Myrrh: Great Dragon

[BANRYU]

Myrrh: Great Dragon

Arguably the cutest Manakete yet to arrive in the world of Heroes proves also to be debatably the strongest, not only breaking ground as an unprecedented Dragon-Flier hybrid, but also possessing a fantastically well-built stat spread as well as a legendary breath weapon that capitalizes on her strengths and even serves to cover her sole weakness of low Speed by making her Defense a prerequisite threshold to double her-- doubling her is very difficult to do, and as a result of her beefy defenses as well as a stellar attack, she is very difficult to kill in a single round without being killed in reply, with high-defense red units and dragon-slaying weapons like Falchion and Naga being the main tools to do so. There's no need for her to do everything herself, of course, and with teammates to handle these threats, Myrrh stands ready to knock'em dead in spite of the revival and newfound powers of the various Falchions. Even so, the dignified little dragon firmly establishes herself as a threat to be reckoned with, dragon-slaying swords or no. At what she's built to do, she's undeniably a monster. 

Level 40 stats:
HP: 39 / 42 / 45
Atk: 30 / 33 / 36
Spd: 22 / 25 / 29
Def: 32 / 36 / 39
Res: 28 / 31 / 34
Total: 166 ~ 168

Default skills:
Weapon: Great Flame
Assist: —
Special: Bonfire
Passive A: Fury 3
Passive B: — 
Passive C: Hone Dragons

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Great-Distance Flame (Distant Counter)
General Use, Arena Offense/Defense, Chain modes

Spoiler

Optimal IV: +Def/-Spd*, +Res/-Spd, +Atk/-Spd

• +Def: 42 HP | 52 Atk | 22 Spd | 39 Def | 31 Res
• +Res: 42 HP | 52 Atk | 22 Spd | 36 Def | 34 Res
• +Atk: 42 HP | 55 Atk | 22 Spd | 36 Def | 31 Res

Weapon: Great Flame
Assist: Swap / Reposition / flexible
Special: Glimmer* / Bonfire
Passive A: Distant Counter
Passive B: Quick Riposte 2-3 / Guard 3 / Vantage 3
Passive C: Hone Dragons / Hone Fliers / flexible
Sacred Seal: Close Defense 3 / Iote's Shield / Quick Riposte 3
 
Easily one of the most attractive options Myrrh can run is the ability to run Distant Counter to vastly expand her list of potential victims during defense on enemy phase. With her Great Flame's unique effect preventing low-Defense units from doubling her, as well as giving her the refined breath ability of targeting the weaker defense of ranged units, Myrrh is a prime choice to bait and punish hyper-offensive but frail ranged builds, and her sheer default tankiness and stopping power make her quite a versatile tank, able to not only beat pretty much any blue unit with aplomb, but a large portion of greens as well (just watch out for Julia and Deirdre). Even many sword units will struggle to defeat her, with the most noteworthy exceptions being those with a solid mix of Defense and Speed like Zelgius / the Black Knight, Arden, either Tiki, Eldigan, Ike, Sigurd, and of course Falchion-users. 

Her skill options are quite flexible to boot as well; Quick Riposte is almost a necessity on the set, whether in Skill or Seal form, and running one or the other gives her a number of options for the remaining slot: For flier teams, Myrrh is a fantastic option to counter bows by packing Quick Riposte + Iote's Shield, though on compositions where a different archer counter is present (both Tikis as well as Nowi can perform this role just fine on dragon teams), Quick Riposte + Close Defense is preferable in order to improve her matchups against many of the aforementioned red units who give her trouble (but not the Naga- or Falchion-users-- they are a lost cause), and furthermore nets her the most overall kills for this build. By way of alternative, running Guard + Quick Riposte in her seal slot ruins the fun of Bold Fighters and Quickened Pulse + Moonbow-users (or any other units who seek to muscle past her defenses with specials), a valuable feature for any tank that can afford to run it. Vantage is another useful skill that she can make use of once she's no longer in Quick Riposte range to punish would-be magic attackers, but though it certainly has its uses, it tends to be a bit niche, with its primary uses being to counter frail mages or archers who run skills like Desperation, Life and Death, or have very low max HP. Lastly, Bonfire + Quick Riposte + Heavy Blade is an excellent option for +Atk variations of Myrrh or those who are run on Goad-stacking flier teams, since Bonfire easily outdamages Glimmer in instances where it procs... though this leaves her wanting for any form of extra defense she could otherwise pack.

In terms of remaining skills, Myrrh remains wonderfully flexible; Glimmer is the most effectual Special available to her for maximum ORKO count, making excellent use of her beefy attack and ability to target weaker defenses, though her native Bonfire packs a much greater punch. Her native Hone Dragons is, needless to say, excellent for dragon team compositions, though she can just as easily swap it out for Hone Fliers when running a crew of airborne allies, or anything else that suits a non-specialized team.

