Sire

Currently in the game? I would want Michalis was always interesting to me and while I never played FE6, Zephiel seems to be an awesome addition with his skill set and his artwork. I would also say Xander, but his artwork is off-putting. I'll probably end up using him anyway (like Chrom), but still. For characters not in the game... Blazing Sword: Nergal, his morphs, and the Black Fang crew. Sacred Stones: Lyon, Vigarde, and Selena (Mage Knight, not to be confused with Fate's Selena) Tellius: Black Knight, Oliver, Dheginsea

I normally spend all of my Orbs as soon as possible since I have far too many favorite characters and I want to collect them all... However, as of present I am saving up the last scraps of Orbs I have (I exhausted my Story Mode orbs) for the potential new Focus coming up on the 15th. I'm hoping for some Sacred Stones characters due to the Erika & Ephraim reveal, but I'll need to see who all is available before I go updating my wishlist.

Felicia naturally has weak DEF, but high RES and SPD. I use Felicia as mage bait, off-heals (Breath of Life passive), and DEF & RES debuffs. Also, don't expect Felicia to be killing anything outside of using her special ability (which adds her RES to damage). Going off of the FE:H Calculator, the 5* Felicia's DEF cap is 15 to 21. RES cap is 35 to 41. If you want a more DEF dagger user, I recommend using Saizo or Matthew. Sazio can do an "area debuff" once he gets his Smoke Dagger and Matthew can "off-tank" with his Rogue Dagger (debuff enemy DEF & RES, buff own DEF & RES). Jakob can also provide Felicia's debuff abilities with the Silver Dagger+, but is far more durable due to his passive DEF and Renewal skills.

[rant] Man, I was leveling up some characters so I can finally complete Lunatic Story (5* Chrom 4* Tiki, 4* Nowi, 5* Marth || I really needed some magic users, hoping to use Tiki on 9-5), only to realize too late that my 5* Chrom actually sucks in terms of Boon & Bane. I initially thought having +DEF and -SPD would be fine for Chrom considering his defensive nature (Sol, high HP and DEF), but it turns out that Chrom is naturally slow in the first place. Taking the -SPD bane makes Chrom be doubled by almost anybody that is not an Armored Unit, making the extra +DEF practically worthless. There is also the matter of Chrom being doubled by Mages, which will just annihilate him due to his low speed. I already grinded him up to Level 31, (and leveling past 20 takes forever...) and now he will simply sit in the reserves until I can get a proper Chrom unit. If anyone remembered my "Chrom Analysis" from the Pull thread, the best Chrom was the 4* Chrom I had all along at +ATT and - HP. The extra ATT actually helps and Chrom's HP loss is not significant as he already has an insane HP pool. So, I essentially have a "garbage" 5* unit that I wasted training, since all he will be used for is merging when I eventually get the proper Chrom unit in place. Alternatively, I could just dismiss him out of frustration and sleep well with my newly stuffed feather pillow, but 1k Feathers is worthless when considering it takes 20k to upgrade from a 4* to a 5*... [/rant]

@Lupine If you second Lucina is already a 5* unit and is level 1, there is no need to level her up to check desired stats. Instead, check this link: https://fireemblem.gamepress.gg/fire-emblem-heroes-iv-calculator Input her level one stats and it will already tell your what her Boon & Bane as well as her stats for max level. Birdy beat me to it, but posting anyway.

