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Raven: Peerless Fighter


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Raven: Peerless Fighter

A fairly unique standout among Axe infantry, Raven is distinctive for his excellent offensive stats and unique access to an extremely powerful weapon & refinement combination, making him perhaps the strongest axe infantry of the lot-- and on top of this, he is rather easy and economical to build, requiring only Divine Dew for his refinement, a handful of skills from units available at 4* or below, and the feathers to upgrade them when necessary. With a good IV, he is almost certainly bound to be worth the effort and investment it takes to build him. 

5* Level 40 stats:
HP: 37 / 41/ 44
Atk: 31 / 34 / 37
Spd: 32 / 35 / 38
Def: 22 / 25 / 29
Res: 19 / 22 / 25
Total: 156~158

Default skills:
Weapon: Brave Axe+ -> Basilikos
Assist: --
Special: Sol
Passive A: Defiant Spd 3
Passive B: --
Passive C: Threaten Def 3


The Cleaner (Galeforce offense)
**Optimal Build**, General Use, Arena Offense, Chain modes

Spoiler

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

  • +Spd/-Res (Fury): 44 HP | 58 Atk | 46 Spd | 23 Def | 17 Res
  • +Spd/-Res (LnD): 44 HP | 60 Atk | 48 Spd | 15 Def | 9 Res
  • +Atk/-Res (Fury): 44 HP | 61 Atk | 43 Spd | 23 Def | 17 Res
  • +Atk/-Res (LnD): 44 HP | 63 Atk | 45 Spd | 15 Def | 9 Res

Weapon: Basilikos [LnD3]
Assist: Reposition / flexible
Special: Galeforce / Luna
Passive A: Life and Death 3 / Fury 3 / Brazen Atk+Spd 3
Passive B: Desperation 3
Passive C: Speed Smoke 3 / Def Smoke 3 / Savage Blow 3 / flexible
Sacred Seal: Heavy Blade 3

Few units in the game hold the right tools to proc Galeforce in a single round of combat, letting them chain together action-after-action so long as each one secures a KO or else retreating to safety after securing one. Raven is just such one unit holding one of those tools, AKA Basilkos, which possesses one of the most powerful combinations of weapon effects of any melee weapon in the game. The -1 special cooldown of a killer weapon combined with Life and Death (previously one of his best A-slot skills) that frees up his A-slot for ANOTHER skill to further boost his attack and speed makes for a ridiculous fighter that is free to run Heavy Blade, giving him a 4-countdown Galeforce that can be activated in 2 hits provided he hits the Heavy Blade threshold-- which, frankly, isn't difficult to do at all. The only hangup with this setup is that it requires Raven to hit twice in order to proc Galeforce and move again, so just be careful not to be expecting another move if he OHKOs a squishy mage or some such. 

As an alternative to Galeforce, Raven can also run Luna, trading his ability to make multiple attacks in one turn for the power to punch through defensive units, with even many defensive reds struggling to withstand the assault. With Desperation and Heavy Blade active, Luna can activate every round, and with an Atk boon, comes impressively close to ORKOing prominent red tanks such as Breath of Fog a!Tiki, Def-refined Winter Tharja, and Zelgius (the latter two escape being KO'd by 2 and 1 HP respectively with a neutral nature), and with a bit of offense support via Hones or Drives he can successfully secure nearly any KO with Desperation up. 

As far as options and variation, most of the skills are mandatory with the exception of the A-slot, which can accomodate any skill that further boosts Raven's Attack and Speed with which to take advantage of Galeforce, and C-slot, which can capitalize on his Galeforce refreshment to both apply and use the debuff in a single turn. Fury is both an economic option and a solid one, further expanding on the Life and Death boost from Basilikos while patching up for his reduced defenses with it for a total gain of +8 Atk/Spd and only -2 to Def and Res to his base stats altogether. Life and Death repeated in the A-slot minmaxes him even further, and if going this route it is advised to possibly run Reciprocal Aid or another method of lowering his HP to Desperation range since he is unlikely to be able to take many hits with just 15 Defense. Swift Sparrow is in-between the latter two options in both offense and defense, and Brazen AtkSpd is perhaps the strongest option so long as he is able to get into its range safely. 

