Xenomata

I only have one WE!Tharja combat manual to go round, but multiple units want her skills: Odin (currently +Res -Def, will replace nature at later point) wants Close Counter, and a number of Armor units want Vengeful Fighter (Gwendolyn, Sheena, Arden, Black Knight, etc.). I'd like to know, which skill should I use as the fodder skill from this combat manual? I considered using Candelabra as well, but I just don't have any Reds who want it over an Owltome.

I completely forgot there would be a voting gauntlet even with the two banners that popped up, so I kinda hastily picked to support Lilina. My priority list will be Lilina>Nina>Morgan>Julia>Arvis>Hector>Niles>Robin. Basically, cute daughters first, cool dads second, and... that other guy last. Sorry, but Robin isn't exactly the pinnacle of characters... Anyways, as always my Bride Ninian will be taking the front lines for my friends (already got help from @Vaximillian to), so if you'd like to see her, my FC is 5177973547.

Hayato I at least did manage to fix up a little because I had him S rank with Orochi (Gotta love Rhajat as the daughter of a raw power mage), which did mean he had slightly better speed (in tandem with certain Scroll stat boosts like Horse Spirit and Bird Spirit) and MUCH better Magic thanks to Orochi as an Onmyouji just giving so much magic and also some Speed. But because of that Attack Stance Snake Spirit thing, he never really had many chances to actually fight. I also found that keeping Orochi in a good position for Snake Spirit shenanigans was a lot easier than it sounds, simply ferrying her around the map with the units I knew wouldn't be seeing much action and even sometimes Dancing her instead of someone more logical. To be honest, I used to think little of Orochi myself because of the low speed thing, but my last playthrough I realized I didn't have much going around in the way of Magic, so I caved and let Orochi get some kills. Twenty levels later, and I realized that there was a reason she had Snake Spirit in one of her Cipher cards.

@Interdimensional Observer Ah, but the magic-nerfing effect on Snake Spirit (as well as the Mag/Skl decrease on Lightning and all other weapons with such an effect, such as Silver weapons) does not trigger the effect on Attack Stance. This leads to Orochi, who has high Attack and can get Certain Blow to fix any accuracy issues, having far stronger Attack Stance attacks than many other characters in BR, even when considering that the support allies Might is lowered in Attack Stance. In fact, there have been many times where Orochi basically kill-stole from the lead unit because I wasn't expecting Snake Spirit to hit one of its two times, leading to the lead only getting one attack in if they were expecting to make two. This is BR and Rev to, where you can grind out the Weapon Ranks on units if you really want to (ESPECIALLY in the one chapter in the dragons stomach). Now I MAY be slightly biased because the last time I played through BR, Orochi was exceptionally strong and easily maxed out her Tome rank as a Diviner, and usually managed to OHKO enemies even before she inherited skills from other My Castles. I think she was very close to maxing out her Magic before becoming an Onmyouji even. And with that powerful-Attack-Stance thing, she was easily an MVP among my units. Hayato... was a bit of the opposite, and his Speed never really got to be that amazing... Enemy rarity... each generic enemy has set stats for each level for the sake of GHB and such, and those numbers get increased if they were already 5* Lv 40, but otherwise there isn't any visible way to know just how beefed they are specifically. Fair enough on Olivia... I'd rather not remember how I DIDN'T want Olivia and got her the actual moment I thought that.. Chill skills are kinda weird, but Chill Def and Chill Res at least can soften up the unit on the enemy team who needs the nerfing the most without trying to rely on Ploy positioning (helpful for those of us who don't understand AI manipulation).

