ILikeKirbys

Ah, I wish I'd seen this earlier. I tossed Chilling Wind and Iceberg onto Kagero because of her high RES and Warding Blow making Iceberg a fairly potent damage-dealing choice for her (not sure if Iceberg outdamages Draconic Aura (I think it does, if I have the way it works right: Draconic Aura just gives 30% of ATK as additional damage like Chilling Wind gives 50% of RES as additional damage, yeah?), but I think it'll outdo Moonbow outside of high-DEF enemies). I can't give anyone Life and Death at the moment, since my only option for that is the Hana I want to keep (and I can't see myself pulling another one in the near future, since I'll be sticking strictly to Grays this banner... I won't be able to put Life and Death on anyone in the near future unless my 5-Star chance gets reset by Jaffar showing up before I can get a Faye, in which case I'll keep this in mind), so I think this is the better option. Plus, I don't have much in the way of Moonbow or Draconic Aura fodder, while I have multiple Shannas so it was easy to mulch one for Iceberg. I might go Glacies instead tho... I'm honestly not 100% sure what I should do with Kagero right now... Fortunately I still have a ways to go before I have to actually decide anything, haha. Thank you for your suggestions though! I'll keep them in mind if I ever have spare Moonbow/Draconic Aura fodder, and/or pull another Kagero (which I may soon, given that I'll be pulling nothing but Grays this banner unless I get a Faye).

@phineas81707 You could do Main Story Chapter 9-3 (not sure if there's any difficulty where Ursula doesn't have Blarwolf, I haven't touched the Main Story since the Lunatic Challenge). Bring Ursula along, and have her target the enemy Ursula, and you'll hopefully find your answer. And thanks for the advice, mate. Maria's taking her sweet time gaining SP at the moment, but when I have Assault/Panic on her I'll keep this in mind. Although, now that I'm training up my Kagero (Maria's been healing every scratch on Kagero to level up... it's been a slow process), I have a new problem: Kagero's Retribution/Reprisal would probably be better if she was tanky like Saizo (or at least not -HP)... but she isn't, so what should I replace Retribution with? EDIT: Never mind, I've decided to give Kagero Iceberg for now, maybe Glacies in the future.

@phineas81707 I think both units would just deal effective damage to each other. Not sure if there's anything beyond that tho. So, I have a Maria that I wish to train up, and now I have a question: When I get enough SP to give Maria Assault (and later, Panic), should I keep leveling her primarily through healing, or have her kill stuff for levels too? It's been a while since I had a healer I wanted to use, so I forgot what I did last time.

Sorry to go off-topic, but how do you know this? Was the map data-mined? So, with this knowledge, I would bet on Oboro over Florina for Battling Zephiel. Otherwise, I think the rest of my picks work. So now my banner guess would be Lilina/Oboro/F!Corrin or Roy/Jaffar. @King Marth 64 Lukas is only tough if you lack a good mage, since his RES isn't all that great (though I used Hone Cavalry-buffed +ATK Reinhardt to delete Lukas in every run of the World of Shadows maps, so I could be wrong here). I'm still kinda surprised that Faye's an archer here when she can't be in Echoes, but I'm not complaining.

@Mister Cold @Elieson I could see Effie being on the banner, since she's a generally good unit... but I don't think so. Effie needs some time to rest. Kagero though... no. This is a GHB against an Armor, who I'm betting will be flanked by more Armors to give Zeph those sweet +6 Armor buffs. Poison Dagger won't be much help here, so Kagero most likely won't be seen on this one. As for who I would bet will be on the banner... Lilina is a smart bet, since she'd be targeting Zephiel's RES (which I'm betting Zephiel won't have as much of as he will DEF, so this would probably come in handy) and comes from the same game as Zephiel. I could also see Florina getting on the banner, since she has a Heavy Spear and thus would deal effective damage to Zephiel while mitigating a bit of Zeph's damage by having WTA over him, and she's in the prequel to Zephiel's game. Although, as @Ice Dragon pointed out, Oboro is also an option, thanks to her higher DEF while still having most of Florina's advantages (except that Florina can fly, but I'm not sure how much that would matter). I could see either of these two getting on the banner, to be honest, though I might lean a bit more toward Oboro since she'll be more effective. Maybe F!Corrin as well, since she has WTA, has solid DEF, targets RES and can debuff Zephiel and his armor buddies with Dark Breath+ if they're all bunched up (which they would have to be, if they're buffing Zephiel). And perhaps Jaffar, since these two were in a chapter together in FE7 (where Jaffar came pretty close to offing a younger Zephiel IIRC), and his Deathly Dagger could be useful for softening up Zephiel and his armor buddies for the rest of your team to take out. For one final possibility that I could see happening but wouldn't want: Roy, who was the protagonist of Zephiel's game, but wouldn't be that useful unless Zeph was flanked by Green armors (so he could take them on with Triangle Adept 3). So that's my guess: Lilina/Florina or Oboro/F!Corrin/Jaffar. Roy would probably take F!Corrin's place if he got on the banner. I wouldn't be too excited about this banner, honestly (Lilina's the only character I would want, since I already have Jaffar and Roy, Oboro doesn't interest me, and I already have a couple of F!Corrins and Florinas lying around), but I think it would make sense.