For his C-skill options, his native Threaten Defense is perfectly adequate, though if they can be spared, Smoke skills (including Savage Blow) synergize well with Galeforce, allowing him to apply a debuff and then exploit it in the same turn. 


The Avenger (Wrath+some enemy phase)
**High Investment**, Arena Offense/Defense, Chain modes (depending on skills)

Spoiler

Suggested IV: +Atk/-Res, +Spd/-Res 

  • +Atk/-Res: 44 HP | 58 Atk | 40 Spd | 25 Def | 19 Res
  • +Spd/-Res: 44 HP | 55 Atk | 43 Spd | 25 Def | 19 Res

Weapon: Basilikos [LnD3]
Assist: Reposition / flexible
Special: Glimmer / Aether^ / Sol^
Passive A: Distant Counter / Close Defense / Steady Breath^
Passive B: Wrath 3
Passive C: Threaten Defense / flexible
Sacred Seal: Close Defense 3 / Deflect Magic 3 / flexible

For some utility on enemy phase, Raven can run a number of useful skills alongside Wrath that make effective use of Basilikos' killer effect, and his solid HP stat helps make up for his weaker defenses. 

For a dose of instantaneous pain to his enemies, Raven can exploit Glimmer's low cooldown after taking a hit to get into Wrath range for an instant Glimmer that packs a hefty punch per hit. Being the green unit in most team compositions typically means having to deal with, among other prominent blue threats, Reinhardt; with Distant Counter + Deflect Magic, Raven can act as a counter to him even on enemy phase, capable of eating both Dire Thunder hits before replying with a Glimmer to the face. From then on Raven acts as a glass cannon with more isnta-Glimmers to throw around, a short-term strategy that is nonetheless highly effective for Arena matches. Even without Distant Counter, Raven can still run skills such as Close Defense or Steady Stance to achieve the same ends of tanking and Glimmering, and if he has Deflect Magic he can still at least survive Reinhardt, if not counterkill him in the same round. If Raven is not needed to run Reinhardt, then Close Defense, Distant Defense, or Deflect Melee are preferable blue-tanking options, since Deflect Magic is quite specialized for countering Dire Thunder. 

Alternatively, running Steady Breath + Wrath and a healing special turns him into a solid enemy phase tank in spite of his offensive stat spread, using his offenses to fuel his healing factor. In addition to granting a high score for Arena, also has the added benefit of greater longevity in longhaul modes like Chain Challenge and Tempest Trial. 

 

 

 

 

Edited by BANRYU
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I think you can note that one way to spec Raven on C slot is to give him Smoke Skills. Smokes are generally pretty good for Galeforce based set up, and in this case it can leverage Raven's bulk on some set up, or just improve your offensive range. -5 stats is pretty good

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59 physical bulk unbuffed with Life and Death 3 in his A slot is more than enough to initiate the first round of combat against a blue unit and survive the counterattack. His bulk gets even better as he merges, reaching 67 physical bulk at +10 merge, which requires a lance user to have 83 Atk to kill him in a single hit. Against lance users, he's really only at risk of dying to instant Special activations, like Lukas's Steady Breath build.

 

The Galeforce build benefits greatly from any kind of after-combat area-of-effect skill in the C slot, like Savage Blow, Spd Smoke, or Def Smoke.

 

Also, while his Galeforce build is great, you're unnecessarily shutting out other options for him.

With Luna has his Special skill, he has absurd wall-breaking capabilities, losing kills only to bulky or Triangle Adept reds and opponents he cannot double attack (like Myrrh and Axebreaker) after Desperation activates.

Because he has the bulk to survive one hit and enough Spd to avoid being double attacked by most things even without a Spd-boosting A skill, he can run builds with Wrath that capitalize on his monstrously high Atk stat and low Def.

