Zeo

I tried that with my main team + Kagero, not a single defense win. Lukas (Reciprocal Aid/Ignis/Fortress Def 3/Drag Back/Threaten ATK/) Soren (Drag Back/Growing Wind/Nothing(A)/LanceBreaker 2/Fortify Res/+1 Speed Seal) Olivia (No SI) Kagero (Default Skill Set + Hone Spd 2) Tried a couple of other teams with my Fury3/Vantage 3 Xander as well as Takumi and/or B!Cordelia but nothing appears to work. Cavalry/Flier Emblem could be a thing but it's missing Blade Horsemages/Reinhardt and Spring Camilla, respectively which makes me scared to try. Wings of Mercy on my Olivia would be amazing but the only thing I have is a *4 Palla and *5 Cain. I'm not really using the Cain but I like my Cain, he's a swap out for Xander and in the craziest case I'll give Brave Sword+ to a Hana if she shows up. My current defense team is going to be *5 Hinoka, Lukas (Quick Riposte 2 instead of Drag Back), Catria and M!Robin. I also have *4 Abel but Lukas invalidates swordies anyway. This is the last team (except swap out Robin with Abel) that got me a defense win but the season after it didn't work for me.

I love the new team addons and being able to name teams. Got me looking at my units again. Is it bad that I like Cherche but I'm kinda apprehensive about 5 starring her and giving her Camilla's Brave Axe+? I like Cherche more, she's +ATK/-RES and *4, and with a couple thousand feathers and DB3 she would be a nuclear explosion. Kinda scared though because my Camilla (also *4) is also +ATK and she has 8 more speed and a staggering 14 more resistance. And well... Camilla has tanked blue (and a little green) magic before and I like being able to do that, take hits and survive. With a Brave Axe+ Cherche would sit at 17 speed and 11 resistance, which means even blue mages are eating her for breakfast. She's literally an instakill for any mage, that's horrible. ...Yet she's S tier... is this really a better investment than *5 Camilla?

It's actually pretty amazing to imagine that Nino would be a waste of feathers but looking directly at the stat sheets, my +1 +ATK/-RES Soren (with speed seal) is literally better than every version of Nino except +SPD and Gronnblade+ is actually better on me. I love her but I'm seriously considering using her as Gronnblade+ Fodder unless a +ATK or +SPD one falls into my lap over the next few summons... and I'm not even sure a +ATK Nino is better.

All I read for the 2nd banner was "Reinhardt Banner" I don't care too much about him, and the hype for him is too much, but the best blue tome user in the game when all I have is a -ATK Robin and an Odin? Yes, absolutely. Plus Gordin's Brave Bow+ for Cordelia. Don't care about the awakening banner, I may bite if it has a better version of Chrom but I really just need to store my orbs for the eventual Dawn Brigade banner after I splurge my final 20 on the bride banner. I really hope this banner has nothing I care about becase saving orbs is really freaking hard and if Edward comes around and I don't have the orbs for him I swear. Even worse, if a LYN banner pops up out of nowhere.

Using the teams as "Retries". I do like the idea of that actually. That's probably it, kudos. Considering you probably only have that many usable units (at least capable of handling the lunatic units) it's a pretty appropriate limit. Also just to get this out of the way from earlier... yeah I'm not really excited to use bonus units because my Robin and Tharja are -ATK (at least Tharja is +SPD and my only Lissa is 3 stars so... unless I bring B!Cordelia for Tharja, using any of these units is literally gimping my team.

The former I know. The latter I don't agree with. It would make sense if it didn't also say Battles. Battles I read as the number of armies you are going to face in succession. Which is why I think teams could only mean the number of enemies you fight or the allies you can bring. If that wasn't the case, you'd be fighting 3 teams for five battles, which would amount to 54 units you would need to beat with your 4... with permadeath... yeah... no.

I dunno, I kinda enjoy how tanky Wrys is. That old man has tons of HP and takes punishment (particularly magical) pretty well. However, if I acquired a 4 star Serra without feather use, the same thing could very well happen for me. On the other hand, Wrys is officially retired if Bride Lyn falls into my lap. You deserve a trophy. Though I'll dethrone you one day with my *5 Matthew. I'm pretty sure that's even worse.

I have 2 of the bonus characters, that's plenty of bonus, plus if it doesn't stack I won't need to run both of them which makes things safer. As for speed and survivability, I don't have any mega characters. Ike/Ryoma/Lucina/Nino/Linde/Hector etc so I won't be cheesing any maps, but with Wrys + Olivia and good tactics, nobody is dying, so there's a bonus. As for the limit, I'm going by this image. I'm assuming that this number is the team size you can deploy and not just the enemies you face, but if it's not the case then all the easier. I'm also kind of excited to see a mode like this finally devalue everyone's Fury 3 builds while also valuing Healers. Running characters that lose 6 points of health every encounter with no healer when you have to run multiple maps in succession is a horrible idea. It's making me think twice about slapping the typical Fury 3/Brash Assault 3 on Lyn when she comes home.

Wrys is actually a mainstay on my team and that's even worse. I like Serra but Wrys has served me much better and five starring him is very possible.

