["Ask Fire Emblem Heroes Questions and Get Them Answered Here" Thread]

So, first of all a general question: Do you prefer specials with a cooldown of 1 (that reliably activate on a follow-up) or 2 (stronger, but necessitating an enemy counterattack)? Or does your choice depend on whether a unit would be able to survive a counter – Legendary Camilla with her damage reduction should be able to take a hit, for example, whereas Seiðr might not?

On a similar note, is there a specific point where you switch from Moonbow to Glimmer and vice versa? Like, if someone has a ton of effective damage or can subtract e.g. 10 Def/Res from their opponent, you pick Glimmer, and otherwise Moonbow?

What refine would you recommend for Ginnungagap’s Arcane Dagger? She doesn’t need +Spd due to her guaranteed follow-up, +Def/Res is irrelevant when she’s uncounterable (though she admittedly can get surprisingly bulky through her Atk subtractions), which leaves +Atk, I suppose? Feels kinda bad since it’s only a single point, but the alternatives aren’t exactly breathtaking either…

And finally: Would you prefer +Atk or +Def on Young Hector and +Atk or +Spd on Brave Eirika?

Thanks in advance for any advice 🙂

["Ask Fire Emblem Heroes Questions and Get Them Answered Here" Thread]

Hey, I’m using the current double SP+EP event to (once again) clean up my barracks and am still somewhat unsure about which asset to keep on a few of my characters.
My choices are between +Atk and +Spd for Fallen Ninian, Fallen Dimitri, Hatari Azura & Leanne and Shannan; +Atk or +Res for Fallen Hardin and +Def or +Res for Fallen Morgan (F).

I’m leaning towards +Atk Hardin, +Def Morgan and +Spd for pretty much everyone in the first group, but I thought it couldn’t hurt to ask for some additional thoughts.
Oh, and there’s also my +Spd Ascended Fjorm who still needs a second asset, I suppose +Atk is ideal here?

["Ask Fire Emblem Heroes Questions and Get Them Answered Here" Thread]

@XRay and @Ice Dragon :
First of all, thank you for your responses! Since you made similar points, I’ll just reply to both of you at once:

1. I actually don’t really use Ewan at all and only keep him around in case he comes in useful for a FE8-exclusive map or gets a good personal weapon at some point. Maybe I could’ve phrased it better, but my question about +Def or +Res was in relation to minimal investment Ewan (I think I only gave him Distant Defense 3 and a Rauðrserpent refine at some point).

2. I occasionally deploy Julia when I see (preferably blue) dragons in the Arena Assault team preview. She then proceeds to either bait them on enemy phase or blow them up on player phase, depending on the flow of battle. Since I didn’t want her and Deirdre to do exactly the same, she hasn’t learned Divine Naga. I’ve never summoned +Atk Julia by the way, which is why my only options are +Spd or +Res.

3. Hm, okay then. I don’t own Spring Maria, so I guess Lethe’s skill fodder is currently not all that useful to me.

4. To be honest, my Nowi still uses the Steady Breath + Quick Riposte combo that was modern about 5 years ago, haha. Even though I would theoretically like to replace it with a tier 3 Stance + Dragon Wall, I have the fodder for neither.
Bonus Doubler might be an option however, especially in combination with someone like Fae around.

5. One last question that came to mind: Would Guinivere prefer to keep her native Iceberg or to go for Moonbow and quicker, but weaker special activations instead?

 

["Ask Fire Emblem Heroes Questions and Get Them Answered Here" Thread]

Hey, I’ve been using the increased SP gains of this weekend for cleaning up my barracks a little, which is why I have a few questions:

1. Should I merge my +Def Ewan into my +Res one or vice versa? He has a super boon in both stats, and I’m questioning whether it’s better to just stack Res or to work on his mixed bulk instead (considering that he’s still using his standard Rauðrserpent tome).
Similarly I’m uncertain if Sheena would prefer to go +Def in order to maximize her physical bulk or +Res to somewhat equalise her Def and Res.

2. I’m not sure if I should keep my +Res Julia or switch her for a +Spd version. The Spd super asset obviously sounds nice, but when I’m only using her once in a while in order to close counter a dragon and she has Quick Riposte anyways, it doesn’t seem like it’s really needed.

3. In a similar fashion: +Atk Mordecai to get a few more wins on the occasion he attacks or +Def to better soak hits after he’s done applying his debuffs?

4. How do you pick an asset for units with low Atk but decent Spd like Lon’qu, Eirika, Caeda and the like? On the one hand it seems to be a good idea to further improve their (for their joining time) pretty good Spd, on the other hand they struggle to do a lot of damage. Eirika and Caeda also have a tempting Atk super boon on top of that.

5. Does anyone actually want Spd/Def Solo? I have 3 extra manuals of Lethe lying around, but noone who would really like to inherit that skill instead of other options comes to mind.

6. Considering the Breath skills exist as seals now, I’m thinking about updating the ages old build of my Nowi. I don’t have all that many skills available as fodder, so how does Steady Posture 3 sound?

I know it’s been a lot, but I’m nevertheless grateful for any advice :)

["Ask Fire Emblem Heroes Questions and Get Them Answered Here" Thread]

Hey, I pulled a +Spd Micaiah just today, and since I've seen quite a lot of fast Micaiahs in my recent Summoner Duels, I wanted to know if you'd recommend to hold on to my current +Res version or to go for +Spd instead?

Keep in mind that I'm still F2P however, which means that even though Micaiah will be +5 with her latest merge, I won't be able to upgrade her to +10 easily or secure a lot of premium skill fodder for her.

