Building Marth without Falchion

[TriforceP]

 

Since it's been nearly two years since Banryu did his post on the Lodestar, I thought I'd try my hand, since I recently gave him a full build. I will go on his base stats, but remember that those can have 6 or 7 added to them easily through merges (which are cheap for a 3/4* unit you probably have loads of in your barracks) and Dragon Flowers. 

Also, before I begin, shoutout to @BANRYU, who did a build of this man back in 2018. You can find his thread here.

Marth, the Hero-King of Altea, the Star and Savior, and the slayer of the Shadow Dragon, is unfortunately rough to use these days due to his generation one stats. He has a BST of 158 at neutral IVs, though his speed stat (with a boon) is still respectable even for Gen 4 standards. He also comes in with a salvagable defense and a decent HP and ATK. His RES, however, is hopeless. He does come with a PRF weapon - Falchion (Mystery). Like all Falchions, his is effective against Dragon units, and gives him an innate Renewal skill, which can be really nice, and led to a full build  template focused around this specific weapon. His refine, however, is what put him on the map as one of the best buffers of Generation 1, by giving a spectrum bonus of +2 to allies within two spaces during combat. Even today, that bonus is nothing to sniff at. It's a very easy condition to meet, and any unit who needs buffs could make use of it. 

* Level 40 Stats: 
HP: 37 / 41 / 44
Atk: 28 / 31 / 34
Spd: 31 / 34 / 37
Def: 25 / 29 / 32
Res: 20 / 23 / 26
BST: 157~158

Default Skills: 
Weapon: Falchion 
Assist: Pivot
Special: --
A-Skill: --
B-Skill: Escape Route 3
C-Skill: Spur Speed 3

Star and Savior - Physical Tank

Spoiler

Ideal Boon: +Atk, +Def or +Spd
Weapon: Safeguard+ (+Atk, +Def or +Spd) OR Falchion (+Eff)
Assist: Any movement skill; I used reposition, but he also comes with pivot if you don't think it's worth foddering anyone so he can have one.
Special: Bonfire OR Ignis
A-Skill: Steady Stance 4 OR Steady Stance 3
B-Skill: Atk/Def Link 3
C-Skill: Flexible (I used Infantry Pulse 3)
Seal: Steady Stance 3 OR Close Def 3

When I looked at Marth, I had to ask myself "Why does he fight dragons? His Resistance is pitiful. He wouldn't be able to hold his own in combat". Between that and his slot on my main team as mixed dragon + buffer having recently been taken up by Brave Lucina, I went in a different direction with him. His defense was already decent, so I decided to work with that. 
As with any defense-based unit, I gave him Bonfire as a special. While his base Defense is 29 (35 fully merged and flowered), an unforged Safeguard and two pairs of Steady Stance 3 altogeher provide a +19 to his defense on the enemy phase. His Link skill can provide another +6 to that, as well as his attack. Assuming everything is active and he is fully merged, this build can have him reaching an effective 66 Defense, leading to 33 extra damage from Bonfire or 52 from Ignis when it procs. That's pretty respectable for a unit available from Day 1. 

His C-slot is very flexible. Since his HP outranked most of my other units at this point, and i was running an all-infantry main team, Infantry Pulse fit me well; that said, whatever fits your team would fit well here, as Marth doesn't rely on it at all. 

Use-wise, I've gotten a lot of good use out of him in Arena, but he's usable about anywhere. Currently, I have him supporting with Leila, both able to get immediately in harm's way and able to (hopefully) move her out of it with the added help of his movement assist skill. She pretty much never takes damage, and he can survive almost anything that definitley would have ended her life. That said, keep an eye on mages still; even after all this, his Resistance is still under 30, and he remains weak to mages offensive like Ophelia or Reinhardt. Also, while his Speed is respectable, this build doesn't do much to lift it up, and he is quite liable to being doubled by many units, so keep an eye on that too.

 

Edited March 12, 2020 by TriforceP

[XRay]

5 hours ago, TriforceP said:

Star and Savior - Physical Tank

It would help to note in which mode this build would be useful.

5 hours ago, TriforceP said:

Ideal Boon: +Atk, +Def or +Spd
Weapon: Safeguard+ (+Atk, +Def or +Spd) OR Falchion (+Eff)

If he is going all out on Def, Spd Asset and Spd Refinement alone is not going to help him avoid doubles. 46 Spd at max investment is a bit slow for Aether Raids, and I am not sure Def Tanks are all that useful there.

