Savage Blow 3 — Savage Blow 3: This allows her to take down groups of enemies faster in Tempest Trials.

 

Budget:

Death Blow 3: Death Blow is free, but I highly recommend switching it to Fury to allow her to double enemies more easily.

Keen Blárwolf — Fury — Desperation — Brash Assault (Player Phase Anti-Cavalry):
Arena offense

Spoiler

Keen Blárwolf+ [Special Refinement] / Keen Blárwolf+ [Speed Refinement]
[flexible Assist]
Moonbow / [flexible Special]
Fury 3 / Brazen Atk/Spd 3 / Life and Death 3
Desperation 3
Hone Cavalry / Fortify Cavalry / [flexible C passive]
Brash Assault 3 / [flexible Sacred Seal]

This Player Phase set allows Ursula to specialize against common cavalry enemies in Arena. If you need an anti-cavalry specialist instead of a high coverage nuke, you may want to consider this build.

Brazen Atk/Spd 3/Life and Death 3: These two skills improve Ursula's performance against non-cavalry units. However, I do not recommend running them until she gets Merges, Weapon Refinement, or both as she needs the bulk to handle cavalry units who can counter attack.

Desperation 3 — Brash Assault 3: Once she manages to get under 50% HP, she will annihilate any cavalry enemy unless it is green and runs Triangle Adept.

 

Budget:

Blárwolf+ — Moonbow — Death Blow 3 — Swordbreaker 3/Bowbreaker 3 — Attack +3 — Hone Attack Buff: With Swordbreaker, this shuts down unmerged BH!Lyn [+Res, Mulagir, Luna, Swift Sparrow, Sacae's Blessing, Distant Def] and unmerged Sigurd [+Res, Divine Tyrfing, Distant Def, Crusader's Ward, Distant Def] in her first round of combat. If you frequently encounter BH!Lyn with higher merges, Bowbreaker may be a better option instead.

Blárblade — Close Counter — Vantage:
Arena Assault

Spoiler

Blárblade+
Reposition / Swap
Glimmer / Moonbow
Close Counter
Vantage 3
Hone Cavalry / Fortify Cavalry / Savage Blow / [flexible C passive]
Attack +3 / Savage Blow / Heavy Blade 3 / Quickened Pulse

This is your standard Blade-Close Counter-Vantage meme.

 

Edited January 25, 2018 by XRay

[Johann]

I have my Ursula set up with the following:

• Keen Blarwolf+ (Negate Cavalry buffs)
• Draw Back
• Iceberg
• Fury
• Desperation
• Hone Cavalry
• usually Brash Assault seal

Before I had enough Hinatas to spare for Fury, I would run Darting Blow. Lately I've been thinking that the Negate Cavalry refinement isn't too necessary since it's best used to bait ranged cavalry, most of which she can't take hits from, so it might be better to go with +Spd, especially if you're bringing Panic Ploy.

[XRay]

1 hour ago, Johann said:

I have my Ursula set up with the following:

• Keen Blarwolf+ (Negate Cavalry buffs)
• Draw Back
• Iceberg
• Fury
• Desperation
• Hone Cavalry
• usually Brash Assault seal

Before I had enough Hinatas to spare for Fury, I would run Darting Blow. Lately I've been thinking that the Negate Cavalry refinement isn't too necessary since it's best used to bait ranged cavalry, most of which she can't take hits from, so it might be better to go with +Spd, especially if you're bringing Panic Ploy.

For an offensive build, I would go with Blárblade and Darting Blow rather than Keen Blárwolf since Blárblade has a much higher coverage. You can also just use regular Blárblade instead of Blárblade+ as it already has insane damage output from just a Hone Cavalry buff.

Ursula
Keen Blárwolf+ [Spd], Moonbow
Fury 3, Desperation 3
6/6/0/0
Player Phase 156:8:44
Player Phase [Darting Blow 3] 146:9:53

Ursula
Blárblade
Fury 3, Desperation 3
6/6/0/0
Player Phase 166:9:33
Player Phase [Darting Blow 3] 172:9:27
Player Phase [Blárblade+] 174:9:25
Player Phase [Blárblade+, Darting Blow 3] 177:9:22

[Johann]

I originally switched from Blarblade to Blarwolf+ for the points (too cheap to give her Blarblade+), and with how common horse units are, it's been worth it, especially since it means she doesn't require Hone Cavalry to kill. Unless I'm using her in Infernal GHBs or something, there haven't been situations where she's needed Blarblade over Blarwolf. Been using her this way regularly in Arena since last summer.

[XRay]

11 minutes ago, Johann said:

I originally switched from Blarblade to Blarwolf+ for the points (too cheap to give her Blarblade+), and with how common horse units are, it's been worth it, especially since it means she doesn't require Hone Cavalry to kill. Unless I'm using her in Infernal GHBs or something, there haven't been situations where she's needed Blarblade over Blarwolf. Been using her this way regularly in Arena since last summer.

I will put that down as an alternative/budget build. I am not too convinced reducing coverage for just anti-cavalry specialization is a good idea since Hone Cavalry and buffs in general are not hard to set up.

[Johann]

11 minutes ago, XRay said:

I will put that down as an alternative/budget build. I am not too convinced reducing coverage for just anti-cavalry specialization is a good idea since Hone Cavalry and buffs in general are not hard to set up.

It's more a point of flexibility, in that she can kill horses without buffs or risk of being countered. She'll have reduced damage on everything else but still kills most of the kinds of targets she should be going up against. I'd also like to point out that she does better against Sigurd and Mulagir Brave Lyn with Blarwolf.

Edited January 17, 2018 by Johann

[XRay]

6 minutes ago, Johann said:

I'd also like to point out that she does better against Sigurd and Mulagir Brave Lyn with Blarwolf.

Fair point. I will expand that to a full build and see how cheap I can get her to kill those two in the calculator with minimal investment and put that in budget subsection.

[Frosty]

Ah, one of my mainstays on my Cavalry teams.

I use a Death Blow Bladetome Ursula on a full Cav team; she can land the pain with full Cavalry buffs with a touch of Goad Cavalry.

Edited January 25, 2018 by Frosty

[XRay]

18 minutes ago, Frosty said:

Ah, one of my mainstays on my Cavalry teams.

I use a Death Blow Bladetome Ursula on a full Cav team; she can land the pain with full Cavalry buffs with a touch of Goad Cavalry.

Death Blow is not terrible as a budget option, but Blade mages generally rely on doubling to kill things rather than killing in one shot, especially when they go against the Weapon Triangle. I will add it in since it is free as she comes with it.

Edited January 25, 2018 by XRay