Glimmer has a cooldown of 1 with Basilikos's effect, meaning it always activates on the first counterattack when Raven is attacked, and scales well with Raven's high Atk. He has 58 magic bulk with a -Res nature without an A skill, which is enough to survive most blue tome users even. With Deflect Magic as his Sacred Seal, he even survives Reinhardt with 2 HP remaining (34 + 8 = 42 damage from a fully buffed Reinhardt running Quickened Pulse). Wrath will activate on every turn, reducing his cooldown to zero at the beginning of every turn, giving him the opportunity to simply one-hit kill the majority of the game on initiation afterwards.

Alternatively, he can simply run Basilikos as a stronger Slaying Axe with a +Spd refine, running Wrath and Steady Breath with Sol, Luna, or Aether.

Here are the builds:

  • Luna wall breaker
    [+Spd, -Res]
    Basilikos [unique]
    Luna
    Life and Death 3
    Desperation 3
    Heavy Blade 3
  • Instant Glimmer
    [+Spd, -Res]
    Basilikos [unique]
    Glimmer
    Distant Counter
    Wrath 3
    Deflect Magic 3
  • Steady Breath Slaying Axe++
    [+Spd, -Res]
    Basilikos [Spd]
    Sol / Luna / Aether
    Steady Breath
    Wrath 3
    Close Def 3 / Deflect Melee 3 / Quick Riposte 3
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Ahh, y'both right of course. S'cuse my lack of imagination, will adjust accordingly when I get the chance.

 

EDIT: okay so Wrath+Glimmer sounds fantastic but I'm not terrifically sold on the whole DC+Deflect Magic thing since that seems a bit painfully specific to dealing with Reinhardt when, correct me if I'm wrong, aren't there more pressing threats in arena meta nowadays? The Deflect seals in particular don't strike me as terrifically useful in general, outside of this niche and specific uses of it (which I'll grant, CAN be warranted). Maybe that's worth such specialization....?? I'm definitely curious about its performance outside of just Rein.... 

Edited by BANRYU
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4 hours ago, BANRYU said:

but I'm not terrifically sold on the whole DC+Deflect Magic thing since that seems a bit painfully specific to dealing with Reinhardt when, correct me if I'm wrong, aren't there more pressing threats in arena meta nowadays?

He survives the initial attack from pretty much any blue that isn't a Brave Lance+ or Dire Thunder (or a well buffed Blarblade+), which is all he actually needs to do to set up. It's far easier to bait Reinhardt than it is to initiate against him, so it's worth using Deflect Magic to target him instead of Deflect Melee to target Brave Lances, as initiating against Brave Lances is easier. Note that my calculations used a +10 fully buffed Reinhardt against a +0 unbuffed Raven, so this build is safe from any Reinhardt build unless you get hit with a Res debuff.

Deflect Missile won't work because he takes too much damage from Brave Lyn due to the lack of weapon triangle advantage. Your other options are Close Def and Distant Def to add some more bulk against non-Brave green and colorless opponents.

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10 hours ago, Ice Dragon said:

He survives the initial attack from pretty much any blue that isn't a Brave Lance+ or Dire Thunder (or a well buffed Blarblade+), which is all he actually needs to do to set up. It's far easier to bait Reinhardt than it is to initiate against him, so it's worth using Deflect Magic to target him instead of Deflect Melee to target Brave Lances, as initiating against Brave Lances is easier. Note that my calculations used a +10 fully buffed Reinhardt against a +0 unbuffed Raven, so this build is safe from any Reinhardt build unless you get hit with a Res debuff.

Deflect Missile won't work because he takes too much damage from Brave Lyn due to the lack of weapon triangle advantage. Your other options are Close Def and Distant Def to add some more bulk against non-Brave green and colorless opponents.

Ah fair enough. Welp this way I know what to emphasize, much appreciated. I'm still not 100% sold on it, but I do know that most teams need their Green unit to be their Rein counter, which I suppose is reason enough to run it, if not the surprise factor.

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Okay Raven has been edited accordingly and should be up to date. 

I went ahead and consolidated the listed builds into just 2 (Desperation and Wrath), with related skills explained in detail. 