Lukas - Soren - Olivia - Wrys say bring it on. Lukas melts red units to death, Soren cripples Blues and weakens greens, Olivia boosts the first two and finishes greens if she has to. Wrys keeps everyone spick and spam with Kagero trading in with him in certain scenarios, mostly powerful greens and red mages. Only thing she's useless against are fliers and cavalry emblem. Both of which Soren + Olivia melts away. Bring it all the way on. All I need is to raise Maria/Sakura real quick for some backup healers. Guess this is where having 2 Takumi's and 2 B!Cordelia's comes in handy. If one dies I have another, lol. The 3 man limit worries me a bit though. I'll have to forgo my colorless in that case which means I can't make any mistakes with my main 3. It's pretty exciting. I have both Tharja and M!Robin at level 40 but I don't see myself deploying them, I probably will build a makeshift team around them and if they're killed oh well.

Add 2 +ATK/-HP Bride Cordelias to my tally. This game loves giving me *5 dupes. Frederick, Soren and now Cordelia.

I can't help but feel like Promoting Xander was a waste. I like him but miss components needed to make a full cavalry team. I have Hone and Fortify and Xander is actually one of my most outfitted units with Fury 3/Vantage 3 but... how should I put this... no team he's a part of does things any easier than my Lukas/Soren/Olivia/Wrys or Kagero team. Distant Counter is amazing, but it would probably better on a unit that wasn't red. On the other hand... promoting Kagero probably wouldn't count as a waste. Promoting Matthew to *5 however, is something I wholeheartedly plan on doing. And I will run him in arena to. That's probably something people consider a waste. I'm pretty sure he's considered a waste of feathers and inferior to Kagero, Takumi, B!Cordelia (all units I have at *5) as well as... pretty much every other colorless unit in the game just about. All that being said, if I see a *5 Odin player, he wins the topic.

More questions. 1. I have a +RES/-DEF Nino at 3 stars. Is it worth building her when I have a +1 +ATK/-RES Soren NOW or should I wait for the ideal boon/bane? Let's compare my Soren's stats with Nino at *5 Soren: 37/36/34/17/25 Nino: 33/33/36/16/30 In the most important stats she loses to him by 3 points in ATK and since I gave him the speed seal she only has 1 SPD over him. She loses in def by 1 point which in combination with the 4 less HP makes her far more squishy. For res she beats him by 5 points but it's largely irrelevant. If she was +ATK/-DEF then she would more or less match her but still loses in survivability for virtually the same utility. The only way I see Nino beats a +1 +ATK/-RES Soren is with a +SPD boon. As it stands Fury 3 gives them the same layout while Nino gets 1 speed in exchange for 3 less ATK and loss of survivability. My question here is... without +SPD Nino is it really NOT just better to give Soren himself her Gronnblade+? because while Soren is usually just a weaker Nino, it seems to be the reverse in this case. While you're at it, you can tell me how a +ATK Nino is better than Soren if I were to come across that. I love Nino, I like her arguably more than Soren but I really feel like swapping him out for her would actually cost me. 2. Is Neutral Matt passable for any of these builds? because he's all I have and I really want to start building him. There's a build for every Boon for Matt here, but is there a point to any of these builds with no boon at all? 2xa: Kagero's Deciple: 2xb: Attrition Spy 2xc: Debuff Specialist 2xd: Scourge: 2xe: Sniper:

Responses in red bold.

I frequent this topic more than any other probably, but a set of questions here. 1. Horse Emblem. 2. Bride Cordelia 3. Soren 4. Kagero has her normal build + Hone Speed 2 and Reciprocal Aid. Reciprocal Aid is virtually never used because if she takes a hit she dies. What's a better special and assist skill for her than R-Aid and Reprisal? I know Life and Death 3 and Desperation are her bread and butter so I'll wait on those but the assist and special are something I can change in the immediate. 5. F2P player... I've pulled on the Bride Banner twice and gotten two B!Cordelias and am still shooting for B!Lyn to replace Wrys as my healer. I can probably pull once or twice before the banner expires but it will deplete me and I'll probably have nothing for the next big thing, which could be a Dawn Brigade banner which probably means Edward, one of my favorite characters. I know these characters are limited though and this is probably my only chance to pull for her, possibly ever. Save or summon? 6. I've never outfitted a healer before... and Wrys is a keeper (I've never gotten a Trubadour ever) so what would you put in his A and C slots?

Promoting Reinhardt isn't an option, I don't have the feathers but it's a waste. He's +RES/-ATK, not worth the investment until I get another one. I'm basically keeping him so I can grind SP and put skills on him that I will port over to a better Reinhardt later on so I don't have to do any real grinding. Otherwise he'd be Vantage 3 Fodder. Kagero just has her default skills + Hone Spd 2. She's +DEF/-RES or the other way around, but she has Warding Blow 3. Takumi and B!Cordelia only have their default Kit. Xander has Fury 3 and Vantage 3 (I had an extra Lon Qu which he devoured.)