Well, my game plan is not really "mid-game" as it is for current "end-game." I have more or less finished the story, so now it is all about doing the special maps, leveling up characters, and messing around with team compositions. As for some more details... 1. Level up a magic-user. My main team (Ryoma [+SPD,-ATT], 4* Sakura, Cain [+DEF,-HP], and Camilla [+RES,-DEF] // Alt: 4* Felicia) are struggling against Armor units in chapter 9-2 and Xander in 9-5 on Lunatic difficulty. I just need to finish up 9-2, 9-4, and 9-5 on Lunatic and I can officially say I completed Story Mode. Currently I am raising a 4* Tiki and a 4* Nowi (alongside a 5* Chrom and 4* Clarine) up to Level 40. The only other magic people I have are a 4* Nino, 3* Robin, and a 3* Cecilla. 2. Unlock Felicia's potential so she can become a 5* unit. She has been my favored Dagger user and I have her on my Arena Defense team, so buffing her up would help in defending. (Arena Defense: Ryoma, 4* Felicia, Cain, Camilla || Not the best composition, but it these are the "best units" I have. I would love to join the Takumi and Hector train, but I fear it has passed me by.) 3. Unlock Sakura's potential so she can become a 5* unit. Sakura is my current favored healer and "carry," meaning she helps out my lower level characters when doing Tower runs. I know she does not gain much being a 5*, but personally it would be nice to have. (Waiting on Elise to see if I like her better, but I have Sakura for now.) 4. Unlock Alfonse, Sharena, and Heros!Anna potentials to 5*. This has to be done eventually as there is no way to get them up there otherwise. However, these guys are fairly low priority for me, if another unit comes along I really want to promote, that unit will likely take precedence. 5. Perfect my "Cavalry Team" (Gunter, Jegan, Cain, Cecilla). This mostly involves upgrading everyone besides Cain who is already a 5*. I want to see how ridiculous the +6 buffs are and plan on making a "Flier Team" and "Armor Team" eventually. (Fliers already have some cool characters,but Armor will need some people I actually like and care about, like Kellam, Brom, or Oswin) 6. Generally collect favorite characters, upgrade them to max, and mess around with team compositions while waiting for the next story installment or character set.

Don't know if this will help any, but in regards to rarities with different stats... I have two Level 20 Jagens, a 3* and a 4*. Their stats and images are posted in the spoiler. (I originally raised the 3* before getting the 4*, but opted to stick with the 4*. Also note that there will be ATT differences, the 4* has a Silver Lance while the 3* has just a Steel. Also, their "Fury Passive" is different, 4* has lvl 2 while the 3* has a lvl 1. I went ahead and factored those out the presented number table.)