["Ask Fire Emblem Heroes Questions and Get Them Answered Here" Thread]

Hey! I just pulled another Brave Micaiah and am now wondering whether I should merge the new (+Res -HP) into my existing (neutral) one or vice versa.
It's probably not a big difference either way (+1 HP/Atk/Res vs +3 Res), but I wanted to know if you'd recommend going for max Res in order to tank and activate Yune's Whispers more easily or if it's preferable to simply have her floating around with the highest Atk she can get and one-shot as many enemies as possible.
Thanks in advance for any advice!

["Ask Fire Emblem Heroes Questions and Get Them Answered Here" Thread]

Quick question regarding Nagi: Would she prefer a +Atk or a +Def IV (assuming she keeps her innate Special Fighter)?

Thank you for any advice :)

["Ask Fire Emblem Heroes Questions and Get Them Answered Here" Thread]

16 hours ago, XRay said:

Generally speaking, you want to use different types of offense teams to tackle different types of defense teams, similar to how you would approach Arena Assault. Super tank teams should not be the only team type you deploy, so if you see Thrasir or Lucina or something, you would not deploy Nowi/Fae and you would run a player phase team or something instead.

If you cannot run a ton of Mythics, you can just replace them with more support units. If you are running Nowi, you can run two or three M!Corrins if you only have Reginn and Altina as your Mythics.

I know that it's generally a good idea to have a wide variety of teams available, but at the same time it's quite a bit more expensive to build a good enemy phase team than to do the same for the player phase variant, imo... Which is why my Aether Raids teams have generelly been pretty player phase focused unless there's a defensive mythic/bonus character around.

16 hours ago, XRay said:

A Spd tank should stack as much Spd as possible. Every skill slot should boost Spd if possible. In my opinion, the only exceptions to that rule is to make sure Quick Riposte is in the build somewhere (Weapon, B, or Sacred Seal slots), and that for the C slot, you may want to run Atk Smoke over Spd Smoke since Atk Smoke boosts more of your stats (Atk-7 on the enemy is the equivalent of Def+7 AND Res+7 on your unit, whereas Spd-7 on the enemy is just the equivalent of Spd+7 on your unit). If you are in a mode where units generally do not go above a certain Spd threshold, you can replace Quick Riposte with another Spd stacking skill (e.g.: Lull Atk/Spd, Swift Stance) to achieve the same effect of doubling your enemies while increasing your bulk at the same time.

In my opinion, the vast majority of combat units generally should not be running any form of healing skills, as support units are much better at healing combat units than combat units are at healing themselves. There is no point in running Noontime/Sol when you can just bring a healer to heal the damage back up, and they can do it much more efficiently. The only reason to run healing skills on combat units is if you are having trouble protecting the healer. Healing skills that most combat units have access to generally heal too little to matter, and the opportunity cost to running a healing skill is reduced damage output and reduced bulk, which makes the tank easier to kill. In my opinion, it is much better to ensure your enemy is dead with Moonbow or increase your bulk with Lull Atk/Spd, than it is to run Noontime/Sol or Mystic Boost.

Healing skills like Aether and Sirius are fine on combat units since they do not completely sacrifice damage output for healing, but I would avoid Noontime and Sol unless you are playing Abyssal maps, Tempest Trials, or something similar where enemy nukes are less potent but it is more difficult to protect healers due to being swarmed by reinforcements or the AI being stupid.

Okay then, so I'd basically be able to keep Quick Riposte and Atk Smoke around, but what about the A slot skills? Something like Steady Posture 3 seems to be a good option to get both Spd and more bulk, though I don't really want to fodder my only Shannan away, so I suppose it's fine if I just stick with Distant Counter for Fae and... I'm honestly not exactly sure about Nowi? Keeping Steady Breath is nice to offset the special delay from Purifying Breath, but it doesn't offer any Spd, so...

And sure, I didn't mean to imply that it would be a good idea to slap Noontime or Sol on everyone for something like Arena Assault - I was talking about the game modes where you regularly throw tanky units into hordes of enemies. Since Steady Breath + Aether was such a good combo in the past, both Fae and Nowi also still have Aether available as an option in order to get both extra damage and healing.

["Ask Fire Emblem Heroes Questions and Get Them Answered Here" Thread]

9 hours ago, XRay said:

Depends on what you want to do with them.

If you are using them as super tanks, +Spd is mandatory to help avoid doubles. Not having super high base Spd is not a big deal since you can offload stats to support units and Mythics to further customize your stat distribution that way. So for example, you can run something like triple Peonys/Plumerias with double Drive Spd on the stat buffer to turn a slow unit really fast.

If you are just using them as regular tanks, I still recommend turning them into Spd tanks anyways since avoiding doubles still help a lot in PvE modes. Fae is not slow enough to reliably activate Iceberg, and Nowi is not slow enough to reliably trigger Aether. That said, slow mixed tanks can still do well in PvE modes, especially easy ones like autobattling Tempest Trials, even if they are not technically slow. In PvP modes though, you have to be more careful with slow tanks since enemy nukes are much more capable of overwhelming tanks without relying on color advantage.

I've never really used Fae or Nowi for Aether Raids since I honestly doubt that either of them would fare all that well against the rather extreme offensive threats you frequently have to face there, hm. There's also the slight problem that I simply can't just combine them with lots of Peonys/Plumerias due to the fact that those aren't exactly the most accessible units if you're F2P.

