Kaden

'Cause everyone can get her for free now and because of her similar stats, checked Est with a Brave Lance with Cordelia and Hinoka. All neutral and pretty much sub-optimal since I don't really know what a Brave weapon user would really want other than Attack +3, Death Blow, Fury, Life & Death, Swift Sparrow, etc. for offense and Escutcheon for defense. So, first off, their base neutral stats as 5* units. I hope this won't kill people's eyes or affect how different themes show them, but green means its the best stat out of the 3 and red means it's the worst. Cor: 40 HP, 35 Atk, 35 Spd, 22 Def, 25 Res Est: 36 HP, 35 Atk, 30 Spd, 24 Def, 32 Res Hin: 41 HP, 35 Atk, 32 Spd, 25 Def, 24 Res So, yeah, the 3 share the same attack which is what makes them so strong as Brave Lance users. Cordelia is the fastest, but the most fragile against physical attacks which she does make up with having respectable HP and T-Adept covering her against reds, Est has the highest resistance, but the lowest HP and speed, and Hinoka is kind of in the middle and probably the most durable all-around. Anyway, all neutral and with Death Blow 3 against everyone with Fury 3 and attack boon -- defense boon would totally lower the wins. Cordelia gets 75 wins, 12 losses, and 32 draws, Est gets 74 wins, 19 losses, and 26 draws, and Hinoka gets 74 wins, 10 losses, and 35 draws. In Cordelia's case, because of her speed, she can get a 2 or 3-cooldown special to activate e.g. giving her Luna pushes her up to 77 wins, 12 losses, and 30 draws. Details in the spoiler. Considering Est is a 3* to 4* unit, it would be easy to find a good boon/bane and as of this post, she is freely available as part of a quest so anyone can use her along with getting at least a Brave Lance from a special map Donnel. Getting her as a 3* can also allow her to rack up SP for Inherit Skill since all the others would have to inherit similar skills with Est needing to get a Brave Lance as extra. That also goes against her and kind of Hinoka since Cordelia's default skills, especially T-Adept, allow her to function pretty well compared Est. Another draw to Est is her high resistance which can allow her to deal with mages more safely than the other two and allow her consistent extra damage with Iceberg or Glacies. Still, Cordelia is the queen of the Brave Lance -- she has it in her official art after all -- and is still fairly accessible as she can be summoned as a 4* unlike Hinoka who is 5*-only and has been part of a banner once which Cordelia was also. That said, Est can be a good Brave Lance user with some work. TL;DR: Est, elle est forte, mais Cordelia et Hinoka sont plus fortes. Hey, @BANRYU, would you reconsider Est? :P

Wasn't this something Selena could do too? Get forged steel weapons and go to town on people? I've yet to play any of the Fates games, but I really want to use Selena, so I looked up some stuff about her in Conquest. Also, something makes me want to marry Charlotte if I go with M!Corrin. Something about how it would be a terrible idea which is what compels me to want to do it.

Wasn't this something Selena could do too? Get forged steel weapons and go to town on people? I've yet to play any of the Fates games, but I really want to use Selena, so I looked up some stuff about her in Conquest. Also, something makes me want to marry Charlotte if I go with M!Corrin. Something about how it would be a terrible idea which is what compels me to want to do it.

Could she stay that way? No, I gain a little, unnoticeable swish while my facial features change just a bit. :P

This analysis of Catria... Speaking of art, Setsuna suddenly sprouting a shoulder plate when she activates her special is weird.

Catria's idle artwork makes me think she's looking back or perhaps turning to look back at you as she walks away. I don't know what she's like since I never played any of the games she's been in other than Heroes, but it works for a someone who seems quite quiet and pretty awkward at times. Then again, she shares the same voice actress as Felicia and Setsuna and they're all dorks. But yeah, I can see why the art is there for fanservice. Then again, who doesn't have fanservice art? You've got your muscular, ripped males like Barst and Hawkeye, badass old men with unique special art, comic book Arthur, cute as hell Ninian, and shoujo and other genre artists for characters like Rebecca and Niles was done by a yaoi artist, right? It's all fanservice, so drool to your heart's content. :P

As a 4*, she'll end up with 37 def with +Def. 5* will have 39 def. Give her Bonfire and Quick Riposte and watch her counter blues and maybe greens like they were nothing. Distant Counter would nice, if you can spare it, as it would for all knights. I wished I had a green knight since that's the only color I'm missing to complete coverage if I were to use an all knight team.