5 hours ago, TriforceP said:

Weapon: Safeguard+ (+Atk, +Def or +Spd) OR Falchion (+Eff)

5 hours ago, TriforceP said:

Special: Bonfire OR Ignis

I do not recommend Bonfire unless the unit is also running Slaying Edge. A unit should be activating a Special during every round of combat to ensure it kills something.

5 hours ago, TriforceP said:

B-Skill: Atk/Def Link 3

A combat unit should not be running a support skill in my opinion. They should run combat skills for further improvements to performance. It is better to run Lull Atk/Def or Quick Riposte on the B slot and offload stat buffs to allies.

5 hours ago, TriforceP said:

B-Skill: Atk/Def Link 3

5 hours ago, TriforceP said:

Seal: Steady Stance 3 OR Close Def 3

One of those slots should have Quick Riposte to ensure he doubles and kills something.

5 hours ago, TriforceP said:

Use-wise, I've gotten a lot of good use out of him in Arena

For Arena, he wants to run his default Falchion, dual Rally, and Aether so he can score as high as possible. He does not have to have all slots be devoted to scoring, but he should have most of them dedicated to scoring.

— — — — — — —

I personally would not turn him into a Def Tank since he got enough Spd to function as a Spd/Def Tank for use in PvE Abyssal.

+Spd
Slaying Edge [Spd] — Safeguard [Spd]
Reposition
Bonfire (with Slaying Edge) — Moonbow (with Safeguard)
Steady Posture
Lull Atk/Spd
(Any C) — Atk Smoke
Quick Riposte

At max investment, that build gives him 55 Spd. In addition to shutting down Specials like your build, this build also shuts down buffs, prevents most doubles, can guarantee his own double, and retaliate against enemies with a Bonfire or Moonbow to their face.

Edited March 12, 2020 by XRay

[SoulWeaver]

Looking at your C Slot, I'd say a DEF Wave might be worth looking into, right? It's not as reliable as your Link B Slot, but it can make Marth less dependent on using a Movement Skill during the correct turns.

[vercio]

I think Chrom can outperform him in this Mage Tanking / Dragon Killing / Generic tank task.

68HP is Enough for surpassing any Panic (besides Enemy Phase inflicted status as Panic Smoke or Panic Staff). He won't suffer of this, having 41 defense and 42 resistance. Bonfire will always perform 20extradamage, and Mystic boost can keep you in Quick Riposte range for quicker F2P swords like Hana, Soleil, Ogma or Lon'qu. Chrom can also output Infantry Pulse to more units, giving his superhigh HP stat.

 

[XRay]

3 hours ago, vercio said:

Mage Tanking

Melee units should not be tanking ranged units if they do not have Distant Counter. Generally speaking, walling nukes instead of tanking and killing them is a bad idea.

2 hours ago, vercio said:

Bonfire will always perform 20extradamage

Chrom is too fast to use Bonfire reliably. 39 Spd is too unreliable with Steady Posture 2, and 41 Spd is even worse with Steady Posture 3. I would go with Moonbow so he can activate a Special during every round of combat. Frequency of Special triggers is much more important than the damage when a Special triggers.

2 hours ago, vercio said:

Mystic boost can keep you in Quick Riposte range for quicker F2P swords like Hana, Soleil, Ogma or Lon'qu.

Mystic Boost does nothing for Chrom during combat. You want Lull Atk/Spd to disable buffs and give Chrom an indirect boost to Spd/Def/Res.

It is far better and more efficient to bring a healer or a Healing Tower (O). Combat units should stick with combat skills in their skill set and offload everything else to support units as much as possible.

— — — — — — —

For a melee Spd tank, you want something like the following:
+Spd
Barrier Blade [Spd]
Reposition — Swap
Moonbow — Ruptured Sky
Swift Stance (tier 3 not yet released)
Lull Atk/Spd
Atk Smoke
Quick Riposte — Swift Stance
At +10+10 with Swift Stance 3 and Quick Riposte, Chrom will have 47 Spd and 36 Res without factoring any buffs or Blessings. 47 Spd is pretty bad for a Spd tank, but buffs should easily get it to 50+, which should be adequate as long as Chrom is not tanking something crazy like tank-busting F!Byleth with Flashing Blade or Infantry Pulse'd Mareeta with a Blazing Special.

For a proper super tank, Distant Counter is mandatory in my opinion:
+Spd
Guard Sword [Spd]
Reposition — Swap
Moonbow — Ruptured Sky
Distant Counter
Lull Atk/Spd
Pulse Smoke — Panic Smoke — Atk Smoke
Swift Stance
Since a super tank can rely on offloading stats to support units, super tanks should prioritize putting as much tanking effects onto their build as possible. Guard Sword helps prevent Specials, and Lull Atk/Spd disables the two most important stat buffs on nuke.