Having played since the GBA days, I guess I can consider myself a Fire Emblem veteran. However, one thing most people miss is that every Fire Emblem game has its pros and cons. There is no such thing as a "Perfect" Fire Emblem game. There may be a game that an individual favors out of all of them, but there is no perfect, number one title. As of late, as a "FE veteran," I am concerned about the recent spike in fanservice (Fire Emblem is being called "Waifu Emblem" these days) as well as the recent attempts at incorporating an Avatar character into a story and the poor storytelling in general. I have no issues with the introduction of Casual or Phoenix mode and the music, while different due to the "Map Theme vs Map Battle" variants, is still generally good. There have been Avatar characters in the past (see Blazing Sword), but that Avatar had minimal impact on the overall story. There have also been fanservicey characters (Linde from Shadow Dragon and the original FE || Any female Myrmidon or Swordmaster || Any Dancer character, save Ninian || Sonia from Blazing Sword || and so on). There have been marriages (Seth and Erika from Sacred Stones, Pent and Louise from Blazing Sword, Elicina and Geoffrey from Radiant Dawn, etc) There have been children. (Genealogy) The big difference between now and then is currently the fanservice is ramped up to 11, with "My Room" scenes, "Everybody loves the Avatar, including Avatar only options," suggestive poses that do not make sense for the character (see Awakening official art), impractical character designs (Camilla, Nowi), swimsuit DLC and underwear, romantic confessions, and so on. Generally, I don't mind fanservice. Some character suit the fanservice role with their personality, having an outfit to match. Swimsuit DLC is something I expect from JPN games these days so I could give Fire Emblem a pass. However, everything else (My Room, Avatar Worship, Confessions) takes the fanservice way too far. A recent Fire Emblem game that does fanservice all right (sans Avatar worship...) is Fire Emblem: Heroes. Yes, some characters have their poses and outfits, but the biggest thing here is the "injured / torn outfit" art. I am okay with that. They are still covered up enough and the torn outfit can be seen as actual battle wear, even if some locations don't make much sense... Then there is the poor storytelling of Fates, especially after fan's expectations were raised since "We heard about the complaints of Awakening's story. We'll make a better one for Fates!" The concept was spectacular (a noble taken from one kingdom but raised in another, birthright versus loyalty) but was executed extremely poorly (poor plot devices, Corrin being Corrin, Azura being Azura, and so on). I don't expect the next blockbuster hit in Fire Emblem, but I do want a story that makes sense and will not shatter my immersion during my first playthrough. Fates does have some good scenes, but even those could have been improved with proper buildup and world building... Now, as for newcomers, I feel many veterans are rather emotional about many of the new changes and lash out at anyone who disagrees with them. This is mostly at fault with the veterans overreacting, I understand that some of the recent changes are not to your liking (I don't like some of the either), but being mean and disrespectful to new fans is one way to divide the fanbase and possibly even kill the franchise. This attitude can cause a backlash and may push these new players against playing the "classics" because of how much hate the veterans dish out at the newer titles. [As a personal example, I hear Undertale is supposed to be a fantastic game. Problem is, I have experienced their fanbase overflow to non-Undertale topics and found the community to be rather toxic and annoying. Thus, I will likely never play Undertale despite it supposedly being an awesome title, because the fanbase killed it for me.] Intelligent Systems knows it has a separate fanbase, just look at how they handled Fates with Birthright (catering towards Awakening and newcomers) and Conquest (catering towards veterans and tacticians). I personally would love more Conquest (and Radiant Dawn) style maps with varied objectives, but I know some players would just prefer "kill the leader, kill all enemies, or seize the throne." All I can do is hope IS can make future titles somehow appeal to both of the demographics. I want less fanservice, a better story, and more complex gameplay. Newcomers will likely want characters who they can connect to and simpler (easier) gameplay. IS has to make the move first, and once a game is released that both sides can be content with, then maybe the divide will lessen. Until then, I don't see much changing. Spoiler Note: Below is some random stuff I started writing up before settling on the wall of text above. I don't particular want to get rid of it, so it is there in an incomplete form if anyone is interested.

For me, I upgraded the castle about half way since the initial costs are very cheap and Normal Story is easy to obtain more orbs. Then I focuses on 20 Orb pulls for a time before finally going back and upgrading the castle completely. From memory, I think the castle upgrades go like 1, 3, 6, 8, 10 (this may be inaccurate). So, it costs about 28 orbs for a full castle upgrade. You can fully complete Normal difficulty before finishing the castle upgrades, but I advise maxing out the castle shortly afterwards. The extra experience boost will help immensely with leveling past Level 20. Of course, if you are happy with your character roster, the sooner you max out the castle, the better. The castle will always be there giving its experience boost, summoning heroes may not always give desirable results.

After checking the math done by Dr. Tarrasque in another topic (put below for reference, the blue is my highlight), I can now see why Clarine is rated so highly on the Tier List. Martyr is essentially an advanced Reconcile that adds additional healing to the target based off of the Healer's current HP while recovering the Healer's HP by a certain amount. Since Clarine can output so much healing, she can focus on using her +SPD skill instead, further boosting the party's effectiveness. However, while she is capable of great heals, it will have to be managed properly for full effectiveness (which is why Recovery and its flat rate may be better in certain scenarios). Personally, I can see Clarine doing great in Tower runs or in Story Mode, but I am uncertain how effective she will be on "offensive" Arena teams. Giving the current meta, I can see Clarine only taking hits from Robin or a Dragon (Tiki, Nowi, etc.), everyone else (Takumi, Lyn, Lucina, etc) will kill Clarine easily. [Note: I have not actually checked the actual values, I am just theorizing here.]