Decided to try for Faye (or Klein, or any of the units mentioned below) today. Instead, I got... Maria (4-Star, +DEF/-ATK. I was gonna go looking for a Maria if I pulled Faye, so this was a nice surprise) Azama (3-Star, and I have a dupe so I can give two people (probably Sakura and someone else) Pain) Rebecca (4-Star, +DEF/-RES. I'll make her work) Priscilla (4-Star, +SPD/-ATK. I'm just happy to get a Priscilla) Kagero (4-Star, +SPD/-HP. This may be the start of something beautiful here) And some skill/feather fodder. No Faye or Klein yet. Maybe next time. This was a nice pull overall tho, got a bunch of units I was hoping to.

I saw this when I was about to go to sleep, decided to respond now. My Subaki is -DEF, so running the calc now... Holy crap, he actually does barely ORKO non-+DEF/+SPD Takumi if he's attacking with Armored Blow. Huh. Maybe I'll save Swift Sparrow for now, then. Still, now I'm glad I pulled a 5-Star Peri that I don't care for way back in February, since now I have a Killer Lance+ I can pluck off of her (and I have 4-Star Peri if I decide that I want her in the future). And then @mcsilas comes in with calcs when I'm just about to post this, haha. Good to know I can run Swift Sparrow Subaki and still barely kill Takumi (and this would let me kill +SPD Takumi too, I think Swift Sparrow lets Subaki double +SPD Takumi), but I think I'll still leave it alone for the moment. I'm not about to put anything on Subaki just yet. Good to know Subaki can safely take on Fae and Cherche once tho. That'll most likely come in handy. And maybe I'll go Renewal, I'll decide that later when I'm done leveling Subaki (and Hinoka, since I've been switching off between the two of them for the last couple of days) and get an extra Fae to pluck Renewal off of. Thanks, mates. And g'night! (for real this time)

@mcsilas A few things on Subaki: 1) -DEF Subaki can survive a hit from Takumi at full HP? 2) Swordbreaker, eh? Well, out of all the units Swordbreaker lets Subaki kill that he wouldn't already, I don't think Subaki has anything to fear from any of them except maybe Eldigan and Hana. Going down the list... Lon'qu can't even scratch Subaki unless he's +ATK (and even then he only does like 2 damage). Not scary at all, and I think Subaki murders him after he deals his tiny scratch damage. I don't think Fir can hurt Subaki period unless she has Glacies ready. So I'd just have to kill her before she can get it charged, which probably isn't that hard. Doubt she could even kill Subaki with a Glacies hit, so there's nothing to fear here. Draug, Eldigan and Hana don't do much damage to Subaki either unless they have a Special proc on him. Subaki can't do much damage to Draug and Eldigan in return, but the only thing stopping him from one-rounding Hana is his inability to double her. Hinata... I'm not sure Subaki has anything to worry about here unless Hinata's not running the Ruby Sword. Is Hinata gonna be running the Ruby Sword? And of these units, Lon'qu, Fir, Hinata and Hana can be safely handled by Subaki (especially Hana, if she has Life and Death tanking her DEF), while I can probably have someone else soften up Draug and Eldigan (Bunny Camilla with Gronnblade and Hone Fliers might work, since both have not-so-great RES). Thanks for your suggestion, I wouldn't have considered Swordbreaker period since I kinda forgot about it, but I don't see any need for Swordbreaker on Subaki. 3) Although, I'm starting to rethink Desperation on Subaki. It might not help that much, since Subaki's a tank with wings anyway, so maybe Renewal would be a better option? I'm back to not really being too sure what to put here, I guess Swordbreaker might work... although maybe Lancebreaker could too? Now I've got options, and I dunno what to do with them. 4) Also starting to rethink using Subaki on my flier team, since I already have Hinoka covering Blue there (and I need her, since she has Hone Fliers and Bunny Camilla's gonna need that to nuke with Gronnblade, plus I'm sure Palla and either Cherche or Beruka will appreciate the +6 ATK/SPD buffs) so he'd be kinda redundant (I feel like I'll need a physical Green to work with Bunny Camilla). And besides, my Subaki's starting to seem like a good flying tank in general, so I could see myself running him on a non-flier team now. Makes my choice for the C Skill slot easier, since he'll never need a Fliers buff. Now to decide between Threaten DEF and Threaten ATK... 5) Subaki can survive fighting Cherche and Fae with the Killer Lance equipped? Minerva I guess I could see, but Cherche has like the highest ATK in the game, and Fae is targeting Subaki's not-so-hot RES, so I'm kinda surprised that he can survive combat with them. Guess that answers one dilemma I had... 5.5) I think I'll give Subaki the Killer Lance+ then. Bonfire too, for the added damage, unless you think something else might work better? 6) No seriously, -DEF Subaki can survive a hit from Takumi at full HP? I would've assumed that Subaki dies if Takumi glances in his general direction, so this is kinda surprising. 7) Definitely going with Swift Sparrow then, unless I decide that Faye needs it more when I pull her. Thanks for your help, mate! And now, the spoiler talk (@DehNutCase as well): G'night, folks!