Have you seen his special art? His face is menacing. Jakob's face for his normal attack reminds me of... *Tokyo Ghoul story spoilers below* @Cute Chao, the first Subaki I used was a 3*, -Atk, +Spd Subaki. It was terrible. And then 4*, +Atk, -Res Subaki showed up with Shanna starting a slow move to not getting screwed with little to no blue units that are at least decent. Meanwhile, archers and blue and red mages... Subaki would get more mileage from Bonfire or even Ignis because of his high defense. Moonbow has a lower cooldown, but it won't do as much damage consistently as Bonfire would. With a Killer Lance, you'd be able to activate Bonfire every round of combat which should be more damage than with Moonbow or Luna. For A-slot, you could give him stuff like Attack +3, Defense +3, Swift Sparrow 2, etc. Fury is good, but you run the risk of it taking him below Quick Riposte's threshold if you intend to keep it. Be sure to plan this out, though.

Late reply: Seconding @JSND, +Atk, -Res Subaki is awesome. His resistance out of the blue flyers is already low and if you get his default skills, he'd just have his base neutral resistance. Give him Bonfire, perhaps a Killer Lance, swap out his A-slot, give him a C-slot skill that complements your team, and there you go.

I never played any of the Shadow Dragon games, so... Guessing a tragedy happens? I know Abel is forced to do something unpleasant, but that's it. Welp, to sleep I go.

She has Abel, so it's all good. Welp, so I don't need to summon Est now... But now I have 150 units. Great... She's probably the most useful as another blue for a still blue deprived army and purely as a new unit; I have 2 Catrias, one +Atk, -Spd and one +Spd, -Res and 3 Pallas of which the main one is a 4* -Hp, +Def. I could see Est being much better if she didn't have a Heavy Lance even if it goes with the whole she has Armorslayer in Shadow Dragon. She hits hard. I think she's the strongest blue flyer I have now. +Atk Catria can only reach 34 base attack while Est's neutral is 35... Brave Lance and Iceberg... Muhahahahahahaha. Mages must die. I'll see about this tomorrow since it's 3:00 am where I am. Also, this marks the first time a 4* to 5* unit was available for 3*, right? Draug was the first 3* summonable unit to be made available as 2* who was not part of the special maps.

@eclipse, you could just get her loaded with SP and wait until you get the right units to inherit skills from. It's going to be annoying knowing she won't have a lot of skills or any skills depending on what you're doing. Right now, I'm training the quest Sophia since I want to merge the -Atk 4* Sophia to get her default skills and add in whatever else I'd want. Neither quest Sophia or spare Oboro have gotten any of their default skills since I want as much SP as possible. Gonna hold off until Zephiel's done since if Sophia's a key player, then I'm screwed as quest Sophia is only level 27. Edit: Now I'm curious if it's possible to do a Lunatic GHB with 3* units and no skills outside of "necessary" ones like weapons and maybe dance for dancers. It'd be insane, but amazing.

Just giving people friendly advice. :p

Add in this third point that I learned the hard way: It's more productive if you don't. Let's just say trying to figure out what Falco's worth in Smash 4 and ending up the conclusion that, in my opinion, he's the most worthless and the worst character of Smash 4 and the most broken character of the franchise itself sooner would have saved me so much time that I could have done to do something else like learning how to draw again, but with my left hand because my right had tendinitis, chipping away at a backlog of anime, books, films, and games, no procrastinating, and other stuff. I'll still rant and be annoyed every now and again about stuff like this, though. It's just better to not care. Knowing they're not as good is good enough. I'd rather focus on using a dopey archer then always focus on the fact that a pineapple is the best option when it comes to archers in general. Pineapples are still tasty, though. Bacon, pepperoni, and pineapples on pizza. Fight me. :p