As a character, they took Ricken... and that's about where they stopped. They made him of legal having-a-child age I guess, but his supports with the Fates Avatar are literally the same as Rickens with Awakening Avatar. Ricken isn't exactly the most enjoyable character from Awakening to copy paste, and this game already has three blatant copy-pastes and another three actual lifts from the source material, so try taking his "I'm not a child, I'm a grown man" crap two games in a row. As a unit... meh. Decent Personal Skill for getting him up to par, but even once you do get him up to par, which is stupid easy because Birthright and Revelations allow for easy to grind skirmishes, he has to compete with Orochi and Rhajat, one of whom is really strong, ESPECIALLY if you let her use the Snake Spirit you can get surprisingly early on in Birthright AND can Capture enemies, but the other is a much better fit as an Onmyouji than Hayato and also has a more useful Personal skill for the sake of in case something doesn't die. Also, his personal skill becomes useless. I'd save one just in case you ever secure a Sky Olivia, if you haven't already, so you can give her R Duel Flying, bring her along on Arena Offense, and still have a decent Arena Score despite having a presumably low-merge Dancer along. If you don't care all that much, that's fine to. Laeg does have two nice fodder skills in Chill Atk and Distant Guard. I don't know if going for the merges would be worth it though, because I still don't know what Laeg is capable of fully with Niu. Someone needs to lay off the Rein-o's, the super-energy-zapping suger cereal sensation striking the nation! Twice!

I actually wish we could learn what the process is behind making these decisions, because while there are many cases of a unit being underwhelming until they got ANCHOR ARMS (which come with a free personal weapon, cool refine, or both), there are still cases where already good units are getting personals and refines which are literally what they already do, but far better, see Celica, Cherche, Nephenee, and.. maybe Linde? But then even still, there are weapons which do... just about nothing for the unit receiving them, see Corrin, Titania, and Soren (depends on the value you get out of Owltome effect I suppose, but the value aint much if you don't get any at all)

@Mau @mcsilas Fair enough. Though speaking as neither an organization freak nor colorblind person, only having the one menu QoL update feels weak... Nephenee didn't really need a new weapon let alone a refinable one, yet she both came out later than Innes and Tana and got a new personal regardless. It may also be because, in the most popular builds for both, they aren't using Nidhogg or Vidofnir. Tana usually gets a Firesweep Lance, and Innes would get either a Brave Bow or Firesweep Bow, but you usually only hear people using their personals in relatively effective but still niche builds, or budget builds.

Abyssal GHB maps. Oh joy, I was oh so missing all those terrible maps that were already BS on Infernal just because there were so many new toys available to give to every unit, and every unit was already positioned in dumb ways to begin with. Lite Data? Uh... thanks I guess? I wasn't that concerned though, though I can't imagine anyone is gonna miss HQ graphics and sound when we (I at least) mute the sound and barely pay attention to graphics unless I'm specifically looking for them... Being able to give names to Favorites? Nobody asked for that, stop trying to make labeling units as favorites unique. Wait... Switch? ...wow, basically confirming that yeah we're totally getting FE-whatever number we're on now representation whenever the game comes closer to release, surprising no one! ...I mean sure maybe they were just naming favs by game system, but IOS/Android is a FE carrier. A new weapon for Lon'qu. They could have at least made it Amatsu since there's no way we'll ever be getting Say'ri or Yen'fay, instead of yet another Original-Weapon-do-not-steal (and it fits in-lore, Lon'qu is originally from the continent of Valm). As for the effect... well, we're all guessing Atk/Spd Solo on yet another personal Slaying Sword, so just throw another guess on the pile... Finally, refines for Nidhogg and Vidofnir. I can only imagine they'll update Vidofnir's enemy-phase effect to extend to against all weapons, maybe be made slightly stronger at that, and strengthen the Owl-tome effect on Nidhogg. Can't even begin to imagine what extra effects they'd want to give to either weapon... maybe dragon-effectiveness since they're the closest we have to monsters? ...and that's my thoughts on the upcoming update. I think they're kinda overstretching trying to find new things to add to the game, if they really think being able to name each favorites label is something worth being the ONLY THING TO ADD TO THE MENUS FOR A WHOLE MONTH.

I unfortunately had to mostly follow the guide given by PhoenixMaster1, but I hit a roadblock when it turned out that one of my units who did not match the unit PM1 used, probably my Olivia who was 5* +Spd -HP instead of 4* Neutral, and the end result is that I had to make some adjustments, such as giving L!Ike Distant Defense 3 SS and use QR3 in the B slot and finally giving Reinhardt DB4 to eventually secure the win. So... I kinda did it on my own?