Hi, I have a couple of questions. First, I have a a +SPD/-DEF Subaki that I trained up for the Speed +1 Sacred Seal, and he's grown on me a bit, so I wanna figure out which skills I should give him. I want to build an offensive Subaki since he has so much SPD and still-pretty-alright DEF so I think he could go on the offensive, so this is what I'm thinking (in spoiler 'cause it's a bit longish): Second, something that I feel should be discussed in spoilers for the people who don't know anything about tomorrow's banner (but if you already saw the new skills on the banner characters, or you just don't care about spoilers, my second question is in the spoiler):

Well, yeah, but then you would keep the copied skills until the copying unit engaged in combat, after which you would go back to the character's default skillset. Yeah, some A/B skills would probably end up useless here, but I was thinking more along the lines of being able to copy skills that you can't normally have on that unit (like, for example, putting Bowbreaker on a flier, or copying Swordbreaker onto Nino, or giving a Pain user Poison Strike, stuff like that) for a temporary advantage. I kinda was thinking of Xane from the Archanaea games when I wrote that, since I remember him being able to transform into other classes and wanted to kinda make that a thing here, but wasn't sure how to do that without it being kinda crappy or broken.

I have a few, that probably aren't that good, but here you go: Duelist's Blow 1/2: A Skill. Grants 2/4 DEF and RES when this unit is attacking. (Think Swift Sparrow, but with DEF/RES instead... couldn't come up with a name, so I just used that one Blow skill from Fates that wasn't used yet) Brave Battler 1/2/3: B Skill. While this unit has HP > 90/70/50%, both sides will always perform a follow-up attack during combat involving this unit. (the anti-Wary Fighter) Parity: Special Skill, Always Active. Prevents enemy units from decreasing their Special Skill cooldown or activating their Special Skills when in combat with this unit. (It's basically sacrificing a Special Skill to prevent enemy Specials from being used against you... though stuff like the AoE skills would still proc against this unit since they happen before combat starts... Probably not that great in practice, but still) Copycat: Command Skill. Allows this unit to copy the Special, A, B and C skills of an ally unit through their next combat, after which they revert to their original skillset. Allows this unit to gain skills not normally available to their weapon type. (Was thinking of how Xane could work when I made this. The skill-copying would overwrite the skill-slots, and would render skillslots empty if the unit being copied did not have skills in those slots. Doubt this would be useful, but maybe?)