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 16/06/2018 at 9:48 PM, Tenzen12 said:

I seen today 2*LoD /Pavise/Shield pulse. Seems to pretty deadly.

Oh, that. Ice has been talking about a pavise build ever since Basilikos came out

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  • 2 months later...

Figured I'd ask here since it's about Raven. For the Pavise, Shield Pulse build, which bane would be preferred? Since Pavise and similar skills like Divine Tyrfing reduces damage by percentage, it's better to let it, the percent reduced, do the work instead of having a higher defensive stat, right? That was one argument I saw in a thread about Raven on the FEH subreddit as to why -Def would work well along with -Res, but -HP wouldn't be good since Raven would lose his health pool for this specific build. +Def was also argued as not being as good as +Atk or +Spd not to mention that Linus is basically a +Atk, +Def, and -Spd, -Res Raven. That being said, since Raven's primarily going to fight melee units and most of them are physical units, -Res might be safer on him if you intend to run a different build for him.

The other thing would be his boon. Merged, +Atk Raven would win out compared to Linus except for defense since as =Def, he'd hit 29 at +10 to Linus's 32 base. Anyway, I'm still holding out on that maybe in the future, GHB, TT, the Askr trio, and other limited units can eventually get to +10 or maybe with the combat manuals thing, we could somehow buy merges, well, 3* or 4* copies, for them. In that case, I feel like +Spd Raven would give him a more different niche* even if his damage per hit wouldn't be as good. The other thing is that some of the inflated stats and new units coming out with ~40 neutral speed makes me feel like Raven being able to double and avoid doubles as much as possible would be a good thing even though most of them have been swords and he's not really supposed to fight them.

* +10 or +0, I'd like to run a Brazen Atk/Def, Wrath build on Linus for stupid reasons. Same reason why I'd like to run a Pavise, Shield Pulse build on Raven.

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On 9/8/2018 at 2:37 PM, Kaden said:

Figured I'd ask here since it's about Raven. For the Pavise, Shield Pulse build, which bane would be preferred? Since Pavise and similar skills like Divine Tyrfing reduces damage by percentage, it's better to let it, the percent reduced, do the work instead of having a higher defensive stat, right? That was one argument I saw in a thread about Raven on the FEH subreddit as to why -Def would work well along with -Res, but -HP wouldn't be good since Raven would lose his health pool for this specific build. +Def was also argued as not being as good as +Atk or +Spd not to mention that Linus is basically a +Atk, +Def, and -Spd, -Res Raven. That being said, since Raven's primarily going to fight melee units and most of them are physical units, -Res might be safer on him if you intend to run a different build for him.

I'd go for -Res on the Pavise build. Def and Res are each worth half as much as HP, and since the majority of units capable of counterattacking at melee range target Def, giving up the points in Res is preferred.

 

On 9/8/2018 at 2:37 PM, Kaden said:

The other thing would be his boon. Merged, +Atk Raven would win out compared to Linus except for defense since as =Def, he'd hit 29 at +10 to Linus's 32 base. Anyway, I'm still holding out on that maybe in the future, GHB, TT, the Askr trio, and other limited units can eventually get to +10 or maybe with the combat manuals thing, we could somehow buy merges, well, 3* or 4* copies, for them. In that case, I feel like +Spd Raven would give him a more different niche* even if his damage per hit wouldn't be as good. The other thing is that some of the inflated stats and new units coming out with ~40 neutral speed makes me feel like Raven being able to double and avoid doubles as much as possible would be a good thing even though most of them have been swords and he's not really supposed to fight them.

+Atk has a bit better performance than +Spd does, but it's pretty close.

I'm comparing

Raven [+Atk -Res] (Basilikos [unique], Pavise, Life and Death 3, Shield Pulse 3, Heavy Blade 3) +4/4/0/0 with
Raven [+Spd, -Res] (Basilikos [unique], Pavise, Life and Death 3, Shield Pulse 3, Heavy Blade 3 / Flashing Blade 3) +4/4/0/0

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