Julius, Scion of Darkness

[Ae†her]

Julius, Scion of Darkness

"She said that I was kind? Oh, Julia. You do spout nonsense."

Description: Julius is a GHB unit that serves that unique niche of red-haired mages (all blood related too) that has so much Res and decently high Atk stats that they seem like your typical Ploy-running mage. However, what makes Julius different from his father, and his half brother is that his Special Tome serves only himself, and in a much more effective way, while also making him vulnerable to Falchions and Naga tomes.

Stats:
HP: 38
Atk: 35
Spd: 27
Def: 16
Res: 35
BST: 151

Skills:
Weapon: Fenrir > Loptous (Red)
Special: Draconic Aura
Support: None
A Skill: None
B Skill: Guard 3
C Skill: Atk Ploy 3

Movement: Infantry - Can run skills that Cavs and Fliers can not run such as Infantry Pulse.

Satanous Survivability

Spoiler

Nature: -

Weapon: Loptous
Assist: Repostion / Varies on Team
Special: Glimmer / Iceberg / Glacies

A: Fury 3 / Distant Defense 3 / Close Counter / Mirror Stance 2
B: Quick Riposte 3 / Dull Ranged 3 / G. Tomebreaker / Guard 3
C: Odd Atk Wave 3 / Atk Ploy 3 / Varies on Team
SS: Distant Defense 3 / Spd Ploy 3 / Close Defense 3

Distant Defense 3 (A Skill) - I don't know why you would want to use Fury 3 over DD 3 considering the amount of help the +3 Spd and +3 Res for ploys does, but I guess if you really need +3 Def/Res over +3 Atk/Spd then it is fine.

Fury 3 / Close Counter + Quick Riposte 3 + Odd Atk Wave 3 + Glimmer / Iceberg / Glacies + Distant Defense 3 Seal - This is pretty much the best use of Loptous here. Fury 3 is very useful because it increases his 27 Spd to a decent 30 allowing you to avoid some more follow-ups and double the slow-tier units. Glimmer I've found to give the best results even over Moonbow in the simulator, and Iceberg may help land different kills, while Glacies is meant as a one shot you build up. Quick Riposte 3 ensures the follow-up when Julius is attacked, and the added Def/Res+6 from the Seal just makes Julius very tanky, and insanely tanky  if we're talking about magic. Odd Atk Wave 3, while you do have to kill his girl for it, it just works well.

Close Counter + Close Defense 3 - This is the same build as the one above, but instead of Fury and DD3, we're running CC and CD 3. Close Counter though risky just feels so good when you kill Swords that fail to hurt Julius when initiating. Since he already has really high Magical bulk, you're just giving up dealing with bows in exchange for dealing with melee units.

Atk Ploy 3 / Spd Ploy 3 - If you can't afford Odd Atk Wave 3 then either Atk Ploy 3 in the C Slot or Spd Ploy 3 in the C slot works. If you're even more confident then you can run both Atk Ploy 3 and Spd Ploy 3 and it could give Julius some Player Phase kills. Ploys also work better with Fury 3 due to Julius's Res just always being +3 higher, and very high in general.

Mirror Stance 2 / Fury 3 + Dull Ranged 3 + Atk Ploy 3 + Iceberg + Distant Defense 3 - Dull Ranged 3 with DD 3 seal helps against  S U P E R mages, especially against Blue and Red bladetomes, and as well as other ranged units such as brave bows and daggers. You can also run Guard 3 + Quick Riposte 3 to stop specials,. Mirror Stance 3 works better with Iceberg, but Fury 3 works better with Glimmer.

G. Tomebreaker - To kill Julius' mom and sister, and to stop any foolish Nino.

Mirror Stance 3 + Guard 3 + Iceberg + Quick Riposte 3 Seal - Slower Spd helps ensure he gets doubled, so that he can proc Iceberg while Guard 3 stops enemy specials.

