Astellius

I picked up my 5* Tobin, and, with all the feathers I've been getting from the Tobin Trials, Chain Assault, and HM, I made Anna a 5*. She leveled up to 40 really quickly, and I'm happy I pulled a couple of Shanna's, so as to give her Desperation 3. Works wonders with Noatun! With 31,777 points, I'm at exactly rank 2,500. Wonder if I'll stay in the top 5k this time? There's also the daily quests, which hands out a stamina potion, I think that probably adds to it.

Whenever you have time! Also, I'll request that you do the request of @lilacshadows before mine, since this is the second queue in which I've been ahead of her by just one slot! (The other was the sprite assembly.) These are all very nice, and we appreciate your hard work!

I am, well, "in between" primary teams, at the moment. I started this Trial with Masked Lucina, Faye, Est, and Cherche as my main team. Masked Lucina was running a medic build. She had Renewal 2, so she recovered 20 HP at the start of every map, and every third turn. I also gave her HP +4 and an HP +3 seal, so she had 50 HP--which is enough to heal even my HP+ Cherche to full health. Est and Cherche run brave builds with flier buffs. However, both Lucina and Cherche maxed out their HM, so I'm aiming not to use them. And both Est and Faye are hovering around 1,500 HM. I don't want to waste the Hero Merit from this. Also, I recently pulled a 4* Boey, so I've been training him up. I've been using a team that includes him to start my runs, and he's almost up to level 40 now. I've been using a team that has Boey, needs SP, and usually dies in a few maps. Fun!

None of those sound good at all. A much better budget build is Quick Riposte 2 + Swap, which she can get from one 4* Subaki. QR works really well in conjunction with her native Close Def, since they're both defense phase skills. Plus, Swap is a nice positioning skill for someone who wants to be on the front lines. Also, I don't see much reasoning for why she should have any of those skills? Most of them seem like a waste of a slot. Harsh Command? That has really limited utility, especially for an infantry unit. For Reciprocal Aid, her HP pool is really low, so it's much less useful than it could be. Reposition is a great assist skill, but why does she want Knock Back? Or, for that matter, why Drag Back or Hit and Run? These don't seem very useful for her.

What. A Sanaki with 1900 HP? That's cray! But... Pff. My Azura says hi. 1900 HP means nothing (except a really long battle) if you hit for 0!

Right now, I've been running Masked Lucina, Faye, Est, and Cherche. I want to say that the MVP there is Masked Lucina, because she fills two roles. She has Renewal 2 and Reciprocal Aid, so she keeps the team healed. But she's also a great counter to green units. I gave her HP+4 and the Squad Ace A1 seal, so she has 50 HP, which lets her fully heal my +HP -Res Cherche. Faye uses her Firesweep Bow+ with Seal Def 3. This is really useful for both Est and Cherche, who run brave builds. Faye thus can do chip damage, but also add 14 attack to either Est's or Cherche's attacks. With the Hone Flier buffs from Est, Death Blow 3, and the Atk +1 seal, Cherche reaches an incredible 59 attack power on the offensive... x2 from her Brave Axe+! She can usually just delete blues, greens, and colorless without difficulty, and can sometimes take out reds too. Est has sufficient speed to usually only take one hit from a red or blue, and sometimes she can quad. Faye mostly provides chip damage and the Seal Def 3 debuff, along with positioning assistance. But she also sometimes serves as bait, since she has nice bulk. And she's nice against fliers.

I managed a perfect run with Faye, Est, Cherche, and Masked Marth. Both Est and Cherche are running brave builds w/Flier skills. Masked Marth is a combat medic with Renewal 2 and Reciprocal Aid. Cherche just maxed out on HM, so I might switch up the team. But it's fine for now. Faye and Masked Marth both need SP. The Phantom Spd seal looks pretty pointless. It sounds like it's only relevant for Windsweep/Watersweep...

