azurrys

Ranged units. The banes of my arena existence tend to be fast mages like Nino and Linde or Brave weapon users (especially Reinhardt, godfucking Reinhardt) because if I can't one-round them immediately, I tend to lose a unit. Also Dancers/movement assists. They open up so many more avenues for the AI's next move and/or fuck up your strategy, are incredibly irritating to take that into account and easy enough to miss or forget about. My current team is Reinhardt, Tharja, Klein and Cordelia (filler), and although I'm lacking movement assists or a decent Dancer for now I've scored a comfortable number of wins. I really like the idea of stacking all one colour though. I'll have to try that sometime and compare... Also, you can try switching in some slightly less common units sometimes if you have them. For the most part, I try to make sure I can counter the most common arena units. I see Takumi practically every battle so I'll always pack a Takumi counter and because of that, he's really not that threatening to me anymore. Less-common units like Abel and Peri are more likely to throw me for a loop and mess up my strategy.

I'm F2P and my recent pulls have skewed my numbers pretty hard. I've pulled 12 total (1 dupe which I fed to my better IV copy), 3 of which I pulled in the last 2-3 days. Ogma (rerolled and kept the first 5* I got) Camilla Cordelia x2 Reinhardt (MVP) Sakura Tharja Klein Karel Jakob Minerva Eldigan I might also promote 4* Merric soon. I'm pretty happy with my spread though--there's near-perfect diversity in weapon types and Merric will fill the last weapon I'm missing.

I just had to poke in because I saw that you used a pretty similar strategy to mine, which is really cool! The screenshots threw me for a loop because the positions were almost exactly the same but the units were different (and I kept Reinhardt further out of range just in case). Though it looks like our strategies differed a bit in terms of dealing with the last lancer. I didn't even think of using the otherwise-useless blue unit to take on the Lancer for some reason. Would you mind if I added a link to your post in mine? I think it'd be helpful and you have more screenshots, I was lazy.

It was going to be Michalis or Anna, but then I pulled 5* Minerva, whom I like better than both on almost every front. Now I have no idea. The main contender is +ATK -SPD Effie, but she just doesn't fit into my endless kiting play style. Sharena is a possibility, but I have Cordelia; I could train Ursula but I have Reinhardt. I feel like most of my best options are outclassed by a trained 5* that I've already invested time in (both to train them and to learn how to use them to the extent of their ability), and who can fill their intended role just as well or better. Maybe I'll just go on waiting for a good Nino to train, since I have a 5* version of every weapon type except a green tome. /side eyes my +HP -SPD 3* Nino Edit: ohh, pulled 4* Merric in my latest pull instead. Sorry Nino, you just got usurped. Maybe when I finally pull you I'll have 20k again though!

Hmm, yeah, I think it's a matter of being doubled. Even boosted with Hone Fliers (since he'll have the boost the turn where he's lured), Michalis can't double and kill Sharena, whereas he'd be able to double and kill Cordelia. Unboosted Michalis falls just short of doubling and killing her but seems like that won't matter. You have a point about the boosts though; the AI reacts to the weirdest little details. Thanks!

I'm glad it helped! Out of curiosity, what was your Sharena's defence/speed? I'll edit it into the strategy post so others have a benchmark for how puny their blue unit needs to be lol. I think it probably has to be ORKO'd levels, so I'll check against his stats.

Holy frick, I actually got what I came for! I'm not sure how I feel about +SPD -RES Minerva since that means with Life and Death 3 she'll have 9 Res (lol) and be killed by almost every mage to have ever lived, so maybe not the best idea to run her with that. But she's a welcome change from the -SPD characters I keep pulling. As a bonus, the first session where I tried to pull her, which I nearly quit on when I opened it up to no greens. Not totally bad though.

I'm not done training them yet, but I'm looking to integrate either 5* Karel (+DEF -SPD) or 4* Ursula on to my arena offence team. My current team is +ATK -SPD Reinhardt, +ATK -DEF Tharja, +ATK -HP Cordelia and +DEF -SPD Klein (all 5* level 40 except Cordelia, who's 40+1). I also have 5* level 40 -ATK +RES Camilla standing by. Who should be replaced, and with whom? I'm not too fussed about ranks, I'm mostly after the feathers from getting a 4k+ score. Notes: I'll probably pass Fury to Karel to patch his speed up. I do have enough feathers to 5* a character, but I'm pretty reluctant to spend them on Ursula.

Actually I just realised that Olivia should be free that turn to dance Nino, and there's no way Nino can't 2-round Michalis, especially if rallied by Sharena. And based on the math for 5* maxed out Sharena vs. Michalis she can indeed absorb one blow from him, so if all else fails, you can tank him for one turn if Olivia can't get into position to dance Nino. I think you'll be fine!