Heavy Bonding (Heavy Blade / Atk-focused)
General Use, Arena Offense/Defense, Chain modes

Spoiler

Optimal IV: +Atk/-Spd*, +Atk/-HP, +Atk/-Res

• -Spd: 42 HP | 55 Atk | 22 Spd | 36 Def | 31 Res
• -HP: 39 HP | 55 Atk | 25 Spd | 36 Def | 31 Res
• -Res: 42 HP | 55 Atk | 25 Spd | 36 Def | 28 Res

Weapon: Great Flame
Assist: Swap / Reposition / flexible
Special: Bonfire* / Aether
Passive A: Atk-Def Bond 3* / Sturdy Stance 2 / Fury 3
Passive B: Quick Riposte 2-3
Passive C: Hone Dragons / Hone Fliers / flexible
Sacred Seal: Heavy Blade

Probably Myrrh's best build for single-round damage output focuses on her hefty Attack in conjunction with Heavy Blade, replacing Glimmer with her natural Bonfire as her choice instrument of death. Atk/Def Bond is a skill phenomenally well-suited to this aim, providing a hefty 7 to both Atk and Def during combat if she is next to an S-supported ally-- not only making it all the easier for her to activate Heavy Blade, but furthermore increasing her physical bulk and making her harder to double to boot. Because it needs Heavy Blade in the Seal slot, it has a lesser degree of flexibility by requiring Quick Riposte in her B-slot, but the results are difficult to argue with-- but if feeding Fjorm to Myrrh is an undesirable prospect for any who lack doubles of her, Myrrh's native Fury comes close to the same basic idea at the cost of some HP recoil (though Aether can come in handy to that end if healing is scarce). Any +Atk nature of Myrrh would be ideal for this build, but even an Atk-neutral or even Atk-bane Myrrh can still pull it off on a Flier team that stacks Goads. 

Ironwings (dedicated physical tank)
General Use, Arena Offense/Defense, Chain modes

Spoiler

Optimal IV: +Def/-Spd*, +Def/-HP, +Def/-Res, +(any)/-Spd

• -Spd: 42 HP | 52 Atk | 22 Spd | 39 Def | 31 Res
• -HP: 39 HP | 52 Atk | 25 Spd | 39 Def | 31 Res
• -Res: 42 HP | 52 Atk | 25 Spd | 39 Def | 28 Res

Weapon: Great Flame
Assist: Swap / Reposition / flexible
Special: Glimmer* / Bonfire
Passive A: Close Defense 3* / Steady Stance 3
Passive B: Quick Riposte 2-3 / Guard 3
Passive C: Hone Dragons / Hone Fliers / flexible
Sacred Seal: Close Defense 3 / Quick Riposte 3 

Forsaking the ability to counterattack ranged units allows Myrrh to focus on being the pinnacle of draconic beef, focusing her efforts on maximixing her doubling threshold in order to stand her ground against melee units not packing a weapon named Falchion (also, Arden. Because his Follow-up Ring kills her pretty hard despite his low Res... but at least he's uncommon). Double-stacking Close Defense gets her the best results in terms of immediate survivability, though Guard + Quick Riposte is also an acceptable option, and may prove more useful in certain team comps or to let her survive QP-Moonbow users, Bold Fighter armor units, and so forth. 

As an alternative to Close Defense if it is unavailable, Steady or Sturdy Stance can also be used for largely similar performance, with the main differences being that the latter is inactive during player-phase Bonfire nukes, but will work against the likes of daggers and bows (Steady Stance + Iote's Shield may be a decent holdfast for flier teams in need of someone who can take a bow hit to the face if Distant Counter and Spring Camilla are both off the table). Steady Stance also gives her no extra help when fighting other Manaketes in comparison to Close Defense, which lets Myrrh duel fellow dragons better than any of her other builds. 

 

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Other Options:

• Renewal and Vantage are both excellent budget options for Myrrh that synergize well with Fury and can be used alongside the Quick Riposte seal.
• Distant Defense can provide some additional assistance for the DC build or even for a melee build that wants to be able to tank Rein and other blue mages better, though it's generally not as useful as any of the alternatives she can pack in either her A-slot or her Seal slot. 
• Fierce Stance is an option for the Heavy Blade build and pairs great with Vantage, but not only is it rarer than Atk/Def Bond3 (since the latter is a F2P skill), it provides only a minimal increase to Atk at the cost of 5 Defense, which helps her doubling threshold out a lot against neutral and WTA-weak attackers. 
• Guidance is an excellent skill for Dragon Emblem teams if her Seal slot can be spared for it. 

Edited March 16, 2018 by BANRYU
edited for Falchion update

[Nobody]

13 minutes ago, BANRYU said:

Deftank (Steady Stance + QR + CC/CD)

Before this evens starts, I have a question to ask in regards to the Deftank build. Why use Steady Stance over Close Def on the A slot when you're neither countering at two range nor using Iote's Shield to survive bows? Close Defense would improve her performance against dragons, who she can counter, while Steady Stance would be better against bows and shurikens (neither of which she'd be able to counter), but she takes a lot of damage against bows anyway, and shurikens aren't anything important to worry about.

Edited January 26, 2018 by Nobody

[BANRYU]

3 minutes ago, Nobody said:

Before this evens starts, I have a question to ask in regards to the Deftank build. Why use Steady Stance over Close Def on the A slot when you're neither countering at two range nor using Iote's Shield to survive bows? Close Defense would improve her performance against dragons, who she can counter, while Steady Stance would be better against bows and shurikens (neither of which she'd be able to counter), but she takes a lot of damage against bows anyway, and shurikens aren't anything important to worry about.

That's a fair point, but since you asked, my thinking was that running SS lets her maintain her getting doubled threshold all the better against high-speed mages and such, but.... I suppose now that you mention it, the bulk of mages have low enough defense that even her baseline defense should be enough to not have to worry that. In the case of physical units, she can at least bait or block them (would need Iote for bows ofc)... but granted that's also not as good as outright killing, I suppose. So fair point, duly noted. But since both are in limited supply, I'll probably list both as options anyway. 

Refined set plans ATM are looking as such: 

• DC + QR + Iote / DC + Vantage + QR (probably optimal)
• Fury / Earth Boost + QR / Vantage / Renewal + Iote / CD / QR (budget)
• Close Def / Steady Stance + QR / Vantage + Iote / QR / CD

[Ice Dragon]

44 minutes ago, BANRYU said:

DC + QR + Iote / DC + Vantage + QR (probably optimal)

Distant Counter + Guard + Quick Riposte is an option for dealing with pesky Bold Fighter armors (not named Jakob) that have enough Def or Spd to still double attack. It also blocks Reinhardt's Moonbow.

Distant Counter + Quick Riposte + Heavy Blade is also an option because she has 55 Atk with a +Atk nature and 61 Atk if she gets Hone Dragons, Hone Fliers, or Atk Tactic 3 buffs. It's also easy to run her on a Goad Fliers team.

[BANRYU]

On 1/26/2018 at 2:12 PM, Ice Dragon said:

Distant Counter + Guard + Quick Riposte is an option for dealing with pesky Bold Fighter armors (not named Jakob) that have enough Def or Spd to still double attack. It also blocks Reinhardt's Moonbow.

Distant Counter + Quick Riposte + Heavy Blade is also an option because she has 55 Atk with a +Atk nature and 61 Atk if she gets Hone Dragons, Hone Fliers, or Atk Tactic 3 buffs. It's also easy to run her on a Goad Fliers team.

Both excellent suggestions that I feel silly for forgetting. 

Running the calcs on Heavy Blade for the DC, I found that Glimmer + DC + QR + Close Def got the best results overall, beating Bonfire + DC + QR + Heavy Blade by a fair margin... It's definitely not worth overlooking though, so I went ahead and gave it a mention on DC then relegated it to its own set, since Great Flame and Atk/Def Bond synergize so well with it.

 

And with that, we're done ~3~ sorry this has been a bit late in coming, I've been rather busy.

I think I did my dragon daughter justice tho~

[Eridras]

I have a +Atk -Hp Myrrh, and was wondering if Atk/Def 2 might be useful as a stopgap until I can get her either DC or Attack/Res Bond. Her native Fury seems like it’d do more damage knocking her out of QR range than anything else.

I’m also considering Fortress Defense as an option since she ends up breaking even on Attack with her boon. 

[GinRei]

I had not considered using Heavy Blade on her.  Will probably be the route I go with my +Atk/-Def copy, since everything else relies on her having at the very least neutral defense.

[BANRYU]

17 hours ago, Eridras said:

I have a +Atk -Hp Myrrh, and was wondering if Atk/Def 2 might be useful as a stopgap until I can get her either DC or Attack/Res Bond. Her native Fury seems like it’d do more damage knocking her out of QR range than anything else.

I’m also considering Fortress Defense as an option since she ends up breaking even on Attack with her boon. 

I mean... sure? I don't know that it would be worth mentioning in the writeup, but it's certainly a relatively safe, recoil-free alternative to Fury. Heck even just Atk+3 or Def+3 would probably be fine. 

6 hours ago, GinRei said:

I had not considered using Heavy Blade on her.  Will probably be the route I go with my +Atk/-Def copy, since everything else relies on her having at the very least neutral defense.

Atk/Def Bond could help compensate for the bane possibly! And yeah Heavy Blade seal is definitely a solid option