MaskedAmpharos

I've taken the trouble to message the people I know (mostly SF peeps) with green reps to ask them to change to a non-green (except Arcanite's Nino, which I like as is), so at worst I only have to deal with 2/3 being green now. Still not fun though.

I have. It's not fun. Had to surrender because all 3 greens on my team did 0 damage to this damn Roy :/

It's really interesting hearing about the different matchups different people have been getting. A majority of my runs have been against mostly mixture of reds and pineapples (3 reds, 2 reds and a pineapple, a red and two pineapples, etc), so I really wish I were using my own Death Blow Reinhardt rep instead of Minerva for bonus points. But then some of my other friends on Team Minerva run into a lot more greens than I do so they'd make better use out of my Ryoma rep or more blues, in which case Julia or Michalis would be more useful for them than Reinhardt. I just don't know what rep would help people out the most :/ I'm keeping Reinhardt for now because that's the rep that would have helped me the most amount of times, but if anyone on here is on my friends list feel free to request a 5* of any color (and if you're Team Minerva feel free to ask me for a request too).

Added! My name's Amphy :D I've secured like 20-30 defense wins this season, so it honestly doesn't matter who I have as my rep anymore haha

I mean you should still add me bc I could always use more SF friends. Not that you have to, of course. I heard you like Ryoma, could I bait you with mine? What's your rep, actually, out of curiosity?

I feel your pain. The same keeps happening to me... Are we friends? I have a Reinhardt with Death Blow I'm more than happy to lend out to ORKO just about all reds and archers (I have several other 5*s of every color, so feel free to request something else). EDIT: Just gonna stick this here anyways: friend code is 161-430-7301, Heroes name is Amphy (though PM me or respond here if you add me so I know it's not some random Arena/Gauntlet person)

The problem with Hector isn't so much that he doesn't have counters because there are plenty of units that completely shit on Hector (you can ORKO neutral Hector with a +Atk Olivia for Naga's sake, provided she has Triangle Adept). The problem is that you absolutely need to take him into consideration when building a team because if you didn't bring anything to handle him, he can stop your entire Arena run by himself. This isn't helped by how ridiculously prevalent he is in higher Arena (9 teams out of 10 are going to have a Hector or two) since he currently has the highest stat total in the game (until the Arena update no longer takes weapons into account for BST calcs. Then he'll have the second highest behind Draug, Gwendolyn, and Sheena).

No to Brash Assault. I honestly don't think it really works on anyone except for Lyn (who is a unique case because of her prf weapon), but it definitely isn't something you really want on a Cherche considering she destroys everything anyways except for some reds (and really why are you fighting them with Cherche in the first place). Instead, I'd go for a positioning skill, as you suggested. Either Wings of Mercy to let her warp around or Drag Back so that she gets a free retreat after killing an enemy (at least I'm fairly certain that Drag Back lets you move back one space even after killing your target, but someone correct me if I'm wrong).

My memory's a bit shaky, but I'm fairly certain Kamina did not avenge his own death, instead passing the torch to a new generation (well...technically Simon was the same generation, but he was young enough that I'm willing to give this a pass). EDIT: So I just went back and rewatched the scene, and you're right he's technically the one that defeats his killer. It's been a few years, mbad.

I'd give you my Minerva if I could :/ not because I don't like her but because you seem like you'd appreciate her a lot more. I'd rather have Lilina actually. Both because I just really want a Lilina (though I'd love a Hector too) and because it'd be apt in its own way. I also think it'd be hilarious if they stuck Narcian on the Battling Zephiel focus (not that we'll get GHBs in banners for a while...probably). GHBs just aren't complete without a friendly, neighborhood Effie to lift your spirits (and chances of victory) up :D As the owner of a +Spd/-Atk Effie I feel your pain.

I think it's been made quite clear how much you want Ike (and to a lesser extent some other Tellius characters like Kieran), so I hope you're able to pull them when the time comes!

Oh, as a unit she's not the most amazing one out there, I know that (though she's still fairly good). I just wanted her because I like Sanaki as a character.

I mean, she's an incredibly rare pull, so that's not too surprising. I'm actually quite sad because I spent a fair number of orbs trying to get her but instead got Eldigan for my troubles. In hindsight, I'm perfectly happy with that because Eldigan has turned out to be a much better unit than I first thought, but I still wish I pulled Sanaki :/

Def +3 is fine on Subaki. I personally threw Iote's Shield on mine though, since he's already super tanky, and now he can shrug off archers too. Bonfire is also extra great on him because it gives him a ridiculous power boost when active. Also, Mkv is the youtuber who's been doing runs of the Lunatic GHB maps with only 3* free units.