I managed to defeat the Infernal level after a few tries. My team was: Camus 5* (Fury 3, Vantage 3, Goad Cav, Reposition) Cecilia 4*+3 +Spd nature (Gronnblade, Darting Blow 3, Desperation 3, Hone Cav, Draconic Aura) Xander 5* (Hone Cav, Reposition) Azura 5* (Hone Atk 3) Strategy:

That's the plan! It seems like the best role available to her, given her unique weapon and miserable speed. I can't really think of a better role for her. Any thoughts on Poison Strike vs. Seal Def? They both seem like pretty good options. Poison Strike is solid and reliable, but I think I'm leaning towards Seal Def. A lot of my glass cannons are brave, so they benefit more from Seal Def than Poison Strike (-7 to Def means +14 to their damage output). Plus, my Faye has respectable bulk, so I might want to use her as a lure on occasion, and Seal Def would work better for that, since it activates after any combat.

With Tempest Trials coming up, what would be some good builds for Faye? I was thinking of possibly Seal Def or Poison Strike for her B-slot, and Savage Blow for C. Mine has a +Def/-Spd nature, so she's obviously not doubling anything without a breaker skill. I'm not too sure what to put in her A-slot, the only thing I can think of is Death Blow 2. Thoughts on this? Does anyone want Savage Blow more than she does? And which do you guys think would be better, Seal Def or Poison Strike?

On the contrary, I'm certain it's intentional, and I'd actually consider that amount of stamina consumption to be rather generous. You're playing 5-10 maps in a row, and this is a permanent game mode. Compare that with the stamina consumption for pretty much anything else you'd be doing in the game. It costs 20 points for a Tempest Trial run, 9 points for strata 8-10 of the Training Tower, 15 for a GHB attempt, and each part of the story chapters of 9, 10, & 11 all cost 20 points or more, individually, on Lunatic. So, for the same amount of stamina as one Chain Challenge run, you can do: 1 part of a Lunatic chapter; 1 Tempest run; 1-2 attempts at a GHB; or 2-3 runs on a top tower floor.

Better to not field them at all, than to field them and find you really need them later, right? The fact that the enemies don't have any skills makes it a lot easier than what it could have been. It should be pretty doable if people have a sufficient pool of leveled 4*s and 5*s available on hand to counter what's on the map. Sure! Let's have a party!

Yay, another member of the cleared on first try club! *high fives* I thought that it would be really hard, so I held off on using some of my best units. And then it was over, and several of them went unused. Oh well!

Yeah, me too! There are only 21,600 feathers available as rewards. Pff, that's only one 5* and 80% of a 4*. You need someone to tank the archer, and you need someone who can tank the blue cav when it first comes down. I fielded Hector, Est, Catria, and Summer Tiki for this map. I had Hector tank the archer on the first turn, and then Catria went up and finished it off. Summer Tiki tanked the lance cav and either finished it off then or when my turn came around. I had Est take care of the sword cav, and Catria took care of Roy. You could possibly use Xander to lure the archer, or a tanky mage/archer, or a mage with a Raven Tome+TA build. If Xander tanks the archer, he probably wouldn't kill it, so you'd need a lance flyer (because they'd be facing Roy) or a distance hitter to finish it off.

It would be just perfect for me! I'd like it very much!

That's right. Too bad we can't farm orbs and feathers into infinity!

The Chain Challenge seems pretty cool too, and it looks like it will be a great way to farm SP & Hero Merit. I like the idea that was suggested, about saving one of the maps for leveling/farming by losing on the final map. I'll probably do that for Normal 1&2 And... SO MANY ORBS ARE AVAILABLE ON LUNATIC! 2 orbs each for single chapters, and 4 for the combined ones. That's pretty nice, more orbs than have been available for a long time. Also, if anyone is interested my squads for the Squad Assault were: Round 1: Hinoka, Clair, Abel 4*, Michalis 4* Round 2: Sharena, Roy, Sanaki, Clarine 4* Round 3: Hector, Est, Catria, Summer Tiki Round 4: Ike, Masked Marth, Celica, Olivia 4* Round 5: Camus, Reinhardt, Xander, Priscilla I can list skills, too, if anyone is interested. But pulling Subaki is my thing! But, hey, at least there's plenty of Quick Riposte 2 fodder, right?