Donnel, Ephraim, and Lukas do everything Oboro can do better. And eventually, we'll have a lance infantry who specializes in mage killing, so there's that too... Not as bad as Beruka whose marginally higher defense compared to Michalis's is absolutely crushed by his Hauteclare and much, much higher attack. Beruka doesn't have any other option than to be a tank and between a tank who just tanks to a tank who also quickly murders people, the latter probably wins for most people. Or Florina compared to Clair, Est, and Shanna. Or Setsuna who only has 1 high stat and 4 low stats to the other archers and units in general having better balanced stats. At least Oboro can be a jack of all trades, but that comes at a cost of not specializing in anything. I'm just salty after figuring out what to do with a +Atk, -Res Oboro only to have Lukas show up and then after crunching numbers watching her struggle against Donnel, Ephraim, and Lukas doing the same builds as her... And then the game throws a free Niles at me after being deprived of any archers other than Virion for 21 freaking summons of which Niles showed up and after that, summoning Jaffar, Rebecca, and Setsuna all with -Atk. Yay, thanks for giving me 3 characters I like with -Atk. I'll add them to the list of grievances alongside -Atk Barst, Cherche, Lon'qu -- do not get me started on all the crap natures I've gotten with this guy --, Ninian, Raven, M!Robin, and while I don't like him as much, but he has been a very useful unit, Subaki. Also, Sophia.

Boxes are 3D squares. Boxes can be made out of cardboard. Cardboard boxes are friends. I like boxes. It was my destiny to be there; in the box. Oh, and people put cinnamon rolls, cherry blossoms, helicopters, lobsters, milk, pineapples, and tomatoes in boxes to store, trap, and contain them. :P

@pianime94, Pivot and Smite let you move over spaces your units cannot for one reason or another which can be helpful. So, on a map where fliers can be on gaps, you can have some Smite a cavalier, infantry, or knight over or have someone Pivot over the flyer. Pivot can also be used defensively. It's how Cherche was able to survive and force Michalis to fight Tiki on Lunatic Michalis for me.

@BANRYU, I thought tomes were interchangeable and they would just become the other tome if they're inherited by another color. Apparently not. Man, so I don't have any red or green -blade times then or a red -raven tome then. Part of me is like get the + versions, but the other part is like, no, it's expensive. Wait until you somehow summon a 5* with a + weapon. And then another part is like promote units! Give Felicia, Lissa, and a bunch of other units skills to get rid of excess units! I have 10 summons left before the barracks become full. -________-

Setsuna's stats rant: I like Setsuna because she's derpy, but using a character just because you like them and when they have pretty much nothing on other units is not fun. Even the smallest of niches can make them worthwhile, but dear Naga, Setsuna has absolutely nothing on the other archers. There's always that reminder of someone or rather, someones are just better and it sucks massive donkey butt. I just checked with Firesweep Bow, she outperforms everyone, but a +Spd Takumi. With Firesweep Bow+ and Life & Death 3 against everyone with Fury 3 and neutral stats -- they can't counter back; maybe I should have used +Def --, a normal Jeorge gets 31 wins, Klein and Rebecca get 29, Setsuna gets 36, and Takumi gets 33. If all are +Atk, then Jeorge and Klein get 38 wins, Rebecca gets 36, Setsuna gets 42, and Takumi gets 41. If all are +Spd, then Jeorge gets 39 wins, Klein gets 38, Rebecca gets 37, Setsuna gets 42, and Takumi gets 45. Once again, the superior archer proves he's the best at everything given the right edge and with a bow that isn't as great as a delete button as Brave Bow+. There's also the issue of being unable to counter back which would suck with Setsuna's shoddy defenses and removing Takumi's default Close Counter shtick. Rebecca was there since I wondered if she'd like to use Firesweep. The answer is no and also a no to Brave Bow. Getting screwed by the game by giving me a -Atk Setsuna is not fun either. Yeah, I know, -Atk means her base attack is going to be 25 which is Matthew and Niles's neutral attack and -Atk M!Robin's... UGH... I don't have a -Spd one, but yeah, at least she's salvageable which Niles should be too since their base neutral speed is the same. The +Res idea was that if she had 30 resistance, it would be useful for her to run Iceberg over Luna since she'd have a guaranteed +15 damage regardless of what units she fights. He has a Navarre too -- both hard and lunatic Navarre --, but only Shanna can give a full set of it as a 4* which he said was going to try to get instead of spending 20k feathers for a should be inexpensive skill compared to say, Wo Dao+ or Close and Distant Counter. He had a Shanna, but he has no idea what happened to her since she's listed in his Hero Merit -- he said he might have sent her home before Inherit Skill was a thing.