...oh so it is. Huh, thought there was someone other than Nephenee who had it... NEVERMIND THEN, JUST KARLA AND NEPHENEE.

@Ginko As far as what you should use Karla as fodder for, clearly Draconic Aura Even Speed Wave is currently slightly rarer as a skill, even if Wrath is only available on a select few other 5* locked units. I personally feel the Wave skills are all a little iffy in performance, as you need to be able to time the trigger of the skills with when the unit or allies initiate combat, and while Spd Tactics remains rare, it is more lenient in how to trigger it and let it be useful. Meanwhile, Wrath is just always gonna be good regardless who you give it to. Of the three, I feel giving Wrath to Hector would be deadly. Bonfire is a great skill to pair with 2 charge cooldown at the start of every turn, and Ignis should leave no survivors if Vector can take the hit. I'm not against giving Even Spd Wave to Gaius, but as I said the usefulness of the skills feels iffy at times. As for Ryoma, if it were me I'd focus on getting his Attack up a little more just to make sure he can land kills on Red Armors more securely, since they tend to like being defensive.

5* Locks: Deirdre (Current is +HP -Spd, would like to change to some other nature that isn't +Def/HP or -Atk/Res) Eldigan (Not really to use him, just to overwrite the +Spd -Atk I have now) Elise (Same as Eldigan) Elincia (So close to 5* +10 merge, just need 3 more Elincias...) Katarina (Wanted her even before she got a personal weapon) Maribelle (Wanted her even before I knew what her skillset was) Legendary Female Robin (Even for how few Legendary Heroes I own, she's appeared on how many Legendary Banners so far and I still don't have even a bad natured copy...?) 4* and below: Bartre (Would like one with +Atk -Spd/Res, but I can't even get him to show... I can't believe I want the unit everyone else doesn't...) Odin (+Atk would be great to get...) I just know now that my top wants list is public, my specific game will glitch and delete data for every single of the above from my game completely or something stupid to keep me from summoning any of them...

I mean in comparison to Blade users we're used to, like Nino and Tharja. Paper-bag-in-Atlantis Defense, meh to okay Resistance, but good Speed and generally acceptable Attack (coincidentally, the standard for mages nowadays). She can actually take a physical hit better than Bladetome mages can usually take a magical hit. Actually I feel like I'm making more of an argument to go for the defensive approach on Laev... maybe I'll handle that tomorrow.

@Ice Dragon Lute took the +Spd. On thinking, she's mostly being used in AA and Blessed Gardens, and typically I'm not going to field her if she can't ploy at least half the enemies I intend to use her on, and not many other units even try to hit 40 visible Res unless they're Ploy users or mage tanks. As for Laev... I'm torn. On one hand, Blade users tend to prefer a more offensive playstyle than defensive, even accounting for the fact they usually can't be defensive in the first place. On the other, Laev has to be the worst type of unit to consider for an offensive nuke, being a Melee Infantry, so she'd probably prefer being more defensive anyways, and coming with Atk/Def Link and Swap means she's already pretty defensive to begin with... I'll sit on Laev for now. Still trying to figure out Amelia...

Semi-quick question, but I have a few units with nice-looking natures on paper, but I wonder if the ones I'm using are better. Laevatein [+Def -Res] Current [+Spd -Def] (Brings Defense up to good level after Fury 3 and Atk/Def Link are triggered, and without Odd Spd Wave Laev doesn't really have much speed even with +Spd nature, but considering the role she serves as a Blade-blader, the drop in Def theoretically should matter less than the speed boost, even on enemy phase) Lute [+Spd -HP] Current [+Res -HP] (Lets Lute outspeed so many things even if they don't have Weirding Tome triggered on them. What makes me hesitate is that Weirding Tome + Fury 3 let Lute hit 38 speed naturally, and 40 Res lets her ploy a sizable number of enemy units, so she's already considerably faster than most enemies anyways.) Amelia [+Def -Spd] Current [+Atk -Spd] (I'm on the fence here, because I could make her into a Slaying Axe + Galeforce + Bold Fighter with the +Atk I currently have, or just let her be yet another defensive green that seems to work well despite how many I have. She also already has Galeforce, so...)