Ah, so that was neutral-ATK Effie then. No wonder I thought Effie was such a monster when I was training her up... I was always the one attacking, so Death Blow was always active. And I can definitely see DB making her a monster, after what DB2 did to my Reinhardt (good god the thought of 55-ATK Reinhardt is terrifying, even Triangle Adept 3 Greens are probably still taking decent-size chunks of damage from that). Thanks for pointing that out, Ice Dragon. Now I'm kinda wondering if Effie would possibly be able to run Life And Death and Quick Riposte over Death Blow and Wary Fighter... it would give her extra power all the time (not quite as much as Death Blow, but it would still be in effect on Enemy Phase), and I think she has the defenses to eat the -5 DEF/RES, and with auto-doubling on defense, Effie might just have the power to finish off anyone who attacks her. And throw Draconic Aura on her too, for occasional massive-er damage (Effie has I think 57/60/63 ATK after Life And Death 3, and only 24/28/31 DEF after LAD3, so I think Draconic Aura might be a bit better than Bonfire here). You'd probably have to run a Reciprocal Aid-er or Ardent Sacrifice-er with this Effie, but I think it could work. @Kaden Yeah, I think I posted a Niles build a while back in the thread (dunno where exactly, sorry) that was basically just a mage-tank that could kill stuff with Killer Bow + Iceberg (and thanks for reminding me that I need to train up that free Niles we got today, I completely forgot to do that). And yeah, Setsuna with a Brave Bow would be more along the lines of Klein from what I've seen of both of them... Not that I've seen much of Klein, since I've never pulled him and I have Reinhardt bring THUNDER'S FIST down on him before he can do anything when I see him in the arena, but still.

@Kaden Eh, I don't really care about Arena building right now either (I built a cavalry team with Reinhardt for all my feather-getting needs), I mostly just think in a vacuum of probably-wouldn't-be-practical-but-wouldn't-it-be-so-cool-if and trying to make units I like work. Although, how does Gordin do better with a Brave Bow than Setsuna? @mcsilas I'm kinda suprised. I honestly thought Hinoka would get killed on the counterattack here. Guess I overestimated Effie (were you using neutral-ATK or +ATK Effie tho?).

Wait wait wait Your Hinoka beats Effie? I'm kind of amazed, I would've assumed she'd just do a sizable chunk of chip damage, probably break Wary Fighter, but not kill. So, which Sacred Seal are you gonna use for your Hinoka? I think ATK +1 might help you a little, since yours is -ATK, but HP +3 might help if you need to live longer.

@Kaden Ah, yeah, that's quite a bit of overkill on the SPD front. Darting Blow might not be worthwhile after all... @mcsilas The thought process behind putting Galeforce on Hinoka was that, after combat with a lancer (who she doubles, thanks to Lancebreaker), Hinoka would have hit the 5 actions needed to activate Galeforce (assuming they survive to the fifth hit and Hinoka survives the counterattack(s), which I think there's a decent chance of vs a lancer), thus giving Hinoka another turn to do whatever you want her to, whether that's running away, finishing her foe or attacking another enemy. Of course, in hindsight, this is probably not very practical (I'm not sure how many lancers survive 4 hits from Hinoka and don't also kill her in one shot, or how common they are), it was just a thought.

Hm. I could see Seal ATK and Threaten DEF working pretty well here. Seal ATK would probably let Setsuna survive on Enemy Phase if she can't score a kill, while Threaten DEF lets Setsuna get kills on enemies who attack her when it's her turn again. I could see Threaten SPD working instead of DEF tho, to get doubles on faster flrs, but I think DEF will be more useful in general. And I hadn't considered Death Blow. If Setsuna is fast enough to double frequently with just her normal SPD, then that's a good idea too.

An, crap. I meant that the new bow prevents all counterattacks regardless of weapon type and doesn't guarantee a double, while the Assassin's Bow only prevents follow-up attacks from and guarantees doubling against a specific weapon type. Neither of them appears to have an HP threshold (and given that the Assassin's Bow is basically Daggerbreaker without an HP threshold, I see no reason to assume Firesweep will have one). I think we're on the same page here, yeah? You're definitely on the right track giving this to Setsuna tho, since her high SPD does let her double with the Firesweep (add Darting Blow or Swift Sparrow for better results), and doing so with no fear of eating a counterattack would be quite a boon for her. Not sure what other skills she would want with that tho. Also, since we're getting a free Niles, could he benefit from Firesweep?

Ah, but that's not how her Assassin's Bow works. That thing just has built-in Daggerbreaker. This is a completely different (and possibly better) effect, so I kinda got confused. Sorry. @MrSmokestack Huh, that would actually make Firesweep + Brash Assault a pretty great combo on slower archers, since they could double enemies without having to eat a counter in between. That's actually pretty cool, nice catch mate. Unless @Ice Dragon is right here, like I had initially assumed. Then we're back to speedy archers being the primary recipients of the new bow, I think. @Zero1000 That could work, actually. You'd have to wait for someone to get hurt, but once that happens, Takumi'll become quite a bit more intimidating thanks to Vantage.