Yeah, I know, since -Atk ruined these units for me: Barst, Cherche, Jaffar, Lon'qu, Ninian -- she's a dancer, but it would have been nice if she had =Atk --, Rebecca, M!Robin, Setsuna, Sophia, and Subaki. It's so freaking annoying, especially if it's the first and only time I've summoned them. It's even worse when they leave enemies with 1 HP because I just know that they would have killed had they not been -Atk. The only units who were able ignore -Atk for me were Bartre and Raven since they're fast enough to still be able to dish out enough damage. And it seems like Jaffar is going to be on that list too, especially with Deathly Dagger and Life & Death helping. The others, no so much, but Barst and Subaki were redeemed by +Atk versions. Anyway, I digress. Re: Virion: Re: Rebecca and Setsuna: I should have asked him specifically what he would want to do. Right now, he's trying to build a +Spd, -Res M!Corrin and Karel's the only one with Desperation at the moment. Another friend quickly advised him to not get rid of Karel just for Desperation of all things. Something about Darting Blow + Desperation on M!Corrin... Anyway, yeah, Karel's a good unit, but it could be bad like Karel's -Atk which another friend has. @BANRYU and @ILikeKirbys, F!Robin's been a pretty good anti-cavalry killer, but yeah. Gronnblade would be good, but I only have one Gronnblade source: one spare Odin who I feel like if Gronnblade were to go to someone, it should be Ursula who I could also give Tomebreaker. I've never summoned Henry or Nino on this file. That and don't you need a specific set-up for -blade tomes? I'd also need to get replace her default Ignis since it would be a 5 charge special. Getting Gronnraven would be easier since I have a couple of Cecilias I could sack -- would be ideal, but expensive to get one to 5* and then give F!Robin a -blade tome. Another problem is if you read a bit from the top about the units screwed by -Atk, the only M!Robin I have is a 4* with -Atk, +Def. He's still stronger than Odin, but it's still a pain in the buttocks. Tanks stuff better, but yeah...

Well, a friend was wondering, so I'll ask for him here: who would want a Wo Dao+? Specifically, since I know Selena would going off of the Selena build DehNutCase made a while back and most sword users who are running the Wall of Fire/Ice and Sharp Things. Also, because I summoned them and got screwed, what would a -Atk Rebecca and Setsuna want in general? There'll be a day I summon another one of them, so I'm just going to level them up to get their default skills and maybe inherit some others. That and it's fun hearing Setsuna say anything e.g., "Yay...", whenever you choose her on the map. Probably not going to do a Brave Bow build on either after being crushed by @DehNutCase -- still love you :p -- showing how Setsuna is pretty much... useless and overshadowed by Takumi as she was in Fates apparently. Oh, and F! Robin's fate is to become a M!Robin, right? Gronnraven+ from Cecilia, T-Adept, etc.

I finally got Setsuna! After 23 summons, she's finally here! But she's -Atk, +Res... I'll go cry in a corner knowing 2 of my favorite archers who both have low base attack to begin with have -Atk and being reminded of my terrible luck with archers in this game... ;_; The others have meh boon/bane. Palla is the same Palla as the first ever Palla I summoned; +Def, -HP. Not appalled as I was with second Palla who is -Atk, though. Welp, that does it for this banner. 2 summon per banner and this is the second.

I could see it happening, but after a massive, "season" update. I doubt they would change units a bit even if some of they struggle or are kind of useless because of other units that were introduced like Beruka is to Michalis. If they do make Night Sky skills use speed, it would really help units who have high speed, but nothing else like Setsuna who if it follows the 50% and 80% format, would be guaranteed 18 damage with Glimmer/Night Sky or 29 damage with Astra because of her neutral 37 speed which is her only good stat compared to the other archers. Anna, Lon'qu, and Virion would love it too. Anna and Lon'qu are guaranteed 19 additional damage with Night Sky while Virion is guaranteed 15 damage assuming base neutral speeds and they're all 5*.