Sure, no problem. Here's the first image before Klein gets into position: And here's the position to move into to lure Michalis down. (Screenshot is from after he's lured down.) These are the only two screenshots I have, but I can probably rig up some charts if necessary. Feel free to ask! Yep. Even if Nino can't one-round, just make sure the blue unit can finish Michalis off. Ursula could probably help, or Sharena's Rally Attack should help Nino a lot too.

Alright, here’s a proper write-up of the strategy I used. It's pretty simple and shouldn’t require too many units. What you need: a competent Archer (who can tank the Sword Cav for 1 turn), a Dancer (doesn’t need to be leveled), someone who can one-round Michalis, and a blue unit or other weakling that Michalis can one-round as bait. I used Klein, Olivia, Tharja and Reinhardt in those roles (sorry Reinhardt). Turns 1, 2 and 3: Move everyone to the right flank. Position Klein just below the range of the Lance Flier with Olivia below him. Doesn’t matter where the other two go as long as everyone's grouped together. Wait one turn after positioning so everyone can move. Turn 4: Use Klein to kill the Lance Flier. Dance for him so he can move up and attack the Sword Cavalier. It doesn’t matter if the Cavalier doesn’t die; the important thing is to get him below 50% HP so Bowbreaker doesn’t come into effect. Tharja gets behind the wall below Olivia, and Reinhardt goes below her. Turn 5: During enemy phase, Michalis should fly down towards Reinhardt. The Sword Cavalier hits Klein, who survives, and the Sword Flier moves towards injured Klein. On player phase, use Klein to kill the Sword Flier, then dance for him so he kills the Sword Cavalier too. Reinhardt and Tharja move just out of Michalis’s range. Turn 6: On enemy phase, Michalis draws nearer again. Kill him with Tharja. Meanwhile, the Lancer is creeping along the top. Keep Klein out of his range and on turn whatever, once the Lancer gets close enough, use Klein to kill him with Olivia dancing if necessary. Screenshots: To reiterate: the dancer won't get attacked at all, so there's absolutely no need to level them. I used 4* level 23 Olivia. And I'm pretty sure any useless unit will do in the fourth slot as long as they look very tempting for Michalis to kill, though you need to make sure that the Sword Flier won't be drawn to them too (so a blue unit is ideal). Bait specifications: Reinhardt (27 Def/15 Spd) and Cordelia (25 Def/27 Spd) work, but Sharena (29 Def/35 Spd) does not (thanks to @salinea for bringing this to my attention). I'd recommend checking his stats to make sure he can hypothetically one-round the unit, in which case he'll most likely go for them. With WTA, unboosted Michalis does 61 damage to a blue unit; boosted Michalis should do ~67, and has 37 Spd. Additional note: for a similar strategy that actually makes use of the blue unit, see @chirp's post here! (Team of Takumi, Olivia, Lilina and Catria.) I'm almost entirely sure that the team you have selected right now will function virtually identically to the team I used in my strategy, so feel free to give it a try when the map comes back!

Thanks, that's just what I need! I've edited my post to have all 5 of the units' stats/skills now.

Ah, it's the west Lancer I missed, not the sword Cav. Would you happen to have a screenshot of that?

Stats and skills for all of the units, for further digestion (with thanks to TheTuckingFypo for helping out with a screenshot of the west Lancer): Beat the Lunatic map with a team of Klein, Reinhardt, Tharja and Olivia. Klein was the MVP, I think he must have killed 4 of the enemies. Reinhardt didn't actually do anything except act as Michalis bait, so he's perfectly replaceable. I'll do a proper write-up later. This was a lot easier than Ursula's, I think?

Thank you for the response! Fury sounds pretty tempting to me for Karel; I'm not a fan of how vulnerable he'd be to mages with Life and Death on. I might try Ardent Sacrifice on him instead since I have a ton of spare Florinas. Considering my drought of decent swords I'm inclined to make him work, so the advice is much appreciated! I'm probably going Reinhardt/Gunter/Stahl/Clarine for the horses and Camilla/Cordelia/Palla/Florina for the fliers, though I have no intention of upgrading Clarine so I'll replace her with Jagen if she ends up too fragile to contribute. Thanks again! Just pitching in to say that -Spd isn't actually a bad bane for 5* Reinhardt since he can always double on player phase. The -5 speed from his prof weapon means that he's doubled by pretty much everything anyway, and a speed bane adds a grand total of five units to that list (most of whom he can annihilate on player phase), so there's very little difference between -Spd and neutral. +Spd stops him from being doubled by a fair few characters, but I don't think it's worth the attack loss in your case. +Res is pretty horrible, but if you ever do decide to upgrade one of the two, I'd still recommend the +Res -Spd over the +Spd -Atk. For your question though, I personally think that 4* Ursula is preferable over 4* Reinhardt. Without his prof weapon to help him double, Reinhardt's main draw of player phase power is pretty much kaput so the cavalry advantage will be much handier.