I'm amazed they didn't go the obvious comedic route of Anna charging everyone to cuddle Feh. ...I also now really want Beast units more than ever just so we could have Panne or Kaden in their as well...

A few pulls after Neutral Ayra, I have +Spd -HP Anamnesis Eirika. Freaking awesome. My current Eirika has been -Atk the two prior times I pullled her. Everything in the world is now good.

I uh... eheh... this is kinda funny... I summoned from Swift Sparrow banner... and uh... I got a semi-off focus pull... Neutral Ayra. I mean... she still has Swift Sparrow, but she's not a part of the banner... also I'm silently fuming because Ayra is the one unit I've despised since her release, and now here I am with her with an acceptable nature.

First, assuming you're keeping his default skillset, an odd idea would be to go for Obstruct. He's a wall, and if the enemy can't get past him (especially given some of the tight spaces on some Arena maps), that could actually work to the enemies detrament not being allowed past to ignore Silas. And of course WoM or ER are fine ideas to, especially since they're worth the most SP for slightly better score. Second, it's not like I don't want to +10 merge Cherche (I mean, it'd be possible to make her reach 60 Atk before DB3 or DB4 are triggered), but as is I'm not really focused on +10ing any unit on purpose. ...plus I have [+Atk -Res] Cherche waiting for a promotion, so she'll get the +1 Atk one day anyways.

Odd question, should I give someone a Hammer+ who doesn't have one? I have a spare Cherche with a bad nature, and I'm currently undecided on if I should merge to my current Cherche [+Atk -HP] or improve my armor killing abilities in the same way I did Soleil. I have a +Atk -Res Summer Tiki +2 merge I don't use for much besides being a softer wall than many of the other green walls I own, so I could probably use her for that purpose if the role of green wall is already being done ten-fold. It's not like the niche behind the Melon Crusher has been pivitol to my needs often anyways...

HAAAA ha ha ha...! Listen, have you heard of the bloke who really wanted Bartre, but stopped seeing him soon after? No? CAUSE THAT BLOKE BE ME! Really, the moment I want a meme-common unit I never see them again, but then my first pull on the Generals of Muspell banner happens and I get both Helbindi and Laegjarn in the same summoning session, or what I will cite as my best case of luck, summoning Bride Ninian when I only had 3 potential summons and 5 Blue orbs to pick from, ergo I only had 3 chances to get Bride Ninian if she were even in that session. Which, with +Atk -Def, she was.

I cleared this GHB long ago, standard Flier Team with the amazing Firesweep Kinshi Hinoka, and the hardest part was getting every other unit cleared out before taking on Garon. The HARDEST hardest part was remembering Garon wasn't an armored unit, even though he totally should have been... Ugh... I'll keep the 3* copy of Garon around like I do every GHB unit, but I am not touching him whatsoever... his 4* clones will be food for those who want Panic Ploy...

Helbindi and Laegjarn? Yeah it was. I'm calling it here. The one time I want to pull for Odin, and everytime he is -Atk or -Spd... even something dumb like +Def -Res would be fine, but nope... Ugh... I did manage an Odin with 5* +Res -Def, but I was being stubborn once again... I really need to learn to just accept what I'm given...

I didn't record a single pull like I usually do, but I do have a number of results to share... After my first pull which had Laegjarn and Helbindi, in the following order are the 5* pulls... Elise Ike Helbindi Helbindi Tailtiu Quan Helbindi Sky Olivia Helbindi Celica Tailtiu (+Spd -HP) Leo (+Def -Spd) Laevatein (+Spd -Def) Laevatein (+Def -Res) Yeah, it took 4 extra Helbindis, of which I only really needed one to give to a Green Infantry Dancer, and a number of other pity breakers, including one crummy Tailtiu and one great Tailtiu, yet another crummy Elise (+HP -Atk), Quan on the first day he has as a normal pull unit, and a freaking awesome Leo, to get even one Laevatein... and I got two on the same pull. ...I hate this game sometimes... On to the next banner, we have... oh shoot, +Atk -Res Ophelia.

Y'all say Silvia was the dropper, meanwhile I got another Quan while mass summoning... Funny how that works.