Y'know, it's quite sad that Glimmer and Astra are pretty useless. Might have been an obvious idea, but had they used your character's speed like Bonfire, Draconic Aura, and Iceberg uses your other stats, it might have worked out better. Except Beruka would need a different special since her speed isn't that good.

@Ice Dragon, it's such a fun and easy to remember name! The alternative is the Killing Edge/Killing weapon/whatever legendary is an upgraded version of it or Wo Dao, Bonfire/Ignis, and Quick Riposte build. Not exactly a fun title. Yeah, Wo Dao+ and Moonbow would outperform Killing Edge and Bonfire, but as you said, Wo Dao is locked behind Karel, a 4* to 5* unit, while you can get a Killing Edge from two 3* to 4* units with one having been part of a banner: Fir and Lon'qu. Right now, I feel like Killer weapons are dealing with power creep. Killer Bow and Lance not so much since they don't have a better version like with Mystletainn, Hauteclare, or even Wo Dao which functions differently, but does a similar job with Moonbow. Another problem is that Mystletainn and Hauteclare are found on high defense units who can definitely pull of this build to the point where they make other units running this build pretty pointless, especially if there's a noticeable gap with attack damage such as Beruka being overshadowed completely by Michalis and to a lesser extent, Minerva -- infantry, knights, and mounted units using Killer Axes are a different story, but still. With Killing Edge, it seems like all the ones with Killing Edge don't even want to use it. So, okay, what's the point of Killing Edge then? At least Killer Lance is on Gwendolyn, Lukas, and Peri who want them or can use them very effectively if built right and while overshadowed, Beruka's stats are perfect for a Wall of Fire and Sharp Things build. I don't know, I feel like there has to be a use for Killing Edge and Killer Axe, but I'd rather they weren't budget options or inferior options. Anyway, do you mind if I make a list of units who can be Walls of Fire and Sharp Things? (Edit: Why did I ask if I just chose to do it?) So, Bonfire/Ignis, Killing weapon or equivalent, and Quick Riposte. Close and Distant Counter as applicable. There are variants to this like Moonbow and Wo Dao+ for sword units, choosing to use a different weapon for whatever reason, or instead of Bonfire/Ignis, you could run Dragonic Aura provided your unit's attack is high enough to take advantage of it, but Bonfire/Ignis are safer bets as in general specials if your unit's defense is already this high. Note: I'm placing an at least 30 neutral defense on them to be on the list. Keyword is can. This does not mean they should e.g. Gordin has high defense, but he might be better off as a player phase ranged unit than an enemy one. Also, preferable that they have over 30 defense, so around 32 defense, to be safer. Just using 30 as a check. Out of the list, the ones that should if you're looking to run this build are probably Eldigan and Michalis because of their legendary weapons behaving as 16 MT Killing weapons. Minerva can work too, but her defense isn't as high as the two. For units with legendary weapons e.g. Chrom or skills that while can be inherited, do uniquely define them like Effie and her Wary Fighter, they might not want to run this build unless you don't have anyone else and really want to use this build for whatever reason. Because of his stats favoring magic resistance, +Def Hawkeye shouldn't run this which is the opposite case for Sheena if she were to run the below build since her defense is higher than her resistance. Alternatively, I bet a Wall of Ice and Sharp Things is possible too, but physical units will need Distant Counter to be very effective -- they can still move up and attack, but that might not work for all situations -- which is not ideal considering how expensive it is per character: one Hector a pop. This is probably going to be more of an archers, mages, and thieves' thing or anyone with a built-in or has Distant Counter by default. Similar to the Wall of Fire and Sharp Things, at least 30 neutral resistance will be on the list. Basically, swap out Bonfire/Ignis for Iceberg/Glacies that the Wall of Fire and Sharp Thing has. Similar considerations and variances apply. Edit: Y'know, I think favor defensive builds more than offensive ones. Welp, let's see how a defensive Cherche works in practice. Now, if only I can get at least an average Cherche to pass down all of -Atk Cherche's skills.