When you recommend turning them into full Spd tanks, how far would you go? Atm they're running Steady Breath/Quick Riposte/Atk Smoke/Close or Distant Defense, and I sadly don't really have a lot of five star exclusive skill fodder. Also, why would you use Iceberg on Fae? If she's supposed to tank, wouldn't some kind of healing special be more optimal?

And finally: Did the part about Spd tanks also apply to M!Robin even though you didn't specifically mention him?

["Ask Fire Emblem Heroes Questions and Get Them Answered Here" Thread]

I have both Fae and Nowi sitting around in my barracks at +9 with the standard Lightning Breath/Steady Breath/Quick Riposte combo that was popular on them back in the days when they were, like, pretty top-tier tank units. Now that they've both got a shiny new exclusive weapon, I've decided to return to them and polish them up a little by giving them their last merge and unique refine (Fae probably also needs Distant Counter since she loses hers when switching out her weapon).

The question I have is: Would it be better to go for a +Spd nature or higher mixed defenses instead (which means +Def on Fae and +Res on Nowi)? With how fast many offensive threats nowadays are, I'm honestly not sure if the dragon girls can really keep up, even considering the +4 Spd from merges and the possibility of slapping another +3 onto that through dragon flowers...

And on a similar note: I know he's not really an especially good unit anymore, but since he was my first five star character, I'm kinda attached to him, so... Is M!Robin's Spd still salvageable or would it be better to switch to an Atk asset now?

Thanks in advance for any advice 🙂

["Ask Fire Emblem Heroes Questions and Get Them Answered Here" Thread]

So, this time I have just a few quick questions for anyone kind enough to provide some insight:

1. I have the choice between +Atk and +Spd for Legendary Tiki, Valentian Catria and Bernadetta respectively. I'm leaning towards +Atk for Tiki (since she has only her standard Bold Fighter and no Special Fighter), +Atk for Catria (due to extra synergy with her weapon and the nice superboon she gets) and +Spd for Bernadetta (more Spd is always nice on a player phase unit, even though she admittedly does get very fast already). Any opinions?

2. Is there someone who would really appreciate Blade Session or should I just slap another merge on my Tsubasa? On the one side, the potential offensive boost is huge, but on the other the turn order requirement could be somewhat clunky to play around...

3. I've acquired some more Distant Counter fodder, and out of the following heroes, who would do how well with this new skill? I've considered Ares, Adrift Corrin (M), Itsuki and Legendary Marth so far, who should probably all benefit quite a bit from it. If there are other characters out there that are easy to get and would improve massively from adding DC, I'd be open to suggestions though.

Anyways, thanks for any advice 🙂

["Ask Fire Emblem Heroes Questions and Get Them Answered Here" Thread]

I'm once again clearing up my barracks and therefore returning for some more questions, and even though I know that it's a lot again, I'll at least try to keep it somewhat short:

1. I have a +Def Fae and a +Res Nowi with a Steady Breath/Res-refined Lightning Breath combo each. Am I right in my assumption that it's better to keep them the way they are atm than to switch them out for the +Spd versions I pulled recently? If it matters, I don't use them as AR supertanks, so they usually don't get massive stat buffs either (unless L!Azura is also around or something like that).

2. Would Mordecai appreciate a +Def or a +Atk nature more? I suppose it's not all that important since he is first and foremost a support unit, but I have the choice on which one to keep, so... And additionally: What are some good C slot options? I've considered giving him an Opening skill, which would enable him to support his teammates even after he already used Smite to push them wherever.

3. Any good (but nevertheless somehat budgety) A slot skills for Hardin ? Should I go for Death Blow to strengthen the Bold Fighter stuff he can do or instead try to improve his enemy phase?

4. I still have a spare NY!Corrin sitting around, and... Is there any way to make him useful? He's okay as a Brave Bow archer or physical tank, but outclassed by Klein and Gordin/Faye and Norne respectively, so I'm not sure what to do with him...

5. For people that have good Def or Res, but no way to accelerate their special charge (I dunno, like Eir, NY!Laegjarn. Iago, Rafiel or the aforementioned Mordecai maybe): Is it worth it to bank on their high defenses in order to get hefty Bonfire/Iceberg activations or would it be better to let them use a faster special skill (probably Moonbow)? Or does it make a difference whether the character in question is player phase focused, an enemy phase tank or more of a support unit?

6. If I want to replace Adrift male Corrin's native Atk/Def Bond due to its somewhat unreliable positioning requirement and don't have a Breath skill available, should I just go for the standard Fury? I'm kinda unsure as he's pretty balanced statwise and therefore able to do a lot of things.

7. How do you feel about Desperation on characters with Spd values that aren't really bad, but not exactly great either (something around 35 maybe). Similarly, when choosing between Life and Death or Fury: What's the least amount of bulk you try to keep on glass cannon characters?

8. When picking C slot skills for members of Flier/Cavalry Emblem teams: How do you spread the Hone and Fortify skills around? In theory things would work out nicely if offensive units would supply defensive buffs and vice versa, but in practice it's not quite that simple - Hone Fliers is still a somewhat rare skill and tanky units often prefer to use Atk Smoke instead of a  supportive ability, so...

Anyways, huge thanks to anyone who actually bothered to read through all of this, haha.