Pulled a 5* -SPD +DEF Karel. Salvageable or Wo Dao+ fodder? (Though to be fair, I don't really have any other decent sword users right now so I'm thinking of passing on Darting Blow to help his case, even though that means removing Defiant Attack so I'm not sure it's a good idea.) Would also appreciate some advice on what units to include for the armour, cavalry and flying unit teams for the Training Tower Tenth Stratum missions. Not including screenies for the infantry because too freaking many of them, but does a team of 5* Klein, 5* Tharja, 4* Sharena and Olivia sound decent? I was also considering 4* Anna somewhere but I'm not sure who to sub over. I'm a lot less concerned about this team though, at least I have plenty of choices. Thanks!

I'm guessing you mean Camilla for the first question, though if you do mean Tharja, it's a yes--If she kills the Armour she'll be in range of Ursula and barely survive with 2 HP. As for Camilla, she can survive 3 rounds against the Thief, so I could potentially block the Thief's movement, however clearing out the bottom half of the map is pretty impossible with just Reinhardt and Tharja against Ursula. Neither of them would survive a single retaliation strike from her but neither can kill her before she retaliates. According to the stats calculator -ATK Camilla's max attack is 34; she currently has 32 Str and leaves the Thief with 8 HP, so even with the addition 2 Str she'd only deal extra 4 damage. No way around it, I think (and Olivia can't be positioned anywhere decent to give her Hone Attack). But just in case, here are her stats anyway: HP: 35 ATK: 32 SPD: 24 DEF: 26 RES: 34 I'm wondering if I can pull this off if I field Lissa with Kindled-Fire Balm, Reinhardt, Tharja and Camilla, but without Olivia I fear I'd be out of luck in blocking the sword Cav and anyway I'm not sure I can get Kindled-Fire Balm charged in time to make a difference. Something just occurred to me though (after I wrote out that long reply lol...). I checked Camilla's skills and I somehow missed teaching her Draconic Aura; she still had Dragon Gaze equipped. I think that's the break I need! Since she's doubled by Ursula it should activate on her second ninja attack. I think. I hope. I've made enough math mistakes to cost me 2 stamina potions already, but I have enough stamina to give this another run so I'm going in to see what happens. Thank you for all your help, I really appreciate it! --- Edit: HOLY MOLY IT WORKED I CAN FINALLY PUT THIS MAP BEHIND ME. I can't believe I was missing out on something lame, that teaches me to forget about SP after blitz-levelling. Thank you again for the strategy, worked like a charm once I had Camilla one-round the Thief! (She didn't have enough attack to one-round Ursula--left her with 6 HP--but that's why Reinhardt is there for clean-up.) So yeah, PSA to anyone who has a -ATK Camilla: just get Draconic Aura if you don't already have it. No, seriously.

Whew, okay. Despite going through a lot of the advice in the thread, I still can't beat the Lunatic map, so time to ask for help. Here are my noteworthy resources: I've been trying to tackle this with a team of Reinhardt, Camilla, Tharja and Olivia using the strategy outlined on Page 4 by Raven, and came incredibly close except for the top Ninja screwing up my plans every single time because my -ATK Camilla can't one-round him (and will never be able to even if I boost her to level 40 iirc). If she attacks him, he uses Escape Route to teleport and kill someone; if she doesn't attack him or there's nobody in range to kill, he'll still kill someone on Turn 3. Here's a visual of how things look at the beginning of Turn 3 player phase: Is the strategy insalvageable and should I rush to train someone new, or can anyone offer some insight?

I play casually, most of the time. I don't tend to care about turncount unless I'm getting something out of it (like BEXP, in which case I'll play self-imposed 'within max BEXP limit' challenges). But otherwise, I'm happy to waste time grinding out levels in the arena, building supports, or killing extra reinforcements. I love powering my units up and watching them curbstomp everything. I always play on Normal, even on replays (except for FE7, for some reason). Nobody ever dies in my games, even if I don't care about them! Character-wise--I'm all about the appearance. Every game, I always pick several biases and baby them like no tomorrow, just about completely based on appearance. Unless they're prepromotes, because I never use prepromotes (unless they're named Etzel, because for him my appearance bias > my prepromote bias). Or unless they're Lords, because no matter what my Lords look like, I baby them because I'm of the opinion that I'm going to be forced into them anyway--I might as well make them as good as possible. But the Lords tend to look good, anyway. (Though there's a distinction. I'm much more likely to save/RNG/BEXP/whatever scum my male Lords' level-ups as compared to my female Lords, due to appearance bias--I'm still female in the end.) Wyvern Riders are definitely my favourite class, though. They fly, they look cool, they hit hard, they don't die easy, they can solo herds of enemies (sometimes), and they're all round awesome. But I have a special bias for Mages because they tend to be prettyboys (my favourite type forever) and I haven't found a Wyvern Rider I've loved as much as Heath yet. No, not even Haar. And honourable mentions for Cavs because of their amazing util and because they're sort of non-flying Wyvern Riders to me, and Pegasus Knights because... they fly and I love flying things. And Pegasi. Even if they're not nearly as cool.