Some of these are copies from the Create-A-Hero Thread. Special Skills (Active or Charge Skills) Great Aether (Resolve combat as if foe suffered Def/Res-50%. Unit recovers HP=half damage dealt. || Charge Cost: 4) -- An upgraded form of Aether, designed for (hypothetical) Ike. The difference here is the charge cost, being -1 cost from normal Aether. Talis Solis (Heal 70% of damage dealt. || Charge Cost: 5) ["Great Sol" or "Great Sun," at least that is what Google Translate tells me.] -- An upgraded version of Sol for one of my original characters. Adept (Add an additional strike to your attacks. || Charge Cost: 4) -- Adapted from Radiant Dawn. Allows the user to "strike again" during normal attacks. So, if activated during the first hit, the "Adept Strike" will follow the first hit, the enemy counters, followed by the second normal strike. This skill would be ridiculous on brave weapon users and probably won't be found on them. Master (Immediately strikes the opponent. || Charge Cost: 4) -- An upgraded form of Adept but allows for the unique ability to "immediately strike" the opponent instead of waiting for a normal strike to trigger. Examples include striking the opponent in the middle of their Brave Attack or at the end of normal combat. Rend Heaven (Adds half of enemy ATT as damage. || Charge Cost: 3) -- Adapted from Fates. Originally it adds half of enemy STR or MAG, but as Heroes simplifies it to the ATT stat, ATT is used instead. Passive Skills Rightful King (Reduces Charge Cost of Special Abilities by 1.) -- Adapted from Awakening. As Heroes uses a charge system instead of percentages, reducing charge cost makes sense here. It probably could use a more generic name so it can be applied to more heroes, but I couldn't come up with one. Quick Burn 1-2 (Start off the map with +[3-5] to all stats. The bonus wears off by one per turn.) -- Adapted from Awakening, Quick Burn is a skill that rewards speedruns as its effectiveness wears off over time. Slow Burn 1-2 (As each turn passes, gain +[1-2] to all stats. The bonuses wear off at the start of the forth turn.) -- Adapted from Awakening, Slow Burn is a skill that slowly gains in power the longer the map lasts. However, all bonuses are lost after a certain threshold.

Sakura still works wonders for me with Mend+Imbue. Sure, I won't be winning any speedruns, but her healing, passive (+DEF to adjacent allies at start of turn) and Fear staff (-6 ATT to enemy units) makes her quite versatile for my team. [Ryoma, Sakura, Cain, Camilla || All 5* and 40 save for Sakura who is a 4* and around level 35.] If I can get Elise, she would be another top pick for me due to her extra movement, Recover Staff, and Kindled-Fire Balm (+4 Attack Special). I can also use her somewhat as bait since she can heal herself with Live to Serve. The main things I lose with Elise when comparing to Sakura is the +DEF boost and the Fear staff. I have yet to use Gravity and see how useful that is, but it is annoying when used against me. I also tried out Serra (while she has some good abilities, I couldn't stand her personality) and have Clarine. Clarine may be good if you want more of a buff/debuff unit (Fear Staff and +Speed), but I rather rely on straight up heals (Sakura's Mend + Imbue or Elise's Recover + Kindled-Fire Balm). Clarine has subpar healing in my experience, but the speed bonus is nice to set-up some kills or defend against high-speed units.

@goodperson707 Feel free to critique and offer suggestions for my stuff. I am already seeing flaws with some of the things I've made, but considering most of this is conceptual and will never exist, I don't take it too seriously. The "hero speculations" are more for fun as well. Just in case you were curious...

Eirika and Ephraim are looking good! If they end up being the next Focus, I'm sure they will end up being my new obsession for a while (instead of Lyn, Takumi, and Lucina). A part of me will be surprised if they do give the twins mounts (they gained horses upon promotion in Sacred Stones), but given the number of "foot-heavy" Lords in Fire Emblem games, I guess I shouldn't be. Now, just to see how close or how far away I was regarding their weapons and skill set...