["Ask Fire Emblem Heroes Questions and Get Them Answered Here" Thread]

Last month has gifted me with even more duplicate heroes, so it's once more time to clear some space by doing a few merges, which is why I'm here again.
I have the choice between +Atk and +Spd each for Summer Laegjarn, Brave Roy, M!Robin, Eirika, Felicia and Matthew. So far I'm leaning towards +Atk for Eirika and Matthew (since even though they'd like more Spd, they can somewhat patch up their awfully low base Atk with a superboon in combination with their legendary refines) and +Spd for Felicia (as her Atk is so terrible that she probably won't kill without a special proc anyways, which is why she needs Spd to double enemy mages), but i'm honestly not all that sure about the other three (Laegjarn and Roy get pretty absurdly fast on player phase with +Spd, but the number of speedy foes steadily rises as well, while Robin would really love more Atk, even though some Spd could also be useful to ensure that he doesn't implode quite as quickly when encountering a blue enemy...)

Besides all that; I've also finally gotten both Julia (+Res) and Deirdre (+Spd -Def) and wanted to use the opportunity to finally give them complete builds, so... Any suggestions? I assume QR is just about ideal for both of them, though what about good A slot skills? Would it be recommended to just take the standard pick Fury or maybe something like Mirror Stance for Julia, who is more enemy phase oriented?
And in a similar vein: I assume that the best budget option for Nephenee and Hostile Springs Hinoka is Fury as well?

["Ask Fire Emblem Heroes Questions and Get Them Answered Here" Thread]

@XRay and @Ice Dragon

Okay, due to real life intervening it took me quite a while to actually write an answer to you, so first of all: Let me thank you both for your advice.
Just for your information on what I did so far: I ended up keeping the +Atk versions of Legendary Marth and Sacred Memories Eirika while merging my Veronicas (since I recently got another Genny for Wrathful Staff and figured that foddering her off would be more efficient). I haven't done anything with my spare Legendary Tiki or Flora yet, though I'm leaning towards giving Flora's Atk/Res-Solo to Yune (who is at least used somewhat frequently during Aether Raids and should benefit from that).

You both suggested giving Tiki's skills to an armored unit with built-in Distant Counter, but my only real option for that is the Black Knight, I suppose (since the others have DC in their A slot). If I want to give Bold Fighter to one of my characters with Armor March instead, I'm kind of wasting the Breath skill, and if I inherit Fierce Breath to one of the many many people that want a Breath skill, I'm probably wasting Bold Fighter. Oh well.

I recently got a second New Year Hrid though and therefore finally want to finish his build, so... Should I just keep his native Atk/Def-Bond or replace it with something else that's somewhat budget-friendly? I know that bond skills generally aren't really great on most offensive player phase units and should be replaced with something like Fury, but since it's usually easier for enemy phase tanks to clump together and actually activate them...

Also, regarding Lon'qu and Raven: Do you think it's better to double up on Life and Death for them or should I rather utilize Fury to have an easier time reaching Desperation range/surviving a single hit?

Besides that, I gave Sonya her legendary refine some while ago and was wondering about a good B slot skill for her that's not Special Spiral. Something like a chill or sabotage skill maybe? Cause she doesn't really seem fast enough for Desperation or bulky enough for Quick Riposte, and most Breaker skills aren't really all that good anymore anyways...

And one final question: How do you choose the special skill on your offensive units? I know that simply picking Moonbow should be pretty much optimal most of the time (unless we're talking about Bladetome mages), but there's a decent amount of units that's also good in one of their defensive stats and therefore kinda commonly seen with a skill that capitalizes on this (e.g. Eir with Iceberg).
Do you still just pick Moonbow regardless of that, mix it up depending on someone's stats or does it also somewhat rely on their general skillset (due to Moonbow getting comparatively worse when you hit an enemy with debuffs from a Chill skill or a dagger or something like that)?

["Ask Fire Emblem Heroes Questions and Get Them Answered Here" Thread]

So I've recently accumulated a few units that might be good skill fodder, but since I'm not quite sure about whom I should give their skills to (if at all), I'd like to ask for some of your opinions.

I generally use Brave Veronica and Legendary Tiki quite a lot, but have both of them at +1 with a good nature already, so I was considering to utilize their Wrathful Staff/Fierce Breath + Bold Fighter as skill fodder. On one hand there are many units who would appreciate those skills, but on the other hand the merge bonus might be quite useful as well, even if it's quite small and my chances of actually getting either Veronica or Tiki to +10 are pretty slim due to me not spending money on the game.
There's also the following issue: granting another healer Wrathful Staff might be neat, but isn't really a necessity since I have exactly 10 Wrathful + Dazzling healers already. Fierce Breath + Bold Fighter are far rarer however and would likely be more useful, which is why I've considered giving them to one of my Armor March armors (Halloween Henry, Halloween Dozla or Valentine's Lyn).
So basically I'm asking: Would you fodder those two units off, and if yes, which one of the Armor March guys would be the best recipient of the mentioned skills?

Secondly there's Flora, who's also at +1 with a good nature, but whom I'm using significantly less than Veronica or Tiki since she's kind of more situational. She obviously has Atk/Res-Solo, which might be pretty good for slower magic tanks like Yune/Julia/female Morgan. Would you recommend inheriting it to one of them?

And finally: I've pulled Legendary Marth and Sacred Memories Eirika both with a neutral and a +Atk nature. Which one of them should I merge away and which one should I keep respectively? I'm leaning towards the neutral ones atm since I'm assuming that 1 Spd/HP are worth more than 2 Atk, but I'm not completely sure yet...
Also, on that note: What would be a good A slot skill for Legendary Marth (that's sort of not too expensive)? Probably just Fury or maybe Distant Counter?

Thanks in advance for any help! 🙂

[Not sure what skill to inherit or who to inherit it from? Read this! (Please read before posting)]

On 2.3.2019 at 11:36 PM, XRay said:

+Spd is better if you do not think you will use Reyson much as a combat unit.