Oh nice! The new modes are available! Thanks for the notice! I went and tried Squad Assault, and managed to clear it on the first attempt. The enemies don't have any skills, so the main thing to worry about is the inflated stats. But the maps were pretty favorable, and I didn't have too much difficulty employing strategies to pick off the enemies. I actually ended up not even fielding some of my top characters! I ended up not using Cherche, Azura, Tharja, Cecilia, or Nino, and I saved Horse Emblem for the last battle (Priscilla went in instead of Cecilia). The seal we get is sort of a letdown though... Time to check out the Chain Challenge!

Like QR, except at low health and you should be the one initiating the attack.

Edit: Double post strikes again.

Thanks! That's a pretty good analysis. I was wondering if LnD would be a good fit for her, so it's nice to see others think so as well. It would be LnD 2 if I did that. With that setup, the +Atk/-Spd one gets 93 wins on the offensive vs. +Spd/-Res getting 99. So that gives the +Spd one an edge. But the +Spd one also starts losing more matchups on the offensive. The +Atk one can take both Ryoma and Celica, while the +Spd one loses to both on the offensive. Also, the +Spd one starts losing the capacity to tank mages, particularly when natures and skills are factored in. Looking a bit more closely at the wins the +Atk one is missing out on, most of them aren't that important (e.g., Alm, Arthur, M!Corrin, Ogma, Est, Roy), and some are somewhat important (e.g., Olwen, Ursula, Y!Tiki, F!Corrin). But the +Spd one is missing out on some important ones, like Ryoma, Lucina/Masked Marth, Celica, and is in a precarious position against Nowi. So, in the end, I opted for the +Atk one, since the number of kills are pretty comparable and the +Atk has some better kills and fares better when tanking mages, which is something I'd like for her to be able to do. I appreciate the help!

I got a new score of 4,854. Wow! Outdoing myself quite a bit! And here I thought that 4,830 had been a huge step up for me. Now I'm ranked 1,878. I don't think I'll be able to match that anytime soon! The team was Hector, Reinhardt, Ike, and Camus. They did quite well together. And, for the first (and probably only time ever), Reinhardt's Vantage skill saved me. There was an enemy Reinhardt that was closing in on us, and I needed to prevent him from getting to Ike. Normally, Reinhardt can ORKO himself, but mine was hit with a -Atk debuff, and couldn't. But Reinhardt could kill him with 3 hits. So I initiated the attack, and the enemy Reinhardt retaliated back, knocking mine into the Vantage zone. Hector blocked the way around, and so I had a Vantage wall that the enemy Reinhardt suicided upon. Yay!

@Raven Oh, this looks pretty cool! Think I could get one with Palla, Est, Catria, and Minerva (both in front and in back)? For the image in front, I'd like this configuration: Palla on the left, Est in front, Minerva in back, and Catria on the right with her portrait mirrored (so her body is turned toward the center). For the back, I'd like for it to show their special attack portraits, with Palla on the left, Est center left, Minerva center right, and Catria right. The dimensions are: 960 x 1600.

With 4 hours left, I still have about a 1000 point buffer--Tier 20, here I come! I have no illusions of staying there, but hey, it's my first time visiting! Now I'm setting up Horse Emblem for defense. 4* Gunter, 4*+3 Cecilia, Reinhardt, and Camus. Maybe I should do some SI for Gunter. Meh. Might swap out Cecilia for Xander. And then, after this week, you'll never get a defense win again. Alfonse is free, Sophia is free, Legion is free, and didn't we get a free Gunter from quests awhile back? The bonus hero rotation follows this pattern: the four new heroes from the banner, the GHB character, four older characters, and one of the Askr trio (Sharena, Alfonse, then Anna). Wouldn't expect to see her as a bonus hero.