Ah, that's neat. So I wasn't theorycrafting for nothing. Let's get down to business then! Doesn't Brash Assault require that your foe be able to counterattack you? Because if it does, I'm not sure the no-counter bow will be able to be used with it, since it prevents counterattacking. Also, I wonder if this weapon might work better than a Brave Bow for faster archers? Since it would let them double without fear of reprisal while leaving their higher SPD untouched. Not being able to counter on Enemy Phase might hurt, but I'm sure that could be worked around. @Kaden It actually just prevents all counterattacks, it doesn't guarantee that you double when attacking. Though Setsuna's pretty fast, so she might appreciate a bow that prevents counterattacks so she won't have to take hits (it's been a while since I used Setsuna, but her defenses aren't that good, right? So not eating counterattacks might help her longevity).

@Kaden I dunno if the new no-counter bow will be inheritable, but until I get my hands on a Faye (with any luck, that'll be Friday), I'm gonna assume it can be passed to other archers, and thus I'm gonna look now for archers who might benefit from never eating counterattacks. I'm thinking maybe Rebecca (she has a lot of SPD, yeah? So she could double without eating a counter between hits, while using a B Skill that isn't Desperation) or Niles (whose high RES could let him tank hits on Enemy Phase so he can safely hit mages who Attack him with whatever Threaten he has equipped (I recommend DEF, but SPD works too) before he attacks them with no fear of being countered), but maybe someone else could work too?

Haha, me too! Now I just need to decide if she should get Gronnblade or not, since I have a cavalry team and can give her all the +6 buffs with it so she can do the biggest damage and more easily get me to those Orbs. I can't wait for the next Paralogue either. It's been a while since we got new characters, and I wanna see which skills they gave the new units (maybe they'll have all-new skills? Hey, they already did that with the Bunny-version units, so why not?).

I second that give-Draug-QR, it'll be great on him if you can keep his HP up, which it sounds like you can. And now, somewhat of a spoilery thing that spoils something on the next banner and thus will be discussed in a spoiler tag:

@MaskedAmpharos Ah, thanks, mate. I was hoping it was something like that. Now I really want Faye, if only because her weapon is interesting (and I wonder if any other archer could make good use of it via Inherit Skill, so getting my hands on her would help me figure that out).

So, just asking for some clarification here: How exactly does Faye's Firesweep Bow work? Does it only prevent enemy counterattacks, or can Faye not counter with it either? Can Faye double with it, or does it prevent that? Faye and Alm are the only units I'm really interested in pulling this banner (Faye for her new bow, Alm because he looks like he'll be good and has a Falchion), which is fine since I'd been wanting to pull Grey for a while (I want Klein/Kagero/Azama/Maria). So, guess I'll be pulling on this banner.

@PowerVZ Always glad to help! Except with Donnel, haha. Forgot he had Reciprocal Aid there. And like MrSmokestack said, don't worry about Nowi's IVs, she'll function pretty well with just Swordbreaker and Triangle Adept as long as you keep her away from Greens (especially Julia, even +RES Nowi probably won't survive a hit from Naga after TA3's exaggerated WTA is applied to it). On Beruka: Does that first set really kill Lucina? That's pretty impressive. Nice defensive set, there. On F!Narcian, Beruka will be hitting lancers 4 times (2 hits > counter > 2 hits), so you could run Ignis instead of Bonfire on this set for added power (not sure Beruka needs it, but it's an option) or Galeforce for an extra turn when at low HP, which could come in handy). Otherwise, I like this set too. The Brash Assault set is probably the best set for offensive Beruka (that or F!Narcian, but I think BABeruka's a little better since her monstrous DEF and thus stronger Bonfires, as well as being able to double non-lancers for added versatility, would possibly push her over the top). On Hinoka: I like that build. It makes sense, given that she's -ATK. Not sure I'd go for Luna here, since Hinoka gets 5 hits via Lancebreaker + Brave Lance and thus could probably go for a 4-Cooldown skill (not sure if any of those can outdamage Luna tho) or Galeforce (would activate after a full round of combat against lancers, giving Hinoka another turn, which would probably be useful), but I can see the merits of running Luna here. Good luck with however you decide to run Beruka and Hinoka, mate.