Sanaki comes with Triangle Adept automatically, so she wouldn't need any inheritance. As for Tharja, it's quite easy for her to OHKO Hector without needing to take a single point of damage if she's buffed up (something like Hone Atk, Hone Spd, and Fortify Def would be enough, which is pretty standard if you're running a blade mage). Alternatively, if Tharja has Desperation and is within the HP threshold of the skill, she can one-shot Hector without a single buff at all, even if she's -Atk. It's actually pretty crazy how hard Tharja demolishes Hector.

@Anacybele Ike having a higher BST than the average infantry unit won't make him OP automatically, but it will definitely give him an unfair advantage over other units, especially since certain units aren't used at all in higher level Arena for no other reason than their natural BST is too low (such as literally all thieves and cavalry units not named Eldigan. And after the Arena changes, Eldigan will be out too since Fury's the main reason he's so high up right now). One of the main reasons Hector is so prevalent in Arena isn't just because he's an amazing unit (though that, of course, is a significant reason) but also because he has the highest natural BST in the game, making him almost mandatory to run on your team if you want a good Arena score. If you look at the wiki's stat table, Nintendo/IS has carefully segregated max BST based on the unit's movement type and range: ALL armored units are between 168-169 BST ALL dragons are between 162-163 BST and ALL melee infantry are between 156-158 BST For Ike to be as balanced as everyone else, he would also need to fall into that 156-158 BST range because that's the range literally every single (non-dragon) melee infantry unit in the game is in. That's all people are trying to say.

Hector already has Quick Riposte automatically because his weapon comes with it. So this person's Hector basically doesn't have a B-skill, and they wasted SP (and a character) to teach Hector Quick Riposte for no reason whatsoever.

Sure, but one of these things requires sacrificing a 5* unit (that doesn't even naturally come at 5* except during this current focus banner) while the other does not. Inheriting Ruby Sword+ and any A-skill is marginally more expensive than simply inheriting Triangle Adept 3, since Olivia comes with Silver Sword+ already. If I were going for pure optimization, I'd agree with you on Ruby Sword+ and Fury, but I have to take into account F2P's limited resources when giving advice.

Definitely +Atk. If you're willing to put in a little bit of investment, a +Atk 5* Olivia with Silver Sword+ (which she gets naturally) and Triangle Adept 3 can ORKO neutral Hector, which I find absolutely hilarious.

Yeah, I'm just going to go ahead and do that if I still haven't completed the quest by this time tomorrow.

The two are honestly interchangeable (if Linde has Blárblade) for the most part (they have the same speed, and Linde has 2 more attack which honestly means nothing at all with how badly blade tome mages overkill things), so it really depends on whether your team would rather the squishy mage kill blue and greens or reds and blues, while letting the rest of your team handle the rest. People talk about Linde a lot less though because she's a lot harder and more expensive to get. Nino comes at 3* and 4* and even had a 5* focus for her. Linde has only ever been a non-focus 5*, and to give her a tome to equal Nino's you have to upgrade then sacrifice a 5* Odin. So it's a cost vs benefit kind of thing. I personally prefer Nino because Nino kills off blues, greens, and colorless while Ephraim (who gives her 3 buffs in one with Siegmund, Hone Spd, and Rally Def) handles reds and because I like her personality way more. You may prefer Linde because your team handles greens better than reds and blues instead (Eirika is a great partner for Blárblade Linde, for example). It's really down to personal preference and team composition.

Speaking of which, what skills do you think Ike's weapons will come with? Ragnell will potentially have built-in Distant Counter, but what about Urvan? In RD all it did was give its user +3 Res, but that seems rather lackluster for a legendary weapon (then again, Roy's Binding Blade only gives +2 Def/Res on enemy phase, so lackluster legendary weapons wouldn't be anything new...)

I've used up all the flags I had stockpiled for Minerva and am currently sitting at rank 658 with a score of 253770 points (though I recently fought, so it probably isn't accurate since it hasn't updated yet). I spent everything I had for Cherche and used a small amount in Round 2 to rank in top 50k, but otherwise I've been saving. Unfortunately, I'm out now, unless I actually get one of my Takumi friends to fight with me for once... (If the gauntlet is nearing its end, I'll just use my own Takumi for the quest, but I'd really rather not have to switch out of using Minerva for the bonus points unless I have to)

Underestimate flying maids at your own peril. In any case, I agree, but having even more atk at neutral than a +Atk Hector seems a bit much, don't you think?

I think a mages vs archers gauntlet would be cool... though I'm unsure how I feel about any gauntlet that has the potential for Takumi to be in it. I'd also be down for more quirky themes like Green hair vs Red hair or Yellow hair vs Purple hair or something ridiculous like that.