Notice: Originally, this post had Marcus - The Ashen Knight. Please see the master list in the first post for his updated version.

@Chelone Currently, not really. There is not enough data at the moment to determine IV's if characters are not a Level 1 5*, Level 40 5*, or Level 20+ 4* (check 5* Lvl 1 stats by going to Unlock Potential. You do not need the resources to actually unlock their potential to check them. Also, remember to factor in weapon damage, especially if you have not unlocked the 4* weapon yet.) You can try "guessing" IV's near max level (35-39), but otherwise, there is no way to determine IVs at this point in time. I would love to be able to determine IVs at 4* and 3* ranks (and eventually I bet we will be able to), it's just that Heroes has only been out for a week and we are still learning more and more each day. I'm sure once more research is done or until someone obtains the "Growths" from hacking the game there will be much more progress, but for now we will have to a wait. As for your Abel's case, "Brave Weapon" characters really want to have +ATT as their Boon. If ATT is their bane, then I would advise against leveling that character, as your friend as suggested. Brave Weapons benefit a bit more from the extra ATT than other characters, and if they can also double (x4) an enemy, the benefits are even more. * * * * * Q: When merging units, is it possible to transfer merge bonuses from one unit to another? (Say I have a 5* Cain +2. I want to transfer that Cain into a fresh 5* Cain who has the Boone & Bane I want. Will the +2 transfer and become a total of a +3 on the new Cain or will the +2 be lost and the new Cain is merely a +1? || I know Unlocking Potentials get rid of merge bonuses, but I want to know if the merge bonuses are transferable in the same star rank.)

Round 12 [Deep Devotion]: 3* Subaki || 3* Cherche || 4* Jegan || 4* Chrom || 5* Chrom I did it guys! I got a new 5* unit since Round 4! I got... Chrom. Chrom. I already have Chrom as a 4* unit and I pulled him twice again in this draw. So much for hoping for a Lyn or a Takumi, and I can say goodbye to my bonus 5* hero chance for Deep Devotion... If I were to look on the bright side of things, I now have some more options in terms of min-maxing Boons and Banes. Based off of the FE:H Calculator... 1. The 4* Chrom I have is likely +ATT, - HP. || Not bad for an offensive Chrom, but this doesn't really suit his skill set for being defensive. 2. The 5* Chrom I just pulled is +DEF, - SPD || Sounds good on paper, but Chrom will be doubled a lot since there is a lot of speedy characters in the Arena. That is still about 20+ damage to Chrom per battle. Sure, Chrom won't get oneshot and can retaliate for heavy damage, but it is still concerning. (Maybe I can use this to his advantage by abusing the Charge Rate and giving him Sol instead of Aether, but I'll have to see.) 3. The other 4* Chrom is +DEF, -ATT || For science I went and spent 5k shards on him to check his 5* boon & bane. At first glance this seems like a good investment since he will have better SPD, but he will still get doubled anyway by the "Arena Meta" characters (Takumi, Lucina, & Lyn who have like 30+ speed even at their lowest. Chrom only has 29 speed at his highest, 25 for medium speed), so losing out on the ATT sorta sucks. So, I guess I'll end up leveling the 5* Chrom, so it is not a complete loss. The other two Chroms can sit on the reserves for eternity, or at least until I am swimming in enough feathers to promote them to 5* status to merge them with my "Main Chrom." Of course, other characters get priority before "merging characters." As for the others... 4* Jegan I'll keep for the time being as he is better than my 3* Jegan (who is about level 11 or so). I'll figure out if I want to min-max him later. 3* Cherche is nice, more so because I love Cherche as a character and she was my main avatar's spouse in Awakening, so it is my favoritism at play here. 3* Subaki can go home. He is not perfect for my needs and team compositions. Past Pulls & Other Info