With some exceptions, I personally prefer +Atk on most of my Dancers/Singers so they can fight better if they need to. For Reyson, I prefer +Atk so he can better fight against dragons.

Okay, so if I understand this correctly: +Spd is superior on dancers who don't fight in order to have an easier time surviving stray hits and for general utility. +Atk however is better on those that regularly do see combat or are specific colour counters.
I don't know, in general I don't really use them much in battle... So +Spd would be preferred? Or still +Atk for the few cases when they actually do enter combat?

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I personally do not like Ardent Sacrifice on nukes since it means they are not running Reposition. Without Reposition, it makes using them quite a bit more difficult to use with Dancers/Singers.If you are having trouble getting units into Desperation range, then I would run Fury.

Draw Back also works fine on ranged characters, right? Because out of all the fodder I have, Reposition is the only one available in rather limited quantity.

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Spurs are okay on Enemy Phase teams since positioning requirements are easier to meet, but Drives are still better in my opinion for the increase in range. I am not a huge fan of Threatens since the range is not far enough to be effective.

Hm, okay... So for player phase teams, just spreading around Hones would be better?
And yeah, I was seeing a lot of Threaten skills around on glass canons during the last Voting Gauntlet, so I kind of wondered whether they were any good, since the positioning required to get them to work seems to be tricky at best.

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The general goal to achieve is to either prioritize first round performance or to activate a Special during every round of combat (or at least activate it as frequently as possible). Attack rhythm and skills also matter, so while Slaying-Moonbow or Slaying-Ignis/Glacies is the general guideline for Player Phase and Enemy Phase units, you still might want to run lower cooldown Specials or skills that increase Special charge rate to make sure they can activate Specials reliably.

I generally do not use Glimmer unless the unit is running Triangle Adept and/or effective Weapons since they can deal high damage numbers.

Julia is usually an Enemy Phase unit, so she should generally be running Iceberg. However, if the foes she face are too slow to double her consistently, then she should run Moonbow. Even for really slow units like Effie, Slaying-Moonbow-Vengeful Fighter is still good option if she frequently encounters slow foes with Guard who would have normally denied her Special from activating.

Okay... So what about units with Wary Fighter, since their attack rhythm can be kind of weird at times? I assume 3 turn specials would be ideal here?

Also, on another note... What are good options for the B slot of Firesweep users? I know that Chill skills are popular here, but those are rather expensive, so... Poison Blade instead? Or Drag Back? Or a Breaker?

And finally: Sturdy Stance seems to be superior to Steady Stance on a lot of enemy phase tanks like Shiro, the Black Knight or Gerome (with Slaying Axe + Quick Riposte)... But do you think the performance difference is big enough to start buring some grails on Halloween Dorcas in order to get the necessary fodder?

[Not sure what skill to inherit or who to inherit it from? Read this! (Please read before posting)]

10 hours ago, XRay said:

Glimmer/Moonbow-Triangle Adept is still good on Dancers/Singers; it is primarily used in Player Phase teams where the Dancer/Singer is paired with a nuke of the stronger color (e.g.: Olivia with Reinhardt on the team). Triangle Adept is there to provide a hard counter against foes the nuke cannot deal with.

Moonbow-Fury is better for players who do not have a set team.

Ninian and PA!Shigure can use either set. If you know they are going to be supporting a green nuke most of the time, then Triangle Adept gives the team better coverage by shutting down red units. If you are just throwing them into random teams, then Fury would be better for the increased bulk.

Hone Atk is the most useful C slot in my opinion since everyone can use more Atk. Atk Tactic has team composition requirements, so I would not bother inheriting it until you have a team planned out before hand. Spd buffs are useful for Desperation nukes, but I would prioritize it less since not all nukes need Spd.

Hm, I think I'm just going to mix things up a little since I have multiple dancers of each colour anyways, so there should be room for some variety.
Since we're already on the topic of dancers though: Just pulled my second Reyson, and I assume +Spd (vs +Atk) is the superior option again, just like with most other supporters? Also, Wings of Mercy should still be good on him even though he has increased move already, right?

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For nukes in general, if you can get into Desperation range easily, then Life and Death is better. If you have trouble getting into Desperation range, then Fury is better.

Firesweep nukes would go with Life and Death since they are not meant to receive counter attacks at all.

Slaying-Galeforce nukes would also generally like Life and Death over Fury for more Atk/Spd.

As I said, it's kind of difficult... There are skills like Ardent Sacrifice around to help someone like Linde get into Desperation range safely, but other times I wish she could just take a hit to get there without dying. Similar problem with Raven probably, as his bulk with double LoD would be just laughable really.

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Personally, I prefer buffs over Ploys. You generally want to keep your team together and buffs should therefore generally be active on your units most of the time, whereas Ploys may require you to break your team apart to land a debuff, so foes are not always going to be debuffed.

In my opinion, the best Ploy users would be fliers as they have the most flexibility in terms of positioning and can fly over mountains and water.

I would swap out Hone Dragons on Myrrh unless she is on a dragon team. Even on dragon teams, Ward Dragons is better in my opinion since the vast majority of dragons are Enemy Phase units, so increasing their Def/Res is generally more important than boosting their Atk/Spd, and Ward Dragons also cannot be Panicked since it is a combat buff. Ward Dragons is expensive though.

Okay, that's pretty good since standard buffs are much cheaper than Ploys anyways. What's your opinion on Spurs and Threaten skills btw?

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[Ogma build]

Ogma reaches 49 Spd with Fury-Darting Blow, so that should be plenty. If that still is not enough, you can use Life and Death to boost it to 51. The special Refinement is kind of crap in my opinion, but you can use it if you plan to pair him with flying allies often.

Okay, so pretty much a normal Desperation build for him.

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I prefer +Spd on almost all my nukes so they can win the Spd race and ensure doubles. +Atk is also fine if most enemies the units face are not particularly fast.

Life and Death is better if you do not have trouble with getting into Desperation range. Fury if you do have trouble.

[Raven/Lon'qu build]

Hm, quick question here: If 49 or 51 Spd is enough for Ogma, wouldn't that apply to Lon'qu as well (who's going to be faster even without a Spd boosting nature)? That's why I wanted to give him +Atk in the first place - his base 29 is kind of bleh after all, and his Spd is already pretty great.

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It works okay against ranged units, but it is too niche in my opinion.
Most Close Counter-Vantage Blade mages can reach well over 80+ Atk at 5*+0 (most mages have 30+ Atk; 50=13Mt+7Brazen+6Bonus+24Combat) regardless of whether the foe is melee or ranged.
Jeorge on the other hand only reaches 79 Atk at 5 *+10 (39Atk+14Mt+6Effect+7Brazen+7Brazen+6Bonus).

I prefer running a Player Phase set on Jeorge with Firesweep Bow or Brave Bow.

Ah, kind of a pity, but okay.

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[Ares stuff]

Hm, I sadly have no Distant Counter fodder, just lots of uninheritable Ostian Counter... So what would you recommend here? The player or enemy phase route?

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As a support unit, his skill set and nature honestly does not matter too much. His skill set should reflect what the team needs. If you need him to run Dual Rallies or Links, then he should run those skills, if not, then run something else.

I run two M!Corrins in one of my Aether Raids team, along with Sharena and Eir. They Ally Support Sharena and can give her 12/12/12/12 when they are two spaces away from her. Sharena runs Distant Counter and can carry the team, as her Fensalir is really strong now that VS!Azura is on every other defense team. I gave my M!Corrins Axebreaker so they can deal with Surtr.

You can also use him as a cheerleader/babysitter for Arena too.

Yeah, that's what I supposed... Ideally he should be able to be a good supporter while still having decent combat presence on his own, but he just has so many options that it's kind of difficult, even more so since I sometimes switch his support partner around.

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[Minerva build]

Okay, so she's in the same boat as Ogma, I guess. Though keep in mind that she's the only one of the bunch who doesn't have +Spd as an option, but I suppose this doesn't change much?

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With few exceptions, all those units should be running Desperation or Quick Riposte depending on their skill set.

Innes should be running Firesweep Bow or Brave Bow. Nidhogg is not that great in my opinion. If he is running Firesweep Bow, I recommend Poison Strike for his B slot. If he is running Brave Bow, I would stick with Desperation.

Sonya can run Special Spiral-Heavy Blade to spam Blazing Specials.

Is there a special Spd value when you recommend starting to run Desperation? 40 or something like that? Cause many of the characters in my list get pretty close to that with Fury and a Spd refine, but don't quite reach it.

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All healers should be running Attack +3. Unless you can afford Atk/Spd Solo on them, they are not going to win any Spd race against nukes, so Speed +3 is not going to make much of a difference in my opinion.

I dunno, maybe it's just because I use Brave Veronica in Aether Raids, but the Spd difference has netted me quite a few doubles on there already. Going to use Atk+3 for the slower ones though.

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Depends on the mode and score ranges.

For Arena score range 720+ and PvE Abyssal difficulty, around 40 Spd is generally enough.

For Arena score range below 720 and in Aether Raids, you want your Spd as high as possible since most foes will have performance based skill sets.

~720 is pretty much exactly where I'm hanging around for Arena scoring, but since Valentine's Ike gets a bonus for Aether Raids atm, he gets usage during those as well... Hm.

Anyways, lots of thanks for going into so much detail for all of your answers. :D
Though I happened to notice that you kind of missed point number 3, was that on purpose?

[Not sure what skill to inherit or who to inherit it from? Read this! (Please read before posting)]

After I only was able to put a minimum of effort into the game for quite a long time due to university being fun, I'm finally returning and have a ton of characters to train now - which is why I'm back here and would appreciate some general advice on how to build a few of them. I'm just going to list a bunch of questions now, some about general topics, others about specific characters, and would appreciate any advice, so thanks in advance to anyone who answers!
Keep in mind though that I'm still free to play, so budget options would be appreciated if possible.

1. Since the last post in the thread is literally exactly about this topic: I guess the Gem Weapon/Triangle Adept + Glimmer meta for most dancers has died out and been replaced by Fury + Moonbow now? Or is it still a thing for low attack dancers like Ninian/low everything characters like Performing Shigure?
Also, is Hone Atk/Atk Tactic just the most viable C slot skill around for most dancers or should I opt for some flexibility by mixing in Spd buffs in as well?

2. Adding on to this: I have about 10 Sothes laying around now, so who would still appreciate Life and Death instead of the standard Fury nowadays? I was thinking about Firesweep users that can't be countered, Brave Weapon users who would be enabled to quad their enemies, or Desperation users with all around terrible defenses like Brave Roy/most Blade Mages? Though on the other side, if I put LoD on someone like Linde, she'd die to any physical enemy just looking at her in a mean way, so I'm not sure...

3. Are there some general guidelines around on which special to choose in a specific situation? Excluding those with charge accelerators like Bold Fighter, most characters seem to get the best first round combat results by simply using Moonbow, but it seems kind of a waste to not abuse really high defensive stats like Julia's resistance, for example...
Like do you generally use Moonbow, but switch to Glimmer for people with TA/a lot of effective damage, Bonfire/Iceberg for people with >30 Def/Res and Draconic Aura for those with >50 Atk? Or does someone's attack rhythm matter, for example when they're using a Brave Weapon or Desperation and therefore mainly attacking in doubles? Should those pick a special with 3 charge to always get it activated on the last move of their second rotation?

4. Regarding C slots: I have quite a bit of potential Ploy fodder left, so how good are those compared to the standard Hone and Spur Abilities? Would Atk Ploy be good on Myrrh, for example, of should she rather stick to standard flier buffs? And is it viable to keep things like Hone Dragons/Beasts around even when dedicated Dragon/Beast teams probybly have less flexibility than all the other ones?

5. Now onto some characters themselves: I have multiple Ogmas, Ravens, Lon'qus, Jeorges, Ares', M!Corrins (each one with either +Spd or +Atk) and Minervas (just +Atk) sitting around and the Dew to give them their legendary refines, so... What would be good builds for them? I'm going to list some thoughts on my own, even though I don't know how much they are going to help:
Ogma could probably do some standard Fury + Desperation stuff, but he isn't quite as fast as I'd like him to be even with +Spd, so I'm not sure how well that would work.
Raven and Lon'qu (the former going +Spd, the latter likely +Atk since he's so fast on his own already) could meanwhile run double LoD with maybe Threaten Def for ridiculous offenses, though that does sound terribly fragile, so I think I'll just stick to using Fury again?
Jeorge can apparently use a fun oneshot build with +Atk and Vantage, does this work well?
Ares meanwhile could either spam AoE specials/Draconic Aura with +Atk or do an enemy phase build with +Spd and Vantage or Quick Riposte. I'm eyeing the former so far, since it seems to be more unique (and is cheaper to build as well).
M!Corrin however isn't quite as simple since he's so balanced - maybe a Drive and a Link skill to buff his support partner as hard as possible? Or just Swordbreaker instead to get him some more combat presence on his own? I'm not exactly sure about his preferred nature either, but +Atk does sound better with Swordbreaker imo and +Spd without.
I'm not sure at all about Minerva though... Her offenses are good, but not amazingly so, and the same is true for her physical defense, so no idea really...

6. I have similar issues with choosing B slots for a lot of people that aren't either a fast Desperation glass canon or a bulky Quick Riposte enemy phase tank, for example Innes, Eirika, L'Arachel, Spring!Chrom, Spring!Alfonse, Camilla, Hinoka, New Year Takumi, Sonya... At the moment I'm mostly defaulting to picking the Breaker skill of their respective colour, but I'm not really sure about it... And Innes doesn't even have a colour so I dunno really.

7. For healers with both Wrathful and Dazzling Staff: It's rather obvious that someone slow like Genny prefers to stack as much attack as possible, while I have the feeling that my faster ones like Brave Veronica and Loki actually got a better combat presence by equipping Spd+3... So how about those with middling Spd like New Year Laevatein or Elise?

8. And finally, for my last point: Is there a Spd value where the stat kind of stops being useful for the most part? Cause I have a +Spd Valentine's Ike who's sitting at base 41 already and regularly buffs himself up to 47, so I'm kind of questioning whether it would be worth it to give him a Spd refine on top of all that.

Anyways, thank you to everyone who even bothers to read through all of that and even more to those that write a response. :)

["Ask Fire Emblem Heroes Questions and Get Them Answered Here" Thread]

On 11.5.2018 at 8:53 PM, Ice Dragon said:

Staves:

I'd venture to say that Mist's 28 base Spd is the borderline for where Spd starts or stops mattering. Everyone slower than her definitely doesn't care about their Spd, and everyone faster than her generally does. I just don't know if Mist herself cares or not (but I'm leaning towards not).

If you aren't able to run Wrathful Staff, I suggest using either Pain+ or Gravity+ on everything. The former doesn't care about direct damage and is made useful simply by stacking Savage Blow on top of it as many times as you can. The latter can be used purely for support with no need to care about its damage.

Robin: I prefer [+Spd, -Res] for a player-phase or mix-phase build. If you are stacking Ward Fliers or Ward Dragons, [+Spd, -HP] is better for an enemy phase build.

Sheena: Both are fine. I would personally go for +Atk over either of them because I run my enemy-phase armor teams with 2 or 3 stacks of Ward Armor.

Nino: If you see a lot of dragons or Distant Counter users and are noticing that you get killed in one hit a lot, go for -Res. Otherwise, -Def is better for dealing with tome users that are actually capable of counterattacking.

 

On 12.5.2018 at 12:29 AM, XRay said:

I second @Ice Dragon. Units want to ideally reach around ~40 Spd to reliably avoid doubles. Mist can reach 37 Spd with +Spd-Speed +3-Speed +3, so it feels like she is almost kind of there but not really. Since Mist got a pretty decent 34 Res, I would just go with +Res-Fortress Res and let her Ploy things.

I am blind.

For Sheena, I do not think it makes a huge difference between +Def and +Res, especially in a Ward Armor team. Since you are not running Distant Counter on her, I am leaning towards +Def. I think mine is [+Atk, -Spd], but basically anything like [+Atk/Def/Res, -Spd] works.

For Nino, if you are going with Life and Death, I think I would go with -Def. Nino's Def would get so low that I do not think Nino is going to survive any physical counterattack whether she keeps her physical bulk or not. Her magical bulk is not that much better either, but she has a better chance of surviving a counter from magical attacks if you preserve her Res.

Okay, thank you both. :)

I have three further questions though, if you can still spare the time:

• +Spd/-Atk vs +Def/-Res Brave Roy?
• Do you prefer Alm's full offense (Death Blow+Windsweep) or healer (Fury+Renewal) build?
• Is there some way to make good use of the Fujin Yumi's special refine? It seems kind of underwhelming imo.

["Ask Fire Emblem Heroes Questions and Get Them Answered Here" Thread]

12 hours ago, XRay said:

Firesweep builds want Atk stacked healers, as Dancers/Singers will do the doubling for them. You can go with Speed +3 or Atk/Spd 2 if you want better independent performance and/or if you do not want to run a Dancer/Singer.

Pure support healers want [+Spd/Def/Res, -Atk] depending on the unit. Most want +Spd to prevent being doubled, but some like Azama and Wrys want +Def and +Res respectively since they are so slow that increasing their Spd does not really do anything for them. The -Atk is not a big deal in my opinion since getting a few less HP per heal is not going to make much difference.

Is there a specific cutoff point for you where +Spd isn't worth it anymore? You mentioned Azama, and Lissa/Lachesis are even slower than him, so I guess they don't get too much value from it either? What about someone like Mist, wo is a bit faster but still below average?

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For FV!F!Robin, it depends on what you need her to do. I would go with [+Spd, -Res] to keep her physical bulk intact, as -HP reduces both physical and magical bulk. If she is in a Ward Dragon team though, I would go with -HP since her Def/Res can get so high that taking less damage is more important than having more HP.

I think I'll keep the -Res one then, thank you. As you didn't mention the other two characters, I guess my preference regarding those was okay?

["Ask Fire Emblem Heroes Questions and Get Them Answered Here" Thread]

On 29.4.2018 at 5:27 AM, XRay said:

I am not sure which calculator you use and how you set up the calculator, but Moonbow is generally better. I use arcticsilverfox's calculator; I set up the enemies with +5, +Spd, Moonbow overwrite, and Fury overwrite, while the units I am testing will have 0 merges.

Glimmer is better on Triangle Adept/Gem Weapon units, effective Weapon units, and Blade mages (sort of). Moonbow is generally superior to Glimmer in most situations as it scales with the enemies' Def/Res, while Glimmer is ineffective against high Def/Res units. For Blade mages, if you need them to fight high Def/Res units, Moonbow is sometimes better than Glimmer.

I actually redid the calculations (using the same calculator as you btw) and noticed how the difference lay in the fact that I had left the special charge at 3 (after testing some cases like Julia having it ready after being attacked by Reinhardt). This means that Moonbow is usually better, but Glimmer has the edge when going into battle with it precharged.

Anyways, after pulling some more characters, I'm left with some more questions!
First of all, I got a bunch of additional Lachesis' and Lissas, and since I have one five star each of those two since quite a while, I'd thought I'd finally inquire about good natures. Is their speed decent enough to be somewhat fixed with a +Spd nature and Spd+3 or should I just try to dump it and build Atk with +Atk and Atk+3? Lissa could also reasonably pull of some kind of Azama build with -Atk and Fortress Def, I guess, considering her low Atk and the tiny heal scaling of Rehabilitate+. (Also, please remember that I don't have acces to enough Wrathful Staff to throw that on everyone)

Secondly, should I keep my current +Spd/-Res legendary Robin or switch to +Spd/-HP? Similarly, +Res/-Spd Sheena or +Def/-Spd (sadly without Distant Counter) and +Spd/-Def or +Spd/-Res Nino (using LoD)? I'm generally leaning towards the former, but any second opinions would be appreciated. :)

["Ask Fire Emblem Heroes Questions and Get Them Answered Here" Thread]

I pulled three Berukas in short sequence today, which lead me to check the calculator for some characters who've inherited Moonbow since ages past, and well...
Glimmer seems to be better on just about anyone now? Like, when is Moonbow still preferable? For things like Tempest Trials or GHBs with inflated enemy stats maybe, and it possibly is more reliable against armor/dragon spam as well, but besides that I don't really see the worth for Arena (Assault) atm - or am I missing something?

["Ask Fire Emblem Heroes Questions and Get Them Answered Here" Thread]

On 24.4.2018 at 2:31 AM, Ice Dragon said:

Miracle isn't for player-controlled staff users. It's for AI-controlled staff users.

In player hands, it's generally better for a staff to run Heavenly Light or a Balm. The one exception is for challenge maps against fixed enemies where you can engineer Miracle to activate at the right time to get something specific done.

Ah, okay, thank you. I'll just stick to Heavenly Light then.

[Fire Emblem Heroes General Discussion and Links]

2 hours ago, Coolmanio said:

Decided that I am going to put my faith into the fact that, undoubtedly, the next legendary hero will be Green Bow Mikoto.

I am not wrong.

I'd actually really like a legendary Mikoto, especially if they give her the Grima treatment with some more backstory and character besides being Emmeryn 2.0.

[General "mass killings" thread]

40 minutes ago, Hylian Air Force said:

The worst part is, the bastard who did this is still out there, and it happened in what equates to my backyard. And he has more guns than the one he left at the Waffle House. Does he just want to get out of the state? Or is he planning something even more sinister than what he's already done?

Wait what, he's still out there? I thought he got caught already?

The first article that comes up when I search "waffle house shooting" is this one, which confirms that he was arrested. Another interesting point: Apparently the shooter was actually disarmed after killing his four victims... by someone without a gun.