The best Fire Emblem Heroes in Fire Emblem Heroes

[greenguy327]

I have researched a compiled a list of the best characters in the game based on their default tool kits. Did I miss anyone or overestimate anyone? Feedback is appreciated!

 

https://www.gamersdecide.com/articles/fire-emblem-heroes-best-hero-fire-emblem-tier-list

[Fire Emblem Fan]

Brave Lyn absolutely belongs there, she's one of the very very few units in the game who needs next to no skill inheritance and can still wreck 98% of the game with just her base kit.

[XRay]

1 hour ago, greenguy327 said:

I have researched a compiled a list of the best characters in the game based on their default tool kits.

Judging a Hero based on its default skill set is not reflective of actual realistic gameplay. Practically no unit comes out the box fully optimized and many units have to overhaul their skill set to be functional.

For the article itself:

- The list needs to be broken down, specific, and tailored to a mode. Arena, Arena Assault Team 1, Arena Assault Teams 2-7, Allegiance Battles, Aether Raids offense, Aether Raids defense, Grand Conquest, Røkkr Sieges, etc. all emphasize and have different gameplay mechanics and requirements. A unit can be good in one mode and be crap in another. 

Spoiler

Arena — The player wants a core team of cheerleaders to babysit your bonus unit. How high your core Arena team can score and how good it can support the bonus unit is vastly more important than raw combat performance. In fact, you want your core team to have shitty combat performance to deal chip damage so your bonus unit can have the final kill.

Arena Assault Team 1 — Arena Assault is a mode that has two types of teams. Team 1 should focus solely on scoring. Combat performance honestly does not matter when you can spam the surrender button.

Teams 2-7 — Since the player can preview the enemy team, ease of use is more important than raw combat performance. Teams 2-7 is more about having a large, varied Barracks to tailor enough teams to counter enemies teams rather than using the most overpowered units. This a brain dead easy mode, so the players do not need anything fancy; as long as the player matches their red units to green enemies, blue units to red enemies, etc. powerful units are not necessary.

Allegiance Battles — The player wants a team that can score well and have decent mobility to easily match up against the right color. Due to the large amount of reinforcements at once, I do not recommend armor units as they have trouble moving out the way and be matched against the wrong color.

Aether Raids Offense — Similar to Arena Assault, a player can preview the enemy team. Unlike Arena Assault, the player can only pick from preset teams that they have made instead of picking directly from their Barracks. This means that the player needs to make as many varied teams as possible with the most powerful units. Due to the short turn limit and need to break Aether Fountains and Aether Amphorae however, armor units are generally not suited for this mode in my opinion.

Aether Raids Defense — Due to how the AI works, teams should generally focus on being aggressive and annoying to deal with. Armor units are absolute crap for defense.

Grand Conquest — You ideally want to fill most of your Brigade with your friends' representatives rather than your own due to each player having a limited amount of each Sacred Seals. The most brain dead strategy involves running Distant Counter units with decent bulk and dual phase performance, and simply have them charge at the enemy Camps and Fortresses.

Røkkr Siege — You want bulky Distant Counter units with Breakers and ideally Brave Weapons equippped, and you always want a Witchy Wand staff user on the team. Most Player Phase builds, especially ones that typically rely on Desperation, are horrible here.

- Low Spd is NOT a bad thing, low Spd is a good thing. Def/Res tanks need low Spd so they can reliably be doubled by enemy units to activate a stronger Special. A unit generally wants to be either super slow or super fast; no unit wants to have mediocre Spd because that Spd could have been dumped and reallocated elsewhere.

- Player Phase units having weak defenses or being vulnerable to Effective Weapons are irrelevant since they are not meant to get hit.

- Dancers/Singers having weak combat performance or weak to archers are irrelevant. As support units, they are generally not meant to see combat.

- There are very few support units of the stat buff/debuff variety, with BK!Eliwood and AOTB!Veronica being the only ones there and they are not the best. You need to tune your team's Atk very precisely to make use of BK!Eliwood effectively, and that is not always possible nor necessary. AOTB!Veronica is great debuffer, but she needs to enter into combat in order to debuff, which is not ideal when there are other debuffers who debuff enemies without entering combat at all. For stat buffers, M!Corrin is vital for super tank teams, with the closest competitor being Kaden. For stat debuffers, Gunnthrá, NYOFAI!Gunnthrá, Hríd, HATF!Sharena, HATF!Catria, Aversa, etc. are great for debuffing enemies.

- Velouria is another vital support unit necessary to get certain units to function properly by charging her Ally Support partner's Special.

- BB!Ninian is superior to YT!Olivia due to having access to Fresh Bouquet. With Fortify Fliers and Hone Attack, she can give a Blade mage flier 4/4/6/6 buffs.

- SR!Laegjarn is better than Lewyn because she has the same Weapon but is a flier.