Hard mode was difficult, but through sheer luck I beat it on my first attempt with 5* Ryoma (Lvl 40, High Speed, Low Attack), 4* Felicia (Level 30), 5* Cain (Level 38), 5* Camilla (Level 39). For me, the main threats were... 1. The Archer - If he is not dealt with, it makes fliers extremely difficult to use as well as "magic bait" units (like Felicia). 2. Mage Cavalier with Swordbreaker - I use Ryoma and Cain who are Sword users and rely heavily on Ryoma. It doesn't help they also have low Resistances. 3. Lots of Magic units - My team is mostly Physical based and can't handle magic attacks save for Camilla (which is why I used my 4* 30 Felicia instead of 4* 36 Sakura) * * * * * Turn 1: I used Camilla to take out the Archer and "proc" enemy units. She would have to tank most of the incoming hits, so it helps if she has high HP and Res (at the end of the map, my Camila survived with a mere 1 HP). Turn 2: I retreat Camilla and put Felicia out front to lure a ranged attack from across the mountain. Camilla takes a hit from Narcian (bringing her down to 1 HP), and the rest of the enemy units start moving themselves to the left corridor. Felicia is heavily damaged. Turn 3. Camilla finished off Narcian, Felicia retreats, Ryoma is put up front to tank and retaliate. Cain is put into position to attack next turn. Turn 4+: Clean up the remainder of enemy forces. As mages cannot retaliate and Cain has full health, Cain has no problem taking on the remaining Sword Fighter on his own.

Yes, the Tier List is being updated constantly. I remember Ryoma and Lyn being SS rank (and recently Adult!Tiki was SS Rank and Arthur was A Rank for some reason), but they are now moved to lower tiers. More importantly though is that the three starter lords got moved up to B (with Sharena being in the upper part of B!), so yeah, there are updates (almost daily). Edit: I don't know how useful they are for arena battles, but I find Felicia very handy for story mode missions when dealing with magic users and knights. I personally use a healer (Sakura) instead, but once I get my dream team assembled (Ryoma, Takumi, 5* Felicia, 5* Sakura) I could probably provide a better answer then. However, as upgrading units will take ages and I see no Takumi in sight, I don't foresee this happening in the near future...

Robin, Takumi, and Lyn (plus a random, usually Tiki) is a common setup that I see floating around the Arena. 1. Robin counters Takumi due to his weapon special giving Robin an advantage over grey foes. Robin also happens to have decent defense which makes him even more effective against Takumi. So, in essence, Robin is almost a certain pick no matter what. However, since Robin & Takumi combos are so common, I recommend bringing something that can counter Robin too (such as a green unit). 2. Takumi kills everything. Even characters that technically counter him (such as Robin), no one can really defeat Takumi without suffering some sort of retaliation damage. So in this regard, Takumi should practically always be chosen even if he is a predictable choice in the Arena. 3. Lyn is a glass cannon. Yes, she is fragile, but the Lyns I run into do lots of damage (it doesn't help I have no real ranged units on my primary team). I would consider using Lyn due to her sheer damage output, try to get her below 50%, keep her alive, and watch the fireworks. 4. Chrom. I put Chrom here since he is a Falchion user and is effective against Dragons, and I see enough Dragons in the arena to warrant recommending him. It also help he has lots of different methods to survive (Sol, Aether, Defiant Defense, etc.) which can help him in prolonged battles. * * * * * I personally run Ryoma (High Speed, Low Attack), 4* Sakura, Cain, and Camilla for my advanced Arena runs and can win 7 victories in a row. However, this is not a foolproof team as I struggle with magic heavy teams and armored units (mostly in story mode), but I can handle the common Arena composition (Takumi, Robin, Lyn, Lucina, Dragons, etc.) most of the time. On occasion I may make a misplay or the map conditions favor the opponent. Ryoma is my main man, should he go down, it is usually game over for me. Sakura is my healer and sole magic unit. Cain serves as my flanking and support unit, and his Threaten Attack -7 does wonders when I can kite around enemies to set up a kill (usually on Lyns and Lucinas). Camilla is currently my "weakest" character due to Takumi and the large number of red heroes (all swords), but she is rather effective against Robin due to her high resistance and weapon advantage. Now note when I say that I win Advanced Arena runs, I do not win every match flawlessly. I usually have to end up sacrificing a character or two (usually Camilla, then either Cain or Sakura depending on circumstance) to win, which will lower my overall score. Then there is the matter of using "featured characters only" for maximum point gain, but that is a topic for another time.