Even Edgier

Spoiler

Nature: -

Weapon: Raudrblade+
Assist: Repostion / Varies on Team
Special: Iceberg / Glimmer

A: Death Blow 3 / Fury 3
B: Desperation 3 / Quick Riposte 3
C: Odd Atk Wave 3 / Atk Ploy 3 / Varies on Team
SS: Brash Assault 3 / Distant Defense 3 / Atk+3 / Spd+3 / Heavy Blade 3

Death Blow 3 / Fury 3 + Desperation 3 / Chill Res 3 + Odd Atk Wave 3 + Glimmer / Iceberg + Brash Assault 3 Seal / Atk+3 / Heavy Blade 3 - Due to his high Atk Julius can also run a Radurblade+ one shot set. Death Blow 3 ensures maximum pain when attacking with Julius fully buffed, or even just buffed from an Odd Atk Wave 3. If Julius receives enough damage he can reach the Brash Assault range, and with Desperation 3 he'll make guranteed follow-up attacks without worrying about a counter attack in between. Fury 3 is an alternative to Death Blow 3 because it can reduce his HP slowly, while also giving him some Spd and Def to potentially make follow-up attacks and tank a hit from Distant Counter foe. Iceberg can be charged up after a couple of rounds of combat for a very powerful hit due to Julius' high Res, but Glimmer is probably going to hit more often and it'll hit for a lot due to Julius being buffed and having really high Atk. You can also run Chill Res 3 with Death Blow 3 to maximize the one shot build, and even add an Atk+3 Seal just for more damage or use Heavy Blade 3 to build up Glimmer.

Fury 3 + Quick Riposte 3 + Odd Atk Wave 3 + Glimmer + Distant Defense 3 - Julus still has really high Res, and with the increased attack from Radurblade and thanks to Fury 3, Distant Defense 3 Seal and Quick Riposte 3 he can counter magical attacks and hit back much harder, while still being effective in the player phase because that's just what Bladetomes do to a mage.

Conclusion: Julius has great utility, and perhaps some surprising combat power as well, which is pretty good for a GHB unit. He's not a healer like Arvis or a sword-killer like Saias, but he can still certainly debuff and do his own thing, dominating the Res department of FEH. Merging Julius to +2 can really make him into an excellent unit.

Edited May 27, 2018 by Ae†her

[Ice Dragon]

Julius can technically run a slow Raudhrblade set, the same set that Lilina and Sanaki used to run. He won't be as good as Lilina or Sanaki because he's a full 5 Atk short compared to them, but he's on par with +Atk Raigh and +Atk Summer Leo with that build.

I would also suggest the build

Loptous
Iceberg
Mirror Stance 3 / [Distant Def 3]
Dull Ranged 3
Atk Ploy 3
Distant Def 3

which maximizes his wins against ranged units on enemy phase. He will die to Julia and Deirdre if they are built to be fast enough to double him and have a 2-cooldown special.

G Tomebreaker is an alternative B skill for pretty much any build to specifically shut down Julia and Deirdre, especially if you don't have another answer for them on your team.

[Ae†her]

15 hours ago, Ice Dragon said:

Julius can technically run a slow Raudhrblade set, the same set that Lilina and Sanaki used to run. He won't be as good as Lilina or Sanaki because he's a full 5 Atk short compared to them, but he's on par with +Atk Raigh and +Atk Summer Leo with that build.

I would also suggest the build

Loptous
Iceberg
Mirror Stance 3 / [Distant Def 3]
Dull Ranged 3
Atk Ploy 3
Distant Def 3

which maximizes his wins against ranged units on enemy phase. He will die to Julia and Deirdre if they are built to be fast enough to double him and have a 2-cooldown special.

G Tomebreaker is an alternative B skill for pretty much any build to specifically shut down Julia and Deirdre, especially if you don't have another answer for them on your team.

I added the build, but is Mirror Stance really any more effective than Fury 3?

I'm hesitant to recommend a Raudhrblade set because A) I think those type of builds are only good for Speedy mages or mages with similar stats as Sanaki and Julius that have nothing better to run. B) It's a waste of 20k feathers and a Raudhrblade+ Tharja fodder.

I don't know if 53 / 35 or 51/33 is really worth it either for a Raudrblade+ set.

Edited May 26, 2018 by Ae†her

[Lewyn]

I think Mirror stance is much better than fury especially if you are running QR3.  Additionally the +3spd/+3def isn't going to help him much unless you give him a lot of support and build his skills so that he can reliably double (tough from 27spd base) and take melee/ranged shots.  While attack and res are his most important stats.  The higher atk will insure more kills and the higher res will further increase his mage tankiness.  In addition if you boost his speed you decrease enemy doubles, which could work against him cause then he won't proc Iceberg in each enemy phase encounter.

Here is what I feel is a good budget build, well aside from Mirror stance 2.  