Camus wasn't that tough with a little thought. I wish I had thought about it before I fed Barst to Lukas for a Reposition he never even ended up using. I have a spare but I hate wasting nice things. Reposition is probably better than Reciprocal Aid on him anyway so maybe it was a good investment. Anyways my team. (+1, +ATK/-RES, +1 Speed Seal) Soren with Drawback. (+SPD/-ATK) Lukas with Dragback & Ignis. (+SPD/-RES) Olivia. Wrys. In order to win this I had to give Soren Lancebreaker 2 from a 2 star Narcian I promoted to 3 and fed to him. He had to be able to one shot Camus for this to work. He nails him from between the forests. After that Lukas came up to him from the side, Olivia dances him and he runs behind Lukas and drags him back, only in the range of an Axe cav and troubadour. Wrys heals Soren. Axe cav comes down and Lukas face tanks both him and the Troubadour. After that it's a series of sniping with Soren, dancing with Olivia, healing with Wrys and facetanking with Lukas. He even stood out eating a double from the red cav mage and surviving with Soren's fortify Res boost. Who says healers suck? THIS people is why I kept my +SPD/-ATK Lukas. +DEF/-SPD or -RES wouldn't have been able to do what he did. The Axe Cavs would have scraped him and the Mage cav would have obliterated him. That 25 speed keeps him from being doubled by a surprising number of things, especially when occasionally boosted with hone spd.

I've been doing a bit of HM grinding though so I'll list my actual mainstays. Unfortunately I haven't been given any of my favorite characters aside from bad Nature Ninos so I make due with new faces for the most part. 1. Lukas: is the leader and mainstay of my army. Does the important job of tanking every red that isn't Tiki and a lot of blues and Ignis'ing them to death. He goes on almost every mission. 2. Soren: The compliment to Lukas. He's the closest thing I have to Nino. He nukes things behind Lukas and does most of the heavy lifting. Though he's not technically the leader, unlike Lukas, there isn't a single mission I don't take him on. He will be here until I raise a Nino. 3. Olivia: The dancer. Doesn't do a lot of fighting but helps Soren and Lukas kill things. 4. Wrys: Soren and Lukas do a lot of tanking and take a lot more hits than they probably should. Olivia works with this guy to keep them alive and slow enemies down occasionally. People say what they want about healers but I think they're a Godsend and I'm hoping Bride Lyn will show up and take this old man's place. 5. Kagero. Was my literal first pull of the game. She's since been merged into a better one and made five stars. She is usually my swap out unit with Wrys and used to nuke things. Used to be part of the main group. 6. Y!Tiki: My only powerful red unit. Used to be deployed a lot more and act as the wall before Lukas came along. Now she mostly sits on the sidelines. 7. Xander: Newest addition but the most outfitted. Carries his weight well, especially on cavalry teams. 8.Frederick: My first 5 star and once the frontliner of my team. Mostly warms the bench now but likely will absorb Gunter for that Hone Cavalry and earn a spot on a real team. 9. Gunter and Jagen: Hone and Fortify Cavalry bots waiting for better units to replace them, but currently crucial on Cavalry teams. 10. Hinoka: Only 5 Star flier. She pulls her weight on Flier emblem and will occasionally grace a normal team but otherwise untouched. 11. Chrom: Once a member of my main team, he's since been benched and replaced by Y!Tiki who was later replaced by Olivia. HM for those that still want it:

Ok... I'm desperate. The last 2 seasons I got a total of 0 defense wins and we're on friday and still not a single one. I'm missing out on more and more feathers and I don't know what I'm doing with defense teams. I've tried an all mage team, spear team, team with Xander + Olivia and nothing is working. Someone who knows what they're doing please build me a reliable defense team if one can be made. Here are my 5 to 4 star units. Please help a noob who is somehow going to hit tier 16 next week.

Life and Death 3 is great, but all these characters will be around and the brides will be gone forever in two weeks. I'm going to pour all orbs I have into shooting for Bride Lyn. If I get any of the other brides that's a bonus.

The irony there is that I was pulling for LYN both times.

You can't be serious... I used the 20 orbs I got from the new monthly quests and got ANOTHER Bride Cordelia. ...She's even the same nature... +ATK, -HP

Putting Skills on him now and being able to port them over to a better Reinhardt is actually pretty smart. Gives me something to do if I get him, that is a pretty good idea so I'll do it. I have virtually everything I need in terms of buffs for Horse Emblem. Gunter, Jagen, Eliwood, Xander, Abel, Cain (Only Xander and Cain are *5). I have an Odin. But Moonbow is really nice and so is R-Tomebreaker and he's my only source for the latter right now so I'm sitting on him because I don't know what exactly I want to do with him right now as he's the only one I've ever gotten.

Thought this was going to be more interesting the next month around. It's even the same 1 orb quests. Well, at least with Caeda, Hinoka and Palla the Flier Emblem quests will be a lot funner. Cavalry too with Xander as a 5 star.

So I have a +RES/-ATK Reinhardt that's *4. Is he ANYTHING other than Vantage 3 fodder? I have 0 interest in spending 20k feathers to upgrade a horrible boon/bane on a character I don't really care about. That being said, my only other blue mages are a -ATK Robin, an Odin and Ursula. All *4.