I would personally remove most armor units and some melee infantry units from the list. Mobility is extremely important in Aether Raids, the most competitive mode in the game right now, and armor units outside of DW!Y!Tiki are super slow. And with Duel skills being a thing, armor units are no longer necessary for scoring either. Zelgius, LA!Eliwood, FH!M!Robin, MOO!Hector, Caineghis, GOW!Fae, Surtr, GOW!Ephraim, and Duma have no business being in the top as they cannot run a dual phase skill set without using Quick Riposte on the Sacred Seal slot, which could limit the effectiveness of their teammates who can put it to better use. Mareeta, Owain, and BL!Roy are pretty weak in terms of combat performance when compared to AOTB!Celica and HK!Marth.

Challenger list for arcticsilverfox calculator: Against Hard List enemies. Both sides +10 with 6/6/6/6 bonus buffs. HK!Marth, BL!Roy, Mareeta with Slaying Edge, and Owain are at 1 HP to activate Desperation.

Spoiler

CHALLENGER LIST  
Marth (HK) (5*+10 +atk)  
Weapon: Exalted Falchion  
Special: Fire Emblem  
A: Brazen Atk Spd 4  
B: Desperation 3  
S: Flashing Blade 3  
  
Celica (Brave) (5*+10 +atk)  
Weapon: Slaying Edge+  
Special: Luna  
A: Swift Sparrow 3  
B: Double Lion  
😄 Atk Tactic 3  
S: Flashing Blade 3  
Upgrade Path: 2  
  
Roy (BL) (5*+10 +atk)  
Weapon: Dragonbind  
Special: Moonbow  
A: Brazen Atk Spd 4  
B: Desperation 3  
S: Brazen Atk Spd 3  
  
Mareeta (DW) (5*+10 +atk)  
Weapon: Slaying Edge+  
Special: Ruptured Sky  
A: Brazen Atk Spd 4  
B: Desperation 3  
S: Brazen Atk Spd 3  
Upgrade Path: 1  
  
Mareeta (DW) (5*+10 +atk)  
Weapon: Shadow Sword  
Special: Ruptured Sky  
A: Swift Sparrow 3  
B: Null Follow Up 3  
S: Attack 3  
  
Owain (5*+10 +atk)  
Weapon: Missiletain  
Special: Ruptured Sky  
A: Brazen Atk Spd 4  
B: Desperation 3  
S: Brazen Atk Spd 3  

 

[Hilda]

That tier list is useless.
Skill inheritance is a thing.
and second: you should break this Tierlist up into categories.

Best Support: Who provides good cheerleading
Best Player phase
Best Enemy phase

and even then there are many subcategorys. All depends so much on the Team composition/synergy. Like Regular Marth is for me one of the best cheerleaders alongside Legendary Azura when it comes to Infantry support with Infantry Breath.

Veronica is a good offense and at the same time excellent support unit.

Without proper defense and support, offensiv units crumble in this game.

[Anacybele]

And what about RD Ike, regular Fjorm, and Eir, who are practically the big three in terms of free units? They're the best of the best when it comes to FTP strats.

Edited July 28, 2019 by Anacybele

[PuffPuff]

Best FTP units definitely (Some examples)...

 

-Nino Best Alakazam like character you'll ever get.

Ana said above as well as...

-Alfonse Built in Deathblow and his high attk makes him good after a cheap breaker skill.

-Sharon/Shreena Should get good after a speed seal as her speed is only 35.

-Anna Gets high speed than most of your units as well as coming with a good weapon that allows her to teleport.

-Harold/Arthur For his good all around stats if chosen as neutral IV's. Great Spear Cav slayer with his Emerald Axe+ and his natural Lancebreaker.

-Camus and Xandar Free Distant Counter as well as powerful proof wpns. Plus horse buff H4x.

-Felicia for her good Iceberg Mage slaying sweeping after fixing her offense with +Attk with Deathblow.

-Hana for her excellent sweeping needing no skill inheritance to be good.

-Olivia is the best there is to support FTP clears.

-Setsuna for her best at handling Brave Bows especially after inheriting Life And Death.

-Shanna for her easy to build +sing and her natural high speed.

 

These are least costing on your resources (Orbs) to make, or if any to be good in the game!

Edited July 28, 2019 by PuffPuff

[XRay]

26 minutes ago, PuffPuff said:

-Setsuna for her best at handling Brave Bows especially after inheriting Life And Death.

I think players are better off investing in Klein instead since he is just as easy to get but vastly more powerful.

[Roflolxp54]

That tier list is so early 2017.

It's horribly out of date due to SKILL INHERITANCE, the various gamemodes available (units can be good at or built for different gamemodes), and AVAILABILITY (that shiny 5* exclusive may not be much better or even straight up inferior to a well-invested 3-4* available grails-available unit.