Shards will level up a character from 1-20. Crystals will level up a character 21-40. Their level up effect is exactly the same as in battle, there is no difference between leveling up normally or spending resources to upgrade your soldiers. As a random tip, it takes about 5000 shards to level up any Level 1 character to Level 20. So, if you have a bunch of shards sitting around and don't particularly want to level a character, just drop ~5k shards for an instant level 20. Of course, for more efficient shard use, I recommend leveling characters up to levels 5-10 before doing so (one kill is practically one level when using a max rank castle when doing early Training Tower maps), but if shards are not a problem, go nuts. As another random tip, when doing Tower Dailies, do your first run on the highest map possible as daily rewards are related to how difficult the map is. You can also run your lower level characters after doing the daily.

@Jman1115 All Dragons do Magic damage, so you need to calculate their Resistance instead of Defense.

Well, those are some interesting rolls... By default I would say the top one, having four 5* units is pretty useful and you have the current meta-man, Takumi. Robin is pretty powerful while Roy and Caeda are okay. Marth is decent as a 4*. However, Lyn, Lucina, and Hector on the bottom have a compelling case due to how powerful they are, especially since Hector is a rare sight and can compete against Takumi if we are taking into account tier lists. However, the lower stars of Eliwood and 4* Jeorge make this roll slightly less desirable. So, here are my opinions. 1. From a gameplay standpoint, I would take the top roll. Roy can tank, Takumi can snipe, Robin can handle grey units, and Caeda can handle armored units. 2. From a Tier List standpoint, I would take the bottom roll. While the 5* rankings on the top are good, at max potential, the bottom list is better than the top one. (SS = Hector = Takumi || S = Lyn, Lucina = Robin || A = Eliwood, Jeorge = Roy, Marth || B Tier = Caeda) 3. For personal preference, I would probably like the bottom roll. I like Lucina, Hector, and Lyn a bit more than I like Takumi, Robin, and Caeda. (I don't care much for Marth, Roy, Eliwood, and Jeorge.) 4. For the long haul, I advise the top roll since it has an extra 5*. 5* heroes are difficult to get and it takes a really long time to upgrade a 4* hero to a 5* one. 5. Irrelevant, but I just noticed your bottom roll has all 3 Blazing Sword main lords (Lyn, Eliwood, Hector). Congrats!

From what research I have read... 1. Stat Caps are done by a "Boon & Bane" system. So far, there has been three confirmed configurations: (High, Low, 3 Medium || 2 High, 2 Low, 1 Medium || 5 Medium) 1 Source - https://fireemblem.gamepress.gg/fire-emblem-heroes-iv-calculator 1A - As an aside, I have a "High Speed, Low Attack" 5* Ryoma. I have yet to level up my other 5* to 40, so I can post them somewhere if anyone is interested. 2. The road to cap stats may be different. While starting stats and endgame stats will be the same, the leveling up process may be random. 2A. However, Ice Dragon's research seems to point toward predetermined level-up stats (As in, a Caeda leveling up from 2 -> 3 with the same Boon & Bane will always receive the same stat levelup). I do not know if this also applies across separate accounts (so my Caeda leveling might be different from Ice Dragon's despite having the same Boon & Bane) or if the levelup stats are baseline for everybody.