Loptous tome

Iceberg

Mirror Stance 2

Guard 3

Atk Ploy 3

Quick Riposte 3 sacred seal

The big thing tanks have to worry about is something that cuts their defense.  Guard3, he comes with, and he doesn't have to worry about Quickened Pulse Moonbow, or Quickened pulse Luna on fast mages.  Since no skills are boosting his speed, he will be doubled a lot, insuring he procs Iceberg.  If he isn't he has Iceberg ready for player phase.  Mirror stance boosts his most valuable assets in this mage tank build, Res and Atk. Insuring more survivability and more kills.  Atk ploy 3, which he comes with, goes well with his tome and can help maybe surviving a physical hit.  I think without QR3 you aren't getting doubles and his attack isn't high enough to one shot things so I believe it is a must.  

 

[Ae†her]

6 hours ago, Lewyn said:

I think Mirror stance is much better than fury especially if you are running QR3.  Additionally the +3spd/+3def isn't going to help him much unless you give him a lot of support and build his skills so that he can reliably double (tough from 27spd base) and take melee/ranged shots.  While attack and res are his most important stats.  The higher atk will insure more kills and the higher res will further increase his mage tankiness.  In addition if you boost his speed you decrease enemy doubles, which could work against him cause then he won't proc Iceberg in each enemy phase encounter.

It's literally just one more Atk and Res versus Fury 3 giving you +3 Spd and Def, which helps with ranged physical attackers. He can actually kill some archers in PvE maps this way. Also you can run Glimmer instead of Iceberg to ensure he procs a Special almost all the time with Quick Riposte 3.

I'll add Guard 3.

Edited May 27, 2018 by Ae†her

[Lewyn]

16 hours ago, Ae†her said:

It's literally just one more Atk and Res versus Fury 3 giving you +3 Spd and Def, which helps with ranged physical attackers. He can actually kill some archers in PvE maps this way. Also you can run Glimmer instead of Iceberg to ensure he procs a Special almost all the time with Quick Riposte 3.

I'll add Guard 3.

Fury does give you the +3 spd and +3 def, but you also get the 6 recoil damage.  That hurts in being able to maintain QR, particularly since Julius does not have much HP.

[Ice Dragon]

On 5/26/2018 at 7:34 AM, Ae†her said:

I added the build, but is Mirror Stance really any more effective than Fury 3?

The reduced Spd from Mirror Stance instead of Fury actually helps him activate Iceberg against tome users with middling Spd stats. Julius is durable enough with this build that he takes single-digit damage from most relevant blue tome users, meaning he doesn't really care about getting doubled.

 

On 5/26/2018 at 7:34 AM, Ae†her said:

I'm hesitant to recommend a Raudhrblade set because A) I think those type of builds are only good for Speedy mages or mages with similar stats as Sanaki and Julius that have nothing better to run. B) It's a waste of 20k feathers and a Raudhrblade+ Tharja fodder.

I don't know if 53 / 35 or 51/33 is really worth it either for a Raudrblade+ set.

Whether or not it is worth it, it is his best offensive build, and he pulls it off decently well simply by having a good enough Atk stat. He'd be running the slow variant with Death Blow (and either Desperation + Brash Assault or a support B skill like Chill Res), not Life and Death, Swift Sparrow, or Fury, and simply aim to one-hit-kill things with a giant pile of buffs.

Whether or not a player has the resources to spare for builds like this is up to them to decide.

Edited May 27, 2018 by Ice Dragon

[Ae†her]

26 minutes ago, Ice Dragon said:

The reduced Spd from Mirror Stance instead of Fury actually helps him activate Iceberg against tome users with middling Spd stats. Julius is durable enough with this build that he takes single-digit damage from most relevant blue tome users, meaning he doesn't really care about getting doubled.

Yeah, I was having trouble wrapping my mind around that for a while idk why. 

27 minutes ago, Ice Dragon said:

Whether or not it is worth it, it is his best offensive build, and he pulls it off decently well simply by having a good enough Atk stat. He'd be running the slow variant with Death Blow (and either Desperation + Brash Assault or a support B skill like Chill Res), not Life and Death, Swift Sparrow, or Fury, and simply aim to one-hit-kill things with a giant pile of buffs.

Whether or not a player has the resources to spare for builds like this is up to them to decide.

That's fair enough, though I think Fury 3 can always be useful for builds that involve reducing HP to get